English
He left nothing which deserves notice as literature; but it is hardly possible to estimate too highly the service he per- formed by making known to his countrymen the philo- sophical literature of the Sung schoolmen. His Kana Seirt may be mentioned as a typical example of his writings. As its title indicates, it is an attempt to facilitate the study of the Sung philosophy in Japan. The whole literature of the Yedo period is so thoroughly pervaded by moral principles and ideals based on this system of thought, that it is desirable to give a brief out- line of it here. Those who wish to make themselves more thoroughly acquainted with it will find the means of doing so in Monseigneur de Harlez’s Ecole Phtloso- phique de la Chine, and some able papers contributed by Dr. Knox and others to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Japan in 1892. Professedly an exposition of the doctrines of the ancient Chinese sages, the Sung philosophy is in reality an essentially modern system of ontology, ethics, natural philosophy, and principles of government, subjects which to the Chinese mind are inseparable. According to Chu-Hi, the origin and cause of all things is Zatkhi (Taikyoku in Japanese) or the “ Great Absolute.” The energy evolved by its movement produced the Yang (Yo in Japanese), and when it came to rest, the Yin (Jn in Japanese) was the result. The Yang is the active, CHINESE PHILOSOPHY p29 _ positive, productive, male principle of nature, while the Yin is regarded as passive or receptive, negative and female. By the mutual action of these two principles the Kosmos was formed out of chaos, the Yz manifest- ing itself in the settling down of the impure sediment as earth, while the lighter and purer part, representing the Yang, ascended and formed heaven. The Yz% and Yang are also the source of the five elements, water, fire, earth, metal, and wood. Each of these has its proper function, on the right discharge of which depend the regular sequence of the four seasons and phenomena generally. These processes go on eternally. There is no such thing as a creation in this system. The energy which produces all these results is called in Chinese K’e, in Japanese Kz (Breath). It follows fixed laws called Li (Ri in Japanese). The precise nature of these two last conceptions has been elucidated (or obscured) by many volumes of dissertations both in China and Japan. Chu-Hi says little of Zex (Heaven). In his philosophy its place is taken by the more impersonal Zazkhz. But in Japan, as with Confucius and Mencius, Zen is all- important. It is the nearest approach to a deity which the essentially impersonal habit of mind of these nations permits. Zex or Tendé (the Way of Heaven) is said “to know,” “to command,” “to reward,” “to punish,” or “to be wroth,” and is looked up to with reverence and grateful emotion. But the conception falls short of that of a personal deity as we understand the phrase. There are in Japan, at any rate, no temples to Zex, no litanies, and no formal acts of worship. Ethics are in the Chu-Hi system a branch of natural philosophy. Corresponding to the regular changes of the seasons in nature is right action in man (who is the 228 JAPANESE LITERATURE crown of nature) in the relations of sovereign and sub- ject, parent and child, elder brother and younger brother, husband and wife, friend and friend. To his sovereign or lord he is bound to be faithful, to his parents dutiful, and to his elder brother respectful. Affection should characterise the relations of husband and wife, and trust that of friend with friend. A man should also display in his conduct the five virtues of Goodness, Righteousness, Propriety, Enlightenment, and Good Faith. The same combination of ethics and natural science is implied in Confucius’s doctrine when he says that the command of Heaven is called natural disposition, accordance with this natural disposition is called the path (of duty), the regulation of this path is called instructton. Man’s heart is naturally good. In like manner Kiuso, a Japanese exponent of the Chu-Hi philosophy, says, “Man makes the heart of heaven and earth [nature, we would say] his own.” Principles of government are also found a place in this philosophy. If the sovereign practises the virtues above described in his own person, the people will naturally imitate his example, and good government will be the result. But the necessity of dealing out justly rewards and punishments, of encouraging sages to lead the people in the right way, and of purity in making occa is not lost sight of. The Japanese have added little or nothing to Chu-Hi’s philosophy. It is in its application that the national genius reveals itself; and more especially in the relative importance attached by them to the various moral obliga- tions incumbent on man. It is here that we must look for an answer