DOCSLIB.ORG

Civilization, Modernization, Westernization: Yukichi Fukuzawa As a Leader and Masao Maruyama As a Critic

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Civilization, Modernization, Westernization: Yukichi Fukuzawa As a Leader and Masao Maruyama As a Critic Civilization, Modernization, Westernization: Yukichi Fukuzawa as a leader and Masao Maruyama as a critic Taichirō MITANI The Japan Academy Introduction — Why did Masao Maruyama take an interest in Yukichi Fuku- zawa? The Tokyo Academy, predecessor of the Japan Academy, was established in 1879. The parent organization of the Tokyo Academy was the Meiji 6 Society or Meirokusha, the earliest voluntary association of the intellectuals of modern Japan, proposed in 1873 by a few intellectuals including Arinori Mori, and officially formed in February 1874. Most of the members of this society were, except Mori from the Satsuma Domain, like Joun Kurimoto, those who had served in various official capacities in the Shogunate, and had been dispatched to Europe by the Shogunate. These men not only had the experience of living in those places but were also well-versed in writings in foreign languages includ- ing English, Dutch, German, and French. They were some of the brightest intellects of the old regime, having been brought up in the original Japanese culture of Confucianism and scholarship, but simultaneously having a strong interest in and vast knowledge of Western cultures, and their usefulness was greatly appreciated even by the new govern- ment that came to power after the end of the Shogunate. The Meirokusha member who was appointed the first president of the Tokyo Acade- my, the position equivalent to the president of the Japan Academy today, was Yukichi Fukuzawa, one of the forerunners of modern Japan. Fukuzawa’s social status under the old regime was low, but because of his proficiency in Western languages, he was picked to handle translation and other work, on the periphery of the Shogunate’s foreign affairs department. Alongside this, Fukuzawa was also actively involved in spreading aware- ness and knowledge of Western culture among the Japanese public through his popular works, including Things Western and All the Countries of the World, for Children Writ- ten in Verse, during the final years of the Shogunate and the early years of the Meiji Period. Although holding only a low-level post in the Shogunate, Fukuzawa was a sup- 61 Transactions of the Japan Academy, Vol. 72, Special Issue Yukichi Fukuzawa (1835‒1901) Sokichi Tsuda (1873‒1961) Masao Maruyama (1914‒1996) porter of the last Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu’s efforts to use the model of Napoleon III to modernize his forces, and gave direction to those efforts with his slogans “civilization and enlightenment” and “rich country, strong army.” Fukuzawa, while keeping in mind that the long-term goal of Japan was to walk the path that led to the civilization of all humanity, advocated that the medium-term goal was the Westernization and moderniza- tion of the country toward the formation of a nation state. On this issue, similar thoughts were held by Amane Nishi, who once served as the brain of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshi- nobu and was later appointed the second president of the Tokyo Academy. Nishi made a French language manual for Yoshinobu to help him in his efforts to emulate Napoleon III. In 1978, almost a hundred years after Fukuzawa became a member of the Tokyo Academy, Masao Maruyama became a member of its successor, the Japan Academy. Maruyama is known for his path-breaking research on Japanese political thought in an effort to trace the historical origins of modern Japan. Maruyama’s research began with Sorai Ogyu, a philosopher and one of the top scholars who represented the apex of Japa- nese civilization from mid-17th through mid-18th centuries under the rule of the Shogu- nate. Unlike most of his contemporary scholars of Confucianism, who studied the sub- ject based on a Japanese reading of the classical Chinese texts, Sorai studied Confucian texts using the original Chinese reading and conducted extensive philological research on Confucianism. In other words, rather than studying Confucianism as a doctrine of moral philosophy, Sorai’s research had a foreign studies aspect to it, wherein he used the basic Confucian texts to objectively and empirically study ancient China, the culture in 62 Civilization, Modernization, Westernization which these texts had been created. In this sense, Sorai’s studies can be placed alongside the studies of Fukuzawa, who was engaged in foreign studies targeting the countries of Western Europe — Dutch studies and Western studies — during the final years of the Shogunate. Thus, Maruyama’s research on Sorai, whose work he positioned as the har- binger of modernity in the history of Japanese political thought (similar to the position- ing of Machiavelli’s work in the history of Western political thought), lead to Maruyama’s research on Fukuzawa, who appeared 169 years after Sorai and was the ideological founder of modern Japan. What inspired Maruyama to study Fukuzawa, however, was not the external factor of Fukuzawa’s ideas, which were cultivated by an intellectual interest in modern Europe. The originality of Maruyama’s views on Fukuzawa lies in his positioning of Fukuzawa, who presented a radical antithesis to Edo Neo-Confucianism, on the trajectory of the self-effacing development of Japanese Confucianism post Sorai. In other words, it was inevitable that Maruyama, who attempted to discover the indigenous germ of Japan’s modernization in the establishment and flowering of Sorai’s study, would eventually ar- rive at Fukuzawa, who was the most devastating critic of Confucianism and the most avant-garde proponent of modernization in his time. Maruyama’s first academic article on Fukuzawa was “Yukichi Fukuzawa’s Criticism of Confucianism” (In Overview of Scholarship at Tokyo Imperial University, Faculties of Law and Economics, April 1942). Before that, two other articles by Maruyama on Confucian thought in early modern Japan had been completed, and all three articles were presented one after the other. The first one, titled “The Special Significance of Sorai’s Study of the Development of Early Modern Confucianism, and its Relation to the Study of Ancient Japanese Thought and Culture,” was presented between February and May 1940. This was followed by the second article titled “Nature and Artifice as Contrary Institutional Perspectives in the History of Early Modern Japanese Thought,” presented in August 1942. The above ar- ticles were connected, both time wise and content wise, to the article on Fukuzawa, which was presented in April 1942. Both the articles, through their close inquiry into the doctrine of Confucianism (Edo Neo-Confucianism), which was the source of the domi- nant ideology of the Shogunate, revealed the process by which this way of thinking disintegrated, and in doing so, attempted to discover therein the indigenous germ of Ja- pan’s modernization. What these studies then encountered was the views on Fukuzawa, which went on to become a major pillar of Maruyama’s research on the history of Japa- 63 Transactions of the Japan Academy, Vol. 72, Special Issue nese political thought. There were already references to Fukuzawa and/or quotes by Fukuzawa in the two articles on Sorai mentioned above. In the first article, there was a reference to Fukuza- wa’s “The Real State of Affairs of the Old Feudal System” in connection with a section pointing out the similarities between the political system of ancient China, which had given birth to Confucianism, and the class system under the Shogunate, which had ap- plied Confucianism (The Complete Works of Masao Maruyama, Volume 1, 1996, pp. 132‒133). The second article included a quote from An Outline of the Theory of Civiliza- tion (Volume 5), which pointed out that scholars were subordinate to the authority of the regime under the Shogunate (Ibid., Volume 2, p. 5). Undoubtedly, then, Maruyama’s views on Fukuzawa crystallized from the original perspective of Maruyama, who placed an importance on the indigenous origins of Japan’s modernization. “Modern Thought” (Ibid., Volume 3, pp. 3‒5) is a short essay published in January 1946, soon after Japan’s defeat in World War II, which concisely explains Maruyama’s views on the modernization of Japan. During Japan’s war with the U.S. and European nations, which erupted in December 1941, following Japan’s successful capture of Eu- ropean colonies in South East Asia including Indochina, Singapore and Indonesia, the idea that the “modernity” of Europe and the U.S. was a goal that Japan had already “surpassed” was widely popularized. Maruyama’s essay on Modern Thought mentions this fact. The euphoric mental state of the nation, however, underwent another reversal following the country’s defeat in the war. Regarding Japan’s view of modernity follow- ing its defeat in the war, Maruyama writes as follows: “The fact that modern thought in Japan had not just been ‘surpassed,’ it had not yet even been achieved in the true sense has finally become obvious to many people....On the other hand, however, the view that history has never witnessed indigenous growth of modern thought in Japan is certainly not justified either. The present heart-stricken and wretched conditions are a hotbed for the theory that Japan has never had any connection with modernity, which is the exact opposite of the theory that Japan has already sur- passed modernity. It deprives the people of this country of confidence in being able to think for ourselves, thereby encapsulating the risk of returning to the previous simplistic equation of modern thought with Western European thought. In this sense, I think that in order to explain the modernization of Japanese thought, it is proper to focus not just on the Meiji period but also on the history of political thought in the Tokugawa period. What is more, in doing so, it is important not to fall prey to rigid dichotomies that brand 64 Civilization, Modernization, Westernization Confucian thought as feudal while linking Dutch studies and the associated natural sci- ences to modernity, but rather to search for and find the source of modernity that contin- ues to bubble up quietly in the process of the unfolding of Confucian and/or ancient Japanese thought.