정인보의 교육사상과 민족교육

Abstract

Jeong In-bo, like many other traditional Confucian scholars of his time, sought after national salvation and enlightenment in the modern age. To do so, he defines the restoration of conscience as the ultimate goal of education. However, his understanding and methods for this aim is differentiated from the neo-Confucianism of his day. He emphasizes independence and susceptibility towards the people along with the complete recovery of truthfulness without a shred of falsehood. For this, bonsim(本心) is discussed in Jeong, which appears at times as ‘silsim(實心)’, ‘yangji(良知)’, ‘eol(얼)’ but all of which underlies the same point of bonsim. Jeong finds that the academic and cultural atmosphere in the past is vain and futile as it tends to focus on outward success than self-reflection whilst claiming ‘the recovery of bonsim(本心)’. He diagnoses that such a trend is rooted in falsehood and hypocrisy. Jeong then attempts to re-set the direction of education towards the recovery of bonsim(本心). For this he suggests educational methodology strengthening the competence of a sound subject with self-reflection, self-reliance, moral sensibility and free spirits. Jeong furthers his claim to the national level to establish the Korean identity embraced with eol, the ethnic subjectivity. He focuses on Korean studies and education as a way to examines the cases of eol in the history of Korea. Jeong then claims that the origin of eol of Korean people is based on reverence for life which appears into the idea of Hongik-Ingan(弘益人間). Eol has passed on through Korean folklore, Buddhism, and the Realist School of Confucianism in Choseon. Jeong’s educational philosophy with its project of Ethnic Education was widely accepted during the period of U.S. military government after the national independence from Japan. The idea of ‘Hongik-Ingan(弘益人間)’, since then, has been respected as the most fundamental concept of education in Korea. In modern times, however, the idea of ‘Hongik-Ingan(弘益人間)’ as the educational aim meets some criticisms for its one-sided emphasis on considerations for others only. This paper argues that the inherent altruism of the ‘Hongik-Ingan(弘益人間)’ can only be expressed when the independent, self-reliant identity of a subject is first established. Jeong In-bo's educational philosophy and Ethnic Education are based on thorough establishment of this independent, self-reliant identity for individuals as well as for the nation as a whole. The importance of its meaning is still valid in our times today.