二宮尊德的農業倫理觀

The Agricultural Ethics of Ninomiya Sontoku

二宮尊德（1787-1856），亦稱金次郎，是江戶時代著名的農聖。尊德的環保思想與實踐的基礎，乃是前現代的環保世界觀，這是前工業日本社會的特色；以融合了日本儒學和佛學的神道為主。對於人與大自然的關係這個令人費解的問題，尊德務實的解決方案是讓兩者共生合作。天地、先祖、父母和君上都對人有恩，因此我們必須報恩。他身體力行、並建議人們仿效的主要美德，是在農業和經濟上做到勤、儉、讓，藉由贊天地之化育而增加大自然的物產。這是尊德的「報德」教育。尊德最後拯救了六百多個村民和數萬名百姓。他除了挽救遭受天災的農田，也協助百姓達到經濟和精神上的獨立，讓他們免於精神崩潰。尊德的成就證實了他的信念：相較於現代西方的權力政治和自利經濟，儒家的仁政更能帶給人們幸福，同時讓大自然休養生息。戰前的日本把尊德奉為民族英雄，小學教科書也提到他認為「修身」這種道德教育是儒家和其他德行的典範。全國各小學的校門附近都立了他的銅像──背著從山上砍下的柴薪，一邊走路一邊看書。在戰後、現代化及工業化的日本，他不再受到重視，他的思想也幾乎被人遺忘。不過近年來，尊德的思想和實踐重新在日本社會興起，以全球環境危機的新角度重新審視。

Ninomiya Sontoku 二宮尊德 (1787-1856) or Kinjiro 金次郎, was the renowned Japanese farmer-sage in the Edo Era (1603-1867). Sontoku's environmental thoughts and practices are based on the pre-modern, ecological world view that is characteristic of pre-industrial Japanese society; it consisted mainly of Shintoism mixed with Japanese Confucianism and Buddhism. Sontoku's practical solution to the puzzling problem of the human-to-nature Relationship lay in the symbiotic co-elaboration of both. Human beings owe gratitude (恩) to Heaven and Earth (our great father and mother), to our ancestors, parents, and lords, and so we are obliged to repay the debt we owe (恩). The main virtues he practiced and recommended for people were diligent labor (勤), frugality (儉), and concession (讓) in agriculture and economics, in order to increase natural produce by 'assisting the transforming and nourishing process of Heaven and Earth' (贊天地之化育, 大學). This is Sontoku's teaching of 'reward for virtue' (報德). Sontoku eventually rescued more than six hundred villages and tens of thousands of people. He not only saved devastated farms, but also saved people from mental collapse by helping them to be independent financially and morally. Sontoku's achievements testified to his belief that Confucian moral politics (仁政) rather than modern Western power-politics and self-interested economics, can make people happy and restore nature at the same time. In pre-war Japan, Sontoku was a national hero who appeared in elementary school textbooks on moral education called 'cultivating oneself' (修身), as a model of Confucian and other virtues. All national elementary schools had his bronze statue on a pedestal near the main entrance—carrying on his back a bundle of firewood gathered in the mountains, walking, and reading a book. In post-war, modernized and industrialized Japan he was neglected and his school of thought was almost forgotten. However, recently his thoughts and practices have been revived, and looked under fresh light of global environmental crisis.