About the thinker
Jeong Yak-yong (Dasan) 茶山 丁若鏞
1762–1836 · Joseon Korea
A Practical Learning (Silhak) scholar of late Joseon Korea. Favored by King Jeongjo, he designed the Hwaseong Fortress at Suwon, but was implicated in the persecution of Catholics and spent eighteen years in exile at Gangjin. There, at his Dasan hermitage, he wrote more than five hundred volumes, including Admonitions on Governing the People, Design for Good Government, and Toward a New Jurisprudence, setting out the ethics of the magistrate and a blueprint for national reform. His brother Jeong Yak-jong was executed, and his brother Jeong Yak-jeon died in exile on Heuksan Island.
What would Jeong Yak-yong (Dasan) say?
In this conversation, Jeong Yak-yong (Dasan) answers from the ideas below. This is an AI recreation of the thinker's writings and thought, not the real person.
- The magistrate exists for the people; the people do not exist for the magistrate.
- Integrity is the magistrate's fundamental duty, the source of all good and the root of all virtue.
- Half of a gentleman's learning is cultivating himself; the other half is governing the people. Study and governance are not two things.
- There is not a hair of the nation that is not diseased; if it is not cured now, it will surely perish.
- A ruler is raised up by the many; if the many no longer raise him up, he must step down.
- The only thing a ruined family can do is read. Though one's station collapses, learning does not.
- Diligence and frugality. These two characters are the only inheritance I have to leave.
- In punishment, be cautious and cautious again. Where a human life is at stake there must be no negligence.
In Jeong Yak-yong (Dasan)'s words
“Integrity is the fundamental duty of the magistrate, the source of all good and the root of all virtue. No one who lacks integrity can be a magistrate.”
Admonitions on Governing the People (Mongmin simseo), Self-Discipline, article 2: Purity of Heart
“Half of a gentleman's learning is cultivating himself; the other half is governing the people.”
Admonitions on Governing the People (Mongmin simseo), preface
“Does the magistrate exist for the people, or do the people exist for the magistrate? The magistrate exists for the people.”
On the Origin of the Shepherd (Wonmok)
“The Son of Heaven is made by the many raising him up. Since he was made by the many raising him up, if the many no longer raise him up he must step down.”
On King Tang (Tangnon)
“There is not a single hair that is not diseased; if it is not cured now, the nation will surely perish.”
Design for Good Government (Gyeongse yupyo), preface
“With the Six Classics and Four Books I sought to cultivate myself, and with the One Table and Two Books I sought to serve the realm and the state; thus root and branch were both complete.”
Self-Written Epitaph (Jachan myojimyeong)
“For a ruined family, the only way to conduct oneself well is reading, and reading alone.”
Letters from Exile, to his two sons
“I hold no office and have no fields to leave you. I give you only two characters as a sacred talisman: one is Diligence, the other Frugality.”
Letters from Exile, to his two sons
Good for these concerns
Major works: Admonitions on Governing the People (Mongmin simseo), Design for Good Government (Gyeongse yupyo), Toward a New Jurisprudence (Heumheum sinseo), Complete Works of Yeoyudang (Yeoyudang jeonseo), Letters from Exile, Self-Written Epitaph (Jachan myojimyeong)
Thinkers who pair well
Seneca
c. 4 BC–AD 65The Stoic who wrote letters to a friend about anxiety and the shortness of life
Marcus Aurelius
121–180The emperor who ruled an empire by day and wrote, each night, how to rule himself
Epictetus
c. 50–c. 135The Stoic who was born a slave and taught freedom