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This book is an annotated translation, with introduction and commentary, of the correspondence between Yi Hwang (T'oegye, 1500-1570) and Ki Taesung (Kobong, 1527-1572) and between Yi I (Yulgok, 1536-1584) and Song Hon (Ugye, 1535-1598), known as the Four-Seven Debate, the most famous philosophical controversy in Korean Neo-Confucian thought. The most complex issues and difficult tensions in the great Neo-Confucian synthesis are at the juncture between the metaphysics of the cosmos and the human psyche. The Four-Seven Debate is perhaps the most searching examination of this tension ever carried out.
"This book introduces to an English-reading audience an extremely important issue in Korean Neo-Confucianism. Moreover, it shows how that philosophical debate was really about practical issues that arise in the course of moral cultivation. I find this book, particularly the introduction, the most lucid account of the origin, course, and significance of the Four-Seven Debate available in any language other than Korean, and it is better than most of the Korean material.
"The Four-Seven Debate has relevance far beyond Korean intellectual history. This book should be useful to people interested in philosophical or moral issues from a wide variety of cultural traditions. It will bring the Four-Seven Debate to the attention of scholars and writers exploring questions of evil and the human condition who would otherwise have been unaware of it." — Don Baker, University of British Columbia
Translator's Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction to the Four-Seven Debate
Background
The Four-Seven Debate
The T'oegye-Kobong Debate
The Yulgok-Ugye Debate
The Importance of the Four-Seven Debate
1. T'oegye's Letter to Kobong
2. Kobong's Letter to T'oegye on the Four Beginnings-Seven Feelings Thesis
3. T'oegye's Reply to Kobong Arguing the Distinction ofthe Four Beginnings and Seven Feelings in Terms of Principle and Material Force
4. Kobong's Response to T'oegye's Letter Discussing the Four Beginnings and Seven Feelings
Postscript
5. T'oegye's Reply to Kobong's Critique of Distinguishingthe Four Beginnings and Seven Feelings in Terms of Principle and Material Force, with a Revised version of His First Letter
Revised Draft of T'oegye's First Letter
Second Letter Replying to Kobong's Critique
6. Kobong's Response to the Second Letter
7. Kobong's Postscript Explanation of the Four Beginnings and Seven Feelings
8. Kobong's General Summary of the Four Beginnings and Seven Feelings
9. Ugye's First Letter to Yulgok on the Four-Seven Debate
10. Yulgok's Response to Ugye's First Letter
11. Yulgok's Response to Ugye's Second (Missing) Letter
12. Ugye's Third Letter to Yulgok
13. Yulgok's Response to Ugye's Third Letter
14. Ugye's Fourth Letter to Yulgok
15. Yulgok's Reply to Ugye's Fourth Letter
16. Ugye's Fifth Letter to Yulgok
17. Yulgok's Reply to Ugye's Fifth Letter
18. Ugye's Sixth Letter to Yulgok
19. Yulgok's Reply to Ugye's Sixth Letter
Letter on Principle and Material Force
Notes
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Index