Social Change, Knowledge, and History: Hanazono's Admonitions to The Crown Prince

Harvard-Yenching Institute

Social Change, Knowledge, and History: Hanazono's Admonitions to The Crown PrinceAuthor(s): Andrew GobleSource: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Jun., 1995), pp. 61-128Published by: Harvard-Yenching InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2719421 .

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Social Change, Knowledge, and History: Hanazono's Admonitions to the Crown Prince

ANDREW GOBLE University of Oregon

IN the spring of 1330 former emperor Hanazono TEIR (1297- 1348), one of a small coterie of people in the fourteenth century

able to understand how broader social and political changes would exert a decisive influence on Japan's literary and cultural traditions,1 composed an essay on sovereignty and rulership for his nephew and charge2 Crown Prince Tokihito kfz (1313-1364, later Emperor Kogon YE). The essay, the Kaitaishi sho X k;f (Admonitions to the Crown Prince),3 is an elegantly written product (indeed, one scholar

1 Earl Miner, "The Collective and the Individual: Literary Practice and Its Social Implica- tions, " in Earl Miner, ed., Principles of ClassicalJapanese Literature (Princeton: Princeton Uni- versity Press, 1985), pp. 50-2.

2 In 1319 Hanazono had been entrusted with providing Tokihito with an education appropriate for a future emperor: Hanazono tenno shinki ?tRW V [hereafter, HTS] (Zoho shiryo taisei edition, 2 vols., Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1965; Shiryo sanshul edition, 3 vols., Zoku Gunsho Ruiju Kansei Kai, 1982-1986), entry for 1319/10/26. HTS covers the years 1310- 1332, though not continuously. Only for the years 1313, 1319-22, and 1325 do we have full year entries; the years 1326, 1327, 1328, and 1330 are missing entirely.

3 Text in Hanazono tenn5 shinkanshu ,UNW JJ4 (Yoshikawa k6bunkan, 1977), pp. 30- 32, and Takeuchi Riz6 4'3s~, ed., Kamakura ibun A*LI4 (Toky6do shuppan, 1971-93) [hereafter KI], 39.30938). For commentaries see Iwahashi Koyata t**JARt&, Hanazono tenn5 (Yoshikawa k6bunkan, 1962), pp. 57-69; and Nakamura Naokatsu rP4jffW, Nakamura Naokatsu chosakushui, vol. 6 (Kyoto: Tank6sha, 1978), pp. 412-17. There are few studies of the Admonitions: Hashimoto Yoshihiko ; "Kaitaishi sho no k6t6 kan," in Yasuda Motohisa sensei tainin kinen ronshui hakk6 iinkai, ed., Chtusei Nihon no shoso, vol. 2 (Yoshika-

61



62 ANDREW GOBLE

has deemed it one of the finest examples of classical Chinese written by a Japanese of any period)4 of Hanazono's reading in the Chinese classics and in Chinese and Japanese history.5 The Admonitions to the Crown Prince encapsulates Hanazono's views on the knowledge and ethics that should inhere in a ruler, on the notion of history, and on the position of the Imperial family in Japanese life as it applies to his own times. As such, it is a rare instance during the more than 1400-year existence of the Japanese Imperial family when one of its members has left a statement that directly addresses the concept of ruling.

Questions of sovereignty, legitimacy, the role of the Imperial family, and of the nature of history which encompassed these elements were very much to the forefront in Hanazono's day. Indeed, the issues had been raised with some regularity since the 1150s as the rise to political power of the warrior class posed increasingly greater threats to the Imperial institution and the aristocratic order of society which it legitimated. The debates continued past Hana- zono's lifetime, in no small part propelled by the revolutionary cataclysms of the fourteenth century that had been triggered by his successor, Emperor and Son of Heaven Go-Daigo MEb (1289- 1339). Many voices-such as aristocrats, Buddhist clerics, Zen monks who had studied in Song and Yuan China, proponents of Japan as a sacred entity-articulated views of history and society as they responded to the currents of change, and they produced a vibrant legacy of thought and creativity.6 To date, however, schol-

wa k6bunkan, 1989), pp. 601-14; Herman Bohner, "Hanazono tenn6, 'Mahnung an den Kronprinzen,' Taishi wo Imashimuru no Sho," MN 1 (1938): 317-49.

Nakamura Naokatsu chosakushu, p. 415. For Hanazono's lists of what he read through 1325, see HTS 1324/12/last, 1325/12/30.

6 To suggest just a few areas: the compilation of the Kasuga gongen genki sponsored by the Saionji family (Royall Tyler, trans., The Miracles of the Kasuga Deity, New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), or that of the Ishiyamadera engi emaki sponsored by the T6in family (Komatsu Shigemi 'J'I , ed., Nihon no emaki, vol. 16, Chui6 k6ronsha, 1988); the numerous works noted by Kuroda Toshio, "Historical Consciousness and the Hon-jaku Philosophy in the Medieval Period on Mount Hiei," in George Tanabe and Willa Tanabe, eds., The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1989), pp. 143- 58; historical works such as the Genk5 shakusho of Kokan Shiren (Marian Ury, "Genk6 Shakusho, Japan's First Comprehensive History of Buddhism," Ph.D. diss., University of California Berkeley, 1971) or the Masukagami (George W. Perkins, "A Study and Partial translation of Masukagami," Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1977).



EMPEROR HANAZONO'S ADMONITIONS 63

ars have tended to focus their study on a limited number of voices and sources, most notably the Gukansho of the Tendai abbot Jien (1155-1 225)7 and the Jinno shotoki of the Imperial loyalist Kitabatake Chikafusa (1289-1354),8 and by default these works have been regarded as providing the parameters for inquiry.

The Gukansholargues, in part, that the working of history inJapan is propelled by an underlying (and conceptually elastic) force, dori, the understanding of which at this cycle of history, as defined by Buddhist eschatology, is possible for only a few people. Convenient- ly for Jien's relatives in the Kujo family, the concrete form of that understanding is institutionalized in the Imperial regency posts of sessho and kanpaku, hereditary monopolies of the Fujiwara clan, of which the Kuj6 were currently the only fit representatives. The Gukansho argues that the Imperial family (and the aristocratic oligarchy) will continue over time, but that continuity will best be assured through the delegation of Imperial prerogatives to Fujiwara advisers. Members of the Imperial family, in short, were not fit to rule: that was why the regency institution had developed, and, through the efforts during the late eleventh and twelfth centuries by retired emperors (in) to reclaim ruling powers, why the warrior class was now, unfortunately but understandably, a political force.

The Jinno shotoki, by contrast, is underlain by a nativist ideology that locates historical continuity, and thus inherent justification for the Imperial family, in the notion that Japan is a "divine land" or "land of the gods" (shinkoku) protected by those gods, whose special link with Japan is made manifest in an unbroken line of sovereigns themselves of divine descent. The idea of a special relationship with the gods was already well-established by Chikafusa's day, and many sites throughout the country were considered especially sacred; but the specific development in the wake of the Mongol inva- sions of the notion of the entire land as "sacred space" provided ad- ditionally compelling justification for the integral sacral role of the

7 Delmer Brown and Ishida Ichir6, The Future and the Past (Berkeley: University of Califor- nia Press, 1979).

8 H. Paul Varley, A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980); John F. Weik, "Kitabatake Chikafusa's Use of the Terms 'Dai' and 'Sei' in the Jinn6 Sh6t6ki, " Papers on Far Eastern History, 1 (1970): 140-72.



64 ANDREW GOBLE

Imperial family.9 In the aftermath of the action-as-text Imperial ideology of the 1330s posited by the iconoclastic Go-Daigo, however, Chikafusa like Jien was at pains to argue that sovereigns should simply embody rather than act, leaving matters of state to trusted non- Imperial advisers (preferably aristocrats).

Jien and Chikafusa were moved to write, and to offer an interpretation of history, change, and rulership, by their concern for the meaningful survival of the aristocratic polity in which they resided. Both represent creative attempts to order the past to explain the present and to provide normative justification for how things ought to be in the future. The works are considered landmarks ofJapanese intellectual history, and are usually linked in explications of Japa- nese notions of history and time."0 Both are notable for the fact that they seek to define a theory of history that is based on the Japanese record rather than one which reflects notions of history based on the classical corpus of knowledge received from China. As such, they are generally regarded as major contributions to that strain of Japanese thought that over the centuries sought to deprivilege "China" in the Japanese intellect.11 In fact, the Jinno shotoki has come to be regarded by many as the locus classicus for an ideology of divine descent in which the Imperial family provides Japanese culture with its special and enduring qualities.

It is thus of some interest to discover that Hanazono in the Admoni- tions shares neither the perspectives of later ideologues and scholars nor, of greater relevance, those of the valorized representatives of Japanese thought Jien and Chikafusa. In addressing the ideas of history and rulership in the Admonitions, Hanazono does not give dominant emphasis to Buddhism or Shinto; he evinces a quite different conception of history than that put forward by Jien and Chikafusa; he more or less rejects outright the tenet that somehow

9 Alan Grapard, "Flying Mountains and Walkers of Emptinesss: Toward a Definition of Sacred Space in Japanese Religions," History of Religions 21.3 (1982): 195-221.

10 For example, George M. Wilson, "Time and History in Japan," American Historical Re- view 85.3 (1980): 557-71; George W. Robinson and William G. Beasley, "Japanese Histori- cal Writing in the Eleventh to Fourteenth Centuries," in Edward G. Pulleyblank and Wil- liam G. Beasley, Historians of China andJapan (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), pp. 229-44; Delmer Brown, "Pre-Gukansho Historical Writing, " in Brown and Ishida, The Future and the Past, pp. 353-401.

" David Pollack, The Fracture of Meaning (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986).




continuity through the Imperial institution is a notable and unique characteristic of Japan; and in addition he suggests that divine descent is a very poor ideology of political legitimation. Indeed, Hanazono advises future emperor Tokihito that those people who believe that Japan is different from China because there has been to date only one Imperial dynasty, and that therefore there never will be a dynastic change, are simply deluded, woefully ignorant of history, and incapable of understanding the social and political changes of the recent past.

Now, while Hanazono's view that the Imperial institution could be terminated is not a position that has commonly been associated with the Imperial family, he did believe that there was a special position for the Imperial family in Japanese life, and like Jien and Chikafusa he was prompted to write because of his concerns over the future. Yet the intellectual bases for his perceptions are so different from Jien or Chikafusa as to raise a number of important questions about the medieval episteme, the transmission of knowledge, and the relationship between social change and intellectual motiva- tion that bear directly on our understanding of medieval Japan in general and, of the fourteenth century in particular. This paper will address several of these issues by focusing on aspects of Hanazono's intellectual development that help us understand why and how his perspectives in the Admonitions To The Crown Prince-a work written to guide a future emperor and embodying the lessons of over a decade of study and reflection on questions of sovereignty and history-do not accord with standard representations of medieval thought. We will examine first the social background of Hanazono's time, some of the particular circumstances of the 1320s and his response to that unsettling decade, then his textual landscape and process of engaging those texts, and will conclude with some more general observations relevant to knowledge and society in medieval Japan. Finally, while the focus of this article is not the Admonitions themselves, a translation with some preliminary annotation is provided as an appendix.

THE SOCIAL BACKGROUND

Study of Hanazono, a retiring intellectual type, has been



66 ANDREW GOBLE

overshadowed by study of the turbulent times in which he lived and the many strong-willed personalities that those times produced, and on occasion has to contend with some bizarre characterizations of his existence.12 He was nonetheless very well-placed: at the apex of society as ex-emperor, an active promoter of esoteric and Zen Buddhism and acquaintance of major religious figures of his time,"3 a fine and prolific poet who worked assiduously to define new forms in response to the shifting literary and social currents of the day,14 and a close observer for some decades of the turgid political scene of the late Kamakura, Kenmu, and early Muromachi periods. Hana- zono is also the author of a very informative diary (by far the longest extant diary produced by a member of the Imperial family) that, because of his position and his desire to record his times and his reaction to them in a fairly unbiased (though not dispassionate) fashion, is one of the most crucial sources for the study of intellectual and social currents in the first half of the fourteenth century.

Hanazono was born into a world of great change in all facets of Japanese life, changes of such cumulative import that they mark the shift from Japan's classical period to its medieval age. We can make various qualifications with respect to the timing and completeness of

12 Michele Marra, The Aesthetics of Discontent (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1991), p. 133: "Forced out of power at the age of twenty-three, Hanazono confesses [in his diary] his need to escape the boredom of daily life by organizing sessions of renga poetry, by playing sugoroku, and by drinking sake with his loyal courtiers Sukena and Takaari." For a more balanced picture see George Sansom, A History ofJapan, 1334-1615 (London: Cresset Press, 1961), pp. 127-40, or Iwahashi, Hanazono tenno.

13 I have addressed Hanazono's engagement of Buddhism in "Truth, Contradiction and Harmony in MedievalJapan: Emperor Hanazono (1297-1348) and Buddhism,"Journalof the International Association of Buddhist Studies 12.1 (1989): 21-63. See also Iwahashi Koyata, "Hanazono tenn6 no jubutsu bunri ron ni tsuite," 12t D S{fn = (A A -C Bukkyo shigaku 10.1 (1962): 35-51.

14 Hanazono's major legacy here, and perhaps the endeavor for which he is generally best known, is the innovative Fulga wakashu whose compilation he supervised, and for which he wrote the Japanese and Chinese prefaces-the latter is, as we might expect, further evidence of Hanazono's skills in classical Chinese. Study of his poetic endeavors is well beyond the scope of the present study, but the reader may usefully consult, as starting points, Iwahashi Koyata, Hanazono Tenno, pp. 111-26; Robert H. Brower and Earl Miner, Japanese Court Poetry (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961); Iwasa Miyoko ttt-T, Kyogoku ha waka no kenkyiu (Kasama shoin, 1987). As far as I am aware, the only collated body of translations of Hanazono's poems may be found in Steven Carter, Waiting For the Wind, (New York: Colum- bia University Press, 1989), pp. 203-14.




any specific change, but the broader thrust is clear. The estate (shoen) system, a structured hierarchy of rights to income from the land which underlay the political dominance of central absentee proprietors, was giving way to local rights of land ownership; production was breaking away from a service relationship to proprietors into a monetized and commercialized economy; inheritance practices at all levels of society were changing from an emphasis on divided inheritance to a preference for unitary inheritance, a shift that tended to divest women and younger males of property rights and accordingly had enormous consequences in terms of social status and dependency; and the warrior class was moving beyond the structural framework which had heretofore limited its political, judi- cial, and economic prerogatives and establishing itself as the single most important class in society. Amid these broader changes, the hereditary court aristocracy was experiencing a precipitous economic and political decline, and its claim to be arbiter of cultural traditions was also coming under assault. Competition for resources within the aristocracy revealed itself in bitter inheritance disputes, attempts to privilege one's area of activity as the legitimate and orthodox embodiment of a cultural tradition, and a concomitant stress upon the prerogatives of heredity. Privileges were being re- defined for the benefit of a few, the sense of aristocratic community was breaking down, and the wagons of family resources were being circled. Yet although the image of the late Kamakura aristocracy as reeling under the impact of major changes remains accurate, it seems clear that many contemporaries were very much interested in, if not rejecting their heritage, engaging existing assumptions and models in order to establish new cultural and social definitions of the world that might provide them with some conceptual certainty in a rapidly changing environment. Hanazono was one of those people.

Hanazono's life, and attitudes to the world, were more directly influenced by his birth into one of the two branches of the Imperial family (the Jimy6-in 4MR, to which Hanazono belonged, and the Daikakuji tt4, whose leading figures in Hanazono's day were Go-Uda &tV*, 1267-1324, and Go-Daigo, 1288-1339), that from the 1270s had been pitted in a vicious competition over the right to succeed to the Imperial rank. Hanazono was for the Jimy6-in an



68 ANDREW GOBLE

ultimately stabilizing figure amid the competition, yet the evidence of his diary suggests ambivalence toward the position in which he found himself, and in his early years a lack of self-confidence as he was buffeted by the decisions about his future taken by others on his behalf. Hanazono was adopted in 1302 by his older brother Go- Fushimi &Mb9 (1288-1236) in order to permit a stable order of succession within the Jimy6-in branch, acceded to the Imperial rank in 1308 at the age of eleven, and retained it until 1318 when, as a result of the Bunp6 Compromise of 1317-1318, he was divested of that status.

Hanazono's education and socialization was directed toward confirming in him a world-view appropriate to his role, and events were to demonstrate that the effort was successful. Sometimes Hana- zono took his deference to such an extreme that he had to be urged to shoulder key responsibilities for which he considered himself either unfit or the inappropriately designated person."5 In his youth he seems never to have seriously questioned the fact that his fate was so much in the hands of others, but he reacted strongly (in private) to events as he waged an uphill struggle to arrive at a satisfactory comprehension of his own being. In many areas-his inability to master philosophical texts, natural disasters such as urban fires, his inability to retain the Imperial rank, even his desire to retire to a life of philosophical contemplation-he would see himself as a morally incomplete human being who had failed to live up to enduringly valid high standards set by earlier paragons of ruling virtue."6 Some of his self-criticism appears entirely formulaic: an ethical and worthy monarch evaluating himself against the Confucian standards of sovereignty that suffused his early education could do little other than assign blame for such phenomena on his own moral inadequacies. The events surrounding his forced abdication were, despite his attempts to convince himself otherwise, a traumatic experience that plunged him into a pronounced mood of depression and convinced him that, by the age of twenty, he had already ex-

15 For example, HTS 1319/9/6; 1323/4/9, 11, 15; (1323/4/9) Go-Fushimi j6k6 shoj6, 1323/ 4/9 Go-Fushimi j6k6 yuzurij6 (KI, 36.28375, 28376).

16 HTS 1314/2/15, 1317/3/3, 1319/1/20, 1321/10/17, 1322/8/24.




perienced the highest point of an existence that had proven not in the least inspiring."7

Amid his pessimism Hanazono was perhaps predisposed to remark upon trends and changes suggesting that the flow of events was downhill, that changes were operating for the worse on human affairs. Hanazono, like many medieval Japanese, often voiced his concerns against the background of a well-known trope and cultural artifact, the Buddhist concept of mappo. The most widely understood form of this doctrine held that history had now entered the latter ages (masse *lti), the third of a three part cycle of degeneration and decline. In this ultimately cataclysmic period people would be unable to grasp or act in accord with the truths of Buddhism, there would be a general decline in standards of conduct and knowledge, and contention and unsettled social conditions would be endemic. It was possible to invest the notion of mappo with positive and even optimistic connotations,"8 but most people used it in a negative sense, as did Hanazono.

Yet so common was the sense of decline that many of Hanazono's references-that one can only trust to the will of the gods and Bud- dhas, that he was born in a degenerate age, or that the actions of the Kamakura bakufu represent the depth of the final age"9-have the exasperated air of a common expression, the equivalent of "God only knows!" and need not be taken as serious philosophical state- ments. All the same, for anyone inclined to give credence to the "final age, " there was more than enough material to believe that it might have arrived. Destructive floods in Kyoto in the early 1320s left countless numbers of dead, in total well above the 500 bodies dug out of the mud in just one location;20 harsh winters and unusual snowfalls in the northern provinces reportedly claimed 50%-60%

17 For example, HTS 1317/3/3, 1319/9/6. Also, the poems cited in the Donald Keene translation of Tsurezuregusa, Essays in Idleness (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), #27, pp. 28-9, and in Carter, Waiting For the Wind, p. 210 #14.

