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Chinese scholar and patriot helped change Japan
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EDITOR’S note:
Ningbo, as a city with a long history and a prosperous economy, is the birthplace of many extraordinary people who exerted great influence from ancient China to the modern day. This column will introduce famous Ningbo natives from the arts to business, technology and innovation, telling the stories of their contributions.
Zhu Shunshui (1600-1682), a native of Ningbo’s Yuyao City, was one of the greatest scholars of Confucianism during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
He was particularly influential on Tokugawa bakufu (1600-1868), which is regarded as the last feudal Japanese military government, and contributed much to Japanese education and social ideology.
It was a time of internal peace, stability and economic growth for that country.
And his thoughts, advocating that studying for practical uses and scholars should be realistic, contributed to that environment.
There is a folk tale in Yuyao, saying that during the World War II when invading Japanese soldiers saw a portrait of Zhu on the wall of a local residence in a lane of Yuyao, they immediately retreated from the lane.
Raised in a respected family, Zhu studied well in Confucian classics and was recognized as an extraordinary talent. But he did not study to become a government official.
“Zhu hated the late-Ming-Dynasty government’s corruption so much that he would rather to stay as an ordinary person,” said Zhu Yucheng, a distant relative.
Although he was not interested in working for the government, Zhu was a great patriot who made a lot of efforts to prevent the Manchus from ousting the Ming rulers, even going to Japan, Vietnam and Thailand to request military and financial help for the Mings.
“Zhu’s patriotism stemmed from his passion to protect Chinese civilization as the Ming culture was developed by farming, while the Manchus were nomadic people,” said Zhu Yucheng.
“In Zhu’s eyes, the former was more civilized, and he didn’t want the uncivilized to replace it.”
In 1659, the Manchus almost defeated the Ming rulers and Zhu lost all his hopes, so he fled to Japan like many other political refugees and lived there until his death.
He won the respect and admiration of Tokugawa Mitsukuni, a feudal lord, and they became close friends.
Zhu taught Mitsukuni Confucianism philosophy and politics. His teaching and work greatly advanced the adoption of Confucianism thought in Japan during the period.
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