Korean Neo-Confucian Masters Series Vol. 2: Toegye Yi Hwang: The Metaphysics of Moral Principle - Hardcover

by Byeongdae Bae (Author)

Toegye Yi Hwang- The Metaphysics of Moral Principle

Volume 2 of the Korean Neo-Confucian Masters SeriesToegye Yi Hwang (退溪 李滉, 1501-1570): If Hwadam set certain questions in motion, it was Toegye who gave Korean Neo-Confucianism its enduring intellectual architecture. His li-centered metaphysics, his subtle analysis of the Four-Seven Debate (四端七情), and his persistent attention to the moral psychology of self-cultivation together shaped the very framework of Joseon learning. Toegye's influence extended far beyond his own circle, reaching scholars throughout Korea and across East Asia.This volume examines the thought of Yi Hwang, one of the most influential figures in Korean Neo-Confucianism. His writings helped shape the intellectual vocabulary of the Joseon period and continue to inform discussions of metaphysics, moral psychology, and self-cultivation. Despite the breadth of his corpus, his thought is often approached through isolated doctrines-particularly his interpretations of principle and vital force or his role in the Four-Seven debate. This study seeks instead to recover the coherence of his philosophical vision.Drawing on a wide range of texts, from formal treatises to correspondence and pedagogical reflections, this book traces how Toegye integrates cosmology, the study of mind, and ethical practice within a disciplined framework of learning grounded in reverence and moral seriousness. It attends especially to a central tension in his work: between his commitment to preserving doctrinal clarity and his sensitivity to experiential nuance and the limits of conceptual expression.Adopting a contextual, text-centered approach, this study reads his arguments within their historical settings while following recurring concepts across genres. In doing so, it presents Toegye not simply as a transmitter of orthodoxy, but as a reflective thinker engaged in the enduring problem of uniting philosophical clarity with moral life.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.