英文摘要 |
Ogyu Sorai (1666-1728) is considered one of early modern Japan's greatest thinkers. Much of the research examining Sorai's Confucianist thinking approaches it from the viewpoint of either traditional Confucian classics studies, or modern philosophy and political thought. Sorai attempts to understand the formation and application of ancient China's "Way of the Sages" 聖人之道from the perspective of the Edo 江戶 society in which he lives, and criticizes "Song Confucianism" from a historical point of view. The context of these questions has yet to be clearly explained by scholars. Sorai asserts that "scholarship is a matter of exploring history": his explorations of Japanese history, together with a scholarly approach known as "ancient rhetorical studies" 古文辭學 that developed out of his literary research, inform his reading of the Confucian classics and works of Chinese history, giving him a deep awareness of historical change across its entirety. Based upon a well-rounded view of history that incorporates politics, classics, and literary studies, he then develops a critique of Song Confucianism and a reconstruction of the Way of the Sages. This paper's approach, then, builds on a mainly socio-historical basis, adding a perspective of the history of comparative political thought in East Asian Confucianism. It focuses on the feudal system and the system of prefectures and counties to explore how, in light of his awareness of the related problems of Edo society and the national system, Sorai draws upon his literary scholarship to imagine the Three Dynasties 三代 of ancient China, and interpret post-Han dynasty Chinese history. It thus aims to clarify Sorai's view of the Way of the Sages as a whole and to discuss his criticisms of Song Confucianism. Further, Ogyū Sorai's ideas are compared with those of Gu Yanwu 顧炎武 (1613-1682) and Yamaga Soko 山鹿素行 (1622-1685), analyzing the characteristics and intrinsic meaning of his political thought in the context of East Asian intellectual history. |