Abstract
This chapter explicitly addresses the relationship between “technique” and “ethics” as found in the philosophy of Yuasa Yasuo 湯浅泰雄. It is closely associated with the history of Eastern and Western thought within Yuasa’s philosophical framework especially his mind-body theory. Because of that reason, the discussion of this chapter has a strong tendency to favor a comparative approach to Eastern and Western thought covering the issues of “technique” and “ethics.” In the process of discussion, this chapter especially sheds light on the challenge of integrating wisdom from East and West, on which Yuasa tackled in the age of the so-called “end of philosophy” in the Western world. Finally, this chapter boldly attempts to meet the challenge by illuminating hitherto neglected aspects of Yuasa’s research from the perspective of “Asian studies.”
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Notes
- 1.
Before and after my time away due to participating in exchange programs from 1983 to 1985 at Chinese University of Hong Kong and Sun-Yatsen University in Guangzhou 廣州, I had the honor of spending a total of five and a half years as a graduate student and assistant professor to Yuasa. The temporary lack of a clear memory regarding this occasion may well be a result of the wealth of memories I have associated with the many lessons I learned from him on various occasions. Or it could be for a different reason. Certainly to this day there remains distinct in my memory the event entitled “10th Anniversary of Sino-Japan Peace Memorial Symposium” held from November 4–8 the previous year. That event, hosted by Yuasa, brought together qigong 氣功 (kikō in Japanese) researchers and practitioners of both Japan and China. I accompanied Yuasa for the duration of the event since I was appointed as a member of the executive committee and the head of the translator/interpreter team. Some of articles presented at the symposium and the performances of the Chinese qigong masters jolted and realigned my understanding (or so I believed) of Chinese Philosophy, History, Medicine, and so on. Looking back, I could very well have been in a state of confusion. After Yuasa’s retirement from the University of Tsukuba in April 1989, he took a position as a professor of J. F. Oberlin University in Tokyo. Six months later, I also left my assistant’s position at the University of Tsukuba and took a job as a researcher at the Center for Chinese Studies, National Library in Taiwan 臺灣. I then moved to the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica in Taiwan, and engaged in research on Chinese intellectual history until returning to Japan in March 1991. During this period, Yuasa consecutively published a series of books entitled Jung and the East (1989a), Qi and Human Science (edited and written, 1990), The Body: Eastern Mind-Body Theory and the Modern Age (1990), and What is Qi? (1991). He was kind enough to send all of these books to me. Along with my deep respect for Yuasa’s novel ideas and research of unparalleled scale, I look back with nostalgia at the sense of delight and excitement I experienced in those days when introduced to these ideas resulting from Yuasa’s contemplations.
- 2.
Volumes 1–12 and 14 published by Hakua Shobō (hereafter referred to as Hakua). Volumes 13 and 15–17 and Supplementary volume published by Being Net Press (hereafter referred to as BNP).
- 3.
According to Yuasa, his interest in economics was motivated by his own belief that one could not understand society without understanding economics. On the other hand, his experience in the social unrest that followed Japan’s defeat in WWII made him lose any sort of trust in politics, whether it be associated with the left or the right (ibid.: 498). Moreover, he claimed that no serious philosophy or thought could be learned from politics or ideologies (ibid.: 496), and that ideology was nothing but a type of corrupted form of traditional philosophy enmeshed in politics (Yuasa 1989b: 122)
- 4.
Yuasa was born in the house of an associate leader of a Shintō-affiliated religious sect, Hitonomichi Kyōdan (literary “Church of People’s Way,” the predecessor of the present “Church of Perfect Liberty”): in his later years, he encountered Motoyama Kinue 本山キヌエ, who was the originator of Tamamitsu Shrine sect, and he studied self-cultivation and Yogic meditation methods from Motoyama Hiroshi 本山博, the chief priest of that sect. All of these factors motivated Yuasa to become more deeply inclined to devote himself to religion.
- 5.
