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明鏡止水 meikyō shisui A Clear Mirror, Still Water

明鏡止水 (meikyō shisui), a clear mirror and still water, means a mind with nothing weighing on it, clear and calm. The two images are in the Zhuangzi, and in Japan the four characters are in print by 1685. This study follows the phrase from 朱熹's letters through a sword treatise of 1729 to two ministers who used it of themselves as they resigned.

Japanese Scroll of A Clear Mirror, Still Water (meikyō shisui) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
A Clear Mirror, Still Water明鏡止水meikyō shisui

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

明鏡止水, read meikyō shisui, is a clear mirror and still water, and means a mind with nothing weighing on it, clear and calm, in the definitions of the デジタル大辞泉 and the 日本国語大辞典 [1]. The two images are in the Zhuangzi, still water that people use as a mirror and a bright mirror that dust does not settle on, and the Huainanzi sets them in one sentence; the Song philosopher 程頤 likened the sage's mind to a mirror and to still water, and 朱熹, who names 程頤 as its source, is the first writer in the texts read for this history to write the four characters as one phrase [2][3][4][5][6]. In Japan the phrase is in print by 1685, and 伊藤仁斎 threw it out twice over: it was the Zhuangzi's and not the sages', and a mirror and still water are dead things, while the heart is a living one [7][8]. A sword treatise of 1729 made it the swordsman's mind, a merchants' teacher of 1739 named 程子 as its source, 勝海舟's talk as edited in 1897 carried it from the sword into diplomacy, and in 1934 and 1989 two Japanese ministers used it of their state of mind as they resigned [9][10][11][12][1]. My reading, signed below, is that 仁斎 was right that a mirror does not love and the swordsmen were right that it does not sit idle, and that the scroll asks for the second without claiming the first.

Overview

The sense. The デジタル大辞泉 at kotobank defines 明鏡止水 as 曇りのない鏡と静かな水。なんのわだかまりもなく、澄みきって静かな心の状態をいう, a mirror with no clouding and quiet water: the state of a mind with nothing weighing on it, clear and still, and gives 「明鏡止水の心境」, a state of mind of 明鏡止水, as its example; the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives くもりのない鏡と静かな水。澄みきった静かな心境をいう, a mirror with no clouding and quiet water: a clear, still state of mind [1]. Both head the word めいきょう‐しすい, and the 日本国語大辞典 adds a second reading, めいけいしすい [1]. The 四字熟語を知る辞典 gives 心に邪念がなく、明るく澄みきった心境のたとえ, a figure for a state of mind with no evil thoughts, bright and clear [1]. JMdict enters it as clear and serene (as a polished mirror and still water) [13].

The words. 明鏡 is a clear mirror: the デジタル大辞泉 gives 曇りのない鏡, a mirror without clouding, under the readings みょうきょう and めいきょう; the 日本国語大辞典 heads one entry めいけい and another みょうきょう, and under みょうきょう it gives the mirror as a figure for the Buddha-nature or wisdom, with an example from the 往生要集 of 984–85 [14]. 止水 is water that has stopped and does not flow; the 日本国語大辞典 says it is used as a figure for a clear mind, and its earliest example is a line of 大江匡衡's in the 江吏部集 of about 1010–11: 心為止水唯観月, the mind is still water, it only watches the moon [15]. Each half had a life in Japanese before the four characters.

Three dictionaries, three sources. The デジタル大辞泉 says the phrase comes from the Zhuangzi; the 日本国語大辞典 from the Huainanzi; the 四字熟語を知る辞典 says the 朱子語類 has 聖人の心は明鏡止水の如し, the sage's mind is like a clear mirror and still water [1]. Each is true of something, and the history below shows of what.

What follows. The historical record follows the phrase from the two images to the four characters, then into Japan, through the scholar who rejected it and the swordsmen who used it, to the ministers, the reading and the English. A reading is mine.

