A Study Of Fujiwara Seika

In Seika Sensei Gyojyo, Hayashi Razan once said that Fujiwara Seika was "the restorer of Confucianism". As shown in the word "restore", Razan recognized interruption in the Japanese tradition of Confucianism. In fact, not only Razan but also Fujiwara Seika recognized the decline of Confucianism at that time. Seika has found the ideal in the Heian period which was represented by Sugawara no Michizane. In Japan, Buddhism by degrees increased power in its thought from the end of the Heian Period, and the so-called "New Buddhism" expanded power through the Kamakura period. Unlike in Confucianism that has not found a way out of the difficulty,"New Buddhism" which was represented by Jyodoshinsyu has been able to grasp the people’s heart and also established a firm foundation in future generations. It can be said that Confucianism has failed to keep up with changes over the course of time, especially after the Heian period. However, after the appearance of "Neo-Confucianism" in China, it was also introduced to Japan by Buddhist monks. In Japan,"Neo-Confucianism" did not start to expand rapidly but was in temples kept silence, without being found its ideological value. Later, some Buddhist monks finally became interested in the new ideological value of "Neo-Confucianism". One of these was Fujiwara Seika. As admired the Heian period which was supposed to be the golden age of Confucianism in Japan and likewise, Fujiwara Seika conceivably saw the light in "Neo-Confucianism", for revival of Confucianism in Japan.This paper describes the life of Fujiwara Seika and his scholarship. Not only based on a reflection and criticism against the research so far, but also paying attention to the differences of perception between Seika and Razan, this paper discusses Seika’s idea of Confucianism. In addition to the background of Seika himself, this paper also discusses the historical background of when Seika lived, and takes into consideration the life of Fujiwara Seika and his scholarship so that it is able to gain a new perspective for reconsidering the eve of the formation of Confucianism in the Edo period.This paper is divided into two parts. The first section deals with the previous studies of Fujiwara Seika, and is to discuss the age in which he lived, Seika’s idea and its concrete results in some cases and Razan’s awareness of Confucianism with the clue of Razan’s encounter with Seika. Regarding the specific analysis, it does not fixate on the time axis because of conceptual discussions, especially in related description of the first section. It mainly intends to draw outlines of the historical background, Seika’s and Razan’s thought after the middle of this section. In the second section, this paper describes Fujiwara Seika’s life and thought in detail. Hayashi Razan finished writing Seika Sensei Gyojyo a year after the Seika’s death. In this writing Razan explained the process whereby Seika switches from being a Buddhist monk to a scholar who believes in the teachings of Cheng-Zhu, by focusing on Seika’s exclusion of Buddhism and converting to Confucianism. His remarks were intended to draw Seika as a scholar who belonged to the Zhu Xi School. However, as Seika’s description implies, there is a critical gap between Seika’s and Razan’s perception. In fact, Seika did not exclusively believe in the teachings of Zhu Xi, and also did not reject Buddhism, Taoism, etc. Since Razan and the others evaluated Fujiwara Seika from the perspective of the Zhu Xi School, Seika has been regarded as a scholar who believed in the teachings of ZhuXi. However, Seika’s thought has elements which cannot be explained fully by the theory of the Zhu Xi School. Confucianism centered on the theory of the Zhu Xi School was gradually built through the Edo period. However, Seika’s thought shows that Confucianism at the eve of the formation of Confucianism in the Edo period was not colored by the theory of the Zhu Xi School.There is a large stock of results of academic research on Fujiwara Seika. Their discussion focused on issues such as his exclusion of Buddhism, converting to Confucianism, advocating of Neo-Confucianism, position in the history of Japanese Confucianism, etc. Actually, it is almost rough and is not attentive to details. This paper therefore approaches the issue not only from the macro perspective but also from the micro perspective, for reconsidering Confucianism in the early modern period in Japan and a tide of Confucian thought at that time.