근대 전환기 문명의 분리와 중첩 - 유인석과 이기를 중심으로 -

Abstract

This article examines contemporary Joseon literati's intellectual ferment and changes occurred when they accepted Western concept of “civilization” through Japan at modern transformational period. The idea of enlightenment such as of Fukuzawa Yukichi福澤諭吉, started to circulate among Joseon literati after 1890’s, who had thought Sinocentrism was equivalent to civilization, fermented them. Some Confucian literati regarded acceptance of Western educational system as the needs of the new civilization by separating Sinocentrism from civilization and connecting civilization with enlightenment. One of the Confucian literati, Yi Gi李沂, tried to accept modern Western educational system in the name of New Studies 新學, separating Sinocentrism from civilization, after experiencing Western civilization in Japan, although he studied traditional Confucianism. In contrast, Yu Inseok柳麟錫, who led Korean volunteer corps in Primorye, Russia, claimed that reconstruction of Chinese Empire was the only way to guarantee the peace of East Asia and national sovereignty of Joseon, in his book Ujumundap宇宙問答, since he still thought that Sinocentrism was equivalent with civilization and did not change his traditional concept of civilization. This article classifies Yu Inseok’s questions in Ujumundap and applies those to both of them, Yu Inseok and Yi Gi, and then compares each answers, looking for how the concepts of civilization of Confucian literati at modern transformational period differentiated and changed.