Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/160

 ers were required to confine their expositions to the doctrines of Chu and to refrain from all expression of private opinion. The college course covered five years. Severe periodical examinations were held, the questions being prepared by the faculty and submitted to the Shōgun for selection, and teachers having to pledge themselves against favouritism by a written oath sealed with their blood. Orthodox exegeses of classical passages, the meaning of the ideographs with which they were written, and the impression they produced upon the student,—these were the subjects of examination. A severe system of discipline prevailed, no excuse for wrong-doing being entertained under any circumstances, nor any disposition tolerated to query the justice of a decision. Thus habits of self-control and a mood of deference to lawfully constituted authority were educated, as well as—it need scarcely be said—courteous manners. The Seiaō also served the purposes of a Stationer's Hall. All learned works must be submitted to it before publication, and it had a special bureau for examining translations of Western books. An interesting fact may be mentioned in this context, namely, that a special school was opened in Kyōtō for Court nobles in 1842, the representatives of that class being noted at the time for idleness and immorality.

There were also many schools throughout the provinces, notably the Kōjō-kwan in Yonezawa, the Meirin-dō in Kaga, the Kōdō-kwan in Mita,