근대 중국의 계몽, 그 의미와 한계 - 예교를 대체한 민주, 유교를 해체한 과학에 관하여

Abstract

The Chinese enlightenment was performed by science and democracy. Science and democracy criticized sharply China's tradition, typified by Confucianism(儒敎) and Confucian teachings of etiquette(禮敎). With the idea of democracy, new chinese intellectuals mainly criticized Confucian teachings of etiquette and tried to got over them. By the method of science,they had a dash at tearing down the knowledge of Confucianism. Especially this criticism was strengthened by Xin-Qing-Nian(新靑年), a anti-traditional magazine. The participants in this journal thought Confucianism and Confucian teachings of manners were relative things. And they labeled Confucianism and Confucian teachings of etiquette as means of imperial autocracy in traditional China. Their science was a kind of epistemology. It was similar to the epistemology of a traditional 'Ge-Wu-Zhi-Zhi'(格物致知)in the aspect of concordance between nature's law and human society's law. But the standard of truth for science was objective fact, while that was moral value. This was a fundamental difference between the knowledge of modern science and the knowledge of traditional Confucianism. The idea of democracy was a kind of egalitarianism. It was quite similar to the egalitarianism of the driving forces of 'Hundred Days of Reform'(戊戌變法). But the democrat emphasized individual independence, while the driving forces of 'Hundred Days of Reform' did not. A Combination of science and democracy caused totalitarianism in modern China, because the characteristic of egalitarianism and objectivism were apt to be concluded in totalitarianism. This was also the one of the characteristics in 'Chinese enlightenment'.