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A Structural Analysis of the Notion of the Good in the Cho-weon-dam-lo(『椒園談老』) by Lee Chung-ik(李忠翊) ― Focusing on the Commentary of the Chapter 49, the Present-Version Laozi(『老子』) ―

Mi-Jung Min 1

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ABSTRACT

Lee Chung-ik makes a clear manifestation of his theory of the Supreme-good(至善) in chapter 49 of the Cho-weon-dam-lo. The Non-good(不善) rises from the thought itself that the Non-good could be separated from the Good(善). According to him, if a saint judges the people to be either the Good or the Non-good, the mind of the saint and the people would be divided into two and thereby the Virtue(德) will be no more good. On the contrary, the original text of Laozi just points out the ontological relativity of the Good and the Non-good by saying that the Virtue will remain good when the saint embraces the Good and the Non-good of the people without any discrimination. This difference in emphasis is symptomatically reflected in two phrases in chapter 49. First, Lee Chung-ik states that "How can the saint forgo a permanent mind?” while Laozi says, in the beginning, "The Saint has no permanent mind." Second, judging from the contextual flow in Lee Chung-Ik’s commentray, it appears that he intentionally ignores the significance of the phrase, “The Virtue is well done!(德善矣)” in the first half of the chapter in Laozi. This study attempts to reconstruct the philosophical strategies of Lee Chung-ik, found behind these phenomenal differences through the intrinsic analysis of the text, Cho-weon-dam-lo(『椒園談老』). As Lee Chung-ik ontologically highlights the idea of the Permanent(常), ‘Non-being(無)’ and ‘Being(有)’ are placed in a 'no' relationship with each other(無對). As a result, the Good and the Non-good are to be ontologized through the mutual relationship(相因) and the Prime-good identifies itself with the state of ‘The Mind-Heart is Li(xin ji li; 心卽理).’ Now, in Cho-weon-dam-lo, the systematic necessity of the Virtue-good(德善) in Laozi, that is, the Good, ‘well’ manifested as the Being of the Dao(道), is highly weakened. In conclusion, it would be possible to re-examine Cho-weon-dam-lo in the context of a Confucian Interpretation of Laozi(以儒解老).

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