(3) They are also spoken of as heavenly and earthly. This distinction seems to us quite arbitrary and unnatural, but it probably had a mythical origin and the offenses called heavenly are mainly such as involve distress for an agricultural community. They are sins against thelandof the gods, while the earthly offenses are mainly matters of personal defilement. In all cases it is conspicuous that the Shinto concept of offenses which needpurging away is that of outward physical pollution and damage. They are all offenses committed against the interests of the community and likely to bring some kind of calamity upon the people.
(4) We should also remark that while, according to the ritual of the Great Purification, it is expected that from that day forwards "no offense which is called offense" will occur again in the four quarters of the whole region under heaven, the same ceremony of purification is repeated every six months—year in and year out.
(5) These facts serve to show a moral and religious basis for the Japanese love of cleanliness and the scrupulous care with which these people of "the luxuriant central land of the ears of fresh rice" study to keep their bodies, their houses, their temples, and their whole domain free from all manner of physical impurity.
18. Other Ritual Services.Other rituals for other occasions and purposes furnish nothing of a different character or of exceptional importance that we need here give further attention to their various contents and suggestions. There are, in the voluminousYengishiki, rituals for the service of the gods of Kasuga, for the service of the goddess of food, and of the gods of the wind, and for the service of particular temples. Some of these services are occasions of grand ceremonial display. The place, the day, the hour, and all the details of the service are arranged beforehand. The procession of those who take part is ordered with extreme precision and made in every way magnificent. Various orders of officials move along in separate ranks. The priestess, accompanied by many mantled attendants, is drawn in a car, and on either side four men in scarlet coats carry a silk umbrella and a huge, long-handled fan. The female attendants and servants of the priestess, each a lady of rank, follow in seven carriages. Chests filled with sacrificial utensils and food offerings, the messenger of the Mikado and his attendants of rank, have their assigned places in the procession. Upon arriving at the temple enclosure, the priestess alights from her car or palanquin, passes into the courtyard behind curtains so held by her attendants as to hide her from the gaze of the crowd, enters her private room and changes her traveling dress for the sacrificial robes. Meantime the Mikado's presents and all the other offerings are duly placed on the tables and in the various chapels prepared for them and the high officers of State take their seats within the temple enclosure. All the prescribed forms are observed with scrupulous care, and the ritual is read. In many services harpists, flute-players, singers, and dancers perform their several tasks. At the conclusion of the services the company clap their hands and then separate. The priestess changes her robes again for her traveling dress, and returns to her lodging in like stately procession as she came to the shrine.
The mirror, sword, bow, and spear, which are mentioned in the rituals as presents offered to the gods at the great festivals, doubtless have their symbolical significance, and like the three divine insignia of sword, precious stone, and mirror—the regalia or symbols of Japanese power and glory—have doubtless their mythic connection with prehistoric traditions; but these belong to the study of Japanese antiquities rather than to the religious elements of Shinto.[34]
19. Influence of China on Japanese Thought.So far we have spoken only of what may be called the original or pure Shinto cult as the religion of the ancient Japanese. But it is important to observe that the moral and religious ideas of other peoples and other systems have for some two thousand years past been affecting the life and thought of the Japanese people. One noteworthy foreign influence came in from China, and as early as the first century of the Christian era—perhaps somewhat earlier—Chinese scholars made their way into Japan. This was very natural, for the proximity of China favored intercourse between the two nations, and Confucianism was at the beginning of our era five hundred years old. Ancestor-worship was common to the people of both lands, and the arts and industries of the two countries might have found affiliation in many ways we can not now determine. That such a leavening Chinese influence was early introduced into Japan is simply matter of fact. The Preface of Yasumaro, the compiler of the most ancient records of theKo-ji-ki, shows the effect of Chinese philosophy in its incidental mention of"the Passive and Active Essences" which co-operated at the beginning of the creation; and Chamberlain, in his Introduction to his English translation of theKo-ji-ki, observes that "at the very earliest period to which the twilight of legend stretches back, Chinese influence had already begun to make itself felt in these islands, communicating to the inhabitants both implements and ideas." Then it is to be further remarked that theNihongi, completed in 720 A. D., although essentially a parallel chronicle of Japanese traditions, is in thought and style conspicuously Chinese. It is made in every aspect and element of its composition to resemble as far as possible a Chinese history.
