Toegye 退溪 and The Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning: A Humanistic Guide to the Kingly Way

This paper examines one of the most important works in Korea’s intellectual history, by one of its most respected scholars. Toegye 退溪 Yi Hwang 李滉 (1501-1570), synthesised the Song dynasty 宋朝 metaphysics of Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200) in his magnum opus, Seonghak sipdo 聖學十圖 (The Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning). This work reflects the maturity of Korea’s Neo-Confucian tradition, shaping its future trajectory on the Korean peninsula, while also influencing the development of Neo-Confucian thought in Japan. I will delineate the scope of The Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning, while assessing Toegye’s ‘Humanistic’ guiding discourse, which attempts to develop one’s sense of Humanity (仁, K. in), in the Confucian sense, through a rigorous process of self-cultivation, one of the salient features of East Asian thought. Toegye elucidates our place in the ‘moral’ universe, where (wo)mankind is expected to act responsibly towards other members of the family and the larger society, interconnected through a series of relationships, emphasised in his diagrams on learning, which also calls on us to put that learning into actual practice in our daily lives. The text highlights the special role of the king who is expected to be a moral exemplar to his people, representing the essence of ‘sagehood’. The text also facilitates Toegye’s sophisticated meta-psychological analysis of the Heart-and-Mind (心, K. sim) in diagrammatic form, making it more accessible, while also being visually impactful. It was ultimately aimed at developing the psychological character of a ‘sage king’, leading him to cultivate an impartial mind and attitude - reflecting the completion of a man of the Confucian Way - epitomising Humanity for his people.