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11. Zen in the Dark Age.
The latter half of the Ashikaga
period was the age of arms and bloodshed. Every day the sun shone on the
glittering armour of marching
soldiers. Every wind sighed
over the lifeless remains of the brave. Everywhere the din of battle resounded.
Out of these fighting feudal lords stood two champions. Each of them
distinguished himself as a veteran soldier and tactician. Each of them was
known as an experienced practiser of Zen. One was Haru-nobu1 (Take-da,
died in 1573), better known by his Buddhist name, Shin-gen. The other was
Teru-tora2 (Uye-sugi, died in 1578), better known by his Buddhist name,
Ken-shin. The character of Shin-gen can be imagined from the fact that he never
built any castle or citadel or fortress to guard himself against his enemy, but
relied on his faithful vassals and people; while that of Ken-shin, from the
fact that he provided his enemy, Shin-gen, with salt when the latter suffered
from want of it, owing to the cowardly stratagem of a rival lord. The heroic
battles waged by these two great generals against each other are the flowers of
the Japanese war-history. Tradition has it that when Shin-gen's army was put to
rout by the furious attacks of Ken-shin's troops, and a single warrior mounted
on a huge charger rode swiftly as a sweeping wind into Shin-gen's
head-quarters, down came a blow of the heavy sword aimed at Shin-gen's
forehead, with a question expressed in the technical terms of Zen: "What
shalt thou do in such a state at such a moment?" Having no time to draw
his sword, Shin-gen parried it with his war-fan, answering simultaneously in
Zen words: "A flake of snow on the red-hot furnace!" Had not his
attendants come to the rescue Shin-gen's life might have gone as 'a flake of
snow on the red-hot furnace.' Afterwards the horseman was known to have been
Ken-shin himself. This tradition
shows us how Zen was
practically lived by the Samurais of the Dark Age.
Although the priests of
other Buddhist sects had their share in these bloody affairs, as was natural at
such a time, yet Zen monks stood aloof and simply cultivated their literature.
Consequently, when all the people grew entirely ignorant at the end of the Dark
Age, the Zen monks were the only men of letters. None can deny this merit of
their having preserved learning and prepared for its revival in the following
period.1
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