북경-서울의 지식 유통과 知識史學의 문제

Abstract

There had always been knowledge exchanges between China and Chosŏn since history. However, the process was not always simultaneous or consecutive. It was sometimes randomly entangled or disturbed, in which knowledge couldn't be exchanged as they were. Knowledge imported from China to Chosŏn were not distributed in an even pace. This is extremely important in understanding knowledge history of the late Chosŏn period. Though the import and distribution of books-knowledge were sometimes randomly entangled or disturbed in that period, it wasn't abnormal. Rather, it should be regarded normal. The more important thing is to determine which kinds of books-knowledge (information) were imported under physical conditions, whether it was coincident or not or intended or not, which of the imports were actually distributed through being taken positive or negative and then through criticism and who took the lead in the acceptance or rejection of particular imported books-knowledge and what they were. The determination is, in other words, to clarify what was privately meant by the noble family system of Chosŏn or groups of people in that system who intended to keep themselves by means of knowledge. It is also like clarifying how knowledge was formed and internally established in Chosŏn. Meaning can be known and understood not through just analyzing in static ways what certain people said, but through investigating historic backgrounds behind which the sayings. The investigation allows us to know discourses that were taken and interpreted as the basis of knowledge exchanges in the late Chosŏn period. That is the final destination of knowledge history research.