주･왕(朱･王) 이원적 구조에 의한 하곡의 『중용』해석

Abstract

Zhongyong is a philosophy book in Confucianism that clarifies the essence of human and universe and the relationship between the heaven and human being. It not only served as theoretical foundation of Neo-Confucianism in Song Dynasty but greatly affected Liqi theory (理氣論) and Mind-Nature theory (心性論) in Joseon. It is stated that as heaven’s will is inherent in human’s nature, it is a right way to live with that heaven’s will and consistent cultivation is required. The core idea is that it is ‘sincerity (誠)’ that connects human’s way and that of heaven and a human being can be one with the heaven through efforts to ‘practice the way of heaven (誠之).’ Hagok Jeong Je-Du (1649~1736) is known as a representative scholar of Wang Yangming school in Joseon dynasty but there are various appraisals on his scholarly inclination. It is probably because he expanded his academic interests to the doctrines of Zhuxi, the philosophy of Wang Yangming, administration theory and the study of Confucian classics as well. Unlike the conventional philosophy of Wang Yangming, he put stress on the study of Confucian classics and consequently, wrote a number of writings on it, one of which is Theory on Zhongyong. He opposed to the idea that the right way of Zhongyong was understood as imagining a lofty metaphysical world for the then doctrines of Zhuxi were biased merely towards theories. He regarded the way of Zhongyong as something ordinary that anyone could reach through cultivation to ‘be sincere’ and Zhongyong as a book on self-cultivation for those who sought learning, not a metaphysical philosophy book. He thought that the way of a saint may lie upon the philosophy of Wang Yangming or on the doctrines of Zhuxi and interpreted Zhongyong in the Zhu-Wang dualistic structure by properly embracing advantages both from the doctrines of Zhuxi and the philosophy of Wang Yangming. While emphasizing moral aspects that human should practice, he also tried not to miss theoretical and empirical aspects, which further formed an academic system on which his opinions were expressed based on both theories. He interpreted the structure of Li-Qi dualism as monism and translated Zhongyong by stressing human’s independent thinking and switching to a stance of emphasizing acquired cultivation instead of an existing perspective that the human’s independent thinking was neglected for being biased toward abstract and metaphysical Li. His idea that put emphasis on human’s independent thinking paved the way for change into modern awareness and affected development of scientific and empirical studies afterwards.