EVOLUTION OF THE JAPANESE
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| THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD |
| By |
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| SIDNEY L. GULICK, M.A. |
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| Illustrated with Twenty-six Diagrams _12 mo, Cloth, $1.50_ |
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| "Commends itself to thoughtful, earnest men of any nation as a |
| most valuable missionary paper. Mr. Gulick traces the |
| Christian religion through history and up to now. The survey |
| is calm, patient, thoroughly honest, and quietly assured." |
| --_Evangelist_. |
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| FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY |
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EVOLUTION OF THE JAPANESE
_SOCIAL AND PSYCHIC_
BY
SIDNEY L. GULICK, M.A.
_Missionary of the American Board in Japan_
[Illustration]
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
Fleming H. Revell Company
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 63 Washington Street Toronto: 27
Richmond Street, W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 30 St.
Mary Street
PREFACE
The present work is an attempt to interpret the characteristics of
modern Japan in the light of social science. It also seeks to throw
some light on the vexed question as to the real character of so-called
race-nature, and the processes by which that nature is transformed. If
the principles of social science here set forth are correct, they
apply as well to China and India as to Japan, and thus will bear
directly on the entire problem of Occidental and Oriental social
intercourse and mutual influence.
The core of this work consists of addresses to American and English
audiences delivered by the writer during his recent furlough. Since
returning to Japan, he has been able to give but fragments of time to
the completion of the outlines then sketched, and though he would
gladly reserve the manuscript for further elaboration, he yields to
the urgency of friends who deem it wise that he delay no longer in
laying his thought before the wider public.
To Japanese readers the writer wishes to say that although he has not
hesitated to make statements painful to a lover of Japan, he has not
done it to condemn or needlessly to criticise, but simply to make
plain what seem to him to be the facts. If he has erred in his facts
or if his interpretations reflect unjustly on the history or spirit of
Japan, no one will be more glad than he for corrections. Let the
Japanese be assured that his ruling motive, both in writing about
Japan and in spending his life in this land, is profound love for the
Japanese people. The term "native" has been freely used because it is
the only natural correlative for "foreign." It may be well to say that
neither the one nor the other has any derogatory implication,
although anti-foreign natives, and anti-native foreigners, sometimes
so use them.
The indebtedness of the writer is too great to be acknowledged in
detail. But whenever he has been conscious of drawing directly from
any author for ideas or suggestions, effort has been made to indicate
the source.
Since the preparation of the larger part of this work several
important contributions to the literature on Japan have appeared which
would have been of help to the writer, could he have referred to them
during the progress of his undertaking. Rev. J.C.C. Newton's "Japan:
Country, Court, and People"; Rev. Otis Cary's "Japan and Its
Regeneration"; and Prof. J. Nitobe's "Bushido: The Soul of Japan,"
call for special mention. All are excellent works, interesting,
condensed, informative, and well-balanced. Had the last named come to
hand much earlier it would have received frequent reference and
quotation in the body of this volume, despite the fact that it sets
forth an ideal rather than the actual state of Old Japan.
Special acknowledgment should be made of the help rendered by my
brothers, Galen M. Fisher and Edward L. Gulick, and by my sister, Mrs.
F.F. Jewett, in reading and revising the manuscript. Acknowledgment
should also be made of the invaluable criticisms and suggestions in
regard to the general theory of social evolution advocated in these
pages made by my uncle, Rev. John T. Gulick, well known to the
scientific world for his contributions to the theory as well as to the
facts of biological evolution.
S.L.G.
