Entering_ Dasan's words that rebuild life, Dasan's life

Part 1: The moment when lightning strikes a flower-like life: On suffering

My First Official Pledge: Integrity is a Power
A sudden realization that came to me while I was on a roll
If you can't be faithful in small things, you can't handle big things.
Unchanging loyalty keeps people alive.
A life of slander, is this my destiny?
I became a name that could not be revealed to the world
The heart of leaving for exile

Part 2: Approaching the Essence of Life - The Power of Reflection

The biggest thing I have to protect is myself.
Even if you run after the rainbow, it just keeps getting farther away
Lightning does not discriminate between trees, and disaster does not discriminate between good and evil.
Why We Are Drawn to Simplicity Over Glamour
They say that if you draw the mountains and rivers of your hometown, your illness will be cured.
He who mourns the loss of power and money is like a child who cries over the loss of a chestnut.
Keep Away from Those Who Forsake Grace - Letter to the First Son
Don't Keep Secrets - A Letter to My Second Son
How to maintain friendships with people who have different perspectives
The best way to repay a favor

Part 3: How to Age - True Freedom

What more could you ask for?
The meaning of studying in old age
How is a moral human being possible?
The pride and hope of an old father
I am a cheerful scholar even in old age.
Even if I leave, you guys are here
I need a friend who provides intellectual stimulation.
How to end your life
Recording your life at the end of your life

Part 4: What Will We Leave Behind? - Devotion and Gratitude

A dead child is twice as valuable as a living child.
The day I visited my daughter-in-law's grave
Memories of my sister-in-law who was like a mother to me
Remembering another mother's dedication
The four virtues that Dasan sought to uphold throughout his life
Moderation without crossing boundaries
Enlightenment comes from right words.

At the age of forty, Dasan was driven from a promising official to exile overnight.
How could he have written 500 books during 18 years of exile?

Even in the midst of despair, he never lost his way.
Where does inner strength come from?

Dasan, a thinker of the late Joseon Dynasty, is a figure who stands at the pinnacle of Korean intellectual history.
He was an outstanding politician and thinker of his time, a reformer who perfected Silhak, and an administrator for the people.
As soon as the young Dasan entered the official ranks, he received the favor of King Jeongjo and rose through the ranks.
As a key practitioner of the reformist politics promoted by King Jeongjo, he reorganized Joseon's institutions and presented a new vision for national governance.
Young Dasan did not hesitate and moved forward.
But the glorious days did not last long.
As Jeongjo and Dasan's reformist politics progressed, attacks from vested interests also intensified.
Unfortunately, Jeongjo dies suddenly.
At the same time, the reforms promoted by Jeongjo and Dasan were frustrated, and Dasan became a victim of factional strife and was exiled.


At the age of forty, Dasan loses everything.
No official position, no honor, no academic foundation.
On the path of life that was filled with only flowers, a storm like lightning struck.
After falling into the abyss overnight, he was unjustly exiled for 18 years.
《Reading Dasan in his Forties》 begins with a scene where Dasan, who was on the road to success, suddenly falls into the midst of despair.
The author does not view this great figure simply from the perspective of a great scholar.
We reread the life of Dasan, a man who endured frustration and failure and developed his own thoughts, through today's perspective.


The author confesses that he met Dasan again during a difficult time in his life around the age of forty.
As a researcher who has been studying Dasan's thought for a long time, I was very familiar with Dasan's life, scholarship, and thought.
However, it is said that Dasan's 'life' began to catch on only when he was faced with the fundamental question of life, 'How should I live?'
From then on, the author began to read Dasan's writings again.
“Dasan, whom we met again like that, spoke to me without saying a word.
About how to endure hardships that suddenly come, how to live as a dignified adult, and about living a solid life without losing myself.


He never taught anywhere that 'this is how you should live'.
However, he left behind his entire life as a testimony.
That testimony woke me up.
After that, I met Dasan every day.
“His sentences have become a light that illuminates the darkness within me.”_From “Introduction”

This book is a record of the author's conversation with Dasan about existential questions.
The author vividly conveys the situation and state of mind of the time through writings by Dasan himself.
In addition to his extensive writings, Dasan left behind numerous writings, including poetry, prose, letters, and epitaphs.
Among the numerous writings left behind by Dasan, the author selects and presents those that shine with insight and wisdom and that have long remained in the author's heart.
Thanks to this, readers experience as if they are having a deep conversation with Dasan while reading the book.
The inner self of Jeong Yak-yong, a man who protected himself in the midst of despair, comes across as if in a tangible form.
When he practiced good deeds but was met with slander, and when he was consumed by anger and regret in exile, Dasan wrote honestly about his despair.
From his return from exile to his hometown and the feeling of standing by the river where he used to play as a child, to his cheerful attitude of willingly accepting the loss of teeth and thinning hair as he grows older, readers are able to delve deep into Dasan's inner self and empathize with and find comfort.


For readers who are shaken by failure, anxiety, and relationship problems
The positivity toward life that Dasan demonstrated through his life

During his 18 years of exile, Dasan wrote 500 books, taught his disciples, farmed, and reestablished scholarship.
Surprisingly, it was precisely during this period of despair that Dasan's thinking deepened and his philosophy was perfected.
He experienced the reality of the people from the lowest point of life, and realized that scholarship should go beyond mere speculation and be for reality.
『Gyeongse Yuhyo』, 『Mokmin Simseo』, and 『Heumheum Sinseo』, which were born in this way, were a ‘blueprint for social reform in Joseon’ that designed a new law to govern the people and social order.
His Silhak was not an abstract academic discipline, but a concrete wisdom that addressed life's problems, a philosophy of daily life.


To us today, Dasan is still a living thinker and teacher of life.
He fell from the center of power to the abyss in an instant, but he never fell.
Even in the bleak reality of not knowing when his exile would be lifted, he silently walked the path he had to take.
The author notes the deep and quiet positivity that Dasan attains after losing everything.
In a letter to his son, Dasan describes his attitude toward life as follows: “You must have seen that I never neglected a single thing when I repaired the pond, built the pavilion, and tended the fields and vegetable gardens at Dasan Chodang.
It wasn't something I did with the hope that it would become my property.
It wasn't something I wanted to leave as a legacy to my descendants.
However, that work brought joy to my heart, and a life of faithful response was my duty.” In this way, Dasan’s positivity toward life was the support that kept him from being shaken by any ordeal.
If you want to rebuild your life now, "Reading Dasan in Your Forties" will be the most valuable life lesson.