| (1) T'ongsinsa and the
Flow of Choson Culture |
After the Waeran, diplomatic
relations with Japan were severed. Later, the
newly-formed Tokugawa Shogunate initiated relations with
Choson once again.
With this new diplomacy,
diplomatic activities were to be carried out by the
magistrate of Tongnae (Pusan) and the lord of Tsushima
Island. Waegwans (Japanese houses) were set up in Pusan
to permit diplomatic and trade activities, but Japanese
envoys were prohibited from entering Seoul.
At the
request of the Edo Shugunate, Choson decided to dispatch
T'ongsinsas to Japan.
Provided with a hospitable
reception, the procession of the T'ongsinsa, utilizing
both sea and land routes toward Edo, was magnificent.
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An
unusual painting by an unknown Japanese artist,
faithful recording the procession of a Korean
emissary to the Japanese Tokugawa Shogunate in
1655. | |
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| With the dispatch of
T'ongsinsa to Japan, the two countries exchanged
necessary items through the formality of gifts. Needless
to say, the rulers of Edo and the local lords en route
strove to obtain even higher cultural developments
through the T'ongsinsa procession. Books on metaphysics
and history as well as Buddhist sutras were thus
obtained by Japan. Poems, paintings and calligraphies
were also given to Japanese lords which stimulated
continuous developments in modern Japanese culture.
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| (2) Exchanges with China
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From its start, Choson
generally had friendly diplomatic relations with China.
First with Ming and then as Qing dominated the Chinese
continent, Choson developed diplomatic relations with
Qing.
Choson dispatched envoys to China each year,
some of which had political objectives, while others
promoted economic and cultural exchanges. That is,
through such envoys to China, articles for royal and
official use were exchanged in the form of tributes,
messages were relayed between the two countries and the
envoys also had the opportunity to engage in
international trade on the way.
The Chinese envoys
were comprised of men with high cultural training. On
visits to Beijing, the Korean envoys collected books,
observed its advanced culture and imported various
foreign elements from China. There were also activities
to exchange Chinese scholars. After returning home, the
envoys reported information to the king regarding the
continent through a list of their experiences.
There
were also highly intelligent Choson scholars who went to
Beijing to expand their cultural experiences such as
Hong Tae-yong, Pak Chi-won, Pak Che-ga, Yi Tok-mu. They
were the Pukhakp'a, the Northern School of Practical
Learning. |
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| (3) Introduction of
Western Civilization and Western Learning
|
In the course of making
contacts with the advanced civilization of China, the
Pukhakp'a posited that the Chinese should not be looked
upon as barbarians but their practical civilization
should be accepted. They also advocated the acceptance
and utilization of Western civilization along with the
Chinese.
The first Western foreigner to set foot in
Korea was a man named Sespedes who came from Japan with
the Japanese army during the Hideyoshi Invasion.
Afterwards, the Netherlanders Jan Weltree and three
others came in 1627, and Hendrick Hamel and a party of
36 men drifted onto Cheju Island in 1653. |
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illustration taken from Hendrick Hamel's
description of the Chosun Dynasty. This depicts
the Ducth ship which wrecked on the coast of Cheju
island
in 1653 | |
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However, they were not
influencial culturally.
Contacts between Korea and
Western civilization continued to take place in China
through Western missionaries in Beijing. Through such
opportunities, Western civilization and Western books
translated into Chinese flowed into Choson via
China.
Such imported Western civilization and books
translated into Chinese became, at first, merely objects
of curiosity among the intelligentsia of the latter
period of Choson. However, in the mid-18th century, Yi
Ik began to make a scholarly study of these books and
his disciples continued the research.
Study of
Western civilization basically dealt with two aspects,
materialism based on science and technology, and
spiritualism based on religion and ethics.
The
introduction of science and technology was attempted by
Kim Yuk, Hong Tae-yong and Chong Yag-yong, but these
efforts bore little fruit. Religion and ethics appeared
through the acceptance of Catholicism and the
realization of an ethical Christian life. |
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Ch'onju sirui : A western book translated
into Chinese characters by M. Ricci in 1603. It's
Hangul vession played a crucial role in the
construction of the Chosun cathoric church in
1784. | |
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| (4) Acceptance and
Persecution of Catholicism |
Yi Pyok, Kwon Il-sin, and Yi
Sung-hun, in the course of reading "The Lost Will of
God" and other books on Catholicism which were
translated into Han'gul, came to believe in the
existence of a Father in Heaven and created a church in
Seoul for the purpose of forming a Catholic community in
1784. The attempt to spread Catholicism suffered great
afflictions from its beginning. This is because the
government enforced a policy of prohibition and
oppression of Catholicism in order to guard the
orthodox.
