On National Essence Clique And The Trend Of National Thought At The Meiji Period

At the end of the 19th century, with the practice of all things derived from western culture and the deepening of the race crisis, the field of thought appeared national school and then formed trend of thought of nationalist in Japan. The representatives of the national school were Shigetaka Shiga,Miyake Seturei,Okakura Tenshin and so on. Their aim was"preserve nationality". They advocated to praise Japanese spirit highly that strengthened the people's self-confidence and sense of pride; they hoped to get the bad virtue better by advocating Confucianism Culture. So they advocate Confucianism Culture. They were not conservatives. They thought weather neither Eastern nor Western both had their own specialties, so the two kinds of culture should supplement each other. They opposed the practice of all things derived from western culture. The important point was that"chew western culture by nationality's stomach, to digest, and then melt into Japanese culture."Hence, at the beginning of nationalism, we could not deny that they had own objective meanings that promoted the spirit of national culture. But along with time passage, economic developed and nation became stronger unavoidably, nationalism became a branch of the national consciousness at the middle of Meiji period. They advertised that Japanese was the best race in all over the world at home, and carried through its external aggressive expansion. At last, nationalist became the theory base of the right wing in Japan. Now the left-over evils of militarism in Japan interfere with normal relation of China and Japan. In order to prevent re-acting the historical tragedy, it is necessary to distinguish Japanese nationalism's historical trait and seek the thoughts'root. Therefore, it is important to improve the relationship between China and Japan by distinguishing its historical characteristic.