Fine Japanese Calligraphy

The Art of Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, PayPal accepted
Home › Library › Philology › Archery is the Way of Humaneness

射は仁の道なり sha wa jin no michi nari Archery is the Way of Humaneness

射は仁の道なり (sha wa jin no michi nari) is the 禮記's sentence that archery is a way of 仁, humaneness. This study follows what its readers, Chinese, Japanese and English, took that 仁 to be.

X Facebook
Japanese Scroll of Archery is the Way of Humaneness (sha wa jin no michi nari) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Archery is the Way of Humaneness射は仁の道なりsha wa jin no michi nari

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

All Fonts ›

Abstract

射は仁の道なり, sha wa jin no michi nari, is the Japanese reading of 射者仁之道也, a sentence of the chapter on archery in the 禮記, the Confucian Book of Rites: archery is the way of 仁, of humaneness, and the sentences that follow say why, because the archer looks for what is right in himself and, when he misses, does not resent the one who beat him but turns the search back on himself [1]. The readers this history quotes, from the Han and Tang commentaries through the Edo scholar Ogyū Sorai 荻生徂徠 to the Japanese kyūdō grading examinations of the 1930s, read the way of 仁 here as one that begins in the self, and several as one that does not contend; some of them hold that the 仁 so begun is care for others, and some define it as the way of self-reflection; two in the 1930s turned it outward: an essay of 1935 took it as the bow that stops disorder, than which no 仁 is greater, and a speaker in a book of Yokohama kyūdō lectures printed in 1937 as the way of the king, fitted to the spirit of the Imperial Way. In Japan the sentence is pointed with ナリ on a scroll of 1257, read sha wa jin no michi nari in the school editions of the 1880s, set as an examination question for kyūdō ranks by 1931, and hung in dōjō. In English it has been Archery suggests to us the way of benevolence since James Legge's translation of 1885, and Archery is the way of benevolence in Edward Slingerland's of 2003; the word benevolence gives the 仁 and leaves out where the sentence says it starts.

Overview

The sense. The sentence says that archery is a way, 道, of 仁. The Japanese dictionaries give 仁 today as 思いやり, いつくしみ, consideration, tender care, and above all as the highest Confucian virtue, the practical ethic of living together with others in that spirit [2]. What the sentence's own context gives is the archer's conduct: he seeks what is right in himself, shoots only when he is right, and, missing, blames no one who surpassed him [1]. The Tang subcommentary of Kong Yingda 孔穎達 says the passage shows archery to be the way of 仁恩 because 唯內求諸己，不病害於物, one seeks only within oneself and does no harm to others [3]. The 孟子 carries the same sentences under a turned frame, 仁者如射, the humane man is like an archer [4]. So the tradition holds two things together, and its readers weight them differently: 仁 as care that reaches others, and the way to it as a turning back on the self that leaves no room to contend.

The words. 射, sha, is archery, the art and the act. 仁, jin, is the virtue; 之 is the particle no; 道, michi, is the way or path; 也, read nari, closes the sentence as a statement. The Japanese reading as a whole, シヤハ ジン ノ ミチナリ, sha wa jin no michi nari, is printed in ruby beside the Chinese in two school editions of the 五經 from 1880 and 1882, where 射 is read in its sound, sha, and not as the verb iru, to shoot [5][6]. An edition of 1784 points the sentence in kana, ハ after 射, ノ beside 仁 and ナリ beside 道也, but gives no reading for 射 itself [7], and the Kamakura scroll of 1257 writes only ナリ in kana, beside 道, with red reading points on 故 and 射 [8].

The text in English. Its English begins with James Legge's translation of the 禮記 in the Sacred Books of the East (1885): Archery suggests to us the way of benevolence, with his note glossing the word as benevolence, or perfect virtue [9]. Edward Slingerland's Analects (2003), translating an early commentator who quotes the sentence, gives Archery is the way of benevolence (ren) [10]. The later English printings of the sentence found for this history copy or adapt Legge's, and none is cited here.

