華史 李觀求의『新大學』 硏究

Study for the Shindaehak 『新大學』of Yi Kwan-gu(李觀求)

This paper considers a book, 『New Great Learing(新大學)』, written by independentist Yi Kwan-gu(李觀求). 『New Great Learing(新大學)』 is one of the series of writings Yi had written in his late days, and shows not only his philosophy, but also the way he had understood and accepted the writings of Liang Ch'i-ch'ao(梁啓超). Yi concerned about the situation where his now independent nation was divided by the US and USSR, and where the ideology were divided into democracy and communism. He wanted that, on the basis of nationalism, his country could mend its weakness by preserving and developing its own nature, and guarantee happiness of all people by adopting free democracy. Therefore, despite of his age, he wrote 『New Great Learing(新大學)』 in order to present new considerations and alternatives. He wanted to publish his book so that people could read it, but for many reasons, his work couldn't be published, thus remaining in handwritten form. Yi Kwan-gu chose writing of Yang as the materials for 『New Great Learing(新大學)』. It seems that Yi thought Yang's points of view for the recognition of threat, his criticism, and the solution, sufficiently validdespite of the ifference of the situations in 1900s and 1940s. He totally depended on Yang's writings in writing 『New Great Learing(新大學)』. Of course, he selected Yang's writings with certain criteria. But it is hard to find his own creativeness in 『New Great Learing(新大學)』 since he only depended upon Yang's writings. Perhaps he could have written 『New Great Learing(新大學)』 keeping the traditional way of 'no creation, only explanation(述而不作)'. Also, he could've written it as an instruction for the era, not as a mean to introduce his philosophy. As mentioned above, it is clear that Yi wrote the 『New Great Learing (新大學)』 with all his patriot, and that the writing is an important article in studying Yi's thoughts. But 『New Great Learing(新大學)』 had limits in itself: it was out-of-date writing where Yang's thoughts could not function as the guideline of that era.