Author ｜
Lee Yea-ann
Abstract ｜
The essay presents a study of Rosaminyak (《盧梭民約》, 1909), the first Korean translation of Rousseau’s Du Contrat Social, ou Principesdu Droit Politique. In the late nineteenth century, there already existed several versions of Japanese translations, while reprint copies based on them were published in China. Rosaminyak’s source materials were Nakae Chomin (中江兆民, 1847-1901)’s translation of Rousseau,《民約譯解》(1882-1883), as well as Rousseau’s ideas interpreted by Liang Qichao. It clearly demonstrates the entanglement of Japan and China over the acceptance of Du Contrat Social, ou Principes du Droit Politique in modern Korea. Chomin did not intend to convey Rousseau’s ideas faithfully. Rather, his real intention was to enable Meiji Japan and Asia to understand the heterogeneous ideas of Rousseau’s work and in what way he could turn these ideas into ones more congenial to the Asian climate. With this purpose in mind, Chomin’s translation accommodated Rousseau’s ideas on the basis of Confucian political ideas, and presented them as a new modern political model by reconstructing them into discourses on ‘minyak’ (民約, social contract), parliament, constitution, and freedom. Rosaminyak adopted Chomin’s reinterpretation of Rousseau. It used Chomin’s work as its source material and explains Rousseau’s ideas in a Confucian way familiar to Koreans. However, these discussions could have caused a sense of incongruity in Korea. There were also other results coming from Korean acceptance of Chomin’s reinterpretation, in which Rousseau’s abstract idea of social contract was transformed into a theory of modern state building in the specific contexts of Meiji Japan. Chomin ignored some of Rousseau’s basic ideas as he interpreted Rousseau’s ‘social contract’ as ‘minyak.’ Most importantly, the integral picture of Rousseau’s ideas, which include the ideal relation between ‘individual’ and ‘society’ based on ‘social contract,’ the ‘freedom’ and ‘rights’ of ‘individuals’ based on this relation, and an ideal ‘social’ form, was seriously distorted. It can be said that modern Korea accepted this distorted ideas as ‘Rousseau’s ideas’ at that time.
keywords ｜
Modern Korea, Translation and Acceptance of Western Ideas, Rousseau, Social Contract, Nakae Chomin