本文以十九世紀以前中國與朝鮮歷史所見的實例為基礎，論述「儒家知識」與「政治權力」在中、韓兩國歷史中既密切的互動，但又極為緊張之關係。本文的分析指出：儒家知識以經世為其目標，而中、韓兩國國君為治理帝國，必須吸納儒家知識分子進入官僚體系，所以儒家知識分子與政治權力既互相依賴又互相滲透；但「知識」與「權力」畢竟是不同質的領域，兩者各有其不同的運作邏輯，所以儒家知識分子與掌握權力的帝王之間，有其永恆的緊張性。 本文共分四節，第一節引言，第二節分析中、韓歷史上，儒家知識與政治權力之互相依賴性與互相滲透性。本文第三節則分析兩者間之緊張性。所謂「緊張性」指在「知識」與「權力」的互動之中，常出現兩種緊張性，第一種類型的緊張性是指歷代帝王與儒家官僚這兩種人物的「政治自我」與「文化自我」，並互為緊張；第二種緊張性出現在「人民主體性」與「帝王主體性」之間的緊張關係之中。本文第四節則提出結論。

This article discusses the interaction and tension between Confucian knowledge and political power in traditional China and Korea. It has been argued that Confucianism aimed at ordering the world while the Chinese and Korean rulers needed to recruit the Confucian intellectuals to manage their countries. Therefore, the Confucian knowledge and political power in China and Korea became mutually dependent and infiltrating. However, as the modus operandi of knowledge and politics are asymmetrical, the tension between the two become unresolvable. The article is composed of four parts. The first section is an introduction. The second section analyzes the inseparability and infiltration between Confucian knowledge and political power in pre-modern China and Korea. The third tackles the tension between knowledge and power in the context of Chinese and Korean history. Two types of tension are discussed, namely, (1) the tension between the political self and cultural self of rulers and Confucian scholar-officials, and (2) the tension between the "people-centered subjectivity" and the "sovereigncentered subjectivity." Some concluding remarks are made in the final section.