SECTION III.-Analysis of the new education-Continued.

Page.

2. Sapporo agricultural school..

3. Elementary agricultural courses

VII. The educational system and Government control... 1. Financial responsibility of the Government

2. Educational cabinet...

3. Bureau of special school affairs..

4. Bureau of general school affairs.

SECTION IV.-Government education and the advancement of women...

The writer has been privileged to make a study in Japan of Japanese education. The chief sources of information have been: (1) Personal examination of educational institutions, (2) interviews with prominent educators, (3) the Government publications on education, (4) publications of various colleges, and (5) interviews with students. in many Government and Christian colleges. The writer has been able to buttress his statements, as well as settle his convictions, by reference to general works on Japan and to current literatu

SECTION I.-STATUS OF EDUCATION BEFORE THE MEIJI ERA.

A comprehensive survey of modern education in Japan can scarcely be made without first sketching the status of education prior to the present Meiji Era. The educational system of Japan was adopted from the West, but he who fails to take into account the educational status of the Japanese previous to the Renaissance will not form an adequate judgment of present forces.

The Meiji Era is the official designation of the reign of the present Emperor of Japan, who was restored to supreme power by the revolution of 1868; and it has marked the seclusion of the Shogun, the great expansion of commerce, the inauguration of constitutional government, and the establishment of a national system of education.

Previous to the Meiji Era Japan was in a state of organized feudalism. From the beginning of learning in Japan to the present century there is no evidence that the State as such provided education for its people. Education was left to private or local enterprise.

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1 Japanese Education (Government of Japan), pp. 11-12; Religions of Japan, Griffis, p. 313.

1. THE INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM.

The story of learning in the Middle Ages in Europe was repeated in medieval Japan. The Buddhist temples became the seat of a rude. learning. While the national rulers despised or forgot the education of the people, the Buddhist priests were the schoolmasters of the nation. They deserve no little credit for seizing this opportunity, for though the instruction was based on the Buddhist sutras, yet it served for many years to keep the flame of knowledge from being extinguished. In the temples, up and down the country, primary schools were conducted for plebeian or patrician. In the midst of fierce internecine struggles these men quietly plied their craft, and such instruction as Japan had they gave.

Nor were they content to teach simply. The priests were the creators of a literature which may be variously regarded in this century, but which in the sixteenth was the best that Japan had. The temples became the repositories of this literature and the monks its guardians.3 Before the sixteenth century was ended Buddhism had indelibly stamped itself upon the spoken language as well as upon the literature of Japan. These early priest-teachers influenced the phraseology of the people somewhat as the Christian Scriptures have permeated the language of the Western nations.1

2. INFLUENCE OF CONFUCIANISM.

The influence of Buddhism began to wane with the advent of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In 1603 Confucianism took up its silent march through the Japanese mind. It took possession as it proceeded and held its own until the Shoguns were driven from power in 1868. For three and a half centuries Confucius was the head master of Japan, with the Buddhist priests as his understudies. With that adaptability which Buddhism has shown in other parts of Asia, it shaped itself in Japan to Confucian ideas and became the propagator rather than the opponent of Chinese learning. From the printing of the Chinese classics in Japan by the order of Ieyasu to the coming of Western ideas Confucian philosophy is the one force to be reckoned with in the educational life of the Japanese nation."

To understand where Western learning found Japan, and what its task was in Japan, we must allude to the dominant features of Confucianism. Confucius, the Aristotle of Asia, produced what may be

1 Dr. L. R. Klemm, in U. S. Education Report, 1891-92, vol. 1, pp. 200-205; History of Japan, Adams, vol. 2, p. 319; Middle Ages, Hallam, vol. 2, pp. 950-952; History of Civilization, Guizot, p. 215.

* Things Japanese, Chamberlin, p. 124.

Mikado's Empire, Griffis, pp. 201, 202, 297; Religions of Japan, pp. 313, 314; Yankees of the East, Curtis, vol. 2, p. 381.

Religions of Japan, p. 265.

Things Japanese, pp. 93 and 124.

