Jeong Yak-yong

This is a Korean name; the family name is Jeong.

Jeong Yak-yong
The Portrait of Jeong Yak-yong
Korean name
Hangul	정약용
Hanja	丁若鏞
Revised Romanization	Jeong Yak-yong
McCune–Reischauer	Chŏng Yagyong
Pen name
Hangul	다산
Hanja	茶山
Revised Romanization	Dasan
McCune–Reischauer	Tasan
Courtesy name
Hangul	미용 or 송보
Hanja	美鏞 or 頌甫
Revised Romanization	Miyong or Songbo
McCune–Reischauer	Miyong or Songbo

Jeong Yak-yong (1762–1836, styled Dasan) was a leading Korean philosopher in the late Joseon Dynasty. He has usually been regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of the so-called "Practical Learning" (Silhak) movement. Jeong thought that Neo-Confucianism, the dominant ideology of the time, lacked practicality and relevance to his time, suggesting the need to reappreciate the spirit of early Confucianism in general, i.e., practicality. Jeong Yak-yong and his brothers were also among the earliest Korean converts to Roman Catholicism.^[1]

Korean and world experts have celebrated Jeong Yak-yong's contribution to Korean philosophy. Eminent Korean Confucian scholars received a pen name in addition to their birth name. In the case of Jeong Yak-yong, he received the pen name Dasan. Dasan established his reputation by explaining and applying the 18th century Korean philosophy, Silhak. Silhak arose when Korean scholars like Dasan worked to adapt Western ideas to Korean Confucian philosophy. Most Korean Confucian scholars consider Dasan the foremost Silhak philosopher.

Biography

Early life

Jeong was born, and also ended his days, in modern-day Namyangju, Gyeonggi province.

The Jeong family, which included four brothers and a sister, has been immortalized not only by the exceptional intelligence and dedication of their children but also by their close connection with the birth of the Korean Catholic Church at the end of the 18th century.

Dasan was the fourth son of the Jeong family, and as the youngest, he benefited from the example of his brothers, relatives and friends of the extended family. At a young age he devoured the books of his family’s library and was talented at writing. Although his family was one of destitute families of the Southern party a lot of activities had been happening since the new King Jeongjo noticed the potential talent of such families.

Time at the Kyujanggak

Jeong Yak-yong passed the civil service examination in 1783 and served the government as the Gyeongui Jinsa (경의진사, 經義進土). In 1784, He was influenced by the Western learning and Roman Catholicism through Yi Byeok.

In 1789, He was appointed Gajuseo (가주서, 假注書) and Geom-yeol (검열, 檢閱). In those days, Korean government repressed freedom of religion, especially Catholicism. He was also exiled to the Haemi by his political opponents due to this reason. However. King Jeongjo ordered his return to court after only ten days.

He supervised the construction of Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon in the early 1792. In 1794, he served as secret royal inspector (암행어사) of Gyeonggi province, investigating misconduct by other officials. This opened his eyes to the scale of official misconduct, and may have inspired many of his later writings.

In 1795, He was demoted to a less important post for such a reason in 1789. After 1795, He became Busajik (부사직, 副司直) in Kyujanggak, Seungji (승지). However, he was entrapped and resigned from these positions. In 1799, He was appointed as the Byeongjo chamui, but resigned from his position. King Jeongjo called him back but suddenly died in June 1800.

Exile

King Jeongjo's successor, King Sunjo, was too young, so the Queen Jeongsun seized power only to take revenge against all the reformers like Dasan. She used the pretext of the Roman Catholic Church, which she called a perverse religion, and launched persecution in 1801. Dasan seems to have renounced his faith. He barely escaped death, and was exiled in Kangjin in the south of the country.

His enemies thought to be rid of him; he was living among peasants in a remote place, considered to be a criminal. As a result, He was exiled to Gangjin, South Jeolla for 18 years.

During that period, Dasan lived truly what was the ideal of silhak. He wrote on numerous subjects such as complex philosophical issues, land systems, political structure reform, fairer distribution of wealth, and abolition of the social hierarchy system. Many important works on jurisprudence "Heumheumsinseo" (1819), on the art of governing, "Mongminsimseo", on the administration, "Gyeongse Yupyo" (1817) were written in this period.

Return to Majae

When Dasan was pardoned in 1819 by King Sunjo, his life remained precarious. After his return, He died on 1836 in Namyangju.

