Tradicija, modernost in vloga konfucianizma pri izgradnji japonske nacionalne države

The paper explores the development of Confucian thought in Japan, showing that Confucianism, with its key concept of the Way, remained the foundation of Japanese intellectual circles even as it underwent numerous transformations and reinterpretations. The universal Way as a natural Principle was transformed into a product of the sages within the framework of the kogaku school, whereas the kokugaku school applied the concept of the Way to the Japanese Shinto tradition. The adherents of the rangaku school, on the other hand, adopted Western science and technology in the Confucian intellectual universe. The new nation-state built by the Meiji revolutionaries thus became a mixture of all these intellectual currents. The Meiji state was a modern, industrial and technologically advanced state that identified itself with the imperial system and native Shinto tradition while being held together institutionally by a firm Confucian ideology