of court nobles or Daimios; and he also received flattering offers of appointments, all of which he declined. In 1614 he was offered a post as teacher in connection with a project of Iyeyasu's for establishing a school at Kiōto. This proposal he accepted, but some civil disorders which broke out soon after rendered this scheme abortive. Seikwa died in 1619 in his fifty-ninth year. He left nothing which deserves notice as literature; but it is hardly possible to estimate too highly the service he performed by making known to his countrymen the philosophical literature of the Sung schoolmen. His Kana Seiri may be mentioned as a typical example of his writings. As its title indicates, it is an attempt to facilitate the study of the Sung philosophy in Japan.
The whole literature of the Yedo period is so thoroughly pervaded by moral principles and ideals based on this system of thought, that it is desirable to give a brief outline of it here. Those who wish to make themselves more thoroughly acquainted with it will find the means of doing so in Monseigneur de Harlez's École Philosophique de la Chine, and some able papers contributed by Dr. Knox and others to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Japan in 1892.
Professedly an exposition of the doctrines of the ancient Chinese sages, the Sung philosophy is in reality an essentially modern system of ontology, ethics, natural philosophy, and principles of government, subjects which to the Chinese mind are inseparable.
According to Chu-Hi, the origin and cause of all things is Taikhi (Taikyoku in Japanese) or the "Great Absolute." The energy evolved by its movement produced the Yang (Yō in Japanese), and when it came to rest, the Yin (In in Japanese) was the result. The Yang is the active,
