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Masao Maruyama’s Recognition of China Manifested in Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan
Journal of Humanities
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This paper is aimed at examining Masao Maruyama’s (丸山眞男, 1914∼1996) recognition of China manifested in Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, which was published in 1952. The book is composed of three papers written by Masao Maruyama himself from 1940 to 1944. This paper examines Maruyama’s own point of view on China from the following four perspectives: 1) a deductive approach; 2) a stance of Hegelianism; 3) a research method from the viewpoint of social science; and 4) the rhetoric of ‘datemae(建前)’, and inquires into his perception of China: 1) ‘a nation in early years’; 2) ‘continuing empire’; 3) ‘a country repeating collapse’; and 4) China being ruined again. Maruyama’s theory on China, influenced by Hegel, is ultimately based on historical determinism reflecting the current situation and also on the eschatological theory of historic development. It is the same argument that the Asian countries except Japan have a natural defect of being incɑpɑble of accomplishing modernization. His thought is no better than determinism that the countries are naturally colonized by other nations, are troubled by the civil war, and are only waiting for the grim future. Maruyama paid attention to Ogyu Sorai’s thought and understood the separation between politics and morality as a bud of modernity in Sorai-gaku or Sorai-Learning. However, in fact, other scholars in those days of Japan such as Neo-Confucian scholars still emphasized the Confucian morals. Maruyama criticized familism of Confucianism, and comprehended all the Confucian thoughts as a unworthy one. He after all denied the advantages of universal morals and ethics in the thoughts of Confucianism. The paper also examines that Maruyama’s recognition of China involves these aspects.
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