THROUGHOUT THE SPREAD OF NEO-CONFUCIANISM TO SEE JAPANESE’S WISDOM

吳楠

Introduction

Edo period is a great period of time in Japans history. Most of us heart of this period from various TV drama or movies introducing Tokugawa period， like oooku（大奧）， shinsengumi（新撰組） and so on. In this kind of cultural products， it is easy for us to know the prosperous and peaceful life in the early and middle Tokugawa period. Although in the late Tokugawa period， the polity faced challenge and bakufu（幕府） finally came to the end when Meiji restoration began， it is worthy for us to learn how Tokugawa bukufu， a military power， who can control the whole Japan and maintain it within a peaceful atmosphere for 265 years， from 1603 to 1868. To learn more about this， we have to go into the detail of Neo-Confucianism， which reached Japan during kamakura period and further developed during edo period， became a strong tool or foundation to support the legitimacy of Tokugawas government.

In this paper， I will focus on why Tokugawa chose Neo-Confucianism as a formal ideology and how this choice influence Japans society. The paper will be divided into parts as follows. Firstly， the definition of Neo-Confucianism and a history about Japanese ideology would be briefly introduced and we can also conclude a kind of wisdom of co-existence from this part. Secondly， we will focus on why the leadership of Japan， the family of Tokugawa choose and accept Neo-Confucian and decided to widely spread this ideology to his people and see Japanese wisdom of accommodation. And then， after discussing why Tokugawa chose Neo-Confucian， we will see how this policy took effect in the society. What effort Tokugawa do at that time and how people reacted on this teaching. Here， we regard the scholars who sacrificed themselves for countrys development as another wisdom of Japanese. Finally， there would be a conclusion including a brief comparison between the different reflection of Neo-Confucianism in China and Japan. Within this paper， I chose four main characters， Fujiwara Seika， Hayashi Razan， Kaibara Ekken and Yamazaki Ansai， who devoted themselves into the path of Neo-Confucians development in order to introduce the details about the spread of Neo-Confucianism better.

What is Neo-Confucianism？

Neo-Confucianism unlike the classical Confucianism which created by Confucian in ancient China， is a more practical theory that can actually apply to every aspect of ones life. Confucianism is a teaching that represented noble and elegant and only the rich class at the very first time in Japan， the intellectual and the people of the court can get access to this noble teaching. Confucianism at that time in Japan， was more like a symbol of aetheticism and people cared more about the ceremony and the superstition of Confucian but not the philosophy itself. Nosco（1997） said that most of the Japanese were attracted to the superstitious content of Confucian rites and practices than to the philosophical and ethical core before Tokugawa period. It can be realized that Confucianism is kind of impractical at this period of time. Thus， in Chinese Song dynasty， Zhu Xi also began to realize the problem and found out that people only consulted to Confucianism when they want to choose a specific date to build a new house， hold a marriage ceremony or for some other similar activities. When it comes to the problem about how to run a state or regulate the people， Confucian advice are not that popular at all（Nosco， 1997）. Considering of this situation， Zhu Xi transformed Confucianism into a new form， which characterized by both spirituality and academic， not only provided the support for state better management， but also benefited individuals further development. It is this new form of Confucianism help it get out of the shadow of Buddhism in Japan.

When Neo-Confucianism firstly arrived in Japan， it actually stayed inside the system of Zen for long period of time. Many scholars thought that Neo-Confucianism was a branch of Zen or even regarded Zhu Xis contemplative approach as “holding fast to seriousness and sitting quietly” were the less developed stages of what the Zen advocated as “sitting as meditation”（Nosco， 1997）. That means at the first time， Neo-Confucianism actually did not get enough attention in Japans society at all. It is the change of the period， the change of the world that gave Neo-Confucianism opportunity to get a new status in Japan and even left colorful legacy for modern Japanese to learn.

