Jeong-San's Thought of Leading People and Society

ABSTRACT

Song-Gyu(Dharma title; Jeong-San) established the foundation of Won-Buddhist order upholding the thought of great master So-Tae-San(Founder of Won-Buddhism). He widely utilized Buddhist thoughts and Neo-confucianism to systemize and interpretate Won-Buddhist doctrine. He drew his attention to building the ideal civilized society that is formed on the basis of the essential ways of humanity. It is important for him to teach people and rule the society rightly. He suggested three methods to realize this plan.: leading(teaching and ruling) by morality and religious doctrine, leading by the influence of virtue, leading by laws. We can say these three methods are very important and useful in studying his thought.We can find his viewpoint of ‘leading by law’ in Geongungnon(建國論, a treatise on founding a nation). He wanted to realize the idea of freedom, equality and peace based on the idea of right. These ideas were influenced by western social thoughts.In his thought of 'leading by the influence of virtue’, he emphasized on edifying people through civility and music(禮樂). It seems that he followed some main neo-confucian ideas on civility, but he pointed out the limits critically. His thought of ‘leading by morality and religious doctrine’ is primarily based on Buddhist's view of the world and takes concrete shape into Ethics of Triple Identity.Ethics of Triple Identity is aimed at the grand harmonious society for all human beings of the world. He suggested its contents as follows; the Principle of the Identical Origin, the Bond of Identical Vital Force and the Principle of Reclamation with Identical Aim. The Ethics of Triple Identity is oriented to the grand harmonious society for all human beings of the world(大同社會) surmounting various complications and antagonism. The idea of the grand harmonious society for all human beings of the world is originated from Q>nfucianism and Song-Gyu aggrandized its substance based on Buddhist thoughts.He not only studied oriental thoughts, namely Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism widely, but also encountered with modern western thoughts. Based on this scholarship he suggested three ways to build an ideal society through leading people and society rightly.