퇴계의 자기수양과 참 공부

Abstract

Current world economic powers have a thought of their own that represents the identity of their state. They are the New-frontier Spirit in the U.S. and the Samurai Spirit in Japan. Such identity of a nation(or national status, to be called from now on) is becoming the ground of various national policy making for world economic powers to raise national competitiveness and to secure sustainable management. On the contrary, it is regrettable that there is not any authorized national status or thought in Korea that would be the ground of national competitiveness in various fields. The absence of national status is not irrelevant to the absence of mental power, the ground of national competitiveness. It should be necessary to make efforts to concretize the national status in the mental heritage of the nation for the sake of the national competitiveness. This thesis limited its research to the school of Yeongnam considering what kind of modern meaning the 'Toegye's self-discipline and genuine study' is able to bear and what kind of relation it can have with the national status. The content of 'Toegye's self-discipline and genuine study' is also well represented in the letters exchanged between he and scholars of the school of Yeongnam. The key of 'Toegye's self-discipline and genuine study' is Gyeong(敬). Gyeong is a state of unity of body and mind in which desires and various wicked thoughts are removed by the supervision of mind. Toegye believed that true study could be reached only when the state of unity of mind lasted. He also maintained that the key of Simhak(心學) is to abandon the human desires(人慾) and to retain the heavenly principles(天理). The true study to retain the heavenly principles, from the standpoint of Toegye, is possible by practicing Gyeong. The significance of Toegye’s self-discipline and true study would be to discern between human desires and heavenly principles, to give up wicked thoughts, to realize that the nature enabling living together and reconciliation is in mind and to let it exerted much more. Toegye's Simhak(心學) presented a way of restraining possession-oriented desires through study and discipline and filling up the ontological desire, the heavenly principl. It also maintained the intellectuals' practical endeavors through Yibal(理發). At current point where materialism and the principle of market economy prevails, if the 'acting conscience[理發]', which will save the victims of conflicting desires, is needed politically, Toegye's Simhak might have a stand in between modern studies. 'That must be the greatest reason why the 'Sunbi spirit' that Toegye had practiced constantly throughout his life should be selected as the national status.