국채보상운동 과정에서 공동체의식의 심화와 유교적 에토스의 영향

Abstract

Recently there have been suggestions from both U.S. and Korean academic circles, that the national identity of the Korean people may have been forged during the Goryeo or Joseon dynasty period. These studies have taken notice of an unusual sense of cultural homogeniety that we can spot from the premodern period (a rather unprecedented level of it, even considering other countries’ cases on the global stage), and they also highlighted the actions of the Confucian scholars for example, the Scholars-turned-Righteous Army leaders) who had absolutely no ties with the government yet were just as strongly devoted to the task of overcoming a dynastic crisis as the governmental officials were. However, these studies have somewhat ignored the simple fact that in order for a nation to be formed, an affection for its partners, peers and colleagues that go beyond regions, social classes and genders, should be set in place first. <BR> This article differs from previous efforts and especially the aforementioned studies, as it sees the National Debt Redemption Movement in 1907 as an event that served as a virtual platform for the Koreans to build a horizontal partnership, which could evolve beyond issues such as regions, genders and classes and eventually lead into a Nationalist stand. At the same time, this article also recognizes the possibility that the Confucian ethos -such as the concept of righteousness- could have been contributive to the promotion of this new sense of partnership, and in that regard this article does share the belief of other studies that Confucian culture may have served as a soil for the Koreans’ Nationalistic identity.<BR> In that regard, this article aims to define the relationship between Korean Nationalism and Confucian traditions, by examining the fact that more and more people came to consider the National Debt Redemption Movement as the ‘right thing to do’ after learning all kinds of people from various backgrounds-regions, genders and social classes, etc.- were joining it, and the fact that they too wanted to be recognized as people joining the righteous effort, by publicly declaring their participation in the movement.