Imagining Harmony: Poetry, Empathy, and Community in Mid-Tokugawa Confucianism and Nativism
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Imagining Harmony: Poetry, Empathy, and Community in Mid-Tokugawa Confucianism and Nativism
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Overview
This study contends that the literary thought of these figures needs to be understood not just for what it has to say about the composition of poetry but as a form of political and philosophical discourse. Unlike other scholars of this literature, Peter Flueckiger argues that the increased valorization of human emotions in eighteenth-century literary thought went hand in hand with new demands for how emotions were to be regulated and socialized, and that literary and political thought of the time were thus not at odds but inextricably linked.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780804761574 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Stanford University Press |
| Publication date: | 10/19/2010 |
| Pages: | 304 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d) |
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Imagining Harmony
POETRY, EMPATHY, AND COMMUNITY IN MID-TOKUGAWA CONFUCIANISM AND NATIVISMBy Peter Flueckiger
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 2011 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior UniversityAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-6157-4
Chapter One
Nature, Culture, and Society in Confucian Literary Thought Chinese Traditions and Their Early Tokugawa Reception
As Japanese intellectuals in the seventeenth century turned to Confucianism as a philosophy to define norms for the new society taking shape under Tokugawa rule, they drew on a range of Chinese and Korean interpretations of Confucianism, particularly those of the Song and Ming dynasties in China, and of sixteenth-century Korea. Confucianism had long been used in Japan as a source of ideas about poetry, with the prefaces to the Kokinshu (905), for example, borrowing from the "Daxu" (Great Preface) to the Shi jing (Book of Odes), the anthology of poetry that was one of the canonical texts of Confucianism. In the Tokugawa period, though, Confucianism came to play a much more expanded role as a philosophy for defining human nature, self-cultivation, and social norms, a development that was accompanied by an increased engagement with Confucian writings on poetry in order to discuss what role poetry should play in promoting morality, social harmony, and good government, or whether it should play any such role at all.
It was Song Confucianism, especially the philosophy of Zhu Xi, that most often became the basis for Confucian interpretations of poetry and other literary writings in the early Tokugawa period. Nakamura Yukihiko has described three views of literature prevalent among early Tokugawa followers of Song Confucianism. The first of these is the view that literature "transmits the Way" (saido). As an example of this he cites the statement of Hayashi Razan (1583-1657) on the relationship between the Way (Jp. do/ michi, Ch. dao) and bun (Ch. wen), a term that, as discussed in the Introduction, can refer to culture in general, or more narrowly to writing or literary writing: "When there is the Way, then there is culture/literary writing. When there is no Way, there is no culture/literary writing.... The Way is the root of culture/literary writing, and culture/literary writing is a branch of the Way." Culture and literary writing, then, only have value to the extent that they express the Way that lies at their root. The second theory that Nakamura cites is that literature is useless and harmful because it represents "toying with things and losing the will" (ganbutsu soshi), such as when Yamazaki Ansai (1618-1682) writes, "The fact that people of the world go forth in wantonness, knowing no path of return, is because of the Genji monogatari (Tale of Genji) and Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise)." The third view is that literature serves for "approving virtue and chastising vice" (kanzen choaku), that is, that it teaches morality by providing examples of good behavior for people to model themselves on, and bad behavior to teach them the consequences of vice. An example of this view is the account of Ando Tameakira (1659-1716) of the function of the Tale of Genji: "This tale speaks entirely of human emotions and social conditions, shows the manners and customs of those of the high, middle, and low ranks of the aristocracy through their amorous affairs, and without explicitly praising or censuring, causes the reader to make judgments of virtue and vice."
These views, as discussed in detail later, each emphasize different facets of Zhu Xi's philosophy, but they share the idea that literature should be judged according to its capacity to effectively convey the moral values that Zhu Xi sees as the content of the Confucian Way. One way to interpret his ideas, then, would be to see them as manifestations of a typically Confucian didactic approach toward literature. It is important to keep in mind, though, that his views on literature do not merely represent a static and timeless Confucian tradition, but are the product of a specific set of assumptions about human nature and its relationship to the Confucian Way, assumptions tied to a major reconceptualization of Confucianism in the Song. In other words, Zhu Xi formulates one variety of Confucian literary thought, rooted in one interpretation of Confucianism. More specifically, his reading of the Odes involves a rethinking of over a millennium of Confucian commentarial tradition, as represented by the Mao school of Odes commentary dating from the Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 8). In order to highlight the distinctive characteristics of Zhu Xi's approach to the Odes, and to literature more generally, we will first look at the Mao tradition that it displaced. This will then allow us to see, in our discussion of Tokugawa critics of Zhu Xi, how new views of literature, with an equal claim to being Confucian, could be generated out of critiques of Zhu Xi.
