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From Nativism to Numerology: Yamaga Sokō's Final Excursion into the Metaphysics of ChangeAuthor(s): John Allen TuckerSource: Philosophy East and West, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Apr., 2004), pp. 194-217Published by: University of Hawai'i PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1400237 .

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FROM NATIVISM TO NUMEROLOGY: YAMAGA SOKO'S FINAL EXCURSION INTO THE METAPHYSICS OF CHANGE

John Allen Tucker Department of History, East Carolina University

Introduction

In the autumn of 1682, Yamaga SokO (1622-1685), then sixty and within three years of his death, had a telling dream. In it, he envisioned a two-line note written on ver- milion paper, authored by none other than Hotta Masatoshi (1631-1684).1 Masa- toshi, incidentally, had served the previous shogun, Tokugawa letsuna (1641-1680), during the 1670s, first as a junior councilor (wakadoshiyori) and then later as a senior councilor (r6ju). After helping to secure the accession of Tsunayoshi (1646- 1709) in 1680, Masatoshi was named, in 1681, great elder (tair6), the highest bakufu office other than shogun.2 The note SokO envisioned related that Hotta had "borrowed one of Sok6's works and read it." According to SokO's record, Hotta continued with hyperbole, declaring that "the writing could not have been of human agency," then asking, "Was it the work of a god (kamitsukuri)"?3 SokO's Nenpu (Chronological biography), where this and fifty other dreams from his later years are recorded,4 does not identify the text Masatoshi reportedly praised. However, two Sok5 scholars, Hori Isao and Tahara Tsuguo, concur that it was the Gengen hakki (Exploring the origins of things and our impulses to action), a treatise outlining the metaphysical foundations of change and their relevance to the world of human be- havior. Not surprisingly, the Gengen hakki was modeled on the ancient Chinese classic, the Book of Changes (Yijing), a work widely recognized by East Asian phi- losophers of all stripes-including Confucians, Daoists, Buddhists, Shintoists, and Neo-Confucians-as the most authoritative theoretical exposition of the dialectics of change.5

That would not have been Soko's first dream about the Gengen hakki. Four years earlier, in the final week of 1678, he had dreamed that Matsudaira Tadafusa, lord of the Shimabara domain, attired in ceremonial robes, praised the Hakki as "a work addressing everything since the unfolding of the cosmos."6 These dreams reveal, significantly enough, how the composition of the Gengen hakki prompted some of Soko's final illusions of philosophical grandeur, replete with images of bakufu powerbrokers praising him, probably as a prelude to an invitation to service as a scholar-advisor to the shogun. Unfortunately for SokO, reality never approximated his reveries: there is no evidence that Masatoshi or Tadafusa held him in high regard or knew of, much less admired, his Gengen hakki.

Nevertheless the latter work along with his Gengen hakki genkai, a colloquial explication of the often enigmatic kanbun text, were Soko's last major pieces. Yet

194 Philosophy East & West Volume 54, Number 2 April 2004 194-217

? 2004 by University of Hawai'i Press



only a few modern scholars have recognized the importance of the Gengen hakki vis-a-vis Soko's oeuvre. Tahara Tsuguo states that it expressed "the culmination of Soko's thought on philosophical matters." Tahara adds that the Gengen hakki was "SokO's most theoretical work," expounding his "worldview."7 Hirose Yutaka, edi- tor of the Yamaga Sok6 zensho, characterized the Gengen hakki as a late work conveying "the highest peak in his philosophy."8 Neither Tahara nor Hirose at- tempted to synthesize the motifs of the Gengen hakki with those developed in Soko's most famous writing, the ChOchd jijitsu (The true Central Empire),9 finished in 1669, a decade before the Hakki. Tahara did interpret the latter in relation to the Takkyo d6mon (Child's questions in exile) (1668), a work completed around the time of the Choch6 jijitsu. In refraining from intertextual analyses of the Gengen hakki and Choch6 jijitsu, Tahara hints that there are few similarities, and that discontinuities are more salient.10

The present article expands Tahara's hint, suggesting that the Gengen hakki advances a novel paradigm, one distinguishing SokO's final views from the emperor- centered, nativistic perspectives articulated in the ChOcho jijitsu. Rather than the latter, the Gengen hakki expounds a more universalistic, naturalistic, and numerological analysis of the ontological rationale of change. By "universalistic," this article refers to the tendency to address issues in exceptionally comprehensive, categorical terms such as "humanity" (hito), "human nature" (sei), "the moral way" (michi), "government" (sei), "rulers" (kun), and "the people" (tami), rather than ones intrin- sically particular to a parochial tradition as with the Shinto deities Amaterasu, Iza- nagi, Izanami, or emperors such as Jinmu. By "naturalistic" is meant a mode of the- orizing that appeals to "natural principles" (shizen no ri), the "natural way" (shizen no michi), or other notions grounded in a concern for the natural (shizen) order. By "numerological" is meant, in this case, the tendency to craft a metaphysics from numeric ontological categories, typically the binary pair "one" (ichi) and "two" (ni) and others generated by them. Methodologically, this article offers thematic analyses of the texts, revealing crucial differences regarding (1) foreign ideas, (2) cosmology, (3) esoteric notions, (4) sagehood, (5) governing, and (6) the philosophy of history. These analyses suggest the extent to which the Gengen hakki departed from the pro- imperial, proto-nationalistic, providential views of the ChOcht jijitsu while moving toward a novel approach to the philosophical foundations of history.

This final shift, from nativistic themes to what was arguably a more Neo- Confucian-style metaphysics of history, was the third in Sok5's career. The first occurred around 1662, when, after reading Zhu Xi's (1130-1200) and Li Zuqian's (1137-1181) Neo-Confucian anthology, the Jinsilu (Reflections on things at hand), Soko ostensibly rejected Neo-Confucianism in favor of the more practical teachings of Confucius and the Duke of Zhou.11 This first shift was made infamous by the publication of Soko's new thinking in the Seikyo ydroku (Essentials of Confucianism) in 1666 and his consequent exile, by bakufu decree, to the Ak5 domain, until pardoned a decade later, in 1675.

The second shift, completed by 1669, the year Soko finished the Chocho jijitsu, involved his move away from a largely exclusive concern with the categories of

John Allen Tucker 195



Confucian philosophy and their relevance to the samurai estate and toward a surprisingly explicit and completely unprecedented-at least for Soko--reverence for Japanese imperial culture, especially as delineated in ancient and medieval texts such as the Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan) and the Jinn6 sh6ot ki (Record of the succession of divine sovereigns).12

The third shift was fully evident by 1678, the year Soko punctuated the Gengen hakki. It seems quite significant that the Gengen hakki, although relevant to Japanese history in its philosophy of change, offers no references to the narratives, legends, or traditional assumptions of Japanese imperial history that are so conspicuous in the Chhcho jijitsu. If analyzed in relation to Soko's intellectual biography, this final shift returned Sok5 to the discourse that characterized his earliest stage of philosophical development (1630-1640), when, following tutelage under Hayashi Razan (1583- 1657), he embraced Neo-Confucianism, authoring, for example, colloquial versions of Zhu Xi's Commentaries on the Four Books (Sishu jizhu). In the ChOcho jijitsu, however, references to Shinto deities, religio-political themes, and providential interpretations of imperial history are most salient. In many respects, the Choch6 jijitsu, therefore, stands as an atypical text in Soko's corpus, one most understand- able, contextually, in relation to the circumstances of his exile in Ako and his prospects at the time of its composition: indefinite residence in that tiny tozama domain, remote from Edo but not far from the imperial capital and the residual political authority associated with it.

Throughout his life Sok5 was driven professionally by a motive familiar to Confucians beginning with Confucius himself: finding a ruler-patron to sponsor his scholarly research and implement his insights in governing. As both a Neo-Confucian and Confucian scholar, early and late in life, this ambition was a prime force behind Soko's various redefinitions of his philosophical orientation. His production of the ChOcho jijitsu, rather than the facile result of a newfound appreciation for imperial culture, was arguably prompted by his realization, while in exile, that his chances of becoming a bakufu scholar had ended, and that if he were to have any hope of finding a patron it would be one who was more conversant with the nativistic culture of the Yamato heartland, traditionally centered on the imperial capital Kyoto, and the Kansai, where he resided in exile, than was typical among Edo-based powerbrokers.

