19세기 일본의 대외위기와 사상적 반응‒아이자와 야스시의 『신론』을 중심으로‒

Abstract

For East Asia, the 19th century was a period when the world view based on Sino-centric ‘Tienhsia(天下) World Order’ was disintegrated and it was incorporated into the ‘Modern World System’ forcibly due to the ‘Western encroachment on Asia’. This sense of crisis and rapid change of the world view caused by the ‘Western encroachment on Asia’ had a significant effect on the thought of East Asian intellectuals of the time. And as an ideological trend to counter and overcome this crisis, the later Mito (水戶) school appeared in Tokugawa Japan. The later Mito learning or study (水戶學), which started with the compilation of Dainihon-shi (大日本史; The History of Great Japan) at Mito Han(藩), was a new thought that appeared as one of the trends to overcome this national crisis during the late Tokugawa period. And Shinron (新論) of Aizawa Yasushi (會澤安), which was the representative book of the later Mito ideology and had the great influence on young Sonno Joi (Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians) advocates during the late Tokugawa period, became the ideological backbone of the Imperial state that was created after Meiji Restoration by emphasizing ‘kokutai’ (國體) or the fundamental character of the Japanese state. However, the idea of Aizawa was based on Confucianism and presuppositions of Bakuhan(幕藩) style lord-vassal relationship, so it demanded direct allegiance to one’s lord and did not require allegiance to the Emperor. The ‘kokutai’ ideology that Aizawa mentioned was the logic that fulfilling loyalty to one’s direct superior was ultimately loyalty to the Emperor. This was to envision a ritual system that peaked at the Emperor and to attract the public sentiment which might lean toward Western Christian forces in order to stabilize the existing system. For Aizawa, the most important thing in responding to the external crisis was to unify the public sentiment, and as the concrete method to gather the public sentiment, he was suggesting ‘enlightening government’ that was based on educating people on the ‘congruity of ritual, government, and education’. This idea of Aizawa Yasushi did not have a big impact in the 19th century, but it constituted the origin of the ‘discourse on nation state’ of modern Japan as it was absorbed by the Imperial system and ‘kokutai’ ideology when Japanese leaders wanted to overcome the national crisis by creating the state shintoism and the ‘Emperor myth of the uninterrupted Imperial family’ of the Meiji state.