The historical record

Two images in the Zhuangzi

The Zhuangzi's chapter 德充符, the signs of full virtue, tells of 王駘, a man whose foot had been cut off and whom people followed as they followed Confucius. Asked why, Confucius answers [2]:

人莫鑑於流水，而鑑於止水。唯止，能止衆止。

People do not use running water as a mirror; they use still water. Only what is still can still the stillness of others. In the next story, another one-footed man, 申徒嘉, quotes a saying to the minister 子產 [2]:

鑑明則塵垢不止，止則不明也。

When the mirror is bright, dust does not settle on it; if dust settles, it is not bright. One chapter, two stories: the still water and the bright mirror. Neither sentence joins them. The chapter 天道 makes still water the sage's mirror (水靜猶明，而況精神？聖人之心，靜乎！天地之鑑也，萬物之鏡也, still water is clear; how much more the spirit! The sage's mind, how still it is: the mirror of heaven and earth), and the chapter 應帝王 says 至人之用心若鏡，不將不迎，應而不藏, the perfect man uses his mind like a mirror: he does not send off, he does not welcome; he answers and does not keep [16][17].

The Huainanzi, compiled at the court of 劉安 in the Former Han, puts the two images in one sentence in its chapter 俶真訓 [3][18]:

人莫鑑於流沫，而鑑於止水者，以其靜也；莫窺形於生鐵，而窺於明鏡者，以睹其易也。

People do not use flowing foam as a mirror but still water, because it is quiet; they do not look at their form in raw iron but in a bright mirror, because there it is easy to see. This is the sentence the 日本国語大辞典 gives as the source [1]. The four characters 明鏡止水 were not found in the full text of ctext.org's pre-Qin and Han collections, searched for this history [19].

A mirror and still water: 程頤

The figure for the sage's mind is 程頤's (1033–1107), the Song philosopher who with his elder brother is called the 二程子, the two Masters Cheng [20]. In the record of his talk, a student asked about the mind of a newborn child, which Mencius praised, and then [4]:

曰赤子之心與聖人之心若何曰聖人之心如鏡如止水

He asked: How are the mind of a newborn child and the mind of a sage alike? He said: The sage's mind is like a mirror, like still water. The 四庫全書 text of the 二程遺書, 卷18, reads the same, 聖人之心如鏡如止水 [21]. The 二程粹言, the brothers' sayings rewritten in a more polished classical style, reads the answer with one more character [22]:

聖人之心如明鏡如止水

The sage's mind is like a bright mirror, like still water. So the record of the talk has a mirror, and the polished version a bright mirror. The point of the answer is a contrast: the child's mind has already been stirred, while the sage's is a mirror and still water. Both prints read for this history are of 1866; no Song or Ming print of either book was found online [4][22].

Four characters: 朱熹

In the 朱子語類, the record of 朱熹's (1130–1200) conversations with his students, compiled in 1270, a student puts the four characters together while asking about 程頤's view [23][24][25]:

聖人之心如明鏡止水，赤子之心如何比得？

The sage's mind is like a clear mirror and still water; how can a newborn child's mind be compared with it? The words are the student's question, and 朱熹's answer does not repeat them [23]. 朱熹 writes them in his own voice elsewhere. In a letter to 何叔京 he quotes them as a saying already received [5]:

但所謂聖人之心如明鏡止水，天理純全者，即是存處。

But what is called "the sage's mind is like a clear mirror and still water, the principle of heaven pure and whole" is just where the mind is preserved. In his questions and answers on the Doctrine of the Mean, the 中庸或問, he names the source, 程子明鏡止水之云, 程子's saying about the clear mirror and still water, and gives the figure two sides [6]:

聖人之心未發則爲水鏡之體，既發則爲水鏡之用

The sage's mind, before it is stirred, is the substance of the water and the mirror; once stirred, it is their function. The mirror for 朱熹 is not only the mind at rest but also the mind answering what comes. 朱熹, crediting 程子, is the first writer in the texts read for this history to use the four characters as one phrase [5][6]. A generation later 真德秀 (1178–1235), lecturing the emperor on the Great Learning, said that bright virtue is like a clear mirror and still water, and the desires for things like dust and dregs, 明德如明鏡止水，物欲如塵滓 [26][27].

