"(1) Chutsz maintained that it is necessary to make an extensive investigation of the world and its laws before determining what is the moral law. Wang held that man's knowledge of moral law precedes all study and that a man's knowledge of himself is the very highest kind of learning. Chutsz's method may be said to be inductive; Wang's, deductive.
"(2) The cosmogony of Chutsz was dualistic. All nature owed its existence to the Ri and Ki, the determining principle and the vital force of primordial aura that produces and modifies motion. Wang held that these two were inseparable. His teaching was therefore monistic.
"(3) Chutsz taught that the primary principle, Ri, and the mind of man were quite separate, and that the latter was attached to the Ki. Wang held that the mind of man and the principle of the universe were one and the same, and argued that no study of external nature was required in order to find out nature's laws. To discover these, man had only to look within his own heart. He that understands his own heart understands nature, says Wang.
"(4) Chutsz's system makes experience necessary in order to understand the laws of the universe, but Wang's idealism dispenses with it altogether as a teacher.
"(5) Chutsz taught that knowledge must come first and right conduct after. Wang contended that knowledge and conduct cannot be separated. One is part of the other. Chutsz may be said to exalt learned theories and principles, and Wang to extol practice.
"The moral results of the systems briefly stated were as follows: Chutsz 'a teaching produced many learned men in this country, but not infrequently these men were inferior, being narrow-minded, prejudiced, and behind the age. Wang's doctrines, on the other hand, while they cannot escape the charge of shallowness on all occasions, serve the moral purpose for which they were propagated better than those of the rival school. Though in the ranks of the Japanese followers of Chutsz there were numbers of insignificant, bigoted traditionalists, the same cannot be said of those who adopted Wang's views. They were as a class fine specimens of humanity, abreast, if not ahead, of the age in which they lived. No system of teaching has produced anything approaching such a number of remarkable men. If a tree is to be judged by its fruit, Wang's philosophy in Japan must be pronounced one of the greatest benefits that she received from the neighbouring continent, though not a little of its power in this country is to be traced to the personality of the man who was the first to make it thoroughly known to his fellow countrymen, Nakaye Toju."*
*See Professor Walter Dening's brochure on Confucian Philosophy in
Japan.
Dr. Inouye adds: "By exclusive attention to the dictates of conscience and by sheer force of will the Wang school of philosophers succeeded in reaching a standard of attainment that served to make them models for posterity. The integrity of heart preached by his followers in Japan has become a national heritage of which all Japanese are proud. In the West, ethics has become too exclusively a subject of intellectual inquiry, a question as to which of rival theories is the most logical. By the Japanese, practical virtue has been exalted to the pedestal of the highest honour."
The same authority, discussing the merits of the Chutsz school, says: "To the question which has so often been asked during the past few years, whence comes the Japanese fine ethical standard, the answer is that it undoubtedly originated with the teaching of Chutsz as explained, modified, and carried into practice in Japan. The moral philosophy of the Chutsz school in Japan compared with that of the other two schools was moderate in tone, free from eccentricities, and practical in a rare degree. In the enormous importance it attached to self-culture and what is known in modern terminology as self-realization, the teaching of the Chutsz school of Japanese moralists differed in no material respects from the doctrines of the New Kantians in England."