鄙薄貪懦의 暴傷과 心地의 淸濁에 대한 고찰: 『格致藁』 「獨行篇」과 『東醫壽世保元』 病理의 접합을 중심으로

本稿는 「局·面·局回」 三部作에 이은 第四部의 에세이판(2026-06-30)을 사상체질의학회지(JSCM) 원저 투고규정에 따라 IMRAD 형식으로 재구성한 논문판이다. 에세이판: 鄙薄貪懦는 어디로 닫히는가 — 暴傷과 心地의 淸濁

표제지

국문 제목 — 鄙薄貪懦의 暴傷과 心地의 淸濁에 대한 고찰: 『格致藁』 「獨行篇」과 『東醫壽世保元』 病理의 접합을 중심으로

영문 제목 — A Study on the Poksang of Bibaktamna and the Clarity and Turbidity of the Mind-Will: Focusing on the Junction of the Dokhaeng-pyeon of Gyeokchigo and the Pathology of Dongui Suse Bowon

논문 종류 — 원저(Original Article)

저자 — 최장혁 (Choi, Jang-hyuk)

소속 — 동제당한의원 (Dongjedang Korean Medicine Clinic)

교신저자 — 최장혁. 인천광역시 동구 동산로 88, 동제당한의원. Tel: 032-765-7733. Fax: 032-773-7734. E-mail: [email protected]

Running head — 국문: 鄙薄貪懦의 暴傷과 心地淸濁 / 영문: Poksang and the Mind-Will of Bibaktamna

공시사항 — 본 논문은 학위논문이 아니며, 연구비 지원을 받지 않았다. 저자는 이해관계가 없다(Conflict of interest: none).

Abstract

Objectives: To clarify the mechanism by which the poksang (暴傷, violent self-wounding) of bibaktamna (鄙薄貪懦) descends, stage by stage, from the clarity and turbidity of the mind-will (心地淸濁) to a body region fixed by constitution, and to read this as the junction of the Dokhaeng-pyeon (獨行篇) of Gyeokchigo (格致藁) with the pathology of Dongui Suse Bowon (東醫壽世保元).

Methods: The Dokhaeng-pyeon, Geonjam (乾箴), Gonjam (坤箴), and Banseong-jam (反誠箴) of Gyeokchigo (1940 first edition), the Sadan-ron (四端論), the essay on Taeyangin small-intestine disease, and the Gwangje-seol (廣濟說) of Dongui Suse Bowon (Sinchuk edition), and the Dongui Sasang Chobon-gwon (東醫四象初本卷) were collated and analyzed through the guk–jang–myeon (局場面) fluid ontology, following the descent from mind to body.

Results: First, the unworthy (不肖人)—that is, bibaktamna—recurrently suffers poksang from two causes: a failed knowing-of-others (知人未賞, collapse before arousal) and an insincere conduct-of-self (行己不誠, failure to gather after arousal). Second, the threshold of 心地淸濁 divides the aroused feeling into nature (性) or disposition (情). Third, nature runs to the surface (表) and disposition to the interior (裏), which meet the constitutionally weak viscus; for the mean (太陽人) the surface is the graver locus. Fourth, the recurrence (暴) grinds the weak viscus through four stages down to spirit-disease. Fifth, the single medicine is constant calm (恒寧靜), banseong restated in the language of the body.

Conclusions: The poksang of bibaktamna is a mechanism, not a metaphor; the not-closing of gukhoe becomes, at the level of the body, the endless returning to calm that keeps the revolution from closing into one’s own viscera.

Key words: Medicine, Korean Traditional; Sasang Constitutional Medicine; Philosophy, Medical; Emotions; Somatoform Disorders; Self-Control

Ⅰ. 서론

「局·面·局回」 三部作은 『格致藁』의 鄙薄貪懦(비박탐나)가 굳은 局(1부)·면의 침탈(2부)·治亂의 한 바퀴(3부)로 전개되되 끝내 닫히지 않고 자기에게로 돌아서는 자리(反誠)로 열림을 논증하였다^2,3,4). 그러나 反誠은 한 번에 이뤄지지 않는다 — 동무 자신이 쉰일곱에 이르도록 詐心을 잊지 못한다 하였으니, 돌이킴은 屢復屢失이다. 그러면 끝내 돌아서지 못한 자리, 곧 行己不誠의 자리는 어디로 가는가. 面에서 남을 친 暴傷이 자기에게로 돌아서지 못한 채 제 안으로 돌아올 때, 그것은 관계의 문제가 아니라 제 몸의 문제가 된다. 관계의 의학이 몸의 의학으로 넘어가는 그 자리가 본고의 출발점이다.

『格致藁』 연구는 김만산¹⁰⁾ 이래 임병학¹¹⁾으로 이어지는 易學的 독법이 주류를 이루어 왔고, 鄙薄貪懦에 대해서는 尹德泳·高炳熙¹²⁾·裵英淳¹³⁾이 문헌적으로 고찰하였다. 「장부론」 생리에 대해서는 이기복⁹⁾이 四焦 수포 회로를 오행 우주론이 아니라 사람이 세상과 관계 맺는 능동적 활동의 산물로 정밀하게 복원하였으며, 格致藁의 事心身物과 『東醫壽世保元』의 天人性命을 잇는 상관성은 林炳學¹⁴⁾이 다루었다. 그러나 鄙薄貪懦의 감정이 어떤 기전으로 특정 장부를 상하는가 — 場에서 받은 자극이 心地의 문턱을 지나 性과 情으로, 다시 表와 裏로, 마침내 체질이 정한 부위로 좁혀 내려가는 그 순서 — 는 다루어지지 않았다.

본고의 논지는 한 줄로 선다. 鄙薄貪懦가 몸을 상하는 길은 비유가 아니라 기전(機轉)이며, 동무는 그 기전을 마음의 청탁에서 출발해 한 단계씩 신체의 특정 부위로 좁혀 내려간다. 동무가 易象이 아니라 몸의 생리로 이 길을 그렸다는 것이 본고가 끝까지 붙드는 한 가지다.

Ⅱ. 연구 대상 및 방법

1. 연구 대상

『格致藁』는 1940년 韓斗正 편 초간본을 저본으로 하고¹⁾ 「獨行篇」·「乾箴」·「坤箴」·「反誠箴」을 분석 대상으로 하였으며, 「獨行篇」은 『格致藁』 최초 저술 텍스트로 보는 문헌 고찰¹⁵⁾을 따랐다. 『東醫壽世保元』은 辛丑本(1901)의 「四端論」·「太陽人內觸小腸病論」·「廣濟說」을⁶⁾, 체질 배속과 神病·暴傷 논의에는 『東醫四象初本卷』⁵⁾을 사용하였다.

2. 분석틀과 방법

局場面 유체론은 선행 논문^7,8)에서 정립한 현대적 분석틀로, 場에서 두 局이 부딪혀 씌운 역(役)을 받아 내는 것은 바깥이 아니라 내 局이라는 전제를 갖는다. 분석은 ① 원문 확정과 직역, ② 心地淸濁의 문턱·性情·表裏·부위·神病·恒寧靜이라는 하강 순서의 논점별 배열, ③ 局場面 유체론에 의한 재해석의 세 단계로 진행하였다. 본 연구는 문헌·이론 연구이다.

Ⅲ. 결과

1. 暴傷의 진입 — 局이 받고, 불초인의 두 원인

局回의 한 바퀴는 反誠으로 닫히거나 行己不誠으로 닫히지 못한다²⁾. 갈 곳을 잃은 한 바퀴가 어디로 가는지를 『初本卷』은 喜怒哀樂이 暴傷하는가로 사람을 넷으로 갈라 적는다⁵⁾.

聖人之喜怒哀樂不暴傷者 行其性而知人明知之故也 賢人之喜怒哀樂猶暴傷者 知人不明之故也 不肖人之喜怒哀樂毎暴傷者 知人未賞全味而行己不誠之故也 修練人之喜怒哀樂不暴傷者 愛身絶欲畏人遠遁之故也

성인은 暴傷하지 않고 현인은 그래도 暴傷하며 불초인은 매양 暴傷하고 수련인은 暴傷하지 않는다. 성인은 行其性·知人明으로, 수련인은 愛身絶欲·畏人遠遁 — 곧 관계를 끊음으로써 暴傷을 면한다. 暴傷이 관계의 사건임이 여기서 드러난다. 본고가 주목하는 자리는 불초인이며, 불초인은 곧 鄙薄貪懦다. 그가 매양 暴傷하는 까닭은 둘 — 知人未賞(사람을 온전히 알지 못함)과 行己不誠(자기를 행함이 성실하지 못함)이다.

이 두 원인은 단순한 병렬이 아니라 시간의 위상이 다르다. 知人의 실패는 감정이 발하기 이전의 일이고, 行己不誠은 발한 이후의 일이다. 뒤에서 보듯 「乾箴」은 知人을 喜怒哀樂의 未發而中의 조건으로, 「反誠箴」은 詐心이 발한 뒤 行詐로 터지기 전에 거두는 일을 적는다. 곧 知人未賞은 발하기 이전 문턱의 붕괴(未發의 붕괴)이고, 行己不誠은 발한 이후 회수의 실패(已發의 미수습)다. 그 앞뒤가 함께 무너진 자리에서 暴傷이 매양 일어난다. 知人은 초본권만의 어휘가 아니라 「獨行篇」 서두의 축이다 — 好而知其惡則中立而不倚, 惡而知其美則和而不流의 자라야 獨行하며 不動心하고, 그 조건이 「知人然後正心 不動心之理」다¹⁾. 불초인의 知人未賞 진단은 「獨行篇」이 처음부터 말해 온 知人의 실패가 의학적 귀결로 닫히는 자리다.

※ 賞 字 교감 — 「知人未賞全味」의 賞은 코퍼스 원문 표기를 따랐다. 문맥상 未嘗으로 새기는 편이 자연스러우나 嘗과 賞은 통용 예가 있어 단정하지 않으며, 韓斗正本 실물 대조는 후고로 미룬다.