The mirror the patriarch denied

A Chinese Buddhist reader of the phrase cannot avoid the Platform Sutra. There the monk 神秀 writes on a wall [28]:

身是菩提樹，心如明鏡臺，時時勤拂拭，莫使有塵埃。

The body is the bodhi tree, the mind is like a bright mirror's stand; wipe it with care at all times, and let no dust be on it. 慧能, who became the sixth patriarch, answers 菩提本無樹，明鏡亦無臺, bodhi has no tree, the bright mirror has no stand (the Dunhuang text), or in the later text 本來無一物，何處惹塵埃, from the first there is not a thing; where would dust alight? [29][30][31]. The polished mirror is the figure the patriarch refused.

Each tradition gave the phrase to the other. The Ming monk 智旭 (1599–1655) wrote 即如儒者亦云：明鏡止水以持心, even the Confucians say: a clear mirror and still water, to hold the mind, and asked whether the Confucian's watchfulness over himself was then the Buddhist practice of calm [32][33]. In the Chinese Buddhist canon at CBETA, searched for this history, no instance of the four characters was found before the Ming [34]. The Korean scholar 丁若鏞 (1762–1836), answering his king's questions on the Doctrine of the Mean, quoted 程子 and 朱子 and then wrote [35][36]:

明鏡止水之說，起於佛家

The teaching of the clear mirror and still water arose with the Buddhists. A sage, he went on, was watchful and thought hard, sometimes going without food or sleep, so how could Confucius be likened to a mirror and still water; taken as the ideal, it was nothing but seated meditation [35]. In Japan, a commentary on the Zhuangzi printed in 1890 sets, as a head-note above 鑑明則塵垢不止, 神秀's verse and the sixth patriarch's answer, 菩提本非樹、明鏡亦非臺、本來無一物、何處惹塵埃 [37].

Into Japan

The phrase came to Japan inside the books of 朱熹's school. The 答何叔京 sentence is in a Korean print of 1567 of 朱熹's letters selected by 李滉 (李退溪), now in the National Diet Library, read in the library's text [38][39]. 中江藤樹 (1608–1648), who began in 朱熹's learning and turned to 王陽明's, wrote in a short explication headed 致中和, a phrase of the Doctrine of the Mean, printed only in his collected works of 1858 [40][41]:

此本體譬如明鏡止水，適莫意念譬如鏡裏塵、水上波

This original substance is like a clear mirror and still water; fixations and intentions are like dust on the mirror and waves on the water. The earliest Japanese-authored print of the phrase read at the page for this history is 坂内直頼's survey of the country's shrines, 本朝諸社一覧, of 1685 [7]. Against those who read Confucian and Buddhist books and learned from them to despise Japan, it says [7]:

心ヲ虚ニシテ明鏡止水ノゴトクニシテ讀書ハスベシ

Empty the mind, make it like a clear mirror and still water, and then read.

仁斎's objection

伊藤仁斎 (1627–1705), the Kyoto scholar who left 朱熹's learning to read the Analects and Mencius for themselves, set the phrase aside in his 語孟字義, the meanings of words in the Analects and Mencius, which was printed in the year he died, 1705 [8][42][43]. Under the mind he wrote [8]:

明鏡止水四字本出於莊子，於聖人之書本無此語，亦無此理。

The four characters 明鏡止水 come from the Zhuangzi; the sages' books have neither the words nor the idea. The Duke of Zhou thought through the night, he goes on, and Confucius could not eat his fill beside a mourner: 何所見其爲明鏡止水乎, where does one see a clear mirror and still water in that? Then, after setting the Buddhists' and Daoists' emptied, spotless mind against the bonds between people, he gives the second argument [8]:

