An Overview Of The Native Atheism In East Asia

This paper examines the history of China and Japan’s indigenous atheistic thought in the Qing/Edo era before western Enlightenment ideas regarding gods and religion arrived and became dominant.Using the most representative thinkers in the tradition at the time,I analyze the works of Tominaga Nakamoto,Wang Fuzhi,Xiong Bolong,and Yamagata Banto in order to make explicit the types of arguments and approaches used in order to arrive at atheistic ends.I conclude that there are broadly three types,a phonological approach,concerned specifically with the examining and contrasting of texts,a materialist approach,which bases itself on a specific view of nature and the creation of things,and finally a rationalist approach,which refutes superstitious claims through logical examination.