10 The Dilemma of Virtue
第十章 道德的困境
THE JAPANESE VIEW of life is just what their formulas of chu and ko and giri and jin and human feelings say it is. They see the ‘whole duty of man' as if it were parceled out into separate provinces on a map. In their phrase, one's life consists of ‘the circle of chu' and ‘the circle of ko' and ‘the circle of giri' and ‘the circle of jin' and ‘the circle of human feelings' and many more. Each circle has its special detailed code and a man judges his fellows, not by ascribing to them integrated personalities, but by saying of them that ‘they do not know ko' or ‘they do not know giri.' Instead of accusing a man of being unjust, as an American would, they specify the circle of behavior he has not lived up to. Instead of accusing a man of being selfish or unkind, the Japanese specify the particular province within which he violated the code. They do not invoke a categorical imperative or a golden rule. Approved behavior is relative to the circle within which it appears. When a man acts ‘for ko,' he is acting in one way; when he acts ‘merely for giri' or ‘in the circle of jin,' he is acting—so Westerners would judge—in quite different character. The codes, even for each ‘circle,' are set up in such a way that, when conditions change within it, the most different behavior may be properly called for. Giri to one's lord demanded utmost loyalty until the lord insulted his retainer; afterward no treachery was too great. Until August 1945, chu demanded of the Japanese people that they fight to the last man against the enemy. When the Emperor changed the requirements of chu by broadcasting Japan's capitulation, the Japanese outdid themselves in expressing their co-operation with the visitors.
日本人的人生观，是通过他们在忠、孝、义理、仁、人情等方面的表现反映出来的。他们认为，“人们的全部义务”就像地图上各个地区一样，明确地划分为若干部分。在他们看来，人生是由“忠的范畴”、“孝的范畴”、“义理的范畴”、“仁的范畴”、“人情的范畴”以及其他许多范畴组成的。每个范畴都详细规定了它特有的规章和信条。因此，当人们判断一个人，不是看他全部人格的总体表现，而是用“是否懂得孝”、“是否懂得义理”的说法来判断。他们在指责别人时，不像美国人那样说某人不正直，而是直接指出其未完成应尽义务的范畴。他们不说某人自私自利或冷酷无情，而是明确指出其违反规章的特定范畴。他们并不诉诸道德律和黄金律。“黄金律”一词系引自《圣经·马太福音》第七章第十二节，意为“欲人施于己者，己必施诸人”。——译注他们认为，所谓正确的行为，只是对其出现的范畴而言。同是一个人，他在为父母尽孝时，和为朋友尽“义”时，以及为“仁”而尽力时——西方人可能想象不到——其做法可能完全不同。此外还规定，当各自范畴的规章因其形势变化而改变时，要求人们无条件地按照新的规章行动。对主君的“义理”，要求只要主君不侮辱家臣，家臣就必须竭尽最大的忠诚。但是，家臣一旦受到侮辱，因而起来谋反时，则是完全不受此限的。一九四五年八月以前，“忠”要求日本国民与敌人战斗到底直至最后一人。但是当天皇通过广播宣告日本投降，“忠”的要求内容发生变化时，日本国民也随着完全改变过去的做法，对外来者表现出热心协作的态度。
This is baffling to Westerners. According to our experience, people act ‘in character.' We separate the sheep from the goats by whether they are loyal or whether they are treacherous, whether they are co-operative or whether they are stiff-necked. We label people and expect their next behavior to be like their last. They are generous or stingy, willing or suspicious, conservative or liberal. We expect them to believe in one particular political ideology and consistently to fight the opposite ideology. In our war experience in Europe there were collaborationists and there were resistance people, and we doubted, quite rightly, that after VE-Day collaborationists would have changed their spots. In domestic controversies in the United States, we recognize, for instance, New Dealers and anti-New Dealers, and we judge that as new situations arise these two camps will continue to act in character. If individuals move from one side of the fence to the other—as when an unbeliever becomes a Catholic or a ‘red' becomes a conservative—such a change has to be duly labeled as a conversion and a new personality built up to fit.
西方人对这一点是无法理解的。据我们的经验，人们的行为是和他的品质相一致的。我们可以根据一个人忠诚与否，肯协作还是搞对立，像区别“绵羊和山羊”“羊与山羊”一词系引自《圣经·马太福音》第二十五章第三十二至三十三节。“于是，将万民集合起来，像牧羊人区分绵羊与山羊那样将他们分开，绵羊在右边，山羊在左边。” ——译注那样，加以区分。我们把人们根据表现加以分类，预期他们未来的行动可能和以往的行动完全一致。人们有大方和小气、主动协作和疑心重重之分，有保守主义者和自由主义者的区别，不尽相同。但我们可以预料，人们信仰某一特定的政治观念，他就会始终一贯地与其对立观念作斗争。就我们在欧洲战争中的经验来看，人群中有合作派和反对派，我们当时认为在欧战胜利后，合作派的人也不会改变立场。后来证明这个推断完全正确。就是在美国国内的政治争斗中，我们认为也有不同派别，例如新政派与旧政派之争。从而，我们判断即使出现新事态，他们仍然要以各派特有的方式来行动。虽然也有个别人投入对方的情况——例如，不信教的人变成基督教的信仰者，激进分子成了保守主义者。但是必须看到这种变化是正常现象，是由于适应这种转变的新品格已经形成的缘故。
This Western faith in integrated behavior is of course not always justified, but it is no illusion. In most cultures, primitive or civilized, men and women picture themselves as acting as particular kinds of persons. If they are interested in power, they reckon their failures and successes in terms of others' submission to their will. If they are interested in being loved, they are frustrated in impersonal situations. They fancy themselves as sternly just or as having an ‘artistic temperament' or as being a good homebody. They generally achieve a Gestalt in their own characters. It brings order into human existence.
西方人的这种行为与性格一致的见解，当然不能经常为事实所证明。但这决不是凭空想象。如果抛开文明程度不论，就大多数文化来说，人们都是分别以特定种类的人而行动的。这是可以想象得到的。如果人们想获得权力，他们就要以别人服从的程度为基准，来判断能否获得成功。如果人们关心自己能否受到爱戴，他们知道，在不与人接触的情况下是不能获得成功的。人们如果希望自己做一个严肃而正派的人，或者做一个具有“艺术家气质”的人，或者做一个善良的家族成员，他们一般都要在自己性格中培养表里一致的精神，因为这会给人们生活带来秩序。
Occidentals cannot easily credit the ability of the Japanese to swing from one behavior to another without psychic cost. Such extreme possibilities are not included in our experience. Yet in Japanese life the contradictions, as they seem to us, are as deeply based in their view of life as our uniformities are in ours. It is especially important for Occidentals to recognize that the ‘circles' into which the Japanese divide life do not include any ‘circle of evil.' This is not to say that the Japanese do not recognize bad behavior, but they do not see human life as a stage on which forces of good contend with forces of evil. They see existence as a drama which calls for careful balancing of the claims of one ‘circle' against another and of one course of procedure against another, each circle and each course of procedure being in itself good. If everyone followed his true instincts, everyone would be good. As we saw, they regard even Chinese moral precepts as proving that the Chinese need that kind of thing. It proves the inferiority of the Chinese. Japanese, they say, have no need of over-all ethical commandments. In Sir George Sansom's phrase which we have already quoted, they ‘do not grapple with the problem of evil.' According to their view, they adequately account for bad behavior by less cosmic means. Though every soul originally shines with virtue like a new sword, nevertheless, if it is not kept polished, it gets tarnished. This ‘rust of my body,' as they phrase it, is as bad as it is on a sword. A man must give his character the same care that he would give a sword. But his bright and gleaming soul is still there under the rust and all that is necessary is to polish it up again.
日本人从一种行动转变为另一种行动时并不伴随有精神痛苦，这对西方人来说，几乎是难以置信的。因为在我们的经验中，不存在这种极端的可能性。但是在日本人的生活中，矛盾——我们只能这样认为——已深深地扎根在他们的人生观中，正如同一致性扎根在我们的人生观中一样。对西方人特别重要的是，要认识到在日本人划分生活范畴中是不包括“恶的范畴”的。这并不是说，日本人不承认恶的行为存在，他们只是不把人生看做善与恶两种力量相角逐的舞台而已。他们认为，生活就是将一种范畴与另一种范畴，一种方针与另一种方针，加以衡量比较的一幕戏剧。各自范畴，各自行动方针，对其本身来说都是善的。如果千万人能按基本性办事，这千万人也就是善人。如前所述，他们认为，中国的道德教育也只是对中国这样的国民才有必要，这证明了中国人的低劣。他们说，概括全部生活的伦理戒律对日本人来说是完全无用的。借用前边引用过的萨·乔治·桑塞姆的话来说，他们对恶的问题决不从正面提起。依据他们的见解，恶的行为即使不从宇宙的原理讲起，也是十分容易说明的。每个人的灵魂，本来就像一把新刀一样闪烁着德的光辉，只是不磨就要生锈。他们所说的这种“身体生锈”与刀生锈同样不是好事。人们必须注意，使自己的人格和刀一样不要生锈。但是，即使生了锈，在锈蚀的后面仍然是闪光的灵魂，只要把它们再磨一次就会好的。
This Japanese view of life makes their folk tales and novels and plays seem particularly inconclusive to Westerners—unless we are able, as often happens, to recast the plot to fit our demands for consistency of character and for conflict of good and evil. But that is not the way the Japanese look at these plots. Their comment is that the hero is caught in a conflict of ‘giri against human feelings,' ‘chu against ko,' ‘giri against gimu.' A hero fails because he is allowing his human feelings to obscure his obligations of giri, or he cannot pay both the debt he owes as chu and the debt he owes as ko. He cannot do right (gi) because of giri. He is cornered by giri and sacrifices his family. The conflicts so portrayed are still between obligations both of which are in themselves binding. They are both ‘good.' The choice between them is like the choice that faces a debtor who owes too many debts. He must pay some and ignore others for the time being, but the fact that he pays one debt does not free him of the rest of his debts.
日本人的这种人生观，使得他们的民间故事、小说、戏剧尤其令西方人难以理解，除非我们能够，正如我们通常做的那样，按照我们一贯对于人物性格和善恶冲突的要求改写情节。但是，日本人对这些情节却不这样看。他们将批评的重点置于主人公陷于“义理与人情”、“忠与孝”、“义理和义务”的纠葛矛盾中。主人公的失败或是由于沉溺于人情，疏略于“义理”的义务，或者由于既欠下“忠”的债务，又欠下“孝”的债务，不能同时偿还而造成。人们由于拘泥于“义理”而不能正确行事，在“义理”逼迫下牺牲妻子儿女。用这种形式描写的纠葛，仍然是本身受着双重约束力的义务之间的矛盾。这两项义务都是善的。不论选择哪种义务，都不过好像在两笔重大债务面前选择其一而已。他只能先偿还一笔债务而暂时不理另一笔债务。但是，他却不能因偿清一笔债务而免除另一笔债务。
This way of viewing the hero's life is in great contrast to the Western view. Our heroes are good precisely in that they have ‘chosen the better part,' and are pitted against opponents who are bad. ‘Virtue triumphs,' as we say. There should be a happy ending. The good should be rewarded. The Japanese, however, have an insatiable appetite for the story of the ‘flagrant case' of the hero who finally settles incompatible debts to the world and to his name by choosing death as a solution. Such tales would in many cultures be stories teaching resignation to a bitter fate. But in Japan that is exactly what they are not. They are tales of initiative and ruthless determination. The heroes put forth every effort to pay some one obligation incumbent upon them, and, in so doing, they flout another obligation. But in the end they settle with the ‘circle' they flouted.
