In 1797, the Hayashi family academy was reorganized into the official shogunal academy, the Shoheizaka Gakumonsho. Based on this academy, similar academies were set up in each domain and terakoya, popular schools teaching Confucian ethics, were set up over a wide area.
According to the precepts of the Daigaku (Great Learning), which places the strongest emphasis on Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism of the four great bibles of Confucianism, _From the righteousness of the mind comes righteousness of the spirit. From the righteous spirit comes moral conduct. From moral conduct comes order in the family. From order in the family comes a peaceful country. From a peaceful country comes peace throughout the world._ In other words, the justness of government does not spring from power but from morality. In this philosophy of government, moral virtue leads to correct conduct, to order within the family and thus to world peace. A virtuous ruler is a wise ruler; government by force will never take root. This is moral politics as opposed to power politics. As reflected in the saying that sword is the spirit of the samurai, the sword in Tokugawa Japan acquired a symbolic meaning that was more significant than its practical value as a weapon. Accordingly, samurai took up their pens and attended to their castles.
The Tokugawa government represented Japan in its relations with foreign countries at a time when no model for international law existed in the West. However, Japan_s neighbors China and Korea essentially shared the same world view as that advocated by Hayashi Razan, gauging international relations through the same moral touchstones of civilization and barbarism. This principle, based on the twin pillars of the imperial fiefdom system and tribute trade, underpinned the international relations of both Yi dynasty Korea and Ming dynasty China. The only model of international order was the system based on the dichotomy of civilization and barbarism that originated in China. Japan_s _taikun (tycoon) diplomacy_ was developed in accordance with this model on the basis of a proposal formulated in 1635 by Hayashi Razan, and _Tycoon of Japan_ became the official title of the Tokugawa shogun overseas. Tycoon diplomacy aimed at nothing less than a shift of the center of the civilization-barbarism world view from China to Japan. The conviction of early-modern Japanese that their country had become the center of civilization was based on the overthrow of the Ming dynasty in 1644 by the _northern barbarians,_ the Manchus, who became the new rulers of China. For example, in his autobiography Haisho Zanpitsu (1675), the leading Confucian scholar Yamaga Sok_wrote. _It is said that the three essential virtues of the saint are wisdom, benevolence and courage. A man cannot be called a saint if he lacks any one of these virtues. When we compare this country with other countries in the light of these three virtues, we find this country to be clearly superior. Indeed it should be called the central country [the written characters for China have this meaning]. This is not merely my personal opinion; it is universally recognized. The doctrine of expulsion of the barbarian towards the end of the Tokugawa shogunate was founded on a world view in which Japan was the center of civilization, and it conducted its relations with the Koreans, Ryukyuans, Dutch and Chinese according to this order of civilization and barbarism.
While Grotius conceived a model for international law based on a war-oriented world view in Europe in the first half of the seventeenth century, Fujiwara Seika and Hayashi Razan advocated moral politics founded on Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism and established these principles as the basis of government in Japan. The Japanese civilization-based world view and the European war-based world view were thus established at around the same time at either end of the Eurasian continent. While the former set out on the path of disarmament based on moral politics, the latter took the course of expansion of armaments based on Dower politics.
The Meiji Restoration: Japan_s Conversion from Moral Politics to Power Politics
After the diffusion of firearms in Europe and Japan at both ends of the Eurasian continent, two world orders founded on different world views were established almost simultaneously.
