동학농민전쟁에 대한 역사교과서 서술 내용의 새로운 모색 -동아시아적 시각과 ‘나눔과 배려’의 정신을 중심으로-

Abstract

The focus of descriptions on Donghak peasant war in history textbooks so far was on “a fight against anti-feudalism and foreign power”. These descriptions were based on nationalistic one-country history. However, the basis of these descriptions can downsize the meaning of Donghak peasant revolution or disregard current meaning or stereo-type it. First, the thoughts and actions of Donghak peasant war and peasants’ army contain large amount of important meanings and values to look back today’s our society and our lives. We need to approach their thoughts and actions from a new viewpoint to restore those values into present value. Various requests and a code of conducts raised by Donghak peasant army contains desires of the public seeking a new society and a new world where one can live as a human being. I believe that we can reach important results in relation with thoughts on new cultural alternatives overcoming inconsistencies and ills of modern society if we can meditate the historical meaning of the revolution and succeed it in more progressive ways. One of those is the spirit of ‘sharing and caring’ practiced by Donghak peasant army while engaged in peasant revolution. Donghak peasant war was not an incident limited to Korean peninsula only. The uprising of Donghak peasant revolution was closely related with policies in Korea by Japan and China. The Sino-Japanese War which was the direct cause for Donghak peasant war restructured international order in East Asia based on “Hwairon (respect China and repel foreign intruders)” to modern international order. The history textbooks need to broaden students’ views on the history by emphasizing East-Asian meaning that Donghak peasant war has.