chapter 8
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fucius, as some of you may know, lived in what is called a period of expansion in the history of a_a period in which the feudal age had e to an end; in which the feudal, the semi-patriarchal social order and form of gover had to be expanded and restructed. This great ge necessarily brought with it not only fusion in the affairs of the world, but also fusion in men s minds. I have said that in the ese civilisation of the last ,years there is no flict between the heart and the head. But I must now tell you that in the period of expansion in which fucius lived there was also in a, as now in Europe, a fearful flict between the heart and the head. The ese people in fucius s time found themselves with an immense system of institutioablished facts, accredited dogmas, s, laws_in fact, an immense system of society and civilisation which had e down to them from their veed aors. In this system their life had to be carried forward; yet they began to feel_they had a sehat this system was not of their creation, that it by no means corresponded with the wants of their actual life; that, f<samp></samp>or them, it was ary, not rational. Now the awakening of this sense in the ese people ,years ago was the awakening of what in Europe to-day is called the modern spirit_the spirit of liberalism, the spirit of enquiry, to find out the why and the wherefore of things. This modern spirit in a then, seeing the want of correspondence of the old order of society and civilisation with the wants of their actual life, set itself not only to restruct a new order of society and civilisation, but also to find a basis for this new order of society and civilisation. But all the attempts to find a new basis for society and civilisation in a then failed. Some, while they satisfied the head_the intellect of the ese people, did not satisfy their heart; others, while they satisfied their heart, did not satisfy their head. Hence arose, as I said, this flict between the heart and the head in a ,yearsago, as we see it now in Europe. This flict of the heart and head in the new order of society and civilisation which men tried to restruct made the ese people feel dissatisfied with all civilisation, and in the agony and despair which this dissatisfa produced, the ese people wao pull down bbr>藏书网</abbr>aroy all civilisation. Men, like Laotzu, then in a as men like Tolstoy in Europe to-day, seeing the misery and sufferiing from the flict between the heart and the head, thought they saw something radically wrong in the very nature and stitution of society and civilisation. Laotzu and g-tzu, the most brilliant of Laotzu s disciples, told the ese people to throw away all civilisation. Laotzu said to the people of a: "Leave all that you have and follow me; follow me to the mountains, to the hermits cell in the mountains, there to live a true life_a life of the heart, a life of immortality."But fucius, who also saw the suffering and misery of the then state of society and civilisation, thought he reised the evil was not iure and stitution of society and civilisation, but in the wrong track which society and civilisation had taken, in the wrong basis which men had taken for the foundation of society and civilisation. fucius told the ese people not to throw away their c<tt></tt>ivilisation. fucius told them that in a true society and true civilisation_in a society and civilisation with a true basis men also could live a true life, a life of the heart. In fact, fucius tried hard all his life to put society and civilisation on the right track; to give it a true basis, and thus prevent the destru of civilisation. But in the last days of his life, when fucius saw that he could not prevent the destru of the ese civilisation_what did he do? Well, as an architect who sees his house on fire, burning and falling over his head, and is vihat he ot possibly save the building, knows that the only thing for him to do is- to save the drawings and plans of the building so that it may afterwards be built again; so fucius, seeing the iable destru of the building of the ese civilisation which he id not prevent, thought he would save the drawings and plans, and he accly saved the drawings and plans of the ese civilisation, which are now preserved in the Old Testament of the ese Bible_the five ical Books known as the Wu g, five s. That, I say, was a great service which fucius has done for the ese nation_he saved the drawings and plans of their civilisation for them.
fucius, I say, when he saved the drawings and plans of the ese civilisation, did a great service for the ese nation. But that is not the principal, the greatest service which fucius has done for the ese nation. The greatest service he did was that, in saving the drawings and plans of their civilisation, he made a new synthesis, a new interpretation of the plans of that civilisation, and in that new synthesis he gave the ese people the true idea of a State_a true, rational, perma, absolute basis of a State.
But then Plato and Aristotle in aimes, and Rousseau and
Herbert Spencer in modern times also made a synthesis of civilisation, and tried to give a true idea of a State. Now what is the differeween the philosophy, the synthesis of civilisation made by the great men of Europe I have mentioned, and the synthesis of civilisation_the system of philosophy and morality now known as fu-ism? The differe seems to me, is this. The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and of Herbert Spencer has not bee a religion or the equivalent of a religion, the accepted faith of the masses of a people or nation, whereas fuism has bee a religion or the equivalent of a religion to even the mass of the population in a. When I say religion here, I mean religion, not in the narrow European sense of the word, but in the broad universal sense. Goethe says:_" Nur saemtliche Mens erkenneur; nur saemtliche Mens leben das Menschliche * . Only the mass of mankind know what is real life; only the mass of mankind live a true human life." Now when we speak ion in its broad universal sense, we mean generally a system of teags with rules of duct which, as Goethe says, is accepted as true and binding by the mass of mankind, or at l<dfn>９９ｌiｂ?</df, by the mass of the population in a people or nation. In this broad and universal sense of the word Christianity and Buddhism are religions. In this broad and universal sense, fuism, as you know, has bee a religion, as its teags have been aowledged to be true and its rules of couduct to be binding by the whole ese rad nation, whereas the philosophy of Plato, of Aristotle and of Herbert Spencer has not bee a religion even in this broad universal sehat, I say, is the differeween fuism and the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and of Herbert Spehe one has remained a philosophy for the learned, whereas the other has bee a religion or the equivalent of a religion for the mass of the whole ese nation as well as for the learned of a.
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