Korean Neo-Confucian Masters Series Vol.4: Yulgok Yi I: The Practice of Reverent Sincerity - Couverture rigide

Bae, Dr Byeongdae

Couverture rigide

ISBN 13 : 9798994033630

Editeur : Welit Books Publishing, 2026

Synopsis

Korean Neo-Confucian Masters Series Vol.4: Yulgok Yi I - The Practice of Reverent Sincerity emerges from a sustained and evolving engagement with the writings of Yulgok Yi I (1536–1584), one of the most influential thinkers of the Joseon period. Although often characterized as a reformer, pragmatist, or institutional architect—and frequently contrasted with Toegye Yi Hwang—such labels ultimately prove too narrow. A close reading of the Yulgok jeonseo reveals a deeper continuity in his work: a sustained concern with the relation between principle and vital force, the integrity of the mind, the moral grounding of authority, and the challenge of giving cultivated insight enduring institutional form.

The study challenges modern scholarly tendencies to divide Yulgok’s metaphysical writings from his political memoranda or to treat his moral psychology as separate from his reform proposals. His texts resist these distinctions. Across memorials, letters, pedagogical works, and systematic treatises, recurring conceptual patterns emerge, showing that speculative clarity and practical responsibility are inseparable in his thought.

Grounded in close textual analysis, the book traces how key terms—such as reverence, sincerity, righteousness, and mind—shift in emphasis across metaphysical, ethical, and political contexts. Rather than imposing an external framework, it reconstructs Yulgok’s arguments from within their discursive settings, revealing the structural coherence of his intellectual project.

Written during a time of factional conflict and external threat, Yulgok’s insistence that inner discipline and public order stand or fall together gives his thought enduring relevance. This volume does not claim a definitive interpretation; instead, it offers a careful and patient reading intended to illuminate the profound unity of cultivation and governance, integrity and power, in Yulgok’s philosophy.

The Korean Neo-Confucian Masters Series has emerged from a long-standing sense that the intellectual achievements of Korean Confucianism deserve fuller recognition within global scholarship than they have thus far received. While studies of Song–Ming (宋明) Confucianism in China, and of its diverse reinterpretations in Japan, have accumulated over many decades, the Korean tradition—despite its remarkable subtlety and sustained philosophical creativity—has often remained at the margins of broader academic discussions. The present series aims, in a modest but deliberate way, to redress that imbalance. It introduces seven thinkers whose works not only defined the contours of Joseon intellectual life (朝鮮, 1392–1910) but also contributed to the wider development of East Asian philosophy.
The thinkers featured here are:

Hwadam Seo Gyeong-deok (花潭 徐敬德, 1489–1546),
Toegye Yi Hwang (退溪 李滉, 1501–1570),
Nammyŏng Jo Sik (南冥 曺植, 1501–1572),
Yulgok Yi I (栗谷 李珥, 1536–1584),
Uam Song Si-yeol (尤庵 宋時烈, 1607–1689),
Nokmun Im Seong-ju (鹿門 任聖周, 1711–1788),
Nosa Gi Jeong-jin (蘆沙 奇正鎭, 1798–1879).

Together, these figures trace an intellectual arc spanning nearly four centuries. Their writings show how Korean Neo-Confucianism developed not as a static inheritance from the Song masters but as a living, often contested, and continually evolving tradition shaped by changing political, social, and doctrinal circumstances.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Welit Books Publishing
• Date d'édition: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 13: 9798994033630
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 225
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Manufactured by Amazon on behalf of the author; https://www.amazon.fr/hz/contact-us; ; c/o Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; L-1855; Luxembourg