Ogyū Sorai
The Way is not a law of nature but the rites and institutions that ancient sage-kings created – and good government matters more than private virtue.
Placement
Confucian of Edo Japan: the Way is not a law of nature but the rites and institutions created by the ancient sage-kings – to be recovered through the philology of ancient texts.
Key ideas
- The Way as human institution
- Study of ancient words (kobunjigaku)
- Politics before private morality
Influence
Influenced by 2
Confucius
influenced by
Ogyū Sorai held that Confucius transmitted the Way of the early kings, their rites, music and institutions, and read the Analects accordingly (Bendō, 1717; Rongo chō). Ogyū Sorai, Bendō (1717); Rongo chō; J. A. Tucker, Ogyū Sorai’s Philosophical Masterworks (2006)
Evidence: AI draft
Confucius › traditionally 551–479 BCE
Xunzi
influenced by
Ogyū Sorai’s view that the Way consists of rites and institutions invented by the ancient sage-kings is close to Xunzi’s, as scholars note (Bendō, 1717). Ogyū Sorai, Bendō (1717); J. A. Tucker, Ogyū Sorai’s Philosophical Masterworks (2006); SEP “Japanese Confucian Philosophy”
Evidence: AI draft
Xunzi › c. 310–235 BCE
Influenced 2
Motoori Norinaga
influenced
Motoori Norinaga applied a philology of ancient words akin to Ogyū Sorai’s to the Kojiki, but turned it against Chinese learning (Kojiki-den, 1764–98). Motoori Norinaga, Kojiki-den (1764–98); P. Nosco, Remembering Paradise: Nativism and Nostalgia in Eighteenth-Century Japan (1990)
Evidence: AI draft
Motoori Norinaga › 1730–1801
Maruyama Masao
influenced
Maruyama argued that Ogyū Sorai’s view of the Way as made by the sages, separating politics from private morality, began modern political thought in Japan (1952). Maruyama Masao, Nihon seiji shisōshi kenkyū (1952), tr. M. Hane, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan (1974)
Evidence: AI draft
Maruyama Masao › 1914–1996
Criticism
Criticizes 2
Zhu Xi
criticised
Ogyū Sorai rejected Zhu Xi’s principle as speculation: the Way is not inherent in human nature but the rites and institutions of the ancient kings (Bendō, 1717). Ogyū Sorai, Bendō (1717), tr. J. A. Tucker, Ogyū Sorai’s Philosophical Masterworks, 2006
Evidence: AI draft
Zhu Xi › 1130–1200
Itō Jinsai
criticised
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
Itō Jinsai › 1627–1705
Works
The Way of the sages is not a principle in the heart but the rites, music and institutions the ancient kings created to bring peace to the realm.
Position
Sorai argued that the Confucian Way is neither a natural principle nor an inner moral law but the rites, music, laws and institutions that the ancient sage-kings of China invented to bring peace to the realm – close to Xunzi’s view. Because the meaning of words changes over time, the Song Neo-Confucians and Itō Jinsai had misread the classics; only the study of ancient words and phrases (kobunjigaku) gives access to them. Morality is chiefly a matter of good institutions. His philology shaped Motoori Norinaga, who turned it against Chinese learning; Maruyama Masao saw in Sorai’s separation of politics from private morality a beginning of Japanese modernity.
Life & context
Ogyū Sorai was born in 1666 in Edo, the son of a physician to the later shogun Tsunayoshi. When his father was banished, the family spent about twelve years in rural Kazusa province, where Sorai studied largely on his own. In 1696 he entered the service of the shogun’s chief adviser Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu. He later ran his own school, advised the shogun Yoshimune on government and died in 1728.
Further main works
- Distinguishing Names (Benmei, written 1717)
- Discourse on Government (Seidan, c. 1727)
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