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Asami Keisai was a student of [[Yamazaki Ansai]], and scholar of the [[Kimon school]] of thought. He is perhaps best known for his ''Chûgoku ben'' ("On Defining Middle Kingdom Civilization"), written in [[1701]].
Asami Keisai was a student of [[Yamazaki Ansai]], and scholar of the [[Kimon school]] of thought. He is perhaps best known for his ''Chûgoku ben'' ("On Defining Middle Kingdom Civilization"), written in [[1701]].
Originally from [[Omi province|Ômi province]], Asami joined Yamazaki Ansai, and became one of the top three figures in Yamazaki's Kimon school. He was later expelled from the group, however.<ref>Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Kei, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," ''Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô'' 31 (2006), 228.</ref>
In his writings, Keisai challenges [[Sinocentric world order|the notion]] that China lies in the center of the world and occupies the majority of it, leaving places like Japan on the periphery. To the contrary, he argues, there are a great many countries/lands in the world, and several of them are tens the size of China; China does not even occupy one-hundredth the land area of the world. Thus, he posits, China should not be considered "central." He further suggests that each land be considered its own separate realm (''tenka'', "Under Heaven"), "defined by the extent to which its customs prevail. ... none is more noble or base than any other."<ref>Wakabayashi, 32.</ref> He suggested that just as the great [[Sage King]] [[Shun the Great|Shun]] could not help that he was born to a perverse father, but observed [[filial piety]] nevertheless as a devoted son, so too, though Japanese cannot help being born into a society that has never produced a Sage King, they too can observe devotedly the customs of their own land, and in this manner attain moral excellence.
In his writings, Keisai challenges [[Sinocentric world order|the notion]] that China lies in the center of the world and occupies the majority of it, leaving places like Japan on the periphery. To the contrary, he argues, there are a great many countries/lands in the world, and several of them are tens the size of China; China does not even occupy one-hundredth the land area of the world. Thus, he posits, China should not be considered "central." He further suggests that each land be considered its own separate realm (''tenka'', "Under Heaven"), "defined by the extent to which its customs prevail. ... none is more noble or base than any other."<ref>Wakabayashi, 32.</ref> He suggested that just as the great [[Sage King]] [[Shun the Great|Shun]] could not help that he was born to a perverse father, but observed [[filial piety]] nevertheless as a devoted son, so too, though Japanese cannot help being born into a society that has never produced a Sage King, they too can observe devotedly the customs of their own land, and in this manner attain moral excellence.