18th-century Korean philosopher Im Yunjidang was the first Confucian to argue for women’s equality in matters of morality and to claim that women, just like men, can be sages. She also argued that it isn't just what you do that matters morally—it's also how you decide. So what does it mean to be a sage and how does someone become one? How did Im Yunjidang use traditional Confucian texts to argue for women's spiritual equality? And what did she think was important when it comes to making difficult moral choices? Josh and Ray explore her life and thought with Hwa Yeong Wang from Duke Kunshan University, editor of Korean Women Philosophers and the Ideal of a Female Sage: The Essential of Writings of Im Yungjidang and Gang Jeongildang.
Part of our series Wise Women, supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Josh and Ray discuss what it means to be a sage in a patriarchal society, in light the ideas of Im Yunjidang who argued for the claim that women, just like men, can be sages. Ray mentions that Im thought that that all beings have the same nature and can achieve on their own spiritual salvation. Josh wonders if anyone really can become a sage, thinking of bandits and thieves. But Ray thinks that they are on they of becoming and that they share the same human foundation as everyone else, anchored not only in actions but in character. But Josh remains unconvinced and doesn’t think it’s only a matter of purity of the heart.
The hosts are joined by Hwa Yeong Wang, Professor of Philosophy in Duke Kunshan University China. Ray asks Wang about the circumstances that allowed Im Yunjidang to be received as a female thinker in the 18th century Korea. Wang responds part of it was the achievements of previous women. Josh points out that part of it was also thanks to his brother in whose library she read the Confucian classics. Ray brings up the Neo-Confucian debate about the four beginnings and seven emotions. For Wang this is about human emotions and their moral status.
In the next segment Wang further explores how Im Yunjidang’s is anchored in the Confucian canons, where it is considered that everyone can be a sage, even I in fact women were excluded. For Josh is interesting that she makes such a move from tradition, reading the same texts other men are reading. Ray wonders if non-human animals or other organisms can also be sages. Wang explains that this is one hot topic in Korean Neo-Confucianism, it includes metaphysical disputes about the nature of human being and nonhumans. Wang also explains that Im Yunjidang's case is one of a life in a robust patriarchal society following tradition blindly, and her actions are truly revolutionary in that context. They conclude with an exchange about the so-called near completion theory (everybody is the same in some ways, and different in other ways), and the practical ways in which a person does become a sage (and for example how Im Yunjidang inspired another philosopher, Gang Jeongildang).
In the last segment, Josh and Ray discuss with Wang Sartre’s story about of a student who asked him for advice when he was torn between going to war, his civic duty, and abandoning his mother, and thus failing to fulfill familial duties, in contrast to the way Im Yungjidang dealt with a very similar story. The show ends with an assessment of the Im Yungjidang’s achievements and legacy.
Roving Philosophical Reporter (seek to 5:55) → Holly J. McDede interviews Heisook Kim, a philosophy professor at Ewha Women's University in South Korea, one of the largest women's universities in the world to discuss the Neo-Confucian legacy of Im Yunjidang and contemporary issues of feminism in South Korea.
Sixty-Second Philosopher (seek to 45:34) → Ian Shoales wonders about the fate of women in a society that has adopted Confucianism with its strict rules and social norms, but also highlights how in the case of Im Yunjidang culture and knowledge helped to change her situation and the history of philosophy in Korea.
Josh Landy