18 Michele Marra, "The Conquest of Mapp6, " Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 12 (1985): 319-41.

19 HTS 1317/2/21, 1319/10/26; 1317/3/3; 1325/10/14. 20 HTS 1320/1/7, 1324/8/16, 1325/6/26, 1325/10/14. In the latter instance Hanazono notes

that the flood washed away a large number of houses, and that there were innumerable bodies of people and horses left in its wake.



70 ANDREW GOBLE

of the population;2" conflagrations in the capital were a chronic concern;" earth tremors and earthquakes, one of which Hanazono reports as being more severe than the devastating 1293 Kamakura earthquake, were frequent;23 and of course there were robberies, jail- breaks, and murders to add further gloom to the daily scene.24

In the human realm Hanazono found deficiencies within the political and cultural elite that were eroding the integrity of the social order. Standards of knowledge and commitment had fallen so mark- edly that the entire cultural tradition stood in danger of being triv- ialized. People had only a superficial knowledge of the Way, and produced ill-informed interpretations or made comments that vitiated the whole concept of enduring knowledge; they tended to emphasize form over substance in most areas, and they neither knew nor cared about what activities were traditional and appropriate.25 Peo- ple might well enjoy the recitals by blind songsters (biwa hosshi) of new works such as the Heiji monogatari or the Heike monogatari,26 but they seemed to have little interest in reading such "old classics" as the Makura no s6shi or Genji monogatari.27 New customs (such as ex- changes of gifts) that were of no practical use to anyone, and which only encouraged extravagance, were coming to the fore; failure to be au courant would mark out critics (like Hanazono) as demented eccentrics.28 But, as Hanazono seemed to suggest on another occasion, should one go through life like a performing monkey, thought- lessly mimicking what others did?29

21 HTS 1320/1/7. 22 For some ofthe fires see HTS 1314/3/11, 1317/2/1, 1319/4/16, 1320/11/25 - 27, 1323/9/

28, 1323/12/29, 1324/11/29. 23 HTS 1317/1/5 & 6 (the 1293 earthquake noted here had killed over 20,000 people,

perhaps between a quarter and a third of the population), 1325/10/21, 1325/12/19. 24 HTS 1319/8/4 & 6, 1321/8/29, 1322/2/24, 1322/9/12, 1325/11/23-25. 25 HTS 1319/10/22, 1322/2/23, 1322/7/27, 1323/10/1. 26 For Hanazono's attendance at palace recitals, see HTS 1321/4/16, 1321/4/29. 27 For Hanazono's comment that the practise of reading the two Heian classics had been

"in abeyance in recent ages," see HTS 1325/12/24. Though a major study of Genji had been completed in mid-Kamakura, it is, as we will see, perhaps no surprise that it was not widely known.

28 HTS 1322/8/1. 29 HTS 1321/4/21. I have taken a minor liberty in attributing thoughts to Hanazono, but I

hope without misrepresenting his view of society. The entry reads: ". . . Today a youth (warawa) came accompanied by a monkey. This monkey performed a variety of entertain-




Those who should serve as models of the best were often found wanting. In the wake of the disastrous Bunp6 Compromise Go- Fushimi was failing to exhibit strong leadership or self-respect;30 ex- emperor Go-Uda and Emperor Go-Daigo, though well versed in the fundamentals of statecraft, nonetheless displayed in their attitudes to law, land disputes, and the dignity of the Imperial house major lapses of judgment and propriety;3" hereditary ministers of state (such as Saionji Sanekane 1 1249-1322, or Konoe Iehira ifi#(*1, 1282-1324) had, through lying, partiality, and plain dis- loyalty to the Imperial institution, proven themselves unworthy successors to their distinguished lineages.32 And the cultural heritage was being irreparably harmed by a dearth of talent. Classical scholarship was headed for ruin following the death of Hanazono's tutor (and exponent of his family's secret commentaries on the Wen Xuan) Sugawara Arikane W;!Vh (1248-1321), and the succession to clan headship of the stupid drunkard Tadanaga ,*>J& (1272-1331);33 Saionji Sanekane (a simple person), Omikado Fuyuuji ?R-f+ (1282-1324, besotted with wine and women), and Ichij6 Uchitsune

PSIE (1291-1325, a crass drunkard) were devoid of significant talent, and simply transmitted their family arts of the biwa and koto;34 and leading poetic families were hardly graced with an embarrass- ment of riches as they squabbled over the issue of who possessed the true artistic legacy of their common ancestor Fujiwara Teika (1162- 1241): Nij6 Tameyo Ytfft (1250-1338) had "no understanding of the principles of poetry," Nij6 Tamefuji AN (1275-1324) was innovative but pedestrian, and the talents of Ky6goku Tamekane 'g

ments (geinon); it was no different from a human. It was truly splendid. An insentient beast learns from humans and is like this; but is it that humans in following the transforming teachings of the sages are not sincere? How it pains one! The sages of the past are so distant. The ministers of the sovereign perform no worthy deeds, the common folk are not morally improved. "

30 HTS 1321/10/11, 13. 31 HTS 1319/intercalary 7/2, 1322/intercalary 5/17, 1322/12/25, 1323/7/19, 1324/6/24. 32 HTS 1321/11/13, 1322/9/29, 1325/12/1. 33 HTS 1321/6/23, 24. For the Sugawara and the Wen Xuan, see Ishihara Akira ;Fqf,

"Shin hakken no Kanazawa bunko bon [Wen Xuanj ni shii," Kanazawa bunko kenkya 13

(1956): 6-9. 34 HTS 1322/9/10, 1324/8/16, 1325/10/2.



72 ANDREW GOBLE

S (1254-1332) had been buried in personal disgrace.35 This was all saddening and regrettable.

Up to a point Hanazono's observations may reflect the maudlin mind of a frustrated social critic denied the opportunity to effect policies that might improve the world. At times, though he was well aware that the real world had always shown imperfections and devia- tions from the ideal,36 he gives the impression of being a curmud- geonly conservative. Yet we cannot attribute Hanazono's remarks to an automatic usage of the mappo trope, for he was noting major changes in his social environment that connoted potential dismem- berment of aristocratic traditions and culture. Through the 1320s an unprecedented spate of deaths was transforming the composition of the aristocracy and causing a substantial generational shift. This major phenomenon is crucial to any understanding of the 1320 and 1330s, and of course central to Hanazono's intellectual development. For some reason it has escaped scholarly notice, and it thus deserves some attention.

During the 1320s deaths37 and outbreaks of measles, smallpox, chills, and other assorted diseases constantly afflicted Hanazono and the aristocracy.38 If we can steal a year, the decade starts off in mid- 1319 with a long rainy spell that brings death and illness to many; 1320, a generally cold year, ends with a measles epidemic (aka mogasa) from which "everyone" suffers, and which is compounded by something like an outbreak of smallpox (mogasa and hoso);39 in 1324 "many prominent people" die, including Go-Uda who has been rendered incapable of ambulation for three years by beri-beri; in 1326 so many die from a general pestilence that the

3 Masukagami (Perkins, trans., pp. 268-69), HTS 1324/7/26, 1324/7/26, 1325/12/28, 1332/3/24. See also Robert Huey, Kyogoku Tamekane (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989).

36 HTS 1322/2/27. 37 Information on deaths has been compiled from several sources: Sonpi bunmyaku (Kokushi

taikei edition, 4 vols. and index, Yoshikawa k6bunkan, 1966-1967); Kugyo bunin (Kokushi taikei edition, vol. 2, Yoshikawa k6bunkan, 1981); Jorakuki *V-6 (Shinkogunsho rujzi, Gunsho Ruijui Kansei Kai, 1932, vol. 22, zatsu bu); and HTS.

38 For example, HTS 1319/1/20, 1320/1/7, 1320/12/29, 1321/1/15, 1324/8/16. 3 The tables in Anne B. Jannetta, Epidemics and Mortality in Early Modern Japan (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 1986), pp. 65-70, 114-17 can be augmented to include the 1320- 1321 afflictions recorded by Hanazono.




era name is changed in hopes of mollifying Heaven; in 1327 again "many people die;" and the years 1329 and 1330 are "filled with funeral services" because of a large number of deaths, many caused by an illness characterized by bouts of body-wracking coughing.0 It is true that we do not know exactly how many people died (aside from the fact that female deaths are remarked upon far less than those of males), and that people of all ages were affected. Likewise, the reaction to a death would differ depending upon the circumstances: the deaths of those who by any measure had had a good innings,4' who had already reached old age,42 and of those known for poor constitu- tions, unhealthy regimens, or a drinking problem43 would not necessarily have come as a great surprise; the deaths of those who were carried away before their time or before their parents was always a matter of regret;44 and the deaths of the politically or culturally prominent generally elicited eulogies lamenting the loss.45 Yet whatever the circumstances, in seven of eleven years contemporaries were struck by the unusual incidence of illness and death that spared no segment of aristocratic society. Beyond the deaths themselves was the destruction it wrought on the cultural and political elite.

In classical studies, the death of 73 year-old Imperial tutor Suga- wara Arikane was lamented since his successor as clan head, Tadana- ga, was "without talent" and not particularly serious about his area of endeavor (he "made his life's work the imbibing of alcohol");

40 HTS 1319/6/last day, 1320/12/29, 1321/1/15, 1321/12/12, 1324/8/16; Shiryosoran, vol. 5, entry for 1326/4/26; for 1327, 1329, 1330 see Masukagami (Perkins, trans., pp. 281, 286, 287).

41 For example, Kuj6 Tadanori . 85, Genkimon-in i;3r- 83, Ky6goku Tamekane 78, Saionji Sanekane 74, Sugawara Arikane 73, Ayanok6ji Nobuari J 67, Reizei Tamesuke ?$7)f 65, Reizei Tamemori ,,F 63.

42 Such as Sugawara Tadanaga ,LP\ and Thin Saneyasu ARR 59, Go-Uda 57, Eika- mon-in *Ar1 56, Sh6keimon-in mrx- 54, Takatsukasa Fuyuhira t A 53, Nij6 Tamefuji 49, Kuj6 Moronori A1i2 and Saionji Kimiaki ~2 48. Some passages in the Tsurezuregusa (such as #7 and #113: Keene, Essays in Idleness, pp. 7-8, 94-95) suggest a contemporary view that one passes into old age after the age of forty.

43 Such as Oimikado Fuyuuji 43 or Ichij6 Uchitsune 34: see HTS 1324/8/16, 1325/10/2. 44 Such as Konoe Iehira 43, Kuj6 Fusazane 1W 38, Saionji Sanehira 37, Ayanok6ji

Ariyori ;# 36, Tokudaiji Sanetaka 9t * 30, Crown Prince Kuninaga 26. 45 Go-Uda, HTS 1324/6/24 and Masukagami (Perkins, 265); Kuninaga, Masukagami (Per-

kins, 272); T6in Saneyasu, Masukagami (Perkins, 268); Nijo Tamefuji, HTS 1324/7/26, Masukagami (Perkins, 268); Tokudaiji Sanetaka, HTS 1322/1/17.



74 ANDREW GOBLE

Tadanaga's undistinguished term presiding over clan traditions came to an end with his own death at 59 in 1331. Another eminent family, the Tokudaiji, lost its promising head Sanetaka in 1322 at age 30, leaving the burden of maintaining family traditions on the shoulders of Sanetaka's 10 year-old son.47 Adding to these losses was the death in 1320 of 48 year-old Kuj6 Moronori, a "bril- liant student" of Chinese letters (and fully cognizant thereby of the notions of ruling and ethics that should inform a "minister of state") for whose talents there was no ready replacement to be found anywhere in the five regency families.48 In the area of musical traditions, the Ayanokoji family was totally devastated: Aritoki 8

was murdered at a ceremony in 1318; his father Nobuari, teacher of Fushimi, died in 1324 at age 67; a brother, Ariyori, teacher of both Hanazono and Go-Daigo, died at 36 in 1329, leaving the future of the clan in the hands of 8 year-old Noriari ?t.` In a slightly different vein, long-term problems came to a head in a koto family, the Oimikado. Fuyuuji, "besotted with wine and women" and "possessed of little talent, " had become clan head at age 30 following the deaths in quick succession of his father and grandfather, and upon his death at age 43 was survived by sons barely old enough to have mastered the rudiments of the family art.50 None of this boded well, but since the basic skills were not exclusive monopolies, there was always the chance that other families and individuals might carry on the traditions in a satisfactory way.

In the lofty cultural realm of poetry, however, fears about the survival of the acrimoniously disputed legacy of Fujiwara Teika were compounded by concern over the physical survival of the designated practitioners. The Nij6 (Mikohidari 01tA) line was riven by inter- nal rivalries. Go-Daigo had extended his patronage to the innova-

46 HTS 1321/6/23, 24. 47 HTS 1322/1/17 for Sanetaka. His son Kimikiyo Xir (1312-1360) appears to have en-

joyed early favor at court (Masukagami, Perkins, trans., p. 259) but does not seem to have made a mark on the cultural scene.

48 HTS 1320/6/7. 49 Masukagami (Perkins, trans., p. 237); 1329/7/20 Go-Daigo tenn6 shoj6 (KI, 39.30665). 5 Fuyuuji's father Yoshimune . (1260-1307) had predeceased his own father Nobu-

tsugu {-E1 (1235-1311). Fuyuuji was survived by Ujitada ;,* (1301-post 1352), Fuyunobu -{ (1308-1350), and Ienobu fA (1315-post 1366).




tive Tamefuji, and had charged him with compilation of an Imperi- al anthology. But his death in 1324 led to a bitter dispute over who would complete that project (nephew and protege Tamesada AR, 1293-1360, or his brother Tamefuyu A, d. 1335), thus leaving family fortunes in the hands of the pedestrian and uninspiring father Tameyo (who was to retire from the world in 1329 because of illness). Worse, since Tameyo was a protege of Go-Daigo's rival, Crown Prince Kuninaga (1300-1326), the latter's death and an inability to find influential patronage led to a rapid decline in the standing of the Tameyo poetic circle, which included such talents as Yoshida Kenk6 iIff (1280?-1352) and Ton'a d4 i (1289-1372). The Reizei line, though in possession of the most important documents in Teika's legacy, was essentially bereft of patronage and was thus unable to demonstrate its skills to a wider audience; and death claimed its two senior figures in 1328, and a member of the next generation the following year.5" To cap the unrelenting bad news, the indisputably most talented poet since Teika himself, Ky6goku Tamekane, died in unredeemed exile in 1332 leaving no noted heirs (though he had high hopes that Hanazono would keep the art alive).52 None of this could suggest a positive future.

These families were not the only ones involved in the arts and learning, but they were pre-eminent. We see not only the deaths of exemplary cultural transmitters but also that their successors were possessed of generally inferior talents, and were intellectually, professionally, and physically in their infancy. Who now remained to demonstrate that traditional pursuits were worth preserving or in any way meaningful? Certainly not those in an aristocracy characterized by Hanazono as unconcerned about mastering inherited knowledge. But if death was reworking cultural society, it was having an equally devastating impact on those families charged with "assisting the state" and maintaining some measure of political stability.

51 Reizei family head Tamesuke (1263-1328), his brother Tamemori (1265-1328), and Tamesuke's son Tamenari ),%f) (?-1329). Tamesuke's chosen successor Tamehide A (?- 1372) was to prove a very able poet, leaving his mark in the 17th Imperial anthology, Fu7gawakashui.

52 His obituary in HTS 1332/3/24 is translated in Huey, Kyogoku Tamekane, pp. 157-60. Tamekane left two heirs, both adopted sons, who appear to have left little poetic legacy.



76 ANDREW GOBLE

Among the higher aristocracy (the five regency families and the bakufu representative, the Saionji), whose role was considered central to the proper functioning of political society by Jien and Chikafusa, deaths eliminated the most senior figures. The most dra- matic case was that of the Saionji family which for nearly three- quarters of a century had played a crucial role in elite politics. Sanekane's eldest son and designated heir Kinpira , a dynamic politician and patron of letters,53 died in 1315 aged 52; a second son Kimiaki died in 1321 aged 48; Sanekane himself passed away in 1322 aged 74 following a long illness that in its later stages rendered him unable to take nourishment and left him as though already dead;54 the new heir Sanehira, regarded by many as a cipher and who was on occasion subjected to a level of ridicule that would have been unimaginable in the heyday of Sanekane,55 died in 1326 aged 37, to be succeeded by his son, the 17 year-old Kinmune I (13 10- 1335). At this juncture Go-Daigo prevailed upon Kanesue t (1281-1339), left out of the inheritance planning, to reveal to him the closely guarded secrets of the Saionji musical tradition for the biwa. This was of no small import, for exclusive possession of such skills was an integral basis for any claim to be a valued part of the court cultural tradition, and no self-respecting family ever willingly parted with its special knowledge. Disconcertingly, Kinmune (whose political ineptness was to get him executed in 1335) displayed such an embarrassingly low level of accomplishment on the biwa that family claims to pre-eminence in this field, and thus to be truly cultured people, were dealt a severe blow.56

5 Kinpira, as well as leaving us an informative diary, the Kinpira k6ki (Shiryo sanshiu edition, 4 vols., 1968-1979), sponsored the compilation of a major medical text, the Eisei hzy)sho (Gun- sho ruiju edition), the noted Kasuga gongen genki (see Tyler, The Miracles of the Kasuga Deity), and was perhaps involved in other compilations (see Hirabayashi Seitoku TL#94, "Fushimi no miya kyuz6 burui ki to Saionji Kinpira," Shoryobu kiyo OR%#: 43 (1991), 1-14. See also the laudatory anecdote about Kinpira in Tsurezuregusa (Keene, Essays in Idleness, no. 83, p. 71).

54 HTS 1322/9/10 bekki. 55 One telling anecdote (undated, but probably from mid-1324) of the contempt in which

he was held is immortalized in the Tsurezuregusa (Keene, Essays in Idleness, #152, pp. 135-6). 56 Go-Fushimi tenno shinki (in Rekidai Shinki, Zoho shiryo taisei), 1327/2/16. Despite a small

revival under Kinmune's wife and his son Sanetoshi 9t, from mid-century the family was forced to abandon any claim to pre-eminence in the biwa, turning instead to the esoteric lore of falconry: Ogino Minahiko tXEf3 t;, "Chfisei gakusho no okugaki ni tsuite,"




But the Saionji were not alone in their difficulties. Konoe Iehira died in 1324 aged 53, to be succeeded as house-head by 23 year-old Tsunetada , Takatsukasa Fuyuhira died in 1327 aged 53, and was succeeded by 34 year-old Fuyunori l-, a younger brother adopted as a son. Ichij6 Uchitsune, who had become family head in 1304 at the age of 13, and was subsequently used and discarded by Go-Daigo, passed away in 1325 a broken alcoholic of 34, to be succeeded by 10 year-old Tsunemichi 0-:. The Kuj6 family was hit even harder. Kuj6 Tadanori's heir Moronori died in 1320 aged 48; his grandson and new heir Fusazane died in 1327 at 38; and in 1332, when the venerable Tadanori himself succumbed at the age of 85, the family was left in the hands of his 18 year-old great-grandson Michinori 1:. Or to simplify all of this, prime heirs or family heads in five of the six most important aristocratic families (only the Nij6 remained intact)57 died in 1320, 1321, 1322, 1324, 1325, 1326, 1327 (two), and 1332. Certainly people must die sometime, individual families were affected differently, and several of those who died did so at advanced ages. Still, this clustering of deaths was highly unusual, and an initial comparison of the 1320s with other decades suggests that the impressions of contemporaries in the 1320s had a basis in objective fact.

