THE ETHICS OF JAPAN. 297 



to many cases, incliicliiig- the relationships above ennmerated. Thns it 

 can be nsed in a very comprehensive manner, and thence there arises a 

 qnestion about the essence of the word. The question is whether the 

 noti(m of love is absolute, and consequently has no gradation or dif- 

 ferentiation in its nature. At the time of Alencius, some time after 

 Confucius, there was a school of philosophers who maintained that 

 there ought not be any differentiation, but Mencius maintained that 

 that was a fallacy. The word may be the same, but the practice may 

 be differentiated according to the circumstances. The meaning is 

 that one should love a nearer object more than a distant one, and thus 

 Ihe ethical notion of cosmopolitanism was reconciled with other 

 notions of different virtues — in other words, if one does good to his 

 neighbor more than to a stranger, or if one does more good to his 

 country than to other lands, out of the feeling of love, it is quite justi- 

 fiable from an ethical point of view, and thus Chinese ethics are made 

 reconcilable with the principles of state. And this is, I think, an 

 important landmark in which Confucianism differs from the features 

 of an ordinary religion, which in its essence is, as a rule, founded 

 upon cosmopolitanism, and knows not an artificial l)oun(lary of states. 

 There is a Chinese maxim which says, " Xo loyal subject serves two 

 masters, and no virtuous woman sees two men." The cardinal points 

 of the Chinese ethics are loyalty and filial piety; so that, although 

 all sorts of virtues are inculcated, greater importance is placed on 

 these two points. In China, learning means studjdng moral teach- 

 ing. There are, of course, many subjects for study, but moral no- 

 tions pervade every branch of literature. It is so, even with history, 

 Chinese histories, as a rule, record only events as they occur; they 

 have no historical or political observations, and any observations 

 made by the writers are written in such a way as to draw attention 

 from a moral standpoint. Their histories, therefore, have very little 

 value in the ordinary sense of history as the term is employed among 

 Western nations, but the fact remains that they pay much attention 

 to moral lessons. Their expositions of moral teaching are done more 

 in the way of philosophical or scholastic dissertations. The ethics 

 of China, ho^^ever, were not necessarily identical throughout the 

 long period of her history, extending over several tens of centuri'es. 

 There were several schools of philosophers besides Confucius, some 

 of whom even went so far as to differ from him in many points; and 

 also the interpretations of Confucianism differed at different epochs. 

 But the chief feature of his teaching has ahvays remained the same, 

 and all that I have said about it above represents fairly the idea of 

 Confucian doctrine. It is natural that Confucianism should be re- 

 garded as a sort of religion, because its followers respect it almost as 

 a believer in religion respects his creed; moreover, Confucianism 

 SM 1905 23 



