Yakjungpyeon 約中篇 [Discourse on Moderation]

46 folding leaves. Small folio (316 x 213 mm.), orig. yellow-brown semi-stiff wrappers, new stitching. Ch’ŏngsong 靑松: Pugang Sŏdang 鳧江書堂, 1849.


First edition of a fascinating late-Chosŏn treatise by Yi Sang-jŏng (1711-81), elaborating on how to control one’s emotions. Yi was a prominent scholar who followed the legacy of Toegye Yi Hwang 李滉 (1502-70), the most important Neo-Confucian scholar in Korea. A scholar and government official, Yi was known for his moral integrity, learning, and devotion to Confucian principles in state administration. He held a number of important posts including Chief Censor, Minister of Rites, and Senior Advisor to the king.


Yakjungpyeon is organized into 66 discrete entries. It investigates how human emotions (the “Seven Fundamental Feelings” — joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, and desire) should be managed in daily life. Beginning with the theme of “the mind before emotions arise” 喜怒哀樂未發之中 — a concept central to the reading of Neo-Confucian mind theory by the Chinese philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200) — the text guides readers through moral and psychological challenges. Yi gathers classical sources to argue that emotions are natural and inevitable for human beings and should not be criticized or repressed. However, he warns that these emotions’ unchecked influences can disrupt rational judgment and moral pursuits, and stresses the necessity of cultivating the ability to regulate them.


Throughout sections devoted to each emotion, Yi provides examples and explorations of matters such as the importance of not holding onto anger after it arises, the need to reduce selfish desires (and how to tell if a desire is selfish), the pitfalls of inattention, and the roots of fear. While maintaining the Confucian emphasis on propriety, rather than prescribing a single standard for the proper state of emotion, Yi insists that the “middle way” 中道 is the goal of self-cultivation.


The colophon, written by Yi’s grandson Ryu Chi-myung 柳致明 (1777-1861), dated 1849, notes that Yi Sang-jŏng originally wrote the work in 1749.


Very good copy. Marginal dampstaining throughout. We find no copy outside of Korea.