Trouble with Korean Confucianism: Scholar-Official Between Ideal and Reality |
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Authors: | Kim Sungmoon |
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Institution: | (1) Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond, 28 Westhampton Way, Richmond, VA 23173, USA |
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Abstract: | This essay attempts a philosophical reflection of the Confucian ideal of “scholar-official” in Joseon Korea’s neo-Confucian
context. It explores why this noble ideal of a Confucian public being had to suffer many moral-political problems in reality.
It argues first that because the institution of Confucian scholar-official was actually a modus-operandi compromise between Confucianism and Legalism, the Confucian scholar-officials were torn between their ethical commitment
to Confucianism and their political commitment to the state; and second, that because the Cheng-Zhu neo-Confucianism vigorously
imported and indigenized by Joseon Koreans exalted the family over the state, Joseon neo-Confucian scholar-officials were
torn between two competing moral obligations, filiality and loyalty. The essay concludes by discussing whether, given the
problems with which the ideal of the Confucian scholar-official was frequently entangled, liberal individualism should be
pursued as its normative alternative. |
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Keywords: | Scholar-Official Neo-Confucianism Legalistic Confucianism Filiality Loyalty |
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