Yi T’oegye and the Ten Diagrams of Sage Learning by Wan Li 134 x 165 cm, Oil on Canvas, 2021

       李退溪（1501—1570年），名滉，人称“海东朱子”的朝鲜李朝大儒，其肖像印在了1000韩元上。退溪发展了朱熹哲学、创退溪学派，在韩国儒学思想史上产生了持久而深远的影响。1561年建其教授儒学和研修学问之处的陶山书堂，并以朱子诗句為自己的住处和书房命名，留下《陶山十二曲》和《陶山记》等诗文。1575年陶山书堂扩建后获朝鲜宣祖赐“陶山书院”匾额。该书院1960年被指定为第170号史迹。 

       画面展现了退溪在郁郁葱葱的松树林围绕着的优美宁静的陶山书院前，手握着其体认圣学大端、心法至要的《圣学十图》，面向波光粼粼的安东湖思索的情景。看到画面书院前布满草地的小径，可以想象书院建成后，前来求学和研讨的人络绎不绝。《圣学十图》等著述构建了具有独特创新性的哲学学术思维的逻辑体系，使孔孟程朱之道焕然复明于世，其哲学思想与朝鲜传统文化、社会实践相结合，成为化解现实社会冲突危机的时代精华。

   Yi T’oegye (1501–1570), pen name of Yi Hwang, was a great Korean Confucian scholar known as “the Master Zhu Xi in Korea”. His portrait was printed on 1000-won note. T’oegye founded the school of T’oegye’s Philosophy by further developing Zhu Xi’s Philosophy, which has exerted lasting and far-reaching influence in the history of Korean Confucian thought. In 1561, he established Dosan Confucian Academy, where he offered instruction in the Confucian classics and concentrated on his academic studies. He named his residence and study after Zhu Xi’s poems. T’oegye completed poetry collections of Twelve Songs of Dosan and Dosan Records there. In 1575, Dosan Confucian Academy was bestow upon a plaque with the characters of “Dosan Confucian Academy” on it by King Seonjo after its extension. This academy was designated as Historic Site No. 170 in 1960.  

   In this painting, T’oegye is holding the Ten Diagrams of Sage Learning, a book he deemed as an important part of sage learning and the essence of methods, in front of the beautiful and tranquil Dosan Confucian Academy surrounded by lush pine trees, and pondering facing the shimmering Lake Andong. Seeing the grass-covered paths in front of the Academy, one can imagine the constant stream of people who came here to study and enquire into knowledge after the academy was built. His writings, including the Ten Diagrams of Sage Learning, constituted a unique and innovative logical system of philosophical and academic thinking, which had revived the Way of Confucius and Mencius, and Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and his philosophical ideas had combined with traditional Korean culture and social practices to become the essence of the times in resolving realistic social conflicts and crises.

“文化互译，沟通世界”