The chrysanthemum and the sword 菊与刀

I remember when I was in high school, a very good friend of mine mentioned about a book "The chrysanthemum and the sword" when we were talking about the Japanese culture. "When you're the strong, they pull out the chrysanthemum, and when you're the weak, they pull out the sword instead", he said. I've been quoting this idea with the book for many years since, without actually reading the book. Now 15 years later, I finally picked up this book, and until then did I realized I owe it to myself to figure out what this classic is about and if my friend's theory of the book's title was right. It's about damn time for me to start reading more.

Ruth Benedict, an American anthropology, was commissioned to write a book about the Japanese culture in 1944, so that the allied force can use some good information on how to end the war and how to deal with Japan for the possible occupation. According to the author herself, she's not an expert, never visited Japan; and since the two countries were fighting a war, she can only rely on reading, watching movies and interviewing Japanese in America to figure everything out. The book wasn't published until 1946, and by the time the war had ended. Maybe that is the reason why the first section of the book, which is about Japanese history and culture was 10 chapters long, but the 2nd and 3rd sections where it discuss certain details about Japanese culture have only 3 chapters combine. After reading this book, I found possible answers to many questions that had been lingering in my head for all these years about the Japanese culture.

One of them is why the former prime minister of Japan kept going to Yasukuni shrine to pay his respect to the Class A war criminals of World War II. The Asian countries who suffered the most in the war, including China and Korea, has been infuriated by this act. They consider the visits provocative and mean no respect to all the sufferings and deaths in the war. These unnecessary acts have worsen the already embarrassed China-Japan relationship, where the trade numbers has been increasing year after year while the meeting of top level officials has been extremely rare. According to the book, Japan imported some critical value system from the powerful Tang dynasty of China in the 7th-8th century. They imported "chu", royalty to the emperor, to your lord; they imported "ko", filial piety which means the respect towards your parents and the elderly. However, they never imported "jen" or "jin", which has the meaning of benevolence. Japanese culture has never valued being kind-hearted, instead it values "being in one's proper place". In China, if the emperor is not "jen", it's righteous for the people to go against him, and thus all the changing of dynasties. Such idea is totally against the imperial sovereignty of the Japanese Emperor, and so they banish the idea of doing "jen" and made it similar of doing something outlawed. Japanese history also tells the same story. Over more than 1000 years, even though different Shogun (general) families having political control over the emperor, they never make themselves emperors. With the traditional Japanese culture extremely hierarchical, where you have the Emperor, who is sacred and worth sacrifice your life to, fulfilling your gimu(obligation, duty) to the Emperor means supreme honor. And that was exactly what the Class A war criminals did. Even though you waged a war that tortured and killed thousands of millions of people, you're considered an honorable man because they were "chu". How about all the deaths and sufferings of the victims of the war? Sorry, "jen" is of little value.

I also found possible explanations to other questions of mine. While one of the former prime minister of Germany kneel down to seek forgiveness from the Jews in Poland, the Japanese government has never officially apologize for victims of the war. It shocks me that this actually matches with the Japanese value, giri(obligation, honor). One of the ideas of Giri is not to admit failure nor ignorance. A teacher is supposed to know it all, the plan of a leader is supposed to be always correct, so it's only natural for their government to not admit failure of the war.

The Japanese culture also seeks great respect from other nations, and one way to achieve that is through supreme military power. In 1862, a British man was killed in Japan, and the British bombarded the port of Kogoshima, the Japanese were defeated badly because their older guns were no match to the firepower of the British fleet. Surprisingly, instead of vowing for vengeance upon the British, the Japanese instead seeks friendship and at the end established a college to learn the British technology there. That might explained why Japan never show respect to China even though China was one of the countries who won World War II. It wasn't the Chinese who defeated them.

The reason of the pornographic industry being prosperous in Japan might also have reasons that bury deep into the Japanese culture. To them, though sex should be put in minor place in life, it is one of the good human feelings, just like taking a hot bath or sleeping. To them, a man visiting a geisha house for relaxation and entertainment has nothing to do with him being a good husband or an honorable man or not. Both chu and ko are in the circle of greater obligations since they are gimu, and sexual pleasure belongs to normal human feelings, thus has no moral connections.

I personally also admire how much they value self-control. Differ from the Western culture, where young children should be discipline by their parents, and will have freedom when they reach adulthood, the Japanese culture is exactly the opposite. Children are granted a lot of freedom because they're supposed to know no haji(shame), and until they reach adulthood, do great discipline is required to accomplish one's gimu and giri. Both of these obligations are considered an essential part of one's life.

The book goes into so many more surprising and interesting points from the traditional Japanese culture, and there's no way I can discuss all of them in this article. I did figure out my friend's theory about the title is wrong though. The two objects in the title means the almost bipolar Japanese culture comparing to the Western culture. The Japanese can be violently waging a war to fulfill their obligations to the emperor, but at the same time they can seek no vengeance but friendship from a total defeat to learn from the strong. There are countless proves of this bipolar characteristic in the traditional Japanese culture. Even though it has been 70 years since the book was first published, and I'm sure the Japanese culture has changed quite a lot, I believe this is still a must-read if you're interested in the traditional Japanese culture and values.


