Then there is li, the observation of customs, proper etiquette, and the need to act in accordance with society’s set of morals. Through the observance of social rituals—such as the correct way to mourn the dead, or even drink tea—people learn to show respect for each other and behave in socially harmonious ways. In this sense, the rationale for li is comparable to William of Wykeham’s maxim, “Manners maketh man.” However, li also involves a sort of hierarchy: in Confucianism, those who master li are considered to be especially wise. The ideal society is ruled by such a person, who also appoints fellow wise men as his advisors and administrators. This concept gave rise to the practice of national examinations, which were held to determine who would join the civil service in China, from 605 CE until 1911. The ruler who mastered li was, in theory, reminiscent of Socrates’ rule by Philosopher Kings, who would likewise rule society in a wise and just fashion.
Loyalty is held as essential—to one’s family, one’s husband or wife, one’s king, and one’s friends. Family loyalty is most important of all: the concept of filial piety, or xiao, commands children to respect and honor their parents and ancestors above all others. There was no higher virtue in Confucian-influenced cultures than this. Ancestors were commemorated in rituals; parental wishes, including their choice of their child’s occupation or marriage partner, were to be fulfilled without complaint; and those who committed crimes against their parents were held by society to be particularly reprehensible and subjected to greater punishment.
In Confucianism, relationships between people have certain rules. There are five relationships in all: those between ruler and subject, father and son, older and younger, husband and wife, and two friends of similar status. The last relationship is the only one in which equality prevails. In all of the others, the former party is superior, and the latter inferior. The superior partner should act with a duty of responsibility and benevolence to the lower, who should respond in turn with loyalty and obedience. Confucians believed that a society run on these lines would be harmonious and orderly.
Confucianism in Korea
Koreans were first exposed to Confucian thought during the Lelang Commandery era, and like Buddhism, its influence began to grow during the Three Kingdoms period. The elites of Goguryeo, Shilla, and Baekje all studied Chinese classics; Confucian texts were an important part of such an education. At the time, Buddhism and Confucianism were not mutually exclusive: the former dealt with the metaphysical, and the latter with one’s conduct in the temporal realm, in relation to other members of society. A good scholar was expected to have a solid understanding of both. Shilla, a Buddhist state, established a Confucian college in 682.
During the Koryo Dynasty (918–1392), the role of Confucianism grew. King Gwangjeong (r. 949–975) introduced the national civil service examination, and King Songjeong (r. 981–997) established Gukgajam, a Confucian school, as the highest educational institution in the land. Again though, its increased role did not encroach on Buddhism. The established state religion continued to grow, as the creation of the Tripitaka Koreana, and the increasing power of the monasteries, would attest.
Buddhism and Confucianism in fact share a certain degree of commonality. Both belief systems assign importance to helping others and acting selflessly. Self-improvement is also a critical theme or ethic in both traditions. The two philosophies intermingled in popular practice long before the Joseon period. This blending can be seen in the creation of the Hwarang, an elite group of young fighters from the Shilla dynasty that existed from the sixth to the tenth centuries.
The Hwarang were teenage boys of good moral character drawn mainly from the aristocracy. They were trained in horsemanship, archery, martial arts, and intellectual disciplines and indoctrinated with an ethical code based on both Buddhism and Confucianism. Though they were considered a Buddhist fighting force, and were given their moral code by a Buddhist monk named Wongwang, the first two instructions the monk gave them as part of that code were to “be loyal to your Lord” and “love and respect your parents and teachers.” Nothing could be more Confucian than instructions like these.
It was not until the growth of neo-Confucianism in the late Koryo period that Buddhism and Confucianism fell into conflict. Neo-Confucianism was a philosophical movement most closely associated with Chinese thinker Zhu Xi (1130–1200). It attached even greater importance to li and also to education, since neo-Confucian philosophers believed that all things could be understood via the application of reason, and that it was man’s duty to work to attain such understanding.
Zhu was a heavy reader of Buddhist texts, and argued for an ultimate state of knowledge in which there are no bounds between the thinker, and other people and things. This “breakthrough to integral comprehension” is reminiscent of the kind of oneness of understanding pursued by Buddhists. However, Zhu was also a rationalistic and non-spiritual thinker, and was of the ultimate opinion that Buddhism was vacuous and deluding. He and his followers sought to reduce the influence of Buddhism on society. Whereas the old Confucianism could accommodate Buddhism, neo-Confucianism would not.
After An Hyang, a Korean scholar, read one of Zhu’s works in 1286 and was inspired to transcribe it and bring it back from China to his own country, neo-Confucianism began to influence intellectuals in Korea. Due to the presence of Confucian academies, there was a ready-made scholarly class who would have been receptive to his ideas. Furthermore, the excessive power and corrupt behavior of the monasteries meant Zhu’s anti-Buddhist approach arrived at the right time.
Though both the common people and most of the elite continued to follow Buddhism, the religion had some powerful opponents. Jeong Do-jeon (died 1398), the closest advisor to Yi Seong-gye (later King Taejo, the founder of the Joseon dynasty following his overthrow of Koryo), was the most notable of these. When Koryo fell and Yi established the new regime in 1392, Jeong—who some consider to have been the real leader in all but name—was given many administrative portfolios including education, taxation policy, diplomacy, and defense. He established a highly centralized bureaucracy, moved Korea’s capital from the city of Kaesong to Seoul, and replaced Buddhism with neo-Confucianism as official state ideology.
He set about reordering Korean society on neo-Confucian lines. This meant that the upper class would be composed of bureaucrats—those who passed the civil service examination. Beneath them, there was to be a professional class, and then a class of ordinary laborers. Formerly powerful Buddhist monks did not even make it into the lower class: along with musicians, prostitutes, and other people he considered socially harmful, monks became part of the cheonmin, an outcast group who were forced to live away from mainstream society and were blocked from social advancement through measures such the inability to register for the civil service examination.
Several monarchs throughout the early Joseon period retained their Buddhism: Taejo himself, and King Sejong the Great (r. 1418–1450), for example, were both Buddhists and believed that there was no contradiction between being guided by Confucianism in one’s thinking on social issues, and by Buddhism on the metaphysical. They were, however, constrained by powerful civil servants, who followed neo-Confucianism rather than the more accommodating form of Confucianism that had existed in Korea before Zhu Xi’s influence began.
Shamanists also came under attack from the neo-Confucians; they too were relegated to cheonmin status. However, both the musok-in and the Buddhist monk remained in demand. Neo-Confucianism was non-spiritual, and naturally, the people required an outlet for their metaphysical questions and troubles. Furthermore, in the case of Musok, its use of colorful ceremonies full of music, dance, and emotional displays allowed people a sense of joy that neo-Confucianism, with its stifling hierarchicalism and emphasis on duty, could not. Throughout the Joseon era, many members of both the nobility and the common classes turned to both Buddhism and shamanism; Queen Min, in the late nineteenth century, was a devout Buddhist, and also employed two musok-in as advisors. According to Homer B. Hulbert, a nineteenth century American missionary to Korea, “The all-round Korean will be a Confucian in society, a Buddhist when he philosophizes, and a spirit worshipper when he is in trouble.”
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