Ogyū Sorai

21 March 1666 – 28 February 1728

Ogyū Sorai was a Japanese Confucian scholar of the Edo period and the most influential thinker of Tokugawa Japan's Ancient Learning (kogaku) movement. Rejecting Song Neo-Confucian interpretations, he insisted on reading the Chinese classics in their original ancient language and applied his ideas to statecraft as an adviser connected to the shogunate.

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Life events

Born in Edo
21 March 1666

Ogyū Sorai was born in Edo (modern Tokyo), the son of a physician who served Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, then lord of Tatebayashi.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Exiled with his family to rural Kazusa province
1679

When his father was banished from Edo in 1679, the family moved to a village in Kazusa, where Sorai spent formative years in self-directed study of Chinese texts.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Returned to Edo after his father's pardon
1692

The family's exile ended in 1692 and Sorai returned to Edo, where he began teaching Chinese studies near the Zōjō-ji temple.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Entered the service of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu
1696

In 1696 he was employed as a Confucian scholar by Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, the powerful adviser to shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, giving him access to high political circles.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Established his own private academy in Edo
1709

After Tsunayoshi's death in 1709 ended Yanagisawa's power, Sorai opened his own school, the Ken'en academy, which attracted many talented students.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Developed the Ancient Learning method of reading the classics
c. 1710

Influenced by the Chinese Ancient Rhetoric school, he argued that the Confucian Way could only be recovered by mastering the ancient Chinese language of the original texts, breaking with Zhu Xi orthodoxy.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Wrote his major philosophical works Bendō and Benmei
c. 1717

In these treatises, Distinguishing the Way and Distinguishing Names, he presented the Way as the creation of the ancient sage kings rather than a principle inherent in nature.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Advised shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune and wrote the Seidan
c. 1727

Late in life he responded to the shogun Yoshimune's inquiries with his Discourse on Government (Seidan), a wide-ranging proposal for political and economic reform.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in Edo
28 February 1728

Ogyū Sorai died in Edo and was buried at the Chōshō-ji temple; his school continued to dominate Japanese Confucian scholarship for decades.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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