Scholars gradually changed their focus from Buddhism to Neo-Confucianism because the new power grew up after a long period of war， the Tokugawa， eventually achieved the top status in Japan. The military power now got the control of the whole country and the people， thus some of the scholars began to think about what the world is going and gradually realized that it is the time to change. And then they began to give up the way of Buddhism， which advocate the impermanence of the reality and importance of suffering， and tended to believe the Neo-Confucianism， which acknowledged the positive effect of reform and change and also provided various means to support the legitimacy for social transformation（Tuchker， 1989）. In sum， Neo-Confucianism is a philosophy that approved of the changing and thus fit the need of Tokugawa family.

However， Tokugawas wisdom not only reflected by his choice of Neo-Confucianism， which benefit his own rule， but also because he leverage the wisdom of co-existence. Actually we can find that Japanese always being enthusiastic to learn foreign knowledge. In the ancient time， they learned kanji and writing system from China. In the period of Meiji Restoration， they quickly changed their focus and sent the iwakura team to learn western political system， military， economic policy and so on. It seems that Japanese born with the power of learning and digesting the unfamiliar stuff. However， in my view， I think Japanese actually have an ability of co-existing. When they try to learn something new， they seldom take all of it blindly， but absorb some suitable for them. What they do had two direction. First one is to accept the frame of the new stuff and fill it with their own content， like what they do as Chinese technology and Japanese spirit. The another one， it is to accept the existence of the all but they may choose one of them to trust. when it comes to the problem of choosing the orthodox of the teaching， people actually accept the tendency of merging among the three major traditions， which were Shinto， Buddhism and Confucianism. These three traditions play their roles in Japanese society and serve specific purposes in answer to different ideological and metaphysical questions respectively（Keiser， 2008）. The Tokugawas government itself also did the same. What the government did was to get support from the scholars to legitimize the central power only， but never make the proscription upon which teaching like what China did in Qing dynasty about literary inquisition. Leadership just left the problem of orthodox for the scholars to argue.

The Neo-Confucianism reached Japan early and stay in the shadow of Buddhism for a while， after Tokugawa chose it and decided to spread it widely to stabilize his rule， Neo-Confucianism finally won peoples attraction. During the process， it is not difficult for us to realize Japanese power of co-existing. In next part， we will begin to discuss why Tokugawa chose Neo-Confucianism and what did Fujiwawa Seika and Hayashi Razan took effect in this period of time.

Tokugawa and Neo-Confucianism

In last section， we briefly talk about that prior to Tokugawa， Neo-Confucianism actually stay in the shadow of Buddhism. However， Neo-Confucianism began to distinguish from Buddhism and firstly appeal to Tokugawa when Japan invaded Korea in 1590s， he found that Neo-Confucians view of changing and self-cultivation was suitable for their ruling of Japan better and Tokugawa Ieyasu appointed Zhu Xi as advocate to his retinue after that in 1605（Nosco， 1997）. Before Tokugawa taking control of Japan， there was a long unstable period for Japanese that various warlord daimyo were attacking each other for power and bigger manor in different areas in Japan. Tokugawa at that time stood out to solve the internal crisis within three island， which were Honshu， Shikoku， and Kyushu. Whats more， he made these daimyo stop using force to fight with each other and both surrendered to his united polity. Only in this kind of stable and peaceful society， can Neo-Confucianism exist safely and spread widely（Keiser， 2008）.

Therefore， suffering from the long era of wartime， the most prominent thing that Tokugawa had to consider was that how to maintain his rule and gave his people a harmonious and stable life（Nosco， 1997）. That was the reason why Tokugawa decided to choose Neo-Confucianism but not the Buddhism in medieval that focus on individuals suffering and self salvation. Neo-Confucianism in this period was not only reflected as a tool that can help Tokugawa to legitimatize his rule， but also created a detailed system of education to ensure that no matter how long the later generations would last， they will also follow and believe that the Tokugawa was their only legitimate ruler but not other warlord during the warring states period（Keiser， 2008）.

To talk about the process how Tokugawa established the educational system of Neo-Confucianism and took it into practice inside the bukufu， there were two characters who helped a lot， who were Fujiwara Seika and his student， Hayashi Razan.