Mikado's Empire, p. 297.

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considered either as a "system of ethics or of anthropology." He claims to have been, in his own words, "a transmitter and not a maker." Man; his relationships to the family, to society, to the state, to heaven; these are the subjects on which he collates his material. With marvelous detail he elaborates his "Superior Man." In the "Great Learning" the relationships and prerogatives of the Superior Man are marked out: (1) The study of things, (2) the completion of knowledge, (3) the veracity of intention, (4) the rectification of the heart, (5) the cultivation of the whole person, (6) the management of the family, (7) the government of the state, and (8) the peace of the whole empire. In this iron mold for centuries the men of Japan, China, and Korea had been cast. Confucius had spoken, and, ipse dixit, there was nothing to be added or deducted. The mind of the far East for centuries has had no other nourishment than the words of this one man. In literature-prose or verse-in philosophy, in patriotism, in sociology, there was but one standard. Originality was a species of disloyalty. The Chinese language was infused into Japan, "mispronounced, and in sound bearing as much resemblance to Pekingese speech as 'Pennsylvania Dutch' to the language of Berlin." In seeking to estimate Confucian education we may ask, first, What was its attitude toward the education of woman? Professor Legge, of Oxford, the foremost Confucian scholar, quoted Confucius as follows: "It is no undesirable thing for a wife to be stupid, whereas a wise woman is more likely to be a curse in a family than a blessing."4

The text-book of morals was Confucian. Polygamy was an integral factor in the system. Contempt is thrown upon common men who are bound to one wife."5 The ideal woman is she who is not jealous of the concubines in her husband's family."

The text-book of politics was Confucian. It places the emperor above all earthly power. He is the "Son of Heaven." In him centers and from him radiates all power. He therefore can not recognize the sovereigns of other empires as his equals. This Confucian doctrine in China and Japan is the basis of the violent contempt for foreign nations which only gave way when it could no longer resist. The text-book of history was Confucian. Professor Legge is authority in regard to the historical qualifications of the sage:

First, he had no reverence for truth in history; I may say, without any modification, no reverence for truth. He understood well enough that it was the description of events and actions according as they had taken place; but he himself constantly transgressed it in all the ways which I have indicated. Second, he shrank from

1 Systematical Digest of the Doctrines of Confucius, Faber, pp. 36 and 34-113.

2 Confucianism and Taoism, Douglas, p. 9.

Religions of Japan, pp. 356-357; Japanese Education, p. 10; History of Japan, Adams, vol. 2, pp. 317-318 and 321.

4 Prolegomena to the She-King, Legge, p. 138.

Confucianism and Taoism, p. 125; Confucianism, Faber, p. 6.

Prolegomena to the She-King, p. 140.

looking truth fairly in the face. It was through this attribute of weakness that he so frequently endeavored to hide the truth from himself and others by ignoring it altogether or by giving an imperfect and misleading account of it. Whenever his prejudices were concerned he was liable to do this. Third, he had more sympathy with power than with weakness, and would overlook wickedness and oppression in authority rather than resentment and revenge in men who were suffering from them. He could conceive of nothing so worthy of condemnation as insubordination. Hence he was so frequently partial in his judgments on what happened to rulers and unjust in his estimate of the conduct of their subjects.'

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In the later development of the feudal system in Japan the seats of the great lords, or Daimios, became the centers of Confucian learning. There were two classes of schools for the education of the military class, the Kanga-ku and the Hyoga-ku. The length of the course of study covered six or seven years. The result of the combination of Confucian learning and Daimio patronage was the samurai, or soldier-scholar, class. The samurai gradually supplanted the Buddhist priests as the real leaders of the people. The samurai became the most influential class in Japanese society, and "now constitute over one-twentieth of the populace." From the soldier-scholar class have come "nearly all the great warriors, statesmen, scholars, reformers, Christians, thinkers, and philanthropists of modern times." The samurai to-day make up, with few exceptions, the governing class of Japan. The transformation of this most important element among the people of Japan from a double-sworded, high handed, clannish patriot into the scholar, the legislator, and the merchant of the Meiji era is one of the fascinating studies of modern Japan.

