Ryohei Noguchi 'Biographies of Bakumatsu Figures: Expelling Barbarians and Opening the Country' Episode 4: What Cultivated Makuzu's Writing Style—Gleaning Makuzu's Fallen Ears (2)

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2. How would Confucius answer Makuzu?

The phrase 'It is difficult to deal with women and small men' has been commonly used to group women together with 'lowly and uneducated people,' justifying the habit of looking down on both. This expression appears in the
Analects of Confucius in the 'Yang Huo' chapter, 25.

The Master said, 'Only women and small men are difficult to deal with. If you get close to them, they become insolent; if you keep them at a distance, they harbor resentment.' [The Master said: Women and small men are the only ones who are difficult to handle. If you become intimate with them, they become rude; if you keep them at a distance, they hold a grudge.]


Shigeki Kaizuka (1904-87), a scholar of Chinese history, states that in the era when Confucius (552/551 BC - 479 BC) lived, the aristocracy practiced polygamy, and many concubines lived in the household along with their servants. Also, 'small man' is a term used to refer to male servants. Since he lived with so many women and small men, it is natural that they were difficult to handle, and he argues that it is strange to claim from this statement that Confucius despised women.

However, even if such a historical background was implied, whether or not Confucius lacked the attitude of looking down on and excluding 'women and small men' is a different matter. At the very least, since it cannot be denied that Confucianism has paved the way for the contempt of 'women and small men' throughout 2,300 years of history (and Bakin was among them), it is reasonable for Makuzu to hold Confucius accountable for that.

Chinese literature scholar Kojiro Yoshikawa (1904-80) says of 'Yang Huo' 25, 'It seems to be a passage that shows that not all of the teachings of the Analects are applicable to the modern day.'

Also, Eiichi Shibusawa (1840-1931) had already stated that Confucius's words, 'Women and servants are unmanageable,' reflected the views of an era that gave no educational opportunities to women based on the principle of male chauvinism. He noted that Confucius, who valued deepening insight into the present by learning from past history and was eager to incorporate new things, would never have left such words behind if he had been born in the modern age.

I believe that Makuzu's intuition, born from her struggle with her circumstances, possessed a far-reaching scope that surpassed superficial scholarship. How would Confucius have answered Makuzu's question?

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※Header photo: 'Analects' unearthed from Mogao Caves, Public Domain (Source: https://www.onelittleangel.com/wisdom/quotes/confucianism.asp)

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