Separating the word and the way: Suyama Nantō’s Chūgi Suikodenkai and Edo-period vernacular philology

This study examines Edo-period interest in the Chinese vernacular novel Suikoden (Ch. Shuihu zhuan). In 1757, Suyama Nantō, a classical scholar from Tosa, published Chūgi Suikodenkai, an annotated guide to the vocabulary of the novel. Although Nantō’s guide can be connected to a larger discourse on linguistic change established by the classical scholar Ogyū Sorai and his Chinese instructor, Okajima Kanzan, the text ultimately rejects their understanding of Sino-Japanese cultural relations in favor of a paradigm rooted in the collection of discrete information about contemporary Chinese material culture that downplayed the ethical and political applications of such information.