Reception of Po Chu-i in Japan

To explain the very bottom of Japanese reception of Chinese literature, we have first to consider the fundamental difference of language between Chinese and Japanese, The difference lies mostly in the fact that the former is a conceptual language in which each word corresponds to a concept, while the latter, an emotional code system, in which each sign is to evoke a collective emotion. If the poems of Po Chu-i (772-846, Haku Rakuten in Japanese) has been enjoying a great popularity among the Japanese, it is because his poems contain more signs than other Chinese famous poets, that could evoke Japanese collective emotions, we can see this in Wakan Ro-ei-shu, an poetical anthology of High Heian period, in which many of his works were selected but cut in pieces. The compilator must have judged that by cutting them into pieces, they could evoke Japanese emotions more easily. To the same purpose, the compilator dared even to change the words of some poems of Po Chu-i\u27s. Using such devices, the ancient Japanese seems to have reassured their imaginary world without rejecting Chinese fragrances