Philosopher
Yi Hwang
1501–1570
Also known as Toegye, T'oegye
Joseon Neo-Confucian, known as Toegye, whose Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning distilled Zhu Xi's thought, and whose Four-Seven Debate on principle and feeling defined Korean philosophy.
Yi Hwang, known by his pen name Toegye, was one of the two towering Neo-Confucians of the early Joseon dynasty, with Yi I. He made a sustained effort to master Zhu Xi’s learning as a whole, and his Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning, written in 1568, was copied and reprinted more than almost any other book of the dynasty. Its first diagrams are Zhou Dunyi’s Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate and Zhang Zai’s Western Inscription.
His correspondence with Gi Daeseung began the Four-Seven Debate, which a modern scholar has called “the single most important intellectual controversy” of the dynasty. It asked why people whose nature is good still act badly and have bad feelings, and whether the cause lies in principle or in material force. In Japan the Neo-Confucian Yamazaki Ansai considered him the greatest Confucian in Korea, even the equal of Zhu Xi.
Key ideas
- Principle guides material force
- Principle (i) always leads material force (gi), as a rider guides a horse. Principle is perfect; when people act badly, the fault lies in how material force, affected by circumstance, carries principle out.
- The four and the seven
- The four moral beginnings issue from principle, which then guides material force; the seven feelings arise in material force and are harmonised by principle. Yi Hwang refined this view of “alternate issuance” (hobal) in his long debate with Gi Daeseung.
- Mindfulness (gyeong)
- “The mind is the master of the entire person and mindfulness is the master of the mind.” Through constant, disciplined attention to its own workings, the human mind can be brought back towards the “mind of the Way”, pure and aligned with principle.
- Sage learning
- Sagehood is reached through disciplined learning. The Ten Diagrams gathers diagrams by Chinese and Korean Neo-Confucians, three of them his own, setting out the moral cosmos, moral education and the workings of the mind.
- Tradition
- Korean
- Region
- Joseon, Korea
- Period
- Joseon
- Themes
- Human nature
Influences
Influenced by
Yi Hwang1501–1570
Influenced
Influenced by
Yi Hwang1501–1570
Influenced
Where these links come from
- Yi Hwang drew on Zhou Dunyi. Source: Kevin N. Cawley, Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Yi Hwang drew on Zhang Zai. Source: Kevin N. Cawley, Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Yi Hwang drew on Zhu Xi. Source: Kevin N. Cawley, Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Gi Daeseung argued against Yi Hwang. Source: Kevin N. Cawley, Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Yi I argued against Yi Hwang. Source: Kevin N. Cawley, Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Key works
- Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning (Sŏnghak sipto), 1568
Terms on this page
- i
- Principle (理), the Korean reading of the Chinese li. In the Four-Seven Debate, Yi Hwang held that it leads material force (gi), and Yi I that it acts only through it.
- gi
- Material force (氣), the Korean reading of the Chinese qi. In the Four-Seven Debate, Yi I argued that material force issues both the four beginnings and the seven feelings, and principle rides on it.
- hobal
- Alternate issuance (互發): Yi Hwang’s mature view that, though principle and material force are always intertwined, the four beginnings issue from principle and the seven feelings from material force.
- gyeong
- Mindfulness, or reverence (敬): for Yi Hwang, the disciplined attention by which the mind governs thought and action, and the cornerstone of learning to be a sage.
Sources
- Kevin N. Cawley, Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy