[ARI Working Paper Seires No. 16]



Political Order to Socio-Moral Equilibrium: 

Zhu Xi's Interpretation of ‘Ping Tianxia 平天下’ 



by Junghwa Lee

(Research Professor, Asiatic Research Institute)

Notes on Contributor

Junghwan Lee is HK research professor, Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University. He earned B.A.

and M.A. at the department of Aesthetics, Seoul National University. 2008, he received Ph.D. at the

department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, with the doctoral dissertation,

entitled, “A Groundwork for Normative Unity: Zhu Xi’s (1130-1200) Reformation of the ‘Learning of

the Way’ Tradition.” His research interests are Confucian philosophy, Chinese intellectual history, and

East Asian Aesthetics.

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Abstract

The primary objective of my work is to investigate an enigmatic belief underlying the Mencian tradition that individual moral actions in the narrow boundary of one’s own family as the sufficient, not merely necessary, condition to achieve worldly peace. Particularly, in order to provide a fresh light on this question, I have explored Zhu Xi’s interpretation of “Ping Tianxia” in the Great Learning, which corresponds to the first in-depth explication of this Mencian belief. Through this investigation, I have reached the conclusion that Zhu extended the reciprocal moral responsibilities among individuals to form the infinite extension of this relationship, which resembles a jungle gym structure. This structure efficiently envisions the role of each and every individual in sustaining the stability of the entire structure, and ultimately sheds a fresh light on the connection between individual morality and the “worldly peace.”