2015 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
The Reproduction of Visible Confucian Forms in 17th Century Japan as a Case of Transculturation
| Project/Area Number |
25370747
|
|---|
| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
Chard Robert 東京大学, 東洋文化研究所, 客員教授 (30571492)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
|
| Keywords | Confucianism / Ritual |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In the final year of this research project, the work has continued to concentrate on Confucian ritual forms in Japan during the 17th century, with special emphasis on the different cultural transmissions of Confucianism in China and Japan. As before, the focus of investigation is the writings of the Chinese emigre Zhu Shunshui, and those of the Japanese students, scholars, and officials he interacted with; many of these writings are not published, and have not been sufficiently studied. The dialogues between Zhu and his Japanese interlocutors reveal a stark difference in the ‘Confucianisms’ of China and Japan, reflected in the different nature of their cultural transmission. In China, Confucian learning was embedded in the totality of cultural transmission among the scholar-gentry from which Zhu came; it was immersive, and people like Zhu believed that it was fundamentally ‘right’ in a moral sense, and integrated moral and academic training. In Japan, the writings of Confucians who interacted with Zhu reveal a strong commitment to Confucianism, and a desire to spread the Confucian virtues among the Japanese population, but in the end their Confucianism was not part of the mainstream cultural transmission, and the emphasis was more on the ideals of Confucian learning and the practice of Confucian ritual. The results from the current project have this year been publicly disseminated in the form of one book chapter, one article, and three invited conference papers.
|
Research Products
(5 results)
