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But his learning was probably not mis- placed considering the audience whom he was addressing, while his obscurity seems due to the fact that he moved in an intellectual sphere so far above his contemporaries that he found the Japanese language of his time an in- adequate vehicle to convey his thoughts, The following extract from the Skundai Zatsuwa will give some idea of Kiuso’s philosophic vein :— 260 - JAPANESE LITERATURE THE MORNING-GLORY (or Convolvulus) “¢ Oh for the heart Of the morning-glory ! Which, though its bloom ts for a single hour, Ts the same as that of the fir-tree Which lives a thousand years)’ —MATSUNAGA. “To my mind there is a profound meaning in this verse. Many poems, some of ancient date, have been composed on the morning-glory, for the most part alluding to its short-lived bloom, and associating it with the melancholy sentiment of autumn. It is thus made an emblem of this transitory world. Such verses have no deeper meaning. The lines of Haku Kyo-i [in Chinese, Peh Kii-yih]— ‘ After a thousand years at last the fir decays : The hibiscus-flower glories in its one day’s life?— have the stamp of official approval, and are reckoned elegant. But there is here a forced endeavour to make glory and decay the same, and to assimilate robust life with early death. This may sound fine in the ears of the vulgar, but it is after all a very superficial view. Such ideas go no further than to reproduce the drivel of Gautama [Buddha], or to lick the spittle of Chwang- chow [a Taoist philosopher]. This cannot be the mean- ing of Matsunaga’s ‘heart differing not from that of the fir-tree.’ What do you say, gentlemen? To this old man’s mind it says, ‘He that in the morning has found the Way may die content at night.’ To blossom in the early morn, to await the sun’s rays and then to fade, is the nature which the morning-glory has received from heaven. There are in the world fir-trees which live a thousand years, but the morning-glory, though endowed KIUSO’ j 261 | with so brief a span of existence, never forgets itself for a moment or is envious of others. Morning after morn- ing the flowers unfold, enchantingly beautiful ; and having exhausted that natural virtue which has been allotted to them, they wither. Herein they show their faithfulness to duty. Why should it be regarded as vain and un- profitable ? The fir does just the same, but the morning- glory, being short-lived, illustrates this principle in a more striking manner. Not that in the mind of the fir- tree there is any idea of a thousand years, or in that of the morning-glory the thought of a single day. Each simply fulfils its allotted nature. The view of the thousand years of the fir-tree as robust vigour, and of the one day of the morning-glory as vain and transitory, belongs simply to the man who looks on them from without. It is absurd to suppose that in the mind of the fir-tree or convolvulus there is any such thought. “All things without sense are the same. But man, endowed with feeling, and described as the soul of the universe, becomes entangled by his own craftiness, and so Jong as he does not learn the Way, falls short of this perfection. This is why it is necessary for him to learn the Way. To learn the Way must not be taken to be anything of a special kind, such as the spiritual vision of the Buddhists or the like. The Way is the original right principle of things. It is something which vulgar men and women know and practise as well as others. But as they do not truly know it, they do not thoroughly practise it. They learn it, but do not fully comprehend it ; they practise it, but not with conspicuous success. They may go on striving to the end of their days, but they will never enter into its full meaning. Now to learn the Way is nothing more than to acquire a 18 262 JAPANESE LITERATURE true knowledge of this principle, and to practise it effec- tively until you have the restful feeling of a fish in water, and take the same pleasure in it that a bird does in the groves. It should be made one’s very life at all times, never being departed from for a moment. If, so long as we live, we follow the Way, when we die these bodies of ours and the Way come to an end together, and a long peace ensues. Living for a day, let us fulfil the Way for that day and die; living for a month, let us fulfil the Way for that month and die; living for a year, let us fulfil the Way for that year.and die. If we do so, there will be left not an atom of regret, even if we die in the evening after having learnt the Way in the morning. “Looking at the matter in this light, why should the morning-glory resent that it must fade when the sun’s rays fall upon it? Though its life is but for a day, it has bloomed to the full extent of its endowment, and there is nothing left. It 1s widely different from the thousand years of the fir-tree in length of time, but they are both alike in that they exhaust the command of Heaven [fulfil their destiny] and are satisfied. This is what is meant by the expression ‘a heart differing not from that of the fir-tree.”