Eastern Learning (Donghak) and Hybrid Modernity in Late Joseon Korea

Abstract

<p>Recent scholarship in comparative political theory and postcolonial studies has decidedly challenged the parochial assumption about the linear, unidirectional transportation of singular modernity from the West to the non-West. This article joins the inquiry into the dynamism and multiplicity of modernity in the non-West by focusing on the intellectual thought of Eastern Learning (<em>donghak</em>) and explores the extent to which it contributed to the emergence in Korea of what I call “Confucian modernity” that challenges the univocal discourse of Western modernity. <em>Donghak</em> was an intellectual, religious and mass movement that swayed Korea from the mid to late nineteenth century in response to the crisis of the traditional Confucian hierarchy and the existential threat from the West. Against the conventional view that refers to <em>donghak</em> as standing outside, and potentially running afoul of, Confucianism, I first interpret <em>donghak</em> as an endogenous phenomenon expressive of Confucianism’s self-transformation and modernization. Second, I argue that <em>donghak</em>’s respect for humanity as embodied in its core tenet of “humans as Heaven” (<em>innaecheon</em>) radically displaces and refocuses Confucian teachings on persons (contra the masses), equality, and human dignity. In each of the three aspects, <em>donghak</em> modernized Confucianism in a way that defies a simple divide between faith and reason and without losing sight of elite Confucian as well as folk sentiments of Koreans in the late Joseon dynasty. As such, <em>donghak</em>as well as the mass mobilization and rebellions it spawned have profound implications for the search for modernity in Korea and East Asia today.</p>