Pariahs, outcasts, and others of their ilk, such as those known as hut dwellers and watchmen,1 are on the increase not only in the three cities but throughout the provinces too. Their numbers are now vast, and they are invariably more ostentatious and arrogant than regular people.
Take, for example, the Edo-resident chief of the pariah community, Danzaemon. His lifestyle is that of a holder of 3,000 koku. The chiefs of the outcast community, Matsuemon and Zenshichi, are not far behind.2 Those beneath them occupy different rankings, but all live the good life. The pariahs of Kyoto and Osaka have become ever more overweening, and the man known by the name of Taikoya Matabei of the pariah village of Watanabe in Osaka is worth an estimated 700,000 ryō. His storehouse overflows with treasures from Japan and China, and his extravagance is second to none. He is said to have seven or eight beautiful concubines. He, too, has followers beneath him, several score of whom are exceptionally wealthy. When Nishi Honganji monks head down to Osaka to solicit funds, members of the pariah community line up masu measuring boxes and fill them brimful with gold coins. They display bag after bag overflowing with silver coins. All of this is by way of offering to Nishi Honganji monks. Such people as these are removed from communication with the rest of the world. They accumulate vast sums over the years, but their only expenditure is in the form of gifts to Nishi Honganji. How great the Way of the Buddha!
Again, there is a pariah village called Norata in the domain of Hikone in ōmi province. There they purchase for a pittance aging cattle and horses, which people bring them from far and wide; they feed them poison and, having killed them, skin them. They remove the hair from the hides, render the fat from the flesh,3 and manufacture glue. The pariah community there is headed by two men known as Saiji and Saibei. Each is said to be worth between 300,000 and 400,000 ryō. Cattle and horses are of benefit to the people who sustain the state, and it is immoral to dispose of them when they grow old on the grounds that they are now valueless. In due course, we should give thought as to how this manner of business might be stopped. Norata used to be unique, but now similar places have sprung up elsewhere too. The good tends to wane while the bad waxes. Everywhere, pariahs and their like are in ascendance.
Outcasts in Kyoto and Osaka all do nicely too. Their residences all have gates and entrance halls. On display is their arsenal of weapons for making arrests: staffs, poles, sticks, ropes, and other weapons for capturing and restraining criminals. The authorities employ these people as agents to go after arsonists, robbers, and troublemakers and take them captive. As a result, they comport themselves as if they were shogunal officials. They are forever flaunting their authority and, on the pretense of pursuing troublemakers, intrude into town houses without a by-your-leave. In their interrogations, they point the finger where there is no suggestion of guilt, so much so that regular people live in abject fear of them. It is all the wrong way round. Indeed, these people make as if they are hunting down troublemakers, but the truth is they are out to line their own pockets. They always take the down payments in gambling and insist on their own cut from kidnappings and night robberies. Outcasts in the provinces everywhere are of this type. In some places, they are allowed to wear swords, but everywhere they enjoy the good life.
In former times, these people were entrusted with the disposal of anything polluted; they would make their way through life loitering on street corners or by houses, begging for food, and taking anything offered them, even a single penny. They have now declared a halt to small donations of coins or food and take a year’s allotment in one fell swoop.4 Thus without expending any effort, they obtain a standard income. They also make plenty of money on those occasions when either celebration or commiseration is called for;5 again without personal effort. They no longer appear as beggars; they simply act as if they are taking their due, as though it were a fixed stipend. They are known by such names as “outcasts” or “hut dwellers,” but they actually live in fine houses and wear silks and silk crepe. They are well able to afford the various festivities for sons and daughters. When one of their daughters weds, they go so far as to arrange a ceremonial procession to send her off to her new house. They prepare fine food and gifts for the main guests. When they set off on pleasure trips to visit famous sites or temples and shrines where large numbers of people gather, they dress quite as regular people, without reserve. Because these people obtain money easily, entirely without physical labor, and do not need to use it for anything other than personal indulgence, they can spend more on food and wine than can regular people, and they do so without a second thought. Money in any case flows down to the lowest, and it likes to attach itself to those who are without any human qualities. This does not conform to Heaven’s Way; this is topsy-turvy.
Again, these outcasts take up positions in temple and shrine precincts and at street intersections, and they put on performances of danced drama, mime, and story chants put to music. They draw crowds and make money. They get ever more ambitious, and their performances have come to resemble theater. They dress in fine costumes; their womenfolk call themselves “female ballad singers,” and, wearing deep straw hats, [they walk around] playing the samisen and singing story chants.6 There was a time when these performances would earn them a copper or two a time. Now, though, they bring in fifty or a hundred coppers a performance. Such women dress well, wearing sateen; they decorate their hair with pins and combs made of tortoiseshell and use ivory plectrums to strum their sandalwood-necked samisen. These items are not Japanese; they are all foreign imports. These women’s faces and hair are made up beautifully, and there is no hint that they were ever outcasts or beggars. Their appearance is one with which a regular town dweller could not compete.
Generations ago when the Kamakura regime flourished, the shogun’s consort—Masako was her name—went to Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine wearing hairpins and combs made of tortoiseshell.7 Crowds gathered simply to catch a glimpse. In the early days of the Tokugawa reign, not even the wives of daimyo adorned themselves with something so luxurious as items made of tortoiseshell. Now, though, the womenfolk of the outcast communities all wear it freely.
One might say that this is a consequence of the splendid age in which we live, but this is not so. This defies Heaven’s principles. It is a sign that the decline of the age is upon us and that [splendor and wealth] are flowing to those below the people who sustain the state. This is no good thing at all. The expenditure for it comes from nowhere other than the warriors and the farmers, who are the very foundation of the realm. This is why warriors and farmers are all impoverished. Nowadays, a small-scale warrior cannot afford the wedding ceremonies and bridal processions of old. Under the pretext that she is only making a temporary stay in her new household, for the most part the bride will have already moved, going secretly at night [so as not to attract notice]. Her clothes and trousseau will be altogether pitiful; the feasting will be minimal. Many poor farmers spend their entire lives without a bride or groom. Yet these parts beyond the pale of ordinary human existence have grown ever more extravagant, and people who never had things like marriage celebrations now perform them with a flourish. [As a result] warrior and farmer have lost their original meaning.
The rice-producing farmers cannot eat rice except on a small number of occasions in the course of the year, but throughout the year pariahs and outcasts have ample white rice of fine quality. Nowadays townspeople eat better rice than warriors; the same applies to clothing, wine, and sweets. But more than the townspeople, it is the pariahs and the outcasts who indulge inappropriately. The fine things of this world make their way steadily down to the lower extremities. The pleasures of viewing the moon and flowers, the rare and fine treasures of Japan and China old and new, the finest flavors from the seas and the mountains, the most beautiful daughters and wives: these prove to be all for the pleasure of the lowliest. Fine clothes, hair ornaments of tortoiseshell and coral, even sandals and geta are all for the use of the lowliest of women. Luxuries and a life of ease belong to the lowly. Warriors and farmers suffer out of their sight. The profligacy of these sorts of lowly people, the competition driven by greed, the evil goings-on, the flourishing of pariahs and outcasts—all this has been gathering momentum over the years. They are now the norm. Such things may not appear unacceptable to the average person, but to look upon the world through the eyes of Heaven is to understand that this state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue for a moment longer.
In our age, not only the three cities but even the provinces overflow with various kinds of townspeople and idlers, and even unregistered persons, troublemakers, pariahs, and outcasts live lives of comfort when it comes to clothing, food, and housing. As a result, rice, grains, and other products are consumed in enormous quantities. First of all, the amounts of timber, stone, roof tiles, copper, iron, furniture, merchandise, and miscellaneous goods used in the houses of townspeople and idlers are incalculable. It is said that the quantity of rice consumed by the townspeople and the idlers of Edo is about 15,000 koku per day. That is 5,400,000 koku per year. The amount of sake consumed equals 900,000 horse loads, or 1,800,000 barrels,8 when we add together both the sake imported from Osaka and the surrounding provinces and that produced in the area around Edo. This represents over 1,000,000 koku worth of rice. These people, then, consume some 6,400,000 koku in rice and sake. The people who used to sustain the state by producing rice have turned themselves into townspeople and idlers, and now they consume millions of koku of rice. Those who once served as the foundation of the state are now using up the state’s resources. This is the ultimate reason for the suffering of the people of the soil throughout the country.
The annual consumption of oil is said to be 100,000 barrels.9 One can only guess at the quantities of coarse grains, silk and crepe, flax, cotton, paper, tatami mats, miso, soy sauce, charcoal, firewood, fish, vegetables, tea, sweets, tobacco, dried marine and vegetable products, and so forth. The pile of products consumed annually by the hundreds of thousands of townspeople and idlers who live within the four ri square area of Edo must be as high as Mount Tsukuba itself.10 If we include the consumption of the idlers of Kyoto, Osaka, and the provinces, the quantities become unimaginable. The state census registers show that townspeople and idlers now make up more than half of the populace. Night and day they devour enormous amounts of goods, while the remaining half of the populace, the people who sustain the state, toil and suffer night and day to produce those huge quantities. Thus we realize how the strength of the people of the realm is wasted away even while their health is ruined.
In the past, local products were not exported from the provinces in this way. Only warrior houses consumed such products, and because even the warrior houses were free of all extravagance, the amounts were minor. Production in such large quantities has come about over the past two hundred years as extravagance raised its head and townspeople and idlers became ever more dominant. How much toil and misery this must cause! The state has a limited amount of agricultural products, while those who eat are numerous. In contrast to earlier times, to fill the demand, the people who sustain the state have to exhaust themselves ever more. What is worse, when products are taken away from an area, the people there always suffer from a shortage in those goods [making them more expensive], and as a result many are impoverished.
A shogunal law of Kyōhō 6 warned against the practice of exporting excessive amounts of products from the provinces for the very reason that this would naturally lead to their decay.11 In that age, then, the shogunate still displayed such heartfelt, benevolent concern for the decline of the people who sustain the state that it issued such a law. But nowadays, because it appears as though both sides will benefit when products are exported from the provinces in great quantities, even domain and fief holders often encourage [domain merchants] to send local products to the cities, collecting license fees in return. Or else, the domain itself directly buys up large amounts of local goods and markets them elsewhere. Blinded by their hunger for immediate profits, such governors invite the state’s decline.
It is true that at first sight it appears to be profitable for farmers to receive a certain price for their crops. However, when one probes this matter more closely, the coins received in payment bring not the slightest benefit to the people who sustain the state. All that happens is that their products are exchanged for coins; they receive no wages for their labor. They merely use up their time and exhaust their energies. Meanwhile, merchants buy up the products of their labor for a low price that they set at will and carry off all the profit.
The price for the enormous amounts of rice, grains, and goods consumed by townspeople and idlers is shelled out by none other than the warrior houses. Producing the rice, grains, and goods exhausts the people who sustain the state, and the price for them exhausts the warrior houses. This is why the emergence of myriads of townspeople and idlers destroys the warriors and farmers on whom the state is founded. Having bought products at low prices in the provinces, townspeople sell these to warriors, and in that way they exhaust and destroy the warrior houses. The resources of warriors and farmers have become easy prey for townspeople and idlers. As a result, the warrior houses have steadily declined. They have abandoned time-honored norms, they are lacking in military preparedness, they have reduced the number of men and horses they maintain, and they have cut their retainers’ stipends. Yet even when they have trimmed all things down far beyond what is appropriate, it is still not enough. Left with no other choice, the warrior houses then impose extra levies on the people of the soil in their holdings. For the farmers, too, things are no longer as they were before. Even if they exhaust both body and spirit, it will not be enough. Not caring whether it will lead to a shortage of goods in their locality or considering that they will suffer the consequences later, they still export all kinds of products.
The money that the people earn by exporting as many products as they possibly can does not remain in their hands. It is all stolen away from them. The losses farmers incur have grown in our time: the annual land tax and other levies imposed by domain and fief holders have increased, village expenses have risen, and temples and shrines ask for more donations. In addition to all this, rivers have silted up, and our age suffers from unpredictable weather, causing frequent floods and necessitating much work on dikes and flood defenses. The need to supply horses and men for transport duties between post stations or villages has increased, as have other labor services. Shrine rites, funerals, weddings, arrangements for the adoption of a son-in-law, and festive occasions of all kinds have become more elaborate and their costs have soared. Various merchants and artisans have found their way into the provinces and steal profits. So have troublemakers dealing in gambling, lotteries, and betting on numbers, who cause disorder in the area and make people waste their money; and finally, there are more outcasts and beggars than before. In addition to all this there are more and more unforeseen expenses, so that the money that the farmers have earned with so much effort ends up being spent on these things.
Thus, even when they exhaust themselves producing all kinds of goods for the wasteful consumption of townspeople and idlers, the farmers are left with nothing but losses and gain no benefits whatsoever. When they hand over all that they have and it still is not enough, they survive by taking out loans. Soon the interest piles up, and a small blemish instantly grows into a huge stain; a modest loan ends up ruining their entire livelihood. On the other hand, the lender hands out a small sum of money and instantaneously transforms it into a great fortune. In places that export products to the cities, some people grow exceedingly rich: they are the greedy moneylenders. Others are doomed to poverty: they are honest borrowers.
Today townspeople and idlers drain the resources of the farmers on an immense scale. In the past there was no need for money, but that is no longer the case, and even people of the soil who hitherto have made do by devoting themselves solely to agriculture have begun to produce all kinds of goods, looking for profits in a way that is not appropriate for farmers. When money begins to circulate among people of the soil, they seek luxury and pleasure. Thus they lose the true essence of the people, namely frugal simplicity; they become cunning and greedy and are transformed into sordid human beings. At the same time, places that do not have any market products go into decline because they are unable to cover their expenses. In the end, the population is dispersed, the number of households decreases, and fields are abandoned. The villagers leave for the cities, become idlers, and begin to rob the state.