MATSUYAMA, JAPAN.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 13
I. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
Occidental conceptions of the recent history of Japan--Japan seems to
be contradicting our theory of national evolution--Similarities of
ancient and modern Japan--Japanese evolution is "natural"--The study
of Japanese social evolution is of unusual interest, because it has
experienced such marked changes--Because it is now in a stage of rapid
growth--And is taking place before our eyes--Also because here is
taking place a unique union of Occidental and Oriental
civilizations--Comparison between India and Japan, 23
II. HISTORICAL SKETCH
Mythology and tradition--Authentic history--Old Japan--The transition
from Old to New Japan--New Japan--Compelled by foreign nations to
centralize--Ideals and material instruments supplied from
abroad--Exuberant Patriotism--"Ai-koku-shin," 35
III. THE PROBLEM OF PROGRESS
Is Japan making progress?--Happiness as a criterion--The oppressive
rule of militarism--The emptiness of the ordinary life--The condition
of woman--"The Greater Learning for Woman"--Divorce--Progress
defined--Deficiency of the hedonistic criterion of progress, 52
IV. THE METHOD OF PROGRESS
Progress a modern conception and ideal--How was the "cake of custom"
broken?--"Government by discussion" an insufficient principle of
progress--Two lines of progress, Ideal and Material--The significance
of Perry's coming to Japan--Effect on Japan of Occidental ideas--The
material element of progress--Mistaken praise of the simplicity of Old
Japan, L. Hearn--The significance of the material element of
civilization--Mastery of nature--The defect of Occidental
civilization, 61
V. JAPANESE SENSITIVENESS TO ENVIRONMENT
Our main question--Illustrations--Japanese students
abroad--Sensitiveness to ridicule--Advantages and disadvantages of
this characteristic--National sensitiveness to foreign
criticism--Nudity--Formosa--Mental and physical
flexibility--Adjustability--Some apparent exceptions--Chinese
ideographs--How account for these characteristics, 72
VI. WAVES OF FEELING--ABDICATION
The Japanese are emotional--An illustration from politics--The
tendency to run to extremes--Danger of overemphasizing this
tendency--Japanese silent dissent--Men of balance in public
life--Abdication--Gubbins quoted--Is abdication an inherent trait? 82
VII. HEROES AND HERO-WORSHIP
Popular national heroes--The craving for modern heroes--Townsend
Harris's insight into Oriental character--Hero-worship an obstacle to
missionary work--Capt. Jaynes--An experience in Kumamoto--"The sage of
Omi"--"The true hero"--Moral heroes in Japan--The advantage and
disadvantage of hero-worship--Modern moral heroes--Hero-worship
depends on personality and idealism--The new social order is producing
new ideals and new heroes, 89
VIII. LOVE FOR CHILDREN
Japanese love for children--Children's festivals--Toys and
toy-stores--Do Japanese love children more than Americans
do?--Importance in Japan of maintaining the family line--The looseness
of the Japanese family tie--Early cessation of demonstrative
affection--Infanticide, 96
IX. MARITAL LOVE
Affection between husband and wife--Occidental and Oriental estimate
of woman contrasted--This a subject easily-misunderstood--Kissing a
social habit unknown in Japan--Demonstrative affection a social, not a
racial characteristic--Some specific illustrations, Dr. Neesima--A
personal experience--Illegitimate children--Fraudulent
registration--Adult adoption--Divorce--Monogamy, polygamy, and
prostitution--Race character, social order, and affection--Position of
women--The social order and affection--The social order and the
valuation of man and woman--The new social order and the valuation of
man--The spread of Christian ideals and the re-organization of the
family, 102
X. CHEERFULNESS--INDUSTRY--TRUTHFULNESS--SUSPICIOUSNESS
Japanese cheerfulness--Festivals--Pessimism existent, but easily
overlooked--The ubiquity of children gives an appearance of
cheerfulness--Industry--Illustrations--Easy-going--Sociological
interpretation--Mutual confidence and trustfulness--Relation to
communalistic feudalism--Changes in the social order and in
character--The American Board's experience in trusting Japanese
honor--The Doshisha and its difficulties--Suspiciousness--Necessary
under the old social order--The need of constant care in conversation,
115
XI. JEALOUSY--REVENGE--HUMANE FEELINGS
Jealousy particularly ascribed to women--How related to the social
order--Is jealousy limited to women?--Revenge--Taught as a moral
duty--Revenge and the new social order--Are the Japanese cruel?--First
impressions--Treatment of the insane--Of lepers--The cruelty and
hardness of heart of Old Japan--Buddhistic teaching and
practice--Buddhist and Christian Orphan Asylums--Treatment of
horses--Torture in Old Japan--Crucifixion and transfixion by
spears--Hard-heartedness cultivated under feudalism--Cruelty and the
humane feelings in the Occident--Abolition of cruel customs in ancient
and in Old Japan--Cruelty a sociological, not a biological
characteristic--The rise of humane feelings--Doctors and
hospitals--Philanthropy, 127
XII. AMBITION--CONCEIT
