Read the following excerpts from Shotoku Taishi’s 604 Seventeen Article Constitution of Japan. Analyze the document and answer the following questions in a 2-page essay: 1) What non-Japanese influences appear in this law code? Give at least two (2) specific examples from the constitution to support your claims. 2) In what ways does the law try to centralize authority in Japan? Give a specific example from the text to support your claim. Seventeen Article Constitution Article 1 Harmony is to be valued, and an avoidance of wanton opposition to be honored. All men are influenced by class-feelings, and there are few who are intelligent. Hence there are some who disobey their lords and fathers, or who maintain feuds with the neighboring villages. But when those above are harmonious and those below are friendly, and there is concord in the discussion of business, right views of things spontaneously gain acceptance. Then what is there which cannot be accomplished! Article 3 When you receive the Imperial commands, fail not scrupulously to obey them. The lord is Heaven, the vassal is Earth. Heaven overspreads, and Earth upbears. When this is so, the four seasons follow their due course, and the powers of Nature obtain their efficacy. If the Earth attempted to overspread, Heaven would simply fall in ruin. Therefore, is it that when the lord speaks, the vassal listens, when the superior acts, the inferior yields compliance. Consequently, when you receive the Imperial commands, fail not to carry them out scrupulously. Let there be a want of care in this matter, and ruin is the natural consequence. Article 5 Ceasing from gluttony and abandoning covetous desires impartially with the suits which are submitted to you. Of complaints brought by the people there are a thousand in one day. If in one day there are so many, how many will there be in a series of years? If the man who is to decide suits at law makes gain his ordinary motive, and hears causes with a view to receiving bribes, then will the suits of the rich man be like a stone flung into water, while the plaints of the poor will resemble water cast upon a stone. Under these circumstances the poor man will not know whether to betake himself. Here too there is a deficiency in the duty of the Minister. Article 7 Let every man have his own charge and let not the spheres of duty be confused. When wise men are entrusted with office, the sound of praise arises. If unprincipled men hold office, disasters and tumults are multiplied. In this world, few are born with knowledge: wisdom is the product of earnest meditation. In all things, whether great or small, find the right man, and they will surely be well managed. On all occasions, be they urgent or the reverse, meet but with a wise man, and they will of themselves be amenable. In this way will the State be lasting and the Temples of the Earth and of Grain will be free from danger. Therefore, did the wise sovereigns of antiquity seek the man to fill the office, and not the office for the sake of the man. Article 10 Let us cease from wrath, and refrain from angry looks. Nor let us be resentful when others differ from us. For all men have hearts, and each heart has its own leanings. Their right is our wrong, and our right is their wrong. We are not unquestionably sages, nor are they unquestionably fools. Both of us are simply ordinary men. How can anyone lay down a rule by which to distinguish right from wrong? For we are all, one with another, wise and foolish, like a ring which has no end. Therefore, although others give way to anger, let us on the contrary dread our own faults, and though we alone may be in the right, let us follow the multitude and act like men. Article 12 That not the provincial authorities or the Kuni no Miyakko (ancient local nobles) levy exactions on the people. In a country there are not two lords. The people have not two masters. The sovereign is the master of the people of the whole country. The officials to whom he gives charges are all his vassals. How can they, as well as the government, presume to levy taxes on the people? `
