Then follow the precepts: (1) The supreme virtue is to fulfill the obligations of chu. A soldier or sailor, however skilled, in whom chu is not strong, is a mere puppet; a body of soldiers wanting in chu is in crisis a mere rabble. ‘Therefore, neither be led astray by current opinions nor meddle in politics, but with singleness do chu, remembering that gi (righteousness) is weightier than a mountain while death is lighter than a feather.’ (2) The second injunction is to observe outward appearance and behavior, i.e., in reference to rank in the Army. ‘Regard the orders of superiors as issuing directly from Us’ and treat inferiors with consideration. (3) The third is valor. True valor is contrasted with ‘burn-blood barbaric acts’ and is defined as ‘never despising an inferior or fearing a superior. Those who thus appreciate true valor should in their daily intercourse set gentleness first and aim to win the love and esteem of others.’ (4) The fourth injunction is the warning against ‘keeping faith in private relations,’ and (5) the fifth is an admonition to be frugal. ‘If you do not make simplicity your aim, you will become effeminate and frivolous and acquire fondness for luxurious and extravagant ways; you will finally grow selfish and sordid and sink to the last degree of baseness, so that neither loyalty nor valour will avail to save you from the contempt of the world . Being harassed with anxiety lest it should break out, We hereby reiterate Our warning.’
The final paragraph of the Rescript calls these five precepts ‘the Grand Way of Heaven and Earth and the universal law of humanity.’ They are ‘the soul of Our soldiers and sailors.’ And, in turn, ‘the soul’ of these five precepts ‘is sincerity. If the heart be not sincere, words and deeds, however good, are all mere outward show and all avail nothing. If only the heart be sincere, anything can be accomplished.’ The five precepts will thus be ‘easy to observe and practice.’ It is characteristically Japanese that sincerity should be tacked on at the end after all the virtues and obligations have been spelled out. The Japanese do not, as the Chinese do, base all virtues on the promptings of the benevolent heart; they first set up the code of duties and then add, at the end, the requirement that one carry these out with all one’s heart and with all one’s soul and with all one’s strength and with all one’s mind.
Sincerity has the same kind of meaning in the teachings of the great Buddhist sect of Zen. In Suzuki’s great compendium of Zen he gives a dialogue between the pupil and the Master:
Monk: I understand that when a lion seizes upon his opponent, whether it is a hare or an elephant, he makes an exhaustive use of his power; pray tell me what is this power?
Master: The spirit of sincerity (literally, the power of not-deceiving).
Sincerity, that is, not-deceiving, means ‘putting forth one’s whole being,’ technically known as ‘the whole being in action. in which nothing is kept in reserve, nothing is expressed under disguise, nothing goes into waste. When a person lives like this, he is said to be a golden-haired lion; he is the symbol of virility, sincerity, whole-heartedness; he is divinely human.
Special Japanese meanings of this word ‘sincerity’ have already been referred to in passing. Makoto does not mean what sincerity does in English usage. It means both far less and far more. Westerners have always been quick to see that it means far less than it does in their language, and they have often said that when a Japanese says anyone is insincere, he means only that the other person doesn’t agree with him. There is a certain truth in this, for calling a man ‘sincere’ in Japan has no reference to whether he is acting ‘genuinely’ according to the love or hate, determination or amazement which is uppermost in his soul. The kind of approval Americans express by saying, ‘He was sincerely glad to see me,’ ‘He was sincerely pleased,’ is alien in Japan. They have a whole series of proverbial expressions casting scorn on such a ‘sincerity.’ They say derisively, ‘Behold the frog who when he opens his mouth displays his whole inside’; ‘Like a pomegranate who when it gapes its mouth shows all that’s in its heart’; it is a shame to any man to ‘blurt out his feelings’; it ‘exposes’ him. These associations with ‘sincerity’ which are so important in the United States have no place in the meaning of the word ‘sincerity’ in Japan. When the Japanese boy accused the American missionary of insincerity, it never occurred to him to consider whether the American ‘genuinely’ felt amazement at the poor lad’s plan to go to America without even a shoestring. When Japanese statesmen in the last decade accused the United States and England of insincerity – as they constantly did – they did not even think whether the Western nations were acting in ways they did not in reality feel. They were not even accusing them of being hypocrites – which would have been a minor accusation. Similarly when the Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors says ‘sincerity is the soul of these precepts,’ it does not mean that the virtue that will put all other virtues into effect is a genuineness in the soul which will make a man act and speak in conformity to his own inner promptings. It certainly does not mean that he is enjoined to be genuine, no matter how much his convictions may differ from others.’