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Chong Ta-san
A Study in Korea’s Intellectual History
GREGORY HENDERSON
Reprinted from The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. XVI, No. 3, May, 1957 Printed in U.S.A.
Keprinted from The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. XVI, No. 3, May, 1957 Printed in U.S.A.
Chong Ta-san
A Study in Korea’s Intellectual History
GREGORY HENDERSON
The internal political dissensions of the Yi period (1392-1910) provide a fruitful object of study for students of Korean history. Throughout all but its first decades they troubled the dynasty, eroding the effectiveness of government, introverting the intellectual concerns of the educated, narrowing access to needed new influences, producing social and political rifts which have become deeply ingrained. For all their faults, factional dissensions also brought marked political and intellectual stimulation, and are as important as any of Korea’s native institutional phenomena for the formation of her modern political life. Ending only with Yi power in 1910, these struggles still echo under the surface of Korean society.
Despite the lack of analysis in English so far, there is much material bearing on the story of this long political warfare.* 1 Source material was provided in bulk by the Korean scholar-officials who themselves waged the struggles. Control of government, of the land, and of economic privileges were certainly the prizes sought, and the methods employed were not always gloved but the combatants were highly literate and the arena usually literary and philosophic where entrants employed elegant and recondite phrases and where, to the superficial eye, at least, the impolite realities of power were not often allowed to intrude. Still, they did intrude enough for us to read the record. And the literary residue is great, an embarrassment of riches, a treasury also of puzzles. By and large, the scholars of no country have begun to exploit this material fully; Western scholars have not really started to exploit it at all. A piecemeal approach may be best; taking first the study of individual incidents, we shall be able eventually to unravel the many problems which stand between us and an understanding of Korea’s long and complex factional-philosophic history. This paper seeks to examine one such incident and its intellectual consequences.
Viewed in the perspective of the internal history of the Yi period, the incident in question was not a decisive one; not one of the most famous or fought-over decisions of the time. Yet the defeat of Chong Ta-san and what he stood for may have an important bearing on the tragic failure of Korea to adapt herself
Mr. Henderson is a Foreign Service Officer of the United States who has served in Korea, Japan, and Germany. He is currently a professor at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute in charge of training for Japan and Korea.
1 For reference on Yi-dynasty factionalism see Ko KwSn-sama, Chosdn chdngctii sah [History of Korean Politics] (Seoul: Rlyu munhwa-sa, 1948), pp. 31-79; and Yi Py6ng-do% Kuksa taegwand [General Survey of National History] (Seoul: Pomungak, 1956), pp. 381-390, 395-402.
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to the forces of the late nineteenth century. Certainly the incident, taking place toward the end of the dynasty, suggests the political conditions and intellectual attitudes with which Korea faced the tides of modern influence.
The life of a remarkable man gives framework for this factional incident. His personal name was Chong Yak-yongc, his more common pen name (ho), Ta-san-'',2 his long life, 1762-1836, saw Korea on the brink of modem times. Chong was a scholar, philosopher, and official, born in Kwangju, Kyonggi Province, near Seoul, the son of a provincial governor. His family stemmed from the province of Cholla in southwestern Korea and has been, even until the present day, closely associated with the town of Naju.
Son of a scholar-official family, Ta-san was privately tutored, as was the custom of his class and time, and was from his youth acquainted with the scholarlj’ pursuits of the age: literature, history, philosophy, mathematics, economics, and the calendar. His tutoring took place in his family and their circle, and was stamped with the strong views which this circle held on both philosophy and politics — both, since the one was inseparably connected with the other in the scholar-official tradition of the Yi period.
A consideration of the family traditions which were formative for Ta-san brings us deep into the political life of the Yi djmasty. Since the end of the fif- teenth century, the Korean court and governing bureaucracy had been riven by factions. Both the cause and the history of these factions are complex, but for some time before Ta-san’s birth the chief conflict was between two groups known as the Noron4 and the Namin'. The families of both Ta-san’s father and of his mother were prominent members of the Namin (“Southerners”) faction.3 In earlier periods, the Namin had held the power in the state; but in 1694 the Noron faction had completely defeated it, cast its members into retirement, and bestowed on their descendants a legacy of opposition which was to last, with varying degrees of completeness, until the end of the dynasty. .Among those who fell with the Namin was the grandfather of Ta-san’s mother, a famous scholar-painter of practical philosophic tastes named Yun Tu-so (ho: Kong-je)m. This scholar possessed a library containing many works on geography and eco- nomics. Ta-san early had access to this library and owed much to it. Not only what was read but what was spoken determined the direction of his develop- ment. Those great families who were the core of the opposition kept closely together, intermarrying and teaching each others’ children. We are told that Ta-san, while still a precocious child, came under the influence of the writings of one of the great opposition leaders — the great philosopher AT Ik (ho: Song-
2 A recent and authoritative account of Chong Ta-san’s life and work is the article by Professor Takahashi Toru5, “Tei Chazan no daigaku keisetsu”'1 (“A Study on Tybng Da San’s Philosophical Theory of Confucianism”) in Tenri daigaku gakuho, VII, No. 1 (Oct. 1955), 1-19. To this article and its author for much memorable conversation, I acknowledge a deep debt of gratitude. Cf. also Yi Sung-gyu‘, “Ch6ng Yak-yong,” a biography in Choson mydngin jon’ [ Biographies of Korean Eminents ] (Seoul: Chosbn ilbo ch'ulp ‘an-sa, 1939).
3 So called because the houses of many of the leaders who formed this faction were
located in the southern part of the city of Seoul. The term has no relation to the concept
of ‘‘South Korea.”
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ho)",4 one of the founders in Korea of a great Sino-Korean philosophic movement associated in the Ch'ing with the School of Han Learning and in both countries with opposition to the government and philosophic and administrative criticism of the established Chinese and Korean regimes. This movement, in whose tradi- tion Ta-san was educated, eschewed the abstract philosophic speculations then current and brought factual examination and critical proof to bear on real phenomena.
While Ta-san was still young, a political development of importance for his later career occurred. The Korean King Chbngjo (reigned 1777-1800), broke with the post-1694 Yi tradition proscribing the elevation to high position of Namin adherents and gave official advancement to a Namin leader, Ch'ae Che-gong°, a man so brilliant that, despite his faction, he succeeded in winning and retaining the King’s personal favor. Ch'ae was promoted to the highest positions and was able to bring into the government under his protection other Namin members. Among those appointed was Chbng’s father. Another family recipient of favor was the Yi family of Y5ju, Ta-san’s teachers and potent influences on his life. While the stage was thus set for Ta-san, still a precocious young scholar, to be appointed with a good chance for advancement, there were already portents that a young Namin career might be of brief duration. Che- gong’s success and the rise of his group created immediate opposition and in- creasingly bitter jealousy from the opposing Noron faction. Even among the Namin there was a conservative group opposed to Che-gong. From the time of Che-gong’s rise on, a constant search for pretexts to overthrow him was going on among his enemies. Even before Ta-san’s time, the Namin were accused of unorthodox and possibly even non-Confucian intellectual influences.
Such were the auspices under which Ta-san’s career started. In 1789, during the reign of Chongjo, Ta-san passed the civil examinations with great honor; the King himself is reported to have been much impressed by the young man’s original interpretations of the great Korean philosophers. Ta-san was given official appointment, at first to a junior position which even a Namin member might hold without incurring Noron jealousy. Showing ability in each post, he rose rapidly. In 1792, he was assigned to the Confucian Academy and, in the winter of that year, submitted, at the King’s order, the construction plans for the walls and palaces of the emergency capital at Suwon which remain to this day his greatest visible monument. With these plans he likewise provided descriptions of how to use the crane and pulley.5 Using these — for Korea- — revo- lutionary methods, considerable expense was saved. From that day on, Ta-san was a favorite with the King, was rapidly promoted, became Councilor of the Military Board, and attained a number of fine posts and honors. He was con- stantly consulted in secret council by the King, and his opinions were of great influence. He was a frequent user of the royal library and printing office, and was allowed to read rare and valuable books, both Korean and foreign, belonging to the King’s personal collection. Among these appear to have been some books
4 For Yi Ik (1682-1765), see biography in Choson myongin jon, pp. 333-336.
6 Choson myongin jon, p. 324.
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reflecting Western influence or at least mentioning Western activities and religion as they affected China. Such records seem to have been included in the reports exchanged annually with the tribute missions to and from the throne at Peking. Such books were not for public consumption, and the privilege — and even the danger — of reading them wras greater than it might appear. For though Korea was the first country in the world to develop wide use of movable-type printing for books, the concept of the printed word as a means of general, popular dis- semination was unknown; exclusiveness and strict control of information re- mained unquestioned after centuries of printing in Korea. It was, indeed, in the Yi atmosphere of jealous surveillance over intellectual life and the printed word that Ta-san fell into the trap constructed by his enemies.
While he was still young and far from controlling the court, Ta-san’s rise had whetted the envy of the Noron faction. The champions of the ecumenical Con- fucian orthodoxy of the Sung philosopher, Chu Hsi, which had been the pillar of the Yi regime since the middle of the sixteenth century, if not before, this faction regarded the practical scientific ideas of Ta-san somewhat as earlier Catholics had regarded the experiments of Galileo. In the narrow and highly isolationist Korean world of the time, Ta-san’s very reading and broad culture probably raised eyebrows. Between Ta-san’s inquiring and experimental instinct and the vested conservatism of the older court ranks, the fines formed and a crisis loomed.
The issue, when it came, proved to be symptomatic of this inbred atmosphere. Yi Ka-hwan, the most illustrious member of the Yoju Yi family6 at whose knees Ta-san had studied, had become his brother-in-law, a status which, in Korean society, usually meant very close brotherly ties. Ka-hwan’s own brother-in-law was, in 1783, appointed Ambassador (i.e., head of the annual tribute mission) to Peking. The new Ambassador’s son, Yi Sung-hunp, who had been studying with Ta-san and other friends for the civil examinations, joined his father’s mission. Before leaving, this young man had apparently come in contact with a Korean who knew something of Catholicism and was very anxious to know more. Interested himself, and at the behest of his friend, young Yi visited one of the Catholic churches then established in Peking. There he talked at length with the priests, told them about his country and the difficulties and dangers of establish- ing contact with it, became an enthusiastic convert (Korea’s first), and returned home with copies of the Chinese Bible and other Western books, determined to spread his new-found faith. The letters written to Rome about these conversa- tions by the Catholic fathers whom Yi Sung-hun met are among the earliest Western sources on Korea.7
Any such foreign contacts had to be carried on in the greatest secrecy in the
6 Ydju is a town not far southeast of Seoul. The family relations in this incident throw much light on the ingrown, tightly-woven composition of the factions.
7 Akagi Nihei, “Chosen ni okeru tenshukyd no ryunyu to tenrei mondai ni tsuite” (“fiber das Einfliessen des Christentums in Korea und die Ritusfrage”), Shigaku zasshi, LI (1940), 716-717. Yi Shng-hun was baptized in 1782 by the Portuguese priest in Peking known as Mgr. Alexandre de Gouvea.
CHONG TA-SAN
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Korea of that time; the events and persons involved in the introduction of Chris- tianity into Korea are, with all due deference to the good Abbe Dallet,8 still shrouded in much mystery. Exactly what books besides the Bible were brought in is uncertain. Some materials on Western philosophy and science seem to have been included. It seems apparent that Western philosophy and theology caused much excitement among the young men of a society keyed to philosophical studies, that Western scientific learning impressed Ka-hwan’s circle — and per- haps Ta-san in particular — and that, possibly, the illicit character of this learning added to its attractiveness. Under the guise of preparation for the official ex- aminations, the new books were devoured by Ta-san and his circle. Their content and, to some extent, the Catholic faith itself, seem to have made considerable progress among his friends and family. Ka-hwan himself became a Catholic convert and translated the Bible into Korean. At least one of Ta-san’s brothers seems also to have entered the faith. There has been for the hundred and fifty years since much argument as to whether Ta-san himself became a Christian secretly or not.9 The evidence will probably never be conclusive. It is more important to note two things, first, that Ta-san was certainly a Confucian in a far deeper sense than he was a Christian, secondly, that his ideas and accomplish- ments do appear to show some Western and Christian influence. Philosophically, Ta-san’s un-Confucian belief in some sort of a Creator is the most frequently cited example of apparent Christian influence on him.
In the succeeding years, Christian activity increased in Korea. Chinese and even disguised French priests stole across the border, secreted themselves in the Korean countryside, and, apparently successfully, proselytized. This early success, under such extraordinarily difficult conditions, is interesting. Chris- tianity has always been proportionately far more successful in Korea than in China or Japan.10 In later years, its success was partly a function of protest against the Japanese. It is interesting to speculate that its success in the eight- eenth century may also have indicated popular dissatisfaction with the Yi regime. However this may be, its activities increased the tenseness of the political atmosphere at the Korean court and added fuel to the flames of the factions. In 1795, a Chinese Catholic priest hid himself in Seoul.* 11 At the same time, evidence of pleas by Korean Christians for outside help against the Yi Dynasty are said to have been uncovered. The discovery of these Christian “cells” gave rise to a new wave of reaction against all those suspected of some contact with
8 Abb6 Charles Dallet, Histoire de I’figlise de Coree, (Paris, 1874), pp. 13-36. In his desire to glorify the early history of Catholicism in Korea, the Abb6 appears to have dilated on his sources considerably.
9 Takahashi T5ru, pp. 4-7. Most of Chbng’s relatives and decendants were Catholics.
10 The number of Christians in Korea today is reported as 166, 732 Catholics and 849,608 Protestants (includes Presbyterians, Methodists, and Holiness Church only), see Hanguk ydngam [Korea Annual ] (1956), p. 300; whereas Japanese Christians number 271,399 Cath- olics and 246,232 Protestants, see Kirisutokyo nenkan [ Christian Annual ] (1956), p. 492.
11 The priest’s name was Chou Wen-mou (in Korean, Chu Mun-mo)5. For this incident see Dallet, pp. 69-81, and Yi Nung-hwar, Choson kidokkyo kup oegyo sa* [History of Korean Christianity and Diplomacy ] (Seoul, 1925), I, 138-145.
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GREGORY HENDERSON
Western thought. Ta-san and his brothers all came in for sharp criticism for playing with the fire of non-Confucian thought and Western influence. The Noron faction, in its long search for a pretext to discredit Ta-san, now had its weapon. Ta-san was accused by persistent “rumor” of harboring Christian germs, of perhaps secretly plotting to overthrow the regime itself. As evidence, the Christian conversion of his brother and some of his friends was brought against him — a clear case of guilt by association. Ta-san’s mention, in one of his own works, of a Creator was also cited. His malefactors argued that Ta-san, behind a usually healthy Confucian exterior, was dangerously infected with seditious Christian doctrine.
To allay criticism, to afford opportunity for further investigation, and to test his fidelity, Chongjo sent Ta-san as magistrate to the minor district of Kum- j5ng,12 whose inhabitants were among those influenced by Christianity. There, Ta-san was successful in admonishing the people to return to their traditional ways. Within the year, he was recalled to Seoul as Vice Chief Secretary of the King’s Secretariat. The tongues of his enemies could not be silenced. Perhaps they used the time to gather small pieces of evidence or fabrication. Ta-san again “fell from the capital” and was sent as magistrate to Koksan. Again in grace, he was recalled to Seoul in 1796 and made Councilor of the Board of Punishments, where his decisions became known for their clarity and soundness of judgment. In 1799, however, the great Namin official Ch'ae Che-gong died, followed the next year by King Chongjo. Ta-san lost in them his great protectors. The Noron worked untiringly to establish itself with the next king, Sun jo, and Ta-san’s position rapidly became untenable. He submitted his resignation and, with his brothers, returned to Soch'on,13 where he taught and studied the Classics in a study which he named “The Hall of Hesitations.”
He was not to be left in peace. In 1801, with the Noron in complete and vin- dictive control, charges were brought against him and he was twice imprisoned. His Christian brother was executed; another brother was exiled to a small island. Ta-san himself, though actually given a death sentence, was reprieved for lack of evidence and exiled to Kangjin. Around 1808, through the intercession of friendly officials, he was permitted to move to the place in Cholla Province from which he took his most famous pen name, Ta-san. Here he lived the life of a retired literatus in a mountain pavilion owned by a sympathetic colleague; he made a pond and garden, planted trees and flowers, led a stream into the grounds, and contrived a waterfall, which long were famous. In the east and west pavilions was a library of one thousand volumes, and he gave himself up to uninterrupted study and writing. In 1810, his son appealed his father’s sen- tence. In 1818, another appeal was made; it was sustained and all charges were removed. So the incident had ended and had opened the way for Ta-san’s accom- plishments in literature and thought. For the remaining years of his long life, the aging philosopher read, wrote, and traveled, dying in 1836 at the age of seventy-five.
12 A district in South Ch‘ungch‘8ng Province near the west coast.
13 A village near the town of Kwangju, Ky6nggi Province, near Seoul. Ta-san was born in this neighborhood.
CHONG TA-SAN
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N o Korean author, certainly none of his stature, is the peer of T a-san in scholarly productivity. On Confucian classics, his main theme, he wrote two hundred and thirty fascicles ( kwon ) : on politics some seventy-eight, on phonetics some fifty, on geography forty -two; there are eighteen fascicles of poetry and some twenty others on medicine and other subjects.14 Besides these there are unpublished manuscripts. Outstanding among his writings is the Mongmin simsdx [A True Guide to Governing the People ], a compendium on administration finished in 1824 when the author was sixty-three years of age. Even in modern format, Ta-san’s works would run to scores of Western-style volumes. Not in fecundity alone but in the quality, incisiveness, and modernity of his thought Ta-san is outstanding and is probably to be accounted the most commanding and original thinker in Korea’s intellectual history.
The study of this history is still in its infancy, and the significance of Ta- san’s work has yet to be fully described and appraised. A brief, preliminary appraisal requires some examination of Yi-dynasty philosophy and its relation to contemporary Chinese currents of thought.
The regime which Yi Tae-jo began in 1392 was founded on the rock of complete acceptance of Ming policies and philosophy. Ming thought generally espoused the interpretation of the Chinese classics formulated by Chu Hsi as orthodox. Korea followed suit with the enthusiasm of the convert. Far more, even, than in Ming China, the word of Chu Hsi in Korea was law; one could criticise Con- fucius if necessary, but Chu Hsi was beyond cavil or doubt. Criticism of Chu Hsi in Korea was tantamount to subversion against the state power from which few in the narrow peninsula could escape.
After the fall of the Ming, China’s most vital intellectual traditions became disenchanted with Chu Hsi orthodoxy. The fall of the world’s largest nation to a small outside power of inferior culture led serious Chinese thinkers to question, to attack, and to revise the thought of the fallen empire. In an almost protestant reaction, the Ch'ing scholars returned to ancient texts, urged study that would be critical and objective, argued for state theories that would be more practical, inveighed against the abstract, intuitional orthodoxy of Chu Hsi. Allied to this reaction was the political position of the famous Ch‘ing scholars — one of opposi- tion to the conservative Manchu regime.
Korea in general, had no such dynastic break, no such dramatic stimulus to re-examine her adopted orthodoxy. Allegiance to Chu Hsi held on, sanctified by unbroken dynastic tradition. Hence the main intellectual currents of Korea increasingly diverged from those of China after the Ming period.
Still, though it lacked the breadth and conviction it had among the Chfing scholars, a minority Korean opposition to the orthodox philosophy did develop. The Manchu victory did cast a certain shadow over the peninsula; several scholars like Yi Ik asked whether Korea’s disdain of the Ch'ing and spiritual allegiance to defeated Ming ideals was either practical or constructive. Even
14 Among the most important of these are: Kydngse yup‘yo‘ on economics; Aon kakpiu on philology; Humhum sinsov on politics, and Abang kan’gyok kow on geography. On Ta-san’s medical works, see ChSng In-bo, “Ta-san sQnsaeng ui saeng'ae wa 6pch‘dk,” Tamwon kukhak sango (Seoul, 1955).
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GREGORY HENDERSON
more compelling were the pressures of internal politics and the factions. Officials were no longer appointed by merit but were degraded or rewarded by factional victory. Frequently the most gifted scholars were the most likely to be vilified, as in the instance of Ta-san. The Korean political system thus bred its own opposition. In the nature of Confucian behavior, the retired official wrote and, inevitably, criticized the established order which had rejected him. Retreating from the jealous eyes of the capital his study lay in a rural community. Here was the origin of the “grass-roof protest” which was so important a part of Korea’s intellectual traditions.
Ta-san was the greatest of the “grass-roof protesters” of Korea. He was fortunate in being, in a sense, linked to two great Confucian opposition move- ments: that of the Ch‘ing and that of his own Namin faction, which already included such names as Yi S6ng-ho (Yi Ik), An Chbng-bok (Sun-am), Hong Tae-ySng, Pak Chi-w6n, Yu Hyang-w6n (Pan-ge), and Pak Che-ga. Added to these influences was a strong instinct for government trained by national, class, and family traditions and seasoned in career. Ability, learning, an encom- passing curiosity, and the tart of unjust exile drove Ta-san to detail the wrongs he saw, to give them systematic analysis, sharp correction.
In so doing, Ta-san borrowed from both Ch'ing and Western thought. In a manner almost reminiscent of the thinkers of the European Renaissance he took from various new intellectual streams, applied his borrowings to philosophy and practical problems alike, and achieved a little of that striking combination of scope and versatility which we admire in the sixteenth-century Italians. Sadly, Ta-san’s political defeat and his culture’s traditional hostility to technology frustrated more of those practical applications in engineering and architecture which were so striking in Europe. Suwfin’s fortifications, almost alone, remain of Ta-san’s efforts in technology. Yet the stimulus to practical creativity was there. Ta-san succeeded in making a clear break with the Yi period’s endless philosophical speculations on the nature of the “ether,” “form,” and “matter.” An instinct for the practical, a plea that ethics, principles, and government should be useful to men, runs like a metallic thread through all his works.
Criticism is the other penchant of his thought. He came by it both naturally and traditionally. Defeat, exile, and a critical nature were his personal goads; the Ch'ing School of Han Learning and his own Namin tradition were his intel- lectual precedents. In his works, criticism and new inquiry constantly combine. His theory of a Creator was both Christian-influenced and an implied criticism of Chu Hsi’s static world; earlier posited, more widely accepted, it might have borne philosophic, even scientific fruit. The thousand illustrations of bad govern- ment in the Mongmin simsd are manifestly drawn from experience with Yi administration; the corrections to them which Ta-san formulated show an immediacy and objectivity not typical of Yi thought — a stimulus, perhaps, from the School of Han Learning. Most striking and modern of all was his Yojongov, a thesis on landholding and operation in which Ta-san developed a theory of rural community landownership. Postulating a collective farm system designed to increase the quality and quantity of production and ensure greater
CHONG TA-SAN
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equity in distribution, Ta-san suggested alloting the total product to the farmers on the basis of the amount of labor contributed by them, a certain percentage being allocated first for taxes. Here again, the protest against Yi social inequities is clear, the influence of ideas from outside Korea highly probable.15
A man so critical and inquiring in his own time has aroused renewed interest in recent years. North Korean scholars in farfetched attempts to find native precedent for communist programs have fastened on the Yojongo as an adumbra- tion of the kolkhoz and present his poetry as that of a kind of pre-communist social reformer. The real importance of Ta-san’s work as a whole is quite differ- ent. It shows us that the rigidity of Yi-dynasty thought was not absolute, that some foreign influence did enter to generate the beginnings of what could have been a new outlook. The incipiently scientific thought of Ta-san, properly nur- tured, might have provided an effective mental framework to which Koreans could have referred in the traumatic days of adaptation to Western culture.
Unhappily, Ta-san’s thought could not succeed in putting down strong roots in late Yi soil. Even his own group, the Namin, succumbed to the general intel- lectual decline after Ta-san and turned to jealous and petty politicking. The phenomenon of Ta-san became a curiosity within his own culture. A curiosity, but an arresting one which, however abortive, gives us a unique revelation — one is tempted to say expose — of the operation of the Yi political system in all its details.
The details are vivid. We know what governors did when they left Seoul for their posts, whom they bribed and how much, how they made trips, who paid the bills, who met them on arrival, and with what sort of welcome, with what dishes and music they were entertained, and who approached them for favors. It is not a novel; but it is at times as cohesive and coolly analyzed as Stendhal. It is in no sense a democratic treatise, despite its rather pious title. Yet we see that every mistake, each piece in the anatomy of corruption, is an added burden on a farming people which can bear no more. There is pungency and bite behind the stately Confucian periods; Ta-san’s advocacy of unsentimental reform had the instincts of a Swift.
Not that there was no nonsense about him. Like certain of the old squire literati of Europe, he shared some of the superstitions, formality, and love of ceremony of his age. He is worried about the number of paces distance from which the governor’s household should bow to greet him, how they should be arranged, in what direction they should face. He takes processions seriously and prescribes what banners should be carried. Manners and their symbols were important; he was not a radical in minor ways. He dealt with life as he knew it. One senses
16 Takahashi T5ru, “Chosen gakusha no tochi heibun setsu to kyosan setsu,” [“Korean Scholars’ Theory of Equal Land Division and the Communist Theory”] in Hattori sensei kogi shukuga kinen rombun shu (Tokyo, 1936), has an excellent discussion of the various views involved. A recent North Korean translation of passages from the Ydjdngo with comment is: Ch'oe Ik-han, “Chhng Ta-san chakp'um jSn” in Chosdn munhak, No. 4 (April 1956), pp. 124-143. (The same magazine contains an article by Yun Se-p‘yhng, “ChQng Ta-san kwa kii hi siga,” translating certain poems of Ta-san which, the author believes, af- ford insight into social and political conditions.)
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his recognition of a system in the society around him and an appraisal of the function of that system. If he accepts its embellishments, it is with remarkable critical reserve. Processions are good, but no presents should be accepted en route. Flags are commendable, but too many will cost too much. And so his model governor goes, winding down the narrow path between ineffective reti- cence and burdensome extravagance. In the study of Yi-dynasty politics, nothing is more instructive than what Ta-san tells us about how this path was bounded.
Ta-san could inveigh, publish, and prescribe social medication. But he could not reform the Yi system. Ingrained in its ways, increasingly monopolized by an ingrown social caste, ever more widely and openly corrupt, the ancien regime lingered on, unable either to reform itself within the Confucian pattern or to read the import of the new tides from the West. Ta-san also did not live to see their fullness; his life v'as fretted in their earliest ripples in his country. It is interesting to speculate on what might have happened had his broader and more practical view prevailed with his dynasty. Not even a host of Ta-san’s could, surely, have saved Yi power. Yet more men of Ta-san’s ilk wyould almost cer- tainly have written constructive chapters into the record of Korea’s adaptation to the West; they might well have prolonged Korea’s independent existence. Even today, long after Confucianism has yielded place to the West as the prime cultural influence on Korea, Ta-san’s social consciousness and pragmatic thought retain a certain pertinence.
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The Independent publishes the following interesting note from the Rev. H. G. Ap- penzeller, of the Methodist mission in Seoul, Korea, under date of September 13:
Western medical scicnco has reached the throne of Korea, anlPboth the king and queen are now treated by foreign doctors. The “ Ko- rean Government Hospital,” in charge of Drs. II. N. Allen and J. W. Ileron, has been such a , success among the natives as to recommend itself favorably to the attention of his majesty. The king, from the beginning of the medical - work here, has taken a lively interest in it, and the doctors had but to make their wishes known to him and their requests were granted. For some months past the king received medi- cines from Dr. Allen at his private otfice. During the recent cholera epidemic his majesty sent for a large supply of carbolic acid. Dr. Annie J. Ellers came to Seoul under the aus- pices of the Presbyterian Missionary Society, in July. In August the queen was taken sick, and Miss Ellers was sent for and has been very successful in her treatment. The native court physicians have been dismissed from the pal- ace, and our doctors have thus a clear path before them.
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The cause of religious liberty iu Korea has undoubtedly been retarded by the at- tempt of France some months ago to secure a treaty clause granting full religious tole- ration. It was a failure, the bare proposal having caused much excitement and opposi- tion in official circles. The old edicts are still in force, and it is thought that Koreans embracing Christianity might even be iu danger of death.
On the other hand, while no open preach- ing is allowed, the quiet exertion of personal influence with individuals is evidently treated with connivance. No signs or placards which indicate Christian propagandism are tolerated. Mission schools, however, have been started and hospitals established, and an orphanage has been founded under even enthusiastic royal sanction. While the schools of the missionaries are watched to see whether there is any endeavor to teach religion, private conversations are not dis- allowed.
Our United States minister, Capt. Will- iam II. Parker, has taken a step in ad- vance by opening the first public religious service in the English language at the American Legation. This is a right granted by treaty, and is undoubtedly justifiable.
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Mrs. Arthur G. Welbon While her husband in response to a cable- gram was on his way to the United States from Chosen, Mrs. Arthur G. Welbon, mis- sionary in Chosen for twenty-six years, died at Maryville, Tcnn., July jo.
Mrs. Welbon (Sadie Harvey Nourse) was born July 2, 1872, at Cairo, W. Va. She was appointed to Chosen Mission in 1899. There she met Mr. Welbon and they were married in 1901. Her interest in the pioneer missionary task of her husband, itinerating and establish- ing classes and churches in the country dis- tricts, gave her great opportunity to meet the women. While her husband talked to the men, she gathered the women about her and taught them and learned their needs. But it was this very work which exhausted her vitality. Ex- posure to all kinds of weather, added to the heavy physical strain of climbing steep moun- tain trails and fording streams finally broke her splendid strength. In one year she covered 3,000 miles of hard country travel. In 1919 she was forced to return home, and has been in the United States ever since.
Mrs. Welbon is survived by her husband and children.
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NEWS FROM THE FRONT
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CHOSEN
Miss Jane Samuel writes from Syen Chun : The work here is perforated with empty spots where Miss Helstrom has been working so faithfully and well. These spots need her now more than ever. I have been* able to have eight large country and circuit classes — in various combinations with our two Biblewomen, we’ve had seventeen classes. Our troubles with smoke, charcoal fumes, cold, crowds, etc., are all over. Next Monday we begin our Bible Institute in a perfectly comfortable building. We are now buying land for our Dormitories. We are glad to report that our new Government has assured us that the school can continue, so we are proceeding with our plans. The most interesting feature of our fall classes each year is the annual meeting of our Women’s Missionary Society, a popular meeting where their own missionaries gave Interesting reports and an executive meet- ing where all the reports were received and next year’s work planned. They are sup- porting twelve out of the eighteen mission- aries supported by our Presbytery. I have been interested in hearing how they get the money, for Korean women have no money. One young woman whose family wouldn’t let her have money for the missionary so- ciety got ten eggs and gave them to a poor woman nearby ; when the chickens were big enough to sell, they divided the profits and both became members of the mission- ary society. One old lady wanted to belong here but couldn’t earn anything and hadn’t a tiling to sell. Her brother thought she needed a new skirt, and gave her one yen. "Joy!” says the old lady, “I don’t need a new skirt, I'll give my money to the missionary society.” One old lady who was very ill said, “I am ashamed to go before my Lord without ever belonging to the missionary so- ciety. The only thing I have is a brass rice
bowl — I’ll not need it again, sell it and give the money to the missionary society.” So she was a member for several days before going home.
KOREA.
There has been trouble again in Korea, and mat- rs there are quite unsettled. The last excitement was caused by an attempt on the part of the Chinese representative at Seoul to accomplish the death of four of the most enlightened und trusty men in the country. His object was evidently to get these men out of the way so that no one of influence and ability could be found to oppose the Chinese claims to sovereignty and the various schemes to thwart the will of the people. It is probable that the result will be the opposite of what was intended, and the man who originated all the trouble will be deprived of his position and power in Korea.
The missionary work in the land is looking more
f*'' and more hopeful. Dr. Allen has been decorated
queen. In this way the confidence of those high- est in power is being secured, and the hatred and
^ H prejudice of the past will be removed.
It has been predicted that if the king and queen
would only become Christians all the nation would
. follow. That the first may be the case is among
the possibilities of the future. The missionaries at
Seoul need our most earnest prayers for wisdom and grace to guide them in their important posi-
Cr and more hopeful. Dr. Allen has been decorated for his distinguished services, and is honored with the position of third rank in the kingdom. He is thus enabled to visit the palace and attend the king in person, and Miss Ellers, M.D., attends the queen. In this way the confidence of those high-
Wear Foreign Costumes It adds much to the interest when missiona ries wear their “foreign” costumes while speaking. A newly organized group of West- minster Guild girls in California gazed with joy at Miss Jean Delmarter (one of their dinner guests) in her fascinating Korean white dress, carrying her chop-sticks in their embroidered chop-stick bag. Rare joy it was to watch Miss Delmarter eating with chop- sticks what they were eating with forks. It cost the missionary very little trouble and not the least embarrassment, and the eighteen girls know decidedly more about Korea than they would have known had she just talked to them about her beloved field.
I
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1891.] PRACTICAL CONFUCIANISM AND PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY IN KOREA. 595
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PRACTICAL CONFUCIANISM AND PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY
IN KOREA.
BY REV. SAMUEL A. MOFFETT, PYKNG YANG.
On a recent trip to this, the second city of Korea, I rested on the Lord’s day in a small village, where I witnessed what gave me an insight into the utter heartlessness of heathenism. Soon after breakfast my boy came in saying that there was a poor fellow dying out on the roadside. Going out, I found a man somewhat past sixty years of age lying on a rough litter. He was covered with frost, having lain there all night, and was very weak, though able to talk. Upon inquiry I learned that he had been taken sick on the road five days before, and that, according to the custom which now prevails, he had been placed upon this litter by the men of the nearest village, and by them carried to the next village, where lie was dropped at the side of the road. The people of this village, in turn fearing lest he should die on their hands and his spirit remain to haunt them and work them mischief, hurried him on. Thus the poor man had been carried from village to village, left to lie all night in the rain or frost without covering, without food, or medicine, or any attention beyond that of being roughly carried on and dropped again. For five days ho had been so treated, and his strength was almost gone. I suggested that 6ome one give him food ; but no, not one was so minded ; so buying a table of food I fed him with some rice-water. After eating a little the old man looked up gratefully, saying, “ Now I shall live,” and then he pleaded to be taken care of for two or three days, until he should have strength to go on. I urged the people to give me a room where he might be made comfortable, promising to pay for his food and fuel. They flatly refused, and were preparing to carry him on. Turning from them I spofe to him of Christ, of forgiveness of sin, and relief from pain. lie seemed to understand, and brightened up a little. After praying with him I turned again to the people and said some pretty plain things about their inurder- ino- the man. This seemed to arouse their consciences a little, and the spokesman of the village began to talk of finding a room. Asking me about his food, he named an exorbitant sum as necessary in order to keep him a few days. 1 agreed to furnish the amount, and told them to prepare the room while I went to get the money.
Entering my room at the inn several followed, saying that it was very kind in me to thus care for the man, but that the people did not want to take him in. Again I urged and offered more money, but while talking others came in to sav that they had already carried the man off. They had gone but a few miles when the poor fellow died, and there they buried him.
Talking to those people, I felt like a prophet of old as I told them of
596 PRACTICAL CONFUCIANISM AND PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY IN KORii
a judgment to come, and called upon them to repent ere they were c.. before God to answer for the deed of that day. However, pity rather than indignation fills my mind as 1 think of this poor, degraded people, even their sense of humanity blunted under the system of misgovernmdnt and oppression and the teachings of those who are professed Confucianists.
Not long after this I passed along the main street of this city of Pycng Yang and witnessed another incident revealing the degradation of this people. Before me were a lot of boys tugging away at ropes attached to a straw mat, in which was the body of a man who had just died on the street. The boys were shouting and laughing and making gay sport as they dragged this corpse along. This took place on the main street of the capital of the province, the boys being the errand boys of the mer- chants, who sat among their wares laughing at the frolic the boys were having.
Upon returning to my rooms I spoke of wha)t I had seen, and was told by' my boy that the night before he had seen an old man lying in front of one of the main public buildings on this street. The old man had just been thrust out of an inn and left to die on the streets on that bitterly cold night. It may have been this body' that I saw thus dragged through the streets, but I am told that such cases arc not so infrequent but that there may have been two in one day.
Is this practical Confucianism which professes to pay the greatest re- spect to the aged and to the dead ? This is not an exceptional case, such as might occur in the slums of a large city, but it took place in the sight of all on the main street in the city', where dwells the governor, who in his zeal for Confucianism has recently established anew a Confucian school.
Christianity has not as yet very many adherents in Korea, but already these few show a greatly different spirit from the above. Last January, in this probably the most wicked city in Korea, it was my privilege to baptize eight men, giving us a church of ten members. They had been instructed in the Gospel for several months, had endured abuse and insult with courage and with a truly Christ-like spirit, and they soon showed that they had been imbued with the practical spirit of Christianity. Before theyr had been in the church a month they came to me with the proposi- tion that the first use of the little money they' had contributed should be forthe care of a little orphan child dying of starvation. I gladly accepted the propositioh, eager to encourage them in their Christ-like spirit. Thus practical Christianity is manifesting itself in Korea. Theoretical Con- fucianism contrasted with Christianity in a Parliament of Religions at Chicago is one thing ; practical Confucianism illustrated in Korea is quite another.
ulity in Lj>r^a.
NO CALL FOR TIMIDITY IN KOREA.
MRS. H. G. UNDERWOOD, SEOUL. Although Korea has always beeu consider- ed the most exclusive of nations, has, indeed, oon>e to be generally known as the ‘‘Hermit
Nation.” the short history of Protestant Mis- sions in that country is one of the brightest and most promising that can be found n all the annals of pioneer work. Rumors and sensational reports of mobs. persecutions, etc., have repeatedly helped to fill a column in the newspapers, so that almost the first question which a returned missionary is asked is *• But do you not find a great deal of government opposition? ” The simple fact however is that hitherto very little of such opposition has ever been met.
Two of the most open and outspoken mis- sionary workers in Seoul, one a Presbyterian and the other a Methodist, once took a trip together in the interior. Though they made no secret of their objrct, they were treated with the highest honor by the governors and magistrates through whose districts they pass- ed. One high official in particular, whose son had just returned from the goverment school in Seoul and who therefore must have known perfectly what their character and business were, sent them presents of the choicest dainties and loaded them with every atten- tion. Upon their return one of them was waited upon by the highest dignitaries of the state and urged to take charge of the govern- ment school where the sons of the noblest families are educated.
Later, the same missionary made another trip to the extreme north. After spending about teu days in one of the largest cities, he called before leaving upon the governor of the place. His Excellency apologized for not having himself called upon the missionary, and re- marked that he understood that Mr.
had been distributing a great many good books and that he was gieatly indebted to him.
Again, when one of our native Christians was arrested and thrown into prison by a pro- vincial magistrate, his superior in Seoul made the amplest apologies, ordered the man
145
’«02.] .Vo Call Jo,
released and feasted, and tried to explain the matter to the missionary by saying that the official who had caused the arrest had been a long time in the interior of the country, re- mote from the capital, and did not understand affairs.
In the very early history of Mission work in Korea, a colporteur who had been seized and whose books had been confiscated was set free with only an admonition to sell no more. A few days later his books were all > privately returned by the official himself, in
person, who told the man to go on with the good work, but to be careful.
Some of the heathen youths at the Hospital school, which is under government control, complained to the president of the hospital that one of their companions was a Christian (their real objection to him was on quite dif- ferent grounds) and requested his dismissal. The president replied, “Your teacher also is a Christian, but he is none the worse for that, and if you do not like to remain in the school with the young man, you may leave. ” He refused to dismiss the young convert.
Not only do we enjoy the good-will of high officials; we have received manytokens of royal favor. It is not without significance that the King and Queen on the royal birthdays and national holidays send to the physicians of the Presbyterian Mission ample presents of beef, pheasants, fruits, etc., the same as those sent to the Korean officials. They have also sent generous wedding presents and other gifts to the lady physicians who have treated Her Majesty. It is true that these physicians were in a certain sense Korean officials, but there is no mistaking the feeling of good will, passing easily into tolerance and confi- dence, which such acts indicate. Another in- stance of a similar character occurs to me.
Timidity in Korea.
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When Her Majesty, the Queen, after strictly secluding herself for two years, finally gave an audience, she invited the ladies of the lega- tion's and consulates, omitting, others of high rank, but her invitation expressly included the Presbyterian woman physician and the wife of the Presbyterian hospital physician. To realize the full significance of this, one needs to understand that throughout the East missionaries are usually considered inferior in rank to all officials and are very rarely in- vited to official entertainments of any kind.
Although public religious services are held several times a week in the Mission com- pound with singing which can be heard all through the neighborhood, and the people make no secret of their coming or going, and though government officials often call at our house, making numerous inquiries about our work which are always frankly answered, no one has ever laid hands on any of the na- tive worshippers, nor have they ever been threatened or forbidden to attend the services. It is true that in 1888 a note was sent to the consulates asking that Christian teaching be stopped, but as Korea just then had the best reasons for hostility to the French Jesuits and could not frown upon them without a pretence of silencing us also, we conclud- ed that this admonition was never intended except to save appearances, nor has it ever been other than a dead letter. The Korean Government has shown and we are confident, feels no hostility toward Protestant missions, but for political reasons they prefer that we should not force our doings upon their offici- al cognizance too openly. Nor is this necess- ary. There is more work ready at our hands than in many a day, alas! we can find hands for, and when that work is done, the way will be cleared for more.
KOREA.
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_ We regret that Mrs. Cnderwood has' been obliged on account of ilHhealth to return from Korea^-and we hope that her stay in the home land may be everything she desires.
Although Mrs. Underwood herself has not been able to engage in public speaking, Mr. Underwood has thoroughly magnetized many audiences and has enlisted several workers for his mission field.
Miss Susan Doty is working bravely in the Girls’ school, which is steadily progressing. She writes that the little girls are very nice, only just naughty to be interesting — about half of them are over ten years of age, the rest are younger. Chowgu, who was the oldest pupil, is married and is now in the school, teaching the Korean written language. She also studies and teaches the Bible.
The Christmas time was very pleasant, the children all had presents, some of them given by friends there. One gentleman in the political circle sent a large amount of candy, aad another friend gave each of the girls a bright new waist, better than she had ever had before. The magic lantern sent out by the Nebraska ladies is a source of great pleasure. Miss Doty says: “It is all just right. The lantern does beautifully and the selection of slides is a good one.”
While the mission was on the mountains during August there were many opportunities of presenting Christ as a Savior to the poor old ignorant men and women who came in from the country to see the mission- aries. Miss Doty writes: “As one of our number told
them of J esus, the look that came over the face of one, I can describe in no other way than by the passage, ‘ Who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?’”
Korea has been called the Infant Mission, and we rejoice that the vigorous cries for help are meeting with such hearty response.
Dr. and Mrs. Brown went out late last fall. Dr. Brown is a brother of our Dr. Mary Brown in Wei Hien, China.