In our time, places both with and without market products have squandered the people’s Way and lost the mental disposition proper to the people. If things continue in this manner, the people of the soil will decrease in number year by year, the number of idlers will keep growing, and the state will be forced out of kilter. Cunningness and greed will deepen, and perhaps the mandate of Heaven will be lost. In this age, myriads of townspeople and idlers flood the provinces, have easy access to clothing, food, and shelter without doing any weaving, tilling, or other work, and consume enormous quantities of rice and grains, goods and products. They are poisonous worms festering in the flesh of the warriors and farmers, on whom the state is founded. Those parasites must be eradicated immediately, and a law must be devised that returns them to their former state—that of simple people of the soil.
Due to the twin Ways of extravagance and greed, which are practiced so extensively in our time, people are destroying our mountains and forests. Entering even into the deepest mountains and the remotest valleys, they cut large trees and remove big rocks, so that today most mountains have been deforested, including the mountain forests of Hida, Kiso, and Kumano. It is said that one can tell the wealth of a country by the verdure of its high mountains and the density of its large trees. Large trees constitute mountains’ true worth. When they grow luxuriantly on mountains that border on the ocean, all kinds of fish will gather there; but when the mountains are deforested, that also marks the end of fishing in that place. It all depends on the condition of the mountains. Today, the mountains have lost their great worth, their condition has been ruined, and the country’s decline is plain for all to see.
To make matters even worse, deforestation damages the proper operation of the principle of “water” and disturbs patterns of wind and rain.12 Moreover, the mountains’ sand and soil are washed away and run into the rivers, clogging them up. When trees and plants thrive, water does not flow rampantly, and even if there are long periods of rain, the water will be absorbed by the vegetation and will not run off immediately. The moisture contained by the vegetation will be released little by little. As a result, the mountains’ sand and soil will not be washed out and carried away. In recent times the vegetation has worn thin, and the operation of the principle of water has been disrupted. When there is not a drought, there is a flood. The seas throughout the country are no longer as they once were, and two or three days of rain are enough to cause flooding. Without fail sand and soil are washed into the rivers and fill them up, so that the riverbed ends up being higher than the plains around it. Even if one builds the dikes even higher, the riverbed never ceases rising, and as floods grow ever more frequent, it becomes impossible to keep up. Sooner or later, the river will break through the dikes, destroy the fields, and wash away the houses. Oxen, horses, chickens, dogs, and also people drown in great numbers, and especially the old and the young are swept away to their death by the floodwaters.
Such disasters, which were once rare, have occurred regularly in recent years. Even places that were never affected by floods have now become waterlogged, and rivers that never failed to provide water to paddies and fields have dried up and become useless, leaving those areas at the mercy of precipitation, so that paddies that used to be of prime quality have turned bad. Nor is that all; at times of heavy rain the waters rise suddenly, laying waste to paddies and fields and turning them into badlands that can never again be tilled. This happens because large trees and stones have been damaged farther upstream, so that the water is no longer contained there. It is said that when there are [no] trees in high places, …13 the paddies and fields below will dry out, the seedlings will fail to thrive, and harvests will be poor.
Another recent change is that the rumbling of thunder has moved to the lowlands, and as a consequence rain is much heavier in those areas than before. This too is caused by the lack of large trees on the high mountains. In the old days, thunder was common in the deep mountains but rare in the villages. I have also been told that having large trees nearby helps prevent fires. Both water and fire depend on large trees. Of course, “fire,” which burns, is generated by “wood” [which in turn is generated by “water”]. In short, burning occurs because wood contains both water and fire.
In ancient times, people talked of “wind on days with a five and rain on days with a ten.” In those days, people’s dispositions were truly godlike. They never destroyed mountains and rivers nor did they raze trees and stones. Therefore the weather was always favorable and the circulation of water and fire was correct. Today the mountains and rivers are ruined and people’s dispositions are badly warped; because they are either too rich or too poor, they are all evil and immoral. The weather has been affected by this, and wind and rain are out of order. There is either too much sunshine or too much rain, and cold and heat occur at the wrong times. In those ancient days of “wind on days with a five and rain on days with a ten,” the people of the soil did not own straw cloaks and hats against the rain, so I am told. On those set days when there was wind or rain, they rested and did not go out to the fields. In our age that old custom has survived in Dewa province, where people rest from agricultural work every fifth day. That the patterns of wind and rain have been disturbed is entirely due to the degeneration of people’s dispositions and to the imbalance between water and fire caused by the destruction of the mountains and the valleys.
It is obvious that it is the felling of trees and the cutting of stone in the mountains that causes sand and soil to be washed into the rivers so that they become clogged up. Already in Manji 3, the following shogunal law was issued in the Kyoto-Osaka area: “The Yodogawa and Yamatogawa rivers are silting up because of the digging up of tree roots in the mountains of Yamashiro, Yamato, and Iga provinces. Henceforth, such digging shall stop, and tree seedlings shall be planted regularly.”14 Some forty or fifty years passed from the beginning of the reign of the Tokugawa house to the Manji years. It appears that the wasting of mountains and the silting up of rivers had already begun at that time. However, because these were the early years of the reign, the authorities had a clear perception of gain and harm and issued orders accordingly. The fact that they not only found the washing away of sand objectionable but even gave instructions that seedlings must be planted to restore the forests shows the depth of their insight into the great Way of regulating the state.
After this, as the great shogunal peace extended, there were no proper means of regulation [to deal with the situation]. The circumstances described above spread everywhere, and the shogunal system of regulation could not cope. Throughout the country it became a common practice to lay waste to the mountains and to damage large trees and stones. In fact, people came to think it a good thing to ruin mountains and valleys for human comfort or for trade profits. But did not this human greed offend the spirits of the mountains and result in loss of the state’s wealth? Still, as I have already noted, will not the wasteful consumption of large timbers and stones also decrease if only the number of townspeople and idlers of all kinds is reduced?
There is no limit to the amount of stone and ore that is dug up in the deep mountains. This does great harm to the character of the land, and [since “metal” generates “water”] it badly damages the order governing water. Thus it is said that fields turn bad in the vicinity of places where gold, silver, copper, and iron are mined. In the Kantō, harvests in the Chichibu district are inferior to those in neighboring provinces because excessive mining took place there in the past. In Hitachi province, where the Satake resided for many generations,15 much gold, silver, and copper was mined during that time, and as a result the quality of fields declined. Now Hitachi has become an inferior province within the Kantō region. The same applies to all other provinces.
As things are today, the gold, silver, and copper that is dug up does not even become a treasure of the state; it is sent abroad to foreign countries for the sake of trade profits. The goods that are acquired from those foreign countries in exchange are of a decorative sort that will be used only briefly, rather than goods that will last many years. A flood or a fire will annihilate them in no time. The goods that are sent abroad from our land will retain their value over thousands of generations. We have squandered the timeless treasures that our land has been blessed with since the beginning of Heaven and Earth, and they will never return. This happens because people know desire for the small but not for the great.
In the record of an investigation by Arai Hakuseki, I think from the Shōtoku years, it is written that most of our gold, silver, and copper had already passed into foreign hands and that only one-tenth remained in Japan.16 Already at that time the amount of gold, silver, and copper that had been exported to foreign lands was enormous. In the more than one hundred years that have passed since, even more has been exported year after year. If it were all piled up in one place, it would surely be enough to make a great mountain. All this is truly appalling. If a man with a heart were to travel to Nagasaki and witness how copper is loaded onto those large Dutch ships in such amounts that they almost sink, and how Japan’s treasures are carried off never to return, tears would well up in his eyes. Yet loading that copper and handing over Japan’s treasures have today become the best business of them all, and everywhere throughout the country the mountains are scrutinized for more. Those voracious men called “prospectors” vie with one another in finding new deposits of gold, silver, and copper.17 The government, too, sees this as most fortunate. The authorities draw up various license fees and allow those prospectors to search the mountains wherever they like. In the past, I am told, this was not permitted so lightly, and there were limitations on the mining of gold.
In Sado province they mine for gold, although they call it a silver mine because it is forbidden to refer to the place as a gold mine; in other provinces, too, the mountains are worked for selfish gain. The fundamental disposition of gold, silver, copper, and iron …18 is the basis of the firmness of the country’s earth, but now this original foundation is being demolished. This utterly destroys the spirit of the land; it may be compared to one who digs out the sinews and bones from the bodies of his parents. Today, most of the mountains throughout the country are exhausted and little remains. Among the provinces in the vicinity of Edo, there was once much mining in Musashi, Kai, Izu, Kōzuke, Shimotsuke, and Hitachi, but now nothing is left. This is how it is everywhere throughout the entire country. Because of human greed the vital essence of the land has been lost, and the spirits of the mountains and the rivers must be enraged. It is all a cause for great regret and, indeed, fear.
I have heard it said that Japan is a Divine Land and that in ancient times the feelings of its people were clear and bright, without duplicity and never obscured by a single cloud or wisp of mist. Those times are thus called the Age of the Gods, and its people the people of antiquity. Today, the ways and feelings of the people of antiquity survive in distant mountains and hidden valleys where the people are illiterate and untouched by money. Among them there are neither “good” people nor “evil” people; none are poor and none are rich.
The Negative Effect of Confucianism, Buddhism, and the Way of Yin and Yang
Some say that with the coming of Confucianism to this Divine Land, the notion arose that for all things there is a particular moral obligation, and that such obligations led to quarrels about priority and status. In addition, the arrival of Buddhism infused all things with duplicity. Buddhism ignores the reality of things as they appear in front of our own eyes, and it makes up arguments about things that cannot be seen, such as a previous life and that to come. It regards the present world as a temporary matter, and it presents evidence for this by claiming that people’s intelligence or stupidity, poverty or wealth is due to karma from their previous lives. It leads people by making threats about the future and by sowing in their minds the desire to become buddhas in their coming lives. Because of these teachings, people became obsessed with matters of the previous life and that to come, and naturally, duplicity arose. Gripped by the desire to be the one alone to attain the status of a buddha, people began to differentiate between self and other, and thus they constrained and hampered the pure and straight Way of the Gods.
As the moral obligations of Confucianism mingled with the selfish desire of Buddhism, it contaminated people’s disposition. Confucianism duly became a precious treasure of the state, but it was still too early [for the authorities] to begin using Buddhism. There is no place for Buddhism when people are secure in their Heaven-endowed true nature, are without desire, and keep righteousness between ruler and minister and trust between father and son. That land where Śākyamuni presented the dharma was in an age of decline. It was a land where evil desires abounded and where humans behaved like beasts. That was why Śākyamuni, on the one hand, scared the people with strange occurrences and, on the other, out of compassion taught them about ultimate reality, thereby seeking to lead them toward a state of no self and no desire. When this teaching was brought into our country of Japan, which as yet had no notion of desire, it had the converse effect of fostering desire and inspiring clever deceit.
Of course, in our age, with its abundance of outrages and evil, it would be hard to do without Buddhism. Without the reverence taught by Buddhism, how much more would such outrages and evil spread. Yet one wonders whether all this moral corruption may not also have its cause in the proliferation of the Buddhist Way. After all, this Way puts the principles of the true Way to one side. It teaches that the bond to one’s own actual parents is a mere transient phenomenon, and it claims that the misfortune of one’s lord or of one’s parents is due to bad karma from a previous life. When someone receives a favor from another person and gains some benefit, the Buddhist Way does not teach him to be grateful to that person but rather claims that this benefit is a karmic result he himself sowed in an earlier lifetime, or that it is due to the protection of a buddha or bodhisattva to which he has secretly offered prayers. People come to behave in a duplicitous manner and do not see things as they really are. Should people thereby ignore their natural duties of this world and think of the benefits they have received as coming from elsewhere, it is truly the extreme of selfish desire. If one cheats and tricks others with greedy cleverness, as is the custom of our times, should then the wealth one acquires in such a manner be understood as a reward resulting from the positive karma of one’s previous life? Then again, were a person to abide by the true meaning of the Buddhist Way and abandon all desires, he would instantly fall into destitution or become a derelict and a burden to the world. Should this then be held to be owing to bad karma from a former life? This is in truth a teaching that will drift wherever the current may take it.
The Buddhist Way is acceptable as long as it is taught only to the lowly classes as a way for them to control their bodies and minds. For those of middle rank and above, it becomes a great obstacle that prevents them from handling their worldly duties and from leading others. Especially for one who is a warrior retainer, to have faith in the Buddhist Way and pray for his afterlife is to act like a woman who has intercourse with a secret lover: it is the extreme in disloyalty toward his lord. As his heart is taken in by Buddhism, he fears for his next rebirth and, looking upon this life as something transient that may not last another day, seeks to avoid getting trapped in the affairs of this floating existence. He thus leaves aside his moral obligations, loses courage, and becomes unable to stand up and put his life on the line for the Way of loyalty and filial piety. Those Honganji followers who rebelled in Mikawa are an example of this.19
Such “teachings” are a great threat for the military Way. The teachings of the Shingon sect, especially, are something that leads the state into evil greed. This is not the doctrine that Śākyamuni set forth. Rather, this teaching was begun by a latter-day monk called Nāgārjuna.20 Its followers call it “the esoteric teaching” and maintain that success can be attained through the performance of secret ritual practices. They claim that if one makes some wish, whatever it may be and no matter how selfish, their prayer rites will always secure its realization. The Buddha, then, is a being given to partial favoritism. Because the essence of Buddhism is that it promises it will make one’s own secret wishes come true, ordinary people are misled and put greater faith in it than in their masters and their parents. This is a great deviation from the Way.
In this manner, Buddhism distorts people’s Heaven-endowed sense of trust and righteousness, turns them toward greed, and causes them to compete among themselves for victory and profit. When people are led toward greed and seek to gain personal benefits, this invariably causes harm to others, or it inspires evil designs; either way, it becomes a source of chaos that threatens the state. Surely, the First Emperor of the Qin had good reason to bury Confucians alive, and the great chancellor Mononobe no Moriya had equally good grounds for hating Buddhism. It is said that epidemics raged already at that time.21 That was only to be expected, since impure teachings had impinged on the True Way. How sad it was that a land that had been satisfied with following the True Way became polluted by the aberrant teachings of barbarian lands and that the people turned toward greed! However, even at that time, people’s disposition already readily gravitated toward yin,22 and people were easily seduced by private desire. Even the great chancellor Moriya ultimately gave up; in the end the land became Buddhist, and the pure heart, yang in nature, of our Divine Land was lost.
