@article{ART003210597},
author={Yun Sang Hyun},
title={Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas},
journal={Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University},
issn={1598-3021},
year={2025},
volume={82},
number={2},
pages={369-400},
doi={10.17326/jhsnu.82.2.202505.369}
TY - JOUR
AU - Yun Sang Hyun
TI - Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas
JO - Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
PY - 2025
VL - 82
IS - 2
PB - Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
SP - 369
EP - 400
SN - 1598-3021
AB - This study examines the reception and development of the concept of “liberalism” in Korean print media during the Korean Empire period, seeking to demonstrate how liberalism was not merely a borrowed Western political ideology but was reconstructed within the ethical worldview and political realities of Korean intellectuals of the time.
Liberalism was introduced in the 1900s through reports on reforms within the Russian Empire, presented as resistance against despotic power, peasant emancipation, tolerance and fairness toward the weak, and bottom-up autonomous governance systems. After the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, examples from various countries including the United States, Britain, and Italy were introduced, and liberalism was applied as a principle of minimizing state intervention in institutional areas such as banking, education, and press freedom.
Particularly noteworthy is that liberalism of the time transcended simple institutional logic and was reinterpreted as moral and religious liberalism through its combination with Christian natural rights thought and Confucian moral cultivation theory. The interpretation of the concept of freedom through Confucian classics emphasized moral subjectivity while showing the constraints of traditional discourse structures based on righteousness theory. On the other hand, it demonstrated unique ideological characteristics where Christian values and traditional concepts of Heaven (天觀) were integrated without conflict through the Confucian worldview.
After 1907, with the rise of republican discourse, liberalism combined with values of moral citizenship and political legitimacy as well as institutional demands such as popular rights, self-governance, and representative government, developing into an imagination for new political systems. In this process, liberalism strongly exhibited characteristics of liberality that emphasized civic duties for the community and the realization of public good rather than individualistic rights discourse. The collective experience of the crisis of colonization promoted ideological connections between Confucian communal consciousness and republican values inherent in the Western liberal tradition, thereby forming the distinctiveness of Korean liberalism that prioritized national autonomy and communal practice over equality within the community.
KW - Liberalism;Republicanism;Confucianism;Christianity;Liberality
DO - 10.17326/jhsnu.82.2.202505.369
ER -
Yun Sang Hyun. (2025). Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 82(2), 369-400.
Yun Sang Hyun. 2025, "Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas", Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, vol.82, no.2 pp.369-400. Available from: doi:10.17326/jhsnu.82.2.202505.369
Yun Sang Hyun "Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 82.2 pp.369-400 (2025) : 369.
Yun Sang Hyun. Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas. 2025; 82(2), 369-400. Available from: doi:10.17326/jhsnu.82.2.202505.369
Yun Sang Hyun. "Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 82, no.2 (2025) : 369-400.doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.82.2.202505.369
Yun Sang Hyun. Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 82(2), 369-400. doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.82.2.202505.369
Yun Sang Hyun. Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University. 2025; 82(2) 369-400. doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.82.2.202505.369
Yun Sang Hyun. Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas. 2025; 82(2), 369-400. Available from: doi:10.17326/jhsnu.82.2.202505.369
Yun Sang Hyun. "Liberalism in Korean Print Media of the Korean Empire: The Intersection of Confucian Religious Thought and Republican Ideas" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 82, no.2 (2025) : 369-400.doi: 10.17326/jhsnu.82.2.202505.369