. Doubtless Matsunaga wished that his heart should become even like it, and therefore wrote this poem of the morning-glory.” In the following passage, which contains echoes of Taoist doctrines, Kius6 approaches very nearly to the idea of a personal Deity :— “The Saden [an ancient Chinese book] says, ‘ God ' is uniformly intelligent and just.’ It is his very nature to Or *‘the Gods.”? The Chinese and Japanese languages rarely distinguish between singular and plural. The concluding part of this extract, however, shows that Kius6 was thinking of a single Deity, ~ KIUSO 263 be so. Now while all men know that he is just, they do not know that he is intelligent. Yet there is nothing of so keen an intelligence as God. How is this? Man hears with his ears, and beyond their reach he hears nothing though he were as quick of hearing as Shiko; he'sees with his eyes, and beyond their range he can see nothing, were he as sharp-sighted as Rird ; with his heart he reflects, and, however swift his intuitions may be, still this must involve delay. God borrows not the help of ears or eyes ; nor does he waste time in reflection. With him sensation is immediate, and is followed by immediate responsive action. This, be it observed, is his nature, and flows not from two or three, but from a single reality. “But although there is in heaven and earth a some- thing infinitely quick of hearing and infinitely sharp of sight, independent of conditions of time or space, present as if actually on the spot, passing to and fro without any interval, embodying itself in all things which are, and filling the universe, it has neither form nor voice, and is therefore not cognisable by our senses. It is, however, sensible to the Real and the True. As it feels, so it responds. If there is no truth or reality, there can be no response. If it did not feel, it would not respond. The response is therefore a proof of its existence. That which responds not, of course does not exist. What a wonderful property for heaven and earth to possess ! “In the words of a stanza composed by priest Saigio when he made a pilgrimage to the shrines of Ise— *‘ What tt ts That dwelleth here I know not; Yet my heart is full of gratitude, And the tears trickle down.” 264 JAPANESE LITERATURE “Think not that God is something distant, but seek for him in your own hearts; for the heart is the abode of God.” ““To forsake all evil and follow good is the beginning of the practice of our philosophy.” _ “The Way of the Sages is not sundered from matters of everyday life.” “That which in Heaven begets all things is in man that which makes him love his neighbour. So doubt not that Heaven loves goodness of heart and hates its opposite.” . “Has not bravery itself its root in goodness of heart, and does it not proceed from sympathy? It is only when it arises from goodness that bravery is genuine.” “Once when I was in Kaga I heard a man say, ‘All faults whether great or small may be excused in the eyes of the world upon repentance and amendment, and leave behind no stain of deep-seated baseness. But there are two faults which are inexcusable, even when repented of—theft, and the abandonment by a Samurai of a post which he is bound to defend with his life.” “ Avarice and cowardice are the same. If a man is stingy of his money, he will also grudge his life.” “To the Samurai first of all comes righteousness, next _ life, then silver and gold.” Kiuso’s righteousness and our righteousness are ap- preciably though not essentially different. The former approaches the Roman ideal more than the Christian. He uses the word to describe the conduct of the forty- seven Ronins, who, having avenged an insult to their master which led to his death, by the murder of the KIUSO 265 offender, then committed hara-kiri together. This inci- dent occurred in Kiusd’s own lifetime. He consecrated their memory in a booklet in the Chinese language entitled Gzin-roku, which, although not in itself a very important contribution to history, has been the parent of a whole literature. A later writer gives a list of one hundred and one works relating to this subject, includ- ing fiction and the drama. Mr. Mitford has told the story in his Zales of Old Japan. It is highly characteristic of the Yedo period of Japanese history. It is not creditable to the Japanese Government of this time, that although Kiuso presented the Shundat Zatsuwa to his patron the Shogun in 1729, it was allowed to remain unpublished until 1750, although all the while a flood of pornographic literature was being poured out over the country without let or hindrance.