『주역』의 종교성이 갖는 현대적 의미 — 다산역학의 종교학적 해석을 중심으로 —

Abstract

This research explores the religious character of the Tasan Yi-ology and its significance in the contemporary era. Because the Zhouyi (周易) was written as an ancient divination text and developed from it, it necessarily has a religious quality. Determining actions that take place in the present and future is a religious activity in essence, regardless of who is held in reverence. Therefore, even though the practice of divination had changed as time passed and it became more ethical, philosophical, and rational like natural science, the essential character of the text had not been altered. Accordingly, Tasan Jeong Yak-yong claimed that the Zhouyi demonstrates history and culture of the era when people revered shangdi (上帝), i.e., a supreme being. Based on this view of Tasan, I will illuminate the Zhouyi’s fundamental religiousness and its significance in our contemporary society. While the Zhouyi presents a rational religion that originates in East Asia, it is unique in the sense that it incorporates mysterious experiences and prophetic beliefs, which developed as the Zhouyi went through a series of transformations. When the Zhouyi emerged, the text was written to serve as an oracle, qingming (請命), but it eventually became an epistemological system that concerns knowing one’s fate (知命) since the time of Confucius. In other words, the Zhouyi evolved from the text of divination to the that of life philosophy; from theology to humanities. Nonetheless, even if contemporary people read it as a philosophical text or as a philosophy of life, the Zhouyi’s intrinsic willingness to transcend the human world is not undermined. In the end, the ultimate purpose of reading the Zhouyi is to make a sound judgment about how a situation is developing into one’s fortune and act accordingly. The Yi is a composite of religiosity that has been praised by civilizations. While the Zhouyi is a rational religion that originates in East Asia, it is unique in the sense that it incorporates mysterious experiences and prophetic beliefs. When the Zhouyi emerged, the text was written to serve an oracle called qingming (請命), but it was shifted to an epistemological system that concerns knowing one’s fate (知命) since the time of Confucius. In other words, the Zhouyi evolved from the text of divination to the that of life philosophy; from theology to philosophical anthropology. Nonetheless, even if contemporary people read it as a philosophical text or as a philosophy of life, the Zhouyi’s intrinsic willingness to transcend the human world is not undermined. In the end, the ultimate purpose of reading the Zhouyi is to make a sound judgment about how a situation is developing into fortune and take a reasonable action. Therefore, the Zhouyi necessarily reflects religiosity and embodies a theological framework. The text’s various, anthropological transformations occur within a theological structure, and thus the anthropological transformation within a theological frame manifests a true picture of the Zhouyi. Ever since sages had appeared, scholarship in the East generally did not deal with anything else than philosophical anthropology, yet the Zhouyi—and only the Zhouyi— has been philosophical anthropology and, inherently, theology. Therefore, Jeong Yak-yong, by standing on the innate characters of the Yi’s images, embraces philosophical anthropology within a theological framework.