INTRODUCTION 13pIe (ch 'oW) was with respect to institutions, an exercise completely free from
any utilitarian objective. II
Kim Chunsok expanded on Yi's analysis by pursuing Yu's formulations on
what he thought was Yu's creation of a new philosophical basis for his statecraft
study based on a critical evaluation of the views of Chinese and Korean schol-
ars since Chu Hsi. Kim held that Yu did not simply follow everything written
by Chu Hsi, but went back to the classics and used his own independent reason
to choose among alternative formulations, a scholarly method that he applied
as well to his study of institutions and laws. Kim calls the method one of "crit-
ical verification based on the citation of evidence" (pip 'anjOg'imyo silchUng
[chc)n 'go J juuijog'in hangmun t 'aedo). 12 Kim's formulation is an interesting one,
and it will be kept in mind as we analyze Yu's writings on Choson institutions.
Kim chose to emphasize the contribution Yu made to the establishment of a
philosophical justification for the study of the real world and "real facts" (silsa)
by introducing a new term, "real principle" (silli), which he defined as a monis-
tic entity in which psycho-physical energy was included and suhordinated to it.
Since real principle was to him the essential feature of the universe, he stated
that he would not he looking for laws of movement and action totally divorced
from moral principles because those principles were an inseparahle component
of that world.
Yu extended his notion of real principle to all aspects of Confucian philo-
sophical debate, in which principle was equivalent to the Great Ultimate
(t'aeguk), Heaven (Ch on) or Heaven's principle (Ch olii), the Way (to), the mind
of the Way (tosim), human nature (song), the four basic virtues in the human
mind (sadan), and the idea of sincerity (song, or being true to one's self) in the
Doctrine of the Mean. In his formulation, however, real principle was not an
equal partner with all those concepts that had been regarded as antithetical to
the elements in the above list - the corruptible mind of Man (insim), psycho-
physical energy (ki), the human emotions (chong), the seven emotions (ch'il-
chong), and human desires. On the contrary, all of them were part of the unity
that pervaded all of the world and humanity in which real principle was an irre-
movable part. Kim argued that the contribution of this formulation to those who
came afterYu, men like Yi Ik and Tasan (Chong Yagyong), was that they rejected
the whole igi debate for its fundamental misunderstanding of the unity in the
cosmos and its creation of an unnecessary dualism that only reinforced factional
strife. 13
These new studies by Yi U song and Kim Chunsok confirm my conviction that
Yu's unitarian world view was based on his concept of the interconnectedness
of moral principles and the mundane affairs of govcrnment and the rcal world,
and that he was the last person one might expect would launch the separation
offact from value that supposedly marked the beginning of ohjective and empir-
ical reason and empirical observation and its divorce from Christian revelation
and faith in the Renaissance.^14