Once pardoned and allowed to return to the shogun's capital, Soko again, as his dreams show, entertained hopes of serving the Tokugawa. As a result his orientation shifted, quite pragmatically, from Choch6 jijitsu-style nativism to numerological analyses of change in history, analyses that would enable him to come to terms with the perplexing vicissitudes of his life, those of the realm, and those facing the bakufu as it approached the completion of its first century. Significantly, Soko drafted the Gengen hakki during the final years of letsuna's shogunate, which spanned three decades, and the opening years of Tsunayoshi's. His composition of this treatise, purportedly capable of interpreting future change as well as the past, no doubt reflected his ongoing desire to assist the bakufu during a critical time of transition. Soko had perhaps heard that Tsunayoshi was an enthusiastic patron of Yijing

196 Philosophy East & West



scholarship and hoped his Gengen hakki would gain him inclusion in the group of scholars being assembled by the new shogun to study the ancient treatise on change.13

Hori Isao, Sokb's postwar biographer, offers a different view. Emphasizing syn- thesis rather than rupture, Hori interprets the Gengen hakki as "the final and most ultimate metaphysical statement of Soko's learning." Hori links the Gengen hakki and the Chuch6 jijitsu, suggesting that the former provided the theoretical principles of Soko's "Japanese thought," thus advancing what Hori sees as Soko's overall advocacy of "Japan as the True Central Empire-ism" (Nihon chhch6 shugi). Hori's analyses are valuable insofar as they emphasize some less-than-evident continuities, rather than obvious, yet often overlooked, discontinuities. Although the Gengen hakki affirms no systematic links to Soko's early martial philosophy or his so-called "ancient learning" (kogaku) thought, Hori proposes, for example, that it can be viewed as developing both in new ways.14

Hori's views are somewhat consistent with trends in Western scholarship regarding Soko and his Chich6 jijitsu. In her classic study "The Naturalization of Con- fucianism in Tokugawa Japan: The Problem of Sinocentrism," Kate Nakai has shown that many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Confucian scholars made "the way of the sages acceptable to the Japanese outlook and temperament by modifying the more alien elements of Confucianism in its original Chinese forms." As evidence, Nakai points to the works of Hayashi Razan, Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725), Kuma- zawa Banzan (1619-1691), Yamazaki Ansai (1618-1682), Asami Keisai (1652- 1711), and Yamaga Soko. Regarding the latter, she notes:

Among seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Confucians, this position (that given Japan's superior performance in upholding the way of the sages, it was Japan, not China, that deserved the appellation of Chogoku [Central Kingdom]) is associated most particularly with Yamaga Soko.15

Illustrating Soko's view, Nakai quotes Sokb's Haisho zampitsu (Autobiography in exile), which states:

Our country is small [so] it could not compare with China in any regard, and that it was thus, too, in China that the sages had been born.... But recently I have come to recog- nize that such views are in error. It is the deep rooted failing of scholars "to believe what they hear and not what they see, to reject what is near and adhere to what is far."16

Although it does not mention the Gengen hakki, Nakai's study is consonant with Hori's views insofar as it implies that Soko's thinking culminated in the Japan- centered claims of the Chhch6 jijitsu. And while Nakai's work is valuable for its analyses of ways in which Confucianism was naturalized, if we examine Soko's ChOcho jijitsu in relation to shifting nuances within his oeuvre, especially those advanced in the Gengen hakki, a different perspective on Soko's thought and his efforts toward naturalizing Confucianism comes into focus.

While noting SokO's work as a naturalizer of Confucianism, this article emphasizes his attempt to naturalize by "rewriting" a classic, the Yijing, resulting in the




composition of a similar work, the Gengen hakki. In the process, this article questions the extent to which the Chhch6 jijitsu expressed Sokb's final understanding of Confucianism and its bearing on Japanese culture. It also suggests that the Choch6 jijitsu was atypical of the Soko corpus on two counts: (1) it was without precedent in his earlier writings, and (2) it was virtually unechoed in his later works. Crucial to the latter point is the Gengen hakki, a text rarely mentioned in Western studies,17 which typically conclude coverage of Sok6's intellectual life with the Chocho jijitsu, much as the Haisho zampitsu does. Soko authored that autobiographical account during his last year in exile, when he could not have anticipated either his imminent pardon or the reorientations in his philosophical perspective consequent to it. As the Gen- gen hakki proves, however, Sok5 remained a creative scholar long after his exile and the composition of the Haisho zampitsu.

Although hardly unknown among Japanese scholars, the Gengen hakki is one of the least studied works in the Soko corpus. Early in the twentieth century, Inoue Tetsujir5 distanced it from SokO's previous writings by noting that it was drafted after his pardon, making it a reflection of his "later thought." Inoue stated that the text was "quite mysterious," like the Yijing.18 As an enthusiastic admirer of Soko's celebration of Japan's imperial line, Inoue found little in the Gengen hakki worth highlighting. After all, it implies that Soko ultimately returned to a kind of "China worship," the trait Inoue praised Soko for having countered.

Rather than concurring with Inoue, whose influential prewar studies of Japanese philosophical history meshed well with the ideological needs of the imperial mili- tary, postwar scholarship on Soko has focused on his Yamaga gorui (Classified con- versations of Yamaga Soko), Seiky6 y6roku, and Haisho zampitsu,19 that is, the corpus as it crystallized in relation to Sok5's critique of Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism and his exile due to publication of the Seiky6 yoroku, which brazenly expounded that critique. Given the postwar reaction against nationalistic ideological texts such as Kokutai no hongi (Essentials of our national polity), which praised the ChOch6 jijitsu,20 it is not surprising that the latter work along with the different, still later Gengen hakki have been passed over in relative silence. The Gengen hakki is any- thing but a nationalistic text, but its distinctive approach to philosophizing is best appreciated in relation to the ChOch6 jijitsu, which is one par excellence. It seems that the postwar neglect of the latter has inadvertently contributed to the lack of at- tention allowed the former.

The present article, while focused primarily on the Gengen hakki, contends that it is best understood in relation to Soko's oeuvre, including the ideologically charged Choch6 jijitsu, and that both need to be viewed in relation to crucial shifts in theoretical nuance that corresponded with Soko's typically Confucian search for a patron-ruler. Simply put, these very different texts emerged in tandem with SokO's exile and pardon, with each meant to appeal to a prospective patron. Ideally, in SokO's view, that would have been the Tokugawa bakufu,21 but when that was not an option, that is, during his exile, his interests shifted to the nativistic discourse of the ChOcho jijitsu. Later, following his pardon, Soko, conscious of the renewed possibility of serving the bakufu, formulated a profoundly different perspective, one




indigenizing through numerological reconceptualization a Chinese text, the Yijing. In the process, Sok5 advanced a new metaphysics, one with far more universalistic and naturalistic implications than are apparent in the ChOch6 jijitsu. Recognition of the importance of the Gengen hakki in the Soko oeuvre is significant since it facilitates a greater appreciation for the dynamism and flexibility evident in Soko's philosophical development, traits that ultimately led him away from nativism toward a broader, more ecumenical perspective on history, culture, and change. Recogni- tion of the Gengen hakki is also significant since the text itself suggests the extent to which some early modern intellectuals indigenized Confucianism, not simply by proclaiming Japan to be the true China, as Soko's Chhch6 jijitsu did, but by authoring reformulations of the Confucian classics, as with the Gengen hakki. In the process, these indigenizing intellectuals not only made Confucianism more nativistic, they became more theoretically cosmopolitan, that is, Confucianized,22 in their understandings of the metaphysics of reality, history, and change.

