MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Oriental logos: the comparison of justice in Confucianism and Rinzai school Zen Buddhism

Bachelor's diploma thesis

Arman Kaumen

Supervisor: Mgr. Pavel Dufek Ph.D. UČO: 450780 Speciality: Political science, International relations Immatriculation year: 2015

Brno, 2018

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Mgr. Pavel Dufek Ph.D. for his friendly approach, valuable comments to my work, and broad support during my study. I would also like to thank my family for their support and understanding.

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A copyright statement

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only sources listed in the bibliography.

In Brno, 15.5.2018 ......

Author’s signature

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Content Anotace ...... 5 Abstract ...... 6 Introduction ...... 7 1.1 Beyond the western world ...... 7 1.2 The oriental wisdom: China and Japan...... 8 1.3 Thesis structure ...... 10 1. The idea of Justice in Confucianism ...... 11 1.1 The brief overview ...... 11 1.1.1Historical context ...... 11 1.1.2 The main features of Confucianism ...... 12 1.2 Classical learning ...... 13 1.2.1 Confucius - legends never die ...... 13 1.2.2 Mencius - the one who knew where kindness comes from...... 16 1.2.3 Sun Tzu - the story of real men ...... 17 1.3 Between three pillars or justice as mediator ...... 18 2. Justice in Rinzai Zen ...... 20 2.1 The most popular Japanese Buddhism school ...... 20 2.1.1 A historical excursus ...... 20 2.1.2 What is Zen ...... 21 2.2 Politics and Zen ...... 22 2.2.1 Rinzai school - the lesson of emotional upheaval ...... 22 2.2.2 Imperial Zen or logic of Basho ...... 23 2.3 Zen or Rinzai Zen? Justice as humility ...... 27 3. The comparison of justice in Confucianism and Rinzai Zen ...... 28 3.1 Through the differences to similarities ...... 28 3.2 Mediator vs. humility or two incommensurable ideas of justice ...... 31 4. Justice and intercultural dialog ...... 33 4.1 Universalism in Oriental cultures ...... 33 4.2 Deliberation about justice ...... 35 Conclusion ...... 37 Bibliography ...... 38

Character count: 79 447

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Anotace

Název práce: Orientální logos: spravedlnost z pohledu konfuciánství a zen buddhismu školy rinzai. Autor: Arman Kaumen Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Pavel Dufek Ph.D. Instituce: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta sociálních studií Počet slov základního textu: 79 447

Hlavním cílem této práce je seznámit čtenáře s myšlenkou spravedlnosti v jedněch z nejvýznamnějších orientálních politicko-filozofických tradicí jako Čínský konfucianismus a zen buddhismus školy rinzai. Na začátku charakterizujeme daný koncept z hlediska obou doktrín. Poté prostřednictvím porovnání jejich teoretických stanovisek, získáme přehled o podobnostech a odlišnostech mezi nimi. Na závěr vysvětlím proč dané téma je natolik důležité pro současný Západ, přičemž zároveň zkusím pochopit jestli je možný interkulturní dialog mezi oběma světy.

Klíčová slova: konfucianismus, rinzai zen, nezápadní svět, spravedlnost

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Abstract

Thesis title: Oriental logos: the comparison of justice in Confucianism and Rinzai school Zen Buddhism Author: Arman Kaumen Academic supervisor: Mgr. Pavel Dufek Ph.D. Institution: Masaryk University, Faculty of Social Studies Basic words count: 79 447

Main concern of this paper is to introduce a reader to the idea of justice in one of the most popular Oriental political thinking traditions, which in our case are a Chinese Confucianism and Rinzai school Zen Buddhism. First, we characterize this concept in terms of both schools. Then through comparison of their philosophical definitions, we gain similarities and differences between them. Finally, we notify why this topic is important for current Western world, while at the same time we try to understand if intercultural dialog between West and Orient is possible.

Key words: Confucianism, Rinzai Zen, non-Western world, justice

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Introduction

1.1 Beyond the western world According to Samuel Huntington, conflicts in the modern (Post-Cold War) world won't be determined by an ideology or economic interests, but by cultural differences between certain civilizations. If we carefully look at today's international processes, we will see that this point of view starts to prevail over the others. The main western ideologies like socialism, nationalism or liberalism that were playing an important role in the development of third world states during the Cold War, lost its attractiveness because people return to their own cultural roots. And even in spite of the constant dominance of western popular culture all over the world, the intensive process of de-westernization takes place in many non- western countries. On the top of its mightiness, the West is day by day facing non-western civilizations that already have enough power and recourses in order to change a world nature (Huntington 1993: 22-49). The good example is an economic growth of BRICS countries or creation of Eurasian Economic Union and Collective Security Treaty Organization on the some post-soviet republics territory or integration processes in Latin America. The excellent instance also could be the Russian Federation which is under the leadership of Vladimir Putin actively protects its national interests basing on their cultural identity. Even in academic sphere, during last ten years, there were some works like The Post-American World (by Fareed Zakaria), The Theory of Multipolar World or Fourth Political Theory (by Alexandr Dugin) that support the importance of non-Western cultures (Dugin 2013) (Zakaria 2012: 1- 6). On the other hand, there is more peaceful world vision that is represented in idea of intercultural dialog where Marek Hrubec wants to show a better way to defuse conflicts between different cultures. While the clash of civilizations could be accompanied by violence, intercultural dialog, through the discussion, emphasis on reciprocal recognition. This dialog has two components. First is related to dialog formation from the culture itself where we try to understand its stance about certain problematic. Second has a deal with finding of consensus or universal trans-cultural elements that every dialog's member can accept. Hrubec implements this method on human rights where he assures them across different civilizations not ignoring their distinctions. Showing some disparities in some non- western cultures thinking, author is trying to prove that there are some universal characteristics of human rights in every civilization (Hrubec 2008).

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Indeed, somebody may criticize Huntington saying his ideas are not coherent and support Hrubec instead. Per contra, I also don't claim that we live in era of entire clash of civilizations. Needless to say, several cultures will be able to adjust to intercultural dialog and even reach agreement in some issues. However, to my mind, despite some liberals’ devotional wishes, it's too hard to find a so called overlapping consensus between absolutely all civilizations so far as some of them (especially China and Near East) are mostly incommensurable. Nevertheless, in spite of both meanings, we must acknowledge non- Western world as a significant part of our reality that can't be ignored. Furthermore, in order to understand it properly, it's necessary to get rid of Eurocentrism that is impregnated in modern Western humanitarian and social education which negatively reflects on non-western cultures comprehension inasmuch as West grasp them through the prism of its worldview. Therefore, in this thesis, as a political science student, I am going to write about one of the most popular Oriental political thinking traditions that will acquaint western students with non-western thought, wherever possible, without cultural distortions. I hope this work will become an inspiration for the next generations, at least, Faculty of social studies of Masaryk University students to expand their horizons in their disciplines.

1.2 The oriental wisdom: China and Japan Unlike the others non-western civilizations like Latin-America or Africa, Oriental cultures were always playing a big role in human history. Permanently interacting with West, Eastern world made a great contribution into philosophy, science and art development. Somebody like Friedrich Nietzsche even thought that Plato, because of his traveling around the world, could borrow his beliefs in infinity or soul purification from Oriental cultures (Störig 2007: 129). Moreover the Middle East thinkers saved and developed the Aristotle philosophy. Before the European enlightenment, especially during the middle Ages, Oriental civilizations were on their rise. Nowadays, they become strong again. In this work, we are going to concentrate our attention on China and Japan or, to be more precise, on the idea of justice in Confucianism and Zen Buddhism of Rinzai School. Inasmuch as we don't have enough place in this thesis to describe both traditions fully, I decided to emphasize the conception of justice because this problematic plays a key role in the modern Western political thinking debates. That's why, in my opinion, it will be interesting for Western academic readers to get to know this topic. In contrast with the others Oriental cultures like India, Middle East, Turks or Orthodox Christianity that belong to Indo-

