 Yi Sugwang (1563–1628) provides a short analysis of Ricci’s text, which is of value as it is the earliest commentary on the text in Korea. He remarked that Ricci’s God, Tianzhu (pronounced Ch’ŏnju in Korean), had created the world, hence was worshiped and praised, something he criticised as he clearly understood Principle to be behind all things. He incorrectly indicates that Ricci, like Confucians, asserts that human nature is originally good: Ricci had actually suggested that the Confucians had no unanimity of position in this regard, as Mencius had said it was good, but Xunzi regarded it as evil—a point clearly avoided by Korean Neo-Confucian scholars almost entirely (Yi 2000: 61). Yi Ik (1681–1763), who headed one of Chosŏn’s many scholarly factions, the Namin (Southern) faction, in more recent times described as a proponent of Sirhak “practical” thought, also compiled a wide range of encyclopedic texts and wrote commentaries on the Confucian canon too. He engaged more intellectually with Ricci’s ideas in his critique entitled Ch’ŏnju sirŭi-bal (天主實義跋) [Reactions Against Tianzhu zhiyi] (Kim Shin-ja [ed.] 1987: 22–23). Yi Ik, who was also a follower of T’oegye’s metaphysics and wrote treatises on the Four-Seven debate such as Sach’il sinp’yŏ, (四七新編) [New Treaty on the Four-Seven Debate], did not accept that “God” had created the world, and outright rejects the idea that this God had incarnated himself as a man. He also examined the moral teachings of another Jesuit, Diego de Pantoja (1571–1618), and in his commentary on Pantoja’s Qike (七克) [Seven Victories], which described how to overcome the seven deadly sins, he argued that if one removed what was written about God and the devil, the morals could almost be considered Confucian. This reflects the non-theistic orientation of Neo-Confucianism in Korea, but also highlights how Yi was not about to overturn his onto-cosmological inheritance from T’oegye (Yi Ik Sŏngho sasŏl: 343).