북한의 율곡 연구- 반동적 관념론자에서 선진적 사상가로

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the study of Yi, Yulgok, who enjoyed the highest academic status in Joseon society, has come to be associated with influencing the division of North and South Korea after the Japanese Colonial Period. There have been few studies dealing with the advancements in Yulgok scholarship since the Korean War. Various reasons -the lack of North Korean data, difficulties in accessing data, problems with the political situation, etc.- may be behind this lack of studies of Yulgok scholarship. However, there is also an academic climate in which any discussion of North Korea is excluded from East Asian discourse in South Korea, China and Japan. Since the 2000s, East Asian talks have rapidly been centering around China. In this study, I examine how North Korea, a socialist country such as China has been developing Confucianism for the purpose of justifying the North Korean socialist model while China has been advocating "Neo-Sinocentrism" by combining Confucianism and Maoism. The results of the study are as follows. First, the study of Yulgok in the Japanese colonial period has three trends: the study of the analysis which are based on the ontology and cosmology found in Western philosophy, the study of imperialism and the study of socialist analysis. Second, while South Korea has actively accepted and developed the study of Yulgok through maximizing research methods based on Western philosophy in the Japanese Colonial Period, North Korea has actively proceeded the study of Yulgok based on the theory of enhancing the wealth and military strength of their country and socialism. Third, the study of Yulgok intensively appeared in three periods: the emergence of Juche Ideology in 1967, "March of Suffering" in the mid-1990s and in the mid-2000s. Fourth, Neo-Confucianism was defined as "the reactionary ideology of the Middle Ages" after the Japanese Colonial Period, whereas, Yulgok was praised as a progressive scholar. Furthermore, when Juche ideology pushed down Marx-Leninism in 1967 in North Korea after the De-Stalinization of Khrushchev in the Soviet Union, Yulgok also was reinvented as a politician who was motivated by patriotic ideas such as "the self-reliance of national defense". In the period of "March of Suffering", Yulgok was emphasized as an economic reformer who tried to reform tax systems in the Joseon Dynasty. Since the mid-2000s, Yulgok has been identified an "advanced thinker" who expanded the traditional epistemology and humanism. Fifth, positive discussions on Neo-Confucianism since the 2000s include the desire to maintain the hereditary regime of North Korea through building "Confucian Socialism"system. While China has been using Confucianism as a platform upon which to grow an empire under the value of "Neo-Sinocentrism", North Korea has been using Confucian values ​​to stabilize their hereditary system.