 Is the nature of the human heart/mind then originally good? Tasan does not discuss this question directly, but we can infer that his answer must be two-fold. Understood as the inborn inclination in favor of what is good, it must be originally good. However, in terms of its actual execution, the heart/mind is a mere potentiality of good and evil. In other words, the heart/mind as the core of moral responsibility is widely open to options. This suggests that the heart/mind also has other components. For example, the human heart/mind has the power of autonomy (自主之權) or balance (權衡) (The Essential Teachings of the Mencius in The Complete Works of Yŏyudang Chŏng Yagyong II, 5:33b). This is the ability by which one is able to do what is good or evil without being determined by anything external or its internal nature. It is clear that this power resides in the heart/mind. When the heart/mind with the power of autonomy finally issues an action, then it will be evaluated as praiseworthy or blameworthy. But in order to issue an action, the heart/mind must first engage in the exquisite power of intelligence (靈明). This is the practical capacity for deliberating and valuing. It also holds the power of implementation, the ability to carry out what is determined to be valuable even against the stimulations of the exterior. With the doctrine of the power of autonomy, Tasan turns out to be the first philosopher in all of East Asia who explicitly advocated the philosophy of freedom at the foundation of human agency and morality. Thus we can see a sort of Catholic (Thomist)-Confucian synthesis working in his philosophy. Tasan cautiously and selectively embraces Thomistic philosophy transmitted to him by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci and makes a paradigm shift into a whole new unique system of Confucianism (Baker 2002).