Thematic Analyses of the Chucho jijitsu and Gengen hakki23

Attitude toward Foreign/Nativist Things One of the most noteworthy aspects of the ChOch6 jijitsu is its reaction against the kind of respect for "foreign philosophy," that is, Chinese philosophy, that characterized Soko's early career as a private scholar. The previous quote from Sok6's Haisho zampitsu well illustrates this reaction. Sok5 recorded similar sentiments in the preface to his Chcch6 jijitsu: there he confessed that he had long been ignorant of the beauties of the civilization of the Central Flower (Chaka bunmei), his home- land. Instead he had been infatuated with "classics of the foreign dynasty" (China). Soko warned, however, that such infatuation with exotica leads to reverence for heterodoxies.24 Similar statements recur throughout the Chhcho jijitsu. Indeed, one of the most characteristic features of that text is its retreat from respect for Confu- cianism qua Confucianism, by Soko's day a well-established East Asian philosophy, and its move toward admiration for nativistic themes related to history, religion, and philosophy, albeit as couched in Confucian terminology. In the Gengen hakki, such a withdrawal from the "cosmopolitan" mode of philosophizing is hardly apparent. Equally absent are overt celebrations of Japan as the Central Kingdom, or Japanese texts as the basis of ultimate truth. Rather, the Gengen hakki reveals that Sok6's admiration for Confucian learning, in this case that associated with the Yijing and its metaphysical analyses of change, had resurfaced with strength.

As noted earlier, Hori claims that there are significant continuities between the Chhch6 jijitsu and Gengen hakki. As evidence, he cites one remark, made in the Gengen hakki genkai:

The ancestral mysteries of Shinto, which the ancient sages of Japan (honch5) formulated, convey the ideas represented in the forms and symbols (keish6). But for ages they were not transmitted, forcing us to borrow notions from foreign sages (gaikoku no seijin) in order to illuminate them.25




Far from establishing continuities, this remark suggests the opposite. After all, the Chhch6 jijitsu repeatedly quotes passages from the Nihon shoki, the Kojiki, and other ancient texts to prove the superiority of Japan, which it lauds (via traditional references to China) as Choka (Central Flower), ChOcho (Central Empire), or Chu- goku (Central Kingdom), while China is typically alluded to as the "foreign dynasty" (gaich6). But in the passage above, from the Gengen hakki genkai, SokO refers to Japan humbly as, literally, "this dynasty" (honch6), while referring to China as gaikoku (the foreign country). In neither the Gengen hakki nor the Gengen hakki genkai do claims surface regarding Japan as the true embodiment of the ethical, imperial civilization of the Central Kingdom, that is, as the true China. In this respect, the Gengen hakki expresses a move away from the proto-nationalistic, emperor-centered assertions of the Chhch6 jijitsu.

Most importantly, while the ChOch6 jijitsu argues that Japan rather than China was the real Choka because it preserved the transmission of the true way, in the passage of the Gengen hakki genkai above, Sok5 admits that the symbolic teachings addressed in the Gengen hakki, once transmitted as mysteries of Shinto, had been lost and could only be illuminated via notions borrowed from foreign (Chinese) sages such as Fuxi, King Wen, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius. Furthermore, despite SokO's reference to "foreign sages" in the passage above, in the Gengen hakki and Gengen hakki genkai he most typically appeals to the "sages" (seijin), implying by this term the same "foreign" figures from Chinese antiquity. In the Gengen hakki and Gengen hakki genkai there are virtually no references to the ancient Japanese deities discussed regularly in the ChOcho jijitsu.

In one rare instance a deity does appear: explaining the symbol ju (discussed later), representing the human presence between heaven and earth, Sok6 notes that in ancient times this presence was affirmed via the deity Ame-no-toko-tachi- no-mikoto.26 Yet this isolated reference, far from establishing a convincing level of continuity, highlights the extent to which a substantive consciousness of Shinto divinities and their importance to Japanese culture had atrophied by the time of Soko's final writings. This relative diminution signifies a shift in his perspective from a glorification of the imperial court and its religious doctrines toward the more universal categories of Chinese philosophy.

In one of the most telling remarks of the Gengen hakki, Soki admits that ignorant people will charge that his "forms" (sh6) imitate those of the Yijing.27 Within this context, the Gengen hakki genkai makes the statement cited by Hori to establish continuities between the ChOch6 jijitsu and Gengen hakki. Yet, when viewed in context, SokO's remark, rather than providing a basis of theoretical continuity, issued from an awareness that he might be accused of paraphrasing, if not plagiarizing, a Chinese classic. That aside, Soko justifies his composition of the Gengen hakki by appeal to the universality of its content: he declares that if the mysterious operations of heaven did not allow such theoretical representation of change, the forms and images conveying the nature of change would not have penetrated all history, ancient and modern. Although the forms differ from those in the Yijing, in practical operation they convey the internal essence of it. Here SokO explains the title of the




text, and the manner in which he crafted it, by stating that he "followed the essential truth of the sagely learning (seigaku), exploring the origins of things (gengen), and making evident the incipient factors (springs) in their unfolding (hakki)."28

While skeptics might question the extent to which Sok-'s text emerged from such a methodology, his comments point to the ostensibly meta-national, universalistic nature of the Gengen hakki, characteristics removed from the more parochial ChOch6 jijitsu. After all, the "sagely learning" referred to was Confucianism, as much an East Asian philosophy by Sok-'s day as it was Chinese. Also, the "things" explored were not necessarily Japanese "things," but realities of the larger world. Moreover, Soko's comments suggest that his respect for foreign texts was not grounded in infatuation with exotica, but resulted from respect for the universal element communicated by these texts. Similarly Sok5's rearticulation of this universal element was not simply meant to render it more indigenous: it also sought to provide the indigenous with a more universal perspective on reality, change, and history.

Cosmology In the first chapter of the Choch6 jijitsu, "Before Heaven," Sok6 describes the emer- gence of heaven and earth; the deities, rites, and ceremonies; and finally the great principle of yin and yang, that is, the distinction between male and female. Sok5's cosmogenesis is set forth naturalistically, in terms of the "natural principles of heaven and earth" (tenchi shizen no d6ri) but most obviously on the basis of nativist passages from the Nihon shoki. At every turn Soki associates categories of Neo- Confucian cosmology with Shinto deities, beginning with Kuni-no-toko-tachi-no- mikoto and continuing through Izanagi and Izanami and the "seven generations of the age of the kami." Thus, for example, Soki explains Izanagi and Izanami as expressions of the warmth and harmony of yin and yang and its complete totality. These two divinities, Soki claims, established Chugoku, the Central Kingdom, and made correct the ethical relations between male and female. As the primordial male and female, Izanagi and Izanami were the foundations of yin and yang and the beginning of the five relationships. Insofar as Soko defines heaven and earth as the "great ultimate" of yin and yang, the cosmos itself is defined in relation to Izanagi and Izanami.29 Thus, while Confucian naturalism figures in the ChOcho jijitsu, it is subsumed within the categories associated with the Shinto pantheon, and cited only as a means of explicating, at another level, the nature of the deities and the divine land.

The Gengen hakki presents no references to the Nihon shoki, the Kojiki, or the age of the kami. Divided into three chapters, it opens with the statement, "above there is heaven, below there is earth, and in between are the myriad things." Tahara states that these' words describe the kind of "universe" that Sok6 then contem- plated.30 If so, that "universe" is noteworthy because it differs decisively from that offered in the opening lines of the ChOcho jijitsu, which quote the Nihon shoki in relating that "first there is heaven, then earth, and from them spiritual luminosity, referred to as Kuni-no-toko-tachi-no-mikoto, was born."'31 By contrast the Gengen hakki offers its simple, naturalistic cosmology without allusion or reference to any




particular text, although it is obviously modeled after works of Chinese cosmology, beginning with the Book of History (Shujing) and continuing through any number of Neo-Confucian writings. Most conspicuously absent are references to the Shinto deities so regularly mentioned in the ChOch6 jijitsu.

