Michael C. Kalton

10.18399/acta.2011.14.2.003

Confucian T’oegye Yulgok Ki Kobong Ugye Tohak sogyu Sŏngnihak

In the eyes of Confucians such as T’oegye, Yulgok, Ki Kobong and Ugye, there were clearly two sorts of Confucians: their kind, practitioners of tohak, and those somewhat scornfully referred to as “sogyu” or ‘worldly Confucians.’ Historically tohak practitioners and sogyu intertwined interdependently in complex and important ways. In the contemporary world, however, for the most part what continues and is flaunted with pride as the Confucian pedigree of economically robust East Asian societies belongs to the sogyu. The content of the new sogyu learning is largely business, economics, and engineering; humanities or classical learning are hardly the contemporary way to “get ahead.” And deep relational thinking and feeling may well be transformed by the very consumer ethos it now is instrumental in bringing about with such dedication and hard work. Insofar as the present western-inspired global market/consumer economy and its attendant dynamics and values is the central feature of what many describe as a “sustainability crisis,” the Confucian tradition has had little to do with shaping the dynamics or values of the system. But the heirs of sogyu worldly pragmatism now play a major role in the scale and speed with which the crisis unfolds and progresses. But while sogyu is a mighty heritage and presence in the contemporary world, tohak has all but vanished. This paper will examine both potential creative contributions a revived tohak could make to the contemporary situation, and also the potential for such a tohak revival in East Asia. For the latter question, an examination of the way tohak traditionally existed in critical interdependence with sogyu will provide a window on what sort of conditions could possibly enable the emergence of a revitalized tohak.