Show PASSING OF CONFUCIANISM No Longer Bolstered Up In Japan And China by Compulsory Study of Classics Confucianism like Buddhism Is lead In Japan killed by tho breath oC the now learning nnd one wonders what will be Its tote during tho next 30 years In China now that it is no longer bolstered up by tho compulsory study of the classics says tho Shnnghl Celestial Empire There are ninny who hold that tht Japanese havo no philosophical gifts though that remains to bo seen AI my rate there was u time when the Confucian philosophy in dryost forms was supreme among tho scholars ol Japan us of China Buddhism too has had Its heyday In Japan though now disestablished and declining II was in tho sixth nnd seventh conturlci of our era that Chinese civilization along with Buddhism was Introduced Into tho island kingdom Tho feudal system found In Jon uclanlsm exactly what It wanted When that system was finally consoll dated by Tom awa leyasu who died In 1G1J he looked around for some sanction for the order which he hnc established by force This ho found In Confucian classics with their doctrine doc-trine of loyalty to rulers These classics class-Ics up to that tlmo had Indeed beer studied In Japan but only by a few In fact they had never been printed Ieyasu had them printed with diacritIcal cal marks for Japanese students From that tlmo until the revolution Confucianism Confu-cianism nourished Temples to Con uclous wore erected In connection with the schools founded for the study of his work Of course it had Its defects just tho same as iu China Prominent among these WON the hazy religious sanctions and Ideas which It contained There was no certainty In so much that sonia lavo called Confucius an agnostic Then thee was no word of the supreme su-preme value of human life as such and hence no adequate conception of the worth und nature of woman These last two Ideas are the roots of much of what Is hest In bur modern civilization civiliza-tion The Japanese showed some originality ori-ginality In that they laid the chIef stress an loyalty and not on filial piety as In China The distinctively Japanese Japa-nese morality was derived not from Buddhism but from Confucianism and so It doubtless served a purpose In the one unceasing purpose which runs through tho ages Now tho philosophy of the west has forever ousted Confucius Confu-cius and his commentators There 1 Is only one temple to Confucius In all Japan and that Is used as nn educational educa-tional museum |