Abstract

Hong Seok (1604–1684) was a scholar in the mid-Joseon dynasty. Hong was a descendant of a prestigious family that lived in the Joseon capital, Hanyang, for generations, and he served as a high-ranking official. Accordingly, he matured in the academic climate of the semiotic school. However, he moved to the Bonghwa region of Yeongnam to escape the Manchu invasion of Korea that broke out in 1636. Thereafter, he lived in seclusion at the foot of Mount Taebaek and became known as Taebaek-ohyeon (“The Five Sages of Mount Taebaek”). Hong remained in the Bonghwa region, where he abandoned the idea of advancing to join the court on the merit of his performance in past examinations; instead, he devoted himself to studying neo-Confucianism, with a focus on Li, especially during the early years of his hermitage. The reason underlying his concentration of attention on Li was his desire to straighten the discipline of the collapsed world. In Hong’s later years, he published theories outlining the necessary actions to reform the country, and he even assumed some government positions. Critics who have assessed Hong Seok’s scholarship have noted that his primary focus was the study of Li. Relatedly, he organized the Yechongyoseol (禮叢要說) and Yegiryuhoe (禮記類會), compiled the Sangjeyorok (喪祭要錄) based on those works, and wrote a number of treatises in which he expressed his views on a wide range of topics linked to Li. Specifically, his body of work on Li encompasses the rituals of the state to those of ordinary households and draws on the artistic assets of the Joseon dynasty, which had accumulated by the early 17th century. However, Hongs study of Li goes a step further than the traditional study of Li since the former is characterized by flexibility, creativity, and rationality.