The Mao Tradition of Odes Interpretation and the Culture of King Wen
The Mao school was one of four schools of Odes interpretation that arose in the Western Han, and is the source of the text of the Odes used today. In the Mao school of interpretation, a specific moral content was attributed to each of the Odes, creating what Steven Van Zoeren describes as "a hermeneutic that saw the moral significance of the Odes to lie in their inscription and preservation of the paradigmatically normative aims, or zhi, of their authors." Van Zoeren notes that the music accompanying the Odes had long been seen as having a normative function, specifically through its capacity to regulate the emotions, and characterizes the Mao school as introducing a new approach to the Odes with its idea that their actual words can play such a normative role as well. This view that the words of the Odes have moral significance in and of themselves necessitated a stabilization of the meaning of the Odes, in contrast to the older practice, prevalent particularly in formalized speech situations such as diplomatic encounters, in which the words of the Odes were quoted as a kind of rhetorical embellishment to speech, without regard for adhering to any notion of a fixed original meaning. This concern for stabilizing the meaning of the words of the Odes, as well as establishing their moral significance, is reflected in the interpretive apparatus produced by the Mao school, which includes interlinear commentaries that clarify the meaning of particular words and phrases, as well as a note known as a "Minor Preface" (xiaoxu) that is appended to each poem to explain its moral import.
The Mao tradition was then carried on and expanded upon by the Maoshi jian (Annotations on the Mao Odes), by the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220) scholar Zheng Xuan (127-200), and the Maoshi zhengyi (Correct Significance of the Mao Odes), edited by the early Tang dynasty (618-907) scholar Kong Yingda (574-648). Kong Yingda's work was one of a set of commentaries produced by Tang court scholars between 631 and 653 that are together known as the Wujing zhengyi (Correct Significance of the Five Classics). These commentaries represented an attempt by the newly ascendant Tang dynasty to match its political unification of China with a unification and systematization of the Confucian textual tradition, a process that Peter Bol describes as follows: "For each Classic the compilers chose a definitive commentary from the range of possible Han and post-Han commentaries and appended subcommentaries to elucidate the Classic, elaborate on the main commentary, note alternative views, and generally survey the exegetical tradition that had grown up around each Classic." In this sense, the Correct Significance project was a fundamentally preservationist one, concerned with synthesizing and unifying what was already there, rather than with generating self-consciously new interpretations. Despite this stated intention of upholding tradition, the Correct Significance of the "Mao Odes" was more than just a neutral conduit for the transmission of earlier ideas, as its interpretations played a role in actively constructing the Mao tradition as a philosophically coherent approach to the Odes.
In addition to the Minor Prefaces, which explain the meaning of individual poems, the Mao text of the Odes includes a "Great Preface," which provides more general theoretical statements about poetry. The "Great Preface" presents a variety of perspectives on the nature and function of poetry, describing it as a manifestation of emotionality, a tool for political critique, a means for instructing people in morality, and a way of connecting with the world of spirits, as well as providing classifications of rhetorical techniques and genres. Van Zoeren describes an important difference between the Correct Significance commentary and the "Great Preface" itself when he writes:
The "Preface" was a bricolage, a compilation patched together from earlier texts and logia that was anything but systematic. It aimed to be comprehensive only in the sense that it attempted to bring together what its compilers thought the most important, authoritative traditions concerning the Odes. The Correct Significance, on the other hand, undertook to present a unified and comprehensive, even systematic, account of the Odes. It was therefore constantly forced to explain that the relatively narrow and particular claims made in the "Preface" in fact presupposed or implied a more general, unified vision.
I will examine two specific areas in which the Correct Significance commentary elaborates on the "Great Preface" to provide a more systematic philosophical framework for thinking about the Odes, the first of these being the division between "orthodox" (zheng) and "mutated" (bian) Odes, and the second the relationship between the words and the music of the Odes.
OR THODOX AND MUTATED ODES IN THE MAO TRADITION
The Odes is divided into four main sections: the "Airs of the States" ("Guofeng"), which contains poems that are thought to have folk origins; the "Lesser Elegantiae" ("Xiaoya") and "Greater Elegantiae" ("Daya"), which appear to be products of court culture and include, among other things, accounts of Zhou dynasty (c. 1027-256 B.C.) history and celebratory songs for events such as banquets; and the "Hymns" ("Song"), which consists mainly of pieces to be performed at ancestral rites of the royal house. In the Mao tradition, the Airs of the States and the Elegantiae are classified as either "orthodox" or "mutated," depending on whether they derive from the idealized time in which the moral transformation effected by King Wen held sway or from degenerate later ages.
The "Great Preface" begins with an explanation of the didactic role of the first poem of the Odes, "Guanju":
"Guanju" depicts the virtue of the Queen Consort. It is the beginning of the Airs/moral instruction (feng). It is that by which the realm is influenced (feng) and the relations between husbands and wives are made correct. Therefore it is used among the people of the villages, and it is used by the feudal states. "Airs" (feng) means "influence" (feng) and "teaching." Influence moves people, and teaching transforms them.
In its explication of this passage, the Correct Significance emphasizes the connection of the subject of this poem (the virtuous character of the Queen Consort, who by this time was identified specifically as the Queen Consort of King Wen) to the larger process of moral instruction that the Odes promotes: "If the relations between husband and wife are correct, then the relations between parent and child will be affectionate. If relations between parent and child are affectionate, then relations between ruler and minister will be respectful." "Guanju" is included in "Zhounan," the first section of the "Airs of the States," which together with "Shaonan," the second section, constitutes the orthodox Airs. A later passage of the "Great Preface" comments more generally about these sections of the Odes, "The 'Zhounan' and 'Shaonan' are the Way of correct beginning, and the foundation of kingly transformation." The Correct Significance explains, much as it had with regard to "Guanju," that while the poems of the "Zhounan" and "Shaonan" may deal with everyday matters, these examples of exemplary moral behavior are the basis upon which the transformation of the realm is built.
The mutated Odes are discussed in the "Great Preface" as a form of protest against the degraded times that their creators lived in:
When the kingly Way decayed, ritual and rightness were abandoned, the ability of government to teach was lost, the states came to follow different methods of governance, and families each followed different customs, then the mutated Airs and mutated Elegantiae were produced. The historians of the states clearly understood the signs of success and failure, were pained by the abandonment of proper human relations, and lamented the harshness of punishments and government. They sang their emotions in order to influence (feng) their superiors. They were aware of how things had changed, and longed for the old customs. Therefore the mutated Airs arise out of emotions, but remain within ritual and rightness. That they arise out of emotions is the inborn nature (xing) of the people; that they remain within ritual and rightness is because of the beneficence of the ancient kings.
In its commentary on this passage, the Correct Significance describes how the mutated Odes are characterized by critical reflection, in the form of praise and blame, on the government of the time, and explains how this practice of praise and blame is dependent on a certain set of historical circumstances framed within a historical metanarrative of moral decline.
The first condition for the emergence of the mutated Odes is the "decay of the kingly Way." This is not just for the rather straightforward reason that this decline gives people something to criticize, but also because it brings about a shift in people's consciousness, a shift that is particularly important in explaining why poems of praise, as well as blame, only come into being with the mutated Odes: "The mutated Airs and mutated Elegantiae are necessarily created only after the decay of the kingly Way. When the Way is present in the realm, then the common people do not critique the government. Peace goes on for generation after generation, so praise and blame do not arise. The reason for this is that when one is not familiar with the bad, then one does not know that the good is good" (p. 46). The perfection of the kingly Way in the past thus becomes associated with a kind of blissful ignorance of political matters; no power of reflection is needed on the part of the people, because they already live in a perfect society.
The second condition necessary for the emergence of the mutated Odes is that there be consciousness of some positive norm against which to judge contemporary reality. The continuation of the passage quoted above argues that, just as knowledge of the bad is necessary in order to judge the good, knowledge of the good is necessary to judge the bad: "When one has never known anything but the bad, then one does not know that the bad is bad" (p. 46). The specific source of this knowledge of the good is the lingering memory of the kingly Way. The mutated Odes are then presented as emerging out of the disjunction between this ideal Way and the less than ideal contemporary reality that the creators of these Odes faced: "The mutated Airs and the mutated Elegantiae were composed at a time when the kingly Way had begun to decay and proper government had begun to be lost, but when it was still possible to correct and reform these, and pursue and recover them. Therefore the poets took the old exemplars and used them as the basis for remonstration" (p. 47). The mutated Odes are the product, then, of a kind of intermediate stage in moral history, when people have begun to reflect upon right and wrong in the face of an imperfect world, but things have not declined so far as to make them completely lose sight of the proper norms (which existed at a determinate point in the past).
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Imagining Harmony by Peter Flueckiger Copyright © 2011 by Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Excerpted by permission of STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments....................ixIntroduction....................1
1 Nature, Culture, and Society in Confucian Literary Thought: Chinese Traditions and Their Early Tokugawa Reception....................33
2 The Confucian Way as Cultural Transformation: Ogyu Sorai....................61
3 Poetry and the Cultivation of the Confucian Gentleman: The Literary Thought of Ogyu Sorai....................90
4 The Fragmentation of the Sorai School and the Crisis of Authenticity: Hattori Nankaku and Dazai Shundai....................116
5 Kamo no Mabuchi and the Emergence of a Nativist Poetics....................145
6 Motoori Norinaga and the Cultural Construction of Japan....................173
Epilogue....................210
Character List....................215
Notes....................233
Bibliography....................263
Index....................279