For Yuasa’s career history after this position as an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, I referred to the “Chronological Record of Yuasa Yasuo,” included in Mind-Body Knowledge—Inheritance and Development of Yuasa Philosophy, BNP, 2015. This book received attention as the latest collection of research papers on Yuasa philosophy, and it provided me with many suggestions that assisted me in the writing of this thesis.
- 6.
Excluding Yuasa’s translations and co-author works, his writings include the following: on India; The Ethical Thought of Indian Epic Poem, 1957; on China; The Ethical Thought of Mohism, 1957; The Ethical Thought of Legalism, ibid.; on Japan; Moral Emotions of Ancient People, 1957; Ideals of the Ancient Nation, ibid; Mysticism and Ethics of Kūkai, 1960; The Ethical Thought of the Ancient Nation, 1966; Philosophy and Existentialist Thought in Modern Japan, 1970; The Spiritual World of the Ancient People, 1980; The Religious Consciousness of the Japanese People, 1981; Watsuji Tetsurō —The Fate of Modern Japanese Philosophy, ibid.; Thought in Japanese Mythology, 1983.
- 7.
His other representative writings include such titles as Jung and Christianity, 1978; Eastern Religions and Depth Psychology, 1979a; Jung and the European Spirit, 1979b; The Deeper Layers of Eastern Cultures, 1982; Literary Fragments on Views of Nature and Self-Cultivation Theories in Esoteric Buddhism, 1984; The Psychology of Eastern Meditation, 1983. The Psychology of History and Myths, ibid.; A Study on Synchronicity, 1987a.
- 8.
Translated by Nagatomo Shigenori 長友繁法, and Thomas P. Kasulis. Edited by Thomas P. Kasulis. Other translated works include: Mind-Body Relation Theory and Issues of Ascetic Practice, 1982. Problems around the Eastern Body Theory, 1983. Literary Fragment about View on Nature and Ascetic Practice Methodology of Esoteric Buddhism, 1984. Qi Ascetic Practice and Body, 1986. As an excellent researcher of Japanese Intellectual history, Professor Kasulis has also authored a comparative study of Japanese and Western thought entitled, Intimacy and Integrity: Philosophy and Cultural Differences (Kasulis 2002)
- 9.
Amano Teiyū 天野貞祐 (1884–1980), a philosopher and professor at Kyoto Imperial University who served as the Minister of Education after the war, has left us with a rather interesting episode on this topic. Amano studied at Heidelberg University from 1922 to the following year. When Amano returned to Heidelberg in 1958, a party was held at a hotel in Constance and there Heidegger introduced him to the group from the Berlin Academy of Arts with the following explanation: Amano was a close friend to the Japanese philosopher Kuki Shūzō 九鬼周造 (1888–1941). When Kuki came to Paris, he hired a young man to help him learn the French language. In return for his French lessons, he taught the young man the existential philosophy of Heidegger. This young man later became known as Sartre, the famous philosopher. Therefore, we can say it was the Japanese professor Kuki, who first introduced the Existentialism philosophy of Heidegger to France (Amano Teiyū, “Jōhin de Seijitsu na Gakusei wo 上品で誠実な学生を” (A decent and sincere student), “Kokoro no Gunzō 心の群像” (Images in the mind), edited by Kaji Ryūichi 嘉治隆一, Kawade Shobō, 1962: 207). This episode may contain a certain amount of embellishment by Heidegger, which grew out of his admiration for Kuki, but still is an interesting article that indicates the achievement of not only Kuki but also many Japanese scholars who were eager to learn about Western philosophy.