The historical record

The 禮記, chapter 射義, The Meaning of Archery. The 禮記 is one of the five Confucian classics, compiled in the Former Han from writings on rites of the Warring States to the Qin and Han [11]. The sentence stands near the end of the chapter, after the passage on the mulberry bow and six arrows shot at a son's birth [1]:

射者，仁之道也。射求正諸己，己正而後發，發而不中，則不怨勝己者，反求諸己而已矣。孔子曰：「君子無所爭，必也射乎！揖讓而升，下而飲，其爭也君子。」

Archery is the way of 仁. In archery one seeks what is right in oneself; when oneself is right, one shoots; one shoots and misses, and then one does not resent the one who beat one, but turns and seeks it in oneself, and that is all. Confucius said: "The gentleman has nothing he contends for; if he must, it is in archery! He bows and yields as he goes up, and comes down to drink; even his contending is a gentleman's." The sentence is the head of an argument whose body is the turn back on the self and whose close is Confucius on not contending.

The 孟子, 公孫丑上. The same sentences stand in the 孟子 under another frame [4]. Mencius begins with the arrow-maker and the armorer: 矢人豈不仁於函人哉？矢人惟恐不傷人，函人惟恐傷人, is the arrow-maker less humane than the armorer? The arrow-maker fears only that he will not wound, the armorer only that he will. He turns to choosing one's calling, and ends: 仁者如射：射者正己而後發；發而不中，不怨勝己者，反求諸己而已矣, the humane man is like an archer: the archer makes himself right and then shoots; he shoots and misses, does not resent the one who beat him, turns and seeks it in himself, and that is all. Where the 禮記 says archery is the way of 仁, the 孟子 says the humane man is like an archer.

The Han and Tang commentaries on the 禮記. Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (127–200), the Han commentator, glosses one word at the sentence, 諸，猶於也, 諸 is like 於, "in" [3][12]. Kong Yingda 孔穎達 (574–648), who compiled the Tang subcommentaries on the five classics [13], explains the passage [3]:

此一經明射是仁恩之道，唯內求諸己，不病害於物。既求諸己，恥其不勝，乃有爭心矣。

This passage makes clear that archery is the way of 仁恩, humane kindness: one seeks only within oneself and does no harm to others. Having sought within oneself, one is ashamed not to win, and so there is a contending heart. For Kong Yingda the 仁 is kindness that does no harm to others, and archery is its way because the seeking stays inside; the shame of losing is the contest the next sentences turn to.

Zhao Qi 趙岐 on the 孟子. Zhao Qi's commentary on the 孟子 reads the passage as a figure for the humane man who is not repaid: 以射喻人爲仁不得其報，當反責已之仁恩有所未至也 (the 四庫 text prints 已 for 己), archery is an image for a man who practices 仁 and is not repaid: he should turn and blame his own humane kindness for falling short [14]. Here too 仁 is kindness toward others, and the archer's turn is the measure of it.

Luan Zhao 欒肇, quoted by Huang Kan 皇侃. Huang Kan (488–545) collected the older commentaries on the 論語 in his 論語義疏 [15][16]. Under the 論語's 君子無所爭, the gentleman has nothing he contends for, he quotes Luan Zhao, who cites the sentence in a shorter form, 射仁道也, and uses it to prove that saying: 又曰射仁道也發而不中不怨勝己者反求諸己而已因稱此言以證無爭焉, it also says, "archery is the way of 仁; one shoots and misses, does not resent the one who beat one, turns and seeks it in oneself, and that is all"; and so he cites these words to prove that there is no contending [15]. It is the oldest quotation of the sentence read for this history outside the 禮記 and its commentaries, and it already reads the sentence for not contending.

Lü Dalin 呂大臨, Northern Song. A Song scholar of the rites [17], quoted as 呂氏 in the 西山讀書記 of 真德秀 (the name is in the Notes), reads the passage through the archer's self-reliance: 仁者之道不怨天不尤人，行有不至反求諸己而已，蓋以仁爲己任無待於外 … 故於射也得反己之道焉, the way of the humane man is to resent neither heaven nor other men; where his conduct falls short he turns and seeks it in himself, and that is all, for he takes 仁 as his own charge and waits on nothing outside him … so it is in archery that one finds the way of turning back on oneself [18].