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Europeans and have the same roots with modern Europe, China represents a completely different civilization (Dugin 2014: 12-14). It doesn’t mean that during the whole its history China wasn’t influenced by Indo-European neighbors but this civilization has some incomparable specifics that make it special. One of these specifics is Sinic writing which is not similar to any other European languages. It belongs to the group of one-sided or isolated languages that is not subjected by inclination or conjugation and has a law ratio of morpheme to any word (Störig 2007: 65). China had a great impact on Korea, Vietnam and Japan. All three countries could be perceived as three different poles inside a Chinese civilization. Nevertheless, Japanese identity has many original elements which form a separate paradigm that contrasts with China. That's why Japan is also considered as a distinct civilization (Dugin 2014: 14-15). Although there are many Philosophical Schools in China and Japan but I choose a Confucianism and Zen Buddhism (resp. its Rinzai school) because they characterize both countries as a particular civilization. As for Confucianism, it long time had an opposition in face of Taoism and Buddhism. But after the synthesizing the main elements of all three traditions in the beginning of the second millennium, it remained as the primary philosophy in China. Nowadays, in spite of the dominance of Marxism in Chinese policy, Confucianism still represents China as a civilization (Störig 2007: 66-67). Moreover, today, Confucian tradition, due to its value content, universality and simultaneously unobtrusiveness, is probably the strongest systematically processed alternative to the modern liberal democracy (Rosemont 2004: 68). On the other side, Rinzai School Zen Buddhism is not so popular and can't oppose liberal mainstream. However, it attracts by its allogical world perception which is entirely different from Western thinking as such. Furthermore, it's the only original Japanese tradition that can be regarded as political philosophy. Needless to say, there are many Confucian Schools that were adopted in Japan conditions but Zen is one of the main pillar of Japanese civilization because it formed, hand in hand with Shintoism, a Samurai behavior codex and Japanese thinking itself (Dugin 2014: 242-246) (Nagata 1991: 6-9). In relation to justice, both traditions have different perspectives. Whereas Confucianism takes justice as one of the most important element in its virtue list, Rinzai Zen doesn't almost focus on it. That is why I have to understand the idea of justice myself by studying professional literature. On the one hand, it complicates my work but per contra it will be a remarkable experience for me as a possibly future political scientist.

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1.3 Thesis structure In the next two sections of this thesis I will gradually familiarize with the concept of justice in both traditions. Confucianism due to its earlier origin is going to be described as a first one. In first part, we will try to understand what role justice plays in the ideas of Confucians classics such as Mencius, Sun Tzu and Confucius itself. Then, our readers will get acquainted with justice in Zen Buddhism of Rinzai School. After all monological explanations, through the comparing of basic elements that characterize both reasoning, we will find distinctions between them. Equally, there will also be some similarities that prove an overlapping of Chinese and Japanese cultures. Finally, basing on everything described above, I will attempt to understand weather intercultural dialog is achievable or we really have a deal with a clash of civilizations. In the conclusion, I shall summarize all information from the thesis.

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1. The idea of Justice in Confucianism

As it was written above, Confucianism is a thinking that represents Chinese civilization. So if we want to understand what justice means for China, we have to find out what is justice in Confucian political thought. On the one hand, we can just describe the concept of justice that is already included between the basic Confucians principals. But it's not as easy as it seems because the idea of justice is inseparably tided with others main elements Confucian thinking has a deal with. This chapter will be divided into three parts. In the first one, I will describe the historical circumstances and some basic information we need to know about Confucianism. In the second part, I am going to examine the learning of three Confucian classics (Confucius, Mencius and Sun Tzu). Finally, relying on the information from the first and second part, I will explain the justice meaning in Confucian political thinking tradition.

1.1 The brief overview

1.1.1Historical context In the beginning of the Western Zhou dynasty (11 century-771 B.C), the first king Wu created a stable feudal government with a strong center and independent regions that was ruled by dynasty's royal family. However, due to internal cleavages that leaded to barbarian invasion from the state's periphery, Zhou government had to move to the east where they found a new capital. Subsequently, during the Eastern Zhou (770-256 B.C), king gradually started to lose his power. Meanwhile, feudal units were becoming more independent from the center and were frequently at war with one another (Wright 2001: 19-20; Cheng 2006: 14). The Eastern Zhou was in chaos and besides permanent wars between states, there was also a decline of social order. Young generation no longer respected the old one, morality was criticized, tradition was neglected and free-thinking was on rise. The need for justice was more than never. Eventually, many philosophical schools start to appear in China. Confucius was one of the many thinkers during the Eastern Zhou that was trying to create and implement a perfect political regime1. His thought prevailed over the others and became a Chinese ideology in the second century B.C. Confucius was regarding Western Zhou period as a pattern of social stability and glory. That's why, this golden age, according to him,

1The period of Chinese thinking rising is called the "Hundred Schools" period. 11 should've been recovered. He was travelling around the China offering his ideas to any government that would apply them. Furthermore, he also found many adherents who accepted and spread his point of view (Wright 2001: 20-21).

1.1.2 The main features of Confucianism Before we begin to analyze justice concept, we have to describe some basic elements that characterize Confucian philosophy. A significant feature of this doctrine (and also the main feature of all Chinese thinking) is a big interest in human and practical life. Moreover, Confucius wasn't interested in any logical conception. He didn't teach his followers general or abstract laws. He also didn't have a systematic metaphysic because of his skeptical stance to transcendent problems like life after death and so on. In Confucian opinion, people don't even know anything about real life and that's why, the effort to grasp supernatural is just a waste of time. Nevertheless, he acknowledged the traditional Chinese worship to heaven and ancients. The classical Confucianism paid its whole attention to politico-ethical problems, whereas any metaphysical content is lacked. Supernatural problematic will appeared in Neoconfucianism during the clash with Buddhism (Störig 2007: 70-71; 85-86). However, it's already not an object of our interest. Confucian learning is often described through four main virtues Confucius recommends to cultivate in order to develop own personality: Zhen (resp. ren)- humanity. The supreme level of being and the middle point between Heaven and Earth I- justice2 (resp. righteousness). Organizing things in conformity with its place in Cosmo Li-ritual or rite. Ethic rules for people so that they live in appliance with tradition and right way Chzhi- intellect, ability to distinguish and systematize material things, cognitive processes, words and actions Although some authors like Alexandr Dugin examine these virtues in hierarchical system (from chzhi to zhen) describing them as four stages of administrative rising or four moments of education (Dugin 2014: 70-71), in order to understand the idea of justice, we will consider these elements as equal. Moreover, in this thesis, we will concentrate only on zhen, i and li while chzhi is not so necessary for our topic.

2Unlike zhen, li and chzhi, the concept of justice is not univocal. There is a difference between Confucius, Mencius and Sun Tzu meaning of justice. 12

1.2 Classical learning

1.2.1 Confucius - legends never die Notwithstanding Chinese society was divided into different castes and clans, Confucius was thinking every person can infinitely cultivate himself. Therefore, learning (sue) was very important part of his teaching. However, it wasn't about intellectual or theoretical approach but about life's experience. In other words, knowledge shouldn't be taken only from books, but also has to be perceived as a practical abilities' development. The practical aim of any education is to create a person who can serve to community in political sphere and be a nobleman in moral sphere3. The nobleman is the one who can act impartially and examine any problem from all points of view. According to Confucius, nobility is not given by social status. It is a moral value that represents the highest worth every man had to improve4 (Cheng 2006: 54-57). The basic element that characterizes a nobleman is zhen (humanity). In spite of permanent Confucius talking about zhen, he refuses to state its definition. Zhen greatness is not achievable by anyone though everyone can share it. Moreover, it's not a stereotypical ideal every person should conform but emanation from inner order that people has to obey. Zhen can be described as a simple Golden rule: "One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated". In this case, zhen considers everyone as equal beings5 which means that people relationships were based on mutual respect. However, this equality wasn't applied in social sphere. The social hierarchy was saved but its legitimacy has never been forced because it was coming out from the mutual respect. The kernel of Confucian reasoning about zhen is an idea of balance (resp. harmony) which is the biggest good for Chinese tradition that equilibrates the life of permanent changing and interpersonal relations. For Confucianism there is no serenity, measure or justice without balance. The good example of balance in practice is a nobleman's nature. He causes people to work without provoking their hatred because he is respected without enforcement. (Cheng 2006: 57-60).

