Enlightening Their Way: Korean and Chinese Buddhism in terms of PoliticsBuddhism in pre-modern Korea and China had political meanings, but in different ways. Buddhism helped the kings in both countries to control the ordinary people in the nation and to establish the royal authority over nobility. Korea adopted Buddhism as the most powerful religion for the ruling classes and developed it into a more patriotic way, while China disregarded Buddhism and developed neo-Confucianism. China took advantage of Buddhism in reunifying the country by the Sui and Tang dynasty. Such characters of Buddhism are contrary to the ordinary belief that Buddhism is a completely spiritual religion. These seemingly inconsistent understandings are due to their focusing on different aspects. Buddhism, in terms of its principles, is fundamentally spiritual, but Buddhism, in the context of realpolitik, has political meanings.One political aspect of Buddhism is soothing the poor and holding them in their lands. Bg his reign and also was the most successful ruler in south China. As a Buddhist, he followed Buddhist disciplines such as being vegetarian and being abstain from drinking. The fact that he was both a pious Buddhist and a king made his ruling more effective, because the nobility of Liang had two meanings of obedience – as Buddhists and his noblemen. In other words, those whose religion was Buddhism followed Emperor Wu for his superior piousness in Buddhist practices, and others who did not believed in Buddhist principles had to obey him for his being their political leader. This was the union of loyalty and faith. On this basis, Emperor Wu could exert his authority over the nobility in the spiritual and political terms.Silla dynasty also took advantage of Buddhism as a political tool to establish the royal authority. The twenty-third king of Silla was king Pophung (514-540), who became a Buddhist monk in his later year. By the time when he got to the throne, Buddhism was not a major ret it is not officially recognized or is persecuted. In other words, martyrdom happens in the process of resistance to persecutions. But in Silla, there was no Buddhist resistance against any persecution, and even persecution against Buddhism itself did not exist. So accepting Buddhism was a top-to-bottom process, not a bottom-to-top process like in case of other religions – Christianity, for instance. This shows spreading Buddhism should be understood in terms of the king’s intentions, and strengthening the royal authority was intended..The execution of Ichadon was organized in order to achieve two purposes – strengthening the royal authority and spreading Buddhism – but in fact the latter was the tool to achieve the former. Once Ichadon began to build a Buddhist monastery, other court officials denounced the king, for they thought the king decreed to do so, which showed the weakness of the royal authority – he could not make a decree against the will of the nobility. But soon after ths related to Laozi, they easily believed in Buddhist teachings, because the teachings could be framed in terms of their understanding of Laozi. In this way, Buddhism, although it had a non-Chinese origin, spread over the whole country. Through this, Buddhism provided a base for the reunification, because it could spread rapidly so that it had many Buddhist in every level of society, including the low-level people, even though Chinese history of Buddhism was short.Another example that Buddhism helped the reunification of China is found from Taizong’s Buddhist practices. As the first emperor of the Tang dynasty, Taizong’s practices had important meanings to understand the contemporary society of his time. One interesting thing is that he held Buddhist memorial services for those who died in battles. Memorial service is hold not only for soothing families of the dead, but also for unifying people by a meaning of their death – death for the country, for example. The fact that he held this pitaka, was patriotic in its meaning, because it was created, during the Mongolian invasions, wishing to vanquish the Mongolians.Such a patriotic character of Korean Buddhism is not confined to Goryeo, but other kingdoms in Korean peninsula also shared such a character. For example, Hwarang was the group of young noblemen in Silla, which practiced martial arts, poetry, music, education, etc. Their origin can be found to the earlier time of Silla from clan or tribe level groups, but they became to follow “Five Commandments for Laymen” which a Buddhist monk, Wonwang, gave them. Despite the fact that a Buddhist monk gave such commandments, some of them purported to attend political purposes. For example, the last one is “be discriminate about the taking life” which is Buddhist in principle, but two of the other principles – “serve the king with loyalty . . . never retreat from the battlefield” – have political meanings. Therefore, Buddhism in Silla also had patriotic meanings.Thus, BuddhiT 1
General Will and the Death of Family: An Essay of the Terror and the French RevolutionThe Reign of Terror was a continuation of the French Revolution, because it was already incepted in the intellectual background of the Revolution. When the French Revolution occurred, what they talked about included general will. In the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, the article six writes “law is the expression of the general will”, and it was the same with the Declaration of the Rights of Women, which shows the usage of the term, general will, was common to the revolutionaries. The concept of general will was spread and theorized by Rousseau in his book, The Social Contract. Then, what was the relation between general will and the Revolution, general will and the Terror, and, furthermore, the Revolution and the Terror?Researches on the intellectual background of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror have continued for about two hundred years. The major researches on them tendepinions, which led to the absolute tyranny of the Terror. Based on the philosophical analysis, Lynn Hunt analyzed the Revolution and the Terror in cultural aspects, especially in terms of changes that families during the