Everyone Can Be a Sage-Ruler: Toegye, Nongmun, and the Idea of Political Equality
Hyo-Dong Lee, Drew University
In this essay I explore the potential of Korean Neo-Confucian li-ki metaphysics to provide an ontological ground for the notion of Confucian democracy. Whereas it is a longstanding and enduring thesis in the Confucian tradition that all human beings are potentially sages, such an unwavering faith in the moral equality of all has never been adequately translated, if at all, into a theory or a practice of political equality in the Korean context. I argue that the two divergent ways in which Korean Neo-Confucian metaphysics sought to secure the idea of moral equality, represented respectively by Toegye (Yi Hwang) and Nongmun (Im Seong-ju), erect mutually contrasting metaphysical underpinnings for the idea of political equality, albeit to different degrees of effectiveness. By presenting idiosyncratic interpretations of one of the pivotal metaphysical tenets of the so-called Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, namely, one principle with its many manifestations (ri-il-bun-su), both Toegye and Nongmun provide a robust defense of moral equality. Toegye does so by arguing for the active moral agency of the original nature (bon-yeon-ji-seong); Nongmun, by identifying the original nature with the physical nature (gi-jil-ji-seong). My claim is that Nongmun’s approach could serve as a key theoretical link in the transition from the idea of moral equality to that of political equality attempted in contemporary Confucian political thought.