故孟子之論心，每以流水萌蘖爲比，而未嘗以明鏡止水爲譬。何者，可以生物比生物，而不可以死物喩生物也。

So when Mencius speaks of the mind he always compares it to flowing water and to sprouts, and never likens it to a clear mirror and still water. Why? A living thing may be compared to a living thing, but a living thing may not be likened to a dead one. A typeset edition of 1901 prints the same paragraph [44]. His dialogue 童子問, printed in 1707, makes the same argument in the library's text of that edition: 道, 性 and 心 are living things and not dead ones [45][46]. 仁斎 dated his own break to this phrase: a paper of 2009 on the formation of his thought quotes his note 讀予舊稿, on reading my old drafts, 三十七八歳、始覺明鏡止水之旨非是, at thirty-seven or thirty-eight I first saw that the teaching of the clear mirror and still water was wrong [47]. The same paper cautions that 程頤 and 朱熹 also called a person a living thing, so 仁斎's quarrel is with a practice built on the figure, not with a denial of life [47].

The objection travelled. A Qing book of 1836, read in the library's text, quotes the Song saying and answers it with 仁斎 by name [48]. In the library's text of the Meiji biographical dictionaries, 仁斎's life repeats one sentence from 1886 on: he held that the Great Learning was not Confucius's and that 明鏡止水 and the doctrines beside it were the loose talk of the Buddhists and Daoists [49].

The sword and the shop

In 1729 a samurai of the 関宿 domain, 佚斎樗山, printed 天狗芸術論, the mountain goblins' discourse on the arts, a treatise on the martial arts in which mountain goblins discuss the arts [9][50][51]. Its first book says [9]:

心ハ明鏡止水のごとし、意念わづかに心頭に横はる時ハ靈明是がために塞れて自在をなす事あたはず

The mind is like a clear mirror and still water; when the slightest intention lies across the mind, its clear working is blocked by it, and it cannot move freely. The next sentence faults the swordsmen of the day for not knowing the place where the mind's body is unmoved and its working is unhindered and free, 心體不動の應用無礙自在なる所 [9]. The mirror here is not withdrawal; it is the condition of answering an opponent without a plan in the way.

Ten years later, in 1739, 石田梅岩, the Kyoto merchants' teacher whose 心学 taught townsmen, printed 都鄙問答, dialogues between city and country [10][52][53]. Asked what it means to know the mind, he answers that the mind is like a jeweled mirror that shines in every direction [10]:

程子所謂明鏡止水是ナリ

It is what 程子 called the clear mirror and still water. Later in the book, of the sage's knowing [54]:

向フ物ヲ移シ曲ザルハ明鏡止水ノ如シ

That he reflects what is before him and does not bend it is like a clear mirror and still water.

勝海舟, as edited

勝海舟 (1823–1899) carried the sword's mirror into diplomacy, in a book of his talk that 吉本襄 edited and published on 22 November 1897, 海舟先生氷川清話 [11][55][56]:

心は明鏡止水の如しと、いふ事は、若い時に習つた劍術の極意だが、外交にもこの極意を應用して、少しも誤らなかつた。

That the mind should be like a clear mirror and still water is the secret of the swordsmanship I learned when young, and I applied the same secret to diplomacy and never once went wrong. Most people plan in advance how they will meet and get through a negotiation, the passage goes on, and that is the worst thing: he makes no plans, throws away every calculation, and keeps the mind polished and clear, 即ち所謂明鏡止水のやうに、心を磨き澄ましておくばかりだ, so that the answer arises as a shadow follows a form [11]. The editor says, in his afterword, that he rewrote or altered every piece, and that 一も原文の儘を採りたるもの無し, not one is taken as it was originally written [55]. The matter is 勝's; the words are 吉本's.

