경학사의 관점에서 본 조선 전기의 《논어》 인식

Abstract

Though many works on Confucianism and Confucian cannons appeared in the early Chosun Dynasty, there were none specially devoted to the study of the Analects. What did people think of the words of Confucius at that time, and how did they learn and study the Analects of Confucius? This is the starting question of the paper. Investigation of relevant documents shows that there was no writing about the Analects of Confucius during the early Chosun Dynasty. However, we have confirming evidence the scholars of that time attached great importance to the Analects of Confucius, a fact based on records of the circulation and printing of the Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (i.e., The Great Learning; The Doctrine of the Mean; the Analects of Confucius; The Mencius), scholars’ academic interests, favorite topics of discussion between the emperor and his ministers, designated courses of learning and test questions for taking imperial examinations. Although Korean Neo-Confucians paid much attention to the four classics, their understanding of xinglixue(“the learning of human nature and principle”, Neo-Confucianism) at that time was yet to be deepened. As a result, the eonhae (Korean annotation) of the Analects of Confucius by collective efforts came out before individually authored works, and after that more and more individual works appeared. During the middle of the Chosun Dynasty, Yi T’oegye and Yi Yulgok formally publishedworks about the Analects of Confucius in the form of interpretation and eonhae, which indicates scholars gained further understanding of Neo-Confucianism and also represents the process of shaping new Korean culture by scholars of that time.