정약용의 靈體와 權衡 개념에 대한 재검토

Abstract

This paper re-examines the concepts of the spiritual body (靈體, yeongche) and the faculty of deliberate self-direction (權衡, gwonhyeong; literally “weights and balances”) in theory of the mind (心論, simnon) of Jeong Yagyong (丁若鏞, 1762-1836; pen name: Dasan 茶山). “Spiritual body” is a term that Dasan coined to refer to the human mind. According to him, the spiritual body’s numinous clarity (靈明性, yeongmyeongseong) has important ontological significance in making possible the resonance between humans and the Highest Emperor (上帝, Shangdi). Dasan believed that the Highest Emperor’s numinous clarity and humans’ numinous clarity communicated, or were connected directly. In this respect, the Highest Emperor and humans as presumed by Dasan can be understood to possess the same ontological roots. In this study, I will first elucidate the basic structure and functions of the spiritual body. Moreover, I will explicate the reasons for Dasan’s strict distinction between the spiritual body, which he used to refer to the human mind, and the human body. The spiritual body that Dasan stressed was also called by other names including numinous knowledge (靈知, yeongji), numinous perception (靈識, yeongsik), and numinous perception of wisdom (靈知慧識, yeongjihyesik) and was considered to exist continuously both before and after humans’ lives. His description of the spiritual body makes it possible to surmise his perspective on the ways in which human souls existed after death. In Dasan’s view, the numinous clarity of the human mind matched the numinous clarity or spiritual clarity (神明, sinmyeong) of the Highest Emperor, and, after death, the numinous clarity of an individual human’s mind matched the numinous clarity not only of his or her ancestors but also, ultimately, of the Highest Emperor. Out of the abilities of the numinous and clear mind, Dasan revered intuitive likes and dislikes (好惡, hoo) regarding good, or intuitive moral tendencies to like good and dislike evil (嗜好性, gihoseong; i. e., human nature as a taste), as heaven-mandated nature (天命之性, cheonmyeongjiseong). In addition, he explicated the spiritual body’s ability for critical thinking through the concept of the faculty of deliberate self-direction. The faculty of deliberate self-direction possessed at once the two continuous functions of judgment and willpower. In this study, I will examine in detail the capacity of the faculty of deliberate self-direction for critical thinking and practical willpower. To this end, I will intensively analyze the points of argument between inferential sympathetic consideration (推恕, chuseo) and self-mastery (克己, geukgi) often used by Dasan. Finally, I will describe the formation and significance of the emotions of like and dislike between the self and others, or the moral emotions of ethically liking good and disliking evil in ethical human relationships, which Dasan emphasized.