暴傷의 1차 결정자는 자극의 다양성이 아니라 그 자극을 받는 局의 형세다. 「坤箴」은 그 받음의 능동성을 적는다 — 我有强力 人必趁我(내게 강한 힘이 있으면 남이 반드시 나를 좇는다)¹⁾. 관계의 형세는 바깥이 일방으로 던지는 것이 아니라 내 局이 먼저 세운 자리에서 결정된다⁷⁾. 다만 밖에서 닿는 자극이 없으면 발동 자체가 없다 — 暴傷은 관계의 사건이라 홀로는 일어나지 않으며(수련인의 畏人遠遁이 그 증거다), 외부는 방아쇠(觸)이되 무엇이 발동되는가는 안쪽의 局이 정한다. 반성잠의 팔괘가 場에 입력되는 항이 아니라 場에서 빚어지는 결과라는 선행 결론⁸⁾과 한 줄로 이어진다.

2. 心地의 淸濁이 性과 情을 가른다

같은 자극이 局에 닿아 한 감정을 흔든다 하자. 그 흔들림은 어디로 가는가. 心地의 淸濁이란 흔들린 감정의 속도(急/緩)와 위상(未發/已發)을 함께 정하는 문턱이다. 두 축을 갈라 둔다. 체질은 배선이다 — 「四端論」에 따르면 太陽人은 哀가 性·怒가 情, 少陽人은 怒가 性·哀가 情, 太陰人은 喜가 性·樂이 情, 少陰人은 樂이 性·喜가 情이며, 이 배선은 천품으로 불변한다⁶⁾. 心地의 淸濁은 문턱이다 — 그 배선에 자극이 닿을 때 性에 머무느냐 情으로 넘어가느냐를 가른다. 「四端論」이 臟局短長(불변의 틀)과 心地淸濁(가변의 정도)을 나란히 적은 까닭이 여기 있다⁶⁾.

이 문턱을 동무는 세 자리에서 그린다. 「廣濟說」의 慟心 — 太陰人恒有慟心 慟心寧靜則居之安資之深而造於道也 慟心益多則放心桎梏而物化之也⁶⁾. 같은 慟心이 寧靜에 머물면 道에, 넘치면 物化에 이른다. 慾心과 義心의 대비 — 以慾心而喜者 急喜而必傷 以義心而喜者 緩喜而不傷 凡人皆然⁶⁾. 상함을 가르는 것은 감정의 종류가 아니라 어떤 마음에서 어떤 속도로 가는가다(동무는 喜·哀 두 자리에 명문으로 적었으며, 怒·樂도 같은 구조로 짐작되나 본고는 원문이 명시한 喜·哀에 한정한다). 「反誠箴」의 詐心便發 未及行詐而反誠則學問也¹⁾ — 자극은 발하되 行詐로 넘어가기 전에 빠지는 것이 心地가 淸한 상태다. 세 자리가 한 가지를 말한다 — 心地가 淸하면 性은 動하되 寧靜에 머물러 情으로 터지지 않고, 濁하면 性에 머물지 못해 情으로 넘친다.

세 가지 오독을 막아 둔다. 첫째, 性이 動하는 것 자체는 病이 아니다 — 性은 未發이지 無가 아니어서 살아 있는 한 動한다. 동무가 경계한 것은 動이 아니라 過度다 — 恒戒哀怒之過度 不可强做喜樂虛動不及⁶⁾. 억지로 안 動하게 만드는 虛動이 오히려 나쁘다. 둘째, 문턱을 넘지 않음은 참음이 아니라 상(相)의 전환이다 — 情으로 터질 것을 힘으로 누름(强做)은 금한 바이며, 反誠은 情(裏)으로 떨어지기 전에 性(表)의 결로 흘려보냄이다. 『初本卷』은 이를 旣發而不强揠者의 덕·절로, 强揠而大做를 非徒無益而又害之로 적는다⁵⁾. 셋째, 그러므로 心地의 淸濁은 性·情 그 자체가 아니라 그 위상의 문턱을 정하는 가변의 정도다.

이 문턱을 「乾箴」은 그 자체의 언어로 못 박는다 — 知天然後喜怒哀樂已發而節也 知人然後喜怒哀樂未發而中也¹⁾. 이어 그 知人이 천하 인심의 惡慾을 洞知함임을 적으니, 知人이 未發而中의 직접 조건이다. 1절의 이중 붕괴가 여기서 닫힌다 — 불초인은 知人에 미숙하여(未賞全味) 발하기 전에 中에 들지 못하고, 터진 것을 反誠으로 거두지도 못한다(行己不誠). 「乾箴」의 知人→未發而中과 「反誠箴」의 未及行詐→反誠은 心地라는 한 문턱의 앞뒤이며, 그 둘이 함께 무너진 자리가 불초인의 暴傷이다.

3. 性이면 表, 情이면 裏 — 그리고 부위

心地의 문턱을 넘어 性에 머물거나 情으로 터진 둘은 몸에서 서로 다른 곳으로 간다. 「太陽人內觸小腸病論」이 그 방향을 적는다 — 太陽人 哀心深着則傷表氣 怒心暴發則傷裡氣⁶⁾. 같은 글에서 少陽人은 怒性이 口膀胱氣를·哀情이 腎大膓氣를, 少陰人은 樂性이 目膂氣를·喜情이 脾胃氣를, 太陰人은 喜性이 耳腦顀氣를·樂情이 肺胃脘氣를 상한다. 性氣는 表로, 情氣는 裏로 간다. 「四端論」은 그 방향성을 적는다 — 性氣는 활산(闊散)하여 밖으로 흩어지고 情氣는 촉급(促急)하여 안으로 부딪히니, 太陽人의 哀性이 활산하면 氣注肺而肺益壯, 怒情이 촉급하면 氣激肝而肝益削이다⁶⁾.

여기서 결정적 가드를 둔다 — 表와 裏는 경중(輕重)의 축이 아니라 위치(位)의 축이다. 性(表)이 곪는 속도는 情(裏)보다 느리나(緩), 느리다 하여 그 病이 가벼운 것은 아니다. 어느 쪽이 본병(本病)인가는 곪는 속도가 아니라 체질이 어느 쪽을 급소로 타고났는가가 정한다. 태양인은 表가 오히려 본병이다 — 哀心深着이 表氣를 상해 생기는 解㑊은 상체는 멀쩡하나 하체가 풀려 걷지 못하는 요척병의 太重證이며, 그 치법으로 五加皮壯脊湯을 들고 무엇보다 戒哀遠怒를 경계한다⁶⁾. 鄙는 태양인이므로(초본권 배속)⁵⁾, 태양인에서는 性(哀)이 表로 가 本病·重證이 되고 情(怒)이 裏로 가는 쪽이 오히려 二次다 — 性·表가 무겁고 情·裏가 가벼운, 통념과 뒤집힌 자리다. 따라서 못 박아 둔다 — 性이 表로 간다는 이유로 가볍다 여기는 순간 태양인에서는 곧바로 치명적 오독이 된다.

자극이 몸에서 닿는 최종 부위는 두 겹의 교점으로 정해진다. 한 겹은 체질이 정한 약한 장부(태양인 간, 소양인 신, 소음인 비, 태음인 폐), 다른 한 겹은 性氣의 表 부위인가 情氣의 裏 부위인가다. 體質의 약장과 性情의 위상이 만나는 교점에서 추상의 場은 몸의 한 부위로 착지한다. 다만 이 길을 한 번 지난다 하여 곧 病이 되는 것은 아니다. 暴傷의 暴은 한 번의 사건이 아니라 등락의 거듭됨(頻起頻伏·屢得屢失)이며, 性에 머물지 못하고 情으로 거듭 떨어지는 그 반복이 한 장부로의 편향을 고착시켜 마침내 病의 형식으로 굳는다.

4. 불초인의 暴傷 — 회로가 무너지는 방향

동무가 그린 몸은 본래 잘 도는 회로다. 이기복⁹⁾이 복원했듯 「장부론」의 四焦 생리는 완성의 생리학이다 — 水穀의 기운이 네 焦에 고루 수포되어 深遠廣大則生·正直中和則充하는 몸이 곧 절세대인의 몸이며, 그 회로는 오행 우주론이 아니라 사람이 세상과 관계 맺는 능동적 활동에서 추동된다. 본고는 그 완성의 四焦 위에서 그가 다루지 않은 한 가지를 묻는다 — 그 회로가 거꾸로 돌면 어떻게 되는가. 같은 哀라도 緩하면 폐를 채우나 急하면 폐를 깎는 흉기가 되는 그 양면 가운데 이기복은 채우는 쪽만 그렸다. 본고는 그 역방향(暴傷)을 「獨行篇」과 잇는다.

무너짐을 鄙者(태양인, 약장은 간, 情은 怒)에서 끝까지 따라간다. 첫째, 감정의 등락이 부위의 등락으로 옮겨 적힌다 — 頻起怒而頻伏怒則兩脇暴盛而暴衰也⁵⁾. 暴傷의 暴이 감정의 종류가 아니라 등락 그 자체임이 드러난다. 둘째, 요동치는 부위가 그 장부를 깎는다 — 兩脇暴盛而暴衰則肝血傷也⁵⁾. 태양인에게 간은 본래 작은 장부이니 같은 暴傷이라도 가장 치명적이다. 셋째, 깎인 장부가 말단 조직에 미친다 — 肝部衰弱則筋脉酸⁵⁾(폐→皮毛焦, 비→肉理寒, 신→骨髓枯). 마음에서 시작한 한 줄기가 만져지는 신체 증상으로 닫힌다. 넷째, 더 깊어지면 神에 미친다 — 등락(暴)이 血氣精神을 깎는 1차 위에, 무절제(極)가 魂魄志意를 깎는 2차가 있다 — 怒極者 怒之不勝其忿而悲哀動中則肝魂傷也⁵⁾(喜極→脾魄, 哀極→腎志, 樂極→肺意). 그 神이 막히면 大病이니 — 肝魂淫則恍惚作也⁵⁾. 鄙者는 약장인 간의 魂이 깎여 恍惚에 이른다.

