Korea has a long history in the sphere of politics. Koreans have developed and cultivated their own perspectives of politics. According to Samgukyusa, the history book of recording the history of Korea from the prehistory to the three kingdoms around AD, Koreans set up a political ideal of “helping human beings to become humane and to understand, and care for others”, called “Hongik Ingwan”, at the time of The Old Chosun period. In this vein, it is revealed that Koreans has thought of politics as helping people to be humane. In spite of this valuable tradition, they have frequently borrowed the ideals of politics from overseas countries and cultures since the Three Kingdoms. For example, Chosun dynasty adopted Chinese Neo-Confucianism, and the modern Korean government has adopted and used the concepts from that of the West. Accordingly, from the Three Kingdoms, Korean scholars and politicians has played their roles by combining their traditions of politics and the overseas thoughts of politics. This paper attempts to analyze and explain the thoughts of politics embedded in Koreans. In order to conduct this, I shall inquire and discuss some fundamental concepts such as politics, identity, control, governing, nations, people, political parties, human beings, and humaneness in terms of meta concepts of equality and universality. From this research, it is identified that Koreans believe that politics is believed to rightly govern and keep them in order. They also believe that political leaders or government officials should care for them equally and universally, which enables them to live with good and cooperative relationships. Based on this thought, Korean leaders has ruled, controlled, administrated and led their people.

Leisure time is rapidly increasing because of the automation of production and the increase of the average life span. Therefore, ‘how to use leisure time’ becomes very important in life and civilization. But the alienation of leisure is very serious in real world. In modern society, the leisure time is used as the waste of life, and it is used negatively and destructively. The purpose of this paper is to search the ways to use leisure time creatively based on East Asian Thoughts, that is ‘to use leisure time with love’. The leisure life of modern people is alienated. The main cause of alienation is the modern view of human being. A human being is considered as a separated ego in modern view of human being. The leisure life of modern people is to pursue pleasure or to increase the value of the separated ego. The former is the leisure life as the waste of life, the latter is the leisure life that makes the destructive effects on himself and the world. If we can not free ourselves from the separated ego, we can not avoid the alienation of leisure in modern society. East Asian thoughts can provide a new basis for the creative use of leisure time. This is to view human being as a universal being. The meaning of the creative use of leisure time from the new view is clear. It can be analyzed in two ways. One is to use leisure time to build the ability of love. It means to use leisure time as practicing. The other is to use leisure time to enjoy loving. In this paper, the meaning of creative use of leisure time is reviewed in specific ways. The first way is to use leisure time in order to build the ability to love oneself. The second way is to use leisure time to build the ability to love another. The third way is to use leisure time to enjoy loving. The implication of the creative use of leisure time is important. The current mankind is living in the period of great transition of civilization from modern era to post-modern era. The fact that the current mankind clings to modern era accelerates the crisis of civilization. The current time needs the new vision of life and civilization urgently. That is the same in the area of leisure. The discussion on the creative use of leisure time in this paper can contribute to the progress of life and civilization.

Under the assumptions that the encounter between Buddhism and Marxism is inevitable in an age of civilizational amalgamization in the 21st century, this paper explores the necessary conditions of such encounter. Here’s the quick summary of the paper: both Buddhism and Marxism has strived for a society without class discrimination. The difference lies in means and methods to achieve such ideal. As predicted, we’ve discovered that the differences in required conditions to realize that ideal are quite immense in fact. Namely, Buddhism reaches out to the ideal society through struggle for recognition of ascetic behavior, whereas Marxism aims to achieve the same goal via class struggle of the working class. What then are the necessary conditions of meeting Buddhism and Marxism? First, Buddhist society needs to realize Marx’s view on religion was not radically different from that of Buddhism, in that in Buddhism, one does not rely on one omnipotent god but rather aims at ultimate enlightenment through self-awakening. Secondly, it is very probable, thus worth noting, that humanistic Marxism meets Buddhism which endeavors to reform the society through liberation from mundane, secular human affairs.

Confucianism has been viewed mainly as having had a negative influence on social development since Max Weber’s theory of eastern societies. What role did Confucianism indeed play in the social process of Confucian society especially focusing on the Confucian viewpoint of ‘death’, this thesis intends to explain the religious logic of death and its social effects. Also this paper examines the difference between the cases of Confucianism and Christianity. The positive role of Confucian viewpoint of death is championed by this paper. In particular, ‘Confucian understanding of death’ and ‘human remembrance and some rituals as its religious solution’ were the core and basis for understanding political and economic effects in the Confucian society. Finally, this paper examines the religious significance of death inherent in Confucianism and Christianity and reveals how these became political and economic inducement in the actual historical process.