Chen Hao 陳澔, 禮記集說. Chen Hao's commentary on the 禮記 reads the sentence through the 論語's 為仁由己, being humane comes from oneself: 為仁由己，射之中否亦由己，非他人所能與也，故不怨勝己者而惟反求諸其身, being humane comes from oneself; whether the arrow hits comes from oneself too, and no one else can give it; so one does not resent the one who beat one, but only turns and seeks it in one's own person [19]. His text is the shorter one, 射者仁之道也求正諸己, without the 射 before 求, as a Japanese collation of the classics notes at the sentence [19][20].

1257, the 群書治要 scroll of the 金沢文庫. The 群書治要, a digest of the classics for rulers compiled by command of the Tang emperor Taizong, was lost early in China and survives from the old manuscript of the 金沢文庫 [21]. Its seventh scroll carries the 禮記's chapter in extract, and at its end the sentence: 故射者仁之道, with ナリ written small in black beside 道, red reading points on 故 and 射, and then 也求正諸己 (no 射 before 求) in the next column [8]. The colophon reads:

康元二年三月九日加點了蓋依越州使君尊閤教命也 前參河守清原

Pointing completed on the ninth day of the third month of Kōgen 2, 1257, by the command of the honored governor of 越州; the former governor of Mikawa, Kiyohara. Printed studies of the 金沢文庫 manuscripts identify the governor as Kanazawa Sanetoki 金沢実時 and the signer as Kiyohara no Noritaka 清原教隆 [22][23]; the dictionaries name Noritaka (1199–1265) as the Confucian scholar who taught Sanetoki in Kamakura, and Sanetoki (1224–1276), governor of Echigo (越後守), as a warrior who collected and collated the 群書治要, and one of them, the 世界大百科事典, as skilled in arms, above all in mounted archery [24][25]. A Kamakura reader of 1257 had the sentence as a statement ending in nari.

1596 and 1616, two printings. A Ming print of the five classics without commentary, the 五經白文 in the National Diet Library, whose postface the Library's record dates 萬暦24 (1596) and whose 禮記 ends, the record says, 秣陵 陳邦泰書, written by Chen Bangtai of Moling (Nanjing), prints the 禮記 with sentence points and tone marks and no Japanese reading marks, in the shorter text: 射者仁之道也求正諸己己正而后發 [26]. The copper-type 群書治要 printed in 1616, from the 金沢文庫 manuscript [21], has the same shorter text, unpointed, and two readings of its own: 不怨勝者, with no 己, as the 1257 scroll has it, and 求反諸己 where every other witness read for this history has 反求諸己 [27].

1784, a pointed school text. The 改正音訓五經 of 1784 points the sentence with ハ at the lower right of 射, 者 left unread, ノ beside 仁, ナリ beside 道也, and ム and ヲ beside 求 and 正, so that it reads 射ハ仁ノ道ナリ。正ヲ己ニ求ム, sha (or iru) wa jin no michi nari. sei wo onore ni motomu [7]. The text is again the shorter one, with 而后.

Ogyū Sorai 荻生徂徠, 論語徵. Sorai (1666–1728), in his commentary on the 論語 [28], quotes the sentence under 顏淵 12.1, the chapter on 克己復禮 [29]:

克己復禮者。納身於禮也。爲仁者。行安民之道也。非謂克己復禮即仁也。欲行安民之道。必先納身於禮而後可得而行也。脩己以安人。(憲問)及中庸爲天下國家有九經首脩身。射義曰。射者。仁之道也。求正諸己。己正而后發。發而不中。則不怨勝己者。反求諸己而已矣。皆是意。

克己復禮 is to bring oneself into the rites. To be humane is to walk the way of giving the people peace. It does not say that 克己復禮 is itself 仁. Whoever would walk the way of giving the people peace must first bring himself into the rites, and only then can he walk it. "Cultivate yourself so as to give others peace" (憲問), and the 中庸's nine standards for ruling the realm, which begin with cultivating oneself; the 射義 says: "Archery is the way of 仁. One seeks what is right in oneself …" All of these mean the same. For Sorai 仁 faces outward, toward the people, and the sentence is cited for what must come before it: the self made right.

