Philosopher
Jeong Yakyong
1762–1836
Also known as Dasan, Tasan, Chŏng Yagyong
Joseon scholar, known as Dasan, among Korea's most celebrated philosophers, who took apart Zhu Xi's metaphysics of principle and rebuilt Confucian ethics around a personal Lord on High.
Jeong Yakyong, better known by his pen name Dasan, is counted among the greatest philosophers Korea has produced. He was the youngest of three brothers among the Confucian-trained aristocrats who were Korea’s earliest Catholic converts, and his early mentor, Yi Byeok, wrote Korea’s first extended account of Christian doctrine. Like many others, Dasan renounced the religion after seeing relatives and friends executed, under the threat of his own execution and of his wife and children being sold as slaves.
How far his philosophy remained Catholic is debated. Some scholars read him as returning to the original teaching of Confucius; others note how his “dis-assembling” of Neo-Confucianism resembles Ricci’s strategy, and describe the result as a creative synthesis that moves beyond the metaphysics of principle.
Key ideas
- Principle is only an attribute
- Principle can neither perceive, intend nor act, so it cannot govern the cosmos. Dasan demoted it from a self-subsisting substance to an attribute, more like a natural law, a distinction he seems to have met in Matteo Ricci’s writings.
- The Lord on High (Sangje)
- At the centre of Dasan’s commentaries stands Sangje, a personal, all-seeing creator who actively governs creation, not an impersonal principle. The term comes from the Five Classics, and Korea’s early Catholics, who had read Ricci, took it to mean God.
- Back to the classics
- The Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, foundation of Yi Hwang’s cosmology, was written more than a thousand years after Confucius and is found nowhere in the Classics. Some scholars see Dasan as returning to the original teaching of Confucius.
Influences
Where these links come from
- Jeong Yakyong argued against Zhou Dunyi. Source: Kevin N. Cawley, Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Jeong Yakyong argued against Zhu Xi. Source: Kevin N. Cawley, Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Key works
- Supplement to Lectures on the Doctrine of the Mean (Chungyong kangŭibo)
- The Essentials of the Mencius (Maengja yoŭi)
Terms on this page
- Sangje
- The Lord on High (上帝; Chinese Shangdi), a term from the Five Classics. In Jeong Yakyong it is a personal, all-seeing creator who governs creation; Korea’s early Catholics took it to mean God.
Sources
- Kevin N. Cawley, Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy