Confucian Wisdom: Fulfilling Your "Tenmei" in the Non-Linear Spiral
Recently, the heightening of geopolitical tensions in East Asia and the consequential fluctuation of economic indicators are being loudly propagandized. However, as an intelligent reader, you likely realize that this is not solely due to external factors. Namely, it is the fact that Japanese policymakers, solely to prolong the life of their own obsolete systems suffering from institutional fatigue, are performing a hardline stance against China and exploiting the Taiwan issue to defend their vested interests—a mechanics of power that is extremely shallow. There is not a single atom of necessity for us to be tossed about by such a foolish dimension.
If one adopts this perspective thoroughly, the view of the world changes drastically. However, a curious phenomenon emerges here. It is the fact that the selfish rampage of these policymakers is conflated with the collective will of the people, and the short-circuited identification—a complex—of “Japan = Japanese Government” or “China = Chinese Government” has become far too generalized. From the perspective of a reader with a Western context of individualism, this likely appears as a strange “Absence of the Individual”. “Why do the state and the individual collude and identify with each other so nonchalantly in East Asia?” There are deep-rooted civilizational factors lurking here that cannot be dismissed as simple political problems. That is precisely why one must not be misled by the “immediate noise” of today’s Japan-China relations or world affairs. The only rein capable of untangling this knotted thread is “History.”
Looking back, there is the fact that Japan has received an extremely deep and immeasurable influence from its neighbor, China, since ancient times. Contemporary Japanese policymakers may wish to conceal or deny this, but unfortunately for them—far from denial—it has recently begun to be clarified that the roots of the majority of Japanese people contain a significant amount of East Asian genetic lineage. Naturally, Japanese policymakers will absolutely not speak of this, nor will they admit it. I have reached a similar conclusion through the process of my own fieldwork investigating the “Jomon - Yayoi - Kofun” transition, three critical eras in ancient Japanese history. In other words, the massive fact that influence from China cannot be denied becomes a “wall” for policymakers; yet, simultaneously, the problem is: why, then, is Japan so completely different from China? I feel that this ambiguity is being conveniently utilized by policymakers and is wriggling at the root cause of the deterioration in Japan-China relations. My position converges on the point that there is absolutely no need for Japan and China to quarrel. The question is, “Who is this quarrel for?”
To begin with, to dismiss the obvious traces of Chinese origin carved into that historical and cultural stratum as mere “imitation” or “copying” is far too shallow; it must be called intellectual sloth. This is my standing point. Even now, in the West and in Japan, the derogatory impression of “China = Copy Culture” is strongly narrated, but it is significant for me, as a Japanese person, to dare to mention that there is a massive trap here.
Readers of an older generation may remember that before China’s international rise, Japan was also long ridiculed and disparaged by the West with the nuance of “Japan = Copy Culture.” However, that label of “Japan can only imitate other countries” vanished before anyone noticed, and eventually, it came to be perceived affirmatively as “Unique Japanese Culture,” presenting a situation where people around the world now consume it in massive quantities. The fact that the children’s generation of Western society—who once stubbornly rejected Japanese anime, manga, and game culture as “not culture for adults”—can now be seen daily walking happily with goods purchased in bulk at a Pokémon Center, teaches us just how dangerous fixed values can be.
Consider the legendary rock bands of the past that once shone brightly; everyone begins a legend by “imitating” and “copying” someone else. The difference from this individual dimension is that, in Japan’s case, this was done at a national dimension, and China has done this at an even more colossal national dimension. In other words, just like the Japan of the past, I believe there is a very high possibility that China will enter a dimension where it sheds the globally held impression of being a “copy.” At this time, the one thing I can say to readers from the perspective of Japanese history, which has had a long relationship with China, is the lesson Japan knows painfully well: “Do not underestimate China.” Personally, if I look back at history from the perspective of civilization, China is the only one in the world that, while repeating the cycle of rise and fall, has risen from the ashes multiple times to connect its civilization to the present. Meaning, by looking not at the China of today, but at China through the viewpoint of the great cycle of history and contemplating where they are heading, a completely different real image becomes visible. At this moment, unfortunately, existing linear thinking is blown to smithereens.