1880 and 1882, the reading in ruby. Two school editions of the 五經 with head-notes print the sentence with its reading in katakana beside the characters, identically: シヤハ beside 射者, ジン beside 仁, ノ beside 之, ミチナリ beside 道也, and セイヲ オノレニ モトム for 求正諸己, sha wa jin no michi nari. sei wo onore ni motomu [5][6]. A third, of 1889, prints シヤ beside 射 [30]. These are the earliest witnesses read for this history that sound 射 as sha.

1916, a gloss on the 大宝令. A commentary on the 大宝令, the code of the Taihō era, glosses the code's school rule, 唯彈琴習射不禁, only playing the qin and practicing archery are not forbidden, by explaining both arts; of archery it says, naming no source, ○射は仁の道也、正しきを自己に求め、己れ正しふして後ち發つべし、發して中(アタ)らずと雖も怨みず, archery is the way of 仁: seek what is right in yourself, make yourself right and then shoot; though you shoot and miss, do not resent [31]. It is the earliest Japanese prose sentence beginning 射は仁の道 read for this history.

1931, a kyūdō school's manual. 『竹林射法七道』, a manual of the 尾州竹林派, opens with a preface signed in the ninth month of 1931 that joins the chapter's sentences without naming the 禮記: 正と不正とを己の心に映射して、心の明鏡に自己を反省するに至るなり。是を以て射は仁の道といひ、君子の爭ひといふなり, right and wrong are reflected in one's own heart, and one comes to examine oneself in the bright mirror of the heart; this is why archery is called the way of 仁, and the gentleman's contest [32]. An appendix to the same book, a commentary on the chapter, glosses the sentence: 反つて其正鵠を得ざりし原因を己れ自身で反省するの外はないのである。畢竟射は、自己反省の道である仁の定義にあてはまるのであるといふのである, one can only turn and examine in oneself the cause of having missed the mark. In the end, it says, archery fits the definition of 仁, which is the way of self-reflection [32]. The appendix reads the sentence as a continuation of the chapter's 內志正，外體直, the will correct within and the body straight without.

1931, an examination question. The kyūdō rank examinations set the sentence as a question, as a book of 1934 by Takeuchi Jō 竹内尉 records it among past questions: 昭和六年五月 (各段共通) 京都本部, 射は仁の道とは何の謂か, May 1931, every rank, Kyoto headquarters: what is meant by "archery is the way of 仁"?; again in April 1932 at the Kanagawa branch and in May 1934 for the rank of 錬士, in other wordings [33]. Whose examinations these were, and whether the question is older than 1931, is in the Notes.

1931, a dōjō named for the sentence. The history of a women's normal school in Tokushima records that its archery hall, opened on 4 October in the year the paragraph gives as 昭和六年, 1931, was named after the sentence: 道場は禮記の「射者仁之道也。射求正諸己。己正而后發」の句から取つて求正道場と名づけた, the hall was named 求正道場, the Hall of Seeking the Right, after the 禮記's words [34].

1937, two model answers. Takeuchi's kyūdō reader for middle schools prints model answers to the examination's two wordings [35]. To 射は仁の道とは何の謂か: 仁は君子の道である。人と爭はず自己反省をするのが射である。故に射は仁の道であらう, 仁 is the gentleman's way. Not contending with others and examining oneself is archery. So archery would be the way of 仁; and it warns that knowing a Chinese book says so is nothing, the archer must find it out by shooting. To 射は仁の道なりとは何の謂ぞや: 射道の精神が闘爭のためのものではなく、自己を反省し、他と爭はざる仁道であることを說明するものであらう, it would explain that the spirit of archery is not for strife but is the way of 仁 that examines oneself and does not contend with others, and, a few lines on, 仁者は不爭である, the humane man does not contend [35].

