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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15516-0.txt b/15516-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c53fa1b --- /dev/null +++ b/15516-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14032 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Religions of Japan, by William Elliot Griffis + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Religions of Japan + From the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji + +Author: William Elliot Griffis + +Release Date: March 31, 2005 [EBook #15516] +[Most recently updated: May 22, 2023] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN *** + + + + +Produced by Nathan Strom, Frank van Drogen, David King, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN + +FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY +TO THE ERA OF MEIJI + +BY + +WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D. + +FORMERLY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO; AUTHOR OF "THE MIKADO'S +EMPIRE" AND "COREA, THE HERMIT NATION;" LATE LECTURER ON THE MORSE +FOUNDATION IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN NEW YORK + +"I came not to destroy, but to fulfil."--THE SON OF MAN + +NEW YORK + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +1895 + +COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +TROW DIRECTORY +PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY +NEW YORK + + +IN GLAD RECOGNITION OF THEIR SERVICES TO THE WORLD +AND +IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY OWN GREAT DEBT TO BOTH +I DEDICATE THIS BOOK +SO UNWORTHY OF ITS GREAT SUBJECT +TO +THOSE TWO NOBLE BANDS OF SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH +THE FACULTY OF UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY +OF WHOM +CHARLES A. BRIGGS AND GEORGE L. PRENTISS +ARE THE HONORED SURVIVORS +AND TO +THAT TRIO OF ENGLISH STUDENTS +ERNEST M. SATOW, WILLIAM G. ASTON AND BASIL H. CHAMBERLAIN +WHO LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP IN JAPAN + +"IN UNCONSCIOUS BROTHERHOOD, BINDING THE SELF-SAME SHEAF" + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book makes no pretence of furnishing a mirror of contemporary +Japanese religion. Since 1868, Japan has been breaking the chains of her +intellectual bondage to China and India, and the end is not yet. My +purpose has been, not to take a snap-shot photograph, but to paint a +picture of the past. Seen in a lightning-flash, even a tempest-shaken +tree appears motionless. A study of the same organism from acorn to +seed-bearing oak, reveals not a phase but a life. It is something like +this--"_to_ the era of Meiji" (A.D. 1868-1894+) which I have essayed. +Hence I am perfectly willing to accept, in advance, the verdict of smart +inventors who are all ready to patent a brand-new religion for Japan, +that my presentation is "antiquated." + +The subject has always been fascinating, despite its inherent +difficulties and the author's personal limitations. When in 1807, the +polite lads from Satsuma and Kiōto came to New Brunswick, N.J., they +found at least one eager questioner, a sophomore, who, while valuing +books, enjoyed at first hand contemporaneous human testimony. + +When in 1869, to Rutgers College, came an application through Rev. Dr. +Guido F. Verbeck, of Tōkiō, from Fukui for a young man to organize +schools upon the American principle in the province of Echizen +(ultra-Buddhistic, yet already so liberally leavened by the ethical +teachings of Yokoi Héishiro), the Faculty made choice of the author. +Accepting the honor and privilege of being one of the "beginners of a +better time," I caught sight of peerless Fuji and set foot on Japanese +soil December 29, 1870. Amid a cannonade of new sensations and fresh +surprises, my first walk was taken in company with the American +missionary (once a marine in Perry's squadron, who later invented the +jin-riki-sha), to see a hill-temple and to study the wayside shrines +around Yokohama. Seven weeks' stay in the city of Yedo--then rising out +of the débris of feudalism to become the Imperial capital, Tōkiō, +enabled me to see some things now so utterly vanished, that by some +persons their previous existence is questioned. One of the most +interesting characters I met personally was Fukuzawa, the reformer, and +now "the intellectual father of half of the young men of ... Japan." On +the day of the battle of Uyéno, July 11, 1868, this far-seeing patriot +and inquiring spirit deliberately decided to keep out of the strife, and +with four companions of like mind, began the study of Wayland's Moral +Science. Thus were laid the foundations of his great school, now a +university. + +Journeying through the interior, I saw many interesting phenomena of +popular religions which are no longer visible. At Fukui in Echizen, one +of the strongholds of Buddhism, I lived nearly a year, engaged in +educational work, having many opportunities of learning both the +scholastic and the popular forms of Shintō and of Buddhism. I was +surrounded by monasteries, temples, shrines, and a landscape richly +embroidered with myth and legend. During my four years' residence and +travel in the Empire, I perceived that in all things the people of Japan +were _too_ religious. + +In seeking light upon the meaning of what I saw before me and in +penetrating to the reasons behind the phenomena, I fear I often made +myself troublesome to both priests and lay folk. While at work in +Tōkiō, though under obligation to teach only physical science, I +voluntarily gave instruction in ethics to classes in the University. I +richly enjoyed this work, which, by questioning and discussion, gave me +much insight into the minds of young men whose homes were in every +province of the Empire. In my own house I felt free to teach to all +comers the religion of Jesus, his revelation of the fatherhood of God +and the ethics based on his life and words. While, therefore, in +studying the subject, I have great indebtedness to acknowledge to +foreigners, I feel that first of all I must thank the natives who taught +me so much both by precept and practice. Among the influences that have +helped to shape my own creed and inspire my own life, have been the +beautiful lives and noble characters of Japanese officers, students and +common people who were around and before me. Though freely confessing +obligation to books, writings, and artistic and scholastic influences, I +hasten first to thank the people of Japan, whether servants, superior +officers, neighbors or friends. He who seeks to learn what religion is +from books only, will learn but half. + +Gladly thanking those, who, directly or indirectly, have helped me with +light from the written or printed page, I must first of all gratefully +express my especial obligations to those native scholars who have read +to me, read for me, or read with me their native literature. + +The first foreign students of Japanese religions were the Dutch, and the +German physicians who lived with them, at Déshima. Kaempfer makes +frequent references, with test and picture, in his Beschryving van +Japan. Von Siebold, who was an indefatigable collector rather than a +critical student, in Vol. V. of his invaluable _Archiv_ (Pantheon von +Nippon), devoted over forty pages to the religions of Japan. Dr. J.J. +Hoffman translated into Dutch, with notes and explanations, the +Butsu-zō-dzu-i, which, besides its 163 figures of Buddhist holy men, +gives a bibliography of the works mentioned by the native author. In +visiting the Japanese museum on the Rapenburg, Leyden, one of the +oldest, best and most intelligently arranged in Europe, I have been +interested with the great work done by the Dutchmen, during two +centuries, in leavening the old lump for that transformation which in +our day as New Japan, surprises the world. It requires the shock of +battle to awaken the western nations to that appreciation of the racial +and other differences between the Japanese and Chinese, which the +student has already learned. + +The first praises, however, are to be awarded to the English scholars, +Messrs. Satow, Aston, Chamberlain, and others, whose profound researches +in Japanese history, language and literature have cleared the path for +others to tread in. I have tried to acknowledge my debt to them in both +text and appendix. + +To several American missionaries, who despite their trying labors have +had the time and the taste to study critically the religions of Japan, I +owe thanks and appreciation. With rare acuteness and learning, Rev. Dr. +George Wm. Knox has opened on its philosophical, and Rev. Dr. J.H. +DeForest on its practical side, the subject of Japanese Confucianism. By +his lexicographical work, Dr. J.C. Hepburn has made debtors to him both +the native and the alien. To our knowledge of Buddhism in Japan, Dr. +J.C. Berry and Rev. J.L. Atkinson have made noteworthy contributions. I +have been content to quote as authorities and illustrations, the names +of those who have thus wrought on the soil, rather than of those, who, +even though world-famous, have been but slightly familiar with the +ethnic and the imported faith of Japan. The profound misunderstandings +of Buddhism, which some very eminent men of Europe have shown in their +writings, form one of the literary curiosities of the world. + +In setting forth these Morse lectures, I have purposely robbed my pages +of all appearance of erudition, by using as few uncouth words as +possible, by breaking up the matter into paragraphs of moderate length, +by liberally introducing subject-headings in italics, and by relegating +all notes to the appendix. Since writing the lectures, and even while +reading the final proofs, I have ransacked my library to find as many +references, notes, illustrations and authorities as possible, for the +benefit of the general student. I have purposely avoided recondite and +inaccessible books and have named those easily obtainable from American +or European publishers, or from Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, of Yokohama, +Japan. In using oriental words I have followed, in the main, the +spelling of the Century Dictionary. The Japanese names are expressed +according to that uniform system of transliteration used by Hepburn, +Satow and other standard writers, wherein consonants have the same +general value as in English (except that initial g is always hard), +while the vowels are pronounced as in Italian. Double vowels must be +pronounced double, as in Méiji (mā-ē-jē); those which are long +are marked, as in ō or ū; i before o or u is short. Most of the +important Japanese, as well as Sanskrit and Chinese, terms used, are +duly expressed and defined in the Century Dictionary. + +I wish also to thank especially my friends, Riu Watanabe, Ph.D., of +Cornell University, and William Nelson Noble, Esq., of Ithaca. The +former kindly assisted me with criticisms and suggestions, while to the +latter, who has taken time to read all the proofs, I am grateful for +considerable improvement in the English form of the sentences. + +In closing, I trust that whatever charges may be brought against me by +competent critics, lack of sympathy will not be one. I write in sight of +beautiful Lake Cayuga, on the fertile and sloping shores of which in old +time the Iroquois Indian confessed the mysteries of life. Having planted +his corn, he made his pregnant squaw walk round the seed-bed in hope of +receiving from the Source of life increased blessing and sustenance for +body and mind. Between such a truly religious act of the savage, and +that of the Christian sage, Joseph Henry, who uncovered his head while +investigating electro-magnetism to "ask God a question," or that of +Samuel F.B. Morse, who sent as his first telegraphic message "What hath +God wrought," I see no essential difference. All three were acts of +faith and acknowledgment of a power greater than man. Religion is one, +though religions are many. As Principal Fairbairn, my honored +predecessor in the Morse lectureship, says: "What we call superstition +of the savage is not superstition _in him_. Superstition is the +perpetuation of a low form of belief along with a higher knowledge.... +Between fetichism and Christian faith there is a great distance, but a +great affinity--the recognition of a supra-sensible life." + +"For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing +of the sons of God.... The creation itself shall be delivered from the +bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of +God." + +W.E.G. + +ITHACA, N.Y., October 27, 1894. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS, PAGE 1 + +Salutatory.--The Morse Lectureship and its provisions.--The Science of +Comparative Religion is Christianity's own child.--The Parliament of +Religions.--The Study of Religion most appropriate in a Theological +Seminary.--Shortening weapons and lengthening boundaries.--The right +missionary spirit that of the Master, who "came not to destroy but to +fulfil."--Characteristics of Japan.--Bird's-eye view of Japanese history +and religion.--Popularly, not three religions but one +religion.--Superstitions which are not organically parts of the +"book-religions."--The boundary line between the Creator and his +creation not visible to the pagan.--Shamanism: Fetichism.--Mythical +monsters, Kirin, Phoenix, Tortoise, Dragon.--Japanese mythical +zoölogy.--The erection of the stone fetich.--Insurance by amulets upon +house and person.--Phallicism.--Tree-worship.--Serpent-worship.--These +unwritten superstitions condition the "book-religions."--Removable by +science and a higher religion. + + +CHAPTER II + +SHINTO: MYTHS AND RITUAL, PAGE 35 + +Japan is young beside China and Korea.--Japanese history is +comparatively modern.--The oldest documents date from A.D. 712.--The +Japanese archipelago inhabited before the Christian era.--Faith, worship +and ritual are previous to written espression.--The Kojiki, Manyōshu +and Norito.--Tendency of the pupil nations surrounding China to antedate +their civilization.--Origin of the Japanese people and their +religion.--Three distinct lines of tradition from Tsukushi, Idzumo and +Yamato.--War of the invaders against the aborigines--Mikadoism is the +heart of Shintō.--Illustrations from the liturgies.--Phallicism among +the aborigines and common people.--The mind or mental climate of the +primæval man.--Representation of male gods by emblems.--Objects of +worship and _ex-voto_.--Ideas of creation.--The fire-myth, +Prometheus.--Comparison of Greek and Japanese mythology.--Ritual for the +quieting of the fire-god.--The fire-drill. + + +CHAPTER III + +THE KOJIKI AND ITS TEACHINGS, PAGE 59 + +Origin of the Kojiki. Analysis of its opening lines--Norito.--Indecency +of the myths of the Kojiki.--Modern rationalistic interpretations--Life +in prehistoric Japan.--Character and temperament of the people then and +now.--Character of the kami or gods.--Hades.--Ethics.--The Land of the +Gods.--The barbarism of the Yamato conquerors an improvement upon the +savagery of the aborigines.--Cannibalism and human sacrifices.--The +makers of the God-way captured and absorbed the religion of the +aborigines.--A case of syncretism.--Origin of evil in bad +gods.--Pollution was sin.--Class of offences enumerated in the +norito.--Professor Kumi's contention that Mikadoism usurped a simple +worship of Heaven.--Difference between the ancient Chinese and ancient +Japanese cultus.--Development of Shintō arrested by +Buddhism.--Temples and offerings.--The tori-i.--Pollution and +purification.--Prayer.--Hirata's ordinal and specimen prayers.--To the +common people the sun is a god.--Prayers to myriads of gods.--Summary of +Shintō.--Swallowed up in the Riyōbu system.--Its modern +revival.--Kéichin.--Kada Adzumarō.--Mabuchi, Motoöri.--Hirata.--In +1870, Shintō is again made the state religion.--Purification of +Riyōbu temples.--Politico-religious lectures.--Imperial +rescript.--Reverence to the Emperor's photograph.--Judgment upon +Shintō.--The Christian's ideal of Yamato-damashii. + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN, PAGE 99 + +In what respects Confucius was unique as a teacher.--Outline of his +life.--The canon.--Primitive Chinese faith a sort of monotheism.--How +the sage modified it.--History of Confucianism until its entrance into +Japan.--Outline of the intellectual and political history of the +Japanese.--Rise of the Samurai class.--Shifting of emphasis from filial +piety to loyalty.--Prevalence of suicide in Japan.--Confucianism has +deeply tinged the ideas of the Japanese.--Great care necessary in +seeking equivalents in English for the terms used in the Chino-Japanese +ethics; e.g., the emperor, "the father of the people."--Impersonality of +Japanese speech.--Christ and Confucius.--"Love" and +"reverence."--Exemplars of loyalty.--The Forty-seven Rōnins.--The +second relation.--The family in Chinese Asia and in Christendom.--The +law of filial piety and the daughter.--The third relation.--Theory of +courtship and marriage.--Chastity.--Jealousy.--Divorce.--Instability of +the marriage bond.--The fourth relation.--The elder and the younger +brother.--The house or family everything, the individual nothing.--The +fifth relation.--The ideas of Christ and those of Confucius.--The Golden +and the Gilded rule.--Lao Tsze and Kung.--Old Japan and the +alien.--Commodore Perry and Professor Hayashi. + + +CHAPTER V + +CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM, PAGE 131 + +Harmony of the systems of Confucius and Buddha in Japan during a +thousand years.--Revival of learning in the seventeenth century.--Exodus +of the Chinese scholars on the fall of the Ming dynasty.--Their +dispersion and work in Japan.--Founding of schools of the new Chinese +learning.--For two and a half centuries the Japanese mind has been +moulded by the new Confucianism.--Survey of its rise and +developments.--Four stages in the intellectual history of China.--The +populist movement in the eleventh century.--The literary +controversy.--The philosophy of the Cheng brothers and of Chu Hi, called +in Japan Tei-Shu system.--In Buddhism the Japanese were startling +innovators, in philosophy they were docile pupils.--Paucity of Confucian +or speculative literature in Japan.--A Chinese wall built around the +Japanese intellect.--Yelo orthodoxy.--Features of the Téi-Shu +system.--Not agnostic but pantheistic.--Its influence upon +historiography.--Ki (spirit) Ri (way) and Ten (heaven).--The writings of +Ohashi Junzo.--Confucianism obsolescent in New Japan.--A study of +Confucianism in the interest of comparative religion.--Man's place in +the universe.--The Samurai's ideal, obedience.--His fearlessness in the +face of death.--Critique of the system.--The ruler and the ruled.--What +has Confucianism done for woman?--Improvement and revision of the fourth +and fifth relations.--The new view of the universe and the new mind in +New Japan. The ideal of Yamato-damashii revised and improved. + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA, PAGE 153 + +Buddha--sun myth or historic personage?--Buddhism one of the +protestantisms of the world.--Characteristics of new religions.--Survey +of the history of Indian thought.--The age of the Vedas.--The epic +age.--The rationalistic age.--Our fellow-Aryans and the story of their +conquests.--Their intellectual energy and inventions.--Systems of +philosophy.--Condition of religion at the birth of Gautama.--Outline of +his life.--He attains enlightenment or buddhahood.--In what respects +Buddhism was an old, and in what a new religion.--Did Gautama intend to +found a new religion, or return to simpler and older +faith?--Monasticism, Kharma and Nirvana,--Enthusiasm of the disciples of +the new faith.--The great schism.--The Northern Buddhists.--The +canon.--The two Yana or vehicles.--Simplicity of Southern and luxuriance +of Northern Buddhism.--Summary of the process of thought in Nepal.--The +old gods of India come back again.--Maitreya, Manjusri and +Avalokitesvara.--The Legend of Manjusri.--Separation of attributes and +creation of new Buddhas or gods.--The Dhyani +Buddhas.--Amida.--Adi-Buddhas.--Abstractions become gods.--The Tantra +system.--Outbursts of doctrine and art.--Prayer-mills.--The noble +eight-fold path of self-denial and benevolence forgotten.--Entrance of +Buddhism from Korea into Japan.--Condition of the country at that +time.--Dates and first experiences.--Soga no +Inamé.--Shōtoku.--Japanese pilgrims to China.--Changes wrought by the +new creed and cult.--Temples, monasteries and images.--Influence upon +the Mikado's name, rank and person, and upon Shintō.--Relative +influence of Buddhism in Asia and of Christianity in Europe.--The three +great characteristics of Buddhism.--How the clouds returned after the +rain.--Buddhism and Christianity confronting the problem of life. + + +CHAPTER VII + +RIYŌBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM, PAGE 189 + +The experience of two centuries and a half of Buddhism in +Japan.--Necessity of using more powerful means for the conversion of the +Japanese.--Popular customs nearly ineradicable.--Analogy from European +history.--Syncretism in Christian history.--In the Arabian Nights.--How +far is the process of Syncretism honest?--Examples not to be recommended +for imitation.--The problem of reconciling the Kami and the +Buddhas.--Northern Buddhism ready for the task.--The Tantra or +Yoga-chara system.--Art and its influence on the imagination.--The +sketch replaced by the illumination and monochrome by colors.--Japanese +art.--Mixed Buddhism rather than mixed Shintō.--Kōbō the +wonder-worker who made all Japanese history a transfiguration of +Buddhism.--Legends about his extraordinary abilities and industry.--His +life, and studies in China.--The kata-kana syllabary.--Kōbōo's +revelation from the Shintō goddess Toyo-Uké-Bimé.--The gods of Japan +were avatars of Buddha.--Kōbō's plan of propaganda.--Details of +the scheme.--A clearing-house of gods and Buddhas.--Relative rise and +fall of the native and the foreign deities.--Legend of Daruma. +"Riyōbu Shintō."--Impulse to art and art industry.--The Kami no +Michi falls into shadow.--Which religion suffered most?--Phenomenally +the victory belonged to Buddhism.--The leavening power was that of +Shintō.--Buddhism's fresh chapter of decay.--Influence of Riyōbu +upon the Chinese ethical system in Japan.--Influence on the +Mikado.--Abdication all along the lines of Japanese life.--Ultimate +paralysis of the national intellect.--Comparison with Chinese +Buddhism.--Miracle-mongering.--No self-reforming power in Buddhism.--The +Seven Happy Gods of Fortune.--Pantheism's destruction of +boundaries.--The author's study of the popular processions in +Japan.--Masaka Do.--Swamping of history in legend.--The jewel in the +lotus. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS, PAGE 225 + +Four stages of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in Japan.--Reasons +for the formation of sects.--The Saddharma Pundarika.--Shastras and +Sutras.--The Ku-sha sect.--Book of the Treasury of Metaphysics.--The +Jō-jitsu sect, its founder and its doctrines.--The Ris-shu or Viyana +sect.--Japanese pilgrims to China.--The Hos-sō sect and its +doctrines.--The three grades of disciples.--The San-ron or Three-shastra +sect and its tenets.--The Middle Path.--The Kégon sect.--The +Unconditioned, or realistic pantheism.--The Chinese or Tendai sect.--Its +scriptures and dogmas.--Buddhahood attainable in the present +body.--Vagradrodhi.--The Yoga-chara system.--The "old sects."--Reaction +against excessive idol-making.--The Zen sect.--Labor-saving devices in +Buddhism.--Making truth apparent by one's own thought.--Transmission of +the Zen doctrine.--History of Zen Shu. + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE, PAGE 257 + +The Jō-dō or Pure Land sect.--Substitution of faith in Amida for +the eight-fold Path.--Succession of the propagators of true +doctrine.--Zendō and Hō-nen.--The Japanese path-finder to the Pure +Land.--Doctrine of Jō-dō.--Buddhistic influence on the Japanese +language.--Incessant repetition of prayers.--The Pure Land in the +West.--The Buddhist doctrine of justification by faith.--Hō-nen's +universalism.--Tendency of doctrinal development after +Hō-nen.--"Reformed" Buddhism.--Synergism _versus_ salvation by faith +only.--Life of Shinran.--Posthumous honors.--Policy and aim of the Shin +sect, methods and scriptures. + + +CHAPTER X + +JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT, PAGE 287 + +The missionary history of Japanese Buddhism is the history of +Japan.--The first organized religion of the Japanese.--Professor Basil +Hall Chamberlain's testimony--A picture of primeval life in the +archipelago.--What came in the train of the new religion from "the +West". Missionary civilizers, teachers, road-makers, improvers of diet. +Language of flowers and gardens.--The house and home.--Architecture--The +imperial capital--Hiyéizan.--Love of natural scenery.--Pilgrimages and +their fruits.--The Japanese aesthetic.--Art and decoration in the +temples.--Exterior resemblances between the Roman form of Christianity +and of Buddhism.--Quotation from "The Mikado's Empire."--Internal vital +differences.--Enlightenment and grace.--Ingwa and love.--Luxuriance of +the art of Northern Buddhism.--Variety in individual treatment.--Place +of the temple in the life of Old Japan.--The protecting trees.--The bell +and its note.--The graveyard and the priests' hold upon it.--Japanese +Buddhism as a political power.--Its influence upon military +history.--Abbots on horseback and monks in armor.--Battles between the +Shin and Zen sects.--Nobunaga.--Influence of Buddhism in literature and +education.--The temple school.--The _kana_ writing.--Survey and critique +of Buddhist history in Japan.--Absence of organized charities.--Regard +for animal and disregard for human life.--The Eta.--The Aino.--Attitude +to women.--Nuna and numerics.--Polygamy and concubinage.--Buddhism +compared with Shintō.--Influence upon morals.--The First Cause.--Its +leadership among the sects.--Unreality of Amida Buddha.--Nichiren.--His +life and opinions.--Idols and avatars.--The favorite scripture of the +sect, the Saddharma Pundarika.--Its central dogma, everything in the +universe capable of Buddha-ship.--The Salvation Army of +Buddhism.--Kōbō's leaven working.--Buddhism ceases to be an +intellectual force.--The New Buddhism.--Are the Japanese eager for +reform? + + +CHAPTER XI + +ROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, PAGE 323 + +The many-sided story of Japanese Christianity.--One hundred years of +intercourse between Japan and Europe.--State of Japan at the +introduction of Portuguese Christianity.--Xavier and Anjiro.--Xavier at +Kiōto and in Bungo.--Nobunaga and the Buddhists.--High-water mark of +Christianity.--Hideyoshi and the invasion of Korea.--Kato and +Konishi.--Persecutions.--Arrival of the Spanish friars.--Their violation +of good faith.--Spirit of the Jesuits and Franciscans.--Crucifixion on +the bamboo cross.--Hidéyori.--Kato Kiyomasa.--The Dutch in the Eastern +seas.--Will Adams.--Iyéyasŭ suspects designs against the sovereignty +of Japan.--The Christian religion outlawed.--Hidétada follows up the +policy of Iyéyasŭ, excludes aliens, and shuts up the country.--The +uprising of the Christians at Shimabara in 1637.--Christianity buried +from sight.--Character of the missionaries and the form of the faith +introduced by them.--Noble lives and ideals.--The spirit of the +Inquisition in Japan.--Political animus and complexion. + + +CHAPTER XII + +TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE, PAGE 351 + +Policy of the Japanese government after the suppression of +Christianity.--Insulation of Japan.--The Hollanders at +Déshima.--Withdrawal of the English.--Relations with Korea.--Policy of +inclusion.--"A society impervious to foreign ideas."--Life within +stunted limits.--Canons of art and literature.--Philosophy made an +engine of government.--Esoteric law.--Social waste of +humanity.--Attempts to break down the wall--External and +internal.--Seekers after God.--The goal of the pilgrims.--The Déshima +Dutchman as pictured by enemies and rivals, _versus_ reality and +truth.--Eager spirits groping after God.--Morning stars of the Japanese +reformation.--Yokoi Héishiro.--The anti-Christian edicts.--The Buddhist +Inquisitors.--The Shin-gaku or New Learning movement.--The story of +nineteenth century Christianity, subterranean and interior before being +phenomenal.--Sabbath-day service on the U.S.S. Mississippi.--The first +missionaries.--Dr. J.C. Hepburn--Healing and the Bible.--Yedo becomes +Tōkiō.--Despatch of the Embassy round the world.--Eyes +opened.--The Acts of the Apostles in Japan. + + +NOTES, AUTHORITIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, PAGE 375 + +INDEX, PAGE 451 + + + + +CHAPTER I - PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS + + "The investigation of the beginnings of a religion is never the + work of infidels, but of the most reverent and conscientious + minds." + + "We, the forty million souls of Japan, standing firmly and + persistently upon the basis of international justice, await + still further manifestations as to the morality of + Christianity,"--Hiraii, of Japan. + + "When the Creator [through intermediaries that were apparently + animals] had finished treating this world of men, the good and + the bad Gods were all mixed together promiscuously, and began + disputing for the possession of this world."--The Aino Story of + the Creation. + + "If the Japanese have few beast stories, the Ainos have + _apparently_ no popular tales of heroes ... The Aino mythologies + ... lack all connection with morality.... Both lack priests and + prophets.... Both belong to a very primitive stage of mental + development ... Excepting stories ... and a few almost metreless + songs, the Ainos have no other literature at all."--Aino + Studies. + + "I asked the earth, and it answered, 'I am not He;' and + whatsoever are therein made the same confession. I asked the sea + and the deep and the creeping things that lived, and they + replied, 'We are not thy God; seek higher than we.' ... And I + answered unto all things which stand about the door of my flesh, + 'Ye have told me concerning my God, that ye are not he; tell me + something about him.' And with a loud voice they explained, 'It + is He who hath made us!'"--Augustine's Confessions. + + "Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the + shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with + night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them + out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name."--Amos. + + "That which hath been made was life in Him."--John. + + +CHAPTER I - PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS + +The Morse Lectureship and the Study of Comparative +Religion. + + +As a graduate of the Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York, +in the Class of 1877, your servant received and accepted with pleasure +the invitation of the President and Board of Trustees to deliver a +course of lectures upon the religions of Japan. In that country and in +several parts of it, I lived from 1870 to 1874. I was in the service +first of the feudal daimiō of Echizen and then of the national +government of Japan, helping to introduce that system of public schools +which is now the glory of the country. Those four years gave me +opportunities for close and constant observation of the outward side of +the religions of Japan, and facilities for the study of the ideas out of +which worship springs. Since 1867, however, when first as a student in +Rutgers College at New Brunswick, N.J., I met and instructed those +students from the far East, who, at risk of imprisonment and death had +come to America for the culture of Christendom, I have been deeply +interested in the study of the Japanese people and their thoughts. + +To attempt a just and impartial survey of the religions of Japan may +seem a task that might well appall even a life-long Oriental scholar. +Yet it may be that an honest purpose, a deep sympathy and a gladly +avowed desire to help the East and the West, the Japanese and the +English-speaking people, to understand each other, are not wholly +useless in a study of religion, but for our purpose of real value. These +lectures are upon the Morse[1] foundation which has these specifications +written out by the founder: + + The general subject of the lectures I desire to be: "The + Relation of the Bible to any of the Sciences, as Geography, + Geology, History, and Ethnology, ... and the relation of the + facts and truths contained in the Word of God, to the + principles, methods, and aims of any of the sciences." + +Now, among the sciences which we must call to our aid are those of +geography and geology, by which are conditioned history and ethnology of +which we must largely treat; and, most of all, the science of +Comparative Religion. + +This last is Christianity's own child. Other sciences, such as geography +and astronomy, may have been born among lands and nations outside of and +even before Christendom. Other sciences, such as geology, may have had +their rise in Christian time and in Christian lands, their foundation +lines laid and their main processes illustrated by Christian men, which +yet cannot be claimed by Christianity as her children bearing her own +likeness and image; but the science of Comparative Religion is the +direct offspring of the religion of Jesus. It is a distinctively +Christian science. "It is so because it is a product of Christian +civilization, and because it finds its impulse in that freedom of +inquiry which Christianity fosters."[2] Christian scholars began the +investigations, formulated the principles, collected the materials and +reared the already splendid fabric of the science of Comparative +Religion, because the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify +this. Jesus bade his disciples search, inquire, discern and compare. +Paul, the greatest of the apostolic Christian college, taught: "Prove +all things; hold fast that which is good." In our day one of Christ's +loving followers[3] expressed the spirit of her Master in her favorite +motto, "Truth for authority, not authority for truth." Well says Dr. +James Legge, a prince among scholars, and translator of the Chinese +classics, who has added several portly volumes to Professor Max Müller's +series of the "Sacred Books of the East," whose face to-day is bronzed +and whose hair is whitened by fifty years of service in southern China +where with his own hands he baptized six hundred Chinamen:[4] + + The more that a man possesses the Christian spirit, and is + governed by Christian principle, the more anxious will he be to + do justice to every other system of religion, and to hold his + own without taint or fetter of bigotry.[5] + +It was Christianity that, in a country where the religion of Jesus has +fullest liberty, called the Parliament of Religions, and this for +reasons clearly manifest. Only Christians had and have the requisites of +success, viz.: sufficient interest in other men and religions; the +necessary unity of faith and purpose; and above all, the brave and bold +disregard of the consequences. Christianity calls the Parliament of +Religions, following out the Divine audacity of Him who, so often, +confronting worldly wisdom and priestly cunning, said to his disciples, +"Think not, be not anxious, take no heed, be careful for nothing--only +for love and truth. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." + +Of all places therefore, the study of comparative religion is most +appropriate in a Christian theological seminary. We must know how our +fellow-men think and believe, in order to help them. It is our duty to +discover the pathways of approach to their minds and hearts. We must +show them, as our brethren and children of the same Heavenly Father, the +common ground on which we all stand. We must point them to the greater +truth in the Bible and in Christ Jesus, and demonstrate wherein both the +divinely inspired library and the truth written in a divine-human life +fulfil that which is lacking in their books and masters. + +To know just how to do this is knowledge to be coveted as a most +excellent gift. An understanding of the religion of our fellow-men is +good, both for him who goes as a missionary and for him who at home +prays, "Thy kingdom come." + +The theological seminary, which begins the systematic and sympathetic +study of Comparative Religion and fills the chair with a professor who +has a vital as well as academic interest in the welfare of his +fellow-men who as yet know not Jesus as Christ and Lord, is sure to lead +in effective missionary work. The students thus equipped will be +furnished as none others are, to begin at once the campaign of help and +warfare of love. + +It may be that insight into and sympathy with the struggles of men who +are groping after God, if haply they may find him, will shorten the +polemic sword of the professional converter whose only purpose is +destructive hostility without tactics or strategy, or whose chief idea +of missionary success is in statistics, in blackening the character of +"the heathen," in sensational letters for home consumption and reports +properly cooked and served for the secretarial and sectarian palates. +Yet, if true in history, Greek, Roman, Japanese, it is also true in the +missionary wars, that "the race that shortens its weapons lengthens its +boundaries."[6] + +Apart from the wit or the measure of truth in this sentence quoted, it +is a matter of truth in the generalizations of fact that the figure of +the "sword of the spirit, which is the word of God," used by Paul, and +also the figure of the "word of God, living and active, sharper than any +two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of the soul and +spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and +intents of the heart," of the writer to the Hebrews, had for their +original in iron the victorious _gladium_ of the Roman legionary--a +weapon both short and sharp. We may learn from this substance of fact +behind the shadow of the figure a lesson for our instant application. +The disciplined Romans scorned the long blades of the barbarians, whose +valor so often impetuous was also impotent against discipline. The +Romans measured their blades by inches, not by feet. For ages the +Japanese sword has been famed for its temper more than its weight.[7] +The Christian entering upon his Master's campaigns with as little +impediments of sectarian dogma as possible, should select a weapon that +is short, sure and divinely tempered. + +To know exactly the defects of the religion we seek to abolish, modify, +supplement, supplant or fulfil, means wise economy of force. To get at +the secrets of its hold upon the people we hope to convert leads to a +right use of power. In a word, knowledge of the opposing religion, and +especially of alien language, literature and ways of feeling and +thinking, lengthens missionary life. A man who does not know the moulds +of thought of his hearers is like a swordsman trying to fight at long +range but only beating the air. Armed with knowledge and sympathy, the +missionary smites with effect at close quarters. He knows the vital +spots. + +Let me fortify my own convictions and conclude this preliminary part of +my lectures by quoting again, not from academic authorities, but from +active missionaries who are or have been at the front and in the +field.[8] + +The Rev. Samuel Beal, author of "Buddhism in China," said (p. 19) that +"it was plain to him that no real work could be done among the people +[of China and Japan] by missionaries until the system of their belief +was understood." + +The Rev. James MacDonald, a veteran missionary in Africa, in the +concluding chapter of his very able work on "Religion and Myth," says: + + The Church that first adopts for her intending missionaries the + study of Comparative Religion as a substitute for subjects now + taught will lead the van in the path of true progress. + + +The People of Japan. + + +In this faith then, in the spirit of Him who said, "I come not to +destroy but to fulfil," let us cast our eyes upon that part of the world +where lies the empire of Japan with its forty-one millions of souls. +Here we have not a country like India--a vast conglomeration of nations, +languages and religions occupying a peninsula itself like a continent, +whose history consists of a stratification of many civilizations. Nor +have we here a seemingly inert mass of humanity in a political structure +blending democracy and imperialism, as in China, so great in age, area +and numbers as to weary the imagination that strives to grasp the +details. On the contrary, in Dai Nippon, or Great Land of the Sun's +Origin, we have a little country easy of study. In geology it is one of +the youngest of lands. Its known history is comparatively modern. Its +area roughly reckoned as 150,000 square miles, is about that of our +Dakotas or of Great Britain and Ireland. The census completed December +31, 1892, illustrates here, as all over the world, nature's argument +against polygamy. It tells us that the relation between the sexes is, +numerically at least, normal. There were 20,752,366 males and 20,337,574 +females, making a population of 41,089,940 souls. All these people are +subjects of the one emperor, and excepting fewer than twenty thousand +savages in the northern islands called Ainos, speak one language and +form substantially one race. Even the Riu Kiu islanders are Japanese in +language, customs and religion. In a word, except in minor differences +appreciable or at least important only to the special student, the +modern Japanese are a homogeneous people. + +In origin and formation, this people is a composite of many tribes. +Roughly outlining the ethnology of Japan, we should say that the +aborigines were immigrants from the continent with Malay reinforcement +in the south, Koreans in the centre, and Ainos in the east and north, +with occasional strains of blood at different periods from various parts +of the Asian mainland. In brief, the Japanese are a very mixed race. +Authentic history before the Christian era is unknown. At some point of +time, probably later than A.D. 200, a conquering tribe, one of many from +the Asian mainland, began to be paramount on the main island. About the +fourth century something like historic events and personages begin to be +visible, but no Japanese writings are older than the early part of the +eighth century, though almanacs and means of measuring time are found in +the sixth century. Whatever Japan may be in legend and mythology, she is +in fact and in history younger than Christianity. Her line of rulers, as +alleged in old official documents and ostentatiously reaffirmed in the +first article of the constitution of 1889, to be "unbroken for ages +eternal," is no older than that of the popes. Let us not think of Aryan +or Chinese antiquity when we talk of Japan. Her history as a state began +when the Roman empire fell. The Germanic nations emerged into history +long before the Japanese. + +Roughly outlining the political and religious life of the ancient +Japanese, we note that their first system of government was a rude sort +of feudalism imposed by the conquerors and was synchronous with +aboriginal fetichism, nature worship, ancestral sacrifices, sun-worship +and possibly but not probably, a very rude sort of monotheism akin to +the primitive Chinese cultus.[9] Almost contemporary with Buddhism, its +introduction and missionary development, was the struggle for +centralized imperialism borrowed from the Chinese and consolidated in +the period from the seventh to the twelfth century. During most of this +time Shintō, or the primitive religion, was overshadowed while the +Confucian ethics were taught. From the twelfth to this nineteenth +century feudalism in politics and Buddhism in religion prevailed, though +Confucianism furnished the social laws or rules of daily conduct. Since +the epochal year of 1868, with imperialism reestablished and the feudal +system abolished, Shintō has had a visible revival, being kept alive +by government patronage. Buddhism, though politically disestablished, is +still the popular religion with recent increase of life,[10] while +Confucianism is decidedly losing force. Christianity has begun its +promising career. + + +The Amalgam of Religions. + + +Yet in the imperial and constitutional Japan of our day it is still true +of probably at least thirty-eight millions of Japanese that their +religion is not one, Shintō, Confucianism or Buddhism, but an amalgam +of all three. There is not in every-day life that sharp distinction +between these religions which the native or foreign scholar makes, and +which both history and philosophy demand shall be made for the student +at least. Using the technical language of Christian theologians, +Shintō furnishes theology, Confucianism anthropology and Buddhism +soteriology. The average Japanese learns about the gods and draws +inspiration for his patriotism from Shintō, maxims for his ethical +and social life from Confucius, and his hope of what he regards as +salvation from Buddhism. Or, as a native scholar, Nobuta Kishimoto,[11] +expresses it, + + In Japan these three different systems of religion and morality + are not only living together on friendly terms with one another, + but, in fact, they are blended together in the minds of the + people, who draw necessary nourishment from all of these + sources. One and the same Japanese is both a Shintōist, a + Confucianist, and a Buddhist. He plays a triple part, so to + speak ... Our religion may be likened to a triangle.... + Shintōism furnishes the object, Confucianism offers the rules + of life, while Buddhism supplies the way of salvation; so you + see we Japanese are eclectic in everything, even in religion. + +These three religious systems as at present constituted, are "book +religions." They rest, respectively, upon the Kojiki and other ancient +Japanese literature and the modern commentators; upon the Chinese +classics edited and commented on by Confucius and upon Chu Hi and other +mediaeval scholastics who commented upon Confucius; and upon the +shastras and sutras with which Gautama, the Buddha, had something to do. +Yet in primeval and prehistoric Nippon neither these books nor the +religions growing out of the books were extant. Furthermore, strictly +speaking, it is not with any or all of these three religions that the +Christian missionary comes first, oftenest or longest in contact. In +ancient, in mediaeval, and in modern times the student notices a great +undergrowth of superstition clinging parasitically to all religions, +though formally recognized by none. Whether we call it fetichism, +shamanism, nature worship or heathenism in its myriad forms, it is there +in awful reality. It is as omnipresent, as persistent, as hard to kill +as the scrub bamboo which both efficiently and sufficiently takes the +place of thorns and thistles as the curse of Japanese ground. + +The book-religions can be more or less apprehended by those alien to +them, but to fully appreciate the depth, extent, influence and tenacity +of these archaic, unwritten and unformulated beliefs requires residence +upon the soil and life among the devotees. Disowned it may be by the +priests and sages, indignantly disclaimed or secretly approved in part +by the organized religions, this great undergrowth of superstition is as +apparent as the silicious bamboo grass which everywhere conditions and +modifies Japanese agriculture. Such prevalence of mental and spiritual +disease is the sad fact that confronts every lover of his fellow-men. +This paganism is more ancient and universal than any one of the +religions founded on writing or teachers of name and fame. Even the +applied science and the wonderful inventions imported from the West, so +far from eradicating it, only serve as the iron-clad man-of-war in warm +salt water serves the barnacles, furnishing them food and hold. + +We propose to give in this our first lecture, a general or bird's-eye +view of this dead level of paganism above which the systems of +Shintō, Confucianism and Buddhism tower like mountains. It in by this +omnipresent superstition that the respectable religious have been +conditioned in their history and are modified at present, even as +Christianity has been influenced in its progress by ethnic or local +ideas and temperaments, and will be yet in its course of victory in the +Mikado's empire. + +Just as the terms "heathen" (happily no longer, in the Revised Version +of the English Bible) and "pagan" suggest the heath-man of Northern +Europe and the isolated hamlet of the Roman empire, while the cities +were illuminated with Christian truth, so, in the main, the matted +superstitious of Chinese Asia are more suggestive of distances from +books and centres of knowledge, though still sufficiently rooted in the +crowded cities. + +One to whom the boundary line between the Creator and his world is +perfectly clear, one who knows the eternal difference between mind and +matter, one born amid the triumphs of science can but faintly realize +the mental condition of the millions of Japan to whom there is no +unifying thought of the Creator-Father. Faith in the unity of law is the +foundation of all science, but the average Asiatic has not this thought +or faith. Appalled at his own insignificance amid the sublime mysteries +and awful immensities of nature, the shadows of his own mind become to +him real existences. As it is affirmed that the human skin, sensitive to +the effects of light, takes the photograph of the tree riven by +lightning, so, on the pagan mind lie in ineffaceable and exaggerated +grotesqueness the scars of impressions left by hereditary teaching, by +natural phenomena and by the memory of events and of landmarks. Out of +the soil of diseased imagination has sprung up a growth as terrible as +the drunkard's phantasies. The earthquake, flood, tidal wave, famine, +withering or devastating wind and poisonous gases, the geological +monsters and ravening bird, beast and fish, have their representatives +or supposed incarnations in mythical phantasms. + +Frightful as these shadows of the mind appear, they are both very real +and, in a sense, very necessary to the ignorant man. He must have some +theory by which to explain the phenomena of nature and soothe his own +terrors. Hence he peoples the earth and water, not only with invisible +spirits more or less malevolent, but also with bodily presences usually +in terrific bestial form. To those who believe in one Spirit pervading, +ordering, governing all things, there is unity amid all phenomena, and +the universe is all order and beauty. To the mind which has not reached +this height of simplicity, instead of one cause there are many. The +diverse phenomena of nature are brought about by spirits innumerable, +warring and discordant. Instead of a unity to the mind, as of sun and +solar system, there is nothing but planets, asteroids and a constant +rain of shooting-stars. + + +Shamanism. + + +Glancing at some phases of the actual unwritten religions of Japan we +name Shamanism, Mythical Zoölogy, Fetichism, Phallicism, and Tree and +Serpent Worship. + +In actual Shamanism or Animism there may or there may not be a belief in +or conception of a single all-powerful Creator above and beyond all.[12] +Usually there is not such a belief, though, even if there be, the actual +government of the physical world and its surroundings is believed to lie +in the hands of many spirits or gods benevolent and malevolent. Earth, +air, water, all things teem with beings that are malevolent and +constantly active. In time of disaster, famine, epidemic the universe +seems as overcrowded with them as stagnant water seems to be when the +solar microscope throw its contents into apparition upon the screen. It +is absolutely necessary to propitiate these spirits by magic rites and +incantations. + +Among the tribes of the northern part of the Chinese Empire and the +Ainos of Japan this Shamanism exists as something like an organized +cultus. Indeed, it would be hard to find any part of Chinese Asia from +Korea to Annam or from Tibet to Formosa, not dominated by this belief in +the power and presence of minor spirits. The Ainos of Yezo may be called +Shamanists or Animists; that is, their minds are cramped and confused by +their belief in a multitude of inferior spirits whom they worship and +propitiate by rites and incantations through their medicine-man or +sorcerer. How they whittle sticks, keeping on the fringe of curled +shavings, and set up these, called _inao_ in places whence evil is +suspected to lurk, and how the shaman conducts his exorcisms and works +his healings, are told in the works of the traveller and the +missionary.[13] In the wand of shavings thus reared we see the same +motive as that which induced the Mikado in the eighth century to build +the great monasteries on Hiyéizan, northeast of Kiōto, this being the +quarter in which Buddhist superstition locates the path of advancing +evil, to ward off malevolence by litanies and incense. Or, the _inao_ is +a sort of lightning-rod conductor by which impending mischief may be led +harmlessly away. + +Yet, besides the Ainos,[14] there are millions of Japanese who are +Shamanists, even though they know not the name or organized cult. And if +we make use of the term Shamanism instead of the more exact one of +Animism, it is for the very purpose of illustrating our contention that +the underlying paganisms of the Japanese archipelago, unwritten and +unformulated, are older than the religions founded on books; and that +these paganisms, still vital and persistent, constantly modify and +corrupt the recognized religious. The term Shaman, a Pali word, was +originally a pure Buddhist term meaning one who has separated from his +family and his passions. One of the designations of the Buddha was +Shamana-Gautama. The same word, Shamon, in Japanese still means a bonze, +or Buddhist priest. Its appropriation by the sorcerers, medicine-men, +and lords of the misrule of superstition in Mongolia and Manchuria shows +decisively how indigenous paganism has corrupted the Buddhism of +northern Asia even as it has caused its decay in Japan. + +As out of Animism or Shamanism grows Fetichism in which a visible object +is found for the abode or medium of the spirit, so also, out of the same +soil arises what we may call Imaginary Zoölogy. In this mental growth, +the nightmare of the diseased imagination or of the mind unable to draw +the line between the real and the unreal, Chinese Asia differs notably +from the Aryan world. With the mythical monsters of India and Iran we +are acquainted, and with those of the Semitic and ancient European cycle +of ideas which furnished us with our ancients and classics we are +familiar. The lovely presences in human form, the semi-human and bestial +creations, sphinxes, naiads, satyrs, fauns, harpies, griffins, with +which the fancy of the Mediterranean nations populated glen, grotto, +mountain and stream, are probably outnumbered by the less beautiful and +even hideous mind-shadows of the Turanian world. Chief among these are +what in Chinese literature, so slavishly borrowed by the Japanese, are +called the four supernatural or spiritually endowed creatures--the Kirin +or Unicorn, the Phoenix, the Tortoise and the Dragon.[15] + + +Mythical Zoölogy. + + +Of the first species the _ki_ is the male, the _lin_ is the female, +hence the name Kilin. The Japanese having no _l_, pronounce this Kirin. +Its appearance on the earth is regarded as a happy portent of the advent +of good government or the birth of men who are to prove virtuous rulers. +It has the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, and a single, soft horn. +As messenger of mercy and benevolence, the Kirin never treads on a live +insect or eats growing grass. Later philosophy made this imaginary beast +the incarnation of those five primordial elements--earth, air, water, +fire and ether of which all things, including man's body, are made and +which are symbolized in the shapes of the cube, globe, pyramid, saucer +and tuft of rays in the Japanese gravestones. It is said to attain the +age of a thousand years, to be the noblest form of the animal creation +and the emblem of perfect good. In Chinese and Japanese art this +creature holds a prominent place, and in literature even more so. It is +not only part of the repertoire of the artist's symbols in the Chinese +world of ideas, but is almost a necessity to the moulds of thought in +eastern Asia. Yet it is older than Confucius or the book-religions, and +its conception shows one of the nobler sides of Animism. + +The Feng-hwang or Phoenix, Japanese Hō-wō, the second of the +incarnations of the spirits, is of wondrous form and mystic nature. The +rare advent of this bird upon the earth is, like that of the kirin or +unicorn, a presage of the advent of virtuous rulers and good government. +It has the head of a pheasant, the beak of a swallow, the neck of a +tortoise, and the features of the dragon and fish. Its colors and +streaming feathers are gorgeous with iridian sheen, combining the +splendors of the pheasant and the peacock. Its five colors symbolize the +cardinal virtues of uprightness of mind, obedience, justice, fidelity +and benevolence. The male bird _Hō_, and female _wō_, by their +inseparable fellowship furnish the artist, poet and literary writer with +the originals of the ten thousand references which are found in Chinese +and its derived literatures. Of this mystic Phoenix a Chinese dictionary +thus gives description: + + The Phoenix is of the essence of water; it was born in the + vermilion cave; it perches not but on the most beautiful of all + trees; it eats not but of the seed of the bamboo; its body is + adorned with the five colors; its song contains the five notes; + as it walks it looks around; as it flies hosts of birds follow + it. + +Older than the elaborate descriptions of it and its representations in +art, the Hō-wō is one of the creations of primitive Chinese +Animism. + +The Kwei or Tortoise is not the actual horny reptile known to +naturalists and to common experience, but a spirit, an animated creature +that ages ago rose up out of the Yellow River, having on its carapace +the mystic writing out of which the legendary founder of Chinese +civilization deciphered the basis of moral teachings and the secrets of +the unseen. From this divine tortoise which conceived by thought alone, +all other tortoises sprang. In the elaboration of the myths and legends +concerning the tortoise we find many varieties of this scaly +incarnation. It lives a thousand years, hence it is emblem of longevity +in art and literature. It is the attendant of the god of the waters. It +has some of the qualities and energies of the dragon, it has the power +of transformation. In pictures and sculptures we are familiar with its +figure, often of colossal size, as forming the curb of a well, the base +of a monument or tablet. Yet, whatever its form in literature or art, it +is the later elaborated representation of ancient Animism which selected +the tortoise as one of the manifold incarnations or media of the myriad +spirits that populate the air. + +Chief and leader of the four divinely constituted beasts is the Lung, +Japanese Riō, or Dragon, which has the power of transformation and of +making itself visible or invisible. At will it reduces itself to the +size of a silk-worm, or is swollen until it fills the space of heaven +and earth. This is the creature especially preeminent in art, literature +and rhetoric. There are nine kinds of dragons, all with various features +and functions, and artists and authors revel in their representation. +The celestial dragon guards the mansions of the gods and supports them +lest they fall; the spiritual dragon causes the winds to blow and rain +to descend for the service of mankind; the earth dragon marks out the +courses of rivers and streams; the dragon of the hidden treasures +watches over the wealth concealed from mortals, etc. Outwardly, the +dragon of superstition resembles the geological monsters brought to +resurrection by our paleontologists. He seems to incarnate all the +attributes and forces of animal life--vigor, rapidity of motion, +endurance, power of offence in horn, hoof, claw, tooth, nail, scale and +fiery breath. Being the embodiment of all force the dragon is especially +symbolical of the emperor. Usually associated with malevolence, one +sees, besides the conventional art and literature of civilization, the +primitive animistic idea of men to whose mind this mysterious universe +had no unity, who believed in myriad discordant spirits but knew not of +"one Law-giver, who is able both to save and to destroy." An +enlargement, possibly, of prehistoric man's reminiscence of now extinct +monsters, the dragon is, in its artistic development, a mythical +embodiment of all the powers of moisture to bless and to harm. We shall +see how, when Buddhism entered China, the cobra-de-capello, so often +figured in the Buddhistic representations of India, is replaced by the +dragon. + +Yet besides these four incarnations of the spirits that misrule the +world there is a host, a menagerie of mythical monsters. In Korea, one +of the Asian countries richest in demonology, beast worship is very +prevalent. Mythical winged tigers and flying serpents with attributes of +fire, lightning and combinations of forces not found in any one +creature, are common to the popular fancy. In Japan, the _kappa_, half +monkey half tortoise, which seizes children bathing in the rivers, as +real to millions of the native common folk as is the shark or porpoise; +the flying-weasel, that moves in the whirlwind with sickle-like blades +on his claws, which cut the face of the unfortunate; the wind-god or imp +that lets loose the gale or storm; the thunder-imp or hairy, cat-like +creature that on the cloud-edges beats his drums in crash, roll, or +rattle; the earthquake-fish or subterranean bull-head or cat-fish that +wriggles and writhes, causing the earth to shiver, shudder and open; the +_ja_ or dragon centipede; the _tengu_ or long-nosed and winged mountain +sprite, which acts as the messenger of the gods, pulling out the tongues +of fibbing, lying children; besides the colossal spiders and mythical +creatures of the old story-books; the foxes, badgers, cats and other +creatures which transform themselves and "possess" human beings, still +influence the popular mind. These, once the old _kami_ of the primitive +Japanese, or _kamui_ of the aboriginal Aino, show the mental soil and +climate[16] which were to condition the growth of the seed imported from +other lands, whether of Buddhism or Christianity. It is very hard to +kill a god while the old mind that grew and nourished him still remains +the same. Banish or brand a phantom or mind-shadow once worshipped as +divine, and it will appear as a fairy, a demon, a mythical animal, or an +_oni_; but to annihilate it requires many centuries of higher culture. + +As with the superstitions and survival of Animism and Fetichism from our +pagan ancestors among ourselves, many of the lingering beliefs may be +harmless, but over the mass of men in Japan and in Chinese Asia they +still exert a baleful influence. They make life full of distress; they +curtail human joy; they are a hindrance, to spiritual progress and to +civilization. + + +Fetichism. + + +The animistic tendency in that part of Asia dominated by the Chinese +world of ideas shows itself not only in a belief in messengers or +embodiments of divine malevolence or benevolence, but also in the +location of the spiritual influence in or upon an inanimate object or +fetich. Among men in Chinese Asia, from the clodhopper to the gentleman, +the inheritance of Fetichism from the primeval ages is constantly +noticeable. Let us glance at the term itself. + +As the Chinaman's "Joss" is only his own pronunciation of the Portuguese +word _Deos_, or the Latin _Deus_, so the word "fetich" is but the +Portuguese modification of the Latin word _facticius_, that is +_feitiço_. Portugal, beginning nearly five hundred years ago, had the +honor of sending the first ships and crews to explore the coasts of +Africa and Asia, and her sailors by this word, now Englished as fetich, +described the native charms or talismans. The word "fetichism" came into +the European languages through the work of Charles de Brosses, who, in +1760, wrote on "Du Culte des Dieux Fétiches." In Fetichism, the "object +is treated as having personal consciousness and power, is talked with, +worshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, petted or ill-treated with +reference to its past or future behavior to its votaries." + +Let me draw a picture from actual observation. I look out of the windows +of my house in Fukui. Here is a peasant who comes back after the winter +to prepare his field for cultivation. The man's horizon of ideas, like +his vocabulary, is very limited. His view of actual life is bounded by a +few rice-fields, a range of hills, and the village near by. Possibly one +visit to a city or large town has enriched his experience. More +probably, however, the wind and clouds, the weather, the soil, crops and +taxes, his family and food and how to provide for them, are the main +thoughts that occupy his mind. Before he will strike mattock or spade in +the soil, lay axe to a tree, collect or burn underbrush, he will select +a stone, a slab of rock or a stick of wood, set it upon hill side or mud +field-boundary, and to this he will bow, prostrate himself or pray. To +him, this stone or stick is consecrated. It has power to placate the +spirits and ward off their evil. It is the medium of communication +between him and them. Now, having attended, as he thinks, to the +proprieties in the case, he proceeds to dig, plough, drain, put in order +and treat soil or water, tree or other growth as is most convenient for +his purpose. His fetich is erected to "the honorable spirits." Were this +not attended to, some known or unknown bad luck, sinister fortune, or +calamity would befall him. Here, then, is a fetich-worshipper. The stick +or stone is the medium of communication between the man and the spirits +who can bless or harm him, and which to his mind are as countlessly +numerous as the swarms of mosquitoes which he drives out of and away +from his summer cottage by smudge fires in August. + +One need not travel in Yezo or Saghalin to see practical Fetichism. Go +where you will in Japan, there are fetich worshippers. Among the country +folk, the "_inaka_" of Japanese parlance, Fetichism is seen in its +grossest forms. Yet among probably millions of Buddhists, especially of +certain sects, the Nichiren for example, and even among the +rationalistic Confucians, there are fetich-worshippers. Rare is the +Japanese farmer, laborer, mechanic, ward-man, or _hei-min_ of any trade +who does not wear amulet, charm or other object which he regards with +more or less of reverence as having relation to the powers that help or +harm.[17] In most of the Buddhist temples these amulets are sold for the +benefit of the priests or of the shrine or monastery. Not a few even of +the gentry consider it best to be on the safe side and wear in pouch or +purse these protectors against evil. + +Of the 7,817,570 houses in the empire, enumerated in the census of 1892, +it is probable that seven millions of them are subjects of insurance by +fetich.[18] They are guaranteed against fire, thieves, lightning, plague +and pestilence. It is because of money paid to the priests that the +wooden policies are duly nailed on the walls, and not on account of the +wise application of mathematical, financial or medical science. Examine +also the paper packages carefully tied and affixed above the transom, +decipher the writing in ink or the brand left by the hot iron on the +little slabs of pine-wood--there may be one or a score of them--and what +will you read? Names of the temples with date of issue and seal of +certificate from the priests, mottoes or titles from sacred books, often +only a Sanskrit letter or monogram, of which the priest-pedler may long +since have forgotten the meaning. To build a house, select a cemetery or +proceed to any of the ordinary events of life without making use of some +sort of material fetich, is unusual, extraordinary and is voted +heterodox. + +Long after the brutish stage of thought is past the fetichistic instinct +remains in the sacredness attached to the mere letter or paper or +parchment of the sacred book or writing, when used as amulet, plaster or +medicine. The survivals, even in Buddhism, of ancient and prehistoric +Fetichism are many and often with undenied approval of the religious +authorities, especially in those sects which are themselves reversions +to primitive and lower types of religion. + +Among the Ainos of Yezo and Saghalin the medicine-man or shaman is +decorated with fetichistic bric-à-brac of all sorts, and these bits of +shells, metals, and other clinking substances are believed to be media +of communication with mysterious influences and forces. In Korea +thousands of trees bedecked with fluttering rags, clinking scraps of +tin, metal or stone signify the same thing. In Japan these primitive +tinkling scraps and clinking bunches of glass have long since become the +_suzu_ or wind-bells seen on the pagoda which tintinabulate with every +passing breeze. The whittled sticks of the Aino, non-conductors of evil +and protectors of those who make and rear them, stuck up in every place +of awe or supposed danger, have in the slow evolution of centuries +become the innumerable flag-poles, banners and streamers which one sees +at their _matsuris_ or temple festivals. Millions of towels and +handkerchiefs still flutter over wells and on sacred trees. In old Japan +the banners of an army almost outnumbered the men who fought beneath +them. Today, at times they nearly conceal the temples from view. + +The civilized Japanese, having passed far beyond the Aino's stage of +religion, still show their fetichistic instincts in the veneration +accorded to priestly inventions for raising revenue.[19] This instinct +lingers in the faith accorded to medicine in the form of decoction, +pill, bolus or poultice made from the sacred writing and piously +swallowed; in the reverence paid to the idol for its own sake, and in +the charm or amulet worn by the soldier in his cap or by the gentleman +in his pill-box, tobacco-pouch or purse. + +As the will of the worshipper who selects the fetich makes it what it +is, so also, by the exercise of that will he imagines he can in a +certain measure be the equal or superior of his god. Like the Italian +peasant who beats or scolds his bambino when his prayers are not +answered or his wishes gratified, so the fetich is punished or not +allowed to know what is going on, by being covered up or hidden away. +Instances of such rough handling of their fetiches by the people are far +from unknown in the Land of Great Peace. At such childishness we may +wonder and imagine that fetich-worship is the very antipodes of +religion; and yet it requires but little study of the lower orders of +mind and conduct in Christendom to see how fetich-worship still lingers +among people called Christians, whether the fetich be the image of a +saint or the Virgin, or a verse of the Bible found at random and used +much as is a penny-toss to decide minor actions. Or, to look farther +south, what means the rabbit's foot carried in the pocket or the various +articles of faith now hanging in the limbo between religion and +folk-lore in various parts of our own country? + + +Phallicism. + + +Further illustrations of far Eastern Animism and Fetichism are seen in +forms once vastly more prevalent in Japan than now. Indeed, so far +improved off the face of the earth are they, that some are already +matters of memory or archæology, and their very existence even in former +days is nearly or wholly incredible to the generation born since +1868--when Old Japan began to vanish in dissolving views and New Japan +to emerge. What the author has seen with his own eyes, would amaze many +Japanese born since 1868 and the readers of the rhapsodies of tourists +who study Japan from the _jin-riki-sha_. Phases of tree and serpent +worship are still quite common, and will be probably for generations to +come; but the phallic shrines and emblems abolished by the government in +1872 have been so far invisible to most living travellers and natives, +that their once general existence and use are now scarcely suspected. +Even profound scholars of the Japanese language and literature whose +work dates from after the year 1872 have scarcely suspected the +universality of phallic worship. Yet what we could say of this cult and +its emblems, especially in treating of Shintō, the special ethnic +faith of Japan, would be from sight of our own eyes besides the +testimony of many witnesses.[20] + +The cultus has been known in the Japanese archipelago from Riu Kin to +Yezo. Despite official edicts of abolition it is still secretly +practised by the "heathen," the _inaka_ of Japan. "Government law lasts +three days," is an ancient proverb in Nippon. Sharp eyes have, within +three months of the writing of this line, unearthed a phallic shrine +within a stone's-throw of Shintō's most sacred temples at Isé. +Formerly, however, these implements of worship were seen numerously--in +the cornucopia distributed in the temples, in the _matsuris_ or +religious processions and in representation by various plastic +material--and all this until 1872, to an extent that is absolutely +incredible to all except the eye-witnesses, some of whose written +testimonies we possess. What seems to our mind shocking and revolting +was once a part of our own ancestors' faith, and until very recently was +the perfectly natural and innocent creed of many millions of Japanese +and is yet the same for tens of thousands of them. + +We may easily see why and how that which to us is a degrading cult was +not only closely allied to Shintō, but directly fostered by and +properly a part of it, as soon as we read the account of the creation of +the world, an contained in the national "Book of Ancient Traditions," +the "Kojiki." Several of the opening paragraphs of this sacred book of +Shintō are phallic myths explaining cosmogony. Yet the myths and the +cult are older than the writing and are phases of primitive Japanese +faith. The mystery of fatherhood is to the primitive man the mystery of +creation also. To him neither the thought nor the word was at hand to +put difference and transcendental separation between him and what he +worshipped as a god. + +Into the details of the former display and carriage of these now obscene +symbols in the popular celebrations; of the behavior of even respectable +citizens during the excitement and frenzy of the festivals; of their +presence in the wayside shrines; of the philosophy, hideousness or +pathos of the subject, we cannot here enter. We simply call attention to +their existence, and to a form of thought, if not of religion, properly +so-called, which has survived all imported systems of faith and which +shows what the native or indigenous idea of divinity really is--an idea +that profoundly affects the organization of society. To the enlightened +Buddhist, Confucian, and even the modern Shintoist the +phallus-worshipper is a "heathen," a "pagan," and yet he still practises +his faith and rites. It is for us to hint at the powerful influence such +persistent ideas have upon Japanese morals and civilization. Still +further, we illustrate the basic fact which all foreign religions and +all missionaries, Confucian, Buddhist, Mahometan or Christian must deal +with, viz.: That the Eastern Asiatic mind runs to pantheism as surely as +the body of flesh and blood seeks food. + + +Tree and Serpent Worship. + + +In prehistoric and medieval Japan, as among the Ainos to-day, trees and +serpents as well as rocks, rivers and other inanimate objects were +worshipped, because such of them as were supposed for reasons known and +felt to be awe-inspiring or wonderful were "kami," that is, above the +common, wonderful.[21] This word kami is usually translated god or +deity, but the term does not conform to our ideas, by a great gulf of +difference. It is more than probable that the Japanese term kami is the +same as the Aino word _kamui_, and that the despised and conquered +aboriginal savage has furnished the mould of the ordinary Japanese idea +of god--which even to-day with them means anything wonderful or +extraordinary.[22] From the days before history the people have +worshipped trees, and do so yet, considering them as the abodes of and +as means of communication with supernatural powers. On them the people +hang their votive offerings, twist on the branches their prayers written +on paper, avoid cutting down, breaking or in any way injuring certain +trees. The _sakaki_ tree is especially sacred, even to this day, in +funeral or Shintō services. To wound or defile a tree sacred to a +particular god was to call forth the vengeance of the insulted deity +upon the insulter, or as the hearer of prayer upon another to whom guilt +was imputed and punishment was due. + +Thus, in the days older than this present generation, but still within +this century, as the writer has witnessed, it was the custom of women +betrayed by their lovers to perform the religious act of vengeance +called _Ushi toki mairi_, or going to the temple at the hour of the ox, +that is at 2 A.M. First making an image or manikin of straw, she set out +on her errand of revenge, with nails held in her mouth and with hammer +in one hand and straw figure in the other, sometimes also having on her +head a reversed tripod in which were stuck three lighted candles. +Arriving at the shrine she selected a tree dedicated to a god, and then +nailed the straw simulacrum of her betrayer to the trunk, invoking the +kami to curse and annihilate the destroyer of her peace. She adjures the +god to save his tree, impute the guilt of desecration to the traitor and +visit him with deadly vengeance. The visit is repeated and nails are +driven until the object of the incantation sickens and dies, or is at +least supposed to do so. I have more than once seen such trees and straw +images upon them, and have observed others in which the large number of +rusted nails and fragments of straw showed how tenaciously the +superstition lingered.[23] + +In instances more pleasant to witness, may be seen trees festooned with +the symbolical rice-straw in cords and fringes. With these the people +honor the trees as the abode of the kami, or as evidence of their faith +in the renown accredited in the past. + +In common with most human beings the Japanese consider the serpent an +object of mystery and awe, but most of them go further and pay the +ophidian a reverence and awe which is worship. Their oldest literature +shows how large a part the serpent played in the so-called divine age, +how it acted as progenitress of the Mikado's ancestry, and how it +afforded means of incarnation for the kami or gods. Ten species of +ophidia are known in the Japanese islands, but in the larger number of +more or less imaginary varieties which figure in the ancient books we +shall find plenty of material for fetich-worship. In perusing the +"Kojiki" one scarcely knows, when he begins a story, whether the +character which to all appearance is a man or woman is to end as a +snake, or whether the mother after delivering her child will or will not +glide into the marsh or slide away into the sea, leaving behind a trail +of slime. A dragon is three-fourths serpent, and both the dragon and the +serpent are prominent figures, perhaps the most prominent of the kami or +gods in human or animal form in the "Kojiki" and other early legends of +the gods, though the crocodile, crow, deer, dog, and other animals are +kami.[24] It is therefore no wonder that serpents have been and are +still worshipped by the people, that some of their gods and goddesses +are liable at any time to slip away in scaly form, that famous temples +are built on sites noted as being the abode or visible place of the +actual water or land snake of natural history, and that the spot where a +serpent is seen to-day is usually marked with a sacred emblem or a +shrine.[25] We shall see how this snake-worship became not only a part +of Shintō but even a notable feature in corrupt Buddhism. + + +Pantheism's Destruction of Boundaries.[26] + + +In its rudest forms, this pantheism branches out into animism or +shamanism, fetichism and phallicism. In its higher forms, it becomes +polytheism, idolatry and defective philosophy. Having centuries ago +corrupted Buddhism it is the malaria which, unseen and unfelt, is ready +to poison and corrupt Christianity. Indeed, it has already given over to +disease and spiritual death more than one once hopeful Christian +believer, teacher and preacher in the Japan of our decade. + +To assault and remove the incubus, to replace and refill the mind, to +lift up and enlighten the Japanese peasant, science as already known and +faith in one God, Creator and Father of all things, must go hand in +hand. Education and civilization will do much for the ignorant _inaka_ +or boors, but for the cultured whose minds waver and whose feet +flounder, as well as for the unlearned and priest-ridden, there is no +surer help and healing than that faith in the Heavenly Father which +gives the unifying thought to him who looks into creation. + +Keep the boundary line clear between God and his world and all is order +and discrimination. Obliterate that boundary and all is pathless morass, +black chaos and on the mind the phantasms which belong to the victim of +_delirium tremens_. + +There is one Lawgiver. In the beginning, God. In the end, God, all in +all. + + + + +CHAPTER II - SHINTŌ: MYTHS AND RITUAL + + "In the great days of old, + When o'er the land the gods held sov'reign sway, + Our fathers lov'd to say + That the bright gods with tender care enfold + The fortunes of Japan, + Blessing the land with many an holy spell: + And what they loved to tell, + We of this later age ourselves do prove; + For every living man + May feast his eyes on tokens of their love." + + --Poem of Yamagami-no Okura, + A.D. 733. + + Baal: "While I on towers and banging terraces, + In shaft and obelisk, behold my sign. + Creative, shape of first imperious law." + + --Bayard Taylor's "Masque of the Gods." + + "Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my + silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of + men, and didst commit whoredom with them, and tookest thy + broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine + oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave + thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou + hast even set it before them for a sweet savor: and thus it was, + saith the Lord GOD."--Ezekiel. + + If it be said (as has been the case), 'Shintoism has nothing in + it,' we should be inclined to answer, 'So much the better, there + is less error to counteract.' But there _is_ something in it, + and that ... of a kind of which we may well avail ourselves when + making known the second commandment, and the 'fountain of + cleansing from all sin.'"--E.W. Syle. + + "If Shintō has a dogma, it is purity."--Kaburagi. + + "I will wash my hands in innocency, O Lord: and so will I go to + thine altar."--Ps. xxvi. 6. + + +CHAPTER II - SHINTŌ: MYTHS AND RITUAL + +The Japanese a Young Nation. + + +What impresses us in the study of the history of Japan is that, compared +with China and Korea, she is young. Her history is as the story of +yesterday. The nation is modern. The Japanese are as younger children in +the great family of Asia's historic people. Broadly speaking, Japan is +no older than England, and authentic Japanese history no more ancient +than British history. In Albion, as in the Honorable Country, there are +traditions and mythologies that project their shadows aeons back of +genuine records; but if we consider that English history begins in the +fifth, and English literature in the eighth century, then there are +other reasons besides those commonly given for calling Japan "the +England of the East." + +No trustworthy traditions exist which carry the known history of Japan +farther back than the fifth century. The means for measuring and +recording time were probably not in use until the sixth century. The +oldest documents in the Japanese language, excepting a few fragments of +the seventh century, do not antedate the year 712, and even in these the +Chinese characters are in many instances used phonetically, because the +meaning of the words thus transliterated had already been forgotten. +Hence their interpretation in detail is still largely a matter of +conjecture. + +Yet the Japanese Archipelago was inhabited long before the dawn of +history. The concurrent testimony of the earliest literary monuments, of +the indigenous mythology, of folk-lore, of shell-heaps and of +kitchen-middens shows that the occupation by human beings of the main +islands must be ascribed to times long before the Christian era. Before +written records or ritual of worship, religion existed on its active or +devotional side, and there were mature growths of thought preserved and +expressed orally. Poems, songs, chants and _norito_ or liturgies were +kept alive in the human memory, and there was a system of worship, the +_name_ of which was given long after the introduction of Buddhism. This +descriptive term, Kami no Michi in Japanese, and Shin-tō in the +Chinese as pronounced by Japanese, means the Way of the Gods, the tō +or final syllable being the same as tao in Taoism. We may say that +Shintō means, literally, theoslogos, theology. The customs and +practices existed centuries before contact with Chinese letters, and +long previous to the Shintō literature which is now extant. + +Whether Kami no Michi is wholly the product of Japanese soil, or whether +its rudimentary ideas were imported from the neighboring Asian continent +and more or less allied to the primitive Chinese religion, is still an +open question. The preponderance of argument tends, however, to show +that it was an importation as to its origin, for not a few events +outlined in the Japanese mythology cast shadows of reminiscence upon +Korea or the Asian mainland. In its development, however, the cultus is +almost wholly Japanese. The modern forms of Shintō, as moulded by the +revivalists of the eighteenth century, are at many points notably +different from the ancient faith. At the World's Parliament of Religions +at Chicago, Shintō seemed to be the only one, and probably the last, +of the purely provincial religions. + +In order to gain a picture of life in Japan before the introduction of +Chinese civilization, we must consult those photographs of the minds of +the ancient islanders which still exist in their earliest literature. +The fruits of the study of ethnology, anthropology and archaeology +greatly assist us in picturing the day-break of human life in the +Morning Land. In preparing materials for the student of the religions of +Japan many laborers have wrought in various fields, but the chief +literary honors have been taken by the English scholars, Messrs. +Satow,[1] Aston,[2] and Chamberlain.[3] These untiring workers have +opened the treasures of ancient thought in the Altaic world.[4] + +Although even these archaic Japanese compositions, readable to-day only +by special scholars, are more or less affected by Chinese influences, +ideas and modes of expression, yet they are in the main faithful +reflections of the ancient life before the primitive faith of the +Japanese people was either disturbed or reduced to system in presence of +an imported religion. These monuments of history, poetry and liturgies +are the "Kojiki," or Notices of Ancient Things; the "Manyöshu" or Myriad +Leaves or Poems, and the "Norito," or Liturgies. + + +The Ancient Documents. + + +The first book, the "Kojiki," gives us the theology, cosmogony, +mythology, and very probably, in its later portions, some outlines of +history of the ancient Japanese. The "Kojiki" is the real, the dogmatic +exponent, or, if we may so say, the Bible, of Shintō. The +"Manyōshu," or Book of Myriad Poems, expresses the thoughts and +feelings; reflects the manners and customs of the primitive generations, +and, in the same sense as do the Sagas of the Scandinavians, furnishes +us unchronological but interesting and more or less real narratives of +events which have been glorified by the poets and artists. The ancient +codes of law and of ceremonial procedure are of great value, while the +"Norito" are excellent mirrors in which to see reflected the religion +called Shintō on the more active side of worship. + +In a critical study, either of the general body of national tradition or +of the ancient documents, we must continually be on our guard against +the usual assumption that Chinese civilization came in earlier than it +really did. This assumption colors all modern Japanese popular ideas, +art and literature. The vice of the pupil nations surrounding the Middle +Kingdom is their desire to have it believed that Chinese letters and +culture among them is an nearly coeval with those of China as can be +made truly or falsely to appear. The Koreans, for example, would have us +believe that their civilization, based on letters and introduced by +Kishi, is "four thousand years old" and contemporaneous with China's +own, and that "the Koreans are among the oldest people of the world."[5] +The average modern Japanese wishes the date of authentic or official +history projected as far back as possible. Yet he is a modest man +compared with his mediæval ancestor, who constructed chronology out of +ink-stones. Over a thousand years ago a deliberate forgery was +officially put on paper. A whole line of emperors who never lived was +canonized, and clever penmen set down in ink long chapters which +describe what never happened.[6] Furthermore, even after, and only eight +years after the fairly honest "Kojiki" had been compiled, the book +called "Nihongi," or Chronicles of Japan, was written. All the internal +and not a little external evidence shows that the object of this book is +to give the impression that Chinese ideas, culture and learning had long +been domesticated in Japan. The "Nihongi" gives dates of events supposed +to have happened fifteen hundred years before, with an accuracy which +may be called villainous; while the "Kojiki" states that Wani, a Korean +teacher, brought the "Thousand Character Classic" to Japan in A.D. 285, +though that famous Chinese book was not composed until the sixth +century, or A.D. 550.[7] + +Even to this day it is nearly impossible for an American to get a Korean +"frog in the well"[8] to understand why the genuine native life and +history, language and learning of his own peninsular country is of +greater value to the student than the pedantry borrowed from China. Why +these possess any interest to a "scholar" is a mystery to the head in +the horsehair net. Anything of value, he thinks, _must_ be on the +Chinese model. What is not Chinese is foolish and fit for women and +children only. Furthermore, Korea "always had" Chinese learning. This is +the sum of the arguments of the Korean literati, even as it used to be +of the old-time hatless Yedo scholar of shaven skull and topknot. + +Despite Japanese independence and even arrogance in certain other lines, +the thought of the demolition of cherished notions of vast antiquity is +very painful. Critical study of ancient traditions is still dangerous, +even in parliamentary Nippon. Hence the unbiassed student must depend on +his own reading of and judgment upon the ancient records, assisted by +the thorough work done by the English scholars Aston, Satow, +Chamberlain, Bramsen and others. + +It was the coming of Buddhism in the sixth century, and the implanting +on the soil of Japan of a system of religion in which were temples with +all that was attractive to the eye, gorgeous ritual, scriptures, +priesthood, codes of morals, rigid discipline, a system of dogmatics in +which all was made positive and clear, that made the variant myths and +legends somewhat uniform. The faith of Shaka, by winning adherents both +at the court and among the leading men of intelligence, reacted upon the +national traditions so as to compel their collection and arrangemeut +into definite formulas. In due time the mythology, poetry and ritual +was, as we have seen, committed to writing and the whole system called +Shintō, in distinction from Butsudō, the Way of the Gods from the +Way of the Buddhas. Thus we can see more clearly the outward and visible +manifestations of Shintō. In forming our judgment, however, we must +put aside those descriptions which are found in the works of European +writers, from Marco Polo and Mendez Pinto down to the year 1870. Though +these were good observers, they were often necessarily mistaken in their +deductions. For, as we shall see in our lecture on Riyōbu or Mixed +Buddhism, Shintō was, from the ninth century until late into the +nineteenth century, absorbed in Buddhism so as to be next to invisible. + + +Origins of the Japanese People. + + +Without detailing processes, but giving only results, our view of the +origin of the Japanese people and of their religion is in the main as +follows: + +The oldest seats of human habitation in the Japanese Archipelago lie +between the thirtieth and thirty-eighth parallels of north latitude. +South of the thirty-fourth parallel, it seems, though without proof of +writing or from tradition, that the Malay type and blood from the far +south probably predominated, with, however, much infusion from the +northern Asian mainland. + +Between the thirty-fourth and thirty-sixth parallels, and west of the +one hundred and thirty-eighth meridian of longitude, may be found what +is still the choicest, richest and most populous part of The Country +Between Heaven and Earth. Here the prevailing element was Korean and +Tartar. + +To the north and east of this fair country lay the Emishi savages, or +Ainos. + +In "the world" within the ken of the prehistoric dwellers in what is now +the three islands, Hondo, Kiushiu and Shikoku, there was no island of +Yezu and no China; while Korea was but slightly known, and the lands +farther westward were unheard of except as the home of distant tribes. + +Three distinct lines of tradition point to the near peninsula or the +west coast of Japan as the "Heaven" whence descended the tribe which +finally grew to be dominant. The islands of Tsushima and Iki were the +stepping-stones of the migration out of which rose what may be called +the southern or Tsukushi cycle of legend, Tsukushi being the ancient +name of Kiushiu. + +Idzumo is the holy land whence issued the second stream of tradition. + +The third course of myth and legend leads us into Yamato, whence we +behold the conquest of the Mikado's home-land and the extension of his +name and influence into the regions east of the Hakoné Mountains, +including the great plain of Yedo, where modern Tōkiō now stands. + +We shall take the term "Yamato" as the synonym of the prehistoric but +discernible beginnings of national life. It represents the seat of the +tribe whose valor and genius ultimately produced the Mikado system. It +was through this house or tribe that Japanese history took form. The +reverence for the ruler long afterward entitled "Son of Heaven" is the +strongest force in the national history. The spirit and prowess of these +early conquerors have left an indelible impress upon the language and +the mind of the nation in the phrase Yamato Damashi--the spirit of +(Divine and unconquerable) Japan. + +The story of the conquest of the land, in its many phases, recalls that +of the Aryans in India, of the Hebrews in Canaan, of the Romans in +Europe and of the Germanic races in North America. The Yamato men +gradually advanced to conquest under the impulse, as they believed, of a +divine command.[9] They were sent from Takama-no-hara, the High Plain of +Heaven. Theirs was the war, of men with a nobler creed, having +agriculture and a feudal system of organization which furnished +resources for long campaigns, against hunters and fishermen. They had +improved artillery and used iron against stone. Yet they conquered and +pacified not only by superior strategy, tactics, weapons and valor, but +also by advanced fetiches and dogma. They captured the religion of their +enemies as well as their bodies, lands and resources. They claimed that +their ancestors were from Heaven, that the Sun was their kinswoman and +that their chief, or Mikado, was vicegerent of the Heavenly gods, but +that those whom they conquered were earth-born or sprung from the +terrestrial divinities. + + +Mikadoism the Heart of Shintō. + + +As success came to their arms and their chief's power was made more +sure, they developed further the dogma of the Mikado's divinity and made +worship centre in him as the earthly representative of the Sun and +Heaven. His fellow-conquerors and ministers, as fast as they were put in +lordship over conquered provinces, or indigenous chieftains who +submitted obediently to his sway or yielded graciously to his prowess, +were named as founders of temples and in later generations worshipped +and became gods.[10] One of the motives for, and one of the guiding +principles in the selections of the floating myths, was that the +ancestry of the chieftains loyal to the Mikado might be shown to be from +the heavenly gods. Both the narratives of the "Kojiki" and the liturgies +show this clearly. + +The nature-worship, which was probably practised throughout the whole +archipelago, became part of the system as government and society were +made uniform on the Yamato model. It seems at least possible, if +Buddhism had not come in so soon, that the ordinary features of a +religion, dogmatic and ethical codes, would have been developed. In a +word, the Kami no Michi, or religion of the islanders in prehistoric +times before the rise of Mikadoism, must be carefully distinguished from +the politico-ecclesiasticism which the system called Shintō reveals +and demands. The early religion, first in the hands of politicians and +later under the pens and voices of writers and teachers at the Imperial +Court, became something very different from its original form. As surely +as Kōbō later captured Shintō, making material for Buddhism out +of it and overlaying it in Riyōbu, so the Yamato men made political +capital out of their own religion and that of the subject tribes. The +divine sovereign of Japan and his political church did exactly what the +state churches of Europe, both pagan and Christian, have done before and +since the Christian era. + +Further, in studying the "Kojiki," we must remember that the sacred +writings sprang out of the religion, and that the system was not an +evolution from the book. Customs, ritual, faith and prayer existed long +before they were written about or recorded in ink. Moreover, the +philosophy came later than the practice, the deeds before the myths, and +the joy and terror of the visible universe before the cosmogony or +theogony, while the book-preface was probably written last of all. + +The sun was first, and then came the wonder, admiration and worship of +men. The personification and pedigree of the sun were late figments. To +connect their ancestors with the sun-goddess and the heavenly gods, was +a still later enterprise of the "Mikado reverencers" of this earlier +time. Both the god-way in its early forms and Shintō in its later +development, were to them political as well as ecclesiastical institutes +of dogma. Both the religion which they themselves brought and cultivated +and the aboriginal religion which the Yamato men found, were used as +engines in the making of Mikadoism, which is the heart of Shintō. + +Not until two centuries after the coming of Buddhism and of Asiatic +civilization did it occur to the Japanese to reduce to writing the +floating legends and various cycles of tradition which had grown up +luxuriantly in different parts of "the empire," or to express in the +Chinese character the prayers and thanksgivings which had been handed +down orally through many generations. These norito had already assumed +elegant literary form, rich in poetic merit, long before Chinese writing +was known. They, far more than the less certain philosophy of the +"Kojiki," are of undoubted native origin. It is nearly certain that the +prehistoric Japanese did not borrow the literary forms of the god-way +from China, as any one familiar with the short, evenly balanced and +antithetical sentences of Chinese style can see at once. The norito are +expressions, in the rhythmical and rhetorical form of worship, of the +articles of faith set forth in the historic summary which we have given. +We propose to illustrate the dogmas by quoting from the rituals in Mr. +Satow's masterly translation. The following was addressed to the +sun-goddess (Amatérasŭ no Mikami, or the +From-Heaven-Shining-Great-Deity) by the priest-envoy of the priestly +Nakatomi family sent annually to the temples at Isé, the Mecca of +Shintō. The _sevran_ referred to in the ritual is the Mikado. This +word and all the others printed in capitals are so rendered in order to +express in English the force of "an untranslatable honorific syllable, +supposed to be originally identical with a root meaning 'true,' but no +longer possessing that signification." Instead of the word "earth," that +of "country" (Japan) is used as the correlative of Heaven. + + +Ritual in Praise of the Sun-goddess. + + + He (the priest-envoy) says: Hear all of you, ministers of the + gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the great ritual, the + heavenly ritual, declared in the great presence of the + From-Heaven-Shining-Great-DEITY, whose praises are fulfilled by + setting up the stout pillars of the great HOUSE, and exalting + the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven at the sources of + the Isuzu River at Uji in Watarai. + + He says: It is the sovran's great WORD. Hear all of you, + ministers of the gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the + fulfilling of praises on this seventeenth day of the sixth moon + of this year, as the morning sun goes up in glory, of the + Oho-Nakatomi, who--having abundantly piled up like a range of + hills the TRIBUTE thread and sanctified LIQUOR and FOOD + presented as of usage by the people of the deity's houses + attributed to her in the three departments and in various + countries and places, so that she deign to bless his [the + Mikado's] LIFE as a long LIFE, and his AGE as a luxuriant AGE + eternally and unchangingly as multitudinous piles of rock; may + deign to bless the CHILDREN who are born to him, and deigning to + cause to flourish the five kinds of grain which the men of a + hundred functions and the peasants of the countries in the four + quarters of the region under heaven long and peacefully + cultivate and eat, and guarding and benefiting them to deign to + bless them--is hidden by the great offering-wands. + +In the Imperial City the ritual services were very imposing. Those in +expectation of the harvest were held in the great hall of the +Jin-Gi-Kuan, or Council of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. The description +of the ceremonial is given by Mr. Satow.[11] In the prayers offered to +the sun-goddess for harvest, and in thanksgiving to her for bestowing +dominion over land and sea upon her descendant the Mikado, occurs the +following passage: + + I declare in the great presence of the + From-Heaven-Shining-Great-DEITY who sits in Isé. Because the + sovran great GODDESS bestows on him the countries of the four + quarters over which her glance extends, as far as the limit + where heaven stands up like a wall, as far as the bounds where + the country stands up distant, as far as the limit where the + blue clouds spread flat, as far as the bounds where the white + clouds lie away fallen--the blue sea plain as far as the limit + whither come the prows of the ships without drying poles or + paddles, the ships which continuously crowd on the great sea + plain, and the road which men travel by land, as far as the + limit whither come the horses' hoofs, with the baggage-cords + tied tightly, treading the uneven rocks and tree-roots and + standing up continuously in a long path without a break--making + the narrow countries wide and the hilly countries plain, and as + it were drawing together the distant countries by throwing many + tons of ropes over them--he will pile up the first-fruits like a + range of hills in the great presence of the sovran great + GODDESS, and will peacefully enjoy the remainder. + + +Phallic Symbols. + + +To form one's impression of the Kami no Michi wholly from the poetic +liturgies, the austere simplicity of the miyas or shrines, or the +worship at the palace or capital, would be as misleading as to gather +our ideas of the status of popular education from knowing only of the +scholars at court. Among the common people the real basis of the god-way +was ancestor-worship. From the very first this trait and habit of the +Japanese can be discerned. Their tenacity in holding to it made the +Confucian ethics more welcome when they came. Furthermore, this +reverence for the dead profoundly influenced and modified Buddhism, so +that today the altars of both religions exist in the same house, the +dead ancestors becoming both kami and buddhas. + +Modern taste has removed from sight what were once the common people's +symbols of the god-way, that is of ancestor worship. The extent of the +phallus cult and its close and even vital connection with the god-way, +and the general and innocent use of the now prohibited emblems, tax +severely the credulity of the Occidental reader. The processes of the +ancient mind can hardly be understood except by vigorous power of the +imagination and by sympathy with the primeval man. To the critical +student, however, who has lived among the people and the temples devoted +to this worship, who knows how innocent and how truly sincere and even +reverent and devout in the use of these symbols the worshippers are, the +matter is measurably clear. He can understand the soil, root and flower +even while the most strange specimen is abhorrent to his taste, and +while he is most active in destroying that mental climate in which such +worship, whether native or exotic, can exist and flourish. + +In none of the instances in which I have been eyewitness of the cult, of +the person officiating or of the emblem, have I had any reason to doubt +the sincerity of the worshipper. I have never had reason to look upon +the implements or the system as anything else than the endeavor of man +to solve the mystery of Being and Power. In making use of these emblems, +the Japanese worshipper simply professes his faith in such solution as +has seemed to him attainable. + +That this cultus was quite general in pre-Buddhistic Japan, as in many +other ancient countries, is certain from the proofs of language, +literature, external monuments and relics which are sufficiently +numerous. Its organic connection with the god-way may be clearly shown. + +To go farther back in point of time than the "Kojiki," we find that even +before the development of art in very ancient Japan, the male gods were +represented by a symbol which thus became an image of the deity himself. +This token was usually made of stone, though often of wood, and in later +times of terra-cotta, of cast and wrought iron and even of gold.[12] + +Under the direct influence of such a cult, other objects appealed to the +imagination or served the temporary purpose of the worshipper as +_ex-voto_ to hang up in the shrines, such as the mushroom, awabi, +various other shells and possibly the fire-drill. It is only in the +decay of the cultus, in the change of view and centre of thought +compelled by another religion, that representations of the old emblems +ally themselves with sensualism or immorality. It is that natural +degradation of one man's god into another man's devil, which conversion +must almost of necessity bring, that makes the once revered symbol +"obscene," and talk about it become, in a descending scale, dirty, foul, +filthy, nasty. That the Japanese suffer from the moral effluvia of a +decayed cult which was once as the very vertebral column of the national +body of religion, is evident to every one who acquaints himself with +their popular speech and literature. + +How closely and directly phallicism is connected with the god-way, and +why there were so many Shintō temples devoted to this latter cult and +furnished with symbols, is shown by study of the "Kojiki." The two +opening sections of this book treat of kami that were in the minds even +of the makers of the myths little more than mud and water[13]--the mere +bioplasm of deity. The seven divine generations are "born," but do +nothing except that they give Izanagi and Izanami a jewelled spear. With +this pair come differentiation of sex. It is immediately on the +apparition of the consciousness of sex that motion, action and creation +begin, and the progress of things visible ensues. The details cannot be +put into English, but it is enough, besides noting the conversation and +union of the pair, to say that the term meaning giving birth to, refers +to inanimate as well as animate things. It is used in reference to the +islands which compose the archipelago as well as to the various kami +which seem, in many cases, to be nothing more than the names of things +or places. + + +Fire-myths and Ritual. + + +Fire is, in a sense, the foundation and first necessity of civilization, +and it is interesting to study the myths as to the origin of fire, and +possibly even more interesting to compare the Greek and Japanese +stories. As we know, old-time popular etymology makes Prometheus the +fore-thinker and brother of Epimetheus the after-thinker. He is the +stealer of the fire from heaven, in order to make men share the secret +of the gods. Comparative philology tells us, however, that the Sanskrit +_Pramantha_ is a stick that produces fire. The "Kojiki" does indeed +contain what is probably the later form of the fire-myth about two +brothers, Prince Fire-Shine and Fire-Fade, which suggests both the later +Greek myth of the fore- and after-thinker and a tradition of a flood. +The first, and most probably older, myth in giving the origin of fire +does it in true Japanese style, with details of parturition. After +numerous other deities had been born of Izanagi and Izanami, it is said +"that they gave birth to the Fire-Burning-Swift-Male-Deity, another name +for whom is the Deity-Fire-Shining-Prince, and another name is the +Deity-Fire-Shining-Elder." In the other ancient literature this fire-god +is called Ho-musubi, the Fire-Producer. + +Izanami yielded up her life upon the birth of her son, the fire-god; or, +as the sacred text declares, she "divinely retired"[14] into Hades. From +her corpse sprang up the pairs of gods of clay, of metal, and other kami +that possessed the potency of calming or subduing fire, for clay resists +and water extinguishes. Between the mythical and the liturgical forms of +the original narrative there is considerable variation. + +The Norito entitled the "Quieting of Fire" gives the ritual form of the +myth. It contains, like so many Norito, less the form of prayer to the +Fire-Producer than a promise of offerings. Not so much by petitions as +by the inducements of gifts did the ancient worshippers hope to save the +palace of the Mikado from the fire-god's wrath. We omit from the text +those details which are offensive to modern and western taste. + + I declare with the great ritual, the heavenly ritual, which was + bestowed on him at the time when, by the WORD of the Sovran's + dear progenitor and progenitrix, who divinely remain in the + plain of high heaven, they bestowed on him the region under + heaven, saying: + + "Let the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness tranquilly rule over the + country of fresh spikes which flourishes in the midst of the + reed-moor as a peaceful region." + + When ... Izanami ... had deigned to bear the many hundred + myriads of gods, she also deigned to bear her dear youngest + child of all, the Fire-producer god, ... and said: + + "My dear elder brother's augustness shall rule the upper + country; I will rule the lower country," she deigned to hide in + the rocks; and having come to the flat hills of darkness, she + thought and said: "I have come hither, having borne and left a + bad-hearted child in the upper country, ruled over by my + illustrious elder brother's augustness," and going back she bore + other children. Having borne the water-goddess, the gourd, the + river-weed, and the clay-hill maiden, four sorts of things, she + taught them with words, and made them to know, saying: "If the + heart of this bad-hearted child becomes violent, let the + water-goddess take the gourd, and the clay-hill maiden take the + river-weed, and pacify him." + + In consequence of this I fulfil his praises, and say that for + the things set up, so that he may deign not to be awfully quick + of heart in the great place of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S + augustness, there are provided bright cloth, glittering cloth, + soft cloth, and coarse cloth, and the five kinds of things; as + to things which dwell in the blue-sea plain, there are things + wide of fin and narrow of fin, down to the weeds of the shore; + as to LIQUOR, raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in + rows the bellies of the beer-jars, piling the offerings up, even + to rice in grain and rice in ear, like a range of hills, I + fulfil his praises with the great ritual, the heavenly ritual. + +Izanagi, after shedding tears over his consort, whose death was caused +by the birth of the fire-god, slays the fire-god, and follows her into +the Root-land, or Hades, whereupon begins another round of wonderful +stories of the birth of many gods. Among these, though evidently out of +another cycle of legends, is the story of the birth of the three +gods--Fire-Shine, Fire-Climax and Fire-Fade, to which we have already +referred. + +The fire-drill mentioned in the "Kojiki" suggests easily the same line +of thought with the myths of cosmogony and theogony, and it is +interesting to note that this archaic implement is still used at the +sacred temples of Isé to produce fire. After the virgin priestesses +perform the sacred dances in honor of local deities the water for their +bath is heated by fires kindled by heaps of old _harai_ or amulets made +from temple-wood bought at the Mecca of Japan. It is even probable that +the retention of the fire-drill in the service of Shintō is but a +survival of phallicism. + +The liturgy for the pacification of the gods of fire is worth noticing. +The full form of the ritual, when compared with a legend in the +"Nihongi," shows that a myth was "partly devised to explain the +connection of an hereditary family of priests with the god whose shrine +they served; it is possible that the claim to be directly descended from +the god had been disputed." The Norito first recites poetically the +descent of Ninigi, the grandchild of the sun-goddess from heaven, and +the quieting of the turbulent kami. + + I (the diviner), declare: When by the WORD of the progenitor and + progenitrix, who divinely remaining in the plain of high heaven, + deigned to make the beginning of things, they divinely deigned + to assemble the many hundred myriads of gods in the high city of + heaven, and deigned divinely to take counsel in council, saying: + "When we cause our Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to leave + heaven's eternal seat, to cleave a path with might through + heaven's manifold clouds, and to descend from heaven, with + orders tranquilly to rule the country of fresh spikes, which + flourishes in the midst of the reed-moor as a peaceful country, + what god shall we send first to divinely sweep away, sweep away + and subdue the gods who are turbulent in the country of fresh + spikes;" all the gods pondered and declared: "You shall send + Aménohohi's augustness, and subdue them," declared + they. Wherefore they sent him down from heaven, but he did not + declare an answer; and having next sent Takémikuma's augustness, + he also, obeying his father's words, did not declare an + answer. Amé-no-waka-hiko also, whom they sent, did not declare + an answer, but immediately perished by the calamity of a bird on + high. Wherefore they pondered afresh by the WORD of the heavenly + gods, and having deigned to send down from heaven the two + pillars of gods, Futsunushi and Takémika-dzuchi's augustness, + who having deigned divinely to sweep away, and sweep away, and + deigned divinely to soften, and soften the gods who were + turbulent, and silenced the rocks, trees, and the least leaf of + herbs likewise that had spoken, they caused the Sovran + GRANDCHILD'S augustness to descend from heaven. + + I fulfil your praises, saying: As to the OFFERINGS set up, so + that the sovran gods who come into the heavenly HOUSE of the + Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness, which, after he had fixed upon + as a peaceful country--the country of great Yamato where the sun + is high, as the centre of the countries of the four quarters + bestowed upon him when he was thus sent down from + heaven--stoutly planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most + rocks, and exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven, + the builders had made for his SHADE from the heavens and SHADE + from the sun, and wherein he will tranquilly rule the country as + a peaceful country--may, without deigning to be turbulent, + deigning to be fierce, and deigning to hurt, knowing, by virtue + of their divinity, the things which were begun in the plain of + high heaven, deigning to correct with Divine-correcting and + Great-correcting, remove hence out to the clean places of the + mountain-streams which look far away over the four quarters, and + rule them as their own place. Let the Sovran gods tranquilly + take with clear HEARTS, as peaceful OFFERINGS and sufficient + OFFERINGS the great OFFERINGS which I set up, piling them upon + the tables like a range of hills, providing bright cloth, + glittering cloth, soft cloth, and coarse cloth; as a thing to + see plain in--a mirror: as things to play with--beads: as things + to shoot off with--a bow and arrows: as a thing to strike and + cut with--a sword: as a thing which gallops out--a horse; as to + LIQUOR--raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in rows + the bellies of the beer-jars, with grains of rice and ears; as + to the things which dwell in the hills--things soft of hair, and + things rough of hair; as to the things which grow in the great + field plain--sweet herbs and bitter herbs; as to the things + which dwell in the blue sea plain--things broad of fin and + things narrow of fin, down to weeds of the offing and weeds of + the shore, and without deigning to be turbulent, deigning to be + fierce, and deigning to hurt, remove out to the wide and clean + places of the mountain-streams, and by virtue of their divinity + be tranquil. + +In this ritual we find the origin of evil attributed to wicked kami, or +gods. To get rid of them is to be free from the troubles of life. The +object of the ritual worship was to compel the turbulent and malevolent +kami to go out from human habitations to the mountain solitudes and rest +there. The dogmas of both god-possession and of the power of exorcism +were not, however, held exclusively by the high functionaries of the +official religion, but were part of the faith of all the people. To this +day both the tenets and the practices are popular under various forms. + +Besides the twenty-seven Norito which are found in the Yengishiki, +published at the opening of the tenth century, there are many others +composed for single occasions. Examples of these are found in the +Government Gazettes. One celebrates the Mikado's removal from Kiōto +to Tōkiō, another was written and recited to add greater solemnity +to the oath which he took to govern according to modern liberal +principles and to form a national parliament. To those Japanese whose +first idea of duty is loyalty to the emperor, Shintō thus becomes a +system of patriotism exalted to the rank of a religion. Even Christian +natives of Japan can use much of the phraseology of the Norito while +addressing their petitions on behalf of their chief magistrate to the +King of kings. + +The primitive worship of the sun, of light, of fire, has left its +impress upon the language and in vernacular art and customs. Among +scores of derivations of Japanese words (often more pleasing than +scientific), in which the general term _hi_ enters, is that which finds +in the word for man, _hito_, the meaning of "light-bearer." On the face +of the broad terminal tiles of the house-roofs, we still see moulded the +river-weed, with which the Clay-Hill Maiden pacified the Fire-God. On +the frontlet of the warrior's helmet, in the old days of arrow and +armor, glittered in brass on either side of his crest the same symbol of +power and victory. + +Having glanced at the ritual of Shintō, let us now examine the +teachings of its oldest book. + + + + +CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS + + "Japan is not a land where men need pray, + For 'tis itself divine: + Yet do I lift my voice in prayer..." + + Hitomaro, + A.D. 737. + + "Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were + not yet manifest, and there was naught named, naught done, who + could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first + parted, and the three Deities performed the commencement of + creation; the Passive and Active Essences then developed, and + the Two Spirits became the ancestors of all things."--Preface of + Yasumarō (A.D. 712) to the "Kojiki." + + "These, the 'Kojiki' and 'Nihongi' are their [the Shintōists] + canonical books, ... and almost their every word is considered + undeniable truth." + + "The Shintō faith teaches that God inspired the foundation of + the Mikadoate, and that it is therefore sacred."--Kaburagi. + + "We now reverently make our prayer to Them [Our Imperial + Ancestors] and to our Illustrious Father [Komei, + 1867], and + implore the help of Their Sacred Spirits, and make to Them + solemn oath never at this time nor in the future to fail to be + an example to Our subjects in the observance of the Law + [Constitution] hereby established."--Imperial oath of the + Emperor Mutsuhito in the sanctuary in the Imperial Palace, + Tōkiō, February 11, 1889. + + "Shintō is not our national religion. A faith existed before + it, which was its source. It grew out of superstitious teaching + and mistaken tradition. The history of the rise of Shintō + proves this."--T. Matsugami. + + "Makoto wo moté KAMI NO MICHI wo oshiyuréba nari." (Thou + teachest the way of God in truth.)--Mark xii. 14. + + "Ware wa Micni nuri, Mukoto nari, Inochi nari."--John + xiv. 6.--The New Testament in Japanese. + + +CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS + +"The Kojiki" mid its Myths of Cosmogony. + + +As to the origin of the "Kojiki," we have in the closing sentences of +the author's preface the sole documentary authority explaining its scope +and certifying to its authenticity. Briefly the statement is this: The +"Heavenly Sovereign" or Mikado, Temmu (A.D. 673-686), lamenting that the +records possessed by the chief families were "mostly amplified by empty +falsehoods," and fearing that "the grand foundation of the monarchy" +would be destroyed, resolved to preserve the truth. He therefore had the +records carefully examined, compared, and their errors eliminated. There +happened to be in his household a man of marvellous memory, named Hiyéda +Aré, who could repeat, without mistake, the contents of any document he +had ever seen, and never forgot anything which he had heard. This person +was duly instructed in the genuine traditions and old language of former +ages, and made to repeat them until he had the whole by heart. "Before +the undertaking was completed," which probably means before it could be +committed to writing, "the emperor died, and for twenty-five years Aré's +memory was the sole depository of what afterwards received the title of +'Kojiki.' ... At the end of this interval the Empress Gemmiō ordered +Yasumarō to write it down from the mouth of Aré, which accounts for +the completion of the manuscript in so short a time as four months and a +half,"[1] in A.D. 712. + +It is from the "Kojiki" that we obtain most of our ideas of ancient life +and thought. The "Nihongi," or Chronicles of Japan, expressed very +largely in Chinese phrases and with Chinese technical and philosophical +terms, further assists us to get a measurably correct idea of what is +called The Divine Age. Of the two books, however, the "Kojiki" is much +more valuable as a true record, because, though rude in style and +exceedingly naïve in expression, and by no means free from Chinese +thoughts and phrases, it is marked by a genuinely Japanese cast of +thought and method of composition. Instead of the terse, carefully +measured, balanced, and antithetical sentences of correct Chinese, those +of the "Kojiki" are long and involved, and without much logical +connection. The "Kojiki" contains the real notions, feelings, and +beliefs of Japanese who lived before the eighth century. + +Remembering that prefaces are, like porticos, usually added last of all, +we find that in the beginning all things were in chaos. Heaven and earth +were not separated. The world substance floated in the cosmic mass, like +oil on water or a fish in the sea. Motion in some way began. The +ethereal portions sublimed and formed the heavens; the heavier residuum +became the present earth. In the plain of high heaven, when the heaven +and earth began, were born three kami who "hid their bodies," that is, +passed away or died. Out of the warm mould of the earth a germ sprouted, +and from this were born two kami, who also were born alone, and died. +After these heavenly kami came forth what are called the seven divine +generations, or line of seven kami.[2] + +To express the opening lines of the "Kojiki" in terms of our own speech +and in the moulds of Western thought, we may say that matter existed +before mind and the gods came forth, as it were, by spontaneous +evolution. The first thing that appeared out of the warm earth-muck was +like a rush-sprout, and this became a kami, or god. From this being came +forth others, which also produced beings, until there were perfect +bodies, sex and differentiation of powers. The "Nihongi," however, not +only gives a different view of this evolution basing it upon the dualism +of Chinese philosophy--that is, of the active and passive +principles--and uses Chinese technical terminology, but gives lists of +kami that differ notably from those in the "Kojiki." This latter fact +seems to have escaped the attention of those who write freely about what +they imagine to be the early religion of the Japanese.[3] + +After this introduction, in which "Dualities, Trinities, and Supreme +Deities" have been discovered by writers unfamiliar with the genius of +the Japanese language, there follows an account of the creation of the +habitable earth by Izanami and Izanagi, whose names mean the +Male-Who-Invites and the Female-Who-Invites. The heavenly kami commanded +these two gods to consolidate and give birth to the drifting land. +Standing on the floating bridge of heaven, the male plunged his +jewel-spear into the unstable waters beneath, stirring them until they +gurgled and congealed. When he drew forth the spear, the drops trickling +from its point formed an island, ever afterward called Onokoro-jima, or +the Island of the Congealed Drop. Upon this island they descended. The +creative pair, or divine man and woman, now separated to make a journey +round the island, the male to the left, the female to the right. At +their meeting the female spoke first: "How joyful to meet a lovely man!" +The male, offended that the woman had spoken first, required the circuit +to be repeated. On their second meeting, the man cried out: "How joyful +to meet a lovely woman!" This island on which they had descended was the +first of several which they brought into being. In poetry it is the +Island of the Congealed Drop. In common geography it is identified as +Awaji, at the entrance of the Inland Sea. Thence followed the creation +of the other visible objects in nature. + +Izanagi's Visit to Hades and Results. + + +After the birth of the god of fire, which nearly destroyed the mother's +life, Izanami fled to the land of roots or of darkness, that is into +Hades. Izanagi, like a true Orpheus, followed his Eurydice and beseeched +her to come back to earth to complete with him the work of creation. She +parleyed so long with the gods of the underworld that her consort, +breaking off a tooth of his comb, lighted it as a torch and rushed in. +He found her putrefied body, out of which had been born the eight gods +of thunder. Horrified at the awful foulness which he found in the +underworld, he rushed up and out, pursued by the Ugly-Female-of-Hades. +By artifices that bear a wonderful resemblance to those in Teutonic +fairy tales, he blocked up the way. His head-dress, thrown at his +pursuer, turned into grapes which she stopped to eat. The teeth of his +comb sprouted into a bamboo forest, which detained her. The three +peaches were used as projectiles; his staff which stuck up in the ground +became a gate, and a mighty rock was used to block up the narrow pass +through the mountains. Each of these objects has its relation to +place-names in Idzumo or to superstitions that are still extant. The +peaches and the rocks became gods, and on this incident, by which the +beings in Hades were prevented from advance and successful mischief on +earth, is founded one of the norito which Mr. Satow gives in condensed +form. The names of the three gods,[4] Youth and Maiden of the Many +Road-forkings, and Come-no-further Gate, are expressed and invoked in +the praises bestowed on them in connection with the offerings. + + He (the priest) says: I declare in the presence of the sovran + gods, who like innumerable piles of rocks sit closing up the way + in the multitudinous road-forkings.... I fulfil your praises by + declaring your NAMES, Youth and Maiden of the Many Road-forkings + and Come-no-further Gate, and say: for the OFFERINGS set up that + you may prevent [the servants of the monarch] from being + poisoned by and agreeing with the things which shall come + roughly-acting and hating from the Root-country, the + Bottom-country, that you may guard the bottom (of the gate) when + they come from the bottom, guard the top when they come from the + top, guarding with nightly guard and with daily guard, and may + praise them--peacefully take the great OFFERINGS which are set + up by piling them up like a range of hills, that is to say, + providing bright cloth, etc., ... and sitting closing-up the way + like innumerable piles of rock in the multitudinous + road-forkings, deign to praise the sovran GRANDCHILD'S + augustness eternally and unchangingly, and to bless his age as a + luxuriant AGE. + +Retreating to another part of the world--that is, into southwestern +Japan--Izanami purified himself by bathing in a stream. While washing +himself,[5] many kami were borne from the rinsings of his person, one of +them, from the left eye (the left in Japanese is always the honorable +side), being the far-shining or heaven-illuminating kami, whose name, +Amatérasŭ, or Heaven-shiner, is usually translated "The Sun-goddess." +This personage is the centre of the system of Shintō. The creation of +gods by a process of cleansing has had a powerful effect on the +Japanese, who usually associate cleanliness of the body (less moral, +than physical) with godliness. + +It is not necessary to detail further the various stories which make up +the Japanese mythology. Some of these are lovely and beautiful, but +others are horrible and disgusting, while the dominant note throughout +is abundant filthiness. + +Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world such good +service in translating into English the whole of the Kojiki, and +furnishing it with learned commentary and notes, has well said: + + "The shocking obscenity of word and act to which the 'Records' + bear witness is another ugly feature which must not quite be + passed over in silence. It is true that decency, as we + understand it, is a very modern product, and it is not to be + looked for in any society in the barbarous stage. At the same + time, the whole range of literature might perhaps be ransacked + for a parallel to the naïve filthiness of the passage forming + Sec. IV. of the following translation, or to the extraordinary + topic which the hero Yamato-Také and his mistress Miyadzŭ are + made to select as the theme of poetical repartee. One passage + likewise would lead us to suppose that the most beastly crimes + were commonly committed."[6] + +Indeed, it happens in several instances that the thread by which the +marvellous patchwork of unrelated and varying local myths is joined +together, is an indecent love story. + +A thousand years after the traditions of the Kojiki had been committed +to writing, and orthodox Shintō commentators had learned science from +the Dutch at Nagasaki, the stirring of the world mud by Izanagi's +spear[7] was gravely asserted to be the cause of the diurnal revolution +of the earth upon its axis, the point of the axis being still the jewel +spear.[8] Onogoro-jima, or the Island of the Congealed Drop, was +formerly at the north pole,[9] but subsequently removed to its present +position. How this happened is not told. + + +Life in Japan During the Divine Age. + + +Now that the Kojiki is in English and all may read it, we can clearly +see who and what were the Japanese in the ages before letters and +Chinese civilization; for these stories of the kami are but legendary +and mythical accounts of men and women. One could scarcely recognize in +the islanders of eleven or twelve hundred years ago, the polished, +brilliant, and interesting people of to-day. Yet truth compels us to say +that social morals in Dai Nippon, even with telegraphs and railways, are +still more like those of ancient days than readers of rhapsodies by +summer tourists might suppose. These early Japanese, indeed, were +possibly in a stage of civilization somewhat above that of the most +advanced of the American Indians when first met by Europeans, for they +had a rude system of agriculture and knew the art of fashioning iron +into tools and weapons. Still, they were very barbarous, certainly as +much so as our Germanic "forbears." They lived in huts. They were +without writing or commerce, and were able to count only to ten.[10] +Their cruelty was as revolting as that of the savage tribes of America. +The family was in its most rudimentary stage, with little or no +restraint upon the passions of men. Children of the same father, but not +of the same mother, could intermarry. The instances of men marrying +their sisters or aunts were very common. There was no art, unless the +making of clay images, to take the place of the living human victims +buried up to their necks in earth and left to starve on the death of +their masters,[11] may be designated as such. + +The Magatama, or curved jewels, being made of ground and polished stone +may be called jewelry; but since some of these prehistoric ornaments dug +up from the ground are found to be of jade, a mineral which does not +occur in Japan, it is evident that some of these tokens of culture came +from the continent. Many other things produced by more or less skilled +mechanics, the origin of which is poetically recounted in the story of +the dancing of Uzumé before the cave in which the Sun-goddess had hid +herself,[12] were of continental origin. Evidently these men of the +god-way had passed the "stone age," and, probably without going through +the intermediate bronze age, were artificers of iron and skilled in its +use. Most of the names of metals and of many other substances, and the +terms used in the arts and sciences, betray by their tell-tale etymology +their Chinese origin. Indeed, it is evident that some of the leading +kami were born in Korea or Tartary. + +Then as now the people in Japan loved nature, and were quickly sensitive +to her beauty and profoundly in sympathy with her varied phenomena. In +the mediæval ages, Japanese Wordsworths are not unknown.[13] Sincerely +they loved nature, and in some respects they seemed to understand the +character of their country far better than the alien does or can. Though +a land of wonderful beauty, the Country of Peaceful Shores is enfolded +in powers of awful destructiveness. With the earthquake and volcano, the +typhoon and the tidal wave, beauty and horror alternate with a swiftness +that is amazing. + +Probably in no portion of the earth are the people and the land more +like each other or apparently better acquainted with each other. Nowhere +are thought and speech more reflective of the features of the landscape. +Even after ten centuries, the Japanese are, in temperament, what the +Kojiki reveals them to have been in their early simplicity. Indeed, just +as the modern Frenchman, down beneath his outward environments and his +habiliments cut and fitted yesterday, is intrinsically the same Gaul +whom Julius Cæsar described eighteen hundred years ago, so the gentleman +of Tōkiō or Kiōto is, in his mental make-up, wonderfully like +his ancestors described by the first Japanese Stanley, who shed the +light of letters upon the night of unlettered Japan and darkest Dai +Nippon. + +The Kojiki reveals to us, likewise, the childlike religious ideas of the +islanders. Heaven lay, not about but above them in their infancy, yet +not far away. Although in the "Notices," it is "the high plain of +heaven," yet it is just over their heads, and once a single pillar +joined it and the earth. Later, the idea was, that it was held up by the +pillar-gods of the wind, and to them norito were recited. "The great +plain of the blue sea" and "the land of luxuriant reeds" form "the +world"--which means Japan. The gods are only men of prowess or renown. A +kami is anything wonderful--god or man, rock or stream, bird or snake, +whatever is surprising, sensational, or phenomenal, as in the little +child's world of to-day. There is no sharp line dividing gods from men, +the natural from the supernatural, even as with the normal uneducated +Japanese of to-day. As for the kami or gods, they have all sorts of +characters; some of them being rude and ill-mannered, many of them +beastly and filthy, while others are noble and benevolent. The +attributes of moral purity, wisdom and holiness, cannot be, and in the +original writings are not, ascribed to them; but they were strong and +had power. In so far as they had power they were called kami or gods, +whether celestial or terrestrial. Among the kami--the one term under +which they are all included--there were heavenly bodies, mountains, +rivers, trees, rocks and animals, because those also were supposed to +possess force, or at least some kind of influence for good or evil. Even +peaches, as we have seen, when transformed into rocks, became gods.[14] + +That there was worship with awe, reverence, and fear, and that the +festivals and sacrifices had two purposes, one of propitiating the +offended Kami and the other of purifying the worshipper, may be seen in +the norito or liturgies, some of which are exceedingly beautiful.[15] In +them the feelings of the gods are often referred to. Sometimes their +characters are described. Yet one looks in vain in either the "Notices," +poems, or liturgies for anything definite in regard to these deities, or +concerning morals or doctrines to be held as dogmas. The first gods come +into existence after evolution of the matter of which they are composed +has taken place. The later gods are sometimes able to tell who are their +progenitors, sometimes not. They live and fight, eat and drink, and give +vent to their appetites and passions, and then they die; but exactly +what becomes of them after they die, the record does not state. Some are +in heaven, some on the earth, some in Hades. The underworld of the first +cycle of tradition is by no means that of the second.[16] Some of the +kami are in the water, or on the water, or in the air. As for man, there +is no clear statement as to whether he is to have any future life or +what is to become of him, though the custom or jun-shi, or dying with +the master, points to a sort of immortality such as the early Greeks and +the Iroquois believed in. + +It would task the keenest and ablest Shintōist to deduce or construct +a system of theology, or of ethics, or of anthropology from the mass of +tradition so full of gaps and discord as that found in the Kojiki, and +none has done it. Nor do the inaccurate, distorted, and often almost +wholly factitious translations, so-called, of French and other writers, +who make versions which hit the taste of their occidental readers far +better than they express the truth, yield the desired information. Like +the end strands of a new spider's web, the lines of information on most +vital points are still "in the air." + + +The Ethics of the God-way. + + +There are no codes of morals inculcated in the god-way, for even its +modern revivalists and exponents consider that morals are the invention +of wicked people like the Chinese; while the ancient Japanese were pure +in thought and act. They revered the gods and obeyed the Mikado, and +that was the chief end of man, in those ancient times when Japan was the +world and Heaven was just above the earth. Not exactly on Paul's +principle of "where there is no law there is no transgression," but +utterly scouting the idea that formulated ethics were necessary for +these pure-minded people, the modern revivalists of Shintō teach that +all that is "of faith" now is to revere the gods, keep the heart pure, +and follow its dictates.[17] The naïveté of the representatives of +Shintō at Chicago in A.D. 1893, was almost as great as that of the +revivalists who wrote when Japan was a hermit nation. + +The very fact that there was no moral commandments, not even of loyalty +or obedience such as Confucianism afterward promulgated and formulated, +is proof to the modern Shintōist that the primeval Japanese were pure +and holy; they did right, naturally, and hence he does not hesitate to +call Japan, the Land of the Gods, the Country of the Holy Spirits, the +Region Between Heaven and Earth, the Island of the Congealed Drop, the +Sun's Nest, the Princess Country, the Land of Great Peace, the Land of +Great Gentleness, the Mikado's Empire, the Country ruled by a Theocratic +Dynasty. He considers that only with the vice brought over from the +Continent of Asia were ethics both imported and made necessary.[18] + +All this has been solemnly taught by famous Shintō scholars of the +eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and is still practically +promulgated in the polemic Shintō literature of to-day, even after +the Kojiki has been studied and translated into European languages. The +Kojiki shows that whatever the men may have been or done, the gods were +abominably obscene, and both in word and deed were foul and revolting, +utterly opposed in act to those reserves of modesty or standards of +shame that exist even among the cultivated Japanese to-day.[19] Even +among the Ainos, whom the Japanese look upon as savages, there is still +much of the obscenity of speech which belongs to all society[20] in a +state of barbarism; but it has been proved that genuine modesty is a +characteristic of the Aino women.[21] A literal English translation of +the Kojiki, however, requires an abundant use of Latin in order to +protect it from the grasp of the law in English-speaking Christendom. In +Chamberlain's version, the numerous cesspools are thus filled up with a +dead language, and the road is constructed for the reader, who likes the +language of Edmund Spencer, of William Tyndale and of John Ruskin kept +unsoiled. + +The cruelty which marks this early stage shows that though moral codes +did not exist, the Buddhist and Confucian missionary were for Japan +necessities of the first order. Comparing the result to-day with the +state of things in the early times, one must award high praise to +Buddhism that it has made the Japanese gentle, and to Confucianism that +it has taught the proprieties of life, so that the polished Japanese +gentleman, as to courtesy, is in many respects the peer and at some +external points the superior, of his European confrère. + +Another fact, made repulsively clear, about life in ancient Japan, is +that the high ideals of truth and honor, characteristic at least of the +Samurai of modern times, were utterly unknown in the days of the kami. +Treachery was common. Instances multiply on the pages of the Kojiki +where friend betrayed friend. The most sacred relations of life were +violated. Altogether these were the darkest ages of Japan, though, as +among the red men of America, there were not wanting many noble examples +of stoical endurance, of courage, and of power nobly exerted for the +benefit of others. + + +The Rise of Mikadoism. + + +Nevertheless we must not forget that the men of the early age of the +Kami no Michi conquered the aborigines by superior dogmas and fetiches, +as well as by superior weapons. The entrance of these heroes, invaders +from the highlands of the Asian continent, by way of Korea, was +relatively a very influential factor of progress, though not so +important as was the Aryan descent upon India, or the Norman invasion of +England, for the aboriginal tribes were vastly lower in the scale of +humanity than their subduers. Where they found savagery they introduced +barbarism, which, though unlettered and based on the sword, was a vast +improvement over what may be called the geological state of man, in +which he is but slightly raised above the brutes. + +For the proofs from the shell heaps, combined with the reflected +evidences of folk-lore, show, that cannibalism[22] was common in the +early ages, and that among the aboriginal hill tribes it lingered after +the inhabitants of the plain and shore had been subdued. The conquerors, +who made themselves paramount over the other tribes and who developed +the Kami religion, abolished this relic of savagery, and gave order +where there had been chronic war. Another thing that impresses us +because of its abundant illustrations, is the prevalence of human +sacrifices. The very ancient folk-lore shows that beautiful maidens were +demanded by the "sea-gods" in propitiation, or were devoured by the +"dragons." These human victims were either chosen or voluntarily +offered, and in some instances were rescued from their fate by +chivalrous heroes[23] from among the invaders. + +These gods of the sea, who anciently were propitiated by the sacrifice +of human beings, are the same to whom Japanese sailors still pray, +despite their Buddhism. The title of the efficient victims was +_hitoga-shira_, or human pillars. Instances of this ceremony, where men +were lowered into the water and drowned in order to make the sure +foundation for bridges, piers or sea-walls, or where they were buried +alive in the earth in order to lay the right bases for walls or castles, +are quite numerous, and most of the local histories contain specific +traditions.[24] These traditions, now transfigured, still survive in +customs that are as beautiful as they are harmless. To reformers of +pre-Buddhistic days, belongs the credit of the abolition of jun-shi, or +dying with the master by burial alive, as well as of the sacrifice to +dragons and sea-gods. + +Strange as it may seem, before Buddhism captured and made use of +Shintō for its own purposes (just as it stands ready to-day to absorb +Christianity by making Jesus one of the Palestinian avatars of the +Buddha), the house or tribe of Yamato, with its claim to descent from +the heavenly gods, and with its Mikado or god-ruler, had given to the +Buddhists a precedent and potent example. Shintō, as a state religion +or union of politics and piety, with its system of shrines and +festivals, and in short the whole Kami no Michi, or Shintō as we know +it, from the sixth to the eighth century, was in itself (in part at +least), a case of the absorption of one religion by another. + +In short, the Mikado tribe or Yamato clan did, in reality, capture the +aboriginal religion, and turn it into a great political machine. They +attempted syncretism and succeeded in their scheme. They added to their +own stock of dogma and fetich that of the natives. Only, while +recognizing the (earth) gods of the aborigines they proclaimed the +superiority of the Mikado as representative and vicegerent of Heaven, +and demanded that even the gods of the earth, mountain, river, wind, and +thunder and lightning should obey him. Not content, however, with +absorbing and corrupting for political purposes the primitive faith of +the aborigines, the invaders corrupted their own religion by carrying +the dogma of the divinity and infallibility of the Mikado too far. +Stopping short of no absurdity, they declared their chief greater even +than the heavenly gods, and made their religion centre in him rather +than in his alleged heavenly ancestors, or "heaven." In the interest of +politics and conquest, and for the sake of maintaining the prestige of +their tribe and clan, these "Mikado-reverencers" of early ages advanced +from dogma to dogma, until their leader was virtually chief god in a +great pantheon. + +A critical native Japanese, student of the Kojiki and of the early +writings, Professor Kumi, formerly of the Imperial University in +Tōkiō, has brought to light abundant evidence to show that the +aboriginal religion found by the Yamato conquerors was markedly +different at many vital points, from that which was long afterward +called Shintō. + +If the view of recent students of anthropology be correct, that the +elements dominating the population in ancient Japan were in the south, +Malay; in the north, Aino; and in the central region, or that occupied +by the Yamato men, Korean; then, these continental invaders may have +been worshippers of Heaven and have possessed a religion closely akin to +that of ancient China with its monotheism. It is very probable also that +they came into contact with tribes or colonies of their +fellow-continentals from Asia. These tribes, hunters, fishermen, or rude +agriculturists--who had previously reached Japan--practised many rites +and ceremonies which were much like those of the new invaders. It is +certain also, as we have seen, that the Yamato men made ultimate +conquest and unification of all the islanders, not merely by the +superiority of their valor and of their weapons of iron, but also by +their dogmas. After success in battle, and the first beginnings of rude +government, they taught their conquered subjects or over-awed vassals, +that they were the descendants of the heavenly gods; that their +ancestors had come down from heaven; find that their chief or Mikado was +a god. According to the same dogmatics, the aborigines were descendants +of the earth-born gods, and as such must obey the descendants of the +heavenly gods, and their vicegerent upon the earth, the Mikado. + + +Purification of Offences. + + +These heaven-descended Yamato people were in the main agriculturists, +though of a rude order, while the outlying tribes were mostly hunters +and fishermen; and many of the rituals show the class of crimes which +nomads, or men of unsettled life, would naturally commit against their +neighbors living in comparatively settled order. It is to be noted that +in the god-way the origin of evil is to be ascribed to evil gods. These +kami pollute, and pollution is iniquity. From this iniquity the people +are to be purged by the gods of purification, to whom offerings are duly +made. + +He who would understand the passion for cleanliness which characterizes +the Japanese must look for its source in their ancient religion. The +root idea of the word _tsumi_, which Mr. Satow translated as "offence," +is that of pollution. On this basis, of things pure and things defiling, +the ancient teachers of Shintō made their classification of what was +good and what was bad. From the impression of what was repulsive arose +the idea of guilt. + +In rituals translated by Mr. Satow, the list of offences is given and +the defilements are to be removed to the nether world, or, in common +fact, the polluted objects and the expiatory sacrifices are to be thrown +into the rivers and thence carried to the sea, where they fall to the +bottom of the earth. The following norito clearly shows this. +Furthermore, as Mr. Satow, the translator, points out, this ritual +contains the germ of criminal law, a whole code of which might have been +evolved and formulated under Shintō, had not Buddhism arrested its +growth. + + Amongst the various sorts of offences which may be committed in + ignorance or out of negligence by heaven's increasing people, + who shall come into being in the country, which the Sovran + GRANDCHILD'S augustness, hiding in the fresh RESIDENCE, built by + stoutly planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most rocks, and + exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven, as his + SHADE from the heavens and SHADE from the sun, shall tranquilly + ruin as a peaceful country, namely, the country of great Yamato, + where the sun is soon on high, which he fixed upon as a peaceful + country, as the centre of the countries of the four quarters + thus bestowed upon him--breaking the ridges, filling up + water-courses, opening sluices, double-sowing, planting stakes, + flaying alive, flaying backwards, and dunging; many of such + offences are distinguished as heavenly offences, and as earthly + offences; cutting living flesh, cutting dead flesh, leprosy, + proud-flesh, ... calamities of crawling worms, calamities of a + god on high, calamities of birds on high, the offences of + killing beasts and using incantations; many of such offences may + be disclosed. + + When he has thus repeated it, the heavenly gods will push open + heaven's eternal gates, and cleaving a path with might through + the manifold clouds of heaven, will hear; and the country gods, + ascending to the tops of the high mountains, and to the tops of + the low hills, and tearing asunder the mists of the high + mountains and the mists of the low hills, will hear. + + And when they have thus heard, the + Maiden-of-Descent-into-the-Current, who dwells in the current of + the swift stream which boils down the ravines from the tops of + the high mountains, and the tops of the low hills, shall carry + out to the great sea plain the offences which are cleared away + and purified, so that there be no remaining offence; like as + Shinato's wind blows apart the manifold clouds of heaven, as the + morning wind and the evening wind blow away the morning mist and + the evening mist, as the great ships which lie on the shore of a + great port loosen their prows, and loosen their sterns to push + out into the great sea-plain; as the trunks of the forest trees, + far and near, are cleared away by the sharp sickle, the sickle + forged with fire: so that there ceased to be any offence called + an offence in the court of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to + begin with, and in the countries of the four quarters of the + region under heaven. + + And when she thus carries them out and away, the deity called + the Maiden-of-the-Swift-cleansing, who dwells in the + multitudinous meetings of the sea waters, the multitudinous + currents of rough sea-waters shall gulp them down. + + And when she has thus gulped them down, the lord of the + Breath-blowing-place, who dwells in the Breath-blowing-place, + shall utterly blow them away with his breath to the + Root-country, the Bottom-country. + + And when he has thus blown them away, the deity called the + Maiden-of-Swift-Banishment, who dwells in the Root-country, the + Bottom-country, shall completely banish them, and get rid of + them. + + And when they have thus been got rid of, there shall from this + day onwards be no offence which is called offence, with regard + to the men of the offices who serve in the court of the Sovran, + nor in the four quarters of the region under heaven. + +Then the high priest says: + + Hear all of you how he leads forth the horse, as a thing that + erects its ears towards the plain of high heaven, and deigns to + sweep away and purify with the general purification, as the + evening sun goes down on the last day of the watery moon of this + year. + + O diviners of the four countries, take (the sacrifices) away out + to the river highway, and sweep them away. + + +Mikadoism Usurps the Primitive God-way. + + +A further proof of the transformation of the primitive god-way in the +interest of practical politics, is shown by Professor Kumi in the fact +that some of the festivals now directly connected with the Mikado's +house, and even in his honor, were originally festivals with which he +had nothing to do, except as leader of the worship, for the honor was +paid to Heaven, and not to his ancestors. Professor Kumi maintains that +the thanksgivings of the court were originally to Heaven itself, and not +in honor of Amatérasŭ, the sun-goddess, as is now popularly believed. +It is related in the Kojiki that Amatérasŭ herself celebrated the +feast of Niinamé. So also, the temple of Isé, the Mecca of Shintō, +and the Holy shrine in the imperial palace were originally temples for +the worship of Heaven. The inferior gods of earthly origin form no part +of primitive Shintō. + +Not one of the first Mikados was deified after death, the deification of +emperors dating from the corruption which Shintō underwent after the +introduction of Buddhism. Only by degrees was the ruler of the country +given a place in the worship, and this connection was made by +attributing to him descent from Heaven. In a word, the contention of +Professor Kumi is, that the ancient religion of at least a portion of +the Japanese and especially of those in central Japan, was a rude sort +of monotheism, coupled, as in ancient China, with the worship of +subordinate spirits. + +It is needless to say that such applications of the higher criticism to +the ancient sacred documents proved to be no safer for the applier than +if he had lived in the United States of America. The orthodox +Shintōists were roused to wrath and charged the learned critic with +"degrading Shintō to a mere branch of Christianity." The government, +which, despite its Constitution and Diet, is in the eyes of the people +really based on the myths of the Kojiki, quickly put the professor on +the retired list.[25] + +It is probably correct to say that the arguments adduced by Professor +Kumi, confirm our theory of the substitution in the simple god-way, of +Mikadoism, the centre of the primitive worship being the sun and nature +rather than Heaven. + +Between the ancient Chinese religion with its abstract idea of Heaven +and its personal term for God, and the more poetic and childlike system +of the god-way, there seems to be as much difference as there is +racially between the people of the Middle Kingdom and those of the Land +Where the Day Begins. Indeed, the entrance of Chinese philosophical and +abstract ideas seemed to paralyze the Japanese imagination. Not only did +myth-making, on its purely æsthetic and non-utilitarian side cease +almost at once, but such myths as were formed were for direct business +purposes and with a transparent tendency. Henceforth, in the domain of +imagination the Japanese intellect busied itself with assimilating or +re-working the abundant material imported by Buddhism. + + +Ancient Customs and Usages. + + +In the ancient god-way the temple or shrine was called a miya. After the +advent of Buddhism the keepers of the shrine were called kannushi, that +is, shrine keepers or wardens of the god. These men were usually +descendants of the god in whose honor the temples were built. The gods +being nothing more than human founders of families, reverence was paid +to them as ancestors, and so the basis of Shintō is ancestor worship. +The model of the miya, in modern as in ancient times, is the primitive +hut as it was before Buddhism introduced Indian and Chinese +architecture. The posts, stuck in the ground, and not laid upon stones +as in after times, supported the walls and roof, the latter being of +thatch. The rafters, crossed at the top, were tied along the ridge-pole +with the fibres of creepers or wistaria vines. No paint, lacquer, +gilding, or ornaments of any sort existed in the ancient shrine, and +even to-day the modern Shintō temple must be of pure hinoki or +sun-wood, and thatched, while the use of metal is as far as possible +avoided. To the gods, as the norito show, offerings of various kinds +were made, consisting of the fruits of the soil, the products of the +sea, and the fabrics of the loom. + +Inside modern temples one often sees a mirror, in which foreigners with +lively imaginations read a great deal that is only the shadow of their +own mind, but which probably was never known in Shintō temples until +after Buddhist times. They also see in front of the unpainted wooden +closets or casements, wands or sticks of wood from which depend masses +or strips of white paper, cut and notched in a particular way. +Foreigners, whose fancy is nimble, have read in these the symbols of +lightning, the abode of the spirits and various forthshadowings unknown +either to the Japanese or the ancient writings. In reality these +_gohei_, or honorable offerings, are nothing more than the paper +representatives of the ancient offerings of cloth which were woven, as +the arts progressed, of bark, of hemp and of silk. + +The chief Shintō ministers of religion and shrine-keepers belonged to +particular families, which were often honored with titles and offices by +the emperor. In ordinary life they dressed like others of their own rank +or station, but when engaged in their sacred office were robed in white +or in a special official costume, wearing upon their heads the _éboshi_ +or peculiar cap which we associate with Japanese archæology. They knew +nothing of celibacy; but married, reared families and kept their scalps +free from the razor, though some of the lower order of shrine-keepers +dressed their hair in ordinary style, that is, with shaven poll and +topknot. At some of the more important shrines, like those at Isé, there +were virgin priestesses who acted as custodians both of the shrines and +of the relics.[26] + +In front of the miyas stood what we should suppose on first seeing was a +gateway. This was the _torii_ or bird-perch, and anciently was made only +of unpainted wood. Two upright tree-trunks held crosswise on a smooth +tree-trunk the ends of which projected somewhat over the supports, while +under this was a smaller beam inserted between the two uprights. On the +torii, the birds, generally barn-yard fowls which were sacred to the +gods, roosted. These creatures were not offered up as sacrifices, but +were chanticleers to give notice of day-break and the rising of the sun. +The cock holds a prominent place in Japanese myth, legend, art and +symbolism. How this feature of pure Japanese architecture, the torii, +afterward lost its meaning, we shall show in our lecture on Riyōbu or +mixed Buddhism. + + +Shintō's Emphasis on Cleanliness. + + +One of the most remarkable features of Shintō was the emphasis laid +on cleanliness. Pollution was calamity, defilement was sin, and physical +purity at least, was holiness. Everything that could in any way soil the +body or the clothing was looked upon with abhorrence and detestation. +Disease, wounds and death were defiling, and the feeling of disgust +prevailed over that of either sympathy or pity. Birth and death were +especially polluting. Anciently there were huts built both for the +mother about to give birth to a child, or for the man who was dying or +sure to die of disease or wounds. After the birth of the infant or the +death of the patient these houses were burned. Cruel as this system was +to the woman at a time when she needed most care and comfort, and brutal +as it seems in regard to the sick and dying, yet this ancient custom was +continued in a few remote places in Japan as late as the year 1878.[27] +In modern days with equal knowledge of danger and defilement, tenderness +and compassion temper the feeling of disgust, and prevail over it. +Horror of uncleanliness was so great that the priests bathed and put on +clean garments before making the sacred offerings or chanting the +liturgies, and were accustomed to bind a slip of paper over their mouths +lest their breath should pollute the offering. Numerous were the special +festivals, observed simply for purification. Salt also was commonly used +to sprinkle over the ground, and those who attended a funeral must free +themselves from contamination by the use of salt.[28] Purification by +water was habitual and in varied forms. The ancient emperors and priests +actually performed the ablution of the people or made public lustration +in their behalf. + +Afterwards, and probably because population increased and towns sprang +up, we find it was customary at the festivals of purification to perform +public ablution, vicariously, as it were, by means of paper mannikins +instead of making applications of water to the human cuticle. Twice a +year paper figures representing the people were thrown into the river, +the typical meaning of which was that the nation was thereby cleansed +from the sins, that is, the defilements, of the previous half-year. +Still later, the Mikado made the chief minister of religion at Kiōto +his deputy to perform the symbolical act for the people of the whole +country. + + +Prayers to Myriads of Gods. + + +In prayer, the worshipper, approaching the temple but not entering it, +pulls a rope usually made of white material and attached to a +peculiar-shaped bell hung over the shrine, calling the attention of the +deity to his devotions. Having washed his hands and rinsed out his +mouth, he places his hands reverently together and offers his petition. + +Concerning the method and words of prayer, Hirata, a famous exponent of +Shintō, thus writes: + + As the number of the gods who possess different functions is so + great, it will be convenient to worship by name only the most + important and to include the rest in a general petition. Those + whose daily affairs are so multitudinous that they have not time + to go through the whole of the following morning prayers, may + content themselves with adoring the residence of the emperor, + the domestic kami-dana, the spirits of their ancestors, their + local patron god and the deity of their particular calling in + life. + + In praying to the gods the blessings which each has it in his + power to bestow are to be mentioned in a few words, and they are + not to be annoyed with greedy petitions, for the Mikado in his + palace offers up petitions daily on behalf of his people, which + are far more effectual than those of his subjects. + + Rising early in the morning, wash your face and hands, rinse out + the mouth and cleanse the body. Then turn toward the province of + Yamato, strike the palms of the hands together twice, and + worship, bowing the head to the ground. The proper posture is + that of kneeling on the heels, which is ordinarily assumed in + saluting a superior. + + PRAYER. + + From a distance I reverently worship with awe before Amé no + Mi-hashira (Heaven-pillar) and Kuni no Mi-hashira + (Country-pillar), also called Shinatsu-hiko no kami and + Shinatsu-himé no kami, to whom is consecrated the Palace built + with stout pillars at Tatsuta no Tachinu in the department of + Héguri in the province of Yamato. + + I say with awe, deign to bless me by correcting the unwitting + faults which, seen and heard by you, I have committed, by + blowing off and clearing away the calamities which evil gods + might inflict, by causing me to live long like the hard and + lasting rock, and by repeating to the gods of heavenly origin + and to the gods of earthly origin the petitions which I present + every day, along with your breath, that they may hear with the + sharp-earedness of the forth-galloping colt. + +To the common people the sun is actually a god, as none can doubt who +sees them worshipping it morning and evening. The writer can never +forget one of many similar scenes in Tōkiō, when late one +afternoon after O Tentō Sama (the sun-Lord of Heaven), which had been +hidden behind clouds for a fortnight, shone out on the muddy streets. In +a moment, as with the promptness of a military drill, scores of people +rushed out of their houses and with faces westward, kneeling, squatting, +began prayer and worship before the great luminary. Besides all the +gods, supreme, subordinate and local, there is in nearly every house the +Kami-dana or god-shelf. This is usually over the door inside. It +contains images with little paper-covered wooden tablets having the +god's name on them. Offerings are made by day and a little lamp is +lighted at night. The following is one of several prayers which are +addressed to this kami-dana. + + Reverently adoring the great god of the two palaces of Isé, in + the first place, the eight hundred myriads of celestial gods, + the eight hundred myriads of terrestrial gods, all the fifteen + hundred myriads of gods to whom are consecrated the great and + small temples in all provinces, all islands and all places of + the Great Land of Eight Islands, the fifteen hundreds of myriads + of gods whom they cause to serve them, and the gods of branch + palaces and branch temples, and Sohodo no kami, whom I have + invited to the shrine set up on this divine shelf, and to whom I + offer praises day by day, I pray with awe that they will deign + to correct the unwitting faults, which, heard and seen by them, + I have committed, and blessing and favoring me according to the + powers which they severally wield, cause me to follow the divine + example, and to perform good works in the Way. + + +Shintō Left in a State of Arrested Development. + + +Thus from the emperor to the humblest believer, the god-way is founded +on ancestor worship, and has had grafted upon its ritual system nature +worship, even to phallicism.[29] In one sense it is a self-made religion +of the Japanese. Its leading characteristics are seen in the traits of +the normal Japanese character of to-day. Its power for good and evil may +be traced in the education of the Japanese through many centuries. +Knowing Shintō, we to a large degree know the Japanese, their virtues +and their failings. + +What Shintō might have become in its full evolution had it been left +alone, we cannot tell. Whether in the growth of the nation and without +the pressure of Buddhism, Confucianism or other powerful influences from +outside, the scattered and fragmentary mythology might have become +organized into a harmonious system, or codes of ethics have been +formulated, or the doctrines of a future life and the idea of a Supreme +Being with personal attributes have been conceived and perfected, are +questions the discussion of which may seem to be vain. History, however, +gives no uncertain answer as to what actually did take place. We do but +state what is unchallenged fact, when we say, that after commitment to +writing of the myths, poems and liturgies which may be called the basis +of Shintō, there came a great flood of Chinese and Buddhistic +literature and a tremendous expansion of Buddhist missionary activity, +which checked further literary growth of the kami system. These prepared +the way for the absorption of the indigenous into the foreign cultus +under the form called by an enthusiastic emperor, Riyōbu Shintō, +or the "two-fold divine doctrine." Of this, we shall speak in another +lecture. + +Suffice it here to say that by the scheme of syncretism propounded by +Kōbō in the ninth century, Shintō was practically overlaid by +the new faith from India, and largely forgotten as a distinct religion +by the Japanese people. As late as A.D. 927, there were three thousand +one hundred and thirty-two enumerated metropolitan and provincial +temples, besides many more unenumerated village and hamlet shrines of +Shintō. These are referred to in the revised codes of ceremonial law +set forth by imperial authority early in the tenth century. Probably by +the twelfth century the pure rites of the god-way were celebrated, and +the unmixed traditions maintained, in families and temples, so few as to +be counted on the fingers. The ancient language in which the archaic +forms had been preserved was so nearly lost and buried, that out of the +ooze of centuries of oblivion, it had to be rescued by the skilled +divers of the seventeenth century. Mabuchi, Motöri and the other +revivalists of pure Shintō, like the plungers after orient pearls, +persevered until they had first recovered much that had been supposed +irretrievably lost. These scholars deciphered and interpreted the +ancient scriptures, poetry, prose, history, law and ritual, and once +more set forth the ancient faith, as they believed, in its purity. + +Whether, however, men can exactly reproduce and think for themselves the +thoughts of others who have been dead for a millennium, is an open +question. The new system is apt to be transparent. Just as it is nearly +impossible for us to restore the religious life, thoughts and orthodoxy +of the men who lived before the flood, so in the writings of the +revivalists of pure Shintō we detect the thoughts of Dutchmen, of +Chinese, and of very modern Japanese. Unconsciously, those who would +breathe into the dry bones of dead Shintō the breath of the +nineteenth century, find themselves compelled to use an oxygen and +nitrogen generator made in Holland and mounted with Chinese apparatus; +withal, lacquered and decorated with the art of to-day. To change from +metaphor to matter of fact, modern "pure Shintō" is mainly a mass of +speculation and philosophy, with a tendency of which the ancient god-way +knew nothing. + + +The Modern Revivalists of Kami no Michi. + + +Passing by further mention of the fifteen or more corrupt sects of +Shintōists, we name with honor the native scholars of the +seventeenth century, who followed the illustrious example of Iyéyasŭ, +the political unifier of Japan. They ransacked the country and purchased +from temples, mansions and farmhouses, old manuscripts and books, and +forming libraries began anew the study of ancient language and history. +Kéichu (1640-1701), a Buddhist priest, explored and illumined the poems +of the Manyōshu. Kada Adzumarō, born in 1669 near Kiōto, the +son of a shrine-keeper at Inari, attempted the mastery of the whole +archaic native language and literature. He made a grand beginning. He is +unquestionably the founder of the school of Pure Shintō. He died in +1736. His successor and pupil was Mabuchi (1697-1769), who claimed +direct descent from that god which in the form of a colossal crow had +guided the first chief of the Yamato tribe as he led his invaders +through the country to found the line of Mikados. After Mabuchi came +Motoöri (1730-1801) a remarkable scholar and critic, who, with erudition +and acuteness, analyzed the ancient literature and showed what were +Chinese or imported elements and what was of native origin. He +summarized the principles of the ancient religion, reasserted and +illuminated with amazing learning and voluminous commentary the archaic +documents, expounded and defended the ancient cosmogony, and in the +usual style of Japanese polemics preached anew the doctrines of +Shintō. With wonderful naïveté and enthusiasm, Motoöri taught that +Japan was the first part of the earth created, and that it is therefore +The Land of the Gods, the Country of the Holy Spirits. The stars were +created from the muck which fell from the spear of Izanagi as he thrust +it into the warm earth, while the other countries were formed by the +spontaneous consolidation of the foam of the sea. Morals were invented +by the Chinese because they were an immoral people, but in Japan there +is no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japanese acts aright +if he only consults his own heart. The duty of a good Japanese consists +in obeying the Mikado, without questioning whether his commands are +right or wrong. The Mikado is god and vicar of all the gods, hence +government and religion are the same, the Mikado being the centre of +Church and State, which are one. Did the foreign nations know their duty +they would at once hasten to pay tribute to the Son of Heaven in +Kiōto. + +It is needless here to dwell upon the tremendous power of Shintō as a +political system, especially when wedded with the forces, generated in +the minds of the educated Japanese by modern Confucianism. The Chinese +ethical system, expanded into a philosophy as fascinating as the English +materialistic school of to-day, entered Japan contemporaneously with the +revival of the Way of the Gods and of native learning. In full rampancy +of their vigor, in the seventeenth century these two systems began that +generation of national energy, which in the eighteenth century was +consolidated and which in the nineteenth century, though unknown and +unsuspected by Europeans or Americans, was all ready for phenomenal +manifestation and tremendous eruption, even while Perry's fleet was +bearing the olive branch to Japan. As we all know, this consolidation of +forces from the inside, on meeting, not with collision but with union, +the exterior forces of western civilization, formed a resultant in the +energies which have made New Japan. + + +The Great Purification of 1870. + + +In 1870, with the Shōgun of Yedo deposed, the dual system abolished, +feudalism in its last gasp and Shintō in full political power, with +the ancient council of the gods (Jin Gi Kuan) once more established, and +purified Shintō again the religion of state, thousands of Riyōbu +Shintō temples were at once purged of all their Buddhist ornaments, +furniture, ritual, and everything that might remind the Japanese of +foreign elements. Then began, logically and actually, the persecution of +those Christians, who through all the centuries of repression and +prohibition had continued their existence, and kept their faith however +mixed and clouded. Theoretically, ancient belief was re-established, yet +it was both physically and morally impossible to return wholly to the +baldness and austere simplicity of those early ages, in which art and +literature were unknown. For a while it seemed as though the miracle +would be performed, of turning back the dial of the ages and of plunging +Japan into the fountain of her own youth. Propaganda was instituted, and +the attempts made to convert all the Japanese to Shintō tenets and +practice were for a while more lively than edifying; but the scheme was +on the whole a splendid failure, and bitter disappointment succeeded the +first exultation of victory. Confronted by modern problems of society +and government, the Mikado's ministers found themselves unable, if +indeed willing, to entomb politics in religion, as in the ancient ages. +For a little while, in 1868, the Jin Gi Kuan, or Council of the Gods of +Heaven and Earth, held equal authority with the Dai Jō Kuan, or Great +Council of the Government. Pretty soon the first step downward was +taken, and from a supreme council it was made one of the ten departments +of the government. In less than a year followed another retrograde +movement and the department was called a board. Finally, in 1877, the +board became a bureau. Now, it is hard to tell what rank the Shintō +cultus occupies in the government, except as a system of guardianship +over the imperial tombs, a mode of official etiquette, and as one of the +acknowledged religions of the country. + +Nevertheless, as an element in that amalgam of religions which forms the +creed of most Japanese, Shintō is a living force, and shares with +Buddhism the arena against advancing Christianity, still supplying much +of the spring and motive to patriotism. + +The Shintō lecturers with unblushing plagiarism rifled the +storehouses of Chinese ethics. They enforced their lessons from the +Confucian classics. Indeed, most of their homiletical and illustrative +material is still derived directly therefrom. Their three main official +theses and commandments were: + + 1. Thou shalt honor the Gods and love thy country. + + 2. Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven, and + the duty of man. + + 3. Thou shalt revere the Emperor as thy sovereign and obey the + will of his Court. + +For nearly twenty years this deliverance of the Japanese Government, +which still finds its strongest support in the national traditions and +the reverence of the people for the throne, sufficed for the necessities +of the case. Then the copious infusion of foreign ideas, the +disintegration of the old framework of society, and the weakening of the +old ties of obedience and loyalty, with the flood of shallow knowledge +and education which gave especially children and young people just +enough of foreign ideas to make them dangerous, brought about a +condition of affairs which alarmed the conservative and patriotic. Like +fungus upon a dead tree strange growths had appeared, among others that +of a class of violently patriotic and half-educated young men and boys, +called _Soshí_. These hot-headed youths took it upon themselves to +dictate national policy to cabinet ministers, and to reconstruct +society, religion and politics. Something like a mania broke out all +over the country which, in certain respects, reminds us of the +Children's Crusade, that once afflicted Europe and the children +themselves. Even Christianity did not escape the craze for +reconstruction. Some of the young believers and pupils of the +missionaries seemed determined to make Christianity all over so as to +suit themselves. This phase of brain-swelling is not yet wholly over. +One could not tell but that something like the Tai Ping rebellion, which +disturbed and devastated China, might break out. + +These portentous signs on the social horizon called forth, in 1892, from +the government an Imperial Rescript, which required that the emperor's +photograph be exhibited in every school, and saluted by all teachers and +scholars whatever their religious tenets and scruples might be. Most +Christians as well as Buddhists, saw nothing in this at which to +scruple. A few, however, finding in it an offence to conscience, +resigned their positions. They considered the mandate an unwarrantable +interference with their rights as conferred by the constitution of 1889, +which in theory is the gift of the emperor to his people. + +The radical Shintōist, to this day, believes that all political +rights which Japanese enjoy or can enjoy are by virtue of the Mikado's +grace and benevolence. It is certain that all Japanese, whatever may be +their religious convictions, consider that the constitution depends for +its safeguards and its validity largely upon the oath which the Mikado +swore at the shrine of his heavenly ancestors, that he would himself be +obedient to it and preserve its provisions inviolate. For this solemn +ceremony a special norito or liturgy was composed and recited. + + +Summary of Shintō. + + +Of Shintō as a system we have long ago given our opinion. In its +higher forms, "Shintō is simply a cultured and intellectual atheism; +in its lower forms it is blind obedience to governmental and priestly +dictates." "Shintō," says Mr. Ernest Satow, "as expounded by Motoöri +is nothing more than an engine for reducing the people to a condition of +mental slavery." Japan being a country of very striking natural +phenomena, the very soil and air lend themselves to support in the +native mind this system of worship of heroes and of the forces of +nature. In spite, however, of the conservative power of the ancestral +influences, the patriotic incentives and the easy morals of Shintō +under which lying and licentiousness shelter themselves, it is doubtful +whether with the pressure of Buddhism, and the spread of popular +education and Christianity, Shintō can retain its hold upon the +Japanese people. Yet although this is our opinion, it is but fair, and +it is our duty, to judge every religion by its ideals and not by its +failings. The ideal of Shintō is to make people pure and clean in all +their personal and household arrangements; it is to help them to live +simply, honestly and with mutual good will; it is to make the Japanese +love their country, honor their imperial house and obey their emperor. +Narrow and local as this religion is, it has had grand exemplars in +noble lives and winning characters. + +So far as Shintō is a religion, Christianity meets it not as +destroyer but fulfiller, for it too believes that cleanliness is not +only next to godliness but a part of it. Jesus as perfect man and +patriot, Captain of our salvation and Prince of peace, would not destroy +the Yamato damashii--the spirit of unconquerable Japan--but rather +enlarge, broaden, and deepen it, making it love for all humanity. +Reverence for ancestral virtue and example, so far from being weakened, +is strengthened, and as for devotion to king and ruler, law and society, +Christianity lends nobler motives and grander sanctions, while +showing clearly, not indeed the way of the eight million or more gods, +but the way to God--the one living, only and true, even through Him who +said "I am the Way." + + + + +CHAPTER IV - THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN + + + "Things being investigated, knowledge became complete; knowledge + being complete, thoughts were sincere; thoughts being sincere, + hearts were rectified; hearts being rectified, persons were + cultivated; persons being cultivated, families were regulated; + families being regulated, states were rightly governed; states + being rightly governed, the whole nation was made tranquil and + happy." + + "When you know a thing to hold that you know it; and when you do + not know a thing to allow that you do not know it; this is + knowledge." + + "Old age sometimes becomes second childhood; why should not + filial piety become parental love?" + + "The superior man accords with the course of the mean. Though he + may be all unknown, unregarded by the world, he feels no regret. + He is only the sage who is able for this."--Sayings of + Confucius. + + "There is, in a word, no bringing down of God to men in + Confucianism in order to lift them up to Him. Their moral + shortcomings, when brought home to them, may produce a feeling + of shame, but hardly a conviction of guilt."--James Legge. + + "Do not to others what you would not have them do to you."--The + Silver Rule. + + "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye + even so to them."--The Golden Rule. + + "In respect to revenging injury done to master or father, it is + granted by the wise and virtuous (Confucius) that you and the + injurer cannot live together under the canopy of + heaven."--Legacy of Iyéyasŭ, Cap. iii, Lowder's translation. + + "But I say unto you forgive your enemies."--Jesus. + + "Thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from + everlasting."--Isaiah. + + +CHAPTER IV - THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN + +Confucius a Historical Character. + + +If the greatness of a teacher is to be determined by the number of his +disciples, or to be measured by the extent and diversity of his +influence, then the foremost place among all the teachers of mankind +must be awarded to The Master Kung (or Confucius, as the Jesuit scholars +of the seventeenth century Latinized the name). Certainly, he of all +truly historic personages is to-day, and for twenty-three centuries has +been, honored by the largest number of followers. + +Of the many systems of religion in the world, but few are based upon the +teachings of one person. The reputed founders of some of them are not +known in history with any certainty, and of others--as in the case of +Buddhism--have become almost as shadows among a great throng of +imaginary Buddhas or other beings which have sprung from the fancies of +the brain and become incorporated into the systems, although the +original teachers may indeed have been historical. + +Confucius is a clear and distinct historic person. His parentage, place +of birth, public life, offices, work and teaching, are well known and +properly authenticated. He used the pen freely, and not only compiled, +edited and transmitted the writings of his predecessors, but composed an +historical and interpretative book. He originated nothing, however, but +on the contrary disowned any purpose of introducing new ideas, or of +expressing thoughts of his own not based upon or in perfect harmony with +the teaching of the ancients. He was not an original thinker. He was a +compiler, an editor, a defender and reproclaimer of the ancient +religion, and an exemplar of the wisdom and writings of the Chinese +fathers. He felt that his duty was exactly that which some Christian +theologians of to-day conscientiously feel to be theirs--to receive +intact a certain "deposit" or "system" and, adding nothing to it, simply +to teach, illuminate, defend, enforce and strongly maintain it as "the +truth." He gloried in absolute freedom from all novelty, anticipating in +this respect a certain illustrious American who made it a matter for +boasting, that his school had never originated a new idea.[1] Whether or +not the Master Kung did nevertheless, either consciously or +unconsciously, modify the ancient system by abbreviating or enlarging +it, we cannot now inquire. + +Confucius wan born into the world in the year 551 B.C., during that +wonderful century of religious revival which saw the birth of Ezra, +Gautama, and Lao Tsze, and in boyhood he displayed an unusually sedate +temperament which made him seem to be what we would now call an +"old-fashioned child." The period during which he lived was that of +feudal China. From the ago of twenty-two, while holding an office in the +state of Lu within the modern province of Shan-Tung, he gathered around +him young men as pupils with whom, like Socrates, he conversed in +question and answer. He made the teachings of the ancients the subjects +of his research, and he was at all times a diligent student of the +primeval records. These sacred books are called King, or Kiō in +Japanese, and are: Shu King, a collection of historic documents; Shih +King, or Book of Odes; Hsiao King, or Classic of Filial Piety, and Yi +King, or Book of Changes.[2] This division of the old sacred canon, +resembles the Christian or non-Jewish arrangement of the Old Testament +scriptures in the four parts of Law, History, Poetry and Prophesy, +though in the Chinese we have History, Poetry, Ethics and Divination.[3] + +His own table-talk, conversations, discussions and notes were compiled +by his pupils, and are preserved in the work entitled in English, "The +Confucian Analects," which is one of the four books constituting the +most sacred portion of Chinese philosophy and instruction. He also wrote +a work named "Spring and Autumn, or Chronicles of his Native State of Lu +from 722 B.C., to 481[4] B.C." He "changed his world," as the Buddhists +say, in the year 478 B.C., having lived seventy-three years. + + +Primitive Chinese Faith. + + +The pre-Confucian or primitive faith was monotheistic, the forefathers +of the Chinese nation having been believers in one Supreme Spiritual +Being. There is an almost universal agreement among scholars in +translating the term "Shang Ti" as God, and in reading from these +classics that the forefathers "in the ceremonies at the altars of Heaven +and earth ... served God." Concurrently with the worship of one Supreme +God there was also a belief in subordinate spirits and in the idea of +revelation or the communication of God with men. This restricted worship +of God was accompanied by reverence for ancestors and the honoring of +spirits by prayers and sacrifices, which resulted, however, neither in +deification nor polytheism. But, as the European mediæval schoolmen have +done with the Bible, so, after the death of Confucius the Chinese +scholastics by metaphysical reasoning and commentary, created systems of +interpretation which greatly altered the apparent form and contents of +his own and of the ancient texts. Thus, the original monotheism of the +pre-Confucian documents has been completely obscured by the later webs +of sophistry which have been woven about the original scriptures. The +ancient simplicity of doctrine has been lost in the mountains of +commentary which were piled upon the primitive texts. Throughout the +centuries, the Confucian system has been conditioned and greatly +modified by Taoism, Buddhism and the speculations of the Chinese wise +men. + +Confucius, however, did not change or seriously modify the ancient +religion except that, as is more than probable, he may have laid +unnecessary emphasis upon social and political duties, and may not have +been sufficiently interested in the honor to be paid to Shang Ti or God. +He practically ignored the God-ward side of man's duties. His teachings +relate chiefly to duties between man and man, to propriety and +etiquette, and to ceremony and usage. He said that "To give one's self +to the duties due to men and while respecting spiritual beings to keep +aloof from them, may be called wisdom."[5] + +We think that Confucius cut the tap-root of all true progress, and +therefore is largely responsible for the arrested development of China. +He avoided the personal term, God (Ti), and instead, made use of the +abstract term, Heaven (Tien). His teaching, which is so often quoted by +Japanese gentlemen, was, "Honor the Gods and keep them far from you." +His image stands in thousands of temples and in every school, in China, +but he is only revered and never deified. + +China has for ages suffered from agnosticism; for no normal Confucianist +can love God, though he may learn to reverence him. The Emperor +periodically worships for his people, at the great marble altar to +Heaven in Peking, with vast holocausts, and the prayers which are +offered may possibly amount to this: "Our Father who art in Heaven, +Hallowed be thy name." But there, as it seems to a Christian, Chinese +imperial worship stops. The people at large, cut off by this restricted +worship from direct access to God, have wandered away into every sort of +polytheism and idolatry, while the religion of the educated Chinese is a +mediæval philosophy based upon Confucianism, of which we shall speak +hereafter. + +The Confucian system as a religion, like a giant with a child's head, is +exaggerated on its moral and ceremonial side as compared with its +spiritual development. Some deny that it is a religion at all, and call +it only a code. However, let us examine the Confucian ethics which +formed the basis and norm of all government in the family and nation, +and are summed up in the doctrine of the "Five Relations." These are: +Sovereign and Minister; Father and Son; Husband and Wife; Elder Brother +and Younger Brother; and Friends. The relation being stated, the +correlative duty arises at once. It may perhaps be truly said by +Christians that Confucius might have made a religion of his system of +ethics, by adding a sixth and supreme relation--that between God and +man. This he declined to do, and so left his people without any +aspiration toward the Infinite. By setting before them only a finite +goal he sapped the principles of progress.[6] + + +Vicissitudes of Confucianism. + + +After the death of Confucius (478 B.C.) the teachings of the great +master were neglected, but still later they were re-enforced and +expounded in the time (372-289 B.C.) of Meng Ko, or Mencius (as the name +has been Latinized) who was likewise a native of the State of Lu. At one +time a Chinese Emperor attempted in vain to destroy not only the +writings of Confucius but also the ancient classics. Taoism increased as +a power in the religion of China, especially after the fall of its +feudal system. The doctrine of ancestral worship as commended by the +sage had in it much of good, both for kings and nobles. The common +people, however, found that Taoism was more satisfying. About the +beginning of the Christian era Buddhism entered the Middle Kingdom, and, +rapidly becoming popular, supplied needs for which simple Confucianism +was not adequate. It may be said that in the sixth century--which +concerns us especially--although Confucianism continued to be highly +esteemed, Buddhism had become supreme in China--that venerable State +which is the mother of civilization in all Asia cast of the Ganges, and +the Middle Kingdom among pupil nations. + +Confucianism overflowed from China into Korea, where to this day it is +predominant even over Buddhism. Thence, it was carried beyond sea to the +Japanese Archipelago, where for possibly fifteen hundred years it has +shaped and moulded the character of a brave and chivalrous people. Let +us now turn from China and trace its influence and modifications in the +Land of the Rising Sun. + +It must be remembered that in the sixth century of the Christian Era, +Confucianism was by no means the fully developed philosophy that it is +now and has been for five hundred years. In former times, the system of +Confucius had been received in China not only as a praiseworthy +compendium of ceremonial observances, but also as an inheritance from +the ancients, illumined by the discourses of the great sage and +illustrated by his life and example. It was, however, very far from +being what it is at present--the religion of the educated men of the +nation, and, by excellence, the religion of Chinese Asia. But in those +early centuries it did not fully satisfy the Chinese mind, which turned +to the philosophy of Taoism and to the teachings of the Buddhist for +intellectual food, for comfort and for inspiration. + +The time when Chinese learning entered Japan, by the way of Korea, has +not been precisely ascertained.[7] It is possible that letters[8] and +writings were known in some parts of the country as early as the fourth +century, but it is nearly certain, that, outside the Court of the +Emperor, there was scarcely even a sporadic knowledge of the literature +of China until the Korean missionaries of Buddhism had obtained a +lodgement in the Mikado's capital. Buddhism was the real purveyor of the +foreign learning and became the vehicle by means of which Confucianism, +or the Chinese ethical principles, reached the common people of Japan. +The first missionaries in Japan were heartily in sympathy with the +Confucian ethics, from which no effort was made to alienate them. They +were close allies, and for a thousand years wrought as one force in the +national life. They were not estranged until the introduction, in the +seventeenth century, of the metaphysical and scholastic forms given to +the ancient system by the Chinese schoolmen of the Sung dynasty (A.D. +960-1333). + + +Japanese Confucianism and Feudalism Contemporary. + + +The intellectual history of the Japanese prior to their recent contact +with Christendom, may be divided into three eras: + +1. The period of early insular or purely native thought, from before the +Christian era until the eighth century; by which time, Shintō, or the +indigenous system of worship--its ritual, poetry and legend having been +committed to writing and its life absorbed in Buddhism--had been, as a +system, relegated from the nation and the people to a small circle of +scholars and archæologists. + +2. The period from 800 A.D. to the beginning of the seventeenth century; +during which time Buddhism furnished to the nation its religion, +philosophy and culture. + +3. From about 1630 A.D. until the present time; during which period the +developed Confucian philosophy, as set forth by Chu Hi in the twelfth +century, has been the creed of a majority of the educated men of Japan. + +The political history of the Japanese may also be divided into three +eras: + +1. The first extends from the dawn of history until the seventh century. +During this period the system of government was that of rude feudalism. +The conquering tribe of Yamato, having gradually obtained a rather +imperfect supremacy over the other tribes in the middle and southern +portions of the country now called the Empire of Japan, ruled them in +the name of the Mikado. + +2. The second period begins in the seventh century, when the Japanese, +copying the Chinese model, adopted a system of centralization. The +country was divided into provinces and was ruled through boards or +ministries at the capital, with governors sent out from Kiōto for +stated periods, directly from the emperor. During this time literature +was chiefly the work of the Buddhist priests and of the women of the +imperial court. + +While armies in the field brought into subjection the outlying tribes +and certain noble families rose to prominence at the court, there was +being formed that remarkable class of men called the Samurai, or +servants of the Mikado, which for more than ten centuries has exercised +a profound influence upon the development of Japan. + +In China, the pen and the sword have been kept apart; the civilian and +the soldier, the man of letters and the man of arms, have been distinct +and separate. This was also true in old Loo Choo (now Riu Kiu), that +part of Japan most like China. In Japan, however, the pen and the sword, +letters and arms, the civilian and the soldier, have intermingled. The +unique product of this union is seen in the Samurai, or servant of the +Mikado. Military-literati, are unknown in China, but in Japan they +carried the sword and the pen in the same girdle. + +3. This class of men had become fully formed by the end of the twelfth +century, and then began the new feudal system, which lasted until the +epochal year 1868 A.D.--a year of several revolutions, rather than of +restoration pure and simple. After nearly seven hundred years of +feudalism, supreme magistracy, with power vastly increased beyond that +possessed in ancient times, was restored to the emperor. Then also was +abolished the duarchy of Throne and Camp, of Mikado and Shōgun, and +of the two capitals Kiōto and Yedo, with the fountain of honor and +authority in one and the fountain of power and execution in the other. +Thereupon, Japan once more presented to the world, unity. + +Practically, therefore, the period of the prevalence of the Confucian +ethics and their universal acceptance by the people of Japan nearly +coincides with the period of Japanese feudalism or the dominance of the +military classes. + +Although the same ideograph, or rather logogram, was used to designate +the Chinese scholar and the Japanese warrior as well, yet the former was +man of the pen only, while the latter was man of the pen and of two +swords. This historical fact, more than any other, accounts for the +striking differences between Chinese and Japanese Confucianism. Under +this state of things the ethical system of the sage of China suffered a +change, as does almost everything that is imported into Japan and +borrowed by the islanders, but whether for the better or for the worse +we shall not inquire too carefully. The point upon which we now lay +emphasis is this: that, although the Chinese teacher had made filial +piety the basis of his system, the Japanese gradually but surely made +loyalty (Kun-Shin), that is, the allied relations of sovereign and +minister, of lord and retainer, and of master and servant, not only +first in order but the chief of all. They also infused into this term +ideas and associations which are foreign to the Chinese mind. In the +place of filial piety was Kun-shin, that new growth in the garden of +Japanese ethics, out of which arose the white flower of loyalty that +blooms perennial in history. + + +In Japan, Loyalty Displaces Filial Piety. + + +This slow but sure adaptation of the exotic to its new environment, took +place during the centuries previous to the seventeenth of the Christian +era. The completed product presented a growth so strikingly different +from the original as to compel the wonder of those Chinese refugee +scholars, who, at Mito[9] and Yedo, taught the later dogmas which are +orthodox but not historically Confucian. + +Herein lies the difference between Chinese and Japanese ethical +philosophy. In old Japan, loyalty was above filial obedience, and the +man who deserted parents, wife and children for the feudal lord, +received unstinted praise. The corner-stone of the Japanese edifice of +personal righteousness and public weal, is loyalty. On the other hand, +filial piety is the basis of Chinese order and the secret of the amazing +national longevity, which is one of the moral wonders of the world, and +sure proof of the fulfilment of that promise which was made on Sinai and +wrapped up in the fourth commandment. + +This master passion of the typical Samurai of old Japan made him regard +life as infinitely less than nothing, whenever duty demanded a display +of the virtue of loyalty. "The doctrines of Koshi and Moshi" (Confucius +and Mencius) formed, and possibly even yet form, the gospel and the +quintessence of all wordly wisdom to the Japanese gentleman; they became +the basis of his education and the ideal which inspired his conceptions +of duty and honor; but, crowning all his doctrines and aspirations was +his desire to be loyal. There might abide loyal, marital, filial, +fraternal and various other relations, but the greatest of all these was +loyalty. Hence the Japanese calendar of saints is not filled with +reformers, alms-givers and founders of hospitals or orphanages, but is +over-crowded with canonized suicides and committers of _hara-kiri_. Even +today, no man more quickly wins the popular regard during his life or +more surely draws homage to his tomb, securing even apotheosis, than the +suicide, though he may have committed a crime. In this era of Meiji or +enlightened peace, most appalling is the list of assassinations +beginning with the murder in Kiōto of Yokoi Héishiro, who was slain +for recommending the toleration of Christianity, down to the last +cabinet minister who has been knifed or dynamited. Yet in every case the +murderers considered themselves consecrated men and ministers of +Heaven's righteous vengeance.[10] For centuries, and until +constitutional times, the government of Japan was "despotism tempered by +assassination." The old-fashioned way of moving a vote of censure upon +the king's ministers was to take off their heads. Now, however, election +by ballot has been substituted for this, and two million swords have +become bric-à-brac. + +A thousand years of training in the ethics of Confucius--which always +admirably lends itself to the possessors of absolute power, whether +emperors, feudal lords, masters, fathers, or older brothers--have so +tinged and colored every conception of the Japanese mind, so dominated +their avenues of understanding and shaped their modes of thought, that +to-day, notwithstanding the recent marvellous development of their +language, which within the last two decades has made it almost a new +tongue,[11] it is impossible with perfect accuracy to translate into +English the ordinary Japanese terms which are congregated under the +general idea of Kun-shin. + +Herein may be seen the great benefit of carefully studying the minds of +those whom we seek to convert. The Christian preacher in Japan who uses +our terms "heaven," "home," "mother," "father," "family," "wife," +"people," "love," "reverence," "virtue," "chastity," etc., will find +that his hearers may indeed receive them, but not at all with the same +mental images and associations, nor with the same proportion and depth, +that these words command in western thought and hearing. One must be +exceedingly careful, not only in translating terms which have been used +by Confucius in the Chinese texts, but also in selecting and rendering +the current expressions of the Japanese teachers and philosophers. In +order to understand each other, Orientals and Occidentals need a great +deal of mutual intellectual drilling, without which there will be waste +of money, of time, of brains and of life. + + +The Five Relations. + + +Let us now glance at the fundamentals of the Confucian ethics--the Five +Relations--as they were taught in the comparatively simple system which +prevailed before the new orthodoxy was proclaimed by Sung schoolmen. + +First. Although each of the Chinese and Japanese emperors is supposed to +be, and is called, "father of the people," yet it would be entirely +wrong to imagine that the phrase implies any such relation, as that of +William the Silent to the Dutch, or of Washington to the American +nation. In order to see how far the emperor was removed from the people +during a thousand years, one needs but to look upon a brilliant painting +of the Yamato-Tosa school, in which the Mikado is represented as sitting +behind a cloud of gold or a thick curtain of fine bamboo, with no one +before the matting-throne but his prime ministers or the empress and his +concubines. For centuries, it was supposed that the Mikado did not touch +the ground with his feet. He went abroad in a curtained car; and he was +not only as mysterious and invisible to the public eye as a dragon, but +he was called such. The attributes of that monster with many powers and +functions, were applied to him, with an amazing wealth of rhetoric and +vocabulary. As well might the common folks to-day presume to pray unto +one of the transcendent Buddhas, between whom and the needy suppliant +there may be hosts upon hosts of interlopers or mediators, as for an +ordinary subject to petition the emperor or even to gaze upon his dragon +countenance. The change in the constitutional Japan of our day is seen +in the fact that the term "Mikado" is now obsolete. This description of +the relation of sovereign and minister (inaccurately characterised by +some writers on Confucianism as that of "King and subject," a phrase +which might almost fit the constitutional monarchy of to-day) shows the +relation, as it did exist for nearly a thousand years of Japanese +history. We find the same imitation of procedure, even when imperialism +became only a shadow in the government and the great Shōgun who +called himself "Tycoon," the ruler in Yedo, aping the majesty of +Kiōto, became so powerful as to be also a dragon. Between the Yedo +Shōgun and the people rose a great staircase of numberless +subordinates, and should a subject attempt to offer a petition in person +he must pay for it by crucifixion.[12] + +As, under the emperor there were court ministers, heads of departments, +governors and functionaries of all kinds before the people were reached, +so, under the Shōgun in the feudal days, there were the Daimiōs or +great lords and the Shomiōs or small lords with their retainers in +graduated subordination, and below these were the servants and general +humanity. Even after the status of man was reached, there were +gradations and degradations through fractions down to ciphers and indeed +to minus quantities, for there existed in the Country of Brave Warriors +some tens of thousands of human beings bearing the names of _eta_ +(pariah) and _hī-nin_ (non-human), who were far below the pale of +humanity. + + +The Paramount Idea of Loyalty. + + +The one idea which dominated all of these classes,[13]--in Old Japan +there were no masses but only many classes--was that of loyalty. As the +Japanese language shows, every faculty of man was subordinated to this +idea. Confucianism even conditioned the development of Japanese grammar, +as it also did that of the Koreans, by multiplying honorary prefixes and +suffixes and building up all sociable and polite speech on perpendicular +lines. Personality was next to nothing and individuality was in a +certain sense unknown. In European languages, the pronoun shows how +clearly the ideas of personality and of individuality have been +developed; but in the Japanese language there really are no pronouns, in +the sense of the word as used by the Germanic nations, at least, +although there are hundreds of impersonal and topographical substitutes +for them.[14] The mirror, of the language itself, reflects more truth +upon this point of inquiry than do patriotic assertions, or the protests +of those who in the days of this Meiji era so handsomely employ the +Japanese language as the medium of thought. Strictly speaking, the ego +disappears in ordinary conversation and action, and instead, it is the +servant speaking reverently to his master; or it is the master +condescending to the object which is "before his hand" or "to the side" +or "below" where his inferior kneels; or it is the "honorable right" +addressing the "esteemed left." + +All the terms which a foreigner might use in speaking of the duties of +sovereign and minister, of lord and retainer and of master and servant, +are comprehended in the Japanese word, Kun-shin, in which is +crystallized but one thought, though it may relate to three grades of +society. The testimony of history and of the language shows, that the +feelings which we call loyalty and reverence are always directed upward, +while those which we term benevolence and love invariably look downward. + +Note herein the difference between the teachings of Christ and those of +the Chinese sage. According to the latter, if there be love in the +relation of the master and servant, it is the master who loves, and not +the servant who may only reverence. It would be inharmonious for the +Japanese servant to love his master; he never even talks of it. And in +family life, while the parent may love the child, the child is not +expected to love the parent but rather to reverence him. So also the +Japanese wife, as in our old scriptural versions, is to "see that she +_reverence_ her husband." Love (not _agapé_, but _eros_) is indeed a +theme of the poets and of that part of life and of literature which is, +strictly speaking, outside of the marriage relation, but the thought +that dominates in marital life, is reverence from the wife and +benevolence from the husband. The Christian conception, which requires +that a woman should love her husband, does not strictly accord with the +Confucian idea. + +Christianity has taught us that when a man loves a woman purely and +makes her his wife, he should also have reverence for her, and that this +element should be an integral part of his love. Christianity also +teaches a reverence for children; and Wordsworth has but followed the +spirit of his great master, Christ, when expressing this beautiful +sentiment in his melodious numbers. Such ideas as these, however, are +discords in Japanese social life of the old order. So also the Christian +preaching of love to God, sounds outlandish to the men of Chinese mind +in the middle or the pupil kingdom, who seem to think that it can only +come from the lips of those who have not been properly trained. To "love +God" appears to them as being an unwarrantable patronage of, and +familiarity with "Heaven," or the King of Kings. The same difficulty, +which to-day troubles Christian preachers and translators, existed among +the Roman Catholic missionaries three centuries ago.[15] The moulds of +thought were not then, nor are they even now, entirely ready for the +full truth of Christian revelation. + + +Suicide Made Honorable. + + +In the long story of the Honorable Country, there are to be found many +shining examples of loyalty, which is the one theme oftenest illustrated +in popular fiction and romance. Its well-attested instances on the +crimson thread of Japanese history are more numerous than the beads on +many rosaries. The most famous of all, perhaps, is the episode of the +Forty-Seven Rōnins, which is a constant favorite in the theatres, and +has been so graphically narrated or pictured by scores of native poets, +authors, artists, sculptors and dramatists, and told in English by +Mitford, Dickens and Grecy.[16] + +These forty-seven men hated wife, child, society, name, fame, food and +comfort for the sake of avenging the death of their master. In a certain +sense, they ceased to be persons in order to become the impersonal +instruments of Heaven's retribution. They gave up every thing--houses, +lands, kinsmen--that they might have in this life the hundred-fold +reward of vengeance, and in the world-life of humanity throughout the +centuries, fame and honor. Feeding the hunger of their hearts upon the +hope of glutting that hunger with the life-blood of their victim, they +waited long years. When once their swords had drunk the consecrated +blood, they laid the severed head upon their master's tomb and then +gladly, even rapturously, delivered themselves up, and ripping open +their bowels they died by that judicially ordered seppuku which cleansed +their memory from every stain, and gave to them the martyr's fame and +crown forever. The tombs of these men, on the hillside overlooking the +Bay of Yedo, are to this day ever fragrant with fresh flowers, and to +the cemetery where their ashes lie and their memorials stand, thousands +of pilgrims annually wend their way. No dramas are more permanently +popular on the stage than those which display the virtues of these +heroes, who are commonly spoken of as "The righteous Samurai." Their +tombs have stood for two centuries, as mighty magnets drawing others to +self-impalement on the sword--as multipliers of suicides. + +Yet this alphabetic number, this _i-ro-ha_ of self-murder, is but one of +a thousand instances in the Land of Noble Suicides. From the +pre-historic days when the custom of _Jun-shi_, or dying with the +master, required the interment of the living retainers with the dead +lord, down through all the ages to the Revolution of 1868, when at +Sendai and Aidzu scores of men and boys opened their bowels, and mothers +slew their infant sons and cut their own throats, there has been flowing +through Japanese history a river of suicides' blood[17] having its +springs in the devotion of retainers to masters, and of soldiers to a +lost cause as represented by the feudal superior. Shigémori, the son of +the prime minister Kiyomori, who protected the emperor even against his +own father, is a model of that Japanese kun-shin which placed fidelity +to the sovereign above filial obedience; though even yet Shigémori's +name is the synonym of both virtues. Kusunoki Masashigé,[18] the white +flower of Japanese chivalry, is but one, typical not only of a thousand +but of thousands of thousands of soldiers, who hated parents, wife, +child, friend in order to be disciple to the supreme loyalty. He sealed +his creed by emptying his own veins. Kiyomori,[19] like King David of +Israel, on his dying bed ordered the assassination of his personal +enemy. + +The common Japanese novels read like records of slaughter-houses. No +Moloch or Shiva has won more victims to his shrine than has this idea of +Japanese loyalty which is so beautiful in theory and so hideous in +practice. Despite the military clamps and frightful despotism of Yedo, +which for two hundred and fifty years gave to the world a delusive idea +of profound quiet in the Country of Peaceful Shores, there was in fact a +chronic unrest which amounted at many times and in many places to +anarchy. The calm of despotism was, indeed, rudely broken by the aliens +in the "black ships" with the "flowery flag"; but, without regarding +influences from the West, the indications of history as now read, +pointed in 1850 toward the bloodiest of Japan's many civil wars. Could +the statistics of the suicides during this long period be collected, +their publication would excite in Christendom the utmost incredulity. + +Nevertheless, this qualifying statement should be made. A study of the +origin and development of the national method of self-destruction shows +that suicide by seppuku, or opening of the abdomen, was first a custom, +and then a privilege. It took, among men of honor, the place of the +public executions, the massacres in battle and siege, decimation of +rebels and similar means of killing at the hands of others, which so +often mar the historical records of western nations. Undoubtedly, +therefore, in the minds of most Japanese, there are many instances of +_hara-kiri_ which should not be classed as suicide, but technically as +execution of judicial sentence. And yet no sentence or process of death +known in western lands had such influence in glorifying the victim, as +had seppuku in Japan. + + +The Family Idea. + + +The Second Relation is that of father and son, thus preceding what we +should suppose to be the first of human relations--husband and wife--but +the arrangement entirely accords with the Oriental conception that the +family, the house, is more important than the individual. In Old Japan +the paramount idea in marriage, was not that of love or companionship, +or of mutual assistance with children, but was almost wholly that of +offspring, and of maintaining the family line.[20] The individual might +perish but the house must live on. + +Very different from the family of Christendom, is the family in Old +Japan, in which we find elements that would not be recognized where +monogamy prevails and children are born in the home and not in the herd. +Instead of father, mother and children, there are father, wife, +concubines, and various sorts of children who are born of the wife or of +the concubine, or have been adopted into the family. With us, adoption +is the exception, but in Japan it is the invariable rule whenever either +convenience or necessity requires it of the house. Indeed it is rare to +find a set of brothers bearing the same family name. Adoption and +concubinage keep the house unbroken.[21] It is the house, the name, +which must continue, although not necessarily by a blood line. The name, +a social trade-mark, lives on for ages. The line of Japanese emperors, +which, in the Constitution of 1889, by adding mythology to history is +said to rule "unbroken from ages eternal," is not one of fathers and +sons, but has been made continuous by concubinage and adoption. In this +view, it is possibly as old as the line of the popes. + +It is very evident that our terms and usages do not have in such a home +the place or meaning which one not familiar with the real life of Old +Japan would suppose. The father is an absolute ruler. There is in Old +Japan hardly any such thing as "parents," for practically there is only +one parent, as the woman counts for little. The wife is honored if she +becomes a mother, but if childless she is very probably neglected. Our +idea of fatherhood implies that the child has rights and that he should +love as well as be loved. Our customs excite not only the merriment but +even the contempt of the old-school Japanese. The kiss and the embrace, +the linking of the child's arm around its father's neck, the address on +letters "My dear Wife" or "My beloved Mother" seem to them like +caricatures of propriety. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true that +in reverence toward parents--or at least toward one of the parents--a +Japanese child is apt to excel the one born even in a Christian home. + +This so-called filial "piety" becomes in practice, however, a horrible +outrage upon humanity and especially upon womanhood. During centuries +the despotic power of the father enabled him to put an end to the life +of his child, whether boy or girl. + +Under this abominable despotism there is no protection for the daughter, +who is bound to sell her body, while youth or beauty last or perhaps for +life, to help pay her father's debts, to support an aged parent or even +to gratify his mere caprice. In hundreds of Japanese romances the +daughter, who for the sake of her parents has sold herself to shame, is +made the theme of the story and an object of praise. In the minds of the +people there may be indeed a feeling of pity that the girl has been +obliged to give up her home life for the brothel, but no one ever thinks +of questioning the right of the parent to make the sale of the girl's +body, any more than he would allow the daughter to rebel against it. +This idea still lingers and the institution remains,[22] although the +system has received stunning blows from the teaching of Christian +ethics, the preaching of a better gospel and the improvements in the law +of the land. + + +The Marital Relation. + + +The Third Relation is that of husband and wife. The meaning of these +words, however, is not the same with the Japanese as with us. In +Confucius there is not only male and female, but also superior and +inferior, master and servant.[23] Without any love-making or courtship +by those most interested, a marriage between two young people is +arranged by their parents through the medium of what is called a +"go-between." The bride leaves her father's house forever--that is, when +she is not to be subsequently divorced--and entering into that of her +husband must be subordinate not only to him but also to his parents, and +must obey them as her own father and mother. Having all her life under +her father's roof reverenced her superiors, she is expected to bring +reverence to her new domicile, but not love. She must always obey but +never be jealous. She must not be angry, no matter whom her husband may +introduce into his household. She must wait upon him at his meals and +must walk behind him, but not with him. When she dies her children go to +her funeral, but not her husband. + +A foreigner, hearing the Japanese translate our word chastity by the +term _téiso_ or _misao_, may imagine that the latter represents mutual +obligation and personal purity for man and wife alike, but on looking +into the dictionary he will find that _téiso_ means "Womanly duties." A +circumlocution is needed to express the idea of a chaste man. + +Jealousy is a horrible sin, but is always supposed to be a womanish +fault, and so an exhibition of folly and weakness. Therefore, to apply +such a term to God--to say "a jealous God"--outrages the good sense of a +Confucianist,[24] almost as much as the statement that God "cannot lie" +did that of the Pundit, who wondered how God could be Omnipotent if He +could not lie. + +How great the need in Japanese social life of some purifying principle +higher than Confucianism can afford, is shown in the little book +entitled "The Japanese Bride,"[25] written by a native, and scarcely +less in the storm of native criticism it called forth. Under the system +which has ruled Japan for a millennium and a half, divorce has been +almost entirely in the hands of the husband, and the document of +separation, entitled in common parlance the "three lines and a half," +was invariably written by the man. A woman might indeed nominally obtain +a divorce from her husband, but not actually; for the severance of the +marital tie would be the work of the house or relatives, rather than the +act of the wife, who was not "a person" in the case. Indeed, in the +olden time a woman was not a person in the eye of the law, but rather a +chattel. The case is somewhat different under the new codes,[26] but the +looseness of the marriage tie is still a scandal to thinking Japanese. +Since the breaking up of the feudal system and the disarrangement of the +old social and moral standards, the statistics made annually from the +official census show that the ratio of divorce to marriage is very +nearly as one to three.[27] + + +The Elder and the Younger Brother. + + +The Fourth Relation is that of Elder Brother and Younger Brother. As we +have said, foreigners in translating some of the Chinese and Japanese +terms used in the system of Confucius are often led into errors by +supposing that the Christian conception of family life prevails also in +Chinese Asia. By many writers this relation is translated "brother to +brother;" but really in the Japanese language there is no term meaning +simply "brother" or "sister,"[28] and a circumlocution is necessary to +express the ideas which we convey by these words. It is always "older +brother" or "younger brother," and "older sister" or "younger +sister"--the male or female "_kiyodai_" as the case may be. With +us--excepting in lands where the law of primogeniture still +prevails--all the brothers are practically equal, and it would be +considered a violation of Christian righteousness for a parent to show +more favor to one child than to another. In this respect the "wisdom +that cometh from above" is "without partiality." The Chinese ethical +system, however, disregards the principle of mutual rights and duties, +and builds up the family on the theory of the subordination of the +younger brother to the elder brother, the predominant idea being not +mutual love, but, far more than in the Christian household, that of rank +and order. The attitude of the heir of the family toward the other +children is one of condescension, and they, as well as the widowed +mother, regard the oldest son with reverence. It is as though the +commandment given on Sinai should read, "Honor thy father and thy elder +brother." + +The mother is an instrument rather than a person in the life of the +house, and the older brother is the one on whom rests the responsibility +of continuing the family line. The younger brothers serve as subjects +for adoption into other families, especially those where there are +daughters to be married and family names to be continued. In a word, the +name belongs to the house and not to the individual. The habit of naming +children after relatives or friends of the parents, or illustrious men +and women, is unknown in Old Japan, though an approach to this common +custom among us is made by conferring or making use of part of a name, +usually by the transferrence of one ideograph forming the name-word. +Such a practice lays stress upon personality, and so has no place in the +country without pronouns, where the idea of continuing the personal +house or semi-personal family, is predominant. The customs prevalent in +life are strong even in death, and the elder brother or sister, in some +provinces, did not go to the funeral of the younger. This state of +affairs is reflected in Japanese literature, and produces in romance as +well as in history many situations and episodes which seem almost +incredible to the Western mind. + +In the lands ruled by Confucius the grown-up children usually live under +the parental roof, and there are few independent homes as we understand +them. The so-called family is composed both of the living and of the +dead, and constitutes the unit of society. + + +Friendship and Humanity. + + +The Fifth Relation--Friends. Here, again, a mistake is often made by +those who import ideas of Christendom into the terms used in Chinese +Asia, and who strive to make exact equivalent in exchanging the coins of +speech. Occidental writers are prone to translate the term for the fifth +relation into the English phrase "man to man," which leads the Western +reader to suppose that Confucius taught that universal love for man, as +man, which was instilled and exemplified by Jesus Christ. In translating +Confucius they often make the same mistake that some have done who read +in Terence's "Self-Tormentor" the line, "I am a man, and nothing human +is foreign to me,"[29] and imagine that this is the sentiment of an +enlightened Christian, although the context shows that it is only the +boast of a busybody and parasite. What Confucius taught under the fifth +relation is not universality, and, as compared to the teachings of +Jesus, is moonlight, not sunlight. The doctrine of the sage is clearly +expressed in the Analects, and amounts only to courtesy and propriety. +He taught, indeed, that the stranger is to be treated as a friend; and +although in both Chinese and Japanese history there are illustrious +proofs that Confucius had interpreters nobler than himself, yet it is +probable that the doctrine of the stranger's receiving treatment as a +friend, does not extend to the foreigner. Confucius framed something +like the Golden Rule--though it were better called a Silver Rule, or +possibly a Gilded Rule, since it is in the negative instead of being +definitely placed in the positive and indicative form. One may search +his writings in vain for anything approaching the parable of the Good +Samaritan, or the words of Him who commended Elijah for replenishing the +cruse and barrel of the widow of Sarepta, and Elisha for healing Naaman +the Syrian leper, and Jonah for preaching the good news of God to the +Assyrians who had been aliens and oppressors. Lao Tsze, however, went so +far as to teach "return good for evil." When one of the pupils of +Confucius interrogated his Master concerning this, the sage answered; +"What then will you return for good? Recompense injury with justice, and +return good for good." + +But if we do good only to those who do good to us, what thanks have we? +Do not the publicans the same? Behold how the Heavenly Father does good +alike unto all, sending rain upon the just and unjust! + +How Old Japan treated the foreigner is seen in the repeated repulse, +with powder and ball, of the relief ships which, under the friendly +stars and stripes, attempted to bring back to her shores the shipwrecked +natives of Nippon.[30] Granted that this action may have been purely +political and the Government alone responsible for it--just as our +un-Christian anti-Chinese legislation is similarly explained--yet it is +certain that the sentiment of the only men in Japan who made public +opinion,--the Samurai of that day,--was in favor of this method of +meeting the alien. + +In 1852 the American expedition was despatched to Japan for the purpose +of opening a lucrative trade and of extending American influence and +glory, but also unquestionably with the idea of restoring shipwrecked +Japanese as well as securing kind treatment for shipwrecked American +sailors, thereby promoting the cause of humanity and international +courtesy; in short, with motives that were manifestly mixed.[31] In the +treaty pavilion there ensued an interesting discussion between Commodore +Perry and Professor Hayashi upon this very subject. + +Perry truthfully complained that the dictates of humanity had not been +followed by the Japanese, that unnecessary cruelty had been used against +shipwrecked men, and that Japan's attitude toward her neighbors and the +whole world was that of an enemy and not of a friend. + +Hayashi, who was then probably the leading Confucianist in Japan, warmly +defended his countrymen and superiors against the charge of intentional +cruelty, and denounced the lawless character of many of the foreign +sailors. Like most Japanese of his school and age, he wound up with +panegyrics on the pre-eminence in virtue and humanity, above all +nations, of the Country Ruled by a Theocratic Dynasty, and on the glory +and goodness of the great Tokugawa family, which had given peace to the +land during two centuries or more.[32] + +It is manifest, however, that so far as this hostility to foreigners, +and this blind bigotry of "patriotism" were based on Chinese codes of +morals, as officially taught in Yedo, they belonged as much to the old +Confucianism as to the new. Wherever the narrow philosophy of the sage +has dominated, it has made Asia Chinese and nations hermits. As a rule, +the only way in which foreigners could come peacefully into China or the +countries which she intellectually dominated was as vassals, +tribute-bearers, or "barbarians." The mental attitude of China, Korea, +Annam and Japan has for ages been that of the Jews in Herodian times, +who set up, between the Court of Israel and the Court of the Gentiles, +their graven stones of warning which read:[33] + + "No foreigner to proceed within the partition wall and enclosure + around the sanctuary; whoever is caught in the same will on that + account be liable to incur death." + + + + +CHAPTER V - CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM + + "After a thousand years the pine decays; the flower has its + glory in blooming for a day."--Hakkyoi, Chinese Poet of the Tang + Dynasty. + + "The morning-glory of an hour differs not in heart from the + pine-tree of a thousand years."--Matsunaga of Japan. + + "The pine's heart is not of a thousand years, nor the + morning-glory's of an hour, but only that they may fulfil their + destiny." + + "Since Iyéyasú, his hair brushed by the wind, his body anointed + with rain, with lifelong labor caused confusion to cease and + order to prevail, for more than a hundred years there has been + no war. The waves of the four seas have been unruffled and no + one has failed of the blessing of peace. The common folk must + speak with reverence, yet it is the duty of scholars to + celebrate the virtue of the Government."--Kyūso of Yedo. + + "A ruler must have faithful ministers. He who sees the error of + his lord and remonstrates, not fearing his wrath, is braver than + he who bears the foremost spear in battle."--Iyéyasú. + + "The choice of the Chinese philosophy and the rejection of + Buddhism was not because of any inherent quality in the Japanese + mind. It was not the rejection of supernaturalism or the + miraculous. The Chinese philosophy is as supernaturalistic as + some forms of Buddhism. The distinction is not between the + natural and the supernatural in either system, but between the + seen and the unseen." + + "The Chinese philosophy is as religious as the original teaching + of Gautama. Neither Shushi nor Gautama believed in a Creator, + but both believed in gods and demons.... It has little place for + prayer, but has a vivid sense of the Infinite and the Unseen, + and fervently believes that right conduct is in accord with the + 'eternal verities.'"--George William Knox. + + "In him is the yea."--Paul. + + +CHAPTER V - CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM + +Japan's Millennium of Simple Confucianism. + + +Having seen the practical working of the ethics of Confucianism, +especially in the old and simple system, let us now glance at the +developed and philosophical forms, which, by giving the educated man of +Japan a creed, made him break away from Buddhism and despise it, while +becoming often fanatically Confucian. + +For a thousand years (from 600 to 1600 A.D.) the Buddhist religious +teachers assisted in promulgating the ethics of Confucius; for during +all this time there was harmony between the various Buddhisms imported +from India, Tibet, China and Korea, and the simple undeveloped system of +Chinese Confucianism. Slight modifications were made by individual +teachers, and emphasis was laid upon this or that feature, while out of +the soil of Japanese feudalism were growths of certain virtues as phases +of loyalty, phenomenal beyond those in China. Nevertheless, during all +this time, the Japanese teachers of the Chinese ethic were as students +who did but recite what they learned. They simply transmitted, without +attempting to expand or improve. + +Though the apparatus of distribution was early known, block printing +having been borrowed from the Chinese after the ninth century, and +movable types learned from the Koreans and made use of in the sixteenth +century,[1] the Chinese classics were not printed as a body until after +the great peace of Genna (1615). Nor during this period were +translations made of the classics or commentaries, into the Japanese +vernacular. Indeed, between the tenth and sixteenth centuries there was +little direct intercourse, commercial, diplomatic or intellectual, +between Japan and China, as compared with the previous eras, or the +decades since 1870. + +Suddenly in the seventeenth century the intellect of Japan, all ready +for new surprises in the profound peace inaugurated by Iyéyasŭ, +received, as it were, an electric thrill. The great warrior, becoming +first a unifier by arms and statecraft, determined also to become the +architect of the national culture. Gathering up, from all parts of the +country, books, manuscripts, and the appliances of intellectual +discipline, he encouraged scholars and stimulated education. Under his +supervision the Chinese classics were printed, and were soon widely +circulated. A college was established in Yedo, and immediately there +began a critical study of the texts and principal commentaries. The fall +of the Ming dynasty in China, and the accession of the Manchiu Tartars, +became the signal for a great exodus of learned Chinese, who fled to +Japan. These received a warm welcome, both at the capital and in Yedo, +as well as in some of the castle towns of the Daimiōs, among whom +stand illustrious those of the province of Mito.[2] + +These men from the west brought not only ethics but philosophy; and the +fertilizing influences of these scholars of the Dispersion, may be +likened to those of the exodus of the Greek learned men after the +capture of Constantinople by the Turks. Confucian schools were +established in most of the chief provincial cities. For over two hundred +years this discipline in the Chinese ethics, literature and history +constituted the education of the boys and men of Japan. Almost every +member of the Samurai classes was thoroughly drilled in this curriculum. +All Japanese social, official, intellectual and literary life was +permeated with the new spirit. Their "world" was that of the Chinese, +and all outside of it belonged to "barbarians." The matrices of thought +became so fixed and the Japanese language has been so moulded, that even +now, despite the intense and prolonged efforts of thirty years of acute +and laborious scholarship, it is impossible, as we have said, to find +English equivalents for terms which were used for a century or two past +in every-day Japanese speech. Those who know most about these facts, are +most modest in attempting with English words to do justice to Japanese +thought; while those who know the least seem to be most glib, fluent and +voluminous in showing to their own satisfaction, that there is little +difference between the ethics of Chinese Asia and those of Christendom. + + +Survey of the Intellectual History of China. + + +The Confucianism of the last quarter-millennium in Japan is not that of +her early centuries. While the Japanese for a thousand years only +repeated and recited--merely talking aloud in their intellectual sleep +but not reflecting--China was awake and thinking hard. Japan's continued +civil wars, which caused the almost total destruction of books and +manuscripts, secured also the triumph of Buddhism which meant the +atrophy of the national intellect. When, after the long feuds and +battles of the middle ages, Confucianism stepped the second time into +the Land of _Brave_ Scholars, it was no longer with the simple rules of +conduct and ceremonial of the ancient days, nor was it as the ally of +Buddhism. It came like an armed man in full panoply of harness and +weapons. It entered to drive Buddhism out, and to defend the intellect +of the educated against the wiles of priestcraft. It was a full-blown +system of pantheistic rationalism, with a scheme of philosophy that to +the far-Oriental mind seemed perfect as a rule both of faith and +practice. It came in a form that was received as religion, for it was +not only morality "touched" but infused with motion. Nor were the +emotions kindled, those of the partisan only, but rather also those of +the devotee and the martyr. Henceforth Buddhism, with its inventions, +its fables, and its endless dogmatism, was for the common people, for +women and children, but not for the Samurai. The new Confucianism came +to Japan as the system of Chu Hi. For three centuries this system had +already held sway over the intellect of China. For two centuries and a +half it has dominated the minds of the Samurai so that the majority of +them to-day, even with the new name Shizoku, are Confucianists so far as +they are anything. + +To understand the origin of Buddhism we must know something of the +history and the previous religious and philosophical systems of India, +and so, if we are to appreciate modern "orthodox" Confucianism, we must +review the history of China, and see, in outline, at least, its +literature, politics and philosophy during the middle ages. + +"Four great stages of literary and national development may be pointed +to as intervening (in the fifteen hundred years) between the great sage +and the age called that of the Sung-Ju,"[3] from the tenth to the +fourteenth century, in which the Confucian system received its modern +form. Each of them embraced the course of three or four centuries. + +I. From the sixth to the third century before Christ the struggle was +for Confucian and orthodox doctrine, led by Mencius against various +speculators in morals and politics, with Taoist doctrine continually +increasing in acceptance. + +II. The Han age (from B.C. 206 to A.D. 190) was rich in critical +expositors and commentators of the classics, but "the tone of +speculation was predominantly Taoist." + +III. The period of the Six Dynasties (from A.D. 221 to A.D. 618) was the +golden age of Buddhism, when the science and philosophy of India +enriched the Chinese mind, and the wealth of the country was lavished on +Buddhist temples and monasteries. The faith of Shaka became nearly +universal and the Buddhists led in philosophy and literature, founding a +native school of Indian philosophy. + +IV. The Tang period (from A.D. 618 to 905) marked by luxury and poetry, +was an age of mental inaction and enervating prosperity. + +V. The fifth epoch, beginning with the Sung Dynasty (from A.D. 960 to +1333) and lasting to our own time, was ushered in by a period of intense +mental energy. Strange to say (and most interesting is the fact to +Americans of this generation), the immediate occasion of the recension +and expansion of the old Confucianism was a Populist movement.[4] During +the Tang era of national prosperity, Chinese socialists questioned the +foundations of society and of government, and there grew up a new school +of interpreters as well as of politicians. In the tenth century the +contest between the old Confucianism and the new notions, broke out with +a violence that threatened anarchy to the whole empire. + +One set of politicians, led by Wang (1021-1086), urged an extension of +administrative functions, including agricultural loans, while the +brothers Cheng (1032-1085, 1033-1107) reaffirmed, with fresh +intellectual power, the old orthodoxy. + +The school of writers and party agitators, led by Szma Kwaug +(1009-1086)[5] the historian, contended that the ancient principles of +the sages should be put in force. Others, the Populists of that age and +land, demanded the entire overthrow of existing institutions. + +In the bitter contest which ensued, the Radicals and Reformers +temporarily won the day and held power. For a decade the experiment of +innovation was tried. Men turned things social and political upside down +to see how they looked in that position. So these stood or oscillated +for thirteen years, when the people demanded the old order again. The +Conservatives rose to power. There was no civil war, but the Radicals +were banished beyond the frontier, and the country returned to normal +government. + +This controversy raised a landmark in the intellectual history of +China.[6] The thoughts of men were turned toward deep and acute inquiry +into the nature and use of things in general. This thinking resulted in +a literature which to-day is the basis of the opinions of the educated +men in all Chinese Asia. Instead of a sapling we now have a mighty tree. +The chief of the Chinese writers, the Calvin of Asiatic orthodoxy, who +may be said to have wrought Confucianism into a developed philosophy, +and who may be called the greatest teacher of the mind, of modern China, +Korea and Japan, is Chu Hi, who reverently adopted the criticisms on the +Chinese classics of the brothers Cheng.[7] It is evident that in Chu +Hi's system, we have a body of thought which may be called the result of +Chinese reflection during a millennium and a half. It is the ethics of +Confucius transfused with the mystical elements of Taoism and the +speculations of Buddhism. As the common people of China made an amalgam +of the three religions and consider them one, so the philosophers have +out of these three systems made one, calling that one Confucianism. The +dominant philosophy in Japan to-day is based upon the writings of Chu Hi +(in Japanese, Shu Shi) and called the system of Téi-Shu, which is the +Japanese pronunciation of the names of the Cheng brothers and of Chu +(Hi). It is a medley which the ancient sage could no more recognize than +would Jesus know much of the Christianity that casts out devils in his +name. + + +Contrast between the Chinese and Japanese Intellect. + + +Here we must draw a contrast between the Chinese and Japanese intellect +to the credit of the former; China made, Japan borrowed. While history +shows that the Chinese mind, once at least, possessed mental initiative, +and the power of thinking out a system of philosophy which to-day +satisfies largely, if not wholly, the needs of the educated Chinaman, +there has been in the Japanese mind, as shown by its history, apparently +no such vigor or fruitfulness. From the literary and philosophical +points of view, Confucianism, as it entered Japan, in the sixth century, +remained practically stationary for a thousand years. Modifications, +indeed, were made upon the Chinese system, and these were striking and +profound, but they were less developments of the intellect than +necessities of the case. The modifications were made, as molten metal +poured into a mould shaped by other hands than the artist's own, rather +than as clay made plastic under the hand of a designer. Buddhism, being +the dominant force in the thoughts of the Japanese for at least eight +hundred years, furnished the food for the requirements of man on his +intellectual and religious side. + +Broadly speaking, it may be said that the Japanese, receiving passively +the Chinese classics, were content simply to copy and to recite what +they had learned. As compared with their audacity in not only going +beyond the teachings of Buddha, but in inventing systems of Buddhism +which neither Gautama nor his first disciples could recognize, the +docile and almost slavish adherence to ancient Confucianism is one of +the astonishing things in the history of religions in Japan. In the +field of Buddhism we have a luxuriant growth of new and strange species +of colossal weeds that overtower and seem to have choked out whatever +furze of original Buddhism there was in Japan, while in the domain of +Confucianism there is a barren heath. Whereas, in China, the voluminous +literature created by commentators on Confucius and the commentaries on +the commentators suggests the hyperbole used by the author of John's +Gospel,[8] yet there is probably nothing on Confucianism from the +Japanese pen in the thousand years under our review which is worth the +reading or the translation.[9] In this respect the Japanese genius +showed its vast capabilities of imitation, adoption and assimilation. + +As of old, Confucianism again furnished a Chinese wall, within which the +Japanese could move, and wherein they might find food for the mind in +all the relations of life and along all the lines of achievement +permitted them. The philosophy imported from China, as shown again and +again in that land of oft-changing dynasties, harmonizing with arbitrary +government, accorded perfectly with the despotism of the Tokugawas, the +"Tycoons" who in Yedo ruled from 1603 to 1868. Nothing new was +permitted, and any attempt at modification, enlargement, or improvement +was not only frowned and hissed down as impious innovation, but usually +brought upon the daring innovator the ban of the censor, imprisonment, +banishment, or death by enforced suicide.[10] In Yedo, the centre of +Chinese learning, and in other parts of the country, there were, indeed, +thinkers whose philosophy did not always tally with what was taught by +the orthodox,[11] but as a rule even when these men escaped the ban of +the censor, or the sword of the executioner, they were but us voices +crying in the wilderness. The great mass of the gentry was orthodox, +according to the standards of the Séido College, while the common people +remained faithful to Buddhism. In the conduct of daily life they +followed the precepts which had for centuries been taught them by their +fathers. + + +Philosophical Confucianism the Religion of the Samurai. + + +What were the features of this modern Confucian philosophy, which the +Japanese Samurai exalted to a religion?[12] We say philosophy and +religion, because while the teachings of the great sage lay at the +bottom of the system, yet it is not true since the early seventeenth +century, that the thinking men of Japan have been satisfied with only +the original simple ethical rules of the ancient master. Though they +have craved a richer mental pabulum, yet they have enjoyed less the +study of the original text, than acquaintance with the commentaries and +communion with the great philosophical exponents, of the master. What, +then, we ask, are the features of the developed philosophy, which, +imported from China, served the Japanese Samurai not only as morals but +for such religion as he possessed or professed? + +We answer: The system was not agnostic, as many modern and western +writers assert that it is, and as Confucius, transmitting and probably +modifying the old religion, had made the body of his teachings to be. +Agnostic, indeed, in regard to many things wherein a Christian has +faith, modern Confucianism, besides being bitterly polemic and hostile +to Buddhism, is pantheistic. + +Certain it is that during the revival of Pure Shintō in the +eighteenth century, the scholars of the Shintō school, and those of +its great rival, the Chinese, agreed in making loyalty[13] take the +place of filial duty in the Confucian system. To serve the cause of the +Emperor became the most essential duty to those with cultivated minds. +The newer Chinese philosophy mightily influenced the historians, Rai +Sanyo and those of the Mito school, whose works, now classic, really +began the revolution of 1868. By forming and setting in motion the +public opinion, which finally overthrew the Shōgun and feudalism, +restored the Emperor to supreme power, and unified the nation, they +helped, with modern ideas, to make the New Japan of our day. The +Shintō and the Chinese teachings became amalgamated in a common +cause, and thus the philosophy of Chu Hi, mingling with the nationalism +and patriotism inculcated by Shintō, brought about a remarkable +result. As a native scholar and philosopher observes, "It certainly is +strange to see the Tokugawa rule much shaken, if not actually +overthrown, by that doctrine which generations of able Shōguns and +their ministers had earnestly encouraged and protected. It is perhaps +still more remarkable to see the Mito clan, under many able and active +chiefs, become the centre of the Kinno[14] movement, which was to result +in the overthrow of the Tokugawa family, of which it was itself a +branch." + + +A Medley of Pantheism. + + +The philosophy of modern Confucianism is wholly pantheistic. There is in +it no such thing or being as God. The orthodox pantheism of Old Japan +means that everything in general is god, but nothing in particular is +God; that All is god, but not that God is all. It is a "pantheistic +medley."[15] + +Chu Hi and his Japanese successors, especially Kyū-so, argue finely +and discourse volubly about _Ki_[16] or spirit; but it is not Spirit, or +spiritual in the sense of Him who taught even a woman at the well-curb +at Sychar. It is in the air. It is in the earth, the trees, the flowers. +It comes to consciousness in man. His _Ri_ is the Tao of Lao Tsze, the +Way, Reason, Law. It is formless, invisible. + + "Ri is not separate from Ki, for then it were an empty abstract + thing. It is joined to Ki, and may be called, by nature, one + decreed, changeless Norm. It is the rule of Ki, the very centre, + the reason why Ki is Ki." + +Ten or Heaven is not God or the abode of God, but an abstraction, a sort +of Unknowable, or Primordial Necessity. + + "The doctrine of the Sages knows and worships Heaven, and + without faith in it there is no truth. For men and things, the + universe, are born and nourished by Heaven, and the 'Way,' the + 'ri,' that is in all, is the 'Way,' the 'ri' of Heaven. + Distinguishing root and branch, the heart is the root of Heaven + and the appearance, the revolution of the sun and moon, the + order of the stars, is the branch. The books of the sages teach + us to conform to the heart of Heaven and deal not with + appearances." + + "The teaching of the sages is the original truth and, given to + men, it forms both their nature and their relationships. With it + complete, naught else is needed for the perfect following of the + 'Way.' Let then the child make its parents Heaven, the retainer, + his Lord, the wife her husband, and let each give up life for + righteousness. Thus will each serve for Heaven. But if we exalt + Heaven above parent or Lord, we shall come to think we can serve + it though they be disobeyed and like tiger or wolf shall rejoice + to kill them. To such fearful end does the Western learning + lead.... Let each one die for duty, there is naught else we can + do." + +Thus wrote Ohashi Junzo, as late as 1857 A.D., the same year in which +Townsend Harris entered Yedo to teach the practical philosophy of +Christendom, and the brotherhood of man as expressed in diplomacy. +Ohashi Junzo bitterly opposed the opening of Japan to modern +civilization and the ideas of Christendom. His book was the swan-song of +the dying Japanese Confucianism. Slow as is the dying, and hard as its +death may be, the mind of new Japan has laid away to dust and oblivion +the Téi-shu philosophy. "At present they (the Chinese classics) have +fallen into almost total neglect, though phrases and allusions borrowed +from them still pass current in literature, and even to some extent in +the language of every-day life." Séido, the great temple of Confucius in +Tokyo, is now utilized as an educational Museum.[17] + +A study of this subject and of comparative religion, is of immediate +practical benefit to the Christian teacher. The preacher, addressing an +audience made up of educated Japanese, who speaks of God without +describing his personality, character, or attributes as illustrated in +Revelation, will find that his hearers receive his term as the +expression for a bundle of abstract principles, or a system of laws, or +some kind of regulated force. They do, indeed, make some reference to a +"creator" by using a rare word. Occasionally, their language seems to +touch the boundary line on the other side of which is conscious +intelligence, but nothing approaching the clearness and definiteness of +the early Chinese monotheism of the pre-Confucian classics is to be +distinguished.[18] The modern Japanese long ago heard joyfully the +words, "Honor the gods, but keep them far from you," and he has done it. + +To love God would no more occur to a Japanese gentleman than to have his +child embrace and kiss him. Whether the source and fountain of life of +which they speak has any Divine Spirit, is very uncertain, but whether +it has, or has not, man need not obey, much less worship him. The +universe is one, the essence is the same. Man must seek to know his +place in the universe; he is but one in an endless chain; let him find +his part and fulfil that part; all else is vanity. One need not inquire +into the origins or the ultimates. Man is moved by a power greater than +himself; he has no real independence of his own; everything has its rank +and place; indeed, its rank and place is its sole title to a separate +existence. If a man mistakes his place he is a fool, he deserves +punishment. + + +The Ideals of a Samurai. + + +Out of his place, man is not man. Duty is more important than being. +Nearly everything in our life is fixed by fate; there may seem to be +exceptions, because some wicked men are prosperous and some righteous +men are wretched, but these are not real exceptions to the general rule +that we are made for our environment and fitted to it. And then, again, +it may be that our judgments are not correct. Let the heart be right and +all is well. Let man be obedient and his outward circumstance is +nothing, having no relation to his joy or happiness. Even when as to his +earthly body man passes away, he is not destroyed; the drop again +becomes part of the sea, the spark re-enters the flame, and his life +continues, though it be not a conscious life. In this way man is in +harmony with the original principle of all things. He outlasts the +universe itself. + +Hence to a conscientious Samurai there is nothing in this world better +than obedience, in the ideal of a true man. What he fears most and hates +most is that his memory may perish, that he shall have no seed, that he +shall be forgotten or die under a cloud and be thought treacherous or +cowardly or base, when in reality his life was pure and his motives +high. "Better," sang Yoshida Shoin, the dying martyr for his principles, +"to be a crystal and to be broken, than to be a tile upon the housetop +and remain." + +So, indeed, on a hundred curtained execution grounds, with the dirk of +the suicide firmly grasped and about to shed their own life-blood, have +sung the martyrs who died willingly for their faith in their idea of +Yamato Damashii.[19] In untold instances in the national history, men +have died willingly and cheerfully, and women also by thousands, as +brave, as unflinching as the men, so that the story of Japanese chivalry +is almost incredible in its awful suicides. History reveals a state of +society in which cool determination, desperate courage and fearlessness +of death in the face of duty were quite unique, and which must have had +their base in some powerful though abnormal code of ethics. + +This leads us to consider again the things emphasized by Japanese as +distinct from Chinese and Korean[20] Confucianism, and to call attention +to its fruits, while at the same time we note its defects, and show +wherein it failed. We shall then show how this old system has already +waxed old and is passing away. Christ has come to Japan, and behold a +new heaven and a new earth! + + +New Japan Makes Revision. + + +First. For sovereign and minister, there are coming into vogue new +interpretations. This relation, if it is to remain as the first, will +become that of the ruler and the ruled. Constitutional government has +begun; and codes of law have been framed which are recognizing the +rights of the individual and of the people. Even a woman has rights +before the law, in relation to husband, parents, brothers, sisters and +children. It is even beginning to be thought that children have rights. +Let us hope that as the rights are better understood the duties will be +equally clear. + +It is coming to pass in Japan that even in government, the sovereign +must consult with his people on all questions pertaining to their +welfare. Although, thus far the constitutional government makes the +ministers responsible to the Sovereign instead of to the Diet, yet the +contention of the enlightened men and the liberal parties is, that the +ministers shall be responsible to the Diet. The time seems at hand when +the sovereign's power over his people will not rest on traditions more +or less uncertain, on history manufactured by governmental order, on +mythological claims based upon the so-called "eternal ages," on +prerogatives upheld by the sword, or on the supposed grace of the gods, +but will be "broad-based upon the people's will." The power of the +rulers will be derived from the consent of the governed. The Emperor +will become the first and chief servant of the nation. + +Revision and improvement of the Second Relation will make filial piety +something more real than that unto which China has attained, or Japan +has yet seen, or which is yet universally known in Christendom. The +tyranny of the father and of the older brother, and the sale of +daughters to shame, will pass away; and there will arise in the Japanese +house, the Christian home. + +It would be hard to say what Confucianism has done for woman. It is +probable that all civilizations, and systems of philosophy, ethics and +religion, can be well tested by this criterion--the position of woman. +Confucianism virtually admits two standards of morality, one for man, +another for woman.[21] In Chinese Asia adultery is indeed branded as one +of the vilest of crimes, but in common idea and parlance it is a woman's +crime, not man's. So, on the other hand, chastity is a female virtue, it +is part of womanly duty, it has little or no relation to man personally. +Right revision and improvement of the Third Relation will abolish +concubinage. It will reform divorce. It will make love the basis of +marriage. It will change the state of things truthfully pictured in such +books as the Genji Monogatari, or Romance of Prince Genji, with its +examples of horrible lust and incests; the Kojiki or Ethnic scripture, +with its naïve accounts of filthiness among the gods; the Onna Dai Gaku, +Woman's Great Study, with its amazing subordination and moral slavery of +wife and daughter; and The Japanese Bride, of yesterday--all truthful +pictures of Japanese life, for the epoch in which each was written. +These books will become the forgotten curiosities of literature, known +only to the archæologist. + +Improvement and revision of the Fourth Relation, will bring into the +Japanese home more justice, righteousness, love and enjoyment of life. +It will make possible, also, the cheerful acceptance and glad practice +of those codes of law common in Christendom, which are based upon the +rights of the individual and upon the idea of the greatest good to the +greatest number. It will help to abolish the evils which come from +primogeniture and to release the clutch of the dead hand upon the +living. It will decrease the power of the graveyard, and make thought +and care for the living the rule of life. It will abolish sham and +fiction, and promote the cause of truth. It will hasten the reign of +righteousness and love, and beneath propriety and etiquette lay the +basis of "charity toward all, malice toward none." + +Revision with improvement of the Fifth Relation hastens the reign of +universal brotherhood. It lifts up the fallen, the down-trodden and the +outcast. It says to the slave "be free," and after having said "be +free," educates, trains, and lifts up the brother once in servitude, and +helps him to forget his old estate and to know his rights as well as his +duties, and develops in him the image of God. It says to the hinin or +not-human, "be a man, be a citizen, accept the protection of the law." +It says to the eta, "come into humanity and society, receive the +protection of law, and the welcome of your fellows; let memory forget +the past and charity make a new future." It will bring Japan into the +fraternity of nations, making her people one with the peoples of +Christendom, not through the empty forms of diplomacy, or by the craft +of her envoys, or by the power of her armies and navies reconstructed on +modern principles, but by patient education and unflinching loyalty to +high ideals. Thus will Japan become worthy of all the honors, which the +highest humanity on this planet can bestow. + + +The Ideal of Yamato Damashii Enlarged. + + +In this our time it is not only the alien from Christendom, with his +hostile eye and mordant criticism, who is helping to undermine that +system of ethics which permitted the sale of the daughter to shame, the +introduction of the concubine into the family and the reduction of +woman, even though wife and mother, to nearly a cipher. It is not only +the foreigner who assaults that philosophy which glorified the vendetta, +kept alive private war, made revenge in murder the sweetest joy of the +Samurai and suicide the gate to honor and fame, subordinated the family +to the house, and suppressed individuality and personality. It is the +native Japanese, no longer a hermit, a "frog in the well, that knows not +the great ocean" but a student, an inquirer, and a critic, who assaults +the old ethical and philosophical system, and calls for a new way +between heaven and earth, and a new kind of Heaven in which shall be a +Creator, a Father and a Saviour. The brain and pen of New Japan, as well +as its heart, demand that the family shall be more than the house and +that the living members shall have greater rights as well as duties, +than the dead ancestors. They claim that the wife shall share +responsibility with the husband, and that the relation of husband and +wife shall take precedence of that of the father and son; that the +mother shall possess equal authority with the father; that the wife, +whether she be mother or not, shall not be compelled to share her home +with the concubine; and that the child in Japan shall be born in the +home and not in the herd. The sudden introduction of the Christian ideas +of personality and individuality has undoubtedly wrought peril to the +framework of a society which is built according to the Confucian +principles; but faith in God, love in the home, and absolute equality +before the law will bring about a reign of righteousness such as Japan +has never known, but toward the realization of which Christian nations +are ever advancing. + +Even the old ideal of the Samurai embodied in the formula Yamato +Damashii will be enlarged and improved from its narrow limits and +ferocious aspects, when the tap-root of all progress is allowed to +strike into deeper truth, and the Sixth Relation, or rather the first +relation of all, is taught, namely, that of God to Man, and of Man to +God. That this relation is understood, and that the Samurai ideal, +purified and enlarged, is held by increasing numbers of Japan's +brightest men and noblest women, is shown in that superb Christian +literature which pours from the pens of the native men and women in the +Japanese Christian churches. Under this flood of truth the old obstacles +to a nobler society are washed away, while out of the enriched soil +rises the new Japan which is to be a part of the better Christendom that +is to come. Christ in Japan, as everywhere, means not destruction, but +fulfilment. + + + + +CHAPTER VI - THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA + + "Life is a dream is what the pilgrim learns, + Nor asks for more, but straightway home returns." + --Japanese medieval lyric drama. + + "The purpose of Buddha's preaching was to bring into light the + permanent truth, to reveal the root of all suffering and thus to + lead all sentient beings into the perfect emancipation from all + passions."--Outlines of the Mahayana. + + "Buddhism will stand forth as the embodiment of the eternal + verity that as a man sows he will reap, associated with the + duties of mastery over self and kindness to all men, and + quickened into a popular religion by the example of a noble and + beautiful life."--Dharmapala of Ceylon. + + "Buddhism teaches the right path of cause and effect, and + nothing which can supersede the idea of cause and effect will be + accepted and believed. Buddha himself cannot contradict this law + which is the Buddha, of Buddhas, and no omnipotent power except + this law is believed to be existent in the universe. + + "Buddhism does not quarrel with other religions about the truth + ... Buddhism is truth common to every religion regardless of the + outside garment."--Horin Toki, of Japan. + + "Death we can face; but knowing, as some of us do, what is human + life, which of us is it that without shuddering could (if we + were summoned) face the hour of birth?" -De Quinccy. + + The prayer of Buddhism, "Deliver us from existence." + The prayer of the Christian, "Deliver us from evil." + + "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the + earth."--Genesis. + + "I am come that they might have life and that they might have it + more abundantly."--Jesus. + + +CHAPTER VI - THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA + +Pre-Buddhistic India. + + +Does the name of Gautama, the Buddha, stand for a sun-myth or for a +historic personage? One set of scholars and writers, represented by +Professor Kern,[1] of Leyden, thinks the Buddha a mythical personage. +Another school, represented by Professor T. Rhys Davids,[2] declares +that he lived in human flesh and breathed the air of earth. We accept +the historical view as best explaining the facts. + +In order to understand a religion, in its origin at least, we must know +some of the conditions out of which it arose. Buddhism is one of the +protestantisms of the world. Yet, is not every religion, in one sense, +protestant? Is it not a protest against something to which it opposes a +difference? Every new religion, like a growing plant, ignores or rejects +certain elements in the soil out of which it springs. It takes up and +assimilates, also, other elements not used before, in order to produce a +flower or fruit different from other growths out of the same soil. Yet +whether the new religion be considered as a development, fulfilment, or +protest, we must know its historical perspective or background. To +understand the origin of Buddhism, one of the best preparations is to +read the history of India and especially of the thought of her many +generations; for the landmarks of the civilizations of India, as a Hindu +may proudly say, are its mighty literatures. At these let us glance.[3] + +The age of the Vedas extends from the year 2000 to 1400 B.C., and the +history of this early India is wonderfully like that of America. During +this era, the Hindus, one of the seven Aryan tribes of which the +Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Sclav and Teutonic form the other six, +descending from the mid-Asian plateau, settled the Punjab in Northwest +India. They drove the dark-skinned aborigines before them and reclaimed +forest and swamp to civilization, making the land of the seven rivers +bright with agriculture and brilliant with cities. This was the glorious +heroic age of joyous life and conquest, when men who believed in a +Heavenly Father[4] made the first epoch of Hindu history. + +Then followed the epic age, 1400-1000 B.C., when the area of +civilization was extended still farther down the Ganges Valley, the +splendor of wealth, learning, military prowess and social life excelling +that of the ancestral seats in the Punjab. Amid differences of wars and +diplomacy with rivalries and jealousies, a common sacred language, +literature and religion with similar social and religious institutions, +united the various nations together. In this time the old Vedas were +compiled into bodies or collections, and the Brahmanas and the +Upanishads, besides the great epic poems, the Mahabharata and the +Ramayana were composed. + +The next, or rationalistic epoch, covers the period from 1000 B.C. to +320 B.C., when the Hindu expansion had covered all India, that is, the +peninsula from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. Then, all India, including +Ceylon, was Hinduized, though in differing degrees; the purest Aryan +civilization being in the north, the less pure in the Ganges Valley and +south and east, while the least Aryan and more Dravidian was in Bengal, +Orissa, and India south of the Kistna River. + +This story of the spread of Hindu civilization is a brilliant one, and +seems as wonderful as the later European conquest of the land, and of +the other "Indians" of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. +Beside the conquests in material civilization of these our fellow-Aryans +(who were the real Indians, and who spoke the language which is the +common ancestor of our own and of most European tongues), what impresses +us most of all, in these Aryans, is their intellectual energy. The +Hindus of the rationalistic age made original discoveries. They invented +grammar, geometry, arithmetic, decimal notation, and they elaborated +astronomy, medicine, mental philosophy and logic (with syllogism) before +these sciences were known or perfected in Greece. In the seventh century +before Christ, Kapila taught a system of philosophy, of which that of +the Europeans, Schopenhaur and Hartmann, seems largely a reproduction. + +Following this agnostic scheme of thought, came, several centuries +later, the dualistic Yoga[5] system in which the chief feature is the +conception of Deity as a means of final emancipation of the human soul +from further transmigration, and of union with the Universal Spirit or +World Soul. There is, however, perhaps no sadder chapter in the history +of human thought than the story of the later degeneration of the Yoga +system into one of bloody and cruel rites in India, and of superstition +in China. + +Still other systems followed: one by Gautama, of the same clan or family +of the later Buddha, who develops inference by the construction of +syllogism; while Kanada follows the atomic philosophy in which the atoms +are eternal, but the aggregates perishable by disintegration. + +Against these schools, which seemed to be dangerous "new departures," +orthodox Hindus, anxious for their ancient beliefs and practices as laid +down in the Vedas, started fresh systems of philosophy, avowedly more in +consonances with their ancestral faith. One system insisted on the +primitive Vedic ritual, and another laid emphasis on the belief in a +Universal Soul first inculcated in the Upanishads. + + +Conditions out of which Buddhism Arose. + + +Whatever we may think of these schools of philosophy, or the connection +with or indebtedness of Gautama, the Buddha, to them, they reveal to us +the conceptions which his contemporaries had of the universe and the +beings inhabiting it. These were honest human attempts to find God. In +them the various beings or six conditions of sentient existence are +devas or gods; men; asuras or monsters; pretas or demons; animals; and +beings in hell. Furthermore, these schools of Hindu philosophy show us +the conditions out of which Buddhism arose, furnish us with its +terminology and technical phrases, reveal to us what the reformer +proposed to himself to do, and, what is perhaps still more important, +show us the types to which Buddhism in its degeneration and degradation +reverted. The strange far-off oriental words which today scholars +discuss, theosophists manipulate, and charlatans employ as catchpennies +were common words in the every-day speech of the Hindu people, two or +three thousand years ago. + +Glancing rapidly at the condition of religion in the era ushering in the +birth of Buddha, we note that the old joyousness of life manifested in +the Vedic hymns is past, their fervor and glow are gone. In the morning +of Hindu life there was no caste, no fixed priesthood, and no idols; but +as wealth, civilization, easy and settled life succeeded, the taste for +pompous sacrifices conducted by an hereditary priestly caste increased. +Greater importance was laid upon the detail of the ceremonies, the +attention of the worshipper being turned from the deities "to the +minutiæ of rites, the erection of altars, the fixing of the proper +astronomical moments for lighting the fire, the correct pronunciation of +prayers, and to the various requisite acts accompanying a sacrifice."[6] +In the chapter of decay which time wrote and literature reflects, we +find "grotesque reasons given for every minute rite, dogmatic +explanation of texts, penances for every breach of form and rule, and +elaborate directions for every act and moment of the worshipper." + +The literature shows a degree of credulity and submission on the part of +the people and of absolute power on the part of the priests, which +reminds us of the Middle Ages in Europe. The old inspiring wars with the +aborigines are over. The time of bearing a noble creed, meaning culture +and civilization as against savagery and idolatry, is past, and only +intestine quarrels and local strife have succeeded. The age of creative +literature is over, and commentators, critics and grammarians have +succeeded. Still more startling are the facts disclosed by literary +history. The liquid poetry has become frozen prose; the old flaming fuel +of genius is now slag and ashes. We see Hindus doing exactly what Jewish +rabbis, and after them Christian schoolmen and dogma-makers, did with +the old Hebrew poems and prophecies. Construing literally the prayers, +songs and hopes of an earlier age, they rebuild the letter of the text +into creeds and systems, and erect an amazing edifice of steel-framed +and stone-cased tradition, to challenge which is taught to be heresy and +impiety. The poetical similes used in the Rig Vedas have been +transformed into mythological tales. In the change of language the Vedas +themselves are unreadable, except by the priests, who fatten on popular +beliefs in the transmigration of souls and in the power of priestcraft +to make that transmigration blissful--provided liberal gifts are duly +forthcoming. Idolatry and witchcraft are rampant. Some saviour, some +light was needed. + + +Buddhism a Logical Product of Hindu Thought. + + +At such a time, probably 557 B.C., was born Shaka, of the Muni clan, at +Kapilavastu, one hundred miles northeast of Benares. We pass over the +details[7] of the life of him called Prince, Lord, Lion of the Tribe of +Shaka, and Saviour; of his desertion of wife and child, called the first +Great Renunciation; of his struggles to obtain peace; of his +enlightenment or Buddhahood; of his second or Greater Renunciation; of +merit on account of austerities; and give the story told in a mountain +of books in various tongues, but condensed in a paragraph by Romesh +Chunder Dutt. + + "At an early age, Prince Gautama left his royal home, and his + wife, and new-born child, and became a wanderer and a mendicant, + to seek a way of salvation for man. Hindu rites, accompanied by + the slaughter of innocent victims, repelled his feelings. Hindu + philosophy afforded him no remedy, and Hindu penances and + mortifications proved unavailing after he had practised them for + years. At last, by severe contemplation, he discovered the long + coveted truth; a holy and calm life, and benevolence and love + toward all living creatures seemed to him the essence of + religion. Self-culture and universal love--this was his + discovery--this is the essence of Buddhism."[8] + +From one point of view Buddhism was the logical continuance of Aryan +Hindoo philosophy; from another point of view it was a new departure. +The leading idea in the Upanishads is that the object of the wise man +should be to know, inwardly and consciously, the Great Soul of all; and +by this knowledge his individual soul would become united to the Supreme +Being, the true and absolute self. This was the highest point reached in +the old Indian philosophy[9] before Buddha was born. + +So, looking at Buddhism in the perspective of Hindu history and thought, +we may say that it is doubtful whether Gautama intended to found a new +religion. As, humanly speaking, Saul of Tarsus saved Christianity from +being a Jewish sect and made it universal, so Gautama extricated the new +enthusiasm of humanity from the priests. He made Aryan religion the +property of all India. What had been a rare monopoly as narrow as +Judaism, he made the inheritance of all Asia. Gautama was a protestant +and a reformer, not an agnostic or skeptic. It is more probable that he +meant to shake off Brahmanism and to restore the pure and original form +of the Aryan religion of the Vedas, as far as it was possible to do so. +In one sense, Buddhism was a revolt against hereditary and sacerdotal +privilege--an attack of the people against priestcraft. The Buddha and +his disciples were levellers. In a different age and clime, but along a +similar path, they did a work analogous to that of the so-called +Anabaptists in Europe and Independents in England, centuries later. + +It is certain, however, that Buddhism has grown logically out of ancient +Hinduism. In its monastic feature--one of its most striking +characteristics--we see only the concentration and reduction to system, +of the old life of the ascetics and religious mendicants recognized and +respected by Hinduism. For centuries the Buddhist monks and nuns were +regarded in India as only a new sect of ascetics, among many others +which flourished in the land. + +The Buddhist doctrine of karma, or in Japanese, _ingwa_, of cause and +effect, whereby it is taught that each effect in this life springs from +a cause in some previous incarnation, and that each act in this life +bears its fruit in the next, has grown directly out of the Hindu idea of +the transmigration of souls. This idea is first inculcated in the +Upanishads, and is recognized in Hindu systems of philosophy. + +So also the Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana, or the attainment of a sinless +state of existence, has grown out of the idea of final union of the +individual soul with the Universal Soul, which is also inculcated in the +Upanishads. Yet, as we shall see, the Buddhists were, in the eyes of the +Brahmans, atheists, because in the ken of these new levellers gods and +men were put on the same plane. Brahmanism has never forgiven Buddhism +for ignoring the gods, and the Hindoos finally drove out the followers +of Gautama from India. It eventuated that after a millenium or so of +Buddhism in India, the old gods, Brahma, Indra, etc., which at first had +been shut out from the ken of the people, by Gautama, found their places +again in the popular faith of the Buddhists, who believed that the gods +as well as men, were all progressing toward the blessed Nirvana--that +sinless life and holy calm, which is the Buddhist's heaven and +salvation. + +It is certainly very curious, and in a sense amusing, to find +flourishing in far-off Japan the old gods of India, that one would +suppose to have been utterly dead and left behind in oblivion. As +acknowledged devas or kings and bodhisattvas or soon-to-be Buddhas, not +a few once defunct Hindu gods, utterly unknown to early Buddhism, have +forced their way into the company of the elect. Though most of them have +not gained the popularity of the indigenous deities of Nippon, they yet +attract many worshippers. They remind one that amid the coming of the +sons of Elohim before Jehovah, "the satan" came also.[10] + +From another point of view Buddhism was a new religion; for it swept +away and out of the field of its vision the whole of the World or +Universal Soul theory. "It proclaimed a salvation which each man could +gain for himself and by himself, in this world during this life, without +the least reference to God, or to gods, either great or small." "It +placed the first importance on knowledge; but it was no longer a +knowledge of God, it was a clear perception of the real nature as they +supposed it to be of men and things." In a word, Gautama never reached +the idea of a personal self-existent God, though toward that truth he +groped. He was satisfied too soon.[11] His followers were even more +easily satisfied with abstractions. When Gautama saw the power over the +human heart of inward culture and of love to others, he obtained peace, +he rested on certainty, he became the Buddha, that is, the enlightened. +Perhaps he was not the first Buddhist. It may be that the historical +Gautama, if so he is worthy to be called, merely made the sect or the +new religion famous. Hardly a religion in the full sense of the word, +Buddhism did not assume the rôle of theology, but sought only to know +men and things. In one sense Buddhism is atheism, or rather, atheistic +humanism. In one sense, also, the solution of the mystery of God, of +life, and of the universe, which Gautama and his followers attained, was +one of skepticism rather than of faith. Buddhism is, relatively, a very +modern religion; it is one of the new faiths. Is it paradoxical to say +that the Buddhists are "religious atheists?" + + +The Buddhist Millennium in India. + + +Let us now look at the life of the Founder. Day after day, the +pure-souled teacher attracted new disciples while he with alms-bowl went +around as mendicant and teacher. Salvation merely by self-control, and +love without any rites, ceremonies, charms, priestly powers, gods or +miracles, formed the burden of his teachings. "Thousands of people left +their homes, embraced the holy order and became monks, ignoring caste, +and relinquishing all worldly goods except the bare necessaries of life, +which they possessed and enjoyed in common." Probably the first monastic +_system_ of the world, was that of the Indian Buddhists. + +The Buddha preached the good news during forty-five years. After his +death, five hundred of his followers assembled at Rajagriha and chanted +together the teachings of Gautama, to fix them in memory. A hundred +years later, in 377 B.C., came the great schism among the Buddhists, out +of which grew the divisions known as Northern and Southern Buddhism. +There was disagreement on ten points. A second council was therefore +called, and the disputed points determined to the satisfaction of one +side. Thereupon the seceders went away in large numbers, and the +differences were never healed; on the contrary, they have widened in the +course of ages. + +The separatists began what may be called the Northern Buddhisms of +Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan. The orthodox or Southern Buddhists +are those of Ceylon, Burma and Siam. The original canon of Southern +Buddhism is in Pali; that of Northern Buddhism is in Sanskrit. The one +is comparatively small and simple; the other amazingly varied and +voluminous. The canon of Southern scripture is called the Hinayana, the +Little or Smaller Vehicle; the canon of Northern Buddhism is named the +Mahayana or Great Vehicle. Possibly, also, besides the Southern and +Northern Buddhisms, the Buddhism of Japan may be treated by itself and +named Eastern Buddhism. + +In the great council called in 242 B.C., by King Asoka, who may be +termed the Constantine of Buddhism, the sacred texts were again chanted. +It was not until the year 88 B.C. in Ceylon, six hundred years after +Gautama, that the three Pitakas, Boxes or Baskets, were committed to +writing in the Pali language. In a word, Buddhism knows nothing of +sacred documents or a canon of scripture contemporary with its first +disciples. + +The splendid Buddhist age of India lasted nearly a thousand years, and +was one of superb triumphs in civilization. It was an age of spiritual +emancipation, of freedom from idol worship, of nobler humanity and of +peace.[12] It was followed by the Puranic epoch and the dark ages. Then +Buddhism was, as some say, "driven out" from the land of its birth, +finding new expansion in Eastern and Northern Asia, and again, a still +more surprising development in the ultima-Thule of the Asiatic +continent, Japan. There is now no Buddhism in India proper, the faith +being represented only in Ceylon and possibly also on the main land, by +the sect of the Jains, and peradventure in Persia by Babism which +contains elements from three religions.[13] Like Christianity, Buddhism +was "driven out" of its old home to bless other nations of the world. It +is probably far nearer the truth to say that Buddhism was never expelled +from India, but rather that it died by disintegration and relapse.[14] +It had become Brahmanism again. The old gods and the old idol-worship +came back. It is in Japan that the ends of the earth, eastern and +western civilization, and the freest and fullest or at least the latest +developments of Christianity and of Buddhism, have met. + +In its transfer to distant lands and its developments throughout Eastern +Asia, the faith which had originated in India suffered many changes. +Dividing into two great branches, it became a notably different religion +according as it moved along the southern, the northern, or the eastern +channel. By the vehicle of the Pali language it was carried to Ceylon, +Siam, Burma, Cambodia and the islands of the south; that is, to southern +or peninsular and insular Asia. Here there is little evidence of any +striking departure from the doctrines of the Pali Pitakas; and, as +Southern Buddhism does not greatly concern us in speaking of the +religions of Japan, we may pass it by. For although the books and +writings belonging to Southern Buddhism, and comprehended under the +formula of the Hinayana or Smaller Vehicle, have been studied in China, +Korea and Japan, yet they have had comparatively little influence upon +doctrinal, ritualistic, or missionary development in Chinese Asia. + +Astonishingly different has been the case with the Northern Buddhisms +which are those of Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, China, Korea and +Japan. As luxuriant as the evolutions of political and dogmatic +Christianity and as radical in their departures from the primitive +simplicity of the faith, have been these forms of Buddhist doctrine, +ritual and organization. We cannot now dwell upon the wonderful details +of the vast and complicated system, differing so much in various +countries. We pass by, or only glance at, the philosophy of the Punjaub; +the metaphysics of Nepal--with its developments into what some writers +consider to be a close approach to monotheism, and others, indeed, +monotheism itself; the system of Lamaism in Tibet, which has paralleled +so closely the development of the papal hierarchy; the possibly two +thousand years' growth and decay of Chinese Buddhism; the varieties of +the Buddhism of Mongolia--almost swamped in the Shamanistic +superstitions of these dwellers on the plains; the astonishing success, +quick ripening, decay, and almost utter annihilation, among the learned +and governing classes, of Korean Buddhism;[15] and study in detail only +Eastern or Japanese Buddhism. + +We shall in this lecture attempt but two things: + +I. A summary of the process of thought by which the chief features of +the Northern Buddhisms came into view. + +II. An outline of the story of Japanese Buddhism during the first three +centuries of its existence. + + +The Development of Northern Buddhism + + +Leaving the early Buddha legends and the solid ground of history, the +makers of the newer Buddhist doctrines in Nepal occupied themselves with +developing the theory of Buddhahood and of the Buddhas;[16] for we must +ever remember that Buddha[17] is not a proper name, but a common +adjective meaning enlightened, from the root to know, perceive, etc. +They made constant and marvellous additions to the primitive doctrine, +giving it a momentum which gathered force as the centuries went on; and, +as propaganda, it moved against the sun. + +This development theory ran along the line of _personification_. Not +being satisfied with "the wheel of the law," it personified both the hub +and the spokes. It began with the spirit of kindness out of which all +human virtues rise, and by the power of which the Buddhist organization +will conquer all sin and unbelief and become victorious throughout the +world. This personification is called the Maitreya Buddha, the +unconquerable one, or the future Buddha of benevolence, the Buddha who +is yet to come. Here was a tremendous and revolutionary movement in the +new faith, the beginning of a long process. It was as though the +Christians had taken the particular attributes, justice, mercy, etc., of +God and, after personifying each one, deified it, thus multiplying gods. + +What was the soil for the new sowing, and what was the harvest to be +reaped in due time? + +With many thousands of India Buddhists whose minds were already steeped +in Brahministic philosophy and mythology, who were more given to +speculation and dreaming than to self-control and moral culture, and who +mourned for the dead gods of Hinduism, the soil was already prepared for +a growth wholly abnormal to true Buddhism, but altogether in keeping +with the older Brahministic philosophies from which these dreamers had +been but partially converted to Buddhism.[18] + +The seed is found in the doctrine which already forms part of the system +of the Little Vehicle, when it tells of the personal Buddhas and the +Buddhas elect, or future Buddhas. In the Jataka stories, or Birth tales, +"the Buddha elect" is the title given to each of the beings, man, angel, +or animal, who is held to be a Bodhisattva, or the future Buddha in one +of his former births. The title Bodhisattva[19] is the name given to a +being whose Karma will produce other beings in a continually ascending +scale of goodness until it becomes vested in a Buddha. Or, in the more +common use of the word, a Bodhisattva (Japanese bosatsu) is a being +whose essence has become intelligence, and who will have to pass through +human existence once more only before entering Nirvana. + +In Southern Buddhist temples, the pure white image of Maitreya is +sometimes found beside the idol representing Gautama or the historical +Buddha. While in Southern Buddhism the idea of this possibility of +development seems to have been little seized upon and followed up, in +Northern Buddhism as early as 400 A.D. the worship of two Buddhas elect +named Manjusri and Avalokitesvara, or personified Wisdom and Power, had +already become general. Manjusri,[20] the Great Being or "Prince Royal," +is the personification of wisdom, and especially of the mystic religious +insight which has produced the Great Vehicle or canon of Northern +Buddhism; or, as a Japanese author says, the third collection of the +Tripitaka was that made by Manjusri and Maitreya. Avalokitesvara,[21] +the Lord of View or All-sided One, is the personification of power, the +merciful protector and preserver of the world and of men. Both are +frequently and voluminously mentioned in the Saddharma Pundarika,[22] in +which the good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric, and of which we +shall have occasion frequently to speak. Manjusri is the mythical author +of this influential work,[23] the twenty-fourth chapter being devoted to +a glorification of the character, the power, and the advantages to be +derived from the worship of Avalokitesvara. + + +The Creation of Gods. + + +Possibly the name of Manjusri may be derived from that of the Indian +mendicant, the traditional introducer of Buddhism and its accompanying +civilization into Nepal. The Tibetans identify him with the minister of +a great King Strongstun, who lived in the seventh century of our era and +who was the great patron of Buddhism into Tibet. He is the founder of +that school of thought which ended in the Great Vehicle,--the literature +of Northern Buddhism.[24] From Nepal to Japan, in the books of the +Northern Buddhists there is certainly much confusion between the +metaphysical being and the legendary civilizer and teacher of Nepal. The +other name, Avalokitesvara, which means the Lord of View, "the lord who +looks down from on high," instead of being a purely metaphysical +invention, may he only an adaptation of one epithet of Shiva, which +meant Master of View. + +Later and by degrees the attributes were separated and each one was +personified. For example, the power of Avalokitesvara was separated from +his protecting care and providence. His power was personified as the +bearer of the thunder-bolt, or the lightning-handed one; and this new +personification added to the two other Buddhas elect, made a triad, the +first in Northern Buddhism. In this triad, the thunder-bolt holder was +Vagrapani; Manjusri was the deified teacher; and Avalokitesvara was the +Spirit of the Buddhas present in the church. Before many centuries had +elapsed, these imaginary beings, with a few others, had become gods to +whom men prayed; and thus Buddhism became a religion with some kind of +theism,--which Gautama had expressly renounced. + +If any one wants proof of this reversion into the old religions of +India, he has only to notice that the name, given to the new god made by +personification of the attribute of power, Vagrapani, or Vadjradhara, or +the bearer of the thunder-bolt, had formerly been used as an epithet of +the old fire-god of the Vedas, Indra. + +It were tedious to recount all the steps in the further development of +Northern Buddhism.[25] Suffice it to say, that out of ideas and +principles set forth in the earlier Buddhism, and under the generating +force reborn from old Brahminism, the Dhyani Buddhas (that is the +Buddhas evolved out of the mind in mystic trance) were given their elect +Buddhas; and so three sets of five were co-ordinated.[26] That is, +first, five pre-penultimate Buddhas; then their Bodhisattvas or +penultimate Buddhas; and then the ultimate or human Buddhas, of which +Gautama was one. Or, first abstraction; then pre-human effluence; then +emanation. + +All this multiplication of beings is unknown to Southern Buddhism, +unknown to the Saddharma Pundarika, and very probably unknown also to +the Chinese pilgrims who visited India in the fifth and seventh +centuries. Professor Rhys Davids, in his compact little manual of +Buddhism, says:[27] + + "Among those hypothetical beings--the creations of a sickly + scholasticism, hollow abstractions without life or reality--the + fourth Amitabha, 'Immeasurable Light,' whose Bodhisatwa is + Avalokitesvara, and whose emanation is Gautama, occupies of + course the highest and most important rank. Surrounded by + innumerable Bodhisatwas, he sits enthroned under a Bo-tree in + Sukhavati, i.e., the Blissful, a paradise of heavenly joys, + whose description occupies whole tedious books of the so-called + Great Vehicle. By this theory, each of the five Buddhas has + become three, and the fourth of these five sets of three is the + second Buddhist Trinity, the belief in which must have arisen + after the seventh century of our era." + +Buddhism has been called the light of Asia, and Gautama its illuminator; +but certainly the light has not been pure, nor the products of its +illumination wholesome. Pardon an illustration. In Christian churches +and cathedrals of Europe, there is still a great prejudice against the +use of pipes, and of gas made from coal, because of the machinery and of +the impure emanations. The prejudice is a wholesome one; for we all know +that most of the elements forming common illuminating gas are worthless +except to convey the very small amount of light-giving material, and +that these elements in combustion vitiate the air and give off +deleterious products which corrode, tarnish and destroy. Now though +Buddhist doctrine may have been the light of India, yet to reach the +Northern and Eastern nations of Asia it had, apparently, to be +adulterated for conveyance, as much as is the illuminating gas in our +cities. From the first, Northern Buddhism showed a wonderful affinity, +not only for Brahministic superstitions and speculations, but for almost +everything else with which it came in contact in countries beyond India. +Instead of combating, it absorbed. It adapted itself to circumstances, +and finding certain beliefs prevalent among the people, it imbibed them, +and thus gained by accretion until its bulk, both of beliefs and of +disciples, was in the inverse ratio of its purity. Even to-day, the +occult theosophy of "Isis Unveiled," and of the school of writers such +as Blavatsky, Olcott, etc., seems to be a perfectly logical product of +the Northern Buddhisms, and may be called one of them; yet it is simply +a repetition of what took place centuries ago. Most of the primitive +beliefs and superstitions of Nepal and Tibet were absorbed in the ever +hungry and devouring system of Buddhistic scholasticism. + + +The Making of a Pantheon. + + +Let us glance again at this Nepal Buddhism. In the tenth century we find +what at first seems to be a growth out of Polytheism into Monotheism, +for a new Being, to whom the attributes of infinity, self-existence and +omniscience are ascribed, is invented and named Adi-Buddha, or the +primordial Buddha. According to the speculations of the thinkers, he had +evolved himself out of the five Dhyani-Buddhas by the exercise of the +five meditations, while each of these had evolved out of itself by +wisdom and contemplation, the corresponding Buddhas elect. Again, each +of the latter evolved out of his own essence a material world,--our +present world being the fourth of these, that is of Avaloki. One almost +might consider that this setting forth of the primordial Buddha was real +Monotheism; but on looking more carefully one sees that it is as little +real Monotheism as was possible in the system of Gnosticism. Indeed the +force of evolution could not stop here; for, since even this primordial +Buddha rested upon Ossa of hypothesis piled upon Pelion of hypothesis, +there must be other hypotheses yet to come, and so the Tantra system, a +compound of old Brahminism with the magic and witchcraft and Shamanism +of Northern Asia burst into view. As this was to travel into Japan and +be hailed as purest Buddhism, let us note how this tenth century Tantra +system grew up. To see this clearly, is to look upon the parable of the +man with the unclean spirit being acted out on a vast scale in history. + +In the sixth century of our era, one Asanga, or Asamga, wrote the +Shastra, called the Shastra Yoga-chara Bhumi.[28] With great dexterity +he erected a sort of clearing-house for both the corrupt Brahminism and +corrupt Buddhism of his day, and exchanging and rearranging the gods and +devils in both systems, he represented them as worshippers and +supporters of the Buddha and Avalokitesvara. In such a system, the old +primitive Buddhism of the noble eight-fold path of self-conquest and +pure morals was utterly lost. Instead of that, the worshipper gave his +whole powers to obtaining occult potencies by means of magic phrases and +magic circles. Then grew up whole forests of monasteries and temples, +with an outburst of devilish art representing many-headed and many-eyed +and many-handed idols on the walls, on books, on the roadside, with +manifold charms and phrases the endless repetitions of which were +supposed to have efficacy with the hypothetical being who filled the +heavens. That was _the_ age of idols for China as well as for India; and +the old Chinese house, once empty, swept and garnished by Confucianism, +was now filled with a mob of unclean spirits each worse than the first. +With more courageous logic than the more matter-of-fact Chinese, the +Tibetan erected his prayer-mills[29] and let the winds of heaven and the +flowing waters continually multiply his prayers and holy syllables. And +these inventions were duly imported into Japan, and even now are far +from being absent.[30] + +Passing over for the present the history of Buddhism in China,[31] +suffice it to say that the Buddhism which entered Japan from Korea in +the sixth century, was not the simple atheism touched with morality, the +bald skepticism or benevolent agnosticism of Gautama, but a religion +already over a thousand years old. It was the system of the Northern +Buddhists. These, dissatisfied, or unsatisfied, with absorption into a +passionless state through self-sacrifice and moral discipline, had +evolved a philosophy of religion in which were gods, idols and an +apparatus of conversion utterly unknown to the primitive faith. + + +Buddhism Already Corrupted when brought to Japan. + + +This sixth century Buddhism in Japan was not the army with banners, +which was introduced still later with the luxuriances of the fully +developed system, its paradise wonderfully like Mohammed's and its +over-populated pantheon. It was, however, ready with the necessary +machinery, both material and mental, to make conquest of a people which +had not only religious aspirations, but also latent aesthetic +possibilities of a high order. As in its course through China this +Northern Buddhism had acted as an all-powerful absorbent of local +beliefs and superstitions, so in Japan it was destined to make a more +remarkable record, and, not only to absorb local ideas but actually to +cause the indigenous religion to disappear. + +Let us inquire who were the people to whom Buddhism, when already +possessed of a millenium of history, entered its Ultima Thule in Eastern +Asia. At what stage of mutual growth did Buddhism and the Japanese meet +each other? + +Instead of the forty millions of thoroughly homogeneous people in +Japan--according to the census of December 31, 1892--all being loyal +subjects of one Emperor, we must think of possibly a million of hunters, +fishermen and farmers in more or less warring clans or tribes. These +were made up of the various migrations from the main land and the drift +of humanity brought by the ocean currents from the south; Ainos, +Koreans, Tartars and Chinese, with probably some Malay and Nigrito +stock. In the central part of Hondo, the main island, the Yamato tribe +dominated, its chief being styled Suméru-mikoto, or Mikado. To the south +and southwest, the Mikado's power was only more or less felt, for the +Yamato men had a long struggle in securing supremacy. Northward and +eastward lay great stretches of land, inhabited by unsubdued and +uncivilized native tribes of continental and most probably of Korean +origin, and thus more or less closely akin to the Yamato men. Still +northward roamed the Ainos, a race whose ancestral seats may have been +in far-off Dravidian India. Despite the constant conflicts between the +Yamato people who had agriculture and the beginnings of government, law +and literature, and their less civilized neighbors, the tendency to +amalgamation was already strong. The problem of the statesman, was to +extend the sway of the Mikado over the whole Archipelago. + +Shintō was, in its formation, made use of as an engine to conquer, +unify and civilize all the tribes. In one sense, this conquest of men +having lower forms of faith, by believers in the Kami no Michi, or Way +of the Gods, was analogous to the Aryan conquest of India and the +Dravidians. However this may be, the energy and valor displayed in these +early ages formed the ideal of Yamato Damashii (The Spirit of +unconquerable Japan), which has so powerfully influenced the modern +Japanese. We shall see, also, how grandly Buddhism also came to be a +powerful force in the unification of the Japanese people. At first, the +new faith would be rejected as an alien invader, stigmatized as a +foreign religion, and, as such, sure to invoke the wrath of the native +gods. Then later, its superiority to the indigenous cult would be seen +both by the wise and the practically minded, and it would be welcomed +and enjoyed. + + +The Inviting Field. + + +Never had a new religion a more inviting field or one more sure of +success, than had Buddhism on stepping from the Land of Morning Dawn to +the Land of the Rising Sun. Coming as a gorgeous, dazzling and +disciplined array of all that could touch the imagination, stimulate the +intellect and move the heart of the Japanese, it was irresistible. For +the making of a nation, Shintō was as a donkey engine, compared to +the system of furnaces, boilers, shaft and propeller of a +ten-thousand-ton steel cruiser, moved by the energies of a million years +of sunbeam force condensed into coal and released again through +transmigration by fire. + +All accounts in the vernacular Japanese agree, that their Butsu-dō or +Buddhism was imported from Korea. In the sixteenth year of Kéitai, the +twenty-seventh Mikado (of the list made centuries after, and the +eleventh after the impossible line of the long-lived or mythical +Mikados), A.D. 534, it is said that a man from China brought with him an +image of Buddha into Yamato, and setting it up in a thatched cottage +worshipped it. The people called it "foreign-country god." Visitors +discussed with him the religion of Shaka, as the Japanese call +Shakyamuni, and some little knowledge of Buddhism was gained, but no +notable progress was made until A.D. 552, which is generally accepted +and celebrated as the year of the introduction of the faith into Japan. +Then a king of Hiaksai in Korea, sent over to the court and to the +Mikado golden images of the Buddha and of the triad of "precious ones," +with Sutras and sacred books. These holy relics are believed to be still +preserved in the famous temple of Zenkōji,[32] belonging to the +temple of the Tendai Sect at Nagano in Northern Japan, this shrine being +dedicated to Amida and his two followers Kwannon (Avalokitesvara) and +Dai-séi-shi (Mahastanaprapta). This group of idols, as the custodian of +the shrine will tell you, was made by Shaka himself out of gold, found +at the base of the tree which grows at the centre of the universe. After +remaining in Korea for eleven hundred and twelve years, it was brought +to Japan. Mighty is the stream of pilgrims which continually sets toward +the holy place. A common proverb declares that even a cow can find her +way thither. + +In A.D. 572 and again in 584, new images, sutras and teachers came over +from another part of Korea. The Mikado called a council to determine +what should be done with the idols, to the worship of which he was +himself inclined; but a majority were against the idea of insulting the +native gods by receiving the presents and thus introducing a foreign +religion. The minister of state, however, one Soga no Inamé, expressed +himself in favor of Buddhism, and put the images in his country house +which he converted into a temple. When, soon after, the land was +afflicted with a pestilence, the opponents of the new faith attributed +it to the wrath of the gods at the hospitality given to the new idols. +War broke out, fighting took place, and the Buddhist temple was burned +and the idols thrown into the river, near Osaka. Great portents +followed, and the enemies of Buddhism were, it is said, burned up by +flames descending from heaven. + +The tide then turned in favor of the Indian faith, and Soga rebuilt his +temple. Priests and missionaries were invited to come over from Korea, +being gladly furnished by the allies of Japan from the state of Shinra, +and Buddhism again flourished at the court, but not yet among the +people. Once more, fighting broke out; and again the temple of the alien +gods was destroyed, only to be rebuilt again. The chief champion of +Buddhism was the son of a Mikado, best known by his posthumous title, +Shōtoku,[33] who all his life was a vigorous defender and propagator +of the new faith. Through his influence, or very probably through the +efforts of the Korean missionaries, the devastating war between the +Japanese and Koreans was ended. In the peace which followed, notable +progress was made through the vigor of the missionaries encouraged by +the regent Shōtoku, so that at his death in the year A.D. 621, there +were forty-six temples, and thirteen hundred and eighty-five priests, +monks and nuns in Japan. Many of the most famous temples, which are now +full of wealth and renown, trace their foundations to this era of +Shōtoku and of his aunt, the Empress Suiko (A.D. 593-628), who were +friendly to the new religion. Shōtoku may be almost called the +founder of Japanese Buddhism. Although a layman, he is canonized and +stands unique in the Pantheon of Eastern Buddhism, his image being +prominently visible in thousands of Japanese temples. + +Legend, in no country more luxurious than in Japan, tells us that the +exotic religion made no progress until Amida, the boundlessly Merciful +One, assuming the shape of a concubine of the imperial prince who +afterward became the Mikado Yomé, gave birth to Shōtoku, who was +himself Kwannon or the goddess of mercy in human form; and that when he +grew up, he took to wife an incarnation of the Buddha elect, +Mahastana-prapta, or in Japanese Dai-séi-shi, whose idol is honored at +Zenkōji. + + +The New Faith Becomes Popular. + + +Then Buddhism became popular, passing out from the narrow circle of the +court to be welcomed by the people. In A.D. 623, monks came over +directly from China, and we find mentioned two sects, the Sanron and the +Jōjitsu, which are no longer extant in Japan. In about A.D. 650 the +fame of Yuan Chang (Hiouen Thsang) the Chinese pilgrim to India, or the +holy land, reached-Japan; and his illustrious example was +enthusiastically followed. History now frequently repeated itself. The +Japanese monk, Dōshō, crossed the seas to China to gaze upon the +face and become the pupil of that illustrious Chinese pilgrim, who had +seen Buddha Land. Later on, other monks crossed to the land of Sinim, +until we find that in this and succeeding centuries, hundreds of +Japanese in their frail junks, braved the dangers of the stormy ocean, +in order to study Sanskrit, to read the old scriptures, to meet the new +lights of learning or revelation, and to become versed in the latest +fashions of religion. We find the pilgrims returning and founding new +sects or sub-sects, and stimulating by their enthusiasm the monks and +the home missionaries. In the year A.D. 700 the custom of cremation was +introduced. This wrought not only a profound change in customs, but also +became the seed of a rich crop of superstitions; since out of the +cremated bodies of the saints came forth the _shari_ or, in Sanskrit, +_sarira_. These hard substances or pellets, preserved in crystal +cabinets, are treated as holy gems or relics. Thus venerated, they +become the nuclei of cycles of fairy lore. + +In A.D. 710, the great monastery at Nara was founded; and here we must +notice or at least glance at the great throng of civilizing influences +that came in with Buddhism, and at the great army of artists, artisans +and skilled men and women of every sort of trade and craft. We note that +with the building of this great Nara monastery came another proof of +improvement and the added element of stability in Japanese civilization. +The ancient dread which the Japanese had, of living in any place where a +person had died was passing away. The nomad life was being given up. The +successor of a dead Mikado was no longer compelled to build himself a +new capital. The traveller in Japan, familiar with the ancient poetry of +the Manyō-shu, finds no fewer than fifty-eight sites[34] as the early +homes of the Japanese monarchy. Once occupying the proud position of +imperial capitals, they are now for the most part mere hamlets, +oftentimes mere names, with no visible indication of former human +habitation; while the old rivers or streams once gay with barges filled +with silken-robed lords and ladies, have dried up to mere washerwomen's +runnels. For the first time after the building of this Buddhist +monastery, the capital remained permanent, Nara being the imperial +residence during seventy-five years. Then beautiful Kiōto was chosen, +and remained the residence of successive generations of emperors until +1868. In A.D. 735, we read of the Kégon sect. Two years later a large +monastery, with a seven-storied pagoda alongside of it, was ordered to +be built in every province. These, with the temples and their +surroundings, and with the wayside shrines beginning to spring up like +exotic flowers, made a striking alteration in the landscape of Japan. +The Buddhist scriptures were numerously copied and circulated among the +learned class, yet neither now nor ever, except here and there in +fragments, were they found among the people. For, although the Buddhist +canon has been repeatedly imported, copied by the pen and in modern +times printed, yet no Japanese translation has ever been made. The +methods of Buddhism in regard to the circulation of the scriptures are +those, not of Protestantism but of Roman Catholicism. + +In the same year, the Mikado called for contributions from all the +people for the building of a colossal image of the Buddha, which was to +be of bronze and gilded. Yet, fearing that the Shintō gods might be +offended, a skilful priest named Giyoku,--probably the same man who +introduced the potter's wheel into Japan,--was sent to the shrine of the +Sun-goddess in Isé to present her with a shari or relic of the Buddha, +and find out how she would regard his project. After seven days and +nights of waiting, the chapel doors flew open and the loud-voiced oracle +was interpreted in a favorable sense. The night following the return of +the priest, the Mikado dreamed that the sun-goddess appeared to him in +her own form and said "The sun is Birushana" (Vairokana). This meant +that the chief deity of the Japanese proclaimed herself an avatar or +incarnation of one of the old Hindu gods.[35] She also approved the +project of the image; and in this same year, 759, native gold was found +in Japan, which sufficed for the gilding of the great idol that, after +eleven hundred years and many vicissitudes, still stands, the glory of a +multitude of pilgrims. + +In A.D. 754 a famous priest, who introduced the new Ritsu Sect, was able +to convert the Mikado and obtain four hundred converts in the imperial +court. Thirteen years later, another tremendous triumph of Buddhism was +scored and a deadly blow at Shintō was struck. The Buddhist priests +persuaded the Mikados to abandon their ancient title of Sumeru and adopt +that of Tennō (Heavenly King or Tenshi) Son of Heaven, after the +Chinese fashion. At the same time it was taught that the emperor could +gain great merit and sooner become a Buddha, by retiring from the active +cares of the throne and becoming a monk, with the title of Hō-ō, +or Cloistered Emperor. This innovation had far-reaching consequences, +profoundly altering the status of the Mikado, giving sensualism on the +one hand and priestcraft on the other, their coveted opportunity, +changing the ruler of the nation from an active statesman into a recluse +and the recluse into a pious monk, or a licentious devotee, as the case +might be. It paved the way for the usurpation of the government by the +unscrupulous soldier, "the man on horseback," who was destined to rule +Japan for seven hundred years, while the throne and its occupant were in +the shadow. One of a thousand proofs of the progress of the propaganda +scheme is seen in the removal of the Shintō temple which had stood at +Nikkō, and the erection in its place of a Buddhist temple. In A.D. +805 the famous Tendai, and in 806 the powerful Shingon Sect were +introduced. All was now ready in Japan for the growth not only of one +new Buddhism, but of several varieties among the Northern Buddhisms +which so arouse the astonishment of those who study the simple Pali +scriptures that contain the story of Gautama, and who know only the +southern phase of the faith, that is to Asia, relatively, what +Christianity is to Europe. We say relatively, for while Buddhism made +Chinese Asia gentle in manners and kind to animals, it covered the land +with temples, monasteries and images; on the other hand the religion of +Jesus filled Europe not only with churches, abbeys, monasteries and +nunneries, but also with hospitals, orphan asylums, lighthouses, schools +and colleges. Between the fruits of Christendom and Buddhadom, let the +world judge. + + +Survey and Summary. + + +To sum up: Buddhism is the humanitarian's, and also the skeptic's, +solution of the problem of the universe. Its three great distinguishing +characteristics are atheism, metempsychosis and absence of caste. It was +in its origin pure democracy. As against despotic priesthood and +oppressive hierarchy, it was congregational. Theoretically it is so yet, +though far from being so practically. It is certainly sacerdotal and +aristocratic in organization. As in any other system which has so vast a +hierarchy with so many grades of honor and authority, its theory of +democracy is now a memory. First preached in a land accursed by caste +and under spiritual and secular oppressions, it acknowledged no caste, +but declared all men equally sinful and miserable, and all equally +capable of being freed from sin and misery through Buddhahood, that is, +knowledge or enlightenment.[36] + +The three-fold principle laid down by Gautama, and now in dogma, +literature, art and worship, a triad or formal trinity, is, Buddha, the +attainment of Buddha-hood, or perfect enlightenment, through meditation +and benevolence; Karma, the law of cause and effect; and Dharma, +discipline or order; or, the Lord, the Law and the Church. Paying no +attention to questions of cosmogony or theogony, the universe is +accepted as an ultimate fact. Matter is eternal. Creation exists but not +a Creator. All is god, but God is left out of consideration. The gods +are even less than Buddhas. Humanity is glorified and the stress of all +teaching is upon this life. In a word: a sinless life, attainable by +man, through his own exertions in this world, above all the powers or +beings of the universe, is the essence of original Buddhism. Original +Nirvana meant death which ends all, extinction of existence. + +Gautama's immediate purpose was to emancipate himself and his followers +from the fetters of Brahminism. He tried to leave the world of Hindu +philosophy behind him and to escape from it. + +Did he succeed? Partially. + +Buddha hoped also to rise above the superstitions of the common people, +but in this he was again only partially successful.[37] "The clouds +returned after the rain." The old dead gods of Brahminism came back +under new names and forms. The malarial exhalations of corrupt +Brahmanistic philosophy, continually poisoned the atmosphere which +Buddha's disciples breathed. Still worse, as his religion transmigrated +into other lands, it became itself a history of transformation, until +to-day no religion on earth seems to be such a kaleidoscopic +phantasmagoria. Polytheism is rampant over the greater part of the +Buddhist world to-day. In the larger portion of Chinese Asia, pantheism +dominates the mind. In modern Babism,--a mixture of Mohammedanism, +Christianity and Buddhism,--there are streaks of dualism. If Monotheism +has ever dawned on the Buddhist world, it has been in fitful pulses as +in auroral flashes, soon to leave darkness darker. + +For us is this lesson: Buddhism, brought face to face with the problem +of the world's evil and possible improvement, evades it; begs the whole +question at the outset; prays: "Deliver us from existence. Save us from +life and give us as little as possible of it." Christianity faces the +problem and flinches not; orders advance all along the line of endeavor +and prays: "Deliver us from evil;" and is ever of good cheer, because +Captain and leader says: "I have overcome the world." Go, win it for me. +"I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more +abundantly." + + + + +CHAPTER VII - RIYŌBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM + + "All things are nothing but mind." + + "The doctrines of Buddhism have no fixed forms." + + "There is nothing in things themselves that enables us to + distinguish in them either good or evil, right or wrong. It is + but man's fancy that weighs their merits and causes him to + choose one and reject the other." + + "Non-individuality is the general principle of + Buddhism."--Outlines of the Mahāyāna. + + "It (Shintō) was smothered before reaching maturity, but + Buddhism and Confucianism had to disguise and change in order to + enter Japan." + + "Life has a limited span and naught may avail to extend it. This + is manifested by the impermanence of human beings. But yet + whenever necessary I will hereafter make my appearance from time + to time as a god, a sage, or a Buddha."--Last words of Shaka the + Buddha, in Japanese biography. + + "It is our opinion that Buddhism cannot long hold its ground, + and that Christianity must finally prevail throughout all + Japan.... Now, when Buddhism and Christianity are in conflict + for the ascendency, this indifference of the Japanese people to + the difference of sects is a great disadvantage to Buddhism. + That they should worship Jesus Christ with the same mind as they + do _Inari_ or _Miōjin_ is not at all inconsistent in their + estimation or contrary to their custom."--Fukuzawa, of + Tōkiō. + + "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, + follow him; but if Baal, then follow him."--Elijah. + + "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?"--Jesus. + + "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and + bitter?"--James. + + "What concord hath Christ with Belial?"--Paul. + + +CHAPTER VII - RIYŌBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM + +Syncretism in Religion. + + +Two centuries and a half of Buddhism in Japan, showed the leaders and +teachers of the Indian faith that complete victory over the whole nation +was yet very far off. The court had indeed been invaded and won. Even +the Mikado, the ecclesiastical head of Shintō, and the incarnation +and vicar of the heavenly gods, had not only embraced Buddhism, but in +many instances had shorn the hair and taken the vows of the monk. Yet +the people clung tenaciously to their old traditions, customs and +worship; for their gods were like themselves and indeed were of +themselves, since Shintō is only a transfiguration of Japanese life. +In the Japanese of those days we can trace the same traits which we +behold in the modern son of Nippon, especially his intense patriotism +and his warlike tendencies. To convert these people to the peaceful +dogmas of Siddartha and to make them good Buddhists, something more than +teaching and ritual was necessary. It was indispensable that there +should be complete substitution, all along the ruts and paths of +national habit, and especially that the names of the gods and the +festivals should be Buddhaized. + +Popular customs are nearly immortal and ineradicable. Though wars may +come, dynasties rise and fall, and convulsions in nature take place, yet +the people's manners and amusements are very slow in changing. If, in +the history of Christianity, the European missionaries found it +necessary in order to make conquest of our pagan forefathers, to baptize +and re-name without radically changing old notions and habits, so did it +seem equally indispensable that in Japan there should be some system of +reconciliation of the old and the new, some theological revolution, +which should either fulfil, absorb, or destroy Shintō. + +In the histories of religions in Western Asia, Northern Africa and +Europe, we are familiar with efforts at syncretism. We have seen how +Philo attempted to unite Hebrew righteousness and Greek beauty, and to +harmonize Moses and Plato. We know of Euhemerus, who thought he read in +the old mythologies not only the outlines of real history, but the +hieroglyphics of legend and tradition, truth and revelation.[1] Students +of Church history are well aware that this principle of interpretation +was followed only too generously by Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, +Lactantius, Chrysostom and others of the Church Fathers. Indeed, it +would be hard to find in any of the great religions of the world an +utter absence of syncretism, or the union of apparently hostile +religious ideas. In the Thousand and One Nights, we have an example in +popular literature. We see that the ancient men of India, Persia and +pre-Mohammedan Arabia now act and talk as orthodox Mussulmans. In +matters pertaining to art and furniture, the statue of Jupiter in Rome +serves for St. Peter, and in Japan that of the Virgin and child for the +Buddha and his mother.[2] + +What, however, chiefly concerns the critic and student of religions is +to inquire how far the process has been natural, and the efforts of +those who have brought about the union have been honest, and their +motives pure. The Bible pages bear witness, that Israelites too often +tried to make the same fountain give forth sweet waters and bitter, and +to grow thistles and grapes on the same stem, by uniting the cults of +Jehovah and the Baalim. King Solomon's enterprises in the same direction +are more creditable to him as a politician than as a worshipper.[3] In +the history of Christianity one cannot commend the efforts either of the +Gnostics or the neo-Platonists, nor always justify the medieval +missionaries in their methods. Nor can we accurately describe as +successful the ingenuity of Vossius, the Dutch theologian, who, +following the scheme of Euhemerus, discovered the Old Testament +patriarchs in the disguise of the gods of Paganism. Nor, even though +Germany be the land of learning, can the clear-headed scholar agree with +some of her rationalists, who are often busy in the same field of +industry, setting forth wild criticism as "science." + + +The Kami and the Buddhas. + + +In Japan, to solve the problem of reconciliation between the ancient +traditions of the divine ancestors and the dogmas of the Indian cult, it +was necessary that some master spirit, profoundly learned in the two +Ways, of the Kami and of the Buddhas, should be bold, and also as it +seems, crafty and unscrupulous. To convert a line of theocratic +emperors, whose authority was derived from their alleged divine origin +and sacerdotal character, into patrons and propagandists of Buddhism, +and to transform indigenous Shintō gods into Buddhas elect, or +Buddhas to come, or Buddhas in a former state of existence, were tasks +that might appall the most prodigious intellect, and even strain the +capacities of what one might imagine to be the universal religion for +all mankind. + +Yet from such a task continental Buddhism had not shrunk before and did +not shrink then, nor indeed from it do the insular Japanese sects shrink +now. Indeed, Buddhism is quite ready to adopt, absorb and swallow up +Japanese Christianity. With all encompassing tentacles, and with +colossal powers of digestion and assimilation, Northern Buddhism had +drawn into itself a large part of the Brahmanism out of which it +originally sprang,[4] reversing the old myth of Chronos by swallowing +its parents. It had gathered in, pretty much all that was in the heavens +above and the earth beneath and the waters that were under the earth, in +Nepal, Tibet, China, and Korea. Thoroughly exercised and disciplined, it +was ready to devour and digest all that the imagination of Japan had +conceived. + +We must remember that, at the opening of the ninth century, the Buddhism +rampant in China and indeed throughout Chinese Asia was the Tantra +system of Yoga-chara.[5] This compound of polytheism and pantheism, with +its sensuous paradise, its goddess of mercy and its pantheon of every +sort of worshipable beings, was also equipped with a system of +philosophy by which Buddhism could be adapted to almost every yearning +of human nature in its lowest or its highest form, and by which things +apparently contradictory could be reconciled. Furthermore--and this is +not the least important thing to consider when the work to be done is +for the ordinary man as an individual and for the common people in the +mass--it had also a tremendous apparatus for touching the imagination +and captivating the fancy of the unthinking and the uneducated. + +For example, consider the equipment of the Buddhist priests of the ninth +century in the matter of art alone. Shintō knows next to nothing of +art,[6] and indeed one might almost say that it knows little of +civilization. It is like ultra-Puritanic Protestantism and Iconoclasm. +Buddhism, on the contrary, is the mother of art, and art is her +ever-busy child and handmaid. The temples of the Kami were bald and +bare. The Kojiki told nothing of life hereafter, and kept silence on a +hundred points at which human curiosity is sure to be active, and at +which the Yoga system was voluble. Buddhism came with a set of visible +symbols which should attract the eye and fire the imagination, and +within ethical limits, the passions also. It was a mixed and variegated +system,--a resultant of many forces.[7] It came with the thought of +India, the art-influence of Greece, the philosophy of Persia, the +speculations of the Gnostics and, in all probability, with ideas +borrowed indirectly from Nestorian or other forms of Christianity; and +thus furnished, it entered Japan. + + +The Mission of Art. + + +Thus far the insular kingdom had known only the monochrome sketches of +the Chinese painters, which could have a meaning for the educated few +alone. The composite Tantra dogmas fed the fancy and stimulated the +imagination, filling them with pictures of life, past, present and +future. "The sketch was replaced by the illumination." Whole schools of +artists, imported from China and Korea, multiplied their works and +attracted the untrained senses of the people, by filling the temples +with a blaze of glory. "This result was sought by a gorgeous but studied +play of gold and color, and a lavish richness of mounting and +accessories, that appear strangely at variance with the begging bowl and +patched garments of primitive Buddhism."[8] The change in the Japanese +temple was as though the gray clouds had been kissed by the sun and made +to laugh rainbows. The country of the Fertile Plain of Sweet Flags was +transformed. It suddenly became the land wherein gods grew not singly +but in whole forests. Like the Shulamite, when introduced among the +jewelled ladies of Solomon's harem, so stood the boor amid the sheen and +gold of the new temples. + + "Gold was the one thing essential to the Buddhist altar-piece, + and sometimes, when applied on a black ground, was the only + material used. In all cases it was employed with an unsparing + hand. It appeared in uniform masses, as in the body of the + Buddha or in the golden lakes of the Western Paradise; in minute + diapers upon brocades and clothing, in circlets and undulating + rays, to form the glory surrounding the head of Amitaba; in + raised bosses and rings upon the armlets or necklets of the + Bodhisattvas and Devas, and in a hundred other manners. The + pigments chosen to harmonize with this display were necessarily + body colors of the most pronounced lines, and were untoned by + any trace of chiaroscuro. Such materials as these would surely + try the average artist, but the Oriental painter knew how to + dispose them without risk of crudity or gaudiness, and the + precious metal, however lavishly applied, was distributed over + the picture with a judgment that would make it difficult to + alter or remove any part without detriment to the beauty of the + work."[9] + +In our day, Japanese art has won its own place in the world's temple of +beauty. Even those familiar with the master-pieces of Europe do not +hesitate to award to the artists of Nippon a meed of praise which, +within certain limits, is justly applied to them equally with the +masters of the Italian, the Dutch, the Flemish, or the French schools. +It serves our purpose simply to point out that art was a powerful factor +in the religious conquest of the Japanese for the new doctrines of the +Yoga system, which in Japan is called Riyōbu, or Mixed Buddhism. + +We say Mixed Buddhism rather than Riyōbu Shintō, for Shintō was +less corrupted than swallowed up, while Buddhism suffered one more +degree of mixture and added one more chapter of decay. It increased in +its visible body, while in its mind it became less and less the religion +of Buddha and more and more a thing with the old Shintō heart still +in it, making a strange growth in the eyes of the continental believers. +To the Northern and Southern was now added an Eastern or Japanese +Buddhism. + +Who was the wonder-worker that annexed the Land of the Gods to Buddhadom +and re-read the Kojiki as a sutra, and all Japanese history and +traditions as only a chapter of the incarnations of Buddha? + + +Kōbō the Wonder Worker. + + +The Philo and Euhemerus of Japan was the priest Kukai, who was born in +the province of Sanuki, in the year 774. He is better known by his +posthumous title Kōbō Daishi, or the Great Teacher who promulgates +the Law. By this name we shall call him. About his birth, life and +death, have multiplied the usual swaddling bands of Japanese legend and +tradition,[10] and to his tomb at the temple on Mount Kō-ya, the +Campo Santo of Japanese Buddhism, still gather innumerable pilgrims. The +"hall of ten thousand lamps," each flame emblematic of the Wisdom that +saves, is not, indeed, in these days lighted annually as of old; but the +vulgar yet believe that the great master still lives in his mausoleum, +in a state of profoundly silent meditation. Into the hall of bones near +by, covering a deep pit, the teeth and "Adam's apple" of the cremated +bodies of believers are thrown by their relatives, though the pit is +cleared out every three years. The devotees believe that by thus +disposing of the teeth and "Adam's apple," they obtain the same +spiritual privileges as if they were actually entombed there, that is, +of being born again into the heaven of the Bodhisattva or the Pure Land +of Absolute Bliss, by virtue of the mystic formulas repeated by the +great master in his lifetime. + +Let us sketch the life of Kōbō, + +First named Toto-mono, or Treasure, by his parents, who sent him to +Kiōtō to be educated for the priesthood, the youth spent four +years in the study of the Chinese classics. Dissatisfied with the +teachings of Confucius, he became a disciple of a famous Buddhist +priest, named Iwabuchi (Rock-edge or throne). Soon taking upon himself +the vows of the monk, he was first named Kukai, meaning "space and sea," +or heaven and earth.[11] He overcame the dragons that assaulted him, by +prayers, by spitting at them the rays of the evening star which had +flown from heaven into his mouth and by repeating the mystic formulas +called Dharani.[12] Annoyed by hobgoblins with whom he was obliged to +converse, he got rid of them by surrounding himself with a consecrated +imaginary enclosure into which they were unable to enter against his +will. + +We mention these legends only to call the attention to the fact that +they are but copies of those already accepted in China at that time, and +are the logical and natural fruit of the Tantra school at which we have +glanced. In 804, Kōbō was appointed to visit the Middle Kingdom as +a government student. By means of his clever pen and calligraphic skill +he won his way into the Chinese capital. He became the favored disciple +of a priest who taught him the mystic doctrines of the Yoga. Having +acquired the whole of the system, and equipped himself with a large +library of Buddhist doctrinal works and still more with every sort of +ecclesiastical furniture and religious goods, he returned to Japan. + +Multitudes of wonders are reported about Kōbō, all of which show +the growth of the Tantra school. It is certain that his erudition was +immense, and that he was probably the most learned man of Japan in that +age, and possibly of any other age. Besides being a Japanese Ezra in +multiplying writings, he is credited with the invention of the +hira-gana, or running script, and if correctly so, he deserves on this +account alone an immortal honor equal to that of Cadmus or Sequoia. The +kana[13] is a syllabary of forty-seven letters, which by diacritical +marks, may be increased to seventy. The kata-kana is the square or print +form, the hira-kana is the round or "grass" character for writing. +Though not as valuable as a true phonetic alphabet, such as the Koreans +and the Cherokees possess, the _i-ro-ha_, or kana script, even though a +syllabary and not an alphabet, was a wonderful aid to popular writing +and instruction. + +Evidently the idea of the i-ro-ha, or Japanese ABC, was derived from the +Sanskrit alphabet, or, what some modern Anglo-Indian has called the +Deva-Nagari or the god-alphabet. There is no evidence, however, to show +that Kōbō did more than arrange in order forty-seven of the +easiest Chinese signs then used, in such a manner that they conveyed in +a few lines of doggerel the sense of a passage from a sutra in which the +mortality of man and the emptiness of all things are taught, and the +doctrine of Nirvana is suggested.[14] Hokusai, the artist, in a sketch +which embodies the popular idea of this bonze's immense industry, +represents him copying the shastras and sutras. Kōbō is on a seat +before a large upright sheet of paper. He holds a brush-pen in his +mouth, and one in each of his hands and feet, all moving at once.[15] +Favorite portions of the Buddhist scriptures were indeed so rapidly +multiplied in Japan in the ninth century, as to suggest the idea, that, +even in this early age, block printing had been imported from China, +whence also afterward, in all probability, it was exported into Europe +before the days of Gutenberg and Coster.[16] The popular imagination, +however, was more easily moved on seeing five brushes kept at work and +all at once by the muscles in the fingers, toes and mouth of one man. +Yet, had his life lasted six hundred years instead of sixty, he could +hardly have graven all the images, scaled all the mountain peaks, +confounded all the sceptics, wrought all the miracles and performed all +the other feats with which he is popularly credited.[17] + + +Kōbō Irenicon. + + +Kōbō indeed was both the Philo and Euhemerus of Japan, plus a +large amount of priestly cunning and what his enemies insist was +dishonesty and forgery. Soon after his return from China, he went to the +temples of Isé,[18] the most holy place of Shintō.[19] Taking a +reverent attitude before the chief shrine, that of Toko Uké Bimé no Kami +or Abundant-Food-Lady-God, or the deified Earth as the producer of food +and the upholder of all things upon its surface, the suppliant waited +patiently while fasting and praying. + +In this, Kōbō did but follow out the ordinary Shintō plan for +securing god-possession and obtaining revelation; that is, by starving +both the stomach and the brain.[20] After a week's waiting he obtained +the vision. The Food-possessing Goddess revealed to him the yoke (or +Yoga) by which he could harness the native and the imported gods to the +chariot of victorious Buddhism. She manifested herself to him and +delivered the revelation on which his system is founded, and which, +briefly stated, is as follows: + +All the Shintō deities are avatars or incarnations of Buddha. They +were manifestations to the Japanese, before Gautama had become the +enlightened one, or the jewel in the lotus, and before the holy wheel of +the law or the sacred shastras and sutras had reached the island empire. +Further more, provision was made for the future gods and deified holy +ones, who were to proceed from the loins of the Mikado, or other +Japanese fathers, according to the saying of Buddha which is thus +recorded in a Japanese popular work: + + "Life has a limited span, and naught may avail to extend it. + This is manifested by the impermanence of human beings, but yet, + whenever necessary, I will hereafter make my appearance from + time to time as a god (Kami), a sage (Confucian teacher), or a + Buddha (Hotoké)."[21] + +In a word, the Shintō goddess talked as orthodox (Yoga) Buddhism as +the ancient characters of the Indian, Persian and pre-Islam-Arabic +stories in the Arabian Nights now talk the purest Mohammedanism.[22] +According to the words put into Gautama's mouth at the time of his +death, the Buddha was already to reappear in the particular form and in +all the forms, acceptable to Shintōists, Confucianists, or Buddhists +of whatever sect. + +Descending from the shrine of vision and revelation, with a complete +scheme of reconciliation, with correlated catalogues of Shintō and +Buddhist gods, with liturgies, with lists of old popular festivals newly +named, with the apparatus of art to captivate the senses, Kōbō +forthwith baptized each native Shintō deity with a new +Chinese-Buddhistic name. For every Shintō festival he arranged a +corresponding Buddhist's saints' day or gala time. Then, training up a +band of disciples, he sent them forth proclaiming the new irenicon. + + +The Hindu Yoga Becomes Japanese Riyōbu. + + +It was just the time for this brilliant and able ecclesiastic to +succeed. The power and personal influence of the Mikado were weakening, +the court swarmed with monks, the rising military classes were already +safely under the control of the shavelings, and the pen of learning had +everywhere proved itself mightier than the sword and muscle. +Kōbō's particular dialectic weapons were those of the Yoga-chara, +or in Japanese, the Shingon Shu, or Sect of the True Word.[23] He, like +his Chinese master, taught that we can attain the state of the +Enlightened or Buddha, while in the present physical body which was born +of our parents. + +This branch of Buddhism is said to have been founded in India about A.D. +200, by a saint who made the discovery of an iron pagoda inhabited by +the holy one, Vagrasattva, who communicated the exact doctrine to those +who have handed it down through the Hindoo and Chinese patriarchs. The +books or scriptures of this sect are in three sutras; yet the essential +point in them is the Mandala or the circle of the Two Parts, or in +Japanese Riyōbu. Introduced into China, A.D. 720, it is known as the +Yoga-chara school. + +Kōbō finding a Chinese worm, made a Japanese dragon, able to +swallow a national religion. In the act of deglutition and the long +process of the digestion of Shintō, Japanese Buddhism became +something different from every other form of the faith in Asia. Noted +above all previous developments of Buddhism for its pantheistic +tendencies, the Shingon sect could recognize in any Shintō god, +demi-god, hero, or being, the avatar in a previous stage of existence of +some Buddhist being of corresponding grade. + +For example,[24] Amatérasŭ or Ten-Shō-Dai-Jin, the sun-goddess, +becomes Dai Nichi Niōrai or Amida, whose colossal effigies stand in +the bronze images Dai Butsu at Nara, Kiōto and Kamakura. Ojin, the +god of war, became Hachiman Dai Bosatsu, or the great Bodhisattva of the +Eight Banners. Adopted as their patron by the fighting Genji or Minamoto +warriors of mediæval times, the Buddhists could not well afford to have +this popular deity outside their pantheon. + +For each of the thirty days of the month, a Bodhisattva, or in Japanese +pronunciation Bosatsu, was appointed. Each of these Bodhisattvas became +a Dai Miō Jin or Great Enlightened Spirit, and was represented as an +avatar in Japan of Buddha in the previous ages, when the Japanese were +not yet prepared to receive the holy law of Buddhism. + +Where there were not enough Dai Miō Jin already existing in native +traditions to fill out the number required by the new scheme, new titles +were invented. One of these was Ten-jin, Heavenly being or spirit. The +famous statesman and scholar of the tenth century, Sugawara Michizané, +was posthumously named Tenjin, and is even to this day worshipped by +many children of Japan as he was formerly for a thousand years by nearly +all of them, as the divine patron of letters. Kompira, Benten and other +popular deities, often considered as properly belonging to Shintō, +"are evidently the offspring of Buddhist priestly ingenuity."[25] Out of +the eight millions or so of native gods, several hundred were catalogued +under the general term Gon-gen, or temporary manifestations of Buddha. +In this list are to be found not only the heroes of local tradition, but +even deified forces of nature, such as wind and fire. The custom of +making gods of great men after their death, thus begun on a large scale +by Kōbō, has gone on for centuries. Iyéyasŭ, the political +unifier of Japan, shines as a star of the first magnitude in the heavens +of the Riyōbu system, under the mime of Tō-shō-gū, or Great +Light of the East. The common people speak of him as Gon-gen Sama, the +latter word being an honorary form of address for all beings from a baby +to a Bosatsu. + +In this way, Kōbō arranged a sort of clearing-house or joint-stock +company in which the Bodhisattvas, kami and other miscellaneous beings, +in either the native or foreign religion, were mutually interchangeable. +In a large sense, this feat of priestly dexterity was but the repetition +in history, of that of Asanga with the Brahmanism and Buddhism of India +three centuries before. It was this Asanga who wrote the Yoga-chara +Bhumi. The succession of syncretists in India, China and Japan is +Asanga, Hiukiō and Kōbō. + + +The Happy Family of Riyōbu. + + +Nevertheless this attempt at making a happy family and ploughing with an +ox and ass in the same yoke, has not been an unqualified success. It +will sometimes happen that one god escapes the classification made by +the Buddhists and slips into the fold of Shintō, or _vice versa_; +while again the label-makers and pasters--as numerous in scholastic +Buddhism as in sectarian Christendom--have hard work to make the labels +stick. A popular Gon-gen or Dai-Miō-jin, whose name and renown has +for centuries attracted crowds of pilgrims, and yielded fat revenues as +regularly as the autumn harvests, is not readily surrendered by the old +Buddhist proprietors, however cleverly or craftily the bonzes may yield +outward conformity to governmental edicts. On the other hand, the +efforts, both archaeological and practical, which have been made in +recent years by fiercely zealous Shintōists, savor of the smartness +of New Japan more than they suggest either sincerity or edification. It +often requires the finest tact on the part of both the strenuous +Buddhists and the stalwart purists of Shintō, to extricate the +various gods out of the mixture and mess of Riyōbu Shintō, and to +keep them from jostling each other. + +This reclaiming and kidnapping of gods and transferring them from one +camp to another, has been especially active since 1870, when, under +government auspices, the Riyōbu temples were purged of all Buddhist +idols, furniture and influences. The term Dai Miō Jin, or Great +Illustrious Spirit, is no longer officially permitted to be used of the +old kami or gods of Shintō, who were known to have existed before the +days of Kōbō. In some cases these gods have lost much of the +esteem in which they were held for centuries. Especially is this true of +the infamous rebel of the tenth century, Masakado.[26] On the entrance +into Yedo of the Imperial army, in 1868, his idol was torn from its +shrine and hacked to pieces by the patriots. His place as a deity (Kanda +Dai Miō Jin, or Great Illustrious Spirit of Kanda) was taken by +another deified being, a brother to the aboriginal earth-god who, in the +ages of the Kami, "resigned his throne in favor of the Mikado's +ancestors when they descended from Heaven." The apotheosis of the rebel +Masakado had been resorted to by the Buddhist canonizers because the +unquiet spirit of the dead man troubled the people. This method of +laying a ghost by making a god of him, was for centuries a favorite one +in Japanese Buddhism. Indeed, a large part of the practical and +parochial duties of the bonzes consists in quieting the restless spirits +of the departed. + +All Japanese popular religion of the past has been intensely local and +patriotic. The ancient idea that Nippon was the first country created +and the centre of the world, has persisted through the ages, modifying +every imported religion. Hence the noticeable fact in Japanese Buddhism, +of the comparative degradation of the Hindu deities and the exaltation +of those which were native to the soil. + +The normal Japanese, be he priest or lay brother, theologian or +statesman, is nothing if not patriotic. Even the Chinese gods and +goddesses which, clothed in Indian drapery and still preserving their +Aryan features, were imported to Japan, could not hold their own in +competition with the popularity of the indigenous inhabitants of the +Japanese pantheon. The normal Japanese eye does not see the ideals of +beauty in the human face and form in common with the Aryan vision. +Benten or Knanon, with the features and drapery of the homelike beauties +of Yamato or Adzuma, have ever been more lovely to the admiring eye of +the Japanese sailor and farmer, than the Aryan features of the idols +imported from India. So also, the worshipper to whom the lovely scenery +of Japan was fresh from the hands of the kami who were so much like +himself, turned naturally in preference, to the "gods many" of his own +land. + +Succeeding centuries only made it worse for the imported devas or gods, +while the kami, or the gods sprung from the soil created by Izanami and +Izanagi steadily rose in honor. + + +Degradation of the Foreign Deities. + + +For example, the Indian saint Dharma is reputed to have come to the +Dragon-fly Country long before the advent of Buddhism, but the people +were not ready for him or his teachings, and therefore he returned to +India. So at least declares the book entitled San Kai Ri[27] (Mountain, +Sea and Earth), which is a re-reading and explanation of Japanese +mythology and tradition as recorded in the Kojiki, by a Kiōtō +priest of the Shin Shu Sect. Of this Dharma, it is said, that he outdid +the Roman Regulus who suffered involuntary loss of his eyelids at the +hands of the Carthaginians. Dharma cut off his own eyelids, because he +could not keep awake.[28] Throwing the offending flesh upon the ground, +he saw the tea-plant arise to help holy men to keep vigil. Daruma, as +the Japanese spell his name, has a temple in central Japan. It is +related that when Shōtoku, the first patron of Buddhism, was one day +walking abroad he found a poor man dying of hunger, who refused to +answer any questions or give his name. Shōtoku ordered food to be +given him, and wrapped his own mantle round him. Next day the beggar +died, and the prince charitably had him buried on the spot. Shortly +afterward it was observed that the mantle was lying neatly folded up, on +the tomb, which on examination proved to be empty. The supposed dying +beggar was no other than the Indian Saint Dharma, and a pagoda was built +over the grave, in which images of the priest and saint were +enshrined.[29] Yet, alas, to-day Daruma the Hindoo and foreigner, +despite his avatar, his humility, his vigils and his self-mutilation, +has been degraded to be the shop-sign of the tobacconists. Besides being +ruthlessly caricatured, he is usually pictured with a scowl, his lidless +eyes as wide open as those upon a Chinese junk-prow or an Egyptian +coffin-lid. Often even, he has a pipe in his mouth--a comical +anachronism, suggestive to the smoker of the dark ages that knew no +tobacco, before nicotine made the whole world of savage and of civilized +kin. Legless dolls and snow-men are named after this foreigner, whose +name is associated almost entirely with what is ludicrous. + +On Kōbō's expounding his scheme to the Mikado, the emperor was so +pleased with his servant's ingenuity, that he gave it the name of +Riyōbu[30] Shintō; that is, the two-fold divine doctrine, double +way of the gods, or amalgamated theology. Henceforth the Japanese could +enter Nirvana or Paradise through a two-leaved gate. As for the people, +they also were pleased, as they usually are when change or reform does +not mean abolition of the old festivals, or of the washings, sousings, +and fun at the tombs of their ancestors in the graveyards, or the +merry-makings, or the pilgrimages,[31] which are usually only other +names for social recreation, and often for sensual debauch. The Yoga had +become a _kubiki_, for Shintō and Buddhism were now harnessed +together, not indeed as true yoke-fellows, but yet joined as inseparably +as two oxen making the same furrow. + +Many a miya now became a tera. At first in many edifices, the rites of +Shintō and Buddhism were alternately performed. The Buddhist symbols +might be in the front, and the Shintōist in the rear of the sacred +hall, or _vice versa_, with a bamboo curtain between; but gradually the +two blended. Instead of austere simplicity, the Shintō interior +contained a museum of idols. + +Image carvers had now plenty to do in making, out of camphor or _hinoki_ +wood, effigies of such of the eight million or so of kamis as were given +places in the new and enlarged pantheon. The multiplication was always +on the side of Buddhism. Soon, also, the architecture was altered from +the type of the primitive hut, to that of the low Chinese temple with +great sweeping roof, re-curved eaves, many-columned auditorium and +imposing gateway, with lacquer, paint, gilding and ceilings, on which, +in blazing gold and color, were depicted the emblems of the Buddhist +paradise. Many of these still remain even after the national purgation +of 1870, just as the Christian inscriptions survive in the marble +palimpsests of Mahometan mosques, converted from basilicas, at Damascus +or Constantinople. The torii was no longer raised in plain hinoki wood, +but was now constructed of hewn stone, rounded or polished. Sometimes it +was even of bronze with gilded crests and Sanskrit monograms, +surmounted, it may be, with tablets of painted or stained wood, on which +were Chinese letters glittering with gold. This departure from the +primitive idea of using only the natural trunks of trees, "somewhat on +the principle of Exodus, 20:25,"[32] was a radical one in the ninth +century. The elongated barrels with iron hoops, or the riveted +boiler-plate and stove-pipe pattern, in this era of Meiji is a still +more radical and even scandalous innovation. + + +Shintō Buried in Buddhism. + + +So complete was the victory of Riyōbuism, that for nearly a thousand +years Shintō as a religion, except in a few isolated spots, ceased +from sight and sank to a mere mythology or to the shadow of a mythology. +The very knowledge even of the ancient traditions was lost in the +Buddhaized forms in which the old stories[33] were cast, or in the +omnipresent ritual of the Buddhist tera. + +Yet, after all, it is a question as to which suffered most, Buddhism or +Shintō. Who can tell which was the base and which was the true metal +in the alloy that was formed? The San Kai Ri shows how superstitious +manifold became imbedded in Buddhism. It was not alone through the +Shingon sect, which Kōbō introduced, that this Yoga or union came. +In the other great sect called the Tendai, and in the later sects, more +especially in that of Nichiren, the same principle of absorption was +followed. These sects also adopted many elements derived from the +god-way and thus became Shintōized. Indeed, it seems certain that +that vast development of Japanese Buddhism, peculiar to Japan and +unknown to the rest of the Buddhist world, scouted by the Southern +Buddhists as dreadful heresy, and rousing the indignation of students of +early Buddhism, like Max Müller and Professor Whitney, is largely owing +to this attempted digestion of Japanese mythology. The anaconda may +indeed be able, by reason of its marvellously flexible jaws and its +abundant activity of salivary glands, to swallow the calf, and even the +ox; but sometimes the serpent is killed by its own voracity, or at least +made helpless before the destroying hunter. When sweet potatoes and +pumpkins are planted in the same hill, and the cooked product comes on +the table, it is hard to tell whether it is tuber or hollow fruit, +subterranean or superficial growth, that we are eating. So in Riyōbu, +whether it be most _imo_ or _kabocha_ is a fair question. If the +Buddhism in Japan did but add a chapter of decay and degradation to the +religion of the Light of Asia, is not this owing to the act of +Kōbō--justified indeed by those who imitated his example, yet +hardly to be called honest? A stroke of ecclesiastical dexterity, it may +have been, but scarcely a lawful example or an illustrious and +commendable specimen of syncretism in religion. + +Many students have asked what is the peculiar, the characteristic +difference between the Buddhism of Japan and the other Buddhisms of the +Asian continent. If there be one cause, leading all others, we incline +to believe it is because Japanese Buddhism is not the Buddhism of +Gautama, but is so largely Riyōbu or Mixed. Yet in the alloy, which +ingredient has preserved most of its qualities? Is Japanese Buddhism +really Shintōized Buddhism, or Buddhaized Shintō? Which is the +parasite and which the parasitized? Is the hermit crab Shintō, and +the shell Buddhism, or _vice versa_? About as many corrupt elements from +Shintō entered into the various Buddhist sects as Buddhism gave to +Shintō. + +This process of Shintōizing Buddhism or of Buddhaizing +Shintō--that is, of combining Shintō or purely Japanese ideas and +practices with the systems imported from India, went on for five +centuries. The old native habits and mental characteristics were not +eradicated or profoundly modified; they were rather safely preserved in +so-called Buddhism, not indeed as dead flies in amber but as live +creatures, fattening on a body, which, every year, while keeping outward +form and name, was being emptied of its normal and typical life. It is +no gain to pure water to add either microbes or the food which nourishes +them. + + +Buddhism Writes New Chapters of Decay. + + +Phenomenally, the victory was that of Buddhism. The mustard-seed has +indeed become a great tree, lodging every fowl of heaven, clean and +unclean; but potentially and in reality, the leavening power, as now +seen, seems to have been that of Shintō. Or, to change metaphor, +since the hermit crab and the shell were separated by law only one +generation ago, in 1870, we shall soon, before many generations, discern +clearly which has the life and which has only the shell.[34] + +There are but few literary monuments[35] of Riyōbuism, and it has +left few or no marks in the native chronicles, misnamed history, which +utterly omit or ignore so many things interesting to the student and +humanist.[36] Yet to this mixture or amalgamation of Buddhism with +Shintō, more probably than to any other direct influence, may also be +ascribed that striking alteration in the system of Chinese ethics or +Confucianism which differentiates the Japanese form from that prevalent +in China. That is, instead of filial piety, the relation of parent and +child, occupying the first place, loyalty, the relation of lord and +retainer, master and servant, became supreme. Although Buddhism made the +Mikado first a King (Tennō) or Son of Heaven (Ten-Shi), and then a +monk (Hō-ō), and after his death a Hotoké or Buddhist deity, it +caused him early to abdicate from actual life. Buddhism is thus directly +responsible for the habitual Japanese resignation from active life +almost as soon as it is entered, by men in all classes. Buddhism started +all along and down through the lines of Japanese society the idea of +early retirement from duty; so that men were considered old at forty, +and _hors concours_ before forty-five.[37] Life was condemned as vanity +of vanities before it was mature, and old age a friend that nobody +wished to meet,[38] although Japanese old age is but European prime. In +a measure, Buddhism is thus responsible for the paralysis of Japanese +civilization, which, like oft-tapped maple-trees, began to die at the +top. This was in accordance with its theories and its literature. In the +Bible there is, possibly, one book which is pessimistic in tone, +Ecclesiastes. In the bulky and dropsical canon of Buddhism there is a +whole library of despondency and despair. + +Nevertheless, the ethical element held its own in the Japanese mind; and +against the pessimism and puerility of Buddhism and the religious +emptiness of Shintō, the bond of Japanese society was sought in the +idea of loyalty. While then, as we repeat, everything that comes to the +Japanese mind suffers as it were "a sea change, into something new and +strange," is it not fair to say that the change made by Kōbō was +at the expense of Buddhism as a system, and that the thing that suffered +reversion was the exotic rather than the native plant? For, in the +emergence of this new idea of loyalty as supreme, Shintō and not +Buddhism was the dictator. + +Even more after Kōbō's death than during his life, Japan improved +upon her imported faith, and rapidly developed new sects of all degrees +of reputableness and disreputableness. Had Kōbō lived on through +the centuries, as the boors still believe;[39] he could not have +stopped, had he so desired, the workings of the leaven he had brought +from China. From the sixth to the twelfth century, was the missionary +age of Japanese Buddhism. Then followed two centuries of amazing +development of doctrine. Novelties in religion blossomed, fruited and +became monuments as permanent as the age-enduring forests Hakoné, or +Nikkō. Gautama himself, were he to return to "red earth" again, could +not recognize his own cult in Japan. + +In China to-day Buddhism is in a bad state. One writer calls it, "The +emasculated descendant that now occupies the land with its drone of +priests and its temples, in which scarce a worthy disciple of the +learned patriarchs of ancient days is to be found. Received with open +arms, persecuted, patronized, smiled upon, tolerated, it with the last +phase of its existence, has reached, not the halcyon days of peace and +rest, but its final stage, foreshadowing its decay from rottenness and +corruption."[40] So also, in a like report, agree many witnesses. The +common people of China are to-day Taoists rather than Buddhists.[41] + +If this be the position in China, something not very far from it is +found in Japan to-day. Whatever may be the Buddhism of the few learned +scholars, who have imbibed the critical and scientific spirit of +Christendom, and whatever be the professions and representations of its +earnest adherents and partisans, it is certain that popular Buddhism is +both ethically and vitally in a low state. In outward array the system +is still imposing. There are yet, it may be, millions of stone statues +and whole forests of wayside effigies, outdoors and +unroofed--irreverently called by the Japanese themselves, "wet gods." +Hosts upon hosts of lacquered and gilded images in wood, sheltered under +the temple tiles or shingles, still attract worshippers. Despite +shiploads of copper Buddhas exported as old metal to Europe and America, +and thousands of tons of gods and imps melted into coin or cannon, there +are myriads of metal reminders of those fruits of a religion that once +educated and satisfied; but these are, in the main, no longer to the +natives instruments of inspiration or compellers to enthusiasm. In this +time of practical charity, they are poor substitutes for those hospitals +and orphan asylums which were practically unknown in Japan until the +advent of Christianity. + +Kōbō's smart example has been followed only too well by the people +in every part of the country. One has but to read the stacks of books of +local history to see what an amazing proportion of legends, ideas, +superstitions and revelations rests on dreams; how incredibly numerous +are the apparitions; how often the floating images of Buddha are found +on the water; how frequently flowers have rained out of the sky; how +many times the idols have spoken or shot forth their dazzling rays--in a +word; how often art and artifices have become alleged and accepted +reality. Unfortunately, the characteristics of this literature and +undergrowth of idol lore are monotony and lack of originality; for +nearly all are copies of Kōbō's model. His cartoon has been +constantly before the busy weavers of legend. + +It may indeed be said, and said truly, that in its multiplication of +sects and in its growth of legend and superstition, Buddhism has but +followed every known religion, including traditional Christianity +itself. Yet popular Buddhism has reached a point which shows, that, +instead of having a self-purgative and self-reforming power, it is +apparently still treading in the steps of the degradation which +Kōbōbegan. + + +The Seven Gods of Good Fortune. + + +We repeat it, Riyōbu Buddhism is Japanese Buddhism with vengeance. It +is to-day suffering from the effect of its own sins. Its _ingwa_ is +manifest. Take, for example, the little group of divinities known as the +Seven Gods of Good Fortune, which forms a popular appendage to Japanese +Buddhism and which are a direct and logical growth of the work done by +Kōbō, as shown in his Riyōbu system. Not from foreign writers +and their fancies, nor even from the books which profess to describe +these divinities, do we get such an idea of their real meaning and of +their influence with the people, as we do by observation of every-day +practice, and a study of the idols themselves and of Japanese folk-lore, +popular romance, local history and guidebooks. Those familiar +divinities, indeed, at the present day owe their vitality rather to the +artists than to priests, and, it may be, have received, together with +some rather rude handling, nearly the whole of their extended popularity +and influence from their lay supporters. The Seven Happy Gods of Fortune +form nominally a Buddhist assemblage, and their effigies on the +kami-dana or god-shelf, found in nearly every Japanese house, are +universally visible. The child in Japan is rocked to sleep by the +soothing sound of the lullaby, which is often a prayer to these gods. +Even though it may be with laughing and merriment, that, in their name +the evil gods and imps are exorcised annually on New Year's eve, with +showers of beans which are supposed to be as disagreeable to the +Buddhist demons "as drops of holy water to the Devil," yet few +households are complete without one or more of the images or the +pictures of these favorite deities. + +The separate elements of this conglomerate, so typical of Japanese +religion, are from no fewer than four different sources: Brahmanism, +Buddhism, Taoism and Shintōism. "Thus, Bishamon is the Buddhist +_Vâis'ramana_[42] and the Brahmanic Kuvera; Benten is Sarasvatî, the +wife of Brahmâ; Daikoku is an extremely popularised form of Mahakala, +the black-faced Temple Guardian; Hotéi has Taoist attributes, but is +regarded as an incarnation of Màitreyâ, the Buddhist Messiah; +Fuku-roku-jiu is of purely Taoist origin, and is perhaps a +personification of Lao-Tsze himself; Ju-ró-jin is almost certainly a +duplicate of Fuku-roku-jiu; and, lastly, Ebisu, as the son of Izanagi +and Izanami, is a contribution from the Shintō hero-worship."[43] If +Riyōbu Buddhism be two-fold, here is a texture or amalgam that is +_shi-bu_, four-fold. Let us watch lest _go-bu_, with Christianity mixed +in, be the next result of the process. To play the Japanese game of +go-ban, with Christianity as the fifth counter, and Jesus as a +Palestinian avatar of some Dhyani Buddha, crafty priests in Japan are +even now planning. + +This illustration of the Seven Gods of Happiness, whose local +characters, functions and relations have been developed especially +within the last three or four hundred years, is but one of many that +could be adduced, showing what proceeded on a larger scale. The +Riyōbu process made it almost impossible for the average native to +draw the line between history and mythology. It destroyed the boundary +lines, as Pantheism invariably does, between fact and fiction, truth and +falsehood. The Japanese mind, by a natural, possibly by a racial, +tendency, falls easily into Pantheism, which may be called the destroyer +of boundaries and the maker of chaos and ooze. Pretty much all early +Japanese "history" is ooze; yet there are grave and learned men, even in +the Constitutional Japan of the Méiji era--masters in their arts and +professions, graduates of technical and philosophical courses--who +solemnly talk about their "first emperor ascending the throne, B.C. +660," and to whom the dragon-born, early Mikados, and their +fellow-tribesmen, seen through the exaggerated mists of the Kojiki, are +divine personages. + + +The Gon-gen in the Processions. + + +While living in Japan between 1870 and 1874, the writer used to enjoy +watching and studying the long processions which celebrated the +foundation of temples, national or local festivals, or the completion of +some great public enterprise, such as the railway between Tōkio and +Yokohama. In rich costume, decoration, and representation most of the +cultus-objects were marvels of art and skill. Besides the gala dresses +and uniforms, the fantastic decorations and personal adornments, the +dances which represented the comedies and tragedies of the gods and the +striking scenes in the Kojiki, there wore colossal images of Kami, +Bodhisattvas, Gon-gen, Dai Miō Jin, and of imps, oni, mythical animal +forms and imaginary monsters.[44] More interesting than anything else, +however, were the male and female figures, set high upon triumphal cars +having many tiers, and arrayed in characteristic primeval, ancient, +medieval, or early modern dress. Some were of scowling, others of benign +visage. In some years, everyone of the eight hundred and eight streets +of Yedo sent its contribution of men, money, decorations, or vehicles. + +As seen by four kinds of spectators, the average ignorant native, the +Shintōist, the learned Buddhist, and the critical historical scholar, +these effigies represented three different characters or creations. +Especially were those divine personages called Gon-gen worth the study +of the foreign observer. + +(1) The common boor or streetman saluted, for example, this or that Dai +Miō Jin, as the great illustrious spirit or god of its particular +district. To this spirit and image he prayed; in his honor he made +offerings; his wrath he feared; and his smile he hoped to win, for the +Gon-gen was a divine being. + +(2) To the Shintōist, who hated Buddhism and the Riyōbu Shintō +which had overlaid his ancestral faith, and who scorned and tabooed this +Chinese term Dai Miō Jin, this or that image represented a divine +ancestor whose name had in it many Japanese syllables, with no defiling +Chinese sounds, and who was the Kami or patron deity of this or that +neighborhood. + +(3) To the Buddhist, this or that personage, in his lifetime, in the +early ages of Japanese history, had been an avatar of Buddha who had +appeared in human flesh and brought blessings to the people and +neighborhood; yet the people of the early ages being unprepared to +receive his doctrine or revelation, he had not then revealed or preached +it; but now, as for a thousand years since the time of the illustrious +and saintly Kōbō, he had his right name and received his just +honors and worship as an avatar of the eternal Buddha. So, although +Buddhist and Shintōist might quarrel as to his title, and divide, +even to anger, on minor points, they would both agree in letting the +common people take their pleasure, enjoy the festivals and merriment, +and preserve their reverence and worship. + +(4) Still another spectator studied with critical interest the swaying +figure high in air. With a taste for archaeology, he admired the +accuracy of the drapery and associations. He was amused, it may be, with +occasional anachronisms as to garments or equipments. He knew that the +original of this personage had been nothing more than a human being, who +might indeed have been conspicuous as a brave soldier in war, or as a +skilful physician who helped to stop the plague, or as a civilizer who +imported new food or improved agriculture. + +In a word, had this subject of the ancient Mikado lived in modern +Christendom, he might be honored through the government, patent office, +privy council, the admiralty, the university, or the academy, as the +case or worth might be. He might shine in a plastic representation by +the sculptor or artist, or be known in the popular literature; but he +would never receive religious worship, or aught beyond honor and praise. +In this swamping of history in legend and of fact in dogma, we behold +the fruit of Kōbō's work, Riyōbu Buddhism. + + +Kōbō's Work Undone. + + +Buddhism calls itself the jewel in the lotus. Japanese poetry asks of +the dewdrop "why, having the heart of the lotus for its home, does it +pretend to be a gem?" For a thousand years Riyōbu Buddhism was +received as a pure brilliant of the first water, and then the +scholarship of the Shintō revivalists of the eighteenth century +exposed the fraudulent nature of the unrelated parts and declared that +the jewel called Riyōbu was but a craftsman's doublet and should be +split apart. Only a splinter of diamond, they declared, crowned a mass +of paste. Indignation made learning hot, and in 1870 the cement was +liquefied in civil war. The doublet was rent asunder by imperial decree, +as when a lapidist melts the mastic that holds in deception adamant and +glass, while real diamond stands all fire short of the hydro-oxygen +flame. The Riyōbu temples were purged of all Buddhist symbols, +furniture, equipment and personnel, and were made again to assume their +august and austere simplicity. In the eyes of the purely aesthetic +critic, this national purgation was Puritanical iconoclasm; in those of +the priests, cast out to earn rice elsewise and elsewhere, it was +outrage, which in individual instances called for reprisal in blood, +fire and assassination; to the Shintōist, it was an exhibition of the +righteous judgment of the long-insulted gods; in the ken of the critical +student, it seems very much like historic and poetic justice. + +In our day and time, Riyōbu Buddhism furnishes us with a warning, +for, looked at from a purely human point of view, what happened to +Shintō may possibly happen to Japanese Christianity. The successors +of those who, in the ninth century, did not scruple to Buddhaize +Shintō, and in later times, even our own, to Shintōize Buddhism +while holding to Buddha's name and all the revenue possible, will +Buddhaize Christianity if they have power and opportunity; and signs are +not wanting to show that this is upon their programme. + +The water of stagnant Buddhism is still a swarming mass, which needs +cleansing to purity by a knowledge of one God who is Light and Love. +Without such knowledge, the manifold changes in Buddhism will but form +fresh chapters of degradation and decay. Holding such knowledge, +Christianity may pass through endless changes, for this is her +capability by Divine power and the authorization of her Founder. The now +Buddhism of our day is endeavoring to save itself through reformation +and progress. In doing so, the danger of the destruction of the system +is great, for thus far change has meant decay. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS + + + "To the millions of China, Corea, and Japan, creator and + creation are new and strange terms,"--J.H. De Forest. + + "The Law of our Lord, the Buddha, is not a natural science or a + religion, but a doctrine of enlightenment; and the object of it + is to give rest to the restless, to point out the Master (the + Inmost Man) to those that are blind and do not perceive their + Original State." + + "The Saddharma Pundarika Sutra teaches us how to obtain that + desirable knowledge of the mind as it is in itself [universal + wisdom] ... Mind is the One Reality, and all Scriptures are the + micrographic photographs of its images. He that fully grasps the + Divine Body of Sakyamuni, holds ever, even without the written + Sutra, the inner Saddharma Pundarika in his hand. He ever reads + it mentally, even though he would never read it orally. He is + unified with it though he has no thought about it. He is the + true keeper of the Sutra."--Zitsuzen Ashitsu of the Tendai sect. + + "It [Buddhism] is idealistic. Everything is as we think it. The + world is my idea.... Beyond our faith is naught. Hold the + Buddhist to his creed and insist that such logic destroys + itself, and he triumphs smilingly, 'Self-destructive! Of course + it is. All logic is. That is the centre of my philosophy.'" + + "It [Buddhism] denounces all desire and offers salvation as the + reward of the murder of our affections, hopes, and aspirations. + It is possible where conscious existence is believed to be the + chief of evils."--George William Knox. + + "Swallowing the device of the priests, the people well + satisfied, dance their prayers."--Japanese Proverb. + + "The wisdom that is from above is ... without variance, without + hypocrisy."--James. + + "The mystery of God, even Christ in whom are all the treasures + of wisdom and knowledge."--Paul. + + +CHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS + +Chronological Outline. + + +In sketching the history of the doctrinal developments of Buddhism in +Japan, we note that the system, greatly corrupted from its original +simplicity, was in 552 A.D. already a millennium old. Several distinct +phases of the much-altered faith of Gautama, were introduced into the +islands at various times between the sixth and the ninth century. From +these and from others of native origin have sprung the larger Japanese +sects. Even as late as the seventeenth century, novelties in Buddhism +were imported from China, and the exotics took root in Japanese soil; +but then, with a single exception, only to grow as curiosities in the +garden, rather than as the great forests, which had already sprung from +imported and native specimens. + +We may divide the period of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in +Japan into four epochs: + +I. The first, from 552 to 805 A.D., will cover the first six sects, +which had for their centre of propagation, Nara, the southern capital. + +II. Then follows Riyōbu Buddhism, from the ninth to the twelfth +centuries. + +III. This was succeeded by another explosion of doctrine wholly and +peculiarly Japanese, and by a wide missionary propagation. + +IV. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, there is little that +is doctrinally noticeable, until our own time, when the new Buddhism of +to-day claims at least a passing notice. + +The Japanese writers of ecclesiastical history classify in three groups +the twelve great sects as the first six, the two mediæval, and the four +modern sects. + +In this lecture we shall merely summarize the characteristics of the +first five sects which existed before the opening of the ninth century +but which are not formally extant at the present time, and treat more +fully the purely Japanese developments. The first three sects may be +grouped under the head of the Hinayana, or Smaller Vehicle, as Southern +or primitive orthodox Buddhism is usually called. + +Most of the early sects, as will be seen, were founded upon some +particular sutra, or upon selections or collections of sutras. They +correspond to some extent with the manifold sects of Christendom, and +yet this illustration or reference must not be misleading. It is not as +though a new Christian sect, for example, were in A.D. 500 to be formed +wholly on the gospel of Luke, or the book of the Revelation; nor as +though a new sect should now arise in Norway or Tennessee because of a +special emphasis laid on a combination of the epistle to the Corinthians +and the book of Daniel. It is rather as though distinct names and +organizations should be founded upon the writings of Tertullian, of +Augustine, of Luther, or of Calvin, and that such sects should accept +the literary work of these scholars not only as commentaries but as Holy +Scripture itself. + +The Buddhist body of scriptures has several times been imported and +printed in Japan, but has never been translated into the vernacular. The +canon[1] is not made up simply of writings purporting to be the words of +Buddha or of the apostles who were his immediate companions or +followers. On the contrary, the canon, as received in Japan, is made up +of books, written for the most part many centuries after the last of the +contemporaries of Gautama had passed away. Not a few of these writings +are the products of the Chinese intellect. Some books held by particular +sects as holy scripture were composed in Japan itself, the very books +themselves being worshipped. Nevertheless those who are apparently +farthest away from primitive Buddhism, claim to understand Buddha most +clearly. + + +The Standard Doctrinal Work. + + +One of the most famous of books, honored especially by several of the +later and larger sects in Japan, and probably the most widely read and +most generally studied book of the canon, is the Saddharma Pundarika.[2] +Professor Kern, who has translated this very rhetorical work into +English, thinks it existed at or some time before 250 A.D., and that in +its most ancient form it dates some centuries earlier, possibly as early +as the opening of the Christian era. It has now twenty-seven chapters, +and may be called the typical scripture of Northern Buddhism. It is +overflowingly full of those sensuous images and descriptions of the +Paradise, in which the imagination of the Japanese Buddhist so revels, +and in it both rhetoric and mathematics run wild. Of this book, "the +cream of the revealed doctrine," we shall hear often again. It is the +standard of orthodoxy in Japanese Buddhism, the real genius of which is +monastic asceticism in morals and philosophical scepticism in religion. + +In most of the other sutras the burden of thought is ontology. +Doctrinally, Buddhism seems to be less a religion than a system of +philosophy. Hundreds of volumes in the canon concern themselves almost +wholly with ontological speculations. The Japanese mind,[3] as described +by those who have studied most acutely and profoundly its manifestations +in language and literature, is essentially averse to speculation. Yet +the first forms of Buddhism presented to the Japanese, were highly +metaphysical. The history of thought in Japan, shows that these +abstractions of dogma were not congenial to the islanders. The new faith +won its way among the people by its outward sensuous attractions, and by +appeals to the imagination, the fancy and the emotions; though the men +of culture were led captive by reasoning which they could not answer, +even if they could comprehend it. Though these early forms of dogma and +philosophy no longer survive in Japan, having been eclipsed by more +concrete and sensuous arguments, yet it is necessary to state them in +order to show: first, what Buddhism really is; second, doctrinal +development in the farthest East; and, third, the peculiarities of the +Japanese mind. + +In this task, we are happy to be able to rely upon native witness and +confession.[4] The foreigner may easily misrepresent, even when +sincerely inclined to utter only the truth. Each religion, in its theory +at least, must be judged by its ideals, and not by its failures. Its +truth must be stated by its own professors. In the "History of The +Twelve Japanese Sects," by Bunyiu Nanjio, M.A. Oxon., and in "Le +Bouddhisme Japonais," by Ryauon Fujishima, we have the untrammelled +utterances, of nine living lights of the religion of Shaka as it is held +and taught in Dai Nippon. The former scholar is a master of texts, and +the latter of philosophy, each editor excelling in his own department; +and the two books complement each other in value. + +Buddhism, being a logical growth out of Brahmanism, used the old sacred +language of India and inherited its vocabulary. In the Tripitaka, that +is, the three book-baskets or boxes, we have the term for canon of +scripture, in the complete collection of which are _sutra_, _vinaya_ and +_abidharma_. We shall see, also, that while Gautama shut out the gods, +his speculative followers who claimed to be his successors, opened the +doors and allowed them to troop in again. The democracy of the +congregation became a hierarchy and the empty swept and garnished house, +a pantheon. + +A sutra, from the root _siv_, to sew, means a thread or string, and in +the old Veda religion referred to household rites or practices and the +moral conduct of life; but in Buddhist phraseology it means a body of +doctrine. A shaster or shastra, from the Sanskrit root _ças_, to govern, +relates to discipline. Of those shastras and sutras we must frequently +speak. In India and China some of those sutras are exponents, of schools +of thought or opinion, or of views or methods of looking at things, +rather than of organizations. In Japan these schools of philosophy, in +certain instances, become sects with a formal history. + +In China of the present day, according to a Japanese traveller and +author, "the Chinese Buddhists seem ... to unite all different sects, so +as to make one harmonious sect." The chief divisions are those of the +blue robe, who are allied with the Lamaism of Tibet and whose doctrine +is largely "esoteric," and those of the yellow robe, who accept the +three fundamentals of principle, teaching and discipline. Dhyana or +contemplation is their principle; the Kégon or Avatamsaka sutra and the +Hokké or Saddharma Pundarika sutra, etc., form the basis of their +teaching; and the Vinaya of the Four Divisions (Dharmagupta) is their +discipline. On the contrary, in Japan there are vastly greater +diversities of sect, principle, teaching and discipline. + + +Buddhism as a System of Metaphysics. + + +The date of the birth of the Buddha in India, accepted by the Japanese +scholars is B.C. 1027--the day and month being also given with +suspicious accuracy. About nine centuries after Gautama had attained +Nirvana, there were eighteen schools of the Hinayana or the doctrine of +the Smaller Vehicle. Then a shastra or institute of Buddhist ontology in +nine chapters, was composed, the title of which in English, is, Book of +the Treasury of Metaphysics. It had such a powerful influence that it +was called an intelligence-creating, or as we say, an epoch-making book. + +This Ku-sha shastra, from the Sanskrit _kosa_, a store, is eclectic, and +contains nine chapters embodying the views of one of the schools, with +selections from those of others. It was translated in A.D. 563, into +Chinese by a Hindu scholar; but about a hundred years later the famous +pilgrim, whom the Japanese call Gen-jō, but who is known in Europe as +Hiouen Thsang,[5] made a better translation, while his disciples added +commentaries. + +In A.D. 658, two Japanese priests[6] made the sea-journey westward into +China, as Gen-jō had before made the land pilgrimage into India, and +became pupils of the famous pilgrim. After long study they returned, +bringing the Chinese translation of this shastra into Japan. They did +not form an independent sect; but the doctrines of this shastra, being +eclectic, were studied by all Japanese Buddhist sects. This Ku-sha +scripture is still read in Japan as a general institute of ontology, +especially by advanced students who wish to get a general idea of the +doctrines. It is full of technical terms, and is well named The +Store-house of Metaphysics. + +The Ku-sha teaches control of the passions, and the government of +thought. The burden of its philosophy is materialism; that is, the +non-existence of self and the existence of the matter which composes +self, or, as the Japanese writer says: "The reason why all things are so +minutely explained in this shastra is to drive away the idea of self, +and to show the truth in order to make living beings reach Nirvana." +Among the numerous categories, to express which many technical terms are +necessary, are those of "forms," eleven in number, including the five +senses and the six objects of sense; the six kinds of knowledge; the +forty-six mental qualities, grouped under six heads; and the fourteen +conceptions separated from the mind; thus making in all seventy-two +compounded things and three immaterial things. These latter are +"conscious cessation of existence," "unconscious cessation of +existence," and "space." + +The Reverend Shuzan Emura, of the Shin-shu sect of Japan, after +specifying these seventy-five Dharmas, or things compounded and things +immaterial, says:[7] "The former include all things that proceed from a +cause. This cause is Karma, to which everything existing is due, Space +and Nirvana alone excepted. Again, of the three immaterial things the +last two are not subjects to be understood by the wisdom not free from +frailty. Therefore the 'conscious cessation of existence' is considered +as being the goal of all effort to him who longs for deliverance from +misery." + +In a word, this one of the many Buddhisms of Asia is vastly less a +religion, in any real sense of the word, than a system of metaphysics. +However, the doctrine to be mastered is graded in three Yanas or +Vehicles; for there are now, as in the days of Shaka, three classes of +being, graded according to their ability or power to understand "the +truth." These are: + +(I.) The Sho-mon or lowest of the disciples of Shaka, or hearers who +meditate on the cause and effect of everything. If acute in +understanding, they become free from confusion after three births; but +if they are dull, they pass sixty kalpas[8] or aeons before they attain +to the state of enlightenment. + +(II.) The Engaku or Pratyeka Buddhas, that is, "singly enlightened," or +beings in the middle state, who must extract the seeds or causes of +actions, and must meditate on the twelve chains of causation, or +understand the non-eternity of the world, while gazing upon the falling +flowers or leaves. They attain enlightenment after four births or a +hundred kalpas, according to their ability. + +(III.) The Bodhisattvas or Buddhas-elect, who practise the six +perfections (perfect practice of alms-giving, morality, patience, +energy, meditation and wisdom) as preliminaries to Nirvana, which they +reach only after countless kalpas. + +These three grades of pupils in the mysteries of Buddha doctrine, are +said to have been ordered by Shaka himself, because understanding human +beings so thoroughly, he knew that one person could not comprehend two +ways or vehicles (Yana) at once. People were taught therefore to +practise anyone of the three vehicles at pleasure. + +We shall see how the later radical and democratic Japanese Buddhism +swept away this gradation, and declaring but the one vehicle (éka), +opened the kingdom to all believers. + +The second of the early Japanese schools of thought, is the +Jō-jitsu,[9] or the sect founded chiefly upon the shastra which means +The Book of the Perfection of the Truth, containing selections from and +explanations of the true meaning of the Tripitaka. This shastra was the +work of a Hindu whose name means Lion-armor, and who lived about nine +centuries after Gautama. Not satisfied with the narrow views of his +teacher, who may have been of the Dharmagupta school (of the four +Disciplines), he made selections of the best and broadest +interpretations then current in the several different schools of the +Smaller Vehicle. The book is eclectic, and attempts to unite all that +was best in each of the Hinayana schools; but certain Chinese teachers +consider that its explanations are applicable to the Great Vehicle also. +Translated into Chinese in 406 A.D., the commentaries upon it soon +numbered hundreds, and it was widely expounded and lectured upon. +Commentaries upon this shastra were also written in Korean by +Dō-zō. From the peninsula it was introduced into Japan. This +Jō-jitsu doctrine was studied by prince Shōtoku, and promulgated +as a division of the school called San-Ron. The students of the +Jō-jitsu school never formed in Japan a distinct organization. + +The burden of the teachings of this school is pure nihilism, or the +non-existence of both self and of matter. There is an utter absence of +substantiality in all things. Life itself is a prolonged dream. The +objects about us are mere delusive shadows or mirage, the product of the +imagination alone. The past and the future are without reality, but the +present state of things only stands as if it were real. That is to say: +the true state of things is constantly changing, yet it seems as if the +state of things were existing, even as does a circle of fire seen when a +rope watch is turned round very quickly. + + +Japanese Pilgrims to China. + + +The Ris-shu or Vinaya sect is one of purely Chinese origin, and was +founded, or rather re-founded, by the Chinese priest Dōsen, who lived +on Mount Shunan early in the seventh century, and claimed to be only +re-proclaiming the rules given by Gautama himself. He was well +acquainted with the Tripitaka and especially versed in the Vinaya or +rules of discipline. His purpose was to unite the teachings of both the +Greater and the Lesser Vehicle in a sutra whose burden should be one of +ethics and not of dogma. + +The founder of this sect was greatly honored by the Chinese Emperor. +Furthermore, he was honored in vision by the holy Pindola or +Binzura,[10] who praised the founder as the best man that had +promulgated the discipline since Buddha himself. In later centuries, +successors of the founder compiled commentaries and reproclaimed the +teachings of this sect. + +In A.D. 724 two Japanese priests went over to China, and having mastered +the Ris-shu doctrine, received permission to propagate it in Japan. With +eighty-two Chinese priests they returned a few years later, having +attempted, it is said, the journey five times and spent twelve years on +the sea. On their return, they received an imperial invitation to live +in the great monastery at Nara, and soon their teachings exerted a +powerful influence on the court. The emperor, empress and four hundred +persons of note were received into the Buddhist communion by a Chinese +priest of the Ris-shu school in the middle of the eighth century. The +Mikado Shō-mu resigned his throne and took the vow and robes of a +monk, becoming Hō-ō or cloistered emperor. Under imperial +direction a great bronze image of the Vairokana Buddha, or Perfection of +Morality, was erected, and terraces, towers, images and all the +paraphernalia of the new kind of Buddhism were prepared. Even the earth +was embroidered, as it were, with sutras and shastras. Symbolical +landscape gardening, which, in its mounds and paths, variously shaped +stones and lanterns, artificial cascades and streamlets, teaches the +holy geography as well as the allegories and hidden truths of Buddhism, +made the city of Nara beautiful to the eyes of faith as well as of +sight. + +This sect, with its excellence in morality and benevolence, proved +itself a beautifier of human life, of society and of the earth itself. +Its work was an irenicon. It occupied itself exclusively with the higher +ethics, the higher meditations and the higher knowledge. Interdicting +what was evil and prescribing what was good, its precepts varied in +number and rigor according to the status of the disciple, lay or +clerical. It is by the observance of the _sila_, or grades of moral +perfection, that one becomes a Buddha. Besides making so powerful a +conquest at the southern capital, this sect was the one which centuries +afterward built the first Buddhist temple in Yedo. Being ordinary human +mortals, however, both monk and layman occasionally illustrated the +difference between profession and practice. + +These three schools or sects, Ku-sha, Jō-jitsu, and Ris-shu, may be +grouped under the Hinayana or Smaller Vehicle, with more or less +affiliation with Southern Buddhism; the others now to be described were +wholly of the Northern division. + +The Hossō-shu, or the Dharma-lakshana sect, as described by the Rev. +Dai-ryo Takashi of the Shin-gon sect, is the school which studies the +nature of Dharmas or things. The three worlds of desire, form and +formlessness, consist in thought only; and there is nothing outside +thought. Nine centuries after Gautama, Maitreya,[11] or the Buddha of +kindness, came down from the heaven of the Bodhisattva to the +lecture-hall in the kingdom in central India at the request of the +Buddhas elect, and discounted five shastras. After that two Buddhist +fathers who were brothers, composed many more shastras and cleared up +the meaning of the Mahāyanā. In 629 A.D., in his twenty-ninth +year, the famous Chinese pilgrim, Gen-jō (Hiouen-thsang), studied +these shastras and sciences, and returning to China in 645 A.D., began +his great work of translation, at which he continued for nineteen years. +One of his disciples was the author of a hundred commentaries on sutras +and shastras. The doctrines of Gen-jō and his disciples were at four +different times, from 653 to 712 A.D., imported into Japan, and named, +after the monasteries in which they were promulgated, the Northern and +Southern Transmission. + + +The Middle Path. + + +The burden of the teachings of this sect is subjective idealism. They +embrace principles enjoining complete indifference to mundane affairs, +and, in fact, thorough personal nullification and the ignoring of all +actions by its disciples. In these teachings, thought only, is real. As +we have already seen with the Ku-sha teaching, human beings are of three +classes, divided according to intellect, into higher, middle and lower, +for whom the systems of teachings are necessarily of as many kinds. The +order of progress with those who give themselves to the study of the +Hossō tenets, is,[12] first, they know only the existence of things, +then the emptiness of them, and finally they enter the middle path of +"true emptiness and wonderful existence." + +From the first, such discipline is long and painful, and ultimate +victory scarcely comes to the ordinary being. The disciple, by training +in thought, by destroying passions and practices, by meditating on the +only knowledge, must pass through three kalpas or aeons. Constantly +meditating, and destroying the two obstacles of passion and cognizable +things, the disciple then obtains four kinds of wisdom and truly attains +perfect enlightenment or Pari-Nirvana. + +The San-ron Shu, as the Three-Shastra sect calls itself, is the sect of +the Teachings of Buddha's whole life.[13] Other sects are founded upon +single sutras, a fact which makes the student liable to narrowness of +opinion. The San-ron gives greater breadth of view and catholicity of +opinion. The doctrines of the Greater Vehicle are the principal +teachings of Gautama, and these are thoroughly explained in the three +shastras used by this sect, which, it is claimed, contain Buddha's own +words. The meanings of the titles of the three favorite sutras, are, The +Middle Book, The Hundred, and The Book of Twelve Gates. Other books of +the canon are also studied and valued by this sect, but all of them are +apt to be perused from a particular point of view; i.e., that of +Pyrronism or infinite negation. + +There are two lines of the transmission of this doctrine, both of them +through China, though, the introduction to Japan was made from Korea, in +625 A.D. Not to dwell upon the detail of history, the burden of this +sect's teaching, is, infinite negation or absolute nihilism. Truth is +the inconceivable state, or, in the words of the Japanese writer: "The +truth is nothing but the state where thoughts come to an end; the right +meditation is to perceive this truth. He who has obtained this +meditation is called Buddha. This is this doctrine of the San-ron sect." + +This sect, by its teachings of the Middle Path, seems to furnish a +bridge from the Hinayana or Southern school, to the Mahāyanā or +Northern school of Buddhism. Part of its work, as set forth by the Rev. +Kō-chō Ogurasu, of the Shin sect, is to defend the authenticity, +genuineness and canonicity of the books which form the Northern body of +scriptures. + +In these two sects Hos-sō and San-ron, called those of Middle Path, +and much alike in principle and teaching, the whole end and aim of +mental discipline, is nihilism--in the one case subjective, and in the +other absolute, the end and goal being nothing--this view into the +nature of things being considered the right one. + +Is it any wonder that such teachings could in the long run satisfy +neither the trained intellects nor the unthinking common people of +Japan? Is it far from the truth to suspect that, even when accepted by +the Japanese courtiers and nobles, they were received, only too often, +in a Platonic, not to say a Pickwickian, sense? The Japanese is too +polite to say "no" if he can possibly say "yes," even when he does not +mean it; while the common people all over the world, as between +metaphysics and polytheism, choose the latter. Is it any wonder that, +along with this propagation of Nihilism as taught in the cloisters and +the court, history informs us of many scandals and much immorality +between the women of the court and the Buddhist monks? + +Such dogmas were not able to live in organized forms, after the next +importations of Buddhism which came in, not partly but wholly, under the +name of the Mahāyanā or Great Vehicle, or Northern Buddhism. By +the new philosophy, more concrete and able to appeal more closely to the +average man, these five schools, which, in their discussions, dealt +almost wholly with _noumena_, were absorbed. As matter of fact, none of +them is now in existence, nor can we trace them, speaking broadly, +beyond the tenth century. Here and there, indeed, may be a temple +bearing the name of one of the sects, or grades of doctrine, and +occasionally an eccentric individual who "witnesses" to the old +metaphysics; but these are but fossils or historical relics, and are +generally regarded as such. + +Against such baldness of philosophy not only might the cultivated +Japanese intellect revolt and react, but as yet the common people of +Japan, despite the modern priestly boast of the care of the imperial +rulers for what the bonzes still love to call "the people's religion," +were but slightly touched by the Indian faith. + + +The Great Vehicle. + + +The Kégon-Shu or Avatamsaka-sutra sect, is founded on a certain teaching +which Gautama is said to have promulgated in nine assemblies held at +seven different places during the second week of his enlightenment. This +sutra exists in no fewer than six texts, around each of which has +gathered some interesting mythology. The first two tests were held in +memory and not committed to palm leaves; the second pair are secretly +preserved in the dragon palace of Riu-gu[14] under the sea, and are not +kept by the men of this world. The fifth text of 100,000 verses, was +obtained by a Bodhisattva from the palace of the dragon king of the +world under the sea and transmitted to men in India. The sixth is the +abridged text. + +It concerns us to notice that the shorter texts were translated into +Chinese in the fourth century, and that later, other translations were +made--36,000 verses of the fifth text, 45,000 verses of the sixth text, +etc. When the doctrine of the sect had been perfected by the fifth +patriarch and he lectured on the sutra, rays of white light came from +his mouth, and there rained wonderful heavenly flowers. In A.D. 736 a +Chinese Vinaya teacher or instructor in Buddhist discipline, named +Dō-sen, first brought the Kégon scriptures to Japan. Four years later +a Korean priest gave lectures on them in the Golden-Bell Hall of the +Great Eastern Monastery at Nara. He completed his task of expounding the +sixty volumes in three years. Henceforth, lecturing on this sutra became +one of the yearly services of the Eastern Great Monastery. + +"The Ké-gon sutra is the original book of Buddha's teachings of his +whole life. All his teachings therefore sprang from this sutra. If we +attribute all the branches to the origin, we may say that there is no +teaching of Buddha for his whole life except this sutra."[15] The title +of the book, when literally translated, is +Great-square-wide-Buddha-flower-adornment-teaching--a title sufficiently +indicative of its rhetoric. The age of hard or bold thinking was giving +way to flowery diction, and the Law was to be made easy through fine +writing. + +The burden of doctrine is the unconditioned or realistic, pantheism. +Nature absolute, or Buddha-tathata, is the essence of all things. +Essence and form were in their origin combined and identical. Fire and +water, though phenomenally different, are from the point of view of +Buddha-tathata absolutely identical. Matter and thought are one--that is +Buddha-tathata. In teaching, especially the young, it must be remembered +that the mind resembles a fair page upon which the artist might trace a +design, especial care being needed to prevent the impression of evil +thoughts, in order to accomplish which one must completely and always +direct the mind to Buddha.[16] One notable sentence in the text is, +"when one first raises his thoughts toward the perfect knowledge, he at +once becomes fully enlightened." + +In some parts of the metaphysical discussions of this sect we are +reminded of European mediaeval scholasticism, especially of that +discussion as to how many angels could dance on the point of a cambric +needle without jostling each other. It says, "Even at the point of one +grain of dust, of immeasurable and unlimited worlds, there are +innumerable Buddhas, who are constantly preaching the Ké-gon kiō +(sutra) throughout the three states of existence, past, present and +future, so that the preaching is not at all to be collected.[17] + + +A New Chinese Sect. + + +In its formal organization the Ten-dai sect is of Chinese origin. It is +named after Tien Tai,[18] a mountain in China about fifty miles south of +Ningpo, on which the book which forms the basis of its tenets was +composed by Chi-sha, now canonized as a Dai Shi or Great teacher. Its +special doctrine of completion and suddenness was, however, transmitted +directly from Shaka to Vairokana and thence to Maitreya, so that the +apostolical succession of its orthodoxy cannot be questioned. + +The metaphysics of this sect are thought to be the most profound of the +Greater Vehicle, combining into a system the two opposite ideas of being +and not being. The teachers encourage all men, whether quick or slow in +understanding, to exercise the principle of "completion" and +"suddenness," together with four doctrinal divisions, one or all of +which are taught to men according to their ability. The object of the +doctrine is to make men get an excellent understanding, practise good +discipline and attain to the great fruit of Enlightenment or +Buddha-hood. + +Out of compassion, Gautama appeared in the world and preached the truth +in several forms, according to the circumstances of time and place. +There are four doctrinal divisions of "completion," "secrecy," +"meditation," and "moral precept," which are the means of knowing the +principle of "completion." From Gautama, Vairokana and Maitreya the +doctrine passed through more than twenty Buddhas elect, and arrived in +China on the twentieth day of the twelfth month, A.D. 401. The delivery +to disciples was secret, and the term used for this esoteric +transmission means "handed over within the tower." + +In A.D. 805, two Japanese pilgrims went to China, and received orthodox +training. With twenty others, they brought the Ten-dai doctrines into +Japan. During this century, other Japanese disciples of the same sect +crossed the seas to study at Mount Tien Tai. On coming back to Japan +they propagated the various shades of doctrine, so that this main sect +has many branches. It was chiefly through these pilgrims from the West +that the Sanskrit letters, writing and literature were imported. In our +day, evidences of Sanskrit learning, long since neglected and forgotten, +are seen chiefly in the graveyards and in charms and amulets. + +Although the philosophical doctrines of Ten-dai are much the same as +those of the Ké-gon sect, being based on pantheistic realism, and +teaching that the Buddha-tathata or Nature absolute is the essence of +all things, yet the Ten-dai school has striking and peculiar features of +its own. Instead of taking some particular book or books in the canon, +shastra, or sutra, selection or collection, as a basis, the Chinese monk +Chi-sha first mastered, and then digested the whole canon. Then +selecting certain doctrines for emphasis he supported them by a wide +range of quotation, professing to give the gist of the pure teachings of +Gautama rather than those of his disciples. In practice, however, the +Saddharma Pundarika is the book most honored by this sect; the other +sutras being employed mainly as commentary. Furthermore, this sect makes +as strenuous a claim for the true apostolical succession from the +Founder, as do the other sects. + +The teachers of Ten-dai doctrine must fully estimate character and +ability in their pupils, and so apportion instruction. In this respect +and in not a few others, they are like the disciples of Loyola, and have +properly been called the Jesuits of Buddhism. They are ascetics, and +teach that spiritual insight is possible only through prolonged thought. +Their purpose is to recognize the Buddha, in all the forms he has +assumed in order to save mankind. Nevertheless, the highest truths are +incomprehensible except to those who have already attained to +Buddha-hood.[19] In contrast to the Nichirenites, who give an emotional +and ultra-concrete interpretation and expression to the great sutra, +Hokké Kiō, the Ten-dai teachers are excessively philosophical and +intellectual. + +In its history the Ten-dai sect has followed out its logic. Being +realistic in pantheism, it reverences not only Gautama the historic +Buddha, but also, large numbers of the Hindu deities, the group of idols +called Jizō, the god Fudo, and Kuannon the god or goddess of mercy, +under his or her protean forms. In its early history this sect welcomed +to its pantheon the Shintō gods, who, according to the scheme of +Riyōbu Shintō, were declared to be avatars or manifestations of +Buddha. The three sub-sects still differ in their worship of the avatars +selected as supreme deities, but their philosophy enables them to sweep +in the Buddhas of every age and clime, name and nation. Many other +personifications are found honored in the Ten-dai temples. At the +gateways may usually be seen the colossal painted and hideous images of +the two Devas or kings (Ni-O). These worthies are none other than Indra +and Brahma of the old Vedic mythology. + +Space and time--which seem never to fail the Buddhists in their +literature--would fail us to describe this sect in full, or to show in +detail its teachings, wherein are wonderful resemblances to European +ideas and facts--in philosophy, to Hegel and Spinoza find in history, to +Jesuitism. Nor can we stay to point out the many instances in which, +invading the domain of politics, the Ten-dai abbots with their armies of +monks, having made their monasteries military arsenals and issuing forth +clad in armor as infantry and cavalry, have turned the scale of battle +or dictated policies to emperors. Like the Praetorian guard of Rome or +the clerical militia in Spain, these men of keen intellect have left +their marks deep upon the social and political history of the country in +which they dwelt. They have understood thoroughly the art of practising +religion for the sake of revenue. To secure their ends, priests have +made partnerships with other sects; in order to hold Shintō shrines, +they have married to secure heirs and make office hereditary; and +finally in the Purification of 1870, when the Riyōbu system was blown +to the winds by the Japanese Government, not a few priests of this sect +became laymen, in order to keep both office and emolument in the +purified Shintō shrines. + + +The Sect of the True Word. + + +It is probable that the conquest and obliteration of Shintō might +have been accomplished by some priest or priests of the Ten-dai sect, +had such a genius as Kōbō been found in its household; but this +great achievement was reserved for the man who introduced into Japan the +Shin-gon Shu, or Sect of the True Word. The term _gon_ is the equivalent +of Mantra,[20] a Sanskrit term meaning word, but in later use referring +to the mystic salutations addressed to the Buddhist gods. "The doctrine +of this sect is a great secret law. It teaches us that we can attain to +the state of the 'Great Enlightened,' that is the state of 'Buddha,' +while in the present physical body, which was born of our parents (and +which consists of six elements,[21] Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ether, and +Knowledge), if we follow the three great secret laws, regarding Body, +Speech, and Thought."[22] + +The history of the transmission of the doctrine from the greatest of the +spirit-bodied Buddhas to the historic founder, Vagrabodhi, is carefully +given. The latter was a man very learned in regard to many doctrines of +Buddhism and other religious, and was especially well acquainted with +the deepest meaning of the doctrine of this sect, which he taught in +India for a considerable time. The doctrine is recorded in several +sutras, yet the essential point is nothing but the Mandala, or circle of +the two parts, or, in Japanese, Riyōbu. + +The great preacher, Vagrabodhi, in 720 A.D., came with his disciples to +the capital of China, and translated the sacred books, seventy-seven in +number. This doctrine is the well-known Yoga-chara, which has been well +set forth by Doctor Edkins in his scholarly volume on Chinese Buddhism. +As "yoga" becomes in plain English "yoke," and as "mantra" is from the +same root as "man" and "mind," we have no difficulty in recognizing the +original meaning of these terms; the one in its nobler significance +referring to union with Buddha or Gnosis, and the other to the thought +taking lofty expression or being debased to hocus-pocus in charm or +amulet. Like the history of so many Sanskrit words as now uttered in +every-day English speech, the story of the word mantra forms a picture +of mental processes and apparently of the degradation of thought, or, as +some will doubtless say, of the decay of religion. The term mantra meant +first, a thought; then thought expressed; then a Vedic hymn or text; +next a spell or charm. Such have been the later associations, in India, +China and Japan with the term mantra. + +The burden of the philosophy of the Shin-gon, looked at from one point +of view, is mysticism, and from another, pantheism. One of the forms of +Buddha is the principle of everything. There are ten stages of thought, +and there are two parts, "lengthwise" and "crosswise" or exoteric and +esoteric. Other doctrines of Buddhism represent the first, or exoteric +stage; and those of the Shin-gon or true word, the second, or esoteric. +The primordial principle is identical with that of Maha-Vairokana, one +of the forms[23] of Buddha. The body, the word and the thought are the +three mysteries, which being found in all beings, animate and inanimate, +are to be fully understood only by Buddhas, and not by ordinary men. + +To show the actual method of intellectual procedure in order to reach +Buddha-hood, many categories, tables and diagrams are necessary; but the +crowning tenet, most far reaching in its practical influence, is the +teaching that it is possible to reach the state of Buddha-hood in this +present body. + +As discipline for the attainment of excellence along the path marked out +in the "Mantra sect," there are three mystic rites: (1) worshipping the +Buddha with the hand in certain positions called signs; (2) repeating +Dharani, or mystic formulas; (3) contemplation. + +Kōbō himself and all those who imitated him, practised fasting in +order to clear the spiritual eyesight. The thinking-chairs, so +conspicuous in many old monasteries, though warmed at intervals through +the ages by the living bodies of men absorbed in contemplation, are +rarely much worn by the sitters, because almost absolute cessation of +motion characterizes the long and hard thinkers of the Shin-gon +philosophers. The idols in the Shin-gon temples represent many a saint +and disciple, who, by perseverance in what a critic of Buddhism calls +"mind-murder," and the use of mystic finger twistings and magic +formulas, has won either the Nirvana or the penultimate stage of the +Bodhisattva. + +In the sermons and discourses of Shin-gon, the subtle points of an +argument are seized and elaborated. These are mystical on the one side, +and pantheistic on the other. It is easily seen how Buddha, being in +Japanese gods as well as men, and no being without Buddha, the way is +made clear for that kind of a marriage between Buddhism and Shintō, +in which the two become one, and that one, as to revenue and advantage, +Buddhism. + + +Truth Made Apparent by One's Own Thought. + + +The Japanese of to-day often speak of these seven religious bodies which +we have enumerated and described, as "the old sects," because much of +the philosophy, and many of the forms and prayers, are common to all, +or, more accurately speaking, are popularly supposed to be; while the +priests, being celibates, refrain from saké, flesh and fish, and from +all intimate relations with women. Yet, although these sects are +considered to be more or less conformable to the canon of the Greater +Vehicle, and while the last three certainly introduce many of its +characteristic features--one sect teaching that Buddha-hood could be +obtained even in the present body of flesh and blood--yet the idea of +Paradise had not been exploited or emphasized. This new gospel was to be +introduced into Japan by the Jō-dō Shu or Sect of the Pure Land. + +Before detailing the features of Jō-dō, we call attention to the +fact that in Japan the propagation of the old sects was accompanied by +an excessive use of idols, images, pictures, sutras, shastras and all +the furniture thought necessary in a Buddhist temple. The course of +thought and action in the Orient is in many respects similar to that in +the Occident. In western lands, with the ebb and flow of religious +sentiment, the iconolater has been followed by the iconoclast, and the +overcrowded cathedrals have been purged by the hammer and fire of the +Protestant and Puritan. So in Japan we find analogous, though not +exactly similar, reactions. The rise and prosperity of the believers in +the Zen dogmas, which in their early history used sparingly the eikon, +idol and sutra, give some indication of protest against too much use of +externals in religion. May we call them the Quakers of Japanese +Buddhism? Certainly, theirs was a movement in the direction of +simplicity. + +The introduction of the Zen, or contemplative sect, did, in a sense, +both precede and follow that of Shingon. The word Zen is a shortened +form of the term Zenna, which is a transliteration into Chinese of the +Sanskrit word Dhyana, or contemplation. It teaches that the truth is not +in tradition or in books, but in one's self. Emphasis is laid on +introspection rather than on language. "Look carefully within and there +you will find the Buddha," is its chief tenet. In the Zen monasteries, +the chair of contemplation is, or ought to be, always in use. + +The Zen Shu movement may be said to have arisen out of a reaction +against the multiplication of idols. It indicated a return to simpler +forms of worship and conduct. Let us inquire how this was. + +It may be said that Buddhism, especially Northern Buddhism, is a vast, +complicated system. It has a literature and a sacred canon which one can +think of only in connection with long trains of camels to carry, or +freight trains to transport, or ships a good deal bigger than the +Mayflower to import. Its multitudinous rules and systems of discipline +appall the spirit and weary the flesh even to enumerate them; so that, +from one point of view, the making of new sects is a necessity. These +are labor-saving inventions. They are attempts to reduce the great bulk +of scriptures to manageable proportions. They seek to find, as it were, +the mother-liquor of the great ocean, so as to express the truth in a +crystal. Hence the endeavors to simplify, to condense; here, by a +selection of sutras, rather than the whole collection; there, by +emphasis on a single feature and a determination to put the whole thing +in a form which can be grasped, either by the elect few or by the people +at large. + +The Zen sect did this in a more rational way than that set forth as +orthodox by later priestcraft, which taught that to the believer who +simply turned round the revolving library containing the canon, the +merit of having read it all would be imputed. The rin-zō[24] found +near the large temples,--the cunning invention of a Chinese priest in +the sixth century,--soon became popular in Japan. The great wooden +book-case turning on a pivot contains 6,771 volumes, that being the +number of canonical volumes enumerated in China and Japan. + +The Zen sect teaches that, besides all the doctrines of the Greater and +the Lesser Vehicles, whether hidden or apparent, there is one distinct +line of transmission of a secret doctrine which is not subject to any +utterance at all. According to their tenet of contemplation, one is to +see directly the key to the thought of Buddha by his own thought, thus +freeing himself from the multitude of different doctrines--the number of +which is said to be eighty-four thousand. In fact, Zen Shu or "Dhyana +sect" teaches the short method of making truth apparent by one's own +thought, apart from the writings. + +The story of the transmission of the true Zen doctrine is this: + + "When the blessed Shaka was at the assembly on Vulture's Peak, + there came the heavenly king, who offered the Buddha a + golden-colored flower and asked him to preach the law. The + Blessed One simply took the flower and held it in his hand, but + said no word. No one in the whole assembly could tell what he + meant. The venerable Mahahasyapa alone smiled. Than the Blessed + One said to him, 'I have the wonderful thought of Nirvana, the + eye of the Right Law, which I shall now give to you.'[25] Thus + was ushered in the doctrine of thought transmitted by thought." + +After twenty-eight patriarchs had taught the doctrine of contemplation, +the last came into China in A.D. 520, and tried to teach the Emperor the +secret key of Buddha's thought. This missionary Bodhidharma was the +third son of a king of the Kashis, in Southern India, and the historic +original of the tobacconist's shop-sign in Japan, who is known as +Daruma. The imperial Chinaman was not yet able to understand the secret +key of Buddha's thought. So the Hindu missionary went to the monastery +on Mount Su, where in meditation, he sat down cross-legged with his face +to a wall, for nine years, by which time, says the legend, his legs had +rotted off and he looked like a snow-image. During that period, people +did not know him, and called him simply the Wall-gazing Brahmana. +Afterward he had a number of disciples, but they had different views +that are called the transmissions of the skin, flesh, or bone of the +teacher. Only one of them got the whole body of his teachings. Two great +sects were formed: the Northern, which was undivided, and the Southern, +which branched off into five houses and seven schools. The Northern Sect +was introduced into Japan by a Chinese priest in 729 A.D., while the +Southern was not brought over until the twelfth century. In both it is +taught that perfect tranquillity of body and mind is essential to +salvation. The doctrine is the most sublime one, of thought transmitted +by thought being entirely independent of any letters or words. Another +name for them is, "The Sect whose Mind Assimilates with Buddha," direct +from whom it claims to have received its articles of faith. + +Too often this idea of Buddhaship, consisting of absolute freedom from +matter and thought, means practically mind-murder, and the emptiness of +idle reverie. + +Contrasting modern reality with their ancient ideal, it must be +confessed that in practice there is not a little letter worship and a +good deal of pedantry; for, in all the teachings of abstract principles +by the different sects, there are endless puns or plays upon words in +the renderings of Chinese characters. This arises from that antithesis +of extreme poverty in sounds with amazing luxuriance in written +expression, which characterizes both the Chinese and Japanese languages. + +In the temples we find that the later deities introduced into the +Buddhist pantheon are here also welcome, and that the triads or groups +of three precious ones, the "Buddhist trinity," so-called,[26] are +surrounded by gods of Chinese or Japanese origin. The Zen sect, +according to its professions and early history, ought to be indifferent +to worldly honors and emoluments, and indeed many of its devotees are. +Its history, however, shows how poorly mortals live up to their +principles and practise what they preach. Furthermore, these professors +of peace and of the joys of the inner life in the Sō-tō or +sub-sect have made the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth years of Meiji, or +A.D. 1893 and 1894, famous and themselves infamous by their +long-continued and scandalous intestine quarrels. Of the three +sub-sects, those called Rin-zai and Sō-tō, take their names from +Chinese monks of the ninth century; while the third, O-baku, founded in +Japan in the seventeenth century, is one of the latest importations of +Chinese Buddhistic thought in the Land of the Rising Sun. + +Japanese authors usually classify the first six denominations at which +we have glanced, some of which are phases of thought rather than +organizations, as "the ancient sects." Ten-dai and Shin-gon are "the +medieval sects." The remaining four, of which we shall now treat, and +which are more particularly Japanese in spirit and development, are "the +modern sects." + + + + +CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE + + "A drop of spray cast by the infinite + I hung an instant there, and threw my ray + To make the rainbow. A microcosm I + Reflecting all. Then back I fell again, + And though I perished not, I was no more."-- + The Pantheist's Epitaph. + + "Buddhism is essentially a religion of compromise." + + "Where Christianity has One Lord, Buddhism has a dozen." + + "I think I may safely challenge the Buddhist priesthood to give + a plain historical account of the Life of Amida, Kwannon, + Dainichi, or any other Mahāyāna Buddha, without being in + serious danger of forfeiting my stakes." + + "Christianity openly puts this Absolute Unconditioned Essence in + the forefront of its teaching. In Buddhism this absolute + existence is only put forward, when the logic of circumstances + compels its teachers to have recourse to it."--A. Lloyd, in The + Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene creed. + + "Now these six characters, 'Na-mu-A-mi-da-Butsu,' Zend-ō has + explained as follows: 'Namn' means [our] following His + behest--and also [His] uttering the Prayer and bestowing [merit] + upon us. 'Amida Butsu' is the practice of this, consequently by + this means a certainty of salvation is attained." + + "By reason of the conferring on us sentient creators of this + great goodness and great merit through the utterance of the + Prayer, and the bestowal [by Amida] the evil Karma and [effect + of the] passions accumulated through the long Kalpas, since when + there was no beginning, are in a moment annihilated, and in + consequence, those passions and evil Karma of ours all + disappearing, we live already in the condition of the steadfast, + who do not return [to revolve in the cycle of Birth and + Death]."--Rennyō of the Shin sect, 1473. + + "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and + the Word was God."--John. + + "The Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, + neither shadow of turning."--James. + + +CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE + +The Western Paradise. + + +We cannot take space to show how, or how much, or whether at all, +Buddhism was affected by Christianity, though it probably was. Suffice +it to say that the Jō-dō Shu, or Sect of the Pure Land, was the +first of the many denominations in Buddhism which definitely and clearly +set forth that especial peculiarity of Northern Buddhism, the Western +Paradise. The school of thought which issued in Jō-dō Shu was +founded by the Hindoo, Memio. In A.D. 252 an Indian scholar, learned in +the Tripitaka, came to China, and translated one of the great sutras, +called Amitayus. This sutra gives a history of Tathagata Amitabha,[1] +from the first spiritual impulses which led him to the attainment of +Buddha-hood in remote Kalpas down to the present time, when he dwells in +the Western World, called the Happy, where he receives all living beings +from every direction, helping them to turn away from confusion and to +become enlightened.[2] The apocalyptic twentieth chapter of the Hokké +Kiō is a glorification of the transcendent power of the Tathagatas, +expressed in flamboyant oriental rhetoric. + +We have before called attention to the fact that, with the +multiplication of sutras or the Sacred Canon and the vast increase of +the apparatus of Buddhism as well as of the hardships of brain and body +to be undergone in order to be a Buddhist, it was absolutely necessary +that some labor-saving system should be devised by which the burden +could be borne. Now, as a matter of fact, all sects claim to found their +doctrine on Buddha or his work. According to the teaching of certain +sects, the means of salvation are to be found in the study of the whole +canon, and in the practice of asceticism and meditation. On the +contrary, the new lights of Buddhism who came as missionaries into +China, protested against this expenditure of so much mental and physical +energy. One of the first Chinese propagators of the Jō-dō doctrine +declared that it was impossible, owing to the decay of religion in his +own age, for anyone to be saved in this way by his own efforts. Hence, +instead of the noble eight-fold path of primitive Buddhism, or of the +complicated system of the later Buddhistic Phariseeism of India, he +substituted for the difficult road to Nirvana, a simple faith in the +all-saving power of Amida. In one of the sutras it is taught, that if a +man keeps in his memory the name of Amida one day, or seven days, the +Buddha together with Buddhas elect, will meet him at the moment of his +death, in order to let him be born in the Pure Land, and that this +matter has been equally approved by all other Buddhas of ten different +directions. + +One of the sutras, translated in China during the fifth century, +contains the teaching of Buddha, which he delivered to the wife of the +King of Magudha, who on account of the wickedness of her son was feeling +weary of this world. He showed her how she might be born into the Pure +Land. Three paths of good actions were pointed out. Toward the end of +the particular sutra which he advised her to read and recite, Buddha +says: "Let not one's voice cease, but ten times complete the thought, +and repeat the formula, of the adoration of Amida." "This practice," +adds the Japanese exegete and historian, "is the most excellent of all." + +How well this latter teaching is practised may be demonstrated when one +goes into a Buddhist temple of the Jō-dō sect in Japan, and hears +the constant refrain,--murmured by the score or more of listeners to the +sermon, or swelling like the roar of the ocean's waves, on festival +days, when thousands sit on the mats beneath the fretted roof to enjoy +the exposition of doctrine--"Namu Amida Butsu"--"Glory to the Eternal +Buddha!"[3] + +The apostolical succession or transmission through the patriarchs and +apostles of India and China, is well known and clearly stated, withal +duly accredited and embellished with signs and wonders, in the +historical literature of the Jō-dō sect. In Buddhism, as in +Christianity, the questions relating to True Churchism, High Churchism, +the succession of the apostles, teachers and rulers, and the validity of +this or that method of ordination, form a large part of the literature +of controversy. Nevertheless, as in the case of many a Christian sect +which calls itself the only true church, the date of the organization of +Jō-dō was centuries later than that of the Founder and apostles of +the original faith. Five hundred years after Zen-dō (A.D. 600-650), +the great propagator of the Jō-dō philosophy, Hō-nen, the +founder of the Jō-dō sect, was born; and this phase of organized +Buddhism, like that of Shin Shu and Nichirer Shu, may be classed under +the head of Eastern or Japanese Buddhism. + +When only nine years of age, the boy afterward called Hō-nen, was +converted by his father's dying words. He went to school in his native +province, but his priest-teacher foreseeing his greatness, sent him to +the monastery of Hiyéizan, near Kiōto. The boy's letter of +introduction contained only these words: "I send you an image of the +Bodhisattva, (Mon-ju) Manjusri." The boy shaved his head and received +the precepts of the Ten-dai sect, but in his eighteenth year, waiving +the prospect of obtaining the headship of the great denomination, he +built a hut in the Black Ravine and there five times read through the +five thousand volumes[4] of the Tripitaka. He did this for the purpose +of finding out, for the ordinary and ignorant people of the present day, +how to escape from misery. He studied Zen-dō's commentary, and +repeated his examination eight times. At last, he noticed a passage in +it beginning with the words, "Chiefly remember or repeat the name of +Amida with a whole and undivided heart." Then he at once understood the +thought of Zen-dō, who taught in his work that whoever at any time +practises to remember Buddha, or calls his name even but once, will gain +the right effect of going to be born in the Pure Land after death. This +Japanese student then abandoned all sorts of practices which he had +hitherto followed for years, and began to repeat the name of Amida +Buddha sixty thousand times a day. This event occurred in A.D. 1175. + + +Hō-nen, Founder of the Pure Land Sect. + + +This path-finder to the Pure Land, who developed a special doctrine of +salvation, is best known by his posthumous title of Hō-nen. During +his lifetime he was very famous and became the spiritual preceptor of +three Mikados. After his death his biography was compiled in forty-eight +volumes by imperial order, and later, three other emperors copied or +republished it. In the history of Japan this sect has been one of the +most influential, especially with the imperial and shōgunal families. +In Kiōto the magnificent temples and monasteries of Chiōn-in, and +in Tōkiō Zō-jō-ji, are the chief seats of the two principal +divisions of this sect. The gorgeous mausoleums,--well known to every +foreign tourist,--at Shiba and Uyéno in Tōkiō, and the clustered +and matchless splendors of Nikkō, belong to this sect, which has been +under the patronage of the illustrious line of the Tokugawa,[5] while +its temples and shrines are numbered by many thousands. + +The doctrine of the Jō-dō, or the Pure Land Sect, is easily +discerned. One of Buddha's disciples said, that in the teachings of the +Master there are two divisions or vehicles. In the Maha-yana also there +are two gates; the Holy path, and the Pure Land. The Smaller Vehicle is +the doctrine by which the immediate disciples of Buddha and those for +five hundred years succeeding, practised the various virtues and +discipline. The gateway of the Maha-yana is also the doctrine, by which +in addition to the trainings mentioned, there are also understood the +three virtues of spiritual body, wisdom and deliverance. The man who is +able successfully to complete this course of discipline and practice is +no ordinary person, but is supposed to possess merit produced from good +actions performed in a former state of existence. The doctrine by which +man may do so, is called the gate of the Holy Path. + +During the fifteen hundred years after Buddha there were from time to +time, such personages in the world, who attained the end of the Holy +Path; but in these latter days people are more insincere, covetous and +contentious, and the discipline is too hard for degenerate times and +men. The three trainings already spoken of are the correct causes of +deliverance; but if people think them as useless as last year's almanac, +when can they complete their deliverance? Hō-nen, deeply meditating +on this, shut up the gate of the Holy Path and opened that of the Pure +Land; for in the former the effective deliverance is expected in this +world by the three trainings of morality, thought and learning, but in +the latter the great fruit of going to be born in the Pure Land after +death, is expected through the sole practice of repeating Buddha's name. + +Moreover, it is not easy to accomplish the cause and effect of the Holy +Path, but both those of the doctrine of the Pure Land are very easy to +be completed. The difference is like that between travelling by land and +travelling by water.[6] The doctrines preached by the Buddha are +eighty-four thousand in number; that is to say, he taught one kind of +people one system, that of the Holy Path, and another kind that of the +Pure Land. The Pure Land doctrine of Hō-nen was derived from the +sutra preached by the great teacher Shaka. + +This simple doctrine of "land travel to Paradise" was one which the +people of Japan could easily understand, and it became amazingly +popular. Salvation along this route is a case of being "carried to the +skies on flowery beds of ease, while others sought to win the prize and +sailed through bloody seas." + +Largely through the influence of Jō-dō Shu and of those sects most +closely allied to it, the technical terms, peculiar phraseology and +vocabulary of Buddhism became part of the daily speech of the Japanese. +When one studies their language he finds that it is a complicated +organism, including within itself several distinct systems. Just as the +human body harmonizes within itself such vastly differing organized +functions as the osseous, digestive, respiratory, etc., so, embedded in +what is called the Japanese language, there are, also, a Chinese +vocabulary, a polite vernacular, one system of expression for superiors, +another for inferiors, etc. Last of all, there is, besides a peculiar +system of pronunciation taught by the priests, a Buddhist language, +which suggests a firmament of starry and a prairie of flowery metaphors, +with intermediate deeps of space full of figurative expressions. + +In our own mother tongue we have something similar. The dialect of +Canaan, the importations of Judaism, the irruptions of Hebraic idioms, +phrases and names into Puritanism, and the ejaculations of the +camp-meeting, which vein and color our English speech, may give some +idea of the variegated strains which make up the Japanese language. +Further, the peculiar nomenclature of the Fifth Monarchy men, is fully +paralleled in the personal names of priests and even of laymen in Japan. + + +Characteristics of the Jō-dō Sect. + + +Hō-nen teaches that the solution of abstract questions and doctrinal +controversies is not needed as means of grace to promote the work of +salvation. Whether the priests and their followers were learned and +devout, or the contrary, mattered little as regards the final result, as +all that is necessary is the continual repetition of the prayer to +Amida. + +It may be added that his followers practise the master's precepts with +emphasis. Their incessant pounding upon wooden fish-drums and +bladder-shaped bells during their public exercises, is as noisy as a +frontier camp-meeting. The rosary is a notable feature in the private +devotions of the Buddhists, but the Jō-dō sect makes especial use +of the double rosary, which was invented with the idea of being +manipulated by the left hand only; this gave freedom to the right hand, +"facilitating a happy combination of spiritual and secular duty." At +funerals of believers a particular ceremony was exclusively practised by +this sect, at which the friends of the deceased sat in a circle facing +the priest, making as many repetitions as possible.[7] + +In Mohammedan countries, blind men, who cannot look down into the +surrounding gardens or house tops at the pretty women in or on them, but +who have clear and penetrating voices, are often chosen us muezzins to +utter the call to prayer from the minarets. On much the same principle, +in Old Japan, Jō-dō priests, blind to metaphysics, but handsome, +elegantly dressed and with fine delivery, went about the streets singing +and intoning prayers, rich presents being made to them, especially by +the ladies. The Jō-dō people cultivate art and aesthetic +ornamentation to a notable degree. They also understand the art of +fictitious and sensational miracle-mongering. It is said that Zen-dō, +the famous Chinese founder of this Chinese sect, when writing his +commentary, prayed for a wonderful exhibition of supernatural power. +Thereupon, a being arrayed as a priest of dignified presence gave him +instruction on the division of the text in his first volume. Hence +Zen-dō treats his own work as if it were the work of Buddha, and says +that no one is allowed either to add or to take away even a word or +sentence of the book. + +The Pure Land is the western world where Amida lives. It is perfectly +pure and free from faults. Those who wish to go thither will certainly +be re-born there, but otherwise they will not. This world, on the +contrary, is the effect of the action of all beings, so that even those +who do not wish to be born here are nevertheless obliged to come. This +world is called the Path of Pain, because it is full of all sorts of +pains, such as birth, old age, disease, death, etc. This is therefore a +world not to be attached to, but to be estranged and separated from. One +who is disgusted with this world, and who is filled with desire for that +world, will after death be born there. Not to doubt about these words of +Buddha, even in the slightest degree, is called deep faith; but if one +entertains the least doubts he will not be born there. Hence the saying: +"In the great sea of the law of Buddha, faith is the only means to +enter." + + +Salvation Through the Merits of Another. + + +In this absolute trust in the all-saving power of Amida as compared with +the ways promulgated before, we see the emergence of the Buddhist +doctrine of justification by faith, the simplification of theology, and +a revolt against Buddhist scholasticism. The Japanese technical term, +"_tariki_," or relying upon the strength of another, renouncing all idea +of _ji-riki_ or self-power,[8] is the substance of the Jō-dō +doctrine; but the expanded term _ta-riki chin no ji-riki_, or +"self-effort depending on another," while expressing the whole dogma, is +rather scornfully applied to the Jō-dōists by the men of the Shin +sect. The invocation of Amida is a meritorious act of the believer, much +repetition being the substance of this combination of personal and +vicarious work. + +Hō-nen, after making his discovery, believing it possible for all +mankind eventually to attain to perfect Buddhaship, left, as we have +seen, the Ten-dai sect, which represented particularism and laid +emphasis on the idea of the elect. Hō-nen taught Buddhist +universalism. Belief and repetition of prayer secure birth into the Pure +Land after the death of the body, and then the soul moves onward toward +the perfection of Buddha-hood. + +The Japanese were delighted to have among them a genius who could thus +Japanize Buddhism, and Jō-dō doctrine went forth conquering and to +conquer. From the twelfth century, the tendency of Japanese Buddhism is +in the direction of universalism and democracy. In later developments of +Jō-dō, the pantheistic tendencies are emphasized and the +syncretistic powers are enlarged. While mysticism is a striking feature +of the sect and the attainment of truth is by the grace of Amida, yet +the native Kami of Japan are logically accepted as avatars of Buddha. +History had little or no rights in the case; philosophy was dictator, +and that philosophy was Hō-nen's. Those later Chinese deities made by +personifying attributes or abstract ideas, which sprang up after the +introduction of Buddhism into China, are also welcomed into the temples +of this sect. That the common people really believe that they themselves +may attain Buddha-hood at death, and enter the Pure Land, is shown in +the fact that their ordinary expression for the dead saint is Hotoké--a +general term for all the gods that were once human. Some popular +proverbs indicate this in a form that easily lends itself to irreverence +and merriment. + +The whole tendency of Japanese Buddhism and its full momentum were now +toward the development of doctrine even to startling proportions. +Instead of the ancient path of asceticism and virtue with agnosticism +and atheism, we see the means of salvation put now, and perhaps too +easily, within the control of all. The pathway to Paradise was made not +only exceedingly plain, but also extremely easy, perhaps even +ridiculously so; while the door was open for an outburst of new and +local doctrines unknown to India, or even to China. The rampant vigor +with which Japanese Buddhism began to absorb everything in heaven, earth +and sea, which it could make a worshipable object or cause to stand as a +Kami or deity to the mind, will be seen as we proceed. The native +proverb, instead of being an irreverent joke, stands for an actual +truth--"Even a sardine's head may become an object of worship." + + +"Reformed" Buddhism. + + +We now look at what foreigners call "Reformed" Buddhism, which some even +imagine has been borrowed from Protestant Christianity--notwithstanding +that it is centuries older than the Reformation in Europe. + +The Shin Shu or True Sect, though really founded on the Jō-dō +doctrines, is separate from the sect of the Pure Land. Yet, besides +being called the Shin Shu, it is also spoken of as the Jō-dō Shin +Shu or the True Sect of the Pure Land. It is the extreme form of the +Protestantism of Buddhism. It lays emphasis on the idea of salvation +wholly through the merits of another, but it also paints in richer tints +the sensuous delights of the Western Paradise. As the term Pure Land is +antithetical to that of the Holy Path, so the word Shin, or True, +expresses the contrary of what are termed the "temporary expedients." + +While some say that we should practise good works, bring our stock of +merits to maturity, and be born in the Pure Land, others say that we +need only repeat the name of Amida in order to be born in the Pure Land, +by the merit produced from such repetition. These doctrines concerning +repetitions, however, are all considered but "temporary expedients." So +also is the rigid classification, so prominent in "the old sects," of +all beings or pupils into three grades. As in Islam or Calvinism, all +believers stand on a level. To Shin-ran the Radical, the practices even +of Jō-dō seemed complicated and difficult, and all that appeared +necessary to him was faith in the desire of Amida to bless and save. To +Shinran,[9] faith was the sole saving act. + +To rely upon the power of the Original Prayer of Amitabha Buddha with +the whole heart and give up all idea of _ji-riki_ or self-power, is +called the truth. This truth is the doctrine of this sect of Shin.[10] +In a word, not synergism, not faith _and_ works, but faith only is the +teaching of Shin Shu. + +Shinran, the founder of this sect in Japan, was born A.D. 1173 and died +in the year 1262. He was very naturally one who had been first educated +in the Jō-dō sect, then the ruling one at the imperial court in +Kiōto. Shall we call him a Japanese Luther, because of his insistence +on salvation by faith only? He is popularly believed to have been +descended from one of the Shintō gods, being on his father's side the +twenty-first in the line of generation. On his mother's side he was of +the lineage of the Minamoto or Genji, a clan sprung from Mikados and +famous during centuries for its victorious warriors. Hō-nen was his +teacher, and like his teacher, Shinran studied at the great monastery +near Kiōto, learning first the doctrine of the Tendai, and then, at +the age of twenty-nine, receiving from Hō-nen the tenets of the +Jō-dō sect. Shortly after, at thirty years of age, he began to +promulgate his doctrines. Then he took a step as new to Buddhism, as was +Luther's union with Katharine von Bora, to the ecclesiasticism of his +time. He married a lady of the imperial court, named Tamayori, who was +the daughter of the Kuambaku or premier. + +Shinran thus taught by example, if not formally and by written precept, +that marriage was honorable, and that celibacy was an invention of the +priests not warranted by primitive Buddhism. Penance, fasting, +prescribed diet, pilgrimages, isolation from society whether as hermits +or in the cloister, and generally amulets and charms, are all tabooed by +this sect. Monasteries imposing life-vows are unknown within its pale. +Family life takes the place of monkish seclusion. Devout prayer, purity, +earnestness of life and trust in Buddha himself as the only worker of +perfect righteousness, are insisted upon. Morality is taught to be more +important than orthodoxy. + +In practice, the Shin sect even more than the Jō-dō, teaches that +it is faith in Buddha, which accomplishes the salvation of the believer. +Instead of waiting for death in order to come under the protection of +Amida, the faithful soul is at once received into the care of the +Boundlessly Compassionate. In a word, the Shin sect believes in +instantaneous conversion and sanctification. Between the Roman and the +Reformed soteriology of Christendom, was Melancthonism or the +coōperate union of the divine and the human will. So, the old +Buddhism prior to Shinran taught a phase of synergism, or the union of +faith and works. Shinran, in his "Reformed" Buddhism, taught the +simplicity of faith. + +So also _in_ regard to the sacred writings, Shinran opposed the San-ron +school and the three-grade idea. The scriptures of other sects are in +Sanskrit and Chinese, which only the learned are able to read. The +special writings of Shinran are in the vernacular. Three of the sutras, +also, have been translated into Japanese and expressed in the kana +script. Singleness of purpose characterised this sect, which was often +called Monto, or followers of the gate, in reference to its unity of +organization, and the opening of the way to all by Shinran and the +doctrine taught by him. Yet, lest the gate might seem too broad, the +Shin teachers insist that morality is as important as faith, and indeed +the proof of it. The high priests of Shin Shu have ever held a high +position and wielded vast influence in the religious development of the +people. While the temples of other sects are built in sequestered places +among the hills, those of Shin Shu are erected in the heart of cities, +on the main streets, and at the centres of population,--the priests +using every means within their power to induce the people to come to +them. The altars are on an imposing scale of magnificence and gorgeous +detail. No Roman Catholic church or cathedral can outshine the splendor +of these temples, in which the way to the Western Paradise is made so +clear and plain. Another name for the sect is Ikko. + +After the death of Shinran, his youngest daughter and one of his +grandsons erected a monastery near his tomb in the eastern suburbs of +Kiōto, to which the Mikado gave the title of Hon-guanji, or Monastery +of the Original Vow. This was in allusion to the vow made by Amida, that +he would not accept Buddhaship except under the condition that salvation +be made attainable for all who should sincerely desire to be born into +his kingdom, and signify their desire by invoking his name ten +times.[11] It is upon the passage in the sutra where this vow is +recorded, that the doctrine of the sect is based. Its central idea is +that man is to be saved by faith in the mercy of the boundlessly +compassionate Amida, and not by works or vain repetitions. Within our +own time, on November 28, 1876, the present reigning Mikado bestowed +upon Shinran the posthumous title Ken-shin Dai-shi, or Great Teacher of +the Revelation of Truth. + + +The Protestants of Japanese Buddhism. + + +This is the sect which, being called "Reformed" Buddhism[12] and +resembling Protestantism in so many points, both large and minute, +foreigners think has been borrowed or imitated from European +Protestantism.[13] As matter of fact, the foundation principles of +Shin-Shu are at least six hundred years old. They are perfectly clear in +the writings of the founder,[14] as well as in those of his successor +Renniō,[15] who wrote the Ofumi or sacred writings, now daily read by +the disciples of this denomination. With the characteristic object of +reaching the masses, they are written, as we have shown, not in the +mixed Chinese and Japanese characters, but in the common script, or +kana, which all the people of both sexes can read. Within the last two +decades the Shin educators have been the first to organize their schools +of learning on the models of those in Christendom, so that their young +men might be trained to resist Shintō or Christianity, or to measure +the truth in either. Their new temples also show European influence in +architecture and furniture. Liberty of thought and action, and +incoercible desire to be free from governmental, traditional, +ultra-ecclesiastical, or Shintō influence--in a word, protestantism +in its pure sense, is characteristic of the great sect founded by +Shinran. + +Indeed the Shin sect, which sprang out of the Jō-dō, maintains +that it alone professes the true teaching of Hō-nen, and that the +Jō-dō sect has wandered from the original doctrines of its +founder. Whereas the Jō-dō or Pure Land sect believes that Amida +will come to meet the soul of the believer on its separation from the +body, in order to conduct it to Paradise, the Shin or True Sect of the +Pure Land believes in immediate salvation and sanctification. It +preaches that as soon as a man believes in Amida he is taken by him +under him merciful protection. Some might denominate these people the +Methodists of Buddhism. + +One good point in their Protestantism is their teaching that morality is +of equal importance with faith. To them Buddha-hood means the perfection +and unlimitedness of wisdom and compassion. "Therefore," writes one, +"knowing the inability of our own power we should believe simply in the +vicarious Power of the Original Prayer. If we do so, we are in +correspondence with the wisdom of the Buddha and share his great +compassion, just as the water of rivers becomes salt as soon as it +enters the sea. For this reason this is called the faith in the Other +Power." + +To their everlasting honor, also, the Shin believers have probably led +all other Japanese Buddhists in caring for the Eta, even as they +probably excel in preaching the true spiritual democracy of all +believers, yes, even of women.[16] "According to the earlier and general +view of Buddhism, women are condemned, in virtue of the pollution of +their nature, to look forward to rebirth in other forms. By no +possibility can they, in their existence as women, reach the higher +grades of holiness which lead to Nirvana. According to the Shin Shu +system, on the other hand, a believing woman may hope to attain the goal +of the Buddhist at the close of her present life."[17] This doctrine +seems to be founded on that passage in the eleventh chapter of the +Saddharma Pundarika, in which the daughter of Sāgara, the +Nāga-king, loses her sex as female and reappears as a Bodhisattva of +male sex.[18] + +The Shin sect is the largest in Japan, having more than twice as many +temples as any four of the great sects, and five thousand more than the +So-dō or sub-sect of Jō-dō, which is the next largest; or, over +nineteen thousand in all. It is also supposed to be one of the richest +and most powerful of all the Japanese sects. In reality, however, it +possesses no fixed property, and is dependent entirely upon the +voluntary contributions of its adherents. To-day, it is probably the +most active of them all in education, learning and missionary operations +in Yezo, China and Korea. + +Interesting as is the development of the Jō-dō and Shin sects, +which became popular largely through their promulgation of dogmas +founded on the Western Paradise, we must not forget that both of them +preached a new Buddha--not the real figure in history, but an unhistoric +and unreal phantom, the creation and dream of the speculator and +visionary. Amida, the personification of boundless light, is one of the +luxuriant growths of a sickly scholasticism--a hollow abstraction +without life or reality. Amidaism is utterly repudiated by many Japanese +Buddhists, who give no place to his idol on their altars, and reject +utterly the teaching as to Paradise and salvation through the merits of +another. + +Yet these two special developments by natives, though embodying +tendencies of the Japanese mind, did not reach the limit to which +Northern Buddhism was to go in those almost incredible lengths, which +prompted Professor Whitney[19] to call it "the high-faluting school," +and which we have seen in our own time under the cultivation of western +admirers. + + +The Nichiren Sect. + + +The Japanese mind runs to pantheism as naturally as an unpruned +grape-vine runs to fibre and leaves. + +When Nichiren, the ultra-patriotic and ultra-democratic bonze, saw the +light in A.D. 1222, he was destined to bring religion not only down to +man, but even down to the beasts and to the mud. He founded the +Saddharma-Pundarika sect, now called Nichiren Shu. + +Born at Kominato, near the mouth of Yedo Bay, he became a neophite in +the Shin-gon sect at the age of twelve, and was admitted into the +priesthood when but fifteen years old. Then he adopted his name, which +means Sun-lotus, because, according to a typical dream very common in +Korea and Japan, his mother thought that she had conceived by the sun +entering her body. Through a miracle, he acquired a thorough knowledge +of the whole Buddhist canon, in the course of which he met with words, +which he converted into that formula which is constantly in the mouth of +the members of the Nichiren sect, Namu-myō-ho-ren-gé-kyō--"O, the +Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law."[20] His history, full of +amazing activity and of romantic adventure, is surrounded by a perfect +sunrise splendor, or, shall we say, sunset gorgeousness, of mythology +and fable. The scenes of his life are mostly laid in the region of the +modern Tōkiō, and to the cultivated traveller, its story lends +fascinating charms to the landscape in the region of Yedo Bay. Nichiren +was a fiery patriot, and ultra-democratic in his sympathies. He was a +radical believer in "Japan for the Japanese." He was an ecclesiastical +_Soshi_. He felt that the developments of Buddhism already made, were +not sufficiently comprehensive, or fully suited to the common people. +So, in A.D. 1282, he founded a new sect which gradually included within +its pantheon all possible Buddhas, and canonized pretty nearly all the +saints, righteous men and favorite heroes known to Dai Nippon. Nichiren +first made Japan the centre of the universe, and then brought religion +down to the lowest. He considered that the period in which he lived was +the latter day of the law, and that all creatures ought to share in the +merit of Buddha-hood. Only the original Buddha is the real moon in the +sky, but all Buddhas of the subordinate states are like the images of +the moon, reflected upon the waters. All these different Buddhas, be +they gods or men, beasts, birds or snakes, are to be honored. Indeed, +they are both honored and worshipped in the Nichiren pantheon. Besides +the historic Buddha, this sect, which is the most idolatrous of all, +admits as objects of its reverence such personages as Nichiren, the +founder; Kato Kiyomasa, the general who led the army of invasion in +Korea and was the persecutor of the Christians; and Shichimen--a word +which means seven points of the compass or seven faces. This Shichimen +is the being that appeared to Nichiren as a beautiful woman, but +disappeared from his sight in the form of a snake, twenty feet long, +covered with golden scales and armed with iron teeth. It is now deified +under the name meaning the Great God of the Seven Faces, and is +identified with the Hindoo deity Siva. + +Another idol usually seen in the Nichiren temples is Mioken. Under this +name the pole star is worshipped, usually in the form of a Buddha with a +wheel of a Buddha elect. Standing on a tortoise, with a sword in his +right hand, and with the left hand half open--a gesture which symbolizes +the male and female principles in the physical world, and the +intelligence and the law in the spiritual world--Mioken is a striking +figure. Indeed, the list of glorified animals reminds us somewhat of the +ancient beast-worship of Egypt. In the Nichiren hierology, it is as +though the symbolical figures in the Book of Revelation had been deified +and worshipped. It is evident that all the creatures in that Buddhist +chamber of imagery, the Hokké Kiō, that could possibly be made into +gods have received apotheosis. The very book itself is also worshipped, +for the Nichirenites are extreme believers in verbal inspiration, and +pay divine honors to each jot and tittle of the sutra, which to them is +a god. They adore also the triad of the three precious ones, the Buddha, +the Rule or Discipline, and the Organization; or, Being, Law, and +Church. The hideous idol, Fudo, "Eleven-faced," "Horse-headed," +"Thousand-handed," or girt in a robe of fiery flame, is believed by +Buddhists to represent Avalokitesvara; but, in recent times he has been +recognized, detected and recaptured by the Shintōists as Kotohira. +The goddess Kishi, and that miscellaneous assortment or group known as +the Seven Patrons of Happiness, which form a sort of encyclopaedia or +museum of curiosities derived from the cults of India, China and Japan, +are also components of the amazing menagerie and pantheon of this sect, +in which scholasticism run mad, and emotional kindness to animals become +maudlin, join hands. + + +The Ultra-realism of Northern Buddhism. + + +Like most of the other Japanese sects, the Nichirenites claim that their +principles are contained in the Hok-ké-kiō, which is considered the +consummate white flower of Buddhist doctrine and literature. This is the +Japanese name for that famous sutra, the Saddharma Pundarika, so often +mentioned in these chapters but a thousand-fold more so in Japanese +literature. The Ten-dai and the Nichiren sects are allied, in that both +lay supreme emphasis upon this sutra; but the former interprets it with +an intellectual, and the latter with an emotional emphasis. +Philosophically, the two bodies have much in common. Outwardly they are +very far apart. One has but to read their favorite scripture, to see the +norm upon which the gorgeous art of Japan has been developed. Probably +no single book in the voluminous canon of the Greater Vehicle gives one +so masterful a key to Japanese Buddhism. Its pages are crowded with +sensuous descriptions of all that is attractive to both the reason and +the understanding. Its descriptions of Paradise are those which would +suit also the realistic Mussulman. Its rhetoric and visions seem to be +those of some oriental De Quincey, who, out of the dreams of an +opium-eater, has made the law-book of a religion. Translated into +matter-of-fact Chinese, none better than Nichiren knew how to present +its realism to his people. + +In its ethical standards, which are two, this sect, like most others, +prescribes one course of life for the monk, which is difficult, and +another for the laity, which is easy. The central dogma is that every +part of the universe, including not only gods and men, but animals, +plants and the very mud itself, is capable, by successive +transmigrations, of attaining to Buddhaship. In one sense, Nichirenism +is the transfiguration of atheistic evolution. In its teachings there +are also two forms: the one, largely in symbol, is intended to attract +followers; the other, the pure truth, is employed to convert the +obstinately ignorant, against their wills. As in the history of the +papal organization in Europe, a materialistic interpretation has been +given to the canons of dogma and discipline. + +Contrary to the doctrine of those sects which teach the attainment of +salvation solely through the aid of Amida, or Another, the Nichirenites +insist that it is necessary for man to work out his own salvation, by +observing the law, by self-examination, by reflecting on the blessings +vouchsafed to the members of this elect and orthodox sect and by +constant prayer. They consider themselves as in the only true church, +and their succession to the priesthood, the only valid one. The strict +Nichiren churchmen will not have the Shintō gods in their household +shrines, nor will they intermarry among the sects. The Nichirenites are +also very fond of controversy, and their language in speaking of other +creeds and sects is not that characteristic of the gentle Buddha. The +people of this sect are much given to the belief in demoniacal +possession, and a considerable part of the duty and revenue-yielding +business of the Nichiren priests consists in exorcising the foxes, +badgers and other demons, which have possessed subjects who are +generally women at certain stages of illness or convalescence. The +phenomena and pathology of these disorders seem to be allied to those of +hysteria and hypnotism. + +This popular sect also makes greatest use of charms, spells and amulets, +lays great store on pilgrimages, and is very fond of noise-making +instruments whether prayer-books or the wooden bells or drums which are +prominent features in their temples and revival meetings. In one sense +it is the Salvation Army of Buddhism, being especially powerful in what +strikes the eye and ear. The Nichirenites have been well called the +Ranters of Buddhism. Their revival meetings make Bedlam seem silent, and +reduce to gentle murmurs the camp-meeting excesses with which we are +familiar in our own country. They are the most sectarian of all sects. +Their vocabulary of Billingsgate and the ribaldry employed by them even +against their Buddhist brethren, cast into the shade those of Christian +sectarians in their fiercest controversies. "A thousand years in the +lowest of the hells is the atonement prescribed by the Nichirenites for +the priests of all other sects." When the Parliament of Religions was +called in Chicago, the successors of Nichiren, with their characteristic +high-church modesty, promptly sent letters to America, warning the world +against all other Japanese Buddhists, and denouncing especially those +coming to speak in the Parliament, as misrepresenting the true doctrines +of Buddha. + + +Doctrinal Culmination. + + +When the work of Nichiren had been completed, and his realistic +pantheism had been able to include within its great receiver and +processes of Buddha-making, everything from gods to mud, the circle of +doctrine was complete. Kōbō's leaven had now every possible lump +in which to do its work. All grades of men in Japan, from the most +devout and intellectual to the most ranting and fanatical, could choose +their sect. Yet it may be that Buddhism in Nichiren's day was in danger +of stagnation and formalism, and needed the revival which this fiery +bonze gave it; for, undoubtedly, along with zeal even to bigotry, came +fresh life and power to the religion. This invigoration was followed by +the mighty missionary labors of the last half of the thirteenth century, +which carried Buddhism out to the northern frontier and into Yezo. +Although, from time to time minor sects were formed either limiting or +developing further the principles of the larger parent sects, and +although, even as late as the seventeenth century, a new subsect, the +Oba-ku of Zen Shu, was imported from China, yet no further doctrinal +developments of importance took place; not even in presence of or after +sixteenth century Christianity and seventeenth century Confucianism. + +The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries form the golden age of Japanese +Buddhism. + +In the sixteenth century, the feudal system had split into fragments and +the normal state of the country was that of civil war. Sect was arrayed +against sect, and the Shin bonzes, especially, formed a great military +body in fortified monasteries. + +In the first half of the sixteenth century, came the tremendous +onslaught of Portuguese Christianity. Then followed the militarism and +bloody persecutions of Nobunaga. + +In clashing with the new Confucianism of the seventeenth century, +Buddhism utterly weakened as an intellectual power. Though through the +favor of the Yodo shōguns it recovered lands and wealth, girded +itself anew as the spy, persecutor and professed extirpator of +Christianity, and maintained its popularity with the common people, it +was, during the eighteenth century, among the educated Japanese, as good +as dead. Modern Confucianism and the revival of Chinese learning, +resulted in eighteenth century scepticism and in nineteenth century +agnosticism. + + +The New Buddhism. + + +In our day and time, Japanese Buddhism, in the presence of aggressive +Christianity, is out of harmony with the times, and the needs of +forty-one millions of awakened and inquiring people; and there are deep +searchings of heart. Politically disestablished and its landed +possessions sequestrated by the government, it has had, since 1868, a +history, first of depression and then of temporary revival. Now, amid +much mechanical and external activity, the employment of the press, the +organization of charity, of summer schools of "theology," and of young +men's and other associations copied from the Christians, it is +endeavoring to keep New Japan within its pale and to dictate the future. +It seeks to utilize the old bottles for the new vintage. + +There is, however, a movement discernible which may be called the New +Buddhism, and has not only new wine but new wineskins. It is democratic, +optimistic, empirical or practical; it welcomes women and children; it +is hospitable to science and every form of truth. It is catholic in +spirit and has little if any of the venom of the old Buddhist +controvertists. It is represented by earnest writers who look to natural +and spiritual means, rather than to external and mechanical methods. As +a whole, we may say that Japanese Buddhism is still strong to-day in its +grip upon the people. Though unquestionably moribund, its death will be +delayed. Despite its apparent interest in, and harmony with, +contemporaneous statements of science, it does not hold the men of +thought, or those who long for the spiritual purification and moral +elevation of Japan. + +Are the Japanese eager for reform? Do they possess that quality of +emotion in which a tormenting sense of sin, and a burning desire for +self-surrender to holiness, are ever manifest? + +Frankly and modestly, we give our opinion. We think not. The average +Japanese man has not come to that self-consciousness, that searching of +heart, that self-seeing of sin in the light of a Holy God's countenance +which the gospel compels. Yet this is exactly what the Japanese need. +Only Christ's gospel can give it. + +The average man of culture in Dai Nippon has to-day no religion. He is +waiting for one. What shall be the issue, in the contest between a faith +that knows no personal God, no Creator, no atonement, no gospel of +salvation from sin, and the gospel which bids man seek and know the +great First Cause, as Father and Friend, and proclaims that this +Infinite Friend seeks man to bless him, to bestow upon him pardon and +holiness and to give him earthly happiness and endless life? Between one +religion which teaches personality in God and in man, and another which +offers only a quagmire of impersonality wherein a personal god and an +individual soul exist only as the jack-lights of the marsh, mere +phosphorescent gleams of decay, who can fail to choose? Of the two +faiths, which shall be victor? + + + + +CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT + + + "The heart of my country, the power of my country, the Light of + my country, is Buddhism."--Yatsubuchi, of Japan. + + "Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Japanese + nation grew up."--Chamberlain. + + "Buddhism was the civilizer. It came with the freshness of + religious zeal, and religious zeal was a novelty. It come as the + bearer of civilization and enlightenment." + + "Buddhism has had a fair field in Japan, and its outcome has not + been elevating. Its influence has been aesthetic and not + ethical. It added culture and art to Japan, as it brought with + itself the civilization of continental Asia. It gave the arts, + and more, it added the artistic atmosphere.... Reality + disappears. 'This fleeting borrowed world' is all mysterious, a + dream; moonlight is in place of the clear hot sun.... It has so + fitted itself to its surroundings that it seems + indigenous."--George William Knox. + + "The Japanese ... are indebted to Buddhism for their present + civilization and culture, their great susceptibility to the + beauties of nature, and the high perfection of several branches + of artistic industry."--Rein. + + "We speak of _God_, and the Japanese mind is filled with idols. + We mention _sin_, and he thinks of eating flesh or the killing + of insects. The word _holiness_ reminds him of crowds of + pilgrims flocking to some famous shrine, or of some anchorite + sitting lost in religions abstraction till his legs rot off. He + has much error to unlearn before he can take in the + truth-"--R.E. McAlpine. + + "There in a life of study, prayer, and thought, + Kenshin became a saintly priest--not wide + In intellect nor broad in sympathies, + For such things come not from the ascetic life; + But narrow, strong, and deep, and like the stream + That rushes fervid through the narrow path + Between the rooks at Nikkō--so he grasped, + Heart, soul, and strength, the holy Buddha's Law + With no room left for doubt, or sympathy + For other views."--Kenshin's Vision. + + "For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the + same, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place + incense is offered unto my name, and a pure offering, for my + name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of + hosts."--Malachi. + + +CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT + +Missionary Buddhism the Measure of Japan's Civilization. + + +Broadly speaking, the history of Japanese Buddhism in its missionary +development is the history of Japan. Before Buddhism came, Japan was +pre-historic. We know the country and people through very scanty notices +in the Chinese annals, by pale reflections cast by myths, legends and +poems, and from the relics cast up by the spade and plough. Chinese +civilization had filtered in, though how much or how little we cannot +tell definitely; but since the coming of the Buddhist missionaries in +the sixth century, the landscape and the drama of human life lie before +us in clear detail. Speaking broadly again, it may be said that almost +from the time of its arrival, Buddhism became on its active side the +real religion of Japan--at least, if the word "religion" be used in a +higher sense than that connoted by either Shintō or Confucianism. +Though as a nation the Japanese of the Méiji era are grossly forgetful +of this fact, yet, as Professor Chamberlain says,[1] "All education was +for centuries in Buddhist hands. Buddhism introduced art; introduced +medicine; created the folk-lore of the country; created its dramatic +poetry; deeply influenced politics, and every sphere of social and +intellectual activity; in a word, Buddhism was the teacher under whose +instruction the Japanese nation grew up." + +For many centuries all Japanese, except here and there a stern +Shintōist, or an exceptionally dogmatic Confucian, have acknowledged +these patent facts, and from the emperor to the eta, glorified in them. +It was not until modern Confucian philosophy entered the Mikado's empire +in the seventeenth century, that hostile criticism and polemic tenets +denounced Buddhism, and declared it only fit for savages. This bitter +denunciation of Buddhism at the lips and hands of Japanese who had +become Chinese in mind, was all the more inappropriate, because Buddhism +had for over a thousand years acted as the real purveyor and disperser +of the Confucian ethics and culture in Japan. Such denunciation came +with no better grace from the Yedo Confucianists than from the Shintō +revivalists, like Motoöri, who, while execrating everything Chinese, +failed to remember or impress upon his countrymen the fact, that almost +all which constituted Japanese civilization had been imported from the +Middle Kingdom. + +Buddhism, in its purely doctrinal development, seems to be rather a +system of metaphysics than a true religion, being a conglomeration, or +rather perhaps an agglomeration, of all sorts of theories relating to +the universe and its contents. Its doctrinal and metaphysical side, +however, is to be carefully distinguished from its popular and external +features, for in its missionary development Buddhism may be called a +system of national improvement. The history of its propagation, in the +land farthest east from its cradle, is not only the outline of the +history of Japanese civilization, but is nearly the whole of it. + + +Pre-Buddhistic Japan. + + +It is not perhaps difficult to reconstruct in imagination the landscape +of Japan in pre-Buddhistic days. Certainly we may, with some accuracy, +draw a contrast between the appearance of the face of the earth then and +now. Supposing that there were as many as a million or two of souls in +the Japanese Archipelago of the sixth century--the same area which in +the nineteenth century contains over forty-one millions--we can imagine +only here and there patches of cultivated fields, or terraced gullies. +There were no roads except paths or trails. The horse was probably yet a +curiosity to the aborigines, though well known to the sons of the gods. +Sheep and goats then, as now, were unknown. The cow and the ox were in +the land, but not numerous.[2] In architecture there was probably little +but the primeval hut. Tools were of the rudest description; yet it is +evident that the primitive Japanese were able to work iron and apply it +to many uses. There were other metals, though the tell-tale etymology of +their names in Japanese metallurgy, as in so many other lines of +industry and articles of daily use, points to a Chinese origin. It is +the almost incredible fact that the Japanese man or woman wore on the +person neither gold nor silver jewelry. In later times, decoration was +added to the sword hilt and pins were thrust in the hair. + +Possibly a prejudice against metal touching the skin, such as exists in +Korea, may account for this absence of jewelry, though silver was not +discovered until A.D. 675, or gold until A.D. 749. The primitive +Japanese, however, did wear ornaments of ground and polished stone, and +these so numerously as to compel contrast with the severer tastes of +later ages. Some of these magatama--curved jewels or perforated +cylinders--were made of very hard stone which requires skill to drill, +cut and polish. Among the substances used was jade, a mineral found only +in Cathay.[3] Indeed, we cannot follow the lines of industry and +manufactures, of personal adornment and household decoration, of +scientific terms and expressions, of literary, intellectual and +religious experiment, without continually finding that the Japanese +borrowed from Chinese storehouses. Possibly their debt began at the time +of the alleged conquest of Korea[4] in the third century. + +In Japanese life, as it existed before the introduction of Buddhism, +there was, with barbaric simplicity, a measure of culture somewhat +indeed above the level of savagery, but probably very little that could +be appraised beyond that of the Iroquois Indians in the days of their +Confederacy. For though granting that there were many interesting +features of art, industry, erudition and civilization which have been +lost to the historic memory, and that the research of scholars may +hereafter discover many things now in oblivion; yet, on the other hand, +it is certain that much of what has long been supposed to be of +primitive Japanese origin, and existent before the eighth century, has +been more or less infused or enriched with Chinese elements, or has been +imported directly from India, or Persia,[5] or has crystallized into +shape from the mixture of things Buddhistic and primitive Japanese. + +Apart from all speculation, we know that in the train of the first +missionaries came artisans, and instructors in every line of human +industry and achievement, and that the importation of the inventions and +appliances of "the West"--the West then being Korea and China, and the +"Far West," India--was proportionately as general, as far-reaching, as +sensational, as electric in its effects upon the Japanese minds, as, in +our day, has been the introduction of the modern civilization of Europe +and the United States.[6] + + +The Purveyors of Civilization. + + +The Buddhist missionaries, in their first "enthusiasm of humanity," were +not satisfied to bring in their train, art, medicine, science and +improvements of all sorts, but they themselves, being often learned and +practical men, became personal leaders in the work of civilizing the +country. In travelling up and down the empire to propagate their tenets, +they found out the necessity of better roads, and accordingly, they were +largely instrumental in having them made. They dug wells, established +ferries and built bridges.[7] They opened lines of communication; they +stimulated traffic and the exchange of merchandise; they created the +commerce between Japan and China; and they acted as peacemakers and +mediators in the wars between the Japanese and Koreans. For centuries +they had the monopoly of high learning. In the dark middle ages when +civil war ruled, they were the only scholars, clerks, diplomatists, +mediators and peacemakers. + +Japanese diet became something new under the direction of the priests. +The bonzes taught the wickedness of slaughtering domestic animals, and +indeed, the wrong of putting any living thing to death, so that kindness +to animals has become a national trait. To this day it may be said that +Japanese boys and men are, at least within the limits of their light, +more tender and careful with all living creatures than are those of +Christendom.[8] The bonzes improved the daily fare of the people, by +introducing from Korea and China articles of food hitherto unknown. They +brought over new seeds and varieties of vegetables and trees. +Furthermore, necessity being the mother of invention, not a few of the +shorn brethren made up for the prohibition of fish and flesh, by +becoming expert cooks. They so exercised their talents in the culinary +art that their results on the table are proverbial. Especially did they +cultivate mushrooms, which in taste and nourishment are good substitutes +for fish. + +The bonzes were lovers of beauty and of symbolism. They planted the +lotus, and the monastery ponds became seats of splendor, and delights to +the eye. Their teachings, metaphysical and mystical, poetical and +historical, scientific and literary, created, it may be said, the +Japanese garden, which to the refined imagination contains far more than +meets the eye of the alien.[9] Indeed, the oriental imitations in earth, +stone, water and verdure, have a language and suggestion far beyond what +the usual parterres and walks, borders and lines, fountains and statuary +of a western garden teach. It may be said that our "language of flowers" +is more luxuriant and eloquent than theirs; yet theirs is very rich +also, besides being more subtle in suggestion. The bonzes instilled +doctrine, not only by sermons, books and the emblems and furniture of +the temples, but they also taught dogma and ethics by the flower-ponds +and plots, by the artificial landscape, and by outdoor symbolism of all +kinds. To Buddhism our thanks are due, for the innumerable miniature +continents, ranges of mountains, geographical outlines and other +horticultural allusions to their holy lands and spiritual history, seen +beside so many houses, temples and monasteries in Japan. In their floral +art, no people excels the Japanese in making leaf and bloom teach +history, religion, philosophy, aesthetics and patriotism. + +Not only around the human habitation,[10] but within it, the new +religion brought a marvellous change. Instead of the hut, the +dwelling-house grew to spacious and comfortable proportions, every part +of the Japanese house to-day showing to the cultured student, especially +to one familiar with the ancient poetry, the lines of its origin and +development, and in the larger dwellings expressing a wealth of +suggestion and meaning. The oratory and the kami-dana or shelf holding +the gods, became features in the humblest dwelling. Among the well-to-do +there were of course the gilded ancestral tablets and the worship of +progenitors, in special rooms, with imposing ritual and equipment, with +which Buddhism did not interfere; but on the shelf over the door of +nearly every house in the land, along with the emblems of the kami, +stood images representing the avatars of Buddha.[11] There, the light +ever burned, and there, offerings of food and drink were thrice daily +made. Though the family worship might vary in its length and variety of +ceremony, yet even in the home where no regular system was followed, the +burning lights and the stated offering made, called the mind up to +thoughts higher than the mere level of providing for daily wants. The +visitation of the priests in time of sorrow, or of joy, or for friendly +converse, made religion sweetly human.[12] + +Outwardly the Buddhist architecture made a profound change in the +landscape. With a settled religion requiring gorgeous ceremonial, the +chanting of liturgies by large bodies of priests and the formation of +monasteries as centres of literary and religious activity, there were +required stability and permanence in the imperial court itself. While, +therefore, the humble village temples arose all over the country, there +were early erected, in the place where the court and emperor dwelt, +impressive religious edifices.[13] The custom of migration ceased, and a +fixed spot selected as the capital, remained such for a number of +generations, until finally Héian-jō or the place of peace, later +called Kiōto, became the "Blossom Capital" and the Sacred City for a +thousand years. At Nara, where flourished the first six sects introduced +from Korea, were built vast monasteries, temples and images, and thence +the influence of civilisation and art radiated. From the first, +forgetting its primitive democracy and purely moral claims, Buddhism +lusted for power in the State. As early as A.D. 624, various grades were +assigned to the priesthood by the government.[14] The sects eagerly +sought and laid great stress upon imperial favor. To this day they +keenly enjoy the canonization of their great teachers by letters patent +from the Throne. + + +Ministers of Art. + + +On the establishment of the imperial capital, at Kiōto, toward the +end of the eighth century, we find still further development and +enlargement of those latent artistic impulses with which the Heavenly +Father endowed his Japanese child. That capacity for beauty, both in +appreciation and expression, which in our day makes the land of dainty +decoration the resort of all those who would study oriental art in +unique fulness and decorative art in its only living school--a school +founded on the harmonious marriage of the people and the nature of the +country--is discernible from quite early ages. The people seem to have +responded gladly to the calls for gifts and labor. The direction from +which it is supposed all evils are likely to come is the northeast; this +special point of the compass being in pan-Asian spiritual geography the +focus of all malign influences. Accordingly, the Mikado Kwammu, in A.D. +788, built on the highest mountain called Hiyéi a superb temple and +monastery, giving it in charge of the Ten-dai sect, that there should +ever be a bulwark against the evil that might otherwise swoop upon the +city. Here, as on castellated walls, should stand the watchman, who, by +the recitation of the sacred liturgies, would keep watch and ward. In +course of time this great mountain became a city of three thousand +edifices and ten thousand monks, from which the droning of litanies and +the chanting of prayers ascended daily, and where the chief industries +were, the counting of beads on rosaries and the burning of incense +before the altars. This was in the long bright day of a prosperity which +has been nourished by vast sums obtained from the government and nobles. +One notes the contrast at the end of our century, when "disestablished" +as a religion and its bonzes reduced to beggary, Hiyéi-san is used as +the site of a Summer School of Christian Theology. + +Along with the blossoming of the lotus in every part of the empire, +bloomed the grander flowers of sculpture, of painting and of temple +architecture. It was because of the carpenter's craft in building +temples that he won his name of Dai-ku, or the great workman. The +artificers of the sunny islands cultivated an ambition, not only to +equal but to excel, their continental brethren of the saw and hammer. +Yet the carpenter was only the leader of great hosts of artisans that +were encouraged, of craftsmen that were educated and of industries that +were called into being by the spread of Buddhism.[15] It was not enough +that village temples and town monasteries should be built, under an +impulse that meant volumes for the development of the country. The +ambitious leaders chose sightly spots on mountains whence were lovely +vistas of scenery, on which to erect temples and monasteries, while it +seemed to be their further ambition to allow no mountain peak to be +inaccessible. With armies of workmen, supported by the contributions of +the faithful who had been aroused to enthusiasm by the preaching of the +bonzes, great swaths were cut in the forest; abundant timber was felled; +rocky plateaus were levelled; and elegant monastic edifices were reared, +soon to be filled with eager students, and young men in training for the +priesthood. + +Whether the pilgrimage[16] be of Shintō or of Buddhist origin, or +simply a contrivance of human nature to break the monotony of life, we +need not discuss. It is certain that if the custom be indigenous, the +imported faith adopted, absorbed and enlarged it. The peregrinations +made to the great temples and to the mountain tops, being meritorious +performances, soon filled the roads with more or less devout travellers. +In thus finding vent for their piety, the pilgrims mingled +sanctification with recreation, enjoying healthful holidays, and +creating trade with varied business, commercial and commissarial +activities, while enlarging also their ideas and learning something of +geography. Thus, in the course of time, it has come to pass that Japan +is a country of which almost every square mile is known, while it is +well threaded with paths, banded with roads, and supplied to a +remarkable extent with handy volumes of description and of local +history.[17] Her people being well educated in their own lore and local +traditions, possessed also a voluminous literature of guidebooks and +cyclopedias of information. The devotees were, withal, well instructed +and versed in a code of politeness and courtesy, as pilgrimage and +travel became settled habits of a life. As a further result, the +national tongue became remarkably homogeneous. Broadly speaking, it may +be said that the Japanese language, unlike the Chinese in this as it is +in almost every other point, has very little dialectic variation.[18] +Except in some few remote eddies lying outside the general currents, +there is a uniform national speech. This is largely owing to that annual +movement of pilgrims in the summer months especially, habitual during +many centuries. + +Buddhism coming to Japan by means of the Great Vehicle, or with the +features of the Northern development, was the fertile mother of art. In +the exterior equipment of the temple, instead of the Shintō thatch, +the tera or Buddhist edifice called for tiles on its sweeping roof, with +ornamental terra-cotta at the end of its imposing roof-ridge, or for +sheets of copper soon to be made verdant, then sombre and then sable by +age and atmosphere. Outwardly the edifice required the application of +paint and lacquer in rich tints, its recurved roof-edges gladly +welcoming the crest and monogram of the feudal prince, and its railings +and stairways accepting willingly the bronze caps and ornaments. In +front of its main edifice was the imposing gateway with proportions +almost as massive as the temple itself, with prodigal wealth of +curiously fitted and richly carved, painted and gilded supports and +morticings, with all the fancies and adornments of the carpenter's art, +and having as its frontlet and blazon the splendidly gilt name, style or +title. Often these were impressive to eye and mind, to an extent which +the terse Chinese or curt monosyllables could scarcely suggest to an +alien.[19] The number, forms and positions of the various parts of the +temple easily lent themselves to the expression of the elaborate +symbolism of the India faith. + + +Resemblances between Buddhism and Christianity. + + +Within the sacred edifice everything to strike the senses was lavishly +displayed. The passion of the East, as opposed to Greek simplicity, is +for decoration; yet in Japan, decorative art, though sometimes bursting +out in wild profusion or running to unbridled lengths, was in the main a +regulated mass of splendor in which harmony ruled. Differing though the +Buddhist sects do in their temple furniture and altar decorations, they +are, most of them, so elaborately full in their equipment as to suggest +repeatedly the similarity between the Roman Catholic organization, +altars, vestments and ritual, and those of Buddhism, and remarks on this +point seem almost commonplace. Almost everything in Roman Catholicism is +found in Buddhism,[20] and one may even say, _vice versa_, at least in +things exterior. We take the liberty of transcribing here a passage from +the chapter entitled "Christianity and Foreigners" in The Mikado's +Empire, written twenty years ago. + + "Furthermore, the transition from the religion of India to that + of Rome was extremely easy. The very idols of Buddha served, + after a little alteration with the chisel, for images of Christ. + The Buddhist saints were easily transformed into the Twelve + Apostles. The Cross took the place of the _torii_. It was + emblazoned on the helmets and banners of the warriors, and + embroidered on their breasts. The Japanese soldiers went forth + to battle like Christian crusaders. In the roadside shrine + Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy, made way for the Virgin, the + mother of God. Buddhism was beaten with its own weapons. Its own + artillery was turned against it. Nearly all the Christian + churches were native temples, sprinkled and purified. The same + bell, whose boom had so often quivered the air announcing the + orisons and matins of paganism, was again blessed and sprinkled, + and called the same hearers to mass and confession; the same + lavatory that fronted the temple served for holy water or + baptismal font; the same censer that swung before Amida could be + refilled to waft Christian incense; the new convert could use + unchanged his old beads, bells, candles, incense, and all the + paraphernalia of his old faith in celebration of the new. + + "Almost everything that is distinctive in the Roman form of + Christianity is to be found in Buddhism: images, pictures, + lights, altars, incense, vestments, masses, beads, wayside + shrines, monasteries, nunneries, celibacy, fastings, vigils, + retreats, pilgrimages, mendicant vows, shorn heads, orders, + habits, uniforms, nuns, convents, purgatory, saintly and + priestly intercession, indulgences, works of supererogation, + pope, archbishops, abbots, abbesses, monks, neophytes, relics + and relic-worship, exclusive burial-ground, etc., etc., + etc."[21] + +Nevertheless, these resemblances are almost wholly superficial, and have +little or nothing to do with genuine religion. Such matters are of +aesthetic and of commercial, rather than of spiritual, interest. They +concern priestcraft and vulgar superstition rather than truth and +righteousness. "In point of dogma a whole world of thought separates +Buddhism from every form of Christianity. Knowledge, enlightenment, is +the condition of Buddhistic grace, not faith. Self-perfectionment is the +means of salvation, not the vicarious sufferings of a Redeemer. Not +eternal life is the end and active participation in unceasing prayer and +praise, but absorption into Nirvana (Jap. Nehan), practical +annihilation."[22] At certain points, the metaphysic of Buddhism is so +closely like that of Christian theology, that a connection on reciprocal +exchange of ideas is not only possible but probable. In their highest +thinking,[23] the sincere Christian and Buddhist approach each other in +their search after truth. + +The key-word of Buddhism is Ingwa, which means law or fate, the chain of +cause and effect in which man is found, atheistic "evolution applied to +ethics," the grinding machinery of a universe in which is no +Creator-Father, no love, pity or heart. If the cry of the human spirit +has compelled the makers of Buddhist theology to furnish a goddess of +mercy, it is but one subordinate being among many. If a boundlessly +compassionate Amida is thought out, it is an imaginary being. The symbol +of Buddhism is the wheel of the law, which revolves as mercilessly as +ceaselessly.[24] + +The key-word of Christianity is love, and its message is grace. Its +symbol is the cross, and its sacrament the supper, in token of the +infinite love of the Father who wrote his revelation in a human life. +The resemblances between the religions of Gautama and of Jesus, are +purely superficial. They appear to the outward man. The inward man +cannot, even from Darien peaks of observation or in his scrutiny _de +profundis_, discover any vital or historical connection between the two +faiths, Christianity and Buddhism. In his theology the Christian says +God is all; but the Buddhist says All is god. Buddhism says destroy the +passions: Christianity says control them. The Buddhist's watchword is +Nirvana. The Christian's is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus.[25] + + +The Temples and Their Symbolism. + + +In the vast airy halls of a Buddhist temple one will often see columns +made of whole tree-trunks, sheeted with gold and supporting massive +ceilings which are empanelled and gorgeous with every hue and tint known +to the palette. Besides the coloring, carving and gilding, the rich +symbolism strikes the eye and touches the imagination. It is a pleasing +study for one familiar with the background and world of Buddhism, to +note their revelation and expression in art, as well as to discern what +the varying sects accept or reject. There is the lotus, in leaf, bud, +flower and calyx;[26] the diamond in every form, real and imaginary, +with the vagra or emblem of conquest; while on the altars, beside the +central image, be it that of Shaka or of Amida, are Bodhisattvas or +Buddhas by brevet, beings in every state of existence, as well as +deities of many names and forms. Abstract ideas and attributes are +expressed in the art language not only of Japan, Korea and China, but +also in that of India and even of Persia and Greece,[27] until one +wonders how an Aryan religion, like Buddhism, could have so conquered +and unified the many nations of Chinese Asia. He wonders, indeed, until +he remembers how it has itself been transformed and changed in popular +substance, from lofty metaphysics and ethics into pantheism for the +shorn, and into polytheism for the unshorn. + +Looking at early Japanese pictures with the eye of the historian, as +well as of the connoisseur of art, one will see that the first real +school of Japanese art was Buddhistic. The modern school of pictorial +art, named from the monkish phrase, Ukioyé--pictures of the Passing +World--is indeed very interesting to the western student, because it +seems to be more in touch with the human nature of the whole world, as +distinct from what is local, Chinese, or sectarian. Yet, casting a +glance back of the mediaeval Kano, Chinese and Yamato-Tosa styles, he +finds that Buddhism gave Japan her first examples of and stimulus to +pictorial art.[28] He sees further that instead of the monochrome of +Chinese exotic art, or the first rude attempts of the native pencil, +Buddhism began Japanese sculpture, carving and nearly every other form +of plastic or pictorial representation, in which are all the elements of +Northern Buddhism, as so lavishly represented, for example, in that +great sutra which is the book, _par excellence_, of Japanese Buddhism, +the Saddharma Pundarika. + +Turning from text to art, we behold the golden lakes of joy, the +mountain of gems, the floating female angels with their marvellous +drapery and lovely faces, the gentle benignity of the goddesses of +mercy, the rays of light and the glory streaming from face and head of +the holy ones, the splendors of costume, the varied beauties of the +lotus, the hosts of ministering intelligences, the luxuriant symbolism, +the purple clouds, the wheel of the law, the swastika[29] or double +cross, and the vagra,[30] or diamond trefoil. All that color, perfume, +sensuous delights, art and luxury can suggest, are here, together with +all the various orders of beings that inhabit the Buddhist universe; and +these are set forth in their fulness and detail. In the six conditions +of sentient existence are devas or gods, men, asuras or monsters, pretas +or demons, beasts, and beings in hell. In portraying these, the artists +and sculptors do not always slavishly follow tradition or uniformity. +The critical eye notes nearly as much genius, wit and variety as in the +mediaeval cathedral architecture of Europe. Probably the most popular +groups of idols are those of the seven or the thirty-three Kuannon, of +the six Jizo[31] or compassionate helpers, and of the sixteen or the +five hundred Rakan[32] or circles of primitive disciples of Gautama. The +angelic beings and sweetly singing birds of Paradise are also favorite +subjects of the artists. + +One who has lived alongside the great temples; who knows the daily +routine and sees what powerful engines of popular instruction they are; +who has been present at the great festivals and looked upon the mighty +kitchens and refectories in operation; and who has gone in and out among +their monasteries and examined their records, their genealogies and +their relics, can see how powerfully Buddhism has moulded the whole life +of the people through long ages. The village temple is often the epitome +and repository of the social life of the people now living, and of the +story of their ancestors for generations upon generations past. It is +the historico-genealogical society, the museum, the repository of +documents and trophies, the place of national thanksgiving and praise, +of public sorrow and farewell, a place of rendezvous and separation, the +starting-point of procession, and the centre of festival and joy; and +thus it is linked with the life of the people. + +In other respects, also, the temple is like the old village cathedral of +mediaeval Europe. It is in many sects the centre of popular pleasure of +all sorts, both reputable and disreputable. Not only shops and bazaars, +fairs and markets, games and sports, cluster around it, but also +curiosities and works of popular art, the relics of war, and the +trophies of travel and adventure. Except that Buddhism--outside of +India--never had the unity of European Christianity, the Buddhist temple +is the mirror and encyclopaedia both of history and of contemporary +life. As fame and renown are necessary for the glory of the place or the +structure, favorite gods, or rather their idols, are frequently carried +about on "starring" tours. At the opening to public view of some famous +image or relic, a great festival or revival called Kai-chō is held, +which becomes a scene of trade and merry-making like that of the +mediaeval fair or kermis in Europe. The far-oriental is able as +skilfully as his western confrère, to mix business and religion and to +suppose that gain is godliness. Further, the manufacture of legend +becomes a thriving industry; while the not-infrequent sensation of a +popular miracle is manipulated by the bonzes--for priestcraft in all +ages and climes is akin throughout the world. It is no wonder that some +honest Japanese, incensed at the shams utilized by the religious, has +struck out like coin the proverb that rings true--"Good doctrine needs +no miracle." + + +The Bell and the Cemetery. + + +The Buddhist missionaries, and especially the founders of temples, +thoroughly understood the power of natural beauty to humble, inspire and +soothe the soul of man. The instinctive love of the Japanese people for +fine scenery, was made an ally of faith. The sites for temples were +chosen with reference to their imposing surroundings or impressive +vistas. Whether as spark-arresters and protectives against fire, or to +compel reverent awe, the loftiest evergreen trees are planted around the +sacred structure. These "trees of Jehovah" are compellers to reverence. +The _alien's_ hat comes off instinctively--though it may be less +convenient to shed boots than sandals--as he enters the sacred +structure. + +The great tongueless bell is another striking accessory to the temple +services. Near at hand stands the belfry out of which boom forth tidings +of the hours. In the flow of time and years, the note of the bell +becomes more significant, and in old age solemn, making in the lapse of +centuries an educating power in seriousness. "As sad as a temple bell" +is the coinage of popular speech. Many of the inscriptions, though with +less of sunny hope and joy than even Christian grave-stones bear, are +yet mournfully beautiful.[33] They preach Buddhism in its reality. +Whereas, the general associations of the Christian spire and belfry, +apart from the note of time, are those of joy, invitation and good news, +those of the tongueless and log-struck bells of Buddhism are sombre and +saddening. "As merry as a marriage bell," could never be said of the +boom from a Buddhist temple, even though it pour waves of sound through +sunny leagues. There is a vast difference between the peal and play of +the chimes of Europe and the liquid melody which floods the landscape of +Chinese Asia. The one music, high in air, seems ever to tell of faith, +triumph and aspiration; the other in minor notes, from bells hung low on +yokes, perpetually echoes the pessimism of despair, the folly of living +and the joy that anticipates its end. + +Above all, the temple holds and governs the cemetery[34] as well as the +cradle; while from it emanate influences that enwrap and surround the +villager, from birth to death. Since the outlawry of Christianity, and +especially since the division of the empire into Buddhist parishes, the +bonzes have had the oversight of birth, death, marriage and divorce. +Particularly tenacious, in common with priestcraft all over the world, +is their clutch upon what they call "consecrated ground." In a large +sense Japan is still, what China has always been, a country governed by +the graveyard. These cities of the dead are usually kept in attractive +order and made beautiful with flowers in memoriam. The study of epitaphs +and mortuary architecture, though not without elements bordering on the +ludicrous, is enjoyed by the thoughtful student.[35] + + In every community the inhabitants are enrolled at birth at the + local temple, whose priests are the authorized religious + teachers, and are always expected to take charge of the funerals + of those whose names are thus enrolled. So long as an individual + remains in the region of the family temple, the tie which binds + him to it is exceedingly difficult to break; but if he moves + away he is no longer bound by this tie. This explains the fact, + so often observed by missionaries, that the membership of + Christian churches is made up almost entirely of people who have + come from other localities. In the city of Osaka, for instance, + it is a very rare thing to find a native Osakan in any of the + churches. The same is true in all parts of the country. So long + as a Japanese remains in the neighborhood of his family temple + it is almost impossible to get him to break the temple tie and + join a Christian church; but when he moves to another place he + is free to do as he likes.[36] + +This statement of a resident in modern Japan will long remain true for a +large part of the empire. + + +Political and Military Influences. + + +A volume might be written and devoted to Japanese Buddhism as a +political power; for, having quickly obtained intellectual possession of +the court and emperor, it dictated the policies of the rulers. In A.D. +624, it was recognized as a state religion, and the hierarchy of priests +was officially established. At this date there were 46 temples and +monasteries, with 816 monks and 569 nuns. As early as the eighth +century, beginning with Shōmu, who reigned A.D. 724-728, and who with +his daughter, afterward the female Mikado, became a disciple of Shaka, +the habit of the emperors becoming monks, shaving their heads and +retiring from public life, came in vogue and lasted until near the +nineteenth century. By this means the bonzes were soon enabled to call +Buddhism "the people's religion," and to secure the resources of the +national treasury as an aid to their temple and monastery building, and +for the erection of those images and wayside shrines on which so many +millions of dollars have been lavished. In addition to this subsidized +propaganda, the Buddhist confessor was too often able, by means of the +wife, concubine, or other female member of the household, imperial or +noble, to dictate the imperial policy in accordance with monkish or +priestly ideas. Ugéno Dō-kiō, a monk, is believed to have aspired +to the throne. Being made premier by the Empress Kō-ken, whose +passion for him is the scandal of history, he made no scruple of +extending the power as well as the influence of the Buddhist hierarchy. + +Buddhism had also a distinct influence on the military history of the +country,[37] and this was greatest during the civil wars of the rival +Mikados (1336-1392), when the whole country was a camp and two lines of +nominees claimed to be descendants of the sun-goddess. Japan's only +foreign wars have been in the neighboring peninsula of Korea, and +thither the bonzes went with the armies in the expeditions of the early +centuries, and in that great invasion of 1592-1597, which has left a +scar even to this day on the Korean mind. At home, Buddhist priests only +too gladly accompanied the imperial armies of conquest and occupation. +During centuries of activity in the southwest and in the far east and +extreme north, the military brought the outlying portions of the empire, +throughout the whole archipelago, under the sway of the Yamato tribe and +the Mikado's dominion. The shorn clerks not only lived in camp, +ministered to the sick and shrived the dying soldier, but wrote texts +for the banners, furnished the amulets and war cries, and were ever +assistant and valuable in keeping up the temper and morals of the +armies.[38] No sooner was the campaign over and peace had become the +order of the day, than the enthusiastic missionaries began to preach and +to teach in the pacified region. They set up the shrines, anon started +the school and built the temple; usually, indeed, with the aid of the +law and the government, acting as agents of a politico-ecclesiastical +establishment, yet with energy and consecration. + +In later feudal days, when the soldier classes obtained the upper hand, +overawed the court and Mikado and gradually supplanted the civil +authority, introducing feudalism and martial law, the bonzes often +represented the popular and democratic side. Protesting against +arbitrary government, they came into collision with the warrior rulers, +so as to be exposed to imprisonment and the sword. Yet even as refugees +and as men to whom the old seats of activity no longer offered success +or comfort, they went off into the distant and outlying provinces, +preaching the old tenets and the new fashions in theology. Thus again +they won hosts of converts, built monasteries, opened fresh paths and +were purveyors of civilization. + +The feudal ages in Japan bred the same type of militant priest known in +Europe--the military bishop and the soldier monk. So far from Japan's +being the "Land of Great Peace," and Buddhism's being necessarily gentle +and non-resistant, we find in the chequered history of the island empire +many a bloody battle between the monks on horseback and in armor.[39] +Rival sectarians kept the country disquieted for years. Between +themselves and their favored laymen, and the enemy, consisting of the +rival forces, lay and clerical, in like array, many a bloody battle was +fought. + +The writer lived for one year in Echizen, which, in the fifteenth +century, was the battle-ground for over fifty years, of warring monks. +The abbot of the Monastery of the Original Vow, of the Shin sect, in +Kiōto, had built before the main edifice a two-storied gate, which +was expected to throw into the shade every other gateway in Japan, and +especially to humble the pride of the monks of the Tendai sect, in +Hiyéizan, The monks of the mountain, swarming down into the capital +city, attacked the gate and monastery of the Shin sect and burned the +former to ashes. The abbot thus driven off by fire, fled northward, and, +joined by a powerful body of adherents, made himself possessor of the +rich provinces of Kaga and Echizen, holding this region for half a +century, until able to rebuild the mighty fortress-monasteries near +Kiōto and at Osaka. + +These strongholds of the fighting Shin priests had become so powerful as +arsenals and military headquarters, that in 1570, Nobunaga, skilful +general as he was, and backed by sixty thousand men, was unsuccessful in +his attempt to reduce them. For ten years, the war between Nobunaga and +the Shin sectarians kept the country in disorder. It finally ended in +the conflagration of the great religious fortress at Osaka, and the +retreat of the monks to another part of the country. By their treachery +and incendiarism, the shavelings prevented the soldiers from enjoying +the prizes. + +To detail the whole history of the fighting monks would be tedious. They +have had a foothold for many centuries and even to the present time, in +every province except that of Satsuma. There, because they treacherously +aided the great Hidéyoshi to subdue the province, the fiery clansmen, +never during Tokugawa days, permitted a Buddhist priest to come.[40] + + +Literature, and Education. + + +In its literary and scholastic development, Japanese Buddhism on its +popular educational side deserves great praise. Although the Buddhist +canon[41] was never translated into the vernacular,[42] and while the +library of native Buddhism, in the way of commentary or general +literature, reflects no special credit upon the priests, yet the +historian must award them high honor, because of the part taken by them +as educators and schoolmasters.[43] Education in ancient and mediaeval +times was, among the laymen, confined almost wholly to the imperial +court, and was considered chiefly to be, either as an adjunct to polite +accomplishments, or as valuable especially in preparing young men for +political office.[44] From the first introduction of letters until well +into the nineteenth century, there was no special provision for +education made by the government, except that, in modern and recent +times in the castle towns of the Daimiōs, there were schools of +Chinese learning for the Samurai. Private schools and school-masters[45] +were also creditably numerous. In original literature, poetry, fiction +and history, as well as in the humbler works of compilation, in the +making of text-books and in descriptive lore, the pens of many priests +have been busy.[46] The earliest biography written in Japan was of +Shōtoku, the great lay patron of Buddhism. In the ages of war the +monastery was the ark of preservation amid a flood of desolation. + +The temple schools were early established, and in the course of +centuries became at times almost coextensive with the empire. Besides +the training of the neophytes in the Chinese language and the +vernacular, there were connected with thousands of temples, schools in +which the children, not only of the well-to-do, but largely of the +people, were taught the rudiments of education, chiefly reading and +writing. Most of the libraries of the country were those in monasteries. +Although it is not probable that Kōbō invented the Kana or common +script, yet it is reasonably certain that the bonzes[47] were the chief +instrument in the diffusion and popularization of that simple system of +writing, which made it possible to carry literature down into the homes +of the merchant and peasant, and enabled even women and children to +beguile the tedium of their lives. Thus the people expanded their +thoughts through the medium of the written, and later of the printed, +page.[48] Until modern centuries, when the school of painters, which +culminated in Hokŭsai and his contemporaries, brought a love of art +down to the lowest classes of the people, the only teacher of pictorial +and sculptural art for the multitude, was Buddhism. So strong is this +popular delight in things artistic that probably, to this passion as +much as to the religious instinct, we owe many of the wayside shrines +and images, the symbolical and beautifully prepared landscapes, and +those stone stairways which slope upward toward the shrines on the +hill-tops. In Japan, art is not a foreign language; it is vernacular. + +Thus, while we gladly point out how Buddhism, along the paths of +exploration, commerce, invention, sociology, military and political +influence, education and literature, not only propagated religion, but +civilized Japan,[49] it is but in the interest of fairness and truth +that we point out that wherein the great system was deficient. If we +make comparison with Christendom and the religion of Jesus, it is less +with the purpose of the polemic who must perhaps necessarily disparage, +and more with the idea of making contrast between what we have seen in +Japan and what we have enjoyed as commonplace in the United States and +Europe. + + +Things Which Buddhism Left Undone. + + +In the thirteen hundred years of the life of Buddhism in Japan, what are +the fruits, and what are the failures? Despite its incessant and +multifarious activities, one looks in vain for the hospital, the orphan +asylum, the home for elderly men or women or aged couples, or the asylum +for the insane, and much less, for that vast and complicated system of +organized charities, which, even amid our material greed of gain, make +cities like New York, or London, or Chicago, so beautiful from the point +of view of humanity. Buddhism did indeed teach kindness to animals, +making even the dog, though ownerless and outcast, in a sense sacred. +Because of his faith in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, the +toiling laborer will keep his wheels or his feet from harming the cat or +dog or chicken in the road, even though it be at risk and trouble and +with added labor to himself. The pious will buy the live birds or eels +from the old woman who sits on the bridge, in order to give them life +and liberty again in air or water. The sacred rice is for sale at the +temples, not only to feed but to fatten the holy pigeons. + +Yet, while all this care is lavished on animals, the human being +suffers.[50] Buddhism is kind to the brute, and cruel to man. Until the +influx of western ideas in recent years, the hospital and the orphanage +did not exist in Japan, despite the gentleness and tenderness of Shaka, +who, with all his merits, deserted his wife and babe in order to +enlighten mankind.[51] If Buddhism is not directly responsible for the +existence of that class of Japanese pariahs called _hi-nin_, or +not-human, the name and the idea are borrowed from the sutras; while the +execration of all who prepare or sell the flesh of animals is +persistently taught in the sacred books. These unfortunate bearers of +the human image, during twelve hundred years and until the fiat of the +present illustrious emperor made them citizens, were not reckoned in the +census, nor was the land on which they dwelt measured. The imperial +edict which finally elevated the Eta to citizenship, was suggested by +one whose life, though known to men as that of a Confucian, was probably +hid with Christ, Yokoi Héishiro.[52] The emperor Mutsuhito, 123d of the +line of Japan, born on the day when Perry was on the Mississippi and +ready to sail, placed over these outcast people in 1871, the protecting +aegis of the law.[53] Until that time, the people in this unfortunate +class, numbering probably a million, or, as some say, three millions, +were compelled to live outside of the limits of human habitation, having +no lights which society or the law was bound to respect. They were given +food or drink only when benevolence might be roused; but the donor would +never again touch the vessel in which the offering was made. The +Eta,[54] though in individual cases becoming measurably rich, rotted and +starved, and were made the filth, and off-scouring of the earth, because +they were the butchers, the skinners, the leather workers, and thus +handled dead animals, being made also the executioners and buriers of +the dead. After a quarter of a century the citizens, whose ancestry is +not forgotten, suffer social ostracism even more than do the freed +slaves of our country, though between them and the other Japanese there +is no color line, but only the streak of difference which Buddhism +created and has maintained. Nevertheless, let it be said to the eternal +honor of Shin Shu and of some of the minor sects, that they were always +kind and helpful to the Eta. + +Furthermore it would be hard to discover Buddhist missionary activities +among the Ainos, or benefits conferred upon them by the disciples of +Gautama. One would suppose that the Buddhists, professing to be +believers in spiritual democracy, would be equally active among all +sorts and conditions of men; but they have not been so. Even in the days +when the regions of the Ebisu or barbarians (Yezo) extended far +southward upon the main island, the missionary bonze was conspicuous by +his absence among these people. It would seem as though the popular +notion that the Ainos are the offspring of dogs, had been fed by +prejudices inculcated by Buddhism. It has been reserved for Christian +aliens to reduce the language of these simple savages to writing, and to +express in it for their spiritual benefit the ideas and literature of a +religion higher than their own, as well as to erect church edifices and +build hospitals. + + +The Attitude Toward Woman. + + +In its attitude toward woman, which is perhaps one of the crucial tests +of a religion as well as of a civilization, Buddhism has somewhat to be +praised and much to be blamed for. It is probable that the Japanese +woman owes more to Buddhism than to Confucianism, though relatively her +position was highest under Shintō. In Japan the women are the freest +in Asia, and probably the best treated among any Asiatic nation, but +this is not because of Gautama's teaching.[55] Very early in its history +Japanese Buddhism welcomed womanhood to its fraternity and order,[56] +yet the Japanese _ama, bikuni_, or nun, never became a sister of mercy, +or reached, even within a measurable distance, the dignity of the +Christian lady in the nunnery. In European history the abbess is a +notable figure. She is hardly heard of beyond the Japanese nunnery, even +by the native scholar--except in fiction. + +So far as we can see, the religion founded by one who deserted his wife +and babe did nothing to check concubinage or polygamy. It simply allowed +these things, or ameliorated their ancient barbaric conditions through +the law of kindness. Nevertheless, it brought education and culture +within the family as well as within the court. It would be an +interesting question to discuss how far the age of classic vernacular +prose or the early mediaeval literature of romance, which is almost +wholly the creation of woman,[57] is due to Buddhism, or how far the +credit belongs, by induction or reaction, to the Chinese movement in +favor of learning. Certainly, the faith of India touches and feeds the +imagination far more than does that of China. Certainly also, the +animating spirit of most of the popular literature is due to Buddhistic +culture. The Shin sect, which permits the marriage of the priests and +preaches the salvation of woman, probably leads all others in according +honor to her as well as in elevating her social position. + +Buddhism, like Roman Catholicism, and as compared to Confucianism which +is protestant and masculine, is feminine in its type. In Japan the place +of the holy Virgin Mary is taken by Kuannon, the goddess of mercy; and +her shrine is one of the most popular of all. Much the same may be said +of Benten, the queen of the heaven and mistress of the seas. The angels +of Buddhism are always feminine, and, as in the unscriptural and pagan +conception of Christian angels, have wings.[58] So also in the legends +of Gautama, in the Buddhist lives of the saints, and in legendary lore +as well as in glyptic and pictorial art, the female being transfigured +in loveliness is a striking figure. Nevertheless, after all is summed up +that can possibly be said in favor of Buddhism, the position it accords +to woman is not only immeasurably beneath that given by Christianity, +but is below that conceded by Shintō, which knows not only goddesses +and heroines, but also priestesses and empresses.[59] + +According to the popular ethical view as photographed in language, +literature and art, jealousy is always represented by a female demon. +Indeed, most of the tempters, devils, and transformations of humanity +into malign beings, whether pretas, asuras, oni, foxes, badgers, or +cats, are females. As the Chinese ideographs associate all things weak +or vile with women, so the tell-tale words of Japanese daily speech are +but reflections of the dogmas coined in the Buddhist mint. In Japanese, +chastity means not moral cleanliness without regard to sex, but only +womanly duties. For, while the man is allowed a loose foot, the woman is +expected not only to be absolutely spotless, but also never to show any +jealousy, however wide the husband may roam, or however numerous may be +the concubines in his family. In a word, there is the double standard of +morals, not only of priest and laity, but of man and woman. The position +of the Japanese woman even of to-day, despite that eagerness once shown +to educate her--an eagerness which soon cooled in the government +schools, but which keeps an even pulse in the Christian home and +college--is still relatively one of degradation as compared with that of +her sister in Christendom. For this, the mid-Asian religion is not +wholly responsible, yet it is largely so. + + +Influence on the Japanese Character. + + +In regard to the influence of Buddhism upon the morals and character of +the Japanese, there is much to be said in praise, and much also in +criticism. It has aided powerfully to educate the people in habits of +gentleness and courtesy, but instead of aspiration and expectancy of +improvement, it has given to them that spirit of hopeless resignation +which is so characteristic of the Japanese masses. Buddhism has so +dominated common popular literature, daily life and speech, that all +their mental procedure and their utterance is cast in the moulds of +Buddhist doctrine. The fatalism of the Moslem world expressed in the +idea of Kismet, has its analogue in the Japanese Ingwa, or "cause and +effect,"--the notion of an evolution which is atheistic, but viewed from +the ethical side. This idea of Ingwa is the key to most Japanese novels +as well as dramas of real life.[60] While Buddhism continually preaches +this doctrine of Karma or Ingwa,[61] the law of cause and effect, as +being sufficient to explain all things, it shows its insufficiency and +emptiness by leaving out the great First Cause of all. In a word, +Buddhism is law, but not gospel. It deals much with man, but not with +man's relations with his Creator, whom it utterly ignores. Christianity +comes not to destroy its ethics, beautiful as they are, nor to ignore +its metaphysics; but to fulfil, to give a higher truth, and to reveal a +larger Universe and One who fills it all--not only law, but a Law-giver. + + + + +CHAPTER XI - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY + + "_Sicut cadaver._" + + "Et fiet unum ovile et unus pastor."--Vulgate, John x. 16. + + "He (Xavier) has been the moon of that 'Society of Jesus' of + which Ignatius Loyola was the guiding sun."--S.W. Duffield. + + "My God I love Thee; not because I hope for Heaven thereby, + Nor yet because, who love Thee not, must, die eternally. + So would I love Thee, dearest Lord, and in Thy praise will sing; + Solely because thou art my God, and my eternal King." + --Hymn attributed to Francis Xavier. + + "Half hidden, stretching in a lengthened line + In front of China, which its guide shall be, + Japan abounds in mines of Silver fine, + And shall enlighten'd be by holy faith divine." + --Camoens + + "The people of this Iland of Japon are good of nature, curteous + aboue measure, and valiant in warre; their justice is seuerely + executed without any partialitie vpon transgressors of the law. + They are gouerned in great ciuilitie. I meane, not a land better + gouerned in the world by ciuill policie. The people be verie + superstitious in their religion, and are of diuers + opinions."--Will Adams, October 22, 1611. + + "A critical history of Japan remains to be written ... We should + know next to nothing of what may be termed the Catholic episode + of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had we access to + none but the official Japanese sources. How can we trust those + sources when they deal with times yet more remote?"--Chamberlain. + + "The annals of the primitive Church furnish no instances of + sacrifice or heroic constancy, in the Coliseum or the Roman + arenas, that were not paralleled on the dry river-beds or + execution-grounds of Japan." + + "They ... rest from their labors; and their works do follow + them. "--Revelation. + + +CHAPTER XI - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY + +Darkest Japan. + + +The story of the first introduction and propagation of Roman +Christianity in Japan, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, +has been told by many writers, both old and new, and in many languages. +Recent research upon the soil,[1] both natives and foreigners making +contributions, has illustrated the subject afresh. Relics and memorials +found in various churches, monasteries and palaces, on both sides of the +Pacific and the Atlantic, have cast new light upon the fascinating +theme. Both Christian and non-Christian Japanese of to-day, in their +travels in the Philippines, China, Formosa, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and +Italy, being keenly alert for memorials of their countrymen, have met +with interesting trovers. The descendants of the Japanese martyrs and +confessors now recognize their own ancestors, in the picture galleries +of Italian nobles, and in Christian churches see lettered tombs bearing +familiar names, or in western museums discern far-eastern works of art +brought over as presents or curiosities, centuries ago. + +Roughly speaking, Japanese Christianity lasted phenomenally nearly a +century, or more exactly from 1542 to 1637, During this time, embassies +or missions crossed the seas not only of Chinese and Peninsular Asia, +circumnavigating Africa and thus reaching Europe, but also sailed across +the Pacific, and visited papal Christendom by way of Mexico and the +Atlantic Ocean. + +This century of Southern Christianity and of commerce with Europe +enabled Japan, which had previously been almost unheard of, except +through the vague accounts of Marco Polo and the semi-mythical stories +by way of China, to leave a conspicuous mark, first upon the countries +of southern Europe, and later upon Holland and England. As in European +literature Cathay became China, and Zipango or Xipangu was recognized as +Japan, so also the curiosities, the artistic fabrics, the strange things +from the ends of the earth, soon became familiar in Europe. Besides the +traffic in mercantile commodities, there were exchanges of words. The +languages of Europe were enriched by Japanese terms, such as soy, moxa, +goban, japan (lacquer or varnish), etc., while the tongue of Nippon +received an infusion of new terms,[2] and a notable list of inventions +was imported from Europe. + +We shall merely outline, with critical commentary, the facts of history +which have been so often told, but which in our day have received +luminous illustration. We shall endeavor to treat the general phenomena, +causes and results of Christianity in Japan in the same judicial spirit +with which we have considered Buddhism. + +Whatever be the theological or political opinions of the observer who +looks into the history of Japan at about the year 1540, he will +acknowledge that this point of time was a very dark moment in her known +history. Columbus, who was familiar with the descriptions of Marco Polo, +steered his caravels westward with the idea of finding Xipangu, with its +abundance of gold and precious gems; but the Genoese did not and could +not know the real state of affairs existing in Dai Nippon at this time. +Let us glance at this. + +The duarchy of Throne and Camp, with the Mikado in Kiōto and the +Shōgun at Kamakura, with the elaborate feudalism under it, had fallen +into decay. The whole country was split up into a thousand warring +fragments. To these convulsions of society, in which only the priest and +the soldier were in comfort, while the mass of the people were little +better than serfs, must be added the frequent violent earthquakes, +drought and failure of crops, with famine and pestilence. There was +little in religion to uplift and cheer. Shintō had sunk into the +shadow of a myth. Buddhism had become outwardly a system of political +gambling rather than the ordered expression of faith. Large numbers of +the priests were like the mercenaries of Italy, who sold their influence +and even their swords or those of their followers, to the highest +bidder. Besides being themselves luxurious and dissolute, their +monasteries were fortresses, in which only the great political gamblers, +and not the oppressed people, found comfort and help. Millions of once +fertile acres had been abandoned or left waste. The destruction of +libraries, books and records is something awful to contemplate; and "the +times of Ashikaga" make a wilderness for the scapegoat of chronology. +Kiōto, the sacred capital, had been again and again plundered and +burnt. Those who might be tempted to live in the city amid the ruins, +ran the risk of fire, murder, or starvation. Kamakura, once the +Shō-gun's seat of authority, was, a level waste of ashes. + +Even China, Annam and Korea suffered from the practical dissolution of +society in the island empire; for Japanese pirates ravaged their coasts +to steal, burn and kill. Even as for centuries in Europe, Christian +churches echoed with that prayer in the litanies: "From the fury of the +Norsemen, good Lord, deliver us," so, along large parts of the deserted +coasts of Chinese Asia, the wretched inhabitants besought their gods to +avenge them against the "Wojen." To this day in parts of Honan in China, +mothers frighten their children and warn them to sleep by the fearful +words "The Japanese are coming." + + +First Coming of Europeans. + + +This time, then, was that of darkest Japan. Yet the people who lived in +darkness saw great light, and to them that dwelt in the shadow of death, +light sprang up. + +When Pope Alexander VI. bisected the known world, assigning the western +half, including America to Spain, and the eastern half, including Asia +and its outlying archipelagos to the Portuguese, the latter sailed and +fought their way around Africa to India, and past the golden Chersonese. +In 1542, exactly fifty years after the discovery of America, Dai Nippon +was reached. Mendez Pinto, on a Chinese pirate junk which had been +driven by a storm away from her companions, set foot upon an island +called Tanégashima. This name among the country folks is still +synonymous with guns and pistols, for Pinto introduced fire-arms, and +powder.[3] + +During six months spent by the "mendacious" Pinto on the island, the +imitative people made no fewer than six hundred match-locks or +arquebuses. Clearing twelve hundred per cent. on their cargo, the three +Portuguese loaded with presents, returned to China. Their countrymen +quickly flocked to this new market, and soon the beginnings of regular +trade with Portugal were inaugurated. On the other hand, Japanese began +to be found as far west as India. To Malacca, while Francis Xavier was +laboring there, came a refugee Japanese, named Anjiro. The disciple of +Loyola, and this child of the Land of the Rising Sun met. Xavier, ever +restless and ready for a new field, was fired with the idea of +converting Japan. Anjiro, after learning Portuguese and becoming a +Christian, was baptized with the name of Paul. The heroic missionary of +the cross and keys then sailed with his Japanese companion, and in 1549 +landed at Kagoshima,[4] the capital of Satsuma. As there was no central +government then existing in Japan, the entrance of the foreigners, both +lay and clerical, was unnoticed. + +Having no skill in the learning of languages, and never able to master +one foreign tongue completely, Xavier began work with the aid of an +interpreter. The jealousy of the daimiō, because his rivals had been +supplied with fire-arms by the Portuguese merchants, and the plots and +warnings of those Buddhist priests (who were later crushed by the +Satsuma clansmen as traitors), compelled Xavier to leave this province. +He went first to Hirado,[5] next to Nagatō, and then to Bungo, where +he was well received. Preaching and teaching through his Japanese +interpreter, he formed Christian congregations, especially at +Yamaguchi.[6] Thus, within a year, the great apostle to the Indies had +seen the quick sprouting of the seed which he had planted. His ambition +was now to go to the imperial capital, Kiōto, and there advocate the +claims of Christ, of Mary and of the Pope. + +Thus far, however, Xavier had seen only a few seaports of comparatively +successful daimiōs. Though he had heard of the unsettled state of the +country because of the long-continued intestine strife, he evidently +expected to find the capital a splendid city. Despite the armed bands of +roving robbers and soldiers, he reached Kiōto safely, only to find +streets covered with ruins, rubbish and unburied corpses, and a general +situation of wretchedness. He was unable to obtain audience of either +the Shōgun or the Mikado. Even in those parts of the city where he +tried to preach, he could obtain no hearers in this time of war and +confusion. So after two weeks he turned his face again southward to +Bungo, where he labored for a few months; but in less than two years +from his landing in Japan, this noble but restless missionary left the +country, to attempt the spiritual conquest of China. One year later, +December 2, 1551, he died on the island of Shanshan, or Sancian, in the +Canton River, a few miles west of Macao. + + +Christianity Flourishes. + + +Nevertheless, Xavier's inspiring example was like a shining star that +attracted scores of missionaries. There being in this time of political +anarchy and religious paralysis none to oppose them, their zeal, within +five years, bore surprising fruits. They wrote home that there were +seven churches in the region around Kiōto, while a score or more of +Christian congregations had been gathered in the southwest. In 1581 +there were two hundred churches and one hundred and fifty thousand +native Christians. Two daimiōs had confessed their faith, and in the +Mikado's minister, Nobunaga (1534-1582), the foreign priests found a +powerful supporter.[7] This hater and scourge of the Buddhist priesthood +openly welcomed and patronized the Christians, and gave them eligible +sites on which to build dwellings and churches. In every possible way he +employed the new force, which he found pliantly political, as well as +intellectually and morally a choice weapon for humbling the bonzes, whom +he hated as serpents. The Buddhist church militant had become an army +with banners and fortresses. Nobunaga made it the aim of his life to +destroy the military power of the hierarchy, and to humble the priests +for all time. He hoped at least to extract the fangs of what he believed +to be a politico-religious monster, which menaced the life of the +nation. Unfortunately, he was assassinated in 1582. To this day the +memory of Nobunaga is execrated by the Buddhists. They have deified Kato +Kiyomasa and Iyéyasŭ, the persecutors of the Christians. To Nobunaga +they give the title of Bakadono, or Lord Fool. + +In 1583, an embassy of four young noblemen was despatched by the +Christian daimiōs of Kiushiu, the second largest island in the +empire, to the Pope to declare themselves spiritual--though as some of +their countrymen suspected, political--vassals of the Holy See. It was +in the three provinces of Bungo, Omura and Arima, that Christianity was +most firmly rooted. After an absence of eight years, in 1590, the envoys +from the oriental to the occidental ends of the earth, returned to +Nagasaki, accompanied by seventeen more Jesuit fathers--an important +addition to the many Portuguese "religious" of that order already in +Japan. + +Yet, although there was to be still much missionary activity, though +printing presses had been brought from Europe for the proper diffusion +of Christian literature in the Romanized colloquial,[8] though there +were yet to be built more church edifices and monasteries, and Christian +schools to be established, a sad change was nigh. Much seed which was +yet to grow in secret had been planted,--like the exotic flowers which +even yet blossom and shed their perfume in certain districts of Japan, +and which the traveller from Christendom instantly recognizes, though +the Portuguese Christian church or monastery centuries ago disappeared +in fire, or fell to the earth and disappeared. Though there were to be +yet wonderful flashes of Christian success, and the missionaries were to +travel over Japan even up to the end of the main island and accompany +the Japanese army to Korea; yet it may be said that with the death of +Nobunaga at the hands of the traitor Akéchi, we see the high-water mark +of the flood-tide of Japanese Christianity. "Akéchi reigned three days," +but after him were to arise a ruler and central government jealous and +hostile. After this flood was to come slowly but surely the ebb-tide, +until it should leave, outwardly at least, all things as before. + +The Jesuit fathers, with instant sensitiveness, felt the loss of their +champion and protector, Nobunaga. The rebel and assassin, Akéchi, +ambitious to imitate and excel his master, promised the Christians to do +more for them even than Nobunaga had done, provided they would induce +the daimiō Takayama to join forces with his. It is the record of +their own friendly historian, and not of an enemy, that they, led by the +Jesuit father Organtin, attempted this persuasion. To the honor of the +Christian Japanese Takayama, he refused.[9] On the contrary, he marched +his little army of a thousand men to Kiōto, and, though opposed to a +force of eight thousand, held the capital city until Hidéyoshi, the +loyal general of the Mikado, reached the court city and dispersed the +assassin's band. Hidéyoshi soon made himself familiar with the whole +story, and his keen eye took in the situation. + +This "man on horseback," master of the situation and moulder of the +destinies of Japan, Hidéyoshi (1536-1598), was afterward known as the +Taikō, or Retired Regent. The rarity of the title makes it applicable +in common speech to this one person. Greater than his dead master, +Nobunaga, and ingenious in the arts of war and peace, Hidéyoshi +compelled the warring daimiōs, even the proud lord of Satsuma,[10] to +yield to his power, until the civil minister of the emperor, reverently +bowing, could say: "All under Heaven, Peace." Now, Japan had once more a +central government, intensely jealous and despotic, and with it the new +religion must sooner or later reckon. Religion apart from politics was +unknown in the Land of the Gods. + +Yet, in order to employ the vast bodies of armed men hitherto accustomed +to the trade of war, and withal jealous of China and hostile to Korea, +Hidéyoshi planned the invasion of the little peninsular kingdom by these +veterans whose swords were restless in their scabbards. After months of +preparation, he despatched an army in two great divisions, one under the +Christian general Konishi, and one under the Buddhist general Kato. +After a brilliant campaign of eighteen days, the rivals, taking +different routes, met in the Korean capital. In the masterly campaign +which followed, the Japanese armies penetrated almost to the extreme +northern boundary of the kingdom. Then China came to the rescue and the +Japanese were driven southward. + +During the six or seven years of war, while the invaders crossed swords +with the natives and their Chinese allies, and devastated Korea to an +extent from which she has never recovered, there were Jesuit +missionaries attending the Japanese armies. It is not possible or even +probable, however, that any seeds of Christianity were at this time left +in the peninsula. Korean Christianity sprang up nearly two centuries +later, wind-wafted from China.[11] + +During the war there was always more or less of jealousy, mostly +military and personal, between Konishi and Kato, which however was +aggravated by the priests on either side. Kato, being then and afterward +a fierce champion of the Buddhists, glorified in his orthodoxy, which +was that of the Nichiren sect. He went into battle with a banneret full +of texts, stuck in his back and flying behind him. His example was +copied by hundreds of his officers and soldiers. On their flags and +guidons was inscribed the famous apostrophe of the Nichiren sect, so +often heard in their services and revivals to-day (Namu miyō ho ren +gé kiō), and borrowed from the Saddharma Pundarika: "Glory be to the +salvation-bringing Lotus of the True Law." + + +The Hostility of Hidéyoshi. + + +Konishi, on the other hand, was less numerously and perhaps less +influentially backed by, and made the champion of, the European +brethren; and as all the negotiations between the invaders and the +allied Koreans and Chinese had to be conducted in the Chinese script, +the alien fathers were, as secretaries and interpreters, less useful +than the native Japanese bonzes. + +Yet this jealousy and hostility in the camps of the invaders proved to +be only correlative to the state of things in Japan. Even supposing the +statistics in round numbers, reported at that time, to be exaggerated, +and that there were not as many as the alleged two hundred thousand +Christians, yet there were, besides scores of thousands of confessing +believers among the common people, daimiōs, military leaders, court +officers and many persons of culture and influence. Nevertheless, the +predominating influence at the Kiōto court was that of Buddhism; and +as the cult that winks at polygamy was less opposed to Hidéyoshi's +sensualism and amazing vanity, the illustrious upstart was easily made +hostile to the alien faith. According to the accounts of the Jesuits, he +took umbrage because a Portuguese captain would not please him by +risking his ship in coming out of deep water and nearer land, and +because there were Christian maidens of Arima who scorned to yield to +his degrading proposals. Some time after these episodes, an edict +appeared, commanding every Jesuit to quit the country within twenty +days. There were at this time sixty-five foreign missionaries in the +country. + +Then began a series of persecutions, which, however, were carried on +spasmodically and locally, but not universally or with system. Bitter in +some places, they were neutralized or the law became a dead letter, in +other parts of the realm. It is estimated that ten thousand new converts +were made in the single year, 1589, that is, the second year after the +issue of the edict, and again in the next year, 1590. It might even be +reasonable to suppose that, had the work been conducted wisely and +without the too open defiance of the letter of the law, the awful sequel +which history knows, might not have been. + +Let us remember that the Duke of Alva, the tool of Philip II., failing +to crush the Dutch Republic had conquered Portugal for his master. The +two kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula were now united under one crown. +Spain longed for trade with Japan, and while her merchants hoped to +displace their Portuguese rivals, the Spanish Franciscans not scrupling +to wear a political cloak and thus override the Pope's bull of +world-partition, determined to get a foothold alongside of the Jesuits. +So, in 1593 a Spanish envoy of the governor of the Philippine Islands +came to Kiōto, bringing four Spanish Franciscan priests, who were +allowed to build houses in Kiōto, but only on the express +understanding that this was because of their coming as envoys of a +friendly power, and with the explicitly specified condition that they +were not to preach, either publicly or privately. Almost immediately +violating their pledge and the hospitality granted them, these +Spaniards, wearing the vestments of their order, openly preached in the +streets. Besides exciting discord among the Christian congregations +founded by the Jesuits, they were violent in their language. + +Hidéyoshi, to gratify his own mood and test his power as the actual +ruler for a shadowy emperor, seized nine preachers while they were +building churches at Kiōto and Osaka. They were led to the +execution-ground in exactly the same fashion as felons, and executed by +crucifixion, at Nagasaki, February 5, 1597. Three Portuguese Jesuits, +six Spanish Franciscans and seventeen native Christians were stretched +on bamboo crosses, and their bodies from thigh to shoulder were +transfixed with spears. They met their doom uncomplainingly. + +In the eye of the Japanese law, these men were put to death, not as +Christians, but as law-breakers and as dangerous political conspirators. +The suspicions of Hidéyoshi were further confirmed by a Spanish +sea-captain, who showed him a map of the world on which were marked the +vast dominions of the King of Spain; the Spaniard informing the +Japanese, in answer to his shrewd question, that these great conquests +had been made by the king's soldiers following up the priests, the work +being finished by the native and foreign allies. + + +The Political Character of Roman Christianity. + + +The Roman Catholic "Histoire del' Église Chrétienne" shows the political +character of the missionary movement in Japan, a character almost +inextricably associated with the papal and other political Christianity +of the times, when State and Church were united in all the countries of +Europe, both Catholic and Protestant. Even republican Holland, leader of +toleration and forerunner of the modern Christian spirit, permitted, +indeed, the Roman Catholics to worship in private houses or in sacred +edifices not outwardly resembling churches, but prohibited all public +processions and ceremonies, because religion and politics at that time +were as Siamese twins. Only the Anabaptists held the primitive Christian +and the American doctrine of the separation of politics from +ecclesiasticism. Except in the country ruled by William the Silent, all +magistrates meddled with men's consciences.[12] + +In 1597, Hidéyoshi died, and the missionaries took heart again. The +Christian soldiers returning by thousands from Korea, declared +themselves in favor of Hidéyori, son of the dead Taikō. Encouraged by +those in power, and by the rising star Iyéyasŭ (1542-1616), the +fathers renewed their work and the number of converts increased. + +Though peace reigned, the political situation was one of the greatest +uncertainty, and with two hundred thousand soldiers gathered around +Kiōto, under scores of ambitious leaders, it was hard to keep the +sword in the sheath. Soon the line of cleavage found Iyéyasŭ and his +northern captains on one side, and most of the Christian leaders and +southern daimiōs on the other. In October, 1600, with seventy-five +thousand men, the future unifier of Japan stood on the ever-memorable +field of Sékigahara. The opposing army, led largely by Christian +commanders, left their fortress to meet the one whom they considered a +usurper, in the open field. In the battle which ensued, probably the +most decisive ever fought on the soil of Japan, ten thousand men lost +their lives. The leading Christian generals, beaten, but refusing out of +principle because they were Christians, to take their own lives by +_hara-kiri_, knelt willingly at the common blood-pit and had their heads +stricken off by the executioner. + +Then began a new era in the history of the empire, and then were laid by +Iyéyasŭ the foundation-lines upon which the Japan best known to +Europe has existed for nearly three centuries. The creation of a central +executive government strong enough to rule the whole empire, and hold +down even the southern and southwestern daimiōs, made it still worse +for the converts of the European teachers, because in the Land of the +Gods government is ever intensely pagan. + +In adjusting the feudal relations of his vassals in Kiushiu, Iyéyasŭ +made great changes, and thus the political status of the Christians was +profoundly altered. The new daimiōs, carrying out the policy of their +predecessors who had been taught by the Jesuits, but reversing its +direction, began to persecute their Christian subjects, and to compel +them to renounce their faith. One of the leading opposers of the +Christians and their most cruel persecutor, was Kato, the zealous +Nichirenite. Like Brandt, the famous Iroquois Indian, who, in the Mohawk +Valley is execrated as a bloodthirsty brute, and on the Canadian side is +honored with a marble statue and considered not only as the translator +of the prayer-book but also as a saint; even also as Claverhouse, who, +in Scotland is looked upon as a murderous demon, but in England as a +conscientious and loyal patriot; so Kato, the _vir ter execrandus_ of +the Jesuits, is worshipped in his shrine at the Nichiren temple at +Ikégami, near Tōkiō,[13] and is praised by native historians as +learned, brave and true. + +The Christians of Kiushiu, in a few cases, actually took up arms against +their new rulers and oppressors, though it was a new thing under the +Japanese sun for peasantry to oppose not only civil servants of the law, +but veterans in armor. Iyéyasŭ, now having time to give his attention +wholly to matters of government and to examine the new forces that had +entered Japanese life, followed Hidéyoshi in the suspicion that, under +the cover of the western religion, there lurked political designs. He +thought he saw confirmation of his theories, because the foreigners +still secretly or openly paid court to Hidéyori, and at the same time +freely disbursed gifts and gold as well as comfort to the persecuted. +Resolving to crush the spirit of independence in the converts and to +intimidate the foreign emissaries, Iyéyasŭ with steel and blood put +down every outbreak, and at last, in 1606, issued his edict[14] +prohibiting Christianity. + + +The Quarrels of the Christians. + + +About the same time, Protestant influences began to work against the +papal emissaries. The new forces from the triumphant Dutch republic, +which having successfully defied Spain for a whole generation had +reached Japan even before the Great Truce, were opposed to the Spaniards +and to the influence of both Jesuits and Franciscans. Hollanders at +Lisbon, obtaining from the Spanish archives charts and geographical +information, had boldly sailed out into the Eastern seas, and carried +the orange white and blue flag to the ends of the earth, even to Nippon. +Between Prince Maurice, son of William the Silent, and the envoys of +Iyéyasŭ, there was made a league of commerce as well as of peace and +friendship. Will Adams,[15] the English pilot of the Dutch ships, by his +information given to Iyéyasŭ, also helped much to destroy the Jesuits +influence and to hurt their cause, while both the Dutch and English were +ever busy in disseminating both correct information and polemic +exaggeration, forging letters and delivering up to death by fire the +_padres_ when captured at sea. + +In general, however, it may be said that while Christian converts and +the priests were roughly handled in the South, yet there was +considerable missionary activity and success in the North. Converts were +made and Christian congregations were gathered in regions remote from +Kiōto and Yedo, which latter place, like St. Petersburg in the West, +was being made into a large city. Even outlying islands, such as Sado, +had their churches and congregations. + + +The Anti-Christian Policy of the Tokugawas. + + +The quarrels between the Franciscans and Jesuits,[16] however, were +probably more harmful to Christianity than were the whispers of the +Protestant Englishmen or Hollanders. In 1610, the wrath of the +government was especially aroused against the _bateren_, as the people +called the _padres_, by their open and persistent violation of Japanese +law. In 1611, from Sado, to which island thousands of Christian exiles +had been sent to work the mines, Iyéyasŭ believed he had obtained +documentary proof in the Japanese language, of what he had long +suspected--the existence of a plot on the part of the native converts +and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of a subject +state.[17] Putting forth strenuous measures to root out utterly what he +believed to be a pestilential breeder of sedition and war, the Yedo +Shōgun advanced step by step to that great proclamation of January +27, 1614,[18] in which the foreign priests were branded as triple +enemies--of the country, of the Kami, and of the Buddhas. This +proclamation wound up with the charge that the Christian band had come +to Japan to change the government of the country, and to usurp +possession of it. Whether or not he really had sufficient written proof +of conspiracy against the nation's sovereignty, it is certain that in +this state paper, Iyéyasŭ shrewdly touched the springs of Japanese +patriotism. Not desiring, however, to shed blood or provoke war, he +tried transportation. Three hundred persons, namely, twenty-two +Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustines, one hundred and seventeen +foreign Jesuits, and nearly two hundred native priests and catechists, +were arrested, sent to Nagasaki, and thence shipped like bundles of +combustibles to Macao. + +Yet, as many of the foreign and native Christian teachers hid themselves +in the country and as others who had been banished returned secretly and +continued the work of propaganda, the crisis had not yet come. Some of +the Jesuit priests, even, were still hoping that Hidéyori would mount to +power; but in 1615, Iyéyasŭ, finding a pretext for war,[19] called +out a powerful army and laid siege to the great castle of Osaka, the +most imposing fortress in the country. In the brief war which ensued, it +is said by the Jesuit fathers, that one hundred thousand men perished. +On June 9, 1615, the castle was captured and the citadel burned. After +thousands of Hidéyori's followers had committed _hara-kiri_, and his own +body had been burned into ashes, the Christian cause was irretrievably +ruined. + +Hidétada, the successor of Iyéyasŭ in Yedo, who ruled from 1605 to +1622, seeing that his father's peaceful methods had failed in +extirpating the alien politico-religious doctrine, now pronounced +sentence of death on every foreigner, priest, or catechist found in the +country. The story of the persecutions and horrible sufferings that +ensued is told in the voluminous literature which may be gathered from +every country in Europe;[20] though from the Japanese side "The Catholic +martyrology of Japan is still an untouched field for a [native] +historian."[21] All the church edifices which the last storm had left +standing were demolished, and temples and pagodas were erected upon +their ruins. In 1617, foreign commerce was restricted to Hirado and +Nagasaki. In 1621, Japanese were forbidden ever to leave the country. In +1624, all ships having a capacity of over twenty-five hundred bushels +were burned, and no craft, except those of the size of ordinary junks, +were allowed to be built. + + +The Books of the Inferno Opened. + + +For years, at intervals and in places, the books of the Inferno were +opened, and the tortures devised by the native pagans and Buddhists +equalled in their horror those which Dante imagines, until finally, in +1636, even Japanese human nature, accustomed for ages to subordination +and submission, could stand it no longer. Then a man named Nirado Shiro +raised the banner of the Virgin and called on all Christians and others +to follow him. Probably as many as thirty thousand men, women and +children, but without a single foreigner, lay or clerical, among them, +gathered from parts of Kiushiu. After burning Shintō and Buddhist +temples, they fortified an old abandoned castle at Shimabara, resolving +to die rather than submit. Against an army of veterans, led by skilled +commanders, the fortress held out during four months. At last, after a +bloody assault, it was taken, and men, women and children were +slaughtered.[22] Thousands suffered death at the point of the spear and +sword; many were thrown into the sea; and others were cast into boiling +hot springs, emblems of the eight Buddhist Hells. + +All efforts were now put forth to uproot not only Christianity but also +everything of foreign planting. The Portuguese were banished and the +death penalty declared against all who should return, The ai no ko, or +half-breed children, were collected and shipped by hundreds to Macao. +All persons adopting or harboring Eurasians were to be banished, and +their relatives punished. The Christian cause now became like the doomed +city of Babylon or like the site of Nineveh, which, buried in the sand +and covered with the desolation and silence of centuries, became lost to +the memory of the world, so that even the very record of scripture was +the jest of the infidel, until the spade of Layard brought them again to +resurrection. So, Japanese Christianity, having vanished in blood, was +supposed to have no existence, thus furnishing Mr. Lecky with arguments +to prove the extirpative power of persecution.[23] + +Yet in 1859, on the opening of the country by treaty, the Roman Catholic +fathers at Nagasaki found to their surprise that they were re-opening +the old mines, and that their work was in historic continuity with that +of their predecessors. The blood of the martyrs had been the seed of the +church. Amid much ignorance and darkness, there were thousands of people +who, through the Virgin, worshipped God; who talked of Jesus, and of the +Holy Spirit; and who refused to worship at the pagan shrines[24]. + + +Summary of Roman Christianity in Japan. + + +Let us now strive impartially to appraise the Christianity of this era, +and inquire what it found, what it attempted to do, what it did not +strive to attain, what was the character of its propagators, what was +the mark it made upon the country and upon the mind of the people, and +whether it left any permanent influence. + +The gospel net which had gathered all sorts of fish in Europe brought a +varied quality of spoil to Japan. Among the Portuguese missionaries, +beginning with Xavier, there are many noble and beautiful characters, +who exemplified in their motives, acts, lives and sufferings some of the +noblest traits of both natural and redeemed humanity. In their praise, +both the pagan and the Christian, as well as critics biased by their +prepossessions in favor either of the Reformed or the Roman phase of the +faith, can unite. + +The character of the native converts is, in many instances, to be +commended, and shows the direct truth of Christianity in fields of life +and endeavor, in ethics and in conceptions, far superior to those which +the Japanese religious systems have produced. In the teaching that there +should be but one standard of morality for man and woman, and that the +male as well as the female should be pure; in the condemnation of +polygamy and licentiousness; in the branding of suicide as both wicked +and cowardly; in the condemnation of slavery; and in the training of men +and women to lofty ideals of character, the Christian teachers far +excelled their Buddhist or Confucian rivals. + +The benefits which Japan received through the coming of the Christian +missionaries, as distinct and separate from those brought by commerce +and the merchants, are not to be ignored. While many things of value and +influence for material improvement, and many beneficent details and +elements of civilization were undoubtedly imported by traders, yet it +was the priests and itinerant missionaries who diffused the knowledge of +the importance of these things and taught their use throughout the +country. Although in the reaction of hatred and bitterness, and in the +minute, universal and long-continued suppression by the government, most +of this advantage was destroyed, yet some things remained to influence +thought and speech, and to leave a mark not only on the language, but +also on the procedure of daily life. One can trace notable modifications +of Japanese life from this period, lasting through the centuries and +even until the present time. + +Christianity, in the sixteenth century, came to Japan only in its papal +or Roman Catholic form. While in it was infused much of the power and +spirit of Loyola and Xavier, yet the impartial critic must confess that +this form was military, oppressive and political.[25] Nevertheless, +though it was impure and saturated with the false principles, the vices +and the embodied superstitions of corrupt southern Europe, yet, such as +it was, Portuguese Christianity confronted the worst condition of +affairs, morally, intellectually and materially, which Japan has known +in historic times. Defective as the critic must pronounce the system of +religion imported from Europe, it was immeasurably superior to anything +that the Japanese had hitherto known. + +It must be said, also, that Portuguese Christianity in Japan tried to do +something more than the mere obtaining of adherents or the nominal +conversion of the people.[26] It attempted to purify and exalt their +life, to make society better, to improve the relations between rulers +and ruled; but it did not attempt to do what it ought to have done. It +ignored great duties and problems, while it imitated too fully, not only +the example of the kings of this world in Europe but also of the rulers +in Japan. In the presence of soldier-like Buddhist priests, who had made +war their calling, it would have been better if the Christian +missionaries had avoided their bad example, and followed only in the +footsteps of the Prince of Peace; but they did not. On the contrary, +they brought with them the spirit of the Inquisition then in full blast +in Spain and Portugal, and the machinery with which they had been +familiar for the reclamation of native and Dutch "heretics." Xavier, +while at Goa, had even invoked the secular arm to set up the Inquisition +in India, and doubtless he and his followers would have put up this +infernal enginery in Japan if they could have done so. They had stamped +and crushed out "heresy" in their own country, by a system of hellish +tortures which in its horrible details is almost indescribable. The +rusty relics now in the museums of Europe, but once used in church +discipline, can be fully appreciated only by a physician or an +anatomist. In Japan, with the spirit of Alva and Philip II., these +believers in the righteousness of the Inquisition attacked violently the +character of native bonzes, and incited their converts to insult the +gods, destroy the Buddhist images, and burn or desecrate the old +shrines. They persuaded the daimiōs, when these lords had become +Christians, to compel their subjects to embrace their religion on pain +of exile or banishment. Whole districts were ordered to become +Christian. The bonzes were exiled or killed, and fire and sword as well +as preaching, were employed as means of conversion. In ready imitation +of the Buddhists, fictitious miracles were frequently got up to utilize +the credulity of the superstitious in furthering the faith--all of which +is related not by hostile critics, but by admiring historians and by +sympathizing eye-witnesses.[27] + +The most prominent feature of the Roman Catholicism of Japan, was its +political animus and complexion. In writings of this era, Japanese +historians treat of the Christian missionary movement less as something +religious, and more as that which influenced government and polities, +rather than society on its moral side. So also, the impartial historian +must consider that, on the whole, despite the individual instances of +holy lives and unselfish purposes, the work of the Portuguese and +Spanish friars and "fathers" was, in the main, an attempt to bring Japan +more or less directly within the power of the Pope or of those rulers +called Most Catholic Majesties, Christian Kings, etc., even as they had +already brought Mexico, South America, and large portions of India under +the same control. The words of Jesus before the Roman procurator had not +been apprehended:--"My kingdom is not of this world." + + + + +CHAPTER XII - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE + + "The frog in the well knows not the great ocean" + --Sanskrit and Japanese Proverb. + + "When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch." + --Japanese Proverb. + + "The little island of Déshima, well and prophetically signifying + Fore-Island, was Japan's window, through which she looked at the + whole Occident ... We are under obligation to Holland for the + arts of engineering, mining, pharmacy, astronomy, and medicine + ... 'Rangaku' (i.e., Dutch learning) passed almost as a synonym + for medicine," [1615-1868].--Inazo Nitobé. + + "The great peace, of which we are so proud, was more like the + stillness of stagnant pools than the calm surface of a clear + lake."--Mitsukuri. + + "The ancestral policy of self-contentment must be done away + with. If it was adopted by your forefathers, because it was wise + in their time, why not adopt a new policy if it in sure to prove + wise in your time."--Sakuma Shozan, wrote in 1841, assassinated + 1864. + + "And slowly floating onward go + Those Black Ships, wave-tossed to and fro." + --Japanese Ballad of the Black Ship, 1845. + + "The next day was Sunday (July 10th), and, as usual, divine + service was held on board the ships, and, in accordance with + proper reverence for the day, no communication was held with the + Japanese authorities." + --Perry's Narrative. + + "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, + Praise Him, all creatures here below, + Praise Him above, ye heavenly host, + Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." + --Sung on U.S.S.S. Mississippi, in Yedo Bay, July 10, 1853. + + "I refuse to see anyone on Sunday, I am resolved to set an + example of a proper observance of the Sabbath ... I will try to + make it what I believe it was intended to be--a day of + rest."--Townsend Harris's Diary, Sunday, August 31, 1856. + + "I have called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though + thou hast not known me. I am the LORD, and there is none else; + besides me there is no God."--Isaiah. + + "I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been + slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they + held."--John. + + "That they should seek God, If haply they might feel after him, + though he is not far from each one of us."--Paul. + + "Other sheep have I which are not of this fold: them also I must + bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one + flock, one shepherd"--Jesus. + +CHAPTER XII - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE + +The Japanese Shut In. + + +Sincerely regretting that we cannot pass more favorable judgments upon +the Christianity of the seventeenth century in Japan, let us look into +the two centuries of silence, and see what was the story between the +paling of the Christian record in 1637, and the glowing of the +palimpsest in 1859, when the new era begins. + +The policy of the Japanese rulers, after the supposed utter extirpation +of Christianity, was the double one of exclusion and inclusion. A +deliberate attempt, long persisted in and for centuries apparently +successful, was made to insulate Japan from the shock of change. The +purpose was to draw a whole nation and people away from the currents and +movements of humanity, and to stereotype national thought and custom. +This was carried out in two ways: first, by exclusion, and then by +inclusion. All foreign influences were shut off, or reduced to a +minimum. The whole western world, especially Christendom, was put under +ban. + +Even the apparent exception made in favor of the Dutch was with the +motive of making isolation more complete, and of securing the perfect +safety which that isolation was expected to bring. For, having built, +not indeed with brick and mortar, but by means of edict and law, both +open and secret, a great wall of exclusion more powerful than that of +China's, it was necessary that there should be a port-hole, for both +sally and exit, and a slit for vigilant scrutiny of any attempt to force +seclusion or violate the frontier. Hence, the Hollanders were allowed to +have a small place of residence in front of a large city and at the head +of a land-locked harbor. There, the foreigners being isolated and under +strict guard, the government could have, as it were, a nerve which +touched the distant nations, and could also, as with a telescope, sweep +the horizon for signs of danger. + +So, in 1640, the Hollanders were ordered to evacuate Hirado, and occupy +the little "outer island" called Déshima, in front of the city of +Nagasaki, and connected therewith by a bridge. Any ships entering this +hill-girdled harbor, it was believed, could be easily managed by the +military resources possessed by the government. Vessels were allowed +yearly to bring the news from abroad and exchange the products of Japan +for those of Europe. The English, who had in 1617 opened a trade and +conducted a factory for some years,[1] were unable to compete with the +Dutch, and about 1624, after having lost in the venture forty thousand +pounds sterling, withdrew entirely from the Japanese trade. The Dutch +were thus left without a rival from Christendom. + +Japan ceased her former trade and communications with the Philippine +Islands, Annam, Siam, the Spice Islands and India,[2] and begun to +restrict trade and communication with Korea and China. The Koreans, who +were considered as vassals, or semi-vassals, came to Japan to present +their congratulations on the accession of each new Shōgun; and some +small trade was done at Fusan under the superintendence of the daimiō +of Tsushima. Even this relation with Korea was rather one of +watchfulness. It sprang from the pride of a victor rather than from any +desire to maintain relations with the rest of the world. As for China, +the communication with her was astonishingly little, only a few junks +crossing yearly between Nankin and Nagasaki; so that, with the exception +of one slit in their tower of observation, the Japanese became well +isolated from the human family. + +This system of exclusion was accompanied by an equally vigorous policy +of inclusiveness. It was deliberately determined to keep the people from +going abroad, either in their bodies or minds. All seaworthy ships were +destroyed. Under pain of imprisonment and death, all natives were +forbidden to go to a foreign country, except in the rare cases of urgent +government service. By settled precedents it was soon made to be +understood that those who were blown out to sea or carried away in +stress of weather, need not come back; if they did, they must return +only on Chinese and Korean vessels, and even then would be grudgingly +allowed to land. It was given out, both at home and to the world, that +no shipwrecked sailors or waifs would be welcomed when brought on +foreign vessels. + +This inclusive policy directed against physical exportation, was still +more stringently carried out when applied to imports affecting the minds +of the Japanese. The "government deliberately attempted to establish a +society impervious to foreign ideas from without, and fostered within by +all sorts of artificial legislation. This isolation affected every +department of private and public life. Methods of education were cast in +a definite mould; even matters of dress and household architecture were +strictly regulated by the State, and industries were restricted or +forced into specified channels, thus retarding economic +developments."[3] + + +Starving of the Mind. + + +In the science of keeping life within stunted limits and artificial +boundaries, the Japanese genius excels. It has been well said that "the +Japanese mind is great in little things and little in great things." To +cut the tap-root of a pine-shoot, and, by regulating the allowance of +earth and water, to raise a pine-tree which when fifty years old shall +be no higher than a silver dollar, has been the proud ambition of many +an artist in botany. In like manner, the Tokugawa Shōguns (1604-1868) +determined to so limit the supply of mental food, that the mind of Japan +should be of those correctly dwarfed proportions of puniness, so admired +by lovers of artificiality and unconscious caricature. Philosophy was +selected as a chief tool among the engines of oppression, and as the +main influence in stunting the intellect. All thought must be orthodox +according to the standards of Confucianism, as expounded by Chu Hi. +Anything like originality in poetry, learning or philosophy must be +hooted down. Art must follow Chinese, Buddhist and Japanese traditions. +Any violation of this order would mean ostracism. All learning must be +in the Chinese and Japanese languages--the former mis-pronounced and in +sound bearing as much resemblance to Pekingise speech as "Pennsylvania +Dutch" does to the language of Berlin. Everything like thinking and +study must be with a view of sustaining and maintaining the established +order of things. The tree of education, instead of being a lofty or +wide-spreading cryptomeria, must be the measured nursling of the teacup. +If that trio of emblems, so admired by the natives, the bamboo, pine and +plum, could produce glossy leaves, ever-green needles and fragrant +blooms within a space of four cubic inches, so the law, the literature +and the art of Japan must display their normal limit of fresh fragrance, +of youthful vigor and of venerable age, enduring for aye, within the +vessel of Japanese inclusion so carefully limited by the Yedo +authorities. + +Such a policy, reminds one of the Amherst agricultural experiment in +which bands of iron were strapped around a much-afflicted squash, in +order to test vital potency. It recalls the pretty little story of +Picciola, in which a tender plant must grow between the interstices of +the bricks in a prison yard. Besides the potent bonds of the only +orthodox Confucian philosophy which was allowed and the legally +recognized religions, there was gradually formed a marvellous system of +legislation, that turned the whole nation into a secret society in which +spies and hypocrites flourished like fungus on a dead log. Besides the +unwritten code of private law,[4] that is, the local and general customs +founded on immemorial usage, there was that peculiar legal system framed +by Iyéyasŭ, bequeathed as a legacy and for over two hundred years +practically the supreme law of the land. + +What this law was, it was exceedingly difficult, if not utterly +impossible, for the aliens dwelling in the country at Nagasaki ever to +find out. Keenly intellectual, as many of the physicians, +superintendents and elect members of the Dutch trading company were, +they seem never to have been able to get hold of what has been called +"The Testament of Iyéyasŭ."[5] This consisted of one hundred laws or +regulations, based on a home-spun sort of Confucianism, intended to be +orthodoxy "unbroken for ages eternal." + +To a man of western mode of thinking, the most astonishing thing is that +this law was esoteric.[6] The people knew of it only by its irresistible +force, and by the constant pressure or the rare easing of its iron hand. +Those who executed the law were drilled in its routine from childhood, +and this routine became second nature. Only a few copies of the original +instrument were known, and these were kept with a secrecy which to the +people became a sacred mystery guarded by a long avenue of awe. + + +The Dutchmen at Déshima. + + +The Dutchmen who lived at Déshima for two centuries and a half, and the +foreigners who first landed at the treaty ports in 1859, on inquiring +about the methods of the Japanese Government, the laws and their +administration, found that everything was veiled behind a vague +embodiment of something which was called "the Law." What that law was, +by whom enacted, and under what sanctions enforced, no one could tell; +though all seemed to stand in awe of it as something of superhuman +efficiency. Its mysteriousness was only equalled by the abject +submission which it received. + +Foreign diplomatists, on trying to deal with the seat and source of +authority, instead of seeing the real head of power, played, as it were, +a game of chess against a mysterious hand stretched out from behind a +curtain. Morally, the whole tendency of such a dual system of exclusion +and of inclusion was to make a nation of liars, foster confirmed habits +of deceit, and create a code of politeness vitiated by insincerity. + +With such repression of the natural powers of humanity, it was but in +accordance with the nature of things that licentiousness should run +riot, that on the fringes of society there should be the outcast and the +pariah, and that the social waste of humanity by prostitution, by +murder, by criminal execution under a code that prescribed the death +penalty for hundreds of offences, should be enormous. It is natural also +that in such a state of society population[7] should be kept down within +necessary limits, not only by famine, by the restraints of feudalism, by +legalized murder in the form of vendetta, by a system of prostitution +that made and still makes Japan infamous, by child murder, by lack of +encouragement given to feeble or malformed children to live, and by +various devices known to those who were ingenious in keeping up so +artificial a state of society. + +That there were many who tried to break through this wall, from both the +inside and the outside, and to force the frontiers of exclusion and +inclusion, is not to be wondered at. Externally, there were bold spirits +from Christendom who burned to know the secrets of the mysterious land. +Some even yearned to wear the ruby crown. The wonderful story of past +Christian triumphs deeply stirred the heart of more than one fiery +spirit, and so we find various attempts made by the clerical brethren of +southern Europe to enter the country. Bound by their promises, the Dutch +captains could not introduce these emissaries of a banned religion +within the borders; yet there are several notable instances of Roman +Catholic "religious"[8] getting themselves left by shipmasters on the +shores of Japan. The lion's den of reality was Yedo. Like the lion's den +of fable, the footprints all led one way, and where these led the bones +of the victims soon lay. + +Besides these men with religious motives, the ships of the West came +with offers of trade and threats of invasion. These were English, +French, Russian and American, and the story of the frequent episodes has +been told by Hildreth, Aston,[9] Nitobé, and others. There is also a +considerable body of native literature which gives the inside view of +these efforts to force the seclusion of the hermit nation, and coax or +compel the Japanese to be more sociable and more human. All were in vain +until the peaceful armada, under the flag of thirty-one stars, led by +Matthew Calbraith Perry,[10] broke the long seclusion of this Thorn-rose +of the Pacific, and the unarmed diplomacy of Townsend Harris,[11] +brought Japan into the brotherhood of commercial and Christian nations. + +Within the isolating walls and the barred gates the story of the seekers +after God is a thrilling one. The intellect of choice spirits, beating +like caged eagles the bars of their prisons, yearned for more light and +life. "Though an eagle be starving," says the Japanese proverb, "it will +not eat grain;" and so, while the mass of the people and even the +erudite, were content with ground food--even the chopped straw and husks +of materialistic Confucianism and decayed Buddhism--there were noble +souls who soared upward to exercise their God-given powers, and to seek +nourishment fitted for that human spirit which goeth upward and not +downward, and which, ever in restless discontent, seeks the Infinite. + + +Protests of Inquiring Spirits. + + +There is no stronger proof of the true humanity and the innate +god-likeness of the Japanese, of their worthiness to hold and their +inherent power to win a high place among the nations of the earth, than +this longing of a few elect ones for the best that earth could give and +Heaven bestow. We find men in travail of spirit, groping after God if +haply they might find Him, following the ways of the Spirit along lines +different, and in pathways remote, from those laid down by Confucius and +his materialistic commentators, or by Buddha and his parodists or +caricaturists. The story of the philosophers, who mutinied against the +iron clamps and governmentally nourished system of the Séido College +expounders, is yet to be fully told.[12] It behooves some Japanese +scholar to tell it. + +How earnest truth-seeking Japanese protested and rebelled against the +economic fallacies, against the political despotism, against the +abominable usurpations, against the false strategies and against the +inherent immoralities of the Tokugawa system, has of late years been set +forth with tantalizing suggestiveness, but only in fragments, by the +native historians. Heartrending is the narrative of these men who +studied, who taught, who examined, who sifted the mountains of chaff in +the native literature and writings, who made long journeys on foot all +over the country, who furtively travelled in Korea and China, who +boarded Dutch and Russian vessels, who secretly read forbidden books, +who tried to improve their country and their people. These men saw that +their country was falling behind not only the nations of the West, but, +as it seemed to them, even the nations of the East. They felt that +radical changes were necessary in order to reform the awful poverty, +disease, licentiousness, national weakness, decay of bodily powers, and +the creeping paralysis of the Samurai intellect and spirit. How they +were ostracized, persecuted, put under ban, hounded by the spies, thrown +into prison; how they died of starvation or of disease; how they were +beheaded, crucified, or compelled to commit _hara-kiri_; how their books +were purged by the censors, or put under ban or destroyed,[13] and their +maps, writings and plates burned, has not yet been told. It is a story +that, when fully narrated, will make a volume of extraordinary interest. +It is a story which both Christian and human interests challenge some +native author to tell. During all this time, but especially during the +first half of the nineteenth century, there was one steady goal to which +the aspiring student ever kept his faith, and to which his feet tended. +There was one place of pilgrimage, toward which the sons of the morning +moved, and which, despite the spy and the informer and the vigilance of +governors, fed their spirits, and whence they carried the sacred fire, +or bore the seed whose harvest we now see. That goal of the pilgrim band +was Nagasaki, and the place where the light burned and the sacred flames +were kindled was Déshima. The men who helped to make true patriots, +daring thinkers, inquirers after truth, bringers in of a better time, +yes, and even Christians and preachers of the good news of God, were +these Dutchmen of Déshima. + + +A Handful of Salt in a Stagnant Mass. + + +The Nagasaki Hollanders were not immaculate saints, neither were they +sooty devils. They did not profess to be Christian missionaries. On the +other hand, they were men not devoid of conscience nor of sympathy with +aspiring and struggling men in a hermit nation, eager for light and +truth. The Dutchman during the time of hermit Japan, as we see him in +the literature of men who were hostile in faith and covetous rivals in +trade, is a repulsive figure. He seems to be a brutal wretch, seeking +only gain, and willing to sell conscience, humanity and his religion, +for pelf. In reality, he was an ordinary European, probably no better, +certainly no worse, than his age or the average man of his country or of +his continent. Further, among this average dozen of exiles in the +interest of commerce, science or culture, there were frequently +honorable men far above the average European, and shining examples of +Christianity and humanity. Even in his submission to the laws of the +country, the Dutchman did no more, no less, but exactly as the +daimiōs,[14] who like himself were subject to the humiliations +imposed by the rulers in Yedo. + +It was the Dutch, who, for two hundred years supplied the culture of +Europe to Japan, introduced Western science, furnished almost the only +intellectual stimulant, and were the sole teachers of medicine and +science.[15] They trained up hundreds of Japanese to be physicians who +practised rational medicine and surgery. They filled with needed courage +the hearts of men, who, secretly practising dissection of the bodies of +criminals, demonstrated the falsity of Chinese ideas of anatomy. It was +Dutch science which exploded and drove out of Japan that Chinese system +of medicine, by means of which so many millions have, during the long +ages, been slowly tortured to death. + +The Déshima Dutchman was a kindly adviser, helper, guide and friend, the +one means of communication with the world, a handful of salt in the +stagnant mass. Long before the United States, or Commodore Perry, the +Hollanders advised the Yodo government in favor of international +intercourse. The Dutch language, nearest in structure and vocabulary to +the English, even richer in the descriptive energy of its terms, and +saturated withal with Christian truth, was studied by eager young men. +These speakers of an impersonal language which in psychological +development was scarcely above the grade of childhood, were exercised in +a tongue that stands second to none in Europe for purity, vigor, +personality and philosophical power. The Japanese students of Dutch held +a golden key which opened the treasures of modern thought and of the +world's literature. The minds of thinking Japanese were thus made +plastic for the reception of the ideas of Christianity. Best of all, +though forbidden by their contracts to import Bibles into Japan, the +Dutchmen, by means of works of reference, pointed more than one +inquiring spirit to the information by which the historic Christ became +known. The books which they imported, the information which they gave, +the stimulus which they imparted, were as seeds planted within +masonry-covered earth, that were to upheave and overthrow the fabric of +exclusion and inclusion reared by the Tokugawa Shōguns. + +Time and space fail us to tell how eager spirits not only groped after +God, but sought the living Christ--though often this meant to them +imprisonment, suicide enforced by the law, or decapitation. Yet over all +Japan, long before the broad pennant of Perry was mirrored on the waters +of Yedo Bay, there were here and there masses of leavened opinion, spots +of kindled light, and fields upon which the tender green sprouts of new +ideas could be detected. To-day, as inquiry among the oldest of the +Christian leaders and scores of volumes of modern biography shows, the +most earnest and faithful among the preachers, teachers and soldiers in +the Christian army, were led into their new world of ideas through Dutch +culture. The fact is revealed in repeated instances, that, through +father, grandfather, uncle, or other relative--some pilgrim to the Dutch +at Nagasaki--came their first knowledge, their initial promptings, the +environment or atmosphere, which made them all sensitive and ready to +receive the Christian truth when it came in its full form from the +living missionary and the vital word of God. Some one has well said that +the languages of modern Europe are nothing more than Christianity +expressed with differing pronunciation and vocabulary. To him who will +receive it, the mastery of any one of the languages of Christendom, is, +in a large sense, a revelation of God in Christ Jesus. + + +Seekers after God. + + +Pathetic, even to the compulsion of tears, is the story of these seekers +after God. We, who to-day are surrounded by every motive and inducement +to Christian living and by every means and appliance for the practice of +the Christian life, may well consider for a moment the struggle of +earnest souls to find out God. Think of this one who finds a Latin Bible +cast up on the shore from some broken ship, and bearing it secretly in +his bosom to the Hollander, gains light as to the meaning of its +message. Think of the nobleman, Watanabé Oboru,[16] who, by means of the +Japanese interpreter of Dutch, Takano Choyéi, is thrilled with the story +of Jesus of Nazareth who helped and healed and spake as no other man +spake, teaching with an authority above that of the masters Confucius or +Buddha. Think of the daimiō of Mito,[17] who, proud in lineage, +learned and scholarly, and surrounded by a host of educated men, is yet +unsatisfied with what the wise of his own country could give him, and +gathers around him the relics unearthed from the old persecutions. From +a picture of the Virgin, a fragment of a litany, or it may be a part of +a breviary, he tries to make out what Christianity is. + +Think of Yokoi Héishiro,[18] learned in Confucius and his commentators, +who seeks better light, sends to China for a Chinese translation of the +New Testament, and in his lectures on the Confucian ethics, to the +delight and yet to the surprise of his hearers who hear grander truth +than they are able to find in text or commentary, really preaches +Christ, and prophesies that the time will come when the walls of +isolation being levelled, the brightest intellects of Japan will welcome +this same Jesus and His doctrine. Think of him again, when unable to +purify the Augean stables of Yedo's moral corruption, because the time +was at hand for other cleansing agencies, he retires to his home, +content awhile with his books and flowers. Again, see him summoned to +the capital, to sit at Kiōto--like aged Franklin among the young +statesmen of the Constitution in Philadelphia--with the Mikado's +youthful advisers in the new government of 1868. Think of him pleading +for the elevation of the pariah Eta, accursed and outcast through +Buddhism, to humanity and citizenship. Then hear him urge eloquently the +right of personal belief, and argue for toleration under the law, of +opinions, which the Japanese then stigmatized as "evil" and devilish, +but which we, and many of them now, call sound and Christian. Finally, +behold him at night in the public streets, assaulted by assassins, and +given quick death by their bullet and blades. See his gray head lying +severed from his body and in its own gore, the wretched murderers +thinking they have stayed the advancing tide of Christianity; but at +home there dwells a little son destined in God's providence to become an +earnest Christian and one of the brilliant leaders of the native +Christianity of Japan in our day. + + +The Buddhist Inquisitors. + + +During the nation's period of Thorn-rose-like seclusion, the three +religions recognized by the law were Buddhism, Shintō and +Confucianism. Christianity was the outlawed sect. All over the country, +on the high-roads, at the bridges, and in the villages, towns and +cities, the fundamental laws of the country were written on wooden +tablets called kosatsŭ. These, framed and roofed for protection from +the weather, but easily before the eyes of every man, woman and child, +and written in a style and language understood of all, denounced the +Christian religion as an accursed "sect," and offered gold to the spy +and informer;[19] while once a year every Samurai was required to swear +on the true faith of a gentleman that he had nothing to do with +Christianity. From the seventeenth century, the country having been +divided into parishes, the inquisition was under the charge of the +Buddhist priests who penetrated into the house and family and guarded +the graveyards, so that neither earth nor fire should embrace the +carcass of a Christian, nor his dust or ashes defile the ancestral +graveyards. Twice--in 1686 and in 1711--were the rewards increased and +the Buddhist bloodhounds of Japan's Inquisition set on fresh trails. On +one occasion, at Osaka, in 1839,[20] a rebellion broke out which was +believed, though without evidence, to have been instigated in some way +by men with Christian ideas, and was certainly led by Oshio, the bitter +opponent of Buddhism, of Tokugawa, and of the prevalent Confucianism. +Possibly, the uprising was aided by refugees from Korea. Those +implicated were, after speedy trial, crucified or beheaded. In the +southern part of the country the ceremony of Ebumi or trampling on the +cross,[21] was long performed. Thousands of people were made to pass +through a wicket, beneath which and on the ground lay a copper plate +engraved with the image of the Christ and the cross. In this way it was +hoped to utterly eradicate the very memory of Christianity, which, to +the common people, had become the synonym for sorcery. + +But besides the seeking after God by earnest souls and the protest of +philosophers, there was, amid the prevailing immorality and the +agnosticism and scepticism bred by decayed Buddhism and the +materialistic philosophy based on Confucius, some earnest struggles for +the purification of morals and the spiritual improvement of the people. + + +The Shingaku Movement. + + +One of the most remarkable of the movements to this end was that of the +Shingaku or New Learning. A class of practical moralists, to offset the +prevailing tendency of the age to much speculation and because Buddhism +did so little for the people, tried to make the doctrines of Confucius a +living force among the great mass of people. This movement, though +Confucian in its chief tone and color, was eclectic and intended to +combine all that was best in the Chinese system with what could be +utilized from Shintō and Buddhism. With the preaching was combined a +good deal of active benevolence. Especially in the time of famine, was +care for humanity shown. The effect upon the people was noticeable, +followers multiplied rapidly, and it is said that even the government in +many instances made them, the Shingaku preachers, the distributors of +rice and alms for the needy. Some of the preachers became famous and +counted among their followers many men of influence. The literary side +of the movement[22] has been brought to the attention of English readers +through Mr. Mitford's translation of three sermons from the volume +entitled Shingaku Dōwa. Other discourses have been from time to time +rendered into English, those by Shibata, entitled The Sermons of the +Dove-like Venerable Master, being especially famous. + +This movement, interesting as it was, came to an end when the country +began to be convulsed by the approaching entrance of foreigners, through +the Perry treaty; but it serves to show, what we believe to be the +truth, that the moral rottenness as well as the physical decay of the +Japanese people reached their acme just previous to the apparition of +the American fleet in 1853. + +The story of nineteenth century Reformed Christianity in Japan does not +begin with Perry, or with Harris, or with the arrival of Christian +missionaries in 1859; for it has a subterranean and interior history, as +we have hinted; while that of the Roman form and order is a story of +unbroken continuity, though the life of the tunnel is now that of the +sunny road. The parable of the leaven is first illustrated and then that +of the mustard-seed. Before Christianity was phenomenal, it was potent. +Let us now look from the interior to the outside. + +On Perry's flag-ship, the Mississippi, the Bible lay open, a sermon was +preached, and the hymn "Before Jehovah's Awful Throne" was sung, waking +the echoes of the Japan hills. The Christian day of rest was honored on +this American squadron. In the treaty signed in 1854, though it was +made, indeed, with use of the name of God and terms of Christian +chronology, there was nothing upon which to base, either by right or +privilege, the residence of missionaries in the country. Townsend +Harris, the American Consul-General, who hoisted his flag and began his +hermit life at Shimoda, in September, 1855, had as his only companion a +Dutch secretary, Mr. Heusken, who was later, in Yedo, to be assassinated +by ronins. + +Without ship or soldier, overcoming craft and guile, and winning his way +by simple honesty and perseverance, Mr. Harris obtained audience[23] of +"the Tycoon" in Yedo, and later from the Shōgun's daring minister Ii, +the signature to a treaty which guaranteed to Americans the rights of +residence, trade and commerce. Thus Americans were enabled to land as +citizens, and pursue their avocation as religious teachers. As the +government of the United States of America knows nothing of the religion +of American citizens abroad, it protects all missionaries who are +law-abiding citizens, without regard to creed.[24] + + +Japan Once More Missionary Soil. + + +The first missionaries were on the ground as soon as the ports were +open. Though surrounded by spies and always in danger of assassination +and incendiarism, they began their work of mastering the language. To do +this without trained teachers or apparatus of dictionary and grammar, +was then an appalling task. The medical missionary began healing the +swarms of human sufferers, syphilitic, consumptive, and those scourged +by small-pox, cholera and hereditary and acute diseases of all sorts. +The patience, kindness and persistency of these Christian men literally +turned the edge of the sword, disarmed the assassin, made the spies' +occupation useless, shamed away the suspicious, and conquered the nearly +invincible prejudices of the government. Despite the awful under-tow in +the immorality of the sailor, the adventurer and the gain-greedy +foreigner, the tide of Christianity began steadily to rise. +Notwithstanding the outbursts of the flames of persecution, the torture +and imprisonment of Christian captives and exiles, and the slow worrying +to death of the missionary's native teachers, inquirers came and +converts were made. In 1868, after revolution and restoration, the old +order changed, and duarchy and feudalism passed away. Quick to seize the +opportunity, Dr. J.C. Hepburn, healer of bodies and souls of men, +presented a Bible to the Emperor, and the gift was accepted. + +No sooner had the new government been established in safety, and the +name of Yedo, the city of the Baydoor, been changed into that of +Tōkiō, the Eastern Capital, than an embassy[25] of seventy persons +started on its course round the world. At its head were three cabinet +ministers of the new government and the court noble, Iwakura, of +immemorial lineage, in whose veins ran the blood of the men called gods. +Across the Pacific to the United States they went, having their initial +audience of the President of the Republic that knows no state church, +and whose Christianity had compelled both the return of the shipwrecked +Japanese and the freedom of the slave. + +This embassy had been suggested and its course planned by a Christian +missionary, who found that of the seventy persons, one-half had been his +pupils.[26] + + +The Imperial Embassy Round the World. + + +The purpose of these envoys was, first of all, to ask of the nations of +Christendom equal rights, to get removed the odious extra-territoriality +clause in the treaties, to have the right to govern aliens on their +soil, and to regulate their own tariff. Secondarily, its members +went to study the secrets of power and the resources of civilization in +the West, to initiate the liberal education of their women by leaving in +American schools a little company of maidens, to enlarge the system of +education for their own country, and to send abroad with approval others +of their young men who, for a decade past had, in spite of every ban and +obstacle, been furtively leaving the country for study beyond the seas. + +In the lands of Christendom, the eyes of ambassadors, ministers, +secretaries and students were opened. They saw themselves as others saw +them. They compared their own land and nation, mediaeval in spirit and +backward in resources, and their people untrained as children, with the +modern power, the restless ambition, the stern purpose, the intense life +of the western nations, with their mighty fleets and armaments, their +inventions and machinery, their economic and social theories and forces, +their provision for the poor, the sick, and the aged, the peerless +family life in the Christian home. They found, further yet, free +churches divorced from politics and independent of the state; that the +leading force of the world was Christianity, that persecution was +barbarous, and that toleration was the law of the future, and largely +the condition of the present. It took but a few whispers over the +telegraphic wire, and the anti-Christian edicts disappeared from public +view like snowflakes melting on the river. The right arm of persecution +was broken. + +The story of the Book of Acts of the modern apostles in Japan is told, +first in the teaching of inquirers, preaching to handfuls, the gathering +of tiny companies, the translation of the Gospel, and then prayer and +waiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit. A study of the Book of the +Acts of the Apostles, followed in order to find out how the Christian +Church began. On the 10th day of March, in the year of our Lord and of +the era of Meiji (Enlightened Peace) the fifth, 1872, at Yokohama, in +the little stone chapel built on part of Commodore Perry's treaty +ground, was formed the first Reformed or Protestant Christian Church in +Japan. + +At this point our task is ended. We cannot even glance at the native +Christian churches of the Roman, Reformed, or Greek order, or attempt to +appraise the work of the foreign missionaries. He has read these pages +in vain, however, who does not see how well, under Providence, the +Japanese have been trained for higher forms of faith. + +The armies of Japan are upon Chinese soil, while we pen our closing +lines. The last chains of purely local and ethnic dogma are being +snapped asunder. May the sons of Dai Nippon, as they win new horizons of +truth, see more clearly and welcome more loyally that Prince of Peace +whose kingdom is not of this world. + +May the age of political conquest end, and the era of the +self-reformation of the Asian nations, through the gospel of Jesus +Christ, be ushered in. + + + + +NOTES, AUTHORITIES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS + + +The few abbreviations used in these pages stand for well-known works: +T.A.S.J., for Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan; Kojiki, for +Supplement to Volume X., T.A.S.J., Introduction, Translation, Notes, +Map, etc., by Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain; T.J., for Things +Japanese (2d ed.), by Professor B.H. Chamberlain; S. and H., for Satow +and Hawes's Hand-book for Japan, now continued in new editions (4th, +1894), by Professor B.H. Chamberlain; C.R.M., for Mayers's Chinese +Reader's Manual; M.E., The Mikado's Empire (7th ed.); B.N., for Mr. +Bunyiu Nanjio's A Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, +Tōkiō, 1887. + + +CHAPTER I + +PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS + + +[Footnote 1: The late Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, LL.D., who +applied the principles of electro-magnetism to telegraphy, was the son +of the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., the celebrated theologian, geographer, +and gazetteer. In memory of his father, Professor Morse founded this +lectureship in Union Theological Seminary, New York, on "The Relation of +the Bible to the Sciences," May 20,1865, by the gift of ten thousand +dollars.] + +[Footnote 2: An American Missionary in Japan, p. 209, by Rev. M.L. +Gordon, M.D., Boston, 1892.] + +[Footnote 3: Lucretia Coftin Mott.] + +[Footnote 4: "I remember once making a calculation in Hong Kong, and +making out my baptisms to have amounted to about six hundred.... I +believe with you that the study of comparative religion is important for +all missionaries. Still more important, it seems to me, is it that +missionaries should make themselves thoroughly proficient in the +languages and literature of the people to whom they are sent."--Dr. +Legge's Letter to the Author, November 27, 1893.] + +[Footnote 5: The Religions of China, p. 240, by James Legge, New York, +1881.] + +[Footnote 6: The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, p. 22, Boston editions +of 1859 and 1879.] + +[Footnote 7: One of the many names of Japan is that of the Country Ruled +by a Slender Sword, in allusion to the clumsy weapons employed by the +Chinese and Koreans. See, for the shortening and lightening of the +modern Japanese sword (_katana_) as compared with the long and heavy +(_ken_) of the "Divine" (_kami_) or uncivilized age, "The Sword of +Japan; Its History and Traditions," T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 58.] + +[Footnote 8: The course of lectures on The Religions of Chinese Asia +(which included most of the matter in this book), given by the author in +Bangor Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me., in April, 1894, was upon the +Bond foundation, founded by alumni and named after the chief donor, Rev. +Ellas Bond, D.D., of Kohala, long an active missionary in Hawaii.] + +[Footnote 9: This is the contention of Professor Kumi, late of the +Imperial University of Japan; see chapter on Shintō.] + +[Footnote 10: In illustration, comical or pitiful, the common people in +Satsuma believe that the spirit of the great Saigo Takamori, leader of +the rebellion of 1877, "has taken up its abode in the planet Mars," +while the spirits of his followers entered into a new race of frogs that +attack man and fight until killed--Mounsey's The Satsuma Rebellion, p. +217. So, also, the _Heiké-gani_, or crabs at Shimonoséki, represent the +transmigration of the souls of the Heiké clan, nearly exterminated in +1184 A.D., while the "Hōjō bugs" are the avatars of the execrated +rulers of Kamakura (1219-1333 A.D.).--Japan in History, Folk-lore, and +Art, Boston, 1892, pp. 115, 133.] + +[Footnote 11: The Future of Religion in Japan. A paper read at the +Parliament of Religions by Nobuta Kishimoto.] + +[Footnote 12: The Ainos, though they deify all the chief objects of +nature, such as the sun, the sea, fire, wild beasts, etc., often talk of +a Creator, _Kotan kara kamui_, literally the God who made the World. At +the fact of creation they stop short.... One gathers that the creative +act was performed not directly, but through intermediaries, who were +apparently animals."--Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12. See also on the +Aino term "Kamui," by Professor B.H. Chamberlain and Rev. J. Batchelor, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI.] + +[Footnote 13: See Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella Bird (Bishop), +Vol. II.; The Ainu of Japan, by Rev. John Batchelor; B. Douglas Howard's +Life With Trans-Siberian Savages; Ripley Hitchcock's Report, Smithsonian +Institute, Washington. Professor B. H. Chamberlain's invaluable "Aino +Studies," Tōkiō, 1887, makes scholarly comparison of the Japanese +and Aino language, mythology, and geographical nomenclature.] + +[Footnote 14: M.E., The Mythical Zoölogy of Japan, pp. 477-488. C.R.M., +_passim_.] + +[Footnote 15: See the valuable article entitled Demoniacal Possession, +T.J., p. 106, and the author's Japanese Fox Myths, _Lippincott's +Magazine_, 1873.] + +[Footnote 16: See the Aino animal stories and evidences of beast worship +in Chamberlain's Aino Studies. For this element in Japanese life, see +the Kojiki, and the author's Japanese Fairy World.] + +[Footnote 17: The proprietor of a paper-mill in Massachusetts, who had +bought a cargo of rags, consisting mostly of farmers' cast off clothes, +brought to the author a bundle of scraps of paper which he had found in +this cheap blue-dyed cotton wearing apparel. Besides money accounts and +personal matters, there were numerous temple amulets and priests' +certificates. See also B.H. Chamberlain's Notes on Some Minor Japanese +Religious Practices, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May, +1893.] + +[Footnote 18: M.E., p. 440.] + +[Footnote 19: See the Lecture on Buddhism in its Doctrinal +Development.--The Nichiren Sect.] + +[Footnote 20: The phallus was formerly a common emblem in all parts of +Japan, Hondo, Kiushiu, Shikoku, and the other islands. Bayard Taylor +noticed it in the Riu Kiu (Loo Choo) Islands; Perry's Expedition to +Japan, p. 196; Bayard Taylor's Expedition in Lew Chew; M.E., p. 33, +note; Rein's Japan, p. 432; Diary of Richard Cocks, Vol. I., p. 283. The +native guide-books and gazetteers do not allude to the subject. + +Although the author of this volume has collected considerable data from +personal observations and the testimony of personal friends concerning +the vanishing nature-worship of the Japanese, he has, in the text, +scarcely more than glanced at the subject. In a work of this sort, +intended both for the general reader as well as for the scientific +student of religion, it has been thought best to be content with a few +simple references to what was once widely prevalent in the Japanese +archipelago. + +Probably the most thorough study of Japanese phallicism yet made by any +foreign scholar is that of Edmund Buckley, A.M., Ph.D., of the Chicago +University, Lecturer on Shintō, the Ethnic Faith of Japan, and on the +Science of Religion. Dr. Buckley spent six years in central and +southwestern Japan, most of the time as instructor in the Doshisha +University, Kiōto. He will publish the results of his personal +observations and studios in a monograph on phallicism, which will be on +sale at Chicago University, in which the Buckley collection illustrating +Shintō-worship has been deposited.] + +[Footnote 21: Mr. Takahashi Gorō, in his Shintō Shin-ron, or New +Discussion of Shintō, accepts the derivation of the word _kami_ from +_kabé_, mould, mildew, which, on its appearance, excites wonder. For +Hirata's discussion, see T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 48. In a +striking paper on the Early Gods of Japan, in a recent number of the +Philosophical Magazine, published in Tōkiō, a Japanese writer, Mr. +Kenjirō Hiradé, states also that the term kami does not necessarily +denote a spiritual being, but is only a relative term meaning above or +high, but this respect toward something high or above has created many +imaginary deities as well as those having a human history. See also +T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I., p. 55, note.] + +[Footnote 22: "There remains something of the Shintō heart after +twelve hundred years of foreign creeds and dress. The worship of the +marvellous continues.... Exaggerated force is most impressive.... So the +ancient gods, heroes, and wonders are worshipped still. The simple +countryfolk clap their hands, bow their heads, mumble their prayers, and +offer the fraction of a cent to the first European-built house they +see."--Philosophy in Japan, Past and Present, by Dr. George Wm. Knox.] + +[Footnote 23: M.E., p. 474. Honda the Samurai, pp. 256-267.] + +[Footnote 24: Kojiki, pp. 127, 136, 213, 217.] + +[Footnote 25: See S. and H., pp. 39, 76. + +"The appearance of anything unusual at a particular spot is hold to be a +sure sign of the presence of divinity. Near the spot where I live in +Ko-ishi-kawa, Tōkiō, is a small Miya, built at the foot of a very +old tree, that stands isolated on the edge of a rice-field. The spot +looks somewhat insignificant, but upon inquiring why a shrine has been +placed there, I was told that a white snake had been found at the foot +of the old tree." ... + +"As it is, the religion of the Japanese consists in the belief that the +productive ethereal spirit, being expanded through the whole universe, +every part is in some degree impregnated with it; and therefore, every +part is in some measure the seat of the Deity."--Legendre's Progressive +Japan, p. 258.] + +[Footnote 26: De Verflauwing der Grenzen, by Dr. Abraham Kuyper, +Amsterdam, 1892; translated by Rev. T. Hendrik de Vries, in the +Methodist Review, New York, July-Sept., 1893.] + + +CHAPTER II + +SHINTŌ; MYTHS AND RITUAL + + +[Footnote 1: The scholar who has made profound researches in all +departments of Japanese learning, but especially in the literature of +Shintō, is Mr. Ernest Satow, now the British Minister at Tangier. He +received the degree of B.A. from the London University. After several +years' study and experience in China, Mr. Satow came to Japan in 1861 as +student-interpreter to the British Legation, receiving his first drill +under Rev. S.R. Brown, D.D., author of A Grammar of Colloquial Japanese. +To ceaseless industry, this scholar, to whom the world is so much +indebted for knowledge of Japan, has added philosophic insight. Besides +unearthing documents whose existence was unsuspected, he has cleared the +way for investigators and comparative students by practically removing +the barriers reared by archaic speech and writing. His papers in the +T.A.S.J., on The Shintō Shrines at Isé, the Revival of Pure +Shintō, and Ancient Japanese Rituals, together with his Hand-book for +Japan, form the best collection of materials for the study of the +original and later forms of Shintō.] + +[Footnote 2: The scholar who above all others has, with rare acumen +united to laborious and prolonged toil, illuminated the subject of +Japan's chronology and early history is Mr. W.G. Aston of the British +Civil Service. He studied at the Queen's University, Ireland, receiving +the degree of M.A. He was appointed student-interpreter in Japan, August +6, 1864. He is the author of a Grammar of the Written Japanese Language, +and has been a student of the comparative history and speech and writing +of China, Korea, and Japan, during the past thirty years. See his +valuable papers in the T.A.S.J., and the learned societies in Great +Britain. In his paper on Early Japanese History, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., +pp. 39-75, he recapitulates the result of his researches, in which he +is, in the main, supported by critical native scholars, and by the late +William Bramsen, in his Japanese Chronological Tables, Tōkiō, +1880. He considers A.D. 461 as the first trustworthy date in the +Japanese annals. We quote from his paper, Early Japanese History, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 73. + +1. The earliest date of the accepted Japanese Chronology, the accuracy +of which is confirmed by external evidence, is A.D. 461. + +2. Japanese History, properly so called, can hardly be said to exist +previous to A.D. 500. (A cursory examination leads me to think that the +annals of the sixth century must also be received with caution.) + +3. Korean History and Chronology are more trustworthy than those of +Japan during the period previous to that date. + +4. While there was an Empress of Japan in the third century A.D., the +statement that she conquered Korea is highly improbable. + +5. Chinese learning was introduced into Japan from Korea 120 years later +than the date given in Japanese History. + +6. The main fact of Japan having a predominant influence in some parts +of Korea during the fifth century is confirmed by the Korean and Chinese +chronicles, which, however, show that the Japanese accounts are very +inaccurate in matters of detail.] + +[Footnote 3: Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world of learning +such signal service by his works on the Japanese language, and +especially by his translation, with critical introduction and +commentary, of the Kojiki, is an English gentleman, born at Southsea, +Hampshire, England, on the 18th day of October, 1830. His mother was a +daughter of the well-known traveller and author, Captain Basil Hall, +R.N., and his father an Admiral in the British Navy. He was educated for +Oxford, but instead of entering, for reasons of health, he spent a +number of years in western Mid southern Europe, acquiring a knowledge of +various languages and literatures. His coming to Japan (in May, 1873) +was rather the result of an accident--a long sea voyage and a trial of +the Japanese climate having been recommended. The country and the field +of study suited the invalid well. After teaching for a time in the Naval +College the Japanese honored themselves and this scholar by making him, +in April, 1886, Professor of Philology at the Imperial University. His +works, The Classical Poetry of the Japanese, his various grammars and +hand-books for the acquisition of the language, his Hand-book for Japan, +his Aino Studies, Things Japanese, papers in the T.A.S.J. and his +translation of the Kojiki are all of a high order of value. They are +marked by candor, fairness, insight, and a mastery of difficult themes +that makes his readers his constant debtors.] + +[Footnote 4: "If the term 'Altaic' be held to include Korean and +Japanese, then Japanese assumes prime importance as being by far the +oldest living representative of that great linguistic group, its +literature antedating by many centuries the most ancient productions of +the Manchus, Mongols, Turks, Hungarians, or Finns."--Chamberlain, +Simplified Grammar, Introd., p. vi.] + +[Footnote 5: Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 13-14; Mr. Pom K. Soh's paper +on Education in Korea; Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education, +1890-91.] + +[Footnote 6: T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 74; Bramsen's Chronological Tables, +Introd., p. 34; T.J., p. 32.] + +[Footnote 7: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., p. 531.] + +[Footnote 8: "The frog in the well knows not the great ocean." This +proverb, so freely quoted throughout Chinese Asia, and in recent years +so much applied to themselves by the Japanese, is of Hindu origin and is +found in the Sanskrit.] + +[Footnote 9: This is shown with literary skill and power in a modern +popular work, the title of which, Dai Nippon Kai-biyaku Yurai-iki, +which, very freely indeed, may be translated Instances of Divine +Interposition in Behalf of Great Japan. A copy of this work was +presented to the writer by the late daimiō of Echizen, and was read +with interest as containing the common people's ideas about their +country and history. It was published in Yedo in 1856, while Japan was +still excited over the visits of the American and European fleets. On +the basis of the information furnished in this work General Le Gendre +wrote his influential book, Progressive Japan, in which a number of +quotations from the _Kai-biyaku_ may be read.] + +[Footnote 10: In the Kojiki, pp. 101-104, we have the poetical account +of the abdication of the lord of Idzumo in favor of the Yamato +conqueror, on condition that the latter should build a temple and have +him honored among the gods. One of the rituals contains the +congratulatory address of the chieftains of Idzumo, on their surrender +to "the first Mikado, Jimmu Tennō." See also T.J., p. 206.] + +[Footnote 11: "The praying for Harvest, or Toshigoi no Matsuri, was +celebrated on the 4th day of the 2d month of each year, at the capital +in the Jin-Gi-Kuan or office for the Worship of the Shintō gods, and +in the provinces by the chiefs of the local administrations. At the +Jin-Gi-Kuan there were assembled the ministers of state, the +functionaries of that office, the priests and priestesses of 573 +temples, containing 737 shrines, which were kept up at the expense of +the Mikado's treasury, while the governors of the provinces +superintended in the districts under their administration the +performance of rites in honor of 2,395 other shrines. It would not be +easy to state the exact number of deities to whom these 3,132 shrines +were dedicated. A glance over the list in the 9th and 10th books of the +Yengishiki shows at once that there were many gods who were worshipped +in more than half-a-dozen different localities at the same time; but +exact calculation is impossible, because in many cases only the names of +the temples are given, and we are left quite in the dark as to the +individuality of the gods to whom they were sacred. Besides these 3,132 +shrines, which are distinguished as Shikidai, that is contained in the +catalogue of the Yengishiki, there were a large number of enumerated +shrines in temples scattered all over the country, in every village or +hamlet, of which it was impossible to take any account, just as at the +present day there are temples of Hachiman, Kompira, Tenjin sama, San-no +sama and Sengen sama, as they are popularly called, wherever twenty or +thirty houses are collected together. The shrines are classed as great +and small, the respective numbers being 492 and 2,640, the distinction +being twofold, firstly in the proportionately larger quantity of +offerings made at the great shrines, and secondly that the offerings in +the one case were arranged upon tables or altars, while in the other +they were placed on mats spread upon the earth. In the Yengishiki the +amounts and nature of the offerings are stated with great minuteness, +but it will be sufficient if the kinds of articles offered are alone +mentioned here. It will be seen, by comparison with the text of the +norito, that they had varied somewhat since the date when the ritual was +composed. The offerings to a greater shrine consisted of coarse woven +silk (_ashiginu_), thin silk of five different colors, a kind of stuff +called _shidori_ or _shidzu_, which is supposed by some to have been a +striped silk, cloth of broussonetia bark or hemp, and a small quantity +of the raw materials of which the cloth was made, models of swords, a +pair of tables or altars (called _yo-kura-oki_ and _ya-kura-oki_), a +shield or mantlet, a spear-head, a bow, a quiver, a pair of stag's +horns, a hoe, a few measures of saké or rice-beer, some haliotis and +bonito, two measures of _kituli_ (supposed to be salt roe), various +kinds of edible seaweed, a measure of salt, a saké jar, and a few feet +of matting for packing. To each of the temples of Watarai in Isé was +presented in addition a horse; to the temple of the Harvest god Mitoshi +no kami, a white horse, cock, and pig, and a horse to each of nineteen +others. + +"During the fortnight which preceded the celebration of the service, two +smiths and their journeymen, and two carpenters, together with eight +inbe [or hereditary priests] were employed in preparing the apparatus +and getting ready the offerings. It was usual to employ for the Praying +for Harvest members of this tribe who held office in the Jin-Gi-Kuan, +but if the number could not he made up in that office, it was supplied +from other departments of state. To the tribe of quiver-makers was +intrusted the special duty of weaving the quivers of wistaria tendrils. +The service began at twenty minutes to seven in the morning, by our +reckoning of time. After the governor of the province of Yamashiro had +ascertained that everything was in readiness, the officials of the +Jin-Gi-Kuan arranged the offerings on the tables and below them, +according to the rank of the shrines for which they were intended. The +large court of the Jin-Gi-Kuan where the service was held, called the +Sai-in, measured 230 feet by 370. At one end were the offices and on the +west side were the shrines of the eight Protective Deities in a row, +surrounded by a fence, to the interior of which three sacred archways +(torii) gave access. In the centre of the court a temporary shed was +erected for the occasion, in which the tables or altars were placed. The +final preparations being now complete, the ministers of state, the +virgin priestesses and priests of the temples to which offerings were +sent by the Mikado, entered in succession, and took the places severally +assigned to them. The horses which formed a part of the offerings were +next brought in from the Mikado's stable, and all the congregation drew +near, while the reader recited or read the norito. This reader was a +member of the priestly family or tribe of Nakatomi, who traced their +descent back to Ameno-koyané, one of the principal advisers attached to +the sun-goddess's grandchild when he first descended on earth. It is a +remarkable evidence of the persistence of certain ideas, that up to the +year 1868 the nominal prime-minister of the Mikado, after he came of +age, and the regent during his minority, if he had succeeded young to +the throne, always belonged to this tribe, which changed its name from +Nakatomi to Fujiwara in the seventh century, and was subsequently split +up into the Five Setsuké or governing families. At the end of each +section the priests all responded 'O!' which was no doubt the equivalent +of 'Yes' in use in those days. As soon as he had finished, the Nakatomi +retired, and the offerings were distributed to the priests for +conveyance and presentation to the gods to whose service they were +attached. But a special messenger was despatched with the offerings +destined to the temples at Watarai. This formality having been +completed, the President of the Jin-Gi-Kuan gave the signal for breaking +up the assembly." Ancient Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J., Vol. VII, pp. +104-107.] + +[Footnote 12: S. and H., p. 461.] + +[Footnote 13: Consult Chamberlain's literal translations of the name in +the Kojiki, and p. lxv. of his Introduction.] + +[Footnote 14: The parallel between the Hebrew and Japanese accounts of +light and darkness, day and night, before the sun, has been noticed by +several writers. See the comments of Hirata, a modern Shintō +expounder.--T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 72.] + +[Footnote 15: Westminster Review, July, 1878, p. 19.] + + +CHAPTER III + +"THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS + + +[Footnote 1: Kojiki, pp. 9-18; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 20.] + +[Footnote 2: M.E., p. 43; McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, Art. +Shintō; in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, is to be found Mr. Satow's +digest of the commentaries of the modern Shintō revivalists; in Mr. +Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki, the text with abundant notes. +See also Mr. Twan-Lin's Account of Japan up to A.D. 1200, by E.H. +Parker. T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I.] + +[Footnote 3: "The various abstractions which figure at the commencement +of the 'Records' (Kojiki) and of the 'Chronicles' (Nihongi) were +probably later growths, and perhaps indeed were inventions of individual +priests."--Kojiki, Introd., p. lxv. See also T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part +I, p. 56. "Thus, not only is this part of the Kojiki pure twaddle, but +it is not even consistent twaddle."] + +[Footnote 4: Kojiki, Section IX.] + +[Footnote 5: Dr. Joseph Edkins, D.D., author of Chinese Buddhism, who +believes that the primeval religious history of men is recoverable, says +in Early Spread of Religious Ideas, Especially in the Far East, p. 29, +"In Japan Amatérasŭ, ... in fact, as I suppose, Mithras written in +Japanese, though the Japanese themselves are not aware of this +etymology." Compare Kojiki, Introduction, pp. lxv.-lxvii.] + +[Footnote 6: Kojiki, p. xlii.] + +[Footnote 7: T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 67.] + +[Footnote 8: E. Satow, Revival of Pure Shintō, pp. 67-68.] + +[Footnote 9: This curious agreement between the Japanese and other +ethnic traditions in locating "Paradise," the origin of the human family +and of civilization, at the North Pole, has not escaped the attention of +Dr. W.F. Warren, President of Boston University, who makes extended +reference to it in his interesting and suggestive book, Paradise Found: +The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole; A Study of the +Prehistoric World, Boston, 1885.] + +[Footnote 10: The pure Japanese numerals equal in number the fingers; +with the borrowed Chinese terms vast amounts can be expressed.] + +[Footnote 11: This custom was later revived, T.A.S.J., pp. 28, 31. +Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 57; M.E., pp. 156, 238.] + +[Footnote 12: See in Japanese Fairy World, "How the Sun-Goddess was +enticed out of her Cave." For the narrative see Kojiki, pp. 54-59; +T.A.S.J., Vol. II., 128-133.] + +[Footnote 13: See Choméi and Wordsworth, A Literary Parallel, by J.M. +Dixon, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., pp. 193-205; Anthologie Japonaise, by Leon de +Rosny; Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese; Suyématsŭ's +Genji Monogatari, London, 1882.] + +[Footnote 14: Oftentimes in studying the ancient rituals, those who +imagine that the word Kami should be in all cases translated gods, will +be surprised to see what puerility, bathos, or grandiloquence, comes out +of an attempt to express a very simple, it may be humiliating, +experience.] + +[Footnote 15: Mythology and Religious Worship of the Japanese, +Westminster Review, July, 1878; Ancient Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J., +Vols. VII., IX.; Esoteric Shintō, by Percival Lowell, T.A.S.J, Vol. +XXI.] + +[Footnote 16: Compare Sections IX. and XXIII. of the Kojiki.] + +[Footnote 17: This indeed seems to be the substance of the modern +official expositions of Shintō and the recent Rescripts of the +Emperor, as well as of much popular literature, including the +manifestoes or confessions found on the persons of men who have +"consecrated" themselves as "the instruments of Heaven for punishing the +wicked," i.e., assassinating obnoxious statesmen. See The Ancient +Religion, M.E., pp. 96-100; The Japan Mail, _passim_.] + +[Footnote 18: Revival of Pure Shintō, pp. 25-38.] + +[Footnote 19: Japanese Homes, by E.S. Morse, pp. 228-233, note, p. 832.] + +[Footnote 20: Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12.] + +[Footnote 21: Geological Survey of Japan, by Benj. S. Lyman, 1878-9.] + +[Footnote 22: The Shell Mounds of Omori; and The Tokio Times, Jan. 18, +1879, by Edward S. Morse; Japanese Fairy World, pp. I78, 191, 196.] + +[Footnote 23: Kojiki, pp. 60-63.] + +[Footnote 24: S. and H., pp. 58, 337, etc.] + +[Footnote 25: This study in comparative religion by a Japanese, which +cost the learned author his professorship in the Téi-Koku Dai Gaku or +Imperial University (lit. Theocratic Country Great Learning Place), has +had a tendency to chill the ardor of native investigators. His paper was +first published in the Historical Magazine of the University, but the +wide publicity and popular excitement followed only after republication, +with comments by Mr. Taguchi, in the Kéizai Zasshi (Economical Journal). +The Shintōists denounced Professor Kumi for "making our ancient +religion a branch of Christianity," and demanded and secured his +"retirement" by the Government. See Japan Mail, April 2, 1892, p. 440.] + +[Footnote 26: T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., p. 282.] + +[Footnote 27: Kojiki, p. xxviii.] + +[Footnote 28: For the use of salt in modern "Esoteric" Shintō, both +in purification and for employment as of salamandrine, see T.A.S.J., pp. +125, 128.] + +[Footnote 29: In the official census of 1893, nine Shintō sects are +named, each of which has its own Kwancho or Presiding Head, recognized +by the government. The sectarian peculiarities of Shintō have been +made the subject of study by very few foreigners. Mr. Satow names the +following: + +The Yui-itsu sect was founded by Toshida Kané-tomo. His signature +appears as the end of a ten-volume edition, issued A.D. 1503, of the +liturgies extracted from the Yengishiki or Book of Ceremonial Law, first +published in the era of Yengi (or En-gi), A.D. 901-922. He is supposed +to be the one who added the _kana_, or common vernacular script letters, +to the Chinese text and thus made the norito accessible to the people. +The little pocket prayer-books, folded in an accordeon-like manner, are +very cheap and popular. The sect is regarded as heretical by strict +Shintōists, as the system Yuwiitsu consists "mainly of a Buddhist +superstructure on a Shintō foundation." Yoshida applied the tenets of +the Shingon or True Word sect of Buddhists to the understanding and +practice of the ancient god-way. + +The Suiga sect teaches a system which is a combination of Yuwiitsu and +of the modern philosophical form of Confucianism as elaborated by Chu +Hi, and known in Japan as the Téi-shu philosophy. The founder was +Yamazaki Ansai, who was born in 1618 and died in 1682. By combining the +forms of the Yoshida sect, which is based on the Buddhism of the Shingon +sect, with the materialistic philosophy of Chu Hi, he adapted the old +god-way to what he deemed modern needs. + +In the Déguchi sect, the ancient belief is explained by the Chinese Book +of Changes (or Divination). Déguchi Nobuyoshi, the founder, was +god-warden or _kannushi_ of the Géiku or Outer Palace Temple at Isé. He +promulgated his views about the year 1660, basing them upon the book +called Éki by the Japanese and Yi-king by the Chinese. This Yi-king, +which Professor Terrien de Laeouporie declares is only a very ancient +book of pronunciation of comparative Accadian and Chinese Syllabaries, +has been the cause of incredible waste of labor, time, and brains in +China--enough to have diked the Yellow River or drained the swamps of +the Empire. It is the chief basis of Chinese superstition, and the +greatest literary barrier to the advance of civilization. It has also +made much mischief in Japan. Déguchi explained the myths of the age of +the gods by divination or éki, based on the Chinese books. As late as +1893 there was published in Tōkiō a work in Japanese, with good +translation info English, on Scientific Morality, or the practical +guidance of life by means of divination--The Takashima Ékidan (or +Monograph on the Éki of Mr. Takashima), by S. Sugiura. + +The Jikko sect, according to its representative at the World's +Parliament of Religions at Chicago, is "the practical." It lays stress +less upon speculation and ritual, and more upon the realization of the +best teachings of Shintō. It was founded by Haségawa Kakugiō, who +was born at Nagasaki in 1541. Living in a cave in Fuji-yama, "he +received inspiration through the miraculous power of the mountain." It +believes in one absolute Deity, often mentioned in the Kojiki, which, +self-originated, took the embodiment of two deities, one with the male +nature and the other female, though these two deities are nothing but +forms of the one substance and unite again in the absolute deity. These +gave birth to the Japanese Archipelago, the sun and moon, the mountains +and streams, the divine ancestors, etc. According to the teachings of +this sect, the peerless mountain, Fuji, ought to be reverenced as the +sacred abode of the divine lord, and as "the brains of the whole globe." +The believer must make Fuji the example and emblem of his thought and +action. He must be plain and simple, as the form of the mountain, making +his body and mind pure and serene, as Fuji itself. The present world +with all its practical works must be respected more than the future +world. We must pray for the long life of the country, lead a life of +temperance and diligence, cooperating with one another in doing good. + + * * * * * + +_Statistics of Shintōism._ + +From the official Résumé Statistique de l'Empire du Japon, 1894. In 1801 +there were nine administrative heads of sects; 75,877 preachers, +priests, and shrine-keepers, with 1,158 male and 228 female students. +There were 163 national temples of superior rank and 136,652 shrines or +temples in cities and prefectures; a total of 193,153, served by 14,700 +persons of the grade of priests. Most of the expenses, apart from +endowments and local contributions, are included in the first item of +the annual Treasury Budget, "Civil List, Appanage and Shintō +Temples."] + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN + + +[Footnote 1: "He was fond of saying that Princeton had never originated +a new idea; but this meant no more than that Princeton was the advocate +of historical Calvinism in opposition to the modified and provincial +Calvinism of a later day."--Francis L. Patton, in Schaff-Herzog +Encyclopædia, Article on Charles Hodge.] + +[Footnote 2: We use Dr. James Legge's spelling, by whom these classics +have been translated into English. See Sacred Books of the East, edited +by Max Müller.] + +[Footnote 3: The Canon or Four Classics has a somewhat varied literary +history of transmission, collection, and redaction, as well as of +exposition, and of criticism, both "lower" and "higher." As arranged +under the Han Dynasty (B.C. 206-A.D. 23) it consisted of--I. The +Commentary of Tso Kinming (a disciple who expounded Confucius's book, +The Annals of State of Lu); II. The Commentary of Kuh-liang upon the +same work of Confucius; III. The Old Text of the Book of History; IV. +The Odes, collected by Mao Chang, to whom is ascribed the test of the +Odes as handed down to the present day. The generally accepted +arrangement is that made by the mediaeval schoolmen of the Sung Dynasty +(A.D. 960-1341), Cheng Teh Sio and Chu Hi, in the twelfth century: I. +The Great Learning; II. The Doctrine of the Mean; III. Conversations of +Confucius; IV. The Sayings of Mencius.--C.R.M., pp. 306-309.] + +[Footnote 4: See criticisms of Confucius as an author, in Legge's +Religions of China, pp. 144, 145.] + +[Footnote 5: Religions of China, by James Legge, p. 140.] + +[Footnote 6: See Article China, by the author, Cyclopaedia of Political +Science, Chicago, 1881.] + +[Footnote 7: This subject is critically discussed by Messrs. Satow, +Chamberlain, and others in their writings on Shintō and Japanese +history. On Japanese chronology, see Japanese Chronological Tables, by +William Bramsen, Tōkiō, 1880, and Dr. David Murray's Japan (p. +95), in the series Story of the Nations, New York.] + +[Footnote 8: The absurd claim made by some Shintōists that the +Japanese possessed an original native alphabet called the Shingi +(god-letters) before the entrance of the Chinese or Buddhist learning in +Japan, is refuted by Aston, Japanese Grammar, p. 1; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., +Appendix, p. 77. Mr. Satow shows "their unmistakable identity with the +Corean alphabet."] + +[Footnote 9: For the life, work, and tombs of the Chinese scholars who +fled to Japan on the fall of the Ming Dynasty, see M.E., p. 298; and +Professor E.W. Clement's paper on The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., and his letters in The Japan Mail.] + +[Footnote 10: "We have consecrated ourselves as the instruments of +Heaven for punishing the wicked man,"--from the document submitted to +the Yedo authorities, by the assassins of Ii Kamon no Kami, in Yedo, +March 23, 1861, and signed by seventeen men of the band. For numerous +other instances, see the voluminous literature of the Forty-seven +Rōnins, and the Meiji political literature (1868-1893), political and +historical documents, assassins' confessions, etc., contained in that +thesarus of valuable documents, The Japan Mail; Kinsé Shiriaku, or Brief +History of Japan, 1853-1869, Yokohama, 1873, and Nihon Guaishi, +translated by Mr. Ernest Satow; Adams's History of Japan; T.A.S.J., Vol. +XX., p. 145; Life and Letters of Yokoi Héishiro; Life of Sir Harry +Parkes, London, 1893, etc., for proof of this assertion.] + +[Footnote 11: For proof of this, as to vocabulary, see Professor B.H. +Chamberlain's Grammars and other philological works; Mr. J.H. Gubbins's +Dictionary of Chinese-Japanese Words, with Introduction, three vols., +Tōkiō 1892; and for change in structure, Rev. C. Munzinger, on The +Psychology of the Japanese Language in the Transactions of the Gorman +Asiatic Society of Japan. See also Mental Characteristics of the +Japanese, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIX., pp. 17-37.] + +[Footnote 12: See The Ghost of Sakura, in Mitfoid's Tales of Old Japan, +Vol. II, p. 17.] + +[Footnote 13: M.E., 277-280. See an able analysis of Japanese feudal +society, by M.F. Dickins, Life of Sir Harry Parkes, pp. 8-13; M.E., pp. +277-283.] + +[Footnote 14: This subject is discussed in Professor Chamberlain's +works; Mr. Percival Lowell's The Soul of the Far East; Dr. M.L. Gordon's +An American Missionary in Japan; Dr. J.H. De Forest's The Influence of +Pantheism, in The Japan Evangelist, 1894.] + +[Footnote 15: T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., p. 96.] + +[Footnote 16: The Forty Seven-Rōnins, Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I.; +Chiushiugura, by F.V. Dickens; The Loyal Rōnins, by Edward Greey; +Chiushiugura, translated by Enouyé.] + +[Footnote 17: See Dr. J.H. De Forest's article in the Andover Review, +May, June, 1893, p. 309. For details and instances, see the Japanese +histories, novels, and dramas; M.E.; Rein's Japan; S. and H.; T.A.S.J., +etc. Life of Sir Harry Parkes, p. 11 _et passim_.] + +[Footnote 18: M.E. pp. 180-192, 419. For the origin and meaning of +hara-kiri, see T.J., pp. 199-201; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., +Appendix; Adams's History of Japan, story of Shimadzŭ.] + +[Footnote 19: M.E., p. 133.] + +[Footnote 20: For light upon the status of the Japanese family, see F.O. +Adams's History of Japan, Vol. II., p. 384; Kinsé Shiriaku, p. 137; +Naomi Tamura, The Japanese Bride, New York, 1893; E.H. House, Yoné +Santo, A Child of Japan, Chicago, 1888; Japanese Girls and Women, by +Miss A.M. Bacon, Boston, 1891; T.J., Article Woman, and in Index, +Adoption, Children, etc.; M.E., 1st ed., p. 585; Marriage in Japan, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 114; and papers in the German Asiatic Society +of Japan.] + +[Footnote 21: See Mr. F.W. Eastlake's papers in the Popular Science +Monthly.] + +[Footnote 22: See Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II, pp. 181-182. "It is +to be feared, however, that this reform [of the Yoshiwara system], like +many others in Japan, never got beyond paper, for Mr. Norman in his +recent book, The Real Japan [Chap. XII.], describes a scarcely modified +system in full vigor." See also Japanese Girls and Women, pp. 289-292.] + +[Footnote 23: See Pung Kwang Yu's paper, read at the Parliament of +Religions in Chicago, and The Chinese as Painted by Themselves, by +Colonel Tcheng-Ki-Tong, New York and London, 1885. Dr. W.A.P. Martin's +scholarly book, The Chinese, New York, 1881, in the chapter Remarks on +the Ethical Philosophy of the Chinese, gives in English and Chinese a +Chart of Chinese Ethics in which the whole scheme of philosophy, ethics, +and self-culture is set forth.] + +[Footnote 24: See an exceedingly clear, able, and accurate article on +The Ethics of Confucius as Seen in Japan, by the veteran scholar, Rev. +J.H. De Forest, The Andover Review, May, June, 1893. He is the authority +for the statements concerning non-attendance (in Old Japan) of the +husband at the wife's, and older brother at younger brother's funeral.] + +[Footnote 25: A Japanese translation of Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures, +in a Tōkiō morning newspaper "met with instant and universal +approval," showing that Douglas Jerrold's world-famous character has her +counterpart in Japan, where, as a Japanese proverb declares, "the tongue +three inches long can kill a man six feet high." Sir Edwin Arnold and +Mr. E.H. House, in various writings, have idealized the admirable traits +of the Japanese woman. See also Mr. Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses of +Unfamiliar Japan, Boston, 1894; and papers (The Eternal Feminine, etc.), +in the Atlantic Monthly.] + +[Footnote 26: Summary of the Japanese Penal Codes, T.A.S.J., Vol. V., +Part II.; The Penal Code of Japan, and The Code of Criminal Procedure of +Japan, Yokohama.] + +[Footnote 27: See T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 114; the Chapter on Marriage +and Divorce, in Japanese Girls and Women, pp. 57-84. The following +figures are from the Résumé Statistique de L'Empire du Japon, published +annually by the Imperial Government: + + MARRIAGES. DIVORCES. + Number. Per 1,000 Number. Per 1,000 + Persons. Persons. + +1887....334,149 8.55 110,859 2.84 +1888....330,246 8.34 109,175 2.76 +1889....340,445 8.50 107,458 2.68 +1890....325,141 8.04 197,088 2.70 +1891....352,051 8.00 112,411 2.76 +1892....348,489 8.48 113,498 2.76 +] + +[Footnote 28: This was strikingly brought out in the hundreds of English +compositions (written by students of the Imperial University, 1872-74, +describing the home or individual life of students), examined and read +by the author.] + +[Footnote 29: Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto--Héauton +Tomoroumenos, Act--, Scene 1, line 25, where Chremes inquires about his +neighbor's affairs. For the golden rule of Jesus and the silver rule of +Confucius, see Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese.] + +[Footnote 30: "What you do not want done to yourselves, do not do to +others." Legge, The Religions of China, p. 137; Doolittle's Social Life +of the Chinese; The Testament of Iyéyasŭ;, Cap. LXXI., translated by +J.C. Lowder, Yokohama, 1874.] + +[Footnote 31: Die politische Bedeutung der amerikanischer Expedition +nach Japan, 1852, by Tetsutaro Yoshida, Heidelberg, 1893; The United +States and Japan (p. 39), by Inazo Nitobé, Baltimore, 1891; Matthew +Calbraith Perry, Chap. XXVIII.; T.J., Article Perry; Life and Letters of +S. Wells Williams, New York, 1889.] + +[Footnote 32: See Life of Matthew Calbraith Perry, pp. 363, 364.] + +[Footnote 33: Lee's Jerusalem Illustrated, p. 88.] + + +CHAPTER V + +CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM + + +[Footnote 1: See On the Early History of Printing in Japan, by E.M. +Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. X., pp. 1-83, 252-259; The Jesuit Mission Press in +Japan, by E.M. Satow (privately printed, 1888), and Review of this +monograph by Professor B.H. Chamberlain, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. +91-100.] + +[Footnote 2: The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, by Ernest W. Clement, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., pp. 1-24, and Letters in The Japan Mail, 1889.] + +[Footnote 3: Effect of Buddhism on the Philosophy of the Sung Dynasty, +p. 318, Chinese Buddhism, by Rev. J. Edkins, Boston, 1880.] + +[Footnote 4: C.R.M., p. 200; The Middle Kingdom, by S. Wells Williams, +Vol. II., p. 174.] + +[Footnote 5: C.R.M., p. 34. He was the boy-hero, who smashed with a +stone the precious water-vase in order to save from drowning a playmate +who had tumbled in, so often represented in Chinese popular art.] + +[Footnote 6: C.R.M., pp. 25-26; The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., pp. 113, +540, 652-654, 677.] + +[Footnote 7: This decade in Chinese history was astonishingly like that +of the United States from 1884 to 1894, in which the economical theories +advocated in certain journals, in the books Progress and Poverty, +Looking Backward, and by the Populists, have been so widely read and +discussed, and the attempts made to put them into practice. The Chinese +theorist of the eleventh century, Wang Ngan-shih was "a poet and author +of rare genius."--C.R.M., p. 244.] + +[Footnote 8: John xxi. 25.] + +[Footnote 9: This is the opinion of no less capable judges than Dr. +George Wm. Knox and Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain.] + +[Footnote 10: The United States and Japan, pp. 25-27; Life of Takano +Choyéi by Kato Sakayé, Tōkiō, 1888.] + +[Footnote 11: Note on Japanese Schools of Philosophy, by T. Haga, and +papers by Dr. G.W. Knox, Dr. T. Inoué, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX, Part I.] + +[Footnote 12: A religion, surely, with men like Yokoi Héishiro.] + +[Footnote 13: See pp. 110-113.] + +[Footnote 14: _Kinno_--loyalty to the Emperor; T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. +147.] + +[Footnote 15: "Originally recognizing the existence of a Supreme +personal Deity, it [Confucianism] has degenerated into a pantheistic +medley, and renders worship to an impersonal _anima mundi_ under the +leading forms of visible nature."--Dr. W.A.P. Martin's The Chinese, p. +108.] + +[Footnote 16: Ki, Ri, and Ten, Dr. George Wm. Knox, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., +pp. 155-177.] + +[Footnote 17: T.J., p. 94.] + +[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 156.] + +[Footnote 19: Matthew Calbraith Perry, p. 373; Japanese Life of Yoshida +Shoin, by Tokutomi, Tōkiō, 1894; Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. +II., p. 83.] + +[Footnote 20: "The Chinese accept Confucius in every detail, both as +taught by Confucius and by his disciples.... The Japanese recognize both +religions [Buddhism and Confucianism] equally, but Confucianism in Japan +has a direct bearing upon everything relating to human affairs, +especially the extreme loyalty of the people to the emperor, while the +Koreans consider it more useful in social matters than in any other +department of life, and hardly consider its precepts in their business +and mercantile relations." + +"Although Confucianism is counted a religion, it is really a system of +sociology.... Confucius was a moralist and statesman, and his disciples +are moralists and economists."--Education in Korea, by Mr. Pom K. Soh, +of the Korean Embassy to the United States; Report of U.S. Commissioner +of Education, 1890-91, Vol. I., pp. 345-346.] + +[Footnote 21: In Bakin, who is the great teacher of the Japanese by +means, of fiction, this is the idea always inculcated.] + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA + + +[Footnote 1: See his Introduction to the Saddharma Pundarika, Sacred +Books of the East, and his Buddhismus.] + +[Footnote 2: Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Buddhism; +Non-Christian Religious Systems--Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 3: The sketch of Indian thought here following is digested +from material obtained from various works on Buddhism and from the +Histories of India. See the excellent monograph of Romesh Chunder Dutt, +in Epochs of Indian History, London and New York, 1893; and Outlines of +The Mahayana, as Taught by Buddha ("for circulation among the members of +the Parliament of Religions," and distributed in Chicago), Tokiō, +1893.] + +[Footnote 4: Dyaus-Pitar, afterward _zeus patêr_. See Century +Dictionary, Jupiter.] + +[Footnote 5: Yoga is the root form of our word yoke, which at once +suggests the union of two in one. See Yoga, in The Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 6: Dutt's History of India.] + +[Footnote 7: The differences between the simple primitive narrative of +Gautama's experiences in attaining Buddhahood, and the richly +embroidered story current in later ages, may be seen by reading, first, +Atkinson's Prince Sidartha, the Japanese Buddha, and then Arnold's Light +of Asia. See also S. and H., Introduction, pp. 70-84, etc. Atkinson's +book is refreshing reading after the expurgation and sublimation of the +same theme in Sir Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia.] + +[Footnote 8: Romesh Chunder Dutt's Ancient India, p. 100.] + +[Footnote 9: Origin and Growth of Religion by T. Rhys Davids, p. 28.] + +[Footnote 10: Job i. 6, Hebrew.] + +[Footnote 11: Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 29.] + +[Footnote 12: "Buddhism so far from tracing 'all things' to 'matter' as +their original, denies the reality of matter, but it nowhere denies the +reality of existence."--The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 156.] + +[Footnote 13: See A Year among the Persians, by Edward G. Browne, +London, 1893.] + +[Footnote 14: Dutt's History of India, pp. 153-156. See also Mozoomdar's +The Spirit of God, p. 305. "Buddhism, though for a long time it +supplanted the parent system, was the fulfilment of the prophecy of +universal peace, which Hinduism had made; and when, in its turn, it was +outgrown by the instincts of the Aryans, it had to leave India indeed +forever, but it contributed quite as much to Indian religion as it had +ever borrowed."] + +[Footnote 15: Korean Repository, Vol. I., pp. 101, 131, 153; Siebold's +Nippon, Archiv; Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1890-91, +Vol. I., p. 346; Dallet's Histoire de l'Église de Corée, Vol. 1., +Introd., p. cxlv.; Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 331.] + +[Footnote 16: See Brian H. Hodgson's The Literature and History of the +Buddhists, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which is +epitomized in The Phoenix, Vol. I.; Beal's Buddhism in China, Chap. II.; +T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, etc. To Brian Houghton Hodgson, (of whose +death at the ripe age of ninety-three years we read in Luzac's Oriental +List) more than to any one writer, are we indebted for our knowledge of +Northern or Mahayana Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 17: See the very accurate, clear, and full definitions and +explanations in The Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 18: This subject is fully discussed by Professor T. Rhys +Davids in his compact Manual of Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 19: See Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 20: Jap. Mon-ju. One of the most famous images of this +Bodhisattva is at Zenkô-ji, Nagano. See Kern's Saddharma Pundarika, p. +8, and the many referents to Manjusri in the Index. That Manjusri was +the legendary civilizer of Nepaul seems probable from the following +extract from Brian Hodgson: "The Swayambhu Purana relates in substance +as follows: That formerly the valley of Nepaul was of circular form, and +full of very deep water, and that the mountains confining it were +clothed with the densest forests, giving shelter to numberless birds and +beasts. Countless waterfowl rejoiced in the waters.... + +"... Vipasyi, having thrice circumambulated the lake, seated himself in +the N.W. (Váyubona) side of it, and, having repeated several mantras +over the root of a lotos, he threw it into the water, exclaiming, 'What +time this root shall produce a flower, then, from out of the flower, +Swayambhu, the Lord of Agnishtha Bhuvana, shall be revealed in the form +of flame; and then shall the lake become a cultivated and populous +country.' Having repeated these words, Vipasyi departed. Long after the +date of this prophecy, it was fulfilled according to the letter.... + +"... When the lake was dessicated (by the sword of Manjusri says the +myth--probably earthquake) Karkotaka had a fine tank built for him to +dwell in; and there he is still worshipped, also in the cave-temple +appendant to the great Buddhist shrine of Swayambhu Nath.... + +"... The Bodhisatwa above alluded to is Manju Sri, whose native place is +very far off, towards the north, and is called Pancha Sirsha Parvata +(which is situated in Maha China Des). After the coming of Viswabhu +Buddha to Naga Vasa, Manju Sri, meditating upon what was passing in the +world, discovered by means of his divine science that +Swayambhu-jyotirupa, that is, the self-existent, in the form of flame, +was revealed out of a lotos in the lake of Naga Vasa. Again, he +reflected within himself: 'Let me behold that sacred spot, and my name +will long be celebrated in the world;' and on the instant, collecting +together his disciples, comprising a multitude of the peasantry of the +land, and a Raja named Dharmakar, he assumed the form of Viswakarma, and +with his two Devis (wives) and the persons above-mentioned, set out upon +the long journey from Sirsha Parvata to Naga Vasa. There having arrived, +and having made puja to the self-existent, he began to circumambulate +the lake, beseeching all the while the aid of Swayambhu in prayer. In +the second circuit, when he had reached the central barrier mountain to +the south, he became satisfied that that was the best place whereat to +draw off the waters of the lake. Immediately he struck the mountain with +his scimitar, when the sundered rock gave passage to the waters, and the +bottom of the lake became dry. He then descended from the mountain, and +began to walk about the valley in all directions."--The Phoenix, Vol. +II., pp. 147-148.] + +[Footnote 21: Jap. Kwannon, god or goddess of mercy, in his or her +manifold forms, Thousand-handed, Eleven-faced, Horse-headed, Holy, etc.] + +[Footnote 22: Or, The Lotus of the Good Law, a mystical name for the +cosmos. "The good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric." See Bernouf +and Kern's translations, and Edkin's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 214. +Translations of this work, so influential in Japanese Buddhism, exist in +French, German, and English. See Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXI., by +Professor H. Kern, of Leyden University. In the Introduction, p. xxxix., +the translator discusses age, authorship, editions, etc. Bunyiu Nanjio's +Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, pp. 132-134. Beal +in his Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, pp. 389-396, has translated +Chapter XXIV.] + +[Footnote 23: At the great Zenkōji, a temple of the Tendai sect, at +Nagano, Japan, dedicated to three Buddhist divinities, one of whom is +Kwannon (Avalokitesvara, the rafters of the vast main hall are said to +number 69,384, in reference to the number of Chinese characters +contained in the translation of the Saddharma Pundarika.] + +[Footnote 24: "The third (collection of the Tripitaka) was ... made by +Manjusri and Maitreya. This is the collection of the Mahayana books. +Though it is as clear or bright as the sun at midday yet the men of the +Hinayana are not ashamed of their inability to know them and speak evil +of them instead, just as the Confucianists call Buddhism a law of +barbarians, without reading the Buddhist books at all."--B.N., p. 51.] + +[Footnote 25: See the writings of Brian Hodgson, J. Edkins, E.J. Eitel, +S. Beal, T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.] + +[Footnote 26: See Chapter VIII. in T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, a book of +great scholarship and marvellous condensation.] + +[Footnote 27: Davids's Buddhism, p. 206. Other illustrations of the +growth of the dogmas of this school of Buddhism we select from Brian +Hodgson's writings. + +1. The line of division between God and man, and between gods and man, +was removed by Buddhism. + +"Genuine Buddhism never seems to contemplate any measures of acceptance +with the deity; but, overleaping the barrier between finite and infinite +mind, urges its followers to aspire by their own efforts to that divine +perfectibility of which it teaches that man is capable, and by attaining +which man becomes God--and thus is explained both the quiescence of the +imaginary celestial, and the plenary omnipotence of the real Manushi +Buddhas--thus, too, we must account for the fact that genuine Buddhism +has no priesthood; the saint despises the priest; the saint scorns the +aid of mediators, whether on earth or in heaven; 'conquer (exclaims the +adept or Buddha to the novice or BodhiSattwa)--conquer the importunities +of the body, urge your mind to the meditation of abstraction, and you +shall, in time, discover the great secret (Sunyata) of nature: know +this, and you become, on the instant, whatever priests have feigned of +Godhead--you become identified with Prajna, the sum of all the power and +all the wisdom which sustain and govern the world, and which, as they +are manifested out of matter, must belong solely to matter; not indeed +in the gross and palpable state of pravritti, but in the archetypal and +pure state of nirvritti. Put off, therefore, the vile, pravrittika +necessities of the body, and the no less vile affections of the mind +(Tapas); urge your thought into pure abstraction (Dhyana), and then, as +assuredly you can, so assuredly you shall, attain to the wisdom of a +Buddha (Bodhijnana), and become associated with the eternal unity and +rest of nirvritti.'"--The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 194. + +2. A specimen of "esoteric" and "exoteric" Buddhism;--the Buddha +Tatkagata. + +"And as the wisdom of man is, in its origin, but an effluence of the +Supreme wisdom (_Prajná_) of nature, so is it perfected by a refluence +to its source, but without loss of individuality; whence Prajna is +feigned in the exoteric system to be both the mother and the wife of all +the Buddhas, '_janani sarva Buddkánám_,' and '_Jina-sundary_;' for the +efflux is typified by a birth, and the reflux by a marriage. + +"The Buddha is the adept in the wisdom of Buddhism (_Bodhijnána_) whose +first duty, so long as he remains on earth, is to communicate his wisdom +to those who are willing to receive it. These willing learners are the +'Bodhisattwas,' so called from their hearts being inclined to the wisdom +of Buddhism, and 'Sanghas,' from their companionship with one another, +and with their Buddha or teacher, in the _Viháras_ or coenobitical +establishments." + +"And such is the esoteric interpretation of the third (and inferior) +member of the Prajniki Triad. The Bodhisattwa or Sangha continues to be +such until he has surmounted the very last grade of that vast and +laborious ascent by which he is instructed that he can 'scale the +heavens,' and pluck immortal wisdom from its resplendent source: which +achievement performed, he becomes a Buddha, that is, an Omniscient +Being, and a _Tathágata_--a title implying the accomplishment of that +gradual increase in wisdom by which man becomes immortal or ceases to be +subject to transmigration."--The Phoenix, Vol. I., pp. 194, 195. + +3. Is God all, or is all God? + +"What that grand secret, that ultimate truth, that single reality, is, +whether all is God, or God is all, seems to be the sole _proposition_ of +the oriental philosophic religionists, who have all alike sought to +discover it by taking the high _priori_ road. That God is all, appears +to be the prevalent dogmatic determination of the Brahmanists; that all +is God, the preferential but sceptical solution of the _Buddhists_; and, +in a large view, I believe it would be difficult to indicate any further +essential difference between their theoretic systems, both, as I +conceive, the unquestionable growth of the Indian soil, and both founded +upon transcendental speculation, conducted in the very same style and +manner."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 45. + +4. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. + +"In a philosophical light, the precedence of Buddha or of Dharma +indicates the theistic or atheistic school. With the former, Buddha is +intellectual essence, the efficient cause of all, and underived. Dharma +is material essence, the plastic cause, and underived, a co-equal +biunity with Buddha; or else the plastic cause, as before, but dependent +and derived from Buddha. Sangha is derived from, and compounded of, +Buddha, and Dharma, is their collective energy in the state of action; +the immediate operative cause of creation, its type or its agent. With +the latter or atheistic schools, Dharma is _Diva natura_, matter as the +sole entity, invested with intrinsic activity and intelligence, the +efficient and material cause of all. + +"Buddha is derivative from Dharma, is the active and intelligent force +of nature, first put off from it and then operating upon it. Sangha is +the _result_ of that operation; is embryotic creation, the type and sum +of all specific forms, which are spontaneously evolved from the union of +Buddha with Dharma."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 12. + +5. The mantra or sacred sentence best known in the Buddhadom and abroad. + +"_Amitábha_ is the fourth _Dhyani_ or celestial _Budda: Padma-pani_ his +_Æon_ and executive minister. _Padma-pani_ is the _praesens Divus_ and +creator of the _existing_ system of worlds. Hence his identification +with the third member of the _Triad_. He is figured as a graceful youth, +erect, and bearing in either hand a _lotos_ and a jewel. The last +circumstance explains the meaning of the celebrated _Shadakshári +Mantra_, or six-lettered invocation of him, viz., _Om! Manipadme hom!_ +of which so many corrupt versions and more corrupt interpretations have +appeared from Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, and other sources. The +_mantra_ in question is one of three, addressed to the several members +of the _Triad_. 1. _Om sarva vidye hom_. 2. _Om Prajnáye hom_. 3. _Om +mani-padme hom_. 1. The mystic triform Deity is in the all-wise +(Buddha). 2. The mystic triform Deity is in Prajna (Dharma). 3. The +mystic triform Deity is in him of the jewel and lotos (Sangha). But the +praesens Divus, whether he be Augustus or _Padma-pani_, is everything +with the many. Hence the notoriety of this _mantra_, whilst the others +are hardly ever heard of, and have thus remained unknown to our +travellers."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 64.] + +[Footnote 28: "Nine centuries after Buddha, Maitreya (Miroku or Ji-shi) +came down from the Tushita heaven to the lecture-hall in the kingdom of +Ayodhya (A-ya-sha) in Central India, at the request of the Bodhisattva +Asamga (Mu-jaku) and discoursed five Sastras, 1, Yoga-karya-bhumi-sastra +(Yu-ga-shi-ji-ron), etc.... After that, the two great Sastra teachers, +Asanga and Vasubandhu (Se-shin), who were brothers, composed many +Sastras (Ron) and cleared up the meaning of the Mahayana" (or Greater +Vehicle, canon of Northern Buddhism).--B.N., p. 32.] + +[Footnote 29: Buddhism, T. Rhys Davids, pp. 206-211.] + +[Footnote 30: Prayer-wheels in Japan are used by the Tendai and Shingon +sects, but without written prayers attached, and rather as an +illustration of the doctrine of cause and effect (ingwa); the prayers +being usually offered to Jizo the merciful.--S. and H., p. 29; T. J., p. +360.] + +[Footnote 31: For this see Edkins's Chinese Buddhism; Eitel's Three +Lectures, and Hand-book; Rev. S. Beal's Buddhism, and A Catena of +Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese; The Romantic Legend of Sakya +Buddha, from the Chinese; Texts from the Buddhist canon commonly known +as the Dhammapeda; Notes on Buddhist Words and Phrases, the +Chrysanthemum, Vol. I.; The Phoenix, Vols. I-III. + +See, also, a spirited sketch of Ancient Japan, by Frederick Victor +Dickins, in the Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II., pp. 4-14.] + +[Footnote 32: S. and H., pp. 289, 293; Chamberlain's Hand-book for +Japan, p. 220; Summer's Notes on Osaka, T.A.S.J., Vol. VIL, p. 382; +Buddhism, and Traditions Concerning its Introduction into Japan, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XIV., p. 78.] + +[Footnote 33: S. and H., p. 344.] + +[Footnote 34: T.J., p. 73.] + +[Footnote 35: Vairokana is the first or chief of the five +personifications of Wisdom, and in Japan the idol is especially +noticeable in the temples of the Tendai sect.--"The Action of Vairokana, +or the great doctrine of the highest vehicle of the secret union," etc., +B.N., p. 75.] + +[Footnote 36: S. and H., p. 390; B.N., p. 29.] + +[Footnote 37: "Hinduism stands for philosophic spirituality and emotion, +Buddhism for ethics and humanity, Christianity for fulness of God's +incarnation in man, while Mohammedanism is the champion of +uncompromising monotheism."--F.P.C. Mozoomdar's The Spirit of God, +Boston, 1894, p. 305.] + + +CHAPTER VII + +RIYŌBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM + + +[Footnote 1: Is not something similar frankly attempted in Rev. Dr. +Joseph Edkins's The Early Spread of Religious Ideas in the Far East +(London, 1893)?] + +[Footnote 2: M.E., p. 252; Honda the Samurai, pp. 193-194.] + +[Footnote 3: See The Lily Among Thorns, A Study of the Biblical Drama +Entitled the Song of Songs (Boston 1890), in which this subject is +glanced at.] + +[Footnote 4: See The Religion of Nepaul, Buddhist Philosophy, and the +writings of Brian Hodgson in The Phoenix, Vols. I., II., III.] + +[Footnote 5: See Century Dictionary, Yoga; Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, +pp. 169-174; T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, pp. 206-211; Index of B.N., +under Vagrasattwa; S. and H., pp. 85-87.] + +[Footnote 6: T.J., p. 226; Kojiki, Introduction.] + +[Footnote 7: See in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1893, a +very valuable paper by Mr. L.A. Waddell, on The Northern Buddhist +Mythology, epitomized in the Japan Mail, May 5, 1894.] + +[Footnote 8: See Catalogue of Chinese and Japanese Paintings in the +British Museum, and The Pictorial Arts of Japan, by William Anderson, +M.D.] + +[Footnote 9: Anderson's Catalogue, p. 24.] + +[Footnote 10: S. and H., p. 415; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan; +T.J.; M.E., p. 162, etc.] + +[Footnote 11: The names of Buddhist priests and monks are usually +different from those of the laity, being taken from events in the life +of Gautama, or his original disciples, passages in the sacred classics, +etc. Among some personal acquaintances in the Japanese priesthood were +such names as Lift-the-Kettle, Take-Hold-of-the-Dipper, +Drivelling-Drunkard, etc. In the raciness, oddity, literalness, realism, +and close connection of their names with the scriptures of their system, +the Buddhists quite equal the British Puritans.] + +[Footnote 12: Kern's Saddharma-Pundarika, pp. 311, 314; Davids's +Buddhism p. 208; The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 169; S. and H., p. 502; Du +Bose's Dragon, Demon, and Image, p. 407; Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 134; +Hough's Corean Collections, Washington, 1893, p. 480, plate xxviii.] + +[Footnote 13: Japan in History, Folk-lore and Art, pp. 86, 80-88; A +Japanese Grammar, by J.J. Hoffman, p. 10; T.J., pp. 465-470.] + +[Footnote 14: This is the essence of Buddhism, and was for centuries +repeated and learned by heart throughout the empire: + + "Love and enjoyment disappear, + What in our world endureth here? + E'en should this day it oblivion be rolled, + 'Twas only a vision that leaves me cold." +] + +[Footnote 15: This legend suggests the mediaeval Jewish story, that +Ezra, the scribe, could write with five pens at once; Hearn's Glimpses +of Unfamiliar Japan, pp. 29-33.] + +[Footnote 16: Brave Little Holland, and What She Taught Us, p. 124.] + +[Footnote 17: T.J., pp. 75, 342; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. +41; M.E., p. 162.] + +[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 101; S. and H., p. 176.] + +[Footnote 19: It was for lifting with his walking-stick the curtain +hanging before the shrine of this Kami that Arinori Mori, formerly +H.I.J.M. Minister at Washington and London, was assassinated by a +Shintō fanatic, February 11, 1889; T. J., p. 229; see Percival +Lowell's paper in the Atlantic Monthly.] + +[Footnote 20: See Mr. P. Lowell's Esoteric Shintō, T.A.S.J., Vol. +XXI, pp. 165-167, and his "Occult Japan."] + +[Footnote 21: S. and H., Japan, p. 83.] + +[Footnote 22: See the Author's Introduction to the Arabian Nights' +Entertainments, Boston, 1891.] + +[Footnote 23: B.N., Index and pp. 78-103; Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, p. +169.] + +[Footnote 24: Satow's or Chamberlain's Guide-books furnish hundreds of +other instances, and describe temples in which the renamed kami are +worshipped.] + +[Footnote 25: S. and H., p. 70.] + +[Footnote 26: M.E., pp. 187, 188; S. and H., pp. 11, 12.] + +[Footnote 27: San Kai Ri (Mountain, Sea, and Land). This work, +recommended to me by a learned Buddhist priest in Fukui, I had +translated and read to me by a Buddhist of the Shin Shu sect. In like +manner, even Christian writers in Japan have occasionally endeavored to +rationalize the legends of Shintō, see Kojiki, p. liii., where Mr. T. +Goro's Shintō Shin-ron is referred to. I have to thank my friend Mr. +C. Watanabé, of Cornell University, for reading to me Mr. Takahashi's +interesting but unconvincing monographs on Shintō and Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 28: T.J., p. 402; Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio Hearn, p. +129.] + +[Footnote 29: S. and H., Japan, p. 397; Classical Poetry of the +Japanese, p. 201, note.] + +[Footnote 30: The Japanese word Ryō means both, and is applied to the +eyes, ears, feet, things correspondent or in pairs, etc.; _bu_ is a term +for a set, kind, group, etc.] + +[Footnote 31: Rein, p. 432; T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., pp. 241-270; T.J., p. +339.] + +[Footnote 32: The Chrysanthemum, Vol. I., p. 401.] + +[Footnote 33: Even the Takétori Monogatari (The Bamboo Cutter's +Daughter), the oldest and the best of the Japanese classic romances is +(at least in the text and form now extant) a warp of native ideas with a +woof of Buddhist notions.] + +[Footnote 34: Mr. Percival Lowell argues, in Esoteric Shintō, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., that besides the habit of pilgrimages, +fire-walking, and god-possession, other practices supposed to be +Buddhistic are of Shintō origin.] + +[Footnote 35: The native literature illustrating Riyōbuism is not +extensive. Mr. Ernest Satow in the American Cyclopædia (Japan: +Literature) mentions several volumes. The Tenchi Réiki Noko, in eighteen +books contains a mixture of Buddhism and Shintō, and is ascribed by +some to Shōtoku and by others to Kōbō, but now literary critics +ascribe these, as well as the books Jimbetsuki and Tenshoki, to be +modern forgeries by Buddhist priests. The Kogoshiui, written in A.D. +807, professes to preserve fragments of ancient tradition not recorded +in the earlier books, but the main object is that which lies at the +basis of a vast mass of Japanese literature, namely, to prove the +author's own descent from the gods. The Yuiitsu Shintō Miyoho Yoshiu, +in two volumes, is designed to prove that Shintō and Buddhism are +identical in their essence. Indeed, almost all the treatises on +Shintō before the seventeenth century maintained this view. Certain +books like the Shintō Shu, for centuries popular, and well received +even by scholars, are now condemned on account of their confusion of the +two religions. One of the most interesting works which we have found is +the San Kai Ri, to which reference has been made.] + +[Footnote 36: T.J., p. 224.] + +[Footnote 37: "Human life is but fifty years," Japanese Proverb; M.E., +p. 107.] + +[Footnote 38: Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese, p. 130.] + +[Footnote 39: S. and H., p. 416.] + +[Footnote 40: Things Chinese, by J. Dyer Ball, p. 70; see also Edkins +and Eitel.] + +[Footnote 41: The Japan Weekly Mail of April 28, 1893, translating and +condensing an article from the Bukkyō, a Buddhist newspaper, gives +the results of a Japanese Buddhist student's tour through China--"Taoism +prevails everywhere.... Buddhism has decayed and is almost dead."] + +[Footnote 42: Vaisramana is a Deva who guarded, praised, fed with +heavenly food, and answered the questions of the Chinese Dō-sen +(608-907 A.D.) who founded the Risshu or Vinaya sect.--B.N., p. 25.] + +[Footnote 43: Anderson, Catalogue, pp. 29-45.] + +[Footnote 44: Some of those are pictured in Aimé Humbert's Japon +Illustré, and from the same pictures reproduced by electro-plates which, +from Paris, have transmigrated for a whole generation through the +cheaper books on Japan, in every European language.] + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NORTHERN BUDDHISM IS ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS + + +[Footnote 1: On the Buddhist canon, see the writings of Beal, Spence +Hardy, T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.] + +[Footnote 2: Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 108, 214; Classical +Poetry of the Japanese, p. 173.] + +[Footnote 3: See T.A.S.J., Vol. XIX., Part I., pp. 17-37; The Soul of +the Far East; and the writings of Chamberlain, Aston, Dickins, +Munzinger, etc.] + +[Footnote 4: Much of the information as to history and doctrine +contained in this chapter has been condensed from Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio's A +Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, translated out of +the Japanese into English. This author, besides visiting the old seats +of the faith in China, studied Sanskrit at Oxford with Professor Max +Müller, and catalogued in English the Tripitaka or Buddhist canon of +China and Japan, sent to England by the ambassador Iwakura. The nine +reverend gentlemen who wrote the chapters and introduction of the Short +History are Messrs. Kō-chō Ogurusu, and Shu-Zan Emura of the Shin +sect; Rev. Messrs. Shō-hen Uéda, and Dai-ryo Takashi, of the Shin-gon +Sect; Rev. Messrs. Gyō-kai Fukuda, Keu-kō Tsuji, Renjō +Akamatsu, and Zé-jun Kobayashi of the Jō-dō, Zen, Shin, and +Nichiren sects, respectively. Though execrably printed, and the English +only tolerable, the work is invaluable to the student of Japanese +Buddhism. It has a historical introduction and a Sanskrit-Chinese Index, +1 vol., pp. 172, Tōkiō, 1887. Substantially the same work, +translated into French, is Le Bouddhisme Japonais, by Ryauon Fujishima, +Paris, 1889. Satow and Hawes's Hand-book for Japan has brief but +valuable notes in the Introduction, and, like Chamberlain's continuation +of the same work, is a storehouse of illustrative matter. Edkine's and +Eitel's works on Chinese Buddhism have been very helpful.] + +[Footnote 5: M. Abel Remusat published a translation of a Chinese +Pilgrim's travels in 1836; M. Stanislais Julien completed his volume on +Hiouen Thsang in 1858; and in 1884 Rev. Samuel Beal issued his Travels +of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist Pilgrims from China to India (400 +A.D. and 518 A.D.). The latter work contains a map.] + +[Footnote 6: B.N., p. 3.] + +[Footnote 7: B.N., p. 11.] + +[Footnote 8: Three hundred and twenty million years. See Century +Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 9: See the paper of Rev. Shō-hen Uéda of the Shingon sect, +in B.N., pp. 20-31; and R. Fujishima's Le Bouddhisme Japonais, pp. xvi., +xvii., from which most of the information here given has been derived.] + +[Footnote 10: M.E., p. 383; S. and H., pp. 23, 30. The image of Binzuru +is found in many Japanese temples to-day, a famous one being at Asakusa, +in Tōkiō. He is the supposed healer of all diseases. The image +becomes entirely rubbed smooth by devotees, to the extinguishment of all +features, lines, and outlines.] + +[Footnote 11: Davids's Buddhism, pp. 180, 200; S. and H., pp. (87) 389, +416.] + +[Footnote 12: B.N., pp. 32-43.] + +[Footnote 13: B.N., pp. 44-56.] + +[Footnote 14: Japanese Fairy World, p. 282; Anderson's Catalogue, pp. +l03-7.] + +[Footnote 15: B.N., p. 62.] + +[Footnote 16: Pfoundes, Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 17: B.N., p. 58. See also The Monist for January, 1894, p. +168.] + +[Footnote 18: "Tien Tai, a spot abounding in Buddhist antiquities, the +earliest, and except Puto the largest and richest seat of that religion +in eastern China. As a monastic establishment it dates from the fourth +century."--Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 137-142.] + +[Footnote 19: S. and H., p. 87. See the paper read at the Parliament of +Religions by the Zen bonze Ashitsu of Hiyéisan, the poem of Right +Reverend Shaku Soyen, and the paper on The Fundamental Teachings of +Buddhism, in The Monist for January, 1894; Japan As We Saw It, p. 297.] + +[Footnote 20: See Century Dictionary, _mantra_.] + +[Footnote 21: See Chapter XX. Ideas and Symbols in Japan: in History, +Folk-lore, and Art. Buddhist tombs (go-rin) consist of a cube (earth), +sphere (water), pyramid (fire), crescent (wind), and flame-shaped stone +(ether), forming the go-rin or five-blossom tomb, typifying the five +elements.] + +[Footnote 22: B.N., p. 78.] + +[Footnote 23: To put this dogma into intelligible English is, as Mr. +Satow says, more difficult than to comprehend the whole doctrine, hard +as that may be. "Dai Nichi Ni-yorai (Vairokana) is explained to be the +collectivity of all sentient beings, acting through the mediums of +Kwan-non, Ji-zō, Mon-ju, Shaka, and other influences which are +popularly believed to be self-existent deities." In the diagram called +the eight-leaf enclosure, by which the mysteries of Shingon are +explained, Maha-Vairokana is in the centre, and on the eight petals are +such names as Amitabha, Manjusri, Maitreya, and Avalokitesvara; in a +word, all are purely speculative beings, phantoms of the brain, the +mushrooms of decayed Brahmanism, and the mould of primitive Buddhism +disintegrated by scholasticism.] + +[Footnote 24: S. and H., p. 31.] + +[Footnote 25: B.N., p. 115.] + +[Footnote 26: Here let me add that in my studies of oriental and ancient +religion, I have never found one real Trinity, though triads, or +tri-murti, are common. None of these when carefully analyzed yield the +Christian idea of the Trinity.] + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE + + +[Footnote 1: Tathagata is one of the titles of the Buddha, meaning "thus +come," i.e., He comes bringing human nature as it truly is, with perfect +knowledge and high intelligence, and thus manifests himself. Amitabha is +the Sanskrit of Amida, or the deification of boundless light.] + +[Footnote 2: B.N., p. 104.] + +[Footnote 3: Literally, I yield to, or I adore the Boundless or the +Immeasurable Buddha.] + +[Footnote 4: A Chinese or Japanese volume is much smaller than the +average printed volume in Europe.] + +[Footnote 5: Legacy of Iyéyasŭ, Section xxviii. Doctrinally, this +famous document, written probably long after Iyéyasŭ's death and +canonization as a _gongen_, is a mixture or _Riyōbu_ of Confucianism +and Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 6: At first glance a forcible illustration, since the Japanese +proverb declares that "A sea-voyage is an inch of hell." And yet the +original saying of Ryū-ju, now proverbial in Buddhadom, referred to +the ease of sailing over the water, compared with the difficulty of +surmounting the obstacles of land travel in countries not yet famous for +good roads. See B.N., p. 111.] + +[Footnote 7: Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 108; Descriptive Notes on the Rosaries +as used by the different Sects of Buddhists in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. +IX., pp. 173-182.] + +[Footnote 8: B.N., p. 122.] + +[Footnote 9: S. and H., p. 361.] + +[Footnote 10: S. and H., pp. 90-92; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., +pp. 242-253.] + +[Footnote 11: These three sutras are those most in favor with the +Jō-dō sect also, they are described, B.N., 104-106, and their +tenets are referred to on pp. 260, 261.] + +[Footnote 12: For modern statements of Shin tenets and practices, see +E.J. Reed's Japan, Vol. I., pp. 84-86; The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881, +pp. 109-115; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., 242-246; B.N., 122-131. +Edkins's Religion in China, p. 153. The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881, p. +115.] + +[Footnote 13: S. and H., p. 361; B.N., pp. 105, 106. Toward the end of +the Amitayus-dhyana sutra, Buddha says: "Let not one's voice cease, but +ten times complete the thought, and repeat Namo'mitābhāya +Buddhāya (Namu Amida Butsu) or adoration to Amitbāha Buddha."] + +[Footnote 14: M.E., pp. 164-166.] + +[Footnote 15: Schaff's Encyclopaedia, Article, Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 16: On the Tenets of the Shin Shiu, or "True Sect" of +Buddhists, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIV., p. 1.] + +[Footnote 17: The Gobunsho, or Ofumi, of Rennyō Shōnin, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XVII., pp. 101-143.] + +[Footnote 18: At the gorgeous services in honor of the founder of the +great Higashi Hongwanji Western Temple of the Original Vow at Asakusa, +Tōkiō, November 21 to 28, annually, the women attend wearing a +head-dress called "horn-hider," which seems to have been named in +allusion to a Buddhist text which says: "A woman's exterior is that of a +saint, but her heart is that of a demon."--Chamberlain's Hand-book for +Japan, p. 82; T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. 106, 141; Sacred Books of the +East, Vol. XXI., pp. 251-254.] + +[Footnote 19: Review of Buddhist Texts from Japan, The Nation, No. 875, +April 6, 1882. "The _Mahāyāna_ or Great Vehicle (we might fairly +render it 'highfalutin') school.... Filled as these countries (Tibet, +China, Japan) are with Buddhist monasteries, and priests, and nominal +adherents, and abounding in voluminous translations of the Sanskrit +Buddhistic literature, little understood and wellnigh unintelligible +(for neither country has had the independence and mental force to +produce a literature of its own, or to add anything but a chapter of +decay to the history of this religion)...."] + +[Footnote 20: M.E., pp. 164, 165; B.N., pp. 132-147; Mitford's Tales of +Old Japan, Vol. II., pp. 125-134.] + + +CHAPTER X + +JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT + + +[Footnote 1: T.J., p. 71. Further illustrations of this statement may be +found in his Classical Poetry of the Japanese, especially in the +Selection and Appendices of this book; also in T.R.H. McClatchie's +Japanese Plays (Versified), London, 1890.] + +[Footnote 2: See Introduction to the Kojiki, pp. xxxii.-xxxiv., and in +Bakin's novel illustrating popular Buddhist beliefs, translated by +Edward Greey, A Captive of Love, Boston, 1886.] + +[Footnote 3: See jade in Century Dictionary; "Magatama, so far as I am +aware, do not ever appear to have been found in shell heaps" (of the +aboriginal Ainos), Milne's Notes on Stone Implements, T.A.S.J., Vol. +VIII., p. 71.] + +[Footnote 4: Concerning this legendary, and possibly mythical, episode, +which has so powerfully influenced Japanese imagination and politics, +see T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., Part I., pp. 39-75; M.E., pp. 75-85.] + +[Footnote 5: See Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 1, 2; Persian Elements in +Japanese Legends, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., Part I, pp. 1-10; Journal of the +Royal Asiatic Society, January, 1894. Rein's book, The Industries of +Japan, points out, as far as known, the material debt to India. Some +Japanese words like _beni-gari_ (Bengal) or rouge show at once their +origin. The mosaic of stories in the Taéktori Monogatari, an allegory in +exquisite literary form, illustrating the Buddhist dogma of Ingwa, or +law of cause and effect, and written early in the ninth century, is made +up of Chinese-Indian elements. See F.V. Dickins's translation and notes +in Journal of the Royal Oriental Society, Vol. XIX., N.S. India was the +far off land of gems, wonders, infallible drugs, roots, etc.; Japanese +Fairy World, p. 137.] + +[Footnote 6: M.E., Chap. VIII.; Klaproth's Annales des Empereurs du +Japon (a translation of Nippon 0 Dai Ichi Ran); Rein's Japan, p. 224.] + +[Footnote 7: See Klaproth's Annales, _passim_. S. and H. p. 85. Bridges +are often symbolical of events, classic passages in the shastras and +sutras, or are antetypes of Paradisaical structures. The ordinary native +_hashi_ is not remarkable as a triumph of the carpenter's art, though +some of the Japanese books mention and describe in detail some +structures that are believed to be astonishing.] + +[Footnote 8: Often amusingly illustrated, M.E., p. 390. A translation +into Japanese of Goethe's Reynard the Fox is among the popular works of +the day. "Strange to say, however, the Japanese lose much of the +exquisite humor of this satire in their sympathy with the woes of the +maltreated wolf."--The Japan Mail. This sympathy with animals grows +directly out of the doctrine of metempsychosis. The relationship between +man and ape is founded upon the pantheistic identity of being. "We +mention sin," says a missionary now in Japan, "and he [the average +auditor] thinks of eating flesh, or the killing of insects." Many of the +sutras read like tracts and diatribes of vegetarians.] + +[Footnote 9: See The Art of Landscape Gardening in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. +XIV.; Theory of Japanese Flower Arrangements, by J. Conder, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XVII.; T.J., p. 168; M.E., p. 437; T.J., p. 163.] + +[Footnote 10: _The_ book, by excellence, on the Japanese house, is +Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings, by E.S. Morse. See also +Constructive Art in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 57, III., p. 20; +Feudal Mansions of Yedo, Vol. VII., p. 157.] + +[Footnote 11: See Hearn's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, pp. 385, 410, +and _passim_.] + +[Footnote 12: For pathetic pictures of Japanese daily life, see Our +Neighborhood, by the late Dr. T.A. Purcell, Yokohama, 1874; A Japanese +Boy, by Himself (S. Shigémi), New Haven, 1889; Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses +of Unfamiliar Japan, Boston, 1894.] + +[Footnote 13: Klaproth's Annales, and S. and H. _passim_.] + +[Footnote 14: See Pfoundes's Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 130, for a list of +grades from Ho-ō or cloistered emperor, Miya or sons of emperors, +chief priests of sects, etc., down to priests in charge of inferior +temples. This Budget of Notes, pp. 99-144, contains much valuable +information, and was one of the first publications in English which shed +light upon the peculiarities of Japanese Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 15: Isaiah xl. 19, 20, and xli. 6, 7, read to the dweller in +Japan like the notes of a reporter taken yesterday.] + +[Footnote 16: T.J., p. 339; Notes on Some Minor Japanese Religious +Practices, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May, 1893; +Lowell's Esoteric Shintō, T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI.; Satow's The Shintō +Temples of Isé, T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 113.] + +[Footnote 17: M.E., p. 45; American Cyclopaedia, Japan, +Literature--History, Travels, Diaries, etc.] + +[Footnote 18: That is, no dialects like those which separate the people +of China. The ordinary folks of Satsuma and Suruga, for example, +however, would find it difficult to understand each other if only the +local speech were used. Men from the extremes of the Empire use the +Tōkiō standard language in communicating with each other.] + +[Footnote 19: For some names of Buddhist temples in Shimoda see Perry's +Narrative, pp. 470-474, described by Dr. S. Wells Williams; S. and H. +_passim_.] + +[Footnote 20: The Abbé Huc in his Travels in Tartary was one of the +first to note this fact. I have not noticed in my reading that the +Jesuit missionaries in Japan in the seventeenth century call attention +to the matter. See also the writings of Arthur Lillie, voluminous but +unconvincing, Buddha and Early Buddhism, and Buddhism and Christianity, +London, 1893.] + +[Footnote 21: M.E., p. 252.] + +[Footnote 22: T.J., p. 70.] + +[Footnote 23: See The Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene Creed, +Tōkiō, 1894, by Rev. A. Lloyd.] + +[Footnote 24: "I preach with ever the same voice, taking enlightenment +as my text. For this is equal for all; no partiality is in it, neither +hatred nor affection.... I am inexorable, bear no love or hatred towards +anyone, and proclaim the law to all creatures without distinction, to +the one as well as to the other."--Saddharma Pundarika.] + +[Footnote 25: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., p. 247.] + +[Footnote 26: For the symbolism of the lotus see M.E., p. 437; Unbeaten +Tracks in Japan, Vol. I., p. 299; M.E. index; and Saddharma Pundarika, +Kern's translation, p. 76, note: + +"Here the Buddha is represented as a wise and benevolent father; he is +the heavenly father, Brahma. As such ho was represented as sitting on a +'lotus-seat.' How common this representation was in India, at least in +the sixth century of our era, appears from Varâhamihira's +Brihat-Sainhita, Ch. 58, 44, where the following rule is laid down for +the Buddha idols: 'Buddha shall be (represented) sitting on a +lotus-seat, like the father of the world.'"] + +[Footnote 27: See The Northern Buddhist Mythology in _Journal of the +Royal Asiatic Society_, January, 1894.] + +[Footnote 28: See The Pictorial Arts of Japan, and Descriptive and +Historical Catalogue, William Anderson, pp. 13-94.] + +[Footnote 29: See fylfot in Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 30: The word _vagra_, diamond, is a constituent in scores of +names of sutras, especially those whose contents are metaphysical in +their nature. The Vajrasan, Diamond Throne or Thunderbolt seat, was the +name applied to the most sacred part of the great temple reared by Asoka +on the site of the bodhi tree, under which Gautama received +enlightenment. "The adamantine truths of Buddha struck like a +thunderbolt upon the superstitious of his age." "The word vagra has the +two senses of hardness and utility. In the former sense it is understood +to be compared to the secret truth which is always in existence and not +to be broken. In the latter sense it implies the power of the +enlightened, that destroys the obstacles of passions."--B.N., p. 88. "As +held in the arms of Kwannon and other images in the temples," the vagra +or "diamond club" (is that) with which the foes of the Buddhist Church +are to be crushed.--S. and H., p. 444. Each of the gateway gods Ni-ō +(two Kings, Indra and Brahma) "bears in his hand the tokko (Sanskrit +_vagra_), an ornament originally designed to represent a diamond club, +and now used by priests and exorcists, as a religious sceptre +symbolizing the irresistible power of prayer, meditation, and +incantation."--Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. 31.] + +[Footnote 31: Jizō is the compassionate helper of all in trouble, +especially of travellers, of mothers, and of children. His Sanskrit name +is Kshiugarbha. His idol is one of the most common in Japan. It is +usually neck-laced with baby's bibs, often by the score, while the +pedestal is heaped with small stones placed there by sorrowing +mothers.--S. and H., p. 29, 394; Chamberlain's Handbook of Japan, 29, +101. Hearn's Japan, p. 34, and _passim_.] + +[Footnote 32: Sanskrit _arhat_ or _arhan_, meaning worthy or deserving, +i.e., holy man, the highest rank of Buddhist saintship. See Century +Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 33: M.E., p. 201. The long inscription on the bell in +Wellesley College, which summons the student-maidens to their hourly +tasks has been translated by the author and Dr. K. Kurahara and is as +follows: + +1. A prose preface or historical statement. + +2. Two stanzas of Chinese poetry, in four-syllable lines, of four verses +each, with an apostrophe in two four-syllable lines. + +3. The chronology. + +4. The names of the composer and calligraphist, and of the +bronze-founder. + +The characters in vertical lines are read from top to bottom, the order +of the columns being from right to left. There are in all 117 +characters. + +The first tablet reads: + +Lotus-Lily Temple (of) Law-Grove Mountain; Bell-inscription (and) +Preface. + +"Although there had been of old a bell hung in the Temple of the +Lotus-Lily, yet being of small dimensions its note was quickly +exhausted, and no volume of melody followed (after having been struck). +Whereupon, for the purpose of improving upon this state of affairs, we +made a subscription, and collected coin to obtain a new bell. All +believers in the doctrine, gods as well as devils, contributed freely. +Thus the enterprise was soon consummated, and this inscription prepared, +to wit: + +"'The most exalted Buddha having pitiful compassion upon the people, +would, by means of this bell, instead of words, awaken them from earthly +illusions, and reveal the darkness of this world. + +"'Many of the living hearkening to its voice, and making confession, are +freed from the bondage of their sins, and forever released from their +disquieting desires. + +"'How great is (Buddha's) merit! Who can utter it? Without measure, +boundless!' + +"Eleventh year of the Era of the Foundation of Literature (and of the +male element) Wood (and of the zodiac sign) Dog; Autumn, seventh month, +fifteenth day (A.D. August 30,1814). + +"Composition and penmanship by Kaméda Koyé-sen. Cast by the artist +Sugiwara Kuninobu." + +(The poem in unrhymed metre.) + + Buddha in compassion tender + With this bell, instead of words, + Wakens souls from life's illusions, + Lightens this world's darkness drear. + + Many souls its sweet tones heeding, + From their chains of sin are freed; + All the mind's unrest is soothed, + Sinful yearnings are repressed. + + Oh how potent is his merit, + Without bounds in all the worlds! +] + +[Footnote 34: Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 129.] + +[Footnote 35: M.E., pp. 287-290, 513-514; Perry's Narrative, pp. 471, +472; Our Neighborhood, pp. 119-124. The following epitaphs are gathered +from various sources: + +"This stone marks the remains of the believer who never grows old." + +"The believing woman Yu-ning, Happy was the day of her departure." + +"Multitudes fill the graves." + +"Only by this vehicle--the coffin--can we enter Hades." + +"As the floating grass is blown by the gentle breeze, or the glancing +ripples of autumn disappear when the sun goes down, or as a ship returns +to her old shore--so is life. It is a vapor, a morning-tide." + +"Buddha himself wishes to hear the name of the deceased that he may +enter life." + +"He who has left humanity is now perfected by Buddha's name, as the +withered moss by the dew." + +"Life is like a candle in the wind." + +"The wise make our halls illustrious, and their monuments endure for +ages." + +"What permanency is there to the glory of the world? It goes from the +sight like hoar-frost in the sun." + +"If men wish to enter the joys of heavenly light, +Let them smell the fragrance of the law of Buddha." + +"Whoever wishes to have his merit reach even to the abode of demons, let +him, with us, and all living, become perfect in the doctrine."] + +[Footnote 36: Rev. C.B. Hawarth in the _New York Independent_, January +18, 1894.] + +[Footnote 37: In 781 the Buddhist monk Kéi-shun dedicated a chapel to +Jizo, on whom he conferred the epithet of Sho-gun or general, to suit +the warlike tastes of the Japanese people.--S. and H., p. 384. So also +Hachiman became the god of war because adopted as the patron deity of +the Genji warriors.--S. and H., p. 70.] + +[Footnote 38: Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 90.] + +[Footnote 39: Dixon's Japan, p. 41; S. and H., Japan, _passim_; Rein's +Japan; Story of the Nations, Japan, by David Murray, p. 201, note; +Dening's life of Toyotomi Hidéyoshi; M.E., Chapters XV., XVI., XX., +XXIII., XXIV.; Gazetteer of Echizen; Shiga's History of Nations, +Tōkiō, 1888, pp. 115, 118; T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII., pp. 94, 134, +143.] + +[Footnote 40: T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII., Hidéyoshi and the Satsuma Clan in +the Sixteenth Century, by J.H. Gubbins; The Times of Taikō, by R. +Brinkley, in _The Japan Times_.] + +[Footnote 41: The Copy of the Buddhist Tripitaka, or Northern +Collection, made by order of the Emperor, Wan-Li, in the sixteenth +century, when the Chinese capital (King) was changed from the South +(Nan) to the North (Pe), was reproduced in Japan in 1679 and again in +1681-83, and in over two thousand volumes, making a pile a hundred feet +high, was presented by the Japanese Government, through the Junior Prime +Minister, Mr. Tomomi Iwakura, to the Library of the India Office. See +Samuel Beal's The Buddhist Tripitaka, as it is known in China and Japan, +A Catalogue and Compendious Report, London, 1876. The library has been +rearranged by Mr. Bunyin Nanjio, who has published the result of his +labors, with Sanskrit equivalents of the titles and with notes of the +highest value.] + +[Footnote 42: "Neither country (China or Japan) has had the independence +and mental force to produce a literature of its own, and to add anything +but a chapter of decay to the history of this religion."--Professor +William D. Whitney, in review of Anecdota Oxoniensia, Buddhist Texts +from Japan, in _The Nation_, No. 875.] + +[Footnote 43: Education in Japan, A series of papers by the writer, +printed in _The Japan Mail_ of 1873-74, and reprinted in the educational +journals of the United Status. A digest of these papers is given in the +appendix of F.O. Adams's History of Japan; Life of Sir Harry Parkes, +Vol. II., pp. 305, 306.] + +[Footnote 44: Japan: in Literature, Folk-Lore, and Art, p. 77.] + +[Footnote 45: Japanese Education at the Philadelphia Exposition, New +York, 1876.] + +[Footnote 46: See Japanese Literature, by E.M. Satow, in The American +Cyclopædia.] + +[Footnote 47: The word bonze (Japanese _bon-so_ or _bozu_, Chinese +_fan-sung_) means an ordinary member of the congregation, just as the +Japanese term _bon-yo_ or _bon-zuko_ means common people or the ordinary +folks. The word came into European use from the Portuguese missionaries, +who heard the Japanese thus pronounce the Chinese term _fan_, which, as +_bon_, is applied to anything in the mass not out of the common.] + +[Footnote 48: See On the Early History of Printing in Japan, by E.M. +Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. X., Part L, p. 48; Part II., p. 252.] + +[Footnote 49: Japanese mediaeval monastery life has been ably pictured +in English fiction by a scholar of imagination and literary power, +withal a military critic and a veteran in Japanese lore. "The Times of +Taikō," in the defunct Japanese Times (1878), deserves reprint as a +book, being founded on Japanese historical and descriptive works. In Mr. +Edward's Greey's A Captive of Love, Boston, 1880, the idea of ingwa (the +effects in this life of the actions in a former state of existence), is +illustrated. See also S. and H., p. 29; T.J., p. 360.] + +[Footnote 50: It is curious that while the anti-Christian polemics of +the Japanese Buddhists have used the words of Jesus, "I came to send not +peace but a sword," Matt, x. 34, and "If any man ... hate not his father +and mother," etc., Luke xiv. 26, as a branding iron with which to stamp +the religion of Jesus as gross immorality and dangerous to the state, +they justify Gautama in his "renunciation" of marital and paternal +duties.] + +[Footnote 51: See Public Charity in Japan, Japan Mail, 1893; and The +Annual (Appleton's) Cyclopaedia for 1893.] + +[Footnote 52: I have some good reasons for making this suggestion. Yokoi +Héishiro had dwelt for some time in Fukui, a few rods away from the +house in which I lived, and the ideas he promulgated among the Echizen +clansmen in his lectures on Confucianism, were not only Christian in +spirit but, by their own statement, these ideas could not be found in +the texts of the Chinese sage or of his commentators. Although the +volume (edited by his son, Rev. J.F. Yokoi) of his Life and Letters +shows him to have been an intense and at times almost bigoted +Confucianist, he, in one of his later letters, prophesied that when +Christianity should be taught by the missionaries, it would win the +hearts of the young men of Japan. See also Satow's Kinsé Shiriaku, p. +183; Adams's History of Japan; and in fiction, see Honda The Samurai, p. +242, and succeeding chapters.] + +[Footnote 53: In the colorless and unsentimental language of government +publications, the Japanese edict of emancipation, issued to the local +authorities in October, 1871, ran as follows: "The designations of eta +and hinin are abolished. Those who bore them are to be added to the +general registers of the population and their social position and +methods of gaining a livelihood are to be identical with the rest of the +people. As they have been entitled to immunity from the land tax and +other burdens of immemorial custom, you will inquire how this may be +reformed and report to the Board of Finance." (Signed) Council of +State.] + +[Footnote 54: In English fiction, see The Eta Maiden and the Hatamoto, +in Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp. 210-245. Discussions as to +the origin of the Eta are to be found in Adams's History of Japan, Vol. +I, p. 77; M.E., index; T.J., p. 147; S. and H., p. 36; Honda the +Samurai, pp. 246, 247; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp. +210-245. The literature concerning the Ainos is already voluminous. See +Chamberlain's Aino Studies, with bibliography; and Rev. John Batchelor's +Ainu Grammar, published by The Imperial University of Tōkiō; +T.A.S.J., Vols. X., XL, XVI., XVIII., XX.; The Ainu of Japan, New York, +1892, by J. Batchelor (who has also translated the Book of Common +Prayer, and portions of the Bible into the Ainu tongue); M. E., Chap. +II.; T.A.S.J., Vol. X., and following volumes; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, +Vol. II.; Life with Trans-Siberian Savages, London, 1895.] + +[Footnote 55: "Then the venerable Sāriputra said to that daughter of +Sagara, the Nāga-king: 'Thou hast conceived the idea of +enlightenment, young lady of good family, without sliding back, and art +gifted with immense wisdom, but supreme, perfect enlightenment is not +easily won. It may happen, sister, that a woman displays an unflagging +energy, performs good works for many thousands of Aeons, and fulfils the +six perfect virtues (Pāramitās), but as yet there is no example of +her having reached Buddhaship, and that because a woman cannot occupy +the five ranks, viz., 1, the rank of Brahma; 2, the rank of Indra; 3, +the rank of a chief guardian of the four quarters; 4, the rank of +Kakravartin; 5, the rank of a Bodhisattva incapable of sliding back," +Saddharma Pundarika, Kern's Translation, p. 252.] + +[Footnote 56: Chiū-jō-himé was the first Japanese nun, and the +only woman who is commemorated by an idol. "She extracted the fibres of +the lotus root, and wove them with silk to make tapestry for altars." +Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 128. Her romantic and marvellous story is given in +S. and H., p. 397. "The practice of giving ranks to women was commenced +by Jito Tennō (an empress, 690-705)." Many women shaved their heads +and became nuns "on becoming widows, as well as on being forsaken by, or +after leaving their husbands. Others were orphans." One of the most +famous nuns (on account of her rank) was the Nii no Ama, widow of +Kiyomori and grandmother of the Emperor Antoku, who were both drowned +near Shimono-séki, in the great naval battle of 1185 A.D. Adams's +History of Japan, Vol. I., p. 37; M.E., p. 137.] + +[Footnote 57: M.E., p. 213; Japanese Women, World's Columbian +Exhibition, Chicago, 1893, Chap. III.] + +[Footnote 58: There is no passage in the original Greek texts, or in the +Revised Version of the New Testament which ascribes wings to the +_aggelos_, or angel. In Rev. xii. 14, a woman is "given two wings of a +great eagle."] + +[Footnote 59: Japanese Women in Politics, Chap. I., Japanese Women, +Chicago, 1893; Japanese Girls and Women, Chapters VI. and VII.] + +[Footnote 60: Bakin's novels are dominated by this idea, while also +preaching in fiction strict Confucianism. See A Captive of Love, by +Edward Greey.] + +[Footnote 61: "Fate is one of the great words of the East. _Japan's +language is loaded and overloaded with it._ Parents are forever saying +before their children, 'There's no help for it.' I once remarked to a +school-teacher, 'Of course you love to teach children.' His quick reply +was, 'Of course I don't. I do it merely because there is no help for +it.' Moralists here deplore the prosperity of the houses of ill-fame and +then add with a sigh, 'There's no help for it.' All society reverberates +with this phrase with reference to questions that need the application +of moral power, will power."--J.H. De Forest. + +"I do not say there is no will power in the East, for there is. Nor do I +say there is no weak yielding to fate in lands that have the doctrine of +the Creator, for there is. But, putting the East and West side by side, +one need not hesitate to affirm that the reason the will power of the +East is weak cannot be fully explained by any mere doctrine of +environment, but must also have some vital connection with the fact that +the idea of a personal almighty Creator has for long ages been wanting. +And one reason why western nations have an aggressive character that +ventures bold things and tends to defy difficulties cannot be wholly +laid to environment but must have something to do with the fact that +leads millions daily reverently to say 'I believe in the Almighty +Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth.'"--J.H. De Forest.] + + +STATISTICS OF BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. + + +(From The official "Résumé Statistique de l'Empire du Japon," +Tōkiō, 1894.) + +In 1891 there were 71,859 temples within city or town limits, and 35,959 +in the rural districts, or 117,718 in all, under the charges of 51,791 +principal priests and 720 principal priestesses, or 52,511 in all. + +The number of temples, classified by sects, were as follows: Tendai, +with 3 sub-sects, 4,808; Shingon, with 2 sub-sects, 12,821, of which 45 +belonged to the Hossō shu; Jō-do, with 2 sub-sects, 8,323, of +which 21 were of the Ké-gon shu; Zen, with 3 sub-sects, 20,882, of which +6,146 were of the Rin-Zai shu; 14,072 of the Sō-dō shu, and 604 of +the O-bakushu; Shin, with 10 sub-sects, 19,146; Nichiren, with 7 +sub-sects, 5,066; Ji shu, 515; Yu-dzū; Nembutsu, 358; total, 38 sects +and 71,859 temples. + +The official reports required by the government from the various sects, +show that there are 38 administrative heads of sects; 52,638 +priest-preachers and 44,123 ordinary priests or monks; and 8,668 male +and 328 female, or a total of 8,996, students for the grade of monk or +nun. In comparison with 1886, the number of priest-preachers was 39,261, +ordinary priests 38,189: male students, 21,966; female students, 642. + + +CHAPTER XI + +ROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. + + +[Footnote 1: See for a fine example of this, Mr. C. Meriwether's Life of +Daté Masamuné, T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., pp. 3-106. See also The Christianity +of Early Japan, by Koji Inaba, in The Japan Evangelist, Yokohama, +1893-94; Mr. E. Satow's papers in T.A.S.J.] + +[Footnote 2: See M.E., p. 280; Rein's Japan, p. 312; Shigétaka Shiga's +History of Nations, p. 139, quoting from M.E. (p. 258).] + +[Footnote 3: M.E., 195.] + +[Footnote 4: The Japan Mail of April and May, 1894, contains a +translation from the Japanese, with but little new matter, however, of a +work entitled Paul Anjiro.] + +[Footnote 5: The "Firando" of the old books. See Cock's Diary. It is +difficult at first to recognize the Japanese originals of some of the +names which figure in the writings of Charlevoix, Léon Pagés, and the +European missionaries, owing to their use of local pronunciation, and +their spelling, which seems peculiar. One of the brilliant +identifications of Mr. Ernest Satow, now H.B.M. Minister at Tangier, is +that of Kuroda in the "Kondera"' of the Jesuits.] + +[Footnote 6: See Mr. E.M. Matow's Vicissitudes of the Church at +Yamaguchi. T.A.S.J., Vol. VII., pp. 131-156.] + +[Footnote 7: Nobunaga was Nai Dai Jin, Inner (Junior) Prime Minister, +one in the triple premiership, peculiar to Korea and Old Japan, but was +never Shōgun, as some foreign writers have supposed.] + +[Footnote 8: See The Jesuit Mission Press in Japan, by E. Satow, +1591-1610 (privately printed, London, 1888). Review of the same by B.H. +Chamberlain, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., p. 91.] + +[Footnote 9: Histoire de l'Église, Vol. I, p. 490; Rein, p. 277. +Takayama is spoken of in the Jesuit Records as Jûsto Ucondono. A curious +book entitled Justo Ucondono, Prince of Japan, in which the writer, who +is "less attentive to points of style than to matters of faith," labors +to show that "the Bible alone" is "found wanting," and only the +"Teaching Church" is worthy of trust, was published in Baltimore, in +1854.] + +[Footnote 10: How Hidéyoshi made use of the Shin sect of Buddhists to +betray the Satsuma clansmen is graphically told in Mr. J.H. Gubbin's +paper, Hidéyoshi and the Satsuma Clan, T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII, pp. 124-128, +143.] + +[Footnote 11: Corea the Hermit Nation, Chaps. XII.-XXI., pp. 121-123; +Mr. W.G. Aston's Hidéyoshi's Invasion of Korea, T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., p. +227; IX, pp. 87, 213; XI., p. 117; Rev. G.H. Jones's The Japanese +Invasion, The Korean Repository, Seoul, 1892.] + +[Footnote 12: Brave Little Holland and What She Taught Us, Boston, 1893, +p. 247.] + +[Footnote 13: See picture and description of this temple--"fairly +typical of Japanese Buddhist architecture," Chamberlain's Handbook for +Japan, p. 26; G.A. Cobbold's, Religion in Japan, London, 1894, p. 72.] + +[Footnote 14: T.A.S.J., see Vol. VI., pp. 46, 51, for the text of the +edicts.] + +[Footnote 15: M.E., p. 262, Chamberlain's Handbook for Japan, p. 59.] + +[Footnote 16: The Origin of Spanish and Portuguese Rivalry in Japan, by +E.M. Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., p. 133.] + +[Footnote 17: See Chapter VIII., W.G. Dixon's Gleanings from Japan.] + +[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., pp. 48-50.] + +[Footnote 19: In the inscription upon the great bell, at the temple +containing the image of Dai Butsŭ or Great Buddha, reared by Hidéyori +and his mother, one sentence contained the phrase _Kokka anko, ka_ and +_ko_ being Chinese for _Iyé_ and _yasŭ_, which the Yedo ruler +professed to believe mockery. In another sentence, "On the East it +welcomes the bright moon, and on the West bids farewell to the setting +sun," Iyéyasŭ discovered treason. He considered himself the rising +sun, and Hidéyori the setting moon.--Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, +p. 300.] + +[Footnote 20: I have found the Astor Library in New York especially rich +in works of this sort.] + +[Footnote 21: Nitobé's United States and Japan, p. 13, note.] + +[Footnote 22: This insurrection has received literary treatment at the +hands of the Japanese in Shimabara, translated in The Far East for 1872; +Woolley's Historical Notes on Nagasaki, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 125; +Koeckebakker and the Arima Rebellion, by Dr. A.J.C. Geerts, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XI., 51; Inscriptions on Shimabara and Amakusa, by Henry Stout, +T.A.S.J., Vol. VII, p. 185.] + +[Footnote 23: "Persecution extirpated Christianity from Japan."--History +of Rationalism, Vol. II, p. 15.] + +[Footnote 24: T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., Part I., p. 62; M.E. pp. 531, 573.] + +[Footnote 25: Political, despite the attempt of many earnest members of +the order to check this tendency to intermeddle in politics; see Dr. +Murray's Japan, p. 245, note, 246.] + +[Footnote 26: See abundant illustration in Léon Pagés' Histoire de la +Religion Chrétienne en Japon, a book which the author read while in +Japan amid the scenes described.] + +[Footnote 27: _The Japan Evangelist_, Vol. I., No. 2, p. 96.] + + +CHAPTER XII + +TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE + + +[Footnote 1: See Diary of Richard Cocks, and Introduction by R.M. +Thompson, Hakluyt Publications, 1883.] + +[Footnote 2: For the extent of Japanese influence abroad, see M.E., p. +246; Rein, Nitobe, and Hildreth; Modern Japanese Adventurers, T.A.S.J., +Vol. VII., p. 191; The Intercourse between Japan and Siam in the +Seventeenth Century, by E.M. Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 139; Voyage +of the Dutch Ship Grol, T.A.S.J., Vol. XI., p. 180.] + +[Footnote 3: The United States and Japan, p. 16.] + +[Footnote 4: See Professor J.H. Wigmore's elaborate work, Materials for +the Study of Private Law in Old Japan, T.A.S.J., Tōkiō, 1892.] + +[Footnote 5: See the Legacy of Iyéyasŭ, by John Frederic Lowder, +Yokohama, 1874, with criticisms and discussions by E.M. Satow and others +in the _Japan Mail_; Dixon's Japan, Chapter VII.; Professor W.E. +Grigsby, in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Part II., p. 131, gives another +version, with analysis, notes, and comments; Rein's Japan, pp. 314, +315.] + +[Footnote 6: Old Japan in the days of its inclusiveness was a secret +society on a vast scale, with every variety and degree of selfishness, +mystery, secrecy, close-corporationism, and tomfoolery. See article +Esotericism in T.J., p. 143.] + +[Footnote 7: Since the abolition of feudalism, with the increase of the +means of transportation, the larger freedom, and, at many points, +improved morality, the population of Japan shows an unprecedented rate +of increase. The census taken in 1744 gave, as the total number of souls +in the empire, 26,080,000 (E.J. Reed's Japan, Vol. I., p. 236); that of +1872, 33,110,825; that of 1892, 41,089,910, showing a greater increase +during the past twenty years than in the one hundred and thirty-eight +years previous. See Résumé Statistique de l'Empire du Japon, +Tōkiō, 1894; Professor Garrett Droppers' paper on The Population +of Japan during the Tokugawa Period, read June 27th, 1894; T.A.S.J., +Vol. XXII.] + +[Footnote 8: For the notable instance of Pere Sidotti, see M.E, p. 63; +Séi Yō Ki Buu, by S.R. Brown, D.D., a translation of Arai Hakuséki's +narrative, Yedo, 1710, T.N.C.A.S.; Capture and Captivity of Pere +Sidotti, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 156; Christian Valley, T.A.S.J., Vol. +XVI., p. 207.] + +[Footnote 9: T.A.S.J., Vol. I., p. 78, Vol. VII., p. 323.] + +[Footnote 10: See Matthew Calbraith Perry, Boston, 1887.] + +[Footnote 11: See the author's Townsend Harris, First American Minister +to Japan, _The Atlantic Monthly_, August, 1891.] + +[Footnote 12: See Honda the Samurai, Boston, 1890; Nitobe's United +States and Japan; The Japan Mail _passim_; Dr. G.F. Verbeck's History of +Protestant Missions in Japan, Yokohama, 1883; Dr. George Wm. Knox's +papers on Japanese Philosophy, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. l58, etc. Recent +Japanese literature, of which the writer has a small shelf-full, +biographies, biographical dictionaries, the histories of New Japan, Life +of Yoshida Shoin, and recent issues of The Nation's Friend (Kokumin no +Tomo), are very rich on this fascinating subject.] + +[Footnote 13: A typical instance was that of Rin Shihei, born 1737, +author of _Sun Koku Tsu Ran to Setsu_, translated into French by +Klaproth, Paris, 1832. Rin learned much from the Dutch and Prussians, +and wrote books which had a great sale. He was cast into prison, whence +he never emerged. The (wooden) plates of his publications were +confiscated and destroyed. In 1876, the Mikado visited his grave in +Sendai, and ordered a monument erected to the honor of this far-seeing +patriot.] + +[Footnote 14: Rein, pp. 336, 337] + +[Footnote 15: Rein, p. 339; The Early Study of Dutch in Japan, by K. +Mitsukuri, T.A.S.J., Vol. V., p. 209; History of the Progress of +Medicine in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. XII., p. 245; Vijf Jaren in Japan, +J.L.C. Pompe van Meerdervoort, 2d Ed., Leyden, 1808.] + +[Footnote 16: Honda the Samurai, pp. 249-251; Nitobé, 25-27.] + +[Footnote 17: The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, by Professor E. W. Clement, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII, p. 14; Nitobé's United States and Japan, p. 25, +note.] + +[Footnote 18: M.E. (6 Ed.), p. 608; Adams's History of Japan, Vol. II., +p. 171.] + +[Footnote 19: See the text of the anti-Christian edicts, M.E., p. 369.] + +[Footnote 20: T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 17.] + +[Footnote 21: T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 134.] + +[Footnote 22: Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 125; A Japanese Buddhist +Preacher, by Professor M.K. Shimomura, in the New York Independent; +other sermons have been printed in The Japan Mail; Kino Dowa, two +sermons and vocabulary, has been edited by Rev. C.S. Eby, Yokohama.] + +[Footnote 23: On Sunday, November 29, 1857, Mr. Harris, resting at +Kawasaki, over Sunday, on his way to Yedo and audience of the Shōgun, +having Mr. Heusken as his audience and fellow-worshipper, read service +from the Book of Common Prayer.] + +[Footnote 24: See a paper written by the author and read at the World's +Columbian Exhibition Congress of Missions, Chicago, September, 1893, on +The Citizen Rights of Missionaries.] + +[Footnote 25: This embassy was planned and first proposed to the Junior +premier, Tomomi Iwakura, and the route arranged by the Rev. Guido F. +Verbeck, then President of the Imperial University. One half of the +members of the embassy had been Dr. Verbeck's pupils at Nagasaki.] + +[Footnote 26: A somewhat voluminous native Japanese literature is the +result of the various embassies and individual pilgrimages abroad, since +1860. Immeasurably superior to all other publications, in the practical +influence over his fellow-countrymen, is the Séiyo Jijo (The Condition +of Western Countries) by Fukuzawa, author, educator, editor, decliner of +numerously proffered political offices, and "the intellectual father of +one-half of the young men who now fill the middle and lower posts in the +government of Japan." For the foreign side, see The Japanese in America, +by Charles Lanman, New York, 1872, and in The Life of Sir Harry Parkes, +London, 1894, and for an amusing piece of literary ventriloquism, +Japanese Letters, Eastern Impressions of Western Men and Manners, London +and New York, 1891. + +See History of Protestant Missions in Japan, by G. F. Verbeck, Yokohama, +1893.] + + + +INDEX + +Abbess, 318. +Abbots, 312. +Abdication, 214. +Aborigines, 9, 38, 43, 77-79, 177. +Adams, Will, 334, 340. +Adi-Buddha, 174. +Adoption, 122, 126. +Adultery, 149. +Aidzu, 119. +Ainos, 2, 9, 16, 73, 177, 317, 379. +Akamatsu, Rev. Renjo, 425. +Akéchi, 332. +Alphabets, 199, 200. +Altaic, 39, 389. +Amalgam of religions, 11, 13. +Amatérasŭ, see Sun-goddess. +American relations, 11, 12, 157. +Amidaism, 276, 303. +Anabaptists, 162. +Analects, 128. +Ancestral worship, 106. +Anderson, Dr. Win, 435. +Angels, 304. +Animism, 15-17. +Anjiro, 329. +Apostolical succession, 262. +Arabian Nights, 192, 201. +Architecture, 82, 84, 210, 298-300. +Art, 68, 1l4, 195-197, 297, 298, 303-305, 314, 356. +Aryan Conquest of India, 44, 156, 157, 177, 207. +Asanga, 175, 205. +Assassination, 367. +Asoka, 165. +Aston, Mr. Wm. G., 360, 386, 387. +Atheism, 163, 164. +Atkinson, Rev, J.L., 410. +Avalokitesvara, 170, 171, 179. +Avatars, 201, 208, 221, 247, 269, 295. + +Babism, 166. +Bakin, 444. +Bangor Theological Seminary, 378. +Batchelor, Rev. John, 317. +Beal, Rev. Samuel, 8. +Beauty, 207. +Beggars, 208. +Bells, 307, 308. +Benten, 204, 207, 218. +Bible, 27, 104, 364, 386. +Binzuru, 237. +Birth, 84. +Bishamon, 218. +Bodhidharma, see Daruma. +Bodhisattva, 169, 204, 234. +Bonzes, 310. +Bosatsu, 170, 204; see Bodhsattva. +Brahma, 247. +Brahmanism, 163, 185, 186, 218. +Brothers, 125, 126. +Buddha. Amida, see Amidaism. + the Buddha, 101, 103, 161, 162. + Gautama, 155, 161-164. + Shakyamuni, 160. + Siddartha, 410. + Tathagata, 259. + Tathata, 243. +Bunyin Nanjio, Rev., 231, 425. +Buddhism, 42, 74, 76, 106, 133, 136, 137, 140, 185, 186, 227, 231. +Buddhist, 165, 166, 183, 214, 229, 252. + +Cannibalism, 74. +Canon, Chinese, 103; Shintō, 39-41. +Capitals of Japan, 182, 183, 296. +Celibacy, 272. +Cemeteries, 308. +Chair of Contemplation, 252. +Chamberlain, Prof. B. Hall, 39, 324, 388. +Chastity, 68, 124, 149, 320. +Cheng Brothers, 138, 139. +China, 134, 199, 215, 328, 355. +Chinese, 83, 134; Buddhism, 232. +Christianity and Buddhism, 166, 183, 185, 187, 195, 217, 218, 265, 270, + 300-302, 306, 315, 319. +Chronology, 41, 370, 387. +Chu Hi, 11, 108, 139, 143, 144, 356. +Cleanliness, 84, 97. +Clement, Prof. E.M., 407. +Cobra-de-capello, 21. +Cocks, Mr. Richard, 380. +Columbus, 328. +Comparative religion, 4-6. +Confucius, 100-106. +Confucianism, 74, 107, 213. +Concubinage, 149. +Constitution of 1889, 96, 122. +Corea, see Korea. +Courtship, 124. +Creator, 145, 285. +Cremation, 182. +Crucifixion, 115, 368. + +Dai Butsu, 203. +Daikoku, 218. +Dai Miō Jin, 190, 204, 206, 230. +Daruma, 186, 208, 254. +Davids, T. Rhys, 155, 172. +Death, 84. +De Brosses, 23. +De Forest, Rev. J.H., 226. +Demoniacal possession, 281. +Déshima, 354, 358, 362-365. +Dharari, 199. +Dharma, see Daruma, 186. +Dhyana Buddhas and Sect, 172, 252, 254. +Diet, 293, 294. +Divorce, 125, 149. +Dō-sen, 236. +Dō-shō, 181. +Dragon, 20, 21, 74, 115, 198, 242. +Dutch, 90, 336, 340, 353, 354, 358, 360, 362, 363-365, 366. +Dutt, Mr. Romesh Chunder, 161. + +Ebisu, 218. +Ecclesiastes, 214. +Echizen, 312. +Edicts against Christianity, 335, 336, 342. +Edkins, Dr. J., 249. +Education, 313, 320. +Embassy round the world, 373. +Emperor, 148. +Emura, Rev. Shu-zan, 232. +England, 37. +Eta, 115, 150, 275, 316, 317, 367. +Ethics, 92, 94. +Euhemerus, 192, 193, 197, 201. +Eurasians, 344. +Evil, 58, 78. +Evolution, 62. +Ezekiel, 36. +Ezra, 102. + +Family Life, 122, 125-127. +Female divinities, 66, 305, 319. +Fetichism, 22-27. +Feudalism, 10, 108-110. +Filial piety, 123, 149, 213. +Fire-drill, 55, 56. +Fire, God of, 53. +Fire-myths, 53. +Five Relations, 105, 114, 148-150. +Flags, 26. +Flood, 53. +Flowers, 58. +Forty-seven Rōnins, 118, 119. +Franciscans, 336, 337. +Friends, 127. +Fudo, 279. +Fuji Mountain, 400. +Fujishima, Rev. Ryauon, 231. +Fukuda, Rev. Gyo-kai, 425. +Fukui, 23. +Fuku-roku-jin, 218. + +Gardens, 237, 294, 295. +Gautama, 158, 161, 164. +Genji Monogatari, 149. +Genjō, 181, 232, 233, 238, 239. +Germanic nations, 10, 44. +Ghosts, 206. +Giyoku, 183. +Gnostics, 193, 195. +God-possession, 201. +Gold, 184, 196, 210, 291. +Golden Rule, 128. +Gongen, 204, 205, 220. +Gore, Mr. T., 7, 384. +Graveyards, 308, 368. +Greater Vehicle, 165, 170, 240, 244. +Gubbins, Mr. J.H., 403, 447. + +Hachiman, 204. +Hades, 53, 64. +Hara-kiri, 112, 121, 339. +Harris, Mr. Townsend, 145, 352, 360, 370, 371. +Hayashi, 129. +Heathen, 13, 30. +Heaven, 62, 63, 70, 81, 105, 112, 118, 144. +Hepburn, Dr. J.C., 372. +Hidéyori, 340, 342. +Hidéyoshi, 313, 333, 338. +Hindu history, 156. +Hi-nin, 115, 150. +Hinayana, 165, 167, 169, 228, 232, 238. +Hiouen Thsang, see Genjō. +Hiraii, 2. +Hirata, 86. +History of China, intellectual, 137. + of Japan, intellectual, 230. + of Japan, political, 10, 37, 44, 219. + of Japan, religious, 227, 228. +Hitomarō, 60. +Hiyéisan, 16, 297. +Hodge, 102. +Hodgson, Mr. Brian H., 411, 414. +Hokké-Kiō, see Saddharma Pundarika. +Hokusai, 314. +Holland, 338. +Hōnen, 261, 264. +Hō-ō, 184, 237. +Hospitals, 216, 315. +Hossō-Shu, 238, 239. +Hotéi, 218. +Hotoké, 202, 269. + +Idols, 175, 207, 216. +Idzumo, 44, 65. +Ikkō, 273. +Inari, 190. +Indra, 163, 247. +Ingwa, 217, 302, 321; see Karma. +Inquisition, 347, 348, 368. +Insurance by fetich, 24, 25. +Isaiah, 100. +Isé, 28, 184, 201. +Iyéyasŭ, 91, 100, 132, 134, 204, 205, 338, 342, 357, 358. +Izanagi and Izanami, 52, 63, 64, 207, 218. + +Jade, 292. +Jains, 166. +Japan, area, 9. + Census, 9. + Ethnology, 43, 44. + Geography, 9, 43, 44. + Government, 40. + History, 10, 37, 44, 109. + Origins, 43. + Population, 8, 9. + Various names of, 73. +Japanese Bride, The, 125, 149. +Japanese characteristics, 112, 285, 361. + Language, 113, 116, 135. + Writing, 200. +Jataka tales, 169. +Jealousy, 124. +Jesuits, 247, 329, 337, 341, 342. +Jesus, 76, 97, 100, 117. +Jimmu Tennō, 389, +Jin Gi Kuan, 49, 94, 390-392. +Jizo, 247, 305. +Jō dō sect, 250, 275. +John, 2, 60. +Jō-jitsu sect, 181, 235. +Joss, 23. +Jun-shi, 68, 76, 119. +Ju-rŭ-jin, 218. + +Kaburagi, 36, 60. +Kada Adzumarō, 91. +Kamui, 30. +Kami-dana, 86, 88, 295. +Kamui, 30. +Kana, 199, 200, 274. +Kanda, Dai Miō-Jin, 205. +Karma, 162, 169, 186, 234, 258. +Kato Kyomasa, 278, 334, 339. +Ké-gon sect, 242-244. +Kéichu, 91. +Kern, Prof. H., 155, 239. +Kiōto, 183, 296, 330, 336. +Kirin, 19. +Kishimoto, Mr. Nobuta., 11. +Kiushiu, 339. +Kiyomori, 120. +Knos, Dr. George Wm., 182, 228, 288, 385. +Kobayashi, Rev. Zé-jun, 425. +Kōbō, 89, 197, 205, 248, 250. +Kojiki, 29, 32, 40, 41, 52, 74, 82-90, 149, 195, 197. +Ko-ken, Empress, 310. +Kompira, 204. +Konishi, 334, 335. +Korea, 9, 21, 26, 40, 41, 74, 106, 107, 168, 179, 180, 292, 310, 328, + 332, 333, 334, 355, 368. +Kosatsu, 368. +Ku-ya, 198. +Kumi, Prof., 76-82. +Kun-shin, 111, 113, 116, 117, 213. +Ku-sha sutra, 232, 233. +Kwannon, 181, 207, 247, 319. +Kyūso, 132, 144. + +Lamaism, 107. +Language of China, 237. + of England, 295. + of Holland, 364, 365. + of Japan, 39, 113, 116, 134, 265, 295, 299, 364. + of Korea, 116. +Lao Tsze, 102, 144, 218. +Laws of Japan, 358. +Lecky, Mr., 344. +Legendre, Gen., 385, 389. +Legge, Dr. J., 100, 378. +Libraries, 253, 327. +Lingam, see Phallicism. +Literature, 39, 100, 141, 156, 159, 216, 252, 313, 318, 369. +Liturgy, see Norito. +Lloyd, Rev. A., 258. +Loo-choo, see Rin Kin. +Lotus, 434, 435, 437. +Love, 117, 118. +Lowell, Mr. Percival, 397, 423. +Loyalty, see Kun-shin. +Luther, 271. +Lyman, Prof. B.S., 383. + +Mabuchi, 90, 91. +MacDonald, Rev. James, 8. +Magatama, 68, 292. +Mahayana, 105; see Greater Vehicle. +Maitreya, 169, 170, 218, 236, 244. +Malays, 9, 43. +Mandala, 203. +Munjusri, 170, 171, 179, 262. +Mantra, 248. +Manyū-shu, 39, 40. +Marco Polo, 42. +Mark, 60. +Marriage, 123, 126, 149. +Martyrs, 337, 344, 359, 360, 362, 366-369. +Masakado, 209. +Matsugami, 209. +Matsuri, 28. +Meiji Era, 112, 116, 256. +Mencius, 106, 112, 137. +Mendez, Pinto, 42. +Mexico, 349. +Mikado, 44, 45, 76, 92, 95, 96, 114, 117, 184, 191, 201. +Mikadoism, 45-49, 74-82, 184, 202. +Military monks, 247. +Minamoto, 271. +Ming dynasty, 134. +Mioken, 279. +Miracles, 216, 267. +Mirror, 83. +Missionary training, 6-8. +Mito, 111, 134, 143, 366. +Miya, 82-84, 209. +Monasteries, 162, 165, 298, 311, 312. +Monotheism, 15, 81, 103, 104, 145, 174, 187. +Morse lectureship, 4. +Morse, Prof E.S., 377. +Motoöri, 80, 91, 290. +Mozoomdar, 411, 420. +Müller, Prof. Max, 211. +Munzinger, Rev. C., 403. +Murray, Dr. David, 402. +Mutsuhito, 60, 316. + +Nagasaki, 332, 337, 343, 344, 358, 362. +Nakatomi, 48. +Names, 127, 202, 265. +Names of Japan, 73, 82. +Namu-Amida-Butsu, 259, 261. +Nanjio Bunyin, 231. +Nara, 182, 237, 243, 296. +Nehan, see Nirvana. +Nepal, 167, 168, 171. +New Buddhism, 284, 285. +Nichiren, 277, 278. + Sect, 277-280, 334, 339. +Nihilism, 236, 240, 241. +Nihongi, 41, 56, 62. +Nikkō, 185, 263. +Nirvana, 162, 163, 186, 200, 302, 303. +Nitobé, Mr. Inazo, 352, 360. +Nobunaga, 312, 331, 332. +Norito, 38, 47-49, 54, 55-58, 79, 80, 96. +Northern Buddhism, 165. + +Obaku sect, 283. +Offerings, 57. +Ogurusu, Rev. Ku-chō, 214. +Obashi Junzo, 145. +Ojin, 204. +Onna-ishi, see Phallicism. +Original prayer, 271. +Original vow, 273, 312. +Orphan asylums, 216. +Osaka, 130, 312, 368. + +Pagés, Mr. Leon, 449. +Pagodas, 203. +Pantheism, 31, 142, 143, 187, 219, 243. +Paradise, 210, 229, 259, 261, 280. +Parliament of Religions, 5, 39, 72, 283. +Peking, 105. +Perry, Commodore M.C., 129, 316, 352, 360, 364, 365. +Persecutions, 93, 343. +Persian elements, 195, 202, 304. +Personality, 116. +Pessimism, 214. +Phallicism, 29-30, 49-53, 88, 380-384. +Philo, 192, 197, 201. +Phoenix, 19, 20. +Pilgrimages, 298, 290. +Pindola, see Binzuru. +Poetry, 223; see Manyūshu. +Politeness, 74, 241. +Popular customs, 192. +Population, 8, 9, 177, 291, 359. +Popular movement in China, 138. +Portuguese, 344, 345, 347. +Pratyekas, 234. +Prayers, 86-88. +Prayer-wheels, 175. +Printing, 133, 134, 200. +Prometheus, 53. +Protestantism, 155, 162, 252, 274. +Pronouns, 116. +Proverbs, 28, 179, 226, 270, 307, 332, 352, 389. +Psychology of the Japanese, 230, 241. +Pure Land of Bliss, 198, 263-265. +Purification of 1870, 206, 210, 213, 222, 248, 360. +Pyrronism, 240. + +Rai Sanyo, 143. +Rakan, 305. +"Reformed" Buddhism, 270, 274-277. +Rennyō Shō-nin, 258. +Revision of Confucianism, 148-152. +Revival of pure Shintō, 91-96. +Revolving libraries, 253. +Ris-shu, 236-238. +Rituals, see Norito. +Riu Kiu, 9, 109. +Riyōbu, 89, 191, 203, 209, 211, 212, 223. +Rosaries, 266. + +Saddharma Pundarika, 170, 229, 246, 280, 304. +Sado, 341. +Salt, 85. +Samurai, 110, 119, 146, 151, 152. +San Kai Ri, 211. +Sanron sect, 182, 240. +Sanskrit, 25, 182, 200, 210, 245, 249. +Saratashi, 218. +Satow, Mr. Ernest, 39, 47, 386. +Satsuma, 313. +Schools of Philosophy: + Chinese, 136-139. + Indian, 159-164, 232. + Japanese, 356-358, 369. +Sekigaharu, 338. +Sendai, 119. +Seppuku, see Hara-kiri. +Serpent-worship, 30-33, 278, 279, 385. +Seven Gods of Good Fortune, 217, 218. +Shaka, 160, 161, 179, 254. +Shakyamuni, see Shaka. +Shaminism, 15-17. +Shang-Ti, 103, 104. +Shari, 182. +Shastra and Sutra, 231. +Shichimen, 278. +Shigomori, 120. +Shimabara, 344. +Shingaku movement, 369, 370. +Shingon sect, 185, 203, 248-251. +Shinran, 271-274. +Shin sect, 270-276, 317. +Shintō, 38, 42, 76, 89, 96, 97, 142, 184, 195, 214, 319. +Sin, 285, 288. +Shō-gun, 110, 115, 143. +Shomon, 236. +Shōtoku, 180, 181, 208, 236, 313. +Siddartha, 410. +Soga no Inamé, 180. +Soshi, 95, 278. +Southern Buddhism, 165, 167. +Spaniards, 336, 337, 340, 347. +Stars, 92. +Statistics of Buddhism, 309. + of Shintō, 400, 401. +Sugawara Michizané, 204. +Suicide, 112, 118-121, 147, 151. +Suiko, 180. +Sung dynasty, 414, 437. +Sun-goddess, 66, 104, 201, 203. +Sun-worship, 46, 47, 82, 87. +Swastika, 305. +Swords, 7, 378. +Syle, Rev. E.W., 36. +Syncretism, 191-194, 205. +Synergism, 268, 271, 272. +Szma Kwang, 138. + +Taikō, see Hidéyoshi. +Takahashi, Mr. Gorō, 384. +Takashi, Rev. Dai-Ryo, 238. +Takétori Monogatari, 423. +Tantra system, 194. +Taōism, 106, 215, 218. +Tathagata, 259. +Tathata, 243, 246. +Taylor, Bayard, 380. +Tea plant, 208. +Téi-Shn philosophy, 139, 145. +Temples, 83, 93, 209, 305-309. +Ten, 144. +Tendai sect, 185, 244-248, 268. +Tenjin, 204. +Tennō, 184. +Tenshi, 184. +Terence, 128. +Theism, 172. +Theological seminaries, 6-8. +Tibet, 165, 167, 170. +Tobacco, 209. +Tokugawas, 141, 143, 356, 365. +Torii, 84, 210. +Tortoise, 19. +Transmigration of souls, 315. +Tree-worship, 30, 31. +Triads, 171, 255, 279. +Trinity, 428. +Tripitaka, 160, 170, 231. +Tsuji, Rev. Ken-ko, 425. +Tsukushi, 44. +Tsushima, 44. +Tycoon, see Shō-gun. + +Uéda, Rev. Sho-Hen, 425. +Upanishads, 156, 161, 162. +Ushi toki mairi, 31. +Uzumé, 68. + +Vagra, 305. +Vagrabodhi, 248, 249. +Vairokana, 184, 244, 250. +Vedas, 156, 158, 159, 160, 162. +Vehicles, the three, 234, 235; see also Hinayana and Mahayana. +Victims, 74. + +Washington, 114. +Western Paradise, 277. +Wheel of the law, 302. +Whitney, Prof. W.D., 211, 277. +William the Silent, 114. +Woman, 123, 149, 275, 318-320. + +Xavier, 324, 329, 330, 345, 346, 347. + +Yamato, 44, 76, 87, 91, 109, 177, 179. + Damashii, 44, 147, 151, 152, 172. +Yamato-Tosa art, 114, +Yedo, 110, 115, 119, 141, 220, 238, 340, 360, 366. +Yen Sect, 252-256. +Yezo, 43, 317. +Yoga, 157, 197, 199, 201, 209, 211. +Yoga-chara, 194, 203, 249. +Yokoi Héishiro, 112, 316, 366, 367. +Yori, see Phallicism. +Yoshida Shoin, 147. +Yoshiwara system, 404. + +Zendō, 261-262, 267. +Zenkōji, 179, 181. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Religions of Japan, by William Elliot Griffis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN *** + +***** This file should be named 15516-0.txt or 15516-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/1/15516/ + +Produced by Nathan Strom, Frank van Drogen, David King, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/15516-0.zip b/15516-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f6d7e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/15516-0.zip diff --git a/15516-h.zip b/15516-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a5d58f --- /dev/null +++ b/15516-h.zip diff --git a/15516-h/15516-h.htm b/15516-h/15516-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6232ced --- /dev/null +++ b/15516-h/15516-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14422 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content= +"HTML Tidy for Windows (vers 1st March 2004), see www.w3.org" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> +<title>The Religions of Japan</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + + .note, .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; + text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 6em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 8em;} + .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 10em;} + + span.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; + font-size: 8pt;} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Religions of Japan, by William Elliot Griffis + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Religions of Japan + From the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji + +Author: William Elliot Griffis + +Release Date: March 31, 2005 [EBook #15516] +[Most recently updated: May 22, 2023] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN *** + + + + +Produced by Nathan Strom, Frank van Drogen, David King, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY TO THE ERA OF +MEIJI</h1> +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D.</h2> +<h3>FORMERLY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO; AUTHOR OF "THE +MIKADO'S EMPIRE" AND "COREA, THE HERMIT NATION;" LATE LECTURER ON +THE MORSE FOUNDATION IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN NEW YORK</h3> +<h3>"I came not to destroy, but to fulfil."—THE SON OF +MAN</h3> +<h3>NEW YORK</h3> +<h3>CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</h3> +<h3>1895</h3> +<h3>COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</h3> +<h3>TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY NEW YORK</h3> +<center>IN GLAD RECOGNITION OF THEIR SERVICES TO THE WORLD<br /> +AND<br /> +IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY OWN GREAT DEBT TO BOTH<br /> +I DEDICATE THIS BOOK<br /> +SO UNWORTHY OF ITS GREAT SUBJECT<br /> +TO<br /> +THOSE TWO NOBLE BANDS OF SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH<br /> +THE FACULTY OF UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY<br /> +OF WHOM<br /> +CHARLES A. BRIGGS AND GEORGE L. PRENTISS<br /> +ARE THE HONORED SURVIVORS<br /> +AND TO<br /> +THAT TRIO OF ENGLISH STUDENTS<br /> +ERNEST M. SATOW, WILLIAM G. ASTON AND BASIL H. CHAMBERLAIN<br /> +WHO LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP IN JAPAN<br /> +<br /> +"IN UNCONSCIOUS BROTHERHOOD, BINDING THE SELF-SAME SHEAF"</center> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<p>This book makes no pretence of furnishing a mirror of +contemporary Japanese religion. Since 1868, Japan has been breaking +the chains of her intellectual bondage to China and India, and the +end is not yet. My purpose has been, not to take a snap-shot +photograph, but to paint a picture of the past. Seen in a +lightning-flash, even a tempest-shaken tree appears motionless. A +study of the same organism from acorn to seed-bearing oak, reveals +not a phase but a life. It is something like this—"<i>to</i> +the era of Meiji" (A.D. 1868-1894+) which I have essayed. Hence I +am perfectly willing to accept, in advance, the verdict of smart +inventors who are all ready to patent a brand-new religion for +Japan, that my presentation is "antiquated."</p> +<p>The subject has always been fascinating, despite its inherent +difficulties and the author's personal limitations. When in 1807, +the polite lads from Satsuma and Kiōto came to New Brunswick, +N.J., they found at least one eager questioner, a sophomore, who, +while valuing books, enjoyed at first hand contemporaneous human +testimony.</p> +<p>When in 1869, to Rutgers College, came an application through +Rev. Dr. Guido F. Verbeck, of Tōkiō, from Fukui for a young +man to organize schools upon the American principle in the province +of Echizen (ultra-Buddhistic, yet already so liberally leavened by +the ethical teachings of Yokoi Héishiro), the Faculty made +choice of the author. Accepting the honor and privilege of being +one of the "beginners of a better time," I caught sight of peerless +Fuji and set foot on Japanese soil December 29, 1870. Amid a +cannonade of new sensations and fresh surprises, my first walk was +taken in company with the American missionary (once a marine in +Perry's squadron, who later invented the jin-riki-sha), to see a +hill-temple and to study the wayside shrines around Yokohama. Seven +weeks' stay in the city of Yedo—then rising out of the +débris of feudalism to become the Imperial capital, +Tōkiō, enabled me to see some things now so utterly vanished, +that by some persons their previous existence is questioned. One of +the most interesting characters I met personally was Fukuzawa, the +reformer, and now "the intellectual father of half of the young men +of ... Japan." On the day of the battle of Uyéno, July 11, +1868, this far-seeing patriot and inquiring spirit deliberately +decided to keep out of the strife, and with four companions of like +mind, began the study of Wayland's Moral Science. Thus were laid +the foundations of his great school, now a university.</p> +<p>Journeying through the interior, I saw many interesting +phenomena of popular religions which are no longer visible. At +Fukui in Echizen, one of the strongholds of Buddhism, I lived +nearly a year, engaged in educational work, having many +opportunities of learning both the scholastic and the popular forms +of Shintō and of Buddhism. I was surrounded by monasteries, +temples, shrines, and a landscape richly embroidered with myth and +legend. During my four years' residence and travel in the Empire, I +perceived that in all things the people of Japan were <i>too</i> +religious.</p> +<p>In seeking light upon the meaning of what I saw before me and in +penetrating to the reasons behind the phenomena, I fear I often +made myself troublesome to both priests and lay folk. While at work +in Tōkiō, though under obligation to teach only physical +science, I voluntarily gave instruction in ethics to classes in the +University. I richly enjoyed this work, which, by questioning and +discussion, gave me much insight into the minds of young men whose +homes were in every province of the Empire. In my own house I felt +free to teach to all comers the religion of Jesus, his revelation +of the fatherhood of God and the ethics based on his life and +words. While, therefore, in studying the subject, I have great +indebtedness to acknowledge to foreigners, I feel that first of all +I must thank the natives who taught me so much both by precept and +practice. Among the influences that have helped to shape my own +creed and inspire my own life, have been the beautiful lives and +noble characters of Japanese officers, students and common people +who were around and before me. Though freely confessing obligation +to books, writings, and artistic and scholastic influences, I +hasten first to thank the people of Japan, whether servants, +superior officers, neighbors or friends. He who seeks to learn what +religion is from books only, will learn but half.</p> +<p>Gladly thanking those, who, directly or indirectly, have helped +me with light from the written or printed page, I must first of all +gratefully express my especial obligations to those native scholars +who have read to me, read for me, or read with me their native +literature.</p> +<p>The first foreign students of Japanese religions were the Dutch, +and the German physicians who lived with them, at Déshima. +Kaempfer makes frequent references, with test and picture, in his +Beschryving van Japan. Von Siebold, who was an indefatigable +collector rather than a critical student, in Vol. V. of his +invaluable <i>Archiv</i> (Pantheon von Nippon), devoted over forty +pages to the religions of Japan. Dr. J.J. Hoffman translated into +Dutch, with notes and explanations, the Butsu-zō-dzu-i, which, +besides its 163 figures of Buddhist holy men, gives a bibliography +of the works mentioned by the native author. In visiting the +Japanese museum on the Rapenburg, Leyden, one of the oldest, best +and most intelligently arranged in Europe, I have been interested +with the great work done by the Dutchmen, during two centuries, in +leavening the old lump for that transformation which in our day as +New Japan, surprises the world. It requires the shock of battle to +awaken the western nations to that appreciation of the racial and +other differences between the Japanese and Chinese, which the +student has already learned.</p> +<p>The first praises, however, are to be awarded to the English +scholars, Messrs. Satow, Aston, Chamberlain, and others, whose +profound researches in Japanese history, language and literature +have cleared the path for others to tread in. I have tried to +acknowledge my debt to them in both text and appendix.</p> +<p>To several American missionaries, who despite their trying +labors have had the time and the taste to study critically the +religions of Japan, I owe thanks and appreciation. With rare +acuteness and learning, Rev. Dr. George Wm. Knox has opened on its +philosophical, and Rev. Dr. J.H. DeForest on its practical side, +the subject of Japanese Confucianism. By his lexicographical work, +Dr. J.C. Hepburn has made debtors to him both the native and the +alien. To our knowledge of Buddhism in Japan, Dr. J.C. Berry and +Rev. J.L. Atkinson have made noteworthy contributions. I have been +content to quote as authorities and illustrations, the names of +those who have thus wrought on the soil, rather than of those, who, +even though world-famous, have been but slightly familiar with the +ethnic and the imported faith of Japan. The profound +misunderstandings of Buddhism, which some very eminent men of +Europe have shown in their writings, form one of the literary +curiosities of the world.</p> +<p>In setting forth these Morse lectures, I have purposely robbed +my pages of all appearance of erudition, by using as few uncouth +words as possible, by breaking up the matter into paragraphs of +moderate length, by liberally introducing subject-headings in +italics, and by relegating all notes to the appendix. Since writing +the lectures, and even while reading the final proofs, I have +ransacked my library to find as many references, notes, +illustrations and authorities as possible, for the benefit of the +general student. I have purposely avoided recondite and +inaccessible books and have named those easily obtainable from +American or European publishers, or from Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, +of Yokohama, Japan. In using oriental words I have followed, in the +main, the spelling of the Century Dictionary. The Japanese names +are expressed according to that uniform system of transliteration +used by Hepburn, Satow and other standard writers, wherein +consonants have the same general value as in English (except that +initial g is always hard), while the vowels are pronounced as in +Italian. Double vowels must be pronounced double, as in +Méiji (mā-ē-jē); those which are long are marked, +as in ō or ū; i before o or u is short. Most of the important +Japanese, as well as Sanskrit and Chinese, terms used, are duly +expressed and defined in the Century Dictionary.</p> +<p>I wish also to thank especially my friends, Riu Watanabe, Ph.D., +of Cornell University, and William Nelson Noble, Esq., of Ithaca. +The former kindly assisted me with criticisms and suggestions, +while to the latter, who has taken time to read all the proofs, I +am grateful for considerable improvement in the English form of the +sentences.</p> +<p>In closing, I trust that whatever charges may be brought against +me by competent critics, lack of sympathy will not be one. I write +in sight of beautiful Lake Cayuga, on the fertile and sloping +shores of which in old time the Iroquois Indian confessed the +mysteries of life. Having planted his corn, he made his pregnant +squaw walk round the seed-bed in hope of receiving from the Source +of life increased blessing and sustenance for body and mind. +Between such a truly religious act of the savage, and that of the +Christian sage, Joseph Henry, who uncovered his head while +investigating electro-magnetism to "ask God a question," or that of +Samuel F.B. Morse, who sent as his first telegraphic message "What +hath God wrought," I see no essential difference. All three were +acts of faith and acknowledgment of a power greater than man. +Religion is one, though religions are many. As Principal Fairbairn, +my honored predecessor in the Morse lectureship, says: "What we +call superstition of the savage is not superstition <i>in him</i>. +Superstition is the perpetuation of a low form of belief along with +a higher knowledge.... Between fetichism and Christian faith there +is a great distance, but a great affinity—the recognition of +a supra-sensible life."</p> +<p>"For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the +revealing of the sons of God.... The creation itself shall be +delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the +glory of the children of God."</p> +<p>W.E.G.</p> +<p>ITHACA, N.Y., October 27, 1894.</p> +<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2> +<p><a href="#chap1">CHAPTER I</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap1">PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS, PAGE +1</a></p> +<p>Salutatory.—The Morse Lectureship and its +provisions.—The Science of Comparative Religion is +Christianity's own child.—The Parliament of +Religions.—The Study of Religion most appropriate in a +Theological Seminary.—Shortening weapons and lengthening +boundaries.—The right missionary spirit that of the Master, +who "came not to destroy but to fulfil."—Characteristics of +Japan.—Bird's-eye view of Japanese history and +religion.—Popularly, not three religions but one +religion.—Superstitions which are not organically parts of +the "book-religions."—The boundary line between the Creator +and his creation not visible to the pagan.—Shamanism: +Fetichism.—Mythical monsters, Kirin, Phoenix, Tortoise, +Dragon.—Japanese mythical zoölogy.—The erection of +the stone fetich.—Insurance by amulets upon house and +person.—Phallicism.—Tree-worship.—Serpent-worship.—These +unwritten superstitions condition the +"book-religions."—Removable by science and a higher +religion.</p> +<p><a href="#chap2">CHAPTER II</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap2">SHINTO: MYTHS AND RITUAL, PAGE 35</a></p> +<p>Japan is young beside China and Korea.—Japanese history is +comparatively modern.—The oldest documents date from A.D. +712.—The Japanese archipelago inhabited before the Christian +era.—Faith, worship and ritual are previous to written +espression.—The Kojiki, Manyōshu and +Norito.—Tendency of the pupil nations surrounding China to +antedate their civilization.—Origin of the Japanese people +and their religion.—Three distinct lines of tradition from +Tsukushi, Idzumo and Yamato.—War of the invaders against the +aborigines—Mikadoism is the heart of +Shintō.—Illustrations from the liturgies.—Phallicism +among the aborigines and common people.—The mind or mental +climate of the primæval man.—Representation of male +gods by emblems.—Objects of worship and +<i>ex-voto</i>.—Ideas of creation.—The fire-myth, +Prometheus.—Comparison of Greek and Japanese +mythology.—Ritual for the quieting of the fire-god.—The +fire-drill.</p> +<p><a href="#chap3">CHAPTER III</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap3">THE KOJIKI AND ITS TEACHINGS, PAGE 59</a></p> +<p>Origin of the Kojiki. Analysis of its opening +lines—Norito.—Indecency of the myths of the +Kojiki.—Modern rationalistic interpretations—Life in +prehistoric Japan.—Character and temperament of the people +then and now.—Character of the kami or +gods.—Hades.—Ethics.—The Land of the +Gods.—The barbarism of the Yamato conquerors an improvement +upon the savagery of the aborigines.—Cannibalism and human +sacrifices.—The makers of the God-way captured and absorbed +the religion of the aborigines.—A case of +syncretism.—Origin of evil in bad gods.—Pollution was +sin.—Class of offences enumerated in the +norito.—Professor Kumi's contention that Mikadoism usurped a +simple worship of Heaven.—Difference between the ancient +Chinese and ancient Japanese cultus.—Development of Shintō +arrested by Buddhism.—Temples and offerings.—The +tori-i.—Pollution and +purification.—Prayer.—Hirata's ordinal and specimen +prayers.—To the common people the sun is a god.—Prayers +to myriads of gods.—Summary of Shintō.—Swallowed up +in the Riyōbu system.—Its modern +revival.—Kéichin.—Kada +Adzumarō.—Mabuchi, Motoöri.—Hirata.—In +1870, Shintō is again made the state +religion.—Purification of Riyōbu +temples.—Politico-religious lectures.—Imperial +rescript.—Reverence to the Emperor's +photograph.—Judgment upon Shintō.—The Christian's +ideal of Yamato-damashii.</p> +<p><a href="#chap4">CHAPTER IV</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap4">THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN, PAGE +99</a></p> +<p>In what respects Confucius was unique as a +teacher.—Outline of his life.—The +canon.—Primitive Chinese faith a sort of +monotheism.—How the sage modified it.—History of +Confucianism until its entrance into Japan.—Outline of the +intellectual and political history of the Japanese.—Rise of +the Samurai class.—Shifting of emphasis from filial piety to +loyalty.—Prevalence of suicide in Japan.—Confucianism +has deeply tinged the ideas of the Japanese.—Great care +necessary in seeking equivalents in English for the terms used in +the Chino-Japanese ethics; <i>e.g.</i>, the emperor, "the father of +the people."—Impersonality of Japanese speech.—Christ +and Confucius.—"Love" and "reverence."—Exemplars of +loyalty.—The Forty-seven Rōnins.—The second +relation.—The family in Chinese Asia and in +Christendom.—The law of filial piety and the +daughter.—The third relation.—Theory of courtship and +marriage.—Chastity.—Jealousy.—Divorce.—Instability +of the marriage bond.—The fourth relation.—The elder +and the younger brother.—The house or family everything, the +individual nothing.—The fifth relation.—The ideas of +Christ and those of Confucius.—The Golden and the Gilded +rule.—Lao Tsze and Kung.—Old Japan and the +alien.—Commodore Perry and Professor Hayashi.</p> +<p><a href="#chap5">CHAPTER V</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap5">CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM, PAGE +131</a></p> +<p>Harmony of the systems of Confucius and Buddha in Japan during a +thousand years.—Revival of learning in the seventeenth +century.—Exodus of the Chinese scholars on the fall of the +Ming dynasty.—Their dispersion and work in +Japan.—Founding of schools of the new Chinese +learning.—For two and a half centuries the Japanese mind has +been moulded by the new Confucianism.—Survey of its rise and +developments.—Four stages in the intellectual history of +China.—The populist movement in the eleventh +century.—The literary controversy.—The philosophy of +the Cheng brothers and of Chu Hi, called in Japan Tei-Shu +system.—In Buddhism the Japanese were startling innovators, +in philosophy they were docile pupils.—Paucity of Confucian +or speculative literature in Japan.—A Chinese wall built +around the Japanese intellect.—Yelo orthodoxy.—Features +of the Téi-Shu system.—Not agnostic but +pantheistic.—Its influence upon historiography.—Ki +(spirit) Ri (way) and Ten (heaven).—The writings of Ohashi +Junzo.—Confucianism obsolescent in New Japan.—A study +of Confucianism in the interest of comparative +religion.—Man's place in the universe.—The Samurai's +ideal, obedience.—His fearlessness in the face of +death.—Critique of the system.—The ruler and the +ruled.—What has Confucianism done for +woman?—Improvement and revision of the fourth and fifth +relations.—The new view of the universe and the new mind in +New Japan. The ideal of Yamato-damashii revised and improved.</p> +<p><a href="#chap6">CHAPTER VI</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap6">THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA, PAGE 153</a></p> +<p>Buddha—sun myth or historic personage?—Buddhism one +of the protestantisms of the world.—Characteristics of new +religions.—Survey of the history of Indian thought.—The +age of the Vedas.—The epic age.—The rationalistic +age.—Our fellow-Aryans and the story of their +conquests.—Their intellectual energy and +inventions.—Systems of philosophy.—Condition of +religion at the birth of Gautama.—Outline of his +life.—He attains enlightenment or buddhahood.—In what +respects Buddhism was an old, and in what a new religion.—Did +Gautama intend to found a new religion, or return to simpler and +older faith?—Monasticism, Kharma and +Nirvana,—Enthusiasm of the disciples of the new +faith.—The great schism.—The Northern +Buddhists.—The canon.—The two Yana or +vehicles.—Simplicity of Southern and luxuriance of Northern +Buddhism.—Summary of the process of thought in +Nepal.—The old gods of India come back again.—Maitreya, +Manjusri and Avalokitesvara.—The Legend of +Manjusri.—Separation of attributes and creation of new +Buddhas or gods.—The Dhyani +Buddhas.—Amida.—Adi-Buddhas.—Abstractions become +gods.—The Tantra system.—Outbursts of doctrine and +art.—Prayer-mills.—The noble eight-fold path of +self-denial and benevolence forgotten.—Entrance of Buddhism +from Korea into Japan.—Condition of the country at that +time.—Dates and first experiences.—Soga no +Inamé.—Shōtoku.—Japanese pilgrims to +China.—Changes wrought by the new creed and +cult.—Temples, monasteries and images.—Influence upon +the Mikado's name, rank and person, and upon +Shintō.—Relative influence of Buddhism in Asia and of +Christianity in Europe.—The three great characteristics of +Buddhism.—How the clouds returned after the +rain.—Buddhism and Christianity confronting the problem of +life.</p> +<p><a href="#chap7">CHAPTER VII</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap7">RIYŌBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM, PAGE 189</a></p> +<p>The experience of two centuries and a half of Buddhism in +Japan.—Necessity of using more powerful means for the +conversion of the Japanese.—Popular customs nearly +ineradicable.—Analogy from European history.—Syncretism +in Christian history.—In the Arabian Nights.—How far is +the process of Syncretism honest?—Examples not to be +recommended for imitation.—The problem of reconciling the +Kami and the Buddhas.—Northern Buddhism ready for the +task.—The Tantra or Yoga-chara system.—Art and its +influence on the imagination.—The sketch replaced by the +illumination and monochrome by colors.—Japanese +art.—Mixed Buddhism rather than mixed +Shintō.—Kōbō the wonder-worker who made all Japanese +history a transfiguration of Buddhism.—Legends about his +extraordinary abilities and industry.—His life, and studies +in China.—The kata-kana syllabary.—Kōbōo's +revelation from the Shintō goddess +Toyo-Uké-Bimé.—The gods of Japan were avatars +of Buddha.—Kōbō's plan of propaganda.—Details of +the scheme.—A clearing-house of gods and +Buddhas.—Relative rise and fall of the native and the foreign +deities.—Legend of Daruma. "Riyōbu +Shintō."—Impulse to art and art industry.—The Kami +no Michi falls into shadow.—Which religion suffered +most?—Phenomenally the victory belonged to +Buddhism.—The leavening power was that of +Shintō.—Buddhism's fresh chapter of decay.—Influence +of Riyōbu upon the Chinese ethical system in +Japan.—Influence on the Mikado.—Abdication all along +the lines of Japanese life.—Ultimate paralysis of the +national intellect.—Comparison with Chinese +Buddhism.—Miracle-mongering.—No self-reforming power in +Buddhism.—The Seven Happy Gods of Fortune.—Pantheism's +destruction of boundaries.—The author's study of the popular +processions in Japan.—Masaka Do.—Swamping of history in +legend.—The jewel in the lotus.</p> +<p><a href="#chap8">CHAPTER VIII</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap8">NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS, +PAGE 225</a></p> +<p>Four stages of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in +Japan.—Reasons for the formation of sects.—The +Saddharma Pundarika.—Shastras and Sutras.—The Ku-sha +sect.—Book of the Treasury of Metaphysics.—The +Jō-jitsu sect, its founder and its doctrines.—The Ris-shu +or Viyana sect.—Japanese pilgrims to China.—The +Hos-sō sect and its doctrines.—The three grades of +disciples.—The San-ron or Three-shastra sect and its +tenets.—The Middle Path.—The Kégon +sect.—The Unconditioned, or realistic pantheism.—The +Chinese or Tendai sect.—Its scriptures and +dogmas.—Buddhahood attainable in the present +body.—Vagradrodhi.—The Yoga-chara system.—The +"old sects."—Reaction against excessive +idol-making.—The Zen sect.—Labor-saving devices in +Buddhism.—Making truth apparent by one's own +thought.—Transmission of the Zen doctrine.—History of +Zen Shu.</p> +<p><a href="#chap9">CHAPTER IX</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap9">THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE, PAGE 257</a></p> +<p>The Jō-dō or Pure Land sect.—Substitution of faith +in Amida for the eight-fold Path.—Succession of the +propagators of true doctrine.—Zendō and +Hō-nen.—The Japanese path-finder to the Pure +Land.—Doctrine of Jō-dō.—Buddhistic influence on +the Japanese language.—Incessant repetition of +prayers.—The Pure Land in the West.—The Buddhist +doctrine of justification by faith.—Hō-nen's +universalism.—Tendency of doctrinal development after +Hō-nen.—"Reformed" Buddhism.—Synergism <i>versus</i> +salvation by faith only.—Life of Shinran.—Posthumous +honors.—Policy and aim of the Shin sect, methods and +scriptures.</p> +<p><a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap10">JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY +DEVELOPMENT, PAGE 287</a></p> +<p>The missionary history of Japanese Buddhism is the history of +Japan.—The first organized religion of the +Japanese.—Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain's +testimony—A picture of primeval life in the +archipelago.—What came in the train of the new religion from +"the West". Missionary civilizers, teachers, road-makers, improvers +of diet. Language of flowers and gardens.—The house and +home.—Architecture—The imperial +capital—Hiyéizan.—Love of natural +scenery.—Pilgrimages and their fruits.—The Japanese +aesthetic.—Art and decoration in the temples.—Exterior +resemblances between the Roman form of Christianity and of +Buddhism.—Quotation from "The Mikado's +Empire."—Internal vital differences.—Enlightenment and +grace.—Ingwa and love.—Luxuriance of the art of +Northern Buddhism.—Variety in individual +treatment.—Place of the temple in the life of Old +Japan.—The protecting trees.—The bell and its +note.—The graveyard and the priests' hold upon +it.—Japanese Buddhism as a political power.—Its +influence upon military history.—Abbots on horseback and +monks in armor.—Battles between the Shin and Zen +sects.—Nobunaga.—Influence of Buddhism in literature +and education.—The temple school.—The <i>kana</i> +writing.—Survey and critique of Buddhist history in +Japan.—Absence of organized charities.—Regard for +animal and disregard for human life.—The Eta.—The +Aino.—Attitude to women.—Nuna and +numerics.—Polygamy and concubinage.—Buddhism compared +with Shintō.—Influence upon morals.—The First +Cause.—Its leadership among the sects.—Unreality of +Amida Buddha.—Nichiren.—His life and +opinions.—Idols and avatars.—The favorite scripture of +the sect, the Saddharma Pundarika.—Its central dogma, +everything in the universe capable of Buddha-ship.—The +Salvation Army of Buddhism.—Kōbō's leaven +working.—Buddhism ceases to be an intellectual +force.—The New Buddhism.—Are the Japanese eager for +reform?</p> +<p><a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap11">ROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, +PAGE 323</a></p> +<p>The many-sided story of Japanese Christianity.—One hundred +years of intercourse between Japan and Europe.—State of Japan +at the introduction of Portuguese Christianity.—Xavier and +Anjiro.—Xavier at Kiōto and in Bungo.—Nobunaga and +the Buddhists.—High-water mark of +Christianity.—Hideyoshi and the invasion of Korea.—Kato +and Konishi.—Persecutions.—Arrival of the Spanish +friars.—Their violation of good faith.—Spirit of the +Jesuits and Franciscans.—Crucifixion on the bamboo +cross.—Hidéyori.—Kato Kiyomasa.—The Dutch +in the Eastern seas.—Will Adams.—Iyéyasŭ +suspects designs against the sovereignty of Japan.—The +Christian religion outlawed.—Hidétada follows up the +policy of Iyéyasŭ, excludes aliens, and shuts up the +country.—The uprising of the Christians at Shimabara in +1637.—Christianity buried from sight.—Character of the +missionaries and the form of the faith introduced by +them.—Noble lives and ideals.—The spirit of the +Inquisition in Japan.—Political animus and complexion.</p> +<p><a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII</a></p> +<p><a href="#chap12">TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE, PAGE 351</a></p> +<p>Policy of the Japanese government after the suppression of +Christianity.—Insulation of Japan.—The Hollanders at +Déshima.—Withdrawal of the English.—Relations +with Korea.—Policy of inclusion.—"A society impervious +to foreign ideas."—Life within stunted limits.—Canons +of art and literature.—Philosophy made an engine of +government.—Esoteric law.—Social waste of +humanity.—Attempts to break down the wall—External and +internal.—Seekers after God.—The goal of the +pilgrims.—The Déshima Dutchman as pictured by enemies +and rivals, <i>versus</i> reality and truth.—Eager spirits +groping after God.—Morning stars of the Japanese +reformation.—Yokoi Héishiro.—The anti-Christian +edicts.—The Buddhist Inquisitors.—The Shin-gaku or New +Learning movement.—The story of nineteenth century +Christianity, subterranean and interior before being +phenomenal.—Sabbath-day service on the U.S.S. +Mississippi.—The first missionaries.—Dr. J.C. +Hepburn—Healing and the Bible.—Yedo becomes +Tōkiō.—Despatch of the Embassy round the +world.—Eyes opened.—The Acts of the Apostles in +Japan.</p> +<p><a href="#chapnotes">NOTES, AUTHORITIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, PAGE +375</a></p> +<p><a href="#index">INDEX, PAGE 451</a></p> +<h2><a name="chap1" id="chap1">PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE +BOOKS</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page2" id="page2"></a>{2}</span> +<blockquote> +<p>"The investigation of the beginnings of a religion is never the +work of infidels, but of the most reverent and conscientious +minds."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p>"We, the forty million souls of Japan, standing firmly and +persistently upon the basis of international justice, await still +further manifestations as to the morality of +Christianity,"—Hiraii, of Japan.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p>"When the Creator [through intermediaries that were apparently +animals] had finished treating this world of men, the good and the +bad Gods were all mixed together promiscuously, and began disputing +for the possession of this world."—The Aino Story of the +Creation.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p>"If the Japanese have few beast stories, the Ainos have +<i>apparently</i> no popular tales of heroes ... The Aino +mythologies ... lack all connection with morality.... Both lack +priests and prophets.... Both belong to a very primitive stage of +mental development ... Excepting stories ... and a few almost +metreless songs, the Ainos have no other literature at +all."—Aino Studies.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p>"I asked the earth, and it answered, 'I am not He;' and +whatsoever are therein made the same confession. I asked the sea +and the deep and the creeping things that lived, and they replied, +'We are not thy God; seek higher than we.' ... And I answered unto +all things which stand about the door of my flesh, 'Ye have told me +concerning my God, that ye are not he; tell me something about +him.' And with a loud voice they explained, 'It is He who hath made +us!'"—Augustine's Confessions.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p>"Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the +shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with +night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out +upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name."—Amos.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p>"That which hath been made was life in Him."—John.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" id="page3"></a>{3}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER I - PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS</h2> +<h3>The Morse Lectureship and the Study of Comparative +Religion</h3> +<p>As a graduate of the Union Theological Seminary in the city of +New York, in the Class of 1877, your servant received and accepted +with pleasure the invitation of the President and Board of Trustees +to deliver a course of lectures upon the religions of Japan. In +that country and in several parts of it, I lived from 1870 to 1874. +I was in the service first of the feudal daimiō of Echizen and +then of the national government of Japan, helping to introduce that +system of public schools which is now the glory of the country. +Those four years gave me opportunities for close and constant +observation of the outward side of the religions of Japan, and +facilities for the study of the ideas out of which worship springs. +Since 1867, however, when first as a student in Rutgers College at +New Brunswick, N.J., I met and instructed those students from the +far East, who, at risk of imprisonment and death had come to +America for the culture of Christendom, I have been deeply +interested in the study of the Japanese people and their +thoughts.</p> +<p>To attempt a just and impartial survey of the religions of Japan +may seem a task that might well appall <span class="pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4"></a>{4}</span> even a +life-long Oriental scholar. Yet it may be that an honest purpose, a +deep sympathy and a gladly avowed desire to help the East and the +West, the Japanese and the English-speaking people, to understand +each other, are not wholly useless in a study of religion, but for +our purpose of real value. These lectures are upon the Morse<a id="footnotetag1-1" name="footnotetag1-1"></a><a href="#footnote1-1"><sup>1</sup></a> foundation which has these +specifications written out by the founder:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>The general subject of the lectures I desire to be: "The +Relation of the Bible to any of the Sciences, as Geography, +Geology, History, and Ethnology, ... and the relation of the facts +and truths contained in the Word of God, to the principles, +methods, and aims of any of the sciences."</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now, among the sciences which we must call to our aid are those +of geography and geology, by which are conditioned history and +ethnology of which we must largely treat; and, most of all, the +science of Comparative Religion.</p> +<p>This last is Christianity's own child. Other sciences, such as +geography and astronomy, may have been born among lands and nations +outside of and even before Christendom. Other sciences, such as +geology, may have had their rise in Christian time and in Christian +lands, their foundation lines laid and their main processes +illustrated by Christian men, which yet cannot be claimed by +Christianity as her children bearing her own likeness and image; +but the science of Comparative Religion is the direct offspring of +the religion of Jesus. It is a distinctively Christian science. "It +is so because it is a product of Christian civilization, and +because it finds its impulse in that freedom of inquiry which +Christianity fosters."<a id="footnotetag1-2" name="footnotetag1-2"></a><a href="#footnote1-2"><sup>2</sup></a> +Christian scholars began <span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5"></a>{5}</span> the investigations, formulated the +principles, collected the materials and reared the already splendid +fabric of the science of Comparative Religion, because the spirit +of Christ which was in them did signify this. Jesus bade his +disciples search, inquire, discern and compare. Paul, the greatest +of the apostolic Christian college, taught: "Prove all things; hold +fast that which is good." In our day one of Christ's loving +followers<a id="footnotetag1-3" name="footnotetag1-3"></a><a href="#footnote1-3"><sup>3</sup></a> expressed the spirit of her Master +in her favorite motto, "Truth for authority, not authority for +truth." Well says Dr. James Legge, a prince among scholars, and +translator of the Chinese classics, who has added several portly +volumes to Professor Max Müller's series of the "Sacred Books +of the East," whose face to-day is bronzed and whose hair is +whitened by fifty years of service in southern China where with his +own hands he baptized six hundred Chinamen:<a id="footnotetag1-4" +name="footnotetag1-4"></a><a href="#footnote1-4"><sup>4</sup></a></p> +<blockquote> +<p>The more that a man possesses the Christian spirit, and is +governed by Christian principle, the more anxious will he be to do +justice to every other system of religion, and to hold his own +without taint or fetter of bigotry.<a id="footnotetag1-5" name="footnotetag1-5"></a><a href="#footnote1-5"><sup>5</sup></a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was Christianity that, in a country where the religion of +Jesus has fullest liberty, called the Parliament of Religions, and +this for reasons clearly manifest. Only Christians had and have the +requisites of success, viz.: sufficient interest in other men and +religions; the necessary unity of faith and purpose; and above all, +the brave and bold disregard of the consequences. Christianity +calls the Parliament of Religions, following out the Divine +audacity of Him who, so often, confronting worldly wisdom and +priestly cunning, said to his disciples, "Think not, be not +anxious, take no heed, be <span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id="page6"></a>{6}</span> careful for nothing—only for love and +truth. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."</p> +<p>Of all places therefore, the study of comparative religion is +most appropriate in a Christian theological seminary. We must know +how our fellow-men think and believe, in order to help them. It is +our duty to discover the pathways of approach to their minds and +hearts. We must show them, as our brethren and children of the same +Heavenly Father, the common ground on which we all stand. We must +point them to the greater truth in the Bible and in Christ Jesus, +and demonstrate wherein both the divinely inspired library and the +truth written in a divine-human life fulfil that which is lacking +in their books and masters.</p> +<p>To know just how to do this is knowledge to be coveted as a most +excellent gift. An understanding of the religion of our fellow-men +is good, both for him who goes as a missionary and for him who at +home prays, "Thy kingdom come."</p> +<p>The theological seminary, which begins the systematic and +sympathetic study of Comparative Religion and fills the chair with +a professor who has a vital as well as academic interest in the +welfare of his fellow-men who as yet know not Jesus as Christ and +Lord, is sure to lead in effective missionary work. The students +thus equipped will be furnished as none others are, to begin at +once the campaign of help and warfare of love.</p> +<p>It may be that insight into and sympathy with the struggles of +men who are groping after God, if haply they may find him, will +shorten the polemic sword of the professional converter whose only +purpose is destructive hostility without tactics or strategy, or +whose <span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7"></a>{7}</span> chief idea of missionary success is in +statistics, in blackening the character of "the heathen," in +sensational letters for home consumption and reports properly +cooked and served for the secretarial and sectarian palates. Yet, +if true in history, Greek, Roman, Japanese, it is also true in the +missionary wars, that "the race that shortens its weapons lengthens +its boundaries."<a id="footnotetag1-6" name="footnotetag1-6"></a><a href="#footnote1-6"><sup>6</sup></a></p> +<p>Apart from the wit or the measure of truth in this sentence +quoted, it is a matter of truth in the generalizations of fact that +the figure of the "sword of the spirit, which is the word of God," +used by Paul, and also the figure of the "word of God, living and +active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the +dividing of the soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and +quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart," of the +writer to the Hebrews, had for their original in iron the +victorious <i>gladium</i> of the Roman legionary—a weapon +both short and sharp. We may learn from this substance of fact +behind the shadow of the figure a lesson for our instant +application. The disciplined Romans scorned the long blades of the +barbarians, whose valor so often impetuous was also impotent +against discipline. The Romans measured their blades by inches, not +by feet. For ages the Japanese sword has been famed for its temper +more than its weight.<a id="footnotetag1-7" name="footnotetag1-7"></a><a href="#footnote1-7"><sup>7</sup></a> The +Christian entering upon his Master's campaigns with as little +impediments of sectarian dogma as possible, should select a weapon +that is short, sure and divinely tempered.</p> +<p>To know exactly the defects of the religion we seek to abolish, +modify, supplement, supplant or fulfil, means wise economy of +force. To get at the secrets of its hold upon the people we hope to +convert leads to a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8"></a>{8}</span> right use of power. In a word, knowledge of +the opposing religion, and especially of alien language, literature +and ways of feeling and thinking, lengthens missionary life. A man +who does not know the moulds of thought of his hearers is like a +swordsman trying to fight at long range but only beating the air. +Armed with knowledge and sympathy, the missionary smites with +effect at close quarters. He knows the vital spots.</p> +<p>Let me fortify my own convictions and conclude this preliminary +part of my lectures by quoting again, not from academic +authorities, but from active missionaries who are or have been at +the front and in the field.<a id="footnotetag1-8" name="footnotetag1-8"></a><a href="#footnote1-8"><sup>8</sup></a></p> +<p>The Rev. Samuel Beal, author of "Buddhism in China," said (p. +19) that "it was plain to him that no real work could be done among +the people [of China and Japan] by missionaries until the system of +their belief was understood."</p> +<p>The Rev. James MacDonald, a veteran missionary in Africa, in the +concluding chapter of his very able work on "Religion and Myth," +says:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>The Church that first adopts for her intending missionaries the +study of Comparative Religion as a substitute for subjects now +taught will lead the van in the path of true progress.</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>The People of Japan.</h3> +<p>In this faith then, in the spirit of Him who said, "I come not +to destroy but to fulfil," let us cast our eyes upon that part of +the world where lies the empire of Japan with its forty-one +millions of souls. Here we have not a country like India—a +vast conglomeration of nations, languages and religions occupying a +peninsula <span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9"></a>{9}</span> itself like a continent, whose history +consists of a stratification of many civilizations. Nor have we +here a seemingly inert mass of humanity in a political structure +blending democracy and imperialism, as in China, so great in age, +area and numbers as to weary the imagination that strives to grasp +the details. On the contrary, in Dai Nippon, or Great Land of the +Sun's Origin, we have a little country easy of study. In geology it +is one of the youngest of lands. Its known history is comparatively +modern. Its area roughly reckoned as 150,000 square miles, is about +that of our Dakotas or of Great Britain and Ireland. The census +completed December 31, 1892, illustrates here, as all over the +world, nature's argument against polygamy. It tells us that the +relation between the sexes is, numerically at least, normal. There +were 20,752,366 males and 20,337,574 females, making a population +of 41,089,940 souls. All these people are subjects of the one +emperor, and excepting fewer than twenty thousand savages in the +northern islands called Ainos, speak one language and form +substantially one race. Even the Riu Kiu islanders are Japanese in +language, customs and religion. In a word, except in minor +differences appreciable or at least important only to the special +student, the modern Japanese are a homogeneous people.</p> +<p>In origin and formation, this people is a composite of many +tribes. Roughly outlining the ethnology of Japan, we should say +that the aborigines were immigrants from the continent with Malay +reinforcement in the south, Koreans in the centre, and Ainos in the +east and north, with occasional strains of blood at different +periods from various parts of the Asian mainland. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10"></a>{10}</span> In brief, +the Japanese are a very mixed race. Authentic history before the +Christian era is unknown. At some point of time, probably later +than A.D. 200, a conquering tribe, one of many from the Asian +mainland, began to be paramount on the main island. About the +fourth century something like historic events and personages begin +to be visible, but no Japanese writings are older than the early +part of the eighth century, though almanacs and means of measuring +time are found in the sixth century. Whatever Japan may be in +legend and mythology, she is in fact and in history younger than +Christianity. Her line of rulers, as alleged in old official +documents and ostentatiously reaffirmed in the first article of the +constitution of 1889, to be "unbroken for ages eternal," is no +older than that of the popes. Let us not think of Aryan or Chinese +antiquity when we talk of Japan. Her history as a state began when +the Roman empire fell. The Germanic nations emerged into history +long before the Japanese.</p> +<p>Roughly outlining the political and religious life of the +ancient Japanese, we note that their first system of government was +a rude sort of feudalism imposed by the conquerors and was +synchronous with aboriginal fetichism, nature worship, ancestral +sacrifices, sun-worship and possibly but not probably, a very rude +sort of monotheism akin to the primitive Chinese cultus.<a id="footnotetag1-9" name="footnotetag1-9"></a><a href="#footnote1-9"><sup>9</sup></a> Almost contemporary with Buddhism, +its introduction and missionary development, was the struggle for +centralized imperialism borrowed from the Chinese and consolidated +in the period from the seventh to the twelfth century. During most +of this time Shintō, or the primitive religion, was overshadowed +while the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11"></a>{11}</span> Confucian ethics were taught. From the +twelfth to this nineteenth century feudalism in politics and +Buddhism in religion prevailed, though Confucianism furnished the +social laws or rules of daily conduct. Since the epochal year of +1868, with imperialism reestablished and the feudal system +abolished, Shintō has had a visible revival, being kept alive by +government patronage. Buddhism, though politically disestablished, +is still the popular religion with recent increase of life,<a id="footnotetag1-10" name="footnotetag1-10"></a><a href="#footnote1-10"><sup>10</sup></a> while Confucianism is decidedly +losing force. Christianity has begun its promising career.</p> +<h3>The Amalgam of Religions.</h3> +<p>Yet in the imperial and constitutional Japan of our day it is +still true of probably at least thirty-eight millions of Japanese +that their religion is not one, Shintō, Confucianism or +Buddhism, but an amalgam of all three. There is not in every-day +life that sharp distinction between these religions which the +native or foreign scholar makes, and which both history and +philosophy demand shall be made for the student at least. Using the +technical language of Christian theologians, Shintō furnishes +theology, Confucianism anthropology and Buddhism soteriology. The +average Japanese learns about the gods and draws inspiration for +his patriotism from Shintō, maxims for his ethical and social +life from Confucius, and his hope of what he regards as salvation +from Buddhism. Or, as a native scholar, Nobuta Kishimoto,<a id="footnotetag1-11" name="footnotetag1-11"></a><a href="#footnote1-11"><sup>11</sup></a> expresses it,</p> +<blockquote> +<p>In Japan these three different systems of religion and morality +are not only living together on friendly terms with one another, +but, in fact, they are blended together in the minds <span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12"></a>{12}</span> of the +people, who draw necessary nourishment from all of these sources. +One and the same Japanese is both a Shintōist, a Confucianist, +and a Buddhist. He plays a triple part, so to speak ... Our +religion may be likened to a triangle.... Shintōism furnishes +the object, Confucianism offers the rules of life, while Buddhism +supplies the way of salvation; so you see we Japanese are eclectic +in everything, even in religion.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>These three religious systems as at present constituted, are +"book religions." They rest, respectively, upon the Kojiki and +other ancient Japanese literature and the modern commentators; upon +the Chinese classics edited and commented on by Confucius and upon +Chu Hi and other mediaeval scholastics who commented upon +Confucius; and upon the shastras and sutras with which Gautama, the +Buddha, had something to do. Yet in primeval and prehistoric Nippon +neither these books nor the religions growing out of the books were +extant. Furthermore, strictly speaking, it is not with any or all +of these three religions that the Christian missionary comes first, +oftenest or longest in contact. In ancient, in mediaeval, and in +modern times the student notices a great undergrowth of +superstition clinging parasitically to all religions, though +formally recognized by none. Whether we call it fetichism, +shamanism, nature worship or heathenism in its myriad forms, it is +there in awful reality. It is as omnipresent, as persistent, as +hard to kill as the scrub bamboo which both efficiently and +sufficiently takes the place of thorns and thistles as the curse of +Japanese ground.</p> +<p>The book-religions can be more or less apprehended by those +alien to them, but to fully appreciate the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13"></a>{13}</span> depth, +extent, influence and tenacity of these archaic, unwritten and +unformulated beliefs requires residence upon the soil and life +among the devotees. Disowned it may be by the priests and sages, +indignantly disclaimed or secretly approved in part by the +organized religions, this great undergrowth of superstition is as +apparent as the silicious bamboo grass which everywhere conditions +and modifies Japanese agriculture. Such prevalence of mental and +spiritual disease is the sad fact that confronts every lover of his +fellow-men. This paganism is more ancient and universal than any +one of the religions founded on writing or teachers of name and +fame. Even the applied science and the wonderful inventions +imported from the West, so far from eradicating it, only serve as +the iron-clad man-of-war in warm salt water serves the barnacles, +furnishing them food and hold.</p> +<p>We propose to give in this our first lecture, a general or +bird's-eye view of this dead level of paganism above which the +systems of Shintō, Confucianism and Buddhism tower like +mountains. It in by this omnipresent superstition that the +respectable religious have been conditioned in their history and +are modified at present, even as Christianity has been influenced +in its progress by ethnic or local ideas and temperaments, and will +be yet in its course of victory in the Mikado's empire.</p> +<p>Just as the terms "heathen" (happily no longer, in the Revised +Version of the English Bible) and "pagan" suggest the heath-man of +Northern Europe and the isolated hamlet of the Roman empire, while +the cities were illuminated with Christian truth, so, in the main, +the matted superstitious of Chinese Asia are <span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14"></a>{14}</span> more +suggestive of distances from books and centres of knowledge, though +still sufficiently rooted in the crowded cities.</p> +<p>One to whom the boundary line between the Creator and his world +is perfectly clear, one who knows the eternal difference between +mind and matter, one born amid the triumphs of science can but +faintly realize the mental condition of the millions of Japan to +whom there is no unifying thought of the Creator-Father. Faith in +the unity of law is the foundation of all science, but the average +Asiatic has not this thought or faith. Appalled at his own +insignificance amid the sublime mysteries and awful immensities of +nature, the shadows of his own mind become to him real existences. +As it is affirmed that the human skin, sensitive to the effects of +light, takes the photograph of the tree riven by lightning, so, on +the pagan mind lie in ineffaceable and exaggerated grotesqueness +the scars of impressions left by hereditary teaching, by natural +phenomena and by the memory of events and of landmarks. Out of the +soil of diseased imagination has sprung up a growth as terrible as +the drunkard's phantasies. The earthquake, flood, tidal wave, +famine, withering or devastating wind and poisonous gases, the +geological monsters and ravening bird, beast and fish, have their +representatives or supposed incarnations in mythical phantasms.</p> +<p>Frightful as these shadows of the mind appear, they are both +very real and, in a sense, very necessary to the ignorant man. He +must have some theory by which to explain the phenomena of nature +and soothe his own terrors. Hence he peoples the earth and water, +not only with invisible spirits more or less malevolent, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15"></a>{15}</span> +but also with bodily presences usually in terrific bestial form. To +those who believe in one Spirit pervading, ordering, governing all +things, there is unity amid all phenomena, and the universe is all +order and beauty. To the mind which has not reached this height of +simplicity, instead of one cause there are many. The diverse +phenomena of nature are brought about by spirits innumerable, +warring and discordant. Instead of a unity to the mind, as of sun +and solar system, there is nothing but planets, asteroids and a +constant rain of shooting-stars.</p> +<h3>Shamanism.</h3> +<p>Glancing at some phases of the actual unwritten religions of +Japan we name Shamanism, Mythical Zoölogy, Fetichism, +Phallicism, and Tree and Serpent Worship.</p> +<p>In actual Shamanism or Animism there may or there may not be a +belief in or conception of a single all-powerful Creator above and +beyond all.<a id="footnotetag1-12" name="footnotetag1-12"></a><a href="#footnote1-12"><sup>12</sup></a> +Usually there is not such a belief, though, even if there be, the +actual government of the physical world and its surroundings is +believed to lie in the hands of many spirits or gods benevolent and +malevolent. Earth, air, water, all things teem with beings that are +malevolent and constantly active. In time of disaster, famine, +epidemic the universe seems as overcrowded with them as stagnant +water seems to be when the solar microscope throw its contents into +apparition upon the screen. It is absolutely necessary to +propitiate these spirits by magic rites and incantations.</p> +<p>Among the tribes of the northern part of the Chinese +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16"></a>{16}</span> +Empire and the Ainos of Japan this Shamanism exists as something +like an organized cultus. Indeed, it would be hard to find any part +of Chinese Asia from Korea to Annam or from Tibet to Formosa, not +dominated by this belief in the power and presence of minor +spirits. The Ainos of Yezo may be called Shamanists or Animists; +that is, their minds are cramped and confused by their belief in a +multitude of inferior spirits whom they worship and propitiate by +rites and incantations through their medicine-man or sorcerer. How +they whittle sticks, keeping on the fringe of curled shavings, and +set up these, called <i>inao</i> in places whence evil is suspected +to lurk, and how the shaman conducts his exorcisms and works his +healings, are told in the works of the traveller and the +missionary.<a id="footnotetag1-13" name="footnotetag1-13"></a><a href="#footnote1-13"><sup>13</sup></a> In +the wand of shavings thus reared we see the same motive as that +which induced the Mikado in the eighth century to build the great +monasteries on Hiyéizan, northeast of Kiōto, this being +the quarter in which Buddhist superstition locates the path of +advancing evil, to ward off malevolence by litanies and incense. +Or, the <i>inao</i> is a sort of lightning-rod conductor by which +impending mischief may be led harmlessly away.</p> +<p>Yet, besides the Ainos,<a id="footnotetag1-14" name="footnotetag1-14"></a><a href="#footnote1-14"><sup>14</sup></a> +there are millions of Japanese who are Shamanists, even though they +know not the name or organized cult. And if we make use of the term +Shamanism instead of the more exact one of Animism, it is for the +very purpose of illustrating our contention that the underlying +paganisms of the Japanese archipelago, unwritten and unformulated, +are older than the religions founded on books; and that these +paganisms, still vital and persistent, constantly modify and +corrupt the recognized religious. The term Shaman, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>{17}</span> a Pali word, +was originally a pure Buddhist term meaning one who has separated +from his family and his passions. One of the designations of the +Buddha was Shamana-Gautama. The same word, Shamon, in Japanese +still means a bonze, or Buddhist priest. Its appropriation by the +sorcerers, medicine-men, and lords of the misrule of superstition +in Mongolia and Manchuria shows decisively how indigenous paganism +has corrupted the Buddhism of northern Asia even as it has caused +its decay in Japan.</p> +<p>As out of Animism or Shamanism grows Fetichism in which a +visible object is found for the abode or medium of the spirit, so +also, out of the same soil arises what we may call Imaginary +Zoölogy. In this mental growth, the nightmare of the diseased +imagination or of the mind unable to draw the line between the real +and the unreal, Chinese Asia differs notably from the Aryan world. +With the mythical monsters of India and Iran we are acquainted, and +with those of the Semitic and ancient European cycle of ideas which +furnished us with our ancients and classics we are familiar. The +lovely presences in human form, the semi-human and bestial +creations, sphinxes, naiads, satyrs, fauns, harpies, griffins, with +which the fancy of the Mediterranean nations populated glen, +grotto, mountain and stream, are probably outnumbered by the less +beautiful and even hideous mind-shadows of the Turanian world. +Chief among these are what in Chinese literature, so slavishly +borrowed by the Japanese, are called the four supernatural or +spiritually endowed creatures—the Kirin or Unicorn, the +Phoenix, the Tortoise and the Dragon.<a id="footnotetag1-15" name="footnotetag1-15"></a><a href="#footnote1-15"><sup>15</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18"></a>{18}</span> +<h3>Mythical Zoölogy.</h3> +<p>Of the first species the <i>ki</i> is the male, the <i>lin</i> +is the female, hence the name Kilin. The Japanese having no +<i>l</i>, pronounce this Kirin. Its appearance on the earth is +regarded as a happy portent of the advent of good government or the +birth of men who are to prove virtuous rulers. It has the body of a +deer, the tail of an ox, and a single, soft horn. As messenger of +mercy and benevolence, the Kirin never treads on a live insect or +eats growing grass. Later philosophy made this imaginary beast the +incarnation of those five primordial elements—earth, air, +water, fire and ether of which all things, including man's body, +are made and which are symbolized in the shapes of the cube, globe, +pyramid, saucer and tuft of rays in the Japanese gravestones. It is +said to attain the age of a thousand years, to be the noblest form +of the animal creation and the emblem of perfect good. In Chinese +and Japanese art this creature holds a prominent place, and in +literature even more so. It is not only part of the repertoire of +the artist's symbols in the Chinese world of ideas, but is almost a +necessity to the moulds of thought in eastern Asia. Yet it is older +than Confucius or the book-religions, and its conception shows one +of the nobler sides of Animism.</p> +<p>The Feng-hwang or Phoenix, Japanese Hō-wō, the second of +the incarnations of the spirits, is of wondrous form and mystic +nature. The rare advent of this bird upon the earth is, like that +of the kirin or unicorn, a presage of the advent of virtuous rulers +and good government. It has the head of a pheasant, the beak of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>{19}</span> +a swallow, the neck of a tortoise, and the features of the dragon +and fish. Its colors and streaming feathers are gorgeous with +iridian sheen, combining the splendors of the pheasant and the +peacock. Its five colors symbolize the cardinal virtues of +uprightness of mind, obedience, justice, fidelity and benevolence. +The male bird <i>Hō</i>, and female <i>wō</i>, by their +inseparable fellowship furnish the artist, poet and literary writer +with the originals of the ten thousand references which are found +in Chinese and its derived literatures. Of this mystic Phoenix a +Chinese dictionary thus gives description:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>The Phoenix is of the essence of water; it was born in the +vermilion cave; it perches not but on the most beautiful of all +trees; it eats not but of the seed of the bamboo; its body is +adorned with the five colors; its song contains the five notes; as +it walks it looks around; as it flies hosts of birds follow it.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Older than the elaborate descriptions of it and its +representations in art, the Hō-wō is one of the creations of +primitive Chinese Animism.</p> +<p>The Kwei or Tortoise is not the actual horny reptile known to +naturalists and to common experience, but a spirit, an animated +creature that ages ago rose up out of the Yellow River, having on +its carapace the mystic writing out of which the legendary founder +of Chinese civilization deciphered the basis of moral teachings and +the secrets of the unseen. From this divine tortoise which +conceived by thought alone, all other tortoises sprang. In the +elaboration of the myths and legends concerning the tortoise we +find many varieties of this scaly incarnation. It lives a thousand +years, hence it is emblem of longevity in art and literature. It is +the attendant of the god of the waters. It has <span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>{20}</span> some of the +qualities and energies of the dragon, it has the power of +transformation. In pictures and sculptures we are familiar with its +figure, often of colossal size, as forming the curb of a well, the +base of a monument or tablet. Yet, whatever its form in literature +or art, it is the later elaborated representation of ancient +Animism which selected the tortoise as one of the manifold +incarnations or media of the myriad spirits that populate the +air.</p> +<p>Chief and leader of the four divinely constituted beasts is the +Lung, Japanese Riō, or Dragon, which has the power of +transformation and of making itself visible or invisible. At will +it reduces itself to the size of a silk-worm, or is swollen until +it fills the space of heaven and earth. This is the creature +especially preeminent in art, literature and rhetoric. There are +nine kinds of dragons, all with various features and functions, and +artists and authors revel in their representation. The celestial +dragon guards the mansions of the gods and supports them lest they +fall; the spiritual dragon causes the winds to blow and rain to +descend for the service of mankind; the earth dragon marks out the +courses of rivers and streams; the dragon of the hidden treasures +watches over the wealth concealed from mortals, etc. Outwardly, the +dragon of superstition resembles the geological monsters brought to +resurrection by our paleontologists. He seems to incarnate all the +attributes and forces of animal life—vigor, rapidity of +motion, endurance, power of offence in horn, hoof, claw, tooth, +nail, scale and fiery breath. Being the embodiment of all force the +dragon is especially symbolical of the emperor. Usually associated +with malevolence, one sees, besides the conventional art and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21"></a>{21}</span> +literature of civilization, the primitive animistic idea of men to +whose mind this mysterious universe had no unity, who believed in +myriad discordant spirits but knew not of "one Law-giver, who is +able both to save and to destroy." An enlargement, possibly, of +prehistoric man's reminiscence of now extinct monsters, the dragon +is, in its artistic development, a mythical embodiment of all the +powers of moisture to bless and to harm. We shall see how, when +Buddhism entered China, the cobra-de-capello, so often figured in +the Buddhistic representations of India, is replaced by the +dragon.</p> +<p>Yet besides these four incarnations of the spirits that misrule +the world there is a host, a menagerie of mythical monsters. In +Korea, one of the Asian countries richest in demonology, beast +worship is very prevalent. Mythical winged tigers and flying +serpents with attributes of fire, lightning and combinations of +forces not found in any one creature, are common to the popular +fancy. In Japan, the <i>kappa</i>, half monkey half tortoise, which +seizes children bathing in the rivers, as real to millions of the +native common folk as is the shark or porpoise; the flying-weasel, +that moves in the whirlwind with sickle-like blades on his claws, +which cut the face of the unfortunate; the wind-god or imp that +lets loose the gale or storm; the thunder-imp or hairy, cat-like +creature that on the cloud-edges beats his drums in crash, roll, or +rattle; the earthquake-fish or subterranean bull-head or cat-fish +that wriggles and writhes, causing the earth to shiver, shudder and +open; the <i>ja</i> or dragon centipede; the <i>tengu</i> or +long-nosed and winged mountain sprite, which acts as the messenger +of the gods, pulling out the tongues of fibbing, lying children; +besides the colossal spiders and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22"></a>{22}</span> mythical creatures of the old +story-books; the foxes, badgers, cats and other creatures which +transform themselves and "possess" human beings, still influence +the popular mind. These, once the old <i>kami</i> of the primitive +Japanese, or <i>kamui</i> of the aboriginal Aino, show the mental +soil and climate<a id="footnotetag1-16" name="footnotetag1-16"></a><a href="#footnote1-16"><sup>16</sup></a> +which were to condition the growth of the seed imported from other +lands, whether of Buddhism or Christianity. It is very hard to kill +a god while the old mind that grew and nourished him still remains +the same. Banish or brand a phantom or mind-shadow once worshipped +as divine, and it will appear as a fairy, a demon, a mythical +animal, or an <i>oni</i>; but to annihilate it requires many +centuries of higher culture.</p> +<p>As with the superstitions and survival of Animism and Fetichism +from our pagan ancestors among ourselves, many of the lingering +beliefs may be harmless, but over the mass of men in Japan and in +Chinese Asia they still exert a baleful influence. They make life +full of distress; they curtail human joy; they are a hindrance, to +spiritual progress and to civilization.</p> +<h3>Fetichism.</h3> +<p>The animistic tendency in that part of Asia dominated by the +Chinese world of ideas shows itself not only in a belief in +messengers or embodiments of divine malevolence or benevolence, but +also in the location of the spiritual influence in or upon an +inanimate object or fetich. Among men in Chinese Asia, from the +clodhopper to the gentleman, the inheritance of Fetichism from the +primeval ages is constantly noticeable. Let us glance at the term +itself.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23"></a>{23}</span> +<p>As the Chinaman's "Joss" is only his own pronunciation of the +Portuguese word <i>Deos</i>, or the Latin <i>Deus</i>, so the word +"fetich" is but the Portuguese modification of the Latin word +<i>facticius</i>, that is <i>feitiço</i>. Portugal, +beginning nearly five hundred years ago, had the honor of sending +the first ships and crews to explore the coasts of Africa and Asia, +and her sailors by this word, now Englished as fetich, described +the native charms or talismans. The word "fetichism" came into the +European languages through the work of Charles de Brosses, who, in +1760, wrote on "Du Culte des Dieux Fétiches." In Fetichism, +the "object is treated as having personal consciousness and power, +is talked with, worshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, petted or +ill-treated with reference to its past or future behavior to its +votaries."</p> +<p>Let me draw a picture from actual observation. I look out of the +windows of my house in Fukui. Here is a peasant who comes back +after the winter to prepare his field for cultivation. The man's +horizon of ideas, like his vocabulary, is very limited. His view of +actual life is bounded by a few rice-fields, a range of hills, and +the village near by. Possibly one visit to a city or large town has +enriched his experience. More probably, however, the wind and +clouds, the weather, the soil, crops and taxes, his family and food +and how to provide for them, are the main thoughts that occupy his +mind. Before he will strike mattock or spade in the soil, lay axe +to a tree, collect or burn underbrush, he will select a stone, a +slab of rock or a stick of wood, set it upon hill side or mud +field-boundary, and to this he will bow, prostrate himself or pray. +To him, this stone or stick is consecrated. It has power to placate +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24"></a>{24}</span> +the spirits and ward off their evil. It is the medium of +communication between him and them. Now, having attended, as he +thinks, to the proprieties in the case, he proceeds to dig, plough, +drain, put in order and treat soil or water, tree or other growth +as is most convenient for his purpose. His fetich is erected to +"the honorable spirits." Were this not attended to, some known or +unknown bad luck, sinister fortune, or calamity would befall him. +Here, then, is a fetich-worshipper. The stick or stone is the +medium of communication between the man and the spirits who can +bless or harm him, and which to his mind are as countlessly +numerous as the swarms of mosquitoes which he drives out of and +away from his summer cottage by smudge fires in August.</p> +<p>One need not travel in Yezo or Saghalin to see practical +Fetichism. Go where you will in Japan, there are fetich +worshippers. Among the country folk, the "<i>inaka</i>" of Japanese +parlance, Fetichism is seen in its grossest forms. Yet among +probably millions of Buddhists, especially of certain sects, the +Nichiren for example, and even among the rationalistic Confucians, +there are fetich-worshippers. Rare is the Japanese farmer, laborer, +mechanic, ward-man, or <i>hei-min</i> of any trade who does not +wear amulet, charm or other object which he regards with more or +less of reverence as having relation to the powers that help or +harm.<a id="footnotetag1-17" name="footnotetag1-17"></a><a href="#footnote1-17"><sup>17</sup></a> In most of the Buddhist temples +these amulets are sold for the benefit of the priests or of the +shrine or monastery. Not a few even of the gentry consider it best +to be on the safe side and wear in pouch or purse these protectors +against evil.</p> +<p>Of the 7,817,570 houses in the empire, enumerated <span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25"></a>{25}</span> in the +census of 1892, it is probable that seven millions of them are +subjects of insurance by fetich.<a id="footnotetag1-18" name="footnotetag1-18"></a><a href="#footnote1-18"><sup>18</sup></a> +They are guaranteed against fire, thieves, lightning, plague and +pestilence. It is because of money paid to the priests that the +wooden policies are duly nailed on the walls, and not on account of +the wise application of mathematical, financial or medical science. +Examine also the paper packages carefully tied and affixed above +the transom, decipher the writing in ink or the brand left by the +hot iron on the little slabs of pine-wood—there may be one or +a score of them—and what will you read? Names of the temples +with date of issue and seal of certificate from the priests, +mottoes or titles from sacred books, often only a Sanskrit letter +or monogram, of which the priest-pedler may long since have +forgotten the meaning. To build a house, select a cemetery or +proceed to any of the ordinary events of life without making use of +some sort of material fetich, is unusual, extraordinary and is +voted heterodox.</p> +<p>Long after the brutish stage of thought is past the fetichistic +instinct remains in the sacredness attached to the mere letter or +paper or parchment of the sacred book or writing, when used as +amulet, plaster or medicine. The survivals, even in Buddhism, of +ancient and prehistoric Fetichism are many and often with undenied +approval of the religious authorities, especially in those sects +which are themselves reversions to primitive and lower types of +religion.</p> +<p>Among the Ainos of Yezo and Saghalin the medicine-man or shaman +is decorated with fetichistic bric-à-brac of all sorts, and +these bits of shells, metals, and other clinking substances are +believed to be media of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26"></a>{26}</span> communication with mysterious influences +and forces. In Korea thousands of trees bedecked with fluttering +rags, clinking scraps of tin, metal or stone signify the same +thing. In Japan these primitive tinkling scraps and clinking +bunches of glass have long since become the <i>suzu</i> or +wind-bells seen on the pagoda which tintinabulate with every +passing breeze. The whittled sticks of the Aino, non-conductors of +evil and protectors of those who make and rear them, stuck up in +every place of awe or supposed danger, have in the slow evolution +of centuries become the innumerable flag-poles, banners and +streamers which one sees at their <i>matsuris</i> or temple +festivals. Millions of towels and handkerchiefs still flutter over +wells and on sacred trees. In old Japan the banners of an army +almost outnumbered the men who fought beneath them. Today, at times +they nearly conceal the temples from view.</p> +<p>The civilized Japanese, having passed far beyond the Aino's +stage of religion, still show their fetichistic instincts in the +veneration accorded to priestly inventions for raising +revenue.<a id="footnotetag1-19" name="footnotetag1-19"></a><a href="#footnote1-19"><sup>19</sup></a> This instinct lingers in the +faith accorded to medicine in the form of decoction, pill, bolus or +poultice made from the sacred writing and piously swallowed; in the +reverence paid to the idol for its own sake, and in the charm or +amulet worn by the soldier in his cap or by the gentleman in his +pill-box, tobacco-pouch or purse.</p> +<p>As the will of the worshipper who selects the fetich makes it +what it is, so also, by the exercise of that will he imagines he +can in a certain measure be the equal or superior of his god. Like +the Italian peasant who beats or scolds his bambino when his +prayers are not <span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27"></a>{27}</span> answered or his wishes gratified, so the +fetich is punished or not allowed to know what is going on, by +being covered up or hidden away. Instances of such rough handling +of their fetiches by the people are far from unknown in the Land of +Great Peace. At such childishness we may wonder and imagine that +fetich-worship is the very antipodes of religion; and yet it +requires but little study of the lower orders of mind and conduct +in Christendom to see how fetich-worship still lingers among people +called Christians, whether the fetich be the image of a saint or +the Virgin, or a verse of the Bible found at random and used much +as is a penny-toss to decide minor actions. Or, to look farther +south, what means the rabbit's foot carried in the pocket or the +various articles of faith now hanging in the limbo between religion +and folk-lore in various parts of our own country?</p> +<h3>Phallicism.</h3> +<p>Further illustrations of far Eastern Animism and Fetichism are +seen in forms once vastly more prevalent in Japan than now. Indeed, +so far improved off the face of the earth are they, that some are +already matters of memory or archæology, and their very +existence even in former days is nearly or wholly incredible to the +generation born since 1868—when Old Japan began to vanish in +dissolving views and New Japan to emerge. What the author has seen +with his own eyes, would amaze many Japanese born since 1868 and +the readers of the rhapsodies of tourists who study Japan from the +<i>jin-riki-sha</i>. Phases of tree and serpent worship are still +quite common, and will be probably for generations <span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28"></a>{28}</span> to come; but +the phallic shrines and emblems abolished by the government in 1872 +have been so far invisible to most living travellers and natives, +that their once general existence and use are now scarcely +suspected. Even profound scholars of the Japanese language and +literature whose work dates from after the year 1872 have scarcely +suspected the universality of phallic worship. Yet what we could +say of this cult and its emblems, especially in treating of +Shintō, the special ethnic faith of Japan, would be from sight +of our own eyes besides the testimony of many witnesses.<a id="footnotetag1-20" name="footnotetag1-20"></a><a href="#footnote1-20"><sup>20</sup></a></p> +<p>The cultus has been known in the Japanese archipelago from Riu +Kin to Yezo. Despite official edicts of abolition it is still +secretly practised by the "heathen," the <i>inaka</i> of Japan. +"Government law lasts three days," is an ancient proverb in Nippon. +Sharp eyes have, within three months of the writing of this line, +unearthed a phallic shrine within a stone's-throw of Shintō's +most sacred temples at Isé. Formerly, however, these +implements of worship were seen numerously—in the cornucopia +distributed in the temples, in the <i>matsuris</i> or religious +processions and in representation by various plastic +material—and all this until 1872, to an extent that is +absolutely incredible to all except the eye-witnesses, some of +whose written testimonies we possess. What seems to our mind +shocking and revolting was once a part of our own ancestors' faith, +and until very recently was the perfectly natural and innocent +creed of many millions of Japanese and is yet the same for tens of +thousands of them.</p> +<p>We may easily see why and how that which to us is a degrading +cult was not only closely allied to Shintō, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>{29}</span> but directly +fostered by and properly a part of it, as soon as we read the +account of the creation of the world, an contained in the national +"Book of Ancient Traditions," the "Kojiki." Several of the opening +paragraphs of this sacred book of Shintō are phallic myths +explaining cosmogony. Yet the myths and the cult are older than the +writing and are phases of primitive Japanese faith. The mystery of +fatherhood is to the primitive man the mystery of creation also. To +him neither the thought nor the word was at hand to put difference +and transcendental separation between him and what he worshipped as +a god.</p> +<p>Into the details of the former display and carriage of these now +obscene symbols in the popular celebrations; of the behavior of +even respectable citizens during the excitement and frenzy of the +festivals; of their presence in the wayside shrines; of the +philosophy, hideousness or pathos of the subject, we cannot here +enter. We simply call attention to their existence, and to a form +of thought, if not of religion, properly so-called, which has +survived all imported systems of faith and which shows what the +native or indigenous idea of divinity really is—an idea that +profoundly affects the organization of society. To the enlightened +Buddhist, Confucian, and even the modern Shintoist the +phallus-worshipper is a "heathen," a "pagan," and yet he still +practises his faith and rites. It is for us to hint at the powerful +influence such persistent ideas have upon Japanese morals and +civilization. Still further, we illustrate the basic fact which all +foreign religions and all missionaries, Confucian, Buddhist, +Mahometan or Christian must deal with, viz.: That the Eastern +Asiatic mind runs to pantheism <span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30"></a>{30}</span> as surely as the body of flesh +and blood seeks food.</p> +<h3>Tree and Serpent Worship.</h3> +<p>In prehistoric and medieval Japan, as among the Ainos to-day, +trees and serpents as well as rocks, rivers and other inanimate +objects were worshipped, because such of them as were supposed for +reasons known and felt to be awe-inspiring or wonderful were +"kami," that is, above the common, wonderful.<a id="footnotetag1-21" name="footnotetag1-21"></a><a href="#footnote1-21"><sup>21</sup></a> This word kami is usually +translated god or deity, but the term does not conform to our +ideas, by a great gulf of difference. It is more than probable that +the Japanese term kami is the same as the Aino word <i>kamui</i>, +and that the despised and conquered aboriginal savage has furnished +the mould of the ordinary Japanese idea of god—which even +to-day with them means anything wonderful or extraordinary.<a id="footnotetag1-22" name="footnotetag1-22"></a><a href="#footnote1-22"><sup>22</sup></a> From the days before history the +people have worshipped trees, and do so yet, considering them as +the abodes of and as means of communication with supernatural +powers. On them the people hang their votive offerings, twist on +the branches their prayers written on paper, avoid cutting down, +breaking or in any way injuring certain trees. The <i>sakaki</i> +tree is especially sacred, even to this day, in funeral or +Shintō services. To wound or defile a tree sacred to a +particular god was to call forth the vengeance of the insulted +deity upon the insulter, or as the hearer of prayer upon another to +whom guilt was imputed and punishment was due.</p> +<p>Thus, in the days older than this present generation, but still +within this century, as the writer has witnessed, it was the custom +of women betrayed by <span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>{31}</span> their lovers to perform the religious act +of vengeance called <i>Ushi toki mairi</i>, or going to the temple +at the hour of the ox, that is at 2 A.M. First making an image or +manikin of straw, she set out on her errand of revenge, with nails +held in her mouth and with hammer in one hand and straw figure in +the other, sometimes also having on her head a reversed tripod in +which were stuck three lighted candles. Arriving at the shrine she +selected a tree dedicated to a god, and then nailed the straw +simulacrum of her betrayer to the trunk, invoking the kami to curse +and annihilate the destroyer of her peace. She adjures the god to +save his tree, impute the guilt of desecration to the traitor and +visit him with deadly vengeance. The visit is repeated and nails +are driven until the object of the incantation sickens and dies, or +is at least supposed to do so. I have more than once seen such +trees and straw images upon them, and have observed others in which +the large number of rusted nails and fragments of straw showed how +tenaciously the superstition lingered.<a id="footnotetag1-23" name="footnotetag1-23"></a><a href="#footnote1-23"><sup>23</sup></a></p> +<p>In instances more pleasant to witness, may be seen trees +festooned with the symbolical rice-straw in cords and fringes. With +these the people honor the trees as the abode of the kami, or as +evidence of their faith in the renown accredited in the past.</p> +<p>In common with most human beings the Japanese consider the +serpent an object of mystery and awe, but most of them go further +and pay the ophidian a reverence and awe which is worship. Their +oldest literature shows how large a part the serpent played in the +so-called divine age, how it acted as progenitress of the Mikado's +ancestry, and how it afforded means <span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id="page32"></a>{32}</span> of incarnation for the kami or +gods. Ten species of ophidia are known in the Japanese islands, but +in the larger number of more or less imaginary varieties which +figure in the ancient books we shall find plenty of material for +fetich-worship. In perusing the "Kojiki" one scarcely knows, when +he begins a story, whether the character which to all appearance is +a man or woman is to end as a snake, or whether the mother after +delivering her child will or will not glide into the marsh or slide +away into the sea, leaving behind a trail of slime. A dragon is +three-fourths serpent, and both the dragon and the serpent are +prominent figures, perhaps the most prominent of the kami or gods +in human or animal form in the "Kojiki" and other early legends of +the gods, though the crocodile, crow, deer, dog, and other animals +are kami.<a id="footnotetag1-24" name="footnotetag1-24"></a><a href="#footnote1-24"><sup>24</sup></a> It +is therefore no wonder that serpents have been and are still +worshipped by the people, that some of their gods and goddesses are +liable at any time to slip away in scaly form, that famous temples +are built on sites noted as being the abode or visible place of the +actual water or land snake of natural history, and that the spot +where a serpent is seen to-day is usually marked with a sacred +emblem or a shrine.<a id="footnotetag1-25" name="footnotetag1-25"></a><a href="#footnote1-25"><sup>25</sup></a> We +shall see how this snake-worship became not only a part of +Shintō but even a notable feature in corrupt Buddhism.</p> +<h3>Pantheism's Destruction of Boundaries. <a id="footnotetag1-26" +name="footnotetag1-26"></a><a href="#footnote1-26"><sup>26</sup></a></h3> +<p>In its rudest forms, this pantheism branches out into animism or +shamanism, fetichism and phallicism. In its higher forms, it +becomes polytheism, idolatry and defective philosophy. Having +centuries ago corrupted <span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33"></a>{33}</span> Buddhism it is the malaria which, unseen +and unfelt, is ready to poison and corrupt Christianity. Indeed, it +has already given over to disease and spiritual death more than one +once hopeful Christian believer, teacher and preacher in the Japan +of our decade.</p> +<p>To assault and remove the incubus, to replace and refill the +mind, to lift up and enlighten the Japanese peasant, science as +already known and faith in one God, Creator and Father of all +things, must go hand in hand. Education and civilization will do +much for the ignorant <i>inaka</i> or boors, but for the cultured +whose minds waver and whose feet flounder, as well as for the +unlearned and priest-ridden, there is no surer help and healing +than that faith in the Heavenly Father which gives the unifying +thought to him who looks into creation.</p> +<p>Keep the boundary line clear between God and his world and all +is order and discrimination. Obliterate that boundary and all is +pathless morass, black chaos and on the mind the phantasms which +belong to the victim of <i>delirium tremens</i>.</p> +<p>There is one Lawgiver. In the beginning, God. In the end, God, +all in all.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>{35}</span> +<h2><a name="chap2" id="chap2">SHINTŌ: MYTHS AND RITUAL</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>{36}</span> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"In the great days of old,</p> +<p>When o'er the land the gods held sov'reign sway,</p> +<p>Our fathers lov'd to say</p> +<p>That the bright gods with tender care enfold</p> +<p>The fortunes of Japan,</p> +<p>Blessing the land with many an holy spell:</p> +<p>And what they loved to tell,</p> +<p>We of this later age ourselves do prove;</p> +<p>For every living man</p> +<p>May feast his eyes on tokens of their love."</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Poem of Yamagami-no Okura,</p> +<p class="i2">A.D. 733.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Baal: "While I on towers and banging terraces,</p> +<p>In shaft and obelisk, behold my sign.</p> +<p>Creative, shape of first imperious law."</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—Bayard Taylor's "Masque of the Gods."</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p>"Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my +silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of +men, and didst commit whoredom with them, and tookest thy broidered +garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine +incense before them. My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, +and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it +before them for a sweet savor: and thus it was, saith the Lord +GOD."—Ezekiel.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p>If it be said (as has been the case), 'Shintoism has nothing in +it,' we should be inclined to answer, 'So much the better, there is +less error to counteract.' But there <i>is</i> something in it, and +that ... of a kind of which we may well avail ourselves when making +known the second commandment, and the 'fountain of cleansing from +all sin.'"—E.W. Syle.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p>"If Shintō has a dogma, it is purity."—Kaburagi.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p>"I will wash my hands in innocency, O Lord: and so will I go to +thine altar."—Ps. xxvi. 6.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>{37}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER II - SHINTŌ: MYTHS AND RITUAL</h2> +<h3>The Japanese a Young Nation.</h3> +<p>What impresses us in the study of the history of Japan is that, +compared with China and Korea, she is young. Her history is as the +story of yesterday. The nation is modern. The Japanese are as +younger children in the great family of Asia's historic people. +Broadly speaking, Japan is no older than England, and authentic +Japanese history no more ancient than British history. In Albion, +as in the Honorable Country, there are traditions and mythologies +that project their shadows aeons back of genuine records; but if we +consider that English history begins in the fifth, and English +literature in the eighth century, then there are other reasons +besides those commonly given for calling Japan "the England of the +East."</p> +<p>No trustworthy traditions exist which carry the known history of +Japan farther back than the fifth century. The means for measuring +and recording time were probably not in use until the sixth +century. The oldest documents in the Japanese language, excepting a +few fragments of the seventh century, do not antedate the year 712, +and even in these the Chinese characters are in many instances used +phonetically, because the meaning of the words thus transliterated +had <span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>{38}</span> already been forgotten. Hence their +interpretation in detail is still largely a matter of +conjecture.</p> +<p>Yet the Japanese Archipelago was inhabited long before the dawn +of history. The concurrent testimony of the earliest literary +monuments, of the indigenous mythology, of folk-lore, of +shell-heaps and of kitchen-middens shows that the occupation by +human beings of the main islands must be ascribed to times long +before the Christian era. Before written records or ritual of +worship, religion existed on its active or devotional side, and +there were mature growths of thought preserved and expressed +orally. Poems, songs, chants and <i>norito</i> or liturgies were +kept alive in the human memory, and there was a system of worship, +the <i>name</i> of which was given long after the introduction of +Buddhism. This descriptive term, Kami no Michi in Japanese, and +Shin-tō in the Chinese as pronounced by Japanese, means the Way +of the Gods, the tō or final syllable being the same as tao in +Taoism. We may say that Shintō means, literally, theoslogos, +theology. The customs and practices existed centuries before +contact with Chinese letters, and long previous to the Shintō +literature which is now extant.</p> +<p>Whether Kami no Michi is wholly the product of Japanese soil, or +whether its rudimentary ideas were imported from the neighboring +Asian continent and more or less allied to the primitive Chinese +religion, is still an open question. The preponderance of argument +tends, however, to show that it was an importation as to its +origin, for not a few events outlined in the Japanese mythology +cast shadows of reminiscence upon Korea or the Asian mainland. In +its development, however, the cultus is almost wholly Japanese. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39"></a>{39}</span> +The modern forms of Shintō, as moulded by the revivalists of the +eighteenth century, are at many points notably different from the +ancient faith. At the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago, +Shintō seemed to be the only one, and probably the last, of the +purely provincial religions.</p> +<p>In order to gain a picture of life in Japan before the +introduction of Chinese civilization, we must consult those +photographs of the minds of the ancient islanders which still exist +in their earliest literature. The fruits of the study of ethnology, +anthropology and archaeology greatly assist us in picturing the +day-break of human life in the Morning Land. In preparing materials +for the student of the religions of Japan many laborers have +wrought in various fields, but the chief literary honors have been +taken by the English scholars, Messrs. Satow,<a id="footnotetag2-1" +name="footnotetag2-1"></a><a href="#footnote2-1"><sup>1</sup></a> +Aston,<a id="footnotetag2-2" name="footnotetag2-2"></a><a href="#footnote2-2"><sup>2</sup></a> and Chamberlain.<a id="footnotetag2-3" name="footnotetag2-3"></a><a href="#footnote2-3"><sup>3</sup></a> These untiring workers have opened +the treasures of ancient thought in the Altaic world.<a id="footnotetag2-4" name="footnotetag2-4"></a><a href="#footnote2-4"><sup>4</sup></a></p> +<p>Although even these archaic Japanese compositions, readable +to-day only by special scholars, are more or less affected by +Chinese influences, ideas and modes of expression, yet they are in +the main faithful reflections of the ancient life before the +primitive faith of the Japanese people was either disturbed or +reduced to system in presence of an imported religion. These +monuments of history, poetry and liturgies are the "Kojiki," or +Notices of Ancient Things; the "Manyöshu" or Myriad Leaves or +Poems, and the "Norito," or Liturgies.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>{40}</span> +<h3>The Ancient Documents.</h3> +<p>The first book, the "Kojiki," gives us the theology, cosmogony, +mythology, and very probably, in its later portions, some outlines +of history of the ancient Japanese. The "Kojiki" is the real, the +dogmatic exponent, or, if we may so say, the Bible, of Shintō. +The "Manyōshu," or Book of Myriad Poems, expresses the thoughts +and feelings; reflects the manners and customs of the primitive +generations, and, in the same sense as do the Sagas of the +Scandinavians, furnishes us unchronological but interesting and +more or less real narratives of events which have been glorified by +the poets and artists. The ancient codes of law and of ceremonial +procedure are of great value, while the "Norito" are excellent +mirrors in which to see reflected the religion called Shintō on +the more active side of worship.</p> +<p>In a critical study, either of the general body of national +tradition or of the ancient documents, we must continually be on +our guard against the usual assumption that Chinese civilization +came in earlier than it really did. This assumption colors all +modern Japanese popular ideas, art and literature. The vice of the +pupil nations surrounding the Middle Kingdom is their desire to +have it believed that Chinese letters and culture among them is an +nearly coeval with those of China as can be made truly or falsely +to appear. The Koreans, for example, would have us believe that +their civilization, based on letters and introduced by Kishi, is +"four thousand years old" and contemporaneous with China's own, and +that "the Koreans are among the oldest people of the world."<a id="footnotetag2-5" name="footnotetag2-5"></a><a href="#footnote2-5"><sup>5</sup></a> The average modern <span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41"></a>{41}</span> Japanese +wishes the date of authentic or official history projected as far +back as possible. Yet he is a modest man compared with his +mediæval ancestor, who constructed chronology out of +ink-stones. Over a thousand years ago a deliberate forgery was +officially put on paper. A whole line of emperors who never lived +was canonized, and clever penmen set down in ink long chapters +which describe what never happened.<a id="footnotetag2-6" name="footnotetag2-6"></a><a href="#footnote2-6"><sup>6</sup></a> +Furthermore, even after, and only eight years after the fairly +honest "Kojiki" had been compiled, the book called "Nihongi," or +Chronicles of Japan, was written. All the internal and not a little +external evidence shows that the object of this book is to give the +impression that Chinese ideas, culture and learning had long been +domesticated in Japan. The "Nihongi" gives dates of events supposed +to have happened fifteen hundred years before, with an accuracy +which may be called villainous; while the "Kojiki" states that +Wani, a Korean teacher, brought the "Thousand Character Classic" to +Japan in A.D. 285, though that famous Chinese book was not composed +until the sixth century, or A.D. 550.<a id="footnotetag2-7" name="footnotetag2-7"></a><a href="#footnote2-7"><sup>7</sup></a></p> +<p>Even to this day it is nearly impossible for an American to get +a Korean "frog in the well"<a id="footnotetag2-8" name="footnotetag2-8"></a><a href="#footnote2-8"><sup>8</sup></a> to +understand why the genuine native life and history, language and +learning of his own peninsular country is of greater value to the +student than the pedantry borrowed from China. Why these possess +any interest to a "scholar" is a mystery to the head in the +horsehair net. Anything of value, he thinks, <i>must</i> be on the +Chinese model. What is not Chinese is foolish and fit for women and +children only. Furthermore, Korea "always had" Chinese learning. +This is the sum of the arguments <span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42"></a>{42}</span> of the Korean literati, even +as it used to be of the old-time hatless Yedo scholar of shaven +skull and topknot.</p> +<p>Despite Japanese independence and even arrogance in certain +other lines, the thought of the demolition of cherished notions of +vast antiquity is very painful. Critical study of ancient +traditions is still dangerous, even in parliamentary Nippon. Hence +the unbiassed student must depend on his own reading of and +judgment upon the ancient records, assisted by the thorough work +done by the English scholars Aston, Satow, Chamberlain, Bramsen and +others.</p> +<p>It was the coming of Buddhism in the sixth century, and the +implanting on the soil of Japan of a system of religion in which +were temples with all that was attractive to the eye, gorgeous +ritual, scriptures, priesthood, codes of morals, rigid discipline, +a system of dogmatics in which all was made positive and clear, +that made the variant myths and legends somewhat uniform. The faith +of Shaka, by winning adherents both at the court and among the +leading men of intelligence, reacted upon the national traditions +so as to compel their collection and arrangemeut into definite +formulas. In due time the mythology, poetry and ritual was, as we +have seen, committed to writing and the whole system called +Shintō, in distinction from Butsudō, the Way of the Gods from +the Way of the Buddhas. Thus we can see more clearly the outward +and visible manifestations of Shintō. In forming our judgment, +however, we must put aside those descriptions which are found in +the works of European writers, from Marco Polo and Mendez Pinto +down to the year 1870. Though these were good observers, they were +often necessarily mistaken in their deductions. For, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43"></a>{43}</span> as we shall +see in our lecture on Riyōbu or Mixed Buddhism, Shintō was, +from the ninth century until late into the nineteenth century, +absorbed in Buddhism so as to be next to invisible.</p> +<h3>Origins of the Japanese People.</h3> +<p>Without detailing processes, but giving only results, our view +of the origin of the Japanese people and of their religion is in +the main as follows:</p> +<p>The oldest seats of human habitation in the Japanese Archipelago +lie between the thirtieth and thirty-eighth parallels of north +latitude. South of the thirty-fourth parallel, it seems, though +without proof of writing or from tradition, that the Malay type and +blood from the far south probably predominated, with, however, much +infusion from the northern Asian mainland.</p> +<p>Between the thirty-fourth and thirty-sixth parallels, and west +of the one hundred and thirty-eighth meridian of longitude, may be +found what is still the choicest, richest and most populous part of +The Country Between Heaven and Earth. Here the prevailing element +was Korean and Tartar.</p> +<p>To the north and east of this fair country lay the Emishi +savages, or Ainos.</p> +<p>In "the world" within the ken of the prehistoric dwellers in +what is now the three islands, Hondo, Kiushiu and Shikoku, there +was no island of Yezu and no China; while Korea was but slightly +known, and the lands farther westward were unheard of except as the +home of distant tribes.</p> +<p>Three distinct lines of tradition point to the near <span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44"></a>{44}</span> peninsula or +the west coast of Japan as the "Heaven" whence descended the tribe +which finally grew to be dominant. The islands of Tsushima and Iki +were the stepping-stones of the migration out of which rose what +may be called the southern or Tsukushi cycle of legend, Tsukushi +being the ancient name of Kiushiu.</p> +<p>Idzumo is the holy land whence issued the second stream of +tradition.</p> +<p>The third course of myth and legend leads us into Yamato, whence +we behold the conquest of the Mikado's home-land and the extension +of his name and influence into the regions east of the +Hakoné Mountains, including the great plain of Yedo, where +modern Tōkiō now stands.</p> +<p>We shall take the term "Yamato" as the synonym of the +prehistoric but discernible beginnings of national life. It +represents the seat of the tribe whose valor and genius ultimately +produced the Mikado system. It was through this house or tribe that +Japanese history took form. The reverence for the ruler long +afterward entitled "Son of Heaven" is the strongest force in the +national history. The spirit and prowess of these early conquerors +have left an indelible impress upon the language and the mind of +the nation in the phrase Yamato Damashi—the spirit of (Divine +and unconquerable) Japan.</p> +<p>The story of the conquest of the land, in its many phases, +recalls that of the Aryans in India, of the Hebrews in Canaan, of +the Romans in Europe and of the Germanic races in North America. +The Yamato men gradually advanced to conquest under the impulse, as +they believed, of a divine command.<a id="footnotetag2-9" name="footnotetag2-9"></a><a href="#footnote2-9"><sup>9</sup></a> They +were sent from Takama-no-hara, the High Plain of Heaven. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45"></a>{45}</span> +Theirs was the war, of men with a nobler creed, having agriculture +and a feudal system of organization which furnished resources for +long campaigns, against hunters and fishermen. They had improved +artillery and used iron against stone. Yet they conquered and +pacified not only by superior strategy, tactics, weapons and valor, +but also by advanced fetiches and dogma. They captured the religion +of their enemies as well as their bodies, lands and resources. They +claimed that their ancestors were from Heaven, that the Sun was +their kinswoman and that their chief, or Mikado, was vicegerent of +the Heavenly gods, but that those whom they conquered were +earth-born or sprung from the terrestrial divinities.</p> +<h3>Mikadoism the Heart of Shintō.</h3> +<p>As success came to their arms and their chief's power was made +more sure, they developed further the dogma of the Mikado's +divinity and made worship centre in him as the earthly +representative of the Sun and Heaven. His fellow-conquerors and +ministers, as fast as they were put in lordship over conquered +provinces, or indigenous chieftains who submitted obediently to his +sway or yielded graciously to his prowess, were named as founders +of temples and in later generations worshipped and became +gods.<a id="footnotetag2-10" name="footnotetag2-10"></a><a href="#footnote2-10"><sup>10</sup></a> One of the motives for, and one +of the guiding principles in the selections of the floating myths, +was that the ancestry of the chieftains loyal to the Mikado might +be shown to be from the heavenly gods. Both the narratives of the +"Kojiki" and the liturgies show this clearly.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>{46}</span> +<p>The nature-worship, which was probably practised throughout the +whole archipelago, became part of the system as government and +society were made uniform on the Yamato model. It seems at least +possible, if Buddhism had not come in so soon, that the ordinary +features of a religion, dogmatic and ethical codes, would have been +developed. In a word, the Kami no Michi, or religion of the +islanders in prehistoric times before the rise of Mikadoism, must +be carefully distinguished from the politico-ecclesiasticism which +the system called Shintō reveals and demands. The early +religion, first in the hands of politicians and later under the +pens and voices of writers and teachers at the Imperial Court, +became something very different from its original form. As surely +as Kōbō later captured Shintō, making material for +Buddhism out of it and overlaying it in Riyōbu, so the Yamato +men made political capital out of their own religion and that of +the subject tribes. The divine sovereign of Japan and his political +church did exactly what the state churches of Europe, both pagan +and Christian, have done before and since the Christian era.</p> +<p>Further, in studying the "Kojiki," we must remember that the +sacred writings sprang out of the religion, and that the system was +not an evolution from the book. Customs, ritual, faith and prayer +existed long before they were written about or recorded in ink. +Moreover, the philosophy came later than the practice, the deeds +before the myths, and the joy and terror of the visible universe +before the cosmogony or theogony, while the book-preface was +probably written last of all.</p> +<p>The sun was first, and then came the wonder, admiration and +worship of men. The personification and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>{47}</span> pedigree of +the sun were late figments. To connect their ancestors with the +sun-goddess and the heavenly gods, was a still later enterprise of +the "Mikado reverencers" of this earlier time. Both the god-way in +its early forms and Shintō in its later development, were to +them political as well as ecclesiastical institutes of dogma. Both +the religion which they themselves brought and cultivated and the +aboriginal religion which the Yamato men found, were used as +engines in the making of Mikadoism, which is the heart of +Shintō.</p> +<p>Not until two centuries after the coming of Buddhism and of +Asiatic civilization did it occur to the Japanese to reduce to +writing the floating legends and various cycles of tradition which +had grown up luxuriantly in different parts of "the empire," or to +express in the Chinese character the prayers and thanksgivings +which had been handed down orally through many generations. These +norito had already assumed elegant literary form, rich in poetic +merit, long before Chinese writing was known. They, far more than +the less certain philosophy of the "Kojiki," are of undoubted +native origin. It is nearly certain that the prehistoric Japanese +did not borrow the literary forms of the god-way from China, as any +one familiar with the short, evenly balanced and antithetical +sentences of Chinese style can see at once. The norito are +expressions, in the rhythmical and rhetorical form of worship, of +the articles of faith set forth in the historic summary which we +have given. We propose to illustrate the dogmas by quoting from the +rituals in Mr. Satow's masterly translation. The following was +addressed to the sun-goddess (Amatérasŭ no Mikami, or the +From-Heaven-Shining-Great-Deity) <span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48"></a>{48}</span> by the priest-envoy of the +priestly Nakatomi family sent annually to the temples at +Isé, the Mecca of Shintō. The <i>sevran</i> referred to +in the ritual is the Mikado. This word and all the others printed +in capitals are so rendered in order to express in English the +force of "an untranslatable honorific syllable, supposed to be +originally identical with a root meaning 'true,' but no longer +possessing that signification." Instead of the word "earth," that +of "country" (Japan) is used as the correlative of Heaven.</p> +<h4>Ritual in Praise of the Sun-goddess.</h4> +<blockquote> +<p>He (the priest-envoy) says: Hear all of you, ministers of the +gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the great ritual, the heavenly +ritual, declared in the great presence of the +From-Heaven-Shining-Great-DEITY, whose praises are fulfilled by +setting up the stout pillars of the great HOUSE, and exalting the +cross-beams to the plain of high heaven at the sources of the Isuzu +River at Uji in Watarai.</p> +<p>He says: It is the sovran's great WORD. Hear all of you, +ministers of the gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the fulfilling +of praises on this seventeenth day of the sixth moon of this year, +as the morning sun goes up in glory, of the Oho-Nakatomi, +who—having abundantly piled up like a range of hills the +TRIBUTE thread and sanctified LIQUOR and FOOD presented as of usage +by the people of the deity's houses attributed to her in the three +departments and in various countries and places, so that she deign +to bless his [the Mikado's] LIFE as a long LIFE, and his AGE as a +luxuriant AGE eternally and unchangingly as multitudinous piles of +rock; may deign to bless the CHILDREN who are born to him, and +deigning to cause to flourish the five kinds of grain which the men +of a hundred functions and the peasants of the countries in the +four quarters of the region under heaven long and peacefully +cultivate and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>{49}</span> eat, and guarding and benefiting them to +deign to bless them—is hidden by the great +offering-wands.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the Imperial City the ritual services were very imposing. +Those in expectation of the harvest were held in the great hall of +the Jin-Gi-Kuan, or Council of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. The +description of the ceremonial is given by Mr. Satow.<a id="footnotetag2-11" name="footnotetag2-11"></a><a href="#footnote2-11"><sup>11</sup></a> In the prayers offered to the +sun-goddess for harvest, and in thanksgiving to her for bestowing +dominion over land and sea upon her descendant the Mikado, occurs +the following passage:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>I declare in the great presence of the +From-Heaven-Shining-Great-DEITY who sits in Isé. Because the +sovran great GODDESS bestows on him the countries of the four +quarters over which her glance extends, as far as the limit where +heaven stands up like a wall, as far as the bounds where the +country stands up distant, as far as the limit where the blue +clouds spread flat, as far as the bounds where the white clouds lie +away fallen—the blue sea plain as far as the limit whither +come the prows of the ships without drying poles or paddles, the +ships which continuously crowd on the great sea plain, and the road +which men travel by land, as far as the limit whither come the +horses' hoofs, with the baggage-cords tied tightly, treading the +uneven rocks and tree-roots and standing up continuously in a long +path without a break—making the narrow countries wide and the +hilly countries plain, and as it were drawing together the distant +countries by throwing many tons of ropes over them—he will +pile up the first-fruits like a range of hills in the great +presence of the sovran great GODDESS, and will peacefully enjoy the +remainder.</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>Phallic Symbols.</h3> +<p>To form one's impression of the Kami no Michi wholly from the +poetic liturgies, the austere simplicity of the miyas or shrines, +or the worship at the palace or <span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50"></a>{50}</span> capital, would be as +misleading as to gather our ideas of the status of popular +education from knowing only of the scholars at court. Among the +common people the real basis of the god-way was ancestor-worship. +From the very first this trait and habit of the Japanese can be +discerned. Their tenacity in holding to it made the Confucian +ethics more welcome when they came. Furthermore, this reverence for +the dead profoundly influenced and modified Buddhism, so that today +the altars of both religions exist in the same house, the dead +ancestors becoming both kami and buddhas.</p> +<p>Modern taste has removed from sight what were once the common +people's symbols of the god-way, that is of ancestor worship. The +extent of the phallus cult and its close and even vital connection +with the god-way, and the general and innocent use of the now +prohibited emblems, tax severely the credulity of the Occidental +reader. The processes of the ancient mind can hardly be understood +except by vigorous power of the imagination and by sympathy with +the primeval man. To the critical student, however, who has lived +among the people and the temples devoted to this worship, who knows +how innocent and how truly sincere and even reverent and devout in +the use of these symbols the worshippers are, the matter is +measurably clear. He can understand the soil, root and flower even +while the most strange specimen is abhorrent to his taste, and +while he is most active in destroying that mental climate in which +such worship, whether native or exotic, can exist and flourish.</p> +<p>In none of the instances in which I have been eyewitness of the +cult, of the person officiating or of the emblem, have I had any +reason to doubt the sincerity <span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51"></a>{51}</span> of the worshipper. I have +never had reason to look upon the implements or the system as +anything else than the endeavor of man to solve the mystery of +Being and Power. In making use of these emblems, the Japanese +worshipper simply professes his faith in such solution as has +seemed to him attainable.</p> +<p>That this cultus was quite general in pre-Buddhistic Japan, as +in many other ancient countries, is certain from the proofs of +language, literature, external monuments and relics which are +sufficiently numerous. Its organic connection with the god-way may +be clearly shown.</p> +<p>To go farther back in point of time than the "Kojiki," we find +that even before the development of art in very ancient Japan, the +male gods were represented by a symbol which thus became an image +of the deity himself. This token was usually made of stone, though +often of wood, and in later times of terra-cotta, of cast and +wrought iron and even of gold.<a id="footnotetag2-12" name="footnotetag2-12"></a><a href="#footnote2-12"><sup>12</sup></a></p> +<p>Under the direct influence of such a cult, other objects +appealed to the imagination or served the temporary purpose of the +worshipper as <i>ex-voto</i> to hang up in the shrines, such as the +mushroom, awabi, various other shells and possibly the fire-drill. +It is only in the decay of the cultus, in the change of view and +centre of thought compelled by another religion, that +representations of the old emblems ally themselves with sensualism +or immorality. It is that natural degradation of one man's god into +another man's devil, which conversion must almost of necessity +bring, that makes the once revered symbol "obscene," and talk about +it become, in a descending scale, dirty, foul, filthy, nasty. That +the Japanese suffer from the moral <span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52"></a>{52}</span> effluvia of a decayed cult +which was once as the very vertebral column of the national body of +religion, is evident to every one who acquaints himself with their +popular speech and literature.</p> +<p>How closely and directly phallicism is connected with the +god-way, and why there were so many Shintō temples devoted to +this latter cult and furnished with symbols, is shown by study of +the "Kojiki." The two opening sections of this book treat of kami +that were in the minds even of the makers of the myths little more +than mud and water<a id="footnotetag2-13" name="footnotetag2-13"></a><a href="#footnote2-13"><sup>13</sup></a>—the mere bioplasm of deity. +The seven divine generations are "born," but do nothing except that +they give Izanagi and Izanami a jewelled spear. With this pair come +differentiation of sex. It is immediately on the apparition of the +consciousness of sex that motion, action and creation begin, and +the progress of things visible ensues. The details cannot be put +into English, but it is enough, besides noting the conversation and +union of the pair, to say that the term meaning giving birth to, +refers to inanimate as well as animate things. It is used in +reference to the islands which compose the archipelago as well as +to the various kami which seem, in many cases, to be nothing more +than the names of things or places.</p> +<h3>Fire-myths and Ritual.</h3> +<p>Fire is, in a sense, the foundation and first necessity of +civilization, and it is interesting to study the myths as to the +origin of fire, and possibly even more interesting to compare the +Greek and Japanese stories. As we know, old-time popular etymology +makes Prometheus the fore-thinker and brother of Epimetheus the +after-thinker. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53"></a>{53}</span> He is the stealer of the fire from heaven, +in order to make men share the secret of the gods. Comparative +philology tells us, however, that the Sanskrit <i>Pramantha</i> is +a stick that produces fire. The "Kojiki" does indeed contain what +is probably the later form of the fire-myth about two brothers, +Prince Fire-Shine and Fire-Fade, which suggests both the later +Greek myth of the fore- and after-thinker and a tradition of a +flood. The first, and most probably older, myth in giving the +origin of fire does it in true Japanese style, with details of +parturition. After numerous other deities had been born of Izanagi +and Izanami, it is said "that they gave birth to the +Fire-Burning-Swift-Male-Deity, another name for whom is the +Deity-Fire-Shining-Prince, and another name is the +Deity-Fire-Shining-Elder." In the other ancient literature this +fire-god is called Ho-musubi, the Fire-Producer.</p> +<p>Izanami yielded up her life upon the birth of her son, the +fire-god; or, as the sacred text declares, she "divinely +retired"<a id="footnotetag2-14" name="footnotetag2-14"></a><a href="#footnote2-14"><sup>14</sup></a> into Hades. From her corpse +sprang up the pairs of gods of clay, of metal, and other kami that +possessed the potency of calming or subduing fire, for clay resists +and water extinguishes. Between the mythical and the liturgical +forms of the original narrative there is considerable +variation.</p> +<p>The Norito entitled the "Quieting of Fire" gives the ritual form +of the myth. It contains, like so many Norito, less the form of +prayer to the Fire-Producer than a promise of offerings. Not so +much by petitions as by the inducements of gifts did the ancient +worshippers hope to save the palace of the Mikado from the +fire-god's wrath. We omit from the text those details which are +offensive to modern and western taste.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54"></a>{54}</span> +<blockquote> +<p>I declare with the great ritual, the heavenly ritual, which was +bestowed on him at the time when, by the WORD of the Sovran's dear +progenitor and progenitrix, who divinely remain in the plain of +high heaven, they bestowed on him the region under heaven, +saying:</p> +<p>"Let the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness tranquilly rule over the +country of fresh spikes which flourishes in the midst of the +reed-moor as a peaceful region."</p> +<p>When ... Izanami ... had deigned to bear the many hundred +myriads of gods, she also deigned to bear her dear youngest child +of all, the Fire-producer god, ... and said:</p> +<p>"My dear elder brother's augustness shall rule the upper +country; I will rule the lower country," she deigned to hide in the +rocks; and having come to the flat hills of darkness, she thought +and said: "I have come hither, having borne and left a bad-hearted +child in the upper country, ruled over by my illustrious elder +brother's augustness," and going back she bore other children. +Having borne the water-goddess, the gourd, the river-weed, and the +clay-hill maiden, four sorts of things, she taught them with words, +and made them to know, saying: "If the heart of this bad-hearted +child becomes violent, let the water-goddess take the gourd, and +the clay-hill maiden take the river-weed, and pacify him."</p> +<p>In consequence of this I fulfil his praises, and say that for +the things set up, so that he may deign not to be awfully quick of +heart in the great place of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness, +there are provided bright cloth, glittering cloth, soft cloth, and +coarse cloth, and the five kinds of things; as to things which +dwell in the blue-sea plain, there are things wide of fin and +narrow of fin, down to the weeds of the shore; as to LIQUOR, +raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in rows the bellies +of the beer-jars, piling the offerings up, even to rice in grain +and rice in ear, like a range of hills, I fulfil his praises with +the great ritual, the heavenly ritual.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Izanagi, after shedding tears over his consort, whose death was +caused by the birth of the fire-god, slays the fire-god, and +follows her into the Root-land, or Hades, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55"></a>{55}</span> whereupon +begins another round of wonderful stories of the birth of many +gods. Among these, though evidently out of another cycle of +legends, is the story of the birth of the three +gods—Fire-Shine, Fire-Climax and Fire-Fade, to which we have +already referred.</p> +<p>The fire-drill mentioned in the "Kojiki" suggests easily the +same line of thought with the myths of cosmogony and theogony, and +it is interesting to note that this archaic implement is still used +at the sacred temples of Isé to produce fire. After the +virgin priestesses perform the sacred dances in honor of local +deities the water for their bath is heated by fires kindled by +heaps of old <i>harai</i> or amulets made from temple-wood bought +at the Mecca of Japan. It is even probable that the retention of +the fire-drill in the service of Shintō is but a survival of +phallicism.</p> +<p>The liturgy for the pacification of the gods of fire is worth +noticing. The full form of the ritual, when compared with a legend +in the "Nihongi," shows that a myth was "partly devised to explain +the connection of an hereditary family of priests with the god +whose shrine they served; it is possible that the claim to be +directly descended from the god had been disputed." The Norito +first recites poetically the descent of Ninigi, the grandchild of +the sun-goddess from heaven, and the quieting of the turbulent +kami.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>I (the diviner), declare: When by the WORD of the progenitor and +progenitrix, who divinely remaining in the plain of high heaven, +deigned to make the beginning of things, they divinely deigned to +assemble the many hundred myriads of gods in the high city of +heaven, and deigned divinely to take counsel in council, saying: +"When we cause our Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to leave heaven's +eternal seat, to cleave a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" +id="page56"></a>{56}</span> path with might through heaven's +manifold clouds, and to descend from heaven, with orders tranquilly +to rule the country of fresh spikes, which flourishes in the midst +of the reed-moor as a peaceful country, what god shall we send +first to divinely sweep away, sweep away and subdue the gods who +are turbulent in the country of fresh spikes;" all the gods +pondered and declared: "You shall send Aménohohi's +augustness, and subdue them," declared they. Wherefore they sent +him down from heaven, but he did not declare an answer; and having +next sent Takémikuma's augustness, he also, obeying his +father's words, did not declare an answer. Amé-no-waka-hiko +also, whom they sent, did not declare an answer, but immediately +perished by the calamity of a bird on high. Wherefore they pondered +afresh by the WORD of the heavenly gods, and having deigned to send +down from heaven the two pillars of gods, Futsunushi and +Takémika-dzuchi's augustness, who having deigned divinely to +sweep away, and sweep away, and deigned divinely to soften, and +soften the gods who were turbulent, and silenced the rocks, trees, +and the least leaf of herbs likewise that had spoken, they caused +the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to descend from heaven.</p> +<p>I fulfil your praises, saying: As to the OFFERINGS set up, so +that the sovran gods who come into the heavenly HOUSE of the Sovran +GRANDCHILD'S augustness, which, after he had fixed upon as a +peaceful country—the country of great Yamato where the sun is +high, as the centre of the countries of the four quarters bestowed +upon him when he was thus sent down from heaven—stoutly +planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most rocks, and exalting +the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven, the builders had made +for his SHADE from the heavens and SHADE from the sun, and wherein +he will tranquilly rule the country as a peaceful +country—may, without deigning to be turbulent, deigning to be +fierce, and deigning to hurt, knowing, by virtue of their divinity, +the things which were begun in the plain of high heaven, deigning +to correct with Divine-correcting and Great-correcting, remove +hence out to the clean places of the mountain-streams which look +far away over the four quarters, and rule them as their own place. +Let the Sovran gods tranquilly take with clear HEARTS, as peaceful +OFFERINGS <span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57"></a>{57}</span> and sufficient OFFERINGS the great +OFFERINGS which I set up, piling them upon the tables like a range +of hills, providing bright cloth, glittering cloth, soft cloth, and +coarse cloth; as a thing to see plain in—a mirror: as things +to play with—beads: as things to shoot off with—a bow +and arrows: as a thing to strike and cut with—a sword: as a +thing which gallops out—a horse; as to LIQUOR—raising +high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in rows the bellies of the +beer-jars, with grains of rice and ears; as to the things which +dwell in the hills—things soft of hair, and things rough of +hair; as to the things which grow in the great field +plain—sweet herbs and bitter herbs; as to the things which +dwell in the blue sea plain—things broad of fin and things +narrow of fin, down to weeds of the offing and weeds of the shore, +and without deigning to be turbulent, deigning to be fierce, and +deigning to hurt, remove out to the wide and clean places of the +mountain-streams, and by virtue of their divinity be tranquil.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In this ritual we find the origin of evil attributed to wicked +kami, or gods. To get rid of them is to be free from the troubles +of life. The object of the ritual worship was to compel the +turbulent and malevolent kami to go out from human habitations to +the mountain solitudes and rest there. The dogmas of both +god-possession and of the power of exorcism were not, however, held +exclusively by the high functionaries of the official religion, but +were part of the faith of all the people. To this day both the +tenets and the practices are popular under various forms.</p> +<p>Besides the twenty-seven Norito which are found in the +Yengishiki, published at the opening of the tenth century, there +are many others composed for single occasions. Examples of these +are found in the Government Gazettes. One celebrates the Mikado's +removal from Kiōto to Tōkiō, another was written and +recited to add greater solemnity to the oath which he took to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58"></a>{58}</span> +govern according to modern liberal principles and to form a +national parliament. To those Japanese whose first idea of duty is +loyalty to the emperor, Shintō thus becomes a system of +patriotism exalted to the rank of a religion. Even Christian +natives of Japan can use much of the phraseology of the Norito +while addressing their petitions on behalf of their chief +magistrate to the King of kings.</p> +<p>The primitive worship of the sun, of light, of fire, has left +its impress upon the language and in vernacular art and customs. +Among scores of derivations of Japanese words (often more pleasing +than scientific), in which the general term <i>hi</i> enters, is +that which finds in the word for man, <i>hito</i>, the meaning of +"light-bearer." On the face of the broad terminal tiles of the +house-roofs, we still see moulded the river-weed, with which the +Clay-Hill Maiden pacified the Fire-God. On the frontlet of the +warrior's helmet, in the old days of arrow and armor, glittered in +brass on either side of his crest the same symbol of power and +victory.</p> +<p>Having glanced at the ritual of Shintō, let us now examine +the teachings of its oldest book.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59"></a>{59}</span> +<h2><a name="chap3" id="chap3">"THE KOJIKI" AND ITS +TEACHINGS</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60"></a>{60}</span> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Japan is not a land where men need pray,</p> +<p class="i2">For 'tis itself divine:</p> +<p>Yet do I lift my voice in prayer..."</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Hitomaro, + A.D. 737.</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p>"Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were +not yet manifest, and there was naught named, naught done, who +could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first parted, +and the three Deities performed the commencement of creation; the +Passive and Active Essences then developed, and the Two Spirits +became the ancestors of all things."—Preface of Yasumarō +(A.D. 712) to the "Kojiki."</p> +<p>"These, the 'Kojiki' and 'Nihongi' are their [the Shintōists] +canonical books, ... and almost their every word is considered +undeniable truth."</p> +<p>"The Shintō faith teaches that God inspired the foundation of +the Mikadoate, and that it is therefore +sacred."—Kaburagi.</p> +<p>"We now reverently make our prayer to Them [Our Imperial +Ancestors] and to our Illustrious Father [Komei, + 1867], and +implore the help of Their Sacred Spirits, and make to Them solemn +oath never at this time nor in the future to fail to be an example +to Our subjects in the observance of the Law [Constitution] hereby +established."—Imperial oath of the Emperor Mutsuhito in the +sanctuary in the Imperial Palace, Tōkiō, February 11, +1889.</p> +<p>"Shintō is not our national religion. A faith existed before +it, which was its source. It grew out of superstitious teaching and +mistaken tradition. The history of the rise of Shintō proves +this."—T. Matsugami.</p> +<p>"Makoto wo moté KAMI NO MICHI wo oshiyuréba nari." +(Thou teachest the way of God in truth.)—Mark xii. 14.</p> +<p>"Ware wa Micni nuri, Mukoto nari, Inochi nari."—John xiv. +6.—The New Testament in Japanese.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61"></a>{61}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS</h2> +<h3>"The Kojiki" mid its Myths of Cosmogony.</h3> +<p>As to the origin of the "Kojiki," we have in the closing +sentences of the author's preface the sole documentary authority +explaining its scope and certifying to its authenticity. Briefly +the statement is this: The "Heavenly Sovereign" or Mikado, Temmu +(A.D. 673-686), lamenting that the records possessed by the chief +families were "mostly amplified by empty falsehoods," and fearing +that "the grand foundation of the monarchy" would be destroyed, +resolved to preserve the truth. He therefore had the records +carefully examined, compared, and their errors eliminated. There +happened to be in his household a man of marvellous memory, named +Hiyéda Aré, who could repeat, without mistake, the +contents of any document he had ever seen, and never forgot +anything which he had heard. This person was duly instructed in the +genuine traditions and old language of former ages, and made to +repeat them until he had the whole by heart. "Before the +undertaking was completed," which probably means before it could be +committed to writing, "the emperor died, and for twenty-five years +Aré's memory was the sole depository of what afterwards +received the title of 'Kojiki.' ... At the end of this interval the +Empress <span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62"></a>{62}</span> Gemmiō ordered Yasumarō to write it +down from the mouth of Aré, which accounts for the +completion of the manuscript in so short a time as four months and +a half,"<a id="footnotetag3-1" name="footnotetag3-1"></a><a href="#footnote3-1"><sup>1</sup></a> in A.D. 712.</p> +<p>It is from the "Kojiki" that we obtain most of our ideas of +ancient life and thought. The "Nihongi," or Chronicles of Japan, +expressed very largely in Chinese phrases and with Chinese +technical and philosophical terms, further assists us to get a +measurably correct idea of what is called The Divine Age. Of the +two books, however, the "Kojiki" is much more valuable as a true +record, because, though rude in style and exceedingly naïve in +expression, and by no means free from Chinese thoughts and phrases, +it is marked by a genuinely Japanese cast of thought and method of +composition. Instead of the terse, carefully measured, balanced, +and antithetical sentences of correct Chinese, those of the +"Kojiki" are long and involved, and without much logical +connection. The "Kojiki" contains the real notions, feelings, and +beliefs of Japanese who lived before the eighth century.</p> +<p>Remembering that prefaces are, like porticos, usually added last +of all, we find that in the beginning all things were in chaos. +Heaven and earth were not separated. The world substance floated in +the cosmic mass, like oil on water or a fish in the sea. Motion in +some way began. The ethereal portions sublimed and formed the +heavens; the heavier residuum became the present earth. In the +plain of high heaven, when the heaven and earth began, were born +three kami who "hid their bodies," that is, passed away or died. +Out of the warm mould of the earth a germ sprouted, and from this +were born two kami, who also were born <span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63"></a>{63}</span> alone, and +died. After these heavenly kami came forth what are called the +seven divine generations, or line of seven kami.<a id="footnotetag3-2" name="footnotetag3-2"></a><a href="#footnote3-2"><sup>2</sup></a></p> +<p>To express the opening lines of the "Kojiki" in terms of our own +speech and in the moulds of Western thought, we may say that matter +existed before mind and the gods came forth, as it were, by +spontaneous evolution. The first thing that appeared out of the +warm earth-muck was like a rush-sprout, and this became a kami, or +god. From this being came forth others, which also produced beings, +until there were perfect bodies, sex and differentiation of powers. +The "Nihongi," however, not only gives a different view of this +evolution basing it upon the dualism of Chinese +philosophy—that is, of the active and passive +principles—and uses Chinese technical terminology, but gives +lists of kami that differ notably from those in the "Kojiki." This +latter fact seems to have escaped the attention of those who write +freely about what they imagine to be the early religion of the +Japanese.<a id="footnotetag3-3" name="footnotetag3-3"></a><a href="#footnote3-3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<p>After this introduction, in which "Dualities, Trinities, and +Supreme Deities" have been discovered by writers unfamiliar with +the genius of the Japanese language, there follows an account of +the creation of the habitable earth by Izanami and Izanagi, whose +names mean the Male-Who-Invites and the Female-Who-Invites. The +heavenly kami commanded these two gods to consolidate and give +birth to the drifting land. Standing on the floating bridge of +heaven, the male plunged his jewel-spear into the unstable waters +beneath, stirring them until they gurgled and congealed. When he +drew forth the spear, the drops trickling from its point formed an +island, ever afterward <span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64"></a>{64}</span> called Onokoro-jima, or the Island of the +Congealed Drop. Upon this island they descended. The creative pair, +or divine man and woman, now separated to make a journey round the +island, the male to the left, the female to the right. At their +meeting the female spoke first: "How joyful to meet a lovely man!" +The male, offended that the woman had spoken first, required the +circuit to be repeated. On their second meeting, the man cried out: +"How joyful to meet a lovely woman!" This island on which they had +descended was the first of several which they brought into being. +In poetry it is the Island of the Congealed Drop. In common +geography it is identified as Awaji, at the entrance of the Inland +Sea. Thence followed the creation of the other visible objects in +nature.</p> +<h3>Izanagi's Visit to Hades and Results.</h3> +<p>After the birth of the god of fire, which nearly destroyed the +mother's life, Izanami fled to the land of roots or of darkness, +that is into Hades. Izanagi, like a true Orpheus, followed his +Eurydice and beseeched her to come back to earth to complete with +him the work of creation. She parleyed so long with the gods of the +underworld that her consort, breaking off a tooth of his comb, +lighted it as a torch and rushed in. He found her putrefied body, +out of which had been born the eight gods of thunder. Horrified at +the awful foulness which he found in the underworld, he rushed up +and out, pursued by the Ugly-Female-of-Hades. By artifices that +bear a wonderful resemblance to those in Teutonic fairy tales, he +blocked up the way. His head-dress, thrown at his pursuer, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65"></a>{65}</span> +turned into grapes which she stopped to eat. The teeth of his comb +sprouted into a bamboo forest, which detained her. The three +peaches were used as projectiles; his staff which stuck up in the +ground became a gate, and a mighty rock was used to block up the +narrow pass through the mountains. Each of these objects has its +relation to place-names in Idzumo or to superstitions that are +still extant. The peaches and the rocks became gods, and on this +incident, by which the beings in Hades were prevented from advance +and successful mischief on earth, is founded one of the norito +which Mr. Satow gives in condensed form. The names of the three +gods,<a id="footnotetag3-4" name="footnotetag3-4"></a><a href="#footnote3-4"><sup>4</sup></a> Youth and Maiden of the Many +Road-forkings, and Come-no-further Gate, are expressed and invoked +in the praises bestowed on them in connection with the +offerings.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>He (the priest) says: I declare in the presence of the sovran +gods, who like innumerable piles of rocks sit closing up the way in +the multitudinous road-forkings.... I fulfil your praises by +declaring your NAMES, Youth and Maiden of the Many Road-forkings +and Come-no-further Gate, and say: for the OFFERINGS set up that +you may prevent [the servants of the monarch] from being poisoned +by and agreeing with the things which shall come roughly-acting and +hating from the Root-country, the Bottom-country, that you may +guard the bottom (of the gate) when they come from the bottom, +guard the top when they come from the top, guarding with nightly +guard and with daily guard, and may praise them—peacefully +take the great OFFERINGS which are set up by piling them up like a +range of hills, that is to say, providing bright cloth, etc., ... +and sitting closing-up the way like innumerable piles of rock in +the multitudinous road-forkings, deign to praise the sovran +GRANDCHILD'S augustness eternally and unchangingly, and to bless +his age as a luxuriant AGE.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66"></a>{66}</span> +<p>Retreating to another part of the world—that is, into +southwestern Japan—Izanami purified himself by bathing in a +stream. While washing himself,<a id="footnotetag3-5" name="footnotetag3-5"></a><a href="#footnote3-5"><sup>5</sup></a> many +kami were borne from the rinsings of his person, one of them, from +the left eye (the left in Japanese is always the honorable side), +being the far-shining or heaven-illuminating kami, whose name, +Amatérasŭ, or Heaven-shiner, is usually translated "The +Sun-goddess." This personage is the centre of the system of +Shintō. The creation of gods by a process of cleansing has had a +powerful effect on the Japanese, who usually associate cleanliness +of the body (less moral, than physical) with godliness.</p> +<p>It is not necessary to detail further the various stories which +make up the Japanese mythology. Some of these are lovely and +beautiful, but others are horrible and disgusting, while the +dominant note throughout is abundant filthiness.</p> +<p>Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world such +good service in translating into English the whole of the Kojiki, +and furnishing it with learned commentary and notes, has well +said:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>"The shocking obscenity of word and act to which the 'Records' +bear witness is another ugly feature which must not quite be passed +over in silence. It is true that decency, as we understand it, is a +very modern product, and it is not to be looked for in any society +in the barbarous stage. At the same time, the whole range of +literature might perhaps be ransacked for a parallel to the +naïve filthiness of the passage forming Sec. IV. of the +following translation, or to the extraordinary topic which the hero +Yamato-Také and his mistress Miyadzŭ are made to select +as the theme of poetical repartee. One passage likewise would lead +us to suppose that the most beastly crimes were commonly +committed."<a id="footnotetag3-6" name="footnotetag3-6"></a><a href="#footnote3-6"><sup>6</sup></a></p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>{67}</span> +<p>Indeed, it happens in several instances that the thread by which +the marvellous patchwork of unrelated and varying local myths is +joined together, is an indecent love story.</p> +<p>A thousand years after the traditions of the Kojiki had been +committed to writing, and orthodox Shintō commentators had +learned science from the Dutch at Nagasaki, the stirring of the +world mud by Izanagi's spear<a id="footnotetag3-7" name="footnotetag3-7"></a><a href="#footnote3-7"><sup>7</sup></a> was +gravely asserted to be the cause of the diurnal revolution of the +earth upon its axis, the point of the axis being still the jewel +spear.<a id="footnotetag3-8" name="footnotetag3-8"></a><a href="#footnote3-8"><sup>8</sup></a> Onogoro-jima, or the Island of the +Congealed Drop, was formerly at the north pole,<a id="footnotetag3-9" name="footnotetag3-9"></a><a href="#footnote3-9"><sup>9</sup></a> but subsequently removed to its +present position. How this happened is not told.</p> +<h3>Life in Japan During the Divine Age.</h3> +<p>Now that the Kojiki is in English and all may read it, we can +clearly see who and what were the Japanese in the ages before +letters and Chinese civilization; for these stories of the kami are +but legendary and mythical accounts of men and women. One could +scarcely recognize in the islanders of eleven or twelve hundred +years ago, the polished, brilliant, and interesting people of +to-day. Yet truth compels us to say that social morals in Dai +Nippon, even with telegraphs and railways, are still more like +those of ancient days than readers of rhapsodies by summer tourists +might suppose. These early Japanese, indeed, were possibly in a +stage of civilization somewhat above that of the most advanced of +the American Indians when first met by Europeans, for they had a +rude system of agriculture and knew the art of fashioning iron into +tools and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68"></a>{68}</span> weapons. Still, they were very barbarous, +certainly as much so as our Germanic "forbears." They lived in +huts. They were without writing or commerce, and were able to count +only to ten.<a id="footnotetag3-10" name="footnotetag3-10"></a><a href="#footnote3-10"><sup>10</sup></a> +Their cruelty was as revolting as that of the savage tribes of +America. The family was in its most rudimentary stage, with little +or no restraint upon the passions of men. Children of the same +father, but not of the same mother, could intermarry. The instances +of men marrying their sisters or aunts were very common. There was +no art, unless the making of clay images, to take the place of the +living human victims buried up to their necks in earth and left to +starve on the death of their masters,<a id="footnotetag3-11" name="footnotetag3-11"></a><a href="#footnote3-11"><sup>11</sup></a> may +be designated as such.</p> +<p>The Magatama, or curved jewels, being made of ground and +polished stone may be called jewelry; but since some of these +prehistoric ornaments dug up from the ground are found to be of +jade, a mineral which does not occur in Japan, it is evident that +some of these tokens of culture came from the continent. Many other +things produced by more or less skilled mechanics, the origin of +which is poetically recounted in the story of the dancing of +Uzumé before the cave in which the Sun-goddess had hid +herself,<a id="footnotetag3-12" name="footnotetag3-12"></a><a href="#footnote3-12"><sup>12</sup></a> were of continental origin. +Evidently these men of the god-way had passed the "stone age," and, +probably without going through the intermediate bronze age, were +artificers of iron and skilled in its use. Most of the names of +metals and of many other substances, and the terms used in the arts +and sciences, betray by their tell-tale etymology their Chinese +origin. Indeed, it is evident that some of the leading kami were +born in Korea or Tartary.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69"></a>{69}</span> +<p>Then as now the people in Japan loved nature, and were quickly +sensitive to her beauty and profoundly in sympathy with her varied +phenomena. In the mediæval ages, Japanese Wordsworths are not +unknown.<a id="footnotetag3-13" name="footnotetag3-13"></a><a href="#footnote3-13"><sup>13</sup></a> Sincerely they loved nature, and +in some respects they seemed to understand the character of their +country far better than the alien does or can. Though a land of +wonderful beauty, the Country of Peaceful Shores is enfolded in +powers of awful destructiveness. With the earthquake and volcano, +the typhoon and the tidal wave, beauty and horror alternate with a +swiftness that is amazing.</p> +<p>Probably in no portion of the earth are the people and the land +more like each other or apparently better acquainted with each +other. Nowhere are thought and speech more reflective of the +features of the landscape. Even after ten centuries, the Japanese +are, in temperament, what the Kojiki reveals them to have been in +their early simplicity. Indeed, just as the modern Frenchman, down +beneath his outward environments and his habiliments cut and fitted +yesterday, is intrinsically the same Gaul whom Julius Cæsar +described eighteen hundred years ago, so the gentleman of +Tōkiō or Kiōto is, in his mental make-up, wonderfully like +his ancestors described by the first Japanese Stanley, who shed the +light of letters upon the night of unlettered Japan and darkest Dai +Nippon.</p> +<p>The Kojiki reveals to us, likewise, the childlike religious +ideas of the islanders. Heaven lay, not about but above them in +their infancy, yet not far away. Although in the "Notices," it is +"the high plain of heaven," yet it is just over their heads, and +once a single pillar joined it and the earth. Later, the idea +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70"></a>{70}</span> +was, that it was held up by the pillar-gods of the wind, and to +them norito were recited. "The great plain of the blue sea" and +"the land of luxuriant reeds" form "the world"—which means +Japan. The gods are only men of prowess or renown. A kami is +anything wonderful—god or man, rock or stream, bird or snake, +whatever is surprising, sensational, or phenomenal, as in the +little child's world of to-day. There is no sharp line dividing +gods from men, the natural from the supernatural, even as with the +normal uneducated Japanese of to-day. As for the kami or gods, they +have all sorts of characters; some of them being rude and +ill-mannered, many of them beastly and filthy, while others are +noble and benevolent. The attributes of moral purity, wisdom and +holiness, cannot be, and in the original writings are not, ascribed +to them; but they were strong and had power. In so far as they had +power they were called kami or gods, whether celestial or +terrestrial. Among the kami—the one term under which they are +all included—there were heavenly bodies, mountains, rivers, +trees, rocks and animals, because those also were supposed to +possess force, or at least some kind of influence for good or evil. +Even peaches, as we have seen, when transformed into rocks, became +gods.<a id="footnotetag3-14" name="footnotetag3-14"></a><a href="#footnote3-14"><sup>14</sup></a></p> +<p>That there was worship with awe, reverence, and fear, and that +the festivals and sacrifices had two purposes, one of propitiating +the offended Kami and the other of purifying the worshipper, may be +seen in the norito or liturgies, some of which are exceedingly +beautiful.<a id="footnotetag3-15" name="footnotetag3-15"></a><a href="#footnote3-15"><sup>15</sup></a> In +them the feelings of the gods are often referred to. Sometimes +their characters are described. Yet one looks in vain in either the +"Notices," <span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71"></a>{71}</span> poems, or liturgies for anything definite +in regard to these deities, or concerning morals or doctrines to be +held as dogmas. The first gods come into existence after evolution +of the matter of which they are composed has taken place. The later +gods are sometimes able to tell who are their progenitors, +sometimes not. They live and fight, eat and drink, and give vent to +their appetites and passions, and then they die; but exactly what +becomes of them after they die, the record does not state. Some are +in heaven, some on the earth, some in Hades. The underworld of the +first cycle of tradition is by no means that of the second.<a id="footnotetag3-16" name="footnotetag3-16"></a><a href="#footnote3-16"><sup>16</sup></a> Some of the kami are in the +water, or on the water, or in the air. As for man, there is no +clear statement as to whether he is to have any future life or what +is to become of him, though the custom or jun-shi, or dying with +the master, points to a sort of immortality such as the early +Greeks and the Iroquois believed in.</p> +<p>It would task the keenest and ablest Shintōist to deduce or +construct a system of theology, or of ethics, or of anthropology +from the mass of tradition so full of gaps and discord as that +found in the Kojiki, and none has done it. Nor do the inaccurate, +distorted, and often almost wholly factitious translations, +so-called, of French and other writers, who make versions which hit +the taste of their occidental readers far better than they express +the truth, yield the desired information. Like the end strands of a +new spider's web, the lines of information on most vital points are +still "in the air."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72"></a>{72}</span> +<h3>The Ethics of the God-way.</h3> +<p>There are no codes of morals inculcated in the god-way, for even +its modern revivalists and exponents consider that morals are the +invention of wicked people like the Chinese; while the ancient +Japanese were pure in thought and act. They revered the gods and +obeyed the Mikado, and that was the chief end of man, in those +ancient times when Japan was the world and Heaven was just above +the earth. Not exactly on Paul's principle of "where there is no +law there is no transgression," but utterly scouting the idea that +formulated ethics were necessary for these pure-minded people, the +modern revivalists of Shintō teach that all that is "of faith" +now is to revere the gods, keep the heart pure, and follow its +dictates.<a id="footnotetag3-17" name="footnotetag3-17"></a><a href="#footnote3-17"><sup>17</sup></a> The +naïveté of the representatives of Shintō at Chicago +in A.D. 1893, was almost as great as that of the revivalists who +wrote when Japan was a hermit nation.</p> +<p>The very fact that there was no moral commandments, not even of +loyalty or obedience such as Confucianism afterward promulgated and +formulated, is proof to the modern Shintōist that the primeval +Japanese were pure and holy; they did right, naturally, and hence +he does not hesitate to call Japan, the Land of the Gods, the +Country of the Holy Spirits, the Region Between Heaven and Earth, +the Island of the Congealed Drop, the Sun's Nest, the Princess +Country, the Land of Great Peace, the Land of Great Gentleness, the +Mikado's Empire, the Country ruled by a Theocratic Dynasty. He +considers that only with the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" +id="page73"></a>{73}</span> vice brought over from the Continent of +Asia were ethics both imported and made necessary.<a id="footnotetag3-18" name="footnotetag3-18"></a><a href="#footnote3-18"><sup>18</sup></a></p> +<p>All this has been solemnly taught by famous Shintō scholars +of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and is still +practically promulgated in the polemic Shintō literature of +to-day, even after the Kojiki has been studied and translated into +European languages. The Kojiki shows that whatever the men may have +been or done, the gods were abominably obscene, and both in word +and deed were foul and revolting, utterly opposed in act to those +reserves of modesty or standards of shame that exist even among the +cultivated Japanese to-day.<a id="footnotetag3-19" name="footnotetag3-19"></a><a href="#footnote3-19"><sup>19</sup></a> +Even among the Ainos, whom the Japanese look upon as savages, there +is still much of the obscenity of speech which belongs to all +society<a id="footnotetag3-20" name="footnotetag3-20"></a><a href="#footnote3-20"><sup>20</sup></a> in a state of barbarism; but it +has been proved that genuine modesty is a characteristic of the +Aino women.<a id="footnotetag3-21" name="footnotetag3-21"></a><a href="#footnote3-21"><sup>21</sup></a> A +literal English translation of the Kojiki, however, requires an +abundant use of Latin in order to protect it from the grasp of the +law in English-speaking Christendom. In Chamberlain's version, the +numerous cesspools are thus filled up with a dead language, and the +road is constructed for the reader, who likes the language of +Edmund Spencer, of William Tyndale and of John Ruskin kept +unsoiled.</p> +<p>The cruelty which marks this early stage shows that though moral +codes did not exist, the Buddhist and Confucian missionary were for +Japan necessities of the first order. Comparing the result to-day +with the state of things in the early times, one must award high +praise to Buddhism that it has made the Japanese gentle, and to +Confucianism that it has taught the proprieties of life, so that +the polished Japanese gentleman, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74"></a>{74}</span> as to courtesy, is in many +respects the peer and at some external points the superior, of his +European confrère.</p> +<p>Another fact, made repulsively clear, about life in ancient +Japan, is that the high ideals of truth and honor, characteristic +at least of the Samurai of modern times, were utterly unknown in +the days of the kami. Treachery was common. Instances multiply on +the pages of the Kojiki where friend betrayed friend. The most +sacred relations of life were violated. Altogether these were the +darkest ages of Japan, though, as among the red men of America, +there were not wanting many noble examples of stoical endurance, of +courage, and of power nobly exerted for the benefit of others.</p> +<h3>The Rise of Mikadoism.</h3> +<p>Nevertheless we must not forget that the men of the early age of +the Kami no Michi conquered the aborigines by superior dogmas and +fetiches, as well as by superior weapons. The entrance of these +heroes, invaders from the highlands of the Asian continent, by way +of Korea, was relatively a very influential factor of progress, +though not so important as was the Aryan descent upon India, or the +Norman invasion of England, for the aboriginal tribes were vastly +lower in the scale of humanity than their subduers. Where they +found savagery they introduced barbarism, which, though unlettered +and based on the sword, was a vast improvement over what may be +called the geological state of man, in which he is but slightly +raised above the brutes.</p> +<p>For the proofs from the shell heaps, combined with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>{75}</span> the +reflected evidences of folk-lore, show, that cannibalism<a id="footnotetag3-22" name="footnotetag3-22"></a><a href="#footnote3-22"><sup>22</sup></a> was common in the early ages, and +that among the aboriginal hill tribes it lingered after the +inhabitants of the plain and shore had been subdued. The +conquerors, who made themselves paramount over the other tribes and +who developed the Kami religion, abolished this relic of savagery, +and gave order where there had been chronic war. Another thing that +impresses us because of its abundant illustrations, is the +prevalence of human sacrifices. The very ancient folk-lore shows +that beautiful maidens were demanded by the "sea-gods" in +propitiation, or were devoured by the "dragons." These human +victims were either chosen or voluntarily offered, and in some +instances were rescued from their fate by chivalrous heroes<a id="footnotetag3-23" name="footnotetag3-23"></a><a href="#footnote3-23"><sup>23</sup></a> from among the invaders.</p> +<p>These gods of the sea, who anciently were propitiated by the +sacrifice of human beings, are the same to whom Japanese sailors +still pray, despite their Buddhism. The title of the efficient +victims was <i>hitoga-shira</i>, or human pillars. Instances of +this ceremony, where men were lowered into the water and drowned in +order to make the sure foundation for bridges, piers or sea-walls, +or where they were buried alive in the earth in order to lay the +right bases for walls or castles, are quite numerous, and most of +the local histories contain specific traditions.<a id="footnotetag3-24" name="footnotetag3-24"></a><a href="#footnote3-24"><sup>24</sup></a> These traditions, now +transfigured, still survive in customs that are as beautiful as +they are harmless. To reformers of pre-Buddhistic days, belongs the +credit of the abolition of jun-shi, or dying with the master by +burial alive, as well as of the sacrifice to dragons and +sea-gods.</p> +<p>Strange as it may seem, before Buddhism captured <span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>{76}</span> and made use +of Shintō for its own purposes (just as it stands ready to-day +to absorb Christianity by making Jesus one of the Palestinian +avatars of the Buddha), the house or tribe of Yamato, with its +claim to descent from the heavenly gods, and with its Mikado or +god-ruler, had given to the Buddhists a precedent and potent +example. Shintō, as a state religion or union of politics and +piety, with its system of shrines and festivals, and in short the +whole Kami no Michi, or Shintō as we know it, from the sixth to +the eighth century, was in itself (in part at least), a case of the +absorption of one religion by another.</p> +<p>In short, the Mikado tribe or Yamato clan did, in reality, +capture the aboriginal religion, and turn it into a great political +machine. They attempted syncretism and succeeded in their scheme. +They added to their own stock of dogma and fetich that of the +natives. Only, while recognizing the (earth) gods of the aborigines +they proclaimed the superiority of the Mikado as representative and +vicegerent of Heaven, and demanded that even the gods of the earth, +mountain, river, wind, and thunder and lightning should obey him. +Not content, however, with absorbing and corrupting for political +purposes the primitive faith of the aborigines, the invaders +corrupted their own religion by carrying the dogma of the divinity +and infallibility of the Mikado too far. Stopping short of no +absurdity, they declared their chief greater even than the heavenly +gods, and made their religion centre in him rather than in his +alleged heavenly ancestors, or "heaven." In the interest of +politics and conquest, and for the sake of maintaining the prestige +of their tribe and clan, these "Mikado-reverencers" of early ages +advanced <span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>{77}</span> from dogma to dogma, until their leader +was virtually chief god in a great pantheon.</p> +<p>A critical native Japanese, student of the Kojiki and of the +early writings, Professor Kumi, formerly of the Imperial University +in Tōkiō, has brought to light abundant evidence to show that +the aboriginal religion found by the Yamato conquerors was markedly +different at many vital points, from that which was long afterward +called Shintō.</p> +<p>If the view of recent students of anthropology be correct, that +the elements dominating the population in ancient Japan were in the +south, Malay; in the north, Aino; and in the central region, or +that occupied by the Yamato men, Korean; then, these continental +invaders may have been worshippers of Heaven and have possessed a +religion closely akin to that of ancient China with its monotheism. +It is very probable also that they came into contact with tribes or +colonies of their fellow-continentals from Asia. These tribes, +hunters, fishermen, or rude agriculturists—who had previously +reached Japan—practised many rites and ceremonies which were +much like those of the new invaders. It is certain also, as we have +seen, that the Yamato men made ultimate conquest and unification of +all the islanders, not merely by the superiority of their valor and +of their weapons of iron, but also by their dogmas. After success +in battle, and the first beginnings of rude government, they taught +their conquered subjects or over-awed vassals, that they were the +descendants of the heavenly gods; that their ancestors had come +down from heaven; find that their chief or Mikado was a god. +According to the same dogmatics, the aborigines were descendants of +the earth-born <span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78"></a>{78}</span> gods, and as such must obey the +descendants of the heavenly gods, and their vicegerent upon the +earth, the Mikado.</p> +<h3>Purification of Offences.</h3> +<p>These heaven-descended Yamato people were in the main +agriculturists, though of a rude order, while the outlying tribes +were mostly hunters and fishermen; and many of the rituals show the +class of crimes which nomads, or men of unsettled life, would +naturally commit against their neighbors living in comparatively +settled order. It is to be noted that in the god-way the origin of +evil is to be ascribed to evil gods. These kami pollute, and +pollution is iniquity. From this iniquity the people are to be +purged by the gods of purification, to whom offerings are duly +made.</p> +<p>He who would understand the passion for cleanliness which +characterizes the Japanese must look for its source in their +ancient religion. The root idea of the word <i>tsumi</i>, which Mr. +Satow translated as "offence," is that of pollution. On this basis, +of things pure and things defiling, the ancient teachers of +Shintō made their classification of what was good and what was +bad. From the impression of what was repulsive arose the idea of +guilt.</p> +<p>In rituals translated by Mr. Satow, the list of offences is +given and the defilements are to be removed to the nether world, +or, in common fact, the polluted objects and the expiatory +sacrifices are to be thrown into the rivers and thence carried to +the sea, where they fall to the bottom of the earth. The following +norito clearly shows this. Furthermore, as Mr. Satow, the +translator, points out, this ritual contains the germ of criminal +law, a whole code of which might have been <span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79"></a>{79}</span> evolved and +formulated under Shintō, had not Buddhism arrested its +growth.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>Amongst the various sorts of offences which may be committed in +ignorance or out of negligence by heaven's increasing people, who +shall come into being in the country, which the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S +augustness, hiding in the fresh RESIDENCE, built by stoutly +planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most rocks, and exalting +the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven, as his SHADE from the +heavens and SHADE from the sun, shall tranquilly ruin as a peaceful +country, namely, the country of great Yamato, where the sun is soon +on high, which he fixed upon as a peaceful country, as the centre +of the countries of the four quarters thus bestowed upon +him—breaking the ridges, filling up water-courses, opening +sluices, double-sowing, planting stakes, flaying alive, flaying +backwards, and dunging; many of such offences are distinguished as +heavenly offences, and as earthly offences; cutting living flesh, +cutting dead flesh, leprosy, proud-flesh, ... calamities of +crawling worms, calamities of a god on high, calamities of birds on +high, the offences of killing beasts and using incantations; many +of such offences may be disclosed.</p> +<p>When he has thus repeated it, the heavenly gods will push open +heaven's eternal gates, and cleaving a path with might through the +manifold clouds of heaven, will hear; and the country gods, +ascending to the tops of the high mountains, and to the tops of the +low hills, and tearing asunder the mists of the high mountains and +the mists of the low hills, will hear.</p> +<p>And when they have thus heard, the +Maiden-of-Descent-into-the-Current, who dwells in the current of +the swift stream which boils down the ravines from the tops of the +high mountains, and the tops of the low hills, shall carry out to +the great sea plain the offences which are cleared away and +purified, so that there be no remaining offence; like as Shinato's +wind blows apart the manifold clouds of heaven, as the morning wind +and the evening wind blow away the morning mist and the evening +mist, as the great ships which lie on the shore of a great port +loosen their prows, and loosen their sterns to push <span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80"></a>{80}</span> out into the +great sea-plain; as the trunks of the forest trees, far and near, +are cleared away by the sharp sickle, the sickle forged with fire: +so that there ceased to be any offence called an offence in the +court of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to begin with, and in +the countries of the four quarters of the region under heaven.</p> +<p>And when she thus carries them out and away, the deity called +the Maiden-of-the-Swift-cleansing, who dwells in the multitudinous +meetings of the sea waters, the multitudinous currents of rough +sea-waters shall gulp them down.</p> +<p>And when she has thus gulped them down, the lord of the +Breath-blowing-place, who dwells in the Breath-blowing-place, shall +utterly blow them away with his breath to the Root-country, the +Bottom-country.</p> +<p>And when he has thus blown them away, the deity called the +Maiden-of-Swift-Banishment, who dwells in the Root-country, the +Bottom-country, shall completely banish them, and get rid of +them.</p> +<p>And when they have thus been got rid of, there shall from this +day onwards be no offence which is called offence, with regard to +the men of the offices who serve in the court of the Sovran, nor in +the four quarters of the region under heaven.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Then the high priest says:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>Hear all of you how he leads forth the horse, as a thing that +erects its ears towards the plain of high heaven, and deigns to +sweep away and purify with the general purification, as the evening +sun goes down on the last day of the watery moon of this year.</p> +<p>O diviners of the four countries, take (the sacrifices) away out +to the river highway, and sweep them away.</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>Mikadoism Usurps the Primitive God-way.</h3> +<p>A further proof of the transformation of the primitive god-way +in the interest of practical politics, is shown by Professor Kumi +in the fact that some of the festivals now <span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81"></a>{81}</span> directly +connected with the Mikado's house, and even in his honor, were +originally festivals with which he had nothing to do, except as +leader of the worship, for the honor was paid to Heaven, and not to +his ancestors. Professor Kumi maintains that the thanksgivings of +the court were originally to Heaven itself, and not in honor of +Amatérasŭ, the sun-goddess, as is now popularly believed. +It is related in the Kojiki that Amatérasŭ herself +celebrated the feast of Niinamé. So also, the temple of +Isé, the Mecca of Shintō, and the Holy shrine in the +imperial palace were originally temples for the worship of Heaven. +The inferior gods of earthly origin form no part of primitive +Shintō.</p> +<p>Not one of the first Mikados was deified after death, the +deification of emperors dating from the corruption which Shintō +underwent after the introduction of Buddhism. Only by degrees was +the ruler of the country given a place in the worship, and this +connection was made by attributing to him descent from Heaven. In a +word, the contention of Professor Kumi is, that the ancient +religion of at least a portion of the Japanese and especially of +those in central Japan, was a rude sort of monotheism, coupled, as +in ancient China, with the worship of subordinate spirits.</p> +<p>It is needless to say that such applications of the higher +criticism to the ancient sacred documents proved to be no safer for +the applier than if he had lived in the United States of America. +The orthodox Shintōists were roused to wrath and charged the +learned critic with "degrading Shintō to a mere branch of +Christianity." The government, which, despite its Constitution and +Diet, is in the eyes of the people <span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82"></a>{82}</span> really based on the myths of +the Kojiki, quickly put the professor on the retired list.<a id="footnotetag3-25" name="footnotetag3-25"></a><a href="#footnote3-25"><sup>25</sup></a></p> +<p>It is probably correct to say that the arguments adduced by +Professor Kumi, confirm our theory of the substitution in the +simple god-way, of Mikadoism, the centre of the primitive worship +being the sun and nature rather than Heaven.</p> +<p>Between the ancient Chinese religion with its abstract idea of +Heaven and its personal term for God, and the more poetic and +childlike system of the god-way, there seems to be as much +difference as there is racially between the people of the Middle +Kingdom and those of the Land Where the Day Begins. Indeed, the +entrance of Chinese philosophical and abstract ideas seemed to +paralyze the Japanese imagination. Not only did myth-making, on its +purely æsthetic and non-utilitarian side cease almost at +once, but such myths as were formed were for direct business +purposes and with a transparent tendency. Henceforth, in the domain +of imagination the Japanese intellect busied itself with +assimilating or re-working the abundant material imported by +Buddhism.</p> +<h3>Ancient Customs and Usages.</h3> +<p>In the ancient god-way the temple or shrine was called a miya. +After the advent of Buddhism the keepers of the shrine were called +kannushi, that is, shrine keepers or wardens of the god. These men +were usually descendants of the god in whose honor the temples were +built. The gods being nothing more than human founders of families, +reverence was paid to them as ancestors, and so the basis of +Shintō is ancestor <span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83"></a>{83}</span> worship. The model of the miya, in modern +as in ancient times, is the primitive hut as it was before Buddhism +introduced Indian and Chinese architecture. The posts, stuck in the +ground, and not laid upon stones as in after times, supported the +walls and roof, the latter being of thatch. The rafters, crossed at +the top, were tied along the ridge-pole with the fibres of creepers +or wistaria vines. No paint, lacquer, gilding, or ornaments of any +sort existed in the ancient shrine, and even to-day the modern +Shintō temple must be of pure hinoki or sun-wood, and thatched, +while the use of metal is as far as possible avoided. To the gods, +as the norito show, offerings of various kinds were made, +consisting of the fruits of the soil, the products of the sea, and +the fabrics of the loom.</p> +<p>Inside modern temples one often sees a mirror, in which +foreigners with lively imaginations read a great deal that is only +the shadow of their own mind, but which probably was never known in +Shintō temples until after Buddhist times. They also see in +front of the unpainted wooden closets or casements, wands or sticks +of wood from which depend masses or strips of white paper, cut and +notched in a particular way. Foreigners, whose fancy is nimble, +have read in these the symbols of lightning, the abode of the +spirits and various forthshadowings unknown either to the Japanese +or the ancient writings. In reality these <i>gohei</i>, or +honorable offerings, are nothing more than the paper +representatives of the ancient offerings of cloth which were woven, +as the arts progressed, of bark, of hemp and of silk.</p> +<p>The chief Shintō ministers of religion and shrine-keepers +belonged to particular families, which were often <span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84"></a>{84}</span> honored with +titles and offices by the emperor. In ordinary life they dressed +like others of their own rank or station, but when engaged in their +sacred office were robed in white or in a special official costume, +wearing upon their heads the <i>éboshi</i> or peculiar cap +which we associate with Japanese archæology. They knew +nothing of celibacy; but married, reared families and kept their +scalps free from the razor, though some of the lower order of +shrine-keepers dressed their hair in ordinary style, that is, with +shaven poll and topknot. At some of the more important shrines, +like those at Isé, there were virgin priestesses who acted +as custodians both of the shrines and of the relics.<a id="footnotetag3-26" name="footnotetag3-26"></a><a href="#footnote3-26"><sup>26</sup></a></p> +<p>In front of the miyas stood what we should suppose on first +seeing was a gateway. This was the <i>torii</i> or bird-perch, and +anciently was made only of unpainted wood. Two upright tree-trunks +held crosswise on a smooth tree-trunk the ends of which projected +somewhat over the supports, while under this was a smaller beam +inserted between the two uprights. On the torii, the birds, +generally barn-yard fowls which were sacred to the gods, roosted. +These creatures were not offered up as sacrifices, but were +chanticleers to give notice of day-break and the rising of the sun. +The cock holds a prominent place in Japanese myth, legend, art and +symbolism. How this feature of pure Japanese architecture, the +torii, afterward lost its meaning, we shall show in our lecture on +Riyōbu or mixed Buddhism.</p> +<h3>Shintō's Emphasis on Cleanliness.</h3> +<p>One of the most remarkable features of Shintō was the +emphasis laid on cleanliness. Pollution was calamity, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85"></a>{85}</span> defilement +was sin, and physical purity at least, was holiness. Everything +that could in any way soil the body or the clothing was looked upon +with abhorrence and detestation. Disease, wounds and death were +defiling, and the feeling of disgust prevailed over that of either +sympathy or pity. Birth and death were especially polluting. +Anciently there were huts built both for the mother about to give +birth to a child, or for the man who was dying or sure to die of +disease or wounds. After the birth of the infant or the death of +the patient these houses were burned. Cruel as this system was to +the woman at a time when she needed most care and comfort, and +brutal as it seems in regard to the sick and dying, yet this +ancient custom was continued in a few remote places in Japan as +late as the year 1878.<a id="footnotetag3-27" name="footnotetag3-27"></a><a href="#footnote3-27"><sup>27</sup></a> In +modern days with equal knowledge of danger and defilement, +tenderness and compassion temper the feeling of disgust, and +prevail over it. Horror of uncleanliness was so great that the +priests bathed and put on clean garments before making the sacred +offerings or chanting the liturgies, and were accustomed to bind a +slip of paper over their mouths lest their breath should pollute +the offering. Numerous were the special festivals, observed simply +for purification. Salt also was commonly used to sprinkle over the +ground, and those who attended a funeral must free themselves from +contamination by the use of salt.<a id="footnotetag3-28" name="footnotetag3-28"></a><a href="#footnote3-28"><sup>28</sup></a> +Purification by water was habitual and in varied forms. The ancient +emperors and priests actually performed the ablution of the people +or made public lustration in their behalf.</p> +<p>Afterwards, and probably because population increased and towns +sprang up, we find it was customary <span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86"></a>{86}</span> at the festivals of +purification to perform public ablution, vicariously, as it were, +by means of paper mannikins instead of making applications of water +to the human cuticle. Twice a year paper figures representing the +people were thrown into the river, the typical meaning of which was +that the nation was thereby cleansed from the sins, that is, the +defilements, of the previous half-year. Still later, the Mikado +made the chief minister of religion at Kiōto his deputy to +perform the symbolical act for the people of the whole country.</p> +<h3>Prayers to Myriads of Gods.</h3> +<p>In prayer, the worshipper, approaching the temple but not +entering it, pulls a rope usually made of white material and +attached to a peculiar-shaped bell hung over the shrine, calling +the attention of the deity to his devotions. Having washed his +hands and rinsed out his mouth, he places his hands reverently +together and offers his petition.</p> +<p>Concerning the method and words of prayer, Hirata, a famous +exponent of Shintō, thus writes:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>As the number of the gods who possess different functions is so +great, it will be convenient to worship by name only the most +important and to include the rest in a general petition. Those +whose daily affairs are so multitudinous that they have not time to +go through the whole of the following morning prayers, may content +themselves with adoring the residence of the emperor, the domestic +kami-dana, the spirits of their ancestors, their local patron god +and the deity of their particular calling in life.</p> +<p>In praying to the gods the blessings which each has it in his +power to bestow are to be mentioned in a few words, and they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87"></a>{87}</span> +are not to be annoyed with greedy petitions, for the Mikado in his +palace offers up petitions daily on behalf of his people, which are +far more effectual than those of his subjects.</p> +<p>Rising early in the morning, wash your face and hands, rinse out +the mouth and cleanse the body. Then turn toward the province of +Yamato, strike the palms of the hands together twice, and worship, +bowing the head to the ground. The proper posture is that of +kneeling on the heels, which is ordinarily assumed in saluting a +superior.</p> +<p>PRAYER.</p> +<p>From a distance I reverently worship with awe before Amé +no Mi-hashira (Heaven-pillar) and Kuni no Mi-hashira +(Country-pillar), also called Shinatsu-hiko no kami and +Shinatsu-himé no kami, to whom is consecrated the Palace +built with stout pillars at Tatsuta no Tachinu in the department of +Héguri in the province of Yamato.</p> +<p>I say with awe, deign to bless me by correcting the unwitting +faults which, seen and heard by you, I have committed, by blowing +off and clearing away the calamities which evil gods might inflict, +by causing me to live long like the hard and lasting rock, and by +repeating to the gods of heavenly origin and to the gods of earthly +origin the petitions which I present every day, along with your +breath, that they may hear with the sharp-earedness of the +forth-galloping colt.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>To the common people the sun is actually a god, as none can +doubt who sees them worshipping it morning and evening. The writer +can never forget one of many similar scenes in Tōkiō, when +late one afternoon after O Tentō Sama (the sun-Lord of Heaven), +which had been hidden behind clouds for a fortnight, shone out on +the muddy streets. In a moment, as with the promptness of a +military drill, scores of people rushed out of their houses and +with faces westward, kneeling, squatting, began prayer and worship +before the great luminary. Besides all the gods, supreme, +subordinate <span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88"></a>{88}</span> and local, there is in nearly every house +the Kami-dana or god-shelf. This is usually over the door inside. +It contains images with little paper-covered wooden tablets having +the god's name on them. Offerings are made by day and a little lamp +is lighted at night. The following is one of several prayers which +are addressed to this kami-dana.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>Reverently adoring the great god of the two palaces of +Isé, in the first place, the eight hundred myriads of +celestial gods, the eight hundred myriads of terrestrial gods, all +the fifteen hundred myriads of gods to whom are consecrated the +great and small temples in all provinces, all islands and all +places of the Great Land of Eight Islands, the fifteen hundreds of +myriads of gods whom they cause to serve them, and the gods of +branch palaces and branch temples, and Sohodo no kami, whom I have +invited to the shrine set up on this divine shelf, and to whom I +offer praises day by day, I pray with awe that they will deign to +correct the unwitting faults, which, heard and seen by them, I have +committed, and blessing and favoring me according to the powers +which they severally wield, cause me to follow the divine example, +and to perform good works in the Way.</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>Shintō Left in a State of Arrested Development.</h3> +<p>Thus from the emperor to the humblest believer, the god-way is +founded on ancestor worship, and has had grafted upon its ritual +system nature worship, even to phallicism.<a id="footnotetag3-29" +name="footnotetag3-29"></a><a href="#footnote3-29"><sup>29</sup></a> In one sense it is a self-made +religion of the Japanese. Its leading characteristics are seen in +the traits of the normal Japanese character of to-day. Its power +for good and evil may be traced in the education of the Japanese +through many centuries. Knowing Shintō, we to a large degree +know the Japanese, their virtues and their failings.</p> +<p>What Shintō might have become in its full evolution +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89"></a>{89}</span> +had it been left alone, we cannot tell. Whether in the growth of +the nation and without the pressure of Buddhism, Confucianism or +other powerful influences from outside, the scattered and +fragmentary mythology might have become organized into a harmonious +system, or codes of ethics have been formulated, or the doctrines +of a future life and the idea of a Supreme Being with personal +attributes have been conceived and perfected, are questions the +discussion of which may seem to be vain. History, however, gives no +uncertain answer as to what actually did take place. We do but +state what is unchallenged fact, when we say, that after commitment +to writing of the myths, poems and liturgies which may be called +the basis of Shintō, there came a great flood of Chinese and +Buddhistic literature and a tremendous expansion of Buddhist +missionary activity, which checked further literary growth of the +kami system. These prepared the way for the absorption of the +indigenous into the foreign cultus under the form called by an +enthusiastic emperor, Riyōbu Shintō, or the "two-fold divine +doctrine." Of this, we shall speak in another lecture.</p> +<p>Suffice it here to say that by the scheme of syncretism +propounded by Kōbō in the ninth century, Shintō was +practically overlaid by the new faith from India, and largely +forgotten as a distinct religion by the Japanese people. As late as +A.D. 927, there were three thousand one hundred and thirty-two +enumerated metropolitan and provincial temples, besides many more +unenumerated village and hamlet shrines of Shintō. These are +referred to in the revised codes of ceremonial law set forth by +imperial authority early in the tenth century. Probably by the +twelfth century the pure rites <span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90"></a>{90}</span> of the god-way were +celebrated, and the unmixed traditions maintained, in families and +temples, so few as to be counted on the fingers. The ancient +language in which the archaic forms had been preserved was so +nearly lost and buried, that out of the ooze of centuries of +oblivion, it had to be rescued by the skilled divers of the +seventeenth century. Mabuchi, Motöri and the other revivalists +of pure Shintō, like the plungers after orient pearls, +persevered until they had first recovered much that had been +supposed irretrievably lost. These scholars deciphered and +interpreted the ancient scriptures, poetry, prose, history, law and +ritual, and once more set forth the ancient faith, as they +believed, in its purity.</p> +<p>Whether, however, men can exactly reproduce and think for +themselves the thoughts of others who have been dead for a +millennium, is an open question. The new system is apt to be +transparent. Just as it is nearly impossible for us to restore the +religious life, thoughts and orthodoxy of the men who lived before +the flood, so in the writings of the revivalists of pure Shintō +we detect the thoughts of Dutchmen, of Chinese, and of very modern +Japanese. Unconsciously, those who would breathe into the dry bones +of dead Shintō the breath of the nineteenth century, find +themselves compelled to use an oxygen and nitrogen generator made +in Holland and mounted with Chinese apparatus; withal, lacquered +and decorated with the art of to-day. To change from metaphor to +matter of fact, modern "pure Shintō" is mainly a mass of +speculation and philosophy, with a tendency of which the ancient +god-way knew nothing.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91"></a>{91}</span> +<h3>The Modern Revivalists of Kami no Michi.</h3> +<p>Passing by further mention of the fifteen or more corrupt sects +of Shintōists, we name with honor the native scholars of the +seventeenth century, who followed the illustrious example of +Iyéyasŭ, the political unifier of Japan. They ransacked +the country and purchased from temples, mansions and farmhouses, +old manuscripts and books, and forming libraries began anew the +study of ancient language and history. Kéichu (1640-1701), a +Buddhist priest, explored and illumined the poems of the +Manyōshu. Kada Adzumarō, born in 1669 near Kiōto, the son +of a shrine-keeper at Inari, attempted the mastery of the whole +archaic native language and literature. He made a grand beginning. +He is unquestionably the founder of the school of Pure Shintō. +He died in 1736. His successor and pupil was Mabuchi (1697-1769), +who claimed direct descent from that god which in the form of a +colossal crow had guided the first chief of the Yamato tribe as he +led his invaders through the country to found the line of Mikados. +After Mabuchi came Motoöri (1730-1801) a remarkable scholar +and critic, who, with erudition and acuteness, analyzed the ancient +literature and showed what were Chinese or imported elements and +what was of native origin. He summarized the principles of the +ancient religion, reasserted and illuminated with amazing learning +and voluminous commentary the archaic documents, expounded and +defended the ancient cosmogony, and in the usual style of Japanese +polemics preached anew the doctrines of Shintō. With wonderful +naïveté and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92"></a>{92}</span> enthusiasm, Motoöri taught that Japan +was the first part of the earth created, and that it is therefore +The Land of the Gods, the Country of the Holy Spirits. The stars +were created from the muck which fell from the spear of Izanagi as +he thrust it into the warm earth, while the other countries were +formed by the spontaneous consolidation of the foam of the sea. +Morals were invented by the Chinese because they were an immoral +people, but in Japan there is no necessity for any system of +morals, as every Japanese acts aright if he only consults his own +heart. The duty of a good Japanese consists in obeying the Mikado, +without questioning whether his commands are right or wrong. The +Mikado is god and vicar of all the gods, hence government and +religion are the same, the Mikado being the centre of Church and +State, which are one. Did the foreign nations know their duty they +would at once hasten to pay tribute to the Son of Heaven in +Kiōto.</p> +<p>It is needless here to dwell upon the tremendous power of +Shintō as a political system, especially when wedded with the +forces, generated in the minds of the educated Japanese by modern +Confucianism. The Chinese ethical system, expanded into a +philosophy as fascinating as the English materialistic school of +to-day, entered Japan contemporaneously with the revival of the Way +of the Gods and of native learning. In full rampancy of their +vigor, in the seventeenth century these two systems began that +generation of national energy, which in the eighteenth century was +consolidated and which in the nineteenth century, though unknown +and unsuspected by Europeans or Americans, was all ready for +phenomenal manifestation <span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93"></a>{93}</span> and tremendous eruption, even while +Perry's fleet was bearing the olive branch to Japan. As we all +know, this consolidation of forces from the inside, on meeting, not +with collision but with union, the exterior forces of western +civilization, formed a resultant in the energies which have made +New Japan.</p> +<h3>The Great Purification of 1870.</h3> +<p>In 1870, with the Shōgun of Yedo deposed, the dual system +abolished, feudalism in its last gasp and Shintō in full +political power, with the ancient council of the gods (Jin Gi Kuan) +once more established, and purified Shintō again the religion of +state, thousands of Riyōbu Shintō temples were at once purged +of all their Buddhist ornaments, furniture, ritual, and everything +that might remind the Japanese of foreign elements. Then began, +logically and actually, the persecution of those Christians, who +through all the centuries of repression and prohibition had +continued their existence, and kept their faith however mixed and +clouded. Theoretically, ancient belief was re-established, yet it +was both physically and morally impossible to return wholly to the +baldness and austere simplicity of those early ages, in which art +and literature were unknown. For a while it seemed as though the +miracle would be performed, of turning back the dial of the ages +and of plunging Japan into the fountain of her own youth. +Propaganda was instituted, and the attempts made to convert all the +Japanese to Shintō tenets and practice were for a while more +lively than edifying; but the scheme was on the whole a splendid +failure, and bitter disappointment succeeded <span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" id="page94"></a>{94}</span> the first +exultation of victory. Confronted by modern problems of society and +government, the Mikado's ministers found themselves unable, if +indeed willing, to entomb politics in religion, as in the ancient +ages. For a little while, in 1868, the Jin Gi Kuan, or Council of +the Gods of Heaven and Earth, held equal authority with the Dai +Jō Kuan, or Great Council of the Government. Pretty soon the +first step downward was taken, and from a supreme council it was +made one of the ten departments of the government. In less than a +year followed another retrograde movement and the department was +called a board. Finally, in 1877, the board became a bureau. Now, +it is hard to tell what rank the Shintō cultus occupies in the +government, except as a system of guardianship over the imperial +tombs, a mode of official etiquette, and as one of the acknowledged +religions of the country.</p> +<p>Nevertheless, as an element in that amalgam of religions which +forms the creed of most Japanese, Shintō is a living force, and +shares with Buddhism the arena against advancing Christianity, +still supplying much of the spring and motive to patriotism.</p> +<p>The Shintō lecturers with unblushing plagiarism rifled the +storehouses of Chinese ethics. They enforced their lessons from the +Confucian classics. Indeed, most of their homiletical and +illustrative material is still derived directly therefrom. Their +three main official theses and commandments were:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>1. Thou shalt honor the Gods and love thy country.</p> +<p>2. Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven, and +the duty of man.</p> +<p>3. Thou shalt revere the Emperor as thy sovereign and obey the +will of his Court.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95"></a>{95}</span> +<p>For nearly twenty years this deliverance of the Japanese +Government, which still finds its strongest support in the national +traditions and the reverence of the people for the throne, sufficed +for the necessities of the case. Then the copious infusion of +foreign ideas, the disintegration of the old framework of society, +and the weakening of the old ties of obedience and loyalty, with +the flood of shallow knowledge and education which gave especially +children and young people just enough of foreign ideas to make them +dangerous, brought about a condition of affairs which alarmed the +conservative and patriotic. Like fungus upon a dead tree strange +growths had appeared, among others that of a class of violently +patriotic and half-educated young men and boys, called +<i>Soshí</i>. These hot-headed youths took it upon +themselves to dictate national policy to cabinet ministers, and to +reconstruct society, religion and politics. Something like a mania +broke out all over the country which, in certain respects, reminds +us of the Children's Crusade, that once afflicted Europe and the +children themselves. Even Christianity did not escape the craze for +reconstruction. Some of the young believers and pupils of the +missionaries seemed determined to make Christianity all over so as +to suit themselves. This phase of brain-swelling is not yet wholly +over. One could not tell but that something like the Tai Ping +rebellion, which disturbed and devastated China, might break +out.</p> +<p>These portentous signs on the social horizon called forth, in +1892, from the government an Imperial Rescript, which required that +the emperor's photograph be exhibited in every school, and saluted +by all teachers and scholars whatever their religious tenets and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96"></a>{96}</span> +scruples might be. Most Christians as well as Buddhists, saw +nothing in this at which to scruple. A few, however, finding in it +an offence to conscience, resigned their positions. They considered +the mandate an unwarrantable interference with their rights as +conferred by the constitution of 1889, which in theory is the gift +of the emperor to his people.</p> +<p>The radical Shintōist, to this day, believes that all +political rights which Japanese enjoy or can enjoy are by virtue of +the Mikado's grace and benevolence. It is certain that all +Japanese, whatever may be their religious convictions, consider +that the constitution depends for its safeguards and its validity +largely upon the oath which the Mikado swore at the shrine of his +heavenly ancestors, that he would himself be obedient to it and +preserve its provisions inviolate. For this solemn ceremony a +special norito or liturgy was composed and recited.</p> +<h3>Summary of Shintō.</h3> +<p>Of Shintō as a system we have long ago given our opinion. In +its higher forms, "Shintō is simply a cultured and intellectual +atheism; in its lower forms it is blind obedience to governmental +and priestly dictates." "Shintō," says Mr. Ernest Satow, "as +expounded by Motoöri is nothing more than an engine for +reducing the people to a condition of mental slavery." Japan being +a country of very striking natural phenomena, the very soil and air +lend themselves to support in the native mind this system of +worship of heroes and of the forces of nature. In spite, however, +of the conservative power of the ancestral influences, the +patriotic incentives and the easy morals of Shintō <span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>{97}</span> under which +lying and licentiousness shelter themselves, it is doubtful whether +with the pressure of Buddhism, and the spread of popular education +and Christianity, Shintō can retain its hold upon the Japanese +people. Yet although this is our opinion, it is but fair, and it is +our duty, to judge every religion by its ideals and not by its +failings. The ideal of Shintō is to make people pure and clean +in all their personal and household arrangements; it is to help +them to live simply, honestly and with mutual good will; it is to +make the Japanese love their country, honor their imperial house +and obey their emperor. Narrow and local as this religion is, it +has had grand exemplars in noble lives and winning characters.</p> +<p>So far as Shintō is a religion, Christianity meets it not as +destroyer but fulfiller, for it too believes that cleanliness is +not only next to godliness but a part of it. Jesus as perfect man +and patriot, Captain of our salvation and Prince of peace, would +not destroy the Yamato damashii—the spirit of unconquerable +Japan—but rather enlarge, broaden, and deepen it, making it +love for all humanity. Reverence for ancestral virtue and example, +so far from being weakened, is strengthened, and as for devotion to +king and ruler, law and society, Christianity lends nobler motives +and grander sanctions, while showing clearly, not indeed the way of +the eight million or more gods, but the way to God—the one +living, only and true, even through Him who said "I am the +Way."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99"></a>{99}</span> +<h2><a name="chap4" id="chap4">THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN +JAPAN</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>{100}</span> +<blockquote> +<p>"Things being investigated, knowledge became complete; knowledge +being complete, thoughts were sincere; thoughts being sincere, +hearts were rectified; hearts being rectified, persons were +cultivated; persons being cultivated, families were regulated; +families being regulated, states were rightly governed; states +being rightly governed, the whole nation was made tranquil and +happy."</p> +<p>"When you know a thing to hold that you know it; and when you do +not know a thing to allow that you do not know it; this is +knowledge."</p> +<p>"Old age sometimes becomes second childhood; why should not +filial piety become parental love?"</p> +<p>"The superior man accords with the course of the mean. Though he +may be all unknown, unregarded by the world, he feels no regret. He +is only the sage who is able for this."—Sayings of +Confucius.</p> +<p>"There is, in a word, no bringing down of God to men in +Confucianism in order to lift them up to Him. Their moral +shortcomings, when brought home to them, may produce a feeling of +shame, but hardly a conviction of guilt."—James Legge.</p> +<p>"Do not to others what you would not have them do to +you."—The Silver Rule.</p> +<p>"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye +even so to them."—The Golden Rule.</p> +<p>"In respect to revenging injury done to master or father, it is +granted by the wise and virtuous (Confucius) that you and the +injurer cannot live together under the canopy of +heaven."—Legacy of Iyéyasŭ, Cap. iii, Lowder's +translation.</p> +<p>"But I say unto you forgive your enemies."—Jesus.</p> +<p>"Thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from +everlasting."—Isaiah.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>{101}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER IV - THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN</h2> +<h3>Confucius a Historical Character.</h3> +<p>If the greatness of a teacher is to be determined by the number +of his disciples, or to be measured by the extent and diversity of +his influence, then the foremost place among all the teachers of +mankind must be awarded to The Master Kung (or Confucius, as the +Jesuit scholars of the seventeenth century Latinized the name). +Certainly, he of all truly historic personages is to-day, and for +twenty-three centuries has been, honored by the largest number of +followers.</p> +<p>Of the many systems of religion in the world, but few are based +upon the teachings of one person. The reputed founders of some of +them are not known in history with any certainty, and of +others—as in the case of Buddhism—have become almost as +shadows among a great throng of imaginary Buddhas or other beings +which have sprung from the fancies of the brain and become +incorporated into the systems, although the original teachers may +indeed have been historical.</p> +<p>Confucius is a clear and distinct historic person. His +parentage, place of birth, public life, offices, work and teaching, +are well known and properly authenticated. He used the pen freely, +and not only compiled, edited and transmitted the writings of his +predecessors, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102"></a>{102}</span> but composed an historical and +interpretative book. He originated nothing, however, but on the +contrary disowned any purpose of introducing new ideas, or of +expressing thoughts of his own not based upon or in perfect harmony +with the teaching of the ancients. He was not an original thinker. +He was a compiler, an editor, a defender and reproclaimer of the +ancient religion, and an exemplar of the wisdom and writings of the +Chinese fathers. He felt that his duty was exactly that which some +Christian theologians of to-day conscientiously feel to be +theirs—to receive intact a certain "deposit" or "system" and, +adding nothing to it, simply to teach, illuminate, defend, enforce +and strongly maintain it as "the truth." He gloried in absolute +freedom from all novelty, anticipating in this respect a certain +illustrious American who made it a matter for boasting, that his +school had never originated a new idea.<a id="footnotetag4-1" name="footnotetag4-1"></a><a href="#footnote4-1"><sup>1</sup></a> +Whether or not the Master Kung did nevertheless, either consciously +or unconsciously, modify the ancient system by abbreviating or +enlarging it, we cannot now inquire.</p> +<p>Confucius wan born into the world in the year 551 B.C., during +that wonderful century of religious revival which saw the birth of +Ezra, Gautama, and Lao Tsze, and in boyhood he displayed an +unusually sedate temperament which made him seem to be what we +would now call an "old-fashioned child." The period during which he +lived was that of feudal China. From the ago of twenty-two, while +holding an office in the state of Lu within the modern province of +Shan-Tung, he gathered around him young men as pupils with whom, +like Socrates, he conversed in question and answer. He made the +teachings of the ancients the subjects of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103"></a>{103}</span> his +research, and he was at all times a diligent student of the +primeval records. These sacred books are called King, or Kiō in +Japanese, and are: Shu King, a collection of historic documents; +Shih King, or Book of Odes; Hsiao King, or Classic of Filial Piety, +and Yi King, or Book of Changes.<a id="footnotetag4-2" name="footnotetag4-2"></a><a href="#footnote4-2"><sup>2</sup></a> This +division of the old sacred canon, resembles the Christian or +non-Jewish arrangement of the Old Testament scriptures in the four +parts of Law, History, Poetry and Prophesy, though in the Chinese +we have History, Poetry, Ethics and Divination.<a id="footnotetag4-3" name="footnotetag4-3"></a><a href="#footnote4-3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<p>His own table-talk, conversations, discussions and notes were +compiled by his pupils, and are preserved in the work entitled in +English, "The Confucian Analects," which is one of the four books +constituting the most sacred portion of Chinese philosophy and +instruction. He also wrote a work named "Spring and Autumn, or +Chronicles of his Native State of Lu from 722 B.C., to 481<a id="footnotetag4-4" name="footnotetag4-4"></a><a href="#footnote4-4"><sup>4</sup></a> B.C." He "changed his world," as +the Buddhists say, in the year 478 B.C., having lived seventy-three +years.</p> +<h3>Primitive Chinese Faith.</h3> +<p>The pre-Confucian or primitive faith was monotheistic, the +forefathers of the Chinese nation having been believers in one +Supreme Spiritual Being. There is an almost universal agreement +among scholars in translating the term "Shang Ti" as God, and in +reading from these classics that the forefathers "in the ceremonies +at the altars of Heaven and earth ... served God." Concurrently +with the worship of one Supreme God there was also a belief in +subordinate spirits and in the idea of revelation or the +communication <span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104"></a>{104}</span> of God with men. This restricted worship +of God was accompanied by reverence for ancestors and the honoring +of spirits by prayers and sacrifices, which resulted, however, +neither in deification nor polytheism. But, as the European +mediæval schoolmen have done with the Bible, so, after the +death of Confucius the Chinese scholastics by metaphysical +reasoning and commentary, created systems of interpretation which +greatly altered the apparent form and contents of his own and of +the ancient texts. Thus, the original monotheism of the +pre-Confucian documents has been completely obscured by the later +webs of sophistry which have been woven about the original +scriptures. The ancient simplicity of doctrine has been lost in the +mountains of commentary which were piled upon the primitive texts. +Throughout the centuries, the Confucian system has been conditioned +and greatly modified by Taoism, Buddhism and the speculations of +the Chinese wise men.</p> +<p>Confucius, however, did not change or seriously modify the +ancient religion except that, as is more than probable, he may have +laid unnecessary emphasis upon social and political duties, and may +not have been sufficiently interested in the honor to be paid to +Shang Ti or God. He practically ignored the God-ward side of man's +duties. His teachings relate chiefly to duties between man and man, +to propriety and etiquette, and to ceremony and usage. He said that +"To give one's self to the duties due to men and while respecting +spiritual beings to keep aloof from them, may be called +wisdom."<a id="footnotetag4-5" name="footnotetag4-5"></a><a href="#footnote4-5"><sup>5</sup></a></p> +<p>We think that Confucius cut the tap-root of all true progress, +and therefore is largely responsible for the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>{105}</span> arrested +development of China. He avoided the personal term, God (Ti), and +instead, made use of the abstract term, Heaven (Tien). His +teaching, which is so often quoted by Japanese gentlemen, was, +"Honor the Gods and keep them far from you." His image stands in +thousands of temples and in every school, in China, but he is only +revered and never deified.</p> +<p>China has for ages suffered from agnosticism; for no normal +Confucianist can love God, though he may learn to reverence him. +The Emperor periodically worships for his people, at the great +marble altar to Heaven in Peking, with vast holocausts, and the +prayers which are offered may possibly amount to this: "Our Father +who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name." But there, as it seems to +a Christian, Chinese imperial worship stops. The people at large, +cut off by this restricted worship from direct access to God, have +wandered away into every sort of polytheism and idolatry, while the +religion of the educated Chinese is a mediæval philosophy +based upon Confucianism, of which we shall speak hereafter.</p> +<p>The Confucian system as a religion, like a giant with a child's +head, is exaggerated on its moral and ceremonial side as compared +with its spiritual development. Some deny that it is a religion at +all, and call it only a code. However, let us examine the Confucian +ethics which formed the basis and norm of all government in the +family and nation, and are summed up in the doctrine of the "Five +Relations." These are: Sovereign and Minister; Father and Son; +Husband and Wife; Elder Brother and Younger Brother; and Friends. +The relation being stated, the correlative duty arises at once. It +may perhaps be truly said <span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" +id="page106"></a>{106}</span> by Christians that Confucius might +have made a religion of his system of ethics, by adding a sixth and +supreme relation—that between God and man. This he declined +to do, and so left his people without any aspiration toward the +Infinite. By setting before them only a finite goal he sapped the +principles of progress.<a id="footnotetag4-6" name="footnotetag4-6"></a><a href="#footnote4-6"><sup>6</sup></a></p> +<h3>Vicissitudes of Confucianism.</h3> +<p>After the death of Confucius (478 B.C.) the teachings of the +great master were neglected, but still later they were re-enforced +and expounded in the time (372-289 B.C.) of Meng Ko, or Mencius (as +the name has been Latinized) who was likewise a native of the State +of Lu. At one time a Chinese Emperor attempted in vain to destroy +not only the writings of Confucius but also the ancient classics. +Taoism increased as a power in the religion of China, especially +after the fall of its feudal system. The doctrine of ancestral +worship as commended by the sage had in it much of good, both for +kings and nobles. The common people, however, found that Taoism was +more satisfying. About the beginning of the Christian era Buddhism +entered the Middle Kingdom, and, rapidly becoming popular, supplied +needs for which simple Confucianism was not adequate. It may be +said that in the sixth century—which concerns us +especially—although Confucianism continued to be highly +esteemed, Buddhism had become supreme in China—that venerable +State which is the mother of civilization in all Asia cast of the +Ganges, and the Middle Kingdom among pupil nations.</p> +<p>Confucianism overflowed from China into Korea, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107"></a>{107}</span> where to +this day it is predominant even over Buddhism. Thence, it was +carried beyond sea to the Japanese Archipelago, where for possibly +fifteen hundred years it has shaped and moulded the character of a +brave and chivalrous people. Let us now turn from China and trace +its influence and modifications in the Land of the Rising Sun.</p> +<p>It must be remembered that in the sixth century of the Christian +Era, Confucianism was by no means the fully developed philosophy +that it is now and has been for five hundred years. In former +times, the system of Confucius had been received in China not only +as a praiseworthy compendium of ceremonial observances, but also as +an inheritance from the ancients, illumined by the discourses of +the great sage and illustrated by his life and example. It was, +however, very far from being what it is at present—the +religion of the educated men of the nation, and, by excellence, the +religion of Chinese Asia. But in those early centuries it did not +fully satisfy the Chinese mind, which turned to the philosophy of +Taoism and to the teachings of the Buddhist for intellectual food, +for comfort and for inspiration.</p> +<p>The time when Chinese learning entered Japan, by the way of +Korea, has not been precisely ascertained.<a id="footnotetag4-7" +name="footnotetag4-7"></a><a href="#footnote4-7"><sup>7</sup></a> +It is possible that letters<a id="footnotetag4-8" name="footnotetag4-8"></a><a href="#footnote4-8"><sup>8</sup></a> and +writings were known in some parts of the country as early as the +fourth century, but it is nearly certain, that, outside the Court +of the Emperor, there was scarcely even a sporadic knowledge of the +literature of China until the Korean missionaries of Buddhism had +obtained a lodgement in the Mikado's capital. Buddhism was the real +purveyor of the foreign learning and became the vehicle by means +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>{108}</span> of which Confucianism, or the Chinese +ethical principles, reached the common people of Japan. The first +missionaries in Japan were heartily in sympathy with the Confucian +ethics, from which no effort was made to alienate them. They were +close allies, and for a thousand years wrought as one force in the +national life. They were not estranged until the introduction, in +the seventeenth century, of the metaphysical and scholastic forms +given to the ancient system by the Chinese schoolmen of the Sung +dynasty (A.D. 960-1333).</p> +<h3>Japanese Confucianism and Feudalism Contemporary.</h3> +<p>The intellectual history of the Japanese prior to their recent +contact with Christendom, may be divided into three eras:</p> +<p>1. The period of early insular or purely native thought, from +before the Christian era until the eighth century; by which time, +Shintō, or the indigenous system of worship—its ritual, +poetry and legend having been committed to writing and its life +absorbed in Buddhism—had been, as a system, relegated from +the nation and the people to a small circle of scholars and +archæologists.</p> +<p>2. The period from 800 A.D. to the beginning of the seventeenth +century; during which time Buddhism furnished to the nation its +religion, philosophy and culture.</p> +<p>3. From about 1630 A.D. until the present time; during which +period the developed Confucian philosophy, as set forth by Chu Hi +in the twelfth century, has been the creed of a majority of the +educated men of Japan.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>{109}</span> +<p>The political history of the Japanese may also be divided into +three eras:</p> +<p>1. The first extends from the dawn of history until the seventh +century. During this period the system of government was that of +rude feudalism. The conquering tribe of Yamato, having gradually +obtained a rather imperfect supremacy over the other tribes in the +middle and southern portions of the country now called the Empire +of Japan, ruled them in the name of the Mikado.</p> +<p>2. The second period begins in the seventh century, when the +Japanese, copying the Chinese model, adopted a system of +centralization. The country was divided into provinces and was +ruled through boards or ministries at the capital, with governors +sent out from Kiōto for stated periods, directly from the +emperor. During this time literature was chiefly the work of the +Buddhist priests and of the women of the imperial court.</p> +<p>While armies in the field brought into subjection the outlying +tribes and certain noble families rose to prominence at the court, +there was being formed that remarkable class of men called the +Samurai, or servants of the Mikado, which for more than ten +centuries has exercised a profound influence upon the development +of Japan.</p> +<p>In China, the pen and the sword have been kept apart; the +civilian and the soldier, the man of letters and the man of arms, +have been distinct and separate. This was also true in old Loo Choo +(now Riu Kiu), that part of Japan most like China. In Japan, +however, the pen and the sword, letters and arms, the civilian and +the soldier, have intermingled. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>{110}</span> unique product of this +union is seen in the Samurai, or servant of the Mikado. +Military-literati, are unknown in China, but in Japan they carried +the sword and the pen in the same girdle.</p> +<p>3. This class of men had become fully formed by the end of the +twelfth century, and then began the new feudal system, which lasted +until the epochal year 1868 A.D.—a year of several +revolutions, rather than of restoration pure and simple. After +nearly seven hundred years of feudalism, supreme magistracy, with +power vastly increased beyond that possessed in ancient times, was +restored to the emperor. Then also was abolished the duarchy of +Throne and Camp, of Mikado and Shōgun, and of the two capitals +Kiōto and Yedo, with the fountain of honor and authority in one +and the fountain of power and execution in the other. Thereupon, +Japan once more presented to the world, unity.</p> +<p>Practically, therefore, the period of the prevalence of the +Confucian ethics and their universal acceptance by the people of +Japan nearly coincides with the period of Japanese feudalism or the +dominance of the military classes.</p> +<p>Although the same ideograph, or rather logogram, was used to +designate the Chinese scholar and the Japanese warrior as well, yet +the former was man of the pen only, while the latter was man of the +pen and of two swords. This historical fact, more than any other, +accounts for the striking differences between Chinese and Japanese +Confucianism. Under this state of things the ethical system of the +sage of China suffered a change, as does almost everything that is +imported into Japan and borrowed by the islanders, but <span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>{111}</span> whether +for the better or for the worse we shall not inquire too carefully. +The point upon which we now lay emphasis is this: that, although +the Chinese teacher had made filial piety the basis of his system, +the Japanese gradually but surely made loyalty (Kun-Shin), that is, +the allied relations of sovereign and minister, of lord and +retainer, and of master and servant, not only first in order but +the chief of all. They also infused into this term ideas and +associations which are foreign to the Chinese mind. In the place of +filial piety was Kun-shin, that new growth in the garden of +Japanese ethics, out of which arose the white flower of loyalty +that blooms perennial in history.</p> +<h3>In Japan, Loyalty Displaces Filial Piety.</h3> +<p>This slow but sure adaptation of the exotic to its new +environment, took place during the centuries previous to the +seventeenth of the Christian era. The completed product presented a +growth so strikingly different from the original as to compel the +wonder of those Chinese refugee scholars, who, at Mito<a id="footnotetag4-9" name="footnotetag4-9"></a><a href="#footnote4-9"><sup>9</sup></a> and Yedo, taught the later dogmas +which are orthodox but not historically Confucian.</p> +<p>Herein lies the difference between Chinese and Japanese ethical +philosophy. In old Japan, loyalty was above filial obedience, and +the man who deserted parents, wife and children for the feudal +lord, received unstinted praise. The corner-stone of the Japanese +edifice of personal righteousness and public weal, is loyalty. On +the other hand, filial piety is the basis of Chinese order and the +secret of the amazing national <span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>{112}</span> longevity, which is one of +the moral wonders of the world, and sure proof of the fulfilment of +that promise which was made on Sinai and wrapped up in the fourth +commandment.</p> +<p>This master passion of the typical Samurai of old Japan made him +regard life as infinitely less than nothing, whenever duty demanded +a display of the virtue of loyalty. "The doctrines of Koshi and +Moshi" (Confucius and Mencius) formed, and possibly even yet form, +the gospel and the quintessence of all wordly wisdom to the +Japanese gentleman; they became the basis of his education and the +ideal which inspired his conceptions of duty and honor; but, +crowning all his doctrines and aspirations was his desire to be +loyal. There might abide loyal, marital, filial, fraternal and +various other relations, but the greatest of all these was loyalty. +Hence the Japanese calendar of saints is not filled with reformers, +alms-givers and founders of hospitals or orphanages, but is +over-crowded with canonized suicides and committers of +<i>hara-kiri</i>. Even today, no man more quickly wins the popular +regard during his life or more surely draws homage to his tomb, +securing even apotheosis, than the suicide, though he may have +committed a crime. In this era of Meiji or enlightened peace, most +appalling is the list of assassinations beginning with the murder +in Kiōto of Yokoi Héishiro, who was slain for +recommending the toleration of Christianity, down to the last +cabinet minister who has been knifed or dynamited. Yet in every +case the murderers considered themselves consecrated men and +ministers of Heaven's righteous vengeance.<a id="footnotetag4-10" +name="footnotetag4-10"></a><a href="#footnote4-10"><sup>10</sup></a> For centuries, and until +constitutional times, the government of Japan was "despotism +tempered by assassination." <span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" +id="page113"></a>{113}</span> The old-fashioned way of moving a +vote of censure upon the king's ministers was to take off their +heads. Now, however, election by ballot has been substituted for +this, and two million swords have become bric-à-brac.</p> +<p>A thousand years of training in the ethics of +Confucius—which always admirably lends itself to the +possessors of absolute power, whether emperors, feudal lords, +masters, fathers, or older brothers—have so tinged and +colored every conception of the Japanese mind, so dominated their +avenues of understanding and shaped their modes of thought, that +to-day, notwithstanding the recent marvellous development of their +language, which within the last two decades has made it almost a +new tongue,<a id="footnotetag4-11" name="footnotetag4-11"></a><a href="#footnote4-11"><sup>11</sup></a> it +is impossible with perfect accuracy to translate into English the +ordinary Japanese terms which are congregated under the general +idea of Kun-shin.</p> +<p>Herein may be seen the great benefit of carefully studying the +minds of those whom we seek to convert. The Christian preacher in +Japan who uses our terms "heaven," "home," "mother," "father," +"family," "wife," "people," "love," "reverence," "virtue," +"chastity," etc., will find that his hearers may indeed receive +them, but not at all with the same mental images and associations, +nor with the same proportion and depth, that these words command in +western thought and hearing. One must be exceedingly careful, not +only in translating terms which have been used by Confucius in the +Chinese texts, but also in selecting and rendering the current +expressions of the Japanese teachers and philosophers. In order to +understand each other, Orientals and Occidentals need a great deal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114"></a>{114}</span> of mutual intellectual drilling, without +which there will be waste of money, of time, of brains and of +life.</p> +<h3>The Five Relations.</h3> +<p>Let us now glance at the fundamentals of the Confucian +ethics—the Five Relations—as they were taught in the +comparatively simple system which prevailed before the new +orthodoxy was proclaimed by Sung schoolmen.</p> +<p>First. Although each of the Chinese and Japanese emperors is +supposed to be, and is called, "father of the people," yet it would +be entirely wrong to imagine that the phrase implies any such +relation, as that of William the Silent to the Dutch, or of +Washington to the American nation. In order to see how far the +emperor was removed from the people during a thousand years, one +needs but to look upon a brilliant painting of the Yamato-Tosa +school, in which the Mikado is represented as sitting behind a +cloud of gold or a thick curtain of fine bamboo, with no one before +the matting-throne but his prime ministers or the empress and his +concubines. For centuries, it was supposed that the Mikado did not +touch the ground with his feet. He went abroad in a curtained car; +and he was not only as mysterious and invisible to the public eye +as a dragon, but he was called such. The attributes of that monster +with many powers and functions, were applied to him, with an +amazing wealth of rhetoric and vocabulary. As well might the common +folks to-day presume to pray unto one of the transcendent Buddhas, +between whom and the needy suppliant there may be hosts upon hosts +of interlopers or mediators, as for an <span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>{115}</span> ordinary +subject to petition the emperor or even to gaze upon his dragon +countenance. The change in the constitutional Japan of our day is +seen in the fact that the term "Mikado" is now obsolete. This +description of the relation of sovereign and minister (inaccurately +characterised by some writers on Confucianism as that of "King and +subject," a phrase which might almost fit the constitutional +monarchy of to-day) shows the relation, as it did exist for nearly +a thousand years of Japanese history. We find the same imitation of +procedure, even when imperialism became only a shadow in the +government and the great Shōgun who called himself "Tycoon," the +ruler in Yedo, aping the majesty of Kiōto, became so powerful as +to be also a dragon. Between the Yedo Shōgun and the people rose +a great staircase of numberless subordinates, and should a subject +attempt to offer a petition in person he must pay for it by +crucifixion.<a id="footnotetag4-12" name="footnotetag4-12"></a><a href="#footnote4-12"><sup>12</sup></a></p> +<p>As, under the emperor there were court ministers, heads of +departments, governors and functionaries of all kinds before the +people were reached, so, under the Shōgun in the feudal days, +there were the Daimiōs or great lords and the Shomiōs or +small lords with their retainers in graduated subordination, and +below these were the servants and general humanity. Even after the +status of man was reached, there were gradations and degradations +through fractions down to ciphers and indeed to minus quantities, +for there existed in the Country of Brave Warriors some tens of +thousands of human beings bearing the names of <i>eta</i> (pariah) +and <i>hī-nin</i> (non-human), who were far below the pale of +humanity.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>{116}</span> +<h3>The Paramount Idea of Loyalty.</h3> +<p>The one idea which dominated all of these classes,<a id="footnotetag4-13" name="footnotetag4-13"></a><a href="#footnote4-13"><sup>13</sup></a>—in Old Japan there were no +masses but only many classes—was that of loyalty. As the +Japanese language shows, every faculty of man was subordinated to +this idea. Confucianism even conditioned the development of +Japanese grammar, as it also did that of the Koreans, by +multiplying honorary prefixes and suffixes and building up all +sociable and polite speech on perpendicular lines. Personality was +next to nothing and individuality was in a certain sense unknown. +In European languages, the pronoun shows how clearly the ideas of +personality and of individuality have been developed; but in the +Japanese language there really are no pronouns, in the sense of the +word as used by the Germanic nations, at least, although there are +hundreds of impersonal and topographical substitutes for +them.<a id="footnotetag4-14" name="footnotetag4-14"></a><a href="#footnote4-14"><sup>14</sup></a> The mirror, of the language +itself, reflects more truth upon this point of inquiry than do +patriotic assertions, or the protests of those who in the days of +this Meiji era so handsomely employ the Japanese language as the +medium of thought. Strictly speaking, the ego disappears in +ordinary conversation and action, and instead, it is the servant +speaking reverently to his master; or it is the master +condescending to the object which is "before his hand" or "to the +side" or "below" where his inferior kneels; or it is the "honorable +right" addressing the "esteemed left."</p> +<p>All the terms which a foreigner might use in speaking of the +duties of sovereign and minister, of lord and retainer and of +master and servant, are comprehended <span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117"></a>{117}</span> in the Japanese word, +Kun-shin, in which is crystallized but one thought, though it may +relate to three grades of society. The testimony of history and of +the language shows, that the feelings which we call loyalty and +reverence are always directed upward, while those which we term +benevolence and love invariably look downward.</p> +<p>Note herein the difference between the teachings of Christ and +those of the Chinese sage. According to the latter, if there be +love in the relation of the master and servant, it is the master +who loves, and not the servant who may only reverence. It would be +inharmonious for the Japanese servant to love his master; he never +even talks of it. And in family life, while the parent may love the +child, the child is not expected to love the parent but rather to +reverence him. So also the Japanese wife, as in our old scriptural +versions, is to "see that she <i>reverence</i> her husband." Love +(not <i>agapé</i>, but <i>eros</i>) is indeed a theme of the +poets and of that part of life and of literature which is, strictly +speaking, outside of the marriage relation, but the thought that +dominates in marital life, is reverence from the wife and +benevolence from the husband. The Christian conception, which +requires that a woman should love her husband, does not strictly +accord with the Confucian idea.</p> +<p>Christianity has taught us that when a man loves a woman purely +and makes her his wife, he should also have reverence for her, and +that this element should be an integral part of his love. +Christianity also teaches a reverence for children; and Wordsworth +has but followed the spirit of his great master, Christ, when +expressing this beautiful sentiment in his melodious <span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118"></a>{118}</span> numbers. +Such ideas as these, however, are discords in Japanese social life +of the old order. So also the Christian preaching of love to God, +sounds outlandish to the men of Chinese mind in the middle or the +pupil kingdom, who seem to think that it can only come from the +lips of those who have not been properly trained. To "love God" +appears to them as being an unwarrantable patronage of, and +familiarity with "Heaven," or the King of Kings. The same +difficulty, which to-day troubles Christian preachers and +translators, existed among the Roman Catholic missionaries three +centuries ago.<a id="footnotetag4-15" name="footnotetag4-15"></a><a href="#footnote4-15"><sup>15</sup></a> The +moulds of thought were not then, nor are they even now, entirely +ready for the full truth of Christian revelation.</p> +<h3>Suicide Made Honorable.</h3> +<p>In the long story of the Honorable Country, there are to be +found many shining examples of loyalty, which is the one theme +oftenest illustrated in popular fiction and romance. Its +well-attested instances on the crimson thread of Japanese history +are more numerous than the beads on many rosaries. The most famous +of all, perhaps, is the episode of the Forty-Seven Rōnins, which +is a constant favorite in the theatres, and has been so graphically +narrated or pictured by scores of native poets, authors, artists, +sculptors and dramatists, and told in English by Mitford, Dickens +and Grecy.<a id="footnotetag4-16" name="footnotetag4-16"></a><a href="#footnote4-16"><sup>16</sup></a></p> +<p>These forty-seven men hated wife, child, society, name, fame, +food and comfort for the sake of avenging the death of their +master. In a certain sense, they ceased to be persons in order to +become the impersonal <span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119"></a>{119}</span> instruments of Heaven's retribution. +They gave up every thing—houses, lands, kinsmen—that +they might have in this life the hundred-fold reward of vengeance, +and in the world-life of humanity throughout the centuries, fame +and honor. Feeding the hunger of their hearts upon the hope of +glutting that hunger with the life-blood of their victim, they +waited long years. When once their swords had drunk the consecrated +blood, they laid the severed head upon their master's tomb and then +gladly, even rapturously, delivered themselves up, and ripping open +their bowels they died by that judicially ordered seppuku which +cleansed their memory from every stain, and gave to them the +martyr's fame and crown forever. The tombs of these men, on the +hillside overlooking the Bay of Yedo, are to this day ever fragrant +with fresh flowers, and to the cemetery where their ashes lie and +their memorials stand, thousands of pilgrims annually wend their +way. No dramas are more permanently popular on the stage than those +which display the virtues of these heroes, who are commonly spoken +of as "The righteous Samurai." Their tombs have stood for two +centuries, as mighty magnets drawing others to self-impalement on +the sword—as multipliers of suicides.</p> +<p>Yet this alphabetic number, this <i>i-ro-ha</i> of self-murder, +is but one of a thousand instances in the Land of Noble Suicides. +From the pre-historic days when the custom of <i>Jun-shi</i>, or +dying with the master, required the interment of the living +retainers with the dead lord, down through all the ages to the +Revolution of 1868, when at Sendai and Aidzu scores of men and boys +opened their bowels, and mothers slew <span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120"></a>{120}</span> their +infant sons and cut their own throats, there has been flowing +through Japanese history a river of suicides' blood<a id="footnotetag4-17" name="footnotetag4-17"></a><a href="#footnote4-17"><sup>17</sup></a> having its springs in the +devotion of retainers to masters, and of soldiers to a lost cause +as represented by the feudal superior. Shigémori, the son of +the prime minister Kiyomori, who protected the emperor even against +his own father, is a model of that Japanese kun-shin which placed +fidelity to the sovereign above filial obedience; though even yet +Shigémori's name is the synonym of both virtues. Kusunoki +Masashigé,<a id="footnotetag4-18" name="footnotetag4-18"></a><a href="#footnote4-18"><sup>18</sup></a> the +white flower of Japanese chivalry, is but one, typical not only of +a thousand but of thousands of thousands of soldiers, who hated +parents, wife, child, friend in order to be disciple to the supreme +loyalty. He sealed his creed by emptying his own veins. +Kiyomori,<a id="footnotetag4-19" name="footnotetag4-19"></a><a href="#footnote4-19"><sup>19</sup></a> +like King David of Israel, on his dying bed ordered the +assassination of his personal enemy.</p> +<p>The common Japanese novels read like records of +slaughter-houses. No Moloch or Shiva has won more victims to his +shrine than has this idea of Japanese loyalty which is so beautiful +in theory and so hideous in practice. Despite the military clamps +and frightful despotism of Yedo, which for two hundred and fifty +years gave to the world a delusive idea of profound quiet in the +Country of Peaceful Shores, there was in fact a chronic unrest +which amounted at many times and in many places to anarchy. The +calm of despotism was, indeed, rudely broken by the aliens in the +"black ships" with the "flowery flag"; but, without regarding +influences from the West, the indications of history as now read, +pointed in 1850 toward the bloodiest of Japan's many civil wars. +Could the statistics <span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121"></a>{121}</span> of the suicides during this long period +be collected, their publication would excite in Christendom the +utmost incredulity.</p> +<p>Nevertheless, this qualifying statement should be made. A study +of the origin and development of the national method of +self-destruction shows that suicide by seppuku, or opening of the +abdomen, was first a custom, and then a privilege. It took, among +men of honor, the place of the public executions, the massacres in +battle and siege, decimation of rebels and similar means of killing +at the hands of others, which so often mar the historical records +of western nations. Undoubtedly, therefore, in the minds of most +Japanese, there are many instances of <i>hara-kiri</i> which should +not be classed as suicide, but technically as execution of judicial +sentence. And yet no sentence or process of death known in western +lands had such influence in glorifying the victim, as had seppuku +in Japan.</p> +<h3>The Family Idea.</h3> +<p>The Second Relation is that of father and son, thus preceding +what we should suppose to be the first of human +relations—husband and wife—but the arrangement entirely +accords with the Oriental conception that the family, the house, is +more important than the individual. In Old Japan the paramount idea +in marriage, was not that of love or companionship, or of mutual +assistance with children, but was almost wholly that of offspring, +and of maintaining the family line.<a id="footnotetag4-20" name="footnotetag4-20"></a><a href="#footnote4-20"><sup>20</sup></a> The +individual might perish but the house must live on.</p> +<p>Very different from the family of Christendom, is the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122"></a>{122}</span> family in Old Japan, in which we find +elements that would not be recognized where monogamy prevails and +children are born in the home and not in the herd. Instead of +father, mother and children, there are father, wife, concubines, +and various sorts of children who are born of the wife or of the +concubine, or have been adopted into the family. With us, adoption +is the exception, but in Japan it is the invariable rule whenever +either convenience or necessity requires it of the house. Indeed it +is rare to find a set of brothers bearing the same family name. +Adoption and concubinage keep the house unbroken.<a id="footnotetag4-21" name="footnotetag4-21"></a><a href="#footnote4-21"><sup>21</sup></a> It is the house, the name, which +must continue, although not necessarily by a blood line. The name, +a social trade-mark, lives on for ages. The line of Japanese +emperors, which, in the Constitution of 1889, by adding mythology +to history is said to rule "unbroken from ages eternal," is not one +of fathers and sons, but has been made continuous by concubinage +and adoption. In this view, it is possibly as old as the line of +the popes.</p> +<p>It is very evident that our terms and usages do not have in such +a home the place or meaning which one not familiar with the real +life of Old Japan would suppose. The father is an absolute ruler. +There is in Old Japan hardly any such thing as "parents," for +practically there is only one parent, as the woman counts for +little. The wife is honored if she becomes a mother, but if +childless she is very probably neglected. Our idea of fatherhood +implies that the child has rights and that he should love as well +as be loved. Our customs excite not only the merriment but even the +contempt of the old-school Japanese. The kiss and the embrace, the +linking of the child's arm around its <span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123"></a>{123}</span> father's +neck, the address on letters "My dear Wife" or "My beloved Mother" +seem to them like caricatures of propriety. On the other hand, it +is undoubtedly true that in reverence toward parents—or at +least toward one of the parents—a Japanese child is apt to +excel the one born even in a Christian home.</p> +<p>This so-called filial "piety" becomes in practice, however, a +horrible outrage upon humanity and especially upon womanhood. +During centuries the despotic power of the father enabled him to +put an end to the life of his child, whether boy or girl.</p> +<p>Under this abominable despotism there is no protection for the +daughter, who is bound to sell her body, while youth or beauty last +or perhaps for life, to help pay her father's debts, to support an +aged parent or even to gratify his mere caprice. In hundreds of +Japanese romances the daughter, who for the sake of her parents has +sold herself to shame, is made the theme of the story and an object +of praise. In the minds of the people there may be indeed a feeling +of pity that the girl has been obliged to give up her home life for +the brothel, but no one ever thinks of questioning the right of the +parent to make the sale of the girl's body, any more than he would +allow the daughter to rebel against it. This idea still lingers and +the institution remains,<a id="footnotetag4-22" name="footnotetag4-22"></a><a href="#footnote4-22"><sup>22</sup></a> +although the system has received stunning blows from the teaching +of Christian ethics, the preaching of a better gospel and the +improvements in the law of the land.</p> +<h3>The Marital Relation.</h3> +<p>The Third Relation is that of husband and wife. The meaning of +these words, however, is not the same <span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124"></a>{124}</span> with the +Japanese as with us. In Confucius there is not only male and +female, but also superior and inferior, master and servant.<a id="footnotetag4-23" name="footnotetag4-23"></a><a href="#footnote4-23"><sup>23</sup></a> Without any love-making or +courtship by those most interested, a marriage between two young +people is arranged by their parents through the medium of what is +called a "go-between." The bride leaves her father's house +forever—that is, when she is not to be subsequently +divorced—and entering into that of her husband must be +subordinate not only to him but also to his parents, and must obey +them as her own father and mother. Having all her life under her +father's roof reverenced her superiors, she is expected to bring +reverence to her new domicile, but not love. She must always obey +but never be jealous. She must not be angry, no matter whom her +husband may introduce into his household. She must wait upon him at +his meals and must walk behind him, but not with him. When she dies +her children go to her funeral, but not her husband.</p> +<p>A foreigner, hearing the Japanese translate our word chastity by +the term <i>téiso</i> or <i>misao</i>, may imagine that the +latter represents mutual obligation and personal purity for man and +wife alike, but on looking into the dictionary he will find that +<i>téiso</i> means "Womanly duties." A circumlocution is +needed to express the idea of a chaste man.</p> +<p>Jealousy is a horrible sin, but is always supposed to be a +womanish fault, and so an exhibition of folly and weakness. +Therefore, to apply such a term to God—to say "a jealous +God"—outrages the good sense of a Confucianist,<a id="footnotetag4-24" name="footnotetag4-24"></a><a href="#footnote4-24"><sup>24</sup></a> almost as much as the statement +that God "cannot lie" did that of the Pundit, who wondered how God +could be Omnipotent if He could not lie.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125"></a>{125}</span> +<p>How great the need in Japanese social life of some purifying +principle higher than Confucianism can afford, is shown in the +little book entitled "The Japanese Bride,"<a id="footnotetag4-25" +name="footnotetag4-25"></a><a href="#footnote4-25"><sup>25</sup></a> written by a native, and scarcely +less in the storm of native criticism it called forth. Under the +system which has ruled Japan for a millennium and a half, divorce +has been almost entirely in the hands of the husband, and the +document of separation, entitled in common parlance the "three +lines and a half," was invariably written by the man. A woman might +indeed nominally obtain a divorce from her husband, but not +actually; for the severance of the marital tie would be the work of +the house or relatives, rather than the act of the wife, who was +not "a person" in the case. Indeed, in the olden time a woman was +not a person in the eye of the law, but rather a chattel. The case +is somewhat different under the new codes,<a id="footnotetag4-26" +name="footnotetag4-26"></a><a href="#footnote4-26"><sup>26</sup></a> but the looseness of the marriage +tie is still a scandal to thinking Japanese. Since the breaking up +of the feudal system and the disarrangement of the old social and +moral standards, the statistics made annually from the official +census show that the ratio of divorce to marriage is very nearly as +one to three.<a id="footnotetag4-27" name="footnotetag4-27"></a><a href="#footnote4-27"><sup>27</sup></a></p> +<h3>The Elder and the Younger Brother.</h3> +<p>The Fourth Relation is that of Elder Brother and Younger +Brother. As we have said, foreigners in translating some of the +Chinese and Japanese terms used in the system of Confucius are +often led into errors by supposing that the Christian conception of +family life prevails also in Chinese Asia. By many writers this +relation is translated "brother to brother;" <span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126"></a>{126}</span> but +really in the Japanese language there is no term meaning simply +"brother" or "sister,"<a id="footnotetag4-28" name="footnotetag4-28"></a><a href="#footnote4-28"><sup>28</sup></a> and +a circumlocution is necessary to express the ideas which we convey +by these words. It is always "older brother" or "younger brother," +and "older sister" or "younger sister"—the male or female +"<i>kiyodai</i>" as the case may be. With us—excepting in +lands where the law of primogeniture still prevails—all the +brothers are practically equal, and it would be considered a +violation of Christian righteousness for a parent to show more +favor to one child than to another. In this respect the "wisdom +that cometh from above" is "without partiality." The Chinese +ethical system, however, disregards the principle of mutual rights +and duties, and builds up the family on the theory of the +subordination of the younger brother to the elder brother, the +predominant idea being not mutual love, but, far more than in the +Christian household, that of rank and order. The attitude of the +heir of the family toward the other children is one of +condescension, and they, as well as the widowed mother, regard the +oldest son with reverence. It is as though the commandment given on +Sinai should read, "Honor thy father and thy elder brother."</p> +<p>The mother is an instrument rather than a person in the life of +the house, and the older brother is the one on whom rests the +responsibility of continuing the family line. The younger brothers +serve as subjects for adoption into other families, especially +those where there are daughters to be married and family names to +be continued. In a word, the name belongs to the house and not to +the individual. The habit of naming children after relatives or +friends of the parents, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127"></a>{127}</span> or illustrious men and women, is unknown +in Old Japan, though an approach to this common custom among us is +made by conferring or making use of part of a name, usually by the +transferrence of one ideograph forming the name-word. Such a +practice lays stress upon personality, and so has no place in the +country without pronouns, where the idea of continuing the personal +house or semi-personal family, is predominant. The customs +prevalent in life are strong even in death, and the elder brother +or sister, in some provinces, did not go to the funeral of the +younger. This state of affairs is reflected in Japanese literature, +and produces in romance as well as in history many situations and +episodes which seem almost incredible to the Western mind.</p> +<p>In the lands ruled by Confucius the grown-up children usually +live under the parental roof, and there are few independent homes +as we understand them. The so-called family is composed both of the +living and of the dead, and constitutes the unit of society.</p> +<h3>Friendship and Humanity.</h3> +<p>The Fifth Relation—Friends. Here, again, a mistake is +often made by those who import ideas of Christendom into the terms +used in Chinese Asia, and who strive to make exact equivalent in +exchanging the coins of speech. Occidental writers are prone to +translate the term for the fifth relation into the English phrase +"man to man," which leads the Western reader to suppose that +Confucius taught that universal love for man, as man, which was +instilled and exemplified by Jesus Christ. In translating Confucius +they often <span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128"></a>{128}</span> make the same mistake that some have +done who read in Terence's "Self-Tormentor" the line, "I am a man, +and nothing human is foreign to me,"<a id="footnotetag4-29" name="footnotetag4-29"></a><a href="#footnote4-29"><sup>29</sup></a> and +imagine that this is the sentiment of an enlightened Christian, +although the context shows that it is only the boast of a busybody +and parasite. What Confucius taught under the fifth relation is not +universality, and, as compared to the teachings of Jesus, is +moonlight, not sunlight. The doctrine of the sage is clearly +expressed in the Analects, and amounts only to courtesy and +propriety. He taught, indeed, that the stranger is to be treated as +a friend; and although in both Chinese and Japanese history there +are illustrious proofs that Confucius had interpreters nobler than +himself, yet it is probable that the doctrine of the stranger's +receiving treatment as a friend, does not extend to the foreigner. +Confucius framed something like the Golden Rule—though it +were better called a Silver Rule, or possibly a Gilded Rule, since +it is in the negative instead of being definitely placed in the +positive and indicative form. One may search his writings in vain +for anything approaching the parable of the Good Samaritan, or the +words of Him who commended Elijah for replenishing the cruse and +barrel of the widow of Sarepta, and Elisha for healing Naaman the +Syrian leper, and Jonah for preaching the good news of God to the +Assyrians who had been aliens and oppressors. Lao Tsze, however, +went so far as to teach "return good for evil." When one of the +pupils of Confucius interrogated his Master concerning this, the +sage answered; "What then will you return for good? Recompense +injury with justice, and return good for good."</p> +<p>But if we do good only to those who do good to us, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129"></a>{129}</span> what +thanks have we? Do not the publicans the same? Behold how the +Heavenly Father does good alike unto all, sending rain upon the +just and unjust!</p> +<p>How Old Japan treated the foreigner is seen in the repeated +repulse, with powder and ball, of the relief ships which, under the +friendly stars and stripes, attempted to bring back to her shores +the shipwrecked natives of Nippon.<a id="footnotetag4-30" name="footnotetag4-30"></a><a href="#footnote4-30"><sup>30</sup></a> +Granted that this action may have been purely political and the +Government alone responsible for it—just as our un-Christian +anti-Chinese legislation is similarly explained—yet it is +certain that the sentiment of the only men in Japan who made public +opinion,—the Samurai of that day,—was in favor of this +method of meeting the alien.</p> +<p>In 1852 the American expedition was despatched to Japan for the +purpose of opening a lucrative trade and of extending American +influence and glory, but also unquestionably with the idea of +restoring shipwrecked Japanese as well as securing kind treatment +for shipwrecked American sailors, thereby promoting the cause of +humanity and international courtesy; in short, with motives that +were manifestly mixed.<a id="footnotetag4-31" name="footnotetag4-31"></a><a href="#footnote4-31"><sup>31</sup></a> In +the treaty pavilion there ensued an interesting discussion between +Commodore Perry and Professor Hayashi upon this very subject.</p> +<p>Perry truthfully complained that the dictates of humanity had +not been followed by the Japanese, that unnecessary cruelty had +been used against shipwrecked men, and that Japan's attitude toward +her neighbors and the whole world was that of an enemy and not of a +friend.</p> +<p>Hayashi, who was then probably the leading Confucianist in +Japan, warmly defended his countrymen <span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130"></a>{130}</span> and +superiors against the charge of intentional cruelty, and denounced +the lawless character of many of the foreign sailors. Like most +Japanese of his school and age, he wound up with panegyrics on the +pre-eminence in virtue and humanity, above all nations, of the +Country Ruled by a Theocratic Dynasty, and on the glory and +goodness of the great Tokugawa family, which had given peace to the +land during two centuries or more.<a id="footnotetag4-32" name="footnotetag4-32"></a><a href="#footnote4-32"><sup>32</sup></a></p> +<p>It is manifest, however, that so far as this hostility to +foreigners, and this blind bigotry of "patriotism" were based on +Chinese codes of morals, as officially taught in Yedo, they +belonged as much to the old Confucianism as to the new. Wherever +the narrow philosophy of the sage has dominated, it has made Asia +Chinese and nations hermits. As a rule, the only way in which +foreigners could come peacefully into China or the countries which +she intellectually dominated was as vassals, tribute-bearers, or +"barbarians." The mental attitude of China, Korea, Annam and Japan +has for ages been that of the Jews in Herodian times, who set up, +between the Court of Israel and the Court of the Gentiles, their +graven stones of warning which read:<a id="footnotetag4-33" name="footnotetag4-33"></a><a href="#footnote4-33"><sup>33</sup></a></p> +<blockquote> +<p>"No foreigner to proceed within the partition wall and enclosure +around the sanctuary; whoever is caught in the same will on that +account be liable to incur death."</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131"></a>{131}</span> +<h2><a name="chap5" id="chap5">CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL +FORM</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132"></a>{132}</span> +<blockquote> +<p>"After a thousand years the pine decays; the flower has its +glory in blooming for a day."—Hakkyoi, Chinese Poet of the +Tang Dynasty.</p> +<p>"The morning-glory of an hour differs not in heart from the +pine-tree of a thousand years."—Matsunaga of Japan.</p> +<p>"The pine's heart is not of a thousand years, nor the +morning-glory's of an hour, but only that they may fulfil their +destiny."</p> +<p>"Since Iyéyasú, his hair brushed by the wind, his +body anointed with rain, with lifelong labor caused confusion to +cease and order to prevail, for more than a hundred years there has +been no war. The waves of the four seas have been unruffled and no +one has failed of the blessing of peace. The common folk must speak +with reverence, yet it is the duty of scholars to celebrate the +virtue of the Government."—Kyūso of Yedo.</p> +<p>"A ruler must have faithful ministers. He who sees the error of +his lord and remonstrates, not fearing his wrath, is braver than he +who bears the foremost spear in +battle."—Iyéyasú.</p> +<p>"The choice of the Chinese philosophy and the rejection of +Buddhism was not because of any inherent quality in the Japanese +mind. It was not the rejection of supernaturalism or the +miraculous. The Chinese philosophy is as supernaturalistic as some +forms of Buddhism. The distinction is not between the natural and +the supernatural in either system, but between the seen and the +unseen."</p> +<p>"The Chinese philosophy is as religious as the original teaching +of Gautama. Neither Shushi nor Gautama believed in a Creator, but +both believed in gods and demons.... It has little place for +prayer, but has a vivid sense of the Infinite and the Unseen, and +fervently believes that right conduct is in accord with the +'eternal verities.'"—George William Knox.</p> +<p>"In him is the yea."—Paul.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>{133}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER V - CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM</h2> +<h3>Japan's Millennium of Simple Confucianism.</h3> +<p>Having seen the practical working of the ethics of Confucianism, +especially in the old and simple system, let us now glance at the +developed and philosophical forms, which, by giving the educated +man of Japan a creed, made him break away from Buddhism and despise +it, while becoming often fanatically Confucian.</p> +<p>For a thousand years (from 600 to 1600 A.D.) the Buddhist +religious teachers assisted in promulgating the ethics of +Confucius; for during all this time there was harmony between the +various Buddhisms imported from India, Tibet, China and Korea, and +the simple undeveloped system of Chinese Confucianism. Slight +modifications were made by individual teachers, and emphasis was +laid upon this or that feature, while out of the soil of Japanese +feudalism were growths of certain virtues as phases of loyalty, +phenomenal beyond those in China. Nevertheless, during all this +time, the Japanese teachers of the Chinese ethic were as students +who did but recite what they learned. They simply transmitted, +without attempting to expand or improve.</p> +<p>Though the apparatus of distribution was early known, block +printing having been borrowed from the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134"></a>{134}</span> Chinese +after the ninth century, and movable types learned from the Koreans +and made use of in the sixteenth century,<a id="footnotetag5-1" +name="footnotetag5-1"></a><a href="#footnote5-1"><sup>1</sup></a> +the Chinese classics were not printed as a body until after the +great peace of Genna (1615). Nor during this period were +translations made of the classics or commentaries, into the +Japanese vernacular. Indeed, between the tenth and sixteenth +centuries there was little direct intercourse, commercial, +diplomatic or intellectual, between Japan and China, as compared +with the previous eras, or the decades since 1870.</p> +<p>Suddenly in the seventeenth century the intellect of Japan, all +ready for new surprises in the profound peace inaugurated by +Iyéyasŭ, received, as it were, an electric thrill. The +great warrior, becoming first a unifier by arms and statecraft, +determined also to become the architect of the national culture. +Gathering up, from all parts of the country, books, manuscripts, +and the appliances of intellectual discipline, he encouraged +scholars and stimulated education. Under his supervision the +Chinese classics were printed, and were soon widely circulated. A +college was established in Yedo, and immediately there began a +critical study of the texts and principal commentaries. The fall of +the Ming dynasty in China, and the accession of the Manchiu +Tartars, became the signal for a great exodus of learned Chinese, +who fled to Japan. These received a warm welcome, both at the +capital and in Yedo, as well as in some of the castle towns of the +Daimiōs, among whom stand illustrious those of the province of +Mito.<a id="footnotetag5-2" name="footnotetag5-2"></a><a href="#footnote5-2"><sup>2</sup></a></p> +<p>These men from the west brought not only ethics but philosophy; +and the fertilizing influences of these <span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135"></a>{135}</span> scholars +of the Dispersion, may be likened to those of the exodus of the +Greek learned men after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. +Confucian schools were established in most of the chief provincial +cities. For over two hundred years this discipline in the Chinese +ethics, literature and history constituted the education of the +boys and men of Japan. Almost every member of the Samurai classes +was thoroughly drilled in this curriculum. All Japanese social, +official, intellectual and literary life was permeated with the new +spirit. Their "world" was that of the Chinese, and all outside of +it belonged to "barbarians." The matrices of thought became so +fixed and the Japanese language has been so moulded, that even now, +despite the intense and prolonged efforts of thirty years of acute +and laborious scholarship, it is impossible, as we have said, to +find English equivalents for terms which were used for a century or +two past in every-day Japanese speech. Those who know most about +these facts, are most modest in attempting with English words to do +justice to Japanese thought; while those who know the least seem to +be most glib, fluent and voluminous in showing to their own +satisfaction, that there is little difference between the ethics of +Chinese Asia and those of Christendom.</p> +<h3>Survey of the Intellectual History of China.</h3> +<p>The Confucianism of the last quarter-millennium in Japan is not +that of her early centuries. While the Japanese for a thousand +years only repeated and recited—merely talking aloud in their +intellectual sleep but not reflecting—China was awake and +thinking hard. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136"></a>{136}</span> Japan's continued civil wars, which +caused the almost total destruction of books and manuscripts, +secured also the triumph of Buddhism which meant the atrophy of the +national intellect. When, after the long feuds and battles of the +middle ages, Confucianism stepped the second time into the Land of +<i>Brave</i> Scholars, it was no longer with the simple rules of +conduct and ceremonial of the ancient days, nor was it as the ally +of Buddhism. It came like an armed man in full panoply of harness +and weapons. It entered to drive Buddhism out, and to defend the +intellect of the educated against the wiles of priestcraft. It was +a full-blown system of pantheistic rationalism, with a scheme of +philosophy that to the far-Oriental mind seemed perfect as a rule +both of faith and practice. It came in a form that was received as +religion, for it was not only morality "touched" but infused with +motion. Nor were the emotions kindled, those of the partisan only, +but rather also those of the devotee and the martyr. Henceforth +Buddhism, with its inventions, its fables, and its endless +dogmatism, was for the common people, for women and children, but +not for the Samurai. The new Confucianism came to Japan as the +system of Chu Hi. For three centuries this system had already held +sway over the intellect of China. For two centuries and a half it +has dominated the minds of the Samurai so that the majority of them +to-day, even with the new name Shizoku, are Confucianists so far as +they are anything.</p> +<p>To understand the origin of Buddhism we must know something of +the history and the previous religious and philosophical systems of +India, and so, if we are to appreciate modern "orthodox" +Confucianism, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>{137}</span> we must review the history of China, and +see, in outline, at least, its literature, politics and philosophy +during the middle ages.</p> +<p>"Four great stages of literary and national development may be +pointed to as intervening (in the fifteen hundred years) between +the great sage and the age called that of the Sung-Ju,"<a id="footnotetag5-3" name="footnotetag5-3"></a><a href="#footnote5-3"><sup>3</sup></a> from the tenth to the fourteenth +century, in which the Confucian system received its modern form. +Each of them embraced the course of three or four centuries.</p> +<p>I. From the sixth to the third century before Christ the +struggle was for Confucian and orthodox doctrine, led by Mencius +against various speculators in morals and politics, with Taoist +doctrine continually increasing in acceptance.</p> +<p>II. The Han age (from B.C. 206 to A.D. 190) was rich in critical +expositors and commentators of the classics, but "the tone of +speculation was predominantly Taoist."</p> +<p>III. The period of the Six Dynasties (from A.D. 221 to A.D. 618) +was the golden age of Buddhism, when the science and philosophy of +India enriched the Chinese mind, and the wealth of the country was +lavished on Buddhist temples and monasteries. The faith of Shaka +became nearly universal and the Buddhists led in philosophy and +literature, founding a native school of Indian philosophy.</p> +<p>IV. The Tang period (from A.D. 618 to 905) marked by luxury and +poetry, was an age of mental inaction and enervating +prosperity.</p> +<p>V. The fifth epoch, beginning with the Sung Dynasty (from A.D. +960 to 1333) and lasting to our own time, was ushered in by a +period of intense mental energy. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138"></a>{138}</span> Strange to say (and most +interesting is the fact to Americans of this generation), the +immediate occasion of the recension and expansion of the old +Confucianism was a Populist movement.<a id="footnotetag5-4" name="footnotetag5-4"></a><a href="#footnote5-4"><sup>4</sup></a> During +the Tang era of national prosperity, Chinese socialists questioned +the foundations of society and of government, and there grew up a +new school of interpreters as well as of politicians. In the tenth +century the contest between the old Confucianism and the new +notions, broke out with a violence that threatened anarchy to the +whole empire.</p> +<p>One set of politicians, led by Wang (1021-1086), urged an +extension of administrative functions, including agricultural +loans, while the brothers Cheng (1032-1085, 1033-1107) reaffirmed, +with fresh intellectual power, the old orthodoxy.</p> +<p>The school of writers and party agitators, led by Szma Kwaug +(1009-1086)<a id="footnotetag5-5" name="footnotetag5-5"></a><a href="#footnote5-5"><sup>5</sup></a> the +historian, contended that the ancient principles of the sages +should be put in force. Others, the Populists of that age and land, +demanded the entire overthrow of existing institutions.</p> +<p>In the bitter contest which ensued, the Radicals and Reformers +temporarily won the day and held power. For a decade the experiment +of innovation was tried. Men turned things social and political +upside down to see how they looked in that position. So these stood +or oscillated for thirteen years, when the people demanded the old +order again. The Conservatives rose to power. There was no civil +war, but the Radicals were banished beyond the frontier, and the +country returned to normal government.</p> +<p>This controversy raised a landmark in the intellectual +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139"></a>{139}</span> history of China.<a id="footnotetag5-6" +name="footnotetag5-6"></a><a href="#footnote5-6"><sup>6</sup></a> +The thoughts of men were turned toward deep and acute inquiry into +the nature and use of things in general. This thinking resulted in +a literature which to-day is the basis of the opinions of the +educated men in all Chinese Asia. Instead of a sapling we now have +a mighty tree. The chief of the Chinese writers, the Calvin of +Asiatic orthodoxy, who may be said to have wrought Confucianism +into a developed philosophy, and who may be called the greatest +teacher of the mind, of modern China, Korea and Japan, is Chu Hi, +who reverently adopted the criticisms on the Chinese classics of +the brothers Cheng.<a id="footnotetag5-7" name="footnotetag5-7"></a><a href="#footnote5-7"><sup>7</sup></a> It is +evident that in Chu Hi's system, we have a body of thought which +may be called the result of Chinese reflection during a millennium +and a half. It is the ethics of Confucius transfused with the +mystical elements of Taoism and the speculations of Buddhism. As +the common people of China made an amalgam of the three religions +and consider them one, so the philosophers have out of these three +systems made one, calling that one Confucianism. The dominant +philosophy in Japan to-day is based upon the writings of Chu Hi (in +Japanese, Shu Shi) and called the system of Téi-Shu, which +is the Japanese pronunciation of the names of the Cheng brothers +and of Chu (Hi). It is a medley which the ancient sage could no +more recognize than would Jesus know much of the Christianity that +casts out devils in his name.</p> +<h3>Contrast between the Chinese and Japanese Intellect.</h3> +<p>Here we must draw a contrast between the Chinese and Japanese +intellect to the credit of the former; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140"></a>{140}</span> China +made, Japan borrowed. While history shows that the Chinese mind, +once at least, possessed mental initiative, and the power of +thinking out a system of philosophy which to-day satisfies largely, +if not wholly, the needs of the educated Chinaman, there has been +in the Japanese mind, as shown by its history, apparently no such +vigor or fruitfulness. From the literary and philosophical points +of view, Confucianism, as it entered Japan, in the sixth century, +remained practically stationary for a thousand years. +Modifications, indeed, were made upon the Chinese system, and these +were striking and profound, but they were less developments of the +intellect than necessities of the case. The modifications were +made, as molten metal poured into a mould shaped by other hands +than the artist's own, rather than as clay made plastic under the +hand of a designer. Buddhism, being the dominant force in the +thoughts of the Japanese for at least eight hundred years, +furnished the food for the requirements of man on his intellectual +and religious side.</p> +<p>Broadly speaking, it may be said that the Japanese, receiving +passively the Chinese classics, were content simply to copy and to +recite what they had learned. As compared with their audacity in +not only going beyond the teachings of Buddha, but in inventing +systems of Buddhism which neither Gautama nor his first disciples +could recognize, the docile and almost slavish adherence to ancient +Confucianism is one of the astonishing things in the history of +religions in Japan. In the field of Buddhism we have a luxuriant +growth of new and strange species of colossal weeds that overtower +and seem to have choked out whatever furze of original Buddhism +there was in Japan, while in the domain of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141"></a>{141}</span> +Confucianism there is a barren heath. Whereas, in China, the +voluminous literature created by commentators on Confucius and the +commentaries on the commentators suggests the hyperbole used by the +author of John's Gospel,<a id="footnotetag5-8" name="footnotetag5-8"></a><a href="#footnote5-8"><sup>8</sup></a> yet +there is probably nothing on Confucianism from the Japanese pen in +the thousand years under our review which is worth the reading or +the translation.<a id="footnotetag5-9" name="footnotetag5-9"></a><a href="#footnote5-9"><sup>9</sup></a> In +this respect the Japanese genius showed its vast capabilities of +imitation, adoption and assimilation.</p> +<p>As of old, Confucianism again furnished a Chinese wall, within +which the Japanese could move, and wherein they might find food for +the mind in all the relations of life and along all the lines of +achievement permitted them. The philosophy imported from China, as +shown again and again in that land of oft-changing dynasties, +harmonizing with arbitrary government, accorded perfectly with the +despotism of the Tokugawas, the "Tycoons" who in Yedo ruled from +1603 to 1868. Nothing new was permitted, and any attempt at +modification, enlargement, or improvement was not only frowned and +hissed down as impious innovation, but usually brought upon the +daring innovator the ban of the censor, imprisonment, banishment, +or death by enforced suicide.<a id="footnotetag5-10" name="footnotetag5-10"></a><a href="#footnote5-10"><sup>10</sup></a> In +Yedo, the centre of Chinese learning, and in other parts of the +country, there were, indeed, thinkers whose philosophy did not +always tally with what was taught by the orthodox,<a id="footnotetag5-11" name="footnotetag5-11"></a><a href="#footnote5-11"><sup>11</sup></a> but as a rule even when these men +escaped the ban of the censor, or the sword of the executioner, +they were but us voices crying in the wilderness. The great mass of +the gentry was orthodox, according to the standards of the +Séido College, while the common people remained <span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142"></a>{142}</span> faithful +to Buddhism. In the conduct of daily life they followed the +precepts which had for centuries been taught them by their +fathers.</p> +<h3>Philosophical Confucianism the Religion of the Samurai.</h3> +<p>What were the features of this modern Confucian philosophy, +which the Japanese Samurai exalted to a religion?<a id="footnotetag5-12" name="footnotetag5-12"></a><a href="#footnote5-12"><sup>12</sup></a> We say philosophy and religion, +because while the teachings of the great sage lay at the bottom of +the system, yet it is not true since the early seventeenth century, +that the thinking men of Japan have been satisfied with only the +original simple ethical rules of the ancient master. Though they +have craved a richer mental pabulum, yet they have enjoyed less the +study of the original text, than acquaintance with the commentaries +and communion with the great philosophical exponents, of the +master. What, then, we ask, are the features of the developed +philosophy, which, imported from China, served the Japanese Samurai +not only as morals but for such religion as he possessed or +professed?</p> +<p>We answer: The system was not agnostic, as many modern and +western writers assert that it is, and as Confucius, transmitting +and probably modifying the old religion, had made the body of his +teachings to be. Agnostic, indeed, in regard to many things wherein +a Christian has faith, modern Confucianism, besides being bitterly +polemic and hostile to Buddhism, is pantheistic.</p> +<p>Certain it is that during the revival of Pure Shintō in the +eighteenth century, the scholars of the Shintō school, and those +of its great rival, the Chinese, agreed <span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143"></a>{143}</span> in making +loyalty<a id="footnotetag5-13" name="footnotetag5-13"></a><a href="#footnote5-13"><sup>13</sup></a> take the place of filial duty in +the Confucian system. To serve the cause of the Emperor became the +most essential duty to those with cultivated minds. The newer +Chinese philosophy mightily influenced the historians, Rai Sanyo +and those of the Mito school, whose works, now classic, really +began the revolution of 1868. By forming and setting in motion the +public opinion, which finally overthrew the Shōgun and +feudalism, restored the Emperor to supreme power, and unified the +nation, they helped, with modern ideas, to make the New Japan of +our day. The Shintō and the Chinese teachings became amalgamated +in a common cause, and thus the philosophy of Chu Hi, mingling with +the nationalism and patriotism inculcated by Shintō, brought +about a remarkable result. As a native scholar and philosopher +observes, "It certainly is strange to see the Tokugawa rule much +shaken, if not actually overthrown, by that doctrine which +generations of able Shōguns and their ministers had earnestly +encouraged and protected. It is perhaps still more remarkable to +see the Mito clan, under many able and active chiefs, become the +centre of the Kinno<a id="footnotetag5-14" name="footnotetag5-14"></a><a href="#footnote5-14"><sup>14</sup></a> +movement, which was to result in the overthrow of the Tokugawa +family, of which it was itself a branch."</p> +<h3>A Medley of Pantheism.</h3> +<p>The philosophy of modern Confucianism is wholly pantheistic. +There is in it no such thing or being as God. The orthodox +pantheism of Old Japan means that everything in general is god, but +nothing in particular is God; that All is god, but not that God is +all. It is a "pantheistic medley."<a id="footnotetag5-15" name="footnotetag5-15"></a><a href="#footnote5-15"><sup>15</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144"></a>{144}</span> +<p>Chu Hi and his Japanese successors, especially Kyū-so, argue +finely and discourse volubly about <i>Ki</i><a id="footnotetag5-16" +name="footnotetag5-16"></a><a href="#footnote5-16"><sup>16</sup></a> or spirit; but it is not Spirit, +or spiritual in the sense of Him who taught even a woman at the +well-curb at Sychar. It is in the air. It is in the earth, the +trees, the flowers. It comes to consciousness in man. His <i>Ri</i> +is the Tao of Lao Tsze, the Way, Reason, Law. It is formless, +invisible.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>"Ri is not separate from Ki, for then it were an empty abstract +thing. It is joined to Ki, and may be called, by nature, one +decreed, changeless Norm. It is the rule of Ki, the very centre, +the reason why Ki is Ki."</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Ten or Heaven is not God or the abode of God, but an +abstraction, a sort of Unknowable, or Primordial Necessity.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>"The doctrine of the Sages knows and worships Heaven, and +without faith in it there is no truth. For men and things, the +universe, are born and nourished by Heaven, and the 'Way,' the +'ri,' that is in all, is the 'Way,' the 'ri' of Heaven. +Distinguishing root and branch, the heart is the root of Heaven and +the appearance, the revolution of the sun and moon, the order of +the stars, is the branch. The books of the sages teach us to +conform to the heart of Heaven and deal not with appearances."</p> +<p>"The teaching of the sages is the original truth and, given to +men, it forms both their nature and their relationships. With it +complete, naught else is needed for the perfect following of the +'Way.' Let then the child make its parents Heaven, the retainer, +his Lord, the wife her husband, and let each give up life for +righteousness. Thus will each serve for Heaven. But if we exalt +Heaven above parent or Lord, we shall come to think we can serve it +though they be disobeyed and like tiger or wolf shall rejoice to +kill them. To such fearful end does <span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" id="page145"></a>{145}</span> the Western learning +lead.... Let each one die for duty, there is naught else we can +do."</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Thus wrote Ohashi Junzo, as late as 1857 A.D., the same year in +which Townsend Harris entered Yedo to teach the practical +philosophy of Christendom, and the brotherhood of man as expressed +in diplomacy. Ohashi Junzo bitterly opposed the opening of Japan to +modern civilization and the ideas of Christendom. His book was the +swan-song of the dying Japanese Confucianism. Slow as is the dying, +and hard as its death may be, the mind of new Japan has laid away +to dust and oblivion the Téi-shu philosophy. "At present +they (the Chinese classics) have fallen into almost total neglect, +though phrases and allusions borrowed from them still pass current +in literature, and even to some extent in the language of every-day +life." Séido, the great temple of Confucius in Tokyo, is now +utilized as an educational Museum.<a id="footnotetag5-17" name="footnotetag5-17"></a><a href="#footnote5-17"><sup>17</sup></a></p> +<p>A study of this subject and of comparative religion, is of +immediate practical benefit to the Christian teacher. The preacher, +addressing an audience made up of educated Japanese, who speaks of +God without describing his personality, character, or attributes as +illustrated in Revelation, will find that his hearers receive his +term as the expression for a bundle of abstract principles, or a +system of laws, or some kind of regulated force. They do, indeed, +make some reference to a "creator" by using a rare word. +Occasionally, their language seems to touch the boundary line on +the other side of which is conscious intelligence, but nothing +approaching the clearness and definiteness of the early Chinese +monotheism of the pre-Confucian classics is to be +distinguished.<a id="footnotetag5-18" name="footnotetag5-18"></a><a href="#footnote5-18"><sup>18</sup></a> The +modern Japanese <span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" id="page146"></a>{146}</span> long ago heard joyfully the words, +"Honor the gods, but keep them far from you," and he has done +it.</p> +<p>To love God would no more occur to a Japanese gentleman than to +have his child embrace and kiss him. Whether the source and +fountain of life of which they speak has any Divine Spirit, is very +uncertain, but whether it has, or has not, man need not obey, much +less worship him. The universe is one, the essence is the same. Man +must seek to know his place in the universe; he is but one in an +endless chain; let him find his part and fulfil that part; all else +is vanity. One need not inquire into the origins or the ultimates. +Man is moved by a power greater than himself; he has no real +independence of his own; everything has its rank and place; indeed, +its rank and place is its sole title to a separate existence. If a +man mistakes his place he is a fool, he deserves punishment.</p> +<h3>The Ideals of a Samurai.</h3> +<p>Out of his place, man is not man. Duty is more important than +being. Nearly everything in our life is fixed by fate; there may +seem to be exceptions, because some wicked men are prosperous and +some righteous men are wretched, but these are not real exceptions +to the general rule that we are made for our environment and fitted +to it. And then, again, it may be that our judgments are not +correct. Let the heart be right and all is well. Let man be +obedient and his outward circumstance is nothing, having no +relation to his joy or happiness. Even when as to his earthly body +man passes away, he is not destroyed; the drop again becomes part +of the sea, the spark re-enters the flame, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page147" id="page147"></a>{147}</span> and his +life continues, though it be not a conscious life. In this way man +is in harmony with the original principle of all things. He +outlasts the universe itself.</p> +<p>Hence to a conscientious Samurai there is nothing in this world +better than obedience, in the ideal of a true man. What he fears +most and hates most is that his memory may perish, that he shall +have no seed, that he shall be forgotten or die under a cloud and +be thought treacherous or cowardly or base, when in reality his +life was pure and his motives high. "Better," sang Yoshida Shoin, +the dying martyr for his principles, "to be a crystal and to be +broken, than to be a tile upon the housetop and remain."</p> +<p>So, indeed, on a hundred curtained execution grounds, with the +dirk of the suicide firmly grasped and about to shed their own +life-blood, have sung the martyrs who died willingly for their +faith in their idea of Yamato Damashii.<a id="footnotetag5-19" +name="footnotetag5-19"></a><a href="#footnote5-19"><sup>19</sup></a> In untold instances in the +national history, men have died willingly and cheerfully, and women +also by thousands, as brave, as unflinching as the men, so that the +story of Japanese chivalry is almost incredible in its awful +suicides. History reveals a state of society in which cool +determination, desperate courage and fearlessness of death in the +face of duty were quite unique, and which must have had their base +in some powerful though abnormal code of ethics.</p> +<p>This leads us to consider again the things emphasized by +Japanese as distinct from Chinese and Korean<a id="footnotetag5-20" +name="footnotetag5-20"></a><a href="#footnote5-20"><sup>20</sup></a> Confucianism, and to call +attention to its fruits, while at the same time we note its +defects, and show wherein it failed. We shall then show how this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" id="page148"></a>{148}</span> old system has already waxed old and is +passing away. Christ has come to Japan, and behold a new heaven and +a new earth!</p> +<h3>New Japan Makes Revision.</h3> +<p>First. For sovereign and minister, there are coming into vogue +new interpretations. This relation, if it is to remain as the +first, will become that of the ruler and the ruled. Constitutional +government has begun; and codes of law have been framed which are +recognizing the rights of the individual and of the people. Even a +woman has rights before the law, in relation to husband, parents, +brothers, sisters and children. It is even beginning to be thought +that children have rights. Let us hope that as the rights are +better understood the duties will be equally clear.</p> +<p>It is coming to pass in Japan that even in government, the +sovereign must consult with his people on all questions pertaining +to their welfare. Although, thus far the constitutional government +makes the ministers responsible to the Sovereign instead of to the +Diet, yet the contention of the enlightened men and the liberal +parties is, that the ministers shall be responsible to the Diet. +The time seems at hand when the sovereign's power over his people +will not rest on traditions more or less uncertain, on history +manufactured by governmental order, on mythological claims based +upon the so-called "eternal ages," on prerogatives upheld by the +sword, or on the supposed grace of the gods, but will be +"broad-based upon the people's will." The power of the rulers will +be derived from the consent of the governed. The Emperor will +become the first and chief servant of the nation.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" id="page149"></a>{149}</span> +<p>Revision and improvement of the Second Relation will make filial +piety something more real than that unto which China has attained, +or Japan has yet seen, or which is yet universally known in +Christendom. The tyranny of the father and of the older brother, +and the sale of daughters to shame, will pass away; and there will +arise in the Japanese house, the Christian home.</p> +<p>It would be hard to say what Confucianism has done for woman. It +is probable that all civilizations, and systems of philosophy, +ethics and religion, can be well tested by this criterion—the +position of woman. Confucianism virtually admits two standards of +morality, one for man, another for woman.<a id="footnotetag5-21" +name="footnotetag5-21"></a><a href="#footnote5-21"><sup>21</sup></a> In Chinese Asia adultery is +indeed branded as one of the vilest of crimes, but in common idea +and parlance it is a woman's crime, not man's. So, on the other +hand, chastity is a female virtue, it is part of womanly duty, it +has little or no relation to man personally. Right revision and +improvement of the Third Relation will abolish concubinage. It will +reform divorce. It will make love the basis of marriage. It will +change the state of things truthfully pictured in such books as the +Genji Monogatari, or Romance of Prince Genji, with its examples of +horrible lust and incests; the Kojiki or Ethnic scripture, with its +naïve accounts of filthiness among the gods; the Onna Dai +Gaku, Woman's Great Study, with its amazing subordination and moral +slavery of wife and daughter; and The Japanese Bride, of +yesterday—all truthful pictures of Japanese life, for the +epoch in which each was written. These books will become the +forgotten curiosities of literature, known only to the +archæologist.</p> +<p>Improvement and revision of the Fourth Relation, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" id="page150"></a>{150}</span> will +bring into the Japanese home more justice, righteousness, love and +enjoyment of life. It will make possible, also, the cheerful +acceptance and glad practice of those codes of law common in +Christendom, which are based upon the rights of the individual and +upon the idea of the greatest good to the greatest number. It will +help to abolish the evils which come from primogeniture and to +release the clutch of the dead hand upon the living. It will +decrease the power of the graveyard, and make thought and care for +the living the rule of life. It will abolish sham and fiction, and +promote the cause of truth. It will hasten the reign of +righteousness and love, and beneath propriety and etiquette lay the +basis of "charity toward all, malice toward none."</p> +<p>Revision with improvement of the Fifth Relation hastens the +reign of universal brotherhood. It lifts up the fallen, the +down-trodden and the outcast. It says to the slave "be free," and +after having said "be free," educates, trains, and lifts up the +brother once in servitude, and helps him to forget his old estate +and to know his rights as well as his duties, and develops in him +the image of God. It says to the hinin or not-human, "be a man, be +a citizen, accept the protection of the law." It says to the eta, +"come into humanity and society, receive the protection of law, and +the welcome of your fellows; let memory forget the past and charity +make a new future." It will bring Japan into the fraternity of +nations, making her people one with the peoples of Christendom, not +through the empty forms of diplomacy, or by the craft of her +envoys, or by the power of her armies and navies reconstructed on +modern principles, but by patient <span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" id="page151"></a>{151}</span> education and unflinching +loyalty to high ideals. Thus will Japan become worthy of all the +honors, which the highest humanity on this planet can bestow.</p> +<h3>The Ideal of Yamato Damashii Enlarged.</h3> +<p>In this our time it is not only the alien from Christendom, with +his hostile eye and mordant criticism, who is helping to undermine +that system of ethics which permitted the sale of the daughter to +shame, the introduction of the concubine into the family and the +reduction of woman, even though wife and mother, to nearly a +cipher. It is not only the foreigner who assaults that philosophy +which glorified the vendetta, kept alive private war, made revenge +in murder the sweetest joy of the Samurai and suicide the gate to +honor and fame, subordinated the family to the house, and +suppressed individuality and personality. It is the native +Japanese, no longer a hermit, a "frog in the well, that knows not +the great ocean" but a student, an inquirer, and a critic, who +assaults the old ethical and philosophical system, and calls for a +new way between heaven and earth, and a new kind of Heaven in which +shall be a Creator, a Father and a Saviour. The brain and pen of +New Japan, as well as its heart, demand that the family shall be +more than the house and that the living members shall have greater +rights as well as duties, than the dead ancestors. They claim that +the wife shall share responsibility with the husband, and that the +relation of husband and wife shall take precedence of that of the +father and son; that the mother shall possess equal authority with +the father; that the wife, whether she be mother or not, shall +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page152" id="page152"></a>{152}</span> not be compelled to share her home with +the concubine; and that the child in Japan shall be born in the +home and not in the herd. The sudden introduction of the Christian +ideas of personality and individuality has undoubtedly wrought +peril to the framework of a society which is built according to the +Confucian principles; but faith in God, love in the home, and +absolute equality before the law will bring about a reign of +righteousness such as Japan has never known, but toward the +realization of which Christian nations are ever advancing.</p> +<p>Even the old ideal of the Samurai embodied in the formula Yamato +Damashii will be enlarged and improved from its narrow limits and +ferocious aspects, when the tap-root of all progress is allowed to +strike into deeper truth, and the Sixth Relation, or rather the +first relation of all, is taught, namely, that of God to Man, and +of Man to God. That this relation is understood, and that the +Samurai ideal, purified and enlarged, is held by increasing numbers +of Japan's brightest men and noblest women, is shown in that superb +Christian literature which pours from the pens of the native men +and women in the Japanese Christian churches. Under this flood of +truth the old obstacles to a nobler society are washed away, while +out of the enriched soil rises the new Japan which is to be a part +of the better Christendom that is to come. Christ in Japan, as +everywhere, means not destruction, but fulfilment.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id="page153"></a>{153}</span> +<h2><a name="chap6" id="chap6">THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN +ASIA.</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" id="page154"></a>{154}</span> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Life is a dream is what the pilgrim learns,<br /> +Nor asks for more, but straightway home returns."</p> +<p>—Japanese medieval lyric drama.</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p>"The purpose of Buddha's preaching was to bring into light the +permanent truth, to reveal the root of all suffering and thus to +lead all sentient beings into the perfect emancipation from all +passions."—Outlines of the Mahayana.</p> +<p>"Buddhism will stand forth as the embodiment of the eternal +verity that as a man sows he will reap, associated with the duties +of mastery over self and kindness to all men, and quickened into a +popular religion by the example of a noble and beautiful +life."—Dharmapala of Ceylon.</p> +<p>"Buddhism teaches the right path of cause and effect, and +nothing which can supersede the idea of cause and effect will be +accepted and believed. Buddha himself cannot contradict this law +which is the Buddha, of Buddhas, and no omnipotent power except +this law is believed to be existent in the universe.</p> +<p>"Buddhism does not quarrel with other religions about the truth +... Buddhism is truth common to every religion regardless of the +outside garment."—Horin Toki, of Japan.</p> +<p>"Death we can face; but knowing, as some of us do, what is human +life, which of us is it that without shuddering could (if we were +summoned) face the hour of birth?" -De Quinccy.</p> +</blockquote> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The prayer of Buddhism, "Deliver us from existence."</p> +<p>The prayer of the Christian, "Deliver us from evil."</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p>"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the +earth."—Genesis.</p> +<p>"I am come that they might have life and that they might have it +more abundantly."—Jesus.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" id="page155"></a>{155}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER VI - THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA</h2> +<h3>Pre-Buddhistic India.</h3> +<p>Does the name of Gautama, the Buddha, stand for a sun-myth or +for a historic personage? One set of scholars and writers, +represented by Professor Kern,<a id="footnotetag6-1" name="footnotetag6-1"></a><a href="#footnote6-1"><sup>1</sup></a> of +Leyden, thinks the Buddha a mythical personage. Another school, +represented by Professor T. Rhys Davids,<a id="footnotetag6-2" +name="footnotetag6-2"></a><a href="#footnote6-2"><sup>2</sup></a> +declares that he lived in human flesh and breathed the air of +earth. We accept the historical view as best explaining the +facts.</p> +<p>In order to understand a religion, in its origin at least, we +must know some of the conditions out of which it arose. Buddhism is +one of the protestantisms of the world. Yet, is not every religion, +in one sense, protestant? Is it not a protest against something to +which it opposes a difference? Every new religion, like a growing +plant, ignores or rejects certain elements in the soil out of which +it springs. It takes up and assimilates, also, other elements not +used before, in order to produce a flower or fruit different from +other growths out of the same soil. Yet whether the new religion be +considered as a development, fulfilment, or protest, we must know +its historical perspective or background. To understand the origin +of Buddhism, one of the best preparations is to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" id="page156"></a>{156}</span> read the +history of India and especially of the thought of her many +generations; for the landmarks of the civilizations of India, as a +Hindu may proudly say, are its mighty literatures. At these let us +glance.<a id="footnotetag6-3" name="footnotetag6-3"></a><a href="#footnote6-3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<p>The age of the Vedas extends from the year 2000 to 1400 B.C., +and the history of this early India is wonderfully like that of +America. During this era, the Hindus, one of the seven Aryan tribes +of which the Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Sclav and Teutonic form +the other six, descending from the mid-Asian plateau, settled the +Punjab in Northwest India. They drove the dark-skinned aborigines +before them and reclaimed forest and swamp to civilization, making +the land of the seven rivers bright with agriculture and brilliant +with cities. This was the glorious heroic age of joyous life and +conquest, when men who believed in a Heavenly Father<a id="footnotetag6-4" name="footnotetag6-4"></a><a href="#footnote6-4"><sup>4</sup></a> made the first epoch of Hindu +history.</p> +<p>Then followed the epic age, 1400-1000 B.C., when the area of +civilization was extended still farther down the Ganges Valley, the +splendor of wealth, learning, military prowess and social life +excelling that of the ancestral seats in the Punjab. Amid +differences of wars and diplomacy with rivalries and jealousies, a +common sacred language, literature and religion with similar social +and religious institutions, united the various nations together. In +this time the old Vedas were compiled into bodies or collections, +and the Brahmanas and the Upanishads, besides the great epic poems, +the Mahabharata and the Ramayana were composed.</p> +<p>The next, or rationalistic epoch, covers the period from 1000 +B.C. to 320 B.C., when the Hindu expansion <span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id="page157"></a>{157}</span> had +covered all India, that is, the peninsula from the Himalayas to +Cape Comorin. Then, all India, including Ceylon, was Hinduized, +though in differing degrees; the purest Aryan civilization being in +the north, the less pure in the Ganges Valley and south and east, +while the least Aryan and more Dravidian was in Bengal, Orissa, and +India south of the Kistna River.</p> +<p>This story of the spread of Hindu civilization is a brilliant +one, and seems as wonderful as the later European conquest of the +land, and of the other "Indians" of North America from the Atlantic +to the Pacific. Beside the conquests in material civilization of +these our fellow-Aryans (who were the real Indians, and who spoke +the language which is the common ancestor of our own and of most +European tongues), what impresses us most of all, in these Aryans, +is their intellectual energy. The Hindus of the rationalistic age +made original discoveries. They invented grammar, geometry, +arithmetic, decimal notation, and they elaborated astronomy, +medicine, mental philosophy and logic (with syllogism) before these +sciences were known or perfected in Greece. In the seventh century +before Christ, Kapila taught a system of philosophy, of which that +of the Europeans, Schopenhaur and Hartmann, seems largely a +reproduction.</p> +<p>Following this agnostic scheme of thought, came, several +centuries later, the dualistic Yoga<a id="footnotetag6-5" name="footnotetag6-5"></a><a href="#footnote6-5"><sup>5</sup></a> system +in which the chief feature is the conception of Deity as a means of +final emancipation of the human soul from further transmigration, +and of union with the Universal Spirit or World Soul. There is, +however, perhaps no sadder chapter in the history of human thought +than the story of the later degeneration of the Yoga system +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page158" id="page158"></a>{158}</span> into one of bloody and cruel rites in +India, and of superstition in China.</p> +<p>Still other systems followed: one by Gautama, of the same clan +or family of the later Buddha, who develops inference by the +construction of syllogism; while Kanada follows the atomic +philosophy in which the atoms are eternal, but the aggregates +perishable by disintegration.</p> +<p>Against these schools, which seemed to be dangerous "new +departures," orthodox Hindus, anxious for their ancient beliefs and +practices as laid down in the Vedas, started fresh systems of +philosophy, avowedly more in consonances with their ancestral +faith. One system insisted on the primitive Vedic ritual, and +another laid emphasis on the belief in a Universal Soul first +inculcated in the Upanishads.</p> +<h3>Conditions out of which Buddhism Arose.</h3> +<p>Whatever we may think of these schools of philosophy, or the +connection with or indebtedness of Gautama, the Buddha, to them, +they reveal to us the conceptions which his contemporaries had of +the universe and the beings inhabiting it. These were honest human +attempts to find God. In them the various beings or six conditions +of sentient existence are devas or gods; men; asuras or monsters; +pretas or demons; animals; and beings in hell. Furthermore, these +schools of Hindu philosophy show us the conditions out of which +Buddhism arose, furnish us with its terminology and technical +phrases, reveal to us what the reformer proposed to himself to do, +and, what is perhaps still more important, show us the types to +which <span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" id="page159"></a>{159}</span> Buddhism in its degeneration and +degradation reverted. The strange far-off oriental words which +today scholars discuss, theosophists manipulate, and charlatans +employ as catchpennies were common words in the every-day speech of +the Hindu people, two or three thousand years ago.</p> +<p>Glancing rapidly at the condition of religion in the era +ushering in the birth of Buddha, we note that the old joyousness of +life manifested in the Vedic hymns is past, their fervor and glow +are gone. In the morning of Hindu life there was no caste, no fixed +priesthood, and no idols; but as wealth, civilization, easy and +settled life succeeded, the taste for pompous sacrifices conducted +by an hereditary priestly caste increased. Greater importance was +laid upon the detail of the ceremonies, the attention of the +worshipper being turned from the deities "to the minutiæ of +rites, the erection of altars, the fixing of the proper +astronomical moments for lighting the fire, the correct +pronunciation of prayers, and to the various requisite acts +accompanying a sacrifice."<a id="footnotetag6-6" name="footnotetag6-6"></a><a href="#footnote6-6"><sup>6</sup></a> In the +chapter of decay which time wrote and literature reflects, we find +"grotesque reasons given for every minute rite, dogmatic +explanation of texts, penances for every breach of form and rule, +and elaborate directions for every act and moment of the +worshipper."</p> +<p>The literature shows a degree of credulity and submission on the +part of the people and of absolute power on the part of the +priests, which reminds us of the Middle Ages in Europe. The old +inspiring wars with the aborigines are over. The time of bearing a +noble creed, meaning culture and civilization as against savagery +and idolatry, is past, and only intestine quarrels <span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>{160}</span> and local +strife have succeeded. The age of creative literature is over, and +commentators, critics and grammarians have succeeded. Still more +startling are the facts disclosed by literary history. The liquid +poetry has become frozen prose; the old flaming fuel of genius is +now slag and ashes. We see Hindus doing exactly what Jewish rabbis, +and after them Christian schoolmen and dogma-makers, did with the +old Hebrew poems and prophecies. Construing literally the prayers, +songs and hopes of an earlier age, they rebuild the letter of the +text into creeds and systems, and erect an amazing edifice of +steel-framed and stone-cased tradition, to challenge which is +taught to be heresy and impiety. The poetical similes used in the +Rig Vedas have been transformed into mythological tales. In the +change of language the Vedas themselves are unreadable, except by +the priests, who fatten on popular beliefs in the transmigration of +souls and in the power of priestcraft to make that transmigration +blissful—provided liberal gifts are duly forthcoming. +Idolatry and witchcraft are rampant. Some saviour, some light was +needed.</p> +<h3>Buddhism a Logical Product of Hindu Thought.</h3> +<p>At such a time, probably 557 B.C., was born Shaka, of the Muni +clan, at Kapilavastu, one hundred miles northeast of Benares. We +pass over the details<a id="footnotetag6-7" name="footnotetag6-7"></a><a href="#footnote6-7"><sup>7</sup></a> of the +life of him called Prince, Lord, Lion of the Tribe of Shaka, and +Saviour; of his desertion of wife and child, called the first Great +Renunciation; of his struggles to obtain peace; of his +enlightenment or Buddhahood; of his second or Greater Renunciation; +of merit on account <span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id="page161"></a>{161}</span> of austerities; and give the story told +in a mountain of books in various tongues, but condensed in a +paragraph by Romesh Chunder Dutt.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>"At an early age, Prince Gautama left his royal home, and his +wife, and new-born child, and became a wanderer and a mendicant, to +seek a way of salvation for man. Hindu rites, accompanied by the +slaughter of innocent victims, repelled his feelings. Hindu +philosophy afforded him no remedy, and Hindu penances and +mortifications proved unavailing after he had practised them for +years. At last, by severe contemplation, he discovered the long +coveted truth; a holy and calm life, and benevolence and love +toward all living creatures seemed to him the essence of religion. +Self-culture and universal love—this was his +discovery—this is the essence of Buddhism."<a id="footnotetag6-8" name="footnotetag6-8"></a><a href="#footnote6-8"><sup>8</sup></a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>From one point of view Buddhism was the logical continuance of +Aryan Hindoo philosophy; from another point of view it was a new +departure. The leading idea in the Upanishads is that the object of +the wise man should be to know, inwardly and consciously, the Great +Soul of all; and by this knowledge his individual soul would become +united to the Supreme Being, the true and absolute self. This was +the highest point reached in the old Indian philosophy<a id="footnotetag6-9" name="footnotetag6-9"></a><a href="#footnote6-9"><sup>9</sup></a> before Buddha was born.</p> +<p>So, looking at Buddhism in the perspective of Hindu history and +thought, we may say that it is doubtful whether Gautama intended to +found a new religion. As, humanly speaking, Saul of Tarsus saved +Christianity from being a Jewish sect and made it universal, so +Gautama extricated the new enthusiasm of humanity from the priests. +He made Aryan religion the property of all India. What had been a +rare monopoly as narrow as Judaism, he made the inheritance +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id="page162"></a>{162}</span> of all Asia. Gautama was a protestant +and a reformer, not an agnostic or skeptic. It is more probable +that he meant to shake off Brahmanism and to restore the pure and +original form of the Aryan religion of the Vedas, as far as it was +possible to do so. In one sense, Buddhism was a revolt against +hereditary and sacerdotal privilege—an attack of the people +against priestcraft. The Buddha and his disciples were levellers. +In a different age and clime, but along a similar path, they did a +work analogous to that of the so-called Anabaptists in Europe and +Independents in England, centuries later.</p> +<p>It is certain, however, that Buddhism has grown logically out of +ancient Hinduism. In its monastic feature—one of its most +striking characteristics—we see only the concentration and +reduction to system, of the old life of the ascetics and religious +mendicants recognized and respected by Hinduism. For centuries the +Buddhist monks and nuns were regarded in India as only a new sect +of ascetics, among many others which flourished in the land.</p> +<p>The Buddhist doctrine of karma, or in Japanese, <i>ingwa</i>, of +cause and effect, whereby it is taught that each effect in this +life springs from a cause in some previous incarnation, and that +each act in this life bears its fruit in the next, has grown +directly out of the Hindu idea of the transmigration of souls. This +idea is first inculcated in the Upanishads, and is recognized in +Hindu systems of philosophy.</p> +<p>So also the Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana, or the attainment of a +sinless state of existence, has grown out of the idea of final +union of the individual soul with the Universal Soul, which is also +inculcated in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>{163}</span> Upanishads. Yet, as we shall see, the +Buddhists were, in the eyes of the Brahmans, atheists, because in +the ken of these new levellers gods and men were put on the same +plane. Brahmanism has never forgiven Buddhism for ignoring the +gods, and the Hindoos finally drove out the followers of Gautama +from India. It eventuated that after a millenium or so of Buddhism +in India, the old gods, Brahma, Indra, etc., which at first had +been shut out from the ken of the people, by Gautama, found their +places again in the popular faith of the Buddhists, who believed +that the gods as well as men, were all progressing toward the +blessed Nirvana—that sinless life and holy calm, which is the +Buddhist's heaven and salvation.</p> +<p>It is certainly very curious, and in a sense amusing, to find +flourishing in far-off Japan the old gods of India, that one would +suppose to have been utterly dead and left behind in oblivion. As +acknowledged devas or kings and bodhisattvas or soon-to-be Buddhas, +not a few once defunct Hindu gods, utterly unknown to early +Buddhism, have forced their way into the company of the elect. +Though most of them have not gained the popularity of the +indigenous deities of Nippon, they yet attract many worshippers. +They remind one that amid the coming of the sons of Elohim before +Jehovah, "the satan" came also.<a id="footnotetag6-10" name="footnotetag6-10"></a><a href="#footnote6-10"><sup>10</sup></a></p> +<p>From another point of view Buddhism was a new religion; for it +swept away and out of the field of its vision the whole of the +World or Universal Soul theory. "It proclaimed a salvation which +each man could gain for himself and by himself, in this world +during this life, without the least reference to God, or to gods, +either great or small." "It placed the first <span class="pagenum"><a name="page164" id="page164"></a>{164}</span> +importance on knowledge; but it was no longer a knowledge of God, +it was a clear perception of the real nature as they supposed it to +be of men and things." In a word, Gautama never reached the idea of +a personal self-existent God, though toward that truth he groped. +He was satisfied too soon.<a id="footnotetag6-11" name="footnotetag6-11"></a><a href="#footnote6-11"><sup>11</sup></a> His +followers were even more easily satisfied with abstractions. When +Gautama saw the power over the human heart of inward culture and of +love to others, he obtained peace, he rested on certainty, he +became the Buddha, that is, the enlightened. Perhaps he was not the +first Buddhist. It may be that the historical Gautama, if so he is +worthy to be called, merely made the sect or the new religion +famous. Hardly a religion in the full sense of the word, Buddhism +did not assume the rôle of theology, but sought only to know +men and things. In one sense Buddhism is atheism, or rather, +atheistic humanism. In one sense, also, the solution of the mystery +of God, of life, and of the universe, which Gautama and his +followers attained, was one of skepticism rather than of faith. +Buddhism is, relatively, a very modern religion; it is one of the +new faiths. Is it paradoxical to say that the Buddhists are +"religious atheists?"</p> +<h3>The Buddhist Millennium in India.</h3> +<p>Let us now look at the life of the Founder. Day after day, the +pure-souled teacher attracted new disciples while he with alms-bowl +went around as mendicant and teacher. Salvation merely by +self-control, and love without any rites, ceremonies, charms, +priestly powers, gods or miracles, formed the burden of his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id="page165"></a>{165}</span> teachings. "Thousands of people left +their homes, embraced the holy order and became monks, ignoring +caste, and relinquishing all worldly goods except the bare +necessaries of life, which they possessed and enjoyed in common." +Probably the first monastic <i>system</i> of the world, was that of +the Indian Buddhists.</p> +<p>The Buddha preached the good news during forty-five years. After +his death, five hundred of his followers assembled at Rajagriha and +chanted together the teachings of Gautama, to fix them in memory. A +hundred years later, in 377 B.C., came the great schism among the +Buddhists, out of which grew the divisions known as Northern and +Southern Buddhism. There was disagreement on ten points. A second +council was therefore called, and the disputed points determined to +the satisfaction of one side. Thereupon the seceders went away in +large numbers, and the differences were never healed; on the +contrary, they have widened in the course of ages.</p> +<p>The separatists began what may be called the Northern Buddhisms +of Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan. The orthodox or Southern +Buddhists are those of Ceylon, Burma and Siam. The original canon +of Southern Buddhism is in Pali; that of Northern Buddhism is in +Sanskrit. The one is comparatively small and simple; the other +amazingly varied and voluminous. The canon of Southern scripture is +called the Hinayana, the Little or Smaller Vehicle; the canon of +Northern Buddhism is named the Mahayana or Great Vehicle. Possibly, +also, besides the Southern and Northern Buddhisms, the Buddhism of +Japan may be treated by itself and named Eastern Buddhism.</p> +<p>In the great council called in 242 B.C., by King Asoka, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page166" id="page166"></a>{166}</span> who may be termed the Constantine of +Buddhism, the sacred texts were again chanted. It was not until the +year 88 B.C. in Ceylon, six hundred years after Gautama, that the +three Pitakas, Boxes or Baskets, were committed to writing in the +Pali language. In a word, Buddhism knows nothing of sacred +documents or a canon of scripture contemporary with its first +disciples.</p> +<p>The splendid Buddhist age of India lasted nearly a thousand +years, and was one of superb triumphs in civilization. It was an +age of spiritual emancipation, of freedom from idol worship, of +nobler humanity and of peace.<a id="footnotetag6-12" name="footnotetag6-12"></a><a href="#footnote6-12"><sup>12</sup></a> It +was followed by the Puranic epoch and the dark ages. Then Buddhism +was, as some say, "driven out" from the land of its birth, finding +new expansion in Eastern and Northern Asia, and again, a still more +surprising development in the ultima-Thule of the Asiatic +continent, Japan. There is now no Buddhism in India proper, the +faith being represented only in Ceylon and possibly also on the +main land, by the sect of the Jains, and peradventure in Persia by +Babism which contains elements from three religions.<a id="footnotetag6-13" name="footnotetag6-13"></a><a href="#footnote6-13"><sup>13</sup></a> Like Christianity, Buddhism was +"driven out" of its old home to bless other nations of the world. +It is probably far nearer the truth to say that Buddhism was never +expelled from India, but rather that it died by disintegration and +relapse.<a id="footnotetag6-14" name="footnotetag6-14"></a><a href="#footnote6-14"><sup>14</sup></a> It had become Brahmanism again. +The old gods and the old idol-worship came back. It is in Japan +that the ends of the earth, eastern and western civilization, and +the freest and fullest or at least the latest developments of +Christianity and of Buddhism, have met.</p> +<p>In its transfer to distant lands and its developments throughout +Eastern Asia, the faith which had originated <span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" id="page167"></a>{167}</span> in India +suffered many changes. Dividing into two great branches, it became +a notably different religion according as it moved along the +southern, the northern, or the eastern channel. By the vehicle of +the Pali language it was carried to Ceylon, Siam, Burma, Cambodia +and the islands of the south; that is, to southern or peninsular +and insular Asia. Here there is little evidence of any striking +departure from the doctrines of the Pali Pitakas; and, as Southern +Buddhism does not greatly concern us in speaking of the religions +of Japan, we may pass it by. For although the books and writings +belonging to Southern Buddhism, and comprehended under the formula +of the Hinayana or Smaller Vehicle, have been studied in China, +Korea and Japan, yet they have had comparatively little influence +upon doctrinal, ritualistic, or missionary development in Chinese +Asia.</p> +<p>Astonishingly different has been the case with the Northern +Buddhisms which are those of Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, +China, Korea and Japan. As luxuriant as the evolutions of political +and dogmatic Christianity and as radical in their departures from +the primitive simplicity of the faith, have been these forms of +Buddhist doctrine, ritual and organization. We cannot now dwell +upon the wonderful details of the vast and complicated system, +differing so much in various countries. We pass by, or only glance +at, the philosophy of the Punjaub; the metaphysics of +Nepal—with its developments into what some writers consider +to be a close approach to monotheism, and others, indeed, +monotheism itself; the system of Lamaism in Tibet, which has +paralleled so closely the development of the papal hierarchy; the +possibly two thousand <span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id="page168"></a>{168}</span> years' growth and decay of Chinese +Buddhism; the varieties of the Buddhism of Mongolia—almost +swamped in the Shamanistic superstitions of these dwellers on the +plains; the astonishing success, quick ripening, decay, and almost +utter annihilation, among the learned and governing classes, of +Korean Buddhism;<a id="footnotetag6-15" name="footnotetag6-15"></a><a href="#footnote6-15"><sup>15</sup></a> and +study in detail only Eastern or Japanese Buddhism.</p> +<p>We shall in this lecture attempt but two things:</p> +<p>I. A summary of the process of thought by which the chief +features of the Northern Buddhisms came into view.</p> +<p>II. An outline of the story of Japanese Buddhism during the +first three centuries of its existence.</p> +<h3>The Development of Northern Buddhism</h3> +<p>Leaving the early Buddha legends and the solid ground of +history, the makers of the newer Buddhist doctrines in Nepal +occupied themselves with developing the theory of Buddhahood and of +the Buddhas;<a id="footnotetag6-16" name="footnotetag6-16"></a><a href="#footnote6-16"><sup>16</sup></a> for +we must ever remember that Buddha<a id="footnotetag6-17" name="footnotetag6-17"></a><a href="#footnote6-17"><sup>17</sup></a> is +not a proper name, but a common adjective meaning enlightened, from +the root to know, perceive, etc. They made constant and marvellous +additions to the primitive doctrine, giving it a momentum which +gathered force as the centuries went on; and, as propaganda, it +moved against the sun.</p> +<p>This development theory ran along the line of +<i>personification</i>. Not being satisfied with "the wheel of the +law," it personified both the hub and the spokes. It began with the +spirit of kindness out of which all human virtues rise, and by the +power of which the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" id="page169"></a>{169}</span> Buddhist organization will conquer all +sin and unbelief and become victorious throughout the world. This +personification is called the Maitreya Buddha, the unconquerable +one, or the future Buddha of benevolence, the Buddha who is yet to +come. Here was a tremendous and revolutionary movement in the new +faith, the beginning of a long process. It was as though the +Christians had taken the particular attributes, justice, mercy, +etc., of God and, after personifying each one, deified it, thus +multiplying gods.</p> +<p>What was the soil for the new sowing, and what was the harvest +to be reaped in due time?</p> +<p>With many thousands of India Buddhists whose minds were already +steeped in Brahministic philosophy and mythology, who were more +given to speculation and dreaming than to self-control and moral +culture, and who mourned for the dead gods of Hinduism, the soil +was already prepared for a growth wholly abnormal to true Buddhism, +but altogether in keeping with the older Brahministic philosophies +from which these dreamers had been but partially converted to +Buddhism.<a id="footnotetag6-18" name="footnotetag6-18"></a><a href="#footnote6-18"><sup>18</sup></a></p> +<p>The seed is found in the doctrine which already forms part of +the system of the Little Vehicle, when it tells of the personal +Buddhas and the Buddhas elect, or future Buddhas. In the Jataka +stories, or Birth tales, "the Buddha elect" is the title given to +each of the beings, man, angel, or animal, who is held to be a +Bodhisattva, or the future Buddha in one of his former births. The +title Bodhisattva<a id="footnotetag6-19" name="footnotetag6-19"></a><a href="#footnote6-19"><sup>19</sup></a> is +the name given to a being whose Karma will produce other beings in +a continually ascending scale of goodness until it becomes vested +in a Buddha. Or, in the more common use of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page170" id="page170"></a>{170}</span> the word, +a Bodhisattva (Japanese bosatsu) is a being whose essence has +become intelligence, and who will have to pass through human +existence once more only before entering Nirvana.</p> +<p>In Southern Buddhist temples, the pure white image of Maitreya +is sometimes found beside the idol representing Gautama or the +historical Buddha. While in Southern Buddhism the idea of this +possibility of development seems to have been little seized upon +and followed up, in Northern Buddhism as early as 400 A.D. the +worship of two Buddhas elect named Manjusri and Avalokitesvara, or +personified Wisdom and Power, had already become general. +Manjusri,<a id="footnotetag6-20" name="footnotetag6-20"></a><a href="#footnote6-20"><sup>20</sup></a> the +Great Being or "Prince Royal," is the personification of wisdom, +and especially of the mystic religious insight which has produced +the Great Vehicle or canon of Northern Buddhism; or, as a Japanese +author says, the third collection of the Tripitaka was that made by +Manjusri and Maitreya. Avalokitesvara,<a id="footnotetag6-21" name="footnotetag6-21"></a><a href="#footnote6-21"><sup>21</sup></a> the +Lord of View or All-sided One, is the personification of power, the +merciful protector and preserver of the world and of men. Both are +frequently and voluminously mentioned in the Saddharma +Pundarika,<a id="footnotetag6-22" name="footnotetag6-22"></a><a href="#footnote6-22"><sup>22</sup></a> in +which the good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric, and of +which we shall have occasion frequently to speak. Manjusri is the +mythical author of this influential work,<a id="footnotetag6-23" +name="footnotetag6-23"></a><a href="#footnote6-23"><sup>23</sup></a> the twenty-fourth chapter being +devoted to a glorification of the character, the power, and the +advantages to be derived from the worship of Avalokitesvara.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id="page171"></a>{171}</span> +<h3>The Creation of Gods.</h3> +<p>Possibly the name of Manjusri may be derived from that of the +Indian mendicant, the traditional introducer of Buddhism and its +accompanying civilization into Nepal. The Tibetans identify him +with the minister of a great King Strongstun, who lived in the +seventh century of our era and who was the great patron of Buddhism +into Tibet. He is the founder of that school of thought which ended +in the Great Vehicle,—the literature of Northern +Buddhism.<a id="footnotetag6-24" name="footnotetag6-24"></a><a href="#footnote6-24"><sup>24</sup></a> +From Nepal to Japan, in the books of the Northern Buddhists there +is certainly much confusion between the metaphysical being and the +legendary civilizer and teacher of Nepal. The other name, +Avalokitesvara, which means the Lord of View, "the lord who looks +down from on high," instead of being a purely metaphysical +invention, may he only an adaptation of one epithet of Shiva, which +meant Master of View.</p> +<p>Later and by degrees the attributes were separated and each one +was personified. For example, the power of Avalokitesvara was +separated from his protecting care and providence. His power was +personified as the bearer of the thunder-bolt, or the +lightning-handed one; and this new personification added to the two +other Buddhas elect, made a triad, the first in Northern Buddhism. +In this triad, the thunder-bolt holder was Vagrapani; Manjusri was +the deified teacher; and Avalokitesvara was the Spirit of the +Buddhas present in the church. Before many centuries had elapsed, +these imaginary beings, with a few others, had become gods to whom +men prayed; and thus Buddhism became a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page172" id="page172"></a>{172}</span> religion +with some kind of theism,—which Gautama had expressly +renounced.</p> +<p>If any one wants proof of this reversion into the old religions +of India, he has only to notice that the name, given to the new god +made by personification of the attribute of power, Vagrapani, or +Vadjradhara, or the bearer of the thunder-bolt, had formerly been +used as an epithet of the old fire-god of the Vedas, Indra.</p> +<p>It were tedious to recount all the steps in the further +development of Northern Buddhism.<a id="footnotetag6-25" name="footnotetag6-25"></a><a href="#footnote6-25"><sup>25</sup></a> +Suffice it to say, that out of ideas and principles set forth in +the earlier Buddhism, and under the generating force reborn from +old Brahminism, the Dhyani Buddhas (that is the Buddhas evolved out +of the mind in mystic trance) were given their elect Buddhas; and +so three sets of five were co-ordinated.<a id="footnotetag6-26" +name="footnotetag6-26"></a><a href="#footnote6-26"><sup>26</sup></a> That is, first, five +pre-penultimate Buddhas; then their Bodhisattvas or penultimate +Buddhas; and then the ultimate or human Buddhas, of which Gautama +was one. Or, first abstraction; then pre-human effluence; then +emanation.</p> +<p>All this multiplication of beings is unknown to Southern +Buddhism, unknown to the Saddharma Pundarika, and very probably +unknown also to the Chinese pilgrims who visited India in the fifth +and seventh centuries. Professor Rhys Davids, in his compact little +manual of Buddhism, says:<a id="footnotetag6-27" name="footnotetag6-27"></a><a href="#footnote6-27"><sup>27</sup></a></p> +<blockquote> +<p>"Among those hypothetical beings—the creations of a sickly +scholasticism, hollow abstractions without life or +reality—the fourth Amitabha, 'Immeasurable Light,' whose +Bodhisatwa is Avalokitesvara, and whose emanation is Gautama, +occupies of course the highest and most important rank. Surrounded +by innumerable Bodhisatwas, he sits enthroned under a Bo-tree in +Sukhavati, <i>i.e.</i>, the Blissful, a paradise of heavenly joys, +whose <span class="pagenum"><a name="page173" id="page173"></a>{173}</span> description occupies whole tedious books +of the so-called Great Vehicle. By this theory, each of the five +Buddhas has become three, and the fourth of these five sets of +three is the second Buddhist Trinity, the belief in which must have +arisen after the seventh century of our era."</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Buddhism has been called the light of Asia, and Gautama its +illuminator; but certainly the light has not been pure, nor the +products of its illumination wholesome. Pardon an illustration. In +Christian churches and cathedrals of Europe, there is still a great +prejudice against the use of pipes, and of gas made from coal, +because of the machinery and of the impure emanations. The +prejudice is a wholesome one; for we all know that most of the +elements forming common illuminating gas are worthless except to +convey the very small amount of light-giving material, and that +these elements in combustion vitiate the air and give off +deleterious products which corrode, tarnish and destroy. Now though +Buddhist doctrine may have been the light of India, yet to reach +the Northern and Eastern nations of Asia it had, apparently, to be +adulterated for conveyance, as much as is the illuminating gas in +our cities. From the first, Northern Buddhism showed a wonderful +affinity, not only for Brahministic superstitions and speculations, +but for almost everything else with which it came in contact in +countries beyond India. Instead of combating, it absorbed. It +adapted itself to circumstances, and finding certain beliefs +prevalent among the people, it imbibed them, and thus gained by +accretion until its bulk, both of beliefs and of disciples, was in +the inverse ratio of its purity. Even to-day, the occult theosophy +of "Isis Unveiled," and of the school of writers such <span class="pagenum"><a name="page174" id="page174"></a>{174}</span> as +Blavatsky, Olcott, etc., seems to be a perfectly logical product of +the Northern Buddhisms, and may be called one of them; yet it is +simply a repetition of what took place centuries ago. Most of the +primitive beliefs and superstitions of Nepal and Tibet were +absorbed in the ever hungry and devouring system of Buddhistic +scholasticism.</p> +<h3>The Making of a Pantheon.</h3> +<p>Let us glance again at this Nepal Buddhism. In the tenth century +we find what at first seems to be a growth out of Polytheism into +Monotheism, for a new Being, to whom the attributes of infinity, +self-existence and omniscience are ascribed, is invented and named +Adi-Buddha, or the primordial Buddha. According to the speculations +of the thinkers, he had evolved himself out of the five +Dhyani-Buddhas by the exercise of the five meditations, while each +of these had evolved out of itself by wisdom and contemplation, the +corresponding Buddhas elect. Again, each of the latter evolved out +of his own essence a material world,—our present world being +the fourth of these, that is of Avaloki. One almost might consider +that this setting forth of the primordial Buddha was real +Monotheism; but on looking more carefully one sees that it is as +little real Monotheism as was possible in the system of Gnosticism. +Indeed the force of evolution could not stop here; for, since even +this primordial Buddha rested upon Ossa of hypothesis piled upon +Pelion of hypothesis, there must be other hypotheses yet to come, +and so the Tantra system, a compound of old Brahminism with the +magic and witchcraft and Shamanism of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>{175}</span> Northern +Asia burst into view. As this was to travel into Japan and be +hailed as purest Buddhism, let us note how this tenth century +Tantra system grew up. To see this clearly, is to look upon the +parable of the man with the unclean spirit being acted out on a +vast scale in history.</p> +<p>In the sixth century of our era, one Asanga, or Asamga, wrote +the Shastra, called the Shastra Yoga-chara Bhumi.<a id="footnotetag6-28" name="footnotetag6-28"></a><a href="#footnote6-28"><sup>28</sup></a> With great dexterity he erected a +sort of clearing-house for both the corrupt Brahminism and corrupt +Buddhism of his day, and exchanging and rearranging the gods and +devils in both systems, he represented them as worshippers and +supporters of the Buddha and Avalokitesvara. In such a system, the +old primitive Buddhism of the noble eight-fold path of +self-conquest and pure morals was utterly lost. Instead of that, +the worshipper gave his whole powers to obtaining occult potencies +by means of magic phrases and magic circles. Then grew up whole +forests of monasteries and temples, with an outburst of devilish +art representing many-headed and many-eyed and many-handed idols on +the walls, on books, on the roadside, with manifold charms and +phrases the endless repetitions of which were supposed to have +efficacy with the hypothetical being who filled the heavens. That +was <i>the</i> age of idols for China as well as for India; and the +old Chinese house, once empty, swept and garnished by Confucianism, +was now filled with a mob of unclean spirits each worse than the +first. With more courageous logic than the more matter-of-fact +Chinese, the Tibetan erected his prayer-mills<a id="footnotetag6-29" name="footnotetag6-29"></a><a href="#footnote6-29"><sup>29</sup></a> and let the winds of heaven and +the flowing waters continually multiply his prayers and holy +syllables. And these inventions <span class="pagenum"><a name="page176" id="page176"></a>{176}</span> were duly imported into +Japan, and even now are far from being absent.<a id="footnotetag6-30" name="footnotetag6-30"></a><a href="#footnote6-30"><sup>30</sup></a></p> +<p>Passing over for the present the history of Buddhism in +China,<a id="footnotetag6-31" name="footnotetag6-31"></a><a href="#footnote6-31"><sup>31</sup></a> suffice it to say that the +Buddhism which entered Japan from Korea in the sixth century, was +not the simple atheism touched with morality, the bald skepticism +or benevolent agnosticism of Gautama, but a religion already over a +thousand years old. It was the system of the Northern Buddhists. +These, dissatisfied, or unsatisfied, with absorption into a +passionless state through self-sacrifice and moral discipline, had +evolved a philosophy of religion in which were gods, idols and an +apparatus of conversion utterly unknown to the primitive faith.</p> +<h3>Buddhism Already Corrupted when brought to Japan.</h3> +<p>This sixth century Buddhism in Japan was not the army with +banners, which was introduced still later with the luxuriances of +the fully developed system, its paradise wonderfully like +Mohammed's and its over-populated pantheon. It was, however, ready +with the necessary machinery, both material and mental, to make +conquest of a people which had not only religious aspirations, but +also latent aesthetic possibilities of a high order. As in its +course through China this Northern Buddhism had acted as an +all-powerful absorbent of local beliefs and superstitions, so in +Japan it was destined to make a more remarkable record, and, not +only to absorb local ideas but actually to cause the indigenous +religion to disappear.</p> +<p>Let us inquire who were the people to whom Buddhism, when +already possessed of a millenium of history, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>{177}</span> entered +its Ultima Thule in Eastern Asia. At what stage of mutual growth +did Buddhism and the Japanese meet each other?</p> +<p>Instead of the forty millions of thoroughly homogeneous people +in Japan—according to the census of December 31, +1892—all being loyal subjects of one Emperor, we must think +of possibly a million of hunters, fishermen and farmers in more or +less warring clans or tribes. These were made up of the various +migrations from the main land and the drift of humanity brought by +the ocean currents from the south; Ainos, Koreans, Tartars and +Chinese, with probably some Malay and Nigrito stock. In the central +part of Hondo, the main island, the Yamato tribe dominated, its +chief being styled Suméru-mikoto, or Mikado. To the south +and southwest, the Mikado's power was only more or less felt, for +the Yamato men had a long struggle in securing supremacy. Northward +and eastward lay great stretches of land, inhabited by unsubdued +and uncivilized native tribes of continental and most probably of +Korean origin, and thus more or less closely akin to the Yamato +men. Still northward roamed the Ainos, a race whose ancestral seats +may have been in far-off Dravidian India. Despite the constant +conflicts between the Yamato people who had agriculture and the +beginnings of government, law and literature, and their less +civilized neighbors, the tendency to amalgamation was already +strong. The problem of the statesman, was to extend the sway of the +Mikado over the whole Archipelago.</p> +<p>Shintō was, in its formation, made use of as an engine to +conquer, unify and civilize all the tribes. In one sense, this +conquest of men having lower forms of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id="page178"></a>{178}</span> faith, by +believers in the Kami no Michi, or Way of the Gods, was analogous +to the Aryan conquest of India and the Dravidians. However this may +be, the energy and valor displayed in these early ages formed the +ideal of Yamato Damashii (The Spirit of unconquerable Japan), which +has so powerfully influenced the modern Japanese. We shall see, +also, how grandly Buddhism also came to be a powerful force in the +unification of the Japanese people. At first, the new faith would +be rejected as an alien invader, stigmatized as a foreign religion, +and, as such, sure to invoke the wrath of the native gods. Then +later, its superiority to the indigenous cult would be seen both by +the wise and the practically minded, and it would be welcomed and +enjoyed.</p> +<h3>The Inviting Field.</h3> +<p>Never had a new religion a more inviting field or one more sure +of success, than had Buddhism on stepping from the Land of Morning +Dawn to the Land of the Rising Sun. Coming as a gorgeous, dazzling +and disciplined array of all that could touch the imagination, +stimulate the intellect and move the heart of the Japanese, it was +irresistible. For the making of a nation, Shintō was as a donkey +engine, compared to the system of furnaces, boilers, shaft and +propeller of a ten-thousand-ton steel cruiser, moved by the +energies of a million years of sunbeam force condensed into coal +and released again through transmigration by fire.</p> +<p>All accounts in the vernacular Japanese agree, that their +Butsu-dō or Buddhism was imported from Korea. In the sixteenth +year of Kéitai, the twenty-seventh <span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>{179}</span> Mikado +(of the list made centuries after, and the eleventh after the +impossible line of the long-lived or mythical Mikados), A.D. 534, +it is said that a man from China brought with him an image of +Buddha into Yamato, and setting it up in a thatched cottage +worshipped it. The people called it "foreign-country god." Visitors +discussed with him the religion of Shaka, as the Japanese call +Shakyamuni, and some little knowledge of Buddhism was gained, but +no notable progress was made until A.D. 552, which is generally +accepted and celebrated as the year of the introduction of the +faith into Japan. Then a king of Hiaksai in Korea, sent over to the +court and to the Mikado golden images of the Buddha and of the +triad of "precious ones," with Sutras and sacred books. These holy +relics are believed to be still preserved in the famous temple of +Zenkōji,<a id="footnotetag6-32" name="footnotetag6-32"></a><a href="#footnote6-32"><sup>32</sup></a> +belonging to the temple of the Tendai Sect at Nagano in Northern +Japan, this shrine being dedicated to Amida and his two followers +Kwannon (Avalokitesvara) and Dai-séi-shi (Mahastanaprapta). +This group of idols, as the custodian of the shrine will tell you, +was made by Shaka himself out of gold, found at the base of the +tree which grows at the centre of the universe. After remaining in +Korea for eleven hundred and twelve years, it was brought to Japan. +Mighty is the stream of pilgrims which continually sets toward the +holy place. A common proverb declares that even a cow can find her +way thither.</p> +<p>In A.D. 572 and again in 584, new images, sutras and teachers +came over from another part of Korea. The Mikado called a council +to determine what should be done with the idols, to the worship of +which he was himself inclined; but a majority were against the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id="page180"></a>{180}</span> idea of insulting the native gods by +receiving the presents and thus introducing a foreign religion. The +minister of state, however, one Soga no Inamé, expressed +himself in favor of Buddhism, and put the images in his country +house which he converted into a temple. When, soon after, the land +was afflicted with a pestilence, the opponents of the new faith +attributed it to the wrath of the gods at the hospitality given to +the new idols. War broke out, fighting took place, and the Buddhist +temple was burned and the idols thrown into the river, near Osaka. +Great portents followed, and the enemies of Buddhism were, it is +said, burned up by flames descending from heaven.</p> +<p>The tide then turned in favor of the Indian faith, and Soga +rebuilt his temple. Priests and missionaries were invited to come +over from Korea, being gladly furnished by the allies of Japan from +the state of Shinra, and Buddhism again flourished at the court, +but not yet among the people. Once more, fighting broke out; and +again the temple of the alien gods was destroyed, only to be +rebuilt again. The chief champion of Buddhism was the son of a +Mikado, best known by his posthumous title, Shōtoku,<a id="footnotetag6-33" name="footnotetag6-33"></a><a href="#footnote6-33"><sup>33</sup></a> who all his life was a vigorous +defender and propagator of the new faith. Through his influence, or +very probably through the efforts of the Korean missionaries, the +devastating war between the Japanese and Koreans was ended. In the +peace which followed, notable progress was made through the vigor +of the missionaries encouraged by the regent Shōtoku, so that at +his death in the year A.D. 621, there were forty-six temples, and +thirteen hundred and eighty-five priests, monks and nuns in Japan. +Many of the most famous temples, which are now <span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>{181}</span> full of +wealth and renown, trace their foundations to this era of +Shōtoku and of his aunt, the Empress Suiko (A.D. 593-628), who +were friendly to the new religion. Shōtoku may be almost called +the founder of Japanese Buddhism. Although a layman, he is +canonized and stands unique in the Pantheon of Eastern Buddhism, +his image being prominently visible in thousands of Japanese +temples.</p> +<p>Legend, in no country more luxurious than in Japan, tells us +that the exotic religion made no progress until Amida, the +boundlessly Merciful One, assuming the shape of a concubine of the +imperial prince who afterward became the Mikado Yomé, gave +birth to Shōtoku, who was himself Kwannon or the goddess of +mercy in human form; and that when he grew up, he took to wife an +incarnation of the Buddha elect, Mahastana-prapta, or in Japanese +Dai-séi-shi, whose idol is honored at Zenkōji.</p> +<h3>The New Faith Becomes Popular.</h3> +<p>Then Buddhism became popular, passing out from the narrow circle +of the court to be welcomed by the people. In A.D. 623, monks came +over directly from China, and we find mentioned two sects, the +Sanron and the Jōjitsu, which are no longer extant in Japan. In +about A.D. 650 the fame of Yuan Chang (Hiouen Thsang) the Chinese +pilgrim to India, or the holy land, reached-Japan; and his +illustrious example was enthusiastically followed. History now +frequently repeated itself. The Japanese monk, Dōshō, crossed +the seas to China to gaze upon the face and become the pupil of +that illustrious Chinese pilgrim, who had seen <span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>{182}</span> Buddha +Land. Later on, other monks crossed to the land of Sinim, until we +find that in this and succeeding centuries, hundreds of Japanese in +their frail junks, braved the dangers of the stormy ocean, in order +to study Sanskrit, to read the old scriptures, to meet the new +lights of learning or revelation, and to become versed in the +latest fashions of religion. We find the pilgrims returning and +founding new sects or sub-sects, and stimulating by their +enthusiasm the monks and the home missionaries. In the year A.D. +700 the custom of cremation was introduced. This wrought not only a +profound change in customs, but also became the seed of a rich crop +of superstitions; since out of the cremated bodies of the saints +came forth the <i>shari</i> or, in Sanskrit, <i>sarira</i>. These +hard substances or pellets, preserved in crystal cabinets, are +treated as holy gems or relics. Thus venerated, they become the +nuclei of cycles of fairy lore.</p> +<p>In A.D. 710, the great monastery at Nara was founded; and here +we must notice or at least glance at the great throng of civilizing +influences that came in with Buddhism, and at the great army of +artists, artisans and skilled men and women of every sort of trade +and craft. We note that with the building of this great Nara +monastery came another proof of improvement and the added element +of stability in Japanese civilization. The ancient dread which the +Japanese had, of living in any place where a person had died was +passing away. The nomad life was being given up. The successor of a +dead Mikado was no longer compelled to build himself a new capital. +The traveller in Japan, familiar with the ancient poetry of the +Manyō-shu, finds no fewer than fifty-eight sites<a id="footnotetag6-34" name="footnotetag6-34"></a><a href="#footnote6-34"><sup>34</sup></a> as <span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>{183}</span> the early homes of the +Japanese monarchy. Once occupying the proud position of imperial +capitals, they are now for the most part mere hamlets, oftentimes +mere names, with no visible indication of former human habitation; +while the old rivers or streams once gay with barges filled with +silken-robed lords and ladies, have dried up to mere washerwomen's +runnels. For the first time after the building of this Buddhist +monastery, the capital remained permanent, Nara being the imperial +residence during seventy-five years. Then beautiful Kiōto was +chosen, and remained the residence of successive generations of +emperors until 1868. In A.D. 735, we read of the Kégon sect. +Two years later a large monastery, with a seven-storied pagoda +alongside of it, was ordered to be built in every province. These, +with the temples and their surroundings, and with the wayside +shrines beginning to spring up like exotic flowers, made a striking +alteration in the landscape of Japan. The Buddhist scriptures were +numerously copied and circulated among the learned class, yet +neither now nor ever, except here and there in fragments, were they +found among the people. For, although the Buddhist canon has been +repeatedly imported, copied by the pen and in modern times printed, +yet no Japanese translation has ever been made. The methods of +Buddhism in regard to the circulation of the scriptures are those, +not of Protestantism but of Roman Catholicism.</p> +<p>In the same year, the Mikado called for contributions from all +the people for the building of a colossal image of the Buddha, +which was to be of bronze and gilded. Yet, fearing that the +Shintō gods might be offended, a skilful priest named +Giyoku,—probably <span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id="page184"></a>{184}</span> the same man who introduced the potter's +wheel into Japan,—was sent to the shrine of the Sun-goddess +in Isé to present her with a shari or relic of the Buddha, +and find out how she would regard his project. After seven days and +nights of waiting, the chapel doors flew open and the loud-voiced +oracle was interpreted in a favorable sense. The night following +the return of the priest, the Mikado dreamed that the sun-goddess +appeared to him in her own form and said "The sun is Birushana" +(Vairokana). This meant that the chief deity of the Japanese +proclaimed herself an avatar or incarnation of one of the old Hindu +gods.<a id="footnotetag6-35" name="footnotetag6-35"></a><a href="#footnote6-35"><sup>35</sup></a> She also approved the project of +the image; and in this same year, 759, native gold was found in +Japan, which sufficed for the gilding of the great idol that, after +eleven hundred years and many vicissitudes, still stands, the glory +of a multitude of pilgrims.</p> +<p>In A.D. 754 a famous priest, who introduced the new Ritsu Sect, +was able to convert the Mikado and obtain four hundred converts in +the imperial court. Thirteen years later, another tremendous +triumph of Buddhism was scored and a deadly blow at Shintō was +struck. The Buddhist priests persuaded the Mikados to abandon their +ancient title of Sumeru and adopt that of Tennō (Heavenly King +or Tenshi) Son of Heaven, after the Chinese fashion. At the same +time it was taught that the emperor could gain great merit and +sooner become a Buddha, by retiring from the active cares of the +throne and becoming a monk, with the title of Hō-ō, or +Cloistered Emperor. This innovation had far-reaching consequences, +profoundly altering the status of the Mikado, giving sensualism on +the one hand and priestcraft on the other, their coveted +opportunity, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>{185}</span> changing the ruler of the nation from an +active statesman into a recluse and the recluse into a pious monk, +or a licentious devotee, as the case might be. It paved the way for +the usurpation of the government by the unscrupulous soldier, "the +man on horseback," who was destined to rule Japan for seven hundred +years, while the throne and its occupant were in the shadow. One of +a thousand proofs of the progress of the propaganda scheme is seen +in the removal of the Shintō temple which had stood at Nikkō, +and the erection in its place of a Buddhist temple. In A.D. 805 the +famous Tendai, and in 806 the powerful Shingon Sect were +introduced. All was now ready in Japan for the growth not only of +one new Buddhism, but of several varieties among the Northern +Buddhisms which so arouse the astonishment of those who study the +simple Pali scriptures that contain the story of Gautama, and who +know only the southern phase of the faith, that is to Asia, +relatively, what Christianity is to Europe. We say relatively, for +while Buddhism made Chinese Asia gentle in manners and kind to +animals, it covered the land with temples, monasteries and images; +on the other hand the religion of Jesus filled Europe not only with +churches, abbeys, monasteries and nunneries, but also with +hospitals, orphan asylums, lighthouses, schools and colleges. +Between the fruits of Christendom and Buddhadom, let the world +judge.</p> +<h3>Survey and Summary.</h3> +<p>To sum up: Buddhism is the humanitarian's, and also the +skeptic's, solution of the problem of the universe. Its three great +distinguishing characteristics are <span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>{186}</span> atheism, metempsychosis and +absence of caste. It was in its origin pure democracy. As against +despotic priesthood and oppressive hierarchy, it was +congregational. Theoretically it is so yet, though far from being +so practically. It is certainly sacerdotal and aristocratic in +organization. As in any other system which has so vast a hierarchy +with so many grades of honor and authority, its theory of democracy +is now a memory. First preached in a land accursed by caste and +under spiritual and secular oppressions, it acknowledged no caste, +but declared all men equally sinful and miserable, and all equally +capable of being freed from sin and misery through Buddhahood, that +is, knowledge or enlightenment.<a id="footnotetag6-36" name="footnotetag6-36"></a><a href="#footnote6-36"><sup>36</sup></a></p> +<p>The three-fold principle laid down by Gautama, and now in dogma, +literature, art and worship, a triad or formal trinity, is, Buddha, +the attainment of Buddha-hood, or perfect enlightenment, through +meditation and benevolence; Karma, the law of cause and effect; and +Dharma, discipline or order; or, the Lord, the Law and the Church. +Paying no attention to questions of cosmogony or theogony, the +universe is accepted as an ultimate fact. Matter is eternal. +Creation exists but not a Creator. All is god, but God is left out +of consideration. The gods are even less than Buddhas. Humanity is +glorified and the stress of all teaching is upon this life. In a +word: a sinless life, attainable by man, through his own exertions +in this world, above all the powers or beings of the universe, is +the essence of original Buddhism. Original Nirvana meant death +which ends all, extinction of existence.</p> +<p>Gautama's immediate purpose was to emancipate himself and his +followers from the fetters of Brahminism. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id="page187"></a>{187}</span> He tried +to leave the world of Hindu philosophy behind him and to escape +from it.</p> +<p>Did he succeed? Partially.</p> +<p>Buddha hoped also to rise above the superstitions of the common +people, but in this he was again only partially successful.<a id="footnotetag6-37" name="footnotetag6-37"></a><a href="#footnote6-37"><sup>37</sup></a> "The clouds returned after the +rain." The old dead gods of Brahminism came back under new names +and forms. The malarial exhalations of corrupt Brahmanistic +philosophy, continually poisoned the atmosphere which Buddha's +disciples breathed. Still worse, as his religion transmigrated into +other lands, it became itself a history of transformation, until +to-day no religion on earth seems to be such a kaleidoscopic +phantasmagoria. Polytheism is rampant over the greater part of the +Buddhist world to-day. In the larger portion of Chinese Asia, +pantheism dominates the mind. In modern Babism,—a mixture of +Mohammedanism, Christianity and Buddhism,—there are streaks +of dualism. If Monotheism has ever dawned on the Buddhist world, it +has been in fitful pulses as in auroral flashes, soon to leave +darkness darker.</p> +<p>For us is this lesson: Buddhism, brought face to face with the +problem of the world's evil and possible improvement, evades it; +begs the whole question at the outset; prays: "Deliver us from +existence. Save us from life and give us as little as possible of +it." Christianity faces the problem and flinches not; orders +advance all along the line of endeavor and prays: "Deliver us from +evil;" and is ever of good cheer, because Captain and leader says: +"I have overcome the world." Go, win it for me. "I have come that +they might have life, and that they might have it more +abundantly."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" id="page189"></a>{189}</span> +<h2><a name="chap7" id="chap7">RIYŌBU, OR MIXED +BUDDHISM</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" id="page190"></a>{190}</span> +<blockquote> +<p>"All things are nothing but mind."</p> +<p>"The doctrines of Buddhism have no fixed forms."</p> +<p>"There is nothing in things themselves that enables us to +distinguish in them either good or evil, right or wrong. It is but +man's fancy that weighs their merits and causes him to choose one +and reject the other."</p> +<p>"Non-individuality is the general principle of +Buddhism."—Outlines of the Mahāyāna.</p> +<p>"It (Shintō) was smothered before reaching maturity, but +Buddhism and Confucianism had to disguise and change in order to +enter Japan."</p> +<p>"Life has a limited span and naught may avail to extend it. This +is manifested by the impermanence of human beings. But yet whenever +necessary I will hereafter make my appearance from time to time as +a god, a sage, or a Buddha."—Last words of Shaka the Buddha, +in Japanese biography.</p> +<p>"It is our opinion that Buddhism cannot long hold its ground, +and that Christianity must finally prevail throughout all Japan.... +Now, when Buddhism and Christianity are in conflict for the +ascendency, this indifference of the Japanese people to the +difference of sects is a great disadvantage to Buddhism. That they +should worship Jesus Christ with the same mind as they do +<i>Inari</i> or <i>Miōjin</i> is not at all inconsistent in +their estimation or contrary to their custom."—Fukuzawa, of +Tōkiō.</p> +<p>"How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, +follow him; but if Baal, then follow him."—Elijah.</p> +<p>"Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of +thistles?"—Jesus.</p> +<p>"Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and +bitter?"—James.</p> +<p>"What concord hath Christ with Belial?"—Paul.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page191" id="page191"></a>{191}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER VII - RIYŌBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM</h2> +<h3>Syncretism in Religion.</h3> +<p>Two centuries and a half of Buddhism in Japan, showed the +leaders and teachers of the Indian faith that complete victory over +the whole nation was yet very far off. The court had indeed been +invaded and won. Even the Mikado, the ecclesiastical head of +Shintō, and the incarnation and vicar of the heavenly gods, had +not only embraced Buddhism, but in many instances had shorn the +hair and taken the vows of the monk. Yet the people clung +tenaciously to their old traditions, customs and worship; for their +gods were like themselves and indeed were of themselves, since +Shintō is only a transfiguration of Japanese life. In the +Japanese of those days we can trace the same traits which we behold +in the modern son of Nippon, especially his intense patriotism and +his warlike tendencies. To convert these people to the peaceful +dogmas of Siddartha and to make them good Buddhists, something more +than teaching and ritual was necessary. It was indispensable that +there should be complete substitution, all along the ruts and paths +of national habit, and especially that the names of the gods and +the festivals should be Buddhaized.</p> +<p>Popular customs are nearly immortal and ineradicable. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page192" id="page192"></a>{192}</span> Though wars may come, dynasties rise and +fall, and convulsions in nature take place, yet the people's +manners and amusements are very slow in changing. If, in the +history of Christianity, the European missionaries found it +necessary in order to make conquest of our pagan forefathers, to +baptize and re-name without radically changing old notions and +habits, so did it seem equally indispensable that in Japan there +should be some system of reconciliation of the old and the new, +some theological revolution, which should either fulfil, absorb, or +destroy Shintō.</p> +<p>In the histories of religions in Western Asia, Northern Africa +and Europe, we are familiar with efforts at syncretism. We have +seen how Philo attempted to unite Hebrew righteousness and Greek +beauty, and to harmonize Moses and Plato. We know of Euhemerus, who +thought he read in the old mythologies not only the outlines of +real history, but the hieroglyphics of legend and tradition, truth +and revelation.<a id="footnotetag7-1" name="footnotetag7-1"></a><a href="#footnote7-1"><sup>1</sup></a> +Students of Church history are well aware that this principle of +interpretation was followed only too generously by Tertullian, +Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius, Chrysostom and others of the +Church Fathers. Indeed, it would be hard to find in any of the +great religions of the world an utter absence of syncretism, or the +union of apparently hostile religious ideas. In the Thousand and +One Nights, we have an example in popular literature. We see that +the ancient men of India, Persia and pre-Mohammedan Arabia now act +and talk as orthodox Mussulmans. In matters pertaining to art and +furniture, the statue of Jupiter in Rome serves for St. Peter, and +in Japan that of the Virgin and child for the Buddha and his +mother.<a id="footnotetag7-2" name="footnotetag7-2"></a><a href="#footnote7-2"><sup>2</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page193" id="page193"></a>{193}</span> +<p>What, however, chiefly concerns the critic and student of +religions is to inquire how far the process has been natural, and +the efforts of those who have brought about the union have been +honest, and their motives pure. The Bible pages bear witness, that +Israelites too often tried to make the same fountain give forth +sweet waters and bitter, and to grow thistles and grapes on the +same stem, by uniting the cults of Jehovah and the Baalim. King +Solomon's enterprises in the same direction are more creditable to +him as a politician than as a worshipper.<a id="footnotetag7-3" +name="footnotetag7-3"></a><a href="#footnote7-3"><sup>3</sup></a> +In the history of Christianity one cannot commend the efforts +either of the Gnostics or the neo-Platonists, nor always justify +the medieval missionaries in their methods. Nor can we accurately +describe as successful the ingenuity of Vossius, the Dutch +theologian, who, following the scheme of Euhemerus, discovered the +Old Testament patriarchs in the disguise of the gods of Paganism. +Nor, even though Germany be the land of learning, can the +clear-headed scholar agree with some of her rationalists, who are +often busy in the same field of industry, setting forth wild +criticism as "science."</p> +<h3>The Kami and the Buddhas.</h3> +<p>In Japan, to solve the problem of reconciliation between the +ancient traditions of the divine ancestors and the dogmas of the +Indian cult, it was necessary that some master spirit, profoundly +learned in the two Ways, of the Kami and of the Buddhas, should be +bold, and also as it seems, crafty and unscrupulous. To convert a +line of theocratic emperors, whose authority was derived from their +alleged divine origin and sacerdotal <span class="pagenum"><a name="page194" id="page194"></a>{194}</span> character, into patrons and +propagandists of Buddhism, and to transform indigenous Shintō +gods into Buddhas elect, or Buddhas to come, or Buddhas in a former +state of existence, were tasks that might appall the most +prodigious intellect, and even strain the capacities of what one +might imagine to be the universal religion for all mankind.</p> +<p>Yet from such a task continental Buddhism had not shrunk before +and did not shrink then, nor indeed from it do the insular Japanese +sects shrink now. Indeed, Buddhism is quite ready to adopt, absorb +and swallow up Japanese Christianity. With all encompassing +tentacles, and with colossal powers of digestion and assimilation, +Northern Buddhism had drawn into itself a large part of the +Brahmanism out of which it originally sprang,<a id="footnotetag7-4" +name="footnotetag7-4"></a><a href="#footnote7-4"><sup>4</sup></a> +reversing the old myth of Chronos by swallowing its parents. It had +gathered in, pretty much all that was in the heavens above and the +earth beneath and the waters that were under the earth, in Nepal, +Tibet, China, and Korea. Thoroughly exercised and disciplined, it +was ready to devour and digest all that the imagination of Japan +had conceived.</p> +<p>We must remember that, at the opening of the ninth century, the +Buddhism rampant in China and indeed throughout Chinese Asia was +the Tantra system of Yoga-chara.<a id="footnotetag7-5" name="footnotetag7-5"></a><a href="#footnote7-5"><sup>5</sup></a> This +compound of polytheism and pantheism, with its sensuous paradise, +its goddess of mercy and its pantheon of every sort of worshipable +beings, was also equipped with a system of philosophy by which +Buddhism could be adapted to almost every yearning of human nature +in its lowest or its highest form, and by which things apparently +contradictory could be reconciled. Furthermore—and this is +not <span class="pagenum"><a name="page195" id="page195"></a>{195}</span> the least important thing to consider +when the work to be done is for the ordinary man as an individual +and for the common people in the mass—it had also a +tremendous apparatus for touching the imagination and captivating +the fancy of the unthinking and the uneducated.</p> +<p>For example, consider the equipment of the Buddhist priests of +the ninth century in the matter of art alone. Shintō knows next +to nothing of art,<a id="footnotetag7-6" name="footnotetag7-6"></a><a href="#footnote7-6"><sup>6</sup></a> and +indeed one might almost say that it knows little of civilization. +It is like ultra-Puritanic Protestantism and Iconoclasm. Buddhism, +on the contrary, is the mother of art, and art is her ever-busy +child and handmaid. The temples of the Kami were bald and bare. The +Kojiki told nothing of life hereafter, and kept silence on a +hundred points at which human curiosity is sure to be active, and +at which the Yoga system was voluble. Buddhism came with a set of +visible symbols which should attract the eye and fire the +imagination, and within ethical limits, the passions also. It was a +mixed and variegated system,—a resultant of many +forces.<a id="footnotetag7-7" name="footnotetag7-7"></a><a href="#footnote7-7"><sup>7</sup></a> It came with the thought of India, +the art-influence of Greece, the philosophy of Persia, the +speculations of the Gnostics and, in all probability, with ideas +borrowed indirectly from Nestorian or other forms of Christianity; +and thus furnished, it entered Japan.</p> +<h3>The Mission of Art.</h3> +<p>Thus far the insular kingdom had known only the monochrome +sketches of the Chinese painters, which could have a meaning for +the educated few alone. The composite Tantra dogmas fed the fancy +and stimulated <span class="pagenum"><a name="page196" id="page196"></a>{196}</span> the imagination, filling them with +pictures of life, past, present and future. "The sketch was +replaced by the illumination." Whole schools of artists, imported +from China and Korea, multiplied their works and attracted the +untrained senses of the people, by filling the temples with a blaze +of glory. "This result was sought by a gorgeous but studied play of +gold and color, and a lavish richness of mounting and accessories, +that appear strangely at variance with the begging bowl and patched +garments of primitive Buddhism."<a id="footnotetag7-8" name="footnotetag7-8"></a><a href="#footnote7-8"><sup>8</sup></a> The +change in the Japanese temple was as though the gray clouds had +been kissed by the sun and made to laugh rainbows. The country of +the Fertile Plain of Sweet Flags was transformed. It suddenly +became the land wherein gods grew not singly but in whole forests. +Like the Shulamite, when introduced among the jewelled ladies of +Solomon's harem, so stood the boor amid the sheen and gold of the +new temples.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>"Gold was the one thing essential to the Buddhist altar-piece, +and sometimes, when applied on a black ground, was the only +material used. In all cases it was employed with an unsparing hand. +It appeared in uniform masses, as in the body of the Buddha or in +the golden lakes of the Western Paradise; in minute diapers upon +brocades and clothing, in circlets and undulating rays, to form the +glory surrounding the head of Amitaba; in raised bosses and rings +upon the armlets or necklets of the Bodhisattvas and Devas, and in +a hundred other manners. The pigments chosen to harmonize with this +display were necessarily body colors of the most pronounced lines, +and were untoned by any trace of chiaroscuro. Such materials as +these would surely try the average artist, but the Oriental painter +knew how to dispose them without risk of crudity or gaudiness, and +the precious metal, however lavishly applied, was distributed over +the picture with a judgment that would <span class="pagenum"><a name="page197" id="page197"></a>{197}</span> make it +difficult to alter or remove any part without detriment to the +beauty of the work."<a id="footnotetag7-9" name="footnotetag7-9"></a><a href="#footnote7-9"><sup>9</sup></a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>In our day, Japanese art has won its own place in the world's +temple of beauty. Even those familiar with the master-pieces of +Europe do not hesitate to award to the artists of Nippon a meed of +praise which, within certain limits, is justly applied to them +equally with the masters of the Italian, the Dutch, the Flemish, or +the French schools. It serves our purpose simply to point out that +art was a powerful factor in the religious conquest of the Japanese +for the new doctrines of the Yoga system, which in Japan is called +Riyōbu, or Mixed Buddhism.</p> +<p>We say Mixed Buddhism rather than Riyōbu Shintō, for +Shintō was less corrupted than swallowed up, while Buddhism +suffered one more degree of mixture and added one more chapter of +decay. It increased in its visible body, while in its mind it +became less and less the religion of Buddha and more and more a +thing with the old Shintō heart still in it, making a strange +growth in the eyes of the continental believers. To the Northern +and Southern was now added an Eastern or Japanese Buddhism.</p> +<p>Who was the wonder-worker that annexed the Land of the Gods to +Buddhadom and re-read the Kojiki as a sutra, and all Japanese +history and traditions as only a chapter of the incarnations of +Buddha?</p> +<h3>Kōbō the Wonder Worker.</h3> +<p>The Philo and Euhemerus of Japan was the priest Kukai, who was +born in the province of Sanuki, in the year 774. He is better known +by his posthumous title <span class="pagenum"><a name="page198" id="page198"></a>{198}</span> Kōbō Daishi, or the Great Teacher +who promulgates the Law. By this name we shall call him. About his +birth, life and death, have multiplied the usual swaddling bands of +Japanese legend and tradition,<a id="footnotetag7-10" name="footnotetag7-10"></a><a href="#footnote7-10"><sup>10</sup></a> and +to his tomb at the temple on Mount Kō-ya, the Campo Santo of +Japanese Buddhism, still gather innumerable pilgrims. The "hall of +ten thousand lamps," each flame emblematic of the Wisdom that +saves, is not, indeed, in these days lighted annually as of old; +but the vulgar yet believe that the great master still lives in his +mausoleum, in a state of profoundly silent meditation. Into the +hall of bones near by, covering a deep pit, the teeth and "Adam's +apple" of the cremated bodies of believers are thrown by their +relatives, though the pit is cleared out every three years. The +devotees believe that by thus disposing of the teeth and "Adam's +apple," they obtain the same spiritual privileges as if they were +actually entombed there, that is, of being born again into the +heaven of the Bodhisattva or the Pure Land of Absolute Bliss, by +virtue of the mystic formulas repeated by the great master in his +lifetime.</p> +<p>Let us sketch the life of Kōbō,</p> +<p>First named Toto-mono, or Treasure, by his parents, who sent him +to Kiōtō to be educated for the priesthood, the youth spent +four years in the study of the Chinese classics. Dissatisfied with +the teachings of Confucius, he became a disciple of a famous +Buddhist priest, named Iwabuchi (Rock-edge or throne). Soon taking +upon himself the vows of the monk, he was first named Kukai, +meaning "space and sea," or heaven and earth.<a id="footnotetag7-11" name="footnotetag7-11"></a><a href="#footnote7-11"><sup>11</sup></a> He overcame the dragons that +assaulted him, by prayers, by spitting at them the rays of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page199" id="page199"></a>{199}</span> evening star which had flown from heaven +into his mouth and by repeating the mystic formulas called +Dharani.<a id="footnotetag7-12" name="footnotetag7-12"></a><a href="#footnote7-12"><sup>12</sup></a> Annoyed by hobgoblins with whom +he was obliged to converse, he got rid of them by surrounding +himself with a consecrated imaginary enclosure into which they were +unable to enter against his will.</p> +<p>We mention these legends only to call the attention to the fact +that they are but copies of those already accepted in China at that +time, and are the logical and natural fruit of the Tantra school at +which we have glanced. In 804, Kōbō was appointed to visit +the Middle Kingdom as a government student. By means of his clever +pen and calligraphic skill he won his way into the Chinese capital. +He became the favored disciple of a priest who taught him the +mystic doctrines of the Yoga. Having acquired the whole of the +system, and equipped himself with a large library of Buddhist +doctrinal works and still more with every sort of ecclesiastical +furniture and religious goods, he returned to Japan.</p> +<p>Multitudes of wonders are reported about Kōbō, all of +which show the growth of the Tantra school. It is certain that his +erudition was immense, and that he was probably the most learned +man of Japan in that age, and possibly of any other age. Besides +being a Japanese Ezra in multiplying writings, he is credited with +the invention of the hira-gana, or running script, and if correctly +so, he deserves on this account alone an immortal honor equal to +that of Cadmus or Sequoia. The kana<a id="footnotetag7-13" name="footnotetag7-13"></a><a href="#footnote7-13"><sup>13</sup></a> is +a syllabary of forty-seven letters, which by diacritical marks, may +be increased to seventy. The kata-kana is the square or print form, +the hira-kana is <span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" id="page200"></a>{200}</span> the round or "grass" character for +writing. Though not as valuable as a true phonetic alphabet, such +as the Koreans and the Cherokees possess, the <i>i-ro-ha</i>, or +kana script, even though a syllabary and not an alphabet, was a +wonderful aid to popular writing and instruction.</p> +<p>Evidently the idea of the i-ro-ha, or Japanese ABC, was derived +from the Sanskrit alphabet, or, what some modern Anglo-Indian has +called the Deva-Nagari or the god-alphabet. There is no evidence, +however, to show that Kōbō did more than arrange in order +forty-seven of the easiest Chinese signs then used, in such a +manner that they conveyed in a few lines of doggerel the sense of a +passage from a sutra in which the mortality of man and the +emptiness of all things are taught, and the doctrine of Nirvana is +suggested.<a id="footnotetag7-14" name="footnotetag7-14"></a><a href="#footnote7-14"><sup>14</sup></a> +Hokusai, the artist, in a sketch which embodies the popular idea of +this bonze's immense industry, represents him copying the shastras +and sutras. Kōbō is on a seat before a large upright sheet of +paper. He holds a brush-pen in his mouth, and one in each of his +hands and feet, all moving at once.<a id="footnotetag7-15" name="footnotetag7-15"></a><a href="#footnote7-15"><sup>15</sup></a> +Favorite portions of the Buddhist scriptures were indeed so rapidly +multiplied in Japan in the ninth century, as to suggest the idea, +that, even in this early age, block printing had been imported from +China, whence also afterward, in all probability, it was exported +into Europe before the days of Gutenberg and Coster.<a id="footnotetag7-16" name="footnotetag7-16"></a><a href="#footnote7-16"><sup>16</sup></a> The popular imagination, however, +was more easily moved on seeing five brushes kept at work and all +at once by the muscles in the fingers, toes and mouth of one man. +Yet, had his life lasted six hundred years instead of sixty, he +could hardly have graven all the images, scaled all the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page201" id="page201"></a>{201}</span> mountain peaks, confounded all the +sceptics, wrought all the miracles and performed all the other +feats with which he is popularly credited.<a id="footnotetag7-17" +name="footnotetag7-17"></a><a href="#footnote7-17"><sup>17</sup></a></p> +<h3>Kōbō Irenicon.</h3> +<p>Kōbō indeed was both the Philo and Euhemerus of Japan, +plus a large amount of priestly cunning and what his enemies insist +was dishonesty and forgery. Soon after his return from China, he +went to the temples of Isé,<a id="footnotetag7-18" name="footnotetag7-18"></a><a href="#footnote7-18"><sup>18</sup></a> the +most holy place of Shintō.<a id="footnotetag7-19" name="footnotetag7-19"></a><a href="#footnote7-19"><sup>19</sup></a> +Taking a reverent attitude before the chief shrine, that of Toko +Uké Bimé no Kami or Abundant-Food-Lady-God, or the +deified Earth as the producer of food and the upholder of all +things upon its surface, the suppliant waited patiently while +fasting and praying.</p> +<p>In this, Kōbō did but follow out the ordinary Shintō +plan for securing god-possession and obtaining revelation; that is, +by starving both the stomach and the brain.<a id="footnotetag7-20" +name="footnotetag7-20"></a><a href="#footnote7-20"><sup>20</sup></a> After a week's waiting he +obtained the vision. The Food-possessing Goddess revealed to him +the yoke (or Yoga) by which he could harness the native and the +imported gods to the chariot of victorious Buddhism. She manifested +herself to him and delivered the revelation on which his system is +founded, and which, briefly stated, is as follows:</p> +<p>All the Shintō deities are avatars or incarnations of Buddha. +They were manifestations to the Japanese, before Gautama had become +the enlightened one, or the jewel in the lotus, and before the holy +wheel of the law or the sacred shastras and sutras had reached the +island empire. Further more, provision was made for the future gods +and deified holy ones, who were <span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" id="page202"></a>{202}</span> to proceed from the loins +of the Mikado, or other Japanese fathers, according to the saying +of Buddha which is thus recorded in a Japanese popular work:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>"Life has a limited span, and naught may avail to extend it. +This is manifested by the impermanence of human beings, but yet, +whenever necessary, I will hereafter make my appearance from time +to time as a god (Kami), a sage (Confucian teacher), or a Buddha +(Hotoké)."<a id="footnotetag7-21" name="footnotetag7-21"></a><a href="#footnote7-21"><sup>21</sup></a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>In a word, the Shintō goddess talked as orthodox (Yoga) +Buddhism as the ancient characters of the Indian, Persian and +pre-Islam-Arabic stories in the Arabian Nights now talk the purest +Mohammedanism.<a id="footnotetag7-22" name="footnotetag7-22"></a><a href="#footnote7-22"><sup>22</sup></a> +According to the words put into Gautama's mouth at the time of his +death, the Buddha was already to reappear in the particular form +and in all the forms, acceptable to Shintōists, Confucianists, +or Buddhists of whatever sect.</p> +<p>Descending from the shrine of vision and revelation, with a +complete scheme of reconciliation, with correlated catalogues of +Shintō and Buddhist gods, with liturgies, with lists of old +popular festivals newly named, with the apparatus of art to +captivate the senses, Kōbō forthwith baptized each native +Shintō deity with a new Chinese-Buddhistic name. For every +Shintō festival he arranged a corresponding Buddhist's saints' +day or gala time. Then, training up a band of disciples, he sent +them forth proclaiming the new irenicon.</p> +<h3>The Hindu Yoga Becomes Japanese Riyōbu.</h3> +<p>It was just the time for this brilliant and able ecclesiastic to +succeed. The power and personal influence of the Mikado were +weakening, the court swarmed with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page203" id="page203"></a>{203}</span> monks, the rising military +classes were already safely under the control of the shavelings, +and the pen of learning had everywhere proved itself mightier than +the sword and muscle. Kōbō's particular dialectic weapons +were those of the Yoga-chara, or in Japanese, the Shingon Shu, or +Sect of the True Word.<a id="footnotetag7-23" name="footnotetag7-23"></a><a href="#footnote7-23"><sup>23</sup></a> He, +like his Chinese master, taught that we can attain the state of the +Enlightened or Buddha, while in the present physical body which was +born of our parents.</p> +<p>This branch of Buddhism is said to have been founded in India +about A.D. 200, by a saint who made the discovery of an iron pagoda +inhabited by the holy one, Vagrasattva, who communicated the exact +doctrine to those who have handed it down through the Hindoo and +Chinese patriarchs. The books or scriptures of this sect are in +three sutras; yet the essential point in them is the Mandala or the +circle of the Two Parts, or in Japanese Riyōbu. Introduced into +China, A.D. 720, it is known as the Yoga-chara school.</p> +<p>Kōbō finding a Chinese worm, made a Japanese dragon, able +to swallow a national religion. In the act of deglutition and the +long process of the digestion of Shintō, Japanese Buddhism +became something different from every other form of the faith in +Asia. Noted above all previous developments of Buddhism for its +pantheistic tendencies, the Shingon sect could recognize in any +Shintō god, demi-god, hero, or being, the avatar in a previous +stage of existence of some Buddhist being of corresponding +grade.</p> +<p>For example,<a id="footnotetag7-24" name="footnotetag7-24"></a><a href="#footnote7-24"><sup>24</sup></a> +Amatérasŭ or Ten-Shō-Dai-Jin, the sun-goddess, becomes +Dai Nichi Niōrai or Amida, whose colossal effigies stand in the +bronze images Dai Butsu at Nara, Kiōto and Kamakura. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page204" id="page204"></a>{204}</span> Ojin, the god of war, became Hachiman +Dai Bosatsu, or the great Bodhisattva of the Eight Banners. Adopted +as their patron by the fighting Genji or Minamoto warriors of +mediæval times, the Buddhists could not well afford to have +this popular deity outside their pantheon.</p> +<p>For each of the thirty days of the month, a Bodhisattva, or in +Japanese pronunciation Bosatsu, was appointed. Each of these +Bodhisattvas became a Dai Miō Jin or Great Enlightened Spirit, +and was represented as an avatar in Japan of Buddha in the previous +ages, when the Japanese were not yet prepared to receive the holy +law of Buddhism.</p> +<p>Where there were not enough Dai Miō Jin already existing in +native traditions to fill out the number required by the new +scheme, new titles were invented. One of these was Ten-jin, +Heavenly being or spirit. The famous statesman and scholar of the +tenth century, Sugawara Michizané, was posthumously named +Tenjin, and is even to this day worshipped by many children of +Japan as he was formerly for a thousand years by nearly all of +them, as the divine patron of letters. Kompira, Benten and other +popular deities, often considered as properly belonging to +Shintō, "are evidently the offspring of Buddhist priestly +ingenuity."<a id="footnotetag7-25" name="footnotetag7-25"></a><a href="#footnote7-25"><sup>25</sup></a> Out +of the eight millions or so of native gods, several hundred were +catalogued under the general term Gon-gen, or temporary +manifestations of Buddha. In this list are to be found not only the +heroes of local tradition, but even deified forces of nature, such +as wind and fire. The custom of making gods of great men after +their death, thus begun on a large scale by Kōbō, has gone on +for centuries. Iyéyasŭ, the political unifier of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page205" id="page205"></a>{205}</span> Japan, shines as a star of the first +magnitude in the heavens of the Riyōbu system, under the mime of +Tō-shō-gū, or Great Light of the East. The common people +speak of him as Gon-gen Sama, the latter word being an honorary +form of address for all beings from a baby to a Bosatsu.</p> +<p>In this way, Kōbō arranged a sort of clearing-house or +joint-stock company in which the Bodhisattvas, kami and other +miscellaneous beings, in either the native or foreign religion, +were mutually interchangeable. In a large sense, this feat of +priestly dexterity was but the repetition in history, of that of +Asanga with the Brahmanism and Buddhism of India three centuries +before. It was this Asanga who wrote the Yoga-chara Bhumi. The +succession of syncretists in India, China and Japan is Asanga, +Hiukiō and Kōbō.</p> +<h3>The Happy Family of Riyōbu.</h3> +<p>Nevertheless this attempt at making a happy family and ploughing +with an ox and ass in the same yoke, has not been an unqualified +success. It will sometimes happen that one god escapes the +classification made by the Buddhists and slips into the fold of +Shintō, or <i>vice versa</i>; while again the label-makers and +pasters—as numerous in scholastic Buddhism as in sectarian +Christendom—have hard work to make the labels stick. A +popular Gon-gen or Dai-Miō-jin, whose name and renown has for +centuries attracted crowds of pilgrims, and yielded fat revenues as +regularly as the autumn harvests, is not readily surrendered by the +old Buddhist proprietors, however cleverly or craftily the bonzes +may yield outward conformity to governmental edicts. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page206" id="page206"></a>{206}</span> On the +other hand, the efforts, both archaeological and practical, which +have been made in recent years by fiercely zealous Shintōists, +savor of the smartness of New Japan more than they suggest either +sincerity or edification. It often requires the finest tact on the +part of both the strenuous Buddhists and the stalwart purists of +Shintō, to extricate the various gods out of the mixture and +mess of Riyōbu Shintō, and to keep them from jostling each +other.</p> +<p>This reclaiming and kidnapping of gods and transferring them +from one camp to another, has been especially active since 1870, +when, under government auspices, the Riyōbu temples were purged +of all Buddhist idols, furniture and influences. The term Dai +Miō Jin, or Great Illustrious Spirit, is no longer officially +permitted to be used of the old kami or gods of Shintō, who were +known to have existed before the days of Kōbō. In some cases +these gods have lost much of the esteem in which they were held for +centuries. Especially is this true of the infamous rebel of the +tenth century, Masakado.<a id="footnotetag7-26" name="footnotetag7-26"></a><a href="#footnote7-26"><sup>26</sup></a> On +the entrance into Yedo of the Imperial army, in 1868, his idol was +torn from its shrine and hacked to pieces by the patriots. His +place as a deity (Kanda Dai Miō Jin, or Great Illustrious Spirit +of Kanda) was taken by another deified being, a brother to the +aboriginal earth-god who, in the ages of the Kami, "resigned his +throne in favor of the Mikado's ancestors when they descended from +Heaven." The apotheosis of the rebel Masakado had been resorted to +by the Buddhist canonizers because the unquiet spirit of the dead +man troubled the people. This method of laying a ghost by making a +god of him, was for centuries a favorite <span class="pagenum"><a name="page207" id="page207"></a>{207}</span> one in +Japanese Buddhism. Indeed, a large part of the practical and +parochial duties of the bonzes consists in quieting the restless +spirits of the departed.</p> +<p>All Japanese popular religion of the past has been intensely +local and patriotic. The ancient idea that Nippon was the first +country created and the centre of the world, has persisted through +the ages, modifying every imported religion. Hence the noticeable +fact in Japanese Buddhism, of the comparative degradation of the +Hindu deities and the exaltation of those which were native to the +soil.</p> +<p>The normal Japanese, be he priest or lay brother, theologian or +statesman, is nothing if not patriotic. Even the Chinese gods and +goddesses which, clothed in Indian drapery and still preserving +their Aryan features, were imported to Japan, could not hold their +own in competition with the popularity of the indigenous +inhabitants of the Japanese pantheon. The normal Japanese eye does +not see the ideals of beauty in the human face and form in common +with the Aryan vision. Benten or Knanon, with the features and +drapery of the homelike beauties of Yamato or Adzuma, have ever +been more lovely to the admiring eye of the Japanese sailor and +farmer, than the Aryan features of the idols imported from India. +So also, the worshipper to whom the lovely scenery of Japan was +fresh from the hands of the kami who were so much like himself, +turned naturally in preference, to the "gods many" of his own +land.</p> +<p>Succeeding centuries only made it worse for the imported devas +or gods, while the kami, or the gods sprung from the soil created +by Izanami and Izanagi steadily rose in honor.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page208" id="page208"></a>{208}</span> +<h3>Degradation of the Foreign Deities.</h3> +<p>For example, the Indian saint Dharma is reputed to have come to +the Dragon-fly Country long before the advent of Buddhism, but the +people were not ready for him or his teachings, and therefore he +returned to India. So at least declares the book entitled San Kai +Ri<a id="footnotetag7-27" name="footnotetag7-27"></a><a href="#footnote7-27"><sup>27</sup></a> (Mountain, Sea and Earth), which +is a re-reading and explanation of Japanese mythology and tradition +as recorded in the Kojiki, by a Kiōtō priest of the Shin Shu +Sect. Of this Dharma, it is said, that he outdid the Roman Regulus +who suffered involuntary loss of his eyelids at the hands of the +Carthaginians. Dharma cut off his own eyelids, because he could not +keep awake.<a id="footnotetag7-28" name="footnotetag7-28"></a><a href="#footnote7-28"><sup>28</sup></a> +Throwing the offending flesh upon the ground, he saw the tea-plant +arise to help holy men to keep vigil. Daruma, as the Japanese spell +his name, has a temple in central Japan. It is related that when +Shōtoku, the first patron of Buddhism, was one day walking +abroad he found a poor man dying of hunger, who refused to answer +any questions or give his name. Shōtoku ordered food to be given +him, and wrapped his own mantle round him. Next day the beggar +died, and the prince charitably had him buried on the spot. Shortly +afterward it was observed that the mantle was lying neatly folded +up, on the tomb, which on examination proved to be empty. The +supposed dying beggar was no other than the Indian Saint Dharma, +and a pagoda was built over the grave, in which images of the +priest and saint were enshrined.<a id="footnotetag7-29" name="footnotetag7-29"></a><a href="#footnote7-29"><sup>29</sup></a> +Yet, alas, to-day Daruma the Hindoo and foreigner, despite his +avatar, his humility, his vigils and his self-mutilation, has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page209" id="page209"></a>{209}</span> been degraded to be the shop-sign of the +tobacconists. Besides being ruthlessly caricatured, he is usually +pictured with a scowl, his lidless eyes as wide open as those upon +a Chinese junk-prow or an Egyptian coffin-lid. Often even, he has a +pipe in his mouth—a comical anachronism, suggestive to the +smoker of the dark ages that knew no tobacco, before nicotine made +the whole world of savage and of civilized kin. Legless dolls and +snow-men are named after this foreigner, whose name is associated +almost entirely with what is ludicrous.</p> +<p>On Kōbō's expounding his scheme to the Mikado, the emperor +was so pleased with his servant's ingenuity, that he gave it the +name of Riyōbu<a id="footnotetag7-30" name="footnotetag7-30"></a><a href="#footnote7-30"><sup>30</sup></a> +Shintō; that is, the two-fold divine doctrine, double way of the +gods, or amalgamated theology. Henceforth the Japanese could enter +Nirvana or Paradise through a two-leaved gate. As for the people, +they also were pleased, as they usually are when change or reform +does not mean abolition of the old festivals, or of the washings, +sousings, and fun at the tombs of their ancestors in the +graveyards, or the merry-makings, or the pilgrimages,<a id="footnotetag7-31" name="footnotetag7-31"></a><a href="#footnote7-31"><sup>31</sup></a> which are usually only other +names for social recreation, and often for sensual debauch. The +Yoga had become a <i>kubiki</i>, for Shintō and Buddhism were +now harnessed together, not indeed as true yoke-fellows, but yet +joined as inseparably as two oxen making the same furrow.</p> +<p>Many a miya now became a tera. At first in many edifices, the +rites of Shintō and Buddhism were alternately performed. The +Buddhist symbols might be in the front, and the Shintōist in the +rear of the sacred hall, or <i>vice versa</i>, with a bamboo +curtain between; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page210" id="page210"></a>{210}</span> but gradually the two blended. Instead +of austere simplicity, the Shintō interior contained a museum of +idols.</p> +<p>Image carvers had now plenty to do in making, out of camphor or +<i>hinoki</i> wood, effigies of such of the eight million or so of +kamis as were given places in the new and enlarged pantheon. The +multiplication was always on the side of Buddhism. Soon, also, the +architecture was altered from the type of the primitive hut, to +that of the low Chinese temple with great sweeping roof, re-curved +eaves, many-columned auditorium and imposing gateway, with lacquer, +paint, gilding and ceilings, on which, in blazing gold and color, +were depicted the emblems of the Buddhist paradise. Many of these +still remain even after the national purgation of 1870, just as the +Christian inscriptions survive in the marble palimpsests of +Mahometan mosques, converted from basilicas, at Damascus or +Constantinople. The torii was no longer raised in plain hinoki +wood, but was now constructed of hewn stone, rounded or polished. +Sometimes it was even of bronze with gilded crests and Sanskrit +monograms, surmounted, it may be, with tablets of painted or +stained wood, on which were Chinese letters glittering with gold. +This departure from the primitive idea of using only the natural +trunks of trees, "somewhat on the principle of Exodus, +20:25,"<a id="footnotetag7-32" name="footnotetag7-32"></a><a href="#footnote7-32"><sup>32</sup></a> was a radical one in the ninth +century. The elongated barrels with iron hoops, or the riveted +boiler-plate and stove-pipe pattern, in this era of Meiji is a +still more radical and even scandalous innovation.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page211" id="page211"></a>{211}</span> +<h3>Shintō Buried in Buddhism.</h3> +<p>So complete was the victory of Riyōbuism, that for nearly a +thousand years Shintō as a religion, except in a few isolated +spots, ceased from sight and sank to a mere mythology or to the +shadow of a mythology. The very knowledge even of the ancient +traditions was lost in the Buddhaized forms in which the old +stories<a id="footnotetag7-33" name="footnotetag7-33"></a><a href="#footnote7-33"><sup>33</sup></a> were cast, or in the omnipresent +ritual of the Buddhist tera.</p> +<p>Yet, after all, it is a question as to which suffered most, +Buddhism or Shintō. Who can tell which was the base and which +was the true metal in the alloy that was formed? The San Kai Ri +shows how superstitious manifold became imbedded in Buddhism. It +was not alone through the Shingon sect, which Kōbō +introduced, that this Yoga or union came. In the other great sect +called the Tendai, and in the later sects, more especially in that +of Nichiren, the same principle of absorption was followed. These +sects also adopted many elements derived from the god-way and thus +became Shintōized. Indeed, it seems certain that that vast +development of Japanese Buddhism, peculiar to Japan and unknown to +the rest of the Buddhist world, scouted by the Southern Buddhists +as dreadful heresy, and rousing the indignation of students of +early Buddhism, like Max Müller and Professor Whitney, is +largely owing to this attempted digestion of Japanese mythology. +The anaconda may indeed be able, by reason of its marvellously +flexible jaws and its abundant activity of salivary glands, to +swallow the calf, and even the ox; but sometimes the serpent is +killed by its own <span class="pagenum"><a name="page212" id="page212"></a>{212}</span> voracity, or at least made helpless +before the destroying hunter. When sweet potatoes and pumpkins are +planted in the same hill, and the cooked product comes on the +table, it is hard to tell whether it is tuber or hollow fruit, +subterranean or superficial growth, that we are eating. So in +Riyōbu, whether it be most <i>imo</i> or <i>kabocha</i> is a +fair question. If the Buddhism in Japan did but add a chapter of +decay and degradation to the religion of the Light of Asia, is not +this owing to the act of Kōbō—justified indeed by those +who imitated his example, yet hardly to be called honest? A stroke +of ecclesiastical dexterity, it may have been, but scarcely a +lawful example or an illustrious and commendable specimen of +syncretism in religion.</p> +<p>Many students have asked what is the peculiar, the +characteristic difference between the Buddhism of Japan and the +other Buddhisms of the Asian continent. If there be one cause, +leading all others, we incline to believe it is because Japanese +Buddhism is not the Buddhism of Gautama, but is so largely +Riyōbu or Mixed. Yet in the alloy, which ingredient has +preserved most of its qualities? Is Japanese Buddhism really +Shintōized Buddhism, or Buddhaized Shintō? Which is the +parasite and which the parasitized? Is the hermit crab Shintō, +and the shell Buddhism, or <i>vice versa</i>? About as many corrupt +elements from Shintō entered into the various Buddhist sects as +Buddhism gave to Shintō.</p> +<p>This process of Shintōizing Buddhism or of Buddhaizing +Shintō—that is, of combining Shintō or purely Japanese +ideas and practices with the systems imported from India, went on +for five centuries. The old native habits and mental +characteristics were not <span class="pagenum"><a name="page213" +id="page213"></a>{213}</span> eradicated or profoundly modified; +they were rather safely preserved in so-called Buddhism, not indeed +as dead flies in amber but as live creatures, fattening on a body, +which, every year, while keeping outward form and name, was being +emptied of its normal and typical life. It is no gain to pure water +to add either microbes or the food which nourishes them.</p> +<h3>Buddhism Writes New Chapters of Decay.</h3> +<p>Phenomenally, the victory was that of Buddhism. The mustard-seed +has indeed become a great tree, lodging every fowl of heaven, clean +and unclean; but potentially and in reality, the leavening power, +as now seen, seems to have been that of Shintō. Or, to change +metaphor, since the hermit crab and the shell were separated by law +only one generation ago, in 1870, we shall soon, before many +generations, discern clearly which has the life and which has only +the shell.<a id="footnotetag7-34" name="footnotetag7-34"></a><a href="#footnote7-34"><sup>34</sup></a></p> +<p>There are but few literary monuments<a id="footnotetag7-35" +name="footnotetag7-35"></a><a href="#footnote7-35"><sup>35</sup></a> of Riyōbuism, and it has left +few or no marks in the native chronicles, misnamed history, which +utterly omit or ignore so many things interesting to the student +and humanist.<a id="footnotetag7-36" name="footnotetag7-36"></a><a href="#footnote7-36"><sup>36</sup></a> Yet +to this mixture or amalgamation of Buddhism with Shintō, more +probably than to any other direct influence, may also be ascribed +that striking alteration in the system of Chinese ethics or +Confucianism which differentiates the Japanese form from that +prevalent in China. That is, instead of filial piety, the relation +of parent and child, occupying the first place, loyalty, the +relation of lord and retainer, master and servant, became supreme. +Although Buddhism made the Mikado first a King (Tennō) or Son of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page214" id="page214"></a>{214}</span> Heaven (Ten-Shi), and then a monk +(Hō-ō), and after his death a Hotoké or Buddhist +deity, it caused him early to abdicate from actual life. Buddhism +is thus directly responsible for the habitual Japanese resignation +from active life almost as soon as it is entered, by men in all +classes. Buddhism started all along and down through the lines of +Japanese society the idea of early retirement from duty; so that +men were considered old at forty, and <i>hors concours</i> before +forty-five.<a id="footnotetag7-37" name="footnotetag7-37"></a><a href="#footnote7-37"><sup>37</sup></a> +Life was condemned as vanity of vanities before it was mature, and +old age a friend that nobody wished to meet,<a id="footnotetag7-38" +name="footnotetag7-38"></a><a href="#footnote7-38"><sup>38</sup></a> although Japanese old age is but +European prime. In a measure, Buddhism is thus responsible for the +paralysis of Japanese civilization, which, like oft-tapped +maple-trees, began to die at the top. This was in accordance with +its theories and its literature. In the Bible there is, possibly, +one book which is pessimistic in tone, Ecclesiastes. In the bulky +and dropsical canon of Buddhism there is a whole library of +despondency and despair.</p> +<p>Nevertheless, the ethical element held its own in the Japanese +mind; and against the pessimism and puerility of Buddhism and the +religious emptiness of Shintō, the bond of Japanese society was +sought in the idea of loyalty. While then, as we repeat, everything +that comes to the Japanese mind suffers as it were "a sea change, +into something new and strange," is it not fair to say that the +change made by Kōbō was at the expense of Buddhism as a +system, and that the thing that suffered reversion was the exotic +rather than the native plant? For, in the emergence of this new +idea of loyalty as supreme, Shintō and not Buddhism was the +dictator.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page215" id="page215"></a>{215}</span> +<p>Even more after Kōbō's death than during his life, Japan +improved upon her imported faith, and rapidly developed new sects +of all degrees of reputableness and disreputableness. Had +Kōbō lived on through the centuries, as the boors still +believe;<a id="footnotetag7-39" name="footnotetag7-39"></a><a href="#footnote7-39"><sup>39</sup></a> he could not have stopped, had he +so desired, the workings of the leaven he had brought from China. +From the sixth to the twelfth century, was the missionary age of +Japanese Buddhism. Then followed two centuries of amazing +development of doctrine. Novelties in religion blossomed, fruited +and became monuments as permanent as the age-enduring forests +Hakoné, or Nikkō. Gautama himself, were he to return to +"red earth" again, could not recognize his own cult in Japan.</p> +<p>In China to-day Buddhism is in a bad state. One writer calls it, +"The emasculated descendant that now occupies the land with its +drone of priests and its temples, in which scarce a worthy disciple +of the learned patriarchs of ancient days is to be found. Received +with open arms, persecuted, patronized, smiled upon, tolerated, it +with the last phase of its existence, has reached, not the halcyon +days of peace and rest, but its final stage, foreshadowing its +decay from rottenness and corruption."<a id="footnotetag7-40" name="footnotetag7-40"></a><a href="#footnote7-40"><sup>40</sup></a> So +also, in a like report, agree many witnesses. The common people of +China are to-day Taoists rather than Buddhists.<a id="footnotetag7-41" name="footnotetag7-41"></a><a href="#footnote7-41"><sup>41</sup></a></p> +<p>If this be the position in China, something not very far from it +is found in Japan to-day. Whatever may be the Buddhism of the few +learned scholars, who have imbibed the critical and scientific +spirit of Christendom, and whatever be the professions and +representations of its earnest adherents and partisans, it is +certain that popular Buddhism is both ethically and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page216" id="page216"></a>{216}</span> vitally +in a low state. In outward array the system is still imposing. +There are yet, it may be, millions of stone statues and whole +forests of wayside effigies, outdoors and +unroofed—irreverently called by the Japanese themselves, "wet +gods." Hosts upon hosts of lacquered and gilded images in wood, +sheltered under the temple tiles or shingles, still attract +worshippers. Despite shiploads of copper Buddhas exported as old +metal to Europe and America, and thousands of tons of gods and imps +melted into coin or cannon, there are myriads of metal reminders of +those fruits of a religion that once educated and satisfied; but +these are, in the main, no longer to the natives instruments of +inspiration or compellers to enthusiasm. In this time of practical +charity, they are poor substitutes for those hospitals and orphan +asylums which were practically unknown in Japan until the advent of +Christianity.</p> +<p>Kōbō's smart example has been followed only too well by +the people in every part of the country. One has but to read the +stacks of books of local history to see what an amazing proportion +of legends, ideas, superstitions and revelations rests on dreams; +how incredibly numerous are the apparitions; how often the floating +images of Buddha are found on the water; how frequently flowers +have rained out of the sky; how many times the idols have spoken or +shot forth their dazzling rays—in a word; how often art and +artifices have become alleged and accepted reality. Unfortunately, +the characteristics of this literature and undergrowth of idol lore +are monotony and lack of originality; for nearly all are copies of +Kōbō's model. His cartoon has been constantly before the busy +weavers of legend.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page217" id="page217"></a>{217}</span> +<p>It may indeed be said, and said truly, that in its +multiplication of sects and in its growth of legend and +superstition, Buddhism has but followed every known religion, +including traditional Christianity itself. Yet popular Buddhism has +reached a point which shows, that, instead of having a +self-purgative and self-reforming power, it is apparently still +treading in the steps of the degradation which Kōbōbegan.</p> +<h3>The Seven Gods of Good Fortune.</h3> +<p>We repeat it, Riyōbu Buddhism is Japanese Buddhism with +vengeance. It is to-day suffering from the effect of its own sins. +Its <i>ingwa</i> is manifest. Take, for example, the little group +of divinities known as the Seven Gods of Good Fortune, which forms +a popular appendage to Japanese Buddhism and which are a direct and +logical growth of the work done by Kōbō, as shown in his +Riyōbu system. Not from foreign writers and their fancies, nor +even from the books which profess to describe these divinities, do +we get such an idea of their real meaning and of their influence +with the people, as we do by observation of every-day practice, and +a study of the idols themselves and of Japanese folk-lore, popular +romance, local history and guidebooks. Those familiar divinities, +indeed, at the present day owe their vitality rather to the artists +than to priests, and, it may be, have received, together with some +rather rude handling, nearly the whole of their extended popularity +and influence from their lay supporters. The Seven Happy Gods of +Fortune form nominally a Buddhist assemblage, and their effigies on +the kami-dana or god-shelf, found in nearly every Japanese +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page218" id="page218"></a>{218}</span> house, are universally visible. The +child in Japan is rocked to sleep by the soothing sound of the +lullaby, which is often a prayer to these gods. Even though it may +be with laughing and merriment, that, in their name the evil gods +and imps are exorcised annually on New Year's eve, with showers of +beans which are supposed to be as disagreeable to the Buddhist +demons "as drops of holy water to the Devil," yet few households +are complete without one or more of the images or the pictures of +these favorite deities.</p> +<p>The separate elements of this conglomerate, so typical of +Japanese religion, are from no fewer than four different sources: +Brahmanism, Buddhism, Taoism and Shintōism. "Thus, Bishamon is +the Buddhist <i>Vâis'ramana</i><a id="footnotetag7-42" name="footnotetag7-42"></a><a href="#footnote7-42"><sup>42</sup></a> and +the Brahmanic Kuvera; Benten is Sarasvatî, the wife of +Brahmâ; Daikoku is an extremely popularised form of Mahakala, +the black-faced Temple Guardian; Hotéi has Taoist +attributes, but is regarded as an incarnation of +Màitreyâ, the Buddhist Messiah; Fuku-roku-jiu is of +purely Taoist origin, and is perhaps a personification of Lao-Tsze +himself; Ju-ró-jin is almost certainly a duplicate of +Fuku-roku-jiu; and, lastly, Ebisu, as the son of Izanagi and +Izanami, is a contribution from the Shintō hero-worship."<a id="footnotetag7-43" name="footnotetag7-43"></a><a href="#footnote7-43"><sup>43</sup></a> If Riyōbu Buddhism be +two-fold, here is a texture or amalgam that is <i>shi-bu</i>, +four-fold. Let us watch lest <i>go-bu</i>, with Christianity mixed +in, be the next result of the process. To play the Japanese game of +go-ban, with Christianity as the fifth counter, and Jesus as a +Palestinian avatar of some Dhyani Buddha, crafty priests in Japan +are even now planning.</p> +<p>This illustration of the Seven Gods of Happiness, whose local +characters, functions and relations have <span class="pagenum"><a name="page219" id="page219"></a>{219}</span> been +developed especially within the last three or four hundred years, +is but one of many that could be adduced, showing what proceeded on +a larger scale. The Riyōbu process made it almost impossible for +the average native to draw the line between history and mythology. +It destroyed the boundary lines, as Pantheism invariably does, +between fact and fiction, truth and falsehood. The Japanese mind, +by a natural, possibly by a racial, tendency, falls easily into +Pantheism, which may be called the destroyer of boundaries and the +maker of chaos and ooze. Pretty much all early Japanese "history" +is ooze; yet there are grave and learned men, even in the +Constitutional Japan of the Méiji era—masters in their +arts and professions, graduates of technical and philosophical +courses—who solemnly talk about their "first emperor +ascending the throne, B.C. 660," and to whom the dragon-born, early +Mikados, and their fellow-tribesmen, seen through the exaggerated +mists of the Kojiki, are divine personages.</p> +<h3>The Gon-gen in the Processions.</h3> +<p>While living in Japan between 1870 and 1874, the writer used to +enjoy watching and studying the long processions which celebrated +the foundation of temples, national or local festivals, or the +completion of some great public enterprise, such as the railway +between Tōkio and Yokohama. In rich costume, decoration, and +representation most of the cultus-objects were marvels of art and +skill. Besides the gala dresses and uniforms, the fantastic +decorations and personal adornments, the dances which represented +the comedies and tragedies of the gods and the striking scenes in +the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page220" id="page220"></a>{220}</span> Kojiki, there wore colossal images of +Kami, Bodhisattvas, Gon-gen, Dai Miō Jin, and of imps, oni, +mythical animal forms and imaginary monsters.<a id="footnotetag7-44" name="footnotetag7-44"></a><a href="#footnote7-44"><sup>44</sup></a> More interesting than anything +else, however, were the male and female figures, set high upon +triumphal cars having many tiers, and arrayed in characteristic +primeval, ancient, medieval, or early modern dress. Some were of +scowling, others of benign visage. In some years, everyone of the +eight hundred and eight streets of Yedo sent its contribution of +men, money, decorations, or vehicles.</p> +<p>As seen by four kinds of spectators, the average ignorant +native, the Shintōist, the learned Buddhist, and the critical +historical scholar, these effigies represented three different +characters or creations. Especially were those divine personages +called Gon-gen worth the study of the foreign observer.</p> +<p>(1) The common boor or streetman saluted, for example, this or +that Dai Miō Jin, as the great illustrious spirit or god of its +particular district. To this spirit and image he prayed; in his +honor he made offerings; his wrath he feared; and his smile he +hoped to win, for the Gon-gen was a divine being.</p> +<p>(2) To the Shintōist, who hated Buddhism and the Riyōbu +Shintō which had overlaid his ancestral faith, and who scorned +and tabooed this Chinese term Dai Miō Jin, this or that image +represented a divine ancestor whose name had in it many Japanese +syllables, with no defiling Chinese sounds, and who was the Kami or +patron deity of this or that neighborhood.</p> +<p>(3) To the Buddhist, this or that personage, in his lifetime, in +the early ages of Japanese history, had been an avatar of Buddha +who had appeared in human <span class="pagenum"><a name="page221" +id="page221"></a>{221}</span> flesh and brought blessings to the +people and neighborhood; yet the people of the early ages being +unprepared to receive his doctrine or revelation, he had not then +revealed or preached it; but now, as for a thousand years since the +time of the illustrious and saintly Kōbō, he had his right +name and received his just honors and worship as an avatar of the +eternal Buddha. So, although Buddhist and Shintōist might +quarrel as to his title, and divide, even to anger, on minor +points, they would both agree in letting the common people take +their pleasure, enjoy the festivals and merriment, and preserve +their reverence and worship.</p> +<p>(4) Still another spectator studied with critical interest the +swaying figure high in air. With a taste for archaeology, he +admired the accuracy of the drapery and associations. He was +amused, it may be, with occasional anachronisms as to garments or +equipments. He knew that the original of this personage had been +nothing more than a human being, who might indeed have been +conspicuous as a brave soldier in war, or as a skilful physician +who helped to stop the plague, or as a civilizer who imported new +food or improved agriculture.</p> +<p>In a word, had this subject of the ancient Mikado lived in +modern Christendom, he might be honored through the government, +patent office, privy council, the admiralty, the university, or the +academy, as the case or worth might be. He might shine in a plastic +representation by the sculptor or artist, or be known in the +popular literature; but he would never receive religious worship, +or aught beyond honor and praise. In this swamping of history in +legend and of fact in dogma, we behold the fruit of Kōbō's +work, Riyōbu Buddhism.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page222" id="page222"></a>{222}</span> +<h3>Kōbō's Work Undone.</h3> +<p>Buddhism calls itself the jewel in the lotus. Japanese poetry +asks of the dewdrop "why, having the heart of the lotus for its +home, does it pretend to be a gem?" For a thousand years Riyōbu +Buddhism was received as a pure brilliant of the first water, and +then the scholarship of the Shintō revivalists of the eighteenth +century exposed the fraudulent nature of the unrelated parts and +declared that the jewel called Riyōbu was but a craftsman's +doublet and should be split apart. Only a splinter of diamond, they +declared, crowned a mass of paste. Indignation made learning hot, +and in 1870 the cement was liquefied in civil war. The doublet was +rent asunder by imperial decree, as when a lapidist melts the +mastic that holds in deception adamant and glass, while real +diamond stands all fire short of the hydro-oxygen flame. The +Riyōbu temples were purged of all Buddhist symbols, furniture, +equipment and personnel, and were made again to assume their august +and austere simplicity. In the eyes of the purely aesthetic critic, +this national purgation was Puritanical iconoclasm; in those of the +priests, cast out to earn rice elsewise and elsewhere, it was +outrage, which in individual instances called for reprisal in +blood, fire and assassination; to the Shintōist, it was an +exhibition of the righteous judgment of the long-insulted gods; in +the ken of the critical student, it seems very much like historic +and poetic justice.</p> +<p>In our day and time, Riyōbu Buddhism furnishes us with a +warning, for, looked at from a purely human point of view, what +happened to Shintō may possibly <span class="pagenum"><a name="page223" id="page223"></a>{223}</span> happen to Japanese +Christianity. The successors of those who, in the ninth century, +did not scruple to Buddhaize Shintō, and in later times, even +our own, to Shintōize Buddhism while holding to Buddha's name +and all the revenue possible, will Buddhaize Christianity if they +have power and opportunity; and signs are not wanting to show that +this is upon their programme.</p> +<p>The water of stagnant Buddhism is still a swarming mass, which +needs cleansing to purity by a knowledge of one God who is Light +and Love. Without such knowledge, the manifold changes in Buddhism +will but form fresh chapters of degradation and decay. Holding such +knowledge, Christianity may pass through endless changes, for this +is her capability by Divine power and the authorization of her +Founder. The now Buddhism of our day is endeavoring to save itself +through reformation and progress. In doing so, the danger of the +destruction of the system is great, for thus far change has meant +decay.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page225" id="page225"></a>{225}</span> +<h2><a name="chap8" id="chap8">NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL +EVOLUTIONS</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page226" id="page226"></a>{226}</span> +<blockquote> +<p>"To the millions of China, Corea, and Japan, creator and +creation are new and strange terms,"—J.H. De Forest.</p> +<p>"The Law of our Lord, the Buddha, is not a natural science or a +religion, but a doctrine of enlightenment; and the object of it is +to give rest to the restless, to point out the Master (the Inmost +Man) to those that are blind and do not perceive their Original +State."</p> +<p>"The Saddharma Pundarika Sutra teaches us how to obtain that +desirable knowledge of the mind as it is in itself [universal +wisdom] ... Mind is the One Reality, and all Scriptures are the +micrographic photographs of its images. He that fully grasps the +Divine Body of Sakyamuni, holds ever, even without the written +Sutra, the inner Saddharma Pundarika in his hand. He ever reads it +mentally, even though he would never read it orally. He is unified +with it though he has no thought about it. He is the true keeper of +the Sutra."—Zitsuzen Ashitsu of the Tendai sect.</p> +<p>"It [Buddhism] is idealistic. Everything is as we think it. The +world is my idea.... Beyond our faith is naught. Hold the Buddhist +to his creed and insist that such logic destroys itself, and he +triumphs smilingly, 'Self-destructive! Of course it is. All logic +is. That is the centre of my philosophy.'"</p> +<p>"It [Buddhism] denounces all desire and offers salvation as the +reward of the murder of our affections, hopes, and aspirations. It +is possible where conscious existence is believed to be the chief +of evils."—George William Knox.</p> +<p>"Swallowing the device of the priests, the people well +satisfied, dance their prayers."—Japanese Proverb.</p> +<p>"The wisdom that is from above is ... without variance, without +hypocrisy."—James.</p> +<p>"The mystery of God, even Christ in whom are all the treasures +of wisdom and knowledge."—Paul.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227" id="page227"></a>{227}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL +EVOLUTIONS</h2> +<h3>Chronological Outline.</h3> +<p>In sketching the history of the doctrinal developments of +Buddhism in Japan, we note that the system, greatly corrupted from +its original simplicity, was in 552 A.D. already a millennium old. +Several distinct phases of the much-altered faith of Gautama, were +introduced into the islands at various times between the sixth and +the ninth century. From these and from others of native origin have +sprung the larger Japanese sects. Even as late as the seventeenth +century, novelties in Buddhism were imported from China, and the +exotics took root in Japanese soil; but then, with a single +exception, only to grow as curiosities in the garden, rather than +as the great forests, which had already sprung from imported and +native specimens.</p> +<p>We may divide the period of the doctrinal development of +Buddhism in Japan into four epochs:</p> +<p>I. The first, from 552 to 805 A.D., will cover the first six +sects, which had for their centre of propagation, Nara, the +southern capital.</p> +<p>II. Then follows Riyōbu Buddhism, from the ninth to the +twelfth centuries.</p> +<p>III. This was succeeded by another explosion of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page228" id="page228"></a>{228}</span> doctrine +wholly and peculiarly Japanese, and by a wide missionary +propagation.</p> +<p>IV. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, there is +little that is doctrinally noticeable, until our own time, when the +new Buddhism of to-day claims at least a passing notice.</p> +<p>The Japanese writers of ecclesiastical history classify in three +groups the twelve great sects as the first six, the two +mediæval, and the four modern sects.</p> +<p>In this lecture we shall merely summarize the characteristics of +the first five sects which existed before the opening of the ninth +century but which are not formally extant at the present time, and +treat more fully the purely Japanese developments. The first three +sects may be grouped under the head of the Hinayana, or Smaller +Vehicle, as Southern or primitive orthodox Buddhism is usually +called.</p> +<p>Most of the early sects, as will be seen, were founded upon some +particular sutra, or upon selections or collections of sutras. They +correspond to some extent with the manifold sects of Christendom, +and yet this illustration or reference must not be misleading. It +is not as though a new Christian sect, for example, were in A.D. +500 to be formed wholly on the gospel of Luke, or the book of the +Revelation; nor as though a new sect should now arise in Norway or +Tennessee because of a special emphasis laid on a combination of +the epistle to the Corinthians and the book of Daniel. It is rather +as though distinct names and organizations should be founded upon +the writings of Tertullian, of Augustine, of Luther, or of Calvin, +and that such sects should accept the literary work of these +scholars not only as commentaries but as Holy Scripture itself.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page229" id="page229"></a>{229}</span> +<p>The Buddhist body of scriptures has several times been imported +and printed in Japan, but has never been translated into the +vernacular. The canon<a id="footnotetag8-1" name="footnotetag8-1"></a><a href="#footnote8-1"><sup>1</sup></a> is not +made up simply of writings purporting to be the words of Buddha or +of the apostles who were his immediate companions or followers. On +the contrary, the canon, as received in Japan, is made up of books, +written for the most part many centuries after the last of the +contemporaries of Gautama had passed away. Not a few of these +writings are the products of the Chinese intellect. Some books held +by particular sects as holy scripture were composed in Japan +itself, the very books themselves being worshipped. Nevertheless +those who are apparently farthest away from primitive Buddhism, +claim to understand Buddha most clearly.</p> +<h3>The Standard Doctrinal Work.</h3> +<p>One of the most famous of books, honored especially by several +of the later and larger sects in Japan, and probably the most +widely read and most generally studied book of the canon, is the +Saddharma Pundarika.<a id="footnotetag8-2" name="footnotetag8-2"></a><a href="#footnote8-2"><sup>2</sup></a> +Professor Kern, who has translated this very rhetorical work into +English, thinks it existed at or some time before 250 A.D., and +that in its most ancient form it dates some centuries earlier, +possibly as early as the opening of the Christian era. It has now +twenty-seven chapters, and may be called the typical scripture of +Northern Buddhism. It is overflowingly full of those sensuous +images and descriptions of the Paradise, in which the imagination +of the Japanese Buddhist so revels, and in it both rhetoric and +mathematics run wild. Of this book, "the cream of the revealed +doctrine," <span class="pagenum"><a name="page230" id="page230"></a>{230}</span> we shall hear often again. It is the +standard of orthodoxy in Japanese Buddhism, the real genius of +which is monastic asceticism in morals and philosophical scepticism +in religion.</p> +<p>In most of the other sutras the burden of thought is ontology. +Doctrinally, Buddhism seems to be less a religion than a system of +philosophy. Hundreds of volumes in the canon concern themselves +almost wholly with ontological speculations. The Japanese +mind,<a id="footnotetag8-3" name="footnotetag8-3"></a><a href="#footnote8-3"><sup>3</sup></a> as described by those who have +studied most acutely and profoundly its manifestations in language +and literature, is essentially averse to speculation. Yet the first +forms of Buddhism presented to the Japanese, were highly +metaphysical. The history of thought in Japan, shows that these +abstractions of dogma were not congenial to the islanders. The new +faith won its way among the people by its outward sensuous +attractions, and by appeals to the imagination, the fancy and the +emotions; though the men of culture were led captive by reasoning +which they could not answer, even if they could comprehend it. +Though these early forms of dogma and philosophy no longer survive +in Japan, having been eclipsed by more concrete and sensuous +arguments, yet it is necessary to state them in order to show: +first, what Buddhism really is; second, doctrinal development in +the farthest East; and, third, the peculiarities of the Japanese +mind.</p> +<p>In this task, we are happy to be able to rely upon native +witness and confession.<a id="footnotetag8-4" name="footnotetag8-4"></a><a href="#footnote8-4"><sup>4</sup></a> The +foreigner may easily misrepresent, even when sincerely inclined to +utter only the truth. Each religion, in its theory at least, must +be judged by its ideals, and not by its failures. Its truth must be +stated by its own professors. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page231" id="page231"></a>{231}</span> In the "History of The +Twelve Japanese Sects," by Bunyiu Nanjio, M.A. Oxon., and in "Le +Bouddhisme Japonais," by Ryauon Fujishima, we have the untrammelled +utterances, of nine living lights of the religion of Shaka as it is +held and taught in Dai Nippon. The former scholar is a master of +texts, and the latter of philosophy, each editor excelling in his +own department; and the two books complement each other in +value.</p> +<p>Buddhism, being a logical growth out of Brahmanism, used the old +sacred language of India and inherited its vocabulary. In the +Tripitaka, that is, the three book-baskets or boxes, we have the +term for canon of scripture, in the complete collection of which +are <i>sutra</i>, <i>vinaya</i> and <i>abidharma</i>. We shall see, +also, that while Gautama shut out the gods, his speculative +followers who claimed to be his successors, opened the doors and +allowed them to troop in again. The democracy of the congregation +became a hierarchy and the empty swept and garnished house, a +pantheon.</p> +<p>A sutra, from the root <i>siv</i>, to sew, means a thread or +string, and in the old Veda religion referred to household rites or +practices and the moral conduct of life; but in Buddhist +phraseology it means a body of doctrine. A shaster or shastra, from +the Sanskrit root <i>ças</i>, to govern, relates to +discipline. Of those shastras and sutras we must frequently speak. +In India and China some of those sutras are exponents, of schools +of thought or opinion, or of views or methods of looking at things, +rather than of organizations. In Japan these schools of philosophy, +in certain instances, become sects with a formal history.</p> +<p>In China of the present day, according to a Japanese +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page232" id="page232"></a>{232}</span> traveller and author, "the Chinese +Buddhists seem ... to unite all different sects, so as to make one +harmonious sect." The chief divisions are those of the blue robe, +who are allied with the Lamaism of Tibet and whose doctrine is +largely "esoteric," and those of the yellow robe, who accept the +three fundamentals of principle, teaching and discipline. Dhyana or +contemplation is their principle; the Kégon or Avatamsaka +sutra and the Hokké or Saddharma Pundarika sutra, etc., form +the basis of their teaching; and the Vinaya of the Four Divisions +(Dharmagupta) is their discipline. On the contrary, in Japan there +are vastly greater diversities of sect, principle, teaching and +discipline.</p> +<h3>Buddhism as a System of Metaphysics.</h3> +<p>The date of the birth of the Buddha in India, accepted by the +Japanese scholars is B.C. 1027—the day and month being also +given with suspicious accuracy. About nine centuries after Gautama +had attained Nirvana, there were eighteen schools of the Hinayana +or the doctrine of the Smaller Vehicle. Then a shastra or institute +of Buddhist ontology in nine chapters, was composed, the title of +which in English, is, Book of the Treasury of Metaphysics. It had +such a powerful influence that it was called an +intelligence-creating, or as we say, an epoch-making book.</p> +<p>This Ku-sha shastra, from the Sanskrit <i>kosa</i>, a store, is +eclectic, and contains nine chapters embodying the views of one of +the schools, with selections from those of others. It was +translated in A.D. 563, into Chinese by a Hindu scholar; but about +a hundred years later the famous pilgrim, whom the Japanese call +Gen-jō, but <span class="pagenum"><a name="page233" id="page233"></a>{233}</span> who is known in Europe as Hiouen +Thsang,<a id="footnotetag8-5" name="footnotetag8-5"></a><a href="#footnote8-5"><sup>5</sup></a> made a better translation, while +his disciples added commentaries.</p> +<p>In A.D. 658, two Japanese priests<a id="footnotetag8-6" name="footnotetag8-6"></a><a href="#footnote8-6"><sup>6</sup></a> made +the sea-journey westward into China, as Gen-jō had before made +the land pilgrimage into India, and became pupils of the famous +pilgrim. After long study they returned, bringing the Chinese +translation of this shastra into Japan. They did not form an +independent sect; but the doctrines of this shastra, being +eclectic, were studied by all Japanese Buddhist sects. This Ku-sha +scripture is still read in Japan as a general institute of +ontology, especially by advanced students who wish to get a general +idea of the doctrines. It is full of technical terms, and is well +named The Store-house of Metaphysics.</p> +<p>The Ku-sha teaches control of the passions, and the government +of thought. The burden of its philosophy is materialism; that is, +the non-existence of self and the existence of the matter which +composes self, or, as the Japanese writer says: "The reason why all +things are so minutely explained in this shastra is to drive away +the idea of self, and to show the truth in order to make living +beings reach Nirvana." Among the numerous categories, to express +which many technical terms are necessary, are those of "forms," +eleven in number, including the five senses and the six objects of +sense; the six kinds of knowledge; the forty-six mental qualities, +grouped under six heads; and the fourteen conceptions separated +from the mind; thus making in all seventy-two compounded things and +three immaterial things. These latter are "conscious cessation of +existence," "unconscious cessation of existence," and "space."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page234" id="page234"></a>{234}</span> +<p>The Reverend Shuzan Emura, of the Shin-shu sect of Japan, after +specifying these seventy-five Dharmas, or things compounded and +things immaterial, says:<a id="footnotetag8-7" name="footnotetag8-7"></a><a href="#footnote8-7"><sup>7</sup></a> "The +former include all things that proceed from a cause. This cause is +Karma, to which everything existing is due, Space and Nirvana alone +excepted. Again, of the three immaterial things the last two are +not subjects to be understood by the wisdom not free from frailty. +Therefore the 'conscious cessation of existence' is considered as +being the goal of all effort to him who longs for deliverance from +misery."</p> +<p>In a word, this one of the many Buddhisms of Asia is vastly less +a religion, in any real sense of the word, than a system of +metaphysics. However, the doctrine to be mastered is graded in +three Yanas or Vehicles; for there are now, as in the days of +Shaka, three classes of being, graded according to their ability or +power to understand "the truth." These are:</p> +<p>(I.) The Sho-mon or lowest of the disciples of Shaka, or hearers +who meditate on the cause and effect of everything. If acute in +understanding, they become free from confusion after three births; +but if they are dull, they pass sixty kalpas<a id="footnotetag8-8" +name="footnotetag8-8"></a><a href="#footnote8-8"><sup>8</sup></a> +or aeons before they attain to the state of enlightenment.</p> +<p>(II.) The Engaku or Pratyeka Buddhas, that is, "singly +enlightened," or beings in the middle state, who must extract the +seeds or causes of actions, and must meditate on the twelve chains +of causation, or understand the non-eternity of the world, while +gazing upon the falling flowers or leaves. They attain +enlightenment after four births or a hundred kalpas, according to +their ability.</p> +<p>(III.) The Bodhisattvas or Buddhas-elect, who practise +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page235" id="page235"></a>{235}</span> the six perfections (perfect practice of +alms-giving, morality, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom) as +preliminaries to Nirvana, which they reach only after countless +kalpas.</p> +<p>These three grades of pupils in the mysteries of Buddha +doctrine, are said to have been ordered by Shaka himself, because +understanding human beings so thoroughly, he knew that one person +could not comprehend two ways or vehicles (Yana) at once. People +were taught therefore to practise anyone of the three vehicles at +pleasure.</p> +<p>We shall see how the later radical and democratic Japanese +Buddhism swept away this gradation, and declaring but the one +vehicle (éka), opened the kingdom to all believers.</p> +<p>The second of the early Japanese schools of thought, is the +Jō-jitsu,<a id="footnotetag8-9" name="footnotetag8-9"></a><a href="#footnote8-9"><sup>9</sup></a> or the +sect founded chiefly upon the shastra which means The Book of the +Perfection of the Truth, containing selections from and +explanations of the true meaning of the Tripitaka. This shastra was +the work of a Hindu whose name means Lion-armor, and who lived +about nine centuries after Gautama. Not satisfied with the narrow +views of his teacher, who may have been of the Dharmagupta school +(of the four Disciplines), he made selections of the best and +broadest interpretations then current in the several different +schools of the Smaller Vehicle. The book is eclectic, and attempts +to unite all that was best in each of the Hinayana schools; but +certain Chinese teachers consider that its explanations are +applicable to the Great Vehicle also. Translated into Chinese in +406 A.D., the commentaries upon it soon numbered hundreds, and it +was widely expounded and lectured upon. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page236" id="page236"></a>{236}</span> +Commentaries upon this shastra were also written in Korean by +Dō-zō. From the peninsula it was introduced into Japan. This +Jō-jitsu doctrine was studied by prince Shōtoku, and +promulgated as a division of the school called San-Ron. The +students of the Jō-jitsu school never formed in Japan a distinct +organization.</p> +<p>The burden of the teachings of this school is pure nihilism, or +the non-existence of both self and of matter. There is an utter +absence of substantiality in all things. Life itself is a prolonged +dream. The objects about us are mere delusive shadows or mirage, +the product of the imagination alone. The past and the future are +without reality, but the present state of things only stands as if +it were real. That is to say: the true state of things is +constantly changing, yet it seems as if the state of things were +existing, even as does a circle of fire seen when a rope watch is +turned round very quickly.</p> +<h3>Japanese Pilgrims to China.</h3> +<p>The Ris-shu or Vinaya sect is one of purely Chinese origin, and +was founded, or rather re-founded, by the Chinese priest Dōsen, +who lived on Mount Shunan early in the seventh century, and claimed +to be only re-proclaiming the rules given by Gautama himself. He +was well acquainted with the Tripitaka and especially versed in the +Vinaya or rules of discipline. His purpose was to unite the +teachings of both the Greater and the Lesser Vehicle in a sutra +whose burden should be one of ethics and not of dogma.</p> +<p>The founder of this sect was greatly honored by the Chinese +Emperor. Furthermore, he was honored in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page237" id="page237"></a>{237}</span> vision by +the holy Pindola or Binzura,<a id="footnotetag8-10" name="footnotetag8-10"></a><a href="#footnote8-10"><sup>10</sup></a> who +praised the founder as the best man that had promulgated the +discipline since Buddha himself. In later centuries, successors of +the founder compiled commentaries and reproclaimed the teachings of +this sect.</p> +<p>In A.D. 724 two Japanese priests went over to China, and having +mastered the Ris-shu doctrine, received permission to propagate it +in Japan. With eighty-two Chinese priests they returned a few years +later, having attempted, it is said, the journey five times and +spent twelve years on the sea. On their return, they received an +imperial invitation to live in the great monastery at Nara, and +soon their teachings exerted a powerful influence on the court. The +emperor, empress and four hundred persons of note were received +into the Buddhist communion by a Chinese priest of the Ris-shu +school in the middle of the eighth century. The Mikado Shō-mu +resigned his throne and took the vow and robes of a monk, becoming +Hō-ō or cloistered emperor. Under imperial direction a great +bronze image of the Vairokana Buddha, or Perfection of Morality, +was erected, and terraces, towers, images and all the paraphernalia +of the new kind of Buddhism were prepared. Even the earth was +embroidered, as it were, with sutras and shastras. Symbolical +landscape gardening, which, in its mounds and paths, variously +shaped stones and lanterns, artificial cascades and streamlets, +teaches the holy geography as well as the allegories and hidden +truths of Buddhism, made the city of Nara beautiful to the eyes of +faith as well as of sight.</p> +<p>This sect, with its excellence in morality and benevolence, +proved itself a beautifier of human life, of society and of the +earth itself. Its work was an <span class="pagenum"><a name="page238" id="page238"></a>{238}</span> irenicon. It occupied +itself exclusively with the higher ethics, the higher meditations +and the higher knowledge. Interdicting what was evil and +prescribing what was good, its precepts varied in number and rigor +according to the status of the disciple, lay or clerical. It is by +the observance of the <i>sila</i>, or grades of moral perfection, +that one becomes a Buddha. Besides making so powerful a conquest at +the southern capital, this sect was the one which centuries +afterward built the first Buddhist temple in Yedo. Being ordinary +human mortals, however, both monk and layman occasionally +illustrated the difference between profession and practice.</p> +<p>These three schools or sects, Ku-sha, Jō-jitsu, and Ris-shu, +may be grouped under the Hinayana or Smaller Vehicle, with more or +less affiliation with Southern Buddhism; the others now to be +described were wholly of the Northern division.</p> +<p>The Hossō-shu, or the Dharma-lakshana sect, as described by +the Rev. Dai-ryo Takashi of the Shin-gon sect, is the school which +studies the nature of Dharmas or things. The three worlds of +desire, form and formlessness, consist in thought only; and there +is nothing outside thought. Nine centuries after Gautama, +Maitreya,<a id="footnotetag8-11" name="footnotetag8-11"></a><a href="#footnote8-11"><sup>11</sup></a> or +the Buddha of kindness, came down from the heaven of the +Bodhisattva to the lecture-hall in the kingdom in central India at +the request of the Buddhas elect, and discounted five shastras. +After that two Buddhist fathers who were brothers, composed many +more shastras and cleared up the meaning of the Mahāyanā. In +629 A.D., in his twenty-ninth year, the famous Chinese pilgrim, +Gen-jō (Hiouen-thsang), studied these shastras and sciences, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page239" id="page239"></a>{239}</span> and returning to China in 645 A.D., +began his great work of translation, at which he continued for +nineteen years. One of his disciples was the author of a hundred +commentaries on sutras and shastras. The doctrines of Gen-jō and +his disciples were at four different times, from 653 to 712 A.D., +imported into Japan, and named, after the monasteries in which they +were promulgated, the Northern and Southern Transmission.</p> +<h3>The Middle Path.</h3> +<p>The burden of the teachings of this sect is subjective idealism. +They embrace principles enjoining complete indifference to mundane +affairs, and, in fact, thorough personal nullification and the +ignoring of all actions by its disciples. In these teachings, +thought only, is real. As we have already seen with the Ku-sha +teaching, human beings are of three classes, divided according to +intellect, into higher, middle and lower, for whom the systems of +teachings are necessarily of as many kinds. The order of progress +with those who give themselves to the study of the Hossō tenets, +is,<a id="footnotetag8-12" name="footnotetag8-12"></a><a href="#footnote8-12"><sup>12</sup></a> first, they know only the +existence of things, then the emptiness of them, and finally they +enter the middle path of "true emptiness and wonderful +existence."</p> +<p>From the first, such discipline is long and painful, and +ultimate victory scarcely comes to the ordinary being. The +disciple, by training in thought, by destroying passions and +practices, by meditating on the only knowledge, must pass through +three kalpas or aeons. Constantly meditating, and destroying the +two obstacles of passion and cognizable things, the disciple +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page240" id="page240"></a>{240}</span> then obtains four kinds of wisdom and +truly attains perfect enlightenment or Pari-Nirvana.</p> +<p>The San-ron Shu, as the Three-Shastra sect calls itself, is the +sect of the Teachings of Buddha's whole life.<a id="footnotetag8-13" name="footnotetag8-13"></a><a href="#footnote8-13"><sup>13</sup></a> Other sects are founded upon +single sutras, a fact which makes the student liable to narrowness +of opinion. The San-ron gives greater breadth of view and +catholicity of opinion. The doctrines of the Greater Vehicle are +the principal teachings of Gautama, and these are thoroughly +explained in the three shastras used by this sect, which, it is +claimed, contain Buddha's own words. The meanings of the titles of +the three favorite sutras, are, The Middle Book, The Hundred, and +The Book of Twelve Gates. Other books of the canon are also studied +and valued by this sect, but all of them are apt to be perused from +a particular point of view; <i>i.e.</i>, that of Pyrronism or +infinite negation.</p> +<p>There are two lines of the transmission of this doctrine, both +of them through China, though, the introduction to Japan was made +from Korea, in 625 A.D. Not to dwell upon the detail of history, +the burden of this sect's teaching, is, infinite negation or +absolute nihilism. Truth is the inconceivable state, or, in the +words of the Japanese writer: "The truth is nothing but the state +where thoughts come to an end; the right meditation is to perceive +this truth. He who has obtained this meditation is called Buddha. +This is this doctrine of the San-ron sect."</p> +<p>This sect, by its teachings of the Middle Path, seems to furnish +a bridge from the Hinayana or Southern school, to the +Mahāyanā or Northern school of Buddhism. Part of its work, as +set forth by the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page241" id="page241"></a>{241}</span> Rev. Kō-chō Ogurasu, of the Shin +sect, is to defend the authenticity, genuineness and canonicity of +the books which form the Northern body of scriptures.</p> +<p>In these two sects Hos-sō and San-ron, called those of Middle +Path, and much alike in principle and teaching, the whole end and +aim of mental discipline, is nihilism—in the one case +subjective, and in the other absolute, the end and goal being +nothing—this view into the nature of things being considered +the right one.</p> +<p>Is it any wonder that such teachings could in the long run +satisfy neither the trained intellects nor the unthinking common +people of Japan? Is it far from the truth to suspect that, even +when accepted by the Japanese courtiers and nobles, they were +received, only too often, in a Platonic, not to say a Pickwickian, +sense? The Japanese is too polite to say "no" if he can possibly +say "yes," even when he does not mean it; while the common people +all over the world, as between metaphysics and polytheism, choose +the latter. Is it any wonder that, along with this propagation of +Nihilism as taught in the cloisters and the court, history informs +us of many scandals and much immorality between the women of the +court and the Buddhist monks?</p> +<p>Such dogmas were not able to live in organized forms, after the +next importations of Buddhism which came in, not partly but wholly, +under the name of the Mahāyanā or Great Vehicle, or Northern +Buddhism. By the new philosophy, more concrete and able to appeal +more closely to the average man, these five schools, which, in +their discussions, dealt almost wholly with <i>noumena</i>, were +absorbed. As matter of fact, none of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page242" id="page242"></a>{242}</span> them is now in existence, +nor can we trace them, speaking broadly, beyond the tenth century. +Here and there, indeed, may be a temple bearing the name of one of +the sects, or grades of doctrine, and occasionally an eccentric +individual who "witnesses" to the old metaphysics; but these are +but fossils or historical relics, and are generally regarded as +such.</p> +<p>Against such baldness of philosophy not only might the +cultivated Japanese intellect revolt and react, but as yet the +common people of Japan, despite the modern priestly boast of the +care of the imperial rulers for what the bonzes still love to call +"the people's religion," were but slightly touched by the Indian +faith.</p> +<h3>The Great Vehicle.</h3> +<p>The Kégon-Shu or Avatamsaka-sutra sect, is founded on a +certain teaching which Gautama is said to have promulgated in nine +assemblies held at seven different places during the second week of +his enlightenment. This sutra exists in no fewer than six texts, +around each of which has gathered some interesting mythology. The +first two tests were held in memory and not committed to palm +leaves; the second pair are secretly preserved in the dragon palace +of Riu-gu<a id="footnotetag8-14" name="footnotetag8-14"></a><a href="#footnote8-14"><sup>14</sup></a> +under the sea, and are not kept by the men of this world. The fifth +text of 100,000 verses, was obtained by a Bodhisattva from the +palace of the dragon king of the world under the sea and +transmitted to men in India. The sixth is the abridged text.</p> +<p>It concerns us to notice that the shorter texts were translated +into Chinese in the fourth century, and that later, other +translations were made—36,000 verses of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page243" id="page243"></a>{243}</span> the fifth +text, 45,000 verses of the sixth text, etc. When the doctrine of +the sect had been perfected by the fifth patriarch and he lectured +on the sutra, rays of white light came from his mouth, and there +rained wonderful heavenly flowers. In A.D. 736 a Chinese Vinaya +teacher or instructor in Buddhist discipline, named Dō-sen, +first brought the Kégon scriptures to Japan. Four years +later a Korean priest gave lectures on them in the Golden-Bell Hall +of the Great Eastern Monastery at Nara. He completed his task of +expounding the sixty volumes in three years. Henceforth, lecturing +on this sutra became one of the yearly services of the Eastern +Great Monastery.</p> +<p>"The Ké-gon sutra is the original book of Buddha's +teachings of his whole life. All his teachings therefore sprang +from this sutra. If we attribute all the branches to the origin, we +may say that there is no teaching of Buddha for his whole life +except this sutra."<a id="footnotetag8-15" name="footnotetag8-15"></a><a href="#footnote8-15"><sup>15</sup></a> The +title of the book, when literally translated, is +Great-square-wide-Buddha-flower-adornment-teaching—a title +sufficiently indicative of its rhetoric. The age of hard or bold +thinking was giving way to flowery diction, and the Law was to be +made easy through fine writing.</p> +<p>The burden of doctrine is the unconditioned or realistic, +pantheism. Nature absolute, or Buddha-tathata, is the essence of +all things. Essence and form were in their origin combined and +identical. Fire and water, though phenomenally different, are from +the point of view of Buddha-tathata absolutely identical. Matter +and thought are one—that is Buddha-tathata. In teaching, +especially the young, it must be remembered that the mind resembles +a fair page upon which the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page244" +id="page244"></a>{244}</span> artist might trace a design, especial +care being needed to prevent the impression of evil thoughts, in +order to accomplish which one must completely and always direct the +mind to Buddha.<a id="footnotetag8-16" name="footnotetag8-16"></a><a href="#footnote8-16"><sup>16</sup></a> One +notable sentence in the text is, "when one first raises his +thoughts toward the perfect knowledge, he at once becomes fully +enlightened."</p> +<p>In some parts of the metaphysical discussions of this sect we +are reminded of European mediaeval scholasticism, especially of +that discussion as to how many angels could dance on the point of a +cambric needle without jostling each other. It says, "Even at the +point of one grain of dust, of immeasurable and unlimited worlds, +there are innumerable Buddhas, who are constantly preaching the +Ké-gon kiō (sutra) throughout the three states of +existence, past, present and future, so that the preaching is not +at all to be collected.<a id="footnotetag8-17" name="footnotetag8-17"></a><a href="#footnote8-17"><sup>17</sup></a></p> +<h3>A New Chinese Sect.</h3> +<p>In its formal organization the Ten-dai sect is of Chinese +origin. It is named after Tien Tai,<a id="footnotetag8-18" name="footnotetag8-18"></a><a href="#footnote8-18"><sup>18</sup></a> a +mountain in China about fifty miles south of Ningpo, on which the +book which forms the basis of its tenets was composed by Chi-sha, +now canonized as a Dai Shi or Great teacher. Its special doctrine +of completion and suddenness was, however, transmitted directly +from Shaka to Vairokana and thence to Maitreya, so that the +apostolical succession of its orthodoxy cannot be questioned.</p> +<p>The metaphysics of this sect are thought to be the most profound +of the Greater Vehicle, combining into a system the two opposite +ideas of being and not being. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page245" id="page245"></a>{245}</span> The teachers encourage all +men, whether quick or slow in understanding, to exercise the +principle of "completion" and "suddenness," together with four +doctrinal divisions, one or all of which are taught to men +according to their ability. The object of the doctrine is to make +men get an excellent understanding, practise good discipline and +attain to the great fruit of Enlightenment or Buddha-hood.</p> +<p>Out of compassion, Gautama appeared in the world and preached +the truth in several forms, according to the circumstances of time +and place. There are four doctrinal divisions of "completion," +"secrecy," "meditation," and "moral precept," which are the means +of knowing the principle of "completion." From Gautama, Vairokana +and Maitreya the doctrine passed through more than twenty Buddhas +elect, and arrived in China on the twentieth day of the twelfth +month, A.D. 401. The delivery to disciples was secret, and the term +used for this esoteric transmission means "handed over within the +tower."</p> +<p>In A.D. 805, two Japanese pilgrims went to China, and received +orthodox training. With twenty others, they brought the Ten-dai +doctrines into Japan. During this century, other Japanese disciples +of the same sect crossed the seas to study at Mount Tien Tai. On +coming back to Japan they propagated the various shades of +doctrine, so that this main sect has many branches. It was chiefly +through these pilgrims from the West that the Sanskrit letters, +writing and literature were imported. In our day, evidences of +Sanskrit learning, long since neglected and forgotten, are seen +chiefly in the graveyards and in charms and amulets.</p> +<p>Although the philosophical doctrines of Ten-dai are <span class="pagenum"><a name="page246" id="page246"></a>{246}</span> much the +same as those of the Ké-gon sect, being based on pantheistic +realism, and teaching that the Buddha-tathata or Nature absolute is +the essence of all things, yet the Ten-dai school has striking and +peculiar features of its own. Instead of taking some particular +book or books in the canon, shastra, or sutra, selection or +collection, as a basis, the Chinese monk Chi-sha first mastered, +and then digested the whole canon. Then selecting certain doctrines +for emphasis he supported them by a wide range of quotation, +professing to give the gist of the pure teachings of Gautama rather +than those of his disciples. In practice, however, the Saddharma +Pundarika is the book most honored by this sect; the other sutras +being employed mainly as commentary. Furthermore, this sect makes +as strenuous a claim for the true apostolical succession from the +Founder, as do the other sects.</p> +<p>The teachers of Ten-dai doctrine must fully estimate character +and ability in their pupils, and so apportion instruction. In this +respect and in not a few others, they are like the disciples of +Loyola, and have properly been called the Jesuits of Buddhism. They +are ascetics, and teach that spiritual insight is possible only +through prolonged thought. Their purpose is to recognize the +Buddha, in all the forms he has assumed in order to save mankind. +Nevertheless, the highest truths are incomprehensible except to +those who have already attained to Buddha-hood.<a id="footnotetag8-19" name="footnotetag8-19"></a><a href="#footnote8-19"><sup>19</sup></a> In contrast to the Nichirenites, +who give an emotional and ultra-concrete interpretation and +expression to the great sutra, Hokké Kiō, the Ten-dai +teachers are excessively philosophical and intellectual.</p> +<p>In its history the Ten-dai sect has followed out its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page247" id="page247"></a>{247}</span> logic. Being realistic in pantheism, it +reverences not only Gautama the historic Buddha, but also, large +numbers of the Hindu deities, the group of idols called Jizō, +the god Fudo, and Kuannon the god or goddess of mercy, under his or +her protean forms. In its early history this sect welcomed to its +pantheon the Shintō gods, who, according to the scheme of +Riyōbu Shintō, were declared to be avatars or manifestations +of Buddha. The three sub-sects still differ in their worship of the +avatars selected as supreme deities, but their philosophy enables +them to sweep in the Buddhas of every age and clime, name and +nation. Many other personifications are found honored in the +Ten-dai temples. At the gateways may usually be seen the colossal +painted and hideous images of the two Devas or kings (Ni-O). These +worthies are none other than Indra and Brahma of the old Vedic +mythology.</p> +<p>Space and time—which seem never to fail the Buddhists in +their literature—would fail us to describe this sect in full, +or to show in detail its teachings, wherein are wonderful +resemblances to European ideas and facts—in philosophy, to +Hegel and Spinoza find in history, to Jesuitism. Nor can we stay to +point out the many instances in which, invading the domain of +politics, the Ten-dai abbots with their armies of monks, having +made their monasteries military arsenals and issuing forth clad in +armor as infantry and cavalry, have turned the scale of battle or +dictated policies to emperors. Like the Praetorian guard of Rome or +the clerical militia in Spain, these men of keen intellect have +left their marks deep upon the social and political history of the +country in which they dwelt. They have understood thoroughly the +art of practising religion <span class="pagenum"><a name="page248" +id="page248"></a>{248}</span> for the sake of revenue. To secure +their ends, priests have made partnerships with other sects; in +order to hold Shintō shrines, they have married to secure heirs +and make office hereditary; and finally in the Purification of +1870, when the Riyōbu system was blown to the winds by the +Japanese Government, not a few priests of this sect became laymen, +in order to keep both office and emolument in the purified +Shintō shrines.</p> +<h3>The Sect of the True Word.</h3> +<p>It is probable that the conquest and obliteration of Shintō +might have been accomplished by some priest or priests of the +Ten-dai sect, had such a genius as Kōbō been found in its +household; but this great achievement was reserved for the man who +introduced into Japan the Shin-gon Shu, or Sect of the True Word. +The term <i>gon</i> is the equivalent of Mantra,<a id="footnotetag8-20" name="footnotetag8-20"></a><a href="#footnote8-20"><sup>20</sup></a> a Sanskrit term meaning word, but +in later use referring to the mystic salutations addressed to the +Buddhist gods. "The doctrine of this sect is a great secret law. It +teaches us that we can attain to the state of the 'Great +Enlightened,' that is the state of 'Buddha,' while in the present +physical body, which was born of our parents (and which consists of +six elements,<a id="footnotetag8-21" name="footnotetag8-21"></a><a href="#footnote8-21"><sup>21</sup></a> +Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ether, and Knowledge), if we follow the +three great secret laws, regarding Body, Speech, and +Thought."<a id="footnotetag8-22" name="footnotetag8-22"></a><a href="#footnote8-22"><sup>22</sup></a></p> +<p>The history of the transmission of the doctrine from the +greatest of the spirit-bodied Buddhas to the historic founder, +Vagrabodhi, is carefully given. The latter was a man very learned +in regard to many doctrines of Buddhism and other religious, and +was especially <span class="pagenum"><a name="page249" id="page249"></a>{249}</span> well acquainted with the deepest meaning +of the doctrine of this sect, which he taught in India for a +considerable time. The doctrine is recorded in several sutras, yet +the essential point is nothing but the Mandala, or circle of the +two parts, or, in Japanese, Riyōbu.</p> +<p>The great preacher, Vagrabodhi, in 720 A.D., came with his +disciples to the capital of China, and translated the sacred books, +seventy-seven in number. This doctrine is the well-known +Yoga-chara, which has been well set forth by Doctor Edkins in his +scholarly volume on Chinese Buddhism. As "yoga" becomes in plain +English "yoke," and as "mantra" is from the same root as "man" and +"mind," we have no difficulty in recognizing the original meaning +of these terms; the one in its nobler significance referring to +union with Buddha or Gnosis, and the other to the thought taking +lofty expression or being debased to hocus-pocus in charm or +amulet. Like the history of so many Sanskrit words as now uttered +in every-day English speech, the story of the word mantra forms a +picture of mental processes and apparently of the degradation of +thought, or, as some will doubtless say, of the decay of religion. +The term mantra meant first, a thought; then thought expressed; +then a Vedic hymn or text; next a spell or charm. Such have been +the later associations, in India, China and Japan with the term +mantra.</p> +<p>The burden of the philosophy of the Shin-gon, looked at from one +point of view, is mysticism, and from another, pantheism. One of +the forms of Buddha is the principle of everything. There are ten +stages of thought, and there are two parts, "lengthwise" and +"crosswise" or exoteric and esoteric. Other doctrines <span class="pagenum"><a name="page250" id="page250"></a>{250}</span> of +Buddhism represent the first, or exoteric stage; and those of the +Shin-gon or true word, the second, or esoteric. The primordial +principle is identical with that of Maha-Vairokana, one of the +forms<a id="footnotetag8-23" name="footnotetag8-23"></a><a href="#footnote8-23"><sup>23</sup></a> of Buddha. The body, the word and +the thought are the three mysteries, which being found in all +beings, animate and inanimate, are to be fully understood only by +Buddhas, and not by ordinary men.</p> +<p>To show the actual method of intellectual procedure in order to +reach Buddha-hood, many categories, tables and diagrams are +necessary; but the crowning tenet, most far reaching in its +practical influence, is the teaching that it is possible to reach +the state of Buddha-hood in this present body.</p> +<p>As discipline for the attainment of excellence along the path +marked out in the "Mantra sect," there are three mystic rites: (1) +worshipping the Buddha with the hand in certain positions called +signs; (2) repeating Dharani, or mystic formulas; (3) +contemplation.</p> +<p>Kōbō himself and all those who imitated him, practised +fasting in order to clear the spiritual eyesight. The +thinking-chairs, so conspicuous in many old monasteries, though +warmed at intervals through the ages by the living bodies of men +absorbed in contemplation, are rarely much worn by the sitters, +because almost absolute cessation of motion characterizes the long +and hard thinkers of the Shin-gon philosophers. The idols in the +Shin-gon temples represent many a saint and disciple, who, by +perseverance in what a critic of Buddhism calls "mind-murder," and +the use of mystic finger twistings and magic formulas, has won +either the Nirvana or the penultimate stage of the Bodhisattva.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page251" id="page251"></a>{251}</span> +<p>In the sermons and discourses of Shin-gon, the subtle points of +an argument are seized and elaborated. These are mystical on the +one side, and pantheistic on the other. It is easily seen how +Buddha, being in Japanese gods as well as men, and no being without +Buddha, the way is made clear for that kind of a marriage between +Buddhism and Shintō, in which the two become one, and that one, +as to revenue and advantage, Buddhism.</p> +<h3>Truth Made Apparent by One's Own Thought.</h3> +<p>The Japanese of to-day often speak of these seven religious +bodies which we have enumerated and described, as "the old sects," +because much of the philosophy, and many of the forms and prayers, +are common to all, or, more accurately speaking, are popularly +supposed to be; while the priests, being celibates, refrain from +saké, flesh and fish, and from all intimate relations with +women. Yet, although these sects are considered to be more or less +conformable to the canon of the Greater Vehicle, and while the last +three certainly introduce many of its characteristic +features—one sect teaching that Buddha-hood could be obtained +even in the present body of flesh and blood—yet the idea of +Paradise had not been exploited or emphasized. This new gospel was +to be introduced into Japan by the Jō-dō Shu or Sect of the +Pure Land.</p> +<p>Before detailing the features of Jō-dō, we call attention +to the fact that in Japan the propagation of the old sects was +accompanied by an excessive use of idols, images, pictures, sutras, +shastras and all the furniture thought necessary in a Buddhist +temple. The course <span class="pagenum"><a name="page252" id="page252"></a>{252}</span> of thought and action in the Orient is +in many respects similar to that in the Occident. In western lands, +with the ebb and flow of religious sentiment, the iconolater has +been followed by the iconoclast, and the overcrowded cathedrals +have been purged by the hammer and fire of the Protestant and +Puritan. So in Japan we find analogous, though not exactly similar, +reactions. The rise and prosperity of the believers in the Zen +dogmas, which in their early history used sparingly the eikon, idol +and sutra, give some indication of protest against too much use of +externals in religion. May we call them the Quakers of Japanese +Buddhism? Certainly, theirs was a movement in the direction of +simplicity.</p> +<p>The introduction of the Zen, or contemplative sect, did, in a +sense, both precede and follow that of Shingon. The word Zen is a +shortened form of the term Zenna, which is a transliteration into +Chinese of the Sanskrit word Dhyana, or contemplation. It teaches +that the truth is not in tradition or in books, but in one's self. +Emphasis is laid on introspection rather than on language. "Look +carefully within and there you will find the Buddha," is its chief +tenet. In the Zen monasteries, the chair of contemplation is, or +ought to be, always in use.</p> +<p>The Zen Shu movement may be said to have arisen out of a +reaction against the multiplication of idols. It indicated a return +to simpler forms of worship and conduct. Let us inquire how this +was.</p> +<p>It may be said that Buddhism, especially Northern Buddhism, is a +vast, complicated system. It has a literature and a sacred canon +which one can think of only in connection with long trains of +camels to carry, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page253" id="page253"></a>{253}</span> or freight trains to transport, or ships +a good deal bigger than the Mayflower to import. Its multitudinous +rules and systems of discipline appall the spirit and weary the +flesh even to enumerate them; so that, from one point of view, the +making of new sects is a necessity. These are labor-saving +inventions. They are attempts to reduce the great bulk of +scriptures to manageable proportions. They seek to find, as it +were, the mother-liquor of the great ocean, so as to express the +truth in a crystal. Hence the endeavors to simplify, to condense; +here, by a selection of sutras, rather than the whole collection; +there, by emphasis on a single feature and a determination to put +the whole thing in a form which can be grasped, either by the elect +few or by the people at large.</p> +<p>The Zen sect did this in a more rational way than that set forth +as orthodox by later priestcraft, which taught that to the believer +who simply turned round the revolving library containing the canon, +the merit of having read it all would be imputed. The +rin-zō<a id="footnotetag8-24" name="footnotetag8-24"></a><a href="#footnote8-24"><sup>24</sup></a> +found near the large temples,—the cunning invention of a +Chinese priest in the sixth century,—soon became popular in +Japan. The great wooden book-case turning on a pivot contains 6,771 +volumes, that being the number of canonical volumes enumerated in +China and Japan.</p> +<p>The Zen sect teaches that, besides all the doctrines of the +Greater and the Lesser Vehicles, whether hidden or apparent, there +is one distinct line of transmission of a secret doctrine which is +not subject to any utterance at all. According to their tenet of +contemplation, one is to see directly the key to the thought of +Buddha by his own thought, thus freeing himself from <span class="pagenum"><a name="page254" id="page254"></a>{254}</span> the +multitude of different doctrines—the number of which is said +to be eighty-four thousand. In fact, Zen Shu or "Dhyana sect" +teaches the short method of making truth apparent by one's own +thought, apart from the writings.</p> +<p>The story of the transmission of the true Zen doctrine is +this:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>"When the blessed Shaka was at the assembly on Vulture's Peak, +there came the heavenly king, who offered the Buddha a +golden-colored flower and asked him to preach the law. The Blessed +One simply took the flower and held it in his hand, but said no +word. No one in the whole assembly could tell what he meant. The +venerable Mahahasyapa alone smiled. Than the Blessed One said to +him, 'I have the wonderful thought of Nirvana, the eye of the Right +Law, which I shall now give to you.'<a id="footnotetag8-25" name="footnotetag8-25"></a><a href="#footnote8-25"><sup>25</sup></a> +Thus was ushered in the doctrine of thought transmitted by +thought."</p> +</blockquote> +<p>After twenty-eight patriarchs had taught the doctrine of +contemplation, the last came into China in A.D. 520, and tried to +teach the Emperor the secret key of Buddha's thought. This +missionary Bodhidharma was the third son of a king of the Kashis, +in Southern India, and the historic original of the tobacconist's +shop-sign in Japan, who is known as Daruma. The imperial Chinaman +was not yet able to understand the secret key of Buddha's thought. +So the Hindu missionary went to the monastery on Mount Su, where in +meditation, he sat down cross-legged with his face to a wall, for +nine years, by which time, says the legend, his legs had rotted off +and he looked like a snow-image. During that period, people did not +know him, and called him simply the Wall-gazing Brahmana. Afterward +he had a number of disciples, but they had different <span class="pagenum"><a name="page255" id="page255"></a>{255}</span> views +that are called the transmissions of the skin, flesh, or bone of +the teacher. Only one of them got the whole body of his teachings. +Two great sects were formed: the Northern, which was undivided, and +the Southern, which branched off into five houses and seven +schools. The Northern Sect was introduced into Japan by a Chinese +priest in 729 A.D., while the Southern was not brought over until +the twelfth century. In both it is taught that perfect tranquillity +of body and mind is essential to salvation. The doctrine is the +most sublime one, of thought transmitted by thought being entirely +independent of any letters or words. Another name for them is, "The +Sect whose Mind Assimilates with Buddha," direct from whom it +claims to have received its articles of faith.</p> +<p>Too often this idea of Buddhaship, consisting of absolute +freedom from matter and thought, means practically mind-murder, and +the emptiness of idle reverie.</p> +<p>Contrasting modern reality with their ancient ideal, it must be +confessed that in practice there is not a little letter worship and +a good deal of pedantry; for, in all the teachings of abstract +principles by the different sects, there are endless puns or plays +upon words in the renderings of Chinese characters. This arises +from that antithesis of extreme poverty in sounds with amazing +luxuriance in written expression, which characterizes both the +Chinese and Japanese languages.</p> +<p>In the temples we find that the later deities introduced into +the Buddhist pantheon are here also welcome, and that the triads or +groups of three precious ones, the "Buddhist trinity," +so-called,<a id="footnotetag8-26" name="footnotetag8-26"></a><a href="#footnote8-26"><sup>26</sup></a> are +surrounded by gods of Chinese or Japanese origin. The Zen sect, +according to its professions and early history, ought to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page256" id="page256"></a>{256}</span> be indifferent to worldly honors and +emoluments, and indeed many of its devotees are. Its history, +however, shows how poorly mortals live up to their principles and +practise what they preach. Furthermore, these professors of peace +and of the joys of the inner life in the Sō-tō or sub-sect +have made the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth years of Meiji, or A.D. +1893 and 1894, famous and themselves infamous by their +long-continued and scandalous intestine quarrels. Of the three +sub-sects, those called Rin-zai and Sō-tō, take their names +from Chinese monks of the ninth century; while the third, O-baku, +founded in Japan in the seventeenth century, is one of the latest +importations of Chinese Buddhistic thought in the Land of the +Rising Sun.</p> +<p>Japanese authors usually classify the first six denominations at +which we have glanced, some of which are phases of thought rather +than organizations, as "the ancient sects." Ten-dai and Shin-gon +are "the medieval sects." The remaining four, of which we shall now +treat, and which are more particularly Japanese in spirit and +development, are "the modern sects."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page257" id="page257"></a>{257}</span> +<h2><a name="chap9" id="chap9">THE BUDDHISM OF THE +JAPANESE</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page258" id="page258"></a>{258}</span> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"A drop of spray cast by the infinite</p> +<p>I hung an instant there, and threw my ray</p> +<p>To make the rainbow. A microcosm I</p> +<p>Reflecting all. Then back I fell again,</p> +<p>And though I perished not, I was no more."—</p> +<p>The Pantheist's Epitaph.</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p>"Buddhism is essentially a religion of compromise."</p> +<p>"Where Christianity has One Lord, Buddhism has a dozen."</p> +<p>"I think I may safely challenge the Buddhist priesthood to give +a plain historical account of the Life of Amida, Kwannon, Dainichi, +or any other Mahāyāna Buddha, without being in serious danger +of forfeiting my stakes."</p> +<p>"Christianity openly puts this Absolute Unconditioned Essence in +the forefront of its teaching. In Buddhism this absolute existence +is only put forward, when the logic of circumstances compels its +teachers to have recourse to it."—A. Lloyd, in The Higher +Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene creed.</p> +<p>"Now these six characters, 'Na-mu-A-mi-da-Butsu,' Zend-ō has +explained as follows: 'Namn' means [our] following His +behest—and also [His] uttering the Prayer and bestowing +[merit] upon us. 'Amida Butsu' is the practice of this, +consequently by this means a certainty of salvation is +attained."</p> +<p>"By reason of the conferring on us sentient creators of this +great goodness and great merit through the utterance of the Prayer, +and the bestowal [by Amida] the evil Karma and [effect of the] +passions accumulated through the long Kalpas, since when there was +no beginning, are in a moment annihilated, and in consequence, +those passions and evil Karma of ours all disappearing, we live +already in the condition of the steadfast, who do not return [to +revolve in the cycle of Birth and Death]."—Rennyō of the +Shin sect, 1473.</p> +<p>"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and +the Word was God."—John.</p> +<p>"The Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, +neither shadow of turning."—James.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page259" id="page259"></a>{259}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE</h2> +<h3>The Western Paradise.</h3> +<p>We cannot take space to show how, or how much, or whether at +all, Buddhism was affected by Christianity, though it probably was. +Suffice it to say that the Jō-dō Shu, or Sect of the Pure +Land, was the first of the many denominations in Buddhism which +definitely and clearly set forth that especial peculiarity of +Northern Buddhism, the Western Paradise. The school of thought +which issued in Jō-dō Shu was founded by the Hindoo, Memio. +In A.D. 252 an Indian scholar, learned in the Tripitaka, came to +China, and translated one of the great sutras, called Amitayus. +This sutra gives a history of Tathagata Amitabha,<a id="footnotetag9-1" name="footnotetag9-1"></a><a href="#footnote9-1"><sup>1</sup></a> from the first spiritual impulses +which led him to the attainment of Buddha-hood in remote Kalpas +down to the present time, when he dwells in the Western World, +called the Happy, where he receives all living beings from every +direction, helping them to turn away from confusion and to become +enlightened.<a id="footnotetag9-2" name="footnotetag9-2"></a><a href="#footnote9-2"><sup>2</sup></a> The +apocalyptic twentieth chapter of the Hokké Kiō is a +glorification of the transcendent power of the Tathagatas, +expressed in flamboyant oriental rhetoric.</p> +<p>We have before called attention to the fact that, with the +multiplication of sutras or the Sacred Canon and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page260" id="page260"></a>{260}</span> the vast +increase of the apparatus of Buddhism as well as of the hardships +of brain and body to be undergone in order to be a Buddhist, it was +absolutely necessary that some labor-saving system should be +devised by which the burden could be borne. Now, as a matter of +fact, all sects claim to found their doctrine on Buddha or his +work. According to the teaching of certain sects, the means of +salvation are to be found in the study of the whole canon, and in +the practice of asceticism and meditation. On the contrary, the new +lights of Buddhism who came as missionaries into China, protested +against this expenditure of so much mental and physical energy. One +of the first Chinese propagators of the Jō-dō doctrine +declared that it was impossible, owing to the decay of religion in +his own age, for anyone to be saved in this way by his own efforts. +Hence, instead of the noble eight-fold path of primitive Buddhism, +or of the complicated system of the later Buddhistic Phariseeism of +India, he substituted for the difficult road to Nirvana, a simple +faith in the all-saving power of Amida. In one of the sutras it is +taught, that if a man keeps in his memory the name of Amida one +day, or seven days, the Buddha together with Buddhas elect, will +meet him at the moment of his death, in order to let him be born in +the Pure Land, and that this matter has been equally approved by +all other Buddhas of ten different directions.</p> +<p>One of the sutras, translated in China during the fifth century, +contains the teaching of Buddha, which he delivered to the wife of +the King of Magudha, who on account of the wickedness of her son +was feeling weary of this world. He showed her how she might be +born into the Pure Land. Three paths of good actions <span class="pagenum"><a name="page261" id="page261"></a>{261}</span> were +pointed out. Toward the end of the particular sutra which he +advised her to read and recite, Buddha says: "Let not one's voice +cease, but ten times complete the thought, and repeat the formula, +of the adoration of Amida." "This practice," adds the Japanese +exegete and historian, "is the most excellent of all."</p> +<p>How well this latter teaching is practised may be demonstrated +when one goes into a Buddhist temple of the Jō-dō sect in +Japan, and hears the constant refrain,—murmured by the score +or more of listeners to the sermon, or swelling like the roar of +the ocean's waves, on festival days, when thousands sit on the mats +beneath the fretted roof to enjoy the exposition of +doctrine—"Namu Amida Butsu"—"Glory to the Eternal +Buddha!"<a id="footnotetag9-3" name="footnotetag9-3"></a><a href="#footnote9-3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<p>The apostolical succession or transmission through the +patriarchs and apostles of India and China, is well known and +clearly stated, withal duly accredited and embellished with signs +and wonders, in the historical literature of the Jō-dō sect. +In Buddhism, as in Christianity, the questions relating to True +Churchism, High Churchism, the succession of the apostles, teachers +and rulers, and the validity of this or that method of ordination, +form a large part of the literature of controversy. Nevertheless, +as in the case of many a Christian sect which calls itself the only +true church, the date of the organization of Jō-dō was +centuries later than that of the Founder and apostles of the +original faith. Five hundred years after Zen-dō (A.D. 600-650), +the great propagator of the Jō-dō philosophy, Hō-nen, the +founder of the Jō-dō sect, was born; and this phase of +organized Buddhism, like that of Shin Shu and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page262" id="page262"></a>{262}</span> Nichirer +Shu, may be classed under the head of Eastern or Japanese +Buddhism.</p> +<p>When only nine years of age, the boy afterward called Hō-nen, +was converted by his father's dying words. He went to school in his +native province, but his priest-teacher foreseeing his greatness, +sent him to the monastery of Hiyéizan, near Kiōto. The +boy's letter of introduction contained only these words: "I send +you an image of the Bodhisattva, (Mon-ju) Manjusri." The boy shaved +his head and received the precepts of the Ten-dai sect, but in his +eighteenth year, waiving the prospect of obtaining the headship of +the great denomination, he built a hut in the Black Ravine and +there five times read through the five thousand volumes<a id="footnotetag9-4" name="footnotetag9-4"></a><a href="#footnote9-4"><sup>4</sup></a> of the Tripitaka. He did this for +the purpose of finding out, for the ordinary and ignorant people of +the present day, how to escape from misery. He studied Zen-dō's +commentary, and repeated his examination eight times. At last, he +noticed a passage in it beginning with the words, "Chiefly remember +or repeat the name of Amida with a whole and undivided heart." Then +he at once understood the thought of Zen-dō, who taught in his +work that whoever at any time practises to remember Buddha, or +calls his name even but once, will gain the right effect of going +to be born in the Pure Land after death. This Japanese student then +abandoned all sorts of practices which he had hitherto followed for +years, and began to repeat the name of Amida Buddha sixty thousand +times a day. This event occurred in A.D. 1175.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page263" id="page263"></a>{263}</span> +<h3>Hō-nen, Founder of the Pure Land Sect.</h3> +<p>This path-finder to the Pure Land, who developed a special +doctrine of salvation, is best known by his posthumous title of +Hō-nen. During his lifetime he was very famous and became the +spiritual preceptor of three Mikados. After his death his biography +was compiled in forty-eight volumes by imperial order, and later, +three other emperors copied or republished it. In the history of +Japan this sect has been one of the most influential, especially +with the imperial and shōgunal families. In Kiōto the +magnificent temples and monasteries of Chiōn-in, and in +Tōkiō Zō-jō-ji, are the chief seats of the two +principal divisions of this sect. The gorgeous +mausoleums,—well known to every foreign tourist,—at +Shiba and Uyéno in Tōkiō, and the clustered and +matchless splendors of Nikkō, belong to this sect, which has +been under the patronage of the illustrious line of the +Tokugawa,<a id="footnotetag9-5" name="footnotetag9-5"></a><a href="#footnote9-5"><sup>5</sup></a> while its temples and shrines are +numbered by many thousands.</p> +<p>The doctrine of the Jō-dō, or the Pure Land Sect, is +easily discerned. One of Buddha's disciples said, that in the +teachings of the Master there are two divisions or vehicles. In the +Maha-yana also there are two gates; the Holy path, and the Pure +Land. The Smaller Vehicle is the doctrine by which the immediate +disciples of Buddha and those for five hundred years succeeding, +practised the various virtues and discipline. The gateway of the +Maha-yana is also the doctrine, by which in addition to the +trainings mentioned, there are also understood the three virtues of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page264" id="page264"></a>{264}</span> spiritual body, wisdom and deliverance. +The man who is able successfully to complete this course of +discipline and practice is no ordinary person, but is supposed to +possess merit produced from good actions performed in a former +state of existence. The doctrine by which man may do so, is called +the gate of the Holy Path.</p> +<p>During the fifteen hundred years after Buddha there were from +time to time, such personages in the world, who attained the end of +the Holy Path; but in these latter days people are more insincere, +covetous and contentious, and the discipline is too hard for +degenerate times and men. The three trainings already spoken of are +the correct causes of deliverance; but if people think them as +useless as last year's almanac, when can they complete their +deliverance? Hō-nen, deeply meditating on this, shut up the gate +of the Holy Path and opened that of the Pure Land; for in the +former the effective deliverance is expected in this world by the +three trainings of morality, thought and learning, but in the +latter the great fruit of going to be born in the Pure Land after +death, is expected through the sole practice of repeating Buddha's +name.</p> +<p>Moreover, it is not easy to accomplish the cause and effect of +the Holy Path, but both those of the doctrine of the Pure Land are +very easy to be completed. The difference is like that between +travelling by land and travelling by water.<a id="footnotetag9-6" +name="footnotetag9-6"></a><a href="#footnote9-6"><sup>6</sup></a> +The doctrines preached by the Buddha are eighty-four thousand in +number; that is to say, he taught one kind of people one system, +that of the Holy Path, and another kind that of the Pure Land. The +Pure Land doctrine of Hō-nen was derived from the sutra preached +by the great teacher Shaka.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page265" id="page265"></a>{265}</span> +<p>This simple doctrine of "land travel to Paradise" was one which +the people of Japan could easily understand, and it became +amazingly popular. Salvation along this route is a case of being +"carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others sought +to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas."</p> +<p>Largely through the influence of Jō-dō Shu and of those +sects most closely allied to it, the technical terms, peculiar +phraseology and vocabulary of Buddhism became part of the daily +speech of the Japanese. When one studies their language he finds +that it is a complicated organism, including within itself several +distinct systems. Just as the human body harmonizes within itself +such vastly differing organized functions as the osseous, +digestive, respiratory, etc., so, embedded in what is called the +Japanese language, there are, also, a Chinese vocabulary, a polite +vernacular, one system of expression for superiors, another for +inferiors, etc. Last of all, there is, besides a peculiar system of +pronunciation taught by the priests, a Buddhist language, which +suggests a firmament of starry and a prairie of flowery metaphors, +with intermediate deeps of space full of figurative +expressions.</p> +<p>In our own mother tongue we have something similar. The dialect +of Canaan, the importations of Judaism, the irruptions of Hebraic +idioms, phrases and names into Puritanism, and the ejaculations of +the camp-meeting, which vein and color our English speech, may give +some idea of the variegated strains which make up the Japanese +language. Further, the peculiar nomenclature of the Fifth Monarchy +men, is fully paralleled in the personal names of priests and even +of laymen in Japan.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page266" id="page266"></a>{266}</span> +<h3>Characteristics of the Jō-dō Sect.</h3> +<p>Hō-nen teaches that the solution of abstract questions and +doctrinal controversies is not needed as means of grace to promote +the work of salvation. Whether the priests and their followers were +learned and devout, or the contrary, mattered little as regards the +final result, as all that is necessary is the continual repetition +of the prayer to Amida.</p> +<p>It may be added that his followers practise the master's +precepts with emphasis. Their incessant pounding upon wooden +fish-drums and bladder-shaped bells during their public exercises, +is as noisy as a frontier camp-meeting. The rosary is a notable +feature in the private devotions of the Buddhists, but the +Jō-dō sect makes especial use of the double rosary, which was +invented with the idea of being manipulated by the left hand only; +this gave freedom to the right hand, "facilitating a happy +combination of spiritual and secular duty." At funerals of +believers a particular ceremony was exclusively practised by this +sect, at which the friends of the deceased sat in a circle facing +the priest, making as many repetitions as possible.<a id="footnotetag9-7" name="footnotetag9-7"></a><a href="#footnote9-7"><sup>7</sup></a></p> +<p>In Mohammedan countries, blind men, who cannot look down into +the surrounding gardens or house tops at the pretty women in or on +them, but who have clear and penetrating voices, are often chosen +us muezzins to utter the call to prayer from the minarets. On much +the same principle, in Old Japan, Jō-dō priests, blind to +metaphysics, but handsome, elegantly dressed and with fine +delivery, went about the streets singing and intoning prayers, rich +presents being made to them, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page267" id="page267"></a>{267}</span> especially by the ladies. +The Jō-dō people cultivate art and aesthetic ornamentation to +a notable degree. They also understand the art of fictitious and +sensational miracle-mongering. It is said that Zen-dō, the +famous Chinese founder of this Chinese sect, when writing his +commentary, prayed for a wonderful exhibition of supernatural +power. Thereupon, a being arrayed as a priest of dignified presence +gave him instruction on the division of the text in his first +volume. Hence Zen-dō treats his own work as if it were the work +of Buddha, and says that no one is allowed either to add or to take +away even a word or sentence of the book.</p> +<p>The Pure Land is the western world where Amida lives. It is +perfectly pure and free from faults. Those who wish to go thither +will certainly be re-born there, but otherwise they will not. This +world, on the contrary, is the effect of the action of all beings, +so that even those who do not wish to be born here are nevertheless +obliged to come. This world is called the Path of Pain, because it +is full of all sorts of pains, such as birth, old age, disease, +death, etc. This is therefore a world not to be attached to, but to +be estranged and separated from. One who is disgusted with this +world, and who is filled with desire for that world, will after +death be born there. Not to doubt about these words of Buddha, even +in the slightest degree, is called deep faith; but if one +entertains the least doubts he will not be born there. Hence the +saying: "In the great sea of the law of Buddha, faith is the only +means to enter."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page268" id="page268"></a>{268}</span> +<h3>Salvation Through the Merits of Another.</h3> +<p>In this absolute trust in the all-saving power of Amida as +compared with the ways promulgated before, we see the emergence of +the Buddhist doctrine of justification by faith, the simplification +of theology, and a revolt against Buddhist scholasticism. The +Japanese technical term, "<i>tariki</i>," or relying upon the +strength of another, renouncing all idea of <i>ji-riki</i> or +self-power,<a id="footnotetag9-8" name="footnotetag9-8"></a><a href="#footnote9-8"><sup>8</sup></a> is the +substance of the Jō-dō doctrine; but the expanded term +<i>ta-riki chin no ji-riki</i>, or "self-effort depending on +another," while expressing the whole dogma, is rather scornfully +applied to the Jō-dōists by the men of the Shin sect. The +invocation of Amida is a meritorious act of the believer, much +repetition being the substance of this combination of personal and +vicarious work.</p> +<p>Hō-nen, after making his discovery, believing it possible for +all mankind eventually to attain to perfect Buddhaship, left, as we +have seen, the Ten-dai sect, which represented particularism and +laid emphasis on the idea of the elect. Hō-nen taught Buddhist +universalism. Belief and repetition of prayer secure birth into the +Pure Land after the death of the body, and then the soul moves +onward toward the perfection of Buddha-hood.</p> +<p>The Japanese were delighted to have among them a genius who +could thus Japanize Buddhism, and Jō-dō doctrine went forth +conquering and to conquer. From the twelfth century, the tendency +of Japanese Buddhism is in the direction of universalism and +democracy. In later developments of Jō-dō, the pantheistic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page269" id="page269"></a>{269}</span> tendencies are emphasized and the +syncretistic powers are enlarged. While mysticism is a striking +feature of the sect and the attainment of truth is by the grace of +Amida, yet the native Kami of Japan are logically accepted as +avatars of Buddha. History had little or no rights in the case; +philosophy was dictator, and that philosophy was Hō-nen's. Those +later Chinese deities made by personifying attributes or abstract +ideas, which sprang up after the introduction of Buddhism into +China, are also welcomed into the temples of this sect. That the +common people really believe that they themselves may attain +Buddha-hood at death, and enter the Pure Land, is shown in the fact +that their ordinary expression for the dead saint is +Hotoké—a general term for all the gods that were once +human. Some popular proverbs indicate this in a form that easily +lends itself to irreverence and merriment.</p> +<p>The whole tendency of Japanese Buddhism and its full momentum +were now toward the development of doctrine even to startling +proportions. Instead of the ancient path of asceticism and virtue +with agnosticism and atheism, we see the means of salvation put +now, and perhaps too easily, within the control of all. The pathway +to Paradise was made not only exceedingly plain, but also extremely +easy, perhaps even ridiculously so; while the door was open for an +outburst of new and local doctrines unknown to India, or even to +China. The rampant vigor with which Japanese Buddhism began to +absorb everything in heaven, earth and sea, which it could make a +worshipable object or cause to stand as a Kami or deity to the +mind, will be seen as we proceed. The native proverb, instead of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page270" id="page270"></a>{270}</span> being an irreverent joke, stands for an +actual truth—"Even a sardine's head may become an object of +worship."</p> +<h3>"Reformed" Buddhism.</h3> +<p>We now look at what foreigners call "Reformed" Buddhism, which +some even imagine has been borrowed from Protestant +Christianity—notwithstanding that it is centuries older than +the Reformation in Europe.</p> +<p>The Shin Shu or True Sect, though really founded on the +Jō-dō doctrines, is separate from the sect of the Pure Land. +Yet, besides being called the Shin Shu, it is also spoken of as the +Jō-dō Shin Shu or the True Sect of the Pure Land. It is the +extreme form of the Protestantism of Buddhism. It lays emphasis on +the idea of salvation wholly through the merits of another, but it +also paints in richer tints the sensuous delights of the Western +Paradise. As the term Pure Land is antithetical to that of the Holy +Path, so the word Shin, or True, expresses the contrary of what are +termed the "temporary expedients."</p> +<p>While some say that we should practise good works, bring our +stock of merits to maturity, and be born in the Pure Land, others +say that we need only repeat the name of Amida in order to be born +in the Pure Land, by the merit produced from such repetition. These +doctrines concerning repetitions, however, are all considered but +"temporary expedients." So also is the rigid classification, so +prominent in "the old sects," of all beings or pupils into three +grades. As in Islam or Calvinism, all believers stand on a level. +To Shin-ran the Radical, the practices even of Jō-dō seemed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page271" id="page271"></a>{271}</span> complicated and difficult, and all that +appeared necessary to him was faith in the desire of Amida to bless +and save. To Shinran,<a id="footnotetag9-9" name="footnotetag9-9"></a><a href="#footnote9-9"><sup>9</sup></a> faith +was the sole saving act.</p> +<p>To rely upon the power of the Original Prayer of Amitabha Buddha +with the whole heart and give up all idea of <i>ji-riki</i> or +self-power, is called the truth. This truth is the doctrine of this +sect of Shin.<a id="footnotetag9-10" name="footnotetag9-10"></a><a href="#footnote9-10"><sup>10</sup></a> In +a word, not synergism, not faith <i>and</i> works, but faith only +is the teaching of Shin Shu.</p> +<p>Shinran, the founder of this sect in Japan, was born A.D. 1173 +and died in the year 1262. He was very naturally one who had been +first educated in the Jō-dō sect, then the ruling one at the +imperial court in Kiōto. Shall we call him a Japanese Luther, +because of his insistence on salvation by faith only? He is +popularly believed to have been descended from one of the Shintō +gods, being on his father's side the twenty-first in the line of +generation. On his mother's side he was of the lineage of the +Minamoto or Genji, a clan sprung from Mikados and famous during +centuries for its victorious warriors. Hō-nen was his teacher, +and like his teacher, Shinran studied at the great monastery near +Kiōto, learning first the doctrine of the Tendai, and then, at +the age of twenty-nine, receiving from Hō-nen the tenets of the +Jō-dō sect. Shortly after, at thirty years of age, he began +to promulgate his doctrines. Then he took a step as new to +Buddhism, as was Luther's union with Katharine von Bora, to the +ecclesiasticism of his time. He married a lady of the imperial +court, named Tamayori, who was the daughter of the Kuambaku or +premier.</p> +<p>Shinran thus taught by example, if not formally and by written +precept, that marriage was honorable, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page272" id="page272"></a>{272}</span> that +celibacy was an invention of the priests not warranted by primitive +Buddhism. Penance, fasting, prescribed diet, pilgrimages, isolation +from society whether as hermits or in the cloister, and generally +amulets and charms, are all tabooed by this sect. Monasteries +imposing life-vows are unknown within its pale. Family life takes +the place of monkish seclusion. Devout prayer, purity, earnestness +of life and trust in Buddha himself as the only worker of perfect +righteousness, are insisted upon. Morality is taught to be more +important than orthodoxy.</p> +<p>In practice, the Shin sect even more than the Jō-dō, +teaches that it is faith in Buddha, which accomplishes the +salvation of the believer. Instead of waiting for death in order to +come under the protection of Amida, the faithful soul is at once +received into the care of the Boundlessly Compassionate. In a word, +the Shin sect believes in instantaneous conversion and +sanctification. Between the Roman and the Reformed soteriology of +Christendom, was Melancthonism or the coōperate union of the +divine and the human will. So, the old Buddhism prior to Shinran +taught a phase of synergism, or the union of faith and works. +Shinran, in his "Reformed" Buddhism, taught the simplicity of +faith.</p> +<p>So also <i>in</i> regard to the sacred writings, Shinran opposed +the San-ron school and the three-grade idea. The scriptures of +other sects are in Sanskrit and Chinese, which only the learned are +able to read. The special writings of Shinran are in the +vernacular. Three of the sutras, also, have been translated into +Japanese and expressed in the kana script. Singleness of purpose +characterised this sect, which was often called Monto, or followers +of the gate, in reference <span class="pagenum"><a name="page273" +id="page273"></a>{273}</span> to its unity of organization, and the +opening of the way to all by Shinran and the doctrine taught by +him. Yet, lest the gate might seem too broad, the Shin teachers +insist that morality is as important as faith, and indeed the proof +of it. The high priests of Shin Shu have ever held a high position +and wielded vast influence in the religious development of the +people. While the temples of other sects are built in sequestered +places among the hills, those of Shin Shu are erected in the heart +of cities, on the main streets, and at the centres of +population,—the priests using every means within their power +to induce the people to come to them. The altars are on an imposing +scale of magnificence and gorgeous detail. No Roman Catholic church +or cathedral can outshine the splendor of these temples, in which +the way to the Western Paradise is made so clear and plain. Another +name for the sect is Ikko.</p> +<p>After the death of Shinran, his youngest daughter and one of his +grandsons erected a monastery near his tomb in the eastern suburbs +of Kiōto, to which the Mikado gave the title of Hon-guanji, or +Monastery of the Original Vow. This was in allusion to the vow made +by Amida, that he would not accept Buddhaship except under the +condition that salvation be made attainable for all who should +sincerely desire to be born into his kingdom, and signify their +desire by invoking his name ten times.<a id="footnotetag9-11" name="footnotetag9-11"></a><a href="#footnote9-11"><sup>11</sup></a> It +is upon the passage in the sutra where this vow is recorded, that +the doctrine of the sect is based. Its central idea is that man is +to be saved by faith in the mercy of the boundlessly compassionate +Amida, and not by works or vain repetitions. Within our own time, +on November 28, 1876, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page274" id="page274"></a>{274}</span> the present reigning Mikado bestowed +upon Shinran the posthumous title Ken-shin Dai-shi, or Great +Teacher of the Revelation of Truth.</p> +<h3>The Protestants of Japanese Buddhism.</h3> +<p>This is the sect which, being called "Reformed" Buddhism<a id="footnotetag9-12" name="footnotetag9-12"></a><a href="#footnote9-12"><sup>12</sup></a> and resembling Protestantism in +so many points, both large and minute, foreigners think has been +borrowed or imitated from European Protestantism.<a id="footnotetag9-13" name="footnotetag9-13"></a><a href="#footnote9-13"><sup>13</sup></a> As matter of fact, the foundation +principles of Shin-Shu are at least six hundred years old. They are +perfectly clear in the writings of the founder,<a id="footnotetag9-14" name="footnotetag9-14"></a><a href="#footnote9-14"><sup>14</sup></a> as well as in those of his +successor Renniō,<a id="footnotetag9-15" name="footnotetag9-15"></a><a href="#footnote9-15"><sup>15</sup></a> who +wrote the Ofumi or sacred writings, now daily read by the disciples +of this denomination. With the characteristic object of reaching +the masses, they are written, as we have shown, not in the mixed +Chinese and Japanese characters, but in the common script, or kana, +which all the people of both sexes can read. Within the last two +decades the Shin educators have been the first to organize their +schools of learning on the models of those in Christendom, so that +their young men might be trained to resist Shintō or +Christianity, or to measure the truth in either. Their new temples +also show European influence in architecture and furniture. Liberty +of thought and action, and incoercible desire to be free from +governmental, traditional, ultra-ecclesiastical, or Shintō +influence—in a word, protestantism in its pure sense, is +characteristic of the great sect founded by Shinran.</p> +<p>Indeed the Shin sect, which sprang out of the Jō-dō, +maintains that it alone professes the true teaching of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page275" id="page275"></a>{275}</span> +Hō-nen, and that the Jō-dō sect has wandered from the +original doctrines of its founder. Whereas the Jō-dō or Pure +Land sect believes that Amida will come to meet the soul of the +believer on its separation from the body, in order to conduct it to +Paradise, the Shin or True Sect of the Pure Land believes in +immediate salvation and sanctification. It preaches that as soon as +a man believes in Amida he is taken by him under him merciful +protection. Some might denominate these people the Methodists of +Buddhism.</p> +<p>One good point in their Protestantism is their teaching that +morality is of equal importance with faith. To them Buddha-hood +means the perfection and unlimitedness of wisdom and compassion. +"Therefore," writes one, "knowing the inability of our own power we +should believe simply in the vicarious Power of the Original +Prayer. If we do so, we are in correspondence with the wisdom of +the Buddha and share his great compassion, just as the water of +rivers becomes salt as soon as it enters the sea. For this reason +this is called the faith in the Other Power."</p> +<p>To their everlasting honor, also, the Shin believers have +probably led all other Japanese Buddhists in caring for the Eta, +even as they probably excel in preaching the true spiritual +democracy of all believers, yes, even of women.<a id="footnotetag9-16" name="footnotetag9-16"></a><a href="#footnote9-16"><sup>16</sup></a> "According to the earlier and +general view of Buddhism, women are condemned, in virtue of the +pollution of their nature, to look forward to rebirth in other +forms. By no possibility can they, in their existence as women, +reach the higher grades of holiness which lead to Nirvana. +According to the Shin Shu system, on the other hand, a believing +woman may hope to attain the goal of the Buddhist at the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page276" id="page276"></a>{276}</span> close of her present life."<a id="footnotetag9-17" name="footnotetag9-17"></a><a href="#footnote9-17"><sup>17</sup></a> This doctrine seems to be founded +on that passage in the eleventh chapter of the Saddharma Pundarika, +in which the daughter of Sāgara, the Nāga-king, loses her sex +as female and reappears as a Bodhisattva of male sex.<a id="footnotetag9-18" name="footnotetag9-18"></a><a href="#footnote9-18"><sup>18</sup></a></p> +<p>The Shin sect is the largest in Japan, having more than twice as +many temples as any four of the great sects, and five thousand more +than the So-dō or sub-sect of Jō-dō, which is the next +largest; or, over nineteen thousand in all. It is also supposed to +be one of the richest and most powerful of all the Japanese sects. +In reality, however, it possesses no fixed property, and is +dependent entirely upon the voluntary contributions of its +adherents. To-day, it is probably the most active of them all in +education, learning and missionary operations in Yezo, China and +Korea.</p> +<p>Interesting as is the development of the Jō-dō and Shin +sects, which became popular largely through their promulgation of +dogmas founded on the Western Paradise, we must not forget that +both of them preached a new Buddha—not the real figure in +history, but an unhistoric and unreal phantom, the creation and +dream of the speculator and visionary. Amida, the personification +of boundless light, is one of the luxuriant growths of a sickly +scholasticism—a hollow abstraction without life or reality. +Amidaism is utterly repudiated by many Japanese Buddhists, who give +no place to his idol on their altars, and reject utterly the +teaching as to Paradise and salvation through the merits of +another.</p> +<p>Yet these two special developments by natives, though embodying +tendencies of the Japanese mind, did not reach the limit to which +Northern Buddhism <span class="pagenum"><a name="page277" id="page277"></a>{277}</span> was to go in those almost incredible +lengths, which prompted Professor Whitney<a id="footnotetag9-19" +name="footnotetag9-19"></a><a href="#footnote9-19"><sup>19</sup></a> to call it "the high-faluting +school," and which we have seen in our own time under the +cultivation of western admirers.</p> +<h3>The Nichiren Sect.</h3> +<p>The Japanese mind runs to pantheism as naturally as an unpruned +grape-vine runs to fibre and leaves.</p> +<p>When Nichiren, the ultra-patriotic and ultra-democratic bonze, +saw the light in A.D. 1222, he was destined to bring religion not +only down to man, but even down to the beasts and to the mud. He +founded the Saddharma-Pundarika sect, now called Nichiren Shu.</p> +<p>Born at Kominato, near the mouth of Yedo Bay, he became a +neophite in the Shin-gon sect at the age of twelve, and was +admitted into the priesthood when but fifteen years old. Then he +adopted his name, which means Sun-lotus, because, according to a +typical dream very common in Korea and Japan, his mother thought +that she had conceived by the sun entering her body. Through a +miracle, he acquired a thorough knowledge of the whole Buddhist +canon, in the course of which he met with words, which he converted +into that formula which is constantly in the mouth of the members +of the Nichiren sect, Namu-myō-ho-ren-gé-kyō—"O, +the Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law."<a id="footnotetag9-20" name="footnotetag9-20"></a><a href="#footnote9-20"><sup>20</sup></a> His history, full of amazing +activity and of romantic adventure, is surrounded by a perfect +sunrise splendor, or, shall we say, sunset gorgeousness, of +mythology and fable. The scenes of his life are mostly laid in the +region of the modern Tōkiō, and to the cultivated +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page278" id="page278"></a>{278}</span> traveller, its story lends fascinating +charms to the landscape in the region of Yedo Bay. Nichiren was a +fiery patriot, and ultra-democratic in his sympathies. He was a +radical believer in "Japan for the Japanese." He was an +ecclesiastical <i>Soshi</i>. He felt that the developments of +Buddhism already made, were not sufficiently comprehensive, or +fully suited to the common people. So, in A.D. 1282, he founded a +new sect which gradually included within its pantheon all possible +Buddhas, and canonized pretty nearly all the saints, righteous men +and favorite heroes known to Dai Nippon. Nichiren first made Japan +the centre of the universe, and then brought religion down to the +lowest. He considered that the period in which he lived was the +latter day of the law, and that all creatures ought to share in the +merit of Buddha-hood. Only the original Buddha is the real moon in +the sky, but all Buddhas of the subordinate states are like the +images of the moon, reflected upon the waters. All these different +Buddhas, be they gods or men, beasts, birds or snakes, are to be +honored. Indeed, they are both honored and worshipped in the +Nichiren pantheon. Besides the historic Buddha, this sect, which is +the most idolatrous of all, admits as objects of its reverence such +personages as Nichiren, the founder; Kato Kiyomasa, the general who +led the army of invasion in Korea and was the persecutor of the +Christians; and Shichimen—a word which means seven points of +the compass or seven faces. This Shichimen is the being that +appeared to Nichiren as a beautiful woman, but disappeared from his +sight in the form of a snake, twenty feet long, covered with golden +scales and armed with iron teeth. It is now deified under the name +meaning <span class="pagenum"><a name="page279" id="page279"></a>{279}</span> the Great God of the Seven Faces, and is +identified with the Hindoo deity Siva.</p> +<p>Another idol usually seen in the Nichiren temples is Mioken. +Under this name the pole star is worshipped, usually in the form of +a Buddha with a wheel of a Buddha elect. Standing on a tortoise, +with a sword in his right hand, and with the left hand half +open—a gesture which symbolizes the male and female +principles in the physical world, and the intelligence and the law +in the spiritual world—Mioken is a striking figure. Indeed, +the list of glorified animals reminds us somewhat of the ancient +beast-worship of Egypt. In the Nichiren hierology, it is as though +the symbolical figures in the Book of Revelation had been deified +and worshipped. It is evident that all the creatures in that +Buddhist chamber of imagery, the Hokké Kiō, that could +possibly be made into gods have received apotheosis. The very book +itself is also worshipped, for the Nichirenites are extreme +believers in verbal inspiration, and pay divine honors to each jot +and tittle of the sutra, which to them is a god. They adore also +the triad of the three precious ones, the Buddha, the Rule or +Discipline, and the Organization; or, Being, Law, and Church. The +hideous idol, Fudo, "Eleven-faced," "Horse-headed," +"Thousand-handed," or girt in a robe of fiery flame, is believed by +Buddhists to represent Avalokitesvara; but, in recent times he has +been recognized, detected and recaptured by the Shintōists as +Kotohira. The goddess Kishi, and that miscellaneous assortment or +group known as the Seven Patrons of Happiness, which form a sort of +encyclopaedia or museum of curiosities derived from the cults of +India, China and Japan, are also components <span class="pagenum"><a name="page280" id="page280"></a>{280}</span> of the +amazing menagerie and pantheon of this sect, in which scholasticism +run mad, and emotional kindness to animals become maudlin, join +hands.</p> +<h3>The Ultra-realism of Northern Buddhism.</h3> +<p>Like most of the other Japanese sects, the Nichirenites claim +that their principles are contained in the Hok-ké-kiō, +which is considered the consummate white flower of Buddhist +doctrine and literature. This is the Japanese name for that famous +sutra, the Saddharma Pundarika, so often mentioned in these +chapters but a thousand-fold more so in Japanese literature. The +Ten-dai and the Nichiren sects are allied, in that both lay supreme +emphasis upon this sutra; but the former interprets it with an +intellectual, and the latter with an emotional emphasis. +Philosophically, the two bodies have much in common. Outwardly they +are very far apart. One has but to read their favorite scripture, +to see the norm upon which the gorgeous art of Japan has been +developed. Probably no single book in the voluminous canon of the +Greater Vehicle gives one so masterful a key to Japanese Buddhism. +Its pages are crowded with sensuous descriptions of all that is +attractive to both the reason and the understanding. Its +descriptions of Paradise are those which would suit also the +realistic Mussulman. Its rhetoric and visions seem to be those of +some oriental De Quincey, who, out of the dreams of an opium-eater, +has made the law-book of a religion. Translated into matter-of-fact +Chinese, none better than Nichiren knew how to present its realism +to his people.</p> +<p>In its ethical standards, which are two, this sect, like +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page281" id="page281"></a>{281}</span> most others, prescribes one course of +life for the monk, which is difficult, and another for the laity, +which is easy. The central dogma is that every part of the +universe, including not only gods and men, but animals, plants and +the very mud itself, is capable, by successive transmigrations, of +attaining to Buddhaship. In one sense, Nichirenism is the +transfiguration of atheistic evolution. In its teachings there are +also two forms: the one, largely in symbol, is intended to attract +followers; the other, the pure truth, is employed to convert the +obstinately ignorant, against their wills. As in the history of the +papal organization in Europe, a materialistic interpretation has +been given to the canons of dogma and discipline.</p> +<p>Contrary to the doctrine of those sects which teach the +attainment of salvation solely through the aid of Amida, or +Another, the Nichirenites insist that it is necessary for man to +work out his own salvation, by observing the law, by +self-examination, by reflecting on the blessings vouchsafed to the +members of this elect and orthodox sect and by constant prayer. +They consider themselves as in the only true church, and their +succession to the priesthood, the only valid one. The strict +Nichiren churchmen will not have the Shintō gods in their +household shrines, nor will they intermarry among the sects. The +Nichirenites are also very fond of controversy, and their language +in speaking of other creeds and sects is not that characteristic of +the gentle Buddha. The people of this sect are much given to the +belief in demoniacal possession, and a considerable part of the +duty and revenue-yielding business of the Nichiren priests consists +in exorcising the foxes, badgers and other demons, which have +possessed <span class="pagenum"><a name="page282" id="page282"></a>{282}</span> subjects who are generally women at +certain stages of illness or convalescence. The phenomena and +pathology of these disorders seem to be allied to those of hysteria +and hypnotism.</p> +<p>This popular sect also makes greatest use of charms, spells and +amulets, lays great store on pilgrimages, and is very fond of +noise-making instruments whether prayer-books or the wooden bells +or drums which are prominent features in their temples and revival +meetings. In one sense it is the Salvation Army of Buddhism, being +especially powerful in what strikes the eye and ear. The +Nichirenites have been well called the Ranters of Buddhism. Their +revival meetings make Bedlam seem silent, and reduce to gentle +murmurs the camp-meeting excesses with which we are familiar in our +own country. They are the most sectarian of all sects. Their +vocabulary of Billingsgate and the ribaldry employed by them even +against their Buddhist brethren, cast into the shade those of +Christian sectarians in their fiercest controversies. "A thousand +years in the lowest of the hells is the atonement prescribed by the +Nichirenites for the priests of all other sects." When the +Parliament of Religions was called in Chicago, the successors of +Nichiren, with their characteristic high-church modesty, promptly +sent letters to America, warning the world against all other +Japanese Buddhists, and denouncing especially those coming to speak +in the Parliament, as misrepresenting the true doctrines of +Buddha.</p> +<h3>Doctrinal Culmination.</h3> +<p>When the work of Nichiren had been completed, and his realistic +pantheism had been able to include <span class="pagenum"><a name="page283" id="page283"></a>{283}</span> within its great receiver +and processes of Buddha-making, everything from gods to mud, the +circle of doctrine was complete. Kōbō's leaven had now every +possible lump in which to do its work. All grades of men in Japan, +from the most devout and intellectual to the most ranting and +fanatical, could choose their sect. Yet it may be that Buddhism in +Nichiren's day was in danger of stagnation and formalism, and +needed the revival which this fiery bonze gave it; for, +undoubtedly, along with zeal even to bigotry, came fresh life and +power to the religion. This invigoration was followed by the mighty +missionary labors of the last half of the thirteenth century, which +carried Buddhism out to the northern frontier and into Yezo. +Although, from time to time minor sects were formed either limiting +or developing further the principles of the larger parent sects, +and although, even as late as the seventeenth century, a new +subsect, the Oba-ku of Zen Shu, was imported from China, yet no +further doctrinal developments of importance took place; not even +in presence of or after sixteenth century Christianity and +seventeenth century Confucianism.</p> +<p>The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries form the golden age of +Japanese Buddhism.</p> +<p>In the sixteenth century, the feudal system had split into +fragments and the normal state of the country was that of civil +war. Sect was arrayed against sect, and the Shin bonzes, +especially, formed a great military body in fortified +monasteries.</p> +<p>In the first half of the sixteenth century, came the tremendous +onslaught of Portuguese Christianity. Then followed the militarism +and bloody persecutions of Nobunaga.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page284" id="page284"></a>{284}</span> +<p>In clashing with the new Confucianism of the seventeenth +century, Buddhism utterly weakened as an intellectual power. Though +through the favor of the Yodo shōguns it recovered lands and +wealth, girded itself anew as the spy, persecutor and professed +extirpator of Christianity, and maintained its popularity with the +common people, it was, during the eighteenth century, among the +educated Japanese, as good as dead. Modern Confucianism and the +revival of Chinese learning, resulted in eighteenth century +scepticism and in nineteenth century agnosticism.</p> +<h3>The New Buddhism.</h3> +<p>In our day and time, Japanese Buddhism, in the presence of +aggressive Christianity, is out of harmony with the times, and the +needs of forty-one millions of awakened and inquiring people; and +there are deep searchings of heart. Politically disestablished and +its landed possessions sequestrated by the government, it has had, +since 1868, a history, first of depression and then of temporary +revival. Now, amid much mechanical and external activity, the +employment of the press, the organization of charity, of summer +schools of "theology," and of young men's and other associations +copied from the Christians, it is endeavoring to keep New Japan +within its pale and to dictate the future. It seeks to utilize the +old bottles for the new vintage.</p> +<p>There is, however, a movement discernible which may be called +the New Buddhism, and has not only new wine but new wineskins. It +is democratic, optimistic, empirical or practical; it welcomes +women and children; it is hospitable to science and every form of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page285" id="page285"></a>{285}</span> truth. It is catholic in spirit and has +little if any of the venom of the old Buddhist controvertists. It +is represented by earnest writers who look to natural and spiritual +means, rather than to external and mechanical methods. As a whole, +we may say that Japanese Buddhism is still strong to-day in its +grip upon the people. Though unquestionably moribund, its death +will be delayed. Despite its apparent interest in, and harmony +with, contemporaneous statements of science, it does not hold the +men of thought, or those who long for the spiritual purification +and moral elevation of Japan.</p> +<p>Are the Japanese eager for reform? Do they possess that quality +of emotion in which a tormenting sense of sin, and a burning desire +for self-surrender to holiness, are ever manifest?</p> +<p>Frankly and modestly, we give our opinion. We think not. The +average Japanese man has not come to that self-consciousness, that +searching of heart, that self-seeing of sin in the light of a Holy +God's countenance which the gospel compels. Yet this is exactly +what the Japanese need. Only Christ's gospel can give it.</p> +<p>The average man of culture in Dai Nippon has to-day no religion. +He is waiting for one. What shall be the issue, in the contest +between a faith that knows no personal God, no Creator, no +atonement, no gospel of salvation from sin, and the gospel which +bids man seek and know the great First Cause, as Father and Friend, +and proclaims that this Infinite Friend seeks man to bless him, to +bestow upon him pardon and holiness and to give him earthly +happiness and endless life? Between one religion which teaches +personality <span class="pagenum"><a name="page286" id="page286"></a>{286}</span> in God and in man, and another which +offers only a quagmire of impersonality wherein a personal god and +an individual soul exist only as the jack-lights of the marsh, mere +phosphorescent gleams of decay, who can fail to choose? Of the two +faiths, which shall be victor?</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page287" id="page287"></a>{287}</span> +<h2><a name="chap10" id="chap10">JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS +MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page288" id="page288"></a>{288}</span> +<blockquote> +<p>"The heart of my country, the power of my country, the Light of +my country, is Buddhism."—Yatsubuchi, of Japan.</p> +<p>"Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Japanese +nation grew up."—Chamberlain.</p> +<p>"Buddhism was the civilizer. It came with the freshness of +religious zeal, and religious zeal was a novelty. It come as the +bearer of civilization and enlightenment."</p> +<p>"Buddhism has had a fair field in Japan, and its outcome has not +been elevating. Its influence has been aesthetic and not ethical. +It added culture and art to Japan, as it brought with itself the +civilization of continental Asia. It gave the arts, and more, it +added the artistic atmosphere.... Reality disappears. 'This +fleeting borrowed world' is all mysterious, a dream; moonlight is +in place of the clear hot sun.... It has so fitted itself to its +surroundings that it seems indigenous."—George William +Knox.</p> +<p>"The Japanese ... are indebted to Buddhism for their present +civilization and culture, their great susceptibility to the +beauties of nature, and the high perfection of several branches of +artistic industry."—Rein.</p> +<p>"We speak of <i>God</i>, and the Japanese mind is filled with +idols. We mention <i>sin</i>, and he thinks of eating flesh or the +killing of insects. The word <i>holiness</i> reminds him of crowds +of pilgrims flocking to some famous shrine, or of some anchorite +sitting lost in religions abstraction till his legs rot off. He has +much error to unlearn before he can take in the truth-"—R.E. +McAlpine.</p> +</blockquote> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"There in a life of study, prayer, and thought,</p> +<p>Kenshin became a saintly priest—not wide</p> +<p>In intellect nor broad in sympathies,</p> +<p>For such things come not from the ascetic life;</p> +<p>But narrow, strong, and deep, and like the stream</p> +<p>That rushes fervid through the narrow path</p> +<p>Between the rooks at Nikkō—so he grasped,</p> +<p>Heart, soul, and strength, the holy Buddha's Law</p> +<p>With no room left for doubt, or sympathy</p> +<p>For other views."—Kenshin's Vision.</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p>"For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the +same, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place +incense is offered unto my name, and a pure offering, for my name +is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of +hosts."—Malachi.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page289" id="page289"></a>{289}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY +DEVELOPMENT</h2> +<h3>Missionary Buddhism the Measure of Japan's Civilization.</h3> +<p>Broadly speaking, the history of Japanese Buddhism in its +missionary development is the history of Japan. Before Buddhism +came, Japan was pre-historic. We know the country and people +through very scanty notices in the Chinese annals, by pale +reflections cast by myths, legends and poems, and from the relics +cast up by the spade and plough. Chinese civilization had filtered +in, though how much or how little we cannot tell definitely; but +since the coming of the Buddhist missionaries in the sixth century, +the landscape and the drama of human life lie before us in clear +detail. Speaking broadly again, it may be said that almost from the +time of its arrival, Buddhism became on its active side the real +religion of Japan—at least, if the word "religion" be used in +a higher sense than that connoted by either Shintō or +Confucianism. Though as a nation the Japanese of the Méiji +era are grossly forgetful of this fact, yet, as Professor +Chamberlain says,<a id="footnotetag10-1" name="footnotetag10-1"></a><a href="#footnote10-1"><sup>1</sup></a> "All +education was for centuries in Buddhist hands. Buddhism introduced +art; introduced medicine; created the folk-lore of the country; +created its dramatic poetry; deeply influenced politics, and every +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page290" id="page290"></a>{290}</span> sphere of social and intellectual +activity; in a word, Buddhism was the teacher under whose +instruction the Japanese nation grew up."</p> +<p>For many centuries all Japanese, except here and there a stern +Shintōist, or an exceptionally dogmatic Confucian, have +acknowledged these patent facts, and from the emperor to the eta, +glorified in them. It was not until modern Confucian philosophy +entered the Mikado's empire in the seventeenth century, that +hostile criticism and polemic tenets denounced Buddhism, and +declared it only fit for savages. This bitter denunciation of +Buddhism at the lips and hands of Japanese who had become Chinese +in mind, was all the more inappropriate, because Buddhism had for +over a thousand years acted as the real purveyor and disperser of +the Confucian ethics and culture in Japan. Such denunciation came +with no better grace from the Yedo Confucianists than from the +Shintō revivalists, like Motoöri, who, while execrating +everything Chinese, failed to remember or impress upon his +countrymen the fact, that almost all which constituted Japanese +civilization had been imported from the Middle Kingdom.</p> +<p>Buddhism, in its purely doctrinal development, seems to be +rather a system of metaphysics than a true religion, being a +conglomeration, or rather perhaps an agglomeration, of all sorts of +theories relating to the universe and its contents. Its doctrinal +and metaphysical side, however, is to be carefully distinguished +from its popular and external features, for in its missionary +development Buddhism may be called a system of national +improvement. The history of its propagation, in the land farthest +east from its cradle, is not only the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page291" id="page291"></a>{291}</span> outline +of the history of Japanese civilization, but is nearly the whole of +it.</p> +<h3>Pre-Buddhistic Japan.</h3> +<p>It is not perhaps difficult to reconstruct in imagination the +landscape of Japan in pre-Buddhistic days. Certainly we may, with +some accuracy, draw a contrast between the appearance of the face +of the earth then and now. Supposing that there were as many as a +million or two of souls in the Japanese Archipelago of the sixth +century—the same area which in the nineteenth century +contains over forty-one millions—we can imagine only here and +there patches of cultivated fields, or terraced gullies. There were +no roads except paths or trails. The horse was probably yet a +curiosity to the aborigines, though well known to the sons of the +gods. Sheep and goats then, as now, were unknown. The cow and the +ox were in the land, but not numerous.<a id="footnotetag10-2" name="footnotetag10-2"></a><a href="#footnote10-2"><sup>2</sup></a> In +architecture there was probably little but the primeval hut. Tools +were of the rudest description; yet it is evident that the +primitive Japanese were able to work iron and apply it to many +uses. There were other metals, though the tell-tale etymology of +their names in Japanese metallurgy, as in so many other lines of +industry and articles of daily use, points to a Chinese origin. It +is the almost incredible fact that the Japanese man or woman wore +on the person neither gold nor silver jewelry. In later times, +decoration was added to the sword hilt and pins were thrust in the +hair.</p> +<p>Possibly a prejudice against metal touching the skin, such as +exists in Korea, may account for this absence of jewelry, though +silver was not discovered until A.D. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page292" id="page292"></a>{292}</span> 675, or gold until A.D. +749. The primitive Japanese, however, did wear ornaments of ground +and polished stone, and these so numerously as to compel contrast +with the severer tastes of later ages. Some of these +magatama—curved jewels or perforated cylinders—were +made of very hard stone which requires skill to drill, cut and +polish. Among the substances used was jade, a mineral found only in +Cathay.<a id="footnotetag10-3" name="footnotetag10-3"></a><a href="#footnote10-3"><sup>3</sup></a> Indeed, we cannot follow the lines +of industry and manufactures, of personal adornment and household +decoration, of scientific terms and expressions, of literary, +intellectual and religious experiment, without continually finding +that the Japanese borrowed from Chinese storehouses. Possibly their +debt began at the time of the alleged conquest of Korea<a id="footnotetag10-4" name="footnotetag10-4"></a><a href="#footnote10-4"><sup>4</sup></a> in the third century.</p> +<p>In Japanese life, as it existed before the introduction of +Buddhism, there was, with barbaric simplicity, a measure of culture +somewhat indeed above the level of savagery, but probably very +little that could be appraised beyond that of the Iroquois Indians +in the days of their Confederacy. For though granting that there +were many interesting features of art, industry, erudition and +civilization which have been lost to the historic memory, and that +the research of scholars may hereafter discover many things now in +oblivion; yet, on the other hand, it is certain that much of what +has long been supposed to be of primitive Japanese origin, and +existent before the eighth century, has been more or less infused +or enriched with Chinese elements, or has been imported directly +from India, or Persia,<a id="footnotetag10-5" name="footnotetag10-5"></a><a href="#footnote10-5"><sup>5</sup></a> or +has crystallized into shape from the mixture of things Buddhistic +and primitive Japanese.</p> +<p>Apart from all speculation, we know that in the train +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page293" id="page293"></a>{293}</span> of the first missionaries came artisans, +and instructors in every line of human industry and achievement, +and that the importation of the inventions and appliances of "the +West"—the West then being Korea and China, and the "Far +West," India—was proportionately as general, as far-reaching, +as sensational, as electric in its effects upon the Japanese minds, +as, in our day, has been the introduction of the modern +civilization of Europe and the United States.<a id="footnotetag10-6" name="footnotetag10-6"></a><a href="#footnote10-6"><sup>6</sup></a></p> +<h3>The Purveyors of Civilization.</h3> +<p>The Buddhist missionaries, in their first "enthusiasm of +humanity," were not satisfied to bring in their train, art, +medicine, science and improvements of all sorts, but they +themselves, being often learned and practical men, became personal +leaders in the work of civilizing the country. In travelling up and +down the empire to propagate their tenets, they found out the +necessity of better roads, and accordingly, they were largely +instrumental in having them made. They dug wells, established +ferries and built bridges.<a id="footnotetag10-7" name="footnotetag10-7"></a><a href="#footnote10-7"><sup>7</sup></a> They +opened lines of communication; they stimulated traffic and the +exchange of merchandise; they created the commerce between Japan +and China; and they acted as peacemakers and mediators in the wars +between the Japanese and Koreans. For centuries they had the +monopoly of high learning. In the dark middle ages when civil war +ruled, they were the only scholars, clerks, diplomatists, mediators +and peacemakers.</p> +<p>Japanese diet became something new under the direction of the +priests. The bonzes taught the wickedness of slaughtering domestic +animals, and indeed, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page294" id="page294"></a>{294}</span> the wrong of putting any living thing to +death, so that kindness to animals has become a national trait. To +this day it may be said that Japanese boys and men are, at least +within the limits of their light, more tender and careful with all +living creatures than are those of Christendom.<a id="footnotetag10-8" name="footnotetag10-8"></a><a href="#footnote10-8"><sup>8</sup></a> The bonzes improved the daily fare +of the people, by introducing from Korea and China articles of food +hitherto unknown. They brought over new seeds and varieties of +vegetables and trees. Furthermore, necessity being the mother of +invention, not a few of the shorn brethren made up for the +prohibition of fish and flesh, by becoming expert cooks. They so +exercised their talents in the culinary art that their results on +the table are proverbial. Especially did they cultivate mushrooms, +which in taste and nourishment are good substitutes for fish.</p> +<p>The bonzes were lovers of beauty and of symbolism. They planted +the lotus, and the monastery ponds became seats of splendor, and +delights to the eye. Their teachings, metaphysical and mystical, +poetical and historical, scientific and literary, created, it may +be said, the Japanese garden, which to the refined imagination +contains far more than meets the eye of the alien.<a id="footnotetag10-9" name="footnotetag10-9"></a><a href="#footnote10-9"><sup>9</sup></a> Indeed, the oriental imitations in +earth, stone, water and verdure, have a language and suggestion far +beyond what the usual parterres and walks, borders and lines, +fountains and statuary of a western garden teach. It may be said +that our "language of flowers" is more luxuriant and eloquent than +theirs; yet theirs is very rich also, besides being more subtle in +suggestion. The bonzes instilled doctrine, not only by sermons, +books and the emblems and furniture of the temples, but they also +taught dogma and ethics by the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page295" id="page295"></a>{295}</span> flower-ponds and plots, by +the artificial landscape, and by outdoor symbolism of all kinds. To +Buddhism our thanks are due, for the innumerable miniature +continents, ranges of mountains, geographical outlines and other +horticultural allusions to their holy lands and spiritual history, +seen beside so many houses, temples and monasteries in Japan. In +their floral art, no people excels the Japanese in making leaf and +bloom teach history, religion, philosophy, aesthetics and +patriotism.</p> +<p>Not only around the human habitation,<a id="footnotetag10-10" +name="footnotetag10-10"></a><a href="#footnote10-10"><sup>10</sup></a> but within it, the new religion +brought a marvellous change. Instead of the hut, the dwelling-house +grew to spacious and comfortable proportions, every part of the +Japanese house to-day showing to the cultured student, especially +to one familiar with the ancient poetry, the lines of its origin +and development, and in the larger dwellings expressing a wealth of +suggestion and meaning. The oratory and the kami-dana or shelf +holding the gods, became features in the humblest dwelling. Among +the well-to-do there were of course the gilded ancestral tablets +and the worship of progenitors, in special rooms, with imposing +ritual and equipment, with which Buddhism did not interfere; but on +the shelf over the door of nearly every house in the land, along +with the emblems of the kami, stood images representing the avatars +of Buddha.<a id="footnotetag10-11" name="footnotetag10-11"></a><a href="#footnote10-11"><sup>11</sup></a> +There, the light ever burned, and there, offerings of food and +drink were thrice daily made. Though the family worship might vary +in its length and variety of ceremony, yet even in the home where +no regular system was followed, the burning lights and the stated +offering made, called the mind up to thoughts higher than the mere +level of providing <span class="pagenum"><a name="page296" id="page296"></a>{296}</span> for daily wants. The visitation of the +priests in time of sorrow, or of joy, or for friendly converse, +made religion sweetly human.<a id="footnotetag10-12" name="footnotetag10-12"></a><a href="#footnote10-12"><sup>12</sup></a></p> +<p>Outwardly the Buddhist architecture made a profound change in +the landscape. With a settled religion requiring gorgeous +ceremonial, the chanting of liturgies by large bodies of priests +and the formation of monasteries as centres of literary and +religious activity, there were required stability and permanence in +the imperial court itself. While, therefore, the humble village +temples arose all over the country, there were early erected, in +the place where the court and emperor dwelt, impressive religious +edifices.<a id="footnotetag10-13" name="footnotetag10-13"></a><a href="#footnote10-13"><sup>13</sup></a> +The custom of migration ceased, and a fixed spot selected as the +capital, remained such for a number of generations, until finally +Héian-jō or the place of peace, later called Kiōto, +became the "Blossom Capital" and the Sacred City for a thousand +years. At Nara, where flourished the first six sects introduced +from Korea, were built vast monasteries, temples and images, and +thence the influence of civilisation and art radiated. From the +first, forgetting its primitive democracy and purely moral claims, +Buddhism lusted for power in the State. As early as A.D. 624, +various grades were assigned to the priesthood by the +government.<a id="footnotetag10-14" name="footnotetag10-14"></a><a href="#footnote10-14"><sup>14</sup></a> +The sects eagerly sought and laid great stress upon imperial favor. +To this day they keenly enjoy the canonization of their great +teachers by letters patent from the Throne.</p> +<h3>Ministers of Art.</h3> +<p>On the establishment of the imperial capital, at Kiōto, +toward the end of the eighth century, we find <span class="pagenum"><a name="page297" id="page297"></a>{297}</span> still +further development and enlargement of those latent artistic +impulses with which the Heavenly Father endowed his Japanese child. +That capacity for beauty, both in appreciation and expression, +which in our day makes the land of dainty decoration the resort of +all those who would study oriental art in unique fulness and +decorative art in its only living school—a school founded on +the harmonious marriage of the people and the nature of the +country—is discernible from quite early ages. The people seem +to have responded gladly to the calls for gifts and labor. The +direction from which it is supposed all evils are likely to come is +the northeast; this special point of the compass being in pan-Asian +spiritual geography the focus of all malign influences. +Accordingly, the Mikado Kwammu, in A.D. 788, built on the highest +mountain called Hiyéi a superb temple and monastery, giving +it in charge of the Ten-dai sect, that there should ever be a +bulwark against the evil that might otherwise swoop upon the city. +Here, as on castellated walls, should stand the watchman, who, by +the recitation of the sacred liturgies, would keep watch and ward. +In course of time this great mountain became a city of three +thousand edifices and ten thousand monks, from which the droning of +litanies and the chanting of prayers ascended daily, and where the +chief industries were, the counting of beads on rosaries and the +burning of incense before the altars. This was in the long bright +day of a prosperity which has been nourished by vast sums obtained +from the government and nobles. One notes the contrast at the end +of our century, when "disestablished" as a religion and its bonzes +reduced to beggary, Hiyéi-san <span class="pagenum"><a name="page298" id="page298"></a>{298}</span> is used as the site of a +Summer School of Christian Theology.</p> +<p>Along with the blossoming of the lotus in every part of the +empire, bloomed the grander flowers of sculpture, of painting and +of temple architecture. It was because of the carpenter's craft in +building temples that he won his name of Dai-ku, or the great +workman. The artificers of the sunny islands cultivated an +ambition, not only to equal but to excel, their continental +brethren of the saw and hammer. Yet the carpenter was only the +leader of great hosts of artisans that were encouraged, of +craftsmen that were educated and of industries that were called +into being by the spread of Buddhism.<a id="footnotetag10-15" name="footnotetag10-15"></a><a href="#footnote10-15"><sup>15</sup></a> +It was not enough that village temples and town monasteries should +be built, under an impulse that meant volumes for the development +of the country. The ambitious leaders chose sightly spots on +mountains whence were lovely vistas of scenery, on which to erect +temples and monasteries, while it seemed to be their further +ambition to allow no mountain peak to be inaccessible. With armies +of workmen, supported by the contributions of the faithful who had +been aroused to enthusiasm by the preaching of the bonzes, great +swaths were cut in the forest; abundant timber was felled; rocky +plateaus were levelled; and elegant monastic edifices were reared, +soon to be filled with eager students, and young men in training +for the priesthood.</p> +<p>Whether the pilgrimage<a id="footnotetag10-16" name="footnotetag10-16"></a><a href="#footnote10-16"><sup>16</sup></a> +be of Shintō or of Buddhist origin, or simply a contrivance of +human nature to break the monotony of life, we need not discuss. It +is certain that if the custom be indigenous, the imported faith +adopted, absorbed and enlarged it. The peregrinations <span class="pagenum"><a name="page299" id="page299"></a>{299}</span> made to +the great temples and to the mountain tops, being meritorious +performances, soon filled the roads with more or less devout +travellers. In thus finding vent for their piety, the pilgrims +mingled sanctification with recreation, enjoying healthful +holidays, and creating trade with varied business, commercial and +commissarial activities, while enlarging also their ideas and +learning something of geography. Thus, in the course of time, it +has come to pass that Japan is a country of which almost every +square mile is known, while it is well threaded with paths, banded +with roads, and supplied to a remarkable extent with handy volumes +of description and of local history.<a id="footnotetag10-17" name="footnotetag10-17"></a><a href="#footnote10-17"><sup>17</sup></a> +Her people being well educated in their own lore and local +traditions, possessed also a voluminous literature of guidebooks +and cyclopedias of information. The devotees were, withal, well +instructed and versed in a code of politeness and courtesy, as +pilgrimage and travel became settled habits of a life. As a further +result, the national tongue became remarkably homogeneous. Broadly +speaking, it may be said that the Japanese language, unlike the +Chinese in this as it is in almost every other point, has very +little dialectic variation.<a id="footnotetag10-18" name="footnotetag10-18"></a><a href="#footnote10-18"><sup>18</sup></a> +Except in some few remote eddies lying outside the general +currents, there is a uniform national speech. This is largely owing +to that annual movement of pilgrims in the summer months +especially, habitual during many centuries.</p> +<p>Buddhism coming to Japan by means of the Great Vehicle, or with +the features of the Northern development, was the fertile mother of +art. In the exterior equipment of the temple, instead of the +Shintō thatch, the tera or Buddhist edifice called for tiles on +its <span class="pagenum"><a name="page300" id="page300"></a>{300}</span> sweeping roof, with ornamental +terra-cotta at the end of its imposing roof-ridge, or for sheets of +copper soon to be made verdant, then sombre and then sable by age +and atmosphere. Outwardly the edifice required the application of +paint and lacquer in rich tints, its recurved roof-edges gladly +welcoming the crest and monogram of the feudal prince, and its +railings and stairways accepting willingly the bronze caps and +ornaments. In front of its main edifice was the imposing gateway +with proportions almost as massive as the temple itself, with +prodigal wealth of curiously fitted and richly carved, painted and +gilded supports and morticings, with all the fancies and adornments +of the carpenter's art, and having as its frontlet and blazon the +splendidly gilt name, style or title. Often these were impressive +to eye and mind, to an extent which the terse Chinese or curt +monosyllables could scarcely suggest to an alien.<a id="footnotetag10-19" name="footnotetag10-19"></a><a href="#footnote10-19"><sup>19</sup></a> The number, forms and positions +of the various parts of the temple easily lent themselves to the +expression of the elaborate symbolism of the India faith.</p> +<h3>Resemblances between Buddhism and Christianity.</h3> +<p>Within the sacred edifice everything to strike the senses was +lavishly displayed. The passion of the East, as opposed to Greek +simplicity, is for decoration; yet in Japan, decorative art, though +sometimes bursting out in wild profusion or running to unbridled +lengths, was in the main a regulated mass of splendor in which +harmony ruled. Differing though the Buddhist sects do in their +temple furniture and altar decorations, they are, most of them, so +elaborately full in their equipment <span class="pagenum"><a name="page301" id="page301"></a>{301}</span> as to suggest repeatedly +the similarity between the Roman Catholic organization, altars, +vestments and ritual, and those of Buddhism, and remarks on this +point seem almost commonplace. Almost everything in Roman +Catholicism is found in Buddhism,<a id="footnotetag10-20" name="footnotetag10-20"></a><a href="#footnote10-20"><sup>20</sup></a> +and one may even say, <i>vice versa</i>, at least in things +exterior. We take the liberty of transcribing here a passage from +the chapter entitled "Christianity and Foreigners" in The Mikado's +Empire, written twenty years ago.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>"Furthermore, the transition from the religion of India to that +of Rome was extremely easy. The very idols of Buddha served, after +a little alteration with the chisel, for images of Christ. The +Buddhist saints were easily transformed into the Twelve Apostles. +The Cross took the place of the <i>torii</i>. It was emblazoned on +the helmets and banners of the warriors, and embroidered on their +breasts. The Japanese soldiers went forth to battle like Christian +crusaders. In the roadside shrine Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy, +made way for the Virgin, the mother of God. Buddhism was beaten +with its own weapons. Its own artillery was turned against it. +Nearly all the Christian churches were native temples, sprinkled +and purified. The same bell, whose boom had so often quivered the +air announcing the orisons and matins of paganism, was again +blessed and sprinkled, and called the same hearers to mass and +confession; the same lavatory that fronted the temple served for +holy water or baptismal font; the same censer that swung before +Amida could be refilled to waft Christian incense; the new convert +could use unchanged his old beads, bells, candles, incense, and all +the paraphernalia of his old faith in celebration of the new.</p> +<p>"Almost everything that is distinctive in the Roman form of +Christianity is to be found in Buddhism: images, pictures, lights, +altars, incense, vestments, masses, beads, wayside shrines, +monasteries, nunneries, celibacy, fastings, vigils, retreats, +pilgrimages, mendicant vows, shorn heads, orders, habits, uniforms, +nuns, convents, purgatory, saintly and priestly <span class="pagenum"><a name="page302" id="page302"></a>{302}</span> +intercession, indulgences, works of supererogation, pope, +archbishops, abbots, abbesses, monks, neophytes, relics and +relic-worship, exclusive burial-ground, etc., etc., etc."<a id="footnotetag10-21" name="footnotetag10-21"></a><a href="#footnote10-21"><sup>21</sup></a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Nevertheless, these resemblances are almost wholly superficial, +and have little or nothing to do with genuine religion. Such +matters are of aesthetic and of commercial, rather than of +spiritual, interest. They concern priestcraft and vulgar +superstition rather than truth and righteousness. "In point of +dogma a whole world of thought separates Buddhism from every form +of Christianity. Knowledge, enlightenment, is the condition of +Buddhistic grace, not faith. Self-perfectionment is the means of +salvation, not the vicarious sufferings of a Redeemer. Not eternal +life is the end and active participation in unceasing prayer and +praise, but absorption into Nirvana (Jap. Nehan), practical +annihilation."<a id="footnotetag10-22" name="footnotetag10-22"></a><a href="#footnote10-22"><sup>22</sup></a> +At certain points, the metaphysic of Buddhism is so closely like +that of Christian theology, that a connection on reciprocal +exchange of ideas is not only possible but probable. In their +highest thinking,<a id="footnotetag10-23" name="footnotetag10-23"></a><a href="#footnote10-23"><sup>23</sup></a> +the sincere Christian and Buddhist approach each other in their +search after truth.</p> +<p>The key-word of Buddhism is Ingwa, which means law or fate, the +chain of cause and effect in which man is found, atheistic +"evolution applied to ethics," the grinding machinery of a universe +in which is no Creator-Father, no love, pity or heart. If the cry +of the human spirit has compelled the makers of Buddhist theology +to furnish a goddess of mercy, it is but one subordinate being +among many. If a boundlessly compassionate Amida is thought out, it +is an imaginary being. The symbol of Buddhism is the wheel of the +law, which revolves as mercilessly as ceaselessly.<a id="footnotetag10-24" name="footnotetag10-24"></a><a href="#footnote10-24"><sup>24</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page303" id="page303"></a>{303}</span> +<p>The key-word of Christianity is love, and its message is grace. +Its symbol is the cross, and its sacrament the supper, in token of +the infinite love of the Father who wrote his revelation in a human +life. The resemblances between the religions of Gautama and of +Jesus, are purely superficial. They appear to the outward man. The +inward man cannot, even from Darien peaks of observation or in his +scrutiny <i>de profundis</i>, discover any vital or historical +connection between the two faiths, Christianity and Buddhism. In +his theology the Christian says God is all; but the Buddhist says +All is god. Buddhism says destroy the passions: Christianity says +control them. The Buddhist's watchword is Nirvana. The Christian's +is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus.<a id="footnotetag10-25" name="footnotetag10-25"></a><a href="#footnote10-25"><sup>25</sup></a></p> +<h3>The Temples and Their Symbolism.</h3> +<p>In the vast airy halls of a Buddhist temple one will often see +columns made of whole tree-trunks, sheeted with gold and supporting +massive ceilings which are empanelled and gorgeous with every hue +and tint known to the palette. Besides the coloring, carving and +gilding, the rich symbolism strikes the eye and touches the +imagination. It is a pleasing study for one familiar with the +background and world of Buddhism, to note their revelation and +expression in art, as well as to discern what the varying sects +accept or reject. There is the lotus, in leaf, bud, flower and +calyx;<a id="footnotetag10-26" name="footnotetag10-26"></a><a href="#footnote10-26"><sup>26</sup></a> the diamond in every form, real +and imaginary, with the vagra or emblem of conquest; while on the +altars, beside the central image, be it that of Shaka or of Amida, +are Bodhisattvas or Buddhas by brevet, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page304" id="page304"></a>{304}</span> beings in +every state of existence, as well as deities of many names and +forms. Abstract ideas and attributes are expressed in the art +language not only of Japan, Korea and China, but also in that of +India and even of Persia and Greece,<a id="footnotetag10-27" name="footnotetag10-27"></a><a href="#footnote10-27"><sup>27</sup></a> +until one wonders how an Aryan religion, like Buddhism, could have +so conquered and unified the many nations of Chinese Asia. He +wonders, indeed, until he remembers how it has itself been +transformed and changed in popular substance, from lofty +metaphysics and ethics into pantheism for the shorn, and into +polytheism for the unshorn.</p> +<p>Looking at early Japanese pictures with the eye of the +historian, as well as of the connoisseur of art, one will see that +the first real school of Japanese art was Buddhistic. The modern +school of pictorial art, named from the monkish phrase, +Ukioyé—pictures of the Passing World—is indeed +very interesting to the western student, because it seems to be +more in touch with the human nature of the whole world, as distinct +from what is local, Chinese, or sectarian. Yet, casting a glance +back of the mediaeval Kano, Chinese and Yamato-Tosa styles, he +finds that Buddhism gave Japan her first examples of and stimulus +to pictorial art.<a id="footnotetag10-28" name="footnotetag10-28"></a><a href="#footnote10-28"><sup>28</sup></a> +He sees further that instead of the monochrome of Chinese exotic +art, or the first rude attempts of the native pencil, Buddhism +began Japanese sculpture, carving and nearly every other form of +plastic or pictorial representation, in which are all the elements +of Northern Buddhism, as so lavishly represented, for example, in +that great sutra which is the book, <i>par excellence</i>, of +Japanese Buddhism, the Saddharma Pundarika.</p> +<p>Turning from text to art, we behold the golden lakes of joy, the +mountain of gems, the floating female angels <span class="pagenum"><a name="page305" id="page305"></a>{305}</span> with +their marvellous drapery and lovely faces, the gentle benignity of +the goddesses of mercy, the rays of light and the glory streaming +from face and head of the holy ones, the splendors of costume, the +varied beauties of the lotus, the hosts of ministering +intelligences, the luxuriant symbolism, the purple clouds, the +wheel of the law, the swastika<a id="footnotetag10-29" name="footnotetag10-29"></a><a href="#footnote10-29"><sup>29</sup></a> +or double cross, and the vagra,<a id="footnotetag10-30" name="footnotetag10-30"></a><a href="#footnote10-30"><sup>30</sup></a> +or diamond trefoil. All that color, perfume, sensuous delights, art +and luxury can suggest, are here, together with all the various +orders of beings that inhabit the Buddhist universe; and these are +set forth in their fulness and detail. In the six conditions of +sentient existence are devas or gods, men, asuras or monsters, +pretas or demons, beasts, and beings in hell. In portraying these, +the artists and sculptors do not always slavishly follow tradition +or uniformity. The critical eye notes nearly as much genius, wit +and variety as in the mediaeval cathedral architecture of Europe. +Probably the most popular groups of idols are those of the seven or +the thirty-three Kuannon, of the six Jizo<a id="footnotetag10-31" +name="footnotetag10-31"></a><a href="#footnote10-31"><sup>31</sup></a> or compassionate helpers, and of +the sixteen or the five hundred Rakan<a id="footnotetag10-32" name="footnotetag10-32"></a><a href="#footnote10-32"><sup>32</sup></a> +or circles of primitive disciples of Gautama. The angelic beings +and sweetly singing birds of Paradise are also favorite subjects of +the artists.</p> +<p>One who has lived alongside the great temples; who knows the +daily routine and sees what powerful engines of popular instruction +they are; who has been present at the great festivals and looked +upon the mighty kitchens and refectories in operation; and who has +gone in and out among their monasteries and examined their records, +their genealogies and their relics, can see how powerfully Buddhism +has moulded the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page306" id="page306"></a>{306}</span> whole life of the people through long +ages. The village temple is often the epitome and repository of the +social life of the people now living, and of the story of their +ancestors for generations upon generations past. It is the +historico-genealogical society, the museum, the repository of +documents and trophies, the place of national thanksgiving and +praise, of public sorrow and farewell, a place of rendezvous and +separation, the starting-point of procession, and the centre of +festival and joy; and thus it is linked with the life of the +people.</p> +<p>In other respects, also, the temple is like the old village +cathedral of mediaeval Europe. It is in many sects the centre of +popular pleasure of all sorts, both reputable and disreputable. Not +only shops and bazaars, fairs and markets, games and sports, +cluster around it, but also curiosities and works of popular art, +the relics of war, and the trophies of travel and adventure. Except +that Buddhism—outside of India—never had the unity of +European Christianity, the Buddhist temple is the mirror and +encyclopaedia both of history and of contemporary life. As fame and +renown are necessary for the glory of the place or the structure, +favorite gods, or rather their idols, are frequently carried about +on "starring" tours. At the opening to public view of some famous +image or relic, a great festival or revival called Kai-chō is +held, which becomes a scene of trade and merry-making like that of +the mediaeval fair or kermis in Europe. The far-oriental is able as +skilfully as his western confrère, to mix business and +religion and to suppose that gain is godliness. Further, the +manufacture of legend becomes a thriving industry; while the +not-infrequent sensation of a popular miracle <span class="pagenum"><a name="page307" id="page307"></a>{307}</span> is +manipulated by the bonzes—for priestcraft in all ages and +climes is akin throughout the world. It is no wonder that some +honest Japanese, incensed at the shams utilized by the religious, +has struck out like coin the proverb that rings true—"Good +doctrine needs no miracle."</p> +<h3>The Bell and the Cemetery.</h3> +<p>The Buddhist missionaries, and especially the founders of +temples, thoroughly understood the power of natural beauty to +humble, inspire and soothe the soul of man. The instinctive love of +the Japanese people for fine scenery, was made an ally of faith. +The sites for temples were chosen with reference to their imposing +surroundings or impressive vistas. Whether as spark-arresters and +protectives against fire, or to compel reverent awe, the loftiest +evergreen trees are planted around the sacred structure. These +"trees of Jehovah" are compellers to reverence. The <i>alien's</i> +hat comes off instinctively—though it may be less convenient +to shed boots than sandals—as he enters the sacred +structure.</p> +<p>The great tongueless bell is another striking accessory to the +temple services. Near at hand stands the belfry out of which boom +forth tidings of the hours. In the flow of time and years, the note +of the bell becomes more significant, and in old age solemn, making +in the lapse of centuries an educating power in seriousness. "As +sad as a temple bell" is the coinage of popular speech. Many of the +inscriptions, though with less of sunny hope and joy than even +Christian grave-stones bear, are yet mournfully beautiful.<a id="footnotetag10-33" name="footnotetag10-33"></a><a href="#footnote10-33"><sup>33</sup></a> They preach Buddhism in its +reality. Whereas, the general <span class="pagenum"><a name="page308" id="page308"></a>{308}</span> associations of the +Christian spire and belfry, apart from the note of time, are those +of joy, invitation and good news, those of the tongueless and +log-struck bells of Buddhism are sombre and saddening. "As merry as +a marriage bell," could never be said of the boom from a Buddhist +temple, even though it pour waves of sound through sunny leagues. +There is a vast difference between the peal and play of the chimes +of Europe and the liquid melody which floods the landscape of +Chinese Asia. The one music, high in air, seems ever to tell of +faith, triumph and aspiration; the other in minor notes, from bells +hung low on yokes, perpetually echoes the pessimism of despair, the +folly of living and the joy that anticipates its end.</p> +<p>Above all, the temple holds and governs the cemetery<a id="footnotetag10-34" name="footnotetag10-34"></a><a href="#footnote10-34"><sup>34</sup></a> as well as the cradle; while +from it emanate influences that enwrap and surround the villager, +from birth to death. Since the outlawry of Christianity, and +especially since the division of the empire into Buddhist parishes, +the bonzes have had the oversight of birth, death, marriage and +divorce. Particularly tenacious, in common with priestcraft all +over the world, is their clutch upon what they call "consecrated +ground." In a large sense Japan is still, what China has always +been, a country governed by the graveyard. These cities of the dead +are usually kept in attractive order and made beautiful with +flowers in memoriam. The study of epitaphs and mortuary +architecture, though not without elements bordering on the +ludicrous, is enjoyed by the thoughtful student.<a id="footnotetag10-35" name="footnotetag10-35"></a><a href="#footnote10-35"><sup>35</sup></a></p> +<blockquote> +<p>In every community the inhabitants are enrolled at birth at the +local temple, whose priests are the authorized religious teachers, +and are always expected to take charge of the funerals <span class="pagenum"><a name="page309" id="page309"></a>{309}</span> of those +whose names are thus enrolled. So long as an individual remains in +the region of the family temple, the tie which binds him to it is +exceedingly difficult to break; but if he moves away he is no +longer bound by this tie. This explains the fact, so often observed +by missionaries, that the membership of Christian churches is made +up almost entirely of people who have come from other localities. +In the city of Osaka, for instance, it is a very rare thing to find +a native Osakan in any of the churches. The same is true in all +parts of the country. So long as a Japanese remains in the +neighborhood of his family temple it is almost impossible to get +him to break the temple tie and join a Christian church; but when +he moves to another place he is free to do as he likes.<a id="footnotetag10-36" name="footnotetag10-36"></a><a href="#footnote10-36"><sup>36</sup></a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>This statement of a resident in modern Japan will long remain +true for a large part of the empire.</p> +<h3>Political and Military Influences.</h3> +<p>A volume might be written and devoted to Japanese Buddhism as a +political power; for, having quickly obtained intellectual +possession of the court and emperor, it dictated the policies of +the rulers. In A.D. 624, it was recognized as a state religion, and +the hierarchy of priests was officially established. At this date +there were 46 temples and monasteries, with 816 monks and 569 nuns. +As early as the eighth century, beginning with Shōmu, who +reigned A.D. 724-728, and who with his daughter, afterward the +female Mikado, became a disciple of Shaka, the habit of the +emperors becoming monks, shaving their heads and retiring from +public life, came in vogue and lasted until near the nineteenth +century. By this means the bonzes were soon enabled to call +Buddhism "the people's religion," and to secure the resources of +the national treasury as <span class="pagenum"><a name="page310" +id="page310"></a>{310}</span> an aid to their temple and monastery +building, and for the erection of those images and wayside shrines +on which so many millions of dollars have been lavished. In +addition to this subsidized propaganda, the Buddhist confessor was +too often able, by means of the wife, concubine, or other female +member of the household, imperial or noble, to dictate the imperial +policy in accordance with monkish or priestly ideas. Ugéno +Dō-kiō, a monk, is believed to have aspired to the throne. +Being made premier by the Empress Kō-ken, whose passion for him +is the scandal of history, he made no scruple of extending the +power as well as the influence of the Buddhist hierarchy.</p> +<p>Buddhism had also a distinct influence on the military history +of the country,<a id="footnotetag10-37" name="footnotetag10-37"></a><a href="#footnote10-37"><sup>37</sup></a> +and this was greatest during the civil wars of the rival Mikados +(1336-1392), when the whole country was a camp and two lines of +nominees claimed to be descendants of the sun-goddess. Japan's only +foreign wars have been in the neighboring peninsula of Korea, and +thither the bonzes went with the armies in the expeditions of the +early centuries, and in that great invasion of 1592-1597, which has +left a scar even to this day on the Korean mind. At home, Buddhist +priests only too gladly accompanied the imperial armies of conquest +and occupation. During centuries of activity in the southwest and +in the far east and extreme north, the military brought the +outlying portions of the empire, throughout the whole archipelago, +under the sway of the Yamato tribe and the Mikado's dominion. The +shorn clerks not only lived in camp, ministered to the sick and +shrived the dying soldier, but wrote texts for the banners, +furnished the amulets <span class="pagenum"><a name="page311" id="page311"></a>{311}</span> and war cries, and were ever assistant +and valuable in keeping up the temper and morals of the +armies.<a id="footnotetag10-38" name="footnotetag10-38"></a><a href="#footnote10-38"><sup>38</sup></a> +No sooner was the campaign over and peace had become the order of +the day, than the enthusiastic missionaries began to preach and to +teach in the pacified region. They set up the shrines, anon started +the school and built the temple; usually, indeed, with the aid of +the law and the government, acting as agents of a +politico-ecclesiastical establishment, yet with energy and +consecration.</p> +<p>In later feudal days, when the soldier classes obtained the +upper hand, overawed the court and Mikado and gradually supplanted +the civil authority, introducing feudalism and martial law, the +bonzes often represented the popular and democratic side. +Protesting against arbitrary government, they came into collision +with the warrior rulers, so as to be exposed to imprisonment and +the sword. Yet even as refugees and as men to whom the old seats of +activity no longer offered success or comfort, they went off into +the distant and outlying provinces, preaching the old tenets and +the new fashions in theology. Thus again they won hosts of +converts, built monasteries, opened fresh paths and were purveyors +of civilization.</p> +<p>The feudal ages in Japan bred the same type of militant priest +known in Europe—the military bishop and the soldier monk. So +far from Japan's being the "Land of Great Peace," and Buddhism's +being necessarily gentle and non-resistant, we find in the +chequered history of the island empire many a bloody battle between +the monks on horseback and in armor.<a id="footnotetag10-39" name="footnotetag10-39"></a><a href="#footnote10-39"><sup>39</sup></a> +Rival sectarians kept the country disquieted for years. Between +themselves and their favored laymen, and the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page312" id="page312"></a>{312}</span> enemy, +consisting of the rival forces, lay and clerical, in like array, +many a bloody battle was fought.</p> +<p>The writer lived for one year in Echizen, which, in the +fifteenth century, was the battle-ground for over fifty years, of +warring monks. The abbot of the Monastery of the Original Vow, of +the Shin sect, in Kiōto, had built before the main edifice a +two-storied gate, which was expected to throw into the shade every +other gateway in Japan, and especially to humble the pride of the +monks of the Tendai sect, in Hiyéizan, The monks of the +mountain, swarming down into the capital city, attacked the gate +and monastery of the Shin sect and burned the former to ashes. The +abbot thus driven off by fire, fled northward, and, joined by a +powerful body of adherents, made himself possessor of the rich +provinces of Kaga and Echizen, holding this region for half a +century, until able to rebuild the mighty fortress-monasteries near +Kiōto and at Osaka.</p> +<p>These strongholds of the fighting Shin priests had become so +powerful as arsenals and military headquarters, that in 1570, +Nobunaga, skilful general as he was, and backed by sixty thousand +men, was unsuccessful in his attempt to reduce them. For ten years, +the war between Nobunaga and the Shin sectarians kept the country +in disorder. It finally ended in the conflagration of the great +religious fortress at Osaka, and the retreat of the monks to +another part of the country. By their treachery and incendiarism, +the shavelings prevented the soldiers from enjoying the prizes.</p> +<p>To detail the whole history of the fighting monks would be +tedious. They have had a foothold for many centuries and even to +the present time, in every province except that of Satsuma. There, +because they <span class="pagenum"><a name="page313" id="page313"></a>{313}</span> treacherously aided the great +Hidéyoshi to subdue the province, the fiery clansmen, never +during Tokugawa days, permitted a Buddhist priest to come.<a id="footnotetag10-40" name="footnotetag10-40"></a><a href="#footnote10-40"><sup>40</sup></a></p> +<h3>Literature, and Education.</h3> +<p>In its literary and scholastic development, Japanese Buddhism on +its popular educational side deserves great praise. Although the +Buddhist canon<a id="footnotetag10-41" name="footnotetag10-41"></a><a href="#footnote10-41"><sup>41</sup></a> +was never translated into the vernacular,<a id="footnotetag10-42" +name="footnotetag10-42"></a><a href="#footnote10-42"><sup>42</sup></a> and while the library of native +Buddhism, in the way of commentary or general literature, reflects +no special credit upon the priests, yet the historian must award +them high honor, because of the part taken by them as educators and +schoolmasters.<a id="footnotetag10-43" name="footnotetag10-43"></a><a href="#footnote10-43"><sup>43</sup></a> +Education in ancient and mediaeval times was, among the laymen, +confined almost wholly to the imperial court, and was considered +chiefly to be, either as an adjunct to polite accomplishments, or +as valuable especially in preparing young men for political +office.<a id="footnotetag10-44" name="footnotetag10-44"></a><a href="#footnote10-44"><sup>44</sup></a> +From the first introduction of letters until well into the +nineteenth century, there was no special provision for education +made by the government, except that, in modern and recent times in +the castle towns of the Daimiōs, there were schools of Chinese +learning for the Samurai. Private schools and school-masters<a id="footnotetag10-45" name="footnotetag10-45"></a><a href="#footnote10-45"><sup>45</sup></a> were also creditably numerous. +In original literature, poetry, fiction and history, as well as in +the humbler works of compilation, in the making of text-books and +in descriptive lore, the pens of many priests have been busy.<a id="footnotetag10-46" name="footnotetag10-46"></a><a href="#footnote10-46"><sup>46</sup></a> The earliest biography written +in Japan was of Shōtoku, the great lay patron of Buddhism. In +the ages of war the monastery was the ark of preservation amid a +flood of desolation.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page314" id="page314"></a>{314}</span> +<p>The temple schools were early established, and in the course of +centuries became at times almost coextensive with the empire. +Besides the training of the neophytes in the Chinese language and +the vernacular, there were connected with thousands of temples, +schools in which the children, not only of the well-to-do, but +largely of the people, were taught the rudiments of education, +chiefly reading and writing. Most of the libraries of the country +were those in monasteries. Although it is not probable that +Kōbō invented the Kana or common script, yet it is reasonably +certain that the bonzes<a id="footnotetag10-47" name="footnotetag10-47"></a><a href="#footnote10-47"><sup>47</sup></a> +were the chief instrument in the diffusion and popularization of +that simple system of writing, which made it possible to carry +literature down into the homes of the merchant and peasant, and +enabled even women and children to beguile the tedium of their +lives. Thus the people expanded their thoughts through the medium +of the written, and later of the printed, page.<a id="footnotetag10-48" name="footnotetag10-48"></a><a href="#footnote10-48"><sup>48</sup></a> Until modern centuries, when the +school of painters, which culminated in Hokŭsai and his +contemporaries, brought a love of art down to the lowest classes of +the people, the only teacher of pictorial and sculptural art for +the multitude, was Buddhism. So strong is this popular delight in +things artistic that probably, to this passion as much as to the +religious instinct, we owe many of the wayside shrines and images, +the symbolical and beautifully prepared landscapes, and those stone +stairways which slope upward toward the shrines on the hill-tops. +In Japan, art is not a foreign language; it is vernacular.</p> +<p>Thus, while we gladly point out how Buddhism, along the paths of +exploration, commerce, invention, sociology, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page315" id="page315"></a>{315}</span> military +and political influence, education and literature, not only +propagated religion, but civilized Japan,<a id="footnotetag10-49" +name="footnotetag10-49"></a><a href="#footnote10-49"><sup>49</sup></a> it is but in the interest of +fairness and truth that we point out that wherein the great system +was deficient. If we make comparison with Christendom and the +religion of Jesus, it is less with the purpose of the polemic who +must perhaps necessarily disparage, and more with the idea of +making contrast between what we have seen in Japan and what we have +enjoyed as commonplace in the United States and Europe.</p> +<h3>Things Which Buddhism Left Undone.</h3> +<p>In the thirteen hundred years of the life of Buddhism in Japan, +what are the fruits, and what are the failures? Despite its +incessant and multifarious activities, one looks in vain for the +hospital, the orphan asylum, the home for elderly men or women or +aged couples, or the asylum for the insane, and much less, for that +vast and complicated system of organized charities, which, even +amid our material greed of gain, make cities like New York, or +London, or Chicago, so beautiful from the point of view of +humanity. Buddhism did indeed teach kindness to animals, making +even the dog, though ownerless and outcast, in a sense sacred. +Because of his faith in the doctrine of the transmigration of +souls, the toiling laborer will keep his wheels or his feet from +harming the cat or dog or chicken in the road, even though it be at +risk and trouble and with added labor to himself. The pious will +buy the live birds or eels from the old woman who sits on the +bridge, in order to give them life and liberty again in air or +water. The sacred <span class="pagenum"><a name="page316" id="page316"></a>{316}</span> rice is for sale at the temples, not +only to feed but to fatten the holy pigeons.</p> +<p>Yet, while all this care is lavished on animals, the human being +suffers.<a id="footnotetag10-50" name="footnotetag10-50"></a><a href="#footnote10-50"><sup>50</sup></a> +Buddhism is kind to the brute, and cruel to man. Until the influx +of western ideas in recent years, the hospital and the orphanage +did not exist in Japan, despite the gentleness and tenderness of +Shaka, who, with all his merits, deserted his wife and babe in +order to enlighten mankind.<a id="footnotetag10-51" name="footnotetag10-51"></a><a href="#footnote10-51"><sup>51</sup></a> +If Buddhism is not directly responsible for the existence of that +class of Japanese pariahs called <i>hi-nin</i>, or not-human, the +name and the idea are borrowed from the sutras; while the +execration of all who prepare or sell the flesh of animals is +persistently taught in the sacred books. These unfortunate bearers +of the human image, during twelve hundred years and until the fiat +of the present illustrious emperor made them citizens, were not +reckoned in the census, nor was the land on which they dwelt +measured. The imperial edict which finally elevated the Eta to +citizenship, was suggested by one whose life, though known to men +as that of a Confucian, was probably hid with Christ, Yokoi +Héishiro.<a id="footnotetag10-52" name="footnotetag10-52"></a><a href="#footnote10-52"><sup>52</sup></a> +The emperor Mutsuhito, 123d of the line of Japan, born on the day +when Perry was on the Mississippi and ready to sail, placed over +these outcast people in 1871, the protecting aegis of the +law.<a id="footnotetag10-53" name="footnotetag10-53"></a><a href="#footnote10-53"><sup>53</sup></a> Until that time, the people in +this unfortunate class, numbering probably a million, or, as some +say, three millions, were compelled to live outside of the limits +of human habitation, having no lights which society or the law was +bound to respect. They were given food or drink only when +benevolence might be roused; but the donor would never again touch +the vessel in which the offering was <span class="pagenum"><a name="page317" id="page317"></a>{317}</span> made. The Eta,<a id="footnotetag10-54" name="footnotetag10-54"></a><a href="#footnote10-54"><sup>54</sup></a> though in individual cases +becoming measurably rich, rotted and starved, and were made the +filth, and off-scouring of the earth, because they were the +butchers, the skinners, the leather workers, and thus handled dead +animals, being made also the executioners and buriers of the dead. +After a quarter of a century the citizens, whose ancestry is not +forgotten, suffer social ostracism even more than do the freed +slaves of our country, though between them and the other Japanese +there is no color line, but only the streak of difference which +Buddhism created and has maintained. Nevertheless, let it be said +to the eternal honor of Shin Shu and of some of the minor sects, +that they were always kind and helpful to the Eta.</p> +<p>Furthermore it would be hard to discover Buddhist missionary +activities among the Ainos, or benefits conferred upon them by the +disciples of Gautama. One would suppose that the Buddhists, +professing to be believers in spiritual democracy, would be equally +active among all sorts and conditions of men; but they have not +been so. Even in the days when the regions of the Ebisu or +barbarians (Yezo) extended far southward upon the main island, the +missionary bonze was conspicuous by his absence among these people. +It would seem as though the popular notion that the Ainos are the +offspring of dogs, had been fed by prejudices inculcated by +Buddhism. It has been reserved for Christian aliens to reduce the +language of these simple savages to writing, and to express in it +for their spiritual benefit the ideas and literature of a religion +higher than their own, as well as to erect church edifices and +build hospitals.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page318" id="page318"></a>{318}</span> +<h3>The Attitude Toward Woman.</h3> +<p>In its attitude toward woman, which is perhaps one of the +crucial tests of a religion as well as of a civilization, Buddhism +has somewhat to be praised and much to be blamed for. It is +probable that the Japanese woman owes more to Buddhism than to +Confucianism, though relatively her position was highest under +Shintō. In Japan the women are the freest in Asia, and probably +the best treated among any Asiatic nation, but this is not because +of Gautama's teaching.<a id="footnotetag10-55" name="footnotetag10-55"></a><a href="#footnote10-55"><sup>55</sup></a> +Very early in its history Japanese Buddhism welcomed womanhood to +its fraternity and order,<a id="footnotetag10-56" name="footnotetag10-56"></a><a href="#footnote10-56"><sup>56</sup></a> +yet the Japanese <i>ama, bikuni</i>, or nun, never became a sister +of mercy, or reached, even within a measurable distance, the +dignity of the Christian lady in the nunnery. In European history +the abbess is a notable figure. She is hardly heard of beyond the +Japanese nunnery, even by the native scholar—except in +fiction.</p> +<p>So far as we can see, the religion founded by one who deserted +his wife and babe did nothing to check concubinage or polygamy. It +simply allowed these things, or ameliorated their ancient barbaric +conditions through the law of kindness. Nevertheless, it brought +education and culture within the family as well as within the +court. It would be an interesting question to discuss how far the +age of classic vernacular prose or the early mediaeval literature +of romance, which is almost wholly the creation of woman,<a id="footnotetag10-57" name="footnotetag10-57"></a><a href="#footnote10-57"><sup>57</sup></a> is due to Buddhism, or how far +the credit belongs, by induction or reaction, to the Chinese +movement in favor of learning. Certainly, the faith of India +touches and feeds <span class="pagenum"><a name="page319" id="page319"></a>{319}</span> the imagination far more than does that +of China. Certainly also, the animating spirit of most of the +popular literature is due to Buddhistic culture. The Shin sect, +which permits the marriage of the priests and preaches the +salvation of woman, probably leads all others in according honor to +her as well as in elevating her social position.</p> +<p>Buddhism, like Roman Catholicism, and as compared to +Confucianism which is protestant and masculine, is feminine in its +type. In Japan the place of the holy Virgin Mary is taken by +Kuannon, the goddess of mercy; and her shrine is one of the most +popular of all. Much the same may be said of Benten, the queen of +the heaven and mistress of the seas. The angels of Buddhism are +always feminine, and, as in the unscriptural and pagan conception +of Christian angels, have wings.<a id="footnotetag10-58" name="footnotetag10-58"></a><a href="#footnote10-58"><sup>58</sup></a> +So also in the legends of Gautama, in the Buddhist lives of the +saints, and in legendary lore as well as in glyptic and pictorial +art, the female being transfigured in loveliness is a striking +figure. Nevertheless, after all is summed up that can possibly be +said in favor of Buddhism, the position it accords to woman is not +only immeasurably beneath that given by Christianity, but is below +that conceded by Shintō, which knows not only goddesses and +heroines, but also priestesses and empresses.<a id="footnotetag10-59" name="footnotetag10-59"></a><a href="#footnote10-59"><sup>59</sup></a></p> +<p>According to the popular ethical view as photographed in +language, literature and art, jealousy is always represented by a +female demon. Indeed, most of the tempters, devils, and +transformations of humanity into malign beings, whether pretas, +asuras, oni, foxes, badgers, or cats, are females. As the Chinese +ideographs associate all things weak or vile with women, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page320" id="page320"></a>{320}</span> so the tell-tale words of Japanese daily +speech are but reflections of the dogmas coined in the Buddhist +mint. In Japanese, chastity means not moral cleanliness without +regard to sex, but only womanly duties. For, while the man is +allowed a loose foot, the woman is expected not only to be +absolutely spotless, but also never to show any jealousy, however +wide the husband may roam, or however numerous may be the +concubines in his family. In a word, there is the double standard +of morals, not only of priest and laity, but of man and woman. The +position of the Japanese woman even of to-day, despite that +eagerness once shown to educate her—an eagerness which soon +cooled in the government schools, but which keeps an even pulse in +the Christian home and college—is still relatively one of +degradation as compared with that of her sister in Christendom. For +this, the mid-Asian religion is not wholly responsible, yet it is +largely so.</p> +<h3>Influence on the Japanese Character.</h3> +<p>In regard to the influence of Buddhism upon the morals and +character of the Japanese, there is much to be said in praise, and +much also in criticism. It has aided powerfully to educate the +people in habits of gentleness and courtesy, but instead of +aspiration and expectancy of improvement, it has given to them that +spirit of hopeless resignation which is so characteristic of the +Japanese masses. Buddhism has so dominated common popular +literature, daily life and speech, that all their mental procedure +and their utterance is cast in the moulds of Buddhist doctrine. The +fatalism of the Moslem world expressed in the idea of Kismet, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page321" id="page321"></a>{321}</span> has its analogue in the Japanese Ingwa, +or "cause and effect,"—the notion of an evolution which is +atheistic, but viewed from the ethical side. This idea of Ingwa is +the key to most Japanese novels as well as dramas of real +life.<a id="footnotetag10-60" name="footnotetag10-60"></a><a href="#footnote10-60"><sup>60</sup></a> While Buddhism continually +preaches this doctrine of Karma or Ingwa,<a id="footnotetag10-61" +name="footnotetag10-61"></a><a href="#footnote10-61"><sup>61</sup></a> the law of cause and effect, as +being sufficient to explain all things, it shows its insufficiency +and emptiness by leaving out the great First Cause of all. In a +word, Buddhism is law, but not gospel. It deals much with man, but +not with man's relations with his Creator, whom it utterly ignores. +Christianity comes not to destroy its ethics, beautiful as they +are, nor to ignore its metaphysics; but to fulfil, to give a higher +truth, and to reveal a larger Universe and One who fills it +all—not only law, but a Law-giver.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page323" id="page323"></a>{323}</span> +<h2><a name="chap11" id="chap11">A CENTURY OF ROMAN +CHRISTIANITY</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page324" id="page324"></a>{324}</span> +<blockquote> +<p>"<i>Sicut cadaver.</i>"</p> +<p>"Et fiet unum ovile et unus pastor."—Vulgate, John x. +16.</p> +<p>"He (Xavier) has been the moon of that 'Society of Jesus' of +which Ignatius Loyola was the guiding sun."—S.W. +Duffield.</p> +</blockquote> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"My God I love Thee; not because I hope for Heaven thereby,</p> +<p>Nor yet because, who love Thee not, must, die eternally.</p> +<p>So would I love Thee, dearest Lord, and in Thy praise will +sing;</p> +<p>Solely because thou art my God, and my eternal King."</p> +<p>—Hymn attributed to Francis Xavier.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Half hidden, stretching in a lengthened line</p> +<p>In front of China, which its guide shall be,</p> +<p>Japan abounds in mines of Silver fine,</p> +<p>And shall enlighten'd be by holy faith divine."</p> +<p>—Camoens</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p>"The people of this Iland of Japon are good of nature, curteous +aboue measure, and valiant in warre; their justice is seuerely +executed without any partialitie vpon transgressors of the law. +They are gouerned in great ciuilitie. I meane, not a land better +gouerned in the world by ciuill policie. The people be verie +superstitious in their religion, and are of diuers +opinions."—Will Adams, October 22, 1611.</p> +<p>"A critical history of Japan remains to be written ... We should +know next to nothing of what may be termed the Catholic episode of +the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had we access to none but +the official Japanese sources. How can we trust those sources when +they deal with times yet more remote?"—Chamberlain.</p> +<p>"The annals of the primitive Church furnish no instances of +sacrifice or heroic constancy, in the Coliseum or the Roman arenas, +that were not paralleled on the dry river-beds or execution-grounds +of Japan."</p> +<p>"They ... rest from their labors; and their works do follow +them. "—Revelation.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page325" id="page325"></a>{325}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XI - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY</h2> +<h3>Darkest Japan.</h3> +<p>The story of the first introduction and propagation of Roman +Christianity in Japan, during the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries, has been told by many writers, both old and new, and in +many languages. Recent research upon the soil,<a id="footnotetag11-1" name="footnotetag11-1"></a><a href="#footnote11-1"><sup>1</sup></a> both natives and foreigners making +contributions, has illustrated the subject afresh. Relics and +memorials found in various churches, monasteries and palaces, on +both sides of the Pacific and the Atlantic, have cast new light +upon the fascinating theme. Both Christian and non-Christian +Japanese of to-day, in their travels in the Philippines, China, +Formosa, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and Italy, being keenly alert for +memorials of their countrymen, have met with interesting trovers. +The descendants of the Japanese martyrs and confessors now +recognize their own ancestors, in the picture galleries of Italian +nobles, and in Christian churches see lettered tombs bearing +familiar names, or in western museums discern far-eastern works of +art brought over as presents or curiosities, centuries ago.</p> +<p>Roughly speaking, Japanese Christianity lasted phenomenally +nearly a century, or more exactly from 1542 to 1637, During this +time, embassies or missions <span class="pagenum"><a name="page326" +id="page326"></a>{326}</span> crossed the seas not only of Chinese +and Peninsular Asia, circumnavigating Africa and thus reaching +Europe, but also sailed across the Pacific, and visited papal +Christendom by way of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.</p> +<p>This century of Southern Christianity and of commerce with +Europe enabled Japan, which had previously been almost unheard of, +except through the vague accounts of Marco Polo and the +semi-mythical stories by way of China, to leave a conspicuous mark, +first upon the countries of southern Europe, and later upon Holland +and England. As in European literature Cathay became China, and +Zipango or Xipangu was recognized as Japan, so also the +curiosities, the artistic fabrics, the strange things from the ends +of the earth, soon became familiar in Europe. Besides the traffic +in mercantile commodities, there were exchanges of words. The +languages of Europe were enriched by Japanese terms, such as soy, +moxa, goban, japan (lacquer or varnish), etc., while the tongue of +Nippon received an infusion of new terms,<a id="footnotetag11-2" +name="footnotetag11-2"></a><a href="#footnote11-2"><sup>2</sup></a> +and a notable list of inventions was imported from Europe.</p> +<p>We shall merely outline, with critical commentary, the facts of +history which have been so often told, but which in our day have +received luminous illustration. We shall endeavor to treat the +general phenomena, causes and results of Christianity in Japan in +the same judicial spirit with which we have considered +Buddhism.</p> +<p>Whatever be the theological or political opinions of the +observer who looks into the history of Japan at about the year +1540, he will acknowledge that this point of time was a very dark +moment in her known <span class="pagenum"><a name="page327" id="page327"></a>{327}</span> history. Columbus, who was familiar with +the descriptions of Marco Polo, steered his caravels westward with +the idea of finding Xipangu, with its abundance of gold and +precious gems; but the Genoese did not and could not know the real +state of affairs existing in Dai Nippon at this time. Let us glance +at this.</p> +<p>The duarchy of Throne and Camp, with the Mikado in Kiōto and +the Shōgun at Kamakura, with the elaborate feudalism under it, +had fallen into decay. The whole country was split up into a +thousand warring fragments. To these convulsions of society, in +which only the priest and the soldier were in comfort, while the +mass of the people were little better than serfs, must be added the +frequent violent earthquakes, drought and failure of crops, with +famine and pestilence. There was little in religion to uplift and +cheer. Shintō had sunk into the shadow of a myth. Buddhism had +become outwardly a system of political gambling rather than the +ordered expression of faith. Large numbers of the priests were like +the mercenaries of Italy, who sold their influence and even their +swords or those of their followers, to the highest bidder. Besides +being themselves luxurious and dissolute, their monasteries were +fortresses, in which only the great political gamblers, and not the +oppressed people, found comfort and help. Millions of once fertile +acres had been abandoned or left waste. The destruction of +libraries, books and records is something awful to contemplate; and +"the times of Ashikaga" make a wilderness for the scapegoat of +chronology. Kiōto, the sacred capital, had been again and again +plundered and burnt. Those who might be tempted to live in the city +amid the ruins, ran the risk of fire, murder, or <span class="pagenum"><a name="page328" id="page328"></a>{328}</span> +starvation. Kamakura, once the Shō-gun's seat of authority, was, +a level waste of ashes.</p> +<p>Even China, Annam and Korea suffered from the practical +dissolution of society in the island empire; for Japanese pirates +ravaged their coasts to steal, burn and kill. Even as for centuries +in Europe, Christian churches echoed with that prayer in the +litanies: "From the fury of the Norsemen, good Lord, deliver us," +so, along large parts of the deserted coasts of Chinese Asia, the +wretched inhabitants besought their gods to avenge them against the +"Wojen." To this day in parts of Honan in China, mothers frighten +their children and warn them to sleep by the fearful words "The +Japanese are coming."</p> +<h3>First Coming of Europeans.</h3> +<p>This time, then, was that of darkest Japan. Yet the people who +lived in darkness saw great light, and to them that dwelt in the +shadow of death, light sprang up.</p> +<p>When Pope Alexander VI. bisected the known world, assigning the +western half, including America to Spain, and the eastern half, +including Asia and its outlying archipelagos to the Portuguese, the +latter sailed and fought their way around Africa to India, and past +the golden Chersonese. In 1542, exactly fifty years after the +discovery of America, Dai Nippon was reached. Mendez Pinto, on a +Chinese pirate junk which had been driven by a storm away from her +companions, set foot upon an island called Tanégashima. This +name among the country folks is still synonymous with guns and +pistols, for Pinto introduced fire-arms, and powder.<a id="footnotetag11-3" name="footnotetag11-3"></a><a href="#footnote11-3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page329" id="page329"></a>{329}</span> +<p>During six months spent by the "mendacious" Pinto on the island, +the imitative people made no fewer than six hundred match-locks or +arquebuses. Clearing twelve hundred per cent. on their cargo, the +three Portuguese loaded with presents, returned to China. Their +countrymen quickly flocked to this new market, and soon the +beginnings of regular trade with Portugal were inaugurated. On the +other hand, Japanese began to be found as far west as India. To +Malacca, while Francis Xavier was laboring there, came a refugee +Japanese, named Anjiro. The disciple of Loyola, and this child of +the Land of the Rising Sun met. Xavier, ever restless and ready for +a new field, was fired with the idea of converting Japan. Anjiro, +after learning Portuguese and becoming a Christian, was baptized +with the name of Paul. The heroic missionary of the cross and keys +then sailed with his Japanese companion, and in 1549 landed at +Kagoshima,<a id="footnotetag11-4" name="footnotetag11-4"></a><a href="#footnote11-4"><sup>4</sup></a> the +capital of Satsuma. As there was no central government then +existing in Japan, the entrance of the foreigners, both lay and +clerical, was unnoticed.</p> +<p>Having no skill in the learning of languages, and never able to +master one foreign tongue completely, Xavier began work with the +aid of an interpreter. The jealousy of the daimiō, because his +rivals had been supplied with fire-arms by the Portuguese +merchants, and the plots and warnings of those Buddhist priests +(who were later crushed by the Satsuma clansmen as traitors), +compelled Xavier to leave this province. He went first to +Hirado,<a id="footnotetag11-5" name="footnotetag11-5"></a><a href="#footnote11-5"><sup>5</sup></a> next to Nagatō, and then to +Bungo, where he was well received. Preaching and teaching through +his Japanese interpreter, he formed Christian congregations, +especially at Yamaguchi.<a id="footnotetag11-6" name="footnotetag11-6"></a><a href="#footnote11-6"><sup>6</sup></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page330" id="page330"></a>{330}</span> Thus, within a year, the great apostle +to the Indies had seen the quick sprouting of the seed which he had +planted. His ambition was now to go to the imperial capital, +Kiōto, and there advocate the claims of Christ, of Mary and of +the Pope.</p> +<p>Thus far, however, Xavier had seen only a few seaports of +comparatively successful daimiōs. Though he had heard of the +unsettled state of the country because of the long-continued +intestine strife, he evidently expected to find the capital a +splendid city. Despite the armed bands of roving robbers and +soldiers, he reached Kiōto safely, only to find streets covered +with ruins, rubbish and unburied corpses, and a general situation +of wretchedness. He was unable to obtain audience of either the +Shōgun or the Mikado. Even in those parts of the city where he +tried to preach, he could obtain no hearers in this time of war and +confusion. So after two weeks he turned his face again southward to +Bungo, where he labored for a few months; but in less than two +years from his landing in Japan, this noble but restless missionary +left the country, to attempt the spiritual conquest of China. One +year later, December 2, 1551, he died on the island of Shanshan, or +Sancian, in the Canton River, a few miles west of Macao.</p> +<h3>Christianity Flourishes.</h3> +<p>Nevertheless, Xavier's inspiring example was like a shining star +that attracted scores of missionaries. There being in this time of +political anarchy and religious paralysis none to oppose them, +their zeal, within five years, bore surprising fruits. They wrote +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page331" id="page331"></a>{331}</span> home that there were seven churches in +the region around Kiōto, while a score or more of Christian +congregations had been gathered in the southwest. In 1581 there +were two hundred churches and one hundred and fifty thousand native +Christians. Two daimiōs had confessed their faith, and in the +Mikado's minister, Nobunaga (1534-1582), the foreign priests found +a powerful supporter.<a id="footnotetag11-7" name="footnotetag11-7"></a><a href="#footnote11-7"><sup>7</sup></a> This +hater and scourge of the Buddhist priesthood openly welcomed and +patronized the Christians, and gave them eligible sites on which to +build dwellings and churches. In every possible way he employed the +new force, which he found pliantly political, as well as +intellectually and morally a choice weapon for humbling the bonzes, +whom he hated as serpents. The Buddhist church militant had become +an army with banners and fortresses. Nobunaga made it the aim of +his life to destroy the military power of the hierarchy, and to +humble the priests for all time. He hoped at least to extract the +fangs of what he believed to be a politico-religious monster, which +menaced the life of the nation. Unfortunately, he was assassinated +in 1582. To this day the memory of Nobunaga is execrated by the +Buddhists. They have deified Kato Kiyomasa and Iyéyasŭ, +the persecutors of the Christians. To Nobunaga they give the title +of Bakadono, or Lord Fool.</p> +<p>In 1583, an embassy of four young noblemen was despatched by the +Christian daimiōs of Kiushiu, the second largest island in the +empire, to the Pope to declare themselves spiritual—though as +some of their countrymen suspected, political—vassals of the +Holy See. It was in the three provinces of Bungo, Omura and Arima, +that Christianity was most firmly rooted. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page332" id="page332"></a>{332}</span> After an +absence of eight years, in 1590, the envoys from the oriental to +the occidental ends of the earth, returned to Nagasaki, accompanied +by seventeen more Jesuit fathers—an important addition to the +many Portuguese "religious" of that order already in Japan.</p> +<p>Yet, although there was to be still much missionary activity, +though printing presses had been brought from Europe for the proper +diffusion of Christian literature in the Romanized +colloquial,<a id="footnotetag11-8" name="footnotetag11-8"></a><a href="#footnote11-8"><sup>8</sup></a> +though there were yet to be built more church edifices and +monasteries, and Christian schools to be established, a sad change +was nigh. Much seed which was yet to grow in secret had been +planted,—like the exotic flowers which even yet blossom and +shed their perfume in certain districts of Japan, and which the +traveller from Christendom instantly recognizes, though the +Portuguese Christian church or monastery centuries ago disappeared +in fire, or fell to the earth and disappeared. Though there were to +be yet wonderful flashes of Christian success, and the missionaries +were to travel over Japan even up to the end of the main island and +accompany the Japanese army to Korea; yet it may be said that with +the death of Nobunaga at the hands of the traitor Akéchi, we +see the high-water mark of the flood-tide of Japanese Christianity. +"Akéchi reigned three days," but after him were to arise a +ruler and central government jealous and hostile. After this flood +was to come slowly but surely the ebb-tide, until it should leave, +outwardly at least, all things as before.</p> +<p>The Jesuit fathers, with instant sensitiveness, felt the loss of +their champion and protector, Nobunaga. The rebel and assassin, +Akéchi, ambitious to imitate and excel his master, promised +the Christians to do <span class="pagenum"><a name="page333" id="page333"></a>{333}</span> more for them even than Nobunaga had +done, provided they would induce the daimiō Takayama to join +forces with his. It is the record of their own friendly historian, +and not of an enemy, that they, led by the Jesuit father Organtin, +attempted this persuasion. To the honor of the Christian Japanese +Takayama, he refused.<a id="footnotetag11-9" name="footnotetag11-9"></a><a href="#footnote11-9"><sup>9</sup></a> On +the contrary, he marched his little army of a thousand men to +Kiōto, and, though opposed to a force of eight thousand, held +the capital city until Hidéyoshi, the loyal general of the +Mikado, reached the court city and dispersed the assassin's band. +Hidéyoshi soon made himself familiar with the whole story, +and his keen eye took in the situation.</p> +<p>This "man on horseback," master of the situation and moulder of +the destinies of Japan, Hidéyoshi (1536-1598), was afterward +known as the Taikō, or Retired Regent. The rarity of the title +makes it applicable in common speech to this one person. Greater +than his dead master, Nobunaga, and ingenious in the arts of war +and peace, Hidéyoshi compelled the warring daimiōs, even +the proud lord of Satsuma,<a id="footnotetag11-10" name="footnotetag11-10"></a><a href="#footnote11-10"><sup>10</sup></a> +to yield to his power, until the civil minister of the emperor, +reverently bowing, could say: "All under Heaven, Peace." Now, Japan +had once more a central government, intensely jealous and despotic, +and with it the new religion must sooner or later reckon. Religion +apart from politics was unknown in the Land of the Gods.</p> +<p>Yet, in order to employ the vast bodies of armed men hitherto +accustomed to the trade of war, and withal jealous of China and +hostile to Korea, Hidéyoshi planned the invasion of the +little peninsular kingdom by these veterans whose swords were +restless in their scabbards. After months of preparation, he +despatched <span class="pagenum"><a name="page334" id="page334"></a>{334}</span> an army in two great divisions, one +under the Christian general Konishi, and one under the Buddhist +general Kato. After a brilliant campaign of eighteen days, the +rivals, taking different routes, met in the Korean capital. In the +masterly campaign which followed, the Japanese armies penetrated +almost to the extreme northern boundary of the kingdom. Then China +came to the rescue and the Japanese were driven southward.</p> +<p>During the six or seven years of war, while the invaders crossed +swords with the natives and their Chinese allies, and devastated +Korea to an extent from which she has never recovered, there were +Jesuit missionaries attending the Japanese armies. It is not +possible or even probable, however, that any seeds of Christianity +were at this time left in the peninsula. Korean Christianity sprang +up nearly two centuries later, wind-wafted from China.<a id="footnotetag11-11" name="footnotetag11-11"></a><a href="#footnote11-11"><sup>11</sup></a></p> +<p>During the war there was always more or less of jealousy, mostly +military and personal, between Konishi and Kato, which however was +aggravated by the priests on either side. Kato, being then and +afterward a fierce champion of the Buddhists, glorified in his +orthodoxy, which was that of the Nichiren sect. He went into battle +with a banneret full of texts, stuck in his back and flying behind +him. His example was copied by hundreds of his officers and +soldiers. On their flags and guidons was inscribed the famous +apostrophe of the Nichiren sect, so often heard in their services +and revivals to-day (Namu miyō ho ren gé kiō), and +borrowed from the Saddharma Pundarika: "Glory be to the +salvation-bringing Lotus of the True Law."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page335" id="page335"></a>{335}</span> +<h3>The Hostility of Hidéyoshi.</h3> +<p>Konishi, on the other hand, was less numerously and perhaps less +influentially backed by, and made the champion of, the European +brethren; and as all the negotiations between the invaders and the +allied Koreans and Chinese had to be conducted in the Chinese +script, the alien fathers were, as secretaries and interpreters, +less useful than the native Japanese bonzes.</p> +<p>Yet this jealousy and hostility in the camps of the invaders +proved to be only correlative to the state of things in Japan. Even +supposing the statistics in round numbers, reported at that time, +to be exaggerated, and that there were not as many as the alleged +two hundred thousand Christians, yet there were, besides scores of +thousands of confessing believers among the common people, +daimiōs, military leaders, court officers and many persons of +culture and influence. Nevertheless, the predominating influence at +the Kiōto court was that of Buddhism; and as the cult that winks +at polygamy was less opposed to Hidéyoshi's sensualism and +amazing vanity, the illustrious upstart was easily made hostile to +the alien faith. According to the accounts of the Jesuits, he took +umbrage because a Portuguese captain would not please him by +risking his ship in coming out of deep water and nearer land, and +because there were Christian maidens of Arima who scorned to yield +to his degrading proposals. Some time after these episodes, an +edict appeared, commanding every Jesuit to quit the country within +twenty days. There were at this time sixty-five foreign +missionaries in the country.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page336" id="page336"></a>{336}</span> +<p>Then began a series of persecutions, which, however, were +carried on spasmodically and locally, but not universally or with +system. Bitter in some places, they were neutralized or the law +became a dead letter, in other parts of the realm. It is estimated +that ten thousand new converts were made in the single year, 1589, +that is, the second year after the issue of the edict, and again in +the next year, 1590. It might even be reasonable to suppose that, +had the work been conducted wisely and without the too open +defiance of the letter of the law, the awful sequel which history +knows, might not have been.</p> +<p>Let us remember that the Duke of Alva, the tool of Philip II., +failing to crush the Dutch Republic had conquered Portugal for his +master. The two kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula were now united +under one crown. Spain longed for trade with Japan, and while her +merchants hoped to displace their Portuguese rivals, the Spanish +Franciscans not scrupling to wear a political cloak and thus +override the Pope's bull of world-partition, determined to get a +foothold alongside of the Jesuits. So, in 1593 a Spanish envoy of +the governor of the Philippine Islands came to Kiōto, bringing +four Spanish Franciscan priests, who were allowed to build houses +in Kiōto, but only on the express understanding that this was +because of their coming as envoys of a friendly power, and with the +explicitly specified condition that they were not to preach, either +publicly or privately. Almost immediately violating their pledge +and the hospitality granted them, these Spaniards, wearing the +vestments of their order, openly preached in the streets. Besides +exciting discord among the Christian congregations <span class="pagenum"><a name="page337" id="page337"></a>{337}</span> founded +by the Jesuits, they were violent in their language.</p> +<p>Hidéyoshi, to gratify his own mood and test his power as +the actual ruler for a shadowy emperor, seized nine preachers while +they were building churches at Kiōto and Osaka. They were led to +the execution-ground in exactly the same fashion as felons, and +executed by crucifixion, at Nagasaki, February 5, 1597. Three +Portuguese Jesuits, six Spanish Franciscans and seventeen native +Christians were stretched on bamboo crosses, and their bodies from +thigh to shoulder were transfixed with spears. They met their doom +uncomplainingly.</p> +<p>In the eye of the Japanese law, these men were put to death, not +as Christians, but as law-breakers and as dangerous political +conspirators. The suspicions of Hidéyoshi were further +confirmed by a Spanish sea-captain, who showed him a map of the +world on which were marked the vast dominions of the King of Spain; +the Spaniard informing the Japanese, in answer to his shrewd +question, that these great conquests had been made by the king's +soldiers following up the priests, the work being finished by the +native and foreign allies.</p> +<h3>The Political Character of Roman Christianity.</h3> +<p>The Roman Catholic "Histoire del' Église +Chrétienne" shows the political character of the missionary +movement in Japan, a character almost inextricably associated with +the papal and other political Christianity of the times, when State +and Church were united in all the countries of Europe, both +Catholic and Protestant. Even republican Holland, leader of +toleration and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page338" id="page338"></a>{338}</span> forerunner of the modern Christian +spirit, permitted, indeed, the Roman Catholics to worship in +private houses or in sacred edifices not outwardly resembling +churches, but prohibited all public processions and ceremonies, +because religion and politics at that time were as Siamese twins. +Only the Anabaptists held the primitive Christian and the American +doctrine of the separation of politics from ecclesiasticism. Except +in the country ruled by William the Silent, all magistrates meddled +with men's consciences.<a id="footnotetag11-12" name="footnotetag11-12"></a><a href="#footnote11-12"><sup>12</sup></a></p> +<p>In 1597, Hidéyoshi died, and the missionaries took heart +again. The Christian soldiers returning by thousands from Korea, +declared themselves in favor of Hidéyori, son of the dead +Taikō. Encouraged by those in power, and by the rising star +Iyéyasŭ (1542-1616), the fathers renewed their work and +the number of converts increased.</p> +<p>Though peace reigned, the political situation was one of the +greatest uncertainty, and with two hundred thousand soldiers +gathered around Kiōto, under scores of ambitious leaders, it was +hard to keep the sword in the sheath. Soon the line of cleavage +found Iyéyasŭ and his northern captains on one side, and +most of the Christian leaders and southern daimiōs on the other. +In October, 1600, with seventy-five thousand men, the future +unifier of Japan stood on the ever-memorable field of +Sékigahara. The opposing army, led largely by Christian +commanders, left their fortress to meet the one whom they +considered a usurper, in the open field. In the battle which +ensued, probably the most decisive ever fought on the soil of +Japan, ten thousand men lost their lives. The leading Christian +generals, beaten, but refusing out of principle because +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page339" id="page339"></a>{339}</span> they were Christians, to take their own +lives by <i>hara-kiri</i>, knelt willingly at the common blood-pit +and had their heads stricken off by the executioner.</p> +<p>Then began a new era in the history of the empire, and then were +laid by Iyéyasŭ the foundation-lines upon which the Japan +best known to Europe has existed for nearly three centuries. The +creation of a central executive government strong enough to rule +the whole empire, and hold down even the southern and southwestern +daimiōs, made it still worse for the converts of the European +teachers, because in the Land of the Gods government is ever +intensely pagan.</p> +<p>In adjusting the feudal relations of his vassals in Kiushiu, +Iyéyasŭ made great changes, and thus the political status +of the Christians was profoundly altered. The new daimiōs, +carrying out the policy of their predecessors who had been taught +by the Jesuits, but reversing its direction, began to persecute +their Christian subjects, and to compel them to renounce their +faith. One of the leading opposers of the Christians and their most +cruel persecutor, was Kato, the zealous Nichirenite. Like Brandt, +the famous Iroquois Indian, who, in the Mohawk Valley is execrated +as a bloodthirsty brute, and on the Canadian side is honored with a +marble statue and considered not only as the translator of the +prayer-book but also as a saint; even also as Claverhouse, who, in +Scotland is looked upon as a murderous demon, but in England as a +conscientious and loyal patriot; so Kato, the <i>vir ter +execrandus</i> of the Jesuits, is worshipped in his shrine at the +Nichiren temple at Ikégami, near Tōkiō,<a id="footnotetag11-13" name="footnotetag11-13"></a><a href="#footnote11-13"><sup>13</sup></a> and is praised by native +historians as learned, brave and true.</p> +<p>The Christians of Kiushiu, in a few cases, actually <span class="pagenum"><a name="page340" id="page340"></a>{340}</span> took up +arms against their new rulers and oppressors, though it was a new +thing under the Japanese sun for peasantry to oppose not only civil +servants of the law, but veterans in armor. Iyéyasŭ, now +having time to give his attention wholly to matters of government +and to examine the new forces that had entered Japanese life, +followed Hidéyoshi in the suspicion that, under the cover of +the western religion, there lurked political designs. He thought he +saw confirmation of his theories, because the foreigners still +secretly or openly paid court to Hidéyori, and at the same +time freely disbursed gifts and gold as well as comfort to the +persecuted. Resolving to crush the spirit of independence in the +converts and to intimidate the foreign emissaries, +Iyéyasŭ with steel and blood put down every outbreak, and +at last, in 1606, issued his edict<a id="footnotetag11-14" name="footnotetag11-14"></a><a href="#footnote11-14"><sup>14</sup></a> +prohibiting Christianity.</p> +<h3>The Quarrels of the Christians.</h3> +<p>About the same time, Protestant influences began to work against +the papal emissaries. The new forces from the triumphant Dutch +republic, which having successfully defied Spain for a whole +generation had reached Japan even before the Great Truce, were +opposed to the Spaniards and to the influence of both Jesuits and +Franciscans. Hollanders at Lisbon, obtaining from the Spanish +archives charts and geographical information, had boldly sailed out +into the Eastern seas, and carried the orange white and blue flag +to the ends of the earth, even to Nippon. Between Prince Maurice, +son of William the Silent, and the envoys of Iyéyasŭ, +there was made a league of commerce as well as of peace and +friendship. Will Adams,<a id="footnotetag11-15" name="footnotetag11-15"></a><a href="#footnote11-15"><sup>15</sup></a> +the English <span class="pagenum"><a name="page341" id="page341"></a>{341}</span> pilot of the Dutch ships, by his +information given to Iyéyasŭ, also helped much to destroy +the Jesuits influence and to hurt their cause, while both the Dutch +and English were ever busy in disseminating both correct +information and polemic exaggeration, forging letters and +delivering up to death by fire the <i>padres</i> when captured at +sea.</p> +<p>In general, however, it may be said that while Christian +converts and the priests were roughly handled in the South, yet +there was considerable missionary activity and success in the +North. Converts were made and Christian congregations were gathered +in regions remote from Kiōto and Yedo, which latter place, like +St. Petersburg in the West, was being made into a large city. Even +outlying islands, such as Sado, had their churches and +congregations.</p> +<h3>The Anti-Christian Policy of the Tokugawas.</h3> +<p>The quarrels between the Franciscans and Jesuits,<a id="footnotetag11-16" name="footnotetag11-16"></a><a href="#footnote11-16"><sup>16</sup></a> however, were probably more +harmful to Christianity than were the whispers of the Protestant +Englishmen or Hollanders. In 1610, the wrath of the government was +especially aroused against the <i>bateren</i>, as the people called +the <i>padres</i>, by their open and persistent violation of +Japanese law. In 1611, from Sado, to which island thousands of +Christian exiles had been sent to work the mines, Iyéyasŭ +believed he had obtained documentary proof in the Japanese +language, of what he had long suspected—the existence of a +plot on the part of the native converts and the foreign emissaries +to reduce Japan to the position of a subject state.<a id="footnotetag11-17" name="footnotetag11-17"></a><a href="#footnote11-17"><sup>17</sup></a> Putting forth strenuous measures +to root out utterly <span class="pagenum"><a name="page342" id="page342"></a>{342}</span> what he believed to be a pestilential +breeder of sedition and war, the Yedo Shōgun advanced step by +step to that great proclamation of January 27, 1614,<a id="footnotetag11-18" name="footnotetag11-18"></a><a href="#footnote11-18"><sup>18</sup></a> in which the foreign priests +were branded as triple enemies—of the country, of the Kami, +and of the Buddhas. This proclamation wound up with the charge that +the Christian band had come to Japan to change the government of +the country, and to usurp possession of it. Whether or not he +really had sufficient written proof of conspiracy against the +nation's sovereignty, it is certain that in this state paper, +Iyéyasŭ shrewdly touched the springs of Japanese +patriotism. Not desiring, however, to shed blood or provoke war, he +tried transportation. Three hundred persons, namely, twenty-two +Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustines, one hundred and seventeen +foreign Jesuits, and nearly two hundred native priests and +catechists, were arrested, sent to Nagasaki, and thence shipped +like bundles of combustibles to Macao.</p> +<p>Yet, as many of the foreign and native Christian teachers hid +themselves in the country and as others who had been banished +returned secretly and continued the work of propaganda, the crisis +had not yet come. Some of the Jesuit priests, even, were still +hoping that Hidéyori would mount to power; but in 1615, +Iyéyasŭ, finding a pretext for war,<a id="footnotetag11-19" name="footnotetag11-19"></a><a href="#footnote11-19"><sup>19</sup></a> called out a powerful army and +laid siege to the great castle of Osaka, the most imposing fortress +in the country. In the brief war which ensued, it is said by the +Jesuit fathers, that one hundred thousand men perished. On June 9, +1615, the castle was captured and the citadel burned. After +thousands of Hidéyori's followers had committed +<i>hara-kiri</i>, and his own body had been <span class="pagenum"><a name="page343" id="page343"></a>{343}</span> burned +into ashes, the Christian cause was irretrievably ruined.</p> +<p>Hidétada, the successor of Iyéyasŭ in Yedo, who +ruled from 1605 to 1622, seeing that his father's peaceful methods +had failed in extirpating the alien politico-religious doctrine, +now pronounced sentence of death on every foreigner, priest, or +catechist found in the country. The story of the persecutions and +horrible sufferings that ensued is told in the voluminous +literature which may be gathered from every country in +Europe;<a id="footnotetag11-20" name="footnotetag11-20"></a><a href="#footnote11-20"><sup>20</sup></a> +though from the Japanese side "The Catholic martyrology of Japan is +still an untouched field for a [native] historian."<a id="footnotetag11-21" name="footnotetag11-21"></a><a href="#footnote11-21"><sup>21</sup></a> All the church edifices which +the last storm had left standing were demolished, and temples and +pagodas were erected upon their ruins. In 1617, foreign commerce +was restricted to Hirado and Nagasaki. In 1621, Japanese were +forbidden ever to leave the country. In 1624, all ships having a +capacity of over twenty-five hundred bushels were burned, and no +craft, except those of the size of ordinary junks, were allowed to +be built.</p> +<h3>The Books of the Inferno Opened.</h3> +<p>For years, at intervals and in places, the books of the Inferno +were opened, and the tortures devised by the native pagans and +Buddhists equalled in their horror those which Dante imagines, +until finally, in 1636, even Japanese human nature, accustomed for +ages to subordination and submission, could stand it no longer. +Then a man named Nirado Shiro raised the banner of the Virgin and +called on all Christians and others to follow him. Probably as many +as thirty <span class="pagenum"><a name="page344" id="page344"></a>{344}</span> thousand men, women and children, but +without a single foreigner, lay or clerical, among them, gathered +from parts of Kiushiu. After burning Shintō and Buddhist +temples, they fortified an old abandoned castle at Shimabara, +resolving to die rather than submit. Against an army of veterans, +led by skilled commanders, the fortress held out during four +months. At last, after a bloody assault, it was taken, and men, +women and children were slaughtered.<a id="footnotetag11-22" name="footnotetag11-22"></a><a href="#footnote11-22"><sup>22</sup></a> +Thousands suffered death at the point of the spear and sword; many +were thrown into the sea; and others were cast into boiling hot +springs, emblems of the eight Buddhist Hells.</p> +<p>All efforts were now put forth to uproot not only Christianity +but also everything of foreign planting. The Portuguese were +banished and the death penalty declared against all who should +return, The ai no ko, or half-breed children, were collected and +shipped by hundreds to Macao. All persons adopting or harboring +Eurasians were to be banished, and their relatives punished. The +Christian cause now became like the doomed city of Babylon or like +the site of Nineveh, which, buried in the sand and covered with the +desolation and silence of centuries, became lost to the memory of +the world, so that even the very record of scripture was the jest +of the infidel, until the spade of Layard brought them again to +resurrection. So, Japanese Christianity, having vanished in blood, +was supposed to have no existence, thus furnishing Mr. Lecky with +arguments to prove the extirpative power of persecution.<a id="footnotetag11-23" name="footnotetag11-23"></a><a href="#footnote11-23"><sup>23</sup></a></p> +<p>Yet in 1859, on the opening of the country by treaty, the Roman +Catholic fathers at Nagasaki found to their <span class="pagenum"><a name="page345" id="page345"></a>{345}</span> surprise +that they were re-opening the old mines, and that their work was in +historic continuity with that of their predecessors. The blood of +the martyrs had been the seed of the church. Amid much ignorance +and darkness, there were thousands of people who, through the +Virgin, worshipped God; who talked of Jesus, and of the Holy +Spirit; and who refused to worship at the pagan shrines<a id="footnotetag11-24" name="footnotetag11-24"></a><a href="#footnote11-24"><sup>24</sup></a>.</p> +<h3>Summary of Roman Christianity in Japan.</h3> +<p>Let us now strive impartially to appraise the Christianity of +this era, and inquire what it found, what it attempted to do, what +it did not strive to attain, what was the character of its +propagators, what was the mark it made upon the country and upon +the mind of the people, and whether it left any permanent +influence.</p> +<p>The gospel net which had gathered all sorts of fish in Europe +brought a varied quality of spoil to Japan. Among the Portuguese +missionaries, beginning with Xavier, there are many noble and +beautiful characters, who exemplified in their motives, acts, lives +and sufferings some of the noblest traits of both natural and +redeemed humanity. In their praise, both the pagan and the +Christian, as well as critics biased by their prepossessions in +favor either of the Reformed or the Roman phase of the faith, can +unite.</p> +<p>The character of the native converts is, in many instances, to +be commended, and shows the direct truth of Christianity in fields +of life and endeavor, in ethics and in conceptions, far superior to +those which the Japanese religious systems have produced. In the +teaching <span class="pagenum"><a name="page346" id="page346"></a>{346}</span> that there should be but one standard of +morality for man and woman, and that the male as well as the female +should be pure; in the condemnation of polygamy and licentiousness; +in the branding of suicide as both wicked and cowardly; in the +condemnation of slavery; and in the training of men and women to +lofty ideals of character, the Christian teachers far excelled +their Buddhist or Confucian rivals.</p> +<p>The benefits which Japan received through the coming of the +Christian missionaries, as distinct and separate from those brought +by commerce and the merchants, are not to be ignored. While many +things of value and influence for material improvement, and many +beneficent details and elements of civilization were undoubtedly +imported by traders, yet it was the priests and itinerant +missionaries who diffused the knowledge of the importance of these +things and taught their use throughout the country. Although in the +reaction of hatred and bitterness, and in the minute, universal and +long-continued suppression by the government, most of this +advantage was destroyed, yet some things remained to influence +thought and speech, and to leave a mark not only on the language, +but also on the procedure of daily life. One can trace notable +modifications of Japanese life from this period, lasting through +the centuries and even until the present time.</p> +<p>Christianity, in the sixteenth century, came to Japan only in +its papal or Roman Catholic form. While in it was infused much of +the power and spirit of Loyola and Xavier, yet the impartial critic +must confess that this form was military, oppressive and +political.<a id="footnotetag11-25" name="footnotetag11-25"></a><a href="#footnote11-25"><sup>25</sup></a> +Nevertheless, though it was impure and saturated with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page347" id="page347"></a>{347}</span> the false +principles, the vices and the embodied superstitions of corrupt +southern Europe, yet, such as it was, Portuguese Christianity +confronted the worst condition of affairs, morally, intellectually +and materially, which Japan has known in historic times. Defective +as the critic must pronounce the system of religion imported from +Europe, it was immeasurably superior to anything that the Japanese +had hitherto known.</p> +<p>It must be said, also, that Portuguese Christianity in Japan +tried to do something more than the mere obtaining of adherents or +the nominal conversion of the people.<a id="footnotetag11-26" name="footnotetag11-26"></a><a href="#footnote11-26"><sup>26</sup></a> +It attempted to purify and exalt their life, to make society +better, to improve the relations between rulers and ruled; but it +did not attempt to do what it ought to have done. It ignored great +duties and problems, while it imitated too fully, not only the +example of the kings of this world in Europe but also of the rulers +in Japan. In the presence of soldier-like Buddhist priests, who had +made war their calling, it would have been better if the Christian +missionaries had avoided their bad example, and followed only in +the footsteps of the Prince of Peace; but they did not. On the +contrary, they brought with them the spirit of the Inquisition then +in full blast in Spain and Portugal, and the machinery with which +they had been familiar for the reclamation of native and Dutch +"heretics." Xavier, while at Goa, had even invoked the secular arm +to set up the Inquisition in India, and doubtless he and his +followers would have put up this infernal enginery in Japan if they +could have done so. They had stamped and crushed out "heresy" in +their own country, by a system of hellish <span class="pagenum"><a name="page348" id="page348"></a>{348}</span> tortures +which in its horrible details is almost indescribable. The rusty +relics now in the museums of Europe, but once used in church +discipline, can be fully appreciated only by a physician or an +anatomist. In Japan, with the spirit of Alva and Philip II., these +believers in the righteousness of the Inquisition attacked +violently the character of native bonzes, and incited their +converts to insult the gods, destroy the Buddhist images, and burn +or desecrate the old shrines. They persuaded the daimiōs, when +these lords had become Christians, to compel their subjects to +embrace their religion on pain of exile or banishment. Whole +districts were ordered to become Christian. The bonzes were exiled +or killed, and fire and sword as well as preaching, were employed +as means of conversion. In ready imitation of the Buddhists, +fictitious miracles were frequently got up to utilize the credulity +of the superstitious in furthering the faith—all of which is +related not by hostile critics, but by admiring historians and by +sympathizing eye-witnesses.<a id="footnotetag11-27" name="footnotetag11-27"></a><a href="#footnote11-27"><sup>27</sup></a></p> +<p>The most prominent feature of the Roman Catholicism of Japan, +was its political animus and complexion. In writings of this era, +Japanese historians treat of the Christian missionary movement less +as something religious, and more as that which influenced +government and polities, rather than society on its moral side. So +also, the impartial historian must consider that, on the whole, +despite the individual instances of holy lives and unselfish +purposes, the work of the Portuguese and Spanish friars and +"fathers" was, in the main, an attempt to bring Japan more or less +directly within the power of the Pope or of those rulers called +Most Catholic Majesties, Christian Kings, etc., even as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page349" id="page349"></a>{349}</span> they had already brought Mexico, South +America, and large portions of India under the same control. The +words of Jesus before the Roman procurator had not been +apprehended:—"My kingdom is not of this world."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page351" id="page351"></a>{351}</span> +<h2><a name="chap12" id="chap12">TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE</a></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page352" id="page352"></a>{352}</span> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"The frog in the well knows not the great ocean"</p> +<p class="i10">—Sanskrit and Japanese Proverb.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch."</p> +<p class="i10">—Japanese Proverb.</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p>"The little island of Déshima, well and prophetically +signifying Fore-Island, was Japan's window, through which she +looked at the whole Occident ... We are under obligation to Holland +for the arts of engineering, mining, pharmacy, astronomy, and +medicine ... 'Rangaku' (<i>i.e.</i>, Dutch learning) passed almost +as a synonym for medicine," [1615-1868].—Inazo +Nitobé.</p> +<p>"The great peace, of which we are so proud, was more like the +stillness of stagnant pools than the calm surface of a clear +lake."—Mitsukuri.</p> +<p>"The ancestral policy of self-contentment must be done away +with. If it was adopted by your forefathers, because it was wise in +their time, why not adopt a new policy if it in sure to prove wise +in your time."—Sakuma Shozan, wrote in 1841, assassinated +1864.</p> +</blockquote> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"And slowly floating onward go</p> +<p>Those Black Ships, wave-tossed to and fro."</p> +<p class="i10">—Japanese Ballad of the Black Ship, 1845.</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p>"The next day was Sunday (July 10th), and, as usual, divine +service was held on board the ships, and, in accordance with proper +reverence for the day, no communication was held with the Japanese +authorities." —Perry's Narrative.</p> +</blockquote> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,</p> +<p>Praise Him, all creatures here below,</p> +<p>Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,</p> +<p>Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."</p> +<p class="i4">—Sung on U.S.S.S. Mississippi, in Yedo Bay, +July 10, 1853.</p> +</div> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p>"I refuse to see anyone on Sunday, I am resolved to set an +example of a proper observance of the Sabbath ... I will try to +make it what I believe it was intended to be—a day of +rest."—Townsend Harris's Diary, Sunday, August 31, 1856.</p> +<p>"I have called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though +thou hast not known me. I am the LORD, and there is none else; +besides me there is no God."—Isaiah.</p> +<p>"I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been +slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they +held."—John.</p> +<p>"That they should seek God, If haply they might feel after him, +though he is not far from each one of us."—Paul.</p> +<p>"Other sheep have I which are not of this fold: them also I must +bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one +flock, one shepherd"—Jesus.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page353" id="page353"></a>{353}</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XII - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE</h2> +<h3>The Japanese Shut In.</h3> +<p>Sincerely regretting that we cannot pass more favorable +judgments upon the Christianity of the seventeenth century in +Japan, let us look into the two centuries of silence, and see what +was the story between the paling of the Christian record in 1637, +and the glowing of the palimpsest in 1859, when the new era +begins.</p> +<p>The policy of the Japanese rulers, after the supposed utter +extirpation of Christianity, was the double one of exclusion and +inclusion. A deliberate attempt, long persisted in and for +centuries apparently successful, was made to insulate Japan from +the shock of change. The purpose was to draw a whole nation and +people away from the currents and movements of humanity, and to +stereotype national thought and custom. This was carried out in two +ways: first, by exclusion, and then by inclusion. All foreign +influences were shut off, or reduced to a minimum. The whole +western world, especially Christendom, was put under ban.</p> +<p>Even the apparent exception made in favor of the Dutch was with +the motive of making isolation more complete, and of securing the +perfect safety which that <span class="pagenum"><a name="page354" +id="page354"></a>{354}</span> isolation was expected to bring. For, +having built, not indeed with brick and mortar, but by means of +edict and law, both open and secret, a great wall of exclusion more +powerful than that of China's, it was necessary that there should +be a port-hole, for both sally and exit, and a slit for vigilant +scrutiny of any attempt to force seclusion or violate the frontier. +Hence, the Hollanders were allowed to have a small place of +residence in front of a large city and at the head of a land-locked +harbor. There, the foreigners being isolated and under strict +guard, the government could have, as it were, a nerve which touched +the distant nations, and could also, as with a telescope, sweep the +horizon for signs of danger.</p> +<p>So, in 1640, the Hollanders were ordered to evacuate Hirado, and +occupy the little "outer island" called Déshima, in front of +the city of Nagasaki, and connected therewith by a bridge. Any +ships entering this hill-girdled harbor, it was believed, could be +easily managed by the military resources possessed by the +government. Vessels were allowed yearly to bring the news from +abroad and exchange the products of Japan for those of Europe. The +English, who had in 1617 opened a trade and conducted a factory for +some years,<a id="footnotetag12-1" name="footnotetag12-1"></a><a href="#footnote12-1"><sup>1</sup></a> were +unable to compete with the Dutch, and about 1624, after having lost +in the venture forty thousand pounds sterling, withdrew entirely +from the Japanese trade. The Dutch were thus left without a rival +from Christendom.</p> +<p>Japan ceased her former trade and communications with the +Philippine Islands, Annam, Siam, the Spice Islands and India,<a id="footnotetag12-2" name="footnotetag12-2"></a><a href="#footnote12-2"><sup>2</sup></a> and begun to restrict trade and +communication with Korea and China. The Koreans, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page355" id="page355"></a>{355}</span> who were +considered as vassals, or semi-vassals, came to Japan to present +their congratulations on the accession of each new Shōgun; and +some small trade was done at Fusan under the superintendence of the +daimiō of Tsushima. Even this relation with Korea was rather one +of watchfulness. It sprang from the pride of a victor rather than +from any desire to maintain relations with the rest of the world. +As for China, the communication with her was astonishingly little, +only a few junks crossing yearly between Nankin and Nagasaki; so +that, with the exception of one slit in their tower of observation, +the Japanese became well isolated from the human family.</p> +<p>This system of exclusion was accompanied by an equally vigorous +policy of inclusiveness. It was deliberately determined to keep the +people from going abroad, either in their bodies or minds. All +seaworthy ships were destroyed. Under pain of imprisonment and +death, all natives were forbidden to go to a foreign country, +except in the rare cases of urgent government service. By settled +precedents it was soon made to be understood that those who were +blown out to sea or carried away in stress of weather, need not +come back; if they did, they must return only on Chinese and Korean +vessels, and even then would be grudgingly allowed to land. It was +given out, both at home and to the world, that no shipwrecked +sailors or waifs would be welcomed when brought on foreign +vessels.</p> +<p>This inclusive policy directed against physical exportation, was +still more stringently carried out when applied to imports +affecting the minds of the Japanese. The "government deliberately +attempted to establish a society impervious to foreign ideas from +without, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page356" id="page356"></a>{356}</span> and fostered within by all sorts of +artificial legislation. This isolation affected every department of +private and public life. Methods of education were cast in a +definite mould; even matters of dress and household architecture +were strictly regulated by the State, and industries were +restricted or forced into specified channels, thus retarding +economic developments."<a id="footnotetag12-3" name="footnotetag12-3"></a><a href="#footnote12-3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<h3>Starving of the Mind.</h3> +<p>In the science of keeping life within stunted limits and +artificial boundaries, the Japanese genius excels. It has been well +said that "the Japanese mind is great in little things and little +in great things." To cut the tap-root of a pine-shoot, and, by +regulating the allowance of earth and water, to raise a pine-tree +which when fifty years old shall be no higher than a silver dollar, +has been the proud ambition of many an artist in botany. In like +manner, the Tokugawa Shōguns (1604-1868) determined to so limit +the supply of mental food, that the mind of Japan should be of +those correctly dwarfed proportions of puniness, so admired by +lovers of artificiality and unconscious caricature. Philosophy was +selected as a chief tool among the engines of oppression, and as +the main influence in stunting the intellect. All thought must be +orthodox according to the standards of Confucianism, as expounded +by Chu Hi. Anything like originality in poetry, learning or +philosophy must be hooted down. Art must follow Chinese, Buddhist +and Japanese traditions. Any violation of this order would mean +ostracism. All learning must be in the Chinese and Japanese +languages—the former mis-pronounced and in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page357" id="page357"></a>{357}</span> sound +bearing as much resemblance to Pekingise speech as "Pennsylvania +Dutch" does to the language of Berlin. Everything like thinking and +study must be with a view of sustaining and maintaining the +established order of things. The tree of education, instead of +being a lofty or wide-spreading cryptomeria, must be the measured +nursling of the teacup. If that trio of emblems, so admired by the +natives, the bamboo, pine and plum, could produce glossy leaves, +ever-green needles and fragrant blooms within a space of four cubic +inches, so the law, the literature and the art of Japan must +display their normal limit of fresh fragrance, of youthful vigor +and of venerable age, enduring for aye, within the vessel of +Japanese inclusion so carefully limited by the Yedo +authorities.</p> +<p>Such a policy, reminds one of the Amherst agricultural +experiment in which bands of iron were strapped around a +much-afflicted squash, in order to test vital potency. It recalls +the pretty little story of Picciola, in which a tender plant must +grow between the interstices of the bricks in a prison yard. +Besides the potent bonds of the only orthodox Confucian philosophy +which was allowed and the legally recognized religions, there was +gradually formed a marvellous system of legislation, that turned +the whole nation into a secret society in which spies and +hypocrites flourished like fungus on a dead log. Besides the +unwritten code of private law,<a id="footnotetag12-4" name="footnotetag12-4"></a><a href="#footnote12-4"><sup>4</sup></a> that +is, the local and general customs founded on immemorial usage, +there was that peculiar legal system framed by Iyéyasŭ, +bequeathed as a legacy and for over two hundred years practically +the supreme law of the land.</p> +<p>What this law was, it was exceedingly difficult, if not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page358" id="page358"></a>{358}</span> utterly impossible, for the aliens +dwelling in the country at Nagasaki ever to find out. Keenly +intellectual, as many of the physicians, superintendents and elect +members of the Dutch trading company were, they seem never to have +been able to get hold of what has been called "The Testament of +Iyéyasŭ."<a id="footnotetag12-5" name="footnotetag12-5"></a><a href="#footnote12-5"><sup>5</sup></a> This +consisted of one hundred laws or regulations, based on a home-spun +sort of Confucianism, intended to be orthodoxy "unbroken for ages +eternal."</p> +<p>To a man of western mode of thinking, the most astonishing thing +is that this law was esoteric.<a id="footnotetag12-6" name="footnotetag12-6"></a><a href="#footnote12-6"><sup>6</sup></a> The +people knew of it only by its irresistible force, and by the +constant pressure or the rare easing of its iron hand. Those who +executed the law were drilled in its routine from childhood, and +this routine became second nature. Only a few copies of the +original instrument were known, and these were kept with a secrecy +which to the people became a sacred mystery guarded by a long +avenue of awe.</p> +<h3>The Dutchmen at Déshima.</h3> +<p>The Dutchmen who lived at Déshima for two centuries and a +half, and the foreigners who first landed at the treaty ports in +1859, on inquiring about the methods of the Japanese Government, +the laws and their administration, found that everything was veiled +behind a vague embodiment of something which was called "the Law." +What that law was, by whom enacted, and under what sanctions +enforced, no one could tell; though all seemed to stand in awe of +it as something of superhuman efficiency. Its mysteriousness was +only equalled by the abject submission which it received.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page359" id="page359"></a>{359}</span> +<p>Foreign diplomatists, on trying to deal with the seat and source +of authority, instead of seeing the real head of power, played, as +it were, a game of chess against a mysterious hand stretched out +from behind a curtain. Morally, the whole tendency of such a dual +system of exclusion and of inclusion was to make a nation of liars, +foster confirmed habits of deceit, and create a code of politeness +vitiated by insincerity.</p> +<p>With such repression of the natural powers of humanity, it was +but in accordance with the nature of things that licentiousness +should run riot, that on the fringes of society there should be the +outcast and the pariah, and that the social waste of humanity by +prostitution, by murder, by criminal execution under a code that +prescribed the death penalty for hundreds of offences, should be +enormous. It is natural also that in such a state of society +population<a id="footnotetag12-7" name="footnotetag12-7"></a><a href="#footnote12-7"><sup>7</sup></a> +should be kept down within necessary limits, not only by famine, by +the restraints of feudalism, by legalized murder in the form of +vendetta, by a system of prostitution that made and still makes +Japan infamous, by child murder, by lack of encouragement given to +feeble or malformed children to live, and by various devices known +to those who were ingenious in keeping up so artificial a state of +society.</p> +<p>That there were many who tried to break through this wall, from +both the inside and the outside, and to force the frontiers of +exclusion and inclusion, is not to be wondered at. Externally, +there were bold spirits from Christendom who burned to know the +secrets of the mysterious land. Some even yearned to wear the ruby +crown. The wonderful story of past Christian triumphs deeply +stirred the heart of more than one <span class="pagenum"><a name="page360" id="page360"></a>{360}</span> fiery spirit, and so we +find various attempts made by the clerical brethren of southern +Europe to enter the country. Bound by their promises, the Dutch +captains could not introduce these emissaries of a banned religion +within the borders; yet there are several notable instances of +Roman Catholic "religious"<a id="footnotetag12-8" name="footnotetag12-8"></a><a href="#footnote12-8"><sup>8</sup></a> +getting themselves left by shipmasters on the shores of Japan. The +lion's den of reality was Yedo. Like the lion's den of fable, the +footprints all led one way, and where these led the bones of the +victims soon lay.</p> +<p>Besides these men with religious motives, the ships of the West +came with offers of trade and threats of invasion. These were +English, French, Russian and American, and the story of the +frequent episodes has been told by Hildreth, Aston,<a id="footnotetag12-9" name="footnotetag12-9"></a><a href="#footnote12-9"><sup>9</sup></a> Nitobé, and others. There +is also a considerable body of native literature which gives the +inside view of these efforts to force the seclusion of the hermit +nation, and coax or compel the Japanese to be more sociable and +more human. All were in vain until the peaceful armada, under the +flag of thirty-one stars, led by Matthew Calbraith Perry,<a id="footnotetag12-10" name="footnotetag12-10"></a><a href="#footnote12-10"><sup>10</sup></a> broke the long seclusion of this +Thorn-rose of the Pacific, and the unarmed diplomacy of Townsend +Harris,<a id="footnotetag12-11" name="footnotetag12-11"></a><a href="#footnote12-11"><sup>11</sup></a> +brought Japan into the brotherhood of commercial and Christian +nations.</p> +<p>Within the isolating walls and the barred gates the story of the +seekers after God is a thrilling one. The intellect of choice +spirits, beating like caged eagles the bars of their prisons, +yearned for more light and life. "Though an eagle be starving," +says the Japanese proverb, "it will not eat grain;" and so, while +the mass of the people and even the erudite, were content with +ground food—even the chopped straw and husks of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page361" id="page361"></a>{361}</span> +materialistic Confucianism and decayed Buddhism—there were +noble souls who soared upward to exercise their God-given powers, +and to seek nourishment fitted for that human spirit which goeth +upward and not downward, and which, ever in restless discontent, +seeks the Infinite.</p> +<h3>Protests of Inquiring Spirits.</h3> +<p>There is no stronger proof of the true humanity and the innate +god-likeness of the Japanese, of their worthiness to hold and their +inherent power to win a high place among the nations of the earth, +than this longing of a few elect ones for the best that earth could +give and Heaven bestow. We find men in travail of spirit, groping +after God if haply they might find Him, following the ways of the +Spirit along lines different, and in pathways remote, from those +laid down by Confucius and his materialistic commentators, or by +Buddha and his parodists or caricaturists. The story of the +philosophers, who mutinied against the iron clamps and +governmentally nourished system of the Séido College +expounders, is yet to be fully told.<a id="footnotetag12-12" name="footnotetag12-12"></a><a href="#footnote12-12"><sup>12</sup></a> +It behooves some Japanese scholar to tell it.</p> +<p>How earnest truth-seeking Japanese protested and rebelled +against the economic fallacies, against the political despotism, +against the abominable usurpations, against the false strategies +and against the inherent immoralities of the Tokugawa system, has +of late years been set forth with tantalizing suggestiveness, but +only in fragments, by the native historians. Heartrending is the +narrative of these men who studied, who taught, who examined, who +sifted the mountains of chaff in the native literature and +writings, who made <span class="pagenum"><a name="page362" id="page362"></a>{362}</span> long journeys on foot all over the +country, who furtively travelled in Korea and China, who boarded +Dutch and Russian vessels, who secretly read forbidden books, who +tried to improve their country and their people. These men saw that +their country was falling behind not only the nations of the West, +but, as it seemed to them, even the nations of the East. They felt +that radical changes were necessary in order to reform the awful +poverty, disease, licentiousness, national weakness, decay of +bodily powers, and the creeping paralysis of the Samurai intellect +and spirit. How they were ostracized, persecuted, put under ban, +hounded by the spies, thrown into prison; how they died of +starvation or of disease; how they were beheaded, crucified, or +compelled to commit <i>hara-kiri</i>; how their books were purged +by the censors, or put under ban or destroyed,<a id="footnotetag12-13" name="footnotetag12-13"></a><a href="#footnote12-13"><sup>13</sup></a> and their maps, writings and +plates burned, has not yet been told. It is a story that, when +fully narrated, will make a volume of extraordinary interest. It is +a story which both Christian and human interests challenge some +native author to tell. During all this time, but especially during +the first half of the nineteenth century, there was one steady goal +to which the aspiring student ever kept his faith, and to which his +feet tended. There was one place of pilgrimage, toward which the +sons of the morning moved, and which, despite the spy and the +informer and the vigilance of governors, fed their spirits, and +whence they carried the sacred fire, or bore the seed whose harvest +we now see. That goal of the pilgrim band was Nagasaki, and the +place where the light burned and the sacred flames were kindled was +Déshima. The men who helped to make true patriots, daring +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page363" id="page363"></a>{363}</span> thinkers, inquirers after truth, +bringers in of a better time, yes, and even Christians and +preachers of the good news of God, were these Dutchmen of +Déshima.</p> +<h3>A Handful of Salt in a Stagnant Mass.</h3> +<p>The Nagasaki Hollanders were not immaculate saints, neither were +they sooty devils. They did not profess to be Christian +missionaries. On the other hand, they were men not devoid of +conscience nor of sympathy with aspiring and struggling men in a +hermit nation, eager for light and truth. The Dutchman during the +time of hermit Japan, as we see him in the literature of men who +were hostile in faith and covetous rivals in trade, is a repulsive +figure. He seems to be a brutal wretch, seeking only gain, and +willing to sell conscience, humanity and his religion, for pelf. In +reality, he was an ordinary European, probably no better, certainly +no worse, than his age or the average man of his country or of his +continent. Further, among this average dozen of exiles in the +interest of commerce, science or culture, there were frequently +honorable men far above the average European, and shining examples +of Christianity and humanity. Even in his submission to the laws of +the country, the Dutchman did no more, no less, but exactly as the +daimiōs,<a id="footnotetag12-14" name="footnotetag12-14"></a><a href="#footnote12-14"><sup>14</sup></a> +who like himself were subject to the humiliations imposed by the +rulers in Yedo.</p> +<p>It was the Dutch, who, for two hundred years supplied the +culture of Europe to Japan, introduced Western science, furnished +almost the only intellectual stimulant, and were the sole teachers +of medicine and science.<a id="footnotetag12-15" name="footnotetag12-15"></a><a href="#footnote12-15"><sup>15</sup></a> +They trained up hundreds of Japanese <span class="pagenum"><a name="page364" id="page364"></a>{364}</span> to be physicians who +practised rational medicine and surgery. They filled with needed +courage the hearts of men, who, secretly practising dissection of +the bodies of criminals, demonstrated the falsity of Chinese ideas +of anatomy. It was Dutch science which exploded and drove out of +Japan that Chinese system of medicine, by means of which so many +millions have, during the long ages, been slowly tortured to +death.</p> +<p>The Déshima Dutchman was a kindly adviser, helper, guide +and friend, the one means of communication with the world, a +handful of salt in the stagnant mass. Long before the United +States, or Commodore Perry, the Hollanders advised the Yodo +government in favor of international intercourse. The Dutch +language, nearest in structure and vocabulary to the English, even +richer in the descriptive energy of its terms, and saturated withal +with Christian truth, was studied by eager young men. These +speakers of an impersonal language which in psychological +development was scarcely above the grade of childhood, were +exercised in a tongue that stands second to none in Europe for +purity, vigor, personality and philosophical power. The Japanese +students of Dutch held a golden key which opened the treasures of +modern thought and of the world's literature. The minds of thinking +Japanese were thus made plastic for the reception of the ideas of +Christianity. Best of all, though forbidden by their contracts to +import Bibles into Japan, the Dutchmen, by means of works of +reference, pointed more than one inquiring spirit to the +information by which the historic Christ became known. The books +which they imported, the information which they gave, the stimulus +which they imparted, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page365" id="page365"></a>{365}</span> were as seeds planted within +masonry-covered earth, that were to upheave and overthrow the +fabric of exclusion and inclusion reared by the Tokugawa +Shōguns.</p> +<p>Time and space fail us to tell how eager spirits not only groped +after God, but sought the living Christ—though often this +meant to them imprisonment, suicide enforced by the law, or +decapitation. Yet over all Japan, long before the broad pennant of +Perry was mirrored on the waters of Yedo Bay, there were here and +there masses of leavened opinion, spots of kindled light, and +fields upon which the tender green sprouts of new ideas could be +detected. To-day, as inquiry among the oldest of the Christian +leaders and scores of volumes of modern biography shows, the most +earnest and faithful among the preachers, teachers and soldiers in +the Christian army, were led into their new world of ideas through +Dutch culture. The fact is revealed in repeated instances, that, +through father, grandfather, uncle, or other relative—some +pilgrim to the Dutch at Nagasaki—came their first knowledge, +their initial promptings, the environment or atmosphere, which made +them all sensitive and ready to receive the Christian truth when it +came in its full form from the living missionary and the vital word +of God. Some one has well said that the languages of modern Europe +are nothing more than Christianity expressed with differing +pronunciation and vocabulary. To him who will receive it, the +mastery of any one of the languages of Christendom, is, in a large +sense, a revelation of God in Christ Jesus.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page366" id="page366"></a>{366}</span> +<h3>Seekers after God.</h3> +<p>Pathetic, even to the compulsion of tears, is the story of these +seekers after God. We, who to-day are surrounded by every motive +and inducement to Christian living and by every means and appliance +for the practice of the Christian life, may well consider for a +moment the struggle of earnest souls to find out God. Think of this +one who finds a Latin Bible cast up on the shore from some broken +ship, and bearing it secretly in his bosom to the Hollander, gains +light as to the meaning of its message. Think of the nobleman, +Watanabé Oboru,<a id="footnotetag12-16" name="footnotetag12-16"></a><a href="#footnote12-16"><sup>16</sup></a> +who, by means of the Japanese interpreter of Dutch, Takano +Choyéi, is thrilled with the story of Jesus of Nazareth who +helped and healed and spake as no other man spake, teaching with an +authority above that of the masters Confucius or Buddha. Think of +the daimiō of Mito,<a id="footnotetag12-17" name="footnotetag12-17"></a><a href="#footnote12-17"><sup>17</sup></a> +who, proud in lineage, learned and scholarly, and surrounded by a +host of educated men, is yet unsatisfied with what the wise of his +own country could give him, and gathers around him the relics +unearthed from the old persecutions. From a picture of the Virgin, +a fragment of a litany, or it may be a part of a breviary, he tries +to make out what Christianity is.</p> +<p>Think of Yokoi Héishiro,<a id="footnotetag12-18" name="footnotetag12-18"></a><a href="#footnote12-18"><sup>18</sup></a> +learned in Confucius and his commentators, who seeks better light, +sends to China for a Chinese translation of the New Testament, and +in his lectures on the Confucian ethics, to the delight and yet to +the surprise of his hearers who hear grander truth than they are +able to find in text or commentary, really preaches Christ, and +prophesies that <span class="pagenum"><a name="page367" id="page367"></a>{367}</span> the time will come when the walls of +isolation being levelled, the brightest intellects of Japan will +welcome this same Jesus and His doctrine. Think of him again, when +unable to purify the Augean stables of Yedo's moral corruption, +because the time was at hand for other cleansing agencies, he +retires to his home, content awhile with his books and flowers. +Again, see him summoned to the capital, to sit at +Kiōto—like aged Franklin among the young statesmen of the +Constitution in Philadelphia—with the Mikado's youthful +advisers in the new government of 1868. Think of him pleading for +the elevation of the pariah Eta, accursed and outcast through +Buddhism, to humanity and citizenship. Then hear him urge +eloquently the right of personal belief, and argue for toleration +under the law, of opinions, which the Japanese then stigmatized as +"evil" and devilish, but which we, and many of them now, call sound +and Christian. Finally, behold him at night in the public streets, +assaulted by assassins, and given quick death by their bullet and +blades. See his gray head lying severed from his body and in its +own gore, the wretched murderers thinking they have stayed the +advancing tide of Christianity; but at home there dwells a little +son destined in God's providence to become an earnest Christian and +one of the brilliant leaders of the native Christianity of Japan in +our day.</p> +<h3>The Buddhist Inquisitors.</h3> +<p>During the nation's period of Thorn-rose-like seclusion, the +three religions recognized by the law were Buddhism, Shintō and +Confucianism. Christianity <span class="pagenum"><a name="page368" +id="page368"></a>{368}</span> was the outlawed sect. All over the +country, on the high-roads, at the bridges, and in the villages, +towns and cities, the fundamental laws of the country were written +on wooden tablets called kosatsŭ. These, framed and roofed for +protection from the weather, but easily before the eyes of every +man, woman and child, and written in a style and language +understood of all, denounced the Christian religion as an accursed +"sect," and offered gold to the spy and informer;<a id="footnotetag12-19" name="footnotetag12-19"></a><a href="#footnote12-19"><sup>19</sup></a> while once a year every Samurai +was required to swear on the true faith of a gentleman that he had +nothing to do with Christianity. From the seventeenth century, the +country having been divided into parishes, the inquisition was +under the charge of the Buddhist priests who penetrated into the +house and family and guarded the graveyards, so that neither earth +nor fire should embrace the carcass of a Christian, nor his dust or +ashes defile the ancestral graveyards. Twice—in 1686 and in +1711—were the rewards increased and the Buddhist bloodhounds +of Japan's Inquisition set on fresh trails. On one occasion, at +Osaka, in 1839,<a id="footnotetag12-20" name="footnotetag12-20"></a><a href="#footnote12-20"><sup>20</sup></a> a +rebellion broke out which was believed, though without evidence, to +have been instigated in some way by men with Christian ideas, and +was certainly led by Oshio, the bitter opponent of Buddhism, of +Tokugawa, and of the prevalent Confucianism. Possibly, the uprising +was aided by refugees from Korea. Those implicated were, after +speedy trial, crucified or beheaded. In the southern part of the +country the ceremony of Ebumi or trampling on the cross,<a id="footnotetag12-21" name="footnotetag12-21"></a><a href="#footnote12-21"><sup>21</sup></a> was long performed. Thousands of +people were made to pass through a wicket, beneath which and on the +ground lay a copper plate engraved with the image of the Christ and +the cross. In this <span class="pagenum"><a name="page369" id="page369"></a>{369}</span> way it was hoped to utterly eradicate +the very memory of Christianity, which, to the common people, had +become the synonym for sorcery.</p> +<p>But besides the seeking after God by earnest souls and the +protest of philosophers, there was, amid the prevailing immorality +and the agnosticism and scepticism bred by decayed Buddhism and the +materialistic philosophy based on Confucius, some earnest struggles +for the purification of morals and the spiritual improvement of the +people.</p> +<h3>The Shingaku Movement.</h3> +<p>One of the most remarkable of the movements to this end was that +of the Shingaku or New Learning. A class of practical moralists, to +offset the prevailing tendency of the age to much speculation and +because Buddhism did so little for the people, tried to make the +doctrines of Confucius a living force among the great mass of +people. This movement, though Confucian in its chief tone and +color, was eclectic and intended to combine all that was best in +the Chinese system with what could be utilized from Shintō and +Buddhism. With the preaching was combined a good deal of active +benevolence. Especially in the time of famine, was care for +humanity shown. The effect upon the people was noticeable, +followers multiplied rapidly, and it is said that even the +government in many instances made them, the Shingaku preachers, the +distributors of rice and alms for the needy. Some of the preachers +became famous and counted among their followers many men of +influence. The literary side of the movement<a id="footnotetag12-22" name="footnotetag12-22"></a><a href="#footnote12-22"><sup>22</sup></a> has been brought to the +attention <span class="pagenum"><a name="page370" id="page370"></a>{370}</span> of English readers through Mr. Mitford's +translation of three sermons from the volume entitled Shingaku +Dōwa. Other discourses have been from time to time rendered into +English, those by Shibata, entitled The Sermons of the Dove-like +Venerable Master, being especially famous.</p> +<p>This movement, interesting as it was, came to an end when the +country began to be convulsed by the approaching entrance of +foreigners, through the Perry treaty; but it serves to show, what +we believe to be the truth, that the moral rottenness as well as +the physical decay of the Japanese people reached their acme just +previous to the apparition of the American fleet in 1853.</p> +<p>The story of nineteenth century Reformed Christianity in Japan +does not begin with Perry, or with Harris, or with the arrival of +Christian missionaries in 1859; for it has a subterranean and +interior history, as we have hinted; while that of the Roman form +and order is a story of unbroken continuity, though the life of the +tunnel is now that of the sunny road. The parable of the leaven is +first illustrated and then that of the mustard-seed. Before +Christianity was phenomenal, it was potent. Let us now look from +the interior to the outside.</p> +<p>On Perry's flag-ship, the Mississippi, the Bible lay open, a +sermon was preached, and the hymn "Before Jehovah's Awful Throne" +was sung, waking the echoes of the Japan hills. The Christian day +of rest was honored on this American squadron. In the treaty signed +in 1854, though it was made, indeed, with use of the name of God +and terms of Christian chronology, there was nothing upon which to +base, either by right or privilege, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page371" id="page371"></a>{371}</span> the residence of +missionaries in the country. Townsend Harris, the American +Consul-General, who hoisted his flag and began his hermit life at +Shimoda, in September, 1855, had as his only companion a Dutch +secretary, Mr. Heusken, who was later, in Yedo, to be assassinated +by ronins.</p> +<p>Without ship or soldier, overcoming craft and guile, and winning +his way by simple honesty and perseverance, Mr. Harris obtained +audience<a id="footnotetag12-23" name="footnotetag12-23"></a><a href="#footnote12-23"><sup>23</sup></a> +of "the Tycoon" in Yedo, and later from the Shōgun's daring +minister Ii, the signature to a treaty which guaranteed to +Americans the rights of residence, trade and commerce. Thus +Americans were enabled to land as citizens, and pursue their +avocation as religious teachers. As the government of the United +States of America knows nothing of the religion of American +citizens abroad, it protects all missionaries who are law-abiding +citizens, without regard to creed.<a id="footnotetag12-24" name="footnotetag12-24"></a><a href="#footnote12-24"><sup>24</sup></a></p> +<h3>Japan Once More Missionary Soil.</h3> +<p>The first missionaries were on the ground as soon as the ports +were open. Though surrounded by spies and always in danger of +assassination and incendiarism, they began their work of mastering +the language. To do this without trained teachers or apparatus of +dictionary and grammar, was then an appalling task. The medical +missionary began healing the swarms of human sufferers, syphilitic, +consumptive, and those scourged by small-pox, cholera and +hereditary and acute diseases of all sorts. The patience, kindness +and persistency of these Christian men literally turned the edge of +the sword, disarmed the assassin, made the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page372" id="page372"></a>{372}</span> spies' +occupation useless, shamed away the suspicious, and conquered the +nearly invincible prejudices of the government. Despite the awful +under-tow in the immorality of the sailor, the adventurer and the +gain-greedy foreigner, the tide of Christianity began steadily to +rise. Notwithstanding the outbursts of the flames of persecution, +the torture and imprisonment of Christian captives and exiles, and +the slow worrying to death of the missionary's native teachers, +inquirers came and converts were made. In 1868, after revolution +and restoration, the old order changed, and duarchy and feudalism +passed away. Quick to seize the opportunity, Dr. J.C. Hepburn, +healer of bodies and souls of men, presented a Bible to the +Emperor, and the gift was accepted.</p> +<p>No sooner had the new government been established in safety, and +the name of Yedo, the city of the Baydoor, been changed into that +of Tōkiō, the Eastern Capital, than an embassy<a id="footnotetag12-25" name="footnotetag12-25"></a><a href="#footnote12-25"><sup>25</sup></a> of seventy persons started on +its course round the world. At its head were three cabinet +ministers of the new government and the court noble, Iwakura, of +immemorial lineage, in whose veins ran the blood of the men called +gods. Across the Pacific to the United States they went, having +their initial audience of the President of the Republic that knows +no state church, and whose Christianity had compelled both the +return of the shipwrecked Japanese and the freedom of the +slave.</p> +<p>This embassy had been suggested and its course planned by a +Christian missionary, who found that of the seventy persons, +one-half had been his pupils.<a id="footnotetag12-26" name="footnotetag12-26"></a><a href="#footnote12-26"><sup>26</sup></a></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page373" id="page373"></a>{373}</span> +<h3>The Imperial Embassy Round the World.</h3> +<p>The purpose of these envoys was, first of all, to ask of the +nations of Christendom equal rights, to get removed the odious +extra-territoriality clause in the treaties, to have the right to +govern aliens on their soil, and to regulate their own tariff. +Secondarily, its members went to study the secrets of power and the +resources of civilization in the West, to initiate the liberal +education of their women by leaving in American schools a little +company of maidens, to enlarge the system of education for their +own country, and to send abroad with approval others of their young +men who, for a decade past had, in spite of every ban and obstacle, +been furtively leaving the country for study beyond the seas.</p> +<p>In the lands of Christendom, the eyes of ambassadors, ministers, +secretaries and students were opened. They saw themselves as others +saw them. They compared their own land and nation, mediaeval in +spirit and backward in resources, and their people untrained as +children, with the modern power, the restless ambition, the stern +purpose, the intense life of the western nations, with their mighty +fleets and armaments, their inventions and machinery, their +economic and social theories and forces, their provision for the +poor, the sick, and the aged, the peerless family life in the +Christian home. They found, further yet, free churches divorced +from politics and independent of the state; that the leading force +of the world was Christianity, that persecution was barbarous, and +that toleration was the law of the future, and largely the +condition of the present. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page374" +id="page374"></a>{374}</span> It took but a few whispers over the +telegraphic wire, and the anti-Christian edicts disappeared from +public view like snowflakes melting on the river. The right arm of +persecution was broken.</p> +<p>The story of the Book of Acts of the modern apostles in Japan is +told, first in the teaching of inquirers, preaching to handfuls, +the gathering of tiny companies, the translation of the Gospel, and +then prayer and waiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit. A study +of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, followed in order to find +out how the Christian Church began. On the 10th day of March, in +the year of our Lord and of the era of Meiji (Enlightened Peace) +the fifth, 1872, at Yokohama, in the little stone chapel built on +part of Commodore Perry's treaty ground, was formed the first +Reformed or Protestant Christian Church in Japan.</p> +<p>At this point our task is ended. We cannot even glance at the +native Christian churches of the Roman, Reformed, or Greek order, +or attempt to appraise the work of the foreign missionaries. He has +read these pages in vain, however, who does not see how well, under +Providence, the Japanese have been trained for higher forms of +faith.</p> +<p>The armies of Japan are upon Chinese soil, while we pen our +closing lines. The last chains of purely local and ethnic dogma are +being snapped asunder. May the sons of Dai Nippon, as they win new +horizons of truth, see more clearly and welcome more loyally that +Prince of Peace whose kingdom is not of this world.</p> +<p>May the age of political conquest end, and the era of the +self-reformation of the Asian nations, through the gospel of Jesus +Christ, be ushered in.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page377" id="page377"></a>{377}</span> +<h2><a href="#chapnotes" id="chapnotes" name="chapnotes">NOTES, +AUTHORITIES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS</a></h2> +<p>The few abbreviations used in these pages stand for well-known +works: T.A.S.J., for Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan; +Kojiki, for Supplement to Volume X., T.A.S.J., Introduction, +Translation, Notes, Map, etc., by Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain; +T.J., for Things Japanese (2d ed.), by Professor B.H. Chamberlain; +S. and H., for Satow and Hawes's Hand-book for Japan, now continued +in new editions (4th, 1894), by Professor B.H. Chamberlain; C.R.M., +for Mayers's Chinese Reader's Manual; M.E., The Mikado's Empire +(7th ed.); B.N., for Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio's A Short History of the +Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, Tōkiō, 1887.</p> +<p>CHAPTER I</p> +<p>PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-1" name="footnote1-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-1">(return)</a> +<p>The late Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, LL.D., who +applied the principles of electro-magnetism to telegraphy, was the +son of the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., the celebrated theologian, +geographer, and gazetteer. In memory of his father, Professor Morse +founded this lectureship in Union Theological Seminary, New York, +on "The Relation of the Bible <span class="pagenum"><a name="page378" id="page378"></a>{378}</span> to the Sciences," May +20,1865, by the gift of ten thousand dollars.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-2" name="footnote1-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-2">(return)</a> +<p>An American Missionary in Japan, p. 209, by Rev. M.L. Gordon, +M.D., Boston, 1892.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-3" name="footnote1-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-3">(return)</a> +<p>Lucretia Coftin Mott.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-4" name="footnote1-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-4">(return)</a> +<p>"I remember once making a calculation in Hong Kong, and making +out my baptisms to have amounted to about six hundred.... I believe +with you that the study of comparative religion is important for +all missionaries. Still more important, it seems to me, is it that +missionaries should make themselves thoroughly proficient in the +languages and literature of the people to whom they are +sent."—Dr. Legge's Letter to the Author, November 27, +1893.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-5" name="footnote1-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-5">(return)</a> +<p>The Religions of China, p. 240, by James Legge, New York, +1881.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-6" name="footnote1-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-6">(return)</a> +<p>The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, p. 22, Boston editions of +1859 and 1879.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-7" name="footnote1-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-7">(return)</a> +<p>One of the many names of Japan is that of the Country Ruled by a +Slender Sword, in allusion to the clumsy weapons employed by the +Chinese and Koreans. See, for the shortening and lightening of the +modern Japanese sword (<i>katana</i>) as compared with the long and +heavy (<i>ken</i>) of the "Divine" (<i>kami</i>) or uncivilized +age, "The Sword of Japan; Its History and Traditions," T.A.S.J., +Vol. II., p. 58.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-8" name="footnote1-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-8">(return)</a> +<p>The course of lectures on The Religions of Chinese Asia (which +included most of the matter in this book), given by the author in +Bangor Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me., in April, 1894, was upon +the Bond foundation, founded by alumni and named after the chief +donor, Rev. Ellas Bond, D.D., of Kohala, long an active missionary +in Hawaii.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page379" id="page379"></a>{379}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-9" name="footnote1-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-9">(return)</a> +<p>This is the contention of Professor Kumi, late of the Imperial +University of Japan; see chapter on Shintō.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-10" name="footnote1-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-10">(return)</a> +<p>In illustration, comical or pitiful, the common people in +Satsuma believe that the spirit of the great Saigo Takamori, leader +of the rebellion of 1877, "has taken up its abode in the planet +Mars," while the spirits of his followers entered into a new race +of frogs that attack man and fight until killed—Mounsey's The +Satsuma Rebellion, p. 217. So, also, the <i>Heiké-gani</i>, +or crabs at Shimonoséki, represent the transmigration of the +souls of the Heiké clan, nearly exterminated in 1184 A.D., +while the "Hōjō bugs" are the avatars of the execrated rulers +of Kamakura (1219-1333 A.D.).—Japan in History, Folk-lore, +and Art, Boston, 1892, pp. 115, 133.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-11" name="footnote1-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-11">(return)</a> +<p>The Future of Religion in Japan. A paper read at the Parliament +of Religions by Nobuta Kishimoto.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-12" name="footnote1-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-12">(return)</a> +<p>The Ainos, though they deify all the chief objects of nature, +such as the sun, the sea, fire, wild beasts, etc., often talk of a +Creator, <i>Kotan kara kamui</i>, literally the God who made the +World. At the fact of creation they stop short.... One gathers that +the creative act was performed not directly, but through +intermediaries, who were apparently animals."—Chamberlain's +Aino Studies, p. 12. See also on the Aino term "Kamui," by +Professor B.H. Chamberlain and Rev. J. Batchelor, T.A.S.J., Vol. +XVI.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-13" name="footnote1-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-13">(return)</a> +<p>See Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella Bird (Bishop), Vol. +II.; The Ainu of Japan, by Rev. John Batchelor; B. Douglas Howard's +Life With Trans-Siberian Savages; Ripley Hitchcock's Report, +Smithsonian Institute, Washington. Professor B. H. Chamberlain's +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page380" id="page380"></a>{380}</span> invaluable "Aino Studies," Tōkiō, +1887, makes scholarly comparison of the Japanese and Aino language, +mythology, and geographical nomenclature.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-14" name="footnote1-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-14">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., The Mythical Zoölogy of Japan, pp. 477-488. C.R.M., +<i>passim</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-15" name="footnote1-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-15">(return)</a> +<p>See the valuable article entitled Demoniacal Possession, T.J., +p. 106, and the author's Japanese Fox Myths, <i>Lippincott's +Magazine</i>, 1873.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-16" name="footnote1-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-16">(return)</a> +<p>See the Aino animal stories and evidences of beast worship in +Chamberlain's Aino Studies. For this element in Japanese life, see +the Kojiki, and the author's Japanese Fairy World.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-17" name="footnote1-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-17">(return)</a> +<p>The proprietor of a paper-mill in Massachusetts, who had bought +a cargo of rags, consisting mostly of farmers' cast off clothes, +brought to the author a bundle of scraps of paper which he had +found in this cheap blue-dyed cotton wearing apparel. Besides money +accounts and personal matters, there were numerous temple amulets +and priests' certificates. See also B.H. Chamberlain's Notes on +Some Minor Japanese Religious Practices, <i>Journal of the +Anthropological Institute</i>, May, 1893.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-18" name="footnote1-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-18">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 440.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-19" name="footnote1-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-19">(return)</a> +<p>See the Lecture on Buddhism in its Doctrinal +Development.—The Nichiren Sect.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-20" name="footnote1-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-20">(return)</a> +<p>The phallus was formerly a common emblem in all parts of Japan, +Hondo, Kiushiu, Shikoku, and the other islands. Bayard Taylor +noticed it in the Riu Kiu (Loo Choo) Islands; Perry's Expedition to +Japan, p. 196; Bayard Taylor's Expedition in Lew Chew; M.E., p. 33, +note; Rein's Japan, p. 432; Diary of Richard Cocks, Vol. I., p. +283. The native guide-books and gazetteers do not allude to the +subject.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page381" id="page381"></a>{381}</span> +<p>Although the author of this volume has collected considerable +data from personal observations and the testimony of personal +friends concerning the vanishing nature-worship of the Japanese, he +has, in the text, scarcely more than glanced at the subject. In a +work of this sort, intended both for the general reader as well as +for the scientific student of religion, it has been thought best to +be content with a few simple references to what was once widely +prevalent in the Japanese archipelago.</p> +<p>Probably the most thorough study of Japanese phallicism yet made +by any foreign scholar is that of Edmund Buckley, A.M., Ph.D., of +the Chicago University, Lecturer on Shintō, the Ethnic Faith of +Japan, and on the Science of Religion. Dr. Buckley spent six years +in central and southwestern Japan, most of the time as instructor +in the Doshisha University, Kiōto. He will publish the results +of his personal observations and studios in a monograph on +phallicism, which will be on sale at Chicago University, in which +the Buckley collection illustrating Shintō-worship has been +deposited.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-21" name="footnote1-21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-21">(return)</a> +<p>Mr. Takahashi Gorō, in his Shintō Shin-ron, or New +Discussion of Shintō, accepts the derivation of the word +<i>kami</i> from <i>kabé</i>, mould, mildew, which, on its +appearance, excites wonder. For Hirata's discussion, see T.A.S.J., +Vol. III., Appendix, p. 48. In a striking paper on the Early Gods +of Japan, in a recent number of the Philosophical Magazine, +published in Tōkiō, a Japanese writer, Mr. Kenjirō +Hiradé, states also that the term kami does not necessarily +denote a spiritual being, but is only a relative term meaning above +or high, but this respect toward something high or above +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page382" id="page382"></a>{382}</span> has created many imaginary deities as +well as those having a human history. See also T.A.S.J., Vol. +XXII., Part I., p. 55, note.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-22" name="footnote1-22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-22">(return)</a> +<p>"There remains something of the Shintō heart after twelve +hundred years of foreign creeds and dress. The worship of the +marvellous continues.... Exaggerated force is most impressive.... +So the ancient gods, heroes, and wonders are worshipped still. The +simple countryfolk clap their hands, bow their heads, mumble their +prayers, and offer the fraction of a cent to the first +European-built house they see."—Philosophy in Japan, Past and +Present, by Dr. George Wm. Knox.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-23" name="footnote1-23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-23">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 474. Honda the Samurai, pp. 256-267.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-24" name="footnote1-24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-24">(return)</a> +<p>Kojiki, pp. 127, 136, 213, 217.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-25" name="footnote1-25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-25">(return)</a> +<p>See S. and H., pp. 39, 76.</p> +<p>"The appearance of anything unusual at a particular spot is hold +to be a sure sign of the presence of divinity. Near the spot where +I live in Ko-ishi-kawa, Tōkiō, is a small Miya, built at the +foot of a very old tree, that stands isolated on the edge of a +rice-field. The spot looks somewhat insignificant, but upon +inquiring why a shrine has been placed there, I was told that a +white snake had been found at the foot of the old tree." ...</p> +<p>"As it is, the religion of the Japanese consists in the belief +that the productive ethereal spirit, being expanded through the +whole universe, every part is in some degree impregnated with it; +and therefore, every part is in some measure the seat of the +Deity."—Legendre's Progressive Japan, p. 258.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1-26" name="footnote1-26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag1-26">(return)</a> +<p>De Verflauwing der Grenzen, by Dr. Abraham <span class="pagenum"><a name="page383" id="page383"></a>{383}</span> Kuyper, +Amsterdam, 1892; translated by Rev. T. Hendrik de Vries, in the +Methodist Review, New York, July-Sept., 1893.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>CHAPTER II</p> +<p>SHINTŌ; MYTHS AND RITUAL</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-1" name="footnote2-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-1">(return)</a> +<p>The scholar who has made profound researches in all departments +of Japanese learning, but especially in the literature of +Shintō, is Mr. Ernest Satow, now the British Minister at +Tangier. He received the degree of B.A. from the London University. +After several years' study and experience in China, Mr. Satow came +to Japan in 1861 as student-interpreter to the British Legation, +receiving his first drill under Rev. S.R. Brown, D.D., author of A +Grammar of Colloquial Japanese. To ceaseless industry, this +scholar, to whom the world is so much indebted for knowledge of +Japan, has added philosophic insight. Besides unearthing documents +whose existence was unsuspected, he has cleared the way for +investigators and comparative students by practically removing the +barriers reared by archaic speech and writing. His papers in the +T.A.S.J., on The Shintō Shrines at Isé, the Revival of +Pure Shintō, and Ancient Japanese Rituals, together with his +Hand-book for Japan, form the best collection of materials for the +study of the original and later forms of Shintō.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-2" name="footnote2-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-2">(return)</a> +<p>The scholar who above all others has, with rare acumen united to +laborious and prolonged toil, illuminated the subject of Japan's +chronology and early history <span class="pagenum"><a name="page384" id="page384"></a>{384}</span> is Mr. W.G. Aston of the +British Civil Service. He studied at the Queen's University, +Ireland, receiving the degree of M.A. He was appointed +student-interpreter in Japan, August 6, 1864. He is the author of a +Grammar of the Written Japanese Language, and has been a student of +the comparative history and speech and writing of China, Korea, and +Japan, during the past thirty years. See his valuable papers in the +T.A.S.J., and the learned societies in Great Britain. In his paper +on Early Japanese History, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., pp. 39-75, he +recapitulates the result of his researches, in which he is, in the +main, supported by critical native scholars, and by the late +William Bramsen, in his Japanese Chronological Tables, Tōkiō, +1880. He considers A.D. 461 as the first trustworthy date in the +Japanese annals. We quote from his paper, Early Japanese History, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 73.</p> +<p>1. The earliest date of the accepted Japanese Chronology, the +accuracy of which is confirmed by external evidence, is A.D. +461.</p> +<p>2. Japanese History, properly so called, can hardly be said to +exist previous to A.D. 500. (A cursory examination leads me to +think that the annals of the sixth century must also be received +with caution.)</p> +<p>3. Korean History and Chronology are more trustworthy than those +of Japan during the period previous to that date.</p> +<p>4. While there was an Empress of Japan in the third century +A.D., the statement that she conquered Korea is highly +improbable.</p> +<p>5. Chinese learning was introduced into Japan from Korea 120 +years later than the date given in Japanese History.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page385" id="page385"></a>{385}</span> +<p>6. The main fact of Japan having a predominant influence in some +parts of Korea during the fifth century is confirmed by the Korean +and Chinese chronicles, which, however, show that the Japanese +accounts are very inaccurate in matters of detail.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-3" name="footnote2-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-3">(return)</a> +<p>Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world of learning such +signal service by his works on the Japanese language, and +especially by his translation, with critical introduction and +commentary, of the Kojiki, is an English gentleman, born at +Southsea, Hampshire, England, on the 18th day of October, 1830. His +mother was a daughter of the well-known traveller and author, +Captain Basil Hall, R.N., and his father an Admiral in the British +Navy. He was educated for Oxford, but instead of entering, for +reasons of health, he spent a number of years in western Mid +southern Europe, acquiring a knowledge of various languages and +literatures. His coming to Japan (in May, 1873) was rather the +result of an accident—a long sea voyage and a trial of the +Japanese climate having been recommended. The country and the field +of study suited the invalid well. After teaching for a time in the +Naval College the Japanese honored themselves and this scholar by +making him, in April, 1886, Professor of Philology at the Imperial +University. His works, The Classical Poetry of the Japanese, his +various grammars and hand-books for the acquisition of the +language, his Hand-book for Japan, his Aino Studies, Things +Japanese, papers in the T.A.S.J. and his translation of the Kojiki +are all of a high order of value. They are marked by candor, +fairness, insight, and a mastery of difficult themes that makes his +readers his constant debtors.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page386" id="page386"></a>{386}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-4" name="footnote2-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-4">(return)</a> +<p>"If the term 'Altaic' be held to include Korean and Japanese, +then Japanese assumes prime importance as being by far the oldest +living representative of that great linguistic group, its +literature antedating by many centuries the most ancient +productions of the Manchus, Mongols, Turks, Hungarians, or +Finns."—Chamberlain, Simplified Grammar, Introd., p. vi.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-5" name="footnote2-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-5">(return)</a> +<p>Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 13-14; Mr. Pom K. Soh's paper on +Education in Korea; Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education, +1890-91.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-6" name="footnote2-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-6">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 74; Bramsen's Chronological Tables, +Introd., p. 34; T.J., p. 32.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-7" name="footnote2-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-7">(return)</a> +<p>The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., p. 531.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-8" name="footnote2-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-8">(return)</a> +<p>"The frog in the well knows not the great ocean." This proverb, +so freely quoted throughout Chinese Asia, and in recent years so +much applied to themselves by the Japanese, is of Hindu origin and +is found in the Sanskrit.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-9" name="footnote2-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-9">(return)</a> +<p>This is shown with literary skill and power in a modern popular +work, the title of which, Dai Nippon Kai-biyaku Yurai-iki, which, +very freely indeed, may be translated Instances of Divine +Interposition in Behalf of Great Japan. A copy of this work was +presented to the writer by the late daimiō of Echizen, and was +read with interest as containing the common people's ideas about +their country and history. It was published in Yedo in 1856, while +Japan was still excited over the visits of the American and +European fleets. On the basis of the information furnished in this +work General Le Gendre wrote his influential book, Progressive +Japan, in which a number of quotations from the <i>Kai-biyaku</i> +may be read.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-10" name="footnote2-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-10">(return)</a> +<p>In the Kojiki, pp. 101-104, we have the poetical <span class="pagenum"><a name="page387" id="page387"></a>{387}</span> account +of the abdication of the lord of Idzumo in favor of the Yamato +conqueror, on condition that the latter should build a temple and +have him honored among the gods. One of the rituals contains the +congratulatory address of the chieftains of Idzumo, on their +surrender to "the first Mikado, Jimmu Tennō." See also T.J., p. +206.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-11" name="footnote2-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-11">(return)</a> +<p>"The praying for Harvest, or Toshigoi no Matsuri, was celebrated +on the 4th day of the 2d month of each year, at the capital in the +Jin-Gi-Kuan or office for the Worship of the Shintō gods, and in +the provinces by the chiefs of the local administrations. At the +Jin-Gi-Kuan there were assembled the ministers of state, the +functionaries of that office, the priests and priestesses of 573 +temples, containing 737 shrines, which were kept up at the expense +of the Mikado's treasury, while the governors of the provinces +superintended in the districts under their administration the +performance of rites in honor of 2,395 other shrines. It would not +be easy to state the exact number of deities to whom these 3,132 +shrines were dedicated. A glance over the list in the 9th and 10th +books of the Yengishiki shows at once that there were many gods who +were worshipped in more than half-a-dozen different localities at +the same time; but exact calculation is impossible, because in many +cases only the names of the temples are given, and we are left +quite in the dark as to the individuality of the gods to whom they +were sacred. Besides these 3,132 shrines, which are distinguished +as Shikidai, that is contained in the catalogue of the Yengishiki, +there were a large number of enumerated shrines in temples +scattered all over the country, in every village or hamlet, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page388" id="page388"></a>{388}</span> of which it was impossible to take any +account, just as at the present day there are temples of Hachiman, +Kompira, Tenjin sama, San-no sama and Sengen sama, as they are +popularly called, wherever twenty or thirty houses are collected +together. The shrines are classed as great and small, the +respective numbers being 492 and 2,640, the distinction being +twofold, firstly in the proportionately larger quantity of +offerings made at the great shrines, and secondly that the +offerings in the one case were arranged upon tables or altars, +while in the other they were placed on mats spread upon the earth. +In the Yengishiki the amounts and nature of the offerings are +stated with great minuteness, but it will be sufficient if the +kinds of articles offered are alone mentioned here. It will be +seen, by comparison with the text of the norito, that they had +varied somewhat since the date when the ritual was composed. The +offerings to a greater shrine consisted of coarse woven silk +(<i>ashiginu</i>), thin silk of five different colors, a kind of +stuff called <i>shidori</i> or <i>shidzu</i>, which is supposed by +some to have been a striped silk, cloth of broussonetia bark or +hemp, and a small quantity of the raw materials of which the cloth +was made, models of swords, a pair of tables or altars (called +<i>yo-kura-oki</i> and <i>ya-kura-oki</i>), a shield or mantlet, a +spear-head, a bow, a quiver, a pair of stag's horns, a hoe, a few +measures of saké or rice-beer, some haliotis and bonito, two +measures of <i>kituli</i> (supposed to be salt roe), various kinds +of edible seaweed, a measure of salt, a saké jar, and a few +feet of matting for packing. To each of the temples of Watarai in +Isé was presented in addition a horse; to the temple of the +Harvest god Mitoshi no kami, a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page389" id="page389"></a>{389}</span> white horse, cock, and pig, +and a horse to each of nineteen others.</p> +<p>"During the fortnight which preceded the celebration of the +service, two smiths and their journeymen, and two carpenters, +together with eight inbe [or hereditary priests] were employed in +preparing the apparatus and getting ready the offerings. It was +usual to employ for the Praying for Harvest members of this tribe +who held office in the Jin-Gi-Kuan, but if the number could not he +made up in that office, it was supplied from other departments of +state. To the tribe of quiver-makers was intrusted the special duty +of weaving the quivers of wistaria tendrils. The service began at +twenty minutes to seven in the morning, by our reckoning of time. +After the governor of the province of Yamashiro had ascertained +that everything was in readiness, the officials of the Jin-Gi-Kuan +arranged the offerings on the tables and below them, according to +the rank of the shrines for which they were intended. The large +court of the Jin-Gi-Kuan where the service was held, called the +Sai-in, measured 230 feet by 370. At one end were the offices and +on the west side were the shrines of the eight Protective Deities +in a row, surrounded by a fence, to the interior of which three +sacred archways (torii) gave access. In the centre of the court a +temporary shed was erected for the occasion, in which the tables or +altars were placed. The final preparations being now complete, the +ministers of state, the virgin priestesses and priests of the +temples to which offerings were sent by the Mikado, entered in +succession, and took the places severally assigned to them. The +horses which formed a part of the offerings were next brought in +from the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page390" id="page390"></a>{390}</span> Mikado's stable, and all the +congregation drew near, while the reader recited or read the +norito. This reader was a member of the priestly family or tribe of +Nakatomi, who traced their descent back to Ameno-koyané, one +of the principal advisers attached to the sun-goddess's grandchild +when he first descended on earth. It is a remarkable evidence of +the persistence of certain ideas, that up to the year 1868 the +nominal prime-minister of the Mikado, after he came of age, and the +regent during his minority, if he had succeeded young to the +throne, always belonged to this tribe, which changed its name from +Nakatomi to Fujiwara in the seventh century, and was subsequently +split up into the Five Setsuké or governing families. At the +end of each section the priests all responded 'O!' which was no +doubt the equivalent of 'Yes' in use in those days. As soon as he +had finished, the Nakatomi retired, and the offerings were +distributed to the priests for conveyance and presentation to the +gods to whose service they were attached. But a special messenger +was despatched with the offerings destined to the temples at +Watarai. This formality having been completed, the President of the +Jin-Gi-Kuan gave the signal for breaking up the assembly." Ancient +Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J., Vol. VII, pp. 104-107.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-12" name="footnote2-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-12">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., p. 461.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-13" name="footnote2-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-13">(return)</a> +<p>Consult Chamberlain's literal translations of the name in the +Kojiki, and p. lxv. of his Introduction.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2-14" name="footnote2-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag2-14">(return)</a> +<p>The parallel between the Hebrew and Japanese accounts of light +and darkness, day and night, before the sun, has been noticed by +several writers. See the comments of Hirata, a modern Shintō +expounder.—T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 72.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page391" id="page391"></a>{391}</span> +<p>CHAPTER III</p> +<p>"THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-1" name="footnote3-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-1">(return)</a> +<p>Kojiki, pp. 9-18; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 20.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-2" name="footnote3-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-2">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 43; McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, Art. Shintō; +in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, is to be found Mr. Satow's digest +of the commentaries of the modern Shintō revivalists; in Mr. +Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki, the text with abundant +notes. See also Mr. Twan-Lin's Account of Japan up to A.D. 1200, by +E.H. Parker. T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-3" name="footnote3-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-3">(return)</a> +<p>"The various abstractions which figure at the commencement of +the 'Records' (Kojiki) and of the 'Chronicles' (Nihongi) were +probably later growths, and perhaps indeed were inventions of +individual priests."—Kojiki, Introd., p. lxv. See also +T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I, p. 56. "Thus, not only is this part +of the Kojiki pure twaddle, but it is not even consistent +twaddle."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-4" name="footnote3-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-4">(return)</a> +<p>Kojiki, Section IX.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-5" name="footnote3-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-5">(return)</a> +<p>Dr. Joseph Edkins, D.D., author of Chinese Buddhism, who +believes that the primeval religious history of men is recoverable, +says in Early Spread of Religious Ideas, Especially in the Far +East, p. 29, "In Japan Amatérasŭ, ... in fact, as I +suppose, Mithras written in Japanese, though the Japanese +themselves are not aware of this etymology." Compare Kojiki, +Introduction, pp. lxv.-lxvii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-6" name="footnote3-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-6">(return)</a> +<p>Kojiki, p. xlii.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page392" id="page392"></a>{392}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-7" name="footnote3-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-7">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 67.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-8" name="footnote3-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-8">(return)</a> +<p>E. Satow, Revival of Pure Shintō, pp. 67-68.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-9" name="footnote3-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-9">(return)</a> +<p>This curious agreement between the Japanese and other ethnic +traditions in locating "Paradise," the origin of the human family +and of civilization, at the North Pole, has not escaped the +attention of Dr. W.F. Warren, President of Boston University, who +makes extended reference to it in his interesting and suggestive +book, Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North +Pole; A Study of the Prehistoric World, Boston, 1885.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-10" name="footnote3-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-10">(return)</a> +<p>The pure Japanese numerals equal in number the fingers; with the +borrowed Chinese terms vast amounts can be expressed.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-11" name="footnote3-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-11">(return)</a> +<p>This custom was later revived, T.A.S.J., pp. 28, 31. Mitford's +Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 57; M.E., pp. 156, 238.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-12" name="footnote3-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-12">(return)</a> +<p>See in Japanese Fairy World, "How the Sun-Goddess was enticed +out of her Cave." For the narrative see Kojiki, pp. 54-59; +T.A.S.J., Vol. II., 128-133.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-13" name="footnote3-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-13">(return)</a> +<p>See Choméi and Wordsworth, A Literary Parallel, by J.M. +Dixon, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., pp. 193-205; Anthologie Japonaise, by +Leon de Rosny; Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese; +Suyématsŭ's Genji Monogatari, London, 1882.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-14" name="footnote3-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-14">(return)</a> +<p>Oftentimes in studying the ancient rituals, those who imagine +that the word Kami should be in all cases translated gods, will be +surprised to see what puerility, bathos, or grandiloquence, comes +out of an attempt to express a very simple, it may be humiliating, +experience.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-15" name="footnote3-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-15">(return)</a> +<p>Mythology and Religious Worship of the Japanese, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page393" id="page393"></a>{393}</span> +Westminster Review, July, 1878; Ancient Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J., +Vols. VII., IX.; Esoteric Shintō, by Percival Lowell, T.A.S.J, +Vol. XXI.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-16" name="footnote3-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-16">(return)</a> +<p>Compare Sections IX. and XXIII. of the Kojiki.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-17" name="footnote3-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-17">(return)</a> +<p>This indeed seems to be the substance of the modern official +expositions of Shintō and the recent Rescripts of the Emperor, +as well as of much popular literature, including the manifestoes or +confessions found on the persons of men who have "consecrated" +themselves as "the instruments of Heaven for punishing the wicked," +<i>i.e.</i>, assassinating obnoxious statesmen. See The Ancient +Religion, M.E., pp. 96-100; The Japan Mail, <i>passim</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-18" name="footnote3-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-18">(return)</a> +<p>Revival of Pure Shintō, pp. 25-38.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-19" name="footnote3-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-19">(return)</a> +<p>Japanese Homes, by E.S. Morse, pp. 228-233, note, p. 832.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-20" name="footnote3-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-20">(return)</a> +<p>Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-21" name="footnote3-21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-21">(return)</a> +<p>Geological Survey of Japan, by Benj. S. Lyman, 1878-9.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-22" name="footnote3-22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-22">(return)</a> +<p>The Shell Mounds of Omori; and The Tokio Times, Jan. 18, 1879, +by Edward S. Morse; Japanese Fairy World, pp. I78, 191, 196.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-23" name="footnote3-23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-23">(return)</a> +<p>Kojiki, pp. 60-63.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-24" name="footnote3-24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-24">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., pp. 58, 337, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-25" name="footnote3-25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-25">(return)</a> +<p>This study in comparative religion by a Japanese, which cost the +learned author his professorship in the Téi-Koku Dai Gaku or +Imperial University (lit. Theocratic Country Great Learning Place), +has had a tendency to chill the ardor of native investigators. His +paper was first published in the Historical Magazine of the +University, but the wide publicity and popular excitement followed +only after republication, with comments by Mr. Taguchi, in the +Kéizai Zasshi (Economical <span class="pagenum"><a name="page394" id="page394"></a>{394}</span> Journal). The Shintōists +denounced Professor Kumi for "making our ancient religion a branch +of Christianity," and demanded and secured his "retirement" by the +Government. See Japan Mail, April 2, 1892, p. 440.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-26" name="footnote3-26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-26">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., p. 282.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-27" name="footnote3-27"></a><b>Footnote 27:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-27">(return)</a> +<p>Kojiki, p. xxviii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-28" name="footnote3-28"></a><b>Footnote 28:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-28">(return)</a> +<p>For the use of salt in modern "Esoteric" Shintō, both in +purification and for employment as of salamandrine, see T.A.S.J., +pp. 125, 128.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3-29" name="footnote3-29"></a><b>Footnote 29:</b><a href="#footnotetag3-29">(return)</a> +<p>In the official census of 1893, nine Shintō sects are named, +each of which has its own Kwancho or Presiding Head, recognized by +the government. The sectarian peculiarities of Shintō have been +made the subject of study by very few foreigners. Mr. Satow names +the following:</p> +<p>The Yui-itsu sect was founded by Toshida Kané-tomo. His +signature appears as the end of a ten-volume edition, issued A.D. +1503, of the liturgies extracted from the Yengishiki or Book of +Ceremonial Law, first published in the era of Yengi (or En-gi), +A.D. 901-922. He is supposed to be the one who added the +<i>kana</i>, or common vernacular script letters, to the Chinese +text and thus made the norito accessible to the people. The little +pocket prayer-books, folded in an accordeon-like manner, are very +cheap and popular. The sect is regarded as heretical by strict +Shintōists, as the system Yuwiitsu consists "mainly of a +Buddhist superstructure on a Shintō foundation." Yoshida applied +the tenets of the Shingon or True Word sect of Buddhists to the +understanding and practice of the ancient god-way.</p> +<p>The Suiga sect teaches a system which is a combination +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page395" id="page395"></a>{395}</span> of Yuwiitsu and of the modern +philosophical form of Confucianism as elaborated by Chu Hi, and +known in Japan as the Téi-shu philosophy. The founder was +Yamazaki Ansai, who was born in 1618 and died in 1682. By combining +the forms of the Yoshida sect, which is based on the Buddhism of +the Shingon sect, with the materialistic philosophy of Chu Hi, he +adapted the old god-way to what he deemed modern needs.</p> +<p>In the Déguchi sect, the ancient belief is explained by +the Chinese Book of Changes (or Divination). Déguchi +Nobuyoshi, the founder, was god-warden or <i>kannushi</i> of the +Géiku or Outer Palace Temple at Isé. He promulgated +his views about the year 1660, basing them upon the book called +Éki by the Japanese and Yi-king by the Chinese. This +Yi-king, which Professor Terrien de Laeouporie declares is only a +very ancient book of pronunciation of comparative Accadian and +Chinese Syllabaries, has been the cause of incredible waste of +labor, time, and brains in China—enough to have diked the +Yellow River or drained the swamps of the Empire. It is the chief +basis of Chinese superstition, and the greatest literary barrier to +the advance of civilization. It has also made much mischief in +Japan. Déguchi explained the myths of the age of the gods by +divination or éki, based on the Chinese books. As late as +1893 there was published in Tōkiō a work in Japanese, with +good translation info English, on Scientific Morality, or the +practical guidance of life by means of divination—The +Takashima Ékidan (or Monograph on the Éki of Mr. +Takashima), by S. Sugiura.</p> +<p>The Jikko sect, according to its representative at <span class="pagenum"><a name="page396" id="page396"></a>{396}</span> the +World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago, is "the practical." It +lays stress less upon speculation and ritual, and more upon the +realization of the best teachings of Shintō. It was founded by +Haségawa Kakugiō, who was born at Nagasaki in 1541. +Living in a cave in Fuji-yama, "he received inspiration through the +miraculous power of the mountain." It believes in one absolute +Deity, often mentioned in the Kojiki, which, self-originated, took +the embodiment of two deities, one with the male nature and the +other female, though these two deities are nothing but forms of the +one substance and unite again in the absolute deity. These gave +birth to the Japanese Archipelago, the sun and moon, the mountains +and streams, the divine ancestors, etc. According to the teachings +of this sect, the peerless mountain, Fuji, ought to be reverenced +as the sacred abode of the divine lord, and as "the brains of the +whole globe." The believer must make Fuji the example and emblem of +his thought and action. He must be plain and simple, as the form of +the mountain, making his body and mind pure and serene, as Fuji +itself. The present world with all its practical works must be +respected more than the future world. We must pray for the long +life of the country, lead a life of temperance and diligence, +cooperating with one another in doing good.</p> +<hr /> +<p><i>Statistics of Shintōism.</i></p> +<p>From the official Résumé Statistique de l'Empire +du Japon, 1894. In 1801 there were nine administrative heads of +sects; 75,877 preachers, priests, and shrine-keepers, with 1,158 +male and 228 female students. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page397" id="page397"></a>{397}</span> There were 163 national +temples of superior rank and 136,652 shrines or temples in cities +and prefectures; a total of 193,153, served by 14,700 persons of +the grade of priests. Most of the expenses, apart from endowments +and local contributions, are included in the first item of the +annual Treasury Budget, "Civil List, Appanage and Shintō +Temples."</p> +</blockquote> +<p>CHAPTER IV</p> +<p>THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-1" name="footnote4-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-1">(return)</a> +<p>"He was fond of saying that Princeton had never originated a new +idea; but this meant no more than that Princeton was the advocate +of historical Calvinism in opposition to the modified and +provincial Calvinism of a later day."—Francis L. Patton, in +Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia, Article on Charles Hodge.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-2" name="footnote4-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-2">(return)</a> +<p>We use Dr. James Legge's spelling, by whom these classics have +been translated into English. See Sacred Books of the East, edited +by Max Müller.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-3" name="footnote4-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-3">(return)</a> +<p>The Canon or Four Classics has a somewhat varied literary +history of transmission, collection, and redaction, as well as of +exposition, and of criticism, both "lower" and "higher." As +arranged under the Han Dynasty (B.C. 206-A.D. 23) it consisted +of—I. The Commentary of Tso Kinming (a disciple who expounded +Confucius's book, The Annals of State of Lu); II. The Commentary of +Kuh-liang upon the same work of Confucius; III. The Old Text of the +Book of History; IV. The Odes, collected by Mao Chang, to whom is +ascribed the test of the Odes as handed down to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page398" id="page398"></a>{398}</span> the +present day. The generally accepted arrangement is that made by the +mediaeval schoolmen of the Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1341), Cheng Teh +Sio and Chu Hi, in the twelfth century: I. The Great Learning; II. +The Doctrine of the Mean; III. Conversations of Confucius; IV. The +Sayings of Mencius.—C.R.M., pp. 306-309.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-4" name="footnote4-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-4">(return)</a> +<p>See criticisms of Confucius as an author, in Legge's Religions +of China, pp. 144, 145.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-5" name="footnote4-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-5">(return)</a> +<p>Religions of China, by James Legge, p. 140.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-6" name="footnote4-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-6">(return)</a> +<p>See Article China, by the author, Cyclopaedia of Political +Science, Chicago, 1881.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-7" name="footnote4-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-7">(return)</a> +<p>This subject is critically discussed by Messrs. Satow, +Chamberlain, and others in their writings on Shintō and Japanese +history. On Japanese chronology, see Japanese Chronological Tables, +by William Bramsen, Tōkiō, 1880, and Dr. David Murray's Japan +(p. 95), in the series Story of the Nations, New York.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-8" name="footnote4-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-8">(return)</a> +<p>The absurd claim made by some Shintōists that the Japanese +possessed an original native alphabet called the Shingi +(god-letters) before the entrance of the Chinese or Buddhist +learning in Japan, is refuted by Aston, Japanese Grammar, p. 1; +T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 77. Mr. Satow shows "their +unmistakable identity with the Corean alphabet."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-9" name="footnote4-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-9">(return)</a> +<p>For the life, work, and tombs of the Chinese scholars who fled +to Japan on the fall of the Ming Dynasty, see M.E., p. 298; and +Professor E.W. Clement's paper on The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., and his letters in The Japan Mail.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-10" name="footnote4-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-10">(return)</a> +<p>"We have consecrated ourselves as the instruments of Heaven for +punishing the wicked man,"—from the document submitted to the +Yedo authorities, by the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page399" +id="page399"></a>{399}</span> assassins of Ii Kamon no Kami, in +Yedo, March 23, 1861, and signed by seventeen men of the band. For +numerous other instances, see the voluminous literature of the +Forty-seven Rōnins, and the Meiji political literature +(1868-1893), political and historical documents, assassins' +confessions, etc., contained in that thesarus of valuable +documents, The Japan Mail; Kinsé Shiriaku, or Brief History +of Japan, 1853-1869, Yokohama, 1873, and Nihon Guaishi, translated +by Mr. Ernest Satow; Adams's History of Japan; T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., +p. 145; Life and Letters of Yokoi Héishiro; Life of Sir +Harry Parkes, London, 1893, etc., for proof of this assertion.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-11" name="footnote4-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-11">(return)</a> +<p>For proof of this, as to vocabulary, see Professor B.H. +Chamberlain's Grammars and other philological works; Mr. J.H. +Gubbins's Dictionary of Chinese-Japanese Words, with Introduction, +three vols., Tōkiō 1892; and for change in structure, Rev. C. +Munzinger, on The Psychology of the Japanese Language in the +Transactions of the Gorman Asiatic Society of Japan. See also +Mental Characteristics of the Japanese, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIX., pp. +17-37.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-12" name="footnote4-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-12">(return)</a> +<p>See The Ghost of Sakura, in Mitfoid's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. +II, p. 17.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-13" name="footnote4-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-13">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., 277-280. See an able analysis of Japanese feudal society, +by M.F. Dickins, Life of Sir Harry Parkes, pp. 8-13; M.E., pp. +277-283.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-14" name="footnote4-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-14">(return)</a> +<p>This subject is discussed in Professor Chamberlain's works; Mr. +Percival Lowell's The Soul of the Far East; Dr. M.L. Gordon's An +American Missionary in Japan; Dr. J.H. De Forest's The Influence of +Pantheism, in The Japan Evangelist, 1894.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-15" name="footnote4-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-15">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., p. 96.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page400" id="page400"></a>{400}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-16" name="footnote4-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-16">(return)</a> +<p>The Forty Seven-Rōnins, Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I.; +Chiushiugura, by F.V. Dickens; The Loyal Rōnins, by Edward +Greey; Chiushiugura, translated by Enouyé.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-17" name="footnote4-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-17">(return)</a> +<p>See Dr. J.H. De Forest's article in the Andover Review, May, +June, 1893, p. 309. For details and instances, see the Japanese +histories, novels, and dramas; M.E.; Rein's Japan; S. and H.; +T.A.S.J., etc. Life of Sir Harry Parkes, p. 11 <i>et +passim</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-18" name="footnote4-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-18">(return)</a> +<p>M.E. pp. 180-192, 419. For the origin and meaning of hara-kiri, +see T.J., pp. 199-201; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., +Appendix; Adams's History of Japan, story of Shimadzŭ.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-19" name="footnote4-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-19">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 133.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-20" name="footnote4-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-20">(return)</a> +<p>For light upon the status of the Japanese family, see F.O. +Adams's History of Japan, Vol. II., p. 384; Kinsé Shiriaku, +p. 137; Naomi Tamura, The Japanese Bride, New York, 1893; E.H. +House, Yoné Santo, A Child of Japan, Chicago, 1888; Japanese +Girls and Women, by Miss A.M. Bacon, Boston, 1891; T.J., Article +Woman, and in Index, Adoption, Children, etc.; M.E., 1st ed., p. +585; Marriage in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 114; and papers in +the German Asiatic Society of Japan.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-21" name="footnote4-21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-21">(return)</a> +<p>See Mr. F.W. Eastlake's papers in the Popular Science +Monthly.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-22" name="footnote4-22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-22">(return)</a> +<p>See Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II, pp. 181-182. "It is to be +feared, however, that this reform [of the Yoshiwara system], like +many others in Japan, never got beyond paper, for Mr. Norman in his +recent book, The Real Japan [Chap. XII.], describes a scarcely +modified system in full vigor." See also Japanese Girls and Women, +pp. 289-292.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page401" id="page401"></a>{401}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-23" name="footnote4-23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-23">(return)</a> +<p>See Pung Kwang Yu's paper, read at the Parliament of Religions +in Chicago, and The Chinese as Painted by Themselves, by Colonel +Tcheng-Ki-Tong, New York and London, 1885. Dr. W.A.P. Martin's +scholarly book, The Chinese, New York, 1881, in the chapter Remarks +on the Ethical Philosophy of the Chinese, gives in English and +Chinese a Chart of Chinese Ethics in which the whole scheme of +philosophy, ethics, and self-culture is set forth.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-24" name="footnote4-24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-24">(return)</a> +<p>See an exceedingly clear, able, and accurate article on The +Ethics of Confucius as Seen in Japan, by the veteran scholar, Rev. +J.H. De Forest, The Andover Review, May, June, 1893. He is the +authority for the statements concerning non-attendance (in Old +Japan) of the husband at the wife's, and older brother at younger +brother's funeral.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-25" name="footnote4-25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-25">(return)</a> +<p>A Japanese translation of Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures, in a +Tōkiō morning newspaper "met with instant and universal +approval," showing that Douglas Jerrold's world-famous character +has her counterpart in Japan, where, as a Japanese proverb +declares, "the tongue three inches long can kill a man six feet +high." Sir Edwin Arnold and Mr. E.H. House, in various writings, +have idealized the admirable traits of the Japanese woman. See also +Mr. Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Boston, 1894; +and papers (The Eternal Feminine, etc.), in the Atlantic +Monthly.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-26" name="footnote4-26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-26">(return)</a> +<p>Summary of the Japanese Penal Codes, T.A.S.J., Vol. V., Part +II.; The Penal Code of Japan, and The Code of Criminal Procedure of +Japan, Yokohama.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-27" name="footnote4-27"></a><b>Footnote 27:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-27">(return)</a> +<p>See T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 114; the Chapter on Marriage and +Divorce, in Japanese Girls and Women, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page402" id="page402"></a>{402}</span> pp. +57-84. The following figures are from the Résumé +Statistique de L'Empire du Japon, published annually by the +Imperial Government:</p> +<pre> + MARRIAGES. DIVORCES. + Number. Per 1,000 Number. Per 1,000 + Persons. Persons. + +1887....334,149 8.55 110,859 2.84 +1888....330,246 8.34 109,175 2.76 +1889....340,445 8.50 107,458 2.68 +1890....325,141 8.04 197,088 2.70 +1891....352,051 8.00 112,411 2.76 +1892....348,489 8.48 113,498 2.76 +</pre></blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-28" name="footnote4-28"></a><b>Footnote 28:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-28">(return)</a> +<p>This was strikingly brought out in the hundreds of English +compositions (written by students of the Imperial University, +1872-74, describing the home or individual life of students), +examined and read by the author.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-29" name="footnote4-29"></a><b>Footnote 29:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-29">(return)</a> +<p>Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto—Héauton +Tomoroumenos, Act—, Scene 1, line 25, where Chremes inquires +about his neighbor's affairs. For the golden rule of Jesus and the +silver rule of Confucius, see Doolittle's Social Life of the +Chinese.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-30" name="footnote4-30"></a><b>Footnote 30:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-30">(return)</a> +<p>"What you do not want done to yourselves, do not do to others." +Legge, The Religions of China, p. 137; Doolittle's Social Life of +the Chinese; The Testament of Iyéyasŭ;, Cap. LXXI., +translated by J.C. Lowder, Yokohama, 1874.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-31" name="footnote4-31"></a><b>Footnote 31:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-31">(return)</a> +<p>Die politische Bedeutung der amerikanischer Expedition nach +Japan, 1852, by Tetsutaro Yoshida, Heidelberg, 1893; The United +States and Japan (p. 39), by Inazo Nitobé, Baltimore, 1891; +Matthew Calbraith Perry, Chap. XXVIII.; T.J., Article Perry; Life +and Letters of S. Wells Williams, New York, 1889.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page403" id="page403"></a>{403}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-32" name="footnote4-32"></a><b>Footnote 32:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-32">(return)</a> +<p>See Life of Matthew Calbraith Perry, pp. 363, 364.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4-33" name="footnote4-33"></a><b>Footnote 33:</b><a href="#footnotetag4-33">(return)</a> +<p>Lee's Jerusalem Illustrated, p. 88.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>CHAPTER V</p> +<p>CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-1" name="footnote5-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-1">(return)</a> +<p>See On the Early History of Printing in Japan, by E.M. Satow, +T.A.S.J., Vol. X., pp. 1-83, 252-259; The Jesuit Mission Press in +Japan, by E.M. Satow (privately printed, 1888), and Review of this +monograph by Professor B.H. Chamberlain, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. +91-100.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-2" name="footnote5-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-2">(return)</a> +<p>The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, by Ernest W. Clement, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XVIII., pp. 1-24, and Letters in The Japan Mail, 1889.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-3" name="footnote5-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-3">(return)</a> +<p>Effect of Buddhism on the Philosophy of the Sung Dynasty, p. +318, Chinese Buddhism, by Rev. J. Edkins, Boston, 1880.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-4" name="footnote5-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-4">(return)</a> +<p>C.R.M., p. 200; The Middle Kingdom, by S. Wells Williams, Vol. +II., p. 174.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-5" name="footnote5-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-5">(return)</a> +<p>C.R.M., p. 34. He was the boy-hero, who smashed with a stone the +precious water-vase in order to save from drowning a playmate who +had tumbled in, so often represented in Chinese popular art.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-6" name="footnote5-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-6">(return)</a> +<p>C.R.M., pp. 25-26; The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., pp. 113, 540, +652-654, 677.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-7" name="footnote5-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-7">(return)</a> +<p>This decade in Chinese history was astonishingly like that of +the United States from 1884 to 1894, in which the economical +theories advocated in certain <span class="pagenum"><a name="page404" id="page404"></a>{404}</span> journals, in the books +Progress and Poverty, Looking Backward, and by the Populists, have +been so widely read and discussed, and the attempts made to put +them into practice. The Chinese theorist of the eleventh century, +Wang Ngan-shih was "a poet and author of rare +genius."—C.R.M., p. 244.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-8" name="footnote5-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-8">(return)</a> +<p>John xxi. 25.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-9" name="footnote5-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-9">(return)</a> +<p>This is the opinion of no less capable judges than Dr. George +Wm. Knox and Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-10" name="footnote5-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-10">(return)</a> +<p>The United States and Japan, pp. 25-27; Life of Takano +Choyéi by Kato Sakayé, Tōkiō, 1888.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-11" name="footnote5-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-11">(return)</a> +<p>Note on Japanese Schools of Philosophy, by T. Haga, and papers +by Dr. G.W. Knox, Dr. T. Inoué, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX, Part +I.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-12" name="footnote5-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-12">(return)</a> +<p>A religion, surely, with men like Yokoi Héishiro.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-13" name="footnote5-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-13">(return)</a> +<p>See pp. 110-113.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-14" name="footnote5-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-14">(return)</a> +<p><i>Kinno</i>—loyalty to the Emperor; T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., +p. 147.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-15" name="footnote5-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-15">(return)</a> +<p>"Originally recognizing the existence of a Supreme personal +Deity, it [Confucianism] has degenerated into a pantheistic medley, +and renders worship to an impersonal <i>anima mundi</i> under the +leading forms of visible nature."—Dr. W.A.P. Martin's The +Chinese, p. 108.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-16" name="footnote5-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-16">(return)</a> +<p>Ki, Ri, and Ten, Dr. George Wm. Knox, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., pp. +155-177.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-17" name="footnote5-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-17">(return)</a> +<p>T.J., p. 94.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-18" name="footnote5-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-18">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 156.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-19" name="footnote5-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-19">(return)</a> +<p>Matthew Calbraith Perry, p. 373; Japanese Life of Yoshida Shoin, +by Tokutomi, Tōkiō, 1894; Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II., +p. 83.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-20" name="footnote5-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-20">(return)</a> +<p>"The Chinese accept Confucius in every detail, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page405" id="page405"></a>{405}</span> both as +taught by Confucius and by his disciples.... The Japanese recognize +both religions [Buddhism and Confucianism] equally, but +Confucianism in Japan has a direct bearing upon everything relating +to human affairs, especially the extreme loyalty of the people to +the emperor, while the Koreans consider it more useful in social +matters than in any other department of life, and hardly consider +its precepts in their business and mercantile relations."</p> +<p>"Although Confucianism is counted a religion, it is really a +system of sociology.... Confucius was a moralist and statesman, and +his disciples are moralists and economists."—Education in +Korea, by Mr. Pom K. Soh, of the Korean Embassy to the United +States; Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1890-91, Vol. I., +pp. 345-346.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5-21" name="footnote5-21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag5-21">(return)</a> +<p>In Bakin, who is the great teacher of the Japanese by means, of +fiction, this is the idea always inculcated.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>CHAPTER VI</p> +<p>THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-1" name="footnote6-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-1">(return)</a> +<p>See his Introduction to the Saddharma Pundarika, Sacred Books of +the East, and his Buddhismus.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-2" name="footnote6-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-2">(return)</a> +<p>Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Buddhism; +Non-Christian Religious Systems—Buddhism.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-3" name="footnote6-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-3">(return)</a> +<p>The sketch of Indian thought here following is digested from +material obtained from various works on Buddhism and from the +Histories of India. See the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page406" +id="page406"></a>{406}</span> excellent monograph of Romesh Chunder +Dutt, in Epochs of Indian History, London and New York, 1893; and +Outlines of The Mahayana, as Taught by Buddha ("for circulation +among the members of the Parliament of Religions," and distributed +in Chicago), Tokiō, 1893.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-4" name="footnote6-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-4">(return)</a> +<p>Dyaus-Pitar, afterward <i>zeus patêr</i>. See Century +Dictionary, Jupiter.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-5" name="footnote6-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-5">(return)</a> +<p>Yoga is the root form of our word yoke, which at once suggests +the union of two in one. See Yoga, in The Century Dictionary.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-6" name="footnote6-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-6">(return)</a> +<p>Dutt's History of India.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-7" name="footnote6-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-7">(return)</a> +<p>The differences between the simple primitive narrative of +Gautama's experiences in attaining Buddhahood, and the richly +embroidered story current in later ages, may be seen by reading, +first, Atkinson's Prince Sidartha, the Japanese Buddha, and then +Arnold's Light of Asia. See also S. and H., Introduction, pp. +70-84, etc. Atkinson's book is refreshing reading after the +expurgation and sublimation of the same theme in Sir Edwin Arnold's +Light of Asia.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-8" name="footnote6-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-8">(return)</a> +<p>Romesh Chunder Dutt's Ancient India, p. 100.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-9" name="footnote6-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-9">(return)</a> +<p>Origin and Growth of Religion by T. Rhys Davids, p. 28.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-10" name="footnote6-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-10">(return)</a> +<p>Job i. 6, Hebrew.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-11" name="footnote6-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-11">(return)</a> +<p>Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 29.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-12" name="footnote6-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-12">(return)</a> +<p>"Buddhism so far from tracing 'all things' to 'matter' as their +original, denies the reality of matter, but it nowhere denies the +reality of existence."—The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 156.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-13" name="footnote6-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-13">(return)</a> +<p>See A Year among the Persians, by Edward G. Browne, London, +1893.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-14" name="footnote6-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-14">(return)</a> +<p>Dutt's History of India, pp. 153-156. See also <span class="pagenum"><a name="page407" id="page407"></a>{407}</span> +Mozoomdar's The Spirit of God, p. 305. "Buddhism, though for a long +time it supplanted the parent system, was the fulfilment of the +prophecy of universal peace, which Hinduism had made; and when, in +its turn, it was outgrown by the instincts of the Aryans, it had to +leave India indeed forever, but it contributed quite as much to +Indian religion as it had ever borrowed."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-15" name="footnote6-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-15">(return)</a> +<p>Korean Repository, Vol. I., pp. 101, 131, 153; Siebold's Nippon, +Archiv; Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1890-91, Vol. +I., p. 346; Dallet's Histoire de l'Église de Corée, +Vol. 1., Introd., p. cxlv.; Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 331.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-16" name="footnote6-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-16">(return)</a> +<p>See Brian H. Hodgson's The Literature and History of the +Buddhists, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which is +epitomized in The Phoenix, Vol. I.; Beal's Buddhism in China, Chap. +II.; T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, etc. To Brian Houghton Hodgson, (of +whose death at the ripe age of ninety-three years we read in +Luzac's Oriental List) more than to any one writer, are we indebted +for our knowledge of Northern or Mahayana Buddhism.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-17" name="footnote6-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-17">(return)</a> +<p>See the very accurate, clear, and full definitions and +explanations in The Century Dictionary.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-18" name="footnote6-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-18">(return)</a> +<p>This subject is fully discussed by Professor T. Rhys Davids in +his compact Manual of Buddhism.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-19" name="footnote6-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-19">(return)</a> +<p>See Century Dictionary.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-20" name="footnote6-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-20">(return)</a> +<p>Jap. Mon-ju. One of the most famous images of this Bodhisattva +is at Zenkô-ji, Nagano. See Kern's Saddharma Pundarika, p. 8, +and the many referents to Manjusri in the Index. That Manjusri was +the legendary civilizer of Nepaul seems probable from the following +extract from Brian Hodgson: <span class="pagenum"><a name="page408" +id="page408"></a>{408}</span> "The Swayambhu Purana relates in +substance as follows: That formerly the valley of Nepaul was of +circular form, and full of very deep water, and that the mountains +confining it were clothed with the densest forests, giving shelter +to numberless birds and beasts. Countless waterfowl rejoiced in the +waters....</p> +<p>"... Vipasyi, having thrice circumambulated the lake, seated +himself in the N.W. (Váyubona) side of it, and, having +repeated several mantras over the root of a lotos, he threw it into +the water, exclaiming, 'What time this root shall produce a flower, +then, from out of the flower, Swayambhu, the Lord of Agnishtha +Bhuvana, shall be revealed in the form of flame; and then shall the +lake become a cultivated and populous country.' Having repeated +these words, Vipasyi departed. Long after the date of this +prophecy, it was fulfilled according to the letter....</p> +<p>"... When the lake was dessicated (by the sword of Manjusri says +the myth—probably earthquake) Karkotaka had a fine tank built +for him to dwell in; and there he is still worshipped, also in the +cave-temple appendant to the great Buddhist shrine of Swayambhu +Nath....</p> +<p>"... The Bodhisatwa above alluded to is Manju Sri, whose native +place is very far off, towards the north, and is called Pancha +Sirsha Parvata (which is situated in Maha China Des). After the +coming of Viswabhu Buddha to Naga Vasa, Manju Sri, meditating upon +what was passing in the world, discovered by means of his divine +science that Swayambhu-jyotirupa, that is, the self-existent, in +the form of flame, was revealed out of a lotos in the lake of Naga +Vasa. Again, he reflected within himself: 'Let me behold that +sacred spot, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page409" id="page409"></a>{409}</span> my name will long be celebrated in the +world;' and on the instant, collecting together his disciples, +comprising a multitude of the peasantry of the land, and a Raja +named Dharmakar, he assumed the form of Viswakarma, and with his +two Devis (wives) and the persons above-mentioned, set out upon the +long journey from Sirsha Parvata to Naga Vasa. There having +arrived, and having made puja to the self-existent, he began to +circumambulate the lake, beseeching all the while the aid of +Swayambhu in prayer. In the second circuit, when he had reached the +central barrier mountain to the south, he became satisfied that +that was the best place whereat to draw off the waters of the lake. +Immediately he struck the mountain with his scimitar, when the +sundered rock gave passage to the waters, and the bottom of the +lake became dry. He then descended from the mountain, and began to +walk about the valley in all directions."—The Phoenix, Vol. +II., pp. 147-148.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-21" name="footnote6-21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-21">(return)</a> +<p>Jap. Kwannon, god or goddess of mercy, in his or her manifold +forms, Thousand-handed, Eleven-faced, Horse-headed, Holy, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-22" name="footnote6-22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-22">(return)</a> +<p>Or, The Lotus of the Good Law, a mystical name for the cosmos. +"The good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric." See Bernouf +and Kern's translations, and Edkin's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 214. +Translations of this work, so influential in Japanese Buddhism, +exist in French, German, and English. See Sacred Books of the East, +Vol. XXI., by Professor H. Kern, of Leyden University. In the +Introduction, p. xxxix., the translator discusses age, authorship, +editions, etc. Bunyiu Nanjio's Short History of the Twelve Japanese +Buddhist Sects, pp. 132-134. Beal in his <span class="pagenum"><a name="page410" id="page410"></a>{410}</span> Catena of +Buddhist Scriptures, pp. 389-396, has translated Chapter XXIV.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-23" name="footnote6-23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-23">(return)</a> +<p>At the great Zenkōji, a temple of the Tendai sect, at Nagano, +Japan, dedicated to three Buddhist divinities, one of whom is +Kwannon (Avalokitesvara, the rafters of the vast main hall are said +to number 69,384, in reference to the number of Chinese characters +contained in the translation of the Saddharma Pundarika.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-24" name="footnote6-24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-24">(return)</a> +<p>"The third (collection of the Tripitaka) was ... made by +Manjusri and Maitreya. This is the collection of the Mahayana +books. Though it is as clear or bright as the sun at midday yet the +men of the Hinayana are not ashamed of their inability to know them +and speak evil of them instead, just as the Confucianists call +Buddhism a law of barbarians, without reading the Buddhist books at +all."—B.N., p. 51.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-25" name="footnote6-25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-25">(return)</a> +<p>See the writings of Brian Hodgson, J. Edkins, E.J. Eitel, S. +Beal, T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-26" name="footnote6-26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-26">(return)</a> +<p>See Chapter VIII. in T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, a book of great +scholarship and marvellous condensation.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-27" name="footnote6-27"></a><b>Footnote 27:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-27">(return)</a> +<p>Davids's Buddhism, p. 206. Other illustrations of the growth of +the dogmas of this school of Buddhism we select from Brian +Hodgson's writings.</p> +<p>1. The line of division between God and man, and between gods +and man, was removed by Buddhism.</p> +<p>"Genuine Buddhism never seems to contemplate any measures of +acceptance with the deity; but, overleaping the barrier between +finite and infinite mind, urges its followers to aspire by their +own efforts to that divine perfectibility of which it teaches that +man is capable, and by attaining which man becomes God—and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page411" id="page411"></a>{411}</span> thus is explained both the quiescence of +the imaginary celestial, and the plenary omnipotence of the real +Manushi Buddhas—thus, too, we must account for the fact that +genuine Buddhism has no priesthood; the saint despises the priest; +the saint scorns the aid of mediators, whether on earth or in +heaven; 'conquer (exclaims the adept or Buddha to the novice or +BodhiSattwa)—conquer the importunities of the body, urge your +mind to the meditation of abstraction, and you shall, in time, +discover the great secret (Sunyata) of nature: know this, and you +become, on the instant, whatever priests have feigned of +Godhead—you become identified with Prajna, the sum of all the +power and all the wisdom which sustain and govern the world, and +which, as they are manifested out of matter, must belong solely to +matter; not indeed in the gross and palpable state of pravritti, +but in the archetypal and pure state of nirvritti. Put off, +therefore, the vile, pravrittika necessities of the body, and the +no less vile affections of the mind (Tapas); urge your thought into +pure abstraction (Dhyana), and then, as assuredly you can, so +assuredly you shall, attain to the wisdom of a Buddha (Bodhijnana), +and become associated with the eternal unity and rest of +nirvritti.'"—The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 194.</p> +<p>2. A specimen of "esoteric" and "exoteric" Buddhism;—the +Buddha Tatkagata.</p> +<p>"And as the wisdom of man is, in its origin, but an effluence of +the Supreme wisdom (<i>Prajná</i>) of nature, so is it +perfected by a refluence to its source, but without loss of +individuality; whence Prajna is feigned in the exoteric system to +be both the mother and the wife of all the Buddhas, '<i>janani +sarva Buddkánám</i>,' and '<i>Jina-sundary</i>;' +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page412" id="page412"></a>{412}</span> for the efflux is typified by a birth, +and the reflux by a marriage.</p> +<p>"The Buddha is the adept in the wisdom of Buddhism +(<i>Bodhijnána</i>) whose first duty, so long as he remains +on earth, is to communicate his wisdom to those who are willing to +receive it. These willing learners are the 'Bodhisattwas,' so +called from their hearts being inclined to the wisdom of Buddhism, +and 'Sanghas,' from their companionship with one another, and with +their Buddha or teacher, in the <i>Viháras</i> or +coenobitical establishments."</p> +<p>"And such is the esoteric interpretation of the third (and +inferior) member of the Prajniki Triad. The Bodhisattwa or Sangha +continues to be such until he has surmounted the very last grade of +that vast and laborious ascent by which he is instructed that he +can 'scale the heavens,' and pluck immortal wisdom from its +resplendent source: which achievement performed, he becomes a +Buddha, that is, an Omniscient Being, and a +<i>Tathágata</i>—a title implying the accomplishment +of that gradual increase in wisdom by which man becomes immortal or +ceases to be subject to transmigration."—The Phoenix, Vol. +I., pp. 194, 195.</p> +<p>3. Is God all, or is all God?</p> +<p>"What that grand secret, that ultimate truth, that single +reality, is, whether all is God, or God is all, seems to be the +sole <i>proposition</i> of the oriental philosophic religionists, +who have all alike sought to discover it by taking the high +<i>priori</i> road. That God is all, appears to be the prevalent +dogmatic determination of the Brahmanists; that all is God, the +preferential but sceptical solution of the <i>Buddhists</i>; and, +in a large view, I believe it would be difficult to indicate +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page413" id="page413"></a>{413}</span> any further essential difference between +their theoretic systems, both, as I conceive, the unquestionable +growth of the Indian soil, and both founded upon transcendental +speculation, conducted in the very same style and +manner."—The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 45.</p> +<p>4. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.</p> +<p>"In a philosophical light, the precedence of Buddha or of Dharma +indicates the theistic or atheistic school. With the former, Buddha +is intellectual essence, the efficient cause of all, and underived. +Dharma is material essence, the plastic cause, and underived, a +co-equal biunity with Buddha; or else the plastic cause, as before, +but dependent and derived from Buddha. Sangha is derived from, and +compounded of, Buddha, and Dharma, is their collective energy in +the state of action; the immediate operative cause of creation, its +type or its agent. With the latter or atheistic schools, Dharma is +<i>Diva natura</i>, matter as the sole entity, invested with +intrinsic activity and intelligence, the efficient and material +cause of all.</p> +<p>"Buddha is derivative from Dharma, is the active and intelligent +force of nature, first put off from it and then operating upon it. +Sangha is the <i>result</i> of that operation; is embryotic +creation, the type and sum of all specific forms, which are +spontaneously evolved from the union of Buddha with +Dharma."—The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 12.</p> +<p>5. The mantra or sacred sentence best known in the Buddhadom and +abroad.</p> +<p>"<i>Amitábha</i> is the fourth <i>Dhyani</i> or celestial +<i>Budda: Padma-pani</i> his <i>Æon</i> and executive +minister. <i>Padma-pani</i> is the <i>praesens Divus</i> and +creator of the <i>existing</i> <span class="pagenum"><a name="page414" id="page414"></a>{414}</span> system of worlds. Hence his +identification with the third member of the <i>Triad</i>. He is +figured as a graceful youth, erect, and bearing in either hand a +<i>lotos</i> and a jewel. The last circumstance explains the +meaning of the celebrated <i>Shadakshári Mantra</i>, or +six-lettered invocation of him, viz., <i>Om! Manipadme hom!</i> of +which so many corrupt versions and more corrupt interpretations +have appeared from Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, and other sources. +The <i>mantra</i> in question is one of three, addressed to the +several members of the <i>Triad</i>. 1. <i>Om sarva vidye hom</i>. +2. <i>Om Prajnáye hom</i>. 3. <i>Om mani-padme hom</i>. 1. +The mystic triform Deity is in the all-wise (Buddha). 2. The mystic +triform Deity is in Prajna (Dharma). 3. The mystic triform Deity is +in him of the jewel and lotos (Sangha). But the praesens Divus, +whether he be Augustus or <i>Padma-pani</i>, is everything with the +many. Hence the notoriety of this <i>mantra</i>, whilst the others +are hardly ever heard of, and have thus remained unknown to our +travellers."—The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 64.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-28" name="footnote6-28"></a><b>Footnote 28:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-28">(return)</a> +<p>"Nine centuries after Buddha, Maitreya (Miroku or Ji-shi) came +down from the Tushita heaven to the lecture-hall in the kingdom of +Ayodhya (A-ya-sha) in Central India, at the request of the +Bodhisattva Asamga (Mu-jaku) and discoursed five Sastras, 1, +Yoga-karya-bhumi-sastra (Yu-ga-shi-ji-ron), etc.... After that, the +two great Sastra teachers, Asanga and Vasubandhu (Se-shin), who +were brothers, composed many Sastras (Ron) and cleared up the +meaning of the Mahayana" (or Greater Vehicle, canon of Northern +Buddhism).—B.N., p. 32.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-29" name="footnote6-29"></a><b>Footnote 29:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-29">(return)</a> +<p>Buddhism, T. Rhys Davids, pp. 206-211.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page415" id="page415"></a>{415}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-30" name="footnote6-30"></a><b>Footnote 30:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-30">(return)</a> +<p>Prayer-wheels in Japan are used by the Tendai and Shingon sects, +but without written prayers attached, and rather as an illustration +of the doctrine of cause and effect (ingwa); the prayers being +usually offered to Jizo the merciful.—S. and H., p. 29; T. +J., p. 360.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-31" name="footnote6-31"></a><b>Footnote 31:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-31">(return)</a> +<p>For this see Edkins's Chinese Buddhism; Eitel's Three Lectures, +and Hand-book; Rev. S. Beal's Buddhism, and A Catena of Buddhist +Scriptures from the Chinese; The Romantic Legend of Sakya Buddha, +from the Chinese; Texts from the Buddhist canon commonly known as +the Dhammapeda; Notes on Buddhist Words and Phrases, the +Chrysanthemum, Vol. I.; The Phoenix, Vols. I-III.</p> +<p>See, also, a spirited sketch of Ancient Japan, by Frederick +Victor Dickins, in the Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II., pp. +4-14.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-32" name="footnote6-32"></a><b>Footnote 32:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-32">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., pp. 289, 293; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. +220; Summer's Notes on Osaka, T.A.S.J., Vol. VIL, p. 382; Buddhism, +and Traditions Concerning its Introduction into Japan, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XIV., p. 78.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-33" name="footnote6-33"></a><b>Footnote 33:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-33">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., p. 344.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-34" name="footnote6-34"></a><b>Footnote 34:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-34">(return)</a> +<p>T.J., p. 73.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-35" name="footnote6-35"></a><b>Footnote 35:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-35">(return)</a> +<p>Vairokana is the first or chief of the five personifications of +Wisdom, and in Japan the idol is especially noticeable in the +temples of the Tendai sect.—"The Action of Vairokana, or the +great doctrine of the highest vehicle of the secret union," etc., +B.N., p. 75.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-36" name="footnote6-36"></a><b>Footnote 36:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-36">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., p. 390; B.N., p. 29.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6-37" name="footnote6-37"></a><b>Footnote 37:</b><a href="#footnotetag6-37">(return)</a> +<p>"Hinduism stands for philosophic spirituality and emotion, +Buddhism for ethics and humanity, Christianity <span class="pagenum"><a name="page416" id="page416"></a>{416}</span> for +fulness of God's incarnation in man, while Mohammedanism is the +champion of uncompromising monotheism."—F.P.C. Mozoomdar's +The Spirit of God, Boston, 1894, p. 305.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>CHAPTER VII</p> +<p>RIYŌBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-1" name="footnote7-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-1">(return)</a> +<p>Is not something similar frankly attempted in Rev. Dr. Joseph +Edkins's The Early Spread of Religious Ideas in the Far East +(London, 1893)?</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-2" name="footnote7-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-2">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 252; Honda the Samurai, pp. 193-194.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-3" name="footnote7-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-3">(return)</a> +<p>See The Lily Among Thorns, A Study of the Biblical Drama +Entitled the Song of Songs (Boston 1890), in which this subject is +glanced at.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-4" name="footnote7-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-4">(return)</a> +<p>See The Religion of Nepaul, Buddhist Philosophy, and the +writings of Brian Hodgson in The Phoenix, Vols. I., II., III.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-5" name="footnote7-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-5">(return)</a> +<p>See Century Dictionary, Yoga; Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. +169-174; T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, pp. 206-211; Index of B.N., +under Vagrasattwa; S. and H., pp. 85-87.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-6" name="footnote7-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-6">(return)</a> +<p>T.J., p. 226; Kojiki, Introduction.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-7" name="footnote7-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-7">(return)</a> +<p>See in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1893, a very +valuable paper by Mr. L.A. Waddell, on The Northern Buddhist +Mythology, epitomized in the Japan Mail, May 5, 1894.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-8" name="footnote7-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-8">(return)</a> +<p>See Catalogue of Chinese and Japanese Paintings in the British +Museum, and The Pictorial Arts of Japan, by William Anderson, +M.D.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-9" name="footnote7-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-9">(return)</a> +<p>Anderson's Catalogue, p. 24.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page417" id="page417"></a>{417}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-10" name="footnote7-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-10">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., p. 415; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan; T.J.; +M.E., p. 162, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-11" name="footnote7-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-11">(return)</a> +<p>The names of Buddhist priests and monks are usually different +from those of the laity, being taken from events in the life of +Gautama, or his original disciples, passages in the sacred +classics, etc. Among some personal acquaintances in the Japanese +priesthood were such names as Lift-the-Kettle, +Take-Hold-of-the-Dipper, Drivelling-Drunkard, etc. In the raciness, +oddity, literalness, realism, and close connection of their names +with the scriptures of their system, the Buddhists quite equal the +British Puritans.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-12" name="footnote7-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-12">(return)</a> +<p>Kern's Saddharma-Pundarika, pp. 311, 314; Davids's Buddhism p. +208; The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 169; S. and H., p. 502; Du Bose's +Dragon, Demon, and Image, p. 407; Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 134; Hough's +Corean Collections, Washington, 1893, p. 480, plate xxviii.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-13" name="footnote7-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-13">(return)</a> +<p>Japan in History, Folk-lore and Art, pp. 86, 80-88; A Japanese +Grammar, by J.J. Hoffman, p. 10; T.J., pp. 465-470.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-14" name="footnote7-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-14">(return)</a> +<p>This is the essence of Buddhism, and was for centuries repeated +and learned by heart throughout the empire:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Love and enjoyment disappear,</p> +<p class="i2">What in our world endureth here?</p> +<p>E'en should this day it oblivion be rolled,</p> +<p class="i2">'Twas only a vision that leaves me cold."</p> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-15" name="footnote7-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-15">(return)</a> +<p>This legend suggests the mediaeval Jewish story, that Ezra, the +scribe, could write with five pens at once; Hearn's Glimpses of +Unfamiliar Japan, pp. 29-33.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page418" id="page418"></a>{418}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-16" name="footnote7-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-16">(return)</a> +<p>Brave Little Holland, and What She Taught Us, p. 124.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-17" name="footnote7-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-17">(return)</a> +<p>T.J., pp. 75, 342; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. 41; +M.E., p. 162.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-18" name="footnote7-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-18">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 101; S. and H., p. 176.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-19" name="footnote7-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-19">(return)</a> +<p>It was for lifting with his walking-stick the curtain hanging +before the shrine of this Kami that Arinori Mori, formerly H.I.J.M. +Minister at Washington and London, was assassinated by a Shintō +fanatic, February 11, 1889; T. J., p. 229; see Percival Lowell's +paper in the Atlantic Monthly.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-20" name="footnote7-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-20">(return)</a> +<p>See Mr. P. Lowell's Esoteric Shintō, T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI, pp. +165-167, and his "Occult Japan."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-21" name="footnote7-21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-21">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., Japan, p. 83.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-22" name="footnote7-22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-22">(return)</a> +<p>See the Author's Introduction to the Arabian Nights' +Entertainments, Boston, 1891.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-23" name="footnote7-23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-23">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., Index and pp. 78-103; Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, p. +169.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-24" name="footnote7-24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-24">(return)</a> +<p>Satow's or Chamberlain's Guide-books furnish hundreds of other +instances, and describe temples in which the renamed kami are +worshipped.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-25" name="footnote7-25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-25">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., p. 70.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-26" name="footnote7-26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-26">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., pp. 187, 188; S. and H., pp. 11, 12.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-27" name="footnote7-27"></a><b>Footnote 27:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-27">(return)</a> +<p>San Kai Ri (Mountain, Sea, and Land). This work, recommended to +me by a learned Buddhist priest in Fukui, I had translated and read +to me by a Buddhist of the Shin Shu sect. In like manner, even +Christian writers in Japan have occasionally endeavored to +rationalize the legends of Shintō, see Kojiki, p. liii., where +Mr. T. Goro's Shintō Shin-ron is referred to. I have to thank my +friend Mr. C. Watanabé, of Cornell University, for reading +to me Mr. Takahashi's interesting but unconvincing monographs on +Shintō and Buddhism.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page419" id="page419"></a>{419}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-28" name="footnote7-28"></a><b>Footnote 28:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-28">(return)</a> +<p>T.J., p. 402; Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio Hearn, p. +129.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-29" name="footnote7-29"></a><b>Footnote 29:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-29">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., Japan, p. 397; Classical Poetry of the Japanese, p. +201, note.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-30" name="footnote7-30"></a><b>Footnote 30:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-30">(return)</a> +<p>The Japanese word Ryō means both, and is applied to the eyes, +ears, feet, things correspondent or in pairs, etc.; <i>bu</i> is a +term for a set, kind, group, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-31" name="footnote7-31"></a><b>Footnote 31:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-31">(return)</a> +<p>Rein, p. 432; T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., pp. 241-270; T.J., p. +339.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-32" name="footnote7-32"></a><b>Footnote 32:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-32">(return)</a> +<p>The Chrysanthemum, Vol. I., p. 401.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-33" name="footnote7-33"></a><b>Footnote 33:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-33">(return)</a> +<p>Even the Takétori Monogatari (The Bamboo Cutter's +Daughter), the oldest and the best of the Japanese classic romances +is (at least in the text and form now extant) a warp of native +ideas with a woof of Buddhist notions.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-34" name="footnote7-34"></a><b>Footnote 34:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-34">(return)</a> +<p>Mr. Percival Lowell argues, in Esoteric Shintō, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XXI., that besides the habit of pilgrimages, fire-walking, and +god-possession, other practices supposed to be Buddhistic are of +Shintō origin.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-35" name="footnote7-35"></a><b>Footnote 35:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-35">(return)</a> +<p>The native literature illustrating Riyōbuism is not +extensive. Mr. Ernest Satow in the American Cyclopædia +(Japan: Literature) mentions several volumes. The Tenchi +Réiki Noko, in eighteen books contains a mixture of Buddhism +and Shintō, and is ascribed by some to Shōtoku and by others +to Kōbō, but now literary critics ascribe these, as well as +the books Jimbetsuki and Tenshoki, to be modern forgeries by +Buddhist priests. The Kogoshiui, written in A.D. 807, professes to +preserve fragments of ancient tradition not recorded in the earlier +books, but the main object is that which lies at the basis of a +vast mass of Japanese literature, namely, to prove the author's own +descent from the gods. The Yuiitsu Shintō Miyoho Yoshiu, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page420" id="page420"></a>{420}</span> in two volumes, is designed to prove +that Shintō and Buddhism are identical in their essence. Indeed, +almost all the treatises on Shintō before the seventeenth +century maintained this view. Certain books like the Shintō Shu, +for centuries popular, and well received even by scholars, are now +condemned on account of their confusion of the two religions. One +of the most interesting works which we have found is the San Kai +Ri, to which reference has been made.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-36" name="footnote7-36"></a><b>Footnote 36:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-36">(return)</a> +<p>T.J., p. 224.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-37" name="footnote7-37"></a><b>Footnote 37:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-37">(return)</a> +<p>"Human life is but fifty years," Japanese Proverb; M.E., p. +107.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-38" name="footnote7-38"></a><b>Footnote 38:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-38">(return)</a> +<p>Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese, p. 130.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-39" name="footnote7-39"></a><b>Footnote 39:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-39">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., p. 416.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-40" name="footnote7-40"></a><b>Footnote 40:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-40">(return)</a> +<p>Things Chinese, by J. Dyer Ball, p. 70; see also Edkins and +Eitel.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-41" name="footnote7-41"></a><b>Footnote 41:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-41">(return)</a> +<p>The Japan Weekly Mail of April 28, 1893, translating and +condensing an article from the Bukkyō, a Buddhist newspaper, +gives the results of a Japanese Buddhist student's tour through +China—"Taoism prevails everywhere.... Buddhism has decayed +and is almost dead."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-42" name="footnote7-42"></a><b>Footnote 42:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-42">(return)</a> +<p>Vaisramana is a Deva who guarded, praised, fed with heavenly +food, and answered the questions of the Chinese Dō-sen (608-907 +A.D.) who founded the Risshu or Vinaya sect.—B.N., p. 25.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-43" name="footnote7-43"></a><b>Footnote 43:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-43">(return)</a> +<p>Anderson, Catalogue, pp. 29-45.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7-44" name="footnote7-44"></a><b>Footnote 44:</b><a href="#footnotetag7-44">(return)</a> +<p>Some of those are pictured in Aimé Humbert's Japon +Illustré, and from the same pictures reproduced by +electro-plates which, from Paris, have transmigrated for a whole +generation through the cheaper books on Japan, in every European +language.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page421" id="page421"></a>{421}</span> +<p>CHAPTER VIII</p> +<p>NORTHERN BUDDHISM IS ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-1" name="footnote8-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-1">(return)</a> +<p>On the Buddhist canon, see the writings of Beal, Spence Hardy, +T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-2" name="footnote8-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-2">(return)</a> +<p>Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 108, 214; Classical Poetry of +the Japanese, p. 173.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-3" name="footnote8-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-3">(return)</a> +<p>See T.A.S.J., Vol. XIX., Part I., pp. 17-37; The Soul of the Far +East; and the writings of Chamberlain, Aston, Dickins, Munzinger, +etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-4" name="footnote8-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-4">(return)</a> +<p>Much of the information as to history and doctrine contained in +this chapter has been condensed from Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio's A Short +History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, translated out of +the Japanese into English. This author, besides visiting the old +seats of the faith in China, studied Sanskrit at Oxford with +Professor Max Müller, and catalogued in English the Tripitaka +or Buddhist canon of China and Japan, sent to England by the +ambassador Iwakura. The nine reverend gentlemen who wrote the +chapters and introduction of the Short History are Messrs. +Kō-chō Ogurusu, and Shu-Zan Emura of the Shin sect; Rev. +Messrs. Shō-hen Uéda, and Dai-ryo Takashi, of the +Shin-gon Sect; Rev. Messrs. Gyō-kai Fukuda, Keu-kō Tsuji, +Renjō Akamatsu, and Zé-jun Kobayashi of the Jō-dō, +Zen, Shin, and Nichiren sects, respectively. Though execrably +printed, and the English only tolerable, the work is invaluable to +the student of Japanese Buddhism. It has a historical introduction +and a Sanskrit-Chinese Index, 1 vol., pp. 172, Tōkiō, 1887. +Substantially the same work, translated into French, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page422" id="page422"></a>{422}</span> is Le +Bouddhisme Japonais, by Ryauon Fujishima, Paris, 1889. Satow and +Hawes's Hand-book for Japan has brief but valuable notes in the +Introduction, and, like Chamberlain's continuation of the same +work, is a storehouse of illustrative matter. Edkine's and Eitel's +works on Chinese Buddhism have been very helpful.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-5" name="footnote8-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-5">(return)</a> +<p>M. Abel Remusat published a translation of a Chinese Pilgrim's +travels in 1836; M. Stanislais Julien completed his volume on +Hiouen Thsang in 1858; and in 1884 Rev. Samuel Beal issued his +Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist Pilgrims from China to +India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.). The latter work contains a map.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-6" name="footnote8-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-6">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., p. 3.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-7" name="footnote8-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-7">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., p. 11.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-8" name="footnote8-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-8">(return)</a> +<p>Three hundred and twenty million years. See Century +Dictionary.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-9" name="footnote8-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-9">(return)</a> +<p>See the paper of Rev. Shō-hen Uéda of the Shingon +sect, in B.N., pp. 20-31; and R. Fujishima's Le Bouddhisme +Japonais, pp. xvi., xvii., from which most of the information here +given has been derived.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-10" name="footnote8-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-10">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 383; S. and H., pp. 23, 30. The image of Binzuru is +found in many Japanese temples to-day, a famous one being at +Asakusa, in Tōkiō. He is the supposed healer of all diseases. +The image becomes entirely rubbed smooth by devotees, to the +extinguishment of all features, lines, and outlines.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-11" name="footnote8-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-11">(return)</a> +<p>Davids's Buddhism, pp. 180, 200; S. and H., pp. (87) 389, +416.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-12" name="footnote8-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-12">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., pp. 32-43.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-13" name="footnote8-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-13">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., pp. 44-56.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page423" id="page423"></a>{423}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-14" name="footnote8-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-14">(return)</a> +<p>Japanese Fairy World, p. 282; Anderson's Catalogue, pp. +l03-7.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-15" name="footnote8-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-15">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., p. 62.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-16" name="footnote8-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-16">(return)</a> +<p>Pfoundes, Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 102.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-17" name="footnote8-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-17">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., p. 58. See also The Monist for January, 1894, p. 168.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-18" name="footnote8-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-18">(return)</a> +<p>"Tien Tai, a spot abounding in Buddhist antiquities, the +earliest, and except Puto the largest and richest seat of that +religion in eastern China. As a monastic establishment it dates +from the fourth century."—Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. +137-142.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-19" name="footnote8-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-19">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., p. 87. See the paper read at the Parliament of +Religions by the Zen bonze Ashitsu of Hiyéisan, the poem of +Right Reverend Shaku Soyen, and the paper on The Fundamental +Teachings of Buddhism, in The Monist for January, 1894; Japan As We +Saw It, p. 297.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-20" name="footnote8-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-20">(return)</a> +<p>See Century Dictionary, <i>mantra</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-21" name="footnote8-21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-21">(return)</a> +<p>See Chapter XX. Ideas and Symbols in Japan: in History, +Folk-lore, and Art. Buddhist tombs (go-rin) consist of a cube +(earth), sphere (water), pyramid (fire), crescent (wind), and +flame-shaped stone (ether), forming the go-rin or five-blossom +tomb, typifying the five elements.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-22" name="footnote8-22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-22">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., p. 78.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-23" name="footnote8-23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-23">(return)</a> +<p>To put this dogma into intelligible English is, as Mr. Satow +says, more difficult than to comprehend the whole doctrine, hard as +that may be. "Dai Nichi Ni-yorai (Vairokana) is explained to be the +collectivity of all sentient beings, acting through the mediums of +Kwan-non, Ji-zō, Mon-ju, Shaka, and other influences which are +popularly believed to be self-existent deities." In the diagram +called the eight-leaf enclosure, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page424" id="page424"></a>{424}</span> by which the mysteries of +Shingon are explained, Maha-Vairokana is in the centre, and on the +eight petals are such names as Amitabha, Manjusri, Maitreya, and +Avalokitesvara; in a word, all are purely speculative beings, +phantoms of the brain, the mushrooms of decayed Brahmanism, and the +mould of primitive Buddhism disintegrated by scholasticism.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-24" name="footnote8-24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-24">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., p. 31.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-25" name="footnote8-25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-25">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., p. 115.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8-26" name="footnote8-26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag8-26">(return)</a> +<p>Here let me add that in my studies of oriental and ancient +religion, I have never found one real Trinity, though triads, or +tri-murti, are common. None of these when carefully analyzed yield +the Christian idea of the Trinity.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>CHAPTER IX</p> +<p>THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-1" name="footnote9-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-1">(return)</a> +<p>Tathagata is one of the titles of the Buddha, meaning "thus +come," i.e., He comes bringing human nature as it truly is, with +perfect knowledge and high intelligence, and thus manifests +himself. Amitabha is the Sanskrit of Amida, or the deification of +boundless light.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-2" name="footnote9-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-2">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., p. 104.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-3" name="footnote9-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-3">(return)</a> +<p>Literally, I yield to, or I adore the Boundless or the +Immeasurable Buddha.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-4" name="footnote9-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-4">(return)</a> +<p>A Chinese or Japanese volume is much smaller than the average +printed volume in Europe.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-5" name="footnote9-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-5">(return)</a> +<p>Legacy of Iyéyasŭ, Section xxviii. Doctrinally, this +famous document, written probably long after <span class="pagenum"><a name="page425" id="page425"></a>{425}</span> +Iyéyasŭ's death and canonization as a <i>gongen</i>, is a +mixture or <i>Riyōbu</i> of Confucianism and Buddhism.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-6" name="footnote9-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-6">(return)</a> +<p>At first glance a forcible illustration, since the Japanese +proverb declares that "A sea-voyage is an inch of hell." And yet +the original saying of Ryū-ju, now proverbial in Buddhadom, +referred to the ease of sailing over the water, compared with the +difficulty of surmounting the obstacles of land travel in countries +not yet famous for good roads. See B.N., p. 111.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-7" name="footnote9-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-7">(return)</a> +<p>Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 108; Descriptive Notes on the Rosaries as +used by the different Sects of Buddhists in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. +IX., pp. 173-182.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-8" name="footnote9-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-8">(return)</a> +<p>B.N., p. 122.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-9" name="footnote9-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-9">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., p. 361.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-10" name="footnote9-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-10">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., pp. 90-92; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., pp. +242-253.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-11" name="footnote9-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-11">(return)</a> +<p>These three sutras are those most in favor with the Jō-dō +sect also, they are described, B.N., 104-106, and their tenets are +referred to on pp. 260, 261.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-12" name="footnote9-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-12">(return)</a> +<p>For modern statements of Shin tenets and practices, see E.J. +Reed's Japan, Vol. I., pp. 84-86; The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881, +pp. 109-115; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., 242-246; B.N., +122-131. Edkins's Religion in China, p. 153. The Chrysanthemum, +April, 1881, p. 115.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-13" name="footnote9-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-13">(return)</a> +<p>S. and H., p. 361; B.N., pp. 105, 106. Toward the end of the +Amitayus-dhyana sutra, Buddha says: "Let not one's voice cease, but +ten times complete the thought, and repeat Namo'mitābhāya +Buddhāya (Namu Amida Butsu) or adoration to Amitbāha +Buddha."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-14" name="footnote9-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-14">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., pp. 164-166.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-15" name="footnote9-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-15">(return)</a> +<p>Schaff's Encyclopaedia, Article, Buddhism.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page426" id="page426"></a>{426}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-16" name="footnote9-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-16">(return)</a> +<p>On the Tenets of the Shin Shiu, or "True Sect" of Buddhists, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XIV., p. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-17" name="footnote9-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-17">(return)</a> +<p>The Gobunsho, or Ofumi, of Rennyō Shōnin, T.A.S.J., Vol. +XVII., pp. 101-143.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-18" name="footnote9-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-18">(return)</a> +<p>At the gorgeous services in honor of the founder of the great +Higashi Hongwanji Western Temple of the Original Vow at Asakusa, +Tōkiō, November 21 to 28, annually, the women attend wearing +a head-dress called "horn-hider," which seems to have been named in +allusion to a Buddhist text which says: "A woman's exterior is that +of a saint, but her heart is that of a demon."—Chamberlain's +Hand-book for Japan, p. 82; T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. 106, 141; +Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXI., pp. 251-254.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-19" name="footnote9-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-19">(return)</a> +<p>Review of Buddhist Texts from Japan, The Nation, No. 875, April +6, 1882. "The <i>Mahāyāna</i> or Great Vehicle (we might +fairly render it 'highfalutin') school.... Filled as these +countries (Tibet, China, Japan) are with Buddhist monasteries, and +priests, and nominal adherents, and abounding in voluminous +translations of the Sanskrit Buddhistic literature, little +understood and wellnigh unintelligible (for neither country has had +the independence and mental force to produce a literature of its +own, or to add anything but a chapter of decay to the history of +this religion)...."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9-20" name="footnote9-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag9-20">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., pp. 164, 165; B.N., pp. 132-147; Mitford's Tales of Old +Japan, Vol. II., pp. 125-134.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page427" id="page427"></a>{427}</span> +<p>CHAPTER X</p> +<p>JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-1" name="footnote10-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-1">(return)</a> +<p>T.J., p. 71. Further illustrations of this statement may be +found in his Classical Poetry of the Japanese, especially in the +Selection and Appendices of this book; also in T.R.H. McClatchie's +Japanese Plays (Versified), London, 1890.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-2" name="footnote10-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-2">(return)</a> +<p>See Introduction to the Kojiki, pp. xxxii.-xxxiv., and in +Bakin's novel illustrating popular Buddhist beliefs, translated by +Edward Greey, A Captive of Love, Boston, 1886.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-3" name="footnote10-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-3">(return)</a> +<p>See jade in Century Dictionary; "Magatama, so far as I am aware, +do not ever appear to have been found in shell heaps" (of the +aboriginal Ainos), Milne's Notes on Stone Implements, T.A.S.J., +Vol. VIII., p. 71.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-4" name="footnote10-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-4">(return)</a> +<p>Concerning this legendary, and possibly mythical, episode, which +has so powerfully influenced Japanese imagination and politics, see +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., Part I., pp. 39-75; M.E., pp. 75-85.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-5" name="footnote10-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-5">(return)</a> +<p>See Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 1, 2; Persian Elements in +Japanese Legends, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., Part I, pp. 1-10; Journal of +the Royal Asiatic Society, January, 1894. Rein's book, The +Industries of Japan, points out, as far as known, the material debt +to India. Some Japanese words like <i>beni-gari</i> (Bengal) or +rouge show at once their origin. The mosaic of stories in the +Taéktori Monogatari, an allegory in exquisite literary form, +illustrating the Buddhist dogma of Ingwa, or law <span class="pagenum"><a name="page428" id="page428"></a>{428}</span> of cause +and effect, and written early in the ninth century, is made up of +Chinese-Indian elements. See F.V. Dickins's translation and notes +in Journal of the Royal Oriental Society, Vol. XIX., N.S. India was +the far off land of gems, wonders, infallible drugs, roots, etc.; +Japanese Fairy World, p. 137.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-6" name="footnote10-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-6">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., Chap. VIII.; Klaproth's Annales des Empereurs du Japon (a +translation of Nippon 0 Dai Ichi Ran); Rein's Japan, p. 224.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-7" name="footnote10-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-7">(return)</a> +<p>See Klaproth's Annales, <i>passim</i>. S. and H. p. 85. Bridges +are often symbolical of events, classic passages in the shastras +and sutras, or are antetypes of Paradisaical structures. The +ordinary native <i>hashi</i> is not remarkable as a triumph of the +carpenter's art, though some of the Japanese books mention and +describe in detail some structures that are believed to be +astonishing.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-8" name="footnote10-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-8">(return)</a> +<p>Often amusingly illustrated, M.E., p. 390. A translation into +Japanese of Goethe's Reynard the Fox is among the popular works of +the day. "Strange to say, however, the Japanese lose much of the +exquisite humor of this satire in their sympathy with the woes of +the maltreated wolf."—The Japan Mail. This sympathy with +animals grows directly out of the doctrine of metempsychosis. The +relationship between man and ape is founded upon the pantheistic +identity of being. "We mention sin," says a missionary now in +Japan, "and he [the average auditor] thinks of eating flesh, or the +killing of insects." Many of the sutras read like tracts and +diatribes of vegetarians.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-9" name="footnote10-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-9">(return)</a> +<p>See The Art of Landscape Gardening in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. +XIV.; Theory of Japanese Flower Arrangements, by J. Conder, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII.; T.J., p. 168; M.E., p. 437; T.J., p. 163.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page429" id="page429"></a>{429}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-10" name="footnote10-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-10">(return)</a> +<p><i>The</i> book, by excellence, on the Japanese house, is +Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings, by E.S. Morse. See also +Constructive Art in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 57, III., p. 20; +Feudal Mansions of Yedo, Vol. VII., p. 157.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-11" name="footnote10-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-11">(return)</a> +<p>See Hearn's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, pp. 385, 410, and +<i>passim</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-12" name="footnote10-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-12">(return)</a> +<p>For pathetic pictures of Japanese daily life, see Our +Neighborhood, by the late Dr. T.A. Purcell, Yokohama, 1874; A +Japanese Boy, by Himself (S. Shigémi), New Haven, 1889; +Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Boston, 1894.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-13" name="footnote10-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-13">(return)</a> +<p>Klaproth's Annales, and S. and H. <i>passim</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-14" name="footnote10-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-14">(return)</a> +<p>See Pfoundes's Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 130, for a list of grades +from Ho-ō or cloistered emperor, Miya or sons of emperors, chief +priests of sects, etc., down to priests in charge of inferior +temples. This Budget of Notes, pp. 99-144, contains much valuable +information, and was one of the first publications in English which +shed light upon the peculiarities of Japanese Buddhism.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-15" name="footnote10-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-15">(return)</a> +<p>Isaiah xl. 19, 20, and xli. 6, 7, read to the dweller in Japan +like the notes of a reporter taken yesterday.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-16" name="footnote10-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-16">(return)</a> +<p>T.J., p. 339; Notes on Some Minor Japanese Religious Practices, +<i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute</i>, May, 1893; +Lowell's Esoteric Shintō, T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI.; Satow's The +Shintō Temples of Isé, T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 113.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-17" name="footnote10-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-17">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 45; American Cyclopaedia, Japan, +Literature—History, Travels, Diaries, etc.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-18" name="footnote10-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-18">(return)</a> +<p>That is, no dialects like those which separate the people of +China. The ordinary folks of Satsuma and Suruga, for example, +however, would find it difficult to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page430" id="page430"></a>{430}</span> understand each other if +only the local speech were used. Men from the extremes of the +Empire use the Tōkiō standard language in communicating with +each other.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-19" name="footnote10-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-19">(return)</a> +<p>For some names of Buddhist temples in Shimoda see Perry's +Narrative, pp. 470-474, described by Dr. S. Wells Williams; S. and +H. <i>passim</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-20" name="footnote10-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-20">(return)</a> +<p>The Abbé Huc in his Travels in Tartary was one of the +first to note this fact. I have not noticed in my reading that the +Jesuit missionaries in Japan in the seventeenth century call +attention to the matter. See also the writings of Arthur Lillie, +voluminous but unconvincing, Buddha and Early Buddhism, and +Buddhism and Christianity, London, 1893.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-21" name="footnote10-21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-21">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 252.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-22" name="footnote10-22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-22">(return)</a> +<p>T.J., p. 70.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-23" name="footnote10-23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-23">(return)</a> +<p>See The Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene Creed, +Tōkiō, 1894, by Rev. A. Lloyd.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-24" name="footnote10-24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-24">(return)</a> +<p>"I preach with ever the same voice, taking enlightenment as my +text. For this is equal for all; no partiality is in it, neither +hatred nor affection.... I am inexorable, bear no love or hatred +towards anyone, and proclaim the law to all creatures without +distinction, to the one as well as to the other."—Saddharma +Pundarika.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-25" name="footnote10-25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-25">(return)</a> +<p>Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., p. 247.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-26" name="footnote10-26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-26">(return)</a> +<p>For the symbolism of the lotus see M.E., p. 437; Unbeaten Tracks +in Japan, Vol. I., p. 299; M.E. index; and Saddharma Pundarika, +Kern's translation, p. 76, note:</p> +<p>"Here the Buddha is represented as a wise and benevolent father; +he is the heavenly father, Brahma. As such ho was represented as +sitting on a 'lotus-seat.' <span class="pagenum"><a name="page431" +id="page431"></a>{431}</span> How common this representation was in +India, at least in the sixth century of our era, appears from +Varâhamihira's Brihat-Sainhita, Ch. 58, 44, where the +following rule is laid down for the Buddha idols: 'Buddha shall be +(represented) sitting on a lotus-seat, like the father of the +world.'"</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-27" name="footnote10-27"></a><b>Footnote 27:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-27">(return)</a> +<p>See The Northern Buddhist Mythology in <i>Journal of the Royal +Asiatic Society</i>, January, 1894.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-28" name="footnote10-28"></a><b>Footnote 28:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-28">(return)</a> +<p>See The Pictorial Arts of Japan, and Descriptive and Historical +Catalogue, William Anderson, pp. 13-94.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-29" name="footnote10-29"></a><b>Footnote 29:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-29">(return)</a> +<p>See fylfot in Century Dictionary.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-30" name="footnote10-30"></a><b>Footnote 30:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-30">(return)</a> +<p>The word <i>vagra</i>, diamond, is a constituent in scores of +names of sutras, especially those whose contents are metaphysical +in their nature. The Vajrasan, Diamond Throne or Thunderbolt seat, +was the name applied to the most sacred part of the great temple +reared by Asoka on the site of the bodhi tree, under which Gautama +received enlightenment. "The adamantine truths of Buddha struck +like a thunderbolt upon the superstitious of his age." "The word +vagra has the two senses of hardness and utility. In the former +sense it is understood to be compared to the secret truth which is +always in existence and not to be broken. In the latter sense it +implies the power of the enlightened, that destroys the obstacles +of passions."—B.N., p. 88. "As held in the arms of Kwannon +and other images in the temples," the vagra or "diamond club" (is +that) with which the foes of the Buddhist Church are to be +crushed.—S. and H., p. 444. Each of the gateway gods Ni-ō +(two Kings, Indra and Brahma) "bears in his hand the tokko +(Sanskrit <i>vagra</i>), an ornament originally designed to +represent a diamond <span class="pagenum"><a name="page432" id="page432"></a>{432}</span> club, and now used by priests and +exorcists, as a religious sceptre symbolizing the irresistible +power of prayer, meditation, and incantation."—Chamberlain's +Hand-book for Japan, p. 31.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-31" name="footnote10-31"></a><b>Footnote 31:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-31">(return)</a> +<p>Jizō is the compassionate helper of all in trouble, +especially of travellers, of mothers, and of children. His Sanskrit +name is Kshiugarbha. His idol is one of the most common in Japan. +It is usually neck-laced with baby's bibs, often by the score, +while the pedestal is heaped with small stones placed there by +sorrowing mothers.—S. and H., p. 29, 394; Chamberlain's +Handbook of Japan, 29, 101. Hearn's Japan, p. 34, and +<i>passim</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-32" name="footnote10-32"></a><b>Footnote 32:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-32">(return)</a> +<p>Sanskrit <i>arhat</i> or <i>arhan</i>, meaning worthy or +deserving, <i>i.e.</i>, holy man, the highest rank of Buddhist +saintship. See Century Dictionary.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-33" name="footnote10-33"></a><b>Footnote 33:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-33">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 201. The long inscription on the bell in Wellesley +College, which summons the student-maidens to their hourly tasks +has been translated by the author and Dr. K. Kurahara and is as +follows:</p> +<p>1. A prose preface or historical statement.</p> +<p>2. Two stanzas of Chinese poetry, in four-syllable lines, of +four verses each, with an apostrophe in two four-syllable +lines.</p> +<p>3. The chronology.</p> +<p>4. The names of the composer and calligraphist, and of the +bronze-founder.</p> +<p>The characters in vertical lines are read from top to bottom, +the order of the columns being from right to left. There are in all +117 characters.</p> +<p>The first tablet reads:</p> +<p>Lotus-Lily Temple (of) Law-Grove Mountain; Bell-inscription +(and) Preface.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page433" id="page433"></a>{433}</span> +<p>"Although there had been of old a bell hung in the Temple of the +Lotus-Lily, yet being of small dimensions its note was quickly +exhausted, and no volume of melody followed (after having been +struck). Whereupon, for the purpose of improving upon this state of +affairs, we made a subscription, and collected coin to obtain a new +bell. All believers in the doctrine, gods as well as devils, +contributed freely. Thus the enterprise was soon consummated, and +this inscription prepared, to wit:</p> +<p>"'The most exalted Buddha having pitiful compassion upon the +people, would, by means of this bell, instead of words, awaken them +from earthly illusions, and reveal the darkness of this world.</p> +<p>"'Many of the living hearkening to its voice, and making +confession, are freed from the bondage of their sins, and forever +released from their disquieting desires.</p> +<p>"'How great is (Buddha's) merit! Who can utter it? Without +measure, boundless!'</p> +<p>"Eleventh year of the Era of the Foundation of Literature (and +of the male element) Wood (and of the zodiac sign) Dog; Autumn, +seventh month, fifteenth day (A.D. August 30,1814).</p> +<p>"Composition and penmanship by Kaméda Koyé-sen. +Cast by the artist Sugiwara Kuninobu."</p> +<p>(The poem in unrhymed metre.)</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Buddha in compassion tender</p> +<p>With this bell, instead of words,</p> +<p>Wakens souls from life's illusions,</p> +<p>Lightens this world's darkness drear.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Many souls its sweet tones heeding,</p> +<p>From their chains of sin are freed;</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page434" id="page434"></a>{434}</span> +<p>All the mind's unrest is soothed,</p> +<p>Sinful yearnings are repressed.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Oh how potent is his merit,</p> +<p>Without bounds in all the worlds!</p> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-34" name="footnote10-34"></a><b>Footnote 34:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-34">(return)</a> +<p>Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 129.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-35" name="footnote10-35"></a><b>Footnote 35:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-35">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., pp. 287-290, 513-514; Perry's Narrative, pp. 471, 472; Our +Neighborhood, pp. 119-124. The following epitaphs are gathered from +various sources:</p> +<p>"This stone marks the remains of the believer who never grows +old."</p> +<p>"The believing woman Yu-ning, Happy was the day of her +departure."</p> +<p>"Multitudes fill the graves."</p> +<p>"Only by this vehicle—the coffin—can we enter +Hades."</p> +<p>"As the floating grass is blown by the gentle breeze, or the +glancing ripples of autumn disappear when the sun goes down, or as +a ship returns to her old shore—so is life. It is a vapor, a +morning-tide."</p> +<p>"Buddha himself wishes to hear the name of the deceased that he +may enter life."</p> +<p>"He who has left humanity is now perfected by Buddha's name, as +the withered moss by the dew."</p> +<p>"Life is like a candle in the wind."</p> +<p>"The wise make our halls illustrious, and their monuments endure +for ages."</p> +<p>"What permanency is there to the glory of the world? It goes +from the sight like hoar-frost in the sun."</p> +<p>"If men wish to enter the joys of heavenly light,<br /> +Let them smell the fragrance of the law of Buddha."</p> +<p>"Whoever wishes to have his merit reach even to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page435" id="page435"></a>{435}</span> the abode +of demons, let him, with us, and all living, become perfect in the +doctrine."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-36" name="footnote10-36"></a><b>Footnote 36:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-36">(return)</a> +<p>Rev. C.B. Hawarth in the <i>New York Independent</i>, January +18, 1894.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-37" name="footnote10-37"></a><b>Footnote 37:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-37">(return)</a> +<p>In 781 the Buddhist monk Kéi-shun dedicated a chapel to +Jizo, on whom he conferred the epithet of Sho-gun or general, to +suit the warlike tastes of the Japanese people.—S. and H., p. +384. So also Hachiman became the god of war because adopted as the +patron deity of the Genji warriors.—S. and H., p. 70.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-38" name="footnote10-38"></a><b>Footnote 38:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-38">(return)</a> +<p>Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 90.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-39" name="footnote10-39"></a><b>Footnote 39:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-39">(return)</a> +<p>Dixon's Japan, p. 41; S. and H., Japan, <i>passim</i>; Rein's +Japan; Story of the Nations, Japan, by David Murray, p. 201, note; +Dening's life of Toyotomi Hidéyoshi; M.E., Chapters XV., +XVI., XX., XXIII., XXIV.; Gazetteer of Echizen; Shiga's History of +Nations, Tōkiō, 1888, pp. 115, 118; T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII., pp. +94, 134, 143.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-40" name="footnote10-40"></a><b>Footnote 40:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-40">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII., Hidéyoshi and the Satsuma Clan in +the Sixteenth Century, by J.H. Gubbins; The Times of Taikō, by +R. Brinkley, in <i>The Japan Times</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-41" name="footnote10-41"></a><b>Footnote 41:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-41">(return)</a> +<p>The Copy of the Buddhist Tripitaka, or Northern Collection, made +by order of the Emperor, Wan-Li, in the sixteenth century, when the +Chinese capital (King) was changed from the South (Nan) to the +North (Pe), was reproduced in Japan in 1679 and again in 1681-83, +and in over two thousand volumes, making a pile a hundred feet +high, was presented by the Japanese Government, through the Junior +Prime Minister, Mr. Tomomi Iwakura, to the Library of the India +Office. See Samuel Beal's The Buddhist Tripitaka, as it is known in +China and Japan, A Catalogue and Compendious <span class="pagenum"><a name="page436" id="page436"></a>{436}</span> Report, +London, 1876. The library has been rearranged by Mr. Bunyin Nanjio, +who has published the result of his labors, with Sanskrit +equivalents of the titles and with notes of the highest value.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-42" name="footnote10-42"></a><b>Footnote 42:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-42">(return)</a> +<p>"Neither country (China or Japan) has had the independence and +mental force to produce a literature of its own, and to add +anything but a chapter of decay to the history of this +religion."—Professor William D. Whitney, in review of +Anecdota Oxoniensia, Buddhist Texts from Japan, in <i>The +Nation</i>, No. 875.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-43" name="footnote10-43"></a><b>Footnote 43:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-43">(return)</a> +<p>Education in Japan, A series of papers by the writer, printed in +<i>The Japan Mail</i> of 1873-74, and reprinted in the educational +journals of the United Status. A digest of these papers is given in +the appendix of F.O. Adams's History of Japan; Life of Sir Harry +Parkes, Vol. II., pp. 305, 306.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-44" name="footnote10-44"></a><b>Footnote 44:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-44">(return)</a> +<p>Japan: in Literature, Folk-Lore, and Art, p. 77.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-45" name="footnote10-45"></a><b>Footnote 45:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-45">(return)</a> +<p>Japanese Education at the Philadelphia Exposition, New York, +1876.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-46" name="footnote10-46"></a><b>Footnote 46:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-46">(return)</a> +<p>See Japanese Literature, by E.M. Satow, in The American +Cyclopædia.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-47" name="footnote10-47"></a><b>Footnote 47:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-47">(return)</a> +<p>The word bonze (Japanese <i>bon-so</i> or <i>bozu</i>, Chinese +<i>fan-sung</i>) means an ordinary member of the congregation, just +as the Japanese term <i>bon-yo</i> or <i>bon-zuko</i> means common +people or the ordinary folks. The word came into European use from +the Portuguese missionaries, who heard the Japanese thus pronounce +the Chinese term <i>fan</i>, which, as <i>bon</i>, is applied to +anything in the mass not out of the common.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-48" name="footnote10-48"></a><b>Footnote 48:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-48">(return)</a> +<p>See On the Early History of Printing in Japan, by E.M. Satow, +T.A.S.J., Vol. X., Part L, p. 48; Part II., p. 252.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-49" name="footnote10-49"></a><b>Footnote 49:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-49">(return)</a> +<p>Japanese mediaeval monastery life has been ably <span class="pagenum"><a name="page437" id="page437"></a>{437}</span> pictured +in English fiction by a scholar of imagination and literary power, +withal a military critic and a veteran in Japanese lore. "The Times +of Taikō," in the defunct Japanese Times (1878), deserves +reprint as a book, being founded on Japanese historical and +descriptive works. In Mr. Edward's Greey's A Captive of Love, +Boston, 1880, the idea of ingwa (the effects in this life of the +actions in a former state of existence), is illustrated. See also +S. and H., p. 29; T.J., p. 360.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-50" name="footnote10-50"></a><b>Footnote 50:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-50">(return)</a> +<p>It is curious that while the anti-Christian polemics of the +Japanese Buddhists have used the words of Jesus, "I came to send +not peace but a sword," Matt, x. 34, and "If any man ... hate not +his father and mother," etc., Luke xiv. 26, as a branding iron with +which to stamp the religion of Jesus as gross immorality and +dangerous to the state, they justify Gautama in his "renunciation" +of marital and paternal duties.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-51" name="footnote10-51"></a><b>Footnote 51:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-51">(return)</a> +<p>See Public Charity in Japan, Japan Mail, 1893; and The Annual +(Appleton's) Cyclopaedia for 1893.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-52" name="footnote10-52"></a><b>Footnote 52:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-52">(return)</a> +<p>I have some good reasons for making this suggestion. Yokoi +Héishiro had dwelt for some time in Fukui, a few rods away +from the house in which I lived, and the ideas he promulgated among +the Echizen clansmen in his lectures on Confucianism, were not only +Christian in spirit but, by their own statement, these ideas could +not be found in the texts of the Chinese sage or of his +commentators. Although the volume (edited by his son, Rev. J.F. +Yokoi) of his Life and Letters shows him to have been an intense +and at times almost bigoted Confucianist, he, in one of his later +letters, prophesied that when Christianity <span class="pagenum"><a name="page438" id="page438"></a>{438}</span> should be +taught by the missionaries, it would win the hearts of the young +men of Japan. See also Satow's Kinsé Shiriaku, p. 183; +Adams's History of Japan; and in fiction, see Honda The Samurai, p. +242, and succeeding chapters.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-53" name="footnote10-53"></a><b>Footnote 53:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-53">(return)</a> +<p>In the colorless and unsentimental language of government +publications, the Japanese edict of emancipation, issued to the +local authorities in October, 1871, ran as follows: "The +designations of eta and hinin are abolished. Those who bore them +are to be added to the general registers of the population and +their social position and methods of gaining a livelihood are to be +identical with the rest of the people. As they have been entitled +to immunity from the land tax and other burdens of immemorial +custom, you will inquire how this may be reformed and report to the +Board of Finance." (Signed) Council of State.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-54" name="footnote10-54"></a><b>Footnote 54:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-54">(return)</a> +<p>In English fiction, see The Eta Maiden and the Hatamoto, in +Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp. 210-245. Discussions as +to the origin of the Eta are to be found in Adams's History of +Japan, Vol. I, p. 77; M.E., index; T.J., p. 147; S. and H., p. 36; +Honda the Samurai, pp. 246, 247; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. +I., pp. 210-245. The literature concerning the Ainos is already +voluminous. See Chamberlain's Aino Studies, with bibliography; and +Rev. John Batchelor's Ainu Grammar, published by The Imperial +University of Tōkiō; T.A.S.J., Vols. X., XL, XVI., XVIII., +XX.; The Ainu of Japan, New York, 1892, by J. Batchelor (who has +also translated the Book of Common Prayer, and portions of the +Bible into the Ainu tongue); M. E., Chap. II.; T.A.S.J., Vol. X., +and following volumes; Unbeaten Tracks in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page439" id="page439"></a>{439}</span> Japan, +Vol. II.; Life with Trans-Siberian Savages, London, 1895.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-55" name="footnote10-55"></a><b>Footnote 55:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-55">(return)</a> +<p>"Then the venerable Sāriputra said to that daughter of +Sagara, the Nāga-king: 'Thou hast conceived the idea of +enlightenment, young lady of good family, without sliding back, and +art gifted with immense wisdom, but supreme, perfect enlightenment +is not easily won. It may happen, sister, that a woman displays an +unflagging energy, performs good works for many thousands of Aeons, +and fulfils the six perfect virtues (Pāramitās), but as yet +there is no example of her having reached Buddhaship, and that +because a woman cannot occupy the five ranks, viz., 1, the rank of +Brahma; 2, the rank of Indra; 3, the rank of a chief guardian of +the four quarters; 4, the rank of Kakravartin; 5, the rank of a +Bodhisattva incapable of sliding back," Saddharma Pundarika, Kern's +Translation, p. 252.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-56" name="footnote10-56"></a><b>Footnote 56:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-56">(return)</a> +<p>Chiū-jō-himé was the first Japanese nun, and the +only woman who is commemorated by an idol. "She extracted the +fibres of the lotus root, and wove them with silk to make tapestry +for altars." Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 128. Her romantic and marvellous +story is given in S. and H., p. 397. "The practice of giving ranks +to women was commenced by Jito Tennō (an empress, 690-705)." +Many women shaved their heads and became nuns "on becoming widows, +as well as on being forsaken by, or after leaving their husbands. +Others were orphans." One of the most famous nuns (on account of +her rank) was the Nii no Ama, widow of Kiyomori and grandmother of +the Emperor Antoku, who were both drowned near Shimono-séki, +in the great naval battle of 1185 A.D. Adams's History of Japan, +Vol. I., p. 37; M.E., p. 137.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page440" id="page440"></a>{440}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-57" name="footnote10-57"></a><b>Footnote 57:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-57">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 213; Japanese Women, World's Columbian Exhibition, +Chicago, 1893, Chap. III.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-58" name="footnote10-58"></a><b>Footnote 58:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-58">(return)</a> +<p>There is no passage in the original Greek texts, or in the +Revised Version of the New Testament which ascribes wings to the +<i>aggelos</i>, or angel. In Rev. xii. 14, a woman is "given two +wings of a great eagle."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-59" name="footnote10-59"></a><b>Footnote 59:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-59">(return)</a> +<p>Japanese Women in Politics, Chap. I., Japanese Women, Chicago, +1893; Japanese Girls and Women, Chapters VI. and VII.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-60" name="footnote10-60"></a><b>Footnote 60:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-60">(return)</a> +<p>Bakin's novels are dominated by this idea, while also preaching +in fiction strict Confucianism. See A Captive of Love, by Edward +Greey.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10-61" name="footnote10-61"></a><b>Footnote 61:</b><a href="#footnotetag10-61">(return)</a> +<p>"Fate is one of the great words of the East. <i>Japan's language +is loaded and overloaded with it.</i> Parents are forever saying +before their children, 'There's no help for it.' I once remarked to +a school-teacher, 'Of course you love to teach children.' His quick +reply was, 'Of course I don't. I do it merely because there is no +help for it.' Moralists here deplore the prosperity of the houses +of ill-fame and then add with a sigh, 'There's no help for it.' All +society reverberates with this phrase with reference to questions +that need the application of moral power, will power."—J.H. +De Forest.</p> +<p>"I do not say there is no will power in the East, for there is. +Nor do I say there is no weak yielding to fate in lands that have +the doctrine of the Creator, for there is. But, putting the East +and West side by side, one need not hesitate to affirm that the +reason the will power of the East is weak cannot be fully explained +by any mere doctrine of environment, but must also have some vital +connection with the fact that the idea of a personal almighty +Creator has for long ages been <span class="pagenum"><a name="page441" id="page441"></a>{441}</span> wanting. And one reason why +western nations have an aggressive character that ventures bold +things and tends to defy difficulties cannot be wholly laid to +environment but must have something to do with the fact that leads +millions daily reverently to say 'I believe in the Almighty Father, +Maker of Heaven and Earth.'"—J.H. De Forest.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>STATISTICS OF BUDDHISM IN JAPAN.</p> +<p>(From The official "Résumé Statistique de l'Empire +du Japon," Tōkiō, 1894.)</p> +<p>In 1891 there were 71,859 temples within city or town limits, +and 35,959 in the rural districts, or 117,718 in all, under the +charges of 51,791 principal priests and 720 principal priestesses, +or 52,511 in all.</p> +<p>The number of temples, classified by sects, were as follows: +Tendai, with 3 sub-sects, 4,808; Shingon, with 2 sub-sects, 12,821, +of which 45 belonged to the Hossō shu; Jō-do, with 2 +sub-sects, 8,323, of which 21 were of the Ké-gon shu; Zen, +with 3 sub-sects, 20,882, of which 6,146 were of the Rin-Zai shu; +14,072 of the Sō-dō shu, and 604 of the O-bakushu; Shin, with +10 sub-sects, 19,146; Nichiren, with 7 sub-sects, 5,066; Ji shu, +515; Yu-dzū; Nembutsu, 358; total, 38 sects and 71,859 +temples.</p> +<p>The official reports required by the government from the various +sects, show that there are 38 administrative heads of sects; 52,638 +priest-preachers and 44,123 ordinary priests or monks; and 8,668 +male and 328 female, or a total of 8,996, students for the grade of +monk or nun. In comparison with 1886, the number of +priest-preachers was 39,261, ordinary priests 38,189: male +students, 21,966; female students, 642.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page442" id="page442"></a>{442}</span> +<p>CHAPTER XI</p> +<p>ROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-1" name="footnote11-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-1">(return)</a> +<p>See for a fine example of this, Mr. C. Meriwether's Life of +Daté Masamuné, T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., pp. 3-106. See +also The Christianity of Early Japan, by Koji Inaba, in The Japan +Evangelist, Yokohama, 1893-94; Mr. E. Satow's papers in +T.A.S.J.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-2" name="footnote11-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-2">(return)</a> +<p>See M.E., p. 280; Rein's Japan, p. 312; Shigétaka Shiga's +History of Nations, p. 139, quoting from M.E. (p. 258).</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-3" name="footnote11-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-3">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., 195.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-4" name="footnote11-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-4">(return)</a> +<p>The Japan Mail of April and May, 1894, contains a translation +from the Japanese, with but little new matter, however, of a work +entitled Paul Anjiro.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-5" name="footnote11-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-5">(return)</a> +<p>The "Firando" of the old books. See Cock's Diary. It is +difficult at first to recognize the Japanese originals of some of +the names which figure in the writings of Charlevoix, Léon +Pagés, and the European missionaries, owing to their use of +local pronunciation, and their spelling, which seems peculiar. One +of the brilliant identifications of Mr. Ernest Satow, now H.B.M. +Minister at Tangier, is that of Kuroda in the "Kondera"' of the +Jesuits.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-6" name="footnote11-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-6">(return)</a> +<p>See Mr. E.M. Matow's Vicissitudes of the Church at Yamaguchi. +T.A.S.J., Vol. VII., pp. 131-156.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-7" name="footnote11-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-7">(return)</a> +<p>Nobunaga was Nai Dai Jin, Inner (Junior) Prime Minister, one in +the triple premiership, peculiar to Korea and Old Japan, but was +never Shōgun, as some foreign writers have supposed.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-8" name="footnote11-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-8">(return)</a> +<p>See The Jesuit Mission Press in Japan, by E. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page443" id="page443"></a>{443}</span> Satow, +1591-1610 (privately printed, London, 1888). Review of the same by +B.H. Chamberlain, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., p. 91.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-9" name="footnote11-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-9">(return)</a> +<p>Histoire de l'Église, Vol. I, p. 490; Rein, p. 277. +Takayama is spoken of in the Jesuit Records as Jûsto +Ucondono. A curious book entitled Justo Ucondono, Prince of Japan, +in which the writer, who is "less attentive to points of style than +to matters of faith," labors to show that "the Bible alone" is +"found wanting," and only the "Teaching Church" is worthy of trust, +was published in Baltimore, in 1854.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-10" name="footnote11-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-10">(return)</a> +<p>How Hidéyoshi made use of the Shin sect of Buddhists to +betray the Satsuma clansmen is graphically told in Mr. J.H. +Gubbin's paper, Hidéyoshi and the Satsuma Clan, T.A.S.J., +Vol. VIII, pp. 124-128, 143.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-11" name="footnote11-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-11">(return)</a> +<p>Corea the Hermit Nation, Chaps. XII.-XXI., pp. 121-123; Mr. W.G. +Aston's Hidéyoshi's Invasion of Korea, T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., +p. 227; IX, pp. 87, 213; XI., p. 117; Rev. G.H. Jones's The +Japanese Invasion, The Korean Repository, Seoul, 1892.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-12" name="footnote11-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-12">(return)</a> +<p>Brave Little Holland and What She Taught Us, Boston, 1893, p. +247.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-13" name="footnote11-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-13">(return)</a> +<p>See picture and description of this temple—"fairly typical +of Japanese Buddhist architecture," Chamberlain's Handbook for +Japan, p. 26; G.A. Cobbold's, Religion in Japan, London, 1894, p. +72.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-14" name="footnote11-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-14">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., see Vol. VI., pp. 46, 51, for the text of the +edicts.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-15" name="footnote11-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-15">(return)</a> +<p>M.E., p. 262, Chamberlain's Handbook for Japan, p. 59.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-16" name="footnote11-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-16">(return)</a> +<p>The Origin of Spanish and Portuguese Rivalry in Japan, by E.M. +Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., p. 133.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page444" id="page444"></a>{444}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-17" name="footnote11-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-17">(return)</a> +<p>See Chapter VIII., W.G. Dixon's Gleanings from Japan.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-18" name="footnote11-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-18">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., pp. 48-50.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-19" name="footnote11-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-19">(return)</a> +<p>In the inscription upon the great bell, at the temple containing +the image of Dai Butsŭ or Great Buddha, reared by +Hidéyori and his mother, one sentence contained the phrase +<i>Kokka anko, ka</i> and <i>ko</i> being Chinese for +<i>Iyé</i> and <i>yasŭ</i>, which the Yedo ruler +professed to believe mockery. In another sentence, "On the East it +welcomes the bright moon, and on the West bids farewell to the +setting sun," Iyéyasŭ discovered treason. He considered +himself the rising sun, and Hidéyori the setting +moon.—Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. 300.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-20" name="footnote11-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-20">(return)</a> +<p>I have found the Astor Library in New York especially rich in +works of this sort.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-21" name="footnote11-21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-21">(return)</a> +<p>Nitobé's United States and Japan, p. 13, note.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-22" name="footnote11-22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-22">(return)</a> +<p>This insurrection has received literary treatment at the hands +of the Japanese in Shimabara, translated in The Far East for 1872; +Woolley's Historical Notes on Nagasaki, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 125; +Koeckebakker and the Arima Rebellion, by Dr. A.J.C. Geerts, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XI., 51; Inscriptions on Shimabara and Amakusa, by +Henry Stout, T.A.S.J., Vol. VII, p. 185.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-23" name="footnote11-23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-23">(return)</a> +<p>"Persecution extirpated Christianity from Japan."—History +of Rationalism, Vol. II, p. 15.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-24" name="footnote11-24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-24">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., Part I., p. 62; M.E. pp. 531, 573.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-25" name="footnote11-25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-25">(return)</a> +<p>Political, despite the attempt of many earnest members of the +order to check this tendency to intermeddle in politics; see Dr. +Murray's Japan, p. 245, note, 246.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page445" id="page445"></a>{445}</span> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-26" name="footnote11-26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-26">(return)</a> +<p>See abundant illustration in Léon Pagés' Histoire +de la Religion Chrétienne en Japon, a book which the author +read while in Japan amid the scenes described.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11-27" name="footnote11-27"></a><b>Footnote 27:</b><a href="#footnotetag11-27">(return)</a> +<p><i>The Japan Evangelist</i>, Vol. I., No. 2, p. 96.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>CHAPTER XII</p> +<p>TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE</p> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-1" name="footnote12-1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-1">(return)</a> +<p>See Diary of Richard Cocks, and Introduction by R.M. Thompson, +Hakluyt Publications, 1883.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-2" name="footnote12-2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-2">(return)</a> +<p>For the extent of Japanese influence abroad, see M.E., p. 246; +Rein, Nitobe, and Hildreth; Modern Japanese Adventurers, T.A.S.J., +Vol. VII., p. 191; The Intercourse between Japan and Siam in the +Seventeenth Century, by E.M. Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 139; +Voyage of the Dutch Ship Grol, T.A.S.J., Vol. XI., p. 180.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-3" name="footnote12-3"></a><b>Footnote 3:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-3">(return)</a> +<p>The United States and Japan, p. 16.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-4" name="footnote12-4"></a><b>Footnote 4:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-4">(return)</a> +<p>See Professor J.H. Wigmore's elaborate work, Materials for the +Study of Private Law in Old Japan, T.A.S.J., Tōkiō, 1892.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-5" name="footnote12-5"></a><b>Footnote 5:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-5">(return)</a> +<p>See the Legacy of Iyéyasŭ, by John Frederic Lowder, +Yokohama, 1874, with criticisms and discussions by E.M. Satow and +others in the <i>Japan Mail</i>; Dixon's Japan, Chapter VII.; +Professor W.E. Grigsby, in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Part II., p. 131, +gives another version, with analysis, notes, and comments; Rein's +Japan, pp. 314, 315.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-6" name="footnote12-6"></a><b>Footnote 6:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-6">(return)</a> +<p>Old Japan in the days of its inclusiveness was a secret society +on a vast scale, with every variety and degree of selfishness, +mystery, secrecy, close-corporationism, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page446" id="page446"></a>{446}</span> and +tomfoolery. See article Esotericism in T.J., p. 143.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-7" name="footnote12-7"></a><b>Footnote 7:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-7">(return)</a> +<p>Since the abolition of feudalism, with the increase of the means +of transportation, the larger freedom, and, at many points, +improved morality, the population of Japan shows an unprecedented +rate of increase. The census taken in 1744 gave, as the total +number of souls in the empire, 26,080,000 (E.J. Reed's Japan, Vol. +I., p. 236); that of 1872, 33,110,825; that of 1892, 41,089,910, +showing a greater increase during the past twenty years than in the +one hundred and thirty-eight years previous. See +Résumé Statistique de l'Empire du Japon, Tōkiō, +1894; Professor Garrett Droppers' paper on The Population of Japan +during the Tokugawa Period, read June 27th, 1894; T.A.S.J., Vol. +XXII.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-8" name="footnote12-8"></a><b>Footnote 8:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-8">(return)</a> +<p>For the notable instance of Pere Sidotti, see M.E, p. 63; +Séi Yō Ki Buu, by S.R. Brown, D.D., a translation of Arai +Hakuséki's narrative, Yedo, 1710, T.N.C.A.S.; Capture and +Captivity of Pere Sidotti, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 156; Christian +Valley, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 207.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-9" name="footnote12-9"></a><b>Footnote 9:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-9">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. I., p. 78, Vol. VII., p. 323.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-10" name="footnote12-10"></a><b>Footnote 10:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-10">(return)</a> +<p>See Matthew Calbraith Perry, Boston, 1887.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-11" name="footnote12-11"></a><b>Footnote 11:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-11">(return)</a> +<p>See the author's Townsend Harris, First American Minister to +Japan, <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i>, August, 1891.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-12" name="footnote12-12"></a><b>Footnote 12:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-12">(return)</a> +<p>See Honda the Samurai, Boston, 1890; Nitobe's United States and +Japan; The Japan Mail <i>passim</i>; Dr. G.F. Verbeck's History of +Protestant Missions in Japan, Yokohama, 1883; Dr. George Wm. Knox's +papers on Japanese Philosophy, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. l58, etc. +Recent Japanese literature, of which the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page447" id="page447"></a>{447}</span> writer +has a small shelf-full, biographies, biographical dictionaries, the +histories of New Japan, Life of Yoshida Shoin, and recent issues of +The Nation's Friend (Kokumin no Tomo), are very rich on this +fascinating subject.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-13" name="footnote12-13"></a><b>Footnote 13:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-13">(return)</a> +<p>A typical instance was that of Rin Shihei, born 1737, author of +<i>Sun Koku Tsu Ran to Setsu</i>, translated into French by +Klaproth, Paris, 1832. Rin learned much from the Dutch and +Prussians, and wrote books which had a great sale. He was cast into +prison, whence he never emerged. The (wooden) plates of his +publications were confiscated and destroyed. In 1876, the Mikado +visited his grave in Sendai, and ordered a monument erected to the +honor of this far-seeing patriot.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-14" name="footnote12-14"></a><b>Footnote 14:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-14">(return)</a> +<p>Rein, pp. 336, 337</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-15" name="footnote12-15"></a><b>Footnote 15:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-15">(return)</a> +<p>Rein, p. 339; The Early Study of Dutch in Japan, by K. +Mitsukuri, T.A.S.J., Vol. V., p. 209; History of the Progress of +Medicine in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. XII., p. 245; Vijf Jaren in +Japan, J.L.C. Pompe van Meerdervoort, 2d Ed., Leyden, 1808.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-16" name="footnote12-16"></a><b>Footnote 16:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-16">(return)</a> +<p>Honda the Samurai, pp. 249-251; Nitobé, 25-27.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-17" name="footnote12-17"></a><b>Footnote 17:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-17">(return)</a> +<p>The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, by Professor E. W. Clement, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII, p. 14; Nitobé's United States and +Japan, p. 25, note.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-18" name="footnote12-18"></a><b>Footnote 18:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-18">(return)</a> +<p>M.E. (6 Ed.), p. 608; Adams's History of Japan, Vol. II., p. +171.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-19" name="footnote12-19"></a><b>Footnote 19:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-19">(return)</a> +<p>See the text of the anti-Christian edicts, M.E., p. 369.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-20" name="footnote12-20"></a><b>Footnote 20:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-20">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 17.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-21" name="footnote12-21"></a><b>Footnote 21:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-21">(return)</a> +<p>T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 134.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-22" name="footnote12-22"></a><b>Footnote 22:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-22">(return)</a> +<p>Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 125; A Japanese <span class="pagenum"><a name="page448" id="page448"></a>{448}</span> Buddhist +Preacher, by Professor M.K. Shimomura, in the New York Independent; +other sermons have been printed in The Japan Mail; Kino Dowa, two +sermons and vocabulary, has been edited by Rev. C.S. Eby, +Yokohama.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-23" name="footnote12-23"></a><b>Footnote 23:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-23">(return)</a> +<p>On Sunday, November 29, 1857, Mr. Harris, resting at Kawasaki, +over Sunday, on his way to Yedo and audience of the Shōgun, +having Mr. Heusken as his audience and fellow-worshipper, read +service from the Book of Common Prayer.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-24" name="footnote12-24"></a><b>Footnote 24:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-24">(return)</a> +<p>See a paper written by the author and read at the World's +Columbian Exhibition Congress of Missions, Chicago, September, +1893, on The Citizen Rights of Missionaries.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-25" name="footnote12-25"></a><b>Footnote 25:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-25">(return)</a> +<p>This embassy was planned and first proposed to the Junior +premier, Tomomi Iwakura, and the route arranged by the Rev. Guido +F. Verbeck, then President of the Imperial University. One half of +the members of the embassy had been Dr. Verbeck's pupils at +Nagasaki.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12-26" name="footnote12-26"></a><b>Footnote 26:</b><a href="#footnotetag12-26">(return)</a> +<p>A somewhat voluminous native Japanese literature is the result +of the various embassies and individual pilgrimages abroad, since +1860. Immeasurably superior to all other publications, in the +practical influence over his fellow-countrymen, is the Séiyo +Jijo (The Condition of Western Countries) by Fukuzawa, author, +educator, editor, decliner of numerously proffered political +offices, and "the intellectual father of one-half of the young men +who now fill the middle and lower posts in the government of +Japan." For the foreign side, see The Japanese in America, by +Charles Lanman, New York, 1872, and in The Life of Sir Harry +Parkes, London, 1894, and for an amusing piece of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page449" id="page449"></a>{449}</span> literary +ventriloquism, Japanese Letters, Eastern Impressions of Western Men +and Manners, London and New York, 1891.</p> +<p>See History of Protestant Missions in Japan, by G. F. Verbeck, +Yokohama, 1893.</p> +</blockquote> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page451" id="page451"></a>{451}</span> +<h2><a name="index" id="index">INDEX</a></h2> +<p>Abbess, <a href="#page318">318</a>.<br /> +Abbots, <a href="#page312">312</a>.<br /> +Abdication, <a href="#page214">214</a>.<br /> +Aborigines, <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href="#page38">38</a>, +<a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page77">77-79</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>.<br /> +Adams, Will, <a href="#page334">334</a>, <a href="#page340">340</a>.<br /> +Adi-Buddha, <a href="#page174">174</a>.<br /> +Adoption, <a href="#page122">122</a>, <a href="#page126">126</a>.<br /> +Adultery, <a href="#page149">149</a>.<br /> +Aidzu, <a href="#page119">119</a>.<br /> +Ainos, <a href="#page2">2</a>, <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page73">73</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>, <a href="#page379">379</a>.<br /> +Akamatsu, Rev. Renjo, <a href="#page425">425</a>.<br /> +Akéchi, <a href="#page332">332</a>.<br /> +Alphabets, <a href="#page199">199</a>, <a href="#page200">200</a>.<br /> +Altaic, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page389">389</a>.<br /> +Amalgam of religions, <a href="#page11">11</a>, <a href="#page13">13</a>.<br /> +Amatérasŭ, see <a href="#index-sun-goddess">Sun-goddess</a>.<br /> +American relations, <a href="#page11">11</a>, <a href="#page12">12</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-amidaism" id="index-amidaism">Amidaism</a>, <a href="#page276">276</a>, <a href="#page303">303</a>.<br /> +Anabaptists, <a href="#page162">162</a>.<br /> +Analects, <a href="#page128">128</a>.<br /> +Ancestral worship, <a href="#page106">106</a>.<br /> +Anderson, Dr. Win, <a href="#page435">435</a>.<br /> +Angels, <a href="#page304">304</a>.<br /> +Animism, <a href="#page15">15-17</a>.<br /> +Anjiro, <a href="#page329">329</a>.<br /> +Apostolical succession, <a href="#page262">262</a>.<br /> +Arabian Nights, <a href="#page192">192</a>, <a href="#page201">201</a>.<br /> +Architecture, <a href="#page82">82</a>, <a href="#page84">84</a>, +<a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page298">298-300</a>.<br /> +Art, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href="#page114">1l4</a>, <a href="#page195">195-197</a>, <a href="#page297">297</a>, <a href="#page298">298</a>, <a href="#page303">303-305</a>, <a href="#page314">314</a>, <a href="#page356">356</a>.<br /> +Aryan Conquest of India, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page156">156</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>.<br /> +Asanga, <a href="#page175">175</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>.<br /> +Assassination, <a href="#page367">367</a>.<br /> +Asoka, <a href="#page165">165</a>.<br /> +Aston, Mr. Wm. G., <a href="#page360">360</a>, <a href="#page386">386</a>, <a href="#page387">387</a>.<br /> +Atheism, <a href="#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page164">164</a>.<br /> +Atkinson, Rev, J.L., <a href="#page410">410</a>.<br /> +Avalokitesvara, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page171">171</a>, <a href="#page179">179</a>.<br /> +Avatars, <a href="#page201">201</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page221">221</a>, <a href="#page247">247</a>, <a href="#page269">269</a>, <a href="#page295">295</a>.</p> +<p>Babism, <a href="#page166">166</a>.<br /> +Bakin, <a href="#page444">444</a>.<br /> +Bangor Theological Seminary, <a href="#page378">378</a>.<br /> +Batchelor, Rev. John, <a href="#page317">317</a>.<br /> +Beal, Rev. Samuel, <a href="#page8">8</a>.<br /> +Beauty, <a href="#page207">207</a>.<br /> +Beggars, <a href="#page208">208</a>.<br /> +Bells, <a href="#page307">307</a>, <a href="#page308">308</a>.<br /> +Benten, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br /> +Bible, <a href="#page27">27</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page364">364</a>, <a href="#page386">386</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-binzuru" id="index-binzuru">Binzuru</a>, <a href="#page237">237</a>.<br /> +Birth, <a href="#page84">84</a>.<br /> +Bishamon, <a href="#page218">218</a>.<br /> +Bodhidharma, see <a href="#index-daruma">Daruma</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-bodhisattva" id="index-bodhisattva">Bodhisattva</a>, +<a href="#page169">169</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page234">234</a>.<br /> +Bonzes, <a href="#page310">310</a>.<br /> +Bosatsu, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>; +see <a href="#index-bodhisattva">Bodhsattva</a>.<br /> +Brahma, <a href="#page247">247</a>.<br /> +Brahmanism, <a href="#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page185">185</a>, +<a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href="#page218">218</a>.<br /> +Brothers, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page126">126</a>.<br /> +Buddha. Amida, see <a href="#index-amidaism">Amidaism</a>.<br /> + the Buddha, <a href="#page101">101</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>.<br /> + Gautama, <a href="#page155">155</a>, <a href="#page161">161-164</a>.<br /> + Shakyamuni, <a href="#page160">160</a>.<br /> + Siddartha, <a href="#page410">410</a>.<br /> + Tathagata, <a href="#page259">259</a>.<br /> + Tathata, <a href="#page243">243</a>.<br /> +Bunyin Nanjio, Rev., <a href="#page231">231</a>, <a href="#page425">425</a>.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page452" id="page452"></a>{452}</span><br /> +Buddhism, <a href="#page42">42</a>, <a href="#page74">74</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>, <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page133">133</a>, <a href="#page136">136</a>, <a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href="#page140">140</a>, <a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href="#page227">227</a>, <a href="#page231">231</a>.<br /> +Buddhist, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, <a href="#page214">214</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a>, <a href="#page252">252</a>.</p> +<p>Cannibalism, <a href="#page74">74</a>.<br /> +Canon, Chinese, <a href="#page103">103</a>; Shintō, <a href="#page39">39-41</a>.<br /> +Capitals of Japan, <a href="#page182">182</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>, <a href="#page296">296</a>.<br /> +Celibacy, <a href="#page272">272</a>.<br /> +Cemeteries, <a href="#page308">308</a>.<br /> +Chair of Contemplation, <a href="#page252">252</a>.<br /> +Chamberlain, Prof. B. Hall, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page324">324</a>, <a href="#page388">388</a>.<br /> +Chastity, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href="#page124">124</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, <a href="#page320">320</a>.<br /> +Cheng Brothers, <a href="#page138">138</a>, <a href="#page139">139</a>.<br /> +China, <a href="#page134">134</a>, <a href="#page199">199</a>, +<a href="#page215">215</a>, <a href="#page328">328</a>, <a href="#page355">355</a>.<br /> +Chinese, <a href="#page83">83</a>, <a href="#page134">134</a>; +Buddhism, <a href="#page232">232</a>.<br /> +Christianity and Buddhism, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>, <a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href="#page187">187</a>, <a href="#page195">195</a>, <a href="#page217">217</a>, <a href="#page218">218</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>, <a href="#page270">270</a>, <a href="#page300">300-302</a>, <a href="#page306">306</a>, <a href="#page315">315</a>, <a href="#page319">319</a>.<br /> +Chronology, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page370">370</a>, +<a href="#page387">387</a>.<br /> +Chu Hi, <a href="#page11">11</a>, <a href="#page108">108</a>, +<a href="#page139">139</a>, <a href="#page143">143</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href="#page356">356</a>.<br /> +Cleanliness, <a href="#page84">84</a>, <a href="#page97">97</a>.<br /> +Clement, Prof. E.M., <a href="#page407">407</a>.<br /> +Cobra-de-capello, <a href="#page21">21</a>.<br /> +Cocks, Mr. Richard, <a href="#page380">380</a>.<br /> +Columbus, <a href="#page328">328</a>.<br /> +Comparative religion, <a href="#page4">4-6</a>.<br /> +Confucius, <a href="#page100">100-106</a>.<br /> +Confucianism, <a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href="#page107">107</a>, +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br /> +Concubinage, <a href="#page149">149</a>.<br /> +Constitution of 1889, <a href="#page96">96</a>, <a href="#page122">122</a>.<br /> +Corea, see <a href="#index-korea">Korea</a>.<br /> +Courtship, <a href="#page124">124</a>.<br /> +Creator, <a href="#page145">145</a>, <a href="#page285">285</a>.<br /> +Cremation, <a href="#page182">182</a>.<br /> +Crucifixion, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>.</p> +<p>Dai Butsu, <a href="#page203">203</a>.<br /> +Daikoku, <a href="#page218">218</a>.<br /> +Dai Miō Jin, <a href="#page190">190</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>, <a href="#page230">230</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-daruma" id="index-daruma">Daruma</a>, <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href="#page254">254</a>.<br /> +Davids, T. Rhys, <a href="#page155">155</a>, <a href="#page172">172</a>.<br /> +Death, <a href="#page84">84</a>.<br /> +De Brosses, <a href="#page23">23</a>.<br /> +De Forest, Rev. J.H., <a href="#page226">226</a>.<br /> +Demoniacal possession, <a href="#page281">281</a>.<br /> +Déshima, <a href="#page354">354</a>, <a href="#page358">358</a>, <a href="#page362">362-365</a>.<br /> +Dharari, <a href="#page199">199</a>.<br /> +Dharma, see <a href="#index-daruma">Daruma</a>, <a href="#page186">186</a>.<br /> +Dhyana Buddhas and Sect, <a href="#page172">172</a>, <a href="#page252">252</a>, <a href="#page254">254</a>.<br /> +Diet, <a href="#page293">293</a>, <a href="#page294">294</a>.<br /> +Divorce, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page149">149</a>.<br /> +Dō-sen, <a href="#page236">236</a>.<br /> +Dō-shō, <a href="#page181">181</a>.<br /> +Dragon, <a href="#page20">20</a>, <a href="#page21">21</a>, +<a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page198">198</a>, <a href="#page242">242</a>.<br /> +Dutch, <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href="#page336">336</a>, +<a href="#page340">340</a>, <a href="#page353">353</a>, <a href="#page354">354</a>, <a href="#page358">358</a>, <a href="#page360">360</a>, <a href="#page362">362</a>, <a href="#page363">363-365</a>, <a href="#page366">366</a>.<br /> +Dutt, Mr. Romesh Chunder, <a href="#page161">161</a>.</p> +<p>Ebisu, <a href="#page218">218</a>.<br /> +Ecclesiastes, <a href="#page214">214</a>.<br /> +Echizen, <a href="#page312">312</a>.<br /> +Edicts against Christianity, <a href="#page335">335</a>, <a href="#page336">336</a>, <a href="#page342">342</a>.<br /> +Edkins, Dr. J., <a href="#page249">249</a>.<br /> +Education, <a href="#page313">313</a>, <a href="#page320">320</a>.<br /> +Embassy round the world, <a href="#page373">373</a>.<br /> +Emperor, <a href="#page148">148</a>.<br /> +Emura, Rev. Shu-zan, <a href="#page232">232</a>.<br /> +England, <a href="#page37">37</a>.<br /> +Eta, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page275">275</a>, <a href="#page316">316</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>, <a href="#page367">367</a>.<br /> +Ethics, <a href="#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page94">94</a>.<br /> +Euhemerus, <a href="#page192">192</a>, <a href="#page193">193</a>, +<a href="#page197">197</a>, <a href="#page201">201</a>.<br /> +Eurasians, <a href="#page344">344</a>.<br /> +Evil, <a href="#page58">58</a>, <a href="#page78">78</a>.<br /> +Evolution, <a href="#page62">62</a>.<br /> +Ezekiel, <a href="#page36">36</a>.<br /> +Ezra, <a href="#page102">102</a>.</p> +<p>Family Life, <a href="#page122">122</a>, <a href="#page125">125-127</a>.<br /> +Female divinities, <a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page305">305</a>, <a href="#page319">319</a>.<br /> +Fetichism, <a href="#page22">22-27</a>.<br /> +Feudalism, <a href="#page10">10</a>, <a href="#page108">108-110</a>.<br /> +Filial piety, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href="#page149">149</a>, <a href="#page213">213</a>.<br /> +Fire-drill, <a href="#page55">55</a>, <a href="#page56">56</a>.<br /> +Fire, God of, <a href="#page53">53</a>.<br /> +Fire-myths, <a href="#page53">53</a>.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page453" id="page453"></a>{453}</span><br /> +Five Relations, <a href="#page105">105</a>, <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page148">148-150</a>.<br /> +Flags, <a href="#page26">26</a>.<br /> +Flood, <a href="#page53">53</a>.<br /> +Flowers, <a href="#page58">58</a>.<br /> +Forty-seven Rōnins, <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page119">119</a>.<br /> +Franciscans, <a href="#page336">336</a>, <a href="#page337">337</a>.<br /> +Friends, <a href="#page127">127</a>.<br /> +Fudo, <a href="#page279">279</a>.<br /> +Fuji Mountain, <a href="#page400">400</a>.<br /> +Fujishima, Rev. Ryauon, <a href="#page231">231</a>.<br /> +Fukuda, Rev. Gyo-kai, <a href="#page425">425</a>.<br /> +Fukui, <a href="#page23">23</a>.<br /> +Fuku-roku-jin, <a href="#page218">218</a>.</p> +<p>Gardens, <a href="#page237">237</a>, <a href="#page294">294</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>.<br /> +Gautama, <a href="#page158">158</a>, <a href="#page161">161</a>, +<a href="#page164">164</a>.<br /> +Genji Monogatari, <a href="#page149">149</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-genjo" id="index-genjo">Genjō</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page232">232</a>, <a href="#page233">233</a>, <a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href="#page239">239</a>.<br /> +Germanic nations, <a href="#page10">10</a>, <a href="#page44">44</a>.<br /> +Ghosts, <a href="#page206">206</a>.<br /> +Giyoku, <a href="#page183">183</a>.<br /> +Gnostics, <a href="#page193">193</a>, <a href="#page195">195</a>.<br /> +God-possession, <a href="#page201">201</a>.<br /> +Gold, <a href="#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page196">196</a>, +<a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page291">291</a>.<br /> +Golden Rule, <a href="#page128">128</a>.<br /> +Gongen, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>, +<a href="#page220">220</a>.<br /> +Gore, Mr. T., 7, <a href="#page384">384</a>.<br /> +Graveyards, <a href="#page308">308</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-greater-vehicle" id="index-greater-vehicle">Greater +Vehicle</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page240">240</a>, <a href="#page244">244</a>.<br /> +Gubbins, Mr. J.H., <a href="#page403">403</a>, <a href="#page447">447</a>.</p> +<p>Hachiman, <a href="#page204">204</a>.<br /> +Hades, <a href="#page53">53</a>, <a href="#page64">64</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-hara-kiri" id="index-hara-kiri">Hara-kiri</a>, +<a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href="#page339">339</a>.<br /> +Harris, Mr. Townsend, <a href="#page145">145</a>, <a href="#page352">352</a>, <a href="#page360">360</a>, <a href="#page370">370</a>, <a href="#page371">371</a>.<br /> +Hayashi, <a href="#page129">129</a>.<br /> +Heathen, <a href="#page13">13</a>, <a href="#page30">30</a>.<br /> +Heaven, <a href="#page62">62</a>, <a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page70">70</a>, <a href="#page81">81</a>, <a href="#page105">105</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a>.<br /> +Hepburn, Dr. J.C., <a href="#page372">372</a>.<br /> +Hidéyori, <a href="#page340">340</a>, <a href="#page342">342</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-hideyoshi" id="index-hideyoshi">Hidéyoshi</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>, +<a href="#page333">333</a>, <a href="#page338">338</a>.<br /> +Hindu history, <a href="#page156">156</a>.<br /> +Hi-nin, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page150">150</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-hinayana" id="index-hinayana">Hinayana</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page169">169</a>, <a href="#page228">228</a>, <a href="#page232">232</a>, <a href="#page238">238</a>.<br /> +Hiouen Thsang, see <a href="#index-genjo">Genjō</a>.<br /> +Hiraii, <a href="#page2">2</a>.<br /> +Hirata, <a href="#page86">86</a>.<br /> +History of China, intellectual, <a href="#page137">137</a>.<br /> + of Japan, intellectual, <a href="#page230">230</a>.<br /> + of Japan, political, <a href="#page10">10</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page219">219</a>.<br /> + of Japan, religious, <a href="#page227">227</a>, +<a href="#page228">228</a>.<br /> +Hitomarō, <a href="#page60">60</a>.<br /> +Hiyéisan, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page297">297</a>.<br /> +Hodge, <a href="#page102">102</a>.<br /> +Hodgson, Mr. Brian H., <a href="#page411">411</a>, <a href="#page414">414</a>.<br /> +Hokké-Kiō, see <a href="#index-saddharma">Saddharma +Pundarika</a>.<br /> +Hokusai, <a href="#page314">314</a>.<br /> +Holland, <a href="#page338">338</a>.<br /> +Hōnen, <a href="#page261">261</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>.<br /> +Hō-ō, <a href="#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page237">237</a>.<br /> +Hospitals, <a href="#page216">216</a>, <a href="#page315">315</a>.<br /> +Hossō-Shu, <a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href="#page239">239</a>.<br /> +Hotéi, <a href="#page218">218</a>.<br /> +Hotoké, <a href="#page202">202</a>, <a href="#page269">269</a>.</p> +<p>Idols, <a href="#page175">175</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page216">216</a>.<br /> +Idzumo, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page65">65</a>.<br /> +Ikkō, <a href="#page273">273</a>.<br /> +Inari, <a href="#page190">190</a>.<br /> +Indra, <a href="#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page247">247</a>.<br /> +Ingwa, <a href="#page217">217</a>, <a href="#page302">302</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>; see <a href="#index-karma">Karma</a>.<br /> +Inquisition, <a href="#page347">347</a>, <a href="#page348">348</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>.<br /> +Insurance by fetich, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href="#page25">25</a>.<br /> +Isaiah, <a href="#page100">100</a>.<br /> +Isé, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page184">184</a>, +<a href="#page201">201</a>.<br /> +Iyéyasŭ, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href="#page134">134</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page338">338</a>, <a href="#page342">342</a>, <a href="#page357">357</a>, <a href="#page358">358</a>.<br /> +Izanagi and Izanami, <a href="#page52">52</a>, <a href="#page63">63</a>, <a href="#page64">64</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>, <a href="#page218">218</a>.</p> +<p>Jade, <a href="#page292">292</a>.<br /> +Jains, <a href="#page166">166</a>.<br /> +Japan, area, <a href="#page9">9</a>.<br /> + Census, <a href="#page9">9</a>.<br /> + Ethnology, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page44">44</a>.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page454" id="page454"></a>{454}</span><br /> + Geography, <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page44">44</a>.<br /> + Government, <a href="#page40">40</a>.<br /> + History, <a href="#page10">10</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>.<br /> + Origins, <a href="#page43">43</a>.<br /> + Population, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page9">9</a>.<br /> + Various names of, <a href="#page73">73</a>.<br /> +Japanese Bride, The, <a href="#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page149">149</a>.<br /> +Japanese characteristics, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page285">285</a>, <a href="#page361">361</a>.<br /> + Language, <a href="#page113">113</a>, <a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href="#page135">135</a>.<br /> + Writing, <a href="#page200">200</a>.<br /> +Jataka tales, <a href="#page169">169</a>.<br /> +Jealousy, <a href="#page124">124</a>.<br /> +Jesuits, <a href="#page247">247</a>, <a href="#page329">329</a>, +<a href="#page337">337</a>, <a href="#page341">341</a>, <a href="#page342">342</a>.<br /> +Jesus, <a href="#page76">76</a>, <a href="#page97">97</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>.<br /> +Jimmu Tennō, <a href="#page389">389</a>,<br /> +Jin Gi Kuan, <a href="#page49">49</a>, <a href="#page94">94</a>, +<a href="#page390">390-392</a>.<br /> +Jizo, <a href="#page247">247</a>, <a href="#page305">305</a>.<br /> +Jō dō sect, <a href="#page250">250</a>, <a href="#page275">275</a>.<br /> +John, <a href="#page2">2</a>, <a href="#page60">60</a>.<br /> +Jō-jitsu sect, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page235">235</a>.<br /> +Joss, <a href="#page23">23</a>.<br /> +Jun-shi, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href="#page76">76</a>, +<a href="#page119">119</a>.<br /> +Ju-rŭ-jin, <a href="#page218">218</a>.</p> +<p>Kaburagi, <a href="#page36">36</a>, <a href="#page60">60</a>.<br /> +Kada Adzumarō, <a href="#page91">91</a>.<br /> +Kamui, <a href="#page30">30</a>.<br /> +Kami-dana, <a href="#page86">86</a>, <a href="#page88">88</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>.<br /> +Kamui, <a href="#page30">30</a>.<br /> +Kana, <a href="#page199">199</a>, <a href="#page200">200</a>, +<a href="#page274">274</a>.<br /> +Kanda, Dai Miō-Jin, <a href="#page205">205</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-karma" id="index-karma">Karma</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page169">169</a>, <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href="#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page258">258</a>.<br /> +Kato Kyomasa, <a href="#page278">278</a>, <a href="#page334">334</a>, <a href="#page339">339</a>.<br /> +Ké-gon sect, <a href="#page242">242-244</a>.<br /> +Kéichu, <a href="#page91">91</a>.<br /> +Kern, Prof. H., <a href="#page155">155</a>, <a href="#page239">239</a>.<br /> +Kiōto, <a href="#page183">183</a>, <a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page330">330</a>, <a href="#page336">336</a>.<br /> +Kirin, <a href="#page19">19</a>.<br /> +Kishimoto, Mr. Nobuta., <a href="#page11">11</a>.<br /> +Kiushiu, <a href="#page339">339</a>.<br /> +Kiyomori, <a href="#page120">120</a>.<br /> +Knos, Dr. George Wm., <a href="#page182">182</a>, <a href="#page228">228</a>, <a href="#page288">288</a>, <a href="#page385">385</a>.<br /> +Kobayashi, Rev. Zé-jun, <a href="#page425">425</a>.<br /> +Kōbō, <a href="#page89">89</a>, <a href="#page197">197</a>, +<a href="#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href="#page250">250</a>.<br /> +Kojiki, <a href="#page29">29</a>, <a href="#page32">32</a>, +<a href="#page40">40</a>, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page52">52</a>, <a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href="#page82">82-90</a>, <a href="#page149">149</a>, <a href="#page195">195</a>, <a href="#page197">197</a>.<br /> +Ko-ken, Empress, <a href="#page310">310</a>.<br /> +Kompira, <a href="#page204">204</a>.<br /> +Konishi, <a href="#page334">334</a>, <a href="#page335">335</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-korea" id="index-korea">Korea</a>, <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href="#page21">21</a>, <a href="#page26">26</a>, +<a href="#page40">40</a>, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href="#page168">168</a>, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page292">292</a>, <a href="#page310">310</a>, <a href="#page328">328</a>, <a href="#page332">332</a>, <a href="#page333">333</a>, <a href="#page334">334</a>, <a href="#page355">355</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>.<br /> +Kosatsu, <a href="#page368">368</a>.<br /> +Ku-ya, <a href="#page198">198</a>.<br /> +Kumi, Prof., <a href="#page76">76-82</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-kun-shin" id="index-kun-shin">Kun-shin</a>, <a href="#page111">111</a>, <a href="#page113">113</a>, <a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page213">213</a>.<br /> +Ku-sha sutra, <a href="#page232">232</a>, <a href="#page233">233</a>.<br /> +Kwannon, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page247">247</a>, <a href="#page319">319</a>.<br /> +Kyūso, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a>.</p> +<p>Lamaism, <a href="#page107">107</a>.<br /> +Language of China, <a href="#page237">237</a>.<br /> + of England, <a href="#page295">295</a>.<br /> + of Holland, <a href="#page364">364</a>, <a href="#page365">365</a>.<br /> + of Japan, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page113">113</a>, <a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href="#page134">134</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>, <a href="#page295">295</a>, <a href="#page299">299</a>, <a href="#page364">364</a>.<br /> + of Korea, <a href="#page116">116</a>.<br /> +Lao Tsze, <a href="#page102">102</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br /> +Laws of Japan, <a href="#page358">358</a>.<br /> +Lecky, Mr., <a href="#page344">344</a>.<br /> +Legendre, Gen., <a href="#page385">385</a>, <a href="#page389">389</a>.<br /> +Legge, Dr. J., <a href="#page100">100</a>, <a href="#page378">378</a>.<br /> +Libraries, <a href="#page253">253</a>, <a href="#page327">327</a>.<br /> +Lingam, see <a href="#index-phallicism">Phallicism</a>.<br /> +Literature, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page100">100</a>, +<a href="#page141">141</a>, <a href="#page156">156</a>, <a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page216">216</a>, <a href="#page252">252</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>, <a href="#page369">369</a>.<br /> +Liturgy, see <a href="#index-norito">Norito</a>.<br /> +Lloyd, Rev. A., <a href="#page258">258</a>.<br /> +Loo-choo, see <a href="#index-riu-kiu">Riu Kiu</a>.<br /> +Lotus, <a href="#page434">434</a>, <a href="#page435">435</a>, +<a href="#page437">437</a>.<br /> +Love, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page118">118</a>.<br /> +Lowell, Mr. Percival, <a href="#page397">397</a>, <a href="#page423">423</a>.<br /> +Loyalty, see <a href="#index-kun-shin">Kun-shin</a>.<br /> +Luther, <a href="#page271">271</a>.<br /> +Lyman, Prof. B.S., <a href="#page383">383</a>.</p> +<p>Mabuchi, <a href="#page90">90</a>, <a href="#page91">91</a>.<br /> +MacDonald, Rev. James, <a href="#page8">8</a>.<br /> +Magatama, <a href="#page68">68</a>, <a href="#page292">292</a>.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page455" id="page455"></a>{455}</span><br /> +<a name="index-mahayana" id="index-mahayana">Mahayana</a>, <a href="#page105">105</a>; see <a href="#index-greater-vehicle">Greater +Vehicle</a>.<br /> +Maitreya, <a href="#page169">169</a>, <a href="#page170">170</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>, <a href="#page236">236</a>, <a href="#page244">244</a>.<br /> +Malays, <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href="#page43">43</a>.<br /> +Mandala, <a href="#page203">203</a>.<br /> +Munjusri, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page262">262</a>.<br /> +Mantra, <a href="#page248">248</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-manyushu" id="index-manyushu">Manyū-shu</a>, +<a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page40">40</a>.<br /> +Marco Polo, <a href="#page42">42</a>.<br /> +Mark, <a href="#page60">60</a>.<br /> +Marriage, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href="#page126">126</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>.<br /> +Martyrs, <a href="#page337">337</a>, <a href="#page344">344</a>, +<a href="#page359">359</a>, <a href="#page360">360</a>, <a href="#page362">362</a>, <a href="#page366">366-369</a>.<br /> +Masakado, <a href="#page209">209</a>.<br /> +Matsugami, <a href="#page209">209</a>.<br /> +Matsuri, <a href="#page28">28</a>.<br /> +Meiji Era, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page116">116</a>, +<a href="#page256">256</a>.<br /> +Mencius, <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>.<br /> +Mendez, Pinto, <a href="#page42">42</a>.<br /> +Mexico, <a href="#page349">349</a>.<br /> +Mikado, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page45">45</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>, <a href="#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page95">95</a>, <a href="#page96">96</a>, <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href="#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page191">191</a>, <a href="#page201">201</a>.<br /> +Mikadoism, <a href="#page45">45-49</a>, <a href="#page74">74-82</a>, <a href="#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page202">202</a>.<br /> +Military monks, <a href="#page247">247</a>.<br /> +Minamoto, <a href="#page271">271</a>.<br /> +Ming dynasty, <a href="#page134">134</a>.<br /> +Mioken, <a href="#page279">279</a>.<br /> +Miracles, <a href="#page216">216</a>, <a href="#page267">267</a>.<br /> +Mirror, <a href="#page83">83</a>.<br /> +Missionary training, <a href="#page6">6-8</a>.<br /> +Mito, <a href="#page111">111</a>, <a href="#page134">134</a>, +<a href="#page143">143</a>, <a href="#page366">366</a>.<br /> +Miya, <a href="#page82">82-84</a>, <a href="#page209">209</a>.<br /> +Monasteries, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page298">298</a>, <a href="#page311">311</a>, <a href="#page312">312</a>.<br /> +Monotheism, <a href="#page15">15</a>, <a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#page145">145</a>, <a href="#page174">174</a>, <a href="#page187">187</a>.<br /> +Morse lectureship, <a href="#page4">4</a>.<br /> +Morse, Prof E.S., <a href="#page377">377</a>.<br /> +Motoöri, <a href="#page80">80</a>, <a href="#page91">91</a>, +<a href="#page290">290</a>.<br /> +Mozoomdar, <a href="#page411">411</a>, <a href="#page420">420</a>.<br /> +Müller, Prof. Max, <a href="#page211">211</a>.<br /> +Munzinger, Rev. C., <a href="#page403">403</a>.<br /> +Murray, Dr. David, <a href="#page402">402</a>.<br /> +Mutsuhito, <a href="#page60">60</a>, <a href="#page316">316</a>.</p> +<p>Nagasaki, <a href="#page332">332</a>, <a href="#page337">337</a>, <a href="#page343">343</a>, <a href="#page344">344</a>, <a href="#page358">358</a>, <a href="#page362">362</a>.<br /> +Nakatomi, <a href="#page48">48</a>.<br /> +Names, <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href="#page202">202</a>, +<a href="#page265">265</a>.<br /> +Names of Japan, <a href="#page73">73</a>, <a href="#page82">82</a>.<br /> +Namu-Amida-Butsu, <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href="#page261">261</a>.<br /> +Nanjio Bunyin, <a href="#page231">231</a>.<br /> +Nara, <a href="#page182">182</a>, <a href="#page237">237</a>, +<a href="#page243">243</a>, <a href="#page296">296</a>.<br /> +Nehan, see <a href="#index-nirvana">Nirvana</a>.<br /> +Nepal, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page168">168</a>, +<a href="#page171">171</a>.<br /> +New Buddhism, <a href="#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page285">285</a>.<br /> +Nichiren, <a href="#page277">277</a>, <a href="#page278">278</a>.<br /> +Sect, <a href="#page277">277-280</a>, <a href="#page334">334</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br /> +Nihilism, <a href="#page236">236</a>, <a href="#page240">240</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>.<br /> +Nihongi, <a href="#page41">41</a>, <a href="#page56">56</a>, +<a href="#page62">62</a>.<br /> +Nikkō, <a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-nirvana" id="index-nirvana">Nirvana</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page186">186</a>, <a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page302">302</a>, <a href="#page303">303</a>.<br /> +Nitobé, Mr. Inazo, <a href="#page352">352</a>, <a href="#page360">360</a>.<br /> +Nobunaga, <a href="#page312">312</a>, <a href="#page331">331</a>, +<a href="#page332">332</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-norito" id="index-norito">Norito</a>, <a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href="#page47">47-49</a>, <a href="#page54">54</a>, <a href="#page55">55-58</a>, <a href="#page79">79</a>, <a href="#page80">80</a>, <a href="#page96">96</a>.<br /> +Northern Buddhism, <a href="#page165">165</a>.</p> +<p>Obaku sect, <a href="#page283">283</a>.<br /> +Offerings, <a href="#page57">57</a>.<br /> +Ogurusu, Rev. Ku-chō, <a href="#page214">214</a>.<br /> +Obashi Junzo, <a href="#page145">145</a>.<br /> +Ojin, <a href="#page204">204</a>.<br /> +Onna-ishi, see <a href="#index-phallicism">Phallicism</a>.<br /> +Original prayer, <a href="#page271">271</a>.<br /> +Original vow, <a href="#page273">273</a>, <a href="#page312">312</a>.<br /> +Orphan asylums, <a href="#page216">216</a>.<br /> +Osaka, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page312">312</a>, +<a href="#page368">368</a>.</p> +<p>Pagés, Mr. Leon, <a href="#page449">449</a>.<br /> +Pagodas, <a href="#page203">203</a>.<br /> +Pantheism, <a href="#page31">31</a>, <a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page143">143</a>, <a href="#page187">187</a>, <a href="#page219">219</a>, <a href="#page243">243</a>.<br /> +Paradise, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a>, +<a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href="#page261">261</a>, <a href="#page280">280</a>.<br /> +Parliament of Religions, <a href="#page5">5</a>, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page72">72</a>, <a href="#page283">283</a>.<br /> +Peking, <a href="#page105">105</a>.<br /> +Perry, Commodore M.C., <a href="#page129">129</a>, <a href="#page316">316</a>, <a href="#page352">352</a>, <a href="#page360">360</a>, <a href="#page364">364</a>, <a href="#page365">365</a>.<br /> +Persecutions, <a href="#page93">93</a>, <a href="#page343">343</a>.<br /> +Persian elements, <a href="#page195">195</a>, <a href="#page202">202</a>, <a href="#page304">304</a>.<br /> +Personality, <a href="#page116">116</a>.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page456" id="page456"></a>{456}</span><br /> +Pessimism, <a href="#page214">214</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-phallicism" id="index-phallicism">Phallicism</a>, +<a href="#page29">29-30</a>, <a href="#page49">49-53</a>, <a href="#page88">88</a>, <a href="#page380">380-384</a>.<br /> +Philo, <a href="#page192">192</a>, <a href="#page197">197</a>, +<a href="#page201">201</a>.<br /> +Phoenix, <a href="#page19">19</a>, <a href="#page20">20</a>.<br /> +Pilgrimages, <a href="#page298">298</a>, <a href="#page290">290</a>.<br /> +Pindola, see <a href="#index-binzuru">Binzuru</a>.<br /> +Poetry, <a href="#page223">223</a>; see <a href="#index-manyushu">Manyūshu</a>.<br /> +Politeness, <a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href="#page241">241</a>.<br /> +Popular customs, <a href="#page192">192</a>.<br /> +Population, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page9">9</a>, +<a href="#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page291">291</a>, <a href="#page359">359</a>.<br /> +Popular movement in China, <a href="#page138">138</a>.<br /> +Portuguese, <a href="#page344">344</a>, <a href="#page345">345</a>, +<a href="#page347">347</a>.<br /> +Pratyekas, <a href="#page234">234</a>.<br /> +Prayers, <a href="#page86">86-88</a>.<br /> +Prayer-wheels, <a href="#page175">175</a>.<br /> +Printing, <a href="#page133">133</a>, <a href="#page134">134</a>, +<a href="#page200">200</a>.<br /> +Prometheus, <a href="#page53">53</a>.<br /> +Protestantism, <a href="#page155">155</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page252">252</a>, <a href="#page274">274</a>.<br /> +Pronouns, <a href="#page116">116</a>.<br /> +Proverbs, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page179">179</a>, +<a href="#page226">226</a>, <a href="#page270">270</a>, <a href="#page307">307</a>, <a href="#page332">332</a>, <a href="#page352">352</a>, <a href="#page389">389</a>.<br /> +Psychology of the Japanese, <a href="#page230">230</a>, <a href="#page241">241</a>.<br /> +Pure Land of Bliss, <a href="#page198">198</a>, <a href="#page263">263-265</a>.<br /> +Purification of 1870, <a href="#page206">206</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page213">213</a>, <a href="#page222">222</a>, <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href="#page360">360</a>.<br /> +Pyrronism, <a href="#page240">240</a>.</p> +<p>Rai Sanyo, <a href="#page143">143</a>.<br /> +Rakan, <a href="#page305">305</a>.<br /> +"Reformed" Buddhism, <a href="#page270">270</a>, <a href="#page274">274-277</a>.<br /> +Rennyō Shō-nin, <a href="#page258">258</a>.<br /> +Revision of Confucianism, <a href="#page148">148-152</a>.<br /> +Revival of pure Shintō, <a href="#page91">91-96</a>.<br /> +Revolving libraries, <a href="#page253">253</a>.<br /> +Ris-shu, <a href="#page236">236-238</a>.<br /> +Rituals, see <a href="#index-norito">Norito</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-riu-kiu" id="index-riu-kiu">Riu</a> Kiu, <a href="#page9">9</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>.<br /> +Riyōbu, <a href="#page89">89</a>, <a href="#page191">191</a>, +<a href="#page203">203</a>, <a href="#page209">209</a>, <a href="#page211">211</a>, <a href="#page212">212</a>, <a href="#page223">223</a>.<br /> +Rosaries, <a href="#page266">266</a>.</p> +<p><a name="index-saddharma" id="index-saddharma">Saddharma +Pundarika</a>, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a>, <a href="#page246">246</a>, <a href="#page280">280</a>, <a href="#page304">304</a>.<br /> +Sado, <a href="#page341">341</a>.<br /> +Salt, <a href="#page85">85</a>.<br /> +Samurai, <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href="#page119">119</a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>.<br /> +San Kai Ri, <a href="#page211">211</a>.<br /> +Sanron sect, <a href="#page182">182</a>, <a href="#page240">240</a>.<br /> +Sanskrit, <a href="#page25">25</a>, <a href="#page182">182</a>, +<a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page245">245</a>, <a href="#page249">249</a>.<br /> +Saratashi, <a href="#page218">218</a>.<br /> +Satow, Mr. Ernest, <a href="#page39">39</a>, <a href="#page47">47</a>, <a href="#page386">386</a>.<br /> +Satsuma, <a href="#page313">313</a>.<br /> +Schools of Philosophy:<br /> + Chinese, <a href="#page136">136-139</a>.<br /> + Indian, <a href="#page159">159-164</a>, <a href="#page232">232</a>.<br /> + Japanese, <a href="#page356">356-358</a>, <a href="#page369">369</a>.<br /> +Sekigaharu, <a href="#page338">338</a>.<br /> +Sendai, <a href="#page119">119</a>.<br /> +Seppuku, see <a href="#index-hara-kiri">Hara-kiri</a>.<br /> +Serpent-worship, <a href="#page30">30-33</a>, <a href="#page278">278</a>, <a href="#page279">279</a>, <a href="#page385">385</a>.<br /> +Seven Gods of Good Fortune, <a href="#page217">217</a>, <a href="#page218">218</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-shaka" id="index-shaka">Shaka</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page254">254</a>.<br /> +Shakyamuni, see <a href="#index-shaka">Shaka</a>.<br /> +Shaminism, <a href="#page15">15-17</a>.<br /> +Shang-Ti, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>.<br /> +Shari, <a href="#page182">182</a>.<br /> +Shastra and Sutra, <a href="#page231">231</a>.<br /> +Shichimen, <a href="#page278">278</a>.<br /> +Shigomori, <a href="#page120">120</a>.<br /> +Shimabara, <a href="#page344">344</a>.<br /> +Shingaku movement, <a href="#page369">369</a>, <a href="#page370">370</a>.<br /> +Shingon sect, <a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>, <a href="#page248">248-251</a>.<br /> +Shinran, <a href="#page271">271-274</a>.<br /> +Shin sect, <a href="#page270">270-276</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>.<br /> +Shintō, <a href="#page38">38</a>, <a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>, <a href="#page89">89</a>, <a href="#page96">96</a>, <a href="#page97">97</a>, <a href="#page142">142</a>, <a href="#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page195">195</a>, <a href="#page214">214</a>, <a href="#page319">319</a>.<br /> +Sin, <a href="#page285">285</a>, <a href="#page288">288</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-shogun" id="index-shogun">Shō-gun</a>, <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>, <a href="#page143">143</a>.<br /> +Shomon, <a href="#page236">236</a>.<br /> +Shōtoku, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href="#page236">236</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>.<br /> +Siddartha, <a href="#page410">410</a>.<br /> +Soga no Inamé, <a href="#page180">180</a>.<br /> +Soshi, <a href="#page95">95</a>, <a href="#page278">278</a>.<br /> +Southern Buddhism, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page167">167</a>.<br /> +Spaniards, <a href="#page336">336</a>, <a href="#page337">337</a>, +<a href="#page340">340</a>, <a href="#page347">347</a>.<br /> +Stars, <a href="#page92">92</a>.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page457" id="page457"></a>{457}</span><br /> +Statistics of Buddhism, <a href="#page309">309</a>.<br /> + of Shintō, <a href="#page400">400</a>, <a href="#page401">401</a>.<br /> +Sugawara Michizané, <a href="#page204">204</a>.<br /> +Suicide, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page118">118-121</a>, <a href="#page147">147</a>, <a href="#page151">151</a>.<br /> +Suiko, <a href="#page180">180</a>.<br /> +Sung dynasty, <a href="#page414">414</a>, <a href="#page437">437</a>.<br /> +<a name="index-sun-goddess" id="index-sun-goddess">Sun-goddess</a>, +<a href="#page66">66</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href="#page201">201</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>.<br /> +Sun-worship, <a href="#page46">46</a>, <a href="#page47">47</a>, +<a href="#page82">82</a>, <a href="#page87">87</a>.<br /> +Swastika, <a href="#page305">305</a>.<br /> +Swords, <a href="#page7">7</a>, <a href="#page378">378</a>.<br /> +Syle, Rev. E.W., <a href="#page36">36</a>.<br /> +Syncretism, <a href="#page191">191-194</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>.<br /> +Synergism, <a href="#page268">268</a>, <a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page272">272</a>.<br /> +Szma Kwang, <a href="#page138">138</a>.</p> +<p>Taikō, see <a href="#index-hideyoshi">Hidéyoshi</a>.<br /> +Takahashi, Mr. Gorō, <a href="#page384">384</a>.<br /> +Takashi, Rev. Dai-Ryo, <a href="#page238">238</a>.<br /> +Takétori Monogatari, <a href="#page423">423</a>.<br /> +Tantra system, <a href="#page194">194</a>.<br /> +Taōism, <a href="#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page215">215</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br /> +Tathagata, <a href="#page259">259</a>.<br /> +Tathata, <a href="#page243">243</a>, <a href="#page246">246</a>.<br /> +Taylor, Bayard, <a href="#page380">380</a>.<br /> +Tea plant, <a href="#page208">208</a>.<br /> +Téi-Shn philosophy, <a href="#page139">139</a>, <a href="#page145">145</a>.<br /> +Temples, <a href="#page83">83</a>, <a href="#page93">93</a>, +<a href="#page209">209</a>, <a href="#page305">305-309</a>.<br /> +Ten, <a href="#page144">144</a>.<br /> +Tendai sect, <a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href="#page244">244-248</a>, <a href="#page268">268</a>.<br /> +Tenjin, <a href="#page204">204</a>.<br /> +Tennō, <a href="#page184">184</a>.<br /> +Tenshi, <a href="#page184">184</a>.<br /> +Terence, <a href="#page128">128</a>.<br /> +Theism, <a href="#page172">172</a>.<br /> +Theological seminaries, <a href="#page6">6-8</a>.<br /> +Tibet, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page167">167</a>, +<a href="#page170">170</a>.<br /> +Tobacco, <a href="#page209">209</a>.<br /> +Tokugawas, <a href="#page141">141</a>, <a href="#page143">143</a>, +<a href="#page356">356</a>, <a href="#page365">365</a>.<br /> +Torii, <a href="#page84">84</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>.<br /> +Tortoise, <a href="#page19">19</a>.<br /> +Transmigration of souls, <a href="#page315">315</a>.<br /> +Tree-worship, <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page31">31</a>.<br /> +Triads, <a href="#page171">171</a>, <a href="#page255">255</a>, +<a href="#page279">279</a>.<br /> +Trinity, <a href="#page428">428</a>.<br /> +Tripitaka, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href="#page170">170</a>, +<a href="#page231">231</a>.<br /> +Tsuji, Rev. Ken-ko, <a href="#page425">425</a>.<br /> +Tsukushi, <a href="#page44">44</a>.<br /> +Tsushima, <a href="#page44">44</a>.<br /> +Tycoon, see <a href="#index-shogun">Shō-gun</a>.</p> +<p>Uéda, Rev. Sho-Hen, <a href="#page425">425</a>.<br /> +Upanishads, <a href="#page156">156</a>, <a href="#page161">161</a>, +<a href="#page162">162</a>.<br /> +Ushi toki mairi, <a href="#page31">31</a>.<br /> +Uzumé, <a href="#page68">68</a>.</p> +<p>Vagra, <a href="#page305">305</a>.<br /> +Vagrabodhi, <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href="#page249">249</a>.<br /> +Vairokana, 184, 244, 250.<br /> +Vedas, <a href="#page156">156</a>, <a href="#page158">158</a>, +<a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>.<br /> +Vehicles, the three, <a href="#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page235">235</a>; see also <a href="#index-hinayana">Hinayana</a> +and <a href="#index-mahayana">Mahayana</a>.<br /> +Victims, <a href="#page74">74</a>.</p> +<p>Washington, <a href="#page114">114</a>.<br /> +Western Paradise, <a href="#page277">277</a>.<br /> +Wheel of the law, <a href="#page302">302</a>.<br /> +Whitney, Prof. W.D., <a href="#page211">211</a>, <a href="#page277">277</a>.<br /> +William the Silent, <a href="#page114">114</a>.<br /> +Woman, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page275">275</a>, <a href="#page318">318-320</a>.</p> +<p>Xavier, <a href="#page324">324</a>, <a href="#page329">329</a>, +<a href="#page330">330</a>, <a href="#page345">345</a>, <a href="#page346">346</a>, <a href="#page347">347</a>.</p> +<p>Yamato, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page76">76</a>, +<a href="#page87">87</a>, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page179">179</a>.<br /> + Damashii, <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href="#page147">147</a>, <a href="#page151">151</a>, <a href="#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page172">172</a>.<br /> +Yamato-Tosa art, <a href="#page114">114</a>,<br /> +Yedo, <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href="#page115">115</a>, +<a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a>, <a href="#page220">220</a>, <a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href="#page340">340</a>, <a href="#page360">360</a>, <a href="#page366">366</a>.<br /> +Yen Sect, <a href="#page252">252-256</a>.<br /> +Yezo, <a href="#page43">43</a>, <a href="#page317">317</a>.<br /> +Yoga, <a href="#page157">157</a>, <a href="#page197">197</a>, +<a href="#page199">199</a>, <a href="#page201">201</a>, <a href="#page209">209</a>, <a href="#page211">211</a>.<br /> +Yoga-chara, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>, +<a href="#page249">249</a>.<br /> +Yokoi Héishiro, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href="#page316">316</a>, <a href="#page366">366</a>, <a href="#page367">367</a>.<br /> +Yori, see <a href="#index-phallicism">Phallicism</a>.<br /> +Yoshida Shoin, <a href="#page147">147</a>.<br /> +Yoshiwara system, <a href="#page404">404</a>.<br /></p> +<p>Zendō, <a href="#page261">261-262</a>, <a href="#page267">267</a>.<br /> +Zenkōji, <a href="#page179">179</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>.</p> +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Religions of Japan, by William Elliot Griffis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN *** + +***** This file should be named 15516-h.htm or 15516-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/1/15516/ + +Produced by Nathan Strom, Frank van Drogen, David King, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65ca621 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #15516 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15516) diff --git a/old/15516-8.txt b/old/15516-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3637519 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/15516-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14031 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Religions of Japan, by William Elliot Griffis + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Religions of Japan + From the Dawn of History to the Era of Miji + +Author: William Elliot Griffis + +Release Date: March 31, 2005 [EBook #15516] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN *** + + + + +Produced by Nathan Strom, Frank van Drogen, David King, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN + +FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY +TO THE ERA OF MEIJI + +BY + +WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D. + +FORMERLY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO; AUTHOR OF "THE MIKADO'S +EMPIRE" AND "COREA, THE HERMIT NATION;" LATE LECTURER ON THE MORSE +FOUNDATION IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN NEW YORK + +"I came not to destroy, but to fulfil."--THE SON OF MAN + +NEW YORK + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +1895 + +COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +TROW DIRECTORY +PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY +NEW YORK + + +IN GLAD RECOGNITION OF THEIR SERVICES TO THE WORLD +AND +IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY OWN GREAT DEBT TO BOTH +I DEDICATE THIS BOOK +SO UNWORTHY OF ITS GREAT SUBJECT +TO +THOSE TWO NOBLE BANDS OF SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH +THE FACULTY OF UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY +OF WHOM +CHARLES A. BRIGGS AND GEORGE L. PRENTISS +ARE THE HONORED SURVIVORS +AND TO +THAT TRIO OF ENGLISH STUDENTS +ERNEST M. SATOW, WILLIAM G. ASTON AND BASIL H. CHAMBERLAIN +WHO LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP IN JAPAN + +"IN UNCONSCIOUS BROTHERHOOD, BINDING THE SELF-SAME SHEAF" + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book makes no pretence of furnishing a mirror of contemporary +Japanese religion. Since 1868, Japan has been breaking the chains of her +intellectual bondage to China and India, and the end is not yet. My +purpose has been, not to take a snap-shot photograph, but to paint a +picture of the past. Seen in a lightning-flash, even a tempest-shaken +tree appears motionless. A study of the same organism from acorn to +seed-bearing oak, reveals not a phase but a life. It is something like +this--"_to_ the era of Meiji" (A.D. 1868-1894+) which I have essayed. +Hence I am perfectly willing to accept, in advance, the verdict of smart +inventors who are all ready to patent a brand-new religion for Japan, +that my presentation is "antiquated." + +The subject has always been fascinating, despite its inherent +difficulties and the author's personal limitations. When in 1807, the +polite lads from Satsuma and Ki[=o]to came to New Brunswick, N.J., they +found at least one eager questioner, a sophomore, who, while valuing +books, enjoyed at first hand contemporaneous human testimony. + +When in 1869, to Rutgers College, came an application through Rev. Dr. +Guido F. Verbeck, of T[=o]ki[=o], from Fukui for a young man to organize +schools upon the American principle in the province of Echizen +(ultra-Buddhistic, yet already so liberally leavened by the ethical +teachings of Yokoi Hishiro), the Faculty made choice of the author. +Accepting the honor and privilege of being one of the "beginners of a +better time," I caught sight of peerless Fuji and set foot on Japanese +soil December 29, 1870. Amid a cannonade of new sensations and fresh +surprises, my first walk was taken in company with the American +missionary (once a marine in Perry's squadron, who later invented the +jin-riki-sha), to see a hill-temple and to study the wayside shrines +around Yokohama. Seven weeks' stay in the city of Yedo--then rising out +of the dbris of feudalism to become the Imperial capital, T[=o]ki[=o], +enabled me to see some things now so utterly vanished, that by some +persons their previous existence is questioned. One of the most +interesting characters I met personally was Fukuzawa, the reformer, and +now "the intellectual father of half of the young men of ... Japan." On +the day of the battle of Uyno, July 11, 1868, this far-seeing patriot +and inquiring spirit deliberately decided to keep out of the strife, and +with four companions of like mind, began the study of Wayland's Moral +Science. Thus were laid the foundations of his great school, now a +university. + +Journeying through the interior, I saw many interesting phenomena of +popular religions which are no longer visible. At Fukui in Echizen, one +of the strongholds of Buddhism, I lived nearly a year, engaged in +educational work, having many opportunities of learning both the +scholastic and the popular forms of Shint[=o] and of Buddhism. I was +surrounded by monasteries, temples, shrines, and a landscape richly +embroidered with myth and legend. During my four years' residence and +travel in the Empire, I perceived that in all things the people of Japan +were _too_ religious. + +In seeking light upon the meaning of what I saw before me and in +penetrating to the reasons behind the phenomena, I fear I often made +myself troublesome to both priests and lay folk. While at work in +T[=o]ki[=o], though under obligation to teach only physical science, I +voluntarily gave instruction in ethics to classes in the University. I +richly enjoyed this work, which, by questioning and discussion, gave me +much insight into the minds of young men whose homes were in every +province of the Empire. In my own house I felt free to teach to all +comers the religion of Jesus, his revelation of the fatherhood of God +and the ethics based on his life and words. While, therefore, in +studying the subject, I have great indebtedness to acknowledge to +foreigners, I feel that first of all I must thank the natives who taught +me so much both by precept and practice. Among the influences that have +helped to shape my own creed and inspire my own life, have been the +beautiful lives and noble characters of Japanese officers, students and +common people who were around and before me. Though freely confessing +obligation to books, writings, and artistic and scholastic influences, I +hasten first to thank the people of Japan, whether servants, superior +officers, neighbors or friends. He who seeks to learn what religion is +from books only, will learn but half. + +Gladly thanking those, who, directly or indirectly, have helped me with +light from the written or printed page, I must first of all gratefully +express my especial obligations to those native scholars who have read +to me, read for me, or read with me their native literature. + +The first foreign students of Japanese religions were the Dutch, and the +German physicians who lived with them, at Dshima. Kaempfer makes +frequent references, with test and picture, in his Beschryving van +Japan. Von Siebold, who was an indefatigable collector rather than a +critical student, in Vol. V. of his invaluable _Archiv_ (Pantheon von +Nippon), devoted over forty pages to the religions of Japan. Dr. J.J. +Hoffman translated into Dutch, with notes and explanations, the +Butsu-z[=o]-dzu-i, which, besides its 163 figures of Buddhist holy men, +gives a bibliography of the works mentioned by the native author. In +visiting the Japanese museum on the Rapenburg, Leyden, one of the +oldest, best and most intelligently arranged in Europe, I have been +interested with the great work done by the Dutchmen, during two +centuries, in leavening the old lump for that transformation which in +our day as New Japan, surprises the world. It requires the shock of +battle to awaken the western nations to that appreciation of the racial +and other differences between the Japanese and Chinese, which the +student has already learned. + +The first praises, however, are to be awarded to the English scholars, +Messrs. Satow, Aston, Chamberlain, and others, whose profound researches +in Japanese history, language and literature have cleared the path for +others to tread in. I have tried to acknowledge my debt to them in both +text and appendix. + +To several American missionaries, who despite their trying labors have +had the time and the taste to study critically the religions of Japan, I +owe thanks and appreciation. With rare acuteness and learning, Rev. Dr. +George Wm. Knox has opened on its philosophical, and Rev. Dr. J.H. +DeForest on its practical side, the subject of Japanese Confucianism. By +his lexicographical work, Dr. J.C. Hepburn has made debtors to him both +the native and the alien. To our knowledge of Buddhism in Japan, Dr. +J.C. Berry and Rev. J.L. Atkinson have made noteworthy contributions. I +have been content to quote as authorities and illustrations, the names +of those who have thus wrought on the soil, rather than of those, who, +even though world-famous, have been but slightly familiar with the +ethnic and the imported faith of Japan. The profound misunderstandings +of Buddhism, which some very eminent men of Europe have shown in their +writings, form one of the literary curiosities of the world. + +In setting forth these Morse lectures, I have purposely robbed my pages +of all appearance of erudition, by using as few uncouth words as +possible, by breaking up the matter into paragraphs of moderate length, +by liberally introducing subject-headings in italics, and by relegating +all notes to the appendix. Since writing the lectures, and even while +reading the final proofs, I have ransacked my library to find as many +references, notes, illustrations and authorities as possible, for the +benefit of the general student. I have purposely avoided recondite and +inaccessible books and have named those easily obtainable from American +or European publishers, or from Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, of Yokohama, +Japan. In using oriental words I have followed, in the main, the +spelling of the Century Dictionary. The Japanese names are expressed +according to that uniform system of transliteration used by Hepburn, +Satow and other standard writers, wherein consonants have the same +general value as in English (except that initial g is always hard), +while the vowels are pronounced as in Italian. Double vowels must be +pronounced double, as in Miji (m[=a]-[=e]-j[=e]); those which are long +are marked, as in [=o] or [=u]; i before o or u is short. Most of the +important Japanese, as well as Sanskrit and Chinese, terms used, are +duly expressed and defined in the Century Dictionary. + +I wish also to thank especially my friends, Riu Watanabe, Ph.D., of +Cornell University, and William Nelson Noble, Esq., of Ithaca. The +former kindly assisted me with criticisms and suggestions, while to the +latter, who has taken time to read all the proofs, I am grateful for +considerable improvement in the English form of the sentences. + +In closing, I trust that whatever charges may be brought against me by +competent critics, lack of sympathy will not be one. I write in sight of +beautiful Lake Cayuga, on the fertile and sloping shores of which in old +time the Iroquois Indian confessed the mysteries of life. Having planted +his corn, he made his pregnant squaw walk round the seed-bed in hope of +receiving from the Source of life increased blessing and sustenance for +body and mind. Between such a truly religious act of the savage, and +that of the Christian sage, Joseph Henry, who uncovered his head while +investigating electro-magnetism to "ask God a question," or that of +Samuel F.B. Morse, who sent as his first telegraphic message "What hath +God wrought," I see no essential difference. All three were acts of +faith and acknowledgment of a power greater than man. Religion is one, +though religions are many. As Principal Fairbairn, my honored +predecessor in the Morse lectureship, says: "What we call superstition +of the savage is not superstition _in him_. Superstition is the +perpetuation of a low form of belief along with a higher knowledge.... +Between fetichism and Christian faith there is a great distance, but a +great affinity--the recognition of a supra-sensible life." + +"For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing +of the sons of God.... The creation itself shall be delivered from the +bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of +God." + +W.E.G. + +ITHACA, N.Y., October 27, 1894. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS, PAGE 1 + +Salutatory.--The Morse Lectureship and its provisions.--The Science of +Comparative Religion is Christianity's own child.--The Parliament of +Religions.--The Study of Religion most appropriate in a Theological +Seminary.--Shortening weapons and lengthening boundaries.--The right +missionary spirit that of the Master, who "came not to destroy but to +fulfil."--Characteristics of Japan.--Bird's-eye view of Japanese history +and religion.--Popularly, not three religions but one +religion.--Superstitions which are not organically parts of the +"book-religions."--The boundary line between the Creator and his +creation not visible to the pagan.--Shamanism: Fetichism.--Mythical +monsters, Kirin, Phoenix, Tortoise, Dragon.--Japanese mythical +zology.--The erection of the stone fetich.--Insurance by amulets upon +house and person.--Phallicism.--Tree-worship.--Serpent-worship.--These +unwritten superstitions condition the "book-religions."--Removable by +science and a higher religion. + + +CHAPTER II + +SHINTO: MYTHS AND RITUAL, PAGE 35 + +Japan is young beside China and Korea.--Japanese history is +comparatively modern.--The oldest documents date from A.D. 712.--The +Japanese archipelago inhabited before the Christian era.--Faith, worship +and ritual are previous to written espression.--The Kojiki, Many[=o]shu +and Norito.--Tendency of the pupil nations surrounding China to antedate +their civilization.--Origin of the Japanese people and their +religion.--Three distinct lines of tradition from Tsukushi, Idzumo and +Yamato.--War of the invaders against the aborigines--Mikadoism is the +heart of Shint[=o].--Illustrations from the liturgies.--Phallicism among +the aborigines and common people.--The mind or mental climate of the +primval man.--Representation of male gods by emblems.--Objects of +worship and _ex-voto_.--Ideas of creation.--The fire-myth, +Prometheus.--Comparison of Greek and Japanese mythology.--Ritual for the +quieting of the fire-god.--The fire-drill. + + +CHAPTER III + +THE KOJIKI AND ITS TEACHINGS, PAGE 59 + +Origin of the Kojiki. Analysis of its opening lines--Norito.--Indecency +of the myths of the Kojiki.--Modern rationalistic interpretations--Life +in prehistoric Japan.--Character and temperament of the people then and +now.--Character of the kami or gods.--Hades.--Ethics.--The Land of the +Gods.--The barbarism of the Yamato conquerors an improvement upon the +savagery of the aborigines.--Cannibalism and human sacrifices.--The +makers of the God-way captured and absorbed the religion of the +aborigines.--A case of syncretism.--Origin of evil in bad +gods.--Pollution was sin.--Class of offences enumerated in the +norito.--Professor Kumi's contention that Mikadoism usurped a simple +worship of Heaven.--Difference between the ancient Chinese and ancient +Japanese cultus.--Development of Shint[=o] arrested by +Buddhism.--Temples and offerings.--The tori-i.--Pollution and +purification.--Prayer.--Hirata's ordinal and specimen prayers.--To the +common people the sun is a god.--Prayers to myriads of gods.--Summary of +Shint[=o].--Swallowed up in the Riy[=o]bu system.--Its modern +revival.--Kichin.--Kada Adzumar[=o].--Mabuchi, Motori.--Hirata.--In +1870, Shint[=o] is again made the state religion.--Purification of +Riy[=o]bu temples.--Politico-religious lectures.--Imperial +rescript.--Reverence to the Emperor's photograph.--Judgment upon +Shint[=o].--The Christian's ideal of Yamato-damashii. + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN, PAGE 99 + +In what respects Confucius was unique as a teacher.--Outline of his +life.--The canon.--Primitive Chinese faith a sort of monotheism.--How +the sage modified it.--History of Confucianism until its entrance into +Japan.--Outline of the intellectual and political history of the +Japanese.--Rise of the Samurai class.--Shifting of emphasis from filial +piety to loyalty.--Prevalence of suicide in Japan.--Confucianism has +deeply tinged the ideas of the Japanese.--Great care necessary in +seeking equivalents in English for the terms used in the Chino-Japanese +ethics; e.g., the emperor, "the father of the people."--Impersonality of +Japanese speech.--Christ and Confucius.--"Love" and +"reverence."--Exemplars of loyalty.--The Forty-seven R[=o]nins.--The +second relation.--The family in Chinese Asia and in Christendom.--The +law of filial piety and the daughter.--The third relation.--Theory of +courtship and marriage.--Chastity.--Jealousy.--Divorce.--Instability of +the marriage bond.--The fourth relation.--The elder and the younger +brother.--The house or family everything, the individual nothing.--The +fifth relation.--The ideas of Christ and those of Confucius.--The Golden +and the Gilded rule.--Lao Tsze and Kung.--Old Japan and the +alien.--Commodore Perry and Professor Hayashi. + + +CHAPTER V + +CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM, PAGE 131 + +Harmony of the systems of Confucius and Buddha in Japan during a +thousand years.--Revival of learning in the seventeenth century.--Exodus +of the Chinese scholars on the fall of the Ming dynasty.--Their +dispersion and work in Japan.--Founding of schools of the new Chinese +learning.--For two and a half centuries the Japanese mind has been +moulded by the new Confucianism.--Survey of its rise and +developments.--Four stages in the intellectual history of China.--The +populist movement in the eleventh century.--The literary +controversy.--The philosophy of the Cheng brothers and of Chu Hi, called +in Japan Tei-Shu system.--In Buddhism the Japanese were startling +innovators, in philosophy they were docile pupils.--Paucity of Confucian +or speculative literature in Japan.--A Chinese wall built around the +Japanese intellect.--Yelo orthodoxy.--Features of the Ti-Shu +system.--Not agnostic but pantheistic.--Its influence upon +historiography.--Ki (spirit) Ri (way) and Ten (heaven).--The writings of +Ohashi Junzo.--Confucianism obsolescent in New Japan.--A study of +Confucianism in the interest of comparative religion.--Man's place in +the universe.--The Samurai's ideal, obedience.--His fearlessness in the +face of death.--Critique of the system.--The ruler and the ruled.--What +has Confucianism done for woman?--Improvement and revision of the fourth +and fifth relations.--The new view of the universe and the new mind in +New Japan. The ideal of Yamato-damashii revised and improved. + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA, PAGE 153 + +Buddha--sun myth or historic personage?--Buddhism one of the +protestantisms of the world.--Characteristics of new religions.--Survey +of the history of Indian thought.--The age of the Vedas.--The epic +age.--The rationalistic age.--Our fellow-Aryans and the story of their +conquests.--Their intellectual energy and inventions.--Systems of +philosophy.--Condition of religion at the birth of Gautama.--Outline of +his life.--He attains enlightenment or buddhahood.--In what respects +Buddhism was an old, and in what a new religion.--Did Gautama intend to +found a new religion, or return to simpler and older +faith?--Monasticism, Kharma and Nirvana,--Enthusiasm of the disciples of +the new faith.--The great schism.--The Northern Buddhists.--The +canon.--The two Yana or vehicles.--Simplicity of Southern and luxuriance +of Northern Buddhism.--Summary of the process of thought in Nepal.--The +old gods of India come back again.--Maitreya, Manjusri and +Avalokitesvara.--The Legend of Manjusri.--Separation of attributes and +creation of new Buddhas or gods.--The Dhyani +Buddhas.--Amida.--Adi-Buddhas.--Abstractions become gods.--The Tantra +system.--Outbursts of doctrine and art.--Prayer-mills.--The noble +eight-fold path of self-denial and benevolence forgotten.--Entrance of +Buddhism from Korea into Japan.--Condition of the country at that +time.--Dates and first experiences.--Soga no +Inam.--Sh[=o]toku.--Japanese pilgrims to China.--Changes wrought by the +new creed and cult.--Temples, monasteries and images.--Influence upon +the Mikado's name, rank and person, and upon Shint[=o].--Relative +influence of Buddhism in Asia and of Christianity in Europe.--The three +great characteristics of Buddhism.--How the clouds returned after the +rain.--Buddhism and Christianity confronting the problem of life. + + +CHAPTER VII + +RIYOBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM, PAGE 189 + +The experience of two centuries and a half of Buddhism in +Japan.--Necessity of using more powerful means for the conversion of the +Japanese.--Popular customs nearly ineradicable.--Analogy from European +history.--Syncretism in Christian history.--In the Arabian Nights.--How +far is the process of Syncretism honest?--Examples not to be recommended +for imitation.--The problem of reconciling the Kami and the +Buddhas.--Northern Buddhism ready for the task.--The Tantra or +Yoga-chara system.--Art and its influence on the imagination.--The +sketch replaced by the illumination and monochrome by colors.--Japanese +art.--Mixed Buddhism rather than mixed Shint[=o].--K[=o]b[=o] the +wonder-worker who made all Japanese history a transfiguration of +Buddhism.--Legends about his extraordinary abilities and industry.--His +life, and studies in China.--The kata-kana syllabary.--K[=o]b[=o]o's +revelation from the Shint[=o] goddess Toyo-Uk-Bim.--The gods of Japan +were avatars of Buddha.--K[=o]b[=o]'s plan of propaganda.--Details of +the scheme.--A clearing-house of gods and Buddhas.--Relative rise and +fall of the native and the foreign deities.--Legend of Daruma. +"Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o]."--Impulse to art and art industry.--The Kami no +Michi falls into shadow.--Which religion suffered most?--Phenomenally +the victory belonged to Buddhism.--The leavening power was that of +Shint[=o].--Buddhism's fresh chapter of decay.--Influence of Riy[=o]bu +upon the Chinese ethical system in Japan.--Influence on the +Mikado.--Abdication all along the lines of Japanese life.--Ultimate +paralysis of the national intellect.--Comparison with Chinese +Buddhism.--Miracle-mongering.--No self-reforming power in Buddhism.--The +Seven Happy Gods of Fortune.--Pantheism's destruction of +boundaries.--The author's study of the popular processions in +Japan.--Masaka Do.--Swamping of history in legend.--The jewel in the +lotus. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS, PAGE 225 + +Four stages of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in Japan.--Reasons +for the formation of sects.--The Saddharma Pundarika.--Shastras and +Sutras.--The Ku-sha sect.--Book of the Treasury of Metaphysics.--The +J[=o]-jitsu sect, its founder and its doctrines.--The Ris-shu or Viyana +sect.--Japanese pilgrims to China.--The Hos-s[=o] sect and its +doctrines.--The three grades of disciples.--The San-ron or Three-shastra +sect and its tenets.--The Middle Path.--The Kgon sect.--The +Unconditioned, or realistic pantheism.--The Chinese or Tendai sect.--Its +scriptures and dogmas.--Buddhahood attainable in the present +body.--Vagradrodhi.--The Yoga-chara system.--The "old sects."--Reaction +against excessive idol-making.--The Zen sect.--Labor-saving devices in +Buddhism.--Making truth apparent by one's own thought.--Transmission of +the Zen doctrine.--History of Zen Shu. + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE, PAGE 257 + +The J[=o]-d[=o] or Pure Land sect.--Substitution of faith in Amida for +the eight-fold Path.--Succession of the propagators of true +doctrine.--Zend[=o] and H[=o]-nen.--The Japanese path-finder to the Pure +Land.--Doctrine of J[=o]-d[=o].--Buddhistic influence on the Japanese +language.--Incessant repetition of prayers.--The Pure Land in the +West.--The Buddhist doctrine of justification by faith.--H[=o]-nen's +universalism.--Tendency of doctrinal development after +H[=o]-nen.--"Reformed" Buddhism.--Synergism _versus_ salvation by faith +only.--Life of Shinran.--Posthumous honors.--Policy and aim of the Shin +sect, methods and scriptures. + + +CHAPTER X + +JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT, PAGE 287 + +The missionary history of Japanese Buddhism is the history of +Japan.--The first organized religion of the Japanese.--Professor Basil +Hall Chamberlain's testimony--A picture of primeval life in the +archipelago.--What came in the train of the new religion from "the +West". Missionary civilizers, teachers, road-makers, improvers of diet. +Language of flowers and gardens.--The house and home.--Architecture--The +imperial capital--Hiyizan.--Love of natural scenery.--Pilgrimages and +their fruits.--The Japanese aesthetic.--Art and decoration in the +temples.--Exterior resemblances between the Roman form of Christianity +and of Buddhism.--Quotation from "The Mikado's Empire."--Internal vital +differences.--Enlightenment and grace.--Ingwa and love.--Luxuriance of +the art of Northern Buddhism.--Variety in individual treatment.--Place +of the temple in the life of Old Japan.--The protecting trees.--The bell +and its note.--The graveyard and the priests' hold upon it.--Japanese +Buddhism as a political power.--Its influence upon military +history.--Abbots on horseback and monks in armor.--Battles between the +Shin and Zen sects.--Nobunaga.--Influence of Buddhism in literature and +education.--The temple school.--The _kana_ writing.--Survey and critique +of Buddhist history in Japan.--Absence of organized charities.--Regard +for animal and disregard for human life.--The Eta.--The Aino.--Attitude +to women.--Nuna and numerics.--Polygamy and concubinage.--Buddhism +compared with Shint[=o].--Influence upon morals.--The First Cause.--Its +leadership among the sects.--Unreality of Amida Buddha.--Nichiren.--His +life and opinions.--Idols and avatars.--The favorite scripture of the +sect, the Saddharma Pundarika.--Its central dogma, everything in the +universe capable of Buddha-ship.--The Salvation Army of +Buddhism.--K[=o]b[=o]'s leaven working.--Buddhism ceases to be an +intellectual force.--The New Buddhism.--Are the Japanese eager for +reform? + + +CHAPTER XI + +ROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, PAGE 323 + +The many-sided story of Japanese Christianity.--One hundred years of +intercourse between Japan and Europe.--State of Japan at the +introduction of Portuguese Christianity.--Xavier and Anjiro.--Xavier at +Ki[=o]to and in Bungo.--Nobunaga and the Buddhists.--High-water mark of +Christianity.--Hideyoshi and the invasion of Korea.--Kato and +Konishi.--Persecutions.--Arrival of the Spanish friars.--Their violation +of good faith.--Spirit of the Jesuits and Franciscans.--Crucifixion on +the bamboo cross.--Hidyori.--Kato Kiyomasa.--The Dutch in the Eastern +seas.--Will Adams.--Iyyas[)u] suspects designs against the sovereignty +of Japan.--The Christian religion outlawed.--Hidtada follows up the +policy of Iyyas[)u], excludes aliens, and shuts up the country.--The +uprising of the Christians at Shimabara in 1637.--Christianity buried +from sight.--Character of the missionaries and the form of the faith +introduced by them.--Noble lives and ideals.--The spirit of the +Inquisition in Japan.--Political animus and complexion. + + +CHAPTER XII + +TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE, PAGE 351 + +Policy of the Japanese government after the suppression of +Christianity.--Insulation of Japan.--The Hollanders at +Dshima.--Withdrawal of the English.--Relations with Korea.--Policy of +inclusion.--"A society impervious to foreign ideas."--Life within +stunted limits.--Canons of art and literature.--Philosophy made an +engine of government.--Esoteric law.--Social waste of +humanity.--Attempts to break down the wall--External and +internal.--Seekers after God.--The goal of the pilgrims.--The Dshima +Dutchman as pictured by enemies and rivals, _versus_ reality and +truth.--Eager spirits groping after God.--Morning stars of the Japanese +reformation.--Yokoi Hishiro.--The anti-Christian edicts.--The Buddhist +Inquisitors.--The Shin-gaku or New Learning movement.--The story of +nineteenth century Christianity, subterranean and interior before being +phenomenal.--Sabbath-day service on the U.S.S. Mississippi.--The first +missionaries.--Dr. J.C. Hepburn--Healing and the Bible.--Yedo becomes +T[=o]ki[=o].--Despatch of the Embassy round the world.--Eyes +opened.--The Acts of the Apostles in Japan. + + +NOTES, AUTHORITIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, PAGE 375 + +INDEX, PAGE 451 + + + + +CHAPTER I - PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS + + "The investigation of the beginnings of a religion is never the + work of infidels, but of the most reverent and conscientious + minds." + + "We, the forty million souls of Japan, standing firmly and + persistently upon the basis of international justice, await + still further manifestations as to the morality of + Christianity,"--Hiraii, of Japan. + + "When the Creator [through intermediaries that were apparently + animals] had finished treating this world of men, the good and + the bad Gods were all mixed together promiscuously, and began + disputing for the possession of this world."--The Aino Story of + the Creation. + + "If the Japanese have few beast stories, the Ainos have + _apparently_ no popular tales of heroes ... The Aino mythologies + ... lack all connection with morality.... Both lack priests and + prophets.... Both belong to a very primitive stage of mental + development ... Excepting stories ... and a few almost metreless + songs, the Ainos have no other literature at all."--Aino + Studies. + + "I asked the earth, and it answered, 'I am not He;' and + whatsoever are therein made the same confession. I asked the sea + and the deep and the creeping things that lived, and they + replied, 'We are not thy God; seek higher than we.' ... And I + answered unto all things which stand about the door of my flesh, + 'Ye have told me concerning my God, that ye are not he; tell me + something about him.' And with a loud voice they explained, 'It + is He who hath made us!'"--Augustine's Confessions. + + "Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the + shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with + night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them + out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name."--Amos. + + "That which hath been made was life in Him."--John. + + +CHAPTER I - PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS + +The Morse Lectureship and the Study of Comparative +Religion. + + +As a graduate of the Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York, +in the Class of 1877, your servant received and accepted with pleasure +the invitation of the President and Board of Trustees to deliver a +course of lectures upon the religions of Japan. In that country and in +several parts of it, I lived from 1870 to 1874. I was in the service +first of the feudal daimi[=o] of Echizen and then of the national +government of Japan, helping to introduce that system of public schools +which is now the glory of the country. Those four years gave me +opportunities for close and constant observation of the outward side of +the religions of Japan, and facilities for the study of the ideas out of +which worship springs. Since 1867, however, when first as a student in +Rutgers College at New Brunswick, N.J., I met and instructed those +students from the far East, who, at risk of imprisonment and death had +come to America for the culture of Christendom, I have been deeply +interested in the study of the Japanese people and their thoughts. + +To attempt a just and impartial survey of the religions of Japan may +seem a task that might well appall even a life-long Oriental scholar. +Yet it may be that an honest purpose, a deep sympathy and a gladly +avowed desire to help the East and the West, the Japanese and the +English-speaking people, to understand each other, are not wholly +useless in a study of religion, but for our purpose of real value. These +lectures are upon the Morse[1] foundation which has these specifications +written out by the founder: + + The general subject of the lectures I desire to be: "The + Relation of the Bible to any of the Sciences, as Geography, + Geology, History, and Ethnology, ... and the relation of the + facts and truths contained in the Word of God, to the + principles, methods, and aims of any of the sciences." + +Now, among the sciences which we must call to our aid are those of +geography and geology, by which are conditioned history and ethnology of +which we must largely treat; and, most of all, the science of +Comparative Religion. + +This last is Christianity's own child. Other sciences, such as geography +and astronomy, may have been born among lands and nations outside of and +even before Christendom. Other sciences, such as geology, may have had +their rise in Christian time and in Christian lands, their foundation +lines laid and their main processes illustrated by Christian men, which +yet cannot be claimed by Christianity as her children bearing her own +likeness and image; but the science of Comparative Religion is the +direct offspring of the religion of Jesus. It is a distinctively +Christian science. "It is so because it is a product of Christian +civilization, and because it finds its impulse in that freedom of +inquiry which Christianity fosters."[2] Christian scholars began the +investigations, formulated the principles, collected the materials and +reared the already splendid fabric of the science of Comparative +Religion, because the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify +this. Jesus bade his disciples search, inquire, discern and compare. +Paul, the greatest of the apostolic Christian college, taught: "Prove +all things; hold fast that which is good." In our day one of Christ's +loving followers[3] expressed the spirit of her Master in her favorite +motto, "Truth for authority, not authority for truth." Well says Dr. +James Legge, a prince among scholars, and translator of the Chinese +classics, who has added several portly volumes to Professor Max Mller's +series of the "Sacred Books of the East," whose face to-day is bronzed +and whose hair is whitened by fifty years of service in southern China +where with his own hands he baptized six hundred Chinamen:[4] + + The more that a man possesses the Christian spirit, and is + governed by Christian principle, the more anxious will he be to + do justice to every other system of religion, and to hold his + own without taint or fetter of bigotry.[5] + +It was Christianity that, in a country where the religion of Jesus has +fullest liberty, called the Parliament of Religions, and this for +reasons clearly manifest. Only Christians had and have the requisites of +success, viz.: sufficient interest in other men and religions; the +necessary unity of faith and purpose; and above all, the brave and bold +disregard of the consequences. Christianity calls the Parliament of +Religions, following out the Divine audacity of Him who, so often, +confronting worldly wisdom and priestly cunning, said to his disciples, +"Think not, be not anxious, take no heed, be careful for nothing--only +for love and truth. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." + +Of all places therefore, the study of comparative religion is most +appropriate in a Christian theological seminary. We must know how our +fellow-men think and believe, in order to help them. It is our duty to +discover the pathways of approach to their minds and hearts. We must +show them, as our brethren and children of the same Heavenly Father, the +common ground on which we all stand. We must point them to the greater +truth in the Bible and in Christ Jesus, and demonstrate wherein both the +divinely inspired library and the truth written in a divine-human life +fulfil that which is lacking in their books and masters. + +To know just how to do this is knowledge to be coveted as a most +excellent gift. An understanding of the religion of our fellow-men is +good, both for him who goes as a missionary and for him who at home +prays, "Thy kingdom come." + +The theological seminary, which begins the systematic and sympathetic +study of Comparative Religion and fills the chair with a professor who +has a vital as well as academic interest in the welfare of his +fellow-men who as yet know not Jesus as Christ and Lord, is sure to lead +in effective missionary work. The students thus equipped will be +furnished as none others are, to begin at once the campaign of help and +warfare of love. + +It may be that insight into and sympathy with the struggles of men who +are groping after God, if haply they may find him, will shorten the +polemic sword of the professional converter whose only purpose is +destructive hostility without tactics or strategy, or whose chief idea +of missionary success is in statistics, in blackening the character of +"the heathen," in sensational letters for home consumption and reports +properly cooked and served for the secretarial and sectarian palates. +Yet, if true in history, Greek, Roman, Japanese, it is also true in the +missionary wars, that "the race that shortens its weapons lengthens its +boundaries."[6] + +Apart from the wit or the measure of truth in this sentence quoted, it +is a matter of truth in the generalizations of fact that the figure of +the "sword of the spirit, which is the word of God," used by Paul, and +also the figure of the "word of God, living and active, sharper than any +two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of the soul and +spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and +intents of the heart," of the writer to the Hebrews, had for their +original in iron the victorious _gladium_ of the Roman legionary--a +weapon both short and sharp. We may learn from this substance of fact +behind the shadow of the figure a lesson for our instant application. +The disciplined Romans scorned the long blades of the barbarians, whose +valor so often impetuous was also impotent against discipline. The +Romans measured their blades by inches, not by feet. For ages the +Japanese sword has been famed for its temper more than its weight.[7] +The Christian entering upon his Master's campaigns with as little +impediments of sectarian dogma as possible, should select a weapon that +is short, sure and divinely tempered. + +To know exactly the defects of the religion we seek to abolish, modify, +supplement, supplant or fulfil, means wise economy of force. To get at +the secrets of its hold upon the people we hope to convert leads to a +right use of power. In a word, knowledge of the opposing religion, and +especially of alien language, literature and ways of feeling and +thinking, lengthens missionary life. A man who does not know the moulds +of thought of his hearers is like a swordsman trying to fight at long +range but only beating the air. Armed with knowledge and sympathy, the +missionary smites with effect at close quarters. He knows the vital +spots. + +Let me fortify my own convictions and conclude this preliminary part of +my lectures by quoting again, not from academic authorities, but from +active missionaries who are or have been at the front and in the +field.[8] + +The Rev. Samuel Beal, author of "Buddhism in China," said (p. 19) that +"it was plain to him that no real work could be done among the people +[of China and Japan] by missionaries until the system of their belief +was understood." + +The Rev. James MacDonald, a veteran missionary in Africa, in the +concluding chapter of his very able work on "Religion and Myth," says: + + The Church that first adopts for her intending missionaries the + study of Comparative Religion as a substitute for subjects now + taught will lead the van in the path of true progress. + + +The People of Japan. + + +In this faith then, in the spirit of Him who said, "I come not to +destroy but to fulfil," let us cast our eyes upon that part of the world +where lies the empire of Japan with its forty-one millions of souls. +Here we have not a country like India--a vast conglomeration of nations, +languages and religions occupying a peninsula itself like a continent, +whose history consists of a stratification of many civilizations. Nor +have we here a seemingly inert mass of humanity in a political structure +blending democracy and imperialism, as in China, so great in age, area +and numbers as to weary the imagination that strives to grasp the +details. On the contrary, in Dai Nippon, or Great Land of the Sun's +Origin, we have a little country easy of study. In geology it is one of +the youngest of lands. Its known history is comparatively modern. Its +area roughly reckoned as 150,000 square miles, is about that of our +Dakotas or of Great Britain and Ireland. The census completed December +31, 1892, illustrates here, as all over the world, nature's argument +against polygamy. It tells us that the relation between the sexes is, +numerically at least, normal. There were 20,752,366 males and 20,337,574 +females, making a population of 41,089,940 souls. All these people are +subjects of the one emperor, and excepting fewer than twenty thousand +savages in the northern islands called Ainos, speak one language and +form substantially one race. Even the Riu Kiu islanders are Japanese in +language, customs and religion. In a word, except in minor differences +appreciable or at least important only to the special student, the +modern Japanese are a homogeneous people. + +In origin and formation, this people is a composite of many tribes. +Roughly outlining the ethnology of Japan, we should say that the +aborigines were immigrants from the continent with Malay reinforcement +in the south, Koreans in the centre, and Ainos in the east and north, +with occasional strains of blood at different periods from various parts +of the Asian mainland. In brief, the Japanese are a very mixed race. +Authentic history before the Christian era is unknown. At some point of +time, probably later than A.D. 200, a conquering tribe, one of many from +the Asian mainland, began to be paramount on the main island. About the +fourth century something like historic events and personages begin to be +visible, but no Japanese writings are older than the early part of the +eighth century, though almanacs and means of measuring time are found in +the sixth century. Whatever Japan may be in legend and mythology, she is +in fact and in history younger than Christianity. Her line of rulers, as +alleged in old official documents and ostentatiously reaffirmed in the +first article of the constitution of 1889, to be "unbroken for ages +eternal," is no older than that of the popes. Let us not think of Aryan +or Chinese antiquity when we talk of Japan. Her history as a state began +when the Roman empire fell. The Germanic nations emerged into history +long before the Japanese. + +Roughly outlining the political and religious life of the ancient +Japanese, we note that their first system of government was a rude sort +of feudalism imposed by the conquerors and was synchronous with +aboriginal fetichism, nature worship, ancestral sacrifices, sun-worship +and possibly but not probably, a very rude sort of monotheism akin to +the primitive Chinese cultus.[9] Almost contemporary with Buddhism, its +introduction and missionary development, was the struggle for +centralized imperialism borrowed from the Chinese and consolidated in +the period from the seventh to the twelfth century. During most of this +time Shint[=o], or the primitive religion, was overshadowed while the +Confucian ethics were taught. From the twelfth to this nineteenth +century feudalism in politics and Buddhism in religion prevailed, though +Confucianism furnished the social laws or rules of daily conduct. Since +the epochal year of 1868, with imperialism reestablished and the feudal +system abolished, Shint[=o] has had a visible revival, being kept alive +by government patronage. Buddhism, though politically disestablished, is +still the popular religion with recent increase of life,[10] while +Confucianism is decidedly losing force. Christianity has begun its +promising career. + + +The Amalgam of Religions. + + +Yet in the imperial and constitutional Japan of our day it is still true +of probably at least thirty-eight millions of Japanese that their +religion is not one, Shint[=o], Confucianism or Buddhism, but an amalgam +of all three. There is not in every-day life that sharp distinction +between these religions which the native or foreign scholar makes, and +which both history and philosophy demand shall be made for the student +at least. Using the technical language of Christian theologians, +Shint[=o] furnishes theology, Confucianism anthropology and Buddhism +soteriology. The average Japanese learns about the gods and draws +inspiration for his patriotism from Shint[=o], maxims for his ethical +and social life from Confucius, and his hope of what he regards as +salvation from Buddhism. Or, as a native scholar, Nobuta Kishimoto,[11] +expresses it, + + In Japan these three different systems of religion and morality + are not only living together on friendly terms with one another, + but, in fact, they are blended together in the minds of the + people, who draw necessary nourishment from all of these + sources. One and the same Japanese is both a Shint[=o]ist, a + Confucianist, and a Buddhist. He plays a triple part, so to + speak ... Our religion may be likened to a triangle.... + Shint[=o]ism furnishes the object, Confucianism offers the rules + of life, while Buddhism supplies the way of salvation; so you + see we Japanese are eclectic in everything, even in religion. + +These three religious systems as at present constituted, are "book +religions." They rest, respectively, upon the Kojiki and other ancient +Japanese literature and the modern commentators; upon the Chinese +classics edited and commented on by Confucius and upon Chu Hi and other +mediaeval scholastics who commented upon Confucius; and upon the +shastras and sutras with which Gautama, the Buddha, had something to do. +Yet in primeval and prehistoric Nippon neither these books nor the +religions growing out of the books were extant. Furthermore, strictly +speaking, it is not with any or all of these three religions that the +Christian missionary comes first, oftenest or longest in contact. In +ancient, in mediaeval, and in modern times the student notices a great +undergrowth of superstition clinging parasitically to all religions, +though formally recognized by none. Whether we call it fetichism, +shamanism, nature worship or heathenism in its myriad forms, it is there +in awful reality. It is as omnipresent, as persistent, as hard to kill +as the scrub bamboo which both efficiently and sufficiently takes the +place of thorns and thistles as the curse of Japanese ground. + +The book-religions can be more or less apprehended by those alien to +them, but to fully appreciate the depth, extent, influence and tenacity +of these archaic, unwritten and unformulated beliefs requires residence +upon the soil and life among the devotees. Disowned it may be by the +priests and sages, indignantly disclaimed or secretly approved in part +by the organized religions, this great undergrowth of superstition is as +apparent as the silicious bamboo grass which everywhere conditions and +modifies Japanese agriculture. Such prevalence of mental and spiritual +disease is the sad fact that confronts every lover of his fellow-men. +This paganism is more ancient and universal than any one of the +religions founded on writing or teachers of name and fame. Even the +applied science and the wonderful inventions imported from the West, so +far from eradicating it, only serve as the iron-clad man-of-war in warm +salt water serves the barnacles, furnishing them food and hold. + +We propose to give in this our first lecture, a general or bird's-eye +view of this dead level of paganism above which the systems of +Shint[=o], Confucianism and Buddhism tower like mountains. It in by this +omnipresent superstition that the respectable religious have been +conditioned in their history and are modified at present, even as +Christianity has been influenced in its progress by ethnic or local +ideas and temperaments, and will be yet in its course of victory in the +Mikado's empire. + +Just as the terms "heathen" (happily no longer, in the Revised Version +of the English Bible) and "pagan" suggest the heath-man of Northern +Europe and the isolated hamlet of the Roman empire, while the cities +were illuminated with Christian truth, so, in the main, the matted +superstitious of Chinese Asia are more suggestive of distances from +books and centres of knowledge, though still sufficiently rooted in the +crowded cities. + +One to whom the boundary line between the Creator and his world is +perfectly clear, one who knows the eternal difference between mind and +matter, one born amid the triumphs of science can but faintly realize +the mental condition of the millions of Japan to whom there is no +unifying thought of the Creator-Father. Faith in the unity of law is the +foundation of all science, but the average Asiatic has not this thought +or faith. Appalled at his own insignificance amid the sublime mysteries +and awful immensities of nature, the shadows of his own mind become to +him real existences. As it is affirmed that the human skin, sensitive to +the effects of light, takes the photograph of the tree riven by +lightning, so, on the pagan mind lie in ineffaceable and exaggerated +grotesqueness the scars of impressions left by hereditary teaching, by +natural phenomena and by the memory of events and of landmarks. Out of +the soil of diseased imagination has sprung up a growth as terrible as +the drunkard's phantasies. The earthquake, flood, tidal wave, famine, +withering or devastating wind and poisonous gases, the geological +monsters and ravening bird, beast and fish, have their representatives +or supposed incarnations in mythical phantasms. + +Frightful as these shadows of the mind appear, they are both very real +and, in a sense, very necessary to the ignorant man. He must have some +theory by which to explain the phenomena of nature and soothe his own +terrors. Hence he peoples the earth and water, not only with invisible +spirits more or less malevolent, but also with bodily presences usually +in terrific bestial form. To those who believe in one Spirit pervading, +ordering, governing all things, there is unity amid all phenomena, and +the universe is all order and beauty. To the mind which has not reached +this height of simplicity, instead of one cause there are many. The +diverse phenomena of nature are brought about by spirits innumerable, +warring and discordant. Instead of a unity to the mind, as of sun and +solar system, there is nothing but planets, asteroids and a constant +rain of shooting-stars. + + +Shamanism. + + +Glancing at some phases of the actual unwritten religions of Japan we +name Shamanism, Mythical Zology, Fetichism, Phallicism, and Tree and +Serpent Worship. + +In actual Shamanism or Animism there may or there may not be a belief in +or conception of a single all-powerful Creator above and beyond all.[12] +Usually there is not such a belief, though, even if there be, the actual +government of the physical world and its surroundings is believed to lie +in the hands of many spirits or gods benevolent and malevolent. Earth, +air, water, all things teem with beings that are malevolent and +constantly active. In time of disaster, famine, epidemic the universe +seems as overcrowded with them as stagnant water seems to be when the +solar microscope throw its contents into apparition upon the screen. It +is absolutely necessary to propitiate these spirits by magic rites and +incantations. + +Among the tribes of the northern part of the Chinese Empire and the +Ainos of Japan this Shamanism exists as something like an organized +cultus. Indeed, it would be hard to find any part of Chinese Asia from +Korea to Annam or from Tibet to Formosa, not dominated by this belief in +the power and presence of minor spirits. The Ainos of Yezo may be called +Shamanists or Animists; that is, their minds are cramped and confused by +their belief in a multitude of inferior spirits whom they worship and +propitiate by rites and incantations through their medicine-man or +sorcerer. How they whittle sticks, keeping on the fringe of curled +shavings, and set up these, called _inao_ in places whence evil is +suspected to lurk, and how the shaman conducts his exorcisms and works +his healings, are told in the works of the traveller and the +missionary.[13] In the wand of shavings thus reared we see the same +motive as that which induced the Mikado in the eighth century to build +the great monasteries on Hiyizan, northeast of Ki[=o]to, this being the +quarter in which Buddhist superstition locates the path of advancing +evil, to ward off malevolence by litanies and incense. Or, the _inao_ is +a sort of lightning-rod conductor by which impending mischief may be led +harmlessly away. + +Yet, besides the Ainos,[14] there are millions of Japanese who are +Shamanists, even though they know not the name or organized cult. And if +we make use of the term Shamanism instead of the more exact one of +Animism, it is for the very purpose of illustrating our contention that +the underlying paganisms of the Japanese archipelago, unwritten and +unformulated, are older than the religions founded on books; and that +these paganisms, still vital and persistent, constantly modify and +corrupt the recognized religious. The term Shaman, a Pali word, was +originally a pure Buddhist term meaning one who has separated from his +family and his passions. One of the designations of the Buddha was +Shamana-Gautama. The same word, Shamon, in Japanese still means a bonze, +or Buddhist priest. Its appropriation by the sorcerers, medicine-men, +and lords of the misrule of superstition in Mongolia and Manchuria shows +decisively how indigenous paganism has corrupted the Buddhism of +northern Asia even as it has caused its decay in Japan. + +As out of Animism or Shamanism grows Fetichism in which a visible object +is found for the abode or medium of the spirit, so also, out of the same +soil arises what we may call Imaginary Zology. In this mental growth, +the nightmare of the diseased imagination or of the mind unable to draw +the line between the real and the unreal, Chinese Asia differs notably +from the Aryan world. With the mythical monsters of India and Iran we +are acquainted, and with those of the Semitic and ancient European cycle +of ideas which furnished us with our ancients and classics we are +familiar. The lovely presences in human form, the semi-human and bestial +creations, sphinxes, naiads, satyrs, fauns, harpies, griffins, with +which the fancy of the Mediterranean nations populated glen, grotto, +mountain and stream, are probably outnumbered by the less beautiful and +even hideous mind-shadows of the Turanian world. Chief among these are +what in Chinese literature, so slavishly borrowed by the Japanese, are +called the four supernatural or spiritually endowed creatures--the Kirin +or Unicorn, the Phoenix, the Tortoise and the Dragon.[15] + + +Mythical Zology. + + +Of the first species the _ki_ is the male, the _lin_ is the female, +hence the name Kilin. The Japanese having no _l_, pronounce this Kirin. +Its appearance on the earth is regarded as a happy portent of the advent +of good government or the birth of men who are to prove virtuous rulers. +It has the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, and a single, soft horn. +As messenger of mercy and benevolence, the Kirin never treads on a live +insect or eats growing grass. Later philosophy made this imaginary beast +the incarnation of those five primordial elements--earth, air, water, +fire and ether of which all things, including man's body, are made and +which are symbolized in the shapes of the cube, globe, pyramid, saucer +and tuft of rays in the Japanese gravestones. It is said to attain the +age of a thousand years, to be the noblest form of the animal creation +and the emblem of perfect good. In Chinese and Japanese art this +creature holds a prominent place, and in literature even more so. It is +not only part of the repertoire of the artist's symbols in the Chinese +world of ideas, but is almost a necessity to the moulds of thought in +eastern Asia. Yet it is older than Confucius or the book-religions, and +its conception shows one of the nobler sides of Animism. + +The Feng-hwang or Phoenix, Japanese H[=o]-w[=o], the second of the +incarnations of the spirits, is of wondrous form and mystic nature. The +rare advent of this bird upon the earth is, like that of the kirin or +unicorn, a presage of the advent of virtuous rulers and good government. +It has the head of a pheasant, the beak of a swallow, the neck of a +tortoise, and the features of the dragon and fish. Its colors and +streaming feathers are gorgeous with iridian sheen, combining the +splendors of the pheasant and the peacock. Its five colors symbolize the +cardinal virtues of uprightness of mind, obedience, justice, fidelity +and benevolence. The male bird _H[=o]_, and female _w[=o]_, by their +inseparable fellowship furnish the artist, poet and literary writer with +the originals of the ten thousand references which are found in Chinese +and its derived literatures. Of this mystic Phoenix a Chinese dictionary +thus gives description: + + The Phoenix is of the essence of water; it was born in the + vermilion cave; it perches not but on the most beautiful of all + trees; it eats not but of the seed of the bamboo; its body is + adorned with the five colors; its song contains the five notes; + as it walks it looks around; as it flies hosts of birds follow + it. + +Older than the elaborate descriptions of it and its representations in +art, the H[=o]-w[=o] is one of the creations of primitive Chinese +Animism. + +The Kwei or Tortoise is not the actual horny reptile known to +naturalists and to common experience, but a spirit, an animated creature +that ages ago rose up out of the Yellow River, having on its carapace +the mystic writing out of which the legendary founder of Chinese +civilization deciphered the basis of moral teachings and the secrets of +the unseen. From this divine tortoise which conceived by thought alone, +all other tortoises sprang. In the elaboration of the myths and legends +concerning the tortoise we find many varieties of this scaly +incarnation. It lives a thousand years, hence it is emblem of longevity +in art and literature. It is the attendant of the god of the waters. It +has some of the qualities and energies of the dragon, it has the power +of transformation. In pictures and sculptures we are familiar with its +figure, often of colossal size, as forming the curb of a well, the base +of a monument or tablet. Yet, whatever its form in literature or art, it +is the later elaborated representation of ancient Animism which selected +the tortoise as one of the manifold incarnations or media of the myriad +spirits that populate the air. + +Chief and leader of the four divinely constituted beasts is the Lung, +Japanese Ri[=o], or Dragon, which has the power of transformation and of +making itself visible or invisible. At will it reduces itself to the +size of a silk-worm, or is swollen until it fills the space of heaven +and earth. This is the creature especially preeminent in art, literature +and rhetoric. There are nine kinds of dragons, all with various features +and functions, and artists and authors revel in their representation. +The celestial dragon guards the mansions of the gods and supports them +lest they fall; the spiritual dragon causes the winds to blow and rain +to descend for the service of mankind; the earth dragon marks out the +courses of rivers and streams; the dragon of the hidden treasures +watches over the wealth concealed from mortals, etc. Outwardly, the +dragon of superstition resembles the geological monsters brought to +resurrection by our paleontologists. He seems to incarnate all the +attributes and forces of animal life--vigor, rapidity of motion, +endurance, power of offence in horn, hoof, claw, tooth, nail, scale and +fiery breath. Being the embodiment of all force the dragon is especially +symbolical of the emperor. Usually associated with malevolence, one +sees, besides the conventional art and literature of civilization, the +primitive animistic idea of men to whose mind this mysterious universe +had no unity, who believed in myriad discordant spirits but knew not of +"one Law-giver, who is able both to save and to destroy." An +enlargement, possibly, of prehistoric man's reminiscence of now extinct +monsters, the dragon is, in its artistic development, a mythical +embodiment of all the powers of moisture to bless and to harm. We shall +see how, when Buddhism entered China, the cobra-de-capello, so often +figured in the Buddhistic representations of India, is replaced by the +dragon. + +Yet besides these four incarnations of the spirits that misrule the +world there is a host, a menagerie of mythical monsters. In Korea, one +of the Asian countries richest in demonology, beast worship is very +prevalent. Mythical winged tigers and flying serpents with attributes of +fire, lightning and combinations of forces not found in any one +creature, are common to the popular fancy. In Japan, the _kappa_, half +monkey half tortoise, which seizes children bathing in the rivers, as +real to millions of the native common folk as is the shark or porpoise; +the flying-weasel, that moves in the whirlwind with sickle-like blades +on his claws, which cut the face of the unfortunate; the wind-god or imp +that lets loose the gale or storm; the thunder-imp or hairy, cat-like +creature that on the cloud-edges beats his drums in crash, roll, or +rattle; the earthquake-fish or subterranean bull-head or cat-fish that +wriggles and writhes, causing the earth to shiver, shudder and open; the +_ja_ or dragon centipede; the _tengu_ or long-nosed and winged mountain +sprite, which acts as the messenger of the gods, pulling out the tongues +of fibbing, lying children; besides the colossal spiders and mythical +creatures of the old story-books; the foxes, badgers, cats and other +creatures which transform themselves and "possess" human beings, still +influence the popular mind. These, once the old _kami_ of the primitive +Japanese, or _kamui_ of the aboriginal Aino, show the mental soil and +climate[16] which were to condition the growth of the seed imported from +other lands, whether of Buddhism or Christianity. It is very hard to +kill a god while the old mind that grew and nourished him still remains +the same. Banish or brand a phantom or mind-shadow once worshipped as +divine, and it will appear as a fairy, a demon, a mythical animal, or an +_oni_; but to annihilate it requires many centuries of higher culture. + +As with the superstitions and survival of Animism and Fetichism from our +pagan ancestors among ourselves, many of the lingering beliefs may be +harmless, but over the mass of men in Japan and in Chinese Asia they +still exert a baleful influence. They make life full of distress; they +curtail human joy; they are a hindrance, to spiritual progress and to +civilization. + + +Fetichism. + + +The animistic tendency in that part of Asia dominated by the Chinese +world of ideas shows itself not only in a belief in messengers or +embodiments of divine malevolence or benevolence, but also in the +location of the spiritual influence in or upon an inanimate object or +fetich. Among men in Chinese Asia, from the clodhopper to the gentleman, +the inheritance of Fetichism from the primeval ages is constantly +noticeable. Let us glance at the term itself. + +As the Chinaman's "Joss" is only his own pronunciation of the Portuguese +word _Deos_, or the Latin _Deus_, so the word "fetich" is but the +Portuguese modification of the Latin word _facticius_, that is +_feitio_. Portugal, beginning nearly five hundred years ago, had the +honor of sending the first ships and crews to explore the coasts of +Africa and Asia, and her sailors by this word, now Englished as fetich, +described the native charms or talismans. The word "fetichism" came into +the European languages through the work of Charles de Brosses, who, in +1760, wrote on "Du Culte des Dieux Ftiches." In Fetichism, the "object +is treated as having personal consciousness and power, is talked with, +worshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, petted or ill-treated with +reference to its past or future behavior to its votaries." + +Let me draw a picture from actual observation. I look out of the windows +of my house in Fukui. Here is a peasant who comes back after the winter +to prepare his field for cultivation. The man's horizon of ideas, like +his vocabulary, is very limited. His view of actual life is bounded by a +few rice-fields, a range of hills, and the village near by. Possibly one +visit to a city or large town has enriched his experience. More +probably, however, the wind and clouds, the weather, the soil, crops and +taxes, his family and food and how to provide for them, are the main +thoughts that occupy his mind. Before he will strike mattock or spade in +the soil, lay axe to a tree, collect or burn underbrush, he will select +a stone, a slab of rock or a stick of wood, set it upon hill side or mud +field-boundary, and to this he will bow, prostrate himself or pray. To +him, this stone or stick is consecrated. It has power to placate the +spirits and ward off their evil. It is the medium of communication +between him and them. Now, having attended, as he thinks, to the +proprieties in the case, he proceeds to dig, plough, drain, put in order +and treat soil or water, tree or other growth as is most convenient for +his purpose. His fetich is erected to "the honorable spirits." Were this +not attended to, some known or unknown bad luck, sinister fortune, or +calamity would befall him. Here, then, is a fetich-worshipper. The stick +or stone is the medium of communication between the man and the spirits +who can bless or harm him, and which to his mind are as countlessly +numerous as the swarms of mosquitoes which he drives out of and away +from his summer cottage by smudge fires in August. + +One need not travel in Yezo or Saghalin to see practical Fetichism. Go +where you will in Japan, there are fetich worshippers. Among the country +folk, the "_inaka_" of Japanese parlance, Fetichism is seen in its +grossest forms. Yet among probably millions of Buddhists, especially of +certain sects, the Nichiren for example, and even among the +rationalistic Confucians, there are fetich-worshippers. Rare is the +Japanese farmer, laborer, mechanic, ward-man, or _hei-min_ of any trade +who does not wear amulet, charm or other object which he regards with +more or less of reverence as having relation to the powers that help or +harm.[17] In most of the Buddhist temples these amulets are sold for the +benefit of the priests or of the shrine or monastery. Not a few even of +the gentry consider it best to be on the safe side and wear in pouch or +purse these protectors against evil. + +Of the 7,817,570 houses in the empire, enumerated in the census of 1892, +it is probable that seven millions of them are subjects of insurance by +fetich.[18] They are guaranteed against fire, thieves, lightning, plague +and pestilence. It is because of money paid to the priests that the +wooden policies are duly nailed on the walls, and not on account of the +wise application of mathematical, financial or medical science. Examine +also the paper packages carefully tied and affixed above the transom, +decipher the writing in ink or the brand left by the hot iron on the +little slabs of pine-wood--there may be one or a score of them--and what +will you read? Names of the temples with date of issue and seal of +certificate from the priests, mottoes or titles from sacred books, often +only a Sanskrit letter or monogram, of which the priest-pedler may long +since have forgotten the meaning. To build a house, select a cemetery or +proceed to any of the ordinary events of life without making use of some +sort of material fetich, is unusual, extraordinary and is voted +heterodox. + +Long after the brutish stage of thought is past the fetichistic instinct +remains in the sacredness attached to the mere letter or paper or +parchment of the sacred book or writing, when used as amulet, plaster or +medicine. The survivals, even in Buddhism, of ancient and prehistoric +Fetichism are many and often with undenied approval of the religious +authorities, especially in those sects which are themselves reversions +to primitive and lower types of religion. + +Among the Ainos of Yezo and Saghalin the medicine-man or shaman is +decorated with fetichistic bric--brac of all sorts, and these bits of +shells, metals, and other clinking substances are believed to be media +of communication with mysterious influences and forces. In Korea +thousands of trees bedecked with fluttering rags, clinking scraps of +tin, metal or stone signify the same thing. In Japan these primitive +tinkling scraps and clinking bunches of glass have long since become the +_suzu_ or wind-bells seen on the pagoda which tintinabulate with every +passing breeze. The whittled sticks of the Aino, non-conductors of evil +and protectors of those who make and rear them, stuck up in every place +of awe or supposed danger, have in the slow evolution of centuries +become the innumerable flag-poles, banners and streamers which one sees +at their _matsuris_ or temple festivals. Millions of towels and +handkerchiefs still flutter over wells and on sacred trees. In old Japan +the banners of an army almost outnumbered the men who fought beneath +them. Today, at times they nearly conceal the temples from view. + +The civilized Japanese, having passed far beyond the Aino's stage of +religion, still show their fetichistic instincts in the veneration +accorded to priestly inventions for raising revenue.[19] This instinct +lingers in the faith accorded to medicine in the form of decoction, +pill, bolus or poultice made from the sacred writing and piously +swallowed; in the reverence paid to the idol for its own sake, and in +the charm or amulet worn by the soldier in his cap or by the gentleman +in his pill-box, tobacco-pouch or purse. + +As the will of the worshipper who selects the fetich makes it what it +is, so also, by the exercise of that will he imagines he can in a +certain measure be the equal or superior of his god. Like the Italian +peasant who beats or scolds his bambino when his prayers are not +answered or his wishes gratified, so the fetich is punished or not +allowed to know what is going on, by being covered up or hidden away. +Instances of such rough handling of their fetiches by the people are far +from unknown in the Land of Great Peace. At such childishness we may +wonder and imagine that fetich-worship is the very antipodes of +religion; and yet it requires but little study of the lower orders of +mind and conduct in Christendom to see how fetich-worship still lingers +among people called Christians, whether the fetich be the image of a +saint or the Virgin, or a verse of the Bible found at random and used +much as is a penny-toss to decide minor actions. Or, to look farther +south, what means the rabbit's foot carried in the pocket or the various +articles of faith now hanging in the limbo between religion and +folk-lore in various parts of our own country? + + +Phallicism. + + +Further illustrations of far Eastern Animism and Fetichism are seen in +forms once vastly more prevalent in Japan than now. Indeed, so far +improved off the face of the earth are they, that some are already +matters of memory or archology, and their very existence even in former +days is nearly or wholly incredible to the generation born since +1868--when Old Japan began to vanish in dissolving views and New Japan +to emerge. What the author has seen with his own eyes, would amaze many +Japanese born since 1868 and the readers of the rhapsodies of tourists +who study Japan from the _jin-riki-sha_. Phases of tree and serpent +worship are still quite common, and will be probably for generations to +come; but the phallic shrines and emblems abolished by the government in +1872 have been so far invisible to most living travellers and natives, +that their once general existence and use are now scarcely suspected. +Even profound scholars of the Japanese language and literature whose +work dates from after the year 1872 have scarcely suspected the +universality of phallic worship. Yet what we could say of this cult and +its emblems, especially in treating of Shint[=o], the special ethnic +faith of Japan, would be from sight of our own eyes besides the +testimony of many witnesses.[20] + +The cultus has been known in the Japanese archipelago from Riu Kin to +Yezo. Despite official edicts of abolition it is still secretly +practised by the "heathen," the _inaka_ of Japan. "Government law lasts +three days," is an ancient proverb in Nippon. Sharp eyes have, within +three months of the writing of this line, unearthed a phallic shrine +within a stone's-throw of Shint[=o]'s most sacred temples at Is. +Formerly, however, these implements of worship were seen numerously--in +the cornucopia distributed in the temples, in the _matsuris_ or +religious processions and in representation by various plastic +material--and all this until 1872, to an extent that is absolutely +incredible to all except the eye-witnesses, some of whose written +testimonies we possess. What seems to our mind shocking and revolting +was once a part of our own ancestors' faith, and until very recently was +the perfectly natural and innocent creed of many millions of Japanese +and is yet the same for tens of thousands of them. + +We may easily see why and how that which to us is a degrading cult was +not only closely allied to Shint[=o], but directly fostered by and +properly a part of it, as soon as we read the account of the creation of +the world, an contained in the national "Book of Ancient Traditions," +the "Kojiki." Several of the opening paragraphs of this sacred book of +Shint[=o] are phallic myths explaining cosmogony. Yet the myths and the +cult are older than the writing and are phases of primitive Japanese +faith. The mystery of fatherhood is to the primitive man the mystery of +creation also. To him neither the thought nor the word was at hand to +put difference and transcendental separation between him and what he +worshipped as a god. + +Into the details of the former display and carriage of these now obscene +symbols in the popular celebrations; of the behavior of even respectable +citizens during the excitement and frenzy of the festivals; of their +presence in the wayside shrines; of the philosophy, hideousness or +pathos of the subject, we cannot here enter. We simply call attention to +their existence, and to a form of thought, if not of religion, properly +so-called, which has survived all imported systems of faith and which +shows what the native or indigenous idea of divinity really is--an idea +that profoundly affects the organization of society. To the enlightened +Buddhist, Confucian, and even the modern Shintoist the +phallus-worshipper is a "heathen," a "pagan," and yet he still practises +his faith and rites. It is for us to hint at the powerful influence such +persistent ideas have upon Japanese morals and civilization. Still +further, we illustrate the basic fact which all foreign religions and +all missionaries, Confucian, Buddhist, Mahometan or Christian must deal +with, viz.: That the Eastern Asiatic mind runs to pantheism as surely as +the body of flesh and blood seeks food. + + +Tree and Serpent Worship. + + +In prehistoric and medieval Japan, as among the Ainos to-day, trees and +serpents as well as rocks, rivers and other inanimate objects were +worshipped, because such of them as were supposed for reasons known and +felt to be awe-inspiring or wonderful were "kami," that is, above the +common, wonderful.[21] This word kami is usually translated god or +deity, but the term does not conform to our ideas, by a great gulf of +difference. It is more than probable that the Japanese term kami is the +same as the Aino word _kamui_, and that the despised and conquered +aboriginal savage has furnished the mould of the ordinary Japanese idea +of god--which even to-day with them means anything wonderful or +extraordinary.[22] From the days before history the people have +worshipped trees, and do so yet, considering them as the abodes of and +as means of communication with supernatural powers. On them the people +hang their votive offerings, twist on the branches their prayers written +on paper, avoid cutting down, breaking or in any way injuring certain +trees. The _sakaki_ tree is especially sacred, even to this day, in +funeral or Shint[=o] services. To wound or defile a tree sacred to a +particular god was to call forth the vengeance of the insulted deity +upon the insulter, or as the hearer of prayer upon another to whom guilt +was imputed and punishment was due. + +Thus, in the days older than this present generation, but still within +this century, as the writer has witnessed, it was the custom of women +betrayed by their lovers to perform the religious act of vengeance +called _Ushi toki mairi_, or going to the temple at the hour of the ox, +that is at 2 A.M. First making an image or manikin of straw, she set out +on her errand of revenge, with nails held in her mouth and with hammer +in one hand and straw figure in the other, sometimes also having on her +head a reversed tripod in which were stuck three lighted candles. +Arriving at the shrine she selected a tree dedicated to a god, and then +nailed the straw simulacrum of her betrayer to the trunk, invoking the +kami to curse and annihilate the destroyer of her peace. She adjures the +god to save his tree, impute the guilt of desecration to the traitor and +visit him with deadly vengeance. The visit is repeated and nails are +driven until the object of the incantation sickens and dies, or is at +least supposed to do so. I have more than once seen such trees and straw +images upon them, and have observed others in which the large number of +rusted nails and fragments of straw showed how tenaciously the +superstition lingered.[23] + +In instances more pleasant to witness, may be seen trees festooned with +the symbolical rice-straw in cords and fringes. With these the people +honor the trees as the abode of the kami, or as evidence of their faith +in the renown accredited in the past. + +In common with most human beings the Japanese consider the serpent an +object of mystery and awe, but most of them go further and pay the +ophidian a reverence and awe which is worship. Their oldest literature +shows how large a part the serpent played in the so-called divine age, +how it acted as progenitress of the Mikado's ancestry, and how it +afforded means of incarnation for the kami or gods. Ten species of +ophidia are known in the Japanese islands, but in the larger number of +more or less imaginary varieties which figure in the ancient books we +shall find plenty of material for fetich-worship. In perusing the +"Kojiki" one scarcely knows, when he begins a story, whether the +character which to all appearance is a man or woman is to end as a +snake, or whether the mother after delivering her child will or will not +glide into the marsh or slide away into the sea, leaving behind a trail +of slime. A dragon is three-fourths serpent, and both the dragon and the +serpent are prominent figures, perhaps the most prominent of the kami or +gods in human or animal form in the "Kojiki" and other early legends of +the gods, though the crocodile, crow, deer, dog, and other animals are +kami.[24] It is therefore no wonder that serpents have been and are +still worshipped by the people, that some of their gods and goddesses +are liable at any time to slip away in scaly form, that famous temples +are built on sites noted as being the abode or visible place of the +actual water or land snake of natural history, and that the spot where a +serpent is seen to-day is usually marked with a sacred emblem or a +shrine.[25] We shall see how this snake-worship became not only a part +of Shint[=o] but even a notable feature in corrupt Buddhism. + + +Pantheism's Destruction of Boundaries.[26] + + +In its rudest forms, this pantheism branches out into animism or +shamanism, fetichism and phallicism. In its higher forms, it becomes +polytheism, idolatry and defective philosophy. Having centuries ago +corrupted Buddhism it is the malaria which, unseen and unfelt, is ready +to poison and corrupt Christianity. Indeed, it has already given over to +disease and spiritual death more than one once hopeful Christian +believer, teacher and preacher in the Japan of our decade. + +To assault and remove the incubus, to replace and refill the mind, to +lift up and enlighten the Japanese peasant, science as already known and +faith in one God, Creator and Father of all things, must go hand in +hand. Education and civilization will do much for the ignorant _inaka_ +or boors, but for the cultured whose minds waver and whose feet +flounder, as well as for the unlearned and priest-ridden, there is no +surer help and healing than that faith in the Heavenly Father which +gives the unifying thought to him who looks into creation. + +Keep the boundary line clear between God and his world and all is order +and discrimination. Obliterate that boundary and all is pathless morass, +black chaos and on the mind the phantasms which belong to the victim of +_delirium tremens_. + +There is one Lawgiver. In the beginning, God. In the end, God, all in +all. + + + + +CHAPTER II - SHINT[=O]: MYTHS AND RITUAL + + "In the great days of old, + When o'er the land the gods held sov'reign sway, + Our fathers lov'd to say + That the bright gods with tender care enfold + The fortunes of Japan, + Blessing the land with many an holy spell: + And what they loved to tell, + We of this later age ourselves do prove; + For every living man + May feast his eyes on tokens of their love." + + --Poem of Yamagami-no Okura, + A.D. 733. + + Baal: "While I on towers and banging terraces, + In shaft and obelisk, behold my sign. + Creative, shape of first imperious law." + + --Bayard Taylor's "Masque of the Gods." + + "Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my + silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of + men, and didst commit whoredom with them, and tookest thy + broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine + oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave + thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou + hast even set it before them for a sweet savor: and thus it was, + saith the Lord GOD."--Ezekiel. + + If it be said (as has been the case), 'Shintoism has nothing in + it,' we should be inclined to answer, 'So much the better, there + is less error to counteract.' But there _is_ something in it, + and that ... of a kind of which we may well avail ourselves when + making known the second commandment, and the 'fountain of + cleansing from all sin.'"--E.W. Syle. + + "If Shint[=o] has a dogma, it is purity."--Kaburagi. + + "I will wash my hands in innocency, O Lord: and so will I go to + thine altar."--Ps. xxvi. 6. + + +CHAPTER II - SHINT[=O]: MYTHS AND RITUAL + +The Japanese a Young Nation. + + +What impresses us in the study of the history of Japan is that, compared +with China and Korea, she is young. Her history is as the story of +yesterday. The nation is modern. The Japanese are as younger children in +the great family of Asia's historic people. Broadly speaking, Japan is +no older than England, and authentic Japanese history no more ancient +than British history. In Albion, as in the Honorable Country, there are +traditions and mythologies that project their shadows aeons back of +genuine records; but if we consider that English history begins in the +fifth, and English literature in the eighth century, then there are +other reasons besides those commonly given for calling Japan "the +England of the East." + +No trustworthy traditions exist which carry the known history of Japan +farther back than the fifth century. The means for measuring and +recording time were probably not in use until the sixth century. The +oldest documents in the Japanese language, excepting a few fragments of +the seventh century, do not antedate the year 712, and even in these the +Chinese characters are in many instances used phonetically, because the +meaning of the words thus transliterated had already been forgotten. +Hence their interpretation in detail is still largely a matter of +conjecture. + +Yet the Japanese Archipelago was inhabited long before the dawn of +history. The concurrent testimony of the earliest literary monuments, of +the indigenous mythology, of folk-lore, of shell-heaps and of +kitchen-middens shows that the occupation by human beings of the main +islands must be ascribed to times long before the Christian era. Before +written records or ritual of worship, religion existed on its active or +devotional side, and there were mature growths of thought preserved and +expressed orally. Poems, songs, chants and _norito_ or liturgies were +kept alive in the human memory, and there was a system of worship, the +_name_ of which was given long after the introduction of Buddhism. This +descriptive term, Kami no Michi in Japanese, and Shin-t[=o] in the +Chinese as pronounced by Japanese, means the Way of the Gods, the t[=o] +or final syllable being the same as tao in Taoism. We may say that +Shint[=o] means, literally, theoslogos, theology. The customs and +practices existed centuries before contact with Chinese letters, and +long previous to the Shint[=o] literature which is now extant. + +Whether Kami no Michi is wholly the product of Japanese soil, or whether +its rudimentary ideas were imported from the neighboring Asian continent +and more or less allied to the primitive Chinese religion, is still an +open question. The preponderance of argument tends, however, to show +that it was an importation as to its origin, for not a few events +outlined in the Japanese mythology cast shadows of reminiscence upon +Korea or the Asian mainland. In its development, however, the cultus is +almost wholly Japanese. The modern forms of Shint[=o], as moulded by the +revivalists of the eighteenth century, are at many points notably +different from the ancient faith. At the World's Parliament of Religions +at Chicago, Shint[=o] seemed to be the only one, and probably the last, +of the purely provincial religions. + +In order to gain a picture of life in Japan before the introduction of +Chinese civilization, we must consult those photographs of the minds of +the ancient islanders which still exist in their earliest literature. +The fruits of the study of ethnology, anthropology and archaeology +greatly assist us in picturing the day-break of human life in the +Morning Land. In preparing materials for the student of the religions of +Japan many laborers have wrought in various fields, but the chief +literary honors have been taken by the English scholars, Messrs. +Satow,[1] Aston,[2] and Chamberlain.[3] These untiring workers have +opened the treasures of ancient thought in the Altaic world.[4] + +Although even these archaic Japanese compositions, readable to-day only +by special scholars, are more or less affected by Chinese influences, +ideas and modes of expression, yet they are in the main faithful +reflections of the ancient life before the primitive faith of the +Japanese people was either disturbed or reduced to system in presence of +an imported religion. These monuments of history, poetry and liturgies +are the "Kojiki," or Notices of Ancient Things; the "Manyshu" or Myriad +Leaves or Poems, and the "Norito," or Liturgies. + + +The Ancient Documents. + + +The first book, the "Kojiki," gives us the theology, cosmogony, +mythology, and very probably, in its later portions, some outlines of +history of the ancient Japanese. The "Kojiki" is the real, the dogmatic +exponent, or, if we may so say, the Bible, of Shint[=o]. The +"Many[=o]shu," or Book of Myriad Poems, expresses the thoughts and +feelings; reflects the manners and customs of the primitive generations, +and, in the same sense as do the Sagas of the Scandinavians, furnishes +us unchronological but interesting and more or less real narratives of +events which have been glorified by the poets and artists. The ancient +codes of law and of ceremonial procedure are of great value, while the +"Norito" are excellent mirrors in which to see reflected the religion +called Shint[=o] on the more active side of worship. + +In a critical study, either of the general body of national tradition or +of the ancient documents, we must continually be on our guard against +the usual assumption that Chinese civilization came in earlier than it +really did. This assumption colors all modern Japanese popular ideas, +art and literature. The vice of the pupil nations surrounding the Middle +Kingdom is their desire to have it believed that Chinese letters and +culture among them is an nearly coeval with those of China as can be +made truly or falsely to appear. The Koreans, for example, would have us +believe that their civilization, based on letters and introduced by +Kishi, is "four thousand years old" and contemporaneous with China's +own, and that "the Koreans are among the oldest people of the world."[5] +The average modern Japanese wishes the date of authentic or official +history projected as far back as possible. Yet he is a modest man +compared with his medival ancestor, who constructed chronology out of +ink-stones. Over a thousand years ago a deliberate forgery was +officially put on paper. A whole line of emperors who never lived was +canonized, and clever penmen set down in ink long chapters which +describe what never happened.[6] Furthermore, even after, and only eight +years after the fairly honest "Kojiki" had been compiled, the book +called "Nihongi," or Chronicles of Japan, was written. All the internal +and not a little external evidence shows that the object of this book is +to give the impression that Chinese ideas, culture and learning had long +been domesticated in Japan. The "Nihongi" gives dates of events supposed +to have happened fifteen hundred years before, with an accuracy which +may be called villainous; while the "Kojiki" states that Wani, a Korean +teacher, brought the "Thousand Character Classic" to Japan in A.D. 285, +though that famous Chinese book was not composed until the sixth +century, or A.D. 550.[7] + +Even to this day it is nearly impossible for an American to get a Korean +"frog in the well"[8] to understand why the genuine native life and +history, language and learning of his own peninsular country is of +greater value to the student than the pedantry borrowed from China. Why +these possess any interest to a "scholar" is a mystery to the head in +the horsehair net. Anything of value, he thinks, _must_ be on the +Chinese model. What is not Chinese is foolish and fit for women and +children only. Furthermore, Korea "always had" Chinese learning. This is +the sum of the arguments of the Korean literati, even as it used to be +of the old-time hatless Yedo scholar of shaven skull and topknot. + +Despite Japanese independence and even arrogance in certain other lines, +the thought of the demolition of cherished notions of vast antiquity is +very painful. Critical study of ancient traditions is still dangerous, +even in parliamentary Nippon. Hence the unbiassed student must depend on +his own reading of and judgment upon the ancient records, assisted by +the thorough work done by the English scholars Aston, Satow, +Chamberlain, Bramsen and others. + +It was the coming of Buddhism in the sixth century, and the implanting +on the soil of Japan of a system of religion in which were temples with +all that was attractive to the eye, gorgeous ritual, scriptures, +priesthood, codes of morals, rigid discipline, a system of dogmatics in +which all was made positive and clear, that made the variant myths and +legends somewhat uniform. The faith of Shaka, by winning adherents both +at the court and among the leading men of intelligence, reacted upon the +national traditions so as to compel their collection and arrangemeut +into definite formulas. In due time the mythology, poetry and ritual +was, as we have seen, committed to writing and the whole system called +Shint[=o], in distinction from Butsud[=o], the Way of the Gods from the +Way of the Buddhas. Thus we can see more clearly the outward and visible +manifestations of Shint[=o]. In forming our judgment, however, we must +put aside those descriptions which are found in the works of European +writers, from Marco Polo and Mendez Pinto down to the year 1870. Though +these were good observers, they were often necessarily mistaken in their +deductions. For, as we shall see in our lecture on Riy[=o]bu or Mixed +Buddhism, Shint[=o] was, from the ninth century until late into the +nineteenth century, absorbed in Buddhism so as to be next to invisible. + + +Origins of the Japanese People. + + +Without detailing processes, but giving only results, our view of the +origin of the Japanese people and of their religion is in the main as +follows: + +The oldest seats of human habitation in the Japanese Archipelago lie +between the thirtieth and thirty-eighth parallels of north latitude. +South of the thirty-fourth parallel, it seems, though without proof of +writing or from tradition, that the Malay type and blood from the far +south probably predominated, with, however, much infusion from the +northern Asian mainland. + +Between the thirty-fourth and thirty-sixth parallels, and west of the +one hundred and thirty-eighth meridian of longitude, may be found what +is still the choicest, richest and most populous part of The Country +Between Heaven and Earth. Here the prevailing element was Korean and +Tartar. + +To the north and east of this fair country lay the Emishi savages, or +Ainos. + +In "the world" within the ken of the prehistoric dwellers in what is now +the three islands, Hondo, Kiushiu and Shikoku, there was no island of +Yezu and no China; while Korea was but slightly known, and the lands +farther westward were unheard of except as the home of distant tribes. + +Three distinct lines of tradition point to the near peninsula or the +west coast of Japan as the "Heaven" whence descended the tribe which +finally grew to be dominant. The islands of Tsushima and Iki were the +stepping-stones of the migration out of which rose what may be called +the southern or Tsukushi cycle of legend, Tsukushi being the ancient +name of Kiushiu. + +Idzumo is the holy land whence issued the second stream of tradition. + +The third course of myth and legend leads us into Yamato, whence we +behold the conquest of the Mikado's home-land and the extension of his +name and influence into the regions east of the Hakon Mountains, +including the great plain of Yedo, where modern T[=o]ki[=o] now stands. + +We shall take the term "Yamato" as the synonym of the prehistoric but +discernible beginnings of national life. It represents the seat of the +tribe whose valor and genius ultimately produced the Mikado system. It +was through this house or tribe that Japanese history took form. The +reverence for the ruler long afterward entitled "Son of Heaven" is the +strongest force in the national history. The spirit and prowess of these +early conquerors have left an indelible impress upon the language and +the mind of the nation in the phrase Yamato Damashi--the spirit of +(Divine and unconquerable) Japan. + +The story of the conquest of the land, in its many phases, recalls that +of the Aryans in India, of the Hebrews in Canaan, of the Romans in +Europe and of the Germanic races in North America. The Yamato men +gradually advanced to conquest under the impulse, as they believed, of a +divine command.[9] They were sent from Takama-no-hara, the High Plain of +Heaven. Theirs was the war, of men with a nobler creed, having +agriculture and a feudal system of organization which furnished +resources for long campaigns, against hunters and fishermen. They had +improved artillery and used iron against stone. Yet they conquered and +pacified not only by superior strategy, tactics, weapons and valor, but +also by advanced fetiches and dogma. They captured the religion of their +enemies as well as their bodies, lands and resources. They claimed that +their ancestors were from Heaven, that the Sun was their kinswoman and +that their chief, or Mikado, was vicegerent of the Heavenly gods, but +that those whom they conquered were earth-born or sprung from the +terrestrial divinities. + + +Mikadoism the Heart of Shint[=o]. + + +As success came to their arms and their chief's power was made more +sure, they developed further the dogma of the Mikado's divinity and made +worship centre in him as the earthly representative of the Sun and +Heaven. His fellow-conquerors and ministers, as fast as they were put in +lordship over conquered provinces, or indigenous chieftains who +submitted obediently to his sway or yielded graciously to his prowess, +were named as founders of temples and in later generations worshipped +and became gods.[10] One of the motives for, and one of the guiding +principles in the selections of the floating myths, was that the +ancestry of the chieftains loyal to the Mikado might be shown to be from +the heavenly gods. Both the narratives of the "Kojiki" and the liturgies +show this clearly. + +The nature-worship, which was probably practised throughout the whole +archipelago, became part of the system as government and society were +made uniform on the Yamato model. It seems at least possible, if +Buddhism had not come in so soon, that the ordinary features of a +religion, dogmatic and ethical codes, would have been developed. In a +word, the Kami no Michi, or religion of the islanders in prehistoric +times before the rise of Mikadoism, must be carefully distinguished from +the politico-ecclesiasticism which the system called Shint[=o] reveals +and demands. The early religion, first in the hands of politicians and +later under the pens and voices of writers and teachers at the Imperial +Court, became something very different from its original form. As surely +as K[=o]b[=o] later captured Shint[=o], making material for Buddhism out +of it and overlaying it in Riy[=o]bu, so the Yamato men made political +capital out of their own religion and that of the subject tribes. The +divine sovereign of Japan and his political church did exactly what the +state churches of Europe, both pagan and Christian, have done before and +since the Christian era. + +Further, in studying the "Kojiki," we must remember that the sacred +writings sprang out of the religion, and that the system was not an +evolution from the book. Customs, ritual, faith and prayer existed long +before they were written about or recorded in ink. Moreover, the +philosophy came later than the practice, the deeds before the myths, and +the joy and terror of the visible universe before the cosmogony or +theogony, while the book-preface was probably written last of all. + +The sun was first, and then came the wonder, admiration and worship of +men. The personification and pedigree of the sun were late figments. To +connect their ancestors with the sun-goddess and the heavenly gods, was +a still later enterprise of the "Mikado reverencers" of this earlier +time. Both the god-way in its early forms and Shint[=o] in its later +development, were to them political as well as ecclesiastical institutes +of dogma. Both the religion which they themselves brought and cultivated +and the aboriginal religion which the Yamato men found, were used as +engines in the making of Mikadoism, which is the heart of Shint[=o]. + +Not until two centuries after the coming of Buddhism and of Asiatic +civilization did it occur to the Japanese to reduce to writing the +floating legends and various cycles of tradition which had grown up +luxuriantly in different parts of "the empire," or to express in the +Chinese character the prayers and thanksgivings which had been handed +down orally through many generations. These norito had already assumed +elegant literary form, rich in poetic merit, long before Chinese writing +was known. They, far more than the less certain philosophy of the +"Kojiki," are of undoubted native origin. It is nearly certain that the +prehistoric Japanese did not borrow the literary forms of the god-way +from China, as any one familiar with the short, evenly balanced and +antithetical sentences of Chinese style can see at once. The norito are +expressions, in the rhythmical and rhetorical form of worship, of the +articles of faith set forth in the historic summary which we have given. +We propose to illustrate the dogmas by quoting from the rituals in Mr. +Satow's masterly translation. The following was addressed to the +sun-goddess (Amatras[)u] no Mikami, or the +From-Heaven-Shining-Great-Deity) by the priest-envoy of the priestly +Nakatomi family sent annually to the temples at Is, the Mecca of +Shint[=o]. The _sevran_ referred to in the ritual is the Mikado. This +word and all the others printed in capitals are so rendered in order to +express in English the force of "an untranslatable honorific syllable, +supposed to be originally identical with a root meaning 'true,' but no +longer possessing that signification." Instead of the word "earth," that +of "country" (Japan) is used as the correlative of Heaven. + + +Ritual in Praise of the Sun-goddess. + + + He (the priest-envoy) says: Hear all of you, ministers of the + gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the great ritual, the + heavenly ritual, declared in the great presence of the + From-Heaven-Shining-Great-DEITY, whose praises are fulfilled by + setting up the stout pillars of the great HOUSE, and exalting + the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven at the sources of + the Isuzu River at Uji in Watarai. + + He says: It is the sovran's great WORD. Hear all of you, + ministers of the gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the + fulfilling of praises on this seventeenth day of the sixth moon + of this year, as the morning sun goes up in glory, of the + Oho-Nakatomi, who--having abundantly piled up like a range of + hills the TRIBUTE thread and sanctified LIQUOR and FOOD + presented as of usage by the people of the deity's houses + attributed to her in the three departments and in various + countries and places, so that she deign to bless his [the + Mikado's] LIFE as a long LIFE, and his AGE as a luxuriant AGE + eternally and unchangingly as multitudinous piles of rock; may + deign to bless the CHILDREN who are born to him, and deigning to + cause to flourish the five kinds of grain which the men of a + hundred functions and the peasants of the countries in the four + quarters of the region under heaven long and peacefully + cultivate and eat, and guarding and benefiting them to deign to + bless them--is hidden by the great offering-wands. + +In the Imperial City the ritual services were very imposing. Those in +expectation of the harvest were held in the great hall of the +Jin-Gi-Kuan, or Council of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. The description +of the ceremonial is given by Mr. Satow.[11] In the prayers offered to +the sun-goddess for harvest, and in thanksgiving to her for bestowing +dominion over land and sea upon her descendant the Mikado, occurs the +following passage: + + I declare in the great presence of the + From-Heaven-Shining-Great-DEITY who sits in Is. Because the + sovran great GODDESS bestows on him the countries of the four + quarters over which her glance extends, as far as the limit + where heaven stands up like a wall, as far as the bounds where + the country stands up distant, as far as the limit where the + blue clouds spread flat, as far as the bounds where the white + clouds lie away fallen--the blue sea plain as far as the limit + whither come the prows of the ships without drying poles or + paddles, the ships which continuously crowd on the great sea + plain, and the road which men travel by land, as far as the + limit whither come the horses' hoofs, with the baggage-cords + tied tightly, treading the uneven rocks and tree-roots and + standing up continuously in a long path without a break--making + the narrow countries wide and the hilly countries plain, and as + it were drawing together the distant countries by throwing many + tons of ropes over them--he will pile up the first-fruits like a + range of hills in the great presence of the sovran great + GODDESS, and will peacefully enjoy the remainder. + + +Phallic Symbols. + + +To form one's impression of the Kami no Michi wholly from the poetic +liturgies, the austere simplicity of the miyas or shrines, or the +worship at the palace or capital, would be as misleading as to gather +our ideas of the status of popular education from knowing only of the +scholars at court. Among the common people the real basis of the god-way +was ancestor-worship. From the very first this trait and habit of the +Japanese can be discerned. Their tenacity in holding to it made the +Confucian ethics more welcome when they came. Furthermore, this +reverence for the dead profoundly influenced and modified Buddhism, so +that today the altars of both religions exist in the same house, the +dead ancestors becoming both kami and buddhas. + +Modern taste has removed from sight what were once the common people's +symbols of the god-way, that is of ancestor worship. The extent of the +phallus cult and its close and even vital connection with the god-way, +and the general and innocent use of the now prohibited emblems, tax +severely the credulity of the Occidental reader. The processes of the +ancient mind can hardly be understood except by vigorous power of the +imagination and by sympathy with the primeval man. To the critical +student, however, who has lived among the people and the temples devoted +to this worship, who knows how innocent and how truly sincere and even +reverent and devout in the use of these symbols the worshippers are, the +matter is measurably clear. He can understand the soil, root and flower +even while the most strange specimen is abhorrent to his taste, and +while he is most active in destroying that mental climate in which such +worship, whether native or exotic, can exist and flourish. + +In none of the instances in which I have been eyewitness of the cult, of +the person officiating or of the emblem, have I had any reason to doubt +the sincerity of the worshipper. I have never had reason to look upon +the implements or the system as anything else than the endeavor of man +to solve the mystery of Being and Power. In making use of these emblems, +the Japanese worshipper simply professes his faith in such solution as +has seemed to him attainable. + +That this cultus was quite general in pre-Buddhistic Japan, as in many +other ancient countries, is certain from the proofs of language, +literature, external monuments and relics which are sufficiently +numerous. Its organic connection with the god-way may be clearly shown. + +To go farther back in point of time than the "Kojiki," we find that even +before the development of art in very ancient Japan, the male gods were +represented by a symbol which thus became an image of the deity himself. +This token was usually made of stone, though often of wood, and in later +times of terra-cotta, of cast and wrought iron and even of gold.[12] + +Under the direct influence of such a cult, other objects appealed to the +imagination or served the temporary purpose of the worshipper as +_ex-voto_ to hang up in the shrines, such as the mushroom, awabi, +various other shells and possibly the fire-drill. It is only in the +decay of the cultus, in the change of view and centre of thought +compelled by another religion, that representations of the old emblems +ally themselves with sensualism or immorality. It is that natural +degradation of one man's god into another man's devil, which conversion +must almost of necessity bring, that makes the once revered symbol +"obscene," and talk about it become, in a descending scale, dirty, foul, +filthy, nasty. That the Japanese suffer from the moral effluvia of a +decayed cult which was once as the very vertebral column of the national +body of religion, is evident to every one who acquaints himself with +their popular speech and literature. + +How closely and directly phallicism is connected with the god-way, and +why there were so many Shint[=o] temples devoted to this latter cult and +furnished with symbols, is shown by study of the "Kojiki." The two +opening sections of this book treat of kami that were in the minds even +of the makers of the myths little more than mud and water[13]--the mere +bioplasm of deity. The seven divine generations are "born," but do +nothing except that they give Izanagi and Izanami a jewelled spear. With +this pair come differentiation of sex. It is immediately on the +apparition of the consciousness of sex that motion, action and creation +begin, and the progress of things visible ensues. The details cannot be +put into English, but it is enough, besides noting the conversation and +union of the pair, to say that the term meaning giving birth to, refers +to inanimate as well as animate things. It is used in reference to the +islands which compose the archipelago as well as to the various kami +which seem, in many cases, to be nothing more than the names of things +or places. + + +Fire-myths and Ritual. + + +Fire is, in a sense, the foundation and first necessity of civilization, +and it is interesting to study the myths as to the origin of fire, and +possibly even more interesting to compare the Greek and Japanese +stories. As we know, old-time popular etymology makes Prometheus the +fore-thinker and brother of Epimetheus the after-thinker. He is the +stealer of the fire from heaven, in order to make men share the secret +of the gods. Comparative philology tells us, however, that the Sanskrit +_Pramantha_ is a stick that produces fire. The "Kojiki" does indeed +contain what is probably the later form of the fire-myth about two +brothers, Prince Fire-Shine and Fire-Fade, which suggests both the later +Greek myth of the fore- and after-thinker and a tradition of a flood. +The first, and most probably older, myth in giving the origin of fire +does it in true Japanese style, with details of parturition. After +numerous other deities had been born of Izanagi and Izanami, it is said +"that they gave birth to the Fire-Burning-Swift-Male-Deity, another name +for whom is the Deity-Fire-Shining-Prince, and another name is the +Deity-Fire-Shining-Elder." In the other ancient literature this fire-god +is called Ho-musubi, the Fire-Producer. + +Izanami yielded up her life upon the birth of her son, the fire-god; or, +as the sacred text declares, she "divinely retired"[14] into Hades. From +her corpse sprang up the pairs of gods of clay, of metal, and other kami +that possessed the potency of calming or subduing fire, for clay resists +and water extinguishes. Between the mythical and the liturgical forms of +the original narrative there is considerable variation. + +The Norito entitled the "Quieting of Fire" gives the ritual form of the +myth. It contains, like so many Norito, less the form of prayer to the +Fire-Producer than a promise of offerings. Not so much by petitions as +by the inducements of gifts did the ancient worshippers hope to save the +palace of the Mikado from the fire-god's wrath. We omit from the text +those details which are offensive to modern and western taste. + + I declare with the great ritual, the heavenly ritual, which was + bestowed on him at the time when, by the WORD of the Sovran's + dear progenitor and progenitrix, who divinely remain in the + plain of high heaven, they bestowed on him the region under + heaven, saying: + + "Let the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness tranquilly rule over the + country of fresh spikes which flourishes in the midst of the + reed-moor as a peaceful region." + + When ... Izanami ... had deigned to bear the many hundred + myriads of gods, she also deigned to bear her dear youngest + child of all, the Fire-producer god, ... and said: + + "My dear elder brother's augustness shall rule the upper + country; I will rule the lower country," she deigned to hide in + the rocks; and having come to the flat hills of darkness, she + thought and said: "I have come hither, having borne and left a + bad-hearted child in the upper country, ruled over by my + illustrious elder brother's augustness," and going back she bore + other children. Having borne the water-goddess, the gourd, the + river-weed, and the clay-hill maiden, four sorts of things, she + taught them with words, and made them to know, saying: "If the + heart of this bad-hearted child becomes violent, let the + water-goddess take the gourd, and the clay-hill maiden take the + river-weed, and pacify him." + + In consequence of this I fulfil his praises, and say that for + the things set up, so that he may deign not to be awfully quick + of heart in the great place of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S + augustness, there are provided bright cloth, glittering cloth, + soft cloth, and coarse cloth, and the five kinds of things; as + to things which dwell in the blue-sea plain, there are things + wide of fin and narrow of fin, down to the weeds of the shore; + as to LIQUOR, raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in + rows the bellies of the beer-jars, piling the offerings up, even + to rice in grain and rice in ear, like a range of hills, I + fulfil his praises with the great ritual, the heavenly ritual. + +Izanagi, after shedding tears over his consort, whose death was caused +by the birth of the fire-god, slays the fire-god, and follows her into +the Root-land, or Hades, whereupon begins another round of wonderful +stories of the birth of many gods. Among these, though evidently out of +another cycle of legends, is the story of the birth of the three +gods--Fire-Shine, Fire-Climax and Fire-Fade, to which we have already +referred. + +The fire-drill mentioned in the "Kojiki" suggests easily the same line +of thought with the myths of cosmogony and theogony, and it is +interesting to note that this archaic implement is still used at the +sacred temples of Is to produce fire. After the virgin priestesses +perform the sacred dances in honor of local deities the water for their +bath is heated by fires kindled by heaps of old _harai_ or amulets made +from temple-wood bought at the Mecca of Japan. It is even probable that +the retention of the fire-drill in the service of Shint[=o] is but a +survival of phallicism. + +The liturgy for the pacification of the gods of fire is worth noticing. +The full form of the ritual, when compared with a legend in the +"Nihongi," shows that a myth was "partly devised to explain the +connection of an hereditary family of priests with the god whose shrine +they served; it is possible that the claim to be directly descended from +the god had been disputed." The Norito first recites poetically the +descent of Ninigi, the grandchild of the sun-goddess from heaven, and +the quieting of the turbulent kami. + + I (the diviner), declare: When by the WORD of the progenitor and + progenitrix, who divinely remaining in the plain of high heaven, + deigned to make the beginning of things, they divinely deigned + to assemble the many hundred myriads of gods in the high city of + heaven, and deigned divinely to take counsel in council, saying: + "When we cause our Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to leave + heaven's eternal seat, to cleave a path with might through + heaven's manifold clouds, and to descend from heaven, with + orders tranquilly to rule the country of fresh spikes, which + flourishes in the midst of the reed-moor as a peaceful country, + what god shall we send first to divinely sweep away, sweep away + and subdue the gods who are turbulent in the country of fresh + spikes;" all the gods pondered and declared: "You shall send + Amnohohi's augustness, and subdue them," declared + they. Wherefore they sent him down from heaven, but he did not + declare an answer; and having next sent Takmikuma's augustness, + he also, obeying his father's words, did not declare an + answer. Am-no-waka-hiko also, whom they sent, did not declare + an answer, but immediately perished by the calamity of a bird on + high. Wherefore they pondered afresh by the WORD of the heavenly + gods, and having deigned to send down from heaven the two + pillars of gods, Futsunushi and Takmika-dzuchi's augustness, + who having deigned divinely to sweep away, and sweep away, and + deigned divinely to soften, and soften the gods who were + turbulent, and silenced the rocks, trees, and the least leaf of + herbs likewise that had spoken, they caused the Sovran + GRANDCHILD'S augustness to descend from heaven. + + I fulfil your praises, saying: As to the OFFERINGS set up, so + that the sovran gods who come into the heavenly HOUSE of the + Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness, which, after he had fixed upon + as a peaceful country--the country of great Yamato where the sun + is high, as the centre of the countries of the four quarters + bestowed upon him when he was thus sent down from + heaven--stoutly planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most + rocks, and exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven, + the builders had made for his SHADE from the heavens and SHADE + from the sun, and wherein he will tranquilly rule the country as + a peaceful country--may, without deigning to be turbulent, + deigning to be fierce, and deigning to hurt, knowing, by virtue + of their divinity, the things which were begun in the plain of + high heaven, deigning to correct with Divine-correcting and + Great-correcting, remove hence out to the clean places of the + mountain-streams which look far away over the four quarters, and + rule them as their own place. Let the Sovran gods tranquilly + take with clear HEARTS, as peaceful OFFERINGS and sufficient + OFFERINGS the great OFFERINGS which I set up, piling them upon + the tables like a range of hills, providing bright cloth, + glittering cloth, soft cloth, and coarse cloth; as a thing to + see plain in--a mirror: as things to play with--beads: as things + to shoot off with--a bow and arrows: as a thing to strike and + cut with--a sword: as a thing which gallops out--a horse; as to + LIQUOR--raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in rows + the bellies of the beer-jars, with grains of rice and ears; as + to the things which dwell in the hills--things soft of hair, and + things rough of hair; as to the things which grow in the great + field plain--sweet herbs and bitter herbs; as to the things + which dwell in the blue sea plain--things broad of fin and + things narrow of fin, down to weeds of the offing and weeds of + the shore, and without deigning to be turbulent, deigning to be + fierce, and deigning to hurt, remove out to the wide and clean + places of the mountain-streams, and by virtue of their divinity + be tranquil. + +In this ritual we find the origin of evil attributed to wicked kami, or +gods. To get rid of them is to be free from the troubles of life. The +object of the ritual worship was to compel the turbulent and malevolent +kami to go out from human habitations to the mountain solitudes and rest +there. The dogmas of both god-possession and of the power of exorcism +were not, however, held exclusively by the high functionaries of the +official religion, but were part of the faith of all the people. To this +day both the tenets and the practices are popular under various forms. + +Besides the twenty-seven Norito which are found in the Yengishiki, +published at the opening of the tenth century, there are many others +composed for single occasions. Examples of these are found in the +Government Gazettes. One celebrates the Mikado's removal from Ki[=o]to +to T[=o]ki[=o], another was written and recited to add greater solemnity +to the oath which he took to govern according to modern liberal +principles and to form a national parliament. To those Japanese whose +first idea of duty is loyalty to the emperor, Shint[=o] thus becomes a +system of patriotism exalted to the rank of a religion. Even Christian +natives of Japan can use much of the phraseology of the Norito while +addressing their petitions on behalf of their chief magistrate to the +King of kings. + +The primitive worship of the sun, of light, of fire, has left its +impress upon the language and in vernacular art and customs. Among +scores of derivations of Japanese words (often more pleasing than +scientific), in which the general term _hi_ enters, is that which finds +in the word for man, _hito_, the meaning of "light-bearer." On the face +of the broad terminal tiles of the house-roofs, we still see moulded the +river-weed, with which the Clay-Hill Maiden pacified the Fire-God. On +the frontlet of the warrior's helmet, in the old days of arrow and +armor, glittered in brass on either side of his crest the same symbol of +power and victory. + +Having glanced at the ritual of Shint[=o], let us now examine the +teachings of its oldest book. + + + + +CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS + + "Japan is not a land where men need pray, + For 'tis itself divine: + Yet do I lift my voice in prayer..." + + Hitomaro, + A.D. 737. + + "Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were + not yet manifest, and there was naught named, naught done, who + could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first + parted, and the three Deities performed the commencement of + creation; the Passive and Active Essences then developed, and + the Two Spirits became the ancestors of all things."--Preface of + Yasumar[=o] (A.D. 712) to the "Kojiki." + + "These, the 'Kojiki' and 'Nihongi' are their [the Shint[=o]ists] + canonical books, ... and almost their every word is considered + undeniable truth." + + "The Shint[=o] faith teaches that God inspired the foundation of + the Mikadoate, and that it is therefore sacred."--Kaburagi. + + "We now reverently make our prayer to Them [Our Imperial + Ancestors] and to our Illustrious Father [Komei, + 1867], and + implore the help of Their Sacred Spirits, and make to Them + solemn oath never at this time nor in the future to fail to be + an example to Our subjects in the observance of the Law + [Constitution] hereby established."--Imperial oath of the + Emperor Mutsuhito in the sanctuary in the Imperial Palace, + T[=o]ki[=o], February 11, 1889. + + "Shint[=o] is not our national religion. A faith existed before + it, which was its source. It grew out of superstitious teaching + and mistaken tradition. The history of the rise of Shint[=o] + proves this."--T. Matsugami. + + "Makoto wo mot KAMI NO MICHI wo oshiyurba nari." (Thou + teachest the way of God in truth.)--Mark xii. 14. + + "Ware wa Micni nuri, Mukoto nari, Inochi nari."--John + xiv. 6.--The New Testament in Japanese. + + +CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS + +"The Kojiki" mid its Myths of Cosmogony. + + +As to the origin of the "Kojiki," we have in the closing sentences of +the author's preface the sole documentary authority explaining its scope +and certifying to its authenticity. Briefly the statement is this: The +"Heavenly Sovereign" or Mikado, Temmu (A.D. 673-686), lamenting that the +records possessed by the chief families were "mostly amplified by empty +falsehoods," and fearing that "the grand foundation of the monarchy" +would be destroyed, resolved to preserve the truth. He therefore had the +records carefully examined, compared, and their errors eliminated. There +happened to be in his household a man of marvellous memory, named Hiyda +Ar, who could repeat, without mistake, the contents of any document he +had ever seen, and never forgot anything which he had heard. This person +was duly instructed in the genuine traditions and old language of former +ages, and made to repeat them until he had the whole by heart. "Before +the undertaking was completed," which probably means before it could be +committed to writing, "the emperor died, and for twenty-five years Ar's +memory was the sole depository of what afterwards received the title of +'Kojiki.' ... At the end of this interval the Empress Gemmi[=o] ordered +Yasumar[=o] to write it down from the mouth of Ar, which accounts for +the completion of the manuscript in so short a time as four months and a +half,"[1] in A.D. 712. + +It is from the "Kojiki" that we obtain most of our ideas of ancient life +and thought. The "Nihongi," or Chronicles of Japan, expressed very +largely in Chinese phrases and with Chinese technical and philosophical +terms, further assists us to get a measurably correct idea of what is +called The Divine Age. Of the two books, however, the "Kojiki" is much +more valuable as a true record, because, though rude in style and +exceedingly nave in expression, and by no means free from Chinese +thoughts and phrases, it is marked by a genuinely Japanese cast of +thought and method of composition. Instead of the terse, carefully +measured, balanced, and antithetical sentences of correct Chinese, those +of the "Kojiki" are long and involved, and without much logical +connection. The "Kojiki" contains the real notions, feelings, and +beliefs of Japanese who lived before the eighth century. + +Remembering that prefaces are, like porticos, usually added last of all, +we find that in the beginning all things were in chaos. Heaven and earth +were not separated. The world substance floated in the cosmic mass, like +oil on water or a fish in the sea. Motion in some way began. The +ethereal portions sublimed and formed the heavens; the heavier residuum +became the present earth. In the plain of high heaven, when the heaven +and earth began, were born three kami who "hid their bodies," that is, +passed away or died. Out of the warm mould of the earth a germ sprouted, +and from this were born two kami, who also were born alone, and died. +After these heavenly kami came forth what are called the seven divine +generations, or line of seven kami.[2] + +To express the opening lines of the "Kojiki" in terms of our own speech +and in the moulds of Western thought, we may say that matter existed +before mind and the gods came forth, as it were, by spontaneous +evolution. The first thing that appeared out of the warm earth-muck was +like a rush-sprout, and this became a kami, or god. From this being came +forth others, which also produced beings, until there were perfect +bodies, sex and differentiation of powers. The "Nihongi," however, not +only gives a different view of this evolution basing it upon the dualism +of Chinese philosophy--that is, of the active and passive +principles--and uses Chinese technical terminology, but gives lists of +kami that differ notably from those in the "Kojiki." This latter fact +seems to have escaped the attention of those who write freely about what +they imagine to be the early religion of the Japanese.[3] + +After this introduction, in which "Dualities, Trinities, and Supreme +Deities" have been discovered by writers unfamiliar with the genius of +the Japanese language, there follows an account of the creation of the +habitable earth by Izanami and Izanagi, whose names mean the +Male-Who-Invites and the Female-Who-Invites. The heavenly kami commanded +these two gods to consolidate and give birth to the drifting land. +Standing on the floating bridge of heaven, the male plunged his +jewel-spear into the unstable waters beneath, stirring them until they +gurgled and congealed. When he drew forth the spear, the drops trickling +from its point formed an island, ever afterward called Onokoro-jima, or +the Island of the Congealed Drop. Upon this island they descended. The +creative pair, or divine man and woman, now separated to make a journey +round the island, the male to the left, the female to the right. At +their meeting the female spoke first: "How joyful to meet a lovely man!" +The male, offended that the woman had spoken first, required the circuit +to be repeated. On their second meeting, the man cried out: "How joyful +to meet a lovely woman!" This island on which they had descended was the +first of several which they brought into being. In poetry it is the +Island of the Congealed Drop. In common geography it is identified as +Awaji, at the entrance of the Inland Sea. Thence followed the creation +of the other visible objects in nature. + +Izanagi's Visit to Hades and Results. + + +After the birth of the god of fire, which nearly destroyed the mother's +life, Izanami fled to the land of roots or of darkness, that is into +Hades. Izanagi, like a true Orpheus, followed his Eurydice and beseeched +her to come back to earth to complete with him the work of creation. She +parleyed so long with the gods of the underworld that her consort, +breaking off a tooth of his comb, lighted it as a torch and rushed in. +He found her putrefied body, out of which had been born the eight gods +of thunder. Horrified at the awful foulness which he found in the +underworld, he rushed up and out, pursued by the Ugly-Female-of-Hades. +By artifices that bear a wonderful resemblance to those in Teutonic +fairy tales, he blocked up the way. His head-dress, thrown at his +pursuer, turned into grapes which she stopped to eat. The teeth of his +comb sprouted into a bamboo forest, which detained her. The three +peaches were used as projectiles; his staff which stuck up in the ground +became a gate, and a mighty rock was used to block up the narrow pass +through the mountains. Each of these objects has its relation to +place-names in Idzumo or to superstitions that are still extant. The +peaches and the rocks became gods, and on this incident, by which the +beings in Hades were prevented from advance and successful mischief on +earth, is founded one of the norito which Mr. Satow gives in condensed +form. The names of the three gods,[4] Youth and Maiden of the Many +Road-forkings, and Come-no-further Gate, are expressed and invoked in +the praises bestowed on them in connection with the offerings. + + He (the priest) says: I declare in the presence of the sovran + gods, who like innumerable piles of rocks sit closing up the way + in the multitudinous road-forkings.... I fulfil your praises by + declaring your NAMES, Youth and Maiden of the Many Road-forkings + and Come-no-further Gate, and say: for the OFFERINGS set up that + you may prevent [the servants of the monarch] from being + poisoned by and agreeing with the things which shall come + roughly-acting and hating from the Root-country, the + Bottom-country, that you may guard the bottom (of the gate) when + they come from the bottom, guard the top when they come from the + top, guarding with nightly guard and with daily guard, and may + praise them--peacefully take the great OFFERINGS which are set + up by piling them up like a range of hills, that is to say, + providing bright cloth, etc., ... and sitting closing-up the way + like innumerable piles of rock in the multitudinous + road-forkings, deign to praise the sovran GRANDCHILD'S + augustness eternally and unchangingly, and to bless his age as a + luxuriant AGE. + +Retreating to another part of the world--that is, into southwestern +Japan--Izanami purified himself by bathing in a stream. While washing +himself,[5] many kami were borne from the rinsings of his person, one of +them, from the left eye (the left in Japanese is always the honorable +side), being the far-shining or heaven-illuminating kami, whose name, +Amatras[)u], or Heaven-shiner, is usually translated "The Sun-goddess." +This personage is the centre of the system of Shint[=o]. The creation of +gods by a process of cleansing has had a powerful effect on the +Japanese, who usually associate cleanliness of the body (less moral, +than physical) with godliness. + +It is not necessary to detail further the various stories which make up +the Japanese mythology. Some of these are lovely and beautiful, but +others are horrible and disgusting, while the dominant note throughout +is abundant filthiness. + +Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world such good +service in translating into English the whole of the Kojiki, and +furnishing it with learned commentary and notes, has well said: + + "The shocking obscenity of word and act to which the 'Records' + bear witness is another ugly feature which must not quite be + passed over in silence. It is true that decency, as we + understand it, is a very modern product, and it is not to be + looked for in any society in the barbarous stage. At the same + time, the whole range of literature might perhaps be ransacked + for a parallel to the nave filthiness of the passage forming + Sec. IV. of the following translation, or to the extraordinary + topic which the hero Yamato-Tak and his mistress Miyadz[)u] are + made to select as the theme of poetical repartee. One passage + likewise would lead us to suppose that the most beastly crimes + were commonly committed."[6] + +Indeed, it happens in several instances that the thread by which the +marvellous patchwork of unrelated and varying local myths is joined +together, is an indecent love story. + +A thousand years after the traditions of the Kojiki had been committed +to writing, and orthodox Shint[=o] commentators had learned science from +the Dutch at Nagasaki, the stirring of the world mud by Izanagi's +spear[7] was gravely asserted to be the cause of the diurnal revolution +of the earth upon its axis, the point of the axis being still the jewel +spear.[8] Onogoro-jima, or the Island of the Congealed Drop, was +formerly at the north pole,[9] but subsequently removed to its present +position. How this happened is not told. + + +Life in Japan During the Divine Age. + + +Now that the Kojiki is in English and all may read it, we can clearly +see who and what were the Japanese in the ages before letters and +Chinese civilization; for these stories of the kami are but legendary +and mythical accounts of men and women. One could scarcely recognize in +the islanders of eleven or twelve hundred years ago, the polished, +brilliant, and interesting people of to-day. Yet truth compels us to say +that social morals in Dai Nippon, even with telegraphs and railways, are +still more like those of ancient days than readers of rhapsodies by +summer tourists might suppose. These early Japanese, indeed, were +possibly in a stage of civilization somewhat above that of the most +advanced of the American Indians when first met by Europeans, for they +had a rude system of agriculture and knew the art of fashioning iron +into tools and weapons. Still, they were very barbarous, certainly as +much so as our Germanic "forbears." They lived in huts. They were +without writing or commerce, and were able to count only to ten.[10] +Their cruelty was as revolting as that of the savage tribes of America. +The family was in its most rudimentary stage, with little or no +restraint upon the passions of men. Children of the same father, but not +of the same mother, could intermarry. The instances of men marrying +their sisters or aunts were very common. There was no art, unless the +making of clay images, to take the place of the living human victims +buried up to their necks in earth and left to starve on the death of +their masters,[11] may be designated as such. + +The Magatama, or curved jewels, being made of ground and polished stone +may be called jewelry; but since some of these prehistoric ornaments dug +up from the ground are found to be of jade, a mineral which does not +occur in Japan, it is evident that some of these tokens of culture came +from the continent. Many other things produced by more or less skilled +mechanics, the origin of which is poetically recounted in the story of +the dancing of Uzum before the cave in which the Sun-goddess had hid +herself,[12] were of continental origin. Evidently these men of the +god-way had passed the "stone age," and, probably without going through +the intermediate bronze age, were artificers of iron and skilled in its +use. Most of the names of metals and of many other substances, and the +terms used in the arts and sciences, betray by their tell-tale etymology +their Chinese origin. Indeed, it is evident that some of the leading +kami were born in Korea or Tartary. + +Then as now the people in Japan loved nature, and were quickly sensitive +to her beauty and profoundly in sympathy with her varied phenomena. In +the medival ages, Japanese Wordsworths are not unknown.[13] Sincerely +they loved nature, and in some respects they seemed to understand the +character of their country far better than the alien does or can. Though +a land of wonderful beauty, the Country of Peaceful Shores is enfolded +in powers of awful destructiveness. With the earthquake and volcano, the +typhoon and the tidal wave, beauty and horror alternate with a swiftness +that is amazing. + +Probably in no portion of the earth are the people and the land more +like each other or apparently better acquainted with each other. Nowhere +are thought and speech more reflective of the features of the landscape. +Even after ten centuries, the Japanese are, in temperament, what the +Kojiki reveals them to have been in their early simplicity. Indeed, just +as the modern Frenchman, down beneath his outward environments and his +habiliments cut and fitted yesterday, is intrinsically the same Gaul +whom Julius Csar described eighteen hundred years ago, so the gentleman +of T[=o]ki[=o] or Ki[=o]to is, in his mental make-up, wonderfully like +his ancestors described by the first Japanese Stanley, who shed the +light of letters upon the night of unlettered Japan and darkest Dai +Nippon. + +The Kojiki reveals to us, likewise, the childlike religious ideas of the +islanders. Heaven lay, not about but above them in their infancy, yet +not far away. Although in the "Notices," it is "the high plain of +heaven," yet it is just over their heads, and once a single pillar +joined it and the earth. Later, the idea was, that it was held up by the +pillar-gods of the wind, and to them norito were recited. "The great +plain of the blue sea" and "the land of luxuriant reeds" form "the +world"--which means Japan. The gods are only men of prowess or renown. A +kami is anything wonderful--god or man, rock or stream, bird or snake, +whatever is surprising, sensational, or phenomenal, as in the little +child's world of to-day. There is no sharp line dividing gods from men, +the natural from the supernatural, even as with the normal uneducated +Japanese of to-day. As for the kami or gods, they have all sorts of +characters; some of them being rude and ill-mannered, many of them +beastly and filthy, while others are noble and benevolent. The +attributes of moral purity, wisdom and holiness, cannot be, and in the +original writings are not, ascribed to them; but they were strong and +had power. In so far as they had power they were called kami or gods, +whether celestial or terrestrial. Among the kami--the one term under +which they are all included--there were heavenly bodies, mountains, +rivers, trees, rocks and animals, because those also were supposed to +possess force, or at least some kind of influence for good or evil. Even +peaches, as we have seen, when transformed into rocks, became gods.[14] + +That there was worship with awe, reverence, and fear, and that the +festivals and sacrifices had two purposes, one of propitiating the +offended Kami and the other of purifying the worshipper, may be seen in +the norito or liturgies, some of which are exceedingly beautiful.[15] In +them the feelings of the gods are often referred to. Sometimes their +characters are described. Yet one looks in vain in either the "Notices," +poems, or liturgies for anything definite in regard to these deities, or +concerning morals or doctrines to be held as dogmas. The first gods come +into existence after evolution of the matter of which they are composed +has taken place. The later gods are sometimes able to tell who are their +progenitors, sometimes not. They live and fight, eat and drink, and give +vent to their appetites and passions, and then they die; but exactly +what becomes of them after they die, the record does not state. Some are +in heaven, some on the earth, some in Hades. The underworld of the first +cycle of tradition is by no means that of the second.[16] Some of the +kami are in the water, or on the water, or in the air. As for man, there +is no clear statement as to whether he is to have any future life or +what is to become of him, though the custom or jun-shi, or dying with +the master, points to a sort of immortality such as the early Greeks and +the Iroquois believed in. + +It would task the keenest and ablest Shint[=o]ist to deduce or construct +a system of theology, or of ethics, or of anthropology from the mass of +tradition so full of gaps and discord as that found in the Kojiki, and +none has done it. Nor do the inaccurate, distorted, and often almost +wholly factitious translations, so-called, of French and other writers, +who make versions which hit the taste of their occidental readers far +better than they express the truth, yield the desired information. Like +the end strands of a new spider's web, the lines of information on most +vital points are still "in the air." + + +The Ethics of the God-way. + + +There are no codes of morals inculcated in the god-way, for even its +modern revivalists and exponents consider that morals are the invention +of wicked people like the Chinese; while the ancient Japanese were pure +in thought and act. They revered the gods and obeyed the Mikado, and +that was the chief end of man, in those ancient times when Japan was the +world and Heaven was just above the earth. Not exactly on Paul's +principle of "where there is no law there is no transgression," but +utterly scouting the idea that formulated ethics were necessary for +these pure-minded people, the modern revivalists of Shint[=o] teach that +all that is "of faith" now is to revere the gods, keep the heart pure, +and follow its dictates.[17] The navet of the representatives of +Shint[=o] at Chicago in A.D. 1893, was almost as great as that of the +revivalists who wrote when Japan was a hermit nation. + +The very fact that there was no moral commandments, not even of loyalty +or obedience such as Confucianism afterward promulgated and formulated, +is proof to the modern Shint[=o]ist that the primeval Japanese were pure +and holy; they did right, naturally, and hence he does not hesitate to +call Japan, the Land of the Gods, the Country of the Holy Spirits, the +Region Between Heaven and Earth, the Island of the Congealed Drop, the +Sun's Nest, the Princess Country, the Land of Great Peace, the Land of +Great Gentleness, the Mikado's Empire, the Country ruled by a Theocratic +Dynasty. He considers that only with the vice brought over from the +Continent of Asia were ethics both imported and made necessary.[18] + +All this has been solemnly taught by famous Shint[=o] scholars of the +eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and is still practically +promulgated in the polemic Shint[=o] literature of to-day, even after +the Kojiki has been studied and translated into European languages. The +Kojiki shows that whatever the men may have been or done, the gods were +abominably obscene, and both in word and deed were foul and revolting, +utterly opposed in act to those reserves of modesty or standards of +shame that exist even among the cultivated Japanese to-day.[19] Even +among the Ainos, whom the Japanese look upon as savages, there is still +much of the obscenity of speech which belongs to all society[20] in a +state of barbarism; but it has been proved that genuine modesty is a +characteristic of the Aino women.[21] A literal English translation of +the Kojiki, however, requires an abundant use of Latin in order to +protect it from the grasp of the law in English-speaking Christendom. In +Chamberlain's version, the numerous cesspools are thus filled up with a +dead language, and the road is constructed for the reader, who likes the +language of Edmund Spencer, of William Tyndale and of John Ruskin kept +unsoiled. + +The cruelty which marks this early stage shows that though moral codes +did not exist, the Buddhist and Confucian missionary were for Japan +necessities of the first order. Comparing the result to-day with the +state of things in the early times, one must award high praise to +Buddhism that it has made the Japanese gentle, and to Confucianism that +it has taught the proprieties of life, so that the polished Japanese +gentleman, as to courtesy, is in many respects the peer and at some +external points the superior, of his European confrre. + +Another fact, made repulsively clear, about life in ancient Japan, is +that the high ideals of truth and honor, characteristic at least of the +Samurai of modern times, were utterly unknown in the days of the kami. +Treachery was common. Instances multiply on the pages of the Kojiki +where friend betrayed friend. The most sacred relations of life were +violated. Altogether these were the darkest ages of Japan, though, as +among the red men of America, there were not wanting many noble examples +of stoical endurance, of courage, and of power nobly exerted for the +benefit of others. + + +The Rise of Mikadoism. + + +Nevertheless we must not forget that the men of the early age of the +Kami no Michi conquered the aborigines by superior dogmas and fetiches, +as well as by superior weapons. The entrance of these heroes, invaders +from the highlands of the Asian continent, by way of Korea, was +relatively a very influential factor of progress, though not so +important as was the Aryan descent upon India, or the Norman invasion of +England, for the aboriginal tribes were vastly lower in the scale of +humanity than their subduers. Where they found savagery they introduced +barbarism, which, though unlettered and based on the sword, was a vast +improvement over what may be called the geological state of man, in +which he is but slightly raised above the brutes. + +For the proofs from the shell heaps, combined with the reflected +evidences of folk-lore, show, that cannibalism[22] was common in the +early ages, and that among the aboriginal hill tribes it lingered after +the inhabitants of the plain and shore had been subdued. The conquerors, +who made themselves paramount over the other tribes and who developed +the Kami religion, abolished this relic of savagery, and gave order +where there had been chronic war. Another thing that impresses us +because of its abundant illustrations, is the prevalence of human +sacrifices. The very ancient folk-lore shows that beautiful maidens were +demanded by the "sea-gods" in propitiation, or were devoured by the +"dragons." These human victims were either chosen or voluntarily +offered, and in some instances were rescued from their fate by +chivalrous heroes[23] from among the invaders. + +These gods of the sea, who anciently were propitiated by the sacrifice +of human beings, are the same to whom Japanese sailors still pray, +despite their Buddhism. The title of the efficient victims was +_hitoga-shira_, or human pillars. Instances of this ceremony, where men +were lowered into the water and drowned in order to make the sure +foundation for bridges, piers or sea-walls, or where they were buried +alive in the earth in order to lay the right bases for walls or castles, +are quite numerous, and most of the local histories contain specific +traditions.[24] These traditions, now transfigured, still survive in +customs that are as beautiful as they are harmless. To reformers of +pre-Buddhistic days, belongs the credit of the abolition of jun-shi, or +dying with the master by burial alive, as well as of the sacrifice to +dragons and sea-gods. + +Strange as it may seem, before Buddhism captured and made use of +Shint[=o] for its own purposes (just as it stands ready to-day to absorb +Christianity by making Jesus one of the Palestinian avatars of the +Buddha), the house or tribe of Yamato, with its claim to descent from +the heavenly gods, and with its Mikado or god-ruler, had given to the +Buddhists a precedent and potent example. Shint[=o], as a state religion +or union of politics and piety, with its system of shrines and +festivals, and in short the whole Kami no Michi, or Shint[=o] as we know +it, from the sixth to the eighth century, was in itself (in part at +least), a case of the absorption of one religion by another. + +In short, the Mikado tribe or Yamato clan did, in reality, capture the +aboriginal religion, and turn it into a great political machine. They +attempted syncretism and succeeded in their scheme. They added to their +own stock of dogma and fetich that of the natives. Only, while +recognizing the (earth) gods of the aborigines they proclaimed the +superiority of the Mikado as representative and vicegerent of Heaven, +and demanded that even the gods of the earth, mountain, river, wind, and +thunder and lightning should obey him. Not content, however, with +absorbing and corrupting for political purposes the primitive faith of +the aborigines, the invaders corrupted their own religion by carrying +the dogma of the divinity and infallibility of the Mikado too far. +Stopping short of no absurdity, they declared their chief greater even +than the heavenly gods, and made their religion centre in him rather +than in his alleged heavenly ancestors, or "heaven." In the interest of +politics and conquest, and for the sake of maintaining the prestige of +their tribe and clan, these "Mikado-reverencers" of early ages advanced +from dogma to dogma, until their leader was virtually chief god in a +great pantheon. + +A critical native Japanese, student of the Kojiki and of the early +writings, Professor Kumi, formerly of the Imperial University in +T[=o]ki[=o], has brought to light abundant evidence to show that the +aboriginal religion found by the Yamato conquerors was markedly +different at many vital points, from that which was long afterward +called Shint[=o]. + +If the view of recent students of anthropology be correct, that the +elements dominating the population in ancient Japan were in the south, +Malay; in the north, Aino; and in the central region, or that occupied +by the Yamato men, Korean; then, these continental invaders may have +been worshippers of Heaven and have possessed a religion closely akin to +that of ancient China with its monotheism. It is very probable also that +they came into contact with tribes or colonies of their +fellow-continentals from Asia. These tribes, hunters, fishermen, or rude +agriculturists--who had previously reached Japan--practised many rites +and ceremonies which were much like those of the new invaders. It is +certain also, as we have seen, that the Yamato men made ultimate +conquest and unification of all the islanders, not merely by the +superiority of their valor and of their weapons of iron, but also by +their dogmas. After success in battle, and the first beginnings of rude +government, they taught their conquered subjects or over-awed vassals, +that they were the descendants of the heavenly gods; that their +ancestors had come down from heaven; find that their chief or Mikado was +a god. According to the same dogmatics, the aborigines were descendants +of the earth-born gods, and as such must obey the descendants of the +heavenly gods, and their vicegerent upon the earth, the Mikado. + + +Purification of Offences. + + +These heaven-descended Yamato people were in the main agriculturists, +though of a rude order, while the outlying tribes were mostly hunters +and fishermen; and many of the rituals show the class of crimes which +nomads, or men of unsettled life, would naturally commit against their +neighbors living in comparatively settled order. It is to be noted that +in the god-way the origin of evil is to be ascribed to evil gods. These +kami pollute, and pollution is iniquity. From this iniquity the people +are to be purged by the gods of purification, to whom offerings are duly +made. + +He who would understand the passion for cleanliness which characterizes +the Japanese must look for its source in their ancient religion. The +root idea of the word _tsumi_, which Mr. Satow translated as "offence," +is that of pollution. On this basis, of things pure and things defiling, +the ancient teachers of Shint[=o] made their classification of what was +good and what was bad. From the impression of what was repulsive arose +the idea of guilt. + +In rituals translated by Mr. Satow, the list of offences is given and +the defilements are to be removed to the nether world, or, in common +fact, the polluted objects and the expiatory sacrifices are to be thrown +into the rivers and thence carried to the sea, where they fall to the +bottom of the earth. The following norito clearly shows this. +Furthermore, as Mr. Satow, the translator, points out, this ritual +contains the germ of criminal law, a whole code of which might have been +evolved and formulated under Shint[=o], had not Buddhism arrested its +growth. + + Amongst the various sorts of offences which may be committed in + ignorance or out of negligence by heaven's increasing people, + who shall come into being in the country, which the Sovran + GRANDCHILD'S augustness, hiding in the fresh RESIDENCE, built by + stoutly planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most rocks, and + exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven, as his + SHADE from the heavens and SHADE from the sun, shall tranquilly + ruin as a peaceful country, namely, the country of great Yamato, + where the sun is soon on high, which he fixed upon as a peaceful + country, as the centre of the countries of the four quarters + thus bestowed upon him--breaking the ridges, filling up + water-courses, opening sluices, double-sowing, planting stakes, + flaying alive, flaying backwards, and dunging; many of such + offences are distinguished as heavenly offences, and as earthly + offences; cutting living flesh, cutting dead flesh, leprosy, + proud-flesh, ... calamities of crawling worms, calamities of a + god on high, calamities of birds on high, the offences of + killing beasts and using incantations; many of such offences may + be disclosed. + + When he has thus repeated it, the heavenly gods will push open + heaven's eternal gates, and cleaving a path with might through + the manifold clouds of heaven, will hear; and the country gods, + ascending to the tops of the high mountains, and to the tops of + the low hills, and tearing asunder the mists of the high + mountains and the mists of the low hills, will hear. + + And when they have thus heard, the + Maiden-of-Descent-into-the-Current, who dwells in the current of + the swift stream which boils down the ravines from the tops of + the high mountains, and the tops of the low hills, shall carry + out to the great sea plain the offences which are cleared away + and purified, so that there be no remaining offence; like as + Shinato's wind blows apart the manifold clouds of heaven, as the + morning wind and the evening wind blow away the morning mist and + the evening mist, as the great ships which lie on the shore of a + great port loosen their prows, and loosen their sterns to push + out into the great sea-plain; as the trunks of the forest trees, + far and near, are cleared away by the sharp sickle, the sickle + forged with fire: so that there ceased to be any offence called + an offence in the court of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to + begin with, and in the countries of the four quarters of the + region under heaven. + + And when she thus carries them out and away, the deity called + the Maiden-of-the-Swift-cleansing, who dwells in the + multitudinous meetings of the sea waters, the multitudinous + currents of rough sea-waters shall gulp them down. + + And when she has thus gulped them down, the lord of the + Breath-blowing-place, who dwells in the Breath-blowing-place, + shall utterly blow them away with his breath to the + Root-country, the Bottom-country. + + And when he has thus blown them away, the deity called the + Maiden-of-Swift-Banishment, who dwells in the Root-country, the + Bottom-country, shall completely banish them, and get rid of + them. + + And when they have thus been got rid of, there shall from this + day onwards be no offence which is called offence, with regard + to the men of the offices who serve in the court of the Sovran, + nor in the four quarters of the region under heaven. + +Then the high priest says: + + Hear all of you how he leads forth the horse, as a thing that + erects its ears towards the plain of high heaven, and deigns to + sweep away and purify with the general purification, as the + evening sun goes down on the last day of the watery moon of this + year. + + O diviners of the four countries, take (the sacrifices) away out + to the river highway, and sweep them away. + + +Mikadoism Usurps the Primitive God-way. + + +A further proof of the transformation of the primitive god-way in the +interest of practical politics, is shown by Professor Kumi in the fact +that some of the festivals now directly connected with the Mikado's +house, and even in his honor, were originally festivals with which he +had nothing to do, except as leader of the worship, for the honor was +paid to Heaven, and not to his ancestors. Professor Kumi maintains that +the thanksgivings of the court were originally to Heaven itself, and not +in honor of Amatras[)u], the sun-goddess, as is now popularly believed. +It is related in the Kojiki that Amatras[)u] herself celebrated the +feast of Niinam. So also, the temple of Is, the Mecca of Shint[=o], +and the Holy shrine in the imperial palace were originally temples for +the worship of Heaven. The inferior gods of earthly origin form no part +of primitive Shint[=o]. + +Not one of the first Mikados was deified after death, the deification of +emperors dating from the corruption which Shint[=o] underwent after the +introduction of Buddhism. Only by degrees was the ruler of the country +given a place in the worship, and this connection was made by +attributing to him descent from Heaven. In a word, the contention of +Professor Kumi is, that the ancient religion of at least a portion of +the Japanese and especially of those in central Japan, was a rude sort +of monotheism, coupled, as in ancient China, with the worship of +subordinate spirits. + +It is needless to say that such applications of the higher criticism to +the ancient sacred documents proved to be no safer for the applier than +if he had lived in the United States of America. The orthodox +Shint[=o]ists were roused to wrath and charged the learned critic with +"degrading Shint[=o] to a mere branch of Christianity." The government, +which, despite its Constitution and Diet, is in the eyes of the people +really based on the myths of the Kojiki, quickly put the professor on +the retired list.[25] + +It is probably correct to say that the arguments adduced by Professor +Kumi, confirm our theory of the substitution in the simple god-way, of +Mikadoism, the centre of the primitive worship being the sun and nature +rather than Heaven. + +Between the ancient Chinese religion with its abstract idea of Heaven +and its personal term for God, and the more poetic and childlike system +of the god-way, there seems to be as much difference as there is +racially between the people of the Middle Kingdom and those of the Land +Where the Day Begins. Indeed, the entrance of Chinese philosophical and +abstract ideas seemed to paralyze the Japanese imagination. Not only did +myth-making, on its purely sthetic and non-utilitarian side cease +almost at once, but such myths as were formed were for direct business +purposes and with a transparent tendency. Henceforth, in the domain of +imagination the Japanese intellect busied itself with assimilating or +re-working the abundant material imported by Buddhism. + + +Ancient Customs and Usages. + + +In the ancient god-way the temple or shrine was called a miya. After the +advent of Buddhism the keepers of the shrine were called kannushi, that +is, shrine keepers or wardens of the god. These men were usually +descendants of the god in whose honor the temples were built. The gods +being nothing more than human founders of families, reverence was paid +to them as ancestors, and so the basis of Shint[=o] is ancestor worship. +The model of the miya, in modern as in ancient times, is the primitive +hut as it was before Buddhism introduced Indian and Chinese +architecture. The posts, stuck in the ground, and not laid upon stones +as in after times, supported the walls and roof, the latter being of +thatch. The rafters, crossed at the top, were tied along the ridge-pole +with the fibres of creepers or wistaria vines. No paint, lacquer, +gilding, or ornaments of any sort existed in the ancient shrine, and +even to-day the modern Shint[=o] temple must be of pure hinoki or +sun-wood, and thatched, while the use of metal is as far as possible +avoided. To the gods, as the norito show, offerings of various kinds +were made, consisting of the fruits of the soil, the products of the +sea, and the fabrics of the loom. + +Inside modern temples one often sees a mirror, in which foreigners with +lively imaginations read a great deal that is only the shadow of their +own mind, but which probably was never known in Shint[=o] temples until +after Buddhist times. They also see in front of the unpainted wooden +closets or casements, wands or sticks of wood from which depend masses +or strips of white paper, cut and notched in a particular way. +Foreigners, whose fancy is nimble, have read in these the symbols of +lightning, the abode of the spirits and various forthshadowings unknown +either to the Japanese or the ancient writings. In reality these +_gohei_, or honorable offerings, are nothing more than the paper +representatives of the ancient offerings of cloth which were woven, as +the arts progressed, of bark, of hemp and of silk. + +The chief Shint[=o] ministers of religion and shrine-keepers belonged to +particular families, which were often honored with titles and offices by +the emperor. In ordinary life they dressed like others of their own rank +or station, but when engaged in their sacred office were robed in white +or in a special official costume, wearing upon their heads the _boshi_ +or peculiar cap which we associate with Japanese archology. They knew +nothing of celibacy; but married, reared families and kept their scalps +free from the razor, though some of the lower order of shrine-keepers +dressed their hair in ordinary style, that is, with shaven poll and +topknot. At some of the more important shrines, like those at Is, there +were virgin priestesses who acted as custodians both of the shrines and +of the relics.[26] + +In front of the miyas stood what we should suppose on first seeing was a +gateway. This was the _torii_ or bird-perch, and anciently was made only +of unpainted wood. Two upright tree-trunks held crosswise on a smooth +tree-trunk the ends of which projected somewhat over the supports, while +under this was a smaller beam inserted between the two uprights. On the +torii, the birds, generally barn-yard fowls which were sacred to the +gods, roosted. These creatures were not offered up as sacrifices, but +were chanticleers to give notice of day-break and the rising of the sun. +The cock holds a prominent place in Japanese myth, legend, art and +symbolism. How this feature of pure Japanese architecture, the torii, +afterward lost its meaning, we shall show in our lecture on Riy[=o]bu or +mixed Buddhism. + + +Shint[=o]'s Emphasis on Cleanliness. + + +One of the most remarkable features of Shint[=o] was the emphasis laid +on cleanliness. Pollution was calamity, defilement was sin, and physical +purity at least, was holiness. Everything that could in any way soil the +body or the clothing was looked upon with abhorrence and detestation. +Disease, wounds and death were defiling, and the feeling of disgust +prevailed over that of either sympathy or pity. Birth and death were +especially polluting. Anciently there were huts built both for the +mother about to give birth to a child, or for the man who was dying or +sure to die of disease or wounds. After the birth of the infant or the +death of the patient these houses were burned. Cruel as this system was +to the woman at a time when she needed most care and comfort, and brutal +as it seems in regard to the sick and dying, yet this ancient custom was +continued in a few remote places in Japan as late as the year 1878.[27] +In modern days with equal knowledge of danger and defilement, tenderness +and compassion temper the feeling of disgust, and prevail over it. +Horror of uncleanliness was so great that the priests bathed and put on +clean garments before making the sacred offerings or chanting the +liturgies, and were accustomed to bind a slip of paper over their mouths +lest their breath should pollute the offering. Numerous were the special +festivals, observed simply for purification. Salt also was commonly used +to sprinkle over the ground, and those who attended a funeral must free +themselves from contamination by the use of salt.[28] Purification by +water was habitual and in varied forms. The ancient emperors and priests +actually performed the ablution of the people or made public lustration +in their behalf. + +Afterwards, and probably because population increased and towns sprang +up, we find it was customary at the festivals of purification to perform +public ablution, vicariously, as it were, by means of paper mannikins +instead of making applications of water to the human cuticle. Twice a +year paper figures representing the people were thrown into the river, +the typical meaning of which was that the nation was thereby cleansed +from the sins, that is, the defilements, of the previous half-year. +Still later, the Mikado made the chief minister of religion at Ki[=o]to +his deputy to perform the symbolical act for the people of the whole +country. + + +Prayers to Myriads of Gods. + + +In prayer, the worshipper, approaching the temple but not entering it, +pulls a rope usually made of white material and attached to a +peculiar-shaped bell hung over the shrine, calling the attention of the +deity to his devotions. Having washed his hands and rinsed out his +mouth, he places his hands reverently together and offers his petition. + +Concerning the method and words of prayer, Hirata, a famous exponent of +Shint[=o], thus writes: + + As the number of the gods who possess different functions is so + great, it will be convenient to worship by name only the most + important and to include the rest in a general petition. Those + whose daily affairs are so multitudinous that they have not time + to go through the whole of the following morning prayers, may + content themselves with adoring the residence of the emperor, + the domestic kami-dana, the spirits of their ancestors, their + local patron god and the deity of their particular calling in + life. + + In praying to the gods the blessings which each has it in his + power to bestow are to be mentioned in a few words, and they are + not to be annoyed with greedy petitions, for the Mikado in his + palace offers up petitions daily on behalf of his people, which + are far more effectual than those of his subjects. + + Rising early in the morning, wash your face and hands, rinse out + the mouth and cleanse the body. Then turn toward the province of + Yamato, strike the palms of the hands together twice, and + worship, bowing the head to the ground. The proper posture is + that of kneeling on the heels, which is ordinarily assumed in + saluting a superior. + + PRAYER. + + From a distance I reverently worship with awe before Am no + Mi-hashira (Heaven-pillar) and Kuni no Mi-hashira + (Country-pillar), also called Shinatsu-hiko no kami and + Shinatsu-him no kami, to whom is consecrated the Palace built + with stout pillars at Tatsuta no Tachinu in the department of + Hguri in the province of Yamato. + + I say with awe, deign to bless me by correcting the unwitting + faults which, seen and heard by you, I have committed, by + blowing off and clearing away the calamities which evil gods + might inflict, by causing me to live long like the hard and + lasting rock, and by repeating to the gods of heavenly origin + and to the gods of earthly origin the petitions which I present + every day, along with your breath, that they may hear with the + sharp-earedness of the forth-galloping colt. + +To the common people the sun is actually a god, as none can doubt who +sees them worshipping it morning and evening. The writer can never +forget one of many similar scenes in T[=o]ki[=o], when late one +afternoon after O Tent[=o] Sama (the sun-Lord of Heaven), which had been +hidden behind clouds for a fortnight, shone out on the muddy streets. In +a moment, as with the promptness of a military drill, scores of people +rushed out of their houses and with faces westward, kneeling, squatting, +began prayer and worship before the great luminary. Besides all the +gods, supreme, subordinate and local, there is in nearly every house the +Kami-dana or god-shelf. This is usually over the door inside. It +contains images with little paper-covered wooden tablets having the +god's name on them. Offerings are made by day and a little lamp is +lighted at night. The following is one of several prayers which are +addressed to this kami-dana. + + Reverently adoring the great god of the two palaces of Is, in + the first place, the eight hundred myriads of celestial gods, + the eight hundred myriads of terrestrial gods, all the fifteen + hundred myriads of gods to whom are consecrated the great and + small temples in all provinces, all islands and all places of + the Great Land of Eight Islands, the fifteen hundreds of myriads + of gods whom they cause to serve them, and the gods of branch + palaces and branch temples, and Sohodo no kami, whom I have + invited to the shrine set up on this divine shelf, and to whom I + offer praises day by day, I pray with awe that they will deign + to correct the unwitting faults, which, heard and seen by them, + I have committed, and blessing and favoring me according to the + powers which they severally wield, cause me to follow the divine + example, and to perform good works in the Way. + + +Shint[=o] Left in a State of Arrested Development. + + +Thus from the emperor to the humblest believer, the god-way is founded +on ancestor worship, and has had grafted upon its ritual system nature +worship, even to phallicism.[29] In one sense it is a self-made religion +of the Japanese. Its leading characteristics are seen in the traits of +the normal Japanese character of to-day. Its power for good and evil may +be traced in the education of the Japanese through many centuries. +Knowing Shint[=o], we to a large degree know the Japanese, their virtues +and their failings. + +What Shint[=o] might have become in its full evolution had it been left +alone, we cannot tell. Whether in the growth of the nation and without +the pressure of Buddhism, Confucianism or other powerful influences from +outside, the scattered and fragmentary mythology might have become +organized into a harmonious system, or codes of ethics have been +formulated, or the doctrines of a future life and the idea of a Supreme +Being with personal attributes have been conceived and perfected, are +questions the discussion of which may seem to be vain. History, however, +gives no uncertain answer as to what actually did take place. We do but +state what is unchallenged fact, when we say, that after commitment to +writing of the myths, poems and liturgies which may be called the basis +of Shint[=o], there came a great flood of Chinese and Buddhistic +literature and a tremendous expansion of Buddhist missionary activity, +which checked further literary growth of the kami system. These prepared +the way for the absorption of the indigenous into the foreign cultus +under the form called by an enthusiastic emperor, Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o], +or the "two-fold divine doctrine." Of this, we shall speak in another +lecture. + +Suffice it here to say that by the scheme of syncretism propounded by +K[=o]b[=o] in the ninth century, Shint[=o] was practically overlaid by +the new faith from India, and largely forgotten as a distinct religion +by the Japanese people. As late as A.D. 927, there were three thousand +one hundred and thirty-two enumerated metropolitan and provincial +temples, besides many more unenumerated village and hamlet shrines of +Shint[=o]. These are referred to in the revised codes of ceremonial law +set forth by imperial authority early in the tenth century. Probably by +the twelfth century the pure rites of the god-way were celebrated, and +the unmixed traditions maintained, in families and temples, so few as to +be counted on the fingers. The ancient language in which the archaic +forms had been preserved was so nearly lost and buried, that out of the +ooze of centuries of oblivion, it had to be rescued by the skilled +divers of the seventeenth century. Mabuchi, Motri and the other +revivalists of pure Shint[=o], like the plungers after orient pearls, +persevered until they had first recovered much that had been supposed +irretrievably lost. These scholars deciphered and interpreted the +ancient scriptures, poetry, prose, history, law and ritual, and once +more set forth the ancient faith, as they believed, in its purity. + +Whether, however, men can exactly reproduce and think for themselves the +thoughts of others who have been dead for a millennium, is an open +question. The new system is apt to be transparent. Just as it is nearly +impossible for us to restore the religious life, thoughts and orthodoxy +of the men who lived before the flood, so in the writings of the +revivalists of pure Shint[=o] we detect the thoughts of Dutchmen, of +Chinese, and of very modern Japanese. Unconsciously, those who would +breathe into the dry bones of dead Shint[=o] the breath of the +nineteenth century, find themselves compelled to use an oxygen and +nitrogen generator made in Holland and mounted with Chinese apparatus; +withal, lacquered and decorated with the art of to-day. To change from +metaphor to matter of fact, modern "pure Shint[=o]" is mainly a mass of +speculation and philosophy, with a tendency of which the ancient god-way +knew nothing. + + +The Modern Revivalists of Kami no Michi. + + +Passing by further mention of the fifteen or more corrupt sects of +Shint[=o]ists, we name with honor the native scholars of the +seventeenth century, who followed the illustrious example of Iyyas[)u], +the political unifier of Japan. They ransacked the country and purchased +from temples, mansions and farmhouses, old manuscripts and books, and +forming libraries began anew the study of ancient language and history. +Kichu (1640-1701), a Buddhist priest, explored and illumined the poems +of the Many[=o]shu. Kada Adzumar[=o], born in 1669 near Ki[=o]to, the +son of a shrine-keeper at Inari, attempted the mastery of the whole +archaic native language and literature. He made a grand beginning. He is +unquestionably the founder of the school of Pure Shint[=o]. He died in +1736. His successor and pupil was Mabuchi (1697-1769), who claimed +direct descent from that god which in the form of a colossal crow had +guided the first chief of the Yamato tribe as he led his invaders +through the country to found the line of Mikados. After Mabuchi came +Motori (1730-1801) a remarkable scholar and critic, who, with erudition +and acuteness, analyzed the ancient literature and showed what were +Chinese or imported elements and what was of native origin. He +summarized the principles of the ancient religion, reasserted and +illuminated with amazing learning and voluminous commentary the archaic +documents, expounded and defended the ancient cosmogony, and in the +usual style of Japanese polemics preached anew the doctrines of +Shint[=o]. With wonderful navet and enthusiasm, Motori taught that +Japan was the first part of the earth created, and that it is therefore +The Land of the Gods, the Country of the Holy Spirits. The stars were +created from the muck which fell from the spear of Izanagi as he thrust +it into the warm earth, while the other countries were formed by the +spontaneous consolidation of the foam of the sea. Morals were invented +by the Chinese because they were an immoral people, but in Japan there +is no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japanese acts aright +if he only consults his own heart. The duty of a good Japanese consists +in obeying the Mikado, without questioning whether his commands are +right or wrong. The Mikado is god and vicar of all the gods, hence +government and religion are the same, the Mikado being the centre of +Church and State, which are one. Did the foreign nations know their duty +they would at once hasten to pay tribute to the Son of Heaven in +Ki[=o]to. + +It is needless here to dwell upon the tremendous power of Shint[=o] as a +political system, especially when wedded with the forces, generated in +the minds of the educated Japanese by modern Confucianism. The Chinese +ethical system, expanded into a philosophy as fascinating as the English +materialistic school of to-day, entered Japan contemporaneously with the +revival of the Way of the Gods and of native learning. In full rampancy +of their vigor, in the seventeenth century these two systems began that +generation of national energy, which in the eighteenth century was +consolidated and which in the nineteenth century, though unknown and +unsuspected by Europeans or Americans, was all ready for phenomenal +manifestation and tremendous eruption, even while Perry's fleet was +bearing the olive branch to Japan. As we all know, this consolidation of +forces from the inside, on meeting, not with collision but with union, +the exterior forces of western civilization, formed a resultant in the +energies which have made New Japan. + + +The Great Purification of 1870. + + +In 1870, with the Sh[=o]gun of Yedo deposed, the dual system abolished, +feudalism in its last gasp and Shint[=o] in full political power, with +the ancient council of the gods (Jin Gi Kuan) once more established, and +purified Shint[=o] again the religion of state, thousands of Riy[=o]bu +Shint[=o] temples were at once purged of all their Buddhist ornaments, +furniture, ritual, and everything that might remind the Japanese of +foreign elements. Then began, logically and actually, the persecution of +those Christians, who through all the centuries of repression and +prohibition had continued their existence, and kept their faith however +mixed and clouded. Theoretically, ancient belief was re-established, yet +it was both physically and morally impossible to return wholly to the +baldness and austere simplicity of those early ages, in which art and +literature were unknown. For a while it seemed as though the miracle +would be performed, of turning back the dial of the ages and of plunging +Japan into the fountain of her own youth. Propaganda was instituted, and +the attempts made to convert all the Japanese to Shint[=o] tenets and +practice were for a while more lively than edifying; but the scheme was +on the whole a splendid failure, and bitter disappointment succeeded the +first exultation of victory. Confronted by modern problems of society +and government, the Mikado's ministers found themselves unable, if +indeed willing, to entomb politics in religion, as in the ancient ages. +For a little while, in 1868, the Jin Gi Kuan, or Council of the Gods of +Heaven and Earth, held equal authority with the Dai J[=o] Kuan, or Great +Council of the Government. Pretty soon the first step downward was +taken, and from a supreme council it was made one of the ten departments +of the government. In less than a year followed another retrograde +movement and the department was called a board. Finally, in 1877, the +board became a bureau. Now, it is hard to tell what rank the Shint[=o] +cultus occupies in the government, except as a system of guardianship +over the imperial tombs, a mode of official etiquette, and as one of the +acknowledged religions of the country. + +Nevertheless, as an element in that amalgam of religions which forms the +creed of most Japanese, Shint[=o] is a living force, and shares with +Buddhism the arena against advancing Christianity, still supplying much +of the spring and motive to patriotism. + +The Shint[=o] lecturers with unblushing plagiarism rifled the +storehouses of Chinese ethics. They enforced their lessons from the +Confucian classics. Indeed, most of their homiletical and illustrative +material is still derived directly therefrom. Their three main official +theses and commandments were: + + 1. Thou shalt honor the Gods and love thy country. + + 2. Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven, and + the duty of man. + + 3. Thou shalt revere the Emperor as thy sovereign and obey the + will of his Court. + +For nearly twenty years this deliverance of the Japanese Government, +which still finds its strongest support in the national traditions and +the reverence of the people for the throne, sufficed for the necessities +of the case. Then the copious infusion of foreign ideas, the +disintegration of the old framework of society, and the weakening of the +old ties of obedience and loyalty, with the flood of shallow knowledge +and education which gave especially children and young people just +enough of foreign ideas to make them dangerous, brought about a +condition of affairs which alarmed the conservative and patriotic. Like +fungus upon a dead tree strange growths had appeared, among others that +of a class of violently patriotic and half-educated young men and boys, +called _Sosh_. These hot-headed youths took it upon themselves to +dictate national policy to cabinet ministers, and to reconstruct +society, religion and politics. Something like a mania broke out all +over the country which, in certain respects, reminds us of the +Children's Crusade, that once afflicted Europe and the children +themselves. Even Christianity did not escape the craze for +reconstruction. Some of the young believers and pupils of the +missionaries seemed determined to make Christianity all over so as to +suit themselves. This phase of brain-swelling is not yet wholly over. +One could not tell but that something like the Tai Ping rebellion, which +disturbed and devastated China, might break out. + +These portentous signs on the social horizon called forth, in 1892, from +the government an Imperial Rescript, which required that the emperor's +photograph be exhibited in every school, and saluted by all teachers and +scholars whatever their religious tenets and scruples might be. Most +Christians as well as Buddhists, saw nothing in this at which to +scruple. A few, however, finding in it an offence to conscience, +resigned their positions. They considered the mandate an unwarrantable +interference with their rights as conferred by the constitution of 1889, +which in theory is the gift of the emperor to his people. + +The radical Shint[=o]ist, to this day, believes that all political +rights which Japanese enjoy or can enjoy are by virtue of the Mikado's +grace and benevolence. It is certain that all Japanese, whatever may be +their religious convictions, consider that the constitution depends for +its safeguards and its validity largely upon the oath which the Mikado +swore at the shrine of his heavenly ancestors, that he would himself be +obedient to it and preserve its provisions inviolate. For this solemn +ceremony a special norito or liturgy was composed and recited. + + +Summary of Shint[=o]. + + +Of Shint[=o] as a system we have long ago given our opinion. In its +higher forms, "Shint[=o] is simply a cultured and intellectual atheism; +in its lower forms it is blind obedience to governmental and priestly +dictates." "Shint[=o]," says Mr. Ernest Satow, "as expounded by Motori +is nothing more than an engine for reducing the people to a condition of +mental slavery." Japan being a country of very striking natural +phenomena, the very soil and air lend themselves to support in the +native mind this system of worship of heroes and of the forces of +nature. In spite, however, of the conservative power of the ancestral +influences, the patriotic incentives and the easy morals of Shint[=o] +under which lying and licentiousness shelter themselves, it is doubtful +whether with the pressure of Buddhism, and the spread of popular +education and Christianity, Shint[=o] can retain its hold upon the +Japanese people. Yet although this is our opinion, it is but fair, and +it is our duty, to judge every religion by its ideals and not by its +failings. The ideal of Shint[=o] is to make people pure and clean in all +their personal and household arrangements; it is to help them to live +simply, honestly and with mutual good will; it is to make the Japanese +love their country, honor their imperial house and obey their emperor. +Narrow and local as this religion is, it has had grand exemplars in +noble lives and winning characters. + +So far as Shint[=o] is a religion, Christianity meets it not as +destroyer but fulfiller, for it too believes that cleanliness is not +only next to godliness but a part of it. Jesus as perfect man and +patriot, Captain of our salvation and Prince of peace, would not destroy +the Yamato damashii--the spirit of unconquerable Japan--but rather +enlarge, broaden, and deepen it, making it love for all humanity. +Reverence for ancestral virtue and example, so far from being weakened, +is strengthened, and as for devotion to king and ruler, law and society, +Christianity lends nobler motives and grander sanctions, while +showing clearly, not indeed the way of the eight million or more gods, +but the way to God--the one living, only and true, even through Him who +said "I am the Way." + + + + +CHAPTER IV - THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN + + + "Things being investigated, knowledge became complete; knowledge + being complete, thoughts were sincere; thoughts being sincere, + hearts were rectified; hearts being rectified, persons were + cultivated; persons being cultivated, families were regulated; + families being regulated, states were rightly governed; states + being rightly governed, the whole nation was made tranquil and + happy." + + "When you know a thing to hold that you know it; and when you do + not know a thing to allow that you do not know it; this is + knowledge." + + "Old age sometimes becomes second childhood; why should not + filial piety become parental love?" + + "The superior man accords with the course of the mean. Though he + may be all unknown, unregarded by the world, he feels no regret. + He is only the sage who is able for this."--Sayings of + Confucius. + + "There is, in a word, no bringing down of God to men in + Confucianism in order to lift them up to Him. Their moral + shortcomings, when brought home to them, may produce a feeling + of shame, but hardly a conviction of guilt."--James Legge. + + "Do not to others what you would not have them do to you."--The + Silver Rule. + + "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye + even so to them."--The Golden Rule. + + "In respect to revenging injury done to master or father, it is + granted by the wise and virtuous (Confucius) that you and the + injurer cannot live together under the canopy of + heaven."--Legacy of Iyyas[)u], Cap. iii, Lowder's translation. + + "But I say unto you forgive your enemies."--Jesus. + + "Thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from + everlasting."--Isaiah. + + +CHAPTER IV - THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN + +Confucius a Historical Character. + + +If the greatness of a teacher is to be determined by the number of his +disciples, or to be measured by the extent and diversity of his +influence, then the foremost place among all the teachers of mankind +must be awarded to The Master Kung (or Confucius, as the Jesuit scholars +of the seventeenth century Latinized the name). Certainly, he of all +truly historic personages is to-day, and for twenty-three centuries has +been, honored by the largest number of followers. + +Of the many systems of religion in the world, but few are based upon the +teachings of one person. The reputed founders of some of them are not +known in history with any certainty, and of others--as in the case of +Buddhism--have become almost as shadows among a great throng of +imaginary Buddhas or other beings which have sprung from the fancies of +the brain and become incorporated into the systems, although the +original teachers may indeed have been historical. + +Confucius is a clear and distinct historic person. His parentage, place +of birth, public life, offices, work and teaching, are well known and +properly authenticated. He used the pen freely, and not only compiled, +edited and transmitted the writings of his predecessors, but composed an +historical and interpretative book. He originated nothing, however, but +on the contrary disowned any purpose of introducing new ideas, or of +expressing thoughts of his own not based upon or in perfect harmony with +the teaching of the ancients. He was not an original thinker. He was a +compiler, an editor, a defender and reproclaimer of the ancient +religion, and an exemplar of the wisdom and writings of the Chinese +fathers. He felt that his duty was exactly that which some Christian +theologians of to-day conscientiously feel to be theirs--to receive +intact a certain "deposit" or "system" and, adding nothing to it, simply +to teach, illuminate, defend, enforce and strongly maintain it as "the +truth." He gloried in absolute freedom from all novelty, anticipating in +this respect a certain illustrious American who made it a matter for +boasting, that his school had never originated a new idea.[1] Whether or +not the Master Kung did nevertheless, either consciously or +unconsciously, modify the ancient system by abbreviating or enlarging +it, we cannot now inquire. + +Confucius wan born into the world in the year 551 B.C., during that +wonderful century of religious revival which saw the birth of Ezra, +Gautama, and Lao Tsze, and in boyhood he displayed an unusually sedate +temperament which made him seem to be what we would now call an +"old-fashioned child." The period during which he lived was that of +feudal China. From the ago of twenty-two, while holding an office in the +state of Lu within the modern province of Shan-Tung, he gathered around +him young men as pupils with whom, like Socrates, he conversed in +question and answer. He made the teachings of the ancients the subjects +of his research, and he was at all times a diligent student of the +primeval records. These sacred books are called King, or Ki[=o] in +Japanese, and are: Shu King, a collection of historic documents; Shih +King, or Book of Odes; Hsiao King, or Classic of Filial Piety, and Yi +King, or Book of Changes.[2] This division of the old sacred canon, +resembles the Christian or non-Jewish arrangement of the Old Testament +scriptures in the four parts of Law, History, Poetry and Prophesy, +though in the Chinese we have History, Poetry, Ethics and Divination.[3] + +His own table-talk, conversations, discussions and notes were compiled +by his pupils, and are preserved in the work entitled in English, "The +Confucian Analects," which is one of the four books constituting the +most sacred portion of Chinese philosophy and instruction. He also wrote +a work named "Spring and Autumn, or Chronicles of his Native State of Lu +from 722 B.C., to 481[4] B.C." He "changed his world," as the Buddhists +say, in the year 478 B.C., having lived seventy-three years. + + +Primitive Chinese Faith. + + +The pre-Confucian or primitive faith was monotheistic, the forefathers +of the Chinese nation having been believers in one Supreme Spiritual +Being. There is an almost universal agreement among scholars in +translating the term "Shang Ti" as God, and in reading from these +classics that the forefathers "in the ceremonies at the altars of Heaven +and earth ... served God." Concurrently with the worship of one Supreme +God there was also a belief in subordinate spirits and in the idea of +revelation or the communication of God with men. This restricted worship +of God was accompanied by reverence for ancestors and the honoring of +spirits by prayers and sacrifices, which resulted, however, neither in +deification nor polytheism. But, as the European medival schoolmen have +done with the Bible, so, after the death of Confucius the Chinese +scholastics by metaphysical reasoning and commentary, created systems of +interpretation which greatly altered the apparent form and contents of +his own and of the ancient texts. Thus, the original monotheism of the +pre-Confucian documents has been completely obscured by the later webs +of sophistry which have been woven about the original scriptures. The +ancient simplicity of doctrine has been lost in the mountains of +commentary which were piled upon the primitive texts. Throughout the +centuries, the Confucian system has been conditioned and greatly +modified by Taoism, Buddhism and the speculations of the Chinese wise +men. + +Confucius, however, did not change or seriously modify the ancient +religion except that, as is more than probable, he may have laid +unnecessary emphasis upon social and political duties, and may not have +been sufficiently interested in the honor to be paid to Shang Ti or God. +He practically ignored the God-ward side of man's duties. His teachings +relate chiefly to duties between man and man, to propriety and +etiquette, and to ceremony and usage. He said that "To give one's self +to the duties due to men and while respecting spiritual beings to keep +aloof from them, may be called wisdom."[5] + +We think that Confucius cut the tap-root of all true progress, and +therefore is largely responsible for the arrested development of China. +He avoided the personal term, God (Ti), and instead, made use of the +abstract term, Heaven (Tien). His teaching, which is so often quoted by +Japanese gentlemen, was, "Honor the Gods and keep them far from you." +His image stands in thousands of temples and in every school, in China, +but he is only revered and never deified. + +China has for ages suffered from agnosticism; for no normal Confucianist +can love God, though he may learn to reverence him. The Emperor +periodically worships for his people, at the great marble altar to +Heaven in Peking, with vast holocausts, and the prayers which are +offered may possibly amount to this: "Our Father who art in Heaven, +Hallowed be thy name." But there, as it seems to a Christian, Chinese +imperial worship stops. The people at large, cut off by this restricted +worship from direct access to God, have wandered away into every sort of +polytheism and idolatry, while the religion of the educated Chinese is a +medival philosophy based upon Confucianism, of which we shall speak +hereafter. + +The Confucian system as a religion, like a giant with a child's head, is +exaggerated on its moral and ceremonial side as compared with its +spiritual development. Some deny that it is a religion at all, and call +it only a code. However, let us examine the Confucian ethics which +formed the basis and norm of all government in the family and nation, +and are summed up in the doctrine of the "Five Relations." These are: +Sovereign and Minister; Father and Son; Husband and Wife; Elder Brother +and Younger Brother; and Friends. The relation being stated, the +correlative duty arises at once. It may perhaps be truly said by +Christians that Confucius might have made a religion of his system of +ethics, by adding a sixth and supreme relation--that between God and +man. This he declined to do, and so left his people without any +aspiration toward the Infinite. By setting before them only a finite +goal he sapped the principles of progress.[6] + + +Vicissitudes of Confucianism. + + +After the death of Confucius (478 B.C.) the teachings of the great +master were neglected, but still later they were re-enforced and +expounded in the time (372-289 B.C.) of Meng Ko, or Mencius (as the name +has been Latinized) who was likewise a native of the State of Lu. At one +time a Chinese Emperor attempted in vain to destroy not only the +writings of Confucius but also the ancient classics. Taoism increased as +a power in the religion of China, especially after the fall of its +feudal system. The doctrine of ancestral worship as commended by the +sage had in it much of good, both for kings and nobles. The common +people, however, found that Taoism was more satisfying. About the +beginning of the Christian era Buddhism entered the Middle Kingdom, and, +rapidly becoming popular, supplied needs for which simple Confucianism +was not adequate. It may be said that in the sixth century--which +concerns us especially--although Confucianism continued to be highly +esteemed, Buddhism had become supreme in China--that venerable State +which is the mother of civilization in all Asia cast of the Ganges, and +the Middle Kingdom among pupil nations. + +Confucianism overflowed from China into Korea, where to this day it is +predominant even over Buddhism. Thence, it was carried beyond sea to the +Japanese Archipelago, where for possibly fifteen hundred years it has +shaped and moulded the character of a brave and chivalrous people. Let +us now turn from China and trace its influence and modifications in the +Land of the Rising Sun. + +It must be remembered that in the sixth century of the Christian Era, +Confucianism was by no means the fully developed philosophy that it is +now and has been for five hundred years. In former times, the system of +Confucius had been received in China not only as a praiseworthy +compendium of ceremonial observances, but also as an inheritance from +the ancients, illumined by the discourses of the great sage and +illustrated by his life and example. It was, however, very far from +being what it is at present--the religion of the educated men of the +nation, and, by excellence, the religion of Chinese Asia. But in those +early centuries it did not fully satisfy the Chinese mind, which turned +to the philosophy of Taoism and to the teachings of the Buddhist for +intellectual food, for comfort and for inspiration. + +The time when Chinese learning entered Japan, by the way of Korea, has +not been precisely ascertained.[7] It is possible that letters[8] and +writings were known in some parts of the country as early as the fourth +century, but it is nearly certain, that, outside the Court of the +Emperor, there was scarcely even a sporadic knowledge of the literature +of China until the Korean missionaries of Buddhism had obtained a +lodgement in the Mikado's capital. Buddhism was the real purveyor of the +foreign learning and became the vehicle by means of which Confucianism, +or the Chinese ethical principles, reached the common people of Japan. +The first missionaries in Japan were heartily in sympathy with the +Confucian ethics, from which no effort was made to alienate them. They +were close allies, and for a thousand years wrought as one force in the +national life. They were not estranged until the introduction, in the +seventeenth century, of the metaphysical and scholastic forms given to +the ancient system by the Chinese schoolmen of the Sung dynasty (A.D. +960-1333). + + +Japanese Confucianism and Feudalism Contemporary. + + +The intellectual history of the Japanese prior to their recent contact +with Christendom, may be divided into three eras: + +1. The period of early insular or purely native thought, from before the +Christian era until the eighth century; by which time, Shint[=o], or the +indigenous system of worship--its ritual, poetry and legend having been +committed to writing and its life absorbed in Buddhism--had been, as a +system, relegated from the nation and the people to a small circle of +scholars and archologists. + +2. The period from 800 A.D. to the beginning of the seventeenth century; +during which time Buddhism furnished to the nation its religion, +philosophy and culture. + +3. From about 1630 A.D. until the present time; during which period the +developed Confucian philosophy, as set forth by Chu Hi in the twelfth +century, has been the creed of a majority of the educated men of Japan. + +The political history of the Japanese may also be divided into three +eras: + +1. The first extends from the dawn of history until the seventh century. +During this period the system of government was that of rude feudalism. +The conquering tribe of Yamato, having gradually obtained a rather +imperfect supremacy over the other tribes in the middle and southern +portions of the country now called the Empire of Japan, ruled them in +the name of the Mikado. + +2. The second period begins in the seventh century, when the Japanese, +copying the Chinese model, adopted a system of centralization. The +country was divided into provinces and was ruled through boards or +ministries at the capital, with governors sent out from Ki[=o]to for +stated periods, directly from the emperor. During this time literature +was chiefly the work of the Buddhist priests and of the women of the +imperial court. + +While armies in the field brought into subjection the outlying tribes +and certain noble families rose to prominence at the court, there was +being formed that remarkable class of men called the Samurai, or +servants of the Mikado, which for more than ten centuries has exercised +a profound influence upon the development of Japan. + +In China, the pen and the sword have been kept apart; the civilian and +the soldier, the man of letters and the man of arms, have been distinct +and separate. This was also true in old Loo Choo (now Riu Kiu), that +part of Japan most like China. In Japan, however, the pen and the sword, +letters and arms, the civilian and the soldier, have intermingled. The +unique product of this union is seen in the Samurai, or servant of the +Mikado. Military-literati, are unknown in China, but in Japan they +carried the sword and the pen in the same girdle. + +3. This class of men had become fully formed by the end of the twelfth +century, and then began the new feudal system, which lasted until the +epochal year 1868 A.D.--a year of several revolutions, rather than of +restoration pure and simple. After nearly seven hundred years of +feudalism, supreme magistracy, with power vastly increased beyond that +possessed in ancient times, was restored to the emperor. Then also was +abolished the duarchy of Throne and Camp, of Mikado and Sh[=o]gun, and +of the two capitals Ki[=o]to and Yedo, with the fountain of honor and +authority in one and the fountain of power and execution in the other. +Thereupon, Japan once more presented to the world, unity. + +Practically, therefore, the period of the prevalence of the Confucian +ethics and their universal acceptance by the people of Japan nearly +coincides with the period of Japanese feudalism or the dominance of the +military classes. + +Although the same ideograph, or rather logogram, was used to designate +the Chinese scholar and the Japanese warrior as well, yet the former was +man of the pen only, while the latter was man of the pen and of two +swords. This historical fact, more than any other, accounts for the +striking differences between Chinese and Japanese Confucianism. Under +this state of things the ethical system of the sage of China suffered a +change, as does almost everything that is imported into Japan and +borrowed by the islanders, but whether for the better or for the worse +we shall not inquire too carefully. The point upon which we now lay +emphasis is this: that, although the Chinese teacher had made filial +piety the basis of his system, the Japanese gradually but surely made +loyalty (Kun-Shin), that is, the allied relations of sovereign and +minister, of lord and retainer, and of master and servant, not only +first in order but the chief of all. They also infused into this term +ideas and associations which are foreign to the Chinese mind. In the +place of filial piety was Kun-shin, that new growth in the garden of +Japanese ethics, out of which arose the white flower of loyalty that +blooms perennial in history. + + +In Japan, Loyalty Displaces Filial Piety. + + +This slow but sure adaptation of the exotic to its new environment, took +place during the centuries previous to the seventeenth of the Christian +era. The completed product presented a growth so strikingly different +from the original as to compel the wonder of those Chinese refugee +scholars, who, at Mito[9] and Yedo, taught the later dogmas which are +orthodox but not historically Confucian. + +Herein lies the difference between Chinese and Japanese ethical +philosophy. In old Japan, loyalty was above filial obedience, and the +man who deserted parents, wife and children for the feudal lord, +received unstinted praise. The corner-stone of the Japanese edifice of +personal righteousness and public weal, is loyalty. On the other hand, +filial piety is the basis of Chinese order and the secret of the amazing +national longevity, which is one of the moral wonders of the world, and +sure proof of the fulfilment of that promise which was made on Sinai and +wrapped up in the fourth commandment. + +This master passion of the typical Samurai of old Japan made him regard +life as infinitely less than nothing, whenever duty demanded a display +of the virtue of loyalty. "The doctrines of Koshi and Moshi" (Confucius +and Mencius) formed, and possibly even yet form, the gospel and the +quintessence of all wordly wisdom to the Japanese gentleman; they became +the basis of his education and the ideal which inspired his conceptions +of duty and honor; but, crowning all his doctrines and aspirations was +his desire to be loyal. There might abide loyal, marital, filial, +fraternal and various other relations, but the greatest of all these was +loyalty. Hence the Japanese calendar of saints is not filled with +reformers, alms-givers and founders of hospitals or orphanages, but is +over-crowded with canonized suicides and committers of _hara-kiri_. Even +today, no man more quickly wins the popular regard during his life or +more surely draws homage to his tomb, securing even apotheosis, than the +suicide, though he may have committed a crime. In this era of Meiji or +enlightened peace, most appalling is the list of assassinations +beginning with the murder in Ki[=o]to of Yokoi Hishiro, who was slain +for recommending the toleration of Christianity, down to the last +cabinet minister who has been knifed or dynamited. Yet in every case the +murderers considered themselves consecrated men and ministers of +Heaven's righteous vengeance.[10] For centuries, and until +constitutional times, the government of Japan was "despotism tempered by +assassination." The old-fashioned way of moving a vote of censure upon +the king's ministers was to take off their heads. Now, however, election +by ballot has been substituted for this, and two million swords have +become bric--brac. + +A thousand years of training in the ethics of Confucius--which always +admirably lends itself to the possessors of absolute power, whether +emperors, feudal lords, masters, fathers, or older brothers--have so +tinged and colored every conception of the Japanese mind, so dominated +their avenues of understanding and shaped their modes of thought, that +to-day, notwithstanding the recent marvellous development of their +language, which within the last two decades has made it almost a new +tongue,[11] it is impossible with perfect accuracy to translate into +English the ordinary Japanese terms which are congregated under the +general idea of Kun-shin. + +Herein may be seen the great benefit of carefully studying the minds of +those whom we seek to convert. The Christian preacher in Japan who uses +our terms "heaven," "home," "mother," "father," "family," "wife," +"people," "love," "reverence," "virtue," "chastity," etc., will find +that his hearers may indeed receive them, but not at all with the same +mental images and associations, nor with the same proportion and depth, +that these words command in western thought and hearing. One must be +exceedingly careful, not only in translating terms which have been used +by Confucius in the Chinese texts, but also in selecting and rendering +the current expressions of the Japanese teachers and philosophers. In +order to understand each other, Orientals and Occidentals need a great +deal of mutual intellectual drilling, without which there will be waste +of money, of time, of brains and of life. + + +The Five Relations. + + +Let us now glance at the fundamentals of the Confucian ethics--the Five +Relations--as they were taught in the comparatively simple system which +prevailed before the new orthodoxy was proclaimed by Sung schoolmen. + +First. Although each of the Chinese and Japanese emperors is supposed to +be, and is called, "father of the people," yet it would be entirely +wrong to imagine that the phrase implies any such relation, as that of +William the Silent to the Dutch, or of Washington to the American +nation. In order to see how far the emperor was removed from the people +during a thousand years, one needs but to look upon a brilliant painting +of the Yamato-Tosa school, in which the Mikado is represented as sitting +behind a cloud of gold or a thick curtain of fine bamboo, with no one +before the matting-throne but his prime ministers or the empress and his +concubines. For centuries, it was supposed that the Mikado did not touch +the ground with his feet. He went abroad in a curtained car; and he was +not only as mysterious and invisible to the public eye as a dragon, but +he was called such. The attributes of that monster with many powers and +functions, were applied to him, with an amazing wealth of rhetoric and +vocabulary. As well might the common folks to-day presume to pray unto +one of the transcendent Buddhas, between whom and the needy suppliant +there may be hosts upon hosts of interlopers or mediators, as for an +ordinary subject to petition the emperor or even to gaze upon his dragon +countenance. The change in the constitutional Japan of our day is seen +in the fact that the term "Mikado" is now obsolete. This description of +the relation of sovereign and minister (inaccurately characterised by +some writers on Confucianism as that of "King and subject," a phrase +which might almost fit the constitutional monarchy of to-day) shows the +relation, as it did exist for nearly a thousand years of Japanese +history. We find the same imitation of procedure, even when imperialism +became only a shadow in the government and the great Sh[=o]gun who +called himself "Tycoon," the ruler in Yedo, aping the majesty of +Ki[=o]to, became so powerful as to be also a dragon. Between the Yedo +Sh[=o]gun and the people rose a great staircase of numberless +subordinates, and should a subject attempt to offer a petition in person +he must pay for it by crucifixion.[12] + +As, under the emperor there were court ministers, heads of departments, +governors and functionaries of all kinds before the people were reached, +so, under the Sh[=o]gun in the feudal days, there were the Daimi[=o]s or +great lords and the Shomi[=o]s or small lords with their retainers in +graduated subordination, and below these were the servants and general +humanity. Even after the status of man was reached, there were +gradations and degradations through fractions down to ciphers and indeed +to minus quantities, for there existed in the Country of Brave Warriors +some tens of thousands of human beings bearing the names of _eta_ +(pariah) and _h[=i]-nin_ (non-human), who were far below the pale of +humanity. + + +The Paramount Idea of Loyalty. + + +The one idea which dominated all of these classes,[13]--in Old Japan +there were no masses but only many classes--was that of loyalty. As the +Japanese language shows, every faculty of man was subordinated to this +idea. Confucianism even conditioned the development of Japanese grammar, +as it also did that of the Koreans, by multiplying honorary prefixes and +suffixes and building up all sociable and polite speech on perpendicular +lines. Personality was next to nothing and individuality was in a +certain sense unknown. In European languages, the pronoun shows how +clearly the ideas of personality and of individuality have been +developed; but in the Japanese language there really are no pronouns, in +the sense of the word as used by the Germanic nations, at least, +although there are hundreds of impersonal and topographical substitutes +for them.[14] The mirror, of the language itself, reflects more truth +upon this point of inquiry than do patriotic assertions, or the protests +of those who in the days of this Meiji era so handsomely employ the +Japanese language as the medium of thought. Strictly speaking, the ego +disappears in ordinary conversation and action, and instead, it is the +servant speaking reverently to his master; or it is the master +condescending to the object which is "before his hand" or "to the side" +or "below" where his inferior kneels; or it is the "honorable right" +addressing the "esteemed left." + +All the terms which a foreigner might use in speaking of the duties of +sovereign and minister, of lord and retainer and of master and servant, +are comprehended in the Japanese word, Kun-shin, in which is +crystallized but one thought, though it may relate to three grades of +society. The testimony of history and of the language shows, that the +feelings which we call loyalty and reverence are always directed upward, +while those which we term benevolence and love invariably look downward. + +Note herein the difference between the teachings of Christ and those of +the Chinese sage. According to the latter, if there be love in the +relation of the master and servant, it is the master who loves, and not +the servant who may only reverence. It would be inharmonious for the +Japanese servant to love his master; he never even talks of it. And in +family life, while the parent may love the child, the child is not +expected to love the parent but rather to reverence him. So also the +Japanese wife, as in our old scriptural versions, is to "see that she +_reverence_ her husband." Love (not _agap_, but _eros_) is indeed a +theme of the poets and of that part of life and of literature which is, +strictly speaking, outside of the marriage relation, but the thought +that dominates in marital life, is reverence from the wife and +benevolence from the husband. The Christian conception, which requires +that a woman should love her husband, does not strictly accord with the +Confucian idea. + +Christianity has taught us that when a man loves a woman purely and +makes her his wife, he should also have reverence for her, and that this +element should be an integral part of his love. Christianity also +teaches a reverence for children; and Wordsworth has but followed the +spirit of his great master, Christ, when expressing this beautiful +sentiment in his melodious numbers. Such ideas as these, however, are +discords in Japanese social life of the old order. So also the Christian +preaching of love to God, sounds outlandish to the men of Chinese mind +in the middle or the pupil kingdom, who seem to think that it can only +come from the lips of those who have not been properly trained. To "love +God" appears to them as being an unwarrantable patronage of, and +familiarity with "Heaven," or the King of Kings. The same difficulty, +which to-day troubles Christian preachers and translators, existed among +the Roman Catholic missionaries three centuries ago.[15] The moulds of +thought were not then, nor are they even now, entirely ready for the +full truth of Christian revelation. + + +Suicide Made Honorable. + + +In the long story of the Honorable Country, there are to be found many +shining examples of loyalty, which is the one theme oftenest illustrated +in popular fiction and romance. Its well-attested instances on the +crimson thread of Japanese history are more numerous than the beads on +many rosaries. The most famous of all, perhaps, is the episode of the +Forty-Seven R[=o]nins, which is a constant favorite in the theatres, and +has been so graphically narrated or pictured by scores of native poets, +authors, artists, sculptors and dramatists, and told in English by +Mitford, Dickens and Grecy.[16] + +These forty-seven men hated wife, child, society, name, fame, food and +comfort for the sake of avenging the death of their master. In a certain +sense, they ceased to be persons in order to become the impersonal +instruments of Heaven's retribution. They gave up every thing--houses, +lands, kinsmen--that they might have in this life the hundred-fold +reward of vengeance, and in the world-life of humanity throughout the +centuries, fame and honor. Feeding the hunger of their hearts upon the +hope of glutting that hunger with the life-blood of their victim, they +waited long years. When once their swords had drunk the consecrated +blood, they laid the severed head upon their master's tomb and then +gladly, even rapturously, delivered themselves up, and ripping open +their bowels they died by that judicially ordered seppuku which cleansed +their memory from every stain, and gave to them the martyr's fame and +crown forever. The tombs of these men, on the hillside overlooking the +Bay of Yedo, are to this day ever fragrant with fresh flowers, and to +the cemetery where their ashes lie and their memorials stand, thousands +of pilgrims annually wend their way. No dramas are more permanently +popular on the stage than those which display the virtues of these +heroes, who are commonly spoken of as "The righteous Samurai." Their +tombs have stood for two centuries, as mighty magnets drawing others to +self-impalement on the sword--as multipliers of suicides. + +Yet this alphabetic number, this _i-ro-ha_ of self-murder, is but one of +a thousand instances in the Land of Noble Suicides. From the +pre-historic days when the custom of _Jun-shi_, or dying with the +master, required the interment of the living retainers with the dead +lord, down through all the ages to the Revolution of 1868, when at +Sendai and Aidzu scores of men and boys opened their bowels, and mothers +slew their infant sons and cut their own throats, there has been flowing +through Japanese history a river of suicides' blood[17] having its +springs in the devotion of retainers to masters, and of soldiers to a +lost cause as represented by the feudal superior. Shigmori, the son of +the prime minister Kiyomori, who protected the emperor even against his +own father, is a model of that Japanese kun-shin which placed fidelity +to the sovereign above filial obedience; though even yet Shigmori's +name is the synonym of both virtues. Kusunoki Masashig,[18] the white +flower of Japanese chivalry, is but one, typical not only of a thousand +but of thousands of thousands of soldiers, who hated parents, wife, +child, friend in order to be disciple to the supreme loyalty. He sealed +his creed by emptying his own veins. Kiyomori,[19] like King David of +Israel, on his dying bed ordered the assassination of his personal +enemy. + +The common Japanese novels read like records of slaughter-houses. No +Moloch or Shiva has won more victims to his shrine than has this idea of +Japanese loyalty which is so beautiful in theory and so hideous in +practice. Despite the military clamps and frightful despotism of Yedo, +which for two hundred and fifty years gave to the world a delusive idea +of profound quiet in the Country of Peaceful Shores, there was in fact a +chronic unrest which amounted at many times and in many places to +anarchy. The calm of despotism was, indeed, rudely broken by the aliens +in the "black ships" with the "flowery flag"; but, without regarding +influences from the West, the indications of history as now read, +pointed in 1850 toward the bloodiest of Japan's many civil wars. Could +the statistics of the suicides during this long period be collected, +their publication would excite in Christendom the utmost incredulity. + +Nevertheless, this qualifying statement should be made. A study of the +origin and development of the national method of self-destruction shows +that suicide by seppuku, or opening of the abdomen, was first a custom, +and then a privilege. It took, among men of honor, the place of the +public executions, the massacres in battle and siege, decimation of +rebels and similar means of killing at the hands of others, which so +often mar the historical records of western nations. Undoubtedly, +therefore, in the minds of most Japanese, there are many instances of +_hara-kiri_ which should not be classed as suicide, but technically as +execution of judicial sentence. And yet no sentence or process of death +known in western lands had such influence in glorifying the victim, as +had seppuku in Japan. + + +The Family Idea. + + +The Second Relation is that of father and son, thus preceding what we +should suppose to be the first of human relations--husband and wife--but +the arrangement entirely accords with the Oriental conception that the +family, the house, is more important than the individual. In Old Japan +the paramount idea in marriage, was not that of love or companionship, +or of mutual assistance with children, but was almost wholly that of +offspring, and of maintaining the family line.[20] The individual might +perish but the house must live on. + +Very different from the family of Christendom, is the family in Old +Japan, in which we find elements that would not be recognized where +monogamy prevails and children are born in the home and not in the herd. +Instead of father, mother and children, there are father, wife, +concubines, and various sorts of children who are born of the wife or of +the concubine, or have been adopted into the family. With us, adoption +is the exception, but in Japan it is the invariable rule whenever either +convenience or necessity requires it of the house. Indeed it is rare to +find a set of brothers bearing the same family name. Adoption and +concubinage keep the house unbroken.[21] It is the house, the name, +which must continue, although not necessarily by a blood line. The name, +a social trade-mark, lives on for ages. The line of Japanese emperors, +which, in the Constitution of 1889, by adding mythology to history is +said to rule "unbroken from ages eternal," is not one of fathers and +sons, but has been made continuous by concubinage and adoption. In this +view, it is possibly as old as the line of the popes. + +It is very evident that our terms and usages do not have in such a home +the place or meaning which one not familiar with the real life of Old +Japan would suppose. The father is an absolute ruler. There is in Old +Japan hardly any such thing as "parents," for practically there is only +one parent, as the woman counts for little. The wife is honored if she +becomes a mother, but if childless she is very probably neglected. Our +idea of fatherhood implies that the child has rights and that he should +love as well as be loved. Our customs excite not only the merriment but +even the contempt of the old-school Japanese. The kiss and the embrace, +the linking of the child's arm around its father's neck, the address on +letters "My dear Wife" or "My beloved Mother" seem to them like +caricatures of propriety. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true that +in reverence toward parents--or at least toward one of the parents--a +Japanese child is apt to excel the one born even in a Christian home. + +This so-called filial "piety" becomes in practice, however, a horrible +outrage upon humanity and especially upon womanhood. During centuries +the despotic power of the father enabled him to put an end to the life +of his child, whether boy or girl. + +Under this abominable despotism there is no protection for the daughter, +who is bound to sell her body, while youth or beauty last or perhaps for +life, to help pay her father's debts, to support an aged parent or even +to gratify his mere caprice. In hundreds of Japanese romances the +daughter, who for the sake of her parents has sold herself to shame, is +made the theme of the story and an object of praise. In the minds of the +people there may be indeed a feeling of pity that the girl has been +obliged to give up her home life for the brothel, but no one ever thinks +of questioning the right of the parent to make the sale of the girl's +body, any more than he would allow the daughter to rebel against it. +This idea still lingers and the institution remains,[22] although the +system has received stunning blows from the teaching of Christian +ethics, the preaching of a better gospel and the improvements in the law +of the land. + + +The Marital Relation. + + +The Third Relation is that of husband and wife. The meaning of these +words, however, is not the same with the Japanese as with us. In +Confucius there is not only male and female, but also superior and +inferior, master and servant.[23] Without any love-making or courtship +by those most interested, a marriage between two young people is +arranged by their parents through the medium of what is called a +"go-between." The bride leaves her father's house forever--that is, when +she is not to be subsequently divorced--and entering into that of her +husband must be subordinate not only to him but also to his parents, and +must obey them as her own father and mother. Having all her life under +her father's roof reverenced her superiors, she is expected to bring +reverence to her new domicile, but not love. She must always obey but +never be jealous. She must not be angry, no matter whom her husband may +introduce into his household. She must wait upon him at his meals and +must walk behind him, but not with him. When she dies her children go to +her funeral, but not her husband. + +A foreigner, hearing the Japanese translate our word chastity by the +term _tiso_ or _misao_, may imagine that the latter represents mutual +obligation and personal purity for man and wife alike, but on looking +into the dictionary he will find that _tiso_ means "Womanly duties." A +circumlocution is needed to express the idea of a chaste man. + +Jealousy is a horrible sin, but is always supposed to be a womanish +fault, and so an exhibition of folly and weakness. Therefore, to apply +such a term to God--to say "a jealous God"--outrages the good sense of a +Confucianist,[24] almost as much as the statement that God "cannot lie" +did that of the Pundit, who wondered how God could be Omnipotent if He +could not lie. + +How great the need in Japanese social life of some purifying principle +higher than Confucianism can afford, is shown in the little book +entitled "The Japanese Bride,"[25] written by a native, and scarcely +less in the storm of native criticism it called forth. Under the system +which has ruled Japan for a millennium and a half, divorce has been +almost entirely in the hands of the husband, and the document of +separation, entitled in common parlance the "three lines and a half," +was invariably written by the man. A woman might indeed nominally obtain +a divorce from her husband, but not actually; for the severance of the +marital tie would be the work of the house or relatives, rather than the +act of the wife, who was not "a person" in the case. Indeed, in the +olden time a woman was not a person in the eye of the law, but rather a +chattel. The case is somewhat different under the new codes,[26] but the +looseness of the marriage tie is still a scandal to thinking Japanese. +Since the breaking up of the feudal system and the disarrangement of the +old social and moral standards, the statistics made annually from the +official census show that the ratio of divorce to marriage is very +nearly as one to three.[27] + + +The Elder and the Younger Brother. + + +The Fourth Relation is that of Elder Brother and Younger Brother. As we +have said, foreigners in translating some of the Chinese and Japanese +terms used in the system of Confucius are often led into errors by +supposing that the Christian conception of family life prevails also in +Chinese Asia. By many writers this relation is translated "brother to +brother;" but really in the Japanese language there is no term meaning +simply "brother" or "sister,"[28] and a circumlocution is necessary to +express the ideas which we convey by these words. It is always "older +brother" or "younger brother," and "older sister" or "younger +sister"--the male or female "_kiyodai_" as the case may be. With +us--excepting in lands where the law of primogeniture still +prevails--all the brothers are practically equal, and it would be +considered a violation of Christian righteousness for a parent to show +more favor to one child than to another. In this respect the "wisdom +that cometh from above" is "without partiality." The Chinese ethical +system, however, disregards the principle of mutual rights and duties, +and builds up the family on the theory of the subordination of the +younger brother to the elder brother, the predominant idea being not +mutual love, but, far more than in the Christian household, that of rank +and order. The attitude of the heir of the family toward the other +children is one of condescension, and they, as well as the widowed +mother, regard the oldest son with reverence. It is as though the +commandment given on Sinai should read, "Honor thy father and thy elder +brother." + +The mother is an instrument rather than a person in the life of the +house, and the older brother is the one on whom rests the responsibility +of continuing the family line. The younger brothers serve as subjects +for adoption into other families, especially those where there are +daughters to be married and family names to be continued. In a word, the +name belongs to the house and not to the individual. The habit of naming +children after relatives or friends of the parents, or illustrious men +and women, is unknown in Old Japan, though an approach to this common +custom among us is made by conferring or making use of part of a name, +usually by the transferrence of one ideograph forming the name-word. +Such a practice lays stress upon personality, and so has no place in the +country without pronouns, where the idea of continuing the personal +house or semi-personal family, is predominant. The customs prevalent in +life are strong even in death, and the elder brother or sister, in some +provinces, did not go to the funeral of the younger. This state of +affairs is reflected in Japanese literature, and produces in romance as +well as in history many situations and episodes which seem almost +incredible to the Western mind. + +In the lands ruled by Confucius the grown-up children usually live under +the parental roof, and there are few independent homes as we understand +them. The so-called family is composed both of the living and of the +dead, and constitutes the unit of society. + + +Friendship and Humanity. + + +The Fifth Relation--Friends. Here, again, a mistake is often made by +those who import ideas of Christendom into the terms used in Chinese +Asia, and who strive to make exact equivalent in exchanging the coins of +speech. Occidental writers are prone to translate the term for the fifth +relation into the English phrase "man to man," which leads the Western +reader to suppose that Confucius taught that universal love for man, as +man, which was instilled and exemplified by Jesus Christ. In translating +Confucius they often make the same mistake that some have done who read +in Terence's "Self-Tormentor" the line, "I am a man, and nothing human +is foreign to me,"[29] and imagine that this is the sentiment of an +enlightened Christian, although the context shows that it is only the +boast of a busybody and parasite. What Confucius taught under the fifth +relation is not universality, and, as compared to the teachings of +Jesus, is moonlight, not sunlight. The doctrine of the sage is clearly +expressed in the Analects, and amounts only to courtesy and propriety. +He taught, indeed, that the stranger is to be treated as a friend; and +although in both Chinese and Japanese history there are illustrious +proofs that Confucius had interpreters nobler than himself, yet it is +probable that the doctrine of the stranger's receiving treatment as a +friend, does not extend to the foreigner. Confucius framed something +like the Golden Rule--though it were better called a Silver Rule, or +possibly a Gilded Rule, since it is in the negative instead of being +definitely placed in the positive and indicative form. One may search +his writings in vain for anything approaching the parable of the Good +Samaritan, or the words of Him who commended Elijah for replenishing the +cruse and barrel of the widow of Sarepta, and Elisha for healing Naaman +the Syrian leper, and Jonah for preaching the good news of God to the +Assyrians who had been aliens and oppressors. Lao Tsze, however, went so +far as to teach "return good for evil." When one of the pupils of +Confucius interrogated his Master concerning this, the sage answered; +"What then will you return for good? Recompense injury with justice, and +return good for good." + +But if we do good only to those who do good to us, what thanks have we? +Do not the publicans the same? Behold how the Heavenly Father does good +alike unto all, sending rain upon the just and unjust! + +How Old Japan treated the foreigner is seen in the repeated repulse, +with powder and ball, of the relief ships which, under the friendly +stars and stripes, attempted to bring back to her shores the shipwrecked +natives of Nippon.[30] Granted that this action may have been purely +political and the Government alone responsible for it--just as our +un-Christian anti-Chinese legislation is similarly explained--yet it is +certain that the sentiment of the only men in Japan who made public +opinion,--the Samurai of that day,--was in favor of this method of +meeting the alien. + +In 1852 the American expedition was despatched to Japan for the purpose +of opening a lucrative trade and of extending American influence and +glory, but also unquestionably with the idea of restoring shipwrecked +Japanese as well as securing kind treatment for shipwrecked American +sailors, thereby promoting the cause of humanity and international +courtesy; in short, with motives that were manifestly mixed.[31] In the +treaty pavilion there ensued an interesting discussion between Commodore +Perry and Professor Hayashi upon this very subject. + +Perry truthfully complained that the dictates of humanity had not been +followed by the Japanese, that unnecessary cruelty had been used against +shipwrecked men, and that Japan's attitude toward her neighbors and the +whole world was that of an enemy and not of a friend. + +Hayashi, who was then probably the leading Confucianist in Japan, warmly +defended his countrymen and superiors against the charge of intentional +cruelty, and denounced the lawless character of many of the foreign +sailors. Like most Japanese of his school and age, he wound up with +panegyrics on the pre-eminence in virtue and humanity, above all +nations, of the Country Ruled by a Theocratic Dynasty, and on the glory +and goodness of the great Tokugawa family, which had given peace to the +land during two centuries or more.[32] + +It is manifest, however, that so far as this hostility to foreigners, +and this blind bigotry of "patriotism" were based on Chinese codes of +morals, as officially taught in Yedo, they belonged as much to the old +Confucianism as to the new. Wherever the narrow philosophy of the sage +has dominated, it has made Asia Chinese and nations hermits. As a rule, +the only way in which foreigners could come peacefully into China or the +countries which she intellectually dominated was as vassals, +tribute-bearers, or "barbarians." The mental attitude of China, Korea, +Annam and Japan has for ages been that of the Jews in Herodian times, +who set up, between the Court of Israel and the Court of the Gentiles, +their graven stones of warning which read:[33] + + "No foreigner to proceed within the partition wall and enclosure + around the sanctuary; whoever is caught in the same will on that + account be liable to incur death." + + + + +CHAPTER V - CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM + + "After a thousand years the pine decays; the flower has its + glory in blooming for a day."--Hakkyoi, Chinese Poet of the Tang + Dynasty. + + "The morning-glory of an hour differs not in heart from the + pine-tree of a thousand years."--Matsunaga of Japan. + + "The pine's heart is not of a thousand years, nor the + morning-glory's of an hour, but only that they may fulfil their + destiny." + + "Since Iyyas, his hair brushed by the wind, his body anointed + with rain, with lifelong labor caused confusion to cease and + order to prevail, for more than a hundred years there has been + no war. The waves of the four seas have been unruffled and no + one has failed of the blessing of peace. The common folk must + speak with reverence, yet it is the duty of scholars to + celebrate the virtue of the Government."--Ky[=u]so of Yedo. + + "A ruler must have faithful ministers. He who sees the error of + his lord and remonstrates, not fearing his wrath, is braver than + he who bears the foremost spear in battle."--Iyyas. + + "The choice of the Chinese philosophy and the rejection of + Buddhism was not because of any inherent quality in the Japanese + mind. It was not the rejection of supernaturalism or the + miraculous. The Chinese philosophy is as supernaturalistic as + some forms of Buddhism. The distinction is not between the + natural and the supernatural in either system, but between the + seen and the unseen." + + "The Chinese philosophy is as religious as the original teaching + of Gautama. Neither Shushi nor Gautama believed in a Creator, + but both believed in gods and demons.... It has little place for + prayer, but has a vivid sense of the Infinite and the Unseen, + and fervently believes that right conduct is in accord with the + 'eternal verities.'"--George William Knox. + + "In him is the yea."--Paul. + + +CHAPTER V - CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM + +Japan's Millennium of Simple Confucianism. + + +Having seen the practical working of the ethics of Confucianism, +especially in the old and simple system, let us now glance at the +developed and philosophical forms, which, by giving the educated man of +Japan a creed, made him break away from Buddhism and despise it, while +becoming often fanatically Confucian. + +For a thousand years (from 600 to 1600 A.D.) the Buddhist religious +teachers assisted in promulgating the ethics of Confucius; for during +all this time there was harmony between the various Buddhisms imported +from India, Tibet, China and Korea, and the simple undeveloped system of +Chinese Confucianism. Slight modifications were made by individual +teachers, and emphasis was laid upon this or that feature, while out of +the soil of Japanese feudalism were growths of certain virtues as phases +of loyalty, phenomenal beyond those in China. Nevertheless, during all +this time, the Japanese teachers of the Chinese ethic were as students +who did but recite what they learned. They simply transmitted, without +attempting to expand or improve. + +Though the apparatus of distribution was early known, block printing +having been borrowed from the Chinese after the ninth century, and +movable types learned from the Koreans and made use of in the sixteenth +century,[1] the Chinese classics were not printed as a body until after +the great peace of Genna (1615). Nor during this period were +translations made of the classics or commentaries, into the Japanese +vernacular. Indeed, between the tenth and sixteenth centuries there was +little direct intercourse, commercial, diplomatic or intellectual, +between Japan and China, as compared with the previous eras, or the +decades since 1870. + +Suddenly in the seventeenth century the intellect of Japan, all ready +for new surprises in the profound peace inaugurated by Iyyas[)u], +received, as it were, an electric thrill. The great warrior, becoming +first a unifier by arms and statecraft, determined also to become the +architect of the national culture. Gathering up, from all parts of the +country, books, manuscripts, and the appliances of intellectual +discipline, he encouraged scholars and stimulated education. Under his +supervision the Chinese classics were printed, and were soon widely +circulated. A college was established in Yedo, and immediately there +began a critical study of the texts and principal commentaries. The fall +of the Ming dynasty in China, and the accession of the Manchiu Tartars, +became the signal for a great exodus of learned Chinese, who fled to +Japan. These received a warm welcome, both at the capital and in Yedo, +as well as in some of the castle towns of the Daimi[=o]s, among whom +stand illustrious those of the province of Mito.[2] + +These men from the west brought not only ethics but philosophy; and the +fertilizing influences of these scholars of the Dispersion, may be +likened to those of the exodus of the Greek learned men after the +capture of Constantinople by the Turks. Confucian schools were +established in most of the chief provincial cities. For over two hundred +years this discipline in the Chinese ethics, literature and history +constituted the education of the boys and men of Japan. Almost every +member of the Samurai classes was thoroughly drilled in this curriculum. +All Japanese social, official, intellectual and literary life was +permeated with the new spirit. Their "world" was that of the Chinese, +and all outside of it belonged to "barbarians." The matrices of thought +became so fixed and the Japanese language has been so moulded, that even +now, despite the intense and prolonged efforts of thirty years of acute +and laborious scholarship, it is impossible, as we have said, to find +English equivalents for terms which were used for a century or two past +in every-day Japanese speech. Those who know most about these facts, are +most modest in attempting with English words to do justice to Japanese +thought; while those who know the least seem to be most glib, fluent and +voluminous in showing to their own satisfaction, that there is little +difference between the ethics of Chinese Asia and those of Christendom. + + +Survey of the Intellectual History of China. + + +The Confucianism of the last quarter-millennium in Japan is not that of +her early centuries. While the Japanese for a thousand years only +repeated and recited--merely talking aloud in their intellectual sleep +but not reflecting--China was awake and thinking hard. Japan's continued +civil wars, which caused the almost total destruction of books and +manuscripts, secured also the triumph of Buddhism which meant the +atrophy of the national intellect. When, after the long feuds and +battles of the middle ages, Confucianism stepped the second time into +the Land of _Brave_ Scholars, it was no longer with the simple rules of +conduct and ceremonial of the ancient days, nor was it as the ally of +Buddhism. It came like an armed man in full panoply of harness and +weapons. It entered to drive Buddhism out, and to defend the intellect +of the educated against the wiles of priestcraft. It was a full-blown +system of pantheistic rationalism, with a scheme of philosophy that to +the far-Oriental mind seemed perfect as a rule both of faith and +practice. It came in a form that was received as religion, for it was +not only morality "touched" but infused with motion. Nor were the +emotions kindled, those of the partisan only, but rather also those of +the devotee and the martyr. Henceforth Buddhism, with its inventions, +its fables, and its endless dogmatism, was for the common people, for +women and children, but not for the Samurai. The new Confucianism came +to Japan as the system of Chu Hi. For three centuries this system had +already held sway over the intellect of China. For two centuries and a +half it has dominated the minds of the Samurai so that the majority of +them to-day, even with the new name Shizoku, are Confucianists so far as +they are anything. + +To understand the origin of Buddhism we must know something of the +history and the previous religious and philosophical systems of India, +and so, if we are to appreciate modern "orthodox" Confucianism, we must +review the history of China, and see, in outline, at least, its +literature, politics and philosophy during the middle ages. + +"Four great stages of literary and national development may be pointed +to as intervening (in the fifteen hundred years) between the great sage +and the age called that of the Sung-Ju,"[3] from the tenth to the +fourteenth century, in which the Confucian system received its modern +form. Each of them embraced the course of three or four centuries. + +I. From the sixth to the third century before Christ the struggle was +for Confucian and orthodox doctrine, led by Mencius against various +speculators in morals and politics, with Taoist doctrine continually +increasing in acceptance. + +II. The Han age (from B.C. 206 to A.D. 190) was rich in critical +expositors and commentators of the classics, but "the tone of +speculation was predominantly Taoist." + +III. The period of the Six Dynasties (from A.D. 221 to A.D. 618) was the +golden age of Buddhism, when the science and philosophy of India +enriched the Chinese mind, and the wealth of the country was lavished on +Buddhist temples and monasteries. The faith of Shaka became nearly +universal and the Buddhists led in philosophy and literature, founding a +native school of Indian philosophy. + +IV. The Tang period (from A.D. 618 to 905) marked by luxury and poetry, +was an age of mental inaction and enervating prosperity. + +V. The fifth epoch, beginning with the Sung Dynasty (from A.D. 960 to +1333) and lasting to our own time, was ushered in by a period of intense +mental energy. Strange to say (and most interesting is the fact to +Americans of this generation), the immediate occasion of the recension +and expansion of the old Confucianism was a Populist movement.[4] During +the Tang era of national prosperity, Chinese socialists questioned the +foundations of society and of government, and there grew up a new school +of interpreters as well as of politicians. In the tenth century the +contest between the old Confucianism and the new notions, broke out with +a violence that threatened anarchy to the whole empire. + +One set of politicians, led by Wang (1021-1086), urged an extension of +administrative functions, including agricultural loans, while the +brothers Cheng (1032-1085, 1033-1107) reaffirmed, with fresh +intellectual power, the old orthodoxy. + +The school of writers and party agitators, led by Szma Kwaug +(1009-1086)[5] the historian, contended that the ancient principles of +the sages should be put in force. Others, the Populists of that age and +land, demanded the entire overthrow of existing institutions. + +In the bitter contest which ensued, the Radicals and Reformers +temporarily won the day and held power. For a decade the experiment of +innovation was tried. Men turned things social and political upside down +to see how they looked in that position. So these stood or oscillated +for thirteen years, when the people demanded the old order again. The +Conservatives rose to power. There was no civil war, but the Radicals +were banished beyond the frontier, and the country returned to normal +government. + +This controversy raised a landmark in the intellectual history of +China.[6] The thoughts of men were turned toward deep and acute inquiry +into the nature and use of things in general. This thinking resulted in +a literature which to-day is the basis of the opinions of the educated +men in all Chinese Asia. Instead of a sapling we now have a mighty tree. +The chief of the Chinese writers, the Calvin of Asiatic orthodoxy, who +may be said to have wrought Confucianism into a developed philosophy, +and who may be called the greatest teacher of the mind, of modern China, +Korea and Japan, is Chu Hi, who reverently adopted the criticisms on the +Chinese classics of the brothers Cheng.[7] It is evident that in Chu +Hi's system, we have a body of thought which may be called the result of +Chinese reflection during a millennium and a half. It is the ethics of +Confucius transfused with the mystical elements of Taoism and the +speculations of Buddhism. As the common people of China made an amalgam +of the three religions and consider them one, so the philosophers have +out of these three systems made one, calling that one Confucianism. The +dominant philosophy in Japan to-day is based upon the writings of Chu Hi +(in Japanese, Shu Shi) and called the system of Ti-Shu, which is the +Japanese pronunciation of the names of the Cheng brothers and of Chu +(Hi). It is a medley which the ancient sage could no more recognize than +would Jesus know much of the Christianity that casts out devils in his +name. + + +Contrast between the Chinese and Japanese Intellect. + + +Here we must draw a contrast between the Chinese and Japanese intellect +to the credit of the former; China made, Japan borrowed. While history +shows that the Chinese mind, once at least, possessed mental initiative, +and the power of thinking out a system of philosophy which to-day +satisfies largely, if not wholly, the needs of the educated Chinaman, +there has been in the Japanese mind, as shown by its history, apparently +no such vigor or fruitfulness. From the literary and philosophical +points of view, Confucianism, as it entered Japan, in the sixth century, +remained practically stationary for a thousand years. Modifications, +indeed, were made upon the Chinese system, and these were striking and +profound, but they were less developments of the intellect than +necessities of the case. The modifications were made, as molten metal +poured into a mould shaped by other hands than the artist's own, rather +than as clay made plastic under the hand of a designer. Buddhism, being +the dominant force in the thoughts of the Japanese for at least eight +hundred years, furnished the food for the requirements of man on his +intellectual and religious side. + +Broadly speaking, it may be said that the Japanese, receiving passively +the Chinese classics, were content simply to copy and to recite what +they had learned. As compared with their audacity in not only going +beyond the teachings of Buddha, but in inventing systems of Buddhism +which neither Gautama nor his first disciples could recognize, the +docile and almost slavish adherence to ancient Confucianism is one of +the astonishing things in the history of religions in Japan. In the +field of Buddhism we have a luxuriant growth of new and strange species +of colossal weeds that overtower and seem to have choked out whatever +furze of original Buddhism there was in Japan, while in the domain of +Confucianism there is a barren heath. Whereas, in China, the voluminous +literature created by commentators on Confucius and the commentaries on +the commentators suggests the hyperbole used by the author of John's +Gospel,[8] yet there is probably nothing on Confucianism from the +Japanese pen in the thousand years under our review which is worth the +reading or the translation.[9] In this respect the Japanese genius +showed its vast capabilities of imitation, adoption and assimilation. + +As of old, Confucianism again furnished a Chinese wall, within which the +Japanese could move, and wherein they might find food for the mind in +all the relations of life and along all the lines of achievement +permitted them. The philosophy imported from China, as shown again and +again in that land of oft-changing dynasties, harmonizing with arbitrary +government, accorded perfectly with the despotism of the Tokugawas, the +"Tycoons" who in Yedo ruled from 1603 to 1868. Nothing new was +permitted, and any attempt at modification, enlargement, or improvement +was not only frowned and hissed down as impious innovation, but usually +brought upon the daring innovator the ban of the censor, imprisonment, +banishment, or death by enforced suicide.[10] In Yedo, the centre of +Chinese learning, and in other parts of the country, there were, indeed, +thinkers whose philosophy did not always tally with what was taught by +the orthodox,[11] but as a rule even when these men escaped the ban of +the censor, or the sword of the executioner, they were but us voices +crying in the wilderness. The great mass of the gentry was orthodox, +according to the standards of the Sido College, while the common people +remained faithful to Buddhism. In the conduct of daily life they +followed the precepts which had for centuries been taught them by their +fathers. + + +Philosophical Confucianism the Religion of the Samurai. + + +What were the features of this modern Confucian philosophy, which the +Japanese Samurai exalted to a religion?[12] We say philosophy and +religion, because while the teachings of the great sage lay at the +bottom of the system, yet it is not true since the early seventeenth +century, that the thinking men of Japan have been satisfied with only +the original simple ethical rules of the ancient master. Though they +have craved a richer mental pabulum, yet they have enjoyed less the +study of the original text, than acquaintance with the commentaries and +communion with the great philosophical exponents, of the master. What, +then, we ask, are the features of the developed philosophy, which, +imported from China, served the Japanese Samurai not only as morals but +for such religion as he possessed or professed? + +We answer: The system was not agnostic, as many modern and western +writers assert that it is, and as Confucius, transmitting and probably +modifying the old religion, had made the body of his teachings to be. +Agnostic, indeed, in regard to many things wherein a Christian has +faith, modern Confucianism, besides being bitterly polemic and hostile +to Buddhism, is pantheistic. + +Certain it is that during the revival of Pure Shint[=o] in the +eighteenth century, the scholars of the Shint[=o] school, and those of +its great rival, the Chinese, agreed in making loyalty[13] take the +place of filial duty in the Confucian system. To serve the cause of the +Emperor became the most essential duty to those with cultivated minds. +The newer Chinese philosophy mightily influenced the historians, Rai +Sanyo and those of the Mito school, whose works, now classic, really +began the revolution of 1868. By forming and setting in motion the +public opinion, which finally overthrew the Sh[=o]gun and feudalism, +restored the Emperor to supreme power, and unified the nation, they +helped, with modern ideas, to make the New Japan of our day. The +Shint[=o] and the Chinese teachings became amalgamated in a common +cause, and thus the philosophy of Chu Hi, mingling with the nationalism +and patriotism inculcated by Shint[=o], brought about a remarkable +result. As a native scholar and philosopher observes, "It certainly is +strange to see the Tokugawa rule much shaken, if not actually +overthrown, by that doctrine which generations of able Sh[=o]guns and +their ministers had earnestly encouraged and protected. It is perhaps +still more remarkable to see the Mito clan, under many able and active +chiefs, become the centre of the Kinno[14] movement, which was to result +in the overthrow of the Tokugawa family, of which it was itself a +branch." + + +A Medley of Pantheism. + + +The philosophy of modern Confucianism is wholly pantheistic. There is in +it no such thing or being as God. The orthodox pantheism of Old Japan +means that everything in general is god, but nothing in particular is +God; that All is god, but not that God is all. It is a "pantheistic +medley."[15] + +Chu Hi and his Japanese successors, especially Ky[=u]-so, argue finely +and discourse volubly about _Ki_[16] or spirit; but it is not Spirit, or +spiritual in the sense of Him who taught even a woman at the well-curb +at Sychar. It is in the air. It is in the earth, the trees, the flowers. +It comes to consciousness in man. His _Ri_ is the Tao of Lao Tsze, the +Way, Reason, Law. It is formless, invisible. + + "Ri is not separate from Ki, for then it were an empty abstract + thing. It is joined to Ki, and may be called, by nature, one + decreed, changeless Norm. It is the rule of Ki, the very centre, + the reason why Ki is Ki." + +Ten or Heaven is not God or the abode of God, but an abstraction, a sort +of Unknowable, or Primordial Necessity. + + "The doctrine of the Sages knows and worships Heaven, and + without faith in it there is no truth. For men and things, the + universe, are born and nourished by Heaven, and the 'Way,' the + 'ri,' that is in all, is the 'Way,' the 'ri' of Heaven. + Distinguishing root and branch, the heart is the root of Heaven + and the appearance, the revolution of the sun and moon, the + order of the stars, is the branch. The books of the sages teach + us to conform to the heart of Heaven and deal not with + appearances." + + "The teaching of the sages is the original truth and, given to + men, it forms both their nature and their relationships. With it + complete, naught else is needed for the perfect following of the + 'Way.' Let then the child make its parents Heaven, the retainer, + his Lord, the wife her husband, and let each give up life for + righteousness. Thus will each serve for Heaven. But if we exalt + Heaven above parent or Lord, we shall come to think we can serve + it though they be disobeyed and like tiger or wolf shall rejoice + to kill them. To such fearful end does the Western learning + lead.... Let each one die for duty, there is naught else we can + do." + +Thus wrote Ohashi Junzo, as late as 1857 A.D., the same year in which +Townsend Harris entered Yedo to teach the practical philosophy of +Christendom, and the brotherhood of man as expressed in diplomacy. +Ohashi Junzo bitterly opposed the opening of Japan to modern +civilization and the ideas of Christendom. His book was the swan-song of +the dying Japanese Confucianism. Slow as is the dying, and hard as its +death may be, the mind of new Japan has laid away to dust and oblivion +the Ti-shu philosophy. "At present they (the Chinese classics) have +fallen into almost total neglect, though phrases and allusions borrowed +from them still pass current in literature, and even to some extent in +the language of every-day life." Sido, the great temple of Confucius in +Tokyo, is now utilized as an educational Museum.[17] + +A study of this subject and of comparative religion, is of immediate +practical benefit to the Christian teacher. The preacher, addressing an +audience made up of educated Japanese, who speaks of God without +describing his personality, character, or attributes as illustrated in +Revelation, will find that his hearers receive his term as the +expression for a bundle of abstract principles, or a system of laws, or +some kind of regulated force. They do, indeed, make some reference to a +"creator" by using a rare word. Occasionally, their language seems to +touch the boundary line on the other side of which is conscious +intelligence, but nothing approaching the clearness and definiteness of +the early Chinese monotheism of the pre-Confucian classics is to be +distinguished.[18] The modern Japanese long ago heard joyfully the +words, "Honor the gods, but keep them far from you," and he has done it. + +To love God would no more occur to a Japanese gentleman than to have his +child embrace and kiss him. Whether the source and fountain of life of +which they speak has any Divine Spirit, is very uncertain, but whether +it has, or has not, man need not obey, much less worship him. The +universe is one, the essence is the same. Man must seek to know his +place in the universe; he is but one in an endless chain; let him find +his part and fulfil that part; all else is vanity. One need not inquire +into the origins or the ultimates. Man is moved by a power greater than +himself; he has no real independence of his own; everything has its rank +and place; indeed, its rank and place is its sole title to a separate +existence. If a man mistakes his place he is a fool, he deserves +punishment. + + +The Ideals of a Samurai. + + +Out of his place, man is not man. Duty is more important than being. +Nearly everything in our life is fixed by fate; there may seem to be +exceptions, because some wicked men are prosperous and some righteous +men are wretched, but these are not real exceptions to the general rule +that we are made for our environment and fitted to it. And then, again, +it may be that our judgments are not correct. Let the heart be right and +all is well. Let man be obedient and his outward circumstance is +nothing, having no relation to his joy or happiness. Even when as to his +earthly body man passes away, he is not destroyed; the drop again +becomes part of the sea, the spark re-enters the flame, and his life +continues, though it be not a conscious life. In this way man is in +harmony with the original principle of all things. He outlasts the +universe itself. + +Hence to a conscientious Samurai there is nothing in this world better +than obedience, in the ideal of a true man. What he fears most and hates +most is that his memory may perish, that he shall have no seed, that he +shall be forgotten or die under a cloud and be thought treacherous or +cowardly or base, when in reality his life was pure and his motives +high. "Better," sang Yoshida Shoin, the dying martyr for his principles, +"to be a crystal and to be broken, than to be a tile upon the housetop +and remain." + +So, indeed, on a hundred curtained execution grounds, with the dirk of +the suicide firmly grasped and about to shed their own life-blood, have +sung the martyrs who died willingly for their faith in their idea of +Yamato Damashii.[19] In untold instances in the national history, men +have died willingly and cheerfully, and women also by thousands, as +brave, as unflinching as the men, so that the story of Japanese chivalry +is almost incredible in its awful suicides. History reveals a state of +society in which cool determination, desperate courage and fearlessness +of death in the face of duty were quite unique, and which must have had +their base in some powerful though abnormal code of ethics. + +This leads us to consider again the things emphasized by Japanese as +distinct from Chinese and Korean[20] Confucianism, and to call attention +to its fruits, while at the same time we note its defects, and show +wherein it failed. We shall then show how this old system has already +waxed old and is passing away. Christ has come to Japan, and behold a +new heaven and a new earth! + + +New Japan Makes Revision. + + +First. For sovereign and minister, there are coming into vogue new +interpretations. This relation, if it is to remain as the first, will +become that of the ruler and the ruled. Constitutional government has +begun; and codes of law have been framed which are recognizing the +rights of the individual and of the people. Even a woman has rights +before the law, in relation to husband, parents, brothers, sisters and +children. It is even beginning to be thought that children have rights. +Let us hope that as the rights are better understood the duties will be +equally clear. + +It is coming to pass in Japan that even in government, the sovereign +must consult with his people on all questions pertaining to their +welfare. Although, thus far the constitutional government makes the +ministers responsible to the Sovereign instead of to the Diet, yet the +contention of the enlightened men and the liberal parties is, that the +ministers shall be responsible to the Diet. The time seems at hand when +the sovereign's power over his people will not rest on traditions more +or less uncertain, on history manufactured by governmental order, on +mythological claims based upon the so-called "eternal ages," on +prerogatives upheld by the sword, or on the supposed grace of the gods, +but will be "broad-based upon the people's will." The power of the +rulers will be derived from the consent of the governed. The Emperor +will become the first and chief servant of the nation. + +Revision and improvement of the Second Relation will make filial piety +something more real than that unto which China has attained, or Japan +has yet seen, or which is yet universally known in Christendom. The +tyranny of the father and of the older brother, and the sale of +daughters to shame, will pass away; and there will arise in the Japanese +house, the Christian home. + +It would be hard to say what Confucianism has done for woman. It is +probable that all civilizations, and systems of philosophy, ethics and +religion, can be well tested by this criterion--the position of woman. +Confucianism virtually admits two standards of morality, one for man, +another for woman.[21] In Chinese Asia adultery is indeed branded as one +of the vilest of crimes, but in common idea and parlance it is a woman's +crime, not man's. So, on the other hand, chastity is a female virtue, it +is part of womanly duty, it has little or no relation to man personally. +Right revision and improvement of the Third Relation will abolish +concubinage. It will reform divorce. It will make love the basis of +marriage. It will change the state of things truthfully pictured in such +books as the Genji Monogatari, or Romance of Prince Genji, with its +examples of horrible lust and incests; the Kojiki or Ethnic scripture, +with its nave accounts of filthiness among the gods; the Onna Dai Gaku, +Woman's Great Study, with its amazing subordination and moral slavery of +wife and daughter; and The Japanese Bride, of yesterday--all truthful +pictures of Japanese life, for the epoch in which each was written. +These books will become the forgotten curiosities of literature, known +only to the archologist. + +Improvement and revision of the Fourth Relation, will bring into the +Japanese home more justice, righteousness, love and enjoyment of life. +It will make possible, also, the cheerful acceptance and glad practice +of those codes of law common in Christendom, which are based upon the +rights of the individual and upon the idea of the greatest good to the +greatest number. It will help to abolish the evils which come from +primogeniture and to release the clutch of the dead hand upon the +living. It will decrease the power of the graveyard, and make thought +and care for the living the rule of life. It will abolish sham and +fiction, and promote the cause of truth. It will hasten the reign of +righteousness and love, and beneath propriety and etiquette lay the +basis of "charity toward all, malice toward none." + +Revision with improvement of the Fifth Relation hastens the reign of +universal brotherhood. It lifts up the fallen, the down-trodden and the +outcast. It says to the slave "be free," and after having said "be +free," educates, trains, and lifts up the brother once in servitude, and +helps him to forget his old estate and to know his rights as well as his +duties, and develops in him the image of God. It says to the hinin or +not-human, "be a man, be a citizen, accept the protection of the law." +It says to the eta, "come into humanity and society, receive the +protection of law, and the welcome of your fellows; let memory forget +the past and charity make a new future." It will bring Japan into the +fraternity of nations, making her people one with the peoples of +Christendom, not through the empty forms of diplomacy, or by the craft +of her envoys, or by the power of her armies and navies reconstructed on +modern principles, but by patient education and unflinching loyalty to +high ideals. Thus will Japan become worthy of all the honors, which the +highest humanity on this planet can bestow. + + +The Ideal of Yamato Damashii Enlarged. + + +In this our time it is not only the alien from Christendom, with his +hostile eye and mordant criticism, who is helping to undermine that +system of ethics which permitted the sale of the daughter to shame, the +introduction of the concubine into the family and the reduction of +woman, even though wife and mother, to nearly a cipher. It is not only +the foreigner who assaults that philosophy which glorified the vendetta, +kept alive private war, made revenge in murder the sweetest joy of the +Samurai and suicide the gate to honor and fame, subordinated the family +to the house, and suppressed individuality and personality. It is the +native Japanese, no longer a hermit, a "frog in the well, that knows not +the great ocean" but a student, an inquirer, and a critic, who assaults +the old ethical and philosophical system, and calls for a new way +between heaven and earth, and a new kind of Heaven in which shall be a +Creator, a Father and a Saviour. The brain and pen of New Japan, as well +as its heart, demand that the family shall be more than the house and +that the living members shall have greater rights as well as duties, +than the dead ancestors. They claim that the wife shall share +responsibility with the husband, and that the relation of husband and +wife shall take precedence of that of the father and son; that the +mother shall possess equal authority with the father; that the wife, +whether she be mother or not, shall not be compelled to share her home +with the concubine; and that the child in Japan shall be born in the +home and not in the herd. The sudden introduction of the Christian ideas +of personality and individuality has undoubtedly wrought peril to the +framework of a society which is built according to the Confucian +principles; but faith in God, love in the home, and absolute equality +before the law will bring about a reign of righteousness such as Japan +has never known, but toward the realization of which Christian nations +are ever advancing. + +Even the old ideal of the Samurai embodied in the formula Yamato +Damashii will be enlarged and improved from its narrow limits and +ferocious aspects, when the tap-root of all progress is allowed to +strike into deeper truth, and the Sixth Relation, or rather the first +relation of all, is taught, namely, that of God to Man, and of Man to +God. That this relation is understood, and that the Samurai ideal, +purified and enlarged, is held by increasing numbers of Japan's +brightest men and noblest women, is shown in that superb Christian +literature which pours from the pens of the native men and women in the +Japanese Christian churches. Under this flood of truth the old obstacles +to a nobler society are washed away, while out of the enriched soil +rises the new Japan which is to be a part of the better Christendom that +is to come. Christ in Japan, as everywhere, means not destruction, but +fulfilment. + + + + +CHAPTER VI - THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA + + "Life is a dream is what the pilgrim learns, + Nor asks for more, but straightway home returns." + --Japanese medieval lyric drama. + + "The purpose of Buddha's preaching was to bring into light the + permanent truth, to reveal the root of all suffering and thus to + lead all sentient beings into the perfect emancipation from all + passions."--Outlines of the Mahayana. + + "Buddhism will stand forth as the embodiment of the eternal + verity that as a man sows he will reap, associated with the + duties of mastery over self and kindness to all men, and + quickened into a popular religion by the example of a noble and + beautiful life."--Dharmapala of Ceylon. + + "Buddhism teaches the right path of cause and effect, and + nothing which can supersede the idea of cause and effect will be + accepted and believed. Buddha himself cannot contradict this law + which is the Buddha, of Buddhas, and no omnipotent power except + this law is believed to be existent in the universe. + + "Buddhism does not quarrel with other religions about the truth + ... Buddhism is truth common to every religion regardless of the + outside garment."--Horin Toki, of Japan. + + "Death we can face; but knowing, as some of us do, what is human + life, which of us is it that without shuddering could (if we + were summoned) face the hour of birth?" -De Quinccy. + + The prayer of Buddhism, "Deliver us from existence." + The prayer of the Christian, "Deliver us from evil." + + "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the + earth."--Genesis. + + "I am come that they might have life and that they might have it + more abundantly."--Jesus. + + +CHAPTER VI - THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA + +Pre-Buddhistic India. + + +Does the name of Gautama, the Buddha, stand for a sun-myth or for a +historic personage? One set of scholars and writers, represented by +Professor Kern,[1] of Leyden, thinks the Buddha a mythical personage. +Another school, represented by Professor T. Rhys Davids,[2] declares +that he lived in human flesh and breathed the air of earth. We accept +the historical view as best explaining the facts. + +In order to understand a religion, in its origin at least, we must know +some of the conditions out of which it arose. Buddhism is one of the +protestantisms of the world. Yet, is not every religion, in one sense, +protestant? Is it not a protest against something to which it opposes a +difference? Every new religion, like a growing plant, ignores or rejects +certain elements in the soil out of which it springs. It takes up and +assimilates, also, other elements not used before, in order to produce a +flower or fruit different from other growths out of the same soil. Yet +whether the new religion be considered as a development, fulfilment, or +protest, we must know its historical perspective or background. To +understand the origin of Buddhism, one of the best preparations is to +read the history of India and especially of the thought of her many +generations; for the landmarks of the civilizations of India, as a Hindu +may proudly say, are its mighty literatures. At these let us glance.[3] + +The age of the Vedas extends from the year 2000 to 1400 B.C., and the +history of this early India is wonderfully like that of America. During +this era, the Hindus, one of the seven Aryan tribes of which the +Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Sclav and Teutonic form the other six, +descending from the mid-Asian plateau, settled the Punjab in Northwest +India. They drove the dark-skinned aborigines before them and reclaimed +forest and swamp to civilization, making the land of the seven rivers +bright with agriculture and brilliant with cities. This was the glorious +heroic age of joyous life and conquest, when men who believed in a +Heavenly Father[4] made the first epoch of Hindu history. + +Then followed the epic age, 1400-1000 B.C., when the area of +civilization was extended still farther down the Ganges Valley, the +splendor of wealth, learning, military prowess and social life excelling +that of the ancestral seats in the Punjab. Amid differences of wars and +diplomacy with rivalries and jealousies, a common sacred language, +literature and religion with similar social and religious institutions, +united the various nations together. In this time the old Vedas were +compiled into bodies or collections, and the Brahmanas and the +Upanishads, besides the great epic poems, the Mahabharata and the +Ramayana were composed. + +The next, or rationalistic epoch, covers the period from 1000 B.C. to +320 B.C., when the Hindu expansion had covered all India, that is, the +peninsula from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. Then, all India, including +Ceylon, was Hinduized, though in differing degrees; the purest Aryan +civilization being in the north, the less pure in the Ganges Valley and +south and east, while the least Aryan and more Dravidian was in Bengal, +Orissa, and India south of the Kistna River. + +This story of the spread of Hindu civilization is a brilliant one, and +seems as wonderful as the later European conquest of the land, and of +the other "Indians" of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. +Beside the conquests in material civilization of these our fellow-Aryans +(who were the real Indians, and who spoke the language which is the +common ancestor of our own and of most European tongues), what impresses +us most of all, in these Aryans, is their intellectual energy. The +Hindus of the rationalistic age made original discoveries. They invented +grammar, geometry, arithmetic, decimal notation, and they elaborated +astronomy, medicine, mental philosophy and logic (with syllogism) before +these sciences were known or perfected in Greece. In the seventh century +before Christ, Kapila taught a system of philosophy, of which that of +the Europeans, Schopenhaur and Hartmann, seems largely a reproduction. + +Following this agnostic scheme of thought, came, several centuries +later, the dualistic Yoga[5] system in which the chief feature is the +conception of Deity as a means of final emancipation of the human soul +from further transmigration, and of union with the Universal Spirit or +World Soul. There is, however, perhaps no sadder chapter in the history +of human thought than the story of the later degeneration of the Yoga +system into one of bloody and cruel rites in India, and of superstition +in China. + +Still other systems followed: one by Gautama, of the same clan or family +of the later Buddha, who develops inference by the construction of +syllogism; while Kanada follows the atomic philosophy in which the atoms +are eternal, but the aggregates perishable by disintegration. + +Against these schools, which seemed to be dangerous "new departures," +orthodox Hindus, anxious for their ancient beliefs and practices as laid +down in the Vedas, started fresh systems of philosophy, avowedly more in +consonances with their ancestral faith. One system insisted on the +primitive Vedic ritual, and another laid emphasis on the belief in a +Universal Soul first inculcated in the Upanishads. + + +Conditions out of which Buddhism Arose. + + +Whatever we may think of these schools of philosophy, or the connection +with or indebtedness of Gautama, the Buddha, to them, they reveal to us +the conceptions which his contemporaries had of the universe and the +beings inhabiting it. These were honest human attempts to find God. In +them the various beings or six conditions of sentient existence are +devas or gods; men; asuras or monsters; pretas or demons; animals; and +beings in hell. Furthermore, these schools of Hindu philosophy show us +the conditions out of which Buddhism arose, furnish us with its +terminology and technical phrases, reveal to us what the reformer +proposed to himself to do, and, what is perhaps still more important, +show us the types to which Buddhism in its degeneration and degradation +reverted. The strange far-off oriental words which today scholars +discuss, theosophists manipulate, and charlatans employ as catchpennies +were common words in the every-day speech of the Hindu people, two or +three thousand years ago. + +Glancing rapidly at the condition of religion in the era ushering in the +birth of Buddha, we note that the old joyousness of life manifested in +the Vedic hymns is past, their fervor and glow are gone. In the morning +of Hindu life there was no caste, no fixed priesthood, and no idols; but +as wealth, civilization, easy and settled life succeeded, the taste for +pompous sacrifices conducted by an hereditary priestly caste increased. +Greater importance was laid upon the detail of the ceremonies, the +attention of the worshipper being turned from the deities "to the +minuti of rites, the erection of altars, the fixing of the proper +astronomical moments for lighting the fire, the correct pronunciation of +prayers, and to the various requisite acts accompanying a sacrifice."[6] +In the chapter of decay which time wrote and literature reflects, we +find "grotesque reasons given for every minute rite, dogmatic +explanation of texts, penances for every breach of form and rule, and +elaborate directions for every act and moment of the worshipper." + +The literature shows a degree of credulity and submission on the part of +the people and of absolute power on the part of the priests, which +reminds us of the Middle Ages in Europe. The old inspiring wars with the +aborigines are over. The time of bearing a noble creed, meaning culture +and civilization as against savagery and idolatry, is past, and only +intestine quarrels and local strife have succeeded. The age of creative +literature is over, and commentators, critics and grammarians have +succeeded. Still more startling are the facts disclosed by literary +history. The liquid poetry has become frozen prose; the old flaming fuel +of genius is now slag and ashes. We see Hindus doing exactly what Jewish +rabbis, and after them Christian schoolmen and dogma-makers, did with +the old Hebrew poems and prophecies. Construing literally the prayers, +songs and hopes of an earlier age, they rebuild the letter of the text +into creeds and systems, and erect an amazing edifice of steel-framed +and stone-cased tradition, to challenge which is taught to be heresy and +impiety. The poetical similes used in the Rig Vedas have been +transformed into mythological tales. In the change of language the Vedas +themselves are unreadable, except by the priests, who fatten on popular +beliefs in the transmigration of souls and in the power of priestcraft +to make that transmigration blissful--provided liberal gifts are duly +forthcoming. Idolatry and witchcraft are rampant. Some saviour, some +light was needed. + + +Buddhism a Logical Product of Hindu Thought. + + +At such a time, probably 557 B.C., was born Shaka, of the Muni clan, at +Kapilavastu, one hundred miles northeast of Benares. We pass over the +details[7] of the life of him called Prince, Lord, Lion of the Tribe of +Shaka, and Saviour; of his desertion of wife and child, called the first +Great Renunciation; of his struggles to obtain peace; of his +enlightenment or Buddhahood; of his second or Greater Renunciation; of +merit on account of austerities; and give the story told in a mountain +of books in various tongues, but condensed in a paragraph by Romesh +Chunder Dutt. + + "At an early age, Prince Gautama left his royal home, and his + wife, and new-born child, and became a wanderer and a mendicant, + to seek a way of salvation for man. Hindu rites, accompanied by + the slaughter of innocent victims, repelled his feelings. Hindu + philosophy afforded him no remedy, and Hindu penances and + mortifications proved unavailing after he had practised them for + years. At last, by severe contemplation, he discovered the long + coveted truth; a holy and calm life, and benevolence and love + toward all living creatures seemed to him the essence of + religion. Self-culture and universal love--this was his + discovery--this is the essence of Buddhism."[8] + +From one point of view Buddhism was the logical continuance of Aryan +Hindoo philosophy; from another point of view it was a new departure. +The leading idea in the Upanishads is that the object of the wise man +should be to know, inwardly and consciously, the Great Soul of all; and +by this knowledge his individual soul would become united to the Supreme +Being, the true and absolute self. This was the highest point reached in +the old Indian philosophy[9] before Buddha was born. + +So, looking at Buddhism in the perspective of Hindu history and thought, +we may say that it is doubtful whether Gautama intended to found a new +religion. As, humanly speaking, Saul of Tarsus saved Christianity from +being a Jewish sect and made it universal, so Gautama extricated the new +enthusiasm of humanity from the priests. He made Aryan religion the +property of all India. What had been a rare monopoly as narrow as +Judaism, he made the inheritance of all Asia. Gautama was a protestant +and a reformer, not an agnostic or skeptic. It is more probable that he +meant to shake off Brahmanism and to restore the pure and original form +of the Aryan religion of the Vedas, as far as it was possible to do so. +In one sense, Buddhism was a revolt against hereditary and sacerdotal +privilege--an attack of the people against priestcraft. The Buddha and +his disciples were levellers. In a different age and clime, but along a +similar path, they did a work analogous to that of the so-called +Anabaptists in Europe and Independents in England, centuries later. + +It is certain, however, that Buddhism has grown logically out of ancient +Hinduism. In its monastic feature--one of its most striking +characteristics--we see only the concentration and reduction to system, +of the old life of the ascetics and religious mendicants recognized and +respected by Hinduism. For centuries the Buddhist monks and nuns were +regarded in India as only a new sect of ascetics, among many others +which flourished in the land. + +The Buddhist doctrine of karma, or in Japanese, _ingwa_, of cause and +effect, whereby it is taught that each effect in this life springs from +a cause in some previous incarnation, and that each act in this life +bears its fruit in the next, has grown directly out of the Hindu idea of +the transmigration of souls. This idea is first inculcated in the +Upanishads, and is recognized in Hindu systems of philosophy. + +So also the Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana, or the attainment of a sinless +state of existence, has grown out of the idea of final union of the +individual soul with the Universal Soul, which is also inculcated in the +Upanishads. Yet, as we shall see, the Buddhists were, in the eyes of the +Brahmans, atheists, because in the ken of these new levellers gods and +men were put on the same plane. Brahmanism has never forgiven Buddhism +for ignoring the gods, and the Hindoos finally drove out the followers +of Gautama from India. It eventuated that after a millenium or so of +Buddhism in India, the old gods, Brahma, Indra, etc., which at first had +been shut out from the ken of the people, by Gautama, found their places +again in the popular faith of the Buddhists, who believed that the gods +as well as men, were all progressing toward the blessed Nirvana--that +sinless life and holy calm, which is the Buddhist's heaven and +salvation. + +It is certainly very curious, and in a sense amusing, to find +flourishing in far-off Japan the old gods of India, that one would +suppose to have been utterly dead and left behind in oblivion. As +acknowledged devas or kings and bodhisattvas or soon-to-be Buddhas, not +a few once defunct Hindu gods, utterly unknown to early Buddhism, have +forced their way into the company of the elect. Though most of them have +not gained the popularity of the indigenous deities of Nippon, they yet +attract many worshippers. They remind one that amid the coming of the +sons of Elohim before Jehovah, "the satan" came also.[10] + +From another point of view Buddhism was a new religion; for it swept +away and out of the field of its vision the whole of the World or +Universal Soul theory. "It proclaimed a salvation which each man could +gain for himself and by himself, in this world during this life, without +the least reference to God, or to gods, either great or small." "It +placed the first importance on knowledge; but it was no longer a +knowledge of God, it was a clear perception of the real nature as they +supposed it to be of men and things." In a word, Gautama never reached +the idea of a personal self-existent God, though toward that truth he +groped. He was satisfied too soon.[11] His followers were even more +easily satisfied with abstractions. When Gautama saw the power over the +human heart of inward culture and of love to others, he obtained peace, +he rested on certainty, he became the Buddha, that is, the enlightened. +Perhaps he was not the first Buddhist. It may be that the historical +Gautama, if so he is worthy to be called, merely made the sect or the +new religion famous. Hardly a religion in the full sense of the word, +Buddhism did not assume the rle of theology, but sought only to know +men and things. In one sense Buddhism is atheism, or rather, atheistic +humanism. In one sense, also, the solution of the mystery of God, of +life, and of the universe, which Gautama and his followers attained, was +one of skepticism rather than of faith. Buddhism is, relatively, a very +modern religion; it is one of the new faiths. Is it paradoxical to say +that the Buddhists are "religious atheists?" + + +The Buddhist Millennium in India. + + +Let us now look at the life of the Founder. Day after day, the +pure-souled teacher attracted new disciples while he with alms-bowl went +around as mendicant and teacher. Salvation merely by self-control, and +love without any rites, ceremonies, charms, priestly powers, gods or +miracles, formed the burden of his teachings. "Thousands of people left +their homes, embraced the holy order and became monks, ignoring caste, +and relinquishing all worldly goods except the bare necessaries of life, +which they possessed and enjoyed in common." Probably the first monastic +_system_ of the world, was that of the Indian Buddhists. + +The Buddha preached the good news during forty-five years. After his +death, five hundred of his followers assembled at Rajagriha and chanted +together the teachings of Gautama, to fix them in memory. A hundred +years later, in 377 B.C., came the great schism among the Buddhists, out +of which grew the divisions known as Northern and Southern Buddhism. +There was disagreement on ten points. A second council was therefore +called, and the disputed points determined to the satisfaction of one +side. Thereupon the seceders went away in large numbers, and the +differences were never healed; on the contrary, they have widened in the +course of ages. + +The separatists began what may be called the Northern Buddhisms of +Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan. The orthodox or Southern Buddhists +are those of Ceylon, Burma and Siam. The original canon of Southern +Buddhism is in Pali; that of Northern Buddhism is in Sanskrit. The one +is comparatively small and simple; the other amazingly varied and +voluminous. The canon of Southern scripture is called the Hinayana, the +Little or Smaller Vehicle; the canon of Northern Buddhism is named the +Mahayana or Great Vehicle. Possibly, also, besides the Southern and +Northern Buddhisms, the Buddhism of Japan may be treated by itself and +named Eastern Buddhism. + +In the great council called in 242 B.C., by King Asoka, who may be +termed the Constantine of Buddhism, the sacred texts were again chanted. +It was not until the year 88 B.C. in Ceylon, six hundred years after +Gautama, that the three Pitakas, Boxes or Baskets, were committed to +writing in the Pali language. In a word, Buddhism knows nothing of +sacred documents or a canon of scripture contemporary with its first +disciples. + +The splendid Buddhist age of India lasted nearly a thousand years, and +was one of superb triumphs in civilization. It was an age of spiritual +emancipation, of freedom from idol worship, of nobler humanity and of +peace.[12] It was followed by the Puranic epoch and the dark ages. Then +Buddhism was, as some say, "driven out" from the land of its birth, +finding new expansion in Eastern and Northern Asia, and again, a still +more surprising development in the ultima-Thule of the Asiatic +continent, Japan. There is now no Buddhism in India proper, the faith +being represented only in Ceylon and possibly also on the main land, by +the sect of the Jains, and peradventure in Persia by Babism which +contains elements from three religions.[13] Like Christianity, Buddhism +was "driven out" of its old home to bless other nations of the world. It +is probably far nearer the truth to say that Buddhism was never expelled +from India, but rather that it died by disintegration and relapse.[14] +It had become Brahmanism again. The old gods and the old idol-worship +came back. It is in Japan that the ends of the earth, eastern and +western civilization, and the freest and fullest or at least the latest +developments of Christianity and of Buddhism, have met. + +In its transfer to distant lands and its developments throughout Eastern +Asia, the faith which had originated in India suffered many changes. +Dividing into two great branches, it became a notably different religion +according as it moved along the southern, the northern, or the eastern +channel. By the vehicle of the Pali language it was carried to Ceylon, +Siam, Burma, Cambodia and the islands of the south; that is, to southern +or peninsular and insular Asia. Here there is little evidence of any +striking departure from the doctrines of the Pali Pitakas; and, as +Southern Buddhism does not greatly concern us in speaking of the +religions of Japan, we may pass it by. For although the books and +writings belonging to Southern Buddhism, and comprehended under the +formula of the Hinayana or Smaller Vehicle, have been studied in China, +Korea and Japan, yet they have had comparatively little influence upon +doctrinal, ritualistic, or missionary development in Chinese Asia. + +Astonishingly different has been the case with the Northern Buddhisms +which are those of Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, China, Korea and +Japan. As luxuriant as the evolutions of political and dogmatic +Christianity and as radical in their departures from the primitive +simplicity of the faith, have been these forms of Buddhist doctrine, +ritual and organization. We cannot now dwell upon the wonderful details +of the vast and complicated system, differing so much in various +countries. We pass by, or only glance at, the philosophy of the Punjaub; +the metaphysics of Nepal--with its developments into what some writers +consider to be a close approach to monotheism, and others, indeed, +monotheism itself; the system of Lamaism in Tibet, which has paralleled +so closely the development of the papal hierarchy; the possibly two +thousand years' growth and decay of Chinese Buddhism; the varieties of +the Buddhism of Mongolia--almost swamped in the Shamanistic +superstitions of these dwellers on the plains; the astonishing success, +quick ripening, decay, and almost utter annihilation, among the learned +and governing classes, of Korean Buddhism;[15] and study in detail only +Eastern or Japanese Buddhism. + +We shall in this lecture attempt but two things: + +I. A summary of the process of thought by which the chief features of +the Northern Buddhisms came into view. + +II. An outline of the story of Japanese Buddhism during the first three +centuries of its existence. + + +The Development of Northern Buddhism + + +Leaving the early Buddha legends and the solid ground of history, the +makers of the newer Buddhist doctrines in Nepal occupied themselves with +developing the theory of Buddhahood and of the Buddhas;[16] for we must +ever remember that Buddha[17] is not a proper name, but a common +adjective meaning enlightened, from the root to know, perceive, etc. +They made constant and marvellous additions to the primitive doctrine, +giving it a momentum which gathered force as the centuries went on; and, +as propaganda, it moved against the sun. + +This development theory ran along the line of _personification_. Not +being satisfied with "the wheel of the law," it personified both the hub +and the spokes. It began with the spirit of kindness out of which all +human virtues rise, and by the power of which the Buddhist organization +will conquer all sin and unbelief and become victorious throughout the +world. This personification is called the Maitreya Buddha, the +unconquerable one, or the future Buddha of benevolence, the Buddha who +is yet to come. Here was a tremendous and revolutionary movement in the +new faith, the beginning of a long process. It was as though the +Christians had taken the particular attributes, justice, mercy, etc., of +God and, after personifying each one, deified it, thus multiplying gods. + +What was the soil for the new sowing, and what was the harvest to be +reaped in due time? + +With many thousands of India Buddhists whose minds were already steeped +in Brahministic philosophy and mythology, who were more given to +speculation and dreaming than to self-control and moral culture, and who +mourned for the dead gods of Hinduism, the soil was already prepared for +a growth wholly abnormal to true Buddhism, but altogether in keeping +with the older Brahministic philosophies from which these dreamers had +been but partially converted to Buddhism.[18] + +The seed is found in the doctrine which already forms part of the system +of the Little Vehicle, when it tells of the personal Buddhas and the +Buddhas elect, or future Buddhas. In the Jataka stories, or Birth tales, +"the Buddha elect" is the title given to each of the beings, man, angel, +or animal, who is held to be a Bodhisattva, or the future Buddha in one +of his former births. The title Bodhisattva[19] is the name given to a +being whose Karma will produce other beings in a continually ascending +scale of goodness until it becomes vested in a Buddha. Or, in the more +common use of the word, a Bodhisattva (Japanese bosatsu) is a being +whose essence has become intelligence, and who will have to pass through +human existence once more only before entering Nirvana. + +In Southern Buddhist temples, the pure white image of Maitreya is +sometimes found beside the idol representing Gautama or the historical +Buddha. While in Southern Buddhism the idea of this possibility of +development seems to have been little seized upon and followed up, in +Northern Buddhism as early as 400 A.D. the worship of two Buddhas elect +named Manjusri and Avalokitesvara, or personified Wisdom and Power, had +already become general. Manjusri,[20] the Great Being or "Prince Royal," +is the personification of wisdom, and especially of the mystic religious +insight which has produced the Great Vehicle or canon of Northern +Buddhism; or, as a Japanese author says, the third collection of the +Tripitaka was that made by Manjusri and Maitreya. Avalokitesvara,[21] +the Lord of View or All-sided One, is the personification of power, the +merciful protector and preserver of the world and of men. Both are +frequently and voluminously mentioned in the Saddharma Pundarika,[22] in +which the good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric, and of which we +shall have occasion frequently to speak. Manjusri is the mythical author +of this influential work,[23] the twenty-fourth chapter being devoted to +a glorification of the character, the power, and the advantages to be +derived from the worship of Avalokitesvara. + + +The Creation of Gods. + + +Possibly the name of Manjusri may be derived from that of the Indian +mendicant, the traditional introducer of Buddhism and its accompanying +civilization into Nepal. The Tibetans identify him with the minister of +a great King Strongstun, who lived in the seventh century of our era and +who was the great patron of Buddhism into Tibet. He is the founder of +that school of thought which ended in the Great Vehicle,--the literature +of Northern Buddhism.[24] From Nepal to Japan, in the books of the +Northern Buddhists there is certainly much confusion between the +metaphysical being and the legendary civilizer and teacher of Nepal. The +other name, Avalokitesvara, which means the Lord of View, "the lord who +looks down from on high," instead of being a purely metaphysical +invention, may he only an adaptation of one epithet of Shiva, which +meant Master of View. + +Later and by degrees the attributes were separated and each one was +personified. For example, the power of Avalokitesvara was separated from +his protecting care and providence. His power was personified as the +bearer of the thunder-bolt, or the lightning-handed one; and this new +personification added to the two other Buddhas elect, made a triad, the +first in Northern Buddhism. In this triad, the thunder-bolt holder was +Vagrapani; Manjusri was the deified teacher; and Avalokitesvara was the +Spirit of the Buddhas present in the church. Before many centuries had +elapsed, these imaginary beings, with a few others, had become gods to +whom men prayed; and thus Buddhism became a religion with some kind of +theism,--which Gautama had expressly renounced. + +If any one wants proof of this reversion into the old religions of +India, he has only to notice that the name, given to the new god made by +personification of the attribute of power, Vagrapani, or Vadjradhara, or +the bearer of the thunder-bolt, had formerly been used as an epithet of +the old fire-god of the Vedas, Indra. + +It were tedious to recount all the steps in the further development of +Northern Buddhism.[25] Suffice it to say, that out of ideas and +principles set forth in the earlier Buddhism, and under the generating +force reborn from old Brahminism, the Dhyani Buddhas (that is the +Buddhas evolved out of the mind in mystic trance) were given their elect +Buddhas; and so three sets of five were co-ordinated.[26] That is, +first, five pre-penultimate Buddhas; then their Bodhisattvas or +penultimate Buddhas; and then the ultimate or human Buddhas, of which +Gautama was one. Or, first abstraction; then pre-human effluence; then +emanation. + +All this multiplication of beings is unknown to Southern Buddhism, +unknown to the Saddharma Pundarika, and very probably unknown also to +the Chinese pilgrims who visited India in the fifth and seventh +centuries. Professor Rhys Davids, in his compact little manual of +Buddhism, says:[27] + + "Among those hypothetical beings--the creations of a sickly + scholasticism, hollow abstractions without life or reality--the + fourth Amitabha, 'Immeasurable Light,' whose Bodhisatwa is + Avalokitesvara, and whose emanation is Gautama, occupies of + course the highest and most important rank. Surrounded by + innumerable Bodhisatwas, he sits enthroned under a Bo-tree in + Sukhavati, i.e., the Blissful, a paradise of heavenly joys, + whose description occupies whole tedious books of the so-called + Great Vehicle. By this theory, each of the five Buddhas has + become three, and the fourth of these five sets of three is the + second Buddhist Trinity, the belief in which must have arisen + after the seventh century of our era." + +Buddhism has been called the light of Asia, and Gautama its illuminator; +but certainly the light has not been pure, nor the products of its +illumination wholesome. Pardon an illustration. In Christian churches +and cathedrals of Europe, there is still a great prejudice against the +use of pipes, and of gas made from coal, because of the machinery and of +the impure emanations. The prejudice is a wholesome one; for we all know +that most of the elements forming common illuminating gas are worthless +except to convey the very small amount of light-giving material, and +that these elements in combustion vitiate the air and give off +deleterious products which corrode, tarnish and destroy. Now though +Buddhist doctrine may have been the light of India, yet to reach the +Northern and Eastern nations of Asia it had, apparently, to be +adulterated for conveyance, as much as is the illuminating gas in our +cities. From the first, Northern Buddhism showed a wonderful affinity, +not only for Brahministic superstitions and speculations, but for almost +everything else with which it came in contact in countries beyond India. +Instead of combating, it absorbed. It adapted itself to circumstances, +and finding certain beliefs prevalent among the people, it imbibed them, +and thus gained by accretion until its bulk, both of beliefs and of +disciples, was in the inverse ratio of its purity. Even to-day, the +occult theosophy of "Isis Unveiled," and of the school of writers such +as Blavatsky, Olcott, etc., seems to be a perfectly logical product of +the Northern Buddhisms, and may be called one of them; yet it is simply +a repetition of what took place centuries ago. Most of the primitive +beliefs and superstitions of Nepal and Tibet were absorbed in the ever +hungry and devouring system of Buddhistic scholasticism. + + +The Making of a Pantheon. + + +Let us glance again at this Nepal Buddhism. In the tenth century we find +what at first seems to be a growth out of Polytheism into Monotheism, +for a new Being, to whom the attributes of infinity, self-existence and +omniscience are ascribed, is invented and named Adi-Buddha, or the +primordial Buddha. According to the speculations of the thinkers, he had +evolved himself out of the five Dhyani-Buddhas by the exercise of the +five meditations, while each of these had evolved out of itself by +wisdom and contemplation, the corresponding Buddhas elect. Again, each +of the latter evolved out of his own essence a material world,--our +present world being the fourth of these, that is of Avaloki. One almost +might consider that this setting forth of the primordial Buddha was real +Monotheism; but on looking more carefully one sees that it is as little +real Monotheism as was possible in the system of Gnosticism. Indeed the +force of evolution could not stop here; for, since even this primordial +Buddha rested upon Ossa of hypothesis piled upon Pelion of hypothesis, +there must be other hypotheses yet to come, and so the Tantra system, a +compound of old Brahminism with the magic and witchcraft and Shamanism +of Northern Asia burst into view. As this was to travel into Japan and +be hailed as purest Buddhism, let us note how this tenth century Tantra +system grew up. To see this clearly, is to look upon the parable of the +man with the unclean spirit being acted out on a vast scale in history. + +In the sixth century of our era, one Asanga, or Asamga, wrote the +Shastra, called the Shastra Yoga-chara Bhumi.[28] With great dexterity +he erected a sort of clearing-house for both the corrupt Brahminism and +corrupt Buddhism of his day, and exchanging and rearranging the gods and +devils in both systems, he represented them as worshippers and +supporters of the Buddha and Avalokitesvara. In such a system, the old +primitive Buddhism of the noble eight-fold path of self-conquest and +pure morals was utterly lost. Instead of that, the worshipper gave his +whole powers to obtaining occult potencies by means of magic phrases and +magic circles. Then grew up whole forests of monasteries and temples, +with an outburst of devilish art representing many-headed and many-eyed +and many-handed idols on the walls, on books, on the roadside, with +manifold charms and phrases the endless repetitions of which were +supposed to have efficacy with the hypothetical being who filled the +heavens. That was _the_ age of idols for China as well as for India; and +the old Chinese house, once empty, swept and garnished by Confucianism, +was now filled with a mob of unclean spirits each worse than the first. +With more courageous logic than the more matter-of-fact Chinese, the +Tibetan erected his prayer-mills[29] and let the winds of heaven and the +flowing waters continually multiply his prayers and holy syllables. And +these inventions were duly imported into Japan, and even now are far +from being absent.[30] + +Passing over for the present the history of Buddhism in China,[31] +suffice it to say that the Buddhism which entered Japan from Korea in +the sixth century, was not the simple atheism touched with morality, the +bald skepticism or benevolent agnosticism of Gautama, but a religion +already over a thousand years old. It was the system of the Northern +Buddhists. These, dissatisfied, or unsatisfied, with absorption into a +passionless state through self-sacrifice and moral discipline, had +evolved a philosophy of religion in which were gods, idols and an +apparatus of conversion utterly unknown to the primitive faith. + + +Buddhism Already Corrupted when brought to Japan. + + +This sixth century Buddhism in Japan was not the army with banners, +which was introduced still later with the luxuriances of the fully +developed system, its paradise wonderfully like Mohammed's and its +over-populated pantheon. It was, however, ready with the necessary +machinery, both material and mental, to make conquest of a people which +had not only religious aspirations, but also latent aesthetic +possibilities of a high order. As in its course through China this +Northern Buddhism had acted as an all-powerful absorbent of local +beliefs and superstitions, so in Japan it was destined to make a more +remarkable record, and, not only to absorb local ideas but actually to +cause the indigenous religion to disappear. + +Let us inquire who were the people to whom Buddhism, when already +possessed of a millenium of history, entered its Ultima Thule in Eastern +Asia. At what stage of mutual growth did Buddhism and the Japanese meet +each other? + +Instead of the forty millions of thoroughly homogeneous people in +Japan--according to the census of December 31, 1892--all being loyal +subjects of one Emperor, we must think of possibly a million of hunters, +fishermen and farmers in more or less warring clans or tribes. These +were made up of the various migrations from the main land and the drift +of humanity brought by the ocean currents from the south; Ainos, +Koreans, Tartars and Chinese, with probably some Malay and Nigrito +stock. In the central part of Hondo, the main island, the Yamato tribe +dominated, its chief being styled Sumru-mikoto, or Mikado. To the south +and southwest, the Mikado's power was only more or less felt, for the +Yamato men had a long struggle in securing supremacy. Northward and +eastward lay great stretches of land, inhabited by unsubdued and +uncivilized native tribes of continental and most probably of Korean +origin, and thus more or less closely akin to the Yamato men. Still +northward roamed the Ainos, a race whose ancestral seats may have been +in far-off Dravidian India. Despite the constant conflicts between the +Yamato people who had agriculture and the beginnings of government, law +and literature, and their less civilized neighbors, the tendency to +amalgamation was already strong. The problem of the statesman, was to +extend the sway of the Mikado over the whole Archipelago. + +Shint[=o] was, in its formation, made use of as an engine to conquer, +unify and civilize all the tribes. In one sense, this conquest of men +having lower forms of faith, by believers in the Kami no Michi, or Way +of the Gods, was analogous to the Aryan conquest of India and the +Dravidians. However this may be, the energy and valor displayed in these +early ages formed the ideal of Yamato Damashii (The Spirit of +unconquerable Japan), which has so powerfully influenced the modern +Japanese. We shall see, also, how grandly Buddhism also came to be a +powerful force in the unification of the Japanese people. At first, the +new faith would be rejected as an alien invader, stigmatized as a +foreign religion, and, as such, sure to invoke the wrath of the native +gods. Then later, its superiority to the indigenous cult would be seen +both by the wise and the practically minded, and it would be welcomed +and enjoyed. + + +The Inviting Field. + + +Never had a new religion a more inviting field or one more sure of +success, than had Buddhism on stepping from the Land of Morning Dawn to +the Land of the Rising Sun. Coming as a gorgeous, dazzling and +disciplined array of all that could touch the imagination, stimulate the +intellect and move the heart of the Japanese, it was irresistible. For +the making of a nation, Shint[=o] was as a donkey engine, compared to +the system of furnaces, boilers, shaft and propeller of a +ten-thousand-ton steel cruiser, moved by the energies of a million years +of sunbeam force condensed into coal and released again through +transmigration by fire. + +All accounts in the vernacular Japanese agree, that their Butsu-d[=o] or +Buddhism was imported from Korea. In the sixteenth year of Kitai, the +twenty-seventh Mikado (of the list made centuries after, and the +eleventh after the impossible line of the long-lived or mythical +Mikados), A.D. 534, it is said that a man from China brought with him an +image of Buddha into Yamato, and setting it up in a thatched cottage +worshipped it. The people called it "foreign-country god." Visitors +discussed with him the religion of Shaka, as the Japanese call +Shakyamuni, and some little knowledge of Buddhism was gained, but no +notable progress was made until A.D. 552, which is generally accepted +and celebrated as the year of the introduction of the faith into Japan. +Then a king of Hiaksai in Korea, sent over to the court and to the +Mikado golden images of the Buddha and of the triad of "precious ones," +with Sutras and sacred books. These holy relics are believed to be still +preserved in the famous temple of Zenk[=o]ji,[32] belonging to the +temple of the Tendai Sect at Nagano in Northern Japan, this shrine being +dedicated to Amida and his two followers Kwannon (Avalokitesvara) and +Dai-si-shi (Mahastanaprapta). This group of idols, as the custodian of +the shrine will tell you, was made by Shaka himself out of gold, found +at the base of the tree which grows at the centre of the universe. After +remaining in Korea for eleven hundred and twelve years, it was brought +to Japan. Mighty is the stream of pilgrims which continually sets toward +the holy place. A common proverb declares that even a cow can find her +way thither. + +In A.D. 572 and again in 584, new images, sutras and teachers came over +from another part of Korea. The Mikado called a council to determine +what should be done with the idols, to the worship of which he was +himself inclined; but a majority were against the idea of insulting the +native gods by receiving the presents and thus introducing a foreign +religion. The minister of state, however, one Soga no Inam, expressed +himself in favor of Buddhism, and put the images in his country house +which he converted into a temple. When, soon after, the land was +afflicted with a pestilence, the opponents of the new faith attributed +it to the wrath of the gods at the hospitality given to the new idols. +War broke out, fighting took place, and the Buddhist temple was burned +and the idols thrown into the river, near Osaka. Great portents +followed, and the enemies of Buddhism were, it is said, burned up by +flames descending from heaven. + +The tide then turned in favor of the Indian faith, and Soga rebuilt his +temple. Priests and missionaries were invited to come over from Korea, +being gladly furnished by the allies of Japan from the state of Shinra, +and Buddhism again flourished at the court, but not yet among the +people. Once more, fighting broke out; and again the temple of the alien +gods was destroyed, only to be rebuilt again. The chief champion of +Buddhism was the son of a Mikado, best known by his posthumous title, +Sh[=o]toku,[33] who all his life was a vigorous defender and propagator +of the new faith. Through his influence, or very probably through the +efforts of the Korean missionaries, the devastating war between the +Japanese and Koreans was ended. In the peace which followed, notable +progress was made through the vigor of the missionaries encouraged by +the regent Sh[=o]toku, so that at his death in the year A.D. 621, there +were forty-six temples, and thirteen hundred and eighty-five priests, +monks and nuns in Japan. Many of the most famous temples, which are now +full of wealth and renown, trace their foundations to this era of +Sh[=o]toku and of his aunt, the Empress Suiko (A.D. 593-628), who were +friendly to the new religion. Sh[=o]toku may be almost called the +founder of Japanese Buddhism. Although a layman, he is canonized and +stands unique in the Pantheon of Eastern Buddhism, his image being +prominently visible in thousands of Japanese temples. + +Legend, in no country more luxurious than in Japan, tells us that the +exotic religion made no progress until Amida, the boundlessly Merciful +One, assuming the shape of a concubine of the imperial prince who +afterward became the Mikado Yom, gave birth to Sh[=o]toku, who was +himself Kwannon or the goddess of mercy in human form; and that when he +grew up, he took to wife an incarnation of the Buddha elect, +Mahastana-prapta, or in Japanese Dai-si-shi, whose idol is honored at +Zenk[=o]ji. + + +The New Faith Becomes Popular. + + +Then Buddhism became popular, passing out from the narrow circle of the +court to be welcomed by the people. In A.D. 623, monks came over +directly from China, and we find mentioned two sects, the Sanron and the +J[=o]jitsu, which are no longer extant in Japan. In about A.D. 650 the +fame of Yuan Chang (Hiouen Thsang) the Chinese pilgrim to India, or the +holy land, reached-Japan; and his illustrious example was +enthusiastically followed. History now frequently repeated itself. The +Japanese monk, D[=o]sh[=o], crossed the seas to China to gaze upon the +face and become the pupil of that illustrious Chinese pilgrim, who had +seen Buddha Land. Later on, other monks crossed to the land of Sinim, +until we find that in this and succeeding centuries, hundreds of +Japanese in their frail junks, braved the dangers of the stormy ocean, +in order to study Sanskrit, to read the old scriptures, to meet the new +lights of learning or revelation, and to become versed in the latest +fashions of religion. We find the pilgrims returning and founding new +sects or sub-sects, and stimulating by their enthusiasm the monks and +the home missionaries. In the year A.D. 700 the custom of cremation was +introduced. This wrought not only a profound change in customs, but also +became the seed of a rich crop of superstitions; since out of the +cremated bodies of the saints came forth the _shari_ or, in Sanskrit, +_sarira_. These hard substances or pellets, preserved in crystal +cabinets, are treated as holy gems or relics. Thus venerated, they +become the nuclei of cycles of fairy lore. + +In A.D. 710, the great monastery at Nara was founded; and here we must +notice or at least glance at the great throng of civilizing influences +that came in with Buddhism, and at the great army of artists, artisans +and skilled men and women of every sort of trade and craft. We note that +with the building of this great Nara monastery came another proof of +improvement and the added element of stability in Japanese civilization. +The ancient dread which the Japanese had, of living in any place where a +person had died was passing away. The nomad life was being given up. The +successor of a dead Mikado was no longer compelled to build himself a +new capital. The traveller in Japan, familiar with the ancient poetry of +the Many[=o]-shu, finds no fewer than fifty-eight sites[34] as the early +homes of the Japanese monarchy. Once occupying the proud position of +imperial capitals, they are now for the most part mere hamlets, +oftentimes mere names, with no visible indication of former human +habitation; while the old rivers or streams once gay with barges filled +with silken-robed lords and ladies, have dried up to mere washerwomen's +runnels. For the first time after the building of this Buddhist +monastery, the capital remained permanent, Nara being the imperial +residence during seventy-five years. Then beautiful Ki[=o]to was chosen, +and remained the residence of successive generations of emperors until +1868. In A.D. 735, we read of the Kgon sect. Two years later a large +monastery, with a seven-storied pagoda alongside of it, was ordered to +be built in every province. These, with the temples and their +surroundings, and with the wayside shrines beginning to spring up like +exotic flowers, made a striking alteration in the landscape of Japan. +The Buddhist scriptures were numerously copied and circulated among the +learned class, yet neither now nor ever, except here and there in +fragments, were they found among the people. For, although the Buddhist +canon has been repeatedly imported, copied by the pen and in modern +times printed, yet no Japanese translation has ever been made. The +methods of Buddhism in regard to the circulation of the scriptures are +those, not of Protestantism but of Roman Catholicism. + +In the same year, the Mikado called for contributions from all the +people for the building of a colossal image of the Buddha, which was to +be of bronze and gilded. Yet, fearing that the Shint[=o] gods might be +offended, a skilful priest named Giyoku,--probably the same man who +introduced the potter's wheel into Japan,--was sent to the shrine of the +Sun-goddess in Is to present her with a shari or relic of the Buddha, +and find out how she would regard his project. After seven days and +nights of waiting, the chapel doors flew open and the loud-voiced oracle +was interpreted in a favorable sense. The night following the return of +the priest, the Mikado dreamed that the sun-goddess appeared to him in +her own form and said "The sun is Birushana" (Vairokana). This meant +that the chief deity of the Japanese proclaimed herself an avatar or +incarnation of one of the old Hindu gods.