Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

fucian texts spread beyond the confines of the court nobility and of the
Buddhist monasteries into hundreds of newly established domain schools
and private academies. Confucian scholars adhered to a wide variety of academic
approaches: ancient learning that emphasized the original Confucian
classics, neo-Confucianism that emphasized later Chinese and Korean
commentaries, as well as approaches that linked Confucian teachings to
Japanese shrine rituals (i.e., Shintô) or to the study of Japanese history, to
name only a few. In spite of academic variations, all these approaches
shared a reliance on Confucian texts as authoritative guides to the ideal social
norms taught by the sages of antiquity. These sagely norms were said
to reflect the order, regularity, and harmonious integration of the universe
itself, as revealed by the Book of Changes (Yijing, I Ching [140]; Japanese
Ekikyô). Like nature, human society should attain a stable continuity of
harmonious integration based on a hierarchy of high and low, strong and
weak, within which everyone interacts according to proper etiquette and
ritual. Achievement of this ideal society begins with benevolent rulers (jinsei
[141]) who teach the people to rectify their own heart-minds (shin, or,
in Japanese, kokoro [142]) by properly fulfilling the individual social roles
appropriate to their own position within the hierarchy. In turn, individuals
must investigate (kyû) the principles (ri) of their roles (i.e., kyûri [143]) and
perform them with serious-minded (kei [144], “reverent”) diligence.
Many Confucian scholars during the Tokugawa period were men of
samurai status who also wrote about military affairs and about the proper
role of military rulers (shidô [145]; i.e., bushidô) during an age of peace.
Yamaga Sokô [146] (1632–1685), for example, combined lectures on military
science with moral exhortations, arguing that samurai should practice
self-discipline so that their rule would serve all members of society. In
this way Confucian teachings not only justified military rule, but also
helped to humanize the battle-hardened warriors of medieval Japan and
transform them into the military bureaucrats required by Tokugawa peace.
With no more wars to fight, people born into warrior families found that
their assigned social roles lacked any meaningful purpose. Contemporary
accounts commonly chastise them for being lazy, corrupt, and bereft of any
higher ideals. Government leaders repeatedly sought to improve morale
among warrior households by encouraging them to pursue Confucian
learning and martial arts. As a result, many types of martial art training,
which normally consist of paired student-teacher workouts before other
students, gradually became reinterpreted as practical exercises in the investigation
of Confucian principles and serious-minded performance.
Within larger urban centers, especially, martial art academies functioned
more like finishing schools, where instructors lectured on proper moral
values and ceremonial decorum.
Religion and Spiritual Development: Japan 493