dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this paper is to compare the body thinking of Chinese Confucianism along the line of Mencius with those of Japanese samurai-scholars and Ymeigaku scholars. To begin with, in the first and second sections are given a definition of Mencius-thought as a body thinking in a moral sense, practicing of which is from the inner to the outer. And the traditional pure-dirty view and body thinking in Japan myths in association with the “mental purification” pursued by the Japanese are also discussed. The third section analyzes the theory of the Japanese samurai-scholar, Yamaga Sok□ (山鹿素行,1622-1685). He thought about body in a political sense, emphasizing an individual body that was selfish-less and public-minded, moving in the direction of non-egoistic body. Then fourth section explores the theory advanced by the Japanese Y□meigaku scholars. Nakae T□ju (中江藤樹,1608-1648) and Oshio Chuzai (大鹽中齋,1793-1837), of body in a religious sense. This body thinking had a nihilistic inclination. Be it a non-egoistic body or a nihilistic body, it was abundant in a religiously “body-sacrificing” thought. Its way of materializing the effect at self-cultivation was absolutely from the inner to the outer and then identified this thought with one’s own life, thereby making one’s mind and body as one, It is then concluded in the fifth section that Japanese body thinking concerned were, to a great extent, interrelated with the traditional Japanese naturalistic thought that put great emphasis upon divinity and the infinite. | - |