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Sept. 1, 1723, Tominaga, Bungo province [modern Ćita prefecture], Japan
:
April 9, 1789, Tominaga
Also Known As:
Miura Susumu
Miura Baien was a Japanese economist and Confucianist philosopher during the Tokugawa period (1603â1867). He formulated the jĆrigaku (ârationalist studiesâ) doctrine, which was a precursor to modern scientific and philosophical thought in Japan.
Although schooled in the Chinese Classics, Miura studied scientific methods of approaching physics, medicine, and economics. Influenced by Western ideology, he wrote Kagen (âSource of Valueâ), discussing wealth and poverty, and his key philosophical works, Gengo (âAbstruse Languageâ), Zeigo (âSuperfluous Languageâ), and Kango (âHigh-flown Languageâ), in which he appealed to reason and nature, rather than written doctrine or tradition, as the sources of knowledge. He opposed the Buddhist view of emptiness and preferred a dynamic eternal universe in which death is organic change but not extinction. His traditional views of religion and authority were evident in Samidare-shĆ (âEarly Summer Rain Collectionâ), a book criticizing Christianity while advocating loyalty to a supreme being. Miuraâs works in Japanese were collected in Baien zenshĆ«, 2 vol. (1912; âCollected Works of Baienâ).
