The earliest record of filial piety and lameness is found in the Kuroda Rusui Biography, published in the fifth year of Taisho (1916 AD), which is less than 100 years old. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info And when it comes to "Kuroda Rusui Biography", we have to mention the author of this book - Kentaro Kaneko. Kaneko Kentaro, a famous bureaucrat and politician during the Meiji Taisho period, was honored from a large number of earls. He participated in the drafting of the Constitution of the Meiji Government (also known as the Constitution of the Empire of Japan) and was a member of the United States in diplomatic work during the Russo-Japanese War. He has served as Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, Minister of Justice, and Privy Counsellor in the Ito (Hirobumi) Cabinet, and is known as the left hand of Hirobumi Ito. Why would such a powerful figure be interested in writing a book featuring a Sengoku character? The reason is simple, Kaneko Kentaro himself is a native of the Fukuoka Domain, and he is where he is today thanks to the promotion and appreciation of the Kuroda family, the lord of the Fukuoka Domain.

In the preface to Kuroda Rusui Biography, there is a letter written by Kaneko Kentaro to the former lord of the Fukuoka Domain, which was then abolished as a prefecture, and the content of the letter and the fact that he arranged the letter in the preface of the book show Kaneko's original intention and attitude towards writing this book.

The letter reads as follows:

"Duke Kuroda に上つる书

His Excellency Duke Kuroda Nagasei, Yu Ancestor Ancestor Elder Tsukimae Country Residence Residence, Elder Leader Tsukuformer Country Residence Accumulation of noble family の微臣として、俸禄を享け、余も也其の余泽に依り生长したり、Review すれはMeiji Yuan年April、余は年六にして父を失ひ、其の家督を相続せしか、Several はくもなく维新の戦争起りて、Armyに编入せられたれとも、Meiji 年の春、Suddenly Fan命を以て、Teamより抜擢せられて、秋月に留学し、 次て Tokyo に游学するに至りたり、然るにMeiji 4th year 廃藩置县の大Reform に依り、藩厅より回国の命に接したれとも、余は心theftかに期する所ありて,Still Tokyo にstrandedし、知人の徐に寄食して、bitter学せしか、一陮grandfather君长ひろ(博のヘンがさんずい)Qingよりzhaoされて、米国留学の恩命を排し、ExcellencyFather君长知清に用いて、彼の国に去き、恏米八ヶ年、法を修め、 After returning to the dynasty, the official road is on the sixth year, and the officials are in the third year of the year, and the officials are in charge of the office, or the pavilion is added to the house, or the state affairs are drawn and painted, and the royal family is called to the palace.

余は此の如く、贵家の特遇に浴せしものなれは、藩恩の念も也切にして、、、、Dream 寐にも古家を忘るゝ能はす、珒来余は官方の余暇を以て、Guijia Ancestor Rushui Gong のdeeds を收集せしに、寛永の約、Guijia に於て纂纂せしめられたる、黒田家學を始め、其の他のZhushu、概ねShogunate を惮りて、其のtruthを訨能すること能はさるに依り、同公の揆乱anywayのxun業は、向々湮灭して、 或はmistakeの事实を、後世に传ふるregretみなき能はず。 ”

From the letter, we can know that Kaneko Kentaro had several turning points in the first half of his life, such as enlisting in the army, choosing to study abroad (in China), and sending him to study in the United States, all of which included the Kuroda family, the lord of the Fukuoka domain, and Kaneko Kentaro also said at the end of the first paragraph that his achievements today were all due to the Kuroda family (all of which are れ贵家の致ならさるはなし). The second paragraph points out the reason for writing the book and explains the source of its contents. The reason for writing the book was to repay the kindness of the monarch and to write a book for the Kuroda family, so in his spare time, he collected the deeds of the first ancestor of the Kuroda family, Takataka, and then compiled this book. The most important of these are the last few sentences, which translate to mean that many of the books mentioning Takadaka conceal the truth of the facts because he is afraid of the authority of the shogunate, and he regrets that Takada's great deeds have been destroyed or falsely spread. It can be seen from this that Kaneko Kentaro believes that books such as the official history are biased, so his statement is not credible, so he does not accept it, so where does the source of the content of his "Kuroda Rusui Biography" come from? Obviously, that's folk tales and folk novels.

Now let's take a look at the far-reaching influence of this folk based "Kuroda Rusui Biography" on our understanding of filial piety.

