The Horak debate was a philosophical discussion that originated among Noron
scholars who aspired to refine the logic of Neo-Confucianism. The first round of
this controversy took place in the early eighteenth century, a time in which the
political and philosophical dominance of the Noron faction was widely recognized
throughout the Joseon dynasty. Then, Song Si-yeol’s students, divided
into those who established a presence in the capital city Hanseong and those
who did so in Chungcheong-do province, began to express conflicting opinions
regarding the conclusions of the controversy. The differences between the two
groups mainly stemmed from the issue of correctly interpreting the logic of Neo-
Confucianism, and such differences later caused divisions of several academic
schools and political parties within the Noron faction. The second round of the
Horak debate occurred during King Yeongjo’s reign. From the onset of his
reign, Yeongjo consistently argued that politics and philosophy were two distinct
fields, and such an emphasis contributed to the significant divergence
between the Ho-ron and Nak-ron scholars over the relationship between academia
and politics. This time around, the Ho-ron group and the Nak-ron group
each established its own identity as an academic school and began to criticize
each other in a rather harsh manner in connection with political parties within
the central government. Through the debate, philosophical differences evidently
manifested themselves in the area of political ideology.