‘한국사’ 상의 조선시대상 －조선전기를 중심으로

Abstract

Up until this point, the early Chosŏn period has taken on a significant position in the historical framework of linear development found in the “Korean history(Han’guksa)” or “National History of Korea(kuksa)” established in modern Korean historiography. In general, the Chosŏn period has been viewed in Korean history as a period full of unprecedented development and change, which enabled Korean historians to define this period as a early modern one that marks the evolution in Korean history from the feudal (chungse) period to the modern period(kŭndae). These developments and changes, which were thought to be clearly evident when using this view of history, were believed to be the unique origins of the Korean nation whose modernity had originated from even before the introduction of Western modernity that took place during Japanese colonization. This view of history enabled Korean people to imagine the early Choson Dynasty as a prototype of the modern Korean nation-state that contributed to the nation-building process of Korea. This research demythologizes the still dominant nationalist arguments about the early Chosŏn period found in modern Korean historiography(as outlined above)－efforts made to territorialize the modernity of the Korean nation by setting the origin of Korean modernity in the “unique” traditions of the premodern era. Through revealing the implications of these arguments about the early Chosŏn period―which were thought to signify such evolution steps in Korean history as the transformations from the irrational to the rational, from aristocracy to bureaucracy, from mystical knowledge to empirical science, from despotic monarchy to people-oriented politics, and from Sinocentrism to unique Koreanness―this research argues that what modern Korean historiography has highlighted as sprouts of early Korean modernity that emerged from Korea’s own soil, is in fact the modern invention of Korean historiography which has been modeled after the historical models found in Western and Japanese historiography.