Ogyū Sorai
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, pen name , was a Japanese historian, philologist, philosopher, and translator. He has been described as the most influential such scholar during the
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
Japan. His primary area of study was in applying the teachings of Confucianism to government and social order. He responded to contemporary economic and political failings of the
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
, as well as the culture of
mercantilism Mercantilism is a economic nationalism, nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports of an economy. It seeks to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and use those resources ...
and the dominance of old institutions that had become weak with extravagance. Sorai rejected the moralism of
Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, which originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) i ...
and instead looked to the ancient works. He argued that allowing emotions to be expressed was important and nurtured
Chinese literature The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of years, and begins with the earliest recorded inscriptions, court archives, building to the major works of philosophy and history written during the Axial Age. The Han dynasty, Han (202  ...
in Japan for this reason. Sorai attracted a large following with his teachings and created the Sorai school, which would become an influential force in further Confucian scholarship in Japan.


Biography

Grave of Ogyū Sorai Sorai was born in Edo the second son of a
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
who served as the personal physician of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who was at the time ''
daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...
'' of Tatebayashi Domain. At an early age, Sorai studied the
Zhu Xi Zhu Xi ( zh, c=朱熹; ; October 18, 1130April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese philosopher, historian, politician, poet, and calligrapher of the Southern Song dynasty. As a leading figure in the development of Neo-Confuci ...
version of Neo-Confucianism under Hayashi Gahō and Hayashi Hōkō; however, his father was exiled in 1679 to a rural village what is now Mobara, Chiba after angering Tsunayoshi. In this rustic setting, he continued to study the major Chinese classics, as well as Japanese and Buddhist texts on his own for the next 13 years, which formed the foundations for his later philosophy. In 1692, Sorai's father was pardoned, and the family moved back to Edo. Sorai opened a school near the temple of
Zōjō-ji is a Jōdo-shū Buddhist temple in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It is the main temple of the Jōdo-shū ("Pure Land") Chinzei sect of Buddhism in the Kantō region. Its mountain name is San'en-zan (三縁山). Zōjō-ji is notable for its relations ...
to teach Chinese classics, and in 1696 received a position in the service of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, a senior councillor to the now
Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. Sorai was assigned to serve Yanagisawa in his domain of Kawagoe. Later, he was granted income of 500 ''
koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...
'', and was assigned to Yoshiyasu's Edo residence, where he provide advice on political issues. One of these issues involved the Akō vendetta in which the
Forty-seven rōnin The revenge of the , also known as the or Akō vendetta, was a historical event in Japan in which a band of ''rōnin'' (lordless samurai) avenged the death of their former master on 31 January 1703. The incident has since become legendary. I ...
avenged their fallen lord by killing
Kira Yoshinaka (October 5, 1641 – January 30, 1703) was a Japanese ''kōke'' (master of ceremonies). His court title was ''Kokushi (officials), Kōzuke no suke (上野介)''. He is famous as the adversary of Asano Naganori in the events of the forty-seven ...
in 1702. Whereas Muro Kyūsō, Hayashi Hōkō and others praised the actions of the ''rōnin'' for their loyalty, Sorai took the opposite stance and argued that they should be forced to commit ''
seppuku , also known as , is a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honor, but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa era (particularly officers near ...
'', for regardless of the "righteousness" of their actions and the weight of public opinion, the fact that they committed a capital offense was undeniable, and the rule of the law must be impartial. In 1705, Yoshiyasu became ''daimyō'' of Kōfu Domain. Sorai remained in Edo, but visited Kai Province in 1706 at the behest of Yoshiyasu, and wrote a travelogue of the journey, In 1709, following the death of Tokigawa Tsunayoshi, Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu fell from favor, and Sorai left his service and relocated to
Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, which sprung up around the bridge of the same name that has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The curre ...
, where he opened a private school, the ''Kenenjuku''.He gradually turned away from the teachings of Zhu Xi to develop his own philosophy and school. In 1722, Sorai was asked to return to public office under the 8th Shogun,
Tokugawa Yoshimune was the eighth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745. He was the son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the grandson of Tokugawa Yorinobu, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Yoshimune is know ...
, but he refused. He continued to teach until his death in 1728. His grave is located at the temple of Chōshō-ji in Mita, Minato, Tokyo (). The gravestone has the inscription in front and an inscription on the back stating that the epitaph was by Honda Tadanori and the writing by the noted calligrapher Matsushita Useki. The tomb was designated a National Historic Site in 1949 .