Miss Victoria C. Arbuckle is under appointment by the Assembly’s Board to assist Miss Doty. She is a sister of Mrs. Iddings, in Guatemala.
Besides these there is quite a delegation from McCor- mick Seminary who expect to sail in August.
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BEHIND SEALED DOORS IN KOREA.
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ijsO ye gates!” upon receiving this note;
at the same time I almost trembled with a g sense' of my responsibility. And when I took g my seat on the covering spread in the d “ aung paung" and looked around on the 1. richly dressed ladies and waiting maids, I d longed to tell them the wonderful, sweet I story of “Jesus and his love;” but such 0 a step would be dangerous in the present state of affairs, so I could only pray the Lord to give me a place in the hearts of these people, that I might soon be able to influence them for Him. 1 talked to the ladies about different kinds of embroid- ery and chucked the babies under the chin. Mr. Yi soon brought in his beautiful little . child-wife in her wedding dress, as he told me. It was an elegant, scarlet, brocaded silk. Her head was covered with ornaments of gold, and pearls, and jade, and her little hands were laden with a large number of
rings. Mr. Yi was very polite to her, and evidently proud of her, but she was so shy that it was some time before she ventured to look at me. 1 could not help feeling sorry for the little thing and longing to have her set free — out in the sunshine, with hoop and skipping-rope, and merry boys and girls for company.
I cannot tell half the strange, rich things I saw in this queer, heathen home, nor of the bountiful feast placed before me and the decorous hospitality of my hostess; but I must say these Korean ladies are, in their own way, very < harming, and seem to possess both refinement and strength of character.
I am sure the time is not far off when we shall be allowed to teach them of Jesus.
Hattie G. Heron.
Seoul, Korea, Dec. 8, 1885.
BEHIND SEALED DOORS IN KOREA.
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Mr. Yi Hahkuin is the son of a Korean gentleman of considerable means. Though only fifteen years old, Mr. Yi has taken a course of study in the Government school, speaks a little English, has a position in the royal hospital, wears his hair on the top of his head, and has been the husband of a beautiful little black-eyed girl for more than a year.
A short time ago I invited Mr. Yi to bring his mother to visit me, never dreaming that his father would trust his wife in the house of a foreigner ; for all Korean ladies (except dancing girls) are kept in the strictest se- clusion. The “ aung paring,” or women’s apartments, are shut off from the front of the house, and have double shutters for the windows. When these ladies go away from home (which is not often the case) their covered chairs are carried inside the court, and the chair men all retire until the lady has taken her seat and the door is carefully shut and curtains drawn.
Great was my surprise when Mr. Yi thanked me and said he would like to have his mother visit me. A few days after, I re- ceived a note, saying he would bring his mother and his father’s other wife in the afternoon, if agreeable.
About one o’clock in came the two chairs, followed by servants, and when Mr. Yi had
seen that the men were all safely out of sight, and Dr. Heron was not at home, the maids opened the chair doors and out came two very gorgeous-looking ladies, attired in long, full, silk robes of blue and pink, with dainty slippers to match. I found my guests dignified and ladylike in every way, partak- ing of the refreshments I offered in a very dainty manner. They were greatly pleased with the chairs, the mirror and bed, while my sewing machine and organ were marvel- ous things in their eyes, and Mrs. Yi, the elder, told me she had lived to be forty- seven years old and had never before seen such strange things. They seemed to en- joy their visit, tea-cakes and all, and the next day I received this note from Mr. Yi :
Dear Mrs. Heron. — As I come to my house I had been important business, and I cannot call you and Doctor. My mother had been pleased the foreign house, so she very glad about, and she wants to invite you on to-morrow morning about 12 o’clock, so I ask if you busy or not. If you not busy on to-morrow, will you be so kindly to step round to my house and see how we live. Then we are very glad to see you.
I am yours sincerely,
Yi Hahruin.
I felt like shouting, “ Lift up your heads.
KOREA.
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From Korea come the same reports, which bring to us both encouragement and discouragement; encouragement, because there are so many calls, both for new lines of work at the old stations, and for more workers to man new places ; 5 M discouragement, because there are so few missionaries to ^ answer these calls. ^ $
Dr. Lillias Horton Underwood writes from Seoul:
“The work among the women is most promising of all.
They come to our homes, and are delighted to have us go to theirs. They seem to accept the sweet comforts and blessings of the gospel, far more readily than the men, perhaps because their burdens are so much heavier, and their lives so much darker and more cheerless.
l)r. Underwood, with all her intense longing to help and bless these people, has been kept from service, this winter, by a very severe attack of rheumatism. Mr. Underwood has gone through the streets with the little wagon, fulbof . medicine and tracts, and lias himself treated many of the sick, often referring the more difficult cases to his wife. A little son, who came into their home in September, has brought light and joy to Mrs. Underwood in spite of her sufferings.
Miss Doty is assisting Mrs. Gifford in the Girls’ school. There are now eight little pupils, who are learning sew- ing, cooking and all the household arts, beside their lessons from books. It is the aim of their teachers to make them Christian Koreans, not Americans, hence no English is taught in the school, and Chinese and their native dialect are the only languages which they study. Miss Doty, too, speaks of new opportunities for work, saying: “The way opens farther and faster than we are able to enter.” After a year’s acquaintance with the Koreans, she finds them kind, polite, respectful to elders and superiors, and possessed of fine natural discrimination in judging of character. Surely a nation possessing these traits is worthy of the Gospel!
. ) JUS BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAIN REGION OF SOUTH CHINA
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1 . ff -135 -;3S
An Analysis of Causes
By Robert E. Speer
A survey of the crisis in China was presented to the General Assembly. at San Francisco by Dr. Robert E. Speer, senior secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions. Dr. Speer recently returned from a personal tour of the Christian missions in China and pre- pared a manuscript of many pages exhaustively reviewing conditions in that country. Following are extracts from Dr. Speer’s survey.
I
CHINA is a contradiction and only time will show which is true, that China is a unity or that China is not and never will be a unity and must fall apart, or that she will be a diversified unity like America. It ill becomes us, with our motto of “E pluribus unum” and constant struggle between our diversity and our unity, or Great Britain with its four di- verse nationalities and many dialects in its three small islands alone, to cavil over the reality of China’s unity. She is torn by many divergent forces and she needs great unifying principles such as only Christianity can give her, but she has the cohesion of race and of history and, one believes, of a great destiny.
As to general disorder and lawlessness it is easy to give a wrong impression in either direction. We went about alto- gether unmolested, losing nothing through robbery, meeting with no discourtesy and seeing no crime or outlawry. One would have been nearer to all these things in America. On the other hand, it cannot be said that any part of China is now under just, effective and responsible gov- ernment, and wide sections of China are overrun by robber bands. Many of the
soldiers are only militarized brigands or the brigands are often only disbanded sol- diers who can get no foothold in the eco- nomic structure of China’s life. In some districts whole villages and Christian churches have been wiped out. The con- stant overthrow of authorities has re- laxed the enforcement of law.
Some Chinese, and westerners, too, are disposed to lay the . blame for this wretched internecine warfare in China upon foreign influence, upon foreign loans or subsidies, foreign importation of arms. There seems to have been some importation of war materials for which the west must accept the guilt, but there are great arsenals all over China, owned, equipped and directed by the Chinese themselves, and it is from these that the war supplies chiefly come. Foreign in- fluence, barring Russia’s, is all against this warfare which is ruining China and the financial support comes not from abroad but from iniquitous and merciless taxation, anticipating the payments of years to come, and from the railways which were built for China’s economic welfare and which the war lords are rapidly destroying, and from opium.
*35
WOMEN AND MISSIONS
July
136 [] ]
A great question is as to the extent to which the Nationalist movement is or will be dominated by Russian or communistic influences. Is this movement using these influences, intending when it has secured all it wants from them to discard them, or are they using it, intending to keep their hold on it and to direct it to their own ends? In all our conversations we met no communists or socialists whatever. All with whom we talked maintained that when the Nationalist movement had got all it needed from Russian advice or financial help or from the use of com- munism in arousing and organizing pop- ular feeling, it would throw them off.
There are white Russian military ad- visers and some thousands of Russian sol- diers as mercenaries with General Chang of Shantung. There are red Russian in- fluences at work in Peking and Shanghai and they represent one of the most pow- erful forces in the Cantonese movement.
But in spite of all fictions and confu- sion and inward contradictions, the Na- tional movement in China is real and true. The Cantonese development may or may not be the germ of a true and ordered national life, but sooner or later a competent central government will be achieved. There is no company of quali- fied and equipped leaders such as carried the American Revolution and the Japan restoration to success, and at present many of the men who might be such lead- ers, whether from wise prudence or from timidity, dare not speak. Many capable and honest men of true patriotism are unable to do more than speak bravely and act honestly in private life. The political movement is not yet sufficiently free and true to give them room for public action. But the iron bars are broken or breaking and the great tides of life are running and flowing. As soon as China’s energies are focused upon the fundamental political problem of the reorganization and reform of her governmental institutions from top to bottom, as necessitated by the im- possibility of ever restoring the old order, the immensity of her task will appear and also the long and wonderful progress which is ahead of her will begin.
Sooner or later some one should under- take a careful, dispassionate and yet sym- pathetic study of the whole question of
the relation of Christian missions and of Christianity in China to the Chinese gov- ernment and to western governments and to the treaties between them. When it was contended at a meeting which we at- tended that missions should not concern themselves with the treaties or with the international problem because missions should not be involved in politics, a Chinese Christian replied that the purpose of the present discussion was not to in- volve missions in politics but to extricate them. Probably the discussions of the past years have worked in both directions. Some of them have tended to extricate and some to implicate.
From the point of view of missions the essential thing is the genuine recognition of the principle of religious liberty. At the outset the so-called toleration clauses were only that. They were not unequal. They were the acknowledgment of equal- ity. All other religions were free in China. Christianity was not. These clauses did nothing more in terms than make Christianity free. They put Chris- tianity in China on the same basis on which Buddhism and Confucianism stood and stand in the United States. The matter might have been stated recipro- cally as it is in the Treaty of 1920 be- tween the United States and Siam, but China at the time had no care for such a statement. We do not believe it is an in- fringement of any nation’s sovereignty to recognize the principle of religious liberty in its treaties.
It ought, of course, to be unnecessary and all that ought to be expected today is that a responsible China will establish this principle really and irrevocably in her constitution and statute law. At present there are no such guarantees. There is no constitution of China at the present time. There have been four constitutions, 1912, 1913, 1914 and 1923 but none of these is in force and in not one of them are the guarantees sufficiently compre- hensive or absolute. '
When we came away from China the situation was that the whole of southern China was uncertain as to the policy of the government and that in central and northern China there were no constitu- tional guarantees whatever. At the same time there was religious freedom almost
ig27
WOMEN AND MISSIONS
13 7
everywhere resting on the tradition of the past, and even more on the broad, tol- erant spirit and good common sense of the Chinese people, and to an extent, their genuine appreciation of Christianity and the Christian church and the Christian missionary. It is clear that it must be the concern of the Christian church in China to secure and if need be to give its life to secure the complete and unlimited right of religious liberty.
Looking at China from without, the social fabric seems as yet to have been little affected. There are, of course, su- perficial changes. In all the cities and towns where we went the queues were almost entirely gone. Footbinding un- fortunately has been little modified. The mission schools oppose it, but public sen- timent still supports it and careful ob- servers in country and village see no diminution of it. The opium habit, which has been China’s greatest social and eco- nomic curse, has come back in full force. Foreign nations have their share of guilt and many Chinese are bravely fighting against the growing evil.
The central social question relates to family life. The strength of China has been the family organization. But at the same time the family has also been one great source of China’s weakness. The problem today is how to preserve the good elements of social solidarity and interdependence and responsibility, which the old collective family life supplied, and escape from the killing burden which it imposed on initiative and individual free- dom. It has made nepotism a curse in every department of life, including the Christian church. It made marriage a piece of race mechanism. It is today crushing the life out of many men who have to carry an impossible load of in- tolerance and inefficiency. Once again only time will show whether in the social evolution which has already begun the evils of the historic institution of the family in China can be left behind with- out leaving its good also or how, if the whole thing goes, something better can be substituted.
There can be no question of the reality of the vast social transformation repre- sented in the students of China. The so- cial, intellectual and moral changes taking
place in them are the doom of the old China. They must be made the hope of the new. There have been times during the past three years when Chinese and , foreigners alike were forced to doubt whether these students would be China’s hope or China’s despair, when the des- tinies of a great nation, the most populous on earth, were being determined by boys and girls not yet out of high school or even elementary schools.
At the present time the development of public education in China is interrupted. With the return of order and cessation of wars, the development of public educa- tion will be resumed on a scale unpre- cedented in history. Meanwhile the mis- sion schools have been filled with students. They have provided the best education available in China and they have, maintained discipline as the govern- ment schools and most other private schools have not.
The attitude of government education and its leaders toward philosophical and religious questions is rationalistic. The strength of the rationalistic view, however, • does not save Confucianism. Whether or not the general tendency of Confucianism is rationalistic and agnostic, there is general testimony and obvious evidence that the influence of Confucian- ism is waning. The beautiful temples are falling into ruin. This time the rebuild- ing is dubious. One sees soldiers quar- tered in them everywhere and sleeping even in the niches from which the sacred tablets have been removed. Classical scholarship also is diminishing, and mis- sionary colleges have a great duty, which they recognize, to aid in saving it.
But if Confucianism is a diminishing power in China and sure to dwindle fur- ther and further, there is diversity of testimony with regard to Buddhism. In many places Buddhist and Taoist temples have been neglected or destroyed. I think the testimony we received, based on the personal knowledge of the witnesses, was adverse to the idea of any extensive revival of Buddhism.
There is, of course, anti-foreign feeling in China. So is there in the United States. Political parties and national organizations have arisen on it. There has been and is feeling against Asiatics
138
WOMEN AND MISSIONS
July
and Europeans and Latin Americans and this feeling enters into politics, legislation and religion. There is ampler explana- tion for such feeling in China’s history than there is in ours. It is doubtful whether this feeling in China is any stronger than it has been. Some Chinese declare that it is always present and that it is universal and can be evoked when- ever special provocation comes. Others hold that it does not exist in any such form, that the Chinese are as susceptible to the idea of universal brotherhood as any other race and that the outburst of the recent years has not been and is not a national antipathy but largely a po- litical instrument for the creation of a sense of national unity and duty and interest, and that it is altogether amenable to dissolution and is even now dissolving.
We believe the Chinese to be as respon- sive to justice and kindness as any other race and as capable both of humanity and of Christianity.
The anti-Christian movement is both good and evil. It is good as indicating a living concern, whether this concern springs from true or false criticism of Christianity. It is evil to the extent that it rests on untrue conceptions of Chris- tianity or of the history of the past cen- tury in China and in China’s relations with the west, or in so far as either it or the reactions which it meets in the Chris- tian ranks in China embody an unequal and partial diagnosis of the relations of the west to China. t This is a situation which it is hard to see whole and which patriotic spirits in China may be pardoned for not seeing whole. But not seeing things whole, from the other side as well as one’s own, brings its own certain self- punishment. There has been both good and bad on both sides as between China and the west, and nothing is to be gained from hate or antagonism or recrimina- tion. The only road of hope and peace is in good will and understanding and in self-conformity on each side to the abso- lute standards of truth and righteousness. So far as missions and the Christian church in China are immediately con- cerned as missions and as a church, the anti-Christian movement will do great good if it leads them to the purest and simplest conceptions of the gospel of the
New Testament, and the presentation of those conceptions with love and power and Christlikeness to the Chinese.
The primary and central question in missionary work in China is the question of church and mission relations. Perhaps it is too much primary and central, but in the present circumstances of both church and missions this is inevitable.
The national element enters on both sides. The mission is a foreign mission and the church is a native church. Noth- ing can alter this fact. There is, of course, a true sense in which Christianity is supernational, but the organized Christian church is not supernational. The church in each nation cannot but par- take of the life and temper of the nation. It would be lamentable if it did not share it as a living part of it and a living, na- tional power within it. Part of the diffi- culty of the situation in China has been that the church was charged with being an unnational and foreign agency. It is both natural and right that the church should disavow and seek to escape from such accusations. There is no escape from this reproach. The churches must simply live it down and naturalize Chris- tianity in China not by China-izing Christianity but by Christianizing China.
Our board and its missions in China have shared heartily in the movement of cooperation and union. The movement in China contemplates the union of the Presbyterian, Reformed, Congregational, United Brethren and a number of inde- pendent congregations of the Reformed faith. The new union will be the largest and strongest and most nearly national church in China. All the elements involved are independent ecclesiastically of any western church and the problem is accord- ingly wholly in the hands and under the control of the Chinese churches, save as they may voluntarily rely upon mission- ary counsel.
No one can face the facts in these lands and not see that the end of foreign mis- sions is nowhere in sight. In China the unreached people .and villages are in- numerable. Single stations in Shantung are responsible for evangelizing from one to four million people each. And there are also unreached classes. Christian work must go on 1
WOMEN and MISSIONS
JANUARY, 1929
The Greatest Enterprise in the World
By Charles R. Erdman
Dr. Erdman is president of the Board of Foreign Missions and a former moderator i General Assembly. He is also professor of practical theology at Princeton Theological
Seminary.
JANUARY has come to be known as Foreign Missions Month, and its re- turn fixes the thought of our church upon the most significant, the most influ- ential, the most thrilling enterprise in the world. During this month the Week of Prayer, special offerings, pulpit apt- peals, the organization of schools for mission study, and many other activities will present to us anew the task and the triumphs of those who are bringing the gospel of Christ to all the nations.
This enterprise has its critics, its diffi- culties, its discouragements, but it has too its heroic achievements, its widening influence and its high hopes. Never has there been a time when Christian mis- sions have been so vigorously advanced and so vitally related to great national movements on all the continents of the globe.
However, the revolution in China, and specifically the tragedy of Nanking, have led to a new attack upon the whole mis- sionary enterprise. The alleged failure of foreign missions has been widely ad- vertised. After the outbreak at Nanking, the public press intimated that one hun- dred million dollars worth of missionary property had been swept away, and that the further evangelization of China had been abandoned. Even in Christian cir- cles where such absurd rumors were dis- credited, discouragement has been felt. There has been a definite, if gradual, diminishing of gifts. Some nominal
19* 9
friends of missions are growing indiffer- ent and antagonistic to the cause. In- stead of the old battle songs such as “Onward Christian soldiers ... on to victory,’’ some disheartened supporters of missions are singing “Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom.'’
This, however, is no time for fear, for retreat, or for dismay. The dawning of the new year should summon every thoughtful Christian to look out upon the wide field and to see that in every land great victories are being won. Unprece- dented advance is being made. Events are taking place which should convince the most skeptical as to the success of this great enterprise. We should all consider anew the surpassing importance of the task, its divine origin, its high purpose, its noble achievements and its glorious prospects.
It is, indeed, an extensive enterprise. A Presbyterian minister who had begun his voyage to visit the mission stations of the world became acquainted with a pas- senger from San Francisco, a wealthy business man, partner in a shipping firm doing business around the world. After several days’ acquaintance he was asked by bis new friend, as to his line of work. He replied, “I represent a firm doing busi- ness around the world, as does your ship- ping firm. We have about $225,000,000 invested in the Orient, we employ nearly 30,000 agents, and our income last year was over $30,000,000.’’
363
3&4
WOMEN AND MISSIONS
January
“Why," exclaimed the business man, ‘‘you must be with the Standard Oil Com- pany.”
“Oh, no,’’ was the reply, ‘‘our company is much older and larger than the Stand- ard Oil. It has a- contract for lighting the whole world.” Then in answer to the look of surprise which this remark occasioned, he explained, “I am a repre- sentative of the Christian Church, going out to see the missionaries at work on the fields. You know, Jesus Christ is the Light of the World and he has com- missioned his church to give that light to the whole world. That is the biggest con- tract that ever was let.”
The business man looked puzzled for a moment, and then said, “Are those figures true?”
“Yes," was the reply. “You will find an article recently published by a busi- ness man in a popular monthly which summarizes the foreign missionary en- terprise of the whole Christian Church at double the figures which 1 have given you for Protestant foreign missions.”
It is true that Christ has given such a contract to his church. It is no mere platitude to assert that in furthering the missionary enterprise we are per- forming a divinely given task. This work is done in obedience to the com- mand of our Lord.
It will be remembered that in a re- cent debate Lord Inchcape of England attributed all the troubles in China to the influence of foreign missionaries. The- Bishop of Salisbury in his reply stated that he was glad to have been reminded by something he had said that Lord Inchcape was a Christian. He add- ed, however. “How then can he express views clearly contrary to what Christ taught? How can wre believe in incarna- tion and not want the world to hear about it?” '1 his is a fair question. How can one claim to be a follower of Christ and then disregard his command to “make disciples of all nations”?
It is always encouraging to remember that we are engaged in a work which has a divine origin and that we are going forth not to fulfill any human dream or to engage in a work of our own de- vising. We have a living Lord. We are seeking to do his bidding. The very
turmoil and perplexity in China voice to us anew the call of our Master. We arc unwilling to accept any provincial view of our Lord. We regard him as belonging to no one race or nation. He came to meet a universal need. His gospel is for the whole world. His salvation is offered to all mankind. Even if he had given no explicit command, the very nature of his mission and the character of his work make it evident that in proclaiming his gospel in all the world we are show- ing loyalty to his will.
The purpose of this enterprise has been well stated as follows, and this statement intimates to us anew the prac- tical and lofty aim of the work to which we are called. “The supreme and con- trolling aim of foreign missions is to make the Lord Jesus known to all men as their Divine Savior and to persuade them to become his disciples ; to gather these disciples into Christian churches which shall be self -propagating, self-sup- porting and self governing; to cooperate so long as necessary with these churches
in the evangelizing of their countrymen and in bringing to bear on all human life the spirit and principles of Christ.”
It is evident, therefore, that the pur- pose of this enterprise is not to impose western civilization on the Orient. We are not attempting to educate the na- tions of the world, nor are we promis- ing to provide necessary medical and surgical aid. Education and physical re- lief show the Spirit of Christ, but are not the real ends of our works. Whatever instruments and methods may be em- ployed our purpose is to bring men into vital fellowship with Christ and to estab- lish in every land the Church of Christ, and then to aid these churches in making Christ known to all men.
Thus at the present time we rejoice in the very claims of independence which the churches of mission lands are making. The church of China is being severely tested, but as in the days of the Boxer uprising, it is standing the test with hero- ism and faith. Yet, whether in China or in other lands, these infant churches are pitifully in need of our cooperation and help. The withdrawal of missionary forces or the lessening of missionary operations in any country would be a
WOMEN AND MISSIONS
STREET IN NATIVE CITY OK SHANGHAI
ity to the Christian cause. This the tragic mistake which was made in the Hawaiian Islands. Just at the time when missions seemed so successful in transforming savage tribes into Chris- tian communities the missionaries were withdrawn, and the weakening of the work, the injury to the churches, the loss power which resulted has been a warn- ing to Christian workers in other fields during the past half century. The de- scendants of those early Hawaiian mis- sionaries are now undertaking anew the work which might have been completed fifty years ago had the church at that time taken advantage of its position and strengthened instead of weakening the missionary forces. The spirit of in- dependence, almost universal among churches of mission lands, is occasioning many serious problems, but it is a sign of power and a prophecy of growth, and || it should be regarded as an appeal for | strengthening of the missionary front.
In South America the students and the more intellectual classes in Catholic countries are eagerly welcoming the fair B and rational and sympathetic presentation f of the true gospel. In India the great I’ mass movements and the weakening caste ■ system are calling for Christian leaders \ and evangelists. In Japan the enthrone- M ment of the new Emperor is giving new [ hope to all who see in him the leader of an era of even further enlightenment, of
larger religious liberties and of greater freedom of thought and action. In Persia, in Korea and in Turkey there are likewise promises of more liberty in teaching the Bible in institutions from which such study had been prohibited by law. From every field come tidings of new converts to Christ and of the strengthening of the Christian communi- ties. The commission from our Board of Foreign Missions which has recently visited the work in West Africa tells us, by way of example, of what has been achieved in such a station as Bafia :
“It was here that only twelve years ago native tribes declared a truce for market day by taking human life. Some one, old or young, was designated by the headman of the tribe as the sacrifice, and both tribes set to with cutlasses and claimed their bit of human flesh before the trading began.’’ The people were naked savages, dwelling in mud huts, with no knowledge of God or of His laws. At such a station, this year our representatives were present at a church service where 3,000 Christian adherents, with decent dress and demeanor, attended the service in a Christian church. More than 2,000 are under definite Christian instruction with a view to baptism, while more than 200, after careful instruction, have been enrolled as church members.
Such results are to be found in vary- ing character and degrees in every part
U'oMEN At
3C/1
of the mission field and no investment could be named which will hear more im- mediate returns than money which is spent in this glorious enterprise. A busi- ness man from America recently made a lour of the world. He declared that some years ago when his fortune had begun to increase rapidly he decided to devote a fair portion to Christian work, hut stipulated that no enterprise should he supported outside his own city where his fortune had been made. A little later he became interested in educational in- stitutions in his state. Subsequently his horizon was broadened to include work in the western portion of our land. Then he enjoyed a world tour, and he gave his testimony in. the following words : “When at length I saw the missionary institution of Persia, I said, ‘Thank God I am an American, and I now know the work in which it is worth while to invest.’ ”
MISSIONS
jai
The prospects which lie ahead of enterprise are as bright as the proi of God. There are discouragerr There is seen in some quarters a le ing of interest. . Some of us may our opportunities. Some of us may to enjoy the privileges which are of- to us. But. the task is certain of sue The time will come when the king( of this world will become the kingdo our Lord and of his Christ. The t ing of another year summons 11s to a consecration of ourselves to the which has been entrusted to us by Lord, and which, in His gracious p dence, He has linked to the fulfill! of His divine purpose for the world, can go forward with confidence. It- Lord’s own time the bells of some new year’s day will “ring out the t sand wars of old’’ and “ring in the t sand years of peace.”
If one were to search for a master- key to the situation in China at the present time, lie would probably find it in Yuen Shi Kai. The political situ- ation, and to a certain extent the re- ligious situation, is affected in no small measure by the influence of this man. If, in some way, we could get to the inner mind of this remarkable man and know the thoughts which are filling it, we could interpret with some certainty the direction which the great forces now at work in this new Republic will take. As it is, we must confine our- selves to noting certain acts in his ca- reer which, like straws, may determine for us the current of his thought and the probable bearing of his future in- fluence, which is sure to be great and likely to be wise.
We must never forget that Yuen Shi Kai was trained in the old school of both Chinese politics and literature, lie has been a soldier, trained to gov- ern in the stern ways which hitherto have seemed necessary in Asiatic na- tions. Moreover, there are many acts in his career which have two possible interpretations. Ilis enemies say he is a trimmer, and constantly question his sincerity. His friends believe him to be a man who has masterly power in har- monizing opposing forces.
In the past he does not seem to have
Our Greatest Single Task
been auti-forcign, though many of his When Governor of
colleagues
were.
Shantung in 1900, he did not carry out
YUEN SHI KAI
1914
OUR GREATEST SINGLE TASK
5
the edict of the Empress Dowager to exterminate the foreigners, but rather protected them in every way within his power. The breadth and openness of his mind was indicated a little later when he invited Rev. W. M. Hayes, D.D., to leave the presidency of Shan- tung Christian University and estab- lish a Government College at Tsinanfu, the capital of the Province of Shantung, permitting Dr. Hayes to call in from various parts of the Empire as his as- sistants the strongest and most earnest Christian teachers who had been gradu- ated from Shantung Christian Univer- sity. Since he has been President he has most cordially received groups of pastors, urging religious toleration, and without doubt favored the remark- able call to prayer which was put forth by the Republican Government in April, 1913.
Charges are constantly made that he is aiming at dictatorship, and there are certain facts which bear such an inter- pretation. On the other hand, with the army back .of him from the beginning, he has not as yet taken such a step, ^fuen Shi Kai has claimed in public ad- dress what is perfectly true, that the republican form of government is not alien to the spirit of the Chinese people, and we, as yet, have no reason to be- lieve that he is unfriendly to the Re- public. It is probable, however, that he feels that there is something more important than a republican form of government, namely, that order should be maintained and lines of advance out- lined. It is also probable that some of his recent acts, such as expelling the ultra-patriotic element from the Na- tional Assembly, were taken in the be- lief that there was no other way pos- sible to secure order and progress. In other words, as far as we can judge, while Yuen Shi Kai does not seem to be aiming at dictatorship, he is likely to go as far in that direction as seems necessary in his mind to secure these great and fundamental objects in gov- ernment.
As to the religious situation, many scattered events during the year indi- cate that idolatry has been losing its hold, creating for the missionary and the Church in China at once a splendid opportunity and a serious responsibil- ity. In many places the idols have been thrown out and the temples either left vacant or used as barracks or school-houses. If the temples arc to be swept and garnished, we must see that the worship of the one true God is established, lest the last state of these people become worse than the first.
As was to be expected, an effort is being put forth to establish Confu- cianism as a state religion. Doubtless many of the old scholars, and some of the later trained men will favor this, strengthening their position by appeal- ing to the patriotism of the people. Yuen Shi Kai himself has spoken very highly of the teaching of Confucius in a recent “presidential mandate;” but we do not interpret the meager tele- graphic dispatches to mean that he per- sonally favors Confucianism as a state religion. It was only a few months ago that his Government asked the Chris- tians to unite in prayer for their na- tion. This movement for the establish- ment of Confucianism is not unantici- pated and has gained sufficient strength to justify a concerted protest by a meeting in Peking of adherents to other religions. Nevertheless, we hardly be- lieve that China will take this backward step, but will grant religious freedom in harmony with the other leading nations of the world. Even if the immediate outcome is the establishment of Confu- cianism as a state religion and absolut- ism as the form of Government, it is sure to be temporary. The democratic forces in the nation are inherent and too strong to permit such possible issues becoming permanent.
The friendly attitude on the part of the Government and a large number of the officials, maintained steadily for over two years, together with the break- ing away from idolatry on the part of
6
OUR GREATEST SINGLE TASK
Jan.,
many, has created for Christianity an opportunity which it would not be easy for one to overstate. While in past years we have often had to make op- portunities, we are now face to face with an opportunity already made, which will tax our strength to the uttermost. It is a call to sacrifice, and wre shall grip this opportunity in proportion as men and women are ready to sacrifice the strength and time and treasure which God has given into their hands. Upon America rests a special responsibility. Above all other nations in the world China regards us as her sincerest friend. There has been given into our hands treasure which no preceding generation ever dreamed of. Our greatest danger is that we shall hug it to ourselves in ease and luxury and selfishness, forget- ting that “He that scattereth, in- creaseth,” unmindful of the saying,
eternally true, that “He who loseth his life shall save it.” It is a call of God to sacrifice, and we as a nation and as individuals need the call as we need nothing else.
We are being tested as never before. . The question is, are we meeting the test in a way to give us the purest satisfac- tion now, and to make us, a hundred years from now, glad that we had some real and vital part in making China q. Christian nation as surely, steadily and perhaps more quickly than we think, she . becomes a dominant nation in the world? No greater single task faces , the followers of Christ to-day. Are we - facing it in any adequate way?
( Rev .) H . W. Luce.
[As our readers* know, Mr. Luc© is a professor in the Shantung Christian University at Wei-FIsien. He has been enlisted heart and soul in the China Campaign and speaks with the voice of authority concerning China in her relig-. ious, educational and political aspects. — Editor J
If one were to search for a master- key to the situation in China at the present time, he would probably find it in Yuen Shi Kai. The political situ- ation, and to a certain extent the re- ligious situation, is affected in no small measure by the influence of this man. If, in some way, we could get to the inner mind of this remarkable man and know the thoughts which are filling it, we could interpret with some certainty the direction which the great forces now at work in this new Republic will take. As it is, we must confine our- selves to noting certain acts in his ca- reer which, like straws, may determine for us the current of his thought and the probable bearing of his future in- fluence, which is sure to be great and likely to be wise.
We must never forget that Yuen Shi Kai was trained in the old school of both Chinese politics and literature. He lias been a soldier, trained to gov- ern in the stern ways which hitherto have seemed necessary in Asiatic na- tions. Moreover, there are many acts in his career which have two possible interpretations. His enemies say he is a trimmer, and constantly question his sincerity. His friends believe him to be a man who has masterly power in har- monizing opposing forces.
In the past he does not seem to have
been anti-foreign, though many of his colleagues were. When Governor of Shantung in 1900. lie did not carry out
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YUEN sui KAI
1914
OUR GREATEST SINGLE TASK
5
the edict of the Empress Dowager to exterminate the foreigners, but rather protected them in every way within his power. The breadth and openness of his mind was indicated a little later when he invited Rev. W. M. Hayes, D.D., to leave the presidency of Shan- tung Christian University and estab- lish a Government College at Tsinanfu, the capital of the Province of Shantung, permitting Dr. Hayes to call in from various parts of the Empire as his as- sistants the strongest and most earnest Christian teachers who had been gradu- ated from Shantung Christian Univer- sity. Since he has been President he has most cordially received groups of pastors, urging religious toleration, and without doubt favored the remark- able call to prayer which was put forth by the Republican Government in April, 1913.
Charges are constantly made that he is aiming at dictatorship, and there are certain facts which bear such an inter- pretation. On the other hand, with the army back .of him from the beginning, he has not as yet taken such a step. PYuen Shi Kai has claimed in public ad- dress what is perfectly time, that the republican form of government is not alien to the spirit of the Chinese people, and we, as yet, have no reason to be- lieve that he is unfriendly to the Re- public. It is probable, however, that he feels that there is something more important than a republican form of government, namely, that order should be maintained and lines of advance out- lined. It is also probable that some of his recent acts, such as expelling the ultra-patriotic element from the Na- tional Assembly, were taken in the be- lief that there was no other way pos- sible to secure order and progress. In other words, as far as we can judge, while Yuen Shi Ivai does not seem to be aiming at dictatorship, he is likely to go as far in that direction as seems necessary in his mind to secure these great and fundamental objects in gov- ernment.
As to the religious situation, many scattered events during the year indi- cate that idolatry has been losing its hold, creating for the missionary and the Church in China at once a splendid opportunity and a serious responsibil- ity. In many places tbe idols have been thrown out and the temples either left vacant or used as barracks or school-houses. If the temples are to be swept and garnished, we must see that the worship of the one true God is established, lest the last state of these people become worse than the first.
As was to be expected, an effort is being put forth to establish Confu- cianism as a state religion. Doubtless many of the old scholars, and some of the later trained men will favor this, strengthening their position by appeal- ing to the patriotism of the people. Yuen Shi Kai himself has spoken very highly of the teaching of Confucius in a recent “presidential mandate;” but we do not interpret the meager tele- graphic dispatches to mean that he per- sonally favors Confucianism as a state religion. It was only a few months ago that his Government asked the Chris- tians to unite in prayer for their na- tion. This movement for the establish- ment of Confucianism is not unantici- pated and has gained sufficient strength to justify a concerted protest b}r a meeting in Peking of adherents to other religions. Nevertheless, we hardly be- lieve that China will take this backward step, but will grant religious freedom in harmony with the other leading nations of the world. Even if the immediate outcome is the establishment of Confu- cianism as a state religion and absolut- ism as the form of Government, it is sure to be temporary. The democratic forces in the nation are inherent and too strong to permit such possible issues becoming permanent.
The friendly attitude on the part of the Government and a large number of the officials, maintained steadily for over two years, together with the break- ing away from idolatry on the part of
6
OUR GREATEST SINGLE TASK
Jan.,
many, has created for Christianity an opportunity which it would not be easy for one to overstate. While in past years we have often had to make op- portunities, we are now face to face with an opportunity already made, which will tax our strength to the uttermost. It is a call to sacrifice, and we shall grip this opportunity in proportion as men and women are ready to sacrifice the strength and time and treasure which God has given into their hands. Upon America rests a special responsibility. Above all other nations in the world China regards us as her sincerest friend. There has been given into our hands treasure which no preceding generation ever dreamed of. Our greatest danger is that we shall hug it to ourselves in ease and luxury and selfishness, forget- ting that “He that scattereth, in- creaseth,” unmindful of the saying,
eternally true, that “He who loseth his life shall save it.” It is a call of God to sacrifice, and we as a nation and as individuals need the call as we need
nothing else.
We are being tested as never before. The question is, are we meeting the test in a way to give us the purest satisfac- tion now, and to make us, a hundred years from now, glad that we had some real and vital part in making China a, Christian nation as surely, steadily and perhaps more quickly than we think, she becomes a dominant nation in the world? No greater single task faces the followers of Christ to-day. Are we facing it in any adequate way?
(Rev.) H. IF. Luce.
[As our readers* know, Mr. Lnce is a professor in the Shantung Christian University at Wei-Hsien. He has been enlisted heart and soul in the China Campaign and speaks with the voice of authority concerning China in her relig-, ious, educational and political aspects.— Editor ]
t
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S'tf |
Jhnl-jong Yong-hyo Ta-wang.. |
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1864 |
Min Jl |
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Ko-jong |
1864 |
Became iihiieror wangmu, 1897; abdicated 1907. |
|
27 • |
Sun- j ong |
1907 |
Reign name - Yun-heui (M-R Yunhui); his puppe* "egime and the dynasty ended by Japan a annexation 1910. |
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Stars and Stripes Korea Bureau
OSAN, Korea— If you drive the long, dusty road between Osan and Suwon, south of Seoul, you will see a stone monument perched on a small hill just a few yards off the road.
This monument marks the spot where the first TT.S. troops engaged in combat with the Communists at the beginning of the Korean conflict.
“Task Force Smith”, as it was called, was composed of men of' the U.S. 24th Div. who were flown to Korea with just one purpose in mind — stop the Communists long enough to get a strong U.N. Force into the country to meet the invaders.
* * * *
ACCORDING TO the 24th Div. history, Col. Charles B. Smith, commander of the task force, had orders which read, “When reaching
±ae]on, move norm — siop mem wnere you nna them.”
On Independence Day, 1950, a handful of men celebrated the day in a, very unusual manner- digging foxholes in a strange place called Osan. At twilight, July 5. 4,000 Koreans lead by 33 tanks moved into the area.
For hours the battle raged. Task Force Smith poured howitzer, bazooka, mortar and small arms fire at the Russian-made tanks.
But the odds were too great and the task force was surrounded. '=*
Abandoning the heavy weapons, mcmhers of the depleted task force cut their way through the enemy lines and withdrew to the south.
The battle looked like a defeat, but General Douglas MacArthur credited Smith and the m'' of the task force with buying the neces time for other TJ.N. units to rush into the
High-Lights of
:
:
KOREAN HISTORY
1
I
The Korean Language School — Seoul — 1955
li
3B
Korean history is sometimes summarized as being that of Five Dynasties in Four Thousand Years. These dynasties would be; Tangun, Kija, Silla, Koryu, and Yi dynasties.
The outline given herewith seeks to provide a list of eight epochs under which the student may properly correlate his readings from various sources.
1. — Tradition Prior to 57 B. C.
— 2333 B. C. Tangun, mythical founder of Korea.
— 1122 B. C. Kija, Chinese refugee, establishes the Kingdom of Chosun.
— Three Hans in Southern Korea. (Mehan, Pyonhan, and Chinhan)
2. — The Three Kingdoms 57 B. C. to 668 A. D.
— Silla established at Kyungju.
— Paikje, with capital first at Namhan, then Kongju and finally at Puyuh.
— Koguryu, with capital near the Yalu, later moved to Pyengyang.
3. — The Kingdom of Silla 668 — 935
— Silla overthrows Paikje-(660) and Koguryu (668).
— Splendid Buddhist temples and pagodas are built.
— High quality of culture gives this period the name of The Golden Age.
— Oldest astronomical observatory erected at Kyungju.
4. — Koryu Dynasty 935 — 1392
— Capital established at Songdo.
— Movable wooden type invented.
— Buddhist culture reaches its zenith.
— Constant warfare with Japanese pirates.
— Recurring Mongol invasions (Kublai Khan).
— Western name of KOREA (COREA) derived from name of this dynasty.
5. — Yi Dynasty 1392 — 1905
— General Yi Song Rei establishes capital at Hanyang (Seoul) and builds city wall.
— 1403 — Movable type cast (fifty years before Gutenberg).
— 1442 — Rain guages distributed to the provinces thus beginning recording of rainfall two centuries ahead of the Western world.
— 1446 — Korean alphabet promulgated by King Se-Jong.
— 1592 — 1597 — Terrible Hideyoshi Invasion. Japanese repelled by use of “tortoise boats”, world’s first iron-clad vessels, invented by Admiral Yi Soon-sin.
— 1636 — Savage Manchu invasion results in an isolation policy which made Korea The Hermit Kingdom.
— 1653 — Dutch ship, Sparrow Hawk, wrecked off Quelpart. Survivors reaching Holland after nine years give first authentic account of Korea to western world.
— 1882 — Korea’s first trade treaty with the western world signed with USA.
— 1894 — Tong-Hak uprising against foreigners.
— 1895 — Sino-Japanese War eliminates Chinese influence in Korea. Queen Min murdered in plot engineered by Viscount Miura.
— Korean name changed from Chosun to Dai Han Kook.
— 1902 — Independence Arch erected in Seoul.
— 1904 — Russo-Japanese War eliminates Russian influence in the peninsula.
6. — Japanese Administration 1905 — 1945
— 1905 — Japanese protectorate. Resident-General to Seoul.
— 1908 — Korean Emperor forced to abdicate in favor of feebleminded son.
— 1910 — Korea formally annexed to Japan. Name of CHOSUN re- stored.
— 1919 — Declaration of Independence signed by 33 patriots. Nation wide uprising. Provisional Government established in Shanghai. Syngman Rhee, having been named as President of the Republic in exile establishes a Korean Commission (unofficial embassy) in Washington, D.C.
— Period of police control (one policeman to every 1,150 people).
— 1935 — 1940 Increased emphasis on Japanizing the Korean people.
— 1940 — 1941 Westerners leave Korea.
— 1945 — Japanese Emperor announces surrender, August 15.
7. — Post-War Transition 1945 — 1948
— August-Sept 1945-USSR and US troops occupy North and South Korea, respectively.
— 1945 — 1946-Russians make 38th parallel a barrier between the two parts of the country.
— 1946 — 1947-Joint American Soviet Commission twice fails to agree on method of forming a Korean government.
— 1946 — 1947-US Military Government USAMGIK established in South Korea.
— 1945 — 47-Flight from North Korea.
— 1946 Provisional Peoples Committee in North Korea.
— 1947 — 48-South Korean Interim Government SKIG.
— May 10, 1948-U.N. sponsored elections for Korea held in South Korea.
— May 31, 1948 National Assembly convened.
