Rethinking the Rise of Confucianism in Medieval Korea

Abstract

This talk examines the birth and growth of Korean Confucianism as an independent tradition outside of China as an unusual development. Historically, only a handful of societies and cultures managed to abstract the Confucian tradition from its sacred connection with “China” and “Chineseness”. How did the Koreans adopt an intellectual tradition that was not designed to be exported? The rise of Confucianism in medieval Korea took place in three stages:

(1) initial experimentation despite protests against its foreign origins;

(2) gradual localization alongside other competing traditions; and

(3) emergence of a hybrid Sino-Korean Confucian nativism as an exclusive ideology.