3It's always necessary to study for ourselves (from the others), not for the others. 4Though Confucius deemed an education as an instrument for social mobility, he never denied an existed hierarchy but delivered it a moral meaning. 5Please do not compare it with Kantian idea of autonomous individuals or with modern human rights conception. Confucius primarily perceived every man as a part of community. He has never preferred an idea of negative liberty. 13

Man becomes humane when he relates to others because, for Confucius, man, primarily, is a part of society and not an isolated being (Cheng 2006: 57-58). Thus, zhen is based on mutuality and solidarity that manifests in hierarchical and obligatory relations especially between father and son. The son's devotion, which still plays a big role in Chinese culture, establishes a political relations between ruler and citizen. As well as son demonstrates his love to his father, citizens or ministries exhibits their loyalty towards to king. The same (hierarchical) logic is applied in every type of relations (between man and woman, old and young brother and so on) while the truth and reliability maintains them all (Cheng 2006: 60- 61). Although zhen is the basic element of good society, it closely relates to li (rite or ritual). For Confucius, to be humane (zhen) meant to act in accordance to li (Cheng 2006: 60-62). Despite ceremonies and rites were implemented in order to emphasis the hierarchical structure and exhibit an ethical system, they also represented the values that determine the civilization. If person wanted to be integrated into society, he must comprehend propriety and decently behavior (li). Confucius was thinking that only good moral standards can ensure a good public order. Through the practice of morality and ethics, men demonstrated their respect to rituals and rites while rites and rituals provided people an opportunity to express its zhen (Zhaoguang 2014: 134-135). Ritual li constitutes our zhen. All instinctive feelings like resistance or attraction will become humane only when we give them a sense or ritualize them. Moreover, rituals also represent a main criterion that distinguishes people from animals and civilization from barbarians. Between rituals and their value for us, there is a meaning for righteousness (resp. justice) I which represents a way every person uses to reinterpret a collective tradition and give it a new meaning6. I with li help people to understand what they should do and how to behave in concrete situation. (Cheng 2006: 64-65). However, I, which is also connected with zhen and li, is more often described as conscience or inner sense that distinguishes between right and wrong7. In this case, to choose between right and wrong doesn't mean to follow the majority. From the Confucian point of view, I is something that doesn't correspond to utility which means people don't have to be motivated

6In contrast with Western reference to transcendent, Confucian ethic refer to tradition which is always alive. 7It also may be understood as justice in moral sphere (Sui 2013: 234). 14 by their profits but by the idea to do what's really right8 (Taylor 2004: 49-51). This notion can be connected with a nobleman's saint aim which rests in constantly confirming of his zhen and permanently elevate it. If he tries to fulfill his aim this way, he acts in compliance with so called Tao9which is a source of all good on earth (including zhen, I, li and sue). In the name ofTao, nobleman has to be prepared to give up all his social and political benefits (sometimes even his life) if others don't match with Tao. Confucius emphasis the sanctity of Tao inclination by comparing it with decision of Heavens10. The nobleman figure overlaps with an idea of perfect ruler (resp. emperor) who embodies main Confucian pillars (sue, zhen and li). In this case, political theory is regarded as individual ethic outwardly extension. It means that family is considered as an individual enlargement while the state is a dissemination of family. That's why, as it was written earlier, the ruler for lieges has a same value as a father for his son. Thus, Confucian teaching has two dimensions: private morality that strives to achieve an inner sanctity and state organization. As well as ritual efficiency, the emperor's virtue te (resp. charisma) has an ability to harmonize people's relations without any coercion. Using zhen, emperor also tries to bring up his people so that they also could follow Tao. The combination of sue, zhen and li in emperor assures people's reliance which is the most important means to save a public order (Cheng 2006: 65-70). Hand in hand with emperor whose power is matched with an idea of humanity (zhen) and strict rites (li), the whole political order primarily seeks for rectification of names. Confucius believed every word11 (resp. name) has an objective meaning. Therefore, if word doesn't correspond to reality (resp. to what was meant), there will be a misunderstanding which leads to wrong acts' commission. Finally, government won't be able to make its job and hence chaos will follow12. Names' nature was closely related to li because both of them had to be complied with strict rules. If name is not correct, li can't be promoted(Chang 2012: 144-146). In the meanwhile, rectification, has an imperative value inasmuch as naming thing (resp.

8This idea produced a big difficulties. Especially when Confucians were giving advices to emperor not to start a war if there is no moral justification while emperor wanted to have a profit from it. 9Tao is the most fundamental element of all Chinese antiquity philosophy which is almost impossible to translate into any other language. However it could be approximately understood as a "Way" of life (Dugin 2014: 42). It can also mean a root cause that breathing a life into the whole being. In other words, there is no life on earth without Tao (Cheng 2006: 191). 10This is about so called "Mandate of Heaven" which justifies every emperor’s legitimacy. If Heaven is not satisfied with his ruling (when emperor doesn't take good care of people), it will overthrow him. (Wright 2001: 18). 11These words mostly concern social order or status like for example the king, son or aristocrat. 12In other words, everybody has to act in accordance with its name or title. For instance, ruler should be like ruler and don't behave like his lieges or son has to act like a son (resp. be obedient) and so on. 15 rectify name) is the same as to animate this thing13. Thus, well done rectification will cause right actions that will organize society in accordance with harmony and truth (Dugin 2014: 69-70). Names rectification was a basis of all social order. Therefore, it's the first thing every ruler should make. Confucius even thought if there is a perfect harmony between naming and reality, government won't be inherent inasmuch as world will find a balance in itself (Cheng 2006: 70-71). Such an idea overwhelms with I notion that is inherent to a nobleman. As it was said, when this kind of men rule the state, all people will have this feature. In this case, the social justice (gun)14could be realized. Confucian justice in social sphere also has to be implemented in appliance with truth. Truth equalizes people and simultaneously saves an hierarchy where every person would behave accordingly his status (resp. name) (Syuy 2013: 233-234). Despite Confucius didn't formulate concrete social justice conception, his greatest followers (Mencius and Sun Tzu) succeed in this business. They characterized it by three main rules: a) Each family has to have enough resources to sustain its livelihood. b) Those who are badly off and unable to feed themselves should be taken care of by state. c) Fees and posts have to be distributed in compliance with people's merits whereas undeserved inequality is illegitimate (Murphy and Weber 2016: 101-102).

1.2.2 Mencius - the one who knew where kindness comes from If Confucius was talking about what people should do in order to become better, Mencius goes further and starts to develop the idea about human's nature and destiny. He believed everyone born kind and only by the time we get to know what is the evil. That's why every person has to develop his innate virtues. However, despite person's character is given by essence and mind nature, his life is determined by destiny that no one can change (Thompson 2000: 232-233). In this case, Mencius starts to personalize Heaven saying that people's fate and nature come from it. Human nature has a sense for goodness but we still have to realize it. Meanwhile our fate was written by heaven but our soul has to grasp it and our nature has

13For example, if we call tyrant a king (I mean a good ruler), it will change our overall picture of what this word (king) really means. Consequently, instead of considering a king as someone who has to take care of his people, we will perceive this word as something negative. Finally, it will have an impact on real actions and our relations to political power as such. Therefore, good person should be called good and bad should be called bad. 14Unfortunately Confucius doesn't pay much attention to relations between gun and i. Anyway, in this case, the social justice could be understood as an implementation of ethical justice in social sphere.

16 to fill it. (Cheng 2006: 154; 161-162). Unlike Confucius who emphasized zhen and li, Mencius paid more attention to zhen and I. For him, the main element that makes us people is our aspiration to zhen, I, li and chzhi. Consequently, if we make an effort, everyone can be a kind person even if his life is predestined. Moreover, he uncovered the inner relations between zhen, I and li. Zhen is a fundamental meaning while I is a zhen expression and an approach to positions of li. Hence, he deemed I as an inner expression of originally good human's nature which is based on idea of equal origin of kindness (Syuy 2013: 234-235). Like Confucius, Mencius supported an upbringing process. Nevertheless, he mentions that heart's greatness depends on upbringing whereas upbringing depends on status in society. This fact made him pay a big attention to social conditions. He asserted that during dark times, plebs are more often inclined to behave badly rather than during good times when they have a livelihood. Therefore, he was interested in economy development. However, even in this case, he would never prefer a technocrat to a nobleman inasmuch as only a great person practicing zhen can destroy an evil in the heart of society. Mencius requires a respect from the emperor to sage (resp. Confucians) who promotes the idea of zhen and I. At the same time, he adds that senior's first responsibility is to maintain an upbringing schools whose main aim is to teach plebs interpersonal relations in order to develop a mutual love between them and to pacify them during bad times. By dint of this humane policy, emperor ennobles plebs' souls (Grane 2004: 373-376).

