What is Honor?

I was in my early-20's, standing in my room at home from college, three years in to a dual degree in English Literature and Geology, and crying at a graduation card. One not even my own.
One of my brothers was graduating, and he had received a card with the inspirational poem, "If" by Rudyard Kipling.  It was a poem I knew well, having learned it from childhood.  My parents had a copy they hung on the wall.  But I was crying because I had received a card much like it when I had graduated high school a few years before, with another poem someone had based on the previous Kipling poem.  "If"  For Girls.
There, in front of the wall of books I had hoarded since I was a child, all science fiction and fantasy heroes, the bold explorers and dry wits and grave thinkers which I loved, I was struck with the unfairness of it all.  Why were the poems different?  Why weren't the virtues of the first the virtues of the second, or visa versa?  There were many women in those books...but their virtues were not the same. The words were the same to describe them, but their meanings were different.
My father came into the room and asked me what was wrong.  I tried to explain to him.  "It's not fair," I told him.  "Strength. Courage. Honor.  Why are they different for men than for women in everything?  A woman isn't even allowed to be honorable!" 
My father shook his head, confused.  "I find that insulting to say," he said.  "Your mother is the most honorable woman I know."

I didn't say anything else.
I was trying to describe masculine honor.  He was talking about sexual purity.  There was no point in continuing.

But since that day...maybe long before it...I've tried to understand the words, the virtues, that mean different things when used in context of men or women.  And I've tried to understand one of the most difficult concepts in the English Language: Honor.

There are not just differences in the interpretation of the word Honor applied to men and women.  The term means different things within English itself even for the same group.  From the time Aristotle and Plato both explored the concept of Honor in their writings, it has been a challenge.  Part of that is because the term itself is used different ways.

What is Honor?
"Honour … the spurr of vertue"  - Robert Ashley (based on The Ovid)
"A word… a mere scutcheon" - Falstaff
"The opinion of Power" - Thomas Hobbes
"A greatness of mind which scorns to descend to an ill and base thing" - George Stanhope
"The finest sense of justice which the human mind can frame" - William Wordsworth

We can see this complexities in a selection of phrases where we use the term in English.  Note: None of these uses are intended to imply anything about any Asian sources, just their uses in English.

• I follow a code of honor or I am honorable - I have an internal code of behavior that influences  my actions in a positive way aligned with the definition of honor.
• I am honored - This gesture gratifies me and shows me that you are giving me respect.
• He has high honor - He has great glory and fame and is praised for it
• He is honored - He is praised above other people for his actions or just for his fame
• He is honorable - I believe he conforms to a code of behavior  that is associated with a certain definition of honor
• This is an honor - This praise or gift or title or action gratifies me and shows me you are giving me respect
• I am dishonorable - I do actions that break an internal code that is supposed to regulate my action
• I have been dishonored or You have dishonored me - You have treated me with disrespect and shamed me
• You have offended my honor - You have said I do not have honor, you have disrespected me in a specific fashion.
• There is no honor in that - That action will not bring respect or praise
• You have brought dishonor on yourself / your family /your country / your King - You have done an action that will cause recrimination and embarrassment to yourself and those who associate with you.
• The honorable Harris Gordon is serving as judge - The judge has a high social status that is marked with Honorable as part of the title.
• This was done in her honor - This gesture or action was done to bring fame and glory to her
• I will show honor to him - I will offer him deference
• She is an honorable woman or She has preserved her honor - She is sexually chaste
• He has dishonored her! - He has sexually harassed or even raped her
• Your wife dishonored you! - Your wife has had sexual relations outside of your control.
• I swear on my honor that I will do this thing - If I fail to do this thing, I will publicly admit I have failed to meet the expected code of honor and therefore should be worthy of disrespect and scorn

If you dig a little bit deeper, you discover that the kinds of actions that cause 'dishonoring', that offend the sense of honor, vary from region to region.  In Germanic literature, a challenger that says a man is cowardly or unwilling to fight or otherwise conform to a martial challenge is considered 'dishonoring him'.  In more Spanish or South American areas, challenging a man's manliness is considered more offensive to their honor.  In the old US South, an honor code kept women and slaves 'in their place' and drove white men to respond to challenges with reprisals of violence, while in the Northern US the honor code encouraged dispassionate appraisal and the suppression of emotions in men. 

There are dozens of different meanings for honor, gendered and ungendered.  And that's just in English!

Most people try to split most of these definitions into two categories: 

• Internal Honor - An internal code of virtue and behavior that captures that individual's obligations to their role and their social group.
• External Honor  - The external recognition of respect, status, and praise, especially by those considered praise-worthy themselves.

