The Analects, which is the main literary recording of Confucius’- teachings and also the main key to the understanding of Confucianism, had a circulation among the Japanese at the end of the 3rd century (285 A.D.). Up to the middle of the 6th century, Confucianism gradually became popular in the upper classes and courts of Japan. At the beginning of the 7th century, based on Confucianism, a constitution containing 17 articles was enacted in Japan and the Japanese historians consider this constitution the essential law of Japan in its ancient era. In other words, Confucianism is in fact the foundation on which the spirit of Japan rests. From the 7th century right through to the end of the 9th century, 13 groups of officers were sent from Japan to China to learn from Chinese culture in an efficient way. One of the groups contained as Large a number as five hundred. In the middle of the 7th century, the famous movement of “Taika Reform”( 大化革命 ) was inaugurated in Japan, and the overall imitation of the institutions of the T’ang Dynasty was obvious in this movement. It was from then on that there appeared in Japan the evidence of a unified nation. Beginning from the 8th century, the Japanese initiated the Confucian memorial ceremony, completely adopting the Chinese style. Thus, the classics of Confucianism became the sole textbooks of the Japanese, and Confucianism served as the golden criterion of everything ranging from national politics and education to the cultivation of personal virtues. Confucianism was then deeply rooted in Japan. After the 13th and 14th centuries, the Japanese began to show their respect to the Chinese Confucian scholars Chu His(朱熹) and Wang Yang-ming(王陽明); in the 17th century, the Japanese began to do honor to the Chinese scholar Chu Shun-shui. All these facts show respect for Confucianism on the part of the Japanese. Furthermore, sojourning in Japan for 23 years, Chu Shun-shui was honored as the national master whose instructions were carefully followed by the Japanese. As a result, elites presented themselves one after the other, creating a new epoch for the Japanese. In this sense, Chu Shun-shui can be styled as the father of modem Japan.

Different from the conversion to a religion, the practice of Confucianism is seen in daily life. Hence a natural effect resulted from the contact with Confucianism. Owing to the long influence of Confucianism in Japan, it has become an inseparable part of Japanese culture, being its “flesh and blood.” This is the reason why the Japanese scholar Kinomiya Yashuhiko ( 木宮泰彥 ) said, “China is the mother of Japanese culture,” and another Japanese scholar Ogata Taketora ( 緒方竹虎 ) said, “Confucianism is the rudder of Japanese history. Follow it and you will prosper; defy it and you will perish.” From this we can see what an immense influence Confucianism has exerted on the Japanese.

Kung Te-Cheng, the 77th lineal descendent of Confucius.