The Philosophy of Qi: The Record of Great Doubts

208 Pages·2007·20.58 MB·English

by  Kaibara Ekken

The Philosophy of Qi
Translations from the Asian Classics
A portrait of Kaibara Ekken at age sixty-five, said to have been painted by the Kyoto artist
Kano Shren.
The Philosophy of Qi
The Record of Great Doubts
K A I B A R A E K K E N
TRANSLATED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY
MARY EVELYN TUCKER
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK
Columbia University Press wishes to express its
appreciation for assistance given by the Thomas Berry
Foundation toward the cost of publishing this book.
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press All rights reserved
E-ISBN 978-0-231-51129-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kaibara, Ekken, 1630–1714.
[Taigiroku. English]
The Philosophy of qi: the record of great doubts/Kaibara Ekken; translated, with an
introduction, by Mary Evelyn Tucker.
p. cm.—(Translations from the Asian classics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-231-13922-5 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-231-51129-9 (electronic) 1. Conduct of life—
Early works to 1800. I. Tucker, Mary Evelyn. II. Title. III. Series.
B5244.K253T3513 2007
181'.12—dc22
2006025278
A Columbia University Press E-book.
CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at cup-
[email protected].
To my parents,
Mary Elizabeth Hayes Tucker and William Duane Tucker, Jr.,
who supported me on the path of doubt and discovery
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
Ekken’s Life and Thought
The Text in the Context of East Asian Confucianism
Material Force (Qi)
Zhang Zai’s Development of the Concept of Material Force
The Influence of the Monism of Qi of Luo Qinshun
Affirmation and Dissent: The Significance of the Record of Great Doubts
The Text in the Context of Tokugawa Japan
The Spread of Confucian Ideas and Values
Tradition and the Individual: The Importance of Dissent and the Centrality of Learning
Philosophical Debates Regarding Principle and Material Force
Reappropriating Tradition: Practical Learning and the Philosophy of Qi
Interpretations of Ekken’s Philosophy of Qi
Confucian Cosmology: Organic Holism and Dynamic Vitalism
Confucian Cultivation: Harmonizing with Change and Assisting Transformation
The Significance of Qi as an Ecological Cosmology
Taigiroku: The Record of Great Doubts
PREFACE
PART I
On the Transmission of Confucian Thought (1–11)
On Human Nature (12–14)
On Bias, Discernment, and Selection (15–23)
On Learning from What Is Close at Hand (24–28)
The Indivisibility of the Nature of Heaven and Earth and One’s Physical Nature (29)
Acknowledging Differences with the Song Confucians (30–42)
PART II
Partiality in the Learning of the Song Confucians (43–46)
Reverence Within and Rightness Without (47–50)
Influences from Buddhism and Daoism (51–60)
A Discussion of the Metaphysical and the Physical (61)
The Supreme Ultimate (62–66)
The Way and Concrete Things (67–68)
Returning the World to Humaneness (69)
Reverence and Sincerity (70–71)
Reverence as the Master of the Mind (72–80)
The Inseparability of Principle and Material Force (81)
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work has unfolded over two decades with the help of many
people, to whom I am deeply grateful.
Among them are my teachers at Columbia University, Wm.
Theodore de Bary, Wing-tsit Chan, and Irene Bloom, who set the
standard for translations and commentaries that has shaped the field
of Neo-Confucian studies. Their dedicated efforts to make the Neo-
Confucian tradition understood and appreciated in the West have
been unparalleled. Contributing significantly to these efforts has
been the Confucian scholar Tu Weiming, Director of the Harvard
Yenching Institute. Their comprehensive interpretive framework of
Confucian humanism has influenced hundreds of students and
scholars on both sides of the Pacific. Moreover, the tireless
dedication of Ted de Bary and Tu Weiming as engaged intellectuals
interpreting Confucianism and the challenges of modernity has been
an inspiration to me and to countless others. Steadily behind so
much of this work is Fanny de Bary.
I am also indebted to the Japanese scholars Okada Takehiko and
Minamoto Ryōen for their many years of encouragement of my study
of Kaibara Ekken. Professor Okada welcomed me to his home on
several occasions and provided me with copies of original
documents of Ekken’s writings. Watanabe Kimie accompanied me to
visit Professor Okada, and her support of this work has meant more
than I can say. She and her husband, Tatsuhiko, provided me with
the woodblock prints of birds, fish, shells, leaves, and flowers from a
nineteenth-century edition of Ekken’s Plants of Japan (Yamato
honzō) that illustrate this book.
For answering questions regarding the translation, I am deeply
grateful to Noriko Narita, Takako Noguchi, and Ron Guey Chu,
whose generous assistance to so many can never be repaid.