본 논고는 한국에서 양명학 수용을 대표하는 하곡학파의 「原論」을 통해 이들의 역사인식과 사회비판론을 검토한 것이다. 후기 하곡학파 가운데 이건창과 이건방은 각기 당쟁으로 인한 폐단과 그 근본적 원인을 밝힌 「原論」을 지었다. 이들은 종형제간으로 같은 家學을 계승했을 뿐만 아니라, 친밀한 교유로 사상적 공감대를 형성하였다. 「原論」에도 이러한 부분이 잘 나타나 있다. 이건창의 「原論」은 당쟁의 원인을 포괄적으로 정리하여 8조목을 제시하였고, 이건방의 「原論」은 이를 “假道義論”으로 종합하고 국가의 쇠락과 외세침탈의 근본적 원인을 설명하였다. 이건방과 이건창의 「原論」에 나타난 역사인식과 사회비판논리는 앞서 이충익의「假說」,「君子之過說」에서도 확인할 수 있다. 이들은 모두 公論이 중시되는 정치원리와 당쟁이 격화되는 현실문제가 직결되는 상황을 인식하고, 공론에 의리와 명분을 제공하는 道學과 도의의 진실성 여부가 정치와 사회의 건전성을 결정하는 주요인이 된다고 여겼다. 따라서 이들의 「원론」은 구체적인 사건을 기술하여 시비를 가리는 당론서와 달리, 객관적 서술을 바탕으로 거짓 도학이 형성한 공론과 그 폐단을 문제삼고 원인을 규명하는 데 초점을 두었다. 여기서 거짓 도학의 실체를 명시하지는 않았지만, 그것은 송시열과 노론에 대한 비판이었다. 이들은 평범한 사람들의 일반적인 정서를 근거로 진가를 구분할 수 있다고 보고, 이를 통해 학문과 정치, 사회 전반을 비판하는 기준으로 삼고자 하였다.
This paper examines the historical understanding and social criticism theory of Hagok School, a leading school of the doctrines of Wang Yang-ming, in Korea, based on their book, ‘Won-Ron(原論)’ (meaning, The Origin). Written by Yi Gun-Chang and Yi Gun-Bang, Won-Ron analyzed the vice of party strife and the fundamental cause of such fraction in the politics, respectively. They were cousins, and as such they not only inherited their family scholarship together, but also established a common ideological ground among the family members as Yi Gun-Chang made a certain influence over Yi Gun-Bang and his brother Yi Gun-Seung, by throwing questions to them for academic discussion, and trying to have them join poetry meetings, etc. All such efforts were well reflected in Won-Ron. The chapters written by Yi Gun-Chang presented eight factors of cause of political strife, comprehensively, and the chapters written by Yi Gun-Bang synthesized those factors as “The untruthful theory of morality" and explained the fundamental cause of the decline of the nation and the foreign invasion of the time. Yi Gun-Bang and Yi Gun-Chang's historical understanding and theory of social criticism in Won-Ron were passed on to them from their family scholarship, which was clearly shown earlier in ‘The theory of untruth’, and ‘The theory of a gentleman’ fault written by Yi Chung-Ik. These two works of Yi Chung-Ik took the form of brief commentary on the contemporary society, but on their content they corresponded to Won-Ron. They all recognized that the political principle for which public consensus was critical, and the real-life issues for which strife of political parties escalated were directly connected, and thus concluded that truthfulness of Dohak(道學), a thought which they saw provided loyalty and justification to public consensus, would be an essential factor to determine the integrity of a society and politics. Therefore, their Won-Ron raised a question about the public consensus created by a deceptive Dohak, and focused on identifying the cause of the resulting issues based on an objective description, unlike the party opinion books which usually focused on distinguishing between right and wrong surrounding a specific fact. Although Won-Ron did not mention who the key figures of the deceptive Dohak were, it was in fact a criticism about Song Si-Yeol and the School of Noron(老論). The authors believed that truthfulness of something could be distinguished based on general feelings of ordinary people, and attempted to take it as the criteria to evaluate and criticize the overall scholarship, politics, and society.