Kumazawa Banzan: Governing the Realm and Bringing Peace to All below Heaven

A new translation of Kumazawa Banzan's (1619-1691) Responding to the Great Learning, the first major writing on political economy in early modern Japan.

Kumazawa Banzan (Author), John A. Tucker (Edited and translated by)

9781108425018, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 November 2020

224 pages
22.2 x 14.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.38 kg

Kumazawa Banzan's (1619-1691) Responding to the Great Learning (Daigaku wakumon) stands as the first major writing on political economy in early modern Japanese history. John A. Tucker's translation is the first English rendition of this controversial text to be published in eighty years. The introduction offers an accessible and incisive commentary, including detailed analyses of Banzan's text within the context of his life, as well as broader historical and intellectual developments in East Asian Confucian thought. Emphasizing parallels between Banzan's life events, such as his relief efforts in the Okayama domain following devastating flooding, and his later writings advocating compassionate government, environmental initiatives, and projects for growing wealth, Tucker sheds light on Banzan's main objective of 'governing the realm and bringing peace and prosperity to all below heaven'. In Responding to the Great Learning, Banzan was doing more than writing a philosophical commentary, he was advising the Tokugawa shogunate to undertake a major reorganization of the polity - or face the consequences.

Introduction
Part I: 1. The heaven-decreed duty of the people's ruler
2. The heaven-decreed duty of the people's ministers
3. Revering good counsel
4. A grand project for growing wealth
5. Eliminating anxieties over flooding and relieving droughts
6. Preparing for northern barbarians, emergencies, and bad harvests
7. Filling Shogunal coffers with gold, silver, rice, and grain
8. Eliminating debt from the realm below heaven
9. Helping R?nin, vagrants, the unemployed, and the impoverished
10. Making mountains luxuriant and rivers run deep
Part II: 11. The ebb and flow of the ruler's blessings
12. Returning to the old farmer-Samurai society
13. Eliminating landless income and increasing new fiefs
14. Lowering the cost of foreign silk and textiles
15. Eliminating Christianity
16. Reviving Buddhism
17. Reviving Shint?
18. Worthy rulers reviving Japan
19. Governing with education
20. Those who should teach in our schools
21..A little kindness provides benefits
22. Wasted rice and grain
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Confucianism [HRKN1], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Oriental & Indian philosophy [HPDF], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH]