Chong Yag - yong`s (丁若鏞 , 1762 - 1836) Discourse on Mind

Chǒng Yag-yong, a representative Confucian reformist of the late Chosun dynasty, constructed an alternative world view to that of the ruling Neo Confucian orthodox ideology. He focused his philosophy on the mind, which had been one of the central notions of Chu Hsi's (朱熹) Neo-Confucianism. This article investigates Chǒng's new vision on the mind by comparing it to that of Chu Hsi. The argument of this paper can be divided into three points. Firstly, Chǒng considers "divine brilliance" (靈明) of the mind as the source of communion with the Ultimate Reality and as sustaining man's ontological priority. This contrasts with Chu Hsi's "reflective awareness" (知覺) of the mind which bridges the gap between the self and the surrounding objects by a unitary principle Li (理)