율곡의 사회국가론

Abstract

The characters of Jo-Seon society and country in the 16th century when Yulgok lived are much similar with ones of Korea nowadays. Both of them share various evil conventions in parts of each own society, which have been being accumulated, fixed, and finally fossilized as time goes away. Yulgok believed that the powerful reform called Geongjang was the very key to overcome all the national crisis. Therefore, he as a Confucian, not only pointed out all the specific problems but also suggested alternatives or ways to make improvements. He thought that the circumstances and actual effectiveness was the only way to get out from the overall crisis in the ongoing degradation days. Former researches have already given a lot of useful information on Yulgok's reform theory and view of the ideal society which would result from the reform and be naturally watched if it was a normal society and country. In this paper, on the basis of these former studies and also focusing on my own understanding of Geon-do, I examine the problems of family, Hang-yak and national defence and then reconstruct the theory on the Confucius nation as a socially extended family. With this, I reinterpreted Yulgok's approach by adapting it to family concepts of Korean these days and also pondered the reconstruction of the wholesome society and country with Gi-gang and Won-gi by demolishing all deep-rooted evil things. The right department to embrace all these could be politics and, as Yulgok's word, "to meet a sage king with wise retainers" could be pivotal to solve the problems. However, because trying to change a king who was the pick of the feudal society meant being treacherous, he mainly emphasized to recruit wise and capable men(so-called Heon-Jae) and to place them in the right positions appropriate for their own characters. This might be the best alternative plan for Yulgok. Then, the abrogation of the discriminations against Seo-eol could not be excluded. If Korea is unnatural today, it must be the result of the wrong systems and laws or the faults of people to improperly operate them. Only when Yulgok's age ought to be reflected, Yulgok's thinking ought to be reinterpreted, and everything ought to be alined and newly transformed one another, Korean society could have its hope at last. Only to do this must be the chance to overcome the ressentiment that has brought extreme disparities in educational background, social position, income and property, which Korean society has continually been ill with.