근대 유학자 설태희(薛泰熙)의 경전해석과 실천의식

Abstract

Seol Tae-hee is a Confucian scholar who was active in the 20th century. He wanted to achieve equality based on the self-strength of the people, finding theoretical grounds for this idea in Confucianism. He believed that Confucian scriptures contained information on politics and reformation and that accurate understanding of the scriptures not only had academic significance, but also offered a way to change reality. Seol criticized the scholarship of the Chosun Dynasty for having become “false scholarship” as a result of relying too much on Zhu Xi's interpretation of the scriptures and distorting the original intentions of Confucius and Mencius. He believed that the Confucianism of Confucius and Mencius was instruction for the masses, emphasizing practicality and morality, but thought that after Zhu Xi began discussing li-qi, or governing order and dynamic force, discussionsturned to metaphysics and transformed into a specialized study only for scholars. Seol argued that if there was ambiguity when interpreting the scriptures, the reader should focus on the original texts and the meaning of the words, and that the scriptures should be understood through scriptures. One aspect of the commentary on scriptures that Seol particularly focused on was the interpretation of human nature. At its core are the concept of human nature and the judgment of the value of good and evil. Seol Tae-hee interprets these issues based on “Yeokjeon,” and explains that “xingxiangjin” (similarity of human nature) by Confucius and “xingshan” (goodness of human nature) by Mencius are “Essence and quantity”. He also critically reviewed the various theories on human nature of the earlier Confucian scholars. He particularly critiqued how Zhu Xi categorized“xingxiangjin”as“qizhi zhi xing”(psycho-physical nature) and “xingshan”as“benran zhi xing” (original nature) based on the idea of xing ji li (human nature is principle). Seol believed that it is meaningless to discuss nature outside the realm of “qi.” He had two objectives for the discussion of Confucius and Mencius on human nature. The first was to criticize Zhu Xi's arbitrary interpretation of the scriptures. The second was to establish the idea that the theories on human nature by Confucius and Mencius both discuss the equality of all, which is the foundationon which to propose solidarity.