This die off led to realignments of prerogative and a surfacing of barely muted familial tensions, which in general were between those previously deemed ineligible for meaningful inheritances and those slated to constitute the "main line," and thus between those seeking to chart new directions as they sought a new social identification and those wanting to shore up existing access to influence. These are important indicators of social change at any time, but the broader effect of the deaths was that in very short order the higher aristocracy lost most of those who were the repositories of knowledge, the patrons whose personal contacts bound so many others to the net- works of favors and obligations that underlay the aristocratic order, who were most able by virtue of seniority if nothing else to suggest

Komonjo kenkyui 16 (1981): 111-13. See also Ogino, "Saionji no My6onten z6, " Komonjo kenkyu 17/18 (1981): 1-12.

57 Three house-heads were alive in the 1320s: Morotada ,J (1254-1341), his brother Kanemoto i (1266-1334), and current head Michihira i1- (1287-1335).



78 ANDREW GOBLE

stability and continuity, and above all who were capable of bringing their experience to bear upon the pressing political issues of the day. With much of the older generation having disappeared virtually overnight, Emperor Go-Daigo emerged by default as the most senior figure in Kyoto, able to exercise the full force of his ambition, personality, and desire to reform the world against a young, inex- perienced aristocratic elite.

The wave of deaths naturally impacted Hanazono's Jimy6-in branch of the Imperial family. At one level, the Saionji made a strong effort-based on its marital connections with the Jimy6-in and prompted by its own problems-to "support" the Jimy6-in in its struggle, a task it pursued so vigorously under the direction of the full siblings Eifukumon-in *r (1271-1342) and Kakuen t [[ (1277-1340) that the Jimy6-in came close to being turned into a Saionji subsidiary.58 On another, and far more important level, the Jimy6-in had to deal with the fact that Go-Daigo's continuous efforts to promote the interests of his offspring were in part based on the premise that the Jimy6-in should be divested of eligibility for the succession. The ins and outs of the maneuvering are a complex sto- ry that need not detain us here, but suffice it to say that the death of Go-Uda in 1324 and that of Crown Prince Kuninaga in 1326 eliminated the familial restraints on Go-Daigo that had been put in place during the Bunp6 Compromise, and indeed had called into question much of the Compromise itself. Go-Daigo impeded even the normal ceremonial entitlements of the new Crown Prince, Hana- zono's charge Tokihito, being in part encouraged by the hope (not realized) that Tokihito, whose state of health had concerned Hanazono for a long time, might also succumb to a fatal illness, thus leaving the Imperial succession field clear. By 1328 there was sufficient alarm over the possibility that the Jimy6-in might be subject to a terminal "dynastic shedding" that Go-Fushimi was prompted to write a long and poignant memorial outlining his concerns.59 Go-Fushimi's arguments reflect much of the tortured assumptions and arrangements that had been cobbled together in

5 Kakuen comported himself towards Go-Fushimi and Hanazono like a latter-day Sanekane (HTS 1332/2/17 uragaki).

5 See 1328/2/16 (?) Go-Fushimij6k6 kotogaki an (KI, 39.30142); and Mori Shigeaki OM W, "Kamakura k6ki seiji shi no hitokusari," Nihon rekishi 410 (1982): 15-30.




previous decades, but his basic point was that the Jimy6-in should continue in the line of succession. In his mind there was little doubt that it ought to be unthinkable for a branch of the Imperial family to be peremptorily cut off from its destiny. Yet while Go-Fushimi made the argument that it ought to be unthinkable, he was very clearly prompted to do so by the fact that the matter had become all too thinkable. However, as revealing ofJimy6-in fears as the memorial is, the problem addressed by Go-Fushimi was in one sense restricted to a limited question of political maneuvering, and does not indicate any concerns over the long-term future of the Imperial institution itself. But for Hanazono that larger issue was impossible to avoid, for not only had he spent the 1320s observing with a growing sense of alarm the changes that were having such profound effects upon the elite, he had also spent the decade engaged in extensive study of the intellectual record in an effort to elucidate a broader conceptual framework within which he might be able to interpret those changes.

EDUCATION AND THE BASIS OF KNOWLEDGE

Hanazono's early education was a standard one for an Emperor, consisting of receiving instruction from members of hereditary scholar families in those works related to sovereignty of which a Son of Heaven ought to be cognizant. The study was designed to familia- rize him with a known corpus of knowledge that he would pursue with increasingly greater understanding over time. Under the general tutelage of Sugawara Arikane, Hanazono began serious study in 1310 with the History of the Han,60 moved on the next year to the Histo- ry of the Later Han6' and the Chen Gui _IL,62 and progressed through 1313 and 1314 with such works as the Di Fan j?jh,63 Classic of Filial Pi- ety,64 Wen Xuan,65 and Junshu Zhiyao PEIkS,66 and two Imperial

60 HTS 1310/10/3 (reading the Kobun hongi, a section of the Hanshu), 1311/5/6, 1313/1/7. 61 HTS 1311/4/20, 1313/2/9, 1313/2/12, 1313/5/6, 1313/7/2, 1313/11/13. 62 HTS 1311/5/23. 63 HTS 1313/2/12, 1313/2/15, 1313/3/6, 1313/3/17, 1313/3/30, 1313/4/22, 1313/5/6. 64 HTS 1313/5/6. 65 HTS 1313/10/2. 6 HTS 1314/1/13, 1314/2/10, 1314/6/4.



80 ANDREW GOBLE

Japanese works, the Jinsa ki AAES-E67 of Emperor Juntoku and the KanpyJ onki68 of Emperor Uda. In the following years he expanded the list to include such works as the Analectsj69 the Zhenguan Zheng- yao,7 the Koichijo sadaijin ki of Fujiwara Morotada 1i (read only briefly),7' and the Nihongi.72

Hanazono appears to have been a serious student, and late in 1313 he resolved to read according to a fixed schedule: every day he would read one kan 1 of a Chinese orJapanese text (sho) .7 This may seem rather mechanical, but is our first hint of just how voracious a reader Hanazono would turn out to be. Other state- ments in the diary suggest that, as his competence in classical Chinese advanced and as his knowledge base expanded, he not only kept to this schedule but actually increased it. He notes in 1317 that from the previous year he had every day without exception read two kan of a major text and one kan of a (Japanese) diary; in 1321 that since his youth he had been organizing chronicles (rekiki ME, presumably Japanese ones) and writing out clean copies of texts; in 1322 he notes that he was determined to read all the Classics and the entire Buddhist corpus; and in 1323 that it was his daily practice to read one "inner text" (or Buddhist work) during the day, and a Chinese or Japanese work (wakan sho) io*A at night.74

Yet if Hanazono was from the outset an eager (even compulsive) devourer of the written word, it is also apparent that his early reading was a somewhat passive endeavor, propelled not by specific goals or burning questions that demanded answers, but reliant on the hope that he would pick up whatever truths, values, lessons, and

67 HTS 1313/4/16, 1313/4/20, 1313/5/21. 68 HTS 1313/10/4. 69 It is not known when he first started reading this central Confucian work, but allusions

in later years to "what Confucius would say" (HTS 1319/9/6) suggest that he can only have been reading it. It would, in fact, be almost unthinkable that he would not have been introduced to it fairly early, perhaps by 1315, a year for which the diary is unfortunately not extant.

70 HTS 1317/3/3, 1317/4/3, 1319/3/25, 1319/4/8, 1319/4/15. 71 HTS 1317/3/20, 1317/3/30. This regent's diary covers the years 941-969. 72 Hanazono first encountered the Nihongi in 1312 (HTS 1312/2/18) when the issue of the

correct ceremonial manner of emboxing the Imperial Seal arose. He does not mention reading it, however, until later: HTS 1317/3/25.

73 HTS 1313/10/16. 74 HTS 1317/5/25, 1321/7/25, 1322/2/23, 1322/3/17, 1323/12/29.




information the works contained simply through the process of ex- posure. This was no doubt a useful procedure for memorizing texts and being able to reel off information when necessary, though in a more positive light it does seem to accord with the pedagogical norms of classical education throughout East Asia. But by his second decade, and subsequent to his forced abdication, he began to evince some dissatisfaction with his prior attitudes (naturally he was highly critical of himself) and to realize that reading was an entirely different matter from learning and studying which required serious, undivided attention. As he noted in 1319: 7

Today my cold improved considerably so I took a bath. Recently I have not been doing other things and by and large I pass the days, apart from taking meals, in opening the texts and putting my heart into studying the meaning of the passages. Despite this, by nature I am stupid and am unable to fully grasp their meaning. I definitely have sufficient resolve for study, and gradually I want to know the principles of the Way. But my heart has not yet reached that level of ability. This is the chagrin of my life. . . . Simply, I put my heart into the Classics; I just wish to wait for the effect of this accumulation. The root of this is that from the very first when I was young I was not diligent in pursuing [my study], and because of this I have not yet been able to study widely . .. A person who determines to study must first of all terminate all desires, for if the well-springs are blocked up then the stream of itself must cease.

Another area of growing dissatisfaction was that his early study appears to have been pursued in isolation. While he had tutors who could guide him to texts and provide explication when necessary, there is little evidence that he had contact with anyone else with whom he felt he could freely discuss issues that were important to his own being: what is human nature? what is the nature of society? what informs the enterprise of ruling? And after his abdication, these issues became compelling ones.

His thirst for intellectual camaraderie was first slaked by a meeting in 1319 with one of the better-educated members of his own generation, Hino Suketomo Fl ff* (1290-1332), an ambitious young courtier who also happened to be quite interested in the currents of Song Chinese thought, both Buddhist and neo-Confucian. As Hanazono records his reaction:76

75 HTS 1319/10/26. See also 1322/8/24. 76 HTS 1319/intercalary 7/4. For a study of Suketomo see Inoue Yoshinobu * K {



82 ANDREW GOBLE

Suketomo came after nightfall. I called him before me and we spoke on the Way. It can only be said that he has grasped the Way. I have been fond of learning for seven or eight years, and in the past two or three years I have grasped the essential meaning of the Way. However, I have discussed it with various people but they have not yet measured up. Now for the first time I have met with intellect. We talked until the end of the night, and did not break until the dawn bell.

Hanazono soon became aware that Suketomo and some others in Go-Daigo's circle had, in taking up Go-Daigo's interest in matters of sovereignty (an issue that in the wake of the Bunp6 Compromise had emerged as an area of urgent interest in court society) formed a discussion group that addressed "the questions of morality and Con- fucian teaching." So interested was Hanazono that, though he was not (and for political reasons could not be) a member of the group, he would on occasion secretly listen in on their debates." An equally important by-product of association with Suketomo appears to have been an introduction to such recent Song classics as Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongiian.78

It is from this time that we can discern Hanazono's transition from a passive reader into an active questioner of the texts he was en- countering and gain an inkling of Hanazono's basic philosophical approach. He had already that year come to a position that for all knowledge and human events there was an underlying unity, the Way,79 the explication and understanding of which ought to become apparent through study, and in his first substantive comment on a textual interpretation we also see him addressing the question of the relationship between enduring standards, conditions of the times, and the vicissitudes of individual lives. Ironically, this first evidence appears on the same day that Hanazono, as quoted above, was be-

"Hino Suketomo sh6ron," in Ky6to daigaku bungakubu kokushi kenkyui shitsu, ed., Akamatsu Toshihide kyojiu taikan kinen kokushi ronshui (Kyoto, 1972), pp. 581-95.

77 HTS 1319/intercalary 7/22. 78 The Zizhi Tong/ian had been available in Japan at least since the mid-thirteenth century

(it is cited in Tokudaiji Sanemoto's Seidojojo). There is no direct evidence that Suketomo informed Hanazono that it was worth studying, but it is only after his acquaintance with Suketo- mo that we find Hanazono expanding his reading into this area: in HTS 1321/5/18 Hanazono notes that he had been reading the work since the year before last.

79 HTS 1319/9/6: ". . . the principle of the Way of that which I have acquired is, simply, that it exists solely in one true principle. It is definitely not in two or three."




wailing his own inadequacies. Let us quote Hanazono again:80

Someone raised the issue that "The texts state that 'Advancing on the Path therefore there is good fortune. Going against the path therefore there is misfortune. The reward or retribution for fortune and misfortune likewise have consequences.' Yen Hui SI was a student of Confucius, and it is said that of the four areas of endeavor [virtuous conduct, ability in speech, skill in statecraft, and literary acquire- ments] he was noted for virtuous conduct. This is said despite it being not possible to evaluate [the extent of] his sagacity and wisdom. Unluckily he died after a short life. Thieves swagger around and enjoy a long life. When one reflects upon this one has doubts about the will of Heaven and the path of Good. What does it become one to follow the Way and be fond of learning?"

When one thinks about this carefully, this person has not thought about the full meaning of the Way. Death and life are subject to destiny. Wealth and honor are decided by Heaven.81 Why put forward an argument on this? Certainly, "the Path cannot be departed from for [even] a little while. What can be departed from is not the Way. "

[This person] further stated that "The Way, further, is a door. Who goes out without using a door? Who does not depend upon the nature of the Way?82 One cannot put forward arguments in terms of misfortune and fortune. If [someone] were to put forth an argument and do so in terms of misfortune and fortune, this is not someone who aspires to the Way. Nevertheless people who follow the Way do receive fortune. If one acts contrary to this then one receives misfortune. This is the natural working of justice (ri) and goes without saying. People such as Yenzi If are to be found in humble areas of the city, and they are content with this. A wise lord makes as his basis a system of ranks and status. He does not rely on things apart from this. If Yenzi had been present at the destruction of the Six Kingdoms, then he certainly would have raised troops. Who within the four seas and widely throughout the Empire would not have hurried to ally themselves [with Yenzi]? If this had occurred, should this be called the fortune of the Way?"

I think that this is not fitting. If Yenzi had firmly taken the Empire through military force, how could this be considered wisdom and sagacity? This is already not the Way. Why say that this is sagacity and wisdom? To not rely upon something other than [the Way] is considered wisdom. Now this is called bad fortune. [Yet] this is the fortune of the Way. If Yenzi had received the lineage of the royal line, how would one not call him a wise sovereign? How would one not say that he is the one who had received the charge of Heaven? The misfortune of which [people] speak is that he was born into a family of low status. This is not something that is censured by the Way. Furthermore, at that time there was not a sovereign who

80 HTS 1319/10/26. 81 See Analects XII.5. References to Analects and to Mencius in the notes are based on the

Penguin Books editions of the translations of D. C. Lau. 82 See Analects VI. 17.



84 ANDREW GOBLE

utilized wisdom; consequently [Yenzi] did not receive a government post. If there had been a sovereign who sought for wisdom, then who would have been utilized if not Yenzi? This is happiness and sorrows. One cannot take this and argue about the Way. If a common person goes against [the sovereign] he meets with execution. If he practices the good, then he meets with a government post. One cannot go against what is planned.

People in society should not take minor examples and assume they are common. Further, even though from the ancient past there have been numerous [instances] of [people] being fond of drink and pleasure who have received misfortune, some people chastise [others] for not being fond of drink and enjoyment, and [ask] why there is this studying of the Way. This is just blowing little fibers and looking for minor blemishes. Is it not perversely raising chance censure?

Certainly the great rope of the Way is not something which can be elucidated just by one's writing brush. What the common world knows is incredibly foolish. It is a long distance from the Way. Ah, how saddening this is! Who will revive the Way of the Master [Confucius]? This must be lamented, this must be lamented! My life accords with a time of the shallowness of humanity in the latter days. Seeing how the common world has lost the meaning of the Way, and not to mention how there is ridicule of the Way, words fail me, words fail me!

Hanazono would come back to these questions several times in the next few years, and as in the present instance would take the position that, while conditions may vary, and even though one could be born into unfortunate times, the basic constant was that success if and when it did come could only be achieved through a proper understanding of Heaven and its will. The issue, of course, was whether people when seeking to interpret events understood that or instead sought more superficial rationales. Yet, while noting this point, we need to exercise some caution; even while allowing that Hanazono was seeking some certainty, the question of why he held to the position and did not adopt another possible interpretive stance-such as a simple mappo position-still requires exploration.

From 1319 through 1325 (when the extant diary effectively ends for our purposes) Hanazono embarked on a concerted effort-impeded on occasion by his ceremonial duties and his affliction by and recovery from illness and medical treatments such as moxabustion, and conducted concurrently with his study of Buddhism-to understand the underlying truths of his intellectual heritage in the realm of human affairs. Or, more precisely, to establish just what constituted his intellectual heritage, for Hanazono's study involved far more than simply attempting to master what had been handed down in




Japan, and was not nearly as limited in scope as one characteriza- tion of his reading as "mostly confined to the classics as they were recognized in pre-Sung times"83 would suggest. Having been tu- tored to date primarily in Chinese texts, we might expect him to have continued in that vein, but in the first instance, through 1319 and 1320, he pursued a different tack. Putting aside his reading (or at least reference to) the Classics and the Zizhi Tongiian, he turned his attention to Japanese sources.

Evidently wishing to begin at the beginning, under the guidance of the hereditary legal scholar Nakahara Akito i18g$E he embarked on a study of the Nara period legal codes the Ritsu and Ryo. By late 1320 Hanazono was pleased that he had managed to read the texts, but has unfortunately left us no comment on the information he was acquiring;84 nor does he intimate any acquaintance with the established commentaries (the Ryo no shuige and Ryo no gige) which had appeared over the intervening centuries. It is possible that Hanazono did not know of their existence, since even the copies of the Ritsu and Ryo that he did study were not his own but were brought to him by Akito chapter by chapter.85 Hanazono is silent on the matter, and we will probably never know the answers. However, this does raise the crucial questions of what constituted Hanazono's textual landscape and where he obtained his material.

Transmission of knowledge and access to materials in medieval Japan was characterized by restriction and exclusivity stemming from a social environment in which possession of knowledge was integral to maintenance of social and cultural status. This condition, while not uniquely Japanese or pre-modern, was by Hanazono's day manifested in two related ways. First, the phenomenon of com- mingled public and private spheres of activity in all facets of life

83 H. Paul Varley, "Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and the World of Kitayama, " in John W. Hall and Toyoda Takeshi, eds., Japan in the Muromahi Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), p. 195.

84 HTS 1319/intercalary 7/22, 1319/9/28, 1319/10/2, 1319/10/23, 1319/10/27 (Ryo); HTS 1320/10/10, 1320/10/17, 1320/10/20, 1320/10/22, 1320/10/29, 1320/11/4, 1320/11/10(Ritsu).

85 In this context, the experience of the Kuj6 family seems to suggest that non-specialists did not have access to the complete texts of the commentaries, but instead were provided with summary extracts (which were not verbatim citations) on selected topics. See Yoshioka Masayuki "Shiry6 sh6kai, Kuj6 ke bon 'Ry6 kunshaku nukigaki,' Shoryobu kiyo 31 (1979): 50-60.



86 ANDREW GOBLE

that had characterized the aristocratic world since at least the tenth century, and which tended to militate against the prcduction of homogeneous knowledge; second, a cultural ethos which placed great store on the notion that the higher truths of the world could best be apprehended by and revealed through one's dedication to a particular, often hereditary, cultural endeavor. These elements are of course general ones, but they exerted an influence on the realm of knowledge in specific fashion that, while being a natural outgrowth of the well-known privatization of interpretative writing that had occurred from the tenth century,86 had major implications for the medieval understanding of "the" intellectual heritage and of "the" past.