Ambition, both individual and national--The "Kumamoto
Band"--Self-confidence and conceit--Refined in nature--Illustrations
in the use of English--Readiness of young men to assume grave
responsibilities--A product of the social order--Assumptions of
inferiority by the common people--Obsequiousness--Modern
self-confidence and assumptions not without ground--Self-confidence
and success--Self-confidence and physical size--Young men and the
recent history of Japan--The self-confidence and conceit of Western
nations--The open-mindedness of most Japanese, 137
XIII. PATRIOTISM--APOTHEOSIS--COURAGE
"Yamato-Damashii": "The Soul of Japan"--Patriotism and the recent war
with China--Patriotism of Christian orphans--Mr. Ishii--Patriotism is
for a person, not for country--National patriotism is
modern--Passionate devotion to the Emperor--A gift of 20,000,000 yen
to the Emperor--The constitution derives its authority from the
Emperor--A quotation from Prof. Yamaguchi--Japanese Imperial
succession is of Oriental type--Concubines and children of the
reigning Emperor--Apotheosis, Oriental and Occidental--Apotheosis and
national unity--The political conflict between Imperial and popular
sovereignty--Japanese and Roman apotheosis--Prof. Nash
quoted--Courage--Cultivated in ancient times--A peculiar feature of
Japanese courage--"Harakiri"--E. Griffis quoted--A boy hero--Relation
of courage to social order--Japanese courage not only physical--modern
instance of moral courage, 144
XIV. FICKLENESS--STOLIDITY--STOICISM
Illustrations of fickleness--Prof. Chamberlain's
explanation--Fickleness a modern trait--Continuity of purpose in spite
of changes of method--The youth of those on whom responsibility
rests--Fluctuation of interest in Christianity not a fair
illustration--The period of fluctuation is passing
away--Impassiveness--"Putty faces"--Distinguish between stupidity and
stoicism--Stupid stolidity among the farmers--Easily removed--Social
stolidity cultivated--Demanded by the old social order--The influence
of Buddhism in suppressing expression of emotion--An illustration of
suppressed curiosity--Lack of emotional manifestations when the
Emperor appears in public--Stolidity a social, not a racial trait--A
personal experience--The increased vivacity of Christian
women--Relations of emotional to intellectual development and to the
social order, 159
XV. AESTHETIC CHARACTERISTICS
The wide development of the æsthetic sense in Japan--Japanese æsthetic
development is unbalanced--The sense of smell--Painting--Japanese art
pays slight attention to the human form--Sociological
interpretation--The nude in Japanese art--Relation to the social
order--Art and immorality--Caricature--Fondness for the abnormal in
nature--Abnormal stones--Tosa cocks--Æsthetics of speech--The æsthetic
sense and the use of personal pronouns--Deficiency of the æsthetic
development in regard to speech--Sociological explanations--Close
relation of æsthetics and conduct--Sociological explanation for the
wide development of the æsthetic sense--The classes lived in close
proximity--The spirit of dependence and imitation--Universality of
culture more apparent than real--Defects of æsthetic taste--Defective
etiquette--How accounted for--Old and new conditions--"Western taste
debasing Japanese art"--Illustration of aboriginal æsthetic
defects--Colored photographs--Æsthetic defects of popular shrines--The
æsthetics of music--Experience of the Hawaiian people--Literary
æsthetic development--Aston quoted--Architectural æsthetic
development--Æsthetic development is sociological rather than
biological, 170
XVI. MEMORY--IMITATION
Psychological unity of the East and the West--Brain size and social
evolution--The size of the Japanese brain--Memory--Learning Chinese
characters--Social selection and mnemonic power--Japanese memory in
daily life--Memory of uncivilized and semi-civilized peoples--Hindu
memory--Max Müller quoted--Japanese acquisition of foreign
languages--The argument from language for the social as against the
biological distinction of races--The faculty of imitation; is not to
be despised--Prof. Chamberlain's over-emphasis of Japanese
imitation--Originality in adopting Confucianism and
Buddhism--"Shinshu"--"Nichirenshu"--Adoption of Chinese
philosophy--Dr. Knox's over-emphasis of servile adoption--Our
ignorance of Japanese history of thought--A reason for Occidental
misunderstanding--The incubus of governmental initiative--Relation of
imitation to the social order, 189
XVII. ORIGINALITY--INVENTIVENESS
Originality in art--Authoritative suppression of originality--Townsend
Harris quoted--Suppression of Christianity and of heterodox
Confucianism--Modern suppression of historical research--Yet Japan is
not wholly lacking in originality--Recent discoveries and
inventions--Originality in borrowing from the West--Quotations from a
native paper, 203
XVIII. INDIRECTNESS--"NOMINALITY"
"Roundaboutness"--Some advantages of this
characteristic--Illustrations--Study of English for direct and
accurate habits of thought--Rapid modern growth of
directness--"Nominality"--All Japanese history an illustration--The
Imperial rule only nominal--The daimyo as a figure-head--"Nominality"
