Naruto and Asian Philosophy
 

This past semester I took an Asian Philosophy course and a Seminar class (for my Philosophy Major) titled "Naturalistic Interpretations of Confucian Moral Thought" (Yes, that is an extremely long title). In these classes I learned much of Confucius and the other schools of thought in Asian Philosophy. Well, being a college student and a fan of Naruto, I decided to really dork out and attempt to figure out which character corrisponds with certain schools of thought. But to be able to do so, we must first know the typical schools of thought in Asian Philosophy and what each school of thought was teaching.
----I hope to not make this section too horrible long for those who do not really want to read about it; although, to be able to put characters in the school of thought that you see fit, we need to know what each school is about.---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_philosophy

(Above is the link which you can go to, to get some information, which you would do so by clicking on the main article link underneath the school of thought's name)

The schools of which I intend to use are:

Legalism
Taoism (Daoism)
Confucianism
Mohism
Buddhism

(Note: Those of you who wish to participate in this fun little project, we may find that we need to add a school of thought to the list above, which is fine-and-dandy with me.)

Legalism:
...was one of the main philosophic currents during the Warring States Period (and before), although the term itself was invented in the Han dynasty and thus does not refer to an organized 'school' of thought. It basically postulates that humans are evil and need to be controlled using laws in order to prevent chaos. The trends that were later called Legalism have a common focus on strengthening the political power of the ruler, of which law is only one part. The most important surviving texts from this tradition are the Han Fei Zi and the Book of Lord Shang.

Taoism (Daoism):
The word 道, Tao (or Dao, depending on the romanization scheme), roughly translates as, "path" or "way" (of life), although in Chinese folk religion and philosophy it carries more abstract meanings. Taoist propriety and ethics emphasize the Three Jewels of the Tao: compassion, moderation, and humility, while Taoist thought generally focuses on nature, the relationship between humanity and the cosmos (天人相应), health and longevity, and wu wei (action through inaction), which is thought to produce harmony with the Universe.

Confucianism:
In Confucianism, human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour especially including self-cultivation and self-creation. A main idea of Confucianism is the cultivation of virtue and the development of moral perfection.

Mohism:
[COLOR=#ffffff]Mohists believed that all people share a common humanity and because of that inherent condition, we are selfish and only serve our self-interest. This is why Mohists conflicted with the Confucians and ignored Confucius and his argument for the supremacy of ritual and tradition in human life. Mohists believed in the equality of all people and the pursuit of good works motivated by the right reasons. Confucians believe that if you simply act like a good person, you are; even if you do not have a righteous motivation for those actions. However, Mohists believed that if you acted like a righteous person, such morality was meaningless in the eyes of heaven unless you also truly believed in what you were doing.Mozi believed that good works, if not motivated from the heart, cannot be maintained. He taught that "everyone is equal before heaven", and that people should seek to imitate heaven by engaging in the practice of impartial and collective love. His epistemology can be regarded as a form of empiricism; he believed that our cognition ought to be based on our perceptions

Re: Naruto and Asian Philosophy
 

(cont'd) – our sensory experiences, such as sight and hearing – instead of imagination or internal logic, elements founded on our capacity for abstraction.

Buddhism:
In a skeptical vein, he asserted the insubstantiality of the ego, and in doing so countered those Upanishadic sages who sought knowledge of an unchanging ultimate self. The Buddha created a new position in opposition to their theories, and held that attachment to a permanent self in this world of change is the cause of suffering and the main obstacle to liberation. The same skeptical approach negates the existence of any high god or essential substance, and undercuts both traditional and iconoclastic spiritual goals. He broke new ground by going on to explain the source for the apparent ego: it is merely the result of the aggregates (skandhas) which make up experience.
Although there are many ethical tenets in Buddhism that differ depending on whether one is a monk or a layman, and depending on individual schools, the Buddhist system of ethics can be summed up in the eightfold path.
And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering -- precisely this Noble Eightfold Path – right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.
The purpose of living an ethical life is to escape the suffering inherent in samsara. Skillful actions condition the mind in a positive way and lead to future happiness, while the opposite is true for unskillful actions.


Now to be able to put characters under the school what criteria are we to use? I suggest using all information avaliable, their actions, fighting style, village, clan, etc... That way we can build a better argument for why we think they belong in a school of thought. Now let the fun begin!!

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I will start with three characters, Naruto, Madara, and Nagato (Pain, or Pein).

Naruto - Naruto I believe is to be considered a person of the Mohist school of thought. He's always fighting for others, and attempting to show that everyone is equal. Mohism, if you scroll back up to see, is of the thought of universal love, which is something Naruto seems capable of being; furthermore, Mohism incorperates supernatural punishment theory, which believes in the belief of ghosts and spirits. I suggests that the nine tailed fox spirit is something that is meant to watch Naruto. To ensure that Naruto is a person who walks on the path of "light".

