Intellectual Itinerary of Choi Ik-han in Early 20th Century Korea and Formation of the Modern Knowledge Subject

Choi Ik-han was an expert on almost all traditional and new reasoning systems that the intellectuals of the 1920–1930s colonized Joseon went through, or were passionate about. In particular, he is a clear example to show how an intellectual with knowledge of the past, symbolized in the form of Chinese ideograms, formed a new world of knowledge by experiencing a new outside world. This thesis focuses on such characteristics of Choi Ik-han to see his intellectual path and turning points in three dimensions so that we can discover the forming process of a modern body of knowledge and the dynamic possibility of the process. Moreover, this thesis suggests that translation was utilized as an important principle and practice so that a new knowledge base could be formed. This is what’s commonly found in the translations of that era, including Choi Ik-han’s. However, the act of translating (acceptance of culture) was not a unilateral and unconditional acceptance from Western empires, as the starting point of the modern civilization, to an Eastern colony. Such qualities were equally applied to Choi Ik-han’s translation (comprehension) of the traditions within Joseon. In other words, Choi Ik-han transferred “disposed and deniable traditional” assets into the new modern intellectual system that he was facing so that he could secure prospects in the future in the system. In this case, tradition doesn’t have an idolized authority but becomes an object that can be summoned in the specific aim to fulfill the necessities of my (people’s/reality’s) current self. His intellectual moves clearly prove the dynamic and generating power that overpowers the unilateral conveyance from the West to East, or any sharp severance between the medieval period and modern times, which have been made in the process of forming a new type of knowledge of Korea as a civilization in transition.