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Excerpts from the Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi [PDF]
    Primary Source Document with Questions (DBQs) EXCERPTS FROM THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FUKUZAWA YUKICHI Introduction Fukuzawa Yukichi (1834-1901) was Japan’s preeminent interpreter of “civilization and enlightenment” (bunmei kaika) — the lifestyles, institutions, and values of the modern West that Japan strove to understand and embrace in the early decades of the Meiji period. Born into a samurai family of modest means and little influence, Fukuzawa was intelligent, energetic, and ambitious, and as a youth he eagerly studied foreign languages (Dutch and then English) to expand his horizons and improve his prospects in life. In 1860, he was a member of one of the first missions sent to America by the Tokugawa shogunate, and in 1862 he traveled through Europe. Based on these experiences Fukuzawa wrote a series of books that explained the customs and manners of the West in accessible, practical ways and became runaway bestsellers. Fukuzawa was well known as a forceful advocate for the Western way of life, was a teacher and advisor to many of Japan’s most influential national leaders, and founded a successful newspaper as well as a leading private university. Fukuzawa dictated his autobiography, now seen as a classic account of Japan’s transition from a closed, feudal state to a modern world power, in 1898, not long before his death. Document Excerpts with Questions From Sources of Japanese Tradition, edited by Wm. Theodore de Bary, Carol Gluck, and Arthur L. Tiedemann, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 658-660. © 2005 Columbia University Press. Reproduced with the permission of the publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • MARUYAMA Masao
    MARUYAMA Masao ‘I’d rather believe in the falsity of post- war democracy than the actuality of the Empire of Japan’ Maruyama Masao (1914-1996) was a Japanese intellectual historian, perhaps best known for the quote mentioned above. It is from the afterword of the revised edition of his seminal Thought and Behaviour in Modern Japanese Politics from 1964 (the English edition was published in 1969). Within its opening essay, first published in 1946, he unearthed the psychological sanctions in modern Japan’s ultra-nationalism, which led the country to the devastating Pacific War. With this essay, Maruyama became an icon of 20th century Japanese political thought. The aforementioned quote indicates that within two decades after the end of the war, the new democracy brought by Americans had already turned out to be something plastic for him, whilst the nightmare of the Japanese empire still remained. To date, he has been the most praised and the most criticized scholar both from the political right and left in Japan. This was not because his discourse was equivocal, but because Maruyama consistently tackled the same essential question of humanity in the rapidly changing intellectual landscape in Japan: that is, the question of subjectivity in the context of global knowledge (re)production and dissemination. Here, his puzzle can be paraphrased as follows: Is the democracy the Japanese imported really the same democracy as that in the West? It is hardly unusual in the political world that a dubious statement by a politician is supported by the majority. This is the enigma of ideology that many thinkers, including Maruyama, have tackled in the era of democracy.