三輪執斎と陽明学の日本への広がりMiwa Shissai and the Spread of Yangming Thought in Japan

Miwa Shissai, a Confucian scholar of the Edo period, was the figure who first tilled the soil for the spirit of the Ming dynasty philosopher Wang Yangming to take root in Japan. He was active a full century after the Tokugawa Shogunate, established in the new era of 1603, had adopted the Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi as the orthodox philosophy of its regime. A genius of precocious insight, Shissai discerned the limitations of Zhu Xi’s doctrine while still in his early twenties. He foresaw that if the Shogunate continued to career blindly down the path of this singular orthodoxy, governance would eventually destabilize, anxiety would shake the hearts of the people, and anti-regime movements would inevitably rise. Thus, Shissai judged that Wang Yangming’s philosophy—Yangmingism—would not spread in his own time. Instead, he poured his life into laying the cornerstone of this teaching for a future yet to come. Without his solitary labor, Wang Yangming would never have been loved in Japan with such fervor—perhaps even more so than in China, the very cradle of Confucianism.

In times of tranquility, the mindless expansion of knowledge is lauded by the masses; this is a constant across all eras. Our contemporary age is no exception. This doctrine of meaningless knowledge-capitalism, riding the great tides of globalization since the 1990s, has spread to a planetary scale. The result is a state of affairs where those who know nothing, armed with knowledge expanded to no purpose, have come to possess the voice of the intellectual. Because these vacuous voices possess a high compatibility with mass media and social networks, they are diffused instantly. As we approach 2026, we stand amidst a century symbolized by the crude, the haphazard, and the mass-produced.

In the void where meaningless voices echo, everything is inverted. Here, those who say nothing are enabled to amass wealth, and those who do nothing acquire social status. Thus, saying nothing becomes saying something, and doing nothing becomes the act of doing something. When these inverted individuals—agents of a reverse reaction—gain international influence, they naturally know they are devoid of true knowledge. Consequently, they form factions with their own kind, constructing a world solely for the preservation of their social standing and the maintenance of exorbitant salaries they do not deserve. How long do we humans intend to participate in this farcical performance?

The time has come to strangle the breath of this current. Ozu Yasujiro, the director who steered early post-war Japanese cinema, had experienced the catastrophic runaway train of the Army during the Second World War. In his films, through the dialogue of his characters, he offered a critique: while the experience of defeat was bitter, it was "still better than wartime, if only because the idiots aren't bossing us around anymore." The situation is now identical on a global scale. Idiots are bossing us around, and—crucially—they cannot solve a single problem. Or rather, these fools, lacking the capacity for resolution, parasitize the system and refuse change solely to maintain their status and income. As a result, the lives of the multitude are threatened and sacrificed.

Whenever I witness this ridiculous spectacle of fools gathering to act out their plays on the world stage, I am reminded of a critical concept expounded by Wang Yangming.

Wang Yangming advocated the concept of Bappon Sokugen [抜本塞源]. This is a scathing critique of a society and people who seek only superficial knowledge from the outside while losing sight of the essence. Yet, the vital point is his perspective that the hope for the light inherent in humanity is never extinguished. Through this theory, Wang Yangming unfolds a poignant critique against the reality where knowledge is utilized as a tool for evil. Because this mirrors our modern era exactly, I shall articulate it from my own vantage point, translating it into a modern context for the reader.

Today, the act of memorizing and reciting scriptures—which are the concentrated wisdom of our predecessors and the very source of knowledge—is no longer done to introspect, to design the world from within, or to save others. The purpose has inverted: it is now to look down upon others, to swagger as if one is superior. The memorization has become "knowledge" solely to satisfy the desire for self-approval. In such a society, the meaning of possessing abundant knowledge collapses; it creates a state where knowledge is abused as cunning wisdom to commit misdeeds and skillfully conceal them. We perceive knowledge as a shield against being deceived, yet when inverted, one acquires knowledge specifically to deceive others. The entity actively promoting this mechanism is the university system on a global scale.

