Hangang School’s Research Status, Achievements and Tasks

Hangang Jeong Gu can be considered a representative Yeongnam regions’s scholar of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He was a scholar who followed in the footsteps of both Emperor Lee Hwang and Jo Sik, and developed his studies especially in the fields of psychology and art. He was a scholar who inherited from the scholastic mantle of Lee Hwang and Jo Sik, and developed his own scholarship, especially focusing on study of mind and study of ritual. He was active mainly in the Yeongnam region centered on Seongju and Daegu. The Yeongnam region was located on the road to the Japanese invasion during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592 and directly suffered the damage. For this reason, after the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, those who led the righteous army activities in the Yeongnam region led the academic world, and among them, there were many figures of the Hangang School, including Jeong Gu. Studies on Jeong Gu have been accumulated for about 40 years, starting in 1985, and are being studied in various fields such as literature, history, and philosophy. And as the research on Jeong Gu progressed, the Hangang School, which inherited the academic flow of Jeong Gu, was gradually studied. In this paper, research on the Hangang School is largely divided into four categories: the external appearance and status of the Hangang School, the aspect of academic transmission of Jeong Gu, the growth and expansion of the Hangang School, and the social practice of the Hangang School. First of all, the denotation and status of the Hangang School were examined through Hoiyeongeupmunjehyeonrok and Bongsanyokhangrok. Hoiyeongeupmunjehyeonrok is Jeong Gu’s literary record, which examines the overall scale and extension of the Hangang School, and through Bongsanyokhangrok, Jeong Gu’s academic influence at the time, as well as the bonds and solidarity within the school can be confirmed. And the aspect of Jeong Gu’s academic transmission was examined through Hangangeonhaeongrok, a collection of Jeong Gu’s words and actions. Through this, it is possible to confirm Jeong Gu’s academic thoughts passed down to the Hangang School. In addition, the growth and expansion of the Hangang School can be confirmed through the process in which a large number of second-generation and third-generation Confucian scholars in the Daegu region who were active at the time were absorbed into the Hangang School as Jeong Gu moved his lecture center from Seongju to Daegu and Chilgok. In addition, as one of the aspects of social practice of the Hangang School, it can be confirmed through the development of righteous armies activities during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. Lastly, it contains contents about some tasks in the study of the Hangang School in the future.