日本人对故事主人公这种生活的看法与西方人的见解差距很大。西方人总是将故事中的主人公塑造成优秀的人物，使其站在善良一方，与对立的恶势力作斗争；如我们常常谈到那样，“有德者必胜”，故事总是以愉快的结尾而告结束，善人必须有善报。但是，日本人对故事的主人公的难以两全，在人世和人情的双重债务面前左右为难，最后惟一解决的办法只有一死了之，比如对《重大事件》一类的故事，他们都怀着莫大的兴趣。这在其他文化的一些国家可能理解为，这是教育人们忍受残酷命运的故事。但是，在日本却与此完全相反，这是带有主动自发性和断然决心的故事。主人公为了完成肩负的义务，必须付出一切努力，此时，他对其他任务，暂时置之不顾，但是在最后，他则对先前忽视的范畴进行清算。
The true national epic of Japan is the Tale of the Forty-Seven Ronin. It is not a tale that rates high in the world's literature but the hold it has on the Japanese is incomparable. Every Japanese boy knows not only the main story but the subordinate plots of the tale. Its stories are constantly told and printed and they are retold in a popular modern movie series. The graves of the forty-seven have been for generations a favorite pilgrimage where thousands went to pay tribute. They left their visiting cards, too, and the ground around the graves was often white with them.
日本真正称得起国民叙事诗的，要算《四十七士物语》。它虽然在世界文学中不占有很高地位，但是没有任何作品能像它那样深深打动日本人的心。日本少年不论是谁，不仅知道故事的梗概，而且知道它的细节。它不断地被传诵，印成文字，多次拍成电影。“四十七士”的墓地自古以来就成为名胜，成千上万的人前去拜祭，他们将拜帖放在墓旁，因此常常使坟墓周围变得一片雪白。
The theme of the Forty-Seven Ronin centers around giri to one's lord. As the Japanese see it, it portrays the conflicts of giri with chu, of giri with righteousness—in which giri is of course virtuously triumphant,—and of ‘merely giri' with limitless giri. It is an historical tale of 1703, the great days of feudalism when men were men, according to the modern Japanese daydream, and there was no ‘unwillingness' in giri. The forty-seven heroes offer up everything to it, their reputations, their fathers, their wives, their sisters, their righteousness (gi). Finally they offer up to chu their own lives, dying by their own hands.
“四十七士”的主题是以对主君的“义理”为中心。按照日本人的看法，这个故事是“义理”和“忠”的纠葛，“义理”和正义的纠葛。在这些纠葛之中，当然是“义理”获得正当的胜利。此外也描写了“一次义理”和无限“义理”的纠葛。这个故事发生在一七三○年，当时正是封建制度的鼎盛期，按照近代日本人的梦想，当时男人们都是真正的男子汉，不存在“义理”中有非本意的因素的时代。四十七位浪人为了“义理”牺牲了个人的名誉、双亲、妻子、妹妹、正义，最后将自己的生命奉献给“忠”，壮烈自杀。
The Lord Asano was appointed by the Shogunate as one of two daimyo in charge of the ceremony at which all the daimyo made their periodical obeisance to the Shogun. The two masters of ceremonies were provincial lords and therefore they had to apply for instructions in required etiquette to a very great daimyo of the Court, the Lord Kira. Unfortunately Lord Asano's wisest retainer, Oishi—the hero of the tale—who would have counseled him prudently, was away in the home province and Asano was na?ve enough not to arrange to pay a sufficient ‘gift' to his great instructor. The retainers of the other daimyo who was being instructed by Kira were men of the world and showered the teacher with rich gifts. The Lord Kira therefore instructed Lord Asano with bad grace and purposely described to him an entirely wrong costume for his wear at the ceremony. The Lord Asano appeared thus clad on the great day and when he realized the insult put upon him he drew his sword and wounded Kira on the forehead before they could be separated. It was his virtue as a man of honor—his giri to his name—to avenge Kira's insult but it was against his chu to draw his sword in the Shogun's palace. The Lord Asano had conducted himself virtuously in giri to his name but he could only come to terms with chu by killing himself according to the rules of seppuku. He retired to his house and dressed himself for the ordeal, waiting only for the return of his wisest and most faithful retainer Oishi. When they had exchanged a long look of farewell, Lord Asano, having aoo seated himself in required fashion, thrust his sword into his belly and died by his own hand. No relative being willing to succeed to the place of the dead lord who had violated chu and incurred the displeasure of the Shogunate, Asano's fief was confiscated and his retainers became masterless ronin.
全国大名定期聚集在宫廷举行向将军拜谒请安仪式。浅野侯被幕府任命为掌管仪式的两位大名之一。两位宫廷仪式官都是地方大名，因而必须向宫廷中身份较高的大名吉良侯请教，以求其指导。浅野侯的家臣中最有智慧的大石——此人是故事中的主人公——如果在身边，一定能毫无保留地提出建议，但是他不巧回国去了。浅野是一位不懂世故的固执的人，缺少向仪式指导者赠送大量“礼品”的灵活性。另一位接受吉良指导的大名的家臣们都是些老于世故的人，不惜重金向指导者赠送大批礼物。因而，吉良侯颇不高兴地指导浅野侯，并故意指示他穿着完全违反规定的服装出席仪式。浅野侯穿着吉良指定的服装参加了盛典。当他察觉到自己受到侮辱时，他拔出刀来，在别人隔开之前砍伤了吉良的前额。对吉良的侮辱予以复仇是他这样重视名誉的人当然要采取的行为——即合乎对“名”的“义理”，但是在将军宝殿前拔刀一事则是违反忠的行为。浅野侯在对“名”的“义理”方面做出了出色的行动，但是在“忠”的方面除去剖腹自杀以外没有和解的道路。他退出了将军府邸，做好了剖腹的一切准备，只等着最聪明的家臣大石的返回。两个人长久地交换了诀别的目光之后，浅野侯端坐，将刀插进自己的腹部，用自己的手结束了生命。亲属中无人愿意继承这位违背了“忠”，受到幕府谴责的已故大名的爵位，于是，浅野的藩地被没收，家臣也成为没有主人的浪人。
According to the obligations of giri, Asano's samurai retainers owed it to their dead master to commit seppuku as he had done. If in giri to their lord they did what he had done in giri to his name, this would voice their protest against Kira's insult to their lord. But Oishi was secretly determined that seppuku was too small an act by which to express their giri. They must complete the vengeance their own lord had been unable to carry through when retainers separated him from his high-placed enemy. They must kill Lord Kira. But this could only be accomplished by violating chu. Lord Kira was too near to the Shogunate to make it possible for the ronin to get official permission from the State to carry out their revenge. In more usual cases, any group contemplating vengeance registered their plan with the Shogunate, stating the final date before which they would complete the act or abandon the enterprise. This arrangement allowed certain fortunate people to reconcile chu and giri. Oishi knew that this course was not open to him and his fellows. He therefore called together the ronin who had been Asano's samurai retainers but he spoke no word of his plan of killing Kira. There were more than three hundred of these ronin and, as the story was taught in Japanese schools in 1940, they all agreed to commit seppuku. Oishi knew, however, that not all of them had unlimited giri—in the Japanese phrase, ‘giri plus sincerity'—and could therefore be trusted in the dangerous exploit of a vendetta against Kira. To separate those with ‘merely' giri from those with giri plus sincerity he used the test of how they were to divide their lord's personal income. In Japanese eyes this was as much of a test as if they had not already agreed to commit suicide; their families would benefit. There was violent disagreement among the ronin about the basis of the division of property. The chief steward was the highest paid of the retainers and he led the faction which wanted the income divided according to previous salary. Oishi led the faction which wanted it divided equally among them all. As soon as it was well established which ones of the ronin had ‘merely' giri, Oishi agreed to the chief steward's plan for partition of the estate and allowed those who had won to leave the company. The chief steward left and has earned thereby the fame of being a ‘dog samurai,' a ‘man who did not know giri,' and a reprobate. Oishi judged only forty-seven to be strong enough in giri to be made privy to his plan of vendetta. These forty-seven who joined him pledged by that act that no good faith, no affection, no gimu should stand in the way of the completion of their vow. Giri was to be their supreme law. The forty-seven cut their fingers and joined in a blood compact.
如从“义理”的义务而言，浅野侯的家臣对亡君，负有与主君相同的剖腹义务。但是如果他们从对主君的“义理”的角度，做与主君对名的“义理”相同的事，就要向吉良复仇。大石心里暗想，剖腹无论如何不足以表现他们的“义理”，他认为这是没有价值的行为。主君由于被侍卫们拦挡，未能完全复仇，他们必须予以弥补。他们必须杀死吉良侯。但是如果办成了这件事，也就违背了“忠”的要求。吉良侯与幕府关系十分亲密，浪人们想取得幕府的复仇许可是不可能的。在通常的情况下，计划复仇的人，必须向幕府提出复仇最后限定日期，如在此前不能完成，即须放弃计划。靠着这个制度，一些幸运的人得以将“忠”与“义理”求得统一，但是大石等人知道，这条路对他们是行不通的。于是大石将浅野的前家臣等浪人召集在一起，人数达到三百以上，他只字未提复仇计划。根据一九四○年度日本学校讲授的内容，他们一致同意剖腹自杀。但是，大石知道他们不全是坚持无限“义理”的人，用日语的说法，即坚持“真正的义理”的人，因而他们不全是在为吉良报仇的危险的大事上可以共事的人。于是，他提出了如何分配主君财产的问题，以此方法来观察区分“一次义理”和“真正义理”的人。在日本人看来，这件事与他们家属的利益有关，从这里可以看出他们同意自决是否出于真心。浪人们在财产分配标准的问题上产生了尖锐的对立。司刑家老是家臣中俸禄最高的人，他成了主持按原来俸禄标准分配方案一派的头头。大石成了主持全体平均分配一派的领导人。于是，浪人之中谁是“一次义理”的人就十分清楚了。与此同时，大石同意了司刑家老的财产分配方案，这就等于确认了取得胜利的一伙人退出了集体。司刑家老逃走了，因此他落了一个“武士中的败类”、“不懂义理”、“不讲道义”的坏名声。大石看出了只有四十七个人是坚守义理的人，可以向他们秘密地讲明他的复仇计划。大石结盟的四十七人共同立下了誓言，为了达到目标，无论是信义、爱情、“义务”，所有妨碍计划完成的一切阻碍都要排除。“义理”成为他们最高的指导原则。四十七士割破手指结成血盟。
Their first task was to throw Kira off the scent. They disbanded and pretended to be lost to all honor. Oishi frequented the lowest public-houses and engaged in undignified brawls. Under cover of this abandoned life he divorced his wife—a usual and thoroughly justified step for any Japanese who was about to run foul of the law since it kept his wife and children from being held accountable along with him in the final act. Oishi's wife parted from him in great grief, but his son joined the ronin.
他们要做的第一件事就是不要让吉良有所察觉。他们分散在各处，装成对名誉等一切都已忘记的样子。大石出入于下等娼妓之门，整天进行无聊地口角和争吵。他以这种放荡生活为借口，与妻子分手了。这是任何一个准备违法的日本人通常采取的，也是被人们认为正当的手段。借此可以使他的妻子避免受到严厉追究的责任。大石的妻子流着泪离开了他，他的儿子则加入了浪人的行列。
All Tokyo was speculating on the vendetta. All who respected the ronin were of course convinced that they would attempt to kill Lord Kira. But the forty-seven disclaimed any such intention. They pretended to be men who ‘did not know giri.' Their fathers-in-law, outraged at such dishonorable conduct, turned them out of their homes and dissolved their marriages. Their friends ridiculed them. One day a close friend met Oishi drunk and reveling with women, and even to him Oishi denied his giri to his lord. ‘Revenge?' he said. ‘It is silly. One should enjoy life. Nothing is better than to drink and play around.' His friend disbelieved him, and pulled Oishi's sword out of its sheath, expecting its shining brilliance to disprove what its owner had said. But the sword was rusted. He was forced to believe and in the open street he kicked and spat upon the drunken Oishi.
