신후담의 <小學箚疑>연구 - 분절체계를 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate Shin Hoo Dam's analysis of Sohakchaui and to identify the meaning and characteristics of his interpretation of the book. To start, the first characteristic of Shin Hoo Dam's interpretation includes his way of dividing the paragraphs of the Sohak text and eliciting meanings of each paragraph. Previously, Lee Seong (among the scholars of the Joseon Dynasty, he is commonly referred to as Lee), a Chinese scholar in a Yuan Dynasty, paid attention to this method of study. Lee categorized Sohak into 386 categories of each topic covered, which comprised of the total of 19 chapters and 79 paragraphs. This analysis brought controversial opinions among the scholars of the Joseon Dynasty, and the central question mainly concerned with the question of whether the categories fit with the titles given by Lee and whether his division would be appropriate in terms of logical coherence across the text. On the other hand, Shin Hoo Dam's was divided into 386 categories of each topic, with the total numbers of 37 chapter and 169 paragraphs. The notion of division was reconceptualized and the number of categories was differently divided. In particular, Shin separated the main content and the sequel and divided the main content into 19 chapters and 76 paragraphs and the sequel into 18 chapters and 93 paragraphs. Then, Shin developed the updated constant analytic system. Shin's system tries to address the weakness of Lee Seong, as Lee's system does not clearly unpack the semantic relationship among each category. Therefore, Shin Hoo Dam revised the theory of Lee and newly established the segmentation system. His efforts can be highly appreciated, in that it is a result that was far ahead of Sohakjanggu of Ryu Hwi Mon. It can be argued that Shin completed a new segmentation system for the entire Sohak in the late Joseon Dynasty and completed it with a complete written work. Second, it also analyzed the contents of the commentary included in Sohakchaui. Although Sohakchaui has partly included the commentaries of Chinese scholars, most commented extensively used in Sohakjilseo are from his mentor, Yi Ik. In particular, Shin's academic methodology is influenced by the School of Seoghohak, mainly accepting Yi Ik's own interpretations about the characters and events contained in the text. Shin's analytic framework made it possible to interpret Yi Ik's ideas and to analyze the meaning of the text in reasonable manner. Also it contributed to the field with the strong correlations among the categories of the text, Sohak. Shin, therefore, established his own division system of chapters and paragraphs.