연암 박지원의 사회 · 경제 개혁론에 대한 일고찰

Abstract

Yeon'am Park Ji-weon was an inspired intellectual, who studied his time period carefully, and never hesitated to criticize his fellow intellectuals of the time who were complacent to stick to the old ideas. He was an accomplished author, and also a leading scholar in the “Practical Studies” school. Instead of placing 'morality'(正德) before the issue of ‘benefiting the public,’ he argued that “resources should be utilized to help the public, and only after the public benefited from such actions their morality could be restored.” Also, unlike other scholars who believed in the “Civilized/Barbarian”(‘Hwa/Ih, 華夷’) discourse based upon Neo-Confucianism, he developed ideas in the field of “humans and objects share the same nature”(人物性同論), and tried to observe people more objectively. For the same reason, he demanded the Manchurian Qing(淸) Studies(the “Bukhak/北學” Studies) should be imported as much as possible. Even when he was still young, Yeon’am was interested in the reality and social events, and continuously asked himself what kind of problems there were, and how he could solve them in his time. When he reached the age of 50, he began to enlist in the local government and did his best to serve the public’s interest. He served as prefects for regions like An’eui (as Hyeon’gam) and Yeoncheon (as Gunsu), and was appointed to the post of the Yang’yang-bu magistrate when he was 64. His life style and values were reflected in his governing of the local societies and his dealings with certain matters. In order to make better the lives of people in the region under his jurisdiction, he used all the practical knowledge and experiences he had been accumulating for years. Chil’sa-go(七事考), which was a manual guide for reasonable and appropriate governing of the people, was one of such examples. Especially in this period, in order to bring his social and economic ideas to reality, he also proposed several policy suggestions. Through his Gwa'nong So' cho he suggested techniques that could enhance agricultural production, a land reform plan called “Han'jeon-je,” the cease of a discrimination practice targeting all illegal offsprings, and the abolishment of private Nobi servants. Having been only criticizing the reality, he modified his stance to literally ‘re-form’ the reality. He dedicated his entire life to doing so, in order to better the lives of the general population, and wanted to see if his policy ideas could help speed up the process. His ideas and plans were inherited to his disciples and scholars of later periods, and produced some noteworthy results.