江户（东京）的人们对报仇一事做了种种臆测，所有尊敬浪人的人们都确信他们正在计划消灭吉良侯，而四十七士则坚持说根本没有这种打算。他们装作不懂“义理”的人。他们的岳父对这种无耻行为十分愤慨，把他们从家中驱逐出去，解除了婚约。他们的朋友也嘲笑他们。有一天，大石的亲友看到大石喝醉了酒正在与女人胡闹。大石在闲谈时向他的亲友表示否定对主君的“义理”，他说：“什么，报仇？完全是无稽之谈。人生应过得快活，没有比饮酒作乐再有意思的事了。”朋友们不相信他的话，把大石的刀拔出鞘来看，以为也许和大石的话相反。刀擦得很亮也未可知。但是刀上生了红锈。朋友们不能不相信大石的话是出自内心。于是当他们在路上碰见喝得烂醉的大石时，就用脚踢他，往他身上吐唾沫。
One of the ronin, needing money to cover his part in the vendetta, had his wife sold as a prostitute. Her brother, also one of the ronin, discovered that knowledge of the vendetta had come into her hands and proposed to kill her with his own sword, arguing that with this proof of his loyalty Oishi would enroll him among the avengers. Another ronin killed his father-in-law. Another sent his sister to serve as maid and concubine to Lord Kira himself so that the ronin might have advice from inside the palace telling them when to attack; this act made it inevitable that she should commit suicide when vengeance was accomplished, for she had to clear herself by death of the fault of having appeared to be on the side of Lord Kira.
有一位浪人，为了筹备参加复仇的资金，把自己的妻子卖做妓女。他妻子的哥哥也是一位浪人，得知他妹妹了解到复仇的秘密，他为了表明自己的忠诚，打算杀死自己的妹妹，以求加入大石复仇的队伍。有一位浪人杀死了岳父。还有一位浪人为在袭击吉良府时能从内部通报消息，将自己的妹妹送进仇人吉良侯府充当贴身侍女兼小妾，结果这位妇女不得不在胜利完成使命后自杀身死。即或不被发现，由于在吉良侯身边侍候的耻辱，不自杀也无法洗雪。
On a snowy night, December fourteenth, Kira held a sake party and the guards were drunk. The ronin raided the stronghold, overcame the guards, and went straight to Lord Kira's bedroom. He was not there, but his bed was still warm. The ronin knew he was hiding somewhere in the enclosure. At last they discovered a man crouched in an outhouse used for storing charcoal. One of the ronin drove his spear through a wall of the hut, but when he withdrew it there was no blood upon it. The spear had indeed pierced Kira, but as it was withdrawn he had wiped off the blood with his kimono sleeve. His trick was of no avail. The ronin forced him to come out. He claimed, however, that he was not Kira; he was only the chief steward. At this point one of the forty-seven remembered the wound their Lord Asano had given Kira in the Shogun's palace. By this scar they identified him and demanded his immediate seppuku. He refused—which proved of course that he was a coward. With the sword their own Lord Asano had used in his seppuku, they cut off his head, ceremonially washed it, and having finished their work, set off in procession to carry the doubly bloodied sword and the severed head to Asano's grave.
十二月十四日降雪之夜，吉良设置酒宴，警卫的武士们都喝得烂醉。浪人们袭击了坚固设防的吉良府，杀死警卫的武士后，一直奔向吉良侯的卧室，但是没有看到吉良的影子，只是床铺还有些微温。浪人们认为他肯定藏在府内什么地方了。后来他们发现贮炭小屋里好像蹲着一个人。一个浪人隔着板壁将长予刺进去，拔出来后长予尖上没有一点血迹。长予的确是刺进了吉良的身体，但是吉良在长予拔出时用衣袖将血迹擦掉。但是他的小动作没起什么作用，浪人把他拖了出来。他撒谎说自己不是吉良，只是一个首席家臣。此时，四十七士中的一个人想起了吉良一定留有被浅野侯在宝殿上砍的刀痕，浪人们根据这一点认定了他就是吉良。于是浪人们要求他当场剖腹，他拒绝了这个要求——这件事不用说，表明他是一个卑怯者。于是浪人们用主君浅野侯剖腹时使用过的刀将他的头砍下。照例将刀上的血迹在头上抹掉。终于实现了愿望的一行人整顿队伍，手持染血两次的宝刀和割下的首级，向浅野墓进发。
All Tokyo was filled with enthusiasm for the deed of the ronin. Their families and fathers-in-law who had doubted them rushed to embrace them and to do obeisance. Great lords urged hospitality upon them along the way. They proceeded to the grave and placed there not only the head and the sword but a written address to their lord which is still preserved.
江户（东京）市民得知浪人们的正义行动全都沸腾起来。曾对浪人们的忠心抱有怀疑的家属和他们的岳父们，争先恐后前来与浪人拥抱，表示敬意。大藩的诸侯沿路热情地迎接了他们。浪人们到墓前参谒，将吉良的首级和宝刀以及对亡君的悼文奉献在灵前。悼文至今仍被保存，其大体内容如下：
We have come this day to do homage here. . . . We could not have dared to present ourselves before you unless we had carried out the vengeance which you began. Every day that we waited seemed three autumns to us. . . . We have escorted my Lord Kira hither to your tomb. This sword you valued so greatly last year and entrusted to us we now bring back. We pray you to take it and strike the head of your enemy a second time and dispel your hatred forever. This is the respectful statement of forty-seven men.
我等今日谨拜谒于御灵之前……此前我等因未能尽雪殿下欲报而未报之仇，实无颜参谒于墓前。我等以一日三秋之思渴望今日之到来……我等今日谨将吉良首级供奉于御灵之前。此短刀乃殿下心爱之物，我等曾暂为借用，今谨奉还。愿殿下以此短刀再去断敌之首，以雪殿下永久之遗恨。臣等四十七人谨拜。据福本日南的《元禄快举录》，墓前祭文是后世伪造。此处按英语原文译出。——译注
Their giri was paid. They had still to pay their chu. Only in their death could the two coincide. They had broken the State rule against undeclared vendetta but they were not in revolt against chu. Whatever was demanded of them in the name of chu they must fulfill. The Shogunate ruled that the forty-seven should commit seppuku. As fifth-grade children's Japanese Readers say:
他们的“义理”至此完成，但还必须尽“忠”。如欲达到忠义两全，则除死之外别无其他出路。他们打破了未经请示不得复仇的国法，违背了“忠”是不允许的。无论如何，以“忠”的名义提出来的要求，他们必须完成。于是幕府要求四十七士剖腹。据小学五年级国语课本，叙述如下：
Since they acted to avenge their lord, their unswerving giri had to be regarded as an example for ages eternal. . . . Therefore the Shogunate after deliberation commanded seppuku, a plan which killed two birds with one stone.
他们为主君复仇之义举，应视为坚定不移的义理的永世不灭的龟鉴……幕府在经过慎重考虑后，下令剖腹。这正是两全之策。引自《国法与大慈悲》，《小学国语课本》寻常科用第十卷第二十一节，昭和十年十二日。但在该处不是原文引用。——译注
That is, in killing themselves with their own hands the ronin paid the supreme debt both to giri and to gimu.
亦即浪人们用自己的双手结束自己的生命，以此来偿还“义理”与“义务”双方的最高债务。
This national epic of Japan varies somewhat in different versions. In the modern movie version, the bribery theme at the outset is changed to a sex theme: Lord Kira is discovered making advances to Asano's wife, and because of his attraction to her he humiliates Asano by giving him false instructions. Bribery is thus eliminated. But all the obligations of giri are told in blood-curdling detail. ‘For giri they forsook their wives, parted with their children and lost (killed) their parents.'
这篇日本国民叙事诗，由于传说各异，内容稍有不同。在现代电影中，将故事起因的贿赂情节改为恋爱情节。吉良侯与浅野夫人调情时被人发现，出于爱恋浅野夫人，吉良侯有意教给浅野错误做法使其蒙羞，此处将贿赂情节改掉。但“义理”的全部义务，则以令人震惊的笔触予以详尽叙述。“他们为了义理，妻离子散，失掉双亲，家破人亡”。
The theme of the conflict between gimu and giri is the basis of many other tales and movies. One of the best historical movies is placed in the time of the third Tokugawa Shogun. This Shogun had been named to his office when he was a young and untried man, and his courtiers were divided among themselves about the succession, some of them supporting a near relative of the same age. One of the defeated daimyo nursed this ‘insult' in his bosom in spite of the capable administration of the Third Shogun. He bided his time. At last the Shogun and his entourage notified him that they were to make a tour of certain fiefs. It was incumbent upon this daimyo to entertain the party and he seized the opportunity to even all scores and fulfill his giri to his name. His home was already a stronghold and he prepared it for the coming event so that all egress could be blocked and the stronghold sealed. Then he provided means by which the walls and ceilings could be knocked down on the heads of the Shogun and his party. His plot was staged in the grand style. His entertainment was meticulous. For the enjoyment of the Shogun he had one of his samurai dance before him and this samurai was under instructions to plunge his sword into the Shogun at the climax of the dance. In giri to his daimyo the samurai could in no wise refuse his lord's order. His chu, however, forbade him to lift his hand against the Shogun. The dance on the screen fully portrays the conflict. He must and he must not. He almost brings himself to strike the blow but he cannot. In spite of giri, chu is too strong. The dance degenerates and the Shogun's party becomes suspicious. They rise from their seats just as the desperate daimyo orders the demolition of the house. There is danger that the Shogun, though he has escaped the dancer's sword, will be killed in the ruins so of the stronghold. At this point the sword dancer comes forward and guides the Shogun's party through underground passages so that they escape safely into the open. Chu has conquered giri. The Shogun's spokesman in gratitude urges their guide to go with them in honor to Tokyo. The guide, however, looks back into the falling house. ‘It is impossible,' he says. ‘I stay. It is my gimu and my giri.' He turns from them and dies in the ruins. ‘In his death he satisfied both chu and giri. In death they coincided.'
“义务”与“义理”相冲突的主题，常是其他许多故事和电影的基本素材。最优秀的历史故事电影之一是取材于德川第三代将军时期。这位将军在年纪还很轻、发展前途如何尚难预料的情况下被指定为继承人，幕臣们对这位将军继承问题意见不一致。其中某些人拥立了与他年纪相仿的近亲。一位失败的大名颇不服气，不顾第三代将军的政治手腕高强，将此“侮辱”深深记在心间。他在等待时机。机会终于来到了。传来了将军及其身边人员即将巡视两国的消息。这位大名接到了接待将军一行的通知。他准备利用这个机会洗雪宿怨，以尽对“名”的“义理”。他早已将住所要塞化，为了应付可能发生的事件，做好了随时可以关闭一切出口、封锁要塞的准备。然后又设置了使墙壁和屋顶都能倒坍下来的机关。他着手实现他的阴谋。他对将军一行款待得十分热情周到，席间，为了给将军助兴，他命一名家臣舞剑，这其中就包含着在舞剑的高潮中刺杀将军的企图。如果从对大名的“义理”而言，武士是不能抗拒君命的，但是从“忠”的要求却又不许他对将军下手。影片中舞剑的场面，将这个矛盾心理描写得淋漓尽致。他不得不做，同时又不能去做。他几乎就要刺着将军了，但是无论如何又不能去刺。尽管“义理”要求如此做，而“忠”则更为有力。他的剑法逐渐变得混乱，将军一行对此感到迷惑不解。他们正要离席而去的瞬间，已经完全变得疯狂的大名下令破坏建筑物。将军一行人好容易逃脱了舞剑者的刀剑，又面临房屋倒塌被压的危险。就在此时，舞剑的武士忽然站在他的面前主动为一行人引路，领着大家从地下道走出去，安全到达户外的广场。“忠”终于战胜了“义理”。将军的代表向引路者表示谢意，并建议他与将军同去江户（东京）。但是这位引路的武士回过头去看了看倒塌的房屋，说道：“我不能去，我必须留在这里，这是我的义务，也是我应尽的‘义理’。”他和将军一行告别后重新走进崩塌的建筑物中死去。“他以死使忠与义理达到了两全，他用死使两者达到一致”。
The tales of olden times do not give central place to the conflict between obligations and ‘human feelings.' In recent years it has become a principal theme. Modern novels tell of love and human kindness which have to be discarded because of gimu or giri, and this theme is played up instead of being minimized. Like their war movies, which readily seem to Westerners to be good pacifist propaganda, these novels often seem to us a plea for greater latitude to live according to the dictates of one's own heart. They are certainly testimony to this impulse. But over and over Japanese who discuss the plot of novels or movies see a different meaning. The hero we sympathize with because he is in love or cherishes some personal ambition, they condemn as weak because he has allowed these feelings to come between him and his gimu or his giri. Westerners are likely to feel it is a sign of strength to rebel against conventions and seize happiness in spite of obstacles. But the strong, according to Japanese verdict, are those who disregard personal happiness and fulfill their obligations. Strength of character, they think, is shown in conforming not in rebelling. The plots of their novels and movies, consequently, often have quite a different meaning in Japan from that which we give to them when we see them through Western eyes.
