Notes

1. 1Jeong Do-jeon (鄭道傳, 1342–1398), pen name Sambong (三峰). A Neo-Confucian scholar-official and the principal architect of the Joseon dynasty's founding in 1392. He designed the new state's political and legal framework in works such as Joseon Gyeonggukjeon, championed minbon (民本) — the doctrine that the people are the root of the state — and argued for governance led by capable ministers rather than by the monarch alone. He was killed in 1398 by Yi Bang-won (later King Taejong) during the First Strife of Princes.
2. 2Tajagongheon (他者貢獻), "contribution to others." The idea that meaning and happiness are found in contributing to other people and the community rather than in self-interest. In Adlerian psychology it is one of the three pillars of community feeling, alongside self-acceptance and trust in others, and was popularized by the book The Courage to Be Disliked.
3. 3Jeong Mong-ju (鄭夢周, 1337–1392), pen name Poeun (圃隱). A leading Neo-Confucian scholar of late Goryeo, revered as the founder of Korean Neo-Confucian learning. A fellow student and close friend of Jeong Do-jeon under the scholar Yi Saek, he ultimately chose to remain loyal to the Goryeo dynasty and opposed the establishment of a new one. He was assassinated at Seonjuk Bridge in Gaeseong in 1392, and his poem Dansimga ("Song of the Loyal Heart") remains an enduring symbol of unwavering fidelity.
4. 4Sugi-anin (修己安人), "cultivate oneself to bring peace to others." The phrase comes from the Analects of Confucius (Book 14, Xian Wen), where Confucius tells his disciple Zilu that the exemplary person "cultivates himself so as to bring peace to others" (修己以安人). It is a core Confucian teaching that self-cultivation is the path to the well-being of others and of the world.