今週の「武士道」は、2章 Sources of Bushido (武士道の淵源）の続きで、仏教・神道ときて次は儒教です（これで2章おわり）。知識よりも行動を重視するのは特に陽明学の影響が大きく、それは新約聖書の教えとも通じるところがある、という流れで、武士道の成立は16世紀の戦国時代の混乱のため一人一人がよく考えたからではないか、と進んでいます。確かに、文明の適切な時期に混乱状態にあることが社会の精神的成熟のきっかけになる、というのは各地で見られます（以下省略部分でイタリアを例にとっています）。個人も苦しい時は成長につながる時期だと信じたいところです。
The writings of Confucius and Mencius formed the principal textbooks for youths and the highest authority in discussion among the old. … Bushido made light of knowledge as such. It was not pursued as an end in itself, but as a means to the attainment of wisdom. Hence, he who stopped short of this end was regarded no higher than a convenient machine, which could turn out poems and maxims at bidding. Thus, knowledge was conceived as identical with its practical application in life; and this Socratic doctrine found its greatest exponent in the Chinese philosopher Wan Yang Ming, who never wearies of repeating, “To know and to act are one and the same.” I beg leave for a moment’s digression while I am on this subject, inasmuch as some of the noblest types of bushi were strongly influenced by the teachings of this sage….Thus, whatever the sources, the essential principles which Bushido imbibed from them and assimilated to itself, were few and simple. Few and simple as these were, they were sufficient to furnish a safe conduct of life even through the unsafest days of the most unsettled period of our nation’s history. The wholesome, unsophisticated nature of our warrior ancestors derived ample food for their spirit from a sheaf of commonplace and fragmentary teachings, gleaned as it were on the highways and byways of ancient thought, and, stimulated by the demands of the age, formed from these gleanings a new and unique type of manhood… In Japan as in Italy, ‘the rude manners of the Middle Ages made of man a superb animal, wholly militant and wholly resistant.’ And this is why the sixteenth century displays in the highest degree the principal quality of the Japanese race, that great diversity which one finds there between minds [esprits] as well as between temperaments.
Confucius 孔子 コン「フュー」シャス
Mencius 孟子 「メ」ンシャス
It was not pursued as an end in itself, but as a means to the attainment of wisdom. 武士道では知識はそれ自体では重視されず、知恵につながる手段として追求された。
Wan Yang Ming 王陽明 (1472-1529, 明の思想家・高級官僚・武将) https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8E%8B%E9%99%BD%E6%98%8E
“To know and to act are one and the same.” 知行合一
inasmuch as = insomuch as 同じ程度、同様に
digression 脱線 (level 14)
sage セイジ 賢人
imbibe イン「バイ」ブ 吸収する、同化する
assimilate 吸収する、同化する （同義の言葉を from toでうまく使い分けています）
Few and simple as these were, これらは少なくて単純ではあるが （逆接の倒置です）
gleaning 苦労して少しずつ集めること
a superb animal ス「パー」ブ 実に素晴らしい動物
esprit フランス語 エスプ「リ」 精神、機知 mind という単語を使い分けています。他の箇所ではmind [kokoro]
a temperament 「テ」ンペラメント 気質、気性
rebellion 反乱
新渡戸博士は「最も素晴らしい武士」は王陽明の影響を受けていると言っています。司馬遼太郎のエッセイでしたか、陽明学は自分の利害を顧みず思想を行動に直結させるので自らは不幸になるが社会変革につながる例があるという話でした。大塩平八郎や吉田松陰がその典型例として挙げられていたと思います。
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Cshio_Heihachir%C5%8D