Yi Yulgok’s Life and His Neo-Confucian Synthesis

Abstract

This chapter highlights the significance of Yi I 李珥 (pename: Yulgok 栗谷, 1536–1584) and his contribution to the development of Korean Neo-Confucianism. Yulgok was a “synthesizer” in his approach to the some fundamental issues and controversies that dominated the sixteenth century Joseon Neo-Confucianism. Some of most controversial issues that Yulgok dealt with were the relationship between “principle” or i/li 理 and “vital force” or gi/qi 氣, the famous “four-seven” debates, the problem of relating the “human mind” (the human selfish mind) and the “dao-mind” (the mind of the Way or the moral mind), and the idea of understanding the human in relation to the cosmos. Yulgok dealt each of these vital issues with his unique non-dualistic approach which synthesized the conceptual polarity that caused serious debates in the Korean Neo-Confucian circle. The concepts such as i/li and gi/qi, eum/yin and yang, the “human mind” and the “dao-mind,” for example, were understood by some leading Confucian scholars including Yi Hwang 李滉 (pename: Toegye 退溪, 1501–1570) structured dualistically. Yulgok thought that although these ideas appeared to be conceptually dualistic, they were, in fact, related to each other with an intrinsic ontological unity based on the same reality. However, Yulgok made a clear distinction between different manifestations of the same ontological substance. For example, Yulgok discussed about the mysterious relationship of i and gi: “The mystery of i and gi is difficult to see or to talk. The origin of i is one, the origin of gi is also one…. gi does not part from i, and i does not part from gi. This being the case, i and gi are one.” It is essential to understand Yulgok’s non-dualistic view of reality. For Yulgok, reality was profoundly relational. For him relation was not simply a connection or an external binding but it was fundamentally an intrinsic unity of beings or entities by stating that one cannot exist without the other. In this respect, Yulgok was a non-dualistic thinker who understood reality not in the framework of dichotomy but in the intrinsic unity of i and gi and the “four beginnigs” and the “seven feelings” (or “seven emotions”), etc. Yulgok’s anthropology (understanding of the human), ontology (understanding of beings), and cosmology (understanding of the universe) were based on his synthetic and comprehensive approach to the critical issues of Korean Neo-Confucianism. This chapter is a brief summary of Yulgok’s life and thoughts in relationship to each other to observe his intellectual development in light of his personal growth.

This chapter is a revised and extended version of my previously published essay, “Yi Yulgok and His Contributions to Korean Neo-Confucianism: A Non-dualistic Approach” Traditional Korean Philosophy: Problems and Debates. (ed. Youngsun Back and Phillp J. Ivanhoe). 2017. London and New York: Rowman & Littlefield. 69–83.