Your help please

[Kristina Troost, Ph.D.]

Dear All,

I got this query from a faculty member who is not a member of the list.  “Do you know the origins of the expression "kanson minpi" 官尊民卑

I thought it was Tokugawa era, but someone told me he thought it was Meiji. I have found a lot of explanations about its meaning but none that date it…”

 

I did some quick research and found the following:

From Nihon kokugo daijiten:

政府や官吏を尊いものとし、一般人民や民間の事を卑しいものとすること。また、その考え。

＊時事新報‐明治二一年〔１８８８〕八月一八日「如何に官尊民卑の今日なればとて人民を目して無神経なりと公言するは」

＊福翁百話〔１８９７〕〈福沢諭吉〉九九「吾々学者流に於ては人権平等の論を論ずること久し。官尊民卑（クヮンソンミンピ）も亦この論旨に反するものなるが故に」

＊生活の探求〔１９３７～３８〕〈島木健作〉二・一六「官尊民卑の考へは、仮令村の有力者でも伊貝の頭には浸み込んでゐた」

from Kokushi daijiten

天皇制のもとでの、官僚優位の社会構造ならびに意識。日本の近代化の歪みをもっともよく示す現象とされる。一般に絶対主義時代には、君主を頂点としたヒエ ラルヒーが形成され、社会的価値は君主への接近度に応じる。特に社会的に上の地位は官僚に独占され、この意識が弥漫する。日本の場合、幕藩体制のもとでの 士農工商の身分制度の変形としてあらわれ、愚民観を機軸としつつ、天皇を頂点とする幾重にもかさなった栄典制度によって、栄誉の独占体系をかたちづくっ た。その結果として、民衆のがわには事大主義がかもしだされ、こうして官尊民卑は、国民を、臣民としての服従に馴らす制度的心情的装置として作用した。そ れは、官僚主導の近代化と不可分の関係をもち、経済に対する政治の、地方に対する中央の、私学に対する官学のそれぞれ優位となるなど、社会の各方面での価 値意識を規定し、知識人や民衆の攻撃のまととされた。大正時代に入るとやや衰えた。

 

After I sent those two citations, she asked me to query you all:  “I'd like some clarification on whether this was more a Tokugawa or Meiji slogan.”

 

Thanks in advance for any help,

Kris

 

Kristina Kade Troost  PhD
Head, International and Area Studies

Librarian for Japanese Studies

Adjunct Assistant Professor of History 

Duke University  |  228 Bostock  |  Box 90195  |  Durham, NC 27708  

 (919) 660-5844   |  Fax: (919) 668-3134  |   kristin...@duke.edu   

 

 

 

[Daniel Botsman]

Dear Kris,

What a great question!  I have always associated the phrase 官尊民卑 with the early Meiji period and had assumed it was basically a clever re-working (by Fukuzawa?) of 男尊女卑, which I imagine must have a much older history (as both a term and practice!) If any of the bona fine pre-modernists on the list have knowledge of the term being used before the Restoration it would certainly be interesting to know.  

Dani Botsman

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[Luke Roberts]

Hi Kristina,

Very interesting question.  I looked in some likely places that I know and have been unable to find that phrase in Edo period documents, including my large collection of petitions that are critical of government oppression.  However I am not much of a reader of scholars' works of the era, and I suspect that Dani's suggestion is the most likely, but that if it does have pre-Meiji roots the origins are continental and therefore might possibly be found in Edo era scholars' writings.  

One thought that I had is that because of the way the status system fit into/shaped government in the Edo period, 貴賎 was just a normal way to think about government relations and human relations, so the idea of kanson minpi probably would not have had much resonance among critics in the Edo period (too revolutionary in its implications I think), who would instead normally talk about corruption and middle officials usurping the lord's will.  I suspect that kanson minpi is essentially part of the popular rights movement of the Meiji period, and is a new phrase to criticize and reshape the traditional status consciousness.  

I just happened yesterday to be reading "Sekenshi 2"  世間師二 (from Miyamoto Tsuneichi's Wasurerareta Nihonjin), which is a narrative Miyamoto gleaned from a villager who grew up near Sakai, and one phrase caused me to remember your question.  The man Sakon  Kumata 左近熊太 was 22 at the time of the Seinan sensō and went to the Sakai prefecture office for conscription.  He wrote "その頃は百姓が県令のまえへ出ると、大名とおなじように県令のまえをはいまわったものである。"  which suggests the tension between past practice and new governmental form.  Kanson minpi would be a way to articulate a reshaping of values and behavior associated with the new form of government.

Best, Luke

[Kristina Troost, Ph.D.]

Thanks Luke; will forward.  You raise some interesting questions.

Kris

[robin d. gill]

Nihonkokugodaijiten does give a Fukuzawa Yukichi (as Daniel guessed) usage,

 

I would want to check with a Korean as i heard it many times when i taught at a graduate sachool for a short semester in, maybe 1980, with students who were all government officials and were there partly to learn not to look down on those they were supposed to serve.  Of course, the Koreans might have learned the phrase from the Japanese, but I assumed it the sort of thing that came from China . . .

 

敬愚

"Rise, Ye Sea Slugs!"