1937, a plaque in a dōjō. A book of lectures given at a kyūdō gathering under Yokohama's sponsorship, printed in 1937, records a framed piece in the hall, on a date the windows read do not give: こゝに有吉前市長の額が揭げてあります。有吉さんは弓道といふものをよく理解してをられまして、「射者仁之道也」と書いてをられます, here hangs a plaque by the former mayor Ariyoshi. Mr. Ariyoshi understood kyūdō well, and he wrote "射者仁之道也"; the speaker had built the hall at the mayor's request [36]. He goes on to read the sentence: これは支那の言葉でありますが、射は王者の遣といふ意味であります。丁度皇道精神といふことにあてはまるのであります, this is a Chinese saying, but it means that archery is the way of the king; it fits exactly what is called the spirit of the Imperial Way (遣 is the text layer's character, read as 道) [36]. He is the one reader read for this history who glosses the sentence as 王者の道, and the only one who joins it to the 皇道精神 of his day. The book's pages print only the surname; the dictionaries name Ariyoshi Chūichi 有吉忠一 (1873–1947) as a mayor of Yokohama, and the identification is drawn from that [37].

1953, the federation's manual. The 日本弓道連盟's 『弓道教本』, volume 1, prints the sentence in Japanese under a heading on the ethics of kyūdō: 射は仁の道なり、正を己に求む。己を正しくして後に発す。発して中らざれば則ち己に勝つものを怨まず [38].

1989, 2017 and 2018, three scholars. Three Japanese studies of archery read the sentence three ways. Du Qin 杜勤 (1989) quotes it in Japanese and reads the archer's bearing as 仁 made concrete, こうした射行の姿勢は，「仁徳」が具体的な形をもって現実化しているとみなされる, and takes 仁 itself as reaching others: 「仁」は自らの自立を通して他者の自立をうながすという関係のもとでの徳, a virtue of relation, which through one's own standing helps others to stand, and 民衆一般に対する「愛」, love toward the people at large [39]. Sogawa Tsuneo 寒川恒夫 (2017) reads it as the doctrine that archery shows virtue: 心が正しければ、発した矢は的に当たるが、それは、儒教が掲げる徳の第一である仁を射手が全き水準で内面化している故である, if the heart is right the arrow hits the target, and that is because the archer has fully internalized 仁, the first of the Confucian virtues [40]. Irie Kōhei 入江康平 (2018) writes that Edo archers took the sentence as a premise, and that the courtesy it teaches 今日対人形式の武道教育の中で説明されている“互いに相手を尊敬する念の表現法としての礼”の意ではなく、“反求”、すなわち自己の行為を反省し慎むことを指している, is not courtesy as today's martial-arts teaching explains it, the expression of mutual respect, but 反求, turning the search back: reflecting on one's own conduct and restraining it [41]. The same year a prefectural kyūdō federation titled its seventieth-anniversary history with the sentence, 『射者仁之道也射求正諸己』 [42].

2021, a plaque beside the 射法訓. A municipal kyūdō association's page describes the two framed pieces at the front of its hall as the 礼記射義 and the 射法訓, and prints the first as an extract of the chapter that includes 射は仁の道なり。射は正しきを己に求む。己正しくして而して後発す。発して中らざるときは、即ち己に勝つ者を怨みず。反ってこれを己に求むるのみ [43].

What is not a source. The 中庸 has a kindred sentence, which Legge sets beside this one: In archery we have something like (the way of) the superior man. When the archer misses the centre of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure in himself [9]. It is a kin text, as the 孟子's 仁者如射 is, and Luan Zhao already quotes the two together [15]; neither is the sentence's source. The pairing of the sentence with the kyūdō maxim 正射必中, the true shot hits, has no witness among those read for this history: the one modern hall read hangs it beside the 射法訓 [43].

射は仁の道なり in English

1885, James Legge, The Lî Kî, Sacred Books of the East 28, p. 452. Archery suggests to us the way of benevolence. (The archer) seeks to be correct in himself, and then discharges his arrow. If it miss the mark, he is not angry with the one who has surpassed himself, but turns round and seeks (for the cause of failure) in himself. His note: Compare above, page 307, paragraph 40, where we have 'the way of the superior man' instead of 'the way of benevolence, or perfect virtue' [9]. Legge softens the copula, 也, into suggests to us, where the Chinese says archery is the way, and his benevolence, or perfect virtue already shows that one English word does not hold the 仁 of the sentence.