Thought

Jeong is well-known above all for his work in synthesizing the Neo-Confucian thought of the middle Joseon dynasty.^[2] In the process, he wrote widely in various fields including law, political theory, and the Korean Confucian classics. He sought to return Korean Confucian scholarship to a direct connection with the original thought of Confucius. He called this return to the classics "Susa" learning (수사, 洙泗), a reference to the two rivers that flowed through Confucius' homeland.^[3]

Jeong published a number of books over various areas, including his best-known Mokminsimseo (목민심서, 牧民心書, The Mind of Governing the People). Although he was deeply concerned about the problem of poverty during that time, Jeong deeply pondered the issue of poverty and raised questions about the role of government officials. He believed that the government and bureaucrats could and should play a major role in solving the problem of poverty. Dasan stressed the importance of the governor's administering the people with integrity and in a fair manner. According to him, the government was the ruling entity to render aid and favor to the people while the people were the subject of the government's sympathy and rule.^[1]

In the service of this idea, Jeong criticized the philosophers of his time for engaging in both fruitless etymological scholarship and pursuing philosophical theory for their own sake.^[4] He argued that scholarship should be re-focused on more important concerns such as music, ritual, and law. This was not only an intellectual but also a political assertion: he argued that the gwageo examinations by which people qualified for royal service should be reformed to focus on these concerns.^[5]

Ye Philosophy

Ye philosophy takes up a large portion of the writings of Jeong Yak-yong. As demonstrated by the fact that the original title of Gyeongse Yupyo (경세유표, 經世遺表, Design for Good Government), a flagship work of his which presents a blueprint of state management, was Bangnye Chobon (Draft for the Country’s Rites), Jeong uses the concept of Ye extensively to represent what he aims to achieve with his thought. He focuses this concept on his notion of good government and later extended and branched into his works of classical studies and natural sciences.^[2]

Theory of Sacrificial Rites

Dasan's theory of Korean-style sacrificial rites (제사, 祭祀) shows his socio-political concern seeking for the rule of virtue and righteous government. He intended to motivate people into making everyday practices of the human imperatives and to revitalize effectively the traditional society of the late period of Joseon dynasty which had its basis upon Ye (禮, Confucian order). In Mokminsimseo, Dasan formulates the cognitive process of ritual practice focussing on sacrificial rites as follows.

1) The cognition of the ritual object raises the intentional movement of mind/heart toward the ritual object in the cognitive process.

2) The intentionality of mind and heart entails reverence and purification in the ritual process. Ritual practice is significant through sincerity (성, 誠) and seriousness (경, 敬). From the perspective of the cognitive science of religion, Dasan's theory relates cognition with intentional piety in the cognitive process, and combines intentional piety and reverence/purification in ritual practice. Dasan intended to regulate the excessive ritual practices of the literati and restrict popular licentious cults (음사, 淫祀) in accordance with his cognitive formula. From his point of view, Confucianist's ritual conceptions were improper or impractical, and popular licentious cults were impious and overly enthusiastic. In order to solve these problems, He redefined Zhi Hsi's concept of seriousness as attentive concentration of convergent piety into the concept of prudential reverence as intentional pietism. Zhi Hsi's concept of seriousness contains apophatic mysticism like Zen Buddhist Quietism (정, 靜) by mediation, but Dasan's concept of reverence is inclined towards Cataphatic activism by contemplation.^[3]

Views on Dasan

Professor Ogawa Haruhisa of Nishogakusha University in Tokyo is very impressed by Dasan:

“In addition to egalitarian ideas, Chông Yag-yong Dasan provided something precious that had been lost at that time. He has these elements that we must learn and revive in these modern times. He formed his philosophy despite his sufferings in exile. I think he will be of interest to contemporary scholars for a long time.”^{[citation needed]}

Professor Peng Lin at Qinghua University, Beijing teaches the Chinese classics and has a special interest in Dasan’s study of rituals. He published in the 1980s research papers on Dasan in the Sônggyun’gwan Journal of East Asian Studies:

“Dasan devoted great efforts in studying rites, to understanding and bringing recognition to traditional culture. I believe that Dasan’s study of rites is highly unique. He studied all the three fields in the study of ritual and this was not common even among Chinese scholars. Many can achieve only partial understanding even after a lifetime study, but Dasan studied all the ritual fields and his research is truly astounding. He wanted to create an ideal society by starting with what already existed. This shows Dasan’s humanistic interest and that intrigues me.”^{[citation needed]}

Professor Don Baker at the Asia Center of the University of British Columbia, Canada, is interested in Dasan for his role as an intellectual in a period of transition:

“I think that in the twenty-first century we still need to adopt Dasan’s spirit, what I call moral pragmatism. He was a very pragmatic man. He looked at problems and said ‘how can we solve them’. But also he always kept his moral values at the front. We often have in society a material progress for the sake of material progress. Dasan wanted a material progress but a progress that creates a more moral society, therefore I call it moral pragmatism and I think that we still need such spirit today.”^{[citation needed]}