[35] She also approved the +project of the image; and in this same year, 759, native gold was found +in Japan, which sufficed for the gilding of the great idol that, after +eleven hundred years and many vicissitudes, still stands, the glory of a +multitude of pilgrims. + +In A.D. 754 a famous priest, who introduced the new Ritsu Sect, was able +to convert the Mikado and obtain four hundred converts in the imperial +court. Thirteen years later, another tremendous triumph of Buddhism was +scored and a deadly blow at Shint[=o] was struck. The Buddhist priests +persuaded the Mikados to abandon their ancient title of Sumeru and adopt +that of Tenn[)o]; (Heavenly King or Tenshi) Son of Heaven, after the +Chinese fashion. At the same time it was taught that the emperor could +gain great merit and sooner become a Buddha, by retiring from the active +cares of the throne and becoming a monk, with the title of H[=o]-[=o], +or Cloistered Emperor. This innovation had far-reaching consequences, +profoundly altering the status of the Mikado, giving sensualism on the +one hand and priestcraft on the other, their coveted opportunity, +changing the ruler of the nation from an active statesman into a recluse +and the recluse into a pious monk, or a licentious devotee, as the case +might be. It paved the way for the usurpation of the government by the +unscrupulous soldier, "the man on horseback," who was destined to rule +Japan for seven hundred years, while the throne and its occupant were in +the shadow. One of a thousand proofs of the progress of the propaganda +scheme is seen in the removal of the Shint[=o] temple which had stood at +Nikk[=o], and the erection in its place of a Buddhist temple. In A.D. +805 the famous Tendai, and in 806 the powerful Shingon Sect were +introduced. All was now ready in Japan for the growth not only of one +new Buddhism, but of several varieties among the Northern Buddhisms +which so arouse the astonishment of those who study the simple Pali +scriptures that contain the story of Gautama, and who know only the +southern phase of the faith, that is to Asia, relatively, what +Christianity is to Europe. We say relatively, for while Buddhism made +Chinese Asia gentle in manners and kind to animals, it covered the land +with temples, monasteries and images; on the other hand the religion of +Jesus filled Europe not only with churches, abbeys, monasteries and +nunneries, but also with hospitals, orphan asylums, lighthouses, schools +and colleges. Between the fruits of Christendom and Buddhadom, let the +world judge. + + +Survey and Summary. + + +To sum up: Buddhism is the humanitarian's, and also the skeptic's, +solution of the problem of the universe. Its three great distinguishing +characteristics are atheism, metempsychosis and absence of caste. It was +in its origin pure democracy. As against despotic priesthood and +oppressive hierarchy, it was congregational. Theoretically it is so yet, +though far from being so practically. It is certainly sacerdotal and +aristocratic in organization. As in any other system which has so vast a +hierarchy with so many grades of honor and authority, its theory of +democracy is now a memory. First preached in a land accursed by caste +and under spiritual and secular oppressions, it acknowledged no caste, +but declared all men equally sinful and miserable, and all equally +capable of being freed from sin and misery through Buddhahood, that is, +knowledge or enlightenment.[36] + +The three-fold principle laid down by Gautama, and now in dogma, +literature, art and worship, a triad or formal trinity, is, Buddha, the +attainment of Buddha-hood, or perfect enlightenment, through meditation +and benevolence; Karma, the law of cause and effect; and Dharma, +discipline or order; or, the Lord, the Law and the Church. Paying no +attention to questions of cosmogony or theogony, the universe is +accepted as an ultimate fact. Matter is eternal. Creation exists but not +a Creator. All is god, but God is left out of consideration. The gods +are even less than Buddhas. Humanity is glorified and the stress of all +teaching is upon this life. In a word: a sinless life, attainable by +man, through his own exertions in this world, above all the powers or +beings of the universe, is the essence of original Buddhism. Original +Nirvana meant death which ends all, extinction of existence. + +Gautama's immediate purpose was to emancipate himself and his followers +from the fetters of Brahminism. He tried to leave the world of Hindu +philosophy behind him and to escape from it. + +Did he succeed? Partially. + +Buddha hoped also to rise above the superstitions of the common people, +but in this he was again only partially successful.[37] "The clouds +returned after the rain." The old dead gods of Brahminism came back +under new names and forms. The malarial exhalations of corrupt +Brahmanistic philosophy, continually poisoned the atmosphere which +Buddha's disciples breathed. Still worse, as his religion transmigrated +into other lands, it became itself a history of transformation, until +to-day no religion on earth seems to be such a kaleidoscopic +phantasmagoria. Polytheism is rampant over the greater part of the +Buddhist world to-day. In the larger portion of Chinese Asia, pantheism +dominates the mind. In modern Babism,--a mixture of Mohammedanism, +Christianity and Buddhism,--there are streaks of dualism. If Monotheism +has ever dawned on the Buddhist world, it has been in fitful pulses as +in auroral flashes, soon to leave darkness darker. + +For us is this lesson: Buddhism, brought face to face with the problem +of the world's evil and possible improvement, evades it; begs the whole +question at the outset; prays: "Deliver us from existence. Save us from +life and give us as little as possible of it." Christianity faces the +problem and flinches not; orders advance all along the line of endeavor +and prays: "Deliver us from evil;" and is ever of good cheer, because +Captain and leader says: "I have overcome the world." Go, win it for me. +"I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more +abundantly." + + + + +CHAPTER VII - RIY[=O]BU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM + + "All things are nothing but mind." + + "The doctrines of Buddhism have no fixed forms." + + "There is nothing in things themselves that enables us to + distinguish in them either good or evil, right or wrong. It is + but man's fancy that weighs their merits and causes him to + choose one and reject the other." + + "Non-individuality is the general principle of + Buddhism."--Outlines of the Mah[=a]y[=a]na. + + "It (Shint[=o]) was smothered before reaching maturity, but + Buddhism and Confucianism had to disguise and change in order to + enter Japan." + + "Life has a limited span and naught may avail to extend it. This + is manifested by the impermanence of human beings. But yet + whenever necessary I will hereafter make my appearance from time + to time as a god, a sage, or a Buddha."--Last words of Shaka the + Buddha, in Japanese biography. + + "It is our opinion that Buddhism cannot long hold its ground, + and that Christianity must finally prevail throughout all + Japan.... Now, when Buddhism and Christianity are in conflict + for the ascendency, this indifference of the Japanese people to + the difference of sects is a great disadvantage to Buddhism. + That they should worship Jesus Christ with the same mind as they + do _Inari_ or _Mi[=o]jin_ is not at all inconsistent in their + estimation or contrary to their custom."--Fukuzawa, of + T[=o]ki[=o]. + + "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, + follow him; but if Baal, then follow him."--Elijah. + + "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?"--Jesus. + + "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and + bitter?"--James. + + "What concord hath Christ with Belial?"--Paul. + + +CHAPTER VII - RIY[=O]BU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM + +Syncretism in Religion. + + +Two centuries and a half of Buddhism in Japan, showed the leaders and +teachers of the Indian faith that complete victory over the whole nation +was yet very far off. The court had indeed been invaded and won. Even +the Mikado, the ecclesiastical head of Shint[=o], and the incarnation +and vicar of the heavenly gods, had not only embraced Buddhism, but in +many instances had shorn the hair and taken the vows of the monk. Yet +the people clung tenaciously to their old traditions, customs and +worship; for their gods were like themselves and indeed were of +themselves, since Shint[=o] is only a transfiguration of Japanese life. +In the Japanese of those days we can trace the same traits which we +behold in the modern son of Nippon, especially his intense patriotism +and his warlike tendencies. To convert these people to the peaceful +dogmas of Siddartha and to make them good Buddhists, something more than +teaching and ritual was necessary. It was indispensable that there +should be complete substitution, all along the ruts and paths of +national habit, and especially that the names of the gods and the +festivals should be Buddhaized. + +Popular customs are nearly immortal and ineradicable. Though wars may +come, dynasties rise and fall, and convulsions in nature take place, yet +the people's manners and amusements are very slow in changing. If, in +the history of Christianity, the European missionaries found it +necessary in order to make conquest of our pagan forefathers, to baptize +and re-name without radically changing old notions and habits, so did it +seem equally indispensable that in Japan there should be some system of +reconciliation of the old and the new, some theological revolution, +which should either fulfil, absorb, or destroy Shint[=o]. + +In the histories of religions in Western Asia, Northern Africa and +Europe, we are familiar with efforts at syncretism. We have seen how +Philo attempted to unite Hebrew righteousness and Greek beauty, and to +harmonize Moses and Plato. We know of Euhemerus, who thought he read in +the old mythologies not only the outlines of real history, but the +hieroglyphics of legend and tradition, truth and revelation.[1] Students +of Church history are well aware that this principle of interpretation +was followed only too generously by Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, +Lactantius, Chrysostom and others of the Church Fathers. Indeed, it +would be hard to find in any of the great religions of the world an +utter absence of syncretism, or the union of apparently hostile +religious ideas. In the Thousand and One Nights, we have an example in +popular literature. We see that the ancient men of India, Persia and +pre-Mohammedan Arabia now act and talk as orthodox Mussulmans. In +matters pertaining to art and furniture, the statue of Jupiter in Rome +serves for St. Peter, and in Japan that of the Virgin and child for the +Buddha and his mother.[2] + +What, however, chiefly concerns the critic and student of religions is +to inquire how far the process has been natural, and the efforts of +those who have brought about the union have been honest, and their +motives pure. The Bible pages bear witness, that Israelites too often +tried to make the same fountain give forth sweet waters and bitter, and +to grow thistles and grapes on the same stem, by uniting the cults of +Jehovah and the Baalim. King Solomon's enterprises in the same direction +are more creditable to him as a politician than as a worshipper.[3] In +the history of Christianity one cannot commend the efforts either of the +Gnostics or the neo-Platonists, nor always justify the medieval +missionaries in their methods. Nor can we accurately describe as +successful the ingenuity of Vossius, the Dutch theologian, who, +following the scheme of Euhemerus, discovered the Old Testament +patriarchs in the disguise of the gods of Paganism. Nor, even though +Germany be the land of learning, can the clear-headed scholar agree with +some of her rationalists, who are often busy in the same field of +industry, setting forth wild criticism as "science." + + +The Kami and the Buddhas. + + +In Japan, to solve the problem of reconciliation between the ancient +traditions of the divine ancestors and the dogmas of the Indian cult, it +was necessary that some master spirit, profoundly learned in the two +Ways, of the Kami and of the Buddhas, should be bold, and also as it +seems, crafty and unscrupulous. To convert a line of theocratic +emperors, whose authority was derived from their alleged divine origin +and sacerdotal character, into patrons and propagandists of Buddhism, +and to transform indigenous Shint[=o] gods into Buddhas elect, or +Buddhas to come, or Buddhas in a former state of existence, were tasks +that might appall the most prodigious intellect, and even strain the +capacities of what one might imagine to be the universal religion for +all mankind. + +Yet from such a task continental Buddhism had not shrunk before and did +not shrink then, nor indeed from it do the insular Japanese sects shrink +now. Indeed, Buddhism is quite ready to adopt, absorb and swallow up +Japanese Christianity. With all encompassing tentacles, and with +colossal powers of digestion and assimilation, Northern Buddhism had +drawn into itself a large part of the Brahmanism out of which it +originally sprang,[4] reversing the old myth of Chronos by swallowing +its parents. It had gathered in, pretty much all that was in the heavens +above and the earth beneath and the waters that were under the earth, in +Nepal, Tibet, China, and Korea. Thoroughly exercised and disciplined, it +was ready to devour and digest all that the imagination of Japan had +conceived. + +We must remember that, at the opening of the ninth century, the Buddhism +rampant in China and indeed throughout Chinese Asia was the Tantra +system of Yoga-chara.[5] This compound of polytheism and pantheism, with +its sensuous paradise, its goddess of mercy and its pantheon of every +sort of worshipable beings, was also equipped with a system of +philosophy by which Buddhism could be adapted to almost every yearning +of human nature in its lowest or its highest form, and by which things +apparently contradictory could be reconciled. Furthermore--and this is +not the least important thing to consider when the work to be done is +for the ordinary man as an individual and for the common people in the +mass--it had also a tremendous apparatus for touching the imagination +and captivating the fancy of the unthinking and the uneducated. + +For example, consider the equipment of the Buddhist priests of the ninth +century in the matter of art alone. Shint[=o] knows next to nothing of +art,[6] and indeed one might almost say that it knows little of +civilization. It is like ultra-Puritanic Protestantism and Iconoclasm. +Buddhism, on the contrary, is the mother of art, and art is her +ever-busy child and handmaid. The temples of the Kami were bald and +bare. The Kojiki told nothing of life hereafter, and kept silence on a +hundred points at which human curiosity is sure to be active, and at +which the Yoga system was voluble. Buddhism came with a set of visible +symbols which should attract the eye and fire the imagination, and +within ethical limits, the passions also. It was a mixed and variegated +system,--a resultant of many forces.[7] It came with the thought of +India, the art-influence of Greece, the philosophy of Persia, the +speculations of the Gnostics and, in all probability, with ideas +borrowed indirectly from Nestorian or other forms of Christianity; and +thus furnished, it entered Japan. + + +The Mission of Art. + + +Thus far the insular kingdom had known only the monochrome sketches of +the Chinese painters, which could have a meaning for the educated few +alone. The composite Tantra dogmas fed the fancy and stimulated the +imagination, filling them with pictures of life, past, present and +future. "The sketch was replaced by the illumination." Whole schools of +artists, imported from China and Korea, multiplied their works and +attracted the untrained senses of the people, by filling the temples +with a blaze of glory. "This result was sought by a gorgeous but studied +play of gold and color, and a lavish richness of mounting and +accessories, that appear strangely at variance with the begging bowl and +patched garments of primitive Buddhism."[8] The change in the Japanese +temple was as though the gray clouds had been kissed by the sun and made +to laugh rainbows. The country of the Fertile Plain of Sweet Flags was +transformed. It suddenly became the land wherein gods grew not singly +but in whole forests. Like the Shulamite, when introduced among the +jewelled ladies of Solomon's harem, so stood the boor amid the sheen and +gold of the new temples. + + "Gold was the one thing essential to the Buddhist altar-piece, + and sometimes, when applied on a black ground, was the only + material used. In all cases it was employed with an unsparing + hand. It appeared in uniform masses, as in the body of the + Buddha or in the golden lakes of the Western Paradise; in minute + diapers upon brocades and clothing, in circlets and undulating + rays, to form the glory surrounding the head of Amitaba; in + raised bosses and rings upon the armlets or necklets of the + Bodhisattvas and Devas, and in a hundred other manners. The + pigments chosen to harmonize with this display were necessarily + body colors of the most pronounced lines, and were untoned by + any trace of chiaroscuro. Such materials as these would surely + try the average artist, but the Oriental painter knew how to + dispose them without risk of crudity or gaudiness, and the + precious metal, however lavishly applied, was distributed over + the picture with a judgment that would make it difficult to + alter or remove any part without detriment to the beauty of the + work."[9] + +In our day, Japanese art has won its own place in the world's temple of +beauty. Even those familiar with the master-pieces of Europe do not +hesitate to award to the artists of Nippon a meed of praise which, +within certain limits, is justly applied to them equally with the +masters of the Italian, the Dutch, the Flemish, or the French schools. +It serves our purpose simply to point out that art was a powerful factor +in the religious conquest of the Japanese for the new doctrines of the +Yoga system, which in Japan is called Riy[=o]bu, or Mixed Buddhism. + +We say Mixed Buddhism rather than Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o], for Shint[=o] was +less corrupted than swallowed up, while Buddhism suffered one more +degree of mixture and added one more chapter of decay. It increased in +its visible body, while in its mind it became less and less the religion +of Buddha and more and more a thing with the old Shint[=o] heart still +in it, making a strange growth in the eyes of the continental believers. +To the Northern and Southern was now added an Eastern or Japanese +Buddhism. + +Who was the wonder-worker that annexed the Land of the Gods to Buddhadom +and re-read the Kojiki as a sutra, and all Japanese history and +traditions as only a chapter of the incarnations of Buddha? + + +K[=o]b[=o] the Wonder Worker. + + +The Philo and Euhemerus of Japan was the priest Kukai, who was born in +the province of Sanuki, in the year 774. He is better known by his +posthumous title K[=o]b[=o] Daishi, or the Great Teacher who promulgates +the Law. By this name we shall call him. About his birth, life and +death, have multiplied the usual swaddling bands of Japanese legend and +tradition,[10] and to his tomb at the temple on Mount K[=o]-ya, the +Campo Santo of Japanese Buddhism, still gather innumerable pilgrims. The +"hall of ten thousand lamps," each flame emblematic of the Wisdom that +saves, is not, indeed, in these days lighted annually as of old; but the +vulgar yet believe that the great master still lives in his mausoleum, +in a state of profoundly silent meditation. Into the hall of bones near +by, covering a deep pit, the teeth and "Adam's apple" of the cremated +bodies of believers are thrown by their relatives, though the pit is +cleared out every three years. The devotees believe that by thus +disposing of the teeth and "Adam's apple," they obtain the same +spiritual privileges as if they were actually entombed there, that is, +of being born again into the heaven of the Bodhisattva or the Pure Land +of Absolute Bliss, by virtue of the mystic formulas repeated by the +great master in his lifetime. + +Let us sketch the life of K[=o]b[=o], + +First named Toto-mono, or Treasure, by his parents, who sent him to +Ki[=o]t[=o] to be educated for the priesthood, the youth spent four +years in the study of the Chinese classics. Dissatisfied with the +teachings of Confucius, he became a disciple of a famous Buddhist +priest, named Iwabuchi (Rock-edge or throne). Soon taking upon himself +the vows of the monk, he was first named Kukai, meaning "space and sea," +or heaven and earth.[11] He overcame the dragons that assaulted him, by +prayers, by spitting at them the rays of the evening star which had +flown from heaven into his mouth and by repeating the mystic formulas +called Dharani.[12] Annoyed by hobgoblins with whom he was obliged to +converse, he got rid of them by surrounding himself with a consecrated +imaginary enclosure into which they were unable to enter against his +will. + +We mention these legends only to call the attention to the fact that +they are but copies of those already accepted in China at that time, and +are the logical and natural fruit of the Tantra school at which we have +glanced. In 804, K[=o]b[=o] was appointed to visit the Middle Kingdom as +a government student. By means of his clever pen and calligraphic skill +he won his way into the Chinese capital. He became the favored disciple +of a priest who taught him the mystic doctrines of the Yoga. Having +acquired the whole of the system, and equipped himself with a large +library of Buddhist doctrinal works and still more with every sort of +ecclesiastical furniture and religious goods, he returned to Japan. + +Multitudes of wonders are reported about K[=o]b[=o], all of which show +the growth of the Tantra school. It is certain that his erudition was +immense, and that he was probably the most learned man of Japan in that +age, and possibly of any other age. Besides being a Japanese Ezra in +multiplying writings, he is credited with the invention of the +hira-gana, or running script, and if correctly so, he deserves on this +account alone an immortal honor equal to that of Cadmus or Sequoia. The +kana[13] is a syllabary of forty-seven letters, which by diacritical +marks, may be increased to seventy. The kata-kana is the square or print +form, the hira-kana is the round or "grass" character for writing. +Though not as valuable as a true phonetic alphabet, such as the Koreans +and the Cherokees possess, the _i-ro-ha_, or kana script, even though a +syllabary and not an alphabet, was a wonderful aid to popular writing +and instruction. + +Evidently the idea of the i-ro-ha, or Japanese ABC, was derived from the +Sanskrit alphabet, or, what some modern Anglo-Indian has called the +Deva-Nagari or the god-alphabet. There is no evidence, however, to show +that K[=o]b[=o] did more than arrange in order forty-seven of the +easiest Chinese signs then used, in such a manner that they conveyed in +a few lines of doggerel the sense of a passage from a sutra in which the +mortality of man and the emptiness of all things are taught, and the +doctrine of Nirvana is suggested.[14] Hokusai, the artist, in a sketch +which embodies the popular idea of this bonze's immense industry, +represents him copying the shastras and sutras. K[=o]b[=o] is on a seat +before a large upright sheet of paper. He holds a brush-pen in his +mouth, and one in each of his hands and feet, all moving at once.[15] +Favorite portions of the Buddhist scriptures were indeed so rapidly +multiplied in Japan in the ninth century, as to suggest the idea, that, +even in this early age, block printing had been imported from China, +whence also afterward, in all probability, it was exported into Europe +before the days of Gutenberg and Coster.[16] The popular imagination, +however, was more easily moved on seeing five brushes kept at work and +all at once by the muscles in the fingers, toes and mouth of one man. +Yet, had his life lasted six hundred years instead of sixty, he could +hardly have graven all the images, scaled all the mountain peaks, +confounded all the sceptics, wrought all the miracles and performed all +the other feats with which he is popularly credited.[17] + + +K[=o]b[=o] Irenicon. + + +K[=o]b[=o] indeed was both the Philo and Euhemerus of Japan, plus a +large amount of priestly cunning and what his enemies insist was +dishonesty and forgery. Soon after his return from China, he went to the +temples of Is,[18] the most holy place of Shint[=o].[19] Taking a +reverent attitude before the chief shrine, that of Toko Uk Bim no Kami +or Abundant-Food-Lady-God, or the deified Earth as the producer of food +and the upholder of all things upon its surface, the suppliant waited +patiently while fasting and praying. + +In this, K[=o]b[=o] did but follow out the ordinary Shint[=o] plan for +securing god-possession and obtaining revelation; that is, by starving +both the stomach and the brain.[20] After a week's waiting he obtained +the vision. The Food-possessing Goddess revealed to him the yoke (or +Yoga) by which he could harness the native and the imported gods to the +chariot of victorious Buddhism. She manifested herself to him and +delivered the revelation on which his system is founded, and which, +briefly stated, is as follows: + +All the Shint[=o] deities are avatars or incarnations of Buddha. They +were manifestations to the Japanese, before Gautama had become the +enlightened one, or the jewel in the lotus, and before the holy wheel of +the law or the sacred shastras and sutras had reached the island empire. +Further more, provision was made for the future gods and deified holy +ones, who were to proceed from the loins of the Mikado, or other +Japanese fathers, according to the saying of Buddha which is thus +recorded in a Japanese popular work: + + "Life has a limited span, and naught may avail to extend it. + This is manifested by the impermanence of human beings, but yet, + whenever necessary, I will hereafter make my appearance from + time to time as a god (Kami), a sage (Confucian teacher), or a + Buddha (Hotok)."[21] + +In a word, the Shint[=o] goddess talked as orthodox (Yoga) Buddhism as +the ancient characters of the Indian, Persian and pre-Islam-Arabic +stories in the Arabian Nights now talk the purest Mohammedanism.[22] +According to the words put into Gautama's mouth at the time of his +death, the Buddha was already to reappear in the particular form and in +all the forms, acceptable to Shint[=o]ists, Confucianists, or Buddhists +of whatever sect. + +Descending from the shrine of vision and revelation, with a complete +scheme of reconciliation, with correlated catalogues of Shint[=o] and +Buddhist gods, with liturgies, with lists of old popular festivals newly +named, with the apparatus of art to captivate the senses, K[=o]b[=o] +forthwith baptized each native Shint[=o] deity with a new +Chinese-Buddhistic name. For every Shint[=o] festival he arranged a +corresponding Buddhist's saints' day or gala time. Then, training up a +band of disciples, he sent them forth proclaiming the new irenicon. + + +The Hindu Yoga Becomes Japanese Riy[=o]bu. + + +It was just the time for this brilliant and able ecclesiastic to +succeed. The power and personal influence of the Mikado were weakening, +the court swarmed with monks, the rising military classes were already +safely under the control of the shavelings, and the pen of learning had +everywhere proved itself mightier than the sword and muscle. +K[=o]b[=o]'s particular dialectic weapons were those of the Yoga-chara, +or in Japanese, the Shingon Shu, or Sect of the True Word.[23] He, like +his Chinese master, taught that we can attain the state of the +Enlightened or Buddha, while in the present physical body which was born +of our parents. + +This branch of Buddhism is said to have been founded in India about A.D. +200, by a saint who made the discovery of an iron pagoda inhabited by +the holy one, Vagrasattva, who communicated the exact doctrine to those +who have handed it down through the Hindoo and Chinese patriarchs. The +books or scriptures of this sect are in three sutras; yet the essential +point in them is the Mandala or the circle of the Two Parts, or in +Japanese Riy[=o]bu. Introduced into China, A.D. 720, it is known as the +Yoga-chara school. + +K[=o]b[=o] finding a Chinese worm, made a Japanese dragon, able to +swallow a national religion. In the act of deglutition and the long +process of the digestion of Shint[=o], Japanese Buddhism became +something different from every other form of the faith in Asia. Noted +above all previous developments of Buddhism for its pantheistic +tendencies, the Shingon sect could recognize in any Shint[=o] god, +demi-god, hero, or being, the avatar in a previous stage of existence of +some Buddhist being of corresponding grade. + +For example,[24] Amatras[)u] or Ten-Sh[=o]-Dai-Jin, the sun-goddess, +becomes Dai Nichi Ni[=o]rai or Amida, whose colossal effigies stand in +the bronze images Dai Butsu at Nara, Ki[=o]to and Kamakura. Ojin, the +god of war, became Hachiman Dai Bosatsu, or the great Bodhisattva of the +Eight Banners. Adopted as their patron by the fighting Genji or Minamoto +warriors of medival times, the Buddhists could not well afford to have +this popular deity outside their pantheon. + +For each of the thirty days of the month, a Bodhisattva, or in Japanese +pronunciation Bosatsu, was appointed. Each of these Bodhisattvas became +a Dai Mi[=o] Jin or Great Enlightened Spirit, and was represented as an +avatar in Japan of Buddha in the previous ages, when the Japanese were +not yet prepared to receive the holy law of Buddhism. + +Where there were not enough Dai Mi[=o] Jin already existing in native +traditions to fill out the number required by the new scheme, new titles +were invented. One of these was Ten-jin, Heavenly being or spirit. The +famous statesman and scholar of the tenth century, Sugawara Michizan, +was posthumously named Tenjin, and is even to this day worshipped by +many children of Japan as he was formerly for a thousand years by nearly +all of them, as the divine patron of letters. Kompira, Benten and other +popular deities, often considered as properly belonging to Shint[=o], +"are evidently the offspring of Buddhist priestly ingenuity."[25] Out of +the eight millions or so of native gods, several hundred were catalogued +under the general term Gon-gen, or temporary manifestations of Buddha. +In this list are to be found not only the heroes of local tradition, but +even deified forces of nature, such as wind and fire. The custom of +making gods of great men after their death, thus begun on a large scale +by K[=o]b[=o], has gone on for centuries. Iyyas[)u], the political +unifier of Japan, shines as a star of the first magnitude in the heavens +of the Riy[=o]bu system, under the mime of T[=o]-sh[=o]-g[=u], or Great +Light of the East. The common people speak of him as Gon-gen Sama, the +latter word being an honorary form of address for all beings from a baby +to a Bosatsu. + +In this way, K[=o]b[=o] arranged a sort of clearing-house or joint-stock +company in which the Bodhisattvas, kami and other miscellaneous beings, +in either the native or foreign religion, were mutually interchangeable. +In a large sense, this feat of priestly dexterity was but the repetition +in history, of that of Asanga with the Brahmanism and Buddhism of India +three centuries before. It was this Asanga who wrote the Yoga-chara +Bhumi. The succession of syncretists in India, China and Japan is +Asanga, Hiuki[=o] and K[=o]b[=o]. + + +The Happy Family of Riy[=o]bu. + + +Nevertheless this attempt at making a happy family and ploughing with an +ox and ass in the same yoke, has not been an unqualified success. It +will sometimes happen that one god escapes the classification made by +the Buddhists and slips into the fold of Shint[=o], or _vice versa_; +while again the label-makers and pasters--as numerous in scholastic +Buddhism as in sectarian Christendom--have hard work to make the labels +stick. A popular Gon-gen or Dai-Mi[=o]-jin, whose name and renown has +for centuries attracted crowds of pilgrims, and yielded fat revenues as +regularly as the autumn harvests, is not readily surrendered by the old +Buddhist proprietors, however cleverly or craftily the bonzes may yield +outward conformity to governmental edicts. On the other hand, the +efforts, both archaeological and practical, which have been made in +recent years by fiercely zealous Shint[=o]ists, savor of the smartness +of New Japan more than they suggest either sincerity or edification. It +often requires the finest tact on the part of both the strenuous +Buddhists and the stalwart purists of Shint[=o], to extricate the +various gods out of the mixture and mess of Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o], and to +keep them from jostling each other. + +This reclaiming and kidnapping of gods and transferring them from one +camp to another, has been especially active since 1870, when, under +government auspices, the Riy[=o]bu temples were purged of all Buddhist +idols, furniture and influences. The term Dai Mi[=o] Jin, or Great +Illustrious Spirit, is no longer officially permitted to be used of the +old kami or gods of Shint[=o], who were known to have existed before the +days of K[=o]b[=o]. In some cases these gods have lost much of the +esteem in which they were held for centuries. Especially is this true of +the infamous rebel of the tenth century, Masakado.[26] On the entrance +into Yedo of the Imperial army, in 1868, his idol was torn from its +shrine and hacked to pieces by the patriots. His place as a deity (Kanda +Dai Mi[=o] Jin, or Great Illustrious Spirit of Kanda) was taken by +another deified being, a brother to the aboriginal earth-god who, in the +ages of the Kami, "resigned his throne in favor of the Mikado's +ancestors when they descended from Heaven." The apotheosis of the rebel +Masakado had been resorted to by the Buddhist canonizers because the +unquiet spirit of the dead man troubled the people. This method of +laying a ghost by making a god of him, was for centuries a favorite one +in Japanese Buddhism. Indeed, a large part of the practical and +parochial duties of the bonzes consists in quieting the restless spirits +of the departed. + +All Japanese popular religion of the past has been intensely local and +patriotic. The ancient idea that Nippon was the first country created +and the centre of the world, has persisted through the ages, modifying +every imported religion. Hence the noticeable fact in Japanese Buddhism, +of the comparative degradation of the Hindu deities and the exaltation +of those which were native to the soil. + +The normal Japanese, be he priest or lay brother, theologian or +statesman, is nothing if not patriotic. Even the Chinese gods and +goddesses which, clothed in Indian drapery and still preserving their +Aryan features, were imported to Japan, could not hold their own in +competition with the popularity of the indigenous inhabitants of the +Japanese pantheon. The normal Japanese eye does not see the ideals of +beauty in the human face and form in common with the Aryan vision. +Benten or Knanon, with the features and drapery of the homelike beauties +of Yamato or Adzuma, have ever been more lovely to the admiring eye of +the Japanese sailor and farmer, than the Aryan features of the idols +imported from India. So also, the worshipper to whom the lovely scenery +of Japan was fresh from the hands of the kami who were so much like +himself, turned naturally in preference, to the "gods many" of his own +land. + +Succeeding centuries only made it worse for the imported devas or gods, +while the kami, or the gods sprung from the soil created by Izanami and +Izanagi steadily rose in honor. + + +Degradation of the Foreign Deities. + + +For example, the Indian saint Dharma is reputed to have come to the +Dragon-fly Country long before the advent of Buddhism, but the people +were not ready for him or his teachings, and therefore he returned to +India. So at least declares the book entitled San Kai Ri[27] (Mountain, +Sea and Earth), which is a re-reading and explanation of Japanese +mythology and tradition as recorded in the Kojiki, by a Ki[=o]t[=o] +priest of the Shin Shu Sect. Of this Dharma, it is said, that he outdid +the Roman Regulus who suffered involuntary loss of his eyelids at the +hands of the Carthaginians. Dharma cut off his own eyelids, because he +could not keep awake.[28] Throwing the offending flesh upon the ground, +he saw the tea-plant arise to help holy men to keep vigil. Daruma, as +the Japanese spell his name, has a temple in central Japan. It is +related that when Sh[=o]toku, the first patron of Buddhism, was one day +walking abroad he found a poor man dying of hunger, who refused to +answer any questions or give his name. Sh[=o]toku ordered food to be +given him, and wrapped his own mantle round him. Next day the beggar +died, and the prince charitably had him buried on the spot. Shortly +afterward it was observed that the mantle was lying neatly folded up, on +the tomb, which on examination proved to be empty. The supposed dying +beggar was no other than the Indian Saint Dharma, and a pagoda was built +over the grave, in which images of the priest and saint were +enshrined.[29] Yet, alas, to-day Daruma the Hindoo and foreigner, +despite his avatar, his humility, his vigils and his self-mutilation, +has been degraded to be the shop-sign of the tobacconists. Besides being +ruthlessly caricatured, he is usually pictured with a scowl, his lidless +eyes as wide open as those upon a Chinese junk-prow or an Egyptian +coffin-lid. Often even, he has a pipe in his mouth--a comical +anachronism, suggestive to the smoker of the dark ages that knew no +tobacco, before nicotine made the whole world of savage and of civilized +kin. Legless dolls and snow-men are named after this foreigner, whose +name is associated almost entirely with what is ludicrous. + +On K[=o]b[=o]'s expounding his scheme to the Mikado, the emperor was so +pleased with his servant's ingenuity, that he gave it the name of +Riy[=o]bu[30] Shint[=o]; that is, the two-fold divine doctrine, double +way of the gods, or amalgamated theology. Henceforth the Japanese could +enter Nirvana or Paradise through a two-leaved gate. As for the people, +they also were pleased, as they usually are when change or reform does +not mean abolition of the old festivals, or of the washings, sousings, +and fun at the tombs of their ancestors in the graveyards, or the +merry-makings, or the pilgrimages,[31] which are usually only other +names for social recreation, and often for sensual debauch. The Yoga had +become a _kubiki_, for Shint[=o] and Buddhism were now harnessed +together, not indeed as true yoke-fellows, but yet joined as inseparably +as two oxen making the same furrow. + +Many a miya now became a tera. At first in many edifices, the rites of +Shint[=o] and Buddhism were alternately performed. The Buddhist symbols +might be in the front, and the Shint[=o]ist in the rear of the sacred +hall, or _vice versa_, with a bamboo curtain between; but gradually the +two blended. Instead of austere simplicity, the Shint[=o] interior +contained a museum of idols. + +Image carvers had now plenty to do in making, out of camphor or _hinoki_ +wood, effigies of such of the eight million or so of kamis as were given +places in the new and enlarged pantheon. The multiplication was always +on the side of Buddhism. Soon, also, the architecture was altered from +the type of the primitive hut, to that of the low Chinese temple with +great sweeping roof, re-curved eaves, many-columned auditorium and +imposing gateway, with lacquer, paint, gilding and ceilings, on which, +in blazing gold and color, were depicted the emblems of the Buddhist +paradise. Many of these still remain even after the national purgation +of 1870, just as the Christian inscriptions survive in the marble +palimpsests of Mahometan mosques, converted from basilicas, at Damascus +or Constantinople. The torii was no longer raised in plain hinoki wood, +but was now constructed of hewn stone, rounded or polished. Sometimes it +was even of bronze with gilded crests and Sanskrit monograms, +surmounted, it may be, with tablets of painted or stained wood, on which +were Chinese letters glittering with gold. This departure from the +primitive idea of using only the natural trunks of trees, "somewhat on +the principle of Exodus, 20:25,"[32] was a radical one in the ninth +century. The elongated barrels with iron hoops, or the riveted +boiler-plate and stove-pipe pattern, in this era of Meiji is a still +more radical and even scandalous innovation. + + +Shint[=o] Buried in Buddhism. + + +So complete was the victory of Riy[=o]buism, that for nearly a thousand +years Shint[=o] as a religion, except in a few isolated spots, ceased +from sight and sank to a mere mythology or to the shadow of a mythology. +The very knowledge even of the ancient traditions was lost in the +Buddhaized forms in which the old stories[33] were cast, or in the +omnipresent ritual of the Buddhist tera. + +Yet, after all, it is a question as to which suffered most, Buddhism or +Shint[=o]. Who can tell which was the base and which was the true metal +in the alloy that was formed? The San Kai Ri shows how superstitious +manifold became imbedded in Buddhism. It was not alone through the +Shingon sect, which K[=o]b[=o] introduced, that this Yoga or union came. +In the other great sect called the Tendai, and in the later sects, more +especially in that of Nichiren, the same principle of absorption was +followed. These sects also adopted many elements derived from the +god-way and thus became Shint[=o]ized. Indeed, it seems certain that +that vast development of Japanese Buddhism, peculiar to Japan and +unknown to the rest of the Buddhist world, scouted by the Southern +Buddhists as dreadful heresy, and rousing the indignation of students of +early Buddhism, like Max Mller and Professor Whitney, is largely owing +to this attempted digestion of Japanese mythology. The anaconda may +indeed be able, by reason of its marvellously flexible jaws and its +abundant activity of salivary glands, to swallow the calf, and even the +ox; but sometimes the serpent is killed by its own voracity, or at least +made helpless before the destroying hunter. When sweet potatoes and +pumpkins are planted in the same hill, and the cooked product comes on +the table, it is hard to tell whether it is tuber or hollow fruit, +subterranean or superficial growth, that we are eating. So in Riy[=o]bu, +whether it be most _imo_ or _kabocha_ is a fair question. If the +Buddhism in Japan did but add a chapter of decay and degradation to the +religion of the Light of Asia, is not this owing to the act of +K[=o]b[=o]--justified indeed by those who imitated his example, yet +hardly to be called honest? A stroke of ecclesiastical dexterity, it may +have been, but scarcely a lawful example or an illustrious and +commendable specimen of syncretism in religion. + +Many students have asked what is the peculiar, the characteristic +difference between the Buddhism of Japan and the other Buddhisms of the +Asian continent. If there be one cause, leading all others, we incline +to believe it is because Japanese Buddhism is not the Buddhism of +Gautama, but is so largely Riy[=o]bu or Mixed. Yet in the alloy, which +ingredient has preserved most of its qualities? Is Japanese Buddhism +really Shint[=o]ized Buddhism, or Buddhaized Shint[=o]? Which is the +parasite and which the parasitized? Is the hermit crab Shint[=o], and +the shell Buddhism, or _vice versa_? About as many corrupt elements from +Shint[=o] entered into the various Buddhist sects as Buddhism gave to +Shint[=o]. + +This process of Shint[=o]izing Buddhism or of Buddhaizing +Shint[=o]--that is, of combining Shint[=o] or purely Japanese ideas and +practices with the systems imported from India, went on for five +centuries. The old native habits and mental characteristics were not +eradicated or profoundly modified; they were rather safely preserved in +so-called Buddhism, not indeed as dead flies in amber but as live +creatures, fattening on a body, which, every year, while keeping outward +form and name, was being emptied of its normal and typical life. It is +no gain to pure water to add either microbes or the food which nourishes +them. + + +Buddhism Writes New Chapters of Decay. + + +Phenomenally, the victory was that of Buddhism. The mustard-seed has +indeed become a great tree, lodging every fowl of heaven, clean and +unclean; but potentially and in reality, the leavening power, as now +seen, seems to have been that of Shint[=o]. Or, to change metaphor, +since the hermit crab and the shell were separated by law only one +generation ago, in 1870, we shall soon, before many generations, discern +clearly which has the life and which has only the shell.[34] + +There are but few literary monuments[35] of Riy[=o]buism, and it has +left few or no marks in the native chronicles, misnamed history, which +utterly omit or ignore so many things interesting to the student and +humanist.[36] Yet to this mixture or amalgamation of Buddhism with +Shint[=o], more probably than to any other direct influence, may also be +ascribed that striking alteration in the system of Chinese ethics or +Confucianism which differentiates the Japanese form from that prevalent +in China. That is, instead of filial piety, the relation of parent and +child, occupying the first place, loyalty, the relation of lord and +retainer, master and servant, became supreme. Although Buddhism made the +Mikado first a King (Tenn[=o]) or Son of Heaven (Ten-Shi), and then a +monk (H[=o]-[=o]), and after his death a Hotok or Buddhist deity, it +caused him early to abdicate from actual life. Buddhism is thus directly +responsible for the habitual Japanese resignation from active life +almost as soon as it is entered, by men in all classes. Buddhism started +all along and down through the lines of Japanese society the idea of +early retirement from duty; so that men were considered old at forty, +and _hors concours_ before forty-five.[37] Life was condemned as vanity +of vanities before it was mature, and old age a friend that nobody +wished to meet,[38] although Japanese old age is but European prime. In +a measure, Buddhism is thus responsible for the paralysis of Japanese +civilization, which, like oft-tapped maple-trees, began to die at the +top. This was in accordance with its theories and its literature. In the +Bible there is, possibly, one book which is pessimistic in tone, +Ecclesiastes. In the bulky and dropsical canon of Buddhism there is a +whole library of despondency and despair. + +Nevertheless, the ethical element held its own in the Japanese mind; and +against the pessimism and puerility of Buddhism and the religious +emptiness of Shint[=o], the bond of Japanese society was sought in the +idea of loyalty. While then, as we repeat, everything that comes to the +Japanese mind suffers as it were "a sea change, into something new and +strange," is it not fair to say that the change made by K[=o]b[=o] was +at the expense of Buddhism as a system, and that the thing that suffered +reversion was the exotic rather than the native plant? For, in the +emergence of this new idea of loyalty as supreme, Shint[=o] and not +Buddhism was the dictator. + +Even more after K[=o]b[=o]'s death than during his life, Japan improved +upon her imported faith, and rapidly developed new sects of all degrees +of reputableness and disreputableness. Had K[=o]b[=o] lived on through +the centuries, as the boors still believe;[39] he could not have +stopped, had he so desired, the workings of the leaven he had brought +from China. From the sixth to the twelfth century, was the missionary +age of Japanese Buddhism. Then followed two centuries of amazing +development of doctrine. Novelties in religion blossomed, fruited and +became monuments as permanent as the age-enduring forests Hakon, or +Nikk[=o]. Gautama himself, were he to return to "red earth" again, could +not recognize his own cult in Japan. + +In China to-day Buddhism is in a bad state. One writer calls it, "The +emasculated descendant that now occupies the land with its drone of +priests and its temples, in which scarce a worthy disciple of the +learned patriarchs of ancient days is to be found. Received with open +arms, persecuted, patronized, smiled upon, tolerated, it with the last +phase of its existence, has reached, not the halcyon days of peace and +rest, but its final stage, foreshadowing its decay from rottenness and +corruption."[40] So also, in a like report, agree many witnesses. The +common people of China are to-day Taoists rather than Buddhists.[41] + +If this be the position in China, something not very far from it is +found in Japan to-day. Whatever may be the Buddhism of the few learned +scholars, who have imbibed the critical and scientific spirit of +Christendom, and whatever be the professions and representations of its +earnest adherents and partisans, it is certain that popular Buddhism is +both ethically and vitally in a low state. In outward array the system +is still imposing. There are yet, it may be, millions of stone statues +and whole forests of wayside effigies, outdoors and +unroofed--irreverently called by the Japanese themselves, "wet gods." +Hosts upon hosts of lacquered and gilded images in wood, sheltered under +the temple tiles or shingles, still attract worshippers. Despite +shiploads of copper Buddhas exported as old metal to Europe and America, +and thousands of tons of gods and imps melted into coin or cannon, there +are myriads of metal reminders of those fruits of a religion that once +educated and satisfied; but these are, in the main, no longer to the +natives instruments of inspiration or compellers to enthusiasm. In this +time of practical charity, they are poor substitutes for those hospitals +and orphan asylums which were practically unknown in Japan until the +advent of Christianity. + +K[=o]b[=o]'s smart example has been followed only too well by the people +in every part of the country. One has but to read the stacks of books of +local history to see what an amazing proportion of legends, ideas, +superstitions and revelations rests on dreams; how incredibly numerous +are the apparitions; how often the floating images of Buddha are found +on the water; how frequently flowers have rained out of the sky; how +many times the idols have spoken or shot forth their dazzling rays--in a +word; how often art and artifices have become alleged and accepted +reality. Unfortunately, the characteristics of this literature and +undergrowth of idol lore are monotony and lack of originality; for +nearly all are copies of K[=o]b[=o]'s model. His cartoon has been +constantly before the busy weavers of legend. + +It may indeed be said, and said truly, that in its multiplication of +sects and in its growth of legend and superstition, Buddhism has but +followed every known religion, including traditional Christianity +itself. Yet popular Buddhism has reached a point which shows, that, +instead of having a self-purgative and self-reforming power, it is +apparently still treading in the steps of the degradation which +K[=o]b[=o]began. + + +The Seven Gods of Good Fortune. + + +We repeat it, Riy[=o]bu Buddhism is Japanese Buddhism with vengeance. It +is to-day suffering from the effect of its own sins. Its _ingwa_ is +manifest. Take, for example, the little group of divinities known as the +Seven Gods of Good Fortune, which forms a popular appendage to Japanese +Buddhism and which are a direct and logical growth of the work done by +K[=o]b[=o], as shown in his Riy[=o]bu system. Not from foreign writers +and their fancies, nor even from the books which profess to describe +these divinities, do we get such an idea of their real meaning and of +their influence with the people, as we do by observation of every-day +practice, and a study of the idols themselves and of Japanese folk-lore, +popular romance, local history and guidebooks. Those familiar +divinities, indeed, at the present day owe their vitality rather to the +artists than to priests, and, it may be, have received, together with +some rather rude handling, nearly the whole of their extended popularity +and influence from their lay supporters. The Seven Happy Gods of Fortune +form nominally a Buddhist assemblage, and their effigies on the +kami-dana or god-shelf, found in nearly every Japanese house, are +universally visible. The child in Japan is rocked to sleep by the +soothing sound of the lullaby, which is often a prayer to these gods. +Even though it may be with laughing and merriment, that, in their name +the evil gods and imps are exorcised annually on New Year's eve, with +showers of beans which are supposed to be as disagreeable to the +Buddhist demons "as drops of holy water to the Devil," yet few +households are complete without one or more of the images or the +pictures of these favorite deities. + +The separate elements of this conglomerate, so typical of Japanese +religion, are from no fewer than four different sources: Brahmanism, +Buddhism, Taoism and Shint[=o]ism. "Thus, Bishamon is the Buddhist +_Vis'ramana_[42] and the Brahmanic Kuvera; Benten is Sarasvat, the +wife of Brahm; Daikoku is an extremely popularised form of Mahakala, +the black-faced Temple Guardian; Hoti has Taoist attributes, but is +regarded as an incarnation of Mitrey, the Buddhist Messiah; +Fuku-roku-jiu is of purely Taoist origin, and is perhaps a +personification of Lao-Tsze himself; Ju-r-jin is almost certainly a +duplicate of Fuku-roku-jiu; and, lastly, Ebisu, as the son of Izanagi +and Izanami, is a contribution from the Shint[=o] hero-worship."[43] If +Riy[=o]bu Buddhism be two-fold, here is a texture or amalgam that is +_shi-bu_, four-fold. Let us watch lest _go-bu_, with Christianity mixed +in, be the next result of the process. To play the Japanese game of +go-ban, with Christianity as the fifth counter, and Jesus as a +Palestinian avatar of some Dhyani Buddha, crafty priests in Japan are +even now planning. + +This illustration of the Seven Gods of Happiness, whose local +characters, functions and relations have been developed especially +within the last three or four hundred years, is but one of many that +could be adduced, showing what proceeded on a larger scale. The +Riy[=o]bu process made it almost impossible for the average native to +draw the line between history and mythology. It destroyed the boundary +lines, as Pantheism invariably does, between fact and fiction, truth and +falsehood. The Japanese mind, by a natural, possibly by a racial, +tendency, falls easily into Pantheism, which may be called the destroyer +of boundaries and the maker of chaos and ooze. Pretty much all early +Japanese "history" is ooze; yet there are grave and learned men, even in +the Constitutional Japan of the Miji era--masters in their arts and +professions, graduates of technical and philosophical courses--who +solemnly talk about their "first emperor ascending the throne, B.C. +660," and to whom the dragon-born, early Mikados, and their +fellow-tribesmen, seen through the exaggerated mists of the Kojiki, are +divine personages. + + +The Gon-gen in the Processions. + + +While living in Japan between 1870 and 1874, the writer used to enjoy +watching and studying the long processions which celebrated the +foundation of temples, national or local festivals, or the completion of +some great public enterprise, such as the railway between T[=o]kio and +Yokohama. In rich costume, decoration, and representation most of the +cultus-objects were marvels of art and skill. Besides the gala dresses +and uniforms, the fantastic decorations and personal adornments, the +dances which represented the comedies and tragedies of the gods and the +striking scenes in the Kojiki, there wore colossal images of Kami, +Bodhisattvas, Gon-gen, Dai Mi[=o] Jin, and of imps, oni, mythical animal +forms and imaginary monsters.[44] More interesting than anything else, +however, were the male and female figures, set high upon triumphal cars +having many tiers, and arrayed in characteristic primeval, ancient, +medieval, or early modern dress. Some were of scowling, others of benign +visage. In some years, everyone of the eight hundred and eight streets +of Yedo sent its contribution of men, money, decorations, or vehicles. + +As seen by four kinds of spectators, the average ignorant native, the +Shint[=o]ist, the learned Buddhist, and the critical historical scholar, +these effigies represented three different characters or creations. +Especially were those divine personages called Gon-gen worth the study +of the foreign observer. + +(1) The common boor or streetman saluted, for example, this or that Dai +Mi[=o] Jin, as the great illustrious spirit or god of its particular +district. To this spirit and image he prayed; in his honor he made +offerings; his wrath he feared; and his smile he hoped to win, for the +Gon-gen was a divine being. + +(2) To the Shint[=o]ist, who hated Buddhism and the Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o] +which had overlaid his ancestral faith, and who scorned and tabooed this +Chinese term Dai Mi[=o] Jin, this or that image represented a divine +ancestor whose name had in it many Japanese syllables, with no defiling +Chinese sounds, and who was the Kami or patron deity of this or that +neighborhood. + +(3) To the Buddhist, this or that personage, in his lifetime, in the +early ages of Japanese history, had been an avatar of Buddha who had +appeared in human flesh and brought blessings to the people and +neighborhood; yet the people of the early ages being unprepared to +receive his doctrine or revelation, he had not then revealed or preached +it; but now, as for a thousand years since the time of the illustrious +and saintly K[=o]b[=o], he had his right name and received his just +honors and worship as an avatar of the eternal Buddha. So, although +Buddhist and Shint[=o]ist might quarrel as to his title, and divide, +even to anger, on minor points, they would both agree in letting the +common people take their pleasure, enjoy the festivals and merriment, +and preserve their reverence and worship. + +(4) Still another spectator studied with critical interest the swaying +figure high in air. With a taste for archaeology, he admired the +accuracy of the drapery and associations. He was amused, it may be, with +occasional anachronisms as to garments or equipments. He knew that the +original of this personage had been nothing more than a human being, who +might indeed have been conspicuous as a brave soldier in war, or as a +skilful physician who helped to stop the plague, or as a civilizer who +imported new food or improved agriculture. + +In a word, had this subject of the ancient Mikado lived in modern +Christendom, he might be honored through the government, patent office, +privy council, the admiralty, the university, or the academy, as the +case or worth might be. He might shine in a plastic representation by +the sculptor or artist, or be known in the popular literature; but he +would never receive religious worship, or aught beyond honor and praise. +In this swamping of history in legend and of fact in dogma, we behold +the fruit of K[=o]b[=o]'s work, Riy[=o]bu Buddhism. + + +K[=o]b[=o]'s Work Undone. + + +Buddhism calls itself the jewel in the lotus. Japanese poetry asks of +the dewdrop "why, having the heart of the lotus for its home, does it +pretend to be a gem?" For a thousand years Riy[=o]bu Buddhism was +received as a pure brilliant of the first water, and then the +scholarship of the Shint[=o] revivalists of the eighteenth century +exposed the fraudulent nature of the unrelated parts and declared that +the jewel called Riy[=o]bu was but a craftsman's doublet and should be +split apart. Only a splinter of diamond, they declared, crowned a mass +of paste. Indignation made learning hot, and in 1870 the cement was +liquefied in civil war. The doublet was rent asunder by imperial decree, +as when a lapidist melts the mastic that holds in deception adamant and +glass, while real diamond stands all fire short of the hydro-oxygen +flame. The Riy[=o]bu temples were purged of all Buddhist symbols, +furniture, equipment and personnel, and were made again to assume their +august and austere simplicity. In the eyes of the purely aesthetic +critic, this national purgation was Puritanical iconoclasm; in those of +the priests, cast out to earn rice elsewise and elsewhere, it was +outrage, which in individual instances called for reprisal in blood, +fire and assassination; to the Shint[=o]ist, it was an exhibition of the +righteous judgment of the long-insulted gods; in the ken of the critical +student, it seems very much like historic and poetic justice. + +In our day and time, Riy[=o]bu Buddhism furnishes us with a warning, +for, looked at from a purely human point of view, what happened to +Shint[=o] may possibly happen to Japanese Christianity. The successors +of those who, in the ninth century, did not scruple to Buddhaize +Shint[=o], and in later times, even our own, to Shint[=o]ize Buddhism +while holding to Buddha's name and all the revenue possible, will +Buddhaize Christianity if they have power and opportunity; and signs are +not wanting to show that this is upon their programme. + +The water of stagnant Buddhism is still a swarming mass, which needs +cleansing to purity by a knowledge of one God who is Light and Love. +Without such knowledge, the manifold changes in Buddhism will but form +fresh chapters of degradation and decay. Holding such knowledge, +Christianity may pass through endless changes, for this is her +capability by Divine power and the authorization of her Founder. The now +Buddhism of our day is endeavoring to save itself through reformation +and progress. In doing so, the danger of the destruction of the system +is great, for thus far change has meant decay. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS + + + "To the millions of China, Corea, and Japan, creator and + creation are new and strange terms,"--J.H. De Forest. + + "The Law of our Lord, the Buddha, is not a natural science or a + religion, but a doctrine of enlightenment; and the object of it + is to give rest to the restless, to point out the Master (the + Inmost Man) to those that are blind and do not perceive their + Original State." + + "The Saddharma Pundarika Sutra teaches us how to obtain that + desirable knowledge of the mind as it is in itself [universal + wisdom] ... Mind is the One Reality, and all Scriptures are the + micrographic photographs of its images. He that fully grasps the + Divine Body of Sakyamuni, holds ever, even without the written + Sutra, the inner Saddharma Pundarika in his hand. He ever reads + it mentally, even though he would never read it orally. He is + unified with it though he has no thought about it. He is the + true keeper of the Sutra."--Zitsuzen Ashitsu of the Tendai sect. + + "It [Buddhism] is idealistic. Everything is as we think it. The + world is my idea.... Beyond our faith is naught. Hold the + Buddhist to his creed and insist that such logic destroys + itself, and he triumphs smilingly, 'Self-destructive! Of course + it is. All logic is. That is the centre of my philosophy.'" + + "It [Buddhism] denounces all desire and offers salvation as the + reward of the murder of our affections, hopes, and aspirations. + It is possible where conscious existence is believed to be the + chief of evils."--George William Knox. + + "Swallowing the device of the priests, the people well + satisfied, dance their prayers."--Japanese Proverb. + + "The wisdom that is from above is ... without variance, without + hypocrisy."--James. + + "The mystery of God, even Christ in whom are all the treasures + of wisdom and knowledge."--Paul. + + +CHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS + +Chronological Outline. + + +In sketching the history of the doctrinal developments of Buddhism in +Japan, we note that the system, greatly corrupted from its original +simplicity, was in 552 A.D. already a millennium old. Several distinct +phases of the much-altered faith of Gautama, were introduced into the +islands at various times between the sixth and the ninth century. From +these and from others of native origin have sprung the larger Japanese +sects. Even as late as the seventeenth century, novelties in Buddhism +were imported from China, and the exotics took root in Japanese soil; +but then, with a single exception, only to grow as curiosities in the +garden, rather than as the great forests, which had already sprung from +imported and native specimens. + +We may divide the period of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in +Japan into four epochs: + +I. The first, from 552 to 805 A.D., will cover the first six sects, +which had for their centre of propagation, Nara, the southern capital. + +II. Then follows Riy[=o]bu Buddhism, from the ninth to the twelfth +centuries. + +III. This was succeeded by another explosion of doctrine wholly and +peculiarly Japanese, and by a wide missionary propagation. + +IV. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, there is little that +is doctrinally noticeable, until our own time, when the new Buddhism of +to-day claims at least a passing notice. + +The Japanese writers of ecclesiastical history classify in three groups +the twelve great sects as the first six, the two medival, and the four +modern sects. + +In this lecture we shall merely summarize the characteristics of the +first five sects which existed before the opening of the ninth century +but which are not formally extant at the present time, and treat more +fully the purely Japanese developments. The first three sects may be +grouped under the head of the Hinayana, or Smaller Vehicle, as Southern +or primitive orthodox Buddhism is usually called. + +Most of the early sects, as will be seen, were founded upon some +particular sutra, or upon selections or collections of sutras. They +correspond to some extent with the manifold sects of Christendom, and +yet this illustration or reference must not be misleading. It is not as +though a new Christian sect, for example, were in A.D. 500 to be formed +wholly on the gospel of Luke, or the book of the Revelation; nor as +though a new sect should now arise in Norway or Tennessee because of a +special emphasis laid on a combination of the epistle to the Corinthians +and the book of Daniel. It is rather as though distinct names and +organizations should be founded upon the writings of Tertullian, of +Augustine, of Luther, or of Calvin, and that such sects should accept +the literary work of these scholars not only as commentaries but as Holy +Scripture itself. + +The Buddhist body of scriptures has several times been imported and +printed in Japan, but has never been translated into the vernacular. The +canon[1] is not made up simply of writings purporting to be the words of +Buddha or of the apostles who were his immediate companions or +followers. On the contrary, the canon, as received in Japan, is made up +of books, written for the most part many centuries after the last of the +contemporaries of Gautama had passed away. Not a few of these writings +are the products of the Chinese intellect. Some books held by particular +sects as holy scripture were composed in Japan itself, the very books +themselves being worshipped. Nevertheless those who are apparently +farthest away from primitive Buddhism, claim to understand Buddha most +clearly. + + +The Standard Doctrinal Work. + + +One of the most famous of books, honored especially by several of the +later and larger sects in Japan, and probably the most widely read and +most generally studied book of the canon, is the Saddharma Pundarika.[2] +Professor Kern, who has translated this very rhetorical work into +English, thinks it existed at or some time before 250 A.D., and that in +its most ancient form it dates some centuries earlier, possibly as early +as the opening of the Christian era. It has now twenty-seven chapters, +and may be called the typical scripture of Northern Buddhism. It is +overflowingly full of those sensuous images and descriptions of the +Paradise, in which the imagination of the Japanese Buddhist so revels, +and in it both rhetoric and mathematics run wild. Of this book, "the +cream of the revealed doctrine," we shall hear often again. It is the +standard of orthodoxy in Japanese Buddhism, the real genius of which is +monastic asceticism in morals and philosophical scepticism in religion. + +In most of the other sutras the burden of thought is ontology. +Doctrinally, Buddhism seems to be less a religion than a system of +philosophy. Hundreds of volumes in the canon concern themselves almost +wholly with ontological speculations. The Japanese mind,[3] as described +by those who have studied most acutely and profoundly its manifestations +in language and literature, is essentially averse to speculation. Yet +the first forms of Buddhism presented to the Japanese, were highly +metaphysical. The history of thought in Japan, shows that these +abstractions of dogma were not congenial to the islanders. The new faith +won its way among the people by its outward sensuous attractions, and by +appeals to the imagination, the fancy and the emotions; though the men +of culture were led captive by reasoning which they could not answer, +even if they could comprehend it. Though these early forms of dogma and +philosophy no longer survive in Japan, having been eclipsed by more +concrete and sensuous arguments, yet it is necessary to state them in +order to show: first, what Buddhism really is; second, doctrinal +development in the farthest East; and, third, the peculiarities of the +Japanese mind. + +In this task, we are happy to be able to rely upon native witness and +confession.[4] The foreigner may easily misrepresent, even when +sincerely inclined to utter only the truth. Each religion, in its theory +at least, must be judged by its ideals, and not by its failures. Its +truth must be stated by its own professors. In the "History of The +Twelve Japanese Sects," by Bunyiu Nanjio, M.A. Oxon., and in "Le +Bouddhisme Japonais," by Ryauon Fujishima, we have the untrammelled +utterances, of nine living lights of the religion of Shaka as it is held +and taught in Dai Nippon. The former scholar is a master of texts, and +the latter of philosophy, each editor excelling in his own department; +and the two books complement each other in value. + +Buddhism, being a logical growth out of Brahmanism, used the old sacred +language of India and inherited its vocabulary. In the Tripitaka, that +is, the three book-baskets or boxes, we have the term for canon of +scripture, in the complete collection of which are _sutra_, _vinaya_ and +_abidharma_. We shall see, also, that while Gautama shut out the gods, +his speculative followers who claimed to be his successors, opened the +doors and allowed them to troop in again. The democracy of the +congregation became a hierarchy and the empty swept and garnished house, +a pantheon. + +A sutra, from the root _siv_, to sew, means a thread or string, and in +the old Veda religion referred to household rites or practices and the +moral conduct of life; but in Buddhist phraseology it means a body of +doctrine. A shaster or shastra, from the Sanskrit root _as_, to govern, +relates to discipline. Of those shastras and sutras we must frequently +speak. In India and China some of those sutras are exponents, of schools +of thought or opinion, or of views or methods of looking at things, +rather than of organizations. In Japan these schools of philosophy, in +certain instances, become sects with a formal history. + +In China of the present day, according to a Japanese traveller and +author, "the Chinese Buddhists seem ... to unite all different sects, so +as to make one harmonious sect." The chief divisions are those of the +blue robe, who are allied with the Lamaism of Tibet and whose doctrine +is largely "esoteric," and those of the yellow robe, who accept the +three fundamentals of principle, teaching and discipline. Dhyana or +contemplation is their principle; the Kgon or Avatamsaka sutra and the +Hokk or Saddharma Pundarika sutra, etc., form the basis of their +teaching; and the Vinaya of the Four Divisions (Dharmagupta) is their +discipline. On the contrary, in Japan there are vastly greater +diversities of sect, principle, teaching and discipline. + + +Buddhism as a System of Metaphysics. + + +The date of the birth of the Buddha in India, accepted by the Japanese +scholars is B.C. 1027--the day and month being also given with +suspicious accuracy. About nine centuries after Gautama had attained +Nirvana, there were eighteen schools of the Hinayana or the doctrine of +the Smaller Vehicle. Then a shastra or institute of Buddhist ontology in +nine chapters, was composed, the title of which in English, is, Book of +the Treasury of Metaphysics. It had such a powerful influence that it +was called an intelligence-creating, or as we say, an epoch-making book. + +This Ku-sha shastra, from the Sanskrit _kosa_, a store, is eclectic, and +contains nine chapters embodying the views of one of the schools, with +selections from those of others. It was translated in A.D. 563, into +Chinese by a Hindu scholar; but about a hundred years later the famous +pilgrim, whom the Japanese call Gen-j[=o], but who is known in Europe as +Hiouen Thsang,[5] made a better translation, while his disciples added +commentaries. + +In A.D. 658, two Japanese priests[6] made the sea-journey westward into +China, as Gen-j[=o] had before made the land pilgrimage into India, and +became pupils of the famous pilgrim. After long study they returned, +bringing the Chinese translation of this shastra into Japan. They did +not form an independent sect; but the doctrines of this shastra, being +eclectic, were studied by all Japanese Buddhist sects. This Ku-sha +scripture is still read in Japan as a general institute of ontology, +especially by advanced students who wish to get a general idea of the +doctrines. It is full of technical terms, and is well named The +Store-house of Metaphysics. + +The Ku-sha teaches control of the passions, and the government of +thought. The burden of its philosophy is materialism; that is, the +non-existence of self and the existence of the matter which composes +self, or, as the Japanese writer says: "The reason why all things are so +minutely explained in this shastra is to drive away the idea of self, +and to show the truth in order to make living beings reach Nirvana." +Among the numerous categories, to express which many technical terms are +necessary, are those of "forms," eleven in number, including the five +senses and the six objects of sense; the six kinds of knowledge; the +forty-six mental qualities, grouped under six heads; and the fourteen +conceptions separated from the mind; thus making in all seventy-two +compounded things and three immaterial things. These latter are +"conscious cessation of existence," "unconscious cessation of +existence," and "space." + +The Reverend Shuzan Emura, of the Shin-shu sect of Japan, after +specifying these seventy-five Dharmas, or things compounded and things +immaterial, says:[7] "The former include all things that proceed from a +cause. This cause is Karma, to which everything existing is due, Space +and Nirvana alone excepted. Again, of the three immaterial things the +last two are not subjects to be understood by the wisdom not free from +frailty. Therefore the 'conscious cessation of existence' is considered +as being the goal of all effort to him who longs for deliverance from +misery." + +In a word, this one of the many Buddhisms of Asia is vastly less a +religion, in any real sense of the word, than a system of metaphysics. +However, the doctrine to be mastered is graded in three Yanas or +Vehicles; for there are now, as in the days of Shaka, three classes of +being, graded according to their ability or power to understand "the +truth." These are: + +(I.) The Sho-mon or lowest of the disciples of Shaka, or hearers who +meditate on the cause and effect of everything. If acute in +understanding, they become free from confusion after three births; but +if they are dull, they pass sixty kalpas[8] or aeons before they attain +to the state of enlightenment. + +(II.) The Engaku or Pratyeka Buddhas, that is, "singly enlightened," or +beings in the middle state, who must extract the seeds or causes of +actions, and must meditate on the twelve chains of causation, or +understand the non-eternity of the world, while gazing upon the falling +flowers or leaves. They attain enlightenment after four births or a +hundred kalpas, according to their ability. + +(III.) The Bodhisattvas or Buddhas-elect, who practise the six +perfections (perfect practice of alms-giving, morality, patience, +energy, meditation and wisdom) as preliminaries to Nirvana, which they +reach only after countless kalpas. + +These three grades of pupils in the mysteries of Buddha doctrine, are +said to have been ordered by Shaka himself, because understanding human +beings so thoroughly, he knew that one person could not comprehend two +ways or vehicles (Yana) at once. People were taught therefore to +practise anyone of the three vehicles at pleasure. + +We shall see how the later radical and democratic Japanese Buddhism +swept away this gradation, and declaring but the one vehicle (ka), +opened the kingdom to all believers. + +The second of the early Japanese schools of thought, is the +J[=o]-jitsu,[9] or the sect founded chiefly upon the shastra which means +The Book of the Perfection of the Truth, containing selections from and +explanations of the true meaning of the Tripitaka. This shastra was the +work of a Hindu whose name means Lion-armor, and who lived about nine +centuries after Gautama. Not satisfied with the narrow views of his +teacher, who may have been of the Dharmagupta school (of the four +Disciplines), he made selections of the best and broadest +interpretations then current in the several different schools of the +Smaller Vehicle. The book is eclectic, and attempts to unite all that +was best in each of the Hinayana schools; but certain Chinese teachers +consider that its explanations are applicable to the Great Vehicle also. +Translated into Chinese in 406 A.D., the commentaries upon it soon +numbered hundreds, and it was widely expounded and lectured upon. +Commentaries upon this shastra were also written in Korean by +D[=o]-z[=o]. From the peninsula it was introduced into Japan. This +J[=o]-jitsu doctrine was studied by prince Sh[=o]toku, and promulgated +as a division of the school called San-Ron. The students of the +J[=o]-jitsu school never formed in Japan a distinct organization. + +The burden of the teachings of this school is pure nihilism, or the +non-existence of both self and of matter. There is an utter absence of +substantiality in all things. Life itself is a prolonged dream. The +objects about us are mere delusive shadows or mirage, the product of the +imagination alone. The past and the future are without reality, but the +present state of things only stands as if it were real. That is to say: +the true state of things is constantly changing, yet it seems as if the +state of things were existing, even as does a circle of fire seen when a +rope watch is turned round very quickly. + + +Japanese Pilgrims to China. + + +The Ris-shu or Vinaya sect is one of purely Chinese origin, and was +founded, or rather re-founded, by the Chinese priest D[=o]sen, who lived +on Mount Shunan early in the seventh century, and claimed to be only +re-proclaiming the rules given by Gautama himself. He was well +acquainted with the Tripitaka and especially versed in the Vinaya or +rules of discipline. His purpose was to unite the teachings of both the +Greater and the Lesser Vehicle in a sutra whose burden should be one of +ethics and not of dogma. + +The founder of this sect was greatly honored by the Chinese Emperor. +Furthermore, he was honored in vision by the holy Pindola or +Binzura,[10] who praised the founder as the best man that had +promulgated the discipline since Buddha himself. In later centuries, +successors of the founder compiled commentaries and reproclaimed the +teachings of this sect. + +In A.D. 724 two Japanese priests went over to China, and having mastered +the Ris-shu doctrine, received permission to propagate it in Japan. With +eighty-two Chinese priests they returned a few years later, having +attempted, it is said, the journey five times and spent twelve years on +the sea. On their return, they received an imperial invitation to live +in the great monastery at Nara, and soon their teachings exerted a +powerful influence on the court. The emperor, empress and four hundred +persons of note were received into the Buddhist communion by a Chinese +priest of the Ris-shu school in the middle of the eighth century. The +Mikado Sh[=o]-mu resigned his throne and took the vow and robes of a +monk, becoming H[=o]-[=o] or cloistered emperor. Under imperial +direction a great bronze image of the Vairokana Buddha, or Perfection of +Morality, was erected, and terraces, towers, images and all the +paraphernalia of the new kind of Buddhism were prepared. Even the earth +was embroidered, as it were, with sutras and shastras. Symbolical +landscape gardening, which, in its mounds and paths, variously shaped +stones and lanterns, artificial cascades and streamlets, teaches the +holy geography as well as the allegories and hidden truths of Buddhism, +made the city of Nara beautiful to the eyes of faith as well as of +sight. + +This sect, with its excellence in morality and benevolence, proved +itself a beautifier of human life, of society and of the earth itself. +Its work was an irenicon. It occupied itself exclusively with the higher +ethics, the higher meditations and the higher knowledge. Interdicting +what was evil and prescribing what was good, its precepts varied in +number and rigor according to the status of the disciple, lay or +clerical. It is by the observance of the _sila_, or grades of moral +perfection, that one becomes a Buddha. Besides making so powerful a +conquest at the southern capital, this sect was the one which centuries +afterward built the first Buddhist temple in Yedo. Being ordinary human +mortals, however, both monk and layman occasionally illustrated the +difference between profession and practice. + +These three schools or sects, Ku-sha, J[=o]-jitsu, and Ris-shu, may be +grouped under the Hinayana or Smaller Vehicle, with more or less +affiliation with Southern Buddhism; the others now to be described were +wholly of the Northern division. + +The Hoss[=o]-shu, or the Dharma-lakshana sect, as described by the Rev. +Dai-ryo Takashi of the Shin-gon sect, is the school which studies the +nature of Dharmas or things. The three worlds of desire, form and +formlessness, consist in thought only; and there is nothing outside +thought. Nine centuries after Gautama, Maitreya,[11] or the Buddha of +kindness, came down from the heaven of the Bodhisattva to the +lecture-hall in the kingdom in central India at the request of the +Buddhas elect, and discounted five shastras. After that two Buddhist +fathers who were brothers, composed many more shastras and cleared up +the meaning of the Mah[=a]yan[=a]. In 629 A.D., in his twenty-ninth +year, the famous Chinese pilgrim, Gen-j[=o] (Hiouen-thsang), studied +these shastras and sciences, and returning to China in 645 A.D., began +his great work of translation, at which he continued for nineteen years. +One of his disciples was the author of a hundred commentaries on sutras +and shastras. The doctrines of Gen-j[=o] and his disciples were at four +different times, from 653 to 712 A.D., imported into Japan, and named, +after the monasteries in which they were promulgated, the Northern and +Southern Transmission. + + +The Middle Path. + + +The burden of the teachings of this sect is subjective idealism. They +embrace principles enjoining complete indifference to mundane affairs, +and, in fact, thorough personal nullification and the ignoring of all +actions by its disciples. In these teachings, thought only, is real. As +we have already seen with the Ku-sha teaching, human beings are of three +classes, divided according to intellect, into higher, middle and lower, +for whom the systems of teachings are necessarily of as many kinds. The +order of progress with those who give themselves to the study of the +Hoss[=o] tenets, is,[12] first, they know only the existence of things, +then the emptiness of them, and finally they enter the middle path of +"true emptiness and wonderful existence." + +From the first, such discipline is long and painful, and ultimate +victory scarcely comes to the ordinary being. The disciple, by training +in thought, by destroying passions and practices, by meditating on the +only knowledge, must pass through three kalpas or aeons. Constantly +meditating, and destroying the two obstacles of passion and cognizable +things, the disciple then obtains four kinds of wisdom and truly attains +perfect enlightenment or Pari-Nirvana. + +The San-ron Shu, as the Three-Shastra sect calls itself, is the sect of +the Teachings of Buddha's whole life.[13] Other sects are founded upon +single sutras, a fact which makes the student liable to narrowness of +opinion. The San-ron gives greater breadth of view and catholicity of +opinion. The doctrines of the Greater Vehicle are the principal +teachings of Gautama, and these are thoroughly explained in the three +shastras used by this sect, which, it is claimed, contain Buddha's own +words. The meanings of the titles of the three favorite sutras, are, The +Middle Book, The Hundred, and The Book of Twelve Gates. Other books of +the canon are also studied and valued by this sect, but all of them are +apt to be perused from a particular point of view; i.e., that of +Pyrronism or infinite negation. + +There are two lines of the transmission of this doctrine, both of them +through China, though, the introduction to Japan was made from Korea, in +625 A.D. Not to dwell upon the detail of history, the burden of this +sect's teaching, is, infinite negation or absolute nihilism. Truth is +the inconceivable state, or, in the words of the Japanese writer: "The +truth is nothing but the state where thoughts come to an end; the right +meditation is to perceive this truth. He who has obtained this +meditation is called Buddha. This is this doctrine of the San-ron sect." + +This sect, by its teachings of the Middle Path, seems to furnish a +bridge from the Hinayana or Southern school, to the Mah[=a]yan[=a] or +Northern school of Buddhism. Part of its work, as set forth by the Rev. +K[=o]-ch[=o] Ogurasu, of the Shin sect, is to defend the authenticity, +genuineness and canonicity of the books which form the Northern body of +scriptures. + +In these two sects Hos-s[=o] and San-ron, called those of Middle Path, +and much alike in principle and teaching, the whole end and aim of +mental discipline, is nihilism--in the one case subjective, and in the +other absolute, the end and goal being nothing--this view into the +nature of things being considered the right one. + +Is it any wonder that such teachings could in the long run satisfy +neither the trained intellects nor the unthinking common people of +Japan? Is it far from the truth to suspect that, even when accepted by +the Japanese courtiers and nobles, they were received, only too often, +in a Platonic, not to say a Pickwickian, sense? The Japanese is too +polite to say "no" if he can possibly say "yes," even when he does not +mean it; while the common people all over the world, as between +metaphysics and polytheism, choose the latter. Is it any wonder that, +along with this propagation of Nihilism as taught in the cloisters and +the court, history informs us of many scandals and much immorality +between the women of the court and the Buddhist monks? + +Such dogmas were not able to live in organized forms, after the next +importations of Buddhism which came in, not partly but wholly, under the +name of the Mah[=a]yan[=a] or Great Vehicle, or Northern Buddhism. By +the new philosophy, more concrete and able to appeal more closely to the +average man, these five schools, which, in their discussions, dealt +almost wholly with _noumena_, were absorbed. As matter of fact, none of +them is now in existence, nor can we trace them, speaking broadly, +beyond the tenth century. Here and there, indeed, may be a temple +bearing the name of one of the sects, or grades of doctrine, and +occasionally an eccentric individual who "witnesses" to the old +metaphysics; but these are but fossils or historical relics, and are +generally regarded as such. + +Against such baldness of philosophy not only might the cultivated +Japanese intellect revolt and react, but as yet the common people of +Japan, despite the modern priestly boast of the care of the imperial +rulers for what the bonzes still love to call "the people's religion," +were but slightly touched by the Indian faith. + + +The Great Vehicle. + + +The Kgon-Shu or Avatamsaka-sutra sect, is founded on a certain teaching +which Gautama is said to have promulgated in nine assemblies held at +seven different places during the second week of his enlightenment. This +sutra exists in no fewer than six texts, around each of which has +gathered some interesting mythology. The first two tests were held in +memory and not committed to palm leaves; the second pair are secretly +preserved in the dragon palace of Riu-gu[14] under the sea, and are not +kept by the men of this world. The fifth text of 100,000 verses, was +obtained by a Bodhisattva from the palace of the dragon king of the +world under the sea and transmitted to men in India. The sixth is the +abridged text. + +It concerns us to notice that the shorter texts were translated into +Chinese in the fourth century, and that later, other translations were +made--36,000 verses of the fifth text, 45,000 verses of the sixth text, +etc. When the doctrine of the sect had been perfected by the fifth +patriarch and he lectured on the sutra, rays of white light came from +his mouth, and there rained wonderful heavenly flowers. In A.D. 736 a +Chinese Vinaya teacher or instructor in Buddhist discipline, named +D[=o]-sen, first brought the Kgon scriptures to Japan. Four years later +a Korean priest gave lectures on them in the Golden-Bell Hall of the +Great Eastern Monastery at Nara. He completed his task of expounding the +sixty volumes in three years. Henceforth, lecturing on this sutra became +one of the yearly services of the Eastern Great Monastery. + +"The K-gon sutra is the original book of Buddha's teachings of his +whole life. All his teachings therefore sprang from this sutra. If we +attribute all the branches to the origin, we may say that there is no +teaching of Buddha for his whole life except this sutra."[15] The title +of the book, when literally translated, is +Great-square-wide-Buddha-flower-adornment-teaching--a title sufficiently +indicative of its rhetoric. The age of hard or bold thinking was giving +way to flowery diction, and the Law was to be made easy through fine +writing. + +The burden of doctrine is the unconditioned or realistic, pantheism. +Nature absolute, or Buddha-tathata, is the essence of all things. +Essence and form were in their origin combined and identical. Fire and +water, though phenomenally different, are from the point of view of +Buddha-tathata absolutely identical. Matter and thought are one--that is +Buddha-tathata. In teaching, especially the young, it must be remembered +that the mind resembles a fair page upon which the artist might trace a +design, especial care being needed to prevent the impression of evil +thoughts, in order to accomplish which one must completely and always +direct the mind to Buddha.[16] One notable sentence in the text is, +"when one first raises his thoughts toward the perfect knowledge, he at +once becomes fully enlightened." + +In some parts of the metaphysical discussions of this sect we are +reminded of European mediaeval scholasticism, especially of that +discussion as to how many angels could dance on the point of a cambric +needle without jostling each other. It says, "Even at the point of one +grain of dust, of immeasurable and unlimited worlds, there are +innumerable Buddhas, who are constantly preaching the K-gon ki[=o] +(sutra) throughout the three states of existence, past, present and +future, so that the preaching is not at all to be collected.[17] + + +A New Chinese Sect. + + +In its formal organization the Ten-dai sect is of Chinese origin. It is +named after Tien Tai,[18] a mountain in China about fifty miles south of +Ningpo, on which the book which forms the basis of its tenets was +composed by Chi-sha, now canonized as a Dai Shi or Great teacher. Its +special doctrine of completion and suddenness was, however, transmitted +directly from Shaka to Vairokana and thence to Maitreya, so that the +apostolical succession of its orthodoxy cannot be questioned. + +The metaphysics of this sect are thought to be the most profound of the +Greater Vehicle, combining into a system the two opposite ideas of being +and not being. The teachers encourage all men, whether quick or slow in +understanding, to exercise the principle of "completion" and +"suddenness," together with four doctrinal divisions, one or all of +which are taught to men according to their ability. The object of the +doctrine is to make men get an excellent understanding, practise good +discipline and attain to the great fruit of Enlightenment or +Buddha-hood. + +Out of compassion, Gautama appeared in the world and preached the truth +in several forms, according to the circumstances of time and place. +There are four doctrinal divisions of "completion," "secrecy," +"meditation," and "moral precept," which are the means of knowing the +principle of "completion." From Gautama, Vairokana and Maitreya the +doctrine passed through more than twenty Buddhas elect, and arrived in +China on the twentieth day of the twelfth month, A.D. 401. The delivery +to disciples was secret, and the term used for this esoteric +transmission means "handed over within the tower." + +In A.D. 805, two Japanese pilgrims went to China, and received orthodox +training. With twenty others, they brought the Ten-dai doctrines into +Japan. During this century, other Japanese disciples of the same sect +crossed the seas to study at Mount Tien Tai. On coming back to Japan +they propagated the various shades of doctrine, so that this main sect +has many branches. It was chiefly through these pilgrims from the West +that the Sanskrit letters, writing and literature were imported. In our +day, evidences of Sanskrit learning, long since neglected and forgotten, +are seen chiefly in the graveyards and in charms and amulets. + +Although the philosophical doctrines of Ten-dai are much the same as +those of the K-gon sect, being based on pantheistic realism, and +teaching that the Buddha-tathata or Nature absolute is the essence of +all things, yet the Ten-dai school has striking and peculiar features of +its own. Instead of taking some particular book or books in the canon, +shastra, or sutra, selection or collection, as a basis, the Chinese monk +Chi-sha first mastered, and then digested the whole canon. Then +selecting certain doctrines for emphasis he supported them by a wide +range of quotation, professing to give the gist of the pure teachings of +Gautama rather than those of his disciples. In practice, however, the +Saddharma Pundarika is the book most honored by this sect; the other +sutras being employed mainly as commentary. Furthermore, this sect makes +as strenuous a claim for the true apostolical succession from the +Founder, as do the other sects. + +The teachers of Ten-dai doctrine must fully estimate character and +ability in their pupils, and so apportion instruction. In this respect +and in not a few others, they are like the disciples of Loyola, and have +properly been called the Jesuits of Buddhism. They are ascetics, and +teach that spiritual insight is possible only through prolonged thought. +Their purpose is to recognize the Buddha, in all the forms he has +assumed in order to save mankind. Nevertheless, the highest truths are +incomprehensible except to those who have already attained to +Buddha-hood.[19] In contrast to the Nichirenites, who give an emotional +and ultra-concrete interpretation and expression to the great sutra, +Hokk Ki[=o], the Ten-dai teachers are excessively philosophical and +intellectual. + +In its history the Ten-dai sect has followed out its logic. Being +realistic in pantheism, it reverences not only Gautama the historic +Buddha, but also, large numbers of the Hindu deities, the group of idols +called Jiz[=o], the god Fudo, and Kuannon the god or goddess of mercy, +under his or her protean forms. In its early history this sect welcomed +to its pantheon the Shint[=o] gods, who, according to the scheme of +Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o], were declared to be avatars or manifestations of +Buddha. The three sub-sects still differ in their worship of the avatars +selected as supreme deities, but their philosophy enables them to sweep +in the Buddhas of every age and clime, name and nation. Many other +personifications are found honored in the Ten-dai temples. At the +gateways may usually be seen the colossal painted and hideous images of +the two Devas or kings (Ni-O). These worthies are none other than Indra +and Brahma of the old Vedic mythology. + +Space and time--which seem never to fail the Buddhists in their +literature--would fail us to describe this sect in full, or to show in +detail its teachings, wherein are wonderful resemblances to European +ideas and facts--in philosophy, to Hegel and Spinoza find in history, to +Jesuitism. Nor can we stay to point out the many instances in which, +invading the domain of politics, the Ten-dai abbots with their armies of +monks, having made their monasteries military arsenals and issuing forth +clad in armor as infantry and cavalry, have turned the scale of battle +or dictated policies to emperors. Like the Praetorian guard of Rome or +the clerical militia in Spain, these men of keen intellect have left +their marks deep upon the social and political history of the country in +which they dwelt. They have understood thoroughly the art of practising +religion for the sake of revenue. To secure their ends, priests have +made partnerships with other sects; in order to hold Shint[=o] shrines, +they have married to secure heirs and make office hereditary; and +finally in the Purification of 1870, when the Riy[=o]bu system was blown +to the winds by the Japanese Government, not a few priests of this sect +became laymen, in order to keep both office and emolument in the +purified Shint[=o] shrines. + + +The Sect of the True Word. + + +It is probable that the conquest and obliteration of Shint[=o] might +have been accomplished by some priest or priests of the Ten-dai sect, +had such a genius as K[=o]b[=o] been found in its household; but this +great achievement was reserved for the man who introduced into Japan the +Shin-gon Shu, or Sect of the True Word. The term _gon_ is the equivalent +of Mantra,[20] a Sanskrit term meaning word, but in later use referring +to the mystic salutations addressed to the Buddhist gods. "The doctrine +of this sect is a great secret law. It teaches us that we can attain to +the state of the 'Great Enlightened,' that is the state of 'Buddha,' +while in the present physical body, which was born of our parents (and +which consists of six elements,[21] Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ether, and +Knowledge), if we follow the three great secret laws, regarding Body, +Speech, and Thought."[22] + +The history of the transmission of the doctrine from the greatest of the +spirit-bodied Buddhas to the historic founder, Vagrabodhi, is carefully +given. The latter was a man very learned in regard to many doctrines of +Buddhism and other religious, and was especially well acquainted with +the deepest meaning of the doctrine of this sect, which he taught in +India for a considerable time. The doctrine is recorded in several +sutras, yet the essential point is nothing but the Mandala, or circle of +the two parts, or, in Japanese, Riy[=o]bu. + +The great preacher, Vagrabodhi, in 720 A.D., came with his disciples to +the capital of China, and translated the sacred books, seventy-seven in +number. This doctrine is the well-known Yoga-chara, which has been well +set forth by Doctor Edkins in his scholarly volume on Chinese Buddhism. +As "yoga" becomes in plain English "yoke," and as "mantra" is from the +same root as "man" and "mind," we have no difficulty in recognizing the +original meaning of these terms; the one in its nobler significance +referring to union with Buddha or Gnosis, and the other to the thought +taking lofty expression or being debased to hocus-pocus in charm or +amulet. Like the history of so many Sanskrit words as now uttered in +every-day English speech, the story of the word mantra forms a picture +of mental processes and apparently of the degradation of thought, or, as +some will doubtless say, of the decay of religion. The term mantra meant +first, a thought; then thought expressed; then a Vedic hymn or text; +next a spell or charm. Such have been the later associations, in India, +China and Japan with the term mantra. + +The burden of the philosophy of the Shin-gon, looked at from one point +of view, is mysticism, and from another, pantheism. One of the forms of +Buddha is the principle of everything. There are ten stages of thought, +and there are two parts, "lengthwise" and "crosswise" or exoteric and +esoteric. Other doctrines of Buddhism represent the first, or exoteric +stage; and those of the Shin-gon or true word, the second, or esoteric. +The primordial principle is identical with that of Maha-Vairokana, one +of the forms[23] of Buddha. The body, the word and the thought are the +three mysteries, which being found in all beings, animate and inanimate, +are to be fully understood only by Buddhas, and not by ordinary men. + +To show the actual method of intellectual procedure in order to reach +Buddha-hood, many categories, tables and diagrams are necessary; but the +crowning tenet, most far reaching in its practical influence, is the +teaching that it is possible to reach the state of Buddha-hood in this +present body. + +As discipline for the attainment of excellence along the path marked out +in the "Mantra sect," there are three mystic rites: (1) worshipping the +Buddha with the hand in certain positions called signs; (2) repeating +Dharani, or mystic formulas; (3) contemplation. + +K[=o]b[=o] himself and all those who imitated him, practised fasting in +order to clear the spiritual eyesight. The thinking-chairs, so +conspicuous in many old monasteries, though warmed at intervals through +the ages by the living bodies of men absorbed in contemplation, are +rarely much worn by the sitters, because almost absolute cessation of +motion characterizes the long and hard thinkers of the Shin-gon +philosophers. The idols in the Shin-gon temples represent many a saint +and disciple, who, by perseverance in what a critic of Buddhism calls +"mind-murder," and the use of mystic finger twistings and magic +formulas, has won either the Nirvana or the penultimate stage of the +Bodhisattva. + +In the sermons and discourses of Shin-gon, the subtle points of an +argument are seized and elaborated. These are mystical on the one side, +and pantheistic on the other. It is easily seen how Buddha, being in +Japanese gods as well as men, and no being without Buddha, the way is +made clear for that kind of a marriage between Buddhism and Shint[=o], +in which the two become one, and that one, as to revenue and advantage, +Buddhism. + + +Truth Made Apparent by One's Own Thought. + + +The Japanese of to-day often speak of these seven religious bodies which +we have enumerated and described, as "the old sects," because much of +the philosophy, and many of the forms and prayers, are common to all, +or, more accurately speaking, are popularly supposed to be; while the +priests, being celibates, refrain from sak, flesh and fish, and from +all intimate relations with women. Yet, although these sects are +considered to be more or less conformable to the canon of the Greater +Vehicle, and while the last three certainly introduce many of its +characteristic features--one sect teaching that Buddha-hood could be +obtained even in the present body of flesh and blood--yet the idea of +Paradise had not been exploited or emphasized. This new gospel was to be +introduced into Japan by the J[=o]-d[=o] Shu or Sect of the Pure Land. + +Before detailing the features of J[=o]-d[=o], we call attention to the +fact that in Japan the propagation of the old sects was accompanied by +an excessive use of idols, images, pictures, sutras, shastras and all +the furniture thought necessary in a Buddhist temple. The course of +thought and action in the Orient is in many respects similar to that in +the Occident. In western lands, with the ebb and flow of religious +sentiment, the iconolater has been followed by the iconoclast, and the +overcrowded cathedrals have been purged by the hammer and fire of the +Protestant and Puritan. So in Japan we find analogous, though not +exactly similar, reactions. The rise and prosperity of the believers in +the Zen dogmas, which in their early history used sparingly the eikon, +idol and sutra, give some indication of protest against too much use of +externals in religion. May we call them the Quakers of Japanese +Buddhism? Certainly, theirs was a movement in the direction of +simplicity. + +The introduction of the Zen, or contemplative sect, did, in a sense, +both precede and follow that of Shingon. The word Zen is a shortened +form of the term Zenna, which is a transliteration into Chinese of the +Sanskrit word Dhyana, or contemplation. It teaches that the truth is not +in tradition or in books, but in one's self. Emphasis is laid on +introspection rather than on language. "Look carefully within and there +you will find the Buddha," is its chief tenet. In the Zen monasteries, +the chair of contemplation is, or ought to be, always in use. + +The Zen Shu movement may be said to have arisen out of a reaction +against the multiplication of idols. It indicated a return to simpler +forms of worship and conduct. Let us inquire how this was. + +It may be said that Buddhism, especially Northern Buddhism, is a vast, +complicated system. It has a literature and a sacred canon which one can +think of only in connection with long trains of camels to carry, or +freight trains to transport, or ships a good deal bigger than the +Mayflower to import. Its multitudinous rules and systems of discipline +appall the spirit and weary the flesh even to enumerate them; so that, +from one point of view, the making of new sects is a necessity. These +are labor-saving inventions. They are attempts to reduce the great bulk +of scriptures to manageable proportions. They seek to find, as it were, +the mother-liquor of the great ocean, so as to express the truth in a +crystal. Hence the endeavors to simplify, to condense; here, by a +selection of sutras, rather than the whole collection; there, by +emphasis on a single feature and a determination to put the whole thing +in a form which can be grasped, either by the elect few or by the people +at large. + +The Zen sect did this in a more rational way than that set forth as +orthodox by later priestcraft, which taught that to the believer who +simply turned round the revolving library containing the canon, the +merit of having read it all would be imputed. The rin-z[=o][24] found +near the large temples,--the cunning invention of a Chinese priest in +the sixth century,--soon became popular in Japan. The great wooden +book-case turning on a pivot contains 6,771 volumes, that being the +number of canonical volumes enumerated in China and Japan. + +The Zen sect teaches that, besides all the doctrines of the Greater and +the Lesser Vehicles, whether hidden or apparent, there is one distinct +line of transmission of a secret doctrine which is not subject to any +utterance at all. According to their tenet of contemplation, one is to +see directly the key to the thought of Buddha by his own thought, thus +freeing himself from the multitude of different doctrines--the number of +which is said to be eighty-four thousand. In fact, Zen Shu or "Dhyana +sect" teaches the short method of making truth apparent by one's own +thought, apart from the writings. + +The story of the transmission of the true Zen doctrine is this: + + "When the blessed Shaka was at the assembly on Vulture's Peak, + there came the heavenly king, who offered the Buddha a + golden-colored flower and asked him to preach the law. The + Blessed One simply took the flower and held it in his hand, but + said no word. No one in the whole assembly could tell what he + meant. The venerable Mahahasyapa alone smiled. Than the Blessed + One said to him, 'I have the wonderful thought of Nirvana, the + eye of the Right Law, which I shall now give to you.'[25] Thus + was ushered in the doctrine of thought transmitted by thought." + +After twenty-eight patriarchs had taught the doctrine of contemplation, +the last came into China in A.D. 520, and tried to teach the Emperor the +secret key of Buddha's thought. This missionary Bodhidharma was the +third son of a king of the Kashis, in Southern India, and the historic +original of the tobacconist's shop-sign in Japan, who is known as +Daruma. The imperial Chinaman was not yet able to understand the secret +key of Buddha's thought. So the Hindu missionary went to the monastery +on Mount Su, where in meditation, he sat down cross-legged with his face +to a wall, for nine years, by which time, says the legend, his legs had +rotted off and he looked like a snow-image. During that period, people +did not know him, and called him simply the Wall-gazing Brahmana. +Afterward he had a number of disciples, but they had different views +that are called the transmissions of the skin, flesh, or bone of the +teacher. Only one of them got the whole body of his teachings. Two great +sects were formed: the Northern, which was undivided, and the Southern, +which branched off into five houses and seven schools. The Northern Sect +was introduced into Japan by a Chinese priest in 729 A.D., while the +Southern was not brought over until the twelfth century. In both it is +taught that perfect tranquillity of body and mind is essential to +salvation. The doctrine is the most sublime one, of thought transmitted +by thought being entirely independent of any letters or words. Another +name for them is, "The Sect whose Mind Assimilates with Buddha," direct +from whom it claims to have received its articles of faith. + +Too often this idea of Buddhaship, consisting of absolute freedom from +matter and thought, means practically mind-murder, and the emptiness of +idle reverie. + +Contrasting modern reality with their ancient ideal, it must be +confessed that in practice there is not a little letter worship and a +good deal of pedantry; for, in all the teachings of abstract principles +by the different sects, there are endless puns or plays upon words in +the renderings of Chinese characters. This arises from that antithesis +of extreme poverty in sounds with amazing luxuriance in written +expression, which characterizes both the Chinese and Japanese languages. + +In the temples we find that the later deities introduced into the +Buddhist pantheon are here also welcome, and that the triads or groups +of three precious ones, the "Buddhist trinity," so-called,[26] are +surrounded by gods of Chinese or Japanese origin. The Zen sect, +according to its professions and early history, ought to be indifferent +to worldly honors and emoluments, and indeed many of its devotees are. +Its history, however, shows how poorly mortals live up to their +principles and practise what they preach. Furthermore, these professors +of peace and of the joys of the inner life in the S[=o]-t[=o] or +sub-sect have made the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth years of Meiji, or +A.D. 1893 and 1894, famous and themselves infamous by their +long-continued and scandalous intestine quarrels. Of the three +sub-sects, those called Rin-zai and S[=o]-t[=o], take their names from +Chinese monks of the ninth century; while the third, O-baku, founded in +Japan in the seventeenth century, is one of the latest importations of +Chinese Buddhistic thought in the Land of the Rising Sun. + +Japanese authors usually classify the first six denominations at which +we have glanced, some of which are phases of thought rather than +organizations, as "the ancient sects." Ten-dai and Shin-gon are "the +medieval sects." The remaining four, of which we shall now treat, and +which are more particularly Japanese in spirit and development, are "the +modern sects." + + + + +CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE + + "A drop of spray cast by the infinite + I hung an instant there, and threw my ray + To make the rainbow. A microcosm I + Reflecting all. Then back I fell again, + And though I perished not, I was no more."-- + The Pantheist's Epitaph. + + "Buddhism is essentially a religion of compromise." + + "Where Christianity has One Lord, Buddhism has a dozen." + + "I think I may safely challenge the Buddhist priesthood to give + a plain historical account of the Life of Amida, Kwannon, + Dainichi, or any other Mah[=a]y[=a]na Buddha, without being in + serious danger of forfeiting my stakes." + + "Christianity openly puts this Absolute Unconditioned Essence in + the forefront of its teaching. In Buddhism this absolute + existence is only put forward, when the logic of circumstances + compels its teachers to have recourse to it."--A. Lloyd, in The + Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene creed. + + "Now these six characters, 'Na-mu-A-mi-da-Butsu,' Zend-[=o] has + explained as follows: 'Namn' means [our] following His + behest--and also [His] uttering the Prayer and bestowing [merit] + upon us. 'Amida Butsu' is the practice of this, consequently by + this means a certainty of salvation is attained." + + "By reason of the conferring on us sentient creators of this + great goodness and great merit through the utterance of the + Prayer, and the bestowal [by Amida] the evil Karma and [effect + of the] passions accumulated through the long Kalpas, since when + there was no beginning, are in a moment annihilated, and in + consequence, those passions and evil Karma of ours all + disappearing, we live already in the condition of the steadfast, + who do not return [to revolve in the cycle of Birth and + Death]."--Renny[=o] of the Shin sect, 1473. + + "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and + the Word was God."--John. + + "The Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, + neither shadow of turning."--James. + + +CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE + +The Western Paradise. + + +We cannot take space to show how, or how much, or whether at all, +Buddhism was affected by Christianity, though it probably was. Suffice +it to say that the J[=o]-d[=o] Shu, or Sect of the Pure Land, was the +first of the many denominations in Buddhism which definitely and clearly +set forth that especial peculiarity of Northern Buddhism, the Western +Paradise. The school of thought which issued in J[=o]-d[=o] Shu was +founded by the Hindoo, Memio. In A.D. 252 an Indian scholar, learned in +the Tripitaka, came to China, and translated one of the great sutras, +called Amitayus. This sutra gives a history of Tathagata Amitabha,[1] +from the first spiritual impulses which led him to the attainment of +Buddha-hood in remote Kalpas down to the present time, when he dwells in +the Western World, called the Happy, where he receives all living beings +from every direction, helping them to turn away from confusion and to +become enlightened.[2] The apocalyptic twentieth chapter of the Hokk +Ki[=o] is a glorification of the transcendent power of the Tathagatas, +expressed in flamboyant oriental rhetoric. + +We have before called attention to the fact that, with the +multiplication of sutras or the Sacred Canon and the vast increase of +the apparatus of Buddhism as well as of the hardships of brain and body +to be undergone in order to be a Buddhist, it was absolutely necessary +that some labor-saving system should be devised by which the burden +could be borne. Now, as a matter of fact, all sects claim to found their +doctrine on Buddha or his work. According to the teaching of certain +sects, the means of salvation are to be found in the study of the whole +canon, and in the practice of asceticism and meditation. On the +contrary, the new lights of Buddhism who came as missionaries into +China, protested against this expenditure of so much mental and physical +energy. One of the first Chinese propagators of the J[=o]-d[=o] doctrine +declared that it was impossible, owing to the decay of religion in his +own age, for anyone to be saved in this way by his own efforts. Hence, +instead of the noble eight-fold path of primitive Buddhism, or of the +complicated system of the later Buddhistic Phariseeism of India, he +substituted for the difficult road to Nirvana, a simple faith in the +all-saving power of Amida. In one of the sutras it is taught, that if a +man keeps in his memory the name of Amida one day, or seven days, the +Buddha together with Buddhas elect, will meet him at the moment of his +death, in order to let him be born in the Pure Land, and that this +matter has been equally approved by all other Buddhas of ten different +directions. + +One of the sutras, translated in China during the fifth century, +contains the teaching of Buddha, which he delivered to the wife of the +King of Magudha, who on account of the wickedness of her son was feeling +weary of this world. He showed her how she might be born into the Pure +Land. Three paths of good actions were pointed out. Toward the end of +the particular sutra which he advised her to read and recite, Buddha +says: "Let not one's voice cease, but ten times complete the thought, +and repeat the formula, of the adoration of Amida." "This practice," +adds the Japanese exegete and historian, "is the most excellent of all." + +How well this latter teaching is practised may be demonstrated when one +goes into a Buddhist temple of the J[=o]-d[=o] sect in Japan, and hears +the constant refrain,--murmured by the score or more of listeners to the +sermon, or swelling like the roar of the ocean's waves, on festival +days, when thousands sit on the mats beneath the fretted roof to enjoy +the exposition of doctrine--"Namu Amida Butsu"--"Glory to the Eternal +Buddha!"[3] + +The apostolical succession or transmission through the patriarchs and +apostles of India and China, is well known and clearly stated, withal +duly accredited and embellished with signs and wonders, in the +historical literature of the J[=o]-d[=o] sect. In Buddhism, as in +Christianity, the questions relating to True Churchism, High Churchism, +the succession of the apostles, teachers and rulers, and the validity of +this or that method of ordination, form a large part of the literature +of controversy. Nevertheless, as in the case of many a Christian sect +which calls itself the only true church, the date of the organization of +J[=o]-d[=o] was centuries later than that of the Founder and apostles of +the original faith. Five hundred years after Zen-d[=o] (A.D. 600-650), +the great propagator of the J[=o]-d[=o] philosophy, H[=o]-nen, the +founder of the J[=o]-d[=o] sect, was born; and this phase of organized +Buddhism, like that of Shin Shu and Nichirer Shu, may be classed under +the head of Eastern or Japanese Buddhism. + +When only nine years of age, the boy afterward called H[=o]-nen, was +converted by his father's dying words. He went to school in his native +province, but his priest-teacher foreseeing his greatness, sent him to +the monastery of Hiyizan, near Ki[=o]to. The boy's letter of +introduction contained only these words: "I send you an image of the +Bodhisattva, (Mon-ju) Manjusri." The boy shaved his head and received +the precepts of the Ten-dai sect, but in his eighteenth year, waiving +the prospect of obtaining the headship of the great denomination, he +built a hut in the Black Ravine and there five times read through the +five thousand volumes[4] of the Tripitaka. He did this for the purpose +of finding out, for the ordinary and ignorant people of the present day, +how to escape from misery. He studied Zen-d[=o]'s commentary, and +repeated his examination eight times. At last, he noticed a passage in +it beginning with the words, "Chiefly remember or repeat the name of +Amida with a whole and undivided heart." Then he at once understood the +thought of Zen-d[=o], who taught in his work that whoever at any time +practises to remember Buddha, or calls his name even but once, will gain +the right effect of going to be born in the Pure Land after death. This +Japanese student then abandoned all sorts of practices which he had +hitherto followed for years, and began to repeat the name of Amida +Buddha sixty thousand times a day. This event occurred in A.D. 1175. + + +H[=o]-nen, Founder of the Pure Land Sect. + + +This path-finder to the Pure Land, who developed a special doctrine of +salvation, is best known by his posthumous title of H[=o]-nen. During +his lifetime he was very famous and became the spiritual preceptor of +three Mikados. After his death his biography was compiled in forty-eight +volumes by imperial order, and later, three other emperors copied or +republished it. In the history of Japan this sect has been one of the +most influential, especially with the imperial and sh[=o]gunal families. +In Ki[=o]to the magnificent temples and monasteries of Chi[=o]n-in, and +in T[=o]ki[=o] Z[=o]-j[=o]-ji, are the chief seats of the two principal +divisions of this sect. The gorgeous mausoleums,--well known to every +foreign tourist,--at Shiba and Uyno in T[=o]ki[=o], and the clustered +and matchless splendors of Nikk[=o], belong to this sect, which has been +under the patronage of the illustrious line of the Tokugawa,[5] while +its temples and shrines are numbered by many thousands. + +The doctrine of the J[=o]-d[=o], or the Pure Land Sect, is easily +discerned. One of Buddha's disciples said, that in the teachings of the +Master there are two divisions or vehicles. In the Maha-yana also there +are two gates; the Holy path, and the Pure Land. The Smaller Vehicle is +the doctrine by which the immediate disciples of Buddha and those for +five hundred years succeeding, practised the various virtues and +discipline. The gateway of the Maha-yana is also the doctrine, by which +in addition to the trainings mentioned, there are also understood the +three virtues of spiritual body, wisdom and deliverance. The man who is +able successfully to complete this course of discipline and practice is +no ordinary person, but is supposed to possess merit produced from good +actions performed in a former state of existence. The doctrine by which +man may do so, is called the gate of the Holy Path. + +During the fifteen hundred years after Buddha there were from time to +time, such personages in the world, who attained the end of the Holy +Path; but in these latter days people are more insincere, covetous and +contentious, and the discipline is too hard for degenerate times and +men. The three trainings already spoken of are the correct causes of +deliverance; but if people think them as useless as last year's almanac, +when can they complete their deliverance? H[=o]-nen, deeply meditating +on this, shut up the gate of the Holy Path and opened that of the Pure +Land; for in the former the effective deliverance is expected in this +world by the three trainings of morality, thought and learning, but in +the latter the great fruit of going to be born in the Pure Land after +death, is expected through the sole practice of repeating Buddha's name. + +Moreover, it is not easy to accomplish the cause and effect of the Holy +Path, but both those of the doctrine of the Pure Land are very easy to +be completed. The difference is like that between travelling by land and +travelling by water.[6] The doctrines preached by the Buddha are +eighty-four thousand in number; that is to say, he taught one kind of +people one system, that of the Holy Path, and another kind that of the +Pure Land. The Pure Land doctrine of H[=o]-nen was derived from the +sutra preached by the great teacher Shaka. + +This simple doctrine of "land travel to Paradise" was one which the +people of Japan could easily understand, and it became amazingly +popular. Salvation along this route is a case of being "carried to the +skies on flowery beds of ease, while others sought to win the prize and +sailed through bloody seas." + +Largely through the influence of J[=o]-d[=o] Shu and of those sects most +closely allied to it, the technical terms, peculiar phraseology and +vocabulary of Buddhism became part of the daily speech of the Japanese. +When one studies their language he finds that it is a complicated +organism, including within itself several distinct systems. Just as the +human body harmonizes within itself such vastly differing organized +functions as the osseous, digestive, respiratory, etc., so, embedded in +what is called the Japanese language, there are, also, a Chinese +vocabulary, a polite vernacular, one system of expression for superiors, +another for inferiors, etc. Last of all, there is, besides a peculiar +system of pronunciation taught by the priests, a Buddhist language, +which suggests a firmament of starry and a prairie of flowery metaphors, +with intermediate deeps of space full of figurative expressions. + +In our own mother tongue we have something similar. The dialect of +Canaan, the importations of Judaism, the irruptions of Hebraic idioms, +phrases and names into Puritanism, and the ejaculations of the +camp-meeting, which vein and color our English speech, may give some +idea of the variegated strains which make up the Japanese language. +Further, the peculiar nomenclature of the Fifth Monarchy men, is fully +paralleled in the personal names of priests and even of laymen in Japan. + + +Characteristics of the J[=o]-d[=o] Sect. + + +H[=o]-nen teaches that the solution of abstract questions and doctrinal +controversies is not needed as means of grace to promote the work of +salvation. Whether the priests and their followers were learned and +devout, or the contrary, mattered little as regards the final result, as +all that is necessary is the continual repetition of the prayer to +Amida. + +It may be added that his followers practise the master's precepts with +emphasis. Their incessant pounding upon wooden fish-drums and +bladder-shaped bells during their public exercises, is as noisy as a +frontier camp-meeting. The rosary is a notable feature in the private +devotions of the Buddhists, but the J[=o]-d[=o] sect makes especial use +of the double rosary, which was invented with the idea of being +manipulated by the left hand only; this gave freedom to the right hand, +"facilitating a happy combination of spiritual and secular duty." At +funerals of believers a particular ceremony was exclusively practised by +this sect, at which the friends of the deceased sat in a circle facing +the priest, making as many repetitions as possible.[7] + +In Mohammedan countries, blind men, who cannot look down into the +surrounding gardens or house tops at the pretty women in or on them, but +who have clear and penetrating voices, are often chosen us muezzins to +utter the call to prayer from the minarets. On much the same principle, +in Old Japan, J[=o]-d[=o] priests, blind to metaphysics, but handsome, +elegantly dressed and with fine delivery, went about the streets singing +and intoning prayers, rich presents being made to them, especially by +the ladies. The J[=o]-d[=o] people cultivate art and aesthetic +ornamentation to a notable degree. They also understand the art of +fictitious and sensational miracle-mongering. It is said that Zen-d[=o], +the famous Chinese founder of this Chinese sect, when writing his +commentary, prayed for a wonderful exhibition of supernatural power. +Thereupon, a being arrayed as a priest of dignified presence gave him +instruction on the division of the text in his first volume. Hence +Zen-d[=o] treats his own work as if it were the work of Buddha, and says +that no one is allowed either to add or to take away even a word or +sentence of the book. + +The Pure Land is the western world where Amida lives. It is perfectly +pure and free from faults. Those who wish to go thither will certainly +be re-born there, but otherwise they will not. This world, on the +contrary, is the effect of the action of all beings, so that even those +who do not wish to be born here are nevertheless obliged to come. This +world is called the Path of Pain, because it is full of all sorts of +pains, such as birth, old age, disease, death, etc. This is therefore a +world not to be attached to, but to be estranged and separated from. One +who is disgusted with this world, and who is filled with desire for that +world, will after death be born there. Not to doubt about these words of +Buddha, even in the slightest degree, is called deep faith; but if one +entertains the least doubts he will not be born there. Hence the saying: +"In the great sea of the law of Buddha, faith is the only means to +enter." + + +Salvation Through the Merits of Another. + + +In this absolute trust in the all-saving power of Amida as compared with +the ways promulgated before, we see the emergence of the Buddhist +doctrine of justification by faith, the simplification of theology, and +a revolt against Buddhist scholasticism. The Japanese technical term, +"_tariki_," or relying upon the strength of another, renouncing all idea +of _ji-riki_ or self-power,[8] is the substance of the J[=o]-d[=o] +doctrine; but the expanded term _ta-riki chin no ji-riki_, or +"self-effort depending on another," while expressing the whole dogma, is +rather scornfully applied to the J[=o]-d[=o]ists by the men of the Shin +sect. The invocation of Amida is a meritorious act of the believer, much +repetition being the substance of this combination of personal and +vicarious work. + +H[=o]-nen, after making his discovery, believing it possible for all +mankind eventually to attain to perfect Buddhaship, left, as we have +seen, the Ten-dai sect, which represented particularism and laid +emphasis on the idea of the elect. H[=o]-nen taught Buddhist +universalism. Belief and repetition of prayer secure birth into the Pure +Land after the death of the body, and then the soul moves onward toward +the perfection of Buddha-hood. + +The Japanese were delighted to have among them a genius who could thus +Japanize Buddhism, and J[=o]-d[=o] doctrine went forth conquering and to +conquer. From the twelfth century, the tendency of Japanese Buddhism is +in the direction of universalism and democracy. In later developments of +J[=o]-d[=o], the pantheistic tendencies are emphasized and the +syncretistic powers are enlarged. While mysticism is a striking feature +of the sect and the attainment of truth is by the grace of Amida, yet +the native Kami of Japan are logically accepted as avatars of Buddha. +History had little or no rights in the case; philosophy was dictator, +and that philosophy was H[=o]-nen's. Those later Chinese deities made by +personifying attributes or abstract ideas, which sprang up after the +introduction of Buddhism into China, are also welcomed into the temples +of this sect. That the common people really believe that they themselves +may attain Buddha-hood at death, and enter the Pure Land, is shown in +the fact that their ordinary expression for the dead saint is Hotok--a +general term for all the gods that were once human. Some popular +proverbs indicate this in a form that easily lends itself to irreverence +and merriment. + +The whole tendency of Japanese Buddhism and its full momentum were now +toward the development of doctrine even to startling proportions. +Instead of the ancient path of asceticism and virtue with agnosticism +and atheism, we see the means of salvation put now, and perhaps too +easily, within the control of all. The pathway to Paradise was made not +only exceedingly plain, but also extremely easy, perhaps even +ridiculously so; while the door was open for an outburst of new and +local doctrines unknown to India, or even to China. The rampant vigor +with which Japanese Buddhism began to absorb everything in heaven, earth +and sea, which it could make a worshipable object or cause to stand as a +Kami or deity to the mind, will be seen as we proceed. The native +proverb, instead of being an irreverent joke, stands for an actual +truth--"Even a sardine's head may become an object of worship." + + +"Reformed" Buddhism. + + +We now look at what foreigners call "Reformed" Buddhism, which some even +imagine has been borrowed from Protestant Christianity--notwithstanding +that it is centuries older than the Reformation in Europe. + +The Shin Shu or True Sect, though really founded on the J[=o]-d[=o] +doctrines, is separate from the sect of the Pure Land. Yet, besides +being called the Shin Shu, it is also spoken of as the J[=o]-d[=o] Shin +Shu or the True Sect of the Pure Land. It is the extreme form of the +Protestantism of Buddhism. It lays emphasis on the idea of salvation +wholly through the merits of another, but it also paints in richer tints +the sensuous delights of the Western Paradise. As the term Pure Land is +antithetical to that of the Holy Path, so the word Shin, or True, +expresses the contrary of what are termed the "temporary expedients." + +While some say that we should practise good works, bring our stock of +merits to maturity, and be born in the Pure Land, others say that we +need only repeat the name of Amida in order to be born in the Pure Land, +by the merit produced from such repetition. These doctrines concerning +repetitions, however, are all considered but "temporary expedients." So +also is the rigid classification, so prominent in "the old sects," of +all beings or pupils into three grades. As in Islam or Calvinism, all +believers stand on a level. To Shin-ran the Radical, the practices even +of J[=o]-d[=o] seemed complicated and difficult, and all that appeared +necessary to him was faith in the desire of Amida to bless and save. To +Shinran,[9] faith was the sole saving act. + +To rely upon the power of the Original Prayer of Amitabha Buddha with +the whole heart and give up all idea of _ji-riki_ or self-power, is +called the truth. This truth is the doctrine of this sect of Shin.[10] +In a word, not synergism, not faith _and_ works, but faith only is the +teaching of Shin Shu. + +Shinran, the founder of this sect in Japan, was born A.D. 1173 and died +in the year 1262. He was very naturally one who had been first educated +in the J[=o]-d[=o] sect, then the ruling one at the imperial court in +Ki[=o]to. Shall we call him a Japanese Luther, because of his insistence +on salvation by faith only? He is popularly believed to have been +descended from one of the Shint[=o] gods, being on his father's side the +twenty-first in the line of generation. On his mother's side he was of +the lineage of the Minamoto or Genji, a clan sprung from Mikados and +famous during centuries for its victorious warriors. H[=o]-nen was his +teacher, and like his teacher, Shinran studied at the great monastery +near Ki[=o]to, learning first the doctrine of the Tendai, and then, at +the age of twenty-nine, receiving from H[=o]-nen the tenets of the +J[=o]-d[=o] sect. Shortly after, at thirty years of age, he began to +promulgate his doctrines. Then he took a step as new to Buddhism, as was +Luther's union with Katharine von Bora, to the ecclesiasticism of his +time. He married a lady of the imperial court, named Tamayori, who was +the daughter of the Kuambaku or premier. + +Shinran thus taught by example, if not formally and by written precept, +that marriage was honorable, and that celibacy was an invention of the +priests not warranted by primitive Buddhism. Penance, fasting, +prescribed diet, pilgrimages, isolation from society whether as hermits +or in the cloister, and generally amulets and charms, are all tabooed by +this sect. Monasteries imposing life-vows are unknown within its pale. +Family life takes the place of monkish seclusion. Devout prayer, purity, +earnestness of life and trust in Buddha himself as the only worker of +perfect righteousness, are insisted upon. Morality is taught to be more +important than orthodoxy. + +In practice, the Shin sect even more than the J[=o]-d[=o], teaches that +it is faith in Buddha, which accomplishes the salvation of the believer. +Instead of waiting for death in order to come under the protection of +Amida, the faithful soul is at once received into the care of the +Boundlessly Compassionate. In a word, the Shin sect believes in +instantaneous conversion and sanctification. Between the Roman and the +Reformed soteriology of Christendom, was Melancthonism or the +co[=o]perate union of the divine and the human will. So, the old +Buddhism prior to Shinran taught a phase of synergism, or the union of +faith and works. Shinran, in his "Reformed" Buddhism, taught the +simplicity of faith. + +So also _in_ regard to the sacred writings, Shinran opposed the San-ron +school and the three-grade idea. The scriptures of other sects are in +Sanskrit and Chinese, which only the learned are able to read. The +special writings of Shinran are in the vernacular. Three of the sutras, +also, have been translated into Japanese and expressed in the kana +script. Singleness of purpose characterised this sect, which was often +called Monto, or followers of the gate, in reference to its unity of +organization, and the opening of the way to all by Shinran and the +doctrine taught by him. Yet, lest the gate might seem too broad, the +Shin teachers insist that morality is as important as faith, and indeed +the proof of it. The high priests of Shin Shu have ever held a high +position and wielded vast influence in the religious development of the +people. While the temples of other sects are built in sequestered places +among the hills, those of Shin Shu are erected in the heart of cities, +on the main streets, and at the centres of population,--the priests +using every means within their power to induce the people to come to +them. The altars are on an imposing scale of magnificence and gorgeous +detail. No Roman Catholic church or cathedral can outshine the splendor +of these temples, in which the way to the Western Paradise is made so +clear and plain. Another name for the sect is Ikko. + +After the death of Shinran, his youngest daughter and one of his +grandsons erected a monastery near his tomb in the eastern suburbs of +Ki[=o]to, to which the Mikado gave the title of Hon-guanji, or Monastery +of the Original Vow. This was in allusion to the vow made by Amida, that +he would not accept Buddhaship except under the condition that salvation +be made attainable for all who should sincerely desire to be born into +his kingdom, and signify their desire by invoking his name ten +times.[11] It is upon the passage in the sutra where this vow is +recorded, that the doctrine of the sect is based. Its central idea is +that man is to be saved by faith in the mercy of the boundlessly +compassionate Amida, and not by works or vain repetitions. Within our +own time, on November 28, 1876, the present reigning Mikado bestowed +upon Shinran the posthumous title Ken-shin Dai-shi, or Great Teacher of +the Revelation of Truth. + + +The Protestants of Japanese Buddhism. + + +This is the sect which, being called "Reformed" Buddhism[12] and +resembling Protestantism in so many points, both large and minute, +foreigners think has been borrowed or imitated from European +Protestantism.[13] As matter of fact, the foundation principles of +Shin-Shu are at least six hundred years old. They are perfectly clear in +the writings of the founder,[14] as well as in those of his successor +Renni[=o],[15] who wrote the Ofumi or sacred writings, now daily read by +the disciples of this denomination. With the characteristic object of +reaching the masses, they are written, as we have shown, not in the +mixed Chinese and Japanese characters, but in the common script, or +kana, which all the people of both sexes can read. Within the last two +decades the Shin educators have been the first to organize their schools +of learning on the models of those in Christendom, so that their young +men might be trained to resist Shint[=o] or Christianity, or to measure +the truth in either. Their new temples also show European influence in +architecture and furniture. Liberty of thought and action, and +incoercible desire to be free from governmental, traditional, +ultra-ecclesiastical, or Shint[=o] influence--in a word, protestantism +in its pure sense, is characteristic of the great sect founded by +Shinran. + +Indeed the Shin sect, which sprang out of the J[=o]-d[=o], maintains +that it alone professes the true teaching of H[=o]-nen, and that the +J[=o]-d[=o] sect has wandered from the original doctrines of its +founder. Whereas the J[=o]-d[=o] or Pure Land sect believes that Amida +will come to meet the soul of the believer on its separation from the +body, in order to conduct it to Paradise, the Shin or True Sect of the +Pure Land believes in immediate salvation and sanctification. It +preaches that as soon as a man believes in Amida he is taken by him +under him merciful protection. Some might denominate these people the +Methodists of Buddhism. + +One good point in their Protestantism is their teaching that morality is +of equal importance with faith. To them Buddha-hood means the perfection +and unlimitedness of wisdom and compassion. "Therefore," writes one, +"knowing the inability of our own power we should believe simply in the +vicarious Power of the Original Prayer. If we do so, we are in +correspondence with the wisdom of the Buddha and share his great +compassion, just as the water of rivers becomes salt as soon as it +enters the sea. For this reason this is called the faith in the Other +Power." + +To their everlasting honor, also, the Shin believers have probably led +all other Japanese Buddhists in caring for the Eta, even as they +probably excel in preaching the true spiritual democracy of all +believers, yes, even of women.[16] "According to the earlier and general +view of Buddhism, women are condemned, in virtue of the pollution of +their nature, to look forward to rebirth in other forms. By no +possibility can they, in their existence as women, reach the higher +grades of holiness which lead to Nirvana. According to the Shin Shu +system, on the other hand, a believing woman may hope to attain the goal +of the Buddhist at the close of her present life."[17] This doctrine +seems to be founded on that passage in the eleventh chapter of the +Saddharma Pundarika, in which the daughter of S[=a]gara, the +N[=a]ga-king, loses her sex as female and reappears as a Bodhisattva of +male sex.[18] + +The Shin sect is the largest in Japan, having more than twice as many +temples as any four of the great sects, and five thousand more than the +So-d[=o] or sub-sect of J[=o]-d[=o], which is the next largest; or, over +nineteen thousand in all. It is also supposed to be one of the richest +and most powerful of all the Japanese sects. In reality, however, it +possesses no fixed property, and is dependent entirely upon the +voluntary contributions of its adherents. To-day, it is probably the +most active of them all in education, learning and missionary operations +in Yezo, China and Korea. + +Interesting as is the development of the J[=o]-d[=o] and Shin sects, +which became popular largely through their promulgation of dogmas +founded on the Western Paradise, we must not forget that both of them +preached a new Buddha--not the real figure in history, but an unhistoric +and unreal phantom, the creation and dream of the speculator and +visionary. Amida, the personification of boundless light, is one of the +luxuriant growths of a sickly scholasticism--a hollow abstraction +without life or reality. Amidaism is utterly repudiated by many Japanese +Buddhists, who give no place to his idol on their altars, and reject +utterly the teaching as to Paradise and salvation through the merits of +another. + +Yet these two special developments by natives, though embodying +tendencies of the Japanese mind, did not reach the limit to which +Northern Buddhism was to go in those almost incredible lengths, which +prompted Professor Whitney[19] to call it "the high-faluting school," +and which we have seen in our own time under the cultivation of western +admirers. + + +The Nichiren Sect. + + +The Japanese mind runs to pantheism as naturally as an unpruned +grape-vine runs to fibre and leaves. + +When Nichiren, the ultra-patriotic and ultra-democratic bonze, saw the +light in A.D. 1222, he was destined to bring religion not only down to +man, but even down to the beasts and to the mud. He founded the +Saddharma-Pundarika sect, now called Nichiren Shu. + +Born at Kominato, near the mouth of Yedo Bay, he became a neophite in +the Shin-gon sect at the age of twelve, and was admitted into the +priesthood when but fifteen years old. Then he adopted his name, which +means Sun-lotus, because, according to a typical dream very common in +Korea and Japan, his mother thought that she had conceived by the sun +entering her body. Through a miracle, he acquired a thorough knowledge +of the whole Buddhist canon, in the course of which he met with words, +which he converted into that formula which is constantly in the mouth of +the members of the Nichiren sect, Namu-my[=o]-ho-ren-g-ky[=o]--"O, the +Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law."[20] His history, full of +amazing activity and of romantic adventure, is surrounded by a perfect +sunrise splendor, or, shall we say, sunset gorgeousness, of mythology +and fable. The scenes of his life are mostly laid in the region of the +modern T[=o]ki[=o], and to the cultivated traveller, its story lends +fascinating charms to the landscape in the region of Yedo Bay. Nichiren +was a fiery patriot, and ultra-democratic in his sympathies. He was a +radical believer in "Japan for the Japanese." He was an ecclesiastical +_Soshi_. He felt that the developments of Buddhism already made, were +not sufficiently comprehensive, or fully suited to the common people. +So, in A.D. 1282, he founded a new sect which gradually included within +its pantheon all possible Buddhas, and canonized pretty nearly all the +saints, righteous men and favorite heroes known to Dai Nippon. Nichiren +first made Japan the centre of the universe, and then brought religion +down to the lowest. He considered that the period in which he lived was +the latter day of the law, and that all creatures ought to share in the +merit of Buddha-hood. Only the original Buddha is the real moon in the +sky, but all Buddhas of the subordinate states are like the images of +the moon, reflected upon the waters. All these different Buddhas, be +they gods or men, beasts, birds or snakes, are to be honored. Indeed, +they are both honored and worshipped in the Nichiren pantheon. Besides +the historic Buddha, this sect, which is the most idolatrous of all, +admits as objects of its reverence such personages as Nichiren, the +founder; Kato Kiyomasa, the general who led the army of invasion in +Korea and was the persecutor of the Christians; and Shichimen--a word +which means seven points of the compass or seven faces. This Shichimen +is the being that appeared to Nichiren as a beautiful woman, but +disappeared from his sight in the form of a snake, twenty feet long, +covered with golden scales and armed with iron teeth. It is now deified +under the name meaning the Great God of the Seven Faces, and is +identified with the Hindoo deity Siva. + +Another idol usually seen in the Nichiren temples is Mioken. Under this +name the pole star is worshipped, usually in the form of a Buddha with a +wheel of a Buddha elect. Standing on a tortoise, with a sword in his +right hand, and with the left hand half open--a gesture which symbolizes +the male and female principles in the physical world, and the +intelligence and the law in the spiritual world--Mioken is a striking +figure. Indeed, the list of glorified animals reminds us somewhat of the +ancient beast-worship of Egypt. In the Nichiren hierology, it is as +though the symbolical figures in the Book of Revelation had been deified +and worshipped. It is evident that all the creatures in that Buddhist +chamber of imagery, the Hokk Ki[=o], that could possibly be made into +gods have received apotheosis. The very book itself is also worshipped, +for the Nichirenites are extreme believers in verbal inspiration, and +pay divine honors to each jot and tittle of the sutra, which to them is +a god. They adore also the triad of the three precious ones, the Buddha, +the Rule or Discipline, and the Organization; or, Being, Law, and +Church. The hideous idol, Fudo, "Eleven-faced," "Horse-headed," +"Thousand-handed," or girt in a robe of fiery flame, is believed by +Buddhists to represent Avalokitesvara; but, in recent times he has been +recognized, detected and recaptured by the Shint[=o]ists as Kotohira. +The goddess Kishi, and that miscellaneous assortment or group known as +the Seven Patrons of Happiness, which form a sort of encyclopaedia or +museum of curiosities derived from the cults of India, China and Japan, +are also components of the amazing menagerie and pantheon of this sect, +in which scholasticism run mad, and emotional kindness to animals become +maudlin, join hands. + + +The Ultra-realism of Northern Buddhism. + + +Like most of the other Japanese sects, the Nichirenites claim that their +principles are contained in the Hok-k-ki[=o], which is considered the +consummate white flower of Buddhist doctrine and literature. This is the +Japanese name for that famous sutra, the Saddharma Pundarika, so often +mentioned in these chapters but a thousand-fold more so in Japanese +literature. The Ten-dai and the Nichiren sects are allied, in that both +lay supreme emphasis upon this sutra; but the former interprets it with +an intellectual, and the latter with an emotional emphasis. +Philosophically, the two bodies have much in common. Outwardly they are +very far apart. One has but to read their favorite scripture, to see the +norm upon which the gorgeous art of Japan has been developed. Probably +no single book in the voluminous canon of the Greater Vehicle gives one +so masterful a key to Japanese Buddhism. Its pages are crowded with +sensuous descriptions of all that is attractive to both the reason and +the understanding. Its descriptions of Paradise are those which would +suit also the realistic Mussulman. Its rhetoric and visions seem to be +those of some oriental De Quincey, who, out of the dreams of an +opium-eater, has made the law-book of a religion. Translated into +matter-of-fact Chinese, none better than Nichiren knew how to present +its realism to his people. + +In its ethical standards, which are two, this sect, like most others, +prescribes one course of life for the monk, which is difficult, and +another for the laity, which is easy. The central dogma is that every +part of the universe, including not only gods and men, but animals, +plants and the very mud itself, is capable, by successive +transmigrations, of attaining to Buddhaship. In one sense, Nichirenism +is the transfiguration of atheistic evolution. In its teachings there +are also two forms: the one, largely in symbol, is intended to attract +followers; the other, the pure truth, is employed to convert the +obstinately ignorant, against their wills. As in the history of the +papal organization in Europe, a materialistic interpretation has been +given to the canons of dogma and discipline. + +Contrary to the doctrine of those sects which teach the attainment of +salvation solely through the aid of Amida, or Another, the Nichirenites +insist that it is necessary for man to work out his own salvation, by +observing the law, by self-examination, by reflecting on the blessings +vouchsafed to the members of this elect and orthodox sect and by +constant prayer. They consider themselves as in the only true church, +and their succession to the priesthood, the only valid one. The strict +Nichiren churchmen will not have the Shint[=o] gods in their household +shrines, nor will they intermarry among the sects. The Nichirenites are +also very fond of controversy, and their language in speaking of other +creeds and sects is not that characteristic of the gentle Buddha. The +people of this sect are much given to the belief in demoniacal +possession, and a considerable part of the duty and revenue-yielding +business of the Nichiren priests consists in exorcising the foxes, +badgers and other demons, which have possessed subjects who are +generally women at certain stages of illness or convalescence. The +phenomena and pathology of these disorders seem to be allied to those of +hysteria and hypnotism. + +This popular sect also makes greatest use of charms, spells and amulets, +lays great store on pilgrimages, and is very fond of noise-making +instruments whether prayer-books or the wooden bells or drums which are +prominent features in their temples and revival meetings. In one sense +it is the Salvation Army of Buddhism, being especially powerful in what +strikes the eye and ear. The Nichirenites have been well called the +Ranters of Buddhism. Their revival meetings make Bedlam seem silent, and +reduce to gentle murmurs the camp-meeting excesses with which we are +familiar in our own country. They are the most sectarian of all sects. +Their vocabulary of Billingsgate and the ribaldry employed by them even +against their Buddhist brethren, cast into the shade those of Christian +sectarians in their fiercest controversies. "A thousand years in the +lowest of the hells is the atonement prescribed by the Nichirenites for +the priests of all other sects." When the Parliament of Religions was +called in Chicago, the successors of Nichiren, with their characteristic +high-church modesty, promptly sent letters to America, warning the world +against all other Japanese Buddhists, and denouncing especially those +coming to speak in the Parliament, as misrepresenting the true doctrines +of Buddha. + + +Doctrinal Culmination. + + +When the work of Nichiren had been completed, and his realistic +pantheism had been able to include within its great receiver and +processes of Buddha-making, everything from gods to mud, the circle of +doctrine was complete. K[=o]b[=o]'s leaven had now every possible lump +in which to do its work. All grades of men in Japan, from the most +devout and intellectual to the most ranting and fanatical, could choose +their sect. Yet it may be that Buddhism in Nichiren's day was in danger +of stagnation and formalism, and needed the revival which this fiery +bonze gave it; for, undoubtedly, along with zeal even to bigotry, came +fresh life and power to the religion. This invigoration was followed by +the mighty missionary labors of the last half of the thirteenth century, +which carried Buddhism out to the northern frontier and into Yezo. +Although, from time to time minor sects were formed either limiting or +developing further the principles of the larger parent sects, and +although, even as late as the seventeenth century, a new subsect, the +Oba-ku of Zen Shu, was imported from China, yet no further doctrinal +developments of importance took place; not even in presence of or after +sixteenth century Christianity and seventeenth century Confucianism. + +The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries form the golden age of Japanese +Buddhism. + +In the sixteenth century, the feudal system had split into fragments and +the normal state of the country was that of civil war. Sect was arrayed +against sect, and the Shin bonzes, especially, formed a great military +body in fortified monasteries. + +In the first half of the sixteenth century, came the tremendous +onslaught of Portuguese Christianity. Then followed the militarism and +bloody persecutions of Nobunaga. + +In clashing with the new Confucianism of the seventeenth century, +Buddhism utterly weakened as an intellectual power. Though through the +favor of the Yodo sh[=o]guns it recovered lands and wealth, girded +itself anew as the spy, persecutor and professed extirpator of +Christianity, and maintained its popularity with the common people, it +was, during the eighteenth century, among the educated Japanese, as good +as dead. Modern Confucianism and the revival of Chinese learning, +resulted in eighteenth century scepticism and in nineteenth century +agnosticism. + + +The New Buddhism. + + +In our day and time, Japanese Buddhism, in the presence of aggressive +Christianity, is out of harmony with the times, and the needs of +forty-one millions of awakened and inquiring people; and there are deep +searchings of heart. Politically disestablished and its landed +possessions sequestrated by the government, it has had, since 1868, a +history, first of depression and then of temporary revival. Now, amid +much mechanical and external activity, the employment of the press, the +organization of charity, of summer schools of "theology," and of young +men's and other associations copied from the Christians, it is +endeavoring to keep New Japan within its pale and to dictate the future. +It seeks to utilize the old bottles for the new vintage. + +There is, however, a movement discernible which may be called the New +Buddhism, and has not only new wine but new wineskins. It is democratic, +optimistic, empirical or practical; it welcomes women and children; it +is hospitable to science and every form of truth. It is catholic in +spirit and has little if any of the venom of the old Buddhist +controvertists. It is represented by earnest writers who look to natural +and spiritual means, rather than to external and mechanical methods. As +a whole, we may say that Japanese Buddhism is still strong to-day in its +grip upon the people. Though unquestionably moribund, its death will be +delayed. Despite its apparent interest in, and harmony with, +contemporaneous statements of science, it does not hold the men of +thought, or those who long for the spiritual purification and moral +elevation of Japan. + +Are the Japanese eager for reform? Do they possess that quality of +emotion in which a tormenting sense of sin, and a burning desire for +self-surrender to holiness, are ever manifest? + +Frankly and modestly, we give our opinion. We think not. The average +Japanese man has not come to that self-consciousness, that searching of +heart, that self-seeing of sin in the light of a Holy God's countenance +which the gospel compels. Yet this is exactly what the Japanese need. +Only Christ's gospel can give it. + +The average man of culture in Dai Nippon has to-day no religion. He is +waiting for one. What shall be the issue, in the contest between a faith +that knows no personal God, no Creator, no atonement, no gospel of +salvation from sin, and the gospel which bids man seek and know the +great First Cause, as Father and Friend, and proclaims that this +Infinite Friend seeks man to bless him, to bestow upon him pardon and +holiness and to give him earthly happiness and endless life? Between one +religion which teaches personality in God and in man, and another which +offers only a quagmire of impersonality wherein a personal god and an +individual soul exist only as the jack-lights of the marsh, mere +phosphorescent gleams of decay, who can fail to choose? Of the two +faiths, which shall be victor? + + + + +CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT + + + "The heart of my country, the power of my country, the Light of + my country, is Buddhism."--Yatsubuchi, of Japan. + + "Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Japanese + nation grew up."--Chamberlain. + + "Buddhism was the civilizer. It came with the freshness of + religious zeal, and religious zeal was a novelty. It come as the + bearer of civilization and enlightenment." + + "Buddhism has had a fair field in Japan, and its outcome has not + been elevating. Its influence has been aesthetic and not + ethical. It added culture and art to Japan, as it brought with + itself the civilization of continental Asia. It gave the arts, + and more, it added the artistic atmosphere.... Reality + disappears. 'This fleeting borrowed world' is all mysterious, a + dream; moonlight is in place of the clear hot sun.... It has so + fitted itself to its surroundings that it seems + indigenous."--George William Knox. + + "The Japanese ... are indebted to Buddhism for their present + civilization and culture, their great susceptibility to the + beauties of nature, and the high perfection of several branches + of artistic industry."--Rein. + + "We speak of _God_, and the Japanese mind is filled with idols. + We mention _sin_, and he thinks of eating flesh or the killing + of insects. The word _holiness_ reminds him of crowds of + pilgrims flocking to some famous shrine, or of some anchorite + sitting lost in religions abstraction till his legs rot off. He + has much error to unlearn before he can take in the + truth-"--R.E. McAlpine. + + "There in a life of study, prayer, and thought, + Kenshin became a saintly priest--not wide + In intellect nor broad in sympathies, + For such things come not from the ascetic life; + But narrow, strong, and deep, and like the stream + That rushes fervid through the narrow path + Between the rooks at Nikk[=o]--so he grasped, + Heart, soul, and strength, the holy Buddha's Law + With no room left for doubt, or sympathy + For other views."--Kenshin's Vision. + + "For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the + same, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place + incense is offered unto my name, and a pure offering, for my + name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of + hosts."--Malachi. + + +CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT + +Missionary Buddhism the Measure of Japan's Civilization. + + +Broadly speaking, the history of Japanese Buddhism in its missionary +development is the history of Japan. Before Buddhism came, Japan was +pre-historic. We know the country and people through very scanty notices +in the Chinese annals, by pale reflections cast by myths, legends and +poems, and from the relics cast up by the spade and plough. Chinese +civilization had filtered in, though how much or how little we cannot +tell definitely; but since the coming of the Buddhist missionaries in +the sixth century, the landscape and the drama of human life lie before +us in clear detail. Speaking broadly again, it may be said that almost +from the time of its arrival, Buddhism became on its active side the +real religion of Japan--at least, if the word "religion" be used in a +higher sense than that connoted by either Shint[=o] or Confucianism. +Though as a nation the Japanese of the Miji era are grossly forgetful +of this fact, yet, as Professor Chamberlain says,[1] "All education was +for centuries in Buddhist hands. Buddhism introduced art; introduced +medicine; created the folk-lore of the country; created its dramatic +poetry; deeply influenced politics, and every sphere of social and +intellectual activity; in a word, Buddhism was the teacher under whose +instruction the Japanese nation grew up." + +For many centuries all Japanese, except here and there a stern +Shint[=o]ist, or an exceptionally dogmatic Confucian, have acknowledged +these patent facts, and from the emperor to the eta, glorified in them. +It was not until modern Confucian philosophy entered the Mikado's empire +in the seventeenth century, that hostile criticism and polemic tenets +denounced Buddhism, and declared it only fit for savages. This bitter +denunciation of Buddhism at the lips and hands of Japanese who had +become Chinese in mind, was all the more inappropriate, because Buddhism +had for over a thousand years acted as the real purveyor and disperser +of the Confucian ethics and culture in Japan. Such denunciation came +with no better grace from the Yedo Confucianists than from the Shint[=o] +revivalists, like Motori, who, while execrating everything Chinese, +failed to remember or impress upon his countrymen the fact, that almost +all which constituted Japanese civilization had been imported from the +Middle Kingdom. + +Buddhism, in its purely doctrinal development, seems to be rather a +system of metaphysics than a true religion, being a conglomeration, or +rather perhaps an agglomeration, of all sorts of theories relating to +the universe and its contents. Its doctrinal and metaphysical side, +however, is to be carefully distinguished from its popular and external +features, for in its missionary development Buddhism may be called a +system of national improvement. The history of its propagation, in the +land farthest east from its cradle, is not only the outline of the +history of Japanese civilization, but is nearly the whole of it. + + +Pre-Buddhistic Japan. + + +It is not perhaps difficult to reconstruct in imagination the landscape +of Japan in pre-Buddhistic days. Certainly we may, with some accuracy, +draw a contrast between the appearance of the face of the earth then and +now. Supposing that there were as many as a million or two of souls in +the Japanese Archipelago of the sixth century--the same area which in +the nineteenth century contains over forty-one millions--we can imagine +only here and there patches of cultivated fields, or terraced gullies. +There were no roads except paths or trails. The horse was probably yet a +curiosity to the aborigines, though well known to the sons of the gods. +Sheep and goats then, as now, were unknown. The cow and the ox were in +the land, but not numerous.[2] In architecture there was probably little +but the primeval hut. Tools were of the rudest description; yet it is +evident that the primitive Japanese were able to work iron and apply it +to many uses. There were other metals, though the tell-tale etymology of +their names in Japanese metallurgy, as in so many other lines of +industry and articles of daily use, points to a Chinese origin. It is +the almost incredible fact that the Japanese man or woman wore on the +person neither gold nor silver jewelry. In later times, decoration was +added to the sword hilt and pins were thrust in the hair. + +Possibly a prejudice against metal touching the skin, such as exists in +Korea, may account for this absence of jewelry, though silver was not +discovered until A.D. 675, or gold until A.D. 749. The primitive +Japanese, however, did wear ornaments of ground and polished stone, and +these so numerously as to compel contrast with the severer tastes of +later ages. Some of these magatama--curved jewels or perforated +cylinders--were made of very hard stone which requires skill to drill, +cut and polish. Among the substances used was jade, a mineral found only +in Cathay.[3] Indeed, we cannot follow the lines of industry and +manufactures, of personal adornment and household decoration, of +scientific terms and expressions, of literary, intellectual and +religious experiment, without continually finding that the Japanese +borrowed from Chinese storehouses. Possibly their debt began at the time +of the alleged conquest of Korea[4] in the third century. + +In Japanese life, as it existed before the introduction of Buddhism, +there was, with barbaric simplicity, a measure of culture somewhat +indeed above the level of savagery, but probably very little that could +be appraised beyond that of the Iroquois Indians in the days of their +Confederacy. For though granting that there were many interesting +features of art, industry, erudition and civilization which have been +lost to the historic memory, and that the research of scholars may +hereafter discover many things now in oblivion; yet, on the other hand, +it is certain that much of what has long been supposed to be of +primitive Japanese origin, and existent before the eighth century, has +been more or less infused or enriched with Chinese elements, or has been +imported directly from India, or Persia,[5] or has crystallized into +shape from the mixture of things Buddhistic and primitive Japanese. + +Apart from all speculation, we know that in the train of the first +missionaries came artisans, and instructors in every line of human +industry and achievement, and that the importation of the inventions and +appliances of "the West"--the West then being Korea and China, and the +"Far West," India--was proportionately as general, as far-reaching, as +sensational, as electric in its effects upon the Japanese minds, as, in +our day, has been the introduction of the modern civilization of Europe +and the United States.[6] + + +The Purveyors of Civilization. + + +The Buddhist missionaries, in their first "enthusiasm of humanity," were +not satisfied to bring in their train, art, medicine, science and +improvements of all sorts, but they themselves, being often learned and +practical men, became personal leaders in the work of civilizing the +country. In travelling up and down the empire to propagate their tenets, +they found out the necessity of better roads, and accordingly, they were +largely instrumental in having them made. They dug wells, established +ferries and built bridges.[7] They opened lines of communication; they +stimulated traffic and the exchange of merchandise; they created the +commerce between Japan and China; and they acted as peacemakers and +mediators in the wars between the Japanese and Koreans. For centuries +they had the monopoly of high learning. In the dark middle ages when +civil war ruled, they were the only scholars, clerks, diplomatists, +mediators and peacemakers. + +Japanese diet became something new under the direction of the priests. +The bonzes taught the wickedness of slaughtering domestic animals, and +indeed, the wrong of putting any living thing to death, so that kindness +to animals has become a national trait. To this day it may be said that +Japanese boys and men are, at least within the limits of their light, +more tender and careful with all living creatures than are those of +Christendom.[8] The bonzes improved the daily fare of the people, by +introducing from Korea and China articles of food hitherto unknown. They +brought over new seeds and varieties of vegetables and trees. +Furthermore, necessity being the mother of invention, not a few of the +shorn brethren made up for the prohibition of fish and flesh, by +becoming expert cooks. They so exercised their talents in the culinary +art that their results on the table are proverbial. Especially did they +cultivate mushrooms, which in taste and nourishment are good substitutes +for fish. + +The bonzes were lovers of beauty and of symbolism. They planted the +lotus, and the monastery ponds became seats of splendor, and delights to +the eye. Their teachings, metaphysical and mystical, poetical and +historical, scientific and literary, created, it may be said, the +Japanese garden, which to the refined imagination contains far more than +meets the eye of the alien.[9] Indeed, the oriental imitations in earth, +stone, water and verdure, have a language and suggestion far beyond what +the usual parterres and walks, borders and lines, fountains and statuary +of a western garden teach. It may be said that our "language of flowers" +is more luxuriant and eloquent than theirs; yet theirs is very rich +also, besides being more subtle in suggestion. The bonzes instilled +doctrine, not only by sermons, books and the emblems and furniture of +the temples, but they also taught dogma and ethics by the flower-ponds +and plots, by the artificial landscape, and by outdoor symbolism of all +kinds. To Buddhism our thanks are due, for the innumerable miniature +continents, ranges of mountains, geographical outlines and other +horticultural allusions to their holy lands and spiritual history, seen +beside so many houses, temples and monasteries in Japan. In their floral +art, no people excels the Japanese in making leaf and bloom teach +history, religion, philosophy, aesthetics and patriotism. + +Not only around the human habitation,[10] but within it, the new +religion brought a marvellous change. Instead of the hut, the +dwelling-house grew to spacious and comfortable proportions, every part +of the Japanese house to-day showing to the cultured student, especially +to one familiar with the ancient poetry, the lines of its origin and +development, and in the larger dwellings expressing a wealth of +suggestion and meaning. The oratory and the kami-dana or shelf holding +the gods, became features in the humblest dwelling. Among the well-to-do +there were of course the gilded ancestral tablets and the worship of +progenitors, in special rooms, with imposing ritual and equipment, with +which Buddhism did not interfere; but on the shelf over the door of +nearly every house in the land, along with the emblems of the kami, +stood images representing the avatars of Buddha.[11] There, the light +ever burned, and there, offerings of food and drink were thrice daily +made. Though the family worship might vary in its length and variety of +ceremony, yet even in the home where no regular system was followed, the +burning lights and the stated offering made, called the mind up to +thoughts higher than the mere level of providing for daily wants. The +visitation of the priests in time of sorrow, or of joy, or for friendly +converse, made religion sweetly human.[12] + +Outwardly the Buddhist architecture made a profound change in the +landscape. With a settled religion requiring gorgeous ceremonial, the +chanting of liturgies by large bodies of priests and the formation of +monasteries as centres of literary and religious activity, there were +required stability and permanence in the imperial court itself. While, +therefore, the humble village temples arose all over the country, there +were early erected, in the place where the court and emperor dwelt, +impressive religious edifices.[13] The custom of migration ceased, and a +fixed spot selected as the capital, remained such for a number of +generations, until finally Hian-j[)o] or the place of peace, later +called Ki[=o]to, became the "Blossom Capital" and the Sacred City for a +thousand years. At Nara, where flourished the first six sects introduced +from Korea, were built vast monasteries, temples and images, and thence +the influence of civilisation and art radiated. From the first, +forgetting its primitive democracy and purely moral claims, Buddhism +lusted for power in the State. As early as A.D. 624, various grades were +assigned to the priesthood by the government.[14] The sects eagerly +sought and laid great stress upon imperial favor. To this day they +keenly enjoy the canonization of their great teachers by letters patent +from the Throne. + + +Ministers of Art. + + +On the establishment of the imperial capital, at Ki[=o]to, toward the +end of the eighth century, we find still further development and +enlargement of those latent artistic impulses with which the Heavenly +Father endowed his Japanese child. That capacity for beauty, both in +appreciation and expression, which in our day makes the land of dainty +decoration the resort of all those who would study oriental art in +unique fulness and decorative art in its only living school--a school +founded on the harmonious marriage of the people and the nature of the +country--is discernible from quite early ages. The people seem to have +responded gladly to the calls for gifts and labor. The direction from +which it is supposed all evils are likely to come is the northeast; this +special point of the compass being in pan-Asian spiritual geography the +focus of all malign influences. Accordingly, the Mikado Kwammu, in A.D. +788, built on the highest mountain called Hiyi a superb temple and +monastery, giving it in charge of the Ten-dai sect, that there should +ever be a bulwark against the evil that might otherwise swoop upon the +city. Here, as on castellated walls, should stand the watchman, who, by +the recitation of the sacred liturgies, would keep watch and ward. In +course of time this great mountain became a city of three thousand +edifices and ten thousand monks, from which the droning of litanies and +the chanting of prayers ascended daily, and where the chief industries +were, the counting of beads on rosaries and the burning of incense +before the altars. This was in the long bright day of a prosperity which +has been nourished by vast sums obtained from the government and nobles. +One notes the contrast at the end of our century, when "disestablished" +as a religion and its bonzes reduced to beggary, Hiyi-san is used as +the site of a Summer School of Christian Theology. + +Along with the blossoming of the lotus in every part of the empire, +bloomed the grander flowers of sculpture, of painting and of temple +architecture. It was because of the carpenter's craft in building +temples that he won his name of Dai-ku, or the great workman. The +artificers of the sunny islands cultivated an ambition, not only to +equal but to excel, their continental brethren of the saw and hammer. +Yet the carpenter was only the leader of great hosts of artisans that +were encouraged, of craftsmen that were educated and of industries that +were called into being by the spread of Buddhism.[15] It was not enough +that village temples and town monasteries should be built, under an +impulse that meant volumes for the development of the country. The +ambitious leaders chose sightly spots on mountains whence were lovely +vistas of scenery, on which to erect temples and monasteries, while it +seemed to be their further ambition to allow no mountain peak to be +inaccessible. With armies of workmen, supported by the contributions of +the faithful who had been aroused to enthusiasm by the preaching of the +bonzes, great swaths were cut in the forest; abundant timber was felled; +rocky plateaus were levelled; and elegant monastic edifices were reared, +soon to be filled with eager students, and young men in training for the +priesthood. + +Whether the pilgrimage[16] be of Shint[=o] or of Buddhist origin, or +simply a contrivance of human nature to break the monotony of life, we +need not discuss. It is certain that if the custom be indigenous, the +imported faith adopted, absorbed and enlarged it. The peregrinations +made to the great temples and to the mountain tops, being meritorious +performances, soon filled the roads with more or less devout travellers. +In thus finding vent for their piety, the pilgrims mingled +sanctification with recreation, enjoying healthful holidays, and +creating trade with varied business, commercial and commissarial +activities, while enlarging also their ideas and learning something of +geography. Thus, in the course of time, it has come to pass that Japan +is a country of which almost every square mile is known, while it is +well threaded with paths, banded with roads, and supplied to a +remarkable extent with handy volumes of description and of local +history.[17] Her people being well educated in their own lore and local +traditions, possessed also a voluminous literature of guidebooks and +cyclopedias of information. The devotees were, withal, well instructed +and versed in a code of politeness and courtesy, as pilgrimage and +travel became settled habits of a life. As a further result, the +national tongue became remarkably homogeneous. Broadly speaking, it may +be said that the Japanese language, unlike the Chinese in this as it is +in almost every other point, has very little dialectic variation.[18] +Except in some few remote eddies lying outside the general currents, +there is a uniform national speech. This is largely owing to that annual +movement of pilgrims in the summer months especially, habitual during +many centuries. + +Buddhism coming to Japan by means of the Great Vehicle, or with the +features of the Northern development, was the fertile mother of art. In +the exterior equipment of the temple, instead of the Shint[=o] thatch, +the tera or Buddhist edifice called for tiles on its sweeping roof, with +ornamental terra-cotta at the end of its imposing roof-ridge, or for +sheets of copper soon to be made verdant, then sombre and then sable by +age and atmosphere. Outwardly the edifice required the application of +paint and lacquer in rich tints, its recurved roof-edges gladly +welcoming the crest and monogram of the feudal prince, and its railings +and stairways accepting willingly the bronze caps and ornaments. In +front of its main edifice was the imposing gateway with proportions +almost as massive as the temple itself, with prodigal wealth of +curiously fitted and richly carved, painted and gilded supports and +morticings, with all the fancies and adornments of the carpenter's art, +and having as its frontlet and blazon the splendidly gilt name, style or +title. Often these were impressive to eye and mind, to an extent which +the terse Chinese or curt monosyllables could scarcely suggest to an +alien.[19] The number, forms and positions of the various parts of the +temple easily lent themselves to the expression of the elaborate +symbolism of the India faith. + + +Resemblances between Buddhism and Christianity. + + +Within the sacred edifice everything to strike the senses was lavishly +displayed. The passion of the East, as opposed to Greek simplicity, is +for decoration; yet in Japan, decorative art, though sometimes bursting +out in wild profusion or running to unbridled lengths, was in the main a +regulated mass of splendor in which harmony ruled. Differing though the +Buddhist sects do in their temple furniture and altar decorations, they +are, most of them, so elaborately full in their equipment as to suggest +repeatedly the similarity between the Roman Catholic organization, +altars, vestments and ritual, and those of Buddhism, and remarks on this +point seem almost commonplace. Almost everything in Roman Catholicism is +found in Buddhism,[20] and one may even say, _vice versa_, at least in +things exterior. We take the liberty of transcribing here a passage from +the chapter entitled "Christianity and Foreigners" in The Mikado's +Empire, written twenty years ago. + + "Furthermore, the transition from the religion of India to that + of Rome was extremely easy. The very idols of Buddha served, + after a little alteration with the chisel, for images of Christ. + The Buddhist saints were easily transformed into the Twelve + Apostles. The Cross took the place of the _torii_. It was + emblazoned on the helmets and banners of the warriors, and + embroidered on their breasts. The Japanese soldiers went forth + to battle like Christian crusaders. In the roadside shrine + Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy, made way for the Virgin, the + mother of God. Buddhism was beaten with its own weapons. Its own + artillery was turned against it. Nearly all the Christian + churches were native temples, sprinkled and purified. The same + bell, whose boom had so often quivered the air announcing the + orisons and matins of paganism, was again blessed and sprinkled, + and called the same hearers to mass and confession; the same + lavatory that fronted the temple served for holy water or + baptismal font; the same censer that swung before Amida could be + refilled to waft Christian incense; the new convert could use + unchanged his old beads, bells, candles, incense, and all the + paraphernalia of his old faith in celebration of the new. + + "Almost everything that is distinctive in the Roman form of + Christianity is to be found in Buddhism: images, pictures, + lights, altars, incense, vestments, masses, beads, wayside + shrines, monasteries, nunneries, celibacy, fastings, vigils, + retreats, pilgrimages, mendicant vows, shorn heads, orders, + habits, uniforms, nuns, convents, purgatory, saintly and + priestly intercession, indulgences, works of supererogation, + pope, archbishops, abbots, abbesses, monks, neophytes, relics + and relic-worship, exclusive burial-ground, etc., etc., + etc."[21] + +Nevertheless, these resemblances are almost wholly superficial, and have +little or nothing to do with genuine religion. Such matters are of +aesthetic and of commercial, rather than of spiritual, interest. They +concern priestcraft and vulgar superstition rather than truth and +righteousness. "In point of dogma a whole world of thought separates +Buddhism from every form of Christianity. Knowledge, enlightenment, is +the condition of Buddhistic grace, not faith. Self-perfectionment is the +means of salvation, not the vicarious sufferings of a Redeemer. Not +eternal life is the end and active participation in unceasing prayer and +praise, but absorption into Nirvana (Jap. Nehan), practical +annihilation."[22] At certain points, the metaphysic of Buddhism is so +closely like that of Christian theology, that a connection on reciprocal +exchange of ideas is not only possible but probable. In their highest +thinking,[23] the sincere Christian and Buddhist approach each other in +their search after truth. + +The key-word of Buddhism is Ingwa, which means law or fate, the chain of +cause and effect in which man is found, atheistic "evolution applied to +ethics," the grinding machinery of a universe in which is no +Creator-Father, no love, pity or heart. If the cry of the human spirit +has compelled the makers of Buddhist theology to furnish a goddess of +mercy, it is but one subordinate being among many. If a boundlessly +compassionate Amida is thought out, it is an imaginary being. The symbol +of Buddhism is the wheel of the law, which revolves as mercilessly as +ceaselessly.[24] + +The key-word of Christianity is love, and its message is grace. Its +symbol is the cross, and its sacrament the supper, in token of the +infinite love of the Father who wrote his revelation in a human life. +The resemblances between the religions of Gautama and of Jesus, are +purely superficial. They appear to the outward man. The inward man +cannot, even from Darien peaks of observation or in his scrutiny _de +profundis_, discover any vital or historical connection between the two +faiths, Christianity and Buddhism. In his theology the Christian says +God is all; but the Buddhist says All is god. Buddhism says destroy the +passions: Christianity says control them. The Buddhist's watchword is +Nirvana. The Christian's is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus.[25] + + +The Temples and Their Symbolism. + + +In the vast airy halls of a Buddhist temple one will often see columns +made of whole tree-trunks, sheeted with gold and supporting massive +ceilings which are empanelled and gorgeous with every hue and tint known +to the palette. Besides the coloring, carving and gilding, the rich +symbolism strikes the eye and touches the imagination. It is a pleasing +study for one familiar with the background and world of Buddhism, to +note their revelation and expression in art, as well as to discern what +the varying sects accept or reject. There is the lotus, in leaf, bud, +flower and calyx;[26] the diamond in every form, real and imaginary, +with the vagra or emblem of conquest; while on the altars, beside the +central image, be it that of Shaka or of Amida, are Bodhisattvas or +Buddhas by brevet, beings in every state of existence, as well as +deities of many names and forms. Abstract ideas and attributes are +expressed in the art language not only of Japan, Korea and China, but +also in that of India and even of Persia and Greece,[27] until one +wonders how an Aryan religion, like Buddhism, could have so conquered +and unified the many nations of Chinese Asia. He wonders, indeed, until +he remembers how it has itself been transformed and changed in popular +substance, from lofty metaphysics and ethics into pantheism for the +shorn, and into polytheism for the unshorn. + +Looking at early Japanese pictures with the eye of the historian, as +well as of the connoisseur of art, one will see that the first real +school of Japanese art was Buddhistic. The modern school of pictorial +art, named from the monkish phrase, Ukioy--pictures of the Passing +World--is indeed very interesting to the western student, because it +seems to be more in touch with the human nature of the whole world, as +distinct from what is local, Chinese, or sectarian. Yet, casting a +glance back of the mediaeval Kano, Chinese and Yamato-Tosa styles, he +finds that Buddhism gave Japan her first examples of and stimulus to +pictorial art.[28] He sees further that instead of the monochrome of +Chinese exotic art, or the first rude attempts of the native pencil, +Buddhism began Japanese sculpture, carving and nearly every other form +of plastic or pictorial representation, in which are all the elements of +Northern Buddhism, as so lavishly represented, for example, in that +great sutra which is the book, _par excellence_, of Japanese Buddhism, +the Saddharma Pundarika. + +Turning from text to art, we behold the golden lakes of joy, the +mountain of gems, the floating female angels with their marvellous +drapery and lovely faces, the gentle benignity of the goddesses of +mercy, the rays of light and the glory streaming from face and head of +the holy ones, the splendors of costume, the varied beauties of the +lotus, the hosts of ministering intelligences, the luxuriant symbolism, +the purple clouds, the wheel of the law, the swastika[29] or double +cross, and the vagra,[30] or diamond trefoil. All that color, perfume, +sensuous delights, art and luxury can suggest, are here, together with +all the various orders of beings that inhabit the Buddhist universe; and +these are set forth in their fulness and detail. In the six conditions +of sentient existence are devas or gods, men, asuras or monsters, pretas +or demons, beasts, and beings in hell. In portraying these, the artists +and sculptors do not always slavishly follow tradition or uniformity. +The critical eye notes nearly as much genius, wit and variety as in the +mediaeval cathedral architecture of Europe. Probably the most popular +groups of idols are those of the seven or the thirty-three Kuannon, of +the six Jizo[31] or compassionate helpers, and of the sixteen or the +five hundred Rakan[32] or circles of primitive disciples of Gautama. The +angelic beings and sweetly singing birds of Paradise are also favorite +subjects of the artists. + +One who has lived alongside the great temples; who knows the daily +routine and sees what powerful engines of popular instruction they are; +who has been present at the great festivals and looked upon the mighty +kitchens and refectories in operation; and who has gone in and out among +their monasteries and examined their records, their genealogies and +their relics, can see how powerfully Buddhism has moulded the whole life +of the people through long ages. The village temple is often the epitome +and repository of the social life of the people now living, and of the +story of their ancestors for generations upon generations past. It is +the historico-genealogical society, the museum, the repository of +documents and trophies, the place of national thanksgiving and praise, +of public sorrow and farewell, a place of rendezvous and separation, the +starting-point of procession, and the centre of festival and joy; and +thus it is linked with the life of the people. + +In other respects, also, the temple is like the old village cathedral of +mediaeval Europe. It is in many sects the centre of popular pleasure of +all sorts, both reputable and disreputable. Not only shops and bazaars, +fairs and markets, games and sports, cluster around it, but also +curiosities and works of popular art, the relics of war, and the +trophies of travel and adventure. Except that Buddhism--outside of +India--never had the unity of European Christianity, the Buddhist temple +is the mirror and encyclopaedia both of history and of contemporary +life. As fame and renown are necessary for the glory of the place or the +structure, favorite gods, or rather their idols, are frequently carried +about on "starring" tours. At the opening to public view of some famous +image or relic, a great festival or revival called Kai-ch[=o] is held, +which becomes a scene of trade and merry-making like that of the +mediaeval fair or kermis in Europe. The far-oriental is able as +skilfully as his western confrre, to mix business and religion and to +suppose that gain is godliness. Further, the manufacture of legend +becomes a thriving industry; while the not-infrequent sensation of a +popular miracle is manipulated by the bonzes--for priestcraft in all +ages and climes is akin throughout the world. It is no wonder that some +honest Japanese, incensed at the shams utilized by the religious, has +struck out like coin the proverb that rings true--"Good doctrine needs +no miracle." + + +The Bell and the Cemetery. + + +The Buddhist missionaries, and especially the founders of temples, +thoroughly understood the power of natural beauty to humble, inspire and +soothe the soul of man. The instinctive love of the Japanese people for +fine scenery, was made an ally of faith. The sites for temples were +chosen with reference to their imposing surroundings or impressive +vistas. Whether as spark-arresters and protectives against fire, or to +compel reverent awe, the loftiest evergreen trees are planted around the +sacred structure. These "trees of Jehovah" are compellers to reverence. +The _alien's_ hat comes off instinctively--though it may be less +convenient to shed boots than sandals--as he enters the sacred +structure. + +The great tongueless bell is another striking accessory to the temple +services. Near at hand stands the belfry out of which boom forth tidings +of the hours. In the flow of time and years, the note of the bell +becomes more significant, and in old age solemn, making in the lapse of +centuries an educating power in seriousness. "As sad as a temple bell" +is the coinage of popular speech. Many of the inscriptions, though with +less of sunny hope and joy than even Christian grave-stones bear, are +yet mournfully beautiful.[33] They preach Buddhism in its reality. +Whereas, the general associations of the Christian spire and belfry, +apart from the note of time, are those of joy, invitation and good news, +those of the tongueless and log-struck bells of Buddhism are sombre and +saddening. "As merry as a marriage bell," could never be said of the +boom from a Buddhist temple, even though it pour waves of sound through +sunny leagues. There is a vast difference between the peal and play of +the chimes of Europe and the liquid melody which floods the landscape of +Chinese Asia. The one music, high in air, seems ever to tell of faith, +triumph and aspiration; the other in minor notes, from bells hung low on +yokes, perpetually echoes the pessimism of despair, the folly of living +and the joy that anticipates its end. + +Above all, the temple holds and governs the cemetery[34] as well as the +cradle; while from it emanate influences that enwrap and surround the +villager, from birth to death. Since the outlawry of Christianity, and +especially since the division of the empire into Buddhist parishes, the +bonzes have had the oversight of birth, death, marriage and divorce. +Particularly tenacious, in common with priestcraft all over the world, +is their clutch upon what they call "consecrated ground." In a large +sense Japan is still, what China has always been, a country governed by +the graveyard. These cities of the dead are usually kept in attractive +order and made beautiful with flowers in memoriam. The study of epitaphs +and mortuary architecture, though not without elements bordering on the +ludicrous, is enjoyed by the thoughtful student.[35] + + In every community the inhabitants are enrolled at birth at the + local temple, whose priests are the authorized religious + teachers, and are always expected to take charge of the funerals + of those whose names are thus enrolled. So long as an individual + remains in the region of the family temple, the tie which binds + him to it is exceedingly difficult to break; but if he moves + away he is no longer bound by this tie. This explains the fact, + so often observed by missionaries, that the membership of + Christian churches is made up almost entirely of people who have + come from other localities. In the city of Osaka, for instance, + it is a very rare thing to find a native Osakan in any of the + churches. The same is true in all parts of the country. So long + as a Japanese remains in the neighborhood of his family temple + it is almost impossible to get him to break the temple tie and + join a Christian church; but when he moves to another place he + is free to do as he likes.[36] + +This statement of a resident in modern Japan will long remain true for a +large part of the empire. + + +Political and Military Influences. + + +A volume might be written and devoted to Japanese Buddhism as a +political power; for, having quickly obtained intellectual possession of +the court and emperor, it dictated the policies of the rulers. In A.D. +624, it was recognized as a state religion, and the hierarchy of priests +was officially established. At this date there were 46 temples and +monasteries, with 816 monks and 569 nuns. As early as the eighth +century, beginning with Sh[=o]mu, who reigned A.D. 724-728, and who with +his daughter, afterward the female Mikado, became a disciple of Shaka, +the habit of the emperors becoming monks, shaving their heads and +retiring from public life, came in vogue and lasted until near the +nineteenth century. By this means the bonzes were soon enabled to call +Buddhism "the people's religion," and to secure the resources of the +national treasury as an aid to their temple and monastery building, and +for the erection of those images and wayside shrines on which so many +millions of dollars have been lavished. In addition to this subsidized +propaganda, the Buddhist confessor was too often able, by means of the +wife, concubine, or other female member of the household, imperial or +noble, to dictate the imperial policy in accordance with monkish or +priestly ideas. Ugno D[=o]-ki[=o], a monk, is believed to have aspired +to the throne. Being made premier by the Empress K[=o]-ken, whose +passion for him is the scandal of history, he made no scruple of +extending the power as well as the influence of the Buddhist hierarchy. + +Buddhism had also a distinct influence on the military history of the +country,[37] and this was greatest during the civil wars of the rival +Mikados (1336-1392), when the whole country was a camp and two lines of +nominees claimed to be descendants of the sun-goddess. Japan's only +foreign wars have been in the neighboring peninsula of Korea, and +thither the bonzes went with the armies in the expeditions of the early +centuries, and in that great invasion of 1592-1597, which has left a +scar even to this day on the Korean mind. At home, Buddhist priests only +too gladly accompanied the imperial armies of conquest and occupation. +During centuries of activity in the southwest and in the far east and +extreme north, the military brought the outlying portions of the empire, +throughout the whole archipelago, under the sway of the Yamato tribe and +the Mikado's dominion. The shorn clerks not only lived in camp, +ministered to the sick and shrived the dying soldier, but wrote texts +for the banners, furnished the amulets and war cries, and were ever +assistant and valuable in keeping up the temper and morals of the +armies.[38] No sooner was the campaign over and peace had become the +order of the day, than the enthusiastic missionaries began to preach and +to teach in the pacified region. They set up the shrines, anon started +the school and built the temple; usually, indeed, with the aid of the +law and the government, acting as agents of a politico-ecclesiastical +establishment, yet with energy and consecration. + +In later feudal days, when the soldier classes obtained the upper hand, +overawed the court and Mikado and gradually supplanted the civil +authority, introducing feudalism and martial law, the bonzes often +represented the popular and democratic side. Protesting against +arbitrary government, they came into collision with the warrior rulers, +so as to be exposed to imprisonment and the sword. Yet even as refugees +and as men to whom the old seats of activity no longer offered success +or comfort, they went off into the distant and outlying provinces, +preaching the old tenets and the new fashions in theology. Thus again +they won hosts of converts, built monasteries, opened fresh paths and +were purveyors of civilization. + +The feudal ages in Japan bred the same type of militant priest known in +Europe--the military bishop and the soldier monk. So far from Japan's +being the "Land of Great Peace," and Buddhism's being necessarily gentle +and non-resistant, we find in the chequered history of the island empire +many a bloody battle between the monks on horseback and in armor.[39] +Rival sectarians kept the country disquieted for years. Between +themselves and their favored laymen, and the enemy, consisting of the +rival forces, lay and clerical, in like array, many a bloody battle was +fought. + +The writer lived for one year in Echizen, which, in the fifteenth +century, was the battle-ground for over fifty years, of warring monks. +The abbot of the Monastery of the Original Vow, of the Shin sect, in +Ki[=o]to, had built before the main edifice a two-storied gate, which +was expected to throw into the shade every other gateway in Japan, and +especially to humble the pride of the monks of the Tendai sect, in +Hiyizan, The monks of the mountain, swarming down into the capital +city, attacked the gate and monastery of the Shin sect and burned the +former to ashes. The abbot thus driven off by fire, fled northward, and, +joined by a powerful body of adherents, made himself possessor of the +rich provinces of Kaga and Echizen, holding this region for half a +century, until able to rebuild the mighty fortress-monasteries near +Ki[=o]to and at Osaka. + +These strongholds of the fighting Shin priests had become so powerful as +arsenals and military headquarters, that in 1570, Nobunaga, skilful +general as he was, and backed by sixty thousand men, was unsuccessful in +his attempt to reduce them. For ten years, the war between Nobunaga and +the Shin sectarians kept the country in disorder. It finally ended in +the conflagration of the great religious fortress at Osaka, and the +retreat of the monks to another part of the country. By their treachery +and incendiarism, the shavelings prevented the soldiers from enjoying +the prizes. + +To detail the whole history of the fighting monks would be tedious. They +have had a foothold for many centuries and even to the present time, in +every province except that of Satsuma. There, because they treacherously +aided the great Hidyoshi to subdue the province, the fiery clansmen, +never during Tokugawa days, permitted a Buddhist priest to come.[40] + + +Literature, and Education. + + +In its literary and scholastic development, Japanese Buddhism on its +popular educational side deserves great praise. Although the Buddhist +canon[41] was never translated into the vernacular,[42] and while the +library of native Buddhism, in the way of commentary or general +literature, reflects no special credit upon the priests, yet the +historian must award them high honor, because of the part taken by them +as educators and schoolmasters.[43] Education in ancient and mediaeval +times was, among the laymen, confined almost wholly to the imperial +court, and was considered chiefly to be, either as an adjunct to polite +accomplishments, or as valuable especially in preparing young men for +political office.[44] From the first introduction of letters until well +into the nineteenth century, there was no special provision for +education made by the government, except that, in modern and recent +times in the castle towns of the Daimi[=o]s, there were schools of +Chinese learning for the Samurai. Private schools and school-masters[45] +were also creditably numerous. In original literature, poetry, fiction +and history, as well as in the humbler works of compilation, in the +making of text-books and in descriptive lore, the pens of many priests +have been busy.[46] The earliest biography written in Japan was of +Sh[=o]toku, the great lay patron of Buddhism. In the ages of war the +monastery was the ark of preservation amid a flood of desolation. + +The temple schools were early established, and in the course of +centuries became at times almost coextensive with the empire. Besides +the training of the neophytes in the Chinese language and the +vernacular, there were connected with thousands of temples, schools in +which the children, not only of the well-to-do, but largely of the +people, were taught the rudiments of education, chiefly reading and +writing. Most of the libraries of the country were those in monasteries. +Although it is not probable that K[=o]b[=o] invented the Kana or common +script, yet it is reasonably certain that the bonzes[47] were the chief +instrument in the diffusion and popularization of that simple system of +writing, which made it possible to carry literature down into the homes +of the merchant and peasant, and enabled even women and children to +beguile the tedium of their lives. Thus the people expanded their +thoughts through the medium of the written, and later of the printed, +page.[48] Until modern centuries, when the school of painters, which +culminated in Hok[)u]sai and his contemporaries, brought a love of art +down to the lowest classes of the people, the only teacher of pictorial +and sculptural art for the multitude, was Buddhism. So strong is this +popular delight in things artistic that probably, to this passion as +much as to the religious instinct, we owe many of the wayside shrines +and images, the symbolical and beautifully prepared landscapes, and +those stone stairways which slope upward toward the shrines on the +hill-tops. In Japan, art is not a foreign language; it is vernacular. + +Thus, while we gladly point out how Buddhism, along the paths of +exploration, commerce, invention, sociology, military and political +influence, education and literature, not only propagated religion, but +civilized Japan,[49] it is but in the interest of fairness and truth +that we point out that wherein the great system was deficient. If we +make comparison with Christendom and the religion of Jesus, it is less +with the purpose of the polemic who must perhaps necessarily disparage, +and more with the idea of making contrast between what we have seen in +Japan and what we have enjoyed as commonplace in the United States and +Europe. + + +Things Which Buddhism Left Undone. + + +In the thirteen hundred years of the life of Buddhism in Japan, what are +the fruits, and what are the failures? Despite its incessant and +multifarious activities, one looks in vain for the hospital, the orphan +asylum, the home for elderly men or women or aged couples, or the asylum +for the insane, and much less, for that vast and complicated system of +organized charities, which, even amid our material greed of gain, make +cities like New York, or London, or Chicago, so beautiful from the point +of view of humanity. Buddhism did indeed teach kindness to animals, +making even the dog, though ownerless and outcast, in a sense sacred. +Because of his faith in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, the +toiling laborer will keep his wheels or his feet from harming the cat or +dog or chicken in the road, even though it be at risk and trouble and +with added labor to himself. The pious will buy the live birds or eels +from the old woman who sits on the bridge, in order to give them life +and liberty again in air or water. The sacred rice is for sale at the +temples, not only to feed but to fatten the holy pigeons. + +Yet, while all this care is lavished on animals, the human being +suffers.[50] Buddhism is kind to the brute, and cruel to man. Until the +influx of western ideas in recent years, the hospital and the orphanage +did not exist in Japan, despite the gentleness and tenderness of Shaka, +who, with all his merits, deserted his wife and babe in order to +enlighten mankind.[51] If Buddhism is not directly responsible for the +existence of that class of Japanese pariahs called _hi-nin_, or +not-human, the name and the idea are borrowed from the sutras; while the +execration of all who prepare or sell the flesh of animals is +persistently taught in the sacred books. These unfortunate bearers of +the human image, during twelve hundred years and until the fiat of the +present illustrious emperor made them citizens, were not reckoned in the +census, nor was the land on which they dwelt measured. The imperial +edict which finally elevated the Eta to citizenship, was suggested by +one whose life, though known to men as that of a Confucian, was probably +hid with Christ, Yokoi Hishiro.[52] The emperor Mutsuhito, 123d of the +line of Japan, born on the day when Perry was on the Mississippi and +ready to sail, placed over these outcast people in 1871, the protecting +aegis of the law.[53] Until that time, the people in this unfortunate +class, numbering probably a million, or, as some say, three millions, +were compelled to live outside of the limits of human habitation, having +no lights which society or the law was bound to respect. They were given +food or drink only when benevolence might be roused; but the donor would +never again touch the vessel in which the offering was made. The +Eta,[54] though in individual cases becoming measurably rich, rotted and +starved, and were made the filth, and off-scouring of the earth, because +they were the butchers, the skinners, the leather workers, and thus +handled dead animals, being made also the executioners and buriers of +the dead. After a quarter of a century the citizens, whose ancestry is +not forgotten, suffer social ostracism even more than do the freed +slaves of our country, though between them and the other Japanese there +is no color line, but only the streak of difference which Buddhism +created and has maintained. Nevertheless, let it be said to the eternal +honor of Shin Shu and of some of the minor sects, that they were always +kind and helpful to the Eta. + +Furthermore it would be hard to discover Buddhist missionary activities +among the Ainos, or benefits conferred upon them by the disciples of +Gautama. One would suppose that the Buddhists, professing to be +believers in spiritual democracy, would be equally active among all +sorts and conditions of men; but they have not been so. Even in the days +when the regions of the Ebisu or barbarians (Yezo) extended far +southward upon the main island, the missionary bonze was conspicuous by +his absence among these people. It would seem as though the popular +notion that the Ainos are the offspring of dogs, had been fed by +prejudices inculcated by Buddhism. It has been reserved for Christian +aliens to reduce the language of these simple savages to writing, and to +express in it for their spiritual benefit the ideas and literature of a +religion higher than their own, as well as to erect church edifices and +build hospitals. + + +The Attitude Toward Woman. + + +In its attitude toward woman, which is perhaps one of the crucial tests +of a religion as well as of a civilization, Buddhism has somewhat to be +praised and much to be blamed for. It is probable that the Japanese +woman owes more to Buddhism than to Confucianism, though relatively her +position was highest under Shint[=o]. In Japan the women are the freest +in Asia, and probably the best treated among any Asiatic nation, but +this is not because of Gautama's teaching.[55] Very early in its history +Japanese Buddhism welcomed womanhood to its fraternity and order,[56] +yet the Japanese _ama, bikuni_, or nun, never became a sister of mercy, +or reached, even within a measurable distance, the dignity of the +Christian lady in the nunnery. In European history the abbess is a +notable figure. She is hardly heard of beyond the Japanese nunnery, even +by the native scholar--except in fiction. + +So far as we can see, the religion founded by one who deserted his wife +and babe did nothing to check concubinage or polygamy. It simply allowed +these things, or ameliorated their ancient barbaric conditions through +the law of kindness. Nevertheless, it brought education and culture +within the family as well as within the court. It would be an +interesting question to discuss how far the age of classic vernacular +prose or the early mediaeval literature of romance, which is almost +wholly the creation of woman,[57] is due to Buddhism, or how far the +credit belongs, by induction or reaction, to the Chinese movement in +favor of learning. Certainly, the faith of India touches and feeds the +imagination far more than does that of China. Certainly also, the +animating spirit of most of the popular literature is due to Buddhistic +culture. The Shin sect, which permits the marriage of the priests and +preaches the salvation of woman, probably leads all others in according +honor to her as well as in elevating her social position. + +Buddhism, like Roman Catholicism, and as compared to Confucianism which +is protestant and masculine, is feminine in its type. In Japan the place +of the holy Virgin Mary is taken by Kuannon, the goddess of mercy; and +her shrine is one of the most popular of all. Much the same may be said +of Benten, the queen of the heaven and mistress of the seas. The angels +of Buddhism are always feminine, and, as in the unscriptural and pagan +conception of Christian angels, have wings.[58] So also in the legends +of Gautama, in the Buddhist lives of the saints, and in legendary lore +as well as in glyptic and pictorial art, the female being transfigured +in loveliness is a striking figure. Nevertheless, after all is summed up +that can possibly be said in favor of Buddhism, the position it accords +to woman is not only immeasurably beneath that given by Christianity, +but is below that conceded by Shint[=o], which knows not only goddesses +and heroines, but also priestesses and empresses.[59] + +According to the popular ethical view as photographed in language, +literature and art, jealousy is always represented by a female demon. +Indeed, most of the tempters, devils, and transformations of humanity +into malign beings, whether pretas, asuras, oni, foxes, badgers, or +cats, are females. As the Chinese ideographs associate all things weak +or vile with women, so the tell-tale words of Japanese daily speech are +but reflections of the dogmas coined in the Buddhist mint. In Japanese, +chastity means not moral cleanliness without regard to sex, but only +womanly duties. For, while the man is allowed a loose foot, the woman is +expected not only to be absolutely spotless, but also never to show any +jealousy, however wide the husband may roam, or however numerous may be +the concubines in his family. In a word, there is the double standard of +morals, not only of priest and laity, but of man and woman. The position +of the Japanese woman even of to-day, despite that eagerness once shown +to educate her--an eagerness which soon cooled in the government +schools, but which keeps an even pulse in the Christian home and +college--is still relatively one of degradation as compared with that of +her sister in Christendom. For this, the mid-Asian religion is not +wholly responsible, yet it is largely so. + + +Influence on the Japanese Character. + + +In regard to the influence of Buddhism upon the morals and character of +the Japanese, there is much to be said in praise, and much also in +criticism. It has aided powerfully to educate the people in habits of +gentleness and courtesy, but instead of aspiration and expectancy of +improvement, it has given to them that spirit of hopeless resignation +which is so characteristic of the Japanese masses. Buddhism has so +dominated common popular literature, daily life and speech, that all +their mental procedure and their utterance is cast in the moulds of +Buddhist doctrine. The fatalism of the Moslem world expressed in the +idea of Kismet, has its analogue in the Japanese Ingwa, or "cause and +effect,"--the notion of an evolution which is atheistic, but viewed from +the ethical side. This idea of Ingwa is the key to most Japanese novels +as well as dramas of real life.[60] While Buddhism continually preaches +this doctrine of Karma or Ingwa,[61] the law of cause and effect, as +being sufficient to explain all things, it shows its insufficiency and +emptiness by leaving out the great First Cause of all. In a word, +Buddhism is law, but not gospel. It deals much with man, but not with +man's relations with his Creator, whom it utterly ignores. Christianity +comes not to destroy its ethics, beautiful as they are, nor to ignore +its metaphysics; but to fulfil, to give a higher truth, and to reveal a +larger Universe and One who fills it all--not only law, but a Law-giver. + + + + +CHAPTER XI - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY + + "_Sicut cadaver._" + + "Et fiet unum ovile et unus pastor."--Vulgate, John x. 16. + + "He (Xavier) has been the moon of that 'Society of Jesus' of + which Ignatius Loyola was the guiding sun."--S.W. Duffield. + + "My God I love Thee; not because I hope for Heaven thereby, + Nor yet because, who love Thee not, must, die eternally. + So would I love Thee, dearest Lord, and in Thy praise will sing; + Solely because thou art my God, and my eternal King." + --Hymn attributed to Francis Xavier. + + "Half hidden, stretching in a lengthened line + In front of China, which its guide shall be, + Japan abounds in mines of Silver fine, + And shall enlighten'd be by holy faith divine." + --Camoens + + "The people of this Iland of Japon are good of nature, curteous + aboue measure, and valiant in warre; their justice is seuerely + executed without any partialitie vpon transgressors of the law. + They are gouerned in great ciuilitie. I meane, not a land better + gouerned in the world by ciuill policie. The people be verie + superstitious in their religion, and are of diuers + opinions."--Will Adams, October 22, 1611. + + "A critical history of Japan remains to be written ... We should + know next to nothing of what may be termed the Catholic episode + of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had we access to + none but the official Japanese sources. How can we trust those + sources when they deal with times yet more remote?"--Chamberlain. + + "The annals of the primitive Church furnish no instances of + sacrifice or heroic constancy, in the Coliseum or the Roman + arenas, that were not paralleled on the dry river-beds or + execution-grounds of Japan." + + "They ... rest from their labors; and their works do follow + them. "--Revelation. + + +CHAPTER XI - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY + +Darkest Japan. + + +The story of the first introduction and propagation of Roman +Christianity in Japan, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, +has been told by many writers, both old and new, and in many languages. +Recent research upon the soil,[1] both natives and foreigners making +contributions, has illustrated the subject afresh. Relics and memorials +found in various churches, monasteries and palaces, on both sides of the +Pacific and the Atlantic, have cast new light upon the fascinating +theme. Both Christian and non-Christian Japanese of to-day, in their +travels in the Philippines, China, Formosa, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and +Italy, being keenly alert for memorials of their countrymen, have met +with interesting trovers. The descendants of the Japanese martyrs and +confessors now recognize their own ancestors, in the picture galleries +of Italian nobles, and in Christian churches see lettered tombs bearing +familiar names, or in western museums discern far-eastern works of art +brought over as presents or curiosities, centuries ago. + +Roughly speaking, Japanese Christianity lasted phenomenally nearly a +century, or more exactly from 1542 to 1637, During this time, embassies +or missions crossed the seas not only of Chinese and Peninsular Asia, +circumnavigating Africa and thus reaching Europe, but also sailed across +the Pacific, and visited papal Christendom by way of Mexico and the +Atlantic Ocean. + +This century of Southern Christianity and of commerce with Europe +enabled Japan, which had previously been almost unheard of, except +through the vague accounts of Marco Polo and the semi-mythical stories +by way of China, to leave a conspicuous mark, first upon the countries +of southern Europe, and later upon Holland and England. As in European +literature Cathay became China, and Zipango or Xipangu was recognized as +Japan, so also the curiosities, the artistic fabrics, the strange things +from the ends of the earth, soon became familiar in Europe. Besides the +traffic in mercantile commodities, there were exchanges of words. The +languages of Europe were enriched by Japanese terms, such as soy, moxa, +goban, japan (lacquer or varnish), etc., while the tongue of Nippon +received an infusion of new terms,[2] and a notable list of inventions +was imported from Europe. + +We shall merely outline, with critical commentary, the facts of history +which have been so often told, but which in our day have received +luminous illustration. We shall endeavor to treat the general phenomena, +causes and results of Christianity in Japan in the same judicial spirit +with which we have considered Buddhism. + +Whatever be the theological or political opinions of the observer who +looks into the history of Japan at about the year 1540, he will +acknowledge that this point of time was a very dark moment in her known +history. Columbus, who was familiar with the descriptions of Marco Polo, +steered his caravels westward with the idea of finding Xipangu, with its +abundance of gold and precious gems; but the Genoese did not and could +not know the real state of affairs existing in Dai Nippon at this time. +Let us glance at this. + +The duarchy of Throne and Camp, with the Mikado in Ki[=o]to and the +Sh[=o]gun at Kamakura, with the elaborate feudalism under it, had fallen +into decay. The whole country was split up into a thousand warring +fragments. To these convulsions of society, in which only the priest and +the soldier were in comfort, while the mass of the people were little +better than serfs, must be added the frequent violent earthquakes, +drought and failure of crops, with famine and pestilence. There was +little in religion to uplift and cheer. Shint[=o] had sunk into the +shadow of a myth. Buddhism had become outwardly a system of political +gambling rather than the ordered expression of faith. Large numbers of +the priests were like the mercenaries of Italy, who sold their influence +and even their swords or those of their followers, to the highest +bidder. Besides being themselves luxurious and dissolute, their +monasteries were fortresses, in which only the great political gamblers, +and not the oppressed people, found comfort and help. Millions of once +fertile acres had been abandoned or left waste. The destruction of +libraries, books and records is something awful to contemplate; and "the +times of Ashikaga" make a wilderness for the scapegoat of chronology. +Ki[=o]to, the sacred capital, had been again and again plundered and +burnt. Those who might be tempted to live in the city amid the ruins, +ran the risk of fire, murder, or starvation. Kamakura, once the +Sh[=o]-gun's seat of authority, was, a level waste of ashes. + +Even China, Annam and Korea suffered from the practical dissolution of +society in the island empire; for Japanese pirates ravaged their coasts +to steal, burn and kill. Even as for centuries in Europe, Christian +churches echoed with that prayer in the litanies: "From the fury of the +Norsemen, good Lord, deliver us," so, along large parts of the deserted +coasts of Chinese Asia, the wretched inhabitants besought their gods to +avenge them against the "Wojen." To this day in parts of Honan in China, +mothers frighten their children and warn them to sleep by the fearful +words "The Japanese are coming." + + +First Coming of Europeans. + + +This time, then, was that of darkest Japan. Yet the people who lived in +darkness saw great light, and to them that dwelt in the shadow of death, +light sprang up. + +When Pope Alexander VI. bisected the known world, assigning the western +half, including America to Spain, and the eastern half, including Asia +and its outlying archipelagos to the Portuguese, the latter sailed and +fought their way around Africa to India, and past the golden Chersonese. +In 1542, exactly fifty years after the discovery of America, Dai Nippon +was reached. Mendez Pinto, on a Chinese pirate junk which had been +driven by a storm away from her companions, set foot upon an island +called Tangashima. This name among the country folks is still +synonymous with guns and pistols, for Pinto introduced fire-arms, and +powder.[3] + +During six months spent by the "mendacious" Pinto on the island, the +imitative people made no fewer than six hundred match-locks or +arquebuses. Clearing twelve hundred per cent. on their cargo, the three +Portuguese loaded with presents, returned to China. Their countrymen +quickly flocked to this new market, and soon the beginnings of regular +trade with Portugal were inaugurated. On the other hand, Japanese began +to be found as far west as India. To Malacca, while Francis Xavier was +laboring there, came a refugee Japanese, named Anjiro. The disciple of +Loyola, and this child of the Land of the Rising Sun met. Xavier, ever +restless and ready for a new field, was fired with the idea of +converting Japan. Anjiro, after learning Portuguese and becoming a +Christian, was baptized with the name of Paul. The heroic missionary of +the cross and keys then sailed with his Japanese companion, and in 1549 +landed at Kagoshima,[4] the capital of Satsuma. As there was no central +government then existing in Japan, the entrance of the foreigners, both +lay and clerical, was unnoticed. + +Having no skill in the learning of languages, and never able to master +one foreign tongue completely, Xavier began work with the aid of an +interpreter. The jealousy of the daimi[=o], because his rivals had been +supplied with fire-arms by the Portuguese merchants, and the plots and +warnings of those Buddhist priests (who were later crushed by the +Satsuma clansmen as traitors), compelled Xavier to leave this province. +He went first to Hirado,[5] next to Nagat[=o], and then to Bungo, where +he was well received. Preaching and teaching through his Japanese +interpreter, he formed Christian congregations, especially at +Yamaguchi.[6] Thus, within a year, the great apostle to the Indies had +seen the quick sprouting of the seed which he had planted. His ambition +was now to go to the imperial capital, Ki[=o]to, and there advocate the +claims of Christ, of Mary and of the Pope. + +Thus far, however, Xavier had seen only a few seaports of comparatively +successful daimi[=o]s. Though he had heard of the unsettled state of the +country because of the long-continued intestine strife, he evidently +expected to find the capital a splendid city. Despite the armed bands of +roving robbers and soldiers, he reached Ki[=o]to safely, only to find +streets covered with ruins, rubbish and unburied corpses, and a general +situation of wretchedness. He was unable to obtain audience of either +the Sh[=o]gun or the Mikado. Even in those parts of the city where he +tried to preach, he could obtain no hearers in this time of war and +confusion. So after two weeks he turned his face again southward to +Bungo, where he labored for a few months; but in less than two years +from his landing in Japan, this noble but restless missionary left the +country, to attempt the spiritual conquest of China. One year later, +December 2, 1551, he died on the island of Shanshan, or Sancian, in the +Canton River, a few miles west of Macao. + + +Christianity Flourishes. + + +Nevertheless, Xavier's inspiring example was like a shining star that +attracted scores of missionaries. There being in this time of political +anarchy and religious paralysis none to oppose them, their zeal, within +five years, bore surprising fruits. They wrote home that there were +seven churches in the region around Ki[=o]to, while a score or more of +Christian congregations had been gathered in the southwest. In 1581 +there were two hundred churches and one hundred and fifty thousand +native Christians. Two daimi[=o]s had confessed their faith, and in the +Mikado's minister, Nobunaga (1534-1582), the foreign priests found a +powerful supporter.[7] This hater and scourge of the Buddhist priesthood +openly welcomed and patronized the Christians, and gave them eligible +sites on which to build dwellings and churches. In every possible way he +employed the new force, which he found pliantly political, as well as +intellectually and morally a choice weapon for humbling the bonzes, whom +he hated as serpents. The Buddhist church militant had become an army +with banners and fortresses. Nobunaga made it the aim of his life to +destroy the military power of the hierarchy, and to humble the priests +for all time. He hoped at least to extract the fangs of what he believed +to be a politico-religious monster, which menaced the life of the +nation. Unfortunately, he was assassinated in 1582. To this day the +memory of Nobunaga is execrated by the Buddhists. They have deified Kato +Kiyomasa and Iyyas[)u], the persecutors of the Christians. To Nobunaga +they give the title of Bakadono, or Lord Fool. + +In 1583, an embassy of four young noblemen was despatched by the +Christian daimi[=o]s of Kiushiu, the second largest island in the +empire, to the Pope to declare themselves spiritual--though as some of +their countrymen suspected, political--vassals of the Holy See. It was +in the three provinces of Bungo, Omura and Arima, that Christianity was +most firmly rooted. After an absence of eight years, in 1590, the envoys +from the oriental to the occidental ends of the earth, returned to +Nagasaki, accompanied by seventeen more Jesuit fathers--an important +addition to the many Portuguese "religious" of that order already in +Japan. + +Yet, although there was to be still much missionary activity, though +printing presses had been brought from Europe for the proper diffusion +of Christian literature in the Romanized colloquial,[8] though there +were yet to be built more church edifices and monasteries, and Christian +schools to be established, a sad change was nigh. Much seed which was +yet to grow in secret had been planted,--like the exotic flowers which +even yet blossom and shed their perfume in certain districts of Japan, +and which the traveller from Christendom instantly recognizes, though +the Portuguese Christian church or monastery centuries ago disappeared +in fire, or fell to the earth and disappeared. Though there were to be +yet wonderful flashes of Christian success, and the missionaries were to +travel over Japan even up to the end of the main island and accompany +the Japanese army to Korea; yet it may be said that with the death of +Nobunaga at the hands of the traitor Akchi, we see the high-water mark +of the flood-tide of Japanese Christianity. "Akchi reigned three days," +but after him were to arise a ruler and central government jealous and +hostile. After this flood was to come slowly but surely the ebb-tide, +until it should leave, outwardly at least, all things as before. + +The Jesuit fathers, with instant sensitiveness, felt the loss of their +champion and protector, Nobunaga. The rebel and assassin, Akchi, +ambitious to imitate and excel his master, promised the Christians to do +more for them even than Nobunaga had done, provided they would induce +the daimi[=o] Takayama to join forces with his. It is the record of +their own friendly historian, and not of an enemy, that they, led by the +Jesuit father Organtin, attempted this persuasion. To the honor of the +Christian Japanese Takayama, he refused.[9] On the contrary, he marched +his little army of a thousand men to Ki[=o]to, and, though opposed to a +force of eight thousand, held the capital city until Hidyoshi, the +loyal general of the Mikado, reached the court city and dispersed the +assassin's band. Hidyoshi soon made himself familiar with the whole +story, and his keen eye took in the situation. + +This "man on horseback," master of the situation and moulder of the +destinies of Japan, Hidyoshi (1536-1598), was afterward known as the +Taik[=o], or Retired Regent. The rarity of the title makes it applicable +in common speech to this one person. Greater than his dead master, +Nobunaga, and ingenious in the arts of war and peace, Hidyoshi +compelled the warring daimi[=o]s, even the proud lord of Satsuma,[10] to +yield to his power, until the civil minister of the emperor, reverently +bowing, could say: "All under Heaven, Peace." Now, Japan had once more a +central government, intensely jealous and despotic, and with it the new +religion must sooner or later reckon. Religion apart from politics was +unknown in the Land of the Gods. + +Yet, in order to employ the vast bodies of armed men hitherto accustomed +to the trade of war, and withal jealous of China and hostile to Korea, +Hidyoshi planned the invasion of the little peninsular kingdom by these +veterans whose swords were restless in their scabbards. After months of +preparation, he despatched an army in two great divisions, one under the +Christian general Konishi, and one under the Buddhist general Kato. +After a brilliant campaign of eighteen days, the rivals, taking +different routes, met in the Korean capital. In the masterly campaign +which followed, the Japanese armies penetrated almost to the extreme +northern boundary of the kingdom. Then China came to the rescue and the +Japanese were driven southward. + +During the six or seven years of war, while the invaders crossed swords +with the natives and their Chinese allies, and devastated Korea to an +extent from which she has never recovered, there were Jesuit +missionaries attending the Japanese armies. It is not possible or even +probable, however, that any seeds of Christianity were at this time left +in the peninsula. Korean Christianity sprang up nearly two centuries +later, wind-wafted from China.[11] + +During the war there was always more or less of jealousy, mostly +military and personal, between Konishi and Kato, which however was +aggravated by the priests on either side. Kato, being then and afterward +a fierce champion of the Buddhists, glorified in his orthodoxy, which +was that of the Nichiren sect. He went into battle with a banneret full +of texts, stuck in his back and flying behind him. His example was +copied by hundreds of his officers and soldiers. On their flags and +guidons was inscribed the famous apostrophe of the Nichiren sect, so +often heard in their services and revivals to-day (Namu miy[=o] ho ren +g ki[=o]), and borrowed from the Saddharma Pundarika: "Glory be to the +salvation-bringing Lotus of the True Law." + + +The Hostility of Hidyoshi. + + +Konishi, on the other hand, was less numerously and perhaps less +influentially backed by, and made the champion of, the European +brethren; and as all the negotiations between the invaders and the +allied Koreans and Chinese had to be conducted in the Chinese script, +the alien fathers were, as secretaries and interpreters, less useful +than the native Japanese bonzes. + +Yet this jealousy and hostility in the camps of the invaders proved to +be only correlative to the state of things in Japan. Even supposing the +statistics in round numbers, reported at that time, to be exaggerated, +and that there were not as many as the alleged two hundred thousand +Christians, yet there were, besides scores of thousands of confessing +believers among the common people, daimi[=o]s, military leaders, court +officers and many persons of culture and influence. Nevertheless, the +predominating influence at the Ki[=o]to court was that of Buddhism; and +as the cult that winks at polygamy was less opposed to Hidyoshi's +sensualism and amazing vanity, the illustrious upstart was easily made +hostile to the alien faith. According to the accounts of the Jesuits, he +took umbrage because a Portuguese captain would not please him by +risking his ship in coming out of deep water and nearer land, and +because there were Christian maidens of Arima who scorned to yield to +his degrading proposals. Some time after these episodes, an edict +appeared, commanding every Jesuit to quit the country within twenty +days. There were at this time sixty-five foreign missionaries in the +country. + +Then began a series of persecutions, which, however, were carried on +spasmodically and locally, but not universally or with system. Bitter in +some places, they were neutralized or the law became a dead letter, in +other parts of the realm. It is estimated that ten thousand new converts +were made in the single year, 1589, that is, the second year after the +issue of the edict, and again in the next year, 1590. It might even be +reasonable to suppose that, had the work been conducted wisely and +without the too open defiance of the letter of the law, the awful sequel +which history knows, might not have been. + +Let us remember that the Duke of Alva, the tool of Philip II., failing +to crush the Dutch Republic had conquered Portugal for his master. The +two kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula were now united under one crown. +Spain longed for trade with Japan, and while her merchants hoped to +displace their Portuguese rivals, the Spanish Franciscans not scrupling +to wear a political cloak and thus override the Pope's bull of +world-partition, determined to get a foothold alongside of the Jesuits. +So, in 1593 a Spanish envoy of the governor of the Philippine Islands +came to Ki[=o]to, bringing four Spanish Franciscan priests, who were +allowed to build houses in Ki[=o]to, but only on the express +understanding that this was because of their coming as envoys of a +friendly power, and with the explicitly specified condition that they +were not to preach, either publicly or privately. Almost immediately +violating their pledge and the hospitality granted them, these +Spaniards, wearing the vestments of their order, openly preached in the +streets. Besides exciting discord among the Christian congregations +founded by the Jesuits, they were violent in their language. + +Hidyoshi, to gratify his own mood and test his power as the actual +ruler for a shadowy emperor, seized nine preachers while they were +building churches at Ki[=o]to and Osaka. They were led to the +execution-ground in exactly the same fashion as felons, and executed by +crucifixion, at Nagasaki, February 5, 1597. Three Portuguese Jesuits, +six Spanish Franciscans and seventeen native Christians were stretched +on bamboo crosses, and their bodies from thigh to shoulder were +transfixed with spears. They met their doom uncomplainingly. + +In the eye of the Japanese law, these men were put to death, not as +Christians, but as law-breakers and as dangerous political conspirators. +The suspicions of Hidyoshi were further confirmed by a Spanish +sea-captain, who showed him a map of the world on which were marked the +vast dominions of the King of Spain; the Spaniard informing the +Japanese, in answer to his shrewd question, that these great conquests +had been made by the king's soldiers following up the priests, the work +being finished by the native and foreign allies. + + +The Political Character of Roman Christianity. + + +The Roman Catholic "Histoire del' glise Chrtienne" shows the political +character of the missionary movement in Japan, a character almost +inextricably associated with the papal and other political Christianity +of the times, when State and Church were united in all the countries of +Europe, both Catholic and Protestant. Even republican Holland, leader of +toleration and forerunner of the modern Christian spirit, permitted, +indeed, the Roman Catholics to worship in private houses or in sacred +edifices not outwardly resembling churches, but prohibited all public +processions and ceremonies, because religion and politics at that time +were as Siamese twins. Only the Anabaptists held the primitive Christian +and the American doctrine of the separation of politics from +ecclesiasticism. Except in the country ruled by William the Silent, all +magistrates meddled with men's consciences.[12] + +In 1597, Hidyoshi died, and the missionaries took heart again. The +Christian soldiers returning by thousands from Korea, declared +themselves in favor of Hidyori, son of the dead Taik[=o]. Encouraged by +those in power, and by the rising star Iyyas[)u] (1542-1616), the +fathers renewed their work and the number of converts increased. + +Though peace reigned, the political situation was one of the greatest +uncertainty, and with two hundred thousand soldiers gathered around +Ki[=o]to, under scores of ambitious leaders, it was hard to keep the +sword in the sheath. Soon the line of cleavage found Iyyas[)u] and his +northern captains on one side, and most of the Christian leaders and +southern daimi[=o]s on the other. In October, 1600, with seventy-five +thousand men, the future unifier of Japan stood on the ever-memorable +field of Skigahara. The opposing army, led largely by Christian +commanders, left their fortress to meet the one whom they considered a +usurper, in the open field. In the battle which ensued, probably the +most decisive ever fought on the soil of Japan, ten thousand men lost +their lives. The leading Christian generals, beaten, but refusing out of +principle because they were Christians, to take their own lives by +_hara-kiri_, knelt willingly at the common blood-pit and had their heads +stricken off by the executioner. + +Then began a new era in the history of the empire, and then were laid by +Iyyas[)u] the foundation-lines upon which the Japan best known to +Europe has existed for nearly three centuries. The creation of a central +executive government strong enough to rule the whole empire, and hold +down even the southern and southwestern daimi[=o]s, made it still worse +for the converts of the European teachers, because in the Land of the +Gods government is ever intensely pagan. + +In adjusting the feudal relations of his vassals in Kiushiu, Iyyas[)u] +made great changes, and thus the political status of the Christians was +profoundly altered. The new daimi[=o]s, carrying out the policy of their +predecessors who had been taught by the Jesuits, but reversing its +direction, began to persecute their Christian subjects, and to compel +them to renounce their faith. One of the leading opposers of the +Christians and their most cruel persecutor, was Kato, the zealous +Nichirenite. Like Brandt, the famous Iroquois Indian, who, in the Mohawk +Valley is execrated as a bloodthirsty brute, and on the Canadian side is +honored with a marble statue and considered not only as the translator +of the prayer-book but also as a saint; even also as Claverhouse, who, +in Scotland is looked upon as a murderous demon, but in England as a +conscientious and loyal patriot; so Kato, the _vir ter execrandus_ of +the Jesuits, is worshipped in his shrine at the Nichiren temple at +Ikgami, near T[=o]ki[=o],[13] and is praised by native historians as +learned, brave and true. + +The Christians of Kiushiu, in a few cases, actually took up arms against +their new rulers and oppressors, though it was a new thing under the +Japanese sun for peasantry to oppose not only civil servants of the law, +but veterans in armor. Iyyas[)u], now having time to give his attention +wholly to matters of government and to examine the new forces that had +entered Japanese life, followed Hidyoshi in the suspicion that, under +the cover of the western religion, there lurked political designs. He +thought he saw confirmation of his theories, because the foreigners +still secretly or openly paid court to Hidyori, and at the same time +freely disbursed gifts and gold as well as comfort to the persecuted. +Resolving to crush the spirit of independence in the converts and to +intimidate the foreign emissaries, Iyyas[)u] with steel and blood put +down every outbreak, and at last, in 1606, issued his edict[14] +prohibiting Christianity. + + +The Quarrels of the Christians. + + +About the same time, Protestant influences began to work against the +papal emissaries. The new forces from the triumphant Dutch republic, +which having successfully defied Spain for a whole generation had +reached Japan even before the Great Truce, were opposed to the Spaniards +and to the influence of both Jesuits and Franciscans. Hollanders at +Lisbon, obtaining from the Spanish archives charts and geographical +information, had boldly sailed out into the Eastern seas, and carried +the orange white and blue flag to the ends of the earth, even to Nippon. +Between Prince Maurice, son of William the Silent, and the envoys of +Iyyas[)u], there was made a league of commerce as well as of peace and +friendship. Will Adams,[15] the English pilot of the Dutch ships, by his +information given to Iyyas[)u], also helped much to destroy the Jesuits +influence and to hurt their cause, while both the Dutch and English were +ever busy in disseminating both correct information and polemic +exaggeration, forging letters and delivering up to death by fire the +_padres_ when captured at sea. + +In general, however, it may be said that while Christian converts and +the priests were roughly handled in the South, yet there was +considerable missionary activity and success in the North. Converts were +made and Christian congregations were gathered in regions remote from +Ki[=o]to and Yedo, which latter place, like St. Petersburg in the West, +was being made into a large city. Even outlying islands, such as Sado, +had their churches and congregations. + + +The Anti-Christian Policy of the Tokugawas. + + +The quarrels between the Franciscans and Jesuits,[16] however, were +probably more harmful to Christianity than were the whispers of the +Protestant Englishmen or Hollanders. In 1610, the wrath of the +government was especially aroused against the _bateren_, as the people +called the _padres_, by their open and persistent violation of Japanese +law. In 1611, from Sado, to which island thousands of Christian exiles +had been sent to work the mines, Iyyas[)u] believed he had obtained +documentary proof in the Japanese language, of what he had long +suspected--the existence of a plot on the part of the native converts +and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of a subject +state.[17] Putting forth strenuous measures to root out utterly what he +believed to be a pestilential breeder of sedition and war, the Yedo +Sh[=o]gun advanced step by step to that great proclamation of January +27, 1614,[18] in which the foreign priests were branded as triple +enemies--of the country, of the Kami, and of the Buddhas. This +proclamation wound up with the charge that the Christian band had come +to Japan to change the government of the country, and to usurp +possession of it. Whether or not he really had sufficient written proof +of conspiracy against the nation's sovereignty, it is certain that in +this state paper, Iyyas[)u] shrewdly touched the springs of Japanese +patriotism. Not desiring, however, to shed blood or provoke war, he +tried transportation. Three hundred persons, namely, twenty-two +Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustines, one hundred and seventeen +foreign Jesuits, and nearly two hundred native priests and catechists, +were arrested, sent to Nagasaki, and thence shipped like bundles of +combustibles to Macao. + +Yet, as many of the foreign and native Christian teachers hid themselves +in the country and as others who had been banished returned secretly and +continued the work of propaganda, the crisis had not yet come. Some of +the Jesuit priests, even, were still hoping that Hidyori would mount to +power; but in 1615, Iyyas[)u], finding a pretext for war,[19] called +out a powerful army and laid siege to the great castle of Osaka, the +most imposing fortress in the country. In the brief war which ensued, it +is said by the Jesuit fathers, that one hundred thousand men perished. +On June 9, 1615, the castle was captured and the citadel burned. After +thousands of Hidyori's followers had committed _hara-kiri_, and his own +body had been burned into ashes, the Christian cause was irretrievably +ruined. + +Hidtada, the successor of Iyyas[)u] in Yedo, who ruled from 1605 to +1622, seeing that his father's peaceful methods had failed in +extirpating the alien politico-religious doctrine, now pronounced +sentence of death on every foreigner, priest, or catechist found in the +country. The story of the persecutions and horrible sufferings that +ensued is told in the voluminous literature which may be gathered from +every country in Europe;[20] though from the Japanese side "The Catholic +martyrology of Japan is still an untouched field for a [native] +historian."[21] All the church edifices which the last storm had left +standing were demolished, and temples and pagodas were erected upon +their ruins. In 1617, foreign commerce was restricted to Hirado and +Nagasaki. In 1621, Japanese were forbidden ever to leave the country. In +1624, all ships having a capacity of over twenty-five hundred bushels +were burned, and no craft, except those of the size of ordinary junks, +were allowed to be built. + + +The Books of the Inferno Opened. + + +For years, at intervals and in places, the books of the Inferno were +opened, and the tortures devised by the native pagans and Buddhists +equalled in their horror those which Dante imagines, until finally, in +1636, even Japanese human nature, accustomed for ages to subordination +and submission, could stand it no longer. Then a man named Nirado Shiro +raised the banner of the Virgin and called on all Christians and others +to follow him. Probably as many as thirty thousand men, women and +children, but without a single foreigner, lay or clerical, among them, +gathered from parts of Kiushiu. After burning Shint[=o] and Buddhist +temples, they fortified an old abandoned castle at Shimabara, resolving +to die rather than submit. Against an army of veterans, led by skilled +commanders, the fortress held out during four months. At last, after a +bloody assault, it was taken, and men, women and children were +slaughtered.[22] Thousands suffered death at the point of the spear and +sword; many were thrown into the sea; and others were cast into boiling +hot springs, emblems of the eight Buddhist Hells. + +All efforts were now put forth to uproot not only Christianity but also +everything of foreign planting. The Portuguese were banished and the +death penalty declared against all who should return, The ai no ko, or +half-breed children, were collected and shipped by hundreds to Macao. +All persons adopting or harboring Eurasians were to be banished, and +their relatives punished. The Christian cause now became like the doomed +city of Babylon or like the site of Nineveh, which, buried in the sand +and covered with the desolation and silence of centuries, became lost to +the memory of the world, so that even the very record of scripture was +the jest of the infidel, until the spade of Layard brought them again to +resurrection. So, Japanese Christianity, having vanished in blood, was +supposed to have no existence, thus furnishing Mr. Lecky with arguments +to prove the extirpative power of persecution.[23] + +Yet in 1859, on the opening of the country by treaty, the Roman Catholic +fathers at Nagasaki found to their surprise that they were re-opening +the old mines, and that their work was in historic continuity with that +of their predecessors. The blood of the martyrs had been the seed of the +church. Amid much ignorance and darkness, there were thousands of people +who, through the Virgin, worshipped God; who talked of Jesus, and of the +Holy Spirit; and who refused to worship at the pagan shrines[24]. + + +Summary of Roman Christianity in Japan. + + +Let us now strive impartially to appraise the Christianity of this era, +and inquire what it found, what it attempted to do, what it did not +strive to attain, what was the character of its propagators, what was +the mark it made upon the country and upon the mind of the people, and +whether it left any permanent influence. + +The gospel net which had gathered all sorts of fish in Europe brought a +varied quality of spoil to Japan. Among the Portuguese missionaries, +beginning with Xavier, there are many noble and beautiful characters, +who exemplified in their motives, acts, lives and sufferings some of the +noblest traits of both natural and redeemed humanity. In their praise, +both the pagan and the Christian, as well as critics biased by their +prepossessions in favor either of the Reformed or the Roman phase of the +faith, can unite. + +The character of the native converts is, in many instances, to be +commended, and shows the direct truth of Christianity in fields of life +and endeavor, in ethics and in conceptions, far superior to those which +the Japanese religious systems have produced. In the teaching that there +should be but one standard of morality for man and woman, and that the +male as well as the female should be pure; in the condemnation of +polygamy and licentiousness; in the branding of suicide as both wicked +and cowardly; in the condemnation of slavery; and in the training of men +and women to lofty ideals of character, the Christian teachers far +excelled their Buddhist or Confucian rivals. + +The benefits which Japan received through the coming of the Christian +missionaries, as distinct and separate from those brought by commerce +and the merchants, are not to be ignored. While many things of value and +influence for material improvement, and many beneficent details and +elements of civilization were undoubtedly imported by traders, yet it +was the priests and itinerant missionaries who diffused the knowledge of +the importance of these things and taught their use throughout the +country. Although in the reaction of hatred and bitterness, and in the +minute, universal and long-continued suppression by the government, most +of this advantage was destroyed, yet some things remained to influence +thought and speech, and to leave a mark not only on the language, but +also on the procedure of daily life. One can trace notable modifications +of Japanese life from this period, lasting through the centuries and +even until the present time. + +Christianity, in the sixteenth century, came to Japan only in its papal +or Roman Catholic form. While in it was infused much of the power and +spirit of Loyola and Xavier, yet the impartial critic must confess that +this form was military, oppressive and political.[25] Nevertheless, +though it was impure and saturated with the false principles, the vices +and the embodied superstitions of corrupt southern Europe, yet, such as +it was, Portuguese Christianity confronted the worst condition of +affairs, morally, intellectually and materially, which Japan has known +in historic times. Defective as the critic must pronounce the system of +religion imported from Europe, it was immeasurably superior to anything +that the Japanese had hitherto known. + +It must be said, also, that Portuguese Christianity in Japan tried to do +something more than the mere obtaining of adherents or the nominal +conversion of the people.[26] It attempted to purify and exalt their +life, to make society better, to improve the relations between rulers +and ruled; but it did not attempt to do what it ought to have done. It +ignored great duties and problems, while it imitated too fully, not only +the example of the kings of this world in Europe but also of the rulers +in Japan. In the presence of soldier-like Buddhist priests, who had made +war their calling, it would have been better if the Christian +missionaries had avoided their bad example, and followed only in the +footsteps of the Prince of Peace; but they did not. On the contrary, +they brought with them the spirit of the Inquisition then in full blast +in Spain and Portugal, and the machinery with which they had been +familiar for the reclamation of native and Dutch "heretics." Xavier, +while at Goa, had even invoked the secular arm to set up the Inquisition +in India, and doubtless he and his followers would have put up this +infernal enginery in Japan if they could have done so. They had stamped +and crushed out "heresy" in their own country, by a system of hellish +tortures which in its horrible details is almost indescribable. The +rusty relics now in the museums of Europe, but once used in church +discipline, can be fully appreciated only by a physician or an +anatomist. In Japan, with the spirit of Alva and Philip II., these +believers in the righteousness of the Inquisition attacked violently the +character of native bonzes, and incited their converts to insult the +gods, destroy the Buddhist images, and burn or desecrate the old +shrines. They persuaded the daimi[=o]s, when these lords had become +Christians, to compel their subjects to embrace their religion on pain +of exile or banishment. Whole districts were ordered to become +Christian. The bonzes were exiled or killed, and fire and sword as well +as preaching, were employed as means of conversion. In ready imitation +of the Buddhists, fictitious miracles were frequently got up to utilize +the credulity of the superstitious in furthering the faith--all of which +is related not by hostile critics, but by admiring historians and by +sympathizing eye-witnesses.[27] + +The most prominent feature of the Roman Catholicism of Japan, was its +political animus and complexion. In writings of this era, Japanese +historians treat of the Christian missionary movement less as something +religious, and more as that which influenced government and polities, +rather than society on its moral side. So also, the impartial historian +must consider that, on the whole, despite the individual instances of +holy lives and unselfish purposes, the work of the Portuguese and +Spanish friars and "fathers" was, in the main, an attempt to bring Japan +more or less directly within the power of the Pope or of those rulers +called Most Catholic Majesties, Christian Kings, etc., even as they had +already brought Mexico, South America, and large portions of India under +the same control. The words of Jesus before the Roman procurator had not +been apprehended:--"My kingdom is not of this world." + + + + +CHAPTER XII - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE + + "The frog in the well knows not the great ocean" + --Sanskrit and Japanese Proverb. + + "When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch." + --Japanese Proverb. + + "The little island of Dshima, well and prophetically signifying + Fore-Island, was Japan's window, through which she looked at the + whole Occident ... We are under obligation to Holland for the + arts of engineering, mining, pharmacy, astronomy, and medicine + ... 'Rangaku' (i.e., Dutch learning) passed almost as a synonym + for medicine," [1615-1868].--Inazo Nitob. + + "The great peace, of which we are so proud, was more like the + stillness of stagnant pools than the calm surface of a clear + lake."--Mitsukuri. + + "The ancestral policy of self-contentment must be done away + with. If it was adopted by your forefathers, because it was wise + in their time, why not adopt a new policy if it in sure to prove + wise in your time."--Sakuma Shozan, wrote in 1841, assassinated + 1864. + + "And slowly floating onward go + Those Black Ships, wave-tossed to and fro." + --Japanese Ballad of the Black Ship, 1845. + + "The next day was Sunday (July 10th), and, as usual, divine + service was held on board the ships, and, in accordance with + proper reverence for the day, no communication was held with the + Japanese authorities." + --Perry's Narrative. + + "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, + Praise Him, all creatures here below, + Praise Him above, ye heavenly host, + Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." + --Sung on U.S.S.S. Mississippi, in Yedo Bay, July 10, 1853. + + "I refuse to see anyone on Sunday, I am resolved to set an + example of a proper observance of the Sabbath ... I will try to + make it what I believe it was intended to be--a day of + rest."--Townsend Harris's Diary, Sunday, August 31, 1856. + + "I have called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though + thou hast not known me. I am the LORD, and there is none else; + besides me there is no God."--Isaiah. + + "I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been + slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they + held."--John. + + "That they should seek God, If haply they might feel after him, + though he is not far from each one of us."--Paul. + + "Other sheep have I which are not of this fold: them also I must + bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one + flock, one shepherd"--Jesus. + +CHAPTER XII - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE + +The Japanese Shut In. + + +Sincerely regretting that we cannot pass more favorable judgments upon +the Christianity of the seventeenth century in Japan, let us look into +the two centuries of silence, and see what was the story between the +paling of the Christian record in 1637, and the glowing of the +palimpsest in 1859, when the new era begins. + +The policy of the Japanese rulers, after the supposed utter extirpation +of Christianity, was the double one of exclusion and inclusion. A +deliberate attempt, long persisted in and for centuries apparently +successful, was made to insulate Japan from the shock of change. The +purpose was to draw a whole nation and people away from the currents and +movements of humanity, and to stereotype national thought and custom. +This was carried out in two ways: first, by exclusion, and then by +inclusion. All foreign influences were shut off, or reduced to a +minimum. The whole western world, especially Christendom, was put under +ban. + +Even the apparent exception made in favor of the Dutch was with the +motive of making isolation more complete, and of securing the perfect +safety which that isolation was expected to bring. For, having built, +not indeed with brick and mortar, but by means of edict and law, both +open and secret, a great wall of exclusion more powerful than that of +China's, it was necessary that there should be a port-hole, for both +sally and exit, and a slit for vigilant scrutiny of any attempt to force +seclusion or violate the frontier. Hence, the Hollanders were allowed to +have a small place of residence in front of a large city and at the head +of a land-locked harbor. There, the foreigners being isolated and under +strict guard, the government could have, as it were, a nerve which +touched the distant nations, and could also, as with a telescope, sweep +the horizon for signs of danger. + +So, in 1640, the Hollanders were ordered to evacuate Hirado, and occupy +the little "outer island" called Dshima, in front of the city of +Nagasaki, and connected therewith by a bridge. Any ships entering this +hill-girdled harbor, it was believed, could be easily managed by the +military resources possessed by the government. Vessels were allowed +yearly to bring the news from abroad and exchange the products of Japan +for those of Europe. The English, who had in 1617 opened a trade and +conducted a factory for some years,[1] were unable to compete with the +Dutch, and about 1624, after having lost in the venture forty thousand +pounds sterling, withdrew entirely from the Japanese trade. The Dutch +were thus left without a rival from Christendom. + +Japan ceased her former trade and communications with the Philippine +Islands, Annam, Siam, the Spice Islands and India,[2] and begun to +restrict trade and communication with Korea and China. The Koreans, who +were considered as vassals, or semi-vassals, came to Japan to present +their congratulations on the accession of each new Sh[=o]gun; and some +small trade was done at Fusan under the superintendence of the daimi[=o] +of Tsushima. Even this relation with Korea was rather one of +watchfulness. It sprang from the pride of a victor rather than from any +desire to maintain relations with the rest of the world. As for China, +the communication with her was astonishingly little, only a few junks +crossing yearly between Nankin and Nagasaki; so that, with the exception +of one slit in their tower of observation, the Japanese became well +isolated from the human family. + +This system of exclusion was accompanied by an equally vigorous policy +of inclusiveness. It was deliberately determined to keep the people from +going abroad, either in their bodies or minds. All seaworthy ships were +destroyed. Under pain of imprisonment and death, all natives were +forbidden to go to a foreign country, except in the rare cases of urgent +government service. By settled precedents it was soon made to be +understood that those who were blown out to sea or carried away in +stress of weather, need not come back; if they did, they must return +only on Chinese and Korean vessels, and even then would be grudgingly +allowed to land. It was given out, both at home and to the world, that +no shipwrecked sailors or waifs would be welcomed when brought on +foreign vessels. + +This inclusive policy directed against physical exportation, was still +more stringently carried out when applied to imports affecting the minds +of the Japanese. The "government deliberately attempted to establish a +society impervious to foreign ideas from without, and fostered within by +all sorts of artificial legislation. This isolation affected every +department of private and public life. Methods of education were cast in +a definite mould; even matters of dress and household architecture were +strictly regulated by the State, and industries were restricted or +forced into specified channels, thus retarding economic +developments."[3] + + +Starving of the Mind. + + +In the science of keeping life within stunted limits and artificial +boundaries, the Japanese genius excels. It has been well said that "the +Japanese mind is great in little things and little in great things." To +cut the tap-root of a pine-shoot, and, by regulating the allowance of +earth and water, to raise a pine-tree which when fifty years old shall +be no higher than a silver dollar, has been the proud ambition of many +an artist in botany. In like manner, the Tokugawa Sh[=o]guns (1604-1868) +determined to so limit the supply of mental food, that the mind of Japan +should be of those correctly dwarfed proportions of puniness, so admired +by lovers of artificiality and unconscious caricature. Philosophy was +selected as a chief tool among the engines of oppression, and as the +main influence in stunting the intellect. All thought must be orthodox +according to the standards of Confucianism, as expounded by Chu Hi. +Anything like originality in poetry, learning or philosophy must be +hooted down. Art must follow Chinese, Buddhist and Japanese traditions. +Any violation of this order would mean ostracism. All learning must be +in the Chinese and Japanese languages--the former mis-pronounced and in +sound bearing as much resemblance to Pekingise speech as "Pennsylvania +Dutch" does to the language of Berlin. Everything like thinking and +study must be with a view of sustaining and maintaining the established +order of things. The tree of education, instead of being a lofty or +wide-spreading cryptomeria, must be the measured nursling of the teacup. +If that trio of emblems, so admired by the natives, the bamboo, pine and +plum, could produce glossy leaves, ever-green needles and fragrant +blooms within a space of four cubic inches, so the law, the literature +and the art of Japan must display their normal limit of fresh fragrance, +of youthful vigor and of venerable age, enduring for aye, within the +vessel of Japanese inclusion so carefully limited by the Yedo +authorities. + +Such a policy, reminds one of the Amherst agricultural experiment in +which bands of iron were strapped around a much-afflicted squash, in +order to test vital potency. It recalls the pretty little story of +Picciola, in which a tender plant must grow between the interstices of +the bricks in a prison yard. Besides the potent bonds of the only +orthodox Confucian philosophy which was allowed and the legally +recognized religions, there was gradually formed a marvellous system of +legislation, that turned the whole nation into a secret society in which +spies and hypocrites flourished like fungus on a dead log. Besides the +unwritten code of private law,[4] that is, the local and general customs +founded on immemorial usage, there was that peculiar legal system framed +by Iyyas[)u], bequeathed as a legacy and for over two hundred years +practically the supreme law of the land. + +What this law was, it was exceedingly difficult, if not utterly +impossible, for the aliens dwelling in the country at Nagasaki ever to +find out. Keenly intellectual, as many of the physicians, +superintendents and elect members of the Dutch trading company were, +they seem never to have been able to get hold of what has been called +"The Testament of Iyyas[)u]."[5] This consisted of one hundred laws or +regulations, based on a home-spun sort of Confucianism, intended to be +orthodoxy "unbroken for ages eternal." + +To a man of western mode of thinking, the most astonishing thing is that +this law was esoteric.[6] The people knew of it only by its irresistible +force, and by the constant pressure or the rare easing of its iron hand. +Those who executed the law were drilled in its routine from childhood, +and this routine became second nature. Only a few copies of the original +instrument were known, and these were kept with a secrecy which to the +people became a sacred mystery guarded by a long avenue of awe. + + +The Dutchmen at Dshima. + + +The Dutchmen who lived at Dshima for two centuries and a half, and the +foreigners who first landed at the treaty ports in 1859, on inquiring +about the methods of the Japanese Government, the laws and their +administration, found that everything was veiled behind a vague +embodiment of something which was called "the Law." What that law was, +by whom enacted, and under what sanctions enforced, no one could tell; +though all seemed to stand in awe of it as something of superhuman +efficiency. Its mysteriousness was only equalled by the abject +submission which it received. + +Foreign diplomatists, on trying to deal with the seat and source of +authority, instead of seeing the real head of power, played, as it were, +a game of chess against a mysterious hand stretched out from behind a +curtain. Morally, the whole tendency of such a dual system of exclusion +and of inclusion was to make a nation of liars, foster confirmed habits +of deceit, and create a code of politeness vitiated by insincerity. + +With such repression of the natural powers of humanity, it was but in +accordance with the nature of things that licentiousness should run +riot, that on the fringes of society there should be the outcast and the +pariah, and that the social waste of humanity by prostitution, by +murder, by criminal execution under a code that prescribed the death +penalty for hundreds of offences, should be enormous. It is natural also +that in such a state of society population[7] should be kept down within +necessary limits, not only by famine, by the restraints of feudalism, by +legalized murder in the form of vendetta, by a system of prostitution +that made and still makes Japan infamous, by child murder, by lack of +encouragement given to feeble or malformed children to live, and by +various devices known to those who were ingenious in keeping up so +artificial a state of society. + +That there were many who tried to break through this wall, from both the +inside and the outside, and to force the frontiers of exclusion and +inclusion, is not to be wondered at. Externally, there were bold spirits +from Christendom who burned to know the secrets of the mysterious land. +Some even yearned to wear the ruby crown. The wonderful story of past +Christian triumphs deeply stirred the heart of more than one fiery +spirit, and so we find various attempts made by the clerical brethren of +southern Europe to enter the country. Bound by their promises, the Dutch +captains could not introduce these emissaries of a banned religion +within the borders; yet there are several notable instances of Roman +Catholic "religious"[8] getting themselves left by shipmasters on the +shores of Japan. The lion's den of reality was Yedo. Like the lion's den +of fable, the footprints all led one way, and where these led the bones +of the victims soon lay. + +Besides these men with religious motives, the ships of the West came +with offers of trade and threats of invasion. These were English, +French, Russian and American, and the story of the frequent episodes has +been told by Hildreth, Aston,[9] Nitob, and others. There is also a +considerable body of native literature which gives the inside view of +these efforts to force the seclusion of the hermit nation, and coax or +compel the Japanese to be more sociable and more human. All were in vain +until the peaceful armada, under the flag of thirty-one stars, led by +Matthew Calbraith Perry,[10] broke the long seclusion of this Thorn-rose +of the Pacific, and the unarmed diplomacy of Townsend Harris,[11] +brought Japan into the brotherhood of commercial and Christian nations. + +Within the isolating walls and the barred gates the story of the seekers +after God is a thrilling one. The intellect of choice spirits, beating +like caged eagles the bars of their prisons, yearned for more light and +life. "Though an eagle be starving," says the Japanese proverb, "it will +not eat grain;" and so, while the mass of the people and even the +erudite, were content with ground food--even the chopped straw and husks +of materialistic Confucianism and decayed Buddhism--there were noble +souls who soared upward to exercise their God-given powers, and to seek +nourishment fitted for that human spirit which goeth upward and not +downward, and which, ever in restless discontent, seeks the Infinite. + + +Protests of Inquiring Spirits. + + +There is no stronger proof of the true humanity and the innate +god-likeness of the Japanese, of their worthiness to hold and their +inherent power to win a high place among the nations of the earth, than +this longing of a few elect ones for the best that earth could give and +Heaven bestow. We find men in travail of spirit, groping after God if +haply they might find Him, following the ways of the Spirit along lines +different, and in pathways remote, from those laid down by Confucius and +his materialistic commentators, or by Buddha and his parodists or +caricaturists. The story of the philosophers, who mutinied against the +iron clamps and governmentally nourished system of the Sido College +expounders, is yet to be fully told.[12] It behooves some Japanese +scholar to tell it. + +How earnest truth-seeking Japanese protested and rebelled against the +economic fallacies, against the political despotism, against the +abominable usurpations, against the false strategies and against the +inherent immoralities of the Tokugawa system, has of late years been set +forth with tantalizing suggestiveness, but only in fragments, by the +native historians. Heartrending is the narrative of these men who +studied, who taught, who examined, who sifted the mountains of chaff in +the native literature and writings, who made long journeys on foot all +over the country, who furtively travelled in Korea and China, who +boarded Dutch and Russian vessels, who secretly read forbidden books, +who tried to improve their country and their people. These men saw that +their country was falling behind not only the nations of the West, but, +as it seemed to them, even the nations of the East. They felt that +radical changes were necessary in order to reform the awful poverty, +disease, licentiousness, national weakness, decay of bodily powers, and +the creeping paralysis of the Samurai intellect and spirit. How they +were ostracized, persecuted, put under ban, hounded by the spies, thrown +into prison; how they died of starvation or of disease; how they were +beheaded, crucified, or compelled to commit _hara-kiri_; how their books +were purged by the censors, or put under ban or destroyed,[13] and their +maps, writings and plates burned, has not yet been told. It is a story +that, when fully narrated, will make a volume of extraordinary interest. +It is a story which both Christian and human interests challenge some +native author to tell. During all this time, but especially during the +first half of the nineteenth century, there was one steady goal to which +the aspiring student ever kept his faith, and to which his feet tended. +There was one place of pilgrimage, toward which the sons of the morning +moved, and which, despite the spy and the informer and the vigilance of +governors, fed their spirits, and whence they carried the sacred fire, +or bore the seed whose harvest we now see. That goal of the pilgrim band +was Nagasaki, and the place where the light burned and the sacred flames +were kindled was Dshima. The men who helped to make true patriots, +daring thinkers, inquirers after truth, bringers in of a better time, +yes, and even Christians and preachers of the good news of God, were +these Dutchmen of Dshima. + + +A Handful of Salt in a Stagnant Mass. + + +The Nagasaki Hollanders were not immaculate saints, neither were they +sooty devils. They did not profess to be Christian missionaries. On the +other hand, they were men not devoid of conscience nor of sympathy with +aspiring and struggling men in a hermit nation, eager for light and +truth. The Dutchman during the time of hermit Japan, as we see him in +the literature of men who were hostile in faith and covetous rivals in +trade, is a repulsive figure. He seems to be a brutal wretch, seeking +only gain, and willing to sell conscience, humanity and his religion, +for pelf. In reality, he was an ordinary European, probably no better, +certainly no worse, than his age or the average man of his country or of +his continent. Further, among this average dozen of exiles in the +interest of commerce, science or culture, there were frequently +honorable men far above the average European, and shining examples of +Christianity and humanity. Even in his submission to the laws of the +country, the Dutchman did no more, no less, but exactly as the +daimi[=o]s,[14] who like himself were subject to the humiliations +imposed by the rulers in Yedo. + +It was the Dutch, who, for two hundred years supplied the culture of +Europe to Japan, introduced Western science, furnished almost the only +intellectual stimulant, and were the sole teachers of medicine and +science.[15] They trained up hundreds of Japanese to be physicians who +practised rational medicine and surgery. They filled with needed courage +the hearts of men, who, secretly practising dissection of the bodies of +criminals, demonstrated the falsity of Chinese ideas of anatomy. It was +Dutch science which exploded and drove out of Japan that Chinese system +of medicine, by means of which so many millions have, during the long +ages, been slowly tortured to death. + +The Dshima Dutchman was a kindly adviser, helper, guide and friend, the +one means of communication with the world, a handful of salt in the +stagnant mass. Long before the United States, or Commodore Perry, the +Hollanders advised the Yodo government in favor of international +intercourse. The Dutch language, nearest in structure and vocabulary to +the English, even richer in the descriptive energy of its terms, and +saturated withal with Christian truth, was studied by eager young men. +These speakers of an impersonal language which in psychological +development was scarcely above the grade of childhood, were exercised in +a tongue that stands second to none in Europe for purity, vigor, +personality and philosophical power. The Japanese students of Dutch held +a golden key which opened the treasures of modern thought and of the +world's literature. The minds of thinking Japanese were thus made +plastic for the reception of the ideas of Christianity. Best of all, +though forbidden by their contracts to import Bibles into Japan, the +Dutchmen, by means of works of reference, pointed more than one +inquiring spirit to the information by which the historic Christ became +known. The books which they imported, the information which they gave, +the stimulus which they imparted, were as seeds planted within +masonry-covered earth, that were to upheave and overthrow the fabric of +exclusion and inclusion reared by the Tokugawa Sh[=o]guns. + +Time and space fail us to tell how eager spirits not only groped after +God, but sought the living Christ--though often this meant to them +imprisonment, suicide enforced by the law, or decapitation. Yet over all +Japan, long before the broad pennant of Perry was mirrored on the waters +of Yedo Bay, there were here and there masses of leavened opinion, spots +of kindled light, and fields upon which the tender green sprouts of new +ideas could be detected. To-day, as inquiry among the oldest of the +Christian leaders and scores of volumes of modern biography shows, the +most earnest and faithful among the preachers, teachers and soldiers in +the Christian army, were led into their new world of ideas through Dutch +culture. The fact is revealed in repeated instances, that, through +father, grandfather, uncle, or other relative--some pilgrim to the Dutch +at Nagasaki--came their first knowledge, their initial promptings, the +environment or atmosphere, which made them all sensitive and ready to +receive the Christian truth when it came in its full form from the +living missionary and the vital word of God. Some one has well said that +the languages of modern Europe are nothing more than Christianity +expressed with differing pronunciation and vocabulary. To him who will +receive it, the mastery of any one of the languages of Christendom, is, +in a large sense, a revelation of God in Christ Jesus. + + +Seekers after God. + + +Pathetic, even to the compulsion of tears, is the story of these seekers +after God. We, who to-day are surrounded by every motive and inducement +to Christian living and by every means and appliance for the practice of +the Christian life, may well consider for a moment the struggle of +earnest souls to find out God. Think of this one who finds a Latin Bible +cast up on the shore from some broken ship, and bearing it secretly in +his bosom to the Hollander, gains light as to the meaning of its +message. Think of the nobleman, Watanab Oboru,[16] who, by means of the +Japanese interpreter of Dutch, Takano Choyi, is thrilled with the story +of Jesus of Nazareth who helped and healed and spake as no other man +spake, teaching with an authority above that of the masters Confucius or +Buddha. Think of the daimi[=o] of Mito,[17] who, proud in lineage, +learned and scholarly, and surrounded by a host of educated men, is yet +unsatisfied with what the wise of his own country could give him, and +gathers around him the relics unearthed from the old persecutions. From +a picture of the Virgin, a fragment of a litany, or it may be a part of +a breviary, he tries to make out what Christianity is. + +Think of Yokoi Hishiro,[18] learned in Confucius and his commentators, +who seeks better light, sends to China for a Chinese translation of the +New Testament, and in his lectures on the Confucian ethics, to the +delight and yet to the surprise of his hearers who hear grander truth +than they are able to find in text or commentary, really preaches +Christ, and prophesies that the time will come when the walls of +isolation being levelled, the brightest intellects of Japan will welcome +this same Jesus and His doctrine. Think of him again, when unable to +purify the Augean stables of Yedo's moral corruption, because the time +was at hand for other cleansing agencies, he retires to his home, +content awhile with his books and flowers. Again, see him summoned to +the capital, to sit at Ki[=o]to--like aged Franklin among the young +statesmen of the Constitution in Philadelphia--with the Mikado's +youthful advisers in the new government of 1868. Think of him pleading +for the elevation of the pariah Eta, accursed and outcast through +Buddhism, to humanity and citizenship. Then hear him urge eloquently the +right of personal belief, and argue for toleration under the law, of +opinions, which the Japanese then stigmatized as "evil" and devilish, +but which we, and many of them now, call sound and Christian. Finally, +behold him at night in the public streets, assaulted by assassins, and +given quick death by their bullet and blades. See his gray head lying +severed from his body and in its own gore, the wretched murderers +thinking they have stayed the advancing tide of Christianity; but at +home there dwells a little son destined in God's providence to become an +earnest Christian and one of the brilliant leaders of the native +Christianity of Japan in our day. + + +The Buddhist Inquisitors. + + +During the nation's period of Thorn-rose-like seclusion, the three +religions recognized by the law were Buddhism, Shint[=o] and +Confucianism. Christianity was the outlawed sect. All over the country, +on the high-roads, at the bridges, and in the villages, towns and +cities, the fundamental laws of the country were written on wooden +tablets called kosats[)u]. These, framed and roofed for protection from +the weather, but easily before the eyes of every man, woman and child, +and written in a style and language understood of all, denounced the +Christian religion as an accursed "sect," and offered gold to the spy +and informer;[19] while once a year every Samurai was required to swear +on the true faith of a gentleman that he had nothing to do with +Christianity. From the seventeenth century, the country having been +divided into parishes, the inquisition was under the charge of the +Buddhist priests who penetrated into the house and family and guarded +the graveyards, so that neither earth nor fire should embrace the +carcass of a Christian, nor his dust or ashes defile the ancestral +graveyards. Twice--in 1686 and in 1711--were the rewards increased and +the Buddhist bloodhounds of Japan's Inquisition set on fresh trails. On +one occasion, at Osaka, in 1839,[20] a rebellion broke out which was +believed, though without evidence, to have been instigated in some way +by men with Christian ideas, and was certainly led by Oshio, the bitter +opponent of Buddhism, of Tokugawa, and of the prevalent Confucianism. +Possibly, the uprising was aided by refugees from Korea. Those +implicated were, after speedy trial, crucified or beheaded. In the +southern part of the country the ceremony of Ebumi or trampling on the +cross,[21] was long performed. Thousands of people were made to pass +through a wicket, beneath which and on the ground lay a copper plate +engraved with the image of the Christ and the cross. In this way it was +hoped to utterly eradicate the very memory of Christianity, which, to +the common people, had become the synonym for sorcery. + +But besides the seeking after God by earnest souls and the protest of +philosophers, there was, amid the prevailing immorality and the +agnosticism and scepticism bred by decayed Buddhism and the +materialistic philosophy based on Confucius, some earnest struggles for +the purification of morals and the spiritual improvement of the people. + + +The Shingaku Movement. + + +One of the most remarkable of the movements to this end was that of the +Shingaku or New Learning. A class of practical moralists, to offset the +prevailing tendency of the age to much speculation and because Buddhism +did so little for the people, tried to make the doctrines of Confucius a +living force among the great mass of people. This movement, though +Confucian in its chief tone and color, was eclectic and intended to +combine all that was best in the Chinese system with what could be +utilized from Shint[=o] and Buddhism. With the preaching was combined a +good deal of active benevolence. Especially in the time of famine, was +care for humanity shown. The effect upon the people was noticeable, +followers multiplied rapidly, and it is said that even the government in +many instances made them, the Shingaku preachers, the distributors of +rice and alms for the needy. Some of the preachers became famous and +counted among their followers many men of influence. The literary side +of the movement[22] has been brought to the attention of English readers +through Mr. Mitford's translation of three sermons from the volume +entitled Shingaku D[=o]wa. Other discourses have been from time to time +rendered into English, those by Shibata, entitled The Sermons of the +Dove-like Venerable Master, being especially famous. + +This movement, interesting as it was, came to an end when the country +began to be convulsed by the approaching entrance of foreigners, through +the Perry treaty; but it serves to show, what we believe to be the +truth, that the moral rottenness as well as the physical decay of the +Japanese people reached their acme just previous to the apparition of +the American fleet in 1853. + +The story of nineteenth century Reformed Christianity in Japan does not +begin with Perry, or with Harris, or with the arrival of Christian +missionaries in 1859; for it has a subterranean and interior history, as +we have hinted; while that of the Roman form and order is a story of +unbroken continuity, though the life of the tunnel is now that of the +sunny road. The parable of the leaven is first illustrated and then that +of the mustard-seed. Before Christianity was phenomenal, it was potent. +Let us now look from the interior to the outside. + +On Perry's flag-ship, the Mississippi, the Bible lay open, a sermon was +preached, and the hymn "Before Jehovah's Awful Throne" was sung, waking +the echoes of the Japan hills. The Christian day of rest was honored on +this American squadron. In the treaty signed in 1854, though it was +made, indeed, with use of the name of God and terms of Christian +chronology, there was nothing upon which to base, either by right or +privilege, the residence of missionaries in the country. Townsend +Harris, the American Consul-General, who hoisted his flag and began his +hermit life at Shimoda, in September, 1855, had as his only companion a +Dutch secretary, Mr. Heusken, who was later, in Yedo, to be assassinated +by ronins. + +Without ship or soldier, overcoming craft and guile, and winning his way +by simple honesty and perseverance, Mr. Harris obtained audience[23] of +"the Tycoon" in Yedo, and later from the Sh[=o]gun's daring minister Ii, +the signature to a treaty which guaranteed to Americans the rights of +residence, trade and commerce. Thus Americans were enabled to land as +citizens, and pursue their avocation as religious teachers. As the +government of the United States of America knows nothing of the religion +of American citizens abroad, it protects all missionaries who are +law-abiding citizens, without regard to creed.[24] + + +Japan Once More Missionary Soil. + + +The first missionaries were on the ground as soon as the ports were +open. Though surrounded by spies and always in danger of assassination +and incendiarism, they began their work of mastering the language. To do +this without trained teachers or apparatus of dictionary and grammar, +was then an appalling task. The medical missionary began healing the +swarms of human sufferers, syphilitic, consumptive, and those scourged +by small-pox, cholera and hereditary and acute diseases of all sorts. +The patience, kindness and persistency of these Christian men literally +turned the edge of the sword, disarmed the assassin, made the spies' +occupation useless, shamed away the suspicious, and conquered the nearly +invincible prejudices of the government. Despite the awful under-tow in +the immorality of the sailor, the adventurer and the gain-greedy +foreigner, the tide of Christianity began steadily to rise. +Notwithstanding the outbursts of the flames of persecution, the torture +and imprisonment of Christian captives and exiles, and the slow worrying +to death of the missionary's native teachers, inquirers came and +converts were made. In 1868, after revolution and restoration, the old +order changed, and duarchy and feudalism passed away. Quick to seize the +opportunity, Dr. J.C. Hepburn, healer of bodies and souls of men, +presented a Bible to the Emperor, and the gift was accepted. + +No sooner had the new government been established in safety, and the +name of Yedo, the city of the Baydoor, been changed into that of +T[=o]ki[=o], the Eastern Capital, than an embassy[25] of seventy persons +started on its course round the world. At its head were three cabinet +ministers of the new government and the court noble, Iwakura, of +immemorial lineage, in whose veins ran the blood of the men called gods. +Across the Pacific to the United States they went, having their initial +audience of the President of the Republic that knows no state church, +and whose Christianity had compelled both the return of the shipwrecked +Japanese and the freedom of the slave. + +This embassy had been suggested and its course planned by a Christian +missionary, who found that of the seventy persons, one-half had been his +pupils.[26] + + +The Imperial Embassy Round the World. + + +The purpose of these envoys was, first of all, to ask of the nations of +Christendom equal rights, to get removed the odious extra-territoriality +clause in the treaties, to have the right to govern aliens on their +soil, and to regulate their own tariff. Secondarily, its members +went to study the secrets of power and the resources of civilization in +the West, to initiate the liberal education of their women by leaving in +American schools a little company of maidens, to enlarge the system of +education for their own country, and to send abroad with approval others +of their young men who, for a decade past had, in spite of every ban and +obstacle, been furtively leaving the country for study beyond the seas. + +In the lands of Christendom, the eyes of ambassadors, ministers, +secretaries and students were opened. They saw themselves as others saw +them. They compared their own land and nation, mediaeval in spirit and +backward in resources, and their people untrained as children, with the +modern power, the restless ambition, the stern purpose, the intense life +of the western nations, with their mighty fleets and armaments, their +inventions and machinery, their economic and social theories and forces, +their provision for the poor, the sick, and the aged, the peerless +family life in the Christian home. They found, further yet, free +churches divorced from politics and independent of the state; that the +leading force of the world was Christianity, that persecution was +barbarous, and that toleration was the law of the future, and largely +the condition of the present. It took but a few whispers over the +telegraphic wire, and the anti-Christian edicts disappeared from public +view like snowflakes melting on the river. The right arm of persecution +was broken. + +The story of the Book of Acts of the modern apostles in Japan is told, +first in the teaching of inquirers, preaching to handfuls, the gathering +of tiny companies, the translation of the Gospel, and then prayer and +waiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit. A study of the Book of the +Acts of the Apostles, followed in order to find out how the Christian +Church began. On the 10th day of March, in the year of our Lord and of +the era of Meiji (Enlightened Peace) the fifth, 1872, at Yokohama, in +the little stone chapel built on part of Commodore Perry's treaty +ground, was formed the first Reformed or Protestant Christian Church in +Japan. + +At this point our task is ended. We cannot even glance at the native +Christian churches of the Roman, Reformed, or Greek order, or attempt to +appraise the work of the foreign missionaries. He has read these pages +in vain, however, who does not see how well, under Providence, the +Japanese have been trained for higher forms of faith. + +The armies of Japan are upon Chinese soil, while we pen our closing +lines. The last chains of purely local and ethnic dogma are being +snapped asunder. May the sons of Dai Nippon, as they win new horizons of +truth, see more clearly and welcome more loyally that Prince of Peace +whose kingdom is not of this world. + +May the age of political conquest end, and the era of the +self-reformation of the Asian nations, through the gospel of Jesus +Christ, be ushered in. + + + + +NOTES, AUTHORITIES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS + + +The few abbreviations used in these pages stand for well-known works: +T.A.S.J., for Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan; Kojiki, for +Supplement to Volume X., T.A.S.J., Introduction, Translation, Notes, +Map, etc., by Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain; T.J., for Things +Japanese (2d ed.), by Professor B.H. Chamberlain; S. and H., for Satow +and Hawes's Hand-book for Japan, now continued in new editions (4th, +1894), by Professor B.H. Chamberlain; C.R.M., for Mayers's Chinese +Reader's Manual; M.E., The Mikado's Empire (7th ed.); B.N., for Mr. +Bunyiu Nanjio's A Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, +T[=o]ki[=o], 1887. + + +CHAPTER I + +PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS + + +[Footnote 1: The late Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, LL.D., who +applied the principles of electro-magnetism to telegraphy, was the son +of the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., the celebrated theologian, geographer, +and gazetteer. In memory of his father, Professor Morse founded this +lectureship in Union Theological Seminary, New York, on "The Relation of +the Bible to the Sciences," May 20,1865, by the gift of ten thousand +dollars.] + +[Footnote 2: An American Missionary in Japan, p. 209, by Rev. M.L. +Gordon, M.D., Boston, 1892.] + +[Footnote 3: Lucretia Coftin Mott.] + +[Footnote 4: "I remember once making a calculation in Hong Kong, and +making out my baptisms to have amounted to about six hundred.... I +believe with you that the study of comparative religion is important for +all missionaries. Still more important, it seems to me, is it that +missionaries should make themselves thoroughly proficient in the +languages and literature of the people to whom they are sent."--Dr. +Legge's Letter to the Author, November 27, 1893.] + +[Footnote 5: The Religions of China, p. 240, by James Legge, New York, +1881.] + +[Footnote 6: The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, p. 22, Boston editions +of 1859 and 1879.] + +[Footnote 7: One of the many names of Japan is that of the Country Ruled +by a Slender Sword, in allusion to the clumsy weapons employed by the +Chinese and Koreans. See, for the shortening and lightening of the +modern Japanese sword (_katana_) as compared with the long and heavy +(_ken_) of the "Divine" (_kami_) or uncivilized age, "The Sword of +Japan; Its History and Traditions," T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 58.] + +[Footnote 8: The course of lectures on The Religions of Chinese Asia +(which included most of the matter in this book), given by the author in +Bangor Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me., in April, 1894, was upon the +Bond foundation, founded by alumni and named after the chief donor, Rev. +Ellas Bond, D.D., of Kohala, long an active missionary in Hawaii.] + +[Footnote 9: This is the contention of Professor Kumi, late of the +Imperial University of Japan; see chapter on Shint[=o].] + +[Footnote 10: In illustration, comical or pitiful, the common people in +Satsuma believe that the spirit of the great Saigo Takamori, leader of +the rebellion of 1877, "has taken up its abode in the planet Mars," +while the spirits of his followers entered into a new race of frogs that +attack man and fight until killed--Mounsey's The Satsuma Rebellion, p. +217. So, also, the _Heik-gani_, or crabs at Shimonoski, represent the +transmigration of the souls of the Heik clan, nearly exterminated in +1184 A.D., while the "H[=o]j[=o] bugs" are the avatars of the execrated +rulers of Kamakura (1219-1333 A.D.).--Japan in History, Folk-lore, and +Art, Boston, 1892, pp. 115, 133.] + +[Footnote 11: The Future of Religion in Japan. A paper read at the +Parliament of Religions by Nobuta Kishimoto.] + +[Footnote 12: The Ainos, though they deify all the chief objects of +nature, such as the sun, the sea, fire, wild beasts, etc., often talk of +a Creator, _Kotan kara kamui_, literally the God who made the World. At +the fact of creation they stop short.... One gathers that the creative +act was performed not directly, but through intermediaries, who were +apparently animals."--Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12. See also on the +Aino term "Kamui," by Professor B.H. Chamberlain and Rev. J. Batchelor, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI.] + +[Footnote 13: See Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella Bird (Bishop), +Vol. II.; The Ainu of Japan, by Rev. John Batchelor; B. Douglas Howard's +Life With Trans-Siberian Savages; Ripley Hitchcock's Report, Smithsonian +Institute, Washington. Professor B. H. Chamberlain's invaluable "Aino +Studies," T[=o]ki[=o], 1887, makes scholarly comparison of the Japanese +and Aino language, mythology, and geographical nomenclature.] + +[Footnote 14: M.E., The Mythical Zology of Japan, pp. 477-488. C.R.M., +_passim_.] + +[Footnote 15: See the valuable article entitled Demoniacal Possession, +T.J., p. 106, and the author's Japanese Fox Myths, _Lippincott's +Magazine_, 1873.] + +[Footnote 16: See the Aino animal stories and evidences of beast worship +in Chamberlain's Aino Studies. For this element in Japanese life, see +the Kojiki, and the author's Japanese Fairy World.] + +[Footnote 17: The proprietor of a paper-mill in Massachusetts, who had +bought a cargo of rags, consisting mostly of farmers' cast off clothes, +brought to the author a bundle of scraps of paper which he had found in +this cheap blue-dyed cotton wearing apparel. Besides money accounts and +personal matters, there were numerous temple amulets and priests' +certificates. See also B.H. Chamberlain's Notes on Some Minor Japanese +Religious Practices, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May, +1893.] + +[Footnote 18: M.E., p. 440.] + +[Footnote 19: See the Lecture on Buddhism in its Doctrinal +Development.--The Nichiren Sect.] + +[Footnote 20: The phallus was formerly a common emblem in all parts of +Japan, Hondo, Kiushiu, Shikoku, and the other islands. Bayard Taylor +noticed it in the Riu Kiu (Loo Choo) Islands; Perry's Expedition to +Japan, p. 196; Bayard Taylor's Expedition in Lew Chew; M.E., p. 33, +note; Rein's Japan, p. 432; Diary of Richard Cocks, Vol. I., p. 283. The +native guide-books and gazetteers do not allude to the subject. + +Although the author of this volume has collected considerable data from +personal observations and the testimony of personal friends concerning +the vanishing nature-worship of the Japanese, he has, in the text, +scarcely more than glanced at the subject. In a work of this sort, +intended both for the general reader as well as for the scientific +student of religion, it has been thought best to be content with a few +simple references to what was once widely prevalent in the Japanese +archipelago. + +Probably the most thorough study of Japanese phallicism yet made by any +foreign scholar is that of Edmund Buckley, A.M., Ph.D., of the Chicago +University, Lecturer on Shint[=o], the Ethnic Faith of Japan, and on the +Science of Religion. Dr. Buckley spent six years in central and +southwestern Japan, most of the time as instructor in the Doshisha +University, Ki[=o]to. He will publish the results of his personal +observations and studios in a monograph on phallicism, which will be on +sale at Chicago University, in which the Buckley collection illustrating +Shint[=o]-worship has been deposited.] + +[Footnote 21: Mr. Takahashi Gor[=o], in his Shint[=o] Shin-ron, or New +Discussion of Shint[=o], accepts the derivation of the word _kami_ from +_kab_, mould, mildew, which, on its appearance, excites wonder. For +Hirata's discussion, see T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 48. In a +striking paper on the Early Gods of Japan, in a recent number of the +Philosophical Magazine, published in T[=o]ki[=o], a Japanese writer, Mr. +Kenjir[=o] Hirad, states also that the term kami does not necessarily +denote a spiritual being, but is only a relative term meaning above or +high, but this respect toward something high or above has created many +imaginary deities as well as those having a human history. See also +T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I., p. 55, note.] + +[Footnote 22: "There remains something of the Shint[=o] heart after +twelve hundred years of foreign creeds and dress. The worship of the +marvellous continues.... Exaggerated force is most impressive.... So the +ancient gods, heroes, and wonders are worshipped still. The simple +countryfolk clap their hands, bow their heads, mumble their prayers, and +offer the fraction of a cent to the first European-built house they +see."--Philosophy in Japan, Past and Present, by Dr. George Wm. Knox.] + +[Footnote 23: M.E., p. 474. Honda the Samurai, pp. 256-267.] + +[Footnote 24: Kojiki, pp. 127, 136, 213, 217.] + +[Footnote 25: See S. and H., pp. 39, 76. + +"The appearance of anything unusual at a particular spot is hold to be a +sure sign of the presence of divinity. Near the spot where I live in +Ko-ishi-kawa, T[=o]ki[=o], is a small Miya, built at the foot of a very +old tree, that stands isolated on the edge of a rice-field. The spot +looks somewhat insignificant, but upon inquiring why a shrine has been +placed there, I was told that a white snake had been found at the foot +of the old tree." ... + +"As it is, the religion of the Japanese consists in the belief that the +productive ethereal spirit, being expanded through the whole universe, +every part is in some degree impregnated with it; and therefore, every +part is in some measure the seat of the Deity."--Legendre's Progressive +Japan, p. 258.] + +[Footnote 26: De Verflauwing der Grenzen, by Dr. Abraham Kuyper, +Amsterdam, 1892; translated by Rev. T. Hendrik de Vries, in the +Methodist Review, New York, July-Sept., 1893.] + + +CHAPTER II + +SHINT[=O]; MYTHS AND RITUAL + + +[Footnote 1: The scholar who has made profound researches in all +departments of Japanese learning, but especially in the literature of +Shint[=o], is Mr. Ernest Satow, now the British Minister at Tangier. He +received the degree of B.A. from the London University. After several +years' study and experience in China, Mr. Satow came to Japan in 1861 as +student-interpreter to the British Legation, receiving his first drill +under Rev. S.R. Brown, D.D., author of A Grammar of Colloquial Japanese. +To ceaseless industry, this scholar, to whom the world is so much +indebted for knowledge of Japan, has added philosophic insight. Besides +unearthing documents whose existence was unsuspected, he has cleared the +way for investigators and comparative students by practically removing +the barriers reared by archaic speech and writing. His papers in the +T.A.S.J., on The Shint[=o] Shrines at Is, the Revival of Pure +Shint[=o], and Ancient Japanese Rituals, together with his Hand-book for +Japan, form the best collection of materials for the study of the +original and later forms of Shint[=o].] + +[Footnote 2: The scholar who above all others has, with rare acumen +united to laborious and prolonged toil, illuminated the subject of +Japan's chronology and early history is Mr. W.G. Aston of the British +Civil Service. He studied at the Queen's University, Ireland, receiving +the degree of M.A. He was appointed student-interpreter in Japan, August +6, 1864. He is the author of a Grammar of the Written Japanese Language, +and has been a student of the comparative history and speech and writing +of China, Korea, and Japan, during the past thirty years. See his +valuable papers in the T.A.S.J., and the learned societies in Great +Britain. In his paper on Early Japanese History, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., +pp. 39-75, he recapitulates the result of his researches, in which he +is, in the main, supported by critical native scholars, and by the late +William Bramsen, in his Japanese Chronological Tables, T[=o]ki[=o], +1880. He considers A.D. 461 as the first trustworthy date in the +Japanese annals. We quote from his paper, Early Japanese History, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 73. + +1. The earliest date of the accepted Japanese Chronology, the accuracy +of which is confirmed by external evidence, is A.D. 461. + +2. Japanese History, properly so called, can hardly be said to exist +previous to A.D. 500. (A cursory examination leads me to think that the +annals of the sixth century must also be received with caution.) + +3. Korean History and Chronology are more trustworthy than those of +Japan during the period previous to that date. + +4. While there was an Empress of Japan in the third century A.D., the +statement that she conquered Korea is highly improbable. + +5. Chinese learning was introduced into Japan from Korea 120 years later +than the date given in Japanese History. + +6. The main fact of Japan having a predominant influence in some parts +of Korea during the fifth century is confirmed by the Korean and Chinese +chronicles, which, however, show that the Japanese accounts are very +inaccurate in matters of detail.] + +[Footnote 3: Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world of learning +such signal service by his works on the Japanese language, and +especially by his translation, with critical introduction and +commentary, of the Kojiki, is an English gentleman, born at Southsea, +Hampshire, England, on the 18th day of October, 1830. His mother was a +daughter of the well-known traveller and author, Captain Basil Hall, +R.N., and his father an Admiral in the British Navy. He was educated for +Oxford, but instead of entering, for reasons of health, he spent a +number of years in western Mid southern Europe, acquiring a knowledge of +various languages and literatures. His coming to Japan (in May, 1873) +was rather the result of an accident--a long sea voyage and a trial of +the Japanese climate having been recommended. The country and the field +of study suited the invalid well. After teaching for a time in the Naval +College the Japanese honored themselves and this scholar by making him, +in April, 1886, Professor of Philology at the Imperial University. His +works, The Classical Poetry of the Japanese, his various grammars and +hand-books for the acquisition of the language, his Hand-book for Japan, +his Aino Studies, Things Japanese, papers in the T.A.S.J. and his +translation of the Kojiki are all of a high order of value. They are +marked by candor, fairness, insight, and a mastery of difficult themes +that makes his readers his constant debtors.] + +[Footnote 4: "If the term 'Altaic' be held to include Korean and +Japanese, then Japanese assumes prime importance as being by far the +oldest living representative of that great linguistic group, its +literature antedating by many centuries the most ancient productions of +the Manchus, Mongols, Turks, Hungarians, or Finns."--Chamberlain, +Simplified Grammar, Introd., p. vi.] + +[Footnote 5: Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 13-14; Mr. Pom K. Soh's paper +on Education in Korea; Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education, +1890-91.] + +[Footnote 6: T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 74; Bramsen's Chronological Tables, +Introd., p. 34; T.J., p. 32.] + +[Footnote 7: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., p. 531.] + +[Footnote 8: "The frog in the well knows not the great ocean." This +proverb, so freely quoted throughout Chinese Asia, and in recent years +so much applied to themselves by the Japanese, is of Hindu origin and is +found in the Sanskrit.] + +[Footnote 9: This is shown with literary skill and power in a modern +popular work, the title of which, Dai Nippon Kai-biyaku Yurai-iki, +which, very freely indeed, may be translated Instances of Divine +Interposition in Behalf of Great Japan. A copy of this work was +presented to the writer by the late daimi[=o] of Echizen, and was read +with interest as containing the common people's ideas about their +country and history. It was published in Yedo in 1856, while Japan was +still excited over the visits of the American and European fleets. On +the basis of the information furnished in this work General Le Gendre +wrote his influential book, Progressive Japan, in which a number of +quotations from the _Kai-biyaku_ may be read.] + +[Footnote 10: In the Kojiki, pp. 101-104, we have the poetical account +of the abdication of the lord of Idzumo in favor of the Yamato +conqueror, on condition that the latter should build a temple and have +him honored among the gods. One of the rituals contains the +congratulatory address of the chieftains of Idzumo, on their surrender +to "the first Mikado, Jimmu Tenn[=o]." See also T.J., p. 206.] + +[Footnote 11: "The praying for Harvest, or Toshigoi no Matsuri, was +celebrated on the 4th day of the 2d month of each year, at the capital +in the Jin-Gi-Kuan or office for the Worship of the Shint[=o] gods, and +in the provinces by the chiefs of the local administrations. At the +Jin-Gi-Kuan there were assembled the ministers of state, the +functionaries of that office, the priests and priestesses of 573 +temples, containing 737 shrines, which were kept up at the expense of +the Mikado's treasury, while the governors of the provinces +superintended in the districts under their administration the +performance of rites in honor of 2,395 other shrines. It would not be +easy to state the exact number of deities to whom these 3,132 shrines +were dedicated. A glance over the list in the 9th and 10th books of the +Yengishiki shows at once that there were many gods who were worshipped +in more than half-a-dozen different localities at the same time; but +exact calculation is impossible, because in many cases only the names of +the temples are given, and we are left quite in the dark as to the +individuality of the gods to whom they were sacred. Besides these 3,132 +shrines, which are distinguished as Shikidai, that is contained in the +catalogue of the Yengishiki, there were a large number of enumerated +shrines in temples scattered all over the country, in every village or +hamlet, of which it was impossible to take any account, just as at the +present day there are temples of Hachiman, Kompira, Tenjin sama, San-no +sama and Sengen sama, as they are popularly called, wherever twenty or +thirty houses are collected together. The shrines are classed as great +and small, the respective numbers being 492 and 2,640, the distinction +being twofold, firstly in the proportionately larger quantity of +offerings made at the great shrines, and secondly that the offerings in +the one case were arranged upon tables or altars, while in the other +they were placed on mats spread upon the earth. In the Yengishiki the +amounts and nature of the offerings are stated with great minuteness, +but it will be sufficient if the kinds of articles offered are alone +mentioned here. It will be seen, by comparison with the text of the +norito, that they had varied somewhat since the date when the ritual was +composed. The offerings to a greater shrine consisted of coarse woven +silk (_ashiginu_), thin silk of five different colors, a kind of stuff +called _shidori_ or _shidzu_, which is supposed by some to have been a +striped silk, cloth of broussonetia bark or hemp, and a small quantity +of the raw materials of which the cloth was made, models of swords, a +pair of tables or altars (called _yo-kura-oki_ and _ya-kura-oki_), a +shield or mantlet, a spear-head, a bow, a quiver, a pair of stag's +horns, a hoe, a few measures of sak or rice-beer, some haliotis and +bonito, two measures of _kituli_ (supposed to be salt roe), various +kinds of edible seaweed, a measure of salt, a sak jar, and a few feet +of matting for packing. To each of the temples of Watarai in Is was +presented in addition a horse; to the temple of the Harvest god Mitoshi +no kami, a white horse, cock, and pig, and a horse to each of nineteen +others. + +"During the fortnight which preceded the celebration of the service, two +smiths and their journeymen, and two carpenters, together with eight +inbe [or hereditary priests] were employed in preparing the apparatus +and getting ready the offerings. It was usual to employ for the Praying +for Harvest members of this tribe who held office in the Jin-Gi-Kuan, +but if the number could not he made up in that office, it was supplied +from other departments of state. To the tribe of quiver-makers was +intrusted the special duty of weaving the quivers of wistaria tendrils. +The service began at twenty minutes to seven in the morning, by our +reckoning of time. After the governor of the province of Yamashiro had +ascertained that everything was in readiness, the officials of the +Jin-Gi-Kuan arranged the offerings on the tables and below them, +according to the rank of the shrines for which they were intended. The +large court of the Jin-Gi-Kuan where the service was held, called the +Sai-in, measured 230 feet by 370. At one end were the offices and on the +west side were the shrines of the eight Protective Deities in a row, +surrounded by a fence, to the interior of which three sacred archways +(torii) gave access. In the centre of the court a temporary shed was +erected for the occasion, in which the tables or altars were placed. The +final preparations being now complete, the ministers of state, the +virgin priestesses and priests of the temples to which offerings were +sent by the Mikado, entered in succession, and took the places severally +assigned to them. The horses which formed a part of the offerings were +next brought in from the Mikado's stable, and all the congregation drew +near, while the reader recited or read the norito. This reader was a +member of the priestly family or tribe of Nakatomi, who traced their +descent back to Ameno-koyan, one of the principal advisers attached to +the sun-goddess's grandchild when he first descended on earth. It is a +remarkable evidence of the persistence of certain ideas, that up to the +year 1868 the nominal prime-minister of the Mikado, after he came of +age, and the regent during his minority, if he had succeeded young to +the throne, always belonged to this tribe, which changed its name from +Nakatomi to Fujiwara in the seventh century, and was subsequently split +up into the Five Setsuk or governing families. At the end of each +section the priests all responded 'O!' which was no doubt the equivalent +of 'Yes' in use in those days. As soon as he had finished, the Nakatomi +retired, and the offerings were distributed to the priests for +conveyance and presentation to the gods to whose service they were +attached. But a special messenger was despatched with the offerings +destined to the temples at Watarai. This formality having been +completed, the President of the Jin-Gi-Kuan gave the signal for breaking +up the assembly." Ancient Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J., Vol. VII, pp. +104-107.] + +[Footnote 12: S. and H., p. 461.] + +[Footnote 13: Consult Chamberlain's literal translations of the name in +the Kojiki, and p. lxv. of his Introduction.] + +[Footnote 14: The parallel between the Hebrew and Japanese accounts of +light and darkness, day and night, before the sun, has been noticed by +several writers. See the comments of Hirata, a modern Shint[=o] +expounder.--T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 72.] + +[Footnote 15: Westminster Review, July, 1878, p. 19.] + + +CHAPTER III + +"THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS + + +[Footnote 1: Kojiki, pp. 9-18; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 20.] + +[Footnote 2: M.E., p. 43; McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, Art. +Shint[=o]; in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, is to be found Mr. Satow's +digest of the commentaries of the modern Shint[=o] revivalists; in Mr. +Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki, the text with abundant notes. +See also Mr. Twan-Lin's Account of Japan up to A.D. 1200, by E.H. +Parker. T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I.] + +[Footnote 3: "The various abstractions which figure at the commencement +of the 'Records' (Kojiki) and of the 'Chronicles' (Nihongi) were +probably later growths, and perhaps indeed were inventions of individual +priests."--Kojiki, Introd., p. lxv. See also T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part +I, p. 56. "Thus, not only is this part of the Kojiki pure twaddle, but +it is not even consistent twaddle."] + +[Footnote 4: Kojiki, Section IX.] + +[Footnote 5: Dr. Joseph Edkins, D.D., author of Chinese Buddhism, who +believes that the primeval religious history of men is recoverable, says +in Early Spread of Religious Ideas, Especially in the Far East, p. 29, +"In Japan Amatras[)u], ... in fact, as I suppose, Mithras written in +Japanese, though the Japanese themselves are not aware of this +etymology." Compare Kojiki, Introduction, pp. lxv.-lxvii.] + +[Footnote 6: Kojiki, p. xlii.] + +[Footnote 7: T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 67.] + +[Footnote 8: E. Satow, Revival of Pure Shint[=o], pp. 67-68.] + +[Footnote 9: This curious agreement between the Japanese and other +ethnic traditions in locating "Paradise," the origin of the human family +and of civilization, at the North Pole, has not escaped the attention of +Dr. W.F. Warren, President of Boston University, who makes extended +reference to it in his interesting and suggestive book, Paradise Found: +The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole; A Study of the +Prehistoric World, Boston, 1885.] + +[Footnote 10: The pure Japanese numerals equal in number the fingers; +with the borrowed Chinese terms vast amounts can be expressed.] + +[Footnote 11: This custom was later revived, T.A.S.J., pp. 28, 31. +Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 57; M.E., pp. 156, 238.] + +[Footnote 12: See in Japanese Fairy World, "How the Sun-Goddess was +enticed out of her Cave." For the narrative see Kojiki, pp. 54-59; +T.A.S.J., Vol. II., 128-133.] + +[Footnote 13: See Chomi and Wordsworth, A Literary Parallel, by J.M. +Dixon, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., pp. 193-205; Anthologie Japonaise, by Leon de +Rosny; Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese; Suymats[)u]'s +Genji Monogatari, London, 1882.] + +[Footnote 14: Oftentimes in studying the ancient rituals, those who +imagine that the word Kami should be in all cases translated gods, will +be surprised to see what puerility, bathos, or grandiloquence, comes out +of an attempt to express a very simple, it may be humiliating, +experience.] + +[Footnote 15: Mythology and Religious Worship of the Japanese, +Westminster Review, July, 1878; Ancient Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J., +Vols. VII., IX.; Esoteric Shint[=o], by Percival Lowell, T.A.S.J, Vol. +XXI.] + +[Footnote 16: Compare Sections IX. and XXIII. of the Kojiki.] + +[Footnote 17: This indeed seems to be the substance of the modern +official expositions of Shint[=o] and the recent Rescripts of the +Emperor, as well as of much popular literature, including the +manifestoes or confessions found on the persons of men who have +"consecrated" themselves as "the instruments of Heaven for punishing the +wicked," i.e., assassinating obnoxious statesmen. See The Ancient +Religion, M.E., pp. 96-100; The Japan Mail, _passim_.] + +[Footnote 18: Revival of Pure Shint[=o], pp. 25-38.] + +[Footnote 19: Japanese Homes, by E.S. Morse, pp. 228-233, note, p. 832.] + +[Footnote 20: Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12.] + +[Footnote 21: Geological Survey of Japan, by Benj. S. Lyman, 1878-9.] + +[Footnote 22: The Shell Mounds of Omori; and The Tokio Times, Jan. 18, +1879, by Edward S. Morse; Japanese Fairy World, pp. I78, 191, 196.] + +[Footnote 23: Kojiki, pp. 60-63.] + +[Footnote 24: S. and H., pp. 58, 337, etc.] + +[Footnote 25: This study in comparative religion by a Japanese, which +cost the learned author his professorship in the Ti-Koku Dai Gaku or +Imperial University (lit. Theocratic Country Great Learning Place), has +had a tendency to chill the ardor of native investigators. His paper was +first published in the Historical Magazine of the University, but the +wide publicity and popular excitement followed only after republication, +with comments by Mr. Taguchi, in the Kizai Zasshi (Economical Journal). +The Shint[=o]ists denounced Professor Kumi for "making our ancient +religion a branch of Christianity," and demanded and secured his +"retirement" by the Government. See Japan Mail, April 2, 1892, p. 440.] + +[Footnote 26: T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., p. 282.] + +[Footnote 27: Kojiki, p. xxviii.] + +[Footnote 28: For the use of salt in modern "Esoteric" Shint[=o], both +in purification and for employment as of salamandrine, see T.A.S.J., pp. +125, 128.] + +[Footnote 29: In the official census of 1893, nine Shint[=o] sects are +named, each of which has its own Kwancho or Presiding Head, recognized +by the government. The sectarian peculiarities of Shint[=o] have been +made the subject of study by very few foreigners. Mr. Satow names the +following: + +The Yui-itsu sect was founded by Toshida Kan-tomo. His signature +appears as the end of a ten-volume edition, issued A.D. 1503, of the +liturgies extracted from the Yengishiki or Book of Ceremonial Law, first +published in the era of Yengi (or En-gi), A.D. 901-922. He is supposed +to be the one who added the _kana_, or common vernacular script letters, +to the Chinese text and thus made the norito accessible to the people. +The little pocket prayer-books, folded in an accordeon-like manner, are +very cheap and popular. The sect is regarded as heretical by strict +Shint[=o]ists, as the system Yuwiitsu consists "mainly of a Buddhist +superstructure on a Shint[=o] foundation." Yoshida applied the tenets of +the Shingon or True Word sect of Buddhists to the understanding and +practice of the ancient god-way. + +The Suiga sect teaches a system which is a combination of Yuwiitsu and +of the modern philosophical form of Confucianism as elaborated by Chu +Hi, and known in Japan as the Ti-shu philosophy. The founder was +Yamazaki Ansai, who was born in 1618 and died in 1682. By combining the +forms of the Yoshida sect, which is based on the Buddhism of the Shingon +sect, with the materialistic philosophy of Chu Hi, he adapted the old +god-way to what he deemed modern needs. + +In the Dguchi sect, the ancient belief is explained by the Chinese Book +of Changes (or Divination). Dguchi Nobuyoshi, the founder, was +god-warden or _kannushi_ of the Giku or Outer Palace Temple at Is. He +promulgated his views about the year 1660, basing them upon the book +called ki by the Japanese and Yi-king by the Chinese. This Yi-king, +which Professor Terrien de Laeouporie declares is only a very ancient +book of pronunciation of comparative Accadian and Chinese Syllabaries, +has been the cause of incredible waste of labor, time, and brains in +China--enough to have diked the Yellow River or drained the swamps of +the Empire. It is the chief basis of Chinese superstition, and the +greatest literary barrier to the advance of civilization. It has also +made much mischief in Japan. Dguchi explained the myths of the age of +the gods by divination or ki, based on the Chinese books. As late as +1893 there was published in T[=o]ki[=o] a work in Japanese, with good +translation info English, on Scientific Morality, or the practical +guidance of life by means of divination--The Takashima kidan (or +Monograph on the ki of Mr. Takashima), by S. Sugiura. + +The Jikko sect, according to its representative at the World's +Parliament of Religions at Chicago, is "the practical." It lays stress +less upon speculation and ritual, and more upon the realization of the +best teachings of Shint[=o]. It was founded by Hasgawa Kakugi[=o], who +was born at Nagasaki in 1541. Living in a cave in Fuji-yama, "he +received inspiration through the miraculous power of the mountain." It +believes in one absolute Deity, often mentioned in the Kojiki, which, +self-originated, took the embodiment of two deities, one with the male +nature and the other female, though these two deities are nothing but +forms of the one substance and unite again in the absolute deity. These +gave birth to the Japanese Archipelago, the sun and moon, the mountains +and streams, the divine ancestors, etc. According to the teachings of +this sect, the peerless mountain, Fuji, ought to be reverenced as the +sacred abode of the divine lord, and as "the brains of the whole globe." +The believer must make Fuji the example and emblem of his thought and +action. He must be plain and simple, as the form of the mountain, making +his body and mind pure and serene, as Fuji itself. The present world +with all its practical works must be respected more than the future +world. We must pray for the long life of the country, lead a life of +temperance and diligence, cooperating with one another in doing good. + + * * * * * + +_Statistics of Shint[=o]ism._ + +From the official Rsum Statistique de l'Empire du Japon, 1894. In 1801 +there were nine administrative heads of sects; 75,877 preachers, +priests, and shrine-keepers, with 1,158 male and 228 female students. +There were 163 national temples of superior rank and 136,652 shrines or +temples in cities and prefectures; a total of 193,153, served by 14,700 +persons of the grade of priests. Most of the expenses, apart from +endowments and local contributions, are included in the first item of +the annual Treasury Budget, "Civil List, Appanage and Shint[=o] +Temples."] + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN + + +[Footnote 1: "He was fond of saying that Princeton had never originated +a new idea; but this meant no more than that Princeton was the advocate +of historical Calvinism in opposition to the modified and provincial +Calvinism of a later day."--Francis L. Patton, in Schaff-Herzog +Encyclopdia, Article on Charles Hodge.] + +[Footnote 2: We use Dr. James Legge's spelling, by whom these classics +have been translated into English. See Sacred Books of the East, edited +by Max Mller.] + +[Footnote 3: The Canon or Four Classics has a somewhat varied literary +history of transmission, collection, and redaction, as well as of +exposition, and of criticism, both "lower" and "higher." As arranged +under the Han Dynasty (B.C. 206-A.D. 23) it consisted of--I. The +Commentary of Tso Kinming (a disciple who expounded Confucius's book, +The Annals of State of Lu); II. The Commentary of Kuh-liang upon the +same work of Confucius; III. The Old Text of the Book of History; IV. +The Odes, collected by Mao Chang, to whom is ascribed the test of the +Odes as handed down to the present day. The generally accepted +arrangement is that made by the mediaeval schoolmen of the Sung Dynasty +(A.D. 960-1341), Cheng Teh Sio and Chu Hi, in the twelfth century: I. +The Great Learning; II. The Doctrine of the Mean; III. Conversations of +Confucius; IV. The Sayings of Mencius.--C.R.M., pp. 306-309.] + +[Footnote 4: See criticisms of Confucius as an author, in Legge's +Religions of China, pp. 144, 145.] + +[Footnote 5: Religions of China, by James Legge, p. 140.] + +[Footnote 6: See Article China, by the author, Cyclopaedia of Political +Science, Chicago, 1881.] + +[Footnote 7: This subject is critically discussed by Messrs. Satow, +Chamberlain, and others in their writings on Shint[=o] and Japanese +history. On Japanese chronology, see Japanese Chronological Tables, by +William Bramsen, T[=o]ki[=o], 1880, and Dr. David Murray's Japan (p. +95), in the series Story of the Nations, New York.] + +[Footnote 8: The absurd claim made by some Shint[=o]ists that the +Japanese possessed an original native alphabet called the Shingi +(god-letters) before the entrance of the Chinese or Buddhist learning in +Japan, is refuted by Aston, Japanese Grammar, p. 1; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., +Appendix, p. 77. Mr. Satow shows "their unmistakable identity with the +Corean alphabet."] + +[Footnote 9: For the life, work, and tombs of the Chinese scholars who +fled to Japan on the fall of the Ming Dynasty, see M.E., p. 298; and +Professor E.W. Clement's paper on The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., and his letters in The Japan Mail.] + +[Footnote 10: "We have consecrated ourselves as the instruments of +Heaven for punishing the wicked man,"--from the document submitted to +the Yedo authorities, by the assassins of Ii Kamon no Kami, in Yedo, +March 23, 1861, and signed by seventeen men of the band. For numerous +other instances, see the voluminous literature of the Forty-seven +R[=o]nins, and the Meiji political literature (1868-1893), political and +historical documents, assassins' confessions, etc., contained in that +thesarus of valuable documents, The Japan Mail; Kins Shiriaku, or Brief +History of Japan, 1853-1869, Yokohama, 1873, and Nihon Guaishi, +translated by Mr. Ernest Satow; Adams's History of Japan; T.A.S.J., Vol. +XX., p. 145; Life and Letters of Yokoi Hishiro; Life of Sir Harry +Parkes, London, 1893, etc., for proof of this assertion.] + +[Footnote 11: For proof of this, as to vocabulary, see Professor B.H. +Chamberlain's Grammars and other philological works; Mr. J.H. Gubbins's +Dictionary of Chinese-Japanese Words, with Introduction, three vols., +T[=o]ki[=o] 1892; and for change in structure, Rev. C. Munzinger, on The +Psychology of the Japanese Language in the Transactions of the Gorman +Asiatic Society of Japan. See also Mental Characteristics of the +Japanese, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIX., pp. 17-37.] + +[Footnote 12: See The Ghost of Sakura, in Mitfoid's Tales of Old Japan, +Vol. II, p. 17.] + +[Footnote 13: M.E., 277-280. See an able analysis of Japanese feudal +society, by M.F. Dickins, Life of Sir Harry Parkes, pp. 8-13; M.E., pp. +277-283.] + +[Footnote 14: This subject is discussed in Professor Chamberlain's +works; Mr. Percival Lowell's The Soul of the Far East; Dr. M.L. Gordon's +An American Missionary in Japan; Dr. J.H. De Forest's The Influence of +Pantheism, in The Japan Evangelist, 1894.] + +[Footnote 15: T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., p. 96.] + +[Footnote 16: The Forty Seven-R[=o]nins, Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I.; +Chiushiugura, by F.V. Dickens; The Loyal R[=o]nins, by Edward Greey; +Chiushiugura, translated by Enouy.] + +[Footnote 17: See Dr. J.H. De Forest's article in the Andover Review, +May, June, 1893, p. 309. For details and instances, see the Japanese +histories, novels, and dramas; M.E.; Rein's Japan; S. and H.; T.A.S.J., +etc. Life of Sir Harry Parkes, p. 11 _et passim_.] + +[Footnote 18: M.E. pp. 180-192, 419. For the origin and meaning of +hara-kiri, see T.J., pp. 199-201; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., +Appendix; Adams's History of Japan, story of Shimadz[)u].] + +[Footnote 19: M.E., p. 133.] + +[Footnote 20: For light upon the status of the Japanese family, see F.O. +Adams's History of Japan, Vol. II., p. 384; Kins Shiriaku, p. 137; +Naomi Tamura, The Japanese Bride, New York, 1893; E.H. House, Yon +Santo, A Child of Japan, Chicago, 1888; Japanese Girls and Women, by +Miss A.M. Bacon, Boston, 1891; T.J., Article Woman, and in Index, +Adoption, Children, etc.; M.E., 1st ed., p. 585; Marriage in Japan, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 114; and papers in the German Asiatic Society +of Japan.] + +[Footnote 21: See Mr. F.W. Eastlake's papers in the Popular Science +Monthly.] + +[Footnote 22: See Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II, pp. 181-182. "It is +to be feared, however, that this reform [of the Yoshiwara system], like +many others in Japan, never got beyond paper, for Mr. Norman in his +recent book, The Real Japan [Chap. XII.], describes a scarcely modified +system in full vigor." See also Japanese Girls and Women, pp. 289-292.] + +[Footnote 23: See Pung Kwang Yu's paper, read at the Parliament of +Religions in Chicago, and The Chinese as Painted by Themselves, by +Colonel Tcheng-Ki-Tong, New York and London, 1885. Dr. W.A.P. Martin's +scholarly book, The Chinese, New York, 1881, in the chapter Remarks on +the Ethical Philosophy of the Chinese, gives in English and Chinese a +Chart of Chinese Ethics in which the whole scheme of philosophy, ethics, +and self-culture is set forth.] + +[Footnote 24: See an exceedingly clear, able, and accurate article on +The Ethics of Confucius as Seen in Japan, by the veteran scholar, Rev. +J.H. De Forest, The Andover Review, May, June, 1893. He is the authority +for the statements concerning non-attendance (in Old Japan) of the +husband at the wife's, and older brother at younger brother's funeral.] + +[Footnote 25: A Japanese translation of Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures, +in a T[=o]ki[=o] morning newspaper "met with instant and universal +approval," showing that Douglas Jerrold's world-famous character has her +counterpart in Japan, where, as a Japanese proverb declares, "the tongue +three inches long can kill a man six feet high." Sir Edwin Arnold and +Mr. E.H. House, in various writings, have idealized the admirable traits +of the Japanese woman. See also Mr. Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses of +Unfamiliar Japan, Boston, 1894; and papers (The Eternal Feminine, etc.), +in the Atlantic Monthly.] + +[Footnote 26: Summary of the Japanese Penal Codes, T.A.S.J., Vol. V., +Part II.; The Penal Code of Japan, and The Code of Criminal Procedure of +Japan, Yokohama.] + +[Footnote 27: See T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 114; the Chapter on Marriage +and Divorce, in Japanese Girls and Women, pp. 57-84. The following +figures are from the Rsum Statistique de L'Empire du Japon, published +annually by the Imperial Government: + + MARRIAGES. DIVORCES. + Number. Per 1,000 Number. Per 1,000 + Persons. Persons. + +1887....334,149 8.55 110,859 2.84 +1888....330,246 8.34 109,175 2.76 +1889....340,445 8.50 107,458 2.68 +1890....325,141 8.04 197,088 2.70 +1891....352,051 8.00 112,411 2.76 +1892....348,489 8.48 113,498 2.76 +] + +[Footnote 28: This was strikingly brought out in the hundreds of English +compositions (written by students of the Imperial University, 1872-74, +describing the home or individual life of students), examined and read +by the author.] + +[Footnote 29: Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto--Hauton +Tomoroumenos, Act--, Scene 1, line 25, where Chremes inquires about his +neighbor's affairs. For the golden rule of Jesus and the silver rule of +Confucius, see Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese.] + +[Footnote 30: "What you do not want done to yourselves, do not do to +others." Legge, The Religions of China, p. 137; Doolittle's Social Life +of the Chinese; The Testament of Iyyas[)u];, Cap. LXXI., translated by +J.C. Lowder, Yokohama, 1874.] + +[Footnote 31: Die politische Bedeutung der amerikanischer Expedition +nach Japan, 1852, by Tetsutaro Yoshida, Heidelberg, 1893; The United +States and Japan (p. 39), by Inazo Nitob, Baltimore, 1891; Matthew +Calbraith Perry, Chap. XXVIII.; T.J., Article Perry; Life and Letters of +S. Wells Williams, New York, 1889.] + +[Footnote 32: See Life of Matthew Calbraith Perry, pp. 363, 364.] + +[Footnote 33: Lee's Jerusalem Illustrated, p. 88.] + + +CHAPTER V + +CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM + + +[Footnote 1: See On the Early History of Printing in Japan, by E.M. +Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. X., pp. 1-83, 252-259; The Jesuit Mission Press in +Japan, by E.M. Satow (privately printed, 1888), and Review of this +monograph by Professor B.H. Chamberlain, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. +91-100.] + +[Footnote 2: The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, by Ernest W. Clement, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., pp. 1-24, and Letters in The Japan Mail, 1889.] + +[Footnote 3: Effect of Buddhism on the Philosophy of the Sung Dynasty, +p. 318, Chinese Buddhism, by Rev. J. Edkins, Boston, 1880.] + +[Footnote 4: C.R.M., p. 200; The Middle Kingdom, by S. Wells Williams, +Vol. II., p. 174.] + +[Footnote 5: C.R.M., p. 34. He was the boy-hero, who smashed with a +stone the precious water-vase in order to save from drowning a playmate +who had tumbled in, so often represented in Chinese popular art.] + +[Footnote 6: C.R.M., pp. 25-26; The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., pp. 113, +540, 652-654, 677.] + +[Footnote 7: This decade in Chinese history was astonishingly like that +of the United States from 1884 to 1894, in which the economical theories +advocated in certain journals, in the books Progress and Poverty, +Looking Backward, and by the Populists, have been so widely read and +discussed, and the attempts made to put them into practice. The Chinese +theorist of the eleventh century, Wang Ngan-shih was "a poet and author +of rare genius."--C.R.M., p. 244.] + +[Footnote 8: John xxi. 25.] + +[Footnote 9: This is the opinion of no less capable judges than Dr. +George Wm. Knox and Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain.] + +[Footnote 10: The United States and Japan, pp. 25-27; Life of Takano +Choyi by Kato Sakay, T[=o]ki[=o], 1888.] + +[Footnote 11: Note on Japanese Schools of Philosophy, by T. Haga, and +papers by Dr. G.W. Knox, Dr. T. Inou, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX, Part I.] + +[Footnote 12: A religion, surely, with men like Yokoi Hishiro.] + +[Footnote 13: See pp. 110-113.] + +[Footnote 14: _Kinno_--loyalty to the Emperor; T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. +147.] + +[Footnote 15: "Originally recognizing the existence of a Supreme +personal Deity, it [Confucianism] has degenerated into a pantheistic +medley, and renders worship to an impersonal _anima mundi_ under the +leading forms of visible nature."--Dr. W.A.P. Martin's The Chinese, p. +108.] + +[Footnote 16: Ki, Ri, and Ten, Dr. George Wm. Knox, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., +pp. 155-177.] + +[Footnote 17: T.J., p. 94.] + +[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 156.] + +[Footnote 19: Matthew Calbraith Perry, p. 373; Japanese Life of Yoshida +Shoin, by Tokutomi, T[=o]ki[=o], 1894; Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. +II., p. 83.] + +[Footnote 20: "The Chinese accept Confucius in every detail, both as +taught by Confucius and by his disciples.... The Japanese recognize both +religions [Buddhism and Confucianism] equally, but Confucianism in Japan +has a direct bearing upon everything relating to human affairs, +especially the extreme loyalty of the people to the emperor, while the +Koreans consider it more useful in social matters than in any other +department of life, and hardly consider its precepts in their business +and mercantile relations." + +"Although Confucianism is counted a religion, it is really a system of +sociology.... Confucius was a moralist and statesman, and his disciples +are moralists and economists."--Education in Korea, by Mr. Pom K. Soh, +of the Korean Embassy to the United States; Report of U.S. Commissioner +of Education, 1890-91, Vol. I., pp. 345-346.] + +[Footnote 21: In Bakin, who is the great teacher of the Japanese by +means, of fiction, this is the idea always inculcated.] + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA + + +[Footnote 1: See his Introduction to the Saddharma Pundarika, Sacred +Books of the East, and his Buddhismus.] + +[Footnote 2: Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Buddhism; +Non-Christian Religious Systems--Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 3: The sketch of Indian thought here following is digested +from material obtained from various works on Buddhism and from the +Histories of India. See the excellent monograph of Romesh Chunder Dutt, +in Epochs of Indian History, London and New York, 1893; and Outlines of +The Mahayana, as Taught by Buddha ("for circulation among the members of +the Parliament of Religions," and distributed in Chicago), Toki[=o], +1893.] + +[Footnote 4: Dyaus-Pitar, afterward _zeus patr_. See Century +Dictionary, Jupiter.] + +[Footnote 5: Yoga is the root form of our word yoke, which at once +suggests the union of two in one. See Yoga, in The Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 6: Dutt's History of India.] + +[Footnote 7: The differences between the simple primitive narrative of +Gautama's experiences in attaining Buddhahood, and the richly +embroidered story current in later ages, may be seen by reading, first, +Atkinson's Prince Sidartha, the Japanese Buddha, and then Arnold's Light +of Asia. See also S. and H., Introduction, pp. 70-84, etc. Atkinson's +book is refreshing reading after the expurgation and sublimation of the +same theme in Sir Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia.] + +[Footnote 8: Romesh Chunder Dutt's Ancient India, p. 100.] + +[Footnote 9: Origin and Growth of Religion by T. Rhys Davids, p. 28.] + +[Footnote 10: Job i. 6, Hebrew.] + +[Footnote 11: Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 29.] + +[Footnote 12: "Buddhism so far from tracing 'all things' to 'matter' as +their original, denies the reality of matter, but it nowhere denies the +reality of existence."--The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 156.] + +[Footnote 13: See A Year among the Persians, by Edward G. Browne, +London, 1893.] + +[Footnote 14: Dutt's History of India, pp. 153-156. See also Mozoomdar's +The Spirit of God, p. 305. "Buddhism, though for a long time it +supplanted the parent system, was the fulfilment of the prophecy of +universal peace, which Hinduism had made; and when, in its turn, it was +outgrown by the instincts of the Aryans, it had to leave India indeed +forever, but it contributed quite as much to Indian religion as it had +ever borrowed."] + +[Footnote 15: Korean Repository, Vol. I., pp. 101, 131, 153; Siebold's +Nippon, Archiv; Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1890-91, +Vol. I., p. 346; Dallet's Histoire de l'glise de Core, Vol. 1., +Introd., p. cxlv.; Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 331.] + +[Footnote 16: See Brian H. Hodgson's The Literature and History of the +Buddhists, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which is +epitomized in The Phoenix, Vol. I.; Beal's Buddhism in China, Chap. II.; +T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, etc. To Brian Houghton Hodgson, (of whose +death at the ripe age of ninety-three years we read in Luzac's Oriental +List) more than to any one writer, are we indebted for our knowledge of +Northern or Mahayana Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 17: See the very accurate, clear, and full definitions and +explanations in The Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 18: This subject is fully discussed by Professor T. Rhys +Davids in his compact Manual of Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 19: See Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 20: Jap. Mon-ju. One of the most famous images of this +Bodhisattva is at Zenk-ji, Nagano. See Kern's Saddharma Pundarika, p. +8, and the many referents to Manjusri in the Index. That Manjusri was +the legendary civilizer of Nepaul seems probable from the following +extract from Brian Hodgson: "The Swayambhu Purana relates in substance +as follows: That formerly the valley of Nepaul was of circular form, and +full of very deep water, and that the mountains confining it were +clothed with the densest forests, giving shelter to numberless birds and +beasts. Countless waterfowl rejoiced in the waters.... + +"... Vipasyi, having thrice circumambulated the lake, seated himself in +the N.W. (Vyubona) side of it, and, having repeated several mantras +over the root of a lotos, he threw it into the water, exclaiming, 'What +time this root shall produce a flower, then, from out of the flower, +Swayambhu, the Lord of Agnishtha Bhuvana, shall be revealed in the form +of flame; and then shall the lake become a cultivated and populous +country.' Having repeated these words, Vipasyi departed. Long after the +date of this prophecy, it was fulfilled according to the letter.... + +"... When the lake was dessicated (by the sword of Manjusri says the +myth--probably earthquake) Karkotaka had a fine tank built for him to +dwell in; and there he is still worshipped, also in the cave-temple +appendant to the great Buddhist shrine of Swayambhu Nath.... + +"... The Bodhisatwa above alluded to is Manju Sri, whose native place is +very far off, towards the north, and is called Pancha Sirsha Parvata +(which is situated in Maha China Des). After the coming of Viswabhu +Buddha to Naga Vasa, Manju Sri, meditating upon what was passing in the +world, discovered by means of his divine science that +Swayambhu-jyotirupa, that is, the self-existent, in the form of flame, +was revealed out of a lotos in the lake of Naga Vasa. Again, he +reflected within himself: 'Let me behold that sacred spot, and my name +will long be celebrated in the world;' and on the instant, collecting +together his disciples, comprising a multitude of the peasantry of the +land, and a Raja named Dharmakar, he assumed the form of Viswakarma, and +with his two Devis (wives) and the persons above-mentioned, set out upon +the long journey from Sirsha Parvata to Naga Vasa. There having arrived, +and having made puja to the self-existent, he began to circumambulate +the lake, beseeching all the while the aid of Swayambhu in prayer. In +the second circuit, when he had reached the central barrier mountain to +the south, he became satisfied that that was the best place whereat to +draw off the waters of the lake. Immediately he struck the mountain with +his scimitar, when the sundered rock gave passage to the waters, and the +bottom of the lake became dry. He then descended from the mountain, and +began to walk about the valley in all directions."--The Phoenix, Vol. +II., pp. 147-148.] + +[Footnote 21: Jap. Kwannon, god or goddess of mercy, in his or her +manifold forms, Thousand-handed, Eleven-faced, Horse-headed, Holy, etc.] + +[Footnote 22: Or, The Lotus of the Good Law, a mystical name for the +cosmos. "The good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric." See Bernouf +and Kern's translations, and Edkin's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 214. +Translations of this work, so influential in Japanese Buddhism, exist in +French, German, and English. See Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXI., by +Professor H. Kern, of Leyden University. In the Introduction, p. xxxix., +the translator discusses age, authorship, editions, etc. Bunyiu Nanjio's +Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, pp. 132-134. Beal +in his Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, pp. 389-396, has translated +Chapter XXIV.] + +[Footnote 23: At the great Zenk[=o]ji, a temple of the Tendai sect, at +Nagano, Japan, dedicated to three Buddhist divinities, one of whom is +Kwannon (Avalokitesvara, the rafters of the vast main hall are said to +number 69,384, in reference to the number of Chinese characters +contained in the translation of the Saddharma Pundarika.] + +[Footnote 24: "The third (collection of the Tripitaka) was ... made by +Manjusri and Maitreya. This is the collection of the Mahayana books. +Though it is as clear or bright as the sun at midday yet the men of the +Hinayana are not ashamed of their inability to know them and speak evil +of them instead, just as the Confucianists call Buddhism a law of +barbarians, without reading the Buddhist books at all."--B.N., p. 51.] + +[Footnote 25: See the writings of Brian Hodgson, J. Edkins, E.J. Eitel, +S. Beal, T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.] + +[Footnote 26: See Chapter VIII. in T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, a book of +great scholarship and marvellous condensation.] + +[Footnote 27: Davids's Buddhism, p. 206. Other illustrations of the +growth of the dogmas of this school of Buddhism we select from Brian +Hodgson's writings. + +1. The line of division between God and man, and between gods and man, +was removed by Buddhism. + +"Genuine Buddhism never seems to contemplate any measures of acceptance +with the deity; but, overleaping the barrier between finite and infinite +mind, urges its followers to aspire by their own efforts to that divine +perfectibility of which it teaches that man is capable, and by attaining +which man becomes God--and thus is explained both the quiescence of the +imaginary celestial, and the plenary omnipotence of the real Manushi +Buddhas--thus, too, we must account for the fact that genuine Buddhism +has no priesthood; the saint despises the priest; the saint scorns the +aid of mediators, whether on earth or in heaven; 'conquer (exclaims the +adept or Buddha to the novice or BodhiSattwa)--conquer the importunities +of the body, urge your mind to the meditation of abstraction, and you +shall, in time, discover the great secret (Sunyata) of nature: know +this, and you become, on the instant, whatever priests have feigned of +Godhead--you become identified with Prajna, the sum of all the power and +all the wisdom which sustain and govern the world, and which, as they +are manifested out of matter, must belong solely to matter; not indeed +in the gross and palpable state of pravritti, but in the archetypal and +pure state of nirvritti. Put off, therefore, the vile, pravrittika +necessities of the body, and the no less vile affections of the mind +(Tapas); urge your thought into pure abstraction (Dhyana), and then, as +assuredly you can, so assuredly you shall, attain to the wisdom of a +Buddha (Bodhijnana), and become associated with the eternal unity and +rest of nirvritti.'"--The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 194. + +2. A specimen of "esoteric" and "exoteric" Buddhism;--the Buddha +Tatkagata. + +"And as the wisdom of man is, in its origin, but an effluence of the +Supreme wisdom (_Prajn_) of nature, so is it perfected by a refluence +to its source, but without loss of individuality; whence Prajna is +feigned in the exoteric system to be both the mother and the wife of all +the Buddhas, '_janani sarva Buddknm_,' and '_Jina-sundary_;' for the +efflux is typified by a birth, and the reflux by a marriage. + +"The Buddha is the adept in the wisdom of Buddhism (_Bodhijnna_) whose +first duty, so long as he remains on earth, is to communicate his wisdom +to those who are willing to receive it. These willing learners are the +'Bodhisattwas,' so called from their hearts being inclined to the wisdom +of Buddhism, and 'Sanghas,' from their companionship with one another, +and with their Buddha or teacher, in the _Vihras_ or coenobitical +establishments." + +"And such is the esoteric interpretation of the third (and inferior) +member of the Prajniki Triad. The Bodhisattwa or Sangha continues to be +such until he has surmounted the very last grade of that vast and +laborious ascent by which he is instructed that he can 'scale the +heavens,' and pluck immortal wisdom from its resplendent source: which +achievement performed, he becomes a Buddha, that is, an Omniscient +Being, and a _Tathgata_--a title implying the accomplishment of that +gradual increase in wisdom by which man becomes immortal or ceases to be +subject to transmigration."--The Phoenix, Vol. I., pp. 194, 195. + +3. Is God all, or is all God? + +"What that grand secret, that ultimate truth, that single reality, is, +whether all is God, or God is all, seems to be the sole _proposition_ of +the oriental philosophic religionists, who have all alike sought to +discover it by taking the high _priori_ road. That God is all, appears +to be the prevalent dogmatic determination of the Brahmanists; that all +is God, the preferential but sceptical solution of the _Buddhists_; and, +in a large view, I believe it would be difficult to indicate any further +essential difference between their theoretic systems, both, as I +conceive, the unquestionable growth of the Indian soil, and both founded +upon transcendental speculation, conducted in the very same style and +manner."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 45. + +4. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. + +"In a philosophical light, the precedence of Buddha or of Dharma +indicates the theistic or atheistic school. With the former, Buddha is +intellectual essence, the efficient cause of all, and underived. Dharma +is material essence, the plastic cause, and underived, a co-equal +biunity with Buddha; or else the plastic cause, as before, but dependent +and derived from Buddha. Sangha is derived from, and compounded of, +Buddha, and Dharma, is their collective energy in the state of action; +the immediate operative cause of creation, its type or its agent. With +the latter or atheistic schools, Dharma is _Diva natura_, matter as the +sole entity, invested with intrinsic activity and intelligence, the +efficient and material cause of all. + +"Buddha is derivative from Dharma, is the active and intelligent force +of nature, first put off from it and then operating upon it. Sangha is +the _result_ of that operation; is embryotic creation, the type and sum +of all specific forms, which are spontaneously evolved from the union of +Buddha with Dharma."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 12. + +5. The mantra or sacred sentence best known in the Buddhadom and abroad. + +"_Amitbha_ is the fourth _Dhyani_ or celestial _Budda: Padma-pani_ his +_on_ and executive minister. _Padma-pani_ is the _praesens Divus_ and +creator of the _existing_ system of worlds. Hence his identification +with the third member of the _Triad_. He is figured as a graceful youth, +erect, and bearing in either hand a _lotos_ and a jewel. The last +circumstance explains the meaning of the celebrated _Shadakshri +Mantra_, or six-lettered invocation of him, viz., _Om! Manipadme hom!_ +of which so many corrupt versions and more corrupt interpretations have +appeared from Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, and other sources. The +_mantra_ in question is one of three, addressed to the several members +of the _Triad_. 1. _Om sarva vidye hom_. 2. _Om Prajnye hom_. 3. _Om +mani-padme hom_. 1. The mystic triform Deity is in the all-wise +(Buddha). 2. The mystic triform Deity is in Prajna (Dharma). 3. The +mystic triform Deity is in him of the jewel and lotos (Sangha). But the +praesens Divus, whether he be Augustus or _Padma-pani_, is everything +with the many. Hence the notoriety of this _mantra_, whilst the others +are hardly ever heard of, and have thus remained unknown to our +travellers."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 64.] + +[Footnote 28: "Nine centuries after Buddha, Maitreya (Miroku or Ji-shi) +came down from the Tushita heaven to the lecture-hall in the kingdom of +Ayodhya (A-ya-sha) in Central India, at the request of the Bodhisattva +Asamga (Mu-jaku) and discoursed five Sastras, 1, Yoga-karya-bhumi-sastra +(Yu-ga-shi-ji-ron), etc.... After that, the two great Sastra teachers, +Asanga and Vasubandhu (Se-shin), who were brothers, composed many +Sastras (Ron) and cleared up the meaning of the Mahayana" (or Greater +Vehicle, canon of Northern Buddhism).--B.N., p. 32.] + +[Footnote 29: Buddhism, T. Rhys Davids, pp. 206-211.] + +[Footnote 30: Prayer-wheels in Japan are used by the Tendai and Shingon +sects, but without written prayers attached, and rather as an +illustration of the doctrine of cause and effect (ingwa); the prayers +being usually offered to Jizo the merciful.--S. and H., p. 29; T. J., p. +360.] + +[Footnote 31: For this see Edkins's Chinese Buddhism; Eitel's Three +Lectures, and Hand-book; Rev. S. Beal's Buddhism, and A Catena of +Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese; The Romantic Legend of Sakya +Buddha, from the Chinese; Texts from the Buddhist canon commonly known +as the Dhammapeda; Notes on Buddhist Words and Phrases, the +Chrysanthemum, Vol. I.; The Phoenix, Vols. I-III. + +See, also, a spirited sketch of Ancient Japan, by Frederick Victor +Dickins, in the Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II., pp. 4-14.] + +[Footnote 32: S. and H., pp. 289, 293; Chamberlain's Hand-book for +Japan, p. 220; Summer's Notes on Osaka, T.A.S.J., Vol. VIL, p. 382; +Buddhism, and Traditions Concerning its Introduction into Japan, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XIV., p. 78.] + +[Footnote 33: S. and H., p. 344.] + +[Footnote 34: T.J., p. 73.] + +[Footnote 35: Vairokana is the first or chief of the five +personifications of Wisdom, and in Japan the idol is especially +noticeable in the temples of the Tendai sect.--"The Action of Vairokana, +or the great doctrine of the highest vehicle of the secret union," etc., +B.N., p. 75.] + +[Footnote 36: S. and H., p. 390; B.N., p. 29.] + +[Footnote 37: "Hinduism stands for philosophic spirituality and emotion, +Buddhism for ethics and humanity, Christianity for fulness of God's +incarnation in man, while Mohammedanism is the champion of +uncompromising monotheism."--F.P.C. Mozoomdar's The Spirit of God, +Boston, 1894, p. 305.] + + +CHAPTER VII + +RIY[=O]BU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM + + +[Footnote 1: Is not something similar frankly attempted in Rev. Dr. +Joseph Edkins's The Early Spread of Religious Ideas in the Far East +(London, 1893)?] + +[Footnote 2: M.E., p. 252; Honda the Samurai, pp. 193-194.] + +[Footnote 3: See The Lily Among Thorns, A Study of the Biblical Drama +Entitled the Song of Songs (Boston 1890), in which this subject is +glanced at.] + +[Footnote 4: See The Religion of Nepaul, Buddhist Philosophy, and the +writings of Brian Hodgson in The Phoenix, Vols. I., II., III.] + +[Footnote 5: See Century Dictionary, Yoga; Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, +pp. 169-174; T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, pp. 206-211; Index of B.N., +under Vagrasattwa; S. and H., pp. 85-87.] + +[Footnote 6: T.J., p. 226; Kojiki, Introduction.] + +[Footnote 7: See in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1893, a +very valuable paper by Mr. L.A. Waddell, on The Northern Buddhist +Mythology, epitomized in the Japan Mail, May 5, 1894.] + +[Footnote 8: See Catalogue of Chinese and Japanese Paintings in the +British Museum, and The Pictorial Arts of Japan, by William Anderson, +M.D.] + +[Footnote 9: Anderson's Catalogue, p. 24.] + +[Footnote 10: S. and H., p. 415; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan; +T.J.; M.E., p. 162, etc.] + +[Footnote 11: The names of Buddhist priests and monks are usually +different from those of the laity, being taken from events in the life +of Gautama, or his original disciples, passages in the sacred classics, +etc. Among some personal acquaintances in the Japanese priesthood were +such names as Lift-the-Kettle, Take-Hold-of-the-Dipper, +Drivelling-Drunkard, etc. In the raciness, oddity, literalness, realism, +and close connection of their names with the scriptures of their system, +the Buddhists quite equal the British Puritans.] + +[Footnote 12: Kern's Saddharma-Pundarika, pp. 311, 314; Davids's +Buddhism p. 208; The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 169; S. and H., p. 502; Du +Bose's Dragon, Demon, and Image, p. 407; Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 134; +Hough's Corean Collections, Washington, 1893, p. 480, plate xxviii.] + +[Footnote 13: Japan in History, Folk-lore and Art, pp. 86, 80-88; A +Japanese Grammar, by J.J. Hoffman, p. 10; T.J., pp. 465-470.] + +[Footnote 14: This is the essence of Buddhism, and was for centuries +repeated and learned by heart throughout the empire: + + "Love and enjoyment disappear, + What in our world endureth here? + E'en should this day it oblivion be rolled, + 'Twas only a vision that leaves me cold." +] + +[Footnote 15: This legend suggests the mediaeval Jewish story, that +Ezra, the scribe, could write with five pens at once; Hearn's Glimpses +of Unfamiliar Japan, pp. 29-33.] + +[Footnote 16: Brave Little Holland, and What She Taught Us, p. 124.] + +[Footnote 17: T.J., pp. 75, 342; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. +41; M.E., p. 162.] + +[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 101; S. and H., p. 176.] + +[Footnote 19: It was for lifting with his walking-stick the curtain +hanging before the shrine of this Kami that Arinori Mori, formerly +H.I.J.M. Minister at Washington and London, was assassinated by a +Shint[=o] fanatic, February 11, 1889; T. J., p. 229; see Percival +Lowell's paper in the Atlantic Monthly.] + +[Footnote 20: See Mr. P. Lowell's Esoteric Shint[=o], T.A.S.J., Vol. +XXI, pp. 165-167, and his "Occult Japan."] + +[Footnote 21: S. and H., Japan, p. 83.] + +[Footnote 22: See the Author's Introduction to the Arabian Nights' +Entertainments, Boston, 1891.] + +[Footnote 23: B.N., Index and pp. 78-103; Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, p. +169.] + +[Footnote 24: Satow's or Chamberlain's Guide-books furnish hundreds of +other instances, and describe temples in which the renamed kami are +worshipped.] + +[Footnote 25: S. and H., p. 70.] + +[Footnote 26: M.E., pp. 187, 188; S. and H., pp. 11, 12.] + +[Footnote 27: San Kai Ri (Mountain, Sea, and Land). This work, +recommended to me by a learned Buddhist priest in Fukui, I had +translated and read to me by a Buddhist of the Shin Shu sect. In like +manner, even Christian writers in Japan have occasionally endeavored to +rationalize the legends of Shint[=o], see Kojiki, p. liii., where Mr. T. +Goro's Shint[=o] Shin-ron is referred to. I have to thank my friend Mr. +C. Watanab, of Cornell University, for reading to me Mr. Takahashi's +interesting but unconvincing monographs on Shint[=o] and Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 28: T.J., p. 402; Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio Hearn, p. +129.] + +[Footnote 29: S. and H., Japan, p. 397; Classical Poetry of the +Japanese, p. 201, note.] + +[Footnote 30: The Japanese word Ry[=o] means both, and is applied to the +eyes, ears, feet, things correspondent or in pairs, etc.; _bu_ is a term +for a set, kind, group, etc.] + +[Footnote 31: Rein, p. 432; T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., pp. 241-270; T.J., p. +339.] + +[Footnote 32: The Chrysanthemum, Vol. I., p. 401.] + +[Footnote 33: Even the Taktori Monogatari (The Bamboo Cutter's +Daughter), the oldest and the best of the Japanese classic romances is +(at least in the text and form now extant) a warp of native ideas with a +woof of Buddhist notions.] + +[Footnote 34: Mr. Percival Lowell argues, in Esoteric Shint[=o], +T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., that besides the habit of pilgrimages, +fire-walking, and god-possession, other practices supposed to be +Buddhistic are of Shint[=o] origin.] + +[Footnote 35: The native literature illustrating Riy[=o]buism is not +extensive. Mr. Ernest Satow in the American Cyclopdia (Japan: +Literature) mentions several volumes. The Tenchi Riki Noko, in eighteen +books contains a mixture of Buddhism and Shint[=o], and is ascribed by +some to Sh[=o]toku and by others to K[=o]b[=o], but now literary critics +ascribe these, as well as the books Jimbetsuki and Tenshoki, to be +modern forgeries by Buddhist priests. The Kogoshiui, written in A.D. +807, professes to preserve fragments of ancient tradition not recorded +in the earlier books, but the main object is that which lies at the +basis of a vast mass of Japanese literature, namely, to prove the +author's own descent from the gods. The Yuiitsu Shint[=o] Miyoho Yoshiu, +in two volumes, is designed to prove that Shint[=o] and Buddhism are +identical in their essence. Indeed, almost all the treatises on +Shint[=o] before the seventeenth century maintained this view. Certain +books like the Shint[=o] Shu, for centuries popular, and well received +even by scholars, are now condemned on account of their confusion of the +two religions. One of the most interesting works which we have found is +the San Kai Ri, to which reference has been made.] + +[Footnote 36: T.J., p. 224.] + +[Footnote 37: "Human life is but fifty years," Japanese Proverb; M.E., +p. 107.] + +[Footnote 38: Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese, p. 130.] + +[Footnote 39: S. and H., p. 416.] + +[Footnote 40: Things Chinese, by J. Dyer Ball, p. 70; see also Edkins +and Eitel.] + +[Footnote 41: The Japan Weekly Mail of April 28, 1893, translating and +condensing an article from the Bukky[=o], a Buddhist newspaper, gives +the results of a Japanese Buddhist student's tour through China--"Taoism +prevails everywhere.... Buddhism has decayed and is almost dead."] + +[Footnote 42: Vaisramana is a Deva who guarded, praised, fed with +heavenly food, and answered the questions of the Chinese D[=o]-sen +(608-907 A.D.) who founded the Risshu or Vinaya sect.--B.N., p. 25.] + +[Footnote 43: Anderson, Catalogue, pp. 29-45.] + +[Footnote 44: Some of those are pictured in Aim Humbert's Japon +Illustr, and from the same pictures reproduced by electro-plates which, +from Paris, have transmigrated for a whole generation through the +cheaper books on Japan, in every European language.] + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NORTHERN BUDDHISM IS ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS + + +[Footnote 1: On the Buddhist canon, see the writings of Beal, Spence +Hardy, T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.] + +[Footnote 2: Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 108, 214; Classical +Poetry of the Japanese, p. 173.] + +[Footnote 3: See T.A.S.J., Vol. XIX., Part I., pp. 17-37; The Soul of +the Far East; and the writings of Chamberlain, Aston, Dickins, +Munzinger, etc.] + +[Footnote 4: Much of the information as to history and doctrine +contained in this chapter has been condensed from Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio's A +Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, translated out of +the Japanese into English. This author, besides visiting the old seats +of the faith in China, studied Sanskrit at Oxford with Professor Max +Mller, and catalogued in English the Tripitaka or Buddhist canon of +China and Japan, sent to England by the ambassador Iwakura. The nine +reverend gentlemen who wrote the chapters and introduction of the Short +History are Messrs. K[=o]-ch[=o] Ogurusu, and Shu-Zan Emura of the Shin +sect; Rev. Messrs. Sh[=o]-hen Uda, and Dai-ryo Takashi, of the Shin-gon +Sect; Rev. Messrs. Gy[=o]-kai Fukuda, Keu-k[=o] Tsuji, Renj[=o] +Akamatsu, and Z-jun Kobayashi of the J[=o]-d[=o], Zen, Shin, and +Nichiren sects, respectively. Though execrably printed, and the English +only tolerable, the work is invaluable to the student of Japanese +Buddhism. It has a historical introduction and a Sanskrit-Chinese Index, +1 vol., pp. 172, T[=o]ki[=o], 1887. Substantially the same work, +translated into French, is Le Bouddhisme Japonais, by Ryauon Fujishima, +Paris, 1889. Satow and Hawes's Hand-book for Japan has brief but +valuable notes in the Introduction, and, like Chamberlain's continuation +of the same work, is a storehouse of illustrative matter. Edkine's and +Eitel's works on Chinese Buddhism have been very helpful.] + +[Footnote 5: M. Abel Remusat published a translation of a Chinese +Pilgrim's travels in 1836; M. Stanislais Julien completed his volume on +Hiouen Thsang in 1858; and in 1884 Rev. Samuel Beal issued his Travels +of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist Pilgrims from China to India (400 +A.D. and 518 A.D.). The latter work contains a map.] + +[Footnote 6: B.N., p. 3.] + +[Footnote 7: B.N., p. 11.] + +[Footnote 8: Three hundred and twenty million years. See Century +Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 9: See the paper of Rev. Sh[=o]-hen Uda of the Shingon sect, +in B.N., pp. 20-31; and R. Fujishima's Le Bouddhisme Japonais, pp. xvi., +xvii., from which most of the information here given has been derived.] + +[Footnote 10: M.E., p. 383; S. and H., pp. 23, 30. The image of Binzuru +is found in many Japanese temples to-day, a famous one being at Asakusa, +in T[=o]ki[=o]. He is the supposed healer of all diseases. The image +becomes entirely rubbed smooth by devotees, to the extinguishment of all +features, lines, and outlines.] + +[Footnote 11: Davids's Buddhism, pp. 180, 200; S. and H., pp. (87) 389, +416.] + +[Footnote 12: B.N., pp. 32-43.] + +[Footnote 13: B.N., pp. 44-56.] + +[Footnote 14: Japanese Fairy World, p. 282; Anderson's Catalogue, pp. +l03-7.] + +[Footnote 15: B.N., p. 62.] + +[Footnote 16: Pfoundes, Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 17: B.N., p. 58. See also The Monist for January, 1894, p. +168.] + +[Footnote 18: "Tien Tai, a spot abounding in Buddhist antiquities, the +earliest, and except Puto the largest and richest seat of that religion +in eastern China. As a monastic establishment it dates from the fourth +century."--Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 137-142.] + +[Footnote 19: S. and H., p. 87. See the paper read at the Parliament of +Religions by the Zen bonze Ashitsu of Hiyisan, the poem of Right +Reverend Shaku Soyen, and the paper on The Fundamental Teachings of +Buddhism, in The Monist for January, 1894; Japan As We Saw It, p. 297.] + +[Footnote 20: See Century Dictionary, _mantra_.] + +[Footnote 21: See Chapter XX. Ideas and Symbols in Japan: in History, +Folk-lore, and Art. Buddhist tombs (go-rin) consist of a cube (earth), +sphere (water), pyramid (fire), crescent (wind), and flame-shaped stone +(ether), forming the go-rin or five-blossom tomb, typifying the five +elements.] + +[Footnote 22: B.N., p. 78.] + +[Footnote 23: To put this dogma into intelligible English is, as Mr. +Satow says, more difficult than to comprehend the whole doctrine, hard +as that may be. "Dai Nichi Ni-yorai (Vairokana) is explained to be the +collectivity of all sentient beings, acting through the mediums of +Kwan-non, Ji-z[=o], Mon-ju, Shaka, and other influences which are +popularly believed to be self-existent deities." In the diagram called +the eight-leaf enclosure, by which the mysteries of Shingon are +explained, Maha-Vairokana is in the centre, and on the eight petals are +such names as Amitabha, Manjusri, Maitreya, and Avalokitesvara; in a +word, all are purely speculative beings, phantoms of the brain, the +mushrooms of decayed Brahmanism, and the mould of primitive Buddhism +disintegrated by scholasticism.] + +[Footnote 24: S. and H., p. 31.] + +[Footnote 25: B.N., p. 115.] + +[Footnote 26: Here let me add that in my studies of oriental and ancient +religion, I have never found one real Trinity, though triads, or +tri-murti, are common. None of these when carefully analyzed yield the +Christian idea of the Trinity.] + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE + + +[Footnote 1: Tathagata is one of the titles of the Buddha, meaning "thus +come," i.e., He comes bringing human nature as it truly is, with perfect +knowledge and high intelligence, and thus manifests himself. Amitabha is +the Sanskrit of Amida, or the deification of boundless light.] + +[Footnote 2: B.N., p. 104.] + +[Footnote 3: Literally, I yield to, or I adore the Boundless or the +Immeasurable Buddha.] + +[Footnote 4: A Chinese or Japanese volume is much smaller than the +average printed volume in Europe.] + +[Footnote 5: Legacy of Iyyas[)u], Section xxviii. Doctrinally, this +famous document, written probably long after Iyyas[)u]'s death and +canonization as a _gongen_, is a mixture or _Riy[=o]bu_ of Confucianism +and Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 6: At first glance a forcible illustration, since the Japanese +proverb declares that "A sea-voyage is an inch of hell." And yet the +original saying of Ry[=u]-ju, now proverbial in Buddhadom, referred to +the ease of sailing over the water, compared with the difficulty of +surmounting the obstacles of land travel in countries not yet famous for +good roads. See B.N., p. 111.] + +[Footnote 7: Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 108; Descriptive Notes on the Rosaries +as used by the different Sects of Buddhists in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. +IX., pp. 173-182.] + +[Footnote 8: B.N., p. 122.] + +[Footnote 9: S. and H., p. 361.] + +[Footnote 10: S. and H., pp. 90-92; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., +pp. 242-253.] + +[Footnote 11: These three sutras are those most in favor with the +J[=o]-d[=o] sect also, they are described, B.N., 104-106, and their +tenets are referred to on pp. 260, 261.] + +[Footnote 12: For modern statements of Shin tenets and practices, see +E.J. Reed's Japan, Vol. I., pp. 84-86; The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881, +pp. 109-115; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., 242-246; B.N., 122-131. +Edkins's Religion in China, p. 153. The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881, p. +115.] + +[Footnote 13: S. and H., p. 361; B.N., pp. 105, 106. Toward the end of +the Amitayus-dhyana sutra, Buddha says: "Let not one's voice cease, but +ten times complete the thought, and repeat Namo'mit[=a]bh[=a]ya +Buddh[=a]ya (Namu Amida Butsu) or adoration to Amitb[=a]ha Buddha."] + +[Footnote 14: M.E., pp. 164-166.] + +[Footnote 15: Schaff's Encyclopaedia, Article, Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 16: On the Tenets of the Shin Shiu, or "True Sect" of +Buddhists, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIV., p. 1.] + +[Footnote 17: The Gobunsho, or Ofumi, of Renny[=o] Sh[=o]nin, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XVII., pp. 101-143.] + +[Footnote 18: At the gorgeous services in honor of the founder of the +great Higashi Hongwanji Western Temple of the Original Vow at Asakusa, +T[=o]ki[=o], November 21 to 28, annually, the women attend wearing a +head-dress called "horn-hider," which seems to have been named in +allusion to a Buddhist text which says: "A woman's exterior is that of a +saint, but her heart is that of a demon."--Chamberlain's Hand-book for +Japan, p. 82; T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. 106, 141; Sacred Books of the +East, Vol. XXI., pp. 251-254.] + +[Footnote 19: Review of Buddhist Texts from Japan, The Nation, No. 875, +April 6, 1882. "The _Mah[=a]y[=a]na_ or Great Vehicle (we might fairly +render it 'highfalutin') school.... Filled as these countries (Tibet, +China, Japan) are with Buddhist monasteries, and priests, and nominal +adherents, and abounding in voluminous translations of the Sanskrit +Buddhistic literature, little understood and wellnigh unintelligible +(for neither country has had the independence and mental force to +produce a literature of its own, or to add anything but a chapter of +decay to the history of this religion)...."] + +[Footnote 20: M.E., pp. 164, 165; B.N., pp. 132-147; Mitford's Tales of +Old Japan, Vol. II., pp. 125-134.] + + +CHAPTER X + +JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT + + +[Footnote 1: T.J., p. 71. Further illustrations of this statement may be +found in his Classical Poetry of the Japanese, especially in the +Selection and Appendices of this book; also in T.R.H. McClatchie's +Japanese Plays (Versified), London, 1890.] + +[Footnote 2: See Introduction to the Kojiki, pp. xxxii.-xxxiv., and in +Bakin's novel illustrating popular Buddhist beliefs, translated by +Edward Greey, A Captive of Love, Boston, 1886.] + +[Footnote 3: See jade in Century Dictionary; "Magatama, so far as I am +aware, do not ever appear to have been found in shell heaps" (of the +aboriginal Ainos), Milne's Notes on Stone Implements, T.A.S.J., Vol. +VIII., p. 71.] + +[Footnote 4: Concerning this legendary, and possibly mythical, episode, +which has so powerfully influenced Japanese imagination and politics, +see T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., Part I., pp. 39-75; M.E., pp. 75-85.] + +[Footnote 5: See Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 1, 2; Persian Elements in +Japanese Legends, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., Part I, pp. 1-10; Journal of the +Royal Asiatic Society, January, 1894. Rein's book, The Industries of +Japan, points out, as far as known, the material debt to India. Some +Japanese words like _beni-gari_ (Bengal) or rouge show at once their +origin. The mosaic of stories in the Taktori Monogatari, an allegory in +exquisite literary form, illustrating the Buddhist dogma of Ingwa, or +law of cause and effect, and written early in the ninth century, is made +up of Chinese-Indian elements. See F.V. Dickins's translation and notes +in Journal of the Royal Oriental Society, Vol. XIX., N.S. India was the +far off land of gems, wonders, infallible drugs, roots, etc.; Japanese +Fairy World, p. 137.] + +[Footnote 6: M.E., Chap. VIII.; Klaproth's Annales des Empereurs du +Japon (a translation of Nippon 0 Dai Ichi Ran); Rein's Japan, p. 224.] + +[Footnote 7: See Klaproth's Annales, _passim_. S. and H. p. 85. Bridges +are often symbolical of events, classic passages in the shastras and +sutras, or are antetypes of Paradisaical structures. The ordinary native +_hashi_ is not remarkable as a triumph of the carpenter's art, though +some of the Japanese books mention and describe in detail some +structures that are believed to be astonishing.] + +[Footnote 8: Often amusingly illustrated, M.E., p. 390. A translation +into Japanese of Goethe's Reynard the Fox is among the popular works of +the day. "Strange to say, however, the Japanese lose much of the +exquisite humor of this satire in their sympathy with the woes of the +maltreated wolf."--The Japan Mail. This sympathy with animals grows +directly out of the doctrine of metempsychosis. The relationship between +man and ape is founded upon the pantheistic identity of being. "We +mention sin," says a missionary now in Japan, "and he [the average +auditor] thinks of eating flesh, or the killing of insects." Many of the +sutras read like tracts and diatribes of vegetarians.] + +[Footnote 9: See The Art of Landscape Gardening in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. +XIV.; Theory of Japanese Flower Arrangements, by J. Conder, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XVII.; T.J., p. 168; M.E., p. 437; T.J., p. 163.] + +[Footnote 10: _The_ book, by excellence, on the Japanese house, is +Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings, by E.S. Morse. See also +Constructive Art in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 57, III., p. 20; +Feudal Mansions of Yedo, Vol. VII., p. 157.] + +[Footnote 11: See Hearn's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, pp. 385, 410, +and _passim_.] + +[Footnote 12: For pathetic pictures of Japanese daily life, see Our +Neighborhood, by the late Dr. T.A. Purcell, Yokohama, 1874; A Japanese +Boy, by Himself (S. Shigmi), New Haven, 1889; Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses +of Unfamiliar Japan, Boston, 1894.] + +[Footnote 13: Klaproth's Annales, and S. and H. _passim_.] + +[Footnote 14: See Pfoundes's Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 130, for a list of +grades from Ho-[=o] or cloistered emperor, Miya or sons of emperors, +chief priests of sects, etc., down to priests in charge of inferior +temples. This Budget of Notes, pp. 99-144, contains much valuable +information, and was one of the first publications in English which shed +light upon the peculiarities of Japanese Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 15: Isaiah xl. 19, 20, and xli. 6, 7, read to the dweller in +Japan like the notes of a reporter taken yesterday.] + +[Footnote 16: T.J., p. 339; Notes on Some Minor Japanese Religious +Practices, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May, 1893; +Lowell's Esoteric Shint[=o], T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI.; Satow's The Shint[=o] +Temples of Is, T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 113.] + +[Footnote 17: M.E., p. 45; American Cyclopaedia, Japan, +Literature--History, Travels, Diaries, etc.] + +[Footnote 18: That is, no dialects like those which separate the people +of China. The ordinary folks of Satsuma and Suruga, for example, +however, would find it difficult to understand each other if only the +local speech were used. Men from the extremes of the Empire use the +T[=o]ki[=o] standard language in communicating with each other.] + +[Footnote 19: For some names of Buddhist temples in Shimoda see Perry's +Narrative, pp. 470-474, described by Dr. S. Wells Williams; S. and H. +_passim_.] + +[Footnote 20: The Abb Huc in his Travels in Tartary was one of the +first to note this fact. I have not noticed in my reading that the +Jesuit missionaries in Japan in the seventeenth century call attention +to the matter. See also the writings of Arthur Lillie, voluminous but +unconvincing, Buddha and Early Buddhism, and Buddhism and Christianity, +London, 1893.] + +[Footnote 21: M.E., p. 252.] + +[Footnote 22: T.J., p. 70.] + +[Footnote 23: See The Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene Creed, +T[=o]ki[=o], 1894, by Rev. A. Lloyd.] + +[Footnote 24: "I preach with ever the same voice, taking enlightenment +as my text. For this is equal for all; no partiality is in it, neither +hatred nor affection.... I am inexorable, bear no love or hatred towards +anyone, and proclaim the law to all creatures without distinction, to +the one as well as to the other."--Saddharma Pundarika.] + +[Footnote 25: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., p. 247.] + +[Footnote 26: For the symbolism of the lotus see M.E., p. 437; Unbeaten +Tracks in Japan, Vol. I., p. 299; M.E. index; and Saddharma Pundarika, +Kern's translation, p. 76, note: + +"Here the Buddha is represented as a wise and benevolent father; he is +the heavenly father, Brahma. As such ho was represented as sitting on a +'lotus-seat.' How common this representation was in India, at least in +the sixth century of our era, appears from Varhamihira's +Brihat-Sainhita, Ch. 58, 44, where the following rule is laid down for +the Buddha idols: 'Buddha shall be (represented) sitting on a +lotus-seat, like the father of the world.'"] + +[Footnote 27: See The Northern Buddhist Mythology in _Journal of the +Royal Asiatic Society_, January, 1894.] + +[Footnote 28: See The Pictorial Arts of Japan, and Descriptive and +Historical Catalogue, William Anderson, pp. 13-94.] + +[Footnote 29: See fylfot in Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 30: The word _vagra_, diamond, is a constituent in scores of +names of sutras, especially those whose contents are metaphysical in +their nature. The Vajrasan, Diamond Throne or Thunderbolt seat, was the +name applied to the most sacred part of the great temple reared by Asoka +on the site of the bodhi tree, under which Gautama received +enlightenment. "The adamantine truths of Buddha struck like a +thunderbolt upon the superstitious of his age." "The word vagra has the +two senses of hardness and utility. In the former sense it is understood +to be compared to the secret truth which is always in existence and not +to be broken. In the latter sense it implies the power of the +enlightened, that destroys the obstacles of passions."--B.N., p. 88. "As +held in the arms of Kwannon and other images in the temples," the vagra +or "diamond club" (is that) with which the foes of the Buddhist Church +are to be crushed.--S. and H., p. 444. Each of the gateway gods Ni-[=o] +(two Kings, Indra and Brahma) "bears in his hand the tokko (Sanskrit +_vagra_), an ornament originally designed to represent a diamond club, +and now used by priests and exorcists, as a religious sceptre +symbolizing the irresistible power of prayer, meditation, and +incantation."--Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. 31.] + +[Footnote 31: Jiz[=o] is the compassionate helper of all in trouble, +especially of travellers, of mothers, and of children. His Sanskrit name +is Kshiugarbha. His idol is one of the most common in Japan. It is +usually neck-laced with baby's bibs, often by the score, while the +pedestal is heaped with small stones placed there by sorrowing +mothers.