鄙薄貪懦 넷은 각자 다른 장부에서 같은 사슬을 밟되 한 법칙으로 흩어진다. 「四端論」은 적는다 — 哀怒之氣逆動則暴發而並於上也 喜樂之氣逆動則浪發而並於下也 / 上升之氣逆動而並於上則肝腎傷 下降之氣逆動而並於下則脾肺傷⁶⁾. 哀怒는 위로 올라 간·신을, 喜樂은 아래로 내려 비·폐를 친다. 이 위에 넷을 얹으면 자기파괴가 두 갈래 대칭으로 갈린다 — 鄙(태양·怒→간)·薄(소양·哀→신)은 위로, 貪(태음·樂→폐)·懦(소음·喜→비)는 아래로 몰린다. 넷의 병증도 각기 다르다 — 鄙는 表의 解㑊(요척 太重證), 薄은 少陽人大便不通則胸膈必如烈火⁶⁾, 貪은 폐의 意가 막혀 怔忡, 懦는 少陰人泄瀉不止則臍下必如氷冷⁶⁾. 넷이 서로 다른 감정으로 서로 다른 장부를 서로 다른 병증으로 무너뜨리되 그 형식은 하나 — 거듭된 暴이 약장을 깎아 제 몸으로 닫힌다. 1절의 물음이 몸에서 답해진다 — 鄙薄貪懦는 知人未賞(2부)·行己不誠(3부)으로 情이 거듭 暴發하는 자리에 고착된 자이니, 면에서 남에게 보낸 暴이 局回로 돌아와 끝내 제 약장을 깎는다.

5. 神病과 恒寧靜

『初本卷』 第五統은 네 神病을 적는다 — 肺意阻則怔忡作也 脾魄蕩則悅亂作也 肝魂淫則恍惚作也 腎志促則健忘作也⁵⁾. 貪(태음·폐)은 怔忡, 懦(소음·비)는 悅亂, 鄙(태양·간)는 恍惚, 薄(소양·신)은 健忘에 이르니, 5절 사슬의 마지막 칸이 채워진다. 그런데 만년의 「廣濟說」은 이 네 자리를 그대로 잇지 않고 大病에 이르는 길을 둘에만 그린다⁶⁾.

太陰人恒有慟心 … 若慟心至於怕心則大病作而怔忡也 怔忡者太陰人病之重證也 少陽人恒有懼心 … 若懼心至於恐心則大病作而健忘也 健忘者少陽人病之險證也 少陰人恒有不安定之心 不安定之心寧靜則脾氣卽活也 太陽人恒有急迫之心 急迫之心寧靜則肝血卽和也

태음인(怔忡)·소양인(健忘)에게는 넘쳐 大病에 이르는 길까지, 소음인·태양인에게는 寧靜할 때 장부가 살아나는 쪽만 적고 大病은 비웠다. 이 비대칭을 동무가 태양인·소음인에게 神病이 없다고 본 것으로 읽어서는 안 된다 — 그랬다면 第五統에서 肝魂淫·脾魄蕩을 적지 않았을 것이며, 태양인은 解㑊, 소음인은 泄瀉不止·臍下氷冷이라는 제 大病을 따로 지닌다. 「廣濟說」은 각 체질에서 임상적으로 가장 먼저 닥치는 大病을 든 것으로 보인다. 그러므로 본고는 神病의 골격을 第五統의 네 배정으로 두고, 「廣濟說」의 怔忡·健忘을 그 넷 중 임상의 종착까지 따라가 예시한 두 사례로 읽는다 — 이 독법에서 第五統(이론의 네 자리)과 「廣濟說」(임상의 두 예시)은 층으로 포개진다. (※ 이 어긋남을 동무 만년의 개정 자취로 보는 서지적 독법도 있으나 본고의 범위를 넘어 별도로 미룬다.)

네 神病이 한 뿌리에서 온다면 약도 하나다. 大病으로 가는 분기점은 모두 寧靜에 걸린다 — 慟心寧靜則造於道, 慟心益多則物化. 이는 3절의 心地 문턱과 같은 구조다. 어떻게 寧靜에 머무는가를 「廣濟說」은 체질마다 적는다 — 太陰人察於外而恒寧靜慟心 少陽人察於內而恒寧靜懼心 太陽人退一步而恒寧靜急迫之心 少陰人進一步而恒寧靜不安定之心 如此則必無不壽⁶⁾. 네 체질이 다른 방향으로 마음을 다스리되 향하는 곳은 하나, 恒寧靜이며 그 끝은 장수다. 이어 太陽人恒戒怒心哀心… 如此則必無不壽⁶⁾ — 각 체질이 경계할 두 마음이 곧 그 체질의 情과 性이니, 태양인의 怒情(裏)과 哀性(表)을 함께 막으라는 것은 性情-表裏의 길을 그 입구에서 막는 처방이다.

이로써 「局·面·局回」와 본부가 한자리에서 닫힌다. 反誠(詐心便發 未及行詐而反誠)이 곧 의학의 언어로 恒寧靜이다 — 詐心이 行詐로 넘지 않음과 慟心이 寧靜에 머물러 物化로 넘지 않음은 같은 한 문턱의 같은 한 일이다. 鄙薄貪懦의 暴傷은 반대편에서 그 약을 얻는다 — 察於外·察於內로 사람과 자기를 살펴 知人에 다가감이 발하기 전의 약이고, 退一步·進一步로 마음을 寧靜에 둠이 발한 뒤의 약이니, 1절의 두 결손(未發의 붕괴·已發의 미수습)이 「廣濟說」의 두 처방으로 맞물려 메워진다.

Ⅳ. 고찰

1. 종합 — 닫히지 않음의 몸의 자리

局回가 끝내 닫히지 않는다는 것은 3부에서는 한 바퀴의 미완결이었으나, 本部에서는 다른 뜻을 얻는다 — 暴傷의 한 바퀴가 제 장부로 닫히지 않도록 매번 돌이키는 일, 그 끝없는 恒寧靜의 되풀이가 곧 닫히지 않음이다. 反誠이 屢復屢失이듯 恒寧靜도 한 번으로 끝나지 않는다. 鄙薄貪懦의 萬殊 가운데 있는 하나의 같음(希聖의 가능성)은 몸의 자리에서는 그 끝없는 돌이킴으로 천수를 채우는 가능성으로 나타난다. 닫히지 않은 그 자리에서 매번 제 마음을 寧靜으로 되돌리는 한 걸음이, 마음이 몸을 상하는 길에서 몸을 살리는 단 하나의 길이다.

2. 선행연구와의 대비

이기복⁹⁾이 「장부론」 四焦를 완성의 생리학으로 복원하고 그 회로가 관계적 활동에서 추동됨을 보였다면, 本部는 같은 생리 구조의 역방향(暴傷)을 「獨行篇」과 이어 완성의 회로가 무너짐의 회로도 함께 품음을 보인다 — 순방향과 역방향의 상보다. 易學派^10,11)가 격치고를 易學·우주론으로 읽어 온 데 비해, 本部는 팔괘·情僞를 場의 산물로 보는 유체론 위에서 感情의 신체화 기전을 축으로 삼는다. 尹德泳·高炳熙¹²⁾·裵英淳¹³⁾이 鄙薄貪懦를 문헌·유형으로 정리한 것을 本部는 그 유형이 제 몸을 상하는 병리 기전으로 확장한다. 또한 本部는 『初本卷』 第五統(神病 네 배정)과 만년 「廣濟說」(怔忡·健忘 두 예시)의 어긋남을, 이론의 네 자리와 임상의 두 예시가 층으로 포개지는 것으로 읽어, 格致藁의 事心身物과 『東醫壽世保元』의 天人性命을 잇는 선행 고찰¹⁴⁾의 연장에서 격치고-수세보원 접합의 한 사례를 제시한다.

3. 연구의 한계와 후속 과제

첫째, 체질 배속(鄙=太陽人 등)은 『初本卷』⁵⁾에 근거한 것으로 확정값으로 취급할 수 없다. 둘째, 局場面 유체론은 원전 개념이 아니라 선행 논문^7,8)의 현대적 분석틀이므로 본고의 재해석은 그 틀의 타당성에 의존한다. 셋째, 「知人未賞全味」의 賞 字는 未嘗 통용 가능성이 있어 韓斗正本 실물 대조가 필요하며, 慾心/義心 대비의 怒·樂 확장, 第五統-「廣濟說」 어긋남의 서지적 판정은 본고 범위를 넘는다. 넷째, 동무의 喜怒哀樂 性情論이 성리학 四端七情 논쟁(퇴계·고봉의 理發·氣發)과 어디서 갈리고 만나는가는 격치고 감정론을 조선 성리학사에 놓는 별도의 작업을 요하므로 별고로 미룬다.

Ⅴ. 결론

『格致藁』 「獨行篇」·「乾箴」·「坤箴」·「反誠箴」과 『東醫壽世保元』 「四端論」·「太陽人內觸小腸病論」·「廣濟說」, 『初本卷』을 局場面 유체론으로 고찰한 결론은 다음과 같다.

첫째, 反誠에 실패한 行己不誠의 자리는 몸으로 닫힌다. 불초인(鄙薄貪懦)이 매양 暴傷하는 까닭은 知人未賞(未發의 붕괴)과 行己不誠(已發의 미수습)이라는 한 사건의 앞뒤 두 결손이다.

둘째, 心地의 淸濁은 흔들린 감정의 속도와 위상을 정하는 문턱으로, 淸하면 性에 머물고 濁하면 情으로 넘친다. 性은 表로, 情은 裏로 가되 表裏는 경중이 아니라 위치의 축이며, 태양인(鄙)에서는 性·表가 오히려 본병이다.

셋째, 불초인의 몸에서 거듭된 暴은 약장을 네 단계(부위 등락→장부 손상→말단 조직→神)로 깎아 神病에 이른다. 네 유형은 「四端論」의 上下 방향 법칙으로 두 갈래 대칭으로 갈린다.

넷째, 네 神病의 단 하나의 약은 恒寧靜이며, 이는 「反誠箴」의 反誠을 몸의 언어로 다시 그린 것이다. 局回의 닫히지 않음은 몸의 자리에서 그 恒寧靜의 끝없는 되풀이로 나타난다.

참고문헌

1. 李濟馬. 格致藁. 韓斗正 編. 咸興: 德興印刷所; 1940. (Korean)
2. 최장혁. 局回와 닫히지 않는 局에 대한 고찰. 溯源齋. 2026. Available from: https://sowonjae.dongjedang.com/post/2026-07-06-bibaktamna-3-gukhoe-jscm/. (Korean)
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최장혁 | 한의사 · 동제당한의원 원장 · 연구 방법: DJD 다중 문헌 교차 리서치

This is the journal-format version (Original Article, IMRAD) of Part Four, following the 局·面·局回 trilogy, restructured from the essay edition (June 30, 2026) according to the submission guidelines of the Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine. Essay edition: Where Does 鄙薄貪懦 Come to Rest?

