뉴스레터

At the end of December this year, I am scheduled to leave the Northeast Asian History Foundation at the age of 60. Exactly 13 years and 3 months have passed since I entered the newly launched Foundation on October 1, 2006.

As I cannot be without impressions of some sort, leaving the Foundation I was worried about whether I would have to reveal “my opinion about retirement” to numerous readers. I decided to leave my brief feelings, thinking that it was not easy to retire without incident after working at one workplace until the retirement age of 60.

In her book “The Human Condition (translated by Lee Jin-u, 2017)”, Jewish political thinker Hannah Arendt (1905-1975) said, “The domain of human affairs is realized through the networks of human relations which exist everywhere that people live together.” I agree with this statement.

We are independent individuals, but also part of the complete networks encompassing family and household, school, company or public organization, group and society, and further the state and the world. In that regard, it is no exaggeration to say that we are surviving, depending on the organizations or groups to which we currently belong, due to the cooperation and support of members that we meet in some groups and their related systems and networks. Individuals and organizations therefore need proper harmony and symbiosis, and individuals especially need to arm themselves with such virtues as devotion and passion to communities and service.

From all of these perspectives, we cannot but be conscious of the trait of the Northeast Asian History Foundation as a public organization operating under government subsidies and its pros and cons. From the standpoint of a researcher, it is necessary to ponder how one's belief or the “freedom of learning and conscience” is linked to public purposes. Especially given that the Northeast Asian History Foundation must ultimately contribute to building common prosperity and peace in Northeast Asia by scrutinizing and studying the pending Korea-China and Korea-Japan historical issues and properly informing the related organizations and groups and academic and educational circles as well as the press at home and abroad, I believe that its tasks are vital. Leaving the Foundation, I only wish for it to develop further and to prosper by fulfilling its proper duty and mission and expediting a harmonious virtuous circle with the related organizations and groups and the outside world through the maximization of the capabilities of its members.

Essentially, the Foundation is tasked with reviewing and piecing together research-related data, reports, and authorization interpreted from a viewpoint and reflecting the subjectivity, implementation, and spread (or propagation) of projects, policies, and studies determined reflecting opinions of the Foundation's president, its board of directors, and advisors, as well as assessment and feedback. All of these tasks, especially the mission and role of researchers, can be interpreted as concepts similar to sadaebu (noblemen). Namely, it can be said that a researcher performs the complex functions of a scholar, or seonbi, in addition to those of an administrator or bureaucrat. In this respect, they are different from ordinary university professors. The Foundation can boast advantages such as the budget and personnel needed to establish and execute policies and related systems. My hope is for these advantages to be better polished. It is still regrettable that the Foundation's retirement age is five years shorter than for universities.

Yeonam Park Ji-won, a silhak (practical learning) scholar in the late Joseon Dynasty, wrote in his book “Yangbanjeon” that “People who read books are seonbi,” but he advocated beopgochangsin (法古創新) in writing. “Beopgochangsin” developed into the thoughts of northern studies of the School of Northern Studies including Park Ji-won. The concept of beopgochangsin, which envisions creating something new by removing old practices and triteness through the emulation of the old, seems not as easily achieved as we would like to think. Beopgochangsin should always be heeded in light of the fact that the words and deeds of intellectuals who are said to have achieved seonbi should seek social reform and a public nature.

There is a phrase of the Chinese classics that reads saibulmang (死而不亡[忘]) as su (壽: longevity). Namely, not being forgotten even after death is said to be true su. There is a similar phrase in the English-speaking world. “Gone but not Forgotten, Hopefully.” Certainly, this is a phrase implying what the real value of life is.

The Northeast Asian History Foundation has provided me with a narrow space in downtown Seoul in which to work and study with fervor and has helped me to realize the value of life and the common good, and of my fellow colleagues there! I am very grateful to them. The past 13 years have been very valuable indeed.

A story that I recently heard from an acquaintance comes to mind. A widely known celebrity actor who received an honorary doctorate recently was asked which of their representative works impressed them most. But the actor unexpectedly replied, “the next film”, without mentioning any works where they had appeared in the past.

I also believe that much remains to be done. But I will keep in mind that greed is a taboo. China's Zhuang Zhou once preached “muyongjiyong (無用之用).” That's it. We live in an age in which all people and society should emphasize and prove their “usefulness”, but sometimes there is a need to savor the paradox of “being useful in uselessness”.

Poet Cheon Sang-byeong, with whom we are familiar, recited in his famous poem: “On the day of finishing the outing, I shall tell everyone that it was beautiful…” At the time when I am finishing one chapter of my life and beginning a new life, I would like to say that my time with the Northeast Asian History Foundation was “beautiful”. I truly appreciate everyone at the Foundation, the scholars at home and abroad, all of you in the related organizations and groups, and my acquaintances and close friends for helping me to retire without incident and for supporting me.

Thank you very much!