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Created page with "*''Born: 1738'' *''Died: 1793'' *''Japanese'': 林子平 ''(Hayashi Shihei)'' Hayashi Shihei was a ''Rangaku'' scholar and physician in the service of [[Senda..."
*''Born: [[1738]]''
*''Died: [[1793]]''
*''Japanese'': [[林]]子平 ''(Hayashi Shihei)''
Hayashi Shihei was a ''[[Rangaku]]'' scholar and physician in the service of [[Sendai han]], known for his writings on a variety of domestic and foreign affairs matters. He was of no direct relation to the [[Hayashi clan]] of [[Confucianism|Confucian scholars]] in service to the shogunate.
Shihei's ''[[Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu|Sangoku Tsûran Zusetsu]]'' (Illustrated General Survey of Three Countries), completed in [[1785]], provides descriptions of [[Ezo]], [[Joseon|Korea]], and [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû]], the three lands nearest Japan. The text has been described as "the first attempt to define Japan's position in relation to its neighbors."<ref>Tessa Morris-Suzuki, ''Re-Inventing Japan: Time, Space, Nation'', M.E. Sharpe (1998), 23.</ref> Maps included in the publication are perhaps the first to show the islands of Japan all in one color, and lands associated with other polities or cultures in other colors, implying a proto-national(ist) understanding of Japan as a single, unified, political or cultural entity.
In [[1792]], Shihei was placed under house arrest, and the [[printing and publishing|printing blocks]] for his books ''[[Kaikoku Heidan]]'' (Military Discussion of Maritime Nations) and ''[[Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu|Sangoku Tsûran Zusetsu]]'' (Illustrated General Survey of Three Countries) were seized and destroyed. Maps were seen by he shogunate as matters of national secrecy, and similarly, discussions of military matters were sometimes seen as fomenting political dissension, by criticizing the shogunate's foreign policy, or suggesting better ways to do things. Shihei's arrest may have also been spurred in part by critiques of his works made by [[Furukawa Koshoken|Furukawa Koshôken]] to the ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' [[Matsudaira Sadanobu]].
He died the following year.
==Selected Works==
*''[[Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu|Sangoku Tsûran Zusetsu]]'' (Illustrated General Survey of Three Countries, 1785)
*''[[Kaikoku Heidan]]'' (Military Discussion of Maritime Nations, 1786)
{{stub}}
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
*''Died: [[1793]]''
*''Japanese'': [[林]]子平 ''(Hayashi Shihei)''
Hayashi Shihei was a ''[[Rangaku]]'' scholar and physician in the service of [[Sendai han]], known for his writings on a variety of domestic and foreign affairs matters. He was of no direct relation to the [[Hayashi clan]] of [[Confucianism|Confucian scholars]] in service to the shogunate.
Shihei's ''[[Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu|Sangoku Tsûran Zusetsu]]'' (Illustrated General Survey of Three Countries), completed in [[1785]], provides descriptions of [[Ezo]], [[Joseon|Korea]], and [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû]], the three lands nearest Japan. The text has been described as "the first attempt to define Japan's position in relation to its neighbors."<ref>Tessa Morris-Suzuki, ''Re-Inventing Japan: Time, Space, Nation'', M.E. Sharpe (1998), 23.</ref> Maps included in the publication are perhaps the first to show the islands of Japan all in one color, and lands associated with other polities or cultures in other colors, implying a proto-national(ist) understanding of Japan as a single, unified, political or cultural entity.
In [[1792]], Shihei was placed under house arrest, and the [[printing and publishing|printing blocks]] for his books ''[[Kaikoku Heidan]]'' (Military Discussion of Maritime Nations) and ''[[Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu|Sangoku Tsûran Zusetsu]]'' (Illustrated General Survey of Three Countries) were seized and destroyed. Maps were seen by he shogunate as matters of national secrecy, and similarly, discussions of military matters were sometimes seen as fomenting political dissension, by criticizing the shogunate's foreign policy, or suggesting better ways to do things. Shihei's arrest may have also been spurred in part by critiques of his works made by [[Furukawa Koshoken|Furukawa Koshôken]] to the ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' [[Matsudaira Sadanobu]].
He died the following year.
==Selected Works==
*''[[Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu|Sangoku Tsûran Zusetsu]]'' (Illustrated General Survey of Three Countries, 1785)
*''[[Kaikoku Heidan]]'' (Military Discussion of Maritime Nations, 1786)
{{stub}}
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]