Toegye, Gyeomjae, Chusa.

By Nomadsirius

Prologue.

Aesthetics is the emotional perception of beauty introduced by Baumgarten (1714-1762) in Germany during the mid-18th century.
Aesthetics, with the goal of systematically interpreting aesthetic values, traces its philosophical origins back to ancient Greece.
To understand the perception of beauty in both the East and the West, we investigate the philosophical foundations of aesthetic judgment found in Greek aesthetics, Eastern Confucianism, Buddhism, Zen aesthetics, medieval aesthetics, Renaissance aesthetics, modern aesthetics, and contemporary aesthetics.


\"Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979)\" by American cognitive scientist Douglas Richard Hofstadter (1945- ) serves as the inspiration for the creation of \"Toegye, Gyeomjae, Chusa (2023).\"
Hofstadter investigates the neural mechanisms of cognition in the lives and works of Gödel, Escher, and Bach.
Austrian mathematician Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) poses profound philosophical inquiries about formal logic, mathematical logic, and the foundations of mathematical systems.
Dutch printmaker Moritz Escher (1898-1972) ventures beyond the boundaries of reality and imagination by blending mathematical principles and aesthetics within the realm of surrealism.
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) translates the counter-reformation and the upheaval that affected Northern Europe after the Thirty Years\' War (1618-1648) into dynamic, unconventional, and sensuous Baroque auditory art.


\"Toegye, Gyeomjae, Chusa (2023)\" is an encounter of philosophy and aesthetics recorded from an artist\'s monograph perspective.
Toegye Yi Hwang (1501-1570), a Confucian scholar of the Joseon Dynasty, firmly establishes the dualism of principle and vital forces based on the theory of principle superiority, which dualizes li-ki into enduring li and ephemeral qi.
Gyeomjae Jeong Seon (1676-1759), a painter from the later period of the Joseon Dynasty, reinterprets the monism of principle and vital forces, viewing it as a single attribute or order of qi\'s action, and opens up a new horizon in the world of landscape painting.
Chusa Kim Jeong-hui (1786-1856), a scholar from the later period of the Joseon Dynasty, creates an ideal new calligraphy style based on his research in Qing Dynasty classical studies, which harmonizes the monism of principle and vital forces of Yulgok and the dualism of principle and vital forces of Toegye, free from the constraints of theoretical Confucianism.
Attempting individual reflections on the lives, scholarship, philosophy, and aesthetics of Toegye, Gyeomjae, and Chusa, it approaches the fusion of clarity and universality.
Establishing a cosmology based on the dualism of principle and vital Forces, I seek to find the essence of aesthetics in the movement of qi, which is the change in the universe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: YH Partners
• Release date: Oct 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9791192838199

Book preview

Aesthetics is.

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Immerse yourself in the world through aesthetics, Toegye, Gyeomjae, Chusa.

 Aesthetics approaches the principles that form the foundation of judgment regarding beauty, the essence of art, and that which is visually or conceptually pleasurable as a philosophy. Therefore, to understand aesthetics, which encompasses various aspects of human perception, creativity, and cultural expression, a profound contemplation of philosophy is required. Both Eastern and Western philosophies have long pondered the mystery of the phenomenal world that manifests through the essence of the universe and its movements. The East focuses on elucidating image-numerology, while the West encompasses ontology and cosmology.

 Eastern image-numerology provides profound insights into the reality and essence of cosmic transformations. An image is regarded as the universe's embodiment, an empty void devoid of anything. It reveals both the intangible and tangible forms through numerical symbols, where formlessness and form are not absolute. The formless eventually attains the form, and the form, too, disappears. Emptiness, the Supreme Ultimate whose origin is Limitlessness, is distinct from nothingness. Within the empty space, there exists infinite power, substance, and wisdom. Hinduism perceives the emergence of the manifest from the existent within the empty space. The primal power of the empty space points to God as the cosmic creative energy. It is the self-existent I AM within the reality of nature.

 The changes in the universe are the movements and interactions of qi. The concepts of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, which are core principles of the Limitlessness and the Supreme Ultimate, interact subtly with metaphysical pure energy qi, triggering its activation without separation. It serves as both an intangible and a tangible form. The Supreme Ultimate initiates motion to give rise to Yang and achieves stillness to give rise to Yin. Yang transforms, and Yin combines to cycle the five elements: water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. The five elements unite Yin and Yang, and Yin and Yang unite the Supreme Ultimate, originating from Limitlessness. When the Supreme Ultimate creates the universe, water initiates the movement of the cosmos. Water symbolizes the fundamental aspect of the material world and serves as the prototype for the world of forms. In a grand explosion at the singularity, all matter and energy are created. The generation of ki corresponds to the creation of radiant energy, the generation of Yin and Yang corresponds to the creation of electrons and positrons, and their fusion results in the creation of atoms. The universe, initially expanding rapidly, eventually contracts as its expansion rate decreases. This expansion and contraction cycle continues, creating a cosmic oscillation. The physical body is finite, but the soul does not perish along with it. Following the laws of mass conservation and energy conservation, the soul undergoes a continuous cycle of birth and death. It appears as if existence itself is disappearing, but it returns to the level of atoms. The atoms that once comprised a person may become rocks, clouds, or even cosmic dust beyond the Earth. Moreover, such elements are not only born as living beings, so the boundaries between people and all objects that make up this world begin to blur, and a sense of nobility permeates everything in this world.