20. Influence of Buddhism.But a deeper and more widespread influence than that of anything of Chinese origin was the introduction into Japan of Buddhism, which was first brought in about A. D. 552, but did not succeed in leavening the whole country until the middle of the ninth century. It was quietly propagated by leaders of various Buddhist sects which differ in minor practices, and slowly it gained ascendency, but its first more notable triumph followed the teaching of Kukai, founder of the Shingon sect, who so adapted Buddhist doctrines to the traditional ideas of ancestor worship as to maintain that all the Shinto deities wereavatarsor incarnations of Buddha. With great ingenuity and cunning, a new interpretation was given to ancient myths, and new constructions were put upon old beliefs. The Shinto gods, rites, customs, and traditions took on a Buddhist significance, and many of the mysteries of birth and of death were explained in a manner so simple and popular as to commend them to all who listened to the new teaching. For Buddhism had already learned in India and in China the clever art of appropriating old beliefs and customs and of clothing them with a new and higher meaning. Confucianism itself had already in part prepared the way for Buddhism in Japan, and the successful Buddhist propagandists were wise enough to suppress or keep out of sight all that might be offensive in their system, and to teach only such forms of doctrine as could be made attractive to the masses of the people. Kukai thus succeeded in converting the Mikado to his new interpretations of the Shinto beliefs, and the new system thus put forward received the name "Riyobu Shinto," which means "two parts," or the "double way of the gods," or the twofold divine teaching. So complete and general did this Riyobu Shinto become in its spread throughout Japan that for a thousand years it dominated the civilization of the Empire. It had its priests, its gorgeous temples and ritual services, its philosophy, and its divers sects, and it is said that there are at least twelve distinct Buddhist sects in Japan to-day. According to Lafcadio Hearn, "the religion of the Buddha brought to Japan another and a wider humanizing influence—a new gospel of tenderness—together with a multitude of new beliefs that were able to accommodate themselves to the old, in spite of fundamental dissimilarity. In the highest meaning of the term, it was a civilizing power. Besides teaching new respect for life, the duty of kindness to animals as well as to all human beings, the consequences of all present acts upon the conditions of a future existence, the duty of resignation to pain as the inevitable result of forgotten error, it actually gave to Japan the arts and the industries of China. Architecture, painting, sculpture, engraving, printing, gardening—in short, every art and industry that helped to make life beautiful—developed first in Japan under Buddhist teaching."[35]To which may well be added the following statement of Aston: "There was nothing in Shinto which could rival in attraction the sculpture, architecture, painting, costumes, and ritual of the foreign faith. Its organization was more complete and effective. It presented ideals of humanity, charity, self-abnegation, and purity far higher than any previously known to the Japanese nation."[36]
But after a thousand years of mixture, who can now tell for certain just what is original Shinto and what is the Buddhist supplement or modification? The Buddhism of Japan is as far from the original teachings of Gautama as the Roman Catholic religion of Spain is from the simple precepts and practices of Christ and His first apostles. The same is true of the Buddhism of China and Thibet.The Shingon sect of Buddhists in Japan, of which Kukai was the founder, has taken up into itself many ideas which are neither purely Buddhist nor purely Shintoist. Superstitions alien to both cults are likely to have found their way among the people and to have exerted influences on the popular cult, and no man is now able to point out their origin or their history.[37]
21. Revival of Pure Shinto.We are not here concerned, however, with Japanese Buddhism. Our inquiry is after the facts and the significance of the essential Shinto cult. A great and remarkable revival of the older Shinto began near the beginning of the eighteenth century and persisted with great success for more than one hundred years. The most distinguished scholars of Japan were the chief leaders in this reform. We have already had occasion to mention the names of the three most famous men among them—Mabuchi, Motowori, and Hirata. These by their expositions of theancient scriptures and traditions turned the tide of popular thought against Buddhism and Chinese philosophy. It is quite interesting to note in some of their writings the antipathy and hostility to Chinese teachings. Motowori had a remarkable answer to those critics who say that Shintoism knows no moral code. He declared that all a loyal Japanese subject was concerned to do was simply to obey the Mikado, whether his commands were right or wrong. He maintained that morals were invented by the Chinese because they were an immoral people; but in Japan there was no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japanese acted aright if he only consulted his own heart.[38]Whatever we may think or say of such self-complacency, it accords well with Japanese religion, mythology, and history, and it is a simple fact to be noted that in 1871 Buddhism in Japan was disestablished and disendowed, and the old Shinto was declared to be the national religion. Percival Lowell observes that this reinstatementof the Mikado and the old national faith is "a curious instance of a religious revival due to archæological, not to religious zeal."[39]But while the old Shinto is at present the official cult of Japan, it appears to have little life or force. Japanese Buddhism is said to be showing signs of renewed activity, and is likely to prove a powerful antagonist of Christianity. It is certainly a question of vital importance to the future civilization of Japan which of these mighty rivals shall gain ascendency over the popular mind.
