유인석(柳麟錫)의 문명인식과 위기대응론 고찰 - 「우주문답(宇宙問答)」을 중심으로

Abstract

It was the 19th century was a period of a crash of civilization. In those time, a crash of civilization did not accidently happen in the process of civilization exchange, but deliberately occurred to rule other nation. The oriental civilization, which aim for courtesy and ethnic based on confucian doctrine, was surrendered to the west based on scientific technic and capitalism. The western powers gained control of India, China, and Japan and so on, by the means of military strength. Joseon had experienced another crash of civilization, because it was colonized by neighboring country Japan which accomplished modernization and imperialism. In Joseon, a crash of civilization were reflected in two aspects. First, it was ideological aspect. It well showed in that intellectuals of Wiejeong‒chucksa[thought that proclaimed to protect the orthodoxy and reject the heterodoxy] rejected the west and Japan by the theory of Chinese civilization. Joseon’s intellectuals accepted the theory of Chinese civilization as a normal ideology, and developed it to Joseon sino‒centrism in the mid‒17th century. According to the confucian thought of righteousness, Ryu In‒seok considered as something to defeat the west and Japan that were invading Joseon. This gave a ideological foundation Ryu who recruited volunteers against Japan. Second, it was a political aspect. Generally speaking, a crash of civilization was directly connected to political collision. For this reason, a crash of civilization is not only shown as a competition between nations, but also confrontation of political thought which create the dominant discourse in some country. Ryu symbolized these conflict as a opposition of civilization vs barbarian. This, in Ryu In‒seok, was the coping mechanism to protect Joseon and its people. This study considered that Ryu endeavored how to overcome national crisis in what values, under a crash of civilization followed in two aspects. This aims to enlarge understanding of Ryu’s thought and action, through studying that Ryu consistently led the anti‒Japan struggles were not simply ideological reason by chivalrous sprit, but realistic and political reason for overcoming national crisis.