Revolution experienced.Hippolyte Taine found the intellectual background for the Terror from Rousseau’s ideas which were dominant around the time of the French Revolution. In the Origins of Contemporary France, he argues that the idea of general will which submerges every social relation into itself dismantles every personal relation, which allows the practical basis for the state to act violently. In the Social Contract, Rousseau endows the role of practicing general will to the state, which allows a possibility for the state to exert power abusively. The abusive power of the state destroys the lower realms of individual, family, and society by submerging them under it and reorganizing them by the general will.For example, the divorce law legislated on September 20, 1to uphold the state but it was dismantled.On this ground, the revolutionaries, especially Jacobins, brought a notion to organize people, replacing their familial ties. This was fraternity. Due to internal and external political situations, the revolutionaries were divided and individuated into many sides. For example, there were ‘Federalist’ rebels in Marseilles and Vedeans’ royalist rebellions in Vendee. By the spirit of Rousseau, the French Revolutionaries tried to build an ideal state – which was republic – where the members were equal and free. But individuated people during the revolution were not enough to build such an ideal state, because they needed to organize people into a political power. The revolutionaries like Jacobins used the notion, fraternity, to gather and organize such people into the republic. But the meaning of fraternity was not firmed stabilized but was vulnerable to political usages of Jacobins. Fraternity generally meant equality until September of 1792. But general will looks on the common interest. The revolutionary state which was considered to represent the general will of the French people did not have to confront concrete personal relations among them but it needed to face the universal concept of general human or their will. In other words, by being allowed to face the general will which was a metaphysical entity, the state itself was also elevated to the metaphysical level. From this point, the state could ignore its parts, because its sole object to face is the totality, not individual persons.Rousseau did not prepare a proper barrier to such an abusive power and the disastrous results like the Terror. Taine argues that the conclusion of the French revolutionaries who arduously followed the ideal of Rousseau could not avoid the return of despotism which they had overthrown. Revolutionaries wanted to depart themselves from the Old Regime, but what they did was to complete the old despotism expressed in “I am the state” by Louis XIthem to give up their assumption or belief of the general will. But they did continue to hold the same belief of the general will, and what they did was not intellectual debate, which prospered before the Terror, but violent rule, in order to suppress refutations against them and protect their regime.Thus, the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror shared the common intellectual background. Rousseau’s idea of general will penetrated the Revolution and the Terror, because, as two Declarations of Rights show, they set the general will in the essential meaning of the Revolution. In this respect, the Terror cannot be just a deviation which would be a simple result of irrational political decisions by some irrational politicians.BibliographyBurke, Edmund. Reflections on the French Revolution. London: Dent, 1955.Censer, Jack R. and Lynn Hunt. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001.Chartier, Roger. The CulT1
Understanding Distrust in Twelfth-century FlandersThe Murder of Charles the Good written by the twelfth-century historian Galbert of Bruges is a chronicle of events in Flanders around the murder of Charles the good from 1119 to 1128. According to the book, several noblemen decided to murder their lord, Charles, and successfully killed him. But the French king intervened with this issue and besieged the traitors. After successfully punishing the traitors, the new count, William, had conflicts with the citizens of Flanders, and they rejected the new count as their count. So other counts began to conflict each other to be the count of Flanders, and Thierry became the new count.What makes someone untrustworthy? The answer would include impiousness, disloyalty, violating a custom, breaking a promise, a political conflict, greed, and strangeness as reasons of making people untrustworthy. These can be categorized into two ideas which help to understand the contemporary society of the author. untrustworthy. In the feudal system of Western medieval world, when a nobleman became a vassal of a ruler, the nobleman should make an oath that he would not betray his master and express homage to his master. The traitors were also vassals of Charles the good. But they betrayed him and murdered him, which was a violation of their oath and homage to him. Furthermore, the author sees their betrayal as betraying the fatherland, in terms that Charles was like a father of all the people of Flanders: “the lord of the land and likewise their father” (p.261).Violating a custom makes people untrustworthy. This happens when a person from outside becomes a ruler of the territory, and begins to control over the citizens of the land but violates some important customs of the territorial community. For example, when William, the new count, tried to seize his serf in the market of Lille, where peace was customarily ensured for their business, the citizens of Lille resisted to the violation of the cu the privileges and sanctioned by the Roman Catholic pontiffs” (p.202). From this, we can infer that violating oaths was not impossible, so that in making an oath people distrusted each other and tried to make the binding force of the oath stronger by adopting the ecclesiastical authority.Furthermore, incomplete Christian conduct also makes people untrustworthy. When Walter of Vladslo and Baldwin of Aalst died from trivial causes, people of Flanders criticized their behaviors for not only their siding with the