Hu Weiquan
The "Honnoji Rebellion" in Kyoto, Japan, on June 21, 1582 (June 2, 2010 of the old Japanese calendar), had a huge and far-reaching impact on the course of Japanese history. Among the many mysteries and topics about the change of Honnoji Temple, the most discussed questions are "Why did Mitsuhide suddenly assassinate the lord Oda Nobunaga" and "Why Oda Nobunaga failed to escape this assassination".
Some people say that in this Japanese Sengoku period, known as the "World of Lower Kagami (hereinafter committed)," Nobunaga was just one of the victims of rebellion among many subordinates, and it was a perfectly normal phenomenon in this chaotic world of Japan. Some people also believe that the Japanese are naturally cunning and ambitious, and that rebellion is a constant thing.
Before responding to these questions, it is necessary to briefly sort out and explain the opposite of "rebellion", "loyalty", as far as the concept of "loyalty" was in ancient Japanese culture, especially in ancient samurai society.
1. Misguided understanding
When it comes to Japanese samurai, we foreigners all have the following similar understandings: on the one hand, we think that the samurai of the Sengoku period were warriors who valued profits over righteousness and had no discipline, while the samurai after the Edo period were influenced by the Japaneseized Zhuzi school and gradually washed away the "bad" atmosphere of the past. Under the influence of many movies and books, we often think that "absolute loyalty", "gengzhi" and "immutable" are the core and basic images of Japanese "Bushido".
However, this is nothing more than a beautiful misunderstanding. Bushido: The soul of Japan (Note: Published in English in 1899 and translated in Japanese in 1908) was originally written by the author to promote the essence of Japanese culture to the Western world at the time. Strictly speaking, the noble sentiments and perfect moral character sung in it are only the products of ideals. Moreover, many legends and literary contents are used as factual examples and reasons to support their own arguments, so as to prove that Japan's "Bushido" is not inferior to the "chivalry" of Europe.
Another key figure that causes us to have a similar misunderstanding is the famous thinker Fukuzawa Yukichi. In several writings and articles, Fukuzawa emphasizes on the one hand that Japan must get rid of the feudal gate valve system until the Edo period, and on the other hand, he frequently emphasizes the importance of "samurai style", and even threatens that "Bushido is the embodiment of Japan's national temperament", trying to sublimate Bushido to a cross-era spiritual concept (Fukuzawa Yukichi Works (6)).
What exactly "Bushido" or "samurai style" refers to varies from person to person, but some people go directly back to the mythological era of Japan, trying to show that this trait has been unique to The Japanese since ancient times.
From a historical point of view, these explanations and descriptions are unfounded. These observations and theories are based on the premise that Japan's history and national nature are unchanged throughout the ages, and there is an overly monotonous and superficial understanding of the process of change in Japanese society, eras, and ideas, as well as the characteristics of each era. It is necessary for us to get rid of the shackles of propaganda and whitewashing, not to be influenced by Nitoto and others, and to re-understand the important spirit of "loyalty" as an ancient Japanese samurai through historical materials.
Limited by space and themes, we will focus on the situation before and after the Warring States Period here. First of all, it must be noted that many people have misunderstandings about the "following offenses "lower offenses" is synonymous with Japan's Sengoku period. In particular, many books and self-media instructions apply this concept to the political behavior within the samurai. However, this understanding is not quite correct.
The Japanese samurai society of that era did have many rebellions. However, we need to be clear about two points: first, in Japanese society before the Edo period, rebellion was very common; from the emperor down to the lord level, he was a victim. In other words, the following offenses committed by samurai lords in the Sengoku period were by no means particularly extreme in Japanese history.
Second, etymologically speaking, the term "lower kami", was not originally coined by the samurai, let alone used to describe the political struggle within the samurai. This term was originally coined by the Kyoto nobles at that time, but it was actually aimed at the upper classes who took advantage of the chaos to oppose the rule of the lords at that time.