--S. and H., p. 29, 394; Chamberlain's Handbook of Japan, 29, +101. Hearn's Japan, p. 34, and _passim_.] + +[Footnote 32: Sanskrit _arhat_ or _arhan_, meaning worthy or deserving, +i.e., holy man, the highest rank of Buddhist saintship. See Century +Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 33: M.E., p. 201. The long inscription on the bell in +Wellesley College, which summons the student-maidens to their hourly +tasks has been translated by the author and Dr. K. Kurahara and is as +follows: + +1. A prose preface or historical statement. + +2. Two stanzas of Chinese poetry, in four-syllable lines, of four verses +each, with an apostrophe in two four-syllable lines. + +3. The chronology. + +4. The names of the composer and calligraphist, and of the +bronze-founder. + +The characters in vertical lines are read from top to bottom, the order +of the columns being from right to left. There are in all 117 +characters. + +The first tablet reads: + +Lotus-Lily Temple (of) Law-Grove Mountain; Bell-inscription (and) +Preface. + +"Although there had been of old a bell hung in the Temple of the +Lotus-Lily, yet being of small dimensions its note was quickly +exhausted, and no volume of melody followed (after having been struck). +Whereupon, for the purpose of improving upon this state of affairs, we +made a subscription, and collected coin to obtain a new bell. All +believers in the doctrine, gods as well as devils, contributed freely. +Thus the enterprise was soon consummated, and this inscription prepared, +to wit: + +"'The most exalted Buddha having pitiful compassion upon the people, +would, by means of this bell, instead of words, awaken them from earthly +illusions, and reveal the darkness of this world. + +"'Many of the living hearkening to its voice, and making confession, are +freed from the bondage of their sins, and forever released from their +disquieting desires. + +"'How great is (Buddha's) merit! Who can utter it? Without measure, +boundless!' + +"Eleventh year of the Era of the Foundation of Literature (and of the +male element) Wood (and of the zodiac sign) Dog; Autumn, seventh month, +fifteenth day (A.D. August 30,1814). + +"Composition and penmanship by Kamda Koy-sen. Cast by the artist +Sugiwara Kuninobu." + +(The poem in unrhymed metre.) + + Buddha in compassion tender + With this bell, instead of words, + Wakens souls from life's illusions, + Lightens this world's darkness drear. + + Many souls its sweet tones heeding, + From their chains of sin are freed; + All the mind's unrest is soothed, + Sinful yearnings are repressed. + + Oh how potent is his merit, + Without bounds in all the worlds! +] + +[Footnote 34: Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 129.] + +[Footnote 35: M.E., pp. 287-290, 513-514; Perry's Narrative, pp. 471, +472; Our Neighborhood, pp. 119-124. The following epitaphs are gathered +from various sources: + +"This stone marks the remains of the believer who never grows old." + +"The believing woman Yu-ning, Happy was the day of her departure." + +"Multitudes fill the graves." + +"Only by this vehicle--the coffin--can we enter Hades." + +"As the floating grass is blown by the gentle breeze, or the glancing +ripples of autumn disappear when the sun goes down, or as a ship returns +to her old shore--so is life. It is a vapor, a morning-tide." + +"Buddha himself wishes to hear the name of the deceased that he may +enter life." + +"He who has left humanity is now perfected by Buddha's name, as the +withered moss by the dew." + +"Life is like a candle in the wind." + +"The wise make our halls illustrious, and their monuments endure for +ages." + +"What permanency is there to the glory of the world? It goes from the +sight like hoar-frost in the sun." + +"If men wish to enter the joys of heavenly light, +Let them smell the fragrance of the law of Buddha." + +"Whoever wishes to have his merit reach even to the abode of demons, let +him, with us, and all living, become perfect in the doctrine."] + +[Footnote 36: Rev. C.B. Hawarth in the _New York Independent_, January +18, 1894.] + +[Footnote 37: In 781 the Buddhist monk Ki-shun dedicated a chapel to +Jizo, on whom he conferred the epithet of Sho-gun or general, to suit +the warlike tastes of the Japanese people.--S. and H., p. 384. So also +Hachiman became the god of war because adopted as the patron deity of +the Genji warriors.--S. and H., p. 70.] + +[Footnote 38: Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 90.] + +[Footnote 39: Dixon's Japan, p. 41; S. and H., Japan, _passim_; Rein's +Japan; Story of the Nations, Japan, by David Murray, p. 201, note; +Dening's life of Toyotomi Hidyoshi; M.E., Chapters XV., XVI., XX., +XXIII., XXIV.; Gazetteer of Echizen; Shiga's History of Nations, +T[=o]ki[=o], 1888, pp. 115, 118; T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII., pp. 94, 134, +143.] + +[Footnote 40: T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII., Hidyoshi and the Satsuma Clan in +the Sixteenth Century, by J.H. Gubbins; The Times of Taik[=o], by R. +Brinkley, in _The Japan Times_.] + +[Footnote 41: The Copy of the Buddhist Tripitaka, or Northern +Collection, made by order of the Emperor, Wan-Li, in the sixteenth +century, when the Chinese capital (King) was changed from the South +(Nan) to the North (Pe), was reproduced in Japan in 1679 and again in +1681-83, and in over two thousand volumes, making a pile a hundred feet +high, was presented by the Japanese Government, through the Junior Prime +Minister, Mr. Tomomi Iwakura, to the Library of the India Office. See +Samuel Beal's The Buddhist Tripitaka, as it is known in China and Japan, +A Catalogue and Compendious Report, London, 1876. The library has been +rearranged by Mr. Bunyin Nanjio, who has published the result of his +labors, with Sanskrit equivalents of the titles and with notes of the +highest value.] + +[Footnote 42: "Neither country (China or Japan) has had the independence +and mental force to produce a literature of its own, and to add anything +but a chapter of decay to the history of this religion."--Professor +William D. Whitney, in review of Anecdota Oxoniensia, Buddhist Texts +from Japan, in _The Nation_, No. 875.] + +[Footnote 43: Education in Japan, A series of papers by the writer, +printed in _The Japan Mail_ of 1873-74, and reprinted in the educational +journals of the United Status. A digest of these papers is given in the +appendix of F.O. Adams's History of Japan; Life of Sir Harry Parkes, +Vol. II., pp. 305, 306.] + +[Footnote 44: Japan: in Literature, Folk-Lore, and Art, p. 77.] + +[Footnote 45: Japanese Education at the Philadelphia Exposition, New +York, 1876.] + +[Footnote 46: See Japanese Literature, by E.M. Satow, in The American +Cyclopdia.] + +[Footnote 47: The word bonze (Japanese _bon-so_ or _bozu_, Chinese +_fan-sung_) means an ordinary member of the congregation, just as the +Japanese term _bon-yo_ or _bon-zuko_ means common people or the ordinary +folks. The word came into European use from the Portuguese missionaries, +who heard the Japanese thus pronounce the Chinese term _fan_, which, as +_bon_, is applied to anything in the mass not out of the common.] + +[Footnote 48: See On the Early History of Printing in Japan, by E.M. +Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. X., Part L, p. 48; Part II., p. 252.] + +[Footnote 49: Japanese mediaeval monastery life has been ably pictured +in English fiction by a scholar of imagination and literary power, +withal a military critic and a veteran in Japanese lore. "The Times of +Taik[=o]," in the defunct Japanese Times (1878), deserves reprint as a +book, being founded on Japanese historical and descriptive works. In Mr. +Edward's Greey's A Captive of Love, Boston, 1880, the idea of ingwa (the +effects in this life of the actions in a former state of existence), is +illustrated. See also S. and H., p. 29; T.J., p. 360.] + +[Footnote 50: It is curious that while the anti-Christian polemics of +the Japanese Buddhists have used the words of Jesus, "I came to send not +peace but a sword," Matt, x. 34, and "If any man ... hate not his father +and mother," etc., Luke xiv. 26, as a branding iron with which to stamp +the religion of Jesus as gross immorality and dangerous to the state, +they justify Gautama in his "renunciation" of marital and paternal +duties.] + +[Footnote 51: See Public Charity in Japan, Japan Mail, 1893; and The +Annual (Appleton's) Cyclopaedia for 1893.] + +[Footnote 52: I have some good reasons for making this suggestion. Yokoi +Hishiro had dwelt for some time in Fukui, a few rods away from the +house in which I lived, and the ideas he promulgated among the Echizen +clansmen in his lectures on Confucianism, were not only Christian in +spirit but, by their own statement, these ideas could not be found in +the texts of the Chinese sage or of his commentators. Although the +volume (edited by his son, Rev. J.F. Yokoi) of his Life and Letters +shows him to have been an intense and at times almost bigoted +Confucianist, he, in one of his later letters, prophesied that when +Christianity should be taught by the missionaries, it would win the +hearts of the young men of Japan. See also Satow's Kins Shiriaku, p. +183; Adams's History of Japan; and in fiction, see Honda The Samurai, p. +242, and succeeding chapters.] + +[Footnote 53: In the colorless and unsentimental language of government +publications, the Japanese edict of emancipation, issued to the local +authorities in October, 1871, ran as follows: "The designations of eta +and hinin are abolished. Those who bore them are to be added to the +general registers of the population and their social position and +methods of gaining a livelihood are to be identical with the rest of the +people. As they have been entitled to immunity from the land tax and +other burdens of immemorial custom, you will inquire how this may be +reformed and report to the Board of Finance." (Signed) Council of +State.] + +[Footnote 54: In English fiction, see The Eta Maiden and the Hatamoto, +in Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp. 210-245. Discussions as to +the origin of the Eta are to be found in Adams's History of Japan, Vol. +I, p. 77; M.E., index; T.J., p. 147; S. and H., p. 36; Honda the +Samurai, pp. 246, 247; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp. +210-245. The literature concerning the Ainos is already voluminous. See +Chamberlain's Aino Studies, with bibliography; and Rev. John Batchelor's +Ainu Grammar, published by The Imperial University of T[=o]ki[=o]; +T.A.S.J., Vols. X., XL, XVI., XVIII., XX.; The Ainu of Japan, New York, +1892, by J. Batchelor (who has also translated the Book of Common +Prayer, and portions of the Bible into the Ainu tongue); M. E., Chap. +II.; T.A.S.J., Vol. X., and following volumes; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, +Vol. II.; Life with Trans-Siberian Savages, London, 1895.] + +[Footnote 55: "Then the venerable S[=a]riputra said to that daughter of +Sagara, the N[=a]ga-king: 'Thou hast conceived the idea of +enlightenment, young lady of good family, without sliding back, and art +gifted with immense wisdom, but supreme, perfect enlightenment is not +easily won. It may happen, sister, that a woman displays an unflagging +energy, performs good works for many thousands of Aeons, and fulfils the +six perfect virtues (P[=a]ramit[=a]s), but as yet there is no example of +her having reached Buddhaship, and that because a woman cannot occupy +the five ranks, viz., 1, the rank of Brahma; 2, the rank of Indra; 3, +the rank of a chief guardian of the four quarters; 4, the rank of +Kakravartin; 5, the rank of a Bodhisattva incapable of sliding back," +Saddharma Pundarika, Kern's Translation, p. 252.] + +[Footnote 56: Chi[=u]-j[=o]-him was the first Japanese nun, and the +only woman who is commemorated by an idol. "She extracted the fibres of +the lotus root, and wove them with silk to make tapestry for altars." +Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 128. Her romantic and marvellous story is given in +S. and H., p. 397. "The practice of giving ranks to women was commenced +by Jito Tenn[=o] (an empress, 690-705)." Many women shaved their heads +and became nuns "on becoming widows, as well as on being forsaken by, or +after leaving their husbands. Others were orphans." One of the most +famous nuns (on account of her rank) was the Nii no Ama, widow of +Kiyomori and grandmother of the Emperor Antoku, who were both drowned +near Shimono-ski, in the great naval battle of 1185 A.D. Adams's +History of Japan, Vol. I., p. 37; M.E., p. 137.] + +[Footnote 57: M.E., p. 213; Japanese Women, World's Columbian +Exhibition, Chicago, 1893, Chap. III.] + +[Footnote 58: There is no passage in the original Greek texts, or in the +Revised Version of the New Testament which ascribes wings to the +_aggelos_, or angel. In Rev. xii. 14, a woman is "given two wings of a +great eagle."] + +[Footnote 59: Japanese Women in Politics, Chap. I., Japanese Women, +Chicago, 1893; Japanese Girls and Women, Chapters VI. and VII.] + +[Footnote 60: Bakin's novels are dominated by this idea, while also +preaching in fiction strict Confucianism. See A Captive of Love, by +Edward Greey.] + +[Footnote 61: "Fate is one of the great words of the East. _Japan's +language is loaded and overloaded with it._ Parents are forever saying +before their children, 'There's no help for it.' I once remarked to a +school-teacher, 'Of course you love to teach children.' His quick reply +was, 'Of course I don't. I do it merely because there is no help for +it.' Moralists here deplore the prosperity of the houses of ill-fame and +then add with a sigh, 'There's no help for it.' All society reverberates +with this phrase with reference to questions that need the application +of moral power, will power."--J.H. De Forest. + +"I do not say there is no will power in the East, for there is. Nor do I +say there is no weak yielding to fate in lands that have the doctrine of +the Creator, for there is. But, putting the East and West side by side, +one need not hesitate to affirm that the reason the will power of the +East is weak cannot be fully explained by any mere doctrine of +environment, but must also have some vital connection with the fact that +the idea of a personal almighty Creator has for long ages been wanting. +And one reason why western nations have an aggressive character that +ventures bold things and tends to defy difficulties cannot be wholly +laid to environment but must have something to do with the fact that +leads millions daily reverently to say 'I believe in the Almighty +Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth.'"--J.H. De Forest.] + + +STATISTICS OF BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. + + +(From The official "Rsum Statistique de l'Empire du Japon," +T[=o]ki[=o], 1894.) + +In 1891 there were 71,859 temples within city or town limits, and 35,959 +in the rural districts, or 117,718 in all, under the charges of 51,791 +principal priests and 720 principal priestesses, or 52,511 in all. + +The number of temples, classified by sects, were as follows: Tendai, +with 3 sub-sects, 4,808; Shingon, with 2 sub-sects, 12,821, of which 45 +belonged to the Hoss[=o] shu; J[=o]-do, with 2 sub-sects, 8,323, of +which 21 were of the K-gon shu; Zen, with 3 sub-sects, 20,882, of which +6,146 were of the Rin-Zai shu; 14,072 of the S[=o]-d[=o] shu, and 604 of +the O-bakushu; Shin, with 10 sub-sects, 19,146; Nichiren, with 7 +sub-sects, 5,066; Ji shu, 515; Yu-dz[=u]; Nembutsu, 358; total, 38 sects +and 71,859 temples. + +The official reports required by the government from the various sects, +show that there are 38 administrative heads of sects; 52,638 +priest-preachers and 44,123 ordinary priests or monks; and 8,668 male +and 328 female, or a total of 8,996, students for the grade of monk or +nun. In comparison with 1886, the number of priest-preachers was 39,261, +ordinary priests 38,189: male students, 21,966; female students, 642. + + +CHAPTER XI + +ROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. + + +[Footnote 1: See for a fine example of this, Mr. C. Meriwether's Life of +Dat Masamun, T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., pp. 3-106. See also The Christianity +of Early Japan, by Koji Inaba, in The Japan Evangelist, Yokohama, +1893-94; Mr. E. Satow's papers in T.A.S.J.] + +[Footnote 2: See M.E., p. 280; Rein's Japan, p. 312; Shigtaka Shiga's +History of Nations, p. 139, quoting from M.E. (p. 258).] + +[Footnote 3: M.E., 195.] + +[Footnote 4: The Japan Mail of April and May, 1894, contains a +translation from the Japanese, with but little new matter, however, of a +work entitled Paul Anjiro.] + +[Footnote 5: The "Firando" of the old books. See Cock's Diary. It is +difficult at first to recognize the Japanese originals of some of the +names which figure in the writings of Charlevoix, Lon Pags, and the +European missionaries, owing to their use of local pronunciation, and +their spelling, which seems peculiar. One of the brilliant +identifications of Mr. Ernest Satow, now H.B.M. Minister at Tangier, is +that of Kuroda in the "Kondera"' of the Jesuits.] + +[Footnote 6: See Mr. E.M. Matow's Vicissitudes of the Church at +Yamaguchi. T.A.S.J., Vol. VII., pp. 131-156.] + +[Footnote 7: Nobunaga was Nai Dai Jin, Inner (Junior) Prime Minister, +one in the triple premiership, peculiar to Korea and Old Japan, but was +never Sh[=o]gun, as some foreign writers have supposed.] + +[Footnote 8: See The Jesuit Mission Press in Japan, by E. Satow, +1591-1610 (privately printed, London, 1888). Review of the same by B.H. +Chamberlain, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., p. 91.] + +[Footnote 9: Histoire de l'glise, Vol. I, p. 490; Rein, p. 277. +Takayama is spoken of in the Jesuit Records as Jsto Ucondono. A curious +book entitled Justo Ucondono, Prince of Japan, in which the writer, who +is "less attentive to points of style than to matters of faith," labors +to show that "the Bible alone" is "found wanting," and only the +"Teaching Church" is worthy of trust, was published in Baltimore, in +1854.] + +[Footnote 10: How Hidyoshi made use of the Shin sect of Buddhists to +betray the Satsuma clansmen is graphically told in Mr. J.H. Gubbin's +paper, Hidyoshi and the Satsuma Clan, T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII, pp. 124-128, +143.] + +[Footnote 11: Corea the Hermit Nation, Chaps. XII.-XXI., pp. 121-123; +Mr. W.G. Aston's Hidyoshi's Invasion of Korea, T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., p. +227; IX, pp. 87, 213; XI., p. 117; Rev. G.H. Jones's The Japanese +Invasion, The Korean Repository, Seoul, 1892.] + +[Footnote 12: Brave Little Holland and What She Taught Us, Boston, 1893, +p. 247.] + +[Footnote 13: See picture and description of this temple--"fairly +typical of Japanese Buddhist architecture," Chamberlain's Handbook for +Japan, p. 26; G.A. Cobbold's, Religion in Japan, London, 1894, p. 72.] + +[Footnote 14: T.A.S.J., see Vol. VI., pp. 46, 51, for the text of the +edicts.] + +[Footnote 15: M.E., p. 262, Chamberlain's Handbook for Japan, p. 59.] + +[Footnote 16: The Origin of Spanish and Portuguese Rivalry in Japan, by +E.M. Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., p. 133.] + +[Footnote 17: See Chapter VIII., W.G. Dixon's Gleanings from Japan.] + +[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., pp. 48-50.] + +[Footnote 19: In the inscription upon the great bell, at the temple +containing the image of Dai Buts[)u] or Great Buddha, reared by Hidyori +and his mother, one sentence contained the phrase _Kokka anko, ka_ and +_Lo_ being Chinese for _Iy_ and _yas[(u]_, which the Yedo ruler +professed to believe mockery. In another sentence, "On the East it +welcomes the bright moon, and on the West bids farewell to the setting +sun," Iyyas[)u] discovered treason. He considered himself the rising +sun, and Hidyori the setting moon.--Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, +p. 300.] + +[Footnote 20: I have found the Astor Library in New York especially rich +in works of this sort.] + +[Footnote 21: Nitob's United States and Japan, p. 13, note.] + +[Footnote 22: This insurrection has received literary treatment at the +hands of the Japanese in Shimabara, translated in The Far East for 1872; +Woolley's Historical Notes on Nagasaki, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 125; +Koeckebakker and the Arima Rebellion, by Dr. A.J.C. Geerts, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XI., 51; Inscriptions on Shimabara and Amakusa, by Henry Stout, +T.A.S.J., Vol. VII, p. 185.] + +[Footnote 23: "Persecution extirpated Christianity from Japan."--History +of Rationalism, Vol. II, p. 15.] + +[Footnote 24: T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., Part I., p. 62; M.E. pp. 531, 573.] + +[Footnote 25: Political, despite the attempt of many earnest members of +the order to check this tendency to intermeddle in politics; see Dr. +Murray's Japan, p. 245, note, 246.] + +[Footnote 26: See abundant illustration in Lon Pags' Histoire de la +Religion Chrtienne en Japon, a book which the author read while in +Japan amid the scenes described.] + +[Footnote 27: _The Japan Evangelist_, Vol. I., No. 2, p. 96.] + + +CHAPTER XII + +TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE + + +[Footnote 1: See Diary of Richard Cocks, and Introduction by R.M. +Thompson, Hakluyt Publications, 1883.] + +[Footnote 2: For the extent of Japanese influence abroad, see M.E., p. +246; Rein, Nitobe, and Hildreth; Modern Japanese Adventurers, T.A.S.J., +Vol. VII., p. 191; The Intercourse between Japan and Siam in the +Seventeenth Century, by E.M. Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 139; Voyage +of the Dutch Ship Grol, T.A.S.J., Vol. XI., p. 180.] + +[Footnote 3: The United States and Japan, p. 16.] + +[Footnote 4: See Professor J.H. Wigmore's elaborate work, Materials for +the Study of Private Law in Old Japan, T.A.S.J., T[=o]ki[=o], 1892.] + +[Footnote 5: See the Legacy of Iyyas[)u], by John Frederic Lowder, +Yokohama, 1874, with criticisms and discussions by E.M. Satow and others +in the _Japan Mail_; Dixon's Japan, Chapter VII.; Professor W.E. +Grigsby, in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Part II., p. 131, gives another +version, with analysis, notes, and comments; Rein's Japan, pp. 314, +315.] + +[Footnote 6: Old Japan in the days of its inclusiveness was a secret +society on a vast scale, with every variety and degree of selfishness, +mystery, secrecy, close-corporationism, and tomfoolery. See article +Esotericism in T.J., p. 143.] + +[Footnote 7: Since the abolition of feudalism, with the increase of the +means of transportation, the larger freedom, and, at many points, +improved morality, the population of Japan shows an unprecedented rate +of increase. The census taken in 1744 gave, as the total number of souls +in the empire, 26,080,000 (E.J. Reed's Japan, Vol. I., p. 236); that of +1872, 33,110,825; that of 1892, 41,089,910, showing a greater increase +during the past twenty years than in the one hundred and thirty-eight +years previous. See Rsum Statistique de l'Empire du Japon, +T[=o]ki[=o], 1894; Professor Garrett Droppers' paper on The Population +of Japan during the Tokugawa Period, read June 27th, 1894; T.A.S.J., +Vol. XXII.] + +[Footnote 8: For the notable instance of Pere Sidotti, see M.E, p. 63; +Si Y[=o] Ki Buu, by S.R. Brown, D.D., a translation of Arai Hakuski's +narrative, Yedo, 1710, T.N.C.A.S.; Capture and Captivity of Pere +Sidotti, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 156; Christian Valley, T.A.S.J., Vol. +XVI., p. 207.] + +[Footnote 9: T.A.S.J., Vol. I., p. 78, Vol. VII., p. 323.] + +[Footnote 10: See Matthew Calbraith Perry, Boston, 1887.] + +[Footnote 11: See the author's Townsend Harris, First American Minister +to Japan, _The Atlantic Monthly_, August, 1891.] + +[Footnote 12: See Honda the Samurai, Boston, 1890; Nitobe's United +States and Japan; The Japan Mail _passim_; Dr. G.F. Verbeck's History of +Protestant Missions in Japan, Yokohama, 1883; Dr. George Wm. Knox's +papers on Japanese Philosophy, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. l58, etc. Recent +Japanese literature, of which the writer has a small shelf-full, +biographies, biographical dictionaries, the histories of New Japan, Life +of Yoshida Shoin, and recent issues of The Nation's Friend (Kokumin no +Tomo), are very rich on this fascinating subject.] + +[Footnote 13: A typical instance was that of Rin Shihei, born 1737, +author of _Sun Koku Tsu Ran to Setsu_, translated into French by +Klaproth, Paris, 1832. Rin learned much from the Dutch and Prussians, +and wrote books which had a great sale. He was cast into prison, whence +he never emerged. The (wooden) plates of his publications were +confiscated and destroyed. In 1876, the Mikado visited his grave in +Sendai, and ordered a monument erected to the honor of this far-seeing +patriot.] + +[Footnote 14: Rein, pp. 336, 337] + +[Footnote 15: Rein, p. 339; The Early Study of Dutch in Japan, by K. +Mitsukuri, T.A.S.J., Vol. V., p. 209; History of the Progress of +Medicine in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. XII., p. 245; Vijf Jaren in Japan, +J.L.C. Pompe van Meerdervoort, 2d Ed., Leyden, 1808.] + +[Footnote 16: Honda the Samurai, pp. 249-251; Nitob, 25-27.] + +[Footnote 17: The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, by Professor E. W. Clement, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII, p. 14; Nitob's United States and Japan, p. 25, +note.] + +[Footnote 18: M.E. (6 Ed.), p. 608; Adams's History of Japan, Vol. II., +p. 171.] + +[Footnote 19: See the text of the anti-Christian edicts, M.E., p. 369.] + +[Footnote 20: T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 17.] + +[Footnote 21: T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 134.] + +[Footnote 22: Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 125; A Japanese Buddhist +Preacher, by Professor M.K. Shimomura, in the New York Independent; +other sermons have been printed in The Japan Mail; Kino Dowa, two +sermons and vocabulary, has been edited by Rev. C.S. Eby, Yokohama.] + +[Footnote 23: On Sunday, November 29, 1857, Mr. Harris, resting at +Kawasaki, over Sunday, on his way to Yedo and audience of the Sh[=o]gun, +having Mr. Heusken as his audience and fellow-worshipper, read service +from the Book of Common Prayer.] + +[Footnote 24: See a paper written by the author and read at the World's +Columbian Exhibition Congress of Missions, Chicago, September, 1893, on +The Citizen Rights of Missionaries.] + +[Footnote 25: This embassy was planned and first proposed to the Junior +premier, Tomomi Iwakura, and the route arranged by the Rev. Guido F. +Verbeck, then President of the Imperial University. One half of the +members of the embassy had been Dr. Verbeck's pupils at Nagasaki.] + +[Footnote 26: A somewhat voluminous native Japanese literature is the +result of the various embassies and individual pilgrimages abroad, since +1860. Immeasurably superior to all other publications, in the practical +influence over his fellow-countrymen, is the Siyo Jijo (The Condition +of Western Countries) by Fukuzawa, author, educator, editor, decliner of +numerously proffered political offices, and "the intellectual father of +one-half of the young men who now fill the middle and lower posts in the +government of Japan." For the foreign side, see The Japanese in America, +by Charles Lanman, New York, 1872, and in The Life of Sir Harry Parkes, +London, 1894, and for an amusing piece of literary ventriloquism, +Japanese Letters, Eastern Impressions of Western Men and Manners, London +and New York, 1891. + +See History of Protestant Missions in Japan, by G. F. Verbeck, Yokohama, +1893.] + + + +INDEX + +Abbess, 318. +Abbots, 312. +Abdication, 214. +Aborigines, 9, 38, 43, 77-79, 177. +Adams, Will, 334, 340. +Adi-Buddha, 174. +Adoption, 122, 126. +Adultery, 149. +Aidzu, 119. +Ainos, 2, 9, 16, 73, 177, 317, 379. +Akamatsu, Rev. Renjo, 425. +Akchi, 332. +Alphabets, 199, 200. +Altaic, 39, 389. +Amalgam of religions, 11, 13. +Amatras[)u], see Sun-goddess. +American relations, 11, 12, 157. +Amidaism, 276, 303. +Anabaptists, 162. +Analects, 128. +Ancestral worship, 106. +Anderson, Dr. Win, 435. +Angels, 304. +Animism, 15-17. +Anjiro, 329. +Apostolical succession, 262. +Arabian Nights, 192, 201. +Architecture, 82, 84, 210, 298-300. +Art, 68, 1l4, 195-197, 297, 298, 303-305, 314, 356. +Aryan Conquest of India, 44, 156, 157, 177, 207. +Asanga, 175, 205. +Assassination, 367. +Asoka, 165. +Aston, Mr. Wm. G., 360, 386, 387. +Atheism, 163, 164. +Atkinson, Rev, J.L., 410. +Avalokitesvara, 170, 171, 179. +Avatars, 201, 208, 221, 247, 269, 295. + +Babism, 166. +Bakin, 444. +Bangor Theological Seminary, 378. +Batchelor, Rev. John, 317. +Beal, Rev. Samuel, 8. +Beauty, 207. +Beggars, 208. +Bells, 307, 308. +Benten, 204, 207, 218. +Bible, 27, 104, 364, 386. +Binzuru, 237. +Birth, 84. +Bishamon, 218. +Bodhidharma, see Daruma. +Bodhisattva, 169, 204, 234. +Bonzes, 310. +Bosatsu, 170, 204; see Bodhsattva. +Brahma, 247. +Brahmanism, 163, 185, 186, 218. +Brothers, 125, 126. +Buddha. Amida, see Amidaism. + the Buddha, 101, 103, 161, 162. + Gautama, 155, 161-164. + Shakyamuni, 160. + Siddartha, 410. + Tathagata, 259. + Tathata, 243. +Bunyin Nanjio, Rev., 231, 425. +Buddhism, 42, 74, 76, 106, 133, 136, 137, 140, 185, 186, 227, 231. +Buddhist, 165, 166, 183, 214, 229, 252. + +Cannibalism, 74. +Canon, Chinese, 103; Shint[=o], 39-41. +Capitals of Japan, 182, 183, 296. +Celibacy, 272. +Cemeteries, 308. +Chair of Contemplation, 252. +Chamberlain, Prof. B. Hall, 39, 324, 388. +Chastity, 68, 124, 149, 320. +Cheng Brothers, 138, 139. +China, 134, 199, 215, 328, 355. +Chinese, 83, 134; Buddhism, 232. +Christianity and Buddhism, 166, 183, 185, 187, 195, 217, 218, 265, 270, + 300-302, 306, 315, 319. +Chronology, 41, 370, 387. +Chu Hi, 11, 108, 139, 143, 144, 356. +Cleanliness, 84, 97. +Clement, Prof. E.M., 407. +Cobra-de-capello, 21. +Cocks, Mr. Richard, 380. +Columbus, 328. +Comparative religion, 4-6. +Confucius, 100-106. +Confucianism, 74, 107, 213. +Concubinage, 149. +Constitution of 1889, 96, 122. +Corea, see Korea. +Courtship, 124. +Creator, 145, 285. +Cremation, 182. +Crucifixion, 115, 368. + +Dai Butsu, 203. +Daikoku, 218. +Dai Mi[=o] Jin, 190, 204, 206, 230. +Daruma, 186, 208, 254. +Davids, T. Rhys, 155, 172. +Death, 84. +De Brosses, 23. +De Forest, Rev. J.H., 226. +Demoniacal possession, 281. +Dshima, 354, 358, 362-365. +Dharari, 199. +Dharma, see Daruma, 186. +Dhyana Buddhas and Sect, 172, 252, 254. +Diet, 293, 294. +Divorce, 125, 149. +D[=o]-sen, 236. +D[=o]-sh[=o], 181. +Dragon, 20, 21, 74, 115, 198, 242. +Dutch, 90, 336, 340, 353, 354, 358, 360, 362, 363-365, 366. +Dutt, Mr. Romesh Chunder, 161. + +Ebisu, 218. +Ecclesiastes, 214. +Echizen, 312. +Edicts against Christianity, 335, 336, 342. +Edkins, Dr. J., 249. +Education, 313, 320. +Embassy round the world, 373. +Emperor, 148. +Emura, Rev. Shu-zan, 232. +England, 37. +Eta, 115, 150, 275, 316, 317, 367. +Ethics, 92, 94. +Euhemerus, 192, 193, 197, 201. +Eurasians, 344. +Evil, 58, 78. +Evolution, 62. +Ezekiel, 36. +Ezra, 102. + +Family Life, 122, 125-127. +Female divinities, 66, 305, 319. +Fetichism, 22-27. +Feudalism, 10, 108-110. +Filial piety, 123, 149, 213. +Fire-drill, 55, 56. +Fire, God of, 53. +Fire-myths, 53. +Five Relations, 105, 114, 148-150. +Flags, 26. +Flood, 53. +Flowers, 58. +Forty-seven R[=o]nins, 118, 119. +Franciscans, 336, 337. +Friends, 127. +Fudo, 279. +Fuji Mountain, 400. +Fujishima, Rev. Ryauon, 231. +Fukuda, Rev. Gyo-kai, 425. +Fukui, 23. +Fuku-roku-jin, 218. + +Gardens, 237, 294, 295. +Gautama, 158, 161, 164. +Genji Monogatari, 149. +Genj[=o], 181, 232, 233, 238, 239. +Germanic nations, 10, 44. +Ghosts, 206. +Giyoku, 183. +Gnostics, 193, 195. +God-possession, 201. +Gold, 184, 196, 210, 291. +Golden Rule, 128. +Gongen, 204, 205, 220. +Gore, Mr. T., 7, 384. +Graveyards, 308, 368. +Greater Vehicle, 165, 170, 240, 244. +Gubbins, Mr. J.H., 403, 447. + +Hachiman, 204. +Hades, 53, 64. +Hara-kiri, 112, 121, 339. +Harris, Mr. Townsend, 145, 352, 360, 370, 371. +Hayashi, 129. +Heathen, 13, 30. +Heaven, 62, 63, 70, 81, 105, 112, 118, 144. +Hepburn, Dr. J.C., 372. +Hidyori, 340, 342. +Hidyoshi, 313, 333, 338. +Hindu history, 156. +Hi-nin, 115, 150. +Hinayana, 165, 167, 169, 228, 232, 238. +Hiouen Thsang, see Genj[=o]. +Hiraii, 2. +Hirata, 86. +History of China, intellectual, 137. + of Japan, intellectual, 230. + of Japan, political, 10, 37, 44, 219. + of Japan, religious, 227, 228. +Hitomar[=o], 60. +Hiyisan, 16, 297. +Hodge, 102. +Hodgson, Mr. Brian H., 411, 414. +Hokk-Ki[=o], see Saddharma Pundarika. +Hokusai, 314. +Holland, 338. +H[=o]nen, 261, 264. +H[=o]-[=o], 184, 237. +Hospitals, 216, 315. +Hoss[=o]-Shu, 238, 239. +Hoti, 218. +Hotok, 202, 269. + +Idols, 175, 207, 216. +Idzumo, 44, 65. +Ikk[=o], 273. +Inari, 190. +Indra, 163, 247. +Ingwa, 217, 302, 321; see Karma. +Inquisition, 347, 348, 368. +Insurance by fetich, 24, 25. +Isaiah, 100. +Is, 28, 184, 201. +Iyyas[)u], 91, 100, 132, 134, 204, 205, 338, 342, 357, 358. +Izanagi and Izanami, 52, 63, 64, 207, 218. + +Jade, 292. +Jains, 166. +Japan, area, 9. + Census, 9. + Ethnology, 43, 44. + Geography, 9, 43, 44. + Government, 40. + History, 10, 37, 44, 109. + Origins, 43. + Population, 8, 9. + Various names of, 73. +Japanese Bride, The, 125, 149. +Japanese characteristics, 112, 285, 361. + Language, 113, 116, 135. + Writing, 200. +Jataka tales, 169. +Jealousy, 124. +Jesuits, 247, 329, 337, 341, 342. +Jesus, 76, 97, 100, 117. +Jimmu Tenn[=o], 389, +Jin Gi Kuan, 49, 94, 390-392. +Jizo, 247, 305. +J[=o] d[=o] sect, 250, 275. +John, 2, 60. +J[=o]-jitsu sect, 181, 235. +Joss, 23. +Jun-shi, 68, 76, 119. +Ju-r[)u]-jin, 218. + +Kaburagi, 36, 60. +Kada Adzumar[=o], 91. +Kamui, 30. +Kami-dana, 86, 88, 295. +Kamui, 30. +Kana, 199, 200, 274. +Kanda, Dai Mi[=o]-Jin, 205. +Karma, 162, 169, 186, 234, 258. +Kato Kyomasa, 278, 334, 339. +K-gon sect, 242-244. +Kichu, 91. +Kern, Prof. H., 155, 239. +Ki[=o]to, 183, 296, 330, 336. +Kirin, 19. +Kishimoto, Mr. Nobuta., 11. +Kiushiu, 339. +Kiyomori, 120. +Knos, Dr. George Wm., 182, 228, 288, 385. +Kobayashi, Rev. Z-jun, 425. +K[=o]b[=o], 89, 197, 205, 248, 250. +Kojiki, 29, 32, 40, 41, 52, 74, 82-90, 149, 195, 197. +Ko-ken, Empress, 310. +Kompira, 204. +Konishi, 334, 335. +Korea, 9, 21, 26, 40, 41, 74, 106, 107, 168, 179, 180, 292, 310, 328, + 332, 333, 334, 355, 368. +Kosatsu, 368. +Ku-ya, 198. +Kumi, Prof., 76-82. +Kun-shin, 111, 113, 116, 117, 213. +Ku-sha sutra, 232, 233. +Kwannon, 181, 207, 247, 319. +Ky[=u]so, 132, 144. + +Lamaism, 107. +Language of China, 237. + of England, 295. + of Holland, 364, 365. + of Japan, 39, 113, 116, 134, 265, 295, 299, 364. + of Korea, 116. +Lao Tsze, 102, 144, 218. +Laws of Japan, 358. +Lecky, Mr., 344. +Legendre, Gen., 385, 389. +Legge, Dr. J., 100, 378. +Libraries, 253, 327. +Lingam, see Phallicism. +Literature, 39, 100, 141, 156, 159, 216, 252, 313, 318, 369. +Liturgy, see Norito. +Lloyd, Rev. A., 258. +Loo-choo, see Rin Kin. +Lotus, 434, 435, 437. +Love, 117, 118. +Lowell, Mr. Percival, 397, 423. +Loyalty, see Kun-shin. +Luther, 271. +Lyman, Prof. B.S., 383. + +Mabuchi, 90, 91. +MacDonald, Rev. James, 8. +Magatama, 68, 292. +Mahayana, 105; see Greater Vehicle. +Maitreya, 169, 170, 218, 236, 244. +Malays, 9, 43. +Mandala, 203. +Munjusri, 170, 171, 179, 262. +Mantra, 248. +Many[=u]-shu, 39, 40. +Marco Polo, 42. +Mark, 60. +Marriage, 123, 126, 149. +Martyrs, 337, 344, 359, 360, 362, 366-369. +Masakado, 209. +Matsugami, 209. +Matsuri, 28. +Meiji Era, 112, 116, 256. +Mencius, 106, 112, 137. +Mendez, Pinto, 42. +Mexico, 349. +Mikado, 44, 45, 76, 92, 95, 96, 114, 117, 184, 191, 201. +Mikadoism, 45-49, 74-82, 184, 202. +Military monks, 247. +Minamoto, 271. +Ming dynasty, 134. +Mioken, 279. +Miracles, 216, 267. +Mirror, 83. +Missionary training, 6-8. +Mito, 111, 134, 143, 366. +Miya, 82-84, 209. +Monasteries, 162, 165, 298, 311, 312. +Monotheism, 15, 81, 103, 104, 145, 174, 187. +Morse lectureship, 4. +Morse, Prof E.S., 377. +Motori, 80, 91, 290. +Mozoomdar, 411, 420. +Mller, Prof. Max, 211. +Munzinger, Rev. C., 403. +Murray, Dr. David, 402. +Mutsuhito, 60, 316. + +Nagasaki, 332, 337, 343, 344, 358, 362. +Nakatomi, 48. +Names, 127, 202, 265. +Names of Japan, 73, 82. +Namu-Amida-Butsu, 259, 261. +Nanjio Bunyin, 231. +Nara, 182, 237, 243, 296. +Nehan, see Nirvana. +Nepal, 167, 168, 171. +New Buddhism, 284, 285. +Nichiren, 277, 278. + Sect, 277-280, 334, 339. +Nihilism, 236, 240, 241. +Nihongi, 41, 56, 62. +Nikk[=o], 185, 263. +Nirvana, 162, 163, 186, 200, 302, 303. +Nitob, Mr. Inazo, 352, 360. +Nobunaga, 312, 331, 332. +Norito, 38, 47-49, 54, 55-58, 79, 80, 96. +Northern Buddhism, 165. + +Obaku sect, 283. +Offerings, 57. +Ogurusu, Rev. Ku-ch[=o], 214. +Obashi Junzo, 145. +Ojin, 204. +Onna-ishi, see Phallicism. +Original prayer, 271. +Original vow, 273, 312. +Orphan asylums, 216. +Osaka, 130, 312, 368. + +Pags, Mr. Leon, 449. +Pagodas, 203. +Pantheism, 31, 142, 143, 187, 219, 243. +Paradise, 210, 229, 259, 261, 280. +Parliament of Religions, 5, 39, 72, 283. +Peking, 105. +Perry, Commodore M.C., 129, 316, 352, 360, 364, 365. +Persecutions, 93, 343. +Persian elements, 195, 202, 304. +Personality, 116. +Pessimism, 214. +Phallicism, 29-30, 49-53, 88, 380-384. +Philo, 192, 197, 201. +Phoenix, 19, 20. +Pilgrimages, 298, 290. +Pindola, see Binzuru. +Poetry, 223; see Many[=u]shu. +Politeness, 74, 241. +Popular customs, 192. +Population, 8, 9, 177, 291, 359. +Popular movement in China, 138. +Portuguese, 344, 345, 347. +Pratyekas, 234. +Prayers, 86-88. +Prayer-wheels, 175. +Printing, 133, 134, 200. +Prometheus, 53. +Protestantism, 155, 162, 252, 274. +Pronouns, 116. +Proverbs, 28, 179, 226, 270, 307, 332, 352, 389. +Psychology of the Japanese, 230, 241. +Pure Land of Bliss, 198, 263-265. +Purification of 1870, 206, 210, 213, 222, 248, 360. +Pyrronism, 240. + +Rai Sanyo, 143. +Rakan, 305. +"Reformed" Buddhism, 270, 274-277. +Renny[=o] Sh[=o]-nin, 258. +Revision of Confucianism, 148-152. +Revival of pure Shint[=o], 91-96. +Revolving libraries, 253. +Ris-shu, 236-238. +Rituals, see Norito. +Riu Kiu, 9, 109. +Riy[=o]bu, 89, 191, 203, 209, 211, 212, 223. +Rosaries, 266. + +Saddharma Pundarika, 170, 229, 246, 280, 304. +Sado, 341. +Salt, 85. +Samurai, 110, 119, 146, 151, 152. +San Kai Ri, 211. +Sanron sect, 182, 240. +Sanskrit, 25, 182, 200, 210, 245, 249. +Saratashi, 218. +Satow, Mr. Ernest, 39, 47, 386. +Satsuma, 313. +Schools of Philosophy: + Chinese, 136-139. + Indian, 159-164, 232. + Japanese, 356-358, 369. +Sekigaharu, 338. +Sendai, 119. +Seppuku, see Hara-kiri. +Serpent-worship, 30-33, 278, 279, 385. +Seven Gods of Good Fortune, 217, 218. +Shaka, 160, 161, 179, 254. +Shakyamuni, see Shaka. +Shaminism, 15-17. +Shang-Ti, 103, 104. +Shari, 182. +Shastra and Sutra, 231. +Shichimen, 278. +Shigomori, 120. +Shimabara, 344. +Shingaku movement, 369, 370. +Shingon sect, 185, 203, 248-251. +Shinran, 271-274. +Shin sect, 270-276, 317. +Shint[=o], 38, 42, 76, 89, 96, 97, 142, 184, 195, 214, 319. +Sin, 285, 288. +Sh[=o]-gun, 110, 115, 143. +Shomon, 236. +Sh[=o]toku, 180, 181, 208, 236, 313. +Siddartha, 410. +Soga no Inam, 180. +Soshi, 95, 278. +Southern Buddhism, 165, 167. +Spaniards, 336, 337, 340, 347. +Stars, 92. +Statistics of Buddhism, 309. + of Shint[=o], 400, 401. +Sugawara Michizan, 204. +Suicide, 112, 118-121, 147, 151. +Suiko, 180. +Sung dynasty, 414, 437. +Sun-goddess, 66, 104, 201, 203. +Sun-worship, 46, 47, 82, 87. +Swastika, 305. +Swords, 7, 378. +Syle, Rev. E.W., 36. +Syncretism, 191-194, 205. +Synergism, 268, 271, 272. +Szma Kwang, 138. + +Taik[=o], see Hidyoshi. +Takahashi, Mr. Gor[=o], 384. +Takashi, Rev. Dai-Ryo, 238. +Taktori Monogatari, 423. +Tantra system, 194. +Ta[=o]ism, 106, 215, 218. +Tathagata, 259. +Tathata, 243, 246. +Taylor, Bayard, 380. +Tea plant, 208. +Ti-Shn philosophy, 139, 145. +Temples, 83, 93, 209, 305-309. +Ten, 144. +Tendai sect, 185, 244-248, 268. +Tenjin, 204. +Tenn[=o], 184. +Tenshi, 184. +Terence, 128. +Theism, 172. +Theological seminaries, 6-8. +Tibet, 165, 167, 170. +Tobacco, 209. +Tokugawas, 141, 143, 356, 365. +Torii, 84, 210. +Tortoise, 19. +Transmigration of souls, 315. +Tree-worship, 30, 31. +Triads, 171, 255, 279. +Trinity, 428. +Tripitaka, 160, 170, 231. +Tsuji, Rev. Ken-ko, 425. +Tsukushi, 44. +Tsushima, 44. +Tycoon, see Sh[=o]-gun. + +Uda, Rev. Sho-Hen, 425. +Upanishads, 156, 161, 162. +Ushi toki mairi, 31. +Uzum, 68. + +Vagra, 305. +Vagrabodhi, 248, 249. +Vairokana, 184, 244, 250. +Vedas, 156, 158, 159, 160, 162. +Vehicles, the three, 234, 235; see also Hinayana and Mahayana. +Victims, 74. + +Washington, 114. +Western Paradise, 277. +Wheel of the law, 302. +Whitney, Prof. W.D., 211, 277. +William the Silent, 114. +Woman, 123, 149, 275, 318-320. + +Xavier, 324, 329, 330, 345, 346, 347. + +Yamato, 44, 76, 87, 91, 109, 177, 179. + Damashii, 44, 147, 151, 152, 172. +Yamato-Tosa art, 114, +Yedo, 110, 115, 119, 141, 220, 238, 340, 360, 366. +Yen Sect, 252-256. +Yezo, 43, 317. +Yoga, 157, 197, 199, 201, 209, 211. +Yoga-chara, 194, 203, 249. +Yokoi Hishiro, 112, 316, 366, 367. +Yori, see Phallicism. +Yoshida Shoin, 147. +Yoshiwara system, 404. + +Zend[=o], 261-262, 267. +Zenk[=o]ji, 179, 181. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Religions of Japan, by William Elliot Griffis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN *** + +***** This file should be named 15516-8.txt or 15516-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/1/15516/ + +Produced by Nathan Strom, Frank van Drogen, David King, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Religions of Japan + From the Dawn of History to the Era of Meiji + +Author: William Elliot Griffis + +Release Date: March 31, 2005 [EBook #15516] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN *** + + + + +Produced by Nathan Strom, Frank van Drogen, David King, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN + +FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY +TO THE ERA OF MEIJI + +BY + +WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D. + +FORMERLY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO; AUTHOR OF "THE MIKADO'S +EMPIRE" AND "COREA, THE HERMIT NATION;" LATE LECTURER ON THE MORSE +FOUNDATION IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN NEW YORK + +"I came not to destroy, but to fulfil."--THE SON OF MAN + +NEW YORK + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +1895 + +COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +TROW DIRECTORY +PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY +NEW YORK + + +IN GLAD RECOGNITION OF THEIR SERVICES TO THE WORLD +AND +IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY OWN GREAT DEBT TO BOTH +I DEDICATE THIS BOOK +SO UNWORTHY OF ITS GREAT SUBJECT +TO +THOSE TWO NOBLE BANDS OF SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH +THE FACULTY OF UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY +OF WHOM +CHARLES A. BRIGGS AND GEORGE L. PRENTISS +ARE THE HONORED SURVIVORS +AND TO +THAT TRIO OF ENGLISH STUDENTS +ERNEST M. SATOW, WILLIAM G. ASTON AND BASIL H. CHAMBERLAIN +WHO LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP IN JAPAN + +"IN UNCONSCIOUS BROTHERHOOD, BINDING THE SELF-SAME SHEAF" + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book makes no pretence of furnishing a mirror of contemporary +Japanese religion. Since 1868, Japan has been breaking the chains of her +intellectual bondage to China and India, and the end is not yet. My +purpose has been, not to take a snap-shot photograph, but to paint a +picture of the past. Seen in a lightning-flash, even a tempest-shaken +tree appears motionless. A study of the same organism from acorn to +seed-bearing oak, reveals not a phase but a life. It is something like +this--"_to_ the era of Meiji" (A.D. 1868-1894+) which I have essayed. +Hence I am perfectly willing to accept, in advance, the verdict of smart +inventors who are all ready to patent a brand-new religion for Japan, +that my presentation is "antiquated." + +The subject has always been fascinating, despite its inherent +difficulties and the author's personal limitations. When in 1807, the +polite lads from Satsuma and Ki[=o]to came to New Brunswick, N.J., they +found at least one eager questioner, a sophomore, who, while valuing +books, enjoyed at first hand contemporaneous human testimony. + +When in 1869, to Rutgers College, came an application through Rev. Dr. +Guido F. Verbeck, of T[=o]ki[=o], from Fukui for a young man to organize +schools upon the American principle in the province of Echizen +(ultra-Buddhistic, yet already so liberally leavened by the ethical +teachings of Yokoi Heishiro), the Faculty made choice of the author. +Accepting the honor and privilege of being one of the "beginners of a +better time," I caught sight of peerless Fuji and set foot on Japanese +soil December 29, 1870. Amid a cannonade of new sensations and fresh +surprises, my first walk was taken in company with the American +missionary (once a marine in Perry's squadron, who later invented the +jin-riki-sha), to see a hill-temple and to study the wayside shrines +around Yokohama. Seven weeks' stay in the city of Yedo--then rising out +of the debris of feudalism to become the Imperial capital, T[=o]ki[=o], +enabled me to see some things now so utterly vanished, that by some +persons their previous existence is questioned. One of the most +interesting characters I met personally was Fukuzawa, the reformer, and +now "the intellectual father of half of the young men of ... Japan." On +the day of the battle of Uyeno, July 11, 1868, this far-seeing patriot +and inquiring spirit deliberately decided to keep out of the strife, and +with four companions of like mind, began the study of Wayland's Moral +Science. Thus were laid the foundations of his great school, now a +university. + +Journeying through the interior, I saw many interesting phenomena of +popular religions which are no longer visible. At Fukui in Echizen, one +of the strongholds of Buddhism, I lived nearly a year, engaged in +educational work, having many opportunities of learning both the +scholastic and the popular forms of Shint[=o] and of Buddhism. I was +surrounded by monasteries, temples, shrines, and a landscape richly +embroidered with myth and legend. During my four years' residence and +travel in the Empire, I perceived that in all things the people of Japan +were _too_ religious. + +In seeking light upon the meaning of what I saw before me and in +penetrating to the reasons behind the phenomena, I fear I often made +myself troublesome to both priests and lay folk. While at work in +T[=o]ki[=o], though under obligation to teach only physical science, I +voluntarily gave instruction in ethics to classes in the University. I +richly enjoyed this work, which, by questioning and discussion, gave me +much insight into the minds of young men whose homes were in every +province of the Empire. In my own house I felt free to teach to all +comers the religion of Jesus, his revelation of the fatherhood of God +and the ethics based on his life and words. While, therefore, in +studying the subject, I have great indebtedness to acknowledge to +foreigners, I feel that first of all I must thank the natives who taught +me so much both by precept and practice. Among the influences that have +helped to shape my own creed and inspire my own life, have been the +beautiful lives and noble characters of Japanese officers, students and +common people who were around and before me. Though freely confessing +obligation to books, writings, and artistic and scholastic influences, I +hasten first to thank the people of Japan, whether servants, superior +officers, neighbors or friends. He who seeks to learn what religion is +from books only, will learn but half. + +Gladly thanking those, who, directly or indirectly, have helped me with +light from the written or printed page, I must first of all gratefully +express my especial obligations to those native scholars who have read +to me, read for me, or read with me their native literature. + +The first foreign students of Japanese religions were the Dutch, and the +German physicians who lived with them, at Deshima. Kaempfer makes +frequent references, with test and picture, in his Beschryving van +Japan. Von Siebold, who was an indefatigable collector rather than a +critical student, in Vol. V. of his invaluable _Archiv_ (Pantheon von +Nippon), devoted over forty pages to the religions of Japan. Dr. J.J. +Hoffman translated into Dutch, with notes and explanations, the +Butsu-z[=o]-dzu-i, which, besides its 163 figures of Buddhist holy men, +gives a bibliography of the works mentioned by the native author. In +visiting the Japanese museum on the Rapenburg, Leyden, one of the +oldest, best and most intelligently arranged in Europe, I have been +interested with the great work done by the Dutchmen, during two +centuries, in leavening the old lump for that transformation which in +our day as New Japan, surprises the world. It requires the shock of +battle to awaken the western nations to that appreciation of the racial +and other differences between the Japanese and Chinese, which the +student has already learned. + +The first praises, however, are to be awarded to the English scholars, +Messrs. Satow, Aston, Chamberlain, and others, whose profound researches +in Japanese history, language and literature have cleared the path for +others to tread in. I have tried to acknowledge my debt to them in both +text and appendix. + +To several American missionaries, who despite their trying labors have +had the time and the taste to study critically the religions of Japan, I +owe thanks and appreciation. With rare acuteness and learning, Rev. Dr. +George Wm. Knox has opened on its philosophical, and Rev. Dr. J.H. +DeForest on its practical side, the subject of Japanese Confucianism. By +his lexicographical work, Dr. J.C. Hepburn has made debtors to him both +the native and the alien. To our knowledge of Buddhism in Japan, Dr. +J.C. Berry and Rev. J.L. Atkinson have made noteworthy contributions. I +have been content to quote as authorities and illustrations, the names +of those who have thus wrought on the soil, rather than of those, who, +even though world-famous, have been but slightly familiar with the +ethnic and the imported faith of Japan. The profound misunderstandings +of Buddhism, which some very eminent men of Europe have shown in their +writings, form one of the literary curiosities of the world. + +In setting forth these Morse lectures, I have purposely robbed my pages +of all appearance of erudition, by using as few uncouth words as +possible, by breaking up the matter into paragraphs of moderate length, +by liberally introducing subject-headings in italics, and by relegating +all notes to the appendix. Since writing the lectures, and even while +reading the final proofs, I have ransacked my library to find as many +references, notes, illustrations and authorities as possible, for the +benefit of the general student. I have purposely avoided recondite and +inaccessible books and have named those easily obtainable from American +or European publishers, or from Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, of Yokohama, +Japan. In using oriental words I have followed, in the main, the +spelling of the Century Dictionary. The Japanese names are expressed +according to that uniform system of transliteration used by Hepburn, +Satow and other standard writers, wherein consonants have the same +general value as in English (except that initial g is always hard), +while the vowels are pronounced as in Italian. Double vowels must be +pronounced double, as in Meiji (m[=a]-[=e]-j[=e]); those which are long +are marked, as in [=o] or [=u]; i before o or u is short. Most of the +important Japanese, as well as Sanskrit and Chinese, terms used, are +duly expressed and defined in the Century Dictionary. + +I wish also to thank especially my friends, Riu Watanabe, Ph.D., of +Cornell University, and William Nelson Noble, Esq., of Ithaca. The +former kindly assisted me with criticisms and suggestions, while to the +latter, who has taken time to read all the proofs, I am grateful for +considerable improvement in the English form of the sentences. + +In closing, I trust that whatever charges may be brought against me by +competent critics, lack of sympathy will not be one. I write in sight of +beautiful Lake Cayuga, on the fertile and sloping shores of which in old +time the Iroquois Indian confessed the mysteries of life. Having planted +his corn, he made his pregnant squaw walk round the seed-bed in hope of +receiving from the Source of life increased blessing and sustenance for +body and mind. Between such a truly religious act of the savage, and +that of the Christian sage, Joseph Henry, who uncovered his head while +investigating electro-magnetism to "ask God a question," or that of +Samuel F.B. Morse, who sent as his first telegraphic message "What hath +God wrought," I see no essential difference. All three were acts of +faith and acknowledgment of a power greater than man. Religion is one, +though religions are many. As Principal Fairbairn, my honored +predecessor in the Morse lectureship, says: "What we call superstition +of the savage is not superstition _in him_. Superstition is the +perpetuation of a low form of belief along with a higher knowledge.... +Between fetichism and Christian faith there is a great distance, but a +great affinity--the recognition of a supra-sensible life." + +"For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing +of the sons of God.... The creation itself shall be delivered from the +bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of +God." + +W.E.G. + +ITHACA, N.Y., October 27, 1894. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS, PAGE 1 + +Salutatory.--The Morse Lectureship and its provisions.--The Science of +Comparative Religion is Christianity's own child.--The Parliament of +Religions.--The Study of Religion most appropriate in a Theological +Seminary.--Shortening weapons and lengthening boundaries.--The right +missionary spirit that of the Master, who "came not to destroy but to +fulfil."--Characteristics of Japan.--Bird's-eye view of Japanese history +and religion.--Popularly, not three religions but one +religion.--Superstitions which are not organically parts of the +"book-religions."--The boundary line between the Creator and his +creation not visible to the pagan.--Shamanism: Fetichism.--Mythical +monsters, Kirin, Phoenix, Tortoise, Dragon.--Japanese mythical +zooelogy.--The erection of the stone fetich.--Insurance by amulets upon +house and person.--Phallicism.--Tree-worship.--Serpent-worship.--These +unwritten superstitions condition the "book-religions."--Removable by +science and a higher religion. + + +CHAPTER II + +SHINTO: MYTHS AND RITUAL, PAGE 35 + +Japan is young beside China and Korea.--Japanese history is +comparatively modern.--The oldest documents date from A.D. 712.--The +Japanese archipelago inhabited before the Christian era.--Faith, worship +and ritual are previous to written espression.--The Kojiki, Many[=o]shu +and Norito.--Tendency of the pupil nations surrounding China to antedate +their civilization.--Origin of the Japanese people and their +religion.--Three distinct lines of tradition from Tsukushi, Idzumo and +Yamato.--War of the invaders against the aborigines--Mikadoism is the +heart of Shint[=o].--Illustrations from the liturgies.--Phallicism among +the aborigines and common people.--The mind or mental climate of the +primaeval man.--Representation of male gods by emblems.--Objects of +worship and _ex-voto_.--Ideas of creation.--The fire-myth, +Prometheus.--Comparison of Greek and Japanese mythology.--Ritual for the +quieting of the fire-god.--The fire-drill. + + +CHAPTER III + +THE KOJIKI AND ITS TEACHINGS, PAGE 59 + +Origin of the Kojiki. Analysis of its opening lines--Norito.--Indecency +of the myths of the Kojiki.--Modern rationalistic interpretations--Life +in prehistoric Japan.--Character and temperament of the people then and +now.--Character of the kami or gods.--Hades.--Ethics.--The Land of the +Gods.--The barbarism of the Yamato conquerors an improvement upon the +savagery of the aborigines.--Cannibalism and human sacrifices.--The +makers of the God-way captured and absorbed the religion of the +aborigines.--A case of syncretism.--Origin of evil in bad +gods.--Pollution was sin.--Class of offences enumerated in the +norito.--Professor Kumi's contention that Mikadoism usurped a simple +worship of Heaven.--Difference between the ancient Chinese and ancient +Japanese cultus.--Development of Shint[=o] arrested by +Buddhism.--Temples and offerings.--The tori-i.--Pollution and +purification.--Prayer.--Hirata's ordinal and specimen prayers.--To the +common people the sun is a god.--Prayers to myriads of gods.--Summary of +Shint[=o].--Swallowed up in the Riy[=o]bu system.--Its modern +revival.--Keichin.--Kada Adzumar[=o].--Mabuchi, Motooeri.--Hirata.--In +1870, Shint[=o] is again made the state religion.--Purification of +Riy[=o]bu temples.--Politico-religious lectures.--Imperial +rescript.--Reverence to the Emperor's photograph.--Judgment upon +Shint[=o].--The Christian's ideal of Yamato-damashii. + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN, PAGE 99 + +In what respects Confucius was unique as a teacher.--Outline of his +life.--The canon.--Primitive Chinese faith a sort of monotheism.--How +the sage modified it.--History of Confucianism until its entrance into +Japan.--Outline of the intellectual and political history of the +Japanese.--Rise of the Samurai class.--Shifting of emphasis from filial +piety to loyalty.--Prevalence of suicide in Japan.--Confucianism has +deeply tinged the ideas of the Japanese.--Great care necessary in +seeking equivalents in English for the terms used in the Chino-Japanese +ethics; e.g., the emperor, "the father of the people."--Impersonality of +Japanese speech.--Christ and Confucius.--"Love" and +"reverence."--Exemplars of loyalty.--The Forty-seven R[=o]nins.--The +second relation.--The family in Chinese Asia and in Christendom.--The +law of filial piety and the daughter.--The third relation.--Theory of +courtship and marriage.--Chastity.--Jealousy.--Divorce.--Instability of +the marriage bond.--The fourth relation.--The elder and the younger +brother.--The house or family everything, the individual nothing.--The +fifth relation.--The ideas of Christ and those of Confucius.--The Golden +and the Gilded rule.--Lao Tsze and Kung.--Old Japan and the +alien.--Commodore Perry and Professor Hayashi. + + +CHAPTER V + +CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM, PAGE 131 + +Harmony of the systems of Confucius and Buddha in Japan during a +thousand years.--Revival of learning in the seventeenth century.--Exodus +of the Chinese scholars on the fall of the Ming dynasty.--Their +dispersion and work in Japan.--Founding of schools of the new Chinese +learning.--For two and a half centuries the Japanese mind has been +moulded by the new Confucianism.--Survey of its rise and +developments.--Four stages in the intellectual history of China.--The +populist movement in the eleventh century.--The literary +controversy.--The philosophy of the Cheng brothers and of Chu Hi, called +in Japan Tei-Shu system.--In Buddhism the Japanese were startling +innovators, in philosophy they were docile pupils.--Paucity of Confucian +or speculative literature in Japan.--A Chinese wall built around the +Japanese intellect.--Yelo orthodoxy.--Features of the Tei-Shu +system.--Not agnostic but pantheistic.--Its influence upon +historiography.--Ki (spirit) Ri (way) and Ten (heaven).--The writings of +Ohashi Junzo.--Confucianism obsolescent in New Japan.--A study of +Confucianism in the interest of comparative religion.--Man's place in +the universe.--The Samurai's ideal, obedience.--His fearlessness in the +face of death.--Critique of the system.--The ruler and the ruled.--What +has Confucianism done for woman?--Improvement and revision of the fourth +and fifth relations.--The new view of the universe and the new mind in +New Japan. The ideal of Yamato-damashii revised and improved. + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA, PAGE 153 + +Buddha--sun myth or historic personage?--Buddhism one of the +protestantisms of the world.--Characteristics of new religions.--Survey +of the history of Indian thought.--The age of the Vedas.--The epic +age.--The rationalistic age.--Our fellow-Aryans and the story of their +conquests.--Their intellectual energy and inventions.--Systems of +philosophy.--Condition of religion at the birth of Gautama.--Outline of +his life.--He attains enlightenment or buddhahood.--In what respects +Buddhism was an old, and in what a new religion.--Did Gautama intend to +found a new religion, or return to simpler and older +faith?--Monasticism, Kharma and Nirvana,--Enthusiasm of the disciples of +the new faith.--The great schism.--The Northern Buddhists.--The +canon.--The two Yana or vehicles.--Simplicity of Southern and luxuriance +of Northern Buddhism.--Summary of the process of thought in Nepal.--The +old gods of India come back again.--Maitreya, Manjusri and +Avalokitesvara.--The Legend of Manjusri.--Separation of attributes and +creation of new Buddhas or gods.--The Dhyani +Buddhas.--Amida.--Adi-Buddhas.--Abstractions become gods.--The Tantra +system.--Outbursts of doctrine and art.--Prayer-mills.--The noble +eight-fold path of self-denial and benevolence forgotten.--Entrance of +Buddhism from Korea into Japan.--Condition of the country at that +time.--Dates and first experiences.--Soga no +Iname.--Sh[=o]toku.--Japanese pilgrims to China.--Changes wrought by the +new creed and cult.--Temples, monasteries and images.--Influence upon +the Mikado's name, rank and person, and upon Shint[=o].--Relative +influence of Buddhism in Asia and of Christianity in Europe.--The three +great characteristics of Buddhism.--How the clouds returned after the +rain.--Buddhism and Christianity confronting the problem of life. + + +CHAPTER VII + +RIYOBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM, PAGE 189 + +The experience of two centuries and a half of Buddhism in +Japan.--Necessity of using more powerful means for the conversion of the +Japanese.--Popular customs nearly ineradicable.--Analogy from European +history.--Syncretism in Christian history.--In the Arabian Nights.--How +far is the process of Syncretism honest?--Examples not to be recommended +for imitation.--The problem of reconciling the Kami and the +Buddhas.--Northern Buddhism ready for the task.--The Tantra or +Yoga-chara system.--Art and its influence on the imagination.--The +sketch replaced by the illumination and monochrome by colors.--Japanese +art.--Mixed Buddhism rather than mixed Shint[=o].--K[=o]b[=o] the +wonder-worker who made all Japanese history a transfiguration of +Buddhism.--Legends about his extraordinary abilities and industry.--His +life, and studies in China.--The kata-kana syllabary.--K[=o]b[=o]o's +revelation from the Shint[=o] goddess Toyo-Uke-Bime.--The gods of Japan +were avatars of Buddha.--K[=o]b[=o]'s plan of propaganda.--Details of +the scheme.--A clearing-house of gods and Buddhas.--Relative rise and +fall of the native and the foreign deities.--Legend of Daruma. +"Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o]."--Impulse to art and art industry.--The Kami no +Michi falls into shadow.--Which religion suffered most?--Phenomenally +the victory belonged to Buddhism.--The leavening power was that of +Shint[=o].--Buddhism's fresh chapter of decay.--Influence of Riy[=o]bu +upon the Chinese ethical system in Japan.--Influence on the +Mikado.--Abdication all along the lines of Japanese life.--Ultimate +paralysis of the national intellect.--Comparison with Chinese +Buddhism.--Miracle-mongering.--No self-reforming power in Buddhism.--The +Seven Happy Gods of Fortune.--Pantheism's destruction of +boundaries.--The author's study of the popular processions in +Japan.--Masaka Do.--Swamping of history in legend.--The jewel in the +lotus. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS, PAGE 225 + +Four stages of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in Japan.--Reasons +for the formation of sects.--The Saddharma Pundarika.--Shastras and +Sutras.--The Ku-sha sect.--Book of the Treasury of Metaphysics.--The +J[=o]-jitsu sect, its founder and its doctrines.--The Ris-shu or Viyana +sect.--Japanese pilgrims to China.--The Hos-s[=o] sect and its +doctrines.--The three grades of disciples.--The San-ron or Three-shastra +sect and its tenets.--The Middle Path.--The Kegon sect.--The +Unconditioned, or realistic pantheism.--The Chinese or Tendai sect.--Its +scriptures and dogmas.--Buddhahood attainable in the present +body.--Vagradrodhi.--The Yoga-chara system.--The "old sects."--Reaction +against excessive idol-making.--The Zen sect.--Labor-saving devices in +Buddhism.--Making truth apparent by one's own thought.--Transmission of +the Zen doctrine.--History of Zen Shu. + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE, PAGE 257 + +The J[=o]-d[=o] or Pure Land sect.--Substitution of faith in Amida for +the eight-fold Path.--Succession of the propagators of true +doctrine.--Zend[=o] and H[=o]-nen.--The Japanese path-finder to the Pure +Land.--Doctrine of J[=o]-d[=o].--Buddhistic influence on the Japanese +language.--Incessant repetition of prayers.--The Pure Land in the +West.--The Buddhist doctrine of justification by faith.--H[=o]-nen's +universalism.--Tendency of doctrinal development after +H[=o]-nen.--"Reformed" Buddhism.--Synergism _versus_ salvation by faith +only.--Life of Shinran.--Posthumous honors.--Policy and aim of the Shin +sect, methods and scriptures. + + +CHAPTER X + +JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT, PAGE 287 + +The missionary history of Japanese Buddhism is the history of +Japan.--The first organized religion of the Japanese.--Professor Basil +Hall Chamberlain's testimony--A picture of primeval life in the +archipelago.--What came in the train of the new religion from "the +West". Missionary civilizers, teachers, road-makers, improvers of diet. +Language of flowers and gardens.--The house and home.--Architecture--The +imperial capital--Hiyeizan.--Love of natural scenery.--Pilgrimages and +their fruits.--The Japanese aesthetic.--Art and decoration in the +temples.--Exterior resemblances between the Roman form of Christianity +and of Buddhism.--Quotation from "The Mikado's Empire."--Internal vital +differences.--Enlightenment and grace.--Ingwa and love.--Luxuriance of +the art of Northern Buddhism.--Variety in individual treatment.--Place +of the temple in the life of Old Japan.--The protecting trees.--The bell +and its note.--The graveyard and the priests' hold upon it.--Japanese +Buddhism as a political power.--Its influence upon military +history.--Abbots on horseback and monks in armor.--Battles between the +Shin and Zen sects.--Nobunaga.--Influence of Buddhism in literature and +education.--The temple school.--The _kana_ writing.--Survey and critique +of Buddhist history in Japan.--Absence of organized charities.--Regard +for animal and disregard for human life.--The Eta.--The Aino.--Attitude +to women.--Nuna and numerics.--Polygamy and concubinage.--Buddhism +compared with Shint[=o].--Influence upon morals.--The First Cause.--Its +leadership among the sects.--Unreality of Amida Buddha.--Nichiren.--His +life and opinions.--Idols and avatars.--The favorite scripture of the +sect, the Saddharma Pundarika.--Its central dogma, everything in the +universe capable of Buddha-ship.--The Salvation Army of +Buddhism.--K[=o]b[=o]'s leaven working.--Buddhism ceases to be an +intellectual force.--The New Buddhism.--Are the Japanese eager for +reform? + + +CHAPTER XI + +ROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, PAGE 323 + +The many-sided story of Japanese Christianity.--One hundred years of +intercourse between Japan and Europe.--State of Japan at the +introduction of Portuguese Christianity.--Xavier and Anjiro.--Xavier at +Ki[=o]to and in Bungo.--Nobunaga and the Buddhists.--High-water mark of +Christianity.--Hideyoshi and the invasion of Korea.--Kato and +Konishi.--Persecutions.--Arrival of the Spanish friars.--Their violation +of good faith.--Spirit of the Jesuits and Franciscans.--Crucifixion on +the bamboo cross.--Hideyori.--Kato Kiyomasa.--The Dutch in the Eastern +seas.--Will Adams.--Iyeyas[)u] suspects designs against the sovereignty +of Japan.--The Christian religion outlawed.--Hidetada follows up the +policy of Iyeyas[)u], excludes aliens, and shuts up the country.--The +uprising of the Christians at Shimabara in 1637.--Christianity buried +from sight.--Character of the missionaries and the form of the faith +introduced by them.--Noble lives and ideals.--The spirit of the +Inquisition in Japan.--Political animus and complexion. + + +CHAPTER XII + +TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE, PAGE 351 + +Policy of the Japanese government after the suppression of +Christianity.--Insulation of Japan.--The Hollanders at +Deshima.--Withdrawal of the English.--Relations with Korea.--Policy of +inclusion.--"A society impervious to foreign ideas."--Life within +stunted limits.--Canons of art and literature.--Philosophy made an +engine of government.--Esoteric law.--Social waste of +humanity.--Attempts to break down the wall--External and +internal.--Seekers after God.--The goal of the pilgrims.--The Deshima +Dutchman as pictured by enemies and rivals, _versus_ reality and +truth.--Eager spirits groping after God.--Morning stars of the Japanese +reformation.--Yokoi Heishiro.--The anti-Christian edicts.--The Buddhist +Inquisitors.--The Shin-gaku or New Learning movement.--The story of +nineteenth century Christianity, subterranean and interior before being +phenomenal.--Sabbath-day service on the U.S.S. Mississippi.--The first +missionaries.--Dr. J.C. Hepburn--Healing and the Bible.--Yedo becomes +T[=o]ki[=o].--Despatch of the Embassy round the world.--Eyes +opened.--The Acts of the Apostles in Japan. + + +NOTES, AUTHORITIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, PAGE 375 + +INDEX, PAGE 451 + + + + +CHAPTER I - PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS + + "The investigation of the beginnings of a religion is never the + work of infidels, but of the most reverent and conscientious + minds." + + "We, the forty million souls of Japan, standing firmly and + persistently upon the basis of international justice, await + still further manifestations as to the morality of + Christianity,"--Hiraii, of Japan. + + "When the Creator [through intermediaries that were apparently + animals] had finished treating this world of men, the good and + the bad Gods were all mixed together promiscuously, and began + disputing for the possession of this world."--The Aino Story of + the Creation. + + "If the Japanese have few beast stories, the Ainos have + _apparently_ no popular tales of heroes ... The Aino mythologies + ... lack all connection with morality.... Both lack priests and + prophets.... Both belong to a very primitive stage of mental + development ... Excepting stories ... and a few almost metreless + songs, the Ainos have no other literature at all."--Aino + Studies. + + "I asked the earth, and it answered, 'I am not He;' and + whatsoever are therein made the same confession. I asked the sea + and the deep and the creeping things that lived, and they + replied, 'We are not thy God; seek higher than we.' ... And I + answered unto all things which stand about the door of my flesh, + 'Ye have told me concerning my God, that ye are not he; tell me + something about him.' And with a loud voice they explained, 'It + is He who hath made us!'"--Augustine's Confessions. + + "Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the + shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with + night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them + out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name."--Amos. + + "That which hath been made was life in Him."--John. + + +CHAPTER I - PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS + +The Morse Lectureship and the Study of Comparative +Religion. + + +As a graduate of the Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York, +in the Class of 1877, your servant received and accepted with pleasure +the invitation of the President and Board of Trustees to deliver a +course of lectures upon the religions of Japan. In that country and in +several parts of it, I lived from 1870 to 1874. I was in the service +first of the feudal daimi[=o] of Echizen and then of the national +government of Japan, helping to introduce that system of public schools +which is now the glory of the country. Those four years gave me +opportunities for close and constant observation of the outward side of +the religions of Japan, and facilities for the study of the ideas out of +which worship springs. Since 1867, however, when first as a student in +Rutgers College at New Brunswick, N.J., I met and instructed those +students from the far East, who, at risk of imprisonment and death had +come to America for the culture of Christendom, I have been deeply +interested in the study of the Japanese people and their thoughts. + +To attempt a just and impartial survey of the religions of Japan may +seem a task that might well appall even a life-long Oriental scholar. +Yet it may be that an honest purpose, a deep sympathy and a gladly +avowed desire to help the East and the West, the Japanese and the +English-speaking people, to understand each other, are not wholly +useless in a study of religion, but for our purpose of real value. These +lectures are upon the Morse[1] foundation which has these specifications +written out by the founder: + + The general subject of the lectures I desire to be: "The + Relation of the Bible to any of the Sciences, as Geography, + Geology, History, and Ethnology, ... and the relation of the + facts and truths contained in the Word of God, to the + principles, methods, and aims of any of the sciences." + +Now, among the sciences which we must call to our aid are those of +geography and geology, by which are conditioned history and ethnology of +which we must largely treat; and, most of all, the science of +Comparative Religion. + +This last is Christianity's own child. Other sciences, such as geography +and astronomy, may have been born among lands and nations outside of and +even before Christendom. Other sciences, such as geology, may have had +their rise in Christian time and in Christian lands, their foundation +lines laid and their main processes illustrated by Christian men, which +yet cannot be claimed by Christianity as her children bearing her own +likeness and image; but the science of Comparative Religion is the +direct offspring of the religion of Jesus. It is a distinctively +Christian science. "It is so because it is a product of Christian +civilization, and because it finds its impulse in that freedom of +inquiry which Christianity fosters."[2] Christian scholars began the +investigations, formulated the principles, collected the materials and +reared the already splendid fabric of the science of Comparative +Religion, because the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify +this. Jesus bade his disciples search, inquire, discern and compare. +Paul, the greatest of the apostolic Christian college, taught: "Prove +all things; hold fast that which is good." In our day one of Christ's +loving followers[3] expressed the spirit of her Master in her favorite +motto, "Truth for authority, not authority for truth." Well says Dr. +James Legge, a prince among scholars, and translator of the Chinese +classics, who has added several portly volumes to Professor Max Mueller's +series of the "Sacred Books of the East," whose face to-day is bronzed +and whose hair is whitened by fifty years of service in southern China +where with his own hands he baptized six hundred Chinamen:[4] + + The more that a man possesses the Christian spirit, and is + governed by Christian principle, the more anxious will he be to + do justice to every other system of religion, and to hold his + own without taint or fetter of bigotry.[5] + +It was Christianity that, in a country where the religion of Jesus has +fullest liberty, called the Parliament of Religions, and this for +reasons clearly manifest. Only Christians had and have the requisites of +success, viz.: sufficient interest in other men and religions; the +necessary unity of faith and purpose; and above all, the brave and bold +disregard of the consequences. Christianity calls the Parliament of +Religions, following out the Divine audacity of Him who, so often, +confronting worldly wisdom and priestly cunning, said to his disciples, +"Think not, be not anxious, take no heed, be careful for nothing--only +for love and truth. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." + +Of all places therefore, the study of comparative religion is most +appropriate in a Christian theological seminary. We must know how our +fellow-men think and believe, in order to help them. It is our duty to +discover the pathways of approach to their minds and hearts. We must +show them, as our brethren and children of the same Heavenly Father, the +common ground on which we all stand. We must point them to the greater +truth in the Bible and in Christ Jesus, and demonstrate wherein both the +divinely inspired library and the truth written in a divine-human life +fulfil that which is lacking in their books and masters. + +To know just how to do this is knowledge to be coveted as a most +excellent gift. An understanding of the religion of our fellow-men is +good, both for him who goes as a missionary and for him who at home +prays, "Thy kingdom come." + +The theological seminary, which begins the systematic and sympathetic +study of Comparative Religion and fills the chair with a professor who +has a vital as well as academic interest in the welfare of his +fellow-men who as yet know not Jesus as Christ and Lord, is sure to lead +in effective missionary work. The students thus equipped will be +furnished as none others are, to begin at once the campaign of help and +warfare of love. + +It may be that insight into and sympathy with the struggles of men who +are groping after God, if haply they may find him, will shorten the +polemic sword of the professional converter whose only purpose is +destructive hostility without tactics or strategy, or whose chief idea +of missionary success is in statistics, in blackening the character of +"the heathen," in sensational letters for home consumption and reports +properly cooked and served for the secretarial and sectarian palates. +Yet, if true in history, Greek, Roman, Japanese, it is also true in the +missionary wars, that "the race that shortens its weapons lengthens its +boundaries."[6] + +Apart from the wit or the measure of truth in this sentence quoted, it +is a matter of truth in the generalizations of fact that the figure of +the "sword of the spirit, which is the word of God," used by Paul, and +also the figure of the "word of God, living and active, sharper than any +two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of the soul and +spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and +intents of the heart," of the writer to the Hebrews, had for their +original in iron the victorious _gladium_ of the Roman legionary--a +weapon both short and sharp. We may learn from this substance of fact +behind the shadow of the figure a lesson for our instant application. +The disciplined Romans scorned the long blades of the barbarians, whose +valor so often impetuous was also impotent against discipline. The +Romans measured their blades by inches, not by feet. For ages the +Japanese sword has been famed for its temper more than its weight.[7] +The Christian entering upon his Master's campaigns with as little +impediments of sectarian dogma as possible, should select a weapon that +is short, sure and divinely tempered. + +To know exactly the defects of the religion we seek to abolish, modify, +supplement, supplant or fulfil, means wise economy of force. To get at +the secrets of its hold upon the people we hope to convert leads to a +right use of power. In a word, knowledge of the opposing religion, and +especially of alien language, literature and ways of feeling and +thinking, lengthens missionary life. A man who does not know the moulds +of thought of his hearers is like a swordsman trying to fight at long +range but only beating the air. Armed with knowledge and sympathy, the +missionary smites with effect at close quarters. He knows the vital +spots. + +Let me fortify my own convictions and conclude this preliminary part of +my lectures by quoting again, not from academic authorities, but from +active missionaries who are or have been at the front and in the +field.[8] + +The Rev. Samuel Beal, author of "Buddhism in China," said (p. 19) that +"it was plain to him that no real work could be done among the people +[of China and Japan] by missionaries until the system of their belief +was understood." + +The Rev. James MacDonald, a veteran missionary in Africa, in the +concluding chapter of his very able work on "Religion and Myth," says: + + The Church that first adopts for her intending missionaries the + study of Comparative Religion as a substitute for subjects now + taught will lead the van in the path of true progress. + + +The People of Japan. + + +In this faith then, in the spirit of Him who said, "I come not to +destroy but to fulfil," let us cast our eyes upon that part of the world +where lies the empire of Japan with its forty-one millions of souls. +Here we have not a country like India--a vast conglomeration of nations, +languages and religions occupying a peninsula itself like a continent, +whose history consists of a stratification of many civilizations. Nor +have we here a seemingly inert mass of humanity in a political structure +blending democracy and imperialism, as in China, so great in age, area +and numbers as to weary the imagination that strives to grasp the +details. On the contrary, in Dai Nippon, or Great Land of the Sun's +Origin, we have a little country easy of study. In geology it is one of +the youngest of lands. Its known history is comparatively modern. Its +area roughly reckoned as 150,000 square miles, is about that of our +Dakotas or of Great Britain and Ireland. The census completed December +31, 1892, illustrates here, as all over the world, nature's argument +against polygamy. It tells us that the relation between the sexes is, +numerically at least, normal. There were 20,752,366 males and 20,337,574 +females, making a population of 41,089,940 souls. All these people are +subjects of the one emperor, and excepting fewer than twenty thousand +savages in the northern islands called Ainos, speak one language and +form substantially one race. Even the Riu Kiu islanders are Japanese in +language, customs and religion. In a word, except in minor differences +appreciable or at least important only to the special student, the +modern Japanese are a homogeneous people. + +In origin and formation, this people is a composite of many tribes. +Roughly outlining the ethnology of Japan, we should say that the +aborigines were immigrants from the continent with Malay reinforcement +in the south, Koreans in the centre, and Ainos in the east and north, +with occasional strains of blood at different periods from various parts +of the Asian mainland. In brief, the Japanese are a very mixed race. +Authentic history before the Christian era is unknown. At some point of +time, probably later than A.D. 200, a conquering tribe, one of many from +the Asian mainland, began to be paramount on the main island. About the +fourth century something like historic events and personages begin to be +visible, but no Japanese writings are older than the early part of the +eighth century, though almanacs and means of measuring time are found in +the sixth century. Whatever Japan may be in legend and mythology, she is +in fact and in history younger than Christianity. Her line of rulers, as +alleged in old official documents and ostentatiously reaffirmed in the +first article of the constitution of 1889, to be "unbroken for ages +eternal," is no older than that of the popes. Let us not think of Aryan +or Chinese antiquity when we talk of Japan. Her history as a state began +when the Roman empire fell. The Germanic nations emerged into history +long before the Japanese. + +Roughly outlining the political and religious life of the ancient +Japanese, we note that their first system of government was a rude sort +of feudalism imposed by the conquerors and was synchronous with +aboriginal fetichism, nature worship, ancestral sacrifices, sun-worship +and possibly but not probably, a very rude sort of monotheism akin to +the primitive Chinese cultus.[9] Almost contemporary with Buddhism, its +introduction and missionary development, was the struggle for +centralized imperialism borrowed from the Chinese and consolidated in +the period from the seventh to the twelfth century. During most of this +time Shint[=o], or the primitive religion, was overshadowed while the +Confucian ethics were taught. From the twelfth to this nineteenth +century feudalism in politics and Buddhism in religion prevailed, though +Confucianism furnished the social laws or rules of daily conduct. Since +the epochal year of 1868, with imperialism reestablished and the feudal +system abolished, Shint[=o] has had a visible revival, being kept alive +by government patronage. Buddhism, though politically disestablished, is +still the popular religion with recent increase of life,[10] while +Confucianism is decidedly losing force. Christianity has begun its +promising career. + + +The Amalgam of Religions. + + +Yet in the imperial and constitutional Japan of our day it is still true +of probably at least thirty-eight millions of Japanese that their +religion is not one, Shint[=o], Confucianism or Buddhism, but an amalgam +of all three. There is not in every-day life that sharp distinction +between these religions which the native or foreign scholar makes, and +which both history and philosophy demand shall be made for the student +at least. Using the technical language of Christian theologians, +Shint[=o] furnishes theology, Confucianism anthropology and Buddhism +soteriology. The average Japanese learns about the gods and draws +inspiration for his patriotism from Shint[=o], maxims for his ethical +and social life from Confucius, and his hope of what he regards as +salvation from Buddhism. Or, as a native scholar, Nobuta Kishimoto,[11] +expresses it, + + In Japan these three different systems of religion and morality + are not only living together on friendly terms with one another, + but, in fact, they are blended together in the minds of the + people, who draw necessary nourishment from all of these + sources. One and the same Japanese is both a Shint[=o]ist, a + Confucianist, and a Buddhist. He plays a triple part, so to + speak ... Our religion may be likened to a triangle.... + Shint[=o]ism furnishes the object, Confucianism offers the rules + of life, while Buddhism supplies the way of salvation; so you + see we Japanese are eclectic in everything, even in religion. + +These three religious systems as at present constituted, are "book +religions." They rest, respectively, upon the Kojiki and other ancient +Japanese literature and the modern commentators; upon the Chinese +classics edited and commented on by Confucius and upon Chu Hi and other +mediaeval scholastics who commented upon Confucius; and upon the +shastras and sutras with which Gautama, the Buddha, had something to do. +Yet in primeval and prehistoric Nippon neither these books nor the +religions growing out of the books were extant. Furthermore, strictly +speaking, it is not with any or all of these three religions that the +Christian missionary comes first, oftenest or longest in contact. In +ancient, in mediaeval, and in modern times the student notices a great +undergrowth of superstition clinging parasitically to all religions, +though formally recognized by none. Whether we call it fetichism, +shamanism, nature worship or heathenism in its myriad forms, it is there +in awful reality. It is as omnipresent, as persistent, as hard to kill +as the scrub bamboo which both efficiently and sufficiently takes the +place of thorns and thistles as the curse of Japanese ground. + +The book-religions can be more or less apprehended by those alien to +them, but to fully appreciate the depth, extent, influence and tenacity +of these archaic, unwritten and unformulated beliefs requires residence +upon the soil and life among the devotees. Disowned it may be by the +priests and sages, indignantly disclaimed or secretly approved in part +by the organized religions, this great undergrowth of superstition is as +apparent as the silicious bamboo grass which everywhere conditions and +modifies Japanese agriculture. Such prevalence of mental and spiritual +disease is the sad fact that confronts every lover of his fellow-men. +This paganism is more ancient and universal than any one of the +religions founded on writing or teachers of name and fame. Even the +applied science and the wonderful inventions imported from the West, so +far from eradicating it, only serve as the iron-clad man-of-war in warm +salt water serves the barnacles, furnishing them food and hold. + +We propose to give in this our first lecture, a general or bird's-eye +view of this dead level of paganism above which the systems of +Shint[=o], Confucianism and Buddhism tower like mountains. It in by this +omnipresent superstition that the respectable religious have been +conditioned in their history and are modified at present, even as +Christianity has been influenced in its progress by ethnic or local +ideas and temperaments, and will be yet in its course of victory in the +Mikado's empire. + +Just as the terms "heathen" (happily no longer, in the Revised Version +of the English Bible) and "pagan" suggest the heath-man of Northern +Europe and the isolated hamlet of the Roman empire, while the cities +were illuminated with Christian truth, so, in the main, the matted +superstitious of Chinese Asia are more suggestive of distances from +books and centres of knowledge, though still sufficiently rooted in the +crowded cities. + +One to whom the boundary line between the Creator and his world is +perfectly clear, one who knows the eternal difference between mind and +matter, one born amid the triumphs of science can but faintly realize +the mental condition of the millions of Japan to whom there is no +unifying thought of the Creator-Father. Faith in the unity of law is the +foundation of all science, but the average Asiatic has not this thought +or faith. Appalled at his own insignificance amid the sublime mysteries +and awful immensities of nature, the shadows of his own mind become to +him real existences. As it is affirmed that the human skin, sensitive to +the effects of light, takes the photograph of the tree riven by +lightning, so, on the pagan mind lie in ineffaceable and exaggerated +grotesqueness the scars of impressions left by hereditary teaching, by +natural phenomena and by the memory of events and of landmarks. Out of +the soil of diseased imagination has sprung up a growth as terrible as +the drunkard's phantasies. The earthquake, flood, tidal wave, famine, +withering or devastating wind and poisonous gases, the geological +monsters and ravening bird, beast and fish, have their representatives +or supposed incarnations in mythical phantasms. + +Frightful as these shadows of the mind appear, they are both very real +and, in a sense, very necessary to the ignorant man. He must have some +theory by which to explain the phenomena of nature and soothe his own +terrors. Hence he peoples the earth and water, not only with invisible +spirits more or less malevolent, but also with bodily presences usually +in terrific bestial form. To those who believe in one Spirit pervading, +ordering, governing all things, there is unity amid all phenomena, and +the universe is all order and beauty. To the mind which has not reached +this height of simplicity, instead of one cause there are many. The +diverse phenomena of nature are brought about by spirits innumerable, +warring and discordant. Instead of a unity to the mind, as of sun and +solar system, there is nothing but planets, asteroids and a constant +rain of shooting-stars. + + +Shamanism. + + +Glancing at some phases of the actual unwritten religions of Japan we +name Shamanism, Mythical Zooelogy, Fetichism, Phallicism, and Tree and +Serpent Worship. + +In actual Shamanism or Animism there may or there may not be a belief in +or conception of a single all-powerful Creator above and beyond all.[12] +Usually there is not such a belief, though, even if there be, the actual +government of the physical world and its surroundings is believed to lie +in the hands of many spirits or gods benevolent and malevolent. Earth, +air, water, all things teem with beings that are malevolent and +constantly active. In time of disaster, famine, epidemic the universe +seems as overcrowded with them as stagnant water seems to be when the +solar microscope throw its contents into apparition upon the screen. It +is absolutely necessary to propitiate these spirits by magic rites and +incantations. + +Among the tribes of the northern part of the Chinese Empire and the +Ainos of Japan this Shamanism exists as something like an organized +cultus. Indeed, it would be hard to find any part of Chinese Asia from +Korea to Annam or from Tibet to Formosa, not dominated by this belief in +the power and presence of minor spirits. The Ainos of Yezo may be called +Shamanists or Animists; that is, their minds are cramped and confused by +their belief in a multitude of inferior spirits whom they worship and +propitiate by rites and incantations through their medicine-man or +sorcerer. How they whittle sticks, keeping on the fringe of curled +shavings, and set up these, called _inao_ in places whence evil is +suspected to lurk, and how the shaman conducts his exorcisms and works +his healings, are told in the works of the traveller and the +missionary.[13] In the wand of shavings thus reared we see the same +motive as that which induced the Mikado in the eighth century to build +the great monasteries on Hiyeizan, northeast of Ki[=o]to, this being the +quarter in which Buddhist superstition locates the path of advancing +evil, to ward off malevolence by litanies and incense. Or, the _inao_ is +a sort of lightning-rod conductor by which impending mischief may be led +harmlessly away. + +Yet, besides the Ainos,[14] there are millions of Japanese who are +Shamanists, even though they know not the name or organized cult. And if +we make use of the term Shamanism instead of the more exact one of +Animism, it is for the very purpose of illustrating our contention that +the underlying paganisms of the Japanese archipelago, unwritten and +unformulated, are older than the religions founded on books; and that +these paganisms, still vital and persistent, constantly modify and +corrupt the recognized religious. The term Shaman, a Pali word, was +originally a pure Buddhist term meaning one who has separated from his +family and his passions. One of the designations of the Buddha was +Shamana-Gautama. The same word, Shamon, in Japanese still means a bonze, +or Buddhist priest. Its appropriation by the sorcerers, medicine-men, +and lords of the misrule of superstition in Mongolia and Manchuria shows +decisively how indigenous paganism has corrupted the Buddhism of +northern Asia even as it has caused its decay in Japan. + +As out of Animism or Shamanism grows Fetichism in which a visible object +is found for the abode or medium of the spirit, so also, out of the same +soil arises what we may call Imaginary Zooelogy. In this mental growth, +the nightmare of the diseased imagination or of the mind unable to draw +the line between the real and the unreal, Chinese Asia differs notably +from the Aryan world. With the mythical monsters of India and Iran we +are acquainted, and with those of the Semitic and ancient European cycle +of ideas which furnished us with our ancients and classics we are +familiar. The lovely presences in human form, the semi-human and bestial +creations, sphinxes, naiads, satyrs, fauns, harpies, griffins, with +which the fancy of the Mediterranean nations populated glen, grotto, +mountain and stream, are probably outnumbered by the less beautiful and +even hideous mind-shadows of the Turanian world. Chief among these are +what in Chinese literature, so slavishly borrowed by the Japanese, are +called the four supernatural or spiritually endowed creatures--the Kirin +or Unicorn, the Phoenix, the Tortoise and the Dragon.[15] + + +Mythical Zooelogy. + + +Of the first species the _ki_ is the male, the _lin_ is the female, +hence the name Kilin. The Japanese having no _l_, pronounce this Kirin. +Its appearance on the earth is regarded as a happy portent of the advent +of good government or the birth of men who are to prove virtuous rulers. +It has the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, and a single, soft horn. +As messenger of mercy and benevolence, the Kirin never treads on a live +insect or eats growing grass. Later philosophy made this imaginary beast +the incarnation of those five primordial elements--earth, air, water, +fire and ether of which all things, including man's body, are made and +which are symbolized in the shapes of the cube, globe, pyramid, saucer +and tuft of rays in the Japanese gravestones. It is said to attain the +age of a thousand years, to be the noblest form of the animal creation +and the emblem of perfect good. In Chinese and Japanese art this +creature holds a prominent place, and in literature even more so. It is +not only part of the repertoire of the artist's symbols in the Chinese +world of ideas, but is almost a necessity to the moulds of thought in +eastern Asia. Yet it is older than Confucius or the book-religions, and +its conception shows one of the nobler sides of Animism. + +The Feng-hwang or Phoenix, Japanese H[=o]-w[=o], the second of the +incarnations of the spirits, is of wondrous form and mystic nature. The +rare advent of this bird upon the earth is, like that of the kirin or +unicorn, a presage of the advent of virtuous rulers and good government. +It has the head of a pheasant, the beak of a swallow, the neck of a +tortoise, and the features of the dragon and fish. Its colors and +streaming feathers are gorgeous with iridian sheen, combining the +splendors of the pheasant and the peacock. Its five colors symbolize the +cardinal virtues of uprightness of mind, obedience, justice, fidelity +and benevolence. The male bird _H[=o]_, and female _w[=o]_, by their +inseparable fellowship furnish the artist, poet and literary writer with +the originals of the ten thousand references which are found in Chinese +and its derived literatures. Of this mystic Phoenix a Chinese dictionary +thus gives description: + + The Phoenix is of the essence of water; it was born in the + vermilion cave; it perches not but on the most beautiful of all + trees; it eats not but of the seed of the bamboo; its body is + adorned with the five colors; its song contains the five notes; + as it walks it looks around; as it flies hosts of birds follow + it. + +Older than the elaborate descriptions of it and its representations in +art, the H[=o]-w[=o] is one of the creations of primitive Chinese +Animism. + +The Kwei or Tortoise is not the actual horny reptile known to +naturalists and to common experience, but a spirit, an animated creature +that ages ago rose up out of the Yellow River, having on its carapace +the mystic writing out of which the legendary founder of Chinese +civilization deciphered the basis of moral teachings and the secrets of +the unseen. From this divine tortoise which conceived by thought alone, +all other tortoises sprang. In the elaboration of the myths and legends +concerning the tortoise we find many varieties of this scaly +incarnation. It lives a thousand years, hence it is emblem of longevity +in art and literature. It is the attendant of the god of the waters. It +has some of the qualities and energies of the dragon, it has the power +of transformation. In pictures and sculptures we are familiar with its +figure, often of colossal size, as forming the curb of a well, the base +of a monument or tablet. Yet, whatever its form in literature or art, it +is the later elaborated representation of ancient Animism which selected +the tortoise as one of the manifold incarnations or media of the myriad +spirits that populate the air. + +Chief and leader of the four divinely constituted beasts is the Lung, +Japanese Ri[=o], or Dragon, which has the power of transformation and of +making itself visible or invisible. At will it reduces itself to the +size of a silk-worm, or is swollen until it fills the space of heaven +and earth. This is the creature especially preeminent in art, literature +and rhetoric. There are nine kinds of dragons, all with various features +and functions, and artists and authors revel in their representation. +The celestial dragon guards the mansions of the gods and supports them +lest they fall; the spiritual dragon causes the winds to blow and rain +to descend for the service of mankind; the earth dragon marks out the +courses of rivers and streams; the dragon of the hidden treasures +watches over the wealth concealed from mortals, etc. Outwardly, the +dragon of superstition resembles the geological monsters brought to +resurrection by our paleontologists. He seems to incarnate all the +attributes and forces of animal life--vigor, rapidity of motion, +endurance, power of offence in horn, hoof, claw, tooth, nail, scale and +fiery breath. Being the embodiment of all force the dragon is especially +symbolical of the emperor. Usually associated with malevolence, one +sees, besides the conventional art and literature of civilization, the +primitive animistic idea of men to whose mind this mysterious universe +had no unity, who believed in myriad discordant spirits but knew not of +"one Law-giver, who is able both to save and to destroy." An +enlargement, possibly, of prehistoric man's reminiscence of now extinct +monsters, the dragon is, in its artistic development, a mythical +embodiment of all the powers of moisture to bless and to harm. We shall +see how, when Buddhism entered China, the cobra-de-capello, so often +figured in the Buddhistic representations of India, is replaced by the +dragon. + +Yet besides these four incarnations of the spirits that misrule the +world there is a host, a menagerie of mythical monsters. In Korea, one +of the Asian countries richest in demonology, beast worship is very +prevalent. Mythical winged tigers and flying serpents with attributes of +fire, lightning and combinations of forces not found in any one +creature, are common to the popular fancy. In Japan, the _kappa_, half +monkey half tortoise, which seizes children bathing in the rivers, as +real to millions of the native common folk as is the shark or porpoise; +the flying-weasel, that moves in the whirlwind with sickle-like blades +on his claws, which cut the face of the unfortunate; the wind-god or imp +that lets loose the gale or storm; the thunder-imp or hairy, cat-like +creature that on the cloud-edges beats his drums in crash, roll, or +rattle; the earthquake-fish or subterranean bull-head or cat-fish that +wriggles and writhes, causing the earth to shiver, shudder and open; the +_ja_ or dragon centipede; the _tengu_ or long-nosed and winged mountain +sprite, which acts as the messenger of the gods, pulling out the tongues +of fibbing, lying children; besides the colossal spiders and mythical +creatures of the old story-books; the foxes, badgers, cats and other +creatures which transform themselves and "possess" human beings, still +influence the popular mind. These, once the old _kami_ of the primitive +Japanese, or _kamui_ of the aboriginal Aino, show the mental soil and +climate[16] which were to condition the growth of the seed imported from +other lands, whether of Buddhism or Christianity. It is very hard to +kill a god while the old mind that grew and nourished him still remains +the same. Banish or brand a phantom or mind-shadow once worshipped as +divine, and it will appear as a fairy, a demon, a mythical animal, or an +_oni_; but to annihilate it requires many centuries of higher culture. + +As with the superstitions and survival of Animism and Fetichism from our +pagan ancestors among ourselves, many of the lingering beliefs may be +harmless, but over the mass of men in Japan and in Chinese Asia they +still exert a baleful influence. They make life full of distress; they +curtail human joy; they are a hindrance, to spiritual progress and to +civilization. + + +Fetichism. + + +The animistic tendency in that part of Asia dominated by the Chinese +world of ideas shows itself not only in a belief in messengers or +embodiments of divine malevolence or benevolence, but also in the +location of the spiritual influence in or upon an inanimate object or +fetich. Among men in Chinese Asia, from the clodhopper to the gentleman, +the inheritance of Fetichism from the primeval ages is constantly +noticeable. Let us glance at the term itself. + +As the Chinaman's "Joss" is only his own pronunciation of the Portuguese +word _Deos_, or the Latin _Deus_, so the word "fetich" is but the +Portuguese modification of the Latin word _facticius_, that is +_feitico_. Portugal, beginning nearly five hundred years ago, had the +honor of sending the first ships and crews to explore the coasts of +Africa and Asia, and her sailors by this word, now Englished as fetich, +described the native charms or talismans. The word "fetichism" came into +the European languages through the work of Charles de Brosses, who, in +1760, wrote on "Du Culte des Dieux Fetiches." In Fetichism, the "object +is treated as having personal consciousness and power, is talked with, +worshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, petted or ill-treated with +reference to its past or future behavior to its votaries." + +Let me draw a picture from actual observation. I look out of the windows +of my house in Fukui. Here is a peasant who comes back after the winter +to prepare his field for cultivation. The man's horizon of ideas, like +his vocabulary, is very limited. His view of actual life is bounded by a +few rice-fields, a range of hills, and the village near by. Possibly one +visit to a city or large town has enriched his experience. More +probably, however, the wind and clouds, the weather, the soil, crops and +taxes, his family and food and how to provide for them, are the main +thoughts that occupy his mind. Before he will strike mattock or spade in +the soil, lay axe to a tree, collect or burn underbrush, he will select +a stone, a slab of rock or a stick of wood, set it upon hill side or mud +field-boundary, and to this he will bow, prostrate himself or pray. To +him, this stone or stick is consecrated. It has power to placate the +spirits and ward off their evil. It is the medium of communication +between him and them. Now, having attended, as he thinks, to the +proprieties in the case, he proceeds to dig, plough, drain, put in order +and treat soil or water, tree or other growth as is most convenient for +his purpose. His fetich is erected to "the honorable spirits." Were this +not attended to, some known or unknown bad luck, sinister fortune, or +calamity would befall him. Here, then, is a fetich-worshipper. The stick +or stone is the medium of communication between the man and the spirits +who can bless or harm him, and which to his mind are as countlessly +numerous as the swarms of mosquitoes which he drives out of and away +from his summer cottage by smudge fires in August. + +One need not travel in Yezo or Saghalin to see practical Fetichism. Go +where you will in Japan, there are fetich worshippers. Among the country +folk, the "_inaka_" of Japanese parlance, Fetichism is seen in its +grossest forms. Yet among probably millions of Buddhists, especially of +certain sects, the Nichiren for example, and even among the +rationalistic Confucians, there are fetich-worshippers. Rare is the +Japanese farmer, laborer, mechanic, ward-man, or _hei-min_ of any trade +who does not wear amulet, charm or other object which he regards with +more or less of reverence as having relation to the powers that help or +harm.[17] In most of the Buddhist temples these amulets are sold for the +benefit of the priests or of the shrine or monastery. Not a few even of +the gentry consider it best to be on the safe side and wear in pouch or +purse these protectors against evil. + +Of the 7,817,570 houses in the empire, enumerated in the census of 1892, +it is probable that seven millions of them are subjects of insurance by +fetich.[18] They are guaranteed against fire, thieves, lightning, plague +and pestilence. It is because of money paid to the priests that the +wooden policies are duly nailed on the walls, and not on account of the +wise application of mathematical, financial or medical science. Examine +also the paper packages carefully tied and affixed above the transom, +decipher the writing in ink or the brand left by the hot iron on the +little slabs of pine-wood--there may be one or a score of them--and what +will you read? Names of the temples with date of issue and seal of +certificate from the priests, mottoes or titles from sacred books, often +only a Sanskrit letter or monogram, of which the priest-pedler may long +since have forgotten the meaning. To build a house, select a cemetery or +proceed to any of the ordinary events of life without making use of some +sort of material fetich, is unusual, extraordinary and is voted +heterodox. + +Long after the brutish stage of thought is past the fetichistic instinct +remains in the sacredness attached to the mere letter or paper or +parchment of the sacred book or writing, when used as amulet, plaster or +medicine. The survivals, even in Buddhism, of ancient and prehistoric +Fetichism are many and often with undenied approval of the religious +authorities, especially in those sects which are themselves reversions +to primitive and lower types of religion. + +Among the Ainos of Yezo and Saghalin the medicine-man or shaman is +decorated with fetichistic bric-a-brac of all sorts, and these bits of +shells, metals, and other clinking substances are believed to be media +of communication with mysterious influences and forces. In Korea +thousands of trees bedecked with fluttering rags, clinking scraps of +tin, metal or stone signify the same thing. In Japan these primitive +tinkling scraps and clinking bunches of glass have long since become the +_suzu_ or wind-bells seen on the pagoda which tintinabulate with every +passing breeze. The whittled sticks of the Aino, non-conductors of evil +and protectors of those who make and rear them, stuck up in every place +of awe or supposed danger, have in the slow evolution of centuries +become the innumerable flag-poles, banners and streamers which one sees +at their _matsuris_ or temple festivals. Millions of towels and +handkerchiefs still flutter over wells and on sacred trees. In old Japan +the banners of an army almost outnumbered the men who fought beneath +them. Today, at times they nearly conceal the temples from view. + +The civilized Japanese, having passed far beyond the Aino's stage of +religion, still show their fetichistic instincts in the veneration +accorded to priestly inventions for raising revenue.[19] This instinct +lingers in the faith accorded to medicine in the form of decoction, +pill, bolus or poultice made from the sacred writing and piously +swallowed; in the reverence paid to the idol for its own sake, and in +the charm or amulet worn by the soldier in his cap or by the gentleman +in his pill-box, tobacco-pouch or purse. + +As the will of the worshipper who selects the fetich makes it what it +is, so also, by the exercise of that will he imagines he can in a +certain measure be the equal or superior of his god. Like the Italian +peasant who beats or scolds his bambino when his prayers are not +answered or his wishes gratified, so the fetich is punished or not +allowed to know what is going on, by being covered up or hidden away. +Instances of such rough handling of their fetiches by the people are far +from unknown in the Land of Great Peace. At such childishness we may +wonder and imagine that fetich-worship is the very antipodes of +religion; and yet it requires but little study of the lower orders of +mind and conduct in Christendom to see how fetich-worship still lingers +among people called Christians, whether the fetich be the image of a +saint or the Virgin, or a verse of the Bible found at random and used +much as is a penny-toss to decide minor actions. Or, to look farther +south, what means the rabbit's foot carried in the pocket or the various +articles of faith now hanging in the limbo between religion and +folk-lore in various parts of our own country? + + +Phallicism. + + +Further illustrations of far Eastern Animism and Fetichism are seen in +forms once vastly more prevalent in Japan than now. Indeed, so far +improved off the face of the earth are they, that some are already +matters of memory or archaeology, and their very existence even in former +days is nearly or wholly incredible to the generation born since +1868--when Old Japan began to vanish in dissolving views and New Japan +to emerge. What the author has seen with his own eyes, would amaze many +Japanese born since 1868 and the readers of the rhapsodies of tourists +who study Japan from the _jin-riki-sha_. Phases of tree and serpent +worship are still quite common, and will be probably for generations to +come; but the phallic shrines and emblems abolished by the government in +1872 have been so far invisible to most living travellers and natives, +that their once general existence and use are now scarcely suspected. +Even profound scholars of the Japanese language and literature whose +work dates from after the year 1872 have scarcely suspected the +universality of phallic worship. Yet what we could say of this cult and +its emblems, especially in treating of Shint[=o], the special ethnic +faith of Japan, would be from sight of our own eyes besides the +testimony of many witnesses.[20] + +The cultus has been known in the Japanese archipelago from Riu Kin to +Yezo. Despite official edicts of abolition it is still secretly +practised by the "heathen," the _inaka_ of Japan. "Government law lasts +three days," is an ancient proverb in Nippon. Sharp eyes have, within +three months of the writing of this line, unearthed a phallic shrine +within a stone's-throw of Shint[=o]'s most sacred temples at Ise. +Formerly, however, these implements of worship were seen numerously--in +the cornucopia distributed in the temples, in the _matsuris_ or +religious processions and in representation by various plastic +material--and all this until 1872, to an extent that is absolutely +incredible to all except the eye-witnesses, some of whose written +testimonies we possess. What seems to our mind shocking and revolting +was once a part of our own ancestors' faith, and until very recently was +the perfectly natural and innocent creed of many millions of Japanese +and is yet the same for tens of thousands of them. + +We may easily see why and how that which to us is a degrading cult was +not only closely allied to Shint[=o], but directly fostered by and +properly a part of it, as soon as we read the account of the creation of +the world, an contained in the national "Book of Ancient Traditions," +the "Kojiki." Several of the opening paragraphs of this sacred book of +Shint[=o] are phallic myths explaining cosmogony. Yet the myths and the +cult are older than the writing and are phases of primitive Japanese +faith. The mystery of fatherhood is to the primitive man the mystery of +creation also. To him neither the thought nor the word was at hand to +put difference and transcendental separation between him and what he +worshipped as a god. + +Into the details of the former display and carriage of these now obscene +symbols in the popular celebrations; of the behavior of even respectable +citizens during the excitement and frenzy of the festivals; of their +presence in the wayside shrines; of the philosophy, hideousness or +pathos of the subject, we cannot here enter. We simply call attention to +their existence, and to a form of thought, if not of religion, properly +so-called, which has survived all imported systems of faith and which +shows what the native or indigenous idea of divinity really is--an idea +that profoundly affects the organization of society. To the enlightened +Buddhist, Confucian, and even the modern Shintoist the +phallus-worshipper is a "heathen," a "pagan," and yet he still practises +his faith and rites. It is for us to hint at the powerful influence such +persistent ideas have upon Japanese morals and civilization. Still +further, we illustrate the basic fact which all foreign religions and +all missionaries, Confucian, Buddhist, Mahometan or Christian must deal +with, viz.: That the Eastern Asiatic mind runs to pantheism as surely as +the body of flesh and blood seeks food. + + +Tree and Serpent Worship. + + +In prehistoric and medieval Japan, as among the Ainos to-day, trees and +serpents as well as rocks, rivers and other inanimate objects were +worshipped, because such of them as were supposed for reasons known and +felt to be awe-inspiring or wonderful were "kami," that is, above the +common, wonderful.[21] This word kami is usually translated god or +deity, but the term does not conform to our ideas, by a great gulf of +difference. It is more than probable that the Japanese term kami is the +same as the Aino word _kamui_, and that the despised and conquered +aboriginal savage has furnished the mould of the ordinary Japanese idea +of god--which even to-day with them means anything wonderful or +extraordinary.[22] From the days before history the people have +worshipped trees, and do so yet, considering them as the abodes of and +as means of communication with supernatural powers. On them the people +hang their votive offerings, twist on the branches their prayers written +on paper, avoid cutting down, breaking or in any way injuring certain +trees. The _sakaki_ tree is especially sacred, even to this day, in +funeral or Shint[=o] services. To wound or defile a tree sacred to a +particular god was to call forth the vengeance of the insulted deity +upon the insulter, or as the hearer of prayer upon another to whom guilt +was imputed and punishment was due. + +Thus, in the days older than this present generation, but still within +this century, as the writer has witnessed, it was the custom of women +betrayed by their lovers to perform the religious act of vengeance +called _Ushi toki mairi_, or going to the temple at the hour of the ox, +that is at 2 A.M. First making an image or manikin of straw, she set out +on her errand of revenge, with nails held in her mouth and with hammer +in one hand and straw figure in the other, sometimes also having on her +head a reversed tripod in which were stuck three lighted candles. +Arriving at the shrine she selected a tree dedicated to a god, and then +nailed the straw simulacrum of her betrayer to the trunk, invoking the +kami to curse and annihilate the destroyer of her peace. She adjures the +god to save his tree, impute the guilt of desecration to the traitor and +visit him with deadly vengeance. The visit is repeated and nails are +driven until the object of the incantation sickens and dies, or is at +least supposed to do so. I have more than once seen such trees and straw +images upon them, and have observed others in which the large number of +rusted nails and fragments of straw showed how tenaciously the +superstition lingered.[23] + +In instances more pleasant to witness, may be seen trees festooned with +the symbolical rice-straw in cords and fringes. With these the people +honor the trees as the abode of the kami, or as evidence of their faith +in the renown accredited in the past. + +In common with most human beings the Japanese consider the serpent an +object of mystery and awe, but most of them go further and pay the +ophidian a reverence and awe which is worship. Their oldest literature +shows how large a part the serpent played in the so-called divine age, +how it acted as progenitress of the Mikado's ancestry, and how it +afforded means of incarnation for the kami or gods. Ten species of +ophidia are known in the Japanese islands, but in the larger number of +more or less imaginary varieties which figure in the ancient books we +shall find plenty of material for fetich-worship. In perusing the +"Kojiki" one scarcely knows, when he begins a story, whether the +character which to all appearance is a man or woman is to end as a +snake, or whether the mother after delivering her child will or will not +glide into the marsh or slide away into the sea, leaving behind a trail +of slime. A dragon is three-fourths serpent, and both the dragon and the +serpent are prominent figures, perhaps the most prominent of the kami or +gods in human or animal form in the "Kojiki" and other early legends of +the gods, though the crocodile, crow, deer, dog, and other animals are +kami.[24] It is therefore no wonder that serpents have been and are +still worshipped by the people, that some of their gods and goddesses +are liable at any time to slip away in scaly form, that famous temples +are built on sites noted as being the abode or visible place of the +actual water or land snake of natural history, and that the spot where a +serpent is seen to-day is usually marked with a sacred emblem or a +shrine.[25] We shall see how this snake-worship became not only a part +of Shint[=o] but even a notable feature in corrupt Buddhism. + + +Pantheism's Destruction of Boundaries.[26] + + +In its rudest forms, this pantheism branches out into animism or +shamanism, fetichism and phallicism. In its higher forms, it becomes +polytheism, idolatry and defective philosophy. Having centuries ago +corrupted Buddhism it is the malaria which, unseen and unfelt, is ready +to poison and corrupt Christianity. Indeed, it has already given over to +disease and spiritual death more than one once hopeful Christian +believer, teacher and preacher in the Japan of our decade. + +To assault and remove the incubus, to replace and refill the mind, to +lift up and enlighten the Japanese peasant, science as already known and +faith in one God, Creator and Father of all things, must go hand in +hand. Education and civilization will do much for the ignorant _inaka_ +or boors, but for the cultured whose minds waver and whose feet +flounder, as well as for the unlearned and priest-ridden, there is no +surer help and healing than that faith in the Heavenly Father which +gives the unifying thought to him who looks into creation. + +Keep the boundary line clear between God and his world and all is order +and discrimination. Obliterate that boundary and all is pathless morass, +black chaos and on the mind the phantasms which belong to the victim of +_delirium tremens_. + +There is one Lawgiver. In the beginning, God. In the end, God, all in +all. + + + + +CHAPTER II - SHINT[=O]: MYTHS AND RITUAL + + "In the great days of old, + When o'er the land the gods held sov'reign sway, + Our fathers lov'd to say + That the bright gods with tender care enfold + The fortunes of Japan, + Blessing the land with many an holy spell: + And what they loved to tell, + We of this later age ourselves do prove; + For every living man + May feast his eyes on tokens of their love." + + --Poem of Yamagami-no Okura, + A.D. 733. + + Baal: "While I on towers and banging terraces, + In shaft and obelisk, behold my sign. + Creative, shape of first imperious law." + + --Bayard Taylor's "Masque of the Gods." + + "Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my + silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of + men, and didst commit whoredom with them, and tookest thy + broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine + oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave + thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou + hast even set it before them for a sweet savor: and thus it was, + saith the Lord GOD."--Ezekiel. + + If it be said (as has been the case), 'Shintoism has nothing in + it,' we should be inclined to answer, 'So much the better, there + is less error to counteract.' But there _is_ something in it, + and that ... of a kind of which we may well avail ourselves when + making known the second commandment, and the 'fountain of + cleansing from all sin.'"--E.W. Syle. + + "If Shint[=o] has a dogma, it is purity."--Kaburagi. + + "I will wash my hands in innocency, O Lord: and so will I go to + thine altar."--Ps. xxvi. 6. + + +CHAPTER II - SHINT[=O]: MYTHS AND RITUAL + +The Japanese a Young Nation. + + +What impresses us in the study of the history of Japan is that, compared +with China and Korea, she is young. Her history is as the story of +yesterday. The nation is modern. The Japanese are as younger children in +the great family of Asia's historic people. Broadly speaking, Japan is +no older than England, and authentic Japanese history no more ancient +than British history. In Albion, as in the Honorable Country, there are +traditions and mythologies that project their shadows aeons back of +genuine records; but if we consider that English history begins in the +fifth, and English literature in the eighth century, then there are +other reasons besides those commonly given for calling Japan "the +England of the East." + +No trustworthy traditions exist which carry the known history of Japan +farther back than the fifth century. The means for measuring and +recording time were probably not in use until the sixth century. The +oldest documents in the Japanese language, excepting a few fragments of +the seventh century, do not antedate the year 712, and even in these the +Chinese characters are in many instances used phonetically, because the +meaning of the words thus transliterated had already been forgotten. +Hence their interpretation in detail is still largely a matter of +conjecture. + +Yet the Japanese Archipelago was inhabited long before the dawn of +history. The concurrent testimony of the earliest literary monuments, of +the indigenous mythology, of folk-lore, of shell-heaps and of +kitchen-middens shows that the occupation by human beings of the main +islands must be ascribed to times long before the Christian era. Before +written records or ritual of worship, religion existed on its active or +devotional side, and there were mature growths of thought preserved and +expressed orally. Poems, songs, chants and _norito_ or liturgies were +kept alive in the human memory, and there was a system of worship, the +_name_ of which was given long after the introduction of Buddhism. This +descriptive term, Kami no Michi in Japanese, and Shin-t[=o] in the +Chinese as pronounced by Japanese, means the Way of the Gods, the t[=o] +or final syllable being the same as tao in Taoism. We may say that +Shint[=o] means, literally, theoslogos, theology. The customs and +practices existed centuries before contact with Chinese letters, and +long previous to the Shint[=o] literature which is now extant. + +Whether Kami no Michi is wholly the product of Japanese soil, or whether +its rudimentary ideas were imported from the neighboring Asian continent +and more or less allied to the primitive Chinese religion, is still an +open question. The preponderance of argument tends, however, to show +that it was an importation as to its origin, for not a few events +outlined in the Japanese mythology cast shadows of reminiscence upon +Korea or the Asian mainland. In its development, however, the cultus is +almost wholly Japanese. The modern forms of Shint[=o], as moulded by the +revivalists of the eighteenth century, are at many points notably +different from the ancient faith. At the World's Parliament of Religions +at Chicago, Shint[=o] seemed to be the only one, and probably the last, +of the purely provincial religions. + +In order to gain a picture of life in Japan before the introduction of +Chinese civilization, we must consult those photographs of the minds of +the ancient islanders which still exist in their earliest literature. +The fruits of the study of ethnology, anthropology and archaeology +greatly assist us in picturing the day-break of human life in the +Morning Land. In preparing materials for the student of the religions of +Japan many laborers have wrought in various fields, but the chief +literary honors have been taken by the English scholars, Messrs. +Satow,[1] Aston,[2] and Chamberlain.[3] These untiring workers have +opened the treasures of ancient thought in the Altaic world.[4] + +Although even these archaic Japanese compositions, readable to-day only +by special scholars, are more or less affected by Chinese influences, +ideas and modes of expression, yet they are in the main faithful +reflections of the ancient life before the primitive faith of the +Japanese people was either disturbed or reduced to system in presence of +an imported religion. These monuments of history, poetry and liturgies +are the "Kojiki," or Notices of Ancient Things; the "Manyoeshu" or Myriad +Leaves or Poems, and the "Norito," or Liturgies. + + +The Ancient Documents. + + +The first book, the "Kojiki," gives us the theology, cosmogony, +mythology, and very probably, in its later portions, some outlines of +history of the ancient Japanese. The "Kojiki" is the real, the dogmatic +exponent, or, if we may so say, the Bible, of Shint[=o]. The +"Many[=o]shu," or Book of Myriad Poems, expresses the thoughts and +feelings; reflects the manners and customs of the primitive generations, +and, in the same sense as do the Sagas of the Scandinavians, furnishes +us unchronological but interesting and more or less real narratives of +events which have been glorified by the poets and artists. The ancient +codes of law and of ceremonial procedure are of great value, while the +"Norito" are excellent mirrors in which to see reflected the religion +called Shint[=o] on the more active side of worship. + +In a critical study, either of the general body of national tradition or +of the ancient documents, we must continually be on our guard against +the usual assumption that Chinese civilization came in earlier than it +really did. This assumption colors all modern Japanese popular ideas, +art and literature. The vice of the pupil nations surrounding the Middle +Kingdom is their desire to have it believed that Chinese letters and +culture among them is an nearly coeval with those of China as can be +made truly or falsely to appear. The Koreans, for example, would have us +believe that their civilization, based on letters and introduced by +Kishi, is "four thousand years old" and contemporaneous with China's +own, and that "the Koreans are among the oldest people of the world."[5] +The average modern Japanese wishes the date of authentic or official +history projected as far back as possible. Yet he is a modest man +compared with his mediaeval ancestor, who constructed chronology out of +ink-stones. Over a thousand years ago a deliberate forgery was +officially put on paper. A whole line of emperors who never lived was +canonized, and clever penmen set down in ink long chapters which +describe what never happened.[6] Furthermore, even after, and only eight +years after the fairly honest "Kojiki" had been compiled, the book +called "Nihongi," or Chronicles of Japan, was written. All the internal +and not a little external evidence shows that the object of this book is +to give the impression that Chinese ideas, culture and learning had long +been domesticated in Japan. The "Nihongi" gives dates of events supposed +to have happened fifteen hundred years before, with an accuracy which +may be called villainous; while the "Kojiki" states that Wani, a Korean +teacher, brought the "Thousand Character Classic" to Japan in A.D. 285, +though that famous Chinese book was not composed until the sixth +century, or A.D. 550.[7] + +Even to this day it is nearly impossible for an American to get a Korean +"frog in the well"[8] to understand why the genuine native life and +history, language and learning of his own peninsular country is of +greater value to the student than the pedantry borrowed from China. Why +these possess any interest to a "scholar" is a mystery to the head in +the horsehair net. Anything of value, he thinks, _must_ be on the +Chinese model. What is not Chinese is foolish and fit for women and +children only. Furthermore, Korea "always had" Chinese learning. This is +the sum of the arguments of the Korean literati, even as it used to be +of the old-time hatless Yedo scholar of shaven skull and topknot. + +Despite Japanese independence and even arrogance in certain other lines, +the thought of the demolition of cherished notions of vast antiquity is +very painful. Critical study of ancient traditions is still dangerous, +even in parliamentary Nippon. Hence the unbiassed student must depend on +his own reading of and judgment upon the ancient records, assisted by +the thorough work done by the English scholars Aston, Satow, +Chamberlain, Bramsen and others. + +It was the coming of Buddhism in the sixth century, and the implanting +on the soil of Japan of a system of religion in which were temples with +all that was attractive to the eye, gorgeous ritual, scriptures, +priesthood, codes of morals, rigid discipline, a system of dogmatics in +which all was made positive and clear, that made the variant myths and +legends somewhat uniform. The faith of Shaka, by winning adherents both +at the court and among the leading men of intelligence, reacted upon the +national traditions so as to compel their collection and arrangemeut +into definite formulas. In due time the mythology, poetry and ritual +was, as we have seen, committed to writing and the whole system called +Shint[=o], in distinction from Butsud[=o], the Way of the Gods from the +Way of the Buddhas. Thus we can see more clearly the outward and visible +manifestations of Shint[=o]. In forming our judgment, however, we must +put aside those descriptions which are found in the works of European +writers, from Marco Polo and Mendez Pinto down to the year 1870. Though +these were good observers, they were often necessarily mistaken in their +deductions. For, as we shall see in our lecture on Riy[=o]bu or Mixed +Buddhism, Shint[=o] was, from the ninth century until late into the +nineteenth century, absorbed in Buddhism so as to be next to invisible. + + +Origins of the Japanese People. + + +Without detailing processes, but giving only results, our view of the +origin of the Japanese people and of their religion is in the main as +follows: + +The oldest seats of human habitation in the Japanese Archipelago lie +between the thirtieth and thirty-eighth parallels of north latitude. +South of the thirty-fourth parallel, it seems, though without proof of +writing or from tradition, that the Malay type and blood from the far +south probably predominated, with, however, much infusion from the +northern Asian mainland. + +Between the thirty-fourth and thirty-sixth parallels, and west of the +one hundred and thirty-eighth meridian of longitude, may be found what +is still the choicest, richest and most populous part of The Country +Between Heaven and Earth. Here the prevailing element was Korean and +Tartar. + +To the north and east of this fair country lay the Emishi savages, or +Ainos. + +In "the world" within the ken of the prehistoric dwellers in what is now +the three islands, Hondo, Kiushiu and Shikoku, there was no island of +Yezu and no China; while Korea was but slightly known, and the lands +farther westward were unheard of except as the home of distant tribes. + +Three distinct lines of tradition point to the near peninsula or the +west coast of Japan as the "Heaven" whence descended the tribe which +finally grew to be dominant. The islands of Tsushima and Iki were the +stepping-stones of the migration out of which rose what may be called +the southern or Tsukushi cycle of legend, Tsukushi being the ancient +name of Kiushiu. + +Idzumo is the holy land whence issued the second stream of tradition. + +The third course of myth and legend leads us into Yamato, whence we +behold the conquest of the Mikado's home-land and the extension of his +name and influence into the regions east of the Hakone Mountains, +including the great plain of Yedo, where modern T[=o]ki[=o] now stands. + +We shall take the term "Yamato" as the synonym of the prehistoric but +discernible beginnings of national life. It represents the seat of the +tribe whose valor and genius ultimately produced the Mikado system. It +was through this house or tribe that Japanese history took form. The +reverence for the ruler long afterward entitled "Son of Heaven" is the +strongest force in the national history. The spirit and prowess of these +early conquerors have left an indelible impress upon the language and +the mind of the nation in the phrase Yamato Damashi--the spirit of +(Divine and unconquerable) Japan. + +The story of the conquest of the land, in its many phases, recalls that +of the Aryans in India, of the Hebrews in Canaan, of the Romans in +Europe and of the Germanic races in North America. The Yamato men +gradually advanced to conquest under the impulse, as they believed, of a +divine command.[9] They were sent from Takama-no-hara, the High Plain of +Heaven. Theirs was the war, of men with a nobler creed, having +agriculture and a feudal system of organization which furnished +resources for long campaigns, against hunters and fishermen. They had +improved artillery and used iron against stone. Yet they conquered and +pacified not only by superior strategy, tactics, weapons and valor, but +also by advanced fetiches and dogma. They captured the religion of their +enemies as well as their bodies, lands and resources. They claimed that +their ancestors were from Heaven, that the Sun was their kinswoman and +that their chief, or Mikado, was vicegerent of the Heavenly gods, but +that those whom they conquered were earth-born or sprung from the +terrestrial divinities. + + +Mikadoism the Heart of Shint[=o]. + + +As success came to their arms and their chief's power was made more +sure, they developed further the dogma of the Mikado's divinity and made +worship centre in him as the earthly representative of the Sun and +Heaven. His fellow-conquerors and ministers, as fast as they were put in +lordship over conquered provinces, or indigenous chieftains who +submitted obediently to his sway or yielded graciously to his prowess, +were named as founders of temples and in later generations worshipped +and became gods.[10] One of the motives for, and one of the guiding +principles in the selections of the floating myths, was that the +ancestry of the chieftains loyal to the Mikado might be shown to be from +the heavenly gods. Both the narratives of the "Kojiki" and the liturgies +show this clearly. + +The nature-worship, which was probably practised throughout the whole +archipelago, became part of the system as government and society were +made uniform on the Yamato model. It seems at least possible, if +Buddhism had not come in so soon, that the ordinary features of a +religion, dogmatic and ethical codes, would have been developed. In a +word, the Kami no Michi, or religion of the islanders in prehistoric +times before the rise of Mikadoism, must be carefully distinguished from +the politico-ecclesiasticism which the system called Shint[=o] reveals +and demands. The early religion, first in the hands of politicians and +later under the pens and voices of writers and teachers at the Imperial +Court, became something very different from its original form. As surely +as K[=o]b[=o] later captured Shint[=o], making material for Buddhism out +of it and overlaying it in Riy[=o]bu, so the Yamato men made political +capital out of their own religion and that of the subject tribes. The +divine sovereign of Japan and his political church did exactly what the +state churches of Europe, both pagan and Christian, have done before and +since the Christian era. + +Further, in studying the "Kojiki," we must remember that the sacred +writings sprang out of the religion, and that the system was not an +evolution from the book. Customs, ritual, faith and prayer existed long +before they were written about or recorded in ink. Moreover, the +philosophy came later than the practice, the deeds before the myths, and +the joy and terror of the visible universe before the cosmogony or +theogony, while the book-preface was probably written last of all. + +The sun was first, and then came the wonder, admiration and worship of +men. The personification and pedigree of the sun were late figments. To +connect their ancestors with the sun-goddess and the heavenly gods, was +a still later enterprise of the "Mikado reverencers" of this earlier +time. Both the god-way in its early forms and Shint[=o] in its later +development, were to them political as well as ecclesiastical institutes +of dogma. Both the religion which they themselves brought and cultivated +and the aboriginal religion which the Yamato men found, were used as +engines in the making of Mikadoism, which is the heart of Shint[=o]. + +Not until two centuries after the coming of Buddhism and of Asiatic +civilization did it occur to the Japanese to reduce to writing the +floating legends and various cycles of tradition which had grown up +luxuriantly in different parts of "the empire," or to express in the +Chinese character the prayers and thanksgivings which had been handed +down orally through many generations. These norito had already assumed +elegant literary form, rich in poetic merit, long before Chinese writing +was known. They, far more than the less certain philosophy of the +"Kojiki," are of undoubted native origin. It is nearly certain that the +prehistoric Japanese did not borrow the literary forms of the god-way +from China, as any one familiar with the short, evenly balanced and +antithetical sentences of Chinese style can see at once. The norito are +expressions, in the rhythmical and rhetorical form of worship, of the +articles of faith set forth in the historic summary which we have given. +We propose to illustrate the dogmas by quoting from the rituals in Mr. +Satow's masterly translation. The following was addressed to the +sun-goddess (Amateras[)u] no Mikami, or the +From-Heaven-Shining-Great-Deity) by the priest-envoy of the priestly +Nakatomi family sent annually to the temples at Ise, the Mecca of +Shint[=o]. The _sevran_ referred to in the ritual is the Mikado. This +word and all the others printed in capitals are so rendered in order to +express in English the force of "an untranslatable honorific syllable, +supposed to be originally identical with a root meaning 'true,' but no +longer possessing that signification." Instead of the word "earth," that +of "country" (Japan) is used as the correlative of Heaven. + + +Ritual in Praise of the Sun-goddess. + + + He (the priest-envoy) says: Hear all of you, ministers of the + gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the great ritual, the + heavenly ritual, declared in the great presence of the + From-Heaven-Shining-Great-DEITY, whose praises are fulfilled by + setting up the stout pillars of the great HOUSE, and exalting + the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven at the sources of + the Isuzu River at Uji in Watarai. + + He says: It is the sovran's great WORD. Hear all of you, + ministers of the gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the + fulfilling of praises on this seventeenth day of the sixth moon + of this year, as the morning sun goes up in glory, of the + Oho-Nakatomi, who--having abundantly piled up like a range of + hills the TRIBUTE thread and sanctified LIQUOR and FOOD + presented as of usage by the people of the deity's houses + attributed to her in the three departments and in various + countries and places, so that she deign to bless his [the + Mikado's] LIFE as a long LIFE, and his AGE as a luxuriant AGE + eternally and unchangingly as multitudinous piles of rock; may + deign to bless the CHILDREN who are born to him, and deigning to + cause to flourish the five kinds of grain which the men of a + hundred functions and the peasants of the countries in the four + quarters of the region under heaven long and peacefully + cultivate and eat, and guarding and benefiting them to deign to + bless them--is hidden by the great offering-wands. + +In the Imperial City the ritual services were very imposing. Those in +expectation of the harvest were held in the great hall of the +Jin-Gi-Kuan, or Council of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. The description +of the ceremonial is given by Mr. Satow.[11] In the prayers offered to +the sun-goddess for harvest, and in thanksgiving to her for bestowing +dominion over land and sea upon her descendant the Mikado, occurs the +following passage: + + I declare in the great presence of the + From-Heaven-Shining-Great-DEITY who sits in Ise. Because the + sovran great GODDESS bestows on him the countries of the four + quarters over which her glance extends, as far as the limit + where heaven stands up like a wall, as far as the bounds where + the country stands up distant, as far as the limit where the + blue clouds spread flat, as far as the bounds where the white + clouds lie away fallen--the blue sea plain as far as the limit + whither come the prows of the ships without drying poles or + paddles, the ships which continuously crowd on the great sea + plain, and the road which men travel by land, as far as the + limit whither come the horses' hoofs, with the baggage-cords + tied tightly, treading the uneven rocks and tree-roots and + standing up continuously in a long path without a break--making + the narrow countries wide and the hilly countries plain, and as + it were drawing together the distant countries by throwing many + tons of ropes over them--he will pile up the first-fruits like a + range of hills in the great presence of the sovran great + GODDESS, and will peacefully enjoy the remainder. + + +Phallic Symbols. + + +To form one's impression of the Kami no Michi wholly from the poetic +liturgies, the austere simplicity of the miyas or shrines, or the +worship at the palace or capital, would be as misleading as to gather +our ideas of the status of popular education from knowing only of the +scholars at court. Among the common people the real basis of the god-way +was ancestor-worship. From the very first this trait and habit of the +Japanese can be discerned. Their tenacity in holding to it made the +Confucian ethics more welcome when they came. Furthermore, this +reverence for the dead profoundly influenced and modified Buddhism, so +that today the altars of both religions exist in the same house, the +dead ancestors becoming both kami and buddhas. + +Modern taste has removed from sight what were once the common people's +symbols of the god-way, that is of ancestor worship. The extent of the +phallus cult and its close and even vital connection with the god-way, +and the general and innocent use of the now prohibited emblems, tax +severely the credulity of the Occidental reader. The processes of the +ancient mind can hardly be understood except by vigorous power of the +imagination and by sympathy with the primeval man. To the critical +student, however, who has lived among the people and the temples devoted +to this worship, who knows how innocent and how truly sincere and even +reverent and devout in the use of these symbols the worshippers are, the +matter is measurably clear. He can understand the soil, root and flower +even while the most strange specimen is abhorrent to his taste, and +while he is most active in destroying that mental climate in which such +worship, whether native or exotic, can exist and flourish. + +In none of the instances in which I have been eyewitness of the cult, of +the person officiating or of the emblem, have I had any reason to doubt +the sincerity of the worshipper. I have never had reason to look upon +the implements or the system as anything else than the endeavor of man +to solve the mystery of Being and Power. In making use of these emblems, +the Japanese worshipper simply professes his faith in such solution as +has seemed to him attainable. + +That this cultus was quite general in pre-Buddhistic Japan, as in many +other ancient countries, is certain from the proofs of language, +literature, external monuments and relics which are sufficiently +numerous. Its organic connection with the god-way may be clearly shown. + +To go farther back in point of time than the "Kojiki," we find that even +before the development of art in very ancient Japan, the male gods were +represented by a symbol which thus became an image of the deity himself. +This token was usually made of stone, though often of wood, and in later +times of terra-cotta, of cast and wrought iron and even of gold.[12] + +Under the direct influence of such a cult, other objects appealed to the +imagination or served the temporary purpose of the worshipper as +_ex-voto_ to hang up in the shrines, such as the mushroom, awabi, +various other shells and possibly the fire-drill. It is only in the +decay of the cultus, in the change of view and centre of thought +compelled by another religion, that representations of the old emblems +ally themselves with sensualism or immorality. It is that natural +degradation of one man's god into another man's devil, which conversion +must almost of necessity bring, that makes the once revered symbol +"obscene," and talk about it become, in a descending scale, dirty, foul, +filthy, nasty. That the Japanese suffer from the moral effluvia of a +decayed cult which was once as the very vertebral column of the national +body of religion, is evident to every one who acquaints himself with +their popular speech and literature. + +How closely and directly phallicism is connected with the god-way, and +why there were so many Shint[=o] temples devoted to this latter cult and +furnished with symbols, is shown by study of the "Kojiki." The two +opening sections of this book treat of kami that were in the minds even +of the makers of the myths little more than mud and water[13]--the mere +bioplasm of deity. The seven divine generations are "born," but do +nothing except that they give Izanagi and Izanami a jewelled spear. With +this pair come differentiation of sex. It is immediately on the +apparition of the consciousness of sex that motion, action and creation +begin, and the progress of things visible ensues. The details cannot be +put into English, but it is enough, besides noting the conversation and +union of the pair, to say that the term meaning giving birth to, refers +to inanimate as well as animate things. It is used in reference to the +islands which compose the archipelago as well as to the various kami +which seem, in many cases, to be nothing more than the names of things +or places. + + +Fire-myths and Ritual. + + +Fire is, in a sense, the foundation and first necessity of civilization, +and it is interesting to study the myths as to the origin of fire, and +possibly even more interesting to compare the Greek and Japanese +stories. As we know, old-time popular etymology makes Prometheus the +fore-thinker and brother of Epimetheus the after-thinker. He is the +stealer of the fire from heaven, in order to make men share the secret +of the gods. Comparative philology tells us, however, that the Sanskrit +_Pramantha_ is a stick that produces fire. The "Kojiki" does indeed +contain what is probably the later form of the fire-myth about two +brothers, Prince Fire-Shine and Fire-Fade, which suggests both the later +Greek myth of the fore- and after-thinker and a tradition of a flood. +The first, and most probably older, myth in giving the origin of fire +does it in true Japanese style, with details of parturition. After +numerous other deities had been born of Izanagi and Izanami, it is said +"that they gave birth to the Fire-Burning-Swift-Male-Deity, another name +for whom is the Deity-Fire-Shining-Prince, and another name is the +Deity-Fire-Shining-Elder." In the other ancient literature this fire-god +is called Ho-musubi, the Fire-Producer. + +Izanami yielded up her life upon the birth of her son, the fire-god; or, +as the sacred text declares, she "divinely retired"[14] into Hades. From +her corpse sprang up the pairs of gods of clay, of metal, and other kami +that possessed the potency of calming or subduing fire, for clay resists +and water extinguishes. Between the mythical and the liturgical forms of +the original narrative there is considerable variation. + +The Norito entitled the "Quieting of Fire" gives the ritual form of the +myth. It contains, like so many Norito, less the form of prayer to the +Fire-Producer than a promise of offerings. Not so much by petitions as +by the inducements of gifts did the ancient worshippers hope to save the +palace of the Mikado from the fire-god's wrath. We omit from the text +those details which are offensive to modern and western taste. + + I declare with the great ritual, the heavenly ritual, which was + bestowed on him at the time when, by the WORD of the Sovran's + dear progenitor and progenitrix, who divinely remain in the + plain of high heaven, they bestowed on him the region under + heaven, saying: + + "Let the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness tranquilly rule over the + country of fresh spikes which flourishes in the midst of the + reed-moor as a peaceful region." + + When ... Izanami ... had deigned to bear the many hundred + myriads of gods, she also deigned to bear her dear youngest + child of all, the Fire-producer god, ... and said: + + "My dear elder brother's augustness shall rule the upper + country; I will rule the lower country," she deigned to hide in + the rocks; and having come to the flat hills of darkness, she + thought and said: "I have come hither, having borne and left a + bad-hearted child in the upper country, ruled over by my + illustrious elder brother's augustness," and going back she bore + other children. Having borne the water-goddess, the gourd, the + river-weed, and the clay-hill maiden, four sorts of things, she + taught them with words, and made them to know, saying: "If the + heart of this bad-hearted child becomes violent, let the + water-goddess take the gourd, and the clay-hill maiden take the + river-weed, and pacify him." + + In consequence of this I fulfil his praises, and say that for + the things set up, so that he may deign not to be awfully quick + of heart in the great place of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S + augustness, there are provided bright cloth, glittering cloth, + soft cloth, and coarse cloth, and the five kinds of things; as + to things which dwell in the blue-sea plain, there are things + wide of fin and narrow of fin, down to the weeds of the shore; + as to LIQUOR, raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in + rows the bellies of the beer-jars, piling the offerings up, even + to rice in grain and rice in ear, like a range of hills, I + fulfil his praises with the great ritual, the heavenly ritual. + +Izanagi, after shedding tears over his consort, whose death was caused +by the birth of the fire-god, slays the fire-god, and follows her into +the Root-land, or Hades, whereupon begins another round of wonderful +stories of the birth of many gods. Among these, though evidently out of +another cycle of legends, is the story of the birth of the three +gods--Fire-Shine, Fire-Climax and Fire-Fade, to which we have already +referred. + +The fire-drill mentioned in the "Kojiki" suggests easily the same line +of thought with the myths of cosmogony and theogony, and it is +interesting to note that this archaic implement is still used at the +sacred temples of Ise to produce fire. After the virgin priestesses +perform the sacred dances in honor of local deities the water for their +bath is heated by fires kindled by heaps of old _harai_ or amulets made +from temple-wood bought at the Mecca of Japan. It is even probable that +the retention of the fire-drill in the service of Shint[=o] is but a +survival of phallicism. + +The liturgy for the pacification of the gods of fire is worth noticing. +The full form of the ritual, when compared with a legend in the +"Nihongi," shows that a myth was "partly devised to explain the +connection of an hereditary family of priests with the god whose shrine +they served; it is possible that the claim to be directly descended from +the god had been disputed." The Norito first recites poetically the +descent of Ninigi, the grandchild of the sun-goddess from heaven, and +the quieting of the turbulent kami. + + I (the diviner), declare: When by the WORD of the progenitor and + progenitrix, who divinely remaining in the plain of high heaven, + deigned to make the beginning of things, they divinely deigned + to assemble the many hundred myriads of gods in the high city of + heaven, and deigned divinely to take counsel in council, saying: + "When we cause our Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to leave + heaven's eternal seat, to cleave a path with might through + heaven's manifold clouds, and to descend from heaven, with + orders tranquilly to rule the country of fresh spikes, which + flourishes in the midst of the reed-moor as a peaceful country, + what god shall we send first to divinely sweep away, sweep away + and subdue the gods who are turbulent in the country of fresh + spikes;" all the gods pondered and declared: "You shall send + Amenohohi's augustness, and subdue them," declared + they. Wherefore they sent him down from heaven, but he did not + declare an answer; and having next sent Takemikuma's augustness, + he also, obeying his father's words, did not declare an + answer. Ame-no-waka-hiko also, whom they sent, did not declare + an answer, but immediately perished by the calamity of a bird on + high. Wherefore they pondered afresh by the WORD of the heavenly + gods, and having deigned to send down from heaven the two + pillars of gods, Futsunushi and Takemika-dzuchi's augustness, + who having deigned divinely to sweep away, and sweep away, and + deigned divinely to soften, and soften the gods who were + turbulent, and silenced the rocks, trees, and the least leaf of + herbs likewise that had spoken, they caused the Sovran + GRANDCHILD'S augustness to descend from heaven. + + I fulfil your praises, saying: As to the OFFERINGS set up, so + that the sovran gods who come into the heavenly HOUSE of the + Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness, which, after he had fixed upon + as a peaceful country--the country of great Yamato where the sun + is high, as the centre of the countries of the four quarters + bestowed upon him when he was thus sent down from + heaven--stoutly planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most + rocks, and exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven, + the builders had made for his SHADE from the heavens and SHADE + from the sun, and wherein he will tranquilly rule the country as + a peaceful country--may, without deigning to be turbulent, + deigning to be fierce, and deigning to hurt, knowing, by virtue + of their divinity, the things which were begun in the plain of + high heaven, deigning to correct with Divine-correcting and + Great-correcting, remove hence out to the clean places of the + mountain-streams which look far away over the four quarters, and + rule them as their own place. Let the Sovran gods tranquilly + take with clear HEARTS, as peaceful OFFERINGS and sufficient + OFFERINGS the great OFFERINGS which I set up, piling them upon + the tables like a range of hills, providing bright cloth, + glittering cloth, soft cloth, and coarse cloth; as a thing to + see plain in--a mirror: as things to play with--beads: as things + to shoot off with--a bow and arrows: as a thing to strike and + cut with--a sword: as a thing which gallops out--a horse; as to + LIQUOR--raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in rows + the bellies of the beer-jars, with grains of rice and ears; as + to the things which dwell in the hills--things soft of hair, and + things rough of hair; as to the things which grow in the great + field plain--sweet herbs and bitter herbs; as to the things + which dwell in the blue sea plain--things broad of fin and + things narrow of fin, down to weeds of the offing and weeds of + the shore, and without deigning to be turbulent, deigning to be + fierce, and deigning to hurt, remove out to the wide and clean + places of the mountain-streams, and by virtue of their divinity + be tranquil. + +In this ritual we find the origin of evil attributed to wicked kami, or +gods. To get rid of them is to be free from the troubles of life. The +object of the ritual worship was to compel the turbulent and malevolent +kami to go out from human habitations to the mountain solitudes and rest +there. The dogmas of both god-possession and of the power of exorcism +were not, however, held exclusively by the high functionaries of the +official religion, but were part of the faith of all the people. To this +day both the tenets and the practices are popular under various forms. + +Besides the twenty-seven Norito which are found in the Yengishiki, +published at the opening of the tenth century, there are many others +composed for single occasions. Examples of these are found in the +Government Gazettes. One celebrates the Mikado's removal from Ki[=o]to +to T[=o]ki[=o], another was written and recited to add greater solemnity +to the oath which he took to govern according to modern liberal +principles and to form a national parliament. To those Japanese whose +first idea of duty is loyalty to the emperor, Shint[=o] thus becomes a +system of patriotism exalted to the rank of a religion. Even Christian +natives of Japan can use much of the phraseology of the Norito while +addressing their petitions on behalf of their chief magistrate to the +King of kings. + +The primitive worship of the sun, of light, of fire, has left its +impress upon the language and in vernacular art and customs. Among +scores of derivations of Japanese words (often more pleasing than +scientific), in which the general term _hi_ enters, is that which finds +in the word for man, _hito_, the meaning of "light-bearer." On the face +of the broad terminal tiles of the house-roofs, we still see moulded the +river-weed, with which the Clay-Hill Maiden pacified the Fire-God. On +the frontlet of the warrior's helmet, in the old days of arrow and +armor, glittered in brass on either side of his crest the same symbol of +power and victory. + +Having glanced at the ritual of Shint[=o], let us now examine the +teachings of its oldest book. + + + + +CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS + + "Japan is not a land where men need pray, + For 'tis itself divine: + Yet do I lift my voice in prayer..." + + Hitomaro, + A.D. 737. + + "Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were + not yet manifest, and there was naught named, naught done, who + could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first + parted, and the three Deities performed the commencement of + creation; the Passive and Active Essences then developed, and + the Two Spirits became the ancestors of all things."--Preface of + Yasumar[=o] (A.D. 712) to the "Kojiki." + + "These, the 'Kojiki' and 'Nihongi' are their [the Shint[=o]ists] + canonical books, ... and almost their every word is considered + undeniable truth." + + "The Shint[=o] faith teaches that God inspired the foundation of + the Mikadoate, and that it is therefore sacred."--Kaburagi. + + "We now reverently make our prayer to Them [Our Imperial + Ancestors] and to our Illustrious Father [Komei, + 1867], and + implore the help of Their Sacred Spirits, and make to Them + solemn oath never at this time nor in the future to fail to be + an example to Our subjects in the observance of the Law + [Constitution] hereby established."--Imperial oath of the + Emperor Mutsuhito in the sanctuary in the Imperial Palace, + T[=o]ki[=o], February 11, 1889. + + "Shint[=o] is not our national religion. A faith existed before + it, which was its source. It grew out of superstitious teaching + and mistaken tradition. The history of the rise of Shint[=o] + proves this."--T. Matsugami. + + "Makoto wo mote KAMI NO MICHI wo oshiyureba nari." (Thou + teachest the way of God in truth.)--Mark xii. 14. + + "Ware wa Micni nuri, Mukoto nari, Inochi nari."--John + xiv. 6.--The New Testament in Japanese. + + +CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS + +"The Kojiki" mid its Myths of Cosmogony. + + +As to the origin of the "Kojiki," we have in the closing sentences of +the author's preface the sole documentary authority explaining its scope +and certifying to its authenticity. Briefly the statement is this: The +"Heavenly Sovereign" or Mikado, Temmu (A.D. 673-686), lamenting that the +records possessed by the chief families were "mostly amplified by empty +falsehoods," and fearing that "the grand foundation of the monarchy" +would be destroyed, resolved to preserve the truth. He therefore had the +records carefully examined, compared, and their errors eliminated. There +happened to be in his household a man of marvellous memory, named Hiyeda +Are, who could repeat, without mistake, the contents of any document he +had ever seen, and never forgot anything which he had heard. This person +was duly instructed in the genuine traditions and old language of former +ages, and made to repeat them until he had the whole by heart. "Before +the undertaking was completed," which probably means before it could be +committed to writing, "the emperor died, and for twenty-five years Are's +memory was the sole depository of what afterwards received the title of +'Kojiki.' ... At the end of this interval the Empress Gemmi[=o] ordered +Yasumar[=o] to write it down from the mouth of Are, which accounts for +the completion of the manuscript in so short a time as four months and a +half,"[1] in A.D. 712. + +It is from the "Kojiki" that we obtain most of our ideas of ancient life +and thought. The "Nihongi," or Chronicles of Japan, expressed very +largely in Chinese phrases and with Chinese technical and philosophical +terms, further assists us to get a measurably correct idea of what is +called The Divine Age. Of the two books, however, the "Kojiki" is much +more valuable as a true record, because, though rude in style and +exceedingly naive in expression, and by no means free from Chinese +thoughts and phrases, it is marked by a genuinely Japanese cast of +thought and method of composition. Instead of the terse, carefully +measured, balanced, and antithetical sentences of correct Chinese, those +of the "Kojiki" are long and involved, and without much logical +connection. The "Kojiki" contains the real notions, feelings, and +beliefs of Japanese who lived before the eighth century. + +Remembering that prefaces are, like porticos, usually added last of all, +we find that in the beginning all things were in chaos. Heaven and earth +were not separated. The world substance floated in the cosmic mass, like +oil on water or a fish in the sea. Motion in some way began. The +ethereal portions sublimed and formed the heavens; the heavier residuum +became the present earth. In the plain of high heaven, when the heaven +and earth began, were born three kami who "hid their bodies," that is, +passed away or died. Out of the warm mould of the earth a germ sprouted, +and from this were born two kami, who also were born alone, and died. +After these heavenly kami came forth what are called the seven divine +generations, or line of seven kami.[2] + +To express the opening lines of the "Kojiki" in terms of our own speech +and in the moulds of Western thought, we may say that matter existed +before mind and the gods came forth, as it were, by spontaneous +evolution. The first thing that appeared out of the warm earth-muck was +like a rush-sprout, and this became a kami, or god. From this being came +forth others, which also produced beings, until there were perfect +bodies, sex and differentiation of powers. The "Nihongi," however, not +only gives a different view of this evolution basing it upon the dualism +of Chinese philosophy--that is, of the active and passive +principles--and uses Chinese technical terminology, but gives lists of +kami that differ notably from those in the "Kojiki." This latter fact +seems to have escaped the attention of those who write freely about what +they imagine to be the early religion of the Japanese.[3] + +After this introduction, in which "Dualities, Trinities, and Supreme +Deities" have been discovered by writers unfamiliar with the genius of +the Japanese language, there follows an account of the creation of the +habitable earth by Izanami and Izanagi, whose names mean the +Male-Who-Invites and the Female-Who-Invites. The heavenly kami commanded +these two gods to consolidate and give birth to the drifting land. +Standing on the floating bridge of heaven, the male plunged his +jewel-spear into the unstable waters beneath, stirring them until they +gurgled and congealed. When he drew forth the spear, the drops trickling +from its point formed an island, ever afterward called Onokoro-jima, or +the Island of the Congealed Drop. Upon this island they descended. The +creative pair, or divine man and woman, now separated to make a journey +round the island, the male to the left, the female to the right. At +their meeting the female spoke first: "How joyful to meet a lovely man!" +The male, offended that the woman had spoken first, required the circuit +to be repeated. On their second meeting, the man cried out: "How joyful +to meet a lovely woman!" This island on which they had descended was the +first of several which they brought into being. In poetry it is the +Island of the Congealed Drop. In common geography it is identified as +Awaji, at the entrance of the Inland Sea. Thence followed the creation +of the other visible objects in nature. + +Izanagi's Visit to Hades and Results. + + +After the birth of the god of fire, which nearly destroyed the mother's +life, Izanami fled to the land of roots or of darkness, that is into +Hades. Izanagi, like a true Orpheus, followed his Eurydice and beseeched +her to come back to earth to complete with him the work of creation. She +parleyed so long with the gods of the underworld that her consort, +breaking off a tooth of his comb, lighted it as a torch and rushed in. +He found her putrefied body, out of which had been born the eight gods +of thunder. Horrified at the awful foulness which he found in the +underworld, he rushed up and out, pursued by the Ugly-Female-of-Hades. +By artifices that bear a wonderful resemblance to those in Teutonic +fairy tales, he blocked up the way. His head-dress, thrown at his +pursuer, turned into grapes which she stopped to eat. The teeth of his +comb sprouted into a bamboo forest, which detained her. The three +peaches were used as projectiles; his staff which stuck up in the ground +became a gate, and a mighty rock was used to block up the narrow pass +through the mountains. Each of these objects has its relation to +place-names in Idzumo or to superstitions that are still extant. The +peaches and the rocks became gods, and on this incident, by which the +beings in Hades were prevented from advance and successful mischief on +earth, is founded one of the norito which Mr. Satow gives in condensed +form. The names of the three gods,[4] Youth and Maiden of the Many +Road-forkings, and Come-no-further Gate, are expressed and invoked in +the praises bestowed on them in connection with the offerings. + + He (the priest) says: I declare in the presence of the sovran + gods, who like innumerable piles of rocks sit closing up the way + in the multitudinous road-forkings.... I fulfil your praises by + declaring your NAMES, Youth and Maiden of the Many Road-forkings + and Come-no-further Gate, and say: for the OFFERINGS set up that + you may prevent [the servants of the monarch] from being + poisoned by and agreeing with the things which shall come + roughly-acting and hating from the Root-country, the + Bottom-country, that you may guard the bottom (of the gate) when + they come from the bottom, guard the top when they come from the + top, guarding with nightly guard and with daily guard, and may + praise them--peacefully take the great OFFERINGS which are set + up by piling them up like a range of hills, that is to say, + providing bright cloth, etc., ... and sitting closing-up the way + like innumerable piles of rock in the multitudinous + road-forkings, deign to praise the sovran GRANDCHILD'S + augustness eternally and unchangingly, and to bless his age as a + luxuriant AGE. + +Retreating to another part of the world--that is, into southwestern +Japan--Izanami purified himself by bathing in a stream. While washing +himself,[5] many kami were borne from the rinsings of his person, one of +them, from the left eye (the left in Japanese is always the honorable +side), being the far-shining or heaven-illuminating kami, whose name, +Amateras[)u], or Heaven-shiner, is usually translated "The Sun-goddess." +This personage is the centre of the system of Shint[=o]. The creation of +gods by a process of cleansing has had a powerful effect on the +Japanese, who usually associate cleanliness of the body (less moral, +than physical) with godliness. + +It is not necessary to detail further the various stories which make up +the Japanese mythology. Some of these are lovely and beautiful, but +others are horrible and disgusting, while the dominant note throughout +is abundant filthiness. + +Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world such good +service in translating into English the whole of the Kojiki, and +furnishing it with learned commentary and notes, has well said: + + "The shocking obscenity of word and act to which the 'Records' + bear witness is another ugly feature which must not quite be + passed over in silence. It is true that decency, as we + understand it, is a very modern product, and it is not to be + looked for in any society in the barbarous stage. At the same + time, the whole range of literature might perhaps be ransacked + for a parallel to the naive filthiness of the passage forming + Sec. IV. of the following translation, or to the extraordinary + topic which the hero Yamato-Take and his mistress Miyadz[)u] are + made to select as the theme of poetical repartee. One passage + likewise would lead us to suppose that the most beastly crimes + were commonly committed."[6] + +Indeed, it happens in several instances that the thread by which the +marvellous patchwork of unrelated and varying local myths is joined +together, is an indecent love story. + +A thousand years after the traditions of the Kojiki had been committed +to writing, and orthodox Shint[=o] commentators had learned science from +the Dutch at Nagasaki, the stirring of the world mud by Izanagi's +spear[7] was gravely asserted to be the cause of the diurnal revolution +of the earth upon its axis, the point of the axis being still the jewel +spear.[8] Onogoro-jima, or the Island of the Congealed Drop, was +formerly at the north pole,[9] but subsequently removed to its present +position. How this happened is not told. + + +Life in Japan During the Divine Age. + + +Now that the Kojiki is in English and all may read it, we can clearly +see who and what were the Japanese in the ages before letters and +Chinese civilization; for these stories of the kami are but legendary +and mythical accounts of men and women. One could scarcely recognize in +the islanders of eleven or twelve hundred years ago, the polished, +brilliant, and interesting people of to-day. Yet truth compels us to say +that social morals in Dai Nippon, even with telegraphs and railways, are +still more like those of ancient days than readers of rhapsodies by +summer tourists might suppose. These early Japanese, indeed, were +possibly in a stage of civilization somewhat above that of the most +advanced of the American Indians when first met by Europeans, for they +had a rude system of agriculture and knew the art of fashioning iron +into tools and weapons. Still, they were very barbarous, certainly as +much so as our Germanic "forbears." They lived in huts. They were +without writing or commerce, and were able to count only to ten.[10] +Their cruelty was as revolting as that of the savage tribes of America. +The family was in its most rudimentary stage, with little or no +restraint upon the passions of men. Children of the same father, but not +of the same mother, could intermarry. The instances of men marrying +their sisters or aunts were very common. There was no art, unless the +making of clay images, to take the place of the living human victims +buried up to their necks in earth and left to starve on the death of +their masters,[11] may be designated as such. + +The Magatama, or curved jewels, being made of ground and polished stone +may be called jewelry; but since some of these prehistoric ornaments dug +up from the ground are found to be of jade, a mineral which does not +occur in Japan, it is evident that some of these tokens of culture came +from the continent. Many other things produced by more or less skilled +mechanics, the origin of which is poetically recounted in the story of +the dancing of Uzume before the cave in which the Sun-goddess had hid +herself,[12] were of continental origin. Evidently these men of the +god-way had passed the "stone age," and, probably without going through +the intermediate bronze age, were artificers of iron and skilled in its +use. Most of the names of metals and of many other substances, and the +terms used in the arts and sciences, betray by their tell-tale etymology +their Chinese origin. Indeed, it is evident that some of the leading +kami were born in Korea or Tartary. + +Then as now the people in Japan loved nature, and were quickly sensitive +to her beauty and profoundly in sympathy with her varied phenomena. In +the mediaeval ages, Japanese Wordsworths are not unknown.[13] Sincerely +they loved nature, and in some respects they seemed to understand the +character of their country far better than the alien does or can. Though +a land of wonderful beauty, the Country of Peaceful Shores is enfolded +in powers of awful destructiveness. With the earthquake and volcano, the +typhoon and the tidal wave, beauty and horror alternate with a swiftness +that is amazing. + +Probably in no portion of the earth are the people and the land more +like each other or apparently better acquainted with each other. Nowhere +are thought and speech more reflective of the features of the landscape. +Even after ten centuries, the Japanese are, in temperament, what the +Kojiki reveals them to have been in their early simplicity. Indeed, just +as the modern Frenchman, down beneath his outward environments and his +habiliments cut and fitted yesterday, is intrinsically the same Gaul +whom Julius Caesar described eighteen hundred years ago, so the gentleman +of T[=o]ki[=o] or Ki[=o]to is, in his mental make-up, wonderfully like +his ancestors described by the first Japanese Stanley, who shed the +light of letters upon the night of unlettered Japan and darkest Dai +Nippon. + +The Kojiki reveals to us, likewise, the childlike religious ideas of the +islanders. Heaven lay, not about but above them in their infancy, yet +not far away. Although in the "Notices," it is "the high plain of +heaven," yet it is just over their heads, and once a single pillar +joined it and the earth. Later, the idea was, that it was held up by the +pillar-gods of the wind, and to them norito were recited. "The great +plain of the blue sea" and "the land of luxuriant reeds" form "the +world"--which means Japan. The gods are only men of prowess or renown. A +kami is anything wonderful--god or man, rock or stream, bird or snake, +whatever is surprising, sensational, or phenomenal, as in the little +child's world of to-day. There is no sharp line dividing gods from men, +the natural from the supernatural, even as with the normal uneducated +Japanese of to-day. As for the kami or gods, they have all sorts of +characters; some of them being rude and ill-mannered, many of them +beastly and filthy, while others are noble and benevolent. The +attributes of moral purity, wisdom and holiness, cannot be, and in the +original writings are not, ascribed to them; but they were strong and +had power. In so far as they had power they were called kami or gods, +whether celestial or terrestrial. Among the kami--the one term under +which they are all included--there were heavenly bodies, mountains, +rivers, trees, rocks and animals, because those also were supposed to +possess force, or at least some kind of influence for good or evil. Even +peaches, as we have seen, when transformed into rocks, became gods.[14] + +That there was worship with awe, reverence, and fear, and that the +festivals and sacrifices had two purposes, one of propitiating the +offended Kami and the other of purifying the worshipper, may be seen in +the norito or liturgies, some of which are exceedingly beautiful.[15] In +them the feelings of the gods are often referred to. Sometimes their +characters are described. Yet one looks in vain in either the "Notices," +poems, or liturgies for anything definite in regard to these deities, or +concerning morals or doctrines to be held as dogmas. The first gods come +into existence after evolution of the matter of which they are composed +has taken place. The later gods are sometimes able to tell who are their +progenitors, sometimes not. They live and fight, eat and drink, and give +vent to their appetites and passions, and then they die; but exactly +what becomes of them after they die, the record does not state. Some are +in heaven, some on the earth, some in Hades. The underworld of the first +cycle of tradition is by no means that of the second.[16] Some of the +kami are in the water, or on the water, or in the air. As for man, there +is no clear statement as to whether he is to have any future life or +what is to become of him, though the custom or jun-shi, or dying with +the master, points to a sort of immortality such as the early Greeks and +the Iroquois believed in. + +It would task the keenest and ablest Shint[=o]ist to deduce or construct +a system of theology, or of ethics, or of anthropology from the mass of +tradition so full of gaps and discord as that found in the Kojiki, and +none has done it. Nor do the inaccurate, distorted, and often almost +wholly factitious translations, so-called, of French and other writers, +who make versions which hit the taste of their occidental readers far +better than they express the truth, yield the desired information. Like +the end strands of a new spider's web, the lines of information on most +vital points are still "in the air." + + +The Ethics of the God-way. + + +There are no codes of morals inculcated in the god-way, for even its +modern revivalists and exponents consider that morals are the invention +of wicked people like the Chinese; while the ancient Japanese were pure +in thought and act. They revered the gods and obeyed the Mikado, and +that was the chief end of man, in those ancient times when Japan was the +world and Heaven was just above the earth. Not exactly on Paul's +principle of "where there is no law there is no transgression," but +utterly scouting the idea that formulated ethics were necessary for +these pure-minded people, the modern revivalists of Shint[=o] teach that +all that is "of faith" now is to revere the gods, keep the heart pure, +and follow its dictates.[17] The naivete of the representatives of +Shint[=o] at Chicago in A.D. 1893, was almost as great as that of the +revivalists who wrote when Japan was a hermit nation. + +The very fact that there was no moral commandments, not even of loyalty +or obedience such as Confucianism afterward promulgated and formulated, +is proof to the modern Shint[=o]ist that the primeval Japanese were pure +and holy; they did right, naturally, and hence he does not hesitate to +call Japan, the Land of the Gods, the Country of the Holy Spirits, the +Region Between Heaven and Earth, the Island of the Congealed Drop, the +Sun's Nest, the Princess Country, the Land of Great Peace, the Land of +Great Gentleness, the Mikado's Empire, the Country ruled by a Theocratic +Dynasty. He considers that only with the vice brought over from the +Continent of Asia were ethics both imported and made necessary.[18] + +All this has been solemnly taught by famous Shint[=o] scholars of the +eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and is still practically +promulgated in the polemic Shint[=o] literature of to-day, even after +the Kojiki has been studied and translated into European languages. The +Kojiki shows that whatever the men may have been or done, the gods were +abominably obscene, and both in word and deed were foul and revolting, +utterly opposed in act to those reserves of modesty or standards of +shame that exist even among the cultivated Japanese to-day.[19] Even +among the Ainos, whom the Japanese look upon as savages, there is still +much of the obscenity of speech which belongs to all society[20] in a +state of barbarism; but it has been proved that genuine modesty is a +characteristic of the Aino women.[21] A literal English translation of +the Kojiki, however, requires an abundant use of Latin in order to +protect it from the grasp of the law in English-speaking Christendom. In +Chamberlain's version, the numerous cesspools are thus filled up with a +dead language, and the road is constructed for the reader, who likes the +language of Edmund Spencer, of William Tyndale and of John Ruskin kept +unsoiled. + +The cruelty which marks this early stage shows that though moral codes +did not exist, the Buddhist and Confucian missionary were for Japan +necessities of the first order. Comparing the result to-day with the +state of things in the early times, one must award high praise to +Buddhism that it has made the Japanese gentle, and to Confucianism that +it has taught the proprieties of life, so that the polished Japanese +gentleman, as to courtesy, is in many respects the peer and at some +external points the superior, of his European confrere. + +Another fact, made repulsively clear, about life in ancient Japan, is +that the high ideals of truth and honor, characteristic at least of the +Samurai of modern times, were utterly unknown in the days of the kami. +Treachery was common. Instances multiply on the pages of the Kojiki +where friend betrayed friend. The most sacred relations of life were +violated. Altogether these were the darkest ages of Japan, though, as +among the red men of America, there were not wanting many noble examples +of stoical endurance, of courage, and of power nobly exerted for the +benefit of others. + + +The Rise of Mikadoism. + + +Nevertheless we must not forget that the men of the early age of the +Kami no Michi conquered the aborigines by superior dogmas and fetiches, +as well as by superior weapons. The entrance of these heroes, invaders +from the highlands of the Asian continent, by way of Korea, was +relatively a very influential factor of progress, though not so +important as was the Aryan descent upon India, or the Norman invasion of +England, for the aboriginal tribes were vastly lower in the scale of +humanity than their subduers. Where they found savagery they introduced +barbarism, which, though unlettered and based on the sword, was a vast +improvement over what may be called the geological state of man, in +which he is but slightly raised above the brutes. + +For the proofs from the shell heaps, combined with the reflected +evidences of folk-lore, show, that cannibalism[22] was common in the +early ages, and that among the aboriginal hill tribes it lingered after +the inhabitants of the plain and shore had been subdued. The conquerors, +who made themselves paramount over the other tribes and who developed +the Kami religion, abolished this relic of savagery, and gave order +where there had been chronic war. Another thing that impresses us +because of its abundant illustrations, is the prevalence of human +sacrifices. The very ancient folk-lore shows that beautiful maidens were +demanded by the "sea-gods" in propitiation, or were devoured by the +"dragons." These human victims were either chosen or voluntarily +offered, and in some instances were rescued from their fate by +chivalrous heroes[23] from among the invaders. + +These gods of the sea, who anciently were propitiated by the sacrifice +of human beings, are the same to whom Japanese sailors still pray, +despite their Buddhism. The title of the efficient victims was +_hitoga-shira_, or human pillars. Instances of this ceremony, where men +were lowered into the water and drowned in order to make the sure +foundation for bridges, piers or sea-walls, or where they were buried +alive in the earth in order to lay the right bases for walls or castles, +are quite numerous, and most of the local histories contain specific +traditions.[24] These traditions, now transfigured, still survive in +customs that are as beautiful as they are harmless. To reformers of +pre-Buddhistic days, belongs the credit of the abolition of jun-shi, or +dying with the master by burial alive, as well as of the sacrifice to +dragons and sea-gods. + +Strange as it may seem, before Buddhism captured and made use of +Shint[=o] for its own purposes (just as it stands ready to-day to absorb +Christianity by making Jesus one of the Palestinian avatars of the +Buddha), the house or tribe of Yamato, with its claim to descent from +the heavenly gods, and with its Mikado or god-ruler, had given to the +Buddhists a precedent and potent example. Shint[=o], as a state religion +or union of politics and piety, with its system of shrines and +festivals, and in short the whole Kami no Michi, or Shint[=o] as we know +it, from the sixth to the eighth century, was in itself (in part at +least), a case of the absorption of one religion by another. + +In short, the Mikado tribe or Yamato clan did, in reality, capture the +aboriginal religion, and turn it into a great political machine. They +attempted syncretism and succeeded in their scheme. They added to their +own stock of dogma and fetich that of the natives. Only, while +recognizing the (earth) gods of the aborigines they proclaimed the +superiority of the Mikado as representative and vicegerent of Heaven, +and demanded that even the gods of the earth, mountain, river, wind, and +thunder and lightning should obey him. Not content, however, with +absorbing and corrupting for political purposes the primitive faith of +the aborigines, the invaders corrupted their own religion by carrying +the dogma of the divinity and infallibility of the Mikado too far. +Stopping short of no absurdity, they declared their chief greater even +than the heavenly gods, and made their religion centre in him rather +than in his alleged heavenly ancestors, or "heaven." In the interest of +politics and conquest, and for the sake of maintaining the prestige of +their tribe and clan, these "Mikado-reverencers" of early ages advanced +from dogma to dogma, until their leader was virtually chief god in a +great pantheon. + +A critical native Japanese, student of the Kojiki and of the early +writings, Professor Kumi, formerly of the Imperial University in +T[=o]ki[=o], has brought to light abundant evidence to show that the +aboriginal religion found by the Yamato conquerors was markedly +different at many vital points, from that which was long afterward +called Shint[=o]. + +If the view of recent students of anthropology be correct, that the +elements dominating the population in ancient Japan were in the south, +Malay; in the north, Aino; and in the central region, or that occupied +by the Yamato men, Korean; then, these continental invaders may have +been worshippers of Heaven and have possessed a religion closely akin to +that of ancient China with its monotheism. It is very probable also that +they came into contact with tribes or colonies of their +fellow-continentals from Asia. These tribes, hunters, fishermen, or rude +agriculturists--who had previously reached Japan--practised many rites +and ceremonies which were much like those of the new invaders. It is +certain also, as we have seen, that the Yamato men made ultimate +conquest and unification of all the islanders, not merely by the +superiority of their valor and of their weapons of iron, but also by +their dogmas. After success in battle, and the first beginnings of rude +government, they taught their conquered subjects or over-awed vassals, +that they were the descendants of the heavenly gods; that their +ancestors had come down from heaven; find that their chief or Mikado was +a god. According to the same dogmatics, the aborigines were descendants +of the earth-born gods, and as such must obey the descendants of the +heavenly gods, and their vicegerent upon the earth, the Mikado. + + +Purification of Offences. + + +These heaven-descended Yamato people were in the main agriculturists, +though of a rude order, while the outlying tribes were mostly hunters +and fishermen; and many of the rituals show the class of crimes which +nomads, or men of unsettled life, would naturally commit against their +neighbors living in comparatively settled order. It is to be noted that +in the god-way the origin of evil is to be ascribed to evil gods. These +kami pollute, and pollution is iniquity. From this iniquity the people +are to be purged by the gods of purification, to whom offerings are duly +made. + +He who would understand the passion for cleanliness which characterizes +the Japanese must look for its source in their ancient religion. The +root idea of the word _tsumi_, which Mr. Satow translated as "offence," +is that of pollution. On this basis, of things pure and things defiling, +the ancient teachers of Shint[=o] made their classification of what was +good and what was bad. From the impression of what was repulsive arose +the idea of guilt. + +In rituals translated by Mr. Satow, the list of offences is given and +the defilements are to be removed to the nether world, or, in common +fact, the polluted objects and the expiatory sacrifices are to be thrown +into the rivers and thence carried to the sea, where they fall to the +bottom of the earth. The following norito clearly shows this. +Furthermore, as Mr. Satow, the translator, points out, this ritual +contains the germ of criminal law, a whole code of which might have been +evolved and formulated under Shint[=o], had not Buddhism arrested its +growth. + + Amongst the various sorts of offences which may be committed in + ignorance or out of negligence by heaven's increasing people, + who shall come into being in the country, which the Sovran + GRANDCHILD'S augustness, hiding in the fresh RESIDENCE, built by + stoutly planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most rocks, and + exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven, as his + SHADE from the heavens and SHADE from the sun, shall tranquilly + ruin as a peaceful country, namely, the country of great Yamato, + where the sun is soon on high, which he fixed upon as a peaceful + country, as the centre of the countries of the four quarters + thus bestowed upon him--breaking the ridges, filling up + water-courses, opening sluices, double-sowing, planting stakes, + flaying alive, flaying backwards, and dunging; many of such + offences are distinguished as heavenly offences, and as earthly + offences; cutting living flesh, cutting dead flesh, leprosy, + proud-flesh, ... calamities of crawling worms, calamities of a + god on high, calamities of birds on high, the offences of + killing beasts and using incantations; many of such offences may + be disclosed. + + When he has thus repeated it, the heavenly gods will push open + heaven's eternal gates, and cleaving a path with might through + the manifold clouds of heaven, will hear; and the country gods, + ascending to the tops of the high mountains, and to the tops of + the low hills, and tearing asunder the mists of the high + mountains and the mists of the low hills, will hear. + + And when they have thus heard, the + Maiden-of-Descent-into-the-Current, who dwells in the current of + the swift stream which boils down the ravines from the tops of + the high mountains, and the tops of the low hills, shall carry + out to the great sea plain the offences which are cleared away + and purified, so that there be no remaining offence; like as + Shinato's wind blows apart the manifold clouds of heaven, as the + morning wind and the evening wind blow away the morning mist and + the evening mist, as the great ships which lie on the shore of a + great port loosen their prows, and loosen their sterns to push + out into the great sea-plain; as the trunks of the forest trees, + far and near, are cleared away by the sharp sickle, the sickle + forged with fire: so that there ceased to be any offence called + an offence in the court of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to + begin with, and in the countries of the four quarters of the + region under heaven. + + And when she thus carries them out and away, the deity called + the Maiden-of-the-Swift-cleansing, who dwells in the + multitudinous meetings of the sea waters, the multitudinous + currents of rough sea-waters shall gulp them down. + + And when she has thus gulped them down, the lord of the + Breath-blowing-place, who dwells in the Breath-blowing-place, + shall utterly blow them away with his breath to the + Root-country, the Bottom-country. + + And when he has thus blown them away, the deity called the + Maiden-of-Swift-Banishment, who dwells in the Root-country, the + Bottom-country, shall completely banish them, and get rid of + them. + + And when they have thus been got rid of, there shall from this + day onwards be no offence which is called offence, with regard + to the men of the offices who serve in the court of the Sovran, + nor in the four quarters of the region under heaven. + +Then the high priest says: + + Hear all of you how he leads forth the horse, as a thing that + erects its ears towards the plain of high heaven, and deigns to + sweep away and purify with the general purification, as the + evening sun goes down on the last day of the watery moon of this + year. + + O diviners of the four countries, take (the sacrifices) away out + to the river highway, and sweep them away. + + +Mikadoism Usurps the Primitive God-way. + + +A further proof of the transformation of the primitive god-way in the +interest of practical politics, is shown by Professor Kumi in the fact +that some of the festivals now directly connected with the Mikado's +house, and even in his honor, were originally festivals with which he +had nothing to do, except as leader of the worship, for the honor was +paid to Heaven, and not to his ancestors. Professor Kumi maintains that +the thanksgivings of the court were originally to Heaven itself, and not +in honor of Amateras[)u], the sun-goddess, as is now popularly believed. +It is related in the Kojiki that Amateras[)u] herself celebrated the +feast of Niiname. So also, the temple of Ise, the Mecca of Shint[=o], +and the Holy shrine in the imperial palace were originally temples for +the worship of Heaven. The inferior gods of earthly origin form no part +of primitive Shint[=o]. + +Not one of the first Mikados was deified after death, the deification of +emperors dating from the corruption which Shint[=o] underwent after the +introduction of Buddhism. Only by degrees was the ruler of the country +given a place in the worship, and this connection was made by +attributing to him descent from Heaven. In a word, the contention of +Professor Kumi is, that the ancient religion of at least a portion of +the Japanese and especially of those in central Japan, was a rude sort +of monotheism, coupled, as in ancient China, with the worship of +subordinate spirits. + +It is needless to say that such applications of the higher criticism to +the ancient sacred documents proved to be no safer for the applier than +if he had lived in the United States of America. The orthodox +Shint[=o]ists were roused to wrath and charged the learned critic with +"degrading Shint[=o] to a mere branch of Christianity." The government, +which, despite its Constitution and Diet, is in the eyes of the people +really based on the myths of the Kojiki, quickly put the professor on +the retired list.[25] + +It is probably correct to say that the arguments adduced by Professor +Kumi, confirm our theory of the substitution in the simple god-way, of +Mikadoism, the centre of the primitive worship being the sun and nature +rather than Heaven. + +Between the ancient Chinese religion with its abstract idea of Heaven +and its personal term for God, and the more poetic and childlike system +of the god-way, there seems to be as much difference as there is +racially between the people of the Middle Kingdom and those of the Land +Where the Day Begins. Indeed, the entrance of Chinese philosophical and +abstract ideas seemed to paralyze the Japanese imagination. Not only did +myth-making, on its purely aesthetic and non-utilitarian side cease +almost at once, but such myths as were formed were for direct business +purposes and with a transparent tendency. Henceforth, in the domain of +imagination the Japanese intellect busied itself with assimilating or +re-working the abundant material imported by Buddhism. + + +Ancient Customs and Usages. + + +In the ancient god-way the temple or shrine was called a miya. After the +advent of Buddhism the keepers of the shrine were called kannushi, that +is, shrine keepers or wardens of the god. These men were usually +descendants of the god in whose honor the temples were built. The gods +being nothing more than human founders of families, reverence was paid +to them as ancestors, and so the basis of Shint[=o] is ancestor worship. +The model of the miya, in modern as in ancient times, is the primitive +hut as it was before Buddhism introduced Indian and Chinese +architecture. The posts, stuck in the ground, and not laid upon stones +as in after times, supported the walls and roof, the latter being of +thatch. The rafters, crossed at the top, were tied along the ridge-pole +with the fibres of creepers or wistaria vines. No paint, lacquer, +gilding, or ornaments of any sort existed in the ancient shrine, and +even to-day the modern Shint[=o] temple must be of pure hinoki or +sun-wood, and thatched, while the use of metal is as far as possible +avoided. To the gods, as the norito show, offerings of various kinds +were made, consisting of the fruits of the soil, the products of the +sea, and the fabrics of the loom. + +Inside modern temples one often sees a mirror, in which foreigners with +lively imaginations read a great deal that is only the shadow of their +own mind, but which probably was never known in Shint[=o] temples until +after Buddhist times. They also see in front of the unpainted wooden +closets or casements, wands or sticks of wood from which depend masses +or strips of white paper, cut and notched in a particular way. +Foreigners, whose fancy is nimble, have read in these the symbols of +lightning, the abode of the spirits and various forthshadowings unknown +either to the Japanese or the ancient writings. In reality these +_gohei_, or honorable offerings, are nothing more than the paper +representatives of the ancient offerings of cloth which were woven, as +the arts progressed, of bark, of hemp and of silk. + +The chief Shint[=o] ministers of religion and shrine-keepers belonged to +particular families, which were often honored with titles and offices by +the emperor. In ordinary life they dressed like others of their own rank +or station, but when engaged in their sacred office were robed in white +or in a special official costume, wearing upon their heads the _eboshi_ +or peculiar cap which we associate with Japanese archaeology. They knew +nothing of celibacy; but married, reared families and kept their scalps +free from the razor, though some of the lower order of shrine-keepers +dressed their hair in ordinary style, that is, with shaven poll and +topknot. At some of the more important shrines, like those at Ise, there +were virgin priestesses who acted as custodians both of the shrines and +of the relics.[26] + +In front of the miyas stood what we should suppose on first seeing was a +gateway. This was the _torii_ or bird-perch, and anciently was made only +of unpainted wood. Two upright tree-trunks held crosswise on a smooth +tree-trunk the ends of which projected somewhat over the supports, while +under this was a smaller beam inserted between the two uprights. On the +torii, the birds, generally barn-yard fowls which were sacred to the +gods, roosted. These creatures were not offered up as sacrifices, but +were chanticleers to give notice of day-break and the rising of the sun. +The cock holds a prominent place in Japanese myth, legend, art and +symbolism. How this feature of pure Japanese architecture, the torii, +afterward lost its meaning, we shall show in our lecture on Riy[=o]bu or +mixed Buddhism. + + +Shint[=o]'s Emphasis on Cleanliness. + + +One of the most remarkable features of Shint[=o] was the emphasis laid +on cleanliness. Pollution was calamity, defilement was sin, and physical +purity at least, was holiness. Everything that could in any way soil the +body or the clothing was looked upon with abhorrence and detestation. +Disease, wounds and death were defiling, and the feeling of disgust +prevailed over that of either sympathy or pity. Birth and death were +especially polluting. Anciently there were huts built both for the +mother about to give birth to a child, or for the man who was dying or +sure to die of disease or wounds. After the birth of the infant or the +death of the patient these houses were burned. Cruel as this system was +to the woman at a time when she needed most care and comfort, and brutal +as it seems in regard to the sick and dying, yet this ancient custom was +continued in a few remote places in Japan as late as the year 1878.[27] +In modern days with equal knowledge of danger and defilement, tenderness +and compassion temper the feeling of disgust, and prevail over it. +Horror of uncleanliness was so great that the priests bathed and put on +clean garments before making the sacred offerings or chanting the +liturgies, and were accustomed to bind a slip of paper over their mouths +lest their breath should pollute the offering. Numerous were the special +festivals, observed simply for purification. Salt also was commonly used +to sprinkle over the ground, and those who attended a funeral must free +themselves from contamination by the use of salt.[28] Purification by +water was habitual and in varied forms. The ancient emperors and priests +actually performed the ablution of the people or made public lustration +in their behalf. + +Afterwards, and probably because population increased and towns sprang +up, we find it was customary at the festivals of purification to perform +public ablution, vicariously, as it were, by means of paper mannikins +instead of making applications of water to the human cuticle. Twice a +year paper figures representing the people were thrown into the river, +the typical meaning of which was that the nation was thereby cleansed +from the sins, that is, the defilements, of the previous half-year. +Still later, the Mikado made the chief minister of religion at Ki[=o]to +his deputy to perform the symbolical act for the people of the whole +country. + + +Prayers to Myriads of Gods. + + +In prayer, the worshipper, approaching the temple but not entering it, +pulls a rope usually made of white material and attached to a +peculiar-shaped bell hung over the shrine, calling the attention of the +deity to his devotions. Having washed his hands and rinsed out his +mouth, he places his hands reverently together and offers his petition. + +Concerning the method and words of prayer, Hirata, a famous exponent of +Shint[=o], thus writes: + + As the number of the gods who possess different functions is so + great, it will be convenient to worship by name only the most + important and to include the rest in a general petition. Those + whose daily affairs are so multitudinous that they have not time + to go through the whole of the following morning prayers, may + content themselves with adoring the residence of the emperor, + the domestic kami-dana, the spirits of their ancestors, their + local patron god and the deity of their particular calling in + life. + + In praying to the gods the blessings which each has it in his + power to bestow are to be mentioned in a few words, and they are + not to be annoyed with greedy petitions, for the Mikado in his + palace offers up petitions daily on behalf of his people, which + are far more effectual than those of his subjects. + + Rising early in the morning, wash your face and hands, rinse out + the mouth and cleanse the body. Then turn toward the province of + Yamato, strike the palms of the hands together twice, and + worship, bowing the head to the ground. The proper posture is + that of kneeling on the heels, which is ordinarily assumed in + saluting a superior. + + PRAYER. + + From a distance I reverently worship with awe before Ame no + Mi-hashira (Heaven-pillar) and Kuni no Mi-hashira + (Country-pillar), also called Shinatsu-hiko no kami and + Shinatsu-hime no kami, to whom is consecrated the Palace built + with stout pillars at Tatsuta no Tachinu in the department of + Heguri in the province of Yamato. + + I say with awe, deign to bless me by correcting the unwitting + faults which, seen and heard by you, I have committed, by + blowing off and clearing away the calamities which evil gods + might inflict, by causing me to live long like the hard and + lasting rock, and by repeating to the gods of heavenly origin + and to the gods of earthly origin the petitions which I present + every day, along with your breath, that they may hear with the + sharp-earedness of the forth-galloping colt. + +To the common people the sun is actually a god, as none can doubt who +sees them worshipping it morning and evening. The writer can never +forget one of many similar scenes in T[=o]ki[=o], when late one +afternoon after O Tent[=o] Sama (the sun-Lord of Heaven), which had been +hidden behind clouds for a fortnight, shone out on the muddy streets. In +a moment, as with the promptness of a military drill, scores of people +rushed out of their houses and with faces westward, kneeling, squatting, +began prayer and worship before the great luminary. Besides all the +gods, supreme, subordinate and local, there is in nearly every house the +Kami-dana or god-shelf. This is usually over the door inside. It +contains images with little paper-covered wooden tablets having the +god's name on them. Offerings are made by day and a little lamp is +lighted at night. The following is one of several prayers which are +addressed to this kami-dana. + + Reverently adoring the great god of the two palaces of Ise, in + the first place, the eight hundred myriads of celestial gods, + the eight hundred myriads of terrestrial gods, all the fifteen + hundred myriads of gods to whom are consecrated the great and + small temples in all provinces, all islands and all places of + the Great Land of Eight Islands, the fifteen hundreds of myriads + of gods whom they cause to serve them, and the gods of branch + palaces and branch temples, and Sohodo no kami, whom I have + invited to the shrine set up on this divine shelf, and to whom I + offer praises day by day, I pray with awe that they will deign + to correct the unwitting faults, which, heard and seen by them, + I have committed, and blessing and favoring me according to the + powers which they severally wield, cause me to follow the divine + example, and to perform good works in the Way. + + +Shint[=o] Left in a State of Arrested Development. + + +Thus from the emperor to the humblest believer, the god-way is founded +on ancestor worship, and has had grafted upon its ritual system nature +worship, even to phallicism.[29] In one sense it is a self-made religion +of the Japanese. Its leading characteristics are seen in the traits of +the normal Japanese character of to-day. Its power for good and evil may +be traced in the education of the Japanese through many centuries. +Knowing Shint[=o], we to a large degree know the Japanese, their virtues +and their failings. + +What Shint[=o] might have become in its full evolution had it been left +alone, we cannot tell. Whether in the growth of the nation and without +the pressure of Buddhism, Confucianism or other powerful influences from +outside, the scattered and fragmentary mythology might have become +organized into a harmonious system, or codes of ethics have been +formulated, or the doctrines of a future life and the idea of a Supreme +Being with personal attributes have been conceived and perfected, are +questions the discussion of which may seem to be vain. History, however, +gives no uncertain answer as to what actually did take place. We do but +state what is unchallenged fact, when we say, that after commitment to +writing of the myths, poems and liturgies which may be called the basis +of Shint[=o], there came a great flood of Chinese and Buddhistic +literature and a tremendous expansion of Buddhist missionary activity, +which checked further literary growth of the kami system. These prepared +the way for the absorption of the indigenous into the foreign cultus +under the form called by an enthusiastic emperor, Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o], +or the "two-fold divine doctrine." Of this, we shall speak in another +lecture. + +Suffice it here to say that by the scheme of syncretism propounded by +K[=o]b[=o] in the ninth century, Shint[=o] was practically overlaid by +the new faith from India, and largely forgotten as a distinct religion +by the Japanese people. As late as A.D. 927, there were three thousand +one hundred and thirty-two enumerated metropolitan and provincial +temples, besides many more unenumerated village and hamlet shrines of +Shint[=o]. These are referred to in the revised codes of ceremonial law +set forth by imperial authority early in the tenth century. Probably by +the twelfth century the pure rites of the god-way were celebrated, and +the unmixed traditions maintained, in families and temples, so few as to +be counted on the fingers. The ancient language in which the archaic +forms had been preserved was so nearly lost and buried, that out of the +ooze of centuries of oblivion, it had to be rescued by the skilled +divers of the seventeenth century. Mabuchi, Motoeri and the other +revivalists of pure Shint[=o], like the plungers after orient pearls, +persevered until they had first recovered much that had been supposed +irretrievably lost. These scholars deciphered and interpreted the +ancient scriptures, poetry, prose, history, law and ritual, and once +more set forth the ancient faith, as they believed, in its purity. + +Whether, however, men can exactly reproduce and think for themselves the +thoughts of others who have been dead for a millennium, is an open +question. The new system is apt to be transparent. Just as it is nearly +impossible for us to restore the religious life, thoughts and orthodoxy +of the men who lived before the flood, so in the writings of the +revivalists of pure Shint[=o] we detect the thoughts of Dutchmen, of +Chinese, and of very modern Japanese. Unconsciously, those who would +breathe into the dry bones of dead Shint[=o] the breath of the +nineteenth century, find themselves compelled to use an oxygen and +nitrogen generator made in Holland and mounted with Chinese apparatus; +withal, lacquered and decorated with the art of to-day. To change from +metaphor to matter of fact, modern "pure Shint[=o]" is mainly a mass of +speculation and philosophy, with a tendency of which the ancient god-way +knew nothing. + + +The Modern Revivalists of Kami no Michi. + + +Passing by further mention of the fifteen or more corrupt sects of +Shint[=o]ists, we name with honor the native scholars of the +seventeenth century, who followed the illustrious example of Iyeyas[)u], +the political unifier of Japan. They ransacked the country and purchased +from temples, mansions and farmhouses, old manuscripts and books, and +forming libraries began anew the study of ancient language and history. +Keichu (1640-1701), a Buddhist priest, explored and illumined the poems +of the Many[=o]shu. Kada Adzumar[=o], born in 1669 near Ki[=o]to, the +son of a shrine-keeper at Inari, attempted the mastery of the whole +archaic native language and literature. He made a grand beginning. He is +unquestionably the founder of the school of Pure Shint[=o]. He died in +1736. His successor and pupil was Mabuchi (1697-1769), who claimed +direct descent from that god which in the form of a colossal crow had +guided the first chief of the Yamato tribe as he led his invaders +through the country to found the line of Mikados. After Mabuchi came +Motooeri (1730-1801) a remarkable scholar and critic, who, with erudition +and acuteness, analyzed the ancient literature and showed what were +Chinese or imported elements and what was of native origin. He +summarized the principles of the ancient religion, reasserted and +illuminated with amazing learning and voluminous commentary the archaic +documents, expounded and defended the ancient cosmogony, and in the +usual style of Japanese polemics preached anew the doctrines of +Shint[=o]. With wonderful naivete and enthusiasm, Motooeri taught that +Japan was the first part of the earth created, and that it is therefore +The Land of the Gods, the Country of the Holy Spirits. The stars were +created from the muck which fell from the spear of Izanagi as he thrust +it into the warm earth, while the other countries were formed by the +spontaneous consolidation of the foam of the sea. Morals were invented +by the Chinese because they were an immoral people, but in Japan there +is no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japanese acts aright +if he only consults his own heart. The duty of a good Japanese consists +in obeying the Mikado, without questioning whether his commands are +right or wrong. The Mikado is god and vicar of all the gods, hence +government and religion are the same, the Mikado being the centre of +Church and State, which are one. Did the foreign nations know their duty +they would at once hasten to pay tribute to the Son of Heaven in +Ki[=o]to. + +It is needless here to dwell upon the tremendous power of Shint[=o] as a +political system, especially when wedded with the forces, generated in +the minds of the educated Japanese by modern Confucianism. The Chinese +ethical system, expanded into a philosophy as fascinating as the English +materialistic school of to-day, entered Japan contemporaneously with the +revival of the Way of the Gods and of native learning. In full rampancy +of their vigor, in the seventeenth century these two systems began that +generation of national energy, which in the eighteenth century was +consolidated and which in the nineteenth century, though unknown and +unsuspected by Europeans or Americans, was all ready for phenomenal +manifestation and tremendous eruption, even while Perry's fleet was +bearing the olive branch to Japan. As we all know, this consolidation of +forces from the inside, on meeting, not with collision but with union, +the exterior forces of western civilization, formed a resultant in the +energies which have made New Japan. + + +The Great Purification of 1870. + + +In 1870, with the Sh[=o]gun of Yedo deposed, the dual system abolished, +feudalism in its last gasp and Shint[=o] in full political power, with +the ancient council of the gods (Jin Gi Kuan) once more established, and +purified Shint[=o] again the religion of state, thousands of Riy[=o]bu +Shint[=o] temples were at once purged of all their Buddhist ornaments, +furniture, ritual, and everything that might remind the Japanese of +foreign elements. Then began, logically and actually, the persecution of +those Christians, who through all the centuries of repression and +prohibition had continued their existence, and kept their faith however +mixed and clouded. Theoretically, ancient belief was re-established, yet +it was both physically and morally impossible to return wholly to the +baldness and austere simplicity of those early ages, in which art and +literature were unknown. For a while it seemed as though the miracle +would be performed, of turning back the dial of the ages and of plunging +Japan into the fountain of her own youth. Propaganda was instituted, and +the attempts made to convert all the Japanese to Shint[=o] tenets and +practice were for a while more lively than edifying; but the scheme was +on the whole a splendid failure, and bitter disappointment succeeded the +first exultation of victory. Confronted by modern problems of society +and government, the Mikado's ministers found themselves unable, if +indeed willing, to entomb politics in religion, as in the ancient ages. +For a little while, in 1868, the Jin Gi Kuan, or Council of the Gods of +Heaven and Earth, held equal authority with the Dai J[=o] Kuan, or Great +Council of the Government. Pretty soon the first step downward was +taken, and from a supreme council it was made one of the ten departments +of the government. In less than a year followed another retrograde +movement and the department was called a board. Finally, in 1877, the +board became a bureau. Now, it is hard to tell what rank the Shint[=o] +cultus occupies in the government, except as a system of guardianship +over the imperial tombs, a mode of official etiquette, and as one of the +acknowledged religions of the country. + +Nevertheless, as an element in that amalgam of religions which forms the +creed of most Japanese, Shint[=o] is a living force, and shares with +Buddhism the arena against advancing Christianity, still supplying much +of the spring and motive to patriotism. + +The Shint[=o] lecturers with unblushing plagiarism rifled the +storehouses of Chinese ethics. They enforced their lessons from the +Confucian classics. Indeed, most of their homiletical and illustrative +material is still derived directly therefrom. Their three main official +theses and commandments were: + + 1. Thou shalt honor the Gods and love thy country. + + 2. Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven, and + the duty of man. + + 3. Thou shalt revere the Emperor as thy sovereign and obey the + will of his Court. + +For nearly twenty years this deliverance of the Japanese Government, +which still finds its strongest support in the national traditions and +the reverence of the people for the throne, sufficed for the necessities +of the case. Then the copious infusion of foreign ideas, the +disintegration of the old framework of society, and the weakening of the +old ties of obedience and loyalty, with the flood of shallow knowledge +and education which gave especially children and young people just +enough of foreign ideas to make them dangerous, brought about a +condition of affairs which alarmed the conservative and patriotic. Like +fungus upon a dead tree strange growths had appeared, among others that +of a class of violently patriotic and half-educated young men and boys, +called _Soshi_. These hot-headed youths took it upon themselves to +dictate national policy to cabinet ministers, and to reconstruct +society, religion and politics. Something like a mania broke out all +over the country which, in certain respects, reminds us of the +Children's Crusade, that once afflicted Europe and the children +themselves. Even Christianity did not escape the craze for +reconstruction. Some of the young believers and pupils of the +missionaries seemed determined to make Christianity all over so as to +suit themselves. This phase of brain-swelling is not yet wholly over. +One could not tell but that something like the Tai Ping rebellion, which +disturbed and devastated China, might break out. + +These portentous signs on the social horizon called forth, in 1892, from +the government an Imperial Rescript, which required that the emperor's +photograph be exhibited in every school, and saluted by all teachers and +scholars whatever their religious tenets and scruples might be. Most +Christians as well as Buddhists, saw nothing in this at which to +scruple. A few, however, finding in it an offence to conscience, +resigned their positions. They considered the mandate an unwarrantable +interference with their rights as conferred by the constitution of 1889, +which in theory is the gift of the emperor to his people. + +The radical Shint[=o]ist, to this day, believes that all political +rights which Japanese enjoy or can enjoy are by virtue of the Mikado's +grace and benevolence. It is certain that all Japanese, whatever may be +their religious convictions, consider that the constitution depends for +its safeguards and its validity largely upon the oath which the Mikado +swore at the shrine of his heavenly ancestors, that he would himself be +obedient to it and preserve its provisions inviolate. For this solemn +ceremony a special norito or liturgy was composed and recited. + + +Summary of Shint[=o]. + + +Of Shint[=o] as a system we have long ago given our opinion. In its +higher forms, "Shint[=o] is simply a cultured and intellectual atheism; +in its lower forms it is blind obedience to governmental and priestly +dictates." "Shint[=o]," says Mr. Ernest Satow, "as expounded by Motooeri +is nothing more than an engine for reducing the people to a condition of +mental slavery." Japan being a country of very striking natural +phenomena, the very soil and air lend themselves to support in the +native mind this system of worship of heroes and of the forces of +nature. In spite, however, of the conservative power of the ancestral +influences, the patriotic incentives and the easy morals of Shint[=o] +under which lying and licentiousness shelter themselves, it is doubtful +whether with the pressure of Buddhism, and the spread of popular +education and Christianity, Shint[=o] can retain its hold upon the +Japanese people. Yet although this is our opinion, it is but fair, and +it is our duty, to judge every religion by its ideals and not by its +failings. The ideal of Shint[=o] is to make people pure and clean in all +their personal and household arrangements; it is to help them to live +simply, honestly and with mutual good will; it is to make the Japanese +love their country, honor their imperial house and obey their emperor. +Narrow and local as this religion is, it has had grand exemplars in +noble lives and winning characters. + +So far as Shint[=o] is a religion, Christianity meets it not as +destroyer but fulfiller, for it too believes that cleanliness is not +only next to godliness but a part of it. Jesus as perfect man and +patriot, Captain of our salvation and Prince of peace, would not destroy +the Yamato damashii--the spirit of unconquerable Japan--but rather +enlarge, broaden, and deepen it, making it love for all humanity. +Reverence for ancestral virtue and example, so far from being weakened, +is strengthened, and as for devotion to king and ruler, law and society, +Christianity lends nobler motives and grander sanctions, while +showing clearly, not indeed the way of the eight million or more gods, +but the way to God--the one living, only and true, even through Him who +said "I am the Way." + + + + +CHAPTER IV - THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN + + + "Things being investigated, knowledge became complete; knowledge + being complete, thoughts were sincere; thoughts being sincere, + hearts were rectified; hearts being rectified, persons were + cultivated; persons being cultivated, families were regulated; + families being regulated, states were rightly governed; states + being rightly governed, the whole nation was made tranquil and + happy." + + "When you know a thing to hold that you know it; and when you do + not know a thing to allow that you do not know it; this is + knowledge." + + "Old age sometimes becomes second childhood; why should not + filial piety become parental love?" + + "The superior man accords with the course of the mean. Though he + may be all unknown, unregarded by the world, he feels no regret. + He is only the sage who is able for this."--Sayings of + Confucius. + + "There is, in a word, no bringing down of God to men in + Confucianism in order to lift them up to Him. Their moral + shortcomings, when brought home to them, may produce a feeling + of shame, but hardly a conviction of guilt."--James Legge. + + "Do not to others what you would not have them do to you."--The + Silver Rule. + + "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye + even so to them."--The Golden Rule. + + "In respect to revenging injury done to master or father, it is + granted by the wise and virtuous (Confucius) that you and the + injurer cannot live together under the canopy of + heaven."--Legacy of Iyeyas[)u], Cap. iii, Lowder's translation. + + "But I say unto you forgive your enemies."--Jesus. + + "Thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from + everlasting."--Isaiah. + + +CHAPTER IV - THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN + +Confucius a Historical Character. + + +If the greatness of a teacher is to be determined by the number of his +disciples, or to be measured by the extent and diversity of his +influence, then the foremost place among all the teachers of mankind +must be awarded to The Master Kung (or Confucius, as the Jesuit scholars +of the seventeenth century Latinized the name). Certainly, he of all +truly historic personages is to-day, and for twenty-three centuries has +been, honored by the largest number of followers. + +Of the many systems of religion in the world, but few are based upon the +teachings of one person. The reputed founders of some of them are not +known in history with any certainty, and of others--as in the case of +Buddhism--have become almost as shadows among a great throng of +imaginary Buddhas or other beings which have sprung from the fancies of +the brain and become incorporated into the systems, although the +original teachers may indeed have been historical. + +Confucius is a clear and distinct historic person. His parentage, place +of birth, public life, offices, work and teaching, are well known and +properly authenticated. He used the pen freely, and not only compiled, +edited and transmitted the writings of his predecessors, but composed an +historical and interpretative book. He originated nothing, however, but +on the contrary disowned any purpose of introducing new ideas, or of +expressing thoughts of his own not based upon or in perfect harmony with +the teaching of the ancients. He was not an original thinker. He was a +compiler, an editor, a defender and reproclaimer of the ancient +religion, and an exemplar of the wisdom and writings of the Chinese +fathers. He felt that his duty was exactly that which some Christian +theologians of to-day conscientiously feel to be theirs--to receive +intact a certain "deposit" or "system" and, adding nothing to it, simply +to teach, illuminate, defend, enforce and strongly maintain it as "the +truth." He gloried in absolute freedom from all novelty, anticipating in +this respect a certain illustrious American who made it a matter for +boasting, that his school had never originated a new idea.[1] Whether or +not the Master Kung did nevertheless, either consciously or +unconsciously, modify the ancient system by abbreviating or enlarging +it, we cannot now inquire. + +Confucius wan born into the world in the year 551 B.C., during that +wonderful century of religious revival which saw the birth of Ezra, +Gautama, and Lao Tsze, and in boyhood he displayed an unusually sedate +temperament which made him seem to be what we would now call an +"old-fashioned child." The period during which he lived was that of +feudal China. From the ago of twenty-two, while holding an office in the +state of Lu within the modern province of Shan-Tung, he gathered around +him young men as pupils with whom, like Socrates, he conversed in +question and answer. He made the teachings of the ancients the subjects +of his research, and he was at all times a diligent student of the +primeval records. These sacred books are called King, or Ki[=o] in +Japanese, and are: Shu King, a collection of historic documents; Shih +King, or Book of Odes; Hsiao King, or Classic of Filial Piety, and Yi +King, or Book of Changes.[2] This division of the old sacred canon, +resembles the Christian or non-Jewish arrangement of the Old Testament +scriptures in the four parts of Law, History, Poetry and Prophesy, +though in the Chinese we have History, Poetry, Ethics and Divination.[3] + +His own table-talk, conversations, discussions and notes were compiled +by his pupils, and are preserved in the work entitled in English, "The +Confucian Analects," which is one of the four books constituting the +most sacred portion of Chinese philosophy and instruction. He also wrote +a work named "Spring and Autumn, or Chronicles of his Native State of Lu +from 722 B.C., to 481[4] B.C." He "changed his world," as the Buddhists +say, in the year 478 B.C., having lived seventy-three years. + + +Primitive Chinese Faith. + + +The pre-Confucian or primitive faith was monotheistic, the forefathers +of the Chinese nation having been believers in one Supreme Spiritual +Being. There is an almost universal agreement among scholars in +translating the term "Shang Ti" as God, and in reading from these +classics that the forefathers "in the ceremonies at the altars of Heaven +and earth ... served God." Concurrently with the worship of one Supreme +God there was also a belief in subordinate spirits and in the idea of +revelation or the communication of God with men. This restricted worship +of God was accompanied by reverence for ancestors and the honoring of +spirits by prayers and sacrifices, which resulted, however, neither in +deification nor polytheism. But, as the European mediaeval schoolmen have +done with the Bible, so, after the death of Confucius the Chinese +scholastics by metaphysical reasoning and commentary, created systems of +interpretation which greatly altered the apparent form and contents of +his own and of the ancient texts. Thus, the original monotheism of the +pre-Confucian documents has been completely obscured by the later webs +of sophistry which have been woven about the original scriptures. The +ancient simplicity of doctrine has been lost in the mountains of +commentary which were piled upon the primitive texts. Throughout the +centuries, the Confucian system has been conditioned and greatly +modified by Taoism, Buddhism and the speculations of the Chinese wise +men. + +Confucius, however, did not change or seriously modify the ancient +religion except that, as is more than probable, he may have laid +unnecessary emphasis upon social and political duties, and may not have +been sufficiently interested in the honor to be paid to Shang Ti or God. +He practically ignored the God-ward side of man's duties. His teachings +relate chiefly to duties between man and man, to propriety and +etiquette, and to ceremony and usage. He said that "To give one's self +to the duties due to men and while respecting spiritual beings to keep +aloof from them, may be called wisdom."[5] + +We think that Confucius cut the tap-root of all true progress, and +therefore is largely responsible for the arrested development of China. +He avoided the personal term, God (Ti), and instead, made use of the +abstract term, Heaven (Tien). His teaching, which is so often quoted by +Japanese gentlemen, was, "Honor the Gods and keep them far from you." +His image stands in thousands of temples and in every school, in China, +but he is only revered and never deified. + +China has for ages suffered from agnosticism; for no normal Confucianist +can love God, though he may learn to reverence him. The Emperor +periodically worships for his people, at the great marble altar to +Heaven in Peking, with vast holocausts, and the prayers which are +offered may possibly amount to this: "Our Father who art in Heaven, +Hallowed be thy name." But there, as it seems to a Christian, Chinese +imperial worship stops. The people at large, cut off by this restricted +worship from direct access to God, have wandered away into every sort of +polytheism and idolatry, while the religion of the educated Chinese is a +mediaeval philosophy based upon Confucianism, of which we shall speak +hereafter. + +The Confucian system as a religion, like a giant with a child's head, is +exaggerated on its moral and ceremonial side as compared with its +spiritual development. Some deny that it is a religion at all, and call +it only a code. However, let us examine the Confucian ethics which +formed the basis and norm of all government in the family and nation, +and are summed up in the doctrine of the "Five Relations." These are: +Sovereign and Minister; Father and Son; Husband and Wife; Elder Brother +and Younger Brother; and Friends. The relation being stated, the +correlative duty arises at once. It may perhaps be truly said by +Christians that Confucius might have made a religion of his system of +ethics, by adding a sixth and supreme relation--that between God and +man. This he declined to do, and so left his people without any +aspiration toward the Infinite. By setting before them only a finite +goal he sapped the principles of progress.[6] + + +Vicissitudes of Confucianism. + + +After the death of Confucius (478 B.C.) the teachings of the great +master were neglected, but still later they were re-enforced and +expounded in the time (372-289 B.C.) of Meng Ko, or Mencius (as the name +has been Latinized) who was likewise a native of the State of Lu. At one +time a Chinese Emperor attempted in vain to destroy not only the +writings of Confucius but also the ancient classics. Taoism increased as +a power in the religion of China, especially after the fall of its +feudal system. The doctrine of ancestral worship as commended by the +sage had in it much of good, both for kings and nobles. The common +people, however, found that Taoism was more satisfying. About the +beginning of the Christian era Buddhism entered the Middle Kingdom, and, +rapidly becoming popular, supplied needs for which simple Confucianism +was not adequate. It may be said that in the sixth century--which +concerns us especially--although Confucianism continued to be highly +esteemed, Buddhism had become supreme in China--that venerable State +which is the mother of civilization in all Asia cast of the Ganges, and +the Middle Kingdom among pupil nations. + +Confucianism overflowed from China into Korea, where to this day it is +predominant even over Buddhism. Thence, it was carried beyond sea to the +Japanese Archipelago, where for possibly fifteen hundred years it has +shaped and moulded the character of a brave and chivalrous people. Let +us now turn from China and trace its influence and modifications in the +Land of the Rising Sun. + +It must be remembered that in the sixth century of the Christian Era, +Confucianism was by no means the fully developed philosophy that it is +now and has been for five hundred years. In former times, the system of +Confucius had been received in China not only as a praiseworthy +compendium of ceremonial observances, but also as an inheritance from +the ancients, illumined by the discourses of the great sage and +illustrated by his life and example. It was, however, very far from +being what it is at present--the religion of the educated men of the +nation, and, by excellence, the religion of Chinese Asia. But in those +early centuries it did not fully satisfy the Chinese mind, which turned +to the philosophy of Taoism and to the teachings of the Buddhist for +intellectual food, for comfort and for inspiration. + +The time when Chinese learning entered Japan, by the way of Korea, has +not been precisely ascertained.[7] It is possible that letters[8] and +writings were known in some parts of the country as early as the fourth +century, but it is nearly certain, that, outside the Court of the +Emperor, there was scarcely even a sporadic knowledge of the literature +of China until the Korean missionaries of Buddhism had obtained a +lodgement in the Mikado's capital. Buddhism was the real purveyor of the +foreign learning and became the vehicle by means of which Confucianism, +or the Chinese ethical principles, reached the common people of Japan. +The first missionaries in Japan were heartily in sympathy with the +Confucian ethics, from which no effort was made to alienate them. They +were close allies, and for a thousand years wrought as one force in the +national life. They were not estranged until the introduction, in the +seventeenth century, of the metaphysical and scholastic forms given to +the ancient system by the Chinese schoolmen of the Sung dynasty (A.D. +960-1333). + + +Japanese Confucianism and Feudalism Contemporary. + + +The intellectual history of the Japanese prior to their recent contact +with Christendom, may be divided into three eras: + +1. The period of early insular or purely native thought, from before the +Christian era until the eighth century; by which time, Shint[=o], or the +indigenous system of worship--its ritual, poetry and legend having been +committed to writing and its life absorbed in Buddhism--had been, as a +system, relegated from the nation and the people to a small circle of +scholars and archaeologists. + +2. The period from 800 A.D. to the beginning of the seventeenth century; +during which time Buddhism furnished to the nation its religion, +philosophy and culture. + +3. From about 1630 A.D. until the present time; during which period the +developed Confucian philosophy, as set forth by Chu Hi in the twelfth +century, has been the creed of a majority of the educated men of Japan. + +The political history of the Japanese may also be divided into three +eras: + +1. The first extends from the dawn of history until the seventh century. +During this period the system of government was that of rude feudalism. +The conquering tribe of Yamato, having gradually obtained a rather +imperfect supremacy over the other tribes in the middle and southern +portions of the country now called the Empire of Japan, ruled them in +the name of the Mikado. + +2. The second period begins in the seventh century, when the Japanese, +copying the Chinese model, adopted a system of centralization. The +country was divided into provinces and was ruled through boards or +ministries at the capital, with governors sent out from Ki[=o]to for +stated periods, directly from the emperor. During this time literature +was chiefly the work of the Buddhist priests and of the women of the +imperial court. + +While armies in the field brought into subjection the outlying tribes +and certain noble families rose to prominence at the court, there was +being formed that remarkable class of men called the Samurai, or +servants of the Mikado, which for more than ten centuries has exercised +a profound influence upon the development of Japan. + +In China, the pen and the sword have been kept apart; the civilian and +the soldier, the man of letters and the man of arms, have been distinct +and separate. This was also true in old Loo Choo (now Riu Kiu), that +part of Japan most like China. In Japan, however, the pen and the sword, +letters and arms, the civilian and the soldier, have intermingled. The +unique product of this union is seen in the Samurai, or servant of the +Mikado. Military-literati, are unknown in China, but in Japan they +carried the sword and the pen in the same girdle. + +3. This class of men had become fully formed by the end of the twelfth +century, and then began the new feudal system, which lasted until the +epochal year 1868 A.D.--a year of several revolutions, rather than of +restoration pure and simple. After nearly seven hundred years of +feudalism, supreme magistracy, with power vastly increased beyond that +possessed in ancient times, was restored to the emperor. Then also was +abolished the duarchy of Throne and Camp, of Mikado and Sh[=o]gun, and +of the two capitals Ki[=o]to and Yedo, with the fountain of honor and +authority in one and the fountain of power and execution in the other. +Thereupon, Japan once more presented to the world, unity. + +Practically, therefore, the period of the prevalence of the Confucian +ethics and their universal acceptance by the people of Japan nearly +coincides with the period of Japanese feudalism or the dominance of the +military classes. + +Although the same ideograph, or rather logogram, was used to designate +the Chinese scholar and the Japanese warrior as well, yet the former was +man of the pen only, while the latter was man of the pen and of two +swords. This historical fact, more than any other, accounts for the +striking differences between Chinese and Japanese Confucianism. Under +this state of things the ethical system of the sage of China suffered a +change, as does almost everything that is imported into Japan and +borrowed by the islanders, but whether for the better or for the worse +we shall not inquire too carefully. The point upon which we now lay +emphasis is this: that, although the Chinese teacher had made filial +piety the basis of his system, the Japanese gradually but surely made +loyalty (Kun-Shin), that is, the allied relations of sovereign and +minister, of lord and retainer, and of master and servant, not only +first in order but the chief of all. They also infused into this term +ideas and associations which are foreign to the Chinese mind. In the +place of filial piety was Kun-shin, that new growth in the garden of +Japanese ethics, out of which arose the white flower of loyalty that +blooms perennial in history. + + +In Japan, Loyalty Displaces Filial Piety. + + +This slow but sure adaptation of the exotic to its new environment, took +place during the centuries previous to the seventeenth of the Christian +era. The completed product presented a growth so strikingly different +from the original as to compel the wonder of those Chinese refugee +scholars, who, at Mito[9] and Yedo, taught the later dogmas which are +orthodox but not historically Confucian. + +Herein lies the difference between Chinese and Japanese ethical +philosophy. In old Japan, loyalty was above filial obedience, and the +man who deserted parents, wife and children for the feudal lord, +received unstinted praise. The corner-stone of the Japanese edifice of +personal righteousness and public weal, is loyalty. On the other hand, +filial piety is the basis of Chinese order and the secret of the amazing +national longevity, which is one of the moral wonders of the world, and +sure proof of the fulfilment of that promise which was made on Sinai and +wrapped up in the fourth commandment. + +This master passion of the typical Samurai of old Japan made him regard +life as infinitely less than nothing, whenever duty demanded a display +of the virtue of loyalty. "The doctrines of Koshi and Moshi" (Confucius +and Mencius) formed, and possibly even yet form, the gospel and the +quintessence of all wordly wisdom to the Japanese gentleman; they became +the basis of his education and the ideal which inspired his conceptions +of duty and honor; but, crowning all his doctrines and aspirations was +his desire to be loyal. There might abide loyal, marital, filial, +fraternal and various other relations, but the greatest of all these was +loyalty. Hence the Japanese calendar of saints is not filled with +reformers, alms-givers and founders of hospitals or orphanages, but is +over-crowded with canonized suicides and committers of _hara-kiri_. Even +today, no man more quickly wins the popular regard during his life or +more surely draws homage to his tomb, securing even apotheosis, than the +suicide, though he may have committed a crime. In this era of Meiji or +enlightened peace, most appalling is the list of assassinations +beginning with the murder in Ki[=o]to of Yokoi Heishiro, who was slain +for recommending the toleration of Christianity, down to the last +cabinet minister who has been knifed or dynamited. Yet in every case the +murderers considered themselves consecrated men and ministers of +Heaven's righteous vengeance.[10] For centuries, and until +constitutional times, the government of Japan was "despotism tempered by +assassination." The old-fashioned way of moving a vote of censure upon +the king's ministers was to take off their heads. Now, however, election +by ballot has been substituted for this, and two million swords have +become bric-a-brac. + +A thousand years of training in the ethics of Confucius--which always +admirably lends itself to the possessors of absolute power, whether +emperors, feudal lords, masters, fathers, or older brothers--have so +tinged and colored every conception of the Japanese mind, so dominated +their avenues of understanding and shaped their modes of thought, that +to-day, notwithstanding the recent marvellous development of their +language, which within the last two decades has made it almost a new +tongue,[11] it is impossible with perfect accuracy to translate into +English the ordinary Japanese terms which are congregated under the +general idea of Kun-shin. + +Herein may be seen the great benefit of carefully studying the minds of +those whom we seek to convert. The Christian preacher in Japan who uses +our terms "heaven," "home," "mother," "father," "family," "wife," +"people," "love," "reverence," "virtue," "chastity," etc., will find +that his hearers may indeed receive them, but not at all with the same +mental images and associations, nor with the same proportion and depth, +that these words command in western thought and hearing. One must be +exceedingly careful, not only in translating terms which have been used +by Confucius in the Chinese texts, but also in selecting and rendering +the current expressions of the Japanese teachers and philosophers. In +order to understand each other, Orientals and Occidentals need a great +deal of mutual intellectual drilling, without which there will be waste +of money, of time, of brains and of life. + + +The Five Relations. + + +Let us now glance at the fundamentals of the Confucian ethics--the Five +Relations--as they were taught in the comparatively simple system which +prevailed before the new orthodoxy was proclaimed by Sung schoolmen. + +First. Although each of the Chinese and Japanese emperors is supposed to +be, and is called, "father of the people," yet it would be entirely +wrong to imagine that the phrase implies any such relation, as that of +William the Silent to the Dutch, or of Washington to the American +nation. In order to see how far the emperor was removed from the people +during a thousand years, one needs but to look upon a brilliant painting +of the Yamato-Tosa school, in which the Mikado is represented as sitting +behind a cloud of gold or a thick curtain of fine bamboo, with no one +before the matting-throne but his prime ministers or the empress and his +concubines. For centuries, it was supposed that the Mikado did not touch +the ground with his feet. He went abroad in a curtained car; and he was +not only as mysterious and invisible to the public eye as a dragon, but +he was called such. The attributes of that monster with many powers and +functions, were applied to him, with an amazing wealth of rhetoric and +vocabulary. As well might the common folks to-day presume to pray unto +one of the transcendent Buddhas, between whom and the needy suppliant +there may be hosts upon hosts of interlopers or mediators, as for an +ordinary subject to petition the emperor or even to gaze upon his dragon +countenance. The change in the constitutional Japan of our day is seen +in the fact that the term "Mikado" is now obsolete. This description of +the relation of sovereign and minister (inaccurately characterised by +some writers on Confucianism as that of "King and subject," a phrase +which might almost fit the constitutional monarchy of to-day) shows the +relation, as it did exist for nearly a thousand years of Japanese +history. We find the same imitation of procedure, even when imperialism +became only a shadow in the government and the great Sh[=o]gun who +called himself "Tycoon," the ruler in Yedo, aping the majesty of +Ki[=o]to, became so powerful as to be also a dragon. Between the Yedo +Sh[=o]gun and the people rose a great staircase of numberless +subordinates, and should a subject attempt to offer a petition in person +he must pay for it by crucifixion.[12] + +As, under the emperor there were court ministers, heads of departments, +governors and functionaries of all kinds before the people were reached, +so, under the Sh[=o]gun in the feudal days, there were the Daimi[=o]s or +great lords and the Shomi[=o]s or small lords with their retainers in +graduated subordination, and below these were the servants and general +humanity. Even after the status of man was reached, there were +gradations and degradations through fractions down to ciphers and indeed +to minus quantities, for there existed in the Country of Brave Warriors +some tens of thousands of human beings bearing the names of _eta_ +(pariah) and _h[=i]-nin_ (non-human), who were far below the pale of +humanity. + + +The Paramount Idea of Loyalty. + + +The one idea which dominated all of these classes,[13]--in Old Japan +there were no masses but only many classes--was that of loyalty. As the +Japanese language shows, every faculty of man was subordinated to this +idea. Confucianism even conditioned the development of Japanese grammar, +as it also did that of the Koreans, by multiplying honorary prefixes and +suffixes and building up all sociable and polite speech on perpendicular +lines. Personality was next to nothing and individuality was in a +certain sense unknown. In European languages, the pronoun shows how +clearly the ideas of personality and of individuality have been +developed; but in the Japanese language there really are no pronouns, in +the sense of the word as used by the Germanic nations, at least, +although there are hundreds of impersonal and topographical substitutes +for them.[14] The mirror, of the language itself, reflects more truth +upon this point of inquiry than do patriotic assertions, or the protests +of those who in the days of this Meiji era so handsomely employ the +Japanese language as the medium of thought. Strictly speaking, the ego +disappears in ordinary conversation and action, and instead, it is the +servant speaking reverently to his master; or it is the master +condescending to the object which is "before his hand" or "to the side" +or "below" where his inferior kneels; or it is the "honorable right" +addressing the "esteemed left." + +All the terms which a foreigner might use in speaking of the duties of +sovereign and minister, of lord and retainer and of master and servant, +are comprehended in the Japanese word, Kun-shin, in which is +crystallized but one thought, though it may relate to three grades of +society. The testimony of history and of the language shows, that the +feelings which we call loyalty and reverence are always directed upward, +while those which we term benevolence and love invariably look downward. + +Note herein the difference between the teachings of Christ and those of +the Chinese sage. According to the latter, if there be love in the +relation of the master and servant, it is the master who loves, and not +the servant who may only reverence. It would be inharmonious for the +Japanese servant to love his master; he never even talks of it. And in +family life, while the parent may love the child, the child is not +expected to love the parent but rather to reverence him. So also the +Japanese wife, as in our old scriptural versions, is to "see that she +_reverence_ her husband." Love (not _agape_, but _eros_) is indeed a +theme of the poets and of that part of life and of literature which is, +strictly speaking, outside of the marriage relation, but the thought +that dominates in marital life, is reverence from the wife and +benevolence from the husband. The Christian conception, which requires +that a woman should love her husband, does not strictly accord with the +Confucian idea. + +Christianity has taught us that when a man loves a woman purely and +makes her his wife, he should also have reverence for her, and that this +element should be an integral part of his love. Christianity also +teaches a reverence for children; and Wordsworth has but followed the +spirit of his great master, Christ, when expressing this beautiful +sentiment in his melodious numbers. Such ideas as these, however, are +discords in Japanese social life of the old order. So also the Christian +preaching of love to God, sounds outlandish to the men of Chinese mind +in the middle or the pupil kingdom, who seem to think that it can only +come from the lips of those who have not been properly trained. To "love +God" appears to them as being an unwarrantable patronage of, and +familiarity with "Heaven," or the King of Kings. The same difficulty, +which to-day troubles Christian preachers and translators, existed among +the Roman Catholic missionaries three centuries ago.[15] The moulds of +thought were not then, nor are they even now, entirely ready for the +full truth of Christian revelation. + + +Suicide Made Honorable. + + +In the long story of the Honorable Country, there are to be found many +shining examples of loyalty, which is the one theme oftenest illustrated +in popular fiction and romance. Its well-attested instances on the +crimson thread of Japanese history are more numerous than the beads on +many rosaries. The most famous of all, perhaps, is the episode of the +Forty-Seven R[=o]nins, which is a constant favorite in the theatres, and +has been so graphically narrated or pictured by scores of native poets, +authors, artists, sculptors and dramatists, and told in English by +Mitford, Dickens and Grecy.[16] + +These forty-seven men hated wife, child, society, name, fame, food and +comfort for the sake of avenging the death of their master. In a certain +sense, they ceased to be persons in order to become the impersonal +instruments of Heaven's retribution. They gave up every thing--houses, +lands, kinsmen--that they might have in this life the hundred-fold +reward of vengeance, and in the world-life of humanity throughout the +centuries, fame and honor. Feeding the hunger of their hearts upon the +hope of glutting that hunger with the life-blood of their victim, they +waited long years. When once their swords had drunk the consecrated +blood, they laid the severed head upon their master's tomb and then +gladly, even rapturously, delivered themselves up, and ripping open +their bowels they died by that judicially ordered seppuku which cleansed +their memory from every stain, and gave to them the martyr's fame and +crown forever. The tombs of these men, on the hillside overlooking the +Bay of Yedo, are to this day ever fragrant with fresh flowers, and to +the cemetery where their ashes lie and their memorials stand, thousands +of pilgrims annually wend their way. No dramas are more permanently +popular on the stage than those which display the virtues of these +heroes, who are commonly spoken of as "The righteous Samurai." Their +tombs have stood for two centuries, as mighty magnets drawing others to +self-impalement on the sword--as multipliers of suicides. + +Yet this alphabetic number, this _i-ro-ha_ of self-murder, is but one of +a thousand instances in the Land of Noble Suicides. From the +pre-historic days when the custom of _Jun-shi_, or dying with the +master, required the interment of the living retainers with the dead +lord, down through all the ages to the Revolution of 1868, when at +Sendai and Aidzu scores of men and boys opened their bowels, and mothers +slew their infant sons and cut their own throats, there has been flowing +through Japanese history a river of suicides' blood[17] having its +springs in the devotion of retainers to masters, and of soldiers to a +lost cause as represented by the feudal superior. Shigemori, the son of +the prime minister Kiyomori, who protected the emperor even against his +own father, is a model of that Japanese kun-shin which placed fidelity +to the sovereign above filial obedience; though even yet Shigemori's +name is the synonym of both virtues. Kusunoki Masashige,[18] the white +flower of Japanese chivalry, is but one, typical not only of a thousand +but of thousands of thousands of soldiers, who hated parents, wife, +child, friend in order to be disciple to the supreme loyalty. He sealed +his creed by emptying his own veins. Kiyomori,[19] like King David of +Israel, on his dying bed ordered the assassination of his personal +enemy. + +The common Japanese novels read like records of slaughter-houses. No +Moloch or Shiva has won more victims to his shrine than has this idea of +Japanese loyalty which is so beautiful in theory and so hideous in +practice. Despite the military clamps and frightful despotism of Yedo, +which for two hundred and fifty years gave to the world a delusive idea +of profound quiet in the Country of Peaceful Shores, there was in fact a +chronic unrest which amounted at many times and in many places to +anarchy. The calm of despotism was, indeed, rudely broken by the aliens +in the "black ships" with the "flowery flag"; but, without regarding +influences from the West, the indications of history as now read, +pointed in 1850 toward the bloodiest of Japan's many civil wars. Could +the statistics of the suicides during this long period be collected, +their publication would excite in Christendom the utmost incredulity. + +Nevertheless, this qualifying statement should be made. A study of the +origin and development of the national method of self-destruction shows +that suicide by seppuku, or opening of the abdomen, was first a custom, +and then a privilege. It took, among men of honor, the place of the +public executions, the massacres in battle and siege, decimation of +rebels and similar means of killing at the hands of others, which so +often mar the historical records of western nations. Undoubtedly, +therefore, in the minds of most Japanese, there are many instances of +_hara-kiri_ which should not be classed as suicide, but technically as +execution of judicial sentence. And yet no sentence or process of death +known in western lands had such influence in glorifying the victim, as +had seppuku in Japan. + + +The Family Idea. + + +The Second Relation is that of father and son, thus preceding what we +should suppose to be the first of human relations--husband and wife--but +the arrangement entirely accords with the Oriental conception that the +family, the house, is more important than the individual. In Old Japan +the paramount idea in marriage, was not that of love or companionship, +or of mutual assistance with children, but was almost wholly that of +offspring, and of maintaining the family line.[20] The individual might +perish but the house must live on. + +Very different from the family of Christendom, is the family in Old +Japan, in which we find elements that would not be recognized where +monogamy prevails and children are born in the home and not in the herd. +Instead of father, mother and children, there are father, wife, +concubines, and various sorts of children who are born of the wife or of +the concubine, or have been adopted into the family. With us, adoption +is the exception, but in Japan it is the invariable rule whenever either +convenience or necessity requires it of the house. Indeed it is rare to +find a set of brothers bearing the same family name. Adoption and +concubinage keep the house unbroken.[21] It is the house, the name, +which must continue, although not necessarily by a blood line. The name, +a social trade-mark, lives on for ages. The line of Japanese emperors, +which, in the Constitution of 1889, by adding mythology to history is +said to rule "unbroken from ages eternal," is not one of fathers and +sons, but has been made continuous by concubinage and adoption. In this +view, it is possibly as old as the line of the popes. + +It is very evident that our terms and usages do not have in such a home +the place or meaning which one not familiar with the real life of Old +Japan would suppose. The father is an absolute ruler. There is in Old +Japan hardly any such thing as "parents," for practically there is only +one parent, as the woman counts for little. The wife is honored if she +becomes a mother, but if childless she is very probably neglected. Our +idea of fatherhood implies that the child has rights and that he should +love as well as be loved. Our customs excite not only the merriment but +even the contempt of the old-school Japanese. The kiss and the embrace, +the linking of the child's arm around its father's neck, the address on +letters "My dear Wife" or "My beloved Mother" seem to them like +caricatures of propriety. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true that +in reverence toward parents--or at least toward one of the parents--a +Japanese child is apt to excel the one born even in a Christian home. + +This so-called filial "piety" becomes in practice, however, a horrible +outrage upon humanity and especially upon womanhood. During centuries +the despotic power of the father enabled him to put an end to the life +of his child, whether boy or girl. + +Under this abominable despotism there is no protection for the daughter, +who is bound to sell her body, while youth or beauty last or perhaps for +life, to help pay her father's debts, to support an aged parent or even +to gratify his mere caprice. In hundreds of Japanese romances the +daughter, who for the sake of her parents has sold herself to shame, is +made the theme of the story and an object of praise. In the minds of the +people there may be indeed a feeling of pity that the girl has been +obliged to give up her home life for the brothel, but no one ever thinks +of questioning the right of the parent to make the sale of the girl's +body, any more than he would allow the daughter to rebel against it. +This idea still lingers and the institution remains,[22] although the +system has received stunning blows from the teaching of Christian +ethics, the preaching of a better gospel and the improvements in the law +of the land. + + +The Marital Relation. + + +The Third Relation is that of husband and wife. The meaning of these +words, however, is not the same with the Japanese as with us. In +Confucius there is not only male and female, but also superior and +inferior, master and servant.[23] Without any love-making or courtship +by those most interested, a marriage between two young people is +arranged by their parents through the medium of what is called a +"go-between." The bride leaves her father's house forever--that is, when +she is not to be subsequently divorced--and entering into that of her +husband must be subordinate not only to him but also to his parents, and +must obey them as her own father and mother. Having all her life under +her father's roof reverenced her superiors, she is expected to bring +reverence to her new domicile, but not love. She must always obey but +never be jealous. She must not be angry, no matter whom her husband may +introduce into his household. She must wait upon him at his meals and +must walk behind him, but not with him. When she dies her children go to +her funeral, but not her husband. + +A foreigner, hearing the Japanese translate our word chastity by the +term _teiso_ or _misao_, may imagine that the latter represents mutual +obligation and personal purity for man and wife alike, but on looking +into the dictionary he will find that _teiso_ means "Womanly duties." A +circumlocution is needed to express the idea of a chaste man. + +Jealousy is a horrible sin, but is always supposed to be a womanish +fault, and so an exhibition of folly and weakness. Therefore, to apply +such a term to God--to say "a jealous God"--outrages the good sense of a +Confucianist,[24] almost as much as the statement that God "cannot lie" +did that of the Pundit, who wondered how God could be Omnipotent if He +could not lie. + +How great the need in Japanese social life of some purifying principle +higher than Confucianism can afford, is shown in the little book +entitled "The Japanese Bride,"[25] written by a native, and scarcely +less in the storm of native criticism it called forth. Under the system +which has ruled Japan for a millennium and a half, divorce has been +almost entirely in the hands of the husband, and the document of +separation, entitled in common parlance the "three lines and a half," +was invariably written by the man. A woman might indeed nominally obtain +a divorce from her husband, but not actually; for the severance of the +marital tie would be the work of the house or relatives, rather than the +act of the wife, who was not "a person" in the case. Indeed, in the +olden time a woman was not a person in the eye of the law, but rather a +chattel. The case is somewhat different under the new codes,[26] but the +looseness of the marriage tie is still a scandal to thinking Japanese. +Since the breaking up of the feudal system and the disarrangement of the +old social and moral standards, the statistics made annually from the +official census show that the ratio of divorce to marriage is very +nearly as one to three.[27] + + +The Elder and the Younger Brother. + + +The Fourth Relation is that of Elder Brother and Younger Brother. As we +have said, foreigners in translating some of the Chinese and Japanese +terms used in the system of Confucius are often led into errors by +supposing that the Christian conception of family life prevails also in +Chinese Asia. By many writers this relation is translated "brother to +brother;" but really in the Japanese language there is no term meaning +simply "brother" or "sister,"[28] and a circumlocution is necessary to +express the ideas which we convey by these words. It is always "older +brother" or "younger brother," and "older sister" or "younger +sister"--the male or female "_kiyodai_" as the case may be. With +us--excepting in lands where the law of primogeniture still +prevails--all the brothers are practically equal, and it would be +considered a violation of Christian righteousness for a parent to show +more favor to one child than to another. In this respect the "wisdom +that cometh from above" is "without partiality." The Chinese ethical +system, however, disregards the principle of mutual rights and duties, +and builds up the family on the theory of the subordination of the +younger brother to the elder brother, the predominant idea being not +mutual love, but, far more than in the Christian household, that of rank +and order. The attitude of the heir of the family toward the other +children is one of condescension, and they, as well as the widowed +mother, regard the oldest son with reverence. It is as though the +commandment given on Sinai should read, "Honor thy father and thy elder +brother." + +The mother is an instrument rather than a person in the life of the +house, and the older brother is the one on whom rests the responsibility +of continuing the family line. The younger brothers serve as subjects +for adoption into other families, especially those where there are +daughters to be married and family names to be continued. In a word, the +name belongs to the house and not to the individual. The habit of naming +children after relatives or friends of the parents, or illustrious men +and women, is unknown in Old Japan, though an approach to this common +custom among us is made by conferring or making use of part of a name, +usually by the transferrence of one ideograph forming the name-word. +Such a practice lays stress upon personality, and so has no place in the +country without pronouns, where the idea of continuing the personal +house or semi-personal family, is predominant. The customs prevalent in +life are strong even in death, and the elder brother or sister, in some +provinces, did not go to the funeral of the younger. This state of +affairs is reflected in Japanese literature, and produces in romance as +well as in history many situations and episodes which seem almost +incredible to the Western mind. + +In the lands ruled by Confucius the grown-up children usually live under +the parental roof, and there are few independent homes as we understand +them. The so-called family is composed both of the living and of the +dead, and constitutes the unit of society. + + +Friendship and Humanity. + + +The Fifth Relation--Friends. Here, again, a mistake is often made by +those who import ideas of Christendom into the terms used in Chinese +Asia, and who strive to make exact equivalent in exchanging the coins of +speech. Occidental writers are prone to translate the term for the fifth +relation into the English phrase "man to man," which leads the Western +reader to suppose that Confucius taught that universal love for man, as +man, which was instilled and exemplified by Jesus Christ. In translating +Confucius they often make the same mistake that some have done who read +in Terence's "Self-Tormentor" the line, "I am a man, and nothing human +is foreign to me,"[29] and imagine that this is the sentiment of an +enlightened Christian, although the context shows that it is only the +boast of a busybody and parasite. What Confucius taught under the fifth +relation is not universality, and, as compared to the teachings of +Jesus, is moonlight, not sunlight. The doctrine of the sage is clearly +expressed in the Analects, and amounts only to courtesy and propriety. +He taught, indeed, that the stranger is to be treated as a friend; and +although in both Chinese and Japanese history there are illustrious +proofs that Confucius had interpreters nobler than himself, yet it is +probable that the doctrine of the stranger's receiving treatment as a +friend, does not extend to the foreigner. Confucius framed something +like the Golden Rule--though it were better called a Silver Rule, or +possibly a Gilded Rule, since it is in the negative instead of being +definitely placed in the positive and indicative form. One may search +his writings in vain for anything approaching the parable of the Good +Samaritan, or the words of Him who commended Elijah for replenishing the +cruse and barrel of the widow of Sarepta, and Elisha for healing Naaman +the Syrian leper, and Jonah for preaching the good news of God to the +Assyrians who had been aliens and oppressors. Lao Tsze, however, went so +far as to teach "return good for evil." When one of the pupils of +Confucius interrogated his Master concerning this, the sage answered; +"What then will you return for good? Recompense injury with justice, and +return good for good." + +But if we do good only to those who do good to us, what thanks have we? +Do not the publicans the same? Behold how the Heavenly Father does good +alike unto all, sending rain upon the just and unjust! + +How Old Japan treated the foreigner is seen in the repeated repulse, +with powder and ball, of the relief ships which, under the friendly +stars and stripes, attempted to bring back to her shores the shipwrecked +natives of Nippon.[30] Granted that this action may have been purely +political and the Government alone responsible for it--just as our +un-Christian anti-Chinese legislation is similarly explained--yet it is +certain that the sentiment of the only men in Japan who made public +opinion,--the Samurai of that day,--was in favor of this method of +meeting the alien. + +In 1852 the American expedition was despatched to Japan for the purpose +of opening a lucrative trade and of extending American influence and +glory, but also unquestionably with the idea of restoring shipwrecked +Japanese as well as securing kind treatment for shipwrecked American +sailors, thereby promoting the cause of humanity and international +courtesy; in short, with motives that were manifestly mixed.[31] In the +treaty pavilion there ensued an interesting discussion between Commodore +Perry and Professor Hayashi upon this very subject. + +Perry truthfully complained that the dictates of humanity had not been +followed by the Japanese, that unnecessary cruelty had been used against +shipwrecked men, and that Japan's attitude toward her neighbors and the +whole world was that of an enemy and not of a friend. + +Hayashi, who was then probably the leading Confucianist in Japan, warmly +defended his countrymen and superiors against the charge of intentional +cruelty, and denounced the lawless character of many of the foreign +sailors. Like most Japanese of his school and age, he wound up with +panegyrics on the pre-eminence in virtue and humanity, above all +nations, of the Country Ruled by a Theocratic Dynasty, and on the glory +and goodness of the great Tokugawa family, which had given peace to the +land during two centuries or more.[32] + +It is manifest, however, that so far as this hostility to foreigners, +and this blind bigotry of "patriotism" were based on Chinese codes of +morals, as officially taught in Yedo, they belonged as much to the old +Confucianism as to the new. Wherever the narrow philosophy of the sage +has dominated, it has made Asia Chinese and nations hermits. As a rule, +the only way in which foreigners could come peacefully into China or the +countries which she intellectually dominated was as vassals, +tribute-bearers, or "barbarians." The mental attitude of China, Korea, +Annam and Japan has for ages been that of the Jews in Herodian times, +who set up, between the Court of Israel and the Court of the Gentiles, +their graven stones of warning which read:[33] + + "No foreigner to proceed within the partition wall and enclosure + around the sanctuary; whoever is caught in the same will on that + account be liable to incur death." + + + + +CHAPTER V - CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM + + "After a thousand years the pine decays; the flower has its + glory in blooming for a day."--Hakkyoi, Chinese Poet of the Tang + Dynasty. + + "The morning-glory of an hour differs not in heart from the + pine-tree of a thousand years."--Matsunaga of Japan. + + "The pine's heart is not of a thousand years, nor the + morning-glory's of an hour, but only that they may fulfil their + destiny." + + "Since Iyeyasu, his hair brushed by the wind, his body anointed + with rain, with lifelong labor caused confusion to cease and + order to prevail, for more than a hundred years there has been + no war. The waves of the four seas have been unruffled and no + one has failed of the blessing of peace. The common folk must + speak with reverence, yet it is the duty of scholars to + celebrate the virtue of the Government."--Ky[=u]so of Yedo. + + "A ruler must have faithful ministers. He who sees the error of + his lord and remonstrates, not fearing his wrath, is braver than + he who bears the foremost spear in battle."--Iyeyasu. + + "The choice of the Chinese philosophy and the rejection of + Buddhism was not because of any inherent quality in the Japanese + mind. It was not the rejection of supernaturalism or the + miraculous. The Chinese philosophy is as supernaturalistic as + some forms of Buddhism. The distinction is not between the + natural and the supernatural in either system, but between the + seen and the unseen." + + "The Chinese philosophy is as religious as the original teaching + of Gautama. Neither Shushi nor Gautama believed in a Creator, + but both believed in gods and demons.... It has little place for + prayer, but has a vivid sense of the Infinite and the Unseen, + and fervently believes that right conduct is in accord with the + 'eternal verities.'"--George William Knox. + + "In him is the yea."--Paul. + + +CHAPTER V - CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM + +Japan's Millennium of Simple Confucianism. + + +Having seen the practical working of the ethics of Confucianism, +especially in the old and simple system, let us now glance at the +developed and philosophical forms, which, by giving the educated man of +Japan a creed, made him break away from Buddhism and despise it, while +becoming often fanatically Confucian. + +For a thousand years (from 600 to 1600 A.D.) the Buddhist religious +teachers assisted in promulgating the ethics of Confucius; for during +all this time there was harmony between the various Buddhisms imported +from India, Tibet, China and Korea, and the simple undeveloped system of +Chinese Confucianism. Slight modifications were made by individual +teachers, and emphasis was laid upon this or that feature, while out of +the soil of Japanese feudalism were growths of certain virtues as phases +of loyalty, phenomenal beyond those in China. Nevertheless, during all +this time, the Japanese teachers of the Chinese ethic were as students +who did but recite what they learned. They simply transmitted, without +attempting to expand or improve. + +Though the apparatus of distribution was early known, block printing +having been borrowed from the Chinese after the ninth century, and +movable types learned from the Koreans and made use of in the sixteenth +century,[1] the Chinese classics were not printed as a body until after +the great peace of Genna (1615). Nor during this period were +translations made of the classics or commentaries, into the Japanese +vernacular. Indeed, between the tenth and sixteenth centuries there was +little direct intercourse, commercial, diplomatic or intellectual, +between Japan and China, as compared with the previous eras, or the +decades since 1870. + +Suddenly in the seventeenth century the intellect of Japan, all ready +for new surprises in the profound peace inaugurated by Iyeyas[)u], +received, as it were, an electric thrill. The great warrior, becoming +first a unifier by arms and statecraft, determined also to become the +architect of the national culture. Gathering up, from all parts of the +country, books, manuscripts, and the appliances of intellectual +discipline, he encouraged scholars and stimulated education. Under his +supervision the Chinese classics were printed, and were soon widely +circulated. A college was established in Yedo, and immediately there +began a critical study of the texts and principal commentaries. The fall +of the Ming dynasty in China, and the accession of the Manchiu Tartars, +became the signal for a great exodus of learned Chinese, who fled to +Japan. These received a warm welcome, both at the capital and in Yedo, +as well as in some of the castle towns of the Daimi[=o]s, among whom +stand illustrious those of the province of Mito.[2] + +These men from the west brought not only ethics but philosophy; and the +fertilizing influences of these scholars of the Dispersion, may be +likened to those of the exodus of the Greek learned men after the +capture of Constantinople by the Turks. Confucian schools were +established in most of the chief provincial cities. For over two hundred +years this discipline in the Chinese ethics, literature and history +constituted the education of the boys and men of Japan. Almost every +member of the Samurai classes was thoroughly drilled in this curriculum. +All Japanese social, official, intellectual and literary life was +permeated with the new spirit. Their "world" was that of the Chinese, +and all outside of it belonged to "barbarians." The matrices of thought +became so fixed and the Japanese language has been so moulded, that even +now, despite the intense and prolonged efforts of thirty years of acute +and laborious scholarship, it is impossible, as we have said, to find +English equivalents for terms which were used for a century or two past +in every-day Japanese speech. Those who know most about these facts, are +most modest in attempting with English words to do justice to Japanese +thought; while those who know the least seem to be most glib, fluent and +voluminous in showing to their own satisfaction, that there is little +difference between the ethics of Chinese Asia and those of Christendom. + + +Survey of the Intellectual History of China. + + +The Confucianism of the last quarter-millennium in Japan is not that of +her early centuries. While the Japanese for a thousand years only +repeated and recited--merely talking aloud in their intellectual sleep +but not reflecting--China was awake and thinking hard. Japan's continued +civil wars, which caused the almost total destruction of books and +manuscripts, secured also the triumph of Buddhism which meant the +atrophy of the national intellect. When, after the long feuds and +battles of the middle ages, Confucianism stepped the second time into +the Land of _Brave_ Scholars, it was no longer with the simple rules of +conduct and ceremonial of the ancient days, nor was it as the ally of +Buddhism. It came like an armed man in full panoply of harness and +weapons. It entered to drive Buddhism out, and to defend the intellect +of the educated against the wiles of priestcraft. It was a full-blown +system of pantheistic rationalism, with a scheme of philosophy that to +the far-Oriental mind seemed perfect as a rule both of faith and +practice. It came in a form that was received as religion, for it was +not only morality "touched" but infused with motion. Nor were the +emotions kindled, those of the partisan only, but rather also those of +the devotee and the martyr. Henceforth Buddhism, with its inventions, +its fables, and its endless dogmatism, was for the common people, for +women and children, but not for the Samurai. The new Confucianism came +to Japan as the system of Chu Hi. For three centuries this system had +already held sway over the intellect of China. For two centuries and a +half it has dominated the minds of the Samurai so that the majority of +them to-day, even with the new name Shizoku, are Confucianists so far as +they are anything. + +To understand the origin of Buddhism we must know something of the +history and the previous religious and philosophical systems of India, +and so, if we are to appreciate modern "orthodox" Confucianism, we must +review the history of China, and see, in outline, at least, its +literature, politics and philosophy during the middle ages. + +"Four great stages of literary and national development may be pointed +to as intervening (in the fifteen hundred years) between the great sage +and the age called that of the Sung-Ju,"[3] from the tenth to the +fourteenth century, in which the Confucian system received its modern +form. Each of them embraced the course of three or four centuries. + +I. From the sixth to the third century before Christ the struggle was +for Confucian and orthodox doctrine, led by Mencius against various +speculators in morals and politics, with Taoist doctrine continually +increasing in acceptance. + +II. The Han age (from B.C. 206 to A.D. 190) was rich in critical +expositors and commentators of the classics, but "the tone of +speculation was predominantly Taoist." + +III. The period of the Six Dynasties (from A.D. 221 to A.D. 618) was the +golden age of Buddhism, when the science and philosophy of India +enriched the Chinese mind, and the wealth of the country was lavished on +Buddhist temples and monasteries. The faith of Shaka became nearly +universal and the Buddhists led in philosophy and literature, founding a +native school of Indian philosophy. + +IV. The Tang period (from A.D. 618 to 905) marked by luxury and poetry, +was an age of mental inaction and enervating prosperity. + +V. The fifth epoch, beginning with the Sung Dynasty (from A.D. 960 to +1333) and lasting to our own time, was ushered in by a period of intense +mental energy. Strange to say (and most interesting is the fact to +Americans of this generation), the immediate occasion of the recension +and expansion of the old Confucianism was a Populist movement.[4] During +the Tang era of national prosperity, Chinese socialists questioned the +foundations of society and of government, and there grew up a new school +of interpreters as well as of politicians. In the tenth century the +contest between the old Confucianism and the new notions, broke out with +a violence that threatened anarchy to the whole empire. + +One set of politicians, led by Wang (1021-1086), urged an extension of +administrative functions, including agricultural loans, while the +brothers Cheng (1032-1085, 1033-1107) reaffirmed, with fresh +intellectual power, the old orthodoxy. + +The school of writers and party agitators, led by Szma Kwaug +(1009-1086)[5] the historian, contended that the ancient principles of +the sages should be put in force. Others, the Populists of that age and +land, demanded the entire overthrow of existing institutions. + +In the bitter contest which ensued, the Radicals and Reformers +temporarily won the day and held power. For a decade the experiment of +innovation was tried. Men turned things social and political upside down +to see how they looked in that position. So these stood or oscillated +for thirteen years, when the people demanded the old order again. The +Conservatives rose to power. There was no civil war, but the Radicals +were banished beyond the frontier, and the country returned to normal +government. + +This controversy raised a landmark in the intellectual history of +China.[6] The thoughts of men were turned toward deep and acute inquiry +into the nature and use of things in general. This thinking resulted in +a literature which to-day is the basis of the opinions of the educated +men in all Chinese Asia. Instead of a sapling we now have a mighty tree. +The chief of the Chinese writers, the Calvin of Asiatic orthodoxy, who +may be said to have wrought Confucianism into a developed philosophy, +and who may be called the greatest teacher of the mind, of modern China, +Korea and Japan, is Chu Hi, who reverently adopted the criticisms on the +Chinese classics of the brothers Cheng.[7] It is evident that in Chu +Hi's system, we have a body of thought which may be called the result of +Chinese reflection during a millennium and a half. It is the ethics of +Confucius transfused with the mystical elements of Taoism and the +speculations of Buddhism. As the common people of China made an amalgam +of the three religions and consider them one, so the philosophers have +out of these three systems made one, calling that one Confucianism. The +dominant philosophy in Japan to-day is based upon the writings of Chu Hi +(in Japanese, Shu Shi) and called the system of Tei-Shu, which is the +Japanese pronunciation of the names of the Cheng brothers and of Chu +(Hi). It is a medley which the ancient sage could no more recognize than +would Jesus know much of the Christianity that casts out devils in his +name. + + +Contrast between the Chinese and Japanese Intellect. + + +Here we must draw a contrast between the Chinese and Japanese intellect +to the credit of the former; China made, Japan borrowed. While history +shows that the Chinese mind, once at least, possessed mental initiative, +and the power of thinking out a system of philosophy which to-day +satisfies largely, if not wholly, the needs of the educated Chinaman, +there has been in the Japanese mind, as shown by its history, apparently +no such vigor or fruitfulness. From the literary and philosophical +points of view, Confucianism, as it entered Japan, in the sixth century, +remained practically stationary for a thousand years. Modifications, +indeed, were made upon the Chinese system, and these were striking and +profound, but they were less developments of the intellect than +necessities of the case. The modifications were made, as molten metal +poured into a mould shaped by other hands than the artist's own, rather +than as clay made plastic under the hand of a designer. Buddhism, being +the dominant force in the thoughts of the Japanese for at least eight +hundred years, furnished the food for the requirements of man on his +intellectual and religious side. + +Broadly speaking, it may be said that the Japanese, receiving passively +the Chinese classics, were content simply to copy and to recite what +they had learned. As compared with their audacity in not only going +beyond the teachings of Buddha, but in inventing systems of Buddhism +which neither Gautama nor his first disciples could recognize, the +docile and almost slavish adherence to ancient Confucianism is one of +the astonishing things in the history of religions in Japan. In the +field of Buddhism we have a luxuriant growth of new and strange species +of colossal weeds that overtower and seem to have choked out whatever +furze of original Buddhism there was in Japan, while in the domain of +Confucianism there is a barren heath. Whereas, in China, the voluminous +literature created by commentators on Confucius and the commentaries on +the commentators suggests the hyperbole used by the author of John's +Gospel,[8] yet there is probably nothing on Confucianism from the +Japanese pen in the thousand years under our review which is worth the +reading or the translation.[9] In this respect the Japanese genius +showed its vast capabilities of imitation, adoption and assimilation. + +As of old, Confucianism again furnished a Chinese wall, within which the +Japanese could move, and wherein they might find food for the mind in +all the relations of life and along all the lines of achievement +permitted them. The philosophy imported from China, as shown again and +again in that land of oft-changing dynasties, harmonizing with arbitrary +government, accorded perfectly with the despotism of the Tokugawas, the +"Tycoons" who in Yedo ruled from 1603 to 1868. Nothing new was +permitted, and any attempt at modification, enlargement, or improvement +was not only frowned and hissed down as impious innovation, but usually +brought upon the daring innovator the ban of the censor, imprisonment, +banishment, or death by enforced suicide.[10] In Yedo, the centre of +Chinese learning, and in other parts of the country, there were, indeed, +thinkers whose philosophy did not always tally with what was taught by +the orthodox,[11] but as a rule even when these men escaped the ban of +the censor, or the sword of the executioner, they were but us voices +crying in the wilderness. The great mass of the gentry was orthodox, +according to the standards of the Seido College, while the common people +remained faithful to Buddhism. In the conduct of daily life they +followed the precepts which had for centuries been taught them by their +fathers. + + +Philosophical Confucianism the Religion of the Samurai. + + +What were the features of this modern Confucian philosophy, which the +Japanese Samurai exalted to a religion?[12] We say philosophy and +religion, because while the teachings of the great sage lay at the +bottom of the system, yet it is not true since the early seventeenth +century, that the thinking men of Japan have been satisfied with only +the original simple ethical rules of the ancient master. Though they +have craved a richer mental pabulum, yet they have enjoyed less the +study of the original text, than acquaintance with the commentaries and +communion with the great philosophical exponents, of the master. What, +then, we ask, are the features of the developed philosophy, which, +imported from China, served the Japanese Samurai not only as morals but +for such religion as he possessed or professed? + +We answer: The system was not agnostic, as many modern and western +writers assert that it is, and as Confucius, transmitting and probably +modifying the old religion, had made the body of his teachings to be. +Agnostic, indeed, in regard to many things wherein a Christian has +faith, modern Confucianism, besides being bitterly polemic and hostile +to Buddhism, is pantheistic. + +Certain it is that during the revival of Pure Shint[=o] in the +eighteenth century, the scholars of the Shint[=o] school, and those of +its great rival, the Chinese, agreed in making loyalty[13] take the +place of filial duty in the Confucian system. To serve the cause of the +Emperor became the most essential duty to those with cultivated minds. +The newer Chinese philosophy mightily influenced the historians, Rai +Sanyo and those of the Mito school, whose works, now classic, really +began the revolution of 1868. By forming and setting in motion the +public opinion, which finally overthrew the Sh[=o]gun and feudalism, +restored the Emperor to supreme power, and unified the nation, they +helped, with modern ideas, to make the New Japan of our day. The +Shint[=o] and the Chinese teachings became amalgamated in a common +cause, and thus the philosophy of Chu Hi, mingling with the nationalism +and patriotism inculcated by Shint[=o], brought about a remarkable +result. As a native scholar and philosopher observes, "It certainly is +strange to see the Tokugawa rule much shaken, if not actually +overthrown, by that doctrine which generations of able Sh[=o]guns and +their ministers had earnestly encouraged and protected. It is perhaps +still more remarkable to see the Mito clan, under many able and active +chiefs, become the centre of the Kinno[14] movement, which was to result +in the overthrow of the Tokugawa family, of which it was itself a +branch." + + +A Medley of Pantheism. + + +The philosophy of modern Confucianism is wholly pantheistic. There is in +it no such thing or being as God. The orthodox pantheism of Old Japan +means that everything in general is god, but nothing in particular is +God; that All is god, but not that God is all. It is a "pantheistic +medley."[15] + +Chu Hi and his Japanese successors, especially Ky[=u]-so, argue finely +and discourse volubly about _Ki_[16] or spirit; but it is not Spirit, or +spiritual in the sense of Him who taught even a woman at the well-curb +at Sychar. It is in the air. It is in the earth, the trees, the flowers. +It comes to consciousness in man. His _Ri_ is the Tao of Lao Tsze, the +Way, Reason, Law. It is formless, invisible. + + "Ri is not separate from Ki, for then it were an empty abstract + thing. It is joined to Ki, and may be called, by nature, one + decreed, changeless Norm. It is the rule of Ki, the very centre, + the reason why Ki is Ki." + +Ten or Heaven is not God or the abode of God, but an abstraction, a sort +of Unknowable, or Primordial Necessity. + + "The doctrine of the Sages knows and worships Heaven, and + without faith in it there is no truth. For men and things, the + universe, are born and nourished by Heaven, and the 'Way,' the + 'ri,' that is in all, is the 'Way,' the 'ri' of Heaven. + Distinguishing root and branch, the heart is the root of Heaven + and the appearance, the revolution of the sun and moon, the + order of the stars, is the branch. The books of the sages teach + us to conform to the heart of Heaven and deal not with + appearances." + + "The teaching of the sages is the original truth and, given to + men, it forms both their nature and their relationships. With it + complete, naught else is needed for the perfect following of the + 'Way.' Let then the child make its parents Heaven, the retainer, + his Lord, the wife her husband, and let each give up life for + righteousness. Thus will each serve for Heaven. But if we exalt + Heaven above parent or Lord, we shall come to think we can serve + it though they be disobeyed and like tiger or wolf shall rejoice + to kill them. To such fearful end does the Western learning + lead.... Let each one die for duty, there is naught else we can + do." + +Thus wrote Ohashi Junzo, as late as 1857 A.D., the same year in which +Townsend Harris entered Yedo to teach the practical philosophy of +Christendom, and the brotherhood of man as expressed in diplomacy. +Ohashi Junzo bitterly opposed the opening of Japan to modern +civilization and the ideas of Christendom. His book was the swan-song of +the dying Japanese Confucianism. Slow as is the dying, and hard as its +death may be, the mind of new Japan has laid away to dust and oblivion +the Tei-shu philosophy. "At present they (the Chinese classics) have +fallen into almost total neglect, though phrases and allusions borrowed +from them still pass current in literature, and even to some extent in +the language of every-day life." Seido, the great temple of Confucius in +Tokyo, is now utilized as an educational Museum.[17] + +A study of this subject and of comparative religion, is of immediate +practical benefit to the Christian teacher. The preacher, addressing an +audience made up of educated Japanese, who speaks of God without +describing his personality, character, or attributes as illustrated in +Revelation, will find that his hearers receive his term as the +expression for a bundle of abstract principles, or a system of laws, or +some kind of regulated force. They do, indeed, make some reference to a +"creator" by using a rare word. Occasionally, their language seems to +touch the boundary line on the other side of which is conscious +intelligence, but nothing approaching the clearness and definiteness of +the early Chinese monotheism of the pre-Confucian classics is to be +distinguished.[18] The modern Japanese long ago heard joyfully the +words, "Honor the gods, but keep them far from you," and he has done it. + +To love God would no more occur to a Japanese gentleman than to have his +child embrace and kiss him. Whether the source and fountain of life of +which they speak has any Divine Spirit, is very uncertain, but whether +it has, or has not, man need not obey, much less worship him. The +universe is one, the essence is the same. Man must seek to know his +place in the universe; he is but one in an endless chain; let him find +his part and fulfil that part; all else is vanity. One need not inquire +into the origins or the ultimates. Man is moved by a power greater than +himself; he has no real independence of his own; everything has its rank +and place; indeed, its rank and place is its sole title to a separate +existence. If a man mistakes his place he is a fool, he deserves +punishment. + + +The Ideals of a Samurai. + + +Out of his place, man is not man. Duty is more important than being. +Nearly everything in our life is fixed by fate; there may seem to be +exceptions, because some wicked men are prosperous and some righteous +men are wretched, but these are not real exceptions to the general rule +that we are made for our environment and fitted to it. And then, again, +it may be that our judgments are not correct. Let the heart be right and +all is well. Let man be obedient and his outward circumstance is +nothing, having no relation to his joy or happiness. Even when as to his +earthly body man passes away, he is not destroyed; the drop again +becomes part of the sea, the spark re-enters the flame, and his life +continues, though it be not a conscious life. In this way man is in +harmony with the original principle of all things. He outlasts the +universe itself. + +Hence to a conscientious Samurai there is nothing in this world better +than obedience, in the ideal of a true man. What he fears most and hates +most is that his memory may perish, that he shall have no seed, that he +shall be forgotten or die under a cloud and be thought treacherous or +cowardly or base, when in reality his life was pure and his motives +high. "Better," sang Yoshida Shoin, the dying martyr for his principles, +"to be a crystal and to be broken, than to be a tile upon the housetop +and remain." + +So, indeed, on a hundred curtained execution grounds, with the dirk of +the suicide firmly grasped and about to shed their own life-blood, have +sung the martyrs who died willingly for their faith in their idea of +Yamato Damashii.[19] In untold instances in the national history, men +have died willingly and cheerfully, and women also by thousands, as +brave, as unflinching as the men, so that the story of Japanese chivalry +is almost incredible in its awful suicides. History reveals a state of +society in which cool determination, desperate courage and fearlessness +of death in the face of duty were quite unique, and which must have had +their base in some powerful though abnormal code of ethics. + +This leads us to consider again the things emphasized by Japanese as +distinct from Chinese and Korean[20] Confucianism, and to call attention +to its fruits, while at the same time we note its defects, and show +wherein it failed. We shall then show how this old system has already +waxed old and is passing away. Christ has come to Japan, and behold a +new heaven and a new earth! + + +New Japan Makes Revision. + + +First. For sovereign and minister, there are coming into vogue new +interpretations. This relation, if it is to remain as the first, will +become that of the ruler and the ruled. Constitutional government has +begun; and codes of law have been framed which are recognizing the +rights of the individual and of the people. Even a woman has rights +before the law, in relation to husband, parents, brothers, sisters and +children. It is even beginning to be thought that children have rights. +Let us hope that as the rights are better understood the duties will be +equally clear. + +It is coming to pass in Japan that even in government, the sovereign +must consult with his people on all questions pertaining to their +welfare. Although, thus far the constitutional government makes the +ministers responsible to the Sovereign instead of to the Diet, yet the +contention of the enlightened men and the liberal parties is, that the +ministers shall be responsible to the Diet. The time seems at hand when +the sovereign's power over his people will not rest on traditions more +or less uncertain, on history manufactured by governmental order, on +mythological claims based upon the so-called "eternal ages," on +prerogatives upheld by the sword, or on the supposed grace of the gods, +but will be "broad-based upon the people's will." The power of the +rulers will be derived from the consent of the governed. The Emperor +will become the first and chief servant of the nation. + +Revision and improvement of the Second Relation will make filial piety +something more real than that unto which China has attained, or Japan +has yet seen, or which is yet universally known in Christendom. The +tyranny of the father and of the older brother, and the sale of +daughters to shame, will pass away; and there will arise in the Japanese +house, the Christian home. + +It would be hard to say what Confucianism has done for woman. It is +probable that all civilizations, and systems of philosophy, ethics and +religion, can be well tested by this criterion--the position of woman. +Confucianism virtually admits two standards of morality, one for man, +another for woman.[21] In Chinese Asia adultery is indeed branded as one +of the vilest of crimes, but in common idea and parlance it is a woman's +crime, not man's. So, on the other hand, chastity is a female virtue, it +is part of womanly duty, it has little or no relation to man personally. +Right revision and improvement of the Third Relation will abolish +concubinage. It will reform divorce. It will make love the basis of +marriage. It will change the state of things truthfully pictured in such +books as the Genji Monogatari, or Romance of Prince Genji, with its +examples of horrible lust and incests; the Kojiki or Ethnic scripture, +with its naive accounts of filthiness among the gods; the Onna Dai Gaku, +Woman's Great Study, with its amazing subordination and moral slavery of +wife and daughter; and The Japanese Bride, of yesterday--all truthful +pictures of Japanese life, for the epoch in which each was written. +These books will become the forgotten curiosities of literature, known +only to the archaeologist. + +Improvement and revision of the Fourth Relation, will bring into the +Japanese home more justice, righteousness, love and enjoyment of life. +It will make possible, also, the cheerful acceptance and glad practice +of those codes of law common in Christendom, which are based upon the +rights of the individual and upon the idea of the greatest good to the +greatest number. It will help to abolish the evils which come from +primogeniture and to release the clutch of the dead hand upon the +living. It will decrease the power of the graveyard, and make thought +and care for the living the rule of life. It will abolish sham and +fiction, and promote the cause of truth. It will hasten the reign of +righteousness and love, and beneath propriety and etiquette lay the +basis of "charity toward all, malice toward none." + +Revision with improvement of the Fifth Relation hastens the reign of +universal brotherhood. It lifts up the fallen, the down-trodden and the +outcast. It says to the slave "be free," and after having said "be +free," educates, trains, and lifts up the brother once in servitude, and +helps him to forget his old estate and to know his rights as well as his +duties, and develops in him the image of God. It says to the hinin or +not-human, "be a man, be a citizen, accept the protection of the law." +It says to the eta, "come into humanity and society, receive the +protection of law, and the welcome of your fellows; let memory forget +the past and charity make a new future." It will bring Japan into the +fraternity of nations, making her people one with the peoples of +Christendom, not through the empty forms of diplomacy, or by the craft +of her envoys, or by the power of her armies and navies reconstructed on +modern principles, but by patient education and unflinching loyalty to +high ideals. Thus will Japan become worthy of all the honors, which the +highest humanity on this planet can bestow. + + +The Ideal of Yamato Damashii Enlarged. + + +In this our time it is not only the alien from Christendom, with his +hostile eye and mordant criticism, who is helping to undermine that +system of ethics which permitted the sale of the daughter to shame, the +introduction of the concubine into the family and the reduction of +woman, even though wife and mother, to nearly a cipher. It is not only +the foreigner who assaults that philosophy which glorified the vendetta, +kept alive private war, made revenge in murder the sweetest joy of the +Samurai and suicide the gate to honor and fame, subordinated the family +to the house, and suppressed individuality and personality. It is the +native Japanese, no longer a hermit, a "frog in the well, that knows not +the great ocean" but a student, an inquirer, and a critic, who assaults +the old ethical and philosophical system, and calls for a new way +between heaven and earth, and a new kind of Heaven in which shall be a +Creator, a Father and a Saviour. The brain and pen of New Japan, as well +as its heart, demand that the family shall be more than the house and +that the living members shall have greater rights as well as duties, +than the dead ancestors. They claim that the wife shall share +responsibility with the husband, and that the relation of husband and +wife shall take precedence of that of the father and son; that the +mother shall possess equal authority with the father; that the wife, +whether she be mother or not, shall not be compelled to share her home +with the concubine; and that the child in Japan shall be born in the +home and not in the herd. The sudden introduction of the Christian ideas +of personality and individuality has undoubtedly wrought peril to the +framework of a society which is built according to the Confucian +principles; but faith in God, love in the home, and absolute equality +before the law will bring about a reign of righteousness such as Japan +has never known, but toward the realization of which Christian nations +are ever advancing. + +Even the old ideal of the Samurai embodied in the formula Yamato +Damashii will be enlarged and improved from its narrow limits and +ferocious aspects, when the tap-root of all progress is allowed to +strike into deeper truth, and the Sixth Relation, or rather the first +relation of all, is taught, namely, that of God to Man, and of Man to +God. That this relation is understood, and that the Samurai ideal, +purified and enlarged, is held by increasing numbers of Japan's +brightest men and noblest women, is shown in that superb Christian +literature which pours from the pens of the native men and women in the +Japanese Christian churches. Under this flood of truth the old obstacles +to a nobler society are washed away, while out of the enriched soil +rises the new Japan which is to be a part of the better Christendom that +is to come. Christ in Japan, as everywhere, means not destruction, but +fulfilment. + + + + +CHAPTER VI - THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA + + "Life is a dream is what the pilgrim learns, + Nor asks for more, but straightway home returns." + --Japanese medieval lyric drama. + + "The purpose of Buddha's preaching was to bring into light the + permanent truth, to reveal the root of all suffering and thus to + lead all sentient beings into the perfect emancipation from all + passions."--Outlines of the Mahayana. + + "Buddhism will stand forth as the embodiment of the eternal + verity that as a man sows he will reap, associated with the + duties of mastery over self and kindness to all men, and + quickened into a popular religion by the example of a noble and + beautiful life."--Dharmapala of Ceylon. + + "Buddhism teaches the right path of cause and effect, and + nothing which can supersede the idea of cause and effect will be + accepted and believed. Buddha himself cannot contradict this law + which is the Buddha, of Buddhas, and no omnipotent power except + this law is believed to be existent in the universe. + + "Buddhism does not quarrel with other religions about the truth + ... Buddhism is truth common to every religion regardless of the + outside garment."--Horin Toki, of Japan. + + "Death we can face; but knowing, as some of us do, what is human + life, which of us is it that without shuddering could (if we + were summoned) face the hour of birth?" -De Quinccy. + + The prayer of Buddhism, "Deliver us from existence." + The prayer of the Christian, "Deliver us from evil." + + "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the + earth."--Genesis. + + "I am come that they might have life and that they might have it + more abundantly."--Jesus. + + +CHAPTER VI - THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA + +Pre-Buddhistic India. + + +Does the name of Gautama, the Buddha, stand for a sun-myth or for a +historic personage? One set of scholars and writers, represented by +Professor Kern,[1] of Leyden, thinks the Buddha a mythical personage. +Another school, represented by Professor T. Rhys Davids,[2] declares +that he lived in human flesh and breathed the air of earth. We accept +the historical view as best explaining the facts. + +In order to understand a religion, in its origin at least, we must know +some of the conditions out of which it arose. Buddhism is one of the +protestantisms of the world. Yet, is not every religion, in one sense, +protestant? Is it not a protest against something to which it opposes a +difference? Every new religion, like a growing plant, ignores or rejects +certain elements in the soil out of which it springs. It takes up and +assimilates, also, other elements not used before, in order to produce a +flower or fruit different from other growths out of the same soil. Yet +whether the new religion be considered as a development, fulfilment, or +protest, we must know its historical perspective or background. To +understand the origin of Buddhism, one of the best preparations is to +read the history of India and especially of the thought of her many +generations; for the landmarks of the civilizations of India, as a Hindu +may proudly say, are its mighty literatures. At these let us glance.[3] + +The age of the Vedas extends from the year 2000 to 1400 B.C., and the +history of this early India is wonderfully like that of America. During +this era, the Hindus, one of the seven Aryan tribes of which the +Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Sclav and Teutonic form the other six, +descending from the mid-Asian plateau, settled the Punjab in Northwest +India. They drove the dark-skinned aborigines before them and reclaimed +forest and swamp to civilization, making the land of the seven rivers +bright with agriculture and brilliant with cities. This was the glorious +heroic age of joyous life and conquest, when men who believed in a +Heavenly Father[4] made the first epoch of Hindu history. + +Then followed the epic age, 1400-1000 B.C., when the area of +civilization was extended still farther down the Ganges Valley, the +splendor of wealth, learning, military prowess and social life excelling +that of the ancestral seats in the Punjab. Amid differences of wars and +diplomacy with rivalries and jealousies, a common sacred language, +literature and religion with similar social and religious institutions, +united the various nations together. In this time the old Vedas were +compiled into bodies or collections, and the Brahmanas and the +Upanishads, besides the great epic poems, the Mahabharata and the +Ramayana were composed. + +The next, or rationalistic epoch, covers the period from 1000 B.C. to +320 B.C., when the Hindu expansion had covered all India, that is, the +peninsula from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. Then, all India, including +Ceylon, was Hinduized, though in differing degrees; the purest Aryan +civilization being in the north, the less pure in the Ganges Valley and +south and east, while the least Aryan and more Dravidian was in Bengal, +Orissa, and India south of the Kistna River. + +This story of the spread of Hindu civilization is a brilliant one, and +seems as wonderful as the later European conquest of the land, and of +the other "Indians" of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. +Beside the conquests in material civilization of these our fellow-Aryans +(who were the real Indians, and who spoke the language which is the +common ancestor of our own and of most European tongues), what impresses +us most of all, in these Aryans, is their intellectual energy. The +Hindus of the rationalistic age made original discoveries. They invented +grammar, geometry, arithmetic, decimal notation, and they elaborated +astronomy, medicine, mental philosophy and logic (with syllogism) before +these sciences were known or perfected in Greece. In the seventh century +before Christ, Kapila taught a system of philosophy, of which that of +the Europeans, Schopenhaur and Hartmann, seems largely a reproduction. + +Following this agnostic scheme of thought, came, several centuries +later, the dualistic Yoga[5] system in which the chief feature is the +conception of Deity as a means of final emancipation of the human soul +from further transmigration, and of union with the Universal Spirit or +World Soul. There is, however, perhaps no sadder chapter in the history +of human thought than the story of the later degeneration of the Yoga +system into one of bloody and cruel rites in India, and of superstition +in China. + +Still other systems followed: one by Gautama, of the same clan or family +of the later Buddha, who develops inference by the construction of +syllogism; while Kanada follows the atomic philosophy in which the atoms +are eternal, but the aggregates perishable by disintegration. + +Against these schools, which seemed to be dangerous "new departures," +orthodox Hindus, anxious for their ancient beliefs and practices as laid +down in the Vedas, started fresh systems of philosophy, avowedly more in +consonances with their ancestral faith. One system insisted on the +primitive Vedic ritual, and another laid emphasis on the belief in a +Universal Soul first inculcated in the Upanishads. + + +Conditions out of which Buddhism Arose. + + +Whatever we may think of these schools of philosophy, or the connection +with or indebtedness of Gautama, the Buddha, to them, they reveal to us +the conceptions which his contemporaries had of the universe and the +beings inhabiting it. These were honest human attempts to find God. In +them the various beings or six conditions of sentient existence are +devas or gods; men; asuras or monsters; pretas or demons; animals; and +beings in hell. Furthermore, these schools of Hindu philosophy show us +the conditions out of which Buddhism arose, furnish us with its +terminology and technical phrases, reveal to us what the reformer +proposed to himself to do, and, what is perhaps still more important, +show us the types to which Buddhism in its degeneration and degradation +reverted. The strange far-off oriental words which today scholars +discuss, theosophists manipulate, and charlatans employ as catchpennies +were common words in the every-day speech of the Hindu people, two or +three thousand years ago. + +Glancing rapidly at the condition of religion in the era ushering in the +birth of Buddha, we note that the old joyousness of life manifested in +the Vedic hymns is past, their fervor and glow are gone. In the morning +of Hindu life there was no caste, no fixed priesthood, and no idols; but +as wealth, civilization, easy and settled life succeeded, the taste for +pompous sacrifices conducted by an hereditary priestly caste increased. +Greater importance was laid upon the detail of the ceremonies, the +attention of the worshipper being turned from the deities "to the +minutiae of rites, the erection of altars, the fixing of the proper +astronomical moments for lighting the fire, the correct pronunciation of +prayers, and to the various requisite acts accompanying a sacrifice."[6] +In the chapter of decay which time wrote and literature reflects, we +find "grotesque reasons given for every minute rite, dogmatic +explanation of texts, penances for every breach of form and rule, and +elaborate directions for every act and moment of the worshipper." + +The literature shows a degree of credulity and submission on the part of +the people and of absolute power on the part of the priests, which +reminds us of the Middle Ages in Europe. The old inspiring wars with the +aborigines are over. The time of bearing a noble creed, meaning culture +and civilization as against savagery and idolatry, is past, and only +intestine quarrels and local strife have succeeded. The age of creative +literature is over, and commentators, critics and grammarians have +succeeded. Still more startling are the facts disclosed by literary +history. The liquid poetry has become frozen prose; the old flaming fuel +of genius is now slag and ashes. We see Hindus doing exactly what Jewish +rabbis, and after them Christian schoolmen and dogma-makers, did with +the old Hebrew poems and prophecies. Construing literally the prayers, +songs and hopes of an earlier age, they rebuild the letter of the text +into creeds and systems, and erect an amazing edifice of steel-framed +and stone-cased tradition, to challenge which is taught to be heresy and +impiety. The poetical similes used in the Rig Vedas have been +transformed into mythological tales. In the change of language the Vedas +themselves are unreadable, except by the priests, who fatten on popular +beliefs in the transmigration of souls and in the power of priestcraft +to make that transmigration blissful--provided liberal gifts are duly +forthcoming. Idolatry and witchcraft are rampant. Some saviour, some +light was needed. + + +Buddhism a Logical Product of Hindu Thought. + + +At such a time, probably 557 B.C., was born Shaka, of the Muni clan, at +Kapilavastu, one hundred miles northeast of Benares. We pass over the +details[7] of the life of him called Prince, Lord, Lion of the Tribe of +Shaka, and Saviour; of his desertion of wife and child, called the first +Great Renunciation; of his struggles to obtain peace; of his +enlightenment or Buddhahood; of his second or Greater Renunciation; of +merit on account of austerities; and give the story told in a mountain +of books in various tongues, but condensed in a paragraph by Romesh +Chunder Dutt. + + "At an early age, Prince Gautama left his royal home, and his + wife, and new-born child, and became a wanderer and a mendicant, + to seek a way of salvation for man. Hindu rites, accompanied by + the slaughter of innocent victims, repelled his feelings. Hindu + philosophy afforded him no remedy, and Hindu penances and + mortifications proved unavailing after he had practised them for + years. At last, by severe contemplation, he discovered the long + coveted truth; a holy and calm life, and benevolence and love + toward all living creatures seemed to him the essence of + religion. Self-culture and universal love--this was his + discovery--this is the essence of Buddhism."[8] + +From one point of view Buddhism was the logical continuance of Aryan +Hindoo philosophy; from another point of view it was a new departure. +The leading idea in the Upanishads is that the object of the wise man +should be to know, inwardly and consciously, the Great Soul of all; and +by this knowledge his individual soul would become united to the Supreme +Being, the true and absolute self. This was the highest point reached in +the old Indian philosophy[9] before Buddha was born. + +So, looking at Buddhism in the perspective of Hindu history and thought, +we may say that it is doubtful whether Gautama intended to found a new +religion. As, humanly speaking, Saul of Tarsus saved Christianity from +being a Jewish sect and made it universal, so Gautama extricated the new +enthusiasm of humanity from the priests. He made Aryan religion the +property of all India. What had been a rare monopoly as narrow as +Judaism, he made the inheritance of all Asia. Gautama was a protestant +and a reformer, not an agnostic or skeptic. It is more probable that he +meant to shake off Brahmanism and to restore the pure and original form +of the Aryan religion of the Vedas, as far as it was possible to do so. +In one sense, Buddhism was a revolt against hereditary and sacerdotal +privilege--an attack of the people against priestcraft. The Buddha and +his disciples were levellers. In a different age and clime, but along a +similar path, they did a work analogous to that of the so-called +Anabaptists in Europe and Independents in England, centuries later. + +It is certain, however, that Buddhism has grown logically out of ancient +Hinduism. In its monastic feature--one of its most striking +characteristics--we see only the concentration and reduction to system, +of the old life of the ascetics and religious mendicants recognized and +respected by Hinduism. For centuries the Buddhist monks and nuns were +regarded in India as only a new sect of ascetics, among many others +which flourished in the land. + +The Buddhist doctrine of karma, or in Japanese, _ingwa_, of cause and +effect, whereby it is taught that each effect in this life springs from +a cause in some previous incarnation, and that each act in this life +bears its fruit in the next, has grown directly out of the Hindu idea of +the transmigration of souls. This idea is first inculcated in the +Upanishads, and is recognized in Hindu systems of philosophy. + +So also the Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana, or the attainment of a sinless +state of existence, has grown out of the idea of final union of the +individual soul with the Universal Soul, which is also inculcated in the +Upanishads. Yet, as we shall see, the Buddhists were, in the eyes of the +Brahmans, atheists, because in the ken of these new levellers gods and +men were put on the same plane. Brahmanism has never forgiven Buddhism +for ignoring the gods, and the Hindoos finally drove out the followers +of Gautama from India. It eventuated that after a millenium or so of +Buddhism in India, the old gods, Brahma, Indra, etc., which at first had +been shut out from the ken of the people, by Gautama, found their places +again in the popular faith of the Buddhists, who believed that the gods +as well as men, were all progressing toward the blessed Nirvana--that +sinless life and holy calm, which is the Buddhist's heaven and +salvation. + +It is certainly very curious, and in a sense amusing, to find +flourishing in far-off Japan the old gods of India, that one would +suppose to have been utterly dead and left behind in oblivion. As +acknowledged devas or kings and bodhisattvas or soon-to-be Buddhas, not +a few once defunct Hindu gods, utterly unknown to early Buddhism, have +forced their way into the company of the elect. Though most of them have +not gained the popularity of the indigenous deities of Nippon, they yet +attract many worshippers. They remind one that amid the coming of the +sons of Elohim before Jehovah, "the satan" came also.[10] + +From another point of view Buddhism was a new religion; for it swept +away and out of the field of its vision the whole of the World or +Universal Soul theory. "It proclaimed a salvation which each man could +gain for himself and by himself, in this world during this life, without +the least reference to God, or to gods, either great or small." "It +placed the first importance on knowledge; but it was no longer a +knowledge of God, it was a clear perception of the real nature as they +supposed it to be of men and things." In a word, Gautama never reached +the idea of a personal self-existent God, though toward that truth he +groped. He was satisfied too soon.[11] His followers were even more +easily satisfied with abstractions. When Gautama saw the power over the +human heart of inward culture and of love to others, he obtained peace, +he rested on certainty, he became the Buddha, that is, the enlightened. +Perhaps he was not the first Buddhist. It may be that the historical +Gautama, if so he is worthy to be called, merely made the sect or the +new religion famous. Hardly a religion in the full sense of the word, +Buddhism did not assume the role of theology, but sought only to know +men and things. In one sense Buddhism is atheism, or rather, atheistic +humanism. In one sense, also, the solution of the mystery of God, of +life, and of the universe, which Gautama and his followers attained, was +one of skepticism rather than of faith. Buddhism is, relatively, a very +modern religion; it is one of the new faiths. Is it paradoxical to say +that the Buddhists are "religious atheists?" + + +The Buddhist Millennium in India. + + +Let us now look at the life of the Founder. Day after day, the +pure-souled teacher attracted new disciples while he with alms-bowl went +around as mendicant and teacher. Salvation merely by self-control, and +love without any rites, ceremonies, charms, priestly powers, gods or +miracles, formed the burden of his teachings. "Thousands of people left +their homes, embraced the holy order and became monks, ignoring caste, +and relinquishing all worldly goods except the bare necessaries of life, +which they possessed and enjoyed in common." Probably the first monastic +_system_ of the world, was that of the Indian Buddhists. + +The Buddha preached the good news during forty-five years. After his +death, five hundred of his followers assembled at Rajagriha and chanted +together the teachings of Gautama, to fix them in memory. A hundred +years later, in 377 B.C., came the great schism among the Buddhists, out +of which grew the divisions known as Northern and Southern Buddhism. +There was disagreement on ten points. A second council was therefore +called, and the disputed points determined to the satisfaction of one +side. Thereupon the seceders went away in large numbers, and the +differences were never healed; on the contrary, they have widened in the +course of ages. + +The separatists began what may be called the Northern Buddhisms of +Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan. The orthodox or Southern Buddhists +are those of Ceylon, Burma and Siam. The original canon of Southern +Buddhism is in Pali; that of Northern Buddhism is in Sanskrit. The one +is comparatively small and simple; the other amazingly varied and +voluminous. The canon of Southern scripture is called the Hinayana, the +Little or Smaller Vehicle; the canon of Northern Buddhism is named the +Mahayana or Great Vehicle. Possibly, also, besides the Southern and +Northern Buddhisms, the Buddhism of Japan may be treated by itself and +named Eastern Buddhism. + +In the great council called in 242 B.C., by King Asoka, who may be +termed the Constantine of Buddhism, the sacred texts were again chanted. +It was not until the year 88 B.C. in Ceylon, six hundred years after +Gautama, that the three Pitakas, Boxes or Baskets, were committed to +writing in the Pali language. In a word, Buddhism knows nothing of +sacred documents or a canon of scripture contemporary with its first +disciples. + +The splendid Buddhist age of India lasted nearly a thousand years, and +was one of superb triumphs in civilization. It was an age of spiritual +emancipation, of freedom from idol worship, of nobler humanity and of +peace.[12] It was followed by the Puranic epoch and the dark ages. Then +Buddhism was, as some say, "driven out" from the land of its birth, +finding new expansion in Eastern and Northern Asia, and again, a still +more surprising development in the ultima-Thule of the Asiatic +continent, Japan. There is now no Buddhism in India proper, the faith +being represented only in Ceylon and possibly also on the main land, by +the sect of the Jains, and peradventure in Persia by Babism which +contains elements from three religions.[13] Like Christianity, Buddhism +was "driven out" of its old home to bless other nations of the world. It +is probably far nearer the truth to say that Buddhism was never expelled +from India, but rather that it died by disintegration and relapse.[14] +It had become Brahmanism again. The old gods and the old idol-worship +came back. It is in Japan that the ends of the earth, eastern and +western civilization, and the freest and fullest or at least the latest +developments of Christianity and of Buddhism, have met. + +In its transfer to distant lands and its developments throughout Eastern +Asia, the faith which had originated in India suffered many changes. +Dividing into two great branches, it became a notably different religion +according as it moved along the southern, the northern, or the eastern +channel. By the vehicle of the Pali language it was carried to Ceylon, +Siam, Burma, Cambodia and the islands of the south; that is, to southern +or peninsular and insular Asia. Here there is little evidence of any +striking departure from the doctrines of the Pali Pitakas; and, as +Southern Buddhism does not greatly concern us in speaking of the +religions of Japan, we may pass it by. For although the books and +writings belonging to Southern Buddhism, and comprehended under the +formula of the Hinayana or Smaller Vehicle, have been studied in China, +Korea and Japan, yet they have had comparatively little influence upon +doctrinal, ritualistic, or missionary development in Chinese Asia. + +Astonishingly different has been the case with the Northern Buddhisms +which are those of Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, China, Korea and +Japan. As luxuriant as the evolutions of political and dogmatic +Christianity and as radical in their departures from the primitive +simplicity of the faith, have been these forms of Buddhist doctrine, +ritual and organization. We cannot now dwell upon the wonderful details +of the vast and complicated system, differing so much in various +countries. We pass by, or only glance at, the philosophy of the Punjaub; +the metaphysics of Nepal--with its developments into what some writers +consider to be a close approach to monotheism, and others, indeed, +monotheism itself; the system of Lamaism in Tibet, which has paralleled +so closely the development of the papal hierarchy; the possibly two +thousand years' growth and decay of Chinese Buddhism; the varieties of +the Buddhism of Mongolia--almost swamped in the Shamanistic +superstitions of these dwellers on the plains; the astonishing success, +quick ripening, decay, and almost utter annihilation, among the learned +and governing classes, of Korean Buddhism;[15] and study in detail only +Eastern or Japanese Buddhism. + +We shall in this lecture attempt but two things: + +I. A summary of the process of thought by which the chief features of +the Northern Buddhisms came into view. + +II. An outline of the story of Japanese Buddhism during the first three +centuries of its existence. + + +The Development of Northern Buddhism + + +Leaving the early Buddha legends and the solid ground of history, the +makers of the newer Buddhist doctrines in Nepal occupied themselves with +developing the theory of Buddhahood and of the Buddhas;[16] for we must +ever remember that Buddha[17] is not a proper name, but a common +adjective meaning enlightened, from the root to know, perceive, etc. +They made constant and marvellous additions to the primitive doctrine, +giving it a momentum which gathered force as the centuries went on; and, +as propaganda, it moved against the sun. + +This development theory ran along the line of _personification_. Not +being satisfied with "the wheel of the law," it personified both the hub +and the spokes. It began with the spirit of kindness out of which all +human virtues rise, and by the power of which the Buddhist organization +will conquer all sin and unbelief and become victorious throughout the +world. This personification is called the Maitreya Buddha, the +unconquerable one, or the future Buddha of benevolence, the Buddha who +is yet to come. Here was a tremendous and revolutionary movement in the +new faith, the beginning of a long process. It was as though the +Christians had taken the particular attributes, justice, mercy, etc., of +God and, after personifying each one, deified it, thus multiplying gods. + +What was the soil for the new sowing, and what was the harvest to be +reaped in due time? + +With many thousands of India Buddhists whose minds were already steeped +in Brahministic philosophy and mythology, who were more given to +speculation and dreaming than to self-control and moral culture, and who +mourned for the dead gods of Hinduism, the soil was already prepared for +a growth wholly abnormal to true Buddhism, but altogether in keeping +with the older Brahministic philosophies from which these dreamers had +been but partially converted to Buddhism.[18] + +The seed is found in the doctrine which already forms part of the system +of the Little Vehicle, when it tells of the personal Buddhas and the +Buddhas elect, or future Buddhas. In the Jataka stories, or Birth tales, +"the Buddha elect" is the title given to each of the beings, man, angel, +or animal, who is held to be a Bodhisattva, or the future Buddha in one +of his former births. The title Bodhisattva[19] is the name given to a +being whose Karma will produce other beings in a continually ascending +scale of goodness until it becomes vested in a Buddha. Or, in the more +common use of the word, a Bodhisattva (Japanese bosatsu) is a being +whose essence has become intelligence, and who will have to pass through +human existence once more only before entering Nirvana. + +In Southern Buddhist temples, the pure white image of Maitreya is +sometimes found beside the idol representing Gautama or the historical +Buddha. While in Southern Buddhism the idea of this possibility of +development seems to have been little seized upon and followed up, in +Northern Buddhism as early as 400 A.D. the worship of two Buddhas elect +named Manjusri and Avalokitesvara, or personified Wisdom and Power, had +already become general. Manjusri,[20] the Great Being or "Prince Royal," +is the personification of wisdom, and especially of the mystic religious +insight which has produced the Great Vehicle or canon of Northern +Buddhism; or, as a Japanese author says, the third collection of the +Tripitaka was that made by Manjusri and Maitreya. Avalokitesvara,[21] +the Lord of View or All-sided One, is the personification of power, the +merciful protector and preserver of the world and of men. Both are +frequently and voluminously mentioned in the Saddharma Pundarika,[22] in +which the good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric, and of which we +shall have occasion frequently to speak. Manjusri is the mythical author +of this influential work,[23] the twenty-fourth chapter being devoted to +a glorification of the character, the power, and the advantages to be +derived from the worship of Avalokitesvara. + + +The Creation of Gods. + + +Possibly the name of Manjusri may be derived from that of the Indian +mendicant, the traditional introducer of Buddhism and its accompanying +civilization into Nepal. The Tibetans identify him with the minister of +a great King Strongstun, who lived in the seventh century of our era and +who was the great patron of Buddhism into Tibet. He is the founder of +that school of thought which ended in the Great Vehicle,--the literature +of Northern Buddhism.[24] From Nepal to Japan, in the books of the +Northern Buddhists there is certainly much confusion between the +metaphysical being and the legendary civilizer and teacher of Nepal. The +other name, Avalokitesvara, which means the Lord of View, "the lord who +looks down from on high," instead of being a purely metaphysical +invention, may he only an adaptation of one epithet of Shiva, which +meant Master of View. + +Later and by degrees the attributes were separated and each one was +personified. For example, the power of Avalokitesvara was separated from +his protecting care and providence. His power was personified as the +bearer of the thunder-bolt, or the lightning-handed one; and this new +personification added to the two other Buddhas elect, made a triad, the +first in Northern Buddhism. In this triad, the thunder-bolt holder was +Vagrapani; Manjusri was the deified teacher; and Avalokitesvara was the +Spirit of the Buddhas present in the church. Before many centuries had +elapsed, these imaginary beings, with a few others, had become gods to +whom men prayed; and thus Buddhism became a religion with some kind of +theism,--which Gautama had expressly renounced. + +If any one wants proof of this reversion into the old religions of +India, he has only to notice that the name, given to the new god made by +personification of the attribute of power, Vagrapani, or Vadjradhara, or +the bearer of the thunder-bolt, had formerly been used as an epithet of +the old fire-god of the Vedas, Indra. + +It were tedious to recount all the steps in the further development of +Northern Buddhism.[25] Suffice it to say, that out of ideas and +principles set forth in the earlier Buddhism, and under the generating +force reborn from old Brahminism, the Dhyani Buddhas (that is the +Buddhas evolved out of the mind in mystic trance) were given their elect +Buddhas; and so three sets of five were co-ordinated.[26] That is, +first, five pre-penultimate Buddhas; then their Bodhisattvas or +penultimate Buddhas; and then the ultimate or human Buddhas, of which +Gautama was one. Or, first abstraction; then pre-human effluence; then +emanation. + +All this multiplication of beings is unknown to Southern Buddhism, +unknown to the Saddharma Pundarika, and very probably unknown also to +the Chinese pilgrims who visited India in the fifth and seventh +centuries. Professor Rhys Davids, in his compact little manual of +Buddhism, says:[27] + + "Among those hypothetical beings--the creations of a sickly + scholasticism, hollow abstractions without life or reality--the + fourth Amitabha, 'Immeasurable Light,' whose Bodhisatwa is + Avalokitesvara, and whose emanation is Gautama, occupies of + course the highest and most important rank. Surrounded by + innumerable Bodhisatwas, he sits enthroned under a Bo-tree in + Sukhavati, i.e., the Blissful, a paradise of heavenly joys, + whose description occupies whole tedious books of the so-called + Great Vehicle. By this theory, each of the five Buddhas has + become three, and the fourth of these five sets of three is the + second Buddhist Trinity, the belief in which must have arisen + after the seventh century of our era." + +Buddhism has been called the light of Asia, and Gautama its illuminator; +but certainly the light has not been pure, nor the products of its +illumination wholesome. Pardon an illustration. In Christian churches +and cathedrals of Europe, there is still a great prejudice against the +use of pipes, and of gas made from coal, because of the machinery and of +the impure emanations. The prejudice is a wholesome one; for we all know +that most of the elements forming common illuminating gas are worthless +except to convey the very small amount of light-giving material, and +that these elements in combustion vitiate the air and give off +deleterious products which corrode, tarnish and destroy. Now though +Buddhist doctrine may have been the light of India, yet to reach the +Northern and Eastern nations of Asia it had, apparently, to be +adulterated for conveyance, as much as is the illuminating gas in our +cities. From the first, Northern Buddhism showed a wonderful affinity, +not only for Brahministic superstitions and speculations, but for almost +everything else with which it came in contact in countries beyond India. +Instead of combating, it absorbed. It adapted itself to circumstances, +and finding certain beliefs prevalent among the people, it imbibed them, +and thus gained by accretion until its bulk, both of beliefs and of +disciples, was in the inverse ratio of its purity. Even to-day, the +occult theosophy of "Isis Unveiled," and of the school of writers such +as Blavatsky, Olcott, etc., seems to be a perfectly logical product of +the Northern Buddhisms, and may be called one of them; yet it is simply +a repetition of what took place centuries ago. Most of the primitive +beliefs and superstitions of Nepal and Tibet were absorbed in the ever +hungry and devouring system of Buddhistic scholasticism. + + +The Making of a Pantheon. + + +Let us glance again at this Nepal Buddhism. In the tenth century we find +what at first seems to be a growth out of Polytheism into Monotheism, +for a new Being, to whom the attributes of infinity, self-existence and +omniscience are ascribed, is invented and named Adi-Buddha, or the +primordial Buddha. According to the speculations of the thinkers, he had +evolved himself out of the five Dhyani-Buddhas by the exercise of the +five meditations, while each of these had evolved out of itself by +wisdom and contemplation, the corresponding Buddhas elect. Again, each +of the latter evolved out of his own essence a material world,--our +present world being the fourth of these, that is of Avaloki. One almost +might consider that this setting forth of the primordial Buddha was real +Monotheism; but on looking more carefully one sees that it is as little +real Monotheism as was possible in the system of Gnosticism. Indeed the +force of evolution could not stop here; for, since even this primordial +Buddha rested upon Ossa of hypothesis piled upon Pelion of hypothesis, +there must be other hypotheses yet to come, and so the Tantra system, a +compound of old Brahminism with the magic and witchcraft and Shamanism +of Northern Asia burst into view. As this was to travel into Japan and +be hailed as purest Buddhism, let us note how this tenth century Tantra +system grew up. To see this clearly, is to look upon the parable of the +man with the unclean spirit being acted out on a vast scale in history. + +In the sixth century of our era, one Asanga, or Asamga, wrote the +Shastra, called the Shastra Yoga-chara Bhumi.[28] With great dexterity +he erected a sort of clearing-house for both the corrupt Brahminism and +corrupt Buddhism of his day, and exchanging and rearranging the gods and +devils in both systems, he represented them as worshippers and +supporters of the Buddha and Avalokitesvara. In such a system, the old +primitive Buddhism of the noble eight-fold path of self-conquest and +pure morals was utterly lost. Instead of that, the worshipper gave his +whole powers to obtaining occult potencies by means of magic phrases and +magic circles. Then grew up whole forests of monasteries and temples, +with an outburst of devilish art representing many-headed and many-eyed +and many-handed idols on the walls, on books, on the roadside, with +manifold charms and phrases the endless repetitions of which were +supposed to have efficacy with the hypothetical being who filled the +heavens. That was _the_ age of idols for China as well as for India; and +the old Chinese house, once empty, swept and garnished by Confucianism, +was now filled with a mob of unclean spirits each worse than the first. +With more courageous logic than the more matter-of-fact Chinese, the +Tibetan erected his prayer-mills[29] and let the winds of heaven and the +flowing waters continually multiply his prayers and holy syllables. And +these inventions were duly imported into Japan, and even now are far +from being absent.[30] + +Passing over for the present the history of Buddhism in China,[31] +suffice it to say that the Buddhism which entered Japan from Korea in +the sixth century, was not the simple atheism touched with morality, the +bald skepticism or benevolent agnosticism of Gautama, but a religion +already over a thousand years old. It was the system of the Northern +Buddhists. These, dissatisfied, or unsatisfied, with absorption into a +passionless state through self-sacrifice and moral discipline, had +evolved a philosophy of religion in which were gods, idols and an +apparatus of conversion utterly unknown to the primitive faith. + + +Buddhism Already Corrupted when brought to Japan. + + +This sixth century Buddhism in Japan was not the army with banners, +which was introduced still later with the luxuriances of the fully +developed system, its paradise wonderfully like Mohammed's and its +over-populated pantheon. It was, however, ready with the necessary +machinery, both material and mental, to make conquest of a people which +had not only religious aspirations, but also latent aesthetic +possibilities of a high order. As in its course through China this +Northern Buddhism had acted as an all-powerful absorbent of local +beliefs and superstitions, so in Japan it was destined to make a more +remarkable record, and, not only to absorb local ideas but actually to +cause the indigenous religion to disappear. + +Let us inquire who were the people to whom Buddhism, when already +possessed of a millenium of history, entered its Ultima Thule in Eastern +Asia. At what stage of mutual growth did Buddhism and the Japanese meet +each other? + +Instead of the forty millions of thoroughly homogeneous people in +Japan--according to the census of December 31, 1892--all being loyal +subjects of one Emperor, we must think of possibly a million of hunters, +fishermen and farmers in more or less warring clans or tribes. These +were made up of the various migrations from the main land and the drift +of humanity brought by the ocean currents from the south; Ainos, +Koreans, Tartars and Chinese, with probably some Malay and Nigrito +stock. In the central part of Hondo, the main island, the Yamato tribe +dominated, its chief being styled Sumeru-mikoto, or Mikado. To the south +and southwest, the Mikado's power was only more or less felt, for the +Yamato men had a long struggle in securing supremacy. Northward and +eastward lay great stretches of land, inhabited by unsubdued and +uncivilized native tribes of continental and most probably of Korean +origin, and thus more or less closely akin to the Yamato men. Still +northward roamed the Ainos, a race whose ancestral seats may have been +in far-off Dravidian India. Despite the constant conflicts between the +Yamato people who had agriculture and the beginnings of government, law +and literature, and their less civilized neighbors, the tendency to +amalgamation was already strong. The problem of the statesman, was to +extend the sway of the Mikado over the whole Archipelago. + +Shint[=o] was, in its formation, made use of as an engine to conquer, +unify and civilize all the tribes. In one sense, this conquest of men +having lower forms of faith, by believers in the Kami no Michi, or Way +of the Gods, was analogous to the Aryan conquest of India and the +Dravidians. However this may be, the energy and valor displayed in these +early ages formed the ideal of Yamato Damashii (The Spirit of +unconquerable Japan), which has so powerfully influenced the modern +Japanese. We shall see, also, how grandly Buddhism also came to be a +powerful force in the unification of the Japanese people. At first, the +new faith would be rejected as an alien invader, stigmatized as a +foreign religion, and, as such, sure to invoke the wrath of the native +gods. Then later, its superiority to the indigenous cult would be seen +both by the wise and the practically minded, and it would be welcomed +and enjoyed. + + +The Inviting Field. + + +Never had a new religion a more inviting field or one more sure of +success, than had Buddhism on stepping from the Land of Morning Dawn to +the Land of the Rising Sun. Coming as a gorgeous, dazzling and +disciplined array of all that could touch the imagination, stimulate the +intellect and move the heart of the Japanese, it was irresistible. For +the making of a nation, Shint[=o] was as a donkey engine, compared to +the system of furnaces, boilers, shaft and propeller of a +ten-thousand-ton steel cruiser, moved by the energies of a million years +of sunbeam force condensed into coal and released again through +transmigration by fire. + +All accounts in the vernacular Japanese agree, that their Butsu-d[=o] or +Buddhism was imported from Korea. In the sixteenth year of Keitai, the +twenty-seventh Mikado (of the list made centuries after, and the +eleventh after the impossible line of the long-lived or mythical +Mikados), A.D. 534, it is said that a man from China brought with him an +image of Buddha into Yamato, and setting it up in a thatched cottage +worshipped it. The people called it "foreign-country god." Visitors +discussed with him the religion of Shaka, as the Japanese call +Shakyamuni, and some little knowledge of Buddhism was gained, but no +notable progress was made until A.D. 552, which is generally accepted +and celebrated as the year of the introduction of the faith into Japan. +Then a king of Hiaksai in Korea, sent over to the court and to the +Mikado golden images of the Buddha and of the triad of "precious ones," +with Sutras and sacred books. These holy relics are believed to be still +preserved in the famous temple of Zenk[=o]ji,[32] belonging to the +temple of the Tendai Sect at Nagano in Northern Japan, this shrine being +dedicated to Amida and his two followers Kwannon (Avalokitesvara) and +Dai-sei-shi (Mahastanaprapta). This group of idols, as the custodian of +the shrine will tell you, was made by Shaka himself out of gold, found +at the base of the tree which grows at the centre of the universe. After +remaining in Korea for eleven hundred and twelve years, it was brought +to Japan. Mighty is the stream of pilgrims which continually sets toward +the holy place. A common proverb declares that even a cow can find her +way thither. + +In A.D. 572 and again in 584, new images, sutras and teachers came over +from another part of Korea. The Mikado called a council to determine +what should be done with the idols, to the worship of which he was +himself inclined; but a majority were against the idea of insulting the +native gods by receiving the presents and thus introducing a foreign +religion. The minister of state, however, one Soga no Iname, expressed +himself in favor of Buddhism, and put the images in his country house +which he converted into a temple. When, soon after, the land was +afflicted with a pestilence, the opponents of the new faith attributed +it to the wrath of the gods at the hospitality given to the new idols. +War broke out, fighting took place, and the Buddhist temple was burned +and the idols thrown into the river, near Osaka. Great portents +followed, and the enemies of Buddhism were, it is said, burned up by +flames descending from heaven. + +The tide then turned in favor of the Indian faith, and Soga rebuilt his +temple. Priests and missionaries were invited to come over from Korea, +being gladly furnished by the allies of Japan from the state of Shinra, +and Buddhism again flourished at the court, but not yet among the +people. Once more, fighting broke out; and again the temple of the alien +gods was destroyed, only to be rebuilt again. The chief champion of +Buddhism was the son of a Mikado, best known by his posthumous title, +Sh[=o]toku,[33] who all his life was a vigorous defender and propagator +of the new faith. Through his influence, or very probably through the +efforts of the Korean missionaries, the devastating war between the +Japanese and Koreans was ended. In the peace which followed, notable +progress was made through the vigor of the missionaries encouraged by +the regent Sh[=o]toku, so that at his death in the year A.D. 621, there +were forty-six temples, and thirteen hundred and eighty-five priests, +monks and nuns in Japan. Many of the most famous temples, which are now +full of wealth and renown, trace their foundations to this era of +Sh[=o]toku and of his aunt, the Empress Suiko (A.D. 593-628), who were +friendly to the new religion. Sh[=o]toku may be almost called the +founder of Japanese Buddhism. Although a layman, he is canonized and +stands unique in the Pantheon of Eastern Buddhism, his image being +prominently visible in thousands of Japanese temples. + +Legend, in no country more luxurious than in Japan, tells us that the +exotic religion made no progress until Amida, the boundlessly Merciful +One, assuming the shape of a concubine of the imperial prince who +afterward became the Mikado Yome, gave birth to Sh[=o]toku, who was +himself Kwannon or the goddess of mercy in human form; and that when he +grew up, he took to wife an incarnation of the Buddha elect, +Mahastana-prapta, or in Japanese Dai-sei-shi, whose idol is honored at +Zenk[=o]ji. + + +The New Faith Becomes Popular. + + +Then Buddhism became popular, passing out from the narrow circle of the +court to be welcomed by the people. In A.D. 623, monks came over +directly from China, and we find mentioned two sects, the Sanron and the +J[=o]jitsu, which are no longer extant in Japan. In about A.D. 650 the +fame of Yuan Chang (Hiouen Thsang) the Chinese pilgrim to India, or the +holy land, reached-Japan; and his illustrious example was +enthusiastically followed. History now frequently repeated itself. The +Japanese monk, D[=o]sh[=o], crossed the seas to China to gaze upon the +face and become the pupil of that illustrious Chinese pilgrim, who had +seen Buddha Land. Later on, other monks crossed to the land of Sinim, +until we find that in this and succeeding centuries, hundreds of +Japanese in their frail junks, braved the dangers of the stormy ocean, +in order to study Sanskrit, to read the old scriptures, to meet the new +lights of learning or revelation, and to become versed in the latest +fashions of religion. We find the pilgrims returning and founding new +sects or sub-sects, and stimulating by their enthusiasm the monks and +the home missionaries. In the year A.D. 700 the custom of cremation was +introduced. This wrought not only a profound change in customs, but also +became the seed of a rich crop of superstitions; since out of the +cremated bodies of the saints came forth the _shari_ or, in Sanskrit, +_sarira_. These hard substances or pellets, preserved in crystal +cabinets, are treated as holy gems or relics. Thus venerated, they +become the nuclei of cycles of fairy lore. + +In A.D. 710, the great monastery at Nara was founded; and here we must +notice or at least glance at the great throng of civilizing influences +that came in with Buddhism, and at the great army of artists, artisans +and skilled men and women of every sort of trade and craft. We note that +with the building of this great Nara monastery came another proof of +improvement and the added element of stability in Japanese civilization. +The ancient dread which the Japanese had, of living in any place where a +person had died was passing away. The nomad life was being given up. The +successor of a dead Mikado was no longer compelled to build himself a +new capital. The traveller in Japan, familiar with the ancient poetry of +the Many[=o]-shu, finds no fewer than fifty-eight sites[34] as the early +homes of the Japanese monarchy. Once occupying the proud position of +imperial capitals, they are now for the most part mere hamlets, +oftentimes mere names, with no visible indication of former human +habitation; while the old rivers or streams once gay with barges filled +with silken-robed lords and ladies, have dried up to mere washerwomen's +runnels. For the first time after the building of this Buddhist +monastery, the capital remained permanent, Nara being the imperial +residence during seventy-five years. Then beautiful Ki[=o]to was chosen, +and remained the residence of successive generations of emperors until +1868. In A.D. 735, we read of the Kegon sect. Two years later a large +monastery, with a seven-storied pagoda alongside of it, was ordered to +be built in every province. These, with the temples and their +surroundings, and with the wayside shrines beginning to spring up like +exotic flowers, made a striking alteration in the landscape of Japan. +The Buddhist scriptures were numerously copied and circulated among the +learned class, yet neither now nor ever, except here and there in +fragments, were they found among the people. For, although the Buddhist +canon has been repeatedly imported, copied by the pen and in modern +times printed, yet no Japanese translation has ever been made. The +methods of Buddhism in regard to the circulation of the scriptures are +those, not of Protestantism but of Roman Catholicism. + +In the same year, the Mikado called for contributions from all the +people for the building of a colossal image of the Buddha, which was to +be of bronze and gilded. Yet, fearing that the Shint[=o] gods might be +offended, a skilful priest named Giyoku,--probably the same man who +introduced the potter's wheel into Japan,--was sent to the shrine of the +Sun-goddess in Ise to present her with a shari or relic of the Buddha, +and find out how she would regard his project. After seven days and +nights of waiting, the chapel doors flew open and the loud-voiced oracle +was interpreted in a favorable sense. The night following the return of +the priest, the Mikado dreamed that the sun-goddess appeared to him in +her own form and said "The sun is Birushana" (Vairokana). This meant +that the chief deity of the Japanese proclaimed herself an avatar or +incarnation of one of the old Hindu gods.[35] She also approved the +project of the image; and in this same year, 759, native gold was found +in Japan, which sufficed for the gilding of the great idol that, after +eleven hundred years and many vicissitudes, still stands, the glory of a +multitude of pilgrims. + +In A.D. 754 a famous priest, who introduced the new Ritsu Sect, was able +to convert the Mikado and obtain four hundred converts in the imperial +court. Thirteen years later, another tremendous triumph of Buddhism was +scored and a deadly blow at Shint[=o] was struck. The Buddhist priests +persuaded the Mikados to abandon their ancient title of Sumeru and adopt +that of Tenn[)o]; (Heavenly King or Tenshi) Son of Heaven, after the +Chinese fashion. At the same time it was taught that the emperor could +gain great merit and sooner become a Buddha, by retiring from the active +cares of the throne and becoming a monk, with the title of H[=o]-[=o], +or Cloistered Emperor. This innovation had far-reaching consequences, +profoundly altering the status of the Mikado, giving sensualism on the +one hand and priestcraft on the other, their coveted opportunity, +changing the ruler of the nation from an active statesman into a recluse +and the recluse into a pious monk, or a licentious devotee, as the case +might be. It paved the way for the usurpation of the government by the +unscrupulous soldier, "the man on horseback," who was destined to rule +Japan for seven hundred years, while the throne and its occupant were in +the shadow. One of a thousand proofs of the progress of the propaganda +scheme is seen in the removal of the Shint[=o] temple which had stood at +Nikk[=o], and the erection in its place of a Buddhist temple. In A.D. +805 the famous Tendai, and in 806 the powerful Shingon Sect were +introduced. All was now ready in Japan for the growth not only of one +new Buddhism, but of several varieties among the Northern Buddhisms +which so arouse the astonishment of those who study the simple Pali +scriptures that contain the story of Gautama, and who know only the +southern phase of the faith, that is to Asia, relatively, what +Christianity is to Europe. We say relatively, for while Buddhism made +Chinese Asia gentle in manners and kind to animals, it covered the land +with temples, monasteries and images; on the other hand the religion of +Jesus filled Europe not only with churches, abbeys, monasteries and +nunneries, but also with hospitals, orphan asylums, lighthouses, schools +and colleges. Between the fruits of Christendom and Buddhadom, let the +world judge. + + +Survey and Summary. + + +To sum up: Buddhism is the humanitarian's, and also the skeptic's, +solution of the problem of the universe. Its three great distinguishing +characteristics are atheism, metempsychosis and absence of caste. It was +in its origin pure democracy. As against despotic priesthood and +oppressive hierarchy, it was congregational. Theoretically it is so yet, +though far from being so practically. It is certainly sacerdotal and +aristocratic in organization. As in any other system which has so vast a +hierarchy with so many grades of honor and authority, its theory of +democracy is now a memory. First preached in a land accursed by caste +and under spiritual and secular oppressions, it acknowledged no caste, +but declared all men equally sinful and miserable, and all equally +capable of being freed from sin and misery through Buddhahood, that is, +knowledge or enlightenment.[36] + +The three-fold principle laid down by Gautama, and now in dogma, +literature, art and worship, a triad or formal trinity, is, Buddha, the +attainment of Buddha-hood, or perfect enlightenment, through meditation +and benevolence; Karma, the law of cause and effect; and Dharma, +discipline or order; or, the Lord, the Law and the Church. Paying no +attention to questions of cosmogony or theogony, the universe is +accepted as an ultimate fact. Matter is eternal. Creation exists but not +a Creator. All is god, but God is left out of consideration. The gods +are even less than Buddhas. Humanity is glorified and the stress of all +teaching is upon this life. In a word: a sinless life, attainable by +man, through his own exertions in this world, above all the powers or +beings of the universe, is the essence of original Buddhism. Original +Nirvana meant death which ends all, extinction of existence. + +Gautama's immediate purpose was to emancipate himself and his followers +from the fetters of Brahminism. He tried to leave the world of Hindu +philosophy behind him and to escape from it. + +Did he succeed? Partially. + +Buddha hoped also to rise above the superstitions of the common people, +but in this he was again only partially successful.[37] "The clouds +returned after the rain." The old dead gods of Brahminism came back +under new names and forms. The malarial exhalations of corrupt +Brahmanistic philosophy, continually poisoned the atmosphere which +Buddha's disciples breathed. Still worse, as his religion transmigrated +into other lands, it became itself a history of transformation, until +to-day no religion on earth seems to be such a kaleidoscopic +phantasmagoria. Polytheism is rampant over the greater part of the +Buddhist world to-day. In the larger portion of Chinese Asia, pantheism +dominates the mind. In modern Babism,--a mixture of Mohammedanism, +Christianity and Buddhism,--there are streaks of dualism. If Monotheism +has ever dawned on the Buddhist world, it has been in fitful pulses as +in auroral flashes, soon to leave darkness darker. + +For us is this lesson: Buddhism, brought face to face with the problem +of the world's evil and possible improvement, evades it; begs the whole +question at the outset; prays: "Deliver us from existence. Save us from +life and give us as little as possible of it." Christianity faces the +problem and flinches not; orders advance all along the line of endeavor +and prays: "Deliver us from evil;" and is ever of good cheer, because +Captain and leader says: "I have overcome the world." Go, win it for me. +"I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more +abundantly." + + + + +CHAPTER VII - RIY[=O]BU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM + + "All things are nothing but mind." + + "The doctrines of Buddhism have no fixed forms." + + "There is nothing in things themselves that enables us to + distinguish in them either good or evil, right or wrong. It is + but man's fancy that weighs their merits and causes him to + choose one and reject the other." + + "Non-individuality is the general principle of + Buddhism."--Outlines of the Mah[=a]y[=a]na. + + "It (Shint[=o]) was smothered before reaching maturity, but + Buddhism and Confucianism had to disguise and change in order to + enter Japan." + + "Life has a limited span and naught may avail to extend it. This + is manifested by the impermanence of human beings. But yet + whenever necessary I will hereafter make my appearance from time + to time as a god, a sage, or a Buddha."--Last words of Shaka the + Buddha, in Japanese biography. + + "It is our opinion that Buddhism cannot long hold its ground, + and that Christianity must finally prevail throughout all + Japan.... Now, when Buddhism and Christianity are in conflict + for the ascendency, this indifference of the Japanese people to + the difference of sects is a great disadvantage to Buddhism. + That they should worship Jesus Christ with the same mind as they + do _Inari_ or _Mi[=o]jin_ is not at all inconsistent in their + estimation or contrary to their custom."--Fukuzawa, of + T[=o]ki[=o]. + + "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, + follow him; but if Baal, then follow him."--Elijah. + + "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?"--Jesus. + + "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and + bitter?"--James. + + "What concord hath Christ with Belial?"--Paul. + + +CHAPTER VII - RIY[=O]BU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM + +Syncretism in Religion. + + +Two centuries and a half of Buddhism in Japan, showed the leaders and +teachers of the Indian faith that complete victory over the whole nation +was yet very far off. The court had indeed been invaded and won. Even +the Mikado, the ecclesiastical head of Shint[=o], and the incarnation +and vicar of the heavenly gods, had not only embraced Buddhism, but in +many instances had shorn the hair and taken the vows of the monk. Yet +the people clung tenaciously to their old traditions, customs and +worship; for their gods were like themselves and indeed were of +themselves, since Shint[=o] is only a transfiguration of Japanese life. +In the Japanese of those days we can trace the same traits which we +behold in the modern son of Nippon, especially his intense patriotism +and his warlike tendencies. To convert these people to the peaceful +dogmas of Siddartha and to make them good Buddhists, something more than +teaching and ritual was necessary. It was indispensable that there +should be complete substitution, all along the ruts and paths of +national habit, and especially that the names of the gods and the +festivals should be Buddhaized. + +Popular customs are nearly immortal and ineradicable. Though wars may +come, dynasties rise and fall, and convulsions in nature take place, yet +the people's manners and amusements are very slow in changing. If, in +the history of Christianity, the European missionaries found it +necessary in order to make conquest of our pagan forefathers, to baptize +and re-name without radically changing old notions and habits, so did it +seem equally indispensable that in Japan there should be some system of +reconciliation of the old and the new, some theological revolution, +which should either fulfil, absorb, or destroy Shint[=o]. + +In the histories of religions in Western Asia, Northern Africa and +Europe, we are familiar with efforts at syncretism. We have seen how +Philo attempted to unite Hebrew righteousness and Greek beauty, and to +harmonize Moses and Plato. We know of Euhemerus, who thought he read in +the old mythologies not only the outlines of real history, but the +hieroglyphics of legend and tradition, truth and revelation.[1] Students +of Church history are well aware that this principle of interpretation +was followed only too generously by Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, +Lactantius, Chrysostom and others of the Church Fathers. Indeed, it +would be hard to find in any of the great religions of the world an +utter absence of syncretism, or the union of apparently hostile +religious ideas. In the Thousand and One Nights, we have an example in +popular literature. We see that the ancient men of India, Persia and +pre-Mohammedan Arabia now act and talk as orthodox Mussulmans. In +matters pertaining to art and furniture, the statue of Jupiter in Rome +serves for St. Peter, and in Japan that of the Virgin and child for the +Buddha and his mother.[2] + +What, however, chiefly concerns the critic and student of religions is +to inquire how far the process has been natural, and the efforts of +those who have brought about the union have been honest, and their +motives pure. The Bible pages bear witness, that Israelites too often +tried to make the same fountain give forth sweet waters and bitter, and +to grow thistles and grapes on the same stem, by uniting the cults of +Jehovah and the Baalim. King Solomon's enterprises in the same direction +are more creditable to him as a politician than as a worshipper.[3] In +the history of Christianity one cannot commend the efforts either of the +Gnostics or the neo-Platonists, nor always justify the medieval +missionaries in their methods. Nor can we accurately describe as +successful the ingenuity of Vossius, the Dutch theologian, who, +following the scheme of Euhemerus, discovered the Old Testament +patriarchs in the disguise of the gods of Paganism. Nor, even though +Germany be the land of learning, can the clear-headed scholar agree with +some of her rationalists, who are often busy in the same field of +industry, setting forth wild criticism as "science." + + +The Kami and the Buddhas. + + +In Japan, to solve the problem of reconciliation between the ancient +traditions of the divine ancestors and the dogmas of the Indian cult, it +was necessary that some master spirit, profoundly learned in the two +Ways, of the Kami and of the Buddhas, should be bold, and also as it +seems, crafty and unscrupulous. To convert a line of theocratic +emperors, whose authority was derived from their alleged divine origin +and sacerdotal character, into patrons and propagandists of Buddhism, +and to transform indigenous Shint[=o] gods into Buddhas elect, or +Buddhas to come, or Buddhas in a former state of existence, were tasks +that might appall the most prodigious intellect, and even strain the +capacities of what one might imagine to be the universal religion for +all mankind. + +Yet from such a task continental Buddhism had not shrunk before and did +not shrink then, nor indeed from it do the insular Japanese sects shrink +now. Indeed, Buddhism is quite ready to adopt, absorb and swallow up +Japanese Christianity. With all encompassing tentacles, and with +colossal powers of digestion and assimilation, Northern Buddhism had +drawn into itself a large part of the Brahmanism out of which it +originally sprang,[4] reversing the old myth of Chronos by swallowing +its parents. It had gathered in, pretty much all that was in the heavens +above and the earth beneath and the waters that were under the earth, in +Nepal, Tibet, China, and Korea. Thoroughly exercised and disciplined, it +was ready to devour and digest all that the imagination of Japan had +conceived. + +We must remember that, at the opening of the ninth century, the Buddhism +rampant in China and indeed throughout Chinese Asia was the Tantra +system of Yoga-chara.[5] This compound of polytheism and pantheism, with +its sensuous paradise, its goddess of mercy and its pantheon of every +sort of worshipable beings, was also equipped with a system of +philosophy by which Buddhism could be adapted to almost every yearning +of human nature in its lowest or its highest form, and by which things +apparently contradictory could be reconciled. Furthermore--and this is +not the least important thing to consider when the work to be done is +for the ordinary man as an individual and for the common people in the +mass--it had also a tremendous apparatus for touching the imagination +and captivating the fancy of the unthinking and the uneducated. + +For example, consider the equipment of the Buddhist priests of the ninth +century in the matter of art alone. Shint[=o] knows next to nothing of +art,[6] and indeed one might almost say that it knows little of +civilization. It is like ultra-Puritanic Protestantism and Iconoclasm. +Buddhism, on the contrary, is the mother of art, and art is her +ever-busy child and handmaid. The temples of the Kami were bald and +bare. The Kojiki told nothing of life hereafter, and kept silence on a +hundred points at which human curiosity is sure to be active, and at +which the Yoga system was voluble. Buddhism came with a set of visible +symbols which should attract the eye and fire the imagination, and +within ethical limits, the passions also. It was a mixed and variegated +system,--a resultant of many forces.[7] It came with the thought of +India, the art-influence of Greece, the philosophy of Persia, the +speculations of the Gnostics and, in all probability, with ideas +borrowed indirectly from Nestorian or other forms of Christianity; and +thus furnished, it entered Japan. + + +The Mission of Art. + + +Thus far the insular kingdom had known only the monochrome sketches of +the Chinese painters, which could have a meaning for the educated few +alone. The composite Tantra dogmas fed the fancy and stimulated the +imagination, filling them with pictures of life, past, present and +future. "The sketch was replaced by the illumination." Whole schools of +artists, imported from China and Korea, multiplied their works and +attracted the untrained senses of the people, by filling the temples +with a blaze of glory. "This result was sought by a gorgeous but studied +play of gold and color, and a lavish richness of mounting and +accessories, that appear strangely at variance with the begging bowl and +patched garments of primitive Buddhism."[8] The change in the Japanese +temple was as though the gray clouds had been kissed by the sun and made +to laugh rainbows. The country of the Fertile Plain of Sweet Flags was +transformed. It suddenly became the land wherein gods grew not singly +but in whole forests. Like the Shulamite, when introduced among the +jewelled ladies of Solomon's harem, so stood the boor amid the sheen and +gold of the new temples. + + "Gold was the one thing essential to the Buddhist altar-piece, + and sometimes, when applied on a black ground, was the only + material used. In all cases it was employed with an unsparing + hand. It appeared in uniform masses, as in the body of the + Buddha or in the golden lakes of the Western Paradise; in minute + diapers upon brocades and clothing, in circlets and undulating + rays, to form the glory surrounding the head of Amitaba; in + raised bosses and rings upon the armlets or necklets of the + Bodhisattvas and Devas, and in a hundred other manners. The + pigments chosen to harmonize with this display were necessarily + body colors of the most pronounced lines, and were untoned by + any trace of chiaroscuro. Such materials as these would surely + try the average artist, but the Oriental painter knew how to + dispose them without risk of crudity or gaudiness, and the + precious metal, however lavishly applied, was distributed over + the picture with a judgment that would make it difficult to + alter or remove any part without detriment to the beauty of the + work."[9] + +In our day, Japanese art has won its own place in the world's temple of +beauty. Even those familiar with the master-pieces of Europe do not +hesitate to award to the artists of Nippon a meed of praise which, +within certain limits, is justly applied to them equally with the +masters of the Italian, the Dutch, the Flemish, or the French schools. +It serves our purpose simply to point out that art was a powerful factor +in the religious conquest of the Japanese for the new doctrines of the +Yoga system, which in Japan is called Riy[=o]bu, or Mixed Buddhism. + +We say Mixed Buddhism rather than Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o], for Shint[=o] was +less corrupted than swallowed up, while Buddhism suffered one more +degree of mixture and added one more chapter of decay. It increased in +its visible body, while in its mind it became less and less the religion +of Buddha and more and more a thing with the old Shint[=o] heart still +in it, making a strange growth in the eyes of the continental believers. +To the Northern and Southern was now added an Eastern or Japanese +Buddhism. + +Who was the wonder-worker that annexed the Land of the Gods to Buddhadom +and re-read the Kojiki as a sutra, and all Japanese history and +traditions as only a chapter of the incarnations of Buddha? + + +K[=o]b[=o] the Wonder Worker. + + +The Philo and Euhemerus of Japan was the priest Kukai, who was born in +the province of Sanuki, in the year 774. He is better known by his +posthumous title K[=o]b[=o] Daishi, or the Great Teacher who promulgates +the Law. By this name we shall call him. About his birth, life and +death, have multiplied the usual swaddling bands of Japanese legend and +tradition,[10] and to his tomb at the temple on Mount K[=o]-ya, the +Campo Santo of Japanese Buddhism, still gather innumerable pilgrims. The +"hall of ten thousand lamps," each flame emblematic of the Wisdom that +saves, is not, indeed, in these days lighted annually as of old; but the +vulgar yet believe that the great master still lives in his mausoleum, +in a state of profoundly silent meditation. Into the hall of bones near +by, covering a deep pit, the teeth and "Adam's apple" of the cremated +bodies of believers are thrown by their relatives, though the pit is +cleared out every three years. The devotees believe that by thus +disposing of the teeth and "Adam's apple," they obtain the same +spiritual privileges as if they were actually entombed there, that is, +of being born again into the heaven of the Bodhisattva or the Pure Land +of Absolute Bliss, by virtue of the mystic formulas repeated by the +great master in his lifetime. + +Let us sketch the life of K[=o]b[=o], + +First named Toto-mono, or Treasure, by his parents, who sent him to +Ki[=o]t[=o] to be educated for the priesthood, the youth spent four +years in the study of the Chinese classics. Dissatisfied with the +teachings of Confucius, he became a disciple of a famous Buddhist +priest, named Iwabuchi (Rock-edge or throne). Soon taking upon himself +the vows of the monk, he was first named Kukai, meaning "space and sea," +or heaven and earth.[11] He overcame the dragons that assaulted him, by +prayers, by spitting at them the rays of the evening star which had +flown from heaven into his mouth and by repeating the mystic formulas +called Dharani.[12] Annoyed by hobgoblins with whom he was obliged to +converse, he got rid of them by surrounding himself with a consecrated +imaginary enclosure into which they were unable to enter against his +will. + +We mention these legends only to call the attention to the fact that +they are but copies of those already accepted in China at that time, and +are the logical and natural fruit of the Tantra school at which we have +glanced. In 804, K[=o]b[=o] was appointed to visit the Middle Kingdom as +a government student. By means of his clever pen and calligraphic skill +he won his way into the Chinese capital. He became the favored disciple +of a priest who taught him the mystic doctrines of the Yoga. Having +acquired the whole of the system, and equipped himself with a large +library of Buddhist doctrinal works and still more with every sort of +ecclesiastical furniture and religious goods, he returned to Japan. + +Multitudes of wonders are reported about K[=o]b[=o], all of which show +the growth of the Tantra school. It is certain that his erudition was +immense, and that he was probably the most learned man of Japan in that +age, and possibly of any other age. Besides being a Japanese Ezra in +multiplying writings, he is credited with the invention of the +hira-gana, or running script, and if correctly so, he deserves on this +account alone an immortal honor equal to that of Cadmus or Sequoia. The +kana[13] is a syllabary of forty-seven letters, which by diacritical +marks, may be increased to seventy. The kata-kana is the square or print +form, the hira-kana is the round or "grass" character for writing. +Though not as valuable as a true phonetic alphabet, such as the Koreans +and the Cherokees possess, the _i-ro-ha_, or kana script, even though a +syllabary and not an alphabet, was a wonderful aid to popular writing +and instruction. + +Evidently the idea of the i-ro-ha, or Japanese ABC, was derived from the +Sanskrit alphabet, or, what some modern Anglo-Indian has called the +Deva-Nagari or the god-alphabet. There is no evidence, however, to show +that K[=o]b[=o] did more than arrange in order forty-seven of the +easiest Chinese signs then used, in such a manner that they conveyed in +a few lines of doggerel the sense of a passage from a sutra in which the +mortality of man and the emptiness of all things are taught, and the +doctrine of Nirvana is suggested.[14] Hokusai, the artist, in a sketch +which embodies the popular idea of this bonze's immense industry, +represents him copying the shastras and sutras. K[=o]b[=o] is on a seat +before a large upright sheet of paper. He holds a brush-pen in his +mouth, and one in each of his hands and feet, all moving at once.[15] +Favorite portions of the Buddhist scriptures were indeed so rapidly +multiplied in Japan in the ninth century, as to suggest the idea, that, +even in this early age, block printing had been imported from China, +whence also afterward, in all probability, it was exported into Europe +before the days of Gutenberg and Coster.[16] The popular imagination, +however, was more easily moved on seeing five brushes kept at work and +all at once by the muscles in the fingers, toes and mouth of one man. +Yet, had his life lasted six hundred years instead of sixty, he could +hardly have graven all the images, scaled all the mountain peaks, +confounded all the sceptics, wrought all the miracles and performed all +the other feats with which he is popularly credited.[17] + + +K[=o]b[=o] Irenicon. + + +K[=o]b[=o] indeed was both the Philo and Euhemerus of Japan, plus a +large amount of priestly cunning and what his enemies insist was +dishonesty and forgery. Soon after his return from China, he went to the +temples of Ise,[18] the most holy place of Shint[=o].[19] Taking a +reverent attitude before the chief shrine, that of Toko Uke Bime no Kami +or Abundant-Food-Lady-God, or the deified Earth as the producer of food +and the upholder of all things upon its surface, the suppliant waited +patiently while fasting and praying. + +In this, K[=o]b[=o] did but follow out the ordinary Shint[=o] plan for +securing god-possession and obtaining revelation; that is, by starving +both the stomach and the brain.[20] After a week's waiting he obtained +the vision. The Food-possessing Goddess revealed to him the yoke (or +Yoga) by which he could harness the native and the imported gods to the +chariot of victorious Buddhism. She manifested herself to him and +delivered the revelation on which his system is founded, and which, +briefly stated, is as follows: + +All the Shint[=o] deities are avatars or incarnations of Buddha. They +were manifestations to the Japanese, before Gautama had become the +enlightened one, or the jewel in the lotus, and before the holy wheel of +the law or the sacred shastras and sutras had reached the island empire. +Further more, provision was made for the future gods and deified holy +ones, who were to proceed from the loins of the Mikado, or other +Japanese fathers, according to the saying of Buddha which is thus +recorded in a Japanese popular work: + + "Life has a limited span, and naught may avail to extend it. + This is manifested by the impermanence of human beings, but yet, + whenever necessary, I will hereafter make my appearance from + time to time as a god (Kami), a sage (Confucian teacher), or a + Buddha (Hotoke)."[21] + +In a word, the Shint[=o] goddess talked as orthodox (Yoga) Buddhism as +the ancient characters of the Indian, Persian and pre-Islam-Arabic +stories in the Arabian Nights now talk the purest Mohammedanism.[22] +According to the words put into Gautama's mouth at the time of his +death, the Buddha was already to reappear in the particular form and in +all the forms, acceptable to Shint[=o]ists, Confucianists, or Buddhists +of whatever sect. + +Descending from the shrine of vision and revelation, with a complete +scheme of reconciliation, with correlated catalogues of Shint[=o] and +Buddhist gods, with liturgies, with lists of old popular festivals newly +named, with the apparatus of art to captivate the senses, K[=o]b[=o] +forthwith baptized each native Shint[=o] deity with a new +Chinese-Buddhistic name. For every Shint[=o] festival he arranged a +corresponding Buddhist's saints' day or gala time. Then, training up a +band of disciples, he sent them forth proclaiming the new irenicon. + + +The Hindu Yoga Becomes Japanese Riy[=o]bu. + + +It was just the time for this brilliant and able ecclesiastic to +succeed. The power and personal influence of the Mikado were weakening, +the court swarmed with monks, the rising military classes were already +safely under the control of the shavelings, and the pen of learning had +everywhere proved itself mightier than the sword and muscle. +K[=o]b[=o]'s particular dialectic weapons were those of the Yoga-chara, +or in Japanese, the Shingon Shu, or Sect of the True Word.[23] He, like +his Chinese master, taught that we can attain the state of the +Enlightened or Buddha, while in the present physical body which was born +of our parents. + +This branch of Buddhism is said to have been founded in India about A.D. +200, by a saint who made the discovery of an iron pagoda inhabited by +the holy one, Vagrasattva, who communicated the exact doctrine to those +who have handed it down through the Hindoo and Chinese patriarchs. The +books or scriptures of this sect are in three sutras; yet the essential +point in them is the Mandala or the circle of the Two Parts, or in +Japanese Riy[=o]bu. Introduced into China, A.D. 720, it is known as the +Yoga-chara school. + +K[=o]b[=o] finding a Chinese worm, made a Japanese dragon, able to +swallow a national religion. In the act of deglutition and the long +process of the digestion of Shint[=o], Japanese Buddhism became +something different from every other form of the faith in Asia. Noted +above all previous developments of Buddhism for its pantheistic +tendencies, the Shingon sect could recognize in any Shint[=o] god, +demi-god, hero, or being, the avatar in a previous stage of existence of +some Buddhist being of corresponding grade. + +For example,[24] Amateras[)u] or Ten-Sh[=o]-Dai-Jin, the sun-goddess, +becomes Dai Nichi Ni[=o]rai or Amida, whose colossal effigies stand in +the bronze images Dai Butsu at Nara, Ki[=o]to and Kamakura. Ojin, the +god of war, became Hachiman Dai Bosatsu, or the great Bodhisattva of the +Eight Banners. Adopted as their patron by the fighting Genji or Minamoto +warriors of mediaeval times, the Buddhists could not well afford to have +this popular deity outside their pantheon. + +For each of the thirty days of the month, a Bodhisattva, or in Japanese +pronunciation Bosatsu, was appointed. Each of these Bodhisattvas became +a Dai Mi[=o] Jin or Great Enlightened Spirit, and was represented as an +avatar in Japan of Buddha in the previous ages, when the Japanese were +not yet prepared to receive the holy law of Buddhism. + +Where there were not enough Dai Mi[=o] Jin already existing in native +traditions to fill out the number required by the new scheme, new titles +were invented. One of these was Ten-jin, Heavenly being or spirit. The +famous statesman and scholar of the tenth century, Sugawara Michizane, +was posthumously named Tenjin, and is even to this day worshipped by +many children of Japan as he was formerly for a thousand years by nearly +all of them, as the divine patron of letters. Kompira, Benten and other +popular deities, often considered as properly belonging to Shint[=o], +"are evidently the offspring of Buddhist priestly ingenuity."[25] Out of +the eight millions or so of native gods, several hundred were catalogued +under the general term Gon-gen, or temporary manifestations of Buddha. +In this list are to be found not only the heroes of local tradition, but +even deified forces of nature, such as wind and fire. The custom of +making gods of great men after their death, thus begun on a large scale +by K[=o]b[=o], has gone on for centuries. Iyeyas[)u], the political +unifier of Japan, shines as a star of the first magnitude in the heavens +of the Riy[=o]bu system, under the mime of T[=o]-sh[=o]-g[=u], or Great +Light of the East. The common people speak of him as Gon-gen Sama, the +latter word being an honorary form of address for all beings from a baby +to a Bosatsu. + +In this way, K[=o]b[=o] arranged a sort of clearing-house or joint-stock +company in which the Bodhisattvas, kami and other miscellaneous beings, +in either the native or foreign religion, were mutually interchangeable. +In a large sense, this feat of priestly dexterity was but the repetition +in history, of that of Asanga with the Brahmanism and Buddhism of India +three centuries before. It was this Asanga who wrote the Yoga-chara +Bhumi. The succession of syncretists in India, China and Japan is +Asanga, Hiuki[=o] and K[=o]b[=o]. + + +The Happy Family of Riy[=o]bu. + + +Nevertheless this attempt at making a happy family and ploughing with an +ox and ass in the same yoke, has not been an unqualified success. It +will sometimes happen that one god escapes the classification made by +the Buddhists and slips into the fold of Shint[=o], or _vice versa_; +while again the label-makers and pasters--as numerous in scholastic +Buddhism as in sectarian Christendom--have hard work to make the labels +stick. A popular Gon-gen or Dai-Mi[=o]-jin, whose name and renown has +for centuries attracted crowds of pilgrims, and yielded fat revenues as +regularly as the autumn harvests, is not readily surrendered by the old +Buddhist proprietors, however cleverly or craftily the bonzes may yield +outward conformity to governmental edicts. On the other hand, the +efforts, both archaeological and practical, which have been made in +recent years by fiercely zealous Shint[=o]ists, savor of the smartness +of New Japan more than they suggest either sincerity or edification. It +often requires the finest tact on the part of both the strenuous +Buddhists and the stalwart purists of Shint[=o], to extricate the +various gods out of the mixture and mess of Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o], and to +keep them from jostling each other. + +This reclaiming and kidnapping of gods and transferring them from one +camp to another, has been especially active since 1870, when, under +government auspices, the Riy[=o]bu temples were purged of all Buddhist +idols, furniture and influences. The term Dai Mi[=o] Jin, or Great +Illustrious Spirit, is no longer officially permitted to be used of the +old kami or gods of Shint[=o], who were known to have existed before the +days of K[=o]b[=o]. In some cases these gods have lost much of the +esteem in which they were held for centuries. Especially is this true of +the infamous rebel of the tenth century, Masakado.