ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the development of Confucian thought in East Asia by taking Islamic thought as a point of reference. It seeks to reveal similarities and differences between the various intellectual divisions in Islamic thought, the Sunni and Shia denominations, and the Sufi order, and a similar division found in Confucian thought, notably ideas associated with the schools of Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming, and Ogyu Sorai. According to Izutsu Toshihiko, a leading Japanese authority on Islam, two “cultural patterns” characterize Islamic thought. Izutsu describes the situation succinctly: Islam, initially affirming individual existence, became a social religion. This chapter has taken a cursory look at the history of Islamic thought and Confucian thought, with particular attention paid to internal and exterior manifestations of thinking and faith.
