Ancient and Medieval Thought
Before feudalism was firmly established in Japan, Buddhism occupied the mainstream of Japanese thought. The Buddhism culture introduced politically by Prince Shotoku is completed as the “making a country safe” thought in the Nara era. When the Heian era begins, in substitution for the “making a country safe thought”, mikkyo becomes popular. However, in the late noble era when pessimism was popular due to the “belief that Buddhism will decline during the latter days of this world”, the Pure Land movements spread out in the strong admiration to the future life in desperation over the life in this world. When the Kamakura era at which a samurai grasps the government begins, the “new” Buddhism for the newly-risen class (samurai) appears.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Philosophy
Famous quotes containing the words ancient, medieval and/or thought:
““Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me;
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.””
—Emma Lazarus (1849–1887)
“The Christos-image
is most difficult to disentangle
from its art-craft junk-shop
paint-and-plaster medieval jumble
of pain-worship and death-symbol.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“He had killed and put to earth so many that his sword broke in two. At length he thought to himself that that was enough massacring and killing for one day, and that the rest should be allowed to escape in order to spread the news.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)