• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.59
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• pp.313-342
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• 2018

Gubong Song Ik-pil could not behave according to his aspiration directly due to restrictions in his social standing. Despite that, he actually did so indirectly through either close friends or younger students by exhibiting 'cheobyeonwigwon (處變爲權) with the goal of jichijuui (至治主義). He insisted on people-oriented politics grounded on cheonmyeongsasang (天命思想) and also suggested the humbleness of the royal family and jinhyulchaek (賑恤策) based on love of the people. In addition, he promoted public welfare and stability to enhance patriotism and also insisted on the policy of strengthening national defense with seoeolgongsacheon (庶?公私賤)'s provision of military service through the enforcement of yangcheonjongbujongmobeop (良賤從父從母法). Also, according to the letter sent to Lee San-bo, he suggested public service ethics, for instance, personally, getting rid of ulterior motives, exhibiting diligence, integrity, and wisdom, and doing one's utmost to handle tasks fairly without causing any problems and externally, being actively involved in managing and utilizing persons of ability and also relieving the poor and managing masters as well. In brief, we can assume that Song Ik-pil's thought of statecraft (經世思想) is the concrete methodology to reach the politics of kingcraft called 'jichi (至治)' by stabilizing public welfare grounded on benevolent and benign administration. He is often compared to Jegalryang on account of his innate qualities and cleverness. He was equipped with the excellent capacity of gyeongse even referred to as the moju (謀主) of four persons, Yi Yi, Seong Hon, Jeong Cheol, and Lee Gwi, and harshly criticized as a slick evil (奸鬼), too. His gyeongsesasang, however, ended up being incomplete due to restrictions in his social status. He was a person who loved the people more than anyone else, kept suggesting innovative reform plans to stabilize the people's lives, and was capable of practicing them all. His ideal of jichi was left unfulfilled, however.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.56
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• pp.47-80
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• 2018

The traditional laws of Korea have undergone various stages of development over time. This includes the voluntary standards of the clean society. Korea's traditional legal systems, ranging from those of the Goryeo(高麗) to those of the Republic of Korea, have taken Confucian Phiosophy as their major ideological bases. At the center of these Confucian ideals, particularly in regards to pre-Qin Confucian Philosophy(先秦儒家思想) from where these ideals originated, lie the core ideals which emphasize the responsibility of each individual regardless of the social status(正名), the needs for a democracy in which people are empower and guide the state(民本), the importance of reigning with benevolence, moral excellence, and rite (仁義), and the differential love centered on kinship and humanity(親親愛人). These were the ideas as set forth by Confucius(孔子), Mencius(孟子) and Xun Zi(荀子). The current laws of Korea, especially in regards to the Constitution and the Civil and Criminal Laws, include a number of provisions that contain the Confucian Ideas of Law. The Constitution, in particular, which is also supported by the judgement of the Constitution Court, reflects several core Confucian ideals including filial duty (孝) and respect for ascendants and the traditional culture. The Court also suggested the two important standards of the constitutional legitimacy of the Traditional Culture. One is 'Age Compatibility (時代 適合性)', the other is 'Manifested Universally Validity(現在的 普遍妥當性)'. So we have burdened with the reestablishment of the Universal Ethics of the Confucian Ideology.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.149-165
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• 1996

Hong-sii Tokso-rok (홍씨독서록 or Hong's Annotated Bibliography of Korean and Chinise Book) is the only work on the history of Korean bibliographies that has the introductory notes to each class, that is description of the origin of subject fields, transition, and characteristics at the beginning of each class. This paper is aimed to examine the outline of the introductory description of class, to analyze the Four Category Classification System(사부분류법) devised by Hong Sok-chu, and to explain how the classes of Four Category Classification are set and ordered. This paper shows several characteristics in the idea of Hong's classification system. There characteristics were discovered by analyzing the content of each introduction of classes. The characteristics ale as follows First, classes are organize and arranged from the substantial problem to nonsubstantial ones. In other words, the greater the distance of the class from the substantial problem of Confucianism, the farther the order of the class will be found from the substantial problem. The order of classes is set by how the class is closed to the substantial problem in the same hierarchy. This principle is strictly applied to the Hong's classification system. Second, on the basis of democratic thought, he del·eloped the classification system. In other words, when he set up the priority of classes, he put emphasis on the democratism as a guideline. The organization of classes belong to the catagories of history (Sa-bu, 사부) and philosophy(Cha-bu, 자부) showed the application of this principle. Conclusively, this paper found that Hong did not randomly arrange the class older, but he set the class order with objective reasons and logic when he set the class order of arrangement.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.57
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• pp.91-125
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• 2018

This study aims at attempting to make a new interpretation of Mencius from the point of social welfare. The thoughts of social welfare, found from Mencius, are temporal and humanistic and near to those in nowadays. Social welfare began under the name of philanthropic work, relief work, charitable work or social work from the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century on. Welfare means the whole social activities such as satisfying the fundamental desires of the social members, ensuring the conditions of their lives, and ultimately achieving social integration and stability. It means the conditions of their lives and wellbeing. Wellbeing means the minimal physical desires and psychological stability. The realization of the economic system through concept of steady livelihood and steady mind, tax system and well-field system, proposed by Mencius, can be ensured by the whole social activities such as ensuring the stable lives of the social members, enriching and satisfying their happiness and ultimately achieving social integration and stability. The thoughts of Mencius include people-as-root idea, which regards people as most important and tries to solve the instability and inequality that are the structural vulnerabilities in modern capitalist society. His concept of Way of the king means promoting people's sense of happiness through education of morality, based upon the people-as-root idea and filial and fraternal responsibilities. The main ideas of social welfare include living like a human being, ensuring minimal physical and psychological stabilities through social welfare system and welfare policy, enriching human dignity and freedom and enhancing the quality of lives. The thoughts of Mencius include all the above ideas. In particular, he desired to establish ethically and morally stable society by economically implementing the well-field system in Zhou dynasty, based upon politically benevolent governance of the politicians. That society was the people-as-root society, the realization of which was the ideal society Mencius desired to establish, and the goal of his thoughts on social welfare. This study, among the thoughts of Mencius, investigated his ideas on social welfare and the practical ethics for applying them to real society. In addition, to understand his ideas on social welfare, not only the social and economic backgrounds and conditions but also the political ideas at that time were also investigated. This will provide the opportunity to make more in-depth research of the elements of social welfare intrinsically contained in his thoughts.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.38
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• pp.126-152
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• 1999

The social welfare system in modern world is generally recognized as the most effective measure against the social problems in capitalist societies. When a social welfare program is introduced to solve a social problem, however, it used to cause another new problem at the same time. In order to overcome this circularity, we need to consider not only quantitative but also the qualitative aspect of social welfare. In line with this problematic, this thesis tries to examine the social welfare thoughts in Confucianism in order to rethink the meaning of social welfare. In contrast to the modern social welfare as a social right, the social welfare in Confucianism was basically regarded as the grace of a king whose purpose was to legitimate his domination. But it was also based upon Confucian humanism and institutionalized into the Confucian govern mentality. It was practiced through the Confucian communality whose basic concept lies in the traditional family system. The social welfare in this society was to be fulfilled automatically by promoting the production and by consolidating the solidarity of the community. The social intervention, therefore, was principal1y indirect and preventive rather than direct and postfactum. The social welfare supports in Confucian societies included not only the material but also the psychological. In these senses, it sounds like that the Confucian welfare system reached the very high standard. Although the real practice should be cautiously differentiated from its ideal state, we may find interesting implications from the social welfare thoughts in Confucianism.