What are the expressions of "shame" in Japanese culture throughout the ages?

Summary: Japanese shame culture has a psychological and moral contradiction of "unwilling", which is intertwined with historical culture. The import of China culture produced the fusion of Japanese culture, but the abstract spiritual quality of China culture was not really digested by Japanese culture, resulting in psychological and social self-opposition. Belief and obedience to the naturalness of sadness, pain, deformity and death is the morbid shadow of Japanese culture and the nature in pure Japanese culture (culture, art, etc.). ) make the form itself a kind of exquisite and beautiful pure art, and the mutual interpretation of culture and history is a modern rational consciousness.

1. shame and guilt culture

Ruth benedict (1887- 1978) is regarded as the founder of the school of cultural model theory in cultural anthropology, but her masterpiece Chrysanthemum and Knife, which is about Japanese cultural studies, shows her unique perspective on personality and psychology in cultural studies. First of all, as a scholar of western culture, she felt strong cultural and emotional differences in the study of Japanese society and Japanese people. This difference is not mainly reflected in Japan's social, political and economic structure, but widely reflected in the strong psychological feelings and internal conflicts behind Japanese society and Japanese behavior. The uniqueness of Japanese behavior lies in a reflective opposition, such as politeness and arrogance. Peace and fierceness, taming and stubbornness, loyalty and rebellion, innovation and stubbornness. This opposition is mainly and directly dominated by emotional factors and sensitivity, and only the emotional way of human beings has this reflexive transformation. Benedict believes that this dynamic cultural form expressed by emotional factors. It is called shame culture, which corresponds to guilt culture in the west.

If the difference between shame and guilt is only emotional or moral, it cannot fully express the dynamic characteristics of Japanese culture. This feature is that Japanese shame culture is forced by a psychological complex, which has become a universal subconscious. Shame in Japanese culture is ubiquitous social sensitivity and external compulsion of public opinion, and it is a social psychological subconscious realized through personal psychological feelings. Therefore, when Japanese people turn from one behavior to another, they will not feel psychological barriers. It is in this sense that it can be called shame culture, not just social psychology. In fact, western culture has no corresponding cultural morphology. Benedict XVI's western "guilt culture" only refers to the correspondence of western religious culture, which can only be called guilt in western religious consciousness, but there are also great differences between them.

With his keen analysis, Benedict reveals the cultural relationship between social phenomena such as kindness, gratitude and human feelings peculiar to Japanese culture and psychological complex. Benedict XVI generally distinguishes between kindness and friendship. The former has historical factors and influences, but Benedict XVI did not study it in depth. She just pointed out that negative gratitude is a common emotion with historical and social significance in Japanese society and people. However, this is fundamentally different from the historical and social concepts in western culture. Negotiation and gratitude have nothing to do with history and society itself, nor with their rational understanding or religion, but mainly with the habitual and fashionable psychological attitudes formed by historical and social processes, which are reflected in Japanese daily behavior and become the unique moral sense and code of conduct of Japanese people, such as friendship and human feelings, which widely exist in social life.

Benedict has keenly captured the unique category of Japanese culture with her vision as a cultural anthropologist. She said that it is impossible to understand Japanese behavior without understanding "friendship", but it is difficult to accurately describe Japanese friendship. The Japanese themselves don't want to explain the meaning of "friendship" to westerners, and even their own dictionaries find it difficult to define the word. Benedict quoted a Japanese dictionary as saying that friendship is "the right way; The way people should follow; Do what you don't want to do to avoid criticism from the world. " (Chapter 7: Friendship is the hardest to accept, Business Edition) This explanation itself is difficult to understand. If the right path is an obligation forced by public opinion, it can be understood that the right path has been moralized by society, but how did it become a common psychological complex that is unwilling to do it, but it is the secret source of Japanese cultural characteristics.

