Author: Dewang Qinhuai
Statement: Dewang Qinhuai original, plagiarism must be investigated
Speaking of Japanese ronin, we seem to be familiar with it, and there are many images of Japanese ronin in literary works and movies. We immediately have in mind the image of a Wokou armed with an Oriental knife burning and looting in China, or an image of a modern Chinese warrior who is flaunting his might and wanting to find a Chinese contest. So, are these real Images of Japanese Ronin? What about the real Japanese ronin? In this issue, we will analyze the theme of Japan Ronin from different historical periods in Japan.
Ancient Japanese "Ronin"
<h1>1. Ancient Japanese "Ronin"</h1>
Although japan was a small country in ancient times, its traditional territory was limited to the three large islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, and Hokkaido was the territory of the Ezo people, until after the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese forcibly invaded Hokkaido and became its territory, so the Japanese territory changed from three major islands to four major islands, so Japanese traditional culture was limited to the three large islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Ronin originally meant a type of person who left his place of household registration to wander into other small countries, also known as "floating waves".
The Ronin of the Kamakura period
<h1>2. Ronin of the Kamakura period (1185-1333) and the Muromachi period (1336-1573</h1>).
During this period, the ronin referred to people who had lost their territories, lords, and had no financial dependence among the samurai population. The Japanese social class is divided into four classes: "soldiers, farmers, industrialists, and merchants", "shi" refers to the samurai, who are at the highest level of society, including high-level samurai and middle-level and lower-level samurai. The samurai, honoring their own class, faithfully protected the safety of the lord (i.e., the daimyo) and received the ryū from the lord. The morality observed by the samurai was "loyalty, righteousness, and bravery", and if the lord was killed or lost territory, these samurai generally did not choose a new master, and were temporarily wandering until they found the master. Another background was the period of small-scale wars, where daimyōs needed soldiers who could actually fight, and the samurai had fewer chances of choosing a new master. In this way, no lord means no Feng Lu, the samurai class has no other strengths except fighting and protecting the master, and cannot reduce their status to do business, and this group of samurai who have lost economic security develops into ronin. They often formed parties to steal and create chaos, which became a destabilizing factor in Japanese society, and the meaning of ronin in this period was close to the meaning of "floating wave". At the end of the Muromachi period, the term "jailer" reappeared after being imprisoned for ronin crimes. (In Japanese, "ronin" and "prisoner" are pronounced the same way, and both are pronounced as "ろうにん", so the word "prisoner" here is a pun.) ）
Warring States period Ronin
<h1>3. Ronin in the Warring States Period (1467-1585</h1>).
Japan's Sengoku period was a period of continuous wars, large and small wars, which led to a serious loss of population, and even if the lord was killed and became a ronin, the possibility of regaining the position was very high, and they also advocated speaking with strength, and the relationship between samurai and lords was not close. If you are dissatisfied with the lord's gift, you can leave at any time to find a more suitable lord, and even ordinary samurai can become a daimyō by virtue of their own strength. For example, during the Sengoku period in Japan, the samurai Fujido Takaho changed 10 lords in his lifetime, and finally became the first generation of the Isezu domain by virtue of his strength.
After Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the three islands of Japan, the large-scale war gradually subsided, and the lord no longer needed a large number of samurai courtiers. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death, Tokugawa Ieyasu ascended to the throne, and after the Battle of Sekigahara (The Battle of Sekigahara), a large number of lords were attacked, the size and income of the territory were reduced, and the lords could not raise too many idle people, so a large number of ronin were born.
Ronin of the Edo period
<h1>4. Ronin of the Edo period (1603-1868</h1>).
In the Edo period, the Ronin group changed again. On the one hand, as Tokugawa Ieyasu ended the chaos of the Sengoku period, the political situation in Japan stabilized, and the demand for samurai among the lords decreased, and there was a surplus of samurai; on the other hand, Tokugawa Ieyasu introduced a series of policies for the daimyo, especially the foreign daimyo that originally belonged to Toyotomi Hideyoshi was severely hit, not only the daimyo's name was abolished but also the descendants could not inherit the identity, and the reduction in the number of daimyō directly led to a large number of samurai without lords to rely on. Under the influence of these two factors, a large number of samurai "unemployed" developed into ronin. The shogunate saw ronin as a great threat and introduced a series of policies, such as restricting residence, exile in the countryside, and no longer appointing officials. From 1633 to 1639, the shogunate issued five national lockdown decrees, and began to implement a policy of closing the country and prohibiting the trade of Zhuyin ships (foreign trade) and foreign traffic. This had two effects on ronin: one was to limit the number of ronin who went to sea to become Wokou to harass China's southeast coast and Southeast Asia; second, the Japanese ronin who remained abroad could not return to Japan to create chaos.
By the end of the Edo period, ronin was actively involved in political movements, especially during the Meiji Restoration, and these middle and lower samurai played a huge role. During this period, two situations occurred: one was that some samurai thoughts changed, and many people who advocated freedom and automatically broke away from the lord automatically became ronin; second, due to the end of Edo, the Japanese identity system was forced to be liberalized, and some small industrialists and businessmen or ordinary people and other non-samurai classes liked to "miao characters with swords" and called themselves ronin, and the group structure of ronin changed greatly. After the Meiji Restoration, the four classes of "scholars, peasants, industrialists, and merchants" were abolished and replaced by the policy of "equality of the four peoples", and the identity of the ronin disappeared.
Of course, beginning in the middle and late Meiji period, Japan accelerated its invasion of Korea and northeast China, and these abolished samurai classes broke into Korea and China to show off their might and bully the local people, who were also customarily called "ronin" in Japan.
<h1>Fifth, the title of "ronin" in modern Japanese society</h1>
Although since the Meiji period, ronin as a group has disappeared, but there is still a "ronin" title in modern Japanese society, such as Japanese high school students have not been admitted to university (Japan is different from China, there is no national unified college entrance examination), planning to continue to take the university in the second year, will be in some training schools or preparatory schools to review the preparation, this period is called "ronin period". People who don't get into college in the first year are called "one wave", those who don't get into college in the second year are called "two waves", and so on.
In addition, those who do not pass the examination in the employment examination and various qualification examinations, and those who prepare for the second and third examinations will also be called "ronin". Interestingly, people who temporarily leave their jobs for a while are also called "ronin", of course, the "ronin" of modern Japanese society is only a derivative of the historical ronin, which is also part of our understanding of Japanese social culture.
Citations:
1. Takeshi Katashima: The Biography of Ako Yoshitomo (Japanese Historical Library), Jibunkan, 1913.
2. Nagasaki City Education Association: "Long Period of Restoration", Nagasaki City Education Association, 1941.
3. Umekei Takama: The 10th History of Japanese Nationals, Waseda University Press, 1922.
4. Omura Shigehachiro: The Chronicle of Kiyozen, Shimasondo, 1886.