The study of knowledge -

A term in Chinese philosophy. In the Great Learning, the scale of learning (Confucianism) is organized into eight stages (the eight articles Zhu Xi called it) of investigating things, attaining knowledge, sincerity, correcting the mind, cultivating oneself, governing the family, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world. These are the first two articles. There are various interpretations of this term, and as the Great Learning came to be valued as one of the Four Books after the Song dynasty, many different theories arose among Confucian scholars. The most important of these are those of Zhu Xi (Zhu Xi) of the Song dynasty and Wang Shouren (Yangming) of the Ming dynasty. Zhu Xi inherited the theory of Cheng Yi, and said that gaku means to reach, things are things, chi means to pursue, and chi means knowledge. He said that gakubutsu means to reach things, that is, each thing has its own principle, so it is to fully understand the principle of each and every thing, and chichi means to pursue knowledge to the end, to thoroughly understand the principle of all things. Therefore, gakubutsu chichi is the same as the "Kyouri" that he preached.

Wang Shunren disagreed with this interpretation, stating that gaku means to correct, matter means the location of the will (the object of the will, i.e., action), and chi means conscience (the innate intellectual ability to distinguish between right and wrong). He said that investigating things means correcting the location of the will, in other words, acting correctly, and attaining knowledge is the same as what he preached, "attaining conscience," which means realizing the judgment of conscience in one's actions (doing what conscience judges to be right, and not doing what it judges to be wrong). According to this interpretation, the result of attaining knowledge is investigating things. This difference in interpretation of investigating things and attaining knowledge clearly shows the difference in character between Zhu Xi's school of thought, which places importance on intellectual understanding, and Yangming's school of thought, which values ​​practice.

[Yukawa Takahiro]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国哲学の用語。『大学』に、学問（儒学）の規模を、格物、致知、誠意、正心、修身、斉家(せいか)、治国、平天下の8段階（朱熹(しゅき)のいう八条目）に整理して示した。その最初の2項目である。この語の解釈には諸説があり、とくに宋(そう)代以後『大学』が四書の一つとして重視されるにつれて、儒学者の間で多くの異説を生じた。それらのうちもっとも重要なのは宋の朱熹（朱子）と明(みん)の王守仁(しゅじん)（陽明）の説である。朱熹は程頤(ていい)の説を継承し、格は至る、物は事物、致は推し極める、知は知識の意であるとし、格物とは、事物に至る、つまり事物にはそれぞれその事物の理があるので、一事一物の理を十分に窮め知ること、致知とは、知識を推し極める、あらゆる事物の理を知り尽くすことであるとした。したがって格物致知は彼の説いた「窮理」と同じことになる。

　王守仁はこの解釈に反対し、格は正す、物は意の所在（意志の対象つまり行為）、知は良知（是非(ぜひ)善悪を判別できる先天的な知力）をいうとし、格物とは、意の所在を正しくする、つまり正しい行為をすること、致知は、彼の説く「致良知(ちりょうち)」と同じで、良知の判断を行為のなかに実現する（良知が是と判断したことはそのとおりに行い、非としたことは行わない）ことであるとした。この解釈によれば、致知の結果がすなわち格物ということになる。この格物致知の解釈の相違は、知的理解を重視する朱子学と、実践を重んずる陽明学の性格の相違を端的に示すものである。

［湯川敬弘］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例