Benedict compared the contractual relationship between kindness and negative kindness, accepting and returning kindness and economic behavior according to his own experience of western culture. Benedict said that the Japanese concept of "kindness" is similar to borrowing to pay off debts, but it is not happy, overdue and the interest increases. However, contract is a direct economic relationship between people, and people have the freedom to choose. Kindness and human feelings are ubiquitous social existence and become an escape compulsion. In Japanese culture, kindness and friendship have absolute moral significance, which is reflected in compulsive moral fashion, habits and behavior norms, and there are no unwilling and unwilling factors. This impermissible compulsion is precisely a psychological and moral self-contradiction.

2. "Soul and Mind"

As a scholar of cultural anthropology, Benedict naturally wants to understand the reasons behind these complex phenomena from a deeper background, but as a western cultural anthropologist, she does not fully understand the profoundness of Japanese cultural and historical origins. She doesn't understand that the incompatibility between China's great cultural consciousness and the integration of Japanese native culture is a fundamental reason for her own opposition in Japanese culture, which has caused all kinds of opposition in Japanese social form that outsiders can't understand, especially its sudden change.

As we know, Japan, as an island country, has few choices in the basic environment for survival, and its nationality and language are relatively single, so it lacks more creative conditions in culture. This kind of environment makes people have a strong sense of identity in their own survival and interpersonal relationships, so the Japanese attach importance to the local natural environment and can form a close hierarchical society. However, these innate factors are not shown by history itself, but directly precipitated into a social psychological emotion from the primitive consciousness of nature worship: "the past." Not only that, the kindness they owe is not only for the past, but also for the present, and they increase their own kindness in their daily contact with others. Their daily will and behavior are derived from this sense of gratitude, which is the basic starting point. " (Chapter V, benefactor of history and society) This primitive sense of existence has been continuously strengthened in social life in a concrete and formal way in the development of history. In Japanese culture, kindness and fraternity are intangible norms and norms, which have been embodied as social forms and personal behaviors. But the real problem is that this psychological and cultural form is integrated by a great culture from the Central Plains, which has internal contradictions of psychological and social reflexivity.

Japan is composed of a large number of small countries in history, and the process of political reunification is relatively slow. The input of China culture has brought a sense of cultural unity. However, due to the inconsistency of the local origin of Japanese culture, the abstract spiritual quality of China culture has not been really digested by the Japanese, so when Japan introduced China culture, it lost the real historicity of China culture and the cultural spirit based on it. For example, after the Dahua Reform (645), Japan established a centralized country with the emperor as the absolute monarch, but Japan's feudal political system is essentially different from the real imperial bureaucracy in the Central Plains. There are important cultural differences between the emperors transported by Fengtian and those regarded as descendants of God. The former is supported by the consciousness of cultural unity, so the change of an emperor or dynasty will not affect the cultural unity of super-family and super-nation. This unity is the soul of culture, while the Emperor of Eternal Family is based on the unity of natural history, which has the same natural origin significance as Shinto, a local religion in Japan. Before the Meiji Restoration (1868), Shintoism, a native religion in Japan, was only a folk belief. However, in the Meiji Restoration, Shintoism was regarded as the state religion, and the emperor's bloodline theory could keep pace, which was due to their natural identity. This kind of identity is not the same as cultural integration. The long-term effective existence of shogunate politics under the pre-Meiji rule also shows that there is no central value concept behind Japan's political structure. In contrast, although there have been many political divisions in China's history, the consciousness of cultural unity and cultural assimilation has always been the central value and motivation to overcome division and move towards unity. Some Japanese people often hide a sense of pride and superiority in their own culture, but they don't understand that this great cultural consciousness comes from the Central Plains culture. The dream of "Greater East Asia Glory Circle" will not be born from the soil of the island country. The island country has a strong sense of its own survival, and it will only be pirate-like plunder, without Confucian tolerance and self-control, and without political appeasement. The essence of the distinction between China and China in history is the progressive difference in cultural sense, not the political boundary or discrimination. For example, "Confucius said: It is better to die in the summer than to have a gentleman." (The Analects of Confucius. Bashu) emphasizes that the etiquette culture of human society is higher than its political system structure, "Zi wants to live in Jiuyi. ..... where the gentleman lives, why not! " (The Analects of Confucius. Zi Han) "Confucius said: Live respectfully, respect deacons and be loyal to others; Although it is destroyed, it cannot be abandoned. " (The Analects of Confucius. Lutz) and so on all refer to the persistence and spread of progressive culture, rather than political aggression and occupation by force or discrimination. China's cultural and economic relations with neighboring countries have been basically handled with this cultural concept in past dynasties. Even in the Han, Tang and Song dynasties, where the national strength was very strong, there was no idea of actively annexing countries in East Asia, South Asia and Central Asia by force. Unifying and fanning foreign countries by cultural means is the main national policy, and spreading civilization has always been the traditional culture of China. The combination of the ideal of China's great culture and Japanese native culture promoted the historical progress of Japanese culture, but the essence of China's traditional culture could not be accepted by Japanese culture, resulting in narrow expansion ambitions and foreign aggression in modern Japanese history.

