TABLE OF CONTENTS
[PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS, PAGE 1]
Salutatory.—The Morse Lectureship and its provisions.—The Science of Comparative Religion is Christianity's own child.—The Parliament of Religions.—The Study of Religion most appropriate in a Theological Seminary.—Shortening weapons and lengthening boundaries.—The right missionary spirit that of the Master, who "came not to destroy but to fulfil."—Characteristics of Japan.—Bird's-eye view of Japanese history and religion.—Popularly, not three religions but one religion.—Superstitions which are not organically parts of the "book-religions."—The boundary line between the Creator and his creation not visible to the pagan.—Shamanism: Fetichism.—Mythical monsters, Kirin, Phoenix, Tortoise, Dragon.—Japanese mythical zoölogy.—The erection of the stone fetich.—Insurance by amulets upon house and person.—Phallicism.—Tree-worship.—Serpent-worship.—These unwritten superstitions condition the "book-religions."—Removable by science and a higher religion.
[SHINTO: MYTHS AND RITUAL, PAGE 35]
Japan is young beside China and Korea.—Japanese history is comparatively modern.—The oldest documents date from A.D. 712.—The Japanese archipelago inhabited before the Christian era.—Faith, worship and ritual are previous to written espression.—The Kojiki, Manyōshu and Norito.—Tendency of the pupil nations surrounding China to antedate their civilization.—Origin of the Japanese people and their religion.—Three distinct lines of tradition from Tsukushi, Idzumo and Yamato.—War of the invaders against the aborigines—Mikadoism is the heart of Shintō.—Illustrations from the liturgies.—Phallicism among the aborigines and common people.—The mind or mental climate of the primæval man.—Representation of male gods by emblems.—Objects of worship and ex-voto.—Ideas of creation.—The fire-myth, Prometheus.—Comparison of Greek and Japanese mythology.—Ritual for the quieting of the fire-god.—The fire-drill.
[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 Shintō 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 Shintō.—Swallowed up in the Riyōbu system.—Its modern revival.—Kéichin.—Kada Adzumarō.—Mabuchi, Motoöri.—Hirata.—In 1870, Shintō is again made the state religion.—Purification of Riyōbu temples.—Politico-religious lectures.—Imperial rescript.—Reverence to the Emperor's photograph.—Judgment upon Shintō.—The Christian's ideal of Yamato-damashii.
[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 Rōnins.—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.
[CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM, PAGE 131]
Harmony of the systems of Confucius and Buddha in Japan during a thousand years.—Revival of learning in the seventeenth century.—Exodus of the Chinese scholars on the fall of the Ming dynasty.—Their dispersion and work in Japan.—Founding of schools of the new Chinese learning.—For two and a half centuries the Japanese mind has been moulded by the new Confucianism.—Survey of its rise and developments.—Four stages in the intellectual history of China.—The populist movement in the eleventh century.—The literary controversy.—The philosophy of the Cheng brothers and of Chu Hi, called in Japan Tei-Shu system.—In Buddhism the Japanese were startling innovators, in philosophy they were docile pupils.—Paucity of Confucian or speculative literature in Japan.—A Chinese wall built around the Japanese intellect.—Yelo orthodoxy.—Features of the Téi-Shu system.—Not agnostic but pantheistic.—Its influence upon historiography.—Ki (spirit) Ri (way) and Ten (heaven).—The writings of Ohashi Junzo.—Confucianism obsolescent in New Japan.—A study of Confucianism in the interest of comparative religion.—Man's place in the universe.—The Samurai's ideal, obedience.—His fearlessness in the face of death.—Critique of the system.—The ruler and the ruled.—What has Confucianism done for woman?—Improvement and revision of the fourth and fifth relations.—The new view of the universe and the new mind in New Japan. The ideal of Yamato-damashii revised and improved.
[THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA, PAGE 153]
Buddha—sun myth or historic personage?—Buddhism one of the protestantisms of the world.—Characteristics of new religions.—Survey of the history of Indian thought.—The age of the Vedas.—The epic age.—The rationalistic age.—Our fellow-Aryans and the story of their conquests.—Their intellectual energy and inventions.—Systems of philosophy.—Condition of religion at the birth of Gautama.—Outline of his life.—He attains enlightenment or buddhahood.—In what respects Buddhism was an old, and in what a new religion.—Did Gautama intend to found a new religion, or return to simpler and older faith?—Monasticism, Kharma and Nirvana,—Enthusiasm of the disciples of the new faith.—The great schism.—The Northern Buddhists.—The canon.—The two Yana or vehicles.—Simplicity of Southern and luxuriance of Northern Buddhism.—Summary of the process of thought in Nepal.—The old gods of India come back again.—Maitreya, Manjusri and Avalokitesvara.—The Legend of Manjusri.—Separation of attributes and creation of new Buddhas or gods.—The Dhyani Buddhas.—Amida.—Adi-Buddhas.—Abstractions become gods.—The Tantra system.—Outbursts of doctrine and art.—Prayer-mills.—The noble eight-fold path of self-denial and benevolence forgotten.—Entrance of Buddhism from Korea into Japan.—Condition of the country at that time.—Dates and first experiences.—Soga no Inamé.—Shōtoku.—Japanese pilgrims to China.—Changes wrought by the new creed and cult.—Temples, monasteries and images.—Influence upon the Mikado's name, rank and person, and upon Shintō.—Relative influence of Buddhism in Asia and of Christianity in Europe.—The three great characteristics of Buddhism.—How the clouds returned after the rain.—Buddhism and Christianity confronting the problem of life.
[RIYŌBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM, PAGE 189]
The experience of two centuries and a half of Buddhism in Japan.—Necessity of using more powerful means for the conversion of the Japanese.—Popular customs nearly ineradicable.—Analogy from European history.—Syncretism in Christian history.—In the Arabian Nights.—How far is the process of Syncretism honest?—Examples not to be recommended for imitation.—The problem of reconciling the Kami and the Buddhas.—Northern Buddhism ready for the task.—The Tantra or Yoga-chara system.—Art and its influence on the imagination.—The sketch replaced by the illumination and monochrome by colors.—Japanese art.—Mixed Buddhism rather than mixed Shintō.—Kōbō the wonder-worker who made all Japanese history a transfiguration of Buddhism.—Legends about his extraordinary abilities and industry.—His life, and studies in China.—The kata-kana syllabary.—Kōbōo's revelation from the Shintō goddess Toyo-Uké-Bimé.—The gods of Japan were avatars of Buddha.—Kōbō's plan of propaganda.—Details of the scheme.—A clearing-house of gods and Buddhas.—Relative rise and fall of the native and the foreign deities.—Legend of Daruma. "Riyōbu Shintō."—Impulse to art and art industry.—The Kami no Michi falls into shadow.—Which religion suffered most?—Phenomenally the victory belonged to Buddhism.—The leavening power was that of Shintō.—Buddhism's fresh chapter of decay.—Influence of Riyōbu upon the Chinese ethical system in Japan.—Influence on the Mikado.—Abdication all along the lines of Japanese life.—Ultimate paralysis of the national intellect.—Comparison with Chinese Buddhism.—Miracle-mongering.—No self-reforming power in Buddhism.—The Seven Happy Gods of Fortune.—Pantheism's destruction of boundaries.—The author's study of the popular processions in Japan.—Masaka Do.—Swamping of history in legend.—The jewel in the lotus.
[NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS, PAGE 225]
Four stages of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in Japan.—Reasons for the formation of sects.—The Saddharma Pundarika.—Shastras and Sutras.—The Ku-sha sect.—Book of the Treasury of Metaphysics.—The Jō-jitsu sect, its founder and its doctrines.—The Ris-shu or Viyana sect.—Japanese pilgrims to China.—The Hos-sō sect and its doctrines.—The three grades of disciples.—The San-ron or Three-shastra sect and its tenets.—The Middle Path.—The Kégon sect.—The Unconditioned, or realistic pantheism.—The Chinese or Tendai sect.—Its scriptures and dogmas.—Buddhahood attainable in the present body.—Vagradrodhi.—The Yoga-chara system.—The "old sects."—Reaction against excessive idol-making.—The Zen sect.—Labor-saving devices in Buddhism.—Making truth apparent by one's own thought.—Transmission of the Zen doctrine.—History of Zen Shu.
[THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE, PAGE 257]
The Jō-dō or Pure Land sect.—Substitution of faith in Amida for the eight-fold Path.—Succession of the propagators of true doctrine.—Zendō and Hō-nen.—The Japanese path-finder to the Pure Land.—Doctrine of Jō-dō.—Buddhistic influence on the Japanese language.—Incessant repetition of prayers.—The Pure Land in the West.—The Buddhist doctrine of justification by faith.—Hō-nen's universalism.—Tendency of doctrinal development after Hō-nen.—"Reformed" Buddhism.—Synergism versus salvation by faith only.—Life of Shinran.—Posthumous honors.—Policy and aim of the Shin sect, methods and scriptures.
[JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT, PAGE 287]
The missionary history of Japanese Buddhism is the history of Japan.—The first organized religion of the Japanese.—Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain's testimony—A picture of primeval life in the archipelago.—What came in the train of the new religion from "the West". Missionary civilizers, teachers, road-makers, improvers of diet. Language of flowers and gardens.—The house and home.—Architecture—The imperial capital—Hiyéizan.—Love of natural scenery.—Pilgrimages and their fruits.—The Japanese aesthetic.—Art and decoration in the temples.—Exterior resemblances between the Roman form of Christianity and of Buddhism.—Quotation from "The Mikado's Empire."—Internal vital differences.—Enlightenment and grace.—Ingwa and love.—Luxuriance of the art of Northern Buddhism.—Variety in individual treatment.—Place of the temple in the life of Old Japan.—The protecting trees.—The bell and its note.—The graveyard and the priests' hold upon it.—Japanese Buddhism as a political power.—Its influence upon military history.—Abbots on horseback and monks in armor.—Battles between the Shin and Zen sects.—Nobunaga.—Influence of Buddhism in literature and education.—The temple school.—The kana writing.—Survey and critique of Buddhist history in Japan.—Absence of organized charities.—Regard for animal and disregard for human life.—The Eta.—The Aino.—Attitude to women.—Nuna and numerics.—Polygamy and concubinage.—Buddhism compared with Shintō.—Influence upon morals.—The First Cause.—Its leadership among the sects.—Unreality of Amida Buddha.—Nichiren.—His life and opinions.—Idols and avatars.—The favorite scripture of the sect, the Saddharma Pundarika.—Its central dogma, everything in the universe capable of Buddha-ship.—The Salvation Army of Buddhism.—Kōbō's leaven working.—Buddhism ceases to be an intellectual force.—The New Buddhism.—Are the Japanese eager for reform?
[ROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, PAGE 323]
The many-sided story of Japanese Christianity.—One hundred years of intercourse between Japan and Europe.—State of Japan at the introduction of Portuguese Christianity.—Xavier and Anjiro.—Xavier at Kiōto and in Bungo.—Nobunaga and the Buddhists.—High-water mark of Christianity.—Hideyoshi and the invasion of Korea.—Kato and Konishi.—Persecutions.—Arrival of the Spanish friars.—Their violation of good faith.—Spirit of the Jesuits and Franciscans.—Crucifixion on the bamboo cross.—Hidéyori.—Kato Kiyomasa.—The Dutch in the Eastern seas.—Will Adams.—Iyéyasŭ suspects designs against the sovereignty of Japan.—The Christian religion outlawed.—Hidétada follows up the policy of Iyéyasŭ, excludes aliens, and shuts up the country.—The uprising of the Christians at Shimabara in 1637.—Christianity buried from sight.—Character of the missionaries and the form of the faith introduced by them.—Noble lives and ideals.—The spirit of the Inquisition in Japan.—Political animus and complexion.
[TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE, PAGE 351]
Policy of the Japanese government after the suppression of Christianity.—Insulation of Japan.—The Hollanders at Déshima.—Withdrawal of the English.—Relations with Korea.—Policy of inclusion.—"A society impervious to foreign ideas."—Life within stunted limits.—Canons of art and literature.—Philosophy made an engine of government.—Esoteric law.—Social waste of humanity.—Attempts to break down the wall—External and internal.—Seekers after God.—The goal of the pilgrims.—The Déshima Dutchman as pictured by enemies and rivals, versus reality and truth.—Eager spirits groping after God.—Morning stars of the Japanese reformation.—Yokoi Héishiro.—The anti-Christian edicts.—The Buddhist Inquisitors.—The Shin-gaku or New Learning movement.—The story of nineteenth century Christianity, subterranean and interior before being phenomenal.—Sabbath-day service on the U.S.S. Mississippi.—The first missionaries.—Dr. J.C. Hepburn—Healing and the Bible.—Yedo becomes Tōkiō.—Despatch of the Embassy round the world.—Eyes opened.—The Acts of the Apostles in Japan.
[NOTES, AUTHORITIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, PAGE 375]
[PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS]
"The investigation of the beginnings of a religion is never the work of infidels, but of the most reverent and conscientious minds."
"We, the forty million souls of Japan, standing firmly and persistently upon the basis of international justice, await still further manifestations as to the morality of Christianity,"—Hiraii, of Japan.
"When the Creator [through intermediaries that were apparently animals] had finished treating this world of men, the good and the bad Gods were all mixed together promiscuously, and began disputing for the possession of this world."—The Aino Story of the Creation.
"If the Japanese have few beast stories, the Ainos have apparently no popular tales of heroes ... The Aino mythologies ... lack all connection with morality.... Both lack priests and prophets.... Both belong to a very primitive stage of mental development ... Excepting stories ... and a few almost metreless songs, the Ainos have no other literature at all."—Aino Studies.
"I asked the earth, and it answered, 'I am not He;' and whatsoever are therein made the same confession. I asked the sea and the deep and the creeping things that lived, and they replied, 'We are not thy God; seek higher than we.' ... And I answered unto all things which stand about the door of my flesh, 'Ye have told me concerning my God, that ye are not he; tell me something about him.' And with a loud voice they explained, 'It is He who hath made us!'"—Augustine's Confessions.
"Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name."—Amos.
"That which hath been made was life in Him."—John.