The state of mind

In the twentieth century the phrase became a fixed expression, 明鏡止水の心境, a 明鏡止水 state of mind. A book of 1912 on the Heike, read in the library's text, has it of a mind no longer at risk from its torments [57]. In February 1934 the minister of education, 鳩山一郎, was accused of taking money; a book on the politics of that year reports that in the House of Peers on 28 February he answered a question with the words 明鏡止水の心を以て善處します, I will deal with it with a mind of 明鏡止水, and it prints the statement he issued when he resigned, which ends [12][58]:

こゝに於て私は明鏡止水の心境を以て謹んで骸骨を乞うた次第である。

It is for this reason that, in a state of mind of 明鏡止水, I have respectfully asked to be relieved of office. The 四字熟語を知る辞典 says that he was later found to have been falsely accused [1]. In 1989 the prime minister 宇野宗佑, who resigned after sixty-nine days, used the phrase of his state of mind, as The New York Times and The Irish Times reported in July 1989 and the 四字熟語を知る辞典 records [59][60][61][1]. The dictionary's own examples include a suspect protesting his innocence, in a book of 1998 [1].

The reading

The modern dictionaries head the phrase めいきょうしすい, and the 日本国語大辞典 gives めいけいしすい beside it [1]. The prints read for this history give three readings of 鏡 within fifty-five years: the 1685 shrine survey glosses the four characters ミヤウキヤウシスイ, myōkyō shisui, with the older reading of 明, the みょう of the デジタル大辞泉's みょうきょう [14]; the 1729 sword treatise glosses them めいけいしすい; and the 1739 dialogues gloss 鏡 キヤウ, the reading of today [7][9][10]. The 1934 book on the year's politics glosses the phrase めいきやうしすゐ, the old spelling of today's reading [12].

In English

The oldest European rendering read for this history is German: Rudolf Lange's Thesaurus Japonicus of 1920 gives ein klarer Spiegel und stilles, reines Wasser, a clear mirror and still, pure water, as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it [62]. Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary of 1942 has no entry for the four characters; under 明鏡, a stainless (clear) mirror, it prints an example [63]:

心は明鏡止水の如し. A mind is as bright and clean as a stainless mirror.

The English keeps the mirror and drops the water. Nelson's character dictionary, in its edition of 1974, gives serene frame of mind, and Kenkyusha's fourth edition of 1974 a mind undisturbed or unsullied by evil thoughts; a serene state of mind [64][65]. The translators of the Edo books kept both images: Reinhard Kammer, translating the sword treatise in 1986, wrote The Heart is like a clear mirror or still water, and Sources of Japanese Tradition renders 梅岩's sage as one who resembles a bright mirror or still water [66][67]. John Stevens, in his life of 山岡鉄舟 of 1984, gives 勝's sentence as the secret of swordsmanship was to keep your mind clear and serene like a bright mirror (meikyo-shisui), as the Internet Archive's highlights give it, and in 2013 he lists Meikyo Shisui among the themes 嘉納治五郎 favored for his calligraphy, as Clear Mirror, Still Water [68][69][70]. When 宇野 resigned, The New York Times called the phrase an old poetic expression [59]. The manual of the computer game Final Fantasy XI of 2002 gave the name Meikyo Shisui to a samurai's ability, in the Internet Archive's highlights of it [71].

A reading

I read 明鏡止水 as a mind that answers what comes without bending it, and I think 仁斎's objection to it is half right.

He was right that a mirror does not love. His sentence on dead and living things is the sharpest thing ever written against the phrase, and the Platform Sutra's patriarch and 丁若鏞 came at it from the other two sides: the mirror is the polishing practice the patriarch refused, and the Buddhist calm a Confucian should not take for a sage's vigilance. A mirror gives back each face and keeps none; 應帝王 says as much, he answers and does not keep. That is not care for anyone.