Moreover, divination on the basis of the Book of Changes and the Way of yin and yang teaches people to think in terms of propitious and unpropitious, loss and gain. It thus induces them to do what may harm others or harm the world at large but will be profitable to themselves. To be sure, by origin the Confucian Way, the Buddhist Way, and the Way of divination according to the Book of Changes are all teachings meant to bring order to the realm and the state and to lead people’s hearts toward sincerity and honesty. However, because people both high and low fail to grasp the ultimate meanings of these Ways and use them for their own private ends, all become evil teachings. Even if one somehow gains a temporary benefit or obtains victory, it will be lost in the end because it does not accord with that ultimate meaning and is contrary to the will of Heaven. Just so it is with prayer rites: when they are used for the realm and the state, little will be lost and much gained, but if they are used for greedy private purposes, much will be lost and little gained. The reason for this is a profound secret. The successive emperors did not know this and made great use of prayer rites, and such rites came to be performed widely also in other circles. As a result, the True Way that had been in place since the Age of the Gods was lost, damaging the court’s ability to perform its proper offices.
How the Military Way Has Been Undermined by Buddhism and the Way of Yin and Yang
Originally, it is said, the outlook of the people of our land was as radiant as cherry blossoms in the morning sun.23 People responded directly to what they saw, and not even heavenly calamities or earthly disasters could upset them. This is called the Japanese spirit, yamato-damashii. I am told that even the Chinese praised Japan as the “land of divine men” or as the “land of gentlemen.”24 The disposition underlying the military Way of the present day derives from this Japanese spirit, although only traces of its outer form remain vaguely recognizable today. Even though the people were endowed with such an awesome disposition, they became corrupted by those foreign teachings; in particular, to show their reverence [for Buddhism], they built countless Buddha halls and pagodas generation after generation and in province after province, providing these with innumerable temple lands, exhausting the state’s resources, and corrupting people’s minds. It is said that warfare began in our land as a result of the spread of Buddhism. Of course, there were enemies of the court also before that time, but they were put down instantly. This was because the royal institution was still strong.
In later times, as war became more and more common, people had ever greater recourse to the Buddhist Way. The court became dependent on the Buddhist Way and the Way of yin and yang, abandoning to them responsibility for conducting the affairs of the state. The Buddhist Way was held in higher reverence than the Five Moral Constants.25 Junior princes entered the Buddhist order and princesses became nuns. Even the emperor referred to himself as “dharma king so-and-so,” abandoning the title of “emperor” for that of “cloistered monarch.”26 As Buddhism pervaded all matters, the emperors grew weak in temperament and were more and more drawn to extravagance and lust. Even though private wars frequently plagued the provinces, they proved unable to stop the fighting and ultimately lost authority over the realm. With this the Way was no longer used to govern the state. Nor were the emperors able to put faith in Amida—said to be a sword that cuts through the passions—to proper use; instead, they used it for their personal benefit. Thus they suffered a great loss for a small gain. If they had dedicated themselves to the military Way with the same vigor that they displayed in their Buddhist faith, the state would have remained strong and the royal institution would never have declined.
Even military leaders were corrupted by Buddhism, and the Way of the bow and arrow waned. I have already mentioned Minamoto no Mitsunaka. He was a peerless general from a long line of warriors, and when he received the precepts from the prelate Eshin, he closed his eyes and his ears and pretended not to hear the precept against killing. He nevertheless entered the Buddhist Way and took the monastic name of Mankei.27 Taira no Kiyomori was a valiant general, and yet he, too, entered that Way. Lord Minamoto no Yoritomo and also the Ashikaga leaders built Buddha halls and pagodas everywhere, and they revered Buddhism so highly that they appeared to honor it more than the military Way itself. Because of this, the all-important Way of the bow and arrow deteriorated. More recently there have been warriors with great reputations such as Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen, but these, too, took the tonsure and held it an honor to receive high-ranking monastic appointments from the court.28 For a practitioner of the military Way, this was a disgraceful thing to do. Such military leaders never fully grasped the essence of the military Way; instead, they gave priority to attaining the Buddhist Way. This is a common fault among mediocre warriors.
Thus, both the court and the military leaders were misled by Buddhism and allowed this to obscure their Japanese spirit. They forgot how to use bow and arrow and lost their ability to rule the land. Heedless warfare and killing became common, and in the process the power of Buddhism increased even more. Monks all became evil rebels beyond the control of the military leaders. The realm was reduced to a quagmire of chaos, and for several hundred years war was ceaseless. Evil and immoral useless sorts so filled the land that many crossed over to foreign lands and committed endless brutalities there. Equally at a loss as to how to bring them under control, those foreign lands called them wakō, Japanese pirates. The place that they had previously known as a land of divine men or gentlemen had now become a land of thieves, they said.
When the Oda house gained supremacy, however, Oda Nobunaga finally realized that the Buddhist Way is an impediment to the military Way, and he dealt the Buddhist houses a crushing blow. The Toyotomi house followed up on this by constraining and hampering the Buddhist Way. In the Bunroku years, after the incident of Lord Hidetsugu, Lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi put an end to the Way of yin and yang. He sent the heads of this Way, the Tsuchimikado house, into exile, stating that he had always felt that this Way was a threat to the state and that it was of no use in a time of peaceful rule.29 This shows that he was aware of the fact that the Ways of the Buddha and of the Book of Changes are impediments to the military Way. However, when we consider that he wore Ming-style court robes and indulged in extravagance, it seems quite possible that in the event he, too, might have taken the tonsure and obtained the highest of priestly titles from the court.
The Divine Lord’s Restoration of the Military Way
I speak of it with awe, but although the most honorable Divine Lord always had faith in the Buddhist Way, he never allowed it to interfere with the Way of the bow and arrow or with government. On his deathbed he ordered Hikozaka Kyūbei to fetch him a sword forged by Miike Tenta;30 this shows beyond any doubt that he had penetrated to the very essence of the military Way and that Buddhism was only a transient matter for him that could never be equal to the military Way. Of course, he made use of the services of monks of various sects, but he did not pay them reverence, nor did he build Buddha halls and pagodas or make large awards of temple lands. Sustained by his lucid command over the military Way he rooted out all brigands and put the state in order. He laid down laws and distributed provinces and districts among the daimyo and major bannermen. He put a stop to extravagance among high and low and remained himself plain and austere in body and mind. He gave the classes of warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants their proper places and revived in their proper form not only Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism but also all the other arts and ways. He renewed the state in accordance with that central teaching of The Great Learning, “to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence,”31 and likewise with Buddha’s wish as it was displayed on his war banner: “Leave behind this impure world and joyfully seek the Pure Land.”32
In those centuries of chaos, military leaders had appeared throughout the land, some clever and others stalwart. They were able to establish their authority for a time but not in a manner true to the essence of the military Way. Extravagant and greedy, they harmed the people, and because they treated the state as a private matter, their acts were not at one with the will of Heaven; quite to the contrary, they met with Heaven’s wrath and remained unable to bring peace and order to the state.
The Divine Lord, I am awed to say, did attain the true essence of the military Way, and for that reason his acts accorded well with both the Confucian and the Buddhist Ways. He concentrated all his efforts on enabling the people to live in peace and security and showed compassion to those without families to rely upon. His conduct was at one with the will of Heaven, he restored what had become a land of thieves to its rightful place as a land of gentlemen, and he revived the Japanese spirit that had long been obscured. The benevolent institutions he established spread steadily to the myriad people throughout Japan. The inclination toward indiscriminate killing faded away, and the world responded to his virtuous influence. Never before did so many magnanimous and virtuous men come forward as in those days. Let me introduce some of those great men.
Among those who served as chief officials, Ii Naotaka, Sakai Tadayo, Doi Toshikatsu, Sakai Tadakatsu, Matsudaira Nobutsuna, Itakura Katsushige, and Itakura Shigemune were all endowed with the three virtues [of wisdom, benevolence, and courage].33 Carrying forward [Ieyasu’s] divine and awe-inspiring purpose, they founded the institutions of the first stage of the reign of the Tokugawa house. There were also the so-called four noble lords and the ten virtuous men.34 The four noble lords were Tokugawa Yorinobu of Kii, Ikeda Mitsumasa, Abe Tadaaki, and Itakura Shigenori. The ten virtuous men were Tokugawa Mitsukuni of Mito, Hoshina Masayuki, Kuze Hiroyuki, Matsudaira Nobuyuki, Sōma Tadatane, Itakura Shigeyuki, Hattori Sadatsune, Suzuki Shigetoki, Kōno Michinari, and Gomi Toyonari. All these men were endowed with benevolent virtue and penetrated to the depths of the military Way; none of them leaned toward the Buddhist Way.
There are countless other warriors whose behavior was loyal and honorable. The vendetta carried out by the forty-seven retainers of Lord Asano Naganori in the Genroku period was in effect the legacy of this earlier tradition of loyalty to the state.35 It was a glorious period, unprecedented in China or Japan, past or present. Among nobles, too, Lord Karasuma Mitsuhiro excelled in Chinese and Japanese learning and was also a skilled painter and calligrapher. Lord Nonomiya Shimotsuke no Kami was knowledgeable about precedents and rites.36 Around the Genki era, Fujiwara Seika, who was then sixteen, left his native province of Harima for Kyoto, where he devoted himself to learning. Following several hundred years of warfare and upheaval, scholars had almost entirely disappeared, but at length he found one person among the nobility who knew the Four Books and Five Classics, and so he studied with him. At that time printed books were not available, and one had to study everything using handwritten copies. Even so, it is said, no copy of the Book of Rites was available, and thus the noble could not teach it to Seika. In fact, it seems that he had the book but could not read it, and so he hid it.37 In contrast, after the Tokugawa house came to rule the realm, many excellent people appeared.
As for Confucians, many tens appeared, from Hayashi Razan and Shunsai to Nawa Dōen, Itō Jinsai, Ogyū Sorai, Hattori Nankaku, [Dazai] Shundai, [Arai] Hakuseki, [Muro] Kyūsō, and others.38 In Japanese studies, there were the priest Keichū, Kada no Azumamaro, Kamo no Mabuchi, and Motoori Norinaga. In Buddhism there were Takuan, Kōgetsu, Seigan, Yūten, Tetsugen, Shin’etsu, Gensei, and various other notable priests. In the area of elegant pastimes, several tens of notable practitioners of linked verse appeared, including Matsumura Jōha and Genshō, Satomura Shōshitsu, Nakarai Bokuyō, and Matsunaga Teitoku, while among practitioners of haikai were Bashō, Kikaku, and Ransetsu. As for calligraphers, there were scores, such as Hon’ami Kōetsu, Shōkadō [Shōjō], Hosoi Kōtaku, and Ishikawa Jōzan, and for painters there were Kanō Morinobu, Naonobu, Tsunenobu, and Yasunobu. Apart from these, the number of people of merit and fame in the various Ways who appeared at this time was truly remarkable and without precedent. It was all owing to the effect of the ruler’s virtuous character. The people of the realm all responded to that virtue, were alike humble in their demeanor, and showed not the slightest inclination toward extravagance and greed.
In the present age, too, many people have skill and expertise in these various paths, but lacking a virtuous character, they are undeserving of respect. In the hundred years from the beginning of the rule of the Tokugawa house until the Genroku and Hōei eras, bonds between high and low were strong, and it goes without saying that the realm flourished. Extravagance did not yet spread widely, and there was little greed. People did not flood into the cities, nor was prosperity out of bounds. The people did not fall into need and fields were not abandoned. In all things there was neither excessive poverty nor fortune. High and low had no worries and could live in a manner appropriate to their stations. Until the Genroku and Hōei eras, it is said, warriors did not indulge in Buddhism, Confucian scholars and doctors did not indulge in elegant pastimes, and priests did not indulge in the flaunting of authority. Above all, extravagance was unknown among townspeople and farmers. Since everywhere the customs of the day were spare and sturdy, prayer rites were performed with strictness and were not directed to the satisfaction of desire, so that whatever the power of the gods and buddhas, it could not cause havoc among the people. One did not see people using the Way of yin and yang for their own benefit or people fixated on geomancy or lucky directions.
The Onset of Decline
It must have been in the Genroku period that there began to be signs of change. At that time official placards exhorting people to be loyal and filial were first erected at Nihonbashi in Edo, but it is said that during the night, someone painted over the placards with black ink. The same thing happened again when the placards were replaced.39 Undoubtedly this was the doing of some lowly person who found it regrettable that those above were trying to instruct people in loyalty and filial piety. People held it to be the sign of a degenerate age that loyalty and filial piety should have to be taught. This incident shows the strength of the bond between high and low at that time. Indeed the splendor of the age of peace and order reached its peak at this point.
From the Kyōhō era, it is said, the Way of greed arose steadily, and signs of impoverishment began to appear. On the occasion of the Kyōhō reforms, the shogunate openly decided things on the basis of the calculation of profit.40 It is said that this was the origin of the shogunate’s adopting institutions based on profit. Books written by Confucian scholars of the time revile the shogunate for carrying out profit-based governmental measures unheard of up to this period. Was not this the start of everything in the world getting off-kilter? The Confucian scholar Ogyū Sorai wrote in his book A Policy for Great Peace that the splendor of the age reached a peak at the beginning of the reign of Lord Tsunayoshi, and thereafter, within five or six years, already signs of impoverishment began to appear in the world.41
This Sorai gave a great deal of thought to the affairs of state. In his A Discourse on Government, too, he related in detail how ultimately it was townspeople who would become dominant. Considered from the present state of affairs, he indeed hit the mark. On many other points also things are just as he said. Observing matters closely and astutely, he identified the origins of the world’s impoverishment, and what he said appears to be correct. Extravagance arose, and then the calculation of profit. With the calculation of profit came riches on the one hand and impoverishment on the other. In an age when extravagance, the calculation of profit, riches, and impoverishment all went together, might it not be that the shogunate, too, was swayed by this trend of the times and responded to it by developing profit-based governmental measures?
