役に立たぬ事をせざる事 yaku ni tatanu koto o sezaru koto Do Not Do What Does Not Serve
The last of nine rules in Musashi's Book of Five Rings, and how a list item came to be quoted on its own.
Abstract
役に立たぬ事をせざる事, the matter of not doing what does not serve, is the ninth and last of the nine rules that close the Earth scroll of the 『五輪書』 Gorin no sho, The Book of Five Rings, handed down as the last writing of Miyamoto Musashi 宮本武蔵, whose colophon, as the prints of 1909 and 1915 give it, is dated the twelfth day of the fifth month of 1645 [1][2][3]. Its earliest print in the National Diet Library's full-text search, a typeset of 1909, writes the verb 立ぬ, with the た unwritten, as an undated manuscript copy also does; the form brushed here is that of an edition of 1939 [2][4][5]. In 1916 Fukurai Tomokichi 福来友吉 quoted the rule alone and wrote that Musashi teaches it as 第一の心得, the first, or foremost, precept for one learning the sword; in 1963 a medical journal set it before the words our lives are short, and our abilities have limits [6][7]. The English renderings make it a rule against the useless; 役 is, in the dictionaries, the part one is given to do, and I read the rule as asking each act to serve that part [8].
Overview
The sense. The 精選版 日本国語大辞典 defines 役に立つ as その役に適している。使用して効果がある。用が足りる。, to be fit for its part; to have effect when used; to meet the need, and デジタル大辞泉 as 使って効果がある。有用である。, to have effect when used; to be useful [9]. JMdict gives to be helpful; to be useful [10]. The rule forbids doing what is not 役に立つ: do not do what is of no use, as Harris and Cleary have it, or, with the noun's own sense, do not do what does not serve.
The words. 役, yaku, in the fourth sense the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives, is 受持の仕事。役目。つとめ。官職。職務。任務。, the work in one's charge; a part, a duty, an office, a post, a task [8]. 役に立つ is to stand in that part, to serve. 立たぬ is its negative, 立た with the negative ぬ, and 立ぬ is the same word with the た left unwritten; せざる is する, to do, with the negative ざる, which modifies the 事 that follows. The closing 事, koto, the matter of, makes the line a heading, and in the 1909 print each of the nine rules ends that way or in 所, the point of [2]. So the line is the matter of not doing what does not serve. Nothing in the dictionary entries read makes it a set phrase: it is plain prose, the last item of a list.
The text in English. The English books read here give: Victor Harris, 1974, Do nothing which is of no use; Thomas Cleary, 1993, Do not do anything useless; Kenji Tokitsu, in Sherab Chodzin Kohn's translation, 2004, Do not perform useless acts; David K. Groff, 2016, Don't do things that serve no purpose; Alexander Bennett, 2018, Do not engage in superfluous activities [11][12][13][14][15]. JMdict gives 役立つ as to be useful; to be helpful; to serve the purpose [10].
The historical record
1645. The nine rules, at the end of the Earth scroll. No copy in Musashi's own hand survives; the 日本大百科全書 calls best a scroll copy of 1667 that his pupil Terao Magonojō 寺尾孫之丞 addressed to a pupil of his own, now in the Eisei Bunko 永青文庫 of the Hosokawa family [1]. The same encyclopedia gives the book as handed down as Musashi's last writing, 遺書と伝えられる, and the 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 says that, with no copy in his hand, doubt remains about how it was composed, 成立について疑問は残る [1]. The earliest print in the National Diet Library's full-text search is the typeset in 『宮本武藏』, compiled by a society formed to honor Musashi's memory and sites, 宮本武藏遺蹟顯彰會, and published in 1909 [2]. There, after naming the five scrolls, the Earth scroll closes on a method for those who would learn: 我兵法を學ばんと思ふ人は、道を行ふ法有り, for one who would learn my strategy there is a method for walking the way. The nine follow, numbered: to think on what is not crooked; to train in the way; to touch the arts; to know the ways of the various trades; to tell gain from loss in things; to learn to judge all things; to perceive and know what the eye does not see; then [2]:
第八にわづかなる事にも氣を付る事、第九に役に立ぬ事をせざる事、大形如此理を心に懸て、兵法の道鍛煉すべき也、
Eighth, to take care even over small things; ninth, not to do what does not serve. Keep these principles broadly in mind and train in the way of strategy. The facing page carries the colophon: 正保二歳五月十二日 新免武藏, the twelfth day of the fifth month of 1645, Shinmen Musashi, addressed to 寺尾孫之丞, and below it 寛文七年二月五日, the fifth day of the second month of 1667, signed 寺尾夢世勝延 with his monogram, 花押 [2].
