The Genealogy of Confucian Modernity and the Reconstruction of Confucian Traditions in Post-Liberation Korea

Abstract:

This article aims to trace the genealogy of Confucian modernity after Korea's liberation from Japanese rule and analyze how the historical context in which Confucian traditions were reconstructed. It seeks to analyze the process through which the disparate concepts of modernity and Confucianism were combined, moving beyond the perspective of denigration and development of Confucian traditions found in existing studies and approaching it from the perspective of postcolonial studies and traditions as invented practices. From the post-liberation period to the early 1960s, two arguments competed: one viewed Confucianism as having ruined the country, while the other claimed that it had sprouted modern times. While the former view still persisted, Confucianism was being used for political purposes, and scholars including Ch'ŏn Kwanu made efforts to find the sprout of modernism from Confucianism. The turning point came with the fervor of "modernization" that swept the country and the world in the 1960s. Influenced by domestic and foreign modernization theories, including Rostow's modernization theory, which began in the United States, the Park Chung Hee regime embraced the "modernization of the motherland" as its slogan. At the academic level, this trend was reinforced by the United States' support for Korean studies. In this process, discussions linking traditional Confucianism with modernization became more sophisticated in the intellectual community. By the late 1960s, these discussions went beyond explaining the connection between Confucianism and modernity through the concept of sprouting and reached a level of directly mentioning their connection. In the 1970s, this trend intensified further, leading to the conclusion that sirhak (practical learning) in Confucianism had pioneered its own modernization theory before the adoption of Western modernity. Through these analyses, this study aims to delineate the genealogy of discussions about Confucianism, such as that it is the cause of underdevelopment represented by stagnation or that it is the basis of East Asian modernity. Ultimately, by analyzing the contexts in which Confucian traditions are reconceptualized, this study aims to critically reconstruct the notions of tradition, nationalism, and modernity.