2003, Edward Slingerland, Confucius Analects, with Selections from Traditional Commentaries, p. 19. Translating Luan Zhao under 3.7: Thus, we also read, "Archery is the way of benevolence (ren). If one shoots but does not hit the bulls-eye, one does not begrudge one's victorious opponent, but rather simply looks within", followed by a bracketed reference to Mencius 2:A:7 [10]. His note cites Legge's translation of the chapter. Slingerland restores the copula and keeps Legge's benevolence, adding the romanized ren so the reader sees which word it renders. That reference to the 孟子 does not fit the wording he translates: the 孟子 has 仁者如射, the humane man is like an archer, and 射仁道也 is the 禮記's sentence in Luan Zhao's shortened form [4][15].

Today. kotobank has no page under 射は仁の道, 射義, 求正 or 反求諸己. The English the scroll carries on the work order, Archery is the way of benevolence, is Slingerland's sentence word for word. This history gives Archery is the way of humaneness: the word follows the dictionaries' 思いやり and いつくしみ and the reach toward others that Kong Yingda's 仁恩 and Sorai's 安民 give, and the rest of the line, the archer seeks what is right in himself, belongs with it, because without it the English loses the turn upon the self, where all but two of the readings quoted here put the way. A rendering must keep the copula and the turn back on the self.

A reading

The sentence is short, and its weight is in the word 道. Read alone, archery is the way of 仁 sounds like a claim that shooting makes a man kind, and the English benevolence invites that reading. None of the readers this history quotes took it that way. From Kong Yingda's one seeks only within oneself and does no harm to others to the 1937 model answer's the humane man does not contend, the readings before the modern studies locate the way in the archer's turn upon himself: he makes himself right before he shoots, and when he misses he looks for the fault in his own body and mind and not in the one who beat him. Two from the 1930s turn it outward, the 1935 essay to the bow that stops disorder and the Yokohama speaker to the way of the king. Where the others differ is in what 仁 is. For Kong Yingda, Zhao Qi and Sorai it is care that reaches others, and the archer's self-correction is the road to it or its precondition; the 1931 manual defines it as the way of self-reflection, and the examination answers make archery that self-examination; for the 1933 collection of examination questions it is the root of every virtue, while the gentleman's contest is still the archer examining himself. Sogawa's reading, that virtue made inward makes the arrow hit, whose Japanese heir he finds in an Edo archery manual of 1851, is a third thing again. I read the sentence with Kong Yingda and Sorai: 仁 keeps its full sense, the humane regard for others that the dictionaries give first, and archery is called its way because archery is the one contest in which a man can lose without anyone to blame but himself, and so a practice in which the humane man's first step, the turn upon himself, is made with every arrow. That is why the chapter closes on Confucius and the gentleman who does not contend. Humaneness is the better English word than benevolence, which names goodwill from above; but no single word carries the sentence, and the second clause, seek what is right in yourself, is the sentence's own gloss on its first.

Notes

The witnesses divide into two texts. The longer, 射求正諸己, with 射 before 求, is the text of the Tang 禮記注疏 and of the 孟子's parallel [3][4]; the shorter, 求正諸己, is Chen Hao's, and it is also the text of the 1257 scroll, the 1596 and 1616 prints, the 1784 edition, Sorai and the Meiji school editions [19][8][26][27][7][29][5][6]. The 1931 manual's appendix and the 1942 Tokushima record print the longer text, the second with Chen Hao's 而后 [32][34]. Luan Zhao's 射仁道也 drops both 者 and 之 [15].

The 1616 print's 求反諸己, for 反求諸己, stands in that print alone among the witnesses read; the 1257 scroll in the same place has 反求 [27][8].

Sogawa titles the chapter 「射儀」; the 禮記's chapter is 射義 [40][1].

