• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.27
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• pp.469-496
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• 2009

Ding Shihan(styled Yutan; 丁時翰, 愚潭) was famous for his four-seven differentiation(四七辨證) on the area of neo-Confucianism. Yet few comments and criticism were made on his poetry, for rarely of which was handed down from generations. Hence there is a mystry on his talent in terms of poetics. Noted by Zhou Dunyi(styled Lianxi; 周敦頤, 濂溪) and Zhuxi(styled Hui'an; 朱熹, 晦庵) in Song Dynasty, most of neo-Confucianism scholars after them were expert at intoning and thus formed the poetic school of "Elegance of Lian-Luo"(濂洛風雅). Therefore, there is also a mystry on how his poetry related to his works of neo-Cunfucianism. During his whole life, Ding never involved himself in politics as an official. He read Confucian classics a lot, and was also proficient in classics of Buddhism and Taoism. In addition, he was fond of travelling in nature. A superfical conclustion is made based on these situation that his thoughts was closely linked with Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Therefore, it is worth elaborating whether his thoughts belonged to Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and whether he was a pure Confucian( 醇儒) through his whole life.