A Study on the Thought of Park,sedang


 Both invasions of Japanese(1592) and Ching(1636) had threatened Choson 
dynasty's national stability and traditional value system rooted in Chutzu
doctrine. Koreans devided intellectuals into two groups,the conservative and
the reformative. 

 Park(1629-1703) was a reformist. His critical philosophy and academic purity,
however,had not been adopted due to the lack of elasticity and openness of the
society. There were several scholers who were trying to exuviate Chutzu doctrine.

 Park was an classical confucionist. But he was also interested in Yanming's
doctrine,Lao-chuang philosophy and agricultural technology, especially, in 
the field of Lao-chuang philosophy which was seldom or never studied in his 
time. 

 He wrote two annotated books on Lao-chuang philosophy looks like a trial
of escape from Chutzu's rigid dogmatism and of recovering the classical 
confucionism.

 He gave more value on practical utitlity than on moral justification.
He denies absolute value. He tries to find a value studing various fields
in the actual world. Park thouth that the value had to be serched by
various studies not being attached to the old custum.

 He emphasized the productive and pragmatic value closely related to 
everyday livung. what was important for him,for examle,was the essence
not the formal manner(the duration of wearing mourning)was of etiquette.

 He was against Chutzu's theory which does differentiate 'the thing(Mul)'
from 'the work(Sa)'. He insisted 'the thing(Mul)'and 'the work(Sa)' are
different, that is to say, 'the thing(Mul)' means the material or spiritual
objects, while 'the work(Sa)'means doing something.

 The goal of cognition is not to study the principle of objects,but to
make the objects normal or to seek rightness from the objects. This 
theory is similar to Yangming's theory which tries to correct abnormal
minds in everyday living.

 Although Park seems to be an empiricist, he also admits universal prinsiple
and a priori understanding, and he distingishes the human nature(Insung) 
from the nature of things(Mulsung). Park insists that knowledge is attained
gradually in everyday experiences.

 Park empahasized the atmospheric force of phenomena(Ki) rather than the 
principle of the nomenon(Li), which accepted Lao-Chuang's and Yangming's 
doctrine. According to Park, human mind consists of Nature and Emotion.
He regarded human emotion and desire as human nature(Insung), while Chutzu
doctrine did not. Nevertheless, he respected classical confuconsist moral
basis, for exemple, three fundamental principle and five moral disciplines
in human relation.

 Park tried to recover classical confucionists theory of the Supreme God in
Heaven is to treat Heaven as both natural(not moral) principle and non-absolute
being to human. That is, his philosophy is focused on the humanism(not fatalism)
that man should be waiting for Heaven's will with the volition of helping 
themselves.

 His practical science theory has the characteristics of democratic mornachism.
He asks the ruler righteous policies for the people. He also asserted to have
diplomatic relations with Ching Dynasty(not Ming Dynasty) in China. 

 He developed and promoted various agricultural techniques. He asserted to 
reform old unreasonable systems, and to cut down the government expenditures. 
 And he persuaded that all the people(even the nobility) had work to overcome
the nation's unstable situation in his time.

 I think that Park's doctrine might affect the Practical school (such as
Yak yong Chung) in later Chosun Dynasty.