정약용의 사려(思慮) 중심의 미발(未發) 이해

Abstract

Jeong Yagyong returned to ‘weifa' as a not-yet arousal state of concrete emotions such as enjoyment, anger, love and pleasure, which is defined in the Doctrine of Mean(中庸). He criticized Neo-Confucian’s weifa theory, which regards it as a state without the arousal of both emotions and contemplation, and drew the concept of weifa from the orignal text of the Doctrine of Mean through ‘examining a text through the text.' He also understood the contemplation as a psychological process, and furthermore as a state to react to moral events. His understanding of weifa with an emphasis on contemplation is founded on his reconstruction of the relationship between mind, object, emotion, and contemplation. According to his interpretation of weifa, our feelings appear by responding to other human beings or events in a moral situation, and are motivated by exterior objects. However, our feelings are influenced by our contemplation, and can be therefore changed by it as well. Our contemplation directs our feelings even before the feelings arouse, and is accordingly the first and essential step for cultivating our selves. Jeong Yagyong also discussed 'the self-reflection' with relation to our contemplation. Two elements should come together for our cultivation. The self-reflection is our attitude toward the Shangdi (上帝), and involves our contemplation about coming affairs and events. ‘The self-reflection' and ‘the careful and discrete thinking without seeing or listening (戒愼恐懼)' in the not-yet arousal state are to consider and assess, and to control for emotions not to be excessive in the process of contemplation. Jeong Yagyong's understanding of weifa gets rid of a Neo-Confucian narrow viewpoint, and proposes another possibility to discuss the not-yet state of arousal, the state of arousal, morality and cultivation without the theoretical premise of li 理 and qi 氣. His theory of weifa shares his general view to overcome Neo-Confucian's disadvantages by recovering the orignal meanings of early Chinese Confucian classical texts.