Ogyū Sorai

Ogyū Sorai (Japanese荻 生 徂 徕; * March 21, 1666 in Edo, † February 28, 1728 ibid ) was a Japanese neokonfuzianischer scholar, philosopher and economist.

Sorai studied in his youth Chinese language and culture, and sat down as a supporter of Neo-Confucianism in the expression of Zhu Xi critically Itō Jinsai apart before he joined the school of how this Kogaku ( " school of ancient learning "). His philosophical views he in the writings Bendo ( "Determination of the path ( Dō ) " ) and Benmei ( " definition of the terms " ), he sat in the writings Taiheisaku ( "Policy for the Great Peace" ) and Seidan ( " Discourses on the Government ") into political-ethical principles. His most important pupil was Dazai Shundai.

Politically, standing on the side of the Tokugawa shogunate refused Ogyū the claims to power of the imperial court as well as from the contemporary Shinto as an invention of the Yoshida Kanetomo. He was the theoretical head behind the Kyoho reform of the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune.