The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of MéijiGriffis, William Elliot
Religion
The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji
Griffis, William Elliot
Japan -- Religion
"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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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