[26] On the entrance +into Yedo of the Imperial army, in 1868, his idol was torn from its +shrine and hacked to pieces by the patriots. His place as a deity (Kanda +Dai Mi[=o] Jin, or Great Illustrious Spirit of Kanda) was taken by +another deified being, a brother to the aboriginal earth-god who, in the +ages of the Kami, "resigned his throne in favor of the Mikado's +ancestors when they descended from Heaven." The apotheosis of the rebel +Masakado had been resorted to by the Buddhist canonizers because the +unquiet spirit of the dead man troubled the people. This method of +laying a ghost by making a god of him, was for centuries a favorite one +in Japanese Buddhism. Indeed, a large part of the practical and +parochial duties of the bonzes consists in quieting the restless spirits +of the departed. + +All Japanese popular religion of the past has been intensely local and +patriotic. The ancient idea that Nippon was the first country created +and the centre of the world, has persisted through the ages, modifying +every imported religion. Hence the noticeable fact in Japanese Buddhism, +of the comparative degradation of the Hindu deities and the exaltation +of those which were native to the soil. + +The normal Japanese, be he priest or lay brother, theologian or +statesman, is nothing if not patriotic. Even the Chinese gods and +goddesses which, clothed in Indian drapery and still preserving their +Aryan features, were imported to Japan, could not hold their own in +competition with the popularity of the indigenous inhabitants of the +Japanese pantheon. The normal Japanese eye does not see the ideals of +beauty in the human face and form in common with the Aryan vision. +Benten or Knanon, with the features and drapery of the homelike beauties +of Yamato or Adzuma, have ever been more lovely to the admiring eye of +the Japanese sailor and farmer, than the Aryan features of the idols +imported from India. So also, the worshipper to whom the lovely scenery +of Japan was fresh from the hands of the kami who were so much like +himself, turned naturally in preference, to the "gods many" of his own +land. + +Succeeding centuries only made it worse for the imported devas or gods, +while the kami, or the gods sprung from the soil created by Izanami and +Izanagi steadily rose in honor. + + +Degradation of the Foreign Deities. + + +For example, the Indian saint Dharma is reputed to have come to the +Dragon-fly Country long before the advent of Buddhism, but the people +were not ready for him or his teachings, and therefore he returned to +India. So at least declares the book entitled San Kai Ri[27] (Mountain, +Sea and Earth), which is a re-reading and explanation of Japanese +mythology and tradition as recorded in the Kojiki, by a Ki[=o]t[=o] +priest of the Shin Shu Sect. Of this Dharma, it is said, that he outdid +the Roman Regulus who suffered involuntary loss of his eyelids at the +hands of the Carthaginians. Dharma cut off his own eyelids, because he +could not keep awake.[28] Throwing the offending flesh upon the ground, +he saw the tea-plant arise to help holy men to keep vigil. Daruma, as +the Japanese spell his name, has a temple in central Japan. It is +related that when Sh[=o]toku, the first patron of Buddhism, was one day +walking abroad he found a poor man dying of hunger, who refused to +answer any questions or give his name. Sh[=o]toku ordered food to be +given him, and wrapped his own mantle round him. Next day the beggar +died, and the prince charitably had him buried on the spot. Shortly +afterward it was observed that the mantle was lying neatly folded up, on +the tomb, which on examination proved to be empty. The supposed dying +beggar was no other than the Indian Saint Dharma, and a pagoda was built +over the grave, in which images of the priest and saint were +enshrined.[29] Yet, alas, to-day Daruma the Hindoo and foreigner, +despite his avatar, his humility, his vigils and his self-mutilation, +has been degraded to be the shop-sign of the tobacconists. Besides being +ruthlessly caricatured, he is usually pictured with a scowl, his lidless +eyes as wide open as those upon a Chinese junk-prow or an Egyptian +coffin-lid. Often even, he has a pipe in his mouth--a comical +anachronism, suggestive to the smoker of the dark ages that knew no +tobacco, before nicotine made the whole world of savage and of civilized +kin. Legless dolls and snow-men are named after this foreigner, whose +name is associated almost entirely with what is ludicrous. + +On K[=o]b[=o]'s expounding his scheme to the Mikado, the emperor was so +pleased with his servant's ingenuity, that he gave it the name of +Riy[=o]bu[30] Shint[=o]; that is, the two-fold divine doctrine, double +way of the gods, or amalgamated theology. Henceforth the Japanese could +enter Nirvana or Paradise through a two-leaved gate. As for the people, +they also were pleased, as they usually are when change or reform does +not mean abolition of the old festivals, or of the washings, sousings, +and fun at the tombs of their ancestors in the graveyards, or the +merry-makings, or the pilgrimages,[31] which are usually only other +names for social recreation, and often for sensual debauch. The Yoga had +become a _kubiki_, for Shint[=o] and Buddhism were now harnessed +together, not indeed as true yoke-fellows, but yet joined as inseparably +as two oxen making the same furrow. + +Many a miya now became a tera. At first in many edifices, the rites of +Shint[=o] and Buddhism were alternately performed. The Buddhist symbols +might be in the front, and the Shint[=o]ist in the rear of the sacred +hall, or _vice versa_, with a bamboo curtain between; but gradually the +two blended. Instead of austere simplicity, the Shint[=o] interior +contained a museum of idols. + +Image carvers had now plenty to do in making, out of camphor or _hinoki_ +wood, effigies of such of the eight million or so of kamis as were given +places in the new and enlarged pantheon. The multiplication was always +on the side of Buddhism. Soon, also, the architecture was altered from +the type of the primitive hut, to that of the low Chinese temple with +great sweeping roof, re-curved eaves, many-columned auditorium and +imposing gateway, with lacquer, paint, gilding and ceilings, on which, +in blazing gold and color, were depicted the emblems of the Buddhist +paradise. Many of these still remain even after the national purgation +of 1870, just as the Christian inscriptions survive in the marble +palimpsests of Mahometan mosques, converted from basilicas, at Damascus +or Constantinople. The torii was no longer raised in plain hinoki wood, +but was now constructed of hewn stone, rounded or polished. Sometimes it +was even of bronze with gilded crests and Sanskrit monograms, +surmounted, it may be, with tablets of painted or stained wood, on which +were Chinese letters glittering with gold. This departure from the +primitive idea of using only the natural trunks of trees, "somewhat on +the principle of Exodus, 20:25,"[32] was a radical one in the ninth +century. The elongated barrels with iron hoops, or the riveted +boiler-plate and stove-pipe pattern, in this era of Meiji is a still +more radical and even scandalous innovation. + + +Shint[=o] Buried in Buddhism. + + +So complete was the victory of Riy[=o]buism, that for nearly a thousand +years Shint[=o] as a religion, except in a few isolated spots, ceased +from sight and sank to a mere mythology or to the shadow of a mythology. +The very knowledge even of the ancient traditions was lost in the +Buddhaized forms in which the old stories[33] were cast, or in the +omnipresent ritual of the Buddhist tera. + +Yet, after all, it is a question as to which suffered most, Buddhism or +Shint[=o]. Who can tell which was the base and which was the true metal +in the alloy that was formed? The San Kai Ri shows how superstitious +manifold became imbedded in Buddhism. It was not alone through the +Shingon sect, which K[=o]b[=o] introduced, that this Yoga or union came. +In the other great sect called the Tendai, and in the later sects, more +especially in that of Nichiren, the same principle of absorption was +followed. These sects also adopted many elements derived from the +god-way and thus became Shint[=o]ized. Indeed, it seems certain that +that vast development of Japanese Buddhism, peculiar to Japan and +unknown to the rest of the Buddhist world, scouted by the Southern +Buddhists as dreadful heresy, and rousing the indignation of students of +early Buddhism, like Max Mueller and Professor Whitney, is largely owing +to this attempted digestion of Japanese mythology. The anaconda may +indeed be able, by reason of its marvellously flexible jaws and its +abundant activity of salivary glands, to swallow the calf, and even the +ox; but sometimes the serpent is killed by its own voracity, or at least +made helpless before the destroying hunter. When sweet potatoes and +pumpkins are planted in the same hill, and the cooked product comes on +the table, it is hard to tell whether it is tuber or hollow fruit, +subterranean or superficial growth, that we are eating. So in Riy[=o]bu, +whether it be most _imo_ or _kabocha_ is a fair question. If the +Buddhism in Japan did but add a chapter of decay and degradation to the +religion of the Light of Asia, is not this owing to the act of +K[=o]b[=o]--justified indeed by those who imitated his example, yet +hardly to be called honest? A stroke of ecclesiastical dexterity, it may +have been, but scarcely a lawful example or an illustrious and +commendable specimen of syncretism in religion. + +Many students have asked what is the peculiar, the characteristic +difference between the Buddhism of Japan and the other Buddhisms of the +Asian continent. If there be one cause, leading all others, we incline +to believe it is because Japanese Buddhism is not the Buddhism of +Gautama, but is so largely Riy[=o]bu or Mixed. Yet in the alloy, which +ingredient has preserved most of its qualities? Is Japanese Buddhism +really Shint[=o]ized Buddhism, or Buddhaized Shint[=o]? Which is the +parasite and which the parasitized? Is the hermit crab Shint[=o], and +the shell Buddhism, or _vice versa_? About as many corrupt elements from +Shint[=o] entered into the various Buddhist sects as Buddhism gave to +Shint[=o]. + +This process of Shint[=o]izing Buddhism or of Buddhaizing +Shint[=o]--that is, of combining Shint[=o] or purely Japanese ideas and +practices with the systems imported from India, went on for five +centuries. The old native habits and mental characteristics were not +eradicated or profoundly modified; they were rather safely preserved in +so-called Buddhism, not indeed as dead flies in amber but as live +creatures, fattening on a body, which, every year, while keeping outward +form and name, was being emptied of its normal and typical life. It is +no gain to pure water to add either microbes or the food which nourishes +them. + + +Buddhism Writes New Chapters of Decay. + + +Phenomenally, the victory was that of Buddhism. The mustard-seed has +indeed become a great tree, lodging every fowl of heaven, clean and +unclean; but potentially and in reality, the leavening power, as now +seen, seems to have been that of Shint[=o]. Or, to change metaphor, +since the hermit crab and the shell were separated by law only one +generation ago, in 1870, we shall soon, before many generations, discern +clearly which has the life and which has only the shell.[34] + +There are but few literary monuments[35] of Riy[=o]buism, and it has +left few or no marks in the native chronicles, misnamed history, which +utterly omit or ignore so many things interesting to the student and +humanist.[36] Yet to this mixture or amalgamation of Buddhism with +Shint[=o], more probably than to any other direct influence, may also be +ascribed that striking alteration in the system of Chinese ethics or +Confucianism which differentiates the Japanese form from that prevalent +in China. That is, instead of filial piety, the relation of parent and +child, occupying the first place, loyalty, the relation of lord and +retainer, master and servant, became supreme. Although Buddhism made the +Mikado first a King (Tenn[=o]) or Son of Heaven (Ten-Shi), and then a +monk (H[=o]-[=o]), and after his death a Hotoke or Buddhist deity, it +caused him early to abdicate from actual life. Buddhism is thus directly +responsible for the habitual Japanese resignation from active life +almost as soon as it is entered, by men in all classes. Buddhism started +all along and down through the lines of Japanese society the idea of +early retirement from duty; so that men were considered old at forty, +and _hors concours_ before forty-five.[37] Life was condemned as vanity +of vanities before it was mature, and old age a friend that nobody +wished to meet,[38] although Japanese old age is but European prime. In +a measure, Buddhism is thus responsible for the paralysis of Japanese +civilization, which, like oft-tapped maple-trees, began to die at the +top. This was in accordance with its theories and its literature. In the +Bible there is, possibly, one book which is pessimistic in tone, +Ecclesiastes. In the bulky and dropsical canon of Buddhism there is a +whole library of despondency and despair. + +Nevertheless, the ethical element held its own in the Japanese mind; and +against the pessimism and puerility of Buddhism and the religious +emptiness of Shint[=o], the bond of Japanese society was sought in the +idea of loyalty. While then, as we repeat, everything that comes to the +Japanese mind suffers as it were "a sea change, into something new and +strange," is it not fair to say that the change made by K[=o]b[=o] was +at the expense of Buddhism as a system, and that the thing that suffered +reversion was the exotic rather than the native plant? For, in the +emergence of this new idea of loyalty as supreme, Shint[=o] and not +Buddhism was the dictator. + +Even more after K[=o]b[=o]'s death than during his life, Japan improved +upon her imported faith, and rapidly developed new sects of all degrees +of reputableness and disreputableness. Had K[=o]b[=o] lived on through +the centuries, as the boors still believe;[39] he could not have +stopped, had he so desired, the workings of the leaven he had brought +from China. From the sixth to the twelfth century, was the missionary +age of Japanese Buddhism. Then followed two centuries of amazing +development of doctrine. Novelties in religion blossomed, fruited and +became monuments as permanent as the age-enduring forests Hakone, or +Nikk[=o]. Gautama himself, were he to return to "red earth" again, could +not recognize his own cult in Japan. + +In China to-day Buddhism is in a bad state. One writer calls it, "The +emasculated descendant that now occupies the land with its drone of +priests and its temples, in which scarce a worthy disciple of the +learned patriarchs of ancient days is to be found. Received with open +arms, persecuted, patronized, smiled upon, tolerated, it with the last +phase of its existence, has reached, not the halcyon days of peace and +rest, but its final stage, foreshadowing its decay from rottenness and +corruption."[40] So also, in a like report, agree many witnesses. The +common people of China are to-day Taoists rather than Buddhists.[41] + +If this be the position in China, something not very far from it is +found in Japan to-day. Whatever may be the Buddhism of the few learned +scholars, who have imbibed the critical and scientific spirit of +Christendom, and whatever be the professions and representations of its +earnest adherents and partisans, it is certain that popular Buddhism is +both ethically and vitally in a low state. In outward array the system +is still imposing. There are yet, it may be, millions of stone statues +and whole forests of wayside effigies, outdoors and +unroofed--irreverently called by the Japanese themselves, "wet gods." +Hosts upon hosts of lacquered and gilded images in wood, sheltered under +the temple tiles or shingles, still attract worshippers. Despite +shiploads of copper Buddhas exported as old metal to Europe and America, +and thousands of tons of gods and imps melted into coin or cannon, there +are myriads of metal reminders of those fruits of a religion that once +educated and satisfied; but these are, in the main, no longer to the +natives instruments of inspiration or compellers to enthusiasm. In this +time of practical charity, they are poor substitutes for those hospitals +and orphan asylums which were practically unknown in Japan until the +advent of Christianity. + +K[=o]b[=o]'s smart example has been followed only too well by the people +in every part of the country. One has but to read the stacks of books of +local history to see what an amazing proportion of legends, ideas, +superstitions and revelations rests on dreams; how incredibly numerous +are the apparitions; how often the floating images of Buddha are found +on the water; how frequently flowers have rained out of the sky; how +many times the idols have spoken or shot forth their dazzling rays--in a +word; how often art and artifices have become alleged and accepted +reality. Unfortunately, the characteristics of this literature and +undergrowth of idol lore are monotony and lack of originality; for +nearly all are copies of K[=o]b[=o]'s model. His cartoon has been +constantly before the busy weavers of legend. + +It may indeed be said, and said truly, that in its multiplication of +sects and in its growth of legend and superstition, Buddhism has but +followed every known religion, including traditional Christianity +itself. Yet popular Buddhism has reached a point which shows, that, +instead of having a self-purgative and self-reforming power, it is +apparently still treading in the steps of the degradation which +K[=o]b[=o]began. + + +The Seven Gods of Good Fortune. + + +We repeat it, Riy[=o]bu Buddhism is Japanese Buddhism with vengeance. It +is to-day suffering from the effect of its own sins. Its _ingwa_ is +manifest. Take, for example, the little group of divinities known as the +Seven Gods of Good Fortune, which forms a popular appendage to Japanese +Buddhism and which are a direct and logical growth of the work done by +K[=o]b[=o], as shown in his Riy[=o]bu system. Not from foreign writers +and their fancies, nor even from the books which profess to describe +these divinities, do we get such an idea of their real meaning and of +their influence with the people, as we do by observation of every-day +practice, and a study of the idols themselves and of Japanese folk-lore, +popular romance, local history and guidebooks. Those familiar +divinities, indeed, at the present day owe their vitality rather to the +artists than to priests, and, it may be, have received, together with +some rather rude handling, nearly the whole of their extended popularity +and influence from their lay supporters. The Seven Happy Gods of Fortune +form nominally a Buddhist assemblage, and their effigies on the +kami-dana or god-shelf, found in nearly every Japanese house, are +universally visible. The child in Japan is rocked to sleep by the +soothing sound of the lullaby, which is often a prayer to these gods. +Even though it may be with laughing and merriment, that, in their name +the evil gods and imps are exorcised annually on New Year's eve, with +showers of beans which are supposed to be as disagreeable to the +Buddhist demons "as drops of holy water to the Devil," yet few +households are complete without one or more of the images or the +pictures of these favorite deities. + +The separate elements of this conglomerate, so typical of Japanese +religion, are from no fewer than four different sources: Brahmanism, +Buddhism, Taoism and Shint[=o]ism. "Thus, Bishamon is the Buddhist +_Vais'ramana_[42] and the Brahmanic Kuvera; Benten is Sarasvati, the +wife of Brahma; Daikoku is an extremely popularised form of Mahakala, +the black-faced Temple Guardian; Hotei has Taoist attributes, but is +regarded as an incarnation of Maitreya, the Buddhist Messiah; +Fuku-roku-jiu is of purely Taoist origin, and is perhaps a +personification of Lao-Tsze himself; Ju-ro-jin is almost certainly a +duplicate of Fuku-roku-jiu; and, lastly, Ebisu, as the son of Izanagi +and Izanami, is a contribution from the Shint[=o] hero-worship."[43] If +Riy[=o]bu Buddhism be two-fold, here is a texture or amalgam that is +_shi-bu_, four-fold. Let us watch lest _go-bu_, with Christianity mixed +in, be the next result of the process. To play the Japanese game of +go-ban, with Christianity as the fifth counter, and Jesus as a +Palestinian avatar of some Dhyani Buddha, crafty priests in Japan are +even now planning. + +This illustration of the Seven Gods of Happiness, whose local +characters, functions and relations have been developed especially +within the last three or four hundred years, is but one of many that +could be adduced, showing what proceeded on a larger scale. The +Riy[=o]bu process made it almost impossible for the average native to +draw the line between history and mythology. It destroyed the boundary +lines, as Pantheism invariably does, between fact and fiction, truth and +falsehood. The Japanese mind, by a natural, possibly by a racial, +tendency, falls easily into Pantheism, which may be called the destroyer +of boundaries and the maker of chaos and ooze. Pretty much all early +Japanese "history" is ooze; yet there are grave and learned men, even in +the Constitutional Japan of the Meiji era--masters in their arts and +professions, graduates of technical and philosophical courses--who +solemnly talk about their "first emperor ascending the throne, B.C. +660," and to whom the dragon-born, early Mikados, and their +fellow-tribesmen, seen through the exaggerated mists of the Kojiki, are +divine personages. + + +The Gon-gen in the Processions. + + +While living in Japan between 1870 and 1874, the writer used to enjoy +watching and studying the long processions which celebrated the +foundation of temples, national or local festivals, or the completion of +some great public enterprise, such as the railway between T[=o]kio and +Yokohama. In rich costume, decoration, and representation most of the +cultus-objects were marvels of art and skill. Besides the gala dresses +and uniforms, the fantastic decorations and personal adornments, the +dances which represented the comedies and tragedies of the gods and the +striking scenes in the Kojiki, there wore colossal images of Kami, +Bodhisattvas, Gon-gen, Dai Mi[=o] Jin, and of imps, oni, mythical animal +forms and imaginary monsters.[44] More interesting than anything else, +however, were the male and female figures, set high upon triumphal cars +having many tiers, and arrayed in characteristic primeval, ancient, +medieval, or early modern dress. Some were of scowling, others of benign +visage. In some years, everyone of the eight hundred and eight streets +of Yedo sent its contribution of men, money, decorations, or vehicles. + +As seen by four kinds of spectators, the average ignorant native, the +Shint[=o]ist, the learned Buddhist, and the critical historical scholar, +these effigies represented three different characters or creations. +Especially were those divine personages called Gon-gen worth the study +of the foreign observer. + +(1) The common boor or streetman saluted, for example, this or that Dai +Mi[=o] Jin, as the great illustrious spirit or god of its particular +district. To this spirit and image he prayed; in his honor he made +offerings; his wrath he feared; and his smile he hoped to win, for the +Gon-gen was a divine being. + +(2) To the Shint[=o]ist, who hated Buddhism and the Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o] +which had overlaid his ancestral faith, and who scorned and tabooed this +Chinese term Dai Mi[=o] Jin, this or that image represented a divine +ancestor whose name had in it many Japanese syllables, with no defiling +Chinese sounds, and who was the Kami or patron deity of this or that +neighborhood. + +(3) To the Buddhist, this or that personage, in his lifetime, in the +early ages of Japanese history, had been an avatar of Buddha who had +appeared in human flesh and brought blessings to the people and +neighborhood; yet the people of the early ages being unprepared to +receive his doctrine or revelation, he had not then revealed or preached +it; but now, as for a thousand years since the time of the illustrious +and saintly K[=o]b[=o], he had his right name and received his just +honors and worship as an avatar of the eternal Buddha. So, although +Buddhist and Shint[=o]ist might quarrel as to his title, and divide, +even to anger, on minor points, they would both agree in letting the +common people take their pleasure, enjoy the festivals and merriment, +and preserve their reverence and worship. + +(4) Still another spectator studied with critical interest the swaying +figure high in air. With a taste for archaeology, he admired the +accuracy of the drapery and associations. He was amused, it may be, with +occasional anachronisms as to garments or equipments. He knew that the +original of this personage had been nothing more than a human being, who +might indeed have been conspicuous as a brave soldier in war, or as a +skilful physician who helped to stop the plague, or as a civilizer who +imported new food or improved agriculture. + +In a word, had this subject of the ancient Mikado lived in modern +Christendom, he might be honored through the government, patent office, +privy council, the admiralty, the university, or the academy, as the +case or worth might be. He might shine in a plastic representation by +the sculptor or artist, or be known in the popular literature; but he +would never receive religious worship, or aught beyond honor and praise. +In this swamping of history in legend and of fact in dogma, we behold +the fruit of K[=o]b[=o]'s work, Riy[=o]bu Buddhism. + + +K[=o]b[=o]'s Work Undone. + + +Buddhism calls itself the jewel in the lotus. Japanese poetry asks of +the dewdrop "why, having the heart of the lotus for its home, does it +pretend to be a gem?" For a thousand years Riy[=o]bu Buddhism was +received as a pure brilliant of the first water, and then the +scholarship of the Shint[=o] revivalists of the eighteenth century +exposed the fraudulent nature of the unrelated parts and declared that +the jewel called Riy[=o]bu was but a craftsman's doublet and should be +split apart. Only a splinter of diamond, they declared, crowned a mass +of paste. Indignation made learning hot, and in 1870 the cement was +liquefied in civil war. The doublet was rent asunder by imperial decree, +as when a lapidist melts the mastic that holds in deception adamant and +glass, while real diamond stands all fire short of the hydro-oxygen +flame. The Riy[=o]bu temples were purged of all Buddhist symbols, +furniture, equipment and personnel, and were made again to assume their +august and austere simplicity. In the eyes of the purely aesthetic +critic, this national purgation was Puritanical iconoclasm; in those of +the priests, cast out to earn rice elsewise and elsewhere, it was +outrage, which in individual instances called for reprisal in blood, +fire and assassination; to the Shint[=o]ist, it was an exhibition of the +righteous judgment of the long-insulted gods; in the ken of the critical +student, it seems very much like historic and poetic justice. + +In our day and time, Riy[=o]bu Buddhism furnishes us with a warning, +for, looked at from a purely human point of view, what happened to +Shint[=o] may possibly happen to Japanese Christianity. The successors +of those who, in the ninth century, did not scruple to Buddhaize +Shint[=o], and in later times, even our own, to Shint[=o]ize Buddhism +while holding to Buddha's name and all the revenue possible, will +Buddhaize Christianity if they have power and opportunity; and signs are +not wanting to show that this is upon their programme. + +The water of stagnant Buddhism is still a swarming mass, which needs +cleansing to purity by a knowledge of one God who is Light and Love. +Without such knowledge, the manifold changes in Buddhism will but form +fresh chapters of degradation and decay. Holding such knowledge, +Christianity may pass through endless changes, for this is her +capability by Divine power and the authorization of her Founder. The now +Buddhism of our day is endeavoring to save itself through reformation +and progress. In doing so, the danger of the destruction of the system +is great, for thus far change has meant decay. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS + + + "To the millions of China, Corea, and Japan, creator and + creation are new and strange terms,"--J.H. De Forest. + + "The Law of our Lord, the Buddha, is not a natural science or a + religion, but a doctrine of enlightenment; and the object of it + is to give rest to the restless, to point out the Master (the + Inmost Man) to those that are blind and do not perceive their + Original State." + + "The Saddharma Pundarika Sutra teaches us how to obtain that + desirable knowledge of the mind as it is in itself [universal + wisdom] ... Mind is the One Reality, and all Scriptures are the + micrographic photographs of its images. He that fully grasps the + Divine Body of Sakyamuni, holds ever, even without the written + Sutra, the inner Saddharma Pundarika in his hand. He ever reads + it mentally, even though he would never read it orally. He is + unified with it though he has no thought about it. He is the + true keeper of the Sutra."--Zitsuzen Ashitsu of the Tendai sect. + + "It [Buddhism] is idealistic. Everything is as we think it. The + world is my idea.... Beyond our faith is naught. Hold the + Buddhist to his creed and insist that such logic destroys + itself, and he triumphs smilingly, 'Self-destructive! Of course + it is. All logic is. That is the centre of my philosophy.'" + + "It [Buddhism] denounces all desire and offers salvation as the + reward of the murder of our affections, hopes, and aspirations. + It is possible where conscious existence is believed to be the + chief of evils."--George William Knox. + + "Swallowing the device of the priests, the people well + satisfied, dance their prayers."--Japanese Proverb. + + "The wisdom that is from above is ... without variance, without + hypocrisy."--James. + + "The mystery of God, even Christ in whom are all the treasures + of wisdom and knowledge."--Paul. + + +CHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS + +Chronological Outline. + + +In sketching the history of the doctrinal developments of Buddhism in +Japan, we note that the system, greatly corrupted from its original +simplicity, was in 552 A.D. already a millennium old. Several distinct +phases of the much-altered faith of Gautama, were introduced into the +islands at various times between the sixth and the ninth century. From +these and from others of native origin have sprung the larger Japanese +sects. Even as late as the seventeenth century, novelties in Buddhism +were imported from China, and the exotics took root in Japanese soil; +but then, with a single exception, only to grow as curiosities in the +garden, rather than as the great forests, which had already sprung from +imported and native specimens. + +We may divide the period of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in +Japan into four epochs: + +I. The first, from 552 to 805 A.D., will cover the first six sects, +which had for their centre of propagation, Nara, the southern capital. + +II. Then follows Riy[=o]bu Buddhism, from the ninth to the twelfth +centuries. + +III. This was succeeded by another explosion of doctrine wholly and +peculiarly Japanese, and by a wide missionary propagation. + +IV. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, there is little that +is doctrinally noticeable, until our own time, when the new Buddhism of +to-day claims at least a passing notice. + +The Japanese writers of ecclesiastical history classify in three groups +the twelve great sects as the first six, the two mediaeval, and the four +modern sects. + +In this lecture we shall merely summarize the characteristics of the +first five sects which existed before the opening of the ninth century +but which are not formally extant at the present time, and treat more +fully the purely Japanese developments. The first three sects may be +grouped under the head of the Hinayana, or Smaller Vehicle, as Southern +or primitive orthodox Buddhism is usually called. + +Most of the early sects, as will be seen, were founded upon some +particular sutra, or upon selections or collections of sutras. They +correspond to some extent with the manifold sects of Christendom, and +yet this illustration or reference must not be misleading. It is not as +though a new Christian sect, for example, were in A.D. 500 to be formed +wholly on the gospel of Luke, or the book of the Revelation; nor as +though a new sect should now arise in Norway or Tennessee because of a +special emphasis laid on a combination of the epistle to the Corinthians +and the book of Daniel. It is rather as though distinct names and +organizations should be founded upon the writings of Tertullian, of +Augustine, of Luther, or of Calvin, and that such sects should accept +the literary work of these scholars not only as commentaries but as Holy +Scripture itself. + +The Buddhist body of scriptures has several times been imported and +printed in Japan, but has never been translated into the vernacular. The +canon[1] is not made up simply of writings purporting to be the words of +Buddha or of the apostles who were his immediate companions or +followers. On the contrary, the canon, as received in Japan, is made up +of books, written for the most part many centuries after the last of the +contemporaries of Gautama had passed away. Not a few of these writings +are the products of the Chinese intellect. Some books held by particular +sects as holy scripture were composed in Japan itself, the very books +themselves being worshipped. Nevertheless those who are apparently +farthest away from primitive Buddhism, claim to understand Buddha most +clearly. + + +The Standard Doctrinal Work. + + +One of the most famous of books, honored especially by several of the +later and larger sects in Japan, and probably the most widely read and +most generally studied book of the canon, is the Saddharma Pundarika.[2] +Professor Kern, who has translated this very rhetorical work into +English, thinks it existed at or some time before 250 A.D., and that in +its most ancient form it dates some centuries earlier, possibly as early +as the opening of the Christian era. It has now twenty-seven chapters, +and may be called the typical scripture of Northern Buddhism. It is +overflowingly full of those sensuous images and descriptions of the +Paradise, in which the imagination of the Japanese Buddhist so revels, +and in it both rhetoric and mathematics run wild. Of this book, "the +cream of the revealed doctrine," we shall hear often again. It is the +standard of orthodoxy in Japanese Buddhism, the real genius of which is +monastic asceticism in morals and philosophical scepticism in religion. + +In most of the other sutras the burden of thought is ontology. +Doctrinally, Buddhism seems to be less a religion than a system of +philosophy. Hundreds of volumes in the canon concern themselves almost +wholly with ontological speculations. The Japanese mind,[3] as described +by those who have studied most acutely and profoundly its manifestations +in language and literature, is essentially averse to speculation. Yet +the first forms of Buddhism presented to the Japanese, were highly +metaphysical. The history of thought in Japan, shows that these +abstractions of dogma were not congenial to the islanders. The new faith +won its way among the people by its outward sensuous attractions, and by +appeals to the imagination, the fancy and the emotions; though the men +of culture were led captive by reasoning which they could not answer, +even if they could comprehend it. Though these early forms of dogma and +philosophy no longer survive in Japan, having been eclipsed by more +concrete and sensuous arguments, yet it is necessary to state them in +order to show: first, what Buddhism really is; second, doctrinal +development in the farthest East; and, third, the peculiarities of the +Japanese mind. + +In this task, we are happy to be able to rely upon native witness and +confession.[4] The foreigner may easily misrepresent, even when +sincerely inclined to utter only the truth. Each religion, in its theory +at least, must be judged by its ideals, and not by its failures. Its +truth must be stated by its own professors. In the "History of The +Twelve Japanese Sects," by Bunyiu Nanjio, M.A. Oxon., and in "Le +Bouddhisme Japonais," by Ryauon Fujishima, we have the untrammelled +utterances, of nine living lights of the religion of Shaka as it is held +and taught in Dai Nippon. The former scholar is a master of texts, and +the latter of philosophy, each editor excelling in his own department; +and the two books complement each other in value. + +Buddhism, being a logical growth out of Brahmanism, used the old sacred +language of India and inherited its vocabulary. In the Tripitaka, that +is, the three book-baskets or boxes, we have the term for canon of +scripture, in the complete collection of which are _sutra_, _vinaya_ and +_abidharma_. We shall see, also, that while Gautama shut out the gods, +his speculative followers who claimed to be his successors, opened the +doors and allowed them to troop in again. The democracy of the +congregation became a hierarchy and the empty swept and garnished house, +a pantheon. + +A sutra, from the root _siv_, to sew, means a thread or string, and in +the old Veda religion referred to household rites or practices and the +moral conduct of life; but in Buddhist phraseology it means a body of +doctrine. A shaster or shastra, from the Sanskrit root _cas_, to govern, +relates to discipline. Of those shastras and sutras we must frequently +speak. In India and China some of those sutras are exponents, of schools +of thought or opinion, or of views or methods of looking at things, +rather than of organizations. In Japan these schools of philosophy, in +certain instances, become sects with a formal history. + +In China of the present day, according to a Japanese traveller and +author, "the Chinese Buddhists seem ... to unite all different sects, so +as to make one harmonious sect." The chief divisions are those of the +blue robe, who are allied with the Lamaism of Tibet and whose doctrine +is largely "esoteric," and those of the yellow robe, who accept the +three fundamentals of principle, teaching and discipline. Dhyana or +contemplation is their principle; the Kegon or Avatamsaka sutra and the +Hokke or Saddharma Pundarika sutra, etc., form the basis of their +teaching; and the Vinaya of the Four Divisions (Dharmagupta) is their +discipline. On the contrary, in Japan there are vastly greater +diversities of sect, principle, teaching and discipline. + + +Buddhism as a System of Metaphysics. + + +The date of the birth of the Buddha in India, accepted by the Japanese +scholars is B.C. 1027--the day and month being also given with +suspicious accuracy. About nine centuries after Gautama had attained +Nirvana, there were eighteen schools of the Hinayana or the doctrine of +the Smaller Vehicle. Then a shastra or institute of Buddhist ontology in +nine chapters, was composed, the title of which in English, is, Book of +the Treasury of Metaphysics. It had such a powerful influence that it +was called an intelligence-creating, or as we say, an epoch-making book. + +This Ku-sha shastra, from the Sanskrit _kosa_, a store, is eclectic, and +contains nine chapters embodying the views of one of the schools, with +selections from those of others. It was translated in A.D. 563, into +Chinese by a Hindu scholar; but about a hundred years later the famous +pilgrim, whom the Japanese call Gen-j[=o], but who is known in Europe as +Hiouen Thsang,[5] made a better translation, while his disciples added +commentaries. + +In A.D. 658, two Japanese priests[6] made the sea-journey westward into +China, as Gen-j[=o] had before made the land pilgrimage into India, and +became pupils of the famous pilgrim. After long study they returned, +bringing the Chinese translation of this shastra into Japan. They did +not form an independent sect; but the doctrines of this shastra, being +eclectic, were studied by all Japanese Buddhist sects. This Ku-sha +scripture is still read in Japan as a general institute of ontology, +especially by advanced students who wish to get a general idea of the +doctrines. It is full of technical terms, and is well named The +Store-house of Metaphysics. + +The Ku-sha teaches control of the passions, and the government of +thought. The burden of its philosophy is materialism; that is, the +non-existence of self and the existence of the matter which composes +self, or, as the Japanese writer says: "The reason why all things are so +minutely explained in this shastra is to drive away the idea of self, +and to show the truth in order to make living beings reach Nirvana." +Among the numerous categories, to express which many technical terms are +necessary, are those of "forms," eleven in number, including the five +senses and the six objects of sense; the six kinds of knowledge; the +forty-six mental qualities, grouped under six heads; and the fourteen +conceptions separated from the mind; thus making in all seventy-two +compounded things and three immaterial things. These latter are +"conscious cessation of existence," "unconscious cessation of +existence," and "space." + +The Reverend Shuzan Emura, of the Shin-shu sect of Japan, after +specifying these seventy-five Dharmas, or things compounded and things +immaterial, says:[7] "The former include all things that proceed from a +cause. This cause is Karma, to which everything existing is due, Space +and Nirvana alone excepted. Again, of the three immaterial things the +last two are not subjects to be understood by the wisdom not free from +frailty. Therefore the 'conscious cessation of existence' is considered +as being the goal of all effort to him who longs for deliverance from +misery." + +In a word, this one of the many Buddhisms of Asia is vastly less a +religion, in any real sense of the word, than a system of metaphysics. +However, the doctrine to be mastered is graded in three Yanas or +Vehicles; for there are now, as in the days of Shaka, three classes of +being, graded according to their ability or power to understand "the +truth." These are: + +(I.) The Sho-mon or lowest of the disciples of Shaka, or hearers who +meditate on the cause and effect of everything. If acute in +understanding, they become free from confusion after three births; but +if they are dull, they pass sixty kalpas[8] or aeons before they attain +to the state of enlightenment. + +(II.) The Engaku or Pratyeka Buddhas, that is, "singly enlightened," or +beings in the middle state, who must extract the seeds or causes of +actions, and must meditate on the twelve chains of causation, or +understand the non-eternity of the world, while gazing upon the falling +flowers or leaves. They attain enlightenment after four births or a +hundred kalpas, according to their ability. + +(III.) The Bodhisattvas or Buddhas-elect, who practise the six +perfections (perfect practice of alms-giving, morality, patience, +energy, meditation and wisdom) as preliminaries to Nirvana, which they +reach only after countless kalpas. + +These three grades of pupils in the mysteries of Buddha doctrine, are +said to have been ordered by Shaka himself, because understanding human +beings so thoroughly, he knew that one person could not comprehend two +ways or vehicles (Yana) at once. People were taught therefore to +practise anyone of the three vehicles at pleasure. + +We shall see how the later radical and democratic Japanese Buddhism +swept away this gradation, and declaring but the one vehicle (eka), +opened the kingdom to all believers. + +The second of the early Japanese schools of thought, is the +J[=o]-jitsu,[9] or the sect founded chiefly upon the shastra which means +The Book of the Perfection of the Truth, containing selections from and +explanations of the true meaning of the Tripitaka. This shastra was the +work of a Hindu whose name means Lion-armor, and who lived about nine +centuries after Gautama. Not satisfied with the narrow views of his +teacher, who may have been of the Dharmagupta school (of the four +Disciplines), he made selections of the best and broadest +interpretations then current in the several different schools of the +Smaller Vehicle. The book is eclectic, and attempts to unite all that +was best in each of the Hinayana schools; but certain Chinese teachers +consider that its explanations are applicable to the Great Vehicle also. +Translated into Chinese in 406 A.D., the commentaries upon it soon +numbered hundreds, and it was widely expounded and lectured upon. +Commentaries upon this shastra were also written in Korean by +D[=o]-z[=o]. From the peninsula it was introduced into Japan. This +J[=o]-jitsu doctrine was studied by prince Sh[=o]toku, and promulgated +as a division of the school called San-Ron. The students of the +J[=o]-jitsu school never formed in Japan a distinct organization. + +The burden of the teachings of this school is pure nihilism, or the +non-existence of both self and of matter. There is an utter absence of +substantiality in all things. Life itself is a prolonged dream. The +objects about us are mere delusive shadows or mirage, the product of the +imagination alone. The past and the future are without reality, but the +present state of things only stands as if it were real. That is to say: +the true state of things is constantly changing, yet it seems as if the +state of things were existing, even as does a circle of fire seen when a +rope watch is turned round very quickly. + + +Japanese Pilgrims to China. + + +The Ris-shu or Vinaya sect is one of purely Chinese origin, and was +founded, or rather re-founded, by the Chinese priest D[=o]sen, who lived +on Mount Shunan early in the seventh century, and claimed to be only +re-proclaiming the rules given by Gautama himself. He was well +acquainted with the Tripitaka and especially versed in the Vinaya or +rules of discipline. His purpose was to unite the teachings of both the +Greater and the Lesser Vehicle in a sutra whose burden should be one of +ethics and not of dogma. + +The founder of this sect was greatly honored by the Chinese Emperor. +Furthermore, he was honored in vision by the holy Pindola or +Binzura,[10] who praised the founder as the best man that had +promulgated the discipline since Buddha himself. In later centuries, +successors of the founder compiled commentaries and reproclaimed the +teachings of this sect. + +In A.D. 724 two Japanese priests went over to China, and having mastered +the Ris-shu doctrine, received permission to propagate it in Japan. With +eighty-two Chinese priests they returned a few years later, having +attempted, it is said, the journey five times and spent twelve years on +the sea. On their return, they received an imperial invitation to live +in the great monastery at Nara, and soon their teachings exerted a +powerful influence on the court. The emperor, empress and four hundred +persons of note were received into the Buddhist communion by a Chinese +priest of the Ris-shu school in the middle of the eighth century. The +Mikado Sh[=o]-mu resigned his throne and took the vow and robes of a +monk, becoming H[=o]-[=o] or cloistered emperor. Under imperial +direction a great bronze image of the Vairokana Buddha, or Perfection of +Morality, was erected, and terraces, towers, images and all the +paraphernalia of the new kind of Buddhism were prepared. Even the earth +was embroidered, as it were, with sutras and shastras. Symbolical +landscape gardening, which, in its mounds and paths, variously shaped +stones and lanterns, artificial cascades and streamlets, teaches the +holy geography as well as the allegories and hidden truths of Buddhism, +made the city of Nara beautiful to the eyes of faith as well as of +sight. + +This sect, with its excellence in morality and benevolence, proved +itself a beautifier of human life, of society and of the earth itself. +Its work was an irenicon. It occupied itself exclusively with the higher +ethics, the higher meditations and the higher knowledge. Interdicting +what was evil and prescribing what was good, its precepts varied in +number and rigor according to the status of the disciple, lay or +clerical. It is by the observance of the _sila_, or grades of moral +perfection, that one becomes a Buddha. Besides making so powerful a +conquest at the southern capital, this sect was the one which centuries +afterward built the first Buddhist temple in Yedo. Being ordinary human +mortals, however, both monk and layman occasionally illustrated the +difference between profession and practice. + +These three schools or sects, Ku-sha, J[=o]-jitsu, and Ris-shu, may be +grouped under the Hinayana or Smaller Vehicle, with more or less +affiliation with Southern Buddhism; the others now to be described were +wholly of the Northern division. + +The Hoss[=o]-shu, or the Dharma-lakshana sect, as described by the Rev. +Dai-ryo Takashi of the Shin-gon sect, is the school which studies the +nature of Dharmas or things. The three worlds of desire, form and +formlessness, consist in thought only; and there is nothing outside +thought. Nine centuries after Gautama, Maitreya,[11] or the Buddha of +kindness, came down from the heaven of the Bodhisattva to the +lecture-hall in the kingdom in central India at the request of the +Buddhas elect, and discounted five shastras. After that two Buddhist +fathers who were brothers, composed many more shastras and cleared up +the meaning of the Mah[=a]yan[=a]. In 629 A.D., in his twenty-ninth +year, the famous Chinese pilgrim, Gen-j[=o] (Hiouen-thsang), studied +these shastras and sciences, and returning to China in 645 A.D., began +his great work of translation, at which he continued for nineteen years. +One of his disciples was the author of a hundred commentaries on sutras +and shastras. The doctrines of Gen-j[=o] and his disciples were at four +different times, from 653 to 712 A.D., imported into Japan, and named, +after the monasteries in which they were promulgated, the Northern and +Southern Transmission. + + +The Middle Path. + + +The burden of the teachings of this sect is subjective idealism. They +embrace principles enjoining complete indifference to mundane affairs, +and, in fact, thorough personal nullification and the ignoring of all +actions by its disciples. In these teachings, thought only, is real. As +we have already seen with the Ku-sha teaching, human beings are of three +classes, divided according to intellect, into higher, middle and lower, +for whom the systems of teachings are necessarily of as many kinds. The +order of progress with those who give themselves to the study of the +Hoss[=o] tenets, is,[12] first, they know only the existence of things, +then the emptiness of them, and finally they enter the middle path of +"true emptiness and wonderful existence." + +From the first, such discipline is long and painful, and ultimate +victory scarcely comes to the ordinary being. The disciple, by training +in thought, by destroying passions and practices, by meditating on the +only knowledge, must pass through three kalpas or aeons. Constantly +meditating, and destroying the two obstacles of passion and cognizable +things, the disciple then obtains four kinds of wisdom and truly attains +perfect enlightenment or Pari-Nirvana. + +The San-ron Shu, as the Three-Shastra sect calls itself, is the sect of +the Teachings of Buddha's whole life.[13] Other sects are founded upon +single sutras, a fact which makes the student liable to narrowness of +opinion. The San-ron gives greater breadth of view and catholicity of +opinion. The doctrines of the Greater Vehicle are the principal +teachings of Gautama, and these are thoroughly explained in the three +shastras used by this sect, which, it is claimed, contain Buddha's own +words. The meanings of the titles of the three favorite sutras, are, The +Middle Book, The Hundred, and The Book of Twelve Gates. Other books of +the canon are also studied and valued by this sect, but all of them are +apt to be perused from a particular point of view; i.e., that of +Pyrronism or infinite negation. + +There are two lines of the transmission of this doctrine, both of them +through China, though, the introduction to Japan was made from Korea, in +625 A.D. Not to dwell upon the detail of history, the burden of this +sect's teaching, is, infinite negation or absolute nihilism. Truth is +the inconceivable state, or, in the words of the Japanese writer: "The +truth is nothing but the state where thoughts come to an end; the right +meditation is to perceive this truth. He who has obtained this +meditation is called Buddha. This is this doctrine of the San-ron sect." + +This sect, by its teachings of the Middle Path, seems to furnish a +bridge from the Hinayana or Southern school, to the Mah[=a]yan[=a] or +Northern school of Buddhism. Part of its work, as set forth by the Rev. +K[=o]-ch[=o] Ogurasu, of the Shin sect, is to defend the authenticity, +genuineness and canonicity of the books which form the Northern body of +scriptures. + +In these two sects Hos-s[=o] and San-ron, called those of Middle Path, +and much alike in principle and teaching, the whole end and aim of +mental discipline, is nihilism--in the one case subjective, and in the +other absolute, the end and goal being nothing--this view into the +nature of things being considered the right one. + +Is it any wonder that such teachings could in the long run satisfy +neither the trained intellects nor the unthinking common people of +Japan? Is it far from the truth to suspect that, even when accepted by +the Japanese courtiers and nobles, they were received, only too often, +in a Platonic, not to say a Pickwickian, sense? The Japanese is too +polite to say "no" if he can possibly say "yes," even when he does not +mean it; while the common people all over the world, as between +metaphysics and polytheism, choose the latter. Is it any wonder that, +along with this propagation of Nihilism as taught in the cloisters and +the court, history informs us of many scandals and much immorality +between the women of the court and the Buddhist monks? + +Such dogmas were not able to live in organized forms, after the next +importations of Buddhism which came in, not partly but wholly, under the +name of the Mah[=a]yan[=a] or Great Vehicle, or Northern Buddhism. By +the new philosophy, more concrete and able to appeal more closely to the +average man, these five schools, which, in their discussions, dealt +almost wholly with _noumena_, were absorbed. As matter of fact, none of +them is now in existence, nor can we trace them, speaking broadly, +beyond the tenth century. Here and there, indeed, may be a temple +bearing the name of one of the sects, or grades of doctrine, and +occasionally an eccentric individual who "witnesses" to the old +metaphysics; but these are but fossils or historical relics, and are +generally regarded as such. + +Against such baldness of philosophy not only might the cultivated +Japanese intellect revolt and react, but as yet the common people of +Japan, despite the modern priestly boast of the care of the imperial +rulers for what the bonzes still love to call "the people's religion," +were but slightly touched by the Indian faith. + + +The Great Vehicle. + + +The Kegon-Shu or Avatamsaka-sutra sect, is founded on a certain teaching +which Gautama is said to have promulgated in nine assemblies held at +seven different places during the second week of his enlightenment. This +sutra exists in no fewer than six texts, around each of which has +gathered some interesting mythology. The first two tests were held in +memory and not committed to palm leaves; the second pair are secretly +preserved in the dragon palace of Riu-gu[14] under the sea, and are not +kept by the men of this world. The fifth text of 100,000 verses, was +obtained by a Bodhisattva from the palace of the dragon king of the +world under the sea and transmitted to men in India. The sixth is the +abridged text. + +It concerns us to notice that the shorter texts were translated into +Chinese in the fourth century, and that later, other translations were +made--36,000 verses of the fifth text, 45,000 verses of the sixth text, +etc. When the doctrine of the sect had been perfected by the fifth +patriarch and he lectured on the sutra, rays of white light came from +his mouth, and there rained wonderful heavenly flowers. In A.D. 736 a +Chinese Vinaya teacher or instructor in Buddhist discipline, named +D[=o]-sen, first brought the Kegon scriptures to Japan. Four years later +a Korean priest gave lectures on them in the Golden-Bell Hall of the +Great Eastern Monastery at Nara. He completed his task of expounding the +sixty volumes in three years. Henceforth, lecturing on this sutra became +one of the yearly services of the Eastern Great Monastery. + +"The Ke-gon sutra is the original book of Buddha's teachings of his +whole life. All his teachings therefore sprang from this sutra. If we +attribute all the branches to the origin, we may say that there is no +teaching of Buddha for his whole life except this sutra."[15] The title +of the book, when literally translated, is +Great-square-wide-Buddha-flower-adornment-teaching--a title sufficiently +indicative of its rhetoric. The age of hard or bold thinking was giving +way to flowery diction, and the Law was to be made easy through fine +writing. + +The burden of doctrine is the unconditioned or realistic, pantheism. +Nature absolute, or Buddha-tathata, is the essence of all things. +Essence and form were in their origin combined and identical. Fire and +water, though phenomenally different, are from the point of view of +Buddha-tathata absolutely identical. Matter and thought are one--that is +Buddha-tathata. In teaching, especially the young, it must be remembered +that the mind resembles a fair page upon which the artist might trace a +design, especial care being needed to prevent the impression of evil +thoughts, in order to accomplish which one must completely and always +direct the mind to Buddha.[16] One notable sentence in the text is, +"when one first raises his thoughts toward the perfect knowledge, he at +once becomes fully enlightened." + +In some parts of the metaphysical discussions of this sect we are +reminded of European mediaeval scholasticism, especially of that +discussion as to how many angels could dance on the point of a cambric +needle without jostling each other. It says, "Even at the point of one +grain of dust, of immeasurable and unlimited worlds, there are +innumerable Buddhas, who are constantly preaching the Ke-gon ki[=o] +(sutra) throughout the three states of existence, past, present and +future, so that the preaching is not at all to be collected.[17] + + +A New Chinese Sect. + + +In its formal organization the Ten-dai sect is of Chinese origin. It is +named after Tien Tai,[18] a mountain in China about fifty miles south of +Ningpo, on which the book which forms the basis of its tenets was +composed by Chi-sha, now canonized as a Dai Shi or Great teacher. Its +special doctrine of completion and suddenness was, however, transmitted +directly from Shaka to Vairokana and thence to Maitreya, so that the +apostolical succession of its orthodoxy cannot be questioned. + +The metaphysics of this sect are thought to be the most profound of the +Greater Vehicle, combining into a system the two opposite ideas of being +and not being. The teachers encourage all men, whether quick or slow in +understanding, to exercise the principle of "completion" and +"suddenness," together with four doctrinal divisions, one or all of +which are taught to men according to their ability. The object of the +doctrine is to make men get an excellent understanding, practise good +discipline and attain to the great fruit of Enlightenment or +Buddha-hood. + +Out of compassion, Gautama appeared in the world and preached the truth +in several forms, according to the circumstances of time and place. +There are four doctrinal divisions of "completion," "secrecy," +"meditation," and "moral precept," which are the means of knowing the +principle of "completion." From Gautama, Vairokana and Maitreya the +doctrine passed through more than twenty Buddhas elect, and arrived in +China on the twentieth day of the twelfth month, A.D. 401. The delivery +to disciples was secret, and the term used for this esoteric +transmission means "handed over within the tower." + +In A.D. 805, two Japanese pilgrims went to China, and received orthodox +training. With twenty others, they brought the Ten-dai doctrines into +Japan. During this century, other Japanese disciples of the same sect +crossed the seas to study at Mount Tien Tai. On coming back to Japan +they propagated the various shades of doctrine, so that this main sect +has many branches. It was chiefly through these pilgrims from the West +that the Sanskrit letters, writing and literature were imported. In our +day, evidences of Sanskrit learning, long since neglected and forgotten, +are seen chiefly in the graveyards and in charms and amulets. + +Although the philosophical doctrines of Ten-dai are much the same as +those of the Ke-gon sect, being based on pantheistic realism, and +teaching that the Buddha-tathata or Nature absolute is the essence of +all things, yet the Ten-dai school has striking and peculiar features of +its own. Instead of taking some particular book or books in the canon, +shastra, or sutra, selection or collection, as a basis, the Chinese monk +Chi-sha first mastered, and then digested the whole canon. Then +selecting certain doctrines for emphasis he supported them by a wide +range of quotation, professing to give the gist of the pure teachings of +Gautama rather than those of his disciples. In practice, however, the +Saddharma Pundarika is the book most honored by this sect; the other +sutras being employed mainly as commentary. Furthermore, this sect makes +as strenuous a claim for the true apostolical succession from the +Founder, as do the other sects. + +The teachers of Ten-dai doctrine must fully estimate character and +ability in their pupils, and so apportion instruction. In this respect +and in not a few others, they are like the disciples of Loyola, and have +properly been called the Jesuits of Buddhism. They are ascetics, and +teach that spiritual insight is possible only through prolonged thought. +Their purpose is to recognize the Buddha, in all the forms he has +assumed in order to save mankind. Nevertheless, the highest truths are +incomprehensible except to those who have already attained to +Buddha-hood.[19] In contrast to the Nichirenites, who give an emotional +and ultra-concrete interpretation and expression to the great sutra, +Hokke Ki[=o], the Ten-dai teachers are excessively philosophical and +intellectual. + +In its history the Ten-dai sect has followed out its logic. Being +realistic in pantheism, it reverences not only Gautama the historic +Buddha, but also, large numbers of the Hindu deities, the group of idols +called Jiz[=o], the god Fudo, and Kuannon the god or goddess of mercy, +under his or her protean forms. In its early history this sect welcomed +to its pantheon the Shint[=o] gods, who, according to the scheme of +Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o], were declared to be avatars or manifestations of +Buddha. The three sub-sects still differ in their worship of the avatars +selected as supreme deities, but their philosophy enables them to sweep +in the Buddhas of every age and clime, name and nation. Many other +personifications are found honored in the Ten-dai temples. At the +gateways may usually be seen the colossal painted and hideous images of +the two Devas or kings (Ni-O). These worthies are none other than Indra +and Brahma of the old Vedic mythology. + +Space and time--which seem never to fail the Buddhists in their +literature--would fail us to describe this sect in full, or to show in +detail its teachings, wherein are wonderful resemblances to European +ideas and facts--in philosophy, to Hegel and Spinoza find in history, to +Jesuitism. Nor can we stay to point out the many instances in which, +invading the domain of politics, the Ten-dai abbots with their armies of +monks, having made their monasteries military arsenals and issuing forth +clad in armor as infantry and cavalry, have turned the scale of battle +or dictated policies to emperors. Like the Praetorian guard of Rome or +the clerical militia in Spain, these men of keen intellect have left +their marks deep upon the social and political history of the country in +which they dwelt. They have understood thoroughly the art of practising +religion for the sake of revenue. To secure their ends, priests have +made partnerships with other sects; in order to hold Shint[=o] shrines, +they have married to secure heirs and make office hereditary; and +finally in the Purification of 1870, when the Riy[=o]bu system was blown +to the winds by the Japanese Government, not a few priests of this sect +became laymen, in order to keep both office and emolument in the +purified Shint[=o] shrines. + + +The Sect of the True Word. + + +It is probable that the conquest and obliteration of Shint[=o] might +have been accomplished by some priest or priests of the Ten-dai sect, +had such a genius as K[=o]b[=o] been found in its household; but this +great achievement was reserved for the man who introduced into Japan the +Shin-gon Shu, or Sect of the True Word. The term _gon_ is the equivalent +of Mantra,[20] a Sanskrit term meaning word, but in later use referring +to the mystic salutations addressed to the Buddhist gods. "The doctrine +of this sect is a great secret law. It teaches us that we can attain to +the state of the 'Great Enlightened,' that is the state of 'Buddha,' +while in the present physical body, which was born of our parents (and +which consists of six elements,[21] Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ether, and +Knowledge), if we follow the three great secret laws, regarding Body, +Speech, and Thought."[22] + +The history of the transmission of the doctrine from the greatest of the +spirit-bodied Buddhas to the historic founder, Vagrabodhi, is carefully +given. The latter was a man very learned in regard to many doctrines of +Buddhism and other religious, and was especially well acquainted with +the deepest meaning of the doctrine of this sect, which he taught in +India for a considerable time. The doctrine is recorded in several +sutras, yet the essential point is nothing but the Mandala, or circle of +the two parts, or, in Japanese, Riy[=o]bu. + +The great preacher, Vagrabodhi, in 720 A.D., came with his disciples to +the capital of China, and translated the sacred books, seventy-seven in +number. This doctrine is the well-known Yoga-chara, which has been well +set forth by Doctor Edkins in his scholarly volume on Chinese Buddhism. +As "yoga" becomes in plain English "yoke," and as "mantra" is from the +same root as "man" and "mind," we have no difficulty in recognizing the +original meaning of these terms; the one in its nobler significance +referring to union with Buddha or Gnosis, and the other to the thought +taking lofty expression or being debased to hocus-pocus in charm or +amulet. Like the history of so many Sanskrit words as now uttered in +every-day English speech, the story of the word mantra forms a picture +of mental processes and apparently of the degradation of thought, or, as +some will doubtless say, of the decay of religion. The term mantra meant +first, a thought; then thought expressed; then a Vedic hymn or text; +next a spell or charm. Such have been the later associations, in India, +China and Japan with the term mantra. + +The burden of the philosophy of the Shin-gon, looked at from one point +of view, is mysticism, and from another, pantheism. One of the forms of +Buddha is the principle of everything. There are ten stages of thought, +and there are two parts, "lengthwise" and "crosswise" or exoteric and +esoteric. Other doctrines of Buddhism represent the first, or exoteric +stage; and those of the Shin-gon or true word, the second, or esoteric. +The primordial principle is identical with that of Maha-Vairokana, one +of the forms[23] of Buddha. The body, the word and the thought are the +three mysteries, which being found in all beings, animate and inanimate, +are to be fully understood only by Buddhas, and not by ordinary men. + +To show the actual method of intellectual procedure in order to reach +Buddha-hood, many categories, tables and diagrams are necessary; but the +crowning tenet, most far reaching in its practical influence, is the +teaching that it is possible to reach the state of Buddha-hood in this +present body. + +As discipline for the attainment of excellence along the path marked out +in the "Mantra sect," there are three mystic rites: (1) worshipping the +Buddha with the hand in certain positions called signs; (2) repeating +Dharani, or mystic formulas; (3) contemplation. + +K[=o]b[=o] himself and all those who imitated him, practised fasting in +order to clear the spiritual eyesight. The thinking-chairs, so +conspicuous in many old monasteries, though warmed at intervals through +the ages by the living bodies of men absorbed in contemplation, are +rarely much worn by the sitters, because almost absolute cessation of +motion characterizes the long and hard thinkers of the Shin-gon +philosophers. The idols in the Shin-gon temples represent many a saint +and disciple, who, by perseverance in what a critic of Buddhism calls +"mind-murder," and the use of mystic finger twistings and magic +formulas, has won either the Nirvana or the penultimate stage of the +Bodhisattva. + +In the sermons and discourses of Shin-gon, the subtle points of an +argument are seized and elaborated. These are mystical on the one side, +and pantheistic on the other. It is easily seen how Buddha, being in +Japanese gods as well as men, and no being without Buddha, the way is +made clear for that kind of a marriage between Buddhism and Shint[=o], +in which the two become one, and that one, as to revenue and advantage, +Buddhism. + + +Truth Made Apparent by One's Own Thought. + + +The Japanese of to-day often speak of these seven religious bodies which +we have enumerated and described, as "the old sects," because much of +the philosophy, and many of the forms and prayers, are common to all, +or, more accurately speaking, are popularly supposed to be; while the +priests, being celibates, refrain from sake, flesh and fish, and from +all intimate relations with women. Yet, although these sects are +considered to be more or less conformable to the canon of the Greater +Vehicle, and while the last three certainly introduce many of its +characteristic features--one sect teaching that Buddha-hood could be +obtained even in the present body of flesh and blood--yet the idea of +Paradise had not been exploited or emphasized. This new gospel was to be +introduced into Japan by the J[=o]-d[=o] Shu or Sect of the Pure Land. + +Before detailing the features of J[=o]-d[=o], we call attention to the +fact that in Japan the propagation of the old sects was accompanied by +an excessive use of idols, images, pictures, sutras, shastras and all +the furniture thought necessary in a Buddhist temple. The course of +thought and action in the Orient is in many respects similar to that in +the Occident. In western lands, with the ebb and flow of religious +sentiment, the iconolater has been followed by the iconoclast, and the +overcrowded cathedrals have been purged by the hammer and fire of the +Protestant and Puritan. So in Japan we find analogous, though not +exactly similar, reactions. The rise and prosperity of the believers in +the Zen dogmas, which in their early history used sparingly the eikon, +idol and sutra, give some indication of protest against too much use of +externals in religion. May we call them the Quakers of Japanese +Buddhism? Certainly, theirs was a movement in the direction of +simplicity. + +The introduction of the Zen, or contemplative sect, did, in a sense, +both precede and follow that of Shingon. The word Zen is a shortened +form of the term Zenna, which is a transliteration into Chinese of the +Sanskrit word Dhyana, or contemplation. It teaches that the truth is not +in tradition or in books, but in one's self. Emphasis is laid on +introspection rather than on language. "Look carefully within and there +you will find the Buddha," is its chief tenet. In the Zen monasteries, +the chair of contemplation is, or ought to be, always in use. + +The Zen Shu movement may be said to have arisen out of a reaction +against the multiplication of idols. It indicated a return to simpler +forms of worship and conduct. Let us inquire how this was. + +It may be said that Buddhism, especially Northern Buddhism, is a vast, +complicated system. It has a literature and a sacred canon which one can +think of only in connection with long trains of camels to carry, or +freight trains to transport, or ships a good deal bigger than the +Mayflower to import. Its multitudinous rules and systems of discipline +appall the spirit and weary the flesh even to enumerate them; so that, +from one point of view, the making of new sects is a necessity. These +are labor-saving inventions. They are attempts to reduce the great bulk +of scriptures to manageable proportions. They seek to find, as it were, +the mother-liquor of the great ocean, so as to express the truth in a +crystal. Hence the endeavors to simplify, to condense; here, by a +selection of sutras, rather than the whole collection; there, by +emphasis on a single feature and a determination to put the whole thing +in a form which can be grasped, either by the elect few or by the people +at large. + +The Zen sect did this in a more rational way than that set forth as +orthodox by later priestcraft, which taught that to the believer who +simply turned round the revolving library containing the canon, the +merit of having read it all would be imputed. The rin-z[=o][24] found +near the large temples,--the cunning invention of a Chinese priest in +the sixth century,--soon became popular in Japan. The great wooden +book-case turning on a pivot contains 6,771 volumes, that being the +number of canonical volumes enumerated in China and Japan. + +The Zen sect teaches that, besides all the doctrines of the Greater and +the Lesser Vehicles, whether hidden or apparent, there is one distinct +line of transmission of a secret doctrine which is not subject to any +utterance at all. According to their tenet of contemplation, one is to +see directly the key to the thought of Buddha by his own thought, thus +freeing himself from the multitude of different doctrines--the number of +which is said to be eighty-four thousand. In fact, Zen Shu or "Dhyana +sect" teaches the short method of making truth apparent by one's own +thought, apart from the writings. + +The story of the transmission of the true Zen doctrine is this: + + "When the blessed Shaka was at the assembly on Vulture's Peak, + there came the heavenly king, who offered the Buddha a + golden-colored flower and asked him to preach the law. The + Blessed One simply took the flower and held it in his hand, but + said no word. No one in the whole assembly could tell what he + meant. The venerable Mahahasyapa alone smiled. Than the Blessed + One said to him, 'I have the wonderful thought of Nirvana, the + eye of the Right Law, which I shall now give to you.'[25] Thus + was ushered in the doctrine of thought transmitted by thought." + +After twenty-eight patriarchs had taught the doctrine of contemplation, +the last came into China in A.D. 520, and tried to teach the Emperor the +secret key of Buddha's thought. This missionary Bodhidharma was the +third son of a king of the Kashis, in Southern India, and the historic +original of the tobacconist's shop-sign in Japan, who is known as +Daruma. The imperial Chinaman was not yet able to understand the secret +key of Buddha's thought. So the Hindu missionary went to the monastery +on Mount Su, where in meditation, he sat down cross-legged with his face +to a wall, for nine years, by which time, says the legend, his legs had +rotted off and he looked like a snow-image. During that period, people +did not know him, and called him simply the Wall-gazing Brahmana. +Afterward he had a number of disciples, but they had different views +that are called the transmissions of the skin, flesh, or bone of the +teacher. Only one of them got the whole body of his teachings. Two great +sects were formed: the Northern, which was undivided, and the Southern, +which branched off into five houses and seven schools. The Northern Sect +was introduced into Japan by a Chinese priest in 729 A.D., while the +Southern was not brought over until the twelfth century. In both it is +taught that perfect tranquillity of body and mind is essential to +salvation. The doctrine is the most sublime one, of thought transmitted +by thought being entirely independent of any letters or words. Another +name for them is, "The Sect whose Mind Assimilates with Buddha," direct +from whom it claims to have received its articles of faith. + +Too often this idea of Buddhaship, consisting of absolute freedom from +matter and thought, means practically mind-murder, and the emptiness of +idle reverie. + +Contrasting modern reality with their ancient ideal, it must be +confessed that in practice there is not a little letter worship and a +good deal of pedantry; for, in all the teachings of abstract principles +by the different sects, there are endless puns or plays upon words in +the renderings of Chinese characters. This arises from that antithesis +of extreme poverty in sounds with amazing luxuriance in written +expression, which characterizes both the Chinese and Japanese languages. + +In the temples we find that the later deities introduced into the +Buddhist pantheon are here also welcome, and that the triads or groups +of three precious ones, the "Buddhist trinity," so-called,[26] are +surrounded by gods of Chinese or Japanese origin. The Zen sect, +according to its professions and early history, ought to be indifferent +to worldly honors and emoluments, and indeed many of its devotees are. +Its history, however, shows how poorly mortals live up to their +principles and practise what they preach. Furthermore, these professors +of peace and of the joys of the inner life in the S[=o]-t[=o] or +sub-sect have made the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth years of Meiji, or +A.D. 1893 and 1894, famous and themselves infamous by their +long-continued and scandalous intestine quarrels. Of the three +sub-sects, those called Rin-zai and S[=o]-t[=o], take their names from +Chinese monks of the ninth century; while the third, O-baku, founded in +Japan in the seventeenth century, is one of the latest importations of +Chinese Buddhistic thought in the Land of the Rising Sun. + +Japanese authors usually classify the first six denominations at which +we have glanced, some of which are phases of thought rather than +organizations, as "the ancient sects." Ten-dai and Shin-gon are "the +medieval sects." The remaining four, of which we shall now treat, and +which are more particularly Japanese in spirit and development, are "the +modern sects." + + + + +CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE + + "A drop of spray cast by the infinite + I hung an instant there, and threw my ray + To make the rainbow. A microcosm I + Reflecting all. Then back I fell again, + And though I perished not, I was no more."-- + The Pantheist's Epitaph. + + "Buddhism is essentially a religion of compromise." + + "Where Christianity has One Lord, Buddhism has a dozen." + + "I think I may safely challenge the Buddhist priesthood to give + a plain historical account of the Life of Amida, Kwannon, + Dainichi, or any other Mah[=a]y[=a]na Buddha, without being in + serious danger of forfeiting my stakes." + + "Christianity openly puts this Absolute Unconditioned Essence in + the forefront of its teaching. In Buddhism this absolute + existence is only put forward, when the logic of circumstances + compels its teachers to have recourse to it."--A. Lloyd, in The + Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene creed. + + "Now these six characters, 'Na-mu-A-mi-da-Butsu,' Zend-[=o] has + explained as follows: 'Namn' means [our] following His + behest--and also [His] uttering the Prayer and bestowing [merit] + upon us. 'Amida Butsu' is the practice of this, consequently by + this means a certainty of salvation is attained." + + "By reason of the conferring on us sentient creators of this + great goodness and great merit through the utterance of the + Prayer, and the bestowal [by Amida] the evil Karma and [effect + of the] passions accumulated through the long Kalpas, since when + there was no beginning, are in a moment annihilated, and in + consequence, those passions and evil Karma of ours all + disappearing, we live already in the condition of the steadfast, + who do not return [to revolve in the cycle of Birth and + Death]."--Renny[=o] of the Shin sect, 1473. + + "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and + the Word was God."--John. + + "The Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, + neither shadow of turning."--James. + + +CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE + +The Western Paradise. + + +We cannot take space to show how, or how much, or whether at all, +Buddhism was affected by Christianity, though it probably was. Suffice +it to say that the J[=o]-d[=o] Shu, or Sect of the Pure Land, was the +first of the many denominations in Buddhism which definitely and clearly +set forth that especial peculiarity of Northern Buddhism, the Western +Paradise. The school of thought which issued in J[=o]-d[=o] Shu was +founded by the Hindoo, Memio. In A.D. 252 an Indian scholar, learned in +the Tripitaka, came to China, and translated one of the great sutras, +called Amitayus. This sutra gives a history of Tathagata Amitabha,[1] +from the first spiritual impulses which led him to the attainment of +Buddha-hood in remote Kalpas down to the present time, when he dwells in +the Western World, called the Happy, where he receives all living beings +from every direction, helping them to turn away from confusion and to +become enlightened.[2] The apocalyptic twentieth chapter of the Hokke +Ki[=o] is a glorification of the transcendent power of the Tathagatas, +expressed in flamboyant oriental rhetoric. + +We have before called attention to the fact that, with the +multiplication of sutras or the Sacred Canon and the vast increase of +the apparatus of Buddhism as well as of the hardships of brain and body +to be undergone in order to be a Buddhist, it was absolutely necessary +that some labor-saving system should be devised by which the burden +could be borne. Now, as a matter of fact, all sects claim to found their +doctrine on Buddha or his work. According to the teaching of certain +sects, the means of salvation are to be found in the study of the whole +canon, and in the practice of asceticism and meditation. On the +contrary, the new lights of Buddhism who came as missionaries into +China, protested against this expenditure of so much mental and physical +energy. One of the first Chinese propagators of the J[=o]-d[=o] doctrine +declared that it was impossible, owing to the decay of religion in his +own age, for anyone to be saved in this way by his own efforts. Hence, +instead of the noble eight-fold path of primitive Buddhism, or of the +complicated system of the later Buddhistic Phariseeism of India, he +substituted for the difficult road to Nirvana, a simple faith in the +all-saving power of Amida. In one of the sutras it is taught, that if a +man keeps in his memory the name of Amida one day, or seven days, the +Buddha together with Buddhas elect, will meet him at the moment of his +death, in order to let him be born in the Pure Land, and that this +matter has been equally approved by all other Buddhas of ten different +directions. + +One of the sutras, translated in China during the fifth century, +contains the teaching of Buddha, which he delivered to the wife of the +King of Magudha, who on account of the wickedness of her son was feeling +weary of this world. He showed her how she might be born into the Pure +Land. Three paths of good actions were pointed out. Toward the end of +the particular sutra which he advised her to read and recite, Buddha +says: "Let not one's voice cease, but ten times complete the thought, +and repeat the formula, of the adoration of Amida." "This practice," +adds the Japanese exegete and historian, "is the most excellent of all." + +How well this latter teaching is practised may be demonstrated when one +goes into a Buddhist temple of the J[=o]-d[=o] sect in Japan, and hears +the constant refrain,--murmured by the score or more of listeners to the +sermon, or swelling like the roar of the ocean's waves, on festival +days, when thousands sit on the mats beneath the fretted roof to enjoy +the exposition of doctrine--"Namu Amida Butsu"--"Glory to the Eternal +Buddha!"[3] + +The apostolical succession or transmission through the patriarchs and +apostles of India and China, is well known and clearly stated, withal +duly accredited and embellished with signs and wonders, in the +historical literature of the J[=o]-d[=o] sect. In Buddhism, as in +Christianity, the questions relating to True Churchism, High Churchism, +the succession of the apostles, teachers and rulers, and the validity of +this or that method of ordination, form a large part of the literature +of controversy. Nevertheless, as in the case of many a Christian sect +which calls itself the only true church, the date of the organization of +J[=o]-d[=o] was centuries later than that of the Founder and apostles of +the original faith. Five hundred years after Zen-d[=o] (A.D. 600-650), +the great propagator of the J[=o]-d[=o] philosophy, H[=o]-nen, the +founder of the J[=o]-d[=o] sect, was born; and this phase of organized +Buddhism, like that of Shin Shu and Nichirer Shu, may be classed under +the head of Eastern or Japanese Buddhism. + +When only nine years of age, the boy afterward called H[=o]-nen, was +converted by his father's dying words. He went to school in his native +province, but his priest-teacher foreseeing his greatness, sent him to +the monastery of Hiyeizan, near Ki[=o]to. The boy's letter of +introduction contained only these words: "I send you an image of the +Bodhisattva, (Mon-ju) Manjusri." The boy shaved his head and received +the precepts of the Ten-dai sect, but in his eighteenth year, waiving +the prospect of obtaining the headship of the great denomination, he +built a hut in the Black Ravine and there five times read through the +five thousand volumes[4] of the Tripitaka. He did this for the purpose +of finding out, for the ordinary and ignorant people of the present day, +how to escape from misery. He studied Zen-d[=o]'s commentary, and +repeated his examination eight times. At last, he noticed a passage in +it beginning with the words, "Chiefly remember or repeat the name of +Amida with a whole and undivided heart." Then he at once understood the +thought of Zen-d[=o], who taught in his work that whoever at any time +practises to remember Buddha, or calls his name even but once, will gain +the right effect of going to be born in the Pure Land after death. This +Japanese student then abandoned all sorts of practices which he had +hitherto followed for years, and began to repeat the name of Amida +Buddha sixty thousand times a day. This event occurred in A.D. 1175. + + +H[=o]-nen, Founder of the Pure Land Sect. + + +This path-finder to the Pure Land, who developed a special doctrine of +salvation, is best known by his posthumous title of H[=o]-nen. During +his lifetime he was very famous and became the spiritual preceptor of +three Mikados. After his death his biography was compiled in forty-eight +volumes by imperial order, and later, three other emperors copied or +republished it. In the history of Japan this sect has been one of the +most influential, especially with the imperial and sh[=o]gunal families. +In Ki[=o]to the magnificent temples and monasteries of Chi[=o]n-in, and +in T[=o]ki[=o] Z[=o]-j[=o]-ji, are the chief seats of the two principal +divisions of this sect. The gorgeous mausoleums,--well known to every +foreign tourist,--at Shiba and Uyeno in T[=o]ki[=o], and the clustered +and matchless splendors of Nikk[=o], belong to this sect, which has been +under the patronage of the illustrious line of the Tokugawa,[5] while +its temples and shrines are numbered by many thousands. + +The doctrine of the J[=o]-d[=o], or the Pure Land Sect, is easily +discerned. One of Buddha's disciples said, that in the teachings of the +Master there are two divisions or vehicles. In the Maha-yana also there +are two gates; the Holy path, and the Pure Land. The Smaller Vehicle is +the doctrine by which the immediate disciples of Buddha and those for +five hundred years succeeding, practised the various virtues and +discipline. The gateway of the Maha-yana is also the doctrine, by which +in addition to the trainings mentioned, there are also understood the +three virtues of spiritual body, wisdom and deliverance. The man who is +able successfully to complete this course of discipline and practice is +no ordinary person, but is supposed to possess merit produced from good +actions performed in a former state of existence. The doctrine by which +man may do so, is called the gate of the Holy Path. + +During the fifteen hundred years after Buddha there were from time to +time, such personages in the world, who attained the end of the Holy +Path; but in these latter days people are more insincere, covetous and +contentious, and the discipline is too hard for degenerate times and +men. The three trainings already spoken of are the correct causes of +deliverance; but if people think them as useless as last year's almanac, +when can they complete their deliverance? H[=o]-nen, deeply meditating +on this, shut up the gate of the Holy Path and opened that of the Pure +Land; for in the former the effective deliverance is expected in this +world by the three trainings of morality, thought and learning, but in +the latter the great fruit of going to be born in the Pure Land after +death, is expected through the sole practice of repeating Buddha's name. + +Moreover, it is not easy to accomplish the cause and effect of the Holy +Path, but both those of the doctrine of the Pure Land are very easy to +be completed. The difference is like that between travelling by land and +travelling by water.[6] The doctrines preached by the Buddha are +eighty-four thousand in number; that is to say, he taught one kind of +people one system, that of the Holy Path, and another kind that of the +Pure Land. The Pure Land doctrine of H[=o]-nen was derived from the +sutra preached by the great teacher Shaka. + +This simple doctrine of "land travel to Paradise" was one which the +people of Japan could easily understand, and it became amazingly +popular. Salvation along this route is a case of being "carried to the +skies on flowery beds of ease, while others sought to win the prize and +sailed through bloody seas." + +Largely through the influence of J[=o]-d[=o] Shu and of those sects most +closely allied to it, the technical terms, peculiar phraseology and +vocabulary of Buddhism became part of the daily speech of the Japanese. +When one studies their language he finds that it is a complicated +organism, including within itself several distinct systems. Just as the +human body harmonizes within itself such vastly differing organized +functions as the osseous, digestive, respiratory, etc., so, embedded in +what is called the Japanese language, there are, also, a Chinese +vocabulary, a polite vernacular, one system of expression for superiors, +another for inferiors, etc. Last of all, there is, besides a peculiar +system of pronunciation taught by the priests, a Buddhist language, +which suggests a firmament of starry and a prairie of flowery metaphors, +with intermediate deeps of space full of figurative expressions. + +In our own mother tongue we have something similar. The dialect of +Canaan, the importations of Judaism, the irruptions of Hebraic idioms, +phrases and names into Puritanism, and the ejaculations of the +camp-meeting, which vein and color our English speech, may give some +idea of the variegated strains which make up the Japanese language. +Further, the peculiar nomenclature of the Fifth Monarchy men, is fully +paralleled in the personal names of priests and even of laymen in Japan. + + +Characteristics of the J[=o]-d[=o] Sect. + + +H[=o]-nen teaches that the solution of abstract questions and doctrinal +controversies is not needed as means of grace to promote the work of +salvation. Whether the priests and their followers were learned and +devout, or the contrary, mattered little as regards the final result, as +all that is necessary is the continual repetition of the prayer to +Amida. + +It may be added that his followers practise the master's precepts with +emphasis. Their incessant pounding upon wooden fish-drums and +bladder-shaped bells during their public exercises, is as noisy as a +frontier camp-meeting. The rosary is a notable feature in the private +devotions of the Buddhists, but the J[=o]-d[=o] sect makes especial use +of the double rosary, which was invented with the idea of being +manipulated by the left hand only; this gave freedom to the right hand, +"facilitating a happy combination of spiritual and secular duty." At +funerals of believers a particular ceremony was exclusively practised by +this sect, at which the friends of the deceased sat in a circle facing +the priest, making as many repetitions as possible.[7] + +In Mohammedan countries, blind men, who cannot look down into the +surrounding gardens or house tops at the pretty women in or on them, but +who have clear and penetrating voices, are often chosen us muezzins to +utter the call to prayer from the minarets. On much the same principle, +in Old Japan, J[=o]-d[=o] priests, blind to metaphysics, but handsome, +elegantly dressed and with fine delivery, went about the streets singing +and intoning prayers, rich presents being made to them, especially by +the ladies. The J[=o]-d[=o] people cultivate art and aesthetic +ornamentation to a notable degree. They also understand the art of +fictitious and sensational miracle-mongering. It is said that Zen-d[=o], +the famous Chinese founder of this Chinese sect, when writing his +commentary, prayed for a wonderful exhibition of supernatural power. +Thereupon, a being arrayed as a priest of dignified presence gave him +instruction on the division of the text in his first volume. Hence +Zen-d[=o] treats his own work as if it were the work of Buddha, and says +that no one is allowed either to add or to take away even a word or +sentence of the book. + +The Pure Land is the western world where Amida lives. It is perfectly +pure and free from faults. Those who wish to go thither will certainly +be re-born there, but otherwise they will not. This world, on the +contrary, is the effect of the action of all beings, so that even those +who do not wish to be born here are nevertheless obliged to come. This +world is called the Path of Pain, because it is full of all sorts of +pains, such as birth, old age, disease, death, etc. This is therefore a +world not to be attached to, but to be estranged and separated from. One +who is disgusted with this world, and who is filled with desire for that +world, will after death be born there. Not to doubt about these words of +Buddha, even in the slightest degree, is called deep faith; but if one +entertains the least doubts he will not be born there. Hence the saying: +"In the great sea of the law of Buddha, faith is the only means to +enter." + + +Salvation Through the Merits of Another. + + +In this absolute trust in the all-saving power of Amida as compared with +the ways promulgated before, we see the emergence of the Buddhist +doctrine of justification by faith, the simplification of theology, and +a revolt against Buddhist scholasticism. The Japanese technical term, +"_tariki_," or relying upon the strength of another, renouncing all idea +of _ji-riki_ or self-power,[8] is the substance of the J[=o]-d[=o] +doctrine; but the expanded term _ta-riki chin no ji-riki_, or +"self-effort depending on another," while expressing the whole dogma, is +rather scornfully applied to the J[=o]-d[=o]ists by the men of the Shin +sect. The invocation of Amida is a meritorious act of the believer, much +repetition being the substance of this combination of personal and +vicarious work. + +H[=o]-nen, after making his discovery, believing it possible for all +mankind eventually to attain to perfect Buddhaship, left, as we have +seen, the Ten-dai sect, which represented particularism and laid +emphasis on the idea of the elect. H[=o]-nen taught Buddhist +universalism. Belief and repetition of prayer secure birth into the Pure +Land after the death of the body, and then the soul moves onward toward +the perfection of Buddha-hood. + +The Japanese were delighted to have among them a genius who could thus +Japanize Buddhism, and J[=o]-d[=o] doctrine went forth conquering and to +conquer. From the twelfth century, the tendency of Japanese Buddhism is +in the direction of universalism and democracy. In later developments of +J[=o]-d[=o], the pantheistic tendencies are emphasized and the +syncretistic powers are enlarged. While mysticism is a striking feature +of the sect and the attainment of truth is by the grace of Amida, yet +the native Kami of Japan are logically accepted as avatars of Buddha. +History had little or no rights in the case; philosophy was dictator, +and that philosophy was H[=o]-nen's. Those later Chinese deities made by +personifying attributes or abstract ideas, which sprang up after the +introduction of Buddhism into China, are also welcomed into the temples +of this sect. That the common people really believe that they themselves +may attain Buddha-hood at death, and enter the Pure Land, is shown in +the fact that their ordinary expression for the dead saint is Hotoke--a +general term for all the gods that were once human. Some popular +proverbs indicate this in a form that easily lends itself to irreverence +and merriment. + +The whole tendency of Japanese Buddhism and its full momentum were now +toward the development of doctrine even to startling proportions. +Instead of the ancient path of asceticism and virtue with agnosticism +and atheism, we see the means of salvation put now, and perhaps too +easily, within the control of all. The pathway to Paradise was made not +only exceedingly plain, but also extremely easy, perhaps even +ridiculously so; while the door was open for an outburst of new and +local doctrines unknown to India, or even to China. The rampant vigor +with which Japanese Buddhism began to absorb everything in heaven, earth +and sea, which it could make a worshipable object or cause to stand as a +Kami or deity to the mind, will be seen as we proceed. The native +proverb, instead of being an irreverent joke, stands for an actual +truth--"Even a sardine's head may become an object of worship." + + +"Reformed" Buddhism. + + +We now look at what foreigners call "Reformed" Buddhism, which some even +imagine has been borrowed from Protestant Christianity--notwithstanding +that it is centuries older than the Reformation in Europe. + +The Shin Shu or True Sect, though really founded on the J[=o]-d[=o] +doctrines, is separate from the sect of the Pure Land. Yet, besides +being called the Shin Shu, it is also spoken of as the J[=o]-d[=o] Shin +Shu or the True Sect of the Pure Land. It is the extreme form of the +Protestantism of Buddhism. It lays emphasis on the idea of salvation +wholly through the merits of another, but it also paints in richer tints +the sensuous delights of the Western Paradise. As the term Pure Land is +antithetical to that of the Holy Path, so the word Shin, or True, +expresses the contrary of what are termed the "temporary expedients." + +While some say that we should practise good works, bring our stock of +merits to maturity, and be born in the Pure Land, others say that we +need only repeat the name of Amida in order to be born in the Pure Land, +by the merit produced from such repetition. These doctrines concerning +repetitions, however, are all considered but "temporary expedients." So +also is the rigid classification, so prominent in "the old sects," of +all beings or pupils into three grades. As in Islam or Calvinism, all +believers stand on a level. To Shin-ran the Radical, the practices even +of J[=o]-d[=o] seemed complicated and difficult, and all that appeared +necessary to him was faith in the desire of Amida to bless and save. To +Shinran,[9] faith was the sole saving act. + +To rely upon the power of the Original Prayer of Amitabha Buddha with +the whole heart and give up all idea of _ji-riki_ or self-power, is +called the truth. This truth is the doctrine of this sect of Shin.[10] +In a word, not synergism, not faith _and_ works, but faith only is the +teaching of Shin Shu. + +Shinran, the founder of this sect in Japan, was born A.D. 1173 and died +in the year 1262. He was very naturally one who had been first educated +in the J[=o]-d[=o] sect, then the ruling one at the imperial court in +Ki[=o]to. Shall we call him a Japanese Luther, because of his insistence +on salvation by faith only? He is popularly believed to have been +descended from one of the Shint[=o] gods, being on his father's side the +twenty-first in the line of generation. On his mother's side he was of +the lineage of the Minamoto or Genji, a clan sprung from Mikados and +famous during centuries for its victorious warriors. H[=o]-nen was his +teacher, and like his teacher, Shinran studied at the great monastery +near Ki[=o]to, learning first the doctrine of the Tendai, and then, at +the age of twenty-nine, receiving from H[=o]-nen the tenets of the +J[=o]-d[=o] sect. Shortly after, at thirty years of age, he began to +promulgate his doctrines. Then he took a step as new to Buddhism, as was +Luther's union with Katharine von Bora, to the ecclesiasticism of his +time. He married a lady of the imperial court, named Tamayori, who was +the daughter of the Kuambaku or premier. + +Shinran thus taught by example, if not formally and by written precept, +that marriage was honorable, and that celibacy was an invention of the +priests not warranted by primitive Buddhism. Penance, fasting, +prescribed diet, pilgrimages, isolation from society whether as hermits +or in the cloister, and generally amulets and charms, are all tabooed by +this sect. Monasteries imposing life-vows are unknown within its pale. +Family life takes the place of monkish seclusion. Devout prayer, purity, +earnestness of life and trust in Buddha himself as the only worker of +perfect righteousness, are insisted upon. Morality is taught to be more +important than orthodoxy. + +In practice, the Shin sect even more than the J[=o]-d[=o], teaches that +it is faith in Buddha, which accomplishes the salvation of the believer. +Instead of waiting for death in order to come under the protection of +Amida, the faithful soul is at once received into the care of the +Boundlessly Compassionate. In a word, the Shin sect believes in +instantaneous conversion and sanctification. Between the Roman and the +Reformed soteriology of Christendom, was Melancthonism or the +co[=o]perate union of the divine and the human will. So, the old +Buddhism prior to Shinran taught a phase of synergism, or the union of +faith and works. Shinran, in his "Reformed" Buddhism, taught the +simplicity of faith. + +So also _in_ regard to the sacred writings, Shinran opposed the San-ron +school and the three-grade idea. The scriptures of other sects are in +Sanskrit and Chinese, which only the learned are able to read. The +special writings of Shinran are in the vernacular. Three of the sutras, +also, have been translated into Japanese and expressed in the kana +script. Singleness of purpose characterised this sect, which was often +called Monto, or followers of the gate, in reference to its unity of +organization, and the opening of the way to all by Shinran and the +doctrine taught by him. Yet, lest the gate might seem too broad, the +Shin teachers insist that morality is as important as faith, and indeed +the proof of it. The high priests of Shin Shu have ever held a high +position and wielded vast influence in the religious development of the +people. While the temples of other sects are built in sequestered places +among the hills, those of Shin Shu are erected in the heart of cities, +on the main streets, and at the centres of population,--the priests +using every means within their power to induce the people to come to +them. The altars are on an imposing scale of magnificence and gorgeous +detail. No Roman Catholic church or cathedral can outshine the splendor +of these temples, in which the way to the Western Paradise is made so +clear and plain. Another name for the sect is Ikko. + +After the death of Shinran, his youngest daughter and one of his +grandsons erected a monastery near his tomb in the eastern suburbs of +Ki[=o]to, to which the Mikado gave the title of Hon-guanji, or Monastery +of the Original Vow. This was in allusion to the vow made by Amida, that +he would not accept Buddhaship except under the condition that salvation +be made attainable for all who should sincerely desire to be born into +his kingdom, and signify their desire by invoking his name ten +times.[11] It is upon the passage in the sutra where this vow is +recorded, that the doctrine of the sect is based. Its central idea is +that man is to be saved by faith in the mercy of the boundlessly +compassionate Amida, and not by works or vain repetitions. Within our +own time, on November 28, 1876, the present reigning Mikado bestowed +upon Shinran the posthumous title Ken-shin Dai-shi, or Great Teacher of +the Revelation of Truth. + + +The Protestants of Japanese Buddhism. + + +This is the sect which, being called "Reformed" Buddhism[12] and +resembling Protestantism in so many points, both large and minute, +foreigners think has been borrowed or imitated from European +Protestantism.[13] As matter of fact, the foundation principles of +Shin-Shu are at least six hundred years old. They are perfectly clear in +the writings of the founder,[14] as well as in those of his successor +Renni[=o],[15] who wrote the Ofumi or sacred writings, now daily read by +the disciples of this denomination. With the characteristic object of +reaching the masses, they are written, as we have shown, not in the +mixed Chinese and Japanese characters, but in the common script, or +kana, which all the people of both sexes can read. Within the last two +decades the Shin educators have been the first to organize their schools +of learning on the models of those in Christendom, so that their young +men might be trained to resist Shint[=o] or Christianity, or to measure +the truth in either. Their new temples also show European influence in +architecture and furniture. Liberty of thought and action, and +incoercible desire to be free from governmental, traditional, +ultra-ecclesiastical, or Shint[=o] influence--in a word, protestantism +in its pure sense, is characteristic of the great sect founded by +Shinran. + +Indeed the Shin sect, which sprang out of the J[=o]-d[=o], maintains +that it alone professes the true teaching of H[=o]-nen, and that the +J[=o]-d[=o] sect has wandered from the original doctrines of its +founder. Whereas the J[=o]-d[=o] or Pure Land sect believes that Amida +will come to meet the soul of the believer on its separation from the +body, in order to conduct it to Paradise, the Shin or True Sect of the +Pure Land believes in immediate salvation and sanctification. It +preaches that as soon as a man believes in Amida he is taken by him +under him merciful protection. Some might denominate these people the +Methodists of Buddhism. + +One good point in their Protestantism is their teaching that morality is +of equal importance with faith. To them Buddha-hood means the perfection +and unlimitedness of wisdom and compassion. "Therefore," writes one, +"knowing the inability of our own power we should believe simply in the +vicarious Power of the Original Prayer. If we do so, we are in +correspondence with the wisdom of the Buddha and share his great +compassion, just as the water of rivers becomes salt as soon as it +enters the sea. For this reason this is called the faith in the Other +Power." + +To their everlasting honor, also, the Shin believers have probably led +all other Japanese Buddhists in caring for the Eta, even as they +probably excel in preaching the true spiritual democracy of all +believers, yes, even of women.[16] "According to the earlier and general +view of Buddhism, women are condemned, in virtue of the pollution of +their nature, to look forward to rebirth in other forms. By no +possibility can they, in their existence as women, reach the higher +grades of holiness which lead to Nirvana. According to the Shin Shu +system, on the other hand, a believing woman may hope to attain the goal +of the Buddhist at the close of her present life."[17] This doctrine +seems to be founded on that passage in the eleventh chapter of the +Saddharma Pundarika, in which the daughter of S[=a]gara, the +N[=a]ga-king, loses her sex as female and reappears as a Bodhisattva of +male sex.[18] + +The Shin sect is the largest in Japan, having more than twice as many +temples as any four of the great sects, and five thousand more than the +So-d[=o] or sub-sect of J[=o]-d[=o], which is the next largest; or, over +nineteen thousand in all. It is also supposed to be one of the richest +and most powerful of all the Japanese sects. In reality, however, it +possesses no fixed property, and is dependent entirely upon the +voluntary contributions of its adherents. To-day, it is probably the +most active of them all in education, learning and missionary operations +in Yezo, China and Korea. + +Interesting as is the development of the J[=o]-d[=o] and Shin sects, +which became popular largely through their promulgation of dogmas +founded on the Western Paradise, we must not forget that both of them +preached a new Buddha--not the real figure in history, but an unhistoric +and unreal phantom, the creation and dream of the speculator and +visionary. Amida, the personification of boundless light, is one of the +luxuriant growths of a sickly scholasticism--a hollow abstraction +without life or reality. Amidaism is utterly repudiated by many Japanese +Buddhists, who give no place to his idol on their altars, and reject +utterly the teaching as to Paradise and salvation through the merits of +another. + +Yet these two special developments by natives, though embodying +tendencies of the Japanese mind, did not reach the limit to which +Northern Buddhism was to go in those almost incredible lengths, which +prompted Professor Whitney[19] to call it "the high-faluting school," +and which we have seen in our own time under the cultivation of western +admirers. + + +The Nichiren Sect. + + +The Japanese mind runs to pantheism as naturally as an unpruned +grape-vine runs to fibre and leaves. + +When Nichiren, the ultra-patriotic and ultra-democratic bonze, saw the +light in A.D. 1222, he was destined to bring religion not only down to +man, but even down to the beasts and to the mud. He founded the +Saddharma-Pundarika sect, now called Nichiren Shu. + +Born at Kominato, near the mouth of Yedo Bay, he became a neophite in +the Shin-gon sect at the age of twelve, and was admitted into the +priesthood when but fifteen years old. Then he adopted his name, which +means Sun-lotus, because, according to a typical dream very common in +Korea and Japan, his mother thought that she had conceived by the sun +entering her body. Through a miracle, he acquired a thorough knowledge +of the whole Buddhist canon, in the course of which he met with words, +which he converted into that formula which is constantly in the mouth of +the members of the Nichiren sect, Namu-my[=o]-ho-ren-ge-ky[=o]--"O, the +Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law."[20] His history, full of +amazing activity and of romantic adventure, is surrounded by a perfect +sunrise splendor, or, shall we say, sunset gorgeousness, of mythology +and fable. The scenes of his life are mostly laid in the region of the +modern T[=o]ki[=o], and to the cultivated traveller, its story lends +fascinating charms to the landscape in the region of Yedo Bay. Nichiren +was a fiery patriot, and ultra-democratic in his sympathies. He was a +radical believer in "Japan for the Japanese." He was an ecclesiastical +_Soshi_. He felt that the developments of Buddhism already made, were +not sufficiently comprehensive, or fully suited to the common people. +So, in A.D. 1282, he founded a new sect which gradually included within +its pantheon all possible Buddhas, and canonized pretty nearly all the +saints, righteous men and favorite heroes known to Dai Nippon. Nichiren +first made Japan the centre of the universe, and then brought religion +down to the lowest. He considered that the period in which he lived was +the latter day of the law, and that all creatures ought to share in the +merit of Buddha-hood. Only the original Buddha is the real moon in the +sky, but all Buddhas of the subordinate states are like the images of +the moon, reflected upon the waters. All these different Buddhas, be +they gods or men, beasts, birds or snakes, are to be honored. Indeed, +they are both honored and worshipped in the Nichiren pantheon. Besides +the historic Buddha, this sect, which is the most idolatrous of all, +admits as objects of its reverence such personages as Nichiren, the +founder; Kato Kiyomasa, the general who led the army of invasion in +Korea and was the persecutor of the Christians; and Shichimen--a word +which means seven points of the compass or seven faces. This Shichimen +is the being that appeared to Nichiren as a beautiful woman, but +disappeared from his sight in the form of a snake, twenty feet long, +covered with golden scales and armed with iron teeth. It is now deified +under the name meaning the Great God of the Seven Faces, and is +identified with the Hindoo deity Siva. + +Another idol usually seen in the Nichiren temples is Mioken. Under this +name the pole star is worshipped, usually in the form of a Buddha with a +wheel of a Buddha elect. Standing on a tortoise, with a sword in his +right hand, and with the left hand half open--a gesture which symbolizes +the male and female principles in the physical world, and the +intelligence and the law in the spiritual world--Mioken is a striking +figure. Indeed, the list of glorified animals reminds us somewhat of the +ancient beast-worship of Egypt. In the Nichiren hierology, it is as +though the symbolical figures in the Book of Revelation had been deified +and worshipped. It is evident that all the creatures in that Buddhist +chamber of imagery, the Hokke Ki[=o], that could possibly be made into +gods have received apotheosis. The very book itself is also worshipped, +for the Nichirenites are extreme believers in verbal inspiration, and +pay divine honors to each jot and tittle of the sutra, which to them is +a god. They adore also the triad of the three precious ones, the Buddha, +the Rule or Discipline, and the Organization; or, Being, Law, and +Church. The hideous idol, Fudo, "Eleven-faced," "Horse-headed," +"Thousand-handed," or girt in a robe of fiery flame, is believed by +Buddhists to represent Avalokitesvara; but, in recent times he has been +recognized, detected and recaptured by the Shint[=o]ists as Kotohira. +The goddess Kishi, and that miscellaneous assortment or group known as +the Seven Patrons of Happiness, which form a sort of encyclopaedia or +museum of curiosities derived from the cults of India, China and Japan, +are also components of the amazing menagerie and pantheon of this sect, +in which scholasticism run mad, and emotional kindness to animals become +maudlin, join hands. + + +The Ultra-realism of Northern Buddhism. + + +Like most of the other Japanese sects, the Nichirenites claim that their +principles are contained in the Hok-ke-ki[=o], which is considered the +consummate white flower of Buddhist doctrine and literature. This is the +Japanese name for that famous sutra, the Saddharma Pundarika, so often +mentioned in these chapters but a thousand-fold more so in Japanese +literature. The Ten-dai and the Nichiren sects are allied, in that both +lay supreme emphasis upon this sutra; but the former interprets it with +an intellectual, and the latter with an emotional emphasis. +Philosophically, the two bodies have much in common. Outwardly they are +very far apart. One has but to read their favorite scripture, to see the +norm upon which the gorgeous art of Japan has been developed. Probably +no single book in the voluminous canon of the Greater Vehicle gives one +so masterful a key to Japanese Buddhism. Its pages are crowded with +sensuous descriptions of all that is attractive to both the reason and +the understanding. Its descriptions of Paradise are those which would +suit also the realistic Mussulman. Its rhetoric and visions seem to be +those of some oriental De Quincey, who, out of the dreams of an +opium-eater, has made the law-book of a religion. Translated into +matter-of-fact Chinese, none better than Nichiren knew how to present +its realism to his people. + +In its ethical standards, which are two, this sect, like most others, +prescribes one course of life for the monk, which is difficult, and +another for the laity, which is easy. The central dogma is that every +part of the universe, including not only gods and men, but animals, +plants and the very mud itself, is capable, by successive +transmigrations, of attaining to Buddhaship. In one sense, Nichirenism +is the transfiguration of atheistic evolution. In its teachings there +are also two forms: the one, largely in symbol, is intended to attract +followers; the other, the pure truth, is employed to convert the +obstinately ignorant, against their wills. As in the history of the +papal organization in Europe, a materialistic interpretation has been +given to the canons of dogma and discipline. + +Contrary to the doctrine of those sects which teach the attainment of +salvation solely through the aid of Amida, or Another, the Nichirenites +insist that it is necessary for man to work out his own salvation, by +observing the law, by self-examination, by reflecting on the blessings +vouchsafed to the members of this elect and orthodox sect and by +constant prayer. They consider themselves as in the only true church, +and their succession to the priesthood, the only valid one. The strict +Nichiren churchmen will not have the Shint[=o] gods in their household +shrines, nor will they intermarry among the sects. The Nichirenites are +also very fond of controversy, and their language in speaking of other +creeds and sects is not that characteristic of the gentle Buddha. The +people of this sect are much given to the belief in demoniacal +possession, and a considerable part of the duty and revenue-yielding +business of the Nichiren priests consists in exorcising the foxes, +badgers and other demons, which have possessed subjects who are +generally women at certain stages of illness or convalescence. The +phenomena and pathology of these disorders seem to be allied to those of +hysteria and hypnotism. + +This popular sect also makes greatest use of charms, spells and amulets, +lays great store on pilgrimages, and is very fond of noise-making +instruments whether prayer-books or the wooden bells or drums which are +prominent features in their temples and revival meetings. In one sense +it is the Salvation Army of Buddhism, being especially powerful in what +strikes the eye and ear. The Nichirenites have been well called the +Ranters of Buddhism. Their revival meetings make Bedlam seem silent, and +reduce to gentle murmurs the camp-meeting excesses with which we are +familiar in our own country. They are the most sectarian of all sects. +Their vocabulary of Billingsgate and the ribaldry employed by them even +against their Buddhist brethren, cast into the shade those of Christian +sectarians in their fiercest controversies. "A thousand years in the +lowest of the hells is the atonement prescribed by the Nichirenites for +the priests of all other sects." When the Parliament of Religions was +called in Chicago, the successors of Nichiren, with their characteristic +high-church modesty, promptly sent letters to America, warning the world +against all other Japanese Buddhists, and denouncing especially those +coming to speak in the Parliament, as misrepresenting the true doctrines +of Buddha. + + +Doctrinal Culmination. + + +When the work of Nichiren had been completed, and his realistic +pantheism had been able to include within its great receiver and +processes of Buddha-making, everything from gods to mud, the circle of +doctrine was complete. K[=o]b[=o]'s leaven had now every possible lump +in which to do its work. All grades of men in Japan, from the most +devout and intellectual to the most ranting and fanatical, could choose +their sect. Yet it may be that Buddhism in Nichiren's day was in danger +of stagnation and formalism, and needed the revival which this fiery +bonze gave it; for, undoubtedly, along with zeal even to bigotry, came +fresh life and power to the religion. This invigoration was followed by +the mighty missionary labors of the last half of the thirteenth century, +which carried Buddhism out to the northern frontier and into Yezo. +Although, from time to time minor sects were formed either limiting or +developing further the principles of the larger parent sects, and +although, even as late as the seventeenth century, a new subsect, the +Oba-ku of Zen Shu, was imported from China, yet no further doctrinal +developments of importance took place; not even in presence of or after +sixteenth century Christianity and seventeenth century Confucianism. + +The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries form the golden age of Japanese +Buddhism. + +In the sixteenth century, the feudal system had split into fragments and +the normal state of the country was that of civil war. Sect was arrayed +against sect, and the Shin bonzes, especially, formed a great military +body in fortified monasteries. + +In the first half of the sixteenth century, came the tremendous +onslaught of Portuguese Christianity. Then followed the militarism and +bloody persecutions of Nobunaga. + +In clashing with the new Confucianism of the seventeenth century, +Buddhism utterly weakened as an intellectual power. Though through the +favor of the Yodo sh[=o]guns it recovered lands and wealth, girded +itself anew as the spy, persecutor and professed extirpator of +Christianity, and maintained its popularity with the common people, it +was, during the eighteenth century, among the educated Japanese, as good +as dead. Modern Confucianism and the revival of Chinese learning, +resulted in eighteenth century scepticism and in nineteenth century +agnosticism. + + +The New Buddhism. + + +In our day and time, Japanese Buddhism, in the presence of aggressive +Christianity, is out of harmony with the times, and the needs of +forty-one millions of awakened and inquiring people; and there are deep +searchings of heart. Politically disestablished and its landed +possessions sequestrated by the government, it has had, since 1868, a +history, first of depression and then of temporary revival. Now, amid +much mechanical and external activity, the employment of the press, the +organization of charity, of summer schools of "theology," and of young +men's and other associations copied from the Christians, it is +endeavoring to keep New Japan within its pale and to dictate the future. +It seeks to utilize the old bottles for the new vintage. + +There is, however, a movement discernible which may be called the New +Buddhism, and has not only new wine but new wineskins. It is democratic, +optimistic, empirical or practical; it welcomes women and children; it +is hospitable to science and every form of truth. It is catholic in +spirit and has little if any of the venom of the old Buddhist +controvertists. It is represented by earnest writers who look to natural +and spiritual means, rather than to external and mechanical methods. As +a whole, we may say that Japanese Buddhism is still strong to-day in its +grip upon the people. Though unquestionably moribund, its death will be +delayed. Despite its apparent interest in, and harmony with, +contemporaneous statements of science, it does not hold the men of +thought, or those who long for the spiritual purification and moral +elevation of Japan. + +Are the Japanese eager for reform? Do they possess that quality of +emotion in which a tormenting sense of sin, and a burning desire for +self-surrender to holiness, are ever manifest? + +Frankly and modestly, we give our opinion. We think not. The average +Japanese man has not come to that self-consciousness, that searching of +heart, that self-seeing of sin in the light of a Holy God's countenance +which the gospel compels. Yet this is exactly what the Japanese need. +Only Christ's gospel can give it. + +The average man of culture in Dai Nippon has to-day no religion. He is +waiting for one. What shall be the issue, in the contest between a faith +that knows no personal God, no Creator, no atonement, no gospel of +salvation from sin, and the gospel which bids man seek and know the +great First Cause, as Father and Friend, and proclaims that this +Infinite Friend seeks man to bless him, to bestow upon him pardon and +holiness and to give him earthly happiness and endless life? Between one +religion which teaches personality in God and in man, and another which +offers only a quagmire of impersonality wherein a personal god and an +individual soul exist only as the jack-lights of the marsh, mere +phosphorescent gleams of decay, who can fail to choose? Of the two +faiths, which shall be victor? + + + + +CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT + + + "The heart of my country, the power of my country, the Light of + my country, is Buddhism."--Yatsubuchi, of Japan. + + "Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Japanese + nation grew up."--Chamberlain. + + "Buddhism was the civilizer. It came with the freshness of + religious zeal, and religious zeal was a novelty. It come as the + bearer of civilization and enlightenment." + + "Buddhism has had a fair field in Japan, and its outcome has not + been elevating. Its influence has been aesthetic and not + ethical. It added culture and art to Japan, as it brought with + itself the civilization of continental Asia. It gave the arts, + and more, it added the artistic atmosphere.... Reality + disappears. 'This fleeting borrowed world' is all mysterious, a + dream; moonlight is in place of the clear hot sun.... It has so + fitted itself to its surroundings that it seems + indigenous."--George William Knox. + + "The Japanese ... are indebted to Buddhism for their present + civilization and culture, their great susceptibility to the + beauties of nature, and the high perfection of several branches + of artistic industry."--Rein. + + "We speak of _God_, and the Japanese mind is filled with idols. + We mention _sin_, and he thinks of eating flesh or the killing + of insects. The word _holiness_ reminds him of crowds of + pilgrims flocking to some famous shrine, or of some anchorite + sitting lost in religions abstraction till his legs rot off. He + has much error to unlearn before he can take in the + truth-"--R.E. McAlpine. + + "There in a life of study, prayer, and thought, + Kenshin became a saintly priest--not wide + In intellect nor broad in sympathies, + For such things come not from the ascetic life; + But narrow, strong, and deep, and like the stream + That rushes fervid through the narrow path + Between the rooks at Nikk[=o]--so he grasped, + Heart, soul, and strength, the holy Buddha's Law + With no room left for doubt, or sympathy + For other views."--Kenshin's Vision. + + "For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the + same, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place + incense is offered unto my name, and a pure offering, for my + name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of + hosts."--Malachi. + + +CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT + +Missionary Buddhism the Measure of Japan's Civilization. + + +Broadly speaking, the history of Japanese Buddhism in its missionary +development is the history of Japan. Before Buddhism came, Japan was +pre-historic. We know the country and people through very scanty notices +in the Chinese annals, by pale reflections cast by myths, legends and +poems, and from the relics cast up by the spade and plough. Chinese +civilization had filtered in, though how much or how little we cannot +tell definitely; but since the coming of the Buddhist missionaries in +the sixth century, the landscape and the drama of human life lie before +us in clear detail. Speaking broadly again, it may be said that almost +from the time of its arrival, Buddhism became on its active side the +real religion of Japan--at least, if the word "religion" be used in a +higher sense than that connoted by either Shint[=o] or Confucianism. +Though as a nation the Japanese of the Meiji era are grossly forgetful +of this fact, yet, as Professor Chamberlain says,[1] "All education was +for centuries in Buddhist hands. Buddhism introduced art; introduced +medicine; created the folk-lore of the country; created its dramatic +poetry; deeply influenced politics, and every sphere of social and +intellectual activity; in a word, Buddhism was the teacher under whose +instruction the Japanese nation grew up." + +For many centuries all Japanese, except here and there a stern +Shint[=o]ist, or an exceptionally dogmatic Confucian, have acknowledged +these patent facts, and from the emperor to the eta, glorified in them. +It was not until modern Confucian philosophy entered the Mikado's empire +in the seventeenth century, that hostile criticism and polemic tenets +denounced Buddhism, and declared it only fit for savages. This bitter +denunciation of Buddhism at the lips and hands of Japanese who had +become Chinese in mind, was all the more inappropriate, because Buddhism +had for over a thousand years acted as the real purveyor and disperser +of the Confucian ethics and culture in Japan. Such denunciation came +with no better grace from the Yedo Confucianists than from the Shint[=o] +revivalists, like Motooeri, who, while execrating everything Chinese, +failed to remember or impress upon his countrymen the fact, that almost +all which constituted Japanese civilization had been imported from the +Middle Kingdom. + +Buddhism, in its purely doctrinal development, seems to be rather a +system of metaphysics than a true religion, being a conglomeration, or +rather perhaps an agglomeration, of all sorts of theories relating to +the universe and its contents. Its doctrinal and metaphysical side, +however, is to be carefully distinguished from its popular and external +features, for in its missionary development Buddhism may be called a +system of national improvement. The history of its propagation, in the +land farthest east from its cradle, is not only the outline of the +history of Japanese civilization, but is nearly the whole of it. + + +Pre-Buddhistic Japan. + + +It is not perhaps difficult to reconstruct in imagination the landscape +of Japan in pre-Buddhistic days. Certainly we may, with some accuracy, +draw a contrast between the appearance of the face of the earth then and +now. Supposing that there were as many as a million or two of souls in +the Japanese Archipelago of the sixth century--the same area which in +the nineteenth century contains over forty-one millions--we can imagine +only here and there patches of cultivated fields, or terraced gullies. +There were no roads except paths or trails. The horse was probably yet a +curiosity to the aborigines, though well known to the sons of the gods. +Sheep and goats then, as now, were unknown. The cow and the ox were in +the land, but not numerous.[2] In architecture there was probably little +but the primeval hut. Tools were of the rudest description; yet it is +evident that the primitive Japanese were able to work iron and apply it +to many uses. There were other metals, though the tell-tale etymology of +their names in Japanese metallurgy, as in so many other lines of +industry and articles of daily use, points to a Chinese origin. It is +the almost incredible fact that the Japanese man or woman wore on the +person neither gold nor silver jewelry. In later times, decoration was +added to the sword hilt and pins were thrust in the hair. + +Possibly a prejudice against metal touching the skin, such as exists in +Korea, may account for this absence of jewelry, though silver was not +discovered until A.D. 675, or gold until A.D. 749. The primitive +Japanese, however, did wear ornaments of ground and polished stone, and +these so numerously as to compel contrast with the severer tastes of +later ages. Some of these magatama--curved jewels or perforated +cylinders--were made of very hard stone which requires skill to drill, +cut and polish. Among the substances used was jade, a mineral found only +in Cathay.[3] Indeed, we cannot follow the lines of industry and +manufactures, of personal adornment and household decoration, of +scientific terms and expressions, of literary, intellectual and +religious experiment, without continually finding that the Japanese +borrowed from Chinese storehouses. Possibly their debt began at the time +of the alleged conquest of Korea[4] in the third century. + +In Japanese life, as it existed before the introduction of Buddhism, +there was, with barbaric simplicity, a measure of culture somewhat +indeed above the level of savagery, but probably very little that could +be appraised beyond that of the Iroquois Indians in the days of their +Confederacy. For though granting that there were many interesting +features of art, industry, erudition and civilization which have been +lost to the historic memory, and that the research of scholars may +hereafter discover many things now in oblivion; yet, on the other hand, +it is certain that much of what has long been supposed to be of +primitive Japanese origin, and existent before the eighth century, has +been more or less infused or enriched with Chinese elements, or has been +imported directly from India, or Persia,[5] or has crystallized into +shape from the mixture of things Buddhistic and primitive Japanese. + +Apart from all speculation, we know that in the train of the first +missionaries came artisans, and instructors in every line of human +industry and achievement, and that the importation of the inventions and +appliances of "the West"--the West then being Korea and China, and the +"Far West," India--was proportionately as general, as far-reaching, as +sensational, as electric in its effects upon the Japanese minds, as, in +our day, has been the introduction of the modern civilization of Europe +and the United States.[6] + + +The Purveyors of Civilization. + + +The Buddhist missionaries, in their first "enthusiasm of humanity," were +not satisfied to bring in their train, art, medicine, science and +improvements of all sorts, but they themselves, being often learned and +practical men, became personal leaders in the work of civilizing the +country. In travelling up and down the empire to propagate their tenets, +they found out the necessity of better roads, and accordingly, they were +largely instrumental in having them made. They dug wells, established +ferries and built bridges.[7] They opened lines of communication; they +stimulated traffic and the exchange of merchandise; they created the +commerce between Japan and China; and they acted as peacemakers and +mediators in the wars between the Japanese and Koreans. For centuries +they had the monopoly of high learning. In the dark middle ages when +civil war ruled, they were the only scholars, clerks, diplomatists, +mediators and peacemakers. + +Japanese diet became something new under the direction of the priests. +The bonzes taught the wickedness of slaughtering domestic animals, and +indeed, the wrong of putting any living thing to death, so that kindness +to animals has become a national trait. To this day it may be said that +Japanese boys and men are, at least within the limits of their light, +more tender and careful with all living creatures than are those of +Christendom.[8] The bonzes improved the daily fare of the people, by +introducing from Korea and China articles of food hitherto unknown. They +brought over new seeds and varieties of vegetables and trees. +Furthermore, necessity being the mother of invention, not a few of the +shorn brethren made up for the prohibition of fish and flesh, by +becoming expert cooks. They so exercised their talents in the culinary +art that their results on the table are proverbial. Especially did they +cultivate mushrooms, which in taste and nourishment are good substitutes +for fish. + +The bonzes were lovers of beauty and of symbolism. They planted the +lotus, and the monastery ponds became seats of splendor, and delights to +the eye. Their teachings, metaphysical and mystical, poetical and +historical, scientific and literary, created, it may be said, the +Japanese garden, which to the refined imagination contains far more than +meets the eye of the alien.[9] Indeed, the oriental imitations in earth, +stone, water and verdure, have a language and suggestion far beyond what +the usual parterres and walks, borders and lines, fountains and statuary +of a western garden teach. It may be said that our "language of flowers" +is more luxuriant and eloquent than theirs; yet theirs is very rich +also, besides being more subtle in suggestion. The bonzes instilled +doctrine, not only by sermons, books and the emblems and furniture of +the temples, but they also taught dogma and ethics by the flower-ponds +and plots, by the artificial landscape, and by outdoor symbolism of all +kinds. To Buddhism our thanks are due, for the innumerable miniature +continents, ranges of mountains, geographical outlines and other +horticultural allusions to their holy lands and spiritual history, seen +beside so many houses, temples and monasteries in Japan. In their floral +art, no people excels the Japanese in making leaf and bloom teach +history, religion, philosophy, aesthetics and patriotism. + +Not only around the human habitation,[10] but within it, the new +religion brought a marvellous change. Instead of the hut, the +dwelling-house grew to spacious and comfortable proportions, every part +of the Japanese house to-day showing to the cultured student, especially +to one familiar with the ancient poetry, the lines of its origin and +development, and in the larger dwellings expressing a wealth of +suggestion and meaning. The oratory and the kami-dana or shelf holding +the gods, became features in the humblest dwelling. Among the well-to-do +there were of course the gilded ancestral tablets and the worship of +progenitors, in special rooms, with imposing ritual and equipment, with +which Buddhism did not interfere; but on the shelf over the door of +nearly every house in the land, along with the emblems of the kami, +stood images representing the avatars of Buddha.[11] There, the light +ever burned, and there, offerings of food and drink were thrice daily +made. Though the family worship might vary in its length and variety of +ceremony, yet even in the home where no regular system was followed, the +burning lights and the stated offering made, called the mind up to +thoughts higher than the mere level of providing for daily wants. The +visitation of the priests in time of sorrow, or of joy, or for friendly +converse, made religion sweetly human.[12] + +Outwardly the Buddhist architecture made a profound change in the +landscape. With a settled religion requiring gorgeous ceremonial, the +chanting of liturgies by large bodies of priests and the formation of +monasteries as centres of literary and religious activity, there were +required stability and permanence in the imperial court itself. While, +therefore, the humble village temples arose all over the country, there +were early erected, in the place where the court and emperor dwelt, +impressive religious edifices.[13] The custom of migration ceased, and a +fixed spot selected as the capital, remained such for a number of +generations, until finally Heian-j[)o] or the place of peace, later +called Ki[=o]to, became the "Blossom Capital" and the Sacred City for a +thousand years. At Nara, where flourished the first six sects introduced +from Korea, were built vast monasteries, temples and images, and thence +the influence of civilisation and art radiated. From the first, +forgetting its primitive democracy and purely moral claims, Buddhism +lusted for power in the State. As early as A.D. 624, various grades were +assigned to the priesthood by the government.[14] The sects eagerly +sought and laid great stress upon imperial favor. To this day they +keenly enjoy the canonization of their great teachers by letters patent +from the Throne. + + +Ministers of Art. + + +On the establishment of the imperial capital, at Ki[=o]to, toward the +end of the eighth century, we find still further development and +enlargement of those latent artistic impulses with which the Heavenly +Father endowed his Japanese child. That capacity for beauty, both in +appreciation and expression, which in our day makes the land of dainty +decoration the resort of all those who would study oriental art in +unique fulness and decorative art in its only living school--a school +founded on the harmonious marriage of the people and the nature of the +country--is discernible from quite early ages. The people seem to have +responded gladly to the calls for gifts and labor. The direction from +which it is supposed all evils are likely to come is the northeast; this +special point of the compass being in pan-Asian spiritual geography the +focus of all malign influences. Accordingly, the Mikado Kwammu, in A.D. +788, built on the highest mountain called Hiyei a superb temple and +monastery, giving it in charge of the Ten-dai sect, that there should +ever be a bulwark against the evil that might otherwise swoop upon the +city. Here, as on castellated walls, should stand the watchman, who, by +the recitation of the sacred liturgies, would keep watch and ward. In +course of time this great mountain became a city of three thousand +edifices and ten thousand monks, from which the droning of litanies and +the chanting of prayers ascended daily, and where the chief industries +were, the counting of beads on rosaries and the burning of incense +before the altars. This was in the long bright day of a prosperity which +has been nourished by vast sums obtained from the government and nobles. +One notes the contrast at the end of our century, when "disestablished" +as a religion and its bonzes reduced to beggary, Hiyei-san is used as +the site of a Summer School of Christian Theology. + +Along with the blossoming of the lotus in every part of the empire, +bloomed the grander flowers of sculpture, of painting and of temple +architecture. It was because of the carpenter's craft in building +temples that he won his name of Dai-ku, or the great workman. The +artificers of the sunny islands cultivated an ambition, not only to +equal but to excel, their continental brethren of the saw and hammer. +Yet the carpenter was only the leader of great hosts of artisans that +were encouraged, of craftsmen that were educated and of industries that +were called into being by the spread of Buddhism.[15] It was not enough +that village temples and town monasteries should be built, under an +impulse that meant volumes for the development of the country. The +ambitious leaders chose sightly spots on mountains whence were lovely +vistas of scenery, on which to erect temples and monasteries, while it +seemed to be their further ambition to allow no mountain peak to be +inaccessible. With armies of workmen, supported by the contributions of +the faithful who had been aroused to enthusiasm by the preaching of the +bonzes, great swaths were cut in the forest; abundant timber was felled; +rocky plateaus were levelled; and elegant monastic edifices were reared, +soon to be filled with eager students, and young men in training for the +priesthood. + +Whether the pilgrimage[16] be of Shint[=o] or of Buddhist origin, or +simply a contrivance of human nature to break the monotony of life, we +need not discuss. It is certain that if the custom be indigenous, the +imported faith adopted, absorbed and enlarged it. The peregrinations +made to the great temples and to the mountain tops, being meritorious +performances, soon filled the roads with more or less devout travellers. +In thus finding vent for their piety, the pilgrims mingled +sanctification with recreation, enjoying healthful holidays, and +creating trade with varied business, commercial and commissarial +activities, while enlarging also their ideas and learning something of +geography. Thus, in the course of time, it has come to pass that Japan +is a country of which almost every square mile is known, while it is +well threaded with paths, banded with roads, and supplied to a +remarkable extent with handy volumes of description and of local +history.[17] Her people being well educated in their own lore and local +traditions, possessed also a voluminous literature of guidebooks and +cyclopedias of information. The devotees were, withal, well instructed +and versed in a code of politeness and courtesy, as pilgrimage and +travel became settled habits of a life. As a further result, the +national tongue became remarkably homogeneous. Broadly speaking, it may +be said that the Japanese language, unlike the Chinese in this as it is +in almost every other point, has very little dialectic variation.[18] +Except in some few remote eddies lying outside the general currents, +there is a uniform national speech. This is largely owing to that annual +movement of pilgrims in the summer months especially, habitual during +many centuries. + +Buddhism coming to Japan by means of the Great Vehicle, or with the +features of the Northern development, was the fertile mother of art. In +the exterior equipment of the temple, instead of the Shint[=o] thatch, +the tera or Buddhist edifice called for tiles on its sweeping roof, with +ornamental terra-cotta at the end of its imposing roof-ridge, or for +sheets of copper soon to be made verdant, then sombre and then sable by +age and atmosphere. Outwardly the edifice required the application of +paint and lacquer in rich tints, its recurved roof-edges gladly +welcoming the crest and monogram of the feudal prince, and its railings +and stairways accepting willingly the bronze caps and ornaments. In +front of its main edifice was the imposing gateway with proportions +almost as massive as the temple itself, with prodigal wealth of +curiously fitted and richly carved, painted and gilded supports and +morticings, with all the fancies and adornments of the carpenter's art, +and having as its frontlet and blazon the splendidly gilt name, style or +title. Often these were impressive to eye and mind, to an extent which +the terse Chinese or curt monosyllables could scarcely suggest to an +alien.[19] The number, forms and positions of the various parts of the +temple easily lent themselves to the expression of the elaborate +symbolism of the India faith. + + +Resemblances between Buddhism and Christianity. + + +Within the sacred edifice everything to strike the senses was lavishly +displayed. The passion of the East, as opposed to Greek simplicity, is +for decoration; yet in Japan, decorative art, though sometimes bursting +out in wild profusion or running to unbridled lengths, was in the main a +regulated mass of splendor in which harmony ruled. Differing though the +Buddhist sects do in their temple furniture and altar decorations, they +are, most of them, so elaborately full in their equipment as to suggest +repeatedly the similarity between the Roman Catholic organization, +altars, vestments and ritual, and those of Buddhism, and remarks on this +point seem almost commonplace. Almost everything in Roman Catholicism is +found in Buddhism,[20] and one may even say, _vice versa_, at least in +things exterior. We take the liberty of transcribing here a passage from +the chapter entitled "Christianity and Foreigners" in The Mikado's +Empire, written twenty years ago. + + "Furthermore, the transition from the religion of India to that + of Rome was extremely easy. The very idols of Buddha served, + after a little alteration with the chisel, for images of Christ. + The Buddhist saints were easily transformed into the Twelve + Apostles. The Cross took the place of the _torii_. It was + emblazoned on the helmets and banners of the warriors, and + embroidered on their breasts. The Japanese soldiers went forth + to battle like Christian crusaders. In the roadside shrine + Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy, made way for the Virgin, the + mother of God. Buddhism was beaten with its own weapons. Its own + artillery was turned against it. Nearly all the Christian + churches were native temples, sprinkled and purified. The same + bell, whose boom had so often quivered the air announcing the + orisons and matins of paganism, was again blessed and sprinkled, + and called the same hearers to mass and confession; the same + lavatory that fronted the temple served for holy water or + baptismal font; the same censer that swung before Amida could be + refilled to waft Christian incense; the new convert could use + unchanged his old beads, bells, candles, incense, and all the + paraphernalia of his old faith in celebration of the new. + + "Almost everything that is distinctive in the Roman form of + Christianity is to be found in Buddhism: images, pictures, + lights, altars, incense, vestments, masses, beads, wayside + shrines, monasteries, nunneries, celibacy, fastings, vigils, + retreats, pilgrimages, mendicant vows, shorn heads, orders, + habits, uniforms, nuns, convents, purgatory, saintly and + priestly intercession, indulgences, works of supererogation, + pope, archbishops, abbots, abbesses, monks, neophytes, relics + and relic-worship, exclusive burial-ground, etc., etc., + etc."[21] + +Nevertheless, these resemblances are almost wholly superficial, and have +little or nothing to do with genuine religion. Such matters are of +aesthetic and of commercial, rather than of spiritual, interest. They +concern priestcraft and vulgar superstition rather than truth and +righteousness. "In point of dogma a whole world of thought separates +Buddhism from every form of Christianity. Knowledge, enlightenment, is +the condition of Buddhistic grace, not faith. Self-perfectionment is the +means of salvation, not the vicarious sufferings of a Redeemer. Not +eternal life is the end and active participation in unceasing prayer and +praise, but absorption into Nirvana (Jap. Nehan), practical +annihilation."[22] At certain points, the metaphysic of Buddhism is so +closely like that of Christian theology, that a connection on reciprocal +exchange of ideas is not only possible but probable. In their highest +thinking,[23] the sincere Christian and Buddhist approach each other in +their search after truth. + +The key-word of Buddhism is Ingwa, which means law or fate, the chain of +cause and effect in which man is found, atheistic "evolution applied to +ethics," the grinding machinery of a universe in which is no +Creator-Father, no love, pity or heart. If the cry of the human spirit +has compelled the makers of Buddhist theology to furnish a goddess of +mercy, it is but one subordinate being among many. If a boundlessly +compassionate Amida is thought out, it is an imaginary being. The symbol +of Buddhism is the wheel of the law, which revolves as mercilessly as +ceaselessly.[24] + +The key-word of Christianity is love, and its message is grace. Its +symbol is the cross, and its sacrament the supper, in token of the +infinite love of the Father who wrote his revelation in a human life. +The resemblances between the religions of Gautama and of Jesus, are +purely superficial. They appear to the outward man. The inward man +cannot, even from Darien peaks of observation or in his scrutiny _de +profundis_, discover any vital or historical connection between the two +faiths, Christianity and Buddhism. In his theology the Christian says +God is all; but the Buddhist says All is god. Buddhism says destroy the +passions: Christianity says control them. The Buddhist's watchword is +Nirvana. The Christian's is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus.[25] + + +The Temples and Their Symbolism. + + +In the vast airy halls of a Buddhist temple one will often see columns +made of whole tree-trunks, sheeted with gold and supporting massive +ceilings which are empanelled and gorgeous with every hue and tint known +to the palette. Besides the coloring, carving and gilding, the rich +symbolism strikes the eye and touches the imagination. It is a pleasing +study for one familiar with the background and world of Buddhism, to +note their revelation and expression in art, as well as to discern what +the varying sects accept or reject. There is the lotus, in leaf, bud, +flower and calyx;[26] the diamond in every form, real and imaginary, +with the vagra or emblem of conquest; while on the altars, beside the +central image, be it that of Shaka or of Amida, are Bodhisattvas or +Buddhas by brevet, beings in every state of existence, as well as +deities of many names and forms. Abstract ideas and attributes are +expressed in the art language not only of Japan, Korea and China, but +also in that of India and even of Persia and Greece,[27] until one +wonders how an Aryan religion, like Buddhism, could have so conquered +and unified the many nations of Chinese Asia. He wonders, indeed, until +he remembers how it has itself been transformed and changed in popular +substance, from lofty metaphysics and ethics into pantheism for the +shorn, and into polytheism for the unshorn. + +Looking at early Japanese pictures with the eye of the historian, as +well as of the connoisseur of art, one will see that the first real +school of Japanese art was Buddhistic. The modern school of pictorial +art, named from the monkish phrase, Ukioye--pictures of the Passing +World--is indeed very interesting to the western student, because it +seems to be more in touch with the human nature of the whole world, as +distinct from what is local, Chinese, or sectarian. Yet, casting a +glance back of the mediaeval Kano, Chinese and Yamato-Tosa styles, he +finds that Buddhism gave Japan her first examples of and stimulus to +pictorial art.[28] He sees further that instead of the monochrome of +Chinese exotic art, or the first rude attempts of the native pencil, +Buddhism began Japanese sculpture, carving and nearly every other form +of plastic or pictorial representation, in which are all the elements of +Northern Buddhism, as so lavishly represented, for example, in that +great sutra which is the book, _par excellence_, of Japanese Buddhism, +the Saddharma Pundarika. + +Turning from text to art, we behold the golden lakes of joy, the +mountain of gems, the floating female angels with their marvellous +drapery and lovely faces, the gentle benignity of the goddesses of +mercy, the rays of light and the glory streaming from face and head of +the holy ones, the splendors of costume, the varied beauties of the +lotus, the hosts of ministering intelligences, the luxuriant symbolism, +the purple clouds, the wheel of the law, the swastika[29] or double +cross, and the vagra,[30] or diamond trefoil. All that color, perfume, +sensuous delights, art and luxury can suggest, are here, together with +all the various orders of beings that inhabit the Buddhist universe; and +these are set forth in their fulness and detail. In the six conditions +of sentient existence are devas or gods, men, asuras or monsters, pretas +or demons, beasts, and beings in hell. In portraying these, the artists +and sculptors do not always slavishly follow tradition or uniformity. +The critical eye notes nearly as much genius, wit and variety as in the +mediaeval cathedral architecture of Europe. Probably the most popular +groups of idols are those of the seven or the thirty-three Kuannon, of +the six Jizo[31] or compassionate helpers, and of the sixteen or the +five hundred Rakan[32] or circles of primitive disciples of Gautama. The +angelic beings and sweetly singing birds of Paradise are also favorite +subjects of the artists. + +One who has lived alongside the great temples; who knows the daily +routine and sees what powerful engines of popular instruction they are; +who has been present at the great festivals and looked upon the mighty +kitchens and refectories in operation; and who has gone in and out among +their monasteries and examined their records, their genealogies and +their relics, can see how powerfully Buddhism has moulded the whole life +of the people through long ages. The village temple is often the epitome +and repository of the social life of the people now living, and of the +story of their ancestors for generations upon generations past. It is +the historico-genealogical society, the museum, the repository of +documents and trophies, the place of national thanksgiving and praise, +of public sorrow and farewell, a place of rendezvous and separation, the +starting-point of procession, and the centre of festival and joy; and +thus it is linked with the life of the people. + +In other respects, also, the temple is like the old village cathedral of +mediaeval Europe. It is in many sects the centre of popular pleasure of +all sorts, both reputable and disreputable. Not only shops and bazaars, +fairs and markets, games and sports, cluster around it, but also +curiosities and works of popular art, the relics of war, and the +trophies of travel and adventure. Except that Buddhism--outside of +India--never had the unity of European Christianity, the Buddhist temple +is the mirror and encyclopaedia both of history and of contemporary +life. As fame and renown are necessary for the glory of the place or the +structure, favorite gods, or rather their idols, are frequently carried +about on "starring" tours. At the opening to public view of some famous +image or relic, a great festival or revival called Kai-ch[=o] is held, +which becomes a scene of trade and merry-making like that of the +mediaeval fair or kermis in Europe. The far-oriental is able as +skilfully as his western confrere, to mix business and religion and to +suppose that gain is godliness. Further, the manufacture of legend +becomes a thriving industry; while the not-infrequent sensation of a +popular miracle is manipulated by the bonzes--for priestcraft in all +ages and climes is akin throughout the world. It is no wonder that some +honest Japanese, incensed at the shams utilized by the religious, has +struck out like coin the proverb that rings true--"Good doctrine needs +no miracle." + + +The Bell and the Cemetery. + + +The Buddhist missionaries, and especially the founders of temples, +thoroughly understood the power of natural beauty to humble, inspire and +soothe the soul of man. The instinctive love of the Japanese people for +fine scenery, was made an ally of faith. The sites for temples were +chosen with reference to their imposing surroundings or impressive +vistas. Whether as spark-arresters and protectives against fire, or to +compel reverent awe, the loftiest evergreen trees are planted around the +sacred structure. These "trees of Jehovah" are compellers to reverence. +The _alien's_ hat comes off instinctively--though it may be less +convenient to shed boots than sandals--as he enters the sacred +structure. + +The great tongueless bell is another striking accessory to the temple +services. Near at hand stands the belfry out of which boom forth tidings +of the hours. In the flow of time and years, the note of the bell +becomes more significant, and in old age solemn, making in the lapse of +centuries an educating power in seriousness. "As sad as a temple bell" +is the coinage of popular speech. Many of the inscriptions, though with +less of sunny hope and joy than even Christian grave-stones bear, are +yet mournfully beautiful.[33] They preach Buddhism in its reality. +Whereas, the general associations of the Christian spire and belfry, +apart from the note of time, are those of joy, invitation and good news, +those of the tongueless and log-struck bells of Buddhism are sombre and +saddening. "As merry as a marriage bell," could never be said of the +boom from a Buddhist temple, even though it pour waves of sound through +sunny leagues. There is a vast difference between the peal and play of +the chimes of Europe and the liquid melody which floods the landscape of +Chinese Asia. The one music, high in air, seems ever to tell of faith, +triumph and aspiration; the other in minor notes, from bells hung low on +yokes, perpetually echoes the pessimism of despair, the folly of living +and the joy that anticipates its end. + +Above all, the temple holds and governs the cemetery[34] as well as the +cradle; while from it emanate influences that enwrap and surround the +villager, from birth to death. Since the outlawry of Christianity, and +especially since the division of the empire into Buddhist parishes, the +bonzes have had the oversight of birth, death, marriage and divorce. +Particularly tenacious, in common with priestcraft all over the world, +is their clutch upon what they call "consecrated ground." In a large +sense Japan is still, what China has always been, a country governed by +the graveyard. These cities of the dead are usually kept in attractive +order and made beautiful with flowers in memoriam. The study of epitaphs +and mortuary architecture, though not without elements bordering on the +ludicrous, is enjoyed by the thoughtful student.[35] + + In every community the inhabitants are enrolled at birth at the + local temple, whose priests are the authorized religious + teachers, and are always expected to take charge of the funerals + of those whose names are thus enrolled. So long as an individual + remains in the region of the family temple, the tie which binds + him to it is exceedingly difficult to break; but if he moves + away he is no longer bound by this tie. This explains the fact, + so often observed by missionaries, that the membership of + Christian churches is made up almost entirely of people who have + come from other localities. In the city of Osaka, for instance, + it is a very rare thing to find a native Osakan in any of the + churches. The same is true in all parts of the country. So long + as a Japanese remains in the neighborhood of his family temple + it is almost impossible to get him to break the temple tie and + join a Christian church; but when he moves to another place he + is free to do as he likes.[36] + +This statement of a resident in modern Japan will long remain true for a +large part of the empire. + + +Political and Military Influences. + + +A volume might be written and devoted to Japanese Buddhism as a +political power; for, having quickly obtained intellectual possession of +the court and emperor, it dictated the policies of the rulers. In A.D. +624, it was recognized as a state religion, and the hierarchy of priests +was officially established. At this date there were 46 temples and +monasteries, with 816 monks and 569 nuns. As early as the eighth +century, beginning with Sh[=o]mu, who reigned A.D. 724-728, and who with +his daughter, afterward the female Mikado, became a disciple of Shaka, +the habit of the emperors becoming monks, shaving their heads and +retiring from public life, came in vogue and lasted until near the +nineteenth century. By this means the bonzes were soon enabled to call +Buddhism "the people's religion," and to secure the resources of the +national treasury as an aid to their temple and monastery building, and +for the erection of those images and wayside shrines on which so many +millions of dollars have been lavished. In addition to this subsidized +propaganda, the Buddhist confessor was too often able, by means of the +wife, concubine, or other female member of the household, imperial or +noble, to dictate the imperial policy in accordance with monkish or +priestly ideas. Ugeno D[=o]-ki[=o], a monk, is believed to have aspired +to the throne. Being made premier by the Empress K[=o]-ken, whose +passion for him is the scandal of history, he made no scruple of +extending the power as well as the influence of the Buddhist hierarchy. + +Buddhism had also a distinct influence on the military history of the +country,[37] and this was greatest during the civil wars of the rival +Mikados (1336-1392), when the whole country was a camp and two lines of +nominees claimed to be descendants of the sun-goddess. Japan's only +foreign wars have been in the neighboring peninsula of Korea, and +thither the bonzes went with the armies in the expeditions of the early +centuries, and in that great invasion of 1592-1597, which has left a +scar even to this day on the Korean mind. At home, Buddhist priests only +too gladly accompanied the imperial armies of conquest and occupation. +During centuries of activity in the southwest and in the far east and +extreme north, the military brought the outlying portions of the empire, +throughout the whole archipelago, under the sway of the Yamato tribe and +the Mikado's dominion. The shorn clerks not only lived in camp, +ministered to the sick and shrived the dying soldier, but wrote texts +for the banners, furnished the amulets and war cries, and were ever +assistant and valuable in keeping up the temper and morals of the +armies.[38] No sooner was the campaign over and peace had become the +order of the day, than the enthusiastic missionaries began to preach and +to teach in the pacified region. They set up the shrines, anon started +the school and built the temple; usually, indeed, with the aid of the +law and the government, acting as agents of a politico-ecclesiastical +establishment, yet with energy and consecration. + +In later feudal days, when the soldier classes obtained the upper hand, +overawed the court and Mikado and gradually supplanted the civil +authority, introducing feudalism and martial law, the bonzes often +represented the popular and democratic side. Protesting against +arbitrary government, they came into collision with the warrior rulers, +so as to be exposed to imprisonment and the sword. Yet even as refugees +and as men to whom the old seats of activity no longer offered success +or comfort, they went off into the distant and outlying provinces, +preaching the old tenets and the new fashions in theology. Thus again +they won hosts of converts, built monasteries, opened fresh paths and +were purveyors of civilization. + +The feudal ages in Japan bred the same type of militant priest known in +Europe--the military bishop and the soldier monk. So far from Japan's +being the "Land of Great Peace," and Buddhism's being necessarily gentle +and non-resistant, we find in the chequered history of the island empire +many a bloody battle between the monks on horseback and in armor.[39] +Rival sectarians kept the country disquieted for years. Between +themselves and their favored laymen, and the enemy, consisting of the +rival forces, lay and clerical, in like array, many a bloody battle was +fought. + +The writer lived for one year in Echizen, which, in the fifteenth +century, was the battle-ground for over fifty years, of warring monks. +The abbot of the Monastery of the Original Vow, of the Shin sect, in +Ki[=o]to, had built before the main edifice a two-storied gate, which +was expected to throw into the shade every other gateway in Japan, and +especially to humble the pride of the monks of the Tendai sect, in +Hiyeizan, The monks of the mountain, swarming down into the capital +city, attacked the gate and monastery of the Shin sect and burned the +former to ashes. The abbot thus driven off by fire, fled northward, and, +joined by a powerful body of adherents, made himself possessor of the +rich provinces of Kaga and Echizen, holding this region for half a +century, until able to rebuild the mighty fortress-monasteries near +Ki[=o]to and at Osaka. + +These strongholds of the fighting Shin priests had become so powerful as +arsenals and military headquarters, that in 1570, Nobunaga, skilful +general as he was, and backed by sixty thousand men, was unsuccessful in +his attempt to reduce them. For ten years, the war between Nobunaga and +the Shin sectarians kept the country in disorder. It finally ended in +the conflagration of the great religious fortress at Osaka, and the +retreat of the monks to another part of the country. By their treachery +and incendiarism, the shavelings prevented the soldiers from enjoying +the prizes. + +To detail the whole history of the fighting monks would be tedious. They +have had a foothold for many centuries and even to the present time, in +every province except that of Satsuma. There, because they treacherously +aided the great Hideyoshi to subdue the province, the fiery clansmen, +never during Tokugawa days, permitted a Buddhist priest to come.[40] + + +Literature, and Education. + + +In its literary and scholastic development, Japanese Buddhism on its +popular educational side deserves great praise. Although the Buddhist +canon[41] was never translated into the vernacular,[42] and while the +library of native Buddhism, in the way of commentary or general +literature, reflects no special credit upon the priests, yet the +historian must award them high honor, because of the part taken by them +as educators and schoolmasters.[43] Education in ancient and mediaeval +times was, among the laymen, confined almost wholly to the imperial +court, and was considered chiefly to be, either as an adjunct to polite +accomplishments, or as valuable especially in preparing young men for +political office.[44] From the first introduction of letters until well +into the nineteenth century, there was no special provision for +education made by the government, except that, in modern and recent +times in the castle towns of the Daimi[=o]s, there were schools of +Chinese learning for the Samurai. Private schools and school-masters[45] +were also creditably numerous. In original literature, poetry, fiction +and history, as well as in the humbler works of compilation, in the +making of text-books and in descriptive lore, the pens of many priests +have been busy.[46] The earliest biography written in Japan was of +Sh[=o]toku, the great lay patron of Buddhism. In the ages of war the +monastery was the ark of preservation amid a flood of desolation. + +The temple schools were early established, and in the course of +centuries became at times almost coextensive with the empire. Besides +the training of the neophytes in the Chinese language and the +vernacular, there were connected with thousands of temples, schools in +which the children, not only of the well-to-do, but largely of the +people, were taught the rudiments of education, chiefly reading and +writing. Most of the libraries of the country were those in monasteries. +Although it is not probable that K[=o]b[=o] invented the Kana or common +script, yet it is reasonably certain that the bonzes[47] were the chief +instrument in the diffusion and popularization of that simple system of +writing, which made it possible to carry literature down into the homes +of the merchant and peasant, and enabled even women and children to +beguile the tedium of their lives. Thus the people expanded their +thoughts through the medium of the written, and later of the printed, +page.[48] Until modern centuries, when the school of painters, which +culminated in Hok[)u]sai and his contemporaries, brought a love of art +down to the lowest classes of the people, the only teacher of pictorial +and sculptural art for the multitude, was Buddhism. So strong is this +popular delight in things artistic that probably, to this passion as +much as to the religious instinct, we owe many of the wayside shrines +and images, the symbolical and beautifully prepared landscapes, and +those stone stairways which slope upward toward the shrines on the +hill-tops. In Japan, art is not a foreign language; it is vernacular. + +Thus, while we gladly point out how Buddhism, along the paths of +exploration, commerce, invention, sociology, military and political +influence, education and literature, not only propagated religion, but +civilized Japan,[49] it is but in the interest of fairness and truth +that we point out that wherein the great system was deficient. If we +make comparison with Christendom and the religion of Jesus, it is less +with the purpose of the polemic who must perhaps necessarily disparage, +and more with the idea of making contrast between what we have seen in +Japan and what we have enjoyed as commonplace in the United States and +Europe. + + +Things Which Buddhism Left Undone. + + +In the thirteen hundred years of the life of Buddhism in Japan, what are +the fruits, and what are the failures? Despite its incessant and +multifarious activities, one looks in vain for the hospital, the orphan +asylum, the home for elderly men or women or aged couples, or the asylum +for the insane, and much less, for that vast and complicated system of +organized charities, which, even amid our material greed of gain, make +cities like New York, or London, or Chicago, so beautiful from the point +of view of humanity. Buddhism did indeed teach kindness to animals, +making even the dog, though ownerless and outcast, in a sense sacred. +Because of his faith in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, the +toiling laborer will keep his wheels or his feet from harming the cat or +dog or chicken in the road, even though it be at risk and trouble and +with added labor to himself. The pious will buy the live birds or eels +from the old woman who sits on the bridge, in order to give them life +and liberty again in air or water. The sacred rice is for sale at the +temples, not only to feed but to fatten the holy pigeons. + +Yet, while all this care is lavished on animals, the human being +suffers.[50] Buddhism is kind to the brute, and cruel to man. Until the +influx of western ideas in recent years, the hospital and the orphanage +did not exist in Japan, despite the gentleness and tenderness of Shaka, +who, with all his merits, deserted his wife and babe in order to +enlighten mankind.[51] If Buddhism is not directly responsible for the +existence of that class of Japanese pariahs called _hi-nin_, or +not-human, the name and the idea are borrowed from the sutras; while the +execration of all who prepare or sell the flesh of animals is +persistently taught in the sacred books. These unfortunate bearers of +the human image, during twelve hundred years and until the fiat of the +present illustrious emperor made them citizens, were not reckoned in the +census, nor was the land on which they dwelt measured. The imperial +edict which finally elevated the Eta to citizenship, was suggested by +one whose life, though known to men as that of a Confucian, was probably +hid with Christ, Yokoi Heishiro.[52] The emperor Mutsuhito, 123d of the +line of Japan, born on the day when Perry was on the Mississippi and +ready to sail, placed over these outcast people in 1871, the protecting +aegis of the law.[53] Until that time, the people in this unfortunate +class, numbering probably a million, or, as some say, three millions, +were compelled to live outside of the limits of human habitation, having +no lights which society or the law was bound to respect. They were given +food or drink only when benevolence might be roused; but the donor would +never again touch the vessel in which the offering was made. The +Eta,[54] though in individual cases becoming measurably rich, rotted and +starved, and were made the filth, and off-scouring of the earth, because +they were the butchers, the skinners, the leather workers, and thus +handled dead animals, being made also the executioners and buriers of +the dead. After a quarter of a century the citizens, whose ancestry is +not forgotten, suffer social ostracism even more than do the freed +slaves of our country, though between them and the other Japanese there +is no color line, but only the streak of difference which Buddhism +created and has maintained. Nevertheless, let it be said to the eternal +honor of Shin Shu and of some of the minor sects, that they were always +kind and helpful to the Eta. + +Furthermore it would be hard to discover Buddhist missionary activities +among the Ainos, or benefits conferred upon them by the disciples of +Gautama. One would suppose that the Buddhists, professing to be +believers in spiritual democracy, would be equally active among all +sorts and conditions of men; but they have not been so. Even in the days +when the regions of the Ebisu or barbarians (Yezo) extended far +southward upon the main island, the missionary bonze was conspicuous by +his absence among these people. It would seem as though the popular +notion that the Ainos are the offspring of dogs, had been fed by +prejudices inculcated by Buddhism. It has been reserved for Christian +aliens to reduce the language of these simple savages to writing, and to +express in it for their spiritual benefit the ideas and literature of a +religion higher than their own, as well as to erect church edifices and +build hospitals. + + +The Attitude Toward Woman. + + +In its attitude toward woman, which is perhaps one of the crucial tests +of a religion as well as of a civilization, Buddhism has somewhat to be +praised and much to be blamed for. It is probable that the Japanese +woman owes more to Buddhism than to Confucianism, though relatively her +position was highest under Shint[=o]. In Japan the women are the freest +in Asia, and probably the best treated among any Asiatic nation, but +this is not because of Gautama's teaching.[55] Very early in its history +Japanese Buddhism welcomed womanhood to its fraternity and order,[56] +yet the Japanese _ama, bikuni_, or nun, never became a sister of mercy, +or reached, even within a measurable distance, the dignity of the +Christian lady in the nunnery. In European history the abbess is a +notable figure. She is hardly heard of beyond the Japanese nunnery, even +by the native scholar--except in fiction. + +So far as we can see, the religion founded by one who deserted his wife +and babe did nothing to check concubinage or polygamy. It simply allowed +these things, or ameliorated their ancient barbaric conditions through +the law of kindness. Nevertheless, it brought education and culture +within the family as well as within the court. It would be an +interesting question to discuss how far the age of classic vernacular +prose or the early mediaeval literature of romance, which is almost +wholly the creation of woman,[57] is due to Buddhism, or how far the +credit belongs, by induction or reaction, to the Chinese movement in +favor of learning. Certainly, the faith of India touches and feeds the +imagination far more than does that of China. Certainly also, the +animating spirit of most of the popular literature is due to Buddhistic +culture. The Shin sect, which permits the marriage of the priests and +preaches the salvation of woman, probably leads all others in according +honor to her as well as in elevating her social position. + +Buddhism, like Roman Catholicism, and as compared to Confucianism which +is protestant and masculine, is feminine in its type. In Japan the place +of the holy Virgin Mary is taken by Kuannon, the goddess of mercy; and +her shrine is one of the most popular of all. Much the same may be said +of Benten, the queen of the heaven and mistress of the seas. The angels +of Buddhism are always feminine, and, as in the unscriptural and pagan +conception of Christian angels, have wings.[58] So also in the legends +of Gautama, in the Buddhist lives of the saints, and in legendary lore +as well as in glyptic and pictorial art, the female being transfigured +in loveliness is a striking figure. Nevertheless, after all is summed up +that can possibly be said in favor of Buddhism, the position it accords +to woman is not only immeasurably beneath that given by Christianity, +but is below that conceded by Shint[=o], which knows not only goddesses +and heroines, but also priestesses and empresses.[59] + +According to the popular ethical view as photographed in language, +literature and art, jealousy is always represented by a female demon. +Indeed, most of the tempters, devils, and transformations of humanity +into malign beings, whether pretas, asuras, oni, foxes, badgers, or +cats, are females. As the Chinese ideographs associate all things weak +or vile with women, so the tell-tale words of Japanese daily speech are +but reflections of the dogmas coined in the Buddhist mint. In Japanese, +chastity means not moral cleanliness without regard to sex, but only +womanly duties. For, while the man is allowed a loose foot, the woman is +expected not only to be absolutely spotless, but also never to show any +jealousy, however wide the husband may roam, or however numerous may be +the concubines in his family. In a word, there is the double standard of +morals, not only of priest and laity, but of man and woman. The position +of the Japanese woman even of to-day, despite that eagerness once shown +to educate her--an eagerness which soon cooled in the government +schools, but which keeps an even pulse in the Christian home and +college--is still relatively one of degradation as compared with that of +her sister in Christendom. For this, the mid-Asian religion is not +wholly responsible, yet it is largely so. + + +Influence on the Japanese Character. + + +In regard to the influence of Buddhism upon the morals and character of +the Japanese, there is much to be said in praise, and much also in +criticism. It has aided powerfully to educate the people in habits of +gentleness and courtesy, but instead of aspiration and expectancy of +improvement, it has given to them that spirit of hopeless resignation +which is so characteristic of the Japanese masses. Buddhism has so +dominated common popular literature, daily life and speech, that all +their mental procedure and their utterance is cast in the moulds of +Buddhist doctrine. The fatalism of the Moslem world expressed in the +idea of Kismet, has its analogue in the Japanese Ingwa, or "cause and +effect,"--the notion of an evolution which is atheistic, but viewed from +the ethical side. This idea of Ingwa is the key to most Japanese novels +as well as dramas of real life.[60] While Buddhism continually preaches +this doctrine of Karma or Ingwa,[61] the law of cause and effect, as +being sufficient to explain all things, it shows its insufficiency and +emptiness by leaving out the great First Cause of all. In a word, +Buddhism is law, but not gospel. It deals much with man, but not with +man's relations with his Creator, whom it utterly ignores. Christianity +comes not to destroy its ethics, beautiful as they are, nor to ignore +its metaphysics; but to fulfil, to give a higher truth, and to reveal a +larger Universe and One who fills it all--not only law, but a Law-giver. + + + + +CHAPTER XI - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY + + "_Sicut cadaver._" + + "Et fiet unum ovile et unus pastor."--Vulgate, John x. 16. + + "He (Xavier) has been the moon of that 'Society of Jesus' of + which Ignatius Loyola was the guiding sun."--S.W. Duffield. + + "My God I love Thee; not because I hope for Heaven thereby, + Nor yet because, who love Thee not, must, die eternally. + So would I love Thee, dearest Lord, and in Thy praise will sing; + Solely because thou art my God, and my eternal King." + --Hymn attributed to Francis Xavier. + + "Half hidden, stretching in a lengthened line + In front of China, which its guide shall be, + Japan abounds in mines of Silver fine, + And shall enlighten'd be by holy faith divine." + --Camoens + + "The people of this Iland of Japon are good of nature, curteous + aboue measure, and valiant in warre; their justice is seuerely + executed without any partialitie vpon transgressors of the law. + They are gouerned in great ciuilitie. I meane, not a land better + gouerned in the world by ciuill policie. The people be verie + superstitious in their religion, and are of diuers + opinions."--Will Adams, October 22, 1611. + + "A critical history of Japan remains to be written ... We should + know next to nothing of what may be termed the Catholic episode + of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had we access to + none but the official Japanese sources. How can we trust those + sources when they deal with times yet more remote?"--Chamberlain. + + "The annals of the primitive Church furnish no instances of + sacrifice or heroic constancy, in the Coliseum or the Roman + arenas, that were not paralleled on the dry river-beds or + execution-grounds of Japan." + + "They ... rest from their labors; and their works do follow + them. "--Revelation. + + +CHAPTER XI - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY + +Darkest Japan. + + +The story of the first introduction and propagation of Roman +Christianity in Japan, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, +has been told by many writers, both old and new, and in many languages. +Recent research upon the soil,[1] both natives and foreigners making +contributions, has illustrated the subject afresh. Relics and memorials +found in various churches, monasteries and palaces, on both sides of the +Pacific and the Atlantic, have cast new light upon the fascinating +theme. Both Christian and non-Christian Japanese of to-day, in their +travels in the Philippines, China, Formosa, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and +Italy, being keenly alert for memorials of their countrymen, have met +with interesting trovers. The descendants of the Japanese martyrs and +confessors now recognize their own ancestors, in the picture galleries +of Italian nobles, and in Christian churches see lettered tombs bearing +familiar names, or in western museums discern far-eastern works of art +brought over as presents or curiosities, centuries ago. + +Roughly speaking, Japanese Christianity lasted phenomenally nearly a +century, or more exactly from 1542 to 1637, During this time, embassies +or missions crossed the seas not only of Chinese and Peninsular Asia, +circumnavigating Africa and thus reaching Europe, but also sailed across +the Pacific, and visited papal Christendom by way of Mexico and the +Atlantic Ocean. + +This century of Southern Christianity and of commerce with Europe +enabled Japan, which had previously been almost unheard of, except +through the vague accounts of Marco Polo and the semi-mythical stories +by way of China, to leave a conspicuous mark, first upon the countries +of southern Europe, and later upon Holland and England. As in European +literature Cathay became China, and Zipango or Xipangu was recognized as +Japan, so also the curiosities, the artistic fabrics, the strange things +from the ends of the earth, soon became familiar in Europe. Besides the +traffic in mercantile commodities, there were exchanges of words. The +languages of Europe were enriched by Japanese terms, such as soy, moxa, +goban, japan (lacquer or varnish), etc., while the tongue of Nippon +received an infusion of new terms,[2] and a notable list of inventions +was imported from Europe. + +We shall merely outline, with critical commentary, the facts of history +which have been so often told, but which in our day have received +luminous illustration. We shall endeavor to treat the general phenomena, +causes and results of Christianity in Japan in the same judicial spirit +with which we have considered Buddhism. + +Whatever be the theological or political opinions of the observer who +looks into the history of Japan at about the year 1540, he will +acknowledge that this point of time was a very dark moment in her known +history. Columbus, who was familiar with the descriptions of Marco Polo, +steered his caravels westward with the idea of finding Xipangu, with its +abundance of gold and precious gems; but the Genoese did not and could +not know the real state of affairs existing in Dai Nippon at this time. +Let us glance at this. + +The duarchy of Throne and Camp, with the Mikado in Ki[=o]to and the +Sh[=o]gun at Kamakura, with the elaborate feudalism under it, had fallen +into decay. The whole country was split up into a thousand warring +fragments. To these convulsions of society, in which only the priest and +the soldier were in comfort, while the mass of the people were little +better than serfs, must be added the frequent violent earthquakes, +drought and failure of crops, with famine and pestilence. There was +little in religion to uplift and cheer. Shint[=o] had sunk into the +shadow of a myth. Buddhism had become outwardly a system of political +gambling rather than the ordered expression of faith. Large numbers of +the priests were like the mercenaries of Italy, who sold their influence +and even their swords or those of their followers, to the highest +bidder. Besides being themselves luxurious and dissolute, their +monasteries were fortresses, in which only the great political gamblers, +and not the oppressed people, found comfort and help. Millions of once +fertile acres had been abandoned or left waste. The destruction of +libraries, books and records is something awful to contemplate; and "the +times of Ashikaga" make a wilderness for the scapegoat of chronology. +Ki[=o]to, the sacred capital, had been again and again plundered and +burnt. Those who might be tempted to live in the city amid the ruins, +ran the risk of fire, murder, or starvation. Kamakura, once the +Sh[=o]-gun's seat of authority, was, a level waste of ashes. + +Even China, Annam and Korea suffered from the practical dissolution of +society in the island empire; for Japanese pirates ravaged their coasts +to steal, burn and kill. Even as for centuries in Europe, Christian +churches echoed with that prayer in the litanies: "From the fury of the +Norsemen, good Lord, deliver us," so, along large parts of the deserted +coasts of Chinese Asia, the wretched inhabitants besought their gods to +avenge them against the "Wojen." To this day in parts of Honan in China, +mothers frighten their children and warn them to sleep by the fearful +words "The Japanese are coming." + + +First Coming of Europeans. + + +This time, then, was that of darkest Japan. Yet the people who lived in +darkness saw great light, and to them that dwelt in the shadow of death, +light sprang up. + +When Pope Alexander VI. bisected the known world, assigning the western +half, including America to Spain, and the eastern half, including Asia +and its outlying archipelagos to the Portuguese, the latter sailed and +fought their way around Africa to India, and past the golden Chersonese. +In 1542, exactly fifty years after the discovery of America, Dai Nippon +was reached. Mendez Pinto, on a Chinese pirate junk which had been +driven by a storm away from her companions, set foot upon an island +called Tanegashima. This name among the country folks is still +synonymous with guns and pistols, for Pinto introduced fire-arms, and +powder.[3] + +During six months spent by the "mendacious" Pinto on the island, the +imitative people made no fewer than six hundred match-locks or +arquebuses. Clearing twelve hundred per cent. on their cargo, the three +Portuguese loaded with presents, returned to China. Their countrymen +quickly flocked to this new market, and soon the beginnings of regular +trade with Portugal were inaugurated. On the other hand, Japanese began +to be found as far west as India. To Malacca, while Francis Xavier was +laboring there, came a refugee Japanese, named Anjiro. The disciple of +Loyola, and this child of the Land of the Rising Sun met. Xavier, ever +restless and ready for a new field, was fired with the idea of +converting Japan. Anjiro, after learning Portuguese and becoming a +Christian, was baptized with the name of Paul. The heroic missionary of +the cross and keys then sailed with his Japanese companion, and in 1549 +landed at Kagoshima,[4] the capital of Satsuma. As there was no central +government then existing in Japan, the entrance of the foreigners, both +lay and clerical, was unnoticed. + +Having no skill in the learning of languages, and never able to master +one foreign tongue completely, Xavier began work with the aid of an +interpreter. The jealousy of the daimi[=o], because his rivals had been +supplied with fire-arms by the Portuguese merchants, and the plots and +warnings of those Buddhist priests (who were later crushed by the +Satsuma clansmen as traitors), compelled Xavier to leave this province. +He went first to Hirado,[5] next to Nagat[=o], and then to Bungo, where +he was well received. Preaching and teaching through his Japanese +interpreter, he formed Christian congregations, especially at +Yamaguchi.[6] Thus, within a year, the great apostle to the Indies had +seen the quick sprouting of the seed which he had planted. His ambition +was now to go to the imperial capital, Ki[=o]to, and there advocate the +claims of Christ, of Mary and of the Pope. + +Thus far, however, Xavier had seen only a few seaports of comparatively +successful daimi[=o]s. Though he had heard of the unsettled state of the +country because of the long-continued intestine strife, he evidently +expected to find the capital a splendid city. Despite the armed bands of +roving robbers and soldiers, he reached Ki[=o]to safely, only to find +streets covered with ruins, rubbish and unburied corpses, and a general +situation of wretchedness. He was unable to obtain audience of either +the Sh[=o]gun or the Mikado. Even in those parts of the city where he +tried to preach, he could obtain no hearers in this time of war and +confusion. So after two weeks he turned his face again southward to +Bungo, where he labored for a few months; but in less than two years +from his landing in Japan, this noble but restless missionary left the +country, to attempt the spiritual conquest of China. One year later, +December 2, 1551, he died on the island of Shanshan, or Sancian, in the +Canton River, a few miles west of Macao. + + +Christianity Flourishes. + + +Nevertheless, Xavier's inspiring example was like a shining star that +attracted scores of missionaries. There being in this time of political +anarchy and religious paralysis none to oppose them, their zeal, within +five years, bore surprising fruits. They wrote home that there were +seven churches in the region around Ki[=o]to, while a score or more of +Christian congregations had been gathered in the southwest. In 1581 +there were two hundred churches and one hundred and fifty thousand +native Christians. Two daimi[=o]s had confessed their faith, and in the +Mikado's minister, Nobunaga (1534-1582), the foreign priests found a +powerful supporter.[7] This hater and scourge of the Buddhist priesthood +openly welcomed and patronized the Christians, and gave them eligible +sites on which to build dwellings and churches. In every possible way he +employed the new force, which he found pliantly political, as well as +intellectually and morally a choice weapon for humbling the bonzes, whom +he hated as serpents. The Buddhist church militant had become an army +with banners and fortresses. Nobunaga made it the aim of his life to +destroy the military power of the hierarchy, and to humble the priests +for all time. He hoped at least to extract the fangs of what he believed +to be a politico-religious monster, which menaced the life of the +nation. Unfortunately, he was assassinated in 1582. To this day the +memory of Nobunaga is execrated by the Buddhists. They have deified Kato +Kiyomasa and Iyeyas[)u], the persecutors of the Christians. To Nobunaga +they give the title of Bakadono, or Lord Fool. + +In 1583, an embassy of four young noblemen was despatched by the +Christian daimi[=o]s of Kiushiu, the second largest island in the +empire, to the Pope to declare themselves spiritual--though as some of +their countrymen suspected, political--vassals of the Holy See. It was +in the three provinces of Bungo, Omura and Arima, that Christianity was +most firmly rooted. After an absence of eight years, in 1590, the envoys +from the oriental to the occidental ends of the earth, returned to +Nagasaki, accompanied by seventeen more Jesuit fathers--an important +addition to the many Portuguese "religious" of that order already in +Japan. + +Yet, although there was to be still much missionary activity, though +printing presses had been brought from Europe for the proper diffusion +of Christian literature in the Romanized colloquial,[8] though there +were yet to be built more church edifices and monasteries, and Christian +schools to be established, a sad change was nigh. Much seed which was +yet to grow in secret had been planted,--like the exotic flowers which +even yet blossom and shed their perfume in certain districts of Japan, +and which the traveller from Christendom instantly recognizes, though +the Portuguese Christian church or monastery centuries ago disappeared +in fire, or fell to the earth and disappeared. Though there were to be +yet wonderful flashes of Christian success, and the missionaries were to +travel over Japan even up to the end of the main island and accompany +the Japanese army to Korea; yet it may be said that with the death of +Nobunaga at the hands of the traitor Akechi, we see the high-water mark +of the flood-tide of Japanese Christianity. "Akechi reigned three days," +but after him were to arise a ruler and central government jealous and +hostile. After this flood was to come slowly but surely the ebb-tide, +until it should leave, outwardly at least, all things as before. + +The Jesuit fathers, with instant sensitiveness, felt the loss of their +champion and protector, Nobunaga. The rebel and assassin, Akechi, +ambitious to imitate and excel his master, promised the Christians to do +more for them even than Nobunaga had done, provided they would induce +the daimi[=o] Takayama to join forces with his. It is the record of +their own friendly historian, and not of an enemy, that they, led by the +Jesuit father Organtin, attempted this persuasion. To the honor of the +Christian Japanese Takayama, he refused.[9] On the contrary, he marched +his little army of a thousand men to Ki[=o]to, and, though opposed to a +force of eight thousand, held the capital city until Hideyoshi, the +loyal general of the Mikado, reached the court city and dispersed the +assassin's band. Hideyoshi soon made himself familiar with the whole +story, and his keen eye took in the situation. + +This "man on horseback," master of the situation and moulder of the +destinies of Japan, Hideyoshi (1536-1598), was afterward known as the +Taik[=o], or Retired Regent. The rarity of the title makes it applicable +in common speech to this one person. Greater than his dead master, +Nobunaga, and ingenious in the arts of war and peace, Hideyoshi +compelled the warring daimi[=o]s, even the proud lord of Satsuma,[10] to +yield to his power, until the civil minister of the emperor, reverently +bowing, could say: "All under Heaven, Peace." Now, Japan had once more a +central government, intensely jealous and despotic, and with it the new +religion must sooner or later reckon. Religion apart from politics was +unknown in the Land of the Gods. + +Yet, in order to employ the vast bodies of armed men hitherto accustomed +to the trade of war, and withal jealous of China and hostile to Korea, +Hideyoshi planned the invasion of the little peninsular kingdom by these +veterans whose swords were restless in their scabbards. After months of +preparation, he despatched an army in two great divisions, one under the +Christian general Konishi, and one under the Buddhist general Kato. +After a brilliant campaign of eighteen days, the rivals, taking +different routes, met in the Korean capital. In the masterly campaign +which followed, the Japanese armies penetrated almost to the extreme +northern boundary of the kingdom. Then China came to the rescue and the +Japanese were driven southward. + +During the six or seven years of war, while the invaders crossed swords +with the natives and their Chinese allies, and devastated Korea to an +extent from which she has never recovered, there were Jesuit +missionaries attending the Japanese armies. It is not possible or even +probable, however, that any seeds of Christianity were at this time left +in the peninsula. Korean Christianity sprang up nearly two centuries +later, wind-wafted from China.[11] + +During the war there was always more or less of jealousy, mostly +military and personal, between Konishi and Kato, which however was +aggravated by the priests on either side. Kato, being then and afterward +a fierce champion of the Buddhists, glorified in his orthodoxy, which +was that of the Nichiren sect. He went into battle with a banneret full +of texts, stuck in his back and flying behind him. His example was +copied by hundreds of his officers and soldiers. On their flags and +guidons was inscribed the famous apostrophe of the Nichiren sect, so +often heard in their services and revivals to-day (Namu miy[=o] ho ren +ge ki[=o]), and borrowed from the Saddharma Pundarika: "Glory be to the +salvation-bringing Lotus of the True Law." + + +The Hostility of Hideyoshi. + + +Konishi, on the other hand, was less numerously and perhaps less +influentially backed by, and made the champion of, the European +brethren; and as all the negotiations between the invaders and the +allied Koreans and Chinese had to be conducted in the Chinese script, +the alien fathers were, as secretaries and interpreters, less useful +than the native Japanese bonzes. + +Yet this jealousy and hostility in the camps of the invaders proved to +be only correlative to the state of things in Japan. Even supposing the +statistics in round numbers, reported at that time, to be exaggerated, +and that there were not as many as the alleged two hundred thousand +Christians, yet there were, besides scores of thousands of confessing +believers among the common people, daimi[=o]s, military leaders, court +officers and many persons of culture and influence. Nevertheless, the +predominating influence at the Ki[=o]to court was that of Buddhism; and +as the cult that winks at polygamy was less opposed to Hideyoshi's +sensualism and amazing vanity, the illustrious upstart was easily made +hostile to the alien faith. According to the accounts of the Jesuits, he +took umbrage because a Portuguese captain would not please him by +risking his ship in coming out of deep water and nearer land, and +because there were Christian maidens of Arima who scorned to yield to +his degrading proposals. Some time after these episodes, an edict +appeared, commanding every Jesuit to quit the country within twenty +days. There were at this time sixty-five foreign missionaries in the +country. + +Then began a series of persecutions, which, however, were carried on +spasmodically and locally, but not universally or with system. Bitter in +some places, they were neutralized or the law became a dead letter, in +other parts of the realm. It is estimated that ten thousand new converts +were made in the single year, 1589, that is, the second year after the +issue of the edict, and again in the next year, 1590. It might even be +reasonable to suppose that, had the work been conducted wisely and +without the too open defiance of the letter of the law, the awful sequel +which history knows, might not have been. + +Let us remember that the Duke of Alva, the tool of Philip II., failing +to crush the Dutch Republic had conquered Portugal for his master. The +two kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula were now united under one crown. +Spain longed for trade with Japan, and while her merchants hoped to +displace their Portuguese rivals, the Spanish Franciscans not scrupling +to wear a political cloak and thus override the Pope's bull of +world-partition, determined to get a foothold alongside of the Jesuits. +So, in 1593 a Spanish envoy of the governor of the Philippine Islands +came to Ki[=o]to, bringing four Spanish Franciscan priests, who were +allowed to build houses in Ki[=o]to, but only on the express +understanding that this was because of their coming as envoys of a +friendly power, and with the explicitly specified condition that they +were not to preach, either publicly or privately. Almost immediately +violating their pledge and the hospitality granted them, these +Spaniards, wearing the vestments of their order, openly preached in the +streets. Besides exciting discord among the Christian congregations +founded by the Jesuits, they were violent in their language. + +Hideyoshi, to gratify his own mood and test his power as the actual +ruler for a shadowy emperor, seized nine preachers while they were +building churches at Ki[=o]to and Osaka. They were led to the +execution-ground in exactly the same fashion as felons, and executed by +crucifixion, at Nagasaki, February 5, 1597. Three Portuguese Jesuits, +six Spanish Franciscans and seventeen native Christians were stretched +on bamboo crosses, and their bodies from thigh to shoulder were +transfixed with spears. They met their doom uncomplainingly. + +In the eye of the Japanese law, these men were put to death, not as +Christians, but as law-breakers and as dangerous political conspirators. +The suspicions of Hideyoshi were further confirmed by a Spanish +sea-captain, who showed him a map of the world on which were marked the +vast dominions of the King of Spain; the Spaniard informing the +Japanese, in answer to his shrewd question, that these great conquests +had been made by the king's soldiers following up the priests, the work +being finished by the native and foreign allies. + + +The Political Character of Roman Christianity. + + +The Roman Catholic "Histoire del' Eglise Chretienne" shows the political +character of the missionary movement in Japan, a character almost +inextricably associated with the papal and other political Christianity +of the times, when State and Church were united in all the countries of +Europe, both Catholic and Protestant. Even republican Holland, leader of +toleration and forerunner of the modern Christian spirit, permitted, +indeed, the Roman Catholics to worship in private houses or in sacred +edifices not outwardly resembling churches, but prohibited all public +processions and ceremonies, because religion and politics at that time +were as Siamese twins. Only the Anabaptists held the primitive Christian +and the American doctrine of the separation of politics from +ecclesiasticism. Except in the country ruled by William the Silent, all +magistrates meddled with men's consciences.[12] + +In 1597, Hideyoshi died, and the missionaries took heart again. The +Christian soldiers returning by thousands from Korea, declared +themselves in favor of Hideyori, son of the dead Taik[=o]. Encouraged by +those in power, and by the rising star Iyeyas[)u] (1542-1616), the +fathers renewed their work and the number of converts increased. + +Though peace reigned, the political situation was one of the greatest +uncertainty, and with two hundred thousand soldiers gathered around +Ki[=o]to, under scores of ambitious leaders, it was hard to keep the +sword in the sheath. Soon the line of cleavage found Iyeyas[)u] and his +northern captains on one side, and most of the Christian leaders and +southern daimi[=o]s on the other. In October, 1600, with seventy-five +thousand men, the future unifier of Japan stood on the ever-memorable +field of Sekigahara. The opposing army, led largely by Christian +commanders, left their fortress to meet the one whom they considered a +usurper, in the open field. In the battle which ensued, probably the +most decisive ever fought on the soil of Japan, ten thousand men lost +their lives. The leading Christian generals, beaten, but refusing out of +principle because they were Christians, to take their own lives by +_hara-kiri_, knelt willingly at the common blood-pit and had their heads +stricken off by the executioner. + +Then began a new era in the history of the empire, and then were laid by +Iyeyas[)u] the foundation-lines upon which the Japan best known to +Europe has existed for nearly three centuries. The creation of a central +executive government strong enough to rule the whole empire, and hold +down even the southern and southwestern daimi[=o]s, made it still worse +for the converts of the European teachers, because in the Land of the +Gods government is ever intensely pagan. + +In adjusting the feudal relations of his vassals in Kiushiu, Iyeyas[)u] +made great changes, and thus the political status of the Christians was +profoundly altered. The new daimi[=o]s, carrying out the policy of their +predecessors who had been taught by the Jesuits, but reversing its +direction, began to persecute their Christian subjects, and to compel +them to renounce their faith. One of the leading opposers of the +Christians and their most cruel persecutor, was Kato, the zealous +Nichirenite. Like Brandt, the famous Iroquois Indian, who, in the Mohawk +Valley is execrated as a bloodthirsty brute, and on the Canadian side is +honored with a marble statue and considered not only as the translator +of the prayer-book but also as a saint; even also as Claverhouse, who, +in Scotland is looked upon as a murderous demon, but in England as a +conscientious and loyal patriot; so Kato, the _vir ter execrandus_ of +the Jesuits, is worshipped in his shrine at the Nichiren temple at +Ikegami, near T[=o]ki[=o],[13] and is praised by native historians as +learned, brave and true. + +The Christians of Kiushiu, in a few cases, actually took up arms against +their new rulers and oppressors, though it was a new thing under the +Japanese sun for peasantry to oppose not only civil servants of the law, +but veterans in armor. Iyeyas[)u], now having time to give his attention +wholly to matters of government and to examine the new forces that had +entered Japanese life, followed Hideyoshi in the suspicion that, under +the cover of the western religion, there lurked political designs. He +thought he saw confirmation of his theories, because the foreigners +still secretly or openly paid court to Hideyori, and at the same time +freely disbursed gifts and gold as well as comfort to the persecuted. +Resolving to crush the spirit of independence in the converts and to +intimidate the foreign emissaries, Iyeyas[)u] with steel and blood put +down every outbreak, and at last, in 1606, issued his edict[14] +prohibiting Christianity. + + +The Quarrels of the Christians. + + +About the same time, Protestant influences began to work against the +papal emissaries. The new forces from the triumphant Dutch republic, +which having successfully defied Spain for a whole generation had +reached Japan even before the Great Truce, were opposed to the Spaniards +and to the influence of both Jesuits and Franciscans. Hollanders at +Lisbon, obtaining from the Spanish archives charts and geographical +information, had boldly sailed out into the Eastern seas, and carried +the orange white and blue flag to the ends of the earth, even to Nippon. +Between Prince Maurice, son of William the Silent, and the envoys of +Iyeyas[)u], there was made a league of commerce as well as of peace and +friendship. Will Adams,[15] the English pilot of the Dutch ships, by his +information given to Iyeyas[)u], also helped much to destroy the Jesuits +influence and to hurt their cause, while both the Dutch and English were +ever busy in disseminating both correct information and polemic +exaggeration, forging letters and delivering up to death by fire the +_padres_ when captured at sea. + +In general, however, it may be said that while Christian converts and +the priests were roughly handled in the South, yet there was +considerable missionary activity and success in the North. Converts were +made and Christian congregations were gathered in regions remote from +Ki[=o]to and Yedo, which latter place, like St. Petersburg in the West, +was being made into a large city. Even outlying islands, such as Sado, +had their churches and congregations. + + +The Anti-Christian Policy of the Tokugawas. + + +The quarrels between the Franciscans and Jesuits,[16] however, were +probably more harmful to Christianity than were the whispers of the +Protestant Englishmen or Hollanders. In 1610, the wrath of the +government was especially aroused against the _bateren_, as the people +called the _padres_, by their open and persistent violation of Japanese +law. In 1611, from Sado, to which island thousands of Christian exiles +had been sent to work the mines, Iyeyas[)u] believed he had obtained +documentary proof in the Japanese language, of what he had long +suspected--the existence of a plot on the part of the native converts +and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of a subject +state.[17] Putting forth strenuous measures to root out utterly what he +believed to be a pestilential breeder of sedition and war, the Yedo +Sh[=o]gun advanced step by step to that great proclamation of January +27, 1614,[18] in which the foreign priests were branded as triple +enemies--of the country, of the Kami, and of the Buddhas. This +proclamation wound up with the charge that the Christian band had come +to Japan to change the government of the country, and to usurp +possession of it. Whether or not he really had sufficient written proof +of conspiracy against the nation's sovereignty, it is certain that in +this state paper, Iyeyas[)u] shrewdly touched the springs of Japanese +patriotism. Not desiring, however, to shed blood or provoke war, he +tried transportation. Three hundred persons, namely, twenty-two +Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustines, one hundred and seventeen +foreign Jesuits, and nearly two hundred native priests and catechists, +were arrested, sent to Nagasaki, and thence shipped like bundles of +combustibles to Macao. + +Yet, as many of the foreign and native Christian teachers hid themselves +in the country and as others who had been banished returned secretly and +continued the work of propaganda, the crisis had not yet come. Some of +the Jesuit priests, even, were still hoping that Hideyori would mount to +power; but in 1615, Iyeyas[)u], finding a pretext for war,[19] called +out a powerful army and laid siege to the great castle of Osaka, the +most imposing fortress in the country. In the brief war which ensued, it +is said by the Jesuit fathers, that one hundred thousand men perished. +On June 9, 1615, the castle was captured and the citadel burned. After +thousands of Hideyori's followers had committed _hara-kiri_, and his own +body had been burned into ashes, the Christian cause was irretrievably +ruined. + +Hidetada, the successor of Iyeyas[)u] in Yedo, who ruled from 1605 to +1622, seeing that his father's peaceful methods had failed in +extirpating the alien politico-religious doctrine, now pronounced +sentence of death on every foreigner, priest, or catechist found in the +country. The story of the persecutions and horrible sufferings that +ensued is told in the voluminous literature which may be gathered from +every country in Europe;[20] though from the Japanese side "The Catholic +martyrology of Japan is still an untouched field for a [native] +historian."[21] All the church edifices which the last storm had left +standing were demolished, and temples and pagodas were erected upon +their ruins. In 1617, foreign commerce was restricted to Hirado and +Nagasaki. In 1621, Japanese were forbidden ever to leave the country. In +1624, all ships having a capacity of over twenty-five hundred bushels +were burned, and no craft, except those of the size of ordinary junks, +were allowed to be built. + + +The Books of the Inferno Opened. + + +For years, at intervals and in places, the books of the Inferno were +opened, and the tortures devised by the native pagans and Buddhists +equalled in their horror those which Dante imagines, until finally, in +1636, even Japanese human nature, accustomed for ages to subordination +and submission, could stand it no longer. Then a man named Nirado Shiro +raised the banner of the Virgin and called on all Christians and others +to follow him. Probably as many as thirty thousand men, women and +children, but without a single foreigner, lay or clerical, among them, +gathered from parts of Kiushiu. After burning Shint[=o] and Buddhist +temples, they fortified an old abandoned castle at Shimabara, resolving +to die rather than submit. Against an army of veterans, led by skilled +commanders, the fortress held out during four months. At last, after a +bloody assault, it was taken, and men, women and children were +slaughtered.[22] Thousands suffered death at the point of the spear and +sword; many were thrown into the sea; and others were cast into boiling +hot springs, emblems of the eight Buddhist Hells. + +All efforts were now put forth to uproot not only Christianity but also +everything of foreign planting. The Portuguese were banished and the +death penalty declared against all who should return, The ai no ko, or +half-breed children, were collected and shipped by hundreds to Macao. +All persons adopting or harboring Eurasians were to be banished, and +their relatives punished. The Christian cause now became like the doomed +city of Babylon or like the site of Nineveh, which, buried in the sand +and covered with the desolation and silence of centuries, became lost to +the memory of the world, so that even the very record of scripture was +the jest of the infidel, until the spade of Layard brought them again to +resurrection. So, Japanese Christianity, having vanished in blood, was +supposed to have no existence, thus furnishing Mr. Lecky with arguments +to prove the extirpative power of persecution.[23] + +Yet in 1859, on the opening of the country by treaty, the Roman Catholic +fathers at Nagasaki found to their surprise that they were re-opening +the old mines, and that their work was in historic continuity with that +of their predecessors. The blood of the martyrs had been the seed of the +church. Amid much ignorance and darkness, there were thousands of people +who, through the Virgin, worshipped God; who talked of Jesus, and of the +Holy Spirit; and who refused to worship at the pagan shrines[24]. + + +Summary of Roman Christianity in Japan. + + +Let us now strive impartially to appraise the Christianity of this era, +and inquire what it found, what it attempted to do, what it did not +strive to attain, what was the character of its propagators, what was +the mark it made upon the country and upon the mind of the people, and +whether it left any permanent influence. + +The gospel net which had gathered all sorts of fish in Europe brought a +varied quality of spoil to Japan. Among the Portuguese missionaries, +beginning with Xavier, there are many noble and beautiful characters, +who exemplified in their motives, acts, lives and sufferings some of the +noblest traits of both natural and redeemed humanity. In their praise, +both the pagan and the Christian, as well as critics biased by their +prepossessions in favor either of the Reformed or the Roman phase of the +faith, can unite. + +The character of the native converts is, in many instances, to be +commended, and shows the direct truth of Christianity in fields of life +and endeavor, in ethics and in conceptions, far superior to those which +the Japanese religious systems have produced. In the teaching that there +should be but one standard of morality for man and woman, and that the +male as well as the female should be pure; in the condemnation of +polygamy and licentiousness; in the branding of suicide as both wicked +and cowardly; in the condemnation of slavery; and in the training of men +and women to lofty ideals of character, the Christian teachers far +excelled their Buddhist or Confucian rivals. + +The benefits which Japan received through the coming of the Christian +missionaries, as distinct and separate from those brought by commerce +and the merchants, are not to be ignored. While many things of value and +influence for material improvement, and many beneficent details and +elements of civilization were undoubtedly imported by traders, yet it +was the priests and itinerant missionaries who diffused the knowledge of +the importance of these things and taught their use throughout the +country. Although in the reaction of hatred and bitterness, and in the +minute, universal and long-continued suppression by the government, most +of this advantage was destroyed, yet some things remained to influence +thought and speech, and to leave a mark not only on the language, but +also on the procedure of daily life. One can trace notable modifications +of Japanese life from this period, lasting through the centuries and +even until the present time. + +Christianity, in the sixteenth century, came to Japan only in its papal +or Roman Catholic form. While in it was infused much of the power and +spirit of Loyola and Xavier, yet the impartial critic must confess that +this form was military, oppressive and political.[25] Nevertheless, +though it was impure and saturated with the false principles, the vices +and the embodied superstitions of corrupt southern Europe, yet, such as +it was, Portuguese Christianity confronted the worst condition of +affairs, morally, intellectually and materially, which Japan has known +in historic times. Defective as the critic must pronounce the system of +religion imported from Europe, it was immeasurably superior to anything +that the Japanese had hitherto known. + +It must be said, also, that Portuguese Christianity in Japan tried to do +something more than the mere obtaining of adherents or the nominal +conversion of the people.[26] It attempted to purify and exalt their +life, to make society better, to improve the relations between rulers +and ruled; but it did not attempt to do what it ought to have done. It +ignored great duties and problems, while it imitated too fully, not only +the example of the kings of this world in Europe but also of the rulers +in Japan. In the presence of soldier-like Buddhist priests, who had made +war their calling, it would have been better if the Christian +missionaries had avoided their bad example, and followed only in the +footsteps of the Prince of Peace; but they did not. On the contrary, +they brought with them the spirit of the Inquisition then in full blast +in Spain and Portugal, and the machinery with which they had been +familiar for the reclamation of native and Dutch "heretics." Xavier, +while at Goa, had even invoked the secular arm to set up the Inquisition +in India, and doubtless he and his followers would have put up this +infernal enginery in Japan if they could have done so. They had stamped +and crushed out "heresy" in their own country, by a system of hellish +tortures which in its horrible details is almost indescribable. The +rusty relics now in the museums of Europe, but once used in church +discipline, can be fully appreciated only by a physician or an +anatomist. In Japan, with the spirit of Alva and Philip II., these +believers in the righteousness of the Inquisition attacked violently the +character of native bonzes, and incited their converts to insult the +gods, destroy the Buddhist images, and burn or desecrate the old +shrines. They persuaded the daimi[=o]s, when these lords had become +Christians, to compel their subjects to embrace their religion on pain +of exile or banishment. Whole districts were ordered to become +Christian. The bonzes were exiled or killed, and fire and sword as well +as preaching, were employed as means of conversion. In ready imitation +of the Buddhists, fictitious miracles were frequently got up to utilize +the credulity of the superstitious in furthering the faith--all of which +is related not by hostile critics, but by admiring historians and by +sympathizing eye-witnesses.[27] + +The most prominent feature of the Roman Catholicism of Japan, was its +political animus and complexion. In writings of this era, Japanese +historians treat of the Christian missionary movement less as something +religious, and more as that which influenced government and polities, +rather than society on its moral side. So also, the impartial historian +must consider that, on the whole, despite the individual instances of +holy lives and unselfish purposes, the work of the Portuguese and +Spanish friars and "fathers" was, in the main, an attempt to bring Japan +more or less directly within the power of the Pope or of those rulers +called Most Catholic Majesties, Christian Kings, etc., even as they had +already brought Mexico, South America, and large portions of India under +the same control. The words of Jesus before the Roman procurator had not +been apprehended:--"My kingdom is not of this world." + + + + +CHAPTER XII - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE + + "The frog in the well knows not the great ocean" + --Sanskrit and Japanese Proverb. + + "When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch." + --Japanese Proverb. + + "The little island of Deshima, well and prophetically signifying + Fore-Island, was Japan's window, through which she looked at the + whole Occident ... We are under obligation to Holland for the + arts of engineering, mining, pharmacy, astronomy, and medicine + ... 'Rangaku' (i.e., Dutch learning) passed almost as a synonym + for medicine," [1615-1868].--Inazo Nitobe. + + "The great peace, of which we are so proud, was more like the + stillness of stagnant pools than the calm surface of a clear + lake."--Mitsukuri. + + "The ancestral policy of self-contentment must be done away + with. If it was adopted by your forefathers, because it was wise + in their time, why not adopt a new policy if it in sure to prove + wise in your time."--Sakuma Shozan, wrote in 1841, assassinated + 1864. + + "And slowly floating onward go + Those Black Ships, wave-tossed to and fro." + --Japanese Ballad of the Black Ship, 1845. + + "The next day was Sunday (July 10th), and, as usual, divine + service was held on board the ships, and, in accordance with + proper reverence for the day, no communication was held with the + Japanese authorities." + --Perry's Narrative. + + "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, + Praise Him, all creatures here below, + Praise Him above, ye heavenly host, + Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." + --Sung on U.S.S.S. Mississippi, in Yedo Bay, July 10, 1853. + + "I refuse to see anyone on Sunday, I am resolved to set an + example of a proper observance of the Sabbath ... I will try to + make it what I believe it was intended to be--a day of + rest."--Townsend Harris's Diary, Sunday, August 31, 1856. + + "I have called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though + thou hast not known me. I am the LORD, and there is none else; + besides me there is no God."--Isaiah. + + "I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been + slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they + held."--John. + + "That they should seek God, If haply they might feel after him, + though he is not far from each one of us."--Paul. + + "Other sheep have I which are not of this fold: them also I must + bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one + flock, one shepherd"--Jesus. + +CHAPTER XII - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE + +The Japanese Shut In. + + +Sincerely regretting that we cannot pass more favorable judgments upon +the Christianity of the seventeenth century in Japan, let us look into +the two centuries of silence, and see what was the story between the +paling of the Christian record in 1637, and the glowing of the +palimpsest in 1859, when the new era begins. + +The policy of the Japanese rulers, after the supposed utter extirpation +of Christianity, was the double one of exclusion and inclusion. A +deliberate attempt, long persisted in and for centuries apparently +successful, was made to insulate Japan from the shock of change. The +purpose was to draw a whole nation and people away from the currents and +movements of humanity, and to stereotype national thought and custom. +This was carried out in two ways: first, by exclusion, and then by +inclusion. All foreign influences were shut off, or reduced to a +minimum. The whole western world, especially Christendom, was put under +ban. + +Even the apparent exception made in favor of the Dutch was with the +motive of making isolation more complete, and of securing the perfect +safety which that isolation was expected to bring. For, having built, +not indeed with brick and mortar, but by means of edict and law, both +open and secret, a great wall of exclusion more powerful than that of +China's, it was necessary that there should be a port-hole, for both +sally and exit, and a slit for vigilant scrutiny of any attempt to force +seclusion or violate the frontier. Hence, the Hollanders were allowed to +have a small place of residence in front of a large city and at the head +of a land-locked harbor. There, the foreigners being isolated and under +strict guard, the government could have, as it were, a nerve which +touched the distant nations, and could also, as with a telescope, sweep +the horizon for signs of danger. + +So, in 1640, the Hollanders were ordered to evacuate Hirado, and occupy +the little "outer island" called Deshima, in front of the city of +Nagasaki, and connected therewith by a bridge. Any ships entering this +hill-girdled harbor, it was believed, could be easily managed by the +military resources possessed by the government. Vessels were allowed +yearly to bring the news from abroad and exchange the products of Japan +for those of Europe. The English, who had in 1617 opened a trade and +conducted a factory for some years,[1] were unable to compete with the +Dutch, and about 1624, after having lost in the venture forty thousand +pounds sterling, withdrew entirely from the Japanese trade. The Dutch +were thus left without a rival from Christendom. + +Japan ceased her former trade and communications with the Philippine +Islands, Annam, Siam, the Spice Islands and India,[2] and begun to +restrict trade and communication with Korea and China. The Koreans, who +were considered as vassals, or semi-vassals, came to Japan to present +their congratulations on the accession of each new Sh[=o]gun; and some +small trade was done at Fusan under the superintendence of the daimi[=o] +of Tsushima. Even this relation with Korea was rather one of +watchfulness. It sprang from the pride of a victor rather than from any +desire to maintain relations with the rest of the world. As for China, +the communication with her was astonishingly little, only a few junks +crossing yearly between Nankin and Nagasaki; so that, with the exception +of one slit in their tower of observation, the Japanese became well +isolated from the human family. + +This system of exclusion was accompanied by an equally vigorous policy +of inclusiveness. It was deliberately determined to keep the people from +going abroad, either in their bodies or minds. All seaworthy ships were +destroyed. Under pain of imprisonment and death, all natives were +forbidden to go to a foreign country, except in the rare cases of urgent +government service. By settled precedents it was soon made to be +understood that those who were blown out to sea or carried away in +stress of weather, need not come back; if they did, they must return +only on Chinese and Korean vessels, and even then would be grudgingly +allowed to land. It was given out, both at home and to the world, that +no shipwrecked sailors or waifs would be welcomed when brought on +foreign vessels. + +This inclusive policy directed against physical exportation, was still +more stringently carried out when applied to imports affecting the minds +of the Japanese. The "government deliberately attempted to establish a +society impervious to foreign ideas from without, and fostered within by +all sorts of artificial legislation. This isolation affected every +department of private and public life. Methods of education were cast in +a definite mould; even matters of dress and household architecture were +strictly regulated by the State, and industries were restricted or +forced into specified channels, thus retarding economic +developments."[3] + + +Starving of the Mind. + + +In the science of keeping life within stunted limits and artificial +boundaries, the Japanese genius excels. It has been well said that "the +Japanese mind is great in little things and little in great things." To +cut the tap-root of a pine-shoot, and, by regulating the allowance of +earth and water, to raise a pine-tree which when fifty years old shall +be no higher than a silver dollar, has been the proud ambition of many +an artist in botany. In like manner, the Tokugawa Sh[=o]guns (1604-1868) +determined to so limit the supply of mental food, that the mind of Japan +should be of those correctly dwarfed proportions of puniness, so admired +by lovers of artificiality and unconscious caricature. Philosophy was +selected as a chief tool among the engines of oppression, and as the +main influence in stunting the intellect. All thought must be orthodox +according to the standards of Confucianism, as expounded by Chu Hi. +Anything like originality in poetry, learning or philosophy must be +hooted down. Art must follow Chinese, Buddhist and Japanese traditions. +Any violation of this order would mean ostracism. All learning must be +in the Chinese and Japanese languages--the former mis-pronounced and in +sound bearing as much resemblance to Pekingise speech as "Pennsylvania +Dutch" does to the language of Berlin. Everything like thinking and +study must be with a view of sustaining and maintaining the established +order of things. The tree of education, instead of being a lofty or +wide-spreading cryptomeria, must be the measured nursling of the teacup. +If that trio of emblems, so admired by the natives, the bamboo, pine and +plum, could produce glossy leaves, ever-green needles and fragrant +blooms within a space of four cubic inches, so the law, the literature +and the art of Japan must display their normal limit of fresh fragrance, +of youthful vigor and of venerable age, enduring for aye, within the +vessel of Japanese inclusion so carefully limited by the Yedo +authorities. + +Such a policy, reminds one of the Amherst agricultural experiment in +which bands of iron were strapped around a much-afflicted squash, in +order to test vital potency. It recalls the pretty little story of +Picciola, in which a tender plant must grow between the interstices of +the bricks in a prison yard. Besides the potent bonds of the only +orthodox Confucian philosophy which was allowed and the legally +recognized religions, there was gradually formed a marvellous system of +legislation, that turned the whole nation into a secret society in which +spies and hypocrites flourished like fungus on a dead log. Besides the +unwritten code of private law,[4] that is, the local and general customs +founded on immemorial usage, there was that peculiar legal system framed +by Iyeyas[)u], bequeathed as a legacy and for over two hundred years +practically the supreme law of the land. + +What this law was, it was exceedingly difficult, if not utterly +impossible, for the aliens dwelling in the country at Nagasaki ever to +find out. Keenly intellectual, as many of the physicians, +superintendents and elect members of the Dutch trading company were, +they seem never to have been able to get hold of what has been called +"The Testament of Iyeyas[)u]."[5] This consisted of one hundred laws or +regulations, based on a home-spun sort of Confucianism, intended to be +orthodoxy "unbroken for ages eternal." + +To a man of western mode of thinking, the most astonishing thing is that +this law was esoteric.[6] The people knew of it only by its irresistible +force, and by the constant pressure or the rare easing of its iron hand. +Those who executed the law were drilled in its routine from childhood, +and this routine became second nature. Only a few copies of the original +instrument were known, and these were kept with a secrecy which to the +people became a sacred mystery guarded by a long avenue of awe. + + +The Dutchmen at Deshima. + + +The Dutchmen who lived at Deshima for two centuries and a half, and the +foreigners who first landed at the treaty ports in 1859, on inquiring +about the methods of the Japanese Government, the laws and their +administration, found that everything was veiled behind a vague +embodiment of something which was called "the Law." What that law was, +by whom enacted, and under what sanctions enforced, no one could tell; +though all seemed to stand in awe of it as something of superhuman +efficiency. Its mysteriousness was only equalled by the abject +submission which it received. + +Foreign diplomatists, on trying to deal with the seat and source of +authority, instead of seeing the real head of power, played, as it were, +a game of chess against a mysterious hand stretched out from behind a +curtain. Morally, the whole tendency of such a dual system of exclusion +and of inclusion was to make a nation of liars, foster confirmed habits +of deceit, and create a code of politeness vitiated by insincerity. + +With such repression of the natural powers of humanity, it was but in +accordance with the nature of things that licentiousness should run +riot, that on the fringes of society there should be the outcast and the +pariah, and that the social waste of humanity by prostitution, by +murder, by criminal execution under a code that prescribed the death +penalty for hundreds of offences, should be enormous. It is natural also +that in such a state of society population[7] should be kept down within +necessary limits, not only by famine, by the restraints of feudalism, by +legalized murder in the form of vendetta, by a system of prostitution +that made and still makes Japan infamous, by child murder, by lack of +encouragement given to feeble or malformed children to live, and by +various devices known to those who were ingenious in keeping up so +artificial a state of society. + +That there were many who tried to break through this wall, from both the +inside and the outside, and to force the frontiers of exclusion and +inclusion, is not to be wondered at. Externally, there were bold spirits +from Christendom who burned to know the secrets of the mysterious land. +Some even yearned to wear the ruby crown. The wonderful story of past +Christian triumphs deeply stirred the heart of more than one fiery +spirit, and so we find various attempts made by the clerical brethren of +southern Europe to enter the country. Bound by their promises, the Dutch +captains could not introduce these emissaries of a banned religion +within the borders; yet there are several notable instances of Roman +Catholic "religious"[8] getting themselves left by shipmasters on the +shores of Japan. The lion's den of reality was Yedo. Like the lion's den +of fable, the footprints all led one way, and where these led the bones +of the victims soon lay. + +Besides these men with religious motives, the ships of the West came +with offers of trade and threats of invasion. These were English, +French, Russian and American, and the story of the frequent episodes has +been told by Hildreth, Aston,[9] Nitobe, and others. There is also a +considerable body of native literature which gives the inside view of +these efforts to force the seclusion of the hermit nation, and coax or +compel the Japanese to be more sociable and more human. All were in vain +until the peaceful armada, under the flag of thirty-one stars, led by +Matthew Calbraith Perry,[10] broke the long seclusion of this Thorn-rose +of the Pacific, and the unarmed diplomacy of Townsend Harris,[11] +brought Japan into the brotherhood of commercial and Christian nations. + +Within the isolating walls and the barred gates the story of the seekers +after God is a thrilling one. The intellect of choice spirits, beating +like caged eagles the bars of their prisons, yearned for more light and +life. "Though an eagle be starving," says the Japanese proverb, "it will +not eat grain;" and so, while the mass of the people and even the +erudite, were content with ground food--even the chopped straw and husks +of materialistic Confucianism and decayed Buddhism--there were noble +souls who soared upward to exercise their God-given powers, and to seek +nourishment fitted for that human spirit which goeth upward and not +downward, and which, ever in restless discontent, seeks the Infinite. + + +Protests of Inquiring Spirits. + + +There is no stronger proof of the true humanity and the innate +god-likeness of the Japanese, of their worthiness to hold and their +inherent power to win a high place among the nations of the earth, than +this longing of a few elect ones for the best that earth could give and +Heaven bestow. We find men in travail of spirit, groping after God if +haply they might find Him, following the ways of the Spirit along lines +different, and in pathways remote, from those laid down by Confucius and +his materialistic commentators, or by Buddha and his parodists or +caricaturists. The story of the philosophers, who mutinied against the +iron clamps and governmentally nourished system of the Seido College +expounders, is yet to be fully told.[12] It behooves some Japanese +scholar to tell it. + +How earnest truth-seeking Japanese protested and rebelled against the +economic fallacies, against the political despotism, against the +abominable usurpations, against the false strategies and against the +inherent immoralities of the Tokugawa system, has of late years been set +forth with tantalizing suggestiveness, but only in fragments, by the +native historians. Heartrending is the narrative of these men who +studied, who taught, who examined, who sifted the mountains of chaff in +the native literature and writings, who made long journeys on foot all +over the country, who furtively travelled in Korea and China, who +boarded Dutch and Russian vessels, who secretly read forbidden books, +who tried to improve their country and their people. These men saw that +their country was falling behind not only the nations of the West, but, +as it seemed to them, even the nations of the East. They felt that +radical changes were necessary in order to reform the awful poverty, +disease, licentiousness, national weakness, decay of bodily powers, and +the creeping paralysis of the Samurai intellect and spirit. How they +were ostracized, persecuted, put under ban, hounded by the spies, thrown +into prison; how they died of starvation or of disease; how they were +beheaded, crucified, or compelled to commit _hara-kiri_; how their books +were purged by the censors, or put under ban or destroyed,[13] and their +maps, writings and plates burned, has not yet been told. It is a story +that, when fully narrated, will make a volume of extraordinary interest. +It is a story which both Christian and human interests challenge some +native author to tell. During all this time, but especially during the +first half of the nineteenth century, there was one steady goal to which +the aspiring student ever kept his faith, and to which his feet tended. +There was one place of pilgrimage, toward which the sons of the morning +moved, and which, despite the spy and the informer and the vigilance of +governors, fed their spirits, and whence they carried the sacred fire, +or bore the seed whose harvest we now see. That goal of the pilgrim band +was Nagasaki, and the place where the light burned and the sacred flames +were kindled was Deshima. The men who helped to make true patriots, +daring thinkers, inquirers after truth, bringers in of a better time, +yes, and even Christians and preachers of the good news of God, were +these Dutchmen of Deshima. + + +A Handful of Salt in a Stagnant Mass. + + +The Nagasaki Hollanders were not immaculate saints, neither were they +sooty devils. They did not profess to be Christian missionaries. On the +other hand, they were men not devoid of conscience nor of sympathy with +aspiring and struggling men in a hermit nation, eager for light and +truth. The Dutchman during the time of hermit Japan, as we see him in +the literature of men who were hostile in faith and covetous rivals in +trade, is a repulsive figure. He seems to be a brutal wretch, seeking +only gain, and willing to sell conscience, humanity and his religion, +for pelf. In reality, he was an ordinary European, probably no better, +certainly no worse, than his age or the average man of his country or of +his continent. Further, among this average dozen of exiles in the +interest of commerce, science or culture, there were frequently +honorable men far above the average European, and shining examples of +Christianity and humanity. Even in his submission to the laws of the +country, the Dutchman did no more, no less, but exactly as the +daimi[=o]s,[14] who like himself were subject to the humiliations +imposed by the rulers in Yedo. + +It was the Dutch, who, for two hundred years supplied the culture of +Europe to Japan, introduced Western science, furnished almost the only +intellectual stimulant, and were the sole teachers of medicine and +science.[15] They trained up hundreds of Japanese to be physicians who +practised rational medicine and surgery. They filled with needed courage +the hearts of men, who, secretly practising dissection of the bodies of +criminals, demonstrated the falsity of Chinese ideas of anatomy. It was +Dutch science which exploded and drove out of Japan that Chinese system +of medicine, by means of which so many millions have, during the long +ages, been slowly tortured to death. + +The Deshima Dutchman was a kindly adviser, helper, guide and friend, the +one means of communication with the world, a handful of salt in the +stagnant mass. Long before the United States, or Commodore Perry, the +Hollanders advised the Yodo government in favor of international +intercourse. The Dutch language, nearest in structure and vocabulary to +the English, even richer in the descriptive energy of its terms, and +saturated withal with Christian truth, was studied by eager young men. +These speakers of an impersonal language which in psychological +development was scarcely above the grade of childhood, were exercised in +a tongue that stands second to none in Europe for purity, vigor, +personality and philosophical power. The Japanese students of Dutch held +a golden key which opened the treasures of modern thought and of the +world's literature. The minds of thinking Japanese were thus made +plastic for the reception of the ideas of Christianity. Best of all, +though forbidden by their contracts to import Bibles into Japan, the +Dutchmen, by means of works of reference, pointed more than one +inquiring spirit to the information by which the historic Christ became +known. The books which they imported, the information which they gave, +the stimulus which they imparted, were as seeds planted within +masonry-covered earth, that were to upheave and overthrow the fabric of +exclusion and inclusion reared by the Tokugawa Sh[=o]guns. + +Time and space fail us to tell how eager spirits not only groped after +God, but sought the living Christ--though often this meant to them +imprisonment, suicide enforced by the law, or decapitation. Yet over all +Japan, long before the broad pennant of Perry was mirrored on the waters +of Yedo Bay, there were here and there masses of leavened opinion, spots +of kindled light, and fields upon which the tender green sprouts of new +ideas could be detected. To-day, as inquiry among the oldest of the +Christian leaders and scores of volumes of modern biography shows, the +most earnest and faithful among the preachers, teachers and soldiers in +the Christian army, were led into their new world of ideas through Dutch +culture. The fact is revealed in repeated instances, that, through +father, grandfather, uncle, or other relative--some pilgrim to the Dutch +at Nagasaki--came their first knowledge, their initial promptings, the +environment or atmosphere, which made them all sensitive and ready to +receive the Christian truth when it came in its full form from the +living missionary and the vital word of God. Some one has well said that +the languages of modern Europe are nothing more than Christianity +expressed with differing pronunciation and vocabulary. To him who will +receive it, the mastery of any one of the languages of Christendom, is, +in a large sense, a revelation of God in Christ Jesus. + + +Seekers after God. + + +Pathetic, even to the compulsion of tears, is the story of these seekers +after God. We, who to-day are surrounded by every motive and inducement +to Christian living and by every means and appliance for the practice of +the Christian life, may well consider for a moment the struggle of +earnest souls to find out God. Think of this one who finds a Latin Bible +cast up on the shore from some broken ship, and bearing it secretly in +his bosom to the Hollander, gains light as to the meaning of its +message. Think of the nobleman, Watanabe Oboru,[16] who, by means of the +Japanese interpreter of Dutch, Takano Choyei, is thrilled with the story +of Jesus of Nazareth who helped and healed and spake as no other man +spake, teaching with an authority above that of the masters Confucius or +Buddha. Think of the daimi[=o] of Mito,[17] who, proud in lineage, +learned and scholarly, and surrounded by a host of educated men, is yet +unsatisfied with what the wise of his own country could give him, and +gathers around him the relics unearthed from the old persecutions. From +a picture of the Virgin, a fragment of a litany, or it may be a part of +a breviary, he tries to make out what Christianity is. + +Think of Yokoi Heishiro,[18] learned in Confucius and his commentators, +who seeks better light, sends to China for a Chinese translation of the +New Testament, and in his lectures on the Confucian ethics, to the +delight and yet to the surprise of his hearers who hear grander truth +than they are able to find in text or commentary, really preaches +Christ, and prophesies that the time will come when the walls of +isolation being levelled, the brightest intellects of Japan will welcome +this same Jesus and His doctrine. Think of him again, when unable to +purify the Augean stables of Yedo's moral corruption, because the time +was at hand for other cleansing agencies, he retires to his home, +content awhile with his books and flowers. Again, see him summoned to +the capital, to sit at Ki[=o]to--like aged Franklin among the young +statesmen of the Constitution in Philadelphia--with the Mikado's +youthful advisers in the new government of 1868. Think of him pleading +for the elevation of the pariah Eta, accursed and outcast through +Buddhism, to humanity and citizenship. Then hear him urge eloquently the +right of personal belief, and argue for toleration under the law, of +opinions, which the Japanese then stigmatized as "evil" and devilish, +but which we, and many of them now, call sound and Christian. Finally, +behold him at night in the public streets, assaulted by assassins, and +given quick death by their bullet and blades. See his gray head lying +severed from his body and in its own gore, the wretched murderers +thinking they have stayed the advancing tide of Christianity; but at +home there dwells a little son destined in God's providence to become an +earnest Christian and one of the brilliant leaders of the native +Christianity of Japan in our day. + + +The Buddhist Inquisitors. + + +During the nation's period of Thorn-rose-like seclusion, the three +religions recognized by the law were Buddhism, Shint[=o] and +Confucianism. Christianity was the outlawed sect. All over the country, +on the high-roads, at the bridges, and in the villages, towns and +cities, the fundamental laws of the country were written on wooden +tablets called kosats[)u]. These, framed and roofed for protection from +the weather, but easily before the eyes of every man, woman and child, +and written in a style and language understood of all, denounced the +Christian religion as an accursed "sect," and offered gold to the spy +and informer;[19] while once a year every Samurai was required to swear +on the true faith of a gentleman that he had nothing to do with +Christianity. From the seventeenth century, the country having been +divided into parishes, the inquisition was under the charge of the +Buddhist priests who penetrated into the house and family and guarded +the graveyards, so that neither earth nor fire should embrace the +carcass of a Christian, nor his dust or ashes defile the ancestral +graveyards. Twice--in 1686 and in 1711--were the rewards increased and +the Buddhist bloodhounds of Japan's Inquisition set on fresh trails. On +one occasion, at Osaka, in 1839,[20] a rebellion broke out which was +believed, though without evidence, to have been instigated in some way +by men with Christian ideas, and was certainly led by Oshio, the bitter +opponent of Buddhism, of Tokugawa, and of the prevalent Confucianism. +Possibly, the uprising was aided by refugees from Korea. Those +implicated were, after speedy trial, crucified or beheaded. In the +southern part of the country the ceremony of Ebumi or trampling on the +cross,[21] was long performed. Thousands of people were made to pass +through a wicket, beneath which and on the ground lay a copper plate +engraved with the image of the Christ and the cross. In this way it was +hoped to utterly eradicate the very memory of Christianity, which, to +the common people, had become the synonym for sorcery. + +But besides the seeking after God by earnest souls and the protest of +philosophers, there was, amid the prevailing immorality and the +agnosticism and scepticism bred by decayed Buddhism and the +materialistic philosophy based on Confucius, some earnest struggles for +the purification of morals and the spiritual improvement of the people. + + +The Shingaku Movement. + + +One of the most remarkable of the movements to this end was that of the +Shingaku or New Learning. A class of practical moralists, to offset the +prevailing tendency of the age to much speculation and because Buddhism +did so little for the people, tried to make the doctrines of Confucius a +living force among the great mass of people. This movement, though +Confucian in its chief tone and color, was eclectic and intended to +combine all that was best in the Chinese system with what could be +utilized from Shint[=o] and Buddhism. With the preaching was combined a +good deal of active benevolence. Especially in the time of famine, was +care for humanity shown. The effect upon the people was noticeable, +followers multiplied rapidly, and it is said that even the government in +many instances made them, the Shingaku preachers, the distributors of +rice and alms for the needy. Some of the preachers became famous and +counted among their followers many men of influence. The literary side +of the movement[22] has been brought to the attention of English readers +through Mr. Mitford's translation of three sermons from the volume +entitled Shingaku D[=o]wa. Other discourses have been from time to time +rendered into English, those by Shibata, entitled The Sermons of the +Dove-like Venerable Master, being especially famous. + +This movement, interesting as it was, came to an end when the country +began to be convulsed by the approaching entrance of foreigners, through +the Perry treaty; but it serves to show, what we believe to be the +truth, that the moral rottenness as well as the physical decay of the +Japanese people reached their acme just previous to the apparition of +the American fleet in 1853. + +The story of nineteenth century Reformed Christianity in Japan does not +begin with Perry, or with Harris, or with the arrival of Christian +missionaries in 1859; for it has a subterranean and interior history, as +we have hinted; while that of the Roman form and order is a story of +unbroken continuity, though the life of the tunnel is now that of the +sunny road. The parable of the leaven is first illustrated and then that +of the mustard-seed. Before Christianity was phenomenal, it was potent. +Let us now look from the interior to the outside. + +On Perry's flag-ship, the Mississippi, the Bible lay open, a sermon was +preached, and the hymn "Before Jehovah's Awful Throne" was sung, waking +the echoes of the Japan hills. The Christian day of rest was honored on +this American squadron. In the treaty signed in 1854, though it was +made, indeed, with use of the name of God and terms of Christian +chronology, there was nothing upon which to base, either by right or +privilege, the residence of missionaries in the country. Townsend +Harris, the American Consul-General, who hoisted his flag and began his +hermit life at Shimoda, in September, 1855, had as his only companion a +Dutch secretary, Mr. Heusken, who was later, in Yedo, to be assassinated +by ronins. + +Without ship or soldier, overcoming craft and guile, and winning his way +by simple honesty and perseverance, Mr. Harris obtained audience[23] of +"the Tycoon" in Yedo, and later from the Sh[=o]gun's daring minister Ii, +the signature to a treaty which guaranteed to Americans the rights of +residence, trade and commerce. Thus Americans were enabled to land as +citizens, and pursue their avocation as religious teachers. As the +government of the United States of America knows nothing of the religion +of American citizens abroad, it protects all missionaries who are +law-abiding citizens, without regard to creed.[24] + + +Japan Once More Missionary Soil. + + +The first missionaries were on the ground as soon as the ports were +open. Though surrounded by spies and always in danger of assassination +and incendiarism, they began their work of mastering the language. To do +this without trained teachers or apparatus of dictionary and grammar, +was then an appalling task. The medical missionary began healing the +swarms of human sufferers, syphilitic, consumptive, and those scourged +by small-pox, cholera and hereditary and acute diseases of all sorts. +The patience, kindness and persistency of these Christian men literally +turned the edge of the sword, disarmed the assassin, made the spies' +occupation useless, shamed away the suspicious, and conquered the nearly +invincible prejudices of the government. Despite the awful under-tow in +the immorality of the sailor, the adventurer and the gain-greedy +foreigner, the tide of Christianity began steadily to rise. +Notwithstanding the outbursts of the flames of persecution, the torture +and imprisonment of Christian captives and exiles, and the slow worrying +to death of the missionary's native teachers, inquirers came and +converts were made. In 1868, after revolution and restoration, the old +order changed, and duarchy and feudalism passed away. Quick to seize the +opportunity, Dr. J.C. Hepburn, healer of bodies and souls of men, +presented a Bible to the Emperor, and the gift was accepted. + +No sooner had the new government been established in safety, and the +name of Yedo, the city of the Baydoor, been changed into that of +T[=o]ki[=o], the Eastern Capital, than an embassy[25] of seventy persons +started on its course round the world. At its head were three cabinet +ministers of the new government and the court noble, Iwakura, of +immemorial lineage, in whose veins ran the blood of the men called gods. +Across the Pacific to the United States they went, having their initial +audience of the President of the Republic that knows no state church, +and whose Christianity had compelled both the return of the shipwrecked +Japanese and the freedom of the slave. + +This embassy had been suggested and its course planned by a Christian +missionary, who found that of the seventy persons, one-half had been his +pupils.[26] + + +The Imperial Embassy Round the World. + + +The purpose of these envoys was, first of all, to ask of the nations of +Christendom equal rights, to get removed the odious extra-territoriality +clause in the treaties, to have the right to govern aliens on their +soil, and to regulate their own tariff. Secondarily, its members +went to study the secrets of power and the resources of civilization in +the West, to initiate the liberal education of their women by leaving in +American schools a little company of maidens, to enlarge the system of +education for their own country, and to send abroad with approval others +of their young men who, for a decade past had, in spite of every ban and +obstacle, been furtively leaving the country for study beyond the seas. + +In the lands of Christendom, the eyes of ambassadors, ministers, +secretaries and students were opened. They saw themselves as others saw +them. They compared their own land and nation, mediaeval in spirit and +backward in resources, and their people untrained as children, with the +modern power, the restless ambition, the stern purpose, the intense life +of the western nations, with their mighty fleets and armaments, their +inventions and machinery, their economic and social theories and forces, +their provision for the poor, the sick, and the aged, the peerless +family life in the Christian home. They found, further yet, free +churches divorced from politics and independent of the state; that the +leading force of the world was Christianity, that persecution was +barbarous, and that toleration was the law of the future, and largely +the condition of the present. It took but a few whispers over the +telegraphic wire, and the anti-Christian edicts disappeared from public +view like snowflakes melting on the river. The right arm of persecution +was broken. + +The story of the Book of Acts of the modern apostles in Japan is told, +first in the teaching of inquirers, preaching to handfuls, the gathering +of tiny companies, the translation of the Gospel, and then prayer and +waiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit. A study of the Book of the +Acts of the Apostles, followed in order to find out how the Christian +Church began. On the 10th day of March, in the year of our Lord and of +the era of Meiji (Enlightened Peace) the fifth, 1872, at Yokohama, in +the little stone chapel built on part of Commodore Perry's treaty +ground, was formed the first Reformed or Protestant Christian Church in +Japan. + +At this point our task is ended. We cannot even glance at the native +Christian churches of the Roman, Reformed, or Greek order, or attempt to +appraise the work of the foreign missionaries. He has read these pages +in vain, however, who does not see how well, under Providence, the +Japanese have been trained for higher forms of faith. + +The armies of Japan are upon Chinese soil, while we pen our closing +lines. The last chains of purely local and ethnic dogma are being +snapped asunder. May the sons of Dai Nippon, as they win new horizons of +truth, see more clearly and welcome more loyally that Prince of Peace +whose kingdom is not of this world. + +May the age of political conquest end, and the era of the +self-reformation of the Asian nations, through the gospel of Jesus +Christ, be ushered in. + + + + +NOTES, AUTHORITIES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS + + +The few abbreviations used in these pages stand for well-known works: +T.A.S.J., for Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan; Kojiki, for +Supplement to Volume X., T.A.S.J., Introduction, Translation, Notes, +Map, etc., by Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain; T.J., for Things +Japanese (2d ed.), by Professor B.H. Chamberlain; S. and H., for Satow +and Hawes's Hand-book for Japan, now continued in new editions (4th, +1894), by Professor B.H. Chamberlain; C.R.M., for Mayers's Chinese +Reader's Manual; M.E., The Mikado's Empire (7th ed.); B.N., for Mr. +Bunyiu Nanjio's A Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, +T[=o]ki[=o], 1887. + + +CHAPTER I + +PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS + + +[Footnote 1: The late Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, LL.D., who +applied the principles of electro-magnetism to telegraphy, was the son +of the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., the celebrated theologian, geographer, +and gazetteer. In memory of his father, Professor Morse founded this +lectureship in Union Theological Seminary, New York, on "The Relation of +the Bible to the Sciences," May 20,1865, by the gift of ten thousand +dollars.] + +[Footnote 2: An American Missionary in Japan, p. 209, by Rev. M.L. +Gordon, M.D., Boston, 1892.] + +[Footnote 3: Lucretia Coftin Mott.] + +[Footnote 4: "I remember once making a calculation in Hong Kong, and +making out my baptisms to have amounted to about six hundred.... I +believe with you that the study of comparative religion is important for +all missionaries. Still more important, it seems to me, is it that +missionaries should make themselves thoroughly proficient in the +languages and literature of the people to whom they are sent."--Dr. +Legge's Letter to the Author, November 27, 1893.] + +[Footnote 5: The Religions of China, p. 240, by James Legge, New York, +1881.] + +[Footnote 6: The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, p. 22, Boston editions +of 1859 and 1879.] + +[Footnote 7: One of the many names of Japan is that of the Country Ruled +by a Slender Sword, in allusion to the clumsy weapons employed by the +Chinese and Koreans. See, for the shortening and lightening of the +modern Japanese sword (_katana_) as compared with the long and heavy +(_ken_) of the "Divine" (_kami_) or uncivilized age, "The Sword of +Japan; Its History and Traditions," T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 58.] + +[Footnote 8: The course of lectures on The Religions of Chinese Asia +(which included most of the matter in this book), given by the author in +Bangor Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me., in April, 1894, was upon the +Bond foundation, founded by alumni and named after the chief donor, Rev. +Ellas Bond, D.D., of Kohala, long an active missionary in Hawaii.] + +[Footnote 9: This is the contention of Professor Kumi, late of the +Imperial University of Japan; see chapter on Shint[=o].] + +[Footnote 10: In illustration, comical or pitiful, the common people in +Satsuma believe that the spirit of the great Saigo Takamori, leader of +the rebellion of 1877, "has taken up its abode in the planet Mars," +while the spirits of his followers entered into a new race of frogs that +attack man and fight until killed--Mounsey's The Satsuma Rebellion, p. +217. So, also, the _Heike-gani_, or crabs at Shimonoseki, represent the +transmigration of the souls of the Heike clan, nearly exterminated in +1184 A.D., while the "H[=o]j[=o] bugs" are the avatars of the execrated +rulers of Kamakura (1219-1333 A.D.).--Japan in History, Folk-lore, and +Art, Boston, 1892, pp. 115, 133.] + +[Footnote 11: The Future of Religion in Japan. A paper read at the +Parliament of Religions by Nobuta Kishimoto.] + +[Footnote 12: The Ainos, though they deify all the chief objects of +nature, such as the sun, the sea, fire, wild beasts, etc., often talk of +a Creator, _Kotan kara kamui_, literally the God who made the World. At +the fact of creation they stop short.... One gathers that the creative +act was performed not directly, but through intermediaries, who were +apparently animals."--Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12. See also on the +Aino term "Kamui," by Professor B.H. Chamberlain and Rev. J. Batchelor, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI.] + +[Footnote 13: See Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella Bird (Bishop), +Vol. II.; The Ainu of Japan, by Rev. John Batchelor; B. Douglas Howard's +Life With Trans-Siberian Savages; Ripley Hitchcock's Report, Smithsonian +Institute, Washington. Professor B. H. Chamberlain's invaluable "Aino +Studies," T[=o]ki[=o], 1887, makes scholarly comparison of the Japanese +and Aino language, mythology, and geographical nomenclature.] + +[Footnote 14: M.E., The Mythical Zooelogy of Japan, pp. 477-488. C.R.M., +_passim_.] + +[Footnote 15: See the valuable article entitled Demoniacal Possession, +T.J., p. 106, and the author's Japanese Fox Myths, _Lippincott's +Magazine_, 1873.] + +[Footnote 16: See the Aino animal stories and evidences of beast worship +in Chamberlain's Aino Studies. For this element in Japanese life, see +the Kojiki, and the author's Japanese Fairy World.] + +[Footnote 17: The proprietor of a paper-mill in Massachusetts, who had +bought a cargo of rags, consisting mostly of farmers' cast off clothes, +brought to the author a bundle of scraps of paper which he had found in +this cheap blue-dyed cotton wearing apparel. Besides money accounts and +personal matters, there were numerous temple amulets and priests' +certificates. See also B.H. Chamberlain's Notes on Some Minor Japanese +Religious Practices, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May, +1893.] + +[Footnote 18: M.E., p. 440.] + +[Footnote 19: See the Lecture on Buddhism in its Doctrinal +Development.--The Nichiren Sect.] + +[Footnote 20: The phallus was formerly a common emblem in all parts of +Japan, Hondo, Kiushiu, Shikoku, and the other islands. Bayard Taylor +noticed it in the Riu Kiu (Loo Choo) Islands; Perry's Expedition to +Japan, p. 196; Bayard Taylor's Expedition in Lew Chew; M.E., p. 33, +note; Rein's Japan, p. 432; Diary of Richard Cocks, Vol. I., p. 283. The +native guide-books and gazetteers do not allude to the subject. + +Although the author of this volume has collected considerable data from +personal observations and the testimony of personal friends concerning +the vanishing nature-worship of the Japanese, he has, in the text, +scarcely more than glanced at the subject. In a work of this sort, +intended both for the general reader as well as for the scientific +student of religion, it has been thought best to be content with a few +simple references to what was once widely prevalent in the Japanese +archipelago. + +Probably the most thorough study of Japanese phallicism yet made by any +foreign scholar is that of Edmund Buckley, A.M., Ph.D., of the Chicago +University, Lecturer on Shint[=o], the Ethnic Faith of Japan, and on the +Science of Religion. Dr. Buckley spent six years in central and +southwestern Japan, most of the time as instructor in the Doshisha +University, Ki[=o]to. He will publish the results of his personal +observations and studios in a monograph on phallicism, which will be on +sale at Chicago University, in which the Buckley collection illustrating +Shint[=o]-worship has been deposited.] + +[Footnote 21: Mr. Takahashi Gor[=o], in his Shint[=o] Shin-ron, or New +Discussion of Shint[=o], accepts the derivation of the word _kami_ from +_kabe_, mould, mildew, which, on its appearance, excites wonder. For +Hirata's discussion, see T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 48. In a +striking paper on the Early Gods of Japan, in a recent number of the +Philosophical Magazine, published in T[=o]ki[=o], a Japanese writer, Mr. +Kenjir[=o] Hirade, states also that the term kami does not necessarily +denote a spiritual being, but is only a relative term meaning above or +high, but this respect toward something high or above has created many +imaginary deities as well as those having a human history. See also +T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I., p. 55, note.] + +[Footnote 22: "There remains something of the Shint[=o] heart after +twelve hundred years of foreign creeds and dress. The worship of the +marvellous continues.... Exaggerated force is most impressive.... So the +ancient gods, heroes, and wonders are worshipped still. The simple +countryfolk clap their hands, bow their heads, mumble their prayers, and +offer the fraction of a cent to the first European-built house they +see."--Philosophy in Japan, Past and Present, by Dr. George Wm. Knox.] + +[Footnote 23: M.E., p. 474. Honda the Samurai, pp. 256-267.] + +[Footnote 24: Kojiki, pp. 127, 136, 213, 217.] + +[Footnote 25: See S. and H., pp. 39, 76. + +"The appearance of anything unusual at a particular spot is hold to be a +sure sign of the presence of divinity. Near the spot where I live in +Ko-ishi-kawa, T[=o]ki[=o], is a small Miya, built at the foot of a very +old tree, that stands isolated on the edge of a rice-field. The spot +looks somewhat insignificant, but upon inquiring why a shrine has been +placed there, I was told that a white snake had been found at the foot +of the old tree." ... + +"As it is, the religion of the Japanese consists in the belief that the +productive ethereal spirit, being expanded through the whole universe, +every part is in some degree impregnated with it; and therefore, every +part is in some measure the seat of the Deity."--Legendre's Progressive +Japan, p. 258.] + +[Footnote 26: De Verflauwing der Grenzen, by Dr. Abraham Kuyper, +Amsterdam, 1892; translated by Rev. T. Hendrik de Vries, in the +Methodist Review, New York, July-Sept., 1893.] + + +CHAPTER II + +SHINT[=O]; MYTHS AND RITUAL + + +[Footnote 1: The scholar who has made profound researches in all +departments of Japanese learning, but especially in the literature of +Shint[=o], is Mr. Ernest Satow, now the British Minister at Tangier. He +received the degree of B.A. from the London University. After several +years' study and experience in China, Mr. Satow came to Japan in 1861 as +student-interpreter to the British Legation, receiving his first drill +under Rev. S.R. Brown, D.D., author of A Grammar of Colloquial Japanese. +To ceaseless industry, this scholar, to whom the world is so much +indebted for knowledge of Japan, has added philosophic insight. Besides +unearthing documents whose existence was unsuspected, he has cleared the +way for investigators and comparative students by practically removing +the barriers reared by archaic speech and writing. His papers in the +T.A.S.J., on The Shint[=o] Shrines at Ise, the Revival of Pure +Shint[=o], and Ancient Japanese Rituals, together with his Hand-book for +Japan, form the best collection of materials for the study of the +original and later forms of Shint[=o].] + +[Footnote 2: The scholar who above all others has, with rare acumen +united to laborious and prolonged toil, illuminated the subject of +Japan's chronology and early history is Mr. W.G. Aston of the British +Civil Service. He studied at the Queen's University, Ireland, receiving +the degree of M.A. He was appointed student-interpreter in Japan, August +6, 1864. He is the author of a Grammar of the Written Japanese Language, +and has been a student of the comparative history and speech and writing +of China, Korea, and Japan, during the past thirty years. See his +valuable papers in the T.A.S.J., and the learned societies in Great +Britain. In his paper on Early Japanese History, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., +pp. 39-75, he recapitulates the result of his researches, in which he +is, in the main, supported by critical native scholars, and by the late +William Bramsen, in his Japanese Chronological Tables, T[=o]ki[=o], +1880. He considers A.D. 461 as the first trustworthy date in the +Japanese annals. We quote from his paper, Early Japanese History, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 73. + +1. The earliest date of the accepted Japanese Chronology, the accuracy +of which is confirmed by external evidence, is A.D. 461. + +2. Japanese History, properly so called, can hardly be said to exist +previous to A.D. 500. (A cursory examination leads me to think that the +annals of the sixth century must also be received with caution.) + +3. Korean History and Chronology are more trustworthy than those of +Japan during the period previous to that date. + +4. While there was an Empress of Japan in the third century A.D., the +statement that she conquered Korea is highly improbable. + +5. Chinese learning was introduced into Japan from Korea 120 years later +than the date given in Japanese History. + +6. The main fact of Japan having a predominant influence in some parts +of Korea during the fifth century is confirmed by the Korean and Chinese +chronicles, which, however, show that the Japanese accounts are very +inaccurate in matters of detail.] + +[Footnote 3: Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world of learning +such signal service by his works on the Japanese language, and +especially by his translation, with critical introduction and +commentary, of the Kojiki, is an English gentleman, born at Southsea, +Hampshire, England, on the 18th day of October, 1830. His mother was a +daughter of the well-known traveller and author, Captain Basil Hall, +R.N., and his father an Admiral in the British Navy. He was educated for +Oxford, but instead of entering, for reasons of health, he spent a +number of years in western Mid southern Europe, acquiring a knowledge of +various languages and literatures. His coming to Japan (in May, 1873) +was rather the result of an accident--a long sea voyage and a trial of +the Japanese climate having been recommended. The country and the field +of study suited the invalid well. After teaching for a time in the Naval +College the Japanese honored themselves and this scholar by making him, +in April, 1886, Professor of Philology at the Imperial University. His +works, The Classical Poetry of the Japanese, his various grammars and +hand-books for the acquisition of the language, his Hand-book for Japan, +his Aino Studies, Things Japanese, papers in the T.A.S.J. and his +translation of the Kojiki are all of a high order of value. They are +marked by candor, fairness, insight, and a mastery of difficult themes +that makes his readers his constant debtors.] + +[Footnote 4: "If the term 'Altaic' be held to include Korean and +Japanese, then Japanese assumes prime importance as being by far the +oldest living representative of that great linguistic group, its +literature antedating by many centuries the most ancient productions of +the Manchus, Mongols, Turks, Hungarians, or Finns."--Chamberlain, +Simplified Grammar, Introd., p. vi.] + +[Footnote 5: Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 13-14; Mr. Pom K. Soh's paper +on Education in Korea; Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education, +1890-91.] + +[Footnote 6: T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 74; Bramsen's Chronological Tables, +Introd., p. 34; T.J., p. 32.] + +[Footnote 7: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., p. 531.] + +[Footnote 8: "The frog in the well knows not the great ocean." This +proverb, so freely quoted throughout Chinese Asia, and in recent years +so much applied to themselves by the Japanese, is of Hindu origin and is +found in the Sanskrit.] + +[Footnote 9: This is shown with literary skill and power in a modern +popular work, the title of which, Dai Nippon Kai-biyaku Yurai-iki, +which, very freely indeed, may be translated Instances of Divine +Interposition in Behalf of Great Japan. A copy of this work was +presented to the writer by the late daimi[=o] of Echizen, and was read +with interest as containing the common people's ideas about their +country and history. It was published in Yedo in 1856, while Japan was +still excited over the visits of the American and European fleets. On +the basis of the information furnished in this work General Le Gendre +wrote his influential book, Progressive Japan, in which a number of +quotations from the _Kai-biyaku_ may be read.] + +[Footnote 10: In the Kojiki, pp. 101-104, we have the poetical account +of the abdication of the lord of Idzumo in favor of the Yamato +conqueror, on condition that the latter should build a temple and have +him honored among the gods. One of the rituals contains the +congratulatory address of the chieftains of Idzumo, on their surrender +to "the first Mikado, Jimmu Tenn[=o]." See also T.J., p. 206.] + +[Footnote 11: "The praying for Harvest, or Toshigoi no Matsuri, was +celebrated on the 4th day of the 2d month of each year, at the capital +in the Jin-Gi-Kuan or office for the Worship of the Shint[=o] gods, and +in the provinces by the chiefs of the local administrations. At the +Jin-Gi-Kuan there were assembled the ministers of state, the +functionaries of that office, the priests and priestesses of 573 +temples, containing 737 shrines, which were kept up at the expense of +the Mikado's treasury, while the governors of the provinces +superintended in the districts under their administration the +performance of rites in honor of 2,395 other shrines. It would not be +easy to state the exact number of deities to whom these 3,132 shrines +were dedicated. A glance over the list in the 9th and 10th books of the +Yengishiki shows at once that there were many gods who were worshipped +in more than half-a-dozen different localities at the same time; but +exact calculation is impossible, because in many cases only the names of +the temples are given, and we are left quite in the dark as to the +individuality of the gods to whom they were sacred. Besides these 3,132 +shrines, which are distinguished as Shikidai, that is contained in the +catalogue of the Yengishiki, there were a large number of enumerated +shrines in temples scattered all over the country, in every village or +hamlet, of which it was impossible to take any account, just as at the +present day there are temples of Hachiman, Kompira, Tenjin sama, San-no +sama and Sengen sama, as they are popularly called, wherever twenty or +thirty houses are collected together. The shrines are classed as great +and small, the respective numbers being 492 and 2,640, the distinction +being twofold, firstly in the proportionately larger quantity of +offerings made at the great shrines, and secondly that the offerings in +the one case were arranged upon tables or altars, while in the other +they were placed on mats spread upon the earth. In the Yengishiki the +amounts and nature of the offerings are stated with great minuteness, +but it will be sufficient if the kinds of articles offered are alone +mentioned here. It will be seen, by comparison with the text of the +norito, that they had varied somewhat since the date when the ritual was +composed. The offerings to a greater shrine consisted of coarse woven +silk (_ashiginu_), thin silk of five different colors, a kind of stuff +called _shidori_ or _shidzu_, which is supposed by some to have been a +striped silk, cloth of broussonetia bark or hemp, and a small quantity +of the raw materials of which the cloth was made, models of swords, a +pair of tables or altars (called _yo-kura-oki_ and _ya-kura-oki_), a +shield or mantlet, a spear-head, a bow, a quiver, a pair of stag's +horns, a hoe, a few measures of sake or rice-beer, some haliotis and +bonito, two measures of _kituli_ (supposed to be salt roe), various +kinds of edible seaweed, a measure of salt, a sake jar, and a few feet +of matting for packing. To each of the temples of Watarai in Ise was +presented in addition a horse; to the temple of the Harvest god Mitoshi +no kami, a white horse, cock, and pig, and a horse to each of nineteen +others. + +"During the fortnight which preceded the celebration of the service, two +smiths and their journeymen, and two carpenters, together with eight +inbe [or hereditary priests] were employed in preparing the apparatus +and getting ready the offerings. It was usual to employ for the Praying +for Harvest members of this tribe who held office in the Jin-Gi-Kuan, +but if the number could not he made up in that office, it was supplied +from other departments of state. To the tribe of quiver-makers was +intrusted the special duty of weaving the quivers of wistaria tendrils. +The service began at twenty minutes to seven in the morning, by our +reckoning of time. After the governor of the province of Yamashiro had +ascertained that everything was in readiness, the officials of the +Jin-Gi-Kuan arranged the offerings on the tables and below them, +according to the rank of the shrines for which they were intended. The +large court of the Jin-Gi-Kuan where the service was held, called the +Sai-in, measured 230 feet by 370. At one end were the offices and on the +west side were the shrines of the eight Protective Deities in a row, +surrounded by a fence, to the interior of which three sacred archways +(torii) gave access. In the centre of the court a temporary shed was +erected for the occasion, in which the tables or altars were placed. The +final preparations being now complete, the ministers of state, the +virgin priestesses and priests of the temples to which offerings were +sent by the Mikado, entered in succession, and took the places severally +assigned to them. The horses which formed a part of the offerings were +next brought in from the Mikado's stable, and all the congregation drew +near, while the reader recited or read the norito. This reader was a +member of the priestly family or tribe of Nakatomi, who traced their +descent back to Ameno-koyane, one of the principal advisers attached to +the sun-goddess's grandchild when he first descended on earth. It is a +remarkable evidence of the persistence of certain ideas, that up to the +year 1868 the nominal prime-minister of the Mikado, after he came of +age, and the regent during his minority, if he had succeeded young to +the throne, always belonged to this tribe, which changed its name from +Nakatomi to Fujiwara in the seventh century, and was subsequently split +up into the Five Setsuke or governing families. At the end of each +section the priests all responded 'O!' which was no doubt the equivalent +of 'Yes' in use in those days. As soon as he had finished, the Nakatomi +retired, and the offerings were distributed to the priests for +conveyance and presentation to the gods to whose service they were +attached. But a special messenger was despatched with the offerings +destined to the temples at Watarai. This formality having been +completed, the President of the Jin-Gi-Kuan gave the signal for breaking +up the assembly." Ancient Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J., Vol. VII, pp. +104-107.] + +[Footnote 12: S. and H., p. 461.] + +[Footnote 13: Consult Chamberlain's literal translations of the name in +the Kojiki, and p. lxv. of his Introduction.] + +[Footnote 14: The parallel between the Hebrew and Japanese accounts of +light and darkness, day and night, before the sun, has been noticed by +several writers. See the comments of Hirata, a modern Shint[=o] +expounder.--T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 72.] + +[Footnote 15: Westminster Review, July, 1878, p. 19.] + + +CHAPTER III + +"THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS + + +[Footnote 1: Kojiki, pp. 9-18; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 20.] + +[Footnote 2: M.E., p. 43; McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, Art. +Shint[=o]; in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, is to be found Mr. Satow's +digest of the commentaries of the modern Shint[=o] revivalists; in Mr. +Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki, the text with abundant notes. +See also Mr. Twan-Lin's Account of Japan up to A.D. 1200, by E.H. +Parker. T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I.] + +[Footnote 3: "The various abstractions which figure at the commencement +of the 'Records' (Kojiki) and of the 'Chronicles' (Nihongi) were +probably later growths, and perhaps indeed were inventions of individual +priests."--Kojiki, Introd., p. lxv. See also T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part +I, p. 56. "Thus, not only is this part of the Kojiki pure twaddle, but +it is not even consistent twaddle."] + +[Footnote 4: Kojiki, Section IX.] + +[Footnote 5: Dr. Joseph Edkins, D.D., author of Chinese Buddhism, who +believes that the primeval religious history of men is recoverable, says +in Early Spread of Religious Ideas, Especially in the Far East, p. 29, +"In Japan Amateras[)u], ... in fact, as I suppose, Mithras written in +Japanese, though the Japanese themselves are not aware of this +etymology." Compare Kojiki, Introduction, pp. lxv.-lxvii.] + +[Footnote 6: Kojiki, p. xlii.] + +[Footnote 7: T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 67.] + +[Footnote 8: E. Satow, Revival of Pure Shint[=o], pp. 67-68.] + +[Footnote 9: This curious agreement between the Japanese and other +ethnic traditions in locating "Paradise," the origin of the human family +and of civilization, at the North Pole, has not escaped the attention of +Dr. W.F. Warren, President of Boston University, who makes extended +reference to it in his interesting and suggestive book, Paradise Found: +The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole; A Study of the +Prehistoric World, Boston, 1885.] + +[Footnote 10: The pure Japanese numerals equal in number the fingers; +with the borrowed Chinese terms vast amounts can be expressed.] + +[Footnote 11: This custom was later revived, T.A.S.J., pp. 28, 31. +Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 57; M.E., pp. 156, 238.] + +[Footnote 12: See in Japanese Fairy World, "How the Sun-Goddess was +enticed out of her Cave." For the narrative see Kojiki, pp. 54-59; +T.A.S.J., Vol. II., 128-133.] + +[Footnote 13: See Chomei and Wordsworth, A Literary Parallel, by J.M. +Dixon, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., pp. 193-205; Anthologie Japonaise, by Leon de +Rosny; Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese; Suyemats[)u]'s +Genji Monogatari, London, 1882.] + +[Footnote 14: Oftentimes in studying the ancient rituals, those who +imagine that the word Kami should be in all cases translated gods, will +be surprised to see what puerility, bathos, or grandiloquence, comes out +of an attempt to express a very simple, it may be humiliating, +experience.] + +[Footnote 15: Mythology and Religious Worship of the Japanese, +Westminster Review, July, 1878; Ancient Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J., +Vols. VII., IX.; Esoteric Shint[=o], by Percival Lowell, T.A.S.J, Vol. +XXI.] + +[Footnote 16: Compare Sections IX. and XXIII. of the Kojiki.] + +[Footnote 17: This indeed seems to be the substance of the modern +official expositions of Shint[=o] and the recent Rescripts of the +Emperor, as well as of much popular literature, including the +manifestoes or confessions found on the persons of men who have +"consecrated" themselves as "the instruments of Heaven for punishing the +wicked," i.e., assassinating obnoxious statesmen. See The Ancient +Religion, M.E., pp. 96-100; The Japan Mail, _passim_.] + +[Footnote 18: Revival of Pure Shint[=o], pp. 25-38.] + +[Footnote 19: Japanese Homes, by E.S. Morse, pp. 228-233, note, p. 832.] + +[Footnote 20: Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12.] + +[Footnote 21: Geological Survey of Japan, by Benj. S. Lyman, 1878-9.] + +[Footnote 22: The Shell Mounds of Omori; and The Tokio Times, Jan. 18, +1879, by Edward S. Morse; Japanese Fairy World, pp. I78, 191, 196.] + +[Footnote 23: Kojiki, pp. 60-63.] + +[Footnote 24: S. and H., pp. 58, 337, etc.] + +[Footnote 25: This study in comparative religion by a Japanese, which +cost the learned author his professorship in the Tei-Koku Dai Gaku or +Imperial University (lit. Theocratic Country Great Learning Place), has +had a tendency to chill the ardor of native investigators. His paper was +first published in the Historical Magazine of the University, but the +wide publicity and popular excitement followed only after republication, +with comments by Mr. Taguchi, in the Keizai Zasshi (Economical Journal). +The Shint[=o]ists denounced Professor Kumi for "making our ancient +religion a branch of Christianity," and demanded and secured his +"retirement" by the Government. See Japan Mail, April 2, 1892, p. 440.] + +[Footnote 26: T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., p. 282.] + +[Footnote 27: Kojiki, p. xxviii.] + +[Footnote 28: For the use of salt in modern "Esoteric" Shint[=o], both +in purification and for employment as of salamandrine, see T.A.S.J., pp. +125, 128.] + +[Footnote 29: In the official census of 1893, nine Shint[=o] sects are +named, each of which has its own Kwancho or Presiding Head, recognized +by the government. The sectarian peculiarities of Shint[=o] have been +made the subject of study by very few foreigners. Mr. Satow names the +following: + +The Yui-itsu sect was founded by Toshida Kane-tomo. His signature +appears as the end of a ten-volume edition, issued A.D. 1503, of the +liturgies extracted from the Yengishiki or Book of Ceremonial Law, first +published in the era of Yengi (or En-gi), A.D. 901-922. He is supposed +to be the one who added the _kana_, or common vernacular script letters, +to the Chinese text and thus made the norito accessible to the people. +The little pocket prayer-books, folded in an accordeon-like manner, are +very cheap and popular. The sect is regarded as heretical by strict +Shint[=o]ists, as the system Yuwiitsu consists "mainly of a Buddhist +superstructure on a Shint[=o] foundation." Yoshida applied the tenets of +the Shingon or True Word sect of Buddhists to the understanding and +practice of the ancient god-way. + +The Suiga sect teaches a system which is a combination of Yuwiitsu and +of the modern philosophical form of Confucianism as elaborated by Chu +Hi, and known in Japan as the Tei-shu philosophy. The founder was +Yamazaki Ansai, who was born in 1618 and died in 1682. By combining the +forms of the Yoshida sect, which is based on the Buddhism of the Shingon +sect, with the materialistic philosophy of Chu Hi, he adapted the old +god-way to what he deemed modern needs. + +In the Deguchi sect, the ancient belief is explained by the Chinese Book +of Changes (or Divination). Deguchi Nobuyoshi, the founder, was +god-warden or _kannushi_ of the Geiku or Outer Palace Temple at Ise. He +promulgated his views about the year 1660, basing them upon the book +called Eki by the Japanese and Yi-king by the Chinese. This Yi-king, +which Professor Terrien de Laeouporie declares is only a very ancient +book of pronunciation of comparative Accadian and Chinese Syllabaries, +has been the cause of incredible waste of labor, time, and brains in +China--enough to have diked the Yellow River or drained the swamps of +the Empire. It is the chief basis of Chinese superstition, and the +greatest literary barrier to the advance of civilization. It has also +made much mischief in Japan. Deguchi explained the myths of the age of +the gods by divination or eki, based on the Chinese books. As late as +1893 there was published in T[=o]ki[=o] a work in Japanese, with good +translation info English, on Scientific Morality, or the practical +guidance of life by means of divination--The Takashima Ekidan (or +Monograph on the Eki of Mr. Takashima), by S. Sugiura. + +The Jikko sect, according to its representative at the World's +Parliament of Religions at Chicago, is "the practical." It lays stress +less upon speculation and ritual, and more upon the realization of the +best teachings of Shint[=o]. It was founded by Hasegawa Kakugi[=o], who +was born at Nagasaki in 1541. Living in a cave in Fuji-yama, "he +received inspiration through the miraculous power of the mountain." It +believes in one absolute Deity, often mentioned in the Kojiki, which, +self-originated, took the embodiment of two deities, one with the male +nature and the other female, though these two deities are nothing but +forms of the one substance and unite again in the absolute deity. These +gave birth to the Japanese Archipelago, the sun and moon, the mountains +and streams, the divine ancestors, etc. According to the teachings of +this sect, the peerless mountain, Fuji, ought to be reverenced as the +sacred abode of the divine lord, and as "the brains of the whole globe." +The believer must make Fuji the example and emblem of his thought and +action. He must be plain and simple, as the form of the mountain, making +his body and mind pure and serene, as Fuji itself. The present world +with all its practical works must be respected more than the future +world. We must pray for the long life of the country, lead a life of +temperance and diligence, cooperating with one another in doing good. + + * * * * * + +_Statistics of Shint[=o]ism._ + +From the official Resume Statistique de l'Empire du Japon, 1894. In 1801 +there were nine administrative heads of sects; 75,877 preachers, +priests, and shrine-keepers, with 1,158 male and 228 female students. +There were 163 national temples of superior rank and 136,652 shrines or +temples in cities and prefectures; a total of 193,153, served by 14,700 +persons of the grade of priests. Most of the expenses, apart from +endowments and local contributions, are included in the first item of +the annual Treasury Budget, "Civil List, Appanage and Shint[=o] +Temples."] + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN + + +[Footnote 1: "He was fond of saying that Princeton had never originated +a new idea; but this meant no more than that Princeton was the advocate +of historical Calvinism in opposition to the modified and provincial +Calvinism of a later day."--Francis L. Patton, in Schaff-Herzog +Encyclopaedia, Article on Charles Hodge.] + +[Footnote 2: We use Dr. James Legge's spelling, by whom these classics +have been translated into English. See Sacred Books of the East, edited +by Max Mueller.] + +[Footnote 3: The Canon or Four Classics has a somewhat varied literary +history of transmission, collection, and redaction, as well as of +exposition, and of criticism, both "lower" and "higher." As arranged +under the Han Dynasty (B.C. 206-A.D. 23) it consisted of--I. The +Commentary of Tso Kinming (a disciple who expounded Confucius's book, +The Annals of State of Lu); II. The Commentary of Kuh-liang upon the +same work of Confucius; III. The Old Text of the Book of History; IV. +The Odes, collected by Mao Chang, to whom is ascribed the test of the +Odes as handed down to the present day. The generally accepted +arrangement is that made by the mediaeval schoolmen of the Sung Dynasty +(A.D. 960-1341), Cheng Teh Sio and Chu Hi, in the twelfth century: I. +The Great Learning; II. The Doctrine of the Mean; III. Conversations of +Confucius; IV. The Sayings of Mencius.--C.R.M., pp. 306-309.] + +[Footnote 4: See criticisms of Confucius as an author, in Legge's +Religions of China, pp. 144, 145.] + +[Footnote 5: Religions of China, by James Legge, p. 140.] + +[Footnote 6: See Article China, by the author, Cyclopaedia of Political +Science, Chicago, 1881.] + +[Footnote 7: This subject is critically discussed by Messrs. Satow, +Chamberlain, and others in their writings on Shint[=o] and Japanese +history. On Japanese chronology, see Japanese Chronological Tables, by +William Bramsen, T[=o]ki[=o], 1880, and Dr. David Murray's Japan (p. +95), in the series Story of the Nations, New York.] + +[Footnote 8: The absurd claim made by some Shint[=o]ists that the +Japanese possessed an original native alphabet called the Shingi +(god-letters) before the entrance of the Chinese or Buddhist learning in +Japan, is refuted by Aston, Japanese Grammar, p. 1; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., +Appendix, p. 77. Mr. Satow shows "their unmistakable identity with the +Corean alphabet."] + +[Footnote 9: For the life, work, and tombs of the Chinese scholars who +fled to Japan on the fall of the Ming Dynasty, see M.E., p. 298; and +Professor E.W. Clement's paper on The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., and his letters in The Japan Mail.] + +[Footnote 10: "We have consecrated ourselves as the instruments of +Heaven for punishing the wicked man,"--from the document submitted to +the Yedo authorities, by the assassins of Ii Kamon no Kami, in Yedo, +March 23, 1861, and signed by seventeen men of the band. For numerous +other instances, see the voluminous literature of the Forty-seven +R[=o]nins, and the Meiji political literature (1868-1893), political and +historical documents, assassins' confessions, etc., contained in that +thesarus of valuable documents, The Japan Mail; Kinse Shiriaku, or Brief +History of Japan, 1853-1869, Yokohama, 1873, and Nihon Guaishi, +translated by Mr. Ernest Satow; Adams's History of Japan; T.A.S.J., Vol. +XX., p. 145; Life and Letters of Yokoi Heishiro; Life of Sir Harry +Parkes, London, 1893, etc., for proof of this assertion.] + +[Footnote 11: For proof of this, as to vocabulary, see Professor B.H. +Chamberlain's Grammars and other philological works; Mr. J.H. Gubbins's +Dictionary of Chinese-Japanese Words, with Introduction, three vols., +T[=o]ki[=o] 1892; and for change in structure, Rev. C. Munzinger, on The +Psychology of the Japanese Language in the Transactions of the Gorman +Asiatic Society of Japan. See also Mental Characteristics of the +Japanese, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIX., pp. 17-37.] + +[Footnote 12: See The Ghost of Sakura, in Mitfoid's Tales of Old Japan, +Vol. II, p. 17.] + +[Footnote 13: M.E., 277-280. See an able analysis of Japanese feudal +society, by M.F. Dickins, Life of Sir Harry Parkes, pp. 8-13; M.E., pp. +277-283.] + +[Footnote 14: This subject is discussed in Professor Chamberlain's +works; Mr. Percival Lowell's The Soul of the Far East; Dr. M.L. Gordon's +An American Missionary in Japan; Dr. J.H. De Forest's The Influence of +Pantheism, in The Japan Evangelist, 1894.] + +[Footnote 15: T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., p. 96.] + +[Footnote 16: The Forty Seven-R[=o]nins, Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I.; +Chiushiugura, by F.V. Dickens; The Loyal R[=o]nins, by Edward Greey; +Chiushiugura, translated by Enouye.] + +[Footnote 17: See Dr. J.H. De Forest's article in the Andover Review, +May, June, 1893, p. 309. For details and instances, see the Japanese +histories, novels, and dramas; M.E.; Rein's Japan; S. and H.; T.A.S.J., +etc. Life of Sir Harry Parkes, p. 11 _et passim_.] + +[Footnote 18: M.E. pp. 180-192, 419. For the origin and meaning of +hara-kiri, see T.J., pp. 199-201; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., +Appendix; Adams's History of Japan, story of Shimadz[)u].] + +[Footnote 19: M.E., p. 133.] + +[Footnote 20: For light upon the status of the Japanese family, see F.O. +Adams's History of Japan, Vol. II., p. 384; Kinse Shiriaku, p. 137; +Naomi Tamura, The Japanese Bride, New York, 1893; E.H. House, Yone +Santo, A Child of Japan, Chicago, 1888; Japanese Girls and Women, by +Miss A.M. Bacon, Boston, 1891; T.J., Article Woman, and in Index, +Adoption, Children, etc.; M.E., 1st ed., p. 585; Marriage in Japan, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 114; and papers in the German Asiatic Society +of Japan.] + +[Footnote 21: See Mr. F.W. Eastlake's papers in the Popular Science +Monthly.] + +[Footnote 22: See Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II, pp. 181-182. "It is +to be feared, however, that this reform [of the Yoshiwara system], like +many others in Japan, never got beyond paper, for Mr. Norman in his +recent book, The Real Japan [Chap. XII.], describes a scarcely modified +system in full vigor." See also Japanese Girls and Women, pp. 289-292.] + +[Footnote 23: See Pung Kwang Yu's paper, read at the Parliament of +Religions in Chicago, and The Chinese as Painted by Themselves, by +Colonel Tcheng-Ki-Tong, New York and London, 1885. Dr. W.A.P. Martin's +scholarly book, The Chinese, New York, 1881, in the chapter Remarks on +the Ethical Philosophy of the Chinese, gives in English and Chinese a +Chart of Chinese Ethics in which the whole scheme of philosophy, ethics, +and self-culture is set forth.] + +[Footnote 24: See an exceedingly clear, able, and accurate article on +The Ethics of Confucius as Seen in Japan, by the veteran scholar, Rev. +J.H. De Forest, The Andover Review, May, June, 1893. He is the authority +for the statements concerning non-attendance (in Old Japan) of the +husband at the wife's, and older brother at younger brother's funeral.] + +[Footnote 25: A Japanese translation of Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures, +in a T[=o]ki[=o] morning newspaper "met with instant and universal +approval," showing that Douglas Jerrold's world-famous character has her +counterpart in Japan, where, as a Japanese proverb declares, "the tongue +three inches long can kill a man six feet high." Sir Edwin Arnold and +Mr. E.H. House, in various writings, have idealized the admirable traits +of the Japanese woman. See also Mr. Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses of +Unfamiliar Japan, Boston, 1894; and papers (The Eternal Feminine, etc.), +in the Atlantic Monthly.] + +[Footnote 26: Summary of the Japanese Penal Codes, T.A.S.J., Vol. V., +Part II.; The Penal Code of Japan, and The Code of Criminal Procedure of +Japan, Yokohama.] + +[Footnote 27: See T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 114; the Chapter on Marriage +and Divorce, in Japanese Girls and Women, pp. 57-84. The following +figures are from the Resume Statistique de L'Empire du Japon, published +annually by the Imperial Government: + + MARRIAGES. DIVORCES. + Number. Per 1,000 Number. Per 1,000 + Persons. Persons. + +1887....334,149 8.55 110,859 2.84 +1888....330,246 8.34 109,175 2.76 +1889....340,445 8.50 107,458 2.68 +1890....325,141 8.04 197,088 2.70 +1891....352,051 8.00 112,411 2.76 +1892....348,489 8.48 113,498 2.76 +] + +[Footnote 28: This was strikingly brought out in the hundreds of English +compositions (written by students of the Imperial University, 1872-74, +describing the home or individual life of students), examined and read +by the author.] + +[Footnote 29: Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto--Heauton +Tomoroumenos, Act--, Scene 1, line 25, where Chremes inquires about his +neighbor's affairs. For the golden rule of Jesus and the silver rule of +Confucius, see Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese.] + +[Footnote 30: "What you do not want done to yourselves, do not do to +others." Legge, The Religions of China, p. 137; Doolittle's Social Life +of the Chinese; The Testament of Iyeyas[)u];, Cap. LXXI., translated by +J.C. Lowder, Yokohama, 1874.] + +[Footnote 31: Die politische Bedeutung der amerikanischer Expedition +nach Japan, 1852, by Tetsutaro Yoshida, Heidelberg, 1893; The United +States and Japan (p. 39), by Inazo Nitobe, Baltimore, 1891; Matthew +Calbraith Perry, Chap. XXVIII.; T.J., Article Perry; Life and Letters of +S. Wells Williams, New York, 1889.] + +[Footnote 32: See Life of Matthew Calbraith Perry, pp. 363, 364.] + +[Footnote 33: Lee's Jerusalem Illustrated, p. 88.] + + +CHAPTER V + +CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM + + +[Footnote 1: See On the Early History of Printing in Japan, by E.M. +Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. X., pp. 1-83, 252-259; The Jesuit Mission Press in +Japan, by E.M. Satow (privately printed, 1888), and Review of this +monograph by Professor B.H. Chamberlain, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. +91-100.] + +[Footnote 2: The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, by Ernest W. Clement, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., pp. 1-24, and Letters in The Japan Mail, 1889.] + +[Footnote 3: Effect of Buddhism on the Philosophy of the Sung Dynasty, +p. 318, Chinese Buddhism, by Rev. J. Edkins, Boston, 1880.] + +[Footnote 4: C.R.M., p. 200; The Middle Kingdom, by S. Wells Williams, +Vol. II., p. 174.] + +[Footnote 5: C.R.M., p. 34. He was the boy-hero, who smashed with a +stone the precious water-vase in order to save from drowning a playmate +who had tumbled in, so often represented in Chinese popular art.] + +[Footnote 6: C.R.M., pp. 25-26; The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., pp. 113, +540, 652-654, 677.] + +[Footnote 7: This decade in Chinese history was astonishingly like that +of the United States from 1884 to 1894, in which the economical theories +advocated in certain journals, in the books Progress and Poverty, +Looking Backward, and by the Populists, have been so widely read and +discussed, and the attempts made to put them into practice. The Chinese +theorist of the eleventh century, Wang Ngan-shih was "a poet and author +of rare genius."--C.R.M., p. 244.] + +[Footnote 8: John xxi. 25.] + +[Footnote 9: This is the opinion of no less capable judges than Dr. +George Wm. Knox and Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain.] + +[Footnote 10: The United States and Japan, pp. 25-27; Life of Takano +Choyei by Kato Sakaye, T[=o]ki[=o], 1888.] + +[Footnote 11: Note on Japanese Schools of Philosophy, by T. Haga, and +papers by Dr. G.W. Knox, Dr. T. Inoue, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX, Part I.] + +[Footnote 12: A religion, surely, with men like Yokoi Heishiro.] + +[Footnote 13: See pp. 110-113.] + +[Footnote 14: _Kinno_--loyalty to the Emperor; T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. +147.] + +[Footnote 15: "Originally recognizing the existence of a Supreme +personal Deity, it [Confucianism] has degenerated into a pantheistic +medley, and renders worship to an impersonal _anima mundi_ under the +leading forms of visible nature."--Dr. W.A.P. Martin's The Chinese, p. +108.] + +[Footnote 16: Ki, Ri, and Ten, Dr. George Wm. Knox, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., +pp. 155-177.] + +[Footnote 17: T.J., p. 94.] + +[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 156.] + +[Footnote 19: Matthew Calbraith Perry, p. 373; Japanese Life of Yoshida +Shoin, by Tokutomi, T[=o]ki[=o], 1894; Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. +II., p. 83.] + +[Footnote 20: "The Chinese accept Confucius in every detail, both as +taught by Confucius and by his disciples.... The Japanese recognize both +religions [Buddhism and Confucianism] equally, but Confucianism in Japan +has a direct bearing upon everything relating to human affairs, +especially the extreme loyalty of the people to the emperor, while the +Koreans consider it more useful in social matters than in any other +department of life, and hardly consider its precepts in their business +and mercantile relations." + +"Although Confucianism is counted a religion, it is really a system of +sociology.... Confucius was a moralist and statesman, and his disciples +are moralists and economists."--Education in Korea, by Mr. Pom K. Soh, +of the Korean Embassy to the United States; Report of U.S. Commissioner +of Education, 1890-91, Vol. I., pp. 345-346.] + +[Footnote 21: In Bakin, who is the great teacher of the Japanese by +means, of fiction, this is the idea always inculcated.] + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA + + +[Footnote 1: See his Introduction to the Saddharma Pundarika, Sacred +Books of the East, and his Buddhismus.] + +[Footnote 2: Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Buddhism; +Non-Christian Religious Systems--Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 3: The sketch of Indian thought here following is digested +from material obtained from various works on Buddhism and from the +Histories of India. See the excellent monograph of Romesh Chunder Dutt, +in Epochs of Indian History, London and New York, 1893; and Outlines of +The Mahayana, as Taught by Buddha ("for circulation among the members of +the Parliament of Religions," and distributed in Chicago), Toki[=o], +1893.] + +[Footnote 4: Dyaus-Pitar, afterward _zeus pater_. See Century +Dictionary, Jupiter.] + +[Footnote 5: Yoga is the root form of our word yoke, which at once +suggests the union of two in one. See Yoga, in The Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 6: Dutt's History of India.] + +[Footnote 7: The differences between the simple primitive narrative of +Gautama's experiences in attaining Buddhahood, and the richly +embroidered story current in later ages, may be seen by reading, first, +Atkinson's Prince Sidartha, the Japanese Buddha, and then Arnold's Light +of Asia. See also S. and H., Introduction, pp. 70-84, etc. Atkinson's +book is refreshing reading after the expurgation and sublimation of the +same theme in Sir Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia.] + +[Footnote 8: Romesh Chunder Dutt's Ancient India, p. 100.] + +[Footnote 9: Origin and Growth of Religion by T. Rhys Davids, p. 28.] + +[Footnote 10: Job i. 6, Hebrew.] + +[Footnote 11: Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 29.] + +[Footnote 12: "Buddhism so far from tracing 'all things' to 'matter' as +their original, denies the reality of matter, but it nowhere denies the +reality of existence."--The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 156.] + +[Footnote 13: See A Year among the Persians, by Edward G. Browne, +London, 1893.] + +[Footnote 14: Dutt's History of India, pp. 153-156. See also Mozoomdar's +The Spirit of God, p. 305. "Buddhism, though for a long time it +supplanted the parent system, was the fulfilment of the prophecy of +universal peace, which Hinduism had made; and when, in its turn, it was +outgrown by the instincts of the Aryans, it had to leave India indeed +forever, but it contributed quite as much to Indian religion as it had +ever borrowed."] + +[Footnote 15: Korean Repository, Vol. I., pp. 101, 131, 153; Siebold's +Nippon, Archiv; Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1890-91, +Vol. I., p. 346; Dallet's Histoire de l'Eglise de Coree, Vol. 1., +Introd., p. cxlv.; Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 331.] + +[Footnote 16: See Brian H. Hodgson's The Literature and History of the +Buddhists, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which is +epitomized in The Phoenix, Vol. I.; Beal's Buddhism in China, Chap. II.; +T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, etc. To Brian Houghton Hodgson, (of whose +death at the ripe age of ninety-three years we read in Luzac's Oriental +List) more than to any one writer, are we indebted for our knowledge of +Northern or Mahayana Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 17: See the very accurate, clear, and full definitions and +explanations in The Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 18: This subject is fully discussed by Professor T. Rhys +Davids in his compact Manual of Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 19: See Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 20: Jap. Mon-ju. One of the most famous images of this +Bodhisattva is at Zenko-ji, Nagano. See Kern's Saddharma Pundarika, p. +8, and the many referents to Manjusri in the Index. That Manjusri was +the legendary civilizer of Nepaul seems probable from the following +extract from Brian Hodgson: "The Swayambhu Purana relates in substance +as follows: That formerly the valley of Nepaul was of circular form, and +full of very deep water, and that the mountains confining it were +clothed with the densest forests, giving shelter to numberless birds and +beasts. Countless waterfowl rejoiced in the waters.... + +"... Vipasyi, having thrice circumambulated the lake, seated himself in +the N.W. (Vayubona) side of it, and, having repeated several mantras +over the root of a lotos, he threw it into the water, exclaiming, 'What +time this root shall produce a flower, then, from out of the flower, +Swayambhu, the Lord of Agnishtha Bhuvana, shall be revealed in the form +of flame; and then shall the lake become a cultivated and populous +country.' Having repeated these words, Vipasyi departed. Long after the +date of this prophecy, it was fulfilled according to the letter.... + +"... When the lake was dessicated (by the sword of Manjusri says the +myth--probably earthquake) Karkotaka had a fine tank built for him to +dwell in; and there he is still worshipped, also in the cave-temple +appendant to the great Buddhist shrine of Swayambhu Nath.... + +"... The Bodhisatwa above alluded to is Manju Sri, whose native place is +very far off, towards the north, and is called Pancha Sirsha Parvata +(which is situated in Maha China Des). After the coming of Viswabhu +Buddha to Naga Vasa, Manju Sri, meditating upon what was passing in the +world, discovered by means of his divine science that +Swayambhu-jyotirupa, that is, the self-existent, in the form of flame, +was revealed out of a lotos in the lake of Naga Vasa. Again, he +reflected within himself: 'Let me behold that sacred spot, and my name +will long be celebrated in the world;' and on the instant, collecting +together his disciples, comprising a multitude of the peasantry of the +land, and a Raja named Dharmakar, he assumed the form of Viswakarma, and +with his two Devis (wives) and the persons above-mentioned, set out upon +the long journey from Sirsha Parvata to Naga Vasa. There having arrived, +and having made puja to the self-existent, he began to circumambulate +the lake, beseeching all the while the aid of Swayambhu in prayer. In +the second circuit, when he had reached the central barrier mountain to +the south, he became satisfied that that was the best place whereat to +draw off the waters of the lake. Immediately he struck the mountain with +his scimitar, when the sundered rock gave passage to the waters, and the +bottom of the lake became dry. He then descended from the mountain, and +began to walk about the valley in all directions."--The Phoenix, Vol. +II., pp. 147-148.] + +[Footnote 21: Jap. Kwannon, god or goddess of mercy, in his or her +manifold forms, Thousand-handed, Eleven-faced, Horse-headed, Holy, etc.] + +[Footnote 22: Or, The Lotus of the Good Law, a mystical name for the +cosmos. "The good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric." See Bernouf +and Kern's translations, and Edkin's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 214. +Translations of this work, so influential in Japanese Buddhism, exist in +French, German, and English. See Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXI., by +Professor H. Kern, of Leyden University. In the Introduction, p. xxxix., +the translator discusses age, authorship, editions, etc. Bunyiu Nanjio's +Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, pp. 132-134. Beal +in his Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, pp. 389-396, has translated +Chapter XXIV.] + +[Footnote 23: At the great Zenk[=o]ji, a temple of the Tendai sect, at +Nagano, Japan, dedicated to three Buddhist divinities, one of whom is +Kwannon (Avalokitesvara, the rafters of the vast main hall are said to +number 69,384, in reference to the number of Chinese characters +contained in the translation of the Saddharma Pundarika.] + +[Footnote 24: "The third (collection of the Tripitaka) was ... made by +Manjusri and Maitreya. This is the collection of the Mahayana books. +Though it is as clear or bright as the sun at midday yet the men of the +Hinayana are not ashamed of their inability to know them and speak evil +of them instead, just as the Confucianists call Buddhism a law of +barbarians, without reading the Buddhist books at all."--B.N., p. 51.] + +[Footnote 25: See the writings of Brian Hodgson, J. Edkins, E.J. Eitel, +S. Beal, T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.] + +[Footnote 26: See Chapter VIII. in T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, a book of +great scholarship and marvellous condensation.] + +[Footnote 27: Davids's Buddhism, p. 206. Other illustrations of the +growth of the dogmas of this school of Buddhism we select from Brian +Hodgson's writings. + +1. The line of division between God and man, and between gods and man, +was removed by Buddhism. + +"Genuine Buddhism never seems to contemplate any measures of acceptance +with the deity; but, overleaping the barrier between finite and infinite +mind, urges its followers to aspire by their own efforts to that divine +perfectibility of which it teaches that man is capable, and by attaining +which man becomes God--and thus is explained both the quiescence of the +imaginary celestial, and the plenary omnipotence of the real Manushi +Buddhas--thus, too, we must account for the fact that genuine Buddhism +has no priesthood; the saint despises the priest; the saint scorns the +aid of mediators, whether on earth or in heaven; 'conquer (exclaims the +adept or Buddha to the novice or BodhiSattwa)--conquer the importunities +of the body, urge your mind to the meditation of abstraction, and you +shall, in time, discover the great secret (Sunyata) of nature: know +this, and you become, on the instant, whatever priests have feigned of +Godhead--you become identified with Prajna, the sum of all the power and +all the wisdom which sustain and govern the world, and which, as they +are manifested out of matter, must belong solely to matter; not indeed +in the gross and palpable state of pravritti, but in the archetypal and +pure state of nirvritti. Put off, therefore, the vile, pravrittika +necessities of the body, and the no less vile affections of the mind +(Tapas); urge your thought into pure abstraction (Dhyana), and then, as +assuredly you can, so assuredly you shall, attain to the wisdom of a +Buddha (Bodhijnana), and become associated with the eternal unity and +rest of nirvritti.'"--The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 194. + +2. A specimen of "esoteric" and "exoteric" Buddhism;--the Buddha +Tatkagata. + +"And as the wisdom of man is, in its origin, but an effluence of the +Supreme wisdom (_Prajna_) of nature, so is it perfected by a refluence +to its source, but without loss of individuality; whence Prajna is +feigned in the exoteric system to be both the mother and the wife of all +the Buddhas, '_janani sarva Buddkanam_,' and '_Jina-sundary_;' for the +efflux is typified by a birth, and the reflux by a marriage. + +"The Buddha is the adept in the wisdom of Buddhism (_Bodhijnana_) whose +first duty, so long as he remains on earth, is to communicate his wisdom +to those who are willing to receive it. These willing learners are the +'Bodhisattwas,' so called from their hearts being inclined to the wisdom +of Buddhism, and 'Sanghas,' from their companionship with one another, +and with their Buddha or teacher, in the _Viharas_ or coenobitical +establishments." + +"And such is the esoteric interpretation of the third (and inferior) +member of the Prajniki Triad. The Bodhisattwa or Sangha continues to be +such until he has surmounted the very last grade of that vast and +laborious ascent by which he is instructed that he can 'scale the +heavens,' and pluck immortal wisdom from its resplendent source: which +achievement performed, he becomes a Buddha, that is, an Omniscient +Being, and a _Tathagata_--a title implying the accomplishment of that +gradual increase in wisdom by which man becomes immortal or ceases to be +subject to transmigration."--The Phoenix, Vol. I., pp. 194, 195. + +3. Is God all, or is all God? + +"What that grand secret, that ultimate truth, that single reality, is, +whether all is God, or God is all, seems to be the sole _proposition_ of +the oriental philosophic religionists, who have all alike sought to +discover it by taking the high _priori_ road. That God is all, appears +to be the prevalent dogmatic determination of the Brahmanists; that all +is God, the preferential but sceptical solution of the _Buddhists_; and, +in a large view, I believe it would be difficult to indicate any further +essential difference between their theoretic systems, both, as I +conceive, the unquestionable growth of the Indian soil, and both founded +upon transcendental speculation, conducted in the very same style and +manner."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 45. + +4. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. + +"In a philosophical light, the precedence of Buddha or of Dharma +indicates the theistic or atheistic school. With the former, Buddha is +intellectual essence, the efficient cause of all, and underived. Dharma +is material essence, the plastic cause, and underived, a co-equal +biunity with Buddha; or else the plastic cause, as before, but dependent +and derived from Buddha. Sangha is derived from, and compounded of, +Buddha, and Dharma, is their collective energy in the state of action; +the immediate operative cause of creation, its type or its agent. With +the latter or atheistic schools, Dharma is _Diva natura_, matter as the +sole entity, invested with intrinsic activity and intelligence, the +efficient and material cause of all. + +"Buddha is derivative from Dharma, is the active and intelligent force +of nature, first put off from it and then operating upon it. Sangha is +the _result_ of that operation; is embryotic creation, the type and sum +of all specific forms, which are spontaneously evolved from the union of +Buddha with Dharma."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 12. + +5. The mantra or sacred sentence best known in the Buddhadom and abroad. + +"_Amitabha_ is the fourth _Dhyani_ or celestial _Budda: Padma-pani_ his +_AEon_ and executive minister. _Padma-pani_ is the _praesens Divus_ and +creator of the _existing_ system of worlds. Hence his identification +with the third member of the _Triad_. He is figured as a graceful youth, +erect, and bearing in either hand a _lotos_ and a jewel. The last +circumstance explains the meaning of the celebrated _Shadakshari +Mantra_, or six-lettered invocation of him, viz., _Om! Manipadme hom!_ +of which so many corrupt versions and more corrupt interpretations have +appeared from Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, and other sources. The +_mantra_ in question is one of three, addressed to the several members +of the _Triad_. 1. _Om sarva vidye hom_. 2. _Om Prajnaye hom_. 3. _Om +mani-padme hom_. 1. The mystic triform Deity is in the all-wise +(Buddha). 2. The mystic triform Deity is in Prajna (Dharma). 3. The +mystic triform Deity is in him of the jewel and lotos (Sangha). But the +praesens Divus, whether he be Augustus or _Padma-pani_, is everything +with the many. Hence the notoriety of this _mantra_, whilst the others +are hardly ever heard of, and have thus remained unknown to our +travellers."--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 64.] + +[Footnote 28: "Nine centuries after Buddha, Maitreya (Miroku or Ji-shi) +came down from the Tushita heaven to the lecture-hall in the kingdom of +Ayodhya (A-ya-sha) in Central India, at the request of the Bodhisattva +Asamga (Mu-jaku) and discoursed five Sastras, 1, Yoga-karya-bhumi-sastra +(Yu-ga-shi-ji-ron), etc.... After that, the two great Sastra teachers, +Asanga and Vasubandhu (Se-shin), who were brothers, composed many +Sastras (Ron) and cleared up the meaning of the Mahayana" (or Greater +Vehicle, canon of Northern Buddhism).--B.N., p. 32.] + +[Footnote 29: Buddhism, T. Rhys Davids, pp. 206-211.] + +[Footnote 30: Prayer-wheels in Japan are used by the Tendai and Shingon +sects, but without written prayers attached, and rather as an +illustration of the doctrine of cause and effect (ingwa); the prayers +being usually offered to Jizo the merciful.--S. and H., p. 29; T. J., p. +360.] + +[Footnote 31: For this see Edkins's Chinese Buddhism; Eitel's Three +Lectures, and Hand-book; Rev. S. Beal's Buddhism, and A Catena of +Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese; The Romantic Legend of Sakya +Buddha, from the Chinese; Texts from the Buddhist canon commonly known +as the Dhammapeda; Notes on Buddhist Words and Phrases, the +Chrysanthemum, Vol. I.; The Phoenix, Vols. I-III. + +See, also, a spirited sketch of Ancient Japan, by Frederick Victor +Dickins, in the Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II., pp. 4-14.] + +[Footnote 32: S. and H., pp. 289, 293; Chamberlain's Hand-book for +Japan, p. 220; Summer's Notes on Osaka, T.A.S.J., Vol. VIL, p. 382; +Buddhism, and Traditions Concerning its Introduction into Japan, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XIV., p. 78.] + +[Footnote 33: S. and H., p. 344.] + +[Footnote 34: T.J., p. 73.] + +[Footnote 35: Vairokana is the first or chief of the five +personifications of Wisdom, and in Japan the idol is especially +noticeable in the temples of the Tendai sect.--"The Action of Vairokana, +or the great doctrine of the highest vehicle of the secret union," etc., +B.N., p. 75.] + +[Footnote 36: S. and H., p. 390; B.N., p. 29.] + +[Footnote 37: "Hinduism stands for philosophic spirituality and emotion, +Buddhism for ethics and humanity, Christianity for fulness of God's +incarnation in man, while Mohammedanism is the champion of +uncompromising monotheism."--F.P.C. Mozoomdar's The Spirit of God, +Boston, 1894, p. 305.] + + +CHAPTER VII + +RIY[=O]BU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM + + +[Footnote 1: Is not something similar frankly attempted in Rev. Dr. +Joseph Edkins's The Early Spread of Religious Ideas in the Far East +(London, 1893)?] + +[Footnote 2: M.E., p. 252; Honda the Samurai, pp. 193-194.] + +[Footnote 3: See The Lily Among Thorns, A Study of the Biblical Drama +Entitled the Song of Songs (Boston 1890), in which this subject is +glanced at.] + +[Footnote 4: See The Religion of Nepaul, Buddhist Philosophy, and the +writings of Brian Hodgson in The Phoenix, Vols. I., II., III.] + +[Footnote 5: See Century Dictionary, Yoga; Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, +pp. 169-174; T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, pp. 206-211; Index of B.N., +under Vagrasattwa; S. and H., pp. 85-87.] + +[Footnote 6: T.J., p. 226; Kojiki, Introduction.] + +[Footnote 7: See in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1893, a +very valuable paper by Mr. L.A. Waddell, on The Northern Buddhist +Mythology, epitomized in the Japan Mail, May 5, 1894.] + +[Footnote 8: See Catalogue of Chinese and Japanese Paintings in the +British Museum, and The Pictorial Arts of Japan, by William Anderson, +M.D.] + +[Footnote 9: Anderson's Catalogue, p. 24.] + +[Footnote 10: S. and H., p. 415; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan; +T.J.; M.E., p. 162, etc.] + +[Footnote 11: The names of Buddhist priests and monks are usually +different from those of the laity, being taken from events in the life +of Gautama, or his original disciples, passages in the sacred classics, +etc. Among some personal acquaintances in the Japanese priesthood were +such names as Lift-the-Kettle, Take-Hold-of-the-Dipper, +Drivelling-Drunkard, etc. In the raciness, oddity, literalness, realism, +and close connection of their names with the scriptures of their system, +the Buddhists quite equal the British Puritans.] + +[Footnote 12: Kern's Saddharma-Pundarika, pp. 311, 314; Davids's +Buddhism p. 208; The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 169; S. and H., p. 502; Du +Bose's Dragon, Demon, and Image, p. 407; Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 134; +Hough's Corean Collections, Washington, 1893, p. 480, plate xxviii.] + +[Footnote 13: Japan in History, Folk-lore and Art, pp. 86, 80-88; A +Japanese Grammar, by J.J. Hoffman, p. 10; T.J., pp. 465-470.] + +[Footnote 14: This is the essence of Buddhism, and was for centuries +repeated and learned by heart throughout the empire: + + "Love and enjoyment disappear, + What in our world endureth here? + E'en should this day it oblivion be rolled, + 'Twas only a vision that leaves me cold." +] + +[Footnote 15: This legend suggests the mediaeval Jewish story, that +Ezra, the scribe, could write with five pens at once; Hearn's Glimpses +of Unfamiliar Japan, pp. 29-33.] + +[Footnote 16: Brave Little Holland, and What She Taught Us, p. 124.] + +[Footnote 17: T.J., pp. 75, 342; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. +41; M.E., p. 162.] + +[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 101; S. and H., p. 176.] + +[Footnote 19: It was for lifting with his walking-stick the curtain +hanging before the shrine of this Kami that Arinori Mori, formerly +H.I.J.M. Minister at Washington and London, was assassinated by a +Shint[=o] fanatic, February 11, 1889; T. J., p. 229; see Percival +Lowell's paper in the Atlantic Monthly.] + +[Footnote 20: See Mr. P. Lowell's Esoteric Shint[=o], T.A.S.J., Vol. +XXI, pp. 165-167, and his "Occult Japan."] + +[Footnote 21: S. and H., Japan, p. 83.] + +[Footnote 22: See the Author's Introduction to the Arabian Nights' +Entertainments, Boston, 1891.] + +[Footnote 23: B.N., Index and pp. 78-103; Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, p. +169.] + +[Footnote 24: Satow's or Chamberlain's Guide-books furnish hundreds of +other instances, and describe temples in which the renamed kami are +worshipped.] + +[Footnote 25: S. and H., p. 70.] + +[Footnote 26: M.E., pp. 187, 188; S. and H., pp. 11, 12.] + +[Footnote 27: San Kai Ri (Mountain, Sea, and Land). This work, +recommended to me by a learned Buddhist priest in Fukui, I had +translated and read to me by a Buddhist of the Shin Shu sect. In like +manner, even Christian writers in Japan have occasionally endeavored to +rationalize the legends of Shint[=o], see Kojiki, p. liii., where Mr. T. +Goro's Shint[=o] Shin-ron is referred to. I have to thank my friend Mr. +C. Watanabe, of Cornell University, for reading to me Mr. Takahashi's +interesting but unconvincing monographs on Shint[=o] and Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 28: T.J., p. 402; Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio Hearn, p. +129.] + +[Footnote 29: S. and H., Japan, p. 397; Classical Poetry of the +Japanese, p. 201, note.] + +[Footnote 30: The Japanese word Ry[=o] means both, and is applied to the +eyes, ears, feet, things correspondent or in pairs, etc.; _bu_ is a term +for a set, kind, group, etc.] + +[Footnote 31: Rein, p. 432; T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., pp. 241-270; T.J., p. +339.] + +[Footnote 32: The Chrysanthemum, Vol. I., p. 401.] + +[Footnote 33: Even the Taketori Monogatari (The Bamboo Cutter's +Daughter), the oldest and the best of the Japanese classic romances is +(at least in the text and form now extant) a warp of native ideas with a +woof of Buddhist notions.] + +[Footnote 34: Mr. Percival Lowell argues, in Esoteric Shint[=o], +T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., that besides the habit of pilgrimages, +fire-walking, and god-possession, other practices supposed to be +Buddhistic are of Shint[=o] origin.] + +[Footnote 35: The native literature illustrating Riy[=o]buism is not +extensive. Mr. Ernest Satow in the American Cyclopaedia (Japan: +Literature) mentions several volumes. The Tenchi Reiki Noko, in eighteen +books contains a mixture of Buddhism and Shint[=o], and is ascribed by +some to Sh[=o]toku and by others to K[=o]b[=o], but now literary critics +ascribe these, as well as the books Jimbetsuki and Tenshoki, to be +modern forgeries by Buddhist priests. The Kogoshiui, written in A.D. +807, professes to preserve fragments of ancient tradition not recorded +in the earlier books, but the main object is that which lies at the +basis of a vast mass of Japanese literature, namely, to prove the +author's own descent from the gods. The Yuiitsu Shint[=o] Miyoho Yoshiu, +in two volumes, is designed to prove that Shint[=o] and Buddhism are +identical in their essence. Indeed, almost all the treatises on +Shint[=o] before the seventeenth century maintained this view. Certain +books like the Shint[=o] Shu, for centuries popular, and well received +even by scholars, are now condemned on account of their confusion of the +two religions. One of the most interesting works which we have found is +the San Kai Ri, to which reference has been made.] + +[Footnote 36: T.J., p. 224.] + +[Footnote 37: "Human life is but fifty years," Japanese Proverb; M.E., +p. 107.] + +[Footnote 38: Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese, p. 130.] + +[Footnote 39: S. and H., p. 416.] + +[Footnote 40: Things Chinese, by J. Dyer Ball, p. 70; see also Edkins +and Eitel.] + +[Footnote 41: The Japan Weekly Mail of April 28, 1893, translating and +condensing an article from the Bukky[=o], a Buddhist newspaper, gives +the results of a Japanese Buddhist student's tour through China--"Taoism +prevails everywhere.... Buddhism has decayed and is almost dead."] + +[Footnote 42: Vaisramana is a Deva who guarded, praised, fed with +heavenly food, and answered the questions of the Chinese D[=o]-sen +(608-907 A.D.) who founded the Risshu or Vinaya sect.--B.N., p. 25.] + +[Footnote 43: Anderson, Catalogue, pp. 29-45.] + +[Footnote 44: Some of those are pictured in Aime Humbert's Japon +Illustre, and from the same pictures reproduced by electro-plates which, +from Paris, have transmigrated for a whole generation through the +cheaper books on Japan, in every European language.] + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NORTHERN BUDDHISM IS ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS + + +[Footnote 1: On the Buddhist canon, see the writings of Beal, Spence +Hardy, T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.] + +[Footnote 2: Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 108, 214; Classical +Poetry of the Japanese, p. 173.] + +[Footnote 3: See T.A.S.J., Vol. XIX., Part I., pp. 17-37; The Soul of +the Far East; and the writings of Chamberlain, Aston, Dickins, +Munzinger, etc.] + +[Footnote 4: Much of the information as to history and doctrine +contained in this chapter has been condensed from Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio's A +Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, translated out of +the Japanese into English. This author, besides visiting the old seats +of the faith in China, studied Sanskrit at Oxford with Professor Max +Mueller, and catalogued in English the Tripitaka or Buddhist canon of +China and Japan, sent to England by the ambassador Iwakura. The nine +reverend gentlemen who wrote the chapters and introduction of the Short +History are Messrs. K[=o]-ch[=o] Ogurusu, and Shu-Zan Emura of the Shin +sect; Rev. Messrs. Sh[=o]-hen Ueda, and Dai-ryo Takashi, of the Shin-gon +Sect; Rev. Messrs. Gy[=o]-kai Fukuda, Keu-k[=o] Tsuji, Renj[=o] +Akamatsu, and Ze-jun Kobayashi of the J[=o]-d[=o], Zen, Shin, and +Nichiren sects, respectively. Though execrably printed, and the English +only tolerable, the work is invaluable to the student of Japanese +Buddhism. It has a historical introduction and a Sanskrit-Chinese Index, +1 vol., pp. 172, T[=o]ki[=o], 1887. Substantially the same work, +translated into French, is Le Bouddhisme Japonais, by Ryauon Fujishima, +Paris, 1889. Satow and Hawes's Hand-book for Japan has brief but +valuable notes in the Introduction, and, like Chamberlain's continuation +of the same work, is a storehouse of illustrative matter. Edkine's and +Eitel's works on Chinese Buddhism have been very helpful.] + +[Footnote 5: M. Abel Remusat published a translation of a Chinese +Pilgrim's travels in 1836; M. Stanislais Julien completed his volume on +Hiouen Thsang in 1858; and in 1884 Rev. Samuel Beal issued his Travels +of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist Pilgrims from China to India (400 +A.D. and 518 A.D.). The latter work contains a map.] + +[Footnote 6: B.N., p. 3.] + +[Footnote 7: B.N., p. 11.] + +[Footnote 8: Three hundred and twenty million years. See Century +Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 9: See the paper of Rev. Sh[=o]-hen Ueda of the Shingon sect, +in B.N., pp. 20-31; and R. Fujishima's Le Bouddhisme Japonais, pp. xvi., +xvii., from which most of the information here given has been derived.] + +[Footnote 10: M.E., p. 383; S. and H., pp. 23, 30. The image of Binzuru +is found in many Japanese temples to-day, a famous one being at Asakusa, +in T[=o]ki[=o]. He is the supposed healer of all diseases. The image +becomes entirely rubbed smooth by devotees, to the extinguishment of all +features, lines, and outlines.] + +[Footnote 11: Davids's Buddhism, pp. 180, 200; S. and H., pp. (87) 389, +416.] + +[Footnote 12: B.N., pp. 32-43.] + +[Footnote 13: B.N., pp. 44-56.] + +[Footnote 14: Japanese Fairy World, p. 282; Anderson's Catalogue, pp. +l03-7.] + +[Footnote 15: B.N., p. 62.] + +[Footnote 16: Pfoundes, Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 17: B.N., p. 58. See also The Monist for January, 1894, p. +168.] + +[Footnote 18: "Tien Tai, a spot abounding in Buddhist antiquities, the +earliest, and except Puto the largest and richest seat of that religion +in eastern China. As a monastic establishment it dates from the fourth +century."--Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 137-142.] + +[Footnote 19: S. and H., p. 87. See the paper read at the Parliament of +Religions by the Zen bonze Ashitsu of Hiyeisan, the poem of Right +Reverend Shaku Soyen, and the paper on The Fundamental Teachings of +Buddhism, in The Monist for January, 1894; Japan As We Saw It, p. 297.] + +[Footnote 20: See Century Dictionary, _mantra_.] + +[Footnote 21: See Chapter XX. Ideas and Symbols in Japan: in History, +Folk-lore, and Art. Buddhist tombs (go-rin) consist of a cube (earth), +sphere (water), pyramid (fire), crescent (wind), and flame-shaped stone +(ether), forming the go-rin or five-blossom tomb, typifying the five +elements.] + +[Footnote 22: B.N., p. 78.] + +[Footnote 23: To put this dogma into intelligible English is, as Mr. +Satow says, more difficult than to comprehend the whole doctrine, hard +as that may be. "Dai Nichi Ni-yorai (Vairokana) is explained to be the +collectivity of all sentient beings, acting through the mediums of +Kwan-non, Ji-z[=o], Mon-ju, Shaka, and other influences which are +popularly believed to be self-existent deities." In the diagram called +the eight-leaf enclosure, by which the mysteries of Shingon are +explained, Maha-Vairokana is in the centre, and on the eight petals are +such names as Amitabha, Manjusri, Maitreya, and Avalokitesvara; in a +word, all are purely speculative beings, phantoms of the brain, the +mushrooms of decayed Brahmanism, and the mould of primitive Buddhism +disintegrated by scholasticism.] + +[Footnote 24: S. and H., p. 31.] + +[Footnote 25: B.N., p. 115.] + +[Footnote 26: Here let me add that in my studies of oriental and ancient +religion, I have never found one real Trinity, though triads, or +tri-murti, are common. None of these when carefully analyzed yield the +Christian idea of the Trinity.] + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE + + +[Footnote 1: Tathagata is one of the titles of the Buddha, meaning "thus +come," i.e., He comes bringing human nature as it truly is, with perfect +knowledge and high intelligence, and thus manifests himself. Amitabha is +the Sanskrit of Amida, or the deification of boundless light.] + +[Footnote 2: B.N., p. 104.] + +[Footnote 3: Literally, I yield to, or I adore the Boundless or the +Immeasurable Buddha.] + +[Footnote 4: A Chinese or Japanese volume is much smaller than the +average printed volume in Europe.] + +[Footnote 5: Legacy of Iyeyas[)u], Section xxviii. Doctrinally, this +famous document, written probably long after Iyeyas[)u]'s death and +canonization as a _gongen_, is a mixture or _Riy[=o]bu_ of Confucianism +and Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 6: At first glance a forcible illustration, since the Japanese +proverb declares that "A sea-voyage is an inch of hell." And yet the +original saying of Ry[=u]-ju, now proverbial in Buddhadom, referred to +the ease of sailing over the water, compared with the difficulty of +surmounting the obstacles of land travel in countries not yet famous for +good roads. See B.N., p. 111.] + +[Footnote 7: Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 108; Descriptive Notes on the Rosaries +as used by the different Sects of Buddhists in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. +IX., pp. 173-182.] + +[Footnote 8: B.N., p. 122.] + +[Footnote 9: S. and H., p. 361.] + +[Footnote 10: S. and H., pp. 90-92; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., +pp. 242-253.] + +[Footnote 11: These three sutras are those most in favor with the +J[=o]-d[=o] sect also, they are described, B.N., 104-106, and their +tenets are referred to on pp. 260, 261.] + +[Footnote 12: For modern statements of Shin tenets and practices, see +E.J. Reed's Japan, Vol. I., pp. 84-86; The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881, +pp. 109-115; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., 242-246; B.N., 122-131. +Edkins's Religion in China, p. 153. The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881, p. +115.] + +[Footnote 13: S. and H., p. 361; B.N., pp. 105, 106. Toward the end of +the Amitayus-dhyana sutra, Buddha says: "Let not one's voice cease, but +ten times complete the thought, and repeat Namo'mit[=a]bh[=a]ya +Buddh[=a]ya (Namu Amida Butsu) or adoration to Amitb[=a]ha Buddha."] + +[Footnote 14: M.E., pp. 164-166.] + +[Footnote 15: Schaff's Encyclopaedia, Article, Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 16: On the Tenets of the Shin Shiu, or "True Sect" of +Buddhists, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIV., p. 1.] + +[Footnote 17: The Gobunsho, or Ofumi, of Renny[=o] Sh[=o]nin, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XVII., pp. 101-143.] + +[Footnote 18: At the gorgeous services in honor of the founder of the +great Higashi Hongwanji Western Temple of the Original Vow at Asakusa, +T[=o]ki[=o], November 21 to 28, annually, the women attend wearing a +head-dress called "horn-hider," which seems to have been named in +allusion to a Buddhist text which says: "A woman's exterior is that of a +saint, but her heart is that of a demon."--Chamberlain's Hand-book for +Japan, p. 82; T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. 106, 141; Sacred Books of the +East, Vol. XXI., pp. 251-254.] + +[Footnote 19: Review of Buddhist Texts from Japan, The Nation, No. 875, +April 6, 1882. "The _Mah[=a]y[=a]na_ or Great Vehicle (we might fairly +render it 'highfalutin') school.... Filled as these countries (Tibet, +China, Japan) are with Buddhist monasteries, and priests, and nominal +adherents, and abounding in voluminous translations of the Sanskrit +Buddhistic literature, little understood and wellnigh unintelligible +(for neither country has had the independence and mental force to +produce a literature of its own, or to add anything but a chapter of +decay to the history of this religion)...."] + +[Footnote 20: M.E., pp. 164, 165; B.N., pp. 132-147; Mitford's Tales of +Old Japan, Vol. II., pp. 125-134.] + + +CHAPTER X + +JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT + + +[Footnote 1: T.J., p. 71. Further illustrations of this statement may be +found in his Classical Poetry of the Japanese, especially in the +Selection and Appendices of this book; also in T.R.H. McClatchie's +Japanese Plays (Versified), London, 1890.] + +[Footnote 2: See Introduction to the Kojiki, pp. xxxii.-xxxiv., and in +Bakin's novel illustrating popular Buddhist beliefs, translated by +Edward Greey, A Captive of Love, Boston, 1886.] + +[Footnote 3: See jade in Century Dictionary; "Magatama, so far as I am +aware, do not ever appear to have been found in shell heaps" (of the +aboriginal Ainos), Milne's Notes on Stone Implements, T.A.S.J., Vol. +VIII., p. 71.] + +[Footnote 4: Concerning this legendary, and possibly mythical, episode, +which has so powerfully influenced Japanese imagination and politics, +see T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., Part I., pp. 39-75; M.E., pp. 75-85.] + +[Footnote 5: See Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 1, 2; Persian Elements in +Japanese Legends, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., Part I, pp. 1-10; Journal of the +Royal Asiatic Society, January, 1894. Rein's book, The Industries of +Japan, points out, as far as known, the material debt to India. Some +Japanese words like _beni-gari_ (Bengal) or rouge show at once their +origin. The mosaic of stories in the Taektori Monogatari, an allegory in +exquisite literary form, illustrating the Buddhist dogma of Ingwa, or +law of cause and effect, and written early in the ninth century, is made +up of Chinese-Indian elements. See F.V. Dickins's translation and notes +in Journal of the Royal Oriental Society, Vol. XIX., N.S. India was the +far off land of gems, wonders, infallible drugs, roots, etc.; Japanese +Fairy World, p. 137.] + +[Footnote 6: M.E., Chap. VIII.; Klaproth's Annales des Empereurs du +Japon (a translation of Nippon 0 Dai Ichi Ran); Rein's Japan, p. 224.] + +[Footnote 7: See Klaproth's Annales, _passim_. S. and H. p. 85. Bridges +are often symbolical of events, classic passages in the shastras and +sutras, or are antetypes of Paradisaical structures. The ordinary native +_hashi_ is not remarkable as a triumph of the carpenter's art, though +some of the Japanese books mention and describe in detail some +structures that are believed to be astonishing.] + +[Footnote 8: Often amusingly illustrated, M.E., p. 390. A translation +into Japanese of Goethe's Reynard the Fox is among the popular works of +the day. "Strange to say, however, the Japanese lose much of the +exquisite humor of this satire in their sympathy with the woes of the +maltreated wolf."--The Japan Mail. This sympathy with animals grows +directly out of the doctrine of metempsychosis. The relationship between +man and ape is founded upon the pantheistic identity of being. "We +mention sin," says a missionary now in Japan, "and he [the average +auditor] thinks of eating flesh, or the killing of insects." Many of the +sutras read like tracts and diatribes of vegetarians.] + +[Footnote 9: See The Art of Landscape Gardening in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. +XIV.; Theory of Japanese Flower Arrangements, by J. Conder, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XVII.; T.J., p. 168; M.E., p. 437; T.J., p. 163.] + +[Footnote 10: _The_ book, by excellence, on the Japanese house, is +Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings, by E.S. Morse. See also +Constructive Art in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 57, III., p. 20; +Feudal Mansions of Yedo, Vol. VII., p. 157.] + +[Footnote 11: See Hearn's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, pp. 385, 410, +and _passim_.] + +[Footnote 12: For pathetic pictures of Japanese daily life, see Our +Neighborhood, by the late Dr. T.A. Purcell, Yokohama, 1874; A Japanese +Boy, by Himself (S. Shigemi), New Haven, 1889; Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses +of Unfamiliar Japan, Boston, 1894.] + +[Footnote 13: Klaproth's Annales, and S. and H. _passim_.] + +[Footnote 14: See Pfoundes's Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 130, for a list of +grades from Ho-[=o] or cloistered emperor, Miya or sons of emperors, +chief priests of sects, etc., down to priests in charge of inferior +temples. This Budget of Notes, pp. 99-144, contains much valuable +information, and was one of the first publications in English which shed +light upon the peculiarities of Japanese Buddhism.] + +[Footnote 15: Isaiah xl. 19, 20, and xli. 6, 7, read to the dweller in +Japan like the notes of a reporter taken yesterday.] + +[Footnote 16: T.J., p. 339; Notes on Some Minor Japanese Religious +Practices, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May, 1893; +Lowell's Esoteric Shint[=o], T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI.; Satow's The Shint[=o] +Temples of Ise, T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 113.] + +[Footnote 17: M.E., p. 45; American Cyclopaedia, Japan, +Literature--History, Travels, Diaries, etc.] + +[Footnote 18: That is, no dialects like those which separate the people +of China. The ordinary folks of Satsuma and Suruga, for example, +however, would find it difficult to understand each other if only the +local speech were used. Men from the extremes of the Empire use the +T[=o]ki[=o] standard language in communicating with each other.] + +[Footnote 19: For some names of Buddhist temples in Shimoda see Perry's +Narrative, pp. 470-474, described by Dr. S. Wells Williams; S. and H. +_passim_.] + +[Footnote 20: The Abbe Huc in his Travels in Tartary was one of the +first to note this fact. I have not noticed in my reading that the +Jesuit missionaries in Japan in the seventeenth century call attention +to the matter. See also the writings of Arthur Lillie, voluminous but +unconvincing, Buddha and Early Buddhism, and Buddhism and Christianity, +London, 1893.] + +[Footnote 21: M.E., p. 252.] + +[Footnote 22: T.J., p. 70.] + +[Footnote 23: See The Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene Creed, +T[=o]ki[=o], 1894, by Rev. A. Lloyd.] + +[Footnote 24: "I preach with ever the same voice, taking enlightenment +as my text. For this is equal for all; no partiality is in it, neither +hatred nor affection.... I am inexorable, bear no love or hatred towards +anyone, and proclaim the law to all creatures without distinction, to +the one as well as to the other."--Saddharma Pundarika.] + +[Footnote 25: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., p. 247.] + +[Footnote 26: For the symbolism of the lotus see M.E., p. 437; Unbeaten +Tracks in Japan, Vol. I., p. 299; M.E. index; and Saddharma Pundarika, +Kern's translation, p. 76, note: + +"Here the Buddha is represented as a wise and benevolent father; he is +the heavenly father, Brahma. As such ho was represented as sitting on a +'lotus-seat.' How common this representation was in India, at least in +the sixth century of our era, appears from Varahamihira's +Brihat-Sainhita, Ch. 58, 44, where the following rule is laid down for +the Buddha idols: 'Buddha shall be (represented) sitting on a +lotus-seat, like the father of the world.'"] + +[Footnote 27: See The Northern Buddhist Mythology in _Journal of the +Royal Asiatic Society_, January, 1894.] + +[Footnote 28: See The Pictorial Arts of Japan, and Descriptive and +Historical Catalogue, William Anderson, pp. 13-94.] + +[Footnote 29: See fylfot in Century Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 30: The word _vagra_, diamond, is a constituent in scores of +names of sutras, especially those whose contents are metaphysical in +their nature. The Vajrasan, Diamond Throne or Thunderbolt seat, was the +name applied to the most sacred part of the great temple reared by Asoka +on the site of the bodhi tree, under which Gautama received +enlightenment. "The adamantine truths of Buddha struck like a +thunderbolt upon the superstitious of his age." "The word vagra has the +two senses of hardness and utility. In the former sense it is understood +to be compared to the secret truth which is always in existence and not +to be broken. In the latter sense it implies the power of the +enlightened, that destroys the obstacles of passions."--B.N., p. 88. "As +held in the arms of Kwannon and other images in the temples," the vagra +or "diamond club" (is that) with which the foes of the Buddhist Church +are to be crushed.--S. and H., p. 444. Each of the gateway gods Ni-[=o] +(two Kings, Indra and Brahma) "bears in his hand the tokko (Sanskrit +_vagra_), an ornament originally designed to represent a diamond club, +and now used by priests and exorcists, as a religious sceptre +symbolizing the irresistible power of prayer, meditation, and +incantation."--Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. 31.] + +[Footnote 31: Jiz[=o] is the compassionate helper of all in trouble, +especially of travellers, of mothers, and of children. His Sanskrit name +is Kshiugarbha. His idol is one of the most common in Japan. It is +usually neck-laced with baby's bibs, often by the score, while the +pedestal is heaped with small stones placed there by sorrowing +mothers.--S. and H., p. 29, 394; Chamberlain's Handbook of Japan, 29, +101. Hearn's Japan, p. 34, and _passim_.] + +[Footnote 32: Sanskrit _arhat_ or _arhan_, meaning worthy or deserving, +i.e., holy man, the highest rank of Buddhist saintship. See Century +Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 33: M.E., p. 201. The long inscription on the bell in +Wellesley College, which summons the student-maidens to their hourly +tasks has been translated by the author and Dr. K. Kurahara and is as +follows: + +1. A prose preface or historical statement. + +2. Two stanzas of Chinese poetry, in four-syllable lines, of four verses +each, with an apostrophe in two four-syllable lines. + +3. The chronology. + +4. The names of the composer and calligraphist, and of the +bronze-founder. + +The characters in vertical lines are read from top to bottom, the order +of the columns being from right to left. There are in all 117 +characters. + +The first tablet reads: + +Lotus-Lily Temple (of) Law-Grove Mountain; Bell-inscription (and) +Preface. + +"Although there had been of old a bell hung in the Temple of the +Lotus-Lily, yet being of small dimensions its note was quickly +exhausted, and no volume of melody followed (after having been struck). +Whereupon, for the purpose of improving upon this state of affairs, we +made a subscription, and collected coin to obtain a new bell. All +believers in the doctrine, gods as well as devils, contributed freely. +Thus the enterprise was soon consummated, and this inscription prepared, +to wit: + +"'The most exalted Buddha having pitiful compassion upon the people, +would, by means of this bell, instead of words, awaken them from earthly +illusions, and reveal the darkness of this world. + +"'Many of the living hearkening to its voice, and making confession, are +freed from the bondage of their sins, and forever released from their +disquieting desires. + +"'How great is (Buddha's) merit! Who can utter it? Without measure, +boundless!' + +"Eleventh year of the Era of the Foundation of Literature (and of the +male element) Wood (and of the zodiac sign) Dog; Autumn, seventh month, +fifteenth day (A.D. August 30,1814). + +"Composition and penmanship by Kameda Koye-sen. Cast by the artist +Sugiwara Kuninobu." + +(The poem in unrhymed metre.) + + Buddha in compassion tender + With this bell, instead of words, + Wakens souls from life's illusions, + Lightens this world's darkness drear. + + Many souls its sweet tones heeding, + From their chains of sin are freed; + All the mind's unrest is soothed, + Sinful yearnings are repressed. + + Oh how potent is his merit, + Without bounds in all the worlds! +] + +[Footnote 34: Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 129.] + +[Footnote 35: M.E., pp. 287-290, 513-514; Perry's Narrative, pp. 471, +472; Our Neighborhood, pp. 119-124. The following epitaphs are gathered +from various sources: + +"This stone marks the remains of the believer who never grows old." + +"The believing woman Yu-ning, Happy was the day of her departure." + +"Multitudes fill the graves." + +"Only by this vehicle--the coffin--can we enter Hades." + +"As the floating grass is blown by the gentle breeze, or the glancing +ripples of autumn disappear when the sun goes down, or as a ship returns +to her old shore--so is life. It is a vapor, a morning-tide." + +"Buddha himself wishes to hear the name of the deceased that he may +enter life." + +"He who has left humanity is now perfected by Buddha's name, as the +withered moss by the dew." + +"Life is like a candle in the wind." + +"The wise make our halls illustrious, and their monuments endure for +ages." + +"What permanency is there to the glory of the world? It goes from the +sight like hoar-frost in the sun." + +"If men wish to enter the joys of heavenly light, +Let them smell the fragrance of the law of Buddha." + +"Whoever wishes to have his merit reach even to the abode of demons, let +him, with us, and all living, become perfect in the doctrine."] + +[Footnote 36: Rev. C.B. Hawarth in the _New York Independent_, January +18, 1894.] + +[Footnote 37: In 781 the Buddhist monk Kei-shun dedicated a chapel to +Jizo, on whom he conferred the epithet of Sho-gun or general, to suit +the warlike tastes of the Japanese people.--S. and H., p. 384. So also +Hachiman became the god of war because adopted as the patron deity of +the Genji warriors.--S. and H., p. 70.] + +[Footnote 38: Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 90.] + +[Footnote 39: Dixon's Japan, p. 41; S. and H., Japan, _passim_; Rein's +Japan; Story of the Nations, Japan, by David Murray, p. 201, note; +Dening's life of Toyotomi Hideyoshi; M.E., Chapters XV., XVI., XX., +XXIII., XXIV.; Gazetteer of Echizen; Shiga's History of Nations, +T[=o]ki[=o], 1888, pp. 115, 118; T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII., pp. 94, 134, +143.] + +[Footnote 40: T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII., Hideyoshi and the Satsuma Clan in +the Sixteenth Century, by J.H. Gubbins; The Times of Taik[=o], by R. +Brinkley, in _The Japan Times_.] + +[Footnote 41: The Copy of the Buddhist Tripitaka, or Northern +Collection, made by order of the Emperor, Wan-Li, in the sixteenth +century, when the Chinese capital (King) was changed from the South +(Nan) to the North (Pe), was reproduced in Japan in 1679 and again in +1681-83, and in over two thousand volumes, making a pile a hundred feet +high, was presented by the Japanese Government, through the Junior Prime +Minister, Mr. Tomomi Iwakura, to the Library of the India Office. See +Samuel Beal's The Buddhist Tripitaka, as it is known in China and Japan, +A Catalogue and Compendious Report, London, 1876. The library has been +rearranged by Mr. Bunyin Nanjio, who has published the result of his +labors, with Sanskrit equivalents of the titles and with notes of the +highest value.] + +[Footnote 42: "Neither country (China or Japan) has had the independence +and mental force to produce a literature of its own, and to add anything +but a chapter of decay to the history of this religion."--Professor +William D. Whitney, in review of Anecdota Oxoniensia, Buddhist Texts +from Japan, in _The Nation_, No. 875.] + +[Footnote 43: Education in Japan, A series of papers by the writer, +printed in _The Japan Mail_ of 1873-74, and reprinted in the educational +journals of the United Status. A digest of these papers is given in the +appendix of F.O. Adams's History of Japan; Life of Sir Harry Parkes, +Vol. II., pp. 305, 306.] + +[Footnote 44: Japan: in Literature, Folk-Lore, and Art, p. 77.] + +[Footnote 45: Japanese Education at the Philadelphia Exposition, New +York, 1876.] + +[Footnote 46: See Japanese Literature, by E.M. Satow, in The American +Cyclopaedia.] + +[Footnote 47: The word bonze (Japanese _bon-so_ or _bozu_, Chinese +_fan-sung_) means an ordinary member of the congregation, just as the +Japanese term _bon-yo_ or _bon-zuko_ means common people or the ordinary +folks. The word came into European use from the Portuguese missionaries, +who heard the Japanese thus pronounce the Chinese term _fan_, which, as +_bon_, is applied to anything in the mass not out of the common.] + +[Footnote 48: See On the Early History of Printing in Japan, by E.M. +Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. X., Part L, p. 48; Part II., p. 252.] + +[Footnote 49: Japanese mediaeval monastery life has been ably pictured +in English fiction by a scholar of imagination and literary power, +withal a military critic and a veteran in Japanese lore. "The Times of +Taik[=o]," in the defunct Japanese Times (1878), deserves reprint as a +book, being founded on Japanese historical and descriptive works. In Mr. +Edward's Greey's A Captive of Love, Boston, 1880, the idea of ingwa (the +effects in this life of the actions in a former state of existence), is +illustrated. See also S. and H., p. 29; T.J., p. 360.] + +[Footnote 50: It is curious that while the anti-Christian polemics of +the Japanese Buddhists have used the words of Jesus, "I came to send not +peace but a sword," Matt, x. 34, and "If any man ... hate not his father +and mother," etc., Luke xiv. 26, as a branding iron with which to stamp +the religion of Jesus as gross immorality and dangerous to the state, +they justify Gautama in his "renunciation" of marital and paternal +duties.] + +[Footnote 51: See Public Charity in Japan, Japan Mail, 1893; and The +Annual (Appleton's) Cyclopaedia for 1893.] + +[Footnote 52: I have some good reasons for making this suggestion. Yokoi +Heishiro had dwelt for some time in Fukui, a few rods away from the +house in which I lived, and the ideas he promulgated among the Echizen +clansmen in his lectures on Confucianism, were not only Christian in +spirit but, by their own statement, these ideas could not be found in +the texts of the Chinese sage or of his commentators. Although the +volume (edited by his son, Rev. J.F. Yokoi) of his Life and Letters +shows him to have been an intense and at times almost bigoted +Confucianist, he, in one of his later letters, prophesied that when +Christianity should be taught by the missionaries, it would win the +hearts of the young men of Japan. See also Satow's Kinse Shiriaku, p. +183; Adams's History of Japan; and in fiction, see Honda The Samurai, p. +242, and succeeding chapters.] + +[Footnote 53: In the colorless and unsentimental language of government +publications, the Japanese edict of emancipation, issued to the local +authorities in October, 1871, ran as follows: "The designations of eta +and hinin are abolished. Those who bore them are to be added to the +general registers of the population and their social position and +methods of gaining a livelihood are to be identical with the rest of the +people. As they have been entitled to immunity from the land tax and +other burdens of immemorial custom, you will inquire how this may be +reformed and report to the Board of Finance." (Signed) Council of +State.] + +[Footnote 54: In English fiction, see The Eta Maiden and the Hatamoto, +in Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp. 210-245. Discussions as to +the origin of the Eta are to be found in Adams's History of Japan, Vol. +I, p. 77; M.E., index; T.J., p. 147; S. and H., p. 36; Honda the +Samurai, pp. 246, 247; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp. +210-245. The literature concerning the Ainos is already voluminous. See +Chamberlain's Aino Studies, with bibliography; and Rev. John Batchelor's +Ainu Grammar, published by The Imperial University of T[=o]ki[=o]; +T.A.S.J., Vols. X., XL, XVI., XVIII., XX.; The Ainu of Japan, New York, +1892, by J. Batchelor (who has also translated the Book of Common +Prayer, and portions of the Bible into the Ainu tongue); M. E., Chap. +II.; T.A.S.J., Vol. X., and following volumes; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, +Vol. II.; Life with Trans-Siberian Savages, London, 1895.] + +[Footnote 55: "Then the venerable S[=a]riputra said to that daughter of +Sagara, the N[=a]ga-king: 'Thou hast conceived the idea of +enlightenment, young lady of good family, without sliding back, and art +gifted with immense wisdom, but supreme, perfect enlightenment is not +easily won. It may happen, sister, that a woman displays an unflagging +energy, performs good works for many thousands of Aeons, and fulfils the +six perfect virtues (P[=a]ramit[=a]s), but as yet there is no example of +her having reached Buddhaship, and that because a woman cannot occupy +the five ranks, viz., 1, the rank of Brahma; 2, the rank of Indra; 3, +the rank of a chief guardian of the four quarters; 4, the rank of +Kakravartin; 5, the rank of a Bodhisattva incapable of sliding back," +Saddharma Pundarika, Kern's Translation, p. 252.] + +[Footnote 56: Chi[=u]-j[=o]-hime was the first Japanese nun, and the +only woman who is commemorated by an idol. "She extracted the fibres of +the lotus root, and wove them with silk to make tapestry for altars." +Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 128. Her romantic and marvellous story is given in +S. and H., p. 397. "The practice of giving ranks to women was commenced +by Jito Tenn[=o] (an empress, 690-705)." Many women shaved their heads +and became nuns "on becoming widows, as well as on being forsaken by, or +after leaving their husbands. Others were orphans." One of the most +famous nuns (on account of her rank) was the Nii no Ama, widow of +Kiyomori and grandmother of the Emperor Antoku, who were both drowned +near Shimono-seki, in the great naval battle of 1185 A.D. Adams's +History of Japan, Vol. I., p. 37; M.E., p. 137.] + +[Footnote 57: M.E., p. 213; Japanese Women, World's Columbian +Exhibition, Chicago, 1893, Chap. III.] + +[Footnote 58: There is no passage in the original Greek texts, or in the +Revised Version of the New Testament which ascribes wings to the +_aggelos_, or angel. In Rev. xii. 14, a woman is "given two wings of a +great eagle."] + +[Footnote 59: Japanese Women in Politics, Chap. I., Japanese Women, +Chicago, 1893; Japanese Girls and Women, Chapters VI. and VII.] + +[Footnote 60: Bakin's novels are dominated by this idea, while also +preaching in fiction strict Confucianism. See A Captive of Love, by +Edward Greey.] + +[Footnote 61: "Fate is one of the great words of the East. _Japan's +language is loaded and overloaded with it._ Parents are forever saying +before their children, 'There's no help for it.' I once remarked to a +school-teacher, 'Of course you love to teach children.' His quick reply +was, 'Of course I don't. I do it merely because there is no help for +it.' Moralists here deplore the prosperity of the houses of ill-fame and +then add with a sigh, 'There's no help for it.' All society reverberates +with this phrase with reference to questions that need the application +of moral power, will power."--J.H. De Forest. + +"I do not say there is no will power in the East, for there is. Nor do I +say there is no weak yielding to fate in lands that have the doctrine of +the Creator, for there is. But, putting the East and West side by side, +one need not hesitate to affirm that the reason the will power of the +East is weak cannot be fully explained by any mere doctrine of +environment, but must also have some vital connection with the fact that +the idea of a personal almighty Creator has for long ages been wanting. +And one reason why western nations have an aggressive character that +ventures bold things and tends to defy difficulties cannot be wholly +laid to environment but must have something to do with the fact that +leads millions daily reverently to say 'I believe in the Almighty +Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth.'"--J.H. De Forest.] + + +STATISTICS OF BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. + + +(From The official "Resume Statistique de l'Empire du Japon," +T[=o]ki[=o], 1894.) + +In 1891 there were 71,859 temples within city or town limits, and 35,959 +in the rural districts, or 117,718 in all, under the charges of 51,791 +principal priests and 720 principal priestesses, or 52,511 in all. + +The number of temples, classified by sects, were as follows: Tendai, +with 3 sub-sects, 4,808; Shingon, with 2 sub-sects, 12,821, of which 45 +belonged to the Hoss[=o] shu; J[=o]-do, with 2 sub-sects, 8,323, of +which 21 were of the Ke-gon shu; Zen, with 3 sub-sects, 20,882, of which +6,146 were of the Rin-Zai shu; 14,072 of the S[=o]-d[=o] shu, and 604 of +the O-bakushu; Shin, with 10 sub-sects, 19,146; Nichiren, with 7 +sub-sects, 5,066; Ji shu, 515; Yu-dz[=u]; Nembutsu, 358; total, 38 sects +and 71,859 temples. + +The official reports required by the government from the various sects, +show that there are 38 administrative heads of sects; 52,638 +priest-preachers and 44,123 ordinary priests or monks; and 8,668 male +and 328 female, or a total of 8,996, students for the grade of monk or +nun. In comparison with 1886, the number of priest-preachers was 39,261, +ordinary priests 38,189: male students, 21,966; female students, 642. + + +CHAPTER XI + +ROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. + + +[Footnote 1: See for a fine example of this, Mr. C. Meriwether's Life of +Date Masamune, T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., pp. 3-106. See also The Christianity +of Early Japan, by Koji Inaba, in The Japan Evangelist, Yokohama, +1893-94; Mr. E. Satow's papers in T.A.S.J.] + +[Footnote 2: See M.E., p. 280; Rein's Japan, p. 312; Shigetaka Shiga's +History of Nations, p. 139, quoting from M.E. (p. 258).] + +[Footnote 3: M.E., 195.] + +[Footnote 4: The Japan Mail of April and May, 1894, contains a +translation from the Japanese, with but little new matter, however, of a +work entitled Paul Anjiro.] + +[Footnote 5: The "Firando" of the old books. See Cock's Diary. It is +difficult at first to recognize the Japanese originals of some of the +names which figure in the writings of Charlevoix, Leon Pages, and the +European missionaries, owing to their use of local pronunciation, and +their spelling, which seems peculiar. One of the brilliant +identifications of Mr. Ernest Satow, now H.B.M. Minister at Tangier, is +that of Kuroda in the "Kondera"' of the Jesuits.] + +[Footnote 6: See Mr. E.M. Matow's Vicissitudes of the Church at +Yamaguchi. T.A.S.J., Vol. VII., pp. 131-156.] + +[Footnote 7: Nobunaga was Nai Dai Jin, Inner (Junior) Prime Minister, +one in the triple premiership, peculiar to Korea and Old Japan, but was +never Sh[=o]gun, as some foreign writers have supposed.] + +[Footnote 8: See The Jesuit Mission Press in Japan, by E. Satow, +1591-1610 (privately printed, London, 1888). Review of the same by B.H. +Chamberlain, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., p. 91.] + +[Footnote 9: Histoire de l'Eglise, Vol. I, p. 490; Rein, p. 277. +Takayama is spoken of in the Jesuit Records as Justo Ucondono. A curious +book entitled Justo Ucondono, Prince of Japan, in which the writer, who +is "less attentive to points of style than to matters of faith," labors +to show that "the Bible alone" is "found wanting," and only the +"Teaching Church" is worthy of trust, was published in Baltimore, in +1854.] + +[Footnote 10: How Hideyoshi made use of the Shin sect of Buddhists to +betray the Satsuma clansmen is graphically told in Mr. J.H. Gubbin's +paper, Hideyoshi and the Satsuma Clan, T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII, pp. 124-128, +143.] + +[Footnote 11: Corea the Hermit Nation, Chaps. XII.-XXI., pp. 121-123; +Mr. W.G. Aston's Hideyoshi's Invasion of Korea, T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., p. +227; IX, pp. 87, 213; XI., p. 117; Rev. G.H. Jones's The Japanese +Invasion, The Korean Repository, Seoul, 1892.] + +[Footnote 12: Brave Little Holland and What She Taught Us, Boston, 1893, +p. 247.] + +[Footnote 13: See picture and description of this temple--"fairly +typical of Japanese Buddhist architecture," Chamberlain's Handbook for +Japan, p. 26; G.A. Cobbold's, Religion in Japan, London, 1894, p. 72.] + +[Footnote 14: T.A.S.J., see Vol. VI., pp. 46, 51, for the text of the +edicts.] + +[Footnote 15: M.E., p. 262, Chamberlain's Handbook for Japan, p. 59.] + +[Footnote 16: The Origin of Spanish and Portuguese Rivalry in Japan, by +E.M. Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., p. 133.] + +[Footnote 17: See Chapter VIII., W.G. Dixon's Gleanings from Japan.] + +[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., pp. 48-50.] + +[Footnote 19: In the inscription upon the great bell, at the temple +containing the image of Dai Buts[)u] or Great Buddha, reared by Hideyori +and his mother, one sentence contained the phrase _Kokka anko, ka_ and +_Lo_ being Chinese for _Iye_ and _yas[(u]_, which the Yedo ruler +professed to believe mockery. In another sentence, "On the East it +welcomes the bright moon, and on the West bids farewell to the setting +sun," Iyeyas[)u] discovered treason. He considered himself the rising +sun, and Hideyori the setting moon.--Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, +p. 300.] + +[Footnote 20: I have found the Astor Library in New York especially rich +in works of this sort.] + +[Footnote 21: Nitobe's United States and Japan, p. 13, note.] + +[Footnote 22: This insurrection has received literary treatment at the +hands of the Japanese in Shimabara, translated in The Far East for 1872; +Woolley's Historical Notes on Nagasaki, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 125; +Koeckebakker and the Arima Rebellion, by Dr. A.J.C. Geerts, T.A.S.J., +Vol. XI., 51; Inscriptions on Shimabara and Amakusa, by Henry Stout, +T.A.S.J., Vol. VII, p. 185.] + +[Footnote 23: "Persecution extirpated Christianity from Japan."--History +of Rationalism, Vol. II, p. 15.] + +[Footnote 24: T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., Part I., p. 62; M.E. pp. 531, 573.] + +[Footnote 25: Political, despite the attempt of many earnest members of +the order to check this tendency to intermeddle in politics; see Dr. +Murray's Japan, p. 245, note, 246.] + +[Footnote 26: See abundant illustration in Leon Pages' Histoire de la +Religion Chretienne en Japon, a book which the author read while in +Japan amid the scenes described.] + +[Footnote 27: _The Japan Evangelist_, Vol. I., No. 2, p. 96.] + + +CHAPTER XII + +TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE + + +[Footnote 1: See Diary of Richard Cocks, and Introduction by R.M. +Thompson, Hakluyt Publications, 1883.] + +[Footnote 2: For the extent of Japanese influence abroad, see M.E., p. +246; Rein, Nitobe, and Hildreth; Modern Japanese Adventurers, T.A.S.J., +Vol. VII., p. 191; The Intercourse between Japan and Siam in the +Seventeenth Century, by E.M. Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 139; Voyage +of the Dutch Ship Grol, T.A.S.J., Vol. XI., p. 180.] + +[Footnote 3: The United States and Japan, p. 16.] + +[Footnote 4: See Professor J.H. Wigmore's elaborate work, Materials for +the Study of Private Law in Old Japan, T.A.S.J., T[=o]ki[=o], 1892.] + +[Footnote 5: See the Legacy of Iyeyas[)u], by John Frederic Lowder, +Yokohama, 1874, with criticisms and discussions by E.M. Satow and others +in the _Japan Mail_; Dixon's Japan, Chapter VII.; Professor W.E. +Grigsby, in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Part II., p. 131, gives another +version, with analysis, notes, and comments; Rein's Japan, pp. 314, +315.] + +[Footnote 6: Old Japan in the days of its inclusiveness was a secret +society on a vast scale, with every variety and degree of selfishness, +mystery, secrecy, close-corporationism, and tomfoolery. See article +Esotericism in T.J., p. 143.] + +[Footnote 7: Since the abolition of feudalism, with the increase of the +means of transportation, the larger freedom, and, at many points, +improved morality, the population of Japan shows an unprecedented rate +of increase. The census taken in 1744 gave, as the total number of souls +in the empire, 26,080,000 (E.J. Reed's Japan, Vol. I., p. 236); that of +1872, 33,110,825; that of 1892, 41,089,910, showing a greater increase +during the past twenty years than in the one hundred and thirty-eight +years previous. See Resume Statistique de l'Empire du Japon, +T[=o]ki[=o], 1894; Professor Garrett Droppers' paper on The Population +of Japan during the Tokugawa Period, read June 27th, 1894; T.A.S.J., +Vol. XXII.] + +[Footnote 8: For the notable instance of Pere Sidotti, see M.E, p. 63; +Sei Y[=o] Ki Buu, by S.R. Brown, D.D., a translation of Arai Hakuseki's +narrative, Yedo, 1710, T.N.C.A.S.; Capture and Captivity of Pere +Sidotti, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 156; Christian Valley, T.A.S.J., Vol. +XVI., p. 207.] + +[Footnote 9: T.A.S.J., Vol. I., p. 78, Vol. VII., p. 323.] + +[Footnote 10: See Matthew Calbraith Perry, Boston, 1887.] + +[Footnote 11: See the author's Townsend Harris, First American Minister +to Japan, _The Atlantic Monthly_, August, 1891.] + +[Footnote 12: See Honda the Samurai, Boston, 1890; Nitobe's United +States and Japan; The Japan Mail _passim_; Dr. G.F. Verbeck's History of +Protestant Missions in Japan, Yokohama, 1883; Dr. George Wm. Knox's +papers on Japanese Philosophy, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. l58, etc. Recent +Japanese literature, of which the writer has a small shelf-full, +biographies, biographical dictionaries, the histories of New Japan, Life +of Yoshida Shoin, and recent issues of The Nation's Friend (Kokumin no +Tomo), are very rich on this fascinating subject.] + +[Footnote 13: A typical instance was that of Rin Shihei, born 1737, +author of _Sun Koku Tsu Ran to Setsu_, translated into French by +Klaproth, Paris, 1832. Rin learned much from the Dutch and Prussians, +and wrote books which had a great sale. He was cast into prison, whence +he never emerged. The (wooden) plates of his publications were +confiscated and destroyed. In 1876, the Mikado visited his grave in +Sendai, and ordered a monument erected to the honor of this far-seeing +patriot.] + +[Footnote 14: Rein, pp. 336, 337] + +[Footnote 15: Rein, p. 339; The Early Study of Dutch in Japan, by K. +Mitsukuri, T.A.S.J., Vol. V., p. 209; History of the Progress of +Medicine in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. XII., p. 245; Vijf Jaren in Japan, +J.L.C. Pompe van Meerdervoort, 2d Ed., Leyden, 1808.] + +[Footnote 16: Honda the Samurai, pp. 249-251; Nitobe, 25-27.] + +[Footnote 17: The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, by Professor E. W. Clement, +T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII, p. 14; Nitobe's United States and Japan, p. 25, +note.] + +[Footnote 18: M.E. (6 Ed.), p. 608; Adams's History of Japan, Vol. II., +p. 171.] + +[Footnote 19: See the text of the anti-Christian edicts, M.E., p. 369.] + +[Footnote 20: T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 17.] + +[Footnote 21: T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 134.] + +[Footnote 22: Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 125; A Japanese Buddhist +Preacher, by Professor M.K. Shimomura, in the New York Independent; +other sermons have been printed in The Japan Mail; Kino Dowa, two +sermons and vocabulary, has been edited by Rev. C.S. Eby, Yokohama.] + +[Footnote 23: On Sunday, November 29, 1857, Mr. Harris, resting at +Kawasaki, over Sunday, on his way to Yedo and audience of the Sh[=o]gun, +having Mr. Heusken as his audience and fellow-worshipper, read service +from the Book of Common Prayer.] + +[Footnote 24: See a paper written by the author and read at the World's +Columbian Exhibition Congress of Missions, Chicago, September, 1893, on +The Citizen Rights of Missionaries.] + +[Footnote 25: This embassy was planned and first proposed to the Junior +premier, Tomomi Iwakura, and the route arranged by the Rev. Guido F. +Verbeck, then President of the Imperial University. One half of the +members of the embassy had been Dr. Verbeck's pupils at Nagasaki.] + +[Footnote 26: A somewhat voluminous native Japanese literature is the +result of the various embassies and individual pilgrimages abroad, since +1860. Immeasurably superior to all other publications, in the practical +influence over his fellow-countrymen, is the Seiyo Jijo (The Condition +of Western Countries) by Fukuzawa, author, educator, editor, decliner of +numerously proffered political offices, and "the intellectual father of +one-half of the young men who now fill the middle and lower posts in the +government of Japan." For the foreign side, see The Japanese in America, +by Charles Lanman, New York, 1872, and in The Life of Sir Harry Parkes, +London, 1894, and for an amusing piece of literary ventriloquism, +Japanese Letters, Eastern Impressions of Western Men and Manners, London +and New York, 1891. + +See History of Protestant Missions in Japan, by G. F. Verbeck, Yokohama, +1893.] + + + +INDEX + +Abbess, 318. +Abbots, 312. +Abdication, 214. +Aborigines, 9, 38, 43, 77-79, 177. +Adams, Will, 334, 340. +Adi-Buddha, 174. +Adoption, 122, 126. +Adultery, 149. +Aidzu, 119. +Ainos, 2, 9, 16, 73, 177, 317, 379. +Akamatsu, Rev. Renjo, 425. +Akechi, 332. +Alphabets, 199, 200. +Altaic, 39, 389. +Amalgam of religions, 11, 13. +Amateras[)u], see Sun-goddess. +American relations, 11, 12, 157. +Amidaism, 276, 303. +Anabaptists, 162. +Analects, 128. +Ancestral worship, 106. +Anderson, Dr. Win, 435. +Angels, 304. +Animism, 15-17. +Anjiro, 329. +Apostolical succession, 262. +Arabian Nights, 192, 201. +Architecture, 82, 84, 210, 298-300. +Art, 68, 1l4, 195-197, 297, 298, 303-305, 314, 356. +Aryan Conquest of India, 44, 156, 157, 177, 207. +Asanga, 175, 205. +Assassination, 367. +Asoka, 165. +Aston, Mr. Wm. G., 360, 386, 387. +Atheism, 163, 164. +Atkinson, Rev, J.L., 410. +Avalokitesvara, 170, 171, 179. +Avatars, 201, 208, 221, 247, 269, 295. + +Babism, 166. +Bakin, 444. +Bangor Theological Seminary, 378. +Batchelor, Rev. John, 317. +Beal, Rev. Samuel, 8. +Beauty, 207. +Beggars, 208. +Bells, 307, 308. +Benten, 204, 207, 218. +Bible, 27, 104, 364, 386. +Binzuru, 237. +Birth, 84. +Bishamon, 218. +Bodhidharma, see Daruma. +Bodhisattva, 169, 204, 234. +Bonzes, 310. +Bosatsu, 170, 204; see Bodhsattva. +Brahma, 247. +Brahmanism, 163, 185, 186, 218. +Brothers, 125, 126. +Buddha. Amida, see Amidaism. + the Buddha, 101, 103, 161, 162. + Gautama, 155, 161-164. + Shakyamuni, 160. + Siddartha, 410. + Tathagata, 259. + Tathata, 243. +Bunyin Nanjio, Rev., 231, 425. +Buddhism, 42, 74, 76, 106, 133, 136, 137, 140, 185, 186, 227, 231. +Buddhist, 165, 166, 183, 214, 229, 252. + +Cannibalism, 74. +Canon, Chinese, 103; Shint[=o], 39-41. +Capitals of Japan, 182, 183, 296. +Celibacy, 272. +Cemeteries, 308. +Chair of Contemplation, 252. +Chamberlain, Prof. B. Hall, 39, 324, 388. +Chastity, 68, 124, 149, 320. +Cheng Brothers, 138, 139. +China, 134, 199, 215, 328, 355. +Chinese, 83, 134; Buddhism, 232. +Christianity and Buddhism, 166, 183, 185, 187, 195, 217, 218, 265, 270, + 300-302, 306, 315, 319. +Chronology, 41, 370, 387. +Chu Hi, 11, 108, 139, 143, 144, 356. +Cleanliness, 84, 97. +Clement, Prof. E.M., 407. +Cobra-de-capello, 21. +Cocks, Mr. Richard, 380. +Columbus, 328. +Comparative religion, 4-6. +Confucius, 100-106. +Confucianism, 74, 107, 213. +Concubinage, 149. +Constitution of 1889, 96, 122. +Corea, see Korea. +Courtship, 124. +Creator, 145, 285. +Cremation, 182. +Crucifixion, 115, 368. + +Dai Butsu, 203. +Daikoku, 218. +Dai Mi[=o] Jin, 190, 204, 206, 230. +Daruma, 186, 208, 254. +Davids, T. Rhys, 155, 172. +Death, 84. +De Brosses, 23. +De Forest, Rev. J.H., 226. +Demoniacal possession, 281. +Deshima, 354, 358, 362-365. +Dharari, 199. +Dharma, see Daruma, 186. +Dhyana Buddhas and Sect, 172, 252, 254. +Diet, 293, 294. +Divorce, 125, 149. +D[=o]-sen, 236. +D[=o]-sh[=o], 181. +Dragon, 20, 21, 74, 115, 198, 242. +Dutch, 90, 336, 340, 353, 354, 358, 360, 362, 363-365, 366. +Dutt, Mr. Romesh Chunder, 161. + +Ebisu, 218. +Ecclesiastes, 214. +Echizen, 312. +Edicts against Christianity, 335, 336, 342. +Edkins, Dr. J., 249. +Education, 313, 320. +Embassy round the world, 373. +Emperor, 148. +Emura, Rev. Shu-zan, 232. +England, 37. +Eta, 115, 150, 275, 316, 317, 367. +Ethics, 92, 94. +Euhemerus, 192, 193, 197, 201. +Eurasians, 344. +Evil, 58, 78. +Evolution, 62. +Ezekiel, 36. +Ezra, 102. + +Family Life, 122, 125-127. +Female divinities, 66, 305, 319. +Fetichism, 22-27. +Feudalism, 10, 108-110. +Filial piety, 123, 149, 213. +Fire-drill, 55, 56. +Fire, God of, 53. +Fire-myths, 53. +Five Relations, 105, 114, 148-150. +Flags, 26. +Flood, 53. +Flowers, 58. +Forty-seven R[=o]nins, 118, 119. +Franciscans, 336, 337. +Friends, 127. +Fudo, 279. +Fuji Mountain, 400. +Fujishima, Rev. Ryauon, 231. +Fukuda, Rev. Gyo-kai, 425. +Fukui, 23. +Fuku-roku-jin, 218. + +Gardens, 237, 294, 295. +Gautama, 158, 161, 164. +Genji Monogatari, 149. +Genj[=o], 181, 232, 233, 238, 239. +Germanic nations, 10, 44. +Ghosts, 206. +Giyoku, 183. +Gnostics, 193, 195. +God-possession, 201. +Gold, 184, 196, 210, 291. +Golden Rule, 128. +Gongen, 204, 205, 220. +Gore, Mr. T., 7, 384. +Graveyards, 308, 368. +Greater Vehicle, 165, 170, 240, 244. +Gubbins, Mr. J.H., 403, 447. + +Hachiman, 204. +Hades, 53, 64. +Hara-kiri, 112, 121, 339. +Harris, Mr. Townsend, 145, 352, 360, 370, 371. +Hayashi, 129. +Heathen, 13, 30. +Heaven, 62, 63, 70, 81, 105, 112, 118, 144. +Hepburn, Dr. J.C., 372. +Hideyori, 340, 342. +Hideyoshi, 313, 333, 338. +Hindu history, 156. +Hi-nin, 115, 150. +Hinayana, 165, 167, 169, 228, 232, 238. +Hiouen Thsang, see Genj[=o]. +Hiraii, 2. +Hirata, 86. +History of China, intellectual, 137. + of Japan, intellectual, 230. + of Japan, political, 10, 37, 44, 219. + of Japan, religious, 227, 228. +Hitomar[=o], 60. +Hiyeisan, 16, 297. +Hodge, 102. +Hodgson, Mr. Brian H., 411, 414. +Hokke-Ki[=o], see Saddharma Pundarika. +Hokusai, 314. +Holland, 338. +H[=o]nen, 261, 264. +H[=o]-[=o], 184, 237. +Hospitals, 216, 315. +Hoss[=o]-Shu, 238, 239. +Hotei, 218. +Hotoke, 202, 269. + +Idols, 175, 207, 216. +Idzumo, 44, 65. +Ikk[=o], 273. +Inari, 190. +Indra, 163, 247. +Ingwa, 217, 302, 321; see Karma. +Inquisition, 347, 348, 368. +Insurance by fetich, 24, 25. +Isaiah, 100. +Ise, 28, 184, 201. +Iyeyas[)u], 91, 100, 132, 134, 204, 205, 338, 342, 357, 358. +Izanagi and Izanami, 52, 63, 64, 207, 218. + +Jade, 292. +Jains, 166. +Japan, area, 9. + Census, 9. + Ethnology, 43, 44. + Geography, 9, 43, 44. + Government, 40. + History, 10, 37, 44, 109. + Origins, 43. + Population, 8, 9. + Various names of, 73. +Japanese Bride, The, 125, 149. +Japanese characteristics, 112, 285, 361. + Language, 113, 116, 135. + Writing, 200. +Jataka tales, 169. +Jealousy, 124. +Jesuits, 247, 329, 337, 341, 342. +Jesus, 76, 97, 100, 117. +Jimmu Tenn[=o], 389, +Jin Gi Kuan, 49, 94, 390-392. +Jizo, 247, 305. +J[=o] d[=o] sect, 250, 275. +John, 2, 60. +J[=o]-jitsu sect, 181, 235. +Joss, 23. +Jun-shi, 68, 76, 119. +Ju-r[)u]-jin, 218. + +Kaburagi, 36, 60. +Kada Adzumar[=o], 91. +Kamui, 30. +Kami-dana, 86, 88, 295. +Kamui, 30. +Kana, 199, 200, 274. +Kanda, Dai Mi[=o]-Jin, 205. +Karma, 162, 169, 186, 234, 258. +Kato Kyomasa, 278, 334, 339. +Ke-gon sect, 242-244. +Keichu, 91. +Kern, Prof. H., 155, 239. +Ki[=o]to, 183, 296, 330, 336. +Kirin, 19. +Kishimoto, Mr. Nobuta., 11. +Kiushiu, 339. +Kiyomori, 120. +Knos, Dr. George Wm., 182, 228, 288, 385. +Kobayashi, Rev. Ze-jun, 425. +K[=o]b[=o], 89, 197, 205, 248, 250. +Kojiki, 29, 32, 40, 41, 52, 74, 82-90, 149, 195, 197. +Ko-ken, Empress, 310. +Kompira, 204. +Konishi, 334, 335. +Korea, 9, 21, 26, 40, 41, 74, 106, 107, 168, 179, 180, 292, 310, 328, + 332, 333, 334, 355, 368. +Kosatsu, 368. +Ku-ya, 198. +Kumi, Prof., 76-82. +Kun-shin, 111, 113, 116, 117, 213. +Ku-sha sutra, 232, 233. +Kwannon, 181, 207, 247, 319. +Ky[=u]so, 132, 144. + +Lamaism, 107. +Language of China, 237. + of England, 295. + of Holland, 364, 365. + of Japan, 39, 113, 116, 134, 265, 295, 299, 364. + of Korea, 116. +Lao Tsze, 102, 144, 218. +Laws of Japan, 358. +Lecky, Mr., 344. +Legendre, Gen., 385, 389. +Legge, Dr. J., 100, 378. +Libraries, 253, 327. +Lingam, see Phallicism. +Literature, 39, 100, 141, 156, 159, 216, 252, 313, 318, 369. +Liturgy, see Norito. +Lloyd, Rev. A., 258. +Loo-choo, see Rin Kin. +Lotus, 434, 435, 437. +Love, 117, 118. +Lowell, Mr. Percival, 397, 423. +Loyalty, see Kun-shin. +Luther, 271. +Lyman, Prof. B.S., 383. + +Mabuchi, 90, 91. +MacDonald, Rev. James, 8. +Magatama, 68, 292. +Mahayana, 105; see Greater Vehicle. +Maitreya, 169, 170, 218, 236, 244. +Malays, 9, 43. +Mandala, 203. +Munjusri, 170, 171, 179, 262. +Mantra, 248. +Many[=u]-shu, 39, 40. +Marco Polo, 42. +Mark, 60. +Marriage, 123, 126, 149. +Martyrs, 337, 344, 359, 360, 362, 366-369. +Masakado, 209. +Matsugami, 209. +Matsuri, 28. +Meiji Era, 112, 116, 256. +Mencius, 106, 112, 137. +Mendez, Pinto, 42. +Mexico, 349. +Mikado, 44, 45, 76, 92, 95, 96, 114, 117, 184, 191, 201. +Mikadoism, 45-49, 74-82, 184, 202. +Military monks, 247. +Minamoto, 271. +Ming dynasty, 134. +Mioken, 279. +Miracles, 216, 267. +Mirror, 83. +Missionary training, 6-8. +Mito, 111, 134, 143, 366. +Miya, 82-84, 209. +Monasteries, 162, 165, 298, 311, 312. +Monotheism, 15, 81, 103, 104, 145, 174, 187. +Morse lectureship, 4. +Morse, Prof E.S., 377. +Motooeri, 80, 91, 290. +Mozoomdar, 411, 420. +Mueller, Prof. Max, 211. +Munzinger, Rev. C., 403. +Murray, Dr. David, 402. +Mutsuhito, 60, 316. + +Nagasaki, 332, 337, 343, 344, 358, 362. +Nakatomi, 48. +Names, 127, 202, 265. +Names of Japan, 73, 82. +Namu-Amida-Butsu, 259, 261. +Nanjio Bunyin, 231. +Nara, 182, 237, 243, 296. +Nehan, see Nirvana. +Nepal, 167, 168, 171. +New Buddhism, 284, 285. +Nichiren, 277, 278. + Sect, 277-280, 334, 339. +Nihilism, 236, 240, 241. +Nihongi, 41, 56, 62. +Nikk[=o], 185, 263. +Nirvana, 162, 163, 186, 200, 302, 303. +Nitobe, Mr. Inazo, 352, 360. +Nobunaga, 312, 331, 332. +Norito, 38, 47-49, 54, 55-58, 79, 80, 96. +Northern Buddhism, 165. + +Obaku sect, 283. +Offerings, 57. +Ogurusu, Rev. Ku-ch[=o], 214. +Obashi Junzo, 145. +Ojin, 204. +Onna-ishi, see Phallicism. +Original prayer, 271. +Original vow, 273, 312. +Orphan asylums, 216. +Osaka, 130, 312, 368. + +Pages, Mr. Leon, 449. +Pagodas, 203. +Pantheism, 31, 142, 143, 187, 219, 243. +Paradise, 210, 229, 259, 261, 280. +Parliament of Religions, 5, 39, 72, 283. +Peking, 105. +Perry, Commodore M.C., 129, 316, 352, 360, 364, 365. +Persecutions, 93, 343. +Persian elements, 195, 202, 304. +Personality, 116. +Pessimism, 214. +Phallicism, 29-30, 49-53, 88, 380-384. +Philo, 192, 197, 201. +Phoenix, 19, 20. +Pilgrimages, 298, 290. +Pindola, see Binzuru. +Poetry, 223; see Many[=u]shu. +Politeness, 74, 241. +Popular customs, 192. +Population, 8, 9, 177, 291, 359. +Popular movement in China, 138. +Portuguese, 344, 345, 347. +Pratyekas, 234. +Prayers, 86-88. +Prayer-wheels, 175. +Printing, 133, 134, 200. +Prometheus, 53. +Protestantism, 155, 162, 252, 274. +Pronouns, 116. +Proverbs, 28, 179, 226, 270, 307, 332, 352, 389. +Psychology of the Japanese, 230, 241. +Pure Land of Bliss, 198, 263-265. +Purification of 1870, 206, 210, 213, 222, 248, 360. +Pyrronism, 240. + +Rai Sanyo, 143. +Rakan, 305. +"Reformed" Buddhism, 270, 274-277. +Renny[=o] Sh[=o]-nin, 258. +Revision of Confucianism, 148-152. +Revival of pure Shint[=o], 91-96. +Revolving libraries, 253. +Ris-shu, 236-238. +Rituals, see Norito. +Riu Kiu, 9, 109. +Riy[=o]bu, 89, 191, 203, 209, 211, 212, 223. +Rosaries, 266. + +Saddharma Pundarika, 170, 229, 246, 280, 304. +Sado, 341. +Salt, 85. +Samurai, 110, 119, 146, 151, 152. +San Kai Ri, 211. +Sanron sect, 182, 240. +Sanskrit, 25, 182, 200, 210, 245, 249. +Saratashi, 218. +Satow, Mr. Ernest, 39, 47, 386. +Satsuma, 313. +Schools of Philosophy: + Chinese, 136-139. + Indian, 159-164, 232. + Japanese, 356-358, 369. +Sekigaharu, 338. +Sendai, 119. +Seppuku, see Hara-kiri. +Serpent-worship, 30-33, 278, 279, 385. +Seven Gods of Good Fortune, 217, 218. +Shaka, 160, 161, 179, 254. +Shakyamuni, see Shaka. +Shaminism, 15-17. +Shang-Ti, 103, 104. +Shari, 182. +Shastra and Sutra, 231. +Shichimen, 278. +Shigomori, 120. +Shimabara, 344. +Shingaku movement, 369, 370. +Shingon sect, 185, 203, 248-251. +Shinran, 271-274. +Shin sect, 270-276, 317. +Shint[=o], 38, 42, 76, 89, 96, 97, 142, 184, 195, 214, 319. +Sin, 285, 288. +Sh[=o]-gun, 110, 115, 143. +Shomon, 236. +Sh[=o]toku, 180, 181, 208, 236, 313. +Siddartha, 410. +Soga no Iname, 180. +Soshi, 95, 278. +Southern Buddhism, 165, 167. +Spaniards, 336, 337, 340, 347. +Stars, 92. +Statistics of Buddhism, 309. + of Shint[=o], 400, 401. +Sugawara Michizane, 204. +Suicide, 112, 118-121, 147, 151. +Suiko, 180. +Sung dynasty, 414, 437. +Sun-goddess, 66, 104, 201, 203. +Sun-worship, 46, 47, 82, 87. +Swastika, 305. +Swords, 7, 378. +Syle, Rev. E.W., 36. +Syncretism, 191-194, 205. +Synergism, 268, 271, 272. +Szma Kwang, 138. + +Taik[=o], see Hideyoshi. +Takahashi, Mr. Gor[=o], 384. +Takashi, Rev. Dai-Ryo, 238. +Taketori Monogatari, 423. +Tantra system, 194. +Ta[=o]ism, 106, 215, 218. +Tathagata, 259. +Tathata, 243, 246. +Taylor, Bayard, 380. +Tea plant, 208. +Tei-Shn philosophy, 139, 145. +Temples, 83, 93, 209, 305-309. +Ten, 144. +Tendai sect, 185, 244-248, 268. +Tenjin, 204. +Tenn[=o], 184. +Tenshi, 184. +Terence, 128. +Theism, 172. +Theological seminaries, 6-8. +Tibet, 165, 167, 170. +Tobacco, 209. +Tokugawas, 141, 143, 356, 365. +Torii, 84, 210. +Tortoise, 19. +Transmigration of souls, 315. +Tree-worship, 30, 31. +Triads, 171, 255, 279. +Trinity, 428. +Tripitaka, 160, 170, 231. +Tsuji, Rev. Ken-ko, 425. +Tsukushi, 44. +Tsushima, 44. +Tycoon, see Sh[=o]-gun. + +Ueda, Rev. Sho-Hen, 425. +Upanishads, 156, 161, 162. +Ushi toki mairi, 31. +Uzume, 68. + +Vagra, 305. +Vagrabodhi, 248, 249. +Vairokana, 184, 244, 250. +Vedas, 156, 158, 159, 160, 162. +Vehicles, the three, 234, 235; see also Hinayana and Mahayana. +Victims, 74. + +Washington, 114. +Western Paradise, 277. +Wheel of the law, 302. +Whitney, Prof. W.D., 211, 277. +William the Silent, 114. +Woman, 123, 149, 275, 318-320. + +Xavier, 324, 329, 330, 345, 346, 347. + +Yamato, 44, 76, 87, 91, 109, 177, 179. + Damashii, 44, 147, 151, 152, 172. +Yamato-Tosa art, 114, +Yedo, 110, 115, 119, 141, 220, 238, 340, 360, 366. +Yen Sect, 252-256. +Yezo, 43, 317. +Yoga, 157, 197, 199, 201, 209, 211. +Yoga-chara, 194, 203, 249. +Yokoi Heishiro, 112, 316, 366, 367. +Yori, see Phallicism. +Yoshida Shoin, 147. +Yoshiwara system, 404. + +Zend[=o], 261-262, 267. +Zenk[=o]ji, 179, 181. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Religions of Japan, by William Elliot Griffis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN *** + +***** This file should be named 15516.txt or 15516.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/1/15516/ + +Produced by Nathan Strom, Frank van Drogen, David King, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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