| My dissertation seeks to clarify the meaning of modernity in light of the deep significance that eighteenth- and twentieth-century Japanese thinkers attached to the ancient past. To this end, I focus on intellectuals as diverse as the Confucian scholar Ogyu Sorai (1666--1728), the nativist scholar Motoori Nofnaga (1730--1801), the feminist poet and historian Takamure Itsue (1894--1964), and the literary critic Kobayashi Hideo (1902--1983). In spite of all the differences that separate their intellectual pursuits, they are on common ground in recognizing the enormous vitality of ancient languages, while being profoundly dissatisfied with the contemporary use of language. They emphasize the ethical dimensions of language that manifest the qualities of interpersonal and social relations simultaneously. In other words, what they teach us to think is that language is common property, which provides a basis for understanding the lives of both individuals and societies. Hence they consider the corruption of language equivalent to that of society and, ultimately, to the deterioration of human relationships. The kind of society that captivates the minds of the four is one that affirms language as the Way of Humanity and makes human bonding the foundation of security and calm. Belief in the power of language is, therefore, reliance on the human capacity for love and compassion rather than regulative principles for the construction of a social order. Benevolent governance is explored not as the punishment of evil, but as the promotion of human nourishment.; In this sphere, all kinds of political centralization, which rest on abstract systems, are rejected together with the dehumanization involved in the capitalist economy. The ideal of decentralized rule also breaks down the urban/rural dichotomy and even calls into question the validity of nation-states. The splendor and freshness of past examples, which the four figures linguistically discovered and reconstructed in their own present, wondrously stood out in their minds as "neither past nor present," hence as their visions of the future. Highlighting their sense of oneness with the spirit of the past, this dissertation also aims at providing a new paradigm for historical knowledge in general. |
