초기근대 가톨릭선교사 동아시아학과 유럽계몽주의적 반향 —오리엔탈리즘의 재개념화: 문명교류의 호혜성과 유교오리엔트 영역의 확보—

Abstract

The geographical boundary and the set target of analysis in Edward Said's Orientalism are mainly focused on the Islamic civilization of the Middle East, and it discloses the limitation of excluding experiences of other civilizations related to the Orient. Thus, India and East Asia are not included in this discussion. In terms of time, there is a limit that it characterized a negative image of others in the modern and contemporary times. This paper recognized such limitation and flaws of Said's cross-cultural studies, and aimed to secure reciprocity of exchanges between the Oriental and Western civilizations and Confucianism Orient territory by targeting historical topographies called East Asian studies by Catholic missionary and European Enlightenment reverberations in the early modern period as the imagological study subject of comparative culture. East Asia in the 16th to 18th centuries was reconstructed according to the perspectives of Catholic missionaries who were the bridge-builders and the cultural prospects of Enlightenment seekers who embraced those perspectives. This includes a view that the humanistic culture of China reflected in the cultural image of Catholic missionaries competed with the anti-humanistic culture of Europe, and functioned as positive Orientalism in which the West escaped from a religious society and advanced into a modern society of reasoning. Securing the territory of Confucianism Orient in the early modern period has a major premise on seeking a friendly attitude between civilizations for reconstructing the equilibrium relation that has been broken by hatred or enthusiasm. Most of all, the co-dependent suppression of Anti-Neo-Confucianism by Catholic missionaries did not just stop at the phase of enthusiasm or hatred but escalated into the phase of communication, which is a beneficial exchange form, because it triggered the periodical spirit and chemical action in mainland Europe and was recreated into the Enlightenment implication.