The Role of Tasan Learning in the Making of East Asian Confucianisms: A Twenty-First-Century Perspective

東亞儒學中的茶山學：二十一世紀的視野

The great eighteenth-century Korean Confucian scholar, Chŏng Yagyong 丁若鏞 (Tasan 茶山, 1762-1836), is a pivotal thinker in the history of East Asian Confucianisms. While inheriting Zhu Xi's (1130-1200) philosophical legacy, Chŏng Yagyong was innovative in reworking many of the core ideas of Zhu Xi's thought, particularly the philosophy of Humanity. In the first section of this article, I shall consider the special features of Korean Confucianism in the context of East Asian Confucianisms. Second, I will discuss how Tasan creatively remolded the old to shape the new in the making of East Asian Confucianisms. Finally, I will reflect on Tasan's important message for us today in this globalized age of the twenty-first century.