Takataka Kuroda's image of a "careerist, conspirator". The most typical examples are often taken by people, such as after hearing that Nobunaga died, Takataka had privately pouted Hideyoshi and said, "This is a good time for His Highness to seize the world", and Hideyoshi mentioned that the world would be taken by Takataka after his death, and even after the Battle of Sekigahara ended, Kuroda Nagamasa told Takataka after returning to Japan that Ieyasu had held his hand to thank him, Takataka asked which hand he was holding, and when Nagamasa replied that it was his right hand, Takada's essence of the sentence "Then what is your left hand doing (wait)" (implying that Nagamasa should pull out the knife with his left hand). , kill Ieyasu and help yourself get rid of the great enemy who is fighting for the world. These few things can be said to have established the image of Xiaogao as a hero who intends to seize the world in one fell swoop. And why did Kentaro Kaneko write these contents? The reason is also easy to understand, to elevate the status of the Kuroda family. Elevate the ancestor of the Kuroda family, Takataka, to the position of competing with the shogunate ancestor Tokugawa Ieyasu for the world, and sit on an equal footing with Ieyasu. Combined with the background of the time of writing, that is, the public opinion trend formed after the Meiji Restoration, "everything related to the Tokugawa shogunate is evil, and it is reasonable to oppose the rebellion against the shogunate", Takataka hinted at the story of Nagamasa killing Ieyasu, and promoted Takataka to the position of the elder generation of anti-Tokugawa pioneers and the ancestor of the shogunate faction like Ishida Mitsunari and Sanada Yukimura and others. Compared with the Choshu Domain's advocacy of his ancestors as the commander of the Western Army of Sekigahara at that time, the Satsuma Domain's boasting of his ancestors' reversal of Ieyasu's main camp, and even the attitude of not being humble or arrogant after the war, showing that the two families were anti-Tokugawa and anti-shogunate, Kaneko Kentaro also praised the Fukuoka Domain, which was not brilliant in the process of the fall, into a revolutionary with a good background like the Choshu Domain and the Satsuma Domain, and helped the Fukuoka Domain earn enough face.

After talking about creating the image of filial piety, let's go back to the problem of lameness. Through the above analysis, we know that Kaneko Kentaro did whatever it took to support the Kuroda family, and even disregarded the credibility of the source, and used it when he could use it when he could put it on gold, so why did he put forward the statement that he didn't seem to be gold-pasting, but rather somewhat smeared the image of the Kuroda family's ancestors? Personally, I think there are two points. First, the cause of filial piety and lameness. According to the book, the reason why Takataka became lame was that he was imprisoned in Arioka Castle, which caused sores on his legs and ulcers on his legs. And why was Hyogao imprisoned? Because Hyogao wants the Savior's house. Seeing this, everyone must understand why Kentaro Kaneko wrote this. The Kotera family, the head of Takataka, rebelled because of the persuasion of Araki Murashige, and Takaka, who understood that Murashige would lose sooner or later and that Nobunaga hated traitors very much, did not want the main family to face a catastrophe because of this. Therefore, after negotiating with the main family and getting the main family's promise that "if Murashige surrenders, he will surrender", he resolutely enters Arioka Castle alone to persuade Murashige, so he is imprisoned, and finally lame. For the sake of the safety of the main family, regardless of his own life and death, and even left a disabled filial piety, his lame not only did not discredit his image, but made his image even taller, and it was also extremely in line with the popular spirit of bushido at the time, which can be said to have instantly transformed his defects into a good name. Second, he is disabled and strong-willed, which arouses sympathy and respect. Combined with the image of a hero created by Kentaro Kaneko, the lame Takataka is obviously easier to win people's sympathy and respect than the loyal Ishida Mitsunari and the righteous Sanada Yukimura, while the image of Takataka who has a disability but still has Lingyun's ambition and Hideyoshi's image of being from a humble background but eventually winning the world can be said to be similar. To sum up, Kaneko Kentaro's "filial piety and lameness" is not to discredit his image, but on the contrary, to beautify his filial piety, which is completely in line with the original intention of his book.

However, there is no clear record of Takada's lameness in the official history, and according to Kaneko Kentaro, other books are afraid of the shogunate and dare not say good things about Takada, but why is the obvious defect of Takada's lameness never mentioned, is it possible that the shogunate will still hide the shortcomings for Takada? If this is the case, then it is completely in conflict with what Kaneko Kentaro said, so we have reason to suspect that there are doubts about this view of Kaneko Kentaro and his filial piety lameness. In other books, it is recorded that Takataka, who was imprisoned in Arioka Castle, developed sores on his head due to his long detention, hence the nickname Kuroda Sore. This is similar to the "Kuroda Rushui Biography" that Kuroda has sores on his legs. And Xiao Gao did take advantage of public opinion to fight in his later years, but referring to the example of Daoxue, it can be seen that the reason for taking public opinion is likely to be age or injury problems, not necessarily lameness. Therefore, I think that Kaneko Kentaro's "Takaka Lameness" is likely to be a word of mouth formed by people mixing Takada's sores on the head of Arioka Castle with the spread of public opinion in Kyushu in his later years. And Kaneko Kentaro, who made it clear that he didn't believe in the official history of the shogunate, was a treasure to say about it, not only collecting a completely different statement from the shogunate, but also greatly beautifying Takataka and the Kuroda family, who were kind to him.