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[[File:Hakuseki-korea.JPG|right|thumb|400px|A portrait of Hakuseki by [[Tsubaki Chinzan]], National Museum of Korea]]
*''Born: [[1657]]/2/10''
*''Born: [[1657]]/2/10''
*''Died: [[1725]]/6/29''
*''Died: [[1725]]/6/29''
*''Titles: Chikugo-no-kami''
*''Titles: Chikugo-no-kami''
*''Other Names'': 源君美 ''(Minamoto Kinmi)''
*''Other Names'': 源君美 ''(Minamoto Kinmi)''
*''Japanese'': 新井白石 ''(Arai Hakuseki)''
*''Japanese'': [[新井]]白石 ''(Arai Hakuseki)''
Arai Hakuseki was a [[Confucianism|Confucian scholar]] and influential shogunal advisor of the [[Genroku period]] (late 17th to early 18th centuries). He was chief advisor under [[Tokugawa Ienobu]], but retired when Ienobu was succeeded as shogun by [[Tokugawa Yoshimune]].
Arai Hakuseki was a [[Confucianism|Confucian scholar]] and influential shogunal advisor of the early 1700s. Though he never held an official position within the [[Tokugawa shogunate]], he was granted higher rank and status than any other Confucian scholar of the entire [[Edo period]], outside of members of the [[Hayashi family]], and was permitted to exercise considerable influence within his role as advisor and tutor to the shogun. Hakuseki served as chief advisor to [[Tokugawa Ienobu]] (r. [[1709]]-[[1712]]), but lost his influential position when Ienobu's successor [[Tokugawa Ietsugu]] died in [[1716]] and was succeeded as shogun by [[Tokugawa Yoshimune]].
==Life & Career==
==Life & Career==
He was the grandson of [[Arai Kageyu]] (d. [[1609]]); his father was ''[[metsuke]]'' [[Arai Masanari]] ([[1601]]-[[1682]]), and his mother, a daughter of the [[Fujiwara clan]] by the surname Sakai ([[1617]]-[[1678]]).
He was the grandson of [[Arai Kageyu]] (d. [[1609]]); his father was ''[[metsuke]]'' and [[Tsuchiya clan]] retainer [[Arai Masanari]] ([[1601]]-[[1682]]), and his mother, a daughter of the [[Fujiwara clan]] by the surname Sakai ([[1617]]-[[1678]]). Born in [[Kururi domain]] (centered at what is today Kimizu, [[Chiba prefecture]], he was named Kinmi by his parents, and only took on the scholarly pseudonym Hakuseki later, as an adult.
A copy of [[Nakae Toju|Nakae Tôjû's]] book ''Okina mondô'' ("Discussion with an Old Man") is said to have been the key inspiration for sparking Kinmi's interest in [[Neo-Confucianism]] when he was around 17 years of age. Finding the subject compelling, he began studying [[Zhu Xi]]-style Neo-Confucianism more extensively.
Around the age of 21, the young Hakuseki and his father were expelled from their home [[han|domain]] as the result of some political dispute or scandal. Stripped of the support of their former lords, he then devoted himself all the more deeply to his studies, partially perhaps in the hope of attracting another lord to take him into his service.
Hakuseki was granted court rank in 1709, and was named Chikugo-no-kami in 1711.
Hakuseki entered the service of the [[Hotta clan]] in [[1682]], at the age of 26, and that same year met with [[Korean embassies to Edo|envoys from Korea]], presenting them a collection of his poems, entitled ''Tôjô shishû''. Korean records show that they regarded Hakuseki as possessing "authentic [literary] talent," but that "his personality is more distinguished than his verses."<ref> Lee Jeong Mi, "Cultural Expressions of Tokugawa Japan and Choson Korea: An Analysis of the Korean Embassies in the Eighteenth Century," PhD dissertation, University of Toronto (2008), 94.</ref>
Hakuseki later married a daughter of [[Asakura Nagaharu]], another Hotta retainer. His first daughter, Shizu, was born in [[1687]], but died in infancy, possibly at birth. His second daughter, Kiyo, was born in [[1689]]. Hakuseki's first son, [[Arai Akinori]], was born in [[1691]]; Hakuseki resigned from his service to the Hotta earlier that year,<ref>Ackroyd, 283n82.</ref> and moved to a farm at Honjô, in [[Edo]], near the banks of the [[Sumidagawa]].<ref>Ackroyd, 284n86.</ref> Meanwhile, around this same time, he studied under noted Confucian scholar [[Kinoshita Jun'an]]. Beginning in [[1693]], he then served as an advisor to Tokugawa Tsunatoyo, lord of [[Kofu han|Kôfu han]], remaining his advisor as Tsunatoyo became Shogun Tokugawa Ienobu in [[1709]]. Hakuseki enjoyed considerable power and political influence as a result of his close relationship with Ienobu; the shogun was willing to support the implementation of many of Hakuseki's proposals, with little question or challenge. This earned Hakuseki his share of antagonism, however, from other shogunate elites, such as ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' [[Tsuchiya Masanao]], who resented Hakuseki's power, and the ease with which Hakuseki was able to have his ideas implemented.<ref>Lee Jeong Mi, 100.</ref>
Hakuseki was granted ''[[hatamoto]]'' status, a [[stipend]] of one thousand ''[[koku]]''', and the [[court rank]] of Lower Junior Fifth Rank in 1709,<ref>Kate Wildman Nakai, ''Shogunal Politics: Arai Hakuseki and the Premises of Tokugawa Rule'', Harvard East Asian Monographs (1988), 200.</ref> and was named ''Chikugo-no-kami'' in 1711. After Tokugawa Yoshimune became shogun in [[1716]], however, bringing his own circle of advisors and confidants, Hakuseki fell out of influence and prominence. He died in [[1725]] at the age of 69.
