Samurai Wisdom
Samurai Wisdom
WISDOM
Thomas Cleary
SAMURAI
WISDOM
Lessons From Japan’s Warrior Culture
ISBN 978-0-8048-4008-8
Japan
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Contents
INTRODUCTION
By Yamaga Soko
7. Integrity ...50
8. Honesty ...52
By Tsugaru Kodo-shi
By Yamaga Soko
3. Admonition ...220
4. Battlegrounds ...229
By Yamaga Soko
The civil side of Bushido, both personal and professional, was steeped in
the world view and social outlook of Confucianism, which had been a
standard source of political discourse for centuries before samurai took
over the reins of government.
Those who wish to help myriad people punish one person, while
those who wish to kill myriad people pardon one person. We
constantly belabor Our mind for the sake of myriad people; even in
minor matters such as the poetry We recite, there is nothing but
concern for the suffering multitudes. As the parents of the nation,
how can We not be concerned for the children of the country? As
children, do not disobey your parents’ instructions!
We indicate to rulers of men after Us, that rather than punish the
country’s deviants, instead consider the poverty of the multitudes
and relieve their misery, and then criminals will disappear. The
reason why ordinary people act badly comes from widespread
inability to survive day to day. There is no source of criminality in the
country but waste of natural resources. There is a reason why
ignorant underclasses are not honest; it’s because the rulers, who
should be honest, are not.
The imperial college burned down in 1177 and was never rebuilt. In 1180,
a widespread civil war erupted, consuming nearly a decade. In the midst
of this turbulence, a separate military government was set up between
1182 and 1185 by a dominant faction of warriors, lead by the Minamoto
clan. This organization never dismantled the imperial system, and
couldn’t command all the samurai in Japan, but the general pattern of
domination by military rule that it confirmed would continue for centuries,
under three successive dynasties of warlords: the Kamakura Era (1185-
1333) under the Minamoto and Hojo clans; the Muromachi Era (1338-
1573) under the Ashikaga clan, and the Edo or Tokugawa Era (1603-
1867) under the Tokugawa clan.
Emperor Komatsu the Latter (r. 1382-1412) also preached the same
principle of ruler-subject solidarity, espousing the classical Confucian
policy of meritocracy and the neo-Confucian emphasis on austerity as
means of executing this sovereign responsibility to the citizenry:
Widowers, widows, the alone and the orphaned, are the most destitute
people in the nation, having no resort. Their condition is most pitiful. It is
my deepest wish to be able to be compassionate to them. If any
such people have public concerns, they should be able to have them
considered, but in latter days lords and ministers have been
unprincipled, indulging in aggressive exercise of power, devouring
the weak. If there are complaints from any of those destitute people,
relatives and friends will also be held responsible. For it is said that
the government of sages extends its benefits even to insects—how
could it not include human beings?
Men with the natural capacity to be prime ministers and generals are
most important. If there are men like this, they should study
Confucianism. The latter-day focus on military science alone is due
to failure to evaluate profit and loss in learning. Since we use the
expression Bun-Bu, Civil and Military, whose business is this if not
those who rule countries and keep peace in the world?
If you like benevolence but not learning, the corruption from that is folly.
If you like wit but not learning, the corruption from that is license.
If you like trust but not learning, the corruption from that is theft.
If you like straightforwardness but not learning, the corruption from that is
strangulation.
If you like bravery without learning, the corruption from that is disorder.
If you like strength without learning, the corruption from that is wildness.
Warriorhood has roots and branches. Loyalty, filial piety, duty, and
courage are the roots of military science; these are martial virtues.
Discipline and strategy are military sciences. Discipline refers to the
disposition of troops and the way to carry out a military campaign, or
what is referred to as martial law. The techniques of weaponry, such
as sword, archery, spear, and so on, are the branches of military
science; these are martial arts.
While this emphasis on culture and civility among the samurai was
considered essential to establish the peace and order of the Tokugawa
regime, the concern that this could also contribute to softness and
slackness in military matters is strongly marked in later Bushido, as
illustrated by this same author, writing as the world of the Shoguns was
confronted by the West after more than two hundred years of isolation:
An elementary tension between the martial and civil cultures upon which
Bushido drew created a contradiction without a definite resolution, a fork
in the road that could appear at any time.
In the esoteric sect, the method called subduing means using secret
arts to subdue the minds of malevolent and misguided people, to
introduce them to the true principles of Buddhism. Sometimes, when
people who interfere with Buddhism cannot be converted from their
evil designs no matter what, first they are deprived of their lives to
enable the true religion to remain in the world, then expedients are
used to introduce even those evil people into Buddhism.
The Nirvana Sutra says, “Those who would preserve true religion
should not be subject to the five precepts [forbidding murder, theft,
adultery, lying, and drinking alcohol] and not cultivate their conduct,
but carry weapons.” It also says, “Those who keep the five precepts
cannot be called members of the Great Vehicle. Protecting true
religion, even without keeping the five precepts, is called the Great
Vehicle. Protectors of the religion should carry arms. Even though
they carry arms, I call this keeping the precepts.”
The Nirvana Scripture these passages cite was composed after the
destruction of the magnificent Kushan empire, wherein Buddhism had
reached a peak of sophistication emanating throughout Asia. While the
Japanese Buddhists of the middle ages were not likely aware of its
original context, the scripture’s emphasis on the imminent extinction of
the religion seemed to resonate with them in terms of their own turbulent
times. Nichiren had a particularly keen sense of national and international
crisis, accurately predicting that the Mongolian warlords who were taking
over China would try to invade Japan.
All along I’ve been fond of foreign [i.e. Chinese] books. Though I
know nothing of books that have newly arrived in recent times, by
laboring day and night I’ve read most of the books that came from
abroad up until ten years ago. Because of this, unawares I thought
all foreign things were good. I thought that since Japan is a small
country, it cannot match up to China in anything; and that it was in
China that sages emerged.
I was not the only one like this; all scholars past and present
have thought this way, admiring China and studying China. Recently
I have come to realize this way of thinking is very mistaken, trusting
our ears but not our eyes, abandoning the nearby and taking to the
remote. It is hopeless, truly an academic epidemic, an affliction
common to scholars.
Although I’ve recorded this in Facts of the Central Court, I’ll set
down a summary here. This court [of Japan] is descended from the
Goddess Who Lights the Sky; its direct lineage has never deviated,
even for one generation, from the divine age up to the present day.
Even the assisting ministers from the Fujiwara clan have continued
in unbroken succession, generation after generation, and
administrators in charge of government have been continuous,
because there have been no rebellious subjects or usurping sons. Is
this not due to great richness of virtues of humaneness and
justness?
Next, from the divine age up to the seventeenth generation
human sovereign was a succession of rulers who all had the virtues
of sages. Wise and talented ministers assisted them, establishing
the Way of heaven and earth. The administrative business of the
court, the establishment of the system of provinces and prefectures,
the manners of the four classes of people, daily activities, clothing,
food, housing, even ceremonies of capping, marriage, mourning, and
celebration, each attained balance. With the people at ease and the
nation at peace, a model for myriad ages was established, the roles
of superior and subordinate defined—is this not attainment of the
celestial virtue of the brilliant knowledge of sages?
One of the most influential of the early schools of Bushido was the
knightly way of Yamaga Soko, who attempted to interpret and adapt the
diverse threads of the Japanese heritage over a lifetime of study and
teaching. A classical Confucian scholar as well as a military scientist and
martial artist, Yamaga was also a student of Zen, Taoism, and Shinto.
“There are many lines of learning, ancient and modern,” he wrote, “so
Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto each have some truth to them.” In
his teaching and writing he inculcated traditional social graces and
spiritual disciplines while emphasizing martial virtues such as
organization, vigilance, and self-mastery in the conduct of everyday life.
Above all, Yamaga Soko was a pragmatist, insisting on the need for
practical adaptation of ideas and information rather than idealistic
advocacy of ancient doctrines. A critical thinker, he rejected the school of
neo-Confucianism patronized by the Shogun, and was banished from the
capital city as a result. Though he eventually resumed residence and
teaching in the capital, after his death an interdict was put on the printing
of his writings, and his school began to go underground in the early
1700’s after it was suggested that the famous vendetta of the Forty-
Seven Ronin was inspired by his teaching.
Interest in Yamaga’s immense body of work was renewed with a
Bushido revival at the end of the 19th century, as Japan inaugurated its
modern imperial age. Because of his emphasis on empirical knowledge
and rational adaptation of tradition, while naturally rooted in the social
structure and intellectual outlook of his era, Yamaga’s work explicitly
invokes and invites the same critical approach to study that he himself
applied to the received classics as well as the particular problems of his
time.
Both the mystique and the methods of martial rule in Yamaga’s school
are vividly transmitted in the manual The Warrior’s Rule by Tsugaru Kodo-
shi, one of Yamaga’s grandsons, who studied the master’s work for thirty
years. Kodo-shi’s father, Tsugaru Kenmotsu (1658-1682), had been a
councilor to the lord of the Tsugaru domain, his older brother Tsugaru
Nobumasa (1646-1710), who had first made the acquaintance of Yamaga
Soko in 1660, when he was fifteen and Yamaga thirty-nine. Kenmotsu,
married to one of Yamaga’s daughters, died before Kodo-shi was born,
and Yamaga, himself near the end of his life, took interest in the
fatherless grandson’s welfare.
For his part, Kodo-shi claimed to have conceived his lifelong interest
in his grandfather’s work on the day of his grandfather’s funeral, which he
attended as a small child, when he saw the emissaries of lords and
grandees paying their respects. He eventually went into civil service
himself, after which he wrote his compendium of martial philosophy and
practice, outlining the principles of warrior rule. It is concise but deals with
a wide range of subjects, providing an excellent introduction to this
school of Bushido.
A parallel treatise focusing on military science, entitled Essentials of
Military Matters, was compiled by Yamaga Takatsune, thought to have
been a son-in-law of the master, based on Soko’s own notes. This
lineage connects Yamaga with some of the most famous names of
samurai history, including the warlord Takeda Shingen and the
swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. In military terms, the cardinal principle of
this school was certain victory, and indeed Takeda Shingen is famed for
having been undefeated in warfare, while Miyamoto Musashi is famed for
having been undefeated in dueling. In this treatise, the school is referred
to as the Kansuke School, after the legendary Yamamoto Kansuke
(1493?-1561?), an infantry commander and teacher of military science
for Takeda Shingen.
The political and military dimensions of samurai rule represented by
The Warrior’s Rule and Essentials of Military Matters are integrated in The
Education of Warriors, a manual on samurai education by Yamaga Soko.
Here the role of the samurai is introduced by a brief discourse on natural
law, typically represented as the source of the system. This emphasis on
natural law, derived from Taoism and incorporated into neo-
Confucianism, was traditionally invoked to rationalize government, social
structure, and warfare; in Yamaga’s work natural law plays an important
role as a perpetual point of reference and source of knowledge beyond
ideology. On this basis, The Education of Warriors outlines the samurai’s
essential concerns of leadership, organization, and military strategy,
while making the strongest possible statement against militarism per se.
As warriors first and last, the masters of this school of certain victory
produced an enormous amount of writing on military science, but the
question of morality emerges even in the wartime work of Yamamoto
Kansuke, who invokes Shinto, Confucianism, Buddhism, and even
medicine to rationalize the role of military science in a civilized society.
With the advent of peace under the Tokugawa regime, the character and
conduct of samurai were of central concern in respect to their civil roles
as political leaders, administrators, and educators, while their origin as
men of arms was never to be forgotten.
In developing his school of Bushido, Yamaga Soko wrestled with this
peculiar problem of cultivating the capacities of war and peace in an
integrated personality. Pursuing this theme in the context of individual
responsibility, his brief Primer of Martial Education outlines samurai
training as the fabric of the warrior’s daily life, while his extensive The Way
of the Knight expands on this comprehensive concept of the samurai way
constituting a model of all-around personal development. He summarizes
this inspiration himself, providing perhaps the best theoretical introduction
to his own work, in his Relic Writings from Exile:
Footnotes
1 Mencius: Meng He, one of the most important of the early Confucian philosophers, very
commonly cited in Taoist, Zen, and Bushido texts. Mencius lived from about 372 to 289
BCE, in the latter days of China’s turbulent Warring States era. He is particularly known for
the doctrine of the goodness of human nature.
1 The Yellow Emperor was a legendary sage ruler of prehistoric China, associated with the
transmission of strategic arts as well as teachings on health, sex, and longevity. The Yellow
Emperor is hero of Taoism. There is a very famous ancient text of strategy attributed to him,
called the Book of Hidden Correspondences.
2 Yao was a predynastic nonhereditary sage king of ancient China, traditionally said to
have acceded to the throne in 2356 BCE. The three ancient kings Yao, Shun, and Yu
constitute one of the most important images in Chinese political science.
BOOK ONE
The Way of the Knight
By Yamaga Soko
1. Establishing the Basis
Between sky and earth, humans and other beings are produced by the union of
two energies. Humans are the most intelligent of all beings; humans are the most
advanced of all beings.
The samurai, however, eats without tilling, uses what he doesn’t make, and earns
without engaging in trade. Why is that?
Birds and beasts fly and run to get food, fish and insects swim and swarm
seeking food, plants and trees send their roots deep into the earth. Every one of
them is preoccupied by the search for food, all the time, every day, all year long.
All beings are like this. In the human realm, farmers, artisans, and merchants are
also like this. If it were possible to live out one’s life without working, one
should be called a thief of nature.
So why should knights have no occupation? Asking yourself this question, only
by examining the work of a knight will the role of knights become evident. As
long as you haven’t given this any thought, as long as you just go by what people
say or what is written in books, since you haven’t realized it in your gut and
heart, your aspiration is established on an extremely weak basis.
Knights focus on this path to the exclusion of agriculture, craft, and commerce,
promptly penalizing anyone among the three civilian classes who disrupt social
norms, so that natural norms will be upright everywhere. This means that knights
have to have both cultural and martial virtues and expertise.
Thus, fulfilling the functions of sword and spear and bow and horse in punitive
actions, practicing political, professional, social, familial, and spousal norms in
the domestic sphere, with culture filling the heart while being prepared as a
warrior for the outside world, they provide for knowledge of the fundamentals
and the particulars, as the three civilian classes spontaneously take them for
exemplars, respect them, and follow their instructions. With this the path of
knighthood is fulfilled; you earn your food, clothing and housing, and so you can
be easy in mind, for this can requite the benevolence of the ruler and the
generosity of your parents in the meantime.
Without this effort, it’s as if you are stealing the generosity of your parents,
devouring a salary from your lord, spending your whole life as a thief. Those
who do not understand this ought to become civilians at once, either tilling to
eat, or making a living by crafts, or supporting themselves by trade. This way
there will be less blame from heaven. If you insist on being a knight, hoping for
public office, you should work at slavish common jobs with low salaries and
little official reward, spending your whole life at easy jobs like guard duty and
night watch. This is your role.
2. Aspiring to the Way
When people come to clarify their own role, there must be a way to perform that
role, so here aspiration for the “way” should emerge. For example, when you
want to go to Kyoto, you can’t go without knowing the way there. If you insist
on going without knowing the way, you’ll inevitably take the wrong route. To
know how to cultivate yourself as a knight, serve your lord, respect your father,
and interact harmoniously with your siblings, spouse, and friends, must lie in
finding out the way and knowing how to apply it.
So when you aspire to the Way, you take the initiative to find someone who is
adept at it to be your guide. If the person who is to mentor you acts in a
contradictory manner, or if he speaks plausibly but is unclear in responding to
actualities, leave at once and do not follow him. When you are steeped in the
instructions of a false teacher for a long time, without realizing it you’ll become
further and further from the Way under that person’s influence.
If you find no wise mentor anywhere in spite of seeking to learn from others in
this way, you should turn your attention inward on your own. Turning your
attention inward means that because the way of the wise is a teaching mastered
only by sole reliance on the inherence of natural qualities, without any forced
contrivance, as long as you have something to set your will on, the thing can be
learned, as you can find out the basic idea by yourself. This is especially so in
view of the fact that sages of old have provided maxims to guide people. If you
work carefully on these, you should be able to find the great way of the sages in
them.
Everyone acknowledges the order of the five norms and knows that there is a
way of knighthood, but some affirm themselves and think that’s enough, while
some seem to strive to no avail trusting false teachers. These things happen
because their aspiration for the way is weak.
Isn’t this attitude what Confucius meant by “aspire to the Way”— there must be
a way, something that cannot be expounded arbitrarily. If not for effective
aspiration, there is no means of attaining the Way. So it is called aspiring to the
Way.
People who have become somewhat familiar with the world and pretend to be
savants impose definition on the Way they think exclusive, insisting on their
subjective opinions, thus becoming further from the way, ultimately failing to
gain entry into the Great Way.
So even if you know the role of knighthood, without aspiration for the Way you
may have knowledge but do not put it into practice and so do not consummate it.
It is imperative to examine the principle most thoroughly.
3. Striving to Put Aspiration into Practice
Master Zeng said, “A knight ought to be broad-minded and strong-willed. ‘When
the burden is heavy, the road is long.’ Isn’t it also weighty to make humaneness
one’s responsibility? Isn’t stopping only at death also a long way to go?” If a
knight is not broad-minded and tolerant, he cannot bear heavy burdens and
cannot get far. Even if you know your role and aspire to that path, unless you put
that aspiration into practice it is just talk, not reality. And even if you put it into
practice, unless you strive at it all your life and stop only at death, you’ll give up
along the way. Then there’s no possibility of attainment.
Even so, diligent practice is hard to accomplish with an ordinary will. Even a
minor habit of slight importance is hard to change without enormous effort when
you’ve become accustomed to it. In particular, between gain and loss, wayward
urgings of sexual desire, and opportunities for fame, if you linger over them for
long, there will be no end, and those thoughts will arbitrarily take the lead. At
this point, unless you have great strength within yourself, you’ll be dragged
down, and unable to be completely sincere.
To bring forth great strength in yourself depends on the depth of your will. If
your aspiration is shallow, your striving cannot be deep. As far as will is
concerned, this will does not emerge if you do not examine yourself and register
profound shame at what is unworthy of humanity in you.
Therefore in The Mean Confucius says, “To like learning is akin to knowledge;
to put it into practice diligently is akin to benevolence; to be conscientious is
akin to courage.” Mencius said, “One whom riches and rank cannot corrupt,
whom poverty and lowliness cannot compromise, and whom threat and force
cannot inhibit— this is called a strong man.”
Riches and rank are things people like a lot, poverty and lowliness are things
people dislike a lot, and threat and force are things people fear a lot. If your mind
sticks to them at all, you cannot be called a strong man. A strong man is one who
sets his will on the way of the knight and steadily strives to put this aspiration
into practice. Unless you work this way on its attentive correctness, the basis of
knighthood cannot be said to stand.
4. Mental Techniques: Cultivating Mood and
Maintaining Will
There is a natural endowment in people’s dispositions. That is to say,
some are born with a positive disposition, while others have a dark
disposition. This is called the natural state.
Big Heartedness
If a knight does not have the heart to take on the greatest enterprise in
the world and independently exercise that immense responsibility, he
won’t be big-hearted enough, but will become petty and narrow-minded.
Will
Will means the backbone and integrity of the aim of a man of mettle. If
someone who would be a man of mettle sets his aim on something small,
what he accomplishes and what he learns will be extremely slight; he is
not a person of great capacity.
When Master Zeng and Mencius aspired to the Way, their will was
such that they did not consider even the achievements of the likes of
Guan Zhong1 and Master Yan to be worth doing. Zhao Wen2 of the Latter
Han dynasty said, “A man of mettle should fly like a male; how could he
lie like a female?” Chen Fan1 said, “A man of mettle should make his way
in life sweeping out all under heaven; how could he confine his concerns
to one house?” Liang Song2 said, “A man of mettle should be lordly in life,
enshrined in death.” Ban Chao3 said, “A man of mettle should establish
achievement abroad— how could he occupy himself with pen and ink?”
Li Jing4 of the Tang dynasty used to say, “The situation of a man of mettle
essentially calls for him to gain wealth and status by achievement and
repute—how could he wind up a mere man of letters?” Ma Sui5 said,
“When there’s trouble in the world, a man of mettle should work for the
welfare of all within the four seas—why become an old isolated scholar?”
Gao Ang6 of Northern Qi always said, “A man should go freely through
the land, acquiring fortune and status on his own; how could he sit up
reading books and become an old professor?”
Each of these sayings has a defect in its design, so they cannot be
considered maxims, but if a man’s mettle is not raised to such high
aspirations he will be stymied by petty matters and will not be able to
accomplish what is most important.
In ancient times, people who would be ministers aimed to make their
lords like Yao and Shun, considering it their own disgrace if even one
person found no place. They considered it appropriate to treat their
fathers as Master Zeng did, determined never to weary of it. This was
because they all had high aspirations and were not concerned with small
successes or minor affairs.
When Xu You1 heard of the abdication of the throne, he washed his
ears in the Ying River. Chao Fu declared that water unfit even for an ox to
drink, and wouldn’t draw from it downstream.
Fan Li2 went sailing on the Five Lakes, not accepting overlord-ship of
Yue for his achievement. Zhuang Zhou3 used the simile of “a kite that’s
caught a rotten mouse getting angry on seeing a phoenix fly.” Yan Ziling4
didn’t change his enjoyment of rivers and mountains for three lords.
Although each of these is not without defect from the perspective of
the path of sages, in terms of having no ambition at all, for better or
worse, not deviating from a place suitable to oneself even if one is a top
talent in the land, their determination to stand firm can indeed be called
the temperament of a man of mettle. The saying that a manly man must
have the mettle to flap his sleeves atop a thousand-fathom mountain and
wash his feet in a three-thousand-mile river can be found in this kind of
attitude as well.
However, if you only value high-mindedness without getting there by
the Way of sages, you will value heretical nothingness and emptiness,
regard the world as dust, consider the country chaff, and think it’s alright
just to suit yourself. That is why it is imperative to clarify their
implications.
Mellowness
With a man of mettle being so big-hearted and high-minded, he will
naturally have a certain mellowness about him. Mellowness implies depth
and tolerance. It means keeping your virtues to yourself, covering your
light, and not evincing anything extraordinary.
Personality
Footnotes
1 Guo Linzong was a very famous classical scholar of the Latter Han dynasty (25-219 CE). A
private teacher, he is said to have had thousands of students. In spite of his literary
accomplishments he did not enter government service, as would have been the expected
norm for learned men of his caliber. According to some accounts, he was rumored to be a
Taoist wizard.
2 Huang Xian was awarded an honorary degree in his youth and summoned to service in the
central government, but after a brief time in the capital he returned to his native place and
never went into civil service again. He died at the age of 48. His popular epithet was
Weixun, “The Little Prince.”
3 Zhou Yi: a model of integrity. He tried to save a certain official named Wang Dao from
incrimination when Wang’s cousin rebelled against the throne. Wang Dao was a trusted
member of the cabinet of Emperor Yuan (r. 317-323), who founded the Eastern Jin dynasty
(317-419), and later mentor to his son and successor Emperor Ming (r. 323-326) and Ming’s
son and successor Emperor Cheng (r. 326-343). Wang Dao’s cousin Wang Dun was a
successful military commander who had helped Emperor Yuan found the dynasty, but
eventually determined to take over the throne himself and staged two uprisings. When
Wang Dun rebelled, Wang Dao was thrown in prison because of their family relationship
and presumed collusion. Unknown to him, Zhou Yi made great efforts to exonerate him and
have him released. Later, when Wang Dun asked Wang Dao about Zhou Yi, the latter said
nothing, so Wang Dun had Zhou Yi killed. When Wang Dao found out what Zhou Yi had
done for him, he lamented, “I didn’t kill Zhou Yi, but he died because of me.” Jin Shu 69
1 Guan Zhong (d. 645 BCE), was a founding philosopher of the Legalist school of political
philosophy.
2 Zhao Wen was minister of education during the reign of Emperor Xian (r. 189-220), the last
emperor of the Han dynasty.
1 Chen Fan was a government official during the reign of Emperor Huan of China’s Latter Han
dynasty (r. 147-167). When Emperor Huan died and his widow Empress Dou took over the
reigns of government, Chen Fan collaborated with her father to reform the government by
recruiting able personnel and purging corrupt eunuchs, a major problem in Han politics.
Chen’s plan for getting rid of corrupt eunuchs was discovered by his enemies and he
himself was murdered.
2 Liang Song: a scholar and poet of the Latter Han dynasty, first century CE. Sent into exile
when his brother, a high government official, was denounced and imprisoned, Liang Song
was eventually exonerated, whereupon he returned to his native place and lived in
seclusion. Ultimately he was again denounced, by an imperial in-law, an interest group that
with the eunuchs played a major role in high Han politics, especially in opposition to the
scholar-bureaucrats. Liang Song died in prison.
3 Ban Chao served in several offices in the defense department of the Latter Han dynasty in
China under emperors Ming (r. 58-76) and Zhang (76-89). He was assigned to campaigns
in Central Asia, where he spent thirty-one years and is credited with establishing Han
dominance over 50 states.
4 Li Jing: a distinguished general who assisted in the founding of the Tang dynasty (619-906).
He served in several capacities in central government, including Secretary of War, and also
led Tang forces in the field against neighboring Turkic and Tibetan kingdoms. Author of
numerous works on military science, Li Jing held numerous important posts under emperors
Gaozu (r. 618-626) and Taizong (r. 627-649) of China’s Tang dynasty. He was especially
famous for engineering the defeat of powerful Turkic and Tartar nations of Central Asia,
among the most redoubtable rivals of the Tang Chinese empire.
5 Ma Sui distinguished himself in military service to the Tang dynasty under emperors Daizong
(r. 762-780) and Dezong (r. 789-805). He was particularly known for subduing revolts
against the central government staged by regional military inspectors from the imperial
family. The regional military inspectors played an enormous role in the governance and
dissolution of the vast and multi-national Tang empire.