For these Kyoto nobles, they had long been accustomed to the problems within the samurai, and they did not care. However, the people under their command took advantage of the frequent wars and chaos to openly resist themselves and affect their own livelihood, which was a more immediate and urgent problem for the nobles who did not have enough money at that time.
Therefore, the real subject of the "lower keshang (lower and lower offenders)" was not the samurai, but the people who were more and more autonomous in that era. Their combination of different classes (including low-ranking samurai, etc.) openly opposing the rule of the nobility and samurai lords, demanding more autonomy and leniency, is an important moment in Japanese history, we can say that the rise of the people and the active struggle for rights and interests was the most important progress in Japanese history in the Sengoku period.
Then again, even if "Shimo kagami" is not aimed at the concept of samurai, it does not mean that the political power struggle within samurai society does not exist, but we must note that "shimo kagami ( 下克上) was not the norm and the main portrayal at that time, and loyalty is still a cherished virtue in Japanese society. In the next section, we will sort out how the master-slave relationship of the ancient Japanese samurai interpreted "loyalty."
Second, the concept of the master-slave relationship before the Sengoku period in Japan
Was the samurai society of the Sengoku period morally corrupt and undisciplined? In terms of conclusion, the answer is no, because the evaluation is too simplistic. So, how did the samurai of ancient Japan understand the master-slave relationship?
During the Heian period (8th to 12th centuries AD), successive groups of noble-blooded (mostly descendants of emperors and nobles) and military-oriented hibiscus grew up all over Japan. At that time, the weaker Hao clan, for different reasons, wrote their names on paper and presented them to the more powerful and reliable hao clan leaders as a symbol of their willingness to surrender and seek refuge. Such documents are called "registers", and the presentation of "registers" is regarded as an important formality for willing to become a vassal of the other party.
In the future social development, in addition to the consideration of interests and security, the power of religion also provided an important ideological basis for the establishment and maintenance of interpersonal relations among various social classes, including samurai. At that time, in Japan, which was heavily influenced by Buddhist thought (Confucianism was only a subordinate), the relationship between people was called "chigiri".
Many books translate "chigiri" to mean "contract", which is technically inaccurate. When people establish interpersonal relationships with each other, "chigiri" is not exactly equivalent to the modern meaning of "contract", but is closer to the unity of "vow" and "fate", which is the arrangement of karma and fate in Buddhist thought.
Moreover, the Japanese at that time believed that the combination of different relationships was the result of different degrees of fatalistic influence. The parent-child relationship is the "contract of one lifetime", the relationship between husband and wife is the "contract of two lives", and the subject-slave relationship of this section is the most precious "contract of three lifetimes". That is to say, the formation of a master-subordinate relationship between two people or two families is the fate and fate that was formed three lifetimes ago, and it is a powerful bond that transcends the cause and effect of reincarnation.
In the famous literary work "The Book of Righteousness" volume 2 of the "Ise Saburo Chusei Yoshikei", which was written from the end of Kamakura to the Muromachi period in Japan, it is described that a samurai of Ise Yoshimori is painstakingly searching for it, and finally meets the protagonist Genji Yoshinori and hopes to become his vassal. He said:
"The fact that I was finally able to meet you (Yoshinori) today is presumably the result of the contract of the three worlds (of ours) and the arrangement of the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman (Note: The patron saint of Genji and the samurai)."
The Book of Righteousness was one of the most popular readings at that time and in the Warring States period, and to a certain extent reflected and influenced the thinking of Japanese people at that time and later. The master-slave relationship premised on the concept of "the contract of three lifetimes" and the ideal will continue to play an important role in the next few hundred years.
Mizuno Manenen,000 ,ise Saburo Gosakako Kenzan no Tu based on the Book of Righteousness
Of course, from another point of view, this part of the Book of Righteousness describes the relationship between master and subordinate in ideals and concepts. In fact, because of various contradictions and grudges, there have been rifts in various master-slave relations, and even the situation of soldiers meeting each other is numerous in Japanese history.
