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Separating the Word and the Way: Suyama Nantō’s Chūgi Suikodenkai and Edo-Period Vernacular Philology
- The Journal of Japanese Studies
- Society for Japanese Studies
- Volume 41, Number 2, Summer 2015
- pp. 347-371
- 10.1353/jjs.2015.0038
- Article
- Additional Information
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This study examines Edo-period interest in the Chinese vernacular novel Suikoden (Ch. Shuihu zhuan). In 1757, Suyama Nantō, a classical scholar from Tosa, published Chūgi Suikodenkai, an annotated guide to the vocabulary of the novel. Although Nantō’s guide can be connected to a larger discourse on linguistic change established by the classical scholar Ogyū Sorai and his Chinese instructor, Okajima Kanzan, the text ultimately rejects their understanding of Sino-Japanese cultural relations in favor of a paradigm rooted in the collection of discrete information about contemporary Chinese material culture that downplayed the ethical and political applications of such information.