— August 15th, 1948-General MacArthur formally transfers govern- ment to President Rhee.
— Sept. 10, 1948-Kim II Sung becomes Premier of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
— Chosun becomes Dai Han Min Kook.
8. — The Republic of Korea 1948
— Recognized by UN as government for all Korea.
— June 1949 — U.S. Forces retire from Korea, although protested by Korean people.
— May 30 1950 — Second election for members of General Assembly.
— June 25th, 1950 — Invasion by North Korea begins.
— June 27th — U.N. Security Council votes military sanctions.
— August 1950 — U.N. Forces pushed back to the Taegu-Pusan per- imeter.
— Sept. 15, 1950 — U.N. Forces land at Inchun.
— Nov. 1950 — U.N. Forces reach Yalu River, but forced to retreat by Chinese invaders.
— February 1951 — U.N. Forces begin long drive back from Suwon.
— July 1951 — Peace talks begin at Kaesong.
— Aug. 5, 1952 — Syngman Rhee elected by popular vote for a second four year term.
— July 1953 — Truce signed.
— 1954 — Promulgation of new constitution abolishes office of Prime Minister.
References.
The Koreans and Their Culture by Cornelius Osgood, 1951. Best single text. Osgood had the following two histories, now out of print, as references, as well as some Chinese sources.
History of Korea, Homer B. Hulbert.
History of the Korean People James S. Gale.
rMLiiif.rlaTT.Tr:ayn;aatr;^Ti-Tmr-iir*iTTttaa;
High-Lights of I
|
KOREAN HISTORY
i
i
The Korean Language School — Seoul — 1955
Korean history is sometimes summarized as being that of Five Dynasties in Four Thousand Years. These dynasties would be; Tangun, Kija, Silla, Koryu, and Yi dynasties.
The outline given herewith seeks to provide a list of eight epochs under which the student may properly correlate his readings from various sources.
1. — Tradition Prior to 57 B. C.
— 2333 B. C. Tangun, mythical founder of Korea.
— 1122 B. C. Kija, Chinese refugee, establishes the Kingdom of Chosun.
— Three Hans in Southern Korea. (Mehan, Pyonhan, and Chinhan)
2 The Three Kingdoms 57 B. C. to 668 A. D.
— Silla established at Kyungju.
— Paikje, with capital first at Namhan, then Kongju and finally at Puyuh.
— Koguryu, with capital near the Yalu, later moved to Pyengyang.
3. — The Kingdom of Silla 668 — 935
— Silla overthrows Paikje-(660) and Koguryu (668).
— Splendid Buddhist temples and pagodas are built.
— High quality of culture gives this period the name of The Golden Age.
— Oldest astronomical observatory erected at Kyungju.
4. — Koryu Dynasty 935 — 1392
— Capital established at Songdo.
— Movable wooden type invented.
— Buddhist culture reaches its zenith.
— Constant warfare with Japanese pirates.
— Recurring Mongol invasions (Kublai Khan).
— Western name of KOREA (COREA) derived from name of this dynasty.
5. — Yi Dynasty 1392—1905
— General Yi Song Rei establishes capital at Hanyang (Seoul) and builds city wall.
— 1403 — Movable type cast (fifty years before Gutenberg).
— 1442 — Rain guages distributed to the provinces thus beginning recording of rainfall two centuries ahead of the Western world.
— 1446 — Korean alphabet promulgated by King Se-Jong.
— 1592 — 1597 — Terrible Hideyoshi Invasion. Japanese repelled by use of “tortoise boats”, world’s first iron-clad vessels, invented by Admiral Yi Soon-sin.
— 1636 — Savage Manchu invasion results in an isolation policy which made Korea The Hermit Kingdom.
— 1653 — Dutch ship, Sparrow Hawk, wrecked off Quelpart. Survivors reaching Holland after nine years give first authentic account of
1 Korea to western world.
— 1882 — Korea’s first trade treaty with the western world signed with USA.
— 1894 — Tong-Hak uprising against foreigners.
— 1895 — Sino-Japanese War eliminates Chinese influence in Korea. Queen Min murdered in plot engineered by Viscount Miura.
— Korean name changed from Chosun to Dai Han Kook.
— 1902 — Independence Arch erected in Seoul.
— 1904 — Russo-Japanese War eliminates Russian influence in the peninsula.
6. — Japanese Administration 1905 — 1945
— 1905 — Japanese protectorate. Resident-General to Seoul.
— 1908 — Korean Emperor forced to abdicate in favor of feebleminded son.
— 1910 — Korea formally annexed to Japan. Name of CHOSUN re- stored.
— 1919 — Declaration of Independence signed by 33 patriots. Nation wide uprising. Provisional Government established in Shanghai. Syngman Rhee, having been named as President of the Republic in exile establishes a Korean Commission (unofficial embassy) in Washington, D.C.
— Period of police control (one policeman to every 1,150 people).
— 1935 — 1940 Increased emphasis on Japanizing the Korean people.
— 1940 — 1941 Westerners leave Korea.
— 1945 — Japanese Emperor announces surrender, August 15.
7. — Post-War Transition 1945 — 1948
— August-Sept 1945-USSR and US troops occupy North and South Korea, respectively.
— 1945 — 1946-Russians make 38th parallel a barrier between the two parts of the country.
— 1946 — 1947-Joint American Soviet Commission twice fails to agree on method of forming a Korean government.
— 1946 — 1947-US Military Government USAMGIK established in South Korea.
— 1945 — 47-Flight from North Korea.
— 1946 Provisional Peoples Committee in North Korea.
— 1947 — 48-South Korean Interim Government SKIG.
— May 10, 1948-U.N. sponsored elections for Korea held in South Korea.
— May 31, 1948 National Assembly convened.
— August 15th, 1948-General MacArthur formally transfers govern- ment to President Rhee.
— Sept. 10, 1948-Kim II Sung becomes Premier of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
— Chosun becomes Dai Han Min Kook.
8. — The Republic of Korea 1948
— Recognized by UN as government for all Korea.
— June 1949 — U.S. Forces retire from Korea, although protested by Korean people.
— May 30 1950 — Second election for members of General Assembly.
— June 25th, 1950 — Invasion by North Korea begins.
— June 27th — U.N. Security Council votes military sanctions.
— August 1950 — U.N. Forces pushed back to the Taegu-Pusan per- imeter.
— Sept. 15, 1950 — U.N. Forces land at Inchun.
— Nov. 1950 — U.N. Forces reach Yalu River, but forced to retreat by Chinese invaders.
— February 1951 — U.N. Forces begin long drive back from Suwon.
— July 1951 — Peace talks begin at Kaesong.
— Aug. 5, 1952 — Syngman Rhee elected by popular vote for a second four year term.
— July 1953 — Truce signed.
— 1954 — Promulgation of new constitution abolishes office of Prime Minister.
References.
The Koreans and Their Culture by Cornelius Osgood, 1951. Best single text. Osgood had the following two histories, now out of print, as references, as well as some Chinese sources.
History of Korea, Homer B. Hulbert.
History of the Korean People James S. Gale.
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RHEE'S DAILY LIFE -
CContinued from Page 1)
considering international problems, he pens his thoughts in English.
On occasions like today’s birthday celebration, Rhee holds to a pretty close schedule. He and his Aus- trian-borri wife "get up shortly before 7:00 a.m. and hold a Bible-reading Worship service. President and Mrs. Rhee who have no children, are devout Christians. Rhee then lis- tens to a 10-minute'newscast over the U.S. Armed Forces radio. After a breakfast of coffee, toast and eggs, the President scans the local newspapers and types out on a small portable any ideas he may have .
By 9:00 a.m. he is down- stairs in his Kyongmu Dai presidential mansion receiv- ing a long list of appoint- ments. This goes on until shortly before noon when Mrs. Rhee brings him drafts of letters he is to read and sign.
Lunch most likely is made up of Western food, possibly flavored With distinctive Korean spices Although his wife keeps a close watch on the kitchen and the Pre-
sident’s diet, she doesn’t hare much time to cook Oc casicnally, however, she makes one of her spec-al Austrian recipes, such as an upside down cake.
Rhee takes a. short after noon rap w ben be fas t'me, but ordinarily, be is tack at his desk by 1:30 p m. to greet more Callers.
L From four to 5:30 p.m. he and Mrs. Rhee usually stroll around the hushed grounds of Kyongtok place The President often will untold a portable chair and fish for an hour or so, meditating and jotting down notes.
Only old friends or pro- minent guests over get to see the chief executive in the evening. After dinner, which is served anytime from six to 7:30 pm., the family may. watch a Korean or American movie.
The President likes mo$t kinds of films except “shoot- em-up” Westerns. Bedtime is about 9:30 p.m.
Rhee travels around Seoul in a 1952 Lincoln which is always driven through the street at breakneck speed and accompanied by an escort of siren-wailing police
liance betw'een five in- dependent sovereigh states (Britain, Iran and - Pakistan also) on a. basis of complete equality.
“It is concerned not only with military security, but also with the development of the economic resources of its members and the raising of their standards of living.
“With regard to further membership of the p>act. Her Majesty's Government have no intention of bring- ing pressure to bear on other states to join.
“No one has the right to exercise a veto of that nature.”
cars.
. He does not like to receive expensive gifts and has been known to return costly pre- sents. He prefers generally a little card, a note, or a bouquet of flowers.
Many of his friends in the U.S., however, often send him valuable gifts, which he usually stores in the man- sion’s vacant ball room until they are trucked to orphanages.
Rhee lives comfortably but modestly. His mansion, which serves as his home and office, still is Camouflaged with netting. .
mm
V .1
•gm
isiil
PAGE 4
By Patty Barker
Since this is the time when everyone makes at least one or two New Year’s resolutions, I hope that readers of this col- umn have promised themsel- ves that 1969 will be “See Ko- rea First” year. Never mind Japan, Hong Kong, and Tai- wan; everyone has seen those places, even if you haven’t. They simply aren’t “in” any- more. But Korea, ah, there is a unique wonderful country to ex- plore, and you’re already here!
A good place to start (after Seoul and Kyongju, of course) would be Puyo, the last of the ancient Paekche capitals. This dynasty flourished from B.C. 18-663 A.D., and the arts of that era were eagerly import- ed by the Japanese.
Puyo, which was called Sabi in Paekche days lies about midway between Tae- jon City on the east and Tae- chon Beach to the west. Situat- ed on the banks of the wide- ly meandering White Horse River, there are scenic attrac- tions enough to keep one de- lighted, evn if the historical sights are overlooked entire- ly-
Many of the points of inter- est are located on wooded Puso Mountain that rises behind the old and new museum build- ings. Everything on and around the mountain can easily be reached by private vehicle, taxi, on foot, and even partly by boat!
Logically, the place to start a sightseeing tour of a historic city would be at the local museum. Unfortunately that doesn’t hold true here. hTe old museum is small. Presumbaly a mere fraction of the town’s Paekche treasures are on dis- play. I assume the rest have been squirreled away some- where to be brought to light when the new huge museum is completed.
I said “when”; perhaps “if’’ is a better word. A colossal controversy arose over the en- trance gate which many peo- ple said looked exactly like a Japanese torii that tradition- ally stands before Shinto shrin- es. In an effort to change the Japanese appearance, the builders have lopped oil the ends of the lower crossbeam of the gate. Now the museum gateway looks exactly like a Shinto shrine torii that has had the ends of its lower crossbeam lopped off.
Regardless of the gate, the weird concrete museum (it doesn't resemble anything, ex- cept possibly the skeleton of a beached whale) should be com- pleted. Then the magnificent Paekche tiles can be better dis- played along’ with other local antiquities.
If the museum is rather a disappointment, the rest of Puso Mountain is not. There are remnants of the ancient city walls, pavilions, temples, and other historical delights scattered all over the mountain side.
Most famous is the Cliff of
the Falling Flowers where some 3,000 princesses and court ladies, unchivalrously abandoned by the fleeing king, flung themselves over the pre- cipice into the river rather than be captured by the con- quering armies. The colorful dresses rippling in the wind as these loyal women plunged to their deaths resembled scatter- ed flowers, so the story goes.
Below this crag lies a small but very ancient temple, now a nunnery, called Koransa or Orchid Temple. According to another Paekche legend the water in the well in this temple was honey-flavored. The king, exerting his rank, insisted upon having this delicious water carried to him every day. To make sure there was no sub- stitution of ordinary inferior water-flavored water, he re- quired that an orchid from the wooded slopes behind the tem- ple be floating in each royal bucketful.
A few yards out into the river ' from the temple lies a small rock island called Fishing-for- a-Dragon Terrace. From the top of the mountain this rock • formation certainly resembles a dragon with head facing shore-ward.
When the Chinese General Su who led the Silla and Tang (China) Armies against Paek- che, arrived at the river a fier- ce tumult in the waters kept the warriors from crossing. The general knew that the savage waves were being lash- ed-up by the tail of a dragon who lived in the river, and who guarded the Paekche capital.
Baiting an enormous hook with a white horse, the wily general succeeded in captur- ing the dragon. Immediately the waters subsided, and the armies easily crossed the river and seized the city. The name, White Horse River, also com- memorates this event.
If the sightseer wishes to
walk down the many flights of steps to the river’s edge and to the Koran Temple, there are boats for hire there so that tourists may photograph the Cliff of the Falling Flowers from the water.
At the highest point above this rocky promontory is a viewing platform called Good- bye to the Moon Pavilion. Here the royal court could watch the j moon set behind the western mountains.
On the other side of Puso Mountain stands Welcoming the Moon Pavilion. Next door to this scenic spot is Puso’s finest attraction, for me, any- way. Here the soldiers of the Paekche Army had a great, granary where a large amount of their food was stored. The granary burned down at some point in Paekche history, and here the tourist may have the pleasure of digging for grain that is more than 1,300 years old! Digging is really unneces- sary, for the black carbonized specks lie dotted over the ground.
The lady who runs the re- freshment stand across the way has the keys to the fenced- off.area. She also keeps an ash tray on display which contains -®- the various grains that can be * found there. Rice is the most common but peas, beans,, bar- ley, and wheat may also be found, sfie told us.
Her young daughter is a great help in pointing out the charred cereal seeds to tourists. No fee is charged, but you may feel that the cheerful little girl’s help is worth pat- ronizing her mother’s shop for refreshments after your arche- ological dig is over.
By the Way:
My column space is used u and I haven’t even gotten c Puso Mountain! Next week I tell you about some other Puj tourist spots.
c/evera.i tourists coucci JL'aeKcnc-age. grain at the granary site on Mt. I’uso.
Iiihiiu*:
SKjJ'jilIi
American Trading Company Korea, Ltd. is the oldest Western firm doing business in Korea. It is part of a family which has its parent firm in New York and affiliates in Tokyo, Osaka, Saigon, Bangkok, Djakarta, and Rotterdam. The parent firm was founded in 1857 and grew to be the largest general American trading house in the Orient. At one time it had 24 branches located around the world.
The American Trading Company of New York, Yokohama, and Shanghai sent its first representative to Korea in May 1884. The man’s name was Walter D. Townsend, and he came from Boston. One of the more famous figures in Korea’s late 19th century mod- ernization and enlightenment movement, Kim Ok-kyun, became acquainted with the American Trading Company in Yokohama and personally brought its first representative to Korea.
One of the earliest transactions between the Korean government and American Trading Company concerned the purchase of timber from Ullung Island off Korea’s east coast. By mid-1885, the Amer- ican legation in Seoul reported that American Trading Company had already executed S 175, 000 worth of commission business for stock animals, furniture and tableware for the palace, arms, and ammunition.
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James R. Morse, President of American Trading Company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, took a particular interest in Korea and made numerous attempts to encourage both American and European financial circles to invest in the country. In 1896, Amer- ican Trading Company negotiated an agreement with the Korean government for the right to construct the country’s first rail- road.
Townsend remained in Korea until his death in 1918. Thereaf- ter, his son-in-law headed the business. Kerosene sales was one of the firm’s principal activities. During the Japanese colonial period, American Trading Company’s Japan offices also sold consid- erable amounts of mining machinery and industrial diamonds to customers in Korea. All activities ceased at the end of 1941.
American Trading Company, Inc. returned to Korea shortly after the signing of the 1953 armistice agreement. At first the office was set up in Pusan, but as soon as communications improved, it was moved to Seoul. This office was opened as a branch of American Trading Company, Inc. in New York, but in 1961 it became a separ- ately capitalized Korean company. American Trading Company Korea, Ltd. today employs a staff of over forty and represents, among others, the following quality, manufacturers:
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Dae Kyung Building, 107, Sejong*ro, Chongro-ku, Seoul. Korea IPO. Box 1103. Seoul, Korea Tel: 73-8924~7 Cable Address: AMTRACO
ON ELECTIONS
Results of Research by Professor Announced
The following is the third and last of af series on findings in an analytical research on the July 29 elections conducted by the Asiatic Research Institute of Korea University under the direction of Assistant Prof. Byung Hun Oh of the Political Science Department of the University.
The election scrutiny, first of its kind in Korea, was made with financial assistance from the Asia Foundation and in cooperation with the Dong-A llbo, a local KoreanJanguage daily in Seoul, right after the election.
D. What Party Did You
Support?
28.6 percent of the total respondents stated that they supported the Democratic Party regardless of intra- party factions.
29.9 percent of the respond- ents specified they voted for the old faction, and 10.5 per- cent fo'r the new faction Democrats.
6.7 percent of the answers backed Progressive parties,
5.1 for Independents, and 0.18 for the Liberals. Supporters of the Liberals said that their choices were strictly based on personality.
The interim report indi- cates young people generally support the old faction Dem- ocrats. 31.5 percent of the re- spondents in 20s and 30s stated they approved the old factionists, in comparison with 25.7 percent of the peo- ple above the age of 40.
The election study also showed that voters who lived , . , .
in south Korea from before try this fal1 1S estimated a’ 1945 showed a higher rate of 88,855,144.44 bushels by th support for the old faction Agriculture-Forestry Mini Democrats than that of the try. The estimate is based o ex-north Koreans who came a.survey conducted as of Sep to south Korea after the Ko- rean Liberation from Japan.
Less than 10 percent of the
people of lower education, including primary school graduates, and the degree of optimism sharply dipped in the catego’ry of middle school graduates. As a general rule, people of high school educa- tion and above were pessimis- tic of the future.
The aforementioned scru- tiny was conducted right after the election day. It is presumed that many of the respondents have changed their minds now that two months have elasped and the political situation still remains unstable.
Rice Crop Survey Made By Ministry
The rice crop of this coun
15.
The
crease
crop will be an ir of 2,232,000 bushe
You Think
total respondents underpin- °ver the average year, but ned the Progressive parties, decrease of 3,472,000 bush( but it was an interesting from last year. It will I tendency that original in- more than 10 million bush< habitants of south Korea oc- short of the goal set in t cupied a larger segment than Government s rice producti the ex-north Koreans in the p^an f°r year- 10 percent. The unfavorable crop is.
tributed mainly to the drou that almost dried up the j- dies in the southern regii especially Kyongsang-nar and Kyongsang-bukto. drought, according to Ministry, reduced the crop 8.5 million bushels.
Another factor contribu to the decrease was a typh that also hit the rice- southern regions, cutting crop by an estimated 1,091 bushels.
Blights and blasts also c a 1,041,600-bushels damage the crop, the Ministry rep ted.
E. What Do of the Future?
More than half of the total respondents d>r 54 percent said that the general situa- tion in the nation will take a turn for the better. The older they were, the stronger the hope for a better future.
About 20 percent of the re- spondents said the situation will continue to be the sanie as before, and another 20 per- cent stated the situation will become aggravated.
Generally, better prospects for the future were viewed by
■*e|n. Frier-1' '
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LARGEST CIRCULATION IN ASIA— NOW OVER 550,000 COPIES PER ISSUE
Distributed weekly with The M.nil. Times. The Suhd.y Times ot Malaysia end Sih, .pore. The ^n,kok ^^ Hon»kohg Standard. Ih. Kdted The Bo,™
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Tug War that Shook theWorld .<
Japanese cavalry charge
on Russian position
at Ken Lein Chein, Manchuria.
Letters
What Is a Boutique?
Sir — The Listener (BBC Weekly) Irom London, 22nd August 1968, in a review by John Morns of a new edition of Hobson-Jobson. a glos- sary of Anglo-Indian words and phrases, notes that boutique "is a common word in Ceylon and Madras for a small native shop or booth, ' and ’f# probably of Portuguese ori- gin "" He then reproduces a quota- tion from the India Gazette of 1780 You must know that Mrs Henpeck is a great buyer of bargains, so rtiaT she will often go out to the Europe shops and the boutiques
Yet my other magazine in this week's reading, TAM of February 9, 1969. has Mrs Gallardo asking what is a boutique, and answering herself with a learned etymological deriva- tion from Atotheke, a Greek word for "warehouse " She then surmises that it was convened in Pans to a fashion-shop and thence transmitted fanhcr afield, concluding that "Asia's first boutiques in fact staned to sprinkle the scene only about a de- cade or so ago."
Perhaps Madrasi or Ceylonese readers of TAM may be able to sort out this mix-up. and even establish the primacy for their own area of boutiques, in the current meaning of the word
Tom Errey
Tasmania. Australia
Indenmttm Preiry-
Sir — Mochtar Lubiss description of corrupt practices in the Indone- sian press is not really unique. I have studied the communications media in the United States and in the Philippines It’s the same every- where The big shame is that Indo- nesian journalists who have just re- gained their freedom to write are much too soon fooling around with it At least Filipino newspapermen, right after the Philippine victory over the Spaniards and for some 50 years before the 1950 s, gener- ally remained chaste.
Luis G Guidote
Manila. Philippines
Saigon ’69
Sir — How many of us felt anything ot all for the despair of the war- weary Vietnamese quoted by your Terence Khoo in his report on Sai- gon "When I die I’ll go to heaven — because I've spent all my life in hell"? This war has gone on so long that I. for one. pay no more than a passing glance at the morn- ing headlines Your article brought me back to reality
Hong Kong
Alan Pereira
Pleoft address oil correspondence to ; The Letters Editor. The Asia Mogozme. International building. Orchard Rood. Smgopore 9
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SUN TAN By Collette
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Tokyo, Japan
thea&immtqnzine
May 4, 1969 /Volume 9 Number 18
Publisher: Adrian Zecha Editor: J.T. Gatbonton Managing Editor: Gerald A. Delilkhan Art Director: Bert Gallardo Associate Editor: George V Liu Copy Editor: Arnaldo B Moss, Jr Assistant Editor: M P. Gopalan Women's Editor: Blanche D. Gallardo Assistant Art Director: Noli C Galang Staff Photographers: Dick Baldovino. Henry Mok. Takeshi Takahara,
Kishor Parekh
Chief Librarian: Lena U Wen Lim Production Supervisor: Chung Hon Lam
Financial Controller: S C Kau Production Director: Toshio Suzuki Business Manager: Kenneth Chen
Kazufumi Uechi — Okinawa Times Nguyen Lau Saigon Daily News Mochtar Lubis Indonesia Raya
OFFICES: HONG KONG 31 Quran , Road Central. Tel 22-KF8I , FRANKFURT-AM MAIN Am Leonhardsbrunn S3. Tel 771814 LONDON w l z Old Bond Street. Tel Hyde Park 4168 / LOS ANGELES 8721 Beverly Boulevard Tel (213) 652-8790 I MANILA Sikatune Building. 6762 Ayala Avenue Makati. Rual. Philippines, Tel 88- 37-80 / MELBOURNE 422 Colima Street Tel 67 30-11 / NEW YORK 17 122 East 42nd Street. Tel (212) 867-9230 / SAN FRAN CISCO 110 Suiter Street, Tel (41S) 434 267S / SINGAPORE International Building, Orchard Road, Singapore 9. Tel 30712-4 / TOKYO Akiyema Building, 2S Akelune-cho, Shibe Nishikubo. Mmato-ku, Tel (502) 0641- 3 / TORONTO 2 915 Carlton Towera 2 Carlton Street, Tel 364-2269
COVER: Japeneae cavalry officer leading a charge on s Russian position in Manchuria. Photographed from a collection of paintings and Illustrations In the Victoria & Albert Museum. London
CREDITS Pages 4 4 5. Vlctor.a 4 Albert Museum, Page 6. Agnet Chong: Page 8. Takeshi Takthare. Page 9, Dick Baldovino, Page 10. Takeshi Takahara
2
The
.Magazine May •/, 1969
c AsiaSpeak§
4 Two decades ago we brongtat the colonial empires down. Bnt we’ve not yet turned the energy we raised to win that fight for freedom into making freedom work now J
OUR OUTMODED NATIONALISM
Affairs. Singapore
I BELONG to that Asian generation which has for the most part of Its adult life believed in the sanctity and validity of the nationalist faith My conclusion in regard to nationalism now therefore goes against the gram of my lifelong beliefs This conclusion is that present-day nationalism is un- doubtedly at odds with the facts of the twentieth-century world
Yet nationalism as an ideology and a basis for political organization will undoubtedly persist into the future So the brief answer to the question What lies beyond Nationalism?" is,
I am afraid, still more Nationalism This observation is neither very striking nor very original. It might only add to the prevailing state of melancholy bewilderment to which nationalism is reducing Asia and the new nations in other continents If nationalism will persist at least till the end of this century, must we then resign ourselves for sometime longer to the turmoil, disintegration, endemic violence and pathological hatreds which are features of contemporary nationalism in Asia?
Nationalism once inspired hundreds of thousands of Asians with greet hopes, and attracted to its service thousands of noble and dedicated in- dividuals who gave to it a glory and a lustre which it now appears to have lost What then has gone wrong with nationalism?
The answer, I think, is that the na- tionalism which was appropriate for the fight for freedom is inappropriate for dnalino with the problems of inde- pendence.
In other words, what we should strive for is not the abandoning of nationalism (which, in the circum- stances now prevailing, is practically impossible) but the changing of Its contents What we need is a new nationalism to be created by the rel- atively simple process of renovation and replacement of its parts Through such a strategy we can harness the force of nationalism for meaningful and hopeful goals
I can best illustrate my argument by way of an analogy The manufac- turers of Rolls-Royce motor cars have successfully solved what social scien- tists call the problem of continuity and change Contrary to general be- lief, the Rolls-Royce is a different car from what it was decades ago The makers have consistently incor- porated into every new model the most up-to-date technological inno- vations — so that when examined in detail the Rolls-Royce of today has very little in common with its ances- tors The illusion of changelessness is preserved by leaving untouched the radiator and the general air of elevated haughtiness that has been bred into this famous car
Something like this can happen to nationalism. It can over the years be subjected to a sustained and relent- less process of innovation from with- in Its contents can, over the years, be replaced to such a significant ex-
tent that all it might eventually have in common with its earlier models is the reassuring radiator It is through a series of new models of nationalism — each of which would Incorporate some significant innovations — that I see Asian nationalism moving to- wards regionalism and international- ism Each innovation would have been carried out so subtly that na- tionalism would finally be absorbed into the international system without people being even aware of it
THIS, I believe, is not speculation It is founded on my understanding of the history of nationalism in Europe and in Asia It is that nationalism, like any other ideology, cannot be free from the process of change and evolution Even theologies, which claim divine inspiration and therefore immutability, have so changed their contents that today there are Chris- tian theologians who, having purged concepts of Heaven and Hell out of religion, are now preparing to drive God Himself out of it
More recently Communist theology has abandoned concepts that once were considered unalteiable and es sential articles of the Communist creed The innovation in some schools of Communist thought has been so drastic that their rivals are constrain- ed to describe these heretical Com- munists variously as capitalists, im- perialists and chauvinists
Asian leaders will need courage and vision to reexamine the contents of their nationalist faith Fortunately they already have constituencies and followers receptive to fresh concepts about nationalism These constituen cies are the new generation of Asians born and bred not under imperialism and colonialism but under indepen- dence
For these new-generatlon Asians the glories of the great anti-colonial struggles are only historic memories, not part of personal experience Their experience, on the contrary, has been of what they increasingly consider is
the ineptness, flabbiness and knavery of the only ruling class they have known — their own nationalist elites who replaced the foreigners in power I would number this ironic experi- ence among other factors responsible for the anarchy and cynicism that appear to afflict Asian youth What may appear to us irresponsible in- discipline might, from the point of view of the younger generation, be an idealistic protest against the bank- ruptcy of an earlier breed of national-
Our youths know what they are protesting against. But they do not know what they should protest for. All that the present leaders have to offer them is a nationalism shaped and refined over the post 50 years during the anti-colonial struggle — a phase of Asian history now passed
The contents of anti-colonial Asian nationalism derive from nineteenth- century European nationalism slightly adapted to meet Aslan requirements This anti-colonial nationalism was ef- fective for the purpose for which it was designed — to win indepen- dence But for our younger genera tion independence is no longer a goal They have got it They were born into It Some of them in fact feel that they have endured indepen dence for too long What they want is an ideology that will enable them to make something worthwhile out of the independence they possess
THIS new need anti-colonial national ism is not only incapable of filling It also contains features destructive of independent Asian societies Where during its anti-colonial phase national- ism was able to unite peoples of many races, languages and religious creeds into an irresistible fraternity, today this nationalism breeds racial, linguistic and religious animosities and conflicts among the very same peoples
In short, anti-colomal nationalism has m the post-independence era de- generated into a divisive ideology —
breeding all over Asia sub-national- isms based on race, language, reli- gion or tribes Peoples who were once united are going in for political archaeology They are rummaging among ancient myths and doubtful legends to find reasons why they are entitled to be distinct and separate from the rest of the national com- munity
Again during the antl-colonlal phase of their history there was a conscious- ness of common purpose among Asian nations The high-water mark of this solidarity was the Bandung conference of 1955, when Asian and African nations — with admirable dis- regard for differing social philoso phies — met to proclaim undying friendship and eternal peace. I do not know whether this gathering of the oppressed nations of the world made a decisive impact on the imperialist nations of the West But it is a fact that not long after Bandung the dis- mantling of empires was significantly speeded up
Yet with the retreat of imperialism Asian unity too faded away Asian nations are increasingly riven by hatreds and conflicts among them- selves Today they live In fear — not of Western imperialism — but of one another's
Some Asian leaders — and leaders outside Asia — have tried to explain away these fears and conflicts by attributing them to the machinations of "neo-colonialists " Now it may well be that some non-Aslan powers are exploiting the opportunities offer- ed them by Aslan Disunity and rival rtes But if we are honest with our- selves, we should concede that this is largely because through our own stupidity or lack of vision we are putting temptations in the way of powers long accustomed to interfer- ing in other people's affairs
In my view the theory of neo-co- lomalism is for the most part an in- tellectual subterfuge by old-fashioned nationalists to conceal their own failures and their lack of understand- ing of the realities of independence The theory is. to me. still more evi- dence of the inadequacy of anti-co- lonial nationalism
SO the shortcomings of anti-colonial nationalism will become still more evident as the years go by Popular resentment will build up against anti- colomal nationalism as It imposes In- tolerable burdens and spreads un- bearable misery among the people But it would be extremely foolish for us to allow pre-independence na- tionalism to be destroyed primarily by explosive mass-violence
It may be prudent and less destruc- tive if the old nationalism is to be changed by a systematic and con- scious injection of new ideas I hope that this renovation of Asian national- ism will be undertaken by bold minds, and that the 1970's will be given over to this undertaking Cir CONTINUED on page 14
The Asia Magazine May 4 , 1969
Encyclopaedia
F“» Hu»ng Cheng. wel,
hampered by inefficient officers.
Scaling of Feng Huang Cheng walls by Japanese infantrymen preceded occupation of strategic
Russians, failing to get reinforcements, beat a retreat.
The War That Shook The World
IT was the century's first major war, The belligerents, a rapidly Westerniz- ing Japan and a decaying imperial Russia — cast in the roles of a latter- day David and Goliath — met in a headlong clash that has been describ- ed as "one of the most wretchedly useless wars ever fought." The strug- gle took place on territory — China and Korea — that belonged to neither, but where both antagonists were seek- ing to expand their imperial ambitions. And it was the unexpected outcome of the war — a dramatic finale which saw, for the first time in modern history, a major Western power In abject defeat at the hands of an Asian nation — that shook the world. This not only provided one of the sparks that led to the bloody overthrow of Czarist Russia, but marked a turning point for Asian nationalism and at- titudes towards the West, the effects of which are still felt today. On these pages. The Asia Magazine presents the first of a two-chapter series on one of the most momentous events of our time.
•word exultantly In one hand and holding Rising Sun banner
officer infori
Russian
Port Arthur's Russian commander presents white charger to Japanese as a symbol of surrender.
7
'O
Deposit Account
LOMBARD
BANKING
Japanese Infantrymen landing on the Liaotung Peninsula In May 1904 at a point north of Port Arthur. Russians at Gold Hill lookout station (right) spot Japanese fleet Poorly-led Rus- sian infantry (below right) recapturing their own guns at battle of Liaoyang.
THE night of February 5. 1904 was windswept and freezing. But the wintry weather simply added to the sense of rising excitement felt by the commanding officers of the large fleet of warships assembled at Sase- bo port in southern Japan The sum- mons earlier that day had been brief and peremptory all commanders were to report on board the Mikasa, the massive 15,140-ton flagship of Vice- Admiral Heihachiro Togo.
As the officers filed into his cabin they caught sight of an ornate lac- quered tray on which was a short samurai ceremonial sword It was un- sheathed To everyone in the cabin this meant one thing: Japan was at
"We sail in the morning." said To- go when everyone was present. "Our enemy flies the Russian flag."
Some 72 hours later, lookouts at the approaches of the Russian base of Port Arthur spotted a small force of torpedo boats approaching at full speed They were flashing Russian recognition signals, and the sentries allowed them by without a challenge Sweeping past the harbour s outer defences, the boats headed direct- ly for the seven battleships and six cruisers, all lit up and lying peacefully at anchor Most of the officers were at a ball given by the Russian admiral s wife, while the men diverted them- selves elsewhere ashore Not a single gun was manned The attackers s*n- gled out their targets and, at point- blank range, fired their torpedoes They wheeled about and pulled out. leaving behind two Russian battleships and one cruiser badly crippled. The next day Japanese battleships outside the harbour opened up with their big guns
at long range, and by nightfall four more Russian warships had been put out of action.
Togo, his fleet practically unscathed and with the loss of only six men, had fired the first shots of the Russo-Jap- anese War In doing so he made full use of the strategy of surprise — a tactic his country was to use so de-
vastating^ three and a half decades later at a place called Pearl Harbour Japan had broken off diplomatic re- lations with Russia on February 6 — hours after Tokyo had decided to go to war and after Togo had briefed his officers in Sasebo And it did not de- clare war officially until February 10, two days after Togo's surprise attack
The Asia Magazine May V, 1969
MANCHURIA
Map showing Japanese and Russian major engagements of the war.
at Port Arthur when he crippled the strongest elements of imperial Rus- sia's First Pacific Squadron
By that time. too. the short, impas- sive naval veteran had added to his credit two more Russian warships, sunk In a brief battle at Chemultpo — now Inchon — where he landed Jap- anese troops for the land offensive.
The manoeuvrings preceding the Russo-Japanese War were intricate and complex, but the reasons for the struggle — which has been described as "one of the most wretchedly use- less wars ever fought" — were sim- ple: both powers were seeking to tighten their colonialist grip over Ko- rea, a new and weak country, and Manchuria Almost a decade before. Japan had conquered China. The de- cisive battle had been at Port Arthur, which it received as part of its spoils at the signing of the peace treaty But not for long Russia, back- ed up by Germany and France, bullied Japan into giving Port Arthur back to China,
For Japan this rankled as a humilia- tion which demanded revenge — hence Togo's choice of the strategic town for the 1904 attack For Russia it was the beginning of further gams in the Far East. In 1898 Russia bullied China Into "leasing" Port Arthur to it for use as an ice-free Russian naval base And with the near-completion of the Russian-owned Trans-Siberian Railway, Czar Nicholas ll's ambitions increased.
Egged on by Russian elements with vested interests in Korea which, by then, was under the influence of Japan — the Czar was persuaded to
bring that country under his "protec-
Japan, at this time, would have been content with an agreement where- by Korea would be allocated to its sphere of Influence, leaving Man- churia to Russia. Nicholas, however, wanted both — and Japanese claims to Korea only made him all the more determined to preserve the world from the "yellow peril .”
By 1903 Japan realized that a ne- gotiated settlement with Russia was but wishful thinking Nicholas, con- vinced that Japan would never dare attack a country so many times big- ger than itself, had become arrogant- ly oblivious of Japanese demands Military chiefs In Tokyo had. In fact, begun preparations for war five full months before the first shots were fired. They were agreed on two basic premises: the war would have to be short — It would have to be won. in fact, before Russia could overwhelm Japan's limited forces with the sheer weight of its million-man army; and that hostilities would have to begin at once — before the Trans-Siberian Railway, as yet incomplete, could be- gin carrying reinforcements to the Far East.
The first important task was to pre- vent Russia's Pacific Squadron from interfering with Japanese naval move- ments. and to stop any Russian naval reinforcements from the Baltic from joining the Squadron The task fell on the capable shoulders of Admiral Togo
With the Russian navy in the Far East effectively crippled and bottled up. Japan was free to land its troops at will Before long Japanese strength was 330.000 men. The Russians num- bered slightly over 100,000 Added to this overwhelming numerical superior- ity was the fact that the Japanese infantryman was proverbially tough, well equipped and trained, and fanati- cally devoted to his Emperior The Russian soldier, while hardy and equally brave, lacked the strong moti- vation inherent in a lapanese. well equipped as he was, the Russian still fought in tactics more suited to bat- tles of the early 1800's than to those of modern warfare The Russian chain of command, too, suffered from con- fusion and indecisiveness.
In command of the Russian army was General Alexei Kuropatkm. a former Minister of War. who. despite the jealous intrigues of several rivals — notably Admiral Evgenle Alexiev. the Czar's viceroy in the Far East — managed to do a competent, soldier- ly job His policy was "no major bat- tle until we are In superior force." and he ordered a series of rear-guard actions designed to keep the Jap- anese off-balance until reinforcements could come In on the Trans-Siberian in the summer This, however, did not always work out as planned Russian detachments, assigned to fight and re- treat. considered withdrawal a slur on their honour Many stood and fought continued
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The Alia Magazine May V, 1969
RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
continued
to the last man. decimating an already under-strength army In hia attempt to play for time, Kuropatkm also de- cided not to risk drawing more Jap- anese force than was necessary to Port Arthur If the town fell and the Russian fleet were destroyed, it would be an end to his country's Far East- ern ambitions He decided, instead, to choose Liaoyang as his point of concentration, at the same time send- ing out a covering detachment to- wards the Yalu River The battle of the Yalu, the first major engagement of the war, was between the Japanese First Army under General Kuroki — pushing north from Korea into southern Man- churia — and Kuropatkm s covering detachment The Russians, outnumber- ed three to one, were badly beaten Japanese losses were 1.100 out of some 40,000; the Russians lost al- most half of their 7,000 troops The battle of the Yalu was a mo- mentous one It marked the first time in modern history that a European power had been defeated by an Asian nation It mattered little that many of the Russians had escaped or that they had been overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers What mattered was that they had been beaten Sir Ian Hamilton, a Briton who wit- nessed the battle from the front, had this to say later When war was de- dared, the Japanese were formidable enough in ail conscience They were brave, disciplined, enthusiastic, effi- ciently officered, honestly administer- ed They believed the Russians weak in several of these essentials At the back of their minds, however, existed
a certain vague apprehension — in some undefined, inexplicable way — that the European might, after all, prove the better man on the battle- field That feeling is now gone, and gone never to return .
While General Kuroki's victory was being toasted in sake, Japan moved fast to improve its position even fur- ther For the moment It was equally in Japan's interest to mark time in Manchuria and to concentrate on ob- literating the defences of Port Arthur Its Second Army was already on its way to its landing point at Pitzuwo, on the eastern coast of the Liaotung Peninsula and to the north of Port Arthur
There were Russian troops nearby, strongly entrenched and entirely ca- pable of withstanding a Japanese at- tack The invaders, in fact, were halt- ed temporarily, their losses high aqd their progress meagre The Russian commander, however, lost his nerve and ordered a retreat Port Arthur and its 60.000 fighting men — for the re- mainder of the war — were at the mercy of their enemies
Leaving two divisions to besiege the town, the Japanese 2nd Army ad- vanced northwards to help the 1st Army Kuropatkm, who decided to stand and fight at Liaoyang, inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese there before making another orderly retreat For the Russian commander, in fact. Liaoyang was more victory than de- feat Still playing for time by sac- rificing territory inch by hard-fought inch, he was at last beginning to re- ceive his long-awaited reinforcements But as the newly-arrived troops began disembarking from the trains, it soon became apparent that some- thing had gone wrong More and more
of the reinforcements were badly- trained and unenthusiastic reservists The Czar, fearing revolts at home, was keeping his crack troops in Eu- ropean Russia This, combined with the fact that his officers were becom- ing Increasingly unreliable, prevented him from taking the offensive again In October of 1904 he had a chance to turn the tide — temporarily, at least For once he found his forces numerically superior to those of the Japanese, but was o6liged — largely because of the inexperience of his raw troops — to withdraw to the Sha River There in a fierce infantry bat- tle. he lost some 30,000 men Meanwhile, In Port Arthur, the war was also going badly for the Rus- sians Admiral Togo was still trying to neutralize the Pacific Squadron, but with little success, since the Rus- sians refused to be drawn out of the harbour. But, because there was a danger — with the increasingly fierce attacks from the Japanese 2nd Army from the north — that the remnants of the Pacific Squadron would be cap- tured. the Russian ships were order- ed to attempt to break out and pro- ceed to Vladivostok.
This was what Togo had been wait- ing for four long months He overhaul- ed the Squadron and. in a fierce bat- tle off Round Island — one in which Togo himself was nearly killed by an exploding shell — soundly trounced the Russian fleet The mam body man- aged to flee back to Port Arthur, where it stayed until it was finally destroyed by the Japanese Army Those Russian ships that were not sunk scattered and escaped at night to Saigon, Sakhalin and Shanghai, where they were disarmed
The Battle of the Yellow Sea, as
Russian garrison leaving Port Arthur after surrender salutes victorious Japanese (above) headed for strategic town. Peacemakers at the signing of Treaty of Ports- mouth (right) which officially ended war are shown in this photo, from left to right M Witte. Baron Rosen. President Roosevelt. Baron Komura, M. Takahira.
it came to be known, earned for Togo a personal commendation from the Emperor himself.
Within Port Arthur itself, the confu- sion and ineptness that had marked the Russian command were again as- serting themselves General Stossel — who. in a series of blunders, order- ed the defenders to leave an almost impregnable strongpoint on the neck of the peninsula — refused to hand over his command even when order- ed to do so Probably he was one of the officials who kept the Russian Squadron in port when it should have been fighting outside He was later labelled a traitor.