22. Esoteric Shinto.Shinto did not continue very long to hold its newly proclaimed status as the State religion. Its own most devoted adherents and leaders felt that its highest interests would be best served without official and governmental prestige. A wise and prudent State policy determined that its permanence and success should be left to care for themselves and to depend upon the merits of its teachings and its historic and popular hold upon the national, the communal, and the family life. As a cult it is deeply rooted in the civilization of the empire, and its pilgrims swarm along the highwaysof travel and at the historic shrines. They are found journeying to the summits of sacred mountains, and there performing esoteric rites which induce mystic divine possession. The performance of such mystic rites and incantations seems to be no modern innovation. It may have its connections with Buddhist counting of rosaries, and possibly other foreign influences have helped to cultivate its somewhat mantic forms, but its origin is from a remote antiquity. This "esoteric Shinto" is essentially akin to that self-induced religious fervor which exhibits itself in many lands and in connection with various cults, and is often seen among the Mohammedan dancing and howling dervishes. Its existence and its practices in Japan refute the notion of those who would deny to Shinto the character of a real religion.[40]The excrescences and extravagancies of religious fervor must have some sort of a religion to inspire them.
23. Mingling of Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism.The noteworthy fact that Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism have for more than athousand years mixed with each other in Japan demonstrates the susceptibility of the Japanese people to foreign influence and teaching, and their natural hospitality toward the various religious cults. The ethical teachings of Confucius prepared the way for Buddhism, and, in spite of antipathy and wars between the nations, maintain a powerful hold upon the thoughtful Japanese to-day. Still more remarkable is it that millions of the Japanese appear to accept both Shintoism and Buddhism, and good Shintoists and good Buddhists may be found worshiping in some temples at one and the same time.[41]A Japanese scholar, speaking at the Chicago "Parliament of Religions" on the "Future of Religion in Japan," declared that the three systems named "are not only living togetheron friendly terms with one another, but, in fact, they are blended together in the minds of the people. One and the same Japanese is at once a Shintoist, a Confucianist, and a Buddhist. Our religion may be likened to a triangle. One angle is Shintoism, another is Confucianism, and a third is Buddhism, all of which make up the religion of the ordinary Japanese. Shintoism furnishes the objects, Confucianism offers the rules of life, while Buddhism supplies the way of salvation."[42]
24. Roman Catholicism in Japan.We must not omit altogether a notice of the introduction of Roman Catholic Christianity into Japan about the middle of the sixteenth century. It was in 1549 that the famous Jesuit, Francis Xavier, landed at Kagoshima, and began his marvelous missionary work through Japanese interpreters, and in two years of strenuous toil he succeeded in winning many converts from all classes of the people. Fifty years thereafter the Christian converts throughout the country are said to have numbered nearly amillion. But the Jesuit habit and policy of meddling with affairs of State, their intolerance of other cults, and at length their crusade against the ancient national faith and their burning of Buddhist temples and slaughter of Buddhist priests, aroused the bitter reaction and bloody persecutions, which, after some forty years of struggle, succeeded in obliterating every public sign of Christianity from every province of the empire. And for over two hundred years Japan closed her doors to all foreign influences and appeals. It was not until 1873 that the edicts against Christianity were withdrawn. Of the Protestant missionary movements in the island empire since that date, it is not the purpose of this essay to speak.