The Gengen hakki genkai clarifies Soko's new metaphysics by noting that "the myriad things crystallize with life because they are endowed with the generative force of heaven (ten no ki), and receive the nourishment of the earth."32 The Gengen hakki explains the harmonious continuity prevalent in this worldview by describing "heaven as round," adding that the kunshi, or ethically refined person, never forces any transformations. On the other hand, earth is level, and thus the kunshi founds correct government (sei) and model laws (hW). Soki defines the sage (seijin) as one who can move without cease, remain still with equal constancy, and thus complete the transformations of the myriad things. Affirming the universality of the way, Soko notes that it has penetrated all time, ancient and modern, without ever being dis- carded. Alluding to the Analects, he asserts that it is impossible to abandon the way and continue for long. While heaven and earth can comprehend the way without words, those who can discuss and comprehend it are sages.33 Needless to say, with the latter remark Sok6 suggests that he, in speaking authoritatively of the way, is a sage.34 That aside, his characterization of the way and sagehood cast them in universalistic, naturalistic terms, ones applicable at a transnational, cosmopolitan level rather than the more provincial perspective of the ChOcho jijitsu.

Sok6 supplements his naturalistic cosmology with a numerological account of the origins of things, one completely unprecedented in the Choch6 jijitsu, although reminiscent of the numerology advanced by the Song Neo-Confucian Shao Yong (1011-1077) six centuries earlier.35 In the Gengen hakki, Soko suggests that "one" (a yang number) gives birth to "one and two," while "two" (a yin number) gives birth to "three and four." With that, "five, six, seven, and eight become complete." Each number gives rise to "eight" more, thus producing a total of sixty-four transformations. The sixty-four in turn produce eight each, giving rise to over five hundred more. By such arithmetic progressions, the myriad transformations of past, present, and future change are exhaustively represented. Sok6 claims that once we can infer the numerological categories of change, neither we nor later generations will ever be beclouded about things.36

Naturalistic cosmological thought was not absent from Soko's ChOch6 jijitsu, but neither was it the predominant message there. Rather it functioned as an auxiliary level of discourse, enhancing the identities of Shinto deities and their supposed imperial progeny. In the Gengen hakki, however, Sok6 affirms a naturalistic and at points numerological cosmology, without offering it as an amplification for privi- leged religio-political notions, nationalistic cdnceptions, or historical claims. In effect Soko's Gengen hakki leaves the Shinto kami and divine sovereigns, so cele- brated in the ChOcho jijitsu, out, at least at the most explicit level. While one could claim that they are an implicit presence in the text, their absence from the surface level of discourse seems striking, especially when one considers their prominence in the ChOcho jijitsu.




Esoteric Symbolism: Nativist Religiosity and the Eight Symbols Chapter 4 of the ChOcho jijitsu, "The Sacred Treasures," reveals the source of the three treasures, their moral significance, and why they must be regarded with reverence. The jewel is associated with "warmth and humaneness," the mirror with the "investigation of things and extension of knowledge," and the sword with "decisive courage." The transmission of these three treasures allegedly manifested the "utmost sincerity" of the heavenly spirits, and was crucial to the legitimate imperial rule of the country. Reigning sovereigns supposedly used these treasures internally to clarify their minds, and externally as resources in governing and educating the people. Soko relates the possession of them to the unbroken imperial line establishing Japan as the true Central Kingdom. Though he notes that the "foreign empire," that is, China, had items such as the nine tripods of the Xia dynasty, which were later passed down to the Yin and Zhou, he explains that they in no way compare with the treasures of the Central Kingdom.37 Soko thus presents esoteric symbolism in the ChOch6 jijitsu primarily to establish the superiority of Japan as the Central Kingdom, and to denigrate the "foreign dynasty," China, by comparison.

In part 2 of the Gengen hakki, Soko explores esoteric symbolism of a different sort: he offers an exposition of the eight components in his supposedly universal system of change. Soko's rearticulation of Yijing-style notions is most evident here: in the Yijing there are eight trigrams, composed of solid and/or broken lines, that recombine to produce sixty-four hexagrams. Rather than trigrams, Soko offers eight esoteric symbols reminiscent of fragments of the kana syllabary, to convey the essential forms of change in history.

Sten Figure 1

The first (figure 1), read ten, is associated with heaven, its eponym, the active originating force operative in Soko's metaphysics. Numerically it is represented as "one." Commenting on it, Soko relates that "the sage looks upward in order to establish what is above." He adds that whenever things exist, there must first be activity, the attribute of the symbol.38

-chi Figure 2

The second (figure 2), read chi, is associated with what is abiding and enduring,




the earth. Commenting on it, Soko notes that "the sage looks down in order to establish what is below," and he adds, "where there is activity, there will be rest." Thus are above and below determined.39

rju Figure 3

The third symbol (figure 3), pronounced ju, consists of a single vertical line. Soko explains that "just as the vertical line links what is above and below, so does the sage, through centrality, serve as the ruler-teacher (kunshi) for humanity." The Gen- gen hakki further notes that "there is a great standard which, with activity, serves to reign in the myriad things." The Genkai adds that these standards are natural: they are "the great standards of heaven and earth which have prevailed since the beginning." More specifically, they are the foundations of rites, music, penal law, and administrative government. The great standards are what the sages follow. First there is heaven and earth, then sages. That, Soko explains, is the natural order (shizen no j6).40

Y7 I3r Figure 4

The fourth symbol (figure 4), read 6, consists of a single horizontal line. The Hakki states that "the horizontal intersection of heaven and earth is represented as a straight line."41 The Genkai explains that 6 symbolizes the plentitude of the myriad things throughout the space between heaven and earth, utterly precluding emptiness.42

ko Figure 5

The fifth symbol (figure 5), read k6, refers to intercourse among things. Soko explains that the sages established the way of intercourse and exchange because in the production of heaven, earth, and humanity, things have always, without excep- tion, relied on one another.43




ju

Figure 6

The sixth symbol (figure 6), read jO, refers to "changing and overcoming things. Thus, when the sages established the mean, they discussed it in terms of regulations (h6) and rites (rei)."44 He notes that ju is similar in meaning to the mean, but dis- tinguishes them by emphasizing that jo means "to change" and "to overcome," while the mean pertains to great standards (daikei).45

zui

Figure 7

The seventh symbol (figure 7), read zui, refers to following what is right. The sages realized the need for this and so formulated it. The Gengen hakki explains that for the standard to be manifest in a person, it must be taught according to the way.46 It adds that "following refers to 'preserving and nourishing,' which in turn refer to 'reflecting and being vigilant over oneself.' "47

S sei

Figure 8

The eighth symbol (figure 8), read sei, refers to what can neither be seen nor heard but is nevertheless the beginning and end of all things. If forced to speak of it, it is called the essence (sei), sincerity (makoto).48 The Genkai explains that this symbol is the most subtle and yet essential, encompassing all seven of the others. Most simply, it represents the sincerity practiced in everyday life.49

What is clear from this brief exposition of the eight symbols of the Gengen hakki is that Soko did not, in any obvious way, author the text as an explication of the "three treasures" or as an amplification of the Choch6 jijitsu or any of the ancient Japanese works crucial to it. Rather, if Soko's accounts are followed, he took the Yijing's eight hexagrams as his basis, and, by exploring the origins and incipient causes of things, he formulated a unique metaphysical symbolism of change. The latter, while no doubt applicable to Japan, would have been equally relevant to foreign dynasties such as China. In its relative universality, the Gengen hakki moves considerably away from the narrower perspective offered in the Chocho jijitsu. Also, while the Choch6 jijitsu extols the unchanging nature of Japan's imperial polity and




its political ethics, symbolically evident in the enduring reverence accorded the three imperial treasures, the Gengen hakki assumes that there is continual change in the world and seeks to explain it metaphysically via an appeal to categories, capturing the major forces informing change. Thus as the ChOch6 jijitsu marshals esoteric symbols to explain the supposed permanence of the imperial polity, the Gengen hakki assumes a world of pervasive flux and seeks to make sense of it metaphysically.

