The lessons of history in Konjaku monogatari-shu (based on the Fujiwara clan stories)

The history of the Fujiwara family in classic Japanese literature is discussed both in the texts devoted entirely to it (Toshi kaden, Okagami) and in texts with a wider coverage of topics. Konjaku Monogatari-shu of the XIIth century includes a selection of stories about Fujiwara aristocrats (maki 22). Not being a historical narrative, Konjaku nonetheless presents a special look at the past, reliable in the sense of the internal connectedness of events and instructive in the sense of implementing the universal causality principle in the fates of people. Universal Buddhist lessons are combined here with special conclusions for each of the categories of people (the monastic path, the «path of warriors», «the path of robbers»). In the case of Fujiwara, we have the «path of the nobility»: ministers and courtiers appear more likely not as politicians in the struggle for influence at court, but as carriers of the aristocratic family tradition. It presupposes a special skill in choosing wives and distributing children to worthy positions in accordance with natural inclinations, and the glory of the family serves as a criterion for success. In other maki of Konjaku, there are also tales of people from the Fujiwara clan, including its minor branches. They have their own ritual preferences and their own luck, Fujiwara people suffer, die, joke and sin in a special way. Sometimes, from the stories from various maki, we can trace the fate of the same person in its different turns: such personal stories, passing through the thematic structure of Konjaku, strengthen the internal unity of the text, work on the impression of the connection of everyone with everyone in the big world of people and Buddhas.