Modernity has become an ultimate goal of all nations because it symbolizes the highest level that human intelligence can achieve. In this research paper, I will demonstrate Fukuzawa Yukichi's view on modernity from three aspects: his view of the modern world, his description of the process of civilization, and Japan's relationship with Asia based on the insight of Naoki Sakai. And within the process of civilization, I would further explore what elements should be included in civilization and the emanation model of modernity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay In today's world, nations are mainly classified into three categories: highly civilized nations, semi-developed countries, and primitive lands. In Yukichi Fukuzawa's "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization" (2009), he gave examples regarding the above categories. The nations of Europe and the United States of America are the most civilized, while Asian countries, such as Turkey, China and Japan, are called semi-developed countries, and Africa and Australia must be considered as still primitive lands. This shows that the world is classified according to the stages of civilization, and this will be illustrated in more detail in the next paragraph. Apart from this, there is another simplified classification of the world also using modernization as an index. According to Naoki Sakai "You Asians" (2000), the world can be divided into two, the West and Asia, or the West and the rest, which constitutes a binary opposition. Besides the map index, those who live in the geographical area called Asia are naturally referred to as Asians, it is also recognized as "different and therefore Asian". And therefore, it is well known that the word Asia was invented by Europeans in order to distinguish Europe from other Eastern countries. According to Fukuzawa, there are a total of three stages of civilization: the stage of primitive man, the semi-developed stage and modern civilization. . At the stage of primitive man, where habitat and food supplies are unstable, man is still incapable of being master of his own situation, dependent on the favors of others or the random vagaries of nature. At the next stage, there are enough daily necessities. Men only know how to cultivate the old, but not how to improve it. They blindly followed customs and accepted the rules governing society, and could never make rules in the true sense. It is a scene that man only imitates, but does not invent because he does not have the courage to think outside the box. The ultimate stage would be modern civilization in Fukuzawa's eyes, where men subsumed the things of the universe into a general structure without being tied to it. They have a free spirit that allows them to act autonomously and should not depend on the arbitrary favors of others. They cultivate their own virtue and refine their own knowledge and are not gullible to old customs. They would not be satisfied with small gains, would not plan great achievements for the future and would not wholeheartedly commit to their achievement. To conclude with Fukuzawa's words, the index of modern civilization is "Today's wisdom overflows to create tomorrow's plans." From his point of view, civilization is an open process but one that must go through sequences and stages. His view can be complemented by Takeuchi's view that modernity is "a self-transcendent project of struggle against the vestiges of the past." He hasalso added that the above designations are essentially relative and that we will not be satisfied with the present level of achievement of the West, even if we accept that Europe and the United States of America are the most civilized countries . There are mainly two elements in civilization, external. forms and spirit. The external elements of civilization are all empirical details, from food, clothing, housing, tools to government decrees and laws. Whereas the spirit of civilization is the spiritual constitution of a people which cannot be bought or sold. This is what differentiates the manners and customs of Asia and Europe. It could be described as the feelings and customs of a people. Fukuzawa believes that countries intending to adopt Western civilization should prioritize and appropriate the spirit of civilization, and then adopt its external forms. The cornerstone of modern civilization will not be laid until national sentiment has been thus revolutionized, and governmental institutions with it. When this is done, the foundations of civilization will be laid and the outward forms of material civilization will follow in a natural process without any special effort on our part, will come without our asking, and will be acquired without our seeking. Thus, obstacles can be eliminated in advance and the assimilation of external civilization can be facilitated even if this order seems more difficult to follow. Beyond the material aspect and the immaterial aspect, modernity is described as something that continually spreads as it emanates. himself. With his unique twist, Fukuzawa describes civilization as a measles epidemic. He gives an example that Tokyo's modernization spread eastward from Nagasaki, gradually spreading with warm spring weather. Although Sakai