Datsua-shiso thought (thought of leaving Asia) (脱亜思想)

Datsua-shiso thought is a concept mainly advocated by Yukichi FUKUZAWA, which encourages an abolishment of Confucianism and a departure from Sinocentrism.

Literary works

There are some literary works describing Datsua-shiso thought, such as "Gakumon no susume" (An Encouragement of Learning) or "Bunmeiron no gairyaku" (An Outline of a Theory of Civilization) written by Yukichi FUKUZAWA.

In the 34th essay collected in "Fukuo Hyakuwa" (One Hundred Discourses of Fukuzawa), which was entitled 'Hanshin-Hangi wa Fuka nari' (A half-baked notion is unacceptable), Yukichi FUKUZAWA explained Datsua-shiso thought as follows.

By the way, 'Datsua-shiso' and 'Datsua-ron' (literally meaning 'theory of leaving Asia') which tend to be confused with each other, should be distinguished, because 'Datsua-shiso' is a common thought and 'Datsua-ron' (On Departure from Asia) is a title of an editorial article in the newspaper, "Jiji Shinpo" (News of current affairs).

[Original Japanese]