초록/요약

In the modern era, interest in Hu Shi was heightened in Korea, and in the 1920s, his literary revolution theory and the colloquial Chinese movement were mainly introduced as pioneers of China's new cultural movement, and in the 1930s, his academic and thought were mainly introduced as academic thinkers. During that time, Hughes was able to actively support Korea’s independence by deeply recognizing Korea’s cultural identity and interacting with Koreans in various fields, including cultural, academic, and political circles. In September 1914, with the help of Kim Hyeon-gu, who was a student at Cornell University, Hu Shi learned the “Korean alphabet” and became aware of the necessity of reforming Chinese characters for the first time by thinking about the “alphabetization” of Chinese characters. In 1915, he began to seek ways to educate Chinese characters in consideration of the reality of China when it was difficult to abolish Chinese characters. He then came up with the idea of a literary revolution in 1916, which calls for the exclusive use of “colloquial Chinese”, by shifting his direction from the problem of letters to the problem of literature and establishing the concept of “colloquial Chinese literature.” He thought that the use of “colloquial Chinese” was a step-by-step method to take before its “alphabetization” by 1918, when he was actively promoting the “colloquial Chinese” movement under the slogan of the Literary revolution, so the Korean precedent of switching from the use of “Chinese characters” to the use of “Korean alphabet” could be a legend for him. Kim Gu-gyeong, who arrived in Beijing with the help of Wei Jiangong, a former Chinese lecturer at Kyungsung Imperial University in Seoul, was appointed as a lecturer at Peking University and was in charge of the “Comparison Study on the History of Chinese Characters” in Department of Chinese literature and interacted with professors at Peking University. In particular, Kim Gu-gyeong is believed to have maintained a close academic relationship with Wei Jiangong, helping to study the ancient Chinese language. Furthermore, he was able to communicate with Hu Shi, who was newly appointed professor of Department of Chinese literature at Peking University at that time, and publish a Dunhuang version of “Neunggasajagi”. Since this book was later used as a basic material for Hu Shi’s pioneering work on Chinese Zen Buddhism, academic exchanges and sharing of academic achievements between Korean and Chinese scholars at that time have significant implications given the poor academic conditions of Korea in Japanese colonial era’s period. While studying in the U.S. in the 1910s, Hu Shi learned the Korean alphabet and conducted academic exchanges with Kim Gu-gyeong in the 1930s over the study of Chinese Zen Buddhism. His active support for Korea’s independence since the late 1930s, when he served as ambassador to the U.S., must have been based on the deepening awareness of the Korean cultural identity established in the relationship with Koreans.