Jeong In-bo (; ; June 19, 1893 – 1950?), or Chŏng In-bo, was a scholar of Yangmingism and Silhak, independence activist, and historian in pursuit of defining and tracing independent “Koreanness” in the context of Japanese rule. Jeong was involved in politics in the early years of South Korea after liberation, serving as a committee member of the Representative Democratic Council and later as the chair of the Board of Inspection in the government of the Republic of Korea under President Syngman Rhee.Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 88. . During the Korean War, Jeong was abducted to North Korea and is believed to have died there.Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 88. .
Biography
Early life Jeong In-bo was born in 1893, into a prestigious family as the grandson of Jeong Won-yong, Yeonguijeong in the era of King Heonjong and the only son of Jeong Eun-jo, who served as a government official at the Jeong 3-pum status. In his early years, Jeong studied under Lee Keon-bang, a renowned Confucian scholar specializing in Yangmingism.Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 88. .
Death With the outbreak of the Korean War, Jeong was abducted to North Korea and is believed to have died there. In 1990, Jeong was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation in the third grade, i.e., the Independence Medal, by the Korean government. In the next year, his spirit tablet was placed in the Seoul National Cemetery. In 2001, Yonsei University dedicated its Second Humanities Building to Jeong In-bo in honor of his achievements, naming it Widang Hall after his pen name.“History of the Campus Buildings,” Yonsei University, https://www.yonsei.ac.kr/en_sc/intro/building.jsp .
Career
Early career After the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1910, Jeong came and went between Shanghai, China, and Korea and joined in the foundation of a mutual aid society for the independence of Korea named ) along with other young scholars such as Sin Chaeho, Park Eun-sik, Shin Gyu-sik, and Kim Kyu-sik.Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 88. . After returning to Korea following the death of his wife, Jeong began teaching Hanja literature, Korean history, and Korean literature at Yonhi College (later Yonsei University). He also served as an editorial writer of The Dong-a Ilbo.Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 88. . When Sunjong of Korea died, Jeong wrote an epitaph for the imperial tomb of Yureung in honor of the deceased.In-bo Jeong, Collection of Damwon's Writings [담원문록], trans. Yang-wan Jeong (Paju-si: Tahksa, 2006). .
In the 1930s In the 1930s, Jeong continued writing for Dong-a Ilbo. The examples include Reading of Classic Works of Joseon (조선고전해제, 1931)In-bo Jeong, “Reading of Classics of Joseon (ep.17) ‘Wongyojib’ by Riwongyogwangsa [朝鮮古典觧題(十七） 李圓嶠匡師『 圓嶠集』]- Page 4 Culture” Dong-A Digital Archive, April 27, 1931, https://www.donga.com/archive/newslibrary/view?ymd=19310427 ., and Exposition of Yangmingism (양명학연론, 1933), and Joseon's Five Thousand Years of Ol/Spirits(오천 년간 조선의 얼, 1935–36). In Reading of Classic Works of Joseon (조선고전해제, 1931), Jeong introduced various classics from Joseon. In Exposition of Yangmingism (양명학연론, 1933), Jeong traced the history of Yangmingism in the Joseon period.In-bo Jeong, “Expositions of Yangmingism (Yangmyeonghak-yeonron)[陽明學演論 45]- Page 1 General,” Dong-A Digital Archive, November 27, 1933, https://www.donga.com/archive/newslibrary/view?ymd=19331107 . In addition, in the serialized essay for Dong-a Ilbo, Joseon's Five Thousand Years of Ol/Spirits (오천 년간 조선의 얼, 1935–36), Jeong delved into the history of “Koreanness” in the history of Joseon.In-bo Jeong, “Ep.9, The Revival of Goguryeo (ep. 6): Joseon's Five Thousand Years of Spirit/Ol [九、高句麗 再振（六） 五千年間朝鮮 「얼」]- Page 1 General,” Dong-A Digital Archive, December 31, 1935, https://www.donga.com/archive/newslibrary/view?ymd=19351231 . Through this series, along with his other works, he aimed to awaken Koreans to their rediscovery of “Koreanness” under Japanese rule.Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al., (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 91. . This attempt spread into Joseonhak Movement () led by Ahn Chai-hong, where the independence of Korean history and culture was revisited through the history of Silhak.“Textbook Terms Explained | History Net [교과서 용어해설 | 우리역사넷],” NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF KOREAN HISTORY, http://contents.history.go.kr/front/tg/view.do?treeId=0200&levelId=tg_004_2690&ganada=&pageUnit=10 . Jeong and Ahn participated in republishing the Collective Works of Yeoyudang(여유당전서, 1938). This book consisted of the complete written records of Chŏng Yagyong, a philosopher from the late Joseon period who is considered as a crucial figure in Silhak.Jeong-nam Kim, “[Oh, Korea-㊱] Collection of Yeoyudang Dasan's Writings,” World Korean, April 1, 2023, https://www.worldkorean.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=47437 .
