LightNovelLingo
Home / Library / Japanese / Tu Tze-chun

杜子春

Tu Tze-chun

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

A ruined youth in Luoyang meets a hermit and seeks immortality.

Read this book free →

Original language: JapaneseLevel: Intermediate3,504 characters · ≈ 14 minSource: 青空文库

Want to read your own Japanese light novels? Read the guide →

Sample: three-line reading

Each word has its meaning in this sentence underneath, and each sentence has a full translation. Read the original and glance down only when you need to.

一one
One
或a certain; some春のof spring; spring's日暮evening; duskですit was; is (polite copula)
It was a spring evening.
唐の都洛陽Luoyang, the capital of Tangのof西の門の下にbeneath the west gateぼんやりvaguely空を仰いでいるgazing up at the sky一人の若者がa young manありましたthere was
Beneath the west gate of Luoyang, the capital of Tang, a young man stood gazing vaguely at the sky.
若者はthe young man (topic)名をname (object)杜子春といってcalled Toshishun元はoriginally金持の息子でしたがwas the son of a wealthy man, but今はnow財産をfortune (object)費い尽してhaving squandered completelyその日の暮しにもeven for that day's living困る位to the extent of being in trouble憐な身分にinto a pitiful stateなっているのですhas fallen (explanatory)
The young man's name was Toshishun. He had once been the son of a wealthy man, but by now he had squandered his entire fortune and sunk into a pitiful state, so poor that he could barely manage his daily living.

Read free →

About the book

"Toshishun" is a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, published in the magazine Akai Tori in 1920. It is a fairy-tale adaptation of the Chinese tale "Du Zichun," and tells of a destitute young man in Luoyang who meets an immortal, repeatedly gains and loses great wealth, and finally sets out to learn the way of immortality. According to the author, more than two-thirds of the story was his own creation.

Cultural notes (selection)

Background a translation can’t carry: social roles, history and allusions. While reading, tap “Note” at the end of a sentence to see them all.

洛陽 Allusion

This refers to Luoyang, the eastern capital of Tang-dynasty China, not an elegant name for Kyoto in Japan. In classical Japanese literature, Kyoto is often called "Raku" (as in "jōraku," going up to the capital). Akutagawa based the story on a Tang tale, and its setting is the west gate of Luoyang city.

玄宗皇帝 History

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji (685–762). His reign saw the flourishing Kaiyuan era, but in his later years he indulged in pleasure.

桂州の竜眼肉 History

Guizhou is the area around present-day Guilin in Guangxi, China. In the Tang dynasty it was famous for southern fruits such as longans and lychees. Transporting these fruits from Lingnan to Luoyang covered a great distance, so they were a symbol of luxury.

About the author

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1 March 1892 – 24 July 1927), also known by his art name Chōkōdō Shujin, was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period who is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story". He died by suicide at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital, and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: 杜子春 (CC BY-SA)

How the glosses are made

Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.

FAQ

Is this the original text?

Yes. The library holds the opening section of the public-domain original, taken from 青空文库.

Do I need to pay or sign up?

Library books are free to read without an account. Other gloss languages and importing your own texts need an account and credits.

What level is it?

This one is marked “Intermediate”. Every word is glossed, so you can keep reading even with a small vocabulary.

Can I use another gloss language?

English and Chinese glosses are prepared in advance; signed-in readers can generate other languages.

More by this author

Read this book free →