박세당의 『思辨錄･論語』에 대한 一考

Abstract

For a long time the research on "gyeong-hak (經學)" in our country has put emphasis mainly on the aspect of "study of government (經世之學)" which dealt with the 'philosophical' realm, while there was not any heated discussion about either significances and positions of hermeneutics contained in classical texts (經文), or ancient work explanation (訓詁) and textual criticism (考證) etc. ['gyeong(經)' in 'gyeong-hak' has two meanings: the classical texts, and the ruling activities, the governance; 'hak' means 'study']. Even if there was some research on this subject, it would always follow an incomplete way named 'variorum (集注)' in which the study of Zhu Xi (朱子學) was considered the center. Thus in this paper, in order to activate the research on documentaries interpreting the classics, the author sets the primary goal of selecting Confucian scholars in Joseon Dynasty and inquiring into parts (of their works) which included various interpretations of classics. Hence this paper sets the time around the 17th century as the premise, since in this time the academic feature (means the study of Zhu Xi and the 'variorum') which was almost seen as the standard had reached the starting point of philosophical meditations; and pays attention to scholar Seo-gye Park Se Dang as a forerunner of this trend. However the results of preceding research on Seo-gye Park Se Dang as well as the evaluations of his thoughts are totally different, thus it is necessary to thoroughly re-examine his academic position. Especially there are some opinions according to which Park Se Dang had the inclination toward the opposition or evasion of the study of Zhu Xi and tended to the study of Yang Ming (陽明學), or he was a scholar with practical academic features which did not only stop at the metaphysics but also emphasized the necessity of reality. In this paper the author would examine those various evaluations of Park Se Dang by analysing his work named "Record of Meditations - the Analects (思辨錄論語)".