Fujiwara was a former Zen believer who also had broad knowledge about Confucian thought and he eventually rejected Zens views and became one of Neo-Confucianism's foremost advocates in Japan. Keiser（2008） said that the most important thing that Fujiwara did at that time was appeared and offered the answers for which the Tokugawa was searching to reinforce his governance.

Fujiwara's student， Hayashi Razan also played a significant role to serve the Tokugawa shoguns. He worked directly for Tokugawa and even did more than his master because he was able to establish the Shoheiko academy through state sponsor. And this Shoheiko academy， which also named as the school of prosperous peace was the cultural and educational center of Japan. The Hayashis（the family of Hayashi） devoted their whole life here to teach and spread the knowledge of Neo-Confucianism in the central part of Japan， the Edo area（De Bary， Gluck，& Tiedemann， 2005）.

Through the discussion about why Tokugawa chose Neo-Confucianism and how he can do it smoothly with the help of famous Neo-Confucian scholars Fujiwara and Hayashi， we can easily find the second wisdom of Japanese here. The combination of Tokugawa and Neo-Confucian was actually adapted to the main trend of the time. They fit the need of each other and finally left a remarkable legacy and became a Japanese tradition till now. The Neo-Confucianism in Japan was not the simple copy from Chinas Neo-Confucianism but a very distinctively Japanese product， which was a totally great creation from Japanese themselves（Keiser， 2008）. We can see here the Japanese had a wisdom to accommodate the foreign elements to fit their own need. They were quite good at adjusting the frame or system and used them to achieve their own goals.

However， Tokugawas rule with the help of Neo-Confucian scholars was not always going well because some unpredictable results came out in Japanese society at that time. Here I would like to introduce the Yangming school， which was also regarded as a branch of Neo-Confucianism， but totally different from Zhi Xis teaching. Keiser（2008） argued that the argument between Zhu Xi and Yangming was similar to the argument between Xun Zi and Mencius. Undoubtedly， Yangming school was far more easy for normal people to follow. He emphasized that no matter how much you know about the principle of filial piety， what matters is to what extent you put it into practice. De Bary（2006） pointed out that Yangming school actually cared more about the deeds rather than the words which appealed to the people. However， many scholars like De Bary and the famous author Yukio Mishima（三島由紀(jì)夫） believed that it is this kind of single-minded and selfless determination that stimulated the start of Meiji Restoration， which eventually ended Tokugawas rule in Japan. To talk about the reason why some people will begin to trust the teaching of Yangming， we have to mention a number of low level samurai here who lost their necessity in the society after the world becoming peaceful and stable. Within the period of peace， the Bakufu can see the intellectualism emerged among the samurai， which threatened its power and legitimacy and even caused the end. I mention this example is to emphasize that although everyone is phrasing about Tokugawas wisdom to choose Neo-Confucianism as a formal ideology to stabilize his polity， but again another branch of Neo-Confucianism can even overthrow this regime. Fortunately， the amount of the people who will challenge the legitimacy of Tokugawa was not that big and they only being active in the late Tokugawa period. In the next part， I will mention two other excellent scholars， Kaibara Ekken and Yamazaki Ansai to figure out what they did in the process of spreading the Neo-Confucianism and how they persuaded people to believe.

Neo-Confucianism in the society and the emerging of nationalism

In this part， we will focus on how people reacted to Neo-Confucianism through mentioning two scholars， Kaibara Ekken and Yamazaki Ansai. We can also realize how these two scholars devoted themselves to spread the Neo-Confucianism into the local areas and figured out some ways to convince the people， which played a significant role for state further development at that time. Firstly， we have to acknowledge that it is the official recognition of Tokugawa court that helped Neo-Confucianism being both politically and intellectually accepted by the people（Nosco， 1997）. The popular trend of Neo-Confucianism at the beginning started at the center part of Japan， with the help of Hayashis shoheiko academy， and then gradually spread to other provinces. Although Neo-Confucianism was chose by the central government， it did not stay in the central level but also influenced people who lived in other regions， other classes. The scholars who helped the government to spread this teaching throughout the whole Japan were who I mentioned above， Kaibara Ekken and Yamazaki Ansai.

