Short Abstract

Analyzing Shionoya Tōin’s Heitei Keikairoku, this paper explores the strategic use of Song history of China to defend Interactions Between Heaven and Humankind against Western science, reframing omens as indispensable moral and political warnings for late Edo rulers.

Long Abstract

The late Edo period witnessed a profound crisis in the traditional views on Interactions Between Heaven and Humankind (tenjin sōkan-ron 天人相関論), which held that natural disasters were divine warnings directed at the ruler’s conduct. While intellectual predecessors like Koga Seiri 古賀精里 noted that the increasing precision of Western astronomy threatened to render "Heaven" indifferent to human affairs, scholars sought new strategies to maintain the political efficacy of cosmic warnings.

This paper focuses on the strategies of the Confucian scholar Shionoya Tōin 塩谷宕陰(1809–67), specifically his compilation of the Heitei Keikairoku 丙丁炯戒録(1838). We examine how Tōin appropriated the "Heitei prophecy" (Heitei saiisetsu 丙丁災異説)—a Song dynasty theory asserting that catastrophic events occur cyclically in the years of Heigo 丙午 and Teibi 丁未—to provide a historical and providential framework for political reform.

In the first section, we analyze Tōin’s motivation for reviving this Song-era discourse. We argue that Tōin sought to address the mounting domestic unrest and external threats of the 1830s and 40s by superimposing the tragic fall of the Northern Song dynasty onto the Tokugawa Shogunate’s political reality.

The second section elaborates on Tōin’s theoretical synthesis. Confronted with "Western theories" (Taisei no setsu 泰西の説) that reduced celestial phenomena to natural laws, Tōin attempted a harmonization. He utilized the concept of "Establishing Teachings via the Way of the Spirits" (shindō sekkyō 神道設教), effectively reframing traditional omens as a necessary "decoration" of scientific truth to ensure the moral restraint of the ruling elite.

The final section discusses the influence of Tōin’s work, particularly the critique by the hardline scholar Ōhashi Totsuan. Totsuan rejected Tōin’s conciliatory approach, arguing that reframing Interactions Between Heaven and Humankind as an "expedient means" (hōben 方便) or "deception" undermined the absolute truth of the Way.

By analyzing these debates, this paper uncovers the unexpected legacy of Song dynasty history in Japan. It clarifies how late Edo intellectuals used the Heitei prophecy not merely as superstition, but as a sophisticated weapon of words to preserve a moral universe of Interactions Between Heaven and Humankind against modern scientific rationalism.