‘정치유학(政治儒學)’의 ‘정치성’에 관하여 — 장칭(蔣慶)의 ‘정치유학’에 대한 비판적 검토

Abstract

Jiang Qing criticized the role of “confucianism” that was mainly geared toward moral discipline, suggesting the concept of “political confucianism(Zhengzhi Ruxue)”. According to Jiang Qing, “political confucianism” must be transformed into an ideological resource that can directly influence the institutional level of “politics” beyond the personal and psychological dimension of moral discipline. More specifically, ‘political confucianism' should be newly defined for the purpose of defining and securing the distribution of power and legitimacy o f ‘politics.’ Based on this idea, Jiang Qing argues that ‘confucianism’ should be the text defining the constitution, and that the Chinese political system should be reorganized based on ‘confucianism’ and its canons. At first glance, these arguments seem to be less realistic, but if you pay attention to the crisis situation in the Western liberal political system, which Jiang Qing is facing for ‘political confucianism,’ it seems that ‘political confucianism’ cannot be regarded as just an absurd fantasy. It is true that the recent Western liberal democracy system is in extreme crisis due to the lack of fundamental values and consequent confusion. In this situation, anti-liberal or post-liberal political discourse is emerging as an alternative, with the role of religion being re-examined in countries around the world. Jiang Qing's concept of ‘political confucianism’ will also serve as a starting point for assessing the direction of Chinese ideological discourse in the future, when viewed in the context of this ideological flow. This paper compares Jiang Qing's concept of ‘political confucianism’ with the fundamental principles of Western modern politics to examine the thought structure of ‘political confucianism’ and its meaning.