천하에서 국가로 -량치차오와 박은식의 보편원리의 행방-

From Tianxia to Nation State: The Whereabouts of Universal Principles in Pak Ǔnsik and Liang Qichao

Charles Taylor argues that individuals consider themselves as moral beings, and that they require a highest good or universal principle in order to act upon that morality. Building on this thesis, this paper examines Pak Ǔnsik’s loss of ethical direction and the implications of its consequence. Pak Ǔnsik was a marginal figure in the worldview of Sinocentrism(中華主義), and in order to highlight the significance of his loss of Sinocentrism as the universal principle, this paper compares him to Liang Qichao, a figure at the center of Sinocentrism. The first half of the paper discusses what it means for Pak and Liang to lose Sinocentrism as a universalism and the source of highest good. In the latter half, the paper argues that while Liang Qichao oscillated between nationalism and culturalism to maintain Sinocentrism even when it was not a universalism, Pak Ǔnsik was forced to search for a new universal principle due to his position as an outsider who could only join the order of Sinocentrism when it operated as a universalism.