朱子 仁論 체계와 工夫論의 전개 = Zhu Xi's Theory of Humaneness and the Formation of the Theory of Cultivation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Zhu Xi’s Theory of Humaneness and the Formation of the Theory of Cultivation

Jeon, Byoung-Ok
Department of Philosophy
Graduate school
Korea University

The cultivation and establishment of the self and the self’s relationship with the world at large are the most important contents in Zhu Xi’s Theory of Humaneness (仁論). The cultivation of Humaneness (仁) unites the aspects of “completing oneself” (成己) and “completing others/completing the things of the world” (成物) and is the focal point of Zhu Xi’s theory on cultivation; not realizing this uniting aspect of Zhu Xi’s perspective will bring about unnecessary confusion and conflict in understanding his Theory of Cultivation. Thus, both ju-jing han-yang 居敬涵養 and ge-wu zhi-zhi 格物致知 are vital and necessary to establish and understand the self and for the self to be able to communicate with and regulate its relationship with the world. This dissertation will show that Zhu Xi’s Theory of Humaneness plays a crucial function in the formation of his Theory of Cultivation.
The brothers Cheng Hao(程顥) and Cheng Yi(程頤) of Northern Sung dynasty believed that they had inherited and were the legitimate successors to the Confucian tradition, a tradition which saw humanness as the highest virtue. Thus they urged their disciples to concentrate on understanding fully the meaning of humaneness and hence “seeking humaneness” (求仁), which was understood by their disciples as “exhortation to understand the meaning of humaneness”. And this emphasis characterized the scholarly traditions of Yi-Luo (伊洛之學). The Huxiang School (湖湘學) sought for humaneness by trying to internally experience humaneness in everyday situations while the Daonan School (道南學) sought for “humaneness” that existed in a metaphysical realm removed from the present reality. Both these schools had a tendency to seek for a separate and individuated “humaneness” that existed inside the mind/heart (心).
Zhu Xi also followed the scholarly traditions of Yi-Luo and put “seeking for humaneness” as the goal of his studies but gradually came to create his own creative interpretation of it. He saw that “humaneness” is not an independent entity that exists inside the “mind/heart” but that it is in fact the manifestation of the “actual reality of the mind/heart” when the “mind/heart” has been cultivated in a proper manner. For Zhu Xi then, “seeking humaneness” was not an “exhortation to understand the meaning of humaneness” but was “the process of becoming a humane person through actualizing it in everyday life”. While the former tradition of Yi-Luo thought that humaneness must first be experientially understood before it can be actualized, Zhu Xi taught that actualization of moralactions, which can be easily understood from basic knowledge and rationality, will lead to experientially understanding humaneness and at the same time serve to actually accomplishing it in the present.