在以往的故事中，义务和“人情”的纠葛不占中心地位，但是近年来却成了重要主题。近代小说中，常常描写为了“义务”和“义理”而不得不舍弃爱情和人情的故事。这类主题不但未能得到谨慎处理，反而被大肆描写。正如日本的战争电影在西方人看来很容易认为是绝好的反战宣传一样，这类小说也常常使我们感到好像在倾诉渴望获得按照自己意愿生活的自由的心情。这类小说确定能证明这种冲动性的存在。但是日本人对这类小说和电影的评论，却总是和我们不同，从另一种意义来看待。当我们对恋爱中或怀有个人愿望的主人公，认为有理由予以同情时，他们却以此种感情妨碍了“义务”或“义理”的遂行为理由，责备主人公是一个弱者。西方人一般认为，一个人能举起反抗因袭的旗帜，克服重重障碍而获得幸福，这才是强者的证明。但是，依照日本人的见解，所谓强者是将个人置之不顾而能成全其义务的人。他们认为人们的性格坚强与否不是表现在反抗上，而是表现在服从上。因而，他们的小说或电影的情节，在他们的眼里，与我们西方人看到的，它所赋予的意义，多具有完全不同的概念。
Japanese make the same kind of appraisal when they pass judgment on their own lives or on those of people they have known. They judge that a man is weak if he pays attention to his personal desires when they conflict with the code of obligations. All kinds of situations are judged in this way, but the one which is most opposite to Western ethics concerns a man's attitude toward his wife. His wife is only tangential to ‘the circle of ko' but his parents are central. Therefore his duty is clear. A man of strong moral character obeys ko and accepts his mother's decision to divorce his wife. It only makes the man ‘stronger' if he loves his wife and if she has borne him a child. In the Japanese phrase, ‘ko may make you put your wife and children in the category of strangers.' Then your treatment of them belongs at best in ‘the circle of jin.' At worst they become people who have no claims upon you. Even when a marriage is happy, a wife is not centrally placed in the circles of obligations. A man should therefore not elevate his relation to her so that it seems to be on a level with his feelings toward his parents or his country. It was a popular scandal in the nineteen-thirties when a prominent liberal spoke publicly about how happy he was in returning to Japan, and mentioned reunion with his wife as one of the reasons for his pleasure. He should have spoken of his parents, of Fujiyama, of his dedication to the national mission of Japan. His wife did not belong on this level.
日本人在判断本身以及朋友的生活时，也是用这种方法来评价。他们如果看到有人被与义务不相容的个人欲望夺去了意志时，就判断这个人是弱者。他们对所有的事物都是用这种方法判断。其中与西方伦理最为相悖的是丈夫对妻子的态度。妻子不过被置于“孝”的边缘，而双亲占据着中心。因而丈夫的义务是非常明确的。一个有坚定的道德品质的人，为了尽孝道，如果母亲决定叫他与妻子离婚，就要接受这个决定。尽管他爱自己的妻子，两人间还有子女，但还是要这样做，这不过就是为了要当一个“坚强的人”而已。从日本人的表现来看，“有时孝道也要求人们把妻子与他人一视同仁”，这是对妻子态度最好的情况，属于“仁”的范畴。最坏的情况就是妻子成了一个不能提出任何要求的人，即使是新婚生活最幸福的时刻，妻子也是置身于义务范畴之外。因而，人们不能把与妻子的关系与对待双亲和祖国的感情那样放在同等标准来看待。二十世纪三十年代，一位著名的自由主义者回到日本时，在公众面前谈道，自己返回祖国十分高兴，理由之一就是能与妻子见面。由于他谈到了这一点而受到人们的讥讽。他本应当说由于看到了双亲，看到了富士山，能为日本国家使命献身而感到十分高兴才对。他的妻子是不能与这些相提并论的。
The Japanese themselves have shown in the modern era that they were not satisfied to leave their code of morals so heavy with emphasis on keeping different levels separate and different ‘circles' distinct. A great part of Japanese indoctrination has been devoted to making chu supreme. Just as statesmen simplified the hierarchy by putting the Emperor at the apex and eliminating the Shogun and the feudal lords, so in the moral realm they worked to simplify the system of obligations by bringing all lower virtues under the category of chu. By this means they sought not only to unify the country under ‘Emperor worship,' but to lessen the atomism of Japanese morals. They sought to teach that in fulfilling chu one fulfilled all other duties. They sought to make it, not one circle on a chart, but the keystone of a moral arch.
日本人本身，自近代以来，已经表现出不再满足于将他们道德律的重点放置在划分不同层次和区分不同范畴的道德准则上。日本人开始将“忠”视为至高无上之德而列为教育的主要内容。这正如政治家们将天皇置于最高地位，排除将军及封建诸侯从而使阶层制度达到单一化一样，他们在道德领域里，也将次要的德统统置于“忠”的范畴之下，从而为义务体系单一化做出了努力。这样，他们不仅将全国统一在“崇拜天皇”之下，而且也使日本道德的多层次状态趋于缓和。他们开始进行只要完成了“忠”，其他一切义务就当然都完成了的教育。他们认为“忠”不仅仅是“地图”上的一个区域，而是道德的主要基石。
The best and most authoritative statement of this program is the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors given by the Emperor Meiji in 1882. This Rescript and the one on Education are the true Holy Writ of Japan. Neither of the Japanese religions makes a place for holy books. Shinto has none and the cults of Japanese Buddhism either make a dogma out of disillusion with textual scriptures or substitute for them the repetition of phrases like ‘Glory to Amida' or ‘Glory to the Lotus of the Book.' The Meiji Rescripts of admonition, however, are true Holy Writ. They are read as sacred rituals before hushed audiences formally bowed in reverence. They are treated as torah, taken from a shrine for reading and returned with obeisance before the audience is dismissed. Men appointed to read them have killed themselves because they misread a sentence. The Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors was primarily for men in the service. They were the ones who learned it verbatim and meditated upon it quietly for ten minutes each morning. It was read to them ritually on important national holidays, when the new conscripts entered the barracks, when those left who had finished their period of training and on similar occasions. It was also taught to all boys in middle schools and continuation classes.
将这一策略作了最高和最权威的表达莫过于明治天皇于一八八二年（明治十五年）发布的《军人敕谕》。这个敕谕和《教育诏书》可谓日本真正的圣经。日本的两大宗教都不相信经典。神道全然没有经典，日本佛教的各宗派或者以教外别传，不立文字作为教义，或者只教人们反复诵读“南无阿弥陀佛”以及“南无妙法莲华经”等词句。但是明治天皇的敕谕和敕语才是真正的圣经。人们对它恭恭敬敬地施以敬礼，然后在寂静无声的听众面前举行神圣的仪式，进行捧读。它受到与《圣经》（《旧约》前五章）同等对待，每次捧读时要从奉安殿取出，在听众解散后再恭恭敬敬地送入奉安殿。担任捧读的人曾因将其中的词名读错而不得不引咎自戕。《军人敕谕》主要是下达给服现役的军人，要求他们强记硬背，每天早晨默念十分钟。每逢重大节日、新兵入伍、老兵退役以及其他重要活动，都要在军人面前宣读。此外还在中学及青年学校的全体学生中进行这个教育。
The Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors is a document of several pages. It is carefully arranged under headings and is clear and specific. Nevertheless, it is a strange puzzle to a Westerner. Its precepts seem to him contradictory. Goodness and virtue are held up as true goals and described in ways Westerners can appreciate. And then the Rescript warns its hearers not to be like heroes of old who died in dishonor because, ‘losing sight of the true path of public duty, they kept faith in private relations.' This is the official translation and though it is not literal it fairly represents the words of the original. ‘You should, then,' the Rescript continues, ‘take serious warning by these examples' of oldtime heroes.
《军人敕谕》是一份长达数页的文件，内容分别按重点列出若干小标题，行文明白准确。尽管如此，对西方人来说，仍是一个不可解之谜。西方人认为敕谕的训词似乎有矛盾。敕谕将善与德作为真正的目标予以提倡，其讲解方式西方人也能理解。其后，敕谕警告说，勿因“不顾公理之事非，而守私情之信义(They kept faith in private relations），致重蹈古代那些死得并不光彩的英雄豪杰们的覆辙”。这是官方译文，尽管不是逐字逐句译的，但却相当好地传达了原文的意思。指括号内的英文。——译注敕谕还继续说道：“应以此等古代英雄豪杰颇不乏先例之教训引以为戒。”
The ‘warning' conveyed is not intelligible without a knowledge of the Japanese map of obligations. The whole Rescript shows an official attempt to minimize giri and to elevate chu. Not once in the whole text does the word giri appear in the sense in which it is a household word in Japan. Instead of naming giri, it emphasizes that there is a Higher Law, which is chu, and a Lower Law which is ‘keeping faith in private relations.' The Higher Law, the Rescript is at pains to prove, is sufficient to validate all the virtues. ‘Righteousness,' it says, ‘is the fulfillment of gimu.' A soldier filled with chu inevitably has ‘true valor' which means ‘in daily intercourse to set gentleness first and to aim to win the love and esteem of others.' Such precepts, if followed, the Rescript argues by implication, will suffice without invoking giri. Obligations other than gimu are Lesser Law and a man should not acknowledge them without the most careful consideration.
此处叙述的“戒鉴”，如果对日本人义务“地图”缺乏知识是不能理解的。整个敕谕反映出官方有意压低“义理”，尽量提高“忠”的地位所做的努力。全文中“义理”一语，按日本人日常所理解的意义，一次也未出现过。代之而来的，则是敕谕强调了大节（“忠”）与小节（守私情）之区别。敕谕力图证明“大节”是所有德的根据和结果，并说道，“所谓义，就是履行‘义务’”（克尽自己的本分）。凡用“忠”的思想培育起来的军人必然具有“诚之大勇”。所谓“诚之大勇，即时刻铭记待人以谦和为第一，以博得众人之敬爱”。如将敕谕之论旨进一步推敲，则可知，只要服从这个教导，就无须再求诸其他的“义理”。“义理”以外所有的各种义务均为“小节”。因此，人们在承认这些次要义务时，要充分考虑、十分慎重才行。
If you wish . . . to keep your word (in private relations) and (also) to fulfill your gimu . . . you must carefully consider at the outset whether you can accomplish it or not. If you . . . tie yourself to unwise obligations, you may find yourself in a position where you can neither go forwards nor backwards. If you are convinced that you cannot possibly keep your word and maintain righteousness (which the Rescript has just defined as the fulfillment of gimu), you had better abandon your (private) engagement at once. Ever since the ancient times there have been repeated instances of great men and heroes who, overwhelmed by misfortune, have perished and left a tarnished name to posterity, simply because in their effort to be faithful in small matters they failed to discern right and wrong with reference to fundamental principles, or because, losing sight of thetruepathof public duty, they kept faith in private relations.
