Status Updates From Ways of Thinking of Eastern...

Shamanism, as it is well known, was prevalent in the Asiatic conti- nent as a religious superstition which endowed certain individuals with t
he gift of wielding magical power and of communicating with evil spirits. Shamanism also entered into the ancient Japanese religion. Before the introduction of modern ideas and culture from the continent, mediums occupied a central position in the Japanese religious world

the Japanese have been inclined to dislike fanciful, com- plicated expressions and to take to simple and naive expressions. The Japanese language, as pointed out already, is deficient in words expressing prolix and abstract conceptions. Consequently, even to this day, they use Chinese words, in most cases, to express abstract ideas

the Japanese language manifests its non-logical character all the more clearly. The language lacks the relative pronoun, “which,” standing for t
he antecedent, that helps develop clarity of thought. The absence of such a relational word makes it inconvenient to advance closely knit thinking in Japanese.’ It is difficult to tell what modifies what, when several adjectives or adverbs are juxtaposed

The traditional concept of honesty as loyalty to the clan and Emperor is applicable only to the conduct of man as a member of the particular and limited human nexus to which he belongs; it is not appli- cable to the conduct of man as a member of human society as a whole. This shortcoming of the traditional moral concept suddenly proves to be a
weakness that needs to be overcome at a time of social confusion

Although in the past the Japanese adopted Chinese thought and culture on a large scale, still they have exercised particular care not to injure the distinctive characteristics of the Japanese state. ‘The law codes which formed the basis of administration and justice in ancient Japan w
ere for the most part imitations of Chinese models; however, the traditional Chinese idea of revolution was rejected

But, since the Confucian concept of the state was formulated in accordance with the needs of Chinese society, it naturally contained a
number of points with which the more thorough-going of the Japanese nationalists could not agree. ‘The state conceived by Chinese p
hilosophers was an ideal or model state; on the other hand, the state that the Japanese nationalists had in mind was the actual Japanese state.

“A Japanese individual adjusts in a social structure with strong collectivity orientations which stress ability and security and which can turn into stagnation; an American adjusts in a social environment which emphasizes self-orientation with a focus on individualism and freedom, which in excess can turn to anomie"

Chinese moral code, which has often been said to be founded upon familism, puts great stress upon lineage. In Japan, on the contrary, stress was laid upon the “family” as the unifying force of a tight h
uman nexus rather than upon lineage. Hence, adoption of an heir from a non- related family, often lower in social status, was possible. Confucianism in China, however, placed such great importance upon lineage

Indians regard man as the subjective performer on a metaphysical stage, while peoples of the Western Hemisphere have, from ancient times, inclined to be more empirical; in both cultures, however, men is regarded as possessing potentialities of universal significance. Most Japanese, on the other hand, tend to look upon man as a being subordinated to a specific and limited human nexus

to the stress on social proprieties in Japan another characteristic of its culture appears—the tendency of social relationships to supersede or take precedence over the individual. To lay stress upon human relation- ships is to place heavy stress upon the relations among many individuals rather than upon the individual as an independent entity

social condition gives rise to the tendency to stress harmony among the members of a society rather than dominance based on power. This is not to deny entirely the presence of the power relationship in Japanese society since ancient times. The social restrictions and pressures upon the individual might have been indeed stronger in Japan than in many other countries.

the Japanese in general are inclined to search for the absolute within the phenomenal world or in what is immedi- ately observable. Among all the natures that are most immediate to man’s experience is the nature of man, so that man’s natural dispositions rank highest in the average Japanese way of thinking. Just as the Japanese are apt to accept external and objective nature a
s it is, so they are inclined to accept

pessimism differs from that of Occidental people. In the West pessimism means to become wearied of existence in this world. In the case of the Japanese, by contrast, it means to be wearied only of complicated social fetters and restrictions from which they wish to be delivered. Consequently, the sense of pessimism is dispelled as soon as one comes to live close to the beauties of nature, far apart from human society

That is to say, Tibetan patriotism was based upon the faith that Tibet is a sacred religious country and that the Dalai Lama, the sovereign of Tibet, is an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokite$vara. Neither patriotism nor loyalty to the king could therefore exist apart from Lamaism, and to do something for the sake of the country or king was synonymous with doing something for the sake of their religion

The ethics of Li gave a high value to order of rank and social position. The ethics of Confucianism was one for the governing class, namely, for people who were ranked in high positions in society. ‘
These people were the governing class politically and the intelligentsia culturally. Superiority in society and status in the govering class was t
he important thing. A one-sided obedience of the lower class

To these limitations on Chinese individualism must be added the factor of the traditional Chinese tendency towards a “closed” society and morality. That is to say, the Chinese always regarded themselves as confined to life around such limited human relations as the family, which provides the most intimate of personal relations. In ethics, for example, moral relations among only certain individuals

Since ancient times the Chinese have tended to consider all things from an anthropocentric standpoint. They tended to understand even abstract ideas in relation to man

there are differences in the ways of expressing ideas between the Indians and the Chinese. The Indians, sometimes, make abstract ideas the subject, while the Chinese usually make man the subject who has the idea

There is a definite limit to the force of artistic imagination of the Chinese. Their attitude of o
bserving only those things that can be concretely experienced, that are grasped specifically through sensory effects directly perceived, weakens their p
ower of imagination. This is the reason why in China no epic has been produced, although novels and a kind of drama, which combine concreteness and reality, developed

So many catalogues of books have been made that we even find “catalogues of catalogues.” Such phenomena are just the opposite of what holds true for India. As mentioned above, Indians wrote few historical books, and even these have contents which are largely legendary. Indians have seldom produced topog- raphies, much less catalogues of books. The Indian paid attention chiefly to universals, neglecting historicals

Indians generally liked to express the truth about human beings with a universal proposition, while the Chinese did not like to do so. The Chinese made an effort to realize the universal truth in the human being and revealed in particular instances which cannot be altered by factors of both time and space

The way of thinking in which the Chinese prefer particular, concrete, and intuitive explanations may be seen in their way of explaining ideas and teaching people by the use of particular examples. To most Chinese, therefore, ethics is not understood or taught as part of a universal law, but is grasped on the basis of particular experiences, and is then utilized to realize human truth.

The Chinese in esteeming what is immediately perceptible—especially visually perceptible —seek intuitive understanding through direct perception. This tendency is reflected in the use of characters which convey concrete images to express abstract concepts; it is also revealed in the manner of elucidating philosophical doctrines. Thus, the use of diagrammatic explanation is frequently resorted to.

Indians in an early phase of their history believed language to have the properties of objective substances, and so they identified a word—the name of an object—with the thing it indicated. In this rather primitive mode of thought, there is a magical essence in things, and language, which names objects and their properties, is endowed with mystic power. Those who know words and have a good command of them are ...