In contrast to Hayashi Rasan who devoted himself and attempted to make the Neo-Confucian system to fit the states governance， Kaibara Ekken was standing on his?opposite side because what he wished was to make Neo-Confucianism accessible to the people within other classes in Japan（keiser， 2008）. Tucker（1989） also phrased Kaibara that he undoubtedly embraced the way of Neo-Confucianism with his whole life remarkable dedication. He sacrificed his own life in order to spread the teaching to the people.

But what did Kaibara actually do to win that a large amount of phrase from the later generation？ That can be briefly concluded into two part of his contribution for Neo-Confucianism in Japan.

Firstly， Kaibara believed that the Neo-Confucianism was not a teaching which served solely for the upper class， but also available for common Japanese in any levels of the society（Keiser， 2008）. Thus， he tried to make the ‘Neo-Confucianism， which seemed like a very noble and hard to accessible thing at previous time to become a ‘household name for common people. He knew that it was difficult for the common Japanese， like the women， farmers and children who did not accept this kind of knowledge before to fully understand what was the Neo-Confucianism actually about. Therefore， he transformed the complicated moral treaties into a simplified style and wrote some specific literature which aimed at those people. Keiser（2008） also said that only through Kaibara Ekkens contribution and the literature he built for the common Japanese， can these people truly realized the intellectual atmosphere during the time of the Tokugawa period.

Secondly， Kaibara realized that within the teaching of Neo-Confucianism there is a natural affinity with their own native shinto tradition（Tucker， 1989）. We all know that if you want the society to accept a new element as quickly as possible and without any suspect， you should try to figure out if there is something similar between the new element and the tradition. If you can find out this part， then you can make a moderate transition but not a radical revolution， because the local common people always pursuit the peace rather than dramatic change. At that time in Japan， Kaibara skillfully developed the idea of Neo-Confucianism in closed relationship with Japanese tradition， shinto. That helped Neo-Confucianism distinctively Japanese thus can be better accepted by the common people.

When it comes to the issue about making a combination of Neo-Confucianism and shinto， there is one more famous scholar that even developed this combination as a totally fresh teaching. Yamazaki Ansai， who combined the Neo-Confucianism with the shinto doctrine and created a new learning system in the late years of his life， was regarded as the example who stimulate the nationalism in Japan and produce the emperor worship through his brand of confucian shinto， or suika shinto（De Bary， Gluck，& Tiedemann， 2005）. Yamazaki cared about the practical part of Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism and he also pointed out the example of Zhu Xis practical proposals， such as his system of grain storage. Yamazaki used this system to teach the people that Neo-Confucianism， was not only able to solve the problem as Buddhism， but also do it in a more practical way， which is more reliable and accessible. In Yamazakis view， Neo-Confucianism can be regarded as the stimuli from China through Korea， but more like a broader cultural movement that developed internally with Japanese own characteristic.

Otherwise， De Bary， Gluck and Tiedemann（2005） argued in their book that Yamazaki also created a new teaching which combined the Neo-Confucianism with Chinese yin-yang and five elements theory to explain the legitimacy of Emperor and the worship behaviors. Though it is not completely fit the meaning of those in China. It even seems a little bit ridiculous to modern people who know much about the real yin-yang and five elements theory of China. However， at that period of time， the new teaching of cosmology did help Japanese grew their own nationalism and respect to their emperor. It also benefit for them to keep a long period of peaceful world and sustain it till now， which allow Japan still being the only one country who possess an emperor for this long time.

Except Kaibara and Yamazaki， there are other characters who also did their effort to spread the Neo-Confucianism. We all know that the family of Hayashis officiated as the teachers of state education and also spread Neo-Confucian teaching throughout the metropolitan area of Japan. However， because the mountains and rivers that cut Japan into several isolated regions， it is far more difficult to penetrate Neo-Confucianism into the rural places. Fortunately， at this difficult situation， thanks to two princes of Tokugawa， Hoshina Masayuki， Tokugawa Mitsukuni and one daimyo， Ikeda Mitsumasa leveraged their power to set up some academy institutes to develop the teaching of Neo-Confucianism in other provinces， some rural areas in Japan（De Bary， Gluck，& Tiedemann， 2005）.

