율계(栗溪) 정기(鄭琦)의 체용불이(體用不二)의 사유

Abstract

This paper presents an attempt to demonstrate that Yulgye(栗溪) Jeong Gi(鄭琦, 1879 ∼1950) with his Li(理) Philosophy thinking systemized the Theory of Li based on Li as the existence of unrivaled nobility from the perspective of the Unity of Substance and Function. His arguments show the line of disputes that naturally moved from "Ki Jung-jin through Jeon Woo, Jeong Jae-kyu, and Jeon Woo to Jeong Gi." Considering that Jeon Woo held the most important place in the criticism of Eopil(猥筆), Jeong Gi's arguments represented the position of Nosa School at the tip of the biggest branch of the Eopil debate. An examination into his arguments will open an inquiry into an axis of the discourse about the actual flow of the overall point in the Eopil debate. The study contrasted metaphors used by Ki Jung-jin, Jeon Woo, Jeong Jae-kyu, and Jeong Gi and checked theoretical differences and the flow of theoretical flows among them clearly. The points that Jeong Gi made as a representative member of Nosa School around 1936 are arranged into the two following aspects: 1) Jeong Gi inherited the Philosophy of Nosa based on Li as the existence of unrivaled nobility by assuming Li as Doing without Doing, in which process he maintained that Jeon Woo's "Gijai(機自爾)," which means that the material world is what it is itself, offered limited explanations only about "superficial phenomena" of the world. He understood a "superficial phenomenon, Gijai" as a phenomenon of Li's manifestation. This argument is significant as it tries to digest Jeon Woo's criticism within the theories of Nosa School by adding persuasive interpretations about his "Gijai." 2) Jeong Gi sought active interventions into the reality by emphasizing that "Daoxue (道學) and economy were one" from the perspective of substance and function as one. This idea was his attempt to incorporate Ki Jung-jin's Li studies into real issues. This indicates that he realized the fundamental philosophical faith of Nosa School by seeking active interventions and changes for the real society of his time that reached an extreme degree of trouble based on this powerful concept of Li.