如预守私言（个人之事），又欲尽信义，就在于其始，即对其事之得失成败审慎思考。如对不智之义务率而允诺，轻易与之交往，以致其后欲践信义时必进退维谷，置身无地，痛苦不堪，悔之无及。故于其事之伊始，即应善察其曲直，明辨其是非，知言之不能践，义之不能守（敕谕在此处之前曾指出，所谓义，即履行“义务”之意），应即速止为上（你们应舍弃私订的盟约）。古来或因图小节之信义而误大纲之曲直，或昧于公理之是非，守私情之信义，致英雄豪杰遭遇身败名裂，遗骂名于后世，颇不乏其人。
All this instruction about the superiority of chu to giri is written, as we have said, without mentioning giri, but every Japanese knows the phrase, ‘I could not do righteousness (gi) because of giri,' and the Rescript paraphrases it in the words, ‘If you are convinced you cannot keep your word (your personal obligations) and fulfill righteousness . . . ' With Imperial authority it says that in such a situation a man should abandon giri, remembering that it is a Lesser Law. The Higher Law, if he obeys its precepts, will still keep him virtuous.
以上关于“忠”对“义理”的优势地位的训谕，如前所述，虽然以“义理”一语未出现的形式得出的，但是日本人都懂得：“如欲尽义理则不能行正义（义）”的意义。因而，敕谕将其内容改作如下叙述：“如确信其言（个人的义务）之不能践，其义之不能守……”以天皇之权威而制定的圣谕在此处提出“义理”是“小节”，主张人们应放弃“义理”，遵守敕谕教导，即使舍弃“义理”，也仍然是保持了“大节”的有道德的人。
This Holy Writ exalting chu is a basic document in Japan. It is difficult to say, however, whether its oblique detraction of giri weakened the popular hold of this obligation. Japanese frequently quote other parts of the Rescript—‘Righteousness is the fulfillment of gimu,' ‘If only the heart be sincere, anything can be accomplished'—to explain and justify their own and others' acts. But, though they would often be appropriate, the admonitions against keeping faith in private relations seem seldom to come to their lips. Giri remains today a virtue with great authority and to say of a man that ‘he does not know giri' is one of the most drastic condemnations in Japan.
这部宣扬“忠”的圣典是日本的基本文献之一。但是敕谕对义理这种含蓄的谴责，究竟能使义理紧紧攫住日本人心的力量减弱到什么程度，尚无法断定。日本人在解释自己和别人的行为时，为了说明其正当合理，往往要举出敕谕的个别部分——“义者尽自己本分之谓也”，“心诚天下无难事”——尽管他们也认为这种说法是恰当的，但是从不在口头上提出禁止守私情信义的劝告。“义理”在今日仍然是非常有权威的德，如果说某人“不讲义理”，这在日本是最严厉的责难之一。
Japanese ethics are not easily simplified by introducing a Higher Law. As they have so often boasted, the Japanese do not have at hand a generalized virtue to use as a touchstone of good behavior. In most cultures individuals respect themselves in proportion as they attain some virtue like good will or good husbandry or success in their enterprises. They set up as a goal some life objective like happiness or power over others or liberty or social mobility. The Japanese follow more particularistic codes. Even when they talk about Higher Law, tai setsu, whether in feudal times or in the Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors, it is only in the sense that obligations to someone high in the hierarchy should overrule obligations to someone who is lower down. They are still particularistic. To them Higher Law is not, as it has generally been to Westerners, a loyalty to loyalty, as against a loyalty to a particular person or a particular cause.
日本的伦理道德，虽然将“大节”纳入，但仍不易达到单一化。“大节”还不能像他们夸耀那样，作为日本人善行的试金石。在一般的文化社会里，人们可因善行、节俭或事业的成功，从而达成任何一项品德，个人与此相适应，也会受到尊重。他们或是得到幸福，或是享有威望，或是得到自由，或者获得社会地位，总而言之，使人生的某些目标得以实现。但是日本人则只听命于特殊主义的信条。而这不论是在封建时代，还是在军人敕谕时代，或者是在日本人将“大节”排在口头上的时代，都不过是阶层制度中上等人的义务强加给下等人而已。他们仍然是特殊主义者。西方人一般来说，对忠诚总是以忠诚相报，但是日本人的“大节”则与此相反，只要求对某个特定的个人，或者特定的主义效忠。
When modern Japanese have attempted to make some one moral virtue supreme over all the ‘circles,' they have usually selected ‘sincerity.' Count Okuma, in discussing Japanese ethics, said that sincerity (makoto) ‘is the precept of all precepts; the foundation of moral teachings can be implied in that one word. Our ancient vocabulary is void of ethical terms except for one solitary word, makoto.'* Modern novelists, too, who in the early years of this century celebrated the new Western individualism, became dissatisfied with the Occidental formulas and tried to celebrate sincerity (usually magokoro) as the only true ‘doctrine.'
近代日本人，当被问及什么是支配全部“范畴”的惟一的道德时，他们便常常举出“诚实”。大隈伯爵在论述日本的伦理时常说道：“诚实是最重要的准则，也可以说一切道德教义的基础都包括在这一词语中。我国古代语汇中，除去‘诚实’一语外，再没有表达伦理概念的语言”。注：引自大隈重信伯爵：《开国五十年史》第二卷，英泽本由马克思·灰斯编辑，伦敦，1909年，第37页。本世纪初，歌颂新的西方个人主义的近代小说家们，由于对西方的信条感到不满意，而努力将诚实作为惟一的真正的教义而加以赞美。
This moral stress on sincerity has the backing of the Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors itself. The Rescript begins with an historical prologue, a Japanese equivalent to American prologues which name Washington, Jefferson, and the Founding Fathers. In Japan this section reaches a climax by invoking on and chu:
这种将诚实置于道德重点的做法，是对《军人敕谕》有力的支持。敕谕是从叙说历史开始的，这与列举华盛顿、杰佛逊等“建国的先辈们”的著名的美国式序言相似。日本的这一部分对“恩”与“忠”的阐述，达到了一个高峰。
We (the Emperor) are the head and you are the body. We depend on you as our arms and legs. Whether we shall be able to protect our country, and repay the on of our ancestors, depends upon your fulfilling your obligations.
朕赖汝等如股肱，汝等仰朕如头首，亲密良深。朕为保护国家，应上天之德，报祖宗之恩，大业兴废，皆赖汝等军人能否恪尽职守而定。
Then follow the precepts: (1) The supreme virtue is to fulfill the obligations of chu. A soldier or sailor, however skilled, in whom chu is not strong, is a mere puppet; a body of soldiers wanting in chu is in crisis a mere rabble. ‘Therefore, neither be led astray by current opinions nor meddle in politics, but with singleness do chu, remembering thatgz (righteousness) is weightier than a mountain while death is lighter than a feather.' (2) The second injunction is to observe outward appearance and behavior, i.e., in reference to rank in the Army. ‘Regard the orders of superiors as issuing directly from Us' and treat inferiors with consideration. (3) The third is valor. True valor is contrasted with ‘burn-blood barbaric acts' and is defined as ‘never despising an inferior or fearing a superior. Those who thus appreciate true valor should in their daily intercourse set gentleness first and aim to win the love and esteem of others.' (4) The fourth injunction is the warning against ‘keeping faith in private relations,' and (5) the fifth is an admonition to be frugal. ‘If you do not make simplicity your aim, you will become effeminate and frivolous and acquire fondness for luxurious and extravagant ways; you will finally grow selfish and sordid and sink to the last degree of baseness, so that neither loyalty nor valour will avail to save you from the contempt of the world. . . . Being harassed with anxiety lest it should break out, We hereby reiterate Our warning.
其后继续分五条叙述。（一）履行“忠”的义务是最高之德。军人无论技术如何之高超，如对“忠”不能坚定，则与傀儡无异。缺乏“忠”的军队，一旦有事不过是乌合之众而已。因此，“勿受世论之蛊惑，勿为政治所左右，一心恪尽本分之忠诚，视义重于山岳，视死轻于鸿毛，应用此觉悟”。（二）军队应按照官阶遵守礼节，“理解下级服从上级之命令即为服从朕令之意义”。上级亦应爱护下级。（三）武勇。真正的武勇与“一时之勇，鲁莽从事”毫无共同之处。武勇之定义应为“小敌不侮，大敌不惧”。为此，应时刻牢记待人谦和，以博得众人之敬爱。（四）应切记，勿“泥守于私情之信义”。（五）节俭。“如不以朴素为宗旨，则必流于文弱，趋于轻薄，好骄奢华美之风，遂陷于贪污之流弊，其志卑微，致使节操与武勇均无意义，以致为世人唾弃……因恐其恶习之再现，故再次强调之”。
The final paragraph of the Rescript calls these five precepts ‘the Grand Way of Heaven and Earth and the universal law of humanity.' They are ‘the soul of Our soldiers and sailors.' And, in turn, ‘the soul' of these five precepts ‘is sincerity. If the heart be not sincere, words and deeds, however good, are all mere outward show and all avail nothing. If only the heart be sincere, anything can be accomplished.' The five precepts will thus be ‘easy to observe and practice.' It is characteristically Japanese that sincerity should be tacked on at the end after all the virtues and obligations have been spelled out. The Japanese do not, as the Chinese do, base all virtues on the promptings of the benevolent heart; they first set up the code of duties and then add, at the end, the requirement that one carry these out with all one's heart and with all one's soul and with all one's strength and with all one's mind.
敕谕最后一节将以上五条训谕称为“天地之公道，人伦之常理”，此为“我军人之精神”。而且特别提出，这五条的精神是“诚心”。“心不诚，无论何种嘉言善行皆不过表面装饰而已，无任何意义。心诚则无往而不胜”。从而使此五条成为“易行易守”之训。敕谕将所有的德与义列举之后，总括提出诚心一词，是日本的传统方式。日本人不像中国人那样，他们不认为一切德是基于怜悯之心而产生的。他们总是先订出信条，然后就全心全意、以全力全智来履行其义务。
Sincerity has the same kind of meaning in the teachings of the great Buddhist sect of Zen. In Suzuki's great compendium of Zen he gives a dialogue between the pupil and the Master:
“诚实”一词，在佛教禅宗派的教义中，也具有与前面相同的意义。铃木大拙在其杰出的禅学概论中，举出了下列一段师徒对话。
Monk: I understand that when a lion seizes upon his opponent, whether it is a hare or an elephant, he makes an exhaustive use of his power; pray tell me what is this power?
僧问：“狮子攻击其敌手时，不论其为兔为象，必全力以赴，此何力也，请指教。”
Master: The spirit of sincerity (literally, the power of not-deceiving).
师答：“至诚之力。”
Sincerity, that is, not-deceiving, means ‘putting forth one's whole being,' technically known as ‘the whole being in action' . . . in which nothing is kept in reserve, nothing is expressed under disguise, nothing goes into waste. When a person lives like this, he is said to be a golden-haired lion; he is the symbol of virility, sincerity, whole-heartedness; he is divinely human.
