Faculty at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU), recently recognized for publishing research of international caliber, have also drawn considerable attention in the field of scholarship by consecutively publishing notable books.

JBNU Professor Won Yong-chan (Department of Economics)’s monograph "Karl Polanyi, Reading Hamlet" and Professor Hwang Gap-yeon (Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities)’s translated volume "Simche and Seongche (心體與性體)" have been selected this year as Outstanding Scholarly Books by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Korea.

Professor Won’s book "Karl Polanyi, Reading Hamlet" provides an overview of Polanyi’s economic thought from the perspective of a critic of liberal market economics. Beginning from Polanyi’s claim that "the assertion that the market economy is the core of modern human society is a lie," and his argument that the market economy is merely a form of exchange, the book proposes a new alternative to the current economic system, which has been buried under excessive market logic.

The author begins by unpacking Polanyi’s philosophical essay "Hamlet," published in 1954. Polanyi viewed Hamlet’s anxiety as analogous to the human condition confronted by the market economy, and he understood modern society’s suffering as stemming from being forced to choose between market inclusion and exclusion.

The author notes that the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations in Manhattan were triggered by criticism of capitalism’s greed. He also points to this year’s Davos Forum theme, "The Great Transformation: Shaping a New Model," framed as sharing new future values and growth strategies for humanity, as evidence of the strong contemporary relevance of Polanyi’s views.

Meanwhile, the translated volume "Simche and Seongche (心體與性體)," for which Professor Hwang Gap-yeon served as translation supervisor, is a masterwork that provides a professional and systematic study of the theory of mind-and-heart and cosmology in Song‑Ming Confucianism. The original author, Mou Zongsan (牟宗三), a leading representative of modern New Confucianism in the field of Confucian philosophy, wrote the work with the recommendation of the Centre for East Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong and with support from Harvard University’s Yenching Institute.

Originally consisting of three volumes totaling 1,750 pages, the work was translated into seven volumes totaling 3,500 pages by a team of five translators, including JBNU Professor Hwang Gap-yeon, with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea. Although it was introduced in Korea earlier, its difficult content led some scholars to misinterpret it through danjangchui-ui (斷章取義; taking passages out of context to interpret them arbitrarily).

Volume 1 contains the general introduction and presents the philosophies of Zhou Dunyi and Zhang Zai, with an appendix providing commentary on the Buddhist theory of ti-yong (體用論; body–function theory). The general introduction presents Mou Zongsan’s fundamental positions on the meaning of the character 新 in the term "New Confucianism," the boundaries of Song‑Ming Confucian thought, and Confucian metaphysics and moral theory. Volume 2 explains the philosophies of Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, and Hu Hong. Volume 3 introduces the full scope of Zhu Xi’s philosophy based on the changes and development of Zhu Xi’s thought.

"Simche and Seongche" is not merely a record of facts about New Song Confucianism. It is a New Song‑Dynasty Philosophy (新宋代哲學) that reestablishes the lineage and transmission relationships of Song‑period Confucianism. More directly, it can be described as Mou Zongsan’s New Zhu Xi Philosophy (新朱熹哲學).