Further back in time, the person who made the famous statement, “There has been no philosophy in my country, Japan, until now” was Nakae Chōmin 中江兆民 (1847–1901). In Japan, he is known as the person who introduced Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Japan. In the course of the modernization of Japan, ever since the Meiji Revolution in 1868, there has been a clear tendency to move from just taking in Western Philosophy to the awakening of the originality of Japanese thought in comparison to the West. Kuki Shūzō was one of those who engaged in this approach, and his work entitled Iki no Kōzō (The Structure of “Iki いき”), 1930, displayed the achievement of his Heidegger-influenced analysis and contemplation of the aesthetic sensitivity found in the culture of Japan’s common people, all viewed in the context of phenomenology. While rapid modernization took place in fields such as politics, economics and social structure, many excellent philosophers started to emerge from the generations that came before and after Kuki’s; they included Nishida Kitarō 西田幾多郎 (1870–1945), Tanabe Hajime 田辺元 (1885–1962), Watsuji, and Amano. Their understanding of Western thought had grown so much deeper that it could be easily distinguished from that of an earlier period in Japanese modernization.
In this regard, Yuasa often used the term “Japanese Philosophy,” which is seldom used in contemporary Japan by other researchers specializing in intellectual history. It is another indication of his enthusiasm and self-confidence in putting the thought of the East and the West on equal ground and then integrating them.
- 10.
I was able to get a great deal of valuable information on aspects of Yuasa’s life from a gift presented by Maruyama Toshiaki 丸山敏秋 entitled “Maruyama Toshio and Yuasa Masao,” Bulletin of RINRI Institute of Ethics, vol. 20, 2011: 10–52. Maruyama Toshio 丸山敏雄, the grandfather of the board chairman of the RINRI Institute of Ethics, Toshio, and Masao both played important roles in the education and research in the religious organization as intellectual elites. For that reason, they were put on the firing line along with the founder of the organization against the oppression from the fascist government of the time.
- 11.
Yuasa utilizes the German term “Wissenschaft der Wissenschaften” in describing “the highest knowledge of knowledges” (ibid.: 121).
- 12.
The expression “the Age of the End of Philosophy,” which Yuasa used, most likely came to him as a hint from a series of Rorty’s work, including Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979).
- 13.
Yuasa uses the term prāxis in a broad sense including the meaning of poiēsis (ποίησις).
- 14.
In Yuasa’s own words, “That which influences the spiritual and psychological problems of contemporary people is technology, not scientific theory” (Yuasa et al. 2001: 23).
- 15.
Joseph Needham (1900–1995) shared a common understanding of this issue with Jung. Yuasa had become familiar with his thoughts on how China, Japan, and other East Asian cultures naturally lacked the idea of a dualistic separation between the mind and matter based on his reading of the Japanese translation of Needham’s work entitled Science and Civilisation in China, as well as other studies by him.
- 16.
Incidentally, readers may wonder why Yuasa so often made mention of not only the encounter between Jung and the East but also American society. Put simply, at the innermost recesses of Yuasa’s thought, he speculated that Jung’s psychological analysis of American society during his visit to the States in 1909 and 1912 would become applicable to European society in the near future and ultimately to Japanese society in much the same way. “The fact that historical changes are always initiated in advanced nations is yet another truth about the history of the human race. We must pay attention to the signs of changes quickening in this nation (America)” (ibid.: 44).
- 17.
The two books listed here, The Book of Changes and The Secret of the Golden Flower, are the I Ging, Das Buch der Wandlungen, 1924, and Das Geheimnis der goldenen Blüte, ein chinesische Lebenbuch, 1929, both by Richard Wilhelm (1873–1930). Wilhelm is considered to be the forefather of Chinese studies in Germany. Since his vestiges and these two translated books are already well known throughout the West, it may not be necessary to give detailed explanations. However, for the convenience of later discussions, some supplementary information on specific matters needs to be provided.
First of all, Wilhelm’s notation on the Chinese title, I Ging, is translated into the I Ching, or Book of Changes in the English translation done by Cary F. Baynes, which follows the rules used since the latter half of the 19th century and which are referred to as the Thomas Wade (a.k.a. Wade-Giles) system. However, today in most of the East Asian world, people rely on the Pinyin System established by the Chinese Government in 1956. With Confucius Institutes spreading throughout the world, there is no need to return to using the classical mode of expression. This chapter also follows the Pinyin system for the notation of Chinese words, therefore I Ging and I Ching are presented as Yijing 易經. Strictly speaking, its source book in Chinese is titled Zhouyi 周易. Zhouyi consists of a textbook for divination, Yijing and its Confucian instruction manual, Yizhuan 易傳 (also known as Shiyi 十翼, or Ten Wings). Though uncertain folklore is the only clue to what occurred during their years of creation, the closest estimation suggests that Yijing was established during the Chunqiu 春秋 Period, whereas Yizhuan was produced until the Former Han 前漢 Period. What Jung refers to as the I Ging and Yuasa as the Yijing are altogether written as The Book of Changes in this chapter, even though it should be Zhouyi, since it contains Yizhuan. On the other hand, the original manuscript of The Secret of the Golden Flower is known as Taiyi-jinhua-zongzhi 太乙金華宗旨, and is supposed to be a compilation of the teachings of the Taoist monk named Lü Dongbin 呂洞賓 (789?–871?). Its actual year of publication was, however, much later in the Qing 清 Period. “Liandan 煉丹,” the technology used for making the medicine called dan had been handed down among the Taoist monks. It consisted of waidan 外丹 (outer dan) and neidan 内丹 (inner dan). Waidan is external alchemy, the medicine for the exterior of the human body, and it included what we know today as Chinese herbal medicine and even acupuncture and moxibustion. Neidan, on the contrary, is internal alchemy, the medicine for the interior of human body, and it included breathing methods such as qixi 氣息 and taixi 胎息, meditation and the method called daoyin 導引, which was thought to improve the circulation by controlling the flow of qi 氣. The Secret of the Golden Flower was a book on this Neidan. In my research, I referred to the Japanese translation of this book by Yuasa Yasuo and Sadakata Akio 定方昭夫. This translation traces back to the sourcebook Wilhelm used, titled Changshengshu/ Xumingfang Taiyi-jinhua-zongzhi 長生術/續命方太乙金華宗旨 (with commentary by Zhanran Huizhenzi 湛然慧真子, Beijing, 1921), and corrected areas where the text was mistranslated, while also referring to other sources such as Miyuki Mokusen 目幸黙遷 (1967). For more details, refer to the “Translator Description” by Yuasa, attached at the end of The Secret of the Golden Flower (1980).
- 18.
The subject of the research for this thesis is the philosophy of Yuasa and not Jungian psychology. Therefore I will refrain from going to detail about Jung’s thoughts in order to verify Yuasa’s understanding.
- 19.
In The Book of Changes, the symbols for Yin 陰 and Yang 陽 are both classified as Yao 爻, i.e. Yin-Yao 陰爻 or Yang-Yao 陽爻. A group of six Yao in a hexagram is referred to as Gua 卦(divinatory symbol). It explains all phases of the existence of the universe, or Yuzhou 宇宙 (Yu stand for space, Zhou for time), can be described with 64 hexagrams (Gua) and 384 Yao. According to the logic of The Book of Changes, the divination (占筮 senzei in Japanese or zhanshi in Chinese) utilizing fifty skinny sticks of a plant called Shi 蓍 will always prove to be true. No one knows for sure if it is true of not. According to Jung, it is questionable whether the creators of The Book of Changes, Wenwang 文王, the king of ancient China, and Zhougong 周公, one of the highest nobles of the time, (both of them are legendary figures, I assume) were onto something or not. Only experience will provide the answer to this problem. (“Commemorating Richard Wilhelm.” Ibid.: 19).
- 20.
This is the same person as “Lau Nai Süan,” whose name appears in Wilhelm’s I Ging, Vorrede zur ersten Ausgabe. He is said to have passed away when the first edition of this book was printed in 1924.
- 21.
Zhao Erxun 趙爾巽 et al., The History of Qing Dynasty Memoir 259 清史稿列傳第二百五十九, Zhonghua Book Company, 1977: 12825.
- 22.
These are the words of Wilhelm quoted by Yuasa (Yuasa et al. 2001: 57)
- 23.