traitors, but also their incomplete Christian conduct in helping the traitors to escape from captivity. After they got money from the traitors, “they led them astray and deserted them . . . until they were seized as they wandered and roamed about in the fields and villages” (p.264). Such a vile behavior is contrary to Christian virtues, so the people of Flanders thought the two barons – Walter and Baldwin – deserved to die by trivial causes. In other words, they are untrustworthyiam and threatened him with sudden death” (p.303).One’s illegitimacy creates distrust among people – especially noblemen. When William of Ypres was announced as the next count of Flanders deceitfully, barons gathered and made an oath that they would never become vassals of him, “for he was suspected by all and under the stigma of treachery to the lord count” (p.162). In fact, there is no evidence in the book that they had a sufficient reason for the suspicion. But the reason why the barons made such an oath not to accept William as their count is in the book: “they will under no circumstances accept that William as count because he is illegitimate” (p.187). This shows there existed distrust by one’s illegitimacy.Greed for getting money creates distrust among people. Robert who was the sacristan of the church concealed the treasures of Charles which were given to him by the traitors in condition of returning to them when the traitors successfully escaped. He tried to move the treasures terms of the Christian ideology, because oaths are made in front of the ecclesiastical authority and breaking a promise is itself against Christian conduct. In the example of Charter of Liberty, the king and noblemen made an oath in front of the pontifical authority. This means breaking the promise is against the ecclesiastical authority, which holds the supreme authority in the Christian ideology.Greed is also against the Christian conduct, so that it is considered immoral. Greed, as described in the Bible several times, is against the fundamental Christian teachings. So being greedy makes people untrustworthy because it is negative under the Christian ideology.The context of a political situation in Flanders also helps to understand the examples of distrust in a broader term. Although the author generally describes the political situation of Flanders surrounding the murder of Charles was resulted from the personal motives, there are broader terms to understand the situation. The conf1
De-spritualized Excommunication as a Secular ToolThe Register Notule Communium 14 of the Diocese of Barcelona (1345-1348) is a Spanish episcopal register from 1345 to 1348 written by many ecclesiastical officials of the diocese of Barcelona, including bishops and vicars. The documents in the register are written letters from ecclesiastical officials, so they represent the viewpoint of the officials at the time of their decision.Excommunication was an effective tool to maintain the Christian communion in the medieval period in Barcelona. In order to maintain the communion, the church had to protect the ecclesiastical authority from the secular authority, maintain ecclesiastical hierarchy, and effectively regulate parishioners. Excommunication was a tool to achieve these ends. For excommunication to be such a tool, it had to be easy to be published. If publishing excommunication was difficult, then its utility as a tool would have been low. In this aspect, excommunication was on the way tecting spiritual authority, so the bishop had to consider reactions of the excommunicate. When the bishop excommunicated a commander and his brother and writes that they should request an absolution, the bishop writes the priests who are granted the authority to absolve them should “cease denouncing them as excommunicates” (p.73). This shows the bishop did not want the priests’ actions to be harsher. In other words, he just wanted the request of absolution from the commander and his brother, which would prove the spiritual authority.The Register demonstrates that excommunication was also used for keeping the hierarchical order in the church. This had two aspects. First, higher ecclesiastical officials used excommunication as a tool to defeat challenges from lower ecclesiastical officials. Second, excommunication was a punishment which could be given to lower officials if they failed to manage church-related work. The register shows there were challenges from lower level ecclesiasticaltrary, and excommunication was like a political tool to exaggerate the effect of the official’s order.Using excommunication against other ecclesiastical officials was an effective tool for the bishop and vicars to lead other officials under them to focus on church work. Focusing on church work was important for protecting the spiritual authority in its parish. Because the church exercised an administrative job in its parish, its successful administration was important to maintain its authority in its parish. When episcopal vicars admonished all the clerics in the city of Barcelona to inform the parishioners of the existing usury practices, they had to follow it unless they wanted to incur excommunication (p.151). In other case, when parishioners should pay their tithe and first-fruits to other officials than the original payee – the vicars of the church of Jonqueriis – on the first Sunday or feastday, the rector and the vicar had to inform the parishioners of the change of payee. If th of the church of St. Petrus de Fonte Rubeo refused to pay Ferrarius Dolo, a priest who used to rent the income of the church, “part of the income of that church, he had proceeded against them before the official of Barcelona who had excommunicated these contumacious parishioners” (p.93). In other case, when the church of St. Stephanus de Colle was heavily in debt, a priest was appointed to be in charge of rebuilding the financial stat of the church. The vicar writes that “all parishioners who owe rights to the church of Alfodio are ordered, under pain of excommunication, to pay these to the addressee” – the priest (p.149).Excommunication against parishioners was also used as a penalty in legal cases. When Bernardus de Cases Noves wounded a