Mori Ōgai reconstructs the life of Shibue Chūsai, an Edo-period physician of the Tsugaru domain and bibliophile scholar, from tombstones, family papers and the memories of his surviving son. Wives, children, rivals and fellow scholars such as Mori Kien crowd the account, including the formidable Io, set against a late-shogunate world of old medical texts.
Books mentioned in Shibue Chūsai (6)
The Analects by Confucius: “Chūsai had a copy of The Analects with Dōshun's reading marks brought out, opened volume seven, and began lecturing from the line "Zigong asked...", taking no notice of Zhu Xi's commentary and following the old interpretations throughout. [auto-translated]”
Mencius by Mencius: “Chūsai also said: "The best part of Mencius is in the chapter on Exhausting the Mind." [auto-translated]”
Tao Te Ching by Laozi: “The scholar Meian was fond of the Tao Te Ching in his later years, and so Chūsai too came to share his taste. [auto-translated]”
Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian: “Mori Kien came and borrowed The Analects and the Records of the Grand Historian. The Analects was an old manuscript with Japanese reading marks, and the Records of the Grand Historian was a Korean edition. [auto-translated]”
Ryūshinfu by Shibue Chūsai: “Among the books Chūsai wrote, first come the Keiseki Hōkoshi and the Ryūshinfu, which were published one after the other by Chinese hands. [auto-translated]”
Han Feizi by Han Fei: “Of the Han Feizi, he said that the chapters "Zhu Dao," "Yang Quan," "Jie Lao" and "Yu Lao" were the good ones. [auto-translated]”