6 Gao Ang was a scholar who rose to high rank by military exploits under the Eastern Wei and
Norther Qi dynasties in the middle of the sixth century C.E., before the reunification of China
under the Sui and Tang empires in the late sixth and early seventh centuries.
1 Xu You was legendary sage of ancient times who refused the Chinese throne. When Xu You
heard that the sage king Yao was going to abdicate the throne to him on account of his
virtue, Xu You “washed his ears” to cleanse them of the very suggestion of worldly power.
Another sage, named Chao Fu, learning of this, led his ox upstream to drink, away from the
implied pollution.
2 Fan Li was a man of pre-imperial China’s Spring and Autumn era, when the ancient Zhou
dynasty was beginning to dissolve. He was appointed top general of the state of Yue for
having encompassed the downfall of neighboring state of Wu, but he left the state without
accepting the office.
3 Zhuang Zhou, commonly written as Chuang Chou, was Chuang-tzu, a philosopher of the
Spring and Autumn era, the reputed author of the core chapters of the Taoist classic
Zhuangzi or Chuang-tzu. This work lays great emphasis on keeping men of talent out of
corrupt government.
4 Yan Ziling was a former schoolmate of the first emperor of the Latter Han dynasty. He was
appointed imperial advisor, but declined the position. He took up farming and lived a long
time, into his eighties.
1 An empty boat is an image from the Taoist classic Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu) referring to the
practice of emptying the mind to be aloof and innocent of assertiveness and
contentiousness.
2 Huang Shangu was a famous scholar, poet, calligrapher, and civil administrator of Song
dynasty China, ca. 1100. He was twice denounced by rivals and sent into exile.
3 Zhou Dunyi was an 11th century scholar and bureaucrat in civil and military departments. He
is best known as the founder of the Idealist school of neo-Confucianism and the teacher of
the famous Cheng brothers.
5. Distinguishing Righteousness from Profiteering
The means by which an upright man maintains his mind is simply a matter of
distinguishing between the ethical and the advantageous. The distinction
between the noble man and the petty man, the difference between the principles
of kings and warlords, are all in the gap between righteousness and profiteering.
Past and present, the process of learners entering the Way should consist of
clarifying the distinction between what is right and what is profitable. That is
because people find profit very attractive, and everyone gets obsessed with it. So
in matters of life and death they like life and hate death; in matters of gain and
loss they run to gain and flee loss; in matters of labor and leisure they dislike
labor and take to leisure.
The needs of nourishment, housing, and clothing, the scope of looking, listening,
speaking, and acting—anywhere that feelings occur, in each instance these
feelings cannot but be. The teaching of sages and noble men is not to despise life
and take to death, or run to loss and avoid gain, or labor without leisure. The
likes and dislikes of sages and noble men cannot be other than those of ordinary
people—the distinction is only in discernment or confusion.
Relative importance means that lords, fathers, elder brothers, and husbands are
more important than subjects, sons, younger brothers, and wives. The world and
the nation are more important than the individual. Looking, listening, speaking,
and activity are less important than mind.
When you thoroughly investigate and reason out relative importance, confusion
should stop. That is because in a life-and-death emergency, if there is imminent
danger of harm to important others, such as the lord or the people, one should
not hesitate to die without a second thought, while if those important to you are
not in danger of harm the thing to do is take care to preserve your life. This goes
as well for gain and loss, labor and leisure.
When you examine the principles of things this way in all events, then righteous
and rational conduct will develop, while motivation by gain and loss will
disappear. Even so, the distinction between what is beneficial and what is
harmful is well-defined; the beneficial is truly beneficial, the harmful is truly
harmful. When sages teach this to noble men, they do not force anything, but
just let them recognize it themselves, and apply the reason for its inevitability to
all things.
Realizing that this confusion is hard to analyze, people of ancient times devised
various doctrines. As a man of stature, to abandon an obvious duty on account of
personal interests is naturally shameful and appalling, extremely lamentable. It is
because of this that people are proud when they gain small advantages, arrogant
when they achieve success, pursue money and flee difficulty, seek to win by
contention, want the bigger share, are discontent, wish to have all their ambitions
fulfilled, and hope for any possible pleasure to the fullest.
A man of mettle keeps his wits about him at such times. This is what it means to
be unaffected by riches and rank or poverty and lowliness. The Book of Changes
says, “When there is no water in the wetlands, that is exhaustion; a noble man
therefore lives out his destiny to achieve his aim.” It also says, “When there is
water on top of a mountain, it is halted; a noble man in this situation reexamines
himself and cultivates character.” This is the understanding with which a noble
man makes peace with his destiny in times of distress and conditions of
hardship.
Master Cheng said, “In times of distress, when you’ve exhausted all preventative
measures and still cannot escape, that is destiny.” This is because in each such
case it is an action of Nature of which humans are incapable. Confucius said he
came to know the Order of Nature when he was fifty years old; he also said one
could not be a noble man without knowing destiny. The saying of Mencius,
“nothing is not destined, but accept it accurately” means that a person who is not
at some peace with the Order of Nature will act arbitrarily and make mistakes,
unable to be realistic.
So when you’ve done all you can to take care of your health but your life span’s
shrinking, or duty is about to lead to death, this is destiny. When the time has
come and there’s nowhere else to go, your strength at last on the decline, even if
there are savants there’s no use trying to prop this up, so it comes to utter
destruction, this is destiny. When King Wen1 was imprisoned in Jiang Village,
and Confucius was imperiled between Chen and Cai, this was destiny.
There are also those whose time never comes because of geographical isolation
and lack of cooperation, yet cannot accept a simple life. Even though
acknowledged and employed, Shi the Bandit2 led nine thousand men on a
rampage through the land, plundering all the lords.
There are those whose posterity flourishes, and there are those who are isolated
and alone, who had few children and no extensive posterity. In any case, who
arranged this?
In particular, people get confused by riches and rank and poverty and lowliness,
sometimes currying favor by clever words and commanding appearances, or
making a habit of obsequious and opportunistic flattery. In this the outstanding
will of a man of mettle is entirely absent; it is no different from a lowly man
preoccupied with monopolizing the market. It is the epitome of witlessness, most
laughable.
Confucius said, “If wealth could be obtained by seeking I’d even be a driver! If
not, I‘ll pursue my preference.” What he meant was that if wealth could be
obtained by seeking, one should not refuse to do a job even if it is incongruous
with one’s social status; but if it is something that effort cannot achieve, being in
the order of nature, one should simply rest content with the principles one
prefers.
So a pine is a pine, but the pine of Takasago and the pine of Sumi-no-E grow on
very different ground, high and low, mountain and river. So one might be prized
for its height, while another may be hidden and unknown because it is short.
What determines that is the order of Nature, not human contrivance.
A man of mettle should always be at peace with this natural order, not being
proud even of wealth and status, for these are the order of nature, as they are not
one’s own creation. Nor should one detest poverty and lowliness out of shame,
where this is the order of nature and nothing that you can help.
Then neither poverty nor wealth, neither high nor low status, are objects of
particular attention. When the year is cold, and the green pine survives alone in
the valley, your psychological fortitude will become evident.
Footnotes
1 King Wen rallied the support of lords disaffected with the corrupt Shang
dynasty in the late 12th century BCE, preparing alliances for the eventual
establishment of the Zhou dynasty. King Wen was the elder brother of King Wu,
who founded the Zhou dynasty, the source of classical Confucian cultural norms,
in 1122 BCE. Wen had ruled the state of Zhou under the preceding Shang
dynasty, entitled Lord of the West, but was imprisoned by the last ruler of the
Shang in 1144 BCE because he was gaining support from other ancient states
subordinate to the Shang dynasty. Wen was released in 1142 and put in charge of
punitive military campaigns for the Shang administration to keep him at odds
with other states.
2 Shi the Bandit was a historical figure of China’s Spring and Autumn era. This
epithet is also used as the title of a chapter of the Taoist classic Zhuangzi
(Chuang-tzu) criticizing predatory ambition.
7. Integrity
If a man does not maintain integrity within, then gain and loss will occur to him
in the course of public service and obedience to his father and elder brothers, and
he’ll lose his natural mind. Integrity means having no interest in bribes from
outside, or in family wealth, standing upright and undaunted in what worldly
people are incapable of doing. This is called integrity.
If you have no integrity within, your attention will be taken by the slightest gain
or loss, so you lose your self-control and won’t be in your right mind. So when
Confucius refraining from drinking at Thieves’ Spring, and Zeng Can turned his
chariot around at the portal of Shengmu because the name means overcoming
mother, were these not examples of integrity?
Even so, people whose conduct is so lofty as to refuse an enormous stipend but
who are stingy with tiny things like a piece of paper or half a penny, are that way
because their integrity is slight and so they become mean and stingy.
It is said that a man of integrity, with a view of clouds and moon, wouldn’t even
look into a pit of gold, wouldn’t blink an eye at a mountain of cash. If you have
no determination to keep your integrity, you’ll naturally become covetous where
no one sees or knows and it doesn’t seem to matter if you take something. In
ancient times a Mr. Ji of Yanling was traveling when he saw some gold someone
had dropped on the road. He suggested to a man carrying firewood nearby that
he take the money for himself. The man became very indignant and said, “Why
is your rank so high but your talk so low? I may be a menial carrying firewood,
but I have no interest in profiting from picking up gold that someone else has
lost.” Mr. Ji was surprised and asked the man’s name, but he didn’t answer.
Carrying firewood brings meager profit, while lost gold is very valuable, but a
man who aspires to integrity has no business acquiring what he shouldn’t have.
There is an inherent sense of right here.
Depending on people’s disposition, there are some who are naturally honest and
have no greed at all. Although their temperament is in some sense superior to
others, if they don’t study and strive to bring this potential to perfect integrity,
keeping their mind on this, they won’t be able to extend it to all things. If you
have the capacity for integrity, you should not neglect it on account of gain or
loss, so here is where a man should strive most.
The integrity of Bo Yi1 and Shu Qi in ancient times might almost be called the
epitome of integrity. Mencius said, “Bo Yi didn’t look at anything bad, didn’t
work for anyone but his lord, didn’t employ anyone but his people. When there
was order he stepped forward, and when there was disorder he withdrew; he
could not bear to live where the government was corrupt and the people unruly.
Among provincial people he seemed like someone in sitting in mud and cinders
wearing court attire. In the time of Zhou2 he stayed by the shore of the northern
sea, waiting for the world to settle down. Therefore where people hear of the
way of Bo Yi, even ignorant men become honest, and weak men acquire will.”
So to say Bo Yi was pure as a sage means he was uncorrupted.
Footnotes
1 Bo Yi was among the nobles who went into self-imposed exile from the Shang
dynasty during the reign of the last king; he is commonly cited as a purist. He
and Shu Qi subsequently refused to recognize the Zhou dynasty supplanting the
Shang, and starved to death in the mountains.
2 Zhou here refers to the last king of the ancient Yin (Shang) dynasty, reigning
from 1154 to 1122 BCE, commonly cited with King Jie of Xia (1818-1766 BCE)
as an archetype of evil. Not to be confused with the Zhou dynasty or the Duke of
Zhou, which connote good government in Confucian theory.
8. Honesty
For a man to stand up in society, he has to be honest. Honesty means abiding by
what is right, without wavering, correcting what needs correction regardless of
relation or rank, without flattering people or conforming to convention.
As for those who say it’s hard to establish yourself in society by standing on
principle as such, without going the way of the world and following other
people, as they refrain from correcting the lord’s mistakes even while receiving
salaries, not admonishing their fathers and elder brothers when they’re wrong,
going along with the times, getting big salaries and important offices, toadying
to the age, saying they’ll admonish the lord when the time is right, they wind up
wasting time, never doing anything all their lives. This is very shameful, most
ridiculous. How could they have a stalwart heart? Depending on their salaries,
blinded by their offices, they’ll lose their original mind and become objects of
public derision.
Mencius said that men of mettle will rise up even without a King Wen. When
they depend on others’ help and are eager for acceptance, people will admit
criticism and correct errors even if they are not honest men. As for men of
mettle, they will not expect or depend on any assistance.
A pine tree reaches the sky unbent, an orchid is still fragrant even if no one is
there. This could be called the point where a manly man’s honesty stands. As
honest, accurate, and significant are expressions important in the Book of
Changes, in working for your lord and your father, and becoming established in
the world, at all times make true significance and honest accuracy fundamental.
To be uninhibited by vulgar opinion, not setting forth anything to the lord that is
not humane and just, coolly spanning the four seas in times of crisis, is due to
keeping an honest mind.
9. Firmness and Constancy
A man in society will not be able to keep his right mind without a firm and
constant will. Firmness means fortitude, not yielding to things. Constancy means
keeping intact the aspiration one considers right, unchanging. If a man does not
maintain this mentality, he will readily yield to his likes and dislikes, and his
devotion to right will be uncertain.
What human being does not experience life and death, gain and loss, like and
dislike? Inwardly examining principles with firm constancy to reach the point
where you can meet death in peace, though death is most disagreeable; and you
can accept loss in peace, though loss is extremely offensive; and you can easily
abstain from luxuries, alcohol, and sex, desirable though they be, is something
no one can do without maintaining fortitude and constancy at high levels.
Mencius said, “A man of will does not forget he may die in a ditch; a brave man
does not forget he may lose his head.” He also said, “A gentleman does not lose
righteousness when in straits, and does not deviate from principle when
successful.” That is because of keeping the mind on this.
When this will is missing, even temporarily, you’ll yield to the profit motive,
drown in wine, and get infatuated with women, eventually forgetting duty and
failing at the most important matter of life and death, changing your
commitment in a crisis. How could this be called the aspiration of a man of
mettle?
One who can distinguish the proper places of duty and profit, and act on this
with contentment, is a noble man. A noble man is not easy to find in the world.
This is something that scholars learn the hard way, by learning to get rid of their
confusion. Scholars who would become men of mettle should always maintain
firmness and constancy, accurately discern their presence or absence of mind in
the midst of likes and dislikes, and understand how to be undaunted by myriad
things.
Among the people of old there were those who were naturally firm and constant,
yet while outstanding in one respect were ignorant in another. Scholars who have
the outstanding disposition of the ancients ought to apply it to their present
circumstances, then gradually develop it further to extend it to everything. As a
knight, if you do not develop the spirit and physique of a man of mettle, that
indicates the mentality of a lazy schoolboy—how could you have world class
capacity and perception?
10. Refining Character and Perfecting Ability,
Devotion to Loyalty and Filial Piety
The public life of a man involves service to the lord and participation at
court; in private life he is attentive to his father and elder brothers, and
manages his household. Thus he assists the affairs of the land and
resolves the people’s worries. When there are rebellious subjects, he
personally accepts the responsibility of military command, devising
strategy and rendering meritorious service of eternal distinction; or he
acts as an ambassador to settle a crisis without embarrassment to his
lord’s command; or he goes to his death, slighting his life, giving up a full
lifetime at a single stroke of the sword. This is devotion to loyalty in the
service of the lord.
Now then, doing all you can for your father and mother, looking after
them to their satisfaction, continuing to be attached to them, sacrificing
your life without regret—this is filial piety exercised to the utmost at
home, is it not?
A man’s responsibilities are very heavy. What I am talking about here
is constantly cultivating your mood to be calm and quiet, keeping your
presence of mind savoring principles, and transferring this to your lord
and your father to clarify the realities of loyalty and filial piety. This is a
knight’s job—if you don’t serve your lord virtuously and don’t attend to
your father and elder brothers sincerely, then there is no evidence of
effort to cultivate the spirit and keep presence of mind.
To begin with, character means outward exercise of what is cultivated
inside, with complete sincerity and thorough investigation of principles.
That is called character. Even if you say you cultivate your spirit and
maintain mindfulness, if your sincerity toward your lord and your father is
inadequate, how could it reach anyone lower? In that case what you’ve
cultivated, what you’ve kept, is only empty talk, without substance.
The Way of sages is actually the Way1 only when it is exercised for
the benefit of everyone in the world, so that the great and the small, the
refined and the rude, are alike sufficed, and its influence reaches the four
seas. If you only illuminate yourself and live a clean life as an individual,
you are a complacent small person who always stands by his word and
always finishes what he does.
So when you are unfailingly diligent in doing what you must in service
of your lord and your father, and you accord with the appropriate
principles, the world peaceful and the home trouble-free, always adapting
without stagnating, this is like sky and earth covering and supporting all
without exclusion. Is this not great virtue?
Therefore, to refine character, first work on loyalty and filial piety,
being completely sincere in them, making faithfulness to nature basic in
service of your lord and your father.
Thus in ancient times when Chief Yu brought the flood under control,
and Gao Yao1 became an officer, the principle in this was correct. Ever
since Yi Yin and Fa Shuo2 rendered distinguished service to Shang, and
Dan Shao3 the Duke of Zhou and Gong Shi4 assisted the administration
of the Zhou dynasty, successive generations of great ministers exercised
utmost loyalty in governing society and helping the people, making their
great accomplishments in times of peace. The Duke of Zhou’s
Taigongwang, Han’s Zhang Liang,5 and Shu’s Zhuge Kongming
maintained the principles of the Way in times of turmoil by means of
achievements in war.
Guan Longfeng criticized King Jie6 of the Xia dynasty, and got
punished by being roasted to death. Bi Gan criticized King Zhou of the
Yin dynasty, and got his heart ripped out. Shi Yu of Wei left his own
corpse under a window to criticize Duke Ling.7 Zhou She criticized the
errors of Zhao Jianzi,8 wishing to be a frank and straightforward minister.
Ji An of Han denounced Emperor Wu1 to his face, Zhu Yun chastised
Emperor Cheng.2 Each of these individuals risked offending human
rulers, without regard for their own lives.
When Wang Shu of Zhou City in Qi was overcome by the army of
Yan, the King of Yan offered to make him lord of ten thousand
households. He refused, however, saying that a loyal subject does not
serve two lords, just as a chaste wife does not have two husbands. In the
end he hanged himself.
Gan Guoqing3 died after having his tongue cut offeven as he was
reviling An Lushan.4
These are examples of being absolutely loyal to the end. Did they not
refine their character in service of their lords? If their character were not
sound, how could they do as they did?
Now then, there was the filial piety of the great Shun, and Master
Zeng,5 the exertions of Dong Ying6 and Wang Xiang,7 the considerate
care of Lao Laizi8 and Huang Xiang,9 the attachment of Zhong You10 and
Wang Pou,11 the sincere feeling of Guo Qu12 and Meng Zong,1 and the
self-sacrifice of Yin Baoqi2 and Shen Sheng,3 all examples of perfecting
sincerity in service of parents. How could those people get to be as they
were without cultivating character?
So lords and fathers are the mainstays of social order, and if you don’t
serve them with complete sincerity the proper relationships between ruler
and subject and father and son will not be clearly defined.
If you try to be completely sincere without cultivating character, your
substance will be shallow and you may change in face of injury or death.
In all things, if you cannot decide critical matters in major emergencies
and upheavals, your character is undeveloped. Even in everyday
mundane life, those who take care of their business on the basis of virtue
are rooted differently. Even so, if it is not adequate in all things, its
effectiveness is indistinct. Now if an extraordinary upheaval occurs under
these circumstances, you will not be able to exercise complete sincerity
as a subject or a son openly and obviously if your character is not
upright.
Footnotes
1 The Way: in general, this term refers to expression of natural law, as in the Tao Te Ching,
“The Way derives its laws from nature.” Neo-Confucians of medieval China drew much of
their metaphysics and meditative methods from Taoism. The subset termed the Way of
humanity refers to the principles of an ideal social order. Humanity forming a triad with
heaven and earth refers to human beings participating willfully in the natural order. This is a
normal neo-Confucian theory of the natural origin of the social order. The expression way of
sages refers to Confucianism, particularly in respect to social responsibility; this is
contrasted to heretical nothingness and emptiness, which refer to typical nihilistic
aberrations of Taoism and Buddhism.
1 Gao Yao: a legendary minister of the ancient Xia dynasty of China, associated with The
Strategies of Gao Yao, a treatise on political science included in the classic Important
Documents.
2 Fa Shuo was a legendary minister to the founder of China’s Shang dynasty (1766-1122).
3 Dan Shao, Duke of Zhou, one of the co-founders of the Zhou dynasty in the 12th century
B.C.E, a major contributor to its cultural and legal system, was a model for Confucianism.
4 Gong Shi is a traditional heroic figure, a minister of the early Zhou dynasty.
5 Zhang Liang, a military hero, engineered an attempted assassination of the First Emperor of
China, then later assisted in the founding of the succeeding Han dynasty.
6 Jie: the last king of the ancient Xia dynasty, he acceded to the throne in 1818 BCE.
Traditionally cited as a model of decadence and corruption., he was overthrown by Tang,
founder of the Shang dynasty.
7 Duke Ling of Wei lived in the time of Confucius, whom he met and consulted. Confucius
walked out on Duke Ling after he asked about military matters.
8 Zhao Jianzi was a prime minister of the state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn period. He
fled the state when it was under siege, but later returned to fight back.
1 Emperor Wu (The Martial Emperor) of the Han dynasty (r. 140-86 BCE) was one of the most
powerful of all Chinese emperors, commonly classed with the First Emperor of Qin as a
greedy and aggressive tyrant.
2 Emperor Cheng of the Han dynasty (r. 32-6 BCE) enfeoffed the wily Wang Mang, who would
eventually usurp the reins of government to terminate the Han and established the short-
lived New Dynasty in 8 CE.
3 Gan Guoqing is a Confucian model of loyalty. He was a political opponent of the rebel An
Lushan, foreseeing An’s treachery against the Tang dynasty, was taken prisoner by him and
dismembered. He is said to have continued to berate An Lushan even as he was being
hacked to pieces.
4 An Lushan was a regional military inspector under the Tang dynasty in China. He staged a
calamitous rebellion in 755.
5 Master Zeng: a major disciple of Confucius. His three meditations are particularly well
known: Master Zeng said, “I examine myself on three points daily. In planning for others,
have I been disloyal? In relations with colleagues, have I been untrustworthy? Am I
repeating to others what I don’t practice myself?”
6 Dong Ying married a “celestial maiden” who helped him take care of his parents.
7 Wang Xiang was famous for breaking through ice in winter to catch fish to feed his
stepmother.
8 Lao Laizi would act like a child to amuse his parents even when he was seventy years old.
9 Huang Xiang was a classicist and author, and was noted for devotion to his father.
11 Wang Pou refused to go into civil service because the king had had his father killed.
12 Guo Qu was famed for devotion to his mother, and is said to have found a buried pot of
gold inscribed as a gift to him from heaven, representing celestial reward for his filial piety.
1 Meng Zong: a model of filial piety. He went into the woods in winter to hunt bamboo shoots
for his mother and found them sprouting all over, as a divine reward.
2 Yin Baoqi was banished after being slandered by his stepmother, and yet was not
embittered.
3 Shen Sheng was heir to a duke, but committed suicide after being slandered by his father’s
favorite concubine, who wanted to set her own son on the throne.
11. Rely on Humanity and Justness
The virtues of the human heart do not go beyond humanity and justness. These
are essentials of the order of Nature, and when you go along with those feelings
without artificiality, you’re just a heart-full of humanity and justness.
Humanity is the life-giving heart of heaven and earth. When the feeling of
sympathy emerges in proper proportion, this is the function of love.
Justness means being scrupulous in dealing with matters. This means external
projection of inward scruples in proper proportion.
So without a humane heart, one cannot embody tolerance and breadth of mind;
and so one sinks in subjective likes and dislikes. This is why humanity is
considered the source of sagehood.
Without a just heart, your dealings with matters will not be principled, so you
will not be decisive.
When you work on humanity, you become courteous in the process. When you
strive for justness, intelligence becomes clear in the process. This means that
humanity and justness are the sources of courtesy and intelligence, just as water
and fire are the bases of the five elements.1
What sages teach people is not beyond humaneness and justness. Humaneness is
the basis of virtue, justness is its practical application. As for the path to which a
man of mettle aspires, if he does not refine inner character on the basis of
humaneness and justice, how can the reality be attained?
Now then, a man’s daily activities do not go beyond serving his lord and his
father outside while governing himself inside. When the principle of serving
one’s lord and one’s father is established, here the conduct of subject and son is
clear; then relations with colleagues, the status of brothers, and the distinction
between husband and wife should naturally be orderly.
When you govern yourself inwardly on the basis of humanity and justness,
myriad different functions and everyday activities are clear in this, so there
should be no ignorance of the essence. Although many methods of personal
cultivation of scholars since ancient times appear in books, the differing views of
latter-day scholars should not be adopted. The sages set forth their teachings
clearly; their doctrines are all in humanity and justness.
When you have your own experience of the function of humanity and justness,
and actually sense the reason they are necessary to heaven and earth, then the
source of the learning of sages will be clear in this. With no further need to speak
of humanity and justness, everything you say will be humane and just.
Footnotes
1 Five elements: one of the most pervasive structures in Chinese thought. The
five elements are water, fire, metal, earth, and wood. They are conceived of as
producing and superseding each other in specific orders, resulting in
corresponding changes in conditions.
12. Thoroughly Understanding
Things
The functions of things each contain the universal absolute,1 in the
manifestations of which appear a variety of functions. Plants are plants, but there
are outstanding orchids; chrysanthemums display an attitude of abandon;
peonies show a sign of richness; lotuses have the qualities of princes. Wood is
wood, but pine and cedar have the capacity to be ridgepoles and beams; the
parasol tree has a clean constitution; apricot has a refined fragrance; cherry has a
beautiful appearance. Willows are green, flowers are red. Their types, too many
to tell, each have their laws. Noble men, it is said, gaze up at the heavens above,
examine the earth below, and observe people and things in between. This is how
they clarify the phenomena and events of sky and earth, among people and
things, after which the aptitude of sages is freely exercised in order to respond to
myriad things.
