pen name Butsu Sorai, was a Japanese Confucian

Confucianism

Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...

 philosopher. He has been described as the most influential such scholar during the Tokugawa period. 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 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, as well as the culture of mercantilism

Mercantilism

Mercantilism is the economic doctrine in which government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the prosperity and security of the state. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from...

 and the dominance of old institutions that had become weak with extravagance. Sorai rejected the moralism of Song Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism is an ethical and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, that was primarily developed during the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, but which can be traced back to Han Yu and Li Ao in the Tang Dynasty....

 and instead looked to the ancient works. He argued that allowing emotions to be expressed was important and nurtured Chinese literature

Chinese literature

Chinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...

 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.

Life

Sorai was born the second son of a samurai who served as the personal physician of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi

was the fifth shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan. He was the younger brother of Tokugawa Ietsuna, thus making him the son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu....

 (徳川綱吉), who would become the fifth shogun. Sorai studied the Zhu Xi

Zhu Xi

Zhū​ Xī​ or Chu Hsi was a Song Dynasty Confucian scholar who became the leading figure of the School of Principle and the most influential rationalist Neo-Confucian in China...

 version of Song Confucianism, and by 1690 he became a private teacher of Chinese classics. He went into the service of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu

Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu

was a Japanese samurai of the Edo period He was an official in the Tokugawa shogunate and he was a favorite of the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi....

, a senior councillor to Tsunayoshi, in 1696. He left in 1709 after the death of Tsunayoshi and would turn away from the teachings of Zhu Xi to develop his own philosophy and school. He is credited with the creation of kō shōgi

Ko shogi

Kō shōgi is a large-board variant of shogi, or Japanese chess. The game dates back to the turn of the 18th century and is based on xiangqi and go as well as shogi. Credit for its invention has been given to Confucian scholar Ogyū Sorai.- Rules of the game :Unlike standard shogi, pieces may not...

, an unusual form of chess.

Teachings

Sorai would write several influential works. In them he identified two fundamental weaknesses in the philosophy of Song Confucianism. The first was in the bakufu-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 Song 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 and the Five Classics by Song 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

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

." To him, these historical works were the ultimate source, even for an ever-changing present. Sorai thought that study of philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 began with the study of language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

. In this he was highly influenced by the Ancient Rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

 school of the Ming period, which was a neoclassical movement that saw the Qin

Qin Dynasty

The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China, lasting from 221 to 207 BC. The Qin state derived its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-day Shaanxi. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring...

 and Han

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

 periods as the model for prose, and the Tang

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

 period for poetry. The Sorai school introduced Selections of Tang Poetry, a work thought to have been edited by Li Panlong (李攀竜 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 古文辞) 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

Hayashi Razan

, also known as Hayashi Dōshun, was a Japanese Neo-Confucian philosopher, serving as a tutor and an advisor to the first four shoguns of the Tokugawa bakufu. He is also attributed with first listing the Three Views of Japan. Razan was the founder of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars.Razan was...

, of relying too heavily on Song sources such as Zhu Xi.

Sorai further differed from the Song 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

A rite is an established, ceremonious, usually religious act. Rites in this sense fall into three major categories:* rites of passage, generally changing an individual's social status, such as marriage, baptism, or graduation....

s (rei 礼) and music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 (gaku 楽). 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

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 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 [as 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

Ito Jinsai

, who also went by the pen name Keisai, was a Japanese Confucian philosopher and educator. He is considered to be one of the most influential Confucian scholars of seventeenth century Japan, and the Tokugawa period generally, his teachings flourishing especially in Kyoto and the Kansai area...

, another Confucianist who had influenced him a great deal, and that Sorai took his arguments to the level of abursdity for this reason. Had any of his teachings actually been implemented, Goi felt it would have caused extensive damage to moral philosophy. Another later scholar critical of Ogyū's teachings was Nakai Chikuzan

Nakai Chikuzan

Nakai, Chikuzan was the son of Nakai Shuan , one of the Kaitokudo's two founders. He became the administrative head of the Kaitokudo in 1797 during the Tokugawa era in Japan. An extrovert known for his bureaucratic skills and his firm precise Kanji, Chikuzan was vastly different from his brother...

, 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 judge whether external ideas and actions as true or just. 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.

Works

• Regulations for Study (Gakusoku, 1715)
• Distinguishing the Way (Bendō, 1717)
• Master Sorai's Teachings (Sorai sensei tōmonsho, 1724)