姚鼐의 고민 톺아보기－‘桐城文派’에 대한 검토－

Abstract

Most of the research admit no doubt that the Tongcheng school is a literary one, on this basis, and its key figure Yao Nai(姚鼐) resigned from the compilation of Siku Quanshu(四庫全書). Many researchers pointed out that the reason for his resignation was no longer acceptable to the philology-centered academic environment. This paper aims to reconsider the problems of existing perspectives. First, he emphasized the reason and the writing, however, these never his ultimate goal. Looking closely at his words, the reason and the writing were viewed as a medium to reach the essence of the sage. The important thing is that Neo-Confucianism and Zhengzhou were not his final destination in terms of his methodology. He paid much more attention to the realization of the will of the sage, which prove his sense of responsibility as a nobleman. In addition, he insisted on the importance of all of the reason, the writing, and the philology, but it should not be ignored that his emphasis was not put on any one of them, but that the ultimate purpose of his academic activities is rather beyond that. His intention was in “actual practise”. Therefore, his support for the neo-Confucianism was not just the adherence to it, rather originated in the interest in the realization of the purpose of the sage by restoring the balance through correcting the academic bias of its region. It can be understood from the extension of this recognition about his view of Eight-Legged Essay(八股文). In this sense, the definition of literature clique, and the evaluation in history of literature can be said to have been a hindrance to a thorough understanding for the academic purpose of the Yao Nai. As a result, there still are lots of problem to understand issues associated with him and his school, this is the reason why we have to reestimate them.