Sages and Divine Sages In the Chuch6 jijitsu, Soko does not typically refer to the i"sages" (seijin). Rather he most often cites the examples of the kami and the heavenly deities (tenjin), including Izanagi, Izanami, Amaterasu, Susa-no-o, and others, or the example of emperors such as Jinmu, Sujin, Kanmu, and so forth. When Sok5 refers to sagacity of any sort, he speaks of "spiritual sagacity" or "divine sages" (shinsei). When used anthro- pomorphically, shinsei refers again to the gods and emperors of ancient Japan who defined the polity in such a way, according to Soko, as to merit for it the status of Chigoku. On the other hand, when used as an attribute, shinsei refers to the wisdom made manifest by the same figures, characterized at one point by Soki as embody- ing "the standards for myriad generations" and "the essential nature and mind of heaven and earth."50 Soko's frequent use of shinsei as a reference to the supposed "divine sages" of Japanese imperial tradition marks a distinct break with his focus on the seikyo, or sagely teachings of Confucianism, characteristic of his Seiky6 y6roku, teachings propounded first and foremost by the sage Confucius.

In the Gengen hakki, Sok- turns away from celebrating Japan's shinsei to cite the wisdom of the seijin or "sages" as sources of metaphysical authority. This was true not only in SokO's references to figures such as Fuxi, the Duke of Zhou, and Con- fucius but also in his references to the ancient sages of Japan, even those who had supposedly articulated something akin to the Yijing when formulating the "original mysteries of Shinto" that were later lost.51 This shift in reverence for authority figures, first the ancient sages in the Seikyo y6roku, then the "divine sages" in the ChOch6 jijitsu, and finally back to the "sages" in the Gengen hakki, exemplifies the succes- sive shifts in SokO's philosophizing mentioned earlier. Most noteworthy, of course, is the shift away from the celebration of Japan's supposed "divine sagacity," as explored in the ChOch6 jijitsu, and toward a more universalistic, cosmopolitan understanding of exceptional wisdom in the Gengen hakki. Noteworthy is that in the latter text Soko speaks of Japanese and Chinese figures as "sages" rather than implying that those of Japan were decidedly superior to those of China.

Governing The Chocho jijitsu discusses governing at length, as does the Gengen hakki genkai. However, the former does so in unmistakably indigenous terminology, while the latter resorts to the universalistic terminology distinctive of more purely Confucian discourse. For example, chapter 2 of the ChOcho jijitsu, titled "The Central King- dom" ("Chigoku"), cites the rule established by Izanagi and Izanami over the




archipelago, followed by Jimmu (supposedly 660-585 B.C.E.), Sujin (supposedly 97- 30 B.C.E.), Keiko (71-130), and so forth, as proof that Japan's polity, due to its unbroken line of imperial succession, is superior to that of "foreign dynasties," that is, China. This superiority results from the alleged fact that the imperial line provided for the public good of all (6yake) rather than the selfish wishes (watakushi) of an indi- vidual, thus making it the true "Central Kingdom."52

In chapter 3, "Imperial Orthodoxy," Soko admits that samurai clans seized power following Emperor Goshirakawa's reign (1155-1158), but insists that they never ceased to revere the imperial line, thus preserving the right duty between ruler and subject. This right duty was maintained because heavenly spirits and human emperors made their virtuous wisdom manifest so that the people would not forget their right duty. In contrast, Sok5 asserted that in foreign dynasties-here indicating both China and Korea (Chisen)-imperial lines had been overthrown and replaced over thirty times.53 In this chapter Sok5 affirms the derivative legitimacy of shogunal rule, but not in a way that is necessarily supportive of Tokugawa rule. Conceivably his historical survey of the origins of samurai power could as easily be construed as justification of a position that was open, ultimately, to talent, provided that the talented, without qualification, revered the emperor.

Chapter 6, "Sacred Rule," emphasizes that imperial government in the Central Kingdom was not for the selfish benefit of one person but instead provided for the common interests of the people. Thus it exemplified-and here Soki clearly draws on Confucianism-"humane government."54 Chapter 7, "Sacred Knowl- edge," claims that the heavenly deities elevated capable people to assist in governing the realm. Therefore, the Chuch6 jijitsu concludes, placing the right people in government is the most important element in governing. Chapter 8, "Sagely Gov- ernment," explains the unity of government and ritual (saisei itchi) and the intrinsic relationship of government to the people. According to Soko, from Emperor Jimmu forward, emperors have demonstrated utmost sincerity by instituting policies that benefited the people. Chapter 12, "Rituals and Ceremonies," describes the various acts of reverent worship carried on by ancient deities such as Amaterasu, Jinmu, Sujin, Jonin, and others, who demonstrated that worship of the eight million kami of the land was the foundation of imperial rule.

In the Gengen hakki, Soki offers a leaner analysis of government. In essence, he makes right government a function of understanding and managing change in one's daily duties. Thus, in the opening chapter of the Gengen hakki, Soki explains that the text "penetrates the myriad transformations of the world so that if a ruler thoroughly understands it, governing the realm below heaven (tenka kokka) will be as easy as turning over his hand."55 SokO's point is made softly here because, as he surely understood, there can be no facile formula for governing when the realm was, at least from the perspective of the bakufu, in a potential state of perpetual flux. Rather than offer easy solutions or stereotypical characterizations, especially those based on appeals to uninterrupted imperial rule, Soko advised his readers to master his text thoroughly, supposedly exhausting every possible change or transformation. If they did, he assured them that governing would be an easy task.




SokO adds that the essentials of self-cultivation, managing families, governing the realm, and bringing peace to the world below heaven follow the roots and branches of this logic so that the transformations integral to these projects can be inferred. The overall picture emerges with the eight numbers, while the details are addressed in the sixty-four derived from them. The minute details relate to the five- hundred-plus divisions. Once the logic (j6ri) of these is clear, a person will never be out of step with the workings of heaven (tenki). According to Soko, the outlines of the "forms and numbers" (sh6zO), are expressions of "the natural way" (shizen no michi). If that were not the case, the way would never have been established.56

Sok6 admits that foreign sages (gaikoku no seijin) devised the trigrams and hexagrams, mapped their forms, and explained their beginnings and endings in writings such as Fuxi's (Jpn: Fukki) charts of the trigrams, King Wen's hexagrams, the Duke of Zhou's broken and unbroken lines, and Confucius' "Appended Judgments." If students understand these well, then governing families, the realm, and all below heaven will require little effort. It was for this reason, Soko adds, that even a sage like Confucius wished to have several more years to study the Yijing. For contemporaries who can read and understand these earlier writings, how can they not feel the same way?

Sokd's terse treatment of governing, as compared with the far fuller account offered in the ChOch6 jijitsu, likely reflected his awareness that the Tokugawa shoguns, or their senior councilors, were quite well accustomed, by his day, to defining their own politics and policies. At the same time, his suggestion that the Gengen hakki afforded students an understanding of the forces of change critical to success- ful government surely was meant to appeal to those who ruled. On the other hand, with the ChOch6 jijitsu and its silence regarding the ruling bakufu, Soko apparently meant to appeal to a patron of a different sort, one possibly intent on founding a new regime and needing the more complete outline he there provided, and especially the ideological sanctity advanced by Sokd's celebration of imperial rule.

Philosophy of History: Providence, Natural Laws, and Numerology The ChOch6 jijitsu is not a work of history as such, although it can easily be considered a historical essay, pontificating on the virtues of Japanese political culture, especially that which related to the imperial line and its supposedly unbroken rule since antiquity. An elementary analysis of the text, in terms of literary sources, his- toriographical suppositions, and critical methodology, indicates much about Sokd's thinking about history during his time in exile. First, Soko's habitual, largely uncriti- cal, citation of the "age of the gods" section of the Nihon shoki suggests that his Choch6 jijitsu is a contemporary exegesis of that portion of that ancient historical text. Less explicit, but equally real, are Soko's borrowings from similar sections of Kitabatake Chikafusa's Jinno shotAki, a fourteenth-century work asserting the sacred legitimacy of the southern line of the imperial court. Considered together, these literary sources reveal that Soko's interest was not simply history, but Japanese imperial history, especially that related to the divinity of the imperial line. While the Cho- cho jijitsu does not explicate its philosophy of history as such, it implicitly affirms a




distinctly providential view where divine forces play a crucial, ongoing role, super- vising events, often responding to human supplications. Specifically it extols an imperial theocracy and insists, due to its historical integrity, on its superiority over that of China.

