A study of the use of diagrams to discuss principle within Korean Confucianism – Using diagrams that explain Zhuxi’s theory of Zhonghe as an example

Zhuzi’s research on the concept of Zhonghe from within the Doctrine of the Mean stands as an important milestone in his philosophy and it contains many complex ideas and details, which are truly difficult to grasp.Facing these difficulties, Korean scholars attempted to use diagrams as a method to present their thinking.For example, Li Xiangjing once produced a diagram, the Xindongjingtu, which was set out according to the philosophy of Zhuzi. Although it was drawn based on the philosophy of Zhuzi, the diagram also contained some of his own ideas,this being done so as to solve the problem that Zhuzi’s earlier and later theories on the trigrams of having emotions and not having emotions from within The Book of Changes do not match.This diagram had importance attached to it by later scholars, thus it was that Guo Zhongxi asked for guidance about it from his teacher.Therefore his teacher Li Zhenxiang used his own ideas to amend the diagram, mainly owing to the fact that he felt that it was the Qian trigram that represented having emotions and not the Gen trigram, moreover he integrated it with his own ideas of the theory of mind and character. However, Guo Zhongxi was still not satisfied, as he believed that this diagram did not express the state of changing from not having emotions to having emotions, therefore he later also drew his own diagram.From this research the results of adjusting the position of concept words and the revising and redrawing of diagrams in order to express the interrelatedness of these concepts can be seen.At the same time we can see the clarifications, supplementations and developments of Zhuzi’s philosophy done by these scholars.