Access to information or a common record was further vitiated by the effective non-existence of any central set of records or library. In the area of public political and administrative activity there was no working Imperial archive, and documents and works relevant to official activity had become the proprietary domain, and thus the secret lore, traditions, and rationale for continued existence of the families that constituted the hereditary service aristocracy (such as the Otsuki and Mibu families for state documents, and the Nakahara family for material dealing with questions of legal doctrine).87 Pri- vatization of information was common in aristocratic families, which produced their own records of the past to provide descendants with information about affairs in the public realm, matters of court ceremonial, family achievements, sometimes about reasons for decisions on matters such as inheritance or connections with patrons, and sometimes with sage advice on proper comportment. Family diaries and other records were not intended to be freely circulating documents, but were highly prized resources, the possession of which could add immensely to one's stature. As such, they

86 See Delmer Brown, "Pre-Gukansho Historical Writing in Japan," in Brown and Ishida, The Future and the Past, pp. 353-401; Helen C. McCullough, Okagami, The Great Mirror (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), pp. 3-61.

87 See Mibu ke monjo (comp. Kunaich6 shory6bu, 10 vols. to date, Meiji shoin, 1979-). For information on some of these families see Imae Hiromichi -41IEJ2iT, "H6ke Nakahara shi keizu kosh6," Shoryobu kiyo 27 (1976): 16-38; Soga Yoshinari I&RA)A, "Kanmu ke seiritsu no rekishi teki haikei," Shigaku zasshi 92.3 (1983): 1-39; Hashimoto Yoshihiko, Heian kizoku shakai no kenkyua (Yoshikawa k6bunkan, 1976).




were often the object of intense competition over ownership, on some occasions leading people to deliberately destroy them to deny them to family rivals,88 and on other occasions prompting the crea- tion of entirely false records that could be passed off to rivals while the originals remained secret.89 As another example of the unwilling- ness of (especially high-ranking) families to share information, we have a memorandum from the Imperial regent Kuj6 family from the 1320s9? listing four diaries (Fujiwara Tadazane's Denreki, Kuj6 Kanezane's Gyokuyo, Kuj6 Yoshitsune's Gokyogoku sessho ki, and Kuj6 Michiie's Gyokuzui),91 that are "secret" diaries, not to be shown to outsiders, and copies of which exist only in the Kuj6 and Ichij6 families. Undoubtedly the other regency families felt the same about their records, for a major catalog of Kuj6 library and document holdings compiled in 1293 makes absolutely no mention of, for example, notable diaries produced by the Konoe family;92 and perhaps even more significantly for our understanding of what works were in circulation or to which people may have had access, it is apparent from the holdings catalog that the Kuj6 family did not

88 For example Kajuiji Tsunefusa, having appropriated family records in an effort to en- hance his claims on the family legacy, saw that they were "reduced to ashes" before he fled in disgrace into the priesthood. See 1275/3/1 Kajiiji Tsunetoshi shobunj6 (Nakamura Naokatsu chosakush, 4, shoen no kenkyui [Kyoto: Tank6sha, 1978], pp. 521-22.

89 The most well-known case is the dispute over the poetic legacy of Fujiwara Teika, when the Reizei family forged a whole set of "Teika documents," fobbed them off to the Nij6, and kept the valued originals. See Brower and Miner, Japanese Court Poetry, pp. 348-56.

90 Kuj6 Tadanori hitsuz6 kiroku oboegaki: Kujoke monjo (comp. Kunaich6 shory6 bu, Mei- ji shoin, 1972), 1.21. The memorandum is undated, but dealing as it does with the question of what family records are most important and how they are to be treated, it is not unreason- able to assume that it was prepared in the same period as Tadanori was feverishly drawing up other bequeaths in the 1320s when his descendants were dying around him. See Tadanori bequeaths for 1327/3/22 (originally written 1308/1/1), 1327/3/25, 1327/4/4, 1327/5/20, 1327/9/ 27 (KI, 30.23139, 38.29788, 38.29802, 38.29849, 38.29978).

91 The Denreki covers 1097-1118; Tadazane (1078-1162) was sesshI 1107-1113 and kanpaku 1105-1107, 1113-1121. The Gyokuyo covers 1164-1203; Kanezane (1149-1207), the brother of Jien, was sessho 1186-1191 and kanpaku 1191-1196). The Gokyogoku sesshI ki covers 1190- 1204; Yoshitsune (1169-1206) was son of Kanezane and sessho 1202-1206. The Gyokuzui covers 1207-1238; Michiie (1193-1252) was son of Yoshitsune, enjoyed close links to the Kamakura bakufu-his son Yoritsune was shogun 1219-1244-and was sessho in 1221, and kanpakti 1228-1231.

92 1293/6/17 Kujo ke bunko monjo mokuroku (KI, 23.18125). Two noted Konoe diaries in existence at the time were the Inokuma kanpaku ki of Konoe Iezane (1179-1242), covering 1199-1211, and the Okanoya kanpaku ki of Konoe Kanetsune (1210-1259) covering 1222-1251.



88 ANDREW GOBLE

even have a copy of that work produced by an illustrious family member which is regarded so highly as a contribution to medieval thought, Jien's Gukanshi!

Obviously these types of restrictions on the dissemination of knowledge about "the past" would have exercised a major influence on what part of the collectively well-documented Japanese record would have been available to Hanazono. Clearly a simple shared temporal existence would not have meant that works were "available" in the sense often used by scholars, and it thus comes as little surprise that Hanazono, a fairly wide reader, would list as having read (through 1325) only 17 of the 150 or so diaries that we know were in existence in the decades prior to his birth. It also helps to account for the fact that Hanazono had virtually no access to works (and prime historical sources) produced by the Fujiwara regent families that extol their activities, glories, and importance to the survival of the Imperial family. Thus, for example, while there is mention in Hanazono's diary of the Okagami, the Koichijo sadaijin ki, the ShJyziki, and the Taiki (the latter two the products of individuals known particularly for their learning), there is no record that he was familiar with such works as Eiga monogatari,93 the Mido kan- pakuki,94 or the Gyokuyo. (For not dissimilar reasons, Hanazono would also not have had access to the Kamakura bakufu's effort at the historiographical enterprise, the Azuma Kagami, even allowing that it may not yet have been completed.)

Nevertheless, restriction was not absolute. A number of works (notably the Taiki, Shoyuiki, Sankaiki, and Chiuyiuki) seem to have been in general circulation outside of the family in which they were produced. Diarists regularly cited other diaries in their work; noted

93 Eiga monogatari, lauding the glories of Fujiwara Michinaga (966-1027) and one of the outstanding literary products of the Heian period. Translated by Helen C. McCullough and Wil- liam H. McCullough, A Tale of Flowering Fortunes (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980). As the McCulloughs note, pp. 63-66, readership was fairly restricted. I have found no confirmation of their suggestion (note 115) that Hanazono had probably owned a copy, but the possibility cannot be ruled out entirely, especially for the later years of his life when he assumed a pivotal cultural leadership in Kyoto.

9' Mido kanpaku ki, Michinaga's own diary, covering 998-1021. For an extremely useful annotated translation see Francine Herail, Notes Journalieres de Fujiwara Michinaga (3 vols., Libraire Droz, Geneve-Paris, 1987-1988).




figures, such as Fujiwara Teika, avidly made copies of diaries which they felt were particularly good guides to aristocratic traditions;95 and in the literary "salons" which were the basis for much intellectual pursuit in the period, and which were the source of many collective works, possession of a noted text and the ability to lend it out for copying to selected friends was a mark of great prestige.96 We can also get some idea of the range of material in circulation by ex- amining family library catalogs and testaments, which often divide diaries into the categories of "family" and "other, including clan," and which usually stipulate the conditions under which access to the works may be granted.97 Thus the Yoshida iEEI family held four "family" and eighteen "other,'98 while the Kuj6 held twenty-one or so diaries that included four in the "family" category.99 Still, the actual existence of a specific individual's diary may not have been known outside the family; for example, the Yoshida held no "Kujo" diaries, the Kujo no "Yoshida" diaries, neither for that matter had any Imperial diaries, and the diaries of neither appear in any of Hanazono's listings. Indeed, the overall degree of overlap is fairly delimited. Where, then, did Hanazono obtain works to read, and what works were available to him?

There was no consolidated, central Imperial library, but the Im- perial family was nonetheless the collective owner of perhaps the largest collection of non-religious texts in the country. As early as 891 Imperial aegis had seen to the compilation of a title catalog with classified listings, the Nihon koku genzai sho mokuroku, of all written works extant in Japan, most of which had been assiduously imported from Tang China, and for all of which the Imperial family

9 See Tamura Etsuko ffl%TI, "Fujiwara Teika shosha-Chojuiki no betsuhon no dankan ni tsuite," Biutsu kenkyuz 259 (1968): 1-12; Tsuji Hikosabur6 itJ,-I3_A, Fujiwara Teika Mei- getsuki no kenkyia (Yoshikawa k6bunkan, 1977).

96 See Koizumi Keiko 'J'Agf, "Kokon chomonjui seiritsu no shiihen," (Nihon rekishi 482 [1988]: 29-41) for an example of how the Taiki was circulated.

97 See 1200/2/28 Kajulji Tsunefusa shobunj6, 1328/11/8 B6j6 Sadasuke shobunj6 (Nakamura Naokatsu chosakushu 4, shoen, pp. 505-8, 538-39).

98 See 1234/5/28 Kajuji Suketsune monjo shobunj6 (Nakamura Naokatsu chosakushu, 4, shffen no kenkyt, pp. 515-16) listing the diaries in the possession of the Yoshida family head, and the 1250/6/28 Kajuji Suketsune shobunj6 (ibid., pp. 516-17) allocating works among inheriting children.

9 1293/3/17 Kuj6 ke bunko monjo mokuroku (KI, 23.18125).



90 ANDREW GOBLE

owned at least one copy.100 This extensive catalog is probably the closest indication we have of what may have been considered a body of "public" knowledge, sources which were fairly well known throughout the aristocracy and which, since families had their own libraries, could not have been considered the exclusive province of any one family.101 Nonetheless, it is not clear that Hanazono would have had even theoretical access to all of the material, or indeed would necessarily have known the extent of available material. We do not know the extent to which, by Hanazono's day, they had been augmented by Chinese texts produced during the Song. We also do not know the degree to which the material had survived the ravages of time: Hanazono's lists note several works where there are volumes missing, and his contemporary Yoshida Kenk6 mentions more generally that there are "many missing chapters" in collections of these works.102 And we also do not know what precise effect the division in the Imperial family would have had on the physical location of library holdings in Hanazono's day: both Jimy6-in and Daikakuji testaments refer to the allocation of palace libraries and to collections of Chinese andJapanese books but (as was customary) without suggesting their content.103

100 Nihon koku genzai sho mokuroku, compiled by Fujiwara Sukeyo during the reign of emperor Uda (Zoku gunsho ruiji, 30b. 31-50).

101 One illustration of the availability of such materials is to be found in a letter of Nichi- ren from Sado in 1272: "Without the non-Buddhist collection, Zhenguan zhengyao, all the non- Buddhist tales, and the statement of doctrine of the eight sects, I cannot write my letters. Be sure to send them to me." Translated in Laurel R. Rodd, Nichiren: Selected Writings (Hawaii: The University Press of Hawaii, 1980), p. 111.

102 Keene, trans., Essays in Idleness, #82, pp. 70-71. 103 As with so much surrounding property disposition in the conflict between the two Im-

perial lines that had begun in the 1270s, who actually got what is often difficult to determine. One of Go-Fukakusa's claims to being the line of rightful succession was that Go-Saga had entrusted him with all Imperial records and "other family" library holdings in his possession (undated Fushimi-in onsh6soku, Shinkan eiga, 1.69). However, Go-Saga's actual testament mentions only one library and its holdings, the Reizei palace library, and this was granted in its entirety to Kameyama of the opposing line (1272/1/15 Go-Saga j6k6 shobunj6, KI, 14.10953). This was passed subsequently by Kameyama to Go-Uda (1305/7/20 Kameyama j6k6 shobunj6, KI, 29.22285), but three years later when Go-Uda made his disposition he gave Go-Daigo the Madenok6ji palace, its library, and all Chinese and Japanese books, and all works "without omitting even one sheet of paper," but nowhere mentions the Reizei palace library (1308/intercalary 8/3 Go-Uda j6k6 shobunj6, KI, 30.23369). Jimy6-in bequeaths are much less specific, mentioning only collections of "Chinese andJapanese books"




There is some reason to feel, however, that Hanazono did have access to a good range of material and a broad knowledge of extant written works. While the Imperial family had not regularly been in a position to demand that other families share their bibliographies with it, the rights and prerogatives that it had with respect to the aristocracy sometimes enabled it a look into family archives denied anyone else. Some opportunities were provided in cases of land disputes (where diary fragments were sometimes introduced as evidence).104 Inheritance disputes provided another opportunity, as in 1287 when during the dispute over the legacy of Kazan'in Moro- tsugu TEhWgOZ (1222-1281) a copy of Kazan'in library holdings, various documents, and a copy of Morotsugu's diary were forward- ed to Go-Uda for perusal.105 Morotsugu had been an enthusiastic bibliophile, lending books out and purchasing printed editions of Chinese works from Song merchants who would come to his resi- dence,106 and so the catalog of holdings would no doubt have been of great interest. And in some other cases it was possible that a diary was that of such a seminal figure-such as the Meigetsuki of the poetic genius Fujiwara Teika107 -that it was difficult to withhold it from the Imperial family.

The Imperial collection also benefited from the occasional wind- fall of exercising powers of eminent domain, the most significant of which resulted from political upheavals from the mid-twelfth century. As we might expect, much of the property of Fujiwara Yorinaga

(1313/12/- and 1317/6/26 Fushimi j6k6 shobunj6 (Shinkan eiga, 1.71; Koshitsu seido shiryo6 shiu, daijo tenno6 [Yoshikawa k6bunkan, 1983], 1.390-93).

104 For example, the fragment of a diary introduced into a dispute between the Kuj6 and Ichij6 families in the early fourteenth century: the Ichij6 provided an extract from the Akitomi gyo ki (the diary of Hamuro Akitomo X , a middle-level aristocrat in their service) for 1252/2/4 (Kunaich6 shory6bu comp., Kuj6 ke monjo, 1.11.4). Parenthetically, the use of this extract from the Akitomo gyoki has (as in many other cases also) preserved at least something from a section of the diary that was subsequently lost; the text is otherwise extant only for 1244-1248.

105 Kanchiuki (Zoho shiryo taisei) entries for 1287/8/6, 7. Kanchziki is the diary of Kadenokoji Kanenaka M*3g4f (1244-1308) and covers 1274-1300.

06 See My5kaiki (Shiry5taiseiedition), 1260/4/20 for lending some books, and 1260/4/22 not-

ing his purchase of the tenth-century Taipingyulan *+T0i. The Myokaiki covers 1243-1274. 107 The Imperial family had a copy at least by 1294 (see below), and it was read by Hanazo-

no during 1325 (HTS 1325/12/30, listed as Sadaie gy6 ki).



92 ANDREW GOBLE

40-i (1120-1156, a loser in the H6gen disturbance of 1156) was real- located, and his diary the Taiki was readily circulated among the elite. Yorinaga was, after all, a major figure in an event that, with its introduction of military force into politics, was to prove an epochal turning point in the fortunes of the court; and since he was regarded as possessing a particularly high level of competence in Chinese letters, his intellectual background and understanding of the world could be at least approached by perusing his listings of, and comments on, the wide range of texts that he had read so avidly.108 His downfall prompted much discussion about the relationship between political behavior and an understanding of the classics.

Two other acquisitions were also of great importance. The first was that of the library of Fujiwara Michinori ZX (Shinzei BS, 1106-1159) who (while his side won) committed suicide in the course of the Heiji disturbance. A decade or so earlier Shinzei, an eminent scholar with a noted family library containing many "original" Chinese works, had been charged with the compilation of the Honchi seiki,'09 a work designed to revive the practice of writing "state histories" that had been abandoned some two centuries earlier. 110 In the process he gained access to a large number of diaries and other works of the middle-ranking aristocracy, thus expanding an already impressive collection. Upon his death it was transferred in its entirety to the Imperial family, and was evidently kept intact

108 For example, Taiki (Zoho shiryo taisei) 1143/9/30, 1143/12/30 where Yorinaga, proudly noting that he had perused at least 1030 kan of Chinese works between 1136 and 1143, lists the titles and year in which he read them. Taiki covers 1136-1155. For a fuller discussion of Yorinaga, his learning and his activities see Hashimoto Yoshihiko, Fujiwara Yorinaga (Yoshikawa k6bunkan, 1964). See also Oshima Yukio *,!Lt* , " Taiki tenseki sakuin k6" Kokusho itsubun kenkyui 13 (1984): 32-64.

109 Honcho seiki originally covered the eighteen reigns from Uda through Konoe, the years 889-1153 or 1154, but is today fragmentary and for the years 935-1153. For a good introduction to author and work see Hashimoto Yoshihiko, Heian kizoku shakai no kenkyui, pp. 412-43.

"1 The Six National Histories are the Nihon shoki, Shoku Nihongi, Nihon koki, Shoku Nihon koki, Nihon Montoku tennojitsuroku, Nihon sandaijitsuroku. A successor work, the Shin kokushi (al- ternately, Zoku sandaijitsuroku), which carried the chronology through the reigns of K6k6, Uda, and Daigo (885-929) was apparently completed , but is no longer extant. However, it was apparently still read and "available" a century after Hanazono's life when it was noted by the great classicist Ichij6 Kanera - in his Sekiso orai R*, At* (Gunsho nruiju, 6:608).




through Hanazono's time."' The second acquisition, shortly before 1174, resulted from the confiscation of the entire library of one Fujiwara Yorinori V, putative heir of the Kaju-ji blW family that was a prolific producer of diaries; and in 1174 retired emperor Go- Shirakawa , T (1 127-1192) ordered all original items to be iden- tified and placed in the library of the Renge6-in 3EER, one of the major Imperial chapels.112

The result of these various acquisitions, plus that of works later presented to the Imperial family (including, it transpires, a copy of the Gukanshi), was that by the end of the thirteenth century the library of the Imperial family was quite extensive. In the early 1 290s, and probably prompted by the conflicts over property then raging between the Jimy6-in and Daikakuji branches, the Jimy6-in produced a catalog of all Japanese works in its possession (the Honcho shojaku mokuroku *J*M H X), that included such categories as literature, chronicles, medical texts, Imperial diaries, and sixty diaries (the-Shoke meiki) produced by the non-Imperial service aristocracy.113 All of this was exceptionally fortuitous for Hanazono, for it meant that should he wish to study the historical record, he had at his dis- posal the most complete register ofJapanese works in existence and the first one produced in 400 years, plus a fine collection of Chinese texts. Sources do not allow us to determine whether Hanazono ever owned a personal copy of the registers or whether he knew of all the contents. Also, though he was often borrowing and returning items and seems to have spent considerable time making his own copies, we have no idea of the extent of his own collection. But there seems

"' See the Michinori nyido zo sho mokuroku (Shinkogunsho ruiji, 21.545-54). Possibly not all works in the "Shinzei library" had been owned by Shinzei, and there have been suggestions that it might not actually have been his library. But there is little compelling reason to doubt that most of the contents of the "Shinzei library" had been his. For a discussion of many of the issues discussed in this section see Saiki Kazuma 7 "Shoke meiki k6" X*g&A in Iwahashi Koyata hakase kijiu kinen kai, ed., Nihon shoseki ronshuz (Yoshikawa k6bunkan, 1965), 1.265-96. Hanazono on at least one occasion (HTS 1324/3/25) mentions obtaining works from the "Shinzei collection (bunsho)."

