Pak Sedang 朴世堂 (1629-1703)

In the 17 th century, Korean orthodox of Zhu Xi's school, which was confined to overly theoretical or metaphysical thoughts and debates, began to disclose its limitations and some scholars found a way to base their thinking on reality and to make their thought carry in it practicality. Their thought paved the way for further development in the 18 th century. Pak Sedang was part of this new current. In his commentaries to the Classics, he looked for understanding and interpretation true to the original texts but at the same time he was independent and open-minded vis-à-vis the orthodox. In the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, during the rage of faction between namin 南人 and sŏin 西人, split and conflict even inside the latter between noron 老論 and soron 少論 were intense around the issue of the relation with Qing China. Pak Sedang was indifferent to the ritual debates between namin and sŏin and, on the diplomatic issues he pursued practical interest over rationale. On the ritual debates, in particular, he pointed out that the rite justified by a principle doesn't affect the fact of transmission of the throne and therefore he didn't fully acknowledge the worth of the ritual debates. In other words, he didn't intend to implement the ritual ideas from Zhu Xi's school in a doctrinaire way. He laid stress on the fact that Confucianism is a system of thought that essentially values the practicality. The scholarly effort he made to renovate Confucianism of his time inside Confucian tradition crystallized into his work Sabyŏnnok 思辨錄 (or T'ongsŏl 通說) that interprets Six Classics, and his search for this renovation outside the tradition, into his commentaries to the Laozi 老子 and the Zhuangzi 莊子