Since character is based on natural qualities, and humanity and justness are
human principles, who would not rely on them? But even if you refine your
character with humanity and justness, if you do not comprehend the qualities of
things, from astronomy to geography, the thousands of differences and myriads
of distinctions evolving from combinations of positive and negative energies,
then your way of dealing with affairs is not free; you have not mastered heaven,
earth, and society with your intelligence.
Everything is like this in service of your lord and your father, and in cultivation
of yourself. For a man of mettle to save the people of an era, accomplishing an
achievement of distinction for myriad ages, assisting the virtues of heaven and
earth, exercising the sincerity of sages to the utmost, is all a matter of
establishing this character and perfecting your intelligence and abilities. So even
the august emperor, in his unsurpassed rank, must know about everything down
to the work of lowly woodcutters, or there will inevitably be neglect in national
government.
Even the sage emperors Yao and Shun directed Xi Ho, Xi Zhong, Xi Shu, Ho
Zhong, and Ho Shu to make certain of the seasons, directed Yu to level water
and earth, directed Ji to plant a hundred grains to fully utilize the earth, making
Chief Yu1 minister of public works, Qi minister of education, with Gao Yao
becoming a judge. Shun directed Shui to be the master of the guilds, and made
Yi the minister of mountains and wetlands, having him domesticate plants and
trees and birds and beasts.
It would be impossible to detail all these things. How much the more, as a
subject serving a lord and a son being filial to his father, you will invariably run
into problems on every occasion if you are not thoroughgoing in everything. So
you should savor books from the documents of Yu and Xia such as The Plan of
Gao Yao, The Plan of Great Yu, Yi and Ji, and The Contributions of Yu.
Coming to the Zhou dynasty, Duke Dan of Zhou was the younger brother of
King Wu, who was the son of King Wang; though he was the son of a king and
the grandson of a king, he composed the Songs of the Seventh Month detailing
the livelihood of the people; he admonished King Cheng with the composition
No Negligence, informing him of the difficulties of agriculture; he defined the
rules of the Manners of Zhou in exhaustive detail, clarifying etiquette and
measure for human emotions. This was because he acquired thorough
knowledge of things, and he was a genius.
When Yin Yisheng of Jin negotiated with the Marquis of Qin at the Royal City,
he secured the return of the lord of Jin to his homeland by answering the
Marquis of Qin’s questions well. When Que You of Wu was taken prisoner in
Chu, he turned adversity into fortune. Lord Fu Bi went to the Khitan as an
ambassador of Song and got the northern court to stop warring. In such cases, if
they didn’t individually exercise their ingenuity, they would have wound up
disgracing their rulers’ command.
Footnotes
1 The universal absolute: This refers to a concept from the Book of Changes
used by Taoists and neo-Confucians to refer to a primal stage in the evolution of
matter prior to polarization of elemental energy into yin and yang or negative
and positive charges.
In later ages, books have been made into means of clever talk, a medium for
memorization and literary amusement, incessantly deprecating contemporary
people, elevating oneself and ridiculing others. Could this be called the
scholarship of a stalwart?
When people are ignorant of past and present and do not comprehend changes,
they are narrow-minded, their disposition is prone to prejudice, and their
intellect is one-sided. That is because of taking education to mean learning the
writings of ancient people. But if you study yet only work on yourself
superficially, literary ability may become harmful because of this ignorance of
how to use it. If you examine and understand your own present condition
thoroughly, and then consider the times and ideals of past and present, all studies
will increase your intelligence.
Books record things spanning thousands of years. How could we who are alive
in the present day know about events hundreds of years ago, or consider the
ways of remote foreign lands, if not for books? Therefore broad study of
literature should be used to empower the intelligence.
The Family Precepts of the Yan Clan says, “The reason for reading and studying
is to open the original mind, clear the eyes, and improve conduct. When worldly
people need books, they can say this alright but cannot carry it out. This is why
warriors and common officials ridicule them. There are also those who read
thousands of books and then aggrandize themselves, looking down on elders and
slighting contemporaries. People despise them like enemies, hate them like owls.
In this way they seek to benefit from scholarship but instead they harm
themselves. Not to study would be better.” This is talking about errors in the
attitude with which scholars read. If you give little consideration to inward
refinement of character, personal development, and mental orientation, and only
have external interest in scholarship, then all your vast learning becomes harmful
and is not as good as not studying.
Generally speaking, even though the affairs of the world may be well-established
and their origins well-understood, they will invariably become corrupt if they are
not examined and subjected to lucid review for a long time. Then mistakes will
arise from reliance on them. That is, with the passage of time there is breakdown
and there is collapse. So even if you thoroughly research principles when you
start things, in order to bring them to completion it is necessary to consider the
time and assess the situation, examine them from time to time and correct their
corruptions, amending what is unsuitable to the time, or else you cannot achieve
a complete conclusion.
Confucius said, “Isn’t it delightful to learn and put it into practice over time?” To
put it into practice over time means that there is no time when you are not
practicing. Doesn’t this mean making what you’ve learned habitual at all times,
at every moment?
Footnotes
1 Xu Wenzheng: A Confucian scholar in the time of Khubilai Khan (r. 1260-1295), the warlord-
emperor who completed the Mongol conquest over Song dynasty China and launched two
attempts to conquer Japan. Xu was drafted into government service as a school master for
the central university in the capital city.
1 King Wu was the founder of the classic Zhou dynasty; his mentor Father Shang, also called
Taigongwang, was Lu Shang, Wu’s chief advisor. The Cinnabar Book that King Wu received
from Father Shang is supposed to have contained writings on ancient practical philosophy
and political science.
2 Cheng Yiquan: 1033-1107 one of the famous Cheng brothers, Song dynasty patriarchs of
neo-Confucianism.
1 Zuo Tradition is one main traditions of Spring and Autumn Annals, noting events in the
ancient state of Lu from the eighth to fifth centuries BCE as the ancient Zhou dynasty
disintegrated; a primary source of Confucian studies.
16. Circumspection in Looking and Listening
Although the physical body is complex, it may be summed up in two terms,
perception of the external and communication of the internal.
The ears, eyes, nose, and so on, all have the function of perception of the
external, while internal functions, able to sense, can act externally.
When Confucius instructed Yan Yuan in the principles of mastering the self and
returning to courtesy, he said, “Don’t look at anything improper, don’t listen to
anything improper.” What does improper mean? When you see and hear things,
if you manifest a loss of dignity and you let your own selfishness take over, this
is called improper.
Looking at the wrong sights and listening to the wrong sounds is not the only
meaning of impropriety. Wrong sights and sounds come from outside; if we see
or hear them unavoidably, without intending to do so, that should not be called
improper looking and listening. Even though proper sights and sounds are not
improper, moreover, if you lose your manners when you see and hear them, just
letting emotions and desires take charge, this is improper looking and listening
Thus as lords and fathers look upon subjects and sons, as subjects and sons look
upon lords and fathers, for each there are proper ways of looking, according to
context. When lords and fathers listen to what subjects and sons say, and
subjects and sons obey the directives of their lords and fathers, for each there are
proprieties of listening to all voices that should be heard. If there is anything
inappropriate to the occasion, it is not proper.
For a man of mettle to establish himself in society and make his behavior enough
to be a model that myriad people can take as a guide, is initially a matter of
circumspection in manners of looking and listening. In the Detailed Courtesies it
says, “Don’t eavesdrop, don’t gaze promiscuously. When about to go in a door,
always lower your gaze and don’t look around. Generally, when the gaze is
above the face it evinces arrogance; below the belt it evinces depression;
glancing to the side evinces treachery.” This is also referred to as the look being
correct.
In the Notes on Music it says, “Ears, eyes, nose, mouth, heart, intellect, and all
parts of the body are induced to act rightly by conforming to the correct.” This is
to see to it that there is no impropriety of ear or eye.
When you are inwardly negligent, to the point where you look without seeing
and listen without hearing, your ears and eyes will follow their own inclinations,
and improprieties will become quite conspicuous. When you keep aware of the
caution not to be disrespectful, there is the caution to hear where there is no
sound, to see where there is no form. When you look, your concern is to see
clearly; when you listen, your concern is to hear clearly.
With an important person, first you look at his face, in the interim you look at his
chest, at the end you look at his face. With your father, you let your eyes roam,
but no higher than the face and no lower than the belt. There is courtesy in
looking at his feet when he’s standing saying nothing, and looking at his knees
when he’s sitting. So it’s a matter of detailed determination of all courtesies of
looking and listening in dealing with situations and people.
To sum this all up, there are three rules: looking, observing, examining. There
are interactions of five normative social relations such as lord and subject, father
and son. There are functions of seven emotions. Each of them has to have its
proper manner, according to the specifics of various contexts.
Jia Yi’s1 Norms of Appearance says, “There are four guidelines for the gaze. At
court, the gaze should be straight flowing and even. At ceremonies for spirits,
the gaze should be as if they were actually there. In military formation, the gaze
should be firmly planted and alert as a tiger. At funerals, the gaze should be
lowered, eyes half closed.” Cheng Yiquan of the Song dynasty composed
guidelines for looking and guidelines for listening, to discipline himself in this
respect; they are particularly suitable for comparative reflection.
After all, since looking and listening are functions of the eyes and ears, first
rectify the manners of your eyes and ears, then correct your ways of looking and
listening according to the people with whom you are interacting, and the changes
in events, finding out their reasons, keeping looking and listening both in mind,
using looking, observing, and examining to pursue their perfection. These would
be the dignified manners of the man of mettle, never looking or listening
improperly.
Footnotes
1 Jia Yi was a great scholar recruited by Emperor Wen of the Han dynasty (r.
179-156 BCE) to be a professor in the imperial academy. He rose rapidly in the
ranks, and tried to change the calendar and revive rites and music. Running afoul
of the resentment of the prime minister, he left the service of the central
government to become a tutor for local kings. He died at the age of 33.
17. Circumspection in Speech
Speech is the act of communicating what is within. It is said that even be
it a joke, it still comes from thought. Because speech emerges externally
from internal activity, whenever you are restless you speak thoughtlessly.
You’re apt to be garrulous and flippant, speaking immoderately, talking
too much, perhaps making up tall tales for the occasion, perhaps
angering others by intemperate words.
This must be what is meant by the guidelines for speech that say it
can create enemies and make friends, it can beckon fortune and
calamity, glory and disgrace. If it is too easy it is pretentious, while if too
complicated it is obstructive. Sages and savants since ancient times have
all warned about easy talk without equivalent action. Generally speaking,
though it is easy to open your mouth and talk, when you do not moderate
your words you become excessively loquacious without added benefit,
and because you can’t put all you say into practice it often winds up
empty talk and unfulfilled commitments. This is something to be very
ashamed of.
Therefore, so that your words will always have measure, when you
are going to speak on your own initiative, speak after having carefully
calculated the opportunity and considered the occasion. This is the idea
of the saying, “Prefer discretion in speech, as if you couldn’t talk.”
Words reflect on actions, and actions reflect on words. The
determination to take care to do as they say in all things is what noble
men of mettle esteem. You should see to it that you speak without being
at all inappropriate, careful to be moderate even in agreeing with what
others say, so as not to be inopportune or offensive in your words.
If you are careless and run offat the mouth, you’ll talk too much and
misspeak a lot, overworking yourself and being unmannerly in the
process. It’s no use for people to listen. The Records of Manners says, “A
parrot may be able to talk, but it is still a bird; an orangutan may be able
to speak, but it is still a beast.” The point is that if you have no courtesy
now as a human being, even though you can speak your heart is still that
of a wild animal, is it not?
Next, there are courtesies for when you’re going to speak. When you
intend to speak, calm your mind, compose yourself, and don’t be hasty;
keep your voice low and even in tone, and speak quietly and calmly. An
ancient said, “Calm your mind and soften your voice.” In Detailed
Courtesies it says, “Make your speech calm and steady.” These are
courtesies for when you’re going to speak.
When you talk too fast, it is unmannerly, and hard for listeners to
understand. When you speak too loudly, you startle people for nothing.
Moreover, when there is a lot to say, if you start out in a loud voice you’ll
have a hard time getting to the end. This must be the sort of thing meant
by the saying in the Records of Manners, “The mouth evinces repose, the
voice evinces calm, the tone evinces gravity.”
So when answering people’s questions and inquiries, be sure to
ascertain what is appropriate to the occasion, making your responses
calm and assured. When some expertise is needed to make a statement
or offer an answer, or when you hold critical discussions, or in cases
involving private business, rumor, or hearsay, always be defer-ential to
those around you; and when it is absolutely necessary to speak, be
precise with your words. If you speak in haste and answer impulsively,
pretending to be smart, the lack of courteous deference is undignified
and unmannerly.
When people of ancient times spoke, they saluted those around them.
Whenever you don’t listen fully to what people say but respond as if you
got it, because of carelessness your responses will inevitably be off;
saying you know what you don’t, saying you remember what you don’t,
you’ll prove to be inconsistent. Here is an example of the ancient maxim,
“Once a word is uttered a team of horses can’t overtake it.”
For this reason it is said that affirmation and agreement must be
serious responses. Even if it seems to onlookers as if you have heard
little, you must understand the inquiry fully and respond to it in detail.
People of the world all value clever talk and an eloquent tongue, and
often jump to hasty conclusions, responding in haste while others are still
talking. Of course, this is not the way of a noble man.
In the battlefield, however, split-second decisions must often be
made, and so everyday standards can’t be followed. This is in cases of
talk in the army.
Next, there are many courtesies according to the kind of speech,
depending on the place, time, and people with whom you interact. There
is speech for court, there is speech for home, there is speech for funerals
and festivals, there is speech for debuts and marriages, there is speech
for receiving guests, there is speech for the army. There is speech for
lord and subject, father and son, older brother and younger brother, friend
and colleague, and husband and wife. There is everyday speech, and
there is speech for dealing with emergencies. If you do not thoroughly
clarify these various categories, your speech will always be inappropriate,
so courtesies will be confused and manners will be violated.
So in your speech at court, when you are on duty at the court of the
lord, speaking in the capacity of a particular position, be careful that your
speech is not beyond your position, with no personal talk, no
communication of private business. With a calm mind and a gentle voice,
listen carefully to what the elders say, and if there is any juncture at which
you should speak, distinguish it clearly and don’t let yourself be fawning.
When Confucius was at an ancestral shrine or in court he spoke
eloquently but discreetly. When he spoke to the lesser grandees at court,
he was firm and direct. When he spoke to the greater grandees, he
argued mildly and cheerfully. This is how a sage was circumspect with his
speech at court, with exemplary courtesy in speaking to senior and junior
colleagues.
In Detailed Courtesies it says, “At court, when procedure is mentioned
or procedure is questioned, reply concerning procedure. In the archives,
talk about the archives; at the treasury, talk about the treasury; at the
armory, talk about the armory; at court, talk about court. When you speak
at court, you don’t talk about hounds and horses; in an official venue, you
don’t talk about women.” These are all traditional expressions of
courtesy.
Now then, there are special words for court. Going to court is called
appearing for service; leaving court is called retiring. There are lots of
different words according to the era and the clan, but one should not
discuss the present in terms of the past. Even though the courtesies of
writing, defining standard forms, were established in the Koan era (1278-
1288), the Shoguns have changed them from time to time over the ages.
It should be a matter of focusing on the evocation of things, with clear
understanding of what is appropriate to the time.
When you fully understand how you should be circumspect in speech
at court, that speech must have certain qualities, and there must be
certain manners of speaking, then you can figure out the branches from
the root, a matter of inquiring from people who are knowledgeable, and
also examining reasons.
To say there is speech for home means there must be speech for
everyday life at home. If you employ court courtesies at home, that will
seem pretentious. You can’t speak the same way all the time. So at
home, in referring to things, in coming and going, in the names of the
attendant samurai and the process of organizing teams you don’t use
formal speech, and in your conversation you don’t discuss official affairs
and don’t give personal opinions about official business. The Detailed
Courtesies says, “Public affairs are not to be privately discussed.”
The maxims of Fan Yiqian included these: “Don’t talk about profit and
loss, reports from the borders, dispatch of emissaries, or appointment of
officials. Don’t talk about the strengths and weaknesses or relative merits
of provincial and prefectural officers. Don’t talk about the errors and evils
committed by the masses. Don’t talk about opportunism or cronyism in
office. Don’t talk about how much money you have, or how you hate to be
poor and want to be rich. Don’t discuss female beauty in a licentious,
demeaning, or disrespectful way. Don’t talk about soliciting people to
seek wine and women.” These may be called admonitions for everyday
life.
If you are as cautious about talking at home as you are at court, the
appropriate harmony will be lacking, and this is out of order. Even
Confucius was said to be “relaxed” and “genial.” So then speech in
everyday life is to be mild and harmonious.
Next are words for funerals and festivals. In Detailed Courtesies it says,
“When viewing the casket, don’t sing; when the casket is sealed, don’t
mill around. On the way to the grave, don’t sing; hauling the hearse, don’t
smile. When attending a festival, don’t be sluggish. At a funeral, don’t talk
about fun. At a festival, don’t talk about trouble.” These are manners of
speaking for funerals and festivals.
When you are in a situation where there is sorrow, there should be no
joy in your speech, so as not to forget sorrow in the heart; how much the
more so when you are the one in mourning.
As for festivals, when you are not serious they’re just formalities,
becoming either farcical or something for show. Is this the original
intention of honoring spirits? That is why the words used must be most
serious.
In all funerals and festivals there are courtesies of reference
associated with ritual objects, rhetoric, and writing. Thoroughly study their
reasons, and don’t discuss them subjectively.
Next are words for debuts and weddings. Debuts are ceremonies
marking adulthood. Weddings conjoin two families, so this is a very
important ceremony. Therefore the words used on these occasions
should not be random or arbitrary; research fully, question thoroughly,
and follow what is appropriate. When you have a detailed understanding
of the rites of passage and matrimony, and carry those ceremonies out
correctly, then your words are clear.
Next are words for guests. These are courtesies of deference and
respect exchanged between guest and host when visitors come and go.
For example, it is said that one who enters as a guest defers to guests in
every house.
When guests are invited, there are courteous expressions for prior
response to the invitation, and there are courteous expressions of thanks
for visiting. When guests arrive, the host greets them with expressions of
courtesy, and they politely defer to each other. When guests leave, the
host sees them offand thanks them. There are also courtesies for guests’
expression of gratitude for the invitation, before and after; and there are
courtesies for the sendoffand the welcome.
Giving thanks for the hospitality, appreciating the excellence of the
food and drink, commenting on the house and grounds, the scenery, and
the flora, apologizing for being unworthy of such considerate treatment,
appreciate the intention. In this, assess the relative status of host and
guest, and consider the occasion in deciding whether to thank someone
in person, or use a messenger or intermediary, or send a letter, as there
are different degrees of importance in courtesy and deference.
Next is speech in the army. Jia Yi’s Norms of Appearance says, “Bated
breath and hushed voice—this is speech in the army.” Since the army is
mustered for military action, one does not speak of defeat in everyday
terms, and one does not utter words of weakness. Everything has its
manners.
Next is speech between lord and subject, father and son. When a lord
or a father gives directions to a minister or a son, speech should be mild
and understandable, with detailed instruction and clear direction. When
little is said but the implications are deep, ministers and sons have a hard
time understanding at once.
Anyone who would have authority over others ought to employ
subordinates only after observing them, noting their ignorance, and
instructing them thoroughly. Therefore speech should be mild and
harmonious, so that the feelings of subordinates can be communicated
comfortably.
When subjects and sons get directives from their lords or fathers, they
should circumspectly acknowledge each detail, not prefer their own
opinions but listen carefully to the words of their lord and father,
comprehend their aim, and then do the task. If you disregard the
directives of your lord or father, putting your own opinion first, this is
acting clever, not the consideration of loyalty and filial piety.
The Detailed Courtesies says, “When your father calls you, don’t say
‘Yeah.’ When your teacher calls you, don’t say ‘Yeah.’ Say ‘Yes!’ and get
up.” It also says, “When one who is going on a mission for his lord has
received his orders, the word of the lord doesn’t stay overnight—once the
word of the lord arrives, the man of the house goes out and bows to the
favor of the lord of the land.”
The Courtesies of Social Interaction says, “Reference to a lord refers to
employing ministers; reference to a grandee refers to service of a lord.”
The Detailed Courtesies says, “When comparing people, compare them to
their peers. When asked about the age of the emperor, reply that you’ve
heard he was so many feet tall when he made his debut. When asked the
age of the ruler of a state, reply that he is well versed in politics. If he is a
boy, say he is as yet unable to participate in politics. When asked about
the son of an official, if he’s grown up say he can manage; if he’s a child
say he can’t manage yet. When asked about a scholar’s son, if he’s
grown say he can handle inquiries; if he’s a child say he can’t handle
inquiries yet. When asked about a commoner’s son, if he’s grown say he
can carry kindling; if he’s a child, say he can’t carry kindling yet. If a lord
wants a knight to shoot but he can’t, he refuses on the grounds of
infirmity, saying he aches from carrying kindling. Asked about the wealth
of the ruler of a state, reply with the size of the territory and the produce
of mountains and wetlands. Asked about the wealth of officers, say they
have stewards, live on tax revenues, and don’t need to borrow
ceremonial implements or attire. When asked about the wealth of knights,
answer with the number of their chariots. When asked about the wealth
of common people, reply with the count of their livestock. If a ruler of a
state is going to leave his state, to stop him say, ‘How can you leave the
earth and grain shrines?’ In the case of an officer, say, ‘How can you
leave the ancestral shrine?’ In the case of a knight, say, ‘How can you
leave your tombs?’”
In Discourses and Sayings it says, “The lord of a country calls his wife
Madame and himself Boy. The citizens call her Lady. To those of other
countries she is referred to as the Little Lady, while the citizens of other
countries still call her Lady.”
Generally speaking, such expressions are not all of the same class. It
is simply essential to study them and understand them thoroughly. When
the words of lord and father and subject and son are correct in this
respect, then the words of brothers, spouses, and colleagues should all
be in accord. When you speak to your father or older brothers, you honor
and respect them like lords, but when you mention them to others you
humbly call them your stupid father and stupid brother. You refer to the
children of your father and elder brothers the same way.
Just consider the situation and take into account the occasion, and
adjust your level of gravity according to the people you’re dealing with
and the proprieties of the matter concerned, based on the fundamental
intention of not being disrespectful.
In particular, when the speech of men and women is not appropriately
mannerly, with men imitating the speech of women and women using
masculine speech, they are both out of place. It is therefore imperative to
observe the precept that men should not speak of domestic affairs and
women should not speak of public affairs. Since all words come from
thought, one should be most circumspect.
Next, there is speech for ordinary life and there is speech for
emergencies. That is to say, in times of tranquility fast talk and hurried
speech invariably startle people. When we talk fast or speak hurriedly, it
is because of being inwardly careless and inconsiderate. When there is
an emergency, whether a natural disaster or man-made trouble, that’s the
time to startle people with fast talk, speaking quickly to get them thinking
as soon as possible. This is not a situation or an event to be dealt with in
a quiet and relaxed manner.
On this account, abnormal events have to be dealt with in unusual
ways. This is when you accurately address the reasons for normalcy as
well as abnormality. If you always think in the same way and keep to one
line of reasoning, without mastering situational adaptation to change, in
any case you’ll just get stuck.
Considered in this light, since words and speech are manifestations of
the internal, if you are at all careless in this respect your manners must
thereby be disordered. A noble man’s care to avoid discourteous speech
is much to be appreciated.
Discourtesy does not refer only to vulgar or improper talk. Whenever
you open your mouth immoderately, that is discourteous. You must
realize the magnitude of the admonition not to say anything discourteous.
Next, there are precepts for talk. This refers to what to be consistently
conscientious about in conversation between lords and fathers and
subjects and sons, between brothers, spouses, and colleagues. This
amounts to the need to assess the timing. This means figuring the proper
occasion to speak, the right time to say something.
For example, when you cannot reason something out, if you speak of
it without considering the proper place, the matter concerned cannot be
reasonable. Assessing the time means figuring when it would be good to
speak out in the proper place, which of the four seasons, and whether in
the morning, noon or night; and considering your own age and that of the
person you’re talking to. Considering and determining each issue is
assessing timing.
The saying that you should not talk while eating or speak in bed
presents precepts for timing. To speak on a sudden impulse is failure of
timing.
The Detailed Courtesies includes a precept that a son should not use
the word old in everyday speech to avoid allusion to his parents’ aging,
saying that speech should accord with the situation. What this means is
that even if something could or should be said, there are situations in
which it shouldn’t be said. When said in the wrong situation, everything
causes harm. This is why forms of speech at court and at home are
different.
Accordingly, there are things to be said and affairs not to be
mentioned, according to the person. As you speak of humanity and
justice in front of your lord, likewise consider all your social relations and
conduct your conversation accordingly.
Confucius said, “There are three errors in attendance on a lord. To
speak of something before it is time to talk about it is called haste. Not to
speak when it is time to talk about something is called concealment. To
speak without noting facial expressions is called blindness.”
Conversation generally to be cautioned against is talk about sex,
matters of gain and loss, luxuries, and longings for amusement and
leisure—these are not to be topics of conversation. In principle, one
should not engage in abstract philosophy of nature, mind, and
nothingness, or self-laudatory, conceited talk. As for vocabulary, neither
vulgar words nor effete and ornate expressions should be employed. All
this is language to beware of.
Next are the uses of language. Confucius said, “In speaking, one
thinks of loyalty.” He also said, “One should be loyal and trustworthy in
what one says.” The classic Manners says, “In converse with the crowd,
speak of loyalty, faithfulness, kindness, and good prospects. When
talking to children, speak of respect for their fathers and elder brothers.
When talking to officials, speak of loyalty and faithfulness.” Whenever
you talk to people, you should do so in a way that will benefit them. That
is a way to help others. To speak so as to profit oneself alone is not the
way of a noble man. To benefit oneself without considering the welfare of
others is always the act of a petty person. This is what is meant by
Master Zeng’s saying, “Am I unfaithful in my considerations for others?”
