Kim-Choongyeol's Study in Korean Confucianism: Key Issues and Significances in the History of Thought

Kim-Choongyeol newly proposed the term ‘起點 (terminus a quo)’ in relation to the tradition of Korean Confucianism and inferred that Confucianism of the Confucius School entered through contact with the Yeon(燕) Dynasty around the 4th century BC. He interpreted that the establishment of the culture with consilience of three different thoughts through Hwarangdo became the driving force of Silla's unification of the three countries, and the rise of privite school movement was thwarted by the rebellion of military officers in the Goryeo Dynasty, leading to the acceptance of Song's learning. He evaluated that the governance for humanity based on the chancellor system, which had been established up to Sejong, was disrupted through Yeonsan-gun's tyranny and four literati purges, and Ki-Daeseung continued to practice it again. He interpreted that Zheng-Yi and Zhu-Xi changed the monism of the mind and spirit, which were the traditional Chinese cosmology, to dualism by introducing the concept of Li which exists but is not active. He interpreted that Ki-Daeseung agreed that Lee-Hwang gave Li activity to compensate for the weaknesses of Neo- Confucianism. He criticized Lee-Yi's theory that 理 is through and 氣 is limited as not explaining the meaning of Li's presidency. In addition, he interpreted that the failure of the School of Mind to develop after Lee-Hwang's criticism caused difficulties in the transition to modern times. This interpretation is influenced by Mou-Zongsan's theory of Confucianism, which deviates from the historical context in which Confucianism was used in Japan and China during the modern transition period. However, Kim-Choongyeol's study of Korean philosophy is meaningful as a study that reveals the identity of Korean Confucianism by re-examining it in the history of East Asian thought based on Chinese philosophy.