1.2.3 Sun Tzu - the story of real men Sun Tzu's morality is penetrated by positive spirit and rational humanism (Grane 2004: 377) which means that in contrast with Mencius, he didn't consider Heaven as something that determines human destiny but as a part of Cosmo and natural processes that take place in it (Thompson 2000: 233). Moreover, his world vision was realistic forasmuch as for him the human nature was bad but could be improved due to the good impact from outside: through upbringing or practical activities. According to Sun Tzu, people, unlike animals or plants, have a sense of justice (I) that let them agree with each other and found a community (Syuy 2013: 237). I consists in a just rank, services, functions and property distribution that keeps people together whilst unity helps them to control the whole world. Thus, people good is not in nature but in society. That's why, it's necessary to stay in harmony with justice. However, it's possible only under the reign of certain conditions (li). Li (ethics and behavior rules) disciplines man and suppresses evil inside him which is not understood as something metaphysical or the opposite of good but as egoism, greediness and

17 unsatisfied desires. Sun Tzu describes the origin of li as a creation of ancient emperors who didn't tolerate an anarchy arising from insatiate human wishes that could exhaust all goods.

Their aim was a distribution in accordance with peoples' needs and abilities. Sun Tzu also believed in material progress and self-development though it has to be approved by moral and social conformism. Unlike Confucius zhen preference of free moral thinking that helps to acquire dignity, Sun Tzu used an objective rules in order to regulate relations in society. Although he believes in objective rules, he didn't use a brute force to create an order. No matter how imperious these rules are, they never enforce people to behave a certain way. However, the only way to ensure an individual good is to save a collective good. If we don't have a collective good, it will be a disorder. If we have a disorder, individual won't have a possibility to cultivate him-self. That's why, acting in appliance with its status in hierarchy and social conventions develops individuality in masses. But in order to have a right notion about objective rules (li and I), people need a teacher (resp. Wiseman). A Wiseman or also a saint is a good thinker who sees the truth which is possible just in case of being a master of oneself. To become such a well-balanced person, it's necessary to act in accordance to rite and morality (li). In other words, only a moral-being leads to right knowledge. This is a basis of civilized society. According to Sun Tzu, people can live this life merely due to the ancient emperors and wise people who properly rectified all names. For him, name is a result of arrangement that help people to understand each other. Using the same names, people teach to overcome foolishness, uniformity and evil. As well as rites, they destroy disputes and anarchy. When rituals, justice and right names are used together under the guidance of sage, kindness and truth reign in the world (Grane 2004: 377-385).

1.3 Between three pillars or justice as mediator As we have already noticed, each of the classic, to the certain extent, had own conception of justice. While Mencius was an idealist who emphasized an idea of zhen and I, Sun Tzu occupied a realistic position preferring I and li. Confucius with zhen and li was somewhere in the middle. Now we have to find what do they have in common. In Confucius vision, justice (I) is represented as conscience which helps a nobleman to constantly cultivate its zhen and act in accordance with Tao. In Mencius conception, justice is a bridge between zhen and li. Sun Tzu is an adherent of distributive justice. From all of three classics, only Sun Tzu sees justice as a main feature of good society whereas for Confucius and Mencius I

18 is an addition to zhen. Nevertheless, for each of them, I is inseparably linked with a social stability and happiness. Moreover, justice let's people engage in self-development. In all three conceptions, justice guides people in right direction (no matter from what perspective). From Confucius point of view, hand in hand with sue and li, zhen is the highest value every nobleman uses to establish a harmonic relations between people. However, it's impossible to act in appliance with zhen (humanity) and li without I which serves to define good and sort out the evil in our midst. In Mencius opinion, it's necessary to improve your innate zhen, li and chzhi but in this case we need a help of justice. In spite of the dominant I position in Sun Tzu conception, it (with li) also ensures an agreement between collective and individual good. Hence, in Confucianism, justice plays a mediator (resp. stabilizer) role whose aim is to maintain stability either between main virtues like zhen, li or sue (Confucius and Mencius vision) or between collectivity and individual within society itself (Sun Tzu). Therefore, as it was written in the first part, we may define a Confucian justice as something that organizes things according to its place in Cosmo.

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2. Justice in Rinzai Zen

Unlike Confucianism or Western political thinking, Zen Buddhism of Rinzai School doesn't engage in political philosophy problematic like justice, equality, freedom and so on. However, it had a tremendous impact on Japanese civilization identity (especially on Samurai world view). Moreover, hand in hand with Sōtō Zen, Rinzai became an ideological basis for Japanese nationalism after Meiji 15era. That's why, besides Rinzai tradition, we will also examine a teaching of so called Kyoto school founder Kitara Nishida and its impact on social and foreign Japanese policy. Despite Zen Buddhism is divided on two main schools (Rinzai and Sōtō), the whole attention will be unfortunately paid only to the first one. This is because Rinzai tradition had more in common with political philosophy than Sōtō. As a previous chapter, this one will also be divided into three parts. In the beginning, I will cover the historical circumstance and the main idea of Zen as such. Next part will concentrate on Rinzai tradition and its influence on Japanese political life. Then, summarizing the whole information, I will make an effort to formulate a conception of justice in Rinzai Zen.

2.1 The most popular Japanese Buddhism school

2.1.1 A historical excursus When the emperor Go-Sirakava died in 1192, the only legitimate heir (a twelve years old Go-Toba) obviously wasn't prepared to hold the reins of power. At these difficult times, one of the strongest clan Minamoto that consisted of emperor house members and Japanese aristocracy took advantage. In 1198 its chief Minomoto-no Eritomo forced young emperor to abdicate (Dugin 2018: 335). Consequently, he implemented a new political order where the real power was in shogun hands whilst the emperor was playing a role of Japanese sacred symbol. This period went down in history as Kamakura shogunate (1185-1333). During these times, new warrior estates (so called Samurais) became major players in society. Meanwhile, two new Buddhism currents started to play a big role in Japanese spirit life. The first one (Nichiren) was intended for a plebs while the second (Zen) found its followers among Samurais (Deynorov 2011: 158-159; 178-179).

15The period of Japanese modernization and democratization (1868-1912) (Deynorov 2011: 256). 20

Buddhism itself infiltrated Japan during Asuka16 from China and Korea. Gradually, there were founded some Buddhist sects like Kegon, Sanron, Risshū, Tattvasiddhi-Śāstra, Kusha- shū and East Asian Yogācāra . However, Zen Buddhism started to gain its power only in Kamakura period (Dugin 2014: 214-215; 233).

2.1.2 What is Zen In Western thinking, there is a necessity to explain and define everything. But if we try to express by words what is Zen, it will be just a waste of time. In case of this religion, such an approach is not desirable forasmuch as the world is not comprehended by concepts and definitions. Thus, Zen refuses any empirical and speculative knowledge that West uses in order to understand the reality. In contrast to traditional Buddhist schools, Zen doesn't even need any written indications because its teaching passed from master to pupil by word of mouth. If we want to grasp Zen, we need to know two basic principles. First of all, every suffering is perceived as an attachment to material things or ideas while attachment itself is a result of any systematical and conceptual trying of reality understanding. Secondly, the whole sensory world is just an emptiness that doesn't reflect the real existence which comes only by the dint of direct perception of reality whereas logical constructions, comparative analysis and differentiation of study subjects distort the true world. The real nature is an inner intuitive Buddha's conscious that belongs to everyone and helps us to see the world in its full beauty without any duality or contradictions. Nevertheless, the major obstacle to enlightenment is our ego that was formed by external influences and wrong inner incentives. Thus, our perception of true reality is always lost in the chaos of feelings or thoughts17. In order to reach a Buddha's level, we don't have to develop this conscious rather realize it. For that purposes, there are two different methods of two main Zen schools: Rinzai and Sōtō (Thompson 2000: 321-330).