Now since in general it works to the advantage of the lowly classes to think in terms of the calculation of profit, people’s dispositions became attuned to such calculation, and everything in the world became ever more splendid. From that arose both extravagance and calculation, and before one knew it, the world had begun to go wrong. A little scratch of one sun grew to a wound one shaku long; a gap of one shaku quickly widened to ten; and within the space of a hundred years, things went as terribly off-kilter as they are today now that the laws and institutions of the early days of Tokugawa rule have all but disappeared. The natural Way of reason has been obscured, and what was previously despised as out-of-bounds or improper has now become the norm. Instead of being despised, such things are seen as desirable. All is indeed out of joint. Let me describe the general outline of the situation.
First, as for warriors, even those with large fiefs have become destitute and are in a state inferior to that of those who officially have smaller fiefs, while some with small fiefs enjoy circumstances superior to those of major houses. There are retainers who act more haughtily than their lords and lords who starve their retainers so that they can indulge in a life of decadence. Some people of the soil are wealthier than their domain or fief holder, and some daimyo and fief holders impose extra levies on the people of the soil under false pretenses, driving them to starvation without scruple. There are townspeople who act like daimyo, wealthy people who lead lives of greater ease than daimyo, and members of the lowly classes who pursue a life of pleasure far beyond that known by those of high rank and status.
Then, although in this world nothing should be of greater authority than military matters, in recent years some borrow authority from the buddhas and gods and use them to intimidate people. Rich townspeople and farmers rely on their wealth to act arrogantly. They flaunt the privilege of their right to use a surname and carry swords and impose on others’ labor so that they can ride horses or in palanquins. Temple and shrine priests are more disdainful and extravagant than court nobles. Buddhist priests who are more skilled in the ways of profit and greed than knowledgeable about virtue advance in official position, entertainers meet with better treatment than practitioners of the military arts, and mercenary monks who hawk prayer rites win out over Confucian scholars and doctors. One sees clothes more expensive than those made of the so-called noble silk crepe [that was once the prerogative of the nobility] and higher-quality sweets than those that were once noble fare. It is the same with rare delicacies; winter eggplants and the first bonito all end up in the mouths of the baseborn.42 As for women, too, among the baseborn are many beauties, and such women lead far more refined lives than even women from warrior and court houses who specialize in ceremonial etiquette. Idlers live in greater ease than the people who sustain the state, and unregistered wastrels get through the world more easily than those who are members of a proper household.
As I discussed above, some live in splendor, never exhausting their financial resources no matter how extravagant they are and never running afoul of the shogunate’s laws, while others come to a miserable end. Having run out of ways to get through the world, they fall into ruin or are caught breaking the law. Some are able to indulge so freely in pleasure and amusement that they regret only the passing years, while others, growing old and decrepit with no one on whom to rely, cannot even get through the day at hand and long only for death to put an end to their misery. Until Genroku, the world did not know impoverishment, but then strife over extravagance and greed led to this kind of division between poor and rich, and the world began to get out of kilter. Starting around the Kyōhō period, these developments have brought us to where we are today. In the present age, those who are upright and hold to the correct Way cannot keep up with the fashion of the day and meet with misfortune. By contrast, those who are devious and nefarious accomplish many things and rise in the world. The good meet with misfortune and the bad with fortune. The Way of reason is turned upside down, and punishment and profit are the reverse of what they should be.
The Ascendancy of Evil Ways
In today’s world there are two ways of doing things. One is the upright manner that has continued from the past. It is in accord with long-standing institutions and is irreproachable. The other is the currently popular free and easy manner, which is devious and oblivious to moral obligations. Those who are upright and act in accord with established precedents and standards cannot keep up with current ways. Current ways may be devious, but they are extremely well suited to today’s convenience. They are more attractive because they are focused on immediate and obvious profit. People everywhere have lost the old manner of doing things. They recognize that it is wrong to twist the law, but since it will impede transactions or cause others difficulties if they hold to the old manner of doing things, they find it hard to do so. And since the present-day manner is not only expedient but also meets the needs of both oneself and others, everyone ends up overlooking its neglect of moral obligations. As a result, the customs of both high and low have changed beyond recognition, and neither the laws of the shogunate nor the moral obligations of the world can be upheld. The true Way has in fact become a nuisance, and people twist things all the more, turning their backs on the old manner. Thus the world continues to decline.
The Way of goodness easily weakens, and the Way of evil easily meets with favor. Good people are excluded, while evil people are able to act as arrogantly as they please. Just as purple takes away the luster of vermilion,43 evil people who are thoroughly versed in the ways of profit fit the needs of the time and are able to achieve their aim. In these circumstances, those who keep to the true Way steadily decline in number, and instead of striving sincerely to uphold the moral obligations of the world, people are drawn toward evil ways and devote themselves to currently popular practices.
In all matters of government and the handling of trials and lawsuits, too, past statutes are relaxed and twisted to suit the current mode of doing things. If an official does not bend precedents and standards and tries to carry out the law strictly, he is likely to find his efforts sabotaged by his underlings and to end up in a difficult spot. His efforts will simply inconvenience those around him and in the end will be viewed as an error on his part. The warriors of the present day have no idea how to deal with this situation. If they try to uphold the Way of the warrior, they will be regarded as a nuisance and find it difficult to keep their place. On the other hand, the current mode requires a practiced mastery of wily ways, and an ordinary person is unlikely to succeed at it. In particular, those warriors who lack financial resources find it impossible to establish connections with others, and thus even quite competent people meet with setbacks in their careers and end up falling by the wayside.
Those who at present might be termed successful appear outwardly to act in an upright manner and to carry out their moral obligations. But when the occasion presents itself, they pursue their private desires, lie, and behave deviously. With sycophantic, flowery words they fawn on their superiors; through flattery and bribery they trick others so as to gain what they want. Then, at the right moment, they resume their former stance, with everything, to all appearances, in the right place. Having gained what they want, they forget those to whom they were originally beholden, show no concern for the ordinary moral obligations of the world, simply do whatever is personally convenient, and think only about further advancing their own fortunes. Words cannot express their cowardly vileness. I noted above how the Japanese spirit became soiled through the admixture of Confucianism, Buddhism, and the Way of the Book of Changes. How regrettable it is that today the hearts of warriors have become muddied in this manner!
Because the sort of person described above is wily, he puts on a splendid outer appearance. Whatever happens, he does not get angry; whatever bad thing may occur in front of his eyes, he does not treat it as bad. He accommodates himself to all and thus appears to be a good person. What marks him as being in fact wily is that he seeks an advantageous side route to get the better of others. One sees many of this sort who, adapting themselves [to the distorted ways] of today’s world, end up as someone like those brothel keepers. People of the present day praise them as clever. I, too, at one time learned a bit of this art and, by making use of it for a while, was able to make a little money. Recently, having stopped doing such improper things, I have once again fallen into poverty.
Today, even [those seen as belonging to the category of] the “wise,” the “benevolent,” and the “courageous” try to act in this manner, but they are unable to excel others in it.44 Many among both mighty and humble cannot discern the difference between good and evil. There are many imitation “benevolent people,” imitation “scholars,” imitation “warriors,” and imitation “virtuous priests.” Those who first look to be loyal and trustworthy prove to be disloyal, those who appear filial change into unfilial, and those who look to be sincere turn out to be unbelievable liars. They all disguise themselves and cheat others.
At present, what marks the behavior of those of middle status and above is rudeness, frivolity, laziness, extravagance, drunkenness, and greed. Those below middle status show even less sense of moral obligation or shame. They are sunk in extravagance, lust, and greed. There are no limits to what people of this sort will do: getting above their proper station, engaging in trade and various kinds of competitions, undertaking contracts, bringing suits on false charges, falsifying documents, forging seals, seeking influence through private contacts, bribery, gambling, taking part in lotteries, betting on numbers, extortion, swindling, abduction, shoplifting, pickpocketing, using confidence tricks to steal from travelers, robbery, banditry, poisoning, murder, adultery.
Greed and Occultism
Because of the prevalence of greed, prayer rites and the Way of yin and yang also flourish, as do geomancy, face reading, the ascertaining of lucky directions, and ameliorating the effects of bad directions. Many practitioners of these methods have appeared, seeking to cheat and rob those besotted with extravagance and lust. They deceive people through occult arts, using the spirits of foxes and tanuki or by bringing about mysterious occurrences with the powers of black magic. The Ways of the gods, buddhas, and Confucians have been reduced to the practices of demons and heretics. Today’s people believe that by paying out some money and buying prayer rites they can get the gods and buddhas to do as they wish, or by putting out a small fee to a fortuneteller they can buy a better fate. By utilizing geomancy, face reading, the ascertaining of lucky directions, and the amelioration of bad ones, they pursue the great evils of extravagance, lust, and greed. Surely Heaven will not grant lasting recognition to such evil people, nor will the buddhas and gods offer protection. Any miraculous events or happy auguries that may occur are undoubtedly the doings of evil spirits, and retribution will soon come. Because both the practitioners of these methods and those who pray for their wishes to be fulfilled are driven by greed, evil spirits use the opportunity to intervene and do strange things.
People today are extremely fond of strange occurrences, and should there be even the slightest rumor of such a thing, they seek whatever information they can find about it. Stalwart warriors worship white snakes; they will even worship a fox that happens to have a white tail. If there is a rumor that a stone buddha has spoken or that a dead tree stump shines in the night, people gather round. Should they live some distance away, they may even hire a palanquin to come see it. All make a great fuss, thinking that in this occurrence there may be something of profit to themselves. It all arises out of an extreme of greed.
Does not the current popular mood share much with the perspective of the Christian sect? From what I hear, Christians are greedy, and seeing the utmost aim as lying in personal glory they engage in all sorts of nefarious practices so as to produce strange occurrences and thereby deceive the world. The Divine Lord deeply abhorred their doctrines and from the end of the Keichō period promulgated a strict ban on Christianity, ordering that its followers throughout the country should be buried alive or cut down, or so I have heard. The current popular mood is already one in which people cheat and deceive others, seeking only to achieve their own greedy aims, and are attracted to strange occurrences. If this kind of popular attitude continues to grow stronger, heavenly calamities and earthly disasters will occur, and, taking advantage of those circumstances, the Christian sect might well burst out again. Although it would be quite easy to put down a mere fifty or one hundred followers, this sect will be difficult to keep under control if the whole world is caught up in it.
Even if people are not actually Christians, they might as well be following the doctrines of that sect if greed permeates the popular attitude through and through. The First Emperor of the Qin is said to have buried Confucian scholars alive. Everyone speaks of this as inhumane; indeed it was. But, considered from the perspective of the realm and state, it is necessary to destroy even the Way of the sages and worthies should it become so dominant as to be detrimental to the state and lead people to put on a front of politeness to those above while acting arrogantly to those below and indulging themselves in physical pleasures. Given these circumstances there is no need to show tolerance to the ways of extravagance, lust, and greed followed by the townspeople and idlers of today. Since these things are as harmful as the Christian sect’s creed, should not one be ready to bury their perpetrators alive? Otherwise the current trend will not just continue endlessly; it will grow daily more rampant, and in the end all will become greedy evildoers.
An Age of War
Human beings are the ultimate spiritual entity among the myriad things. Noble and lowly, strong and weak, all have received the nature of Heaven and Earth, the sun and the moon, and are alike endowed with a nature that is good. When one preserves the goodness of this nature and one’s heart is unsoiled, one is identical with both gods and buddhas. There is no need to rely on the gods and buddhas as something separate from oneself. To be sure, there are degrees in the richness of this endowment of the good nature, with some being wise and others stupid, some quick and others slow. Regardless of their endowment, however, people today end up falling into a state of perverse cunning and greedy lust.
As the years have progressed, people have fallen ever more quickly into this state of cunning and greed, and now it has come to the point that people already acquire an evil heart while still in their mother’s womb. Those born fifty years ago would be totally shocked to see how quick young people today are at calculating profit and in using their wits at bargaining. The customs of an age of upheaval permeate the being of those living in it from the time they are in the womb. Fierce from the moment of birth, they take killing others for granted. On the other hand, those born in an age of order know peace from the time they are in the womb; by nature they are upright and calm and thoughtful in manner. In this way, the people who lived in the period from the beginning of Tokugawa rule until around the Genroku-Kyōhō era were calm and thoughtful. People of the present day, by contrast, learn an attitude of deceitful cunning and greedy lust as soon as they are born. Just as you will not have good seedlings if you plant bad seeds, human progeny, too, has steadily worsened until now there are only bad people. In the present age, those who have strong passions and are clever, quick, and sharp are victorious, while those who lack strong passions and are dim, slow, and dull lose out, living their lives in vain.
With the raging of this war, the Way of Heaven is lost, the Way of the buddhas and gods falls into the realm of demons and heresy, and the Way of man collapses entirely. One sees not a trace of good nature, only people with human faces but the hearts of beasts. At present people are practiced in pursuing their greed for riches, freely abandon themselves to their lascivious impulses, and compete with one another in extravagance. In their pursuit of all that is nonrighteous and part of the inverted Way, their disposition is like that of an age of war. In an actual age of war, those who win and those who lose, those who kill and those who are killed alike know what the stakes are. Bandits, pirates, and troublemakers openly display their strength and force, putting their lives on the line. By contrast, people at present put on a show of sincerity but are masters at fawning obsequiously on others, from whom they snatch their prey when the moment is ripe. When it comes to deceitful cunning and cruelty, even those of an age of upheaval would be no match for them; they represent an extreme of evil perversity.