Talking all day, wasting words, to make a point of your own
cleverness, repeatedly showing offverbally, is something noble men
detest; it should be called useless eloquence. Petty people are used to
turning anything that’s said to their own advantage. There is no
impropriety of speech worse than this. One must guard against it most
carefully.
In Zhang Sishu’s maxims it says, “All speech must be loyal.” This is
indeed something always to be cautious and careful about. As for loyalty
and trustworthiness, loyalty means being completely sincere in
consideration for others. Trustworthiness means not fabricating
falsehood, being correct and clear. Since these are problematic points in
speech, everyone should beware.
18. Be Careful of Appearances
Appearances are the substance of the vessel into which nature and mind
are placed by the natural order. When inner thoughts are improper,
appearance is influenced by them, the manifestation being outwardly
evident. If you want to rectify your appearance, you have to correct and
clarify what you think inside.
Footnotes
1 Jade Spread is a section of the Chinese Classic of Manners. The image Spread in the title
refers to a cloth spread on which precious stones are laid out for display.
1 Kong’s Collection: By Kong Fu, a 9th generation descendant of Confucius. He lived during
the Qin dynasty (255-209 BCE). When the First Emperor ordered books burned and
scholars buried alive, he concealed his copies of the classics inside a wall and went into
hiding in the mountains.
2 The Charioteers’ Art of War is a famous Chinese military manual, attributed to Tian Rangju,
composed between 356-320 BCE.
1 The Model of the Warrior is a classical musical composition celebrating the overthrow of the
corrupt last king of the Shang dynasty by King Wu of the Zhou. A note in the original says,
“The sound of the jade ornaments hanging from the belt is slow, after The Model of the
Warrior.”
2 The Succession is a classical musical composition that celebrates the succession of King
Shun to King Yao; these were sage kings of old (3rd millennium BCE), and the succession
is famed in Confucian philosophy for having been nonhereditary, based on ability rather
than birth.
3 The Downpour is supposed to be the music of Tang, respected founder of the ancient
Chinese Shang dynasty (1766 B.C.E). A note in the original says, “It matches [the pace of
running] because it is fast.”
1 Eight instruments: A classical Chinese categorization, referring to instruments of metal,
stone, string, bamboo, gourd, clay, leather, and wood. Japanese music tends to employ
mostly string, bamboo (woodwind), and leather (percussion) instruments.
1 House Maxims of the Yan Clan: By a scholar recruited to tutor the crown prince during the
founding era of the Sui dynasty, which reunited long-divided China in 589.
1 Gathering Herbs and Relaxing in Summer are names of ancient Chinese musical
compositions.
19. Moderating Consumption of Food and Drink
Living things cannot survive physically without food and drink. This is the
explanation of the doctrine of mutual production of the five elements.
Wood grows nourished by water, metal is produced by the nutrition of
earth. Humans, being the most intelligent of creatures, receive the
nourishment of all five elements together, which when complete make a
full life possible. Even a single day without food and drink, and this life is
reduced. This is why people require food and drink.
Footnotes
1 Universal Gidelines (Hong Fan) is a work in the Chinese classic Ancient Documents,
consisting of an ancient proto-constitution, a design of government. The eight ministries
outlined therein are: 1) foodstuffs; 2) commodities and money; 3) public rites and religious
affairs; 4) infrastructure; 5) education; 6) the penal system; 7) diplomacy and foreign affairs;
8) military affairs.
2 In the original it says “three hours” because ‘hour’ in the old 12-hour system was equivalent
to two hours in the modern 24-hour system.
1 Wang Xinmin lived in the 11th century. He obtained a master’s degree in the civil service
examination and was recruited for employment in a central ministry, but declined. He was
noted for strength of character
1 Kidney: In Taoist terminology adopted in traditional Chinese medicine, also used in Japan,
kidney is used to refer to both urinary and sexual systems, so in this context kidney water
can be used to mean urine output or seminal fluid.
20. Dignified Housing Design
Housing is something people have no choice but to arrange. Even if you
have food and clothing, if you are exposed to rain, dew, frost, and snow,
vulnerable to wind, cold, heat, and humidity, then food is not enough to
support life, and clothing will be ruined by the elements. So housing is
constructed to avoid these problems.
Footnotes
If you have a house, you should have all the utensils that go along
with a house. In addition, there are all sorts of personal conveniences,
beginning with armrest and cane, brush and ink-stone. There are
implements associated with good and bad fortune, warfare, hospitality
and diplomacy, celebration, ritual, music, archery, horseman-ship, writing,
and calculation. Military equipment, from armor and helmet to swords,
spears, bows, guns, and their accessories, as well as articles of riding
gear, are countless, but basically they are no more than the cultural and
military implements to facilitate practical convenience and guarantee
security.
Here the designs of implements all have their rules. There are many
such designs, past and present, crude and fine. However, one should set
out items that match, crude or fine according to social status, indicative of
character and importance. One should not waste money on fancy
implements just to impress people and show off.
So vessels for food and drink, for example, should be elevated,
removing anything unclean underneath, preventing servants from
touching with their hands where your mouths touch the vessels. In
particular, vessels for presentation to nobles are put on a high stand to
elevate the dish. This discourages menials from bending over and
reaching out to pick them up. This arrangement is a measure of
unavoidable necessity, to prevent people from assuming discourteous
postures.
Everything should be understood in this way. Even if a utensil is only
a decoration, it is inscribed with a maxim or inlaid with a saying, and
people not allowed to get it dirty, so that the words are understood when
seen, and as they are remembered over time they come to convey a
lesson.
Therefore no implements ought to be carelessly misplaced or
mishandled. In particular, documents or papers bearing the names of
sages, even a single sheet, should not be soiled. Needless to say, books
and writings should not be handled carelessly at all.
A man of mettle normally devotes his greatest attention to weaponry.
You should inquire of men who have them to consider and calculate their
advantages and disadvantages. A person’s physique has more or less
flesh depending on the season, and body weight changes from year to
year, so the suitable size of weapons cannot be known without constant
consideration and calculation. Since ancient times knights have all kept
them by their seats and studied their uses from experienced
predecessors. This is because men of mettle do not forget danger when
at ease.
To keep any of your equipment from touching your feet, be it your
weapons or your riding gear, they should be placed to one side when
coming and going.
Horses are the legs of men of mettle. Without a horse, how can you
travel long distances and cross steep ground? How could you treat your
horse inconsiderately? You should take good care of it. There are
systematic rules for this, which you should study thoroughly.
Next, there are the individual uses of the advantages of implements.
That means they should be organized according to the occasion. If they
are not used according to the occasion, their use will be out of place and
inexpert. Every implement has its occasion. The place ought to be
considered as well; figure out suitable locations to organize them in their
places. If they are not put in proper places, things will soon be damaged.
There are people put in charge of this. If no one is in charge, thorough
inventory is not done, and things are mishandled. Even if there is a
magistrate in charge, still appoint a supervisor to check, making rounds
of inspection.
When kept under wraps for a long time, implements inevitably get
damaged by exposure to moisture and dryness. Military equipment in
particular has to be checked carefully, as it may be rendered useless by
infestation of insects or by rot.
Articles for everyday life facilitate convenience, whereas military gear
is equipment for protection in times of disturbance; so if it is misplaced,
that is the basis of major defeat in an emergency. The supervisor should
check diligently, correcting the errors of administrators, dealing out
rewards and punishments.
These are principles for organizing implements. All use of implements
among people should be detached and mannerly. To give too much
attention to them is not the attitude of a noble man. Hu Wending said,
“People should be simple in their tastes—there is no need to appear rich
and highly placed.” Mencius said, “Even if I had a house forty feet high, a
dining table ten feet square, and hundreds of maids in attendance, I
wouldn’t have fulfilled any ambition of mine.”
Tastes refer to things like diet, attire, and residence. This also applies
to the use of implements. If they are not handled with courtesy, though,
dignified manners will be lacking in this, so even if they are handled with
detachment it is essential to maintain courteous formalities and not
confuse social order.
Next, there is the use of precious implements. Generally speaking,
implements conventionally called precious are compared in qualities to
heaven and earth, including atmosphere, beauty, and elegance. Only
when implements induce people to examine themselves are they to be
called precious implements. When people accomplish this completely,
they are called sages. When birds and beasts have this adornment, they
are called phoenixes and unicorns. When implements have this they are
called auspicious treasures and precious articles. These have been
respected since time immemorial, because people can take them as
standards.
Even so, though precious implements and such as unicorns and
phoenixes are famous in the world, this only refers to their atmosphere
and elegance. As for sages, they lack nothing of the virtues of heaven
and earth, so their character is thus sound, their knowledge thus
universal, their courage thus outstanding. That is why sages have rarely
appeared in the world over thousands of years, while gems are not rare.
Now then, next to this, if things that benefit the world and are useful to
people are considered precious, then the energies of wood, fire, earth,
metal, and water produce grain, clothing, plants and trees, fish and fowl,
salt and greens, and enable the making of implements and swords—all of
these are treasures of the world, indispensable even for a day. There is
profit in gold, silver, and copper cash, moreover, when used for
exchange, as what people have is profitably traded for what they lack.
This is how money began to be treasured.
Considered in this context, speaking in terms of the benefit of
convenient utility, even a single vessel or a single object, small as it may
be, is a treasure when its time comes. For example, a sharp sword
capable of killing is a treasure for the one who kills but an instrument of ill
omen for the one who is killed.
Something that is good for only one function or one task, nonetheless,
without universal application, is not called a treasure. Money is called
valuable because it can be exchanged profitably. No asset is more
convenient than this for getting through the world—that is why it has been
valued from age to age. Jewels are the treasures of nobles, of no
particular practical use, and no value as currency. Therefore common
people don’t treasure them.
When a society does not consider jewels precious treasures, that is
because people value profit, not quality. Those who do happen to value
jewels do so because they want to exchange them for gold and silver.
In ancient times, emperors, lords, grandees, gentry, and even
commoners always wore jades. Emperors came to wear jades hanging
from their belts. In the Documents it says, “Gather jades designed for
dukes, marquises, earls, esquires, and barons; interview the regional
governors at court every day during the first month of the year and
distribute the jades to the governors.” This means the emperor distributes
assorted gems to the lords, indicating that everyone should emulate
richness of character like the qualities of these jades, and should perfect
sound intelligence like the luster of jade. When the lords come to court,
they present the jades bestowed on them, never forgetful, never
careless. This represents the fulfillment of character and intelligence.
Even so, as society degenerated, the purpose of the jades given to
the lords as gems of evidence to check their character and intelligence
was lost because they didn’t know what treasure is.
According to the Manners of Zhou, six kinds of tablet were made of
jade and distributed among the feudal states. Kings took the tablet of
peace, dukes took the tablet of war, marquises took the tablet of trust,
earls took the tablet of status, esquires took the grain gem, and barons
took the reed gem. Six vessels were made of jade for rites to the sky,
earth, and four directions.
Also it says that the imperial treasurer manages the treasury and
security of the ancestral shrines. The treasures of the nation are stored
here. The Mean speaks of setting out implements of the ancestors, and
the Documents say what those ancestral implements are. All of them are
treasures of the nation, valuables passed down from previous
generations and carefully kept as hereditary treasures, likened to the
virtues that stabilize the state.
Qiu Wenzhuang said, “Past Confucians have said that jade has the
refined energy of pure positivity, so it is most treasured by sages. When
they were going to propitiate heaven and earth and the four directions,
they had no means of tendering their sincerity, so they made six
implements of jade.”
Jade has existed everywhere in China since ancient times. This can
be seen by perusing the Classic of Mountains and Seas. In the time of Yao
and Shun, they were already using it to make tablets and scepters. In the
time of The Contributions of Yu,1 there were already gemstones in the
tribute from the three provinces of Yang, Liang, and Ying. The jade
presented by Bian He2 during the era of the Warring States came from
Mt. Jing. In Han times, Indigo Fields in central China and Jade Fields in
Yu province both had jades. In those days, Central Asia was not yet in
contact with China. Currently we don’t hear of any places in China that
produce jade; all the jade in use comes from Khotan. Khotanese jade is
of three kinds; white, dusky, and green. All of them come from the rivers.
This is different from what ancients referred to as the mountains shining
with gemstones. This is because Chinese jades come from stone and
must be chiseled out, whereas foreign jades come from water and must
be sifted out.
How could jade have differences of time, place, and organic matter?
Jade is the purest of gemstones; is there a limit to where it is produced,
can it ever be mined to exhaustion? People of ancient times associated
jade with virtues, so they were never without them for no reason, making
implements of them to use. The kinds used for belt chimes have to be
multiple. Those for which ideographs have been devised number more
than two hundred kinds, so it is obvious that they had a lot of jade in
ancient times, and many ways of using it.
In the present age, there are peasants who don’t know of jade. Why
was it so plentiful in ancient times but so rare today? The reason people
of the world don’t know that jade is a treasure is because they focus on
utility and indulge in subjective desires, so they tend to regard money as
treasure. From this they value objects that delight the eye, please the ear,
or stimulate the palate; or they treasure art and calligraphy, or rare
antiques, because they are scarce and uncommon; they prize things by
looking, listening, handling, or wearing them. When they ask their price,
they think expensive things are great treasures. This is very much the
behavior of small people, not the philosophy of noble men.
For a stalwart’s weaponry, sword and spear have the greatest
function, so they could be valued as treasures, but something that is
sufficient only to kill a single person and protect one individual is not a
treasure. The function of the three-foot sword of the Exalted Ancestor of
the Han Dynasty of China,1 in pacifying the land, was far reaching. The
long sword of this country has a chilling shine that makes foreigners fold
their arms. These are worthy of being considered treasures.
Even so, when something used by your father and grandfather is
needed for your house, then it is a family treasure. An ancient said, “As
for the valuable articles rulers keep from preceding generations, those
that bear the marks of their handling, those in which their spirit is lodged,
are set out when there are events at the ancestral shrine, to show that
they are being preserved. When the emperor is dying, these are set out
to show their complete return.” This is not a trivial matter. The Mean uses
this to illustrate the capacity of inheritance and bequest; the Documents of
Zhou uses this to represent the preservation of heritage. They say that if
you are someone’s descendant, heir to the status of your ancestral clan,
keeper of your ancestral profession, how can you be filial if you don’t
keep the heirlooms left by your ancestors?
Speaking in these terms, while it may be reasonable to keep
heirlooms of your ancestors carefully as family treasures, if you store a
lot of useless articles on the pretext that they are treasures of your
ancestors, on the contrary this will bring disgrace on your ancestors, and
even amount to teaching your children and grandchildren to be greedy.
There are a lot of fellows known as men of mettle who nevertheless
treasure utensils, even those who usually don’t care about gain and loss,
because they have no aspiration to the Way, don’t know the intent of the
sages, and have not reasoned these matters out thoroughly. Beware of
this.
Generally speaking, treasure as applied to the multitudes of people
everywhere on earth logically refers to whatever brings fulfillment. Cash
is extremely useful to poor people, whereas rich people don’t need it.
Even a hobby is a treasure to someone who has none, whereas one with
more than enough isn‘t interested. Thus they should not be classed as
universal treasures. Scholars should pay attention to this.
Footnotes
1 Contributions of Yu is a work in the classic Ancient Documents concerning the ancient sage
king Yu, who according to tradition founded the Xia dynasty in 2205 BCE.
2 Bian He figures in an ancient story supposed to represent faithfulness. He found a rock that
he recognized to be a jade matrix, and presented it to his king. The king thought it was just
a rock and had one of Bian’s feet amputated to punish him. When Bian presented it to the
next king, again it was not recognized for what it was and Bian had the other foot cut offfor
his trouble. In the end the value of the jade was finally recognized by a third king.
1 Exalted Ancestor of the Han refers to the founder of the Han dynasty (r. 206-194 BCE) who
had been one of the leaders of revolts against the government of the first Chinese empire. A
traditional theme of righteous rebellion in China is of a sword from heaven inspiring a new
leader to rise up.
22. Dignified Manners in Ceremonial Functions
Generally speaking, the function of ceremony is what manners hinge upon.
Courtesies concern conduct in every single matter, in regard to every single
thing. Therefore, from the physical body all the way to utensils and implements,
what noble men of mettle value is understanding the guiding principles of each
case. Among ceremonies, the major ones in the social structure are rites of
majority, marriage, funeral, and ceremonies honoring spirits and ancestors; and
rituals for hospitality, military organization, interviewing, and celebrating.
In the Manners it says, “Males from the ages of fifteen to twenty may all be
capped. This should only be carried out if there is no mourning in progress for
their father or mother, or requiring a year or more.” That system is very detailed,
but it’s not used today, so I omit it.
Sima Guang1 wrote, “In ancient times capping was done at the age of twenty.
The reason everyone valued the rite of attainment of adulthood is to charge the
individual with the responsibility for his actions as someone’s son, someone’s
younger brother, someone’s subject, someone’s junior. Therefore it is necessary
to emphasize the importance of this with a ceremony. In recent times people
have become more superficial; few keep minority status past the age of ten. Even
if you charge them with the responsibility for their actions in their various roles,
how could they comprehend? In case after case they remain equally ignorant
from youth to maturity. That is because they don’t know the ways of adulthood.
Even if it is impossible to reform all at once now, if you wait from the age of
fifteen until they master the Classic of Filial Piety and the Discourses and
Sayings of Confucius and they have a rough knowledge of rites and manners,
and then you cap them, this will still do.”
Although current custom does not practice capping, the front of the scalp is
shaved between the ages of fifteen and twenty as a rite of passage to majority,
and the childhood name is replaced with an adult name. So this amounts to a
capping ceremony. Could it be proper to neglect it?
Thus before the actual ceremony signifying attainment of majority, boys should
be taught all about adulthood, so when the day comes they can perform the ritual
in the presence of their parents and adopt an adult name. This is what is referred
to by the expression a guest gives a name to the one being capped. This guest is
one chosen for this function from among friends, one who is wise and mannerly.
The name here refers to the adult name. So the capping involves meeting one’s
parents in the ancestral shrine, having an audience with honored elders, and
going through a celebratory ceremony, seeing to it that manners are correct.
Courtesy to guests is shown by the ritual of offering three cups of wine. As for
giving thanks to guests, that is done with bolts of cloth and mounts. The details
are in classics and traditions and commentaries on manners and rituals.
Master Cheng wrote, “With the capping ceremony obsolete, there are no adults
in the land. Or some wish to cap at the age of twelve. This will not do. Capping
is to convey the responsibilities of adulthood, and twelve years of age is not the
appropriate time to hold people responsible as adults.”
Girls also debut at the age of fifteen. This is their rite of adulthood. Once people
have formally become adults, there are proper ways for a person to be a person,
from clothing, diet, and housing to physical carriage and attitude. Can these
legitimately be neglected? This is why the capping rite is considered important.
Marriage joins two families in friendship and produces progeny, whereby the
process of succession to parents in carrying out responsibilities is consummated.
Since it is a major rite for men and women, it should not be made a matter of
convenience.
Funerals and services for the dead are rites for remembrance of successive
generations of parents. The procedures should be studied carefully, and
consideration should be given to the proper timing. The courtesies of receiving
guests, the process of hospitality, and the courtesies of drinking wine require
greatest circumspection in regard to dignified manners.
Audience refers to a minister’s first meeting with the lord, or a visit to a teacher
or elder. These are called audiences, and the proper manner is to show the
courtesies of a knight in audience. You should examine all of the types and
thoroughly understand their applications.
Rites of celebration are systems of propitious times and ceremonial days for all
observances of auspicious events.
The foregoing rites are all important observances. As a man of mettle, if you
don’t know courteous manners but are just hard and strong, you will be so mean
as to merit the epithet of a northern brave.
Even though bravery and strength are basic for a man of mettle, if you neglect
manners and obey subjective desires, you cannot have cultural and martial
capacity and intelligence. If you don’t have cultural and martial capacity, as you
only make techniques your basis, how can you attain real courage?
Courtesy is basic for people, including social relations and the designs of
utensils and objects. When courtesy is violated here, then proper measure is lost.
Without proper measure, all action and speech will fall into either excess or
inadequacy, and cannot accord with the requirements of natural principle.
Footnotes
Even so, no incident can take place independent of the Way. Speaking from this
perspective, from peace and war, flourishing and decline on a large scale, down
to changes and movements in one event or one thing, there is no departing from
the laws of heaven and earth. Noble men of mettle can only talk about the Way
when they have actually experienced what this means.
Considering this body, then, it has ears, eyes, nose, mouth, four limbs, and
hundreds of parts. Inside, there are distinctions of nature, mind, emotion, will,
and temper. On employing this body there are functions of walking, standing,
sitting, reclining, looking, listening, speech and action. To support this body
there are clothing, housing, utensils, and necessary objects. There is a distinction
between appetite and sexual desire. There are interactions of lord and subject,
father and son, husband and wife, old and young, colleague and friend. In that
context there come to be rituals for good times and bad, for war, hospitality, and
celebration.
When we consider this body of ours, all of these things are inseparable.
Although there are individual differences of status and wealth, none of the
aforementioned items is dispensable. With this body and this mind, to depart
from these things is only possible in death. In the meanwhile, thoroughly
studying their principles, harmonizing with the Way that cannot be departed
from, keeping the rules of heaven and earth in everything you do, in everything
you arrange, with everyone you meet, even when sitting alone, organizing
everything with heaven and earth as the embodiment of humaneness may be
called the everyday practice of a noble man.
The principles I explain are not remote, but inescapable. In their everyday
activities, everyone refers to what makes them happy as the Way, and what is
offensive they call human greed. With only these two alternatives, can everyday
activities be taken lightly?
24. Correcting a Day’s Activities
A hundred years is considered an advanced age in terms of the human
life span. A man of mettle should only consider the activities of one day,
today, to be the limit. Individual days accumulate into a month, individual
months accumulate into a year, individual years accumulate into a
decade, decades pile up into a century.
One day is still a long way—it’s in a single hour. An hour is still long—
it’s in fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes is still too much—it’s in a minute. In
these terms, the accumulation of even thousands of years comes from
one minute and concludes in one day. If you’re negligent for a minute,
eventually that will become a day, and may ultimately turn into a lifetime’s
laziness.
The continual creation of life by heaven and earth does not stop for a
minute; blood and energy do not stop circulating for a minute. In this way
heaven attains eternity and earth perpetuity; in this way life flourishes
forever.
When virtue and intelligence circulate like this, one is a sage. Great
Yu valued even a minute of time, Confucius contemplated flowing water.
This must be the sense of the saying that the circulation of virtues is
faster than the conveyance of commands by relay.
Considering a day’s activities here, first get up early, wash and groom
yourself, dress properly, including accessories, and sit quietly with your
hands folded, making your appearance and manner correct. Nurture the
mood of dawn,1 and contemplate the principle of heaven and earth
ceaselessly producing life.
Then acknowledge your debt and duty to your lord and your father,
and think about today’s work, a matter of considerate contemplation.
“The physical body, hair, and skin, are received from father and mother;
not daring to injure them is the beginning of filial piety. Establishing
oneself, carrying out the Way, leaving a reputation to posterity that will
distinguish your father and mother is the end of filial piety. Serving your
lord with total devotion, planning for the benefit of others, is loyalty.” The
meaning in this is deep and far-reaching. Above all, you should observe
subtle impulses.
Once daylight dawns, open the door and clean, sprinkle, and sweep
the walk. Here the energy of heaven enters in, here the veins of earth
grow. If there are household chores, give instructions with all the
necessary information. In the meantime, if visitors come or messengers
are waiting, see them promptly and respond to them promptly, not
causing them any delay.
If you are in the service of a lord, go to work early. If you are taking
care of your parents, see if they are all right. If you go out to work, be
thoroughly circumspect about where you situate yourself and what you
say, and don’t plan beyond your position. If you are attending an elder, be
polite and respectful, treating him like your father or elder brother, being
deferential and not arguing.
Generally speaking, the course of service in public office is to go to
work early in the morning before others, and leave work in the evening
after others. When you get home, look in on your parents. With a mild
manner and gentle voice, settle in your seat and inquire about affairs in
your absence, assess their relative urgency, and do what needs to be
done.
If there is free time, change out of your court clothing, sit quietly and
contemplate, reviewing the day’s activities. If you have time to spare,
then read, reflecting on the words and deeds of people of old, getting to
know the designs of sages and savants.
When the sun has gone down, then give instructions for night security,
making sure of mutual arrangements. Then go to bed, relax your body
and rest your mind. Have attendant samurai go on and off duty at regular
times.
These are the habits of rising early and retiring late, working at the
office and looking after the family.
These are precepts for knights when at home. They ought to be
observed with care. A tradition says that in an official career forty is
considered the age of strong service. This is the time when one’s
planning in public service is apt. Nevertheless, taking the number of
progeny into consideration, on the command of his lord or father one
should be allowed to get experience in office even if only around twenty
years old.
Even if knights serve in office, their work load is little and they always
have a lot of free time. Sometimes they are given leave and live at home,
or have unfortunately never served a lord, or their parents have passed
away early, or they are too far away to go on duty from morning to night.
When leisure days living at home go on for a long time, your will
slackens, becoming unrestrained and indulgent; calling yourself the one
man of leisure in the world, you don’t look after your professional work
and eventually degenerate into an animal. This is what Master Zeng
meant when he said, “Small people living at leisure will do anything
immoral.”
So discipline is required when living at leisure. Generally speaking, a
man of mettle does not relax his discipline because of distinction, and
does not become lazy in his conduct because of obscurity. Thus he first
gets up early in the morning, cleans himself, grooms and reflects,
acknowledges and contemplates, then goes out and greets the knights,
attends guests, and may watch archery or go horseback riding, then has
a quick meal. If there are guests who showed up without an invitation,
then don’t change your simple fare. Share a cup of lees.
When you’ve finished, rinse your mouth and straighten your
appearance, dignified in your manner. If you have no business to attend
to, practice the arts of swordsmanship, archery, shooting, or spear
fighting, strengthening your physique and perfecting your maneuvering.
