Korean Neo-Confucian Perspectives on Laozi and Zhuangzi
Regular price
€33.99
14 days return policy
Shipping & Delivery
A01=Tae Hyun Kim
Author_Tae Hyun Kim
Category=NHF
Category=QDHC
Category=QRRL5
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9781931483889
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 31 May 2026
- Publisher: Three Pines Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
This book offers the first complete English study and translations of two landmark Chosŏn commentaries to Daoist classics: Yi I’s Sunŏn (Purified Words) on the Laozi and Han Wŏnjin’s Changja pyŏnhae (Analytic Interpretation of the Zhuangzi). Yi I (1536–1584), one of Chosŏn’s most influential thinkers, defied prevailing Neo-Confucian orthodoxy by treating the Laozi as a sage’s text, reorganizing it into forty sections and demonstrating how Daoist insights harmonize with Confucian ideals of self-cultivation and governance. Han Wŏnjin (1682–1751) interprets the Zhuangzi as heretical and seeks to refute it as he defends the Neo-Confucian worldview. His work represents one of the most rigorous Neo-Confucian engagements with the Zhuangzi in East Asia. By making these works accessible in English for the first time, this book opens critical resources for the study of Daoist–Confucian dialogue, offers fresh perspectives on Korean philosophy and religion, and enriches East Asian intellectual history.
Tae Hyun Kim, PhD (UC Berkeley), is an independent scholar translating pre-modern East Asian texts that remain largely unknown in the English-speaking world.