25. Present Religious Indifference.Much is said nowadays about the apparent religious indifference of the Japanese. Some writers seem to think that the Japanese and the Chinese people are alike inferior and defective in religious nature. Mr. Gulick, in his "Evolution of the Japanese," reports Marquis Ito, Japan's most illustrious statesman, as having said: "I regard religion itself as quite unnecessary for a nation's life; scienceis far above superstition, and what is religion—Buddhism or Christianity—but superstition, and therefore a possible source of weakness to a nation? I do not regret the tendency to free thought and atheism, which is almost universal in Japan, because I do not regard it as a source of danger to the community." And yet this same distinguished statesman is reported on the same page (288) to have given utterance to the following much more recent statement: "The only true civilization is that which rests on Christian principles, and consequently, as Japan must attain her civilization on these principles, those young men who receive Christian education will be the main factors in the development of future Japan." Possibly these two discrepant statements may be reconciled by supposing that, in the first case, Ito's thought was turned especially to the superstitions and temporary phases incident to all religious cults, and in his later remark he spoke of Christianity as somehow synonymous with Western civilization. But in any case it would seem that one who deems the Japanese either irreligious, or non-religious, or deficient in religious sense, ought to explain the manifold facts of the Shinto cult, such as the "god shelf," the ancestral tablets, the daily offerings, and the family worship in almost every household of that Eastern island-empire. What mean the hundreds of thousands of white-robed pilgrims who annually visit the numerous sacred shrines? And is there no element of religion in the devout patriotism that is ever ready to sacrifice life and all that men hold dear for the faith and inheritance of their beloved "central land of Reed-Plains" given long ago to the care of the "Sovran Grandchild" by the celestial deities?
It is only a one-sided concept of religion, and a too prevalent failure to distinguish between its local temporary phases and its deeper essentials as grounded in the spiritual nature of man, that have led superficial observers to deny the profound religious element in the Shinto and Buddhist worship of Japan. If Paul, waiting at Athens, and beholding the city full of idols, could truly say, "I perceive, O Athenians, that in all things ye are very religious," just as truly may we say, in view of the 195,000 temples and the innumerable deities of the Shinto cult, that the Japanese are exceedingly religious.
Let me add the testimony of Mr. Gulick himself, who spent years in the country: "The universality of the tokens of family religion, and the constant and loving care bestowed upon them, are striking testimony to the universality of religion in Japan. The pathos of life is often revealed by the family devotion of the mother to these silent representatives of divine beings, and departed ancestors or children. I have no hesitation in saying that, so far as external appearances go, the average home in Japan is far more religious than the average home in enlightened England or America, especially when compared with such as have no family worship. There may be a genuine religious life in these Western homes, but it does not appear to the casual visitor. Yet no casual visitor can enter a Japanese home, without seeing at once the evidences of some sort of religious life."[43]
It is to be remarked that in the history andevolution of religion, where there has been obvious evolution, periods of long peace and repose, marked by formalism, skepticism, and indifference to religious obligation, are generally followed by great revivals and reforms. Some new light breaks in; some great prophet appears; new ideas and hopes take hold on the popular mind, and thereupon a new era opens in civilization. The renaissance in Japan of the last fifty years may be the prelude to an epoch-making revival of the Orient.
26. Concluding Observations and Suggestions.Our study of Shinto has led us over a somewhat unfamiliar field of thought. The mythology and the records of theKo-ji-kiand theNihongiare far apart from all our Western legends and ideals of the early world, and in great part seem like monstrosities of fantastic speculation. It is affirmed by some that the Japanese people have been halting for two millenniums in a state of childhood, receiving nothing from Confucianism or from Buddhism to quicken or change the national life; but with the introduction of Western thought and enterprise they have suddenly leaped into comparative maturity, and their new departure from a dreamy pastis likely to astonish the whole world. It is very obvious that the introduction of modern science into her thousands of elementary schools must sooner or later undermine all faith in the traditional cosmogony, and, along with that, a whole world of notions bound up with the Shinto cult must needs be overthrown. Eminent Japanese scholars say that Western learning has sounded the knell and signed the death warrant of the ancient religion of their island-world.
