李栗谷의 ‘人心道心’說

Abstract

In the development of Korean Confucianism, ‘the theory of the Human mind and the Moral mind’ becomes a central philosophical debate by virtue of Yi Yulgok’s associating it with ‘Four Beginnings and Seven Emotions’ to engage in philosophical debates. Meanwhile, it influences Korean Confucianism as profoundly as Four-Seven debate does. This paper demonstrates that the exact understanding of Zhu Xi’s ‘theory of li and qi’ entitles Yi Yulgok to response to Ugye Seong Hon’s “The Moral mind is activated by li the Human mind is activated by qi” with his proposition: “Though both the Moral mind and the Human mind are activated by qi, the former’s principle is li, the latter’s qi.” This proposition also illuminates that Yi Yulgok inherits Zhu Xi’s ‘theory of the Human mind and the Moral mind.’ Although RenxinTaoxinxianghuwei zhongshishuo, the argument that the Human mind and the Moral mind confront with each other and get to be the beginning and the end alternately, is his original insight, which is developed from his philosophical debateswith Ugye Seong Hon, since he cannot explicate the heterogeneity of the good, his theory of the Human mind and the Moral mind also stumbles into the aporia of ethics.