Title Page

Title — A Study on the Poksang of Bibaktamna and the Clarity and Turbidity of the Mind-Will: Focusing on the Junction of the Dokhaeng-pyeon of Gyeokchigo and the Pathology of Dongui Suse Bowon

Article type — Original Article

Author — Choi, Jang-hyuk (Dongjedang Korean Medicine Clinic)

Corresponding author — Choi, Jang-hyuk. Dongjedang Korean Medicine Clinic, 88 Dongsan-ro, Dong-gu, Incheon, Republic of Korea. Tel: +82-32-765-7733. Fax: +82-32-773-7734. E-mail: [email protected]

Running head — Poksang and the Mind-Will of Bibaktamna

Disclosure — This paper is not a dissertation; no funding was received; the author declares no conflict of interest.

Abstract

Objectives: To clarify the mechanism by which the poksang (暴傷, violent self-wounding) of bibaktamna (鄙薄貪懦) descends, stage by stage, from the clarity and turbidity of the mind-will (心地淸濁) to a body region fixed by constitution, and to read this as the junction of the Dokhaeng-pyeon (獨行篇) of Gyeokchigo (格致藁) with the pathology of Dongui Suse Bowon (東醫壽世保元).

Methods: The Dokhaeng-pyeon, Geonjam (乾箴), Gonjam (坤箴), and Banseong-jam (反誠箴) of Gyeokchigo (1940 first edition), the Sadan-ron (四端論), the essay on Taeyangin small-intestine disease, and the Gwangje-seol (廣濟說) of Dongui Suse Bowon (Sinchuk edition), and the Dongui Sasang Chobon-gwon (東醫四象初本卷) were collated and analyzed through the guk–jang–myeon (局場面) fluid ontology, following the descent from mind to body.

Results: First, the unworthy (不肖人)—that is, bibaktamna—recurrently suffers poksang from two causes: a failed knowing-of-others (知人未賞, collapse before arousal) and an insincere conduct-of-self (行己不誠, failure to gather after arousal). Second, the threshold of 心地淸濁 divides the aroused feeling into nature (性) or disposition (情). Third, nature runs to the surface (表) and disposition to the interior (裏), which meet the constitutionally weak viscus; for the mean (太陽人) the surface is the graver locus. Fourth, the recurrence (暴) grinds the weak viscus through four stages down to spirit-disease. Fifth, the single medicine is constant calm (恒寧靜), banseong restated in the language of the body.

Conclusions: The poksang of bibaktamna is a mechanism, not a metaphor; the not-closing of gukhoe becomes, at the level of the body, the endless returning to calm that keeps the revolution from closing into one’s own viscera.

Key words: Medicine, Korean Traditional; Sasang Constitutional Medicine; Philosophy, Medical; Emotions; Somatoform Disorders; Self-Control

Ⅰ. Introduction

The 局·面·局回 trilogy argued that 鄙薄貪懦 (bibaktamna) in the Gyeokchigo (格致藁) unfolds as the hardened 局 (Part One), the encroachment of the 面 (Part Two), and one revolution through order-and-disorder (Part Three), yet never closes, opening instead onto turning back toward oneself (反誠)^2,3,4). But 反誠 is not accomplished at a single stroke—Dongmu himself confessed that at fifty-seven he had not forgotten the deceitful mind, so the turning-back is 屢復屢失. Then where does the place that fails to turn back, the place of 行己不誠, go? When the violent wounding (暴傷) dealt to another at the membrane fails to turn back and returns into one’s own interior, it ceases to be a matter of relation and becomes a matter of one’s own body. That junction, where the medicine of relation passes into the medicine of the body, is the starting point of this study.

Scholarship on the Gyeokchigo has been led by the yeokhak line from Kim Man-san¹⁰⁾ to Lim Byeong-hak¹¹⁾; on 鄙薄貪懦, Yun Deok-yeong and Go Byeong-hui¹²⁾ and Bae Yeong-sun¹³⁾ examined it philologically. On the physiology of the Jangbu-ron, Lee Gi-bok⁹⁾ reconstructed the four-jiao distribution circuit not as Five-Phase cosmology but as the product of a person’s active relating to the world, and the correlation linking the 事心身物 of the Gyeokchigo with the 天人性命 of the Dongui Suse Bowon was treated by Lim Byeong-hak¹⁴⁾. Yet by what mechanism the feeling of 鄙薄貪懦 wounds a particular viscus—the order in which a stimulus received at the jang passes the threshold of the mind-will into nature and disposition, then into surface and interior, and finally narrows to a region fixed by constitution—has not been treated.

The thesis stands in a single line: the path by which 鄙薄貪懦 wounds the body is not a metaphor but a mechanism (機轉), and Dongmu narrows that mechanism, stage by stage, from the clarity and turbidity of the mind-will down to a particular bodily region. That Dongmu drew this path by the physiology of the body and not by the images of the Yijing is the one thing this study holds to throughout.

Ⅱ. Materials and Methods

1. Materials

The Gyeokchigo was read in the 1940 first edition compiled by Han Du-jeong¹⁾, with the 獨行篇 (Dokhaeng-pyeon), 乾箴 (Geonjam), 坤箴 (Gonjam), and 反誠箴 (Banseong-jam) as the chapters analyzed; the 獨行篇 is taken as the earliest-composed text following the philological finding to that effect¹⁵⁾. The 四端論 (Sadan-ron), the treatise on Taeyangin small-intestine disease, and the 廣濟說 (Gwangje-seol) of the Sinchuk-edition Dongui Suse Bowon (東醫壽世保元, 1901)⁶⁾, and, for constitutional attribution and spirit-disease, the Dongui Sasang Chobon-gwon (東醫四象初本卷)⁵⁾ were used.

2. Analytic Frame and Method

The 局/場/面 fluid ontology is a modern analytic frame established in prior studies^7,8), holding that what receives the role cast at the jang by the collision of two guk is not the outside but one’s own guk. The analysis proceeded in three steps: (1) establishing and directly translating the passages; (2) arranging by argument the descent through the threshold of 心地淸濁, nature and disposition, surface and interior, region, spirit-disease, and constant calm; (3) reinterpreting through the fluid ontology. This is a literature-based, theoretical study.

Ⅲ. Results

1. The Entry of Poksang — the Guk Receives, and the Two Causes in the Unworthy

The revolution of gukhoe is the movement by which what was received on the myeon returns, over time, to its origin. As the third part showed, that return can close along two paths. One is banseong—each time sasim arises, turning back upon oneself before it erupts into act. The other is the place that fails to turn back: haenggi bulseong. Where it closes through banseong, the guk loosens and flows again; where it closes through haenggi bulseong, the revolution loses its destination.

Where the revolution that has lost its destination goes, the Chobon-gwon (初本卷, the early draft) records precisely. Dongmu divides people into four according to whether their joy, anger, grief, and pleasure (喜怒哀樂) incur poksang.

聖人之喜怒哀樂不暴傷者 行其性而知人明知之故也 賢人之喜怒哀樂猶暴傷者 知人不明之故也 不肖人之喜怒哀樂毎暴傷者 知人未賞全味而行己不誠之故也 修練人之喜怒哀樂不暴傷者 愛身絶欲畏人遠遁之故也 The sage’s joy, anger, grief, and pleasure do not incur poksang, because he acts upon his nature and knows others clearly. The worthy’s still incur poksang, because his knowledge of others is not clear. The unworthy’s incur poksang at every turn, because he has never fully tasted the knowing of others and conducts himself without sincerity. The ascetic’s do not incur poksang, because he cherishes his body, severs desire, fears others, and withdraws far away.

The sage does not incur poksang; the worthy still does; the unworthy does at every turn; the ascetic does not. Even where the result is the same—no poksang—the reasons for the sage and the ascetic differ. The sage does not incur it because he acts upon his nature and knows others clearly (行其性·知人明); the ascetic escapes it by cherishing his body, severing desire, fearing others and withdrawing far away (愛身絶欲·畏人遠遁)—that is, by severing relation altogether. That poksang is an event of relation becomes clear here: sever relation, and poksang too is gone.

The figure this study attends to is the unworthy. The unworthy is precisely bibaktamna. Dongmu records two reasons he incurs poksang at every turn: 知人未賞全味 (never having fully tasted the knowing of others) and 行己不誠 (conducting oneself without sincerity). These two reasons overlap exactly with what Guk·Myeon·Gukhoe has already drawn. The immaturity of jiin (知人, the knowing of others) is the distortion of the angong (眼孔, the aperture of perception) seen in the second part—the optical misalignment that reads the clear as turbid and the turbid as clear; and haenggi bulseong is the failure of banseong seen in the third part—the failure to turn back when sasim arises. The sealing seen in the first part, the encroachment on the myeon seen in the second, and the incompletion of the one revolution seen in the third are, in the fourth part, bound together again as the two causes of the unworthy’s poksang.

Here one must make clear that the two causes are not a simple parallel. They differ in temporal phase. The failure of jiin belongs to the time before an emotion is issued; haenggi bulseong belongs to the time after it is issued. As will be seen below, the Geonjam (乾箴) records that jiin is the condition for 喜怒哀樂 to be 未發而中 (centered before issuing), while the Banseongjam (反誠箴) records the act of gathering sasim back, once it has already issued, before it erupts into deed. The unworthy’s two deficits are therefore the front and back of a single event: 知人未賞 is the collapse of the threshold before issuing (the collapse of the not-yet-issued, 未發), and 行己不誠 is the failure to recover after issuing (the un-gathering of the already-issued, 已發). Failing to enter the center before issuing, and failing to gather it after issuing, poksang arises at every turn only where front and back have collapsed together. This double collapse will be drawn again in section 3 as the threshold of the mind-will.

One further point must be made clear. Jiin is not a peculiar term belonging only to the Chobon-gwon; it is the opening concept of the Dokhaeng-pyeon (獨行篇) itself. The Dokhaeng-pyeon, unfolding its own title, records: to love and yet know one’s faults is to stand in the center and not lean (好而知其惡則中立而不倚); to hate and yet know one’s merits is to be harmonious and not drift (惡而知其美則和而不流). Only such a one walks alone of his own accord, and one who walks alone has an unmoved mind. And the condition for that unmoved mind it nails down as 知人然後正心 不動心之理—only after knowing others is the mind set right, the principle of the unmoved mind. Jiin is the axis running through the whole Dokhaeng-pyeon. The diagnosis of the unworthy’s 知人未賞 is therefore not borrowed from outside the Dokhaeng-pyeon; it is the place where the failure of jiin, of which the Dokhaeng-pyeon has spoken from the start, closes as the medical consequence of poksang.

