Ideas about and attitudes toward nature and life in Chosŏn period

Chayŏn kwa saengmyŏng e taehan Chosŏnin tŭl ŭi insik kwa t’aedo 자연과 생명에 대한 조선인들의 인식과 태도

Daeyeol Kim (1, 2, 3)

1 Inalco - Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales
2 ASIES EA 4512 - ASIES
3 IFRAE - Institut français de recherche sur l’Asie de l’Est

Neo-Confucianism and western science can respectively be identified as the school of thought and ideology that wielded the greatest influence on Joseon scholars’ perceptions of nature. The notions of principle (li) and energy (ki) also greatly influenced how Joseon scholars viewed the universe, nature, as well as mankind and society. Despite the growing influence of modern western science, the notion of principle (li) as the principle and order of the universe to which moral values were deeply related, and the notion of energy (ki) based on the organic idea, continued to hold sway until the late Joseon period. On the other hand, all other traditional theories mobilized to explain natural phenomena, such as Image-Number Study and the Yin-Yang and Five Elements Theory, were criticized or discarded.

Mots clés: Life; Chosŏn; Nature

Domaines: Histoire; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences; Religions; Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie

Daeyeol Kim. Chayŏn kwa saengmyŏng e taehan Chosŏnin tŭl ŭi insik kwa t’aedo 자연과 생명에 대한 조선인들의 인식과 태도. Workshop Conceptions of ‘Life’ and ‘Nature’ in Classical Discourses, Oct 2015, London, United Kingdom. ⟨halshs-01245965⟩