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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: butterfly in that dream. For his spirit had really been wandering about in
the shape of a butterfly; and, when he awoke, the memories and the feelings
of butterfly existence remained so vivid in his mind that he could not act
like a human being... Finally I should like to know the text of a certain
Chinese official recognition of sundry butterflies as the spirits of an
Emperor and of his attendants...
Most of the Japanese literature about butterflies, excepting some poetry,
appears to be of Chinese origin; and even that old national aesthetic
feeling on the subject, which found such delightful expression in Japanese
art and song and custom, may have been first developed under Chinese
teaching. Chinese precedent doubtless explains why Japanese poets and
Kwaidan |
