Chŏng Yagyong (; 1762 – 1836) was a Korean agronomist, philosopher, and poet. He is also known by his art name Tasan (). He was one of the greatest thinkers in the later Joseon period, wrote highly influential books about philosophy, science and theories of government, held significant administrative positions, and was noted as a poet. He was a close confidant of King Jeongjo and his philosophical position is often identified with the Silhak school, and his concerns are better seen as explorations of neo-Confucian themes.
Chŏng was born in Namyangju (then Gwangju), Gyeonggi Province, where he also died. He spent 18 years in exile in Gangjin County, South Jeolla Province, from 1801 until 1818, on account of his membership of the Southerners faction, and also because of his and his older brother's Catholic faith. Chŏng and his brother Yakchŏn were baptized and became Catholics in 1874, with Chŏng taking the Christian name of John.
Chŏng Yagyong came from the Naju Chŏng clan. At birth he was given the childhood name, Kwinong (歸農), and later he was also known by the courtesy names Miyong (美鏞) and Songbu (頌甫)美庸); among his art names were Saam (俟菴), T'agong (籜翁), T'aesu (苔叟), Chahadoin (紫霞道人), Ch'ŏlmasanin (鐵馬山人), Tasan (茶山), Yŏyudang (與猶堂, the name of his house).
Biography Family history Tasan's father was Chŏng Chaewŏn (, 1730–1792). His eldest brother, Chŏng Yakhyŏn (, 1751–1821), was the son of a first wife, while Chŏng Yakchong, Chŏng Yakchŏn (, 1758–1816), and Chŏng Yagyong were the sons of their father's second wife, Yun So'on (, 1728–1770) from the Haenam Yun family.Wodi Hongjinwhi, A Confucian Autobiography of Tasan Chŏng Yagyong, p. 6 There was one daughter from this second marriage.
Tasan's father's family traced their descent back to Chŏng Chagŭp (, 1423–1487) who in 1460 first took a government position under King Sejo. Eight further generations then followed his example. Chŏng Siyun (, 1646–1713) and his second son Chŏng Tobok (, 1666–1720) were the last of the line, since the Southerners' faction to which the family belonged lost power in 1694. Siyun retired to a house in Mahyeon-ri to the east of Seoul (now known as Namyangju) in 1699, which was to be Tasan's birthplace. His eldest son, Chŏng Tot'ae () lived there and was Tasan's direct ancestor. The Southerners remained excluded from official positions until a brief period that began during the reign of King Jeongjo, when Tasan's father was appointed magistrate of Jinju county, thanks to his strong links with the powerful Ch'ae Chegong, who rose until he was appointed third state councillor in 1788. In 1762, the execution of Crown Prince Sado by his father the king shocked Chŏng Chaewŏn that he withdrew from official life and returned to his home in Mahyeon-ri. This explains the childhood name Kwi'nong ("back to farming") his father gave Tasan, who was born in the same year. As a result, Tasan grew up receiving intense intellectual training from his now unoccupied father.Setton, Mark. Chong Yagyong. page 54
The source of Tasan's intellectual interests can be traced to the influence of the great scholar Udam Chŏng Sihan (, 1625–1707) of the same clan, who taught Chŏng Siyun briefly and was then the main teacher of Tasan's ancestor Chŏng Tot'ae as well as his brother Chŏng Toje (1675–1729). One of the most significant thinkers in the next generation was the philosopher-scholar Sŏngho Yi Ik and he saw Udam as the authentic heir of Toegye Yi Hwang. Chŏng Toje transmitted the teachings of Udam to the next generations of the family and so they were passed to Tasan's father and Tasan himself.
Similarly, Tasan's mother was descended from the family of the famous Southerner scholar-poet Kosan Yun Sŏndo (1587–1671). Yun's great-grandson Kongjae Yun Tusŏ (1668–1715), well known for his skills as a painter, was Tasan's maternal great-grandfather. He and his elder brother were close to Yi Ik and his brothers, and are credited with reviving the study of the Six Classics, as well as the thought of Toegye.Setton, Mark. Chong Yagyong. page 55
Early life By the age of 6, Tasan's father was impressed by his powers of observation. By the age of 9, he had composed a small collection of poems. In 1776, Tasan was married to Hong Hwabo of the Pungsan Hong clan, the daughter of a royal secretary; in that year he moved to Seoul, where his father received an appointment in the Board of Taxation after the accession of King Jeongjo. When he was 15, Tasan was introduced to the writings of Yi Ik by one of his descendants, Yi Kahwan (, 1742–1801) and his brother-in-law Yi Seung-hun and he was deeply impressed, resolving to devote his life to similar studies. In 1783, Tasan passed the chinsagwa (literary licentiate examination), which allowed him to enter the Sungkyunkwan.
In 1784 the king was deeply impressed by the "objectivity" of Tasan's replies to a set of questions he had formulated. This was the start of an increasingly close relationship between the king and Tasan. After the promotion of Ch'ae Chegong in 1788, Tasan took top place in the taegwa (higher civil service exam) in 1789 and was offered a position in the Office of Royal Decrees, together with 5 other members of the Southerner faction. This alarmed members of the opposing Old Doctrine faction, who soon realized the extent to which the Southerners were being influenced, not only by the Practical Learning introduced to China from Europe, but by Roman Catholicism itself.