Note on the character 賞. The 賞 in 知人未賞全味 follows the corpus’s original notation. In context “never having tasted” reads more naturally as 未嘗, but since 嘗 and 賞 have attested interchangeable usage, the matter is left undecided. Collation against the actual Han Du-jeong edition is deferred to later study.

If poksang is an event of relation, what is the first variable of that event—the kind of stimulus coming from outside, or the inside that receives it? “A Field Assigns the Role: The Relational-Dynamic Structure of Palgwaejam in Gyeokchigo” (溯源齋, 2026) has already drawn one side of the answer: the jang arising from the collision of two guk casts a role (役) upon each, but what actually receives that role is not the outside but my own guk. A line of the Gonjam (坤箴) records the activeness of that receiving.

我有强力 人必趁我 If I have strong force, others will surely come after me.

If I have strong force, others surely come after me—the configuration of a relation is not thrown one-sidedly by the outside but is decided from the place my own guk has first established. The same stimulus, depending on which guk it meets, shakes something different. The first determinant of poksang, therefore, is not the variety of the stimulus but the configuration of the guk that receives it.

This does not mean the outside is erased. Without a stimulus arriving from outside there is no activation at all—poksang is, after all, an event of relation, and does not arise in solitude. That the ascetic escaped poksang by withdrawing far from others (畏人遠遁) is the proof. The outside is the trigger (觸) of activation, but what determines what is activated, once that trigger is pulled, is the guk within. The outside is needed for anything to happen, but what happens is determined by the inside—the same insult, the same loss, which emotion it touches depends on the guk that receives the stimulus.

This connects in a single line with the conclusion reached by “Gisetwisang and the Contact Surface: A Reinterpretation of the Eight Trigrams in the Banseongjam of Gyeokchigo” (溯源齋, 2026) in reading the eight admonitions of the Banseongjam: the eight trigrams of the Banseongjam are not terms input into the jang but products forged within it. Which momentum (機勢) arises is not given from outside but is the product of two guk interlocking. So too with poksang. What the next section shows is the threshold at which the emotion, shaken by the guk that received it, divides into two branches—remaining as seong or erupting as jeong.

2. The Clarity and Turbidity of the Mind-Will Divides Nature from Disposition

Suppose a stimulus meets the guk and shakes a single emotion. Where does that shaking go? Here lies the heart of this study. Let me set it down in one line first: the clarity and turbidity of the mind-will (心地淸濁, simji cheongtak) is the threshold that determines together both the speed of the shaken emotion (whether swift or slow) and its phase (whether it remains not-yet-issued or erupts as already-issued). The double collapse seen in section 1—failing to enter the not-yet-issued, failing to gather the already-issued—is the two faces of this single mechanism. Of what and what this threshold is composed, let me first set the two axes apart.

Constitution is wiring. Which emotion turns toward seong and which toward jeong is fixed by constitution. The Sadannon (四端論) records: in the 太陽人 (Taeyangin) grief is seong and anger is jeong; in the 少陽人 (Soyangin) anger is seong and grief is jeong; in the 太陰人 (Taeeumin) joy is seong and pleasure is jeong; in the 少陰人 (Soeumin) pleasure is seong and joy is jeong. This wiring is fixed by endowment and does not change. Which emotion is placed in the seat of seong and which in the seat of jeong cannot be altered.

The clarity and turbidity of the mind-will is the threshold (閾). When a stimulus meets that wiring, what divides whether it remains in the seat of seong or crosses to the seat of jeong is the clarity or turbidity of the mind-will. That the Sadannon set the two axes side by side is no accident: in 太少陰陽之臟局短長—the long-and-short of the viscera-configuration across the four types—there is, within four differences, one great sameness, so that sage and common man are alike (the viscera-configuration is the unchanging frame); whereas in 鄙薄貪懦之心地淸濁—the clarity and turbidity of the mind-will in the four modes of degeneration—there are, within four differences, ten thousand differences, so that sage and common man divide into ten thousand branches (the mind-will is a variable degree). The wiring is the same, but how far it goes when a stimulus meets it is determined by the mind-will.

Dongmu draws the working of this threshold at three places. First, the 慟心 (tongsim, the grieving mind) of the Gwangje-seol (廣濟說).

太陰人恒有慟心 慟心寧靜則居之安資之深而造於道也 慟心益多則放心桎梏而物化之也 The Taeeumin always has a grieving mind. If that grieving mind is calm and quiet, he dwells in it at ease, draws from it deeply, and reaches the Way. If that grieving mind grows excessive, the loosened mind is fettered and becomes thing-like.

The same grieving mind, if it rests in calm (寧靜則), reaches the Way; if it grows excessive and overflows (益多則), the loosened mind (放心) is fettered and turned thing-like (物化). The same stimulus divides according to whether it rests or overflows, and that division yields the opposite ends of the Way and thing-becoming. Second, Dongmu draws the same division in the contrast of the desiring mind and the righteous mind.

以慾心而喜者 急喜而必傷 以義心而喜者 緩喜而不傷 凡人皆然 He who rejoices with a desiring mind rejoices swiftly and is surely injured; he who rejoices with a righteous mind rejoices slowly and is not injured. So it is with all people.

The same joy: he who rejoices with a desiring mind (慾心) rejoices swiftly (急喜) and is surely injured; he who rejoices with a righteous mind (義心) rejoices slowly (緩喜) and is not injured—so it is with all people (凡人皆然). What divides injury from non-injury here is not the kind of emotion but from what mind it issues and at what speed it goes. For grief too Dongmu sets the same couplet: he who grieves with a desiring mind grieves swiftly and is surely injured; he who grieves with a righteous mind grieves slowly and is not injured. (Dongmu set this contrast explicitly at the two places of joy and grief. One may suppose the same structure holds for anger and pleasure as well, but this study confines its citation to the joy and grief the text states explicitly.) Third, the Banseongjam records the moment of not crossing that threshold.

詐心便發 未及行詐而反誠則學問也 The deceiving mind issues at once; if, before it reaches the act of deceiving, one turns back to sincerity, that is learning.

The deceiving mind issues at once (詐心便發)—the agitation of the mind itself cannot be blocked. But if, before it erupts into deed (未及行詐), one turns back (反誠), that is precisely learning. To let the stimulus issue yet slip out before it crosses into the act of deceiving—this is the state in which the mind-will is clear.

The three places say one and the same thing: if the mind-will is clear, then at a stimulus the nature stirs but rests in calm and does not erupt as disposition; if turbid, it cannot rest in the nature and overflows into disposition. What the clarity and turbidity of the mind-will divides is therefore not the choosing of one of two emotions to assign, but whether the shaken emotion rests and halts in the seat of seong or, unable to rest, crosses over into jeong. Seong and jeong are the two seats constitution has already wired; the mind-will, at the threshold between them, determines the resting and the overflowing.

Three misreadings must be forestalled here.

First, the stirring of the nature is not itself disease. That the mind-will is clear does not mean indifference to a stimulus. The nature is not-yet-issued (未發), not nothing (無); so long as one lives, it stirs at a stimulus without fail—if the grieving mind were zero, the very depth of “dwelling at ease and drawing deeply” (居之安資之深) would not arise. What Dongmu warned against is not the stirring but the excess.

恒戒哀怒之過度 不可强做喜樂虛動不及 Always guard against the excess of grief and anger; do not forcibly manufacture joy and pleasure into empty, deficient stirring.

Always guard against the excess of grief and anger, but do not forcibly manufacture (强做) joy and pleasure into empty stirring (虛動). It is not that the stirring is to be abolished but that the excess is to be guarded against; and to force oneself not to stir is rather an empty stirring, and worse. To make the stirring of the nature zero is not Dongmu’s aim. Here the path divides from one that takes the unmoved mind as its goal—even the unmoved mind of banseong still issues sasim. It is not that the agitation does not come, but that it does not reach the act of deceiving.

Second, not crossing that threshold is not endurance but a change of phase (相). To press down by force what would erupt as disposition (强做) is what Dongmu forbade—forced pressing produces empty stirring that festers within, and this is precisely thing-becoming (物化) and fetter (桎梏). Banseong is not pressing. It is letting flow along the grain of seong (the surface) before it falls into jeong (the interior)—the same grief, not falling into grief-as-disposition (resignation and blame) but spreading as grief-as-nature. If pressing the lid on boiling water is endurance, lowering the flame is banseong. The Chobon-gwon records this non-pressing as virtue and as measure: 旣發而不强揠者—only he who does not forcibly yank what has already issued—has the virtue of sincerity and accords with measure; and to yank forcibly and enlarge it (强揠而大做) is not merely useless but indeed harmful (非徒無益而又害之). And this turning-back does not end at a single stroke—屢復屢失, as Dongmu could not put away sasim even at fifty-seven, it is a thing repeated at every moment.

Third, the clarity and turbidity of the mind-will is therefore not nature and disposition themselves. The clarity and turbidity of the mind-will is a variable degree (萬殊); nature and disposition are the phases of an emotion (not-yet-issued and already-issued). The former determines the threshold of the latter; it is not that the degree of clarity or turbidity is the nature and disposition themselves. To smear the two together is to confuse the cultivating of the mind-will with the abolishing of emotion, and to fall into the very “empty, deficient stirring” (虛動不及) Dongmu so insistently warned against.

The Dokhaeng-pyeon nails down the place of this threshold in its own language as well. The Geonjam records:

知天然後喜怒哀樂已發而節也 知人然後喜怒哀樂未發而中也 Only after knowing Heaven are joy, anger, grief, and pleasure measured once issued; only after knowing others are they centered before issuing.

Only after knowing Heaven are joy, anger, grief, and pleasure measured once already issued (已發而節); only after knowing others are they centered before being issued (未發而中). Then Dongmu records what that jiin knows: only after thoroughly knowing (洞知) the evil desires (惡慾) of all the world’s hearts is one centered before issuing. Jiin, then, is to see through the evil desires of others, and that is the direct condition for keeping joy, anger, grief, and pleasure centered before they issue. The double collapse seen in section 1 closes here: jiin is the condition for being centered before issuing, yet the unworthy, immature in that jiin (未賞全味), fails to enter the center before issuing, and fails as well to gather through banseong what has thus erupted (行己不誠). The Geonjam’s 知人→未發而中 and the Banseongjam’s 未及行詐→反誠 are the front and back of the single threshold that is the mind-will, and the place where the two have collapsed together is precisely the unworthy’s poksang.