It is for us very easy, in the light of our New Testament revelation, to point out defects in the Shinto system. Some four or five of these we may briefly mention as matters which a Christian missionary should keep in view as evincing the need of preaching among these people the deeper demands of the religion of Jesus Christ. (1) The first and fundamental defect in Shinto as a religious system is its lack of any clear or helpful concept of one God and Father of all. The doctrine of God is fundamental in any cult, and where the idea is vague and imperfect the entire system of doctrine and practice must needs possess an element of uncertaintyand weakness. (2) Another defect is its want of a clear concept of sin as a moral disease of the heart. The Japanese mind needs to be turned inward to a deeper sense of the real sinfulness of sin. (3) Another serious fault in the Japanese civilization is its low estimate of womanhood. Here as in China woman has not attained her proper sphere. She is subjected to three forms of obedience, which in actual life are too abject for her higher development—she must bow to her parents, to her husband, and to her son in a manner that involves what we should call a humiliating form of domestic slavery. Japan needs the practice of a monogamy of the highest Christian type in order to rectify this inferior and one-sided view of the male and female constitution of humanity. (4) There is also in Japan an apparently low estimate of human life. It is probably due largely to the communal and feudal system which has for a long time ruled the people. The individual is nothing; the community is everything. These and other defects show our grounds for believing that the old order and system must sometime change. But it is no strange or unheard of thing in ourworld for an old order to change and give place to something new and higher. Western civilization has seen not a few examples of such changes; but, as touching religious evolution, what a monumental example we have in the transition from the Old Testament Judaism to the New Testament kingdom of heaven! The main contents and scope of the Epistle to the Hebrews point out the fact that the old covenant, with its sanctuary and altars and tables and sacrifices and priests, could not make their worshipers perfect. Notwithstanding its long and glorious history, it waxed old, and when the Epistle was written it was nigh unto vanishing away (Heb. viii, 13). It did pass away and give place to a more spiritual cult, the gospel of peace on earth and universal love. May not the national cult of Japan—with its faith in the unseen, its rituals of purification, its concepts of a heavenly ancestry, and its intimations of deification after death—be made to give way before a superior cult that may have the wisdom to offer a higher and more rational presentation of the essential truths embodied in the Shinto worship? Whatever men may think or say about the mystical andlegendary elements in the Hebrew Scriptures, no one familiar with the literatures of the nations can hesitate for a moment to acknowledge the immense superiority of the Old Testament law and prophets and psalms over the contents of theKo-ji-kiand theNihongi. If, then, the covenants and the rituals of Judaism waxed old and vanished away before the clearer light and truth of the teachings of Jesus Christ, much more should we expect that the same superior "Light of the world" must needs, sometime, supersede and supplant the rituals of the Shinto cult.
Accordingly, I shall venture to specify sundry elements of ancient Shinto, which, to use the language of Jesus, are not to bedestroyed, but ratherfulfilled, in the higher and more universal truths of the kingdom of Christ.Fulfilled, I say for I look upon all the religious longings, and prayers, and penitential psalms of the nations, and their inquiries after the Unseen and Eternal, as so many foregleams of a coming Light, destined to enlighten every man that cometh into the world.
We have seen that one of the most conspicuous aspects of the Shinto cult is its ceremonial of theGreat Purification. Physical pollution of any kind is abhorrent to the Japanese. The touch of a dead body, contact with a foul disease, failure to wash and keep one's person clean, are regarded as of the nature of calamities. We know that there was much in the practices and traditions of the Jewish elders that closely resembled these Shinto ideas of pollution. The Pharisees and scribes found fault with Jesus because of His indifference to their "washings of cups, pots, and brazen vessels." But cleanliness, we all admit, is a near neighbor of godliness. St. Paul said, "Glorify God in your body," for he maintained that "your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit which is in you." Jesus found no fault with Jewish ablutions, and enjoined the highest personal purity. But He pointed out the deeper lesson that the more horrible defilement of man is a pollution of the heart. "For from within," He said, "out of the heart of man, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness:—all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man." This, then, is one fundamental truth which the Shinto worshiper should learn from the teachings of our Lord. The clean body and the pure white robes are eminently proper and beautiful in their way; but they should symbolize the consciousness of a pure heart, and a blameless life that keeps itself "unspotted from the world." Shinto purification needs the supplement of a deeper knowledge of spiritual defilement in order to a deeper knowledge of purity.
More exalted than any mere forms of purification, or rituals of worship, is that notion of a living Presence concealed in all phenomena. There has been and is to-day among all peoples a belief in many invisible spirits that have some sort of power over the clouds, the winds, the waters, the earth, and all its teeming growths. We call it Animism, Shamanism, and in a certain specific form, Fetishism. Belief in a countless multitude of spirits who can influence the elements about us for good or for evil, is firmly rooted in all the ancient peoples of Eastern Asia, from India to Japan. We have seen how deep a hold it had upon the earliest Shinto cult, and the later influences of Confucianism and Buddhism in Japan have tended ratherto strengthen than to suppress it in the popular mind.