in ordinary life--In family relations--Illustrations in Christian
work--A "nominal" express train--"Nominality" and the social order,
210
XIX. INTELLECTUALITY
Do Japanese lack the higher mental faculties?--Evidence of
inventions--Testimony of foreign teachers--Japanese students, at home
and abroad--Readiness in public speech--Powers of generalization in
primitive Japan--"Ri" and "Ki," "In" and "Yo"--Japanese use of Chinese
generalized philosophical terms--Generalization and the social
order--Defective explanation of puerile Oriental science--Relation to
the mechanical memory method of education--High intellectuality
dependent on social order, 218
XX. PHILOSOPHICAL ABILITY
Do Japanese lack philosophical ability?--Some opinions--Some
distinctions--Japanese interest in metaphysical problems--Buddhist and
Confucian metaphysics--Metaphysics and ethics--Japanese students of
Occidental philosophy--A personal experience--"The little
philosopher"--A Buddhist priest--Rarity of original philosophical
ability and even interest--Philosophical ability and the social order
in the West, 225
XXI. IMAGINATION
Some criticisms of Japanese mental traits--Wide range of imaginative
activity--Some salient points--Unbalanced imaginative
development--Prosaic matter-of-factness--Visionariness--Impractical
idealism--Illustrations--An evangelist--A principal--Visionariness in
Christian work--Visionariness in national ambition--Imagination and
optimism--Mr. Lowell's opinion criticised--Fancy and
imagination--Caricature--Imagination and imitation--Sociological
interpretation of visionariness--And of prosaic
matter-of-factness--Communalism and the higher mental
powers--Suppression of the constructive imagination--Racial
intellectual characteristics are social rather than inherent, 233
XXII. MORAL IDEALS
Loyalty and filial piety as moral ideals--Quotations from an ancient
moralist, Muro Kyuso--On the heavenly origin of moral teaching--On
self-control--Knowledge comes through obedience--On the impurity of
ancient literature--On the ideal of the samurai in relation to
trade--Old Japan combined statute and ethical law--"The testament of
Iyeyasu"--Ohashi's condemnation of Western learning for its
impiety--Japanese moral ideals were communal--Truthfulness
undeveloped--Relations of samurai to tradesman--The business standards
are changing with the social order--Ancient Occidental contempt for
trade--Plato and Aristotle, 249
XXIII. MORAL IDEALS (_Continued_)
The social position of woman--Valuation of the individual--Confucian
and Buddhistic teaching in regard to concubinage and
polygamy--Sociological interpretation--Japan not exceptional--Actual
morality of Old Japan--Modern growth of immorality--Note on the
"Social Evil"--No ancient teaching in regard to masculine
chastity--Mr. Hearn's mistaken contention--Filial obedience and
prostitution--How could the social order produce two different moral
ideals?--The new Civil Code on marriage--Divorce--Statistics--Modern
advance of woman--Significance of the Imperial Silver Wedding--The
Wedding of the Prince Imperial--Relation of Buddhism and Confucianism
to moral ideals and practice--The new spirit of Buddhism--Christian
influence on Shinto; Tenri Kyo--The ancient moralists confined their
attention to the rulers--The Imperial Edict in regard to Moral
Education, 258
XXIV. MORAL PRACTICE
The publicity of Japanese life--Public bathing--Personal experience at
a hot-spring--Mr. Hearn on privacy--Individualism and variation from
the moral standard--Standards advancing--Revenge--Modern liberty of
travel--Increase of wealth--Increasing luxury and vice--Increase of
concubinage--Native discussions--Statistics--Business honesty--A
native paper quoted--Some experiences with Christians--Testimony of a
Japanese consul--Difference of gifts to Buddhist and to Christian
institutions--Christian condemnation of Doshisha
mismanagement--Misappropriation of trust funds in the West--Business
honesty and the social order--Fitness of Christianity to the new
social order--A summary--Communal virtues--Individual Vices--The
authority of the moral ideal--Moral characteristics are not inherent,
but social, in nature, 273
XXV. ARE THE JAPANESE RELIGIOUS?
Prof. Pfleiderer's view--Percival Lowell's definition of
religion--Japanese appearance of irreligion due to many
facts--Skeptical attitude of Confucius towards the gods--Ready
acceptance of Western agnosticism--Prof. Chamberlain's assertion that
the Japanese take their religion lightly--Statements concerning
religion by Messrs. Fukuzawa, Kato, and Ito--Statements of Japanese
irreligion are not to be lightly accepted--Incompetence of many
critics--We must study all the religious
phenomena--Pilgrimages--Statistics--Mr. Lowell's criticism of
"peripatetic picnic parties"--Is religion necessarily gloomy?--God and
Buddha shelves universal in Japan--Temples and shrines--Statistics,
286
XXVI. SOME RELIGIOUS PHENOMENA
Stoical training conceals religious emotions--The earnestness of many
suppliants--Buddhistic and Shinto practice of religious ecstasy--The
revolt from Buddhism a religious movement--Muro Kyu-so
quoted--"Heaven's Way"--"God's omnipresence"--Pre-Christian teachers
of Christian truth--Interpretation of modern irreligious
phenomena--Japanese apparent lack of reverence--Not an inherent racial
characteristic--Sketch of Japanese religious
history--Shinto--Buddhism--Confucianism--Christianity--Roman
Catholicism--Protestantism--Religious characteristics are social, not
essential or racial, 296
XXVII. SOME RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS
Japanese conceptions as to deity--The number and relation of the gods
to the universe--Did the Japanese have the monotheistic
conception?--Attractiveness of Christian monotheism--Confucian and
Buddhist monism--Religious conception of man--Conception of
sin--Defective terminology--Relation of sin to salvation--"Holy
water"--Holy towels and the spread of disease--The slight connection
between physical and moral pollution--W.E. Griffis quoted--Exaggerated
cleanliness of the Japanese--Public bathing houses--Consciousness of