3. Nature to the Surface, Disposition to the Interior — and the Region

Suppose one has crossed the threshold of the mind-will and either rests in the nature or erupts as disposition. The two go to different places in the body. Dongmu divides the directions in which nature and disposition travel into surface (表) and interior (裏). The “Treatise on the Internally-Affected Small-Intestine Disease of the Taeyangin” (太陽人內觸小腸病論) records that direction explicitly.

太陽人 哀心深着則傷表氣 怒心暴發則傷裡氣 In the Taeyangin, when the grieving mind sinks deep it injures the surface qi; when the angry mind erupts violently it injures the interior qi.

When the Taeyangin sinks deep into the grieving mind (his nature) it injures the surface qi; when his angry mind (his disposition) erupts it injures the interior qi. In the same text Dongmu sets the same structure for the other three constitutions: in the Soyangin the anger-nature injures the mouth-and-bladder qi and the grief-disposition the kidney-and-large-intestine qi; in the Soeumin the pleasure-nature injures the eye-and-spine qi and the joy-disposition the spleen-and-stomach qi; in the Taeeumin the joy-nature injures the ear-and-brain qi and the pleasure-disposition the lung-and-stomach-cavity qi. The nature-qi to the surface, the disposition-qi to the interior—the division of nature and disposition is precisely the division of surface and interior.

Why the nature-qi goes to the surface the Sadannon records by its directionality. The nature-qi is expansive-scattering (闊散) and disperses outward; the disposition-qi is urgent-pressing (促急) and collides inward. When the Taeyangin’s grief-nature scatters expansively, qi is poured into the lung and the lung grows the stronger (哀性闊散則氣注肺而肺益壯); when the anger-disposition presses urgently, qi jolts the liver and the liver is the more pared down (怒情促急則氣激肝而肝益削). The nature, a movement spreading outward, goes to the surface; the disposition, a movement crowding inward, goes to the interior.

Here the fourth part sets its decisive guard: surface and interior are an axis of position (位), not an axis of gravity (輕重, lighter-and-heavier). The speed at which the nature (surface) festers is slower than the disposition (interior) (the 緩 of 緩喜而不傷). But that it festers more slowly does not make the disease lighter. Which is the root-disease (本病) is determined not by the speed of festering but by which side constitution has made the vital point. In the Taeyangin the surface is, on the contrary, the root-disease. The “Treatise on the Internally-Affected Small-Intestine Disease of the Taeyangin” records that surface-disease: 解㑊 (haeyeok), arising when the deep-sunk grieving mind injures the surface qi, is the most grave grade of the Taeyangin’s spine-and-loin disease, with the upper body intact but the lower body slack and unable to walk; for its treatment Dongmu names the Ogapi-jangcheok-tang (五加皮壯脊湯), and above all enjoins guarding against deep grief and sharp anger (戒哀遠怒). For the Taeyangin, then, the path by which the nature (grief) injures the surface is the gravest of all.

Why this guard is decisive in the fourth part lies in the constitution of 鄙 (the mean). The mean is the Taeyangin (by the Chobon-gwon’s constitutional assignment). In the Taeyangin the nature (grief) goes to the surface and becomes the root-disease, the grave grade, while the disposition (anger) going to the interior is rather secondary—a place where nature-and-surface is heavy and disposition-and-interior is light, inverted from the common assumption. So let it be nailed down in one sentence: the instant one deems it light because the nature goes to the surface, in the Taeyangin it becomes at once a fatal misreading. To read the mean’s poksang lightly because it is on the surface side is to read in reverse the very place Dongmu called gravest. The scheme “nature→surface→light” breaks at once in the case of the mean.

Thus the final region the stimulus reaches in the body is fixed by the intersection of two layers. One layer is the weak viscus fixed by constitution—in the Taeyangin the liver is small, in the Soyangin the kidney, in the Soeumin the spleen, in the Taeeumin the lung, and that small viscus is the vital point. The other layer is whether it is the surface region the nature-qi travels to or the interior region the disposition-qi travels to. Even within the same constitution the region that collapses through the nature and the region that collapses through the disposition diverge—even in the Taeyangin, the surface (loin-and-spine) that collapses when sunk in the grief-nature and the interior (small intestine) that collapses when the anger-disposition erupts are different places. At that intersection where the weak viscus of constitution meets the phase of nature-and-disposition, the abstract jang at last lands upon a single region of the body.

This far is the general path by which what was received in the jang narrows down to a specific place in the body. The guk receives in the jang, the clarity and turbidity of the mind-will divides nature from disposition, nature and disposition divide into surface and interior, and surface-and-interior meets the region fixed by constitution. But passing this path once does not yet make disease. The bok (暴) of poksang is, in origin, not a single event but the repetition of rise-and-fall—頻起頻伏, 屢得屢失, the repetition of rising and subsiding again and again is the substance of bok. When, unable to rest in the nature, one falls repeatedly into disposition, that repetition fixes the bias leaning toward one viscus, and that fixation at last hardens into the form of disease. If the dividing of a single shaking into nature and disposition is the path so far, the inscribing onto the body of that division accumulated repeatedly toward one side is the next place. What the next section shows is the four stages by which this repetition collapses in the body of the unworthy—bibaktamna—and into what bodily symptoms that collapse closes.

4. The Unworthy’s Poksang — the Direction in Which the Circuit Breaks Down

The previous section drew the path by which a single shaking, received in the jang, passes through the threshold of the mind-will and divides into nature and disposition, that division into surface and interior, and again narrows down to the region fixed by constitution. But if it ended there, it would not yet be disease. To grieve once and to be angry once happens to anyone, and of itself no viscus collapses. Disease is inscribed only when that shaking repeats. This section watches the four stages by which that repetition collapses in the body of the unworthy—bibaktamna.

The Starting Point of Collapse — Reading the Same Circuit in Reverse

One thing must be noted first. The body Dongmu drew was not built to collapse. It is a well-turning circuit. As Lee Gi-bok (2014) precisely reconstructed, the sacho (四焦, four-burner) physiology of the “Treatise on the Viscera” (臟腑論) is a physiology of completion—the qi of grain and water flows from the stomach-cavity to the large intestine, distributed evenly to the four burners, and if the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth are used far, large, broad, and deep, the essence-spirit-qi-blood live (深遠廣大則生), and if the lung, spleen, liver, and kidney are used through study, inquiry, thought, and discernment rightly, the fluid-saliva-fat-oil fill (正直中和則充). That body, where the qi flows evenly, is the body of the consummate great man. Lee saw that this circuit is driven not by a cosmology such as the five phases but by the active activity by which a person relates to the world—and in this his reading meets exactly the path this study has followed from section 1, that the jang drives the body.

This study, upon the completion of that sacho Lee established, asks the one thing he did not treat: what happens when that circuit turns in reverse. Lee’s §3.2.4 looks thoroughly only at the well-turning body. Of the two faces—that the same grief, if slow, becomes the force that fills the lung, but if swift becomes the weapon that pares that lung down—he drew only the filling side. Poksang, the threshold of the mind-will, the fettering of the loosened mind: none are in that section. But if the same physiological structure can also turn in the direction of collapse, then the very “Treatise on the Viscera” that drew the circuit of completion also holds within it the circuit of collapse. What the fourth part means to see is that reverse direction. If Lee reconstructed the forward direction of the sacho (completion), this study joins its reverse direction (poksang) to the Dokhaeng-pyeon of the Gyeokchigo—the opposite movement of the same circuit.

Four Stages — Following the Mean (the Taeyangin)

Let me follow the path of collapse in one person to the end. The mean is the Taeyangin (section 1, the Chobon-gwon’s assignment). The Taeyangin’s weak viscus is the liver, and his disposition is anger. That when the anger-disposition presses urgently, qi jolts the liver and pares it down (怒情促急則氣激肝而肝益削) was seen in section 4. Now, when that anger rises and subsides again and again, what happens?

First, the rise-and-fall of emotion is transcribed into the rise-and-fall of a region. The Chobon-gwon records:

頻起怒而頻伏怒則兩脇暴盛而暴衰也 If one frequently rouses anger and frequently subdues it, both flanks suddenly flourish and suddenly wane.

If one frequently rouses anger and frequently subdues it (頻起怒而頻伏怒), both flanks suddenly flourish and suddenly wane (兩脇暴盛而暴衰). Here it becomes clear what the bok of poksang is—it is not the kind of emotion but the rise-and-fall itself. Not that the anger is once deep, but that the amplitude of its rising and subsiding again and again makes the flanks physically flourish and wane. The rise-and-fall of the mind is transcribed directly into the rise-and-fall of the body. This transcription is the actual place where the bodily cause crosses into the body—Dongmu did not speak abstractly of the mind “injuring” the body, but recorded which region physically oscillates and how.

Second, the oscillating region pares down the viscus at that place.

兩脇暴盛而暴衰則肝血傷也 If both flanks suddenly flourish and suddenly wane, the liver-blood is injured.

If both flanks suddenly flourish and wane, the liver-blood is injured (肝血傷). The flanks are where the liver is seated, so the abrupt oscillation of that region pares down the liver-blood. And in the Taeyangin the liver is, in origin, the small viscus—the vital point. The already-small liver is the more pared by the repeated bok of the anger-disposition; thus the same poksang is gravest in the Taeyangin’s liver. That Dongmu paired each of the four emotions with a viscus (anger→liver-blood injury, joy→spleen-qi injury, grief→kidney-essence injury, pleasure→lung-spirit injury) is a universal correspondence, but the place where that universal is gouged deepest in a given constitution is that constitution’s weak viscus.

Third, the pared viscus reaches even the body’s outermost tissue. Dongmu does not stop the viscus’s injury there but joins it to the body’s outermost tissue.

肝部衰弱則筋脉酸 If the liver region weakens, the sinews and vessels ache.

If the liver weakens, the sinews and vessels ache (筋脉酸). At the same place Dongmu joins all four viscera to the outermost tissue—if the lung weakens the skin and hair scorch (皮毛焦), if the spleen weakens the flesh-grain chills (肉理寒), if the kidney weakens the marrow withers (骨髓枯). A single thread begun in the mind closes into bodily symptoms one can touch by hand: sinews aching, flesh chilling, marrow withering, skin scorching. Here the common view that reads poksang only as a discipline of the emotions divides—what Dongmu drew is a mechanism in which the mind’s agitation issues in visible bodily symptoms.

