Relations as the aim of education in Joseon neo-Confucianism: The case of the Five Relationships

Abstract

This article attempts to explain through the lens of the Five Relationships the meaning of Joseon neo-Confucian view which emphasized relationship development as the aim and contents of education. In neo-Confucianism, education is the task of guiding learners in cultivating and unfolding capabilities in the relationships of everyday life. Within the context of neo-Confucianism, the development of competency in relationships was another expression of the educational goal of actualizing the ‘original nature’ including of the four virtues. Understanding the nature of education to be the embodiment of the original nature, neo-Confucian scholars sought its actual manifestation in everyday life, taking the practice of five particular relationships to be the core method. Encompassing both ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ while progressing from the Elementary Learning into the Great Learning, neo-Confucian education characteristically takes the Five Relationships as both its foundation and its outcome. Despite the pre-modern limitations involved in the history of the practice of the Five Relationships, this neo-Confucian view of education prompts us to consider plainly the meaning of relationship development as the core contents and aim of education. Furthermore, this view affords prospects especially valuable for critically supplementing upon the discussion of a ‘pedagogy of relation’ introduced in academic circles in the West.