• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.35
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• pp.35-73
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• 2009

This thesis aims at making clear correlation between the controversy that the nature of people and things is equal or different each other and Sung Confucianism, which is closed and discriminative. For this aim, I am looking closely at philosophy-reason prose that deals with the nature of people and things, from the early days of Chosun when Sung Confucianism became a new trend of thought to the later days when the controversy that the nature of people and things is equal or different had begun in earnest. This philosophy-reason prose has had gradual and important change. There are four different view points toward the nature of people and things. According to the first view point, people are the nucleus of the world. For the second one, things are thought to be important enough to be valued, but people are still the only core of the world. The third view point is that people and things are equally important and they are all the core of the world. Finally, the fourth view point regards people inferior to things and it says that things need to instruct people by scolding their bad behavior. There is a correlation between the view point of the nature of people and things and the attitude of an author. If some scholars think that people are the most important nucleus of the world, they tend to consider Sung Confucianism as the only school. On the contrary, other scholars who think that people and things are equal tend to respect other schools with open mind. In conclusion, the heated debates of the 18th century was an acute pain to destroy the closed and discriminative character of Sung Confucianism. It has contributed to innovate the thought toward the nature of people and things and the reformism of practical science have also done important role in the process of modernism's being groped by itself.