Seikyō yōroku 聖教要録 [Essentials of Confucianism]

27 folding leaves. Large 8vo (292 x 220 mm.), orig. semi-stiff wrappers (careful repairs), orig. title-slip, new stitching. [Japan]: Preface dated 1665.


First edition of this handsomely printed book. It is very rare, with no copy in WorldCat. This is an important publication: a short Confucian treatise, it was a pointed critique of the Neo-Confucian orthodoxy of Zhu Xi (1130-1200) and Lu Xiangshan (11381), then prevalent in Japan. Yamaga, the founder of the “School of Ancient Learning,” argued for a return to the original teachings of Confucius in order to establish correct governance and ethical behavior. This new thinking implicitly questioned contemporary official doctrines of the governing bakufu, who deemed the book offensive. Following its publication, Yamaga was arrested and exiled to Akō for nearly a decade, and the book was banned.


Peter Kornicki, in his chapter on censorship in The Book in Japan, writes about this book: “Another early case is that of Yamaga Sokō. In 1666 he was banished and placed under house arrest for writing [the present book], which had been published the preceding year. In this work he had been critical of the neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi, but precisely what the Bakufu found offensive is not clear. There are two aspects to this case that are significant. Firstly, in this instance the author was punished and not, as was usually the case, the publisher. This indicates that the problem was one of the authorship of views rather than of publication per se…Secondly, Seikyō yōroku had not contravened any known edicts and this case consequently demonstrates that the edicts were for guidance, and the Bakufu took action on individual cases as it saw fit” (p. 333).


Yamaga (1622-85), “was an immensely influential teacher; the forty-seven rōnin considered themselves followers of his strategy. Yamaga set himself the task of explaining the justice in a system in which one class, the samurai, lived on the labors of another, the farmers…


“He found that justification in the higher morality of the samurai’s calling. The work of the samurai, as he saw it, was to reflect on his station in life, give loyal service to his master, deepen his fidelity with his friends, and ‘devote himself to duty above all’…Yamaga Sokō’s was the most satisfactory exposition of these ideas, and from his time bushido, the ‘Way of the warrior,’ became a standard term…


“Yamaga Sokō re-arranged the basic Confucian virtues to Japanese advantage by grouping valor with knowledge and benevolence. From that perspective, he argued, it was Japan and not China that deserved designation as the ‘Central Country’.”–Marius B. Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan (Harvard: 2000), p. 203.


Yamaga’s teachings became the central core of bushido, which guided Japan’s military class throughout the Tokugawa period and to the end of World War II.


Occasional minor marginal worming, but a nice fresh copy. Preserved in a chitsu.