112 Saiki, "Shoke meiki ko, " 268-71. 113 Honcho shojaku mokuroku (Shinko gunsho ruiji, 21, zatsu bu 3: 521-38), compiled Einin 2

(1294)/8/4 and attributed to Fujiwara Sanefuyu. The extant register appends the Shoke meiki and kiroku. Some of these works were obviously added subsequent to the original compilation, but as Saiki shows what was in the register in the 1290s is evident.



94 ANDREW GOBLE

little doubt that it was this Imperial collection that constituted his minimum range of possible choice: wh'ile by 1325 he had not read all volumes, most volumes that he had read are to be found in it. In short, the Imperial library in Hanazono's day was, in size, range of sources, and in chronological treatment, the most extensive record of the past in existence; and Hanazono was one of the few people permitted ready use of it. Even recognizing that Hanazono's own position in society made him particularly interested in the Imperial family, Hanazono would have been one of the few people of his time in a position to assess the past other than strictly in terms of one family's activities.

STUDYING THE PAST

From 1321 Hanazono embarked on a reading project designed to acquaint himself with the available historical literature pertaining to Japan and China. An ambitious undertaking at any time, it sets him apart from contemporaries that he characterized as content to be cognizant of only a few points or phrases from texts that could be dashed off at the appropriate moment,1"4 and more generally sets him apart from the common approach to Chinese and Japanese texts that was succinctly described by Kitabatake Chikafusa: people read only a few works (the Classics and the Three Histories) and did not bother with authors whose works are not read and about whom little was known.115

Hanazono's investigation of the Japanese record took him to sources that gave chronological coverage of virtually all Japanese history. Not all years would be covered equally fully, and Hana- zono was reliant upon sources of different quality, but the works he listed as having read provided him with information for every year (sometimes only a one-source account, other times a multi-source account) from the earliest times up through at least 1246, with a gap

114 See HTS 1319/10/26; 1322/7/27 notes that "In recent times Confucian style has declined. People place emphasis on flowery writing and elegant style and do not know the truths [of the words]"; see also 1323/7/19.

115 A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns, p. 236. Jien makes a similar observation: see The Future and the Past, p. 224.




only for the years 1166-1180 (though, the "gap" might be qualified, for like many of his age he was familiar with the new genre of historical literature, the gunki monogatari or war tales, represented by the Heiji monogatari and the Heike monogatari)."'6 Hanazono was able to look at three different types of sources. First, chronological accounts (the Kojiki,1"7 the Kogo shui,1,8 the Six National Histories,"19 the Honcho seiki);120 second, a number of Imperial diaries;121 and finally, diaries produced by aristocrats of varying station (Koichijo sadaijin no ki, Shlyuiki, Taiki, Akitokigyo ki, Sankaiki, Meigetsuki, Sanchoki, Heikoki).122 This is fairly broad coverage, yet it is striking that only in a very few instances does Hanazono make much comment on the content, and it seems that only rarely did he come back to a text that he had

116 HTS 1321/4/16, 1321/4/29. Another work in this genre, theJokyuki, appears nowhere in the holdings of the Imperial family in Hanazono's time.

117 HTS 1321/2/5, 1321/2/8. 118 HTS 1321/2/5. 119 For Nihongi, HTS 1317/3/25, 1320/1/21; Shoku Nihongi, HTS 1322/8/6; Nihon koki, HTS

1322/8/26, 1322/9/6, 1322/10/9; Shoku Nihon koki, HTS 1322/10/19, 1322/11/10; Nihon Mon- toku tennnijitsuroku, HTS 1322/10/19; Sandaijitsuroku, HTS 1323/10/11. Hanazono does not mention reading the seventh history, Shin kokushi or Zoku Sandaijitsuroku, which was listed in the Honcho shojaku mokuroku.

120 HTS 1323/10/11, 1323/10/17. 121 Those of Uda, Daigo, Murakami, Ichij6, Go-Suzaku, Go-Reizei, Go-Sanj6, and Jun-

toku. The diary of Go-Reizei is no longer extant. The others are in varying degrees of preser- vation, and none now have anything like the coverage of Hanazono's diary. The effective coverage is Uda, 887-890; Daigo, 897-930; Murakami, 949-967; Ichij6, 1010; Go-Suzaku, 1036, 1044; Go-Sanj6, 1068-1072; Juntoku, 1211-1221. Conspicuously absent from Hanazono's reading (through 1325 at any rate) is the diary of the initiator of the J6kyu War of 1221, Go-Toba.

122 These are ones that Hanazono had looked at by the end of 1325. Many diaries were known by more than one title, and hence Hanazono's reference is not necessarily to the presently accepted appellation. Koichijo sadaijin no ki, diary of Fujiwara Morotada itJE (920- 969), coverage 941-969; Shoyiuki (Ononomiya ufu ki), diary of Fujiwara Sanesuke W (957- 1046), coverage 978-1032; Taiki (Uji Safu ki), diary of Fujiwara Yorinaga (1120-1156), coverage 1136-1155; Akitokigyf ki (Chiumin ki), diary of Yamashina Akitoki LIi 4PA (1109- 1167), coverage 1143-1166 (originally 1129-1165); Sankaiki, diary of Nakayama Tadachika it OI,'k (1130-1195), coverage 1150-1185; Meigetsuki (Sadaiegyo ki), diary of Fujiwara Tei- ka (1162-1241), coverage 1180-1235; Sanchoki (Nagakanegyo ki), diary of Sanj6 Nagakane _ -AfA* (fl. 1176-1218), coverage 1191-1211 (originally 1185-1218); Heikoki, diary of Taira Tsunetaka TfiM (1180-1255), coverage 1227-1246. Hanazono subsequently read other works: HTS betsu ki for 1329/1/11, 1329/1/12, noting Yamanaka naifu no ki, Kimitsugu ko ki, Akitoshigyo ki, Kannin no ki, Sukefusa gyo ki. Two of these, the Kannin no ki and the Kimitsugu ko ki, are not listed in the Honcho shojaku mokuroku, which suggests that acquisition of or access to courtier diaries by the Jimy6-in was an ongoing endeavor.



96 ANDREW GOBLE

already read. In the case of "legendary texts" such as the Kojiki, Kogo shuii, or Nihongi, basic intelligibility may have been an issue, not to mention the added pleasure of trying to make sense of variant accounts, or the fact that a convincing account of the divine descent of the Imperial family may not have emerged with any clarity (indeed, on the first occasion that Hanazono asked to read the Nihongi he was provided with a copy in which the entire Age of the Gods section was missing)."2' But Hanazono did not linger on many later texts either: though he seems to have read texts at every available opportunity,124 he sometimes makes the laconic comment that he had just read and returned a work,125 and on occasion he reproaches himself for not giving a work more serious treatment, leading him to reflect upon the process of reading:126

Recently I have been reading the Nihon koki, and most certainly it leads one to the rationale of the Way of Government in earlier ages (sendai). In any event, I read in repetition the inner and outer and Chinese and Japanese texts. Necessarily one knows their underlying principle (sono gi), and even though there are no doubts respecting these principles, [the repetition] extends from two or three to innumerable times. Necessarily one's heart is suffused by the principles of the Way, and this naturally brings forth a heart filled with great pleasure [lit., whereby one does not know where one's hands flutter or feet tread]. 127 Those who read texts must necessarily contemplate the past (keiko) with this heart. If one reads through something [just] one or two times the [import] does not remain in one's heart and there is no benefit from contemplating the past.

But a month later he laments that while he has been reading the work since the previous month he had just glanced hurriedly through its forty kan, a lamentable way to advance one's learning.128 On the other hand, he seemed quite satisfied that he had read through the forty kan of the Shoku Nihongi in a couple of days.129 Now, while Hanazono in his desire to ascertain the content of as many works as possible also perused Chinese works-such as the

123 HTS 1317/3/25. 124 HTS 1317/3/30, looking briefly at the Koichjoin sadaijin ki; HTS 1321/1/16, reading two

or three kan of Nagakane gyo ki. 125 HTS 1322/10/19, Sandai jitsuroku. 126 HTS 1322/9/6. 127 A phrase from the Li Zi. 128 HTS 1322/10/9. 129 HTS 1322/8/26.




Sanguo zhi, Nanbei shi jieyao MjL,;Pfig;, Song Qiqiu hua shu 51ThLt A130-in a similar fashion, it is striking that in so few historical treatments, and for virtually all the Japanese sources, did he evidently feel that they told him much of value about the past; that is, he seems to have concluded that the facts of the Japanese record did not provide any basis for interpreting those facts. To be sure, Hanazono had been willing to assume that they might contain an interpretative basis, and for that reason looked at so many. But there are perhaps two reasons why his study bore such fruit.

First, Hanazono was operating within the parameters of a tradition which did not see "history" as defined by the political bounda- ries of the Japanese elite, but as a far more universal process within which the experiences of humans in Japan occurred, and which had been already played out for a far longer recorded period in China. Almost as many types of occurrences or processes as one could imagine-including change, that phenomenon that had stared Hanazono in the face for his entire life-had already been described and squarely addressed in the Chinese record. There, the past provided a reliable, predictive guide to the future (though the actual degree of reliability would only be known in the future). And it also provided direct access to the thoughts of those who had lived in the past, those who through their textual immortality attested to the continuity of knowledge. Or as the great Tang historiographer Liu Zhi- ji succinctly put it in chapter eleven of his Shitong (Generalities on His to ry):131

130 HTS 1324/3/25, 1325/4/16. 131 Translated in Burton Watson, "Some Remarks on Early Chinese Historical Works,"

in George Kao, ed., The Translation of Things Past (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1982), pp. 35-47. I am indebted to Professor Stephen Durrant of the University of Oregon for directing me to this work, for spending time with me discussing aspects of Chinese historiography, and for going over some translations with me. For a slightly different render- ing see E.G. Pulleyblank, "Chinese Historical Criticism: Liu Chih-chi and Ssu-ma Kuang," in William G. Beasley and Edward G. Pulleyblank, Historians of China andJapan (Oxford: Ox- ford University Press, 1961: 135-66), pp. 144-45. The Shitong, the first major work of histori- ographic analysis and criticism, argues forcefully for a rigorous approach to questions of evidence and relevance in historiography, and is quite critical of traditional standards and methods. For a translation of chapter twenty-two, see S. Sargent, "Understanding History: The Narration of Events," in Kao, ed., The Translation of Things Past, pp. 27-33; for a translation of the forty-ninth and final chapter, "Contrary to the Times," see William Hung, "A T'ang Historiographer's Letter of Resignation," HJAS 29 (1969): 5-52.



98 ANDREW GOBLE

... so long as books continue to exist, then though men die and enter into dark- ness and empty silence, their deeds remain, shining like the stars of the Milky Way. Then when a man hereafter shall study them, he has only to lift the scrolls from the boxes and his spirit may commune with the vast ages of antiquity; he need not go beyond his courtyard door and his vision can encompass a thousand years. He sees the worthy men and seeks to equal them; he sees the unworthy and his thoughts turn to introspection.

The importance of the Chinese record is attested in Japanese works that sought to provide guides to or warnings against certain types of political behavior-such as Tokudaiji Sanemoto's 1t.k#+ At Seido sojo p>'o- of the mid-thirteenth century and Yoshida Sadafusa's Sojo *k of 1324,132 or even Chikafusa's Jinno shItoki of the 1340s, which notes at one point that for a sovereign not to be knowledgeable in the ancient wisdom of China and Japan will leave him unclear about the way of government and lead to a decline in Imperial authority."3' It thus made eminent sense for Hanazono to also use that record when seeking analogies and comparisons to events in the Japanese past, and in so doing he revealed just how thoroughly he had studied the Chinese record: while it was de rigueur for educated people to exhibit familiarity with the Classics by oc- casionally using apt phrases in their writing,it was far more difficult to select an apposite example from a voluminous corpus.134

For example, amidst the turmoil of Go-Daigo's first attempt to overthrow the Kamakura bakufu in 1324, the Sh6chu Incident,

132 Texts in Kasamatsu Hiroshi et al., eds., Chusei seii shakai shiso, vol. 2.138-48, 149-55 (Nihon shiso taikei, vol. 22, Iwanami shoten, 1981). Sadafusa's learned memorial to emperor Go-Daigo is so permeated with Chinese examples and analogies that it might alone serve to show irrefutably just how important the Chinese intellectual and historical legacy was to social and political thinkers.

133 For example, A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns, p. 235. 134 Hanazono's debt to the Chinese record is evident from many of the quotations cited in

this article, but his familiarity emerges clearly when he uses specific citations. For example, the phrases which he cites on 1319/1/20 (rock-like, uncrackable, Analects XVII.7); 1319/intercalary 7/2 (running 50 paces and criticizing one who runs 100 paces, Mencius I.A.3); 1319/9/ 18 (ceremonies and flattery, Analects III.18); 1321/8/19 (in moments of haste and when I stum- ble, Analects IV.5); 1322/9/6 (does not know where hands flutter or feet tread, LiZi); 1325/12/ 25 (there should not be too many ceremonies, Li Zi; to revere the spirits and gods but to keep them at a distance, Analects VI.22); and the introduction to his Hokke Honshaku &rPRz [Com- mentary on the Chapters of the Lotus; Ressei Zenshu, Onsensha vol. 6, Tokyo, 1917] (those who speak do not know and those who know do not speak, Lao zi).




Hanazono chose to take up the question of whether a sovereign ought to use military force not by reference to a recent Japanese example, the J6kyud Incident of 1221, but to a more elevated reference to a memorial of Wei Xiang to Emperor Xuan Wu (r. 500-516), from which memorial it was evident that in the present instance troops had been improperly used and thus had been destroyed.135 In evaluating further aspects of the Sh6chii Incident, such as the moral caliber of the principal conspirators Hino Toshimoto ifl A (d. 1332) and Hino Suketomo (noted for their drinking, habit of party deshabille, and general flouting of etiquette) he remarks that such behavior may have been all well and good for Xi Kang and his con- federates in the Bamboo Grove, but that it was entirely inappropri- ate for courtiers of their station, and thus their downfall was entirely to be expected.136 In another instance, when Hanazono was evidently trying to understand the origins of Fujiwara power, the comparative process emerges even more directly: having been reading the section on the Tang in the Zizhi Tong/ian (which he regarded as a "pivotal work")'37 and having realized that a true lord for the later ages (matsuyo) would have to have the virtues of Tang Taizong,'38 and then a few days later reading Emperor Uda's posthumous in- structions ("a work well worth taking to heart"), he noted that the inability of the wise Uda to prevent the regent Fujiwara Mototsune $E (the first holder of the kanpaku title) from exercising so much power at court was a situation comparable to that of Tang Xuan- zong's V_ E reliance upon eunuchs for advice and for the opportunity to ascend the throne.'39 As disconcerting as it would have been for the Fujiwara to know that they were being compared to a bunch of eunuchs, Hanazono's observation is in fact one of our more

135 HTS 1324/9/19. 136 HTS 1324/11/11. For selections from Xi Kang's writings see R. Henricks, Philosophy

andArgumentation in Third Century China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), particularly the famous essay "Dispelling Self Interest," pp. 107-19.

137 For Hanazono's general evaluation of the Zizhi Tong/ian, see HTS 1321/5/18: "I have been looking at it since the year before last, though last year I put it aside and didn't read it. This year again I have been reading it. It deals with governance and disorder, rise and fall in successive periods (rekidai), and with the virtues and transgressions of sovereigns and ministers. Most certainly it is a pivotal work."

138 HTS 1322/6/2. 139 HTS 1322/6/5.



100 ANDREW GOBLE

valuable guides to his interpretative perspectives, and touches directly upon our second reason, alternative explanatory frameworks.

Study of the Chinese record had enabled Hanazono to perceive a general interpretation for specific phenomena, in this case the issue of how and why sovereigns could come to be dominated by their subordinates. In Japan this meant primarily the Fujiwara, and the reasons for their rise to power (institutionalized in the sessho and kanpaku regency posts) had been subject to several interpretations. First, and infusing the pages of the Eiga monogatari and Okagami, was the attribution of such important real-world considerations as personality, successful reproductive strategies, timing, and luck. Second, and moving through the Gukansho, was the working of principle (dofri), which as used byjien tended to operate as a near tauto- logical explanation: it was meant to happen that way. A third possible explanation, had it been applied in this case, would have been something based on the Buddhist notion of karma, as in its well- known usage in the Heike monogatari to describe social rise and fall. A final possibility would have been (and to jump ahead a bit) Chika- fusa's use of comparative Chinese examples (in the Mototsune instance with a specific figure in Chinese history) combined with his discovery of a compact between the divine ancestors of the Imperial and Fujiwara families."40 Again, things were meant to happen that way.

These several frameworks tended to be event-specific, in general ahistorical, and somewhat dependent for explanatory power on a belief in the existence of a quintessential underlying uniqueness in the Japanese record. Moreover, the principles elucidated tended to be mutually negating: if some principles argued that those who rise in- evitably fall, other principles argued that there was inevitable continuity for some social groups or lineages, while others argued that changes seen to date (the rise of regents, the rise of the military) were ipso facto complete and irreversible stages of linear progression that precluded reversion to prior conditions. But what type of argument would have been able to provide a convincing explanation in the 1320s for empirical evidence that the Fujiwara, battered by death, might no longer be a relevant part of the social order?

140 See A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns, pp. 170-75.




Hanazono, moreover, evidently did not want to believe that change itself was an explanation for any occurrence, nor did he want simply to find a case where someone had done something similar in history; rather, his Fujiwara analogy suggested an interest in identifying a generic event that would provide some guide to what the future might hold, and for this only the encapsulating historical record was of concrete use. These are, if you will, counter-factual observations, since, even allowing that the ideas themselves may have been in circulation, Hanazono may not have known of the textual expositions of these other approaches.1'1 Still the overall weight of evidence suggests that Hanazono did not have access to any meaningful alternative explanatory framework. Even more importantly, as we will see, Hanazono was able to gain from comparative use of the Chinese record a level of interpretation that, insofar as it was testable, he viewed as far more "rational," applicable to more than single instances, and grounded historically rather than ahistorically. How had Hanazono's study come to bear such fruit?

Hanazono's early reading in Chinese texts was a standard one. It reflected the corpus that had been established during the Heian period (it appears to have undergone little subsequent expansion, and hereditary scholar families such as the Kitabatake continued to focus their professional efforts on mastery of it) and which can be divided into three broad categories. First, the standard early classics, the Three Histories, plus the Analects (and Mencius and Laozi); second, the voluminous, hagiographic Tang period Imperial compilations on statecraft that dealt with the moral basis of gloriously successful rule, and by extension with the bases of culture and civiliza- tion imported to Japan in the Nara and Heian periods; and thirdly, a variety of the dynastic histories from Han through Tang that necessarily dealt with centuries of division and "dynastic chaos" on the continent. Hanazono also read works which cannot simply be ex- plained as random choices from the Jimy6-in library catalog(s). This may have been the case with some historical works such as the

14' Hanazono has only one reference to his acquaintance with the Okagami (HTS 1313/5/7: "Today I read the Okagami for the first time. The book was brought by the Koto naishi. "); for his listening to a recitation of the Heike monogatari see HTS 1321/4/16, 1321/4/29. He makes no mention of any of the other works.