These animistic conceptions have played a noteworthy part in connection with most, if not all, the religions of mankind. When combined with a groveling fear of the spirits, and with the practice of magic rites and incantations to propitiate them as so many evil demons, the belief has run into the lowest forms of superstition. But is there no element of truth in Animism? Why should we speak disparagingly of the old Japanese worshiper hearing the voices of unseen spirits in the moaning winds, in the sounding waterfalls, in the rolling thunder? Why should he not adore the Sun as the heavenly Benefactor, and see in waving trees and blooming flowers and drifting clouds the presence and activity of beings, perhaps sometimes a Being Supernatural? One-sided, defective puerile notions controlled, no doubt, his thinking, but the one supreme and fundamental fact was that he felt himself in the presence of the Supernatural. And that primeval concept is the one most essential truth of all religion. We have only to divest it of sundry errant,non-essential interpretations in order to come face to face with the grandest, noblest, and most affecting theism, and monotheism as well. For monotheism finds its most advanced exposition in the doctrine of the universal immanence of God,—one God, the Eternal Spirit, in all, through all, over all. How far from such a concept of universal Animism was the old Hebrew psalmist, who sang of Jehovah "laying the beams of His chambers in the waters, making the clouds His chariot, walking upon the wings of the wind, sending forth springs into the valleys, causing the grass to grow upon the mountains," and receiving tribute of praises from the "sea-monsters and all deeps; fire and hail, snow and vapor; stormy wind performing His word; mountains and all hills; fruitful trees and all cedars; beasts and all cattle; creeping things and flying birds." To such a worshiper the world was all alive with God. And Jesus added an intensity and an affecting beauty to this whole concept of an immanent God when He said: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," and "not one sparrow falleth on the ground without your Father." I can conceive no Animism and noSupernaturalism more minute or more adorable than the ever acting and ever continuous presence of an unseen but all observant "Father in the heavens." The heavens in which He dwells are above, below, within, and all around us.
And this is the higher Animism which ought to be welcomed by the Shinto pilgrims of Japan as the beautiful fulfilling of their ancient dreams. Not so many gods, not a multitude of unfriendly spirits that need propitiation by our gifts of food and clothing, butONEHeavenly Father, immanent in every plant that grows and in every dewdrop on the flowers, forever working for our good, caring for every birdling, and numbering the very hairs of our head.
With such a monotheistic conception of the world all mythologic and polytheistic notions of deity and the rule of the spirits of the dead must sooner or later disappear. Japanese scholars of high rank are telling their people and others that the modern Western learning has already destroyed the cosmogony of the Shinto cult. What is now most needed is a class of teachers straightforward and broad enough to show these people a noblerand truer concept of the world. The new conception need have no conflict with the belief that the spirits of the dead are all about us, and are deeply interested in us still. The family cult may adjust itself to the new and higher doctrines, and lose none of the beauty and tenderness and sanctity which old affection connects with the domestic tablets of the honored and beloved dead. Herein the new faith is to fulfill rather than destroy the ancient rites of love. Such a monotheistic cult will find no reason or occasion to commit the blunder of the Jesuit missionaries, and seek interference with the government of the land. The Mikado may still command the reverence and the love of the people and be rationally honored as a child of heaven. Loyal Christians do that under every form of government. "Fear God; honor the king; for there is no power but God, and the powers that be are ordained of God; for they are the ministers of God's service;"—these are the precepts of the earliest apostolic gospel, and the modern missionary of Christ is bound to observe and teach them. He should exhibit common sense and discretion in foreign politics, recognize and honor thelegitimate power, and like the Great Teacher, "render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's."
The Shinto cult is essentially a religion of race and national patriotism. It is the secret of Japanese heroism and sacrifice in the day of battle. He counts it sweet and glorious to die for his country. He is not his own; he belongs to the State. We are told that the three principal commandments of the public and official Shinto faith are these:
1. "Thou shalt honor the gods and love thy country.
2. "Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven, and the duty of man.
3. "Thou shalt revere the emperor as thy sovereign, and obey the will of his court."
Surely these principles and precepts are capable of easy adjustment to any form of national government, and the ethics of Christianity are in fundamental accord with their essential claims.