sin in the sixteenth century--A recent experience--Doctrine of the
future life--Salvation from fate--"Ingwa"--These are important
doctrines--"Mei" (Heaven's decree)--Japan not unique--Sociological
interpretations of religious characteristics, 310
XXVIII. SOME RELIGIOUS PRACTICES
Loyalty and filial piety as religious phenomena--Gratitude as a
religions trait--Hearn quoted--Unpleasant experiences of
ingratitude--Modern suppression of phallicism--Brothels and
prostitutes at popular shrines--The failure of higher ethnic faiths to
antagonize the lower--Suppression of phallicism due to Western
opinion--The significance of this suppression to sociological
theory--Religious liberty--Some history--Inconsistent attitude of the
Educational Department--Virtual establishment of compulsory state
religion--Review and summary--The Japanese ready learners of foreign
religions--The significance of this to sociology--Japanese future
religion is to be Christianity, 322
XXIX. SOME PRINCIPLES OF NATIONAL EVOLUTION
Progress is from smaller to larger communities--Arrest of
development--The necessity of individualism--The relation of communal
to individual development--A possible misunderstanding--The problem of
distribution--Personality, 332
XXX. ARE THE JAPANESE IMPERSONAL?
Assertion of Oriental impersonality--Quotations from Percival
Lowell--Defective and contradictory definitions--Arguments for
impersonality resting on mistaken interpretations--Children's
festivals--Occidental and Oriental method of counting ages--Argument
for impersonality from Japanese art--From the characteristics of the
Japanese family--The bearing of divorce on this argument--Do Japanese
"fall in love"?--Suicide and murder for love--Occidental approval and
Oriental condemnation of "falling in love"--Sociological significance
of divorce and of "falling in love," 344
XXXI. THE JAPANESE NOT IMPERSONAL
The problem stated--Definitions--Remarks on
definitions--Characteristics of a person--Impersonality defined--A
preliminary summary statement--Definitions of Communalism and
Individualism--The argument for "impersonality" from Japanese
politeness--Some difficulties of this interpretation--The sociological
interpretation of politeness--The significance of Japanese
sensitiveness--Altruism as a proof of impersonality--Japanese
selfishness and self-assertiveness--Distinction between communal and
individualistic altruism--Deficiency of personal pronouns as a proof
of impersonality--A possible counter-argument--Substitutes for
personal pronouns--Many personal words in Japanese--Origin of
pronouns, personal and others--The relation of the social order to the
use of personal pronouns--Japanese conceive Nationality only through
Personality--"Strong" and "weak" personality--Strong personalities in
Japan--Feudalism and strong personalities, 356
XXXII. IS BUDDHISM IMPERSONAL?
Self-suppression as a proof of impersonality--Self-suppression cannot
be ascribed to a primitive people--Esoteric Buddhism not
popular--Buddhism emphasized introspection and self-consciousness--Mr.
Lowell on the teaching of Buddha--Consciousness of union with the
Absolute a developed, not a primitive, trait--Buddhist
self-suppression proves a developed self--Buddhist self-salvation and
Christian salvation by faith--Buddhism does not develop rounded
personality--Buddhism attributes no worth to the self--Buddhist mercy
rests on the doctrine of transmigration, not on the inherent worth of
man--Analysis of the diverse elements in the asserted "Impersonality
"--Why Buddhism attributed no value to the self--The Infinite Absolute
Abstraction--Buddhism not impersonal but abstract--Buddhist doctrine
of illusion--Popular Buddhism not philosophical--Relation of "ingwa,"
Fate, to the development of personality--Relation of belief in freedom
to the fact of freedom--Sociological consequences of Buddhist
doctrine, 377
XXXIII. TRACES OF PERSONALITY IN SHINTOISM, BUDDHISM, AND CONFUCIANISM
Human illogicalness providential--Some devices for avoiding the evils
of logical conclusions--Buddhistic actual appeal to personal
self-activity--Practical Confucianism an antidote to Buddhist
poison--Confucian ethics produced strong persons--The personal
conception of deity is widespread--Shinto gods all persons--Popular
Buddhist gods are personal--Confucian "Heaven" implies
personality--The idea of personality not wholly wanting in the
Orient--The idea of divine personality not difficult to impart to a
Japanese--A conversation with a Buddhist priest--Sketch of the
development of Japanese personality--Is personality
inherent?--Intrinsic and phenomenal personality--Note on the doctrine
of the personality of God, 389
XXXIV. THE BUDDHIST WORLD-VIEW
Comparison of Buddhist, Greek, and Christian conceptions of
God--Nirvana--The Buddhistic Ultimate Reality absolute vacuity--Greek
affirmation of intelligence in the Ultimate Reality--Christian
affirmation of Divine Personality--The Buddhist universe is partly
rational and ethical--The Greek universe is partly rational and
ethical--Corresponding views of sin, salvation, change, and
history--Resulting pessimism and optimism--Consequences to the
respective civilizations and their social orders, 398
XXXV. COMMUNAL AND INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS IN THE EVOLUTION OF JAPANESE
RELIGIOUS LIFE
Japanese religious life has been predominantly communal--Shinto
provided the sanctions for the social order--Recent abdication of
Shinto as a religion--Primitive Shinto world--view--Shinto and modern
science--Shinto sanctions for the modern social order--Buddhism is
individualistic--Lacks social ideals and sanctions--Hence it could not
displace Shinto--Shinto and Buddhism are supplementary--Produced a
period of prosperity--The defect of Buddhist individualism--Imperfect
acceptance of Shinto--Effect of political history--Confucianism
restored the waning communal sanctions--The difference between Shinto
and Confucian social ideals and sanctions--The difference between
Shinto and Confucian world-views--Rejection of the Confucian social
order--An interpretation--The failure of Confucianism to become a
