The early 20th century was a time of rapid change in Confucianism. As East Asian intellectuals actively learned from the West in the process of modernization, Confucian classical education lost its dominant position. Western learning changed the education system in East Asia, and textbooks on self-cultivation replaced traditional Confucian literature such as the Four Books and Five Classics, the children’s textbooks and the family rules, and became the textbooks for the moral education curriculum in the new academic system. Although these textbooks are still referred to as books for self-cultivation, the knowledge has been reconstructed in the Western educational framework, and their contents are not limited to moral education. This article analyzes the transformation of Confucian knowledge in Korea under the influence of Western learning based on the theoretical explanations and the school textbooks in the Korean Enlightenment Textbook Series. It reveals that Korean intellectuals established a curriculum for moral, intellectual, and physical education, as well as a curriculum for health education, which brought the Chinese and Western cultures together from conflict to coexistence at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The development of scholarship and material culture on the Korean Peninsula was deeply shaped by successive Chinese dynasties. During the Chosŏn period, frequent tribute missions to the Ming 明 (1368-1644) and Qing 淸 (1636-1912) courts introduced new learning, technologies, and artifacts, but these exchanges did not conform to Nishijima Sadao’s 西嶋定生 (1919-1998) model of a tributary order centered on the Chinese emperor. Chosŏn actively sought books on Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 (1130-1200) thought through private trade, despite continuing bans imposed by the Ming and Qing governments. In material culture, demand shifted from heavy reliance on Ming goods, to brief resistance during the Ming – Qing transition, and then to renewed admiration for Qing artifacts in the late eighteenth century. Yet the Qing court’s extremely limited bestowals – such as falangci “enameled porcelain”, reserved for official banquets, display, or burials – had only marginal influence on Chosŏn society. This scarcity invites reconsideration of the actual scope of imperial power in East Asia.