16The period of Japanese state centralization (538-710). 17 In the West, we can find something similar in religious mystic teaching. Nevertheless, the main difference is that Zen Buddhism doesn't believe in idea of single almighty God like Christians. 21

2.2 Politics and Zen

2.2.1 Rinzai school - the lesson of emotional upheaval The first Rinzai school preacher was monk Eisai (1141-1215) who started sermonize Zen in 1191 (Dumoulin 1963: 140-141). According to this school, the main aim of Zen is a mind's suppression18. When person achieves this suppression, he becomes enlighten and breaks free from the chains of physical, emotional and intellectual slavery. The most popular method Rinzai School uses in order to suppress intellectual thinking and reach an intuitive vision (resp. satori) is called kōan (Thompson 2000: 330-332). It's usually represented as a master's written question or an expression that doesn't have any logical content. The most popular example of Kōan is: What is the sound of one Hand? This question shows inability to understand the truth through systematic and conceptual thinking. That's why, it's necessary to abstract our mind from any definitions and logic. For this perspective, pupil tries to clean its mind during the special meditation (zazen19). As soon as it happens, the intuitive vision will be reached. Hand in hand with kōan, satori might be also achieved during dialogues (mondo) between master and pupil. In so far as Zen can't be characterized theoretically, master's main aim, in this situation, is to guide his pupil on his way to true reality's perception (Radlová 2012: 19-22). Satori is usually comprehended as an exclusive burst of illumination which accompanies with a short-circuit of mind and can't be described by words. However, in contrast with final and permanent enlightenment, satori is just an immediate and short-term insight stroke that contributes to emotional upheaval. Thus, if kōan leads to satori, its practice must be totally dramatic, conflict and absorbing. It has to cause a discouraging effect so that pupil could grasp his real nature (Collcutt 1991: 373-374). In spite of paradoxical and radical illumination experience, Rinzai School, from its beginning, was considered as a way to strengthen Japanese identity and as a potential state ideology. That's why, Rinzai teaching was related to warrior estate. Besides kōan and mondo, Rinzai vigorously invoked to engage in martial arts which sacred symbolism became a basis of Zen metaphysics, psychological and existential practices. The kernel of these practices is a death experience as a main awakening moment between phenomenological existence and Buddha's infinity nature. Samurais accepted Rinzai School as quintessence of their identity.

18 It shouldn't have been understood as a suppression of the absolute reasonable beginning but as achievement of the next level thinking that goes beyond our consciousness. 19 While Sōtō adherents were using the standard sitting meditation in the tranquil position, Rinzai School basically preferred an active meditation. 22

Thus, bushido20codex was based on it (Dugin 2018: 348-349). Due to Zen practices, Samurai could clean his mind and be in harmony with environment. His soul was free from everyday problems and he saw only the world's beauty. In accordance with the way Samurai had chosen, he dedicated his life to his master. He was faithful, kind and ascetic. His education included philosophical tractates and conversations' reading. They were not interested in logical or abstract constructions as much as their main aim was a spirit's upbringing. (Nitobé 1908: 33-100). In regard to battles, a good technique of swordsmanship was not enough so that to be a good warrior. In this case, Zen teaching was developing an intuition which helped to direct weapon's movement. As it has already been explained, Zen pays a big attention to the world as a whole. That's why, it was prohibited to focus our mind on special object during the battle. Samurai never analyzed his or his enemy actions (he operated beyond his ego). His weapon was a part of him. Needless to say, he could die during the battle, but inasmuch as Zen didn't admit any duality, death was perceived as an inseparable part of life. Subsequently, he has never been afraid of it (Radlová 2012: 32-34). Moreover death was related to bravery while bravery was characterized as acting in appliance with justice. In other words, making a reckless decisions or playing with death was a shame for samurai whereas the right bravery had been associated with willingness to continue to live when you don't want to live or to die when you don't want to die (Nitobé 1908: 20-25).

2.2.2 Imperial Zen or logic of Basho Now we have to describe how Zen could influence a social and political organization in Japan so that we could give a political content to its notion of justice. For that reason, we will draw attention to Kyoto School teaching or more precisely to their father founder Kitara Nishida (1870-1945)21 and his so called logic of Basho. Despite Zen was perceived as one of the Japanese civilization pillar, it was just a religion whilst Nishida convert its principles into complete philosophy which was also used in political aims. Therefore, in my opinion, it deserves our attention. There are two main concepts in Nishida's philosophy: "place (Basho)" and "nothingness (mu)". The logic of place is considered as a Japanese analog of Aristotle logic22. To explain

20 Set of moral and ethical norms that every samurai must be guided by. 21 It's necessary to mention that in the second half of 19 century, after the Tokugawa era (1603-1868), shogunate had fallen while emperor became the most powerful figure in Japan again. 22 Nishida was trying to create Japanese philosophy in order to oppose it to West. In his opinion, Aristotle's logic was taken as a fundamental basis of all modern Western civilization. 23 what is mu, Nishida uses all Buddhist ontology23. Finally, Japanese philosophy will have its absolute metaphysical basis in Zen (predominantly in Rinzai tradition). Nishida provides possible meanings of nothingness (not yet; already not; not at all). While nothingness in Western modernity means not at all which connects only with phenomenological knowledge, Japanese mu is comprehended as not yet. The absolute of mu is not something that doesn't exist but it's something that over-exists. It has everything that could be and even all that couldn't be. The Buddha's body is constituted not only in phenomena but simultaneously in non-phenomena. The logic of phenomena-non-phenomena doesn't oppose to phenomena or non-phenomena. In other words, any binary logic like good vs. bad or hot vs. cold is rejected. We should perceive it as a whole. Finally, Zen abolishes all this previous Buddhist 24 metaphysic saying that there is an only phenomenon and it includes phenomena, non- phenomena and phenomena-non-phenomena. That's why, the one who practices Zen knows that all phenomena are not-phenomena, thus they are phenomena. Mu is inclusive, creative, transcendent and immanent. Meanwhile, the logic of Basho is based on the same principles as mu. Subject is grasped as place (this place and that place). Thus, it's inseparably connected with object. There is always a conditional distance between me and not me or they are and they are not inasmuch as they belong to paradigm of place which is prototype of all places because it doesn't divide things on categories but unite them in Absolute non-dual structure. This Pure Land place or so called Western Paradise is Japan. Hence, the place where subjective (noetic) and objective (noematic) are connected in common mu is not that place or this place but just place, Basho, where Paradise and Japan coexist through each other (Davis 2014; Dilworth 1970: 357-361; Dugin 2018: 390-403). Relying on Basho's logic, Nishida also created a political philosophy where he correlates individual and state not through external paradigm of master/subservient but through internal where both of them are united by common place (Basho). In other words, state doesn't force its citizens to obey but citizens, using their autonomous will, constitute the state, embodying their approach to enlightenment, as a quintessence of ascetic practice. Thus, for people, state has an instrumental status of enlightenment method. In other words, state becomes a Zen state. Nishida says that devoted service to state doesn't depend on just or effective government. Conversely, devoted service makes government just and effective because state is a non-dual expression of enlightenment. Hence, in appliance with Basho, state is non-state and therefore it's state. Non-state is a free ascetic personality where man has a maximum

23 It's not necessary to describe extensively all Buddhist ontology in this thesis. 24 I mean all previous Buddhist ontology except Zen. 24 distance from any convention. From this asceticism and total freedom, new sacred state is borne. Consequently, the existed state is already perfect only if an enlighten person can see and insist on it by making this state perfect through his devoted service. According to this idea, Japanese have to know that there is thinking (Western) that is trying to undermine Basho's logic. Therefore, it's necessary to protect the Pure Land. That's how Japanese nationalism starts (Dugin 2013: 257-259; Dugin 2014: 403-404). Nishida was the one who noticed that interactions between cultures had changed through the local area to global one. This processed was carrying out, hand in hand, with nationalization which, of course, didn't mean every country has to turn back in itself but they should find its place in the world. In order to make it, Japan had to become a progressive country that can protect its interests. Thereby, the modernization process was justified. However, in this changing climate, there was also a necessity for a stable element that will provide continuity. This, according to Nishida, was emperor and his family. Only emperor could ensure a harmony between individual and state. Being a Japanese symbol, he had to head its special mission to lead Asian countries through the difficulties of changing world. Needless to say, Nishida rejected an imperialistic policy implementation toward these countries. Nevertheless, this is how Japanese government actually used his ideas (Heisig 2001: 97-99). Finally, we know, even though Zen is primarily interested in metaphysical questions, it also engaged in political problematic. Now, let's look on how this philosophy influenced a social justice dimension. Especially between 1868-1945, Zen had many methods in order to justify a social inequality and emperor's power. One of them applied to idea of so called karma25 that was used not only by Zen but all Buddhist schools. If man had a low social status, it would mean he did discreditable acts in his previous life while high social status would mean remuneration for merits in a former life. That's why, it was necessary to act in appliance with your social status so that you could deserve to become something more in your next life. According to Zen notion, "difference is none other than equality". As it has been already written, Zen tries to see the world as a whole. Every man belongs to one big Buddha's mind where any ontological distinction between good and evil, subject and object or even poor and rich is an illusion. Hence, all people were equal in Buddha's nature whereas a phenomenological inequality was a business of karma. Everyone has to atone for his sins from the past life during today's life. Thus, some modern Japanese Buddhists criticized western secular ideologies like Marxism or social democracy for trying to discredit natural

