幕末維新期 정치변혁과 봉건・군현론

A Study on the debate of fengjian system and junxian system in the late 19th century of Japan

Most historians have understood the Meiji Revolution from modernist viewpoints emphasizing the Western Impact as the determinant of Japan’s transformation oward a modern state. However, We need to examine modernization in East Asia by analyzing the thoughts and behaviors of political actors as such, adhering to the primary sources on them. In doing so, we can find out a more influential factor which shook the political stability of the early modern Tokugawa regime. It was the increasing spread of the Confucianism and its political idea by the fever of Confucianism study througout the nineteenth century. Many political actors and intellectuals used to argue each other centering what type of state they should establish, using the tradional political idea of fengjian system(封建制) and junxian system(郡縣制) rather than western idea of nation state, throughout the transional period from the late Tokugawa period to the early Meiji era. This paper try to examine the political process and the debates’ contents from the Restoration coup to the Haihan-chiken(廢藩置縣), with the view of the gradual transition from fengjian sytem to junxian sytem. I wish this article could provide a comprehensive frame that understand the political history of the Meiji Restoration within the political history of East Asia.