The Record of Great Doubts by Kaibara Ekken

Author:Kaibara Ekken
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: PHI003000, Philosophy/Eastern/General, REL000000, Religion/General
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2007-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

31

Zhu Xi said, “If people take an attitude that they don’t rely on only one school and are not partial to only one theory, they will get a hodgepodge of knowledge even though they may be erudite.”96 When I consider these words of Zhu Xi, I cannot help but doubt them. Why do I doubt them? If we can depend directly on the sages, as the seventy principal disciples of Confucius did,97 it will be all right to have more than one school and more than one theory.

However, even though the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi were highly intelligent men, when we think of devotion to the highest good, impartiality and lack of prejudice, I am afraid they were not the same as the sages. If people rely on only one explanation or incline toward one type of learning, inevitably they won’t be able to comprehend with a broad perspective or open inquiry. Instead they will suffer from a wisdom obstructed by prejudiced and limited information. Prejudiced people, through flattery and servility, create factions and attack others for their personal gain. Such are my doubts, and I am unable to resolve them.

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