Title

Ito Family Scholarship on the Guwen shangshu during the Edo Period: A Comparison of Chinese and Japanese Views

Author

Tsao Mei-hsiu

Genre

Article

Pages

37-77

DOI

10.6503/THJCS.202303_53(1).0002

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

Japan, Edo period, Ito family, Shangshu 尚書, Guwen 古文

Abstract

In this article, I examine the interpretation of the Guwen shangshu 古文尚書 advanced by the Ito family members Jinsai, Togai and Langu in an effort to better understand this aspect of the Ito family’s scholarship. Ito Jinsai was the first to realize, and attempt to demonstrate, that the Guwen shangshu might be a potential forgery. On the basis of their father’s scholarship, Jinsai’s two sons, Togai and Langu, then expanded upon his research into this matter. The first step in studying the history of Japanese criticism of the Guwen shangshu is thus to probe the Ito family’s work on the text. In this article, I moreover compare the Ito family’s views on the Guwen shangshu with similar studies in China in order to better understand what was innovative in the Ito family’s scholarship. In so doing, the article also provides a new perspective on Chinese Shangshu study.