The discovery of “self-reliance,” seen in the previous article, was strictly the story of Sōseki’s own experience. Entering Part Two, Sōseki moves from that experience toward a broader argument, addressed to an audience of young men at the Peers’ School who would go on to hold high social standing.
Power and money will come with you
Sōseki tells his audience plainly:
Among the things that will come attached to you, the first I have to name is power. In other words: once you go out into the world, you will be able to wield far more power than a poor person ever could. (working translation)
Money follows the same logic. The students at the Peers’ School will hold more power and more money than the poor ever will. Sōseki sees danger in this, and recasts power and money as two different kinds of “tools.”
Power is the tool for forcibly pressing your own individuality down onto someone else’s head… Looked at the same way, money becomes an extremely convenient tool for expanding your individuality — used as a device to lure others in. (working translation)
Power is a tool for pinning someone down by force. Money is a tool for luring someone in. Both, in Sōseki’s view, work as “tools” for extending one’s own individuality over another person’s.
The brother who drags his sibling fishing
Sōseki makes this abstract argument concrete with a familiar story about two brothers. The younger one likes to stay home and read; the older, obsessed with fishing, decides his sibling’s homebody tendencies are something dreadful, and tries by force to drag him out to fish.
The older brother, practically ordering him along, loads a fishing rod and a creel onto him and marches him off to the fishing pond, so he goes along with his eyes shut, catching some unpleasant carp or other, and comes home miserable. (working translation)
This is not an example of money, Sōseki takes care to note — it is power oppressing someone. The older brother’s individuality tramples the younger brother’s, forcing him to fish against his will. And it doesn’t even change the younger brother’s disposition, Sōseki observes — if anything, it only deepens his resistance to fishing. A well-meaning imposition producing the opposite of its intended effect: the scene makes the danger of misused power more vivid than any abstract argument could.
Three conclusions
From this danger, Sōseki distills his argument into three propositions: first, developing one’s own individuality must go hand in hand with respecting the individuality of others; second, using power requires understanding the duty attached to it; third, displaying one’s wealth requires giving due weight to the responsibility that comes with it. Development of one’s individuality must be paired with respecting others’ individuality; power must be paired with duty; money must be paired with responsibility. Sōseki draws all three together under a single word: character (人格, jinkaku).
To freely enjoy and take pleasure in these three things requires submitting to the rule of the character that ought to stand behind all three. (working translation)
Worth checking as you read
First, the “younger brother” in this anecdote reads close to Sōseki’s own temperament. Someone who prefers staying home with books, who resents being dragged out — this figure overlaps with Sōseki’s own introspective disposition, seen in the previous article. That said, Sōseki does not frame the anecdote as autobiographical; he offers it strictly as an illustration of a general point.
Second, Sōseki does not condemn power and money in themselves. What’s dangerous, in his argument, is their use once they slip free of the rule of character — not power or money as such, which he never calls to abolish.
Summary
| Point | Content |
|---|---|
| Starting point | The students at the Peers’ School will hold more power and money than the poor |
| The nature of power | A tool for forcing one’s own individuality onto someone else |
| The nature of money | A tool for expanding one’s individuality by luring others in |
| The brothers’ anecdote | An older brother who loves fishing forces his introverted younger brother to go along |
| Three conclusions | Development of individuality requires respecting others; power requires duty; money requires responsibility |
In short — Sōseki treats power and money as “tools” for forcing one’s own individuality onto other people, and argues for a paired ethic — duty, responsibility, respect for others’ individuality — to guard against their abuse.