Third, the logic of the courtiers
From the end of the Heian period (the end of the twelfth century AD), a state of chronic war continued in Japan, with samurai lords facing the alternating power of each other, while other social classes slowly flowed, and some powerful people from rural areas and towns became subordinate vassals of samurai lords. Samurai lords also actively recruited new forces to assist in their rule because of the need to maintain the stability and development of their territories. For them, adding these "new blood" from outside the samurai as vassals was not enough to rely on the concept of "the contract of the three worlds" alone. The samurai lords and the society of their time needed new ideas to complement and stabilize this new form of union.
In addition to the fatalism mentioned above ("deeds"), the samurai society reinforced the inevitability of service and loyalty ("righteousness") by protecting the rights and interests of subjects ("grace") and borrowing from the Chinese Confucian concept of human relations. In addition, they maintained a smooth relationship between the upper and lower levels and between the courtiers ("courtesy") by developing visual lecterns.
From the end of Kamakura to the Muromachi period, Japanese Zen monks who traveled back and forth to China (the Yuan and Ming dynasties) actively introduced ancient Chinese Confucianism, providing a new guiding ideology for the Muromachi shogunate, which at that time needed to correct the country from a state of civil strife (known in history as the "Southern and Northern Dynasties Era"). In the "Five Great Straw Paper" of the Ancient Book (Note: Textbook of Rules and Etiquette) written in the middle of the Warring States Period, it is mentioned:
"Subjects respect the lord, filial piety to parents, brothers and brothers, young and respecting the elderly, not insulting the upper, not making trouble at the bottom, and the name is Liye."
This moral idea of emphasizing the duty of each of them and keeping their duties in order to cause chaos in the family is more concrete and political than the above-mentioned "contract of three lifetimes".
In addition, in addition to the relationship between the vassals and the lords, the difference in status between the vassals and the vassals is another important key to maintaining order. There is a very important factor at work here, and that is the "genealogy" of the minister.
The so-called "genealogy" is the meaning of several generations of the same lord's family, that is, the hereditary family. Because of the family that serves the lord from generation to generation, the status of the "lineage" in the family and the closeness in the mind of the lord's family are naturally much stronger than those of the newly joined family. Generations of loyalty in exchange for higher status and political capital, gaining the trust and respect of the lord, even jealousy.
In the feudal era, which attached importance to bondage and blood, for the princes, the old courtiers whose fathers and grandfathers had been serving the left and right for generations, and the brothers of the same clan whose blood was thicker than water, were far more worthy of reliance than the new courtiers who came and went in a hurry like a marquee (of course, there were not a few who parted ways and met with each other).
The "lineage" vassals were the most important core force of the samurai lords, and thus occupied important political and military positions in the family. As a condition of equal exchange, these courtiers who have served the lord for generations shoulder the obligation and responsibility of coexisting and dying with the lord's family. The so-called "As a person who has been passed down from generation to generation, the lord's family prospers together, and the lord's family dies together, which is for the sake of life and death and the common man." (The Chronicle of the South China Sea)
However, this camaraderie that spans generations is not absolute. Unlike the later Edo period, which emphasized the absolute loyalty of courtiers, the samurai society of the Muromachi Sengoku period emphasized grace and righteousness while emphasizing certain prerequisites. Especially in the Warring States era, when the war was chaotic, the purpose of serving the public was no longer purely to repay the favor of the lord. The honor of being a samurai, the antai of one's own family, and the development of the family were equally important, and even in extreme cases, repaying the favor of the lord's family for generations was only a means for the courtiers to protect the family's peace.
During the Warring States period, shido Hirōryō, an old minister of the Maori family, borrowed an allusion from the Xunzi when teaching the lord Maori Takamoto (the son of Maori Yuan) the focus of the relationship between the monarch and the subject. He mentioned that the relationship between kings and subjects is like "boat" and "water", that is, the so-called "water can carry the boat, but also can overturn the boat", without the support and assistance of the courtier ("water"), the lord ("boat") can hardly do anything.