agrees that modernity spread quickly and widely, he refuses to describe modernity as an epidemic because it does not start from a border and gradually spreads to the inner city or at a central location. Instead, it is imagined to emanate in reverse, from the center to the hinterland of the world. Due to the emanation of modernity, Japan must re-examine its relationship with China. For Fukuzawa, Japan must maintain a distant relationship with Asia. He sees Asia as a stumbling block for Japan, because Asian countries like China and Korea are uncivilized and do not know how to reform. And since the above three countries are geographically adjacent to each other, they are shinshihosha, meaning that they are interdependent, and sometimes even all the same in the eyes of civilized Westerners. He demonstrates his ideas with examples such as "the governments of China and Korea follow old-fashioned absolutism rather than depending on the law, Westerners suspect Japan of also being an illegal country." He believes that being part of Asia would create significant obstacles to Japanese diplomacy. This is why he emphasizes that Japan should move away from the rank of Asian countries and ally with the civilized countries of the West to avoid a bad reputation among its bad companions, Asia and Korea. Alongside him, another nationalist thinker, Maruyama Masao, shares the same point of view. According to Sakai's "You Asians" (2000), Maruyama declared in his war historiography "flight from Asia, entry into Europe." This clearly shows that Maruyama believed that Japan should be able to modernize while the rest of Asia should wait for the initiative of the West and justified Japan's political superiority over theChina. Maruyama and Fukuzawa agree that Japan should not belong to Asia. Meanwhile, another nationalist, Takeuchi Yoshimi, had a historicism opposed to theirs, even though his fundamental logic is the same and shared. Takeuchi recognizes that Asia can never be self-aware until it is invaded by the West, according to Sakai (2000). Without the recognition of its loss of autonomy and its dependence on the West, Asia could not thoughtfully acquire its civilizational, cultural, ethnic or national consciousness. However, Takeuchi has a different view on how to achieve modernization. According to Sakai (2000), Takeuchi believed that “…the realization and appropriation of modern values ​​must first require the people's radical negation of external forces and their internal heritage of a feudal past. He believed that Asian modernity could be accomplished only by appropriating the essence of Western modernity. But to appropriate the essence of Western modernity, "Asia had to modernize by denying both the West on the outside and its own past on the inside." Where there was no resistance or negation towards the West, there was no prospect of modernity for Asia.” Therefore, in Takeuchi's view, Japan failed to modernize because true negativity was absent. On the other hand, he excessively idealized China. He hoped that China, unlike Japan which had recklessly accepted the West without resisting it, would achieve a truly authentic modernity by negating Western domination as well as the feudal vestiges of the past, so that imperialism would not recur. From his expression, I believe Takeuchi also values ​​the mind, mentioned in the previous paragraph, when it comes to civilization. He cherishes the spirit of civilization which differentiates the manners and customs of Asia and Europe, and this is why he hopes that China can modernize by negating the West. Thus, modernized nations would be distinct from each other instead of being unitary. This shows that although Takeuchi and Fukuzawa emphasize the spirit of civilization, Takeuchi emphasizes the customs of his own nation while Fukuzawa emphasizes the reformation of people's minds. In my opinion, I share the same point of view with Takeuchi. Since a civilized person must be someone who is not tied to a general structure while encompassing the things of the universe, who is capable of being innovative, whose mind enjoys free play and can act freely, a nation that needs to be modernized is not it should accept the West. Furthermore, in order to differentiate Asia and Europe, I believe it is necessary to deny the West, because each nation has its own uniqueness, customs and culture. There is no point in blindly copying and following the way the West has modernized them. And if we do, I believe the original intent and meaning of civilization is lost. It is because we still cultivate “the old”, in the same way that the West achieved its modernization, but not how to improve it. So, we are still at a semi-developed stage instead of entering modern civilization. Despite this, I still wonder if it is really possible to be civilized without accepting Western ideas. Although Takeuchi hopes that China will not follow the path of Japan, whose real negativity has been absent throughout modernization, Japan appears to be the only Asian country to have successfully modernized. I think China made efforts to reform and pave the way for modernization without help from the West, but it took a long time and doesn't seem to have been very effective in reality. And this phenomenon.