• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.35
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• pp.275-308
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• 2012

This article aims to investigate the studies of Yi Xue Qi Meng(易學啓蒙) performed by the researchers of Neo-Confucianism in Ki Ho region in later Chosun period. Philologically speaking, these studies were mainly performed by Han Won Jin and his colleagues. While the study of Yi Hwang(李滉)'s Qi Meng Zhuan Yi(啓蒙傳疑) performed by the researchers of Toegye(退溪) School lasts from the end of the sixteenth century to the nineteen's century, the Ki Ho(畿湖) scholars' study of Yi Xue Qi Meng are centered in the eighteenth century and hardly any significant work on this text is found before and after this century. In order to single out the distinctive features of Ki Ho School of Neo-Confucianism, this article examines three subjects the Ki Ho scholars delved into: (i) their theory of Tai Ji(太極), (ii) their theory of He-Tu(河圖) and the formation of eight trigrams, and (iii) the so-called Wu Wei Xiang De Shuo(五位相得說) discussed in one of the sections in Yi Xue Qi Meng titled the Source of He-Tu and Luo Shu[本圖書]. The Ki Ho scholars are remarkable in interpreting Tai Ji in Yi Xue Qi Meng in the context of the theory of Li-Qi and the theory of human nature. There are differences in opinion among the Ki-Ho scholars with regard to the relation between He-Tu and the formation of eight trigrams. Eventually, they withhold Zhu Xi(朱熹) and Hu Fang Ping(胡方平)'s attempt to synthesize He-Tu, the rectangular diagram of Fu Xi(伏羲)'s eight trigrams, and the circular diagram of Fu Xi's eight trigrams into one single principle. Han Won Jin tries to explain the relation between He-tu and the formation of eight trigrams in terms of the relation between He-Tu and the circular diagram, and his attempt is widely supported by his colleagues. This theory runs counter to traditional model of explaining truth. My conjecture is that such academic trend is further developed by the defenders of Practical Learning such as Hong Dae Yong(洪大容), who vigorously reject traditional system of truth and science, and that it partly explains why the study of Yi Xue Qi Meng ceases in the nineteenth century.