On the other hand, Culai advocates obeying the destiny and thinks that the heart of the saints in heaven is unknowable; It is also necessary to worship ancestors and seek guidance from ghosts and gods in order to govern the people. Zulai's ideological contradiction reflects the situation that Zhuzi studies and even the whole Confucian ideological system began to fall apart in Tokugawa era. However, he advocated "Tao"-the system of cultural relics can be created by saints, denied the traditional concept of "Tao" and the natural existence of heaven and earth, and distinguished the different laws between nature and human society, which was of great significance in Japan at that time. His whole theory is a rare creative ideological system in the history of Japanese Confucianism. It appeared in the historical turning point when Japanese feudal way of thinking began to give way to modern way of thinking. Although it is called Guxue, it actually contains some seeds of modern Japanese thought and becomes a starting point of modern Japanese thought.
The most fundamental idea of "being poor" is to deny Zhu's "poor neo-Confucianism". Li Lai admitted that "reason" exists in all things in nature, but it is a thing without standards, that is, "reason" is only a subjective judgment of people, and different people have different judgment standards and different world views, so "reason" is inexhaustible. (3) Based on this theory, Lai believes that the world is not static, but consists of countless complex and diverse "living" individuals. The "scholars, farmers, workers and businessmen" who make up Japanese society bear their respective responsibilities: farmers farm to feed the world, workers make household goods for the world, businessmen shuttle between people in the world to help circulate, and scholars control chaos and secure the world. All walks of life perform their duties and complement each other, and scholars, agriculture, industry and commerce are indispensable. Therefore, the "four people" should "love each other, live together, inherit from each other, complement each other, support each other and save each other" in order to form a reasonable society. Culai compared the monarch to his parents, and the "four people" were "servants" who helped the monarch stabilize the world. Therefore, no matter what class, they are useful to society. In other words, the "four people" are not opposing classes, but all the "courtiers" who assist the monarch. Therefore, people from all walks of life are useful people. People should make full use of their strengths and avoid their weaknesses as much as possible to become useful people in society. It is the responsibility of politicians to find and use talents, and politicians should select and hire useful talents from the civilian class in an eclectic way. ④
Culai not only clarified the responsibilities of the monarch, but also clarified the responsibilities of the "four people". While straightening out the hierarchical identity of the "four people", it positively affirmed the existence value of the "four people". In modern times, when the status was extremely strict, ordinary people were often regarded as "untouchables" and were discriminated and oppressed by the samurai class. On the other hand, Culai's theory of "four people are servants" positively affirmed the existence value of the common people, which was a great challenge and impact to the ideological form at that time and played a positive role. Because of this, the "Culai School" is very popular among the people. After the publication of his books, such as Learning Rules, Argument, Discrimination of Fakes, Analects of Confucius, etc., it quickly set off a craze in Japan. People buy books to learn Confucian culture, or go to feudal schools or private schools. The number of feudal schools and private schools has increased unprecedentedly, and the printing and publishing of books has also flourished unprecedentedly. According to statistics, the number of books published in the Edo period reached its peak in 1800, after the Japanese Lv Yuan period and the Baomin period. Japanese Confucian culture, which was originally spread only among a few samurai classes, spread widely throughout the country with the spread of the "Culai School" as the medium. ⑤
Culai's View of "City People"
The rise of "Machi people". "Machinoi" is a name for commercial industrialists in modern Japan. From the second half of17th century to the first half of18th century (the era of liberal culture and insurance), Japan experienced great social and economic changes. Monetary economy not only develops rapidly in cities, but also penetrates into rural areas. The development of rural areas has improved the consumption level of cities and promoted the development of handicrafts and commerce. The improvement of consumption level and the surge in demand for consumer goods in turn promote the rapid development of monetary economy, transportation and commodity circulation. With the rapid development of monetary economy, the prosperity of commerce, the rise of "machi people", the social order is chaotic, and the rule of the shogunate is seriously threatened. After the Yuan and Qing Dynasties, social contradictions became more and more serious, and the financial difficulties of the samurai class became more and more serious.
"The samurai are indigenous." In order to solve the financial crisis, the shogunate issued "rescue orders" again and again, but with little effect. Finally, it had to issue a "currency recasting order" to reduce the gold and silver content while increasing the face value of the original currency, trying to solve the inflation problem by changing the proportion of gold and silver and increasing the face value of the currency. The result is self-evident, which not only failed to solve the problem fundamentally, but made inflation more serious, the townspeople became richer and richer, the samurai became poorer and poorer, the social contradictions became more and more serious, and the financial difficulties of the shogunate became more and more serious.
In this regard, most scholars at that time attributed these problems to the extravagance and waste of samurai life. Culai summarized the reasons into three aspects: the production cost is too high; Increased consumer demand; The "March people" have economic monopoly. Liao Lai thinks that "Machi people" are mercenary, and they are all mercenary. It is because they raised the price of goods in the same place that prices soared. Therefore, in order to consolidate the dominant position of the shogunate and maintain the feudal society centered on samurai, it is necessary to implement the "samurai indigenous system". ⑦ "indigenous system" means to let the samurai end their sojourning life, disband from the city and return to the original vassal land, distribute fields according to grades, and return to the original self-sufficient ideal society. Liao Lai believes that only by implementing the "indigenous system" can the samurai class be rescued from economic difficulties and the society develop steadily. Culai realized that with the development of monetary economy, the authority and status of samurai were likely to be replaced by "machi people", and the sustainability of shogunate regime would also be threatened. The purpose of "samurai indigenous system" is to save the samurai in financial difficulties, curb the tyranny of "machi people" and maintain the dominant position of the samurai class.
Culai's samurai-centered thought was fully displayed in his political talks in his later years. He pointed out that "samurai should be the masters of society and be in a dominant position, and Machiavelli can only be a guest and be in a dominant position. Now' Machiavelli' monopolizes the economic market, but the samurai class lives in poverty, which is the phenomenon of inversion of subject and object. " Therefore, he advocated abolishing the monetary economy, suppressing Machiavelli and stopping Machiavelli from monopolizing the market. Culai's view of "Machi people" fully embodies his retro thought and samurai-centered feudal thought. Culai has made great achievements in studying China's music, Ming law, weights and measures, and China's poems.
In the 14th year of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty (1809), The Analects of Confucius, University Interpretation, The Doctrine of the Mean and the non-Culai School of Crab Breeding were introduced to China. 1836, Zhu Lai's Distinguishing Pottery and Distinguishing Names were compiled into a collection, and the preface and Biography of Japanese Zhu Lai were published in China. Culai's academic thought was introduced into China, and was highly praised by China scholars such as Liu Baonan, Dai Wang, Yu Yue and Li Ciming.