Abstract

This essay focuses on the ethical philosophy of the late Joseon dynasty Korean Confucian philosopher Jeong Yakyong 丁若鏞 (1762–1836), more commonly known as Dasan茶山, as revealed in his comprehensive commentary on the Mencius孟子 (K. Maengja). Dasan sought to rescue Mencius’s philosophy from what he saw as the metaphysical excesses of Song-Ming neo-Confucians, whose interpretations of this and other Chinese classics had become orthodox in Jeoson Korea, and return to the letter and spirit of Mencius’s original teachings.