Background
Ogyu Sorai was born in 1666. His ancestors lived in Ogyii in Mikawa Province (Aichi Prefecture). Was commonly called Soemon and his given name was Futamatsu. Because his family descended from the Mononobes, an ancient warrior family he also called himself Bussorai, the Chines'e character Butsu being part of the name of Mononobe.
Career
Ogyu Sorai first taught his disciples at Shibaura, Edo. He was so poor in those days that he subsisted on the bean refuse supplied by a bean-curd maker who was his neighbor. Later, he was employed by Lord Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa and given a stipend of 500 koku.
Views
Sorai's erudition and acumen were unparalleled for more than 60 years. He was more of a literary man than a moralist. A linguist, he was also good at military science, politics and economics. He insisted that one must study ancient language and literature if one wished to be
a sage and opposed the idea of Sung Dynasty Chinese Confucians and Jinsai Ito that scholars should strive to be sages.
Sorai believed that since attainment of sagehood is beyond the capacity of ordinary mortals scholars should only study facts and literature about sages.