Jeong, Patience, Benevolence in a Confucian Countryside

Today we entered a traditional agricultural village called Yangdong Village. It's unique because it operates in collective way and uses a traditional clan based organization style. It is filled small homes and many of them have the traditional thatched roofs. This particular village has two main families (E family and Son family). The political structure of the village is clan based and operates by reaching group consensus on all issues. Most inhabitants have a deep connection to this village because their family lineage goes back many many generations. We met with the head of the E family this morning. He explained to us about the village and the people. One concept he taught us was the idea of Jeong. This is the idea of heart/affection/caring for others. He describes how it is easy to lose your Jeong with you live a detached or in an alienating urban setting, but here in a collective environment it's easier to focus on this because there are less distractions. We also learned a daily ritual the Son family leader has for his children. Every morning when they wake up they have to copy the chinese character of patience 100 times. This practice would definitely put that concept fresh in your mind every day and perhaps make it easier to be patient. The reason why they are focused on these ideas is because the practice the philosophy of Confucianism. Then we travelled about 15 minutes a little deeper in the hills to Ok San Seo Won. This was a private Confucian academy built in 1572 to honor Yi Eon-jeok (1491-1553) because of his academic achievement and virtue. One of the main Confucian idea studied here was benevolence. Documents show that they studied Mencius Confucious' most prominent disciple. Mencius believed the key element of the human heart is benevolence. He was known for giving advice to the king on this topic, " King, if you practice benevolence, the people will do anything for you. They will stretch their heads out for you." The concepts that the people who lived in these areas practiced are universal themes: Jeong (heart/compassion), Patience, Benevolence. If you can truly practice these concepts, there is no doubt you can find peace.