The ideas of the great Zhou-dynasty Chinese philosopher Kong Qiu (551–479 BCE), or Confucius, as he is known in the West, diffused to the Korean kingdoms nearly a millennium later, in the early fourth century CE. A century after that, in 405, these ideas were brought to Japan by scholars from Paekche, the southernmost of the Korean kingdoms. It was not until the latter part of the next century, however, as the Yamato state began to solidify its rule, that Confucianism really took hold in Japan. Confucian scholars accompanied the Buddhist missionaries sent by the king of Paekche to the Yamato court, and by the reign of Empress Suiko (593–628), the Confucian classics, in combination with Mahayana Buddhist theology preached by the Korean missionaries, had become the foundation of the nascent imperial regime. The man who accomplished this synthesis was one of the most important figures in Japanese history, Suiko's regent and kinsman, Shotoku Taishi. Prince Shotoku's famous "Seventeen-Article Constitution," the goal of which was to provide the basis for a harmonious and hierarchical political system centered on the imperial monarchy, was in large measure based on Confucian precepts.
The Junzi and the Ideal of Ren
The essential idea of Kong Qiu's teachings is that the source of all morality is filial piety, that is, a child's absolute respect for and loyalty to his parents. This, in turn, is reflected in the relationship between the ruler and his subjects, with the ruler the equivalent of the morally upright father. One must cultivate virtue at all times so as to become a "superior man," or junzi. The most important component of the "superior man" was ren (or jin in Japanese), which can be defined as benevolent altruism. The virtuous ruler is one whose behavior is suffused with ren and who commands the loyalty and obedience of his subjects, not by terror, but by example and by enlightened benevolence. Moral training was to be exclusively the province of the father/male ruler; indeed, women play hardly any role in traditional Confucianism.
These ideas are contained in a series of classical texts, including the Yi jing (Book of Changes), an ancient divinatory manual that Confucius was believed to have edited; the Shu jing (Book of Documents); the Shi jing (Book of Songs); the Chun qiu (Spring and Autumn Annals); and, most importantly, the Lun yu (Analects), a collection of sayings by Confucius and his disciples. Until modern times, when they were finally translated into the vernacular, these texts were studied by Japanese scholars in classical Chinese.
Confucianism in Ancient Japan
In addition to contributing to the Seventeen Article Constitution, Confucian ideas influenced the Taika Reform (646), which abolished all private ownership of rice lands and called for the establishment of a permanent capital and an elaborate administrative bureaucracy on the Chinese model. Indeed, several of the scholar monks who engineered the coup d'etat of 645 had spent time in China studying Confucianism, as well as Buddhism, and the resulting ritsuryo system, in which land was periodically redistributed according to need, was based on Confucian principles. So was the Taiho Code of 701, which set up a bureau that was charged with performing divinatory rituals according to the Confucian model. Another manifestation of Confucianism in ancient Japan was the appearance of historical chronicles, such as the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters, 712) and Nihonshoki (Chronicle of Japan, 720). Chinese Confucianism placed great value on historical scholarship, as it could provide lessons on proper statecraft and the moral behavior of rulers. By ordering the compilation of national histories, Japan's newly established Nara regime (710–794) sought to establish its authority and legitimacy.
Neither China's intensely patriarchal family structure nor the Chinese model of a bureaucratic elite steeped in the Confucian classics ever took firm root in Japan; however, filial piety and a profound respect for education and the teacher (sensei) became integral elements of Japanese culture and have continued to shape the Japanese worldview.
Medieval Japan and the Tokugawa Period
During China's Song dynasty (960–1279) Confucianism underwent a radical reformation. The chief figures were the Cheng brothers: Cheng Hao (1032–1085), Cheng Yi (1033–1107), as well as Zhu Xi (1130–1200) and Wang Yangming (1472–1529), who shifted the focus of Confucianism from ritualism and virtuous rulers to individual ethical and spiritual enlightenment and, in the process, added a mystical, quasi-religious aspect to the tradition. This reformed Neo-Confucian tradition was transmitted to Japan in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, primarily by Zen monks who had studied in China, and it soon came to play a role in the samurai-based society that took shape during the Kamakura (1185–1333) and Muromachi (1333–1573) periods. The spiritual aspect of Neo-Confucianism helped reinforce the warrior mystique, as well as the ideal of absolute loyalty to one's master.
After the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, Neo-Confucianism received state sponsorship and became the official ideology of the bakufu (shogunal government). The Neo-Confucian emphasis on spiritual discipline, hierarchy, and social harmony was ideally suited to Tokugawa policy, the cornerstone of which was to rebuild Japanese unity under the benevolent but absolute authority of the bakufu, after centuries of internal strife. The Tokugawa also drew heavily on the concept of ren, as prolonged peace caused the samurai to evolve into a class of gentlemen bureaucrats broadly analogous to those who traditionally managed affairs in China and Korea. The Confucian ideal of the scholar-administrator led the regime to subsidize schools in each of Japan's feudal domains; there local samurai could study the Confucian classics. In 1632, the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, established a shrine to Confucius in the capital, and in 1704, the bakufu constructed the only Confucian temple in Japan in what is now the Hongo district of modern Tokyo.
The Confucian Legacy
After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when the center of power in Japan shifted once again to the imperial monarchy and Japan began to absorb Western philosophical, religious, and ethical ideas, the importance of Confucianism waned briefly. However, as the new regime crystalized, especially after the Imperial Rescript on Education (1890), Confucianism once again came to play an important role by defining the filial relationship between the emperor and the nation. Indeed, in the early 2000s it still permeates almost every aspect of Japanese culture, at least to some degree, from the persistence of filial piety and respect for teachers to the way corporations are organized and business conducted. Together with people in China, Korea, and Vietnam, the Japanese continue to be inspired by the teaching of Kong Qiu and his disciples.