The 呂氏 of the 西山讀書記 is Lü Dalin: the 五禮通考 quotes the same comment at the sentence under 吕氏大臨曰, in a fuller form that adds the step to archery, 射者求中有似於此, the archer's seeking to hit is like this: 仁者之道不怨天不尤人行有不至反求諸己而已盖以仁為己任無待於外也射者求中有似於此故曰射者仁之道也 [44].

The examinations are the 大日本武徳会's. A collection of their kyūdō rank questions published in 1933, Kuwamura Tsunenosuke 桑村常之助's 『大日本武徳会弓道階級試験問題正解集』, carries the question in more than one wording, among them 射は仁の道とは何の意ぞ and 射は仁の道とは何の謂か [45]. One of its windows lists the question among others above a column of dates given by year and month, 五年 and 六年 among them, which the text layer does not tie to single questions; that the question was set before May 1931 is not ruled out. Its explanation of the sentence reads the 仁 as the root of every virtue: 孔子は一以て貫くと云つて、仁は總の德の本であると云つて居ますから、「射は仁の道なり」とは弓を射ることは一切の道德の根本に叶うものであるとの意味であります, since Confucius says that one thread runs through all, and that 仁 is the root of every virtue, "archery is the way of 仁" means that shooting the bow accords with the root of all morality; in the same window it reads the gentleman's contest as the self-examination that archery brings [45].

An essay in 斯文, the journal of the 斯文会, in its issue of January 1935 quotes the sentence twice. Once it gives the chapter's turn upon the self, after the 孟子's; once it makes the sentence the proof that the bow is not a thing of slaughter: 武旣に殺伐なるものに非ず。射は仁の道也。弓を以て禍亂を止む。仁豈に是れより大なるものあらんや, arms are not slaughter. Archery is the way of 仁: with the bow one puts an end to disorder; what 仁 could be greater than this? It reads 武 as 止戈, stopping the halberd, after the 說文 and the 左傳, and takes the 東夷 who bear the bow for the great and humane men of the east [46]. The windows read do not show the essay's title or author.

Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Archery is the Way of Humaneness (sha wa jin no michi nari) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
射は仁の道なりVB5JBlock
Japanese Scroll of Archery is the Way of Humaneness (sha wa jin no michi nari) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
射は仁の道なりVC5JCursive
Japanese Scroll of Archery is the Way of Humaneness (sha wa jin no michi nari) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (jiun)
射は仁の道なりVD5JJiun
Japanese Scroll of Archery is the Way of Humaneness (sha wa jin no michi nari) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
射は仁の道なりVS5JSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

村田登見 編 『弓道講演集』 (横浜, 1937), National Diet Library, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1056073. The record of lectures at the hall where the plaque hung, which the Library serves in full only inside Japan. A reading of the whole would settle the plaque's date, the hall's name and whether the book gives Ariyoshi's given name, which the identification in this history infers.