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    The Complexity of Modernization: How theGenbunitchi and Kokugo Movements Changed Japanese by Mark Laaninen In 1914, the novelist Natsume Soseki published Of the many linguistic crusades of the Meiji his novel Kokoro. Incorporating themes of isolation Period, the genbunitchi and kokugo movements had and detachment into the tragedy of the main the largest and most vocal following. Genbunitchi character Sensei, Kokoro solidified Soseki as one focuses on unifying written and spoken Japanese of Japan’s earliest and greatest modern Japanese into one easily learnable language.2 Advocates writers.1 Yet more than their themes made Soseki’s of genbunitchi argued that the old Tokugawa novels modern. By 1914, writers like Soseki used a wakankonkobun, kanbun, and sorobun were far simple, colloquial style of writing which radically too complicated for anyone without huge amounts differed from the more complex character-based of time to learn. Instead, they wanted a simplified, system used by writers even thirty years prior. What colloquial style that allowed for greater literacy and ease of communication.3 The desired form of writing fueled this change? Many point to the language varied among genbunitchi advocates, however. Some, reform movements of the Meiji Era, especially the like Fukuzawa Yukichi, simply reduced the number genbunitchi and kokugo movements. These language of kanji, or Chinese-style characters, in their writing, reforms attempted to pioneer a new Japanese, one while others like Nishi Amane wanted a wholesale united and tailored for a modern world. Although adoption of romaji, or a Latin alphabet.4 Yet for many they had a far-reaching effect in their own period, reformers, changing written Japanese could only be the long-term impact of these movements is more useful after spoken Japanese had been united.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Decorating: Dutch Salons in Early Modern Japan
    SOCIAL DECORATING: DUTCH SALONS IN EARLY MODERN JAPAN TERRENCE JACKSON Adrian College Seated Intellect, Performative Intellect Cultural salons proliferated during the last half of the eighteenth century in Japan, accommodating a growing interest in the za arts and literature (za-bungei 座文芸). The literal meaning of za 座 was “seat,” and the za arts (visual and literary) were performed within groups, which were presumably “seated” together. Za culture first appeared as early as the thirteenth century when the Emperor Go-Toba 後鳥羽 held poetry gatherings in his salon (zashiki 座敷). In practice, za also referred to the physical space where these individuals gathered, and it is from that that the related term zashiki, or “sitting room” was derived.1 Zashiki served a function similar to the salons of Europe in the early modern period—as a semi-private space to entertain guests and enjoy cultural interaction. Za arts gatherings met within the homes of participants or patrons, but also in rented zashiki at temples and teahouses. During their meetings, professionals and amateurs interacted and cooperated to produce culture. The epitome of this was renga 連歌 poetry in which groups created linked-verses. However, other types of cultural groups met in salons to design such items as woodblock prints and playful calendars, to debate flower arranging, or to discuss the latest bestsellers. Within these spaces, the emphasis was on group production and on the rights of all attendees to participate, regardless of social background. The atmosphere of zashiki gatherings combined civility, curiosity, playfulness, and camaraderie. The distinction between artistic and intellectual pursuits had fuzzy boundaries during the Tokugawa period, and scholars largely operated within a social world similar to artists, poets, and fiction writers .
    [Show full text]
  • FUKUZAWA YUKICHI1 (1835–1901) Nishikawa Shunsaku2
    The following text was originally published in Prospects: the quarterly review of comparative education (UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXIII, no. 3/4, 1993, p. 493–506. ©UNESCO: International Bureau of Education, 2000 This document may be reproduced free of charge as long as acknowledgement is made of the source. FUKUZAWA YUKICHI1 (1835–1901) Nishikawa Shunsaku2 In Japan, one can see a portrait of Fukuzawa Yukichi on every 10,000-yen note. This is official recognition of his dedication to the cause of introducing Western institutions and thought into Japan. Some people, however, may wonder why such a man wears traditional Japanese robes. Although there are a number of pictures of Fukuzawa, only a few are in Western attire. It seems that this reflects his basic stance: he always emphasized the spiritual revolution rather than the spurious imitation of things Western. Fukuzawa first learned Dutch and later changed to English studies; he visited the United States twice and travelled through Europe for almost a year before the Meiji Restoration (1868). On these journeys he was able to perceive the basic ‘stones and pillars’ of modern society developing in the West. There he also conceived his manifest destiny—education and journalism. Soon after his second voyage he began to set up his school, Keio-gijuku, which was to produce many talented graduates in business, industry and politics. Fukuzawa published numerous pamphlets and textbooks that were used in the emerging modern schools and were also welcomed by a variety of other types of reader. The great attraction of these writings was not only that the topics were new, but that the style was revolutionary in its simplicity.