In 1784, Yi Byeok, a scholar who had participated in meetings to study books about the Western (European) Learning, starting in 1777, talked with Tasan about the new religion for the first time and gave him a book about it. Whatever his own response may have been, and there is no proof that he ever received baptism, Tasan's immediate family was deeply involved in the origins of the Korean Catholic community. His older sister was married to Yi Seung-hun, the Korean who was first baptized as a Catholic in Beijing in 1784 and played a leading role in the early years of the Church's growth. The oldest of Chŏng Chaewŏn's sons, Yakhyŏn, was married to a sister of Yi Byeok. Another daughter, from a third marriage, later married Hwang Sayŏng (1775–1801), author of the notorious Silk Letter. Tasan's older brother, Chŏng Yakchong (Augustinus) was the leader of the first Catholic community and one of the first victims of the purge launched against Southerners, but especially against Catholics, in 1801, after the sudden death of King Jeongjo.
In 1789, Yun Chich'ung, one of the first baptized and a cousin to Tasan on his mother's side, had gone to Beijing and received confirmation. Rome had forbidden Catholics to perform ancestral rituals and this was now being strictly applied by the Portuguese Franciscan bishop of Beijing Alexandre de Gouvea. When his mother died in 1791, Yun therefore refused to perform the usual Confucian ceremonies; this became public knowledge, he was accused of impiety and was executed. Some Koreans who had at first been sympathetic, horrified by the Church's rejection of hallowed traditions, turned away. Chŏng Yagyong may well have been among them.Setton, Mark. Chong Yagyong. page 59
Royal service Tasan was particularly interested in civil engineering. In 1792, the king, impressed by a pontoon bridge he had designed, asked him to design and supervise the construction of the walls for the Hwaseong Fortress (modern Suwon), which surrounded the palace where the king would live when he visited the new tomb he had constructed for his father. Tasan produced radically new techniques and structures, drawing on European, Chinese and Japanese sources. In 1794, after several promotions, the king appointed him as secret envoy to Gyeonggi province, investigating reports of corruption.
Tasan's most important task in 1795, the 60th anniversary of the birth of Crown Prince Sado, was to help the king decide on a new honorary title for his father. This was a fraught enterprise, the Prince's supporters were members of what was called the Expediency subfaction while his main enemies were members of the Principle subfaction. The Southerners were strong supporters of the king's wish to honor Sado highly and the king was more than grateful. However, he then found it prudent to send Tasan away from court for a time, appointing him to be superintendent of the post station at Geumjeong, South Pyeongan province.
In 1796, he was brought back to Seoul and promoted but his many enemies continued to accuse him of supporting the pro-western Catholics and he preferred to take up a position as county magistrate at Koksan in Hwanghae Province.
In 1799, he even withdrew to his family home but was summoned back to Seoul by the king in 1800.Setton, Mark. Chong Yagyong. page 62
Exile In the summer of 1800, King Jeongjo died suddenly. The new king, King Sunjo, was still only an 11 year old child and power fell into the hands of the widow of King Yeongjo, often known as Queen Dowager Kim or Queen Jeongsun. Her family belonged to the factions opposed to the reformist, often Catholic, Namin group and she had been powerless during Jeongjo's reign. She launched an attack on the Catholics, who were denounced as traitors and enemies of the state. Chŏng Yakchong, the older brother of Chŏng Yagyong, was the head of the Catholic community, and was one of the first to be arrested and executed, together with Yi Seung-hun, in the spring of 1801. His eldest son, Chŏng Ch'ŏlsang (), was executed a month later.
As Chŏng Yakchong's younger brother, Chŏng Yagyong was exiled for some months in Janggi fortress in what is now Pohang. However the Silk Letter Incident of 1801 ensured his further exile: , married to one of Tasan's younger sisters, had written a letter to the bishop of Beijing, giving a detailed account of the persecutions, and asking him to bring pressure on the Korean authorities by asking for Western nations to send warships and troops to overthrow the Joseon government so that Korea would be subject to China, where Catholicism was permitted. The carrier of this letter (written on a roll of silk wrapped round his body) was caught and its contents ensured the continuing persecution of Catholics.
The persecution intensified and Chŏng Yagyong and his younger brother, Chŏng Yakjŏn were exiled, parting ways at Naju, from where Chŏng Yakchŏn journeyed on to the island of Heuksando, Yagyong taking the road to Gangjin where he spent eighteen years in exile. His exile began in the last days of 1801, on December 28. On that day, he arrived in Gangjin, South Jeolla Province. The newly arrived exile had little or no money and no friends, he found shelter in the back room of a poor, rundown tavern kept by a widow, outside the East Gate of the walled township of Gangjin, and there he lived until 1805. He called his room "Sauijae" (room of four obligations: clear thinking, serious appearance, quiet talking, sincere actions).
By 1805 Dowager Queen Kim had died and the young king had come of age and had put an end to the violence against Catholics. Three hundred had been killed and many of the rest were exiled or scattered, or had stopped practising. Chŏng Yagyong was free to move about the Gangjin area and in the spring of 1805 he walked up the hill as far as Baengnyeonsa, where he met the Venerable Hyejang, the newly arrived monk in charge of the temple, who was about ten years younger than himself. They talked and it seems that Hyejang only realized who his visitor was as he was leaving. That night he forced him to stay with him and asked to learn the I Ching from him. They quickly became close companions.