Abstract

This book treats the works, thought, and influence of Ogyū Sorai, who is possibly the best known and most researched Confucian scholar of Japan, and whose major works – Bendō, Benmei, Seidan – are available in English translations. In his own times, he was one of the more controversial, but also one of the most important Confucians. The present volume is intended for interested academics – not only Japan specialists, but also those who are interested in Chinese and Korean thought, or in the comparative history of thought or philosophy. It approaches Sorai in two different ways: one the one hand, it gives descriptive analyses of Sorai’s major works, and on the other, it offers studies of his life, thought, and reception in Japan and the other two countries of the Far East.