priest, the bishop judged that Bernardus had to pay the priest the sum he inflicted on him. If Bernardus did not satisfy the judgment within fifteen days, then he would incur excommunication (p.107). In other case, Galcerandus de Queralto, a priest ne who was associated with him was also excommunicated. This was effective in maintaining the church authority in a parish, because the size of a parish was generally small, so judging a person to be guilty by association with the excommunicate threatened his life in the parish. In other words, parishioners had either to obey the church authority or to be excluded by being excommunicated. When Arnaldus and Franciscus Joffre had relations with Bernardus Alegre and Romeus Guitardi, who were excommunicates of the same parish, they were excommunicated (p.238).Even if one was excommunicated, he could be absolved by repenting and swearing to obey the prohibition of ecclesiastical officials. When Petrus Amigonis was excommunicated by having relations with those excommunicated, he swore “he would take no action against the said church or its rector or rights and that he would obey ecclesiastical mandates” and he was absolved (p.236). Also, a butcher was guilty of consorting with the same excom1
Realizing Faith in Changing Political Situations: Lincoln on Slavery and African-AmericansLincoln was a politician who successfully conducted his political decisions, according to the two maxims by Max Weber – “an ethic of ultimate ends and an ethic of responsibility.” The ethic of ultimate ends means one has to conduct one’s action according to his ultimate faith. The ethic of responsibility means “one has to give an account of the foreseeable results of one’s action.” In terms of the two maxims, Lincoln’s political actions can be analyzed to be endeavors to harmonize his fundamental beliefs about slavery and African-Americans with his responsibility as a politician.Throughout his life, anti-slavery and discrimination against the black were his fundamental beliefs. In his early period as a politician, he wrote an argument to show logical invalidity of slavery. In his letter to Joshua Speed, he confesses his hatred over slavery in terms of humane motives. But this attitude toward slavea Act. Kansas-Nebraska Act was a congressional act in 1854 supported by Stephen A. Douglas, who was a senator from Illinois, to open possibility of adopting slavery in Kansas and Nebraska territories, repealing the Missouri Compromise. In October 16 of the same year, Lincoln made a speech on the act, revealing his opinions about slavery. According to the speech, this act implies two things – spreading the injustice of slavery, and degrading the republican values of the United States. The former is based on his personal hatred of the slavery, general anti-slavery mood in the north, and the political agenda of the Republic party. The latter is based on his political understanding of the constitution and the Declaration of Independence.Slavery devaluated the republican virtues expressed in the Declaration of Independence. In the preamble of the Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal. But the slavery made African-Americans to be treated unequal, which violated the line.y was already huge. In this situation, once the legitimatization of the slavery by the federal level decision was released, they could not remain in their place without a further controversy. In other words, the south could claim further about the slavery supported by the decision, while the north should overcome the decision.Lincoln criticized the decision in terms of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence writes that all men are created equal. But the decision writes against it. Lincoln thought the Declaration of Independence was as much important as the constitution. So this situation was a conflict between two values – the right to own property and the equality among people. This conflict happened because the unconstitutional institution – the slavery – existed.After Lincoln became a president, he gradually abolished the slavery, beginning from allowing slaves from the south to escape to the northern army to the emancipation. The result of Lincoln’s presidapply the abolishment to them, because the emancipation proclaim did not have a constitutional authority. Furthermore, he allowed African-Americans to attend the army, as the Union needed more military resources, although he did not approve it at first. Thus, Lincoln gradually realized his political faith of abolishment of the slavery.Despite Lincoln had gradually abolished the slavery, he still publicly expressed that his ultimate political agenda was preserving the Union and the freedom, which were written in the constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and the abolishment of the slavery was a tool to achieve it. The Gettysburg Address on November 19 in 1863, where he expressed the historical significance of the Civil War, does not mention the slavery but only the meaning of the war in terms of the nation, the government, and the freedom. This means he thought the political situation was not developed to place the abolishment of the slavery as one of the significant meaningsntry. In the period of planning reconstruction, he wanted young African-Americans in Louisiana to be educated, which would help them to prepare for the new society after the emancipation. This seems to be against his belief of the discrimination against the black. In fact, however, this was only preparing them to understand and make labor contracts, because they would become wage laborers and their basic ability to make a contract with their former master was needed. The problem was that Lincoln thought their ability of making contracts was needed for the “probationary period” between their emancipation and their returning to their homeland.But there are some evidences that Lincoln was not completely conservative toward discriminating against African-Americans. In his letter to Michael Hahn, Lincoln personally suggests to allow a right to vote to African-Americans in Louisiana. This seems to open a way for the black to be citizens in the United States, by making them political particip1