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3. THE YOGAKU, OR NEW LEARNING.

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The mind of Japan was restive in its Confucian fetters. There were attempts to select the best in the Chinese philosophy and unite with it the better parts of Shinto and Buddhism. The most successful of these movements was the Yogaku. It collapsed in the internal struggle which racked Japan at the time of its opening to foreign nations. It serves, however, to show the temper of the people toward the old system, and explains the readiness with which the new system was later on adopted. The Yogaku movement, together with other forces, was the means of opening the eyes of the people to the unwarranted seclusion of the Mikado and the unnatural assumption of the Shogun. The Yogaku illustrates the general tendency which finally led up to the battle of Fushimi in January, 1868, which marks the beginning of the modern era in Japanese history.?

1 Prolegomena to the Chun Ts'ew, Legge, p. 50,

2 Outlines of Modern Education in Japan (Government), p. 17. History of Japan, Adams, pp. 319-320-324. Page 321 gives three classes, the Sho, Chiu, and Dai Gakko; i. e., Small, Middle, and Great School.

Mikado's Empire, p. 297.

4 Encyclopedia of Missions, vol. 1, p. 488.

Things Japanese, p. 373.

Religions of Japan, p. 369.

Intercourse of the United States and Japan, Nitobe, p. 30. Encylopedia of Missions, vol. 1,

p. 463.

SECTION II.-GENERAL SURVEY OF THE NEW EDUCATION.

1. FIRST ATTEMPTS.

To the Hollanders undoubtedly belongs the credit of creating a thirst in Japan for Western education. From 1630 the Dutch had been allowed to hold a trading post in Nagasaki Bay. Here, despised by the Japanese Government and treated as an inferior people, they plodded on. Their rights curtailed, their island spied upon, themselves the center of suspicion, they were resorted to in secret by Japanese who were willing to risk life in the pursuit of knowledge.' This surreptitious teaching took such a hold that "Rangaku" (Dutch learning) became the common designation of the new ideas.

2

It was something to acquire a smattering of engineering, mining, pharmacy, and astronomy. But the Dutch teachers went further in medicine, and "Rangaku" became largely a synonym for Dutch medicine. So strong was the influence of these Nagasaki merchantteachers, and so open did the avowal of the new ideas become, that schools were started by Japanese in Tokyo to pass on what they had learned from the foreigners. The ardor of those who would escape from the bondage of Confucianism is illustrated by Shozan Sakuma. He sent up a radical petition to his feudal lord, the sixth article of which proposed "to establish schools even in the smallest villages to instruct the people in the principles of morals." He was assassinated in 1864 for his temerity. It was in the midst of such a groping after light that America appeared and opened the doors of Japan.

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2. AMERICAN DIPLOMACY.

There had been repeated attempts by England, France, Russia, and America to open negotiations with Japan, but with no success.*

Had they been willing to assume the Hollanders' position of vassalage they would have got no farther than the Hollanders.

Commodore M. G. Perry with his American fleet anchored in Yeddo Bay in 1853. Three incidents of his stay indicate the results of his mission. (1) On July 10, in Yeddo Bay, Perry and his men joined in the hymn

66 'Before Jehovah's awful throne

Ye nations bow with sacred joy," &c.

(2) He insisted on an interview with the Shogun, a then presumptuous demand, and (3) he brought as one of his gifts a Webster's Dictionary. He accomplished his end, and his treaty paved the way

1 Lord Elgin's Mission to China and Japan, Oliphant, p. 309. Intercourse of the United States and Japan, p. 21. Yankees of the East, vol. 2, p. 340. Matthew Galbraith Perry, Griffis, pp. 424-425. 2 Japanese Education, pp. 98-107. Intercourse of the United States and Japan, pp. 22, 25, 26. 3 Intercourse of the United States and Japan, p. 28.

4 The Story of Japan, Murray, pp. 310-311. Intercourse of the United States and Japan, p. 116. History of Japan, Adams, vol. 1, pp. 108-114.