 The aesthetics symbolized by Gyeomjae and Chusa in Joseon awakens the value and nobility of life breathing in nature through a wide-ranging contemplation of the world. Toegye's dualism of principle and vital forces and Yulgok's monism of principle and vital forces deepen through image-numerology, which is rooted in the inherent dignity of all things and involves the interaction of human nature and material nature with li and qi. Joseon's aesthetics is elevated significantly through Toegye's dualism of principle and vital forces and Yulgok's monism of principle and vital forces Harmony with nature is a consistent central theme in Eastern aesthetics. 

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Immerse yourself in the world through aesthetics.

 The West approaches the exploration of the reality and essence of cosmic changes through ontology and cosmology. From the perspective of ontology, they engage in quantitative examinations of monism, pluralism, and atomism. Thales (B.C. 640-530), the founder of Western philosophy, perceives the essence of the universe and the substance of spirit and matter in monism, realizing them in the depths of water. Water is the essence of the universe and the substance of cosmic change. It shapes forms through external movement and nourishes qualities through internal interaction. When the division of water reaches its extreme, it unifies the form of water. However, Western quantitative analysis suffers from a lack of laws, the inadequacy of phenomenal theories, and the ambiguity of content. Empiricism, which attempts qualitative analysis, regards matter as a product of the mind. However, it fails to explain the mind as a law of cosmic change and overlooks the concept of the mind. Empiricism also does not perceive the creation of the mind in the void of the Limitlessness and the Supreme Ultimate's attributes of benevolence, righteousness, propreity, and wisdom, Materialism, which views the mind as the activity of the ether, also does not comprehend the attributes of the Supreme Ultimate and the essence of cosmic change, leading to an inability to explain the interaction between the mind and matter.

 The cosmology that studies the phenomena of change in the universe consists of causality and purpose. The Western concept of causality, which posits that every outcome has a cause as an inevitable law, reveals its limitations when it comes to explaining the natural laws of causation. Eastern image-numerology has clearly elucidated the laws of nature and the universe. However, Pythagoras (B.C. 580-500), who examins the principles of existence through natural numbers, deserves admiration. Pythagoras develops the generation of all things as a combination of numerical principles and transformations. He approaches the essence of the circle, represented by the formless and the infinite, to understand the world. Plato, inheriting Pythagoras's concept of the circle, reveres the idea of the Forms. He delves into Hermeticism, the origin of Western alchemy, and seeks archetype beyond the phenomenal world. Plato perceives a distinction between reality and appearances and immerses himself in the world of the Forms. Eastern image-numerology elucidates the universe's motion through the causal laws of the five circuits and the six qies. The five elements are the fundamental principles of the directional-centered law of all things' generation, while the five circuits represent the law of transformation-centered change. The cosmic five qies of inexhaustible heavenly qi perform vaporization actions. When the laws of the five elements, as subjective causal principles, operate on Earth, the objective five circuits transform into the six qies and manifest strong vital forces. In the West, there are both transcendental and inherent purposes in cosmology. Transcendental purpose implies that the universe moves under the guidance of a divine or external purpose. Inherent purpose suggests that the purpose of growth is intrinsic to all things. Kant (1770-1831) interpretes that the natural world follows the law of causality, while the human realm operates according to the principle of purpose. Eastern image-numerology posits that nature adheres to the law of causality, while humans and animals follow both the laws of causality and purpose, making their essence slightly different.

 Within the Western philosophical tradition based on ontology and cosmology, Western aesthetics deals with the essence of art, beauty, taste, appreciation, and criticism. Western aesthetics is influenced by the dualistic framework of Plato's philosophy, akin to the dualism of principle and vital forces, and Aristotle's philosophy, resembling the monism of principle and vital forces, within the broader context of mimesis, expressionism, and formalism. Concepts such as substance and phenomenon, universal and particular, idea and shadow, form and substance, light and darkness, God and human, angels and demons, subject and object, reason and experience, rationality and sensibility, and a priori and a posteriori manifest themselves as geometric forms and objects. Western aesthetics, based on the concept of mimesis, held sway for nearly 2,300 years until the Classical period of the 18th century. However, the Romantic movement influenced by German idealism, which opposed Classical aesthetics with expressionism, and the emergence of formalism as a reaction to idealism, did not entirely break free from the dualistic framework of modern Enlightenment thinking.

 Jung Yicheon, the founder of Cheng-Zhu Confucianism, believes that the principle cannot depart from phenomena. He integrates the Confucian and Taoist emphasis on subjective insight with the emotional longing found in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Idealism. He sees both the principle and vital energy as inseparable substantial entities. Similarly, Whitehead argues that Idea and appetition cannot be separated. The Idea is an all-encompassing and organically corresponding substance to all phenomena. Jung Yicheon and Whitehead can be likened to a Copernican revolution in thought. Wei Baoyang also integrates substance and phenomenon within the framework of Cantongqi, using the eight diagrams. Wei Baoyang also unifies substance and phenomenon within the context of Cantongqi based on the eight diagrams. He delves into the profound and intricate secrets of the dual cultivation of nature and life.