In this part， we go through some of the scholars and even the members of Tokugawa to see how Neo-Confucianism was spread and take effect in Japanese society. We can find that the acceptance of Neo-Confucianism really need the support from the central government and also the effort that paid by many devoted scholars. Here the Japanese wisdom that I want to emphasize is that， many Japanese officials and scholars were willing to take their responsibility selflessly， some of them even sacrificed all of their lifetime to the teaching for their states better development. We can always find Japanese have this kind of spirit like at the time when Iwakura team did their research in the western world， which can also be regarded as a sacrifice. This kind of spirit may relate to the Bushido， which is the core cultural value of the majority of the Japanese.

Conclusion and brief comparison between China and Japan

In this paper， we introduced what is the Neo-Confucianism and how it was received in Japan in Tokugawa period. We mainly pointed out three of Japanese wisdom through introducing the spread of Neo-Confucianism. From learning how the leadership and common people treated the teachings flowing in the society， we can realize the wisdom of co-existence of Japanese. After that， we emphasized the reason why Tokugawa chose Neo-Confucianism as the formal ideology and found that the rule of Tokugawa and the emergence of Neo-Confucianism at that time were actually fit each others need and also adapted to the trend of the times. It was not a one-sided choice but more like they chose each other for better survival in the changeable world. From this point， we can conclude that Japanese have a wisdom of accommodation. Although Tokugawa created a relatively authority and coercive regime， what he provided for the Japanese was the long-term peaceful and harmonious life after the unstable warring period. The contribution of the family of Tokugawa matters at that period of time. In the third part of the paper， we change our focus to the common people and see how they accepted the Neo-Confucianism without detailed learning before. Here， the achievement of Kaibara， who simplified the complicated doctrine to make Neo-Confucianism more accessibe to the common people and Yamazaki， who created Confucian shinto and promoted Japanese universal worship to their emperor should be acknowledged. There are many scholars even the members of Tokugawa did their effort for Neo-Confucianism better penetration in different regions， different classes in Japan. Here I mention the last wisdom of Japanese that they were willing to sacrifice themselves for countrys better development.

To talk about the further direction of the research， I recommend the topic like how Chinese and Japanese accepted the Neo-Confucianism in a different way. As we discussed above， we can see the Neo-Confucianism that disseminated in Japan is quite unique. It is distinctively Japanese. And we can also see when China and Japan have a distinguish among the problem of bloody ties or the argument of public and private， it was also reflected into the way how they accepted Neo-Confucianism and how Neo-Confucianism took effect in these two countries. In my opinion， Neo-Confucianism in Japan actually showed more features of secularization and this may be the reason why Japan can transform into the modern period faster than China. They are already free from some shackles that hindered their development. From Neo-Confucianism， they may learn more about experience than China who only focused on the doctrines itself. All in all， these are only my hypothesis at present time. They need more incidence to prove but undoubtedly interesting project in the possible further research.

References：

Nosco， P. （Ed.）. （1997）. Confucianism and Tokugawa culture. University of Hawaii Press.

Tucker， M. E. （1989）. Moral and spiritual cultivation in Japanese neo-Confucianism： The life and thought of Kaibara Ekken （1630-1714）. SUNY Press.

Keiser， D. S. （2008）. A New Tradition： Legitimizing the Authority of the Tokugawa through the Hands of Japanese Neo-Confucians. East Asian Languages and Cultures Department Honors Papers， 2.

De Bary， W. （2006）. Theodore. Sources of Japanese Tradition， Abridged： Part 1： 1600 to 1868.

Sansom， G. B. （1958）. A History of Japan to 1334 （Vol. 1）. Stanford University Press.

De Bary， W. T.， Gluck， C.， & Tiedemann， A. （Eds.）. （2005）. Sources of Japanese Tradition： 1600 to 2000. Columbia University Press.

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