Undated. A manuscript copy. The 東北大学 library's 狩野文庫 holds a manuscript copy of the book, not dated in its catalogue record [4]. Its ninth rule reads 第九に役に立ぬ事をせさる事, writing 立ぬ as the 1909 print does, and せさる unvoiced [4]. Its colophon carries Musashi's date of 1645 and is addressed to Terao and to a second pupil, and it has no line of 1667 [4].
1915. A collated text, with をば. 『武術叢書』, published by 國書刊行會 in 1915, prints the book in a text its editor says he set from the two copies in the world, each handed down from one of Musashi's direct pupils: 本書は二書によりて校定したり, this book is set from the two [3]. Its ninth rule reads 第九に役に立たぬ事をばせざる事, with the verb written out and the particle をば, which sets off the object it follows [3]. Its colophon names a second addressee beside Terao, and an addressee for the line of 1667 [3].
1916. Lifted out of the list. Fukurai Tomokichi (1869–1952) was a psychologist and, in the 日本大百科全書 and the 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, a pioneer of parapsychology in Japan [16]. In 『心霊の現象』, published in September 1916, under the running head 宮本武藏の劍道, Miyamoto Musashi's swordsmanship, he writes [6]:
武藏は五輪書の内に、劍道を學ぶには「役に立たぬ事をせざる事」を第一の心得と說き、飾を捨てゝ實を取り、華を去つて實に就くと言ふ、實に徹頭徹尾實際を旨とした人である。
Musashi, in the Book of Five Rings, teaches that for one learning the sword the first, or foremost, precept is "not doing what does not serve": cast off ornament and take substance, leave the flower and go to the fruit, he says. He was truly a man who held to the practical from first to last. The rule the copies read number ninth is here, in Fukurai's account of Musashi's teaching, the first, and it is quoted alone. On the facing page Fukurai quotes the book's passage on wearing two swords, which uses a kindred phrase, the transitive 役に立てる, to put to use, of a weapon: 一命を捨る時に、道具を殘さず役に立たきもの也。道具を役に立てず、腰に納めて死する事、本意に在べからず。, when one throws away one's life, one would have every tool put to its use; to die with a tool unused, sheathed at the waist, cannot be what one intends [6].
1939. The form brushed here. 『原本五輪書』, edited and published by 高山菊次 at 教材社 in 1939, prints 第九に役に立たぬ事をせざる事, with the reading やく set beside 役 [5]. The edition does not say what copy it was set from [5].
1963. In a medical journal. 『日本医事新報』, a medical journal, in November 1963, as the National Diet Library's full-text search displays it, sets the heading 兵法ヲ学バント思ウ人ハ道ヲオコナウ法アリ, a row of dots, the ninth rule, credited 役ニタタヌ事ヲセザル事(宮本武蔵·五輪書), and then われわれの人生は短く、能力には限りがある。, our lives are short, and our abilities have limits [7].
The rule in English
1974. Victor Harris. A Book of Five Rings, p. 49, after This is the Way for men who want to learn my strategy:, a numbered list ending 9. Do nothing which is of no use. [11]. The list form is kept, and 役に立たぬ is of no use.
1993. Thomas Cleary. The Book of Five Rings, p. 22: 9. Do not do anything useless. [12]. The same reading in fewer words.
2004. Kenji Tokitsu. Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings, translated by Sherab Chodzin Kohn, p. 149, after Those who would like to learn my strategy should apply the following rules in order to practice the way:, 9. Do not perform useless acts. [13].
2016. David K. Groff. The Five Rings: Miyamoto Musashi's Art of Strategy, p. 76, after To those people who want to learn my strategy, there are these rules for practising the Way:, the nine set unnumbered, the last Don't do things that serve no purpose. [14]. Groff keeps the verb serve and gives it a purpose for its object.
2018. Alexander Bennett. The Complete Musashi, after For those who care to learn my principles of combat strategy, follow these rules in observing the Way:, 9. Do not engage in superfluous activities [15]. Superfluous names what is more than is needed; the Japanese names what does not serve, and the dictionaries read give 役に立つ no sense of excess [9].
Today. The English given here, Do not do what does not serve, is this history's own. It keeps the two negatives of 役に立たぬ and せざる, and gives 役 its sense of a part to be served. Word for word the line says the matter of not doing what does not serve; every rendering read keeps it as the last item of the list, and a rendering of the line alone should leave room to say that it is one.