But the swordsmen were right that a mirror does not sit idle. 仁斎's charge was that the figure meant a mind withdrawn, cut off from the bonds between people. The treatise of 1729 used it for the opposite: the mind clear so that it can meet an opponent at once, unblocked by its own intentions, and 勝's talk as edited in 1897 used it to meet another country's envoys without a plan. 朱熹 had already given the mirror a working side as well as a resting one. The swordsmen answered 仁斎's charge of idleness, from a direction he did not consider. They did not answer his charge that a mirror cannot love, and I do not think it can be answered.

So I would hang this scroll as an aim, not a claim. Taken as an aim, 明鏡止水 asks for a mind clear enough to see what is in front of it and answer it truly, the swordsman's and the merchant's reading. Spoken as a claim about oneself, it is what the record shows: a minister resigning, a prime minister leaving office, a suspect in a novel insisting he is clear.

Notes

Not 朱熹's words in the 朱子語類. The 四字熟語を知る辞典's sentence is true of the book: the four characters stand there in a student's question, not in 朱熹's answer [23][1]. 朱熹 writes them in his letters and the 中庸或問 [5][6].

Not from the Ming. ja.wiktionary, read in October 2026, says the four-character form is seen in the Ming; 朱熹 was writing it in the twelfth century [72][5].

Not from Sunzi. An English book on the 鳩山 family, The Hatoyama Dynasty (2003), says in the Internet Archive's highlights that the word meikyo comes from Suntzu; no Sunzi text read for this history has either image, and the Zhuangzi has both [73][2].

The 1567 print is Korean. The National Diet Library's copy of 朱熹's letters dated 1567 is a Korean print of 李滉's selection, not a Japanese print [38].

勝's words are his editor's. The sentence is 勝's matter in 吉本襄's words, by the editor's own statement [55].

鳩山's two wordings. The book read at the page reports the Diet answer as 明鏡止水の心; other reports of 1934 give 明鏡止水の心境. The history quotes the statement, not the Diet answer, as his words, and later cleared stands on the 四字熟語を知る辞典 alone [12][1].

Earliest is scoped. The 日本国語大辞典's earliest example is a novel of 1935–36 [1]; the phrase is in Japanese print by 1685, the oldest Japanese-authored print read at the page for this history, and the National Diet Library's full text was searched oldest first [7][74]. 中江藤樹's sentence is older as writing, before 1648, but was printed only in 1858 [40].

Sources not seen

陳力衛, 「日本の諺・中国の諺 (5) 行雲流水・明鏡止水」, 『日本語学』 24 (10), September 2005, pp. 70–72, a study of this phrase in both languages, which is in print only.

The record of the House of Peers of 28 February 1934, for 鳩山's answer in the Diet's own words.

宇野宗佑's words of 1989 in a Japanese newspaper or the Diet record.

A Song or Ming print of the 二程遺書 and the 二程粹言, for 如鏡 and 如明鏡.

The 日本思想大系 edition of 伊藤仁斎's 語孟字義 and 童子問, and the 童子問's chapter at the page.