Under the leadership of a generation of British lords, the Maori family started with a small and medium-sized lord, and in just thirty years, it became the most powerful prince in Western Japan at that time, and the various lords were successively annexed for interests and safety considerations.
However, Maori Yuan knew very well in his heart that once the family's fortunes turned from prosperity to decline, the grand situation of thousands of people's admiration would change by one hundred and eighty degrees. He once admonished his heir, Maori Takamoto, saying:
"At the moment, not many courtiers really feel that the Maori family is very good, and as long as there is a decline in my family, they will make their own plans." (Māori Family Papers)
Maori yuan on
With the development of the times, the concept of the master-slave relationship has changed in the Warring States period. From the dream of the courtier to follow the destiny of the ideal lord, it has slowly evolved into the concept that the relationship between the monarch and the subject is only a relative concept, and the family is the pillar that supports the family of the lord, which can be a community of destiny, or in individual cases, parting ways and going things.
4. The means and propositions of the Warring States Daimyo
In the face of the chaotic world in which people's hearts and minds are uncertain, the warring states are walking on thin ice. Not only do we have to manage it well, so as not to lose our family business and end up in disgrace, but also the big names have to think about talent management and philosophy and work hard.
As early as the early Muromachi period, the shogunate governor (number two political figure) Spo Yoshinori (1350-1410) wrote to his descendants in the "Bamboo Horse Copy" that mentioned the phenomenon of each family's vassals serving the monarch in that era (early fifteenth century AD). He criticized:
"With regard to the service of the lord to the king, people now think that they must first receive the grace of the lord before they are willing to dedicate their loyalty and contribution. I think it's really negative. The most important thing in the world today is the grace of the Lord, but many people have forgotten it, and then they have a grudge against the present world and the Lord, which is really unpleasant. ”
As a person at the top of the power, the criticism of the righteous general naturally proceeds from the perspective of his own as a human monarch, and he is dissatisfied with the phenomenon that many of his subjects regard interests above morality, and hopes that his subordinates can put righteousness first and repay the favor of the king. But conversely, the discontent of the Yoshiaki reflects that samurai society in the Muromachi period was facing a major transformation. In reality, the samurai courtiers of the Muromachi period no longer emphasized that Ise Moriri in the Book of Righteousness valued his fate and fate with the lord, but instead believed that the lord had the grace to himself in the front and his own dedication in the back. The grace of the lord and the strength of the king have gradually become an important criterion for the courtiers to "choose the lord and serve".
Spock will
In the face of the demands of the courtiers to put profit and safety first, the lord tried to respond on the one hand, but also actively made countermeasures. At the end of the Muromachi period, the famous prince Takaaki Asakura (1428-1481), who succeeded in breaking through the chaotic Rebellion of the Onin Civilization (1467-1477), made a major proposition in his family training:
"There is no elder in the Asakura family (Note: hereditary zaichen), but it is used according to the size and loyalty of the family."
In other words, Xiaojing must promote capable, loyal and powerless subordinate courtiers against those who have been able to occupy high positions by serving the lord's family for generations. In the world of war and chaos, talents are abundant, and in order to protect the territory, the lord (the daimyo of the Warring States) must continue to absorb talents, and at the same time, he must face the situation of replacing the old with the new.
Takaaki Asakura
Of course, this does not mean that they have abandoned the bonds and friendships mentioned in the previous section, but in addition to the existing bonds and friendships, they have formed new master-subordinate relationships with other people.
There will be cooperation between the courtiers for the sake of interests, and naturally they will compete for the sake of interests. The key to the art of taming the warring states is how to use and settle the bonds and contradictions of the courtiers, divide and use them, and uphold justice. In addition, it was necessary to lead the courtiers to resist external threats and jointly solve common internal problems, such as natural disasters, people's revolts, epidemics and economic circulation.
