근대 학술체계에서의 동아시아 人文傳統에 대한 접근 방식과 “中國學”

Abstract

This article discusses “Chinese studies” as an approach to East Asian humanistic traditions in the modern academic system. Since the modern academic system has been developed in the Western traditions, it is very difficult to approach East Asian humanistic traditions which have their own framework as a knowledge system which is very different from those in the Western traditions in modern academic system. It explores three different ways of approaching to East Asian humanistic traditions in the contemporary Korean academic environment: Approach in modern academic disciplines; preserved traditional approach; and “Chinese studies.” Those approaches have discretely their own problems as an approach to East Asian humanistic traditions. This article pays particular attention to the approach of “Chinese studies” because of the current popularity of “Chinese studies” in Korea and its potential as the an alternative to those two aforementioned approaches. In this article, I examine the approach of “Chinese studies” in two different categories: one is Chinese studies developed from traditional sinology and the other is that from “area studies.” The possibilities of “Chinese studies” as an approach to East Asian humanistic traditions depends on how it facilitates the interdisciplinary approaches, overcomes the pitfalls of ambiguity as an academic discipline and methodology, and liberates itself from the ideologically shadowed past as a strategically developed academic field.