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Rh standard of doctrine. Even in the preceding century there had been heretics, vigorously denounced by Kiusō, who followed the teachings of Wang Yangming, a Chinese thinker who "endeavoured to substitute an idealistic intuitionalism for the scientific philosophy of Chu-Hi." Another heretic was Itō Jinsai (1627–1705), who was one of the founders of a new sect known as the Kogakusha, which set aside Chu-Hi's exposition of the Chinese classics, and sought to base a system of philosophy on the direct study of the works of Confucius. His son Tōgai (1670–1736), a distinguished scholar, followed in the same track as well as the still more eminent Ogiu Sorai (1666–1728). Tōgai was the author of Yuken Shōroku and Hyōsoku-dan, collections of miscellaneous writings in the Japanese language; and Sorai is remembered for his Seidan ("Talk on Government") and Narubeshi, both of which are in Japanese. Dazai Shuntai, also a heretical philosopher, was the author of a work on finance called Keizairoku, and of a volume of desultory essays, in a plain, straightforward style, entitled Dokugo ("Soliloquy"), which is much esteemed. All these were voluminous writers in the Chinese language.

Meanwhile the Chu-Hi or orthodox school of philosophy was not without its champions, and a war of contending sects arose whose wrangles disturbed Japan until the end of the century. The intolerance of all classes of Kangakusha for Buddhism, and the aversion and contempt of the Wagakusha (or students of the native learning and religion) for Chinese scholars and Buddhists alike, helped to increase the turmoil and confusion. Towards the end