Invite experts, or go to their places, never being lazy. If you slack offfor a
long time, you’ll become clumsy, uncoordinated, out of condition,
sluggish, inadequate for the job.
A man of old carried bricks to develop his strength. Both his
determination and his effort ought to be observed.
If you still have free time, read books and study military science and
martial principles, researching the reasons for the things involved,
clarifying the designs of the relevant equipment and operations, based
only on what the sages say.
Once the sun sets, then have your evening meal, repeating the
morning ritual. Morning and evening meals are best simple and quick.
As the day grows dark, light candles early to distinguish objects and
dispel doubt. If something comes up, go ahead and see to it. Otherwise,
if there’s nothing going on, then quietly rest your mind.
While a man of mettle is staying at home, if he is this circumspect
even in solitude, then he will have a clear conscience. He does not
neglect manners whether in view or out of sight. Here his mind is broad,
here his body is robust, here his attention is focused; his will has a
definite direction, and no ideas of license or indulgence occur to him.
These are precepts for living at leisure.
Footnotes
1 The mood of dawn is an image from Mencius. The mood of dawn means mental calm,
freshness, coolness, and clarity.
25. Use of Money; Ethics of Receiving and Giving
If you have money but can’t use it, then money isn’t valuable. If you have a use
for it but don’t calculate the amount of money needed, then the use isn’t
practical. Money is valuable because of need, needs are practical because of
money. There is no distinction between money and its use.
A man of mettle thinks only of duty. If you treasure money and amuse yourself
with possessions, you’ll be remiss in military duty, unable to forget home in an
emergency. If you think so much of home that you abandon duty and flee death,
you become an object of derision and you disgrace your father and grandfather.
What is enjoyable about having a human face but an animal heart?
History abounds with people who had an abundance of gold, silver, money, and
goods, but lost their countries and wrecked their families, or traded themselves
for money making. But outstanding men disdain empire and state. There is the
example of one who washed his ears in a river, and those who gathered ferns in
the mountains. You should reflect on their high-mindedness.
Even so, this does not mean that if you have money you should discard it in the
mountains or toss it in the sea, treating it the same as dirt or rocks. It’s just a
matter of making sure of its measured use.
The riches of the world are the riches of the world, not the riches of one man.
Money makes trade and profit possible, applying to all things; that is why it is
called wealth. People who have money say they don’t want to waste it, and don’t
know how to spend it. If gold and jade fill your rooms, and money and goods lie
in storage, and yet you don’t know how to put it to use, then the riches of the
world stagnate inside individual treasuries and are not useful to the world. What
is more wasteful than this?
When people like money, they’re generally miserly with it. That is why sages
didn’t consider money as treasure and did not value hard-to-get goods. Indeed, to
store pottery, paintings, calligraphy, and vessels of copper and iron, and call this
treasure, spending thousands in gold on these things, is extreme confusion.
The principles of giving and receiving, the duties of ruler and subject, superior
and subordinate, and the courtesies of interactions with peers, should be
carefully observed by knights.
All things great and small involve duties, whether giving or receiving. So if
disbursal is not done in a principled and just manner, people will not be pleased
and knights will not enlist.
A tradition says, “Men of justice cannot be hired for money. Even a beggar
won’t accept food used for enticement.” How can we not be careful? If it is right
to receive something, then it should be accepted, no matter how valuable it is. If
it is in any way unjust or unprincipled, even an immense salary, or leadership of
the world, should not be accepted.
So when you give, consider the relative value of the thing, determine the way to
do it and act accordingly, including a note. No matter how small or meager, it
represents an intention and maintains an ethical principle. How could the
recipient not be appreciative?
As for the proper way to receive something, usages of sendoff and welcome,
restraint and deference, how can these be overlooked? If you don’t do it right,
giving is without feeling and receiving is without pleasure. You should focus on
circumspection in the context of giving and receiving. Someone said, “Rather
than be miserly and accumulate money, let a knight be generous with it, and he’ll
have even more.”
26. Prudence at Parties
Knights are not lazy either in public or private; sharpening their will, they are
diligent in their activities. This is their job. Treating savants as savants and
familiars as familiars, they organize parties and drink wine, and frequently
gather to listen to music. These are occasions when guests are entertained.
Bathing in the wind wearing the clothing of spring, hiking in the mountains,
enjoying the moonlight in the valleys and the clear breeze on the rivers, they
follow the flowers and willows. These are the parties of men of mettle. Why just
occupy yourself with reading and writing, becoming a stuffy little man? Here
your heart expands, here your taste is purified.
Nevertheless, drinking wine must have discipline, and diversions must have
measure. Each excursion, each diversion, as a model for lords, does not involve
streaming music or an idle waste of time. In the sacred park of King Wen, the
doe and deer were fat, the swans were white, fish danced in the ponds. This is a
lesson of the ancients, to share their enjoyment with the people. Whether in
falconry, hunting, or fishing, should a man of mettle lose measure and become
obsessive? One must be very careful.
BOOK TWO
THE Warrior's Rule
By Tsugaru Kodo-shi
I. The Basis of Order
1. Martial Virtues
Footnotes
1 Sun Wu, often cited as Sun-tzu or Master Sun, was a successful military strategist whose
treatise The Art of War is a perennial classic in its field, still widely studied.
2 Kongming refers to Zhuge Liang, (ca. 180-233), a distinguished civil and military leader of
the Shu Han, or so-called Minor Han, one of the Three Kingdoms into which China was
divided following the dissolution of the Han dynasty in 221 CE. Shu refers to the region of
Siquan, where a remnant of the Han dynasty was set up and held out for forty-four years.
3 Kusunoki Masashige (? - 1336) was a distinguished warrior of the Japanese era of the
Northern and Southern Courts, a time of civil war when rival branches of the imperial family
were backed by competing warrior clans. Kusunoki became governor of two provinces, and
was also a member of several organs of imperial government under Emperor Go-Daigo. A
great hero of Japanese history, Kusunoki died fighting the warlord Ashikaga Takauji, founder
of the second samurai dynasty, centered in Muromachi, Kyoto.
1 Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), founder of the first Bakufu, or central military government
of Japan.
2. Warrior Wisdom
People have inner and outer states. It is easy to control the outside, hard to
control the inside. To effectively control both inside and outside and not allow
opponents to rise against you is the reality of victory. This alone is the reason
why the military class is constituted as a warrior caste—simply because there is
this matter of victory and defeat.
When that wisdom builds up over a long time, it produces a sensitive and
perceptive mastery within. When it is abundantly stored and long accumulated,
that mastery becomes more and more complete, so that it intuits and discerns
everything about warrior ways and martial matters, great and small, specific and
general. Its uses are inexhaustible; it can be drawn on endlessly. When it reaches
perfection, it is coextensive with sky and earth, metamorphosing like ghosts and
spirits. This is the total attainment of warrior wisdom.
When ordinances are issued and rules are established without the clear
discernment of warrior wisdom, few principled knights will keep them. When
principled knights are satisfied, in the end the common crowd will ultimately
submit. When the knights submit, the three common classes go along too. This is
how the military class spreads its influence by means of warrior wisdom.
Martial virtue is the substance of warrior wisdom, while wisdom is the function
of virtue. Substance and function are rooted in each other, and are never
separate. Virtue is expressed by wisdom; wisdom is stabilized by virtue.
3. Warrior Justice
Judgment by cultural virtue has less authority. When there is little authority,
there is more amusement than fear. When judgment is made by martial virtue, it
is authoritative and inviolable, welcomed yet feared. This is martial justice.
Upright honesty seems cutting, but it is not so. What is cutting is sharp, and
sharpness injures whatever it touches, unable to bear the weight of anything. A
square, being straight and upright, can bear great and small, good and bad. So
when you are about to stand out in a way that seems like it should not be deemed
honest, all angles being crooked, then you don’t rest content here; this is the
form of honesty.
The ultimate principle of square and round cannot be fully expressed in writing.
Therefore righteousness accepts people but is not influenced by them. Those
who are cutting sometimes suffer from inflexible egoism on this account. When
warrior leaders treat their followers inflexibly and egotistically, then the hearts of
the multitude rebel. It is a matter that calls for extreme prudence and caution.
Justice requires credibility. If you make a decision but change your promise
afterward, or you eat your words, the feelings of the multitude turn against you.
When they are against you, then the troops will not obey orders in emergencies.
When they are insubordinate, their battle lines will inevitably crumble. This is
how you get your state taken away and lose your territory. Should we not be
careful?
If you want justice to be true, that is in knowing the guidelines of the four
foundations of courtesy, righteousness, honesty, and shame. In military science
this is called the cross square. The uprightness of the vertical is straightened by
means of the horizontal, while the straightness of the horizontal is set by the
vertical. At this point the vertical and horizontal determine their paths. This is
uprightness and rectitude, and hence is warrior justice.
Those who are not prompt in making decisions, or who are errant in the logic of
their judgment, are that way because of weakness of wisdom. Weakness of
wisdom is due to paucity of virtue.
In the duties of the warrior leader, there are things for which consultation with
administrators is appropriate, and matters on which consultation is inappropriate.
In general, matters that may affect martial authority are not for consultation.
What requires inquiry and consultation with influential officials is the civil order.
4. Warriors’ Work
Warriors’ work refers to the affairs of the warrior’s ways, the occupations of
warriors. There are many differences of grade and type among them.
The interactions of warriors are all part of warriors’ work. When you come to
know the work of warriors, its wisdom is realized and its duty fulfilled. In
cultivating the wisdom of martial science, where to begin is of utmost
importance.
Although there are very many kinds of warriors’ work, yet the general principles
cannot vary. Some things call for inquiry from a master of the way, some things
should not depend on the words of predecessors. It’s all a matter of attaining the
necessary principles by the necessary means.
When you get to this point, facts and principles are generally clear. When it
comes to martial arts, horsemanship is most important. Swordsmanship is next,
and then archery, shooting, and so on. This should be the order in which military
leaders should learn martial arts.
There are so many kinds of weapons that it would not be easy to thoroughly
examine past and present manufacture and the history of changes. It is
imperative, however, to test the actual advantages and disadvantages of
weapons, and to clarify the principles of complete preparedness and omission.
There are many weapons and military arts abroad, but few are worth taking up
and employing. Among them, the works of Taigong,1 Sun and Wu,2 the Three
Strategies,3 and Li Jing contain excellent principles and are most useful for the
art of war. Also, the principles of Zhuge Liang’s Eight Battle Formations are
absolutely outstanding.
The ancient military arts of Japan also contain little that can serve to guide,
especially in situations such as standing shield to shield on the field, or requiring
the art of archery to shoot from horseback. However, many of the military
methods of the last two hundred years are very useful. In the case of Shingen in
particular, though he naturally excelled in the use of weaponry and so there is
nothing in his ordinary conduct to serve as a guide, nevertheless he had
considerable attainment in the art of war and should be studied.
While this is so of all cultural and martial studies, when it comes to military
science and the arts of warfare it is particularly imperative to consider every
element carefully and clearly understand. This is because evidence of their
accuracy or otherwise is not manifest on the same day, but in a life and death
situation it’s not easy to call back a strategy once it’s been set in motion.
Footnotes
2 Sun and Wu refer to Sun Wu and Wu Qi, outstanding military strategists and
authors of famous treatises. Sun Wu is noted above; Wu Qi was a successful
tactician of the Warring States era, and his work is a classic of military strategy.
Only when military preparedness is complete can the world pillow on stable
peace. But this completeness is not easy; it is to be attained by strictness in what
the art of war refers to as the five stages of security. Only after having attained
this has the state attained the martial spirit.
6. The Courage of the Warrior
Being fearful means you are controlled by external things, so that you become
psychologically passive. The spirit of knighthood is normally forward in action,
but if you see no advantage to going forward and so you withdraw strategically,
it’s because in actual effect this is really advancing. As long as you don’t know
the actuality of that advance, you won’t be able to advance and withdraw to the
appropriate degree.
Inside there are desires associated with the emotions, outside there is desire for
fame and desire for gain. When it comes to insatiable consumption of delicacies,
using silk like burlap, forgetting the pains of the people while oblivious of one’s
own extravagance, in extreme cases like the First Emperor of China1 and the
Martial Emperor of the Han Dynasty2 degenerating into absolute ignorance, this
is all because of being captivated by external things and losing inner control.
Now then, when you are not seduced by external things, avoid sensuousness and
restrain indulgence, regulating your desires so your constancy is not taken from
you by external things, this is called not yielding to things.
The courage of the warrior is the sum of all practices of the way of the knight;
will is the source of all practices. When courage is superficial it’s hard to
establish will, and without will courage cannot be. When will is established, that
is courage; when courage is developed, will is also established. Courage and will
are interdependent.
The way to make martial valor great-hearted and perpetuate its discipline is first
of all in magnanimity. Magnanimity means breadth of mind. If you get angry at
small things, delight in small gains, and fear small injuries, eventually you’ll be
taken over by external things—how can you acquire the strength to bear the
great responsibilities of the world over the long run? To endure trouble and
tolerate hardship, never yielding to them, in order to accomplish a monumental
work, is the magnanimity of a great man.
Wielding a sword with short clothes and unkempt hair, killing people like cutting
grass, undisturbed in mind and appearance even with boiling cauldrons in front
and swords and bone-saws behind, is also a kind of martial valor. Referred to as
being able to stomp down naked swords but unable to be balanced, this is not
adequate to regard as the courage of a military leader. It is the boldness of an
assassin.
When people get old they hope for gain, but as they become feeble they practice
temporary benevolence, in extremes believing in Buddha in hopes of the
happiness of heaven. In the days when Emperor Wu of Liang1 was whipping his
horse in ancient times, who could have foreseen that he’d eventually starve to
death? These are examples of small courage without a broad basis, losing
constancy in the end and winding up in extreme ignorance.
This is how insecure the human mind is. The lessons of the warrior’s courage are
most serious.
Footnotes
1 First Emperor of China: Qin Shi Huangdi (r. 221-209). Uniting the ancient
states, the first emperor founded the Chinese empire on Legalistic principles,
which emphasized primary production and aggressive warfare. In Confucianism
the First Emperor is a prototype of a tyrant; in Taoism, he is a prototype of a man
undone by greed and ambition.
2 Han Wu Di (r. 140-88 BCE) was one of the most powerful rulers of the Han
dynasty in China (206 BCE -219 CE). He abolished semi-autonomous
principalities to establish absolute central rule, and established a state school
system based on a uniform curriculum to indoctrinate civil servants. Like the
First Emperor of China, he took an interest in esoteric arts and tried to become
immortal; this is traditionally interpreted as an indication of their absolute greed
and aggression.
Confucius’ sage virtue at sixty was all there in his aspiration at the age of fifteen.
“Who was Shun? Who am I?”—this was Yi Yin’s1 aspiration. When your will is
established, you can become even a sage or a savant; when it is not, you become
ignorant and ignominious. Establishing the will is the means by which to begin
and finish everything. This is a matter of establishing it by striving.
In ancient and modern times there are examples of founders of states who
seemed to have will in the beginning but eventually became lazy when they had
attained riches and rank. If you are going to establish a robust will that ends only
on death, it is a matter of making the will the leader of energy.
Everybody’s feelings are each based on benefit. Therefore wherever the energy
body contacts there is a tendency to want to linger over this minor gain. When
you follow it desirous, energy employs will. On this account, will wears out
along the way.
So if there is an impulse to linger over minor gains along the way, restrain it
strictly with the awareness that it is a robber that will deprive you of the
character of the warrior. If you are careful to keep the will in charge, it never
wavers.
Everybody who discourses on the duties of the Way knows it, but what is hard to
put into practice is this: one may indulge oneself in a respite, or one may indulge
oneself in something small, but once one indulges oneself, one becomes more
and more indecisive, until one ultimately loses one’s will forever.
The discipline of being careful even when alone is not to be taken lightly at all.
Wanting some time off, or some trivial thing, is an impulse of an internal thief.
To refuse to be captivated in such situations and remain aloof as you do your
work is the will of a great man.
The roots of human feelings are the two poles of like and dislike, that’s all. The
will inclines to what we like and turns away from what we dislike. Human
feeling likes benefit and dislikes harm. What average people like is of small
benefit, what they dislike is of small harm. Accomplished people are the
opposite; they like great benefit and dislike great harm.
Great benefit means peace on earth and perpetuation of the nation. Small benefit
means personal ease and temporary pleasure. When the will is established it
inclines to great benefit; when it is not established it admires small benefit.
Whenever you seek small benefits, invariably small benefits do not last, and
calamity comes along. Even a lord who settles for those small benefits and seeks
ease cannot but hope for peace and perpetuation of the state. He has the feeling
of hope, but his will runs only to objects that ruin what he seeks all the time.
There is no worse confusion of the human mind. How sad!
The richest and highest ranked man in the land, as the lord of the land, has all
officials kowtow; to go by him is like passing a tiger’s cave, to say a word is like
grabbing a tiger’s whiskers. So he becomes accustomed to having others agree
with whatever he says and does. His palate is sated with rich and delicious food,
he always wears light and warm clothes. For this reason, as everything to which
he is accustomed easily gets him involved in acquisitiveness, so he also has his
will easily taken away.
Wealth and poverty are as different as ice and coal, but both involve a lot of
problems associated with the mood manipulating the will.
The basis of establishing the will is in the aim. A warrior leader of the four seas
makes complete peace his bullseye. Never giving up, even in death, as long as
you haven’t hit the bullseye, is the will of a hero.
Footnotes
For a warrior leader to extend martial rule throughout the land, the first task is
personal cultivation. Cultivation means governance. Being reasonable and
consistent, with clear principles, refraining from improper words and acts, is
called personal cultivation.
The existence of a warrior leader in the world is like the sun in the sky—even
bedroom secrets and dalliance in cloistered chambers eventually leak out and are
bruited abroad. If anything incorrect or weak is said or done, the knights of the
kingdom will be contemptuous of him in their hearts. When they are
contemptuous, his martial authority collapses. So the existence of a warrior
leader in the land is like walking over springtime ice bearing a heavy load. The
need for personal cultivation is very serious indeed.
The functions of the human body are at most of three kinds— speech, conduct,
and mind. What a warrior leader watches out for in the course of personal
cultivation, is in not becoming lazy and weak. This is done in terms of these
three things, among which mind and conduct are fundamental and conduct is
crucial.
As for social relations and responding to events and people, these are important
elements of conduct; those instructions are under the heading of ordering the
home.
The mental method has two principles, rectifying the mind and nurturing energy.
Rectifying the mind is the substance, nurturing energy is the function. The
condition of all things is that the substance is established through the exertion of
the function, while the function is accomplished through the establishment of the
substance. Therefore the way to rectify the mind is all in nurturing energy.
Ordinarily the essences of energy and blood are called the energy of the
immaterial soul and the blood of the material soul. When the immaterial soul and
the material soul combine to produce inconceivable effects, that is called nature.
As an overall representation it is temporarily called mind. What is always active
within is called ideation, and what emerges outwardly and has aftereffects is
called emotion. What ascertains inwardly is called thought, what aims is called
will, and what fills the body is called energy. So when mind is mentioned, it
refers both to its nature and its conditions.
Once that which is master of the whole person acts in accord with regular
standards, how could there be any difficulty in personal cultivation?
What fills the body, enabling the eyes to see, the tongue to taste, and so on, is
energy. Nurturing means cultivation, fostering and guiding in the duties of the
warrior.
Therefore when you are always reading military texts or always practicing
martial arts, your energy expands over everything, un-yielding. From here you
come to attain rectitude of mind. So in the path of personal cultivation it is
important to rectify mind and nurture energy.
3. Ordering the Home
Ordering the home means social relations, lessons about matters in quarters.
Here the principles become complex and cannot be learned completely from
books. Ordering the home means that all social relations and matters in quarters
are regular, with nothing out of order.
The way for a warrior leader to order the home is not entirely the same in other
countries as it is in our sacred court. This is a matter of considering the teachings
of sages by the standards of the teachings of warriors.
Generally speaking, the social relations of warrior leaders are based, as in the art
of war, on awe and admiration only. Awe may be principal and admiration
auxiliary, or admiration may be principle with awe auxiliary; or awe and
admiration may be half and half; or awe may be instilled alone, or admiration
may be instilled alone.
When there is awe there is courtesy. When there is admiration there is harmony.
When awe and admiration are thus in proper proportion, then social relations are
accordingly correct. If you want to achieve that proportion, it is a matter of
observing everyone’s state of mind and doing one’s best in everything. As for
matters in quarters, it is essential to make rules strict and prevent indolence.
Housing, attire, diet, and articles of daily use are all functions of ordering the
home. In all affairs of warriorhood it is essential to be simple and plain. To make
efforts at ornamentation on the grounds that this is ritually correct is the
beginning of loss of the substance of warriorhood.
The decline in the authority of the Divine Warrior of the Precious Lance1 and the
abandonment of the virtues of the royal courts seems to have started with the
importation of customs from foreign countries. In the warrior profession we
must be wary of this, especially of keeping many concubines and indulging in
orgies. For warriors this kind of leisure enjoyment is more harmful than locusts
infesting the spring fields. Those who attempt heroic endeavors are broken by
this; it’s something to be extremely cautious about.
Having a whole lot of utensils, such as tea sets and bric-a-brac, is not worthwhile
for warriors. As a knight, to spend money on these hobbies is on account of
ignorance of warriorhood.
The only essential implements for warriors are weapons. Once you have
equipped yourself, moreover, if you don’t revise your arsenal from time to time,
it won’t be wholly effective. Establishing their functions, always adjust for their
inadequacy. Test their advantages and disadvantages again and again, and see to
becoming accustomed to them, never slacking off.
For warriors the most important creatures are the falcon and the horse. Horses
are admired for their ability, while falcons are prized for their character as well
as their ability.
Horses are the feet of knights. To keep a swift steed, therefore, is a priority of a
knight, in appreciation of its ability.
Falcons are bold and always spirited; no living thing in the sky or on the earth
can match them. This is the character of falcons, so they are invariably prized.
Training for military purposes is an ability of falcons; that is why they are
admired.
This is different from the custom of other countries where they consider jewels
most valuable.
Footnotes
1 Divine Warrior of the Precious Lance: the Shinto god Izanagi, mythical co-
creator of Japan, who was given a precious lance from high heaven above with
which he stirred the primal sea below, a drop of which dripping from the lance
coagulated into an island.
4. Knowing People
The way to spread martial virtue through the land is first of all to know
people. It is truly difficult to govern all the multifarious affairs and
individuals in the world; the only basis is in knowing just three to five
people to elect for employment. Then won’t it be quite easy to govern the
land, in spite of its difficulty? This matter is a profoundly serious concern
for a warrior leader.
When there has been peace and order for a long time, there are a lot of people
eligible for hereditary rank. To keep their genealogies accurate and perform their
offices generation after generation is one example of keeping the peace. Even if
his probity is somewhat less, if you promote a person with proper lineage people
will accept that more easily than if you promote a functionary of low status
whose probity is slightly more. This is how people feel in a time of peace. When
there is a lasting peace, moreover, there are no domains bereft of rulers that
require major appointments all at once, so offices are mostly hereditary.
When the world is peaceful, mores are upright and habits are wholesome, the
country is prosperous and the people have plenty, regulations are based on the
classics, and there are no external troubles with rival nations, then it’s all right to
employ mediocre people of proper lineage according to a normal course. Once
society deteriorates and the state has a lot of troubles, when official order is also
in confusion and chaos is not far offabsent immediate restoration, so skilled
commanders emerge to renew martial virtue and achieve extraordinary
accomplishments, then it is necessary to appoint people of outstanding
capacities, otherwise they can’t succeed in the endeavor.
It’s like eating a normal diet to maintain your health while you’re well, but
seeking good doctors everywhere for medicine to take when you’re sick. It’s all
a matter of acting on ineluctable realities, according to the conditions of the
time.
Once you know people are good, it is not proper to neglect to have them
transferred to appropriate posts. In particular, if you know people to be
exceptionally excellent and yet do not promote and employ them, there is no use
in knowing them. Is this because of stinginess with salaries as a leader, or
because there might be a basis for malicious gossip? Neither of these is
authoritative exercise of government. For this reason, promoting an
extraordinary knight of low office who proves capable of the charge is the
epitome of intelligence on the part of a ruler. No government promotes greater
good than this.
6. Ordering Offi ces
There are many kinds of office, but basically they are either civil or military.
Why? Because sky and earth and people and things are all governed by yin and
yang. However multifarious human feelings may be, none are beyond like and
dislike; that is because they are manifestation of the two energies of yin and
yang. When feelings of like and dislike emerge appropriately, they are called
benevolence and righteousness. The concrete representations of benevolence and
righteousness are the civil and the military.
Therefore the ministers who head the civil and the military administrations are
the most important. Two people should be appointed, a civil head and a military
head, to be ministers of the left and right. Thus administrative affairs dealing
with myriad events will be coordinated. By extension, this ultimately produces
tens and hundreds of categories, whose classifications are a matter of figuring
out actual conditions and acting in accord with the inevitable. When you figure
accurately and carry through considerately, you wind up with nothing more to
do. This is the key task among the myriad affairs of military science.
Two people may be appointed to one office, or three to five, or even dozens of
people, more or less according to the major and minor divisions of affairs
overseen by that office. So it is an essential task to make the relationship among
the people and positions in the same office clear. It is most rare for people in this
world to be complete in all qualities, so you should find out what they’re best at
and team them together so that their efficacy approaches completeness.
When military offices are undertaken only in terms of current conditions, the
assignment of warriors is imperfect. When that is imperfect, military method is
accordingly also imperfect. Generally speaking, the assignment of warriors is the
basis of establishing formal preparedness. So formal preparedness is established
after warriors have been given assignments, and military method is also made
firm once formal preparedness is established. The rule for deciding warriors’
assignments is in knowing the conditions of preparedness; knowing the
conditions of preparedness is in knowing what leads to victory and what to
defeat; knowing what leads to victory and defeat is in carrying this out to the
full.
