조지훈의 한국사 연구―민족 정신사 수립의 길―

Abstract

Cho Ji-hoon, who understood his scholarship as part of the national cultural movement, began to study Korean history under the influence of neo-Kantians. Korean history was the core of Korean studies, and an important means of revealing his practical consciousness. Cho Ji-hoon wanted to make tradition the target of succession and the subject of value creation, and rectify the national identity, and sought to systematize Korean history. He also attempted to find the identity of Korean history and compare it with the world history, and believed that Korean history would develop through harmonization and convergence with natural and external conditions. He thought of Wonhyo’s philosophy and the thought of Donghak as examples thereof, and said in summary that having the subjective and individualistic viewpoint of Korean history is the ‘Korean’ method. The research area of Cho Ji-hoon’s Korean history corresponded to cultural history, and particularly, intellectual history. Having started with the formation of the nationality under the reign of King Sejong and the formation of national consciousness during the Japanese and Manchu invasion, he systematized the history of the development of national consciousness through the Silhak Movement, Hong Gyeong-rae’s Rebellion, the Samjeong Riot, the Gapsin Coup, the Donghak Revolution, and the Gabo Reformation. He also included the independence movement in the range of the intellectual history, and thought highly of people’s struggle for independence, e.g. the March 1st Movement, the June 10th Independence Movement and the Gwangju Student Independence Movement, and tried to accommodate socialism within the scope of national consciousness. Cho Ji-hoon’s description of national consciousness had a strong normative and ethical personality that gives absoluteness to national consciousness, which was different from the internal development theory of the young researchers of those days who emphasized the development of history due to the contradictions in our society. Cho Ji-hoon verified the historical genealogy of Korean studies through the research of Korean history in the early 1960’s when Korean studies came under the spotlight for the first time, and sought for the direction of Korean studies through the experience of studying intellectual history. As a result, Cho Ji-hoon’s study of Korean history became the blueprint of the nation-centric Korean studies and national cultural movement.