Miura Baien


Miura Baien was a Japanese philosopher of the Tokugawa era. A scholar often qualified as prolific original thinker in economy, interested in epistemology, he studied nature in a methodical way. He grounded his thought in Neo-Confucianism.

Life

Born as Miura Susumu into the family of a village physician in the present Ōita Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū, he became himself a physician and declined invitations to take office in the service of a local feudal lord. A master of Chinese language and poetry, he later became an advocate of a new rationalism. He is notable for criticizing Christianity and European imperialism, arguing in Confucian terms that Christianity was used to subvert indigenous culture in order to facilitate colonization.

Key ideas