• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.35
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• pp.135-159
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• 2009

Since the military servants' rebellion, the society of the Goryeo(高麗) dynasty had been getting into crisis worse and worse until late in it. Late in the 14th century, the society was constantly meeting tension and chaos including decline of the Yuan(元) dynasty, sudden rise of the Ming(明) dynasty and etc. This study is aimed to investigate the idea of justice and theory of governing advocated by Yaeun Jeon Nok Saeng, who lived in such tensed and chaotic era. Under the circumstance that threatened the national power of the Goryeo dynasty in the era where the Yuan dynasty changed to Ming dynasty, his idea of justice was expressed as "Theory for Friendship with Ming and Against Yuan", which was proposed in the aspect of considering the safety and maintenance of the nation and getting back the original national power of a country Goryeo. He thought that you should not make your people bothered by or troubled in their works but you should make them concentrate on their jobs for living to govern them eased. He emphasized that you should focus on stability of people's welfare in gentle ways not bothering your people even a little bit because he thought that the situation of that era looked like a thread bobbin so that it could get naturally and easily twisted if you went in hurry.