There is in Korea a revival of Jeong Yak-yong's thought never seen before on that scale for any Korean philosopher. In the not distant past one could hear doubts about even the existence of a Korean philosophy. Since the liberation of Korea in 1945 Western philosophy has prevailed and philosophy departments in most Korean universities teach mainly European modern philosophy. Therefore Dasan is of great importance as he was able to be enthusiastic for modern Western ideas but remained deeply committed to the depth of Confucianism. He was not defending a tradition for its own sake but wanted to keep the precious values of the early Chinese period because it was a foundation for man and society.

Names

At different times in his life, Jeong adopted a wide variety of ho, or pen names. The most well-known of these, Dasan, means "tea mountain." Jeong adopted it while in internal exile near a mountain of the same name, in Gangjin County, on the coast of South Jeolla province. Other pen names of his include Sammi (삼미/三眉), Yeoyudang (여유당/與猶堂), Saam (사암/俟菴), Jahadoin (자하도인/紫霞道人), Tagong (탁옹/籜翁), Taesu (태수/苔叟), Munamirin (문암일인/門巖逸人), and Cheolmasancho (철마산초/鐵馬山樵).

At birth, his father gave Jeong the courtesy name Gwinong, (귀농/歸農), which means "returning to the land." This reflected his father's decision to leave government service in the wake of King Yeongjo's murder of the crown prince.^[6]

As a Roman Catholic, he received the baptismal name John, or 요한 (Yohan), in Korean.

After his death, the King bestowed on Jeong the posthumous name Mundo (문도/文度). Mun refers to writing or literature, and do to law.

He was the uncle of Saint Paul Chong Hasang.

Footnotes

1. ^ Lee, Ki-baek, 1976, p. 239.
2. ^ Lee Eul-ho, 1985, reprinted in Korean National Commission (Eds.), 2004, p. 338
3. ^ Lee Eul-ho, op. cit., p. 340.
4. ^ Lee Eul-ho, op. cit., pp. 344–345.
5. ^ Jeong Yag-yong, "False Forms of Confucian Scholarship," in Ch'oe et al. (2000), pp. 23–26.
6. ^ Chong Yak-yong "Tasan", section titled "The Road to Tea Mountain". Claims to be quoted from Mark Setton's 1997 work, Chong YagYong: Korea's challenge to Neo-confucianism.

See also

• Jeong Yak-jong
• Silhak
• Korean philosophy
• List of Korean philosophers
• Education in the Joseon Dynasty
• Joseon Dynasty politics
• Catholicism in Korea

References

1. ^ http://eng.cfe.org/mboard/bbsDetail.asp?cid=mn2007713123749&pn=3&idx=971
2. ^ http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:QBlEV3IADmcJ:www.ekoreajournal.net/upload/pdf/PDF4948+Jeong+Yak-yong+idea&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShJFLe6lO7AHd3Kt6-jTjJ30D3F49-bS5op5VvY0DNk7A6_LfgGmdxjtAX25SJ-rchyxVNGnRvzSuqbrAAC5aR3FvDIgMxcYT1oW_FPXGiaXefGsUoyX7GJANwMzwtSMuE_Mkn4&sig=AHIEtbSOPybiHQgT7Pl-orGGvncRRQoQ-A
3. ^ http://www.papersearch.net/view/detail.asp?detail_key=1y600108

Print

• Ch'oe, Y., Lee, P.H., de Bary, T., Eds. (2000). Sources of Korean tradition, vol. II. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12031-1. 
• Korean National Commission, Eds. (2004). Korean philosophy: Its tradition and modern transformation. Seoul: Hollym. ISBN 1-56591-178-4. 
• Lee, Ki-baek, tr. by E.W. Wager and E.J. Shultz (1976 (tr. 1984)). A new history of Korea. Seoul: Ilchogak. ISBN 89-337-0204-0. 

Online

• "Chong Yak-yong "Tasan"". Korea Stamp Society website. http://www.pennfamily.org/KSS-USA/korean-on-stamp-2.html. Retrieved June 19, 2005. 

• "정약용 (丁若鏞  ; 1762~1836)". 차석찬의 역사창고. http://www.mtcha.com.ne.kr/koreaman/sosun/man129-jungyagyong.htm. Retrieved July 12, 2006. 

External links

• Tasan at the Open Directory Project

Persondata
Name	Jeong, Yak-yong
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1762
Place of birth
Date of death	1836
Place of death