유교의 공사관계(公私關係)와 조선왕조의 상피제(相避制)

All society makes clear division of the public(公) and the private(私) matters the social important base. This means that problem of public and private matters is given always at the point that individual life must be fulfilled in coexistence relationship with any other people. The public(公) is retaining meaning of ‘to join with people (共)’, ‘to intercommunicate with people (通)’ and ‘the fair (平分)’ etc. in ancient China. On the Warring Country period(戰國時代) in ancient China, the public and the private matters had a moral value by the public(公) being combine with righteousness(義) and ‘the private(私)’ with ‘the interest(利)’. The Neo-Confucianism takes the any affairs of the public matter if it is fit to the order of nature even if it is a individual's. The Neo-Confucianism treats a individual's work and a housework like a public affairs so long as they comply with principle of nature. The other way, the Neo-Confucianism look upon the outwardly public affairs as private affairs if the motivation and the attitude of the work are not based on the unalterable laws of the universe. The problem of public and private is closely connected with preventing abuse political power either in the morality or for the individual freedom finally. In the end, the problem of public and private may become a problem of how we can limit political power abuse and derive this exercise of power so that is used according to fundamental rule. If we can regard a society as a unceasingly transforming organic system, we can not devide into the public affairs and the private individual affairs uniformly. The Confucianism makes a evaluated grade of human group according to degree of a developmental moral step than individual ability or a component of his origin. This social stratification is distinction according to a social role part and a function of social structure system. Finally, the social authority and the duty according to the social status, and the relation between the protected private affairs and the responsible public affairs are not uniform but is having stratified gradation in Confucian view of society. Therefore, the relationship between the public affairs and the private affairs in the Confucian traditional society shows the functional relation as the higher social position class, the wider public ambit at the same time the less reduced private affairs.