But the peace was only of short duration. The first of the great Confucianists of the Tokugawa age, Fujiwara Seikwa (1561-1619), renounced his Buddhism and left the Temple in which he had been living, on coming across the commentaries of Shushi (Chin. Chu-hi) on Confucius. But he was not a controversialist, and seems to have been gentle towards Buddhist and Shintoist alike. His

successor, Hayashi Razan (1583-1673), who exercised a far greater influence than Seikwa on the development of thought under the Tokugawas, hated Buddhism only less than he hated Christianity. Both were to him anti-social forces, because they preached celibacy and retirement from the world. Kaibara Ekiken (1630-1714) renounced Buddhism at an early age; Tani Jichu (1598-1680) was a life-long foe of the monastic system and of the religion of S'akyamuni. These men were not anti-religious. "What does it mean," asked one of Kinoshita Junnan's (1621-1698) scholars, "when we are told that 'Heaven is Intelligent, Upright, and One'?" "It means," answered Kinoshita, "that Heaven knows what we have in our minds at the very moment our thoughts arise, that It judges with impartiality, that It is always the same." Yamazaki Anzai (1618-1682), who was reproved as a lad by his monastic superiors for laughing in "chapel," excused himself by saying that "that fellow Shaka talks such nonsense!" And yet that same man, whose doctrines had much to do with the ultimate restoration of the Imperial House, had a great deal in him that was worthy of a Christian. The same may be said of Kaibara Ekiken. In the non-Christian world it would be hard to find a judge more fair and impartial than Arai Hakuseki, or a philosophical guide more trustworthy than Kaibara.

It must be admitted that when the Buddhist clergy got things all their own way, as they did once for some few sad years during the eighteenth century, they gave their allies cause enough for grief. The first four Shoguns, Ieyasu (1603-1605), Hidetada (1605-1622), Iemitsu (16221651), and Ietsuna (1651-1680), were men of power and intelligence, and the ministers of the last-mentioned ruler had been trained in the school of Iemitsu according to the traditions of Ieyasu. The Confucianist politicians had

therefore a weighty voice in the management of affairs, and extravagances of all sorts were avoided; for even Catholic writers will admit that, with the one notable exception of the Christian persecutions, Japan was well governed, on the whole, during the early Tokugawa administrations. Yet, even under Iemitsu, the Confucianists had been restive in double harness, and the accession of Ietsuna had brought on an abortive revolt against the Shogunate. It became necessary to forbid absolutely the translation of European books, and the publication of all criticisms on the Shogunal Government or the morals of Yedo.