Even so the siege, which began on May 30, lasted for seven long months, during which every small advance by the Japanese over the rough, hilly ter- rain cost them dearly Wave after wave of Japanese soldiers, yelling "banzai" and intent only on dying for their Emperor, were mowed down by the well-entrenched Russians It was not until the Japanese fought their way up the strategic "203-metre Hill" and could then fire down at will Qt ex- posed Russian positions and warships (whose crews were fighting as in- fantrymen), that Stossel decided to surrender In a telegram to Czar Ni- cholas, he said "Great Sovereign, forgive
With the fall of Port Arthur — and the resultant release of another 100,- 000 Japanese troops for action in the north — Kuropatkm's fate was sealed
By this time, he had fallen back as far as the city of Mukden His forces had increased considerably, but many were raw and inexperienced troops who had little liking for the alien land in which they found themselves He was having trouble, too. in keeping them supplied, since the Trans-Sibe- rian’s service was still erratic
Mukden was the war's last and greatest land battle Each side had some 310,000 men, drawn up in a heavily entrenched front measuring 47 miles in length At the end of the bloody fighting — which went on for more than two weeks — the Japanese had killed and scattered all three Rus- sian armies Lying dead on the battle- fields were no less than 97,000 Rus- sians and 50,000 Japanese Kuropat- kln admitted defeat and resigned
Meanwhile, a few months earlier and thousands of miles away, a fleet of 42 Russian ships, manned by more than 12,000 men, had set out from the Baltic Sea to try to turn the tide Ahead of them lay 18,000 miles of unfriendly waters and, at voyage's end, an unkind fate Next Week: Battle of the Tsushima Straits
Next Issue Battle of the Tsushima Straits.
Tlic Asia Magazine May 4,
WOMEN'S SECTION EDITED BY BLANCHE D. GALLARDO
Above: Faux writing-table in simulated bamboo design finished in tortoise-shell effect. Popular during the Victorian era, when chinoiserie was the rage. Top centre: Writing-desk from Filipino-Spanish colonial period. Veneered and finished in baroque tortoise-shell effect. US$90 at Edgar Ramirez's, Manila. Top right: Louis XV bombe chest in walnut finish. US$450. Louis XVI Berg»—
chairs, US$95 each. The carved wall panelling. Louis XV period. US$1,000. Above: Philippine retablo — Most Philippine colonial churches, in true Spanish tradition, had altars backed by a retablo (bas-relief panel). These were frequently decorated with images, painted or carved. The reproduction shown here is made from old molave wood railroad ties to give It the look of a genuine antique US$300.
Fabulous Fakes — ZEN AID A SEVA ONG
HOW unabashedly false! Lov- ingly hand-crafted in faithful reproduction of the original. These are samplings of a limit- ed range — often custom-made
— of period furniture produced in Manila by Edgar Ramirez, interior designer and fashion designer. His shop on fashion- able Mabmi Street displays a
dazzling collection of copies from aristocratic French (Louis XIV, XV, XVI) to Italian quat- trocento, English Tudor, early American, Queen Anne, Chip-
pendale. as well as the more familiar Filipino-Spanish Twen- ty expert wood-carvers turn •out these magnificent repro- ductions using that most fa- mous of Philippine hardwoods, narra. and approximating — in finish, intricate inlays, gilding, hardware and upholstery — the opulent look of the original period-piece.
9
The Asia Magazine May V, 1969
RADHIKA NANDA
INDIAN DARLING OF TOKYO FASHIONS
IN Tokyo's competitive world of fashion modelling, 17-year- old Radhika Nanda has carved a niche for herself. 'Discover- ed" by Hanae Mori, Japan's leading fashion designer, at an Indian Embassy reception, Ra- dhika promptly became a per- manent addition to Madame Mori's coterie of mannequins.
Although she lacked formal training ("I knew nothing of modelling when I started"), Radhika proved an instant suc- cess at her first fashion show, modelling for Madame Mori Now attached to a leading Japanese modelling agency. Radhika ascribes her success and self-confidence and self- reliance to her father, an Army officer who was until recently a military attache to the Indian Embassy in Tokyo "He doesn't make me do anything; he only suggests. But what he says usually seems right to me.” she says
Radhika has packed a lot of living — and learning — into her two short years in Japan Having an ear for languages, she soon picked up Japanese and now speaks with a pro- ficiency that is the envy of for- eigners who have lived in the country longer
At school in Tokyo's Sacred Heart, she absorbed much of Japanese culture, taking for- mal lessons in sumie (brush painting) and ikebana. the Japanese art of flower arrange- ment. "But I like to be a little
BY JEAN PEARCE
different. I add a bit of paper to the arrangements, or intro- duce some other touch. Never anything cruel, nothing that would change the natural beau- ty of the flowers," she says.
Upon graduation from sec- ondary. school, she got an ap- prentice job in the design de- partment of a textile company that designs sarees and scarves for export.
"My knowledge of sumie and ikebana helps. I’ve devel- oped a sense of design from them And working with the sumie brush to develop a de- sign is very exciting." One of her designs for scarves will soon be produced commercial- ly "Later, if I want to go into fashion designing, all these will add to a wonderful back- ground."
Fashion, and fashion design- ing, are her first loves And she has very strong ideas about what she wants — and doesn't want. ”1 don't like any one style — the thing everybody is wearing this season I don’t want 'one look, but a lot of looks. I like capes and boots and scarves . Scarves! I wear them everywhere — on my hair, as belts, draped on my purse And jewellery! I love jewellery Chains, rings . . Each finger of Radhika's hand has a jewel, a combination of antique Indian treasures and
modern trinkets.
Radhika says of Hanae Mori, "Her creations are wonderful. They are for the woman One just wants to drift on and on in a Mori Hanae creation.” Although her family has re- turned to India upon comple- tion of her father's tour of duty in Japan. Radhika has elected to stay on in Tokyo to acquire more experience. Later she
plans to go to London, but it could be any place where op- portunities might be found. T want to keep moving . to ab- sorb cultures, to learn, to work."
At seventeen, Radhika has time on her side Yet she's in a hurry In Japan she has had her first heady taste of success — and there's a whole big world yet to explore.
The Asia Magazine May V, 1969
WOMEN
TALK
BY DENDE MONTILLA
minis, beaded sweaters and handbags, all at fantastic bargains Then sud- denly — whaml — she's had it
Why. even the average amah, when she salts away her earnings, picks up such essentials as an occasional gold coin, a little flat in Kowloon (which she rents out to an uncle with 10 children), and, most Im- portant, a jade ring or two
The Chinese have a big thing about jade To them it's more than a jewel Sometime in the past, someone (a public-relations expert, no doubt) spread the word that jade is a charm of sorts If you should fall, so the story goes, your jade ring will break and keep the rest of you in one piece.
Gisela, my German apartment-male,
GIRL'S
SECOND
BEST
FRIEND
THERE'S a fever nearly as catching as the Hong Kong flu — the l-must-have-jade fever. I suspect almost every girl who stays in Hong Kong even- tually succumbs to it.
Diamonds are still a girl's best friend, even in Hong Kong. But she figures that a diamond, especially if it's her first, is something special She'd much rather somebody gave it to her Jade, on the other hand, can be Just as comforting and is often more readily available
There's no problem about jewellery fashions either — as far as Hong Kong is concerned Opals, smoky quartz, and sapphires may come and go. but jade is 'in'' forever The tai tai (which can mean either a society matron or number-one wife, depending, I imagine, on which rung of the matrimonial ladder one stands) seems perennially afflicted She sprinkles her beetle-sized stones with chips of diamonds. Quite practi- cal, I must admit When she goes out for a session of mah-jong. it must be very reassuring to stretch out a hand that's not only jaded but sparkling as well The resident kwai por (female for- eign devil, the label the Chinese give to Europeans — sometimes de- risively. occasionally endearingly) is immune — for a while at least. Pos- sibly. because there are so many other goodies that catch a new- comer's fancy, like wigs, bangles,
who has become an instant iade ex- pert. will not swear by this Still, she proves what Jade can do (or undo) to a girl, including a practical, down-to-earth, no-nonsense fraulem
It happened to her on a lunch break She wandered into one of those merchandise-packed stores in the Central District (Hong Kong's busi- ness centre), where the price-tags drive women tourists happily mad That was precisely what happened — she went berserk
She had strongly insisted, "Jewel- lery no. no. no They leave me absolutely cold "
But who can resist this little Chi- nese salesman, all smiles and sweet talk and a jade ring set In Chinese
gold for HK$45 (roughly a mere US$740, which is what a bangle would cost at Macy's)?
By last report. Gisela had slashed her lunch hour by half to make quick trips to the jewellers
It isn't difficult to be jade-acqulsitive In Hong Kong, There is no single breath-taking Tiffany Instead there are hundreds of mini-Tiffanies At Queen's Road, on the Hong Kong side, and at Nathan Road, in Kow- loon across the harbour, you can't walk a few yards without some shim- mering display catching your eye and your purse Unless, of course, your will Is harder than the stones
Jade hunting has Its own small hazards, however There is bad jade and quality jade And jade that Isn't jade at all. You find these darkish imitations sold on folding tables by the sidewalks, along with teenie- weenie scarves and plastic earrings Now. how to tell the dollar-worthy jade? Mr. Robert Lee gives the following guidelines And he should know: he is the head of the jade and semi-precious stones manufactur- ers and is being commissioned by Pierre Cardin to manufacture ex- clusive Cardin designs
If the stone is too dark, say, like moss-green or too light with much yellow tint, that's a sign of inferior stone The quality |ade is lush green, vibrant, with a lot of shine in it. It must not be mottled and should be almost translucent
Individual preference, of course, plays a part Shopkeepers claim that Europeans prefer the darker shades, the Chinese go for the lighter ones And the Japanese, bless their hearts, are the big buyers of the high-priced bright green ones The best stones, jewellers will tell you. come from Burma Nephrite Jade, which is not top class, comes from Taiwan, China, India. Canada and other sources
Bargain jade comes as low as HK$25 (US$4 or so). About the cheapest hereabouts are, unfortunate- ly, found in the Communist stores, much to the chagrin of American tourists, who require certificates of origin
It is ridiculous how the prices vary In one shop, for instance, a beauty of a |ade ring enriched by 80 diamonds is tagged at HK$55.000 (US$9,167)
If you have searched the shops and can't find a setting to your taste (which is unlikely, since there is quite a range available), you can always buy loose stones and have them set Setting, depending on how many gold carats you use, costs as low as HK$45
One thing that's not generally known is that jade isn't always green. It can also be white, black, pink with lavender tint, brown, or what colour have you The lovely thing about this is you choose your colour to match the colour of your money
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The Alia Magazine May 4, 1969
cFerspective
A'balanced'
Alliance
stricted to the mining areas ol Perak It has two seats in Parliament. The Democratic Action Party, an off- shoot of Singapore's People's Ac- tion Party (PAP), is urban-based, and advocates policies followed by the PAP prior to Singapore's break
with Malaysia It holds one parlia- mentary seat. Malaysia's Labour Party, which until recently was a part of a Socialist Front with the Partai Raayat (which goes unrep- resented in Parliament), is in a sorry state. Many of its members.
By Suman Dubey
KUALA LUMPUR
I F there is anything strikingly I evident in the pre-election mood here of the past few weeks, it is the supreme confidence of the Al- liance Party — the United Ma- lays' National Organization (UMNO), the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malaysian Indian Congress, which have held power throughout independent Malaysia's young existence — to retain its overwhelming majority in Parliament.
During my trip through Malaysia's corridors of power. I came across little to suggest any concern at the forthcoming elections. True enough, there are dark patches here and there, but the view of the im- minent polls is tinged with an air of near boredom
No sane member of the Opposi- tion will honestly admit, public postures aside, that there can be any change in Malaysia's govern- ment this month By dint of hard work, discipline, pragmatism and an understanding of the Malaysian na- tion, the Alliance has carved for ■*- itself a preeminent position in pol- itics Born casually in 1952 of an electoral pact between the UMNO and the MCA to fight the Kuala Lumpur municipal elections, the Al- liance shot dramatically into the forefront, winning all seats but one in the 1955 polls to the Federal Council
Merdeka in 1957 led to the first country-wide elections and to a fully elected Parliament in 1959. in which the Alliance came in safe with 73 out of 104 seats Thanks to Su- karno s Confrontation, the people rallied firmly behind Tengku Abdul Rahman s ruling Alliance, returning it to power with 89 seats in the 1964 elections.
THE plight of the Opposition parties has. of course, made things easier for the Alliance Fragmented in the extreme, most of them are popular- ly associated with either communal or regional groupings, which limn their popular appeal The largest, the Pan-Malayan Islamic Party (PMIP). advocates a Muslim Malaya and has a firm hold on rural Kelantan in the north The Finance Minister. Tun Tan Siew Sin, who considers this appeal bigoted and religious," doesn't think the PMIP will retain ns hold on the State (the Alliance broke the PMIP's control of Treng- ganu in 1964) The PMIP has nine seats m the present Parliament The pe°p,es Pf0gressive p
hss ■ '°"ovS,0. »vh,ch ,S re-
12
The Asia Magazine
particularly from its strongholds in Penang, Selangor and Johore, are m preventive custody under the In- ternal Security Act for allegedly be- ing involved in Communist activi- ties The move attracted sharp pro- test from the Opposition parties.
The Labour Party's two members of Parliament resigned in protest, and the Party plans to boycott the com- ing elections. Tun Tan Siew Sin told me that the government has evi- dence that the Labour Party will go still further and try to disrupt the
coming elections
The most significant new devel- opment in Opposition ranks has been the formation of the intellec- tual-based Gerakan Ra ayat Malay- sia, which comprises the moderate, left-wing splinter group of the La-
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bour Party and the remaining mem- bers of the dissolved United Demo- cratic Party The formation of the Gerakan last year has also led to an electoral understanding between it and the Progressives and the Democratic Action Party The Partai Ra'ayat is also expected not to op- pose any candidates of these par- ties This will reduce the number of three-cornered contests which — by splitting the Opposition vote in the marginal constituencies — have been its bane Gerakan’s Secretary- General. Tan Chee Khoon. affection- ately known as "Mr Opposition for his vociferous anti-government speeches in Parliament, is confident that the arrangement, not the first attempted, will work this time and gam the Opposition some strength Despite its determination the Op- position has yet to acquire national status — or. for that matter, break away from the letters of parochial- ism The Gerakan is a step in that direction,
WHAT tilts things in favour of the Alliance is ns guiding philos- ophy on racial harmony Inche Senu bin Abdul Rahman. Minister of In- formation and chairman of the Soli- darity Conference, told me. In this country people are still divided In the Alliance we represent the divi- sions The three parties are com- munal. but taken together when we discuss things at the Alliance level, they move to what is good lor the country and compromise Often de- cisions take a long time this way. but .t works " With West Malay- sia s 8 6 million people comprising 4 3 million Malays. 3 1 million Chi- nese and nearly 1 million Indians, the Alliance can hardly afford not to work.
The Alliance is communal in structure, but not in practice By uniting Malay. Chinese and Indian sentiment under one banner it ap- peals to those who do not believe in racialism and also to those who seek some protection under the con- stituent parties And by recognizing the dilemma and taking it by the horns racial conflict is averted Most Malaysians believe there is no other way of running a multi- racial nation
The new Parliament is expected to see many new faces The Op- position obviously hopes that these will be on its benches But these will more likely be on the side of the Alliance, a result of a balance" policy — between new blood and old talent If the Opposition pact pulls its weight as planned, then a few urban constituencies may go out of Alliance control And there are the marginal east coast seats, which worry the Alliance headquar- ters. A good guess would be that the Alliance will not come up to its present strength of 121. but will remain comfortably m the hundreds For sure there will exist no alter- native to an Alliance government for a long time ■
NATIONALISM From page 3
cumstances (hen will, I believe, great ly facilitate the remodelling of na- tionalism For one, the anti-colonial patriots bred in the theories and practices of old-fashioned national- ism will by then have passed from
the Asian political scene The new generation of Asians will be more ready to purge nationalism of its archaic contents for two rea- sons First, it will not attach to no longer relevant concepts that mea- sure of reverence which the creators of these concepts understandably at-
tached to them Second, the new generation — because it has another half a century or more to live out in this planet — may not relish the idea of having to spend its lives In spiral- ling anarchy, decadence and misery — which are all that nationalism, as constituted today, has to offer
I WILL content myself here with mak- ing some general observations about the possible lines of this innovation of nationalism I shall state these observations as a series of not ne- cessarily interconnected propositions
The first of these propositions is that nationalism should cease to be an anti-colonial philosophy and should become a philosophy of national de- velopment Between the two there is a wide disparity both of attitudes and of intellectual approach
Anti-colonial nationalism is essen- tially a negative and destructive polit- ical philosophy In the context of the anti-colonial struggle, it had no other choice but to be that Its essential purpose was to make it impossible for the colonial government to govern any longer It was not concerned with bringing about development or good government — on the contrary, it was concerned with making both develop- ment and good government impossi- ble For only by stimulating and mobil- izing mass-discontent could it hasten the fall or retreat of the imperial power
Anti-colonialism did succeed in its purpose. Imperial regimes liquidated themselves But because they did not take the precaution of revamping their nationalist creeds and their political parties, after independence the lead- ers of the new nations soon found themselves hoist with their own pe- tards Their followers and their parties had so got into the habit of fighting and frustrating governments that it became difficult for independent gov- ernments to govern well or even to govern at all
Constructive and necessary policies were resisted on the grounds that they were no different from those propounded by the hated imperialists If you read the post-independence history of many new nations you will discover to what extent anti-colonial nationalist parties contributed to the breakdown of the political, economic and administrative machineries in these countries There are. of course, other reasons for the breakdown But the negative attitude towards the con- cept of development is a major factor
If you read also the pre-Indepen- dence literature on nationalism you will discover the relative unimportance given to the question of development — whether It be political, social, cul- tural or economic The approach of anti-colonial nationalists to these prob- lems was fairly simple and straight- forward All shortcomings in society derived from colonialism Poverty, disease, disunity, ignorance, exploita- tion. corruption, maladministration — any social ill you could think of — all these were attributable to the machinations of colonialism,
Get rid of colonialism, so It was implied, and all these terrible things would vanish automatically For the best part of five decades people were led to believe in this simplistic prescription. It was therefore some- thing of a shock for them to discover
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that this was not so
It will therefore be necessary for the new nationalism to tell the peo- ple that social, political and economic development can be successful only if the people are prepared for sus- tained work, self-denial and consider- able sacrifice
THE new nationalism must also stress that the nation-state can never be completely self-contained and sov- ereign The nation-state of today has been so permeated by a parallel international system that nations can survive and prosper only by modify- ing their concepts of sovereignty and national exclusiveness Their modifi- cation has already taken place in actual practice — though the theory of the older nationalism pretends it is not so The level of actual inter- communication and interaction be- tween nation-states today is far higher than it was in the nineteenth century We are aware that what hap- pens in other states, whether friendly or hostile, will decisively affect events in our own countries — more so in small and underdeveloped countries That is why we find ourselves in- creasingly involved in the work of various international organizations and groupings — from tbe United Nations to such bodies as UNESCO. ECAFE, the Colombo Plan. ASEAN and many more A more significant transgression of the loudly proclaim- ed concept of sovereignty and self- sufficiency is the passionate and often angry claims we make on ad- vanced countries — some of which we profess to despise — for econom- ic help and even sustenance as a matter of right and justice
So while the older nationalist doc- trine proclaims undiluted national sovereignty and independence of action, the practice is somewhat dif- ferent. Yet theoretical attachment to doctrines transgressed in practice is one reason for the mounting difficul- ties encountered by Asian national- ism A reformulation of these doc- trines In more realistic and intellec- tually honest terms would do Asia and the world a lot of good. It may help Asia to accelerate Its pace of real development, as contrasted with spurious development It may help Asia, for example, to adopt a more regional attitude towards foreign in- vestments. without which develop- ment must be slow and intolerably burdensome.
And finally the new nationalism must keep In mind that it has to con- tend with a world that will before the end of this century be dominated by a technology and science of a very complicated and sophisticated kind The nineteenth-century nationalism from which we draw our, emotional and intellectual inspiration was meant to cope with relatively simple so- cieties beginning their first industrial revolution Those concepts cannot cope with the different problems of the post-industrial society, which the
advanced countries are now creating over our heads and which we in Asia must become a part of if we are to play a dignified and satisfying role in the human drama
The gap between the advanced and the developing countries is al- ready depressmgly wide We have
wasted some two decades since in- dependence in wasteful and irrele- vant pursuits One major reason is that the old nationalism has become a millstone hung round our necks If we make the effort of renovating our nationalism with determination and boldness then the gap between us
and the advanced countries can be closed far more rapidly than now seems possible. But the longer we postpone this innovation, the more difficult and more problematical will become the prospects of ending the inequalities that now exist between us and the advanced nations ■
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THE KOREAN REPUBLIC, SEOUL, MONDAY, MAY 16. 1960 page 3
Last Queen of Yi Court Returns to ‘Home’
Yoonbi seats herself on a sofa after entering the outer structure1 of Naksun- jai, which she had vacated during the past one decade.
Above is the inner quarter of Naksunjai, where Yoonbi will spend her life.
car at the eit- her relatives.
Helped by her court ladie(s, Yoonbi trance of Naksunjai, where she is
The gray overcast weather, glistening from a drizzling rain, is bad enough for any house-moving. But it seemed mischievous and even splash- ed a paint of pathos over yesterday morning’s house- moving by the last queen of the Yi Dynasty, Yoonbi.
Devoid of all the royal pomp and splendor which would have adorned it half a century ago, the occasion was sober and humble... few pedestrians noticed the modest procession.
The 67-year-old ex-queen, the last remnant of the royalty that deigned over the Korean peninsula for over 500 years, rode into the 3000- pyong ‘Naksunjai (The Inn of Joy and Goodness) within the premises of Changduk Palace
steps from her greeted by some of
..flanked by two maids.
A handful of Yoonbi's remote relatives, * who would not dare trample the freshly- spread sand in the inn’s courtyard for fear of leaving then- foot-prints in the ex- queen's path, bowed piously as Yoonbi left the navy-blue sedan.
Clad in a light-purple jacket and turquoise skirt, the bespectacled royal lady stood in front of the inn for a while. . speechless and not showing a tinge of the emotion revolving within
This is the house entwined with her tears and sighs.
Here she had lived in com- plete seclusion since 1926, the year her husband, dethroned King Soonjong, died, until the Communist invasion of 1950
. . .. -
Above photo, a reproduction from a rare royal al- bum, shows the primei days of Yoonbi. She is clad in a formal court dress.
forced her on the southward trek to Kupo, Kyongsang- namdo.
After years of refuge, Yoonbi returned to Seoul in 1953 to find her home dilapidated beyond use. Together with ‘four court ladies who had served her since she became the queen in 1907 at the age of 14, Yoonbi moved into Insoojai, a summer house on the north- eastern outskirts. This was arranged by Dr. Syngman Rhee.
Only last month, custodians of the Yi Dynasty royal properties launched the rehabilitation of- the long- ignored structure and its
garden. So far, more than three million hwan has been spent, but much more is need- ed to give final touches to the repair work.
For the past 15 days, dozens of men have worked day and night to create a reasonable facsimile of a queen’s quarter. Until a few minutes before Yoonbi's arrival, men and women had been busy setting up house- hold furniture, much of it shabby, most antique.
As she slowly walked, amid popping flash bulbs, into her room, her pale and somewhat transparent visage was not marred by note of sux-round- ing distractions.
■
She was still a queen.
The room in which she finally sat herself down still smelled of paint and paste.
Only some of the majestic carved-wood furniture that survived the Communist foray was reminiscent of a queen’s living quarters.
No matter how it looks, this is the house in which Yoonbi will live for the rest of her life. . .with four court- ladies, three guards, and 10 servants., finding her con- solation in the plush vegeta- tion surrounding the inn... and a reminder of reality in the sounds of traffic coming from just beyond the wall.
THE KOREAN REPUBLIC, SEOUL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21. 1957
Page 5
SEOUL PRICE INDEX DROPS BELOW CRITICAL CEILING
The wholesale price index in Seoul has finally dropped below the critical 125 ceiling set up as the criterion for continuation of the 500-1 ex- change rate.
According to the latest of- ficial compilation, the index was down to 123.7 as of Thursday. This compares with 125.1 on Tuesday and 132.4 on Sept. 13.
The most recent index re-
presents the first drop below the 125 ceiling since Februa- ry. In March, the monthly average index rose to 126.9. Afterwards the index remain- ed steadily on a 130 level.
The number 100 represents the base as of September, 1955, the month following the establishment of the peg- ged exchange rate of 500 hwan to $1.
Government officials attri-
buted the drop to the conti- nuous downward movement of the grain market, into which the new rice crop has begun to flow.
The high grain prices due to poor harvests had been the principal element forcing the index up above the 125 level.
The index of all commodi- ties excluding grain has not gone over the ceiling except
in February and March this year, when psychological fac- tors involved in the sharp in- creases in rates of public utilities and railroad trans- portation had a general boost- ing effect.
The ROK-U.S. exchange rate agreement provides that the 500-1 rate will be sub- jected to a review if the average of overall wholsale indices in the latter half of
this calendar year exceeds 125.
Since the price index has been repeating the annual pattern of hitting a low point during the last three months of each year, the post-harvest season, the looming certain- ty is that the index will con- tinue to remain under the 125 ceiling for the rest of this year.
GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT AT CONSTANT PRICES
( IN TERMS OF FY 1953/1954 PRICES)
PER CAPITA 6NR * §
Visiting Writer Plans Another Trip to Korea
One of the visiting foreign writers, American novelist Mrs. Charlie May Fletcher, said yesterday she hopes to visit Korea again to learn more about the people of Ko- rea.
“When I go home,” she said, “I will study about Korea through books. But I regret that there are so few books about the country.”
Wants Translations
The author of the biographi- cal novel "Albert Sweitzer” expressed the hope that many books on Korea can be trans- lated into English in the near future.
Mrs. Fletcher is among the 12 foreign writers who return- ed to Seoul yesterday from a sightseeing tour of the ancient city. of Kyongju.
The foreign writers, ing up a nine-day visit to Ko-
Chart Discloses Opposing Factors
Seoul to Get TrafSic Court; Barriers to Go
Metropolitan Police Director Chi Whan Choi said yesterday a summary traffic court will be established in Seoul to deal with traffic accidents and violations exclusively.
He also said the emergency call system of his headquarters is working out well, and thpt plans are now in progress to better the appearance of this
The above chart tells a story that is heartwarming at one point, but which poses a ponderous question at ano- ther.
Last year’s per capita gross national production, amount- ing to $85.77, rose above that of the pre-War year of 1949, despite the tremendous des- truction by the Korean con- flict and the sharp increase in population of about 1.7 million over the eight-year period. (The per capita GNP of 1949 was $78.71.)
But the 1956 level was still considerably lower than the $112.66 reached in 1938, when Korea was not divided into two as it is today.
The per capita GNP should reach a level of at least a hundred dollars, if this coun- try is to acquire the ability to support itself economically, at the same time carrying the huge burden of defense against Communism.
Toward this goal, expansion of production rapid enough to overtake pressures from popu-
Anothcr look at the chart reveals the sad fact that agri- culture and fisheries, while employing 70 percent of the population, account for only about 40 percent of the total production.
Industries, such as manufac- turing, mining, and construc- tion, account for only about 13 percent of the overall pro- duction, showing that the Ko- rean economy still is a long way away from the standard of fully-developed modern countries. (Chart by Courtesy of Reconstruction Ministry)
rea, will leave for home today. I lation increases is necessary, Before their departure, the and to accomplish 'this, de- writers will attend a luncheon velopment plans solidly back- party given by Director of the ed by aid from the U.S. and Office of Public Information other Free World nations are Chae Kyung Oh. I a must.
city.
Choi told a press conference that the traffic court is design- ed to save the parties involv- ed in traffic cases the unne- cessary time required in ordi- nary court proceedings.
The Seoul District Court yesterday reportedly approved Choi’s recommendation for es- tablishment of such a court — the first of its kind to be set up in Korea.
Cases Separated
It means that traffic cases will be separated from other cases, civil or criminal, court proceedings. According to Choi, the district court deals with 100 to 200 traffic cases daily.
The Director also said that the barbed wire encircling public installations and the posts and chains along the sidewalks will be removed soon. The removals will pro- mote the beauty and democra- tic atmosphere of the capital city, he added.
The “112 Emergency Cham- ber" in his headquarters, Choi said, dealt with 119 crimes and accidents from July 25 to Thursday. Of cases phoned in 90 have been solved, he said
Petrol Product Allocations Cut By CEB Group
The Overall Requirements Committee of the Combined Economic Board yesterday agreed on plans to limit allo- cations of aid-imported petro- leum products to $4 8 million for the three months begin- ning in October. The alloca- tion is considerably smaller than past allocations for like periods.
Fishing Nets
The Committee also drafted procurement authorization ap- plications for $1.8 million worth of salable commodities, including abaca and' fishing nets, under the $100 million first-stage commodity import program being financed with 1958 ICA aid. The PAAs will be sent to Washington after being signed by the CEB re- presentatives. This will com- plete issuance of PAAs under the first-phase plan
Invitation to Bid for Procurement with ICA Funds
Sept. 20, 1957
Opening Date
187-M
Ref. No. 96
iv. No. PIO/C No. Project Quantity
60357 Seoul National University Various 10 a.m. Oct. 30, 19o7 Operation Facilities
For detailed information on specifications, bid bond, performance bond, etc., please refer to the Machinery Section, Bure;
i of Procurement.
In Kyu Choi. Director. Oftice oi Supply (government of the Republic of Korea
Invitation to Bid for Procurement with ICA Funds
Sept. 17, 1957
WESTERN STYLE HOUSE FOR RENT OR SALE
Location: Near Samgak-chi Intersection, Yongsan, Seoul
Modern two-story building. Eight rooms, garage, store, basement and beautiful garden. Water and light in good con- dition. Floor space 53 pyung, walled land 90 pyung. Suitable for foreigner’s office or residence.
Please call: Tel. Yongsan 50-009, Mr. Cho
Ref. No. 94
Inv. No. PIO/C No. Project Quantity
186-M 70196 Meteorological Laboratory Various
Remarks : For detailed information on specification, bid bond, performance bond, etc.,
please refer to the Machinery Section, Bureau of Procurement.
Opening Date
, a.m. Oct. 21, 1957
In Kyu Choi, Director. Office of Supply Government of the Republic of Korea
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SUPPLEMENT, AUGUST 15, 1963
3E|2i alsisy TEL No. 3-2151-9
, , , .warmed Seoul streets on Aue 15 1 045, when Japan announced her unconditional surrender to
th?aS? eVd!nf ™nye^ oToccu"adof eafd “avtuT the' way for the independence of the Republic of Korea,
_§AGE 2
Roses in a Dustbin?
THE KOREAN REPUBLIC SUPPLEMENT, AUGUST 15, 1963
Heat of Political Turmoil Has Marked a Hectic Year
By SEHOON WHANG
Korea politics in the early days of liberation was often alluded to "a dustbin where no roses (democracy) can be expect- ed to thrive."
Today, 17 years since liberation, "that rose is just about to bud,” says one revolutionary, none other than Chairman Chung Hee Park himself. _ The top leader of the revolutionary government has, through repeated statements and in private talks, deeply committed himself to revolutionizing the famous adage, known to have originated with a traveling foreigner.
Park is firmly convinced that "roses do thrive in the dustbin, provided that it is clean of poisonous elements.”
Driven primarily by this urge, the military revolu- tionaries, during the past two years and four months effected a vigorous and sweeping housecleaning of the dustbin.
In the course of this tita- nic task, the nation during the past 12 months marked what may be one of the most turbulent and troubl- ed chapters in the history of Korean politics.
While the first test of
ed democracy may be seen in the coming presidential and parliamentary elec- tions, the birth pangs that heralded the coming of the Third Republic has been full of ups and downs.
As part of the ground- work, the nation last De- cember adopted a new con- stitution, and Chairman Park, in his year-end press meet Dec. 27, declared the revolutionaries' intention to join in civilian politics.
Politicians Cleared
Politicians were granted mass clearance from the six-year ban on political activities, new election laws were promulgated, and, of most significance, political activities were reinstated after 19 months of a strict ban.
Unfortunately for Park, however, he little foresaw at his press conference Dec. 27 what a political cli- mate was awaiting him in the year .ahead.
In less than a month after the political ac- tivities resumed Jan. 1, the nation was once again deep in a political mess.
Elections, according to Park’s announcement Dec. 27, were to be held in April and May, and the Third Republic was to have been set up by today.
Pressed by time, money and politicians ef some stature, politicians rushed td the streets like water gushing from broken dams.
They demanded total scrapping of the six-year ban imposed by the Poli- tical Purification Law; charges were leveled, par- ties were hastily formed, and quickly politicians be- came frantic in their search for "another grab at power."
Within a span of 45 days, beginning Feb 18 through April 8, in the face of pres- sures from both the oppo- sition and from his own revolutionary camp. Park changed his mind three times.
Renunciation
On Feb. 18. Park, in a dramatic announcement, declared that he would re- nounce political activities if politicians took a public oath to abide by his nine- point proposal.
Accepting Park’s bid. a group of 46 political leaders took an oath of allegiance Feb. 27 at Citi- zens Hall to "refrain from political bickering and to inherit the revolutionary tasks.”
Park, in turn, declared his formal renunciation oi the viability of the promis-
Chairman Chung Hee Park (right) confers with opposition political lea- ders to discuss means for smooth transfer of power to civilian control. The politicians are ex-Presidcnt Posu n Yun (left) and Chung Huh, former premier of the 1960 caretaker cabin et.
Voters cast ballots in the constitutional -referendum last December. The proposal won a great majority of approval throughout the nation.
political activities and cleared all but 2G9 of 4,367 politicians banned from politics.
One significant factor leading to Park’s sudden decision to withdraw from politics has been directly linked to resignation from the Democratic Republican Party of former Central Intelligence Agency Direc- tor Jong Pil Kim.
Kim, then the second most powerful man in the country, was the chief architect of the pro-govern- ment party, but was forced to resign when his one- man show inflicted the wrath of fellow revolu- tionaries.
Quitting politics, the 37- year-old ex-CIA chief Kim left the country on a tour of Europe and the Middle East as a roving presiden- tial envoy Feb. 25, one day before the Democratic Re- publican Party was formal- ly inaugurated.
Political Freedom
For the ensuing 17 days, politicians had to their fill what they regarded as political freedom. With the revolutionaries now wash- ing their hands of politics, the politicians engaged in bitter interparty squabbl- ing.
At the turn of the year, ex-President Posun Yun and followers of his for- mer New Democratic Party attempted a semblance of opposition integration with ex-Chief Justice Byungno Kim and politicians of de- funct Democratic and Libe- ral Parlies and indepen- dents.
At about the same time, former Premier Chung Huh of the 1960 interim cabinet also mobilized his former cabinet members and ex-Democrats in an at- tempt to form a party.
There were host of other "parties" mushrooming, too. Some of these ‘'parties" had neither members nor a party headquarters, but one “patriotic leader” and two or three rough-tough “secretaries," holding "press conferences” at tea- rooms.
There was at the time also talk of deploying an “opposition alliance” be- tween Yun’s Minjung Party and Huh’s Shinjung Party to oppose Park's Democratic Republicans.
But when Park decided to withdraw from politics, and over 2,300 politicians were granted "political comeback." opposition partners suddenly became foes.
The Minjung Party, which comprised four political factions. was badly split internal- ly, and the Shin- jung Party suffered a crip- pling blow when a group of 500 ex-Democrats bolted the party one month after they joined it.
While politicr^ parties thus presented a grim pic- ture, a group of 25 military officers, including two of the most influential rev- olutionaries, were arrested March 11 shortly before at- tempting a coup d’etat.
Power-Extension Bid
Against these events. Park, in his second and most dramatic derision oro-
(Oontinued on Page 5)
Supreme Council Chairman Chung Hee Park announces his proposal March 16 to extend military rule for four years. Gen- eral elections for gov- ernment transfer are now scheduled for mid-October, presi- dential elections in late November, and esta- blishment of the Third Republic by the end of this year.
Hyunchul Kim, the third premier of the military government addresses a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the may 16 military re- volution.
Posun Yun, former president of the ill- fated Democratic gov- ernment, talks at a news conference. He renounced the presi- dential nomination of the Minjung Party in a bid to form a united opposition front.
THE KOREAN REPUBLIC SUPPLEMENT. AUGUST 15, 1963
PAGE 3
THE KOREAN KtrUDLIl r l-uit.-.f ■ , —
StalusofKorean Economy lor This Year Holds Hope
... ci mauim MAM iects. according to the In. international pay- of each f r“u®-0“ P°i^ th^nrft j™ar (1B6Z) <
Bv SUNGMIN NAM iects, accordine to the In 'toti“?£ ‘wOO^mUlfoTwon "“lit" ttaTirrtyeM (1962) of _
^sSNV.fes?”*c p,annine BMrd sHtajssaa^
J* nIS Ze urlderta'ken &&
cans itu a r - to total $464 million million won m_ seconaary we ^
mil linn won in the gross for modernization ana imnnrl
national 'product IGNP), at mechanisation - of farming -mri s vat her than advancing gen-
212 million v«...
Of the total projects. 86 projects have completed over 80 percent of the pro- grammed goals, nine pro- jects have progressed over 60 percent and the remain-
* - ..nnfnntr M n O I" fid
The third-year uww (F„B)
Drogram of the five-year 'c-1 D>- economic development plan The government
-» oinnnn nmo nnnritv to ltiioxva. . t , , Cana million. million won *»* ov*.—— —
Commodities importation industry (mining.
1962U,marketUpricer. and *5 ovJrfha^S® this^ear'1"011 f^icUonX^and^
PeS’tGeNC°PTiaCnBS"rtehasc {^{SSS'ln^SfSSS Under the 1964 program }£■ ‘fom-
Of 4.830 million won over Industry sect. ^ $!. lid"! KoJea. includ- ff^;d<?ttera)8U^’ * »» w— - « ~~
the 296.000 million won in The ' total pliable le surplus grain under tlon and others). ing seven projects under 60
GNP in 1963. while the sources in 1964 are es ^ Public Law 480. is to fn addition, 310 miUion rcentt according to the
growth rate is a decrease timated to reacn . . j217 600.000, and for- won is to go for the technl- EpB
Ski- S.ST, ”
^Reduction of the expect- get ^naUons i„ clud.uK Meanwhile, the^go^n- . tfn^vdar P™™ ‘he ha^stln
ed growth rate has been ^asf^1 government bor- surplus in government for- ^vernmejit call^ior ^ compared t0 the un- made to meet economic j j 1964, are expect- eign exchange (KFX) hold- }*"•. promotion of ex- nual average grain produc-
realities and to develop the tQ total 37.950 million ings. which contrasts with ^geAhSncTment of aus- tion.
Stable basfsCOn°my w9”: 3 decrease of 7.790 the °«Sin jig ferity movement of the peo- In contrast, secondary
The third-vear program million won over that of ficit of $18.500, UUU in reduction of spend- industry registered 15.2-
eJu for a total of 53 300 1963- in 1963 , . . . . ing and encouragement of percent growth against the
„f SS# *rS4i-
siruplanncd 6M0° ^fcSsTKeaaHi sv ss
Of the total investment. 9.230 million won over that cent growth. ® 2.8-p ^cent . transfer of many The second year (1963) 26^00" million won® will be of this year, industry ?ro?ectsto private sectors, program of the five-year
made, up of government Consumption expendi- year s. secondary 0n development of energy economic t Pl?V!alof 11R
financing and the remain- tures break down to 2^6. is o 6-Dercent de- resources, extension of so- ® !_.t_ pnvi<;a2-
inp 26 500 million won will 950 million won in private growth, a 1-o P ..... r:ai overhead capitals, de- industrial projects, envis g comf f“mn’prlvante"capuil. expenditure end 48,550 mil- cre.se over the o » Import-sub- ing a^^percent growth of
Under the 1964 program, lion won for the govern- ‘e““” “5 erowtti a W- stitute Industry, promot on the GNP , u 20
p^ernentati'on lof proiects'al- "X dieposiUon el «e ter MeSfoVer that - — P^WSt ready being undertaken In- « «f^!,VSoTSoi ° F^.gLeected growth technique, and curbing the ICon.mued Page 2-
stead of initiating new pro
Progress Status of Foreign Capital Investment - Private Loans
(As of June 1, 1963)
|
Projects | |
Borrowers jLoan Agreedj |
Ordered | ^ |
|
|
Cement plant #4 |
Hanil Cement Co. |
5, 182. 000 |
5. 811, 500 |
|
Cement plant #6 |
Tsangyong Cement |
6. 495. 000 |
6. 495. 000 ~ |
|
Semi-chemical pulp |
Samyang Paper Mtg Co. |
617. 000 |
616, 743 |
|
Quick-freezing plant |
Samyang Co. |
280.000 |
280,000 |
|
Electric apparatus plant |
Gold Star Co. |
'T. 250. 000, |
1, 250.*b00 |
|
Importation of tuna |
Jedong Industrial |
620, OOOi |
— |
|
long liner Ranie spinning plant |
Co. Ton^barig Textile |
725.000 |
- |
|
2. 475. 000 |
|||
|
^ Printing paper plant |
Sam Pung Paper Mfg. Co |
292.000 |
292. 260 |
|
Transmission line mfg. |
Korea Cable Ind. |
2. 950. 000 |
— |
|
Co. |
2. 078. 000 |
||
|
Importation of civil air ) plant ^ Textile Apparatus |
Korea Air-Line Co. |
2.078,000 |
|
|
Baichang Ind. Co, |
1.000.000 |
■ “ |
|
|
Synthetic blend yarn |
Ilshin Spinning Co. |
569,000 |
534, 931 |
|
I) plant |
|||
|
Importiaton of tuna ^ long liner |
Korea Fishing Co, |
1,441.000 |
‘ ~ |
|
Importiaton of tuna |
Dongwha Construe- |
'■ 180. 000 |
— |
|
.) long liner Fused phosphate mfg. n) plant ’•j Importation of vessels |
Poongnong Fertil- izer Ind Daihan Sea-Line Corporation |
985,000 9. 300.000 |
- |
|
L) Pusan thermal plant |
Korea Electric Co. |
3.500.000 |
|
|
Importation of tuna |
Konghung Industrial Co |
1.500.000 |
|
|
Importation & construe- |
Fishing Develop- ment Corp. (Gov’t |
55, 151. 00C |
|
|
tions of fishing vessels Viscose Rayonyarn |
• |
||
|
5.1 18.001 |
|||
|
n) -plant (1) |
|||
|
P3 C2) |
5. 500. 00C |
||
|
Bast & Staple fiber |
4, 853, OCX |
- |
|
|
m) plant |
|||
|
Total |
112. 059. (XX |
17. 368. 425 |
Polysius (German) K. H. D. (German) Escher Wyss
(German Escher Wyss
(Switzerland
Fuhrmeisfer
(Gerriian
Kanematsury
(U S. A Coutinho Caro
(Germai SAMC (Frano Esher Wyss
(Germai
Fuhrmeister
(Germa
Fokker
(Netherland
Coutinho
(Germa Plott Bross Ltd (Englan Ueberses Handl A. G.
(Switzerlar Stark ist Food I NC. (U.S.j Coutinho Caro Co. (Germi
Maierform S A.
Ingoistat
signed
290. 577 324.750 61.673 280.000 62.500
290. 577 324. 750 61. 673 280.000 1.250.000
1,325,-272
62. 5.20 62. 11.20 62. 2. 7
62. 4.20 62. 2.21
]
62. 11. 15
63. 1.21 63. 1.16 62. 2.22 62. 4.19
62. 11. 16 62. 5. 2
62. 4.19
63. 1.30
61. 7.31
62. 4. 5 62. 12.
62. 4. 103(6%)2C89&) 62. 12. 11
Duration
(years)
4. 649. 157
25*
15%
-20%
20%
20%
20%
20%
15%
5.5
62. 8. 8
62. 12. 20 63. 1.29
5.5
Source: Economic Planning Board
Note: In addition to the above loan agreements, direct and joint investments Investment Promotion Committee.
1 Direct investment: $ 1.000 thousand for Gold, silver & copper mine developmen
2. Joint investment: $ 3.000 thousand for Automobiles maf. plant for army use O „ • $ 579 thousand for Filament nylon yarn plant
the following 3 projects are approved by the Foreign
PAGE 4
THE KOREAN REPUBLIC SUPPLEMENT, AUGUST 15, 1963
Economics
(Continued from Page 3)
industry, 38 projects to secondary industry and 60 projects to tertiary indus- try.
Of the projects in primary industry, the live- stock husbandry develop- ment projects calling for a total of 1,141,300,000 won have progressed 7.5 per- cent and the sericulture developriient projects re- quiring 189.500,000 won have progressed 39.9 per- cent for the first quarter of this year.
The Namgang River basin development project, which envisages irrigating 19,600 acres of land, has been completed 75.7 per- cent during the period.
During the same period, the ginseng cultivation pro- ject, calling for 360 million won, has progressed 20 per- cent, the industrial crop project requiring 68,700,000 won progressed 18.9 percent and the tobacco-raising pro- ject calling for 118,900,000 won has been completed 16.5 percent.
Progress Status of Foreign Capital Investment — Public Loans
(As of June 1, 1963) In U S, dollars
|
Projects |
Borrowers \ |
Loan agreed |
Agreement signed |
Kepayment terms |
|||||
|
Procured |
Arrived |
Annual interest |
Duration |
Currency to be |
|||||
|
A I D |
Extention of cement plant Extention of com- |
Tongyang Cement Co. |
2, 140, 000 |
2, 139, 599 |
2, 139, 599 |
59. 1.20 |
(%) , 5.25 |
(years) 7.6 |
won |
|
munication facili- ties Design of |
MOC |
3, 500, 000 |
3. 499. 967 |
2, 881, 456 |
59. 4. 8 |
3.5 |
19.6 |
7/ |
|
|
„ |
Choong-ju hydro- power plant Soda ash plant |
KECO Tongyang Chemical Co. |
1.500,000 5, 600,000 |
1, 114, 631 289. 150 |
1. 114. 631 289. 150 |
59. 5.26 59.12. 1 |
5.5 5.75 |
8 14 |
" |
|
Small industry |
5. 000.000 |
||||||||
|
Development |
, 510.820 |
292, 000 |
60. 4.12 |
*5 |
„ |
||||
|
// |
Nylon plant |
Hankuk Nylon Co. |
3.200,000 &). 900, 000 |
2,560,000 |
981, 891 |
61. 2.16 |
5.75 |
7.6 |
■■ |
|
plant |
9, 209, 353 |
2, 521. 331 |
62. 4. 4 |
0.75 |
Dollar |
||||
|
" |
Cement plant #3 Importation of |
Hyundae Con- struction Co. |
4,250,000 8, 300. 000 |
- |
62. 7.13 |
0.75 |
30 |
||
|
diesel locomotives Importation of |
M |
~ |
62. 10. 29 |
0.75 |
30 |
" |
|||
|
9, 509. 000 |
|||||||||
|
I D A |
passenger coaches |
MOT |
~ |
3.5 |
12 |
" |
|||
|
14,000.000 8, 750, 000 |
|||||||||
|
W. Germ- an Financ- ial Loan |
Tele-communica- tion facilities |
MOC |
62. 8.17 62. 11. 13 |
0.75 |
40 16 |
" |
|||
|
N * |
Extention of ship- |
Korea Ship- Building Co |
4, 820. 000 |
||||||
|
building yard |
— |
— |
— |
_ |
|||||
|
" |
Coal mine deve- lopment |
DHCC |
5, 180, 000 |
' |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
Total |
96, 649. 000 |
9, 323, 520 |
9. 237, 567 |
- |
- |
- |
In secondary industry, the construction project of an oil refinery plant at Ulsan, Kyongsang-namdo. has progressed 40.9 percent of this year’s goal, the con- struction project of the Honam Fertilizer Plant has been completed 73.9 per- cent of this year’s target and the shipbuilding de- velopment project, calling for a total of 406 million won for this year, pro- gressed 48.3 percent.
In tertiary industry, the Pusan thermal electric power plant project has progressed 20.2 percent
Source: Economic Planning Board Note: In addition to the above (loan approved), loan applications on 10 proiects amounting to $ 100,255 thousands have been submitted and 5 projects amounting to $102,333 thousand are under technical study. .
with 21,500,000 won, the of diesel locomotives has progressed 82.2 percent construction project of the been completed 96.8 per- importation project of Somjing River hydroelec- cent during the first quar- cargo ships totaling 55 000 tnc power plant has been ter of this year. tons progressed 6 percent
completed 9.1 percent, the The industrial highway and airport extension pro- Chunchon hydroelectric construction project has ject saw 16 6-percent pro- power plant construction progressed 60 percent of gress during the same project progressed 4.2 per- this year’s portion, port re- period, cent and the importation pair and drainage project For implementation of
the five-year economic plan, the government has so far obtained a total of $181,002,000 in foreign loans for 19 planned indus- trial projects and $21,198,- 000 for 15 nonprojected Industrial projects as of June 1 of this year.
GNP GROWTH RATE
AT 1955 CONSTANT PRICES
^ACTUALGfJP, ipc,2 1 gEI/ISEP 6 A/P, 196 4-
5-YEAR PLAN PERIOD
I
Gross National Product and Total Available Resources '
GNP \ Net Donations & Increase in Borrowing Total Available Resources Consumption Expenditures private government Total Capital* Fojmation Disposition of Total available Resources
(At 1962 market prices) Unit 100 million won
1963 1964
2,960.0 3,108.3
457.4 s 379,5
3,417.4
2.863.7
2.360.8 502.9
A 553.7
3,417.4
3.487.5
2.955.0
2.469.5
485.5
532.5
3.491.1
THE KOREAN REPUBLIC SUPPLEA'IENT, AUGUST 15, 1963
PAGE 9
Ginseng Exports Rise With Stricter Controls
Korean ginseng, the famous "cure-all” herb medicine, is restoring its popularity among overseas buyers since the govern- ment instituted strict ins- pection of quality pro- ducts beginning this year.
Korean ginseng products have gained a mounting number of consumers since they were first exported to Southeast Asian countries in 1957.
The biggest Korean ginseng buyers are Burma, Thailand, Malaya, West Germany, the United States and Horigkong in that order, an official of “the National Exhibition Center said.
As the fame of Korean ginseng increased, a vast number of irresponsible manufacturers exported hundreds of low quality products aT low prices, causing confusion among regular buyers and hurting the reputation of Korean goods in general.
In addition, Korean gin- seng encountered another trial when Red China and Communist north Korea began exporting similar tonics. Their products were said to be well-inspected in their advertisements.
This year the govern- ment revised the law con- cerning sales of ginseng products in a stepped up measure to regain the con- fidence of foreign custom-
As a result, unqualified
manufacturers were elimi- nated automatically.
Today five major ginseng producers are pooling their efforts in ginseng ex- ports with improved quality and closer coope- ration.
The five producers. Bum Ah Trade Co., New Ko- rean Products Co.. Ryu "Wha Industrial Co., Poongki Ginseng Pharma- ceutical Co. and Korea Royal Jelly Co., are seek- ing a unified strategy through the National Ex- hibition Center.
Their products include ginseng wine, ginseng tonic, ginseng tea and gin- seng syrup.
Each company exports an average of $20,000 to $30,000 of the medicine each year.
All products are made under strict supervision by government authorities during the entire process, one of the company offici- als said
Every product under- goes a thorough inspection at the Central Chemical Laboratory. Bottles and packings are inspected by the Central Industrial La- boratory and ginseng ■wines are tested at the Central Brewery Labora- tory.
Ginseng has a history of more than 2,000 years in medicinal use.
Essays by Sir Hancock; Full of New , Old Theories
This is a typical Ko- rean ginseng root. Even the smallest root is used for various medicinal purposes.
weakness during and after illness and is good for general poor health, ane- mia, nervous prostration, headache, diabetes and loss of appetite.
Modern chemists also agree that ginseng, a per- renial plant, is rich in alumina, phosphorate salts, silica, vitamins A and E, vitamin B complex, and a newly discovered substance called T-factor.
It also was recently proved to be a remedy for arterios-clerosis and high blood presure by a medical team_ from the Seoul Na- tional University Medical College.
he New World Looks at Its History. Edited by Archibald R.
Us and Thomas F. McGann. Austin, Texas: University of
Texas Press. 220 pp. $4. Review- ed by James Nelson Goodsell
When Frederick Jackson Turner put forward his "frontier hypothesis” in 1893, he set in motion one of the great historical -theories of . all time ancl generated a debate that still rages. Turner, as Sir Keith Hancock in one of the more delightful essays in this attractive book says, "proclaimed the sig- nificance of the frontier in American history.” He held that many of the uni- que features of American thought and character can be ascribed to the nation's pioneering experience.
The Turner thesis is the underlying theme in most of the essays which make up "The New World Looks at Its History.” These es- says were originally papers delivered at the Second International Congress of Congress of Historians of the United States and Mexico, held at the Uni- versity of Texas campus at Austin, in November of 1958. Together in book form they make a readable and fascinating package.
Since Turner expounded his theory, the frontier concept has spread, find- ing its way into historical analyses of a variety of re- gions. Several of the papers delivered at the
Texas conference, and in- cluded in this volume, treat the Spanish frontier. Here, the eminent Spanish medievalist, Claudio San- chez-Albornoz. writes about the Castilian fron- tier in Spanish history: "The history of no other European peoples, includ- ing those of the Iberian Peninsula, has been so de- cisively modified by a frontier as that of Castile. The wide-open frontier of this region exercised an important influence cen- tury after century, as long as it continued to exist. . . Because these lands (those of Castile and Alava) drained by the upper Ebro and its affluents were on the frontier for more than a hundred years — a fron- tier characterized by the harsh will to resist and the iron will to fight of an entire people — the inhabi- tants acquired their uni- que national dynamic and consciousness of their own strength which eventually provoked unrest and then
secession.
Not all frontiers have led to unrest and secession — but all frontiers have had that development of a national dynamic and a consciousness of their own strength. The essays in this book ably illustrate this.
But Ray Allen Billington of Northwestern University thinks that the American frontier produced traits and institutions which "dif- fer from those of other frontier countries whose evolution has been roughly similar.” He says that the American frontier had three factors which made it "virtually unique": “(1) the environment offered an unrivaled opportunity for individual self-advance- ment, (2) its early settlers were unusually well equip- ped to utilize this opportu- nity to the full, and (3) its resources were so abun- dant that their continued exploitation allowed a frontierlike atmosphere to persist long after the fron- tier was closed.”
Experienced Author Tells of Pacific Isles
Hundreds of Korean ginseng products are dis- played at the National Exhibition Center in Seoul. These products are made under strict su- pervision and inspection of the government.
The Log of One Man's Journey In the South Pacific, by James Ramsey Ullman. Cleveland: World Publishing Company. 316 pp. 55.95. Reviewed by Roland Sawyer
James Ramsey Ullman wanted to see for himelf to what extent an outsider can find paradise in the Pacific islands._Were they "les iles d’illusion,” or not? Well he knew the stex-eo- typed legends: the spec- tacularly beautiful scenery, the normal balm of the cli- mate. the ease of obtain- ing the necessities of life, the charm of the island peoples. He foresaw a jour- ney of discovery that in- numerable writers, artists, sailors and missionaries had made, and recorded, already. What could he tell us, experienced author that he is. that had not been published fifty times and, he feared, perhaps better written?
These pages do not port- ray much that is new. Of course, the author did not find paradise unalloyed; he did not expect to. real- ly. What then do we have that makes this book a contribution to the litera- ture of the Pacific? We have essentially a remark- ably true record of the im- pact of the South Seas upon an open and inquir- ing mind. On the opening page the author advises that this is "simply an ac- count of individual experience.” His observa- tions, he says rightly, are made from the basis of truths he has entertained
acquired, long before. He calls these his "spiritual baggage.”
For the most part this baggage is no impediment. Ullman traveled by every available sort of convey- ance for over a year. He saw the Pacific from Ha- waii, Guam (via Wake}, Truk, Majuro, Tarawa. Fiji, Samoa. Tahiti, and the Marquesas. He saw it from innumerable lesser- known islands. He saw it through the eyes of peo- ples whose variety is al- most as ejidless as their islands. He saw it through his own discerning eye, a ■ man already much travel- ed in remoter parts as well as in established places. He saw it with a fine sense of humor touched by irony. And he saw it also as one who had experienced vis- cissitudes of life in the United States.
When he sailed through the Golden Gate the au- thor was alone. He and his wife had separated, their two grown sons having started on their own jour- ney in life. It is clear that this schism had cut him deeply. This was part of the baggage. It lay not far below the surface of his thoughts and emotions as he traveled’ but it is no hindi'ance to his story.
Near the end. in the ' Society Islands. Ull- man experienced a way of living acceptable there but one which could be considered by others either distasteful or reproachable.
It was here that the inner man and his mortal sense of paradise clashed.
PAGE 10
THE KOREAN REPUBLIC SUPPLEMENT, AUGUST 15, 1963
Major Events
General Douglas MacArthur (center) is shown leading his staff after the successful surprise landing of the elements of the United Nations Command at Inchon in September 1950, three months after the Communist north Koreans stag- ed an unprovoked war against south Korea.
Gen. Mark W. Clark, commander in chief, United Nations Command, signs the military armistice agreement at Munsan-ni July 27, 1953. This was the beginning of the longest armistice to be recorded in history.
An Army tank patrols downtown Seoul in support of the May 1961 revolution. Here crowds of cheering people greet the military forces who established a 30-membcr Revolu- tionary Committee May 18.
Since 1945 Recounted
Republic
Numerous
1945
July 26 — The Potsdam Declaration affirms Ko- rea’s independence.
Aug. 15 — Japan sur- renders to the allied forces. Korea was subse- quently divided under the allied occupation forces by the 38th parallel under the Yalta Agreement of Feb. 21. 1945.
Dec. 27 — The Moscow Conference announces the establishment of a trus- teeship over Korea.
1946
March 20 — U.S.-USSR Joint Commission meets at Duksoo Palace. It went into recess indefinitely in August, 1947.
Feb. 5 — The U.S. Mili- tary Government appoints Koreans to high govern- ment post.
1947
Nov. 14 — The U.N. General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the creation of a provisional government in Korea, and subsequent withdrawal of all foreign troops from Korea.
1948
May 10 — General elec- tions are held south of the 38th parallel under the supervision of the U.N. Commission.
May 31 — The Consti- tuent Assembly adopts the Constitution and elects Syngman Rhee president and Shiyung Lee vice presi- dent.
Aug. 15 — The Govern- ment of the Republic of Korea is established and Syngman Rhee becomes first President.
Dec. 9 — The U.N. Gene- ral Assembly recognizes the Republic of Korea as the sole legitimate govern- ment in Korea.
1949
Jan. 1 — The U.S. occu- pation forces withdraw from south Korea.
1950
June 20 — The second National Assembly con- venes following general elections May 10.
June 25 — The north Korean Communist army unleashes an unprovoked attack upon the Republic.
June 26 The U.N. Security Council declares the Communist invasion a "breach of peace." Two days later it called upon U.N. member nations to rush military assistance to Korea.
June 28 — Seoul falls into the hands of the Com- munist.
July 8 — The United Na- tions Command is estab- lished under the command of Gen. Douglas Mac- Arthur.
Sept. 15 — The U.N. forces launch all-out counteroffense with historic landing at Inchon.
Sept. 28 — The U.N. forces recapture Seoul from the Communists, and
Survives
Challenges
the government and the National Assembly returns to the capital from Pusan.
Oct. 19 — The Chinese Communist ■ army inter- venes with the Korean War.
1951
Jan. 4 — Seo_ul falls again to the Communist army back beyond the 38th parallel.
June 24 — USSR dele- gate to the U.N. Jacob Malik proposes a truce in Korea.
Oct. 20 — ROK-Japan talks open in Tokyo.
1952 __
Aug. 5 — President
Rhee is elected for a sec- ond term, and Taiyung Ham is elected vice presi- dent.
Dec. 2-5 — Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, then the president-elect of the United States, visits.
1953
1953 ■
Feb. 14 — A currency re- form is effected under a presidential decree.
July 27 — Korean Armis- tice Agreement is conclud- ed between the UNC and the north Korean and Chi- nese Communists.
June 18 — President Rhee frees anti-Communist north Korean war prison- ers in south Korea; 27,000 out of a total of 34.000 prisoners are granted the rights to reside in the Re- public.
Nov. 27 — President Rhee flies to Taipei on a state visit with President Chiang Kai-shek.
1954
May 20 — General elec- tions for the third National Assembly are held.
June 15-18 — The Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League is formally organiz- ed in Chinhae under the initiatives’ of the Republic of Korea.
1956
May 15— President Rhee is reelected to a term and John M. Chang of the then opposition Democratic Party is elected vice presi- dent.
1957
June 21 — The UNC de- nounces paragraph 13d of the Armistice Agreement to introduce new weapons for U.N. Forces.
Sept. 18 — Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem arrives in Seoul on a three-day state visit.
1959
Dec. 14 — A group of 975 Korean residents in Japan are deported to north Korea.
1960
March 15 — Presiden- tial- elections are held.
April 19 — University students in Seoul demon- strate against the March 15 elections.
April 26 — President Rhee resigns.
April 27 — Interim cabi- net is formed under Pre- mier Chung Huh.
June 19 — U.S. Presi- dent Dwight D. Eisenhower arrives in Seoul on a state visit.
July 29. — General elec- tions for National As- semblymen are held.
Aug. 2 — Rep. Posun Yun is elected president of the Second Republic.
Aug. 19 — John M. Chang is named premier.
1961
May 16 — The revolu- tionary forces under the command of Gen. Chung Hee Park take over the Chang government.
May 18 — A 30-member military Revolutionary- Committee was establish- ed.
May 19 — The Military- Revolutionary Committee is renamed the Supreme Council for National Re- construction.
July 3 — The Supreme Council names its vice Chairman Chung Hee Park: chairman.
Nov. 14 — Chairman Park arrives in Washington.
1962
March 24 — President Posun Yun resigns. Chair- man Park assumes the of- fice of Acting President.
May 1 — The Interna- tional Music Festival opens at the Citizens Hall.
May 12 — The Ninth Asian Film Festival opens in Seoul.
June 10 — A Currency reform was. effected.
June 16 — Premier Yo- chan Song resigns, and Chairman Park assumes the premiership.
July 10 — Chairman Park names Hyunchul Kim premier.
'Dec. 6 — The govern- ment lifts martial law.
Dec. 17 — The constitu- tional amendments were approved in a national re- ferendum.
1963
Jan. 1 — The govern- ment allows the resump- tion of political activities.
Feb. 26 — Democratic Re- publican Party is in- augurated.
Feb, 27 — Chairman Chung Hee Park announces his decision not to partici- pate in civilian govern- ment.
March 16 — Chairman Chung Hee Park proposes a referendum to decide on whether to extend military rule.
March 28 — The Demo- cratic Republican Party nominates Chairman Chung Hee Park as its presiden- tial candidate.
April 8 — Chairman Chung Hee Park withdraws his March 16 proposal.
May 14 — The Minjung Party is formally in- augurated.
May 17 — North and South Korean athletic delegates meet in Hong- kong to seek a formula for organizing a joint team for the 1964 Tokyo Olym- pic Games.
THE KOREAN REPUBLIC SUPPLEMENT, AUGUST 15, 1963
PAGE 11
i Chung-
Korea Remembers Her Bitter Fight hr Freedom
(Continued from Page 12) less Korea was formally an- chi used stronger police least 49.984 were thrown/ Kim Koo the Uiyoldan pie Is Party) with .lother nexed by Japan, and re- control. Under Japanese into jail. The world wibj <lhe Patriot’s Club for patriots— Shin Chaeho, LI named Chosun. The Yi domination independence nessed some of the worst Justice) exploited under- Tonghwi and Li Tong- Poya! family members aspirations had never dis- atrocities in human his-> ground terroristic methods young, to lead an organi- were Placed under Japan- appeared in spite of ruth- /tory. Among the leaders in fighting for independen- zed movement for inde- ese protection. less supression by the Ja- was heroine Yoo Kwan-. ce. The members of the
pendence Another Agreement panese. ' S0S.V' y- , , group — among them Yi
In the following year, a* the news of the djt. During the first ten The Government did not Pongehang and Yoon
Hirobumi Ito, president of handing of the Korean years of JaPar>ese rule, attain independence lm- (flonggil — attacked, the
the Japanese Privy Coun- Lv Pak Sumrwhan more than 200-000 patriots mediately, but it resulted Japanese emperor in Tokyo
cil, became the first Ins- then commander of the ro^ w,ere ' arrested or imprison- in new and more effective jn 1932 and in Shanghai
pector General to actually Val army committed sui- edVTerauchl’ °"ce shot by flghtiug for indePenden’ the same year. The group
govern Korea. This touch- cide "mm^teir after f *orean Patri0> ruth- ce; The group of exiles was receiving financial
ed off resistance through- the Japanese signed an ieSSly ,suPPressed any in' established -the Korean support from Generalissi-
out the country. High other nrotectorate aeree- dePendence movement, so Provisional Government mo Chiang Kai-shek in
court officials addressed !jment e£fbSte *hat m,ost .°f the ,,ndepen' Shanghai in April of fighting against the Ja-
an anti-Japanese . memor- c^ntrol J{ nation Min denCe le-ade/s fled abr°ad gif. same yeai\ Syngman panese. Since the Japanese ial to the Throne. Daily Yloungwhan and other underground. The Rhee was elected Presi- aggression in China in
newspapers. including leading Datriot? killed 105jMan Incident of 1911 dent Ahn Changho. Kim 1937, there had been the Hwangsung Shinmun themselves in nrotest was one of the significant Kyushik and Kim Koo were center for them i “ and the Daehan Maeil * u-*- independence movements also key members of the king.
Shinmun with its publish- g Rps{.i„Pri M«v™n*°n' staged in Korea and was government In Manchuria the
fi=T KidU^a„YdU"vil^0„BYa"„E movement
A former government Street demonstrations Samil Movement dents under theP leader- bad maintained military
oftaal Min Chongsik nnd large scale general Thf most sTmilcant ship °£ Yi Byongnip and action against the- Japanese sfaged the first organized strikes were staged dav af- c]laDter in the hfstnrvof Pak Hakyun Theresistan- army lhe arca Led hy rebellion against the Ja- ter day through the whole ‘ ee hmvevei was snooress Ga" Kim Chwajin, Gen.
pahicse and their puppet nation. An estimated 60.- movement ’wasdthe damn ed in S first staee and Chi Chungchon and Gen.
-cabinet. More than 600 «00 insurgents partiejpat- "J"' l^Indeneod^el 1.000 or more agitates were Yi Bb™sok. the army
lolunteers joined the re. ed in the resistance over Movement of lofo eVn=nine arrested and thrown into finally cooperated with
volt. Almost all of the a period of three years. »d the fail the Allies forced in the
American missionaries, in- Among them. 17.600 were ed“Ytb! i 1 „ .... war against Japan,
eluding Homer B. Hulbert. killed or wounded by the rtcncl and «lf detfjmin?' Kman01u Uprising Siberia and lhc Rus.
only backed the Koreans Japanese police. tinJ fnifiat/sH hv thf p In 1929, the famous sian Far East, Yi Tongn-
in fighting for independ- In this resistance move- d^t S^hfTIn^S%Tft^ Kwangju Student Resls- yong and Yi Siyoung led
ence ment. the YMCA. the Dae- wood?ow Wilson the tance arose with the sup- a movement to organize
Mission Failed hanjagang Hoe (the Asso- reans both in and out of p?rt frum the Shinkanhoe Korean youth in exile into
-Meanwhile King Kninno ciation for Strengthening the country held a nation Lthc. * New Foundation effective fighting units,
in the Wfa’ee 3ftS2S S'fjm^ffhefr ‘ieaS wMeTe^Sti^n"^ - *»"•
fif^XegatesCtotltheSl?! Wfre Vun Chiho.’ Chang dencf ,mmedlate mdepen- under Yi Sangjae. The The firs t group of exiles
bond International Peace cl”yon and Y“" Hyojung. The movement was ori- fh?Ug Tf ,foamed to e"d .S, *' b})St'V aates^AhS
SX'SK reads' tohSd,h°ef jELSS * “ V ^ “L^dtcV’ToveTen^ a p.
Ito plead his cofnt^ also appeared in a series of m pehfmf!, “de,pandence -both at home and abroad. fOUP. «ungsadan
cause. Ope. of the three assassinations of Japanese year in TokySf This ^ total 0f 54,000 students T i913 ^lth
fSiaaS ass r assess: s S'sdr
- 1- ^t^r^ai^p1^
the*1 abdication^f ^h^ king Korean Wpab?toS i? ®ln ihe h33d Influence political3" leadm in
under Japanesef pressure Francisco in 1908 Tn the he Dedaratio?. °e Inde6 ieIn- f.h! 20s and 30s- the Washington for national
His successor .Kina following year. Hirobumi ‘ enrfbne,„ rfi1°no 1 iSocialist influence was independence before and SoSjong theYast king of ™ ai-sassinated by ‘^g|a”d growing in every coun- darinB the second World
the Yi Dynasty, was a Ahn Chunggun at Harbin Sve buf VX tryt! and. in suppressed War-
figurehead. The ad- p Wanyong was wounded sPistanVcee against the jfpam Mo ° an 'r part,culfr’ T,?e In the history of the
itration was olaePd au by Chaemyong on the oco ce against ine Japan- [Korean Communist party independence movement
ministration was placed al- by
most entirely under Ja- same year. These assasins uviore than 2 million npo Tho ,7 — “u““5 u*c jeats ui uapan-
panese control and the wJere arrested and execut- ple particinated ?a JSO« Socialist youth groups €Se domination, the most
Km-pan arms; u-no ed. 1 . ULip.lieQ 1111 IrfOUU| came into pxist.pnpp in thp __u: .
Korean army was ordered ed- disbanded. This led to wide- Japanese Domination spread insurrection and
st party independence movement
Th= s/rs
“ the
The annexation depriv- ing nationwide resistance, 5upl1°^, blished educational insti-
war of independence, which ed the Koreans of freedom the Japanese shot havo ahr fa nd,ei]ce ,m.0ve~ Ul!(1- o' home for the gen-
suppresseil only with in every field of social neted burned hanged or f ‘ , b ,d that llme orations to come. Among
great difficulty after years life. The flnst Governor beat to death no fewer Z ■ ,aunc,he<1 by fddr «uch institutes were thf
31 miT.8' . ” ' heIP‘ ' Masatafla Terau- than 7,500 patriots At SSS fhe if'adSshfp 1 '"Si Schools .°S“n ‘‘"i Daesune
^ ^ ' " '5;t ' -
it
jBI'-
All Seoul stores are closed in support of nationwide demonstrations March 1, 1919 against Japanese rule!
PAGE 12
THE KOREAN REPUBLIC SUPPLEMENT, AUGUST 15, 1963
18 Years' Struggle lor Independence
By SUNJOO LEE
Eighteen years ago to- day, Korea was liberated from 35 years of Japanese rule. At that time the Ja- panese Empire uncondi- tionally surrendered to the Allies, ending the second World War. The liberation of Korea was unquestion- ably one of the Allies’ war policies. The leading po- wers of the Allies — the United States, China, Great Britain, and the So- viet Union had committed themselves to Korean in- dependence at Cairo and Potsdam.
Unfortunately, the libeiS tion was not followed im- mediately by the complete independence of the na- tion. The nation was divid- ed in two at the 38th pa- rallel, which was original- ly nothing more than a temporary military line for a joint zonal occupa- tion. This division of the nation made it impossible for Korean independence to be established except on the basis of the United iStatesnSkwiet agreement. After her liberation Korea became a battleground for conflicting international interests, the Asiatic fron- tier of two powers strug- gling for world supre- macy.
An agreement/ between the two powers concerped in the control of Korea was not reached in al- most three years of nego- tiations at Moscow, Seoul, and New York. It was on the same day in 1948 as the liberation that the in- dependent government of the Republic of Korea, un- der the U.N. support, was formally established, the actual jurisdiction of which covered only to the southern territory of the division line.
Ancient Struggle
This is only part of the whole story of the events that brought us the oppor- Itunity for independence..' The history of our fighting for independence actually dates back to the latter part of the nineteenth century, when the nation, widely known as the Her- mit Kingdom, faced “the waves of the Western im- perialism.” The doors of
A huge crowd of Seoul citizens gather at Seoul Railway Station plaza to celebrate liberation from the 36-year Japanese rule August 15, 1945.
Japanese fonced the Yi royal family to social re-
the nation, under the rule of the autocratic Yi Dynas- ty kings, were first open- ed unwillingly to the Jap- anese who were already on the road to aggression on the Asian continent.
After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, Japan be- came a true world power and a potential aggressor to her.
The history of our fighting for indepen- dence actually dates
back to the latter to her neighboring coun- tries. At that time, the Koreans felt that the Ja- panese would soon demand lits vitial [interests in the territory of the Korean Peninsula and other parts of the Far East. Du- ring the war, the Tonghak led by Choi Sihyong and Chun Pongjun, was raised against Japanese in- tervention in Korean do- mestic affairs. Then the
forn
Independence Society
In the years after the Sino-Japanese War, the Korean progressive lead- ers launched a nationwide campaign to awake the people. They felt that the in defpenden.ee, of the na- tion could be maintained only when the people could enjoy their own freedom in every field of
Reviewed
social life. They formed a social organization, the Tongnip Hyophoi (the In- dependence Society) in 1896 under the leadership of U.S. educated Suh Jaipil. Yi Sangjae and Syngman Rhee. The society publish- ed the Tongnip Shinmun l(the Tndepend>en|ce INew^J paper), the first daily pub- lished in Korea. Another symbolic accomplishment achieved by the body was the Construction of the Independence Gate.
Progressive Society
Another "democratic” movement was launched by the Jonghak followers under the leadership of Son Pyonghi who form- ed Chinbo Hoe (the Pro- gressive Society) with the platform a change of gov- ernment by the people.
The group sought a so- cial foundation for effec- tive political indepen- dence. Son lalten became one of the 33 indepen- dence heroes who led the Independence Movement of 1919.
Japanese Protectorate
Immediately after the Japanese gained victory over the Russians in 1905, they made Korea a Japanese protectorate. Now Korea's sovereignty |was forcibly turned over to the Foreign Office in Tokyo. The poor Koreans became helpless,. Rhe Treaty of Portsmouth pro- vided for Russian recog- nition of the preponderant interest, political, military and economic, of Japan in Korea. Neither the United (States nor the United Kingdom helped the Ko- reans to maintain their national independence. They had already agreed to the Japanese rule' of the nation in a treaty or a diplomatic bargain.
At the news of signing a Japanese protectorate pact, the people of the whole nation stood against the then pro-Japanese gov- ernment and the Japanese authorities.
A prominent fighter for Independence, Ahn Chang- ho returned home from the United States to form a sejeret political party, Shinminhoe (the New Peo-
(Continued on Page 11)
Shown above is the original copy of the Declaration of In- dependence, which was declared in a gathering at Seoul Pagoda Park March 1, 1919, by Han Yongun, one of the 33 indepen- dence heroes. The copy has been kept by Bongyoung Yoo, a journalist. .
Hundreds of leaders of the independence movement are executed by Japanese oppressors during the Samil (March 1) uprising in 1919.
FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON SEMINAR
REFLECTIONS CLARENCE NORWOOD WEEMS
REPORT NUMBER 5 KOREA
June 22, 1959
Summary of Activities (for Reports 5 and 6)
The pressure of time and the fact that more extensive writings on Korea are in press or nearing completion have led to the reluctant decision to write only these two reports on this country, despite the wide range of topics which are particu- larly inviting to this writer. The present study will be centered on some aspects of physical recovery since 1953. In Number 6 attention will be given to critical cultural change and to certain educational activities.
Gratifying progress is being made on the three special programs outlined in the Summary for Report 1. It nay be noted in par- ticular that the microfilming of important historical materials under the auspices of the Committee on Library Resources of the Association for Asian Studies, at the request of prominent Korean scholars and administrators, is now in progress as a result of the cooperation of Seoul National University, Yonsei University and the Korea Society.
SEMINAR meetings have been concentrated so far as practicable in the period beginning on June 19, when Drs. MacKenzie and Chen joined me here. The groups listed below have made especial- ly valuable contributions to our work. They are named in chron- ological order of the sessions held with them.
Prominent Roman Catholic laymen, including Dean Hong Ryol Ryu of Seoul National University
The Korean Leprosy Association (Mr. Moon Won Chin, Executive Secretary)
The Seoul membership of the Methodist Mission (under arrange- ments made by Mrs, A. K. Jensen and Rev. M. Clin Burkholder)
The Seoul Rotary Club (at the invitation of Mr. Gregory Hen- derson, Cultural Attache, American Embassy)
Annual Meeting of the United Presbyterian Mission (Dr. Richard H. Baird, Commission Representative, and Rev. Otto DeCamp, Annual Meeting Chairman)
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The Korean Research Center (Dr. L. George Paik, Chairman of the Eoard and Dr. Chon Dong, Director)
The Acting Director of the Korea office of the Inter- national Cooperation Administration (United Nations Command, Office of the Economic Coordinator)
The Asiatic Research Institute of Korea University (Dr. Chin 0 Yu, President of the University; Professor Sang-eun Lee, Director; Professor Ki-zun Zo, Deputy Director; Professor 3yong-ki Min, Secretary; Mr. Yong-kwon Kim, Executive Secretary; Dr. Esson M.
Gale, Advisor; and Mr. John H. T. Harvey, Rockefeller Foundation Grantee, Editorial Associate)
Faculty Research Group in History, Seoul National Univer- sity (Dr. II Sun Yun, President of the University;
Dr. Pyeng Do Yi, Dean of the Graduate School; Pro- fessor Hong Ryol Ryu; Professor Woo-Geun Han and some fifteen others)
Choong Hyun Babies' Home (Mrs. Kyung Hi Choi, Director)
The Asia Foundation (Mr. Jack E. James, Korea Represen- tative)
Sung Kyun Kwan University (Dr. Sun Keun Lee, President)
Of all the discussions held in Korea, this all-day session, which occurred today, was the most compre- hensive and gave evidence of the most extensive planning. The participants, other than the Univer- sity President, may be grouped as follows:
Upperclass and graduate students Executives and faculty members (including Dr.
Tung Shik Cho, Chairman, Board of Trustees; Professor Hung Jong Lee, Vice President, Dean Woo Sung Son of the College of Liberal Arts and four other Deans)
Distinguished administrators and professors from the Committee on the Making of National History and from Chung Ang (Women's), Chung Nam, Korea,
Kuk Hak, Seoul National, Soong Sil, Suk Myung ('Women's), Tbng Kuk and Yonsei Universities
Total of Sung Kyun Kwan group and guests 190
In Korea as in Japan Dr. Thoburn T. Brumbaugh and Dr. Henry Little, Jr. have been of important assistance.
My brother, Professor William R. Weems of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, now serving as the Director of the ICA's Industrial Development Center in Korea, supplied useful comments and published material.
141
32
17
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Reference has been made to various materials currently- published in Korea, including the following ones:
Development of the Korean Economy, Seoul, Ministry of Reconstruction, Republic' of Korea, 1953.
Quarterly Narrative Report on Program Progress - Korea, APO 301, San Francisco, California, Office of Reports, United Nations Command, Office of the Economic Coordinator, December 31 } 1953.
NOTES ON THE ECONOMY OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA
The face of Seoul has been transformed. The improvement since 1951 is so marked that the visiter is immediately disposed to hope that Koreans have somehow reached a new high level of general well-being. Pavements and street-car track-beds first command attention. The man-size craters, the ragged asphalt dips and rises, and the treacherous track crossings are forgotten under a generally even sheet of pavement. The city’s streets are as smooth as they were in the Japanese days of the 1930’s, and they are being maintained under a punishing load of traffic never known before. Buildings are an equally important factor in Seoul's new look. Most of the large public, commercial and institutional structures standing in 1953 had been built in the Japanese period (1910-1945). Many had been damaged during the communist in- vasion; almost all of them required long-delayed refurbishment and repair. Not only has this work been accomplished in the intervening years; a number of imposing new buildings and scores of smaller ones have also been erected and others are under con- struction. One of the more ambitious is the new home of the National Assembly which is being built at the crest of Namsan, the fabled mountain overlooking South Gate and the city as a whole. This new hall will replace in part the main structure on the old capitol compound, which was bombed and burned in the course of the two brief periods of communist control of Seoul and which has not been restored since 1953.
Not government buildings alone but new establishments for businesses and for Chris- tian and other religious and social organizations as well have improved the city's beauty and utility and lifted its level of employment and business activity.
The motor traffic which flows through this revitalized metropolitan area, with an interminable din of horns which seems entirely superfluous, is apparently about five times as great as the number of cars in Seoul eight years ago. Equally striking is the fact that, while in 1951 only about one-fifth of all cars and trucks were civil- ian as opposed to military conveyances, at least four-fifths of the present flood of vehicles are in civilian use. They are composed of an assortment which is distinctly exotic and may be a little crude by Western standards, but one which gives an im- pressive demonstration - unprecedented in modern times - of the determination of the ordinary Korean to build a better life for himself with the tools at hand. Aside from a few shiny late-model sedans belonging to officials, ambassadors and other foreign representatives and an occasional businessman, there is a sprinkling of less luxurious but equally sturdy station wagons and small European cars used by founda- tions and missions. Nor can one overlook the surprising number of ancient sedans, some of which are survivors of the Japanese period but most of which have found their way into the open market in the fourteen post-war years during which far more Western foreigners, civilian and military, have lived in South Korea alone than were ever found in the entire peninsula before 1941.
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The eye-opening parade of private automobiles and taxicabs consists largely, however, of surplus Willys and Ford jeeps and of a new but closely related species which may be dubbed, with utmost respect, the "Koreep". The general shape of this Korean creation is the same as that of its G.I. prototype. Its body, while possibly not yet produced in the Fleetwood or Fisher tradition, is a genuine triumph for the country’s growing metal-working industry. Its four doors and its hard top emanci- pate the Koreep from two-door discomfort and limited protection from the weather, and greater roominess enables it to carry six or more passengers. The motors under the jeep-like hoods are apparently an irregular collection of original Ford or Willys engines, rebuilt power plants salvaged from a variety of discarded vehicles, and a small number of new ones assembled here from parts built locally and abroad. This austerity-born vehicle obviously provides minimal engineering features and very nearly minimal comfort. Yet it has importance both physically and psychologically. It runs fairly well, and its operational cost per passenger-mile is low. Above all, it enables the general Korean public to take a first step in labor-saving trans- portation which is far more logical and far more in keeping with outlays for the satisfaction of other wants at this stage of its drive for a comfortable level of life than could be taken through any immediate effort to import or produce cars of Europen or American quality in large volume. It is worthy of mention that mainten- ance of Koreeps and of all other vehicles will be placed on a sounder basis by such ICA projects as the recently completed spare parts plant for the Kiksan Auto Company of Inch'on and the tire manufacturing and recapping plant built for the Hanguk Tire Manufacturing Company of Seoul. Still further assurance of inexpensive transporta- tion for people and goods is provided by the new three-wheeled motorcycle plant, built through a combincation of ICA and Korean counterpart funds, designed to produce three thousand units a year.
The vast improvement in streets, buildings and passenger cars is paralleled by ad- vances in public transportation, water supply and lighting. Underlying these con- spicuous aspects of physical progress is the fact that in 1957 about 1,323 million kilowatt-hours of electricity were consumed, whereas the consumption for 1951 was approximately 337 million kilowatt-hours. With this quadrupling of electric power available for industrial as well as illumination purposes it is not surprising that one finds the street railway system in Seoul better equipped and better operated. There is added reason for noting the progress of Korean body-building establishments in the hundreds of locally made buses which carry much of the load formerly borne - so far as public conveyances were available at all - by the track-bound trolley system. The progress toward greater comfort and time-saving which is brought to city people by the Koreeps, trolleys and buses is, moreover, extended to suburban residents through the interesting device known as the hap- sung or commuting system. Commuters who are willing to pay for relief from the old drudgery of walking for one or two hours from their homes to their places of employment in the city, but live in areas not served by any public conveyance, make a joint contact with the owner of a Koreep or a station wagon to carry them back and forth daily between their homes and a specified hap-s'ung stand in the city. The fact that these arrangements are less comfortable than those enjoyed by the commuter from Reading to London or from West- chester to New York is not so important as the fact that these people are, for the first time in their history, wheel-borne on a daily basis at a cost which is reason- ably within their means.
As another result of the four-fold increase in electric generation in the last eight years - largely through the building of new thermal units, although additions have also been made to hydro-electric capacity - the cities of the Republic of Korea come alive at night. The street-lighting in Seoul lays out the city in a pattern of un- expected brilliance for the observer perched on Namsan or even on a downtown rooftop.
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Private houses and business establishments are equally spectacular in their nevj il- lumination, and for the first time one finds neon signs advertising sundry goods and services on every main street. But Seoul is not alone in this nocturnal splendor ; the Port of Pusan is now outlined by glistening fluorescent lighting which changes the entire aspect of this historic harbor and greatly increases its efficiency. Closely related also to electric power is the added volume of water available to South Korean cities. The average increase in the water consumed in 1957 over the amount used in 1954 "was almost 66$ and the increase in Seoul, 73$. Even this supply falls considerably short of providing the per capita daily allotment of water re- quired for a desirable standard of living, and plans are under way for increasing both the supply capacity and the actual supply. The increase already attained since the truce in 1953 is impressive to the visitor, however, and contributes measurably to healthiness, cleanliness and capacity for effective work in Seoul and all other cities.
