BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//ceres.rub.de//events//
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-TIMEZONE:UTC
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Between Dialogue\, Polemic and Apologetic: Modes of Inter-Religiou
 s Contact in Pre-Modern Korea seen in the Regional Context of Far East Asi
 a
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20110414
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20110416
DTSTAMP:20260615T114434Z
UID:Dialog-Polemik-Apologeti-en-51@ceres.rub.de
CATEGORIES:
DESCRIPTION:Flyer Poster\nInter-religious contacts between Buddhists and C
 onfucians during the Chosŏn period shouldn’t be reduced to Buddhism in 
 an environment dominated by Neo-Confucian thought\, but also research in a
  wide range of interaction modes – revealed through religious\, historic
 al and literary sources.\nCase studies contrast theses interaction modes a
 nd identify trends in their historical development\, in order to develop b
 uilding blocks of a more abstract typology of religious contacts.\nWorksho
 p: "Between Dialogue\, Polemic and Apologetic: Modes of Inter-Religious Co
 ntact in Pre-Modern Korea Seen in the Regional Context of Far East Asia"\n
 From: 16:00h Thursday\, April 14th To: 16:00h Friday\, April 15th 2011\nTh
 e presentations dealt\, according to the topic of the conference\, with di
 fferent aspects of interreligious contact on the Korean peninsula. Through
  the introduction of a wide range of sources\, different modes of contact 
 were examined.\nHenrik Hjort Sørensen (Copenhagen/Bochum) took up the nar
 rative of a Buddhist decline in Koryŏ times (918-1392)\, which has been w
 idely spread in modern research. He discussed previously assumed reasons f
 or and symptoms of such a decline\, eventually to refute the very idea of 
 such a decline. The sources\, in the form of petitions to the throne or po
 lemics\, rather speak for a strengthening of Neo Confucian thought in the 
 political sphere\, whose spokespersons discredit Buddhism for political re
 asons\, often under the circumstances of factional strife. Due to politica
 l conflicts the conduct in contact situations turns rougher also on the le
 vel of religious discourse\, where sympathetic tendencies decline in signi
 ficance and polemical attacks increase. Notably in official history record
 s\, the demarcation along the lines of religious allegiance becomes all th
 e more important.\nChristian Mularzyk (Bochum) analyzed cognitive patterns
  that underlie a special case of doctrinarian hybridity in the Buddhist wr
 itings of Kim Sisŭp (金時習\, 1435-1493). To explain the soteriologica
 l scheme of the five positions of the Caodong school (Caodong wuwei 曹洞
 五位)\, Kim employs the Diagram on the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji tu 太極
 圖) authored by the Neo Confucian thinker Zhou Dunyi (周敦頤\, 1017-10
 73)\, together with the commentary by Zhu Xi (朱熹\, 1130-1200). The pre
 sentation aimed for an explication of reasons for which the combination of
  these texts could seem plausible to Kim Sisûp. The main basis for this p
 lausibility was located in numerical symmetries in the architecture of bot
 h thought systems as they were perceived by the author.\nBased on predatin
 g models of heterodoxy in China\, Vladimir Glomb (Prague) spoke on concept
 s of heterodoxy in the context of an emerging Neo Confucian tradition in K
 orea. The central figures in his presentation were T'oegye Yi Hwang (退
 溪李滉\, 1501-1570) and Yulgok Yi I (栗谷李珥\, 1536-1584). Startin
 g point for the enquiry was a passage from the Lunyu 論語\, i.e. the ana
 lects of Confucius\, which figured to become a focal reference point for d
 iscussions on heterodox teachings (yi duan / I tan 異端) in Confucianism
  and Neo Confucianism. Although according to the standard understanding of
  the passage it is recommended to keep distance to heterodox teachings as 
 a precautionary measure to avoid their attractive traits\,  Confucian orth
 odoxy once and again refers to marked heterodox teachings in processes of 
 self-positioning: In antiquity\, this is the case vis-à-vis the schools o
 f Yang Zhu (楊朱\, 4th century b.c.E) and Mo Di (墨翟\, 5th century b.