==Policies==
==Policies==
Hakuseki espoused a philosophical approach he called ''kakubutsu'', which advocated taking nothing for granted (e.g. practices performed simply according to precedent), but instead carefully examining and considering the origins or reasons for everything. He also believed that [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] had intended to establish a new system of rites (or etiquette, J: ''[[li (rites)|rei]]''), as proper Confucian rulers of a new regime were meant to do, and that Ieyasu's death before implementing such a system was a key reason underlying a number of the shogunate's difficulties, including the fact that several shoguns had by that time already died without siring a direct (biological) heir, causing the shogunal lineage to deviate from a more strictly direct father-to-son line of descent. Hakuseki wrote that now, a century later (i.e. in the 1710s), it was time for such a system of rites to be put into place. Thus, with these as his guiding beliefs, Hakuseki suggested or authored numerous policy reforms.
In his capacity as chief Confucian advisor in the court, Hakuseki played a key role in proposing [[year dates|era names]], and crafted the era name Shôtoku ("correctness and virtue") in 1711 to correspond with Shogun Tokugawa Ienobu's reign. He also initiated and oversaw a revision of the ''[[Buke shohatto]]'', the various laws of the military houses (i.e. the samurai clans), as well as composing a line-by-line commentary on this revision, entitled ''Shinrei kukai''. Hakuseki also attended the 1709 investiture ceremony of Tokugawa Ienobu (as representatives of the [[Imperial Court]] came to [[Edo]] and formally named Ienobu "[[Shogun]]" in the name of the [[Emperor]]), and the accession and [[genpuku|coming-of-age]] ceremonies of [[Emperor Nakamikado]] in 1710 and 1711 respectively, and having witnessed the forms of these rituals, suggested or authored numerous changes to ritual protocols, including new guidelines for the shogun's dress and behavior when visiting the Confucian temple & academy at the [[Yushima Seido|Yushima Seidô]], and a revision of court dress for ''daimyô'' and ''hatamoto'', based on his attitudes and expertise in Confucian political philosophy.
Hakuseki was particularly influential in effecting a shift in [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogunate]] attitudes and policies regarding foreign relations, articulating the conceptual meaning and discursive value for the shogunate's legitimacy of conceptualizing foreign relations with [[Joseon Dynasty]] Korea and the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] in terms of a [[tribute|tributary]] relationship patterned after the [[Sinocentric world order|Sinocentric worldview]]. In much of his writings and policy advice, he emphasized shogunal authority over the authority or autonomy of the ''daimyô'', and similarly avoided rhetoric of Imperial authority, though without overtly opposing or denying it.<ref>[[Mark Ravina]], ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan'', Stanford University Press (1999), 25, 42.</ref>
Hakuseki was particularly influential in effecting a shift in [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogunate]] attitudes and policies regarding foreign relations, articulating the conceptual meaning and discursive value for the shogunate's legitimacy of conceptualizing foreign relations with [[Joseon Dynasty]] Korea and the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] in terms of a [[tribute|tributary]] relationship patterned after the [[Sinocentric world order|Sinocentric worldview]]. In much of his writings and policy advice, he emphasized shogunal authority over the authority or autonomy of the ''daimyô'', and similarly avoided rhetoric of Imperial authority, though without overtly opposing or denying it.<ref>[[Mark Ravina]], ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan'', Stanford University Press (1999), 25, 42.</ref>
==Selected Works==
==Selected Works==
*''Hankanpu'' 藩翰譜 (1702)
*''Hankanpu'' 藩翰譜 (a history of ''daimyô'' houses, 1702)
*''Tokushi yoron'' 読史余論 (1712)
*''[[Tokushi yoron]]'' 読史余論 (a political history of Japan, 1712)
*''Sairan igen'' 采覧異言 (1713)
*''[[Sairan igen]]'' 采覧異言 (a five-volume work on world geography, 1713)
*''Seiyô kibun'' 西洋記聞 (1715)
*''Seiyô kibun'' 西洋記聞 (a record of conversations with the missionary Giovanni Battista Sidotti, 1715)
*''[[Nantoshi|Nantôshi]]'' 南島志 (1719)
*''[[Nantoshi|Nantôshi]]'' 南島志 (a volume about the [[Ryukyu Islands|Ryûkyû Islands]], 1719)
*''Ezo shi'' 蝦夷史 ("History of [[Ezo]]", 1720)
*''[[Ezo shi]]'' 蝦夷志 ("History of [[Ezo]]", 1720)
*''[[Koshitsu (Hakuseki)|Kôshitsu]]'' 皇室 and ''Kôshitsu wakumon'' 皇室或問 (a pair of works on the Imperial lineage and ancient Japanese myth/history)
==References==
==References==
*Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), ''Told Round a Brushwood Fire'', University of Tokyo Press (1979), 279-308.
*Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), ''Told Round a Brushwood Fire'', University of Tokyo Press (1979), 279-308.
*Watanabe Hiroshi, ''A History of Japanese Political Thought, 1600-1901'', International House of Japan (2012), 137-158.
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[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]
