兩是兩非？朝鮮黨爭脈絡下的君子小人之辨

Both Right and Wrong？The Distinction between Exemplary and Petty Persons in the Context of Joseon Political Factionalism

朝鮮王朝建立後曾發生多場慘烈的政治鬥爭，被稱之為「士禍」。中宗朝的大儒趙光祖一度受到國王重用，短暫得君行道實現其理想。但由於身陷在「士禍」的歷史陰影中而帶有強烈的被害意識，因此屢屢以宋儒式的「君子小人之辨」，強調君子小人彼此「一分為二」，處於「冰炭」般無法共處的極端對立，以此來攻擊政敵，視所謂的「小人」們為「他者」，向君主要求將之一舉趕出政治權力場域。最終招致「小人」們的反動，使趙光祖等儒者在「己卯士禍」中慘痛犧牲。直至宣祖朝的儒者，也未能脫離士禍的陰影，同樣繼承了極端對立的「君子小人冰炭說」。日後李珥所屬的「士林」派因為內部兩位領袖彼此仇視，分裂成了東、西兩黨，也開始「一分為二」勢如「冰炭」。這是朝鮮政治史上由「士禍」到「黨爭」的變化。李珥為了化解這場黨爭，特別重新詮釋朱熹思想、中國古典史事提出了「兩是兩非」，嘗試破除君子小人之間的「病態二元論」。雖然上述努力並未能成功化解朝鮮黨爭的爆發，但李珥的思想仍有其高度，值得重視。藉由分析上述歷史事件，比起說是朱子學導致了朝鮮黨爭，不如說是極端二元對立的君子小人冰炭說，對傳統東亞政治造成了深遠的不良影響。

After the establishment of the Joseon Dynasty, numerous brutal political struggles, known as the“literati purges”（士禍）erupted. During the reign of King Jungjong, the eminent Confucian scholar Jo Gwangjo was once heavily favored by the king, briefly realizing his ideal of ruling by moral principles. However, caught in the historical shadow of the literati purges and imbued with a strong sense of victimhood, Jo repeatedly invoked the Song Confucian method of distinguishing between exemplary and petty persons. He emphasized that these two groups were irreversibly divided—akin to the extreme opposition of“ice and charcoal”—and used this dichotomy to attack his political adversaries, treating the so-called“petty persons”as the Other and urging the monarch to expel them entirely from the political arena. This strategy eventually provoked a counterreaction from these“petty persons,”leading to the tragic purge known as the Gi-Myo Sahwa（己卯士禍）, in which Jo and his Confucian followers suffered a devastating downfall.
Even during the reign of King Seonjo, Confucian scholars remained under the lingering shadow of the literati purges and continued to adhere to the extreme oppositional view of the“ice and charcoal”distinction between exemplary and petty persons. Later, internal enmity between the two leading figures within Yi I’s literati faction (士林派) resulted in its split into the Eastern and Western Factions—once again manifesting a dichotomous,“ice and charcoal”pattern. This evolution marks a transition in Joseon political history from the era of literati purges to that of factional struggles.
In an effort to resolve these factional conflicts, Yi I reinterpreted Zhu Xi’s thought alongside classical Chinese historical narratives, proposing the concept of“both right and wrong”(兩是兩非) in a bid to dismantle the pathological dualism inherent in the distinction between exemplary and petty persons. Although Yi I’s efforts failed to avert the outbreak of factional strife in Joseon, his ideas remain of significant intellectual value. Through an analysis of these historical events, it becomes evident that rather than Zhu Xi’s philosophy being the primary cause of Joseon factionalism, it was the extreme binary oppositional framework—embodied in the“ice and charcoal”view of exemplary versus petty persons—that cast a long-lasting and deleterious shadow over traditional East Asian politics.