Itō Jinsai's Gomō Jigi and the Philosophical Definition of Early Modern Japan

This volume presents the first unabridged translation of Ito' Jinsai's (1627-1705) masterwork, the "Gomo jigi" (Philosophical Lexicography of the "Analects" and "Mencius," 1705), into any western language. The extensively annotated translation opens with a brief textual study of the "Gomo jigi" and an intellectual biography of Jinsai. While highlighting the Neo-Confucian text, the author suggests that the "Gomo jigi" espouses a systematic philosophical worldview for "chonin," or townspeople, living in the ancient imperial capital, Kyoto, even during an age of ascendant samurai power. The translation makes accessible to Western readers "one of the earliest texts of Tokugawa philosophy," Those interested in Chinese and East Asian philosophy will find it enlightening since the topics that Jinsai addresses are also "seminal" ones in those fields.