Ju Gwang-ho: Neo-Confucianism, From the Substance to Everyday Life
I wanted to introduce Zhu Xi’s learning in accessible Korean. I wanted to present the whole of Zhu Xi’s learning, not a version ‘selected’ by twentieth-century interests. As a result, this book’s scope became as broad as the original field itself. I also wanted to convey Zhu Xi’s vivid voice, rather than stopping at an analysis of familiar concepts and propositions highlighted by particular interests. So, alongside well-organized, topic-based discussions such as those in the Classified Conversations of Master Zhu, I wanted to present Zhu Xi’s celebrated works, such as prefaces and memorials to the throne, as fully as possible from beginning to end. But I came to realize that presenting Zhu Xi as he was could not be accomplished simply by going back to the twelfth century and meeting him. It inevitably meant refuting twentieth-century ‘interpretations’ and then projecting my own interpretation. I believe Zhu Xi’s distinctive strength lies not in the moral metaphysics of principle and material force, mind and nature, or self-cultivation, but in the concreteness, everyday character, and systematic nature of rites, music, punishments, and government. If moral metaphysics such as the original substance of benevolence or innate moral knowledge were all there was, vast texts such as Collected Commentaries on the Four Books and Comprehensive Explanations of the Classic of Etiquette, along with carefully devised institutions such as academies, village compacts, and community granaries, would not have been needed at all. Of course, Zhu Xi also speaks of an ‘original substance.’ But his original substance is realized only in ‘everyday life.’ Therefore, the ‘philosophy of Zhu Xi’ in the twentieth century, which spoke mainly of the original substance, can only be called one-sided. Zhu Xi is not a philosopher of the inner life. Moreover, I believe the concreteness, everyday character, and systematic nature Zhu Xi emphasized are precisely the ‘principles’ truly needed in this era of a new civilizational transformation in the twenty-first century. Responsibility, relationships, and coexistence are general messages of Confucian learning; Zhu Xi’s learning is no different in this regard.
Korean title: 주자학, 본체에서 일상으로
Korean author: 주광호
Korean publisher: 문진
ISBN-13: 9791187638988