In the Gengen hakki, Soko's purpose was not history per se, though the text has an obvious historical edge insofar as it attempts to analyze the nature of change systematically by appeal to what might be called, following Tahara Tsuguo, Soko's belief in a universe governed by "natural laws."57 In the Gengen hakki, however, these "natural laws," especially as they apply historically to humanity, are theoretically represented numerologically via the eight forms, while their dynamic relationships are mapped out in a series of complex, initially enigmatic diagrams. Most noteworthy is that neither the diagrams nor their explications refer to Shinto deities, the age of the kami, the Nihon shoki, or other distinctively Japanese cultural notions. Instead they outline a more universalistic understanding of the dialectic of historical change.

The Gengen hakki's analyses of the cosmos and the forces of metaphysical change and transformation flow from an implicit philosophy of history based on a recognition of the supposed natural structure and natural laws of the universe. This recognition is made explicit in Soko's characterization of the numerals, and the metaphysical categories associated with them, as a kind of "natural symbolism." This sort of worldview also characterized Neo-Confucianism, as Maruyama Masao, Tetsuo Najita, and many others have noted.58 Needless to say, in outlining a metaphysics of transformation based on the "natural order" Soko continued an approach to philosophizing that was characteristic of Neo-Confucianism.

The same is true of Soko's affirmation of "principle," "generative force," "sub- stance," and "function," all of which were staples of Neo-Confucian discourse, as Wm. Theodore de Bary has shown.59 Perhaps most striking is Soko's notion of the "symbol of the formless" (mush6 no sh6), broached in the fourth diagram. This notion is reminiscent of the Neo-Confucian concept of the wuji (Jpn: mukyoku), "the ultimate of nonbeing," the formless metaphysical source of potential transformation in the world. It is hardly coincidental that Neo-Confucians often represented the wuji as an empty circle, just as Soko does with his "symbol of the formless." Needless to say, Sokd's cosmology of change is his own, and not that of Zhu Xi, the Cheng brothers, or any other Neo-Confucians. At the least, however, it still must be allowed that far from extolling the superiority of Japanese political culture over that of China, Soko has resorted to a kind of philosophizing much akin to the Neo-Confucianism he had earlier rejected. Ironically, one of Soko's most pointed earlier critiques, stated in the Seiky6 y6roku, was directed at Zhou Dunyi's notion of the wuji, which Soko claimed "criminally violated the way" due to its heretical nature, that is, due to its not having been broached by the ancient sages. It would seem, with the Gengen hakki's very original numerology and symbolism, that Soko was now open to the same criticism that he had once directed at Neo-Confucians.

Equally important, Soko's participation in Neo-Confucian discourse is signaled by the extent to which he was willing to rewrite the classics, either by commentary




on existing classics, as he had done early in life, or by authoring a work modeled on an ancient classic but breathing new vitality into it via revision and, ultimately, reconceptualization. Zhu Xi, for example, prefixed nine diagrams, including the Yellow River Map and the Lo River Writing, to his commentary on the Yijing, titled Zhou Yi benyi (Original meaning of the Zhou Book of Changes).60 Thus, while Zhu Xi continued to respect the ancient classic, he was not above adding significant material to it that would shape a reader's understanding of it. Noteworthy is that Sok6, in the Gengen hakki, was hardly calling for a simple return to the ancient literature, as he had naively done in the Seiky6 y6roku; rather, he was going beyond Zhu Xi in a new direction, conferring new vitality on an ancient classic by completely rewriting it, as though he himself were a sage capable of the task.

Finally, it must be noted that the Yijing has been identified as the "single ancient text" that served as the "wellspring of authority and inspiration" for many early Song Neo-Confucians. SokO, by attempting to rewrite the Yijing, surely found in it a source of enormous inspiration.61 By engaging the text, even for the sake of revising it, Soko continued a kind of discourse, Neo-Confucianism, pioneered by Zhou Dunyi (101 7- 1073), Zhang Zai (1020-1077), Shao Yong (1011-1077), Cheng Hao (1032-1085), and Cheng Yi (1033-1107).

As much as a science of change, the Gengen hakki was meant to suggest that Sok5 stood uniquely qualified to interpret transformations in the contemporary world, especially as they pertained to governing. In effect, the text was meant as a credential establishing SokO's interpretive authority vis-a-vis the forces of transformation and the political structure most likely to be perplexed by them, the bakufu. Such an infatuation with change was foreign to the mentality of the Chhch6 jijitsu, given its emphasis on the unchanging nature of the imperial line. Stasis did not characterize bakufu relations with political realities; instead, the shogunate well realized that its authority would last no longer than its ability to manage change effectively. Soko realized the same and authored the Gengen hakki in part in an effort to ingratiate himself with the bakufu, which had a need to negotiate change skill- fully. In essence, the final shift in SokO's thinking can be captured via recognition of the dominant theme of the Chhcho jijitsu, the changelessness of the imperial line, in relation to the fundamentally different theme of the Gengen hakki, the ceaseless flux of reality, especially in the political realm, and the ability to manage it via study of the theoretical structures underlying it as outlined by SokO.

Sok6's Later Dreams and the Gengen hakki

Hori Isao, Soki's biographer, observes that Soko, late in life, "strongly believed" in his dreams and even became what might be considered from the modern perspective "profoundly superstitious."62 While two of these dreams, both cited at the beginning of this article, pertained to the Gengen hakki, many others, recorded in the final five years of SokO's life, more explicitly related to his "heart's desire" (kokoro no onegai), which Hori identifies as "obtaining an official position with the bakufu."63 For example, early in 1681, SokO, sixty-one, dreamed he had received a




gift from the Tokugawa shogun including a poem and a painting.64 In late spring of the same year, Soko dreamed that he received a fan from the shogun's family, with a four-line poem written on it. The poem hinted, according to Soko's Nenpu, that "his heart's desire would be satisfied." This prompted him to prayerful celebration, apparently believing that the dream signaled fulfillment of what was literally his conscious dream as well, official bakufu service.65 In late 1682, Soko was disturbed by a dream in which Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) yielded control over the realm (tenka) to him. Soko deemed the dream "unfortunate" because he did not think himself capable of the task.66 In 1685 (3/28), the year Soko died, he dreamed he was wearing a kimono with the Aoi crest of the Tokugawa on the sleeve, symbolic of his attaining service to the bakufu.67

During these final years, until his demise from malaria (8/10), Soko engaged in divination,68 dream analysis, prayer, and political maneuvering with the help of well-placed disciples who wished to gain for him an official position. Given that these same years witnessed the relative completion of the Gengen hakki, it is difficult to imagine Soko crafting that work without any thought of its relevance regarding his possible service to the Tokugawa. Making the Gengen hakki and Soko's dreams all the more poignant is the fact that in the spring of 1680 Tsunayoshi became shogun, succeeding letsuna. Soko, it seems, anticipated the transition, and made himself ready to assist in it via the creation of a text purporting to outline the unfolding of all things in the universe.

While the Gengen hakki fit well with Soko's dreams of becoming a bakufu official, his ChOcho jijitsu, with its clearly pro-imperial leaning, would not have served well his chances of obtaining official employment in Edo. Rather, the Chocho jijitsu makes most sense, given Soko's overall professional ambition and his pragmatic approach to realizing it, when his years in exile in distant Ako are taken into con- sideration, for it was during that time, when Soko's hopes of ever returning to Edo must have seemed dim indeed, that the ChOcho jijitsu was completed.

