『주자가례』 속의 인간과 사회 ― 새로운 종법 이해와 재구성의 고례古禮적 맥락에 대한 성찰

Abstract

Reflections on whether Zhu Xi’s Family Rituals is a successful compromise on old and modern decorum requires anun der standing of the book’s memorial services which contained the period’s ceremonial realities with in the context of ancient rituals. Such understanding can be achieved through acareful reading of the book’s ceremonial ideals and the essence of its clan rules from the perspective of ancien trituals, and by looking at the history recorded in the book’s method of understanding and reconstructing new clan rules. Zhu Xi’s Family Rituals presents as its ceremonial ideal the “foundation of decorum and eclecticism of scholarship and experience” that were presented as state principles of ancient rituals, and gives top priority to establishing the household shrine system, where ancestral tablets were enshrined and all ceremonial acts were performed. Through these presentations, the book reorganized the ancient ritual spirit that viewed “ancestors” as the basis for identifying themselves as human beings and carrying out ceremonial acts. However, the book reinterprets the application of standards on loving one’s family and respecting one’s superiors and of the forms and regulations on ceremonies—presented by the state as historical factors according to its understanding of the foundation of decorum and the concepts and ancient rituals of scholarship and experience—as a legitimate means to contain the realities of the book’s own period. Zhu Xi’s Family Rituals originated the four generations of service to ancestors in the household shrine system generally practiced by the nobility and common people and the laws on descendants not belonging to the head family after four generations. These laws and practices base their justification on the traditional mourning system. However, from the principles of loving one’s family and respecting one’s superiors, which are realizations of the mourning system and the grave customs based on that system, the book eliminates the various political implications and functions inherent in the principle of “respecting one’s superiors” and only chooses the message of “loving one’s family,” which allows it to realize the household shrine system called four generations of service to ancestors practiced by the nobility and common people, a system that could not have been possible in the strict ancient ritual sense. This ultimately produces a repositioning of the meaning and order of “respecting one’s superiors” contained in ancient rituals to the meaning and order found in household ceremonies. The type of people with clan rules shaped under the new laws on descendants still belong to the hierarchical “respecting one’s superiors” order of the previous system of the state, but they also internalize a sense of belonging under the principle of fairness, that they revere their ancestors the same way, and are realizing the same “loving one’s family” clan rule principles. At the same time, the book promotes the establishment of new clan rules through the new order of loving one’s family and respecting one’s superiors that has been repositioned in household ceremonies.