Characterizing ‘New Korean Confucianism’: Focusing on Pak Chonghong and Yi Sang-ŭn’s Life and Thought

Abstract

This article attempts to characterize some important aspects of ‘New Korean Confucianism,’ by focusing on the life and thoughts of two major thinkers of 20th century Korea, namely Pak Chonghong (1903–1976) and Yi Sang-ŭn (1905–1976). While there are volumes of studies on ‘New Confucianism’, the focus remains mostly on Chinese academics; however, just like Song–Ming, Neo-Confucianism spread throughout East Asian countries, where a unique and distinct Neo-Confucian model emerged with its own arguments and debates. The New Confucianism that appeared at the turn of the 20th century in an attempt to embrace Western cultural power within a Confucian value system has also been extended and widely adopted in Korea and has transformed itself according to its socio-political environment. Pak and Yi, who lived during and after the Japanese colonial period, struggled to grasp a sense of autonomy as the unique Korean tradition and spirit was about to be swept away by a flood of foreign ideas and social turmoil. Although the two thinkers differed in their approaches—Pak studied Western philosophy and Yi Chinese New Confucianism—they devoted their life to uncovering and systematizing the distinctive structure of Korean traditional philosophy and thereby laid the cornerstone of New Korean Confucianism.