English abstract of an article published in Korean. The full text is available in Korean only.
Abstract
Objectives This study reexamines the Banseongjam (反誠箴) in Volume 2 of Yi Je-ma's Gyeokchigo (格致藁), proposing that its model of self-cultivation can be read as a differential completion—a moment-by-moment return (banseong, 反誠) that posits no terminus—as distinct from the integral orientation of C.G. Jung's individuation and of the Cheng–Zhu (程朱) Neo-Confucian learning, both of which posit a reachable endpoint. The terms differential and integral are used only as metaphor, for the axis of whether an endpoint is posited.
Methods The 1940 first edition (ed. Han Du-jeong) served as the base text, collated with Ji (2001) and Lee (1999); the Banseongjam was examined in four stages (text, translation, annotation, interpretation). Jung's passages were cross-read against the Collected Works (vols. 6, 8, 11, 12, 14) with bilingual verification, and the Cheng–Zhu comparison was confined to the thesis that the sage is learnable and to Zhu Xi's "resting in the highest good" (止於至善).
Results The Banseongjam heads the eight admonitions while subordinating Yijing imagery to the Four Books. Its core—an endless deceiving mind, repeated return and lapse (屢復屢失), and the author still unable at fifty-seven to forget deceiving—shows a practical non-attainment, recovering the released mind (求其放心) at the instant deception arises. Both comparators instead posit an endpoint (the Self; sagehood, 至善) while sharing a non-terminal realization; they bracket the axis of method, yet the divergence in both falls at the posited endpoint, not the path.
Conclusions Banseong may be read as a differential cultivation that posits no terminus—a choice proper to the Banseongjam rather than to East Asian or Confucian cultivation in general.
Key words Medicine, Korean Traditional; Philosophy, Medical; Self Concept; Personality Development; Psychoanalytic Theory; Korea
Read the full article in Korean
Choi Jang-hyuk | Doctor of Korean Medicine · Director, Dongjedang Korean Medicine Clinic