25 Buddhists believe that people can live many lives. Meanwhile karma is an idea that your current circumstances are inseparably related to your previous life actions. 25 law of karma by improving plebs' social conditions26. Discrimination was an equivalent to equality whilst equality was perceived as discrimination. With regard to relations in society, Zen lucks an issue of attachment. While in many western ideas, attachment to others or to self in class-stratified society was related to some specific organization of social institutions or ideologies, Zen monks, viewed any labor's division and specific relations in classes as an illusion. Since there is no difference between poor and reach (according to Zen non-duality), any certain sign that determines one or another social group doesn't make any sense because it's necessary to look at society as a whole. Poverty could also be legitimated by Buddhist's idea of natural law where everything takes its place in conformity with eternal heaven's decision. This idea was taken from Chinese Taoism27 School where everything has its beginning in great Tao28. Consequently, human world was a projection of natural law29 which was even included in Japanese constitution where relationship between imperial power and plebs were compared with Heaven and Earth. If Earth disobeys Heaven, natural order will fall into ruin30. All these justifications, however, supported stability in Japanese society that was represented in idea of harmony. Zen vision of single Buddha's mind was implemented in state's organization where the whole nation was acting as one mind with Sovereign in the center. The emperor's virtue and people's duty were represented as a beautiful harmony. Using the idea of natural law, emperor's will (as a Heaven) was conveyed to people below him. During the 1930's this conception raised nation's military spirit and legitimated war against USA. Notwithstanding Zen peace nature, some (Rinzai) monks were trying to justify the war saying that it's the only way to save a harmony (Ives 2009: 54-101). Inasmuch as there was no difference between life and death, the soldiers, proceeding from bushido, had to overcome their ego for a public good. Thus, self-sacrificing was a business as usual31. Moreover, especially during allies' invasion to Japanese islands in WWII, not only the army but also hostile civilians resisted enemy attacks. To prepare all people for battle, Rinzai school

26 Buddhists called this an evil equality. 27The second philosophical school after Confucianism. 28 Some Zen monks even represented poverty as a practice of Tao. On the other side, even though simple rustic life supported Zen teaching, most of renowned Zen masters lived in good material conditions. 29 We should avoid trying to identify it with Western natural law. 30 Here we can notice a presence of duality that is rejected by Zen. However, Rinzai Zen wasn't the only doctrine that contributed to Japanese political order (there were also Shinto and others Buddhist' schools). That's why, there could be some incompatibilities in Zen tradition. 31 The good example of self-sacrificing had been an existence of special Suicide squads Kamikaze who, during the WWII, employed the tactic of aircraft crashing into enemy ships. 26 conflict and upheaval methods of immediate enlightenment (like kōan) could be also used (Victoria 2003: 117-149).

2.3 Zen or Rinzai Zen? Justice as humility Despite in the second part of this chapter we had to write only about Rinzai Zen impact on Japanese political philosophy, we often used Zen as a whole. This state of affairs can be justified by the idea of Zen non-duality. Therefore, Sōtō school was latently used in this text. Nevertheless, let’s return to justice. As we have already noticed in the first part, justice, according to bushido, can be compared with Confucian I (making what's right irrespective of any profit). But if we rely on whole Zen metaphysic (especially on logic of Basho), we will understand that it's not as easy as it seems. At the first side, the absence of duality reflects the impossibility to find what is just (at least from our point of view) inasmuch as there should also be something that is unjust. When we see the world as a whole, without extremes, we can comprehend justice and injustice as the same. Per contra, in appliance with social justice problematic, we faced with an idea of karma that, regardless non-duality, admits differences in phenomenological world. So while all this dimensions (social, political and metaphysical) have something in common but so that we understood it, we have to get back to Rinzai practices. Samurai gets real bravery, when he is acting in obedience to what's right. He understands what's right, when he starts to see the death as a part of his life. But how does he achieve this state? He uses Rinzai kōan or martial arts methods which help to reach satori. After all, he reaches the enlightenment (non-duality state). The same could be said about Basho's logic because citizens start to serve their state faithfully only if they are enlightened. With respect to karma, people have to live ascetic life (like samurais) that will help them to act in accordance with social status without having a claim on better conditions. Thus, we see how Rinzai methods help us to reach one single goal in all cases. And that is humility. Samurai, practicing Zen, eventually accept this life just the way it is 32 . When citizen becomes enlighten, he consequently takes himself as a part of state while ordinary people finally resign oneself with their hard life. That's why, justice in Rinzai Zen, at least from my point of view, can be characterized as humility.

32 Of course, if we consider the world from Zen perspective. 27

3. The comparison of justice in Confucianism and Rinzai Zen

Now, when we have already described an idea of justice in Confucianism and Rinzai Zen, it's time to compare both traditions in order to find similarities and differences between them. On the one hand, it seems too hard to find some overlapping features between two doctrines. Nevertheless, let’s see whether there are some elements close to each other. Unlike previous two chapters, this one will be divided into two parts. Primarily, I shall have to deal with all Confucian and Rinzai Zen characteristics that can be compared. Then, two common justice understandings (justice as mediator and humility) and their opportunities will be discussed.

3.1 Through the differences to similarities The most obvious thing we have to focus on is a time period when these doctrines started to play a big role in Chinese and Japanese civilization. While Confucianism appears in Eastern Zhou and becomes a leading philosophy during earlier (resp. Western) Chan dynasty33 (Dugin 2014: 106-109), Zen Buddhism of Rinzai school appears and starts to dominate during Kamakura shogunate. So there is more than 1000 and even almost 2000 years (if we concern Nishida's philosophy and period of Japanese imperialism) between them34. In my opinion, the period of their appearance, to some extent, explains both schools' nature. Since Eastern Zhou suffered from internecine wars, there was, primarily, a need for a good political and social order whilst supernatural questions had to be leaved aside35. On the other hand, Kamakura period, at least, in comparison with Eastern Zhou, wasn't so cruel. Thus, there was a place for such a transcendent Zen questions that further, as we know, contributed to samurais' estate development and Japanese nationalism. Nevertheless, in spite of tremendous differences between classical Confucianism and Rinzai content, both of them, especially during hard times, actively participated in saving social order. For that purposes, they were using different methods. Confucianism used zhen, li,i (resp. gun) and sue concepts.

33The period of prosperity and Chinese centralization (206 B.C- 9 A.C). 34 Although Confucianism also existed during Kamakura period and had a great impact on Japan (especially on Bushido codex) (Nitobé 1908: 14), this doctrine had already been different because it started to pay more attention to metaphysics (Kobzev 2002: 35-37). Hence, there is a difference between classical teaching and neoconfucianism which can't be compared in our case. That's why, it would be better to leave this long time frame between Confucianism and Rinzai Zen. 35 Probably the only exception could be Mencius who supported an idea of inborn kindness and written destiny. 28

