ABSTRACT
Yi Yulgok was one of a number of eminent thinkers who contributed to the renaissance of Confucianism in Korea in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries CE. His work was influenced by Chinese neo-Confucians, notably the philosopher Zhuxi [Chu Hsi]. 1 In common with other members of the school, Yi Yulgok believed that human nature and the nature of ultimate reality can both be explained by an elucidation of a set of Confucian concepts supplemented by the doctrine of yinyang , the belief in cosmic dynamism. He saw his task as one of producing a comprehensive philosophical system which would avoid any charge of dualism. Of particular concern in Korean philosophy was what came to be known as the ‘four-seven’ debate, to which Yi Yulgok made a major contribution. This was the issue of the precise interrelationship between the ‘seven feelings’ of joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred and desire, and the innate human capacity for goodness (or, more specifically, the ‘four beginnings’, of humanity or ren [jen], righteousness, propriety and wisdom), a key teaching of Mencius. 2
