The Zhongyong through a Theistic Lens: Tasan Chŏng Yagyong on How to Be Moral

Tasan Chŏng Yagyong (1762–1836) is frequently listed alongside two sixteenth-century philosophers, T’oegye Yi Hwang (1501–70) and Yulgok Yi I (1536–84), as one of the three most important Confucian thinkers in all Korean history. However, Tasan is a very different scholar from T’oegye and Yulgok. First of all, he wrote on a much wider range of subjects than they did. Tasan wrote commentaries on all thirteen Confucian Classics and produced extensive essays on proper ritual, showing that he remained firmly within the Confucian tradition he shared with T’oegye and Yulgok. However, he also wrote about medicine, law, technology,