Shinsei

[Vutall]

The Mystery of Shinsei
Shinsei, the Little Teacher, sparked a revolution in Rokugan’s life, prayer, and thought. He prophetically explained how life, death, the elements, and society work together in a grand cycle that spins far beyond human perception. But Shinsei’s lessons on cosmology only formed the backdrop to his greatest teaching, one that pivoted on human judgment and choice. Humans were no mere pawns in heaven and hell’s shōgi game of good and evil. Humans were responsible for their own betterment, and that of the society around them, through contemplation and compassion. No Fortune, kami, or demon outshone Enlightenment.

There are certain things everyone in Rokugan knows about Shinsei.

Shinsei was a teacher, orator, and philosopher who traveled Rokugan to share truths. His most famous and influential sermon was a conversation with the first Hantei Emperor, dutifully recorded by Shiba as the Tao of Shinsei. It begins with an explanation of the cycle of the Five Elements, as a sort of preface. It goes on to describe how individuals’ conduct could improve both them and their society. The text ends with an explanation of how karma and reincarnation affect the transmigratory soul—although Shinsei repeatedly said that focusing one’s life and thoughts on achieving better reincarnation was folly, a waste of time, and even counterproductive.

As they walked together out of the Emperor’s palace, Shinsei and Shiba had a short, private discussion. They declined to share the details of that discussion, yet hundreds of apocryphal documents purport to reveal the truth.

Following this momentous meeting, a reluctant but determined Shinsei assembled the Seven Thunders to confront Fu Leng on the Day of Thunder. At the battle’s end, victorious, he wept.

But who was Shinsei, really?

A common saying notes, “Everyone who has ever told you who Shinsei is has lied to you.” Another, more cynical, says, “Everyone who has ever explained Shinsei has murdered Shinsei.” Both speak to the difficulty of understanding Shinsei’s teachings, as well as to the years upon years and layers upon layers of interpretation and exegesis that priests, monks, emperors, lords, and elders have laid upon them, despite Shinsei’s own taste for brevity.


Shinsei the Philosopher
The most conservative interpretation of who Shinsei is and what he believed—that is to say, the interpretation closest to the Tao of Shinsei’s text—describes the Little Teacher as a logician who expounded upon the nature of existence and the human condition out of compassion for others. Shinseists of this view say Shinsei’s ethical lessons are the heart of Shinseist practice. Detractors may agree about who Shinsei is and what his teachings were, but disagree about their importance.

Key to this version of Shinsei is the doctrine of dependent origination, the belief that each phenomenon that exists has a cause, or origin. Each of the four manifest elements—Air, Earth, Fire, and Water—has its origin in another element, the elements all have their origin in the Void, and the Void that will come at the end of all things has its origin in the four manifest elements. Yet, the division of the elements is an illusion, as is all of the Realm of Mortals. All comes from the Void and returns to the Void: therefore, the Void is all. In this way, all existence is linked—the distinctions between the Elements, and between all living things, are an illusion.

Similarly, the cycle of rebirth, which necessitates suffering, comes from karma’s accumulation in the human soul. Karma in turn has its origin in fear, regret, and most of all, desire. Shinsei the philosopher’s followers thus maintain that the solution to the human world’s problems lies in finding those problems’ sources and eliminating them. However, the path to Enlightenment lies in recognizing that life is illusory: suffering stems from desire, so one must recognize that there is nothing to desire, for all arises from and returns to the Void.

Suppose a daimyō’s fondness for strong drink affects her health, judgment, and resources. What should a loyal samurai do? A clumsy interpretation of dependent origination would say that perhaps they ought to remove the problem’s source, the liquor itself. So, they run themself ragged removing sake and shōchū from her castle. The daimyō then obsesses over finding more liquor, keeping her consumption concealed from the samurai. A more apt interpretation would find the problem’s source within the mind: why does the daimyō feel the need to drink? Surely six cups of sake can’t be that much more satisfying than three? Is she coping with internal melancholy, or bound to habits she wishes she could break? Is a friend or compatriot pressuring her? The classic Shinseist answer to this problem isn’t about drinking or not drinking at all: it’s about finding a middle way, about getting to a place where the need to drink or not to drink no longer affects one’s judgment.

The Shinseists who embrace the line of thought attributed to Shinsei the philosopher tend to be introspective and thoughtful, whether through common sense or academic rigor. They meditate on truths and debate or talk with one another to emulate the Emperor’s exchange with Shinsei. These practices allow the soul to thrive and escape suffering regardless of the nature of their reincarnation. After all, they say, dwelling overlong on issues related to reincarnation practically guarantees a worse reincarnation.

Samurai, wealthy merchants, cloistered monks, and others with resources, free time, and literacy get the most out of this interpretation of Shinsei. These individuals’ authority faces them with ethical dilemmas on which to test philosophy and logic. Among the warrior nobility, Shinsei the philosopher enjoys the greatest following among the Crab and Scorpion clans, who appreciate a contemplative, no-nonsense approach to Enlightenment.

Followers of Shinsei the philosopher sometimes perform meditations focused on repetitive artistic or martial practices. In recent years, the practice of archery as a form of meditation has gained great popularity among samurai and monks, leading to the identification of this form of Shinseism with the bow: quiet, demanding, uncompromising


Shinsei the Hero
One popular view of Shinsei comes from one of many documents about him that enjoys wide distribution (though still significantly less than the Tao of Shinsei), even though it postdates both the Tao and Shinsei’s life: the Dialogue with the Thunder Goddess of the Perfect Center, more commonly called the Thunder Dialogue. According to this work, before the events leading to the Day of Thunder, Shinsei ascended Kite Mountain to expound upon his Way to a goddess of thunder and a congregation of devoted listeners. The Dialogue frames this event in hyperbolic terms: the sermon takes longer than Rokugan’s recorded history, and the listeners (all of whom achieve Enlightenment) include not only the Thunder Goddess, but also every known Fortune and kami as well as monks, priests, and holy teachers, whose number exceeds the current population of Rokugan. Attempts to place the Thunder Dialogue at a specific date in the historical Shinsei’s life have met with no success. Any connection between the mysterious goddess and the Day of Thunder, which her name might seem to imply, also remains unclear. The Thunder Goddess never appeared again.

