Department of Sociology

This thesis provides a critical examination of the Korean thinker and historian Yu Deuk-gong (1749–1807), a leading figure of the Bukhak (Northern Learning) movement during the late Joseon Dynasty, through his seminal work Balhaego. It reconstructs the forgotten history of the Balhae Kingdom (698–926 CE), which had been neglected for nearly eight centuries, situating Yu’s scholarship within the broader East Asian intellectual transformation characterized by the decline of rigid Neo-Confucian orthodoxy and the rise of Kaozheng (Evidential Learning). The study argues that Yu was not a conventional historian but a reform-minded intellectual who sought to establish a critical and practical methodology of national historiography. He rejected the dogmatic Neo-Confucian worldview, emphasizing the pragmatic value of knowledge regardless of its origin, and articulated an early form of national consciousness by asserting that Balhae inherited much of Goguryeo’s legacy—thereby reaffirming Korea’s historical continuity. Drawing from Chinese, Japanese, and Korean sources, Yu applied comparative and analytical methods that reflected his engagement with Kaozheng scholarship and his pursuit of Korean intellectual independence. Structured into an introduction, four chapters, and a conclusion, the thesis explores: (1) the epistemological transformation that took place during the transitional period from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty in China (2) the intellectual background of late Joseon and the influence of evidential scholarship (3) Yu’s life, education, and scholarly networks; and (4) the structure, methodology, and nationalist implications of Balhaego. The study concludes that Yu Deuk-gong pioneered a historically critical approach that prefigured modern Korean historiography by combining empirical rigor with an emergent national awareness, and that Balhaego remains central to contemporary debates over Balhae’s historical identity between Korea and China.