Of course, China’s domestic situation has fallen into extreme instability, and as a spearhead to vent the dissatisfaction of its citizens, the “virtual enemy” neighbor, Japan, is convenient for policymakers, just as the sophistry of claiming sovereignty over Taiwan is convenient. On the other hand, for Japanese policymakers, if China takes a hardline stance against Japan as a virtual enemy, it provides an excuse for their cherished wish of a “defense tax hike,” which is extremely convenient for regime maintenance. In short, I perceive this as a relationship of complicity; just as Ukraine has become a battlefield as a sacrifice for the great powers of the US and Russia, there is a possibility that Taiwan could become a sacrifice in the exact same structure. In fact, having many friends in Taiwan, I have asked them several times, but no matter how I think about it, the young people of Taiwan have no intention of going to war with China, nor does Taiwan possess the power to survive by decoupling from China in terms of economic adhesion. In other words, we must think, “Who is wishing for a Taiwan war?” At this time, the spearhead turns toward a target that is not East Asia.
And China, with its one-party dictatorship, has a supreme strength. It is the ability to pour resources centrally under the strong system of the Communist Party into the technology and knowledge it has ambitiously accumulated rapidly, even while being ridiculed for imitating other countries. And I believe the greatest reason why Western commentators underestimate China and vastly mistake their analysis converges on the fact that they are only looking at the form of modern China. Here, a strong philosophy of Chinese origin that is still completely misunderstood in Western society surfaces. That is Confucianism. Confucianism basically holds strong influence over China, Korea, and Japan—these three countries are referred to as the “Confucian Sphere”—and they are influenced by Confucianism in extremely deep parts. In other words, China’s greatest strength lies in the magnificent potential to mount the technology and knowledge accumulated through imitation of other countries onto the OS (Operating System) called Confucianism, which has continued since ancient China, and to present culture one after another from here on.
On the other hand, no matter how much overwhelming mass of culture was transmitted from China to Japan, Japanese people did not apply 100% pure Chinese culture to themselves and nurture it as “Equals China.” It is precisely here that the core of the Japanese survival strategy, or the singular “Survival Algorithm” possessed by the base system called Japan, is hidden.
Looking back at history, China’s massive culture can be arranged as “Information Compression Technology” called Kanji (Chinese characters), the “Ritsuryo System” as a governance mechanism, and “Confucianism” (or Buddhism) as a spiritual OS. How on earth did the Japanese handle these when they flowed in? I intentionally used the word “Tuning” here to suggest that it was neither mere passive adaptation nor uncritical acceptance. When analyzing this phenomenon from the perspective of the unique “Cultural Remix Capability” that Japanese people have demonstrated in the process of history, the concept of “Tuning” emerges as the most appropriate functional expression. And the code running through this tuning is “Survival Strategy.” I deny the conventional, shallow view often discussed that “Japanese people have a high ability to mix foreign cultures,” and rather consider that “they are tuning foreign cultures in the optimal form for themselves for the sake of survival strategy.” This is the latent strength of the Japanese.
Japanese people can be positioned as a people who possess an extremely abnormal and high-level ability, even in world history, when incorporating heterogeneous foreign objects into their own OS (Basic Philosophy), to thoroughly masticate them, filter out impurities, and rewrite the source code into a form optimized for their own climate and physical sensation. To put it in a more Japanese way, it is a mechanism that takes the dry, robust logic of the continent, “ferments” it to match the humid climate of Japan, and transforms it into a completely different, high-function nutrient. This “Conversion Process” is the true essence of Japanese culture, but the reason this can be done is that the purpose of “for the sake of survival” lies at the root.
Among these colossal influences from China, the greatest source that acted most deeply on the framework of thinking and the design of social systems, creating the context of Japanese history, is Confucianism. Particularly in the Edo period, the role played by Confucianism was decisive, and one can understand how immense the effect of Confucianism is. The fact that the Edo Shogunate by the Tokugawa Shogun family could be maintained for about 300 years was because of Confucianism, and I feel the spiritual strength of Confucianism anew.
And just as many Japanese in the Edo period were impressed by Confucianism, I myself, in tracing back history, felt a very sharp system thinking in the philosophy of Confucius that went beyond mere moral laws, and was deeply impressed. Confucius, a rare sage who survived the chaotic turbulent times of the late Spring and Autumn period of ancient China, when the existing order collapsed. Eventually, when his wisdom crossed the sea and entered the completely different soil of Japan, what happened there? It was the very process in which the tough “Seed” of thought left by Confucius transformed into “something Japanese” within the Japanese climate and mental structure, and was absorbed. Only through this process did foreign thought become our flesh and blood for the first time and begin to function as a unique culture. That is precisely why thought is an “OS.”