Jeong Dojeon - Definition and Overview

Jeong Dojeon (1342-1398), also known by the pen name Sambong (三峰) was a medieval Korean scholar and politician. He was an influential Neo-Confucian ideologue and served as a close advisor to Yi Seonggye, the founder of the Joseon dynasty. Jeong Dojeon was a major opponent of Buddhism at the end of the Goryeo period. He was a student of Zhuxi thought, and, using Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucian philosophy the basis of his anti-Buddhist polemic, he criticized Buddhism in a number of treatises as being corrupt in its practices, and nihilistic and antinomian in its doctrines. The most famous of these treatises was the Bulssi japbyeon ("Array of Critiques Against Buddhism" ). He was one of the founding members of the Seongyunggwan Confucian academy and one of its early faculty members.