    [Show full text]
  • "On De-Asianization" by Fukuzawa Yukichi
    MEIJI JAPAN THROUGH CONTEMPORARY SOURCES E. Imperial Rescript on Education, October 30, 1890. V K NOW ye, Our subjects: Our imperial ancestors have founded Our empire on a TREATY REVISION basis broad and everlasting and have deeply and firmly implanted virtue; Our subjects ever united in loyalty and filial piety have from generation to generation illustrated A. On De-Asianization by Fukuzawa Yukichi, March the beauty thereof. This is the glory of the fundamental 16, 1885. character of Our empire, and herein also lies the source of Our education. Ye, Our subjects, be filial to your parents, ‘I’r~r;, world-wide facility of communication has allowed the affectionate to your brothers and sisters; as husbands and wind of Western civilization to blow into the East, where wives hc harmonious, as friends true; bear yoursclvcs in not a single grass or tree has been left unswayed by it. This modesty and moderation ; extend your benevolence to all; is not because the Western man has greatly cllangcd from pursue learning and cultivate arts, and thereby develop what he was in olden times; yet that his movcmcnts, which intellectual faculties and perfect moral powers; furthermore were once sluggish, are now active is simply hrausc hc is advance public good and promote common interests; always taking aclvantagc of the faster means of communication respect the Constitution and observe the laws; should emer- to ovcrwhrlm the othrrs. Under the circumstances, if r gency arise, offer yourselves courageously to the state; and may judge the situation of those nations that live in the thus guard and maintain the prosperity of Our imprrial East, they may be all right if they are rrsolvrcl to defend throne coeval with heaven and earth.
    [Show full text]
  • Meiji Japan and East Asia
    SPECIAL SECTION ON JAPAN IN U.S. AND WORLD jiHHiiW BREAKING COMPANY Meiji Japan and East Asia By Joseph M . Henning n a famous 1885 editorial, ized nation whose strategic Fukuzawa Yukichi urged interests coincided with I.hose I his nation 10 "escape from of' the United States and Great Asia." Japan could not afford to Britain. Second, they identified wait pntiently for China and racial similarities between Korea to develop on their own. themselves and Anglo-Saxons, argued the Meiji era's most influ­ in tum highlighting differences ential scholar. To Japan's lrate­ between themselves and other gic disadvantnge. ·•civilized West­ Enst A),ians. These claims ern peoples·· considered the reached important audiences Japanese to be akin to their back­ and influenced Western opin­ ward neighbors. "If we keep bad ion. Japanese leaders published company," Fukuwwa wrote. "we in leading English-language cannot avoid a bad name. In my journals-making their essays heart l favur breaking off with the accessible today for teachers to bad company of East Asia:·1 use as primary sources in class. This call succinctly captured These essays offer lessons in the full army of Meiji ambition: su·ategy. public diplomacy. and Japan· s leaders had set out to racial ideology in Meiji foreign reform its political and social - relations. (Included below is a institutions and modernize it.~ --- short Ust of' useful sources not industries and military. The ulti­ -- cited in the endnotes.) mnte goal was LO win recognjtion At the turn of the nine- as an equal among the world's 1eenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • 100 Books for Understanding Contemporary Japan