3. Self-opposition of psychological culture

The origin of Japanese native culture has the characteristics of natural philosophy and basically stays in this primitiveness. Although China culture was introduced to Japan, the humanistic spirit in China culture was not accepted by Japan. The harmony between man and nature in China's traditional culture is the consistency and rational progress of human nature, but Japanese morality insists on the absolute theory of good nature. In their view, virtue only lies in opening the door of one's clean and dust-free mind. But this absoluteness means that there is no moral progress and development, which is completely different from the rational progress based on spiritual cultivation in China culture. In this absoluteness, all moral relations and moral behaviors are stripped of the essential content of human beings, while "grace" and "friendship" are absolute moral consciousness and code of conduct, so they have an unconditional self-imposed obedience without explanation or understanding, except for strong tolerance. Without choice, the cultural essence of human nature is excluded from moral standards, and morality itself becomes an inviolable moral standard, thus becoming a practical morality for human beings to overcome themselves. This sense of self-compulsion is also strengthened for people's physical and mental cultivation and implemented in people's growth education. In this concept, there is only one person who can realize self-reflection subconsciously besides overcoming human nature.

Subconsciously, Japanese people are used to having to accept and obey hierarchical order, orders and faits accomplis, and pay full attention to the process and realistic environment of events. The Japanese believe that virtue is the most difficult task in their work as long as they can give full play to their personal abilities, so they treat the consequences of things and their direct relationship with others with detachment, regardless of their own history and nature. The so-called educated Japanese is a person who does everything without being influenced by personal feelings and environment and is completely involved in the process and norms of events. When this self-restraint reaches the extreme, it is the so-called state of "only dying and not living". It is so extreme to hold a funeral for yourself before going out to war. This kind of mental control is terrible. This driving force based on the cornerstone of death is a force to destroy the world. This is the only way to kill a Buddha when he meets one.

Japanese culture has no guilt about western culture and China culture. The concept of guilt admits that human nature can be corrupted, so we can objectively evaluate the direct consequences of our actions on others and be responsible for them. People without guilt will not have any binding force even if they know they are doing bad things, so they are just "wrong" and don't care about "sin". The traditional samurai in Japan must be indomitable and calm in the face of pain and danger. This spirit is embodied in the Japanese concept of war. In the eyes of the Japanese, the war process itself embodies this morality. Benedict said that Japanese modern war movies only talk about sacrifice and suffering, marching in the mud, fighting and cooking hard in the wild, and there is no victory on the screen. We can't see exciting scenes such as military parade, military band, fleet exercise, giant guns, and even the charge signal shouting "Long live". The survivors were disabled, lame and blind, and their families gathered to mourn their husbands and fathers. They have lost their breadwinner and still have the courage to live. If the Japanese stick to their moral beliefs only within their own scope, others are blameless, but a contradictory ambition drives them to impose this theory on their neighbors and even the world, and put it into action with peace of mind. Outsiders still can't understand their attack theory, and it is difficult for them to completely liquidate this unconscious but natural psychological complex.

