comparative study of Saadi's Gulistan and Yoshida's Essays in Idleness

Introduction

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness) is a Japanese didactic  book written in the 14th century, 80 years, after  appearance of Gulistan, (Rose Garden), the masterpiece of Iranian poet and writer, Muslihaldin Sa’adi Shirazi,  and has a strong resemblance both in content and structure with Gulistan. Kenko Yoshida , the author of Essays in Idleness, was a poet and writer who unlike  Sa’adi, had the life of a recluse, and retired  himself as a Buddhist monk, from  the public life. Although Sa’adi was a writer and poet who had trained in the School of Quran and Islamic wisdom and Yoshida was a believer of Buddhist mysticism, their attitude toward the world was quite similar.  Even so, Sa’adi’ s work, is far superior to Yoshida’s, from an aesthetic and rhetorical point of view. Warning about the instability of the world, the preciousness of contentment and importance of dignity in the old age are the common themes of two books. From a structural point of view, they are also similar; for example, both have used poems within prose as  a structural feature and both consist of narrative pieces.
 
 
2.Methodology
This paper is based on the comparative study method in order to evaluate the content and aesthetic features of the two mentioned books and to determine the similarities and differences between elements within them. for this purpose, the researchers have tried, at first, to find elements within the two books that have some type of similarity, such as common themes. Then, the researchers have attempted to answer the following questions: 
1) Had Yoshida been familiar with Sa’adi ‘s book and inspired by it?
2) Are the similarities between the two books made completely by coincidence?
 

