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Tominaga our Contemporary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
Extract
Just supposing that the British Council were able to offer lecture tours by the world's great minds of the past, I am sure that names like Aquinas, Chu Hsi or Dōgen would be able to pack an auditorium even now. But in the pub afterwards we would probably find them less easy company, not quite at home in our own times. Reading Tominaga Nakamoto (1715–46), however, one gets the extraordinary but quite palpable feeling of encountering an intelligence every bit as alert and critical as any product of a modern university education – no doubt precisely because by the standards of his own day he was largely selfeducated. To find the entire surviving slim corpus of the writings of this remarkable genius rendered into English by the head of one of our most respected departments of Religious Studies is gratifying indeed, and one hesitates to qualify praise of such a welcome achievement with a note of criticism, especially when the translation is prefaced by a lengthy introduction giving within a limited compass a more than adequate account of Tominaga's all too brief life.
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References
1 Nakamoto, Tominaga, trans. Pye, Michael, Emerging from Meditation, pp. ix, 214. London, Duckworth, 1990.£29.95Google Scholar.
2 Norihisa, Mizuta and Takamichi, Arisaka (eds), Tominaga Nakamoto, Yamagata Bantō (Nihon shisō taikei, 43) (Tokyo, 1973)Google Scholar; Entarō, Yoshikawa (ed.), Shutsujō kōgo (Osaka, 1943)Google Scholar; Junkei, Washio (ed.), Nihon shisō tōsō shiryō, iii (Tokyo, 1930)Google Scholar.
3 Norihisa, Mizuta and Fumio, Umetani, Tominaga Nakamoto kenkyū (Osaka, 1984)Google Scholar.
4 Cf. for this usage “titles and differences”, Tso Chuan, Duke Chuang, eighteenth year, in Legge, James, The Chinese Classics (Oxford, 1893), p. 97Google Scholar.
5 Wen/bun is a key term in Tominaga's thought, and is far broader in scope than any possible English equivalent. For some of its overtones in the East Asian tradition see David McMullen's discussion on pp. 321–6 of his “Historical and literary theory in the mid-eighth century”, in Wright, A. F. and Twitchett, D. C. (eds), Perspectives on the T’ang (New Haven and London, 1973), pp. 307–42Google Scholar.
6 Huan/gen; again, a technical term in Tominaga's vocabulary, defying easy translation. Some notion of his reasons for associating the term with Buddhism may be gleaned from Mair, V. H., T’ang Transformation Texts (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), pp. 66–72, though this discussion is actually directed towards another, related termGoogle Scholar.
7 Literally, “ take Heaven as their ancestor ”, a phrase from Chuang-tzu: cf. Graham, A. C., Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters (London, 1981), p. 274Google Scholar.
8 Cf.Stein, Rolf, The World in Miniature (Stanford, 1990), p. 64Google Scholar and notes, for some early sources on this theme and its religious context
9 This text has been translated by Kohn, Livia, Taoist Mystical Philosophy: the Scripture of the Western Ascension (Albany, 1991)Google Scholar: she assigns it to the fifth century A.D., and notes (p. 80) some Buddhist borrowings.
10 This notorious work is discussed in Zūrcher, E., The Buddhist Conquest of China (Leiden, 1959), pp. 288–320Google Scholar.
11 The latter name is translated “Great Envelope” in Schafer, E. H., Pacing the Void (Berkeley, 1977), p. 38Google Scholar. The earliest reference to the “thirty-six heavens” in Taoism would seem to be Shou, Wei, Wei Shu 114 (Peking, 1974). P 3052Google Scholar, describing Taoist doctrine in the fifth century A.D., well after the introduction of Buddhism.
12 Again, “ adding on ” is one of Tominaga's technical terms describing the accretion of doctrines in a situation of sectarian competition, attributed to progressively more exalted or ancient authorities: see Mizuta, and Umetani, , Tominaga Nakamoto kenkyū, pp. 79–82Google Scholar.
13 On Liu's work see Legge, James, “ A fair and dispassionate discussion of the Three Doctrines accepted in China”, Transactions of the IX International Congress of Orientalists, II (London, 1893), pp. 563–80Google Scholar.
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15 On Wang T’ung see Wechsler, H. J., “ The Confucian teacher Wang T’ (584?–617): one thousand years of controversy”, Toung Pao, LXIII (1977), pp. 225–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar, though this study does not settle the controversy.
