Abstract

The Canon of Filial Piety/Hyogyŏng(『孝經』), explained concrete ways to practice filial piety, has been accepted as a book which summarized the core of Six Scriptures of Confucianism. It proclaimed the Rule with Filial Piety/Hyochi(孝治), i. e. an ideology that a country or world should be governed by spreading filial piety, and implied a principle of national integrity as well. The Canon of Allegiance/Chúngkyŏng(『忠經』), known as a book written by Ma Rong(馬融) in Han(漢) Dynasty, followed its thought and argued that the ultimate filial piety was able to be realized by Allegiance, which is a more direct proclamation of the Hyochi ideology of Hyogeŏng. Kim, Yook(金堉) is the first scholar who paid attention to the logical consistency of the above mentioned books in the late Joseon Dynasty. He compiled them to a volume named Hyochungjeongyeong(『孝忠全經』) in 1647, claimed that filial piety was the most basic virtue among all human ethics, and stressed the idea that one should develop his filial piety to allegiance to his king. His king centered utilitarianism was an expression of his idea that filial piety and allegiance were same. King Yeongjo(英祖) tried to draw his theoretical basis of Tangpyeong(蕩平) Policy from Hyochi ideology of Hyogeong and Chunggyeong. He ordered to publish two books and distribute them to courtiers in August, 1737, which showed us that his desire for strong authority and Hyochi ideology were interrelated. Especially, this fact that Ma Rong was ruled out in National Confucian shrine(文廟) by King Sookjong(肅宗) only fifty years ago proves that King Yeongjo’s emphasis on filial piety and allegiance was closely connected with his practical goal, that is establishing of strong monarchy.