Background
Shunsui Shu was born on October 12, 1600 in Shaosingfu, Chekiang Province, China. A Chinese, he was naturalized in Japan. His original name was Shuju.
A monument to Zhu at the College of Agriculture, University of Tokyo main campus
舜水 朱
Shunsui Shu was born on October 12, 1600 in Shaosingfu, Chekiang Province, China. A Chinese, he was naturalized in Japan. His original name was Shuju.
Shunsui Shu was well versed in Confucian classics. Although he was requested by the government to serve, he declined. When soldiers from Manchuria destroyed his government and crossed the Yangtze in their southward march, he fled to Cochin-China and thence came to Japan to ask for military aid in recovering his government. He failed in the mission and returned to his country. Seeing no hope for recovery of his government, he visited Japan for the fourth time in 1659 and settled in Nagasaki. He was protected by Seian Ando, Confucian official of the Yanagawa Clan in Chikuzen Province (Fukuoka Prefecture).
He became a guest scholar of the Mito Clan at the invitation of Lord Mitsukuni Tokugawa. He promoted Confucian learning in Mito. Mitsukuni highly respected Shu and accorded him the posthumous name of Bunkyo Sensei. When Mitsukuni erected a monument for Masashige Kusunoki at Minatogawa (Hyogo Prefecture), an eulogy of Masashige written by Shu was inscribed on the monument. Shu left his writings which were edited by Mitsukuni himself in 28 volumes.