Indifference to history and consequences is the reason why people can't understand all kinds of antagonistic behaviors of the Japanese without difficulty, and even the relationship between friends and enemies may suddenly change. Benedict XVI illustrated this point by taking the Samoan war with Britain as an example and his attitude towards Americans at the end of World War II. It is a great surprise that Japan's attitude from fighting before surrender to being the last soldier suddenly changed to showing good cooperation with Americans immediately after surrender, but from the perspective of Japanese culture, it doesn't matter who wins or loses. The war as a process has ended and everything has started again. If you only look at your own direction, this is naturally a subjective attitude of Jiankang, which is conducive to the re-emergence of Japan. However, this attitude cannot replace the objective attitude of history. It is the lack of this great cultural spirit in Japanese culture. For countries and people who have a historical process with themselves, the affirmation and negation of their historical role and consequences cannot be based solely on their own cultural views. What does it mean to separate your own history? Japanese culture can't understand this. What is more difficult is that Japanese political circles still don't know how to treat this point today. On the contrary, I hope others will understand them. How to treat history, how to understand one's own culture and how to make Japanese culture compatible with big culture have not really become Japanese cultural problems.

4. Reflexive psychology in social form

Different from the unification of core values in China culture, Confucian ethics with historical background has not become the Japanese moral standard. The main concepts of loyalty and filial piety in China's traditional society are completely different from those in Japan. China's traditional culture is historic and causal, full of confidence in the future, believing that good is rewarded with good, and looking forward to a bright and optimistic ending. As we all know, when loyalty and filial piety can't be satisfactory, loyalty is greater than filial piety. The concept of equality and hierarchy in China feudal society is only the form of political structure, and the ethical hierarchy in the family is only the rational expression of the blood relationship. China people don't have the concept of social stratification in the sense of race, and human dignity comes from rational consciousness rather than the rank of people in social ideology, which is formed by the accumulated progress of enlightenment and human cultivation. This is human independence and freedom in a rational sense. It is in this sense that only China culture can be said to have the humanistic spirit of humanity in the true sense. Therefore, the Confucian concept holds that everyone can become a saint under education, and the talent system of recommending talents and offering courses in China feudal bureaucracy provides a steady stream of human resources for feudal society. After the decline of slavery in the history of China, the feudal society in China has always been supported by the Confucian basic concept of attaching importance to life. Even if there is a form of personal transfer prostitution, the right to life itself is not in it, and it can be freely redeemed. This is essentially an economic system rather than a universal individual social system, and it is the internal cultural unity of China feudal society. Japanese society is hierarchical, and emperors, generals, warriors and courtiers are all broken in the hierarchy, but the sense of national unity from the Central Plains culture is higher than this hierarchical political model, so the Japanese concept of loyalty and filial piety always falls into the opposition of hierarchical order, social justice and "friendship", and moral standards are often faced with loyalty to the country (emperor) and monarch, or the complexity and self of personal reputation (morality) and master's (affection) friendship. For example, on the one hand, courtiers are required to be loyal to the Lord for life, but on the other hand, if courtiers are humiliated by their masters' reputation, they will become enemies, so friendship will have the self-opposition of loyalty and betrayal. Japan's national story "Forty-seven Men" is a prominent example of the conflict of friendship itself. Forty-seven men sacrificed everything, including their personal reputation, father, wife and sister, in order to avenge their masters, which of course violated the essence of human nature and social justice. In this case, revenge itself is the purpose and motive, the cause of revenge and the avenger are only props in the course of the incident, so the avenger has no meaning of existence, and friendly behavior is a gesture.

