Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And PsychicGulick, Sidney Lewis
History
Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic
Gulick, Sidney Lewis
Japan -- Civilization; Japan -- Social life and customs; National characteristics, Japanese
"Kujuro, a lad of fifteen years, quarreled with a neighbor's son
over a game of _go_, lost his self-control, and before he could be
seized, drew his sword and cut the boy down. While the wounded boy
was under the surgeon's care, Kujuro was in custody, but he showed
no fear, and his words and acts were calm beyond his years. After
some days the boy died, and Kujuro was condemned to hara-kiri. The
officers in charge gave him a farewell feast the night before he
died. He calmly wrote to his mother, took ceremonious farewell of
his keeper and all in the house, and then said to the guests: 'I
regret to leave you all, and should like to stay and talk till
daybreak; but I must not be sleepy when I commit hara-kiri
to-morrow, so I'll go to bed at once. Do you stay at your ease and
drink the wine.' So he went to his room and fell asleep, all being
filled with admiration as they heard him snore. On the morrow he
rose early, bathed and dressed himself with care, made all his
preparations with perfect calmness, and then, quiet and composed,
killed himself. No old, trained, self-possessed samurai could have
excelled him. No one who saw it could speak of it for years without
tears.... I have told you this that Kujuro may be remembered. It
would be shameful were it to be forgotten that so young a boy
performed such a deed."[AZ]
"We are not to cease obeying for the sake of study, nor must we
establish the laws before we begin to obey. In obedience we are to
establish its Tightness and wrongness."[BA]
"We learn loyalty and obedience as we are loyal and obedient.
To-day I know yesterday's short-comings, and to-morrow I shall know
to-day's.... In our occupations we learn whether conduct conforms
to right and so advance in the truth by practice."[BB]
"Besides a few works on history, like the Sankyo Ega Monogatari,
which record facts, there are no books worth reading in our
literature. For the most part they are sweet stories of the
Buddhas, of which one soon wearies. But the evil is traditional,
long-continued, and beyond remedy. And other books are full of
lust, not even to be mentioned, like the Genji Monogatari, which
should never be shown to a woman or a young man. Such books lead to
vice. Our nobles call the Genji Monogatari a national treasure,
why, I do not know, unless it is that they are intoxicated with its
style. That is like plucking the spring blossom unmindful of the
autumn's fruit. The book is full of adulteries from beginning to
end. Seeing the right, ourselves should become good, seeing the
wrong, we should reprove ourselves. The Genji Monogatari, Chokonka,
and Seishoki are of a class, vile, mean, comparable to the books of
the sages as charcoal to ice, as the stench of decay to the perfume
of flowers."[BC]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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