至诚，即无欺，是将整个存在都袒露无遗之意。禅语叫做“全体作用”，没有任何保留，没有任何伴随表现，没有任何浪费，以此种方式生活的人叫金毛狮子。这种人是雄狮，是至诚、专心的象征，是像神一样的人。
Special Japanese meanings of this word ‘sincerity' have already been referred to in passing. Makoto does not mean what sincerity does in English usage. It means both far less and far more. Westerners have always been quick to see that it means far less than it does in their language, and they have often said that when a Japanese says anyone is insincere, he means only that the other person doesn't agree with him. There is a certain truth in this, for calling a man ‘sincere' in Japan has no reference to whether he is acting ‘genuinely' according to the love or hate, determination or amazement which is uppermost in his soul. The kind of approval Americans express by saying, ‘He was sincerely glad to see me,' ‘He was sincerely pleased,' is alien in Japan. They have a whole series of proverbial expressions casting scorn on such a ‘sincerity.' They say derisively, ‘Behold the frog who when he opens his mouth displays his whole inside'; ‘Like a pomegranate who when it gapes its mouth shows all that's in its heart'; it is a shame to any man to ‘blurt out his feelings'; it ‘exposes' him. These associations with ‘sincerity' which are so important in the United States have no place in the meaning of the word ‘sincerity' in Japan. When the Japanese boy accused the American missionary of insincerity, it never occurred to him to consider whether the American ‘genuinely' felt amazement at the poor lad's plan to go to America without even a shoestring. When Japanese statesmen in the last decade accused the United States and England of insincerity—as they constantly did—they did not even think whether the Western nations were acting in ways they did not in reality feel. They were not even accusing them of being hypocrites—which would have been a minor accusation. Similarly when the Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors says ‘sincerity is the soul of these precepts,' it does not mean that the virtue that will put all other virtues into effect is a genuineness in the soul which will make a man act and speak in conformity to his own inner promptings. It certainly does not mean that he is enjoined to be genuine, no matter how much his convictions may differ from others'.
“诚实”在日语中的特殊含意，方才已在叙述其他问题时谈到了。“诚”的意义，与英语中的“sincerity”的意义不同，它比sincerity包含的内容更广泛，又有不及西方这一词语内容的一面。对此，西方人能立即注意到，他们说，日本人所说的没有诚意，就是指那个人和他的意见不一致的意思。这个说法中包含了某种程度的真理。这是因为，在日本，说某个人是“诚实”的人，与他是否真正按照内心的爱憎、决心或惊恐等本意而行动无关。美国人的表达法， “He was sincerely glad to see me”(他见到我从心里感到高兴)，或者“He was sincerely pleased”(他由衷地感到高兴)等语言表达的肯定形式，这在日本人看来是奇怪的。此种美国人眼中的“诚”，在日本多以讥讽的口吻出现，如，“喂，看看那只蛤蟆，一张开口肚子里什么都看得见”，或者说，“像石榴一样，一张开口，肚子里有什么都一清二楚”。他们认为，人们把感情流露于口外“是可耻的”，因为这样会完全暴露自己。这种在美国受到重视的sincerely一词的内涵，在日语的“诚”中是不存在的。前边说过日本的一位少年，在指责美国传教士缺乏诚意时，他就完全没有考虑过，这位美国人对一个身无分文的少年想赴美的计划，是否真正感到吃惊这一事实。日本的政治家们，在最近的十年间，不断地责难美英两国没有诚意，但是他们从未考虑过，西方各国所采取的行动，是否和日本人的实际感受不完全一致这一情况。他们责难美英两国，并非出于两国是伪善者这一理由，如果真是这样，就不必这样大加责难。《军人敕谕》中所说的，“一个诚心即五条精神”，就是这个意思。它并不意味着，一切德中最根本的德，乃是一个人按照自己内心无声命令而行事的纯正精神，从而，它不主张，人们不管自己的信念与他人的信念有何不同，都必须按照自己的信念行事的做法。
Nevertheless makoto has its positive meanings in Japan, and since the Japanese so strongly stress the ethical role of this concept it is urgently necessary for Westerners to grasp the sense in which they use it. The basic Japanese sense of makoto is well illustrated in the Tale of the Forty-Seven Ronin. ‘Sincerity' in that story is a plus sign added on to giri. ‘Giri plus makoto' is contrasted with ‘merely giri,' and means ‘giri as an example for ages eternal.' In the contemporary Japanese phrase, ‘makoto is what makes it stick.' The ‘it' in this phrase refers, according to context, to any precept of the Japanese code or any attitude stipulated in the Japanese Spirit.
但是，“诚实”一词在日本也有几种积极的含义。由于日本人非常重视这一概念的伦理作用，所以西方人必须掌握日本人使用这一词语时所赋予的含义。日本人对“诚”一词所持有的基本含义，已在《四十七士物语》中淋漓尽致地展示出来。在那个故事中，“诚实”就是“义理”右肩上附加的加号。“诚实的义理”与“一次性义理”是相对的，是“永不泯灭的龟鉴般的义理”。就是在今天，日本人也仍然说，“是诚实的力量使它维持到至今”。这句话中的“它”，从上下文来看，是指日本道德准则中包括的任何戒律，以及“日本精神”所要求的任何态度。
Usage in the Japanese Relocation Camps during the war was exactly parallel to that in The Forty-Seven Ronin, and it shows clearly how far the logic is extended and how opposite to American usage the meaning can become. The stock accusation of the pro-Japan Issei (American immigrants born in Japan) against the pro-United States Nisei (second-generation immigrants) was that they lacked makoto. What the Issei were saying was that these Nisei did not have that quality of the soul which made the Japanese Spirit—as officially defined in Japan during the war—‘stick.' The Issei did not mean at all that their children's pro-Americanism was hypocritical. Far from it, for their accusations of insincerity were only the more convinced when the Nisei volunteered for the United States Army and it was quite apparent to anybody that their support of their adopted country was prompted by a genuine enthusiasm.
战时日本人隔离收容所内对这一词的用法也与《四十七士物语》中的用法完全相同，这个词在理论上扩展的程度，以及与美国在用法上完全相反的含义，均已明确地表示出来。移居美国的第一代日本侨民，常常责难第二代移民的老一套说法，就是第二代缺乏“忠诚”。第一代讲的意思是指第二代缺乏使“日本精神”——按战时日本公式所下的定义——继续保持的内心特质。第一代所讲的决不是意味着他们子女亲美的态度是伪善的，他们所指的意思与此正好相反。其证明就是，第二代志愿参加美国军队，他们出于纯粹的爱国心支持第二祖国，这是任何人都能一眼看出的。但是，第一代人非但不停止责难，反而更确信其缺乏诚意而加以指责。
A basic meaning of ‘sincerity' as the Japanese use it, is that it is the zeal to follow the ‘road' mapped out by the Japanese code and the Japanese Spirit. Whatever special meanings makoto has in particular contexts can always be read off as praise of some agreed-on aspects of Japanese Spirit and well-accepted guide posts on the map of virtues. Once one has accepted the fact that ‘sincerity' does not have the American meaning it is a most useful word to note in all Japanese texts. For it almost unfailingly identifies those positive virtues the Japanese actually stress. Makoto is constantly used to praise a person who is not self-seeking. This is a reflection of the great condemnation Japanese ethics pronounces on profit-making. Profit—when it is not a natural consequence of hierarchy—is judged to be the result of exploitation, and the go-between who has turned aside to make a profit out of his job becomes the hated moneylender. He is always declared to ‘lack sincerity.' Makoto, too, is constantly used as a term of praise for the man who is free of passion, and this mirrors Japanese ideas of self-discipline. A Japanese worthy of being called sincere, too, never verges on the danger of insulting a person he does not mean to provoke to aggression, and this mirrors their dogma that a man is responsible for the marginal consequences of his acts as well as for the act itself. Finally, only one who is makoto can ‘lead his people,' put his skills to effective use and be free of psychic conflict. These three meanings, and a host of others, state quite simply the homogeneity of Japanese ethics; they reflect the fact that a man can be effective and unconflicted in Japan only when he is carrying out the code.
日本人使用“诚实”一语时的基本含义是指对日本的道德准则和“日本精神”地图上描绘的道路所产生的热忱。尽管“诚实”一词，在不同的词句中有其特殊不同的含意，但通常却是一般公认的对“日本精神”从某一个角度的赞扬，或者对德的地图上确立的公认的路标予以解释和赞扬。如果能明了“诚实”一词与美国人考虑的含义不同这一事实，就能理解为什么这一词在现有的日本文献中是值得注意的、很有价值的词语。之所以这样说，是因为这一词语所表达的事实无论何时都是日本人实际强调的、最专注的德。“诚实”一词也常用作称赞不追求私利的人。这一事实反映出日本人的伦理。他们认为利润这样东西——如果不是出于等级制度必然的结果——是不正当的剥削的结果。因而，凡从事这项活动，将人们引上追逐利润歧途的中间人，就是人们最憎恨的放债人。这种人常被称为“不诚实的人”。“诚实”一词也常被用来称赞那些不感情用事的人。这件事反映了日本人的自我修养观念。凡是符合诚实称呼的日本人，他们也决不卷入找碴儿打架、招惹是非的纠葛中。这件事反映了日本人不仅对行为，而且对行为的后果负责的信条。最后，只有“诚实”的人才能比一般人有远见，他的本领才能充分发挥出来，才能摆脱心理上的矛盾纠葛。这三方面的含义，以及其他许多含义，明显地表明了日本人伦理的同质性。这些意义反映了，在日本，人们只有履行既定的信条时，才能收到实效，才能不感到各种矛盾纠葛。
Since these are the meanings of Japanese ‘sincerity,' this virtue, in spite of the Rescript and of Count Okuma, does not simplify Japanese ethics. It does not put a ‘foundation' under their morality, nor give it a ‘soul.' It is an exponent which, properly placed after any number, raises it to a higher power. A2 will square 9 or 159 or b or x, quite indifferently. And likewise makoto raises to a higher power any article in the Japanese code. It is not, as it were, a separate virtue but the enthusiasm of the zealot for his creed.
如前所述，日本人的“诚实”一词具有种种复杂的含义。因而这一品德并不像敕谕及大隈伯爵所说的，能使日本人的伦理单纯化。它既不能形成他们道德的基础，也不可能赋予他们以灵魂。它是一个在任何数字之后，适当添加一个数，而使其变成高次幂的指数。只要在右肩上添上一个小小的数字2，这个数无论是9，还是159，还是10，或者是x，无一例外，都变成它的自乘数。与此相同，“诚”可使日本人的道德法典中的任何教条变为高次幂数。由此言之，它不是一项独立的德，而是信徒们对自己教义的狂热而已。
Whatever the Japanese have tried to do to their code, it remains atomistic, and the principle of virtue remains that of balancing one play, in itself good, against another play which is also in itself good. It is as if they had set up their ethics like a bridge game. The good player is the one who accepts the rules and plays within them. He distinguishes himself from the bad player because of the fact that he is disciplined in his calculations and can follow other players' leads with full knowledge of what they mean under the rules of the game. He plays, as we say, according to Hoyle, and there are endless minutiae of which he must take account at every move. Contingencies that may come up are covered in the rules of the game and the score is agreed upon in advance. Good intentions, in the American sense, become irrelevancies.
