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230 16 The Apprenticeship of Ogyû Sorai “Since the shogun Tsunayoshi was fond of learning, it spread throughout the country, and people holding lectures on various books appeared in towns like clouds in the sky,”1 wrote the Confucian scholar Ogyû Sorai, documenting the shogun’s success in raising popular interest in learning and particularly Confucianism . Sorai himself was one of those who “appeared in towns like clouds.” In Genroku 5 (1692), when his father, the physician Ogyû Hôan, was included in a shogunal pardon and permitted to end his exile of over a decade in the provinces , Sorai returned to Edo to make a living lecturing in front of the large temple Zôjôji.2 It is unlikely that the young scholar would have attempted to earn his keep as a Confucian teacher if such lecturing had not suddenly come into demand with the shogun’s sponsorship. Nor would he have found ready employment in the Yanagisawa mansion some years later. Sorai himself explained that his employment was due to the recommendation of the abbot of Zôjôji, a claim scholars have met with skepticism, suggesting that Sorai’s father Hôan’s reinstatement as physician to Tsunayoshi was the decisive factor.3 No doubt this was necessary to clear the way for Sorai’s employment in the Yanagisawa mansion, but it is dif¤cult to imagine that this alone would have quali¤ed him to join the elite group of scholars that were gathered at the house of the shogun ’s most powerful minister. It is more likely that the abbot noticed that this young scholar’s approach to the Confucian classics well matched that favored by the shogun. Returning to the city of Edo at around the age of twenty-six after having spent over a decade of the most formative years of his life in the provinces, Sorai found himself out of tune with the sophistication of the city samurai. Throughout his life he would refer to his rustic way of thinking.4 It was, however, this largely untutored approach to and understanding of the Chinese classics that secured Sorai not merely employment, but also quick promotion in the Yanagisawa mansion and, in turn, the attention of the ruler. The reason for Sorai’s early promotion from the “lowermost seat of the hall” was the judgment of the peasant Dônyu.5 The Apprenticeship of Ogyû Sorai 231 The Judgment of the Peasant Dônyu Dônyu was a peasant of the Yanagisawa domain who was so poor that he ¤rst divorced his wife and later abandoned his ailing mother. He was now charged with un¤lial conduct. Sorai later described how Yoshiyasu asked his scholars to investigate precedents to determine the appropriate punishment, but neither the law codes of Ming China nor other writings contained information on this topic. Since Dônyu had been so poor that several days earlier he had divorced his wife, the scholars decided that he ought to be considered an outcast. For an outcast his behavior of taking his mother along with him until he could no longer support her was commendable. As originally he had no intention of abandoning his mother, he should not be charged with this crime. Yet Yoshiyasu was not satis¤ed with this verdict, insisting that even among the poorest, abandoning one’s parents could not be tolerated. Since somehow the matter had come to the shogun’s notice, Yoshiyasu decided it would be wise to consult him. The shogun was, according to Sorai, at that time a follower of the Chinese philosopher Chu Hsi, believing in the latter’s theory that everything in the world was infused with its own particular li (Jap.: ri) or principle.6 According to Chu Hsi, every person shares the same li, or characteristic essence of humankind, but the nature of ch’i (Jap. ki) an individual is endowed with varies and determines the state of the person’s heart or mind. Evil is thus explained as a heart polluted by evil ch’i.7 According to Sorai the shogun was particularly concerned with the investigation of the heart, which in this context must be taken to mean the search for the source of evil, here the evil of abandoning one’s parent. Yet, Sorai explained, Yoshiyasu was a follower of Zen Buddhism, who normally did not give much credence to the theory of li or principle. Under these circumstances, Sorai decided to take a practical...

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