曾國藩의 經世禮學과 그 歷史的 機能 : 太平天國과 洋務運動에 관련하여 Through the Taiping(太平) War and Yang-Wu(洋務) Movement = Tseng Kuo-fan's(曾國藩) Statecraft of Li(禮) and It's Historical Function

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Ts'eng Kuo-fan's statecraft began to be formed through the study of Neo-Confucianism during his career as an official in Peking. And it was also formulated as the unique theory from his own personal experience of the period. In his theory, the Neo-Confucian ideal of moral statesmanship was combinated with the pragmatic politics to cope with the critical situations. The very crisis was the decline of Ch'ing imperial order after the Opium war-the corruption of scholar-official government and the resistance of rural populace. In short, his statecraft was the eclectic learng of Li(禮), aiming to synthesize various schools on basis of Neo-Confucianism. Eclectic theories were literati's attempt to make up the defects of contemporary schools for the sake of the reinforcement of Ch'ing ruling system. With this background, Ts'eng adopted the moral principle(義理) of the Neo-Confucian scholars, T'ang Chien(唐鑑) and Wo Jen(倭仁), the eclectic method of T'ung-Ch'eng(桐城) literary school, and the pragmatic statecraft of Ho Ch'ang-ling(賀長齡). Especially, he made an effort to seek for the attidue of self-examination(反求) and self-strengthening (自强), which was formed through his personal experiences in troubled times. It was not until his academic discussion with Liu Ch'uan-ying (劉傳瑩)that he eclected Neo-Confucianism with the emprical Han school(考證學). Thereafter, he developed the eclecticism of the so-called Confucian four lessons (孔門四科)-moral principle, (old) literary style(詞章), empirical research(考據), and statecraft. Since his campaign against the T'aiping army, his empirical pragmatism increased through the concrete recognition about real situations, and this attitude extended his eclecticism to include the various schools of pre-Ch'in (先泰) dynasty-Taoist(道家), Motsu school(墨家), Legalist(法家)-and the Yang-ming(陽明) school and Yung-chia(永嘉) school (Sung utilitarianism).
The basic concept of his eclectic statecraft was the Li(禮) combinating the following two concepts-the moral principle (ideological sage's teachings 名敎) and political statecraft (utilitarian historical records 掌故) Sage's teachings were the unchangeable ideology of the existing social order, and historical records were the concrete traces of sage's teachings-there was room for the functional flexibility(變通), not the institutional reform(變法). In his eclectic theory, the faithful literati must have three attainments- virtue, words, and achievement. On the other hand, the eclectic tendency meant that the consistency of his thought was weakened, following to the relaxation of Neo-Confucian doctrinism.
Ts'eng's Li thought performed its practical function through his antiTaiping struggle and reconstruction of emperial order. T'ai-ping t'ien-kuo(太平天國) was regarded as the unprecedented threat against the literati society at that time, despite of its pre-modern shortcomings. Accusing Taipings of anti-civilization imitated from western Christianity, Ts'eng appealed to the literati to rise for the protection of sage's moral teachings-it was both Confucian humanity and scholar-official ruling system. It was for the reality of landlordism that he attacked the Taiping land system. His Hsiang army(湘軍), basically local gentry's self-defense army, was also the loyal forces, because Ch'ing dynasty seemed to stand for the Li order of the Chinese World. His practical flexibility played a role in the transformation of the local volunteer(鄕勇) into the large scale loyal army, disregarding the customary T'uan-lien(團速) system(local militia). At first, Hsiang army was composed of local gentry and peasants, it's leadership was based on the traditional teacher-disciple (師生) relationship, and it's morale was kept up through the Confucian moral instillation and the great aspiration for office and riches. In the end, this army was so deteriorated as to be collapsed after the defeat of Taipings, and the disbanded soldiers affiliated themselves with the popular secret society (會黨).