religion--Western intercourse re-established Shinto sanctions--Japan's
modern religious problem--Difficulty of combining individual and
communal religious elements--Christianity has accomplished
it--Individualism in and through communalism--A modern expansion of
communal religion--Shared by Japan--Some Japanese recognize the need
of religion for Japan--Sociological function of individualistic
religion in the higher human evolution--Obstacle to evolution through
the development of intellect--The Japanese mind is outgrowing its old
religious conceptions--The dependence of religious phenomena on the
ideas dominating society--Note on National and Universal
religions--Buddhism not properly classified as Universal--The
classification of religions, 404
XXXVI. WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ORIENT
The conclusion reached in this work--Contrary to the opinion of
tourists, residents, and many sociologists--Professor Le Bon
quoted--Social psychic characteristics not inherent--Evolution and
involution--Advocates of inherent Oriental traits should catalogue
those traits--An attempt by the London _Daily Mail_--Is the East
inherently intuitive, and the West logical?--The difficulty of
becoming mutually acquainted--The secret of genuine acquaintance--Is
the East inherently meditative and the West active?--Oriental unity
and characteristics are social, not inherent--Isolated evolution is
divergent--Mutual influence of the East and the West--Summary
statement, 422
XXXVII. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
Review of our course of thought--Purpose of this chapter--The problem
studied in this work--Interrelation of social and psychic
phenomena--Heredity defined and analyzed--Evolution defined--Exact
definition of our question, and our reply--What would be an adequate
disproof of our position--Reasons for limiting the discussion to
advanced races--Divergent evolution dependent on
segregation--Distinction between racial and social unity--Relation of
the individual psychic character to the social order--"Race soul" a
convenient fiction--Psychic function produces psychic organism--Causes
and nature of plasticity and fixity of society--Relation of incarnate
ideas to character and destiny--Valuelessness of "floating"
ideas--Progress is at once communal and individual--Personality is its
cause, aim, and criterion--Progress in personality is
ethico-religious--Japanese social and psychic evolution not
exceptional, 438
INTRODUCTION
The tragedy enacted in China during the closing year of the nineteenth
century marks an epoch in the history of China and of the world. Two
world-views, two types of civilization met in deadly conflict, and the
inherent weakness of isolated, belated, superstitious and corrupt
paganism was revealed. Moreover, during this, China's crisis, Japan
for the first time stepped out upon the world's stage of political and
military activity. She was recognized as a civilized nation, worthy to
share with the great nations of the earth the responsibility of ruling
the lawless and backward races.
The correctness of any interpretation as to the significance of this
conflict between the opposing civilizations turns, ultimately, on the
question as to what is the real nature of man and of society. If it be
true, as maintained by Prof. Le Bon and his school, that the mental
and moral character of a people is as fixed as its physiological
characteristics, then the conflict in China is at bottom a conflict of
races, not of civilizations.
The inadequacy of the physiological theory of national character may
be seen almost at a glance by a look at Japan. Were an Oriental
necessarily and unchangeably Oriental, it would have been impossible
for Japan to have come into such close and sympathetic touch with the
West.
The conflict of the East with the West, however, is not an inherent
and unending conflict, because it is not racial, but civilizational.
It is a conflict of world-views and systems of thought and life. It is
a conflict of heathen and Christian civilizations. And the conflict
will come to an end as soon as, and in proportion as, China awakes
from her blindness and begins to build her national temple on the
bedrock of universal truth and righteousness. The conflict is
practically over in Japan because she has done this. In loyally
accepting science, popular education, and the rights of every
individual to equal protection by the government, Japan has accepted
the fundamental conceptions of civilization held in the West, and has
thus become an integral part of Christendom, a fact of world-wide
significance. It proves that the most important differences now
separating the great races of men are civilizational, not
physiological. It also proves that European, American, and Oriental
peoples may be possessed by the same great ideals of life and
principles of action, enabling them to co-operate as nations in great
movements to their mutual advantage.
While even we of the West may be long in learning the full
significance of what has been and still is taking place in Japan and
more conspicuously just now, because more tragically, in China, one
thing is clear: steam and electricity have abolished forever the old
isolation of the nations.
Separated branches of the human race that for thousands of years have
been undergoing divergent evolution, producing radically different
languages, customs, civilizations, systems of thought and world-views,
and have resulted even in marked physiological and psychological
differences, are now being brought into close contact and inevitable
conflict. But at bottom it is a conflict of ideas, not of races. The
age of isolation and divergent evolution is passing away, and that of
international association and convergent social evolution has begun.
Those races and nations that refuse to recognize the new social order,
and oppose the cosmic process and its forces, will surely be pushed to
the wall and cease to exist as independent nations, just as, in
ancient times, the tribes that refused to unite with neighboring
tribes were finally subjugated by those that did so unite.