    100 Books for Understanding Contemporary Japan The Nippon Foundation Copyright © 2008 All rights reserved The Nippon Foundation The Nippon Zaidan Building 1-2-2 Akasaka, Minato-ku Tokyo 107-8404, Japan Telephone +81-3-6229-5111 / Fax +81-3-6229-5110 Cover design and layout: Eiko Nishida (cooltiger ltd.) February 2010 Printed in Japan 100 Books for Understanding Contemporary Japan Foreword 7 On the Selection Process 9 Program Committee 10 Politics / International Relations The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa / Yukichi Fukuzawa 12 Broadcasting Politics in Japan: NHK and Television News / Ellis S. Krauss 13 Constructing Civil Society in Japan: Voices of Environmental Movements / 14 Koichi Hasegawa Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Postwar Japan / 15 Peter J. Katzenstein A Discourse By Three Drunkards on Government / Nakae Chomin 16 Governing Japan: Divided Politics in a Major Economy / J.A.A. Stockwin 17 The Iwakura Mission in America and Europe: A New Assessment / 18 Ian Nish (ed.) Japan Remodeled: How Government and Industry are Reforming 19 Japanese Capitalism / Steven K. Vogel Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose / 20 Kenneth B. Pyle Japanese Foreign Policy at the Crossroads / Yutaka Kawashima 21 Japan’s Love-Hate Relationship with the West / Sukehiro Hirakawa 22 Japan’s Quest for a Permanent Security Council Seat / Reinhard Drifte 23 The Logic of Japanese Politics / Gerald L. Curtis 24 Machiavelli’s Children: Leaders and Their Legacies in Italy and Japan / 25 Richard J. Samuels Media and Politics in Japan / Susan J. Pharr & Ellis S. Krauss (eds.) 26 Network Power: Japan and Asia / Peter Katzenstein & Takashi Shiraishi (eds.) 27 Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy / 28 T.
    [Show full text]
  • Theocracy Vs Constitutionalism in Japan Constitutional Amendment and the Return of Pre-War Shinto Nationalism
    The RSIS Working Paper series presents papers in a preliminary form and serves to stimulate comment and discussion. The views expressed in this publication are entirely those of the author(s), and do not represent the official position of RSIS. This publication may be reproduced electronically or in print with prior written permission obtained from RSIS and due credit given to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email [email protected] for further editorial queries. NO. 310 THEOCRACY VS CONSTITUTIONALISM IN JAPAN CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND THE RETURN OF PRE-WAR SHINTO NATIONALISM NAOKO KUMADA S. RAJARATNAM SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES SINGAPORE 2 MAY 2018 About the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) was officially inaugurated on 1 January 2007. Prior to this, it was known as the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS), which was established 10 years earlier, on 30 July 1996, by Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence. Dr Tony Tan later became the elected seventh President of the Republic of Singapore. Like its predecessor, RSIS was established as an autonomous entity within Nanyang Technological University (NTU). RSIS’ mission is to be a leading research and graduate teaching institution in strategic and international affairs in the Asia Pacific. To accomplish this mission, it will: Provide a rigorous professional graduate education with a strong practical emphasis Conduct policy-relevant research in defence, national security, international relations, strategic studies and diplomacy Foster a global network of like-minded professional schools Graduate Programmes RSIS offers a challenging graduate education in international affairs, taught by an international faculty of leading thinkers and practitioners.
