Lecture 1999-06-14 

Ando Shôeki and Herbert Norman: a Common Link with Nature (but which Nature)?

Dr. Jacques Joly 

Dr. Joly's lecture will focus on the relationship between two important figures of the intellectual world. The first is Ando Shôeki (1703-1762), a long forgotten Confucian master. Shôeki engaged in a very harsh criticism of the currents of thought and institutions of his time, enjoining his readers to abandon the world of culture and return to a simple life in the midst of Mother Nature. The other is a very famous member of the Asiatic Society of Japan, E.H. Norman (1909-1957), who both inaugurated and had a great influence on scholastic inquiry into Shôeki's work.

Dr. Joly will link Norman's desire to view Shôeki as an anti-establishment figure to Norman's misunderstanding of the word shizen, a term at the core of Shôeki's discourse. Today this word means "nature", but in Shôeki's times it referred to the spontaneous way the Tao acts. As Professor Joly will demonstrate, this misconception has had a great effect on all subsequent study of Shôeki's work.

Dr. Jacques Joly earned his Ph.D. at the Universite de Paris VII in Japanology. He is currently a Professor at Eichi University in Amagasaki. His publications include works on Ando Shôeki and translations of Maruyama Masao; his current research involves Inoue Tetsujirô and Japanese style Orientalism.

Edited from material submitted by Dr. Joshua Dale.