An age of good government is said to be one when people do not encroach on or steal from others either by strength or cleverness. At present, people prey on others as in an age of war, but with a degree of deceitful cunning and greed that goes beyond anything seen in an age of war. Will not this war grow ever more fierce until eventually, just as in those Christian teachings, people will engage in evil without any fear of death? And will not that then lead to an actual clash of weapons and a renewed age of upheaval? One should not let up one’s guard.
Competing Interests in a World of Fixed Limits
The source of these evils can be traced to the fact that for more than two hundred years people of the soil have suffered from mistreatment while merchants have been the recipients of largess; people who sustain the state have declined while idlers have increased; people who sustain the state have been despised while townspeople and idlers have been cherished. As a result, people who sustain the state have grown weaker and weaker, and the Ways of townspeople and idlers alone flourish, until townspeople and idlers have come to make up over half the population. Without spinning, tilling the soil, or doing any productive work, they consume enormous quantities of grain and other goods and amuse themselves as much as they like. For every one person in the world who indulges in amusements, someone else will be saddled with two persons’ share of hardship. For every one person who rides in a palanquin, two others must toil to carry it. If one person is charged with doing the work of two, the burden is doubled, and if two days’ work has to be done in one, it becomes twice as hard. Just one person cannot easily compensate for a single person’s pleasure, and for two people to wear silk crepe, someone must toil for days and months to weave it. Among farmers, for every one who is well-off, twenty or thirty live in poverty. In the same way, what one of today’s urban wealthy wastes on luxury cannot be covered by the earnings of just one or two; how many hundreds must bear the cost?
The strength of the people of the world has fixed limits, and because at present the townspeople and idlers of Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto, as well as of the provinces, consume enormous quantities of grain and other products, the people who sustain the state and constitute the other half of the populace have become exhausted in the effort to produce this grain and other products and know no peace of mind. Townspeople and idlers having become far too numerous, the country’s products are not enough to feed them, and thus they go to extremes in cunning and greed. The cunning and greed rampant in today’s world have led to the devastation of forests; the exhaustion of gold, silver, copper, and iron mines; and the devastation and abandonment of wet and dry fields.
But even though townspeople and idlers have grown numerous and available resources do not suffice to feed them, cities offer many opportunities to give free rein to cunning and greed, and the possibilities for evil pursuits are infinite. Compared with remaining one of those who sustains the state, it is easier to pursue a living in a city. In a city, even should one end up an unregistered wastrel, troublemaker, pariah, or outcast, one will be much better off as far as clothes, food, and lodgings are concerned than those who, remaining in the provinces, sustain the state. As a consequence, day by day, month by month, the number of people sustaining the state decreases, and townspeople and idlers grow more numerous. Because townspeople and idlers grow numerous, the burden of costs to the state increases, and warrior houses and farmers sink deeper into poverty.
Since the millions of townspeople and idlers use up the various goods produced throughout the country, prices go up, causing difficulty for warriors and farmers. On the other hand, warriors and farmers sell rice and other grains, but townspeople and idlers manage to buy these from them at a low price, leaving warriors and farmers doubly hard-pressed. Being ever more hard-pressed, farmers grow weaker and weaker and decline in number, but for warriors the only recourse is to force more from the already exhausted people who sustain the state. Daimyo and fief holders raise the annual land tax, but even this is not enough. Daimyo impose extra levies, extract extraordinary forced loans, establish monopolies on local products for their own profit, and devise ways of collecting various license fees. Or they lend out money at high interest or force people to exchange their gold and silver for paper money called “rice bills,” “silver bills,” or “copper bills,” collecting a premium in the process, only to halt the circulation of such bills and turn them into wastepaper, causing a loss to all. They press the populace mercilessly in all sorts of other ways, too, bringing about the destruction of those who sustain the state. At present, benevolent rule by daimyo and fief holders has ceased altogether, leaving those who sustain the state no place to stand.
Regarding the confiscation of the holdings of Fukushima Masanori, I have heard that the Divine Lord stated in his testament that although Masanori had been loyal, he had acted profligately in the administration of his domain and had treated harshly the people who sustain the state. The people of Masanori’s domain suffered so badly from tyrannical government that they might as well be trapped in water or fire. To leave Masanori in place would be contrary to the fundamental principles of governing the realm and would mean that the Divine Lord himself was deserving of heavenly punishment.45 Yet the great and small daimyo of the present day have continued to inflict tyrannical government on the people of their domains for more than two hundred years, and there are all too many today who engage in the same kind of attack on their domains as did Masanori.
To put things in a larger perspective, a feudal system of administration is an institutional framework devised by the sages. Ancient China had solely a feudal system but now has a centralized system of commanderies and prefectures. Ancient Japan had a centralized system, but with the establishment of the present ruling house, a feudal system was adopted. Confucian scholars acclaim this, saying that it is an institutional structure in accord with the Way of the sages.46 Yet the present situation, in which the great and small daimyo simply do as they like, setting up private laws and acting tyrannically, is contrary to what the founders intended in adopting a feudal system.
Where villages that are part of the shogunal holdings stand side by side with villages under daimyo jurisdiction, one sees that the tax rate of the latter is always twice that of the former. Moreover, domainal villages are subject to various extra levies and extremely strict laws. In the shogunal holdings taxes are lower, and everything is dealt with more leniently. Consequently, the populace is larger in proportion to the tax base, and the people are able to live in comfort and security. The general annual land tax rate at present is “five for the lord, five for the people.” But there are places where it is “seven for the lord, three for the people,” or “eight for the lord, two for the people.” Within the direct shogunal holdings, by contrast, it is “three for the lord, seven for the people.” Some areas even apply the well-field principle of one-ninth for the lord.47 From this one can know the benevolent means of rule adopted at the inauguration of the present ruling house.
At present, although the large and small daimyo press harshly the people who sustain the state, their income is never sufficient; the times are such that their expenditures increase year by year. Townspeople and idlers turn these warrior house expenditures to their own advantage and indulge themselves freely in the pursuit of extravagance and greed. Even the poor among them are able to live much better than those who sustain the state. In these circumstances, the people who sustain the state grow weaker and weaker and decline in number, and the samurai sink deeper into poverty as their expenditures continue to increase. Townspeople and idlers grow ever more numerous and indulge themselves freely. In particular, since at present it is easy for people to roam freely from province to province, unregistered persons and troublemakers and other useless sorts have appeared everywhere, and many people manage to make their way through the world by sidestepping the state’s laws, avoiding paying the annual land tax and labor services, and cheating and deceiving others. What is to be done about this absurd state of the world?
Those who sustain the state are warriors and farmers. The world can do without townspeople and idlers. It will not do to remain unconcerned about the decline in the circumstances of warriors and farmers, who are the foundation of the state, and to tolerate the flourishing of those who are of no use to the state. The government should reestablish appropriate laws; reduce the numbers of townspeople, idlers, unregistered persons, and troublemakers; increase the people of the soil; put a stop to the ways that encourage extravagance, lust, and greed; and encourage loyalty and filial piety, trustworthiness and righteousness. All sorts of special “Ways” have sprung up in the world; the good among them have proved difficult to get established, while the bad ones have easily secured a footing and have soon attracted adherents or followers. As I said above, from Kyōhō on things began to get out of kilter, and from this we can know that in the little over a century [from the founding of Tokugawa rule] gangs of troublemakers had become rampant. If one hesitates to take decisive action, it will be all the harder to put a stop to them. As the proverb says, “One day’s delay means a loss of a thousand leagues”;48 to make up for lost ground is indeed difficult.
In today’s world the various merchants, artisans, and transporters by ship, palanquin, and ox and horse all form guilds and associations of people in the same line of business, setting up a variety of internal regulations and arrangements. It is not easy to take action against these guilds. If their activities were suddenly halted, it would cause all sorts of inconveniences. Even unregistered persons, troublemakers, fake dispensers of medicine pretending to have circuit licenses, gangs of gamblers, prostitutes, brothel brokers, abductors, thieves, shoplifters, confidence men, pickpockets, pariahs, and outcasts join together. Not only in the cities but also in the provinces such gangs act arrogantly, and as they tie up with one another throughout the countryside, they cannot easily be brought under control. Gangs and associations of people who engage in such disreputable activities grow more numerous by the day; they are a great impediment to the state and cause harm to the people of the world.
Every once in a while attempts are made to bring gamblers and thieves under control, but their activities are so extensive and they are found so widely throughout the world that a force of fifty or one hundred men cannot possibly stop them.49 If one tries to put a stop to them in Edo, they go to Kyoto and Osaka, and if one pursues them in Kyoto and Osaka, they disperse into the provinces. If one pursues them in a daimyo domain or bannerman fief, they move into shogunal holdings, and if one tries to put a stop to them in shogunal holdings, they hide out in temple or shrine lands. It is thus extremely difficult to search them out and eliminate them. Particularly when they lie low in the provinces and countryside, one cannot easily find them, and a policy of control cannot be implemented in both distant and nearby places at the same time. It is just like chasing flies off a bowl of rice; the authorities pretend to exert full control while in fact they merely repress those among the troublemakers who stand there triumphantly in broad daylight. As a consequence gamblers and thieves flourish everywhere in the provinces and in the countryside. Words cannot express how terrible the situation is.
When it comes to the shogunate’s laws, too, as the saying goes, “The regulations proclaimed throughout the realm last for a mere three days.” No one fears them; no one obeys them. Regulations have long existed that townspeople and farmers should not wear clothes made of anything finer than rough, sturdy pongee, that they should not use gold and silver implements, and that they should neither purchase nor sell tortoiseshell items costing more than one hundred monme of silver. The government has issued regulations about all sorts of other things as well, but all of them are ignored, and today it is impossible to enforce a single one. As the world has gotten more and more out of kilter, the government has put out ever more laws, but they all are abandoned almost immediately. Because the number of laws has become so vast, even officials, from the magistrates on down, cannot remember them all. When the need comes up in the investigation of a case, the officials find out about a law’s existence only upon checking the records. Naturally the lowly classes neither know these laws nor obey them. And of course, under the present conditions where it is impossible to enforce laws even temporarily, people will not obey a law even if they know and understand it. Since it is pointless to issue repeatedly laws that cannot be implemented, the Way [of proper government] should be opened up so that legislation can both be applied and kept standing.
Of course it will need more than ordinary measures to open up the Way of governing for the people’s benefit. The essential thing is first to reduce the numbers of townspeople and idlers and return them to their original status as people of the soil. People of the soil obey laws. Townspeople and idlers break them. Now it may be considered harsh to reduce the numbers of townspeople, idlers, and other bad sorts who at present stand their ground so confidently. Unless one uses the force of the military Way, it will be difficult to carry out such an attack. Quite likely, implementing such an attack may lead to riots. It is like applying moxa to a child.50 Although the moxa serves to make him behave correctly, at the time he writhes and screams. Since it is a matter of applying moxa to the troublemakers and such who at present roam freely throughout the entire country of Japan, they may well cause an uproar. It is indeed a radical, fearsome approach.
In the Genki and Tenshō eras fierce generals abounded, and intrepid warriors, wily strategists, and ferocious and cunning fighters formed bands throughout the country, arising like swarms of hornets. Confronting this situation, the Divine Lord ultimately broke their grip and unified the realm with majestic authority, thereby enabling warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants alike to live in peace and security. Having in mind the welfare of the state, he sought to keep the laws established at the beginning of the rule of this house few in number so that matters could be put in order swiftly and calmly. As a result the provinces all settled down, and it could truly be felt that the populace was obeying the laws. If one were to employ even one-hundredth of that fearsome, majestic authority, what difficulty could there be in getting rid of those troublemakers of the present age?
In the wake of that age of turmoil, even valiant warriors in no way inferior to others found themselves losing their lord and, either because they did not desire to serve two lords or of their own wish, became masterless rōnin. Others had been enemies of the present ruling house. People of these sorts, fearing to run afoul of the shogunate’s laws, chose to live in humble circumstances among the ordinary populace. For instance, Sanada Masayuki and his son abandoned their territory and took up a life of seclusion at the foot of Mount Kōya; they eked out a living by weaving the cotton cording that today is known as Sanada cording.51 Kameda Takatsuna of the Asano house supported himself by selling straw rope,52 and Watanabe Kanbei of the Tōdō house started a packhorse operation at the Ōtsu post station.53 Countless others apart from these became people of the soil. If one asks commoners about their forebears today, one finds that many are the descendants of valiant warriors. Among the townspeople of this city, the forebears of houses known as Iseya or Ōmiya most likely can be traced back to valiant warriors who served the Sasaki or the Kitabatake.54 These warriors’ descendants first became people of the soil and then merchants. The forebears of Kuruma Zenshichi, the head of the outcasts, are said to trace back to Gunma Tanba of the Satake house.55
Many warriors have thus fallen into humble circumstances as people of the soil, and some even ended up as outcasts. Since such things have happened even to righteous and valiant warriors when they have had no other recourse, it would be a matter of little consequence for present-day townspeople and idlers and other useless sorts to go back to the soil. Since they originally were people of the soil, or their fathers or grandfathers were, it is simply a matter of returning to their original status. They were drawn here by the liveliness and prosperity of the splendid and flourishing city, or left their homes out of exhaustion and poverty. Thus in the end, it will be no more than going back to their birthplace. If they do so, those who have floated as idlers without a settled existence will have a fixed residence, and their descendants will enjoy peace and security, residing amid the true splendor of an age of good rule.
Since antiquity the practice existed of moving the capital. When the city became too affluent and idlers appeared, while remote areas declined and people there fell into poverty, the capital was moved to an area in decline, thereby benefiting the poor people of that area. In Japan, in the days of old, the capital was moved from place to place, but in later ages this practice ceased. As is said, “Of the people throughout the land, who are not the king’s people?”56 Thus it warps benevolent governance and is a sign of favoritism to make one place lively and prosperous and to benefit only the people of the city. At the time of Lord Tsunayoshi, a Confucian scholar named Tani Issai is said to have recommended such a move of the capital.57 At the present day it may not be feasible to move the capital, but surely it is desirable at least to adopt measures to curtail the well-off—those vain and arrogant townspeople and idlers; it is also essential to get rid of the troublemakers and such plaguing the world, increase the numbers of people who sustain the state, remove what is detrimental to the state, benefit the populace of remote areas, and assist those without families to rely on for support.
