Prince Shotoku: the Impact of Chinese Civilization

Confucianism
The Master said: “Do not look unless it is in accordance with the rites; do not listen unless it is in accordance with the rites; do not speak unless it is in accordance with the rites; do not move unless it is in accordance with the rites.” [Analects, XII.1]

Let the ruler be a ruler; the minister be a minister; the father be a father; the son be a son. [Analects, XII.11]

A benevolent man helps others to take their stand in so far as he himself wishes to take his stand, and gets others there in so far as he himself wishes to get there.  The ability to take as analogy what is near at hand can be called the method of benevolence. [Analects, VI.30]

Guide them by edicts, keep them in line with punishments, and the common people will stay out of trouble but will have no sense of shame.  Guide them by virtue, keep them in line with the rites, and they will, besides having a sense of shame, reform themselves. [Analects, II.3]
 

Selctions from Prince Shotoku’s Seventeen-Article Constitution

I. Harmony is to be valued, and contentiousness avoided.  All men are inclined to partisanship and few are truly discerning.  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 conciliatory and there is concord in the discussion of all matters, the disposition of affairs comes about naturally.  Then what is there that cannot be accomplished.

IV. The ministers and functionaries should make ritual decorum their leading principle, for the leading principle in governing the people consists in ritual decorum.  If the superiors do not behave with decorum, the inferiors are disorderly; if interiors are wanting in proper behavior, there must necessarily be offenses.  Therefore it is that when the lord and vassal behave with decorum, the distinctions of rank are not confused; when the people behave with decorum, the governance of the state proceeds of itself.

IX. Trustworthiness is the foundation of right.  In everything let there be trustworthiness, for in this there surely consists the good and the bad, success and failure.  If the lord and the vassal trust one another, what is there which cannot be accomplished?  If the lord and the vassal do not trust one another, everything without exception ends in failure.

XV. To turn away from that which is private, and to set our faces towards that which is public—this is the path of a minister.  Now if a man is influenced by private motives, he will assuredly fail to act harmoniously with others.  If he fails to act harmoniously with others, he will assuredly sacrifice the public interest to his private feelings.  When resentment arises, it interferes with order, and is subversive of law.  Therefore in the first clause it was said that superiors and inferiors should agree together.  The purport is the same as this. [SJT, 51-4]
 

Legalist Influences
III. 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.
 
XI. Give clear appreciation to merit and demerit, and deal out to each its sure reward or punishment.  In these days, reward does not attend upon merit, nor punishment upon crime.  Ye high functionaries who have charge of public affairs, let it be your task to make clear rewards and punishments.

XII. Let not the provincial authorities or the Kuni no Miyatsuko levy exaction 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 charge are all his vassals.  How can they, as well as the government, presume to levy taxes on the people.
 

Buddhism
II. Sincerely reverence the Three Treasures.  The Buddha, the Law, and the religious orders are the final refuge of all beings and the supreme objects of reverence in all countries.  It is a law honored by all, no matter what the age or who the person.  Few men are utterly bad; with instruction they can follow it.  But if they do not betake themselves to the three Treasures, how can their crookedness be made straight.