곤재 정개청의 교육활동과 교육론 : 16세기 향교 교관 사례연구

Abstract

This study investigates the thoughts and activities of Jeong Gacheong as a teacher of Hyangkyo in the 16th century. Jeong Gacheong was recommend as a Hundo(訓導) of the Naju Hyangkyo(羅州鄕校) by a local minister based upon his academic excellence and experiences of teaching. Before he was recommended, he had already wrote Chohak-Jeolyo(初學切要), and played major role in the workshop organized by the local government in 1581. Through these activities, Jeong Gacheong was considered as ‘top leader of Confucianism’ in the Honam(湖南) region. Being a teacher of the Naju Hyangkyo from 1582-1583, he made great efforts to teach students: he wrote a reference book named Susugi(隨手記), he established a strict regulations and rituals in Hangkyo, he let his old disciples lead other students, and sometime he physically punished students who were not to go to Hangkyo. By his passionate contribution, Naju Hyangkyo flourished in his time, but on the other hand the conflicts between him and local groups who despised Hangkyo eventually led him to be exiled in 1590. Beyond this activities as a teacher, Jeong Gacheong theorized ideal relationships between the nourishing morality(尊德性) and the inquiring knowledge(道問學). For him, the ideal relationship of the two constructs the very core of educational theory and even Confucianism itself. According to Jeong Gacheong, the nourishing morality is the aim of the inquiring knowledge, and to accomplish this aim, the inquiring knowledge, again, needs the help of the nourishing morality. The strict and complicated rituals in Naju Hangkyo reflects the role of ‘the nourishing morality outside of the inquiring knowledge’. They are justified by the circular relationships between the nourishing morality and the inquiring knowledge.