Other aspects of economic growth are equally significant. As a result of a much- needed emphasis on the development of new mechanical capacity, manufacturing industry is gaining on agriculture so far as its annual percentage of the Gross National Product is concerned, but both are receiving increased scientific and financial sup- port and both are reaching new high levels of output. The Government of the Republic and the major assistance organizations are working on these and all other phases of the economic campaign with a constantly increasing degree of understanding and effec- tive articulation of efforts. The sum total contributed by the aid agencies during the years 1945-1957, as itemized in the accompanying table, is well over two billion
TOTAL VALUE OF FOREIGN AID TO THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA (1945 to the End of 1957)
Distribution by source:
United Nations agencies (26%)
United States agencies (74$)
(Of the U.S. figure, 888 million, or 40$ of all aid, was provided by ICA.)
Distribution by type of program: Non-project Assistance
Project Assistance Technical Cooperation
567,000,000
1,621,000,000
2,188,000,000
1,739,000,000
445,000,000
4,000,000
$ 2,188,000,000
Source: Development of the Korean Economy , Seoul, Ministry of Recon-
struction. Republic of Korea, I95&.
dollars. While all of these goods, services and Xunds were urgently need at various
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stages of Korea's agonizing post-war life, less than one-fourth of the total can be credited to the account of capital investment. Extensive "non-project" funds were expended in the early years after 1945 and again in connection with the Korean War for food, clothing, fertilizer, fuel, medical supplies, raw wool, textiles and other raw materials. Project assistance has, over the whole period considered here, pro- vided more than 200 million dollars for railroads, bridges, highways, harbor facili- ties and other major construction enterprises; 129 million for industry and mining, including power development; 68.2 million for community development, social welfare and housing; 918 million for health and sanitation; and 9.1 million for various aspects of education. The "Technical Cooperation" program has trained Korean special- ists in mining, education, public administration, agriculture, conservation and transportation.
The ICA, which is now virtually the sole foreign aid agency in the Republic, is carrying on all three forms of activity on a substantial scale. Funds programmed in the non-project field for 1959 amounted to almost 142 million dollars. Projects in- volving Resources Development and Technical Cooperation are, however, more impress- ive in the total sums involved, in their enormous variety, and in the promise of totally new forms of productive activity for which they are equipping the Korean economy. A random sampling of the 243 current projects listed in the Quarterly Narrative Report produces the following array: "Seoul Central Telephone"; "Masan
Telephone Exchange"; "Hydro Exploratory Survey"; "Fertilizer Plant #1 - Ch’ungju"; "Coastal Radio Stations"; "Port and Harbor Rehabilitation"; "Pusan Iron Works";
"Paper Mill - Taegu"; "Farm Soil-testing Services"; "Rolling Stock"; "'Waterworks Rehabilitation and Expansion"; "Classroom Construction"; "Industrial Training"; "Ttest Drilling of Hambaek Coalfield"; "Korean Handicrafts and Industrial Arts - Seoul"; "Spun Rayon Plant - Taegu"; "Atomic Energy Training"; "Industrial Development Center"; "Thermal Electric Generating Plant"; and "Central Industrial Research Center".
Despite the achievements made in developing new productive capacity, the interrel- ated problems of fast-rising prices, the over-expansion of the money supply (both currency and demand deposits) and the long-continued drop in the value of the Korean hwan have been recognized as serious threats to the whole recovery effort. In April 1957 the Government adopted a comprehensive stabilization program proposed by the Combined Economic Board, which has existed since 1952 and is composed of ranking mem- bers of the Korean ministries and representatives of American assistance agencies.
This plan called for (l) rigid economy in current expenditures; (2) a downward re- vision of the budget for the succeeding fiscal year through a 5$ reduction in admin- istrative expenses; and (3) a tightening of controls on commercial credit. It even proposed a curtailment of Government investments and loans designed to increase productive capacity, where large sums were involved and where the time-lag between investment and the actual initiation of production by the new plants would cause a
one-sided increase in the money supply for a considerable period and thus aggravate
the very inflation which the new units were being built to combat.
While the soundness of these measures and similar ones taken in the intervening two years must be recognized, there are conspicuous factors in the situation today which suggest that the economy is still far from a state of maturity. The value of the
hwan seems to be at least 25$ less than it was two years ago. Quite aside from the
unrehabilitated refugees and the battalions of pickpockets, there are thousands of people in Seoul - and apparently in other large cities as well - who are fairly well dressed, completely idle and giving every appearance of having a good time in their little world of spurious prosperity. It may be that many of them would basically like to go to work but have little faith in the economic future and have concluded
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fetish earhingB as they would make would offer no certainty of providing the minimal purchasing power needed in a still fluctuating money and commodity market. In any event, they find it more intriguing and persuade themselves that it is more profit- able to spend their time in a novel array of games of speculation and chance. Many an alley or courtyard just off the main streets is the daily setting for a constantly shifting circle of laughing, jostling gamblers betting on almost any proposition or employing the simpler device of a modified type of dice. Many of the players squat- ting around the imaginary table on the ground have no doubt obtained their capital from the closely-related guessing game involving the interchange of hwan and dollars. Others are the winners of yesterday's alley session. All of them are in fact un- productive and must be drawn into some creative activity if the economic battle is to be fully won. Yet the prosperous-looking idler with no assured income can hardly be blamed for turning down such jobs as are available. Non-agricultural industry is still unequipped to absorb labor at a rapid rate, and the Korean farm, although highly productive in 1957 and 1958, is already extremely small on a per capita basis. Moreover, both the employer and the employee are sometimes caught in the vicious circle of increased inflation resulting from efforts to reduce inflation. A further and more profound problem lies in the fact that a business community in the modern sense is only beginning to be developed in Korea and there is a serious scarcity of men with what may be called the know-how of business management.
Not one of these unpromising facts is overlooked by the Combined Economic Board or the organizations which it represents. Much can be said for the ICA view that in spite of such difficulties "the year 1958 marked another giant step forward in Korea's determined drive toward eventual self-support". During 1958 prices were generally stable; there was a substantial increase in industrial and agricultural production and an estimated 5.5$ real rise in the Gross National Product; and for the first time since 1954 there was a reduction in Korea's deficit in its balance of international payments. Further encouragement can be found in the fact that the 1958 average of wholesale prices in the Republic of Korea as a whole was 6.5$ below the 1957 average and that the figure for December 1958 was lower than that for Janu- ary. With two bumper grain crops in succession, the average price of food in 1958 was more than 14$ under the average for 1957.
One is inclined to accept the optimistic rather than the pessimistic view by a con- sideration of the obstacles which have been overcome. Aside from the recent war and pillage suffered at the hands of the communists, Korea had longer- standing and more basic handicaps. For three and one-half decades under Japanese rule, the country had no integrated economy of its own; it was an adjunct to the economy of Japan and was exploited accordingly. In 1945 such natural balance as was provided by the geographical unity of the "agricultural south" and the "industrial north" was des- troyed by the disastrous incorporation of the latter into the communist world. Fi’om that unlikely beginning there has at least emerged such a thing as a Korean economy in the southern provinces. Moreover, that economy has improved itself immeasurably since 1953. That improvement is being continued under patient and intelligent dir- ection. Achievements of the recent past seem certain to be eclipsed by those of the future.
FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON SEMINAR
REFLECTIONS CLARENCE NORWOOD WEEMS
REFORT NUMBER 6 KOREA
June 23, 1959
CULTURAL PROBLEMS AND PROGRESS
The ordinary Korean has lived under peculiarly unfavorable conditions for centuries. His misfortunes can hardly be charged solely to the geographical position of his little peninsula at the historic crossroads of the greatest military movements of Northeast Asia and the destitution and fatalism which unceasing invasions have caused, significant as these facts are. One must take account also of related forces within Korean society. Except for a period of rather remarkable general cultural and political renaissance in the eighteenth century, the common man was subjected to serious corruption and to highly arbitrary and frustrating public ad- ministration and social and economic control from about 1550 to the beginning of Japanese hegemony in 1905. While something can be said for the argument that the strict preservation of public order, the predictability of Japanese "justice" and considerable physical development of the peninsula were an advantage to the subject people, it is plain that the mass of Koreans had very limited horizons of opportun- ity during the Protectorate period (1905-1910) and the three and one-half decades of formal incorporation in the Empire of Japan (1910-1945). The United States Mili- tary Government in South Korea (1945-1948) made important efforts to bring stability and hope to the settled population and refugees alike, but we had no special prep- aration for dealing with any Korean problems, to say nothing of the perplexing and compounded ones of the post-war years. The Republic of Korea since 1948 has weathered the communist storm of 1950-1953, and, with the aid provided by the co- operative programs sketched in Report 5, has emerged from an accumulation of wreck- age with considerably improved physical implements for building a better life. Economic uncertainties continue, however, and there are no sure answers to a host of broad cultural questions which has been in the process of unruly assembly for a far longer period than the eleven-year life of the Republic. The whole relation- ship between Korea's rich moral and intellectual heritage and the course which this society can or must follow in the future is unknown and, indeed, unknowable in any precise terms. It is not surprising that able Korean and Western observers who par- ticipated in the SEMINAR find the old foundations of Korean morality and values severely shaken. There are vast numbers who are seeking passionately for effective new social forms and new systems of truth. Others may accept present conditions as being inevitable and unchangeable. In any event the building of a viable culture pattern takes time, and in this lag-period idealists and fatalists alike find them- selves in a society which has lost many of its standards.
A moral breakdown is of course a relative development and one which cannot be judged out of the context of the particular society concerned or without reference to changing pressures exerted on that society. If the degree of prevalence of thievery and other petty crimes in Seoul today is to be taken as an index to the general level of morality, for example, one must recall that a sharp change from conditions in the 1920’s and 1930’s had already occurred in the 1945-1949 period.
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Many a G.I. in Korea at that stage - taking little account of the serious economic stagnation gripping the country or of the fact that hungry people suddenly found themselves surrounded by U.S. Army post exchanges, commissaries and quartermaster stores containing food and gadgets of every description and by some 50,000 American soldiers with more money in their pockets than the ordinary Korean would see in a year - was emphatic in his conclusion that Koreans were basically both thieves and liars. In 1945-1947 this writer, while realizing that such a generalization is un- sound and meaningless, found that petty crime had in fact grown far beyond anything seen before 1941. The prevalence of "immoral'1 conduct at that time could be ex- plained by occupation conditions, but it could not be overlooked as an evidence that personal moral values were giving way. Today, after greatly intensified sufferings by virtually all South Koreans, more population pressure and new excesses of infla- tion, one is struck by what appears to be a far greater deterioration than the al- ready serious one found in 1947 or even in 1950-51. Pickpockets, in particular, are working in large numbers in Seoul and their operations in the crowded streets seem to be highly profitable. The heart-rending feature of this mass thievery is the fact that hundreds of boys, many of them apparently under twelve years of age, make up a large port of the army of pickpockets. A member of the SEMINAR group, riding along one of the main thoroughfares of Seoul, almost in the shadow of the famous Bando Hotel and of the chancellory of the American Embassy, watched in disbelief as a small boy snatched a package from the arms of a gentleman chatting with an ac- quaintance. By the time the startled conversationalist had turned to look, the little operative had scampered almost out of sight down an alley. The findings of many participants in the SEMINAR make it clear that brazen performances of this kind occur with regularity in Seoul and in other cities and that the cleverness of the petty thieves and their sheer numbers make it impossible for the victims or the police to cope with them. The patient and resourceful researcher who would analyze and classify the backgrounds and motivations of the pickpockets and other thieves - especially the juvenile ones - in Seoul, Pusan, Taegu, Inch ’oh and other cities at this particular juncture would render a significant service. It would be especially valuable if such research could show, first, the respective percentages of those committing predatory crimes in the Republic today who can be classified as profess- ionals and those who have scruples against stealing but feel that they are driven to it by the fact that the times ore out of joint. Secondly, it would be important to learn how many of the children involved are homeless or otherwise lacking in econom- ic or personal security.
Even in the absence of such a study it seems clear that the now commonplace resort to misdemeanor or felony is by no means limited to a normal criminal fringe or even to those who have absolutely no other method of preserving life. It nay well seem to many an individual that the art of the pickpocket is in no different moral categ- ory from that of the alley dice-thrower or the practiced player of the exchange rate. Such, rationalizations are evidently possible only because the society as a whole has in ?arge measure lost its traditional moorings. This cutting-adrift process defies precise analysis, but it seems to be primarily a product of experiences of the past two decades and to have two interrelated aspects. The first is a serious weakening of the social structure. The old organization of Korean society, with some modi- fications through Christian and other influences, remained generally intact under the moral and economic strains of the period of Japanese control until about the beginning of World War II, but has suffered a progressive deterioration since that time. Decay had clearly set in by 1945. The wholesale transportation of both women and men to Japan as factory workers and of men to Japan’s war-torn outposts in Southeast Asia as labor troops had broken up thousands of families and separated more thousands of individuals - often permanently - from home ties and traditional environments. The infiltration of South Korea by communist organizers early in the
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Report 6 - page 3
three-year Military Government period (1945-1943) may have given Korean young men and women very little understanding of theoretical Marxism, but it gave form and a new air of importance to their already developing tendency to defy parental authority and to claim that they must regulate their lives by the revolutionary standards of an oncoming new order. Even at that time the family and the whole framework of familiar societal obligations and sanctions were losing their meaning for people in their teens and twenties. Ibday the revolt is still more shocking because it can no longer be dismissed as merely a communist-inspired student fad and because it has crept up the age structure to affect large numbers of those in their thirties and forties. Hie old social chain of command is broken in many places and is plainly thought by a vast number of young and early-middle-aged people to be beyond repair. The tragedy, from the standpoint of thoughtful Korean leaders, is that no general agreement on a revised social framework is in sight.
The second aspect of the mounting dissatisfaction with the old order seems in part a cause and in part an effect of the crumbling of the social structure. It is a strong tendency to find old beliefs unsatisfying and to grope for new ones. The field of religion is one in which this demand for some new certainty is expressing itself in a spectacular way. New religious groups of a crusading character are gaining thous- ands of converts. One of the most prominent is the Chondo Kwan ("Evangelistic Mis- sion"), led by Pak Thi Son. This and other messianic splinter groups, growing out of a Christian background, seek to reach tenable theological ground in a time of physical defeat and hardship by denying that the material world has any importance and seeking to focus all attention on spiritual values. Nor are the established Christian churches free of the general uncertainty and demand for change. It is true that the recognized Christian bodies as a whole are approaching the 1,500,000 mark, with Protestant groups in particular enjoying rapid gains in recorded member- ship. Yet leaders of several key denominations, as well as thousands of Christian parents, feel that younger members are no longer certain in their beliefs and go through the motions of Christian observance while in fact sharing the general sense of spiritual emptiness. Serious differences of opinion on policy plague the Korean National Council of Churches (the general Protestant organization). Roman Catholic membership is increasing, but amounts to less than twenty per cent of the total Christian group and is growing less spectacularly than Protestantism in Korea or Catholicism itself in Japan. While Korean Christians have long exercised a leader- ship out of all proportion to their numbers, it must be recognized that even today the actual membership of all churches combined amounts to considerably less than one per cent of the population of the southern provinces alone.
It is thus to the adherents of Korea’s traditional mosaic of religions that one must look for the main body of those who are seeking new spiritual foundations. The principal ingredients of this mixture hove been that religious outgrowth of Confucian ethics which is known as Ancestor Worship; Buddhism; Animism or Shamanism; and the ancient monotheistic belief in Hananim. Many individuals have been primarily and even fervently loyal to some one of these cults, but the great moss of Koreans have been eclectic in their religious ideas. It has long been common for some member of almost any family to pay homage, at a time of crisis or on some recurring ceremonial occasion, to each one of these religious traditions. The husband might be a strong Confucianist and profess to have no religious interest other than the worship of his ancestors and perhaps the Neo-Confucian cosmogony. Nevertheless it is likely that his wife would now and then seek relief from the stern Confucian social pattern and recognition for herself as an individual by visiting a Buddhist temple; that one or more of the family members would occasionally tie a rag on the "devil tree" or other- wise seek to appease the spirits of nature; and that all of them would, if asked, declare that Hananim is after all supreme. It must be added that the
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Report 6 - page 4
Tbnghak-Gh 'ondo Kyo of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, while a vigorous social reform movement, has also been a religion. It borrowed from Confucian thought, from Thoism and from Buddhism and was apparently influenced in some degree by the Catholic Christianity against which it fought, but the ensemble was some- thing distinctive and brought a new and crusading form of monotheism into Korean thought. Ch'ondo Kyo, like Protestant Christianity, came to be associated with social and political justice in the minds of many who belonged to neither group.
Both of them, together with Buddhist leaders, spearheaded the impressive independence movement of 1919. Yet as a religious organization Ch'ondo Kyo, like Christianity, has been able to draw only a fraction of the population into its membership. It has not changed the fundamental balance of the older factors in the distinctly Korean religious assortment.
It is important to avoid oversimplification in seeking reasons for the inadequacy of that mixture - Ancestor Worship, Buddhism, Animism and faith in Hananim - as the main reservoir of beliefs for the Korean of today. One line of analysis which seems promising would begin with the fact that for several centuries before 1945 the or- dinary people found themselves chronically on the defensive in the face of over- whelming social, economic and political power in the hands of their own self-centered aristocracy or, after 1910, in the hands of the exploiting Japanese. So long as the individual tacitly admitted his helpless subordination to the overpowering system into which he was born, the religion he needed was essentially a passive and self- protective one. He demanded only an assurance that he could depend on the approval and support of Heaven as a kind of palliative for the pain suffered in a battle which he was predestined to lose. A false start toward throwing off this basic men- tality of defeat came in the 1920 's and early 1930's. When Koreans felt the full impact of the American decision not to follow up the courageous Independence Move- ment of 1919 by raising the question of Korean self-determination at Versailles - vividly described by Stephen Bonsai and others - the door was open for communist agitation. Aside from a few dedicated cell-members, there were not many Koreans of any age-group who became theoretical communists. But schoolboys and schoolgirls thought that they had found in the new philosophy, sponsored by the largest state in Europe, a juggernaut which could flatten the psychological and political barriers which hemmed them in and enable them to gain recognition and security. Paradoxically the self-assertive conduct of young people in dealing with traditional beliefs in this period was partly traceable to the ideas of justice and the dignity of man drawn from Christian teaching. Certainly it is impossible to distinguish communist- born influences accurately from others in a time in which communist operatives were concentrating on support for the independence movement and riding the band-wagon of a frustrated nationalism. It is clear, however, that the intellectual and emotional revolt of the interwar years struck at old Korean values as well os at the domineer- ing Japanese and the seemingly undependable Western powers. But the old Korean re- ligious and moral mosaic remained generally intact during the 1920' s and 1930 's because there was not yet any basic weakening of the external forces which held the people os a whole within a narrowly defined range of independent initiative. Ib defer still further any general revolt against the essentially passive pattern of traditional beliefs, there came in 1937 the beginning of the new Sino- Japanese war and the inauguration of the ingenious "soft-sell" approach. It emphasized the "inevitable" preeminence of the "East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" and the self-inter- est which Korean and Japanese "kinsmen" had in working together for the glorious future. This ingratiating appeal was harder to fight than the raw oppression of earlier decades.
Then came 1945 and "Liberation". In the fourteen years which have followed, the ferment of freedom and the realization that old barriers are gone have been at work.
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Report 6 - page 5
despite constant suffering and the constant threat to independence , or perhaps be- cause of that threat. There is no longer any basic satisfaction in an ideology •which accepts and seeks only to soften a perpetual state of subjection and denial of equality. Although few could articulate it clearly, Koreans are being moved by a demand for a new set of beliefs which will enable them to live with assurance in a time of explosive uncertainty and give spiritual support to their society in its new role as an active free agent in a rough-and-tumble world. It is not surprising that the Pak Tao Sons are winning their thousands of converts and that the cultural- ly uprooted people are groping for new absolute values to replace those now proven to be only relative. This entire interpretation can of course be attacked on the ground that several of the components of Korea's traditional religious array, in- cluding certain militant Buddhist elements, have been aggressive and far from merely palliative in their message and methods. Yet there seems to be general agreement that revolts inspired by such religious forces hove been directed toward protecting the country from invasion or toward forcing a government to abandon unconscionable excesses and return to the traditional moral and political framework, which itself kept the people in perpetual subjection.
The old social structure and value system which are now subjected to intense strain have historically been accompanied by a strong sense of ethnic purity and distinct- iveness. Regardless of modern anthropological evidence that fusion rather than segregation is the universal rule for the growth of societies, Koreans have insisted that their race is separate and unmixed. As a matter of fact their case is an im- pressive one unless the analyst projects his study over a span of centuries. Even the Mongol envelopment seems to have brought limited intermixture. Since it came to an end in the mid-fourteenth century there has been no mingling worthy of mention unless account be taken of the comparatively few Japanese soldiers who were left over from Hideyoshi’s invasion (1592-1598) and found Korean mates. Throughout the period of Korean-Japanese contact in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it ap- pears that an extremely small number of Korean-Japanese unions, either in or out of wedlock, occurred in Korea. In most areas the Korean member and the children lived under distinct handicaps so far as Korean society was concerned. Korean- Chinese matings have carried little or no stigma but have been rare in modern times. In the occasional Korean-Western matches before 1945 and numerous marriages occurring since that time, the mole member has most often been the Occidental one, and the children have generally been assimilated to his society rather than to that of the mother. In the hundreds of cases of liaison between American and other UN service men and Korean women since 1945 which have resulted in the birth of illegitimate children, on the other hand, the situation has been far different. The mother is under no greater economic pressure than if both parents were Korean, but she has a serious additional handicap in the ostracism which is almost certain to face her half-foreign child and even herself. Of the hundreds of such children, a number are being regularly included among those taken from Korea for adoption by American and other Western families. The greater portion remain in Korea, however, and present a new cultural problem. The Choong Hyun Babies’ Home, which was visited by Drs. MacKenzie and Chen, is one of a number of Korean orphanages which are making a sin- cere and intelligent effort to give these unwanted infants both physical and emo- tional security. The Korean social sanction against persons of mixed blood can hardly be criticized harshly by Americans who are aware of our own slow approach to the solution of racial problems. It seems reasonable to expect, however, along with thoughtful Korean social leaders, that the distinction between "pure" and mixed or- phans will become less distinct and the individual will come to be accepted more fully on his own merits as economic and general cultural adjustments are made and Koreans find themselves competing on more even terms with the leading societies of the world.
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Report 6 - page 6
The intellectual preparation of those who will take the lead in assuring that those adjustments are salutary and intelligent is being given on a constantly broadening basis by Korean universities and research organizations. There were one university and a handful of colleges at the end of the Japcanese period in 1945 in the country as a whole. Today in the southern provinces alone there are more than thirty-five institutions of higher learning. Eight national universities , at least one muni- cipal college, a number of private institutions, and universities with Christian, Buddhist and Confucian affiliations are included. An examination of the divisions, faculty and student rolls and sample curricula of these diversified places of learning reveals that a surprisingly wide range of modern scholarship is being brought to more than ten times as many college men and women as were enrolled at any time under Japanese rule. In many cases substantial numbers of American specialists have taught and served in advisory capacities; many are still doing so and there is a substantial demand for further such exchange personnel, especially in the newer universities and colleges. Both ICA and foundation assistance have been important in giving effect to these programs. Research institutes, especially in history, government,, international relations, and various technological fields, are being developed on a scale that would have been considered fantastic in 1945. Several such establishments in Seoul have received important aid from American foundations. Those in the social science areas already have some books and docu- ments - primarily in microfilmed form - which enable them to do advanced original work while they are training research specialists. The demand for more source material and microfilm-reading equipment is strong. Institutions of higher learn- ing in the Republic of Korea are working intelligently and with tremendous earnest- ness to make available to its future leaders the fullest knowledge and the best techniques available anywhere in the modern world.
3Corea branch
So* 255 Central <=&. 0.
* Seoul , 3Corea
oQdiatic Society
3-1857
The Kanghwc Treaty of 1876
by Itp Jcr.cs Palais
The- Kanghw- Treaty of 1876 owes' its significance in Korean history to the fret thrt it worked the forme 1 opening of Korea to tr-de and the end of 0 seclusion that hod lasted for ccnturi: Viewed on 0 larger sc-lc, it was p~ rt of the whole historical process of the Western impact uupon the fir stern world - - tin imp ret- which in the 19th century ir d brought on several disastrous wars between Chin'' end the countries of the West, resulting in the imposition of 0 series of unequal tree tics upon Chine. These
o •
treaties not only opened Chine to trade, but to the influx of the whole fabric of Western civilization, an insidious force, from the Chinese point of view, which was soon to wreak horrendous changes upon the whole structure, the very foundation of tr ditionol Chinese society. In
the
c-'sc of Japan,
West provided the stimulus for a phenomenally f
the impact of the st moving and
sweeping economic, social and political reform, a wholesale imp or* t~tion of - foreign culture, designed to put Japan upon ~n equal footing with the West in as short a period of time as possible.
In Korea, the impact served to’ intensify internal political strife, and to involve Korea in power struggles among foreign states leading to a period of calamity that was accompanied by gradual reformation, as in China , of institutions and values.
1
period in Korean history sur- nd my research is far from com-
f I am currently studying ’ th rounding the opening of Korea,
Dieted, yet I would like to take this opportunity to attempt some generalizations on the problem, which at this early stage might be still somewhat premature. In oth^r words, I will be more con-* corned here with how the .opening ox "Korea may be viewed in the context of the internal politics of the time as well -s the significance it had for Korop's traditional methods of dealing with the outside world, . .
m u n
me
■nghwa Treaty, viewed from the vantage point of. internal politics was an issu_ that’ was intimately connected with a politi- cal power struggle raging at that time, which was of such compre- hensive nature, tbrt to understand it we .must -Iso understand the
powerful influences a nc.
ctors then at work in Korean society.
Korea in mid-nineteenth century was in
gn
t-
1VOUS
decline. Her administration was ridden with corruption, ncr ■i-- k -»-'«pic survived at a b'rc subsistence
treasuries level, and
were depleted, hero sometimes- not even
c -dr
str at 1011s broke out with country wys in a :
?
1 tc of
'nd rebellions and demon- roqucncy. Viewed from any angle, near collapse.
the'
(1)
Part of this decline nay hrve been due to a pb- nmarn-n or - view 01 history known to Chin-, as the dynastic cycle. To generalize
crsc* ^ typical dynasty night go through r cycle of
or-
from the Chinese 300 DUS
ye^rs or so. The beginning would be narked by the rule of vi-j •who Irving subdued the empire by military night would
Fnuerors
rn:
then proceed to expand Chinese frontiers through force of Acmini strati on would be run efficiently, land redistribution would k." ^ revenues would be plentiful, and achievements
i/..uld be- nacc m art -nd culture. A golden age in each dynasty would nark the peak of such achievement. Thereafter, the uynas ty would begin its decline. The redistributed land system would soon be undermined by the concentration of land into the hands of the few and privileged. More and more land would be removed from the t~x roll and the tax burden on the common peasants increased to keep uo the size of government revenue. Famines, natural disasters, wars - or cubl*. works would serve to- increase the burdens still further. Peasants would flee from their lands to escape the tax collector, and those left would have to make up the deficiency by an even heavier burden. Administrative corruption, bribery and extortion would evolve apccc until mass flight fyon the land would result and government revenues w-uld sharply decrease. Impoverished peasants and floating population would form the material for new revolutionary movements, having n~w
nothing to lose by su eh action. The call would go out that the old dynasty h-d lost the rn-nd result in the establish:.:
'tc of heaven, and .nt of - new dyn-sty.
successful revolt would
This concent of history has been criticized chi -fly because it fails to provide an explanation for dynamic change — the evolution of - society and culture over long periods of time and through several dynasties. In the Yi dynasty, for example, it would fail to take account of such - new and unique factor ~s the impact of the West upon Korea — a phenomenon, naturally, unknown in former periods Yet the model can provide one useful way of looking at things /Sven by the standards of the dynastic cycle, the Yi dynasty was exception-* ally long-lived. It persisted despite the existence of numerous factors which predicated its downfall. Rampant corruption increased terribly the burdens on the impoverished peasantry, leading to up- rising and rebellion. Some of this corruption was endemic — it was built into the Korean administrative system itself, which was pattern: largely after that in China, where the same evils existed. The biggest trouble wars that the local magistrates were officials recruit by the examination system and then despatched from the central govern rient to -re as other than their own native domiciles. They were trans- ferred frequently to prevent any of them from building up a b~sc of local power in opposition to the central government, and as a result of this the only persons who provided continuity in local government were the clerks and runners, recruited fr n the local populate.
These men were not provided with any salaries— a statutory rcstrictioi Which some tried to alter but without success. Because of this they were forced to earn their living by squeeze and corruption.
Thus corruption, to a certain extent was practiced at all times during the dynasty. It was only at times of stress ? such as in a period of decline, when corruption would increase in degree, and the
(2)
effect? of such c rrupuion would b; acceptable end natural pert of the oppressive burden.
not
t jlcreblc
n:
system, but en intolerable end
Another of the f-ctors of dyn-stic decline was prevalent- in Korce end this we. s the breakdown in landholding patterns, Irnd hoc! been; redistributed at the tine of the founding of the Yi dynasty, but the first century -of. the- dynasty witnessed the -renting of lend to', people- enrolled on merit lists f or their eid either in supporting the f -under of the dyne sty or later usurpers of the throne These lands were tan- exempt and gradually became the ihmrcdit-rv holdings of an increased number -of merit- subjects, resulting in a reduction .in the land available for taxation and a decline in govern- ment revenue. In a de"! it ion, the gentry or aristocratic yangban class was exempted from taxation and labor service, so the state lost all revenue that they night have obtained from these lands, ,
Burdens on the peasantry were increased in the traditional manner by the imposition of various illegal surcharges, f^lsc assessment cither through the corruption of clerks or collusion mmong local magistrates, 'clerks and' local gentry. A most oppressive burden was the corrupt administration of relief loans to peasants. It was the breakdown of this institution more than any other which led to the series of peasant uprisings in 1862.
It was thus that mid- century Korea was possessed of a ground- swell of discontent and tension on the lowest rungs of society— the mass of peasantry. But, tension was. not limited alone to the masses. The v^ry nature of Korean society .was productive of strains that were to have more serious consqucnccs f'-r the stability of the nation and were to lead to a period of political contest j*nd strife.
To b>_gin with, the civil service examinations 1c ''nd eligibility for office in the bureaucracy - were sons of thcrar is to critic yangban class. In Chine been theoretically possible that cor. rank
only to those p. an idle son c:
:ding to degrees
restricted to Iways
thee aristocratic yangban class. In China, it bud erotically possible that commoners could attain official via the examination route, but such opportunities
s a nts wh o v/c-rc . we a It hy emitted to study of, the
enough *to be classics. In
were limited able to affofflC, Korea, this
theoretical universality of opportunity was limited by statute to conform more with the aristocratic nature of Korean society. In Korea, not only wa s membership in .the Yangban class but other classes were also forced to live o.ut their lives within the confines of the status bequeathed to them. b3r their fathers.
Thus we can sec that- special and inherited privilege an'1
social
However ,
immobility were - the characteristics of Yi dynasty society, even within the privileged yangban class, there were other factors limiting political opportunities to such a . small number that the politically disenfranchised, the discontented were so numerous that they provided a continuous supply of frustrated men.
For one thing, there existed in
that
hand
may hr vc been peculiar .d down from, father to son
Korcc
type of factional
cleavage
to Korea alone. Factional tics were nd from teacher to disciple.
(3)
-or
These factional tics had persisted for more th~n two hundred -nc! hr cl he cone institutionalized into - permanent feature- of Yi eyT^ Stp upper-el, ss society, ihis type or i ^cei 'n^lisre h^d its inception at the end of the 16th century over r ~*-in^r family '’is out Further fragmentation took piece end by l800 there were four --rin factions two of which hold sw r.y over the other. The major factions ^ei v. tnc-n ,.tle to monopolize ohc besc posts m the bur^^ucr^cy ''n^ the minority factions were relegated to lower positions, -nd lives' of discontent and unfulf illncnt. It was not surprising, then, th^t new ideological end political novcrxnts found su ;port at tines froi this segment of discontented cristocr-cy. Catholicism for example found many of its upper- class adherents among the Nanin or S out hen erSf one vf the minority factions, and we nay as suae th- 1 its sup- pression was partly due to government fears of a political threat its position. In addition to factional discrimination, there was tei torial discrimination. Hon from the northern provinces were so hi eh] restricted in their opportunities for and bureaucratic route, this v,ry issue.
adv-
nc orient via the examine ti-
that a rebellion broke out in l8ll over
Another croup of y- ngbnn were able- to accrue much power to then- selves. These were the local gentry, who were particularly stronc in the southern three provinces. Their power and ^restige was based on their yanyban status, which they used to maintain their influence in the face of the local na. yistrates. Sonc maintained their position throuyh intermarriage with other powerful yanyban families with connections at the capital. Others owed their strenyth to their role as scholars and protectors of Cenfucian orthodoxy in morals. One of their bases of power was the institution known as the Sowbn. These were local schools for the instruction of the youny which were also used as shrines for famous scholars and Confucian worthies. The Sow^n became powerful institutions endowed with royal charters and land holdiny privileges, and they became the centers of conservative sentiment. Furthermore, local gentry were able to maintain their position of strength because they w ere usually lrryc landh Idcrs wit exemption from taxation because of their aristocratic status.
Nineteenth- century political life in Korea, was also subject to another factor not prevalent in earlier periods, and this was the dominance of court affairs and administration by members of the consort families. A succession of weak or youny menarchs led to powerful and aggressive consort ‘families who used their position as relatives of the Queen both to have members of their clan appointed to office and to perpetuate their power by controlling the dcsiynatio: of the Queen of the Heir Apparent. In Taejong’s reign at the bc-yinnir of the 15th century, members of the Queen’s family were prohibited by law from holdiny office. The application of this law became lax from the middle of the 18th century. However, the institution of consort family control did not come into its own until the first quarter of the 19th century. The .Jidong Kim family, in league with the Nor on faction gained power and held it. They were challcccd briefly by the Cho clan from P’unyyany, but the Cho tfcll from power in the c-arlv l84o’s. Then the Andong Kin put King Choljong on the throne in 1850 and he took a Kim as a Queen in 1851.
These then, were the el ci^nts oi Korean existed on the eve of the recession o 1863. The roycl family was weakened end cl 0 nine in league -with officials fro::, the' domino nt ir dominated society -os lend owners, os the r col- leges, os centers of powerful gentry in the .villages, end 0
political life
they
Kojong to the thr: no in
re ction:
ted by ctions,
lent-!
:nc mneong km . The yangban of special oriv:
men of influence
01
of
the guardians of the hcritoge orthodox Confucion torching. These were the vested interests Korean society. 3cnc-oth then yc-re the others — those who at lost ver.o shut off from politico! power end c.t worst repressed, confined, squeezed to the barest minimal level of economic subsistence. It is possible th~t this prttern would hove continued indefinitely — that
the Yi dyne sty night hove continued in 0 state of seci- colie p sc with nothing worse then occesionel per sent r ebellion
e tines
hr d
h
neturel disaster or famine, This night hove been the cose, hod it not been for the emergence of a now force, 0 charismatic personality if you will, resolved to bring about changes in -society os he found it from his newly found vantage of power. This nan was the Tcewongun. the father of King Kojong.
The- Tacwongun became r the Tree r c s s Dowa gcr , C ho
gent when his son wr in lieu of a line 01
s dc signaled King by 5v.i. , J.HK circ ct descent from,
the previous King, Ch’oljong. In effect, the Toewongun was voultqd . from the position of an obscure and neglected line of the Royal' house into the scat of power. During the 10 yzers of his regency, his efforts wore directed to the task of reviving and strengthening the position of the royal house and the dynasty. He took measures to attack official venality', relieve the excessive burdens that had been levied on the people, and build up the national treasury. These were measures that 'benefited the country and the people, but they ucr. also designed to make the royal house supreme’ over t he- ather elements and interest groups that existed in Korean political life.
In 1869, a decree permitted all direct descendants of the King except sons and grandsons to take- the long-f or bidden government exams and serve in the official hierarchy. Large sums were expended
the Kyongbok pal' cc to increase the royal
k. ^ LU—O
on the construction 0: prestige. He launched which farmed the core of the traditionalist Confucian movement. In his attempts to build up a treasury surplus he established new taxes which were levied on the yangban aristocracy previously exempt from all taxation. He made some attempt to allow northerners and members of minority factions previously discriminated against to cuter the bureaucracy, and cv^n promoted clerks to oositions in the officialdom on the b~sis of ability.
on all-out attack on the aforementioned, 00 won.
Thus, reforms were carric-d out at the expense of the vested interests — the Ando ng Kim, the- southern yangban, the dominant factions and die-hard^ traditionalists and certain elements of the bureaucracy. The Ta c-wongun had attempted to create a new political edifice in the teeth of the most powerful interests in the country, surprising that his overthrow was engineered more or
wr s 11c c-d c d to the
so it is not less through a coalition of organizing force, some agent This smeared in the form of
wa
opponents, Whe bring these elements together. Queen and her relatives.
:n
Mia h^c been chosen by the Toc-wonpun hinsclf - 1 the rccrii. rrcncotion of his wife, a reenter of the Min cl-n, one! runt of the new queen* me - a ewonpun hopes to provent r. repetition of whet hod rd pence unccr the .^ncionp Kin, tut. events were to frustrate his ”1 The new queen soon developer! a cruel re- ap-ainst her f.athcr-in-.I~w/ when o son was torn not to her tut to one of the Kino ' s 'f-vorit A concubines, . The possibility now orose thot this son' would be nhde crown prince . anc uhc Min fmily shut off from recess to the throne Sone of the relatives of the. Queen hr. cl* r. Ire rely teen amint-d to m in the bureaucracy r.nd they hr.d already, bepun their political ■ ~
intrirues.
By
1873
they hod built up c coalition of forces om^sed - the Toc-wonpun, one including the followinp discontented elements: relatives of the Downper Express of the Cho clan disetisfied with
roe robe
their’ sh-rc of power
nenbers of the royal'clon itself, the most sipnifi cant
rs of the .undone Kin, even
the Tn-cwonpun’s elder brother, end finally the end yangbon, imposition of
iorre discontcw of which was
intoponizcc' over toxes on the
conserve tivc scholar the ob^litioh' of the Sowon- end the whole novenent was c- ped off by
The
ncrxoria.l fron the n r eh- conserve tive anti-f or cign of ficr.l Ch’oc Ik-hyon, in 1873, -stacking the T-cwongun for nispovernnent.
Chfoc w-s th_ disciple of Yi Hwanp-nr>, .0 conscrvotivc Conxucion
scholar who: wrs hr sue Jit into the government d urine the rcyncy of
lend the repine rcspcctr.bility , r.nd c,l so to buy
th
To
.vrnpun,
p o
off the opposition of the conservatives to the Toe1 onpun’s -olicics. But this trctic hod not worked. Yi inncdiotcly subnit ted r sprtc of nenor ids ccllinp for a sto to excessive taxation end useless construction projects. He advocated r return to the essentials of pood povernmnt — thot is to soy, frugality, the prohibition of oil frivolity, free in; : the pathways for rcnonstrrncc ond choosing nen of to lent and virtue. He urged the Kinp to set hires elf up os r. node! of virtue, thereby t.o regulate nc-n’s ninds, ond" this would be the voy to strengthen the country end drive off the borboric.ns. In other moral regeneration in the Confucion, end rrorio. rrcbaretcly t thr ouph introspection end inner solf- cultivation
wore:
nco-coniucion
odd ,
Yi died in 1868, - end Ch1oc 2k- by on wrs rp pointed to 011 ice- soon thercoftcr. He heron 0 scries of r.ttr.cks on the Tocwongun’s administration, ond nuch to the constcrnr ti on of the Teewongun received rejected pronotion fron the Kinp. The Kinp hod now attained 'nojority, end was chafing under his father fs recency. Bo eked by the Min ond their coalition of opposition forces, the Trewonpun found his 00 sit ion untenable. Those of his supporters in the povernnent, Particularly in the or pons of the censor- to
Ch* c ond dene need his impeachment were disni office ,
who ncnoriolizccl opr insi sc-d whole sole from
[red
fron public life in 187k, -overwhelmed
The To cwonpun retix--. A — ...
the forces against hire. The Min faction, ^ now in^power procccdcc to carry out on extensive pur pc of _ pro-T- cwonpun off ic~ls. In vc sti- rs tions were insitutod ' a pa ins t many of there, resulting in souc executions. The supporters of the Min were appointed to the highest
Rc-risls were c-:
me::
v
out, too. The
posts in the burcoucr- cy. — — - -- - - ... - * . ,
brother of the Queen, ond chief incripucr, iiin Sun^-w.', w s Lillee. Ard bomb, rnd fires were started in the pal- cc- near the Queen’s quarters and in the hones of some ox the povernnent
• . (6) •
ministers.
The politic? 1 change w?s also’ not" without i:m*lic'-tr foreign policy. In foreign policy, the 'Tr'et/ongun” had been olac x '• to an r, dement end unyielding -policy of anti-f oreignisr: abroad^' end Catholic suppression at. home. Catholicism' in Korea had
been compromised by its connection with foreign gunboats and the threat of foreign invasion.: .:fft had long been. under -attach from' Confucian purists who saw it as a threat naturally, to orthodex beliefs, but when the government came tp feel that Catholicism
posed a political- threat that native Christians would’ try to
get foreign warships to come to Korea apd guarantee their pro- tection by force, the repressions and persecutions took on* a more scrivus nature. The Tacwongun was at first not committed to a policy of persecution, but a series of events.' involving; native Catholics in 'certain diplomatic questions led’ the Tacwongun to decide on a. severe persecution, in which, among many native -nartyers 9 French priests were also executed. This led -to. an expedition of reprisal -by the French Asiatic Squadron which failed bice use of inadequate f or ccs. an£ ' this was fallowed by a. scries of raids upon the Korean coast cy foreign ships*. Another attack was launched in 1871 by an American gunboat in- retaliation for the burning of an American merchant ship in 1866. This marked the culmination of the anti-foreign reaction within Korea and the Tacwongun had' monuments erected around the .country with the following inscription
The foreign barbarians have invaded us. If we .do not fight, thGn there must be peace. Those who advocate peace arc traitors. Let this tm a warning to our posterity .for 10,000 years .
