Eastward Spread of Our Dao: The Impact of the Genealogy Construction of Korean Confucian Orthodoxy (Dao Tong) on the History of East Asian Thought

Title

Eastward Spread of Our Dao: The Impact of the Genealogy Construction of Korean Confucian Orthodoxy (Dao Tong) on the History of East Asian Thought

Author

Chih-che TSAI

Page

43-85

DOI

10.6163/TJEAS.201912_16(2).0002

Abstract

This article with regard to the Sojunghwa ideology transcends the usual emphasis on the reverence for the Zhou Dynasty and the yearning for the Ming after the establishment of the Qing Dynasty. It reveals that the Korean Confucians’ intention to succeed the Dao Tong in the post-Zhu Xi era was triggered by the fear of “the loss of the Dao Tong” in facing with the widespread Yangmingism in China from the middle Ming period onwards. From Yi Hwang to Yi I, Korean Confucians have interpreted themselves as “the successors of the Dao Tong in the post-Zhu Xi era.” They further claimed that Korean monarchs and officials were “the sharers of the Dao Tong.” Through the efforts by the monarchs who favored the learning of Zhu Xi such as Jeongjo of Joseon, Korean Confucians eventually have built the genealogy of the Korean Dao Tong in the post-Zhu Xi era. The subjectivity of Korean Confucianism has also been established. The above review of the Korean Dao Tong in the history of thought reinforces the understanding of the Sojunghwa ideology. That is to say, Korean monarchs and officials used to accept the political Hua-Yi distinction and have a feeling of nostalgia for the Ming Dynasty. Korean Confucians, however, criticized Yangmingism harshly in the mid-Ming and considered that the Dao Tong and the learning of Zhu Xi have transferred from China to Korea. As a result, Korean monarchs and officials started to proudly believe that Korea became the center of East Asian civilization and inherited the orthodoxy of the Chinese culture.

Keyword

Dao Xue, Dao Tong , Post-Zhu Xi Era, Korean Confucian Orthodoxy

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