Ts'eng's political theory for the reconstruction of empire was based on the two traditional concepts-the promotion of the able man(致賢) and the stabilization of the people's livelihood(養民) which was achieved by the Neo-Confucian moral government and the flexible pragmatism of statecraft. For the rearrangement of official government, he asserted emperor's self-cultivation and administrative reform, and sought for the virtuous and able men among the local gentry class. But during the Taiping war, local gentry was also so deteriorated that he emphasized the integrity of local official and gentry, and the `moral goverment of official-teacher' (師儒政治). He urged the local official and gentry to be responsible for the retification of the public morals(風俗). And also, about the problem of financial and military system, he made an effort to secure the local revenue through Li-kin (釐金) and salt monopoly, and established the Chili drill corps(直??練軍) and Yangtze navy (長江水師) as new regular armies after the disbanded Hsiang army-but these schemes were finally proved to be ineffective. For the stabilization of people's livelihood, he maintained the Confucian rule `for the people' (爲民), and made the land tax and penal administration as the basic problems. He maintained the reduction of silver exchange rates and, later, of land tax, and the encouragement of argriculture, which were the measures for rural reconstruction to cope with the rural divastation and peasant riots. But he passed over the problem of tenant-an imminent problem in the traditional Chinese society. On the other hand, the rural control by the local gentry was reinforced through the severe penalty and Paochia (保甲) system against the `weed people' (유민), but he was opposed to the T'uan-lien system, anxious about the bad gentry's violence. Meanwhile, the power of Ch'ing court gradually began to pass into the local authorities (viceroy and governor). Though Ts'eng thought himself a Confucian loyalist, he relied on his disciple, Li Hung-chang's (李鴻章) Huai army (淮軍) to seek his own safty from the hostility of Ch'ing court and another governors.
The Yang-Wu (洋務) thought was Chinese literati's first eclectic theory in the sino-western relation. It proposed the method of China's self-strengthening for the so-called, `inner peace and outer repulse' (安內攘外). During his career in Peking, Ts'eng was completely ignorant of the West. Toward the organization of Hisiang naval forces, he already came to be concerned about the western firearms. It was after the Englo-French intrusion into Peking and their participation in anti-Taiping civil war when his Yang-Wu movement was actually launched. At that time, he agreed to the military aid by the Western forces and the purchase of gunboats, only on the condition that Hsiang army would take the operational initiative. In the first time, his Yang-wu theory was adopted to suppress the Taipings, which was considered for the more dangerous enemy than western powers. But more far-sighted maritime defense (海防) was gradually emphasized, when the Yang-wu movement developed on full scale. China's diplomacy with the West was asserted to be faithful to both mercy and justice (恩威) -Confucian ruler's virtue. Owing to his confidence in Chinese Li dotctrine (禮敎) and no understanding about the wesern civilization, his Yang-wu- theory was resulted in the admission of treaty- system without without witense anti-foreign consciousness, and his idea of self-strengthening was to protect the prestige of the cultural `world state,' not individual national state.
The concept of self-strengthening was composed of the two concepts -inner politics (內政) and western matters (洋務). The latter was the study of western technology to supplement the former-the Chinese historical records in the political field of Li. Yang-Wu theory was formed as the flexible extension of the eclectic theory to the sino-western relation in the military problems, to overcome the limit of traditional statecraft. Here, Yang-Wu was included in the trend of political utilitarianism, but it's 'babarian technics' was so distinguished from the traditional political matters, that the contradictions in Ts'eng's eclectic statecraft-between moral pinciple and utilitarianism-now became quite apparent. His Yang-Wu concept developed from the gunboat and artillery to machenics, translation, and mathematics. But he was opposed to the capitalistic extortion of rural China by the sino-western merchants which was destined to disturb the imperial order. At last, Yang-Wu official's industry failed to reinforce the Chinese national state, because of the self-seeking, personal human relation in literati society.
Ts'eng's thought could be evaluated through the T'ien-tsin massacre (天津敎案), the serious, anti-Christian (仇敎) movement. It's historical importance lay in its development to the popular anti-foreign movement.
Ts'eng, as Yang-Wu official, was severely blamed from the anti-Christian public opinion to preserve government prestige(國禮) and the people's morale (民氣). He was inclined to the diplomacy of appeasement for the imminent aim to maintainain peace with the West. He preferred the realistic utilitarianism to the moral value at the critical moment. Nevertheless, after this incident, he repented of his own fault, and more deeply apprehended the aggressive reality of the West and the Christianity. This utilitarian tendenency of Yang-Wu movement was more strengthened after Li Hung-chang succeed to T'seng's dosition, and it would arouse the protest of the Ch'ing-liu (淸流) literati in future.