T’oegye Yi Hwang(1501~1570)’s criticism on the articles of Chen
XianZhang(1428-1500), He Qin(1437~1510) and Wang ShouRen(1472~1528),
who are neo-confucians in Ming Dynasty, is made under the purpose of
increasing the practical probablity of behavior based on confucian ideals.
First, examining Chen and He’s articles, Yi Hwang criticized that
emphasizing only sitting in meditation may result in pursuing the stability of
body and mind but not managing any task, and that will lower the practical
probability of behavior based on confucian ideals. Next, Yi Hwang judged of
Wang as follows: Wang rejected making connection with external things,
because he thought that desire was born in men while they made connection
with external things. From Yi Hwang’s perspective, Wang’s idea rejected the
circumstance itself where behavior based on confucian ideals was conducted.
Those Yi Hwang’s critics is based on his practice-oriented philosophy. He
emphasized the implication of Heavenly Mandate from concept Li. And from
this interpretation, he tried to highlight the meaning that Li keeps ordering
moral commands such as Heaven’s command. Based on this, Yi Hwang has
established the theory of practical inclination, Jing has been settling at core.
This could be explained as the learning of maintaining an obligation to
complete moral command like Heaven’s command in all areas of life.
Furthermore, T’oegye tried to show how Li leads to fulfill the practice of
behavior based on Confucian ideals by describing Four Sprouts and the result of the investigation of things as “issuance of Li” and “Li emerging by itself”.