Discussion

Gulistan (Rose Garden) is widely regarded as a landmark of Persian literature and one of its most influential prose works. Written in 1258, it is one of the two of Saadi’s major works, which has been proved deeply influential in both the West and the East. Structured as a collection of poems and stories (metaphorically as different types of roses), the text features minimalist plots, expressed with precise language and psychological insight. It explores the many issues and tribulations faced by humankind, employing both an optimistic and a subtly satirical tone. The book is divided into an introduction and eight chapters, each dealing with a specific subject:                                                                                                                                                 chapter 1: Of the Customs of Kings                                                                                                                                 chapter 2: Of the Morals of Dervishes                                                                                                                            chapter3: On the Preciousness of Contentment                                                                                                             chapter 4:  On the Benefit of Being Silent                                                                                                                       chapter5 :  On Love and Youth                                                                                                                                     chapter 6: Of Imbecility and Old Age                                                                                                                                      chapter 7: Of the Impressions of Education                                                                                                                 chapter 8: Of the Duties of Society   
These chapters are composed of disjointed paragraphs, generally beginning with an aphorism or an anecdote and closing with an original poem of a few lines. Sometimes, these paragraphs are altogether lyrical. We are struck, first of all, by the personal characteristics of these paragraphs; many of them relate to the experience of the poet in some part of his travels, expressing his comment upon what he had seen and heard. His comments generally take the form of practical wisdom, or religious suggestion. He gives us the impression that he knows life and the human heart thoroughly. 
On the other hand, Essays in Idleness is one of the classics in Japanese Literature, and is much read as a text book in Japanese schools. The original title of the book is derived from the opening word of the text ,Tsurezure (leisure) and Gusa, a compound variant of kusa, which means “grass”, a word sometimes used to designate anything not quite finished up, raw and rough as it were.
Contrary to Sa’adi’s Gulistan, Tsurezuregusa does not have a precise order, although Yoshida had tried to separate the subjects of his book into sections, the book is, in fact, a collection of treatises on miscellaneous subjects written by a fourteenth century priest. these subjects are,  of course, very similar to Sa’adi’s Gulistan; for example, in  section 18 of the book, Yoshida notes:  
 “It is best  for a man to  be thrifty, to shrink from luxuries, not to accumulate great wealth, and not to covet the whole world. The great men of ancient times were seldom rich” (Yoshida, 1914, pp. 20-21). “In China once there was a man named Xu You, who owned nothing and even drank directly from his cupped hands. Seeing this, someone gave him a ‘singing gourd’ to use as a cup; he hung it in a tree, but when he heard it singing in the wind one day he threw it away, annoyed by the noise it made, and went back to drinking his water from his hands. What a free, pure spirit!” (Yoshida, 2001).                                                                                                                                            Sa’adi  in  chapter 3 of Gulistan (On the Preciousness of Contentment) narrates a story with a similar theme as below:
“A mendicant from the west of Africa had taken his station amidst a group of shopkeepers at Aleppo, and was saying: “O lords of plenty! had ye a just sense of equity, and we of contentment, all manner of importunity would cease in this world!” O contentment! do thou make me rich, for without thee there is no wealth. The treasure of patience was the choice of Lucman. Whoever has no patience has no wisdom ” (Sa’adi, 2019). 
On the Morals of Dervishes, Yoshida says:
“Commendable is the man who, overwhelmed by calamity and sorrow, shaves his head but not because of some silly whim of his own. shuts his door so that none may know whether he is within or not, and lives from break of day to set of sun without any human desires ” ( Yoshida, 1914, p. 12).
Similar to this, is the following story in Gulistan:                                                                                 “They tell a story of an abid, who in the course of a night would eat ten mans, or pounds, of food, and in his devotions repeat the whole Koran before morning. A good and holy man heard this, and said, “Had he eaten half a loaf of bread, and gone to sleep, he would have done a more meritorious act.” Keep thy inside unencumbered with victuals, that the light of good works may shine within thee; but thou art void of wisdom and knowledge, because thou art filled up to the nose with food” (Sa’adi, 2019). 
In section 51, Yoshida emphasizes the importance of hiring skilled persons for momentous jobs “A farmer of Oi was order to arrange a water – supply from the Oi River for the pond of the Kameyama Palace; so he constructed a water-wheel. He spend much money and worked hard for several at it, but there was something wrong with it and it would not go round. He tried all sorts of alterations, but as it still would not revolve he had at last to give it up. Thereupon a villager from Uji was sent for, who easily   fastened it and put it right, so that it revolved as it should have done and delivered the water satisfactorily. It is best in every case to employ those who are proficient at the business” (Yoshida, 1914, pp. 44-45).
There is a similar story in Gulistan: “A fellow had a complaint in his eyes, and went to a horse-doctor, saying: “Prescribe something for me.” The doctor of horses applied to his eyes what he was in the habit of applying to the eyes of quadrupeds, and the man got blind. They carried their complaint before the hakim, or judge. He decreed: “This man has no redress, for had he not been an ass he would not have applied to a horse or ass doctor!” The moral of this apologue is, that whoever doth employ an inexperienced person on an affair of importance, besides being brought to shame, he will incur from the wise the imputation of a weak mind. A prudent man, with an enlightened understanding, entrusts not affairs of consequence to one of mean capacity. The plaiter of mats, notwithstanding he be a weaver, they would not employ in a silk manufactory” (Sa’adi).
Regardless of the thematic similarities, Sa’adi  has used a  better artistic form  for  his stories. The plots of his stories are subtly and skillfully and fascinate the readers completely.in contrast, most of Yoshida’s stories, have poor plots. 
Employing an optimistic and a subtly satirical tone are the other valuable features of Sa’adi’s stories.

Conclusion

Gulistan (Rose Garden), the masterpiece of the great Iranian poet and writer , Saadi Shirazi, has an astonishing resemblance to Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness). In our view, Yoshida, as a reclusive Buddhist monk, had not been familiar with Gulistan, and  so the issue of plagiarism or adaptation is completely  ruled out. Then, why these two books are so similar? And because of this amazing similarity, it called “Japanese Gulistan”.                                                 This study denotes that this similarity is based on three factors: 1) Sa’adi and Yoshida, lived nearly  in the same era; 2) Both were the wise men and Sufis of their time; with the difference that Yoshida was a recluse monk and Sa’adi, as a wayfarer , had roamed the world far and wide; 3) The resemblance between the two books is completely by coincidence.
As we mentioned in this essay ,the similarities between  the two books, are not only in content, but both in content and structure; Tsurezuregusa , like Gulistan, Structured as a collection of poems and stories. But his stories are not as beautiful as Sa’adi’s. Sa’adi  has used a  better artistic form  for  his stories and the plot of his stories are subtly and skillfully. The poems of Gulistan are original and Sa’adi, as a poet, has composed all of them. Yoshida was also a poet, but in his book, he has handpicked the poems of the other poets.                                               Employing an optimistic and a subtly satirical tone are the other valuable features of Sa’adi’s stories, that distinguish Gulistan from the book of Yoshida. as a result ,Gulistan is structured in more artistic style and this is the reason of  classifying it as a  internationally well-known literary book.