102 ANDREW GOBLE

Song Qiqiu hua shu or the Huayang guozhi FWi,i; but the selection of interpretative and philosophical works seems to have been prompt-

ed by some understanding of the currents of thought in Song China. (Indeed, given the enormous influx of Song cultural material into Japan from the mid-thirteenth century, it would be surprising if Hanazono was unacquainted with these, and he may have been influenced in areas that scholars have yet to explore.)142

For example, in reading the Analects Hanazono availed himself not only of pre-Tang commentaries such as the Liang dynasty effort of Huang Gan t1Ji,1, but also that of Xing Ping Vffl13 (presumably his Lunyu zhengyi 2ILEA) and the Essential Meaning of the Analects (Lunyu jingyi &2e) of one "Mr. Zhu," i.e. Zhu Xi. If this suggests that Hanazono was aware of what works were well regarded by Song scholars, the reason for his choice of texts becomes clearer. Indeed, when looking at Mencius (a work of beautiful import that deals exhaustively with the Way and human disposition which people should regard with great respect), which had been firmly placed in the Confucian canon by Zhu Xi, Hanazono notes that it had no designated commentary (though he did have access to an "old commentary") and had not been transmitted as a text in any school, but had been simply perused.143 Likewise, Xun Zi, another crucial work (which lauds principles, and whose author has a grudge against Zi Su and Mencius), also had no designated commentary and had not been transmitted in any school.'44 He also read the exceptionally important Han work of Yang Xiong %*, the Yangzi fayan 4U; (Model Sayings), (a work that one can read and take pleasure in);145

142 For example, Hanazono's acquaintance with a major mid-thirteenth century Song poetic treatise, the Shiren Yuxie jAHEM of Wei Jingzhi , for whose expounding of the inner sense of poetry he had particularly high praise (HTS 1325/12/28 and 1332/3/24). The Shi- ren Yuxie seems to have been valued quite highly in Hanazono's day, and in fact a Japanese printing of this was made in 1324. The reader is also referred to an article which came to my attention too late to be considered for this paper: Fukatsu Mutsuo , "Hanazono-in no waka kan saik6 - S6gaku no eiky6 no kan6sei wo megutte," Kogakukan ronso Vffit, 129 (1989): 14-30.

143 HTS 1321/3/24. 144 HTS 1321/3/17. 145 HTS 1321/7/25. Yang Xiong is of course well known for his outstanding contributions

to the development of the_fu or rhapsody style of poetry (see David Knechtges, The Han Rhap- sody, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), but his major philosophical works, the Model Sayings (Fayan) and the Classic of Great Mystery (Tai Xuan Jing) have been less studied by




the controversial Sui work of Wang Tong 3Ef, the Wenzhongzi i;Z4 :f (Discourses on the Mean), (a work that has the right flavor, and is hardly to be compared to the works of other scholars, but ran,ks with Xun Zi and Yang Xiong);46 the often reviled "rhetorician's hand- book" the Guiguzi V=f (Master of Devil Valley);"47 and, in a slightly different category,a work of major import for the historiographical enterprise and one to which he reacted strongly, Liu Zhiji's Shi- tong.

Certainly the fact that Hanazono read these major works in itself proves nothing. We do know, however, that Song figures, seeking to define the Confucian Classics, the proper approach to the evaluation of history, and the importance of learning and character, ranged far in their reading, and in the process gave their assess- ments of the corpus down to that time. For example, on the Wen- zhongzi, we have Cheng Yi's comments that some of its maxims sur- passed those of Xun Zi and Yang Xiong; those of Sima Guang, who admired Wang Tong's erudition but disliked his close imitation of Confucius; and those of Zhu Xi who felt that, while Wang Tong was not among the greatest of the sages, he at least cleaved closer to orthodox Confucianism than Xun Zi and Yang Xiong."49 These are only a few examples. However, given that Hanazono's reading included works not in any way part of the Japanese Confucian landscape, and that his own comments are reasonably similar, it seems difficult to avoid the conclusion that he was reading works-the Guiguzi is a good example of this'50-being read and commented upon in China.

western scholars. For information on the Yangzi fayan see: Fung Yu-lan, History of Chinese Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953), vol. 2, pp. 146-150; David Knechtges, The Han shu Biography of Yang Xiong (53 B. C. -A.D. 18) (Tempe: Center for Asian Studies, Arizona State University, 1982), pp. 57-58.

146 HTS 1324/4/12. On the Wenzhongzi and its author, see Howard Wechsler, "The Confu- cian Teacher Wang T'ung (?584-617): One Thousand years of Controversy," T'oung Pao, LXIII (1977): 225-72. Wechsler notes that Wang Tong advocated the sweeping away of all classical exegeses and Standard History, and a return to the original Confucian Scripture.

147 HTS 1324/4/7. 148 HTS 1324/3/25, 1324/4/18. 149 Wechsler, "The Confucian Teacher Wang T'ung," pp. 225-26, 267-68. 150 For example the comment of Song Xian criticizing the fact that texts like the Guiguzi

were extremely popular, to the detriment of such works as the Kung cung zi. See Yov Avriel, K'ung-Ts'ung-Tzu: The K'ung Family Master's Anthology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 25.



104 ANDREW GOBLE

Other pieces of evidence support this. One such comes from his observations on the activities of Go-Daigo's circle of young intellec- tuals, namely that they were wilfully adopting a style of debate-ex- pressing Confucian ideas in Zen terminology-akin to that followed at the Song court."5' The observation is familiar and has become a key point of argument about whether Song ideas really were known in Hanazono's day, a long-standing view being that the comment ought not to be taken as definitive evidence.152 But another observation is far more revealing. In this Hanazono complains that people promote righteousness by citing passages from the Rites of Zhou, the Analects and Mencius, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean, but that since there was no standard interpretation (kuden) they all just offer their own interpretations.153 Evidently Hanazono, and those he criticized, were aware of Zhu Xi's classification of the latter works as the Four Books. A final perspective is provided in the writings of the Japanese Zen priest Chugan Engetsu 'tsPF93, who spent the years 1325-1333 studying in China: in his 1334 work bearing (unusually for a Japanese work) the Sinified title Chuishoshi 43IEF (Master of the Centered and Correct),'54 Engetsu reveals a familiarity with the works of such people as Yang Xiong and Wang Tung, and the commentaries of Zhu Xi (not to mention with the writings of Song Chinese Zen figures). Since Engetsu obviously enjoyed a first- hand acquaintance with the Song milieu, the fact that Hanazono was engaging similar works can only argue for Hanazono's familiarity with that milieu also. If we allow this, then we can also allow that Hanazono would have been aware that Song scholars placed great emphasis on the study of the early classical texts, on getting back to the basics of the original sage words that informed the Chinese philosophical tradition, and perhaps aware that for many of those thinkers study would reveal "evidence for believing that

15 HTS 1322/7/27. 152 H. Paul Varley, "Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and the World of Kitayama," p. 195; Wajima

Yoshio fOAX;,9 Nihon Sogaku shi no kenkyui: zoho han (Yoshikawa k6bunkan, 1988), especially pp. 126-53.

153 HTS 1323/7/19. 154 Chushoshi in Ichikawa Hakugen et al., Chkisei Zenke no shiso (Nihon shiso taikei, vol. 16,

Iwanami shoten, 1972), pp. 124-85. I am indebted to Professor Dennis Lishka of the Univer- sity of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for drawing my attention to this work.




people who were socially and politically involved in a changing world could have a constant moral foundation."'55 Hanazono too had great reverence for the texts, as he noted when reading the Yi Jing: "When I read this book I wash my hands, do not loosen my belt, and do not take off my cap. The reason for this is that it is a work of a sage, a book on the will of Heaven, and thence] I am respectful. " 56

What we might thus characterize as Hanazono's historicist respect for the classical canon, and his desire to read very widely, moved him to devote a period of years to regular study. In some cases-such as with the Spring and Autumn Annals and its three commentaries (Zuo Zhuan, Gongyan Zhuan, and Guliang Zhuan), the Zhou Li, the Yi Li, the Mao shi (Book of Odes), and the Guo Yu-Hanazono has not left us much comment on his reactions or his schedule of reading. In other cases, however, his ongoing program can be followed more readily. He studied the Li Zi from mid- 1323 through at least the end of 1324, when he completed the first twenty kan.'57 Hanazono regularly read and cited from the Analects (and was also Tokihito's tutor in the work),'58 and it is from this text that he appears to have gained much of his perspective on the issues of learning and character. Yet Hanazono's understanding of history and change seems to have been most fundamentally influenced by his study of the Shu jing (Shang shu).

LEARNING FROM THE PAST

Hanazono's study of the Shu jing commenced in early 1322, prompted in part by a favorable intellectual environment. Go- Daigo had for the past few years sponsored his own Confucian study

155 K. SmithJr., P.K. Bol, J.A. Adler, and DJ. Wyatt, eds., Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ch- ing (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), p. viii.

156 HTS 1325/6/17. 157 HTS 1323/5/23, 1323/10/19 (kan 7), 1323/10/20, 1323/11/12, 1323/11/19 (kan 8), 1323/

11/23, 1323/12/15, 1323/12/26 (kan 11), 1324/3/25, 1324/3/29 (kan 15), 1324/11/2 (kan 16), 1324/12/11.

158 For example, HTS 1319/9/6, 1319/9/18, 1319/10/26, 1321/6/23, 1321/8/19, 1322/2/27, 1322/9/7, 1324/2/13, 1324/3/27, 1324/4/2. For his instruction of Tokihito, see 1325/intercalary 1/22, 1325/intercalary 1/29, 1325/7/19, 1325/7/24, 1325/8/17, 1325/9/6, 1325/9/15, 1325/ 11/16.



106 ANDREW GOBLE

group, perused such unread Confucian texts as Yang Xiong's Tai Xuan jing tS; (Classic of Great Mystery),159 and after assuming full ruling powers in late 1321 had begun to enact some changes in court ceremony that Hanazono regarded as a sign that there would be a restoration of the long-discarded Confucian path in government. But Hanazono felt that the revival was not yet widespread, that mistaken interpretations of texts were not uncommon, and thus decided to form a study group in order to rectify these shortcomings.160 This was an important step, for it was through such groups that members of the elite marked out their claim to be contributors to and shapers of intellectual and cultural life. Hanazono, in other words, had not just formed a study group, but a salon, and had made his first statement as a patron and as an independent mind. Not inappropriately, at the first meeting of the group the discussion revolved around the issue of the importance of proper study in the formation of an informed, ethical character. Hanazono's comments give us some idea of the direction of his thoughts:"6'

Kunifusa MS questioned, saying "Of those people who study, it is not necessarily so that all people are intelligent. Even among people who do not study there are those who are upright and correct. " The import of what the others said in rebuttal was that if one does not study then one cannot know the history and traditions of the Way.

159 HTS 1321/4/7. The two editions of HTS (Shiry5 taisei and ShiryJ sanshui) disagree on the reading of the second character in the text. ShiryJ taisei reads the work as "Da Su jing," *

- while Shiryo sanshui reads the work as "Da YiJing" . However, Hanazono's descrip- tion of the work that "it contains the great principle of the mysterious way, is not concerned with the way of medicine, but deals exhaustively with the highest mysteries of morality" suggests, in light of the editorial disagreement over the reading of the second character, that it makes more sense to assume that the title is "Da [sic] XuanJing, " that is, Yang Xiong's Clas- sic of Great Mystery. On the other hand Hanazono's comment that the book doesn't deal with medicine at all, and the fact that it had been provided to Go-Daigo by the court physician Wake Nakashige 3%fpJ, suggests that the work was at least catalogued as a medical treatise. However, the Nihon koku genzai sho mokuroku lists the medical classics clearly by title, but there is no listing for a Classic of Great Mystery; whereas in the "Confucianists" classification there is a listing for Da [sic] XuanJing, or Classic of Great Mystery. Perhaps there had been some mis-cataloging of holdings over the years, possibly prompted by the fact that several of the medical treatises had been compiled by people with the surname Yang.

160 HTS 1322/2/12, 1322/2/23. 161 HTS 1322/2/27 uragaki. Hanazono remarks often throughout the diary on the impor-

tance of study, and was later to write an essay on the subject, the GakudJ no ki (see KI, 39.30939).




When I thought about this comment that even among those who do not study there are upright, correct people, this is not uprightness and correctness, these are simply ignorant people. Gao Chai VW did study, but did not get away from being ignorant. t62 How much the more so for those who do not study. This goes without saying. In what common people refer to as upright and correct they are all mistaken. They do not know what is upright and correct. How can they be upright and correct people? If they do not study how could they know of the existence of the upright and correct? What vulgar society speaks of as the upright and correct is something different compared to the upright and correct of the sages. If one does not study the Way then one cannot know it. As for the point that not all of those who study are intelligent, already in the age of the sages there was the Confucianism of the gentleman and the Confucianism of small people. 163 Surely the point is hardly worth discussing. Say that even if one puts one's energy into the Way, and furthermore if one cannot fully attain it, this is simply not a valid basis for discussion. Warpedness or uprightness is something provided for by one's original nature. It does not wait for learning. Thus we have those who do not study but who are upright and correct. However, though they be upright they cannot get away from being ignorant. If one is not a sage then one cannot have truth and uprightness.

Hanazono's investigation of the Shujing was a focal point of his study for a period of two years. The study group was supposed to meet every six days, but for various reasons-Hanazono's entangle- ment in property disputes, ill-health, his continuing study of Bud- dhism, his decision in mid-1323 to devote time to reading and studying the Li Zi, and the fact that not all members of the study group attended every session-this original schedule does not appear to have been strictly maintained (it is also possible that Hanazo- no did not record every meeting that did take place). Still, the work was read in its entirety. Hanazono records forty-nine Shujing study meetings between 1322/2/23 and 1324/3/8 (the latter date being the celebratory final meeting at which the participants read through the Speech of the Duke of Chin and then read out thefu that each had composed on that section of the work they thought most fitting), and he often notes what chapter was being read.164 Hanazono also

162 See Analects XI. 18. 163 A reference no doubt to Analects VI. 13: "The Master said to Zixia, 'Be a gentlemanju,

not a petty ju. ' 164 FollowingJames Legge, trans., The Shoo King or Book of Historical Documents, vol. 3 of The

Chinese Classics (1871; reprint, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960): HTS 1322/ 2/29, Canon of Yao; 1322/4/4, 21, Council of Kao-yao; 1322/intercalary5/12, Tribute to Yu; 1322/ int. 5/17 Songs of the Five Sons; 1322/int. 5/27 Speech of Tang; 1322/7/21, Tai kea; 1322/9/7, Both



108 ANDREW GOBLE

records his reactions on some of these occasions, and those comments reflect early concerns and his manner of reasoning. For example, on reading the chapter Both Possessed Pure Virtue:"65

Moronatsu %It: read the original and Kimitoki -0 read the Orthodox Commen- tary . . . Truly, is Both Possessed Pure Virtue the pivotal section? The Analects are per- vaded with this oneness. Is this [material in the Shujing] the same principle? If one has pure virtue what thing cannot be governed? In other words, this is what is spoken of in the Lotus Sutra (Hokke) as having in oneness truth , but if multiplicity thereby falsity. 166 And, how can one say that [oneness] is in external objects [rather than within oneself]? To read this book and contemplate its principles, truly it is enough to make one forget the taste of meat! 167

Or reading sections of Pan-kang:161

On the matter of Pan-kang moving the capital, the Orthodox Interpretation [Shang shu zhengyi I $;Ef of Kong Yingda 7LWAJ states that "in the land of Kang people high and low lived in luxury. Their dwellings were gorgeous. Therefore the capital was moved. " As the Orthodox Interpretation would have it, it appears that virtue is set up according to physical location. [But] what those above are fond of those below will necessarily follow. How can this be grounded in the earth? Luxury or frugality exist in the character of the ruler. Why did Pan-kang feel it necessary to move the capital?

There were various opinions on this. One such was that, was this so because Pan-kang's virtue was not great virtue? In the third sho of the text it is recorded that already the land of Kang was dirty and damp. This being so, what kind of doubt can there be? In the Orthodox Interpretation solely this one matter of luxury is recorded as the reason for moving the capital. Might there not be some lacunae in the Ortho- dox Interpretation? . . .

Possessed Pure Virtue; 1322/9/10, 11/17, 11/26 Pan-kang; 1322/11/28, Charge to Yue; 1323/7/11 Timber of the Tsze Tree; 1323/7/27, Announcement Concerning Lo; 1323/11/17, Numerous Regions; 1323/12/25, Establishment of Government; 1324/1/22, Officers of Chou; 1324/2/9, Kun-chen and An- nouncement of King Kang; 1324/2/12, Charge to the Duke of Peih and Kun-ya; 1324/2/17 Charge to Koung and Prince of Lu on Punishments; 1324/2/22, Charge to Prince Wen and Speech at Pei.

165 HTS 1322/9/7. 166 Though just over a month later (HTS 1322/7/27) Hanazono was critical of people using

Zen terminology to explain Confucian teaching, his quest for knowledge often led him to com- pare doctrines, and he later came to the position that all were ultimately connected in a common truth (see Shichi ka homon kuketsu, or HTS 1332/3/24).

167 A phrase that echoes Analects VII. 14: "The master heard the shao in Qi and for three months did not notice the taste of the meat he ate. He said, 'I never dreamt that the joys of music could reach such heights.'

168 HTS 1322/9/10, 1322/11/26. To get a better sense of the passage the reader is directed to the original text: see James Legge trans., The Shoo king, pp. 61-62 (Book ii, Chap ii, 15) and notes.




To rule the people through "one," that which constitutes the "one" of the Way, how can ignorant folk know this? Everyone says that if there is not the "one" of the Way then the "one" depends upon the superior. I asked "What about the case of Tang dispensing with discrimination and depending upon Heaven? At the time there was a Tang, but in a time when there is not a Tang how can one call it reverting to Heaven? And postulating from this truth, how can there be a Tang apart from Heaven? All is this 'one.' How can one speak of reverting?" Is this not meet?

Hanazono does not remark with sufficient frequency on his reading of the texts for us to gauge precisely what insights he gained from the study at the time. But from comments on texts and people that he began to make with some force in early 1324, just when his study of the Shujing was coming to completion, three points in particular stand out. First, Hanazono gained from the study a fairly clear confidence in his own opinions, a result no doubt of feeling that he actually did understand their messages. Second, Hanazono came to the conclusion that these texts were indeed the fount of enduring knowledge about human affairs. Third, it is evident that in matters ethical and political Hanazono's self-image was that of an intellectual in the Chinese tradition, not that of a "Japanese" person. Indeed, it is impossible to understand the Admonitions, or at the minimum to understand why it was written, without an apprecia- tion of this. Accordingly, it is perhaps fruitful to look at Hanazono's pre-Admonition concerns in three areas: the issue of sovereignty; evaluation of the value of other texts; and the relationship between character and destiny.

Hanazono's reading of many sources focused on sovereigns. Sometimes his concern emerges in his allusion to specific events in Japanese history, such as his evaluation of Emperor Uda or his comment on Go-Daigo's actions during the Sh6chii Incident that have been noted above. More broadly it emerges in his focus on works by and about Chinese emperors (notably Tang Taizong), on chronicles about emperors Chinese (the Diwang luelun *T-9M) and Japanese, and from his notations that, for example, when he read the Jinshu he read only the Imperial chronicles and the vitagraphs. 169 But his theoretical concern is most evident in his reading of Ban Biao's essay on

169 Following Sargent, "Understanding History," p.29 note 3: zhuan, den being "vita- graph," "a record of the historically significant aspects of a subject without implying .. a full-fledged biography, tracing the development of a personality."



110 ANDREW GOBLE

the Mandate of Kings (Wang ming lun i**r&), a document considered basic to the history of political ideas. One of Ban Biao's basic arguments was that the ruler inherits the right to rule from the founding ancestor of his house, an argument that in the Japanese context was of some significance, and which could readily have been appropriated to justify the hereditary monopoly of the Japanese Impe- rial house. However Hanazono, with some diffidence towards the knowledge of the great Han historian, did not find the argument all that compelling, nor did he feel that another quality given weight by Ban Biao, external appearance (in implied contrast to inner qualities), ought to be relevant in evaluating eligibility for the Imperial rank.

