earticle

영어

There is no universally accepted time for the birth of Joseon Neo-Confucianism; it is contested so this needs analysis. I look at the discourse of the legitimate heirs and enshrinement (文廟配享論議) which, I argue, is the true birth of Joseon Neo-Confucianism. I do this by analyzing the final enshrined five Joseon Neo-Confucian literati to verify when Joseon Neo-Confucianism was ready to be a dominant ideology in the Joseon dynasty. The reason why I chose these five enshrined figures is because the first three literati showed the power shift from the previous political power group, the meritorious courtiers to the Neo-Confucian literati, and the other two figures produced extremely influential, original, mature independent Joseon Neo-Confucianism. I also investigate the merit awarding system to compare the old standards of the non Neo-Confucian power group with the new standards of the Neo-Confucian literati to account for the change. I analyze the discourse of legitimacy heirs and enshrinement, which shows how Neo-Confucian literati took political power.