Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/252

 was rescinded in the first century, but the principle survived. Men and even women persuaded themselves that it was necessary to render beyond the grave the same services they had performed in life, and self-immolation at the demise of a ruler or master continued to be occasionally practised until the Nara and Heian epochs, when the nation fell into effeminate and luxurious habits inconsistent with any heroic displays of altruism. In the mean while Confucianism and Buddhism had come. Both exercised a strong influence in moulding the national character. The former especially won a high place in Japanese esteem from the first, probably because of the reverent observance it received in China, whence Japan borrowed so many models. A society founded on the "five relationships" — ruler and ruled, husband and wife, father and son, elder brother and younger brother, friend and friend — seemed the most perfect organisation within reach of human beings, and imagination could not rise to any loftier conception than that of the motives informing these relationships — authority guided by righteousness and benevolence on the part of ruler, husband, father, and elder brother; submission guided by righteousness and sincerity on the part of ruled, wife, son, and younger brother; the mutual promotion of virtue by friends. The Chinese sage inculcated the duty of sincerity or fidelity, but did not indicate the manner of discharging it. There