From People as Foundation (Minbon) to Concept of a Republic (Minkuk): Tracing Neo-Confucianism in Korean History

This article is the memoirs of the author’s long-time research on the Neo-Confucian history of the Chosun dynasty Korea. The author recalled his academic achievement of the several stages of the historical changes of Korean society with the Neo-Confucianism. The time range covered from the late 14^th century to the nineteenth century. The research position was adhered to the view of the positive function of Confucianism which aimed to overcome the negative understanding highly influenced by the Japanese colonialism. He examined the socio-economic development accompanied with the Neo-Confucianism at the first stage. In the part of the sixteenth century the formation of Sarim group was interpreted as critical forces and the prevailed factionalism as the principle of politics rather than the chronic political strife. The author introduced his unique achievement that the ideology of the Neo-Confucianism had been strongly intensified with the response to the long term natural catastrophes of the Little Ice Age (c.1490-1760). The republican concept of 18th-century impartial rulers, the most important achievement of Korean Neo-Confucianism, was viewed as the result of effort to overcome the natural disasters. This topic was connected to the concept of republic which shows in a diagram of the Korean national flag.