When I was reading the Annotated Wen Xuan170 I looked at the piece on the Mandate of Kings. It states that "there were five qualities for [Han] Gaozu's rise [to the Em- perorship]. The first, being a descendant of Yao; the second, in appearance he had many uncommon and distinguishing features;"7' third, the portents of his divine conquests; fourth, his being magnanimous and discerning and thereby humane and benevolent; and fifth, he knew men and was skilled in employing them."

As to these five indications, I have my doubts about the first and second. So, I wrote down these sentences and noted my foolish opinions on one sheet of paper. I want this to be seen as something well-known. In the present age, who knows of this? Of those who study many do not become familiar with the real principles, that is to say they read through the texts and leave the principles unexplicated. Those who discuss principles further do not have any love of learning, and there are thus many who do not know ancient matters. Taken together, it is simply that there is insufficient basis for there to be any real discussion. Ah it is saddening! There is no one. Even though I am of shallow intelligence and limited knowledge, I have pri- vately thought about the principles over a lengthy period of time. Further, even though I am of shallow ability I have roughly perused the Classics and the Histo- ries, and consequently it is only because of some doubts that I compose a treatise.

The reason for these doubts: the posterity of a sage do not necessarily rise to the

170 The "Discourse on the Mandate of Kings" appears in chapter 52 of the Wen Xuan (Ssupu peiyao edition); see also De Bary et al., Sources of Chinese Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960), 1.176-80. Hanazono first mentions his acquaintance with the Wen Xuan on 1313/10/2, when he received the tenth volume to read, and then not again until some time later: HTS 1323/12/29, 1324/1/3, 1324/1/5, 1324/1/6. Nonetheless, since Wen Xuan was apparently standard reading for anyone interested in poetry, particularly for its fine rhapsodies, it seems unlikely that these were the only occasions upon which he read it.

171 According to the Han shu, these were a prominent nose, dragon forehead, a beautiful beard on chin and cheeks, and seventy-two black moles on his left thigh; see Homer H. Dubs trans., The History of the Formner Han Dynasty (Baltimore: Waverley Press, 1938), 1.29.




Imperial rank (the precedents for this I list separately). How can one state that he is a descendant of Yao and make this the basis for Gaozu's accession? And, even though he had uncommon physiognomy, this does not necessarily mean that he was exalted (the evidence for this point is also listed separately). How can one take this and claim that? Could this just be a casual argument? Is it that one cannot apply these laws in perpetuity? Still, one cannot doubt earlier wisdom on the basis of [one's] shallow ability. But if one has doubts about principles how can one be silent? So I write this down. Could it be that Ban Shupi VA, did not carefully consider this? This is my rough conjecture. In any event among the people of later times many are stupid; consequently they depend upon their predecessors. The mind of luxury and extravagance sees uncommon physiognomy and indiscriminate- ly exalts this as noble. Is this why there is an impoverishment of letters? I write one passage down in order to admonish later people. It is not that I take my foolish opin- ion and disparage prior wisdom, but rather [that I hope] to relieve people's impoverishment. This is the reason why I clarify the import of the ancients.172

This passage demonstrates that Hanazono had made an important transition from, as in 1322 with the Orthodox Interpretation on the Shang shu, hesitantly wondering whether the arguments of later commentators might be incomplete, to a far more confident willing- ness. to question the mode of analysis and use of argument by even the most distinguished figures in the Chinese tradition. Hanazono applied this confidence in his own reasoning abilities to other texts, either wondering whether the received evaluation of the text was not in itself faithful to the contents of the text, or whether the author in question simply was ignorant and the argument unjustified. For example, on the Guiguzi Hanazono noted:173

Recently I have been doing nothing besides taking out the Analects. Today I successfully completed the two sections "Learning" and "Establishing Government." I put back the Commentary, the Correct Commentary, the exegeses of recent scholars, etc., and some other books. There would never come a time when I would get through them. However first of all I had taken out the Commentary, Correct Com- mentary, and the collected annotations.

Today I finished reading the the Guiguzi in three kan, and the Nanshijieyao 1fi 0. I have been looking at them for seven or eight days. I have leisurely read through the Guiguzi and I have some rough understanding of its essentials, but my shallow wisdom is not really sufficient to evaluate it. But when going through it, it repeatedly touches on rhetoric. How can its import stop at this? [Su] Qin JR and [Zhang] Yi /f learnt this style, but merely knew this one thing. With this they

172 HTS 1324/1/5. 173 HTS 1324/4/7.



112 ANDREW GOBLE

went around to the various lords [of the Warring States period] as itinerant per- suaders and were unable to achieve the task of setting up a hegemon. 174 Fitting indeed! Zi Gong f-; was the most celebrated of Confucius' disciples, and went around expositing to Wu and Yue, but was unable to get beyond the techniques of rhetoric. How, with Guigu's not being the equal of Confucius and Qin and Yi's not being comparable could they hope to attain the Way? In later times when people study this book they cannot but be prudent. The theories of rhetoric arise from this book, and accordingly it is called the Rhetorician Guiguzi; [yet] in its expositions it doesn't rely on the rhetorical arts. Later scholars should think well about this. [i.e. realize there's more to it].

Hanazono's "rational skepticism," and his fundamental attitude toward the wisdom of the ancients, is also to be seen at work in his evaluation of a noted critique of the official historiographical process, Liu Zhiji's Shitong. Hanazono does not assess all chapters of the work, and it may perhaps be assumed that there were many parts of it with which he did agree: controversial as the work was, it did have much to say on the nature of history and the legacy of past thinkers. Yet for Hanazono the author, learned as he was, had not fully profited from his study:'75

From yesterday up through this evening I've been roughly reading through the Shitong in two sheaves (chi) and twenty kan up to dai seventeen the chapter on "Doubting Antiquity." [That is, through all of the "Inner Chapters," and through thirty-nine of the total of forty-nine chapters.] All too often it does not know the mind of the sages. It merely gives variant interpretations and questions the deeds of the sages. The extent of its ignorance is simply beyond words. I threw down the book and grieved. It is just not worth reflecting on anything that comes after that. So I did not read the chapter on "Doubting Antiquity" and the rest of it; though, at various places I [did] look at some passages. Evaluating historians past and present it condemns writing that is not direct and wants to abbreviate verbose texts. It is certainly worth considering this sort of thing. [But] in other things, such as doubting that Shun banished Yao and that Tang censured Jie, what could possibly be further than this from knowing the sages? The reason for this is that he is erudite and has a surfeit of excellent memory but in comprehending the sages and plumbing the Way he is insufficient. Relying on his knowledge he likes to draw out

174 Su Qin (Su Ch'in) and Zhang Yi (Chang Yi) were Warring States period itinerant per- suaders (youshuo) JIN noted for their promotion of "vertical" and "horizontal" alliances whereby various kingdoms could ally against Qin. The compound "vertical and horizontal" was later employed to refer to rhetoric and rhetoricians. Numerous stories about Su Qin and Zhang Yi occur in the Zhanguo ce (Chronicles of the Warring States): see James I. Crump, trans., Chan-Kuo Ts'e (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970).

17'5 HTS 1324/4/18.




the mistakes of the ancient wise ones. If it is a matter of drawing out the mistakes of the Shi [ji] and the Han (histories) then they ought to be brought out; but going so far as to doubt the sage works of Zhongni [Confucius] is this not being extreme? This book is sufficient to confuse later people and difficult to impart to future ages, since it does not attain the mind of the sages. [As for my] writing one page and wanting to leave it for those who will come, it is not that I am judging an ancient, but because I fear it will confuse later generations. To take the fabrications of Wei and Jin and make conclusions about the sage wisdom of Shun and Yu, he cannot speak about the extremes of "perplexity! "176 He cannot hope to aspire to the principles of the Confucian school, he is simply familiar with the customs of a disordered world. Even though his learning spanned the Hundred Schools, it did not bring him the profit of knowing the Way. A lord of later ages must consider this a salu- tary warning. Ah it is saddening!

For Chinese scholars such as Liu Zhiji the consequence of not fully comprehending the Way might result in an insufficiently profound work, and at worst receiving a less than outstanding reputation through the ages. Yet for those who failed to evaluate them critically as they read them in order to obtain some guide to conduct, the consequences could be far more serious: a fundamental misunderstanding not only of the truths of the original classics, but also of the nature of human affairs as was revealed in historical context.

Hanazono made the point much more explicitly when, prescient- ly in early 1324, he addressed the issue of the causes of the seminal events that introduced the warrior class into the aristocratic polity in the 1150s. As noted earlier, one of the principals, Fujiwara Yorinaga, was noted for his familiarity with the Chinese record, and his downfall naturally focused attention on the issue of the relationship between reading the classics and prudent political behavior: if he was such a great scholar, how does one explain the fact that he obviously failed to imbibe the lessons therein? What had gone wrong? Had Yorinaga just had bad luck? Or was there something else at work that touched upon the relationship between learning and worldly action?'77

After looking at the Uji safu ki (Taiki) I returned it. This person was the most out- standingly talented student of Chinese learning of the recent past (kinko). And he

176 Hanazono's wry reference to the Shitong's chapter forty-eight, entitled "Perplexity." 177 HTS 1324/2/13.



114 ANDREW GOBLE

considered the study of righteousness central. But the legacy of his life is not worth contemplating.

The raising of troops is a weighty matter. They should not be employed lightly. In the great disturbance of the H6gen (era, 1156) he was unable to accomplish anything as the leader of the rebellion. His wisdom has, for that reason, been called insufficient. [Yet just the same] people say that he was erudite and had an excellent memory. Since I was dubious [about this] I read over the records (kiroku), and is he [not] a person who affected warped views?

As proof of this, [there is the instance of] an official (something-maru, I don't remember the rest of the name) who was quite experienced in official duties. He was attacked and wounded by Mumaru, a lower official in the Imperial Police Agency. As a result this low-ranking official was thrown in jail, but he was prompt- ly forgiven and discharged. The Great Minister (Dayin, Yorinaga) ordered Kimi- haru to kill him. He states in his diary that "As to this, I carried out punishment in Heaven's stead. This was the reason whereby Tang [founder of the Shang, defeater of Xia] and Wu [founder of the Zhou, defeater of the Yin] executedjie [bad last ruler of Xia] and Zhou [bad last ruler of Shang]." How can the intent of Heaven be invoked here? Further, [Yorinaga] prayed for Kimiharu's longevity, but he had already died. In a later section it is recorded that he does not have faith in Buddhism. It hardly needs stating that this is the height of ignorance. This too [demonstrates] that he did not know the will of Heaven. It states in the Analects that "He who does not know the will of Heaven is not a true gentleman."178 This is more than sufficient to presume that his knowledge was not deep. Unable to succeed in a major affair he met misfortune. Truly is this not fitting!

It is commonly said that he studied the Yijing before reaching fifty'79 and that therefore he met misfortune. Ah! is this how much the common person does not understand the Way?180 One can only grieve that the incorrect [understanding of] the

178 See Analects XX.3. 179 See Taiki 1143/10/12, 1143/12/7, 1143/12/8. Yorinaga records that he wanted to study

the Yijing since the next year was a highly significant one in the 60-year calendrical cycle. The common view against which he successfully argued was that one should only study the work after reaching the age of fifty.

180 The following year (HTS 1325/6/17) Hanazono repeats his dissatisfaction with popular views on the consequence of reading the Yijing before reaching an appropriate age:

"Recently when I had some spare time I read the Annotated Yijing (Yi shu). People of old used to say that this work should be looked at only after knowing destiny. Yet we see in his diary that the Kanpy6 [emperor, Uda] read this. Was he only thirty years old? I still do not comprehend it. Further, many in the Chinese courts (Kanch6) studied this when they were young. I in my heart of hearts most humbly have my doubts . . . In the Uji safu ki [ Taiki] the ages at which [Yorinaga] read this Yi are recorded in detail. His reasons for doing so [reading the work] are quite justifiable. Yet he was an unlucky person; and consequently do not later people take this as proof [that one should not read the Yi before the right time]? Going by the interpretations of Wang Gan, or the precedents of Japan and China, most assuredly there should not be such fears. How succeeding to the rank of Son of Heaven can one not know the charge of Heaven? And for this reason Go-Uda as well as the current emperor have read it.




Way is like this. Further, if his legacy is something which should be contemplated, it is [no more than] yearning for ruins. On every matter the correct principles were mangled. Or, even though laws were transcended, in many instances this was [simply] following old practices [and not the result of superior discernment of principles that inform laws]. Knowing the principles [of things] one necessarily is successful. For this person, even though wise and sagely, how could it have come to this pass? Because he did not know the great body of the Way, and even though in his heart there was no personal malice, in all things he went contrary to the Way; it was for this reason he met with calamity. People of later ages should ponder this well.

Last year I perused the Ono no miya uki [Shoyuiki of Fujiwara Sanesuke 9R]. This person was known for his wisdom in the middle past (chziko). It is also said that he fully understood the way of the gods. Reading this diary, he was a gentleman and discriminating. Truly fitting that he should be commonly regarded as wise. And to be capable of fully discerning the way of the gods, is it that this is even now not [an] inevitable [result of such wisdom]? Reading this diary there is without doubt knowledge; the discrimination is unparallelled. Is it not that he is the standard both for the present (toji) and for later ages (gose)? His reputation for uprightness and wisdom likewise cannot be overstated. How saddening! To be born in a later age and not meet this person.

Hanazono's criticism of Yorinaga is quite a strong one; moreover, Hanazono essentially lays at the feet of this well-read individual responsibility for the rise of the warrior class to such prominence in Hanazono's day. Modern scholars of course see more causes than this at work, but since recent scholarship, while charting the rise of the warriors, has suggested less sense of inevitability than the older literature-based interpretations have presented, it is in some respects difficult to take too strong an issue with Hanazono's premise that fundamentally flawed judgment and a constricted perspective on the flow of human events was a major contributing cause. As Hanazono might have put the question, what was it that Yorinaga thought he was doing? Did he have no sense that the introduction of military force into court politics could have the most profound ramifications? And more broadly, the fact that there was no basis in the Japanese record for assessing the possibilities only made an understanding of the Chinese record all the more important for someone so highly placed as Yorinaga; yet this most widely read of

As for myself, even though I am possessed of little talent, I read those works that should be read, and I have already passed through the rank of Son of Heaven. How can it be contrary to the proper nature of things to read a work on the charge of Heaven?"



116 ANDREW GOBLE

people had not learnt truly, and his failure had accordingly been on the grandest of scales. Yet for Hanazono the failure had been the personal one of Yorinaga, not of the record he had studied. That record alone could provide guidance and knowledge amid massive change, and indeed would provide one with the perspective needed to understand that one was living amid such change.

Distressingly for Hanazono, it was evident that in the current year, 1324, members of the Imperial family were also failing to profit from their studies of the Chinese record. We noted how Hanazono had been critical of Go-Daigo and his confidants in the wake of the Sh6chud Incident later that year (and, in other entries, shows himself to have been absolutely outraged at that turn of events), but it is also of relevance that even prior to that Incident he had begun to evaluate his Imperial relatives from much the same standpoint as he had looked at Liu Zhiji and Fujiwara Yorinaga. Just over two months after his criticism of Yorinaga, and before the Sh6chui Incident, Go-Uda's passing gave Hanazono the chance to address issues confronting the Imperial family, and the quality of its leadership. Hanazono had been concerned about Go-Uda a few years earlier in 1319 on the occasion of a property dispute, at which time he noted that "when one thinks carefully about the matter, the retired sovereign (hoko, Go-Uda) has had considerable instruction in the inner and outer writings [Buddhist and Chinese texts], yet we have things such as this.""8' In 1324, Hanazono was no more optimistic. While being prepared to concede that Go-Uda was a worthy sovereign for a degenerate age, this was hardly a desirable standard:

Even though he read widely in both Chinese and Japanese works, he did not have the knowledge [sufficient to] learn lessons from the one hundred generations. There have been indications for several years of trouble and strife. He was not yet learned in Imperial wisdom. Until his death he permitted troubles. [If] later sovereigns use this as their standard then one prays that they will be prudent about the future. 182

181 HTS 1319/intercalary 7/2. 182 HTS 1324/6/25.




SOME CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

Very little of Hanazono's writing is extant between 1325 and 1330 when he wrote the Admonitions to the Crown Prince. However, I would suggest that there is sufficient material through 1325-social dynamics, Hanazono's reading and intellectual activity-and the general social record after that time to provide us with a good sense of the perspectives that informed the essay, and to obtain some sense of why it does not reflect what has been portrayed as the in- forming ideologies of medieval Japan generally, why it has a different view than that found in some "landmark" texts, and why it rejects some orthodox reasons for belief in the continuity of Japan's Imperial house. I hasten to add that I do not wish to suggest that Hanazono was necessarily "different" or was more "mainstream," since either notion still entangles us in what I believe is a basic problem of the way in which medieval thought has been represented. Nonetheless, let us delineate some of the assumptions and philosophy (or ideology) that have emerged from our look at Hanazono's social and intellectual environment.

It is evident that living in a time of pronounced and unsettling social change, and experiencing the impact of change directly, had exercised a profound influence on the type of knowledge that Hana- zono sought. He was receptive to a broad range of ideas, willing to read widely, and obviously concerned that he have a strong understanding of what constituted his intellectual heritage. The latter effort was significant, particularly because he evidently came to believe that what was portrayed as his intellectual heritage was but a pale shadow of true knowledge about the past. Yet it is also evident that Hanazono did not, as extensive study of the greatness of the past can sometimes lead thinkers, deny change and laud the virtues of the old; he was concerned instead to delineate a fundamental core of knowledge that would enable one to understand change. And to understand change, one needed to understand history.

Hanazono's conception of history, and indeed of knowledge about the human realm, was essentially a Chinese and Confucian conception. It was historicist, believing that eternally valid and fundamental truths had been articulated in a golden age, the "past" of the sages. History, and human ethics, had been in a state of decline



118 ANDREW GOBLE

ever since then, as one could see from the ways in which thinkers and political actors had or had not understood those early truths. Certainly Hanazono was concerned about the future in a general sense and more specifically about the immediate future of the Im- perial family. Hanazono was concerned about the future as a "Chinese thinker," but it is important to acknowledge that Hana- zono also recognized that the chronological record did offer other senses of the past beyond the "past" of the sages: the Chinese past that was divided by dynasties; and the Japanese past which conceptually began with the middle past (chziko) of the Heian period, continued into the recent past (kinko) around the time of the H6gen era, and flowed into the present (toji), which would in turn become the future "later age" (gose). The past thus had several constituent elements, themselves defined by some observable events. But underlying all of this was the past of the sages. This perspective did not, to Hanazono at any rate, imply that all would reflect the past, that "history" would simply repeat itself automatically, but it did assume that generic events in human affairs could and would recur. The past was thus a guide to forms of change, and demonstrated that change was itself fairly common. This may seem an unexceptional point, except when placed beside those other views of the past that scholarship has presented as an implicitly valid "Japanese" view which suggests either that things do not recur (except ahistorically, and in cycles to which history was subordinate) or that progression (or, movement) is linear.

It is also important to note that despite Hanazono's very Confu- cian pessimism about being born in the wrong time-that is, not during the age of the sages, or at a time when someone who truly was at one with the sage lessons had existed, such as Tang Taizong or Fujiwara Sanesuke-Hanazono did not, as did for example adher- ents of Buddhist versions of progressive decline, believe that a true understanding of sage knowledge was impossible. True, many people were ill-informed, many writers and figures had been unable to understand the truths with varying degrees of consequence for their lives, but study and thought could enable one to understand the truths long ago articulated. This was a positive assessment and went hand in hand with other important Confucian beliefs, clearly addressed by Hanazono, that ultimately much depends on destiny




that is directed by an impersonal Heaven, and that morality in general and the character of the ruler in particular were of integral relevance to the functioning of society.

