Uchiyama Gudō, letter to Heimin Shimbun

In late 1903, the editors of newly founded Heimin Shimbun (平民新聞) asked readers for letters to show that socialism was growing as a grassroots movement. 82 people responded, Uchiyama Gudō being one of them. His short letter was published in issue No. 10, dated 17 January, Meiji 37 (1904).

Original Text

餘は佛教の傳道者にして曰く一切衆生悉有佛性曰く此法平等無高下曰く一切衆生的是吾子之れ餘が信仰の立脚地とする金言なるが餘は社會主義の言ふ所の右の金言と全󠄁然一致するを發見して遂に社會主義の信者となりしものなり

Translation

As a Buddhist preacher, I hold fast to these golden words: "All living beings possess Buddha-nature," "This Dharma is equal, without high or low," and "All living beings are my children." These are the golden words upon which my faith stands. However, I discovered that what socialism says completely coincides with these golden words, and thus I ultimately became a believer in socialism.

Translation Notes

"All living beings possess Buddha-nature"

Original:   一切衆生悉有佛性

Source: Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (大般涅槃經), also known as the Nirvana Sutra (T0374n12, multiple occurrences of the phrase).

In early Mahāyāna Buddhism there was a fierce theological debate over whether everyone could achieve enlightenment. According to early Yogācāra, some beings (i.e., icchantikas) were permanently blocked from enlightenment due to bad karma. The Nirvana Sutra was written specifically to dismantle this hierarchical distinction. The entire trajectory of this massive text functions to prove that Buddha-nature is universal. It is an inherent, indestructible quality embedded within every single sentient being, no matter how corrupted or flawed they appear on the surface. In other words, the sutra argues for soteriological radical equality.

Uchiyama stretched this cosmic, spiritual/soteriological equality and applied it directly to the material, socio-economic world of Meiji Japan. However, it can be argued that this is not a radical break. If every laborer, peasant, and outcast possesses the exact same ultimate cosmic value (i.e., capability of achieving enlightenment) as the Emperor, then material hierarchy is a spiritual lie. Hence, Uchiyama did not break the sutra's logic — he just dragged it down from heaven to earth.

"This Dharma is equal, without high or low"

Uchiyama:	此法平等無高下
Original:	是法平等無有高下

Source: Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (金剛般若波羅蜜經), also known as the Diamond Sutra (T0235n8, multiple occurrences of the phrase).

Uchiyama made two changes here. (1) He substituted the character 是 with 此. Both characters mean "this" or "these" in classical Chinese and are virtually interchangeable in this context. 是 is more common in early translation prose, while 此 explicitly points to "this" object or "this" specific Dharma just discussed. (2) He omitted 有. 「無有」 translates literally to "does not have" or "there is no." By dropping 有, Uchiyama turned it into 「無高下」, which simply translates to "without high or low" or "no high or low" (instead of original "does not have high or low". The meaning remains identical, but the delivery changes. Uchiyama's change is a rhetorical tightening meant for a punchy newspaper column, leaving the core philosophical statement of non-duality completely intact.

"All living beings are my children"

Uchiyama:			一切衆生	皆是吾子
Original:	今此三界	皆是我有	其中衆生	悉是吾子
Translation:	Now this threefold world is entirely my domain;		the living beings within it are all my children.)

Source: Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra (妙法蓮華經), also known as the Lotus Sutra (T0262n9, 14c26-27).

There are two kinds of changes here. The first is more or less linguistic (and less important); the second concerns what Uchiyama leaves out. The linguistic changes are as follows: (1) The original sutra uses 「其中衆生」, meaning "the living beings within it", explicitly tying the beings to the "threefold world" mentioned in the previous phrase. Uchiyama swaps this for 「一切衆生」, meaning "all living beings everywhere," freeing the subjects from any spatial or cosmological boundaries, but also making it possible to omit the previous line. (2) Uchiyama replaces 悉 with 皆 in 「皆是吾子」. This is probably a memory slip as both mean "all" and 皆 occurs in the previous phrase.

The most radical difference between the two passages is what Uchiyama chose to delete. By completely eliminating the first line (今此三界 皆是我有), Uchiyama stripped the original passage of its cosmic feudalism. The original context is the Buddha as cosmic ruler. In the Lotus Sutra, these lines are spoken by the historical Buddha, who is positioning himself as an ultimate spiritual monarch. When he says "This threefold world is entirely my domain," he is establishing absolute ownership and spiritual authority over the threefold world (i.e., the world of unenlightened beings including humans, other animals, hungry ghosts (pretas), asuras, gods, and so forth; it is called "threefold" due to a traditional classification of the realms of these various beings into three kinds). The subsequent line, "The living beings within it are all my children," functions as a declaration of paternalistic responsibility — the Buddha is the cosmic father, and sentient beings are his dependent, ignorant children who need saving. Uchiyama’s revision completely rejects this context. He was deeply opposed to monarchs, emperors, and vertical hierarchies. By cutting out "this world is my domain," he eliminated the image of the Buddha as an absolute ruler or property owner. He effectively took a vertically organized hierarchy (ruler/father above subjects/children) and flattened it into a symmetric, horizontal relationship of solidarity.

How to Cite this Article

Brons, Lajos (2026). "Uchiyama Gudō, letter to Heimin Shimbun". The Radical Buddhism Project. Version of 26 July 2026. http://radicalbuddhism.net/wiki/UG04HSL-T.