Fourth, when that injury deepens further, it reaches even the sin (神, spirit). Dongmu sees the viscus’s injury in two layers. The poksang so far is the first-order injury, to the blood-qi-essence-spirit. Above it is one more layer—when the emotion does not merely oscillate but races to the end and loses measure (極), the deeper place, the hon-baek-ji-ui (魂魄志意, the four spirit-faculties), is injured.

怒極者 怒之不勝其忿而悲哀動中則肝魂傷也 In one whose anger reaches the extreme, the anger cannot master its indignation and grief stirs within, so that the liver-hon is injured.

In one whose anger reaches the extreme (怒極者), unable to master the indignation, grief stirs within and the liver-hon is injured (肝魂傷). When joy reaches the extreme the spleen-baek, when grief the kidney-ji, when pleasure the lung-ui is injured. If oscillation (暴) pares the blood-qi-essence-spirit as the first-order injury, then immoderation (極) pares the sin dwelling in that viscus—the hon-baek-ji-ui—as the second-order injury. And at the place where that sin is obstructed, Dongmu sees the great disease.

肝魂淫則恍惚作也 If the liver-hon grows dissolute, bewilderment arises.

If the liver-hon grows dissolute, bewilderment (恍惚) arises. At the same place Dongmu pairs the obstruction of the four spirit-faculties with four great diseases—肺意阻則怔忡 (if the lung-ui is blocked, palpitation), 脾魄蕩則悅亂 (if the spleen-baek is shaken, derangement), 腎志促則健忘 (if the kidney-ji is hurried, amnesia). The mean (the Taeyangin) reaches bewilderment as the hon of his weak viscus, the liver, is pared.

Thus a single thread is drawn to the end: the repeated bok of the anger-disposition oscillates the flanks (①), the oscillation pares the liver-blood (②), the pared liver makes the sinews ache (③), and that injury, deepening, shakes the liver-hon until it reaches bewilderment (④). A path begun in a single agitation of the mind closes at the deepest place of the body, the disease of the sin.

Four Types, One Law

So far one person, the mean, has been followed; but the four of bibaktamna each tread the same chain in a different viscus. And the way the four scatter has one law. The Sadannon records:

哀怒之氣逆動則暴發而並於上也 喜樂之氣逆動則浪發而並於下也 上升之氣逆動而並於上則肝腎傷 下降之氣逆動而並於下則脾肺傷 When the qi of grief and anger moves contrarily, it erupts violently and crowds upward; when the qi of joy and pleasure moves contrarily, it surges and crowds downward. The ascending qi, moving contrarily and crowding upward, injures the liver and kidney; the descending qi, moving contrarily and crowding downward, injures the spleen and lung.

When the qi of grief and anger moves contrarily it erupts and crowds upward (並於上); when the qi of joy and pleasure moves contrarily it surges and crowds downward (並於下). Crowding upward injures liver and kidney; crowding downward injures spleen and lung. The bok of the four emotions, then, strikes no viscus at random but follows the direction of up and down. Grief and anger rise to strike liver and kidney; joy and pleasure descend to strike spleen and lung.

Lay the four of bibaktamna upon this directional law, and their collapse divides into exactly two symmetrical branches. The mean (Taeyangin) strikes the liver with the anger-disposition, the shallow (Soyangin) strikes the kidney with the grief-disposition—both are the upward-crowding branch. The greedy (Taeeumin) strikes the lung with the pleasure-disposition, the cowardly (Soeumin) strikes the spleen with the joy-disposition—both are the downward-crowding branch. The self-destruction of bibaktamna forms a symmetry of upper (liver-kidney) and lower (spleen-lung). The four types tread the same four stages each in their weak viscus, and whether that weak viscus lies above or below is divided by the Sadannon’s directional law.

Gather into one place the chain the four types tread, and it runs thus. The mean (Taeyangin·liver): the anger-disposition shakes the flanks, pares the liver-blood, makes the sinews ache, and the liver-hon is shaken to bewilderment; and at the surface, the grief-nature sinks deep and closes as 解㑊 (haeyeok), the most grave grade of the spine-and-loin disease. The shallow (Soyangin·kidney): the grief-disposition shakes the spine, pares the kidney-essence, withers the marrow, and goes to the place where, the large intestine not passing, the chest burns as if afire (少陽人大便不通則胸膈必如烈火). The greedy (Taeeumin·lung): the pleasure-disposition shakes the shoulders, pares the lung-spirit, scorches the skin and hair, and the lung-ui is blocked to palpitation. The cowardly (Soeumin·spleen): the joy-disposition shakes the chest, pares the spleen-qi, chills the flesh, and the spleen’s transformation collapses so that diarrhea will not stop and below the navel turns cold as ice (少陰人泄瀉不止則臍下必如氷冷). The four collapse different viscera with different emotions into different diseases, yet the form of the collapsing path is one—the path by which the repeated bok pares the weak viscus and closes upon one’s own body.

With this, the question posed in section 1—where does the revolution that fails to turn back go?—is answered in the body. Bibaktamna is one whose aperture is sealed so that he does not fully know others (jiin untasted, second part), who fails to turn back through banseong (haenggi bulseong, third part), and who is fixed at the place where disposition erupts repeatedly. Thus he rouses in his own joy, anger, grief, and pleasure the very poksang he dealt to another, so that the bok he sent to another on the myeon returns through the gukhoe and at last pares his own weak viscus. The one revolution begun in relation closes at the deepest place of one’s own body.

5. Spirit-Disease and Constant Calm

Section 5 followed the repeated bok paring the weak viscus to the very place where it shakes the sin. The mean’s liver-hon is shaken to bewilderment, it said. But the place where Dongmu drew spirit-disease is not one. The Chobon-gwon paired the obstruction of the four spirit-faculties with four diseases (the Fifth Statute, 第五統), and the Gwangje-seol nailed down as great disease only two of them. At the place where these two diverge lies the last knot of the fourth part. And what unties that knot is precisely the single medicine Dongmu prescribed: constant calm (恒寧靜, hang-nyeongjeong).

Spirit-Disease — the Four Places of the Fifth Statute

Let me first see the whole of spirit-disease in the Chobon-gwon. The Fifth Statute records:

肺意阻則怔忡作也 脾魄蕩則悅亂作也 肝魂淫則恍惚作也 腎志促則健忘作也 If the lung-ui is blocked, palpitation arises; if the spleen-baek is shaken, derangement arises; if the liver-hon grows dissolute, bewilderment arises; if the kidney-ji is hurried, amnesia arises.

If the lung-ui is blocked, palpitation (怔忡); if the spleen-baek is shaken, derangement (悅亂); if the liver-hon grows dissolute, bewilderment (恍惚); if the kidney-ji is hurried, amnesia (健忘). When the sin dwelling in each of the four viscera—ui, baek, hon, ji—is each blocked, shaken, made dissolute, and hurried, a different great disease arises. The terminus of the two-layer injury seen in section 5 is here—above the first order, where oscillation (暴) pares the blood-qi-essence-spirit, is the second, where immoderation (極) pares the hon-baek-ji-ui, and the end of that second order is these four spirit-diseases.

Lay these four spirit-diseases upon the four types of the fourth part, and section 5’s chain is filled to its last cell. The greedy (Taeeumin·lung) reaches palpitation as the lung-ui is blocked; the cowardly (Soeumin·spleen) reaches derangement as the spleen-baek is shaken; the mean (Taeyangin·liver) reaches bewilderment as the liver-hon grows dissolute; the shallow (Soyangin·kidney) reaches amnesia as the kidney-ji is hurried. The four types tread the same chain each in their weak viscus and close upon the disease of the sin dwelling in that viscus. The Fifth Statute is the scheme that draws those four closings in one place.

The Divergence — the Gwangje-seol Speaks of Only Two

But the Gwangje-seol, which Dongmu wrote in his late years, does not join these four places as they are. The Gwangje-seol records the mind each constitution always holds (恒心, the constant mind), and where that mind goes when it overflows—and there it draws the path to great disease in only two.

太陰人恒有慟心 … 若慟心至於怕心則大病作而怔忡也 怔忡者太陰人病之重證也 少陽人恒有懼心 … 若懼心至於恐心則大病作而健忘也 健忘者少陽人病之險證也 The Taeeumin always has a grieving mind … if the grieving mind reaches a dreading mind, great disease arises as palpitation; palpitation is the grave grade of the Taeeumin’s disease. The Soyangin always has a fearing mind … if the fearing mind reaches a terrified mind, great disease arises as amnesia; amnesia is the perilous grade of the Soyangin’s disease.

The Taeeumin always has a grieving mind (慟心), which on reaching a dreading mind (怕心) produces great disease, palpitation, the grave grade of the Taeeumin’s disease. The Soyangin always has a fearing mind (懼心), which on reaching a terrified mind (恐心) produces great disease, amnesia, the perilous grade of the Soyangin’s disease. This far does not diverge from the Fifth Statute—palpitation in the Taeeumin (lung), amnesia in the Soyangin (kidney), the two places exactly the same. But in the remaining two, the Gwangje-seol halts.

少陰人恒有不安定之心 不安定之心寧靜則脾氣卽活也 太陽人恒有急迫之心 急迫之心寧靜則肝血卽和也 The Soeumin always has an unsettled mind; if the unsettled mind is calm, the spleen-qi at once revives. The Taeyangin always has an urgent mind; if the urgent mind is calm, the liver-blood at once harmonizes.

The Soeumin always has an unsettled mind, which if calm makes the spleen-qi at once revive (脾氣卽活); the Taeyangin always has an urgent mind, which if calm makes the liver-blood at once harmonize (肝血卽和). For the Taeeumin and Soyangin Dongmu drew even the path by which the mind overflows to great disease, but for the Soeumin and Taeyangin he recorded only the side where the viscus revives when the mind is calm, and did not record to what great disease it overflows. Where the Fifth Statute fills all four places, the Gwangje-seol leaves two empty.

