• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.43
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• pp.9-32
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• 2014

Until now, the studies researching the Taoism theories of Joseon Dynasty have mainly dealt around the latter half of Joseon Dynasty. The reason for that was because the 5 cribs of a book Lao Tzu and the 2 crib of a book Changzi were produced after the Imjin-Year Korean-Japanese War(壬辰倭亂,Imjin Waeran). Therefore this thesis extracted the mentions about Taoism from about 200-year history records from Jeong Do-Jeon's Theory, which was the theoretical foundation for early days of Joseon's foundation and the history book King Taejong's Annals(太宗實錄) contained in The Annals of Joseon Dynasty(朝鮮王朝實 錄) and analyzed the extracted historic data as the first work contemplating how the Taoism theories were developed during the first half of Joseon Dynasty. From the analysis, this study drew out the findings as follows. Jeong Do-Jeon and Gwon Geun sharply criticized the Taoism for that it pursued for the techniques of longevity for oneself without moral. They tried to establish the identity of neo-Confucianism on the foundation criticizing the Taoism and the Buddhism. Since then, the Taoism was transformed through the 3 stages in The Annals of Joseon Dynasty. The first stage was the stage transformed 'Lao Tzu' as the witchcraft master of long-live, the technique of the taoist hermit and the super god in Taoism, and regarded the Taoism as heresy and excluded the Taoism. Second stage was the stage trying to see the book Lao Tzu as the core of Taoism theory separately from the 'Hermit Witchcraft' and the 'Taoist gods' the target of fortune-pursue religion beyond from the primary discussion of exclusion. Third stage was revealed as the respects on the art of politics and the art of living described in the book Lao Tzu. That is, the Taoism theories in the first half of Joseon Dynasty was developed with various spectrums from the early days of Joseon's foundation to 15~16 centuries beyond Joseon's strong suppression against the Taoism and the Buddhism in early days. That is the point that the Taoism in the first half of Joseon Dynasty can't be simply interpreted in the neo-Confucianism. During the firs half of Joseon Dynasty, the warm attitude toward the Taoism was created differently from the attitude against suppressing it as a cult, which had been created in the early days of Josen's foundation, and there appeared the changes accepting the art of living and the art of politics theoretically integrating with the Confucianism theories. That is, the book 'Lao Tus' became accepted as the Confucian country's arts of living and politics from a cult book pursuing for immoral log and immortal life. Such acception is revealed as the appearance actively interpreting the books about Laoism in the latter half o Joseon Dynasty.