Zen though concentrated on karma, non-duality and Buddha's natural law. Now, let's see in what places these ideas overlap. The first philosophical resemblance in both traditions is an effort to suppress a human ego. As we could probably notice in the first chapter, Confucius marginally engaged in this problematic when he was talking about I as a conscience where people don't have to act in accordance with their profit but with what's right. However, more information about it could be found in Sun Tzu's teaching where he perceived ego as an innate attribute that had to be repressed through upbringing. Meanwhile, on public scale, there should be an objective rules whose main aim is to establish a collective good which will help an individual to cultivate him-self. On the other hand, Rinzai Zen sees ego as something that not let us reach an enlightenment (resp. do not see our world through binary oppositions). The difference lies in the fact that Zen ego is partly formed by negative external impact whereas for Sun Tzu it's completely related to bad human nature36. Willy-nilly, we addressed a theme of self-education that could also be compared from both perspectives in this thesis. For Confucius, sue (resp. learning) was one of the most important part of human being. He connected self-cultivation with zhen and li which in conjunction form a nobleman whose figure was an impersonation of perfect leader. In contrast with Confucianism, Rinzai Zen associated self-education with satori and then with enlightenment that rejected any logical and conceptual world view. Despite Confucius didn't have a deal with abstract or strict logical laws, his teaching still required systematical and conceptual arrangement that particularly concerned names' rectification topic, where every word had to match with its meaning, and rites inasmuch as they had to be followed in compliance with strict and logical sequence. Furthermore, Confucius hadn't denied theoretical knowledge. Even his sayings and ideas were documented in analects (Cheng 2006: 74). Needless to say, Mencius and Sun Tzu also left some papers and tractates (Grane 2004: 372; 377) whilst Rinzai monks didn't even use any written source but preferred only oral information transfer. Nevertheless, both doctrines, irrespective of their different view, correspond to self- cultivation as an important part of their teaching. Even though both traditions emphasis on self-education, they all demanded a teacher who could show people a right way. For this purpose, Confucius recommended a nobleman who, according to him, should've served as an example to follow forasmuch as his familiarity with Confucian main virtues could help to build the best society. When such people rule the state,

36 To some extent, we may make an analogy with Hobbes and Rousseau social treaties where the first one can be partly compared with Sun Tzu's realism while the second one with Zen nature's proclivity. 29 there is a hope for real justice. Almost the same could be said about Mencius who claimed respect from rulers to Wiseman who helped to assert humanity and justice. Sun Tzu insists on the role of sane teacher who harnessed justice and rites' meaning. If Confucianism needs a sage to enable people to act in conformity with Tao, Rinzai stresses monks who will be able to guide their pupils in their way to enlightenment. However, it's necessary to mention, if classical Confucian teacher spread virtues on state level, influencing the whole social structure, Rinzai Zen monks, before Meiji period, spread its effect mainly on specific groups (like samurais) or individuals. Here we can notice, even though Mencius and Sun Tzu didn't overlap a figure of teacher with ruler37, Confucius' nobleman was directly equated with a perfect emperor. On the other hand, there were some differences in modern Japan when emperor returned to power. Nobleman's nature embodied the balance because he could make people listen to him without enforcement. His mandate was given by heaven and his main aim was to protect the harmony in his state while Japanese emperor was represented as heaven itself. In compliance with

Buddhist's natural law, Emperor was above his people whereas Confucian nobleman had been in the middle of heaven and earth. We can say the same thing about traditions. When nobleman aim was to ensure that people respect continuity and venerate ancestors, Japanese emperor was perceived as a tradition itself. Nevertheless, both of them play the key role in providing stability in social and political order. With regard to social order and harmony itself, Confucius was seeking for rectification of names so that everyone could receive what he deserved whilst Zen, with a big impact of Chinese Taoism and all Buddhist ontology, identified social relations with harmonic interaction of heaven and earth. However, if there is a perfect relation between names and reality, in accordance with Confucianism, maybe someday, there won't be even a necessity for any government. Contrariwise, for Zen, government will always be an inherent part of harmony. As for social order, for Confucius, everyone had to act in accordance with his name38. As we already know, in addition to I, gun and zhen, it helped to create an hierarchical and simultaneously just society where all people are equal in their humanity (resp. zhen) but different in social sphere. The same analogy can be drawn from Zen doctrine where, due to non-duality, any inequality was comprehended as an illusion because all people were equal in Buddha's nature (but only at metaphysical level). However, with respect to phenomenological

37Or at least it was written in used literature. 38In this case, in accordance with social status. 30 world, social inequality was related to karma. On the other hand, in reliance on such Confucian classics as Mencius who regarded human life as predestined by heavens, Rinzai Zen monks claimed on improving the circumstances in the next life. Sun Tzu, in turn, didn't take an extreme stance pressing on possibility to change our fate for the better during the current life.

3.2 Mediator vs. humility or two incommensurable ideas of justice As we can finally see, there are a lot of things in two doctrines that can be compared. Nevertheless, if we carefully look at their justice conceptions as a whole, we will probably say they are very different. Mostly, it's not because of miscellaneous techniques they use but due to various aims they try to achieve. Justice in Confucianism is like a bridge between different virtues (like zhen and li) or sites (resp. types of social objects). Per contra, justice in Rinzai Zen is perceived as a way to accept the real life. With respect to ideological content, we have already compared all required elements in previous part. Therefore, here we will try to discuss an opportunities and shape (resp. structure) of both justices and their compliance with doctrines they operate in. First of all, let's talk about how they conform with both doctrines as such. On the one hand, for Confucianism where the whole society has to be organized pursuant to strict rules of li and obey zhen and I, there is a need for systematical order which means that society has to be in precise hierarchical state. This state seeks for exact categorization and logical conceptualization so that everybody acted in compliance with its real nature. In order not to confuse or get lost in this conceptual spider, society has to have something that matches all things together and find a compromise between various elements. This role, as we have already seen, is for mediatory justice. As for Rinzai Zen, all these hard and abstract concepts and meaningless differences must be abandoned. The social order don't have to be subdivided into many categories but should be seen in its whole complexity. Nevertheless, it could be easy only on the highest level of consciousness' vertical whereas in the empiric reality, differences can't be unnoticed or overlooked. Meanwhile, if we see the world as a whole, we don't have to change a thing because everything takes its natural course. Thus, we need something that will make us accept the reality and to become part of it. For that purpose, as we already know, justice as humility is used. Now it's clear all justice conceptions correspond to both traditions. The main difference is that mediatory justice operates in differentiated philosophical system whilst humility

31 conception is (officially) free from any speculative abstraction 39 . The most obvious similarity, as we have already seen on many occasions, is that mediatory and humility helped to keep social order in both civilization in theory and practice. However, there is still something we should mention, notably their continuity. Even though Confucian and Rinzai Zen structures underwent some modifications during history40, their justice conceptions were still playing its role. Thus, I would venture both of conceptions were equally strong enough in order to resist an external influence41 and this is the main structural similarity we can find here.

39 Needless to say, some readers can have a problem with Zen comprehension of social order as relations between earth and heaven. In this situation, I would like to remind of tremendous impact of many others Buddhists schools and Chinese Taoism on emperor's power justification that sometimes do not overlap with Zen teaching. For more information look in Cheng 2006: 329-401 and Dugin 2014:124-141. 40In case of classical Confucianism, I am talking about holistic world view during Chan dynasty (206 BC-220 AC) when other Chinese philosophical doctrines of this period had an impact on Confucianism (Cheng 2006: 277-309). As for Rinzai, I mean Nishida's philosophy and imperial thinking influence. 41 I mean any foreign and domestic philosophical or ethical doctrine that could have an impact on Confucianism and Rinzai Zen. 32

4. Justice and intercultural dialog

After we accomplished the main purpose of this thesis, it's time, for last, to return to the beginning and figure out whose alternative (Huntington or Hrubec) prevails. In other words, is it really possible to find an agreement42 between West and Orient or the clash of civilizations is inevitable? For that purpose, I decided to compare some classical and modern Western justice reasoning with Confucianism and Rinzai Zen. This chapter will be divided into two parts. First one will explain weather nowadays Confucianism and Rinzai Zen represents any alternative to Western liberal democracy at all43. Then, I will focus on intercultural dialog about justice.

