The ''Honchō Tsugan'' (本朝通鑑), or ''Comprehensive Mirror of Japan'', is a book on the
history of Japan
The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Japanese Paleolithic, Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the fi ...
by
Hayashi Razan
, also known as Hayashi Dōshun, was a Japanese historian, philosopher, political consultant, and writer, serving as a tutor and an advisor to the first four ''shōguns'' of the Tokugawa ''bakufu''. He is also attributed with first listing the ...
and his successor
Hayashi Gahō
, also known as Hayashi Shunsai, 林 春斎, , was a Japanese Neo-Confucian philosopher and writer in the system of higher education maintained by the Tokugawa ''bakufu'' during the Edo period. He was a member of the Hayashi clan of Confucian ...
which was finished in 1670.
It was written in Chinese and modeled after the ''
Zizhi Tongjian
The ''Zizhi Tongjian'' (1084) is a chronicle published during the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) that provides a record of Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynasties and spanning almost 1400 years. The main text is ...
''.
The whole work comprises 326 scrolls.
Background
The work was finished at the ''Shūshikan'' (修史館), or Historiographic Institute, which was built for Gahō, who was also provided with enough rations (扶持 ''fuchi'') for a research team of up to 95 men.
Scholarship
The work, and Razan in particular, has been praised by Japanese scholars for its relatively dispassionate attempt at understanding history, leading some scholars to view Razan as "the founder of
modern historical research" and "the beginning of modern scholarship" in Japan. The work was influential on the thought of
Arai Hakuseki
was a Confucianist, scholar-bureaucrat, academic, administrator, writer and politician in Japan during the middle of the Edo period, who advised the ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ienobu. His personal name was Kinmi or Kimiyoshi (君美). Hakuseki (白 ...
, who is considered to have been even more objective. Nonetheless, the work was by no means perfect, as Razan was under pressure from the times to hide his sceptical views of traditional Japanese religious myths (such as the
Age of the Gods
In Shinto chronology, the is the period preceding the accession of Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan. The kamiyo myths are chronicled in the "upper roll" (''Kamitsumaki'') of the ''Kojiki'' and in the first and second chapters of the ''Nihon Sh ...
). As a result, he does not treat that subject in a critical manner as he does with other topics, and had to save his unorthodox views for private writings.
References
External links
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Edo-period works
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Confucianism in Japan
Kanbun
Edo-period history books
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