18世紀 書堂 硏究

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study is concerned with the changes of the characteristics of Sodang in the 18th century Choson. Sodang ($\text{書堂}$), with Sowon ($\text{書院}$) was one of the two major private educational institutions of the latter-half of the Choson society. It was founded mainly in rural area and its primary aim was to teach basics of confucianism to local children. It is generally acknowledged among educational theorists that Sodang is the most proper educational system for small-sized agricultural societies, and this presumably means that a study on Sodang can not be indifferent to the changes of the society itself as a whole. And this sets the ground for the present study. The present study aims at describing how changes of the 18th century Choson society influenced the basic nature and roles of Sodang. In describing major changes in Sodang, emphasis in put on reasons(s) why in that period of time the previously unseen trend occurred; the trend that then existing ethical norms, which powerfully forstered social stability since the foundation of the dynasty, if not detested. Special attention is paid to the various ways in which the bureaucratic structure of the society, which was fundamentally based on Yangban ($\text{兩班}$) system, began to be weakened after the two major wars with neighboring countries, China and Japan.

Chapters II and III deal with the kind of changes that occurred in Sodang in terms of the ideological tenets in education. Until the 17th century, the ideology that governed Sodang and the society as a whole was centered around the loyalism to the King in paternal society. From the 18th century, more narrow-scoped pursuits such as “kinship care” ($\text{保族}$) and “family justification” ($\text{宜家}$). This shift from public concern to familial one also brought about more emphases on the memorial ritual for ancestors in Sodang. This change is found to be connected with two related facts about Sodang. The founders of Sodang were local intellectuals who were staying in rural areas without any direct influence on public bureaucratic government. Also, Sodang's finance did not depend on any governmental support, but wholly came from the local private land owners who raised fund for Sodang by organizing “Gye” ($\text{契}$). These contributed together to the weakening of the power of central government after the two major wars, and, instead, strengthened the role of Sodang as means for ancestral worship.

Chapters IV to VI deal with the way in which “enlightenment of morality” ($\text{明倫}$), the originating theme of the Confucianistic Choson dynasty and, hence, at first, of Sodang, began to be changed. This change was deeply connected with social disorders centering around the hierachical status of people. Choson was fundamentally bifurcated society from the beginning, and now people of lower class ($\text{常民}$) tried to find ways of moving upward to the higher class ($\text{兩班}$) since the two wars. This brought about unstability and, sometimes, turmoils in the social stratification of people.This social change was reflected in Sodang in different ways. At first, changes in the role of Sodang teachers occurred. Teachers had been pre-occupied with purely scholastic activities and, according to the Confucianistic tradition, engaged themselves to the moral rearmament, or enlightenment, for people.

From the 18th century, however, teachers came to be more realistic, critical, and even radical, in viewing the existing society and also in viewing themselves in it. Later, this tendency of criticism developed into strong detestation against the existing status quo and some teachers began to be related with civil riots. In this study, it is found that the main ideological cause of this detestation came from the breakdown of mutual reward system, the system that had kept balance between the ruler and the ruled. In this reward system, “breeding of people” ($\text{養民}$) was the principle of the ruler while “serving to the King” ($\text{臣忠}$) was the principle of the ruled.Another change in Sodang education took place in the content of its teaching. New textbooks appeared which covered wide range of materials close to the daily life of children such as folklores, customs, myths and so on.

A review of A-hee-won-ram ($\text{兒戲願覽}$), a typical new Sodang text, shows new trends for teaching. It introduces new criteria for value judgement, loosening of the previous rigid norms of Confucianism, abandonment of the sole confinement to the “enlightenment of morality” ($\text{明倫}$) could be found in it.A third aspect of change in Sodang education can be seen in terms of its social-political role in Choson society. Though Sodang was fundamentally private institution, its major function had been the internalization of the basic Confucianistic social order. But Sodang in the 18th century refused to be used as an important means of central government for social control. The result was that almost every agricultural towns and villages which had Sodang more and more emphasized the teaching of newly interpreted Confucianism which had more to say on everyday practical matters including economic affairs than the old one. The central government of Choson thus gradually lost its controlling power over the vast increasing Yanban population. From the latter 17th century on, the population of Yangban was on the trend of increase mainly due to the too rigidly bifurcated structure of social mobility and to the loosening of that bifurcation since the two wars.

To conclude, the Sodang education in the 18th century can be the focus of viewing the general trends of change in the latter half of the whole Choson society. Changes that occurred in the aims, contents, and other related matters of education reflected what the whole society was experiencing at the time. They were, in this repect, rather predictive of the more rapid changes and radical experiences of the forthcoming era.