One of the toughest of all the virtues to uphold is that of ‘Justice’. How do you be Just? How do you demonstrate this virtue, and show equanimity to friend, foe, ally and enemy alike without any sort of unfair, bias on your part in favour of one or the other? How do you also show yourself to be just to those of a lower station than yourself? Show yourself to be just towards your children in a fair manner?
This particular virtue is one that a great many characters in Japanese literature since the time of Genji Monogatari (that is to say about the year 1000 or so) have struggled with in earnest. From Genji where the lead struggles to be just with himself and to cease self-flagellating after his father has passed on, to Kiyomori who showed too much mercy to his enemies who have none of his fair-mindedness to the likes in modern lit and cinema of Ashikaga Takauji who longed to treat fairly with his enemies but kept treating his insane younger brother Tadayoshi too leniantly even as the man went on killing sprees of increasing cruelty. To the likes of a hundred other heroes in Japanese lit and cinema.
A perfect example of this virtue arguably is Edmond Dantes the hero of Comte de Monte-Cristo who exacts revenge upon those who defiled his life, but he also shows pity to a great many of the repentant. He is thus the perfect embodiment of Justice.
Traditionally though it is believed in Christendom that Justice comes from God, which is to say that we humans can interpret it a certain way but in truth it comes from up above and is even-handed and fair. The Samurai and other cultures of Asia believed in something similar, with the Mandate of Heaven playing a heavy role in this; the Mandate could pass from one unworthy scion of a dynasty to a new dynasty that is worthy of it if they showed themselves to rule more justly than the previously corrupted lineage.
One need only look to how the Tang Dynasty usurped the Sui Dynasty, or how Nero was usurped to see examples of this philosophy in action (to an extent with respect to the Romans).
Justice as the Samurai understood it was something that they dealt out, but that they could not be unfair in the dealing of. When they were things went bad (such as during the devastating Gempei Wars that ravaged all sides and left the Hojo as the last men standing). What is more is that the notion of Justice was tied up with ideals surrounding Emperor, he was after all the son of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu-Omikami, and therefore directly tied to the heavens. So any inflicting of a higher form of virtue had connections to him.
When you went to inflict and mishandle Justice as what happened in the Gempei Wars and in the aftermath conflicts which saw all manner of things bungled and Japan ravaged, and left in the incompetent hands of the Hojo, only misrule and bad things could result. Several Emperors were gotten rid of, or otherwise set aside at that time and the aftermath could only have convinced the men of the era of the wrongness of mishandling things. Conversely things went awry also in the conflicts between the Ashikaga and the line of Emperor Go-Daigo, however there it was not due to incompetence, and there seems to have been rather more sincere intentions on all sides to find some sort of solution.
It was only with the collapse of the old order in 1600 at Sekigahara that Japan at last began to heal after 150 years of conflict (the conflict began around 1450, and was the result of fractious court infighting and mishandling of Justice).
To the modern understanding this was all coincidental and events occuring one after another. It has been said ‘stuff just happens’, but this shows an incredible ignorance regarding history as everything is connected. And there is merit to the Japanese understanding that the bungling of justice by the likes of Oda Nobunaga for example led to his death, then that led to the death of Akechi Mitsuhide, but to go back in time they were in their positions due to the weakness of the later Ashikaga who had their power broken in the 1450s after they exhibited remarkable bias and self-interest rather than showing a broader vision that encompassed all of Japan.
In turn that had its roots in the heirs of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (the greatest of the Ashikaga Shoguns), and the problems of his day had its roots in the reign and troubled life of his grandfather and grand-uncle, and their problems had their roots in the settlement of 1221 (along with the Mongol invasions of the later 13th century), and 1221 had its roots in the Gempei Wars of 1181-1185 and that conflict had its roots in the long reign of Taira no Kiyomori (1159-1181) and that had…. and so on.
It wasn’t just stuff happens but a series of incidences and conflicts that lasted from the Hogen no Ran (Hogen War) up until 1600. That said what precipitated the Hogen conflict? A fight over the Imperial Throne, after Shirakawa had ruled unjustly and quite corruptly leaving a mess for his successor Toba to try to fix only for it to be beyond fixing.
Arguably this was a case of unjust rule haunting and breaking the power of the Imperial family in some ways, so that there was a vaccuum. One filled up by the Samurai/Bushi.
In turn though if one turns to Europe to compare it, has there ever been a time when Justice was demanded, none was found and men were horrified by the blatant brutality of a ruler and it broke his line’s power?
