Orientation of Loyalty: On the Principle of Pursuing the Greater Good and Personal Interest in Ancient Japanese Samurai Society

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_108How to use a DOI?

Keywords

the principle of pursuing the greater good and personal interest; samurai society; lord-vassal relationship; family name

Abstract

This paper delves into the specific manifestations of the the principle of pursuing the greater good and personal interest in ancient Japanese samurai society, considering the historical context of ancient Japan. It examines various dimensions such as changes in samurai income sources, the integration of religion and politics, family concepts, and the emergence of the samurai. The study finds that the samurai’s loyalty was based on personal material interests, with their social relationships constructed around the center of family name as a core. Loyalty and honor were seen as means to gain benefits, forming a flexible value system.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Shuai Ruan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/26
TI  - Orientation of Loyalty: On the Principle of Pursuing the Greater Good and Personal Interest in Ancient Japanese Samurai Society
BT  - Proceeding of 2025 8th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 996
EP  - 1002
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_108
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_108
ID  - Ruan2026
ER  -