Naturally enough, these policies of anti-f or c ignis::: and' Catholic persecution were su ported ardently by the conservative, rural scholars. They viewed Western influences and Catholicism as the scourge of orthodox morality. However, although supporter's of this policy, they turned against the Ta.cwongun, as we have seen, for other reasons, and some of them. participated in the Min attack upon him. : A . • 1
With the Tacwongun firmly committed to a policy of seclusion and anti-f orcignism it is no /wonder there was trouble, when after 1868c Japan tried to establish relations with Korea on a new be Si.s c In 1868, Japan’s feudal government was overthrown in wh^t is known as the Mciji Restoration. The Emperor was restored to his position as head of state and. new governmental, institutions were established among which- was a -ministry of foreign affairs. The Japanese, then wanted to shift the. handling of Korean relations from the So clan of Tsushima, which had takqn charge of those matter under the" feudal Shogun- tc, to -the- new central go vc rnmpSKb and new- foreign office in Tokyo. Japan sent several notes to this effect to Korea. The policy of the Tacwongun wr-s to reject nil these; notes on the grounds that the word, "Emperor1^ designating the Japanese Earner or, was used* in the documents,-, and also that Korea could not countenance any* change in. timdhpnorcd' precedents and etiquette- governing Korean- Japanese - relations.
(7)
Prior to this, in 1867, mother event hoc! token place which served to exacerbate Korean Jo pone sc relotions. Chin- reporter" to Koreo the contents of on article published in 0 Chinese newsome The orticlc wo s 0 letter from 0 Joponese to the poocr in which* he s t-i; t koreo hoc. b^en in the habit of sending” tributary mission— to Jopon ever y 5 years ond because Korea had discontinued this practise there were plans in Japan for an- expedition of fleet of 80 ships to go to Korea 'One! administer chastisement. The storv was unfounded, .but it added to the rift in relations, -nd was referred to several tines by the Koreans during the Konahwa negoti- ations of 1876. At any rate, by 1873 a crisis was reached in the Japanese government over the Korea question;* There was a solit between those ’ho wanted to attack. Korea because of the repeated rejections of Japanese communications and Japanese envoys," and those who felt that the most pressing task for Japan was her Self- strengthening —building up the country so she would be able to cast off tTre ' ‘ ' ‘
and th-t to still week w'
anti-Korean faction withdrew from participation in the new govern-
ing — Duneing up tnc country so she would tc able to re burden of the unequal treaties with foreign nations, • launch a war with Korea at this tine, when J-pan w a would be harmful. The latter group won out, and the
nent, eventually to lead r:cnt in Japan,
revolt against it. Thus the new govern- ftcr 1873, was committed to a policy of self- strengthening^ Despite this, there v/as much restless mergy and discontent in J- pan that had to be siphoned off. This discontent resulted directly from the attempts of the new government to out-
old feudal soci-1 anc! economic restrictions
law and sweep -way by decree. Samurai,
feudal retainers ? were also of their stipends as
>r ovi
valu
deprived of their retainers of with government with runaway nd now forced into
the or
special privileges' and
f cud-1 lords. As compensation they were provided bonds, which, however, rapidly dropped in inflation. Brought up' in - tradition of arms economic impoverishment, thtre were many who could not tolerate wh-t they im-gined to be the Korean contempt for Japan and itched for a chance to do battle. Thus, despite the decision of the government in Japan to put off any foreign ventures,, an expedition was launched against Taiwanese aborigines for killing some ship- wrecked Japanese. This Taiwan expedition was not without fateful implications for Korea, for it involved a fundamental theoretical dispute between Japan and China that would later tc applied to Korea, Taiwan was a Chinese tributary tut China disclaimed control over its internal administrati n and would not t-kc responsibility for the attack of the aborigines. Japan claimed th-.t this meant that China had no suzerainty at all ov - r Taiwan -nd herself to chastise the natives. This expedition words, called the "hole Chinese system method by wBiich China conducted h outside world lute, question.
UilC
4-N ^ '</ 1 - V
of tribut" r foreign
took it upon in other ry r cl- t ions — relations with
It — s within the context of the tributary system that Korea con 'noted her relations with China. By the terms of this system, iCbrer. was obliged to send a yearly tribute mission to, Peking « in the winter and supplementary missions on such felicitous oorsions as the accession of a new Bmp c-r or or designation of Cr wn Prince. missions were sent to report deaths in the Korean r "-1 family, and missions were sent . from China to Korea to ->crf rm investiture rites for the Korean King ' or Cf own Prince.
(8)
Korcn also was obliged to use the Chinese calendar. Tin ->Ui- v this syton w os norc- symbolic thrn ■ rpfit-bl; for Chino /it rs'h ccnonstr to tnrough tnc performance of such ritual °s the nine— f p a ii ow t ow -knocking of the here! on. the ground --hef or » the t error of - the supreme position of Chin- os c inter of' the world, ,-c-c. rt } Df culture, end of the Jmoeror cs "the model of suoferc virtue" for others to to etoulrte-. The vnlue. of the tribute received by- -.China was often outweighed by her 1-rgess in granting • .'if ts ~nd enter t" inment to the tributary envoys— so to inpress then with China's ov,rridinr prestige. -IMot only in the kowtow, but in the woreingof documents, ctc hr. r* to be token lest there by any infringement" of the highest respect lrngUr ;,c f or- China : end the Err-cror. The tributary mission :* wrs hot only c onducted with greet ceremony, but vrs oart'of the Chinos syctciMf Confuci-n morality end ritual. For- this rcoson, the rc-cc’-tio of envoy’s, that is, the handling: of "relotions v;ith tribute ry str.tcs wrs handled by the Eorrd of Rites in Chino., end conversely by the Ministry- of Rites in Korea,
In return for these obligations. Chin
Korea ’ s
internal herself, against •;
'id to defend against foreign rebellion. Furthermore, it \r Not only that, but my Chinese, immigration*
was obliged to come to. aggression of to help supprcs-s. s left to Korea, to -govern Korean borders were effectively sealed oven. Chinese envoys to Korea stayed no more than a few d'pys in Seoul before returning ’to China,
wo s
It \rs in the middle of the 19th century when pressure put on the tributary system with regard to Korea, _,s a
of fact, th- system itself had been challenged' lung before
The
first matter that.-
English envoy to the court at Peking, Macartney. in 1793, had • refused to perform the kowtow*,,. and a long struggle took "lace between China 'and- the western powers over the issue of conducting relations between them on a basis of equality — a. s relations were conducted p
between nations in the West, In the middle of the 19th century, attention wfs turned to Korea, *.nc some of the Western countries
to
redress
open Korea to commerce. Fr; 'far the murders of French
decided they wanted wanted to obtain
was approached by the Foreign ministers, but Chinese of declaring that although Korea was a tributary of Chin' control over either her internal government or her
nee. in particular
ricsts, licy
i
had
no
China consiste-d s China relations
with other countries* Especially -fter suffering 'defeat 'in the Opium . ■ of 1342 and the attack on Peking in i860 Chin'v v/as wary of :;nsibility for Korean misbehavior -lest she be forcc-d new conecssi ns to the Westerners because of it. This .* the basis of Chinese policy in 1874, when Japan sent- to Taiwan, but the shock of this event acted as a'
’ gradual shift ,to a new approach. The famous statesman, r.hd been appointed. Governor-General' of Chihli "• r evince for the Northern Ports' in
t
wars assuming resp into granting of. course was ^n expedition stimulus for a Li Hung- chang,
nd - C- missioher for the Northern Ports- in l87i . and - a s such, came ■ • to'- control, the handling of China.’ s foreign polcy for 25 years. The /* Japanese expedition to Taiwan increased his fears' a tout Japanese *' designs on China’s tributaries. This attack 'had taken place despite- a clause in the Sinp- Japanese treaty of 1871 th^t no aggression w'ould be committed against territory belonging to either state. However, ’• the., Japanese rational, for the Formosan episode was in effee' th^t "tributary- Status did not mean Chinese suzerainty, for ’such suzerainty would only be evidenced .by direct control over internal administration, to be dis; layed by such an obvious indication as tax collection and also by responsibility for i?hc conduct of foreign affairs. Li Hung- chang had wanted to attack the Japanese with troops in 1874, but China w. s not ready for action at the time. However, he v • - r and concerned over the possible Japanese threat to Korea
Li c io not hr Vs- long to wo it , for in Scntembcr of 187 5. thrc r Jopr.no sc g unboats were fired on by Korean lotteries off * the const of Konghwn Island. The loccl Korean eommrndcr fired on the ships with out making inquiries, nnd the Japanese retaliated tv lancing p party, destroying the "nr till cry 'battery and attackin': a non r by town, xhc ship returned to Japan a few d°ys Inter rrhis" incident be cane the- pretext for the despatch of r negotiator t- Korea to conclude Whot eventually iccanc known rs the Kanghwa treaty
of the Japanese ships had actually been brought about c:)n(-i"kioris in Korea* Japnliesa envoys in
The despatch
by the change ■ _ _w ^ wt i
Pusan had learned* that the Governor of' Ttyongsang^ in Pusc.n who l^ac. rejectee prior Japanese coeinuni cations under orders fron the Tauvongun had recently been investigated, and one of then executed. The Japanese envoy than .reported back to their rovernnent* that with the removal of the Tac-vongun and his faction, the tine* 5 was ripe for a demonstration to back u“ Japanese demands on Korea and advoc-ted^sonding ships^to^tho Korean coast to cause an incident
Iso pointed China had Korean affair
th~t would serve rs the pretext for this move. They out that Korea could not expect help from China . since Ch already stated th-~t she could not interfere in Internal IC
Despite the opposition of those who advocated that the policy decision to concentrate on Japan’s internal development be* adhered to, the go vernment decided to despatch the gunboats on the pretext of surveying the Korern coast, c
The decision was then mode in Japan that rather than charge China with responsibility, a mission would be sent to Korea to lay rcsoonsibiluty on Korea and conduct negotiation with her, and at the same time, an envoy would be sent to China to inform the Chinese government of the action. In other words, it would be assumed that China had no control over Korean affairs and that she would * not be asked to mediate.
Of course, the Japanese bad well assessed the change that had come about with the retirement of the Tnewongun. In lo71+, after the retirement of the Tacwangun two high ministers had memorialized on relations with Japan. The gist of their' remarks was that 300 years of friendship with Japan had been ruined in the past few years because of stubbornness over the issue of the wording of documents, and that the use of the word, ''Emperor, in these documents was no more than respect language used by the Japanese for their own Emperor and in no way im lied a slight to Korea,
One/
•• account hrs it that the Min clique had tried to persuade the King w„rt ~ continuation of the T~cwongun!s policy would bring on a noth r disaster oaual to that of Hideyoshi's invasions, -Vt any rate, things looked in 1875, if the Korean side would yifc&d on tho’ question of the reception of both communications and envoys from/ ,g pan.
K'wever, Japan had now bid up its price, on the b'-sis of new information on Korean conditions, and had decided to use the threat of f - r cc to ru-ranteo Korean acquiescence. The Japanese negotiatiors -rr*v.ed in' 3 war shins off Kanghwa island*, they exaggerated the figures of the number of men on board to the Korean negotiators,
(10)
• nd demanded th-t hoo
the:
;c
landc'1 ■? s.. pro 1 cet ion.' Small b
of troops made daily landmngs rcconnoiterina the ar r actions to the cs • itel. ..11' of these were r ctivitr
nd s
> asking
d. c si me d
i Tighten . the Kor cons', possibly in the miner of ?crr^ * »
Jeern. Kindly, it \jr s even intimated that any or -ot
m the fort of the Koreans mult Iced to the l~nd'ina' D-f ^ cent indent and forceful rc-riscls.
o j
nin ; of
the
on
whole
, Bleb off icals in the Korean government who had felt that Korc- should make concessions to j-r-an on the natter of documents, non found themselves confronted with a military threat and a dcr -n' for a treaty. The Japanese were also demanding that the ncao&imtor ~n the spot he riven glcnipotmitiary powers to conclude the treaty or else t' cy would he forced, to go the capital themselves to negotiate directly with the government. Government larders were confused by these new developments. They distrusted the Japanese, hut for the most part found it difficult to recommend a course of action. Gone declaimed ai m.1 on the inadequa ci : s > and deficiencies within Korea that had brought on this calamity from outside her herders, and
C'-lled for
s'cricc
li cation
1 laws to the wild and unrestrained Is he applied strictly to thereby lc. Others poanted out that the whol-. basis of national
populace — that rewards and- punish:.:, c-lr.: the pc defense— finances and. tre sury reserves Koic^ was in. a difficult situation.
w c r c c xhe us u cc
:nd that
• In addition to tkis a communication had been received from China tell jug of the Japanese Minister to China’s report of the despatch of a minister from Japan to Korea to' negotiate a treaty with her. The coimeunicati on also recorded ,conver S'tions held between the Japanese Minister and Li Eung-chang, in which Li -im iterated’ that a 1th ugh Korea was. a tributary of China’s, she was allowed to cxerci exclusive and independent control over her ovn affairs, ?nC. for that r^ son. China could, not force her to do anything, and could not send any Chinese to go -nd. conduct negoti -tions. He urged that Japan handle matter sMn accordance with the article of the Sino- Japanese Treaty of l8?l providing that neither country would commit aggression against the territory oi the other. Thus, Li had not departed f r :n his previous poll cy. of disclaiming responsibility, and the Koreans must have felt tfrrt no support would be forthcoming from Chino,
On the other hand, there were no proposals to seek such support.
Despite, then, the lack of a Concrete policy, the order wa s handed, down within a few days to the Korean negotiator that friendship had. to be maintained with Japan, and that the articles of trade put -forward by Japan did not have to be repudiated. He was instructed, to agree to whatever was beneficial, and. was given plenipotentiary powers -to do so. This decision a -ears to
■have been token at the inf ta five of tb King, whether on hi: or at the behest of the-Hin faction, is not verif table, by 1
own,
my
re cores.
However, despite the fact that the throne had decided to
agree to almost all of the Japanese turns, with only a few object!: this does not mean that there" was not opposition to the whole pro 3* 1 fr' r;
fx: certain elements on. the political co.:r.:, 0*1 th«' contrary, a •aft of nc-noxial s were submitted.* calling for strong and dcclsiv
(XI)
cctien against the Japanese, Local officials
fron Kanghwa
ex-censors, the chief negotia to r for the Koreans hi^lV, finally, Cn oo Ik-hyon, tbn very nan whose ncnoric.1 lecl to
)
oncl
clovmfcli of the Tacwonjun, car.x out in shcr;i cncgouts-iokon attack upon the court and even the lane hinsclf for his e-oecsonont of " the- Japanese, 3 one of these :.:cn were summarily exiled.
*>s hefor the fear of
o, the conservative anti-f orcicn appeal we s hr see! on . fac 0j- ••■ostern religion and values which would
cOximpt the morality of the people. That the Jo"1 anese were no different iron the Tc-stcrncrs could he seen' just ty looking at then. They wc-rp now wearing Y/cstcrn clothes end their shims were of western design. They had departed from the true way. If Korea were to open the country to trade with then, then it mul' bo the sane as 0.00 nine it to the Y/c-st. Merchants would cone and ye sole would then spend their tine che sine after idle profits— rather we might say than reposing in that virtuous and sublime poverty i/hich hod been their lot up to that tine.
There was, in other words, a violent reaction, from those conservative forces in society, which had two years before, joined with the Min in the attacks on the- Tacwongun. It is ray view there- fore, that the signing of theKanghwa treaty narked a new development
alienation of the rural scholars and
in internal politics, th __
conservative, and anti-f orcign officials away fr on the government. This opposition was to grow larger and even more vocal in ensuing years. The- articles of the treaty as agreed upon called for the opening ol two ports in addition to Pusan, in" which ports Japanese would he allowed to purchase land. and. rent houses and conduct trade freely. The rcsticiivc rules governing the enclosed Japanese compound at Pusan would he liberalized. Korean officials were not" to obstruct anyone in the free conduct of trade, Furthermore, envoys would he exchanged between the two countries • each to go t: the capital of the other and there hold discussions with the res- active foreign ministers — in the Korean ease the Chief of the Ministry of Rites,
all
The:
articles dealing with the opening of three ports in
t tacked , as explained, previously, by the rhti-
9 -1 • * » » • -- * • • •
T
the
a. to ty the King and those who rationale tht the Japanese were not the
:c
for trade, were foreign wing. They were 5U"oortcd his policy on — - -----
same ~s westerners and that expanding trade with then would not lead to the introducti on of the heresy of Catholicisn, Japan was a county Korea had had "erccful relations, it was said, for 300 yeti
had been conducted Tven if new ports
:c omened, they could he run in accordance- with rcgulattions been used in Pusan, and ty no .ncans was it necessary to ,w then accc s to the- interior, . They were to he quarantined, as been the custom, in their compounds at the treaty ports.
with
that
with
were
that
which
is since Hideyoshi’s' invasions? and that trade Jr.— n through the Japanese residence in Pusan.
to
ha
tu c.
The terms of the treaty also included provisions for extra- territorial jurisdiction in the treaty ports; that is, Japanese crimi- na Is were to be turned over to Japanese consuls in the ports for d judication.
r,/-?
This 3 that
ha (
caurl treatic the Korean mind however,
of coursewas one of the ma. in features of the tuv* been imposed on China and Japan herself. To this was not a drawback. The main concern
s' to keep the
the papula cc.
Japanese in their restricted residences away from
(12)
Article 1 of the- treaty stated that Korea we s an indc self -ruling state one! the t henceforth oil communications protocol he to; eon the two countries would he conducted on of equality. But of course, the Jap one sc were not inter
.ndent , or
CQUi
1 tr c o tDont
ot oil. The noin purpose of thi sever Korea ’ey written low iron Chino, to renovc to sis fronony cl o ins of Chinese suzerainty over II ore
one
the
stef
sis
m
tide the 1
'IlC
wos to ;:rl thus
Ic-rvc Japan to de-el directly with Korea rlonc- in the future*
The Koreans signed this article, tut to their minds, it hod nothing to do with their relations with Chine, Korea wos still the tributary of Chino end still hound to fulfill its obligations under the tributary systcu. The Chinese felt the sane way. They hod: stated that Karoo was Chino's tributary, yet ot the s me tine independent. This type of t hint, in p wos oil right in a period when no direct three t wos posed to it, ’ut after 187O 'end the growing cue re cnee of Japan ~s a strong end oppressive nation—
0 notion which hod adopted many of the sane techniques used by the West age inst China — this fornule was to prove a porado:: that would Iced to difficulties in the future.
The Treaty, then, was not concluded by Korea with the idee that Korea would be opened to the world end re node in the image of the lest. On the contrary, it wos the concept of the new 'treaty os 0 mere extension of previous relations with Japan that node it printable. .*t no tine wos the treoty justified on the grounds that Korea hod to be opened up and western technology and Culture brought in to modernize and strengthen the country* Foreign policy objectives under the Kin actually remained the some as the under the Tacwongun— keeping corrupting foreign influences away from the people. The differences in approach were tactical and relative*
Many Koreans today, looking bock upon the events surrounding 'friac opening of thexi country by Japan, undoubtedly feel indig- nation at the weakness of the government at that tine in succumbing so easily to Japanese demands and forging the first stem in 0 path that was to lead to Korea's annexation by Japan, But what -were the alternatives ot that tine? fa s the continuation of stubborn rnti-f orcignisn and the use of force 0 feasible policy for Korea? Her finances depleted,- entbh-r military strength lacking, her " dnlnis trot ion weakened by corruption and her leadership entangled in court intrigue and. political strife— a continuation of the Regent's policies would have- been disastrous. Later, alternatives would be proposed by China, and Korea would be urged to protect itself against Japan, and Russia, too, by forming alliances with”
Vfc stern states— but this, too, was to fail, and China, herself, was to suffer defeat at the hands of Japan, Salvation for Korea, as for China, in the 19th and early 20th century depended on a- * proper awareness of the nature of the' imperialistic world of the late 19th century, and the necessity for a concerted effort* at adapting to the new techniques of material strength no matter what the consequences to her cultural traditions. The obstacles to
sucti an to tile 2
:rcnc
e* o *f f
ere formidable-
!isc. of nn to "lit.-r
■ Vs: oa on
.O- -?
:n” immobile society not conducive
lS*iy
tradition of lecyniy
of man one’ locking a foundation for scientific inquiry — end c.lso the Ice- cy of the tributary system— a oyster, vice; eel to cloy by nationalistic Koreans os o d is pro cc,n l:lot u-on their history, o. nork of subservience to mother people, tut, ot the tine, o oyster ■which hoc! served to insure the Korean state npainst any outside disturbance for three hundred years fror the tire of Kideyoshi's invasions. Me mipht even soy that the system hod saved Korea from outripht conquest ot that tine, too. It would not he on cosy task to tear down r. system which hod proved so effective for so lone#
F ilia. 1 ly , the' ICa nr: hwo
Treaty was significant in that it troueht
on the alienation of those conservative end onti-f orcipn scholars that had f or red one of the pillars of the iiin coalition of political forces that had succcc&cf. in trinpinp about the retirement of the
To cwonpun.
vl
It was this
er oup ,
alone
with the **rmy, which had r-.Cv.ivcd
so much attention from the Taewanpun and was to be no sleeted the Min dominated court, which would combine to trine about ; storation of the Ta^wonpun in 1832.
ty
briei
(These
to
at
the
the
notes arc Marc a. Brand
see on a lecture delivered by Mr . of the Royal .'.siatic Society on
'uditarium of the llatimal Medical Center, 3c ml)
James Palais 10 December 19 63
(
V
iL;-)
THE SILLA UNIFICATION- -SOME BACKGROUND COMMENTS
By
John Jamieson
For presentation at the Colloquium of the Center for Japanese and Korean Studies, March 12, 1969* Not for quotation without permission.
THE SILLA UNIFICATION- -SOME BACKGROUND COMMENTS
Note: The period examined spans the first half of the seventh century and
primarily the following reigns: Tang:
|
T'ai-tsung TV. -if Kao -t sung {u , > " 1 T ■ |
626-249 649-683 |
||
|
Silla: |
Muyol \i ' ' (Kim Munmu f (Kim |
Ch’unch'u ) Pommin j'Z ) |
654-661 661 -681 |
|
Koguryo : |
'-T -A ' Pojang i |
641-668 |
|
|
Paekche : |
^ H Uija "Y /<_>’ |
64o-66l |
China's attempts to defeat Koguryo began soon after the empire’s unification at the end of the sixth century. The last southern state having fallen, attention was logically turned to the northeast and strategy planned to consolidate those territories which had once been part of a united mainland empire. Relations had been smooth during the hundred years prior, with Koguryo presenting rather regular annual tribute to the Northern Wei at first and then to the various houses succeeding that state to power in northeastern China- -a situation illustrated by the humdrum listing of tribute bearing missions which constitutes the Samguk sagi ' s (completed 1145 by Kim Pusik and staff) Koguryo Annals for the sixth century. The pattern continued uneventfully into the first years of Sui's ascendance. Yet once it became obvious that a unified and expanding empire was being dealt with rather than an ephemeral successor to northern power,
Koguryo 's reaction was to strengthen her defenses and, in 598; to break across
-2-
her Liao River border in what was apparently an attempt to ensure a more secure buffer. And in turn, this infringement triggered the first of the long series of massive attacks which took until 668 to bring an end to Koguryo.
It was a larger pattern of instability, however, that drew the Chinese into Manchuria, fluid tribal configurations and changing alliances which were always potential dangers to a far-flung mainland empire. At the turn of the sixth century, three major foreign groupings in addition to Koguryo posed threats, one being the Tungusic Mo -ho (K. Malgal ) Mho were known to the
mainland empire as a militant confederation of seven tribes living to the north of the Korean power. Like Koguryo, they had recognized Sui suzerainty, but in 598 joined their southern neighbors in the aforementioned territorial incursions. The Mongol Khitan inhabiting areas around the Liao's lower reaches formed a second group which in 605 provoked Sui by plundering her cities near the borders of Ho-pei. The third and strongest of the powers beyond the wall and the greatest threat to both Sui and T’ang was the eastern wing of the T'u-chiieh, Turkish tribesmen whom the Sui spent considerable effort to contain. It was Koguryo 's alleged attempts at alliance with them that is cited as the direct cause for the second of Sui's peninsular expeditions, the large-scale effort of 612 under Yang-ti's direct leadership.
There are also indications that uncertain loyalties among Chinese themselves
necessitated the Sui-T'ang militant policy toward Kogury&, specifically as they
involved instability in Ho-pei, the area of China proper that bordered Manchuria.
Ho-pei had been the center of Northern Ch'i, a state ruled by men who claimed to
>1
be of the Chinese Kao clan and one which flourished for more than half a
century while maintaining harmonious relations with Koguryo. When it fell in 577 to its western enemy, the Hsien-pei probably (Mongol) Northern Chou, the
-3-
locus of imperial power was permanently shifted to Ch'ang-an where the houses of Sui and T'ang, both well interwed with the Mongol clans, were soon to rise, and the northeastern territory declined then in political prestige and economic strength.
This background of political division was one factor in a pattern of serious antagonism between Ho-pei and the Ch'ang-an throne, one which manifested itself in strong resistance from Ho-pei to the establishment of T'ang rule and a scorn and suspicion of men of that region by Ch'ang-an. Pulleyblank has suggested it as a reason for the Korean wars, speculating that the court at Ch'ang-an felt the long-term good relations between Ho-pei and Koguryo to be a danger. Any strong separatist movement there would likely be aided militarily by the formidable
v
Koguryo and her tribal subsidiaries.
Another factor, admittedly more speculative yet sufficiently credible to be seriously considered, is the question of ethnic bonds between Ho-pei and the Korean state. We have said that rulers of Northern Ch'i claimed Chinese ancestry, yet considerable evidence, both in terms of Northern Ch'i political structure and in conflicting genealogical statements, has led to suspicion of the claim's legitimacy and to the generally accepted view that they were instead Mongols,
Shih-lou origin theory, first citing the lack of substantiating proof, then by questioning why any Mongol would have wanted to adopt a Chinese clan name. It is well known that the Chinese were held in low regard and discriminated against by the Mongol nobility during this period; so, as T'an postulates, the Kao clan must have originated from a group whose social position was even meaner than that of the Chinese and on e which the historians, out of respect or for political
perhaps of the Shih-lou ^ clan. Brie:
the contemporary historian T'an Ch'i-hsiang
clan. Briefly addressing this problem, however
has dismissed the
-4-
reasons, saw fit to conceal. That group he sees as having been Koguryo. The low status of Koguryo people in north China during the Eastern Wei is demonstrable SO; too; is the number of families of Koguryo background resident in what was later called Ho-pei that had adopted the Kao name and whose social positions were similar to those of the Northern Ch'i rulers' ancestors. Although the thorough examination it requires is a task beyond the scope of this present paper; in its broader aspects T'an's theory seems acceptable. The racial brotherhood it pro- poses would go another step toward explaining the apparent rapport between Ho-pei and Koguryo and further justify the fear of an alliance which must have been felt by the Ch'ang-an monarchy.
V
The most often cited motive for expeditions against Koguryo involved internal peninsula politics: ostensibly honoring the tributary allegiance of
either Paekche or Silla; mainland attacks would follow a complaint by one of these states that Koguryo had violated its border. The scale of the attacks; their duration and persistence; the personal involvement of the emperor (Sui Yang-ti and T'ang T'ai-tsung both personally commanded campaigns) -- all this, however; quite clearly weakens the credibility of that motive. More realistically; it was; as described above, a territorial expansion into areas that had slipped from control with the fall of the Han and which were now highly combustible.
The history of Sui-T'ang campaigns into Koguryo--ten of major dimension from 598 to 668 -- is deserving in itself of an entire reappraisal. Layers of myth and moralistic patina with which T'ang accounts are obviously encrusted demand scraping away to determine, for example, the extent of Koguryo 's role in the fall of the Sui or the real nature and size of the forces which were fielded against the Korean state. While our present discussion cannot digress that widely, it seems pertinent to look briefly at likely causes for the campaigns' failure as
-5-
background to Silla's role. For it was only with Silla as an ally that T'ang losses were to turn to victory.
Professor Ch'en Yin-k'o has pointed to terrain and climatic features as perhaps the major obstacles. The thousand mile plus distance from Ch'ang-an to Koguryo's Liao River border took armies into forbidding forest lands where heavy late summer rains are quickly followed by a long, severe winter. This meant that there were at most three months between the end of winter in (lunar) April and the beginning of the concentrated rains in July for mainland armies to subdue their enemy or retreat before the mud, then ice and snow, sealed them in.
To maintain attack in adverse weather would demand continuous supply channels which by land, at least, were prevented by the same weather west of the Liao that prevailed to its east. By sea, there was rarely success; navigational skill was an outstanding T'ang weakness while Koguryo's coastal defenses were relatively efficient. Then, quite aware of the climatic restrictions, Koguryo could always be properly alerted. She was not only inherently better equipped to fight in her native habitat but knew she must prepare most fully for a summer invasion. There could be few surprises.
While weather predicted attacks, it was Koguryo's unsurpassed skill at siege resistance that humbled them, resistance by walled towns along the eastern shores of the Liao from Ansi near the mouth on north to the 45th parallel.
The common Chinese tactic was to send forces through this line and into the Yalu area so that supply channels could be blocked while larger numbers of troops laid siege to the isolated frontier towns. Once outer defenses were destroyed, the siege force would join the forward flank for a southward assault on the capital at P'yong-yang. But the frontier towns always held firm. Their remarkable record of success in anchoring the siege armies until seasonal change forced them to lift and withdraw humiliated both Sui Yang'ti's prodigious efforts of 612 and
-6-
613 , and T'ang T'an-tsung’s in 645- Koguryo's tightly cohesive internal control
is also provided testimony by this record. T'ang histories paint a bleak picture
of a decaying state headed by a maniacal tyrant before T'ai-tsung set out to
rectify affairs. Yet battle results belie such a moralistic tale. Allegiance
£ n • , ,A-
to the alleged tyrant, Kaesomun \^H.S could readily have been abandoned
had his rule been so insufferably ruthless; the cuter regions of Koguryo's kingdom, nevertheless, remained perfectly loyal until his death in 666.
A tightly controlled frontier rim, then,' together with a protective climate, allowed Koguryo to defend herself in a manner disproportionate with her size. While the pattern of Chinese attacks remained constant, her defenses held firmly intact. The limit of her endurance was reached when a mainland tactical change required defense on her southern border as well. In the following paragraphs,
I shall attempt to reconstruct the details of how Silla was able to stimulate that tactical change and thereby engineer the balance of peninsular power to shift in her favor.
Silla Diplomacy - Internal Problems and the "Paekche First” Tactic
Silla 's diplomatic relations with China officially commenced in 381 with dispatch of a tribute bearing mission to the Former Ch'in state. As she was able to expand, so, too, did contacts with mainland states increase, but not to the degree of her sinitically more sophisticated neighbors until mid-sixth century when seizure of lands around the Han River gave her access to the western sea. It was during this period that direct contacts with the mainland stimulated wide adoption of Chinese culture and institutions and the beginnings of the production of Buddhist art and architecture whose remnants are still in brilliant
-7-
evidence throughout southereastern Korea.
The seventh century, however, saw a shift in the nature of her foreign
relations, from a more or less total emphasis on cultural absorption to a
concentrated effort at drawing Sui and T'ang into military involvement in her
affairs. Coverage of internal events for this period in the Samguk sagi is
characteristically sparse, yet enough can be assembled to show that the growth
experienced in the mid-sixth century -- during the dynamic reign of King Chinhung >
(540-575) -- bad halted and territorial gains were being eroded away by Paekche and Koguryo. Both neighbor states had naturally been chafed by Chinhung' s growth. Kogury6 had lost the strategic Han River basin territory in a clash with a joint Silla-Paekche force and again in 551 a large piece of land at her southeastern border fell into Silla hands. Paekche enmity had even deeper roots: the alliance with Silla which had been formed to recover the Han River
lands for her own occupation developed into a double-cross and a Silla seizure. Then, in a bitter clash in the following year, 55^> ber king was killed by Silla troops .
The weakness and inability to control outlying territories which followed Chinhung' s expansive burst likely resulted from gradual extinction of the
r « ?
sorlggol ■ (;] line of nobility, Silla' s supereminent class and that
one
which hereditarily monopolized the throne. The second ranking nobility, the + li-
chingol , had possessed all effective administrative authority for
7 k
a century or so through the sangdaedung , a prime ministerial position
filled by one of its members; when their possession of the throne, too, became imminent, power groups coalesced and factional fissures developed. Two sSnggol women ruled in the first half of the seventh century -- Sond^k ^ 7w^, ’ (632-646) and Chindok (647-653) -- after their male line had ended, and this fact
-8-
is recorded both in the Annals and in the biography of General Kin Yus in as having been the pretext for an attempted coup d'etat in 64 7 in which Pidan \tk , then sangdaedung, set out to depose the queen since "a female ruler was incapable of governing well." The political realities outlined, however, expose this "yin-yang clash" causal for the patent evaluative dressing it is. Now that the songgol male line was extinct, occupancy of the throne once flushed of baleful female elements would obviously be up for grabs and Pidan was maneuvering himself into prime position. But he was thwarted by a stronger opposition group, his faction obliterated and control of the state assumed by powerful and perceptive men: Kim Yusin, his brother-in-law, Kim Ch'unch'u and their numerous sons.
They effected a resolution of ambiguities in authority by restoring the throne's strength and shifting the sangdaedung 1 s administrative responsibilities to a newly established organ under direct control of the throne. Their persistent efforts to woo T'ang were rewarded ultimately with unification of the peninsula, and with this unification, the shape of a distinctively Korean socio-cultural entity was able to form.
With defeat of the Pidam faction the pattern of Silla's China policy changed quite abruptly. Increasingly squeezed and weakened by Paekche's repeated seizures of her strategic western territories, her one recourse for survival was outside support and it was Kim Ch'unch'u who set out on a heroic quest for an ally.
His first attempts were close to home: he traveled to KogurycS in 642 where he was rather badly rebuffed, then in 648, according to the Nihon shoki, he led an embassy to Yamato, the timing of which is indication that its aim, too, was surely strategic. In that same year in Ch'ang-an, on a mission to the court of T'ai-tsung, we see Ch'unch'u' s diplomatic savoir-faire at last achieving a success that was to define Silla's course of action. The Samguk sagi describes
-9-
it as follows
648
(Annals ^
Chosenshi gakkai edit. p. 5 6)
. . . Ich'an Ch'unch'u and his son, Munwang , were sent to
the T^a^ig court. [ [T'ai-tsung sent^his Minister of Brilliant Emolument fjp-yfcj7 > Liu Heng fart '» , to receive then at the
borders (chiao-lao). i/hen [T'ai-tsung] saw Ch'unch'u' s distinguished and stately form and deportment, he entertained him richly,]] then when Ch'unch'u requested to go to the State Academy to observe the sacrificial offerings [to deceased masters] as well as the lectures, T'ai-tsung permitted him. He also presented him with [texts of] the Wen-t'ang
and Chin bUu- Shrine tablet inscriptions and the
newly compiled History of Chin, all imperial compositions. [[On one occasion, he summoned him to an informal audience, presented him with very rich gifts of gold and brocades and asked him, 'Is there something you wish to make known?" Ch'unch'u knelt and spoke to the emperor, saying, "Your servant's country, secluded in a corner of the sea, has humbly served the Heavenly Court for many years while Paekche, strong and crafty, has wantonly encroached on us tine and again. A f ew years back, on top of this, she raised a large force and penetrated deep into our territory, taking scores of walled towns so as to block our road to the Court. If Your Majesty does not assist us with Heavenly Troops to excise this malignancy, then the people of my lowly state will all become their captives and 'climbing and navigating' to report on our office (=traversed arduous routes, tribute missions to the court of T'ang) can never again be hoped for." T'ai-tsung wholly agreed with this and gave permission for an army to be dispatched.]] Ch'unch'u also requested [permission] to change [Silla's] official dress so as to conform to the Chinese standard, whereupon [T'ai-tsung] had precious clothing brought out and presented to Ch'unch'u and his accompanying staff. He proclaimed that Ch'unch'u be given the title Specially Advanced and that Munwang be made General of the Left Martial Guard.
And when [Ch'unch'u] was about to return hone, it was proclaimed that all officials above grade three feast him at a banquet. He was treated with utmost cordiality and ceremony. [[Ch'unch'u said to the Emperor, "Your servant has seven sons and his wish is that they be allowed to remain in the [] [Night] Guard of Your Sagely Brilliance," whereupon his son Munwang and the Grand Overseer [] [] were so commanded.]]*
The Ch'unch'u mission was but the last of three in 648, an unusual if not
unprecedented annual number and indicative of the intensity of Silla's efforts to solicit T'ang arms aid. On the second of these, Silla agreed to adopt T'ang nien-hao and thus comply with a normal tributary state practice which she had
* Double bracketed material is original with the Sar.guk sagi; boxes indicate textual lacunae .
-10-
violated for more than a century. With the third mission, Ch'unch'u’s skillful effort, Silla played a role as the tributary atate closest to classical perfection. She requested permission to adopt official dress in physical emulation of the T'ang and, with calculated restraint, Ch'unch'u asked to visit the State Academy where the essence of China's culture was probed, this before raising any discussion of the mission's substance. His motive, of course, was to contrast Silla as a nation of cultured refinement, whose interests lay first in the absorption of Chinese learning, with Koguryo's recognized barbarity and the obnoxious duplicity of Paekche .
A more substantive achievement of the mission, however, was the receipt
of permission to deposit Munwang in the Night Guard, a corps of the emperor’s
personal bodyguards within T'ang's larger palace guard. It established a pattern
which was to be followed throughout Silla' s lifetime whereby royal sons or close
relatives went to T'ang for periods of various length as hostages, the "external
hostage" category described by Professor Yang Lien-sheng. In a brief summary
and analysis of the rise and fall of Silla with which he closes the Samguk sagi's
Silla Basic Annals, Kim Pusik has singled out participation in this system as
one of the major factors which brought that state to its golden age:
. . . Their emissaries who 'climbed and navigated to pay respects to the Court went one upon the other without cease. They often sent their sons and brothers to the Court for service in the Night Guard or to enter the Academy to study and learn. Thus they were transformed by the teachings of the Sages . They changed what had been cultivated rusticity into a land of etiquette and propriety.
Samguk sagi entries concerning T'ang contacts during this early period nowhere
equate service in the Night Guard with a hostage system, yet Chinese sources,
in particular the Ts ' e-fu yiian-kuei, offer ample proof that it was and that it
was widely practiced with other foreign states, although with greatest regularity
-11-
in Silla's case. It was to provide insurance against the participant states’ betrayal of T'ang --in theory; in practice with Silla, it provided considerably greater advantage to her. First, Silla, then the smallest of the peninsular states, was awarded with what nust have been viewed as a more prestigious recogni- tion by the Chinese empire. There are notices of Koguryo and Paekche princes traveling to T'ang but as leaders of tribute missions who returned home immediately, not as hostages, and a Gbb request by Koguryo that certain of her people be admitted to the Night Guard had been angrily refused. On the level of domestic politics alone, Ch'unch'u's role in the power struggle previously outlined must have been significantly transformed by this new relationship with China: within the
fluctuating ranks of the nobility, the Kim Ch'unch'u-Kim Yusin faction was now buttressed by an element which transcended traditional "bone rank" determinants and which could plainly provide the solution to her international distress. Second, the strategic importance of an intermediary in such close contact with the throne was considerable. Not only did it provide an opportunity for Silla's case to be presented with more deliberation, but when T'ang forces ultimately did join the attack on Paekche, one of Ch'unch'u's sons who had been sent into the Ch'ang-an Night Guard, Kim Inmun I j > acted as leading strategist,
then guided the T'ang naval force to its destination. Third, there is evidence that the hostage was able to serve an intelligence function which forewarned Silla of mainland military activities. In the years 6j0 and 6 71, so the Sanguk yusa records, when Silla and T'ang were at cross purposes, Night Guard Kim Inmun and other Silla representatives resident in Ch'ang-an were jailed in retaliation for their country's alleged acts of treason, to wit, occupation of former Koguryo and Paekche territories she felt were her rightful apoils . Inmun had time, however, to inform the Silla monk, Uisang , of T'ang plans to
-12-
invade their country and to send him back to alert coastal defense forces, resulting in total destruction of the Chinese fleet. So with potential in prestige, strategy and espionage terms, establishment of a hostage relationship with T'ang was a notable exploit, an essential to Silla's survival and later growth as a state .
It was a secondary item on the 648 mission’s agenda, however, the fundamental objective having been to persuade T'ai-tsung to join a move against Paekche and relieve the pressure which was squeezing Silla cloaer and closer to the ocean.
The Chinese court had no real reason for considering Silla as significantly more reliable than Paekche theretofore. During most of T’ai-tsung's reign both peninsular states had offered tribute regularly, Paekche, in fact, with somewhat more regularity than Silla. Then, while Paekche had been accused of double-dealing with the Sui vis-a-vis Koguryo, Silla' a insubordinate adherence to a parallel set of nien-hao, equally seditious behavior, had been closely observed. Having shown herself repentant now, the problem was to convince T'ang that their individual problems were best attacked in concert and that once released from her desperate position, Silla would surely supply the leverage T'ai-tsung needed to crush his northeastern foe: a base in a secured southern flank to
aid with troops and provisions which would free his northern attack force from preoccupation with the weather as well as force a division in Koguryo 's defensive concentration. Ch'unch'u's mission elicited first mention of T'ang interest in invading Paekche:
Our present attacks on Koryo are for but one reason: We take pity
on your Silla, hemmed in by two states, always invaded and humiliated with never a year of peace. Hills, rivers and land I do not covet; jewels, silks, sons and daughters (= people, citizens) are things I possess, i/hen I subdue the two states, both [territory] southward from P'yongyang and the land of Paekche will be given to your Silla, for eternal tranquillity. (SGSG 7, p. jj)
-13-
Nowhere in the records is it explicit that Silla defined the strategy requiring defeat of Paekche as a first step toward victory over Koguryo. The majority of Chinese sources sanctimoniously describe T'ang' s 660 move as having been in response to repeated requests for aid from Silla, action born of pity for a be- leaguered subject. Only once or twice does the real motive get attention, and then but cursorily, as in the biography of a chief administrator in the Paekche military colony, Liu Jen-kuei, where Liu's memorials to Kao-tsung describe that monarch's desire to reach Koguryo through Paekche. The Samguk sagi, on the other hand, drops sufficient hint for the reader to conclude that Silla, represented by Ch'unch'u and Yus in, was the indispensable catalyst in formulation of the plan, if not its actual architect. First, the description of Ch'unch'u' s conversation with T'ai-tsung is extant only in the Sagi, including both the quote immediately above from King Munmu's reply to General Hsiieh Jen-kuei and the section of the Silla Basic Annals of 648 previously cited. There we see the T'ang emperor promising troop aid (a point reiterated in Kim Yusin's biography, SGSG 4l, p. 429) discussing defeat of both Koguryo and Paekche and committing himself to an important territorial deal. Since at no point prior to this was any such strategy seriously considered by T'ang -- there is no mention of a plan to conquer Paekche in the Chinese sources during the whole of T'ai-tsung 's reign -- we are left to conclude that it must have been stimulated by Ch'unch'u. The Silla noble had, it will be remembered, approached Koguryo for aid before his visit to T'ai-tsung. His belligerent reception there was followed in the next year with an attack on Silla by a joint Koguryo -Paekche force so that by the time of the 648 mission to Ch'ang-an, Silla was quite prepared, given an alliance, to attack northward as well. Second, there are numerous Silla Annals statements in the years immediately following Koguryo 's defeat which corroborate the conversations with T'ai-tsung
The
v
by repeating that subdual of Paekche and Koguryo was Ch'unch'u's plan, following can be noted:
a. 668 (SGSG 6, p. 72) in the test of an oath read at the royal
ancestral shrines: "Respectfully continuing the will of our
former king we joined Great T'ang in setting forth our volun- teers to call Paekche and Koguryo to account for their crimes. .
b. 669 (SGSG6, p. 72) in an amnesty decree: "His (Muyol's) wish
then (when he travelled to T'ai-tsung's court to seek military aid) was to subdue these two states and abolish war forever. . ."
c. From the biography of Kangsu (SGSG 46, p. 464): "Our former king's request for troops from T'ang and resultant subdual of Koguryo and Paekche is called a martial triumph, yet it was also aided by the brush ..."
