Lee, Chan-goo.  “Comparative Inquiry into 'Eveyone under Heaven would Response to One's Benevolence' in the Analects of Confucius and 'Dissemination of Excellene to Everyone under Heaven.' in the Donggyeongdaejeon of Choe Suwoon.”  Journal of New Religions 16 (April 2007): 201-244.

Abstract

This paper is a comparative study on Confucius’ notion of benevolence in ‘Everyone under heaven would response to one’s benevolence’ and Choe Je-u’s notion of excellence in ‘dissemination of excellence to everyone under heaven.’ There is a big chasm in understanding of ‘disciple of the self’ between traditional commentary by Zhu Xi and recent interpretation by Zhao Jibin.

I argue traditional commentary and modern interpretation are compatible by proving into the notion of the self. The two notions of self and personal self in the Analects can cause problems. Traditional interpretation stressed overcoming personal self while Zhao emphasizes nurturing the true self. The former inevitably entails overcoming and the latter realization. Confucius’ benevolence and Suwoon’s excellence can be compared from above view on the self.

Confucius’ excellence is a one that accumulate in humans, while Suwoon’s excellence is one endowed from heavens. Thus, Confucius named it not excellence of heavens but benevolence. Suwoon rather could call it excellence of heavens and not overcoming the self but securing one’s mind. Accordingly, Confucius thought humans realize the heavens by practice benevolence while Suwoon want to disseminate excellence of heaven for realization of humans.

To sum up, Confucius’ excellence ascends from earth to heavens while Suwoon’s excellence descends from heavens to earth. Finally, they attain to continuity of heavens and earth. They are different in direction and method but common in the final purpose.