동양의 교육 전통에서 ‘배움’의 의미 - 원시유학의 논의를 중심으로

The Meaning of ‘Learning’ in Oriental  Education Tradition : Focused on the Debates of Original Confucianism

  This research examined the debates about "learning" in the oriental education tradition. In the Orient the "Xue (學)", meaning the learning, has been expressed in diverse ways like "taking lessons, enlightened, realizing, imitating (modeling after), being an example, teaching and leading, learning and questioning, learning and explaining, and so on." This is considerably different from the western counterpart pedagogy, which means that students take a fixed curriculum from teachers or, in other words, the inferior being is vertically instructed by superior. Through focusing on Original Confucianism, this paper examines the meaning and role of "learning." In the Record of Rites(禮記), the learning was first based on self-fidelity and it was further understood as a way of style toward consideration for others; so learning was a task for the creation of one community"s manner of living and the true way for one human being. In Confucian Analects(論語), the learning was expressed as a phase of life like self-satisfaction, consideration for others, sharing, and the completion of human being; in the book of Mencius(孟子), reinforcing the good nature (of human being) by discovering the mind was mainly important; and in the book of XunZi(荀子), based on the ethical view that human nature is evil, it mainly emphasized transforming the evil nature into good one, controlling human desires. In these aspects, the learning in Original Confucianism was not limited as the knowledge instructed through language and scripts, but it was learning aimed at the whole man in which art, physical educations and knowledge were joined together. At the same time, this learning deeply considered the organic life relationships between you and me, while it was related to attain the wisdom of everyday life and lifelong itself. Most of all, it is important that the image of "learning" was a self studying for which oneself directly endeavors. This can illuminate the fact that the learning can be progressed by self endeavors throughout one person"s whole life.