Madara - Madara is of the Uchiha clan, which are known for the Sharingan. Madara's plan is to accomplish the moon Sharingan, where he can watch over all on Earth; thus, there will be peace because he's capable of forcing it. This, I believe, falls in line with Legalism, which uses merely a system of punishments and rewards to keep peace. Typically, in Legalism, the King does not distribute punishment but rather his minister's do; thus, Legalism use the art of non-action action, much like Daoism uses. Madara's moon eye is a form of this non-action action because he'll be using a KekkeiGenhai to induce peace.

Nagato - Nagato believe that the only true way to induce peace was through pain. If everyone knows pain they'll wish to cease the pain and will not war with other nations. The idea of peace through the elimination of pain is an idea from Buddhism; furthermore, Nagato used the six bodies which were called the six paths of pain; Buddhism uses the Eight Fold Path as a way to stop pain. Coincidence? Perhaps... but seems to fit to me.

I hope you guys find this fun and interesting, and something we can continue to discuss even after the Naruto adventure ends

Re: Naruto and Asian Philosophy
 

*Bump*

Re: Naruto and Asian Philosophy
 

I think the 6 paths of pain we intended to relate to the 6 paths reincarnation, that's why they're named Deva, Asura, Human, Animal, Preta, and Naraka. But that's still Buddhism :)

Re: Naruto and Asian Philosophy
 

Haha! I obviously didn't study late into my Asian Philosophy course this past semester; Buddhism was the last two weeks of the coruse..haha. But sweet! I was still right. Thanks for correcting me! Have thoughts on other characters?

Re: Naruto and Asian Philosophy
 

Very detailed. You make excellent points. Makes me wonder if Masashi Kishimoto even thought all of this out in such detail. :mrgreen:

Re: Naruto and Asian Philosophy
 

So far we have:

Confucianism: (None)
Mohism: Naruto
Buddhism: Nagato
Legalism: Madara
Daoism: (None)
----
The next character I will briefly classify is Kakashi.
Kakashi, I suggest, is of the school of Confucianism. Many may wonder why I suggest one Sharingan user to be Confucian while another Sharingan user is seen as a Legalist. First, Kakashi is called the Copycat ninja. In the school of Confucianism, the only way one could become a junzi was to COPY a person who is considered a junzi.
Secondly, Confucians put extreme emphasis on ritual; Kakashi ritually visits the stone that has names of ninja who've been K.I.A. He visited this tone every morning, this is why Kakashi was always late to Team 7's training.
Finally, the most revealing to which shows Kakashi's Confucian ideal is through what he says! "Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum". Why is this the most revealing? In the Analects (Confucius' writings) 13:18 there's an example of a similar statement:
"The Duke of She informed Confucius, saying, “Among us here there are those who may be styled upright in their conduct. If their father have stolen a sheep, they will bear witness to the fact.” Confucius said, “Among us, in our part of the country, those who are upright are different from this. The father conceals the misconduct of the son, and the son conceals the misconduct of the father. Uprightness is to be found in this.”
This is, to me, the most revealing evidence to show that Kakashi is of the school of Confucianism.
So we now have:
Confucianism: Kakashi
Mohism: Naruto
Buddhism: Nagato
Legalism: Madara
Daoism: (None)

Re: Naruto and Asian Philosophy
 

*bumpity bump*

Also, if you know of other Asian philosophical schools of thought that I did not list on here, you could use that one as well. I believe that if we can see what characters are like we'd be more able to make accurate predictions of what will happen going forth in the manga.

Re: Naruto and Asian Philosophy
 

It has been a long time since I added a character, but I will add another character to the list.

The next character I will put into a category is Jiraiya.

This is my second favorite character, Naruto being my favorite, so it's very hard for my to step back and be impartial. (I am stating this ahead of time, in case others disagree). Jiraiya is a hermit type of character. He spent the majority of his life in nature away from society. With this, and two other points (which I will exspell shortly) in mind, I suggest that Jiraiya is of the school of Daoism. What has lead me to think of this, keeping in mind his hermit type of life, are two facts: his rejection of Hokage, and his writing of books. Above, you can see that action through inaction is one of the prime principles of Daoism. To give you a better grasp of this principle, they claim this action through inaction is the way of water; water's action is inaction as it always flows down. So, the rejection of the title of Hokage, should make even more sense now as Jiraiya could be seen as trying to take the path of acting through inaction. Being the Hokage would be counter intuitive to this way of life. Futhermore, his writing of books would be the best way of acting through inaction as he is not putting out any physical force, and hardely any mental force upon others in the world of Naruto. His book (namely the one with Naruto's name in it) is just a story that others interpret and act inaccordence to them but, in reality, are doing so with their own interpretations. Jiraiya never explained his novel and his pupils never asked. So, those that have read them are interpreting them seperate of Jiraiya's intentions.

So we can now add Jiraiya's name to the list under Daoism.

Confucianism: Kakashi
Mohism: Naruto
Buddhism: Nagato
Legalism: Madara
Daoism: Jiraiya

(Once again, if anyone wishes to contest any character's placing, feel free to do so. Also, feel free to add a character to the list with a brief explination.)

Re: Naruto and Asian Philosophy
 

The next two characters I will do later this week are Kabuto and Danzo. Stay Tuned.