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A Study on the Governing Ideology of Hong Ga - Shin - With a focus on his memorials to the king -

  • Journal of Korean Classical Chinese Literature
  • Abbr : 한문고전연구
  • 2016, 33(1), pp.43-74
  • DOI : 10.18213/jkccl.2016.33.1.002
  • Publisher : The Classical Chinese Literature Association of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature

복대형 1

1대전도안고등학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Manjeondang[晩全堂] Hong Ga-shin(1541년~1615년) was a scholar and politician that was active during the reign of King Seonjo[宣祖]. In his lifetime, he witnessed the impoverishment of people's life after the collapse of all the institutions and disciplines starting with exploitative tax collection, the paralysis of government's functions due to Imjinwaeran[壬辰倭亂], and the devastation of entire land in the era of great confusion. It was desperately needed to stabilize the livelihoods of people by setting the deconstructed institutions and disciplines right and put in special countermeasures and efforts to revive the nation. Manjeondang served as a local official for many years, having profound contemplations over practical solutions to overcome the contradictions of the times, stabilize the livelihoods of people, and revive the nation, putting them into practice, and proposing alternatives actively at every chance, which is demonstrated in his three appeals to King Seonjo, which were "Minpyeso[民弊疏]", "Jeoktoihubongsa[賊退後封事]" and "Eunggueonbongsa[應求言封事]" His appeals give some hints about his perceptions of reality and governing thoughts in their overall aspects. The aspects of his governing thoughts include the followings: first, he insisted that the government should seek after the stabilization of people's livelihoods by improving the exploitative taxation system based on his belief in the thought of politics for the people and be careful with punishment based on respect for life. Secondly, he demanded that the monarch should establish morality through Sushin[修身] based on the ideology of the doctrine of governing the people with virtue and accordingly be fair and just to deal with everything. Finally, he argued that the monarch should refrain from dogmatic operation of state affairs based on people-centered thought, open a communication channel for his subjects, and thus embrace various opinions to run the affairs of state. In addition, he proposed important plans to improve the politics of the times, including increasing the professionalism and accountability of all government officials, establishing the social discipline by imposing strict punishment on Jangri[贓吏] and being fair with reward and punishment, and establishing military administration by recruiting able commanders and granting full authority to them. Those findings indicate that Manjeondang maintained his governing ideology of setting a political goal of the thought of politics for the people based on Confucian political ideas and pursuing the ideals of people-centered thought through the doctrine of governing the people with virtue. Based on them, he was active with proposing specific political reform plans urgently needed to correct the contradictions of the times and implement the great works of stabilizing the livelihoods of people and reviving the nation as a realistic and practical administrator.

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