To know people and promote people are still relatively easy, and so is setting up
offices and their functions, compared to the supreme difficulty of matching their
capacities to their offices. When they do not match, then things don’t get done.
This is the error of the leader.
This is even more serious under the conditions of war. It is like the example of
Shingen having Kosaka1 pin down Kenshin.2 If he’d had the likes of Hiitomi3 or
Itagaki4 pin him down, they’d have been beaten in a contest of strength. Kenshin
was much bigger than Hiitomi and Itagaki, so even if they opposed him fiercely,
because they were smaller they’d have simply been slaughtered by Kenshin. If
the likes of Atobe5 had taken the lead to put him down, he’d have been
overwhelmed at once. Kosaka was neither weak nor strong by nature, and
Kenshin couldn’t beat him. Such is the matching of ally to opponent.
For this reason official posts in peacetime are a matter of capacity and office,
while posts in a state of war include consideration of the opponent. Therefore
selection is even harder.
Footnotes
2 Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578), a major warlord, was the arch rival of Takeda
Shingen.
What is still and has form is an object, what is active and performs functions is
an affair. So every country in the world has its own affairs and objects. All that
we deal with in day-to-day life are affairs and objects. When their order is
unclear, official duties and legal edicts are all neglected. Understanding is a
matter of striving to make them clear.
Heaven and earth are separate and yet they interact, producing infinite affairs
and objects. Human lives are also separate yet interact, creating countless affairs
and objects. If their order is unclear, affairs and objects cannot find their proper
places. When they are not in their proper places, there is conflict.
The affairs and objects of warriors’ duties require further qualification. If these
are not understood in a time of peace, then it will be impossible to win before
fighting. Things like personnel, machinery, fortresses, battle formations, and
encampments are objects. Th ings like offense and defense, military strategy, and
rules of war, are all affairs. Each of these has its order, which is not to be
confused.
The way to understand affairs and objects is first to strive to know their means
and ends. Means and ends are the main indicators of order. You can clarify the
order once the main indicators are established. If, however, this is done without
guidelines, then you can’t distinguish the means from the ends. When you take
the means for the end or the end for the means, the main indicators are confused.
Therefore the rule for analyzing order is a secret of military science. Once you
find this rule, it’s easy to distinguish the order of all things, and ultimately to
approach attainment of clear analysis.
8. Establishing Regulations
When guidelines and regulations for each affair and object are not established,
then above and below, noble and base, change their positions, diminishing
martial dignity and damaging martial virtue more than anything else.
Heaven and earth each has its natural laws which they never transgress. This is
why they are eternal. When a state is in disarray and renegade ministers and
rebels ruin the people, this originally arises from neglect of guidelines and
regulations.
Of the sages abroad who comprehended all affairs and objects in the world and
made detailed regulations, I have never seen anything surpassing the Manners of
Zhou. Our own central civilization’s ancient legal codes have been lost in the
fires of war, or are scattered throughout society in secret archives; in any case, I
have never seen any complete texts. Now, over the last hundred years,
regulations going all the way back to the sacred reign of Emperor Jimmu1 have
been revealed, to the joy of people of all classes. This is the supreme
benevolence of the state.
A warrior leader must make law strict. The bases of law are in the civil and the
military. In times of peace, most law is mainly civil, whereas in times of disorder
most law is mainly martial. The civil is the way to harmonize the inside, the
military is the way to control the outside. The meaning of that is deep.
The root of regulation is in the clear analysis of affairs and objects. When you
attain expertise in clear analysis of affairs and objects, then the affairs and
objects spontaneously reveal rules and regulations. This is the supreme rule of
law. If you take this for the rule of law, it can never change in a hundred
generations. If you concoct them without that objective revelation, those
regulations cannot be considered guidelines for all time everywhere.
Regulations include unwritten laws and informal rules. Here if you do not adapt
you cannot command the three armies. When officers and infantry do not fear
the enemy but fear their own commander, when they know advance but not
retreat, when their minds and guts are steady and their eyes and ears are alert,
only then should you speak of battle.
Ceremonies such as seeing offthe armies and welcoming back the victorious
should not be neglected, for they are ways of fighting, winning, and growing
stronger.
Footnotes
1 Jimmu: The first human emperor of Japan according to Shinto myth. His name
means Divine Warrior, like the epithet of the god Izanagi, Divine Warrior of the
Precious Lance
9. Civil Administration
Civil administration abroad in ancient times offers little of practical use for our
state in the present day. The four classes were not correctly designated and
differentiated, and there is a lot about the state of nature and agriculture, or a lot
of admonitions about oppressive regimes of violent rulers. Therefore most of the
teachings are too benevolent.
When the way people are ruled is too benevolent, the decadence that ensues is
that they invariably act extravagant and ignore the law. Therefore the general
idea of martial government is to establish precise regulations of affairs and
objects, refrain from giving out un-earned favors, have no luxury in years of
abundance and no famine in years of crop failures—this is the epitome of
benevolent care. To speak of every family within the four seas prospering so
abundantly as to eliminate all poverty and pain, is the empty elocution of
common Confucians, and cannot be considered the real work of governing the
people.
The civil administration in our state has followed on old traditions over the ages,
so it is very detailed. There have only been some minor adjustments in standard
measurements of distance and size, taxes and corvee.
It is also essential for government to admonish idleness, for when there are many
idle hands among the people this is wasteful for the state. Even boys and girls
should be given suitable jobs.
Belief in Buddhism in our country has fluctuated over the ages, but it is foremost
in idle people, with little benefit for anything. Buddhists originally aim for
chaste poverty, with a single robe and bowl, so there is some harm in becoming
wealthy. It seems to me that to have Buddhism all over the land is also a function
of the warrior’s rule—in military science this is called the use of the useless.
As for regulations concerning mountains and forests, rivers and seas, cities and
citadels, borders and passes, streets, levees, towns, markets, Shinto shrines and
Buddhist temples, as well as birds and beasts, fish and turtles, grain and salt,
vegetables and fruits, lumber, kindling, and straw, all of these are tasks of
government. There are regulations for each, whether to rectify the people’s
desires and not let them waste natural resources, or to get them to pay taxes to
requite their debt to the state. These are all unavoidable measures, whose details
are a matter of policy.
Famine, epidemic, flood, and the like are emergencies for government. If there
are no preparations established beforehand, the damage these cause will greatly
diminish martial virtue. If a warrior leader is not normally frugal in daily life, in
such an event disaster will be unavoidable.
When there are people among the three civilian classes who are filial, brotherly,
and honest, to praise and distinguish them as a way of refining popular mores is
good government by the warriors’ rule. Refinement in popular mores means
simplicity and rusticity in all things, without perverse principles or false cults. To
clarify the law of group responsibility to rectify mores is greatness of benevolent
government.
When people believe false religions and form cults, or become brigands and kill
others, or mistreat their parents and siblings, or violate public laws, there have to
be punishments corresponding to each crime.
Peasant girls getting married without their parents’ permission, and poor women
prostituting themselves to sons of rich families, are leftover customs of Zheng
and Wei;1 when examined from the point of view of sages, they are inescapably
criminal. Even so, there are crimes which at times should not necessarily be
considered so, depending on conditions. That is because in such cases there has
to be some inner meaning to the choice of what to enforce and what to let go.
The existence of actors and entertainers all over the land is like dust in the house
—to try to eliminate it absolutely is counterproductive. When mores are upright
and martial virtues are actively exercised even among the lower orders, would a
man of integrity get addicted to these things? Nevertheless, they should be
regulated and not allowed to assume an air of importance.
When people pay bribes to pervert lawsuits, that is not the fault of those below
but entirely the error of those above. Careful inspection should be carried out to
make certain of the real facts of the case. Bribery is considered very destructive
to morals.
Tax and trial are the mainstays of government of the people. Taxation corrects
them materially, trial and prison correct them mentally. With this people come to
find their proper place.
The basis for determining the amount of tax is that the people have sufficient
food, clothing, and shelter, even if they have no surplus wealth. As for judgment
at trial, the ultimate achievement is when the people are themselves aware the
truth is not to be distorted.
Money and goods are produced by the farmers, and turned over to the warriors.
From the warriors it goes to the artisans and merchants, circulating throughout
the land. When there is no unhealthy hoarding and yet the storehouses
everywhere are well-stocked, it is good fortune for the world; this is the warrior
leader’s virtue of frugality. It is imperative to understand the method by precise
accounting of expenditures and income.
Money and goods mainly mean gold, silver, rice, and copper cash. Things like
cotton thread, mulberry bark, lacquer, and oil are next. Foreign trade ships are
always coming and going, and we trade our native gold for goods. The only
useful products of those countries, though, are medicines; I’ve never heard of
anything else of use to warriors. But who knows how much gold is expended on
luxury items for show. And I’ve never heard of gold being offered from abroad. I
don’t know how much the mountains and seas produce either. So expenditures
always outstrip income. I only fear that our country’s main resources will run out
after a thousand years.
This is not something for common fools to pronounce upon, but it’s not that
there is no reason to fear the sky may fall.
Footnotes
1 Zheng and Wei were ancient states of pre-imperial China. Wei was the
birthplace of the infamous Lord of Shang of China’s Warring States era, to
whom is attributed the Shangjunshu, a classic of Legalism, the original form of
Fascism in Asia. He is also called Wei Yang because he came from Wei. While
the earlier Legalist classic Guanzi speaks of segregation of the sexes, Wei Yang
wrote in a vein as if to suggest that this kind of moralistic social control was not
actually essential: “As for righteousness, loyalty as a subject, obedience as a son,
courtesy between juniors and seniors, and segregation of men and women—
these are not righteousness. Righteousness means not eating opportunistically
even though starving, not living opportunistically even though facing death. This
is the constancy of lawfulness.”
10. Review and Perceptivity
Review and perceptivity are pivotal to the spread of martial virtue, involving
warriors’ administrative orders and legal codes relating to all situations. When
review of the past is not precise, perception of the future can hardly be accurate.
Therefore review of the past is for the purpose of perceiving the future.
There are some who only employ review, and others who focus on perception.
Although this depends on the affair or the object, unless one remains in between
review and perception, pursuing the course of the past to the present and future,
true warrior rule cannot be achieved.
“Seeing the present of the future is like seeing the past of the present”—this is
the expression of a calligrapher, but when you actually apply its truth, it is an
admonition about keeping the peace. As time passes and fortunes change, human
likes and dislikes have no past or present. But what is past leaves evident traces,
so right and wrong are easy to see. There are as yet no traces of the future,
however, so gain and loss are hard to figure out. This is where the diligent
exercise of review and perception comes in.
When a state is founded it is pure and simple and orderly, but after long
conservation of its achievements, pure and simple mores gradually deteriorate.
The populace wearies and people become resentful, eventually creating major
problems within the four seas. When value judgments change and black
suddenly becomes white, even though people are aware of this they don’t know
what gradually causes prosperity to shift to decline. This comes from neglect of
review and perception.
So when warrior rule of a state follows ancient rites and classics unchanged, it
seems as if there should be no unrest or disorder, but the simple rites and
regulations of the founding phase are not necessarily to be preferred for the
conditions of an era of peace. On this account rulers and ministers get to
dressing up and ultimately become extravagant to the point where state finances
are exhausted. Once the damage has been done, even if you suddenly realize it
and try to revert to pure simplicity, it is impossible to return all at once. This has
been so without exception in both Japan and China.
The way to tailor regulations and laws is to unfailingly review and perceive
every single thing involved in an affair, however minute it may be. When the
practice of review and perception is not meticulous, that habit will be inherited
and become trouble for your descendants, with many misfortunes attending the
diminution of martial dignity.
11. Studying Military Science
As for military formations, one is the castle, second is the camp, third is
equipment. Of military tasks, first is the battle formation, second is the march,
third is the wielding of five weapons.1 The conditions of military expeditions
are, first, the surprise and the straightforward, empty and full; second, the
offensive and defensive, with many and with few; third, battles that can be
survived and battles that will lead to death.
Dealing with personnel means choosing someone older and more aware as a
teacher from whom to study military science, or strategizing with experts to
determine what is best and what will win, or lining people up and testing their
methods.
As for military formation, the first, the castle, involves not only learning the
methods of constructing citadels, but also personally making rounds of
inspection, having damaged walls and turrets repaired, perhaps making ramparts
higher or moats wider, examining the strongholds of branch castles and border
castles, always understanding their advantages and disadvantages. Second, for
the camp, diagrams are used to define the method of encampment. Th ird,
equipment, is a matter of never neglecting to have appropriate weapons and
armor in your arsenal.
The first among military tasks, the battle formation, refers to settling
preparations. Settling has a very subtle meaning, profoundly important. The
general idea is that the personnel be settled, the materiel be settled, and the tasks
be settled, their regulations decided once and for all, immutable. Once a state of
immutability is attained, only then is it possible to produce endless adaptations.
Second, the march, means making lines of movement orderly. One line is
normal, five lines is the limit, mixed lines are the end. The principle of
controlling energy is most important on the march.
Castle, camp, battle formation, and march are what are called the four laws in
military science.
Third, wielding five weapons, refers to the uses of weaponry. For a warrior
leader to practice these himself, and cause the knights all over the land to
immerse themselves therein, that is martial culture.
Ancient study of military science in this country seems to have been based
mainly on horsemanship and archery, and the practices of shooting dummy
arrows at running dogs and stationary target shooting have been conserved in
later generations. Although they are not much use nowadays in the art of war,
they are still called ancient traditions of warriors. They are sufficient to stir up
emotions. Whether to use them or not ought to be a matter of the leader’s
judgment.
Falconry and hunting are the main exercises employed in martial training.
Therefore good generals past and present have all made them obligatory.
Going out into the fields yourself to experience the toil of the chase, or entering
mountain forests yourself, crossing ravines and fording streams, knowing both
hardship and ease of hand and foot, or shooting with a bow yourself, or firing
guns, testing out their advantages and disadvantages, or personally directing test
maneuvers—these are functions of a warrior leader.
When you soak your mind in the situation, as the enemy and as yourself,
intensively checking gain and loss, better and worse, the principles should
become clear.
In times of peace, even though the issue is external security, even in defensive
military matters achieving effective order capable of concentrating and
dispersing, dividing and combining, is realism in military training.
So in military science there are rules for inner and outer eight battle formations.
When the inner and outer eight battle formations are accomplished, even if
enemies arise inside the fence there is no reason for fear. The function of
military training is complete at this point.
Footnotes
1 Five weapons: The traditional Chinese reckoning of what the five weapons are
is hard to translate into English, because it includes several kinds of spear and
lance that cannot be easily distinguished simply by naming. Here it is employed
in a general sense, as noted in the text, for the uses of weapons.
12. Reward and Punishment
So reward and punishment are the warrior leader’s means of control. If you don’t
keep this control at all times, you will lose the authority of leadership. When that
is lost, organization of the armies will not be possible. For this reason reward
and punishment are regarded as grave responsibilities of a leader.
The principles of reward and punishment are principally two: clarity and
certainty. When merit is not overlooked even if people try to hide it, and it is also
impossible to cover up fault, this is called clarity. When law and order keep their
contracts unaltered, this is called certainty. When a warrior leader has the virtues
of clarity and certainty, then martial authority covers the four seas. This is the
norm for the leader of an army; to go easy on wrongdoing and make rich
rewards sometimes, or to smooth over faults and lighten penalties, are standard
strategies of warrior wisdom.
As the warrior leader commands the three armies, there are three things that
should be rewarded, and three that shall be punished. Loyalty, duty, and bravery
should be rewarded. Disloyalty, dereliction of duty, and lack of bravery should
be punished. Each of these three has three grades, furthermore, higher, middling,
and lower, so there are altogether eighteen categories of reward and punishment.
The saying that a subject must be a subject, even if the ruler isn’t a ruler, is a
principle sages taught people, not an expression of shallow human sentiment.
The saying that when rulers look upon subjects as so much dust, subjects see
their rulers as enemies, is an explanation by Mencius of the conditions of the
Warring States. In the context of the customs of a warrior nation, these sayings
should certainly be considered.
Making rewards and punishments strict and severe is like taking a powerful
medicine; it is very effective if accurately prescribed, but very injurious
otherwise. Therefore you should not contrive strictness and severity based on the
leavings of others without having any grasp of your own. Nevertheless, in a
nation at war it is impossible to expand the state, strengthen the army, and
preserve the territory intact without strictness and severity. Herein lies the work
of the warrior leader.
There are also three grades of reward: reward with words, reward with things,
and reward with land. Each grade also has superior, middling, and inferior, so
there are nine grades of rewards in all. Reward with land is highest, reward with
things is next, and then reward with words.
Generally speaking, the warrior leader’s words of praise and blame for courage
and cowardice, as everyday administrative orders, are the basis of influencing
martial customs. Their connection is extremely important. As people’s
preferences and inclinations are not the same, criticism with blame and praise is
never the same. Deciding this is up to the judgment of the warrior leader. If there
is nothing controversial in the judgment of the warrior leader, the judgment of
the nation is decided accordingly. To be decided means that all the knights envy
the strong and everyone wants to gain the praise of the nation. This is
administration that influences martial manners.
Any battlefield is a ground where you go to face death, so why would any
conscious creature willingly walk into a hail of missiles and a crossfire of
cannon without an adequate reason? It is because beforehand there is the
promise of praise and reward, while there is the potential shame of disgrace and
ridicule in the aftermath. So when a warrior leader’s judgment leaves a lot of
room for criticism, and the realities of courage and cowardice are contradictory,
everyone knows there’s no benefit in going forth into a dangerous situation.
When they know it’s of no benefit, they just follow along fraudulently, using
worldly wit to try to win praises and prizes. This is one reason why martial
authority deteriorates, the root of ruination of the nation.
So what enables a warrior leader to evaluate courage and cowardice accurately is
his own knowledge of military affairs and strategies of combat. When the
warrior leader is himself expert in the realities of military affairs and the arts of
war, then the guidelines for evaluation of courage and cowardice, the facts to be
rewarded or punished, cannot be concealed.
The use of reward and punishment to encourage the good and discourage the bad
is the current policy of warrior rule. To give out rewards and punishments
without any specific purpose was the policy of kings of antiquity. What had
neither reward nor punishment was the pure and simple government of most
ancient times. To ignore the inevitability of contemporary mores in the present
day, admiring antiquities instead, is a doctrine of Confucians that military men
need not regard as necessary.
13. Acculturation
When the customs of any country in the world are not acculturated to martial
virtue, it is impossible to attain ultimate success in warrior rule. This cannot be
done in a day and a night; development must come about by long-term character
building. Generally speaking, though knights may strive to follow orders at first,
when they eventually get used to them and they become everyday customs,
because of this it is considered easy. Eventually they arrive at the point where
they perform without needing orders. The actuality of education is therefore
extremely important. Herein lies the aim of a warrior leader’s government.
When you have great capacity, you have no mind to take minor gains and avoid
minor losses. This is how acculturation is ultimately to be done. So-called minor
gains and minor losses do not refer to the magnitude of things in terms of
individual effort or ease. Even a small matter, if it affects the security of the
state, is a major gain or a major loss. Clarifying this is a matter of lucid
observation with warrior wisdom.
Acculturation to warrior rule means reaching the point where, order and
education having gone on for a long time, the younger generations are
influenced by the older generations, children and grandchildren are steeped in
the ways of their parents and grandparents, so that even without orders the
knights everywhere esteem justice and hate injustice, desire courage and strength
and disdain softness and weakness, approve of plainness in all things and avoid
ostentation.
The fulfillment of both the basic and the beautiful, as a ruler’s manifestation of
virtue, may be considered a sage era abroad, but not everyone can have
everything. If orders were issued in the interests of having everything, then
everyone would get into the habit of ostentation. Ordinarily, solid simplicity with
somewhat unsophisticated manners is the custom of warriors in a martial nation.
To set this aside in favor of fastidious manners and fancy things is the start of
neglect of martial virtue. It is imperative to be careful.
14. Great Government
When the three mainstays1 and five norms2 disappear from states everywhere,
there is an era of disorder, but it is rare in our central civilization. China’s Spring
and Autumn era [722-484 BCE] was not far removed from the age of sages, but
such extremes of violence and barbarity are unheard of in our own history. The
nobility of a martial nation may be seen in this. Therefore, referring to the
establishment of the three mainstays and clarification of the five norms as great
government is, it seems, a foreign expression.
As for a martial state, even if a leader lacking virtue is at the top, it is worth
striving for. In general, supreme success for warriors is to subdue the enemy
without bloodying their blades. To win by fighting is inferior to that. Thus war is
fought only when unavoidable. By virtue of fighting only when unavoidable,
there is military readiness certain to prevail.
Now that there are no opponents anywhere and there is invincible military
readiness, it is kept close to the vest and not used all the time. This is what
warriors call great government. If you have no adversaries anywhere but lack
military readiness, having no adversaries is not really being unopposable, but
merely a matter of luck.
Footnotes
2 Five norms: A Confucian term referring to the relationships between ruler and
subject, father and son, older and younger brothers, husband and wife, and
colleagues and peers.
15. Transmission of Authority
Footnotes
1 The Mandate of Heaven, or Order of Nature, is a Chinese concept referring to fitness for
rule. According to Mencius (q.v.), whose work is one of the Four Books of Confucianism
studied in standard Japanese schools, the loss of popular support through inhumane
government was an indication of the loss of the Mandate of Heaven, after which a ruler was
not a ruler but an “isolated individual” who could therefore be opposed in good conscience.
1 Fetal education is a practice from ancient Chinese medicine. It means that a pregnant
woman regulates her surroundings and environmental intake according to the impressions
they make on her, and thus on the fetus. It is based on the idea that the formulation of
character and emotional structure begin in the womb.
BOOK THREE
Essentials of
Military Matters
Compiled by Yamaga Takatsune
1. The Origin of Military Education
The superiors of the three civilian classes, knights are called warriors. If the
words and actions of knights are not good, the civilian classes become bandits.
So the education of knights is the basis for preserving all four classes. One who
governs the four classes is called the warrior leader.
Of course, when there are people among the three civilian classes who commit
violent, antisocial, and illegal acts, then it is the job of warriors to control them,
restrain them, and put them to work. So the knights of a district quell rebellion
and disorder in the district, the knights of a prefecture quell rebellion and
disorder in the prefecture, the knights of a state quell rebellion and disorder in
the state, the knights of the world quell rebellion and disorder in the world. Thus
a knight’s job is to keep down rebellion and disorder; so if a knight’s speech and
conduct are inappropriate, he is not a knight.
This means that a knight without education should not be called a knight, much
less be considered a warrior. To establish education in an era of peace is called
being a warrior-knight. This is of course a fundamental idea that should always
be perpetuated.
2. Transmission of the System
This system is called the system of Yamamoto Kansuke, because he
established the tradition as a warrior, he put it to use in the world, and he
actually held the secret of certain victory.
Suzuki Hyuga
Yamamoto Kansuke (retainer of Takeda Harunobu)
Hayakawa Misazaemon
Obata Kanbei (retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu)
Hojo Awa-no-kami (teacher of Tokugawa Iemitsu)
Yamaga Jingozaemon [Soko]
Thus it was transmitted in succession.
Here are some rough notes about these individuals: Suzuki Shigetoki
At first his contract was for one hundred strings of cash, but the day
he first met the warlord, his standing was increased to two hundred
strings of cash. Later he was given charge of fifty foot soldiers, and made
teacher of arms. Gradually he was given more. After the battle of Toishi in
1546, he was given eight hundred strings of cash, and the number of his
foot soldiers was increased to a total of seventy-five men. In the Takeda
establishment he was called the Quintuple Infantry Commander.
Obata Kagenori
Kagenori was a direct vassal of the ruling house [of Tokugawa] with a
salary of fifteen hundred koku.1 His forebears were masters of Katsumata
in Toyomi province. Therefore his original name was Katsumata, but later
was changed to Obata.
In 1410, Obata Moritsugu, also known as Lay Monk Nichijo, turned
against the Imagawa establishment and became an officer of Takeda
Nobutsuna, governor of Mutsu. As a commander of foot soldiers, he
served as an officer for two generations of Takedas, Nobutsuna and
Nobutora.
His son, Obata Yamashiro Toramori, accompanied his father at the
age of ten when he came to the capital of Kai province to work for Takeda
Nobutsuna, and eventually inherited his father’s commission and clan
leadership. Thus he was given the character tora (tiger) for his name. He
also served two generations of Takedas, Nobutora and Shingen himself.
His son, Obata Bungo Masamori, served both Takeda Shingen and
Takeda Katsuyori in his father’s position. At Shingen’s command, he
inherited the name and clan affairs of Obata Nobusada of Kazusa
province, changing the written characters of the name Obata.
His son, Obata Kanbei Kagenori, was hired by the establishment of
Tokugawa Ieyasu after the fall of Kai province, when he was eleven years
old, in 1572. When he was twenty-four, he became an independent
(ronin) by his own wish. After that, in 1614, he went into Osaka Castle as
a spy, and because of his loyalty he was called back into the service of
the Shogun.
Kagenori transmitted the Yamamoto system in his nine-volume Minor
Book and his nine-volume Summary of Essentials, which set forth traditions
from olden times. The three-volume Three Types of Dragon, Tiger, and
Leopard is all Kagenori’s composition.
Kagenori’s dedication to warriorhood was well-known. Though he was
simple by nature, and bold and violent, without him this tradition would
have passed away from the world. This system is widely appreciated in
the world because of Kagenori’s inspiration. He was also peerless in his
dedication to instruction and training.
Later on he wrote Earlier Anthology and Later Anthology, The Cold
Comes and The Heat’s Here, That Scroll and This Scroll, Military Preparedness
and Essentials of Warfare. At the request of Lord Yorinobu, Councilor of Kii,
moreover, it is said he wrote how he made Tokugawa Ieyasu’s arms
comparable to Takeda Shingen’s, setting this forth in Record of the Source
of Renaissance.
