도산 안창호 사상의 유학적 연원과 체계

Abstract

Broadly based on Confucianism, Ahn Chang-ho’s thoughts carry Yi I’s philosophy, the Silhak of the late Joseon period in the 18th century, and the enlightenment thought from the era of the Korean Empire in the 19th century. On the other hand, Ahn’s thoughts assimilated Seohak during the era of the Korean Empire, that is, the Christianism, Liang Qichao’s thoughts, and the Western idea of democracy. Thus, his thoughts derived from his independent experience and thinking on the philosophical soils of East and West. Ahn Chang-ho was not a philosopher who handled speculative, metaphysical discourses, but a thinker who read into the coming changes as adumbrated by the 19th-century theory of social evolution and thereby pursued human and social reform. On the other hand, instead of despairing at the colonial reality of the usurped national sovereignty, he presented a systematic philosophy for national independence and prosperity and emphasized that it started in perfecting truthful personality. His academic career was composed of the Sino-Korean learning in his childhood, his acceptance of the Christian religion, and his exposure to the modern Western learning in America. Nevertheless, his philosophical thoughts were well-organized. Furthermore, Ahn Chang-ho’s idea of Musil deserves to be revisited from the perspective of the history of Korean Confucian studies. The essence of Ahn Chang-ho’s philosophy is Musil, which was an idea that percolated the early half of the Joseon period. Specifically what Ahn’s idea of Musil was based remains to be studied. Yet, its connection to Confucianism can hardly be overlooked in that Musil was a Confucian term and that it was widely used by the Confucian scholars of the Joseon period. Therefore, given that Ahn Chang-ho took the idea of Musil as the basis of national independence and prosperity and mindful that it constituted the kernel of his thought, it is not too much to place Ahn Chang-ho in the last chapter of the history of Korean Confucian studies. It’s not that Ahn used or emphasized Musil. Although his thoughts never cited the authority of the Confucianism, it clearly had a Confucian system and wisely adopted the Confucian philosophy. Ahn Chang-ho’s thought significantly carried the Musil scholarship of the Joseon period and it is believed that when connected to the enlightenment idea in the era of the Korean Empire after it passed through Silhak and Yangmingism, it was created as the philosophy for national renovation. Therefore, Ahn Chang-ho wasn’t just an independence activist from the colonial period. He deserves his own position in the Korean history of ideas and his thought may be termed the philosophy of power grounded in Musil.