$Unique_ID{bob00792}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of Religions
Chapter III}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Foot Moore, George}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{influence

}
$Date{1913}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of Religions
Book:        Religions Of Japan
Author:      Foot Moore, George
Date:        1913

Chapter III

Confucianism

     The history of religion in Japan would not be complete without at least a
few words about the influence of Confucianism.  This influence was chiefly in
the field of ethics.  Shinto, as we have seen, gave its sanction to the
ancient customs, including the customary morality, but it had no moral
teaching of its own; Buddhism brought its own double standard of morality, for
monks and for laymen, the latter not unaffected by Chinese notions, but it
made no attempt to systematise or rationalise ethics.  The Japanese had some
acquaintance with Confucian teaching before the advent of Buddhism, and in the
period of active communication with China, especially in the ninth century,
when the zeal for Chinese learning and literature was at its height and the
study of the Chinese classics was regularly pursued in the higher schools,
this influence was greatly increased.  Even Buddhist sects recast their
teaching in the mould of the Five Relations.  The feudal period created its
own chivalric ideals; loyalty to the feudal superior became the supreme
virtue, and was pushed to romantic excesses in which all other ethical ideals
were overridden.

     With the restoration of unity and order under the Tokugawa shoguns there
began a new epoch of Chinese influence.  The Neoconfucianism of Chu Hi was
fostered by the state, even to the extent of punishing such as had the
audacity to criticise or attack the school which the government had declared
orthodox.  This philosophy spread especially among the Samurai, and led many
to turn away from Buddhism as a superstition unworthy of thinking men.
Japanese exponents of Chu Hi's philosophy, such as Muro Kyuso, developed not
only its ethics but its religious possibilities, so that it answered spiritual
needs as well as offered elevated moral principles.  More decidedly religious,
with a mystical turn, is the contemporary philosophy of Nakae Toju, better
known as the Wise Man of Omi, which likewise had a large influence in the
eighteenth century.