다문화시대 동아시아 전통에 기초한 공존 가치

Abstract

This study examines the East Asian traditional idea of Confucianism, historical reality and policies in order to overcome the inclination of one-sided assimilation that forces people from multiple cultures to one-sidedly adapt to Korean mainstream culture, which is one of issues that should be settled to make multicultural Korean society as a desirable one. This study has sufficient significance in that victims of unilateralism of multicultural Korean society are mostly from Asia and those who are in cultural conflicts or dissonance mostly are in relationships between female marriage immigrants and parents-in-law who are relatively more habituated to traditional values. Chapter 2 reviews multicultural aspects in Confucian core values of benevolence (仁) and tolerance (恕). Confucius clarified both benevolence and tolerance as values of consideration based on so-called ‘the principle of identity’ that treats the self and others with the same standard. Dasan Jeong Yakyong in Joseon Dynasty defined it as ‘ways that a person and another one live together’ and evaluated as values that seek for peace in family and nation and realize world peace. Chapter 3 examines concrete response to ‘differentness’ in Confucianism particularly through the tradition of ‘harmonious with one’s thought(和而不同).’ Since Confucius’ statement that ‘A noble man makes harmony with others but does not blindly follow them but a mean man blindly follows others but cannot be harmonized with them,’ the concept of being harmonious with one’s thought has been a doctrine that symbolizes political community with freedom of expressing diverse and distinctive opinions in Confucian world and embracing them and that practices humane life. Chapter 4 looks into history of multiculturalism and reality in Joseon, a representative Confucian state in East Asia. People from multiple cultures in Joseon period were categorized either as ‘migrants who assimilated into Joseon society(向化人)’ or ‘migrants who moved from Ming Dynasty(皇朝人).’ Joseon government basically applied benefit-oriented policies for them and not only provided them with food, clothing and shelter but in some occasions, granted office positions and peerage. Considering this tradition, it is unacceptable to exclude people from multiple cultures or to distortedly deny their cultures in the name of traditional values and history.