Chǒng yagyong's political philosophy: Kyǒngse yup'yo and mongmin simsǒ's arguments on state governance

Abstract

This article analyzes Chǒng Yagyong's political philosophy, especially his discussion on his ideal for righteous governance (wangjǒng). Chǒng proposed new discourses on human nature and active governance in order to realize his ideal of wangjǒng. He further suggested an integration of the central and local governing systems. In this integrated system, magistrates would have the duty to educate their people and solve economic problems. Chǒng Yagyong's theory on governance by pyǒndǔng (, discriminating between different social status groups), underlining the strict hierarchy of social status and a hierarchical social order, emerged in the process of explicating this system. He believed that the state's governing system could be maintained only when status hierarchy was carefully observed and respected, as in the difference between teacher and student, and officials and the people, and in accordance with individual capability and moral self-cultivation. He also suggested a precise bureaucratic system in order to avoid private abuse of power by both the king and officialdom. Although the high level of centralization of power in his proposed system is controversial, it seems that his argument is still relevant today since he emphasized that, through the royal way and wangjǒng, the state could be governed in accordance with the highest standards of fairness. © 2014 Academy of East Asian Studies.