The Evolution of Honor

Most religions and philosophies have some version of "the Golden Rule".  "Whatever is disagreeable to yourself, do not do unto others,” in Buddhism.  "Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself," in Confucianism.  "Do unto others as you would have done unto you,"  in Christianity.  "As you would have people do to you, do to them; and what you dislike to be done to you, don't do to them," in Islam.  Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, Ancient Greece, Persia, Rome, Judaism. Almost all the worlds religions and philosophies hold this concept.

But, while I sincerely believe that this is the heart of human ethical and moral behavior, when a lord's goal is to produce soldiers, men who will fight and kill for his cause, it ends up getting in the way.  The Golden Rule does not permit the killing of your fellow human being.

It takes fifteen to twenty years to train an elite martial artist/warrior, in any fighting tradition, and with ancient weaponry, an elite warrior could kill 20 or more regular fighters on the field.  This training had to begin pretty much from birth. That is a huge investment for a lord to make. He wanted to create those who would fight to do his will, but he also wanted troops that were predictable, that could be trusted not to turn on him or his own people when his situation falters and he is weakened, who would stay fighting and not run even when things were dangerous and they were losing, and would not cause harm to the farmers, the women, or children within his territory who might, in turn, flee or rebel if they were oppressed by his soldiers.  And that code had to be flexible enough to be self-enforcing, even when circumstances were such that the lord would not be able to enforce laws around the soldier's behavior.  The lord needed his soldiers to have an internal moral code to obey, but one that was not rooted in non-violence and seeing others as equal to yourself. 

That moral internal code would be externally reinforced and promoted, with accolades, with praise, and advancement for those who followed it well.

That's why honor has both this internal and external aspect, because they both derive from the same source originally: the code of behavior to enforce the obligations of the individual (namely, the warrior), and the recognition a lord will offer to those who fulfill those obligations publicly.  This is also why honor, even going very far back in time, is an extremely gendered term -- because it is men that are expected to do war.  And women who are expected to stay "pure".

Honor and Face

Although the concept of honor may have derived from this original requirement for ethically and morally bound men who are willing to kill others in service to their social role, by the time Aristotle was writing the term had expanded to a wide range of definitions, like some of the ones listed above and more I have not listed.  What it actually means for any one society is going to be debated in many philosophy and ethics classes for years to come.

So...why say all of this?  Legend of the Five Rings was written in English.  It was written based on English translations of Japanese and Chinese stories and philosophies and histories.  And China and Japan had their own complex definitions of honor.  Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, Taoism, Bushido...All of these works have writings about what honor is and they don't all agree.  So if anyone says 'Real Japanese Honor is ____________', you know they are talking BS.  Even in English, that phrase doesn't have one definition.  

However, with many apologies for being a bad person to talk about such things, we can take a broad swipe at the two basic aspects: Internal Honor, and External Honor.

More easily understood is External Honor.  In a collectivist society, external honor is often referred to as Face and it is deeply paired to the concept of Shame.  In such societies, your identity does not fully belong to you and you alone. Your actions are shared with those of your social in-group, your collective.    Most of the time, this would be primarily your family, but it can also be your military company, your workplace, etc.  If you do actions that bring credit, respect, prestige, and praise to your collective group, then you have saved or gained them Face, or External Honor.  If you do actions that fail, that are embarrassing, and do not fulfill your role, then not only you, but your whole collective loses Face, or external honor.  Family members within the collective, then, will use shame -- enforced consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior -- to compel you to do actions  that would encourage greater external honor until Face is restored.

As a side note, On is not Face. On is a limitless well of obligation and respect.  Your parents give you a limitless amount of On, and you, in turn, will never be able to repay them, but you will owe them eternally for what they have given you.  It is related to your Giri, which is an obligation that must be repaid, and your Ninjo, which is is that which both take without repaying. (Good article on what these really mean here).

Internal Honor is more complicated.  This is the actual internal code of  behavior, as defined by your role, your obligations,  and what is perceived to be morally right, to which you are supposed to conform.  Your expectation would be that if you behave according to this Internal Honor, your External Honor would be increased, or at least not be lost.  But your internal honor does not require external recognition of your act.  Internal honor is 'doing what you are supposed to be doing in the role you are doing it.'  It is your excellence, your moral power.   When I've seen this aspect of a collectivist society's honor discussed in English separately from Face, the term Virtue is used.  

In Legend of the Five Rings, these ideas are turned into game mechanics. I'll talk about that, why the creators of the system did that, and how they translate in terms of philosophy next time.