• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
• /
• no.23
• /
• pp.295-316
• /
• 2008

This is to study the military philosophy of Wangzhen's Commentary on Daodejing written by a famous military officer in the end of Tang Dynasty, Wangzhen. Historically, many scholars consider Laozi's Daodejing as a book on military science. Wangzhen, however, is the only person to interpret Daodejing genealogically from a military perspective. Wangzhen thinks that the fact that human beings like competing naturally causes the constant competition in the world. Human beings are born with the most outstanding spirit among all beings. But, when God created human beings, they had greed and avarice in the middle of their heart. Accordingly, human beings look for a success and a profit, and follow the wicked way, leaving the right way. The contractions among each greed and avarice bring about small or big competitions. Human beings have greed and avarice. It means human beings have emotions. As a result, the competitions in the world are not able to disappear because human beings have emotions. To win the completion human beings use weapons. According to Wangzhen, the war is the most devilish deed due to the weapon's atrocious, dangerous quality. Yet, the world's interests are decided by how efficiently the weapons are used. Consequently, the weapon techniques are worthy and play an important role in the real world. Morality, however, should be in the first priority in ruling over a country and commanding the army. The national security and the war victory could be secured when civil and military affairs have a balance. Wangzhen thinks that Laozi emphasizes "Not-Competing" as a basic solution of competition. The competition is the root cause of war and disorder. Therefore, Not-Competing is the main idea of Daodejing. Not-Competiting is a basis of Wangzhen's military philosophy as well. For Wangzhen, Not-Competing is Wuwei. Wuwei has political and military meanings at the same time. Wangzhen build up the "Not-Competing" military philosophy by applying Loazi's Daodejing to his military philosophy.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
• /
• no.31
• /
• pp.241-262
• /
• 2011

In this paper we show how the perception of heavenly principle(天理) and definition of individual desires(私慾) in the five commentaries on Daodejing(道德經) was changed over time. The five commentaries on Daodejing(道德經) composed during $Chos{\breve{o}}n$ are 'Sooneon(醇言) by Lee, Yul-gock (李珥,1536~1584), 'SinJoo-DoDuckKyung (新註道德經) - or New Commentary on Daodejing(道德經) - by Park, Se-dang(朴世堂,1629~1703), 'Dodukjigi(道德指歸)' by Suh, Myoung-euing(徐命膺,1716~1787), 'Chowondamro (椒園談老)' by Lee, Chung-ik(李忠翊,1744~1816), and 'Jungro(訂老)' by Hong, Suk-joo (洪奭周,1774~1842). The course of history in understanding the book, "Daodejing(道德經)," demonstrated that by the late of $Chos{\breve{o}}n$ Dynasty in the 18th century, the notion of 'the moral law for the community' has changed. Neither Suh, Myoung-euing nor Lee, Chung-ik emphasized 'the necessity for the truth of the heavens.'Instead, they focused more on the 'individuals' who followed the moral law than the moral law itself. They did not see the individual desire as the object that had to be discarded. Within the context of this framework, the individual's role had changed from the person who had to be obedient to the law to the subject who judged the moral law all by him/herself. This process of breaking up 'the goodness of the community' led the $Chos{\breve{o}}n$ Dynasty of the 18th century in the transition period to the modern era. In other words, it was the time when the introspection of the 'moral law' prevailed in the $Chos{\breve{o}}n$ Dynasty occurred naturally and spontaneously among the Confucian scholars, which implied the reconceptualization of the 'self-awareness' or 'the point of view on the individual's self-desire' was occurred in the context of academic development during the late $Chos{\breve{o}}n$ Dynasty.