Epilogue

Some studies of Tokugawa Neo-Confucianism have faulted it for its alleged inability to deal with change. For example, H. D. Harootunian suggests:

Neo-Confucian writers in the seventeenth century had absorbed into their thinking only the moral assumptions underlying the Tokugawa arrangement of power. Since they accepted the Tokugawa regime as the perfection for which society was designed, they could not admit the possibility of change or process.69

At the very least, Soko's middle and later thought, as evident in the Choch6 jijitsu and Gengen hakki, suggest a different view. The Chocho jijitsu reveals that for Soko, reconceptualizing the political realm, with an emphasis on the imperial line and its sanctity immemorial, was hardly beyond his theoretical imagination, despite the apparent fact that service to the bakufu was his long-standing dream. More significantly, however, the Gengen hakki, which might be dubbed "Soko's Book of




Changes," suggests that while philosophizing as a Neo-Confucian, Soko, apart from what one might think about the value of the analyses themselves, was engaged in metaphysical analyses of change that were grounded theoretically in recognition of transformative development and meant primarily as a means of effectively managing it. In this, it might be added, Soki was hardly alone: Yamazaki Ansai and most of the key figures in his Kimon school of Neo-Confucianism were intense students of the Yijing as well.70

Notes

1 - Recorded on the twentieth day of the ninth lunar month. See Yamaga Soko, Nenpu (Chronological biography), in Yamaga Sok6 zenshO, shisdhen (hereafter YSZ), vol. 15, ed. Hirose Yutaka (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1941), p. 393.

2 - Masatoshi was murdered two years later in 1684, while inside the shogun's castle in Edo, by a junior councillor, Inaba Masayasu (1640-1684).

3 - Soko, Nenpu, p. 393.

4 - For an account of SokO's dreams, see Hori Isao, Yamaga Sok6, Jinbutsu sesho, vol. 33 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1959), pp. 304-316. Other studies include Koyanagi Shigeta, "Yamaga SokO no ichimen," Kinsei Nihon no jugaku: Tokugawa Kokei so shichiju nen shukuga kinen, ed. Tokugawa K-kei So Shi- chij0nen Shukuga Kinen Kai (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1939), and Furukawa Tetsushi, "Nikki ni arawareta Nihonjin no yume," Nihon bunka kenkyu, vol. 2 (Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1959).

5 - Hori, Yamaga Sok6, p. 308; Tahara Tsuguo, "Yamaga Soko no makoto: Sono shisd no rironteki kdsei," Hokkaid6 Daigaku Bungakubu kiy6 36 (2) (1988): 4- 5. Recent studies of the Yijing include Wai-ming Ng, The I Ching in Tokugawa Thought and Culture (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000), and Kidder Smith et al., Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990). Ng, The I Ching in Tokugawa Thought, pp. 96-132, emphasizes that the Yijing was accepted by Buddhists, Shintoists, and scholars of kokugaku "nativism" as an integral part of their orthodox literature.

6 - Sokd, Nenpu, p. 209. Recorded on the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month.

7 - Tahara, "Yamaga Soko no makoto," p. 3. It is not clear exactly when Sokd wrote the Gengen hakki, but a punctuated manuscript existed by the fifth lunar month of 1678, which he allowed his disciple Tsugaru Nobumasa to copy. SokO scholars note that there is no "clean copy" (josha) of either the Gengen hakki or the Gengen hakki genkai, the existence of which would have signified that SokO had finished all revisions of the texts. Extant versions of both are described as "incomplete manuscripts." There was a punctuated draft of the Gengen hakki genkai as of early 1684, the year before SokO's death. Nobu-




masa copied it in the third month of that year. Citations are from the YSZ edi- tions, based primarily on Sok6's manuscripts, owned by the Hirado branch of the Yamaga family, and secondarily on the texts that Nobumasa copied, held by the Tsugaru family. For issues related to dating the Gengen hakki, see Hirose, YSZ, 14:395-396, 425; Hori, Yamaga Sok6, pp. 287-288.

8 - Hirose, "Gengen hakki kaidai narabi bonrei," YSZ, 14:395.

9 - Hirose, "Chhch6 jijitsu kaidai narabi bonrei," YSZ, 13: 3.

10 - Tahara, "Yamaga Soko no makoto," pp. 3-45.

11 - Soko, Nenpu, YSZ, 15 :79. Soko relates that on the nineteenth day of the eighth lunar month of 1662, he read the jinsilu. In the Yamaga zuihitsu (Miscellaneous essays), YSZ, 11:421-422, Soko records his misgivings regarding the ]insilu, especially those related to the validity of Zhou Dunyi's (1017-1073) statement, "infinite and yet great ultimate" (wuji er taiji). Hori suggests that this date marks Soko's "conversion to ancient learning." Also see BitO Masahide, "Yamaga Soko no shisoteki tenkai, jo, Shiso, no. 560 (1971): 22-37; ge, ibid., no. 561 (1971): 82-97, esp. 90-93.

12 - Kondo Keigo, in "Yamaga Soko no Shinto setsu: ChOcho jijitsu seiritsu ko," in Zokuzoku Yamazaki Ansai no kenkyo, Shintoshi kenkyo sosho, vol. 16 (Tokyo: Shintoshi Gakkai, 1996), p. 336, identifies this "conversion" (tenkai) in Soko's thought, emphasizing the importance of Sok6's exile experience relative to it. Kondo even describes the exile experience as "the monumental experience of Soko's life." Earlier Hori identified this tenkai, emphasizing it as a significant break away from Soko's earlier "China-worshiping" philosophy toward a form of Nihon choch6 shugi. See Hori, Yamaga Sok6, pp. 242-243.

13 - Ng, The I Ching in Tokugawa Thought and Culture, pp. 66-67. Ng relates that among the Tokugawa shoguns, Tsunayoshi was "the most enthusiastic sponsor of I Ching scholarship" (p. 66). He adds that in 1683, Emperor Reigen (r. 1 663- 1687) reestablished the Onmyodo, or Bureau of Divination, based in Yijing study and practice, with Tsunayoshi's blessings. Also, Tsunayoshi "ordered the reprinting" of Zhu Xi's Zhouyi benyi (Original meaning of the Zhou Book of Changes) and Cheng Yi's Yi zhuan (Commentary on the Book of Changes) "to spread the orthodox interpretation" of the text. Between 1693 and 1700, Tsu- nayoshi chaired 240 seminars on the Yijing, including Confucian scholars such as Ogy0 Sorai as well as daimyo, bureaucrats, Shinto priests, and Buddhist monks.

14 - Hori, Yamaga Sok6, pp. 288-294.

15 - Kate Wildman Nakai, "The Naturalization of Confucianism in Tokugawa Japan: The Problem of Sinocentrism," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 40 (1) (June 1980): 187. Similar views on SokO and the Chucho jijitsu are in David Magarey Earl, Emperor and Nation in Japan: Political Thinkers of the Tokugawa Period (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964), pp. 37-51.




16 - Nakai, "The Naturalization of Confucianism in Tokugawa Japan." A modern edition of the Haisho zampitsu is in Yamaga Sok6, Nihon shis6 taikei, vol. 32 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1970), pp. 7-28 (340-347). Shuz5 Uenaka's translation-study of the text appeared in Monumenta Nipponica 32 (1977): 125-152. The kanbun text of the Haisho zampitsu, based on Sok6's own manuscript preserved by the Yamaga family, as well as a copy of the text preserved by the Tsugaru family, descendants of one of Sokc's high disciples, is found in YSZ, 12:567-599.

17 - For example, Ng, The I Ching in Tokugawa Thought and Culture, does not mention the Gengen hakki, although it does discuss some of SokO's views on the Yijing.

18 - Inoue TetsujirO (1855-1944), Nippon kogakuha no tetsugaku (Tokyo: Fuzambo, 1921), p. 53 (this is a reprint of the 1915 revised, expanded edition; Nippon kogakuha no tetsugaku was first published in 1902).

19 - One of the first works by Sok6 to be published in the postwar period was the Seikyo yoroku, in vol. 14 of the Nihon tetsugaku shiso zensho, D6toku, Juky6 hen d6tokuron ippan hen, ed. Saigusa Hiroto and Shimizu Ikutari and published by Heibonsha. Tahara Tsuguo and Morimoto JunichirO, eds., Yamaga Sok6, Nihon shis6 taikei vol. 32 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1970), includes the Seikyo yoroku, the Haisho zampitsu, and portions of the Yamaga gorui. Nishida

Taichir6, Fujiwara Seika / Nakae T6ju / Kumazawa Banzan / Yamazaki Ansai / Yamaga Soko / Yamagata Daini, Nihon no shis5 vol. 17 (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1970), includes the Seikyo y6roku and the Haisho zampitsu. Tahara, ed., Yamaga Sok6, Nihon no meicho, vol. 12 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1971), includes the Haisho zampitsu, the Buky6 sh6gaku, and portions of the Yamaga gorui. The postwar focus on this subject matter seems to have been presaged by the treatment of Soko in Maruyama Masao, Nihon seiji shis6shi kenkyh (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppansha, 1952), pp. 38-50, and Mikiso Hane, trans., Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan (Princeton: Prince- ton University Press, 1974), pp. 40-50. One of the most recent publications in the Soko literature is Tsuchida Kenjiro, ed., Seiky6 y6roku / Haisho zampitsu (Tokyo: Kodansha Shuppansha, 2001).