But how can the Christian religion, with its monotheistic worship, adjust itself without antagonism to the ancestor worship of Japan? Manyseem to think that in this particular there must needs be an irrepressible conflict, for the worship of ancestors is central and fundamental in the Shinto faith, and the most precious and hallowed bond that holds the family, the community, and the State together.
In this matter we do well to observe a number of relevant facts. Ancestor worship has existed in a variety of forms among many peoples. It has undergone various modifications in different countries, and it appears to have ceased among some peoples and given place to other ideas and forms of worship. The Japanese conception is that their Mikado and all his people are offspring of the gods, and each one, when he dies, becomes a deity, but does not cease to have interest in the relatives and companions of his earthly life. During the siege of Port Arthur, Togo sent the Mikado a message in which he expressed the thought that the patrioticmanesof the fallen heroes might hover over the battlefield for a long time and give unseen protection to the Imperial forces. Such a faith and such inspiration from the dead are things which a proud nation does not easily let die.
But may we not approach the devotees of such a faith with the words of the old Hebrew prophet: "Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us?" Ye think your honored ancestors still live, and love to think of you and aid you from their higher sphere; is it not also just as true of the ancestors and heroes of other lands and peoples? You have learned that your beautiful "land of the reed-plains and the fresh rice-ears" is only a very small portion of the world of men. Have these broader lands and more numerous peoples sprung from other and greater gods than yours? May it not rather be that, as there is only one sun to shine on all this habitable world, so there is one Heavenly Father of us all? Then we are all offspring of one Supreme God and we should all be brethren. Our ancestors and dear kindred who have passed out of our sight should lose no place in our affection by this larger thought.[44]
By some such suggestions, and by such friendly and persuasive appeal to larger truths, it would seem that a higher and purer faith may commend itself to the adherents of Shinto, without provoking their hostility, and without the compromise of any essential Christian truth. As surely as self-evidencing science wins her onward way among the nations, so surely will self-evidencing truths of religion win the hearts of men. We are familiar with the Christian congregations singing:
"Faith of our fathers, holy faith!We will be true to thee till death."
"Faith of our fathers, holy faith!We will be true to thee till death."
But Christian and Shintoist should note the fact that the fathers and the sons are greater than the faith. As "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," so the faith, the forms of worship, the æsthetic arts, the culture, the learning, and all the ennobling elements of the highest civilization are made for man, not man for them. Being, therefore, not an end in themselves, but a means to the attainment of some higher boon, they must all be judged according to the broad and noble proverb: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things arejust, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, take account of these things" (Phil. 4:8).
It may be that ancestral shrines will become more sacred and more heavenly when lighted with the glimmer of immortal hopes of blessed reunion in the unseen world, and our forms and manner of honoring father and mother and friends that pass out from our homes may be safely left to adjust themselves to an uplifting faith that lives in the heart and ever longs for all that is holiest and best.
The whole world looks with admiration upon that island-empire of the Orient that has shown within thirty years such marvelous capacities of adaptation and improvement. If she thus go on to "prove all things and hold fast to that which is good," who knows but her brilliant rising to great power and influence among the nations may mark the beginning of world-wide reforms? Her tremendous, bloody battles should say to all mankind: "Let us have no more of this. Let us establish great, trustworthy tribunals of arbitration, and settle our rights and differences there. Let us beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning-hooks." Such triumphs of peace and righteousness might well bring to pass the old Shinto ideal of a code of morals so deeply written in the hearts of men and of rulers that they spontaneously do that which is obviously right. For is not this lofty ideal in accord with that of the Hebrew prophet who descried a coming golden age when "they should teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know the Lord, from the least of them unto the greatest" (Jer. 31:34)?
On the assumption that the highest form of religion must needs respond to the highest moral test, the editor ofThe Hibbert Journal[45]propounds the following startling question, "How would the general status of Christianity be affected by the appearance in the world of a religion which should stand the test better than herself?" That is, a religion or people that should present an exhibition of moral excellence superior to that seen among theChristian nations. Our own belief is that such an exhibition of moral excellence in a non-Christian people would set the Christian searching his own standards of morality. It may be that Japan in her late exhibitions of ability in political diplomacy, and her sacrifice and waiving of certain rightful claims to indemnity, and the exalting of the right and the truth above narrow, selfish interests, has put to shame the "Christian Powers" of Europe, whose conspicuous qualities have been baneful statecraft, jealousy of rivals, and greed to enlarge their territory by crushing feebler States, and grinding down the masses of the people. Such an exhibit would not prove the inferiority of Christian ethics, but the failure of the so-called Christian Powers to honor and exemplify the ethics of our gospel. The plain fact in this matter is, as thoughtful men must everywhere acknowledge, that the aggressive "Christian Powers" have enlarged their empire at the expense of weaker States and, by taking advantage of their day of weakness and adversity, have by such ambitious procedures belied and violated the fundamental commandments of the religion which they profess.
We Americans have dreamed and sometimes boasted that our great Republic of freedom has proven a mighty evangel of human liberty and rights. It is a luminous star of the first magnitude, and it arose in the Western hemisphere. But this brilliant star of the West has cast its helpful beams across the Pacific Ocean upon the blooming rice-fields of Japan. It may be that those grandchildren of the sun-goddess may by their skill and prowess flash upon the world a light so strong as to eclipse to some extent our own, and be so self-evidently excellent that all mankind will bid it welcome. It may or may not be that all will acknowledge the radiant Evangel as "the root and the offspring of David." With the Japanese it may for long be insisted that this new Light is the root and offspring of the Mikado and the Goddess of the Dawn. But we can waive that point and all of us cry out, Let the true Light come. If it make for righteousness and love and the peace of the world, we shall hail its rising in the far East as the light of "the bright, the Morning Star;" for there is no other that can ultimately prove itself to be "the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
Aston, W. G.Shinto, The Way of the Gods. London, 1905.Brinkley, F.Japan and China. 12 volumes. London, 1903.Chamberlain, B. H.Things Japanese. London, 1902.Dyer, Henry.Dai Nippon. A Study in National Evolution. London, 1904.Griffis, William Elliot.The Mikado's Empire. New York, 1876.Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Meiji. New York, 1895.Gulick, Sidney L.Evolution of the Japanese, Social and Psychic. Chicago, 1903.Hearn, Lafcadio.Japan. An Attempt at Interpretation. New York, 1904.Ko-Ji-Ki, or Records of Ancient Matters. Translated by Basil H. Chamberlain.Published as a Supplement to Vol. X of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.Yokohama, 1883.Lowell, Percival.The Soul of the Far East. Boston, 1896.Maclay, Arthur C.A Budget of Letters from Japan. Reminiscences of Work and Travel in Japan. New York, 1886.Nihongi, Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A. D. 697. Translated from the original Chinese and Japanese by W. G. Aston. 2 vols. London, 1896.Published as a Supplement to the Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London.Reed, Edward J.Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religion. London, 1880.Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. From 1872 to the present time.Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London. From 1892 to the present time.These separate series of volumes of Transactions of Japanese Societies, running through many years, are an invaluable repository of information on the history, customs, religion, and literature of Japan.
Aston, W. G.Shinto, The Way of the Gods. London, 1905.
Brinkley, F.Japan and China. 12 volumes. London, 1903.
Chamberlain, B. H.Things Japanese. London, 1902.
Dyer, Henry.Dai Nippon. A Study in National Evolution. London, 1904.
Griffis, William Elliot.The Mikado's Empire. New York, 1876.
Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Meiji. New York, 1895.
Gulick, Sidney L.Evolution of the Japanese, Social and Psychic. Chicago, 1903.
Hearn, Lafcadio.Japan. An Attempt at Interpretation. New York, 1904.
Ko-Ji-Ki, or Records of Ancient Matters. Translated by Basil H. Chamberlain.
Published as a Supplement to Vol. X of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.Yokohama, 1883.
Lowell, Percival.The Soul of the Far East. Boston, 1896.
Maclay, Arthur C.A Budget of Letters from Japan. Reminiscences of Work and Travel in Japan. New York, 1886.
Nihongi, Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A. D. 697. Translated from the original Chinese and Japanese by W. G. Aston. 2 vols. London, 1896.
Published as a Supplement to the Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London.
Reed, Edward J.Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religion. London, 1880.
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. From 1872 to the present time.
Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London. From 1892 to the present time.
These separate series of volumes of Transactions of Japanese Societies, running through many years, are an invaluable repository of information on the history, customs, religion, and literature of Japan.