Yukio Naruse's 'Reference Books and More': 'How Was Japanese Created?' and 'Japanese Evolves' (5)

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What is surprising is the fact that these Confucian scholars, who made a living from such academic studies, were completely unable to pronounce Chinese classics (Chinese language).

In other words, they did not have even a shred of ability to pronounce the text of the 'Analects' in actual Chinese.

In the first place, pronunciation was outside the scope of their interests.

They read texts 'with their eyes,' recited translations known as kundoku, and created excellent Chinese prose.

It is quite reasonable to think, 'Is that really possible?' But it is true.

Translators with excellent reading and writing skills but absolutely zero listening and speaking skills—that was the profile of Confucian scholars in the Edo period, and by extension, the intellectuals of early modern Japan.

Today, many language educators set 'balanced development of the four skills' as an educational goal.

Language proficiency tests like TOEIC are based on the premise that there is a strong correlation between listening/reading skills and speaking/writing skills, and therefore, speaking/writing skills can be measured by measuring listening/reading skills.

The profile of Edo Confucian scholars could be said to fundamentally overturn such modern linguistic ideas.

Interestingly, in the late Edo period, Confucian scholars like Ogyu Sorai emerged who advocated for the supremacy of the original text, in opposition to this supremacy of kundoku (reading & translation).

'As long as you are reading through kundoku (translation), you will never reach a true understanding of the text. Texts should be read in the original,' was the argument of Sorai and his followers living in Kyoto.

It is, so to speak, a rejection of translation.

To put this into practice, Sorai and his followers went so far as to invite Chinese people from Nagasaki to Kyoto to learn the pronunciation of the contemporary Chinese language of that time.

This was the birth of the direct method using an oral approach in Japan.

This claim, which was extremely radical for the time, seems to have gained a certain amount of support, but it does not appear to have reached the point of threatening the throne of the kundoku-ism centered at Yushima Seido.

(Continued below)

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