In this article, the answer pages submitted by a Goryeo applicant Yi Gok and a Chinese applicant named Yi Je, who both successfully passed the Yuan Imperial State examination that was held in 1333, are examined and analyzed in a comparative fashion.
The intention of the question was to demand the applicants to clarify the difference between the titles of “Hwang”, “Je”, “Wang”, and “Pae”, and examine the validity of extant records concerning these concepts, as well as the difference in politics based upon each of one of these concepts, and whether or not these four concepts correlated with the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Yi gok cited the words of 『Mencius』, and argued that Hwang, Je and Wang were different from Pae. He also argued that the differences between the concepts depended upon the question of whether or not one chose to take actions out of his or her original nature, or restored its nature and acted upon it, or borrowed it from within. He then finally argued that the end results between taking the path of either “Wang” or “Pae” would differ and vary by one’s decision to either secure one’s sincerity(道心) or follow one’s instinct(人心),
Chinese Yi Je cited So Wong’s 『Hwang’ geuk Gyeongse-seo』, and documented the meaning of the four concepts, and also presented emperors who could be considered as examples for each of the concepts. Yi Je suggested a method of training the mind(心法) which according to him was from the legendary ancient Chinese emperors such as Yo, Sun, Wu, Tang and Mun-wang. He also argued that everything depended upon the will of the king or emperor, and demanded that everyone should try to study the concept of Gyeong(敬), which was essentially ‘respect’.
In their answers, Yi Gok from Goryeo and Yi Je from the empire both based their arguments upon Confucian classical texts and tried to present an ideal case of governance while also asking the king or emperor to train their minds.
But their arguments also slightly differed in some aspects, as Yi Je attempted to bring a clear distinction to the four concepts based upon So Wong’s 『Hwang’ geuk Gyeongse-seo』, while Yi Gok did not mention this book at all and instead grouped three of the four concepts as mentioned above and argued their general difference from the last one(‘Pae’). In the meantime, the objective of the state examination question was to ask the applicants to come forward with requirements for an ideal king who could lead everyone to a universally Confucian society.