If things are left the way they are, extravagance, lust, and greed will gain further strength; the military Way will become weak and soft; poverty will spread; those who sustain the state will become exhausted and decrease in number; townspeople and idlers and other bad sorts alone will increase and eventually will bring chaos to the state. To do nothing about this, saying it is the inevitable course of events, is like failing to give a sick person medicine.
Acting in Heaven’s Place, Before Heaven Does
The Way of man cannot simply be left up to the Way of Heaven or the Way of the buddhas. Everything depends on keeping control. The Way of Heaven shines on eras of turmoil as well as those of order. People commit the enormous crimes of assassinating their lords or murdering their parents and brothers in full view of the sun and moon, and yet these do not cloud over. Since these entities just let things go as is, they are hardly dependable. Buddhas and gods are the same. It is said that what happens to people is up to the buddhas and gods, but also that the gods and buddhas will not go against people. Whatever sorts of things someone does, they just let it pass. They are indeed trusting. Even if it is a matter of desire and greed that will result in harming others and taking what is theirs, the gods and buddhas will grant worldly benefits and will also listen to curses and incantations against others, if only one prays to them. They lend support to evil intentions, connive with evil people, and encourage evil deeds. If the Way of Heaven and the Way of the buddhas are allowed a free rein, who knows what degree of havoc they will wreak in the world. The temple and shrine priests of the present time turn the buddhas and gods into saleable objects and hold to a Way that is evil and inverted. Yet they do not incur retribution; to the contrary, they obtain bountiful rewards. They thus increase their evil deeds and become ever more proud and arrogant. How could one count the slightest iota on gods and buddhas that are used in this manner as the tools for deeds of evil and arrogance? When leaders in the past have destroyed the state, it was with the assistance of the gods and buddhas.
The Confucian Way, too, holds that what flourishes will weaken and that “when a series of changes has run all its course, another change ensues.”58 This resembles the Buddhist notion of karma. And although Confucians always speak about the Way of benevolence, this is something that, like faith in the buddhas and gods, cannot be counted on. It is true that those who do evil may soon be defeated and those who indulge in excessive extravagance meet with disaster or fall ill and see their lives shortened. This may appear to be Heaven’s punishment or punishment meted out by the gods and buddhas, just as the teachings of Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism say. But because it comes after the evil has been done, such punishment is useless; it is as much as making people into evildoers first and then punishing them. Is not the true Way of Heaven and of the buddhas and gods to lead people to the ultimate good before they become evildoers? If those Ways cannot do that, they are of no use whatsoever. Clearly neither the sun and the moon nor the gods can overcome selfish human desire. Since it is said that the buddhas and gods cannot control human action and people cannot follow the intentions of the buddhas and gods, it is all the more certain that only man can govern man.
This is something that needs to be incorporated in the state’s Way of government. Benevolent governance means to ensure that people do not first do something wrong and then be punished for it by Heaven or the gods and buddhas. This is how things were done for about one hundred years after the establishment of rule by the Tokugawa house. Whether the age is good or bad, whether things accord with Heaven’s Way or not, whether karmic responses are good or bad, whether Heaven or the buddhas and gods take punitive action or do not—all this depends on the fundamentals of the Way of government. It is said, “Heaven’s charge is not constant; the charge is not constant,” and again, “On the good-doer Heaven sends down all blessings, and on the evildoer Heaven sends down all miseries. The source of misfortune and fortune should be sought in oneself.”59 Since all blessings and all miseries alike have their source in what people do, the ruler of the state should himself establish a strict system for rewarding good and punishing evil, acting in place of Heaven and before Heaven does, in place of the gods and buddhas and before the gods and buddhas do, thereby ensuring that the people of the world do good and receive all blessings.
To let wrongdoing go, saying that it is the inevitable course of events for people to tend toward badness, or that to mount an attack against wrongdoing is making a mountain out of a molehill, is what I described above as leaving things up to the Way of Heaven or to the gods and buddhas. It may be presumptuous of me to condemn the current state of affairs, but the situation at present looks indeed like leaving things up to the Way of Heaven and the doings of the gods and buddhas. People are just left to go bad, the world is just left to go bad, and then, when people do something bad, punishment is levied out. In the Analects it says, “To put the people to death without having instructed them—this is called cruelty.”60 Thus should not the present mode of government be called “cruel”? It is a very shortsighted approach. The ruler should act in place of Heaven and establish institutions that will force the buddhas and gods to submit; he likewise should adopt methods of governance and instruction that will make it difficult for people to commit evil deeds and thereby keep them from becoming evildoers.
To be sure, it is not an easy thing to act before Heaven does and in place of Heaven. If the ruler adopts methods of governance and instruction that are truly in accord with the Way of Heaven and that realize heavenly virtue, the buddhas and gods will rely on him. If instead he prays for their assistance, he will not obtain protection and may even be punished. Unless he shows a heavenly virtue great enough to pull the buddhas and gods in his wake, he cannot act in place of Heaven. That is to say, he must carry out government using the military Way that is fundamental to the Japanese spirit. Whether one stirs up unrest or succeeds in establishing order, all depends on one’s use of the military Way. If one establishes institutions and adopts methods of governance and instruction that accord with the true intent of the military Way, the people of the world will enjoy peace and ease.
It is just like rice. Rice can be cooked in the ordinary way or as gruel, and it can also become sake, or vinegar, or sweet sake. Depending on the way of manufacture, it can become anything. In the same manner, the people of the world can become doers of good or evil depending on the kind of institutions established. The world can become one of disorder or one well governed. As the saying goes, “Although Zhou was an old country with long-standing rules, it issued new orders.”61 Responding to the circumstances of the time, the Zhou rulers promulgated new orders, and they secured their rule of the realm for eight hundred years. At the time for change of the mandate, the realm is instantly consolidated. If the proper moment is lost, it is hard to recoup, and things become more and more difficult. At present, things can easily turn bad. Evildoers win out and profit, and many who are unprincipled and driven by greed prosper by snatching what belongs to others. Great criminals find it easy to flee and hide, and when they escape severe punishment for their crimes, they say that they have been helped by Heaven’s Way, making it appear as if Heaven’s Way protects evildoers. With that as a model, evildoers appear in ever greater numbers and evil deeds multiply. People flout the laws promulgated since the establishment of the Tokugawa house, turn their backs on the Ways of Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism, and go against Heaven’s Way.
This world has become a hell, and countless numbers act like inhabitants of the beastly realm. As I said above, the gods and buddhas will not let such behavior go unpunished; if one does evil, there inevitably will be retribution—whether to oneself, one’s children, or one’s grandchildren. One will not be able to escape retribution’s net. Even less will one be able to escape Heaven’s punishment. Heaven will not let one get away. As is said, when Heaven is determined to do so, it is capable of destroying men.62 One cannot withstand Heaven when it has determined [its verdict]. Thus matters should be rectified by establishing proper governance and teachings before Heaven determines its course. Heaven’s punishment is something immense; it may extend to one’s own person, to one’s house, to the province, or to the entire realm and state. When the entire realm and state become fraught with wrongdoing, Heaven’s punishment will extend to their entirety.
When the world was in disorder for two hundred years after the Ōnin period, it was because Heaven’s punishment extended to the entire realm and state. How pitiful the populace, who for two hundred years lived in a world where fighting and killing was the norm and where they did not know a moment’s respite from suffering! From birth to death they lived out their days precariously in an age of disorder, unable to secure the daily necessities of food, dress, and dwelling or to hope for their descendants to prosper. When Heaven’s anger is so strong that its punishment extends to the entire realm and state, it is not possible to restore order through bravery and valor. Even great military leaders endowed with both talent and virtue find it difficult to restore order.
Although it is presumptuous for me to speak of it, the Divine Lord’s actions accorded completely with Heaven’s mandate. Because he raised up valorous leaders who behaved in accordance with Heaven’s Way, and because he was endowed with heavenly virtue, Heaven’s anger was ameliorated, and the gods and buddhas also offered their protection. All within the four seas was restored to quiet and order, and from the daimyo and bannermen down to the most humble of commoners, everyone could live in security. High and low alike were born and lived out their days in a tranquil world, enjoying the blessings of Great Peace for over two hundred years. Beware! How irresponsible to soil and taint a world such as this!
To be sure, as peace and order reach a culmination, extravagance appears; as extravagance becomes extreme, profit seeking emerges; as profit seeking becomes extreme, racketeers appear; as racketeering becomes extreme, people turn to murder. This is the principle of the cycle of Heaven and Earth, the usual trajectory of people’s dispositions. When things reach the point where people turn to murder, the world reverts to a state of disorder. At present the world has gotten as far as the stages of extravagance, profit seeking, and racketeering but has not yet reached the point where people turn to murder. But within their hearts, people harbor the poison of wily cunning, and the harm they wreak on others through their greed is almost as bad as killing them with swords. If some unexpected emergency should arise, those evildoers who secretly harbor poison within may well form bands and use fire and swords. As I have said repeatedly above, the situation calls for utmost watchfulness.
Restoring the Military Way
Since the flourishing or decline of the world and the prevalence of good or bad customs depend entirely on governance and instruction, we should reform the manner of governance now, attack those evildoers and miscreants who disobey the edicts and laws issued by the successive generations of shogun, and establish laws that will restore the populace to their former state of goodness. Heaven’s Way will then flourish, and the heavenly and earthly spirits will retreat from the world of light and go back to their proper realm.63 People will accord with the intent of the buddhas and will not fall into hell. They will cease to behave like the inhabitants of the beastly realm, and thus there will be no need to torture sinners in hell. This will extend the blessings of peace, bringing happiness to every province, house, and person.
In carrying out this attack, one should not use either the Confucian Way or the Buddhist Way. Instead, to restore the world to order, one should rely on the military Way that served originally to secure order. Even if someone today may occasionally grasp something of the principles of the military Way, outwardly he will emphasize the moral obligations of the Confucian Way and underneath bring in the aims of the Buddhist Way. Under the present circumstances it will be difficult to restore things to their original state by relying on the soft and weak methods of so-called benevolent government. One can know this by recalling that although Mencius fervently preached benevolence and righteousness to King Hui of Liang, he never was able to make himself of use.64 Confucianism is a tool that is useful when things are in a state of peace and order. Tokugawa rule having already continued for two hundred years, the customs of the world have become crooked and out of kilter. As the excellent laws established at the beginning of Tokugawa rule began to break down, successive Confucian scholars bewailed this state of affairs and, pondering how to deal with it, advanced various proposals regarding methods of governance. But, although many submitted their proposals to the shogunate, none proved to be of use.
Being unlearned and unlettered, I have not been able to read widely. Of the books I have seen, Kumazawa Banzan’s Questions and Answers on The Great Learning, Ogyū Sorai’s A Policy for Great Peace and A Discourse on Government, Arai Hakuseki’s works, Dazai Shundai’s An Account of Government and Economy and his remonstrances to the government, Yamashita Kōnai’s Memorial on Government, The Jeweled Comb-Box: A Private Memorial, by Motoori Norinaga of Ise province, and the recent memorial by Uezaki Kuhachirō all appear to be works written by knowledgeable authors who have put great effort into them and recommend good policies.65 Yet all of them hold to Confucian ideas; they focus their attention solely on “benevolent government” and “frugality,” the correction of status norms, or striving for “sincerity.” None can achieve the goal of restoring the fundamentals of the state and ensuring the livelihood and security of the populace.
The Way of benevolence is to bring benefit to others without harming oneself. To benefit those below without diminishing those above can be called benevolent government. This is the benevolence of the great Way. This great Way cannot readily be established without the military Way. The purport of what Honda Masanobu has to say in The Records of Lord Honda comes very close to hitting the mark on this great Way.66 Masanobu may have been unlearned, but since he was accomplished in the military Way, the Confucian scholars mentioned above could in no way match him. Their view of benevolent government is that if one side is to benefit, the other side must suffer a loss, so they simply move what is on the right to the left; they do not set forth laws unchanging for all time. Their studies are those of someone who spends his time sitting at a desk, and they have not the slightest grasp of the essence of the military Way. Naturally, then, they have no idea how to achieve the great Way of the realm. Considered from the perspective of the military Way, their strategy is extremely soft and weak; it will not suffice to move people and transform customs and to arouse in them trustworthiness and righteousness.
Since the time when these persons set out their criticisms of the circumstances of the day, moreover, customs have further deteriorated, extravagance has increased, and evil deeds have become ever more prevalent. In the present situation, their proposals would be even less effective. The reforms undertaken in the Kansei period, too, did no more than stress ordinary proper manners and as a consequence further fostered a division between rich and poor, right and wrong. What is needed is to adopt a method of governance in line with the great Way of the realm, carry out an attack, and thereby ensure that the realm and state do not suffer Heaven’s punishment.
It is said that more than 300 criminals are executed by simple decapitation or more severe forms of punishment in Edo every year, and that more than 1,000 die in prison [while awaiting trial or punishment].67 Apart from these, more than 1,000 kill themselves by hanging or drowning or otherwise suffer unnatural deaths, while another 1,000 or more collapse on the road. In Osaka, too, there are 100 executions, 300 or 400 deaths in prison, and some 200 unnatural deaths. In Kyoto some 50 or 60 are executed, 200 die in prison, and some 300 die of unnatural causes or collapse on the road. Along the Tōkaidō road there are more than 1,000 deaths in those last categories. In the various provinces matters are not much different, and the number of people who die untimely deaths is now ten times what it used to be. Because the world has become corrupt, more people commit crimes, and because there is both more poverty and more crime in the world, more people die of unnatural causes. Likewise, because more people become derelicts, the number of those who collapse on the road has also increased.
