A vehicle of social mobility: utilitarian factors in the rise of Neo-Confucianism in the early Tokugawa period

This dissertation explores the utilitarian aspects of the Neo-Confucianism’s rise in the early Tokugawa period. Neo-Confucianism was an important intellectual foundation for political leaders because it served as the cultural medium of Chinese civilization. Since the Kamakura period, Zen monks had monopolized access to Neo-Confucian scholarship to enjoy exclusive political patronage. However, Fujiwara Seika, a Neo-Confucian convert from Zen, changed this situation. He established a private school to train a younger generation of Neo-Confucianists in Kyoto. His school liberated the access to Neo-Confucianism from Zen Buddhism’s institutional grip and expanded the pool of Neo-Confucianism’s followers. Soon, the leaders of Tokugawa politics increased recruitment of Neo-Confucianists to the detriment of Zen monks since the shogunate’s hiring of Hayashi Razan. Some previous scholars have regarded this hiring wave as a sign of Neo-Confucianism’s ideological triumph over Buddhism in Tokugawa politics. However, this dissertation disputes that idea and suggests that Tokugawa leaders preferred Neo-Confucianists because they were more accessible, professional, and economically effective than Zen monks. Successful role models like Razan stimulated the mind of commoners and rōnin, both of whom had lost vehicles of social mobility after Hideyoshi’s separation of peasants and samurai. With the ambition to enhance their social status, commoners found Neo-Confucian scholarship a useful vehicle for social mobility, and these utilitarian motives spread the increasing preference of Neo-Confucianism throughout Tokugawa Japan society.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Park, Doyoung

Contributors dc:contributor

• Toby, Ronald P.
• Ruppert, Brian Douglas
• Koslofsky, Craig M.
• Chow, Kai-Wing

• Fujiwara Seika
• Hayashi Razan
• Japan
• Neo-Confucianism

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2013 Doyoung Park

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44255

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/44255