The Chinese word “laoshi 老師” does not always indicate an older teacher. The Chinese character “老 lao” stands for the sense of respect that includes an acknowledgement of the richness of knowledge and experience that a teacher has.
- 24.
Wang Zhaoyong 汪兆鏞, Beizhuanjisanbian,vol.8, buyuan 5 碑傳集三編・卷八 部院五, (refers to: Zhou Junfu 周駿富 et al., The biography of the Qing Dynasty 清代傳記叢刊・綜錄類, Taiwan: Mingwen Book Company, 1985: 124–435).
- 25.
The Spring and Autumn Annals (Chinese: 春秋; pinyin: Chunqiu) is an historical text that chronicles the State of Lu 魯, a region in ancient China where Confucius was born. The Zuo’s Tradition: Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chinese: 春秋左氏傳; pinyin: Chunqiu Zuoshizhuan) is believed to be written by Confucius, with the addition of a commentary or Zhuan 傳 written by Zuo Qiuming 左丘明; however, there are no documents that can prove this legend. A more realistic assessment would be to assume that it was created by a group of Confucians during the Zhanguo 戰國 or Warring State Period. The Discourses of the State (Chinese: 國語; pinyin: Guoyu) is another written work attributed to Zuo Qiuming, but with no solid proof to back it up. It could also have been written in the Zhanguo Period.
I have offered a detailed analysis of these articles about senzei/zhanshi in my book The Development of the Heaven’s Will in Ancient China—Ancient Confucian Philosophy and the Logic of Yijing. It will not be dealt with here due to the limited space.
- 26.
Technically speaking, The Book of Changes uses numbers 六 (six) and 九 (nine) to symbolize yin yao 陰爻and yang yao 陽爻, respectively. The characters 六五 (six-five) indicate the fifth yin yao from the bottom. Each yao has words that symbolize them, which are called “yaoci 爻辞.”
- 27.
The original sentence is “善為易者, 不占 Shanweiyizhe, buzhan.” I have translated the character “為 wei” as “to study and master,” which is represented as the word “知 know” in the modern language. The character “知” contains such nuances as to “administer,” “govern” or to “comprehend,” which goes beyond just the theories or knowledge in both Chinese and Japanese language.
- 28.
I was given many suggestions from this excellent “commentary” about the following statements on Watsuji’s ethics.
- 29.
Watsuji also recognizes that spatiality is not completely absent in Heidegger’s argument. Watsuji states that, “however, it has lost most of its shadow in the strong illumination of temporality. That is where I sensed the limit of Heidegger’s work” (Watsuji 1935: 4).
- 30.
In order to understand the process through which this concept was established, I referred to Watanabe Manabu渡邉学’s essay “Searching for meta-psychika” (2015). Professor Watanabe of Nanzan University was one of Yuasa’s senior graduate students. Additionally, regarding this issue, it is worth noting a statement Yuasa left with us: “When considering the movements within the contemporary world, the questions presented by Jung have not been answered clearly at all, whether from the viewpoints of philosophical history or scholarship. He still is a prophetic scholar-philosopher, who continues to pose questions to us even today” (Science, Humanity and Ethics, vol. 2; Human Body Science, vol. 11, issue 2, October 2002; Complete Works, vol. 17, BNP, 2012: 500).
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Acknowledgements
Without the enthusiastic support of Professor Murata Kiyoshi 村田潔 of Meiji University and Dr. Thomas Taro Lennerfors of Uppsala University, as well as Professor Nakada Makoto 仲田誠 from the University of Tsukuba, I would have continued simply as a reader of Yuasa’s philosophy. It has been my pleasure to work with the best collaborators, and I would like to express my deepest gratitude to each one of them.
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SATO, K. (2019). “Technique” and “Ethics” of Yuasa Yasuo from the Perspective of Asian Studies – An Introduction to Yuasa Philosophy. In: LENNERFORS, T., MURATA, K. (eds) Tetsugaku Companion to Japanese Ethics and Technology. Tetsugaku Companions to Japanese Philosophy, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59027-1_6
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