As King Sonjo came to the throne succeeding
King Chongjo, persecution against Catholicism began. In
1801,1839 and 1846, persecution spread throughout the
country and many Catholic believers underwent great
hardships. In spite of these persecutions, the number of
Catholic believers continued to increase in various
regions of the country. People sought a new religion in
order to obtain a peace of mind which could not be found
in reality, which was wrought with social instability
due to the contradictions within the political powers
during this time. |
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The
steamer 'Emperor' at anchor off Kanghwado island
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| (5) Contacts by Western
Forces with Choson |
Since the 17th century, the
Western powers had been steadily infiltrating the East
via India and Indochina. Upon entering the 19th century,
these powers began The Opium War and The Arrow Incident
and maintained bases of operations for their continued
aggressions in China.
Finally, Western powers
appeared close to Choson. The first country to request
commercial trade with Choson was England. In 1816, two
British warships appeared on the southern coast and in
1832, a British civilian ship sailed to the coast of
Ch'ungch'ong-do requesting trade, but without results.
As England's competitor in the East, France appeared on
the coast of Ch'ungch'ong-do in 1846. Flying the
Tricolors on the flagship of its Far East Fleet, they
demanded commercial and diplomatic relations with
Choson. Before this, French missionaries sneaked into
Choson and as a result of their religious activities,
they were killed by Choson in the Kihae Massacre (1839).
Holding the Choson government responsible for this
atrocity, they filed strong protests.
Afterwards,
England and France repeatedly dispatched civilians and
warships trying to open the doors of commercial trade
with Choson, but they failed as a result of Choson's
closed door policy. They thus sailed away leaving only a
sense of crisis and strengthening Choson's hermit
policy.
In 1852, an American ship and two years
later, a Russian ship sailed in the Eastern Sea. The
people of Choson during this period feared the
Westerners, calling them foreign monsters. They haunted
Korea's shores even more frequently during the reign of
King Ch'oljong. |
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| (6) Impoverishment in Rural
Society and Folk Religions |
In the 18th century, under
King Yongjo and King Chongjo, restoration politics
stabilized society and an era of law and order
ensued.
But after King Chongjo, under the successive
reign of Kings Sunjo, Honjong, and Ch'oljong, the era of
Sedo (power) politics began. Political powers were
grasped and manipulated by members of the Queen's
family. That is, the Andong Kim and P'ung'yang Cho
families retained control of the government for 60
years. They were known as the Noron faction. Factional
politics meant that conflicting factions checked each
other to ensure that a monopoly of political power did
not arise. Towards its end, political power belonged to
one faction causing the destruction of many government
institutes and severe exploitation of people. Thus,
rural society was impoverished.
Bureaucrats corrupted
by the Sedo system exploited their power to rapidly
bring about the destruction of the three "Chongs" of the
government. The three Chongs refer to the three sources
of government revenue: farmland, military and
grain.
The local magistrates and officials used all
means possible to collect taxes and pocket it for
themselves, thereby increasing the burdens borne by
farmers. The national financial situation
worsened.
Still worse, famine and disease continued
to add to the hardships of rural communities. These
hard-pressed people at first appealed to the government
officials for relief, but no corrections were made.
Thus, angry masses rose up in rebellion with the poor
country Yangbans as their leaders. Such public uprisings
filled the people with alarm. Representative examples of
these public uprisings are Hong Kyong-nae's Rebellion
under the reign of King Sonjo, the rebellion of Chinju
during the reign of King Ch'oljong, and the Kaeryong
Rebellion.
As society fell into a state of confusion,
the people's lives were made miserable and many sought
religion. Confucianism and Buddhism had lost their
appeal and Catholicism was too strange to accept. Thus,
the people turned to folklore and beliefs in mysticism
and prophesies which were deeply rooted among the lower
classes. The prevalence of such folk beliefs bespoke of
a world of unrest. |
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| (7) The Establishment and
Growth of Tonghak |
With social confusion and
contacts with foreign powers in the background, another
religion known as Tonghak (Eastern Learning) made its
appearance. Tonghak was a religion created by Ch'oe
Che-u, a Kyongju yangban who had lost his economic
fortune. As a belief based on a strong sense of
nationalism, it was called Tonghak to signify its stand
against Sohak or Western Learning. Ch'oe Che-u overcame
the Confucian thoughts of the Yangban society, and stood
in conflict with Catholicism of the West, with this new
religion. This new religion combined the three thoughts
of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.
The basic idea
of Tonghak was that human minds are heavenly minds; that
is, heaven exists in the minds of humans. Tonghak
propagated the ideas of human salvation and equality
among promised blessings on earth, and proposed the
ideas of national peace, salvation of humanity, and
eternal youth.
In its philosophy, Tonghak was closed
to the theories of metaphysics and it emphasized the end
of the world and the creation of a new heaven and earth.
This doctrine was arranged during the time of the second
religious leader, Ch'oe Si-hyong, and appears in the
Tonggyong taejon and Yongdam yusa which are the "Bibles"
of Tonghak written for the intelligentsia.
When this
nationalistic and people-oriented religion of Tonghak
was introduced, it spread rapidly in the rural
communities of the three southern provinces.
The
government charged the Tonghak leaders with heresy and
executed Ch'oe Che-u, its founder for spreading heresy.
After the death of Ch'oe Che-u, Tonghak seemed to have
lost its force, but under the leadership of Ch'oe
Si-hyong, it planted even deeper roots among the masses.
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