Tasan School refers to a group of scholars whose activities contributed toward the formation, succession, and development of Tasan Studies. Most of these scholars learned from Tasan Tasan Cheong Yagyong and were directly and indirectly related to him. Enormous volumes of Tasan’s writings amounting to 500 books were mostly written or drafted during his 18 years of exile in Gangjin; Tasan’s writings could be accomplished with decisive assistance from his disciples. This type of reciprocal study-writing process led to the formation of the foundation for Tasan Studies.
From the viewpoint of the history of Korean scholarship, scholastic activities between the teacher and his disciples in Gangjin hold several significant meanings: First, the foremost connotation is that Tasan Studies formed as a great achievement of silhak (practical learning) from the result of these activities. Second, Tasan Studies was upheld and developed after Tasan’s demise through his disciples’ own writings that took after the teaching of Tasan. Therefore, Tasan and his disciples formed a kind of “school” in which their scholastic tendencies that were not limited to the small region of Gangjin and not merely through personal relationships were shared. At that time, Yeonam Bak Ji-won and his coteries were active in Seoul and focused on the learning of practicality and commonwealth, which is another stream of silhak. They deserve to be called “the Yeonam Group” in Seoul, and so do Tasan and his disciples deserve to be called “the Tasan School” in the southern seaside of Gangjin.
Keywords: silhak (practical learning), Tasan Studies, Yeonam Group