비(非)국가주의적 정치 주체를 위한 권고: 논어1.16의 정치적 재해석

Abstract

This paper reinterprets the sentence "Don't worry about not being acknowledged by other people; do worry about failing to acknowledge them." in The Analects of Confucius, taking into account the historical background. To this end, we first show that the sentence is the subject of interpretation where a clear issue exists, unlike existing interpretations. In the process, we actively utilize the annotations of The Analects of Confucius and divide existing approaches into political and non-political approaches. In order to control arbitrary interpretation, then, we explore the meaning of the sentence along with related sentences in The Analects of Confucius. Lastly, without being limited to the context within The Analects of Confucius, we hope to reveal what positions the sentence was competing with in the world of ancient Chinese thought, and through that process, to gain closer access to the meaning that was commonly appreciated in ancient Chinese times. The late Spring and Autumn Period, when Confucius was active, was a time when rulers sought to strengthen their states. It is no exaggeration to say that Chinese political history since then has been a history of assessing the appropriate size and maintenance of the state. With the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, the expansion of state bureaucracy reached its peak, and the Han Dynasty, which followed the Qin Dynasty, reconsidered the statism of the Qin Dynasty. And that was also the time when The Analects of Confucius took root in its current form. At the time, there were both positions supporting and opposing the expansion of state bureaucracy. Considering such contexts, the sentence explored in this paper affirms the state as the only institutional political sphere, but takes on the nature of a recommendation to a group of bureaucrat candidates who enjoy a certain level of autonomy. In this paper, such bureaucratic candidates are conceptualized as non-state political actors.