율곡의 심성론에 대한 새로운 분석

Abstract

This paper focuses on Yulgok’s theory of simtongseongjeong (i.e. the theory that the mind commands nature and emotions) and discusses whether the characteristics of, and the relationships between, the generic concepts of mind, nature, and emotion are consistently applicable to their dichotomous sub-concepts of Moral Mind and Human Mind, Original Nature and Physical Nature, and Four Beginnings and Seven Feelings. In the course of this discussion, I make two claims. Firstly, although the tong of ‘simtongseongjeong’ is in general interpreted as gyeom and joo, the two meanings are contradictory and incompatible. I claim that one can hold only one of them and discard the other. Secondly, although Yulgok provides supporting arguments for the claim that the relationship between the Four Beginnings and the Seven Feelings is the same as that between the Original Nature and the Physical Nature, but different from that between the Moral Mind and the Human Mind, this argument draws the conclusion that it is inappropriate for him to identify the Four Feelings and the Moral Mind and, at the same time, distinguishes the Seven Feelings from the Human mind. I claim that the only way to solve this problem is either to give up the view that the Human Mind is good as well as evil or to accept the view that the relationship between the Moral Mind and the Human Mind is the same as that between the Four Beginnings and the Seven Feelings, i.e. the view that, as the Seven Feelings include the Four Beginnings, the Human Mind includes the Moral Mind.