However, not even hundreds of prisons would suffice if all delinquents were pursued and caught, as used to be done in the old days. It is impossible to say how many thousands would be executed if that were the case. Today, only those criminals who are in plain view are caught. Moreover, various instructions regulate sentencing, and an effort is made to limit the number of death sentences. Even so, numbers are this high. Nowadays, 99 out of 100 wrongdoers escape being brought to justice, and only 1 is actually executed.
When it comes to unnatural deaths—if people had as strong a sense of moral obligation as they used to, many would be pushed to the limit by poverty and might die an unnatural death at any moment. Nowadays, though, people are indifferent to both obligations and shame, and the general mood is such that everyone is solely concerned with swindling others in order to serve his own interests. If pressed, people will not acknowledge even the obligations that exist between parent and child, man and wife, or elder and younger brother. They will run away and hide, becoming inhuman monsters who simply seek their own survival. Those who might be expected to die unnatural deaths all manage to escape such a fate. Here, too, one should say that only 1 out of 100 for whom such an end might be anticipated actually dies an unnatural death. The same goes for derelicts. Because this world of ours suits those who make their way by tricking and robbing others, they do not collapse on the road so easily. This happens only when, old and decrepit, they have exhausted all means of survival, or when they are struck down by an unexpected illness. Then again, this world knows no sincerity or mercy, so when they first collapse, no one will pay them any heed.
Things being as they are, any number of people should by rights be dying prematurely, if the rules of the world had been followed. Today the laws of yore are no more than empty theory; they have all been distorted and watered down and made feckless. Even so, the numbers are as I just noted. This shows that today’s world is an evil world in which it is almost impossible to implement honest and correct government. [In the absence of] a person who [can correct this situation], all that today’s administrators can do is to smooth over the surface.68
When the Divine Lord traveled to Kyoto in the Keichō years, he was received by the Kyoto governor, Lord Itakura Katsushige, who had an audience with him at the Awata entrance to the city. The Divine Lord asked him, “Now you have been governor for three years. How many criminals have you had executed?” Lord Itakura replied, “Three criminals have been condemned to death and executed.” “Three people in three years is a lot,” the Divine Lord said, and next he enquired whether everything was all right at the court. Lord Itakura’s reply, that there had been just three executions, was a lie. In reality, the number of executions was several score, and “three” was nowhere near the truth. Lord Itakura’s lying in this manner was an expression of his loyalty to the Divine Lord. A number of low-ranking Kyoto townspeople [known for being assertive toward their governors] were present when the Divine Lord asked this question. When they heard his exchange with Lord Itakura, they thought, “His Majesty is a merciful person indeed to imply that even a mere three executions in three years is too much. And how gracious of him to ask about this even before he enquires about the court itself. In contrast, Lord Itakura is truly callous to say that he has had only three persons executed, while in fact he has killed scores. He is a man one should be wary of!” Due to their fear of Lord Itakura, the city was peaceful and orderly. The loyalty of people of that age was of a different caliber.
It is said that Lord Itakura was once a Zen monk. When the house of Itakura was exterminated, the Divine Lord showed him special favor as the only surviving member of this bloodline and ordered him to return to lay life.69 Because of his exceptional talents the Divine Lord granted him a stipend of five hundred koku. He served as the first Edo city magistrate under the name of Itakura Shirōzaemon. At that time the Kyoto governor was Okudaira Nobumasa. Nobumasa was a man from the age of war and was not the kind of person to manage governmental affairs. To decide who should take over his post, the Divine Lord examined all his hereditary vassals, both large and small. When Lord Honda Masanobu suggested that there was no better candidate than Itakura Shirōzaemon, this tallied with the views of the Divine Lord, who increased Shirōzaemon’s stipend thirtyfold to fifteen thousand koku and appointed him as the new Kyoto governor. After this, Lord Itakura served diligently and instituted new laws for the imperial court and the court of the retired emperor, as well as the high court nobility, the capital city, and the surrounding district. What is more, he handled faultlessly the various arrangements concerning the Osaka siege and its aftermath,70 showing himself to be a man of infallible judgment. He truly deserves to be called wise.
Thus, the Divine Lord said that a mere three executions in a year were too many; but today there are tens of executions every year. While in those days the Divine Lord was more concerned about the number of executions than even the affairs of the imperial court, in our own time no one asks about executions or checks into the situation. [Many] among those who die in prison do so without having committed a crime that would justify a death sentence. This is a pitiful state of affairs, and yet no one takes any notice. It is true that the increase in the number of prison deaths appears to be a recent phenomenon.
An old man has told me about an incident when the shogun Lord Yoshimune summoned Lord Ōoka Tadasuke and asked him how many people he had killed. “I have killed two,” Lord Ōoka replied. Lord Yoshimune laughed and asked, “Are those two one-hundredth of the true number, or one-thousandth?” Ōoka replied, “Far from it! All the others were killed after they had confessed to crimes that warrant a death sentence. They were not killed by me. Of the two I just mentioned, one was executed after having been found guilty of a crime he did not commit. This happened because my investigation was too severe. The circumstances of his confession kept bothering me until, much later, I looked into his case again, and as it turned out, the real perpetrator was discovered in the course of a separate investigation. I regret this mistake. The second person I killed had committed a crime that did not merit execution but died in prison before being sentenced.”71
This tale suggests that there were few deaths in prison until the Kyōhō years. Now, things have gone out of control and there are thousands. Because there are so many criminals, the prisons are crowded with people awaiting trial, and illnesses spread easily among them. There used to be only about one crucifixion every three years, but it is said that there have been more than ten in years when a new monetary system was introduced.72
As I have already noted, inspectors used to be dispatched to investigate all deaths by drowning [in shogunal lands]. At some point this practice was abandoned, and it ceased to be necessary to report to the shogunate corpses that have washed ashore. Today domains throughout the country follow the example of Edo and do not bother to look into such corpses. Seeing that in both shogunal and domainal lands the authorities ignore such cases, troublemakers everywhere make a secret practice of killing people and throwing them into rivers. They kill people because of gambling or other quarrels and throw their bodies into a river. They rob people of their money and throw them into a river. When they discover a pair of lovers who have eloped to another province, they kidnap the woman, roll the man in a rush mat, and throw him into a river. I am told that there are many corpses of women in the Yodogawa River in Osaka. When the cheap prostitutes of Chūshojima in Fushimi die, their bodies rotten with syphilis, they are thrown directly into the river because nobody wants to touch the filth. Also, it is not at all uncommon for [ordinary] murder victims to be thrown into the sea or a river, or buried in the hills.
Recently, it has become customary to settle murder cases by offering bribes so as to arrange a private settlement. This is a cause of disorder in the state. People’s lives are the state’s first priority. When people die untimely deaths, Heaven will surely bewail it. The state must make sure that the number of those who commit crimes goes down, that the number of executions decreases, that deaths in prison are reduced, that there are fewer cases of people being pushed to the brink and dying of unnatural causes, that people do not turn into derelicts, and that people are not cruelly murdered and thrown into a river. These reforms rest on the shoulders of the authorities.
The people exist because the land exists, and the ruler exists because the people exist. The land, the people, and the ruler—these are called the three treasures of the realm. The land’s nurturing of the ten thousand things—this is benevolence; the people’s cultivation of the land—this is benevolence; the ruler’s institutions—this is benevolence. Between Heaven and Earth, all depends on benevolence. It makes the sun, moon, and stars to shine brightly; wind and rain to come at the proper moment; and the five grains to grow abundantly. The spirits of the mountains and rivers support this benevolence and ensure that the state is stable and at peace. But for the state’s land to continue to nurture the ten thousand things without any interruption in benevolence and the farmers to continue to cultivate without any interruption in benevolence, the ruler’s institutions regarding the land must be unwaveringly and consistently benevolent. Should those institutions become distorted and contravene the Way of benevolence, the spirits of the mountains and rivers will become disordered; the sun, moon, and stars will darken; and various heavenly and earthly disasters will occur.
At present, the people’s dispositions are disordered, the mountains and rivers are disordered, laws are disordered, and people’s households are disordered. The foundations of the state’s land have become weak and attenuated, with the result that heavenly and earthly disasters easily occur. The reasons for this are as I have explained above: warriors and farmers are the foundation of the state, whereas other occupations, being all of a secondary, supplementary nature, are dispensable. Nevertheless, as a result of the peaceful rule that has lasted for more than two hundred years, tastes have become luxurious, people have become greedy, and the Way of exchange and profit has flourished. As a consequence, millions of townspeople and idlers have emerged and compete in trying to snatch things from others. The great timber, boulders, gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead that come from the mountains; the rice, other grains, and various products that come from the earth; the shellfish, fish, and seaweed that come from the sea and rivers—all have passed into the hands of merchants and dealers, have become incorporated into the Way of profit, and have become part of the riches of townspeople and idlers. Warriors and farmers struggle year after year to produce the original resources, but ultimately all ends up in the hands of townspeople and idlers and becomes the seeds of their glory. The leaves and branches grow luxuriantly while the roots and trunk wither and become weak.
There is a set limit to what the warriors and farmers, who are the basis of the state, can obtain yearly, and it is impossible for them to obtain more than that limit. Further, they have the duties associated with their position and obligations arising from law, and [farmers must also] pay the annual land tax and additional levies. Warriors’ and farmers’ annual income is expended completely on these things. Townspeople and idlers, standing outside the state framework, have no official duties, no legal obligations, no annual land tax, no additional levies. They are free to take as much profit as they can, without limit; they can indulge in luxury to their heart’s content and act as they wish.
Compare the situation of the warriors and farmers, who are the foundation of the state, with that of the townspeople and idlers, who are of no use to the state! Their losses and gains are as different as Heaven and Earth, clouds and mud. Townspeople and idlers have thus steadily risen to prominence, so that now they stand above the warriors and farmers and live in peace and security. How much is expended on the clothes, food, and lodgings of the millions of townspeople and idlers who have risen in this fashion? This is something that damages the state. To be sure, because this is an era of peace, there is a need for their various enterprises and for the Way of profit. Even the Way of luxury is needed, since it is a means of pacifying human greed. But while townspeople and idlers may contribute to the state in this secondary fashion, it is intolerable to let them grow so large in number as at present and to allow the warriors and farmers, who are the foundation of the state, to become exhausted, the mountains, forests, and fields to be disordered, and the households of the common people to be disordered. As I said above, warrior resources have a set yearly limit, and in general there is also a limit to the rice, other grains, and various products those who sustain the state can grow. Therefore, the numbers of wastrels such as townspeople and idlers who consume these things should be kept in proportion to this amount.
Until the Genroku and Kyōhō years, the balance between city and countryside, high and low, poor and rich remained within the limits of what the people who sustain the state could produce. But from that point on, cities flourished excessively and life there became excessively luxurious, the numbers of townspeople and idlers ballooned, and as a result of ever more convenient methods for the circulation of money and goods, various enterprises arose throughout the provinces, and methods of buying and selling expanded greatly. In cities the barest sliver of land became a treasure and the slightest speck of dust a source of profit. The entire world became caught up in the quest for profit, and greed stealthily tightened its hold over people, strangling them, so to speak, with a silken noose; not a single moment’s respite could be had from greed’s torments.
As the Way of greed flourished, the prices of various goods rose, expenditures increased, and warriors and farmers became weaker and declined in number, while the numbers of townspeople and idlers increased. Among the latter, some were successful in pursuing their greed, treated warrior houses with contempt, scorned the farmers, and lived lives of unimaginable splendor. Others, led astray by their greed, perpetrated evil and immoral doings and became villains who committed crimes against those above and devoured those below. At this point the old standards of behavior disintegrated, laws were no longer enforced, and the moral obligations and customs of the world were all undermined and disrupted. If a person becomes a townsperson or idler and enters the Way of greed, moreover, he will be able to evade all official state duties, be exempted from the annual land tax and additional levies, and be able to secure clothing, food, and lodging without the toil of cultivating or weaving, even if he is poor. As a result, people have increasingly turned in this direction, and the Way of townspeople and idlers has become ever larger.
Thus it has come about that those who neither labor nor produce and are of peripheral importance to the state stand tall and proud, whereas, when it comes to those who are the foundation of the state, warriors see their stipends decline in value and agriculture is regarded as boorish and stupid. This is tantamount to the trunk and roots withering and the branch tips leafing out luxuriantly; it is totally inappropriate. Warriors and farmers find themselves in increasingly straitened circumstances, townspeople and idlers find things ever more to their convenience, and troublemakers find it ever easier to engage in wrongdoing. Not only in the three cities but everywhere throughout the land, merchants, artisans, and idlers such as entertainers, popular writers, and artists make the most of their cleverness and talents; compete with one another in greed, moral corruption, and indulgence in luxury; and perpetrate all manner of wrongdoings. They devise various ingenious methods and come up with all sorts of novelties. Splendor is added to splendor, and in a world where people seek to make flowers yield ever further blooms, trustworthiness and righteousness have been steadily lost and the state’s foundation has gone into decline.
With the decline of the state’s foundation, warriors have ceased to be righteous and brave; weak and spineless, they indulge in luxury. Vassals have appeared who extort from the populace and steal from their lord; they freely commit crimes against their lord and mercilessly extract what they want from the lowly. As for the people of the soil, they have become trapped by the Way of greed and have wearied of producing goods of use to the state. They have lost their original disposition as common people and have become impoverished; only the Way of the peripheral townspeople and idlers flourishes. The millions of townspeople and idlers in the world today are no more than noxious worms who eat away at the warriors and farmers. In the past two-hundred-some years, such worms have steadily proliferated; they have become particularly dominant in the course of the past century.
