This study investigates the relationship between ancestor worship and Feng Shui (geomantic) thought in the Joseon Dynasty, a period in which Confucianism functioned as the fundamental state ideology. It examines the process through which this relation...
This study investigates the relationship between ancestor worship and Feng Shui (geomantic) thought in the Joseon Dynasty, a period in which Confucianism functioned as the fundamental state ideology. It examines the process through which this relationship became a central cultural force that shaped the social structure and collective worldview of Joseon society. In Joseon, Confucianism operated not only as a governing principle guiding state administration but also as an ideology regulating the everyday social life of the populace. Within this historical and cultural context, Feng Shui was understood not merely as a technique for selecting geographical sites but as a philosophical system explaining how the qi (氣) of Heaven and Earth influences human life. Against this backdrop, the present study aims to clarify how Joseon Confucian scholars accepted and transformed Feng Shui thought, and how its integration with the Confucian concept of filial piety (孝) brought about changes in scholarly discourse and the broader ideological landscape of the period.
Chapter II examines Confucian ritual culture and the ideology of filial piety, focusing on the Confucian view of humanity and social order and its ethical foundations in East Asia. In particular, Zhu Xi’s perspective on Feng Shui is characterized by his rejection of a mechanistic theory of fortune based solely on the orientation of ancestral graves. Instead, he emphasized that auspicious effects could only arise through dynamic resonance (donggi gam’eung, 動氣感應), which depended on the sincerity of the ritual agent conducting ancestral rites. According to this view, even if ancestral remains were interred in an auspicious site, no beneficial response could occur without the proper performance of ritual. This perspective illustrates how ritual culture was closely linked to the maintenance of communal order and individual moral cultivation in Joseon society. Furthermore, records in the Goryeo Veritable Records (Goryeosa Sillok) confirm that ancestor rites were actively practiced even during the Goryeo period, when Buddhism flourished, underscoring the deep historical roots of ancestral ritual culture.
Chapter III explores the process through which Feng Shui, as an East Asian worldview oriented toward harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, merged with the Confucian conception of nature in the Joseon Dynasty and expanded into a philosophical framework. Feng Shui came to be recognized not merely as a practical method for evaluating sites but as an ideological system that provided guidance for life’s order and direction, influencing various decision-making processes in Joseon society.
Chapter IV analyzes the concrete structural connections between Confucianism and Feng Shui through the Li–Qi (理氣) theories of Zhu Xi and Song Si-yeol. It examines the influence of Zhu Xi’s theories of yin–yang and the Five Phases, as well as his doctrine of moral self-cultivation, on Feng Shui thought, and how these ideas were received by Joseon Confucian scholars. The chapter further investigates cases in which Song Si-yeol, grounded in Confucian filial piety, integrated Feng Shui into the practical social order and employed it as a political instrument.
Chapter V synthesizes the overall impact of the convergence of Confucianism and Feng Shui on Joseon politics, society, and culture. Feng Shui, in conjunction with Confucian filial piety, became not only an institutional mechanism of state governance but also deeply embedded in the everyday spaces and social norms of the populace. By elucidating the patterns of interaction between these two traditions, this study reexamines the cultural foundations and distinctive characteristics of Joseon society and proposes new interpretive possibilities within the broader context of East Asian intellectual and cultural history.