 c.E.)\, in the era of the Tang (唐\, 618-907) vis-à-vis Buddhism\, and i
 n the Song (宋\, 960-1279) this attitude is directed against Chan 禪. In
  the special case of Korea\, the marginalized role of Buddhism and the eme
 rgence of the teachings of Wang Yangming (王陽明\, 1472-1529) and Sŏ K
 yŏngdŏk (徐敬德\, 1489-1546) leads to the application of the concept 
 of heterodoxy to inner-Confucian discourse: In this rigid discourse\, Conf
 ucian teachings are evaluated as being either orthodox or heterodox.\nIsab
 elle Sancho (Paris) examined the inner-denominational discourse on heterod
 oxy through the biography of Yulgok Yi I. Although later to be remembered 
 one of the most important figures in the history of Korean Confucianism\, 
 Yulgok in his youth enters a Buddhist monastery – out of grief and after
  after finishing his mourning period for his deceased mother. In this epis
 ode\, however\, falls his Confucian awakening experience\, leading him to 
 return to the worldly sphere\, where he would eventually succeed masterful
 ly in Confucian state examinations and hold a strong Confucian viewpoint w
 henever it came to religious politics. Nonetheless the Buddhist interlude 
 in his youth becomes an issue much discussed in his lifetime and posthumou
 sly. Comparing his biography to those of model thinkers of Neo Confucianis
 m in China (esp. Zhu Xi)\, common traits in them could hint at an idea sim
 ilar to that of a Bildungsroman: Pioneering figures of a tradition need to
  fall into the clutches of heterodox doctrine before they eventually can b
 ecome exemplary thinkers of orthodoxy.\nKim Daeyeol (Paris) also focused h
 is research on the life of a particular person\, in this case that of Tasa
 n Chŏng Yagyong (茶山丁若鏞\, 1762-1836)\, a state official and Conf
 ucian thinker of the late Chosŏn era. Although he is generally portrayed 
 as a devout Confucian\, Tasan shows intellectual openness to ideas of diff
 erent schools of thought or religions. In examining his writings\, the que
 stion was posed\, at what stages of his life concrete influences of Buddhi
 st thought could be observed\, and how this inspiration could take place. 
 The focus was placed on poetic works\, which were ordered in sequence foll
 owing his biography. During active duty as an official (1790-1800) documen
 ts written by Tasan reveal a strong repulsion of Buddhism\, while he at th
 e same time often pays visit to Buddhist monasteries. In the phase of exil
 e (1801-1818) a re-orientation of his attitude towards Buddhism takes plac
 e: Thus\, Tasan perceives the calmness of Buddhist monasteries to be enjoy
 able as a contrast to the busy everyday life of a clerk in an office. In t
 his time\, he develops friendly relationships with monks\, only social obl
 igations hindering him in becoming a fully ordained monk. The key to under
 stand this change of perception lie in Chŏng's new understanding of the r
 elationship between Buddhism and Confucianism: Initially having viewed bot
 h teachings as quite distinct from each other\, he perceives them now to b
 e close to each other. Secondly\, one can observe a spiritual re-orientati
 on after his being exiled a civil servant. In this scenario\, the medium o
 f poems serves to create an aesthetic space for the discussion of Buddhist
  ideas.\nYannick Bruneton (Paris) dedicated his presentation to an inquiry
  into the Tongmun sŏn 東文選\, a late 15th c. normative compilation pr
 oviding a counterpart to the Chinese Wenxuan 文選 by assembling exemplar
 y lyrics and prose literature from the Korean peninsula. After examining t
 he structure of the TMS\, Bruneton scrutinized monastery records and biogr
 aphies of monks contained in the work for Confucian influences. Generally 
 composed by Confucian literati\, the texts often describe Buddhist monks a
 s virtuous in a Confucian sense\, e.g. as loyal (ch'ung 忠). This re-eval
 uation of the virtue of monks\, however\, also has another ring to it: By 
 explicitly praising a small number of monks in this way\, it is implicitly
  said that most monks do not adhere to stately ideals and therefore cannot
  be seen as virtuous. At the same time\, the speaker remarked that many ea
 rly Confucian thinkers had a rather ambivalent position towards Buddhism: 
 Despite all radical polemics\, to entertain friendly interactions with mon
 ks was an everyday affair.\nThe presentations of the workshop exemplified 
 in astonishing manner the complexity of Buddho-Confucian contact during th
 e Koryŏ and the Chosŏn eras. Thus\, a broad range of interactions may be
  observed\, depending both on media and genres as well as the biographies 
 of individual authors\, or even phases thereof. Correspondingly\, the orga
 nizers plan to unite the contributions in a volume honoring the multi-pers
 pective approach of the workshop and the multi-faceted picture emerging fr
 om the contributions.
URL:https://khk.ceres.rub.de/en/events/Dialog-Polemik-Apologeti-en/
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR