Sonno Joi

Sonnō jōi (, Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians^?) was a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate during the Bakumatsu period.

During the Spring and Autumn period of China, Chancellor Guan Zhong of Qi initiated a policy called "Revere the king, expel the barbarians" (Chinese: 尊王攘夷). Adopting and adhering to it, Duke Huan of Qi assembled the Chinese feudal lords to strike down the threat of barbarians from China. For it, Confucius himself praised Guan Zhong for the preservation of Chinese civilization through the example of the contrast in the hairstyles and clothing styles between the Zhou and the barbarians, which came to be known as the Hua–Yi distinction. Through the Analects, the Chinese expression came to be transmitted to Japan as sonnō jōi.

The origin of the philosophy as used in Japan can be traced to works by 17th century Confucian scholars Yamazaki Ansai and Yamaga Sokō, who wrote on the sanctity of the Imperial House of Japan and its superiority to the ruling houses of other nations. These ideas were expanded by Kokugaku scholar Motoori Norinaga, and seen in Takenouchi Shikibu's theory of absolute loyalty to the Emperor of Japan ( sonnōron), that implied that less loyalty should be given to the ruling Tokugawa shogunate.

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