Early Release Article: Korean Studies (November 2017)

University of Hawai’i Press is proud to present the early release of the following article from Korean Studies through a partnership with Project MUSE.

EARLY RELEASE ARTICLE

Implicit Political and Economic Liberties in the Thought of Tasan Chŏng Yagyong by Yi Jongwoo

Abstract: Two types of implicit liberty were the foremost features of the philosophy produced by Tasan Chŏng Yagyong (1762–1836), a Confucian scholar of the Chosŏn dynasty in Korea. The first was political liberty, which enabled people to select and dismiss their ruler. Tasan’s notion of political liberty included a stern admonition to rulers and local officials, stipulating that if they collected unfair taxes from the people, the people had the right to take necessary actions to survive. The second was economic liberty, which enabled people to relocate to another village for financial reasons in the hamlet- field system. Under the well-field system, rulers distributed their farmland among the people equally for their personal use, and therefore they were not tenant farmers. Economic liberty was implicit and advocated that the people lead lives that were consistent with Confucian moral principles.

Browse all Korean Studies early release articles online here.

Please note: Early release manuscripts have been through our rigorous peer-review process, accepted for publication, and copyedited. These articles will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal. These articles have not yet been through the full production process and therefore may contain errors. These articles will be removed from the early release page once they are published as part of an issue.

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