However, the solution to suicide in political life can not be widely used in daily life, and social hierarchy is everywhere, so such dilemma conflicts occur from time to time. Benedict analyzed from the psychological and cultural point of view: "There are two choices: one is to use it as a spur to motivate yourself to do the impossible; The other is to let it erode your own mind. " The former can have positive consequences, that is, the constant pursuit of important missions and new purposes, but this is always a case, and the general mental illness will inevitably spread to society, causing conflicts and contradictions among the Japanese themselves in social life. Japanese people should be cautious about small words and deeds that touch "friendship" in daily life, and are sensitive to failure, slander or rejection. The pressure of public opinion forces people to go against their wishes and have to fulfill their friendship. The educated Japanese described in the novel are often restless between extreme rage and sadness and depression, which is such a social psychological disease. In this case, friendship itself has also come to the opposite side of confrontation with social forms: "Today, the language involving friendship is full of disgust, and it is often emphasized that the pressure of public opinion forces people to go against their wishes and have to fulfill their friendship." "A person is forced by' friendship' and sometimes has to ignore justice." (Chapter 7: Friendship is the hardest to accept) This kind of friendship is unavoidable and wants to escape, which is similar to Erich Fromm's analysis of western social psychological diseases.

Due to the absoluteness of Japanese moral concept, Japanese culture has no outstanding abstract moral consciousness, so it does not have cultural morphology in this sense. The Japanese are not responsible for the society and people in the abstract sense, but only for the norms of friendship and righteousness contained in daily customs and habits. All moral factors are reflected in every detail of social behavior, so the normalization, organization, standardization and even mechanization of social life are the remarkable characteristics of Japanese society. This is undoubtedly beneficial in economic activities and has become the source of Japan's powerful economic power. Japanese professionalism, rigorous work attitude and sense of self-blame are well known all over the world. This spirit has a compulsion in the mind, which has caused the internal conflict between the compulsion in the form of Japanese life and the naturalness in reality. For example, the Japanese respect the way of committing suicide and apologizing, not because they are responsible for the consequences, because the consequences (except intentional crimes) can be compensated. Christianity aims at atonement and returning to God, and only the guilt of extreme mental illness will lead to suicide. There is no heroic philosophy in Japan that does not stress success or failure, which is based on history and history.

5. Humanistic spirit in pure culture

Benedict regards chrysanthemum as a symbol of Japanese elegant culture. In fact, the cherry blossom viewing fashion formed in the Middle Ages can more widely express the sentimental feelings in pure Japanese culture, but this cultural emotion is different from that in China. The Japanese emphasize the tragic beauty of cherry blossom withering, which is regarded as the supreme state of cherry blossom appreciation, which is completely different from The Matrix in pure Japanese culture. For example, there is also a general sentimentality in China's literature. But in essence, it is a kind of nostalgia and attachment to nature and the living environment: the artistic conception of "the fallen flower is independent and the swift is Qi Fei", a feeling of "the fallen flower has gone to spring, and it is all in the world" (Li Yu), a kind of "falling into the mud and grinding the dust, but the fragrance is still there" (Lu You), and a kind of "bloom is full of sky and red" (Cao Xueqin-Dai Yu)' s self-pity and self-pity, "Do you know that it should be green and fat?" (Li Qingzhao) Tolerance in change ... These feelings that destroy the soul all come from true love and nostalgia for life itself. This is not an instant yearning for glory and heroism, nor a praise for decline and death, but an eternal yearning for life. This is a humanistic beauty of human nature and the most beautiful expression of China's cultural spirit in pure culture.

Of course, sadness, pain, disability and death are also natural, but this is only a tolerable nature in philosophy and religion. It is considered that the Japanese have a unique understanding and pursuit of the heroic beauty of death and the tragic beauty of decline, and stubbornly and consciously pursue this supreme belief and obedience, which is the pathological shadow of Japanese culture. In fact, the true humanity of the Japanese people has not been polluted, which has been fully demonstrated in pure culture (culture, art, etc.). ) Japan. It is precisely because of this nature that the simplicity and elegance in Japanese literature, art and folk culture are loved by the people of China and the people of the world. The natural human nature of the Japanese is widely manifested outside the aforementioned morbid psychological complex. They like cherry blossoms, chrysanthemums, the moon and snow. They watch cherry blossoms in a natural way, and like all mentally healthy people in the world, they really appreciate the passion and eternal value of life contained in the elegance of cherry blossoms. Especially today, the widespread spread of western culture makes popular culture more humanized, natural and open. It is believed that it is in this mood that happy Japanese people celebrate cherry blossoms on the green grass under the blooming cherry trees today.

