임병양란 이후 조선은 사족체제가 연속되었다. 이것은 조선전기 2세기에 걸쳐 축적된 모순이 거듭 왜곡된 형태로 존속한다는 것을 의미한다. 이에 사족체제는 스스로 ‘자기 조정’ 프로그램을 제출하게 되었다. 여기서 ‘자기 조정’이란 자신의 내부에 존재하는 모순을 스스로 제거하고 사족체제의 안정성을 확보하려는 노력을 말한다. 곧 제도개혁에서 실학을 규정하려 한다면, 그것의 의미는 ‘사족체제의 자기 조정 프로그램’으로 국한되어야 할 것이다. 실학을 사족‘체제’의 자기 조정 프로그램이라고 본다면, 때문에 굳이 사족만이 제도개혁을 주장할 필요는 없을 것이다. 그 개혁적 자기 조정 프로그램은 群盜와 천민・농민, 중인・서리, 관료, 국왕 등이 다양한 부류들이 제출하고 있었다. 이중에서 원래 국가 경영을 지향하는 사족이, 그 중에서도 17세기 중반 이후 성립한 京華世族이 가장 치밀하고 구체적인 제도개혁론을 제출하였다. 유형원・이익・홍대용・박지원・정약용・서유구 등 이른바 실학자는 경화세족이다. 경화세족은 국가 권력을 독점하여 국가경영에 필요한 충실한 정보에 접근할 수 있었기 때문이다. 사족체제의 자기 조정 프로그램으로서의 제도개혁론은 17세기 중반의 유형원에서 19세기 중반의 최성환에 이르기까지 끊임없이 제출되지만, 제대로 실현된 적은 없었다. 이 제도개혁론 위에 1930년대 이후 한국 학계는 자연학, 기술학, 문학, 예술, 경학 등을 얹어 장대한 건축물이 축조하고 그것을 ‘실학’이라 불렀다. 하지만 그것들의 상관성은 필연적이지 않다. 이것들로부터 구체성과 실천성을 부조적으로 끌어내어 그것을 실학의 속성, 혹은 내재적 근대성으로 파악하고, 아울러 민족적 성격을 부여하는 것이 타당한 것인가 되묻지 않을 수 없다. 근대 이후에 규정된 민족의 이름으로 그 학문 현상들을 소환하기보다는 사족체제의 이름으로 먼저 소환하는 것이 실상에 부합하는 것이 아닐까?
After both the Joseon-Japan War, or Imjinwaeran and the Joseon-China War, or Byeongjahoran finished, Japan entered a long age of warring states following the period of the Muromachi regime and finally opened the period of the Tokukawa regime that in turn brought the prosperity of Edo. In China, the Ching dynasty was founded, and it eliminated all contradictions of the Ming period and had its best days from the times of emperors Kangxi to Yongzeng and to Qianlong. In Joseon, unlikely, the noble rule system survived and lasted despite the country was the biggest victim of the wars. This means that contradictions accumulated for two centuries of the early Joseon period still continued in distorted manners. At last, the noble rule system chose to present ‘selfcorrection’ programs of their own. Here, ‘self-correction’ indicates efforts by the noble rule system to eliminate contradictions it had inside and stabilizing that system itself. Defining silhak in terms of institutional reforms should be restricted to self-correction programs by the noble rule system. At that time, similar programs were already being presented by a diversity of people including a group of robbers, the lowly, farmers, people of the middle class, public servants of low position, officials of the noble class and even kings. Among such institutional reforms, however, the most detailed and substantial were from those of noble family who purposed their own management of the state, especially those of Gyeonghwasejok that was built up since the mid 18th century. Some figures of the silhak school like Yoo Hyeong-won, Lee Ik, Hong Dae-yong, Park Ji-won, Jeong Yak-yong and Seo Yoo-gu belonged to Gyeonghwasejok. They hold all powers of the state in their hands so that they could have a direct access to enough information necessary for state management. As self-correction programs, institutional reforms were continuously proposed by a number of people ranging from Yoo Hyeong-won of the mid 17th century to Choi Seong-hwan of the mid 19th century, but any of those reforms was not properly implemented. Since the 1930s, the academic circles of Korea integrated the proposed reforms with disciplines like natural science, technology, literature and the Confucian classics into an enormous construction, and called the construction collectively as silhak. But it is uncertain that those disciplines can be necessarily associated with silhak. In particular, natural science was gradually emerged only as a tiny part of the culture of Gyeonghwasejok since the late 17th century. The above mentioned disciplines were developed within the noble rule system, but on the other hand, they were entangled with the academic circles of China and even with the introduction of Western studies. Therefore, it is still doubtful whether it is reasonable to sort out some realistic and practical aspects of the disciplines and define them as the attributes of silhak or inner modernity and further as things Korean. It is more reasonable to focus on aspects of the disciplines from the perspective of the noble rule system rather than from that of the Korean nation which was defined since the modernization of this country, isn't it?
