• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.139
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• pp.213-238
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• 2016

This paper examines how Dasan Jeong Yak-yong developed self-healing and his perspective of happiness during the hardest point of his political and social career. Just after the death of King Jeongjo (正祖, reign. 1766-1800) the arrest and persecution of those who accepted Christian knowledge from the West began. Among them were Jeong's family members and friends. Jeong, who had learned but had not accepted Christianity as a religious belief, was exiled to Ganggin 康津 in southern Jeolla Province where he was to spend the next 18 years. The two things that helped Jeong through his exile were the Book of Changes 易經 and his commitment to the study of Confucian thought, political, and social reforms. His life-long commitment to writing and his progressive understanding of the principle of changes of the universe in the Book of Changes, represented processes of self-healing and cultivation, depriving Jeong of self-pity and enabling him to attain the highest level in self-realization. According to Jeong, there are two kinds of happiness; "secular happiness" (yeolbok 熱福) related to power and wealth, and "pure happiness" (cheongbok 淸福), a free and idyllic life. For Jeong, the latter was more valuable than the former. Jeong believed that life pursing ethical virtues only could bring authentic joy to people. Furthermore, his devotion to the issues of systematic, social reforms was out of his desire to bring the public happiness by "practical learning", silhak 實學.