Jeong Yak-yong - Views On Dasan

Views On Dasan

Professor Ogawa Haruhisa of Nishogakusha University in Tokyo is very impressed by Dasan:

“In addition to egalitarian ideas, Chông Yag-yong Dasan provided something precious that had been lost at that time. He has these elements that we must learn and revive in these modern times. He formed his philosophy despite his sufferings in exile. I think he will be of interest to contemporary scholars for a long time.”

Professor Peng Lin at Qinghua University, Beijing teaches the Chinese classics and has a special interest in Dasan’s study of rituals. He published in the 1980s research papers on Dasan in the Sônggyun’gwan Journal of East Asian Studies:

“Dasan devoted great efforts in studying rites, to understanding and bringing recognition to traditional culture. I believe that Dasan’s study of rites is highly unique. He studied all the three fields in the study of ritual and this was not common even among Chinese scholars. Many can achieve only partial understanding even after a lifetime study, but Dasan studied all the ritual fields and his research is truly astounding. He wanted to create an ideal society by starting with what already existed. This shows Dasan’s humanistic interest and that intrigues me.”

Professor Don Baker at the Asia Center of the University of British Columbia, Canada, is interested in Dasan for his role as an intellectual in a period of transition:

“I think that in the twenty-first century we still need to adopt Dasan’s spirit, what I call moral pragmatism. He was a very pragmatic man. He looked at problems and said ‘how can we solve them’. But also he always kept his moral values at the front. We often have in society a material progress for the sake of material progress. Dasan wanted a material progress but a progress that creates a more moral society, therefore I call it moral pragmatism and I think that we still need such spirit today.”

There is in Korea a revival of Jeong Yak-yong's thought never seen before on that scale for any Korean philosopher. In the not distant past one could hear doubts about even the existence of a Korean philosophy. Since the liberation of Korea in 1945 Western philosophy has prevailed and philosophy departments in most Korean universities teach mainly European modern philosophy. Therefore Dasan is of great importance as he was able to be enthusiastic for modern Western ideas but remained deeply committed to the depth of Confucianism. He was not defending a tradition for its own sake but wanted to keep the precious values of the early Chinese period because it was a foundation for man and society.