Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2017

 

The Initial Formation of Ethnocentrism in Modern Japan: The “Japanization” of The Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean

(Abstract)

 

Dong Haozhi

 

The failure of the Japanese invasion of Korea in the 1590s and China’s unification under the Qing dynasty signified the collapse of the movement to close the gap between China and Japan by military means. However, dynastic change from the Ming to the Qing was directly reflected in Edo Japan’s kaihentai (changeover of Chinese and barbarians), which provided Japan with the chance to close the gap in cultural terms. Even so, the cultural gulf between China and Japan was one that Japan found hard to bridge. The above developments gave Japanese scholars of Ancient Learning, in particular, the idea that Zhu Xi’s introduction into Confucianism of Buddhist and Taoist thought had had the serious consequence of converting orthodox Chinese culture into barbarian culture. In reinterpreting The Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean, Edo scholars deleted the Chinese pedigree of these works and established a Japanese one. They no longer emphasized gewu qiongli (investigation of things and fathoming of principles), tiandao xingming (the Way of Heaven and human affairs), and renxin daoxin (the human mind and the moral mind), but instead stressed the way of ethics in everyday life. Focusing on politics rather than morality and replacing moral consciousness with political achievement, they enabled Japanese culture to shed “barbarism” and enter the Sinosphere, offered Japanese ethnocentrism principled support, and perfected the initial development of modern Japan’s ethnocentrism, with significant consequences for the course of the country’s historical progress.