Should People Blame Sangje for Evil and Suffering?—Dasan Jeong Yakyong’s Reformulation of the Confucian Problem of Evil through His Re-interpretation of the Poem Tang
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Influenced by Catholicism, Korean Confucian philosopher Dasan Jeong Yakyong 茶山 丁若鏞 (1762–1836) formulated a unique re-interpretation of the concept of Sangje 上帝 in the Five Classics. Remarkably, in his re-interpretation of the poem Tang from the Book of Odes, which was widely regarded as a political analogy rather than a religious poem, Dasan claimed that according to Tang, Sangje is a perfectly good judge who rewards the virtuous and punishes the wicked, and therefore people’s resentment against Sangje is unjustified. This paper argues that Dasan “re-religionized” Tang as a Confucian version of the problem of evil and suffering: if Sangje is an omnibenevolent and omniscient God, why was there evil and suffering in the world? Dasan’s solution to the problem is that, according to Tang, since all evil and sufferings were caused by people’s free will, people should not blame Sangje. Yet this paper argues that Dasan’s answer is inconsistent with the context of the Book of Odes where resentment against Heaven or Sangje is frequently justified. Therefore, Dasan’s solution to the problem of evil embedded in Tang implies an implicit criticism of the Decade of Tang, although he might not be aware of that.
Abstract
Influenced by Catholicism, Korean Confucian philosopher Dasan Jeong Yakyong 茶山 丁若鏞 (1762–1836) formulated a unique re-interpretation of the concept of Sangje 上帝 in the Five Classics. Remarkably, in his re-interpretation of the poem Tang from the Book of Odes, which was widely regarded as a political analogy rather than a religious poem, Dasan claimed that according to Tang, Sangje is a perfectly good judge who rewards the virtuous and punishes the wicked, and therefore people’s resentment against Sangje is unjustified. This paper argues that Dasan “re-religionized” Tang as a Confucian version of the problem of evil and suffering: if Sangje is an omnibenevolent and omniscient God, why was there evil and suffering in the world? Dasan’s solution to the problem is that, according to Tang, since all evil and sufferings were caused by people’s free will, people should not blame Sangje. Yet this paper argues that Dasan’s answer is inconsistent with the context of the Book of Odes where resentment against Heaven or Sangje is frequently justified. Therefore, Dasan’s solution to the problem of evil embedded in Tang implies an implicit criticism of the Decade of Tang, although he might not be aware of that.