After Liberation Following the liberation of Korea from Japanese rule, Jeong served as the chair of a subcommittee of the National Committee on Educational Planning (), also known as the Bureau of Education, which commenced its operations in September 1945 under the United States Army Military Government in Korea.Eun-gyong Kim, “English Education Under US Military Government (III),” The Korea Times, March 25, 2009, https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2017/03/181_41968.html . In the next year, Jeong served as a committee member of the Representative Democratic Council and published Studies of Korean History (조선사연구, 1935–36), which included contents from his serialized essay Joseon's Five Thousand Years of Ol/Spirits (오천 년간 조선의 얼, 1935–36).Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 88. . In 1947, Jeong held the position of dean at Kukhak College(now integrated into Korea University).Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 88. . After the formal establishment of the Republic of Korea, Jeong became the chair of the Board of Inspection under President Syngman Rhee. However, he resigned from that position shortly after a year.Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 88. .
Legacy
Joseonhak Movement Korean historians of the 1930s are described as belonging to three groups: (i) Chindan Hakhoe ()’s empirical approach to history validating primary sources, (ii) socio-political interpretation heavily influenced by Marxism to refute the Japanese view of Korean history put forth by Paek Nam-un, and (iii) a group of nationalist historians led by Jeong In-bo.Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 89. . This third group, or the nationalist historians, formed the core of the Joseonhak Movement, also known as the “Korean Studies Movement.” Against the backdrop of Korea under Japanese rule, Jeong urged for the clarification and development of an independent national culture based on the concept of “Koreanness”, i.e., the ideological foundation of nationalism. According to Jeong's ideals, the discovery of an independent national identity would help Korea to overcome the dominating Japanese colonial ideologies in fields such as culture and history.Sun-woong Choi, “Study on Jeong, inbo and Dong-A Ilbo - Collusion around ‘Joseonhak’ [정인보와 동아일보 - 조선학을 둘러싼 접점],” The Research for Korean Historical Figures [한국인물사연구] 1, no. 23 (2015): 33. For instance, in the essay Five Thousand Years of Korea's Ol/Spirit, Jeong writes as follows: “although I am not a historian, upon reading just one or two pages of the Japanese-written history books, I found it so difficult to suppress my rage at their cunning distortion that I began to write the book as an attempt to find Korea's spirit.”Gwang-ok Kim, “The Native Korean Intellectual Framework of National Culture in the Japanese Colonial Period,” Korean Anthropology Review 1, no. 1 (2017): 85. In the effort towards the Korean spirit(Ol) or true Koreanness, the Joseonhak Movement delved into the history of Korean thoughts through its historical research and shed light on the history of Silhak in the late Joseon period. Silhak highlighted practical and reality-focused aspects, which contrasted with the dominating framework of Cheng-Zhu School of Neo-Confucianism in the Joseon Period that instead drifted into metaphysical structures. Silhak was an important marker for Jeong because of its nature as the resisting response to the extrinsic thoughts- a dynamic that Jeong considered as necessary to rediscover for his time.Seung-ah Lee, Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era, ed. Christopher P Hanscom et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), 90. .
Exposition of Yangmingism (양명학연론, 1933)