Hojo Ujinaga
Ujinaga was a direct retainer of the ruling Tokugawa house, with a salary
of two thousand koku. Ujinaga inherited everything in Kagenori’s tradition,
and to spread the teaching in the world he wrote Models of Defeat in a total
of forty-two volumes, and Models of Victory in a total of fifty-two volumes.
He also wrote A Scroll on the Subtle Ultimate Good in two volumes, and
after this wrote Mirror for Knights: Practical Rules in one volume. This is
the extent of the writings Ujinaga transmitted to his students.
Takasuke was of the Yamaga family of the Fujiwara clan. His ancestor
was the master of the castle of Yamaga in Chikuzen, Yamaga Hyotoji
Hideto. Takasuke was born in Aizu in eastern Mutsu, on the Eastern
Mountain Circuit. From the age of six he steeped his mind in literature; by
ten he surpassed others in both poetry and prose. He obtained
transmission of the way of Japanese verse and Shinto. When he was
seventeen he read the Four Books and Six Classics, taking only Hayashi
Razan, Doshun, as his teacher, and wrote fifty volumes of colloquial
interpretations of the Four Books.
In this way he devoted his attention to both civic affairs and military
preparedness, always thinking and striving to be helpful to humanity,
devoting his entire attention to the end of his life. His great vow was no
more than to clarify and correct the doubt and confusion of people with
aspirations for the nation.
Takasuke was an independent (ronin) all his life. For six or seven
years he received a small stipend from the Asano Clan while remaining
independent, but he resigned and became even more independent.
Concentrating on scholarship and military science, he wrote Record of
Essentials of Sage Teachings, a book intended to analyze and explain the
doubts and confusion of scholarship for people, but he was censured by
the government and remanded to the custody of Asano Naonaga of
yesteryear. After ten years he was pardoned, and went back to his
residence in Edo as before, as a teacher of military science, meeting with
knights of all ranks, sometimes training, sometimes teaching. He died of
illness at the age of 64.
The family tradition was continued by two sons of Takasuke, Yamaga
Shoran Takatsune, and Yamaga Tosuke Takamoto.
Footnotes
1 Takeda Shingen (1521-1573) was a renowned warlord of Japan’s Warring States era. He
deposed his own father in 1541 to take over as head of his family, then built up a power
base by military actions and strategic alliances. In 1567 he forced his eldest son to commit
suicide after rebelling. Subsequently he turned on his allies. He defeated the great warlord
Oda Nobunaga and his protégé Tokugawa Ieyasu (who was later to unify Japan under the
Third Shogunate), but Shingen died before he could capitalize on these victories. Takeda
Shingen is also known for achievement in administration, public works, and industrial
enterprise.
1 Koku: a dry measure used for grain, slightly more than 5 U.S. bushels; Japanese feudal
incomes were typically expressed in terms of so many koku of rice.
3. The Law of the Warrior
The law of the warrior starts with rectitude and ends with victory. This basis is
found in the deified ruler’s establishment of law on the basis of warfare.
Shingen’s operations impressed Tokugawa Ieyasu with the teaching and training
of [Yamamoto Kansuke] Haruyuki. Th inking he should dictate that everything
be like Shingen’s preparations for the practicalities of combat, and his rules and
procedures, Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered a search for all the families of the
Yamamoto clan in Hamamatsu. (Ieyasu occupied Hamamatsu castle in 1568; the
events here seem to have occurred later.) But there was no one comparable at
that time. Then Ieyasu heard of the military science of an uncle of Yamamoto
Haruyuki named Yamamoto Tatewakizaemon Shigeuji, in the establishment of
Makino Umanojo Yasunari of Ushikubo in Mikawa province. He was hired as a
direct retainer and given a salary of three thousand koku. In those days, even
Sakai Kawachi-no-kami Shigetada was getting five thousand koku. Kuze
Sanshiro Hironori of the Yokosuka contingent and Sakabe Sanjuro Hirokatsu
both performed bravely time and again, but up until that period they’d each been
given one hundred koku. As for [Yamamoto] Tatewaki, he was given the
aforementioned amount because of his heritage of military science. He
accompanied the lord at the campaign of Odawara in 1590. It repeatedly
occurred to the lord that the teacher of military science should not be of low
rank, so it was determined that he should thenceforth be patronized and favored,
particularly in his status, according to the will of the lord; but being an elderly
man, he died of illness.
Tatewaki had neither a biological son nor an adopted son, so his lineage died out
and no longer exists.
4. The Basic Aim of Leadership
The basic idea of leadership is in knowing how important the military is to the
country. Next, a leader is a standard for the group, so he determines to establish
his own personal intelligence and uprightness, preserving humaneness from the
beginning all the way through to the end, making justice his watchword.
Detailed Discussion The basic aim of leadership is rooted in knowing the need
of the state, directed toward establishing clarity and correctness in oneself to be a
model for the multitude, and preserving humaneness from the beginning
throughout to the end, guided by right.
As for the need of the state, all nations must have knights, and the supervisor of
those knights is the warrior leader. If he employs these knights well, he is a
helper; if he employs them badly, he does harm.
To employ well means first to consider their route and have them go by the way
that is suitable, to figure out where to station troops and locate them there,
getting both officers and soldiers to abide by the will of the commander; to get
rid of harm and remove difficulty, stable in both normalcy and emergency, thus
reaching the point where there is no one who does not obey the orders of the
lord.
There is a way to clarify the mind. The human mind necessarily has cognitive
consciousness, which is called thought. This is also what is conventionally called
consideration. So even in minor matters, things should not be done without
thought. First think to yourself whether it’s right or wrong this way. This is the
foundation of clarifying the mind.
Even if you think in this way, if you act just as you think, this is called taking
your mind as master, which ancient sages and saints warned against. So you call
those with ability and merit in the avenue concerned and check your thinking
with them, to see whether it is suitable or not beforehand, or have critical
discussion afterwards and implement whatever seems appropriate, making it a
lesson for later. This is called learning. Even if you study the books of sages and
savants and find something that seems to be a traditional maxim or virtue, if you
don’t think about it first and question others, it’s hard to attain clarity.
Next, to preserve humaneness from beginning to end means that for a ruler of
men to dwell with humaneness is something that should be maintained. It means
to accept the masses and love the masses. It is also like saying the ruler is the
father and mother of the people. The ruler of the whole land considers the people
of the whole land his children; the ruler of a province considers the people of the
province his children; the same goes for the ruler of a prefecture and the ruler of
a house.
Intelligence means knowing the outside. It means that once you’ve got yourself
in order and your alliances are lined up, you get to know the people, things, and
concerns you are facing and then you figure out what to do to deal with those
people, things, and concerns. In the context of arms, it means knowing your
enemies and calculating what to do according to the condition your enemies are
in. This is considered the second main basis of teaching and training.
Strategy refers to figuring out how to win easily according to changes. Even
though you may have established internal order and have information about the
outside, unexpected events are the beginning of defeat, so think of all possible
changes in your opponents, consider changes in your allies, and also consider
changes in the sky and changes in the earth, so you don’t get bogged down and
don’t go wrong. In the context of arms, this means not letting enemies figure you
out, but catching enemies in your own strategies. Stationing men in military
houses and having weapons on hand, taking every possible precaution against
emergencies, is the beginning for warriors. This is considered the third main
basis of teaching and training.
6. The Main Aims of Military
Training
When it comes to arms, practice means making officers and soldiers
strong and robust. It is based on the men following the leader’s
instructions. For the officers and soldiers to follow instructions, three
things are essential for coordination.
First is to know people and assign posts to people who can do the
job.
Second is always to reward good and punish wrongdoing, so that the
good and the bad of both high and low are clear. With this clarity, officers
and solders will be enthusiastic, without hesitation.
Third is to train officers and soldiers even in ordinary things, so that
their manners at home become training, meaning that they have no
trouble getting ready and mustering.
These are traditionally called the three official signals. The secret
transmission from Mr. Yamamoto to Shingen too was this. This tradition is
called the main purposes of military training.
Detailed Discussion
The main aims in leading a large army are the three signs. There are
three signs in the secret transmission from Mr. Yamamoto to Takeda
Shingen. The first is to know people.
There are good and bad, substantial and superficial people, there are
majorities and minorities, there are sophisticates and rustics, there are
insiders and outsiders, familiars and strangers.
In the world there are people of the world; in a state there are people
of the state; in a province there are people of the province; in a house
there are people of the house. Land is far or near, large or small;
depending on the land, state, province, and house, there are people and
things; based on people and things, they have their rules.
There are people of lesser and greater importance, old and young
people, canny and stupid people. People of greater importance are the
chiefs, those of lesser importance are the ordinary samurai. A chief who
cannot distinguish good from bad is not a chief; the job of a chief in times
of peace requires testing the ordinary samurai.
Knowing people means selecting people. Knowledgeable selection
means recognizing people who can be chiefs, and appointing people
suitable for selection. This is the great carpenter’s square of warfare, the
beginning of predetermined victory.
Second is to make rewards and penalties clear.
For a ruler of men to reward the good and punish the bad may be
normal, but attention is focused solely on promoting the good and
demoting the bad. If there is negligence at this stage, the officers and
soldiers slack off. When they slack off, you have to watch out for an
outbreak of war.
It seems to me that the world and the state should both make reward
their priority. This is something that must constantly be given
consideration. Constant consideration means good ones from among the
various commanders and myriad knights should be picked out and
rewarded, according to the individual, with offices, seats of honor, favors,
or prizes.
For example, there are good officers in every rank—summon them to
their command, or a mansion in the preeminent citadel, and present them
with a declaration to this effect:
You have been upright in public service, and considerate of your parents,
relatives, and offspring; your words and deeds have both excelled others,
and good report of you has been heard on high. In particular, the lord’s
pleasure is considerable. Because of this, you are to be appointed to such-
and-such a rank, given such-and-such a command, presented with such-
and-such a prize; if you continue to be careful and diligent, it will certainly
be taken into consideration.
Answer: In this system both are used, and also not used. Ultimately what
must be used is used, what should be left out is left out; it’s not a matter
of bias toward one or dependence on one. The reality is based on
concentrating on peacetime arms, keeping the mind upright and
cultivating the mood in peacetime, so there is no impediment to military
functions. Its essence is in perpetuating the order and peace of the whole
nation. In the context of warfare, artifice and deception are also employed
to gain victory. Of course, real actions are also used. Ultimately the idea
is to change according to the enemy—if the enemy thinks you’re using
surprise, you win by being straightforward; if the enemy thinks you’re
being straightforward, you win by surprise. This is a system that teaches
how to bring enemies to you and not be brought by enemies to them;
how to get others to take on form without having any form yourself.
Question Three: If someone doesn’t know this system, or even knowing
it doesn’t use it, can it still be effective if there is a sudden call for it?
Answer: If officers and soldiers are both well trained through experience
over the years, it will certainly be effective when dealing with events. If
the rules of the system are handed over to a group of men all at once
without proper preparation, then it has little efficacy.
Question Five: Unless one devotes all one’s efforts, the real character of
the system will be hard to see. But those serving in office, without free
time, and those who are old, don’t have years to devote all their effort.
Then there are cases such as nobles of high rank with no convenient
opportunity to pursue inquiries. Is there a way to convey the teaching
quickly to such people to enable them to master it readily?
Answer: This too is the same rule as the foregoing. The results of
devoted endeavor and receiving instruction without diligent practice are
quite different things, though easy understanding and ready attainment
do exist to some degree.
Question Seven: It is said that adopting something for use is not in the
other yet does not disregard the other, is not in the self yet does not
disregard the self. If so, what is the aim toward which one strives?
Answer: The way of the warrior is to correct those who go wrong and set
them straight, to make those who disrupt social order conform—this is all
in the way of the warrior. As this is called controlling disturbance and
aberration, military men of all ranks should understand this as their job,
calculate likely disruptions, and act so as to prevent them. This is called
the right way of the warrior.
This verse means that when a boy is born in a warrior’s house, a bow is
hung in the birthing room, so whistling arrows can be shot, informing all
of events occurring in the four quarters, announcing the taking on of all
emergencies without hesitation.
So carry long and short swords at all times, set out spear and halberd,
array bow, gun, and lance, post foot soldiers as gate guards and street-
corner sentries, and set out the three criminal-catching weapons [stick,
fork, sleeve-catcher] along with lamps, torches, and rope for making
arrests. Seen from outside, this shows it’s a military house, while its
functionality is unhindered, from the entrance to the interior.
To establish guard posts and sentries in various places so there is no
negligence whatsoever is all in the manners of a military house.
Especially on the road you bring along men and horses according to
status, having men with free hands in front of you and behind you, the
kind you can have wield spear and halberd, considering all emergencies
that could arise, planning and preparing ahead to set things in order
according to the emergency. This too is all to prevent hitches in these
matters. This is proof that this is not something from which you can
depart.
Question Nine: Since olden times it has been said that the way of
culture and the way of the warrior are both necessary; how is this to be
understood in actuality?
The training does not involve a lot of talk, and the basics are not that
many. Establishing laws and acting on principle is the same thing for
great and small clans alike. There are carpenters who don’t even own
their own houses, yet they construct palaces, towers, shrines, and
temples, building the homes of great personages as they see fit. With
only plumb line and square, provided their use is well practiced, projects
are completed without being onerous.
Similarly, in all endeavors, it’s not a matter of personal estate but
depends whether or not someone has acquired the appropriate tradition
and training.
Answer: Although there are many different systems in the world, they
lean toward operation of energy and are insufficiently realistic, they are
short on strategy on account of planning, or they attend to mental states
and don’t apply physical forms, or they have the core but stumble at the
outgrowths. This system develops presence and form from the root,
teaching perfection of the outgrowths as well, so nothing else can
compare.
Answer: Cultivating the person, ordering the home, and governing the
country constitute the everyday path of the science of sages. The chapter
in Mencius on using mind fully says, “Sages are teachers of a hundred
generations.” Also, “The world has three wishes: ordinary people wish to
be obeyed, conscientious people wish to be upright, sages wish to be
guided.” It is imperative to discourse on this to people who aspire to the
Way without asserting themselves, and it also requires thorough inquiry.
For boats, it’s best to ask people of Kyushu and Shikoku, and other
seaboard regions. In such places, the existence of that profession is a
matter of course, and expert craftsmen will be there. Otherwise, without
boats, a lot of operations are not feasible.
Among people of the eastern provinces there are distinguished
experts in land maneuvers. This again is also due to matters of physical
possibility and constant familiarization.
Nagasaki is the place where great merchants foreign and native
interact, so they are knowledgeable about business there, and because
that is the ordinary habit, people’s mentalities tend to be influenced by it.
As for the ways of warriors, they are concentrated in the capital city
Edo (Tokyo), where they all practice martial activities and military offices
as their everyday occupation, so military science can’t be mastered
effectively anywhere but Edo. Especially as teachers of military science,
even those of outstanding talent and intelligence in isolated and remote
provinces are in a different class from the teachers to be found in Edo.
Within Edo as well, the same would be so of those who associate with
the great personages as their teachers.
Answer: Even if there are people in remote and isolated regions who
have aspirations, since all professions are underdeveloped there, there
are few who are better than they, so people praise them, and they think
no one is better or more expert than they. When they show up in the
capital, however, and are put to the test in a major arena, their faults,
failures, and inadequacies all become evident. Because of this their
aspirations are thwarted, and they even fade away physically.
Question Eighteen: Is there proof that rustics are not employed even if
they are acknowledged commanders and brave warriors?
Answer: The standard of arms of the generalissimo who rules the whole
land serves as proof. Next are the distinguished generals and excellent
leaders, next the warriors of major campaigns.
Sages were glad to visit emperors and contribute their virtues to the
cause of governing the empire, so their discourses to great men and
princes were exhaustive. Even so, ignorant and base people call their
consummate courtesy flattery.
The mother of Mencius moving three times was also an example of
choosing location. Choosing a location, considering the people one can
mix with, planning a practical course, if all is good one’s achievement will
be told throughout the land.
For a knight, aiming to become a man of mettle is called happiness,
and also a great aspiration. The state of a man of mettle is the main basis
of knighthood, a vessel of magnanimous humanity and greatness of
heart. It means focusing on this, unconcerned with petty things or trivial
works, admitting multitudes and maintaining greatness, unwearied even
by the labor of campaigning on a national scale, confident that there is no
hardship and no crisis you cannot work through. Even if a major
emergency arises your thinking does not change—you do not abandon
people, do not abandon things, but consider and apply relevant rules,
comprehending past and present, self and other, clearly distinguishing
justice from profit, good from bad, thus bringing everything to
completeness. Of course, stability of temperament is fundamental; this
should be acknowledged as the capacity of a man of mettle.
A person of such a character as this is no different from an ordinary
man in peacetime, cordial and accommodating, someone people tend to
be attracted to. Then when it comes to major operations, critical planning,
and emergencies, he is not shaken, and his standards don’t change.
A detailed evaluation of what a man of mettle is would take forever, so
I abbreviate it.
As an analogy, plants and trees that flower and fruit become entirely
different according to their nourishment and care, or the manner and
mode in which they are groomed. Similarly, even the painting of a master
or the calligraphy of an expert will not be attractive if the mounting,
framing, or hanging is bad. Even for sages and savants the manners of
sophistication are inappropriate when they live in the countryside;
because of this knights with aspirations, men of humanity, like to go from
the countryside to the city to work.
Answer:
If you have received the transmitted tradition but have not reached its
reality, there is a flaw there. To begin with there are five points to focus
on. First, the method of instruction makes form basic and begins with
this. Correctness of form is considered the rule and the key. Four forms
of warfare are the beginning of the teaching. The form of a military
commander includes both the sophistication and substantiality of a
military commander. There are rules governing the capacities of military
commanders and the implements of military commanders. Without the
appropriate forms, without the appropriate rules, what merits the name of
warriorhood?
Footnotes
In this country, the government of the nation emerges from the military caste, but
warriorhood includes cultural education, so the martial element naturally has its
own doctrine.
Footnotes
1 This refers to Mencius’ statement, “Those who enriched lands that did not
exercise humane government were repudiated by Confucius; how much the more
those who aggressively warred for them—fighting for territory, they killed so
many people they filled the fields; contending for cities, they killed so many
people they filled the cities. This is what is called leading the land to eat human
flesh. Death is not enough for this crime. Therefore those who make war out to
be good deserve the supreme penalty.”
I. The Universal Sources
1. The Source of Humanity
There are many things between heaven and earth that derive their forms and
produce their functions by combinations of structure and energy, but it seems
logical to consider humans the most intelligent of beings. Humans are imbued
with the essences of heaven and earth, imbued with soundness of reason and
spirit; so we observe heaven above, examine the earth below, and depend on
people in between.
So when we use the unchanging nature of the Way, we comprehend the great and
the small, the fine and the crude; we find out everything past and present. That
wonder is immense; it is why humanity forms a triad with heaven and earth.
Physically there are male and female, functionally there are poor and rich, noble
and base; there is no deviating from the Way. Even if there are differences in
willpower, when you don’t follow the Way as a human being, the way of
humanity comes to an end. Then even riches and rank, longevity and health, are
all out of place—how are they worth grasping? The function of the Way of
humanity is very important indeed.
Footnotes
The Way involves no fabrication; wherever it appears is natural truth. All events
and objects have inevitable natural laws. When you deduce them truthfully, you
have actualities and principles. The ignorant do not attain this, and do not
understand, while intellectuals analyze excessively; thus there is the difference
between going too far and not far enough.
Sages establish education and institute teaching, to enable younger minds to find
out the roots of heaven and earth with the help of mature minds. When there is
truthfulness inside, it naturally shows its form and function outwardly. The way
is not accomplished just by thinking about it, but must be put into practice before
it can be accomplished.
3. The Source of Phenomena
Nature circulates inevitably through the interdependence of yin and yang and the
natural suppression and mutual production of the five elements. Even the
functions of water and fire alone among them, it appears, never cease
regeneration. Imbued with these, earth produces warmth, heat, cool, cold, rain,
dew, frost, snow, wind, thunder, flood, and drought. By their means humans
produce plenty and scarcity, disaster and fortune, flourishing and decline,
emergence and disappearance. Sages systematize them to define the four
seasons, arrange the years, months, days, and hours, determine the four
directions, distinguish the eight trigrams,1 consider past and present to recognize
what to reduce or increase, guard and rest by day and by night, make changes by
supersession. They judge success and failure according to the time. The function
of natural time is very important indeed.
Earth is still and level, with natural forms and natural conditions. Its forms
include high and low, dangerous and safe, broad and narrow, long and short. Its
conditions are created by wood and stone, mud and water. Individually, there are
natural forms and conditions, and there are artificial forms and conditions. Sages
examine the patterns of the earth, create provinces and prefectures, set
boundaries at mountains and rivers, determine border lines, organize agricultural
land, consider customs far and near, correct conduct indirectly and directly, and
establish laws coordinating heaven, earth, and humanity.
Humans and other beings belong to heaven and earth; heaven and earth are the
father and mother of all beings. Among humans there are higher and lower,
intelligent and ignorant; among other beings there are animals and plants, things
that exist by nature and things that are manufactured.
As long as there are high and low and intelligent and ignorant humans, their
functions come to fruition when their types are distinguished, offices are
established, classes are defined, education is provided, high and low
communicate, and the intelligent and the ignorant assist each other.
As long as there are animals and plants, and natural and artificial objects, people
profit from birds and beasts, fish and turtles, plants and trees, grains, salt,
minerals, metals, jades, and the manufacture of implements. There are natural
laws governing them, of which humans make systems from time to time. For
every single thing there is also a principle; its function is very important indeed.
Footnotes
1 Eight trigrams: the elemental symbols of the I Ching or Book of Changes, the
most ancient Chinese classic, studied by both Confucians and Taoists. They also
represent natural forces and phenomena, and are used to construct all sorts of
symbolic systems.
II. Essentials of Leadership
1. The Office of the Lord
Humans are the most intelligent of beings, and leaders are chief in intelligence
among humans. They eat without tilling, dress without weaving, and reside
without building. Those who are able to stand over the multitude do nothing
else.
The people are too involved in their work to have time to get to know the Way;
their behavior when uneducated is like that of birds and beasts. Therefore the
central pillar of sovereignty is set up in their midst to cause the manners of
people to return to the rule of heaven and earth and embrace the order of natural
norms.
The office of leadership involves first knowing the trouble of being a lord.
Mediocre leaders are conceited on account of their country, and take wealth and
status for ease. Therefore they have a lot of leisure, and can hardly fill up a
whole day. Hosting parties, hunting for sport, pursuing whatever is pleasant, they
know nothing of the peasants’ hardships. They don’t ask about the toil of the
common people.
In golden ages of the past, education was based on ethics, order was based on
family structure, and each class of people was settled in its own occupation. So
they harmonized with heaven and earth, responded to the gods, profited from the
mountains and rivers, cultivated fields, spread civilization, and were cordial in
their manners.
Footnotes
1 Dan Shao, one of the co-founders of the Zhou dynasty in the 12th century
B.C.E, a major contributor to the crafting of the cultural and legal system of
Zhou, a classical Confucian ideal.
2. Three Tasks
The office of lordship has three essentials: learning, knowledge, and action.
Learning means familiarization with the realities of things past and present. It’s
not just a matter of reading books.
Knowledge means clarifying your knowledge and information. If you study but
your knowledge is unclear, you’ll be confused. When you’re confused, you don’t
know what to do, and can’t get through.
Action means acting on what you learn and know. If you don’t put it into
practice, there’s no use to learning or knowledge.
If you want to fulfill these three tasks, there are also three assistants: mentors,
friends,1 and retainers. With mentors you can correct deviations, with friends
you can discuss details, with retainers you can observe effects.
Footnotes
1 Confucius said, “Three friends are beneficial, three friends are harmful.
Friendship with the honest, the truthful, and the learned is beneficial; friendship
with the ingratiating, the hypocritical, and the obsequious is harmful.”
3. Admonition
Negligence when not admonished is natural. It is like the opposition of yin and
yang, the mutual suppression and mutual fostering of water and fire, metal and
water, cyclically producing one another. This is true even of the eternity of
heaven and earth; how much more of human affairs! How much more of the
family, the nation, the world!
In general, admonition refers to mind, body, home, country, and the world, all in
terms of principle, form, object, function, time, and place. It is on this that civil
and military authority rely.
4. Establishing Offi ces
When there are superiors, there are subordinates; when there are rulers, there are
ministers. This is a material law of heaven and earth. When ministers do not
divide their offices, their functions are inadequate. Therefore when the hundred
offices are indefinite, each is uncertain of its role, so the court is not correct.
When the court is not correct, ruler and minister are confused. This is why the
origin of established offices is inevitable.
Essential among the hundred offices are civil and military affairs. Overall, one
man is made an exemplar, a model of conduct for the whole country, directly
serving the virtue of the lord, deciding affairs in myriad situations, a prime
minister for civil affairs and a general for military affairs.
Society is especially decadent these days, and talented people are hard to find, or
they pursue different occupations. The selection of a prime minister and a
general is very serious. But character, knowledge, and courage constitute a
sequence. Character means mental balance and personal cultivation. It is simple
and uncomplicated, harmonious and not harsh. Knowledge means skillful
strategy, intelligence, knowing self and others, knowing heaven and earth,
familiarity with past and present, and distinction of black and white. Courage is
effort in action, it is boldness and daring, it is being imperturbable and
indomitable, it is awe-inspiring gravity, it is straightforward simplicity. Someone
who has all three of these qualities is called a great minister or a great general.
The prime minister and the general each has his own responsibilities of office.
When the ruler chooses them correctly, he can entrust everything to them
without hesitation. When the selection of department chiefs and officials is
inappropriate, they cause clogs, unaware, so the conditions of subjects are not
communicated. So their selection should not be done casually. Take into account,
in that context, intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and loyalty.
