Yu’s Path of Enlightenment

Yu’s Path of Enlightenment

Tuesday 10am

Starting from the mid-eighteenth century, Western influence became more and more prominent in the three largest East Asian countries. Although the level of acceptance varied throughout the three countries, they were all seeking to improve their own country. It was at this time when scholars like Yu Kilchun stepped up and defined what is called the “enlightenment”. What Yu Kilchun meant by enlightenment is merely referring to when human life has reached the perfect stage through carefully choosing what foreign customs to accept and adapt, as well as having an equal chance for everyone to exert their full potential; this could be reflected through his thoughts on learning from the west, the impacts of enlightenment on traditional Choson ideals as well as the degree he believes Korean can achieve enlightenment.

First, the enlightenment that Yu Kilchun believed in is not equivalent to westernization. Yu Kilchun believed that in order to “attain the best and most perfect stage” one must learn from others to generate a fair ground for anyone to have an equal opportunity to maximize their potentials, thus further enhancing his/ her society. Yu Kilchun definitely did not think that by fully copying western countries could allow one to reach enlightenment. This can be seen through his description of a fool of enlightenment, “ If a person has a foreign cigarette in his mouth, wears a foreign watch on his chest …he is merely a fool of enlightenment… who is dazzled by its glitter and has no views of his own” (253). What Yu believed was that: one needs to see what is suitable for the country and emulate. This is the only way that a country can improve, “The talents of others, when emulated and put to practical use becomes one’s own” (252). In addition to that, his main concern was that Korea must not adopt everything that is presented from the west since some custom may not be suitable universally....