20 - John Owen Gauntlett, trans., Kokutai no hongi: Cardinal Principles of the National Entity ofJapan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949), pp. 118, 129.

21 - Shuzo Uenaka observes that the Haisho zampitsu reveals "how anxious he [Soko] was to become a retainer of the shogun" (Uenaka, "Last Testament in Exile: Yamaga Soko's Haisho Zampitsu," Monumenta Nipponica 32 [2] [Summer 1977]: 125, 127, 137-138). Indeed, the Haisho zampitsu suggests that SokO was on the verge of bakufu appointment in 1651, when he was thirty, but that the sudden death of the shogun, lemitsu, put an end to his prospects. Uenaka states that Soko's "greatest ambition in life was to become a direct retainer of the bakufu."




22 - Ng, The I Ching in Tokugawa Thought and Culture, p. 209, explains that it "avoid[s] narrowly defining the text [Yijing] as a purely Confucian classic, but see[s] it, rather, as a textual tradition and metaphysical system representing different aspects of Chinese culture." No doubt the Yijing is a seminal work capable of multiple interpretations. However, that Ng feels obliged to announce his broader perspective on the Yijing rather than seeing it as a "purely Con- fucian classic" suggests the extent to which the text is first and foremost a Confucian, more specifically Neo-Confucian, text.

23 - All citations are to the YSZ, vol. 13, ed. Hirose (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1940). For the yomikudashi version of the Chhch6 jijitsu, see pp. 7-224; the punctuated kanbun text is found on pp. 225-375. The YSZ text is based on Sokd's manuscript, written in 1669, when he was forty-eight, preserved by the Yamaga family in Hirado. In his Nenpu, Sok6 referred to the Chhcho jijitsu as the Cho- ch6 jitsuroku, apparently another name for it. Ten years after he wrote it, in 1678, Sok6 punctuated the text and gave the new manuscript to his disciple, Lord Matsuura of Tsugaru domain. In 1681, when Soko was sixty, the text was published by the Tsugaru daimyo. The latter was the only Tokugawa edition of the Chhoch6 jijitsu.

24 - Yamaga Soki, Chochi jijitsu, YSZ, 13: 7 (226).

25 - Sok6, Gengen hakki genkai, YSZ, 14:446.

26 - Ibid., p. 455. The annotation suggests that this should read Kuni-no-toko- tachi-no-mikoto. Thus, even when Soko refers to a deity in this text he does so without using the proper name.

27- Ibid.

28 - Gengen hakki genkai, pp. 448, 446-449. Hakki alludes to the Xizi (Appended judgments) commentary on the Yijing (Hong Ye et al., eds., Zhou Yi yinde [Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1986], p. 41). There the commentary states that words and actions are the "hinges and springs" (Chin: ji; Jpn: ki) of the refined person (junzi), and that honor and disgrace depend on them. Ear- lier, this section of the Xizi explained the creation of the Yijing as the result of sages surveying all under heaven and then representing symbolically what they had perceived. The text advises those who study the Yijing to consider its advice before speaking and acting. This allusion is significant because of its prominence in the title to Soko's text, and because it was likely meant to indi- cate the origins and significance of the Gengen hakki. Other such allusions to the Yijing, although less important, occur regularly in the Gengen hakki.

29 - SokO, Chocho jijitsu, YSZ, 13: 11-15 (229-232).

30 - Tahara, "Yamaga Soko no makoto," p. 5.

31 - Choch jijitsu, p. 11 (229).

32 - Gengen hakki genkai, p. 431.




33 - Gengen hakki, pp. 397-398.


35 - Chang Liwen, "An Analysis of Chu Hsi's System of Thought of I," in Chu Hsi and Neo-Confucianism, ed. Wing-tsit Chan (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1986), pp. 292-311. Chang suggests that Zhu Xi synthesized Shao Yong's interpretations based on forms and numbers with Cheng Yi's analyses based on rightness and principle "into a comprehensive whole." Also noteworthy is that Zhu Xi supposedly devised nine diagrams prefixed to his book, the Zhou yi benyi, to amplify the significance of the Yijing. Studies of Shao Yong include Anne D. Birdwhistell, Transition to Neo-Confucianism: Shao Yung on Knowl- edge and Symbols of Reality (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989), and Don J. Wyatt, The Recluse of Loyang: Shao Yung and the Moral Evolution of Early Sung Thought (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996).

36 - Gengen hakki, p. 398.

37 - ChOch6 jijitsu, pp. 252-254.


39 - Ibid.

40 - Genkai, p. 456.


42 - Genkai, pp. 458-459.

43 - Ibid., pp. 460-461.


45 - Genkai, pp. 461-462.


47 - Genkai, p. 463.


49 - Genkai, p. 464.

50 - Choch6 jijitsu, pp. 12, 14 (230-231). 51 - Genkai, p. 446.


53 - ChOcho jijitsu, pp. 32-43 (244-252).

54 - Ibid., pp. 67-90 (267-283).

55 - Gengen hakki, p. 399. 56 - Ibid.





58 - Maruyama, Nihon seiji shis6shi kenkyC, pp. 200-207; Hane, trans., Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, pp. 195-205; Tetsuo Najita, Visions of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan: The Kaitokud6 Merchant Academy of Osaka (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), p. 25.

59 - Wm. Theodore de Bary, "Introduction," The Rise of Neo-Confucianism in Korea, ed. de Bary and JaHyun Kim Haboush (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), pp. 7-23.

60 - Chang Liwen, "An Analysis of Chu Hsi's System of Thought of I," p. 293. For Zhu Xi's nine diagrams, see Tanaka Kybtaro, comp., Shueki hongi (Zhouyi benyi) (Taipei: Hualian Chubansha, 1976), pp. la-9b. Also see Wing-tsit Chan, "Analogies and Diagrams," in Chu Hsi: New Studies (Honolulu: Uni- versity of Hawai'i Press, 1989), pp. 271-292.

61 - Don J. Wyatt, The Recluse of Loyang, p. 3.

62 - Hori, Yamaga Sok6, p. 307.

63 - Ibid., p. 308.

64 - Nenpu, pp. 315-317. Sok6 recorded, on the third day of the first month, that he had had an "auspicious dream" (zuimu), and that he would record more about it later. The detailed description of the dream appears under the entry for the eleventh day of the same month. It is noteworthy that Soko recorded the dream on the "third day": late in his life he saw the "third day" as especially significant, since he had been sent into exile (10/3/1666) and pardoned (7/3/ 1675) on the "third day" of the relevant months. Sok6 seems to have imagined that important events for him would occur on the third day.

65 - Nenpu, p. 334; the dream was recorded on 5/21. 66 - Ibid., p. 402; recorded on 12/23. 67 - Ibid., p. 487; recorded on 3/28. 68 - The Gengen hakki, as a text, includes no explicit divination instructions, but,

then again, neither does the Yijing, although the latter was, according to Zhu Xi, primarily meant as a divination manual. If there was a means of using the Gengen hakki to divine matters, Soko made sure that it remained an esoteric aspect of the work. That he would do so makes sense, if one of his ulterior motives was to secure bakufu employment: if the divination methodology was laid bare for all to see, then there would have been no real need to employ the author of the text as opposed to another who had mastered the divinatory technique.

69 - H. D. Harootunian, Toward Restoration: The Growth of Political Consciousness in Tokugawa japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970), p. 21.

70 - Herman Ooms, Tokugawa Ideology: Early Constructs, 1570-1680 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), pp. 203-204.




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