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「明鏡止水」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 四字熟語を知る辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/明鏡止水-642922
  2. 『莊子』 德充符, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/莊子/德充符
  3. 『淮南子』 俶真訓, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/淮南子/俶真訓
  4. 張伯行 編, 『二程語錄』 卷11, 正誼堂全書, 1866, scan 28. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2597929/1/28
  5. 朱熹, 「答何叔京」, in 『御纂朱子全書』 卷44, the 四庫全書 text, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/御纂朱子全書_(四庫全書本)/卷44
  6. 朱熹, 『四書或問』 卷3, 中庸或問, the 四庫全書 text, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/四書或問_(四庫全書本)/卷03
  7. 坂内直頼, 『本朝諸社一覧』 第1-2, 1685, scan 15. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2538739/1/15
  8. 伊藤仁斎, 『語孟字義』 卷上, 「心」, 1705, scans 33–34. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2579587/1/33
  9. 佚斎樗山, 『天狗芸術論』 卷一, 1729, folio 6, the Kyushu University Library copy, image 10. https://hdl.handle.net/2324/411541
  10. 石田梅岩, 『都鄙問答』 卷之一, 1739, the National Institute of Japanese Literature copy, image 46. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/200016065/46
  11. 勝海舟 述, 吉本襄 編, 『海舟先生氷川清話』, 1897, p. 53, scan 29. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/781229/1/29
  12. 岸田菊伴, 『政局はどう動く?』, 1934, pp. 4–5, scan 5. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1437260/1/5
  13. JMdict (EDRDG), the release file of 1 October 2026, entries 1674700 明鏡止水, 1674690 明鏡 and 1770130 止水.
  14. 「明鏡」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/明鏡-640181
  15. 「止水」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/止水-519634
  16. 『莊子』 天道, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/莊子/天道
  17. 『莊子』 應帝王, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/莊子/應帝王
  18. 「淮南子」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/淮南子-37013
  19. Searches for 明鏡止水 and 止水明鏡 in the full text of ctext.org, pre-Qin and Han, and post-Han, October 2026. https://ctext.org/
  20. 「程頤」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/程頤-99763
  21. 『二程遺書』 卷18, the 四庫全書 text, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/二程遺書_(四庫全書本)/卷18
  22. 『二程粹言』 卷下, 正誼堂全書, 1866, scan 42. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2597872/1/42
  23. 『朱子語類』 卷97, 程子之書三, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/朱子語類/097
  24. 「朱熹」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/朱熹-77570
  25. 「朱子語類」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/朱子語類-77706
  26. 真德秀, 『西山文集』 卷18, 經筵講義, the 四庫全書 text, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/西山文集_(四庫全書本)/卷18
  27. 「真徳秀」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/真徳秀-82355
  28. 『六祖壇經』 (the Dunhuang text), T48, no. 2007, p. 337c, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T48n2007_p0337c01
  29. 『六祖壇經』 (the Dunhuang text), T48, no. 2007, p. 338a, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T48n2007_p0338a07
  30. 『六祖大師法寶壇經』 (宗寶本), T48, no. 2008, p. 349a, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T48n2008_p0349a07
  31. 「慧能」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/慧能-37092
  32. 智旭, 『絕餘編』 卷2, J28, no. B216, p. 578c, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/J28nB216_p0578c19
  33. 「智旭」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/智旭-95955
  34. Searches for 明鏡止水 and 止水明鏡 in the CBETA canon, October 2026. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/
  35. 丁若鏞, 『中庸講義補』, in 『與猶堂全書』 第二集 第四卷, 1938, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/與猶堂全書/第二集/第四卷
  36. 「丁若鏞」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/丁若鏞-100086
  37. 東条保 注, 秦鼎 補, 『補義荘子因 標註』 巻之二, 1890, 德充符, the head-note, scan 18. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/753392/1/18
  38. 李滉 選, 『朱子書節要』, 隆慶1 (1567) 跋, the library's record, read in the library's text. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2576469
  39. 「李滉」, 日本大百科全書 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/李滉-20809
  40. 『藤樹先生全書』 巻之一, (1858), 經解, 「致中和」, scan 14. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11891914/1/14
  41. 「中江藤樹」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/中江藤樹-17078
  42. 「伊藤仁斎」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/伊藤仁斎-15403
  43. 「語孟字義」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, 日本大百科全書 and ブリタニカ国際大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/語孟字義-66287