This version of Shinsei goes beyond the soft-spoken, reasoned man whom the Tao of Shinsei and Shiba’s introduction to it describe. This Shinsei reveals that the Tao of Shinsei’s doctrine and path are adequate for reaching Enlightenment, but are inferior to the doctrine and path he now describes. Instead of focusing on freedom from the vicissitudes of the wheel of reincarnation, his new method advocates a life of right action and great compassion for others. Shinsei speaks of wandering the land performing miraculous feats to help the downtrodden. Monks who embrace this view of Shinsei prefer to wander among Rokugan’s people helping others, particularly the poor and powerless, rather than sequester themselves in their monastery. Monastic orders that follow such beliefs take a greater involvement in politics and even warfare, intervening directly in events for the good of the people.

The heroic Shinsei enjoys far wider traction among Rokugan’s common folk and certain samurai than the philosophical one, who probably hews closer to his historical persona. Statues, folding screens, plays, and other artworks depict the Thunder Dialogue’s Shinsei channeling and commanding the elements, radiating divine luminescence from every pore, or flinging thunderbolts at demons representing fear, regret, and desire. To many, his simple message of compassion and civic duty supersedes that of orthodox philosophy; even illiterate farmhands and porters understand the value of helping others. This view of Shinsei also rewards teamwork and organizations.

The Thunder Dialogue’s framing brings Fortunes and Fortunism into the Shinseist fold. Because the Fortunes are present to listen to Shinsei preach, the Dialogue implies that the Fortunes are important, but primarily so as dedicated and successful Shinseists. The Dialogue’s bold claim about the Fortunes’ true significance figured prominently in Hantei Genji’s reasoning behind his assertion that Fortunism and Shinseism are in fact one religion. Rokugani common folk barely took notice, accustomed as they already were to practicing dissimilar religions without examining their contradictions.

The Crane Clan enthusiastically embraces Shinsei the hero. Always fashionable, the clan vocally and visibly promotes this view, donating generously to heroically inclined temples and monasteries. Dedicated Crane Shinseists have generated a great deal of literature on the concordance between Shinseist heroism and their clan’s ideals of grace within and without.

Because of its associations with large groups of low-ranking folk, the naginata commonly represents the followers of Shinsei the hero. In addition, the monstrous bisentō (literally “brow blade” for its giant edge’s resemblance to a human eyebrow) polearm enjoys popularity among these Shinseists.


Shinsei the God
Still a third interpretation of Shinsei’s persona is that he was a god. Long considered heretical, this perspective is the fastest-growing one currently. According to popular interpretations of Shinsei, he had a superhuman knowledge of the workings of the elements and reincarnation. He foresaw the Day of Thunder and coordinated the resistance to Fu Leng. He demonstrated supernatural powers on Kite Mountain, if one takes the Thunder Dialogue literally—and many do. Accordingly, some say that Shinsei was no “mere” wise man, but instead the shintai—an object in which a kami or spirit resides—of a Fortune called Kongōten. They have reconciled the Fortunes and Shinsei with the claim that an enlightened being has transcended the distinction between god and human—that Enlightenment expresses a soul’s destined divinity. Shinsei is a god, they say, and by following him, we can be as well.

These claims align with the views of the Perfect Land Sect, a populist movement that teaches that Shinsei now watches over humanity from a “Perfect Land” in Tengoku, where loyal Shinseists can join him if they chant the mantra “Shoshi ni kie” often and sincerely enough. Not all Perfect Land Shinseists feel comfortable describing Shinsei outright as a god, though some do. The Perfect Land dogma, which describes Shinsei as a benevolent immortal who guides and blesses humanity from not Yomi, but Tengoku, certainly supports that belief in theme, if not in all specifics.

The clan most enraptured with Shinsei the god are the Unicorn. In private conversations, Shinjo Altansarnai herself has opined that Shinsei’s divine persona as Kongōten may point to a prominent god of the sky and storms from the land that named her. Many young Lion Clan samurai are also taken with this bold and dynamic Shinsei as a tempting counterpoint to their clan’s entrenched conventions.

Several of the scandalized samurai who decry the Perfect Land’s heresy would push for its outright eradication were they to discover the sect’s vision of a commonwealth government overseen by populist preachers and peasant elders—a stark affront to Rokugan’s entrenched feudal governance. The warrior-monks who serve the Perfect Land Sect are not monks in the traditional sense; they wear the white headscarves and uniforms of novice monks, but most are illiterate and ill-educated in the precepts and texts of their own religion. They care only to wield spear, naginata, and kongōsho in the service of their vision of Shinsei and the defense of what they see as the first province of the Perfect Land in Rokugan. They have unshakable faith that to die while fighting for those causes ensures a superior reincarnation.


Foundations of Shinseism
Shinsei taught that the perceived distinctions between the Five Elements are an illusion. Everything comes from the Void, and all eventually returns to the Void. It is by embracing the unity of the elements and seeing beyond the illusory divisions between the physical and the spiritual that one begins the journey to Enlightenment.

Shinsei introduced several important concepts that forever altered the understanding of reality, even for the Kami. He taught that, just as ki comes from the Void and returns to it, the human soul does not linger in the underworld for eternity, but exists in a cycle of death and rebirth. Only through Enlightenment can one escape this cycle and all the suffering it entails.