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Paper short abstract:

Neo-Confucianism was the opponent the compilers of Taisei-kyō wanted to emulate and defeat. As the text pretended to date back to the early 7th century, however, Neo-Confucianism could not openly be addressed. Several rhetorical strategies were devised to get around the problem.

Paper long abstract:

The Taisei-kyō contains many overt and covert references both to Confucianism and to Neo-Confucianism. This is as was to be expected: next to Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism was the major force in the intellectual world of Japan at the time when Taisei-kyō was created. However, as Taisei-kyō supposedly was a product of the early seventh century, overt references to Neo-Confucianism were not allowed. The only place where they could be accommodated was in the final one hundred years of Shōtoku's predictions for the future (Mizen hongi; fasc. 69).

Mostly, the compilers worked their way around the problem by including their criticisms in records that pretended to be about something else. One example is the discussion between Crown Prince Uji and the Korean scholar Wani 王仁, who is on record as the first one to have brought Confucian texts to Japan, during the reign of Emperor Ōjin (fasc. 44). The discussion is set in the late third, early fourth century, but as an analysis of the contents will show, it actually addressed contemporary Confucianism. Other references we find, e.g., in the "Constitution for Confucians" (Jusha kenpō, fasc. 70) or in the story how Shōtoku summoned the Duke of Zhou and Confucius to his Hall of Dreams and told them that he wanted them to be enshrined as protective deities of Confucianism in Japan (fasc. 38).

In these criticisms, a clear distinction is made between old Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism. The first is acceptable, even useful, but the second is wrong. The main complaints about Neo-Confucianism are its Sino-centrism, its predilection for animal sacrifices, and its misapprehensions about the nature of the gods. In this context, it is interesting to note that one of the unacknowledged borrowings from Neo-Confucianism is the theory of the three bodies of the gods, which is clearly based on Neo-Confucian metaphysics.

In my paper, I will describe these interrelations and try to locate them in the larger framework of contemporary intellectual discussions.