• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.137
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• pp.409-438
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• 2016

The movie, Battle of Wits which is based on the cartoon by Morihideki(森秀樹) is directed by Zhang Zhiliang(張之亮), a director from Hong Kong. Morihideki's cartoon is based on the novel by Sakemikenichi(酒見賢一). The movie represents a successful one-source multi-use case. Battle of wits, which deals with the Mozi's propaganda against war, presents the thought of Mozi School(墨家) in spring, autumn, and warring states. The movie criticizes aggressive war by powerful nations. Aggressive war is an extreme form of brutality and worthless action without any benefit. Aggressive war represents 'never each love(buxiangai, 不相愛)' and 'never each benefit(buxiangli, 不相利)' as understood by Mozi. The main character of the movie endeavors and successfully defends the enemy's attack as Mozi did. It is due to the propaganda of Mozi School 'not to attack(feigong, 非攻)' that they can defend themselves from the attack from a powerful nation. It means that 'the universal love(jianai, 兼愛)', the ideology of Mozi, is concretely actualized. The philosophy of Mozi School in the Battle of Wits has its limits as follows: the thought of Mozi School is just suitable during times of war and unnecessary in times of peace, the contradiction between universal love and hatred for one person; the Mozi School's faith in the nature of human beings to confront betrayal. This limit was also proposed in the movie. However, the movie presented how the masculinity of Mozi School, supplemented by the feminity of Daojia(道家), can succeed in achieving genuine communication. When focusing on this point, the movie can be interpreted as biased towards the philosophy of Daojia.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.57
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• pp.407-435
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• 2014

Gusadang Kim, Nak-Haeng is a scholar of 18th century in Yeongnam region who wrote about 130 Chinese poems. In this study, I searched Gusadang's inner world by interpreting his Chinese poems. His life is closely related to his father Jesan Kim, Seong-Tak who was exiled. The fact that he devoted himself to his father for 10 years shows he had strong standards in making decisions in life. In short, Gusadang was a person who looked gentle but was tough inside and he remained firm in his faith even with outside pressure. He could not achieve glory because he spent time serving his father in his thirties. Although he heard compliments from others that he was talented enough to succeed as a scholar, he lacked time and mental energy to study. Also, he was a moralist and wrote some poems about impressive events in his life even though he did not fully devote himself to writing poems. In this study, I searched his inner world focusing on how he felt and thought about outside world by analyzing his poems. In conclusion, I found three characteristics from his poems. Firstly, depressed feelings are shown based on excessive self-consciousness in the poems related to his father. Secondly, his will to keep balance in life is shown because he wanted a harmonious life as a seeker after truth. Thirdly, a sense of isolation is shown because he had to keep a distance from outside world.