Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/151

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PHILOSOPHY, EDUCATION, ETC.

itself strongly to the governing classes, while that of Wang seemed in their eyes heterodox and dangerous. For whereas the inductive philosophy of Chu led men to devote their whole attention to learning, and imbued them with reverence for the existing order of things and for established systems, thus educating a mood of conservatism and reverence, the deductive philosophy of Wang taught that all men are equal, that the promptings of conscience should be obeyed unhesitatingly, and that a knowledge of the right, as indicated by a man's heart, must be translated immediately into action. No doctrine could be less conducive to the stability of a military despotism, for, apart from the democratic tendency of a creed based on equality and fraternity, the disciple of Nakaye's school was educated to believe that if he received from his own mind a clear indication of a ruler's or an official's corruption or wickedness, and, further, if the truth of the indication was attested by an unflinching impulse of self-sacrifice, then duty required him to undertake the removal of the guilty person. The one system produced narrow-minded students and bigoted traditionalists, opposed to all progress; the other produced, not scholars indeed, but heroes, men of action, of magnanimity, and of progressive patriotism. It is not surprising to find that the Shogunate denounced and prescribed Nakaye's philosophy, but patronised and encouraged that of Hayashi's. Yet of the two

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