[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.