to a question which will occur to all who take the smallest interest in \ is biel eee EITICS OFYEDO-PERIOD 229 the Japanese, namely “In what respect does their national character differ from that of European nations ?” The vices and virtues are on the whole the same with them as with ourselves. It is in their “ Table of Moral Precedence,” as it were, that we discover some striking differences. The most noteworthy instance of this is the commanding position assigned to loyalty, which in the moral ideas of this period overshadows and dwarfs all other obligations. It means not so much the reverent submission due by all his subjects to the Mikado, although in theory this was not lost sight of, as of the Daimios to the Shogun, and, in a still higher degree, of men of the two-sworded class to their immediate chiefs. Implicit obedience and unfaltering devotion to his feudal lord was the Samurai’s most sacred duty. For his lord’s sake the retainer was bound not only to lay down his own life cheerfully, but to sacrifice the lives and honour of those nearest and dearest to him. Japanese history and litera- ture teem with instances which show the extreme lengths to which this virtue was carried, not only in theory, but in practice. It was responsible for many acts of barbarity, such as that of Nakamitsu, a favourite hero of Japanese drama and story, who slew his own innocent son, and substituted his head for that of his lord’s heir, who had been guilty of a capital offence. But there was also associated with it unshrinking courage, loyal service, and disinterested self-sacrifice to a degree for which we must go to ancient Rome to find a parallel. The political system of which this virtue was the vital support is now a thing of the past. Daimios and Shdguns exist no longer. But those who know the Japan of the present day will readily recognise the same quality in the spirit of national patriotism and zeal in the discharge of public 16 / 230 JAPANESE LITERATURE duty which honourably distinguish the descendants of the former Samurai. Next after loyalty in the Japanese scale of virtues stands filial piety. The State being composed of families, if the family is badly managed, the State cannot be well governed. If the child is disobedient to his parents, he is not likely to prove a loyal and obedient subject when he grows to manhood. Hence the necessity, from a political point of view, of filial piety. On the extreme importance attached to this virtue both in China and Japan it is needless to dilate. Among the chief duties of a Samurai to his lord, or of a child towards his parent, was that of revenge. The forgiveness of injuries had no place in the moral code of the Japanese of this time. No more stern obligation rested on them than to execute dire vengeance for the unmerited death or disgrace of a parent or lord. That his was not in theory only, there are many well-authenti- cated instances in real life to show. It applied to women as well as to men, though in their case, as in that of the lower classes of society, it was regarded more or less as a counsel of perfection. If they did rise to the occasion, all the more honour was paid them. The drama and. fiction of modern Japan are full of stories of revenge (Aataki-ucht), and this passion occupies the same place of honour with their novelists that love does in European fiction. In presence of the obligations imposed by loyalty and filial duty, life was regarded as of no account. When we remember the humane Buddhist influences to which Japan was so long subjected, and the ancient national character reflected in the mildly sentimental Heian litera- ture, the disregard of human life which pervades history ETHICS OF YEDO PERIOD 231 and fiction alike during the Yedo period is not a little remarkable. It is conspicuously observable in the ethics of suicide. The moral code of this time contains no canon ’gainst self-slaughter. On the contrary, the occa- sions when a Japanese Samurai was bound to commit suicide were innumerable. Grave insults which it was impossible to revenge, unmerited disgrace, gross blunder- ing, errors of judgment, or even simple failure in official matters, crimes not of a disgraceful character, all entailed the necessity of suicide, or at least made it the most honourable course to pursue. If a Samurai had occa- sion to remonstrate with his lord for some act of mis- government, he frequently emphasised his appeal by suicide. The case of the forty-seven Ronins who slew themselves in a body at the grave of their master after having executed a bloody revenge on his enemy, is known to all readers of Mr. Mitford’s Zales of Old Japan. Another admired example is that of a governor of Nagasaki who in 1808 committed suicide in the approved manner be- cause he was unable to detain and destroy a British man- of-war which had defied his authority.