16 T’ung, WangChung-shuo 4, p. 4bGoogle Scholar (Ssu-pu pei-yao edition): I am not sure if Tominaga understands “ mud ”, with the commentary here, to stand for the homophone “drowning”, or whether he understands it as “sticking place”; “quagmire” represents an expedient compromise
17 The relativity of discourse in accordance with time and place, and the general cultural relativity of values, are both important themes for Tominaga: see, for a recent discussion, Umetani, and Mizuta, , Tominaga Nakamoto kenkyū, pp. 83–8Google Scholar; there seems no point in avoiding modern terminology in translating Tominaga here.
18 Recte, Ta-hsing lun, “On apprehending the nature” see Taishō Canon, lii, pp. 21c–22aGoogle Scholar
19 Contained ibid., pp. 22 a–27 a (with Ho's replies).
20 Correspondence between Tsung and Ho on this topic may be found ibid., pp. 17C–21C. This entire phase in Chinese interreligious polemic is treated in Ch’en, Kenneth, “Anti-Buddhist propaganda during the Nan-ch‘ao”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, XV (1952), pp. 166–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
21 The disputes mentioned so far date to the Liw-Sung dynasty; hence the mention of the ruling family of the later, better-known period.
22 “Essay on fundamentals”, partially translated in de Bary, W. T (ed.), Sources of the Chinese Tradition, i (New York, 1960), pp. 387–90Google Scholar.
23 Contained in Chieh, Shih, Tsu-lai Shih hsien-sheng wen-chi, v (Peking, 1984), pp. 60–4Google Scholar.
24 Hu's work is incorporated in Tsung-hsi, Huang, Sung-Yüan hsüeh-an, xli, pp. 11.3–17Google Scholar (Kuo-hsiieh chi-pen ts'ung-shu edition). It will be noted that Hu's inclusion here is anachronistic.
25 This famous work has been translated into Japanese by Kengo, Araki, Hogyōhen (Tokyo, 1981)Google Scholar in the series Zen no goroku, xiv: p. 275 of Araki's rendering notes some further literature on Ch’i-sung, to which might particularly be added Ogisu jundō, “Sōsō Kaisū no Gozan Zensō ni oyoboseru shisōteki eikyō”, Ryūkokugakuhō, CCCXXX (1941), pp. 67–84Google Scholar, which comments on his popularity in Japan well before Tominaga's time
26 The first sentence is a paraphrase, not verbatim, but it and the remainder of the quotation are drawn from Fu-chiao pien I (as included in Ch‘i-sung’s Collected works), p. 650a in Taishō Canon, lii; cf. Araki, , Hogyohen, pp. 29and32Google Scholar.
27 The allusion is to the commentary on the twentieth hexagram of the I Ching: “Thus the holy man uses the divine way to give instruction”, in Wilhelm, R., tr. Baynes, C. F., The I Ching (London, 1983), p. 486Google Scholar.
28 This paraphrases a further passage, p. 650b in the Taishō Canon, translated by Araki, , Hogyōhen, pp. 37–9Google Scholar. Ch‘i-sung points out specifically that in talking ofshen he does not mean “ gods”, but “ spirit” as used in the Book of Changes. This concept had already long proved its value in Chinese Buddhist polemic, as noted by Robinson, R. H., Early Mādhyamika in India and China (Madison, 1967), pp. 104–8Google Scholar.
29 The reference is to the idealized institutions of China's pre-imperial antiquity: for this “public instruction” see Biot, E., Le Tcheou-li (Paris, 1851), pp. 196–8Google Scholar.
30 In other words, he has taken no account of the very different relationship between political and religious life in Indian and Chinese cultures.
31 Paraphrase of remarks in Fu-chiao pien 1, p. 649 b in Taishō Canon, lii; cf.Araki, , Hogyōhen, pp. 20–2Google Scholar. This reconciliation was no novelty in the Sung: cf.Ch’en, Kenneth, The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism (Princeton, 1973). PP 55–60Google Scholar.
32 Fu-chiao pien 1, p. 649b; Araki, , Hogyōhen, p. 23Google Scholar.
33 Fu-chiao pien 1, p. 652c; Araki, , Hogyōhen, pp. 77–8Google Scholar.
34 Fu-chiao pien 2, p. 657a; Araki, , Hogyōhen, pp. 146–9Google Scholar. For the significance of the term “ trace” see my remarks at no. 8, p. 102, of Skorpuski, T., (ed.), The Buddhist Forum, i (London, 1990)Google Scholar, and the references given there.
35 Fu-chiao pien 2, p. 660a, somewhat modified – for “Taoism” the original has the “hundred schools” of early Chinese thought; Araki, , Hogyōhen, pp. 189–90Google Scholar.
