Embodied Universe: World in the Body, Body in the World
Authors: Choi Jae-mok 
Published: July 2024

In this paper, we address the issue of the embodied universe within the concepts of the world in the body and the body in the world. I attempted to explore the problem of a set of houses by crossing through the thoughts of Eastern philosophers. To summarize what was discussed above, it is as follows: First, in <The Status of ‘Humans’ in the Universe>, the mechanism of the unity of the macrocosm and the microcosm was revealed. In particular, through Zhu Dunyi's Taegeukdo, he revealed that all human beings are so-called 'existences within the universe' located in the ultimate principle of the universe, and discussed the meaning of the 13 circles worth noting in Taegeukdo. In other words, we were able to see that each of these circles is one great universe, and that this is contained in all human beings. However, if there are no humans, there is no way to realize the value of heaven and earth. And we examined the character ‘Jik’ as a character that can provide key clues to the ancient unity of heaven and man. Here, it was discussed that the spirit of heaven and earth is contained in the human body. Second, in <Two perspectives on the reduction of the body to the universe: natural burial and burial>, the meaning of the natural burial and burial was first explained. Man's place in heaven and earth can be approached from two perspectives: nature and civilization. First of all, the position of nature was Taoism, which is a case of absorbing humans into nature. Here, we choose a natural place without any formalities. Next, the position of civilization was Confucianism, seeks to reinterpret nature within humans. In this case, burial through a funeral ceremony is Confucianism. There is a text that proves the natural burial. These are the letters ‘Jang(葬)’ and ‘Jo(弔)’. These two letters are a kind of time capsule that contains the information of the natural burial. Through the two letters and several texts, it was possible to see that the natural burial gradually changed into a Confucian burial. In any case, it was discussed that the reduction of the body to the universe was interpreted from the perspective of nature, and the burial from the perspective of civilization as etiquette. Third, in <Learning about communication between the space environment and the body>, we first looked at examples of life communication between the universe and the body. The communion of life in which humans live as one with all things is to experience the so-called ‘love in which all things become one.’ Chinese Neo-Confucianists were able to find records of people trying to directly experience the response between the universe and the body. It was observed that during the Joseon Dynasty, the principles of how the universe and the body respond were taught through various books during childhood. In general, it was found that childhood texts usually start from heaven and earth and return to humans. This effort to understand heaven, earth, and the universe by drawing them into the body was clearly revealed in Jang Jae's Seomyong. The idea is that heaven and earth are our parents and the world is our compatriot. Lee Hwang also accepts this. During Ming Dynasty, Wang-gan showed that the relationship between the environment and the body was becoming more subjective and passionate. However, when it comes to empathizing with the world, humans and all things have a ‘membrane’. This can be said to be two empathy devices, ‘closed’ or ‘open’. Here, we were able to see the metaphor of ‘open-response’ in Wang Sooin and the metaphor of ‘closed-response’ in Lee Hwang. The latter was able to observe similarities with the Western Jonah complex.