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 禮記, 射義, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/禮記/射義
  2. 仁, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BB%81-81299
  3. 禮記注疏, 62.1 (鄭玄 注, 孔穎達 疏), at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/禮記注疏/62.1
  4. 孟子, 公孫丑上, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/孟子/公孫丑上
  5. 後藤嘉幸, 『五経 鼇頭註解 仮名付』 礼記, 1880, scan 81. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/753619/1/81
  6. 後藤巳男輔, 『五経 標註詳解』 礼記, 1882, scan 65. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/753652/1/65
  7. 『改正音訓五經』, 1784, scan 72. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2599259/1/72
  8. 『群書治要』 卷第七, 金沢文庫本, reproduction by 宮内省図書寮, 1941, scan 35. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2591362/1/35
  9. James Legge, trans., The Lî Kî, Books XI–XLVI, Sacred Books of the East 28, Clarendon Press, 1885, p. 452 and p. 307. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.217475
  10. Edward Slingerland, trans., Confucius Analects, with Selections from Traditional Commentaries, Hackett, 2003, p. 19.
  11. 礼記, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A4%BC%E8%A8%98-146692
  12. 鄭玄, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%84%AD%E7%8E%84-79112
  13. 孔穎達, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%AD%94%E7%A9%8E%E9%81%94-56129
  14. 孟子注疏 (四庫全書本), 卷03下 (趙岐 注), at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/孟子注疏_(四庫全書本)/卷03下
  15. 皇侃, 論語集解義疏 (四庫全書本), 卷02, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/論語集解義疏_(四庫全書本)/卷02
  16. 皇侃, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%9A%87%E4%BE%83-448778
  17. 呂大臨, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%91%82%E5%A4%A7%E8%87%A8-150155
  18. 真德秀, 西山讀書記 (四庫全書本), 卷07, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/西山讀書記_(四庫全書本)/卷07
  19. 陳澔, 陳氏禮記集說 (四庫全書本), 卷10, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/陳氏禮記集說_(四庫全書本)/卷10
  20. 七經孟子考文補遺 (四庫全書本), 卷174, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/七經孟子考文補遺_(四庫全書本)/卷174
  21. 群書治要, 日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%BE%A4%E6%9B%B8%E6%B2%BB%E8%A6%81-487756
  22. 『花押かがみ』 3, 1984, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12205721
  23. 『群書治要』 7, 1991, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13599914
  24. 清原教隆, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B8%85%E5%8E%9F%E6%95%99%E9%9A%86-1070991
  25. 金沢実時, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%87%91%E6%B2%A2%E5%AE%9F%E6%99%82-45946
  26. 五經白文 (title supplied by the National Diet Library), dated 1596 by the Library, scan 68. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2545409/1/68
  27. 『羣書治要』, copper-type print, 1616, scan 40. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2543730/1/40
  28. 論語徴, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%AB%96%E8%AA%9E%E5%BE%B4-1218143
  29. 荻生徂徠, 『論語徵』, in 関儀一郎 編, 『日本名家四書註釈全書』, 1926, scan 127, p. 236. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/970540/1/127
  30. 渡井量蔵 点, 『五経 校訂新鐫 片仮名付』 礼記, 1889, scan 52. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/753586/1/52
  31. 窪美昌保, 『大宝令新解』, 1916, scan 48. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/926858/1/48
  32. 小林治道, 『竹林射法七道』, 1931, scan 10 (preface) and scan 71 (appendix, pp. 92–93). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1175325/1/10 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1175325/1/71
  33. 『弓道・新射法』, 1934, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1232598
  34. 徳島県女子師範学校, 『創立四十周年記念沿革史』, 1942, scan 90, p. 145. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1461297/1/90
  35. 竹内尉, 『弓道読本：中等教科』, 1937, scan 87 (p. 140) and scan 97 (p. 161). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1052433/1/87 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1052433/1/97
  36. 村田登見 編, 『弓道講演集』, 1937, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1056073
  37. 有吉忠一, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%9C%89%E5%90%89%E5%BF%A0%E4%B8%80-1051523
  38. 日本弓道連盟, 『弓道教本』 第1巻, 1953, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3452107
  39. 杜勤, 「儒学における「射」および「射礼」に関する研究」, スポーツ教育学研究 9(2), 1989, pp. 81–82. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jjses1982/9/2/9_2_77/_article/-char/ja/
  40. 寒川恒夫, 「武術伝書の語り方」, 体育史研究 34, 2017, p. 4. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/taiikushi/34/0/34_1/_article/-char/ja/
  41. 入江康平, 「近世日本弓射の様態と意義の多様化について」, 体育史研究 35, 2018, p. 17. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/taiikushi/35/0/35_13/_article/-char/ja/
  42. 石川県弓道連盟, 『射者仁之道也射求正諸己：石川県弓道連盟創立70年史』, 2018, catalogue record, National Diet Library Search. https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I028951716
  43. 近江八幡市弓道協会, 「礼記射義・射法訓のこと」, 2021. https://omihachiman-kyudo.blog.jp/archives/10743048.html
  44. 五禮通考 (四庫全書本), 卷163, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/五禮通考_(四庫全書本)/卷163
  45. 桑村常之助, 『大日本武徳会弓道階級試験問題正解集』, 1933, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1111317
  46. 『斯文』 17(1), 斯文会, 1935, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/6072262

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Not yet reviewed.

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 射は仁の道なり (sha wa jin no michi nari)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/sha-wa-jin-no-michi-nari.