The Origin of "Hattoku/The Eight Virtue".

One of the key phrases in Nansou Satomi Hakkenden is "Hattoku（八徳）/The Eight Virtue".

In other words,

・仁（Jin/benevolent）

・義（Gi/justice）

・礼（Rei/courtesy）

・智（Chi/wisdom）

・忠（Chuu/loyalty）

・信（Shin/faith）

・孝（Kou/filial piety）

・悌（Tei/brotherhood）

Of course, these virtues have been derived Confucian, but the history is shorter term comparively.

However, in Edo period of Japan, they were common in society, and bad people (particularly, people buying women) had been called as

"Bouhachi（忘八）/people forgetting 'Hattoku'".

 

 

I wanted to know about origin of Hattoku, so I consulted Chat GPT again.

 

 According to it, at first, there were five virtues by Mencius and Dong Zhongshu below:

"仁", "義", "礼", "智" and "信"

They had been called as "Gojo（五常）/Five Constant Virtue".

After long time, it was said early confucian texts, "忠", "孝" and "悌", were adopted and added to Five Constant Virtues, and changed into "Hattoku".

Because it was said below,

・孝悌 (filial piety + respect for elder siblings) as a root of 仁 (humaneness): the Analects states, “孝弟也者，其為仁之本與” (“filial piety and brotherly respect… are they not the root of ren?”).

・忠信 (loyalty + trustworthiness) as a guiding principle: the Analects also uses the maxim 主忠信 (“take loyalty and trustworthiness as fundamental”).

 

 

But it was too old, the truth is unknown.

However, at least, in Edo period, it was truth that Hattoku were common as the ethics in all people.

I thought Hakkenden and Hakkenshi had been born in such era and society.

 

 

Hattoku are a bit different to the present ethics.

But, to know Edo culture in Japan, I think Hattoku is the most important.