| "Ren" is at the core in Confucianism. It is Confucius who proposed "ren", which set the theoretical basis of Confucianism. Since the importance of "ren" in theoretical system of Confucianism, there has been a series of interpretations of it for generation, which makes the contents of "ren" more and more conprehensive. And after Comfucianism based on "ren" was passed into Japan, due to the difference of way of life, national personality, way of thinking and political structure between China and Japan, the important definition of "ren" has a new connotation through the interpretation of Japanese Confucian scholars.Kogaku is considered a typical school in the intellectual history of Tokugawa. The dissertation selected a confucianist called Ito Jinsai in Tokugawa Shogunate. There are two researching lines:one focuses on the "linguistic nature", namely, focuses on selecting some accounts of Ito Jinsai in his works; the other focuses on the "methodology"from classical textualism, namely, set Ito Jinsai in to the specific historical period, consider what kind of methodology he used to interprete "ren" and how he dealt with the internal tension between confucianism and Taoism in different times and the specific historical episode. The dissertation finially discusses the special nature of Jinsai theory from comporative intellectual historical perspective.The dissertation uses the approaches of both conceptual and intellectual history. It first selects the accounts on "ren" of Ito Jinsai in his works, and makes analysis on how he redefined the most important concept of Chinese Confucian phylosophy,"ren". Meanwhile, puts Ito Jinsai into the historical backgroud of Tokugawa Shogunate feudalism and Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi becoming the official ideology, discusses relations of "inter-subjectivity"between Ito Jinsai and the classics, and further explores the special character of Jinsai’s theory.The whole dissertation is composed of five chapters. The main idea of each chapter is as follows:Chapter one discusses three issues. Firstly, there is a brief introduction of a biography and life experience of Ito Jinsai. Then, there is a brief account of the development of Japanese modern confucianism, including and especially the theories of Fujiwaraseika、 Hayashirazan、Ansai、NakaeToju、Banzan and so on. Finally, there is an analysis of the development of Kogaku theory by Ito Jinsai. The academic development of Ito Jinsai can be divided into three phases:Phase one is "belief in confucianism and Li Xue(school of principle)"; Phase two is the dilemma of some beliefs and some doubts of Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi which he used to believing in; Phase three is "the ignorance of all interpretation and footnotes of Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi and going directly to the classics of the Analects and the Book of Mencius, which is on the opposite of Zhu Xi, and sets up the theoretical system of Kogaku.Chapter two focuses on the meaning of "ren" from Ito Jinsai’s perspective. This part firstly makes an analysis of the definistion of "ren". Three aspects need mentioning as regards to his definition:the heart of kindness without one tiny ruthless; the morality of kindness without one tiny carelessness, which refers to the morality of kindness is quite comprehensive; the hear of contribution to all and to the descendants. According to him, the nature of "ren" is "love" and "everyday use rather than for future use." Next, the dissertation makes an analysis of a representative article of his "ren theory" called<Ren Shuo>. Finally, the dissertation makes some conclusion about his ideas for "ren":"morality of ren" is the "morality of kindness" that everybody has a kind heart not only "former kings"has;"ren" is a totality of all kinds of moralities, including "justice, etiquette and knowledge"; the morality of humanity, etiquette and knowledge refers to both subject and learning nad practicing. The subject is the general moral guideline, while learning and practicing refers to specific pracical acitivity for the individual to become moral. Ito Jinsai regards "morality" as the subject of "ren", the nature of which is to extend the morality of kindness, so that the individual nature is moral and humane; the interpretation of "ren" from pragmatic daily practice.Chapter three discusses the structure of his theory of humanity from several important definitions. Firstly, interpretation of the definitions of "Tao","Morality" and "morality". The Ito Jinsai’s "Tao" is different from Zhu Xi’s "reason","nature" or some other subjective definitions that relates to human nature. His "Tao" exists in everybody’s daily practice in every moment. Also his "Tao" is not abstract or profound but simple and clear, which stresses "tao can not exists outside human being and vice versa". As to morality, Ito Jinsai’s understanding is also different from Zhu Xi’s. His "morality" is composed of three meanings:firstly,"morality" is the combination of "humanity, justice, etiquette and knowledge", which is the comnbination of all kindness; secondly, the saints refers to morality rahter than heart; thirdly, Tao and morality is quite similar or basically the same. Next, the disseration discusses the subject of morality, namely the "ren, justice, etiquette and knowledge". The core idea is that "humanity, justice, etiquette and knowledge" are moralities rahter than natures of human being. Nature refers to specific characteristic of an individual person, not refers to the one that everybody has; while morality refers to that everybody has in general, which disproves Neo-confucianism’s idea that "ren, justice, etiquette and knowledge" are nature. As regards to the relationship of "ren" with other moralities, his ideas are:"ren" is prior to all other moralities; Secondly, the relationship of "ren"with "justice, etiquettem, knowledge and loyalty and integrity" is that "justice is the attached to, etiquette is assisted with, and loyalty and integrity is based on