This latter position was a significant one for a sovereign in Japan, for, as Hanazono intimated in his comments on the ideas of Ban Biao, hereditary qualification for rulership was not really a qualification at all; and in this regard it is significant that, while Hanazono must have known that the Imperial line was of divine descent, conspicuously absent from Hanazono's comments about history is any reference to an age of the gods as shapingJapanese history in some meaningful fashion or providing the Imperial family with particular prerogatives that could not be obtained by someone outside the family. That is, the nativist ideology within the framework of which the Imperial family is said to have existed was not in itself a view to which members of the Imperial family automatically subscribed; indeed, the banal expression of it was rejected by Hanazono (and Go- Daigo also) as inadequate. Their concerns were focused on the opportunities and dangers provided in an era of social flux, and they were determined to define sovereignty not on the basis of what Japanese emperors were "supposed" to be, nor of ideas put forward by members of an aristocracy which was on the verge of col- lapse, but on the basis of an interpretation of history that gave great weight to the Chinese record.

Hanazono had pursued a course of study that brought him to the view that one ought to get back to the basics, and that one should do so through interrogative reading of texts. This approach is not the monopoly of any culture or stream of thought, and we do not need to argue that Hanazono's progressively skeptical approach in his reading meant that his acquaintance with Song ideas had given him a penchant for the neo-Confucian "investigation of things. " None- theless, the evidence of Hanazono's diary, his reading of works not normally read in Japan, and the fact that so few others prior to Hanazono's day had exhibited such a penchant, does suggest that Hanazono's attitude to history was not a retreat to some old Chinese notions or a failure to address notions of history put forward by otherJapanese, but a product of the same sort of re-evaluation of the past, the same concern to find relevant lessons to apply to changing conditions in the present, that had occurred in the fertile currents



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of Song thought (and which was in Hanazono's day also occurring in Japan). Whether we wish to characterize this as the impact of "neo-Confucianism" in Japan, it is perhaps worth noting that a traditional focus on Zen as the most important intellectual import from Song culture, and efforts to seek the influence of non-Zen ideas simply by reference (or, lack of reference) to the neo-Confucian canon of Zhu Xi et al., probably obscures the full range of Song culture that appeared in Japan.

Related to this, and underscoring the need to broaden horizons of inquiry beyond the limitations of a "Japanese" view of medieval Japan, students of the medieval Japanese episteme have tended to undervalue, when they have not dismissed outright as irrelevant to Japanese thought, the continuing and reinvigorated Chinese intellectual tradition to which Hanazono had access. In this respect, three points may be noted. First, scholars have tended to focus on works that intertwine literature and Buddhism, with a concomitant rejection of any sense that it might be useful to examine the ongoing traditions of Chinese thought and scholarship. This effective delinea- tion of a standard canon that excludes the models and traditions that informed writing on social and political matters is in itself sus- pect; it would also have come as a surprise to people like Hanazono, or later on Nij6 Yoshimoto, and all those others who have left us extensive evidence that they did take seriously the Chinese intellectual tradition. Second, scholars have largely focused their studies on that well-examined (and well-translated) group of literate individuals who represent what has recently been termed the "aesthetics of discontent," a self-acknowledged class of social and political failures who, despite their canonical status, clearly did not represent the full range of intellectual orientation in their own times. Third, while recent scholars have been far more willing to acknowledge the breadth of medieval intellectual life, the full significance of that breadth for the way in which we conceptualize (or decide not to conceptualize) the medieval episteme requires further investigation of such issues as the accessibility of works and the social dynamics through which ideas were generated and discussed. What does it mean to say that something was "in circulation"? What was the significance of, for example, the Gukanshi, if we have no record that it was read? At the very minimum, it would seem, a more complete understanding of




the medieval episteme and intellectual tradition demands closer attention to the social environment.

APPENDIX

ADMONITIONS TO THE CROWN PRINCE

I have heard that Heaven gives rise to the people and sets up a lord to rule over them. Consequently humankind is profited. He provides direction for the lower people's lack of wisdom and does so through humanity and virtue. He steers the ignorance of the common folk and does so through the arts of government. Most assuredly if [the lord] does not possess these abilities then he cannot depend upon his position [alone to rule]. When ministers also lack this then it is further said that this is putting into disorder the affairs of Heaven [government], and there is no escape from putting the country into disorder [demon's glance]. How much moreso [can one avoid doing harm to] the great jewel of the lord! Is it not so that you cannot but be prudent and cannot but be apprehensive?

The Crown Prince has grown up under the hands of those who serve in the Palace and does not yet know of the suffering of the people. Habitually you are clothed in luxuriant garments, [yet] you give no consideration to the toil of [those who] weave the cloth or harvest the flax. You are satiated with gourmet delicacies like special chestnuts, [yet] cannot yet discern the privations and hard- ships of agriculture. Insofar as the state is concerned, you have not even the slightest of achievements; [so] insofar as the people are concerned, how could you have even the minutest amount of knowledge? Simply you take the claim that you are of the lineage of past sovereigns and quite arrogantly hope for that time when you will attain to the weighty appointment over the myriad affairs. Given that lacking virtue mistakenly you [want to] be entrusted with the sovereign's advisers, and since lacking accomplishment improperly you [want to] be set above the common people, how can you not in your own being be ashamed?

Further, of the four arts of poetry, letters, rites, and music which the ruler employs, with which will you gain [this merit]? I request that the Crown Prince reflect deeply on this. If you employ gentle



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and simple teachings and make them as one with your nature, and take the path whereby your understanding is deepened and you attain the import, then this is good. Nevertheless I fear that you are not yet sufficient for this. How, when you have not yet furnished this virtue, do you hope to attain this weighty rank? That is to say, what you seek is not something for which you have demonstrated any accomplishment. This is, for example, like throwing out a net and waiting for the fish to trap themselves, or not doing any cultivating and hoping that the grains will ripen. Attaining this [rank?], how is it not difficult? Even if one were to hold that through diligent effort one would thereby attain it, in all likelihood this is not [the same as] making it one's own possession. It is for this reason that though the government of Qin was powerful it gave way to the Han, and though Sui Yang flourished he was destroyed by the Tang. Not- withstanding, foolish flatterers hold that in our country the Imperial line is of one lineage and is not the same as this foreign country (gai- koku) where the ceremonial tripod is transferred on the basis of virtue and where people contend for sovereignty [chase the deer] on the basis of raw power; thus even though [an emperor's] virtue may be minuscule there is not as in neighboring countries (rinkoku) the danger of [people] waiting for the time to pounce, and thus even though the government be disordered there is no fear that those of a different family will snatch it by violence. The reason for this is the assistance of the legacy of the Imperial ancestors, a far superior tradition than that of other countries (yokoku). That is to say, merely having inherited the residual aura (yofui) of previous reigns, and if there be no heinous [acts that] damage the nation, then it is simply sufficient to be a good sovereign who upholds civilized culture (bun). Why would one begrudge it that virtue does not match that of Tang and Yu [Yao and Shun], or moral transformation does not equal that of the Zhou. 183 The lack of knowledge of court gentlemen and la- dies, that they listen to these words and all of them think them appropriate. Ignorantly they think this, and they are deeply in error.

183 I am unsure about this. The passage literally refers to the moral transformation of land and chestnuts, which is unintelligible. However, I am inferring that this refers to Zhou since (Analects III.21) "the men of Zhou" used the chestnut tree as their altar to the god of the earth.




What this is [is just the same as] having a large temple bell that reverberates with sound, yet with a small hanging bell having yet to be struck someone says that it has no sound; or there being a bright mirror placed in the shade and with the myriad shapes having yet to appear in it, someone says that it does not reflect. Even though the results of something are not manifested, the underlying principles of things are quite evident. It is for this reason that Mencius considered Di Xin [Zhou, last ruler of Shang/Yin] to be a false master and did not wait for him to be executed by Wu Fa [Wu Wang, founder of the Zhou] 184 If you wish to safeguard the sacred treasure [the Imperial rank]185 with shallow virtue, how most certainly would it be in accord with this principle! If one thinks about this it is as dangerous as placing a stack of eggs beneath a crumbling wall, more extreme than using a rotting rope above a deep abyss. Even allowing that in our country there have not been those of a different family who have waited their time to pounce, many cases show that there are varying lengths to an Imperial reign. That is not all; from the recent past [H6gen] warfare has continued without let, Imperial prestige has waned considerably. How can one not be saddened! The Crown Prince must earnestly consider, think deeply and reflect upon the reasons for the rise and fall of previous reigns (zendai). Ex- amples are not distant. Are they not brightly before your eyes?

And further, the times are steeped in decadence and shallowness. People are all wicked and violent. Of yourself, not having the wisdom that is spread among all things nor the abilities that pass through those things that create difficulties, with what will you govern this perverse and disordered world? The average person learns in a time of peace and does not know the disorder of this present time. Should the time be one of great peace then even

184 That is, Di Xin/Zhou, the last ruler of the Shang/Yin, had (because of his atrocities against the people) proven himself unfit to be considered an Emperor even before he was executed by Wu Fa/Wu Wang the founder of the successor Zhou dynasty and rightful inheritor of the Mandate of Heaven. Hanazono's reference is probably to Mencius I.1B.8, where Men- cius addresses the question of whether regicide is permissible, and notes that "I have indeed heard of the punishment of the 'outcast Zhou' but I have not heard of any regicide."

185 I am assuming from context that the term "sacred treasure" refers here to the Imperial rank and not, as the term can also mean, the literal sacred treasures of sword, mirror, and jewel associated with Imperial succession.



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though the sovereign be unexceptional he is able to govern. Thus if a Yao or a Shun were to arise and be in command, even though there be ten Jies and Zhous they are unable to bring disorder. Force quells them. At the present time, even though it is not yet one of major disorder, the forces of disorder already have been germinat- ing for a long time. It is not something that has occurred gradually in one morning and one night. If a sage lord (seishui) occupies the rank [of emperor] then one can rely on a policy of non-action (wu wei, bui); if a wise sovereign (kenshul) graces the country then there is no disorder. But if a lord is neither wise nor sage then disorder, I fear, will arise some years hence. And if one time it comes to disorder, then even if there be a virtuous and wise superlative lord, he will be unable to control [affairs not just] in the course of twelve months but will have necessarily to wait for several years. How much the moreso with an unexceptional sovereign who meets this fate then the country will daily decline and government will daily fall into disorder, and raw force will destroy the land [rend the earth and smash roof-tiles]. An ignorant person does not comprehend a change of times and gauges the debilitation and disorder of the present day on the basis of the tranquility of the years of the past (mukashi). How mistaken this is! Sovereigns of recent ages (kindai) have as yet to meet this occasion, but no doubt will the Crown Prince, on the day that he accedes, meet this destined time of debilitation and disorder? If there is not internally wise Imperial sagacity and externally the divine strategies that encompass all, then it will be impossible to order the disorder.

To deal with this I recommend learning. The average person of today is as yet unaware of this opportunity [of study as a means to deal with the times]. The Crown Prince must search within his heart [divine collar] and apply his desire to prosper [the country] to this age of evil habits. If it is not through poetry, texts, ceremony, and music, then you will be unable to acquire [the necessary wisdom] and govern. Being aware of this, value even the smallest amount of time, consider the night a continuation of the day; you must study diligently. Even if one's learning spans the hundred schools and even if one is able to recite the six classics, it is impossible to obtain the inner meaning of the Confucian teaching. How much the moreso is it [to engage in] superficial scholarship and




[then] seek the techniques for governing the country [in that]; this is even more foolish than a horsefly thinking of [flying] a thousand miles or a wagtail aiming for the highest heavens. Therefore when thinking, learn; when learning, think.186 Study the texts diligently and fully comprehend them, and if you daily reflect upon yourself then you will possess this resemblance.

In sum, what constitutes the essentials of learning is providing yourself with knowledge of all things, knowing of things to come before they germinate, comprehending the beginning and the end of the will of Heaven, and discerning the fortunes of the destiny of the times. If one contemplates the past and considers the traces of the rise and fall of previous reigns, then [it is evident] that change is a thing without limit. If you attain the point of memorizing the writings of the various masters and the hundred schools, skilfully compose poetry (shifu), and are well able to make righteous arguments, then you will be able to manage all the swarm of officials. Why should a monarch himself toil at this [actual administration]? For this reason in the Posthumous Admonitions of the Sage Lord [Uda] of the Kanpy6 [era] it is stated that "A Son of Heaven should not waste time entering into miscellaneous writings. '187 But from recent times (kinsei) the ignorant have but average abilities in things Confucian,188 and what their learning therefore consists of is vainly

186 See Analects 1. 15: "The Master said, He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger."

187 Hanazono had evidently been quite impressed by Uda's work, for he cited the identical passage years earlier (HTS 1323/6/17) when addressing the question of how a sovereign ought to go about studying:

"It states in the KanpyJAdmonitions that 'A Son of Heaven should not waste time entering into the miscellaneous writings.' This addresses the sovereign's body of learning. Firstly, know the great body of the Way. After that, you should study the way of the various masters, the Hundred Schools, miscellaneous essays (zatsuhitsu) and elegant [writing, fugetsu]. If one does not peruse the texts how can one know the Way? As for the Three Histories and Five Clas- sics these must as a matter of course be studied first. [But] the style of recent ages (kindai) is to emphasize elegance; they do not yet know the great body of Confucian teaching."

Uda's original work appears to have been more extensive than the extant text, for Hanazono's reference is not to be found in it, though another work written prior to Hanazono's day (which Hanazono had not read) cites the same passage. The issue has been recognized by the most recent editors of the text (Kanpy5 On 'ikai in Yamagishi Tokuhei et al., eds., Kodai seiji shakai shiso [Nihon shiso taikei, Iwanami shoten, 1979], pp. 103-14, 293-95).

188 More accurately perhaps, the passage would read "the ignorantju with their average abilities. " Ju here would be parallel to "smallju" in contrast to "gentlemanju: " see Analects VI. 13.



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upholding the notion of humanity and righteousness though they do not yet know the essence of Confucian teaching. They labor but with little profit. This is what Si[ma Qian] in his History calls having studied widely but getting very little of the essential points. Further, in recent years we have a group of scholars who, merely being acquainted with a small aspect of a sage's [work], trot out their own personal interpretations by themselves, borrow Buddhist and Daoist terminology, arbitrarily extract quite pedestrian meanings (chiiyii no gi), and then consider these profoundly vacuous principles the essence of Confucianism. They do not know the Way of humanity, righteousness, loyalty, and filial piety.189 They do not know how to apply laws and regulations. They do not comprehend the meaning of rituals and propriety. Non-covetous and quiescent, and though it seems that thereby they should have understood, simply this is the Way of Zhuang Zi and Lao Zi. How can this be the teaching of Confucius and Mencius! These things together [show] they do not know the fundamentals of Confucian teaching. They cannot get it. Even suppose that they enter into learning there are a multitude of such errors. Most deeply you yourself must be cau- tious. You must be diligent in your activity with friends who will be of benefit (ekiyti). 90 If in one's learning there are mistakes then one is distanced from the Way; how much the moreso in other matters! I most deeply admonish you on the necessity of preventing this.

That which has imbued [your study?] of late is, namely, that which is practiced by petty people, simply common matters. People

189 Hanazono elsewhere expands on his view of the significance of these virtues as the foundation for human behavior. In his Oral Transmission of the Seven Gates to the Dharma (Shichi ka homon kuketsu -tE 4 WI n ), written in the first month of 1329, when commenting upon the principles that inform the actions of heaven and earth, humans, nature, and animals, Hana- zono explicitly adheres closely to the Confucian principle (see Analects XII. 11) of the rectifica- tion of names: "A lord is a lord, a minister a minister, a father a father, a son a son; externally there is loyalty, internally there is filial piety. This is the wonderful working of human ethics." See the Shichi ka homon kuketsu in Iwasa Miyoko, Ky6goku ha waka no kenkyu, pp. 112- 17.

190 Probably a reference to Analects XVI.4: "Confucius said, 'He stands to benefit who makes friends with three kinds of people. Equally he stands to lose who makes friends with three other kinds of people. To make friends with the straight, the trustworthy in word, and the well-informed is to benefit. To make friends with the ingratiating in action, the pleasant in appearance, and the plausible in speech is to lose.' "




are close to one another by nature, by practice they are set apart."9' Even supposing you were to furnish the virtues of the knowledge with which you were born [innate knowledge?], I fear that you have been moulded by this [practice]. How much the moreso when you do not possess supreme wisdom (jjchi)! [Text corrupt . . .] the path of establishing virtue and cultivating learning there is nothing upon which you can rely. Ah it is saddening! As for the various deeds of previous sovereigns, at a time like this to want them to be demolished [. . . text corrupt and indecipherable]. As for myself, even though I am by nature bungling and of shallow knowledge and I study the canon (tenseki) carelessly, what I wish is to set up virtue and principle and to restore the Way of the Sovereign. Simply in order to [. . . text corrupt] the Imperial ancestors one does not discontinue ritual observances. That the ritual observances for the Imperial ancestors not be discontinued-this must be the virtue of the Crown Prince [i.e., ensure that the Imperial line does not end]. And at the present if one was to discard the Way and to not cultivate oneself then thereby the path of that which one studies would in one swoop plunge into a ditch and could not be made use of again. This is something that makes one beat one's breast, weep tears, cry out to Heaven, and let out deep sighs. There are three thousand categories in the five punishments.192 But of [all] crimes there are none greater than unfilialness; and for the extremes of unfilialness there is nothing that compares to discontinuing ritual observances. You must not fall into this, and you cannot but dread it.

If you were to establish benefit from your study and produce virtue and principle, this would be not only prospering Imperial deeds in the present (tonen), but would also furthermore bequeath a good name to future generations. Above, you achieve great filialness toward your accumulated ancestors; below, you attach the most substantial virtue to the common folk (hyakusho). This being so then one is elevated but not endangered, full but not overflowing. How can this not be a pleasure? If for one day one is wronged (or, experiences injustice), if one [thereby] safeguards prosperity for a hundred

191 From Analects XVII.2. 192 Being branding, cutting off the nose, cutting off the feet, castration, and death. Three

thousand is probably not meant literally, but as signifying innumerable.



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years, then one must endure it. How much more if one delights one's heart with the most revered texts,'93 then thereby there is no being dragged down by worldly troubles (jinrui no kenten). In books one communes with the ancients, and in them one is bound closely to the sage and the worthy. Without going out of a single window one sees for a thousand miles, without traversing even the smallest temporal moment one passes through antiquity: for the utmost ex- tremity of pleasure, nothing surpasses this. To take pleasure in the Way and to meet with disorder, the difference between joy and sor- row, these are not things that ought be spoken of in the same day. How can one not of one's own volition choose this! It is simply that you must think.

193 Taking funten, fendian ("Tombs and Canons") as a generalized reference to the most laudable works of the past, rather than as a literal abbreviation for sanfun goten, sanfen wudian ("Three Tombs, Five Canons"), namely the most ancient records dealing with the legendary Three Emperors (Fu Xi, Shennong, and the Yellow Emperor Huang Di) and Five Rulers (Huang Di, Zhuan Xu, Ku, Yao, and Shun).



Social Change, Knowledge, and History: Hanazono's Admonitions to The Crown Prince

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