日本人无论怎样想修正他们的道德准则，它仍然是多层次分散的状态的，德的原理依然认为其本身的一切行动都是善的。它只不过是在本身和另一个也是善的行动之间调整平衡而已。他们的伦理体系好像玩桥牌（一种扑克牌游戏）猜输赢一样，优秀的选手总是根据规则，在规则范围内进行比赛。他和蹩脚的选手不同之处，在于他受过推理的训练，对对方出的牌在比赛规则之中是什么含意，他十分清楚，因而能取得好成绩。这正如我们所说，他是按霍尔的方法进行比赛。Hoyle Edmnud（1672~1769），是最早将威斯特法则（一种扑克游戏）规范化的人。“按霍尔的方法”，这不仅是指在扑克游戏方面，也指做其他事时，都要遵循“一定规程”，按既定的有效方法行事之意。——译注他每出一种牌之前都要将一切细节都考虑进去，对一切可能发生的偶然情况都收集在比赛规则之中，所得分数也在事先确定下来。美国人所说内心善良的意图，则是不在此列的。
In any language the contexts in which people speak of losing or gaining self-respect throw a flood of light on their view of life. In Japan ‘respecting yourself' is always to show yourself the careful player. It does not mean, as it does in English usage, consciously conforming to a worthy standard of conduct—not truckling to another, not lying, not giving false testimony. In Japan self-respect (jicho) is literally ‘a self that is weighty,' and its opposite is ‘a self that is light and floating.' When a man says ‘You must respect yourself,' it means, ‘You must be shrewd in estimating all the factors involved in the situation and do nothing that will arouse criticism or lessen your chances of success.' ‘Respecting yourself' often implies exactly the opposite behavior from that which it means in the United States. An employee says, ‘I must respect myself (jicho),' and it means, not that he must stand on his rights, but that he must say nothing to his employers that will get him into trouble. ‘You must respect yourself' had this same meaning, too, in political usage. It meant that a ‘person of weight' could not respect himself if he indulged in anything so rash as ‘dangerous thoughts.' It had no implication, as it would in the United States, that even if thoughts are dangerous a man's self-respect requires that he think according to his own lights and his own conscience.
从任何一国的语言中，通过了解人们对自尊心的看法，可以有助于理解该国国民的人生观。在日本，“自重”一词，常表示自己是一个严肃认真的奋斗者。它不像英语里这一词的用法，比如不对他人谄媚、不说谎、不出假证等，而且也不是有意识地遵守某种高尚行为准则。在日本，所谓“自重”，照字面理解，即“珍重自我”之意。它的反意是“浅肤的没有分量的自我”。“你必须自重”的意思是，“你必须毫无遗漏地将这件事中包含的一切因素加以认真考虑，决不能让人指责，或者失去成功的机会”。“要自重”一词，在日本与在美国指的意思往往正相反。当一个被雇用者说，“我必须自尊”时，并不意味着必须坚持自己的权利，而是意味着不能对雇主谈自己的困难。“你必须自重”一词，在政治方面使用时也有同样意义，即“担负要职的人，如果毫无选择地接近危险思想，就不可能尊重自己了。这并不像美国这一词的含意，如果一个自重的人，即使对危险思想，也要根据自己的见解本着良心，坚持自己的观点”。
‘You must respect yourself' is constantly on parents' lips in admonishing their adolescent children, and it refers to observing proprieties and living up to other people's expectation. A girl is thus admonished to sit without moving, her legs properly placed, and a boy to train himself and learn to watch for cues from others ‘because now is the time that will decide your future.' When a parent says to them, ‘You did not behave as a self-respecting person should,' it means that they are accused of an impropriety rather than of lack of courage to stand up for the right as they saw it.
“你必须自重”，这是父母训诫青年时期子女时常讲的一句话。这是要求他们遵守正当的礼仪举止，不要做出违背人们期望的行动。例如要求女孩子把脚放在适当的位置，坐着时身体不要乱动，男孩子要锻炼身心，学会看别人的脸色行事等。这是因为，“现在是决定将来的重要时刻”。当父母对子女说：“你没有像自重的人那样行动（做出了轻率的行动）。”这句话意味着责备孩子的不端行为，而不是批评孩子认为正确的事而缺乏着手干的勇气。
A farmer who cannot meet his debt to the moneylender says of himself ‘I should have had self-respect,' but that does not mean that he accuses himself of laziness or of fawning upon his creditor. It means that he should have foreseen the emergency and been more circumspect. A man of standing in the community says, ‘My self-respect requires this,' and he does not mean that he must live up to certain principles of truthfulness and probity but that he must manipulate the affair with full consideration for the position of his family; he must throw the whole weight of his status into the matter.
一个借债而无力偿还的农民说：“我本应当自重。”这并不意味着责备自己怠惰，也不是责备自己对债权者的卑微态度，而是意味着自己本应预计到陷入这样困难境地而加倍谨慎才对。当一位社会地位高的人说：“我的自尊心要求我这样做。”这句话并不意味着按照正直和廉洁等道德准则行事，而是在仔细考虑自己的望门世家之后认为必须要这样做，并利用自己的身份和影响，全力以赴投身到这件事中去。
A business executive who says of his firm ‘We must show self-respect' means that prudence and watchfulness must be redoubled. A man discussing a necessity to avenge himself speaks of ‘revenging with self-respect,' and this has no reference to heaping coals of fire upon the head of his enemy or to any moral rules he intends to follow; it is equivalent to saying ‘I shall exact a perfect revenge,' i.e., one meticulously planned and taking into account every factor in the situation. Strongest phrase of all in Japanese is ‘to double self-respect with self-respect' and that means to be circumspect to the nth degree. It means never to jump to a hasty conclusion. It means to calculate ways and means so that no more and no less effort is used than is strictly necessary to attain the goal.
一位实业家对他的公司员工说：“我们必须自重。”这意味着谨慎上面加谨慎，小心上面加小心的意思。当一个主持报仇的人说：“要自重以报仇。”这句话决不是指，“把燃烧的炭火置于”敌人的头上此句系引自《给罗马人的信》第十二章第二十节：“如果你的敌人饿了，就给他吃；渴了，就给他喝。这样，你就在他们的头上放置了旺盛燃烧的炭火。”“在敌人头上放置旺盛燃烧的炭火”，是以德报怨之意。——译注，或者具有服从某种道德准则的意图；而是与“我无论如何必须彻底复仇”之意相同，是做好周密详尽的计划，将一切重要因素都充分考虑进去而准备复仇的意思。日本语中最强烈的表现方法是“自重再自重”，这是几次方的（无限的）谨慎从事的意思，是决不轻率下结论的意思。即为了达到目标，既不要付出过分的力气，也不要低于应付出的努力，而是将各种方法和手段仔细衡量，认真比较加以考虑的意思。
All these meanings of self-respect fit the Japanese view of life as a world in which you move with great care ‘according to Hoyle.' This way of defining self-respect does not allow a man to claim an alibi for his failure on the ground of good intentions. Each move has its consequences and one should not act without estimating them. It is quite proper to be generous, but you must foresee that the recipient of your favors will feel that he has been made ‘to wear an on.' You must be wary. It is quite allowable to criticize another, but you must do so only if you intend to take on all the consequences of his resentment. A sneer such as the American missionary was accused of by the young artist is out of the question precisely because the missionary's intentions were good; he did not take account of the full meaning of his move on the chessboard. It was in the Japanese view completely undisciplined.
日本人认为，人生就是一个应细心观察、按照霍尔方式行动的世界。所有这些自重的意义，是与日本人的这种人生观的节拍完全一致的。由于他们对自重按上述原则进行了界定，因而人们不允许以自己的善意为理由，而为失败辩解。一举手一投足都会带来各种各样的后果，所以人们不能不考虑后果而行动。人们向他人施恩当然是好事，但是受恩的人是否感恩戴德则应当事先预见得到。一切都必须谨慎。批评某人当然不会遭到拒绝，但事后人们就会把你作为憎恨对象，应当有这种思想准备。那位美国牧师由于嘲笑年轻的画家，受到他的责难；在此情况下，由于这位牧师并无其他恶意，也就无须任何辩解。这位牧师并未认真考虑这种做法产生的影响，但在日本人看来，这完全是没有受过良好训练的结果。
The strong identification of circumspection with self-respect includes, therefore, watchfulness of all the cues one observes in other people's acts, and a strong sense that other people are sitting in judgment. ‘One cultivates self-respect (one must jicho),' they say, ‘because of society.' ‘If there were no society one would not need to respect oneself (cultivate jicho).' These are extreme statements of an external sanction for self-respect. They are statements which take no account of internal sanctions for proper behavior. Like the popular sayings of many nations, they exaggerate the case, for Japanese sometimes react as strongly as any Puritan to a private accumulation of guilt. But their extreme statements nevertheless point out correctly where the emphasis falls in Japan. It falls on the importance of shame rather than on the importance of guilt.
这样，在将慎重与自重同等看待的情况下，包含着谨慎对待通过观察别人的行动从而得出结论的暗示，以及充分意识人们对自己的批评。他们说：“社会上人言可畏，所以必须自重，如果没有这样的舆论压力，是不需要自重的。”这一说法表明，自重是基于外来压力的极端的表现，是一种完全没有将正确行动本身内在力量考虑进去的结果。这些说法与其他许多国家情况相同，在事实上有夸大之处。现在日本人有时对自己罪孽的深重，表现出不亚于清教徒的强烈的反应。上述的极端表现，正确指出了日本人大概将重点置于何处的问题。也就是说，日本人将耻辱的严重性置于罪恶的严重性之上。
In anthropological studies of different cultures the distinction between those which rely heavily on shame and those that rely heavily on guilt is an important one. A society that inculcates absolute standards of morality and relies on men's developing a conscience is a guilt culture by definition, but a man in such a society may, as in the United States, suffer in addition from shame when he accuses himself of gaucheries which are in no way sins. He may be exceedingly chagrined about not dressing appropriately for the occasion or about a slip of the tongue. In a culture where shame is a major sanction, people are chagrined about acts which we expect people to feel guilty about. This chagrin can be very intense and it cannot be relieved, as guilt can be, by confession and atonement. A man who has sinned can get relief by unburdening himself. This device of confession is used in our secular therapy and by many religious groups which have otherwise little in common. We know it brings relief. Where shame is the major sanction, a man does not experience relief when he makes his fault public even to a confessor. So long as his bad behavior does not ‘get out into the world' he need not be troubled and confession appears to him merely a way of courting trouble. Shame cultures therefore do not provide for confessions, even to the gods. They have ceremonies for good luck rather than for expiation.
在各种文化的人类学研究中，重要的课题，是区别以耻辱为基调的文化和以罪恶为基调的文化，在提倡道德的绝对标准，依靠良心启发的社会，可按罪恶的文化（guilt culture）下定义。但是就是在这样的社会，例如在美国，在罪恶感以外，人们如果做出了它本身决不是罪恶而不过是自己喜好的事情时，也会受到耻辱感的折磨。比如，没有根据场合穿适当的衣服，或者因失言等而感到十分苦闷，这种苦闷有时非常强烈。即使是在以耻辱为主要强制力的文化中，人们在做出公认的犯罪行为时，也会感到苦闷，这种苦闷有时非常强烈，而且决不能像罪恶那样，通过忏悔或赎罪来减轻。犯罪的人，可以通过将罪行毫无保留地坦白的方法来卸下自己的包袱。这种坦白的手段与我们世俗的做法，以及其他有关各点毫无共同之处。许多宗教团体利用了这一点。我们知道这能使他们的心情轻松一些。在以耻辱为主要强制力的社会中，即使向神职人员(宗教人士)忏悔，坦白罪恶的人也毫无轻松之感。不但如此，反而认为，只要恶行不暴露在社会上，就没有必要自找烦恼，坦白反而是自讨苦吃。因而，在以耻辱为基调的社会文化（shame culture）中，人们从来就没有向神坦白的习惯，只有祈求幸运的仪式，并没有赎罪的仪式。
True shame cultures rely on external sanctions for good behavior, not, as true guilt cultures do, on an internalized conviction of sin. Shame is a reaction to other people's criticism. A man is shamed either by being openly ridiculed and rejected or by fantasying to himself that he has been made ridiculous. In either case it is a potent sanction. But it requires an audience or at least a man's fantasy of an audience. Guilt does not. In a nation where honor means living up to one's own picture of oneself, a man may suffer from guilt though no man knows of his misdeed and a man's feeling of guilt may actually be relieved by confessing his sin.
