桓譚의 天道論 思想 연구

Abstract

Huantan, who lived from the end of the West Han to the early days of the East Han, can be said to be a thinker who resolutely put up a banner against the thought chanweishuo, which was the mainstream at that time. In particular, in the process of opposing the tianmingguan of chanweishuo, Huantan pointed out that the personalized tian's will, tiadao, or god’s will built by chanweishuo using yinyangwuxingshuo had infinitely high authorities and was an object of worship. Therefore, Huantan regarded that tian did not have the command or authority to impose pain or disasters to humans. Huantan, on the contrary, regarded that there were naturally formed laws of life in nature, which are birth, growth, aging, and death, and that since humans were also beings living in Mother Nature, humans were also following the laws of life. Huantan expressed a clear opposition to the tianminglun that was prevalent in society at that time. The main reason is that he regarded that the acts of vulgar Confucian scholars of the later times, who pretended the words of the saint to personalize the tian and develop the tianrenganying thought indicating that the tian had wills and acts, were in violation of Pre-Qin Confucianism's teachings. Huantan believed that the error of chanweishuo was in Confucian scholars’ acts of pretending the justification of Confucianism to put up authorities in order to gratify their selfish desires because such acts are in violation of the teachings of Confucianism jingdian. Therefore, Huantan regarded that he phenomena interpreted by chanweishuo were merely incidental right assumptions and that when faced zaiyi phenomena or troubles, competent monarchs, wise servants, and wise scholars would respond to such phenomena by cultivating their virtue, implementing good politics, caring about the duties given to them, and acting carefully.