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Itō Jinsai

1627–1705

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

The Confucian Way is not an abstract principle but simply love and humanity practised in everyday life, as the original texts say.

Placement

East Asian Philosophy · East Asia · Ethics

Kyoto teacher who broke with Zhu Xi: back to the original meaning of the Analects and Mencius, where the Way is humane love in everyday life, not abstract principle.

Key ideas

  • Study of ancient meanings (kogigaku)
  • Humaneness as love
  • Critique of Neo-Confucian metaphysics

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Influence

Influenced by 2

  • Confucius

    influenced by

    Itō Jinsai praised the Analects as the foremost book in the universe and sought its ancient meaning, freed from Song commentary (Rongo kogi, publ. 1712). Itō Jinsai, Rongo kogi (publ. 1712); J. A. Tucker, Itō Jinsai’s Gomō jigi and the Philosophical Definition of Early Modern Japan (1998)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Confucius › traditionally 551–479 BCE

  • Mengzi (Mencius)

    influenced by

    Itō Jinsai read Mencius’ four sprouts as starting points to be extended into virtue in daily life, not as signs of an inner principle (Gomō jigi, 1683). Itō Jinsai, Gomō jigi (1683, publ. 1705), tr. J. A. Tucker (1998); Mōshi kogi

    Evidence: AI draft

    Mengzi (Mencius) › c. 372–289 BCE

Criticism

Criticized by 1

  • Ogyū Sorai

    criticised by

    Ogyū Sorai, once an admirer, faulted Itō Jinsai for reading the Way as personal morality; for Sorai it is the institutions of the ancient kings (Bendō, 1717). Ogyū Sorai, Bendō (1717); Benmei; tr. J. A. Tucker, Ogyū Sorai’s Philosophical Masterworks, 2006

    Evidence: AI draft

    Ogyū Sorai › 1666–1728

Criticizes 1

  • Zhu Xi

    criticised

    Itō Jinsai rejected Zhu Xi’s metaphysics of principle as alien to Confucius and Mencius, reading the Way as humaneness in everyday human relations (Gomō jigi, 1683). Itō Jinsai, Gomō jigi (1683, publ. 1705), tr. J. A. Tucker, 1998

    Evidence: AI draft

    Zhu Xi › 1130–1200

Works

Position

Jinsai came to see Zhu Xi’s metaphysics of principle (li) as contaminated by Buddhist and Daoist ideas foreign to Confucius and Mencius. He called for a return to the “ancient meaning” (kogi) of the Analects and the Mencius, regarding the Analects as the greatest book under heaven. The world is a living, generative process of vital force, not the expression of a static principle. The Way lies in ordinary human relationships, and at its centre stands humaneness, understood as love; Mencius’ sprouts of goodness must be extended through effort, not recovered in quiet meditation. Ogyū Sorai first admired, then attacked him. His critique parallels Dai Zhen’s in China.

Life & context

Itō Jinsai was born in 1627 into a Kyoto merchant family. Refusing to become a physician, he devoted himself to Zhu Xi’s Neo-Confucianism until a crisis and years of seclusion led him to doubt it. Around 1662 he opened a private school, the Kogidō, in Kyoto and taught there for four decades without serving any lord. He died in 1705; his son Tōgai published most of his works.

Further main works

  • Questions of Children (Dōjimon, 1707, posthumous)
  • Ancient Meanings of the Analects (Rongo kogi, 1712, posthumous)

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

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