How to Think from East Asia? Reflections on the Scholarship of Takeuchi Yoshimi, Mizoguchi Yūzō, and Koyasu Nobukuni

Title

How to Think from East Asia? Reflections on the Scholarship of Takeuchi Yoshimi, Mizoguchi Yūzō, and Koyasu Nobukuni

Author

Kun-Chiang CHANG

Page

259-288

DOI

Abstract

This paper attempts at a discussion of the methodological debates over “East Asia” and “Sinology” studies among Takeuchi Yoshimi (1910-1977), Mizoguchi Yūzō (1932- ), and Koyasu Nobukuni (1933- ). To offset Occidental influence, Takeuchi Yoshimi sought after an Asia Pattern built on the “East Asian homogeneity.” Denying his own tradition, with this homogeneity he constructed a new, independent “Asian subjectivity.” With a complex feeling of love and guilt toward China, Takeuchi Yoshimi developed a methodology which might be called “Chinese Sinology.” On the contrary, Mizoguchi Yūzō took a different route recognizing “East Asian heterogeneity,” namely, China as China; Japan as Japan. He reflected upon both pre-war and post-war Japanese Sinology and proposed a new theory of “China as method; the world as the end.” His methodology pursued to transcend “China-centered Sinology.” Koyasu Nobukuni, in spite of his agreement with Takeuchi Yoshimi, refused to locate China on the center of East Asia. Rather, Koyasu employed a historical critical approach toward “East Asia” rejecting any principle or doctrine that tries to “embody” East Asia.

Keyword

East Asia, Sinology, Takeuchi Yoshimi, Mizoguchi Yūzō, Koyasu Nobukuni

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