Bushido, the Soul of Japan, by Inazo Nitobe, [1905], at sacred-texts.com
CHAPTER X
THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF A SAMURAI
THE first point to observe in knightly pedagogics was to build up
character, leaving in the shade the subtler faculties of prudence,
intelligence and dialectics. We have seen the important part æsthetic
accomplishments played in his education. Indispensable as they were to a
man of culture, they were accessories rather than essentials of samurai
training. Intellectual superiority was, of course, esteemed; but the
word Chi, which was employed to denote intellectuality, meant
wisdom in the first instance and gave knowledge only a very subordinate
place. The tripod which supported the framework of Bushido was said to
be Chi, Jin, Yu, respectively, Wisdom, Benevolence, and Courage. A samurai was essentially a man of action. Science was
without the pale of his activity. He took advantage of it in so far
as it concerned his profession of arms. Religion and theology were
relegated to the priests; he concerned himself with them in so far as
they helped to nourish courage. Like an English poet the samurai
believed "'tis not the creed that saves the man; but it is the man that
justifies the creed." Philosophy and literature formed the chief part of
his intellectual training; but even in the pursuit of these, it was not
objective truth that he strove after,--literature was pursued mainly as
a pastime, and philosophy as a practical aid in the formation of
character, if not for the exposition of some military or political
problem.
From what has been said, it will not surprising to note that the
curriculum of studies, according to the pedagogics of Bushido, consisted
mainly of the following:--fencing, archery, jiujutsu 1 or yawara,
horsemanship, the use of the spear, tactics, caligraphy, ethics, literature, and history. Of these, jiujutsu
and caligraphy may require a few words of explanation. Great stress was
laid on good writing, probably because our logograms, partaking as they
do of the nature of pictures, possess artistic value, and also because
chirography was accepted as indicative of one's personal character. Jiujutsu
may be briefly defined as an application of anatomical knowledge to the
purpose of offence or defence. It differs from wrestling, in that it
does not depend upon muscular strength. It differs from other forms of
attack in that it uses no weapons. Its feat consists in clutching or
striking such part of the enemy's body as will make him numb and
incapable of resistance. Its object is not to kill, but to incapacitate
one for action for the time being.
A subject of study which one would expect to find in military
education and which is rather conspicuous by its absence in the Bushido
course of instruction, is mathematics.
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This, however, can be readily explained in part by the fact that feudal
warfare was not carried on with scientific precision. Not only that,
but the whole training of the samurai was unfavourable to fostering
numerical notions.
Chivalry is uneconomical: it boasts of penury. It says with Ventidius
that "ambition, the soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss, than
gain which darkens him." Don Quixote takes more pride in his rusty
spear and skin-and-bone horse than in gold and lands, and a samurai is
in hearty sympathy with his exaggerated confrère of La Mancha. He
disdains money itself,--the art of making or hoarding it. It was to him
veritably filthy lucre. The hackneyed expression to describe the
decadence of an age was "that the civilians loved money and the soldiers
feared death." Niggardliness of gold and of life excited as much
disapprobation as their lavish use was panegyrised. "Less than all
things," says a current precept, "men must grudge money: it is by riches
that
wisdom is hindered." Hence children were brought up with utter
disregard of economy. It was considered bad taste to speak of it, and
ignorance of the value of different coins was a token of good breeding.
Knowledge of numbers was indispensable in the mustering of forces as
well as in distribution of benefices and fiefs; but the counting of
money was left to meaner hands. In many feudatories, public finance was
administered by a lower kind of samurai or by priests. Every thinking
bushi knew well enough that money formed the sinews of war; but he did
not think of raising the appreciation of money to a virtue. It is true
that thrift was enjoined by Bushido, but not for economical reasons so
much as for the exercise of abstinence. Luxury was thought the greatest
menace to manhood and severest simplicity of living was required of the
warrior class, sumptuary laws being enforced in many of the clans.
We read that in ancient Rome the farmers of revenue and other financial agents were gradually raised to the rank of knights, the
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State thereby showing its appreciation of their service and of the
importance of money itself. How closely this is connected with the
luxury and avarice of the Romans may be imagined. Not so with the
Precepts of Knighthood. It persisted in systematically regarding finance
as something low--low as compared with moral and intellectual
vocations.
Money and the love of it being thus diligently ignored, Bushido
itself could long remain free from a thousand and one evils of which
money is the root. This is sufficient reason for the fact that our
public men have long been free from corruption; but alas! how fast
plutocracy is making its way in our time and generation.
The mental discipline which would nowadays be chiefly aided by the
study of mathematics, was supplied by literary exegesis and
deontological discussions. Very few abstract subjects troubled the mind
of the young, the chief aim of their education being, as I have said,
decision of character. People whose
minds were simply stored with information found no great admirers. Of
the three services of studies that Bacon gives,--for delight, ornament,
and ability,--Bushido had decided preference for the last, where their
use was "in judgment and the disposition of business." Whether it was
for the disposition of public business or for the exercise of
self-control, it was with a practical end in view that education was
conducted. "Learning without thought," said Confucius, "is labour lost;
thought without learning is perilous."
When character and not intelligence, when the soul and not the head,
is chosen by a teacher for the material to work upon and to develop, his
vocation partakes of a sacred character. "It is the parent who has
borne me: it is the teacher who makes me man." With this idea,
therefore, the esteem in which one's preceptor was held was very high. A
man to evoke such confidence and respect from the young, must
necessarily be endowed with superior personality, without lacking
erudition. He was a father to the fatherless, and an adviser to the
erring. "Thy father and thy mother."--so runs our maxim--"are like
heaven and earth; thy teacher and thy lord are like the sun and moon."
The present system of paying for every sort of service was not in
vogue among the adherents of Bushido. It believed in a service which can
be rendered only without money and without price. Spiritual service, be
it of priest or teacher, was not to be repaid in gold or silver, not
because it was valueless but because it was invaluable. Here the
non-arithmetical honour-instinct of Bushido taught a truer lesson than
modern Political Economy; for wages and salaries can be paid only for
services whose results are definite, tangible, and measurable, whereas
the best service done in education,--namely, in soul development (and
this includes the services of a pastor), is not definite, tangible, or
measurable. Being immeasurable, money, the ostensible measure of value,
is of inadequate use. Usage sanctioned that pupils brought to their
teachers money or goods at different seasons of the year; but these
were not payments but offerings, which indeed were welcome to the
recipients as they were usually men of stern calibre, boasting of
honourable penury, too dignified to work with their hands and too proud
to beg. They were grave personifications of high spirits undaunted by
adversity. They were an embodiment of what was considered as an end of
all learning, and were thus a living example of that discipline of
disciplines, self-control, which was universally required of samurai.
Footnotes
95:1 The same word as that misspelled jiu-jitsu in common English parlance. It is the gentle art. It "uses no weapon." (W. E. G.)
