Jinsai formed his own understanding of Confucian philosophy after coming to realize that Zhu Xi's speculative philosophy of was not practical in everyday ethics. Instead, he felt one could learn the way of the sages through an understanding of the meanings of words in the "Analects" and the "Mencius", two of the Four Books that Zhu Xi's philosophy had elevated to nearly canonical status within the broad field of East Asian Confucianism. The other two of the Four Books, "The Doctrine of the Mean" and the "Great Learning", were originally chapters from the Book of Rites (Chinese: Liji), that had been treated as separate volumes, with significant emendations, by Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi. It was largely on the basis of the latter two writings that Zhu Xi in particular had articulated some of his most distinctive Neo-Confucian ideas. In response to Zhu Xi's textual alterations, Jinsai argued, in a very distinctive manner, that "the Great Learning was not a surviving work of the Confucian School", not simply rejecting Zhu Xi's claims on particular points, but in an across the board manner dismissing the text as "not Confucian" in any significant respect. Instead of the "Great Learning", Jinsai's approach was to focus on an explanation of the meanings of philosophical terms as discussed in the "Analects" and the "Mencius". Jinsai's approach to Confucian scholarship is today known as "kogigaku" or "study of ancient meanings". This approach was taken up by later Confucian scholars, particularly Ogyū Sorai.