chapter treats of a single, separate
subject, and is usually of a very moderate length. As Professor Grigsby
has pointed out: "Sixteen chapters consist of moral maxims and
reflections; fifty-five are connected with politics and administrations;
twenty-two refer to legal matters, and in seven Ieyasu relates episodes of
his own personal history." The moral maxims are quoted chiefly from the
works of the Chinese sages, Confucius and Mencius. While the collection on
the whole has a military aspect, and plainly encourages and promotes the
well-being of a military class, yet we see in it the mild and peaceful
nature of Ieyasu. The fifteenth chapter says: "In my youth my sole aim was
to conquer and subjugate inimical provinces and to take revenge on the
enemies of my ancestors. Yuyo teaches, however, that 'to assist the people
is to give peace to the empire,' and since I have come to understand that
the precept is founded on sound principle, I have undeviatingly followed
it. Let my posterity hold fast this principle. Any one turning his back
upon it is no descendant of mine. The people are the foundation of the
empire."

His estimate of the social relations is given in the forty-sixth chapter,
in which he says: "The married state is the great relation of mankind. One
should not live alone after sixteen years of age, but should procure a
mediator and perform the ceremony of matrimonial alliance. The same
kindred, however, may not intermarry. A family of good descent should be
chosen to marry into; for when a line of descendants is prolonged, the
foreheads of ancestors expand. All mankind recognize marriage as the first
law of nature."

The old custom of servants and retainers following their masters to death,
and committing suicide in order to accompany them, is referred to in the
seventy-fifth chapter.(257) It is not improbable that some exhibition of
this custom occasionally was seen in the days of Ieyasu, for he very
sternly condemns it thus: "Although it is undoubtedly an ancient custom
for a vassal to follow his lord to death, there is not the slightest
reason in the practice.... These practices are strictly forbidden, more
especially to primary retainers, and also to secondary retainers even to
the lowest. He is the opposite of a faithful servant who disregards this
prohibition; his posterity shall be impoverished by the confiscation of
his property, as a warning to those who disobey the laws."(258)

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