Due to the origin of Japanese culture and writing, Japan naturally becomes one of the three starting points of China's new literature (Japan, America and Europe). Japan has made many pioneering contributions to the China translation of modern academics. A large number of terms in modern science and technology were first created by Japanese studies, which contributed to the common development of Chinese and Japanese cultures.

On the basis of absorbing China culture and art, the Japanese have developed rich and exquisite art forms, such as tea ceremony, judo, kendo, calligraphy, piano and flowers. They are both techniques and art forms, and the form itself has become pure art, forming exquisite beauty with Japanese characteristics. These artistic fountains come directly from nature and life itself, so they are self-contained, simple in form and essence, with various schools and skills. The Japanese develop the art of this life in imitation competitions, taking imitation as a virtue, striving for perfection and enjoying it. The Japanese even make physical pleasure artistic. Sleeping, taking a hot bath, eating, drinking and even drinking can all be cultivated into art. The formalization of the art of life makes the Japanese have a serious and childish stubbornness, which is consistent with their professionalism in work and economic life. Even Japanese women have the professionalism to do housework.

6. Culture and history

The history in culture is explained by the viewpoint and method of culture, and the culture in history is the historical process and expression of the cultural form itself. In this sense, historical form is culture. The origin of Japanese culture and the division between Chinese and Japanese cultures just illustrate the mutual interpretation of culture and history. Japanese culture and history have a special case significance in the study of Chinese and Western cultures. The consistency between Chinese and Western cultures can only be explained in a complementary sense. This consistency comes from the essence of China culture, but Japanese culture shows the particularity of cultural integration with its own reflexivity. On the one hand, it shows that China culture and western culture have their own homogeneity. Although the heart in China's traditional culture is different from that in western culture, they are consistent in cultural and historical significance and historical and cultural interpretation. On the other hand, the psychological and cultural patterns of Japanese people show the reflexivity and inclusiveness of cultural patterns. Benedict's research provides a new perspective for western cultural studies and sociology in the field of psychology. She shows us that the self-opposition of psychological culture is a different cultural form. Modern psychology and psychoanalysis provide an inclusive contradiction at the psychological level. In this understanding, consciousness is an unconscious state of progress, and the relationship between consciousness and subconscious constitutes the psychological state of people or society. In the field of cultural studies, Benedict first revealed such a case of cultural form. In China culture, there is no self-opposition, but in western culture, self-opposition is a pathological manifestation of psychology and society, and Japanese culture can show its strong viability by virtue of this opposition, but this viability is not in the sense of historical consistency of culture itself, but in the form of self-opposition produced in the process of cultural integration, that is, the psychological cultural form and motivation expressed in the form of self-opposition. The thought of "leaving Asia and entering Europe" in modern Japanese society can be regarded as such a kind of psychological subconscious consciousness, but it can only be mainly at the social level. The economic and social structure can be transplanted, and culture itself can be absorbed and integrated in history, but the essence of culture itself cannot be changed, otherwise there will be no Japanese culture in the sense of nation-state.

The mutual interpretation of culture and history is a modern rational consciousness. Today, people are trying to know themselves, their own culture and history, find themselves in the mutual interpretation of culture and history, and find the position of their own culture in the world culture and history, but only in the corresponding background and platform of great history and great culture can we really know ourselves. Only in a longer historical period can human beings see the mutual interpretation of culture and history itself, and this interpretation becomes the expression of history and culture itself.

For the views related to this article, please refer to Zhou Jianming's "China Thought and Chinese and Western Cultures" series of articles, and live in Yangshutang Dwelling House at No.9-2-6-1Yueyang City in 2005 1 1 month.