Hayashi Razan

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Hayashi Razan bigraphy, stories - Philosophers

Hayashi Razan : biography

1583 – March 7, 1657

, also known as Hayashi Dōshun,Ponsonby-Fane, Richard A.B. (1956). Kyoto: the Old Capital of Japan, 794-1869, p. 418. was a Japanese Neo-Confucian philosopher, serving as a tutor and an advisor to the first four shoguns of the Tokugawa bakufu. He is also attributed with first listing the Three Views of Japan. Razan was the founder of the Hayashi clan of Confucian scholars.

Razan was an influential scholar, teacher and administrator. Together with his sons and grandsons, he is credited with establishing the official neo-Confucian doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate. Razan’s emphasis on the values inherent in a static conservative perspective provided the intellectual underpinnings for the notion that Edo bakufu. Razan also reinterpreted Shinto, and thus created a foundation for the development of Confucianised Shinto which developed in the 20th century.

The intellectual foundation of Razan’s life’s work was based on early studies with Fujiwara Seika (1561–1619), the first Japanese scholar who is known for a close study of Confucius and the Confucian commentators. This kuge noble had become a Buddhist priest; but Seika’s dissatisfaction with the philosophy and doctrines of Buddhism led him to a study of Confucianism. In due course, Seika drew other similarly motivated scholars to join him in studies which were greatly influenced by the work of Chinese Neo-Confucianist Zhu Xi (or Chu Hsi), a Sung period savant.Ponsonby-Fane, R. (1956). Kyoto: the Old Capital of Japan, 794-1869, p. 418. Zhu Xi and Seikwa emphasized the role of the individual as a functionary of a society which naturally settles into a certain hierarchical form. He separated people into four distinct classes: samurai (ruling class), farmers, artisans and merchants.

Notes

Political Theorist

As a political theorist, Hayashi Daigaku-no-kami Razan lived to witness his philosophical and pragmatic reasoning become a foundation for the dominant ideology of the bakufu until the end of the 18th century. This evolution developed in part from Razan’s equating samurai with the cultured governing class (although the samurai were largely illiterate at the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate). Razan helped to legitimize the role of the militaristic bakufu at the beginning of its existence. His philosophy is also important in that it encouraged the samurai class to cultivate themselves, a trend which would become increasingly widespread over the course of his lifetime and beyond. Razan’s aphorism encapsulates this view:

"No true learning without arms and no true arms without learning."Blomberg, Catherina. (1999). The Heart of the Warrior, p. 158.

Hayashi Razan and his family would have played a significant role is helping to crystallize the theoretical underpinnings of the Tokugawa regime.

In January 1858, it would be Hayashi Akira, the hereditary Daigaku-no-kami descendant of Hayashi Razan who would head the bakufu delegation which sought advice from the emperor in deciding how to deal with newly assertive foreign powers.Cullen, L.M. (2003). A History of Japan, 1582-1941: Internal and External Worlds, p. 178 n11. This would have been the first time the Emperor’s counsel was actively sought since the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. The most easily identified consequence of this transitional overture would be the increased numbers of messengers which were constantly streaming back and forth between Tokyo and Kyoto during the next decade. There is no small irony in the fact that this 19th-century scholar/bureaucrat would find himself at a crucial nexus of managing political change—moving arguably "by the book" through uncharted waters with well-settled theories as the only guide.Ponsonby-Fane, p. 324.

Academician

Razan developed a practical blending of Shinto and Confucian beliefs and practices. This coherent construct of inter-related ideas lent themselves to a well-accepted program of samurai and bureaucrat educational, training and testing protocols. In 1607, Hayashi was accepted as a political adviser to the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada.