A Historical Study of the Kanbun-Kundoku (Japanese Readings of Chinese Texts) during the Edo and Meiji Periods

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Kanbun-kundoku (Japanese readings of Chinese texts) is a traditional translating system. By adding kana (Japanese phonetic characters) or marks, Chinese classics are translated into Japanese.Having investigated Kundoku usage in various translations in the Edo and Meiji era and compared them with those in various kunten materials Rongo (Confucian Analects) in the Edo era, the following results were obtained :Rangakusha (scholars of Dutch learning in the Edo era) and Eigakusha (scholars of English learning in the Edo and Meiji era) applied this method to studying or translating Dutch or English. In some study books, we can find Japanese equivalent and marks which indicate word order under each Dutch or English word.Kanbun-Kundoku-Style was one of the most popular styles in the Meiji era. The main reason is that the intellectuals in those days had studied Kongaku and they were familiar with Kanbun-Kundoku-Style. Kanbun-Kundoku-Style was formed during the late Edo era and was greatly influenced by Issaiten which was the simplest Kundoku-Method in the Edo era. T hus, that Kanbun-Kundoku-Style is found very simple.