This scheme consists of two parts.
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In the left diagram, "本宗(honso)" is written in the top circle. "本宗" stands as the "inner-shrine" of Gengo. Ise Grand Shrine is called by the same name, "本宗." In the right diagram, "小冊 (shosatsu)" is written in the top circle. That means "book of small objects." It represents plants and animals, including habitats where the small biological activities occur in the universe. This book divides into two parts. The right one, "人部 (jinbu)" describes human beings and the left one "物部 (butsubu)" describes animals, plants, and topsoil. 
Baien shows the entire universe (except earth's ecosystem) into this symmetrical radial pattern of the diagram. That is Baien's "Holonic Dual Path System", and his balanced properties formulated into a dichotomic figure. The meaning of the name is "Figure that categorizes the components of the universe with the Holonic Dual Path System". There are time and space, rotational movement of the celestial sphere, movement of ascent and descent exercise of the earth's gravitational field, globe, and celestial sphere, sea, and sunlight at the circumference of the left half. They are arranged counterclockwise from the upper left quadrant. As you can see from the map, they are all integrated into higher-order categories together with the concept group of the right half, and at last, ultimately into transcendent wholeness that cannot express in any way. The right half concept group determines the types of the left half entities and determines kinds of whole beings on the earth. Ancient Greek Aristotle studied these all. Baien got the knowledge about the Natural philosophy of ancient Greece through the "物理小識" written by Fang Yizhi(1611-1671) and "天経或問" written by Youzi Liu(16??-16??). Baien read these two books written in the "Ming Dynasty". He studied the new knowledge about the shapes of nature and he changed his idea entirely after that. And he left from Sinocentrism.The other many private scholars also went the same way as Baien. In Sinocentrism, the earth was considered to be square, and this view of nature was adopted because it was convenient for maintaining the system of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan. Aristotle's idea lies in Baien's dualitism. And the other thinker, an ancient Chinese Zhuang Zhou, particularly his "On the Equality of Things" had a significant impact on Baien. Baien had integrated the two thoughts in his Holonic Dual Path System. Zhuang Zhou was the first person in history who wrote about that before over 2300 years, and Baien used the same word in the first sentence of "GENGO-Tensatsu" after 2000 years. The first person who mentioned the impossibility of saying about wholeness was not Ludwig Wittgenstein. So Baien placed a blank figure in front of all figures and wrote, That means "Wholeness is impossible to draw". There is no "Cogito" in wholeness. There is neither consciousness nor unconsciousness, neither subjectivity nor objectivity in wholeness. However, the above only corresponds to the upper half of the "GENGO" system map. Baien was a godly person, and he worshiped to Ise Shrine. So I suppose that he put the word "本宗" which is the same name as Ise Shrine, as the top of his system map. This book is a compendium of the two subordinate books, and Baien called this one with another name "Big book". The reason is "Big book" has no sentence written about animals and plants. They are discussed in the "Small Book" corresponding to the "Big book". The "Small Book" is divided into the human world and the world of living things other than human. The following diagram corresponds to this part of the system diagram.  Click for more details! The letter "小 -small- " in the center circle corresponds to the "小冊 -small book" in the lower half of the system diagram of "GENGO". Aristotle also studied the small existence on the earth. Probably Baien knew his knowledge through the "物理小識" written by Fang Yizhi(1611-1671). Baien shows that the area inside the circle of the bold line is our living area. Unfortunately, Fang Yizhi and "物理小識" are not yet available in English on Wikipedia. Aristotle's natural science that Mateo Ricci brought to China in the Ming Dynasty was brought together in two Chinese books called "天経或問" and "物理小識", and then brought to Nagasaki, Japan. Chinese religion at that time was called "Ming religion" and it is pointed out by Chinese and Japanese researchers that it was Manichaeism transformed into Buddhism, which called Vajrayana(密教). One of the three was Saicho, who brought back "Tendai Buddhism" to Japan and built Enryaku-ji in Mount Hiei. Another one was Kukai, who brought back Shingon Buddhism to Japan and built Kongobuji in Mount Koya. It is very interesting that these two monks visited Usa Shrine before departure and immediately after returning home. Perhaps the two monks borrowed from someone through Usa Shrine for the travel expenses and the cost of building the temples after returning home. Of course, it was replaced in full over many years. It is not difficult to imagine that it is the "Emperor and Golden Fund", as 落合莞爾 -Kwanji Ochiai-, the narrator of the Imperial History suggests. No one knows where it is, and no one should know it. Monk Ninmon, the other one, brought Tendai a little earlier than Saicho to the Kunisaki Peninsula. These three monks had different roles, but our current interest is Ninmon and Kunisaki Peninsula. Because it was Ninmon that directly linked to MIURA Baien's thought. Now, this is a problem deeply related to Japanese spiritual culture. Is there a difference in value between "Big book" and "Small book" ? Baien thought that everything has equal value as being, regardless of whether it was big or small. That was what Baien learned from Zhuang Zhou. Size is a matter of scale, after all. The value of what exists is the same for a single grain of sand or the whole universe, as William Blake said. So why did Baien separate "Big" and "Small" ? That is because both are equal to the relationship between the mother and her baby. Baien wrote about that as "interdependency". In short, duality. The philosophy is a problem that modern Western natural science since Newton has forgotten in spite of the opposition of the poet William Blake and Goethe. Goethe also criticized Newton, who ignored the existence of darkness. Baien thought light and darkness as dual. I feel that Goethe's theory of color and that of Baien are intimate. However, that is a topic for future research. Xenien, written by Goethe in collaboration with Schiller, is written in Couplet. Couplets are found all over the world. Even if it is not poetry, many things make pairs. They are found in Chinese literary works and also in architectural styles. And most importantly for us, almost all the text of "GENGO" written by Baien is described in couplets like this. Ninmon brought caplets to the Kunisaki Peninsula as religious teachings. As you can see in the picture below, the teachings has been passed down for more than 1300 years. The picture bellow is on the web site "ROKUGOU MANZAN" in the Kunisaki peninsula. And this religious culture shows the starting point of Baien's thought.
In my recent study, Baien certainly believed in Ninmon's teachings. That is from the Chinese Tendai Buddhism, which can be traced back to Persian Manichaeism. Therefore many scholars have come to study that in recent years. Since the arrival of Ninmon, the mountains, rivers, and towns of the Kunisaki peninsula have given names that mean twins. Twins are the word Futago in Japanese. For example, Futago temple, Futago Mountain, Futago rivers, Futago villages, and so on. All come from Ninmon and Tendai. The Kunisaki peninsula flourished with a dual religious culture for 1300 years. And Baien's ides had built after almost 1000 years from the arrival of Ninmon. The great monk Ninmon has embraced the confrontation of Japanese Shinto and Buddhism within the transcendent existence through duality. Many believers have followed the teaching and have kept the high religious culture, which was born in the different two religions respect each other and respect their transcender as spiritual mather. One thousand three hundred one year after Ninmon created Rokugo-Manzan, "Reiwa" started. That is not a coincidence. The Emperor of Heisei sent the position to Emperor of Reiwa to connect traditional Japan to future Japan. Therefor, Reiwa is interpreted as "beautiful harmony". |
