China & East Asia · 1501–1570
Yi Hwang (Toegye)
Leading Neo-Confucian scholar of Joseon Korea
In the Four–Seven debate with Ki Taesŭng he argued that the four moral sprouts issue from principle and the seven emotions from qi, giving principle an active role in moral life.
Life and thought
Yi Hwang, known by his pen name Toegye, was born in 1501 near Andong in southeastern Korea. He passed the state examination in 1534 and served the Joseon court, but repeatedly resigned to return home and study; he founded the school that became the Dosan Academy. From 1559 he exchanged letters for years with a younger scholar, Ki Taesŭng, in what became Korea’s most famous philosophical debate. In 1568 he presented the young King Sŏnjo with his Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning, and he died two years later.
The debate asked where feelings come from. Mencius spoke of four moral “sprouts” such as compassion; the Book of Rites lists seven ordinary emotions such as joy and anger. In Zhu Xi’s terms of principle and qi, Toegye concluded that the four issue from principle with qi following, while the seven issue from qi with principle riding on it. The point was that moral feeling has a source deeper than ordinary emotion, and that principle is active, not inert. His stress on reverence shaped Korean scholarship and was admired by Japanese Confucians such as Yamazaki Ansai.