4.1 Universalism in Oriental cultures Although today's Western liberal democracy thinking claims on worldwide dominance, there is an alternative, epitomized in Orient or more precisely in rising Chinese Confucianism that can be also endorsed by every goodwill person of any culture44. So, too, China itself also represents world Power that can resist any external dominance. Despite almost all liberals stigmatize this country as authoritarian regime where individual lacks some basic rights, modern China has a stable social order and strong worldwide competitive economy. In this case, we have two totally opposing world's vision. Since liberalism perceives society as autonomous individuals' set that is free in achieving their own good, no matter who they are, Confucianism emphasize on collective identity, community relations and family values. Furthermore, Confucian discourse is highly particularistic as far as it overlaps with many others doctrines that define themselves in terms of community and kinship. That's why, many people from different countries tend to such doctrine (Rosemont 2004: 59-68). From this perspective, there is a place for, what I call Confucian universalism. As we remember, Confucius associated good political order with an individual morality expansion to the whole society. While one man is considered as a part of the family, the state is deemed as a big group of families. However, some Confucians go further seeing the whole world as family of nations. Consequently, spreading ethics (resp. peace) from one state to the world,

42In our case about justice. 43It's necessary so that we know why modern liberalism should've reckoned with Oriental world. 44 We are talking about modern Confucianism that besides ethical-political sphere has a well- structured metaphysical content further details of which is not important for our thesis. 33

Confucianism becomes a global philosophy. This pacification is not comprehended as world hegemony or domination but as a securing peace through the willingness to work for the better tomorrow which starts from several people or even one man who shares his zhen with everyone around him45. In regard to state as a whole, according to so called Doctrine of the mean, they could provide a peace to entire world by giving to the other countries more and accepting less in return. The good example might be a help with recovery from economic crisis or resistance from external aggression (Chang 2012: 168-169). On the other hand Japanese Zen or even Japan as such is not strong enough in order to measure up with West. Moreover, this country is long time included in Western civilization. After the Second World War, because of imperial policy, whole Japanese national and traditional identity was criticized while whole its society was subjected to liberal reconstruction. Even though some, out of context, conservative features were left in order to resist Communism during the Cold war, samurai spirit and Rinzai Zen justice hardly show themselves in Japanese policy today (Dugin 2014: 275-277). Hence, Rinzai Zen is not perceived as urgent alternative to modern liberal democracy today. However, as well as liberalism and Confucianism, Zen teaching also has its global dimension. As we already know, national state is the place where its citizens reach an enlightenment (resp. imperfect their personality). Nevertheless, according to Nishida, nation is not the last form of peoples' unity. Nation's concern is to extent its citizens' enlightenment to higher level. Therefore, state is just a step between man and absolute while the next stage is what Nishida called particular world where several nations form regional alliance based on mutual respect. Along with Confucianism, global tendencies don't wipe different nations out of existence but let each of them a chance to become stable and find their place in history. That's why, Japanese foreign policy doesn't have to be aggressive and belligerent. It has to emphasis on peaceful cultural interactions and share enlightenment46. People can't be forced to be good. It's possible only when they want to be conquered or join to other states. However, state will be able to become a part of nation's unity only when it becomes enlightened47. The enlightened state as Japan had to become an example for others to be followed while others will join it as soon as they get ready (Goto-Jones 2005: 66-69).

45 He doesn't have to achieve a great feat. It's enough to help your fellow man. 46 Nevertheless, Japanese empire used these ideas for conquests and wars. 47 In Western tradition, we can find the same attitude in Immanuel Kant political philosophy where the group of enlightened (different from Nishida's way) states create a peace federation which will gradually spread its impact everywhere. However, as well as Nishida's idea, this conception was used by some Europeans for justification of their colonization policy. 34

4.2 Deliberation about justice Finally we understood why Western world has to reckon with Orient. Now let's see if the idea of justice can be an object for intercultural dialog between both Worlds. Even though today's Japan is not a relevant actor in international system, Rinzai Zen is a powerful doctrine that has, or at least had, a potential to play a dominant role. Nevertheless, its non-dual thinking and any conceptual, logical or systematical knowledge rejection can't be inconsistent in any dialog with West. Secondly, justice as humility has been recently discovered and hence to my view is not processed enough so that it takes a stand against any Western justice conception. Per contra, Confucian tradition of justice is sufficiently rich and well-organized to have a deal with West. Despite Confucius didn't engage in justice concept as such while I usually means righteousness, I managed to find the significance of Confucian justice in this thesis. Unlike justice as humility which could be discovered only approximately one century ago48, classical Confucian justice, even if its meaning wasn't so obvious, was formed more than a couple of thousands years ago by Confucius, Mencius and Sun Tzu. Some Western authors exclude Confucianism from modern Western justice reasoning forasmuch as this doctrine is often regarded as totalitarian or authoritarian because it doesn't correspond to current dominant Western idea of justice as fairness. Nevertheless, some people try to reconstruct Confucian justice in order to find some similarities. For that purpose, they draw an analogy from Aristotelian general and particular justice where the former one is related to basic human virtues like courage, bravery, kindness and harmony while the later is used in particular cases. Therefore, general justice can be associated with Confucian zhen inasmuch as it involves almost the same virtues while particular justice might be compared with I because, as we knew from the first chapter, it, too, serves as just act in specific situation. Consequently, intercultural dialog has a pillar it can rely on. Some goes further and, relying on Sun Tzu's and Mencius' fair distribution of resources49, attempt to find commonalities between Confucian distributive and modern Western social justice. Thus, resources' sufficiency for everyone, helping people who fell below a threshold of subsistence

48 I mean it would be impossible to grasp an idea of justice as humility using only Rinzai Zen teaching without Nishida's and imperial Zen social justice (like karma or evil equality) thinking that firstly appeared or became a frequently used instruments only during Meiji and Japanese imperial era. 49 I mean their main social justice characteristics that were described in first chapter. 35 level and distribution in accordance with merits might be, to some extent, compared with Rawls' difference principle and, to my think, with Plato's main justice postulate50. On the other hand, there are also considerable differences between Confucianism and egalitarian Rawls's justice as fairness because first one focuses on intrinsic goods such as zhen, li, I, community and family values whilst the second one cares of instrumental social goods like income, opportunities, human rights and liberties. From this perspective, Confucian justice as mediator is perceived as social harmony than fairness which of course complicates a dialog between two cultures. Unlike liberal government, Confucian state is very active and always infiltrate. Moreover, aristocracy's reign is preferred more than rule by people through representative institutions. (Murphy and Weber 2016: 101-102; 105-112). Confucius, in his Analects, mostly had tried to give a practical advices (ether singular or plural) about just behavior in specific cases whilst John Rawls created a general justice theory where he explained how society should work. Inclining toward Mencius vision, in his Political liberalism, Rawls believed that everyone, from his childhood, has a sense of justice51 which also must be cultivated. But for that to happen, as well as for Confucius, there is a tremendous need for family's help. Nevertheless, for Rawls, family and community play a big role only during initial stage of human life whereas for Confucius it continues to contribute to self-cultivation for the rest of our life. With respect to relationships between family and state, Rawls's view is an inversion of Confucius political philosophy where family is perceived as state's model. In his opinion, state has to implement his principles of justice whose main goal is to change a background culture and thus influence individual families. However, Confucius also indicates social changes as trickling down from wise ruler (resp. state) to grass-roots level (resp. family) (Cline 2007: 372-379).

50When everyone obtains his due. 51 The main difference is that Rawls sense of justice is related to social justice while for Confucius it also includes ethical and deliberative justice. 36

Conclusion

The aim of this thesis was to explore and compare an idea of justice in two popular Oriental philosophical traditions: classical Confucianism and Rinzai Zen inasmuch as they played a key role in forming Chinese and Japanese civilization identity. Despite justice belongs to one of Confucian main virtues, its classical theorists (Confucius, Mencius and Sun Tzu) operated with this concept in different way. Therefore, I had to find a common denominator for all three visions. On the other hand, to grasp what is justice in Rinzai Zen, it was necessary to start from scratch and describe this tradition as a whole, sometimes even relying on ideas that didn't fully correspond to Zen as such. Then, as well as with Confucianism, I compared three different perspectives and came to the conclusion. Even though the nature of both philosophical traditions was too different, it was possible to find a similarities between them and match their justice conceptions. Although Zen Buddhism of Rinzai school is totally different from any Western thinking, classical Confucianism, in spite of many distinctions, at least in terms of justice problematic, is opened for intercultural dialog with West. Needless to say, as we have learned, the knowledge from this thesis is not enough in order to understand weather intercultural dialog prevails over the clash of civilizations. Moreover, last chapter was just a coherent addition to this paper but not its concern. However, in my opinion, even if it seems too hard to find a consensus, where there is a will, the door to dialog is always opened. On the other hand, I think, I was able to prove non-Western world exclusivity and describe both doctrines without any misstatement (resp. from Chinese and Japanese point of view). I also hope such a work that engage in non-Western thinking problematic will become just one of many in political science department of Faculty of social studies at Masaryk University.

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