Confucius and Other Essays on China

Did Confucius praise Guan Zhong as benevolent, or acknowledge his political achievements while withholding that highest virtue? Kanō Naoki follows a disputed phrase through the Analects, its commentators and Yang Xiong’s Model Sayings, showing how a few characters can change an entire interpretation.

A lecture on studying China then challenges superficial expertise. Through encounters with scholars, libraries and institutions in Europe, Kanō argues for research grounded in language, history and the classics rather than borrowed assumptions. His account of national essence examines how Chinese educational and legal reform met efforts to preserve inherited morality, and how that response differed from Japan’s.

The final essay turns to a ninth-century Japanese catalogue of Chinese books. Lost commentaries, surviving manuscripts and changing scholarly fashions reveal a shared history of learning across the sea. These four complete writings by the Japanese scholar bring close textual argument together with observations of cultural change. Brief notes explain names, classical terminology, quoted sources and supplied textual inconsistencies.