44
Focus on Jeong Yak-yong CULTURE & ARTS
The “Heart” Behind the Great Thinker By Diane Dooley
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
March 2022
W
ho was Jeong Yak-yong? Jeong Yak-yong (정약용, 1762–1836) was a prominent intellectual in late Joseon Korea (1392– 1897). Jeong is also frequently referred to by his pseudonym “Dasan” – a reference to the small mountain valley located here in our very own Jeollanam-do, where he spent some years in political exile from the Joseon court. In this article, I hope to reveal the more sensitive side of this renowned intellectual, who also happens to have a very unique connection to Jeollanam-do! “PRACTICAL” LEARNING Dasan belonged to the emerging Practical Thinking (Sirhak, 실학) school of intellectual thought. This school of thought arose out of a growing call for change that swept Joseon society in the wake of several devastating invasions. As noted by various scholars, “intense self-examination and self-criticism inevitably follow in the wake of national calamities, for nothing else so clearly exposes the roots of a society’s ills.” The devastating Japanese invasions of 1592–1598) and the
2022�03��.indd 44
Manchu invasions of 1627 and 1636, during which Joseon Korea was repeatedly laid to waste, exposed long-accepted abuses of power and privilege, gross inequities in society, and the inefficiency of established institutions. These are the things Dasan and his contemporaries hoped to tackle – no small feat! At the time of these invasions, the Joseon court was consumed with the factional power struggles of the elite, rendering the government incapable of both defending the country against its invaders and restoring it in the aftermath. For some, the only solution was a complete overhaul of Joseon’s governmental institutions, and so the Practical Learning movement arose. Most Practical Learning scholars were from the Southerner faction, whose adherents had been prohibited from taking government posts for generations, but whose status as perpetual outsiders placed them in a good position to call for change. In order to root out what they perceived as their society’s problems, Practical Learning scholars undertook exhaustive studies of Joseon society, including everything from its political
2022-02-23 �� 12:29:22