Teachings

Sorai wrote several influential works in which he identified two fundamental weaknesses in the philosophy of Neo-Confucianism. The first was in the ''
bakufu , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...
''-domain system, which by the eighteenth century was in trouble. As a result, he doubted whether the reliance on finding an individual's ethical good was sufficient. As such he argued that the political crisis of the time required more than perfecting moral character. Moreover, he saw the ancient Chinese sage-kings as concerned not only with morality but also with government itself. His second disagreement with Neo-Confucianism was that he felt putting too much emphasis on morality repressed human nature, which was based on human emotion. However, these weaknesses he felt stemmed not from a deficiency in Confucianism itself, but rather from a misreading of classic works of the
Four Books The Four Books and Five Classics are authoritative and important books associated with Confucianism, written before 300 BC. They are traditionally believed to have been either written, edited or commented by Confucius or one of his disciples. S ...
and the
Five Classics The Four Books and Five Classics are authoritative and important books associated with Confucianism, written before 300 BC. They are traditionally believed to have been either written, edited or commented by Confucius or one of his disciples. S ...
by Neo-Confucianists, which he insisted "did not know the old words." Sorai went back to the ancient works for more reliable knowledge, stating "The ultimate form of scholarly knowledge is history." To him, these historical works were the ultimate source, even for an ever-changing present. Sorai thought that study of philosophy began with the study of language. In this he was highly influenced by the Ancient
Rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
school of the Ming period, which was a neoclassical movement that saw the Qin and Han periods as the model for prose, and the Tang period for poetry. The Sorai school introduced ''Selections of Tang Poetry'', a work thought to have been edited by Li Panlong ( 1514–70), a founder of the Ancient Rhetoric school, to Japan, where it became very popular. As a result, his school is today sometimes also known as the Ancient Rhetoric (''kobunji'' ) school. However it differed in that he saw it mostly as a means of accessing the Five Classics. He would also accuse other Confucianists in Japan, such as
Hayashi Razan , also known as Hayashi Dōshun, was a Japanese historian, philosopher, political consultant, and writer, serving as a tutor and an advisor to the first four ''shōguns'' of the Tokugawa ''bakufu''. He is also attributed with first listing the ...
, of relying too heavily on
Song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...
sources such as Zhu Xi. Sorai further differed from the Neo-Confucian viewpoints in other aspects. One was that the ''Way'' was not a predetermined principle of the universe, but rather an establishment of men, of the ancient sages who described it in the Confucianist classic works. These works provided for the Way, which was divided by
rite Rite may refer to: Religion * Ritual, an established ceremonious act * Rite (Christianity), sacred rituals in the Christian religion * Ritual family, Christian liturgical traditions; often also called ''liturgical rites'' * Catholic particular ch ...
s (''rei'' ) and
music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
(''gaku'' ). The former gave social order, while the latter was inspiration for the heart. In this it directly allowed for the flow of human emotions, something denied by the moralist philosophy of Song Confucianism. Sorai argued for the opposite, allowing one to be enriched through music and poetry. As a result of his teachings in putting emphasis on literature as a fundamental form of human expression, Chinese writing would begin to thrive in Japan, becoming an accepted artistic pursuit. His school would thus produce several such great writers of Chinese composition at that time. Sorai was furthermore a supporter of the
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
class. Institutions that were once under great leadership will later decline and more able men will be less likely to come to power. The samurai, he felt, were best able to overcome this through a system of rewards and punishment. He also saw problems with the merchant class at the time, which he accused of conspiring to fix prices. He was not, however, a great supporter of the lower classes. He argued, "What possible value can there be for the common people to overreach their proper station in life and study such books s the Confucian classics" Some later scholars criticised his work and found his teaching to be impractical. Goi Ranshū believed that Sorai was motivated to surpass Itō Jinsai, another Confucianist who had influenced him a great deal, and that Sorai took his arguments to the level of absurdity for this reason. Had any of his teachings actually been implemented, Goi felt it would have caused extensive damage to
moral philosophy Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied et ...
. Another later scholar critical of Ogyū's teachings was Nakai Chikuzan, who was also familiar with Goi's opposition to Ogyū Sorai. Goi wrote his opposition to Sorai in his essay ''Hi-Butsu hen'', which was written in the 1730s, but not published until 1766 having been edited by Chikuzan and his brother. Nakai later wrote his own, highly emotional, rebuttal to Ogyū's beliefs in his work ''Hi-Chō'' (1785), wherein he rejected the idea that individuals could not better themselves through moral choices. Moreover, he claimed individuals were able to judge whether external ideas and actions were true and just or not. Denial of these morals, he felt, would leave only "rites and rules" to be followed.