Universal economic, political, intellectual, moral, and religious
intercourse is the characteristic of the new æon on which we are
entering. What are to be the final consequences of this wide
intercourse? Can a people change its character? Can a nation fully
possessed by one type of civilization reject it, and adopt one
radically different? Do races have "souls" which are fixed and
incapable of radical transformations? What has taken place in Japan, a
profound, or only a superficial change in psychical character? Are the
destinies of the Oriental races already unalterably determined?
The answers to these questions have already been suggested in the
preceding paragraphs, in regard to what has already taken place in
Japan. But we may add that that answer really turns on our conception
as to the nature of the characteristics separating the East from the
West. In proportion as national character is reckoned to be
biological, will it be considered fixed and the national destiny
predetermined. In proportion as it is reckoned to be sociological,
will it be considered alterable and the national destiny subject to
new social forces. Now that the intercourse of widely different races
has begun on a scale never before witnessed, it is highly important
for us to know its probable consequences. For this we need to gain a
clear idea of the nature both of the individual man and of society, of
the relation of the social order to individual and to race character,
and of the law regulating and the forces producing social evolution.
Only thus can we forecast the probable course and consequences of the
free social intercourse of widely divergent races.
It is the belief of the writer that few countries afford so clear an
illustration of the principles involved in social evolution as Japan.
Her development has been so rapid and so recent that some principles
have become manifest that otherwise might easily have escaped notice.
The importance of understanding Japan, because of the light her recent
transformations throw on the subject of social evolution and of
national character and also because of the conspicuous rôle to which
she is destined as the natural leader of the Oriental races in their
adoption of Occidental modes of life and thought, justifies a careful
study of Japanese character. He who really understands Japan, has
gained the magic key for unlocking the social mysteries of China and
the entire East. But the Japanese people, with their institutions and
their various characteristics, merit careful study also for their own
sakes. For the Japanese constitute an exceedingly interesting and even
a unique branch of the human race. Japan is neither a purgatory, as
some would have it, nor a paradise, as others maintain, but a land
full of individuals in an interesting stage of social evolution.
Current opinions concerning Japan, however, are as curious as they are
contradictory. Sir Edwin Arnold says that the Japanese "Have the
nature rather of birds or butterflies than of ordinary human beings."
Says Mr. A.M. Knapp: "Japan is the one country in the world which does
not disappoint ... It is unquestionably the unique nation of the
globe, the land of dream and enchantment, the land which could hardly
differ more from our own, were it located in another planet, its
people not of this world." An "old resident," however, calls it "the
land of disappointments." Few phenomena are more curious than the
readiness with which a tourist or professional journalist, after a few
days or weeks of sight-seeing and interviewing, makes up his mind in
regard to the character of the people, unless it be the way in which
certain others, who have resided in this land for a number of years,
continue to live in their own dreamland. These two classes of writers
have been the chief contributors of material for the omnivorous
readers of the West.
It appears to not a few who have lived many years in this Far Eastern
land, that the public has been fed with the dreams of poets or the
snap-judgments of tourists instead of with the facts of actual
experience. A recent editorial article in the _Japan Mail_, than whose
editor few men have had a wider acquaintance with the Japanese people
or language, contains the following paragraph:
"In the case of such writers as Sir Edwin Arnold and Mr. Lafcadio
Hearn it is quite apparent that the logical faculty is in
abeyance. Imagination reigns supreme. As poetic nights or
outbursts, the works of these authors on Japan are delightful
reading. But no one who has studied the Japanese in a deeper
manner, by more intimate daily intercourse with all classes of the
people than either of these writers pretends to have had, can
possibly regard a large part of their description as anything more
than pleasing fancy. Both have given rein to the poetic fancy and
thus have, from a purely literary point of view, scored a success
granted to few.... But as exponents of Japanese life and thought
they are unreliable.... They have given form and beauty to much
that never existed except in vague outline or in undeveloped germs
in the Japanese mind. In doing this they have unavoidably been
guilty of misrepresentation.... The Japanese nation of Arnold and
Hearn is not the nation we have known for a quarter of a century,
but a purely ideal one manufactured out of the author's brains. It
is high time that this was pointed out. For while such works please
a certain section of the English public, they do a great deal of
harm among a section of the Japanese public, as could be easily
shown in detail, did space allow."--_Japan Mail, May 7, 1898_.
But even more harmful to the reading public of England and America are
the hastily formed yet, nevertheless, widely published opinions of
tourists and newspaper correspondents. Could such writers realize the
inevitable limitations under which they see and try to generalize, the
world would be spared many crudities and exaggerations, not to say
positive errors. The impression so common to-day that Japan's recent
developments are anomalous, even contrary to the laws of national
growth, is chiefly due to the superficial writings of hasty observers.
Few of those who have dilated ecstatically on her recent growth have
understood either the history or the genius of her people.
