A Study on T'oegye(退溪) Yi Hwang(李滉) : Ultimate Concern and Ultimate Reality of Chosun Confucianism

Abstract

Chosun Dynasty was a Confucian state-the state whose political and educational ideology was Confucianism. The Confucian State seeks to realize the ideal of ‘Kingly Government’ (王道政治, Wangdochongch'i), in which the king and sadaebu (士大夫; aristocrats or a literati class) rule the nation in accordance with the will of the people as the very foundation of the nation. ‘Kingly Government’ refers to a political system, in which the king as a man of virtue governs the nation under the principle of morality (道德) with the help of sadaebu who are, both academically and ideologically, committed to Confucianism. The first and foremost concern of Confucianism including the Chosun Confucianism is “What is morality?” This question leads to another more fundamental one: “What is Heaven as the ultimate reality?” It is because morality in Confucianism is a way in which the human nature endowed by Heaven is actualized within human relationships. T'oegye Yi Hwang was a representative neo-Confucian scholar in Chosun Dynasty, who systemized Korean neo-Confucianism and attempted to reach the realm of the sage by putting its ideals into practices. 1. His Learning is the study for the sake of self (为己之学)2. The study for the sake of self is directly Simhak (心学: Study of the mind-and-heart)3. Li (理, Principle) is the Truth of eternal immortality 4. Simhak (心学) in the dimension of lihak (理学: Study of the Principle) is systematized centering on Substance-Function (体用)The ultimate interest in T'oegye (退溪) Yi Hwang (李滉) was to be equipped with the saint's personality through personal cultivation in self. This interest couldn't be realized without truly knowing li (理), which is the ultimate reality. His theory of study is clearly explaining a method of becoming a saint by recognizing and practicing Li (理), which is the ultimate reality, based on lihak in the position of Simhak based on the theory of substance-function. Due to the development in science, the world of animals other than a human being is all threatened. Air and water, which are as important as life itself, are being contaminated as a whole. And, due to competition and distrust between nation and nation & between individual and individual, the number of people, who can make a comfortable life, is getting rapidly reduced. If there are the thought and method in this period that personal cultivation leads to changing own life into extremely good life, and that such personal cultivation allows neighbors to be comfortable, and further all the mankind to be comfortable, will this thought be able to be unconcerned for a reason of being not suitable for science?We are living in the era of human being's subjectivity fallen into the instrumental nationality, not knowing how to approach human being's subjectivity. In this era Yi Hwang's study can offer a method of newly illuminating what the subjectivity and rationality are. There is no way to approach the eternal world and the absolute world that cannot be approached with science, which is the study of just analyzing and synthesizing the individualized phenomenon. Yi Hwang shows the universal validity by connecting the transcendental world with the phenomenal world based on a human being's inner world. The message, which Yi Hwang's study gives to today's philosophy, is powerful.