성호학파와 북학파의 예설 비교연구 ‒ 성호 이익과 담헌 홍대용을 중심으로

Abstract

This article compares the discourses on the Rituals of Songho School and Bukhak School, focused on Yi Ik and Hong Dae-yong. Yi Ik succeeded Toegye’s etiquette and laid the theoretical foundation for the Ritual Theory developed as the Governing Theory of the Law of Propriety. He took Zhu Xi’s Family Rituals as the basic code, but institutionalized it in a way that complemented it with a focus on following the Family Rituals appropriate to their status and saving unnecessary costs. The Family Rituals for Common People that he pursued, although it came from the realistic necessity of living as a commoner, set the ordinary people, who were merely objects of domination and edification, as subjects capable of ethical behavior. Therefore, the awareness and practice of Yi Ik’s Rituals has been reorganized with a focus on the subject who implements the Code of Ethics. Hong Dae-yong opposed the complex Studies of Rite at the time, but did not deny the concept of Rituals itself. He used mathematical language to reexamine the concept of Rituals as an order penetrating human society and the natural world. He proved this through a mathematical method, and argued that the institutions and norms of human society should also be reconstructed according to the level of awareness of the expanded physical and natural world. He envisioned that this could be proved and applied through the three writings of Chuhaesuyong (籌解需用), Uisanmundab (醫山問答), and Imhagyeongryun (林下經綸). In this way, it can be seen that he pursued the Governing Theory of the Law of Propriety in a different direction from Yi Ik. In addition, it seems that he was able to provide an expanded perspective from which the Bukhak School could be developed in various ways.