A reading
The rule is the last of nine, and in every copy read it stands in the list's own form, a heading ending 事 [2][3][4][5]. The eight before it say what to attend to: the arts, the trades, gain and loss, the unseen, the small. The ninth says what to leave undone, and it gathers the list as a close does. Fukurai, in 1916, quoted it alone and called it the first, and in 1963 it stood before a sentence on the shortness of life [6][7]. The English has made it a rule against the useless, which reads as thrift. The book's own use of 役 for a weapon points elsewhere: a tool is to be put to its use, 役に立てる, and not carried unused to one's death [6]. 役 is a part, a charge in hand [8]. I read the ninth rule in that light: not waste nothing, but do nothing that does not serve the part you have taken on, which for Musashi's reader was the way of strategy, and for anyone who hangs the line is whatever they have taken on. Signed, 典.
Notes
The forms of the rule. Point by point, against the witnesses read for this history:
- 立ぬ or 立たぬ. The 1909 print and the manuscript write 立ぬ; the 1915 and 1939 prints and Fukurai in 1916 write 立たぬ [2][4][3][5][6]. One word, with or without the た written.
- をば. The 1915 print alone reads 事をばせざる事 [3].
- せざる or せさる. The manuscript writes せさる, unvoiced [4].
- 鍛煉 or 鍛錬. In the sentence after the list, the 1909 print writes 鍛煉, the 1915 and 1939 prints 鍛錬 [2][3][5].
The earliest known. The earliest print here means the earliest in the National Diet Library's full-text search for 役に立ぬ事をせざる, 役に立たぬ事をせざる and 役にたたぬ事をせざる, all access levels, sorted by date of issue, oldest first; works outside its full text, manuscripts among them, are not reached [2].
The month of the 1667 copy. The 日本大百科全書 dates the scroll of 1667 to the fifth month; the colophon printed in 1909 and 1915 reads 寛文七年二月五日, the fifth day of the second month [1][2][3].
Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase
Sources not seen
『五輪書』, the scroll copy of 1667 (寛文七年) in the 永青文庫, Tokyo, listed in the 国書総目録 under 細川護立 as 寛文七写 (国書データベース, work 2696039, https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/2696039) and called the best copy by the 日本大百科全書 [1]. The 1909 and 1915 prints carry a colophon of that year. It would show whether that copy writes 立ぬ or 立たぬ, and whether it has をば.
A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.
References
- 「五輪書」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (中林信二) and 日本大百科全書 (渡邉一郎), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BA%94%E8%BC%AA%E6%9B%B8-66594
- 宮本武藏遺蹟顯彰會 編, 『宮本武藏』, 金港堂, 1909, pp. 166–167, scan 107, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/107
- 『武術叢書』, 國書刊行會, 1915, 解題 at scan 5, and pp. 240–241, scan 130, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/945805/1/130
- 『五輪書』 (二天一流五倫巻), manuscript copy, undated, 東北大学附属図書館 狩野文庫, canvases 31–32, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100331651/31
- 高山菊次 編, 『原本五輪書』, 教材社, 1939, p. 15, scan 11, and the colophon, scan 42, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1071527/1/11
- 福来友吉, 『心霊の現象』, 弘學館書店, 1916, pp. 228–229, scan 127, and the colophon, scan 231, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/955230/1/127
- 『日本医事新報』, November 1963, search index 35, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3454866
- 「役」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, sense ④, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%BD%B9-442793
- 「役に立つ」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%BD%B9%E3%81%AB%E7%AB%8B%E3%81%A4-647767
- JMdict (EDRDG), entries 1537980 役に立つ and 1538090 役立つ, read in the house's local copy of JMdict; online at jisho.org. https://jisho.org/search/%E5%BD%B9%E3%81%AB%E7%AB%8B%E3%81%A4
- Victor Harris, tr., Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings, Overlook Press, 1974, p. 49, read on the house's shelf.
- Thomas Cleary, tr., Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings, Shambhala, 1993, p. 22, read on the house's shelf.
- Kenji Tokitsu, Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings, tr. Sherab Chodzin Kohn, Shambhala, 2004, p. 149, read on the house's shelf.
- David K. Groff, tr., The Five Rings: Miyamoto Musashi's Art of Strategy, Chartwell Books, 2016, p. 76, read on the house's shelf.
- Alexander Bennett, tr., The Complete Musashi: The Book of Five Rings and Other Works, Tuttle, 2018, the Ground scroll, read on the house's shelf in an edition without page numbers.
- 「福来友吉」, 日本大百科全書 (大谷宗司) and 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A6%8F%E6%9D%A5%E5%8F%8B%E5%90%89-1105002