5. Selection and Training
The Strategies of Gao Yao1 says, “Don’t leave offices empty; humans stand in
for the forces of Nature.” Generally speaking, the way to accomplish order is in
finding people. The way to find people is all in selection and training.
When the Zhou Dynasty was flourishing, it used a method of local nomination
and hometown selection to get men. This is how earnest the interest in finding
people was in ancient times.
Even the sages consider it hard to know people. That is because human
subjectivity fabricates falsehood every day, acting so selfish as to dare deceive
one another, forming factions to overshadow each other, while claiming it to be
in the public interest.
If you unsuspectingly appoint people without merit to office, and trust words
without wondering, then subjective artifice will grow day by day, until you can
no longer distinguish who is worthy or not. This is why even the method of local
nomination and hometown selection is inapt for later ages.
The method of testing men is by their words and conduct. Each has three
essentials. To examine them, eight methods and eight indicators are employed.
Without at least having methods of testing, administration of security and
observation, and principles of examination and appointment, true and false will
not be clear.
When people are uneducated, they are prone to prejudice and false conceit. If
they are incorrectly educated, they fall into un-orthodox eccentricities. People all
have an inclination for good, but because they’re uneducated they are ignorant of
social principles. When they are not educated and trained, they don’t fully
comprehend these matters. If they are not slowly steeped and developed,
efficiency is unclear.
Therefore the decadence in education without training is clever talk and eloquent
insincerity. Education and training must sustain one another for things to be
clear.
In ancient times the method of selection and promotion through the school
system began in hometowns and ended in the capital city. They taught virtuous
conduct and arts of the Way, then promoted the intelligent and able. This is
where election and education were interdependent.
When education and training are unknown, there are no diligent and earnest
people among the lower classes, so the process of selection and promotion
doesn’t work. When there is selection and promotion but no education and
training, there are no knights of any service to their superiors.
Unless the people are adequately educated, they will be indolent in their work
and have no normal production. With many idlers in a state, the state finances
will be inadequate as expenditures go out day by day; the people cannot help
having no constancy. When this is widespread, the country falls into chaos.
Therefore when you teach these occupations, define their status, establish
education, correct their customs, and make rewards and punishments clear, the
people will have enough to eat, and a civilian militia will also be effective.
Footnotes
1 Strategies of Gao Yao: a text contained in the Chinese classic Shang Shu or
Ancient Documents
6. Military Preparedness
Military preparedness is the basis of being alert. The sacred warrior of the Book
of Change, Kings Wen and Wu in the Documents 1 — all the sages discuss this.
All beings created by Nature, even animals and plants, have their own means of
preserving their lives—how much the more so human beings! How much the
more so human leaders!
Being careful of your attitude, guarding your speech and facial expression, being
careful as you walk, stand, sit, and recline, observing the proprieties of the four
seasons and the daytime and nighttime, being careful in court courtesies,
regulation of city construction, palace security, castle administration,
encampments outside the citadel, safeguarding suburbs and countryside,
preparations of nearby states, imperial organization—in peace or in chaos, be
serious about all this, be prepared for all this. This is the basis of alertness and
military preparedness.
Formation is settling, in that people quietly settle down. It means setting people
out in lines to instruct them. A standard court ceremony as well as an ad-hoc
administrative method, in military affairs it is called formation. In reality they’re
the same thing.
Generally speaking, for superiors and subordinates to face each other, rulers and
subjects to protect each other, is a natural formation. It is the way of sky and
earth, the norm of the individual. Subordinates gather facing the superiors; the
ruler commands the center, in charge of orders. This is what is meant by the
presence of stillness within motion.
When superiors and subordinates protect each other, they naturally create a form,
circling four sides, organized to be readily deployable far or near. Relative
number and strength, advance and retreat, and strategic projection of
appearances, each produce specific forms, depending on time and terrain. It’s a
matter of deducing the realities of the situation to form the structure.
Encampment is when people stop, form a circle, and keep each other on the
alert. When squads are set out in battle formations for a long time, not a matter
of days, people tire and gaps occur. There-fore equipment is used to replace
human power; wood, bamboo, and earth constructions are built for temporary
barriers. Their structures should be such as to provide for shelter from rain and
for rest, in addition to stationing squadrons.
So make the equipment in a battle formation light and the walls of the
encampment crude. Consider how to call the inside and outside guards; consider
curved and straight and square and round forms; consider measures of relative
breadth and density; consider construction of cabins, walls, and moats.
Consideration of roads and open space, establishment of alerts and signals;
setting up observers and keeping out spies; making rules strict, figuring distances
and setting up temporary barriers; discerning the weather patterns; and warding
offcold and heat—this is the general outline.
Land regulation refers to the admonition of kings and lords to build barriers. The
land has natural formations, human labor makes constructions, and there are
substitutes for human labor. Whenever rulers establish cities according to the
terrain, there are distant establishments of prefectures and provinces, and
regulation of rural districts. At hand, there is the construction of the suburbs and
the citadel.
Now a camp is not for the long term, so the citadel is where formation is
perfected. Battle formations and encampments are regulated entirely according
to the terrain. The principle is based on the battle front, the form is made for
security. The people and the ground are interdependent, danger and ease are
relative; all that matters is inner and outer security. Now when deployment is the
first concern, occupy easy terrain; when defense is the foremost concern, stay on
inaccessible ground.
To make the easy inaccessible, set up impediments high and low. Walls, moats,
barriers, shields, bamboo and wooden fences, all have their functions. Use them
according to how light or heavy they are, depending on whether they’re to be
used inside or outside.
To make the inaccessible easy, set up facilities for free passage. Roads, boats,
bridges, stairs, and doors have their functions; observe the terrain to consider
their uses in order to organize them. When they are organized in accord with
both the terrain and the time, then they complement one another.
Footnotes
1 Documents: the Chinese classic Shang Shu or Ancient Documents, one of the
main source books of Confucianism.
7. Rules and Regulations
Rules are rules to be followed; orders issue rules, enjoining them on the
multitude. Rules and orders give verbal forms to the guidelines of heaven and
earth, setting up limits so people won’t go beyond them.
There are instructional orders, seasonal orders, and situational orders. Human
feelings always change according to time, place, and events. A commander must
observe those occasions at the outset, secretly take precautions against what they
conceal, consider them in light of natural laws, and induce people to take to
what’s good. This is what rules and orders come from and relate to.
Forms are the means by which the eyes are enabled to sense things, while names
are the means by which the ears and mouth are enabled to refer to things. Forms
and names being what ear, eye, and mouth experience, they are what affect
feelings. So they have a great many uses, in communicating far and near, uniting
the inaccessible and the easy, engaging the feelings of the multitude, advising
them of the ordinary and the abnormal.
The use of sounds such as of gongs and drums, as well as flags, fires, and
various signs, depends on the time, according to the place.
8. Internalization and Examination
When the Zhou Dynasty was flourishing, ritual hunts were conducted four times
a year, with a major expedition every three years. They’d call the excursion a
peacetime war, refer to the conclusion as lining up the troops, toast their return at
the ancestral shrine, and count the spoils of war. They called it a peacetime war
instead of peacetime hunting, and referred to spoils of war instead of the catch of
the hunt, in order to use this to teach military matters and cultivate awe-inspiring
conduct.
9. Reward and Punishment
Good doesn’t happen without encouragement, and evil doesn’t stop without
chastisement. Reward and punishment are used to educate people to each resort
to what is good for them. They are the means by which the ruler controls
subordinates, lessons for teaching and training. Words and acts of loyalty, duty,
and bravery are weighed according to their efficacy, as they apply to the time
and place. When rewards and punishments are out of order, people will
invariably become negligent.
III. War Strategy
1. Military Education
What is basic and essential all depends on military education. There-fore, when a
leader can capably comprehend the means and ends, educate subjects and
cultivate the people, thoroughly training inside and out, examining actualities to
consider their success or otherwise, and make this clear by means of reward and
punishment, then military education has been successful. Only then should arms
be employed.
2. Planning and Intelligence
The principles of planning and intelligence are to plan ahead and always be
informed, broadening seeing and hearing. When you search inside and out by
watching, observing, and examining, nothing is concealed.
The method of employing spies requires selection of personnel. There are times
when it is necessary, and there are places where it is imperative. There are ways
of using secret agents. There is a restriction that when you are doing detailed
planning, outside agents are not to watch inside. When information and
observation are lacking, external affairs are not watched. When strategic spying
isn’t done, plans do not succeed. How can military affairs succeed if there are no
men of superior intellect inside, and no one to look and listen carefully outside?
3. Principles of Warfare
Train repeatedly before warring, making the principles clear. Give your pledge to
the knights, making commitments firm. Be careful about internal and external
investigation and observation. On the eve of battle, be on high alert, and be strict
about rules. Considering proper measure, be circumspect after battle, sharing the
spoils to reward merit. These are principles of warfare.
4. Battlegrounds
Generally speaking, there are morning, afternoon, and evening battles. The mood
of morning is keen, the mood of afternoon is lazy, the mood of evening is to
head back home. These are natural tendencies.
In the year there are differences of cold and heat; in the day there are distinctions
of day and night, dark and light. Times may tend to survival or destruction,
fortune or disaster. For combat, timing is uniquely important.
To fight by night, consider the enemy’s mood, take advantage of their gaps by
the dark of night to create confusion and take away their energy. Select the
soldiers, keep equipment light, agree on signals, use tactics to tire opponents out.
Startle them with fires and drums, have your defense and offense support each
other, make your strategy according to your aim, go out and in at opportune
junctures, with emphasis on rapidity of advance and withdrawal.
When there is violent wind and rain, that is a time not to fight. Avoid it, but if
you can’t help it, then make your battle front solid, station your equipment, and
wait for the storm to stop. When enemies get caught out, take advantage of the
opportunity to startle them left and right, cut offtheir rear, send out ambushes,
and strike while they’re in disarray. The use of the timing of the weather is very
great indeed!
6. Practicalities of Combat
When commanding a small number in battle, select your soldiers and solidify
your lines; consider the timing, go by the lay of the land, conceal your forms and
arouse your spirits, causing opponents to weary and lose their coherence, cutting
offtheir rear and striking in the center. There is particular advantage in night
ambush fighting, taking advantage of conditions to advance softly, using the
element of surprise when you see an opportunity.
Mounted combat requires level ground. Going in from left and right, you startle
them from front and rear; swiftness is uniquely important.
In infantry combat there are officers and soldiers. When infantry encounters
cavalry, there is benefit in setting up temporary barriers and waiting and
watching for an opening.
As for the deployment of foot soldiers, let them concentrate on training with
their equipment, getting their formations and principles straight, advancing and
withdrawing in an orderly manner, making their signals clear, calculating
distances, preparing for security and safety.
In combat there are times to rush and times to relax. There are uses for surprise
and straightforward tactics, there are structures for lines and squads, there are
methods of mixing infantry and cavalry in battle formations, and there are
methods for deploying foot soldiers alone. The orders of chief officers are most
exacting; when cavalry and infantry are each unable to regroup, then their
deployment is not entirely effective.
In fighting with fire, accelerants are employed depending on wind and dryness,
according to the ground cover. Generally speaking, fire is alarming and burns
quickly, so fire is used as an auxiliary weapon. Burning forests, villages, and
stockpiles, raising smoke, each has its uses. Just be careful to keep watching the
direction of the wind.
In order to utilize fire, first tear down houses and cut down trees, being careful
of your own supplies and preparing water buckets, having troops at the ready
once fire breaks out, guarding all gaps, calmly awaiting developments. This is
the use of fire fighting.
When you go forth in pursuit, there’s no thought of stopping; lines and squads
scatter, moving and resting at different times, so on the advance you use signals
to alert and advise, units and squads each on guard, keeping infantry and cavalry
in unison, lining up the equipment, the brave inspiring the timid.
Chasing the fleeing, when you overtake them and fight, be bold, not looking for
ambushers, not keeping up sustained battle. Limiting the range, therefore, and
determining the time, keeping the troops whole and uniting their minds, there are
arts of hasty and unhurried pacing, light and heavy arms.
When you withdraw troops, they’ll be scared; so practice your formations and
make sure of your signals, help each other defend and fight, know the lay of the
land precisely and consider the timing to withdraw; then the enemy will not be
able to overtake you.
When you retreat in defeat, your soldiers’ spirits will all be down. So set up
impasses and consider timing, contriving ruses to confuse the enemy, settling the
troops with the thought of death in combat. Their configuration shouldn’t be
considered essential.
Those who fight well plan well. A superior army wins without fighting. One who
plans well is conversant with conditions, opportunities, configurations, and
functions. The enemy is always kept off guard and unprepared; your defense and
attack are elsewhere than he anticipates. Therefore officers and soldiers are
united, as warriors to the death. Unfailingly firm in defense, they invariably
seize what they attack.
Generally speaking, the form of a militia is like water dripping down and fire
flaming up, its momentum like the way water tends to flow downward and fire
takes to what’s dry. Making firm the roots of their actions—surprise and
straightforward, circulating, movement and stillness—when they defend each
other and fight together vertically and horizontally with the fore guard
responding to the rear guard, the way to run a battle is all in strategy, and that is
a matter of actually understanding heaven, earth, and human beings.
BOOK FIVE
Primer of
Martial Education
by Yamaga Soko
1. Rising Early, Retiring at Night
The general rule for knighthood is first to rise early, wash and groom, dress
properly, including accessories; cultivate the mood of dawn, acknowledge
gratitude to your lord and your father, think about the household tasks of the day,
reflect that you receive your physical body from your parents, so the beginning
of filial piety is not to cause it harm, while the end of filial piety is to establish
yourself, put principles into practice, and elevate your name for future
generations to distinguish your parents.
After that, give instructions for household tasks, and meet with visitors and
guests. If you are in the service of a lord, turn out promptly for duty. In serving
your parents, go look in on them to see how they are. When on duty outside,
your planning should not go beyond your position. In attendance on elders,
respect them as you would your father and elder brothers, being deferential and
not arguing.
In public service, the way to go is to show up before others in the morning and
leave after others at night. After returning home, first look in on your parents,
with a gentle mood and a cheerful expression. On taking your seat, inquire about
household matters, assess their order of urgency, and see to those tasks.
If you are free, review the day’s activities and events. If there is time, do some
reading to reflect on the right way for knights and recognize just and unjust
actions.
Once the sun has gone down, see to precautions for nighttime. Going to bed, rest
your mind and relax your body. Allow your soldiers physical repose.
2. Living at Ease
A tradition says, “In public life, forty is the age of strong service.” Consider the
capacities of your children and grandchildren, and even at the age of twenty have
them experience public service.
Even when knights serve a lord they have a lot of free time. If they have
unfortunately not entered the service of a lord—perhaps because of the early
death of their parents, or because they’re too far away for duty morning and
night—so they live at ease with a lot of time on their hands, if they become
negligent and don’t maintain the family profession, they’re almost like birds and
beasts.
The Great Learning1 says, “When immature people live at ease and act
immorally, there is nothing they won’t do.”
Rise early, wash and groom yourself, go out and meet your men, greet your
guests, inspect the horses in the yard, and take a horseback ride. Eat breakfast
promptly, then after washing your hands and cleaning your teeth practice
swordsmanship, archery, shooting, or spear fighting. All of these are methods of
improving the physique and developing coordination.
If you still have free time, read and reflect on the duties of warriors, study
military science, and inspect your weapons and armor.
Footnotes
1 Great Learning: Daxue, a Confucian work, one of the so-called Four Books
taught in Japanese primary schools in the Tokugawa period. The other three are
the Lunyu or Discourses and Sayings of Confucius, the book of Mencius, and
The Mean.
3. Speech and Interaction
Speech and interaction are outcomes of intention. This is why it is said that even
a joke comes from thought. When a knight’s speech is not correct, his conduct is
invariably loose. One should be particularly wary of weak words and
contemptible talk.
The technical terms for combat methods, military maneuvers, weaponry, and
cavalry each have their proper usage. Speeches for ambassadors and for guests,
for funerals and for feasts, for shrine and for court, each have their models.
When speech is inconsiderate and interaction is inappropriate, this is impolite. It
is sure to bring on trouble.
Topics that knights should typically talk about are issues of justice and injustice,
tales of ancient battles, acts of bravery and righteousness past and present, the
flourishing and decline of righteousness among warriors over the ages. All of
these ought to be discussed in order to become alert to present-day errors. When
you carp on other’s errors, or criticize the government of the time, or chat about
amusements, or talk about sex, your mind will inevitably get carried away, and
your conduct will surely sink. The human heart is very interested in this, so don’t
say anything improper.
4. Walking, Standing, Sitting,
Reclining
When you walk, don’t take shortcuts, don’t get in other people’s way, don’t act
impolitely, don’t say anything unnecessary. Once you’ve gone outside your own
gate, be as if you were facing enemies. When you go out, you should forget
home.
When sitting, keep your bearing correct; have your equipment at hand, and never
forget to be on the alert for the unexpected.
When reclining, don’t lie like a corpse. Keep your swords by your side, make
sure security is strict by night.
Generally speaking, in the way of knighthood, if you let your mind wander for
even a while, you’ll surely lose constancy in an emergency, and your whole life’s
labor will be lost in a single incident.
Since we can’t know when an emergency may arise, how could we be lax? The
Records of Manners says, “What makes people human is courtesy. The
beginning of courtesy is in presenting a proper appearance, regulating your facial
expression, and harmonizing your speech. Once your appearance is proper, your
expression is regulated, and your speech is harmonious, then courtesy is there.”
5. Clothing, Food, and Housing
If you are ashamed of poor clothing and poor food, and want a comfortable
dwelling, you are not a man of will.
Clothing, food, and housing all have class distinctions. When excessive, they are
immoderate and expensive, exhausting finances and making military
preparedness impossible. When they are sub-standard, the motive is invariably
stinginess, which isn’t right either. To keep the correct moderation is the rule of
knights.
Unpolished rice should be the staple of the diet, to share the same fare as the
soldiers. Knights who are sickly and have digestive disorders should nourish
themselves physically for the rest of their lives, while having the courage to be
constant to death all along.
Housing should be given little thought. When your house is comfortable and
your rooms are beautiful, your mind is on your home—this is not the mentality
of a man of will. The dimensions and functional layout of your house should of
course conform to military style.
Legend says that when Emperor Yao reigned over the land, he didn’t wear
brocade or finery; his palace walls and residence were not plastered, the beams,
rafters, and pillars were not planed. Reeds grew all over the grounds and yet he
didn’t have them cut. He kept out the cold with deerskin. His clothes were only
enough to cover him. He ate unpolished grain, with spinach soup. Because of
their labor, he didn’t infringe upon the people’s time when they were tilling and
spinning. Humbling his heart and minimizing his ambition, he pursued a course
avoiding artificial contrivance in anything.
6. Money and Material Things
Money is customarily used for providing for the impoverished, helping out the
destitute, eliminating shortages, inviting savants, and gathering knights. Material
things are for fulfilling present needs.
The way for a knight to be is to devote yourself to your lord, constant to death all
along the path. This is a maxim of men of old. If you are stingy with money and
take an interest in material things, martial duty will be missing and you’ll hardly
be able to forget home in an emergency.
Those who are intensely concerned with their homes abandon duty, flee death,
bring censure on themselves and disgrace their fathers and grandfathers. What is
there to enjoy about having a human face but an animal mind?
Throughout history there have been countless wealthy people who lost their
nations and destroyed their families, or traded themselves for money; how can
we be casual about this?
The money that circulates in society is society’s wealth, not the wealth of one
man. Profitably exchanged, it makes myriad things available. That is why it is
called wealth.
People with money all speak of avoiding expense and don’t know how to spend.
When gold and jewels fill the halls and there are money and goods in the
storerooms, yet one doesn’t know how to use it, the wealth of the world
stagnates in one place and does not work for society. What is more costly than
that?
When people like money, they usually hoard it, so sages don’t consider gold and
silver themselves to constitute wealth, and they don’t value hard-to-get goods.
How much more confused it is to store pottery, paintings, bronze and iron
vessels, considering this to be wealth, trading a thousand pieces of gold for this!
7. Food, Drink, and Sexual Desire
Food, drink, and sex are humans’ main desires. Food and drink are for
nourishing the physical body, to act with courtesy and morality. Sexual desire is
to produce heirs, and appease lust.
Everyone has natural measures. Knights are chiefs over the three civilian classes,
with even more burdensome business, their professional responsibilities being
extremely serious—how can we fail to be careful?
Eating too much causes illness, and drinking too much starts arguments. Or else
you get sleepy and feel heavy, so you’re lazy about a lot of things, you neglect
your occupation, and your work piles up. So the cost is very great.
Birds and beasts that ravage fields and gardens should be killed as a matter of
course. The way to be a knight involves knowing the lay of the land, the defiles
and dangers, distances, mountains and rivers; surveying the varieties of customs,
popular songs, and local opinion; personally going into the marshes and forests
wielding bow and arrow, gun, sword, and spear, becoming nimble of hand and
foot, training your body; considering the abilities of your knights and soldiers,
and reviewing the warriors’ exercises.
Knights must not fail to work diligently at these things, but there are proper
times for them, appropriate seasons. If you disregard the time and ignore the
season, you ravage the fields and gardens and waste the people’s work even
worse than birds and beasts.
In the laws it says, “When the army has no money, warriors do not enlist. When
the army gives no rewards, warriors do not go. A fish is found hooked where
there’s tasty bait; there will always be men willing to risk death where there are
serious rewards.”
When fish take the bait, they get hooked; when people receive salaries, they
obey their superiors. Enlisting people by rewarding salaries is an ancient system.
Even if you have the wherewithal, if you don’t distribute it soldiers won’t come
follow you. You’ll just be an ordinary man, an isolated individual.
If you pay too much, your resources will run dry and salaries will be stinting;
then how can you arrange military readiness? Therefore the rule for knighthood
is to calculate income and expenses, and consider proper measure in payment
and prizes.
When prizes and payment are not made in a principled way, then men of
principle will not enlist. A tradition says, “Employing moral men is not a matter
of money. Offers of inducement aren’t accepted even by beggars.” Should we
not be circumspect?
When acceptance is ethical, it’s not a matter of the material value, but whether
it’s proper to accept. If there is anything unethical or unprincipled involved, even
an enormous salary, or nationwide authority, should not be accepted.
As for knights serving in office who want to get more than their salaries, beyond
their position, in excess of their measure, do they want extra spending money for
extravagance? Or what about the vulgar who stint to save; do they want rooms
full of gold? Both are unreasonable.
Giving and receiving are matters of which knights ought to be careful. Some say
that for a knight, instead of stinting to save money, it’s better to spend yet still
have a surplus.
10. Instruction of Heirs
The gratitude of heirs is natural, produced by continuity of blood-line. No social
relationship is closer. After we die, if our heirs are wayward, our families will
die out and our people will perish. How can we withhold instruction and
admonition out of excessive affection?
For knights, robust manhood means bravery. If you do not admonish those you
love most and teach them faithfulness and courage, you are not a man of will,
and not a humane man.
The interaction between teacher and disciple should be most respectful. Military
texts should not be placed on a dirty seat; they should only be opened after
washing the hands and rinsing the mouth.
As for the education of girls, this requires extreme care. Most methods teach
weakness, but that is a big mistake. The wife of a knight has to take care of
household tasks in her husband’s place, because he is always at court and doesn’t
know about domestic matters. Men don’t know about domestic affairs, and
women don’t speak of public affairs; in making a home, they distinguish inside
and outside. “Men and women don’t use the same wardrobe; a wife doesn’t
presume to hang her clothes on her husband’s hangers. She treats her parents-in-
law properly.”
From the Han through the Tang dynasties, there were women who died dutifully
guarding their chastity; the wives of military leaders all over the country never
altered their standards on account of prosperity or decline, never had a change of
heart on account of survival or destruction. Some of them ran afoul of brigands,
others died at the hands of enemies. How could such morality, such chastity, be
accomplished by teaching weakness?
Women are mainly yin; their bodies are soft, their minds are submissive. This is
their natural character, so in action they are pliant and obedient. They should be
disciplined to be decisive, and their games and conversation should not be
anything lewd. When you teach them the proper principles of duty, and show
them the true meaning of warriorhood, then martial conduct is correct, so the
main avenue of social morality is clear.
Footnotes
Ha-u Ho-o (pseud.), Gendai Sojizen Hyoron. Tokyo, Mizuho Shoten, 1970.
Ito Shunko, ed. Eihei Koroku Chukai Zensho. Tokyo, Komeisha, 1964.
Koda Rentaro, ed. Shido Bunan Zenji shu. Tokyo, Shunjusha, 1956.
Kubota Jun, ed. Myoe Shonin Shu. Tokyo, Iwanami Shoten, 1981.
Kusumoto Bunyu, Sodai Jugaku no Zen Shiso Kenkyu. Nagoya, Nisshindo Shoten, 1980.
Mori Keizo, ed. Kinsei Zenrin Genkoroku. Tokyo, Nihon Tosho Senta, 1977.
Mori Senzo, ed. Kinsei Kijin Den. Tokyo, Iwanami Shoten, 1940.
Ogawa Tamaki, etc., tr. Shiki Retsuden. Tokyo, Iwanami Shoten, 1975.
Obashi Shunyu, ed. Ippen Shonin Goroku. Tokyo, Iwanami Shoten, 1985.
Ogura Masahiko, Chugoku Kodai Seiji Shiso Kenkyu. Tokyo, Aoki Shoten, 1970.
Sakurai Yoshiro, Chusei Nihon no Oken, Shukyo, Geino. Kyoto, Jinbun Shoin, 1988.
Suzuki Tesshin, ed. Suzuki Shosan Dojin Zenshu. Tokyo, Sankibo Busshorin, 1962.
Wang Yi, ed. Huang Di Yinfujing Quanshu. Xian, Xiaxi Liuyun Chubanshe, 1992.
Wei Xing, etc., ed. Rujia Zhenyanlu. Inner Mongolia People’s Press, 1997.