At the end of World War II, the slogan "One hundred million broken jade" was even shouted. Throughout World War II, the whole country of Japan was full of excitement. Among them, the spirit of Bushido acted as spiritual opium and became the exclusive psychotropic drug for the Japanese. Compared with today's "Heisei waste", it was inferior to Bushido's "Showa". "Men" is Japan's biggest capital for launching war. When talking about Bushido, one has to mention the word seppuku. In a sense, seppuku has even become the only way to embody the courage of a warrior. In this episode, Brother Hu will tell you about samurai seppuku.
To put it bluntly, Bushido is the samurai’s code of conduct, just like the "Daily Code of Conduct for Elementary School Students" that was common when we were children. Let me tell you what There are things that should be done and those things that should not be done. However, samurai have not existed in Japan since ancient times, but gradually emerged with the development of Japan's feudal system.
After the "Dahua Reform", Japan's economic pattern has undergone great changes. A large amount of land has been reclaimed, followed by intensified land annexation. The manor economy replaced the small peasant economy. In order to protect their farmland and wealth, the owners of large estates established their own private armed forces. The bodyguards and thugs of these landlords were the original samurai.
Unlike the Chinese, the Japanese believe that a person’s soul resides in the person’s belly. Therefore, the best way to embody a person’s courage and loyalty is to put aside the belly and show one’s soul nakedly. come out. During the Heian period, the first samurai in history to die of seppuku appeared, Minamoto no Tomo. This man was a famous samurai of the Minamoto clan. He was seven feet tall, with jackal eyes and ape arms. He was a famous marksman. He was later arrested for launching a rebellion. Officers and soldiers encircled and suppressed. In order to avoid being captured and humiliated, he committed suicide.
With the development of history, the connotation of "Bushido" is constantly expanding, and its influence is also expanding day by day. After entering the shogunate period, changes in the political form significantly improved the status of the samurai class. Due to their improved status, samurai received a series of privileges, such as wearing swords and being given surnames. Through the "royal family" system, the shogunate firmly controlled the samurai class across the country. The samurai group occupied a dominant position in the social economy and national politics. The samurai class also embarked on a standardized development path. The shogunate began to formulate some codes to regulate the daily behavior of samurai. With the introduction of Neo-Confucianism and Zen Buddhism to Japan, Bushido became more sophisticated after absorbing some doctrines from Neo-Confucianism and Zen Buddhism. Complete.
At the end of the Warring States Period, many famous figures appeared in Japanese history. The first name changer in history, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was born at this time. This man changed his name four times in his lifetime. The ashigaru became the Taiko who dominated the world, and his life experience was rich and colorful. After taking over Japan, our monkey master was unwilling to be lonely. He felt that the small Japanese archipelago could not accommodate his ambitions. He also wanted to inherit the legacy of his master (Oda Nobunaga) and start a "world-wide military deployment", but he made the wrong choice. The Japanese army was beaten up by the Ming army in Korea. Interestingly, no one could match Hideyoshi's ability to dream. In 1592, before setting foot on the coast of Korea, Hideyoshi had already dreamed of living in the Central Plains. : The city of Beijing is left to the emperor, the suburbs of Beijing are given to his son, and he himself whips his horse and leads the army to attack India. With such imagination and courage, Brother Hu only wants to say one word: convinced.
During this period, the act of seppuku formed a normative system. Warriors could choose to commit seppuku for various reasons. If they lost a battle, they would commit seppuku. If they broke the law, they would commit seppuku. In other words, only the death method of seppuku is worthy of the status of a samurai. At this time, seppuku is more like a mysterious religious ceremony: the samurai who commits seppuku is very solemnly dressed, with a sword in front of him and an intermediary standing behind him. Wrong, his duty is to cut off the samurai's head at the moment of committing seppuku to relieve his pain. Before committing seppuku, the samurai will compose a poem, which the Japanese call "a farewell sentence", and wait for him and the person next to him to do so. When an assistant is ready, the disembowelor will uncover his kimono, pick up a sword, and stab himself in the abdomen. The person who performs a laparotomy first cuts from left to right, and then makes a second cut slightly upward to allow the intestines to spill out. When the second cut is made, the wrong person is decapitated (beheading), and the entire seppuku process is completed.
Although the Meiji Restoration ended the samurai class, the act of seppuku is still widely practiced in the Japanese army: after the death of Emperor Meiji, General Nogi Nogi chose to commit seppuku to follow. After Japan's defeat, Sergeant Tojo also wanted to commit seppuku. Perhaps because he was afraid of pain, he finally shot himself. However, his marksmanship was not good. This shot sent him to the gallows. The patent holder of the kamikaze, After Japan surrendered, Takijiro Onishi chose to commit seppuku. It didn't matter to him. He casually set a Guinness World Record. He died 15 hours after committing seppuku.