''Master Sorai's Teachings''

''Master Sorai's Teachings'' is a record of his teaching and exchanges with his students. The text was edited by his own students and contained their questions followed by his answers to them. The work was not released until 1724, but is thought to have actually taken place around 1720. In it he reinforces that literature is not so much intended for the purposes of instruction in morality or governance, but rather it simply allows for the flow of human emotions. From this, answers on the former topics may be found, he argued. While Ogyu sought to redefine the sources of Tokugawa legitimacy, his purpose was clearly to strengthen the authority of the Tokugawa shogunate.


Economic contributions

Though Sorai was best known for being a teacher of Confucianism, he was also called on to find answers to some of the issues in the growing economy, the most notable of which was the rising inflation and prices that began after the debasement of coinage in 1695. The Tokugawa shogunate carried out a total of 12 recoinages between 1695 and the start of the Meiji Restoration in 1868 debasing the currency in an attempt to match the rising demand for money as the commercial economy rapidly expanded. There was an attempt to quell the inflation and high prices in 1714, when the government reminted coins in an effort to reduce the amount of gold in circulation. However, this exacerbated the problem as the old coins remained in circulation alongside the newly minted coins. In response to the currency reforms, Sorai noted that the monetary policies enacted failed as they accounted for only one of the causes of high prices and inflation. Sorai realized that there were more than just monetary influences that needed to be taken into account to address the problem. He noted that since the large cities like Edo had become the center of large markets one had to consider the costs of tariffs and transportation from distant provinces as well as the costs of land and housing in the cities into final prices. Additionally, there was a breakdown of the traditional class distinctions: commoners were able to buy goods that were once reserved for the higher classes, which pushed up prices. Finally, he pointed out that as the merchant class grew in power, it began to collude and fix prices above what was normal. It was all of these factors together, in addition to the monetary influences, that caused wealth and power to shift away from the shogun and into the hands of the merchants, which prompted the debasement of coinage, leading to inflation and exorbitant prices.


Works

* ''Regulations for Study'' (''Gakusoku'', 1715) * ''Distinguishing the Way'' (''Bendō'', 1717) * ''Master Sorai's Teachings'' (''Sorai sensei tōmonsho'', 1724) He has also been credited for the invention of ko shogi, a large
shogi variant A shogi variant is a game related to or derived from shogi (Japanese chess). Many shogi variants have been developed over the centuries, ranging from some of the largest chess-type games ever played to some of the smallest. A few of these variant ...
, dated to before 1694.


References


Bibliography

* Najita, Tetsuo. (1998). ''Visions of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan.'' Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
. * Shirane, Haruo. (2006). ''Early Modern Japanese Literature.'' New York:
Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...
. * Totman, Conrad. (1982). ''Japan Before Perry.'' Berkeley:
University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
. * Tucker, J., ed. (2006). ''Ogyu Sorai’s Philosophical Masterworks: The Bendo And Benmei (Asian Interactions and Comparisons)''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. * Yamashita, Samuel Hideo. (1994). ''Master Sorai's Responsals: An Annotated Translation of'' Sorai Sensei Tōmonsho. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
.
Translation of some chapters of Ogyû Sorai's On Distinguishing Names
*Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. (1989). ''A History of Japanese Economic Thought.'' London & New York: Routledge. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ogyu, Sorai 1666 births 1728 deaths 17th-century Japanese historians 17th-century Japanese philosophers 18th-century Japanese historians 18th-century Japanese philosophers 18th-century Japanese translators Advisors to Tokugawa shoguns Chess variant inventors Confucianism in Japan Japanese Confucianists Japanese philologists Writers of the Edo period 18th-century Confucianists