The Religions of Japan | Page 4

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 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.--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-Uké-Bimé.--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