Korean Neo-Confucian Perspectives on Laozi and Zhuangzi

This book offers the first complete English study and translations of two landmark Chosŏn commentaries to Daoist classics: Yi I’s Sunŏn (Purified Words) on the Laozi and Han Wŏnjin’s Changja pyŏnhae (Analytic Interpretation of the Zhuangzi). Yi I (1536–1584), one of Chosŏn’s most influential thinkers, defied prevailing Neo-Confucian orthodoxy by treating the Laozi as a sage’s text, reorganizing it into forty sections and demonstrating how Daoist insights harmonize with Confucian ideals of self-cultivation and governance. Han Wŏnjin (1682–1751) interprets the Zhuangzi as heretical and seeks to refute it as he defends the Neo-Confucian worldview. His work represents one of the most rigorous Neo-Confucian engagements with the Zhuangzi in East Asia. By making these works accessible in English for the first time, this book opens critical resources for the study of Daoist–Confucian dialogue, offers fresh perspectives on Korean philosophy and religion, and enriches East Asian intellectual history.