我记得在读高中的时候，有一次几个同学在谈论着关于日本文化的问题，当时好像是博士还有班长卓权提起过“菊与刀”这个书。“如果你是强者，他们就会拿出菊花，但如果你是弱者，他们就会拿出刀。” 他们说。我一直没有去读那本书，而这么多年来，我时不时都会毫无专业精神引用他们这个观点 :p 到了15年后的今天，在偶然的机会下看到了这本书，突然想到“出来混，迟早是要还的”这句话... 好吧，也是时候自己去读读这本经典，也好看看他们说的关于题目的观点正确与否呀。李小龙都说了嘛“我读得书少，你不要欺负我”，还是多读点书吧哈哈。

这本书其实是美国政府在1944年交给美国人类学家Ruth Benedict的一个任务。当时美国政府对日本文化还是非常陌生的，所以他们需要知道一些日本的文化和历史，才可以知道如何打败日本人，还有衍生出来的如何处理占领日本的问题。作者自己说，她并不是这方面的专家，也从来没有去过日本，而当时日美交战正酣，所以她只能通过阅读，看电影，和跟在美国的日本人交谈来收集资料。当这本书在1946年出版的时候，战争已经结束了。可能这就是为什么书中介绍日本历史和文化的第一部分有10个章节那么多，但是在讨论更细腻的第二和第三部分的时候，加起来才只有3个章节。我脑子里一直有许多关于日本文化的疑问，而当我把书读完之后，我相信我在其中找到了很多可能性较高的答案。

其中一个我怎么也想不通的问题，就是为什么日本前首相一直不停地去参拜靖国神社，而大家要知道靖国神社是供奉二次大战甲级战犯的地方。在亚洲，中国和韩国可以说是二次大战的冤大头，而两国的政府和人民都对这一举动非常震怒。中韩都觉得此举动就是直接挑衅行为，对战争中的受害受难者极端的不尊重。这个完全没有必要的举动把本来已经非常尴尬的中日关系推到低谷。两国之间的贸易额每年都在增加，但是双方高层的会晤基本是不存在的。书中说道，在公元7-8世纪的时候，日本就从中国（当时是唐朝）引入了一些关键性的价值体系。 他们引入了“忠”，对上级，对天皇的效忠；他们引入了"孝“，对父母及长者的关爱尊重。但是，他们没有引入”仁“，相当于仁爱这个概念。 慈悲仁爱在日本文化当中没有任何地位，他们相信每个人只应该做对自己的地位相应的事。在中国，如果皇帝残暴不仁，平民百姓起义去推翻这个政权是正义之举，所以中国一直出现朝代更替。这个概念在日本文化是绝对行不通的，因为天皇拥有着至高无尚的地位。所以日本把仁这个理念踩在脚下，把它归类于接近犯罪一样的行为。看看日本历史就知道，不同的幕府将军家族执政的1000多年里，只有大将军在一直换。天皇虽然没有实权，但从来没有被改朝换代，还一直保留至今。日本传统文化有着极端分明的等级制度，在金字塔的顶端就是天皇，而可以效忠天皇，甚至为其牺牲性命，那就是完成了人生最重要的使命，实现了日语当中的”义务“。这就是那些甲级战犯的所作所为啊！虽然他们在这几十年的腥风血雨中杀害了数以千万计的受害者，但是因为战争是效忠天皇，是义务所在，所以他们就是忠诚的大英雄。而那些死于这场残酷战争的受害者呢？不好意思了，仁是没有价值的。

我也在书中找到了很多其他资料，解释了不少一直存在的疑惑。一边前德国总理在波兰跪在犹太人墓碑前请求宽恕，而另一边的日本政府到目前为止都还没有对二次大战的受难者有过官方性质的正式道歉。令我吃惊的是，日本政府的行为其实是符合日本文化价值观的，就是日语中的“义理”。在义理中有一个重要的理念，就是不能承认自己的失败和无知。 教书先生是应该无所不知的，领导者的计划是应该完美无缺的，所以日本政府不去承认战争的失败也是合情合理的态度了。

日本文化非常看重其他国家对其的尊重，强大的军事力量就是达到这个目地的方法之一。1862年，一个英国人在日本被杀，英国纠集了舰队炮轰了鹿儿岛港，当时日本的葡萄牙式旧炮无法与顶尖装备的英国舰队抗衡，被打得落花流水。当英国人都认为日本肯定会发誓报仇的时候，日本政府却向英国寻求友谊，最后在鹿儿岛建立了一所大学，学习英国舰队的先进科技。这也可能解释了为什么虽然中国是二次大战的战胜国之一，但日本从来没有给予真正尊重的原因：毕竟打败他们的并不是中国人。

日本色情产业如此兴盛的根本原因，也很有可能涉及到日本的传统文化。在日本文化当中，性爱虽然被放在并不重要的位置，然而它被归类为良好的人类情感，跟浸温泉和睡觉没什么分别。对于他们来说，一个男人去艺伎的地方寻欢作乐，和这个男人是否一个好丈夫或者他光荣与否拉不上半点关系。忠和孝都归类于最重要的义务的范畴里，而性爱的欢愉则归类于普通情感，两者之间谈不上联系。

而我自己也很佩服日本人的“忍”，就是自制力。在西方文化中，小孩子是应该收到父母的约束，而当他们长大后才可以拥有个人自由。日本文化刚好相反，小孩子被认为是不知道羞愧的，而当他们长大成人后，义务和义理才成为他们受到约束，而他们也把这些约束当成是人生最必不可少的部分。

书中还阐述了很多日本传统文化中其他有趣的或者惊人的地方，在这里我就不一一谈到了。我最后倒是知道了我的朋友们关于书名的理论并不是正确的。 菊与刀这两个物件代表的是日本文化接近于两极分裂的极端性。 他们能够牺牲一切效忠天皇，挑起残暴的战争，但同样地他们也可以在被打败后不求报复，而是虚心地向强者学习。此种两极性在日本文化中不胜枚举。尽管“菊与刀”出版了70个年头了，而且日本也变化了许多，但如果各位对日本的文化有兴趣的话，我相信这本书仍然是必读著作之一。