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 and, ancient, medieval and/or thought:
“Men must speak English who can write Sanskrit; they must speak a modern language who write, perchance, an ancient and universal one.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips;Mnot be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself. The symbol of an ancient man’s thought becomes a modern man’s speech.”
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“Nothing in medieval dress distinguished the child from the adult. In the seventeenth century, however, the child, or at least the child of quality, whether noble or middle-class, ceased to be dressed like the grown-up. This is the essential point: henceforth he had an outfit reserved for his age group, which set him apart from the adults. These can be seen from the first glance at any of the numerous child portraits painted at the beginning of the seventeenth century.”
—Philippe Ariés (20th century)
“Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)