ren." Next, discusses the issue of "four senses". Ito Jinsai thinks "sense"is "begin","four senses" refers to " the heart of Compassion shame aversion approaches in right and wrong",which everybody has. As regards to his accounts on "nature", the dissertation selects three representative materials of him<The theory of Good Nature>,<YuMengZiYi>and<TongZiWen>, and discovers that his idea about "nature" are as follows:firstly, nature is used to empirical experience, and stress everbody has the possibility of morally regulating himself, and everybody has the ability of evaluating and selecting things of good and evil. Secondly, he criticized the idea of "nature is reason" by Song dynasty.Song dynasty believes that "nature" is "The nature of Heaven", but he thinks that "nature" that Mencius refers is "The nature of Earth", and this idea runs through all his accounts; thirdly, he disagrees Song dynasty’s accounts on "Heaven" and "Earth", and he thinks that "nature" refers to"Heaven". Aprat from some analysis, the dissertation also analyzes the definitions of "knowledge"、"ren"、"courage"、"filial perty and fraternal duty"、"loyalty and integrity", and makes some comparative analysis with relevant definitions.The fourth chapter discusses the standards of "ren" from Ito Jinsai’s perspective. The standards are:whether "a person has a kind heart".This is reflected from his accounts to Guan Zhong. He emphases the latter, namely this leads to the third standard, that is whether a person has "the practice of kindness". If a person has just a kind heart but without kind actions or he looks like a "villain", so that even if a person superficially has a kind hear and kind actions, but if he is out of his own selfishness, and for his personal interest, this is not humanity. The last standard is whether humanity is comprehensive. Ito Jinsai not only stress the nature of morality but also stress the process of extend to others.As refards to how Ito Jinsai practices his theory of "ren", way of practicing benevolence, Ito Jinsai thinks first and foremost, we should "study"."study" has two meanings:"imitation" and "perception"."immitation" goes first and "perception"comes after."study"is the specific means for "Expansion", and one of the main content for "study" is "words of wise men of the past". He disagrees with Zhu Xi’s "the Four Books as essential for learning", namely, the Analects and the Book of Mencius as the most significant.the Book of Mencius on the basis that it is the only text that interprets and develops the thoughts of Confucius correctly. If one wnats to really understand the idea of the Analects, he must understands through understanding the Book of Mencius, otherwise it would be impossible to understand the Analects just from its literal words. On the contrary, Ito Jinsai proposed "parental teaching"——"the attitude of orthodoxy" and "idea"."the attitude of orthodoxy "refers to"Confucian orthodoxy", namely the basic ideas that wise men of the past wanted to deliver;"idea" is "the meaning from the books of the wise men of the past", namely the specific meaning of the words from their books. A scholar should first understand what the basic idea that the wise men of past wanted to deliver than understand in detail the specifi meaning of their words and paragraphs and understand the basic idea from the words. He also considered "Wen Xing Zhong Xin"as "the formula"."Wen"refers to those contents in<Shijing>、<Shangshu>and six arts;"Xing" refers to "Xiao Ti Li Rang", namely, respect to the parents, elder brothers and sisters and others;"Loyalty" is a heart to do, namely devoted to others;"Xin" refers to" the credit to the person", namely do not cheat to others. The second means to practice humanity is "Loyalty" and "shu"Ito Jinsai thinks human beings are interrelated and he was always thinking the way to make the relations of human beings smooth. That is "Loyalty and Shu"。In his opinion,"Loyalty and Shu"means:"Loyalty" is a heart to do,"Shu" is the heart has been pushed."Loyalty" refers to "devoted to others unselfishly"; while "Shu" has two meanings:one is "the heart of considerate of others", namely,"conder other from his own", and put himself in other’s position, what others prefer, what others like or hate and try to do something that others like; the intention of tolerance, namely, forgaving others. The third means is "one’s own efforts"。Ito Jinsai thinks even though confucian stresses "Loyalty and Shu" and "one’s own efforts", but "Loyalty and Shu"and "one’s own efforts" is quite similar."Loyalty and Shu" refers to not strict with others while "one’s own efforts" refers to strict with oneself。The fourth means is "honesty"。Ito Jinsai thinks "honesty"is not cheating, pretending or concealing, showing what it is and expressing what one thinks directly. He thinks "honesty" is the basis of "Saint" and the objective of scholars in his research. The last one is "practice"。The Fifth Chapter analyzes the method of Ito Jinsai when he interpretes "ren":the first method is critical interpretation of ancient texts——understanding of "Confucian orthodoxy". He disagrees to understand the classics of Confucian and Menci according to Zhu Xi’s interpretation. Instead, he proposed to go back to the classics of Confucius and Menci, namely, the Analects and the Book of Mencius, to go back to the original dialogues of the between the teachers and students so as to understand the original meaning of the important pholosophical definitions. The second is the empirical methodology which aims at understanding the classics by his own understanding and experience. It finally explores the special intellectual character of Jinsai theory:going begond the literal meaning and pursuing the communication between his ideas and the classics; stressing "The way of human relations"; stressing the manifestation of subject morality; and stressing the life and growth in nature.In the conclusive part, the dissertation analyzed and commented the personal influence of Ito Jinsai. |
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