"To mention but one among many examples," says Prof. Chamberlain,
"the ingenious Traveling Commissioner of the _Pall Mall Gazette_,
Mr. Henry Norman, in his lively letters on Japan published nine or
ten years ago, tells the story of Japanese education under the
fetching title of 'A Nation at School'; but the impression left is
that they have been their own schoolmasters. In another letter on
'Japan in Arms,' he discourses concerning 'The Japanese Military
Re-organizers,' 'The Yokosuka dockyard,' and other matters, but
omits to mention that the reorganizers were Frenchmen, and that the
Yokosuka dockyard was also a French creation. Similarly, when
treating of the development of the Japanese newspaper, he ignores
the fact that it owed its origin to an Englishman, which surely, to
a man whose object was reality, should have seemed an object worth
recording. These letters, so full and apparently so frank, really
so deceptive, are, as we have said, but one instance among many of
the way in which popular writers on Japan travesty history by
ignoring the part which foreigners have played. The reasons for
this are not far to seek. A wonderful tale will please folks at a
distance all the better if made more wonderful still. Japanese
progress, traced to its causes and explained by references to the
means employed, is not nearly such fascinating reading as when
represented in the guise of a fairy creation, sprung from nothing,
like Aladdin's palace."--"_Things Japanese," p. 116_.
But inter-racial misunderstanding is not, after all, so very strange.
Few things are more difficult than to accommodate one's self in
speech, in methods of life, and even in thought, to an alien people;
so identifying one's deepest interest with theirs as really to
understand them. The minds of most men are so possessed by notions
acquired in childhood and youth as to be unable to see even the
plainest facts at variance with those notions. He who comes to Japan
possessed with the idea that it is a dreamland and that its old social
order was free from defects, is blind to any important facts
invalidating that conception; while he who is persuaded that Japan,
being Oriental, is necessarily pagan at heart, however civilized in
form, cannot easily be persuaded that there is anything praiseworthy
in her old civilization, in her moral or religious life, or in any of
her customs.
If France fails in important respects to understand England; and
England, Germany; and Germany, its neighbors; if even England and
America can so misunderstand one another as to be on the verge of war
over the boundary dispute of an alien country, what hope is there that
the Occident shall understand the Orient, or the Orient the Occident?
Though the difficulty seems insurmountable, I am persuaded that the
most fruitful cause of racial misunderstandings and of defective
descriptions both of the West by Orientals, and of the East by
Occidentals, is a well-nigh universal misconception as to the nature
of man, and of society, and consequently of the laws determining their
development. In the East this error arises from and rests upon its
polytheism, and the accompanying theories of special national creation
and peculiar national sanctity. On these grounds alien races are
pronounced necessarily inferior. China's scorn for foreigners is due
to these ideas.
Although this pagan notion has been theoretically abandoned in the
West, it still dominates the thought not only of the multitudes, but
also of many who pride themselves on their high education and liberal
sentiments. They bring to the support of their national or racial
pride such modern sociological theories as lend themselves to this
view. Evolution and the survival of the fittest, degeneration and the
arrest of development, are appealed to as justifying the arrogance and
domineering spirit of Western nations.
But the most subtle and scholarly doctrine appealed to in support of
national pride is the biological conception of society. Popular
writers assume that society is a biological organism and that the laws
of its evolution are therefore biological. This assumption is not
strange, for until recent times the most advanced professional
sociologists have been dominated by the same misconception. Spencer,
for example, makes sociology a branch of biology. More recent
sociological writers, however, such as Professors Giddings and
Fairbanks, have taken special pains to assert the essentially psychic
character of society; they reject the biological conception, as
inadequate to express the real nature of society. The biological
conception, they insist, is nothing more than a comparison, useful for
bringing out certain features of the social life and structure, but
harmful if understood as their full statement. The laws of psychic
activity and development differ as widely from those of biologic
activity and development as these latter do from those that hold in
the chemical world. If the laws which regulate psychic development and
the progress of civilization were understood by popular writers on
Japan, and if the recent progress of Japan had been stated in the
terms of these laws, there would not have been so much mystification
in the West in regard to this matter as there evidently has been.
Japan would not have appeared to have "jumped out of her skin," or
suddenly to have escaped from the heredity of her past millenniums of
development. This wide misunderstanding of Japan, then, is not simply
due to the fact that "Japanese progress, traced to its causes and
explained by reference to the means employed, is not nearly such
fascinating reading as when represented in the guise of a fairy
creation," but it is also due to the still current popular view that
the social organism is biological, and subject therefore to the laws
of biological evolution. On this assumption, some hold that the
progress of Japan, however it may appear, is really superficial, while
others represent it as somehow having evaded the laws regulating the
development of other races. A nation's character and characteristics
are conceived to be the product of brain-structure; these can change
only as brain structure changes. Brain is held to determine
civilization, rather than civilization brain. Hampered by this
defective view, popular writers inevitably describe Japan to the West
in terms that necessarily misrepresent her, and that at the same time
pander to Occidental pride and prejudice.