상세정보

This study analyzes New Theses (Shinron), by Aizawa Seishisai (1781?1863), and its contribution to Japanese political thought and policy during the early?modern era. New Theses is found to be indispensable to our understanding of Japan's transformation from a feudal to a modern state.

Focusing on Aizawa, Wakabayashi traces the development of xenophobia during the Tokugawa period and examines the basis of anti?Western sentiment. He shows how knowledge of Christianity inspired Aizawa to develop the potent concept of kokutai (“what is essential to a nation”). His analysis explains why the Edobakufu's policies of national isolation (sakoku) and armed expulsion of Westerners (joi) gained widespread support in the late Tokugawa. Wakabayashi also describes how information on Western affairs and world conditions decisively altered Tokugawa Confucian conceptions of civilization and barbarism, and how this in turn enabled the Japanese to redefine their nation's relationship to China and the West.

Rather than place Aizawa and his New Theses of 1825 at the beginning of a process leading up to the Meiji Restoration, Wakabayashi discusses New Theses in conjunction with the bakufu's Expulsion Edict issued in the same year. He concludes that the convergence of the two events in 1825 marks the emergence of modern nationalism in Japan, and therefore should perhaps be seen as more epoch?making than the 1868 Restoration itself.

The study also presents a complete translation of New Theses.

정보제공 :

Foreword and Acknowledgments	
Introduction	
Prologue: Looking Backward	
The Civilized and the Barbarian	
    Civilization: Where Confucian Ritual Obtains	
    Japan: A Land of Splendid Barbarians	
    Innate Japanese Superiority: The Rise of Kokugaku	
    The Excellence of Western Barbarians	
    The Mito Synthesis: Japan as Middle Kingdom	
Knowledge and Hatred of the West	
    The Road to National Isolation: Misconceptions of Sakoku	
    Aizawa''s View of Christianity: Conquest Without Warfare	
    The Threat from the North: Russia	
    The Threat from the South: Spain and (New) England	
    Western Learning and Confucian World View	
Aizawa and his New Theses	
    Rangaku and Expulsion by Force: Takahashi Kageyasu	
    The World Situation in 1825 as Seen in New Theses	
    New Theses on Domestic Reform	
    The Sages and their "Expedient Device"	
    Kokutai and "A Long-Range Policy"	
Epilogue: Looking Ahead	
    Translation: New Theses	
    Prefatory Remarks	
    What is Essential to a Nation [Kokutai] (I)	
    What is Essential to a Nation [Kokutai] (II)	
    What is Essential to a Nation [Kokutai] (III)	
    World Affairs	
    The Barbarians'' Nature	
    National Defense	
    A Long-Range Policy	
Appendix	
Notes	
Selected Bibliography	
Glossary	
Index