    [Show full text]
  • In Modern Japan: Rethinking the Search for Civilization in Nineteenth-Century Japan
    “Long Revolution” in Modern Japan: Rethinking the Search for Civilization in Nineteenth-Century Japan Tadashi KARUBE School of Legal and Political Studies, the University of Tokyo 1) Meiji Restoration or Meiji Revolution? The (so-called) Meiji Restoration is one of the most significant events in the history of Japan. I doubt that anyone would disagree with that assessment. It was in Kyoto on the 3rd of January, 1868, that samurai, mainly from the Satsuma Domain, staged a coup d’état, abolished the Tokugawa Shogunate, and created a new government centred around the Meiji Emperor. This change of political regime led to modernization in all respects: political institution, law, society and culture. From a country separated into a large number of fiefdoms belonging to Daimyo lords and tenryo (territories under the direct control of the Tokugawa Shogunate), Japan became a modern nation-state under the unified control of a centralized bureaucratic structure. From a society in which, due to a system of hereditary rank, advancement of personal status involved forcing one’s way up through numerous levels, Japan became (officially, at least) a society in which anyone could aspire to get on in life should the opportunity arise. It was a transition from traditional East Asian culture to the embracement of modern Western thought and institutions. Even when we consider the whole of human history, the breadth and rapidity of this change is surely remarkable. In Japanese Studies of recent years, we have come to see this Meiji Restoration being referred to as the ‘Meiji Revolution’. Some examples are the books The Making of Modern Japan by Marius B.
    [Show full text]
  • Paper Title (Use Style: Paper Title)
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 233 3rd International Conference on Contemporary Education, Social Sciences and Humanities (ICCESSH 2018) Discussion on Fukuzawa Yukichi’s Civilization Concept and Independent Practical Leaning Thought Hao Tang The School of Japanese Studies Dalian University of Foreign Languages Dalian, China Abstract—The Meiji period was an important period of scholar with a high reputation. When he was young, he was Japanese society transformation. It was an important historical not given the opportunity to attend school because of family turning point for Japan. Fukuzawa Yukichi was one of the poverty. Until very late, he had the opportunity to enroll in indelible traces of this period. As a witness, he witnessed the school and learn “Sinology” in his private school. In the country step by step process toward the modernization after the process of Fukuzawa Yukichi’s step-by-step growth, his incident of “Wang Zheng Retro”, as an ideological pioneer, he understanding of the people’s ignorance became clearer. He made modern civilization concept take root in Japan's land, he couldn’t understand why the people feared the ethereal spirit promoted "independence" and "practical learning" and made and could not understand why the people did not rebel against the concept of civilized civilization deeply rooted in people's the feudal system that oppressed them everyday. In the process minds, and he used his active actions to prompt the Japanese of learning “Sinology”, he began to discover that the deepest nationals toward to the goal of the coordinated development of morality and mentality.
    [Show full text]
  • Maruyama, Masao Sex: M; B. March, 22, 1914, Osaka, Japan - D
    Maruyama, Masao sex: m; b. March, 22, 1914, Osaka, Japan - d. August, 15, 1996, Tokyo, Japan; country/nation/culture: Japanese; field of study: history of political thought, history of philosophy, history of social institutions; ref.: EHHW, GEHW; contrib.: J. Joly. Main works: Nihon seiji shisôshi kenkyû (1952; Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, 1974); Seiji no sekai [The world of politics], 1952; Gendai seiji no shisô to kôdô (1956/1957; Thought and Behaviour in Modern Japanese Politics, 1963; enlarged edition 1969); Nihon no shisô (1957; Thought in Japan 1964); Chûsei to Hangyaku (1960; Loyalty and Rebellion, 1996); Rekishi ishiki no 'kosô' [The old substrata of historical consciousness], 1972. Biography: Masao Maruyama was the son of the journalist Kanji Maruyama. He took all his degrees from Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied from 1934. Upon receiving his doctorate 1937, Maruyama started teaching. In 1940, he was named professor at the Faculty of Law, then a prestigious school that trained the political and economic elite of Japan. Though first posted to northern Korea in 1944, he was then sent to Hiroshima, where he remained until the end of the war. In 1950 Maruyama became the first holder of the chair in history of political ideas. He resigned in 1971 for health reasons. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences of Japan, a foreign member of the Royal Society of Great Britain, and Doctor honoris causa of both Harvard and Princeton Universities. Characterization: Before and during the Second World War, much intellectual discussion in Japan sought to find a basis for an irrational rejection of Western values, by promoting the notion of overcoming modernity.
    [Show full text]