The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Pattens of Japansese Culture

《菊与刀》主要内容：“菊”本是日本皇室家徽，“刀”是武家文化的象征。但本尼迪克特在以此命名《菊与刀》时，似乎并未从这种含义出发，而是以“菊”和“刀”来象征日本人的矛盾性格，亦即日本文化的双重性（如爱美而又黩武，尚礼而又好斗，喜新而又顽固，服从而又不驯等等），由此人手，进而分析日本社会的等级制及有关习俗，并指出日本幼儿教养和成人教养的不连续性是形成双重性格的重要因素。著者把日本文化的特征概括为“耻感文化”，认为它与西方的“罪感文化”不同，其强制力在于外部社会而不在于人的内心。对于这些观点，有些日本社会学者评价很高，认为表现了“深刻的洞察力”。有些日本历史学者则不同意，认为作者把特定时代、特殊社会集团的社会心理当作“日本人”的普遍心理，在方法论上有非历史的和超阶级的缺点。评价虽然不同，影响很大则是事实。1951年此书被列入日本《现代教养文库》，至l963年已重印三十六次。1982年出版的一本介绍“日本学”名著的书中称赞此书是现代日本学的鼻祖，是文化人类学者研究日本的经典性著作。1986年一篇综述战后日本研究状况的文章列举七种代表性观点，说《菊与刀》是令人注目的一种。凡此都表明，此书影响至今不衰。

Reprinted over fifty times, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword remains a
classic of cultural anthropology and a brilliant study of Japan during
World War Il. In 1944, when field work ill Japan was impossible, Ruth
Benedict was assigned by the US Office of War Information to "use all
the techniques [she] could as a cultural anthropologist to spell out
what the Japanese were like." Benedict's piquant observations on the
Japanese family, its hierarchical society, tile customs of marriage and
child rearing, concepts like self-discipline and filial piety, and other
notable attributes of the Japanese remain relevant today. Benedict
was puzzled about the paradoxes she observed, by a people so ready
to die by the sword and yet so concerned with the beauty of the
chrysanthemum. By examining isolated bits of behavior and fitting them
into a coherent pattern, she succeeds in sketching the main outlines of
a society very unlike those found in the West. The result is a completely
fascinating, incisive, and informative book on the mysteries of the
Japanese character.