How is this asymmetry to be read? One thing must be made clear—Dongmu did not hold that the Taeyangin and Soeumin have no spirit-disease. Had he, he would not have recorded the dissolute liver-hon and shaken spleen-baek in the Fifth Statute. Moreover, the Taeyangin’s great disease lies elsewhere—haeyeok, seen in section 5, the most grave grade of the spine-and-loin disease arising when the deep-sunk grieving mind injures the surface qi. The Soeumin too holds his own great disease apart: ceaseless diarrhea and an ice-cold below-navel. The gravest place of the Taeyangin and Soeumin, then, lies not in spirit-disease (bewilderment, derangement) but in another disease, and the Gwangje-seol appears to have named, for each constitution, the great disease that strikes clinically first—for the Taeeumin and Soyangin that happened to be spirit-disease (palpitation, amnesia), and for the Taeyangin and Soeumin it was a place other than spirit-disease.

Therefore this study sets the framework of spirit-disease as the four assignments of the Fifth Statute. The Gwangje-seol’s palpitation and amnesia are, among those four assignments, the two cases Dongmu drew to the very end of the path to great disease—not a reduction of the whole of spirit-disease to two, but an exemplification of two of the four followed to their clinical terminus. Taking this reading, the Fifth Statute (the four places of theory) and the Gwangje-seol (the two examples of clinic) do not diverge but overlap in layers. (One may also read this divergence as a trace of Dongmu’s own late revision—the narrowing of the four spirit-disease assignments to two in clinical practice. But that bibliographic judgment exceeds the scope of this study and is deferred to a separate place.)

The Medicine Is One — Constant Calm

If the four spirit-diseases all come from one root, then their medicine too is one. Look again at the four passages of the Gwangje-seol, and the branch point dividing them from the path to great disease hangs on a single word—calm (寧靜). The grieving mind, if calm, reaches the Way (慟心寧靜則造於道); if it overflows, it becomes thing-like (慟心益多則放心桎梏而物化). Whether the same mind rests in calm or overflows divides the Way from great disease. This is exactly the structure of the threshold of the mind-will seen in section 3—calm is precisely resting at that threshold, and overflowing (益多) is precisely crossing the threshold and erupting as disposition.

Then how does one rest in calm? Dongmu sets a different prescription for each constitution.

太陰人察於外而恒寧靜慟心 少陽人察於內而恒寧靜懼心 太陽人退一步而恒寧靜急迫之心 少陰人進一步而恒寧靜不安定之心 如此則必無不壽 The Taeeumin, examining the outer, constantly calms the grieving mind; the Soyangin, examining the inner, constantly calms the fearing mind; the Taeyangin, stepping back one pace, constantly calms the urgent mind; the Soeumin, stepping forward one pace, constantly calms the unsettled mind. Do thus, and none will fail to live out their years.

The Taeeumin, examining the outer (察於外), constantly calms the grieving mind; the Soyangin, examining the inner (察於內), the fearing mind; the Taeyangin, stepping back one pace (退一步), the urgent mind; the Soeumin, stepping forward one pace (進一步), the unsettled mind—do thus, and none will fail to live out their years (如此則必無不壽). The four constitutions govern the mind each in a different direction, but the place that governing faces is one: constant calm. And its end is not deathlessness but longevity—if poksang is the path that pares life away, constant calm is the path that halts that paring and fills out one’s natural span.

Here one more prescription Dongmu added joins the beginning and end of this study.

太陽人恒戒怒心哀心 少陽人恒戒哀心怒心 太陰人恒戒樂心喜心 少陰人恒戒喜心樂心 如此則必無不壽 The Taeyangin always guards against the angry mind and grieving mind; the Soyangin against the grieving mind and angry mind; the Taeeumin against the pleasure mind and joy mind; the Soeumin against the joy mind and pleasure mind. Do thus, and none will fail to live out their years.

The Taeyangin always guards against the angry and grieving minds; the Soyangin against the grieving and angry; the Taeeumin against the pleasure and joy; the Soeumin against the joy and pleasure—do thus, and one lives out one’s years. The two minds each constitution must guard against are precisely that constitution’s disposition and nature—for the Taeyangin, anger (disposition) and grief (nature). As seen in section 5: the Taeyangin’s anger-disposition strikes the interior (liver) and the grief-nature strikes the surface (loin-and-spine), so to guard against both together is to block both the eruption of the interior and the deep-sinking of the surface. This last prescription of the Gwangje-seol is, then, a prescription that climbs back up the path of nature-disposition and surface-interior drawn by the Sadannon and the “Treatise on the Internally-Affected Small-Intestine Disease,” to block it at the entrance.

The Return to Gukhoe — Banseong Is Constant Calm

With this, the three parts of Guk·Myeon·Gukhoe and the present part close in one place. The third part saw the revolution of gukhoe close through banseong or fail to close through haenggi bulseong. Banseong was the act of turning back when sasim arises, before it erupts into the act of deceiving (詐心便發 未及行詐而反誠). Seen from the fourth part, that banseong is, in the language of medicine, constant calm. To let sasim issue but not cross into the act of deceiving, and to let the grieving mind stir but rest in calm and not cross into thing-becoming, are one and the same act occurring at one and the same threshold. The turning-back the Banseongjam drew in the seat of relation, the Gwangje-seol drew again in the seat of the body as constant calm.

Thus the poksang of bibaktamna obtains its medicine from the opposite side. The reason they incur poksang at every turn was that, immature in jiin, they fail to enter the center before issuing (the collapse of the not-yet-issued), and, conducting themselves without sincerity, fail to gather after issuing (the un-gathering of the already-issued). Constant calm is the prescription that fills both places together—examining the outer and the inner (察於外·察於內), examining others and oneself to approach jiin, is the medicine before issuing; stepping back or stepping forward one pace (退一步·進一步), placing the mind in calm, is the medicine after issuing. The two deficits seen in section 1 are filled, exactly interlocking, by the two prescriptions of the Gwangje-seol.

That the gukhoe never finally closes meant, in the third part, the opening of a revolution that fails to complete; but in the fourth part it takes on another sense—the endless repetition of constant calm, the work of turning back each time so that the revolution of poksang does not close upon one’s own viscus, is itself the not-closing. As banseong is 屢復屢失 (as Dongmu could not put away sasim even at fifty-seven), so constant calm too does not end at a single stroke. The one sameness within the ten thousand differences of bibaktamna—the possibility of aspiring to sagehood (希聖)—appears, in the seat of the body, as the possibility of filling out one’s natural span through that endless turning-back. The single step of turning one’s own mind back to calm each time, at that place that has not closed, is what gukhoe says last, and the single path of saving the body on the road where the mind injures the body.

Ⅳ. Discussion

1. Synthesis — The Bodily Site of Not-Closing

That 局回 in the end does not close was, in Part Three, the incompleteness of a single revolution; in this study it takes a further meaning—the endless returning to calm (恒寧靜) that keeps the revolution of 暴傷 from closing into one’s own viscera. As 反誠 is 屢復屢失, so 恒寧靜 does not end at once. The one sameness amid the myriad differences of 鄙薄貪懦, the possibility of 希聖, appears at the level of the body as the possibility of living out one’s years through that endless returning. The single step of returning one’s own mind to calm, there at the place that did not close, is the one path that keeps the body alive on the road by which the mind wounds it.

2. Comparison with Prior Research

Where Lee Gi-bok⁹⁾ reconstructed the four-jiao of the Jangbu-ron as a physiology of completion driven by relational activity, this study joins the reverse direction of the same physiological structure (暴傷) to the Dokhaeng-pyeon, showing that the circuit of completion also holds the circuit of collapse—the two are complementary. Where the yeokhak line^10,11) has read the Gyeokchigo as yeokhak and cosmology, this study takes as its axis the somatization mechanism of feeling upon a fluid ontology that reads the trigrams and dispositions as products of the jang. Where Yun Deok-yeong and Go Byeong-hui¹²⁾ and Bae Yeong-sun¹³⁾ organized 鄙薄貪懦 by philology and typology, this study extends that type into the pathological mechanism by which it wounds its own body. Further, reading the divergence between the four spirit-disease assignments of the Chobon-gwon’s Fifth Statute and the two examples (palpitation, amnesia) of the late Gwangje-seol as theory and clinic overlapping in layers, this study offers, in the line of the prior study linking the 事心身物 with the 天人性命¹⁴⁾, one case of the junction of the Gyeokchigo and the Dongui Suse Bowon.

3. Limitations and Further Work

First, the constitutional attribution (鄙 as 太陽人, and so on) rests on the Chobon-gwon⁵⁾ and cannot be treated as a fixed value. Second, the fluid ontology is not a concept of the source texts but a modern frame established in prior studies^7,8), and the reinterpretation depends on its validity. Third, the graph 賞 in 知人未賞全味 may be interchangeable with 未嘗 and requires collation against the Han Du-jeong edition; the extension of the 慾心/義心 contrast to anger and pleasure, and the bibliographic adjudication of the Fifth-Statute–Gwangje-seol divergence, exceed this study’s scope. Fourth, where Dongmu’s theory of the feelings diverges from and meets the Neo-Confucian Four-Beginnings-and-Seven-Feelings debate (the i-issuance and gi-issuance of Toegye and Gobong) requires placing the Gyeokchigo’s theory of feeling within Joseon Neo-Confucian history and is deferred to a separate study.

Ⅴ. Conclusion

From an examination of the 獨行篇, 乾箴, 坤箴, and 反誠箴 of the Gyeokchigo and the 四端論, the treatise on Taeyangin small-intestine disease, and the 廣濟說 of the Dongui Suse Bowon, together with the Chobon-gwon, through the fluid ontology, the conclusions are as follows.

First, the place of 行己不誠 that fails at 反誠 closes into the body. The unworthy (鄙薄貪懦) suffers recurrent 暴傷 from two deficits—the front and back of a single event: 知人未賞 (the collapse of the not-yet-issued) and 行己不誠 (the un-gathering of the already-issued).

Second, 心地淸濁 is the threshold that fixes the speed and phase of the aroused feeling: when clear, it rests in nature (性); when turbid, it overflows into disposition (情). Nature runs to the surface, disposition to the interior, yet surface-and-interior is an axis of position, not of gravity, and for the Taeyangin (鄙) the nature-surface is rather the graver locus.

Third, in the unworthy’s body the recurrent 暴 pares the weak viscus through four stages (rise-and-fall of region → visceral injury → peripheral tissue → spirit) to spirit-disease. The four types divide into two symmetrical branches by the up-and-down law of the 四端論.

Fourth, the single medicine for the four spirit-diseases is constant calm (恒寧靜), the 反誠 of the Banseong-jam redrawn in the language of the body. The not-closing of 局回 appears, at the level of the body, as the endless repetition of that constant calm.

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