306 THE ETHICS OF JAPAN. 



conducted for profit was forbidden and was despised among them. 

 Bushido came to be deeply imbued with the principles of Chinese and 

 Japanese classics as they were taught. 



I have shown above that in the systematic exposition of ethical 

 ideas, Confucianism was the richest of all, and the essential part of 

 it Avas taken by Bushido; as I have also shown above, there are many 

 defects in the Chinese teaching; all the unimportant ])arts were cast 

 away and the important parts were taken into the teaching of 

 Bushido, and even these parts only in such a ^Aay as to suit our 

 national traditions and characteristics, the essential spirit of Shinto- 

 ism also being resuscitated in such a way as to give an impetus to 

 Bushido, though in no orthodox manner. Such then is our Bushido. 

 The bushi formed the governing class of the Japanese society, and 

 it may be said the educated class also, or in other words the bushi 

 may be called the gentry of the country. We can, therefore, say 

 that Bushido was the ethics of Japanese society. In one way it may 

 be said that Bushido, as such, was a monopoly of the military class, 

 but in truth its spirit was not confined to this only; the literary study 

 of Chinese, as well as of native classics, was not necessarily limited 

 to the military class; hence the same notions which were imbued in it 

 through these studies were also (piietly extending their infiuence 

 among people at large — among whom, I may add, there were many 

 families of old bushi, or families which were quite equal in their 

 standing to the bushi class. Moreover, the spirit of Bushido has 

 also been nuiking its influence felt by other people. Thus we can see 

 that the nation has been preparing itself for centuries for the pro- 

 motion of moral ideas of the same kind as those of Bushido. 



The cardinal points of oriental ethics, as may be expected, are 

 loyalty and filial piet}^ In China filial piety takes precedence, but 

 in Japan loyalty stands first. There is a ]3oem by Sanetomo, the 

 third shogun of Kamakura and second son of the first shogun, which 

 may be translated literally as follows: 



The sea may dry iip. 



The mountain may burst asunder. 



But no duplicity of thought 



Shall I have to my sovereign. 



Such is the idea of loyalty which has been taught to the Japanese 

 for centuries. Side by side with loyalty the idea of patriotism^a 

 term which in Japanese is almost identical in its purport with loy- 

 alty — was also inculcated, though the development of this last idea 

 was later than the former. Then, also, all the other ideas relating to 

 ethics, especially on the lines indicated in Confucianism, were incul- 

 cated side by side. AVith the abolition of the feudal system,' some 

 thirty years ago, the structure of Japanese society was totally 

 changed, or rather restored to the condition which preceded the 