Furthermore, pride in one’s broad observation and experience is no longer used to apply that experience toward the betterment of the world. It is restricted to the use of skillful, lip-service eloquence merely to realize the individual’s selfish desires. Speech is performed already for the sole purpose of self-validation, with no thought given to those who listen. Such speech possesses no power to illuminate the unseen problems of the human heart, let alone guide anyone. What it guides toward is always a futureless future, encouraging nothing but the explosion of raw emotion. Their oratory is nothing more than a competition of superiority based on social evaluations constructed by dopamine addicts seeking only follower counts and subscription numbers. Therefore, in truth, they are doing nothing and saying nothing. If one were to watch their speeches on YouTube with the sound muted, it would become self-evident that they are speaking of nothing.

Similarly, writing ability is used only to beautify and deceive, concealing the fact that the writer understands nothing—a tool for lies and obfuscation. The fool, unable to see the signifier, does not know that the signified surfaces only because signifiers are linked. Hence, they do not know that truth is not something already present, but something that must be produced. They disguise the decoration of the signified as literary prowess, creating a world where understanding nothing is equated with understanding something. Consequently, such writing functions as a magnet for other fools—those who also understand nothing but whose pride will not permit them to admit it, gathering together to reassure themselves that they are knowledgeable. Thus, when a person of heart points out, "They are saying nothing," these multitudes, having devoted their lives to using knowledge for self-protection, launch a collective assault on the single individual speaking the truth.

Humans possess, by nature, their own grounding and their own aptitude. It is only by living in accordance with this aptitude that a human being can concentrate on and fulfill their brief life. As everyone senses, for those who live in earnest, this life is far too short. Therefore, to fulfill this fleeting existence, there is no other way but to live out one’s aptitude with total commitment. Nay, the infinite continuation and inheritance of individuals living earnestly according to their aptitude is the only method for the development of civilization, or indeed, the development of the human species. Humanity has pushed forward with this for a vast stretch of time. On the other hand, history proves that when this aptitude is ignored out of selfish desire, civilization inevitably crumbles. We are currently in this very transition. Such a civilization will surely vanish without a trace.

It is often misunderstood, but the predecessors spoken of as "Saints" in Confucianism were not Saints because they were omnipotent polymaths. This applies not only to Confucianism but to all figures revered as Saints across the globe. The tendency to view the Saint as a Superman, worshipping them for being all-powerful and all-knowing, is a complete misreading, yet it is most extreme in the modern era.

Even the Saints of old could not possess all attributes within a single body. More to the point, a single person never changed the world alone. For instance, in the legendary reign of Emperor Shun [舜]—a standard of excellence in Confucianism—Wang Yangming cites the story of the four sages who served him: Gaoyao [皐陶], who presided over justice; Kui [夔], who presided over music and rites; Houji [后稷], who presided over agriculture; and Xie [契], who presided over education. They did not feel shame for their specific official duties, nor did they envy the duties of others; they simply fulfilled what they were meant to do. Thus, Wang Yangming considers this an era where everyone could fulfill their lives.

Justice requires the aptitude for fair judgment and maintaining social order. Music and rites require the aptitude to soften hearts and conduct ceremonies for the divine and ancestors. Agriculture requires the practical aptitude to teach farming, secure food, and support the foundation of life. Education requires the aptitude of a mentor to teach ethics and nurture virtue.

In other words, the ancient Saints fulfilled their lives by dedicating themselves to roles aligned with their nature—"I am a professional of agriculture (Houji)," or "I am a professional of music (Kui)." Therefore, it was neither a shame nor an inferiority for Houji to know nothing of music, or for Kui to be ignorant of agriculture. Rather, following one's own aptitude to fulfill one's life was what was most revered in ancient times. Modern people, however, labor under the delusion that their pride will be wounded unless they broadcast that "I know everything about justice, music, agriculture, and education." They behave as if they are omniscient. To Wang Yangming, this is not a deep understanding of knowledge, but merely the gathering of external information as material to decorate oneself, to advance in career, and to satisfy desire. Even the great sages of old never combined all roles in one person. Why, then, do the youth of today behave as if they know everything, boasting of the quantity of their knowledge?

It is because the heart is ruled by private greed. It is common knowledge among us now that the volume of knowledge is not proportional to character. Moreover, their "knowledge" derives merely from the academic—a structure that, while robustly built, is a fossilized remnant of the past that had already finished its role by the late 20th century. To "know" something via the internet or social media is not to know; it is merely to damage the aspiration to know.

One need only look around to see it clearly: whether in difficult professions or otherwise, novices in the modern age speak as if they have mastered theory and behave as if they have acquired technique, believing arbitrarily that they will be thought fools if they do not. Few realize that this figure is the very height of human absurdity—the definition of the fool. What a miserable spectacle forms this knowledge, and these intellectuals. They mouth platitudes like "it is for the world and for people," but one peek into their true hearts reveals something utterly hideous. The reality is that non-humans, who cannot satisfy their desires or achieve their goals without brandishing knowledge, are the ones bossing others around.

So long as these bad habits, base instincts, and superficial, meaningless scholarship—accumulated over years—infest society under a guise of legitimacy, it is natural that no matter how one preaches the "Teachings of the Saints" like Wang Yangming, the self-proclaimed intellectuals and elites will aggressively cut them down. They will say with an omniscient air, "Such old knowledge is useless in the complex modern age." They deceive by claiming, "The pure wisdom inherent in humans is insufficient to survive this world," and loudly assert, "The scholarship of the Saints is not practical." By shouting loudly, they claim to have said something; by exposing their emotions, they increase view counts and feign that they are speaking the truth. Speech made from such a safety zone—where the outcome is pre-guaranteed—symbolizes that they have mastered only the technique of using knowledge for fraud. Given the flow of this era, such decline is the inevitable conclusion. Indeed, the stratum that believes this to be "the world" likely occupies 99% of humanity. Yet, even if less than 1%, there are people of heart who understand, however faintly, that this direction is wrong.

In such a turbid age, how can one seek true learning? How can one speak the way of the Saints? Wang Yangming frequently expressed this anguish in his heart. It is truly sorrowful that the fact remains unchanged throughout history: aspiring to true learning in the present age is agonizingly difficult, obstacles lie everywhere, and speaking the truth is dangerous. Even now, intellectuals devote themselves to wasting humanity’s precious time and destabilizing the world by boldly saying nothing. How long will this charade—where only their pay slips increase—continue?

Did Wang Yangming, then, in that desperate situation, give up on everything? No. Had he succumbed to despair, he would have been no different from the fools, separated only by a paper-thin margin. But Wang Yangming survived through it. He did so because he believed that no matter the era, the universal truth he called "Heaven's Principle [天理]” would never vanish from the human heart. He proposed the concept of Bappon Sokugen [抜本塞源]—“uprooting the root of evil, blocking the source of selfish desire [悪の根源を抜き、私欲の源を塞ぐ].” He lived out his grueling life with the resolution that if this theory were heard, there would surely be those who would be moved from the bottom of their hearts, who would grieve for the present, and who would rise up. He believed without doubt that this momentum would become like the torrent of a great river breaking a levee, unstoppable by anyone.

Reflecting on Wang Yangming’s life and his core concept of Bappon Sokugen, the modern age we inhabit is exactly the same. The true meaning of Bappon Sokugen is twofold: one is a warning against the hypertrophy of knowledge, and the other is a return to essence. For as knowledge increases, everyone begins to use it for the purpose of arming their self-justification, distancing themselves from the original pure heart, and finally beginning to live a life that ignores the natural aptitude granted to each of them. Once that happens, it is the end. A life ignoring aptitude inevitably invites malfunction; even if life improves temporarily, viewed long-term, it will invert, leading to a predicament one cannot solve alone, and one will be swiftly weeded out.

Modern society is filled with people who ignore their aptitude, convinced that knowing everything makes them competent. While this may be correct for those who actually possess such an aptitude, it is not something to be imitated by those who do not. Aptitudes are as numerous as people; therefore, discipline is required to first perform introspection to know that aptitude, to determine it, and to discover how to live. To ignore this and cheaply seek an aptitude is out of the question. No matter the situation, even in misfortune where others might mock you, if you believe it is something you must truly achieve, then fulfilling that is life itself. If you run away because of your own selfish desires, useless pride, social criticism, or the evaluation of others, that is no longer a life. Cramming in external knowledge is meaningless, and no matter how much external knowledge is accumulated, it cannot save society. Everyone must first uproot the poison of selfish desire at the root of the heart, and let the pure life spring forth; this is the only way to truly save society with one's own ability.