While the courtiers demanded that the lord be strong enough to solve these problems, the lord also made equal demands in due course. Going further than the above-mentioned Spoeyi, the daimyōs of the Warring States period actively demanded the loyalty of their vassals and could not be disobeyed.
The famous Warring States daimyō Takeda Shingen (1521-1573) once asked more than 200 upper and middle-ranking courtiers to write oaths, the second of which states:
"Absolutely not to do anything rebellious and rebellious to Lord Shingen."
"Even if the others have different intentions toward Lord Shingen and the Takeda family, I will certainly follow him and have no second thoughts." (Ikushima Azushima Shrine Documents)
The Takeda Family Oath collected in the Ikushima Ashita Shrine documents
When asking his subjects to unite in the internal and external dilemmas, Shingen believed that it was an indispensable and important part of the courtiers' assurance that they would not have any evil intentions about themselves. Although in ancient Japan, it was not very effective to coerce others to make assurances by taking oaths to the gods, but the requirement to be made clear in the form of oaths to the culture highlighted that the loyalty of the courtiers in that era was no longer fate, fate, nor a choice between the minds of the courtiers, and the lord, as the greatest beneficiary, also instilled the importance of "loyalty" in a positive manner, offsetting the problem of the courtiers " choosing the lord and serving" and mutual trust.
Shingen Takeda
During the Sengoku period, it was very typical for Takeda Shingen and other Warring States daimyōs to use gods to demand loyalty from their vassals. Although the effect cannot be said to be very high, as a well-known "ironclad evidence", it still has a certain deterrent effect on the original family members who are eager to move.
However, Oda Nobunaga was more radical and blatant than they were. The last verse of his edict to shibata Katsuya (?-1583), a minister, written in 1575 explicitly refers to the idea of demanding the loyalty of his subjects:
"Whatever you want, do as I (Nobunaga) asks. However, if you feel in your heart that my request is problematic and unreasonable, you must not be clever and flattered. If it is necessary to express my feelings, I will listen to the demands according to their reasoning, and then make a judgment. In any case, you must revere Me, and do not disobey Me behind my back, and do not blatantly disobey My will. If you can do this, you will naturally be blessed by the gods for a long time. (Echizen Kunihito)
Obviously, Nobunaga's demands on his courtiers and the logic behind them were more obvious and bold than Shingen's. In addition to absolutizing the loyalty of the courtiers, the loyalty to oneself and the life of the courtiers are firmly tied together. In other words, Nobunaga receives the blessing of the gods, and loyalty to Nobunaga will receive the protection of the gods. The Jesuit missionary Who had seen Nobunaga at the same time, Flois, once recalled that the Oda family's courtiers were in awe of Nobunaga, and when Nobunaga was angry, the courtiers were in a cold sweat and did not dare to look at him directly.
Oda Nobunaga
Nobunaga demanded absolute loyalty from his subjects, combining religious and moral ethics behind them, demanding more strictly than his contemporaries, and giving important revelations to his successors Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, setting an example for the political ideas of the later rulers of the Edo period who worshiped themselves as gods.
In short, through the explanation of this article, I believe that readers have found that the image of the ancient Japanese samurai is far from the image of the samurai in "Bushido" and film and television works. The concept of loyalty of the ancient Japanese samurai developed from religious fatalism to a mixture of Confucian ethical concepts, from emphasizing unilateral loyalty to combining the conditions of a mutually beneficial bilateral relationship. For the ancient Japanese samurai, the concept of loyalty was not static, but was always influenced by the social development and the evolution of values in various periods of Japan, adding new elements. In order to better understand the loyalty and master-slave relationship in Japanese culture, it is necessary to further explore and understand the ancient Japanese culture.
Editor-in-Charge: Shanshan Peng
Proofreader: Luan Meng