36 Fu-chiao pien 1, p. 653 a; Araki, , Hogyōhen, pp. 79–80Google Scholar.
37 Allusion to Analects XV.2.3; Legge, , Chinese Classics, i (Oxford, 1893), p. 295Google Scholar.
38 Tominaga probably derived this from Chih-p‘an (1220–75) (comp.), Fo-tsu t‘ung-chi 44, p. 405a in the Taishō Canon edition (xlix), where the conversation is dated to 1013. For Wang's failure to stand up to Chentsung's manipulative use of religious propaganda, see Pang-chan, Ch’en, Sung-shih chi-shih pen-mo (Peking, 1977), pp. 162–74Google Scholar.
39 These are the opening lines of the poem, to be found in Taishō Canon, lii p. 748 a, appended to Ch’i-sung's Collected Works. Hui-hung, a key figure in the Sung rapprochement between Ch’an and the literary world, is the subject of ongoing work by Professor Robert Gimello.
40 For Chang Tsai (1020–77), see Kasoff, Ira E., The Thought of Chang Tsai (Cambridge, 1984)Google Scholar; for the brothers Ch’eng Hao (1032–86) and Ch’eng I (1033–1107), see Graham, A. C., Two Chinese Philosophers (London, 1958)Google Scholar; for the theory in question in their works, see Barrett, T. H.Li Ad:Buddhist, Taoist or Neo-Confucian ? (Oxford, 1992), pp. 27–8Google Scholar.
41 Tominaga's reference is to Fu-chiao pien I, p. 652c; Araki, , Hogyohen, pp. 74–6Google Scholar. For the whole question of Li Ao's relations with Wei-yen, see the second chapter of my Li Ao.
42 Li Ao, p. 95; a slight misquotation of the original, which reads “fullness” for “control”.
43 Li Ao, p. 112.
44 My own view is that the distinction between Li Ao and later Neo-Confucians came to be deliberately overstated to defend against Buddhist insinuations. Tominaga, however, is following the traditional view as formulated by Chu Hsi and propagated by his disciples: see Chan, Wing-tsit (trans.), Neo-Confucian Terms Explained (New York, 1986), pp. 63, 124Google Scholar.
45 For Itō Jinsai on “returning to the nature ”, see pp. 57–9 of my dissertation, “Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in the thought of Li Ao ” (Yale, 1978)Google Scholar.
46 Fu-chiao pien I, p. 652b; Araki, , Hogyōhen, pp. 67–71Google Scholar. Ch’i-sung is presumably referring to Han's essay “Enquiry into the Way”, which is examined in Hartman, Charles, Han Yü and the T'ang Search for Unity (Princeton, 1986), pp. 145–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
47 For Chu Hsi see the entry by Wing-tsit Chan in Franke, H., Sung Biographies, i (Wiesbaden), pp. 282–90Google Scholar, in which Liu is pointed out as one of his teachers, Chang and Lü as two of his best friends.
48 For Li P’ing-shan, see the entry by Yün-hua, Jan in Sung Biographies, ii (1979), pp. 557–82Google Scholar. Tominaga is paraphrasing slightly, probably from Li as quoted in Nien-ch’ang (comp.) (1341), Fo-tsu li-tai t'ung-tsai 20, p. 699 a in the Taishō Canon, xlix, though Li's collected writings in defence of Buddhism also circulated independently in Tokugawa Japan.
49 Tominaga's earlier discussion of this sutra makes it clear that he sees the work as the product of one group within a competitive sectarian environment, reshaping earlier doctrine to their own ends.
50 For these letters and the Sung controversy over them see Hartman, , Han Yü, p. 94 and p. 306Google Scholar, n. 181, which cites several further studies.
51 Excerpted in Hartman, , Han Yü, pp. 94–5Google Scholar; this indubitably genuine letter is concerned to quell rumours that he had fallen under the influence of Ta-tien.
52 Fu-chiao pien, I, p. 651a; Araki, , Hogyōhen, pp. 48–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In his paraphrase Tominaga has substituted “former masters” for “former kings”, and it is their followers of the remote past who are accused of acting out of selfinterest. Tominaga, however, seems to read Ch’i-sung's remarks as a tu quoque response.
53 Debate over celibacy and the tonsure - both allegedly unfilial betrayals of the sacred trust of life bequeathed by the ancestors – forms one of the most prominent themes in Sino-Buddhist polemic: the counter-examples of the ancient worthy T’ai-po tattooing himself to follow the customs of his southern place of exile and of the Shang loyalists Po I and Shu Ch'i preferring starvation as hermits to serving a new dynasty are already adduced by Moutzu (?fourth century A.D.), the earliest Chinese Buddhist polemicist: see de Bary, , Sources of the Chinese Tradition, i, pp. 275–6Google Scholar.