Every modern person wants to have a happy family. The purpose of this paper is to criticize the modern model of happy family and construct a new model. Modern people do not have any idea about what to pursue and how to make relations, how to deal with the given situation through family. This paper aims to find the answers in I-Ching for these questions. Why should the answer for happy family be found in I-Ching. The answer is clear. I-Ching is not a two thousand year old classic which lost its life force long ago, but a thesaurus of creative wisdom which can provide the post-modern answer. The essence of I-Ching is the logic of shi-chung. Sixty four gwae (trigram) and 384 hyo in I-Ching can be read differently according to the conditions of time and space. Thus, every gwae and hyo can provide creative answers for the questions of pedagogy, sociology and ethics. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a new vision of happy family through the reinterpretation of I-Ching. It is composed of the following three parts. First, the modern view of family is reviewed and the problems of modern family caused by the modern view of family are analyzed. Second, the post-modern view which can overcome the problems of modern family is introduced through the seven specific trigrams in I-Ching. Third, the post-modern implication of happy family through I-Ching is discussed. The final objective of this paper is to provide a new view of family. Family functions in the post-modern society are different from those in the modern society. The goal of family in the post-modern society is to realize the life fill with love. The role of family is to help family members to be a being of love. The new family has the characteristic of practicing community in a sense.

After the well-known questioning and answering of Gongja(孔子) and Gyero(季路), confucianism has been considered as realism which is full of realities, putting off the questions about the death. But contrasted to the general consensus, Juja(朱子) has considered the explanation of death as an important task and tried to explain it with enthusiasm. How then did he explain death? And how did he deal with his death? This writing is to analyze his view about death on the basis of Li(理), Ki(氣), Sung(性), Myong(命), his main concepts, and to re-interpret and modernize his view about death.

I think that it is a most important issue to search the distinct meaning of ‘Tao(道)·Hyun(玄) and Mu(無)·Yu(有)’. At first, we must take an interest in the distinct meanings of Tao(道)·Hyun(玄) and Mu(無). If the meanings are equal, why do they use different words? or if the meanings are different, what are the each different meaning of the words? I will insist that they are different. The existing studied articles had not discussed ‘Issues in judgement of virtue&vice’ distinctly in Laozi’s thought as yet, so Laozi’s thought had been unclear and ambiguous. At my proceeding article, to overcome this problem, I disclosed a latent disease at ‘Issues in judgement of virtue&vice’ in Laozi’s thought, and laid the groundwork for approaching new interpretation of Laozi’s thought with the three new viewpoints naming ‘Tao of Nature(天地之道)·Tao of Saint(聖人之道)·Tao of Government(治世之道)’. And I devised an idea which drew ‘two figures’ showing Tao of Nature(天地之道) and Tao of Saint (聖人之道) & Tao of Government(治世之道); < figure, Tao of Nature > and < figure, Tao of Saint & the Tao of Government >. I will study distinctly the various concepts in Laozi’s thought(Heyn玄·Il一·Mu無·Yu有……etc) relying upon < figure, Tao of Nature > and < figure, Tao of Saint & Tao of Government >. But proceeding to these studies, We need the criterion to make clear distinction the complicated concepts in Laozi’s thought. It is selected Meo(妙 Sourcing) and Keo(徼 Accomplishing) & Saeng(生 Life) and Sa(死 Death). I studied concretely and minutely ‘four basic concepts’ at just proceeding article. At this article, I unfold a new interpretation for Laozi’s thought by < figure, Tao of Nature >, show concretely and minutely the concepts of Hyun(玄) GokSin(谷神) HyunBin(玄牝)·Il(一) Mi(微) Sang(象)·Mu(無) Yu(有) Si(始) Zong(終). At following next article, I unfold a new interpretation for Laozi’s thought by < figure, Tao of Saint & Tao of Government >, will show concretely and minutely the concepts of Tao of Saint & Tao of Government.

Zhuangzi(莊子)’s viewpoint of happiness and leisure is established on the basis of ‘inactivity(無爲) is lack of non-activity(無不爲)’. Inactivity(無爲) is a special way of behavior and process of movement, and its purpose is to help lack of non-activity(無不爲) of people and things. Inactivity(無爲) must be possible to abandon all attachment, and should be the one with all things. As a result, we got the mental pleasure combined with nature escaped from agony. Inactivity(無爲) is a creative activity that cannot stop it, it makes the harmony within people, the harmony of human and nature, coexistence and co-prosperity of human and the things. Happiness and leisure he pursued is ‘utmost pleasure’(至樂), it is realized in the process of the continuous creation.