China & East Asia · 1536–1584
Yi I (Yulgok)
Korean statesman-scholar and Toegye’s younger rival
Held that only qi issues and principle “rides” on it, so the four sprouts are a subset of the seven emotions; he also pressed for practical reforms of government.
Life and thought
Yi I, known as Yulgok, was born in 1536 in Gangneung; his mother, Sin Saimdang, was a celebrated painter and poet. After her death, when he was fifteen, he spent about a year in a Buddhist monastery in the Diamond Mountains before returning to Confucian learning. He is said to have come first in the state examinations nine times, rose to be minister of personnel and of war, and pressed the court for practical reforms in taxation, education and defence. He died in 1584.
In the Four–Seven debate he sided with Ki Taesŭng against Toegye. Only qi issues, he argued, and principle “rides” on it; there is no second route by which principle issues on its own. The four moral sprouts are simply the good portion of the seven emotions. His formula “principle pervades, qi delimits” explains why one universal principle appears in limited, varied things. He also wrote a primer for students and the Essentials of Sage Learning for the king. The rival schools of Toegye and Yulgok shaped Korean thought for three centuries.