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Ex:美しい空が美しいままでありますように／空の如く、水の如く

I've seen a few things on the former, but nothing in my materials mentions anything about the latter. Everything I have turned up has revealed precious little about it. Anyone have any info?

Roy Fuentes
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    It seems like there are a few questions hidden in here. Can you say a little more precisely what you want answered? – ssb Jan 17 '14 at 04:01
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    I think the ますように is this >> [ending sentences with ように](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/13486/ending-sentences-with-%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%AB/13487#13487) –  Jan 17 '14 at 05:05
  • From your question it seems you know that they're 'synonyms'. If you're asking about the grammar/distinction, the short version is that 如く can accept more archaic rules as it's not exactly part of the modern lexicon: 龍が如く, for example, means "like a dragon", a similar construction to 我が息子. – bright-star Jan 17 '14 at 06:26
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    @TrevorAlexander: I thought `龍が如く` meant "yakuza game"? – istrasci Jan 17 '14 at 15:50
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    I [see what you did there](http://www.senpaigamer.com/sites/default/files/news/sony/2012/11/09-yakuza-5-2.jpg). – bright-star Jan 17 '14 at 17:49
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    @ssb I know that both are used in comparisons, but nothing in my materials have told me about how they function, grammatically, or how widely they're used nowadays – Roy Fuentes Jan 18 '14 at 07:19

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如く only means 'similar to', while ように can mean either 'similar to' or 'I hope that'. Also, both uses of ように are perfectly modern, while 如く is rarely ever used in Modern Japanese outside of intentional archaisms.

As mentioned in the comments, 如く can take a genitive phrase with either の or the more archaic が, while ように can only take genitives with の. Also, I am not sure about the grammaticality of a 連体形＋如く, but ように is quite happy with them - indeed, the desiderative use of ように requires one, and is one of the few cases where you'll see -ます used as a 連体形.

You may also on occasion come across the even more archaic form of 如く, 如し. Originally it was an adjective (though somewhat defective IIRC, I've only ever seen these two forms) - -し is the archaic 終止形 of adjectives (the modern form being -い, descended from the archaic 連体形 -き).

Sjiveru
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