Philosopher
Gihwa
1376 – c. 1433
Also known as Hamheo Gihwa, Hamheo Deuktong, Hamhŏ Kihwa, Hamhŏ Tŭkt'ong, Kihwa
Buddhist monk of early Joseon whose Exposition of Orthodoxy answered Jeong Dojeon's Neo-Confucian attack on Buddhism with a Buddhist account of self-cultivation.
Gihwa was a Buddhist monk at the beginning of the Joseon dynasty, when the new state adopted Neo-Confucianism and Buddhism came under heavy criticism. He was a contemporary of Jeong Dojeon, Buddhism’s sharpest Neo-Confucian critic.
His Exposition of Orthodoxy is the best-known Buddhist reply to that criticism. It defends Buddhist ethics in the terms the debate demanded, though it could not reverse the decline of Buddhism under Joseon.
Key ideas
- Answering the Neo-Confucian critique
- Jeong Dojeon had attacked Buddhism on behalf of the new Neo-Confucian order. Gihwa replied in his Exposition of Orthodoxy, giving a Buddhist interpretation of the project of self-cultivation.
- Buddhism and ethical life
- He argued that the question of how best to cultivate one’s life can be answered from a Buddhist standpoint, even on family and social ties, on how emotions work morally, and on what suffering and evil mean.
- An isolated defence
- His answers were elegant, but too isolated to hold back the wave of Neo-Confucianism that defined the age.
Influences
Where these links come from
- Gihwa argued against Jeong Dojeon. Source: Halla Kim, Korean Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Key works
- Exposition of Orthodoxy (Hyeonjeong non)
Sources
- Halla Kim, Korean Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Lucy Hyekyung Jee, Korean Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy