니시 아마네(西周)의 서구 미학(美學)의 이해와 수용 - ‘미학(aesthetics)’의 번역어를 중심으로 -

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the academic achievement of Nishi Amane(西周) who translated the terminology ‘aesthetics’ into Japanese language and introduced western aesthetic thoughts in Japan at the beginning of Meiji period. He was educated with the culture and knowledge of Neo-confucianism and Ogyu Sorai school in his youth. After that he went to abroad to study western sciences, mainly practical sciences such as law, military science, and science of government. At the same time he has been interested in the general scheme of western learning, including humanistic sciences such as philosophy and aesthetics. His footprint remained in the realm of art and aesthetics seems to embody the complicated aspects of arts and thoughts in Meiji period. In the East Asian countries such as Korea, China and Japan, the western born terminology aesthetics has been introduced and established as ‘Beauty Science or 美學’(mihak in Korean, meixue in Chinese, bigaku in Japan). This translated terminology of Chinese character was invented in Japan at the beginning and then exported conversely to China and Korea. It could be evaluated as an academic outcome of modern Japan. However, we wonder what extent to evaluate this endeavor of aesthetician actively engaged during Meiji period when the terminology was built up. Probably, Nishi Amane was one of the most contributed figures who translated western academic terminology into Chinese character. We are debted greatly from him concerning ‘aesthetics’. He suggested various translations, such as ‘zenbigaku(善美學)’, ‘kashyuron(佳趣論)’ and ‘bimyogaku(美妙學)’, but he did not named at all a kind of terminologies indicating the original meaning of aesthetics, namely ‘the science of sensuous recognition’. Nishi Amane was a representative who studied western learning. Our main concern is to know how he translate and adapt western aesthetic thoughts. it is difficult to verify concretely how did western thoughts influence on Nish’s aesthetics. Yet, we can notice on the traits of confucianism and Chinese classics in his ideological frame and basic attitude. It is very interesting that there was some contrast between western utilitarianism and Chinese classical culture in his theory.