CultureEast Asia
Heian Japan
The world's first novel, written by a court lady
See it on the timeline →In depth
Chinese was the learned language and therefore the men's; the Japanese syllabary was thought feminine and informal — and precisely for that reason suited to psychological portrayal. Genji follows a whole life with an inwardness European literature did not reach for six hundred years. Sei Shonagon's *Pillow Book* comes from the same circle and is just as modern in tone.
For children
At the court in Kyoto, Murasaki Shikibu wrote *The Tale of Genji* around the year 1000 — widely reckoned the world's first novel. Women wrote in Japanese while men wrote in Chinese, and so the period's finest literature is the work of women.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org