THE KOJIKI AND ITS TEACHINGS, PAGE 59

Origin of the Kojiki.  Analysis of its opening lines—­Norito.—­Indecency of the myths of the Kojiki.—­Modern rationalistic interpretations—­Life in prehistoric Japan.—­Character and temperament of the people then and now.—­Character of the kami or gods.—­Hades.—­Ethics.—­The Land of the Gods.—­The barbarism of the Yamato conquerors an improvement upon the savagery of the aborigines.—­Cannibalism and human sacrifices.—­The makers of the God-way captured and absorbed the religion of the aborigines.—­A case of syncretism.—­Origin of evil in bad gods.—­Pollution was sin.—­Class of offences enumerated in the norito.—­Professor Kumi’s contention that Mikadoism usurped a simple worship of Heaven.—­Difference between the ancient Chinese and ancient Japanese cultus.—­Development of Shint[=o] arrested by Buddhism.—­Temples and offerings.—­The tori-i.—­Pollution and purification.—­Prayer.—­Hirata’s ordinal and specimen prayers.—­To the common people the sun is a god.—­Prayers to myriads of gods.—­Summary of Shint[=o].—­Swallowed up in the Riy[=o]bu system.—­Its modern revival.—­Keichin.—­Kada Adzumar[=o].—­Mabuchi, Motooeri.—­Hirata.—­In 1870, Shint[=o] is again made the state religion.—­Purification of Riy[=o]bu temples.—­Politico-religious lectures.—­Imperial rescript.—­Reverence to the Emperor’s photograph.—­Judgment upon Shint[=o].—­The Christian’s ideal of Yamato-damashii.

CHAPTER IV

THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN, PAGE 99

In what respects Confucius was unique as a teacher.—­Outline of his life.—­The canon.—­Primitive Chinese faith a sort of monotheism.—­How the sage modified it.—­History of Confucianism until its entrance into Japan.—­Outline of the intellectual and political history of the Japanese.—­Rise of the Samurai class.—­Shifting of emphasis from filial piety to loyalty.—­Prevalence of suicide in Japan.—­Confucianism has deeply tinged the ideas of the Japanese.—­Great care necessary in seeking equivalents in English for the terms used in the Chino-Japanese ethics; e.g., the emperor, “the father of the people.”—­Impersonality of Japanese speech.—­Christ and Confucius.—­“Love” and “reverence.”—­Exemplars of loyalty.—­The Forty-seven R[=o]nins.—­The second relation.—­The family in Chinese Asia and in Christendom.—­The law of filial piety and the daughter.—­The third relation.—­Theory of courtship and marriage.—­Chastity.—­Jealousy.—­Divorce.—­Instability of the marriage bond.—­The fourth relation.—­The elder and the younger brother.—­The house or family everything, the individual nothing.—­The fifth relation.—­The ideas of Christ and those of Confucius.—­The Golden and the Gilded rule.—­Lao Tsze and Kung.—­Old Japan and the alien.—­Commodore Perry and Professor Hayashi.

CHAPTER V

CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM, PAGE 131