In this way, millions of worms have proliferated throughout the world and eat away at the foundations of the state. It is impossible to count how much of the products of use to the state are wasted day and night in this way. Some such worms have fed so voraciously that they have become fat and languid; others are caught up in a frantic quest to become fatter; and then there are those who, unable to find enough to feed on, are so emaciated that they turn to preying on their fellows. Both those who are fat and those who are emaciated are alike noxious pests that sap the state’s strength. They turn against the realm, break the ruler’s laws, block up the Way of benevolence and righteousness, and violate the teachings of the gods and buddhas. These pests are the root of the present illness of the realm and state. The disasters they bring are ultimately extravagance, lust, and greed. The numbers of these noxious townspeople and idlers must be reduced and the roots eradicated of the illnesses of extravagance, lust, and greed that eat away at people’s hearts. Otherwise warriors and farmers will not be able to return to their original, proper state, trustworthiness and righteousness will not arise, the Way will not be established, and the foundations of the state will not be made sturdy and strong.
The peace of these two-hundred-some years is—I speak in awe—owing to the Divine Lord’s great accomplishment in putting the realm and state on a correct basis. Although we speak of the period from Ōnin on as an age of turmoil, it is not that before then all was peaceful within the four seas. Even the earlier generations of Tokugawa house heads could not put a stop to strife for so much as a slight interlude, and as all the world knows, the fortunes of their house continued to rise and decline in alternation.
The unification of the realm and the securing of a lasting peace is thus a miracle unprecedented since the world’s beginning. Presumptuous and needless as it is for me to say this, it is thanks, in the first instance, to the Divine Lord’s having submitted himself numberless times to the dangers and difficulties of the battlefield. It is also the result of the actions of his followers—the noted and wise generals fighting under his banner who devoted all their efforts to the battle and the thousands and thousands of stalwart and brave fighters who fearlessly threw themselves into the fray. Fighting under the burning sun or in bitter cold, fathers rejoiced that their sons, when they went down in battle, were able to die in place of their lord, while sons bravely fought to the death alongside their fathers. Especially of unparalleled merit were those scions of the hereditary vassal houses that had enjoyed the favor of the Tokugawa house generation after generation and who in return endured a myriad hardships to serve, sometimes dying vainly in battle for two or three generations in a row.
Guiding these loyal and valiant warriors who entrusted their lives to him, taming the violent and devious, and putting down the evil and perverse, the Divine Lord finally succeeded in bringing to an end the turmoil of the preceding several hundred years. He granted the means of sustenance to daimyo, bannermen, ordinary warriors, and even those of commoner status and made it so that, above, the ruler was upheld properly while, below, all were granted their appropriate place. Not knowing a moment’s respite from the task of putting government on a stable footing and securing peace throughout the realm, he shortly passed away. Among those who had followed under his command, many also grew old or died and were not able to see the fruits of their many years of toil on the battlefield. Growing old and bent or having earlier died in battle, they were not able to witness even the founding of the present age. They knew nothing of the blessings of the great peace; the stability and splendor of a world of harmonious peace were simply transmitted as a legacy to later generations. Such benevolence, such fidelity—it cannot be expressed in words; it is higher than the mountains, deeper than the sea.
Is it not indeed lamentable what has happened within a mere two hundred years since this age of order was at last achieved thanks to the sacrifices of so many tens of thousands? Trustworthiness and righteousness have been lost, customs have fallen into disarray, the lowly have been endowed with authority and might, the wealth of the world has been ravished by townspeople and idlers, and those who sustain the state have been injured and depleted. The blessings of order and peace should be confined to warriors and farmers, but instead these have become weak and destitute. Is it not regrettable that things have been turned upside down and that the blessings and splendor they should enjoy have been stolen by townspeople and idlers who are of no significance? Thinking of the struggles and dangers endured by the Divine Lord, sometimes I cannot hold back the sighs and tears, and I feel that the present townspeople and idlers cannot be left as they are for a moment longer.
In his conduct of government the Divine Lord did not show the slightest favoritism to even the descendants of those who displayed great merit on the battlefield or to people who were loyal and brave warriors. If they indulged in extravagance or behaved disreputably or acted in a manner not consonant with their moral obligations to the state, he dealt with them strictly. Given this example, the rise of the lowly classes should not be left simply to stand as it is at present. In particular, is it not the time to deal strictly and without the slightest hesitation with those who do nothing of benefit to the state, who neither weave nor till the soil, and who are simply pests feeding off others? To leave them simply as they are is an inexcusable travesty; it is as if one has completely forgotten the travails of the age of turmoil and the deep debt of gratitude owed to the Divine Lord. Not to forget the nature of turmoil and disorder while living in an age of order is a key precept of the military Way. Not to control what at present should be controlled is as much as to forget the military Way.
As I have said above, the Way of townspeople and idlers goes entirely against the Way of Heaven. Thus, if the Way of Heaven exists at all, things cannot continue long as they are. Will not disasters soon arise throughout the realm? To bring things under control before heavenly disasters, earthly upheavals, famines, crop failures, and the like all occur at once—this is what may be called benevolent government. If benevolent government is enacted, will it not be possible to escape such disasters? Heaven’s heart is benevolent. To control extravagance among the wealthy and save the poor and lowly from starvation and cold is the Way of Heaven. The Way of buddhas and gods is the same. If there is a delay in establishing effective methods of control and what is broken becomes yet worse, will not Heaven be angered and the spirits [of mountains and rivers] rampage? And then will not the populace all turn into rebels and bandits, while storms, floods, earthquakes, fires, swarms of locusts, famines, and pestilence come one on top of the other, leading in the end to violence and chaos? In such circumstances, there is a tried and true method: before such disasters arise one should act in place of and in advance of Heaven and, leading the spirits under one’s command, establish proper means of control. Without getting bogged down in age-old precedents and standards, one should formulate new laws, put the people on a fresh footing, and transform a bad age into one that is good. This is what may be called benevolent government according to the Way of Heaven.
Surely it will come—
The time to gather up the dust and filth of the world and to sweep it all away.73
There is an old saying: When the realm is orderly and all is calm, lord and vassal alike come to take a peaceful, secure state of affairs for granted. People cease to cultivate the Way of the civil and military arts, prodigality grows ever more rampant, and lords become haughty and vassals craven. The laws of the founders are neglected, government is without benevolence and righteousness, the populace becomes weak, signs of upheaval appear daily, and crimes proliferate. Nevertheless, lord and vassal alike remain oblivious to this, and even if a wise and decent man appears, he is unable to obtain an appointment because the lord dislikes such and the other vassals are envious. The major government officials, fearing to lose their personal ease and security, do not seek to undertake any major actions; year after year they simply let things go as they will. Unscrupulous vassals guard their positions around the lord and do not inform him of the untoward events happening in the world. Acting as if not even heavenly and earthly disasters are to be feared, they put such matters aside. Wishing to keep the lord in a happy mood, they tell him only of auspicious events. The lord, too, shuns thought of inauspicious events and dislikes hearing of calamities. He does not concern himself with benevolence or compassion and pays no attention to impending disasters.
In China there have been many such instances. Benevolent government ultimately disintegrated and laws and regulations were undermined. People used unrighteous and nefarious means to gain rank, gather authority into their hands, and indulge in extravagance. These evils grew deeper by the month, piled up year after year until, no matter how exhausted the people were, there was no way to save them. Deviation from Heaven’s principles led eventually to loss of the realm and state. In Japan as well ultimately things will come to such an end unless proper action is taken to reform government when there is as yet no turmoil and unless people think ahead to what may come.
When disorder reaches its ultimate, order will be achieved, and when order reaches its ultimate, things will fall into disorder—this is the norm of the Way of Heaven. At such a time, there is a way to bring about the ultimate shift whereby disorder is transformed and order restored: the ruler must carry out benevolent government correctly; his ministers and officials must be loyal and stalwart and not twist the laws; rewards and punishments must be administered fairly; the ruler and his officials, acting as one, must ensure that the blessings of good rule are distributed widely throughout the realm and thereby save the world. The flourishing or decay of the age all lie with the ruler and his officials. Unless one thinks deeply and with foresight, it will be difficult to manage things correctly. This is what the ancients have admonished, taking their examples from the past succession of reigns. It is a maxim that stands as a model for all ages. For that reason I have recorded it here.
To reform customs and practices and renew the people, the first priority is to eradicate the extravagance and lust running rampant through the world, put a stop to the Way of greed and avarice, get rid of the wealthy, and save the impoverished. Further, more than half the townspeople and idlers who fill the bustling cities and those who, throughout the country, feed off others should be returned to their original status of people of the soil. This is the method by which the greedy robbers who prey on the state can be reduced, the abandoned fields throughout the provinces be restored, the proper pursuits of the people, now attenuated and faltering, be expanded, and, above all, the foundations of the country be made firm and strong.
Warriors will then be provided with the economic means befitting their status and will reform their conduct. Even the weak and decadent will be frugal and revert to a sturdy uprightness. Committing themselves to behaving in a trustworthy and righteous manner, they will polish away the rust that has accumulated on the military Way and devote themselves to military preparations. Farmers will give up extravagant elegant pursuits that are inappropriate to their status, root out the inclination to greed, and return to a simple and spare manner of life. The impoverished will thereby regain their footing, and families will no longer be dispersed as a result of poverty. Things will be evened out so there are no extremes of poverty and wealth, suffering and pleasure. Temple and shrine priests, too, will abandon impure desires and reform defiling behavior. They will hold to the precepts, strive to carry out the principles of the Way, and, basing themselves on the Way of great compassion, protect the state. Practitioners of the Confucian Way, as well, will keep a distance from flamboyant extravagance and a life of idle ease. Instead they will implement the methods of benevolence and save people’s lives.
The number of townspeople will be halved; in particular the wealthy who take pride in extravagance will be reduced in number and the might they flaunt before the world suppressed or broken up. Popular writers, artists, entertainers, unregistered persons, and troublemakers will find it difficult to continue in their dissipated, reprehensible behavior and will no longer be able to make their way through the world as they choose. Unconstrained pursuit of evil enterprises will cease to be possible, and many of these sorts can be brought back to their original status as people of the soil. The differentiation between honorable and lowly and the distinctions among the four classes will be firmly established, and people will become modest and straightforward. Since the people of the soil will become more numerous, two hundred people will do the work that up to now has been done by one hundred, while those who eat off them will become fewer. Expenditures will be smaller and additional levies reduced, and thus the people will prosper.
Overall, in governing the realm and state it is crucial to ensure that those above and below have sufficient food and dress. If food, dress, and housing are inadequate, people may fall ill, their lives may be shortened, or they may turn to wrongdoing. On the other hand, if they have an excess of food, dress, and housing, people may become lazy, extravagant, or greedy, and again, they will turn to wrongdoing. For people to have too much and not enough are both bad. At present, things have become unbalanced, and thus there are many who do not have enough and many who have too much, and both turn to wrongdoing. When things are leveled so there is not an imbalance between poor and rich, suffering and pleasure, the people can be readily governed and live in security. Trustworthiness and righteousness go into hiding when overwhelmed by extravagance, lasciviousness, avarice, greed, and poverty. When trustworthiness and righteousness have an established place in the world, people will put weight on moral obligation, know what should be avoided as shameful, and uphold the Way of loyalty and filial piety. At such a time, will not the Way of the sages and worthies be carried out and virtuous and wise priests appear in the world? Will not this accord with the providential will of the buddhas and gods, so that they grant aid even without special prayers being made to them? And will not the sun, moon, and stars shine brightly, rain and wind come in due course, and the state enjoy abundance?
Current officials do not grasp that it is possible to establish such a benevolent government at the present time because, having grown up in an age of peace and taking security for granted, they have become indolent. They have decided that the current state of affairs is something natural and do not put any effort into thinking about what should be done. Occasionally someone may appear who does have aspirations to rectify things. But then what happens is that, being of high rank and stipend, he becomes concerned about the negative consequences for himself if he acts. Or else, being of low rank and stipend, he fears the reaction of his superiors and, not having direct access to the lord, is unable to achieve his aim.
What I fervently hope is that a loyal vassal, endowed with both ability and virtue, will appear in the world and that, without thinking about what may happen to his own person, he will act upon his heavenly virtue and take as his own responsibility the difficulties of the realm, the security of the state, the preservation of the ruling line, and the world’s moral corruption. Memorializing the ruler about these matters, may he mediate between the ruler and the people, carrying out the ruler’s commands and establishing new, rigorous laws. May he thereby dispose of those lost in extravagance, indolence, and living off others, eradicate the heinous actions of the plunderers of the state, and save the people from impoverishment and untoward death. Ensuring that the ruler’s benevolence extends to the entire populace, may he relieve the people’s laments, seeing to it that the people do not hold a grudge against the ruler and that the ruler does not hate the people. May he make the ruler a ruler such as Yao and Shun, and the people such as the people of Yao and Shun,74 so that Heaven and Earth are broad in extent, the sun and moon shine brightly, the spirits of the mountains and rivers submit faithfully [to the reign of virtue], and the four seasons progress in proper succession. May the blessings of virtuous rule then extend throughout the realm and state, and may the great task be achieved of securing the prosperity of the ruler, his ministers, and the people. I pray for the appearance of an outstanding figure who can bring about such a world, whose praises both high and low will sing, calling for it to last unto eternity, and where the drum of remonstrance will grow moss through disuse!75
At such a time, I pray that I may assist this virtuous and able figure and that, without giving a thought to the survival of my house or name or the fortunes of my descendants, I may strive body and soul to correct the deleterious customs that I have repeatedly described throughout this book. May the ruler thereby completely restore the ancient style [of the Divine Lord] and establish a regime of good rule, peace, and order that will last for another two hundred years. This is the great task whereby “a thousand autumns bring the folk ease, ten thousand years make for the blessings of lasting peace.”76 The key method for accomplishing this great task is something I know well from my observation of the workings of Heaven and Earth. But because it is a matter that bears on the great secrets of the realm and state, I will not speak of it here and will rest my brush.
Longing to recompense ruler and people
I pray fervently, with all my might,
Before Heaven’s successor!77