真正的以罪恶为基调的文化，是基于内在的对罪恶的自觉而实行善行，与此相对，真正的以耻辱为基调的文化是由外面的强制力而实行善行。耻是对他人的批评的反应。人们由于在人前受到嘲笑，或者遭到拒绝，或者自认为受到讽刺而感到耻辱。无论在何种情况下，耻都是强大的强制力。但是，要真正感到耻辱，实际上必须有别人在场，或者至少自认为有别人在场。但是，在名誉就意味着按照自己内心的理想而行动的社会里，人们对自己的恶行，即使没有人知道，也仍为犯罪意识而苦恼。因此，他希望通过坦白来减轻自己的罪恶感。
The early Puritans who settled in the United States tried to base their whole morality on guilt and all psychiatrists know what trouble contemporary Americans have with their consciences. But shame is an increasingly heavy burden in the United States and guilt is less extremely felt than in earlier generations. In the United States this is interpreted as a relaxation of morals. There is much truth in this, but that is because we do not expect shame to do the heavy work of morality. We do not harness the acute personal chagrin which accompanies shame to our fundamental system of morality.
早期移居到美国的清教徒们，曾努力将一切道德置于罪恶感的基础之上。因而，现代美国人的良心是如何受到罪恶的意识折磨，所有精神病医生都是非常了解的。尽管如此，在美国，随着耻辱感的比重不断增加，罪恶感已经不像从前那样使人感到强烈了。美国人认为，这种情况是道德观淡薄所致。这种解释可能会有大部分真理，但我们认为还是因为没有资格承担将耻辱作为道德基础的这一重任的缘故。我们不把伴随耻辱而产生的个人痛恨之情作为我们道德基本体系的原动力。
The Japanese do. A failure to follow their explicit signposts of good behavior, a failure to balance obligations or to foresee contingencies is a shame ihaji). Shame, they say, is the root of virtue. A man who is sensitive to it will carry out all the rules of good behavior. ‘A man who knows shame' is sometimes translated ‘virtuous man,' sometimes ‘man of honor.' Shame has the same place of authority in Japanese ethics that ‘a clear conscience,' ‘being right with God,' and the avoidance of sin have in Western ethics. Logically enough, therefore, a man will not be punished in the afterlife. The Japanese—except for priests who know the Indian sutras—are quite unacquainted with the idea of reincarnation dependent upon one's merit in this life, and—except for some well-instructed Christian converts—they do not recognize post-death reward and punishment or a heaven and a hell.
日本人则把耻辱感作为原动力。他们认为，不遵循既定的善行路标，不在各种义务之间寻求平衡，对可能发生的偶然事件不能预见，这就是耻辱。他们说，耻是德的根本。只有懂得耻辱的人，才是能够履行一切善行信条的人。“知耻的人”，这句话有时译作有德的人（virtuous man），有时译作重名誉的人（man of honor）。耻在日本的伦理中，与西方的“纯洁的良心”、“笃信上帝”等伦理占有同等权威的地位，从而归纳出这个当然的理论，人们死后就不会再受到惩罚。日本人中除去那些具有印度佛经知识的僧侣以外，完全不懂在今世积下的功罪死后将得到因果报应的思想；除去充分理解教义而皈依基督教的人以外，也不承认死后的赏罚，乃至天堂及地狱等事。
The primacy of shame in Japanese life means, as it does in any tribe or nation where shame is deeply felt, that any man watches the judgment of the public upon his deeds. He need only fantasy what their verdict will be, but he orients himself toward the verdict of others. When everybody is playing the game by the same rules and mutually supporting each other, the Japanese can be light-hearted and easy. They can play the game with fanaticism when they feel it is one which carries out the ‘mission' of Japan. They are most vulnerable when they attempt to export their virtues into foreign lands where their own formal signposts of good behavior do not hold. They failed in their ‘good will' mission to Greater East Asia, and the resentment many of them felt at the attitudes of Chinese and Filipinos toward them was genuine enough.
在日本人的生活中，耻辱感占有最高地位，这与对耻辱感受深刻的国民或部族相同，它意味着每个人都关心社会上对自己行动的评价。他们认为推测别人如何批评是一件很重要的事，以他人的判断为基准来确定自己的行动方针。日本人在大家都遵守同一规则、集体行动和互相支持时，能很愉快地、顺利地进行各种活动。当他们感到这是处在履行日本“使命”的道路上时，能热衷于比赛。令他们最感到精神受到的创伤是，在试图将他们的道德原封不动地向外国输出的时候。尽管他们的基于“善意”的“大东亚”使命已经失败了，可是对中国人、菲律宾人对他们采取的态度，许多日本人仍然毫不掩饰他们愤怒的心情。
Individual Japanese, too, who have come to the United States for study or business and have not been motivated by nationalistic sentiments have often felt deeply the ‘failure' of their careful education when they tried to live in a less rigidly charted world. Their virtues, they felt, did not export well. The point they try to make is not the universal one that it is hard for any man to change cultures. They try to say something more and they sometimes contrast the difficulties of their own adjustment to American life with the lesser difficulties of Chinese or Siamese they have known. The specific Japanese problem, as they see it, is that they have been brought up to trust in a security which depends on others' recognition of the nuances of their observance of a code. When foreigners are oblivious of all these proprieties, the Japanese are at a loss. They cast about to find similar meticulous proprieties according to which Westerners live and when they do not find them, some speak of the anger they feel and some of how frightened they are.
凡不是出于国家主义的动机，而是因留学和业务目的来美国的日本人，当他们生活在这个道德标准不十分严谨的世界时，屡屡痛感到他们过去所受的完善教育的“破绽”。他们感到他自己的德是无法向外输出的。他们认为改变文化传统不是一般的困难问题，他们认为问题还不止于此，他们有时指出如下事实：日本人打入到美国人生活中非常困难，可是与此相反，他们熟悉的中国人和蒙古人则不感到有多大困难。他们认为，日本人特有的问题是自认为只要他们按照一定的规则行动，别人一定能认识到自己行动的微妙的意义。他们是在这种充满自信心的生活方式下培育起来的。当看到外国人对这些礼节根本无视时，日本人感到有些茫然了，他们希望尽量找出合乎西方人生活基准的，与日本情况相同的周到的礼节。因此，当明白了这种情况并不存在时，有的日本人大为震怒，有的日本人感到愕然。
No one has described these experiences in a less exacting culture better than Miss Mishima in her autobiography, My Narrow Isle.* She had sought eagerly to come to an American college and she had fought down her conservative family's unwillingness to accept the on of an American fellowship. She went to Wellesley. The teachers and the girls, she says, were wonderfully kind, but that made it, so she felt, all the more difficult. ‘My pride in perfect manneredness, a universal characteristic of the Japanese, was bitterly wounded. I was angry at myself for not knowing how to behave properly here and also at the surroundings which seemed to mock at my past training. Except for this vague but deep-rooted feeling of anger there was no emotion left in me.' She felt herself ‘a being fallen from some other planet with senses and feelings that have no use in this other world. My Japanese training, requiring every physical movement to be elegant and every word uttered to be according to etiquette, made me extremely sensitive and self-conscious in this environment where I was completely blind, socially speaking.' It was two or three years before she relaxed and began to accept the kindness offered her. Americans, she decided, lived with what she calls ‘refined familiarity.' But ‘familiarity had been killed in me as sauciness when I was three.'
在这个道德标准并不十分严格的文化社会里所遇到的经历，有一个人作了最好的描述，这就是三岛小姐的自传《我的狭窄岛国》引自三岛（Mishima Sumie seo）：《我的狭窄岛国》，1941年，第107页。（三岛乃婚后夫姓——译注）。她曾渴望去美国留学，她的家人反对她申请美国大学奖学金，以免蒙受美国“恩惠”。在勉强说服了家人的这种保守观点之后，她到威尔斯大学去学习。她谈到老师和同学对她都十分友好，这使她更感到为难。她说：“任何一个日本人都会像我这样，认为自己的行为无可非议，但是我的自尊心受到严重损害。我对于自己在这个国家如何适应竟变得茫无头绪。在这个对我所受过的教育已形成讽刺的环境中，我感到十分愤慨。除去这种莫名而根深蒂固的愤怒之情外，几乎没有任何其他感情留在心中。我感到自己在这个另外的世界上无所适从，犹如从其他星球上落下来的生物一样。我对于曾要求我一切行动都要文雅，所有语言都要有礼貌这一日本风俗，在这个国家环境中，在这个社会里，完全变得手足无措，我感到极度神经过敏和不知所措。”当她消除了坚持情绪，终于接受了人们的好意时，已经过了两三年的时光了。她确信，美国人是按照她所说的“高尚的亲密”方式生活的。但是，“高尚的亲密是没有礼貌的做法，我早在三岁时就已压在心底了”。
Miss Mishima contrasts the Japanese girls she knew in America with the Chinese girls and her comments show how differently the United States affected them. The Chinese girls had ‘self-composure and sociableness quite absent in most Japanese girls. These upper-class Chinese girls seemed to me the most urbane creatures on earth, every one of them having a graciousness nearing regal dignity and looking as if they were the true mistresses of the world. Their fearlessness and superb self-composure, not at all disturbed even in this great civilization of machinery and speed, made a great contrast with the timidity and oversensitiveness of us Japanese girls, showing some fundamental difference in social background.'
三岛小姐把在美国熟悉的日本姑娘与中国姑娘作了对比，她的评语是，美国的生活对两国的姑娘产生了一些不同影响。“中国姑娘多具有日本姑娘所没有的沉静和社交能力，在我看来，这些上流社会的中国姑娘，几乎个个都天生的像王后一样高贵优雅，她们每个人都有一种文雅的姿态，使人感到她们才是世界的女主人一样。她们的无所畏惧和极度的自我克制，甚至在这个伟大的国家和高速发展的文明当中也不为所扰。这与我们腼腆和过分拘谨的日本姑娘形成鲜明对照，说明了彼此社会背景方面有着某种根本的区别。”
Miss Mishima, like many other Japanese, felt as if she were an expert tennis player entered in a croquet tournament. Her own expertness just didn't count. She felt that what she had learned did not carry over into the new environment. The discipline to which she had submitted was useless. Americans got along without it.
三岛小姐和其他许多日本人一样，感到自己就像一个职业网球选手参加了一场槌球比赛似的。她感到从前学过的东西在这个新环境里根本用不上，她所受过的训练毫无用处，美国人没有这些也生活得很好。
Once Japanese have accepted, to however small a degree, the less codified rules that govern behavior in the United States they find it difficult to imagine their being able to manage again the restrictions of their old life in Japan. Sometimes they refer to it as a lost paradise, sometimes as a ‘harness,' sometimes as a ‘prison,' sometimes as a ‘little pot' that holds a dwarfed tree. As long as the roots of the miniature pine were kept to the confines of the flower pot, the result was a work of art that graced a charming garden. But once planted out in open soil, the dwarfed pine could never be put back again. They feel that they themselves are no longer possible ornaments in that Japanese garden. They could not again meet the requirements. They have experienced in its most acute form the Japanese dilemma of virtue.
日本人一旦接受了哪怕只是一点美国式的无拘束和不繁琐的生活方式，就会发现很难再回到从前日本拘束的生活当中去。他们把以往的生活，有时称之为是一个失去的乐园，有时比喻为一副“枷锁”，有时说它是“牢狱”，有时，则把它比做是一个栽着小树的“小盆景”。只要小树的根栽在花盆里，就能充分显示出一个美丽庭院所具有的艺术效果。但是小树一旦被移栽到大地里，就再也不能回到花盆里了。他们自己已经感到再也不能成为日本式庭院的装饰品了，他们再也不能适应那个环境了。他们最深刻地体验了日本人道德观所处的困境。