The Spread And Acceptance Of Laozi In Korea

As a classic of Taoism in the pre-Qin period,Laozi played an important role in the development of Chinese academic thought,literary and cultural phenomena and the cultivation of literati character,and was introduced to foreign countries along with the friendly exchanges between China and foreign countries.Laozi was first introduced to the Korean Peninsula through official channels during the Three Kingdoms Period.Until the Chosun Dynasty,Laozi has been studied and accepted by many scholars.There are 5 anthologies of Laozi,such as Kuriya’s Alcohol Words,Piao Shi-tang’s New Notes on Tao Te Ching,Xu Ming-ying’s Tao Te Zhi Gui,Li Zhong-yi’s Jiao Yuan Talking about Lao,and Hong Shi-zhou’s Ding Lao.These annotations had some effects on the academic development of the Chosun Dynasty.The Korean Confucian scholar Li Gu chose Dong Sijing’s Daodezhen Jing Ji Jie,which had the characteristics of "interpreting Lao Zi with Confucianism",as the base book.Select the 2098 words in Laozi that are in line with the proposition of "cultivating oneself and governing others" and compile and annotate it into Alcohol Words,interpretation of the concepts of "Tao","De",and "Se" in combination with its philosophy,meaning through "inaction","suppressing oneself and stigmatizing desire","benevolence Jane and people","modesty and self-acceptance","static and self-restraint" to emphasize their own position of governing the world,Build a bridge between Confucianism and Taoism.It provided the annotating idea of interpreting Lao-tzu with Neo-Confucianism for later generations of annotators,promoted the emergence and development of the practical learning in Korea,alleviated the bad political form caused by the party dispute,and formed the history of the study of the old learning in Korea with Alcohol Words as the beginning.Although the history of Korean ancient learning is short,it enriches its academic ideology,assists Confucian scholars to criticize the inheriting Neo-Confucianism and develop practical learning,and then promotes social reform,which is also the result of the influence of the development of Song and Ming’s academic thought,and is attributed to the cultural exchange,integration and development of the East Asian Han cultural circle.However,the influence of the old school in Korea was always limited,especially in the modern times,which was confined to the new religion and the study of Chinese studies.