  44. 井上哲次郎 and 蟹江義丸 編, 『日本倫理彙編』 巻之5, 古学派の部 (中), 1901, 語孟字義 卷之上, p. 32, scan 21. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1913285/1/21
  45. 井上哲次郎 and 蟹江義丸 編, 『日本倫理彙編』 巻之5, 1901, 童子問 卷中, 第四十六章, scans 85–86, read in the library's text. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1913285/1/85
  46. 「童子問」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/童子問-580451
  47. 阿部光麿, 「伊藤仁齋の思想形成とその方向性」, 『東洋の思想と宗教』 26, 2009, pp. 48–71, at the Waseda University repository. https://waseda.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/5718
  48. 錢泳 輯, 『海外新書』, 1836, read in the library's text. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11892656
  49. 嵯峨正作 編, 『大日本人名辞書』, 1886, 伊藤仁斎, read in the library's text. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/779848
  50. 「天狗芸術論」, 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/天狗芸術論-1566101
  51. 「佚斎樗山」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/佚斎樗山-1054742
  52. 「石田梅岩」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/石田梅岩-15257
  53. 「都鄙問答」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/都鄙問答-105658
  54. 石田梅岩, 『都鄙問答』 卷之三, 1739, folio 25, the National Institute of Japanese Literature copy, image 152. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/200016065/152
  55. 勝海舟 述, 吉本襄 編, 『海舟先生氷川清話』, 1897, the editor's afterword (撰者謹識), p. 136, and the colophon, scan 71. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/781229/1/71
  56. 「勝海舟」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/勝海舟-15669
  57. 高須梅渓, 『平家の人々』, 1912, read in the library's text. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/889258
  58. 「鳩山一郎」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/鳩山一郎-14784
  59. The New York Times, 24 July 1989, as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it. https://archive.org/details/sim_new-york-times_the-new-york-times_1989-07-24_138_47941
  60. The Irish Times, 25 July 1989, as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it. https://archive.org/details/per_irish_times_1989-07-25_41430
  61. 「宇野宗佑」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/宇野宗佑-35030
  62. Rudolf Lange, Thesaurus Japonicus III, 1920, as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it. https://archive.org/details/ThesaurusJaponicus03
  63. 武信由太郎 (Takenobu Yoshitarō) 編, Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, American edition, Harvard University Press, 1942, p. 1203 s.v. meikyō.
  64. Andrew N. Nelson, The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary, second revised edition, Tuttle, 1974, p. 479, under 明.
  65. 増田綱 (Masuda Kō) 編, Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, fourth edition, Kenkyusha, 1974, p. 1074 s.v. meikyō-shisui.
  66. Reinhard Kammer, The Way of the Sword: The Tengu-geijutsu-ron of Chozan Shissai, Arkana, 1986, p. 46.
  67. Wm. Theodore de Bary, Carol Gluck and Arthur E. Tiedemann, compilers, Sources of Japanese Tradition, second edition, vol. 2, Columbia University Press, 2005, the excerpt from 都鄙問答 (read in an ebook edition without printed page numbers).
  68. John Stevens, The Sword of No-Sword: Life of the Master Warrior Tesshu, Shambhala, 1984, as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it. https://archive.org/details/swordofnoswordli0000stev_u2g5
  69. John Stevens, The Way of Judo: A Portrait of Jigoro Kano and His Students, Shambhala, 2013, the section Kano's Teachings Expressed in Calligraphy (read in an ebook edition without printed page numbers).
  70. 「嘉納治五郎」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/嘉納治五郎-15824
  71. Final Fantasy XI, The Vana'diel Collection manual, Square Enix, 2002, as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it. https://archive.org/details/final-fantasy-xi_game-guides_the-vanadiel-collection-manual-guide-english-gamedox_2002_gamedox_58447
  72. 「明鏡止水」, ja.wiktionary, read October 2026. https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/明鏡止水
  73. Mayumi Itoh, The Hatoyama Dynasty: Japanese Political Leadership through the Generations, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, as the Internet Archive's full-text highlights give it. https://archive.org/details/hatoyamadynastyj0000itoh
  74. The National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search, oldest first, October 2026. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Not yet reviewed.

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 明鏡止水 (meikyō shisui)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/meikyo-shisui.