Actually it has. Notably there is the House of York that had ruled in a debauched way throughout Edward IV’s reign and had siphoned off wealth from many other families and saw the rise of his much weaker, much less militarily successful brother Richard III. A cruel man, who put his nephews to death in secret and publicly executed everyone he came across who might ‘think of rebellion’, Richard was a tyrant and a brute. So the English revolted and a man with no claim to the English throne seized it, Henry Tudor.
One could even level the argument with regards to an earlier era, the 100 Years War; the English won a stunning series of victories early in the war. But repeated brutal campaigns against the people of Scotland, France and Spain eventually stiffened resistance, so that Baugé and the seven week campaign of Jehanne D’Arc was the result.
In the case of the fall of Richard, it saw the rise of the brutal wintry period of the Tudors, with the sun not destined to rise on merry old England until the Glorious Revolution of 1688 as the Tudors and Stewarts ruled how shall we say it? Badly.
The fact is that a lack of justice has wrecked nations, has haunted great eras of history. And Justice is arguably integral to stability. A fair-hand by fair minded rulers and involving fair-minded and kindly subjects usually leads to golden eras such as that of the Good Emperors of the 3rd century of Rome, or the first century of the Han Emperors or Tang Emperors. Or the period from 1358-1440 for Japan, or the period after the Imjin Wars up to 1900 for the Korean Joseon Dynasty.
On an individual level Justice doesn’t mean siding with your enemies or your children’s enemies and calling it ‘fairness’ (I’ve seen this happen and it really screwed up the kids of that parent as everyone stared in bewilderment). Justice means being fair and merciful when one’s enemies are prostrate, while also being fierce towards those against you and yours.
Fierceness against them means defying them until they relent. Justice and loyalty must after all be tied up together. The ideal of Justice when mis-applied as said leads to misery, so that if you’re in the wrong you must be able to relent yourself, acknowledge it and humbly make peace.
But when you’re in the right you must learn also to compromise else you might fight meaningless endless conflicts that only drain your energy so pick your battles. Fight for just causes, fight well and always show mercy if possible. Mercy is a virtue in and of itself, as is toughness.
Think also of the literary hero Buck from Call of the Wild who punishes the brutal Natives who hunted down his beloved ‘master’ and kinsmen. This was just and right as those tribes had demonstrated themselves to be brutes and monsters. They had no reason to kill the men they had, and those were old men who simply sought a little wealth for their families and weren’t disturbing the local area and likely would have shared their good fortune.
There is also the likes of Aragorn from LOTR who shows himself to be far more Just than Denethor (who arguably lost the Mandate of Heaven), and there is also Conan who is just to his friends but learns the value of mercy at the end of his own great epic novel when he shows mercy to Tarascus. Tarascus is utterly undeserving of mercy and yet Conan shows it, and wishes for mercy so that he might lay claim to the beauteous Zenobia.
There is of course also the likes in cinema of Zorro (take your pick which one you want), who is just and fair and hides his anger behind a mask so that he might be unbiased. There is also Mufasa from the Lion King who is a just ruler and not afraid of reprimanding and growling at his hedonistic son so that the youth might abandon hedonism and go face up to his responsibilities and deliver heaven’s Justice to Scar.
In Star Wars when Anakin destroys the Jedi is he bringing about Justice? Hell no, and all it leads to is destruction and death for 25 years, until his son comes along to break up the Empire. Yet Luke shows pity unto Vader. Why? Because parricide is a crime and filial piety does matter, so he shows mercy to the man who begat him and defies the man who broke him, doing the right thing. On the same token Kyle Katarn slays Jerec the unrepentant murderer of his father Morgan Katarn, because Jerec has it coming and will not repent, with Kyle slaying him however in semi-self-defence. All this matters, because it shows that Justice must prevail, there is a balance to the universe and there is a balance we believe in so that there must in the ened be a form of it, we must see it brought about in fiction else it leaves a bad taste in our mouths.
The justice of the Samurai was a fact, just as that of the Knights was, but eventually Justice gave way to cruelty, and cruelty gave way to dissatisfaction and even as they reformed their ways (as shown in the Tokugawa era and that of the later 100 Years War) it was somewhat too late in some ways. But Justice in a form still existed. It’ll always exist and it is for we the heirs of history to show ourselves to either be as unjust as the Jacobins from the French Revolution or as fair as the heirs of Tokugawa could so often be.
Justice is a tricky virtue. It can be taken to extremes, such as the anti-terror laws which net the innocent and the guilty, or a person can be too lenient, in which case, people ignore Justice.
I believe that justice is blind and deaf and is a hard balance to maintain. Justice is more than obeying laws and punishing those who break them. Is it Just for a person to be imprisoned for life for partaking in drugs? In my opinion, no. That person should get treatment and be rehabilitated.
Justice should be, but rarely is, proportional to the crime, and the punishment tempered by mercy.