1909년 대한제국 사회의 '동양' 개념과 그 기원 - 신문 매체의 의미화 과정을 중심으로 -

Abstract

The very fact that, in 1909, the forces of the Enlightenment Movement, pro-Japanese forces and An Jung-Geun should have all sought to justify theiractivities through the rhetoric of ‘Oriental peace’was because the concept of‘Oriental’had already been established as defining normative, or ethical, value,by the Great Korean Empire. Accordingly, the present study examines theprocess through which newspapers both reflected and participated in thedisplacement of the Confucian value-system by the‘ Oriental’concept. As the present study examines, amidst continual friction and confrontationbetween China and Japan over Joseon-period Korea, prior to the Sino-JapaneseWar, the three nations were mostly connected at the strategic level, in terms ofjoint defense against foreign attack. But the vision of homogeneity with regard toterritory, race and culture was vague and had yet to settle. While Western powers participated in the division of China, and Russiaplanned the occupation of Manchuria following the Sino-Japanese War,contemporary intellectuals regarded the then-international order as a racialcompetition, and started to be interested in the target-study of the three Orientalnations. It was in this context that The Great Unification Theory by Daluidokichiwas introduced to Joseon in 1893, enjoying considerable popularity. Daluidokichisymbolized the Orient as humanity and virtue, Confucian values, in contrast tothe West, seen in terms of its aggressive attributes. Daluidokichi, then, mappedout the Orient, centering on the homogeneity inside the‘Orient’, including Joseon-Korea and Japan, in terms of their homogeneity of race and language-usage;Joseon, Japan and China, in terms of yellow-race·Confucianism, and SoutheastAsia in terms of the yellow race. Joseon-period people, however, did not acceptthe logic of his views entirely. The civilization-and-enlightenment forces, including The IndependenceNewspaper and An Gyeong-Su, did not agree to define the Orient, to which theybelonged, as characterized by the people’s yellow race and uncivilized customs. For them, the Orient meant stronger unit of joint defense through the upgradingof economic and military power. The homogeneity of the three oriental nationswas not emphasized beyond arguments to persuade its constituents to supportthe strategic solidarity. The Hwangseong Newspaper, which emphasized the admission of Westerncivilization based on Confucianism, and belonged to the new-Confucian clique,redefined Confucianism as the general civilization, and tried to use this toestablish a new cultural identity. While Confucianism spread through the media,Confucian values, which had formerly been adopted by the people of the GreatKorean Empire, were back in the public spotlight. The confrontation betweenEast and West, and between the white and yellow races, expanded to includethe confrontation between Western civilization and the Oriental (i.e.: Confucian)one. The more Japan’s invasion of Joseon-Korea accelerated, the greater theemphasis on Confucian values in the Hwangseong Newspaper. Japan’s evil deedswere criticized in terms of the‘family-norm’of Confucianism, while the vision ofthe‘Great Unification’society, an ideal Confucian society in Confucianism, wasexpanded to embrace the Orient and the world beyond the nation’s boundaries. The‘identical text’in the Hwangseong Newspaper expanded from expressing theview of oriental homogeneity to the meaning of symbolizing oriental values, sothe‘Orient’became a unit to succeed and develop Confucianism. While‘Orient’in the Hwangseong Newspaper was socially expanded through themedia, the‘Orient’became a concept of normative value, so that the‘Orient’could justify the activities of the constituents within the Daehan Empire.