A third source indicating the predominance of Silla's role in unification strategy
is the biography of Kim Yusin, the dynamic portrayal of a figure whose principal
mission in life was to defeat his country's enemies and bring them under one rule.
The Saraguk sagi appraises him as having been "able to act in accord with his will:
by joining plans with the Exalted State (= T'ang) three lands were combined into
one family (=state) and he was able to end his days with merit and fame. Several
incidents within the biography even point to this ambition as having jelled at
a very early age and some years before T'ai-tsung's enthronement. The example
below is said to have occurred in 6ll:
In the twenty-eighth year of the Fortune Establishing era (kbnbok T ) of King Chinp'ybng's reign, sinmae \ i , Lord [Yusin] ' y
was seventeen sui . Seeing his country s border territory being invaded and attacked by Koguryo, Paekche and the Malgal his spirit was aroused to a determination to defeat the brigands. He went alone into a stone grotto in the Central Peaks where he purified (lit.
’fast and abstain') himself then swore a pledge to Heaven, saying,
"The unprincipled enemies harass our lands like wolves and tigers -- hardly a year is left with peace. I am but one insignificant subject, devoid of skill or strength but determined to purge this calamity and unrest. If only Heaven would look down at this and lend me a hand."
He remained there for four days when suddenly an old man clad in rough garments came and aaid, "It is filled with poisonous snakes and wild beasts here -- a frightful place. Why do you come here and stay by yourself, my noble youth?" He answered, "Where do you come from, old sir? Can you tell me your esteemed name?" The old man said,
-15-
!,I don’t live anywhere and I come and go as fate directs. My name is Nansung . " When Lord [Yusin] heard this he knew
that this was no ordinary human. He bowed twice, then approached him saying, "I am a man of Silla. When I see my country’s bitter enemies, my heart is pained and my head filled with ache -- that is why I come here. My hope is to meet with some [solution]. Humbly I beg you, old sir, to take pity on my pure sincerity and give me a formula." The old man was quiet, uttering not a word. Lord [Yusin] cried and sobbed, imploring him without rest and after the sixth or seventh [time] the old man spoke and said, "You are but a youth, yet determined to unite the three kingdoms . How brave I , " then, as he gave him a secret formula, he continued, "Take care not to pass this on recklessly. If it is used improperly it will turn disaster on you." He finished speaking then left and went for about two leagues when [Yusin] pursued him but he was nowhere in sight.
There was only a brilliance on the mountain top, glittering as if in all five colors. (SGSG 4l, p. 426)
Temporal references contained in such magico-religious anecdotes can hardly be given complete credence, this on top of there being no indication of such an early development of plans to incorporate Paekche and Koguryo elsewhere in the history. Yet the rationalistic Kim Pus ill felt no need to alter what must have been obvious as an anachronism. With an eighth century compilation as his major biographical source, he apparently saw the whole anecdote as grounded firmly enough in tradition as well as in sufficient agreement in its broader theme with other surviving documentation to warrant inclusion.
Some thirty years were to transpire before the design envisioned by Silla
and spelled out by T'ai-tsung and Ch'unch'u in 648 was to be fully realized.
And while it could still be argued that proof of a Ch'unch'u- Yus in faction plot
to utilize T'ang toward ultimate control of the peninsula is weak on the basis of
a lone Korean source, the remarkable accomplishments of the 648 mission cannot
be denied. T'ai-tsung's death in the following year seems to have restrained the
v
promised overseas expedition, yet in spite of efforts by both Paekche and Koguryo at maintaining tribute status, T'ang's favors thereafter were directed toward Silla alone. In the past, Silla' s attempts to engage T'ang in her fight with
-l6-
Paekche had at best elicited an admonition,, directed at herself as well, to mend differences and live in neighborly amity. Now, in her new status, she could assault her neighbor with impunity and report her successes to T'ang while Paekche was threatened with destruction if her attacks on Silla continued.
But with few successes to report, it was mandatory that Silla 's new leader- ship sustain that status and continue forceful appeals for intervention. Kim Ch'unch'u's authority in Silla politics, as has been suggested, had been greatly enhanced by his establishment of exclusive rights with T’ang. With Kim Yusin's support he gained control of the throne just four years after his return and in the meantime had kept various of his sons on the road to Ch'ang-an to maintain pressure for troop aid. P6mnin ' ,A , the eldest (later King Munmu), went
in 650 carrying with him an ode for presentation to the emperor entitled "In
,, -f' 'L- 1 \ j
Praise of Peace ] ^ 1 ; embroidered on brocade by the queen and oozing
pious praise of T’ang as appointed helmsman of the universe, it was calculated at once to flatter imperial vanity and further impress the throne with Silla ’s classical finesse. The vital role assumed by Ch’unch’u’s second son, Inmun 'A I Lj , in directing T’ang’s fleet toward peninsular shores has already been mentioned.
He went on the first of many trips to the Chinese court in 651 and, as his biography notes, died there in 6<)h . A third son and uterine brother of the first two, Ilunwang b , has been seen as the initial Silla Night Guard;
after an interim return to his country he was dispatched back to T’ang in 656.
Then in preparation for moves against Koguryo subsequent to Paekche 's defeat, the
A ,
trek of clan sons continued: Kim Inmun again in 664; Kim Int’ae /];. 6 jj<" ,
Ch'unch’u’s son born of a concubine, in 665 or 666; Kim Samgwang 9, f\_j ,'
oldest son of Kim Yusin in 666; and finally, Kim Humsun y. , Yusin's
younger brother, in 669. This busy activity stands in distinct contrast to the
-17-
situation in the last quarter of the seventh century when relations between Silla and T'ang grew temporarily cold and embassies nearly stopped. Kim Inmun had returned to Ch'ang-an with the victorious armies after 668 and was resident there as a rather ineffectual hostage, but not one other royal family member traveled to the court until 713- In addition, only two tribute bearing missions are recorded prior to the advent of the eighth century.
The total clan commitment, then, achieved its desired end. On the firm foundation of Ch'unch'u's agreements with T'ai-tsung, an unusual diplomatic policy was pursued until Paekche and Koguryo had succumbed; then, when T'ang failed to comply to the letter of her promise, tribute obeisance ceased and force was applied against T'ang so as to conclude Silla' s territorial design.
The coalition was of course a marriage of convenience both for T'ang and Silla. T'ang's constant failure to subdue Koguryo through direct attack from the mainland had made the peninsular stronghold tactic a last resort, but lacking maritime confidence, aid from Silla was imperative. Silla 's impasse has been considered at length, yet involvement in the coalition so vital to her survival carried a danger that it might well consume her, too. Once established on the peninsula, mainland presence could become permanent and Silla, as well as her adjacent neighbors, physically absorbed into the expanding T'ang empire. Silla was clearly aware of this possibility and prepared should it arise. She elected to recognize T'ang suzerainty; the contingency was that she in turn be recognized as sole power south of P'yongyang and it was only with this recognition that she became the constant factor in relations with T'ang that we know in later generations.
Page 6
THE KOREA HERALD, SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 1973
Kim Ok-Kyun
Pioneer of Reform , Modernization in Korea
This Is the first of a series of three articles about Kim Ok- kyun. — Kdy
By HAROLD F. COOK
The last two decades of the 19th century were an excit- ingly fascinating period in modern Korean history. An ancient kingdom with a long, and often glorious, history was rudely awakened from a protracted slumber and sud- denly thrust upon the stage of world history. Progress, mod. emization, and enlightenment overnight became imperfectly understood, but desperately sought, blessings for the "Her- mit Kingdom.”
In the initial stages of this hesitant march into the 20th century, one figure stands head and shoulders above the rest, and what he attempted to do remains surrounded with controversy to this very day. The man was Kim Ok-kyun (1851-1094). and the historic event with which his name has become almost synonymous was the 1884 Incident.
Kim Ok-kyun was bom in Chungchong province on Feb- ruary 23. 1851, the first son of Kim Pyon.g-tae- He was a member of the Andong Kim clan in the 25'h generation of descent from the original clan ancestor. Kim’s mother was a daughter of Song Yun dok of the Unjin Song clan.
As with most figures of this period, little is known about Kim Ok-kyun’s early life Neither his father, grandfalh. er. nor ereat-grandfalhcr, how- ever. passed the higher civil service examination nor did thev occupy any important government posts Despite his liner, ge in one of 19th century Korea's most powerful and prestigious c'ans. Kim’s ori- gins were humble.
Adopted Mother
At an undetermined point of time, Kim Pyong-tae released Kim Ok-kyun for adoption by e childless near plansman. Kim Pyong-gi. who was related to Kim's natural father bv a com- mon great-grandfather. Kim's adoptvie mother was a Chon- ju Yi, the daughter of Yi Ui- wan. One of his new aunts, a sister of his adoptive father, was married to a brother of Dowager Queen Cho. the wi- dow of King Ikchong.
Kim Ok.kyun's adoptive father. Kim Pyong-gi, passed the lower civil service examin- ation' in 1846 but never went on to pass the higher. He serv- ed in a number of magisterial posts in Cholla, Chungchong, and Kangwon provinces, Kim's home in Seoul was located on what todav are the grounds of Kyonggi Boys' High School.
At some undetermined point of time during these early years, a marriage was arrang. ed for Kim Ok-kyun with a girl from the Kigye Yu clan. Kim’s bride was an only child of an obscure individual who had died when his daughter was but two years old. Like his own, therefore, Kim’s wife’s origins were humble.
Kim Ok-kyun was a bright young man and reportedly dis- played an early interest and skill in p r o s e and poetry, painting and writing, and the study of rhythm or meter. The fact cannot be confirmed, but the assumption is that he en. rolled at the national academy in Seoul to prepare for the higner civil service examina- tion, an essential ingredient for advancement in the world of 19. h century Korean society and politics.
Forerunners of Change
To Our Readers
As part of our special Sun- day features, "Forerunners of Change,” Dr. Harold F. Cook writes a three-installment ar- ticle on Kim Ok-kyun be- ginning with today's sup- plement. Dr.
Cook earned his Ph.D in East Asian history from Harvard. Now, Dr. Cook he is a member of the ad- ministrative faculty of Sogang University. Dr. Cook is the au-
thor of "Korea’s 1884 Inci- dent: Its Background and Kim Ok-kyun’s Elusive Dream."
The serialized features by Dr. Samuel Moffett will fol- low Dr. Cook's three-part ar- ticle. Dr. Moffett, associate president of the Presbyter- ian Theological Seminary, has written about Cespedes, Hamel and Gutzlaff under the title of "Forerunners of Change” which were publi. shed in the Herald's March 4th; 11th and 18th issues.
On March 10 and 11, 1872 during a week of early spring rain, King Kojong paid cere- monial visits to the national Confucian shrine on the grounds of the national aca- demy. The customary higher civil service examination com- memorating this visit was held on March 12, and Km Ok-kyun passed with highest honors. He had just turned 21.
Kim's first official appoint- ment came on August 24, 1872 when he was named a bailiff in the office of the inspector general. Less than two weeks later he was promoted to fourth inspector in the same office. During the next four years- Kim received no fewer than 24 appointments, nearly all of them to one or t h e other of the three- organs of the government censorate, namely, the office of inspec- tor general, the office of cen- sor general, and the office of special counsellors. All of these posts regularly brought him into the royal presence. He also served as an examina- tion official.
During 1877 and 1078 Kim Ok-kyun was in mourning for his adoptive mother, the wife of Kim Pyong-gi, and held no government posts. He reenter- ed public life in early 1879, however, and subsequently re- ceived at least 13 official ap- poin'ments, principally in the government censorate,
For a relatively prolonged period of time, therefore, Kim Ok-kyun was in close contact with the king. By the early 1880s possibly no other con- temporary junior official had served in such sensitive cen- sorate posts lor such an ex- tended period of time. That King Kojong u’timately came to know him .well and Jo value his opinions cannot be doubt, ed.
The official record provides little clue of Kim’s early in- terest in modernization and re- form, although from the be- ginning it is evident that he was a figure of controversy. His memorials to t h e king generally give evidence of a conservative, orthodox view, point. At least from the time of his two-year period of mourning for his adoptive mother, however, and proba- bly from somewhat earlier.
Kim began to turn his atten- tion niore and more to a stu. dy of the need for moderniza- tion and reform in Korea and for the best means by which this might be accomplished. As a result, by the early 1880s, his thinking had grown incom- patible with that of most of his tradition-oriented contem- poraries.
Korea’s earliest contact with Western thought and scholar; ship occurred first at the Ming court and continued at the Ch’- ing court in Peking. It was there that Korean scholars re. ceived their introduction not only to Christianity but also to such Western subjects as astronomy, geography, mathe- matics, and medicine. Study of these new subjects caused the more critical minds in Korea to search for new sources of intellectual stimulation, as well as political and economic re- organization, outside the framework of Chu Hsi Neo- Confuci3n orthodoxy.
‘Sirhak’ School
Work initiated. by 17th cen- tury scholars bloomed in the 18th century as the practical or real learning movement, called sirhak in Korean. This school rose in Korea on the base just outlined and under the influence of the more realistic "Han learning” or the "school of empirical research” of the Ch’ing and was fostered by the desire of some scholars to find better answers to the problems of the day than those provided by the fossi- lized doctrines of Chu Hsi.
Kim Ok-kyun seems to have taken an interest in sirhak studies early in his career. At least one of h)s inspirations was Pak Kyu-su, who was the grandson of one famous sirhak scholar and the student of another. Pak made two trips to China, one in 1861 and an- other in 1872, and served the government in a variety of high posts Kim was a regular caller at Pak’s house, and a teacher-student relationship grew up between them.
Tnrough Pak. Kim appar- ently met O Kyong-sok. who served as chief interpreter on Pak's 1872 mission to Peking. O. In fact, made no fewer than s i x trips to China be- tween 1886 and 1874 and be. came a complete convert to the cause of Western culture and civilization and a strong advocate of opening Korea to the world. In 1876 O served as chief Chinese language in- terpreter for the treaty nego- tiations with Japan on Kang- hwa island.
Another man whom Kim Ok-kyun met at about this same time was Yu Tae.ch’i. Yu was a friend of O Kyong- sok who operated an herb
Kim Ok-kyun at Nagasaki in the spring of 1882 at t h time of his first visit to Japan.
Kim met the Buddhist monk Yi Tong-in. Yi had Japanese contacts from whom he had obtained books as well as some sort of viewing machine which showed pictures of cities of the world, soldiers, and other things. Kim and Yi became good friends and. it seems. Yi rm.de a trip to Ja- pan on Kim’s behalf in order to bring back more books and Information.
Official Mission
In the summer of 1880 Ko- rea sent an official mission to Tokyo to discuss various items of outstanding business. In the late spring and through- out the summer of 1881 there was another Korean observa- tion mission, with 10 princi- pal leaders and a total entour- a g e of 60 persons, touring Japan and gathering informa, tion. Yi Tong-in assisted the first mission, and some of Kim Ok.kyun’s other acquain- tances were numbered among the 1881 fact finding group.
From a variety of sources, and’ over a period of perhaps as much as four years, there- fore, Kim Ok-kyun learned much about the outside world as it existed in Meiji Japan, a country which was striding with giant steps Into the mod- ern world. Kim's interest and curiosity were greatly stimul. nted, and he determined to go and have a look for himself.
His long service in the government censoring organs, plus the close friendship of a few influential persons- gave him comparatively ready ac- cess to King Kojong. With the king’s blessing, therefore- and accompanied by a small group of c ose associates, Kim Ok-kyun left Seoul in Feb- ruary 1882 for his first visit to Japan.
that it sential individui of many right to ice servi ites are taining vacy of F Perhaps ment of l. In the lef home is What the mind individual from thr own fori bridges th. people, tc from the s that beset haps a snv extremely chase son gree of is tion. but • it is an Having t
Japanese Buddhist monk dual’s legai Terada Fukuju, friend of (subject to Korean Buddhist monk Yi balanced af Tong-in, who assisted Klin the commui Ok-kyun in Japan. ment), one
Atlantic Eddies Affect Weather
CAPE KENNEDY, Fla. (UPI) — Oceanographers have found a link between local weather and huge swirling masses of cold water that move southwestward in i Atlantic Ocean off the-eas seaboard.
The co’d water eddies i discovered two years ago and Dr. Alan E. Strong, a Nation- al Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scien list- said it mav take several years to see if the phenome- na have a general effect on coastal weather.
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was the 1884 Incident.
Kim Ok-kyun was born in Chungchong province on Feb- ruary 23. 1851. the first son of Kim Pyong-tae He was a member of the Andong Kim clan in the 25'h generation of descent from the original clan ancestor. Kim's mother was a daughter of Song Yun dok of the Unjin Song clan.
As with most figures of this period, little is known about Kim Ok-kyun's early life Neither his father, grnndfath. er. nor ereat-grandfathcr. how- ever. passed the higher civil service examination nor did they occupy any important government posts. Despite his lineage in one of 19th century Korea's most powerful and prestigious c’ans. Kim's ori- gins were humble.
Adop!cd Mother
At an undetermined point of time, Kim Pyong-tae released Kim Ok-kyun for adoption by a childless near ^lansman. Kim Pyong-gi. who was related to Kim's natural father by a com- mon great-grandfather. Kim's adoptvie mother was a Chon- ju Yi. the daughter of Yi Ui* wan. One of his new aunts, a sister of his adoptive father, was married to a brother of Dowager Queen Cho. the wi- dow of King Ikchong.
Kim Ok.kyun’s adoptive father, Kim Pyong-gi, passed the lower civil service examin- ation'in 1846 but never went on to pass the higher. He serv- ed in a number of magisterial posts in Cholla, Chungchong, and Kangwon provinces, Kim's home in Seoul was located on what today are the grounds of Kyonggi Boys' High School.
At some undetermined point of time during these early years, a marriage was arrang- ed for Kim Ok-kyun with a girl from the Kigye Yu clan. Kim's bride was an only child of an obscure individual who hod died when his daughter was but two years old. Like his own, therefore, Kim's wife’s origins were humble.
Kim Ok-kyun was a bright young man and reported’v dis- played an early interest and skill in p r o s e and poetry, painting and writing, and the study of rhythm or meter. The fact cannot be confirmed, but the assumption is that he en. rolled at the national academy in Seoul to prepare for the higner civil service examina- tion, an essential ingredient for advancement in the world of 19, h century Korean society and politics.
Harvard, wow. u r. cook he is a member of the ad- ministrative faculty of Sogang University. Dr. Cook is the au-
the title of Forerunners ot Change” which were publi. shed in the Herald's March 4th, 11th and 18th issues.
On March 10 and 11. 1872 during a week of early spring rain. King Kojong paid cere- monial visits to the national Confucian shrine on the grounds of the national aca- demy. The customary higher civil service examination com- memorating this visit was held on March 12. and Km Ok-kyun passed with highest honors. He had just turned 21.
Kim's first official appoint- ment came on August 24, 1872 when he was named a bailiff in the office of the inspector general. Less than two weeks later he was promoted to fourth inspector in the same office. During the next four years. Kim received no fewer than 24 appointments, nearly all of them to one or t h e other of the three- organs of the government censorate, namely, the office of inspec- tor general, the office of cen- sor general, and the office of special counsellors. All of these posts regularly brought him into the royal presence. He also served as an examina- tion official.
During 1077 and 1078 Kim Ok-kyun was in mourning for his adoptive mother, the wife of Kim Pyong-gi. and held no government posts. He reenter- ed public life in early 1879, however, and subsequently re- ceived at least 13 official ap- poin'ments, principally in the government censorate.
For a relatively prolonged period of time, therefore, Kim Ok.kyun was in close contact with the king. By the early 1880s possibly no other con- temporary junior official had served in such sensitive cen- sorate posts for such an ex- tended period of time. That King Kojong u’timatelv came to know him .well and to value his opinions cannot be doubt, ed.
The official record provides little clue of Kim’s early in- terest in modernization and re- form, although from the be- ginning it is evident that he was a figure of controversy. His memorials to t h e king generally give evidence of a conservative, orthodox view, point. At least from the time of his two-year period of mourning for his adoptive mother, however, and proba- bly from somewhat earlier.
Kim Ok-kyun at Nagasaki in the spring of 1882 at t h time of his first visit to Japan.
Kim began to turn his atten- tion niore and more to a stu. dy of the need for moderniza- tion and reform in Korea and for the best means by which this might be accomplished. As a result, by the early 1880s, his thinking had grown incom- Kim met the Buddhist monk patible with that of most of Yi Tong-in. Yi h;.d Japanese his tradition-oriented contem. contacts from whom he had poraries. obtained books as well as
, .. . , . ... some sort of viewing machine
Korea s earliest contact with which showed p£tures of Western thoueht and scholar- , th world 8oldlers.
ship occurred first at the Mine d ,h things. Kim >nd Y1
court and continued at the Ch’ ing court in Peking. It there that Korean scholars re.
became good friends and. seems. Yi mi.de a trip to Ja- , ..... , pan on Kim’s behalf in order
r i £ ? to bring back more books and
Official Mission
‘Sirhak’ School
bo'such Westerannilubjectsalas information' astronomy, geography, mathe- matics, and medicine. Study of these new subjects caused the more critical minds In Korea to search for new sources of Tokyo to discuss various items Intellectual stimulation, as well of outstanding business. Ip as political and economic re- the late spring and through- organization. o u t s i d e the out the summer of 1881 there framework of Chu Hsi Neo- W8S another Korean observa- Confucian orthodoxy. tion mission, with 10 princi-
pal leaders and a total entour- a g e of 60 persons, touring Japan and gathering informa. ,,, . ... , . „ „ tion. Yi Tong-in assisted the
Work initialed. by 17th cm- fl , , - and s „ m e of ury scholars bloomed m the Ki 0k _kvu„,s other uai„.
18th century as the pracliqal „ were numbered among
“t «*«*
school rose in Korea on the From a variety of sources, base just outlined ar.d under and' over a period of perhaps the influence of the more as much as four years, there- realisllc "Han learning" or the lore, Kim Ok-kyun learned "school of empirical research" much about the outside world of the Ch'ing and was fostered as it existed in Meiji Japan, by the desire of some scholars a country which was striding to find better answers to the with giant steps Into the mod- problems of the day than ern world. Kim's interest and those provided bv the fossi- curiosity were greatly stimul. lized doctrines of Chu Hsi. ated. and he determined to go Kim Ok-kyun seems lo have “ 1 °°* h,™s(he
taken an inlerest in sirhak "ls long service studies earlv in his career. At government censoring organs least one of his inspirations Pl"» the close friendship of was Pak Kyu-su. who was the ■'« influential persons- gave grandson of one famous sirhak hlm comparatively ready ac scholar and the student of 'essJ“ 'L
another. Pak made two trips the kings blessin-, therefore, to China, one in 1861 and an. ‘"<1 accompanied by a small other in 1872. and served the group of c ose associates, Kim in a varietv of Ok-kyun 1 s i t Seoli in Feb- 1882 for his first visit
that it sential individui of many right to ice servi ites are taining vaev of p Perhaps ment of l.
In the lej home is What the mind individual from the own forv bridges th. people, tc from the s' that beset haps a sm? extremely chase son gree of is tion, but ‘ it is an Having c
Japanese Buddhist monk dual’s legal Terada Fukuju, friend of (subject to Korean Buddhist monk Yi balanced ai= Tong-in, who assisted Kim the commui Ok-kyun in Japan. ment), one
to Japan.
Atlantic Eddies Affect Weather
government in a variety of high posts Kim was a regular caller at Pak's house, and a teacher-student relationship grew up between them.
Tnrough Pak. Kim appar- ently met O Kyong-sok. who served as chief interpreter on Pale's 1872 mission to Peking.
O. in. fact, made no fewer than six trips to China be-
tween 1886 and 1874 and be. [olmd , ltak between local came a complete convert to weather and hu6c swirling the cause of Western culture masses o[ co,d water thal and civilization and a strong move southwcslward .the advocate of opening Korea to At, y 0cMn o([ thc,easlern the world. In 1876 O served seaboard
as chief Chinese language in- Tbe c0.d watar were
terpreter for the treaty nego- discavered vears ago and nations With Japan on Kane- Dr Alan E strong a Nation- hwa island. al Oceanic and Atmospheric
Another man whom Kim Administration INOAA) scien- Ok-kyun met at about t h i s tist* said it mav take several ^ame time was Yu Tae.ch’i. years to see if the phenome- Yu was a friend of O Kyong- na have a general effect on sole who operated an herb coastal weather, medicine shop in central Seoul But weather satellites have and who had a deep interest $h0svn during the past f e w in Buddhism, a subject which months that trade wind cumu. Kim pursued with zeal 1 u s clouds a few thousand throughout his life. Yu be- meters high disappear when came an eager reader of the they move over these 160 km books on Western subjects wide cold water masses, which O secretly brought back from Peking and a firm sup-
number of w _ in a tele- phone interview from Wash- ington. "The 1 1/2 to 2 degree difference in surface tempera- ture in the cold water eddy background of sir. compared with the water
LI VIII rctwilif auu d 111 111 »UU* , ; , ft, > j
porter of Korean motlerniza 'n'h„n> „
tion and reform. Kim liked Yu and respected him as a teacher.
From
Korea Herald Photo
RARE FAINTING — One of Kim Ok-kyun’s paintings of orchids. This picture is in the possession ot Kim's grand- daughter. Mrs. Kim Pill-han who is living in Seoul.
halt studies, therefore. Kim rounding it is apparently suf- Ok-kyun became deeply in- ficient at times to dis ipate volved with Pak Kyu-su. O low lying clouds."
Kyong-sok, and Yu Tae.ch'i,
all of whom are regarded by ANSWER TO TODAY’S PUZZLE Korean historians as being pioneers of the movement to open Korea to the world and to reform and modernize the country on the Western pat- tern.
Concurrent with the time period 1877-1878 when he was in mourning for his adoptive mother and held no official posts, Kim Ok-kvun's thinking began to be influenced from the direction of Japan rather than China. Through his own
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This is also a project transi- tion program.
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Powerless To Resist rVU ^ b
Queen Yun Suffers Full Impact Of Wreckings of Yi Dynasty
The following is the second and concluding part of an arti- cle dealing with the life of Queen Yun and historical events in the declining years of the YI Dynasty (1392-1910).— Ed.
By HO-CHOL SHIN
King S u n j o n g was a powerless king who lived through the last troubled years of t h e declining Yi dynasty.
On July 19, 1907, the Jap- anese forced the abdication of King Kojong in connec- tion with the secret dispatch that year of three emissaries to The Hague, and enthroned his second son, Sunjong.
King Kojong had dispatch- ed the emissaries to the Sec- ond International Peace Con- ference to appeal for re- moval of Japanese oppres- sion in the name of interna- tional justice.
The conference, however, refused their participation on the ground that Korea was the protectorate of Ja- pan. The three emissaries persistently lobbied to g e t support from individual na- tions and newsman. Jun Yi, one of the emissaries, be- c a m e ill and died at The Hague. (Some have insisted that he committed suicide by disemboweling himself be- fore the world delegates.)
Provoked and angered by this news, the ' Japanese de- throned King Kojong by force.
Three years after King Sunjong ascend ed the throne, the Japanese forcibly concluded t h e protectorate treaty, under which Korea Ultimately delivered over her financial and diplomatic affairs to Japan. This was the end of the five-century- old Yi Dynasty (1392-1910).
In th es e political situa- tions, King Sunjong main tained a neutral stand to re main unhurt.
Dejected over the nation’s fate, the king became some- times absent-minded, especi- ally when he met with for- eigners, Hyo-yong Yi, the
YOUNG QUEEN — This is an official photograph of Queen Yun released at the time of her marriage tb King Sunjong when she was 13 years old.
then protocol official, recall- ed. '.U
The king, Yi said, fre- quently lost himself in medi- tation while in conversation with foreigners and used to interrupt h i s partners by asking quite different ques- tions from the subjects they were discussing.
The king was often found mumbling “All is my fault.” This well reveals how he suf- fered in the decline of t h e dynasty.
Under the circumstances, Queen Yun, then 18 years old, could not enjoy a happy life. The queen knew what was going on, but was power- less to do anything about it.
It has been rumored that the queen one time served lunch to her father, Taek- yong Yun, with empty silver dishes, when her father visit- ed her palace. She apparent- ly intended this as an ex- planation in a roundabout way of the gloomy side of her palace life.
Her father, got heavily in debt and ran away to China
to escape scores of debt col- lectors. He h a d spent too much money giving extrava- gant receptions for as many as 2,800 guests who came to congratulate him on the mar- riage of his eldest daughter to King Sunjong.
In 1926, he came home to attend the state funeral for King Sunjong, but was forced to go into exile again to avoid his creditors. It was the last time Queen Yun saw her father.
The tragedies dogging the declining royal family were manifold.
In 1924, the Japanese took to J a a n Princess Dokhae, the only daughter of King Kojong, and married her to a Japanese nobleman.
The princess returned to Korea from Japan in 1962 after a lapse of 88 years, broken in spirit and health. She is now under medical care.
Earlier in 1907, the Japa- nese had taken Crown Prince Eun Yi to Japan as a hostage. He was 10 years old at the time.
The crown prince seemed destined to tragedy when he was born during the turmoil of Korea’s persistent strug- gle to remain independent from Japan. The Japanese colonialists thought it dan- gerous to let the prince live in Korea.
In 1920, one year after his father died in Seoul, the prince was marrited to a member of the Japanese ro- yal family, Princess Masako, in Tokyo.
The crown prince had a son, Ku Yi, who is married
to an American. The royal family returned to Korea from Japan in November, 1963.
The dramatic reunion be- tween Queen Yun and the royal family after a lapse of 56 years brought much de- light to the late queen. Her life truly encompassed a panoramic view of the de- cline of the Yi Dynasty.
two orphan of dire, of Mona Kennedy Court j u c. . Douglas.
The welfa. established ij in Seoul las' nald Andern sentative. i
VALENTINE B/ with (Mrs. Pedrt ambassador to
The Korea H sponsorship of a eigners under if
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PIONEER
The following is the third in a series of articles portraiting the lives of Korean pioneers in various fields such as religion, aviation, diplomacy, education, and so on. — Ed.
After a deep s a 1 a m to Presfdent Grover Cleveland at the reception room in the White House, a short Orient- al envoy with a stony face walked slowly toward the president and handed h i m his credentials from -King Ko- iong of Tae Chosun.
It was on Jan. 18, 18 8 8 When Chung-yang P a k for- mally took the post of the ministership to t h e United States, despite incessant at- tempts of the Ching Empire of China to obstruct Korea’s independent diplomatic ap- proach to the Western coun- tries.
- J He was appointed to the post in June, 1887, and his nomination caused anxiety in China. For China, used to re- gard Korea as her vassal state which had no power to negotiate with foreign coun- (tries without permission from her.
The royal court of T a e Chosun of Korea lodged a strong protest with the Ching government against China’s reluctance to authorize the dispatch of Korean envoys to foreign countries and argued that their appointment was made in accordance with the Korea-U.S. Amity Treaty of 1881. '
China, which played the role of intermediary for the success of the treaty as a merns for reversing the pre- dominant Japanese influence in Korea through interven- tion of the Western powers, approved the Korean plan to send its resident emissaries to the United States.
But the Chinese approval was based on three instruc- tions:
1. Korean envoys in foreign countries should first pay courtesy calls at Chinese mis- sions and later on to the heads of receiving countries together with the Chinese mission chiefs.
2. Korean envoys abroad should take seats next to those of the Chinese delega- tes in all official and formal social gatherings and recep- tions.
3. ' The Korean envoys I should consultate with the
Korea’s First Envoy
Chinese ministers p r i o r to negotiating with the ac- credited countries on “mat- ters of grave importance.”
This Chinese concession was a big diplomatic gain for the tiny kingdom of Tae Cho- sun from the giant empire of Ching which was then almost desperate in her efforts to retain her superiority over weak neighboring countries, also preventing the interven- tions of the Western powers in Asia.
Minister Pak, however, did not faithfully followed the three instructions given him by Ching Empire.
He frequently met with the high-ranking U.S. officials without previous notification to the Chinese legation and he even conferred with them on some “matters of grave importance,” which the Ching government had stern- ly prohibited.
The Chinese minister re- peatedly accused him of “dis- obedience” to the instruc- tions^ every time Pak failed to act upon them and made reports to the Ching govern- ment on the misconduct of the Korean envoy.
During his two-year stay in the United States, Pak made remarkable achievements in enhancing Korea’s prestige abroad.
Through his skilful nego- tiations, he succeeded in ob- taining a $2, 000, 000-loan from a U.S. bank, but the contract was cancelled later through the interference of the Ching government.
Pak sent home mining equipment to develop Korea’s fledgling secondary industry, and helped various techni- cians and engineers to en- gage in Korean factories.
He and his aides in the Ko- rean embassy were the focus of attention and curiosity in Washington society for their unique costumes.
For many months every time he went outside the legation many men and wom- en, young and old swarmed around him with curious eyes and took pictures of him.
To our regret,' Pak was relieved of his Washington post in July, 1889. His' dis- missal was inevitable because
Pak
of Ching’s persistent insist- ence that -he should be blamed for his failure to live up to the three instructions,
On his way home he stopped in Japan, where he stayed for two months for fear that he might be pun- ished by the Chinese govern- ment.
The Korean government could not dispatch Pak’s suc- cessor to Washington as the Ching obstructed its every effort for carrying out inde- pendent diplomacy toward foreign countries.
And no one wanted to as- sume the ministership to the United States which might bring misfortune to his polit- ical life.
Afterwards, Korea did notj station resident envoys in other countries with which it maintained diplomatic rela- tions except Japan until it became Japan’s protectorate in 1905.
Pak later became prime minister in 1895. During his short reign in power he en- forced administrative re- forms and tried to root out corruption among the civil servants.
“Honest and incorruptible by nature, Pak himself was always poor and he did not dress their children in silks,” reminisces Mrs. Yong - ae Kim, daughter-in-law^ of the first Korean minister to the United States.
Pak died in 1905. the very year Korea lost her sover- eign Dower for diplomatic ■ negotiations with foreisn countries for which he de- voted his career even at the risk of his own life.
ion.” gers
■approaches, 100 — small by lards — is cros- © fingers and rst Christmas . Leaves were g elements in 1, as well as
;hs, OEP has >mmunications ;y to pinpoint- , knowing im- >eopIe o-r sup- ple, or where factors which difference be- ©ath.
nes have been :t contact. On- tion can be : patrol head- per telegraph r points, then y for the pre-
r after the re- ar blackout on >ard, Ellington >rm the presi- spot had been Niagara Pails, by the power 1, the fact was later in a Fe- imission report.
strikes, federal ites on emer- temporary re- ssential public mporary hous- cy shelter, ra- relief to indivi-
nember of the y Council and cabinet meet- ns would be f a nuclear at- peacstime he r the nation’s .egic materials g as the presi- consrultant.”
tne coui:
Observers
most delicate - —e cur-
tent Sino-Pakistani friendshop pertains to the steady influx of Chinese officials into Pakistan.
fie art-felt applause to ^,±r rvulier!
Sincerely yours,
Buck H. W. Solinmag Songdong-gu, Seoul
..lie,
u *,tcice.i, and Let us •. > —ire -i-g longo .or unity and unification others to walk by, t j.oi, for good. If the modem scien- 3-fter us. ce of medicine can put a • ® *
broken, severed arm back Miss Yun is working a ‘2 where it was, so it can be Seoul YWCA.
Around the World in 16th Century
Korea Fascinates Early Globe-Trotter
MY VOYAGE ABOUND THE WOULD by Francesco Carletti. Translated by Her- bert Weinstock. Random House, New York 1964; Me- thuen, London, 1965. UK price 30s. 270pp.
Reviewed by Richard Ruth
Francesco Carletti wrote his Ragionamenti del mio viaggio inforno a 1 mondo in the early part of the seventeenth cen- tury. They are well known by name to perusers of Korean Bibliographies because , they contain some of the earliest western language references to Korea. Bishop Trollope trans- lated the relevant sections in a version that was published post- humously in Japan in 1932; now here is an American transla- tion of the oldest manuscript of the whole v, ;rk.
Carletti left Florence in 1594, when he was 21 years old, with his father on what they intend- ed as a fairly routine slave- trading expedition to the West Indies. It was, however, strictly illegal, because the Florentine Carletti was masquerading as a Spaniard. The voyage turned into an eight-year trip that went all the way round the world. He made good profit on his ventures, and was nearng Eu- rope again in 1602 when the Portuguese vessel in which he was travelling became involved in a skirmish with Dutch ships off St. Helena. Ca.rletti landed up in the Netherlands, where he spent four years in litigation
Oman’s World
Agnail
, France ascension Frio, isly saved from ise by firemen y grateful to but I must add been a steady- miracles,” she /as a passeng- amed Titanic 1912. “As you go down with toded. “So I
could not go up with these flames either.”
1% If W@rffe
BONN, Germany (WNS) — The man or woman who wants to live to a ripe old age should find a legal mate. Such is the conclusion of the latest govern- ment statistics published in West Germany. They indicate that widowed women and di- vorced men die at earlier ages than those who are married and living with their spouses. ■*
trying to regain his confiscated merchandise. When he arrived back in Florence in 1606 he was barely better off than when he had left. His father had died in Macao.
The B.agionamenti purport to be a verbal report of his travels made to the Grand Duke.' of Tuscany, Ferdinando de’ Medi- ci. Most of it describes what he himself saw -and did, free from miracle stories and strange wonders, but packed with in- formation about methods of travel and trade, with accurate details about pricing of goods and methods of payment. At one point he offers tips about timetables for anyone who might consider making a simil- a.r voyage, hut it is clear that the legal difficulties of interna- tional travel were no less daunt- ing in the sixteenth , century than they are in the twentieth. He constantly had trouble with his papers, especially his licen- ces for slave-hunting.
Curious Information
Curious information abounds: details of the roasted bananas drenched in white wine which hg ate in Panama, and the. nak- ed Negro slaves used as dining room candelabra by the Portu- guese in the Cap Verde Islands; larcana of the cochineal trade, and shrewd comments on the Chinese attitude to gold (they, treated it as a form of mer- chandise and not as a standard for values; it rose or fell in price with the season and the situa- tion) . In Mexico he took to co- coa but not to tobacco, and in the Orient he failed to appre- ciate tea. He found the Japa- nese cult of tea-bowls beyond comprehension. (He was not the last to do so). His calendar was upset because the interna- tional date line had not been fixed.
Almost everywhere he dis- covered exotic erotica which he reported with coy lubricity. Ja- pan disgusted him as the home of all venery; Goa offered him delights that included a royal aphrodisiac compounded of crushed almonds, sugar, amber, musk, pulverized pearls, rose- water and egg yolks. In the Philippines and Burma he found surgical practices which he calls “diabolic” but describes with resulted fascination.
The translator of such a book can have a field day with' foot- notes. The only thing wrong/ with this edition, which is charmingly designed and most pleasingly printed, is that-the annotations are sketchy. TThe translator is obviously happier with Italian than with Chinese, and leaves many obscure Orien- tal words without annotation. In one quite unbelievable foot- note he suggests that Liukiul Islands may be a name for For- mosa. H'e identifies many fruits, and plants by their botanical names, but passes over the per- simmon, which Carletti calls “a citrus,” entirely. He takes the trouble to tell us that the ananas or ptoa (described gra- phically by Ca.rletti) is the pine- apple, but does not recognize that Chinese musk comes from deer. In fact this is the sort of book where a reviewer can also have a field day with the foot- notes.
Carletti Was a Christian, a Catholic. He had a niggling con- science about his slaves, but his ill-instructed theology led him to believe that they had no souls till they had been baptiz- ed. He knew well how to make use of the missionaries he met, and shrewdly comments on the high cost of the Jesuit missions in Japan, having enquired into their budgetting during his stay at Macao. Of one eager-beaver Capuchin friar who made ta spectacular and would-be heroic attempt to become the Apostle of the Ladrone Islands he tells wry anecdotes. He can recall “a most comfortable, pleasant, and delectable Lent” in Lima with the same matter-of-factness that he describes the “solemni- ty” he kept during Lent 1602, when he was imprisoned in a Dutch ship with wretched food. He gives due credit to the Japa- nese martyrs, but sees no rea- son to slur over the embroil- ments of missionaries in trad- ing and politics. He was devout as most ordinary church-going Christians are devout today in many denominations: it is an all too human form of religion.
Bought 5 Koreans
He did not reach Korea, but he heard much about it in Ja- pan. His picture of Japan is brutal and realistic. It was the time of Hideyoshi and his in- vasions. It would be surorising.
how sympathetic he is to Korea did we not know that he bought five Koreans very cheaply from among Hideyoshi’s prisoners of war. On© of them he managed to take tall the way home to Italy, duly baptized. This man 1 lived on in Rome as Antonio ] Corea. The story of Antonio and his journeyings to the centre of the European High Renais- sance seems to ache for a no- velist’s treatment.
One episode Carletti relates- When the Dutch ship had beat- en the Portuguese ship into sub- mission near St. Helena, the Partuguese were given the chance to save their lives by swimming to a Dutch boat and boarding it, but the Dutch sail- ors refused to take aboard any Portuguese who was not carry- ing jewels or, gold. The men who had no valuables were fended off with swords and left to drown. The Korean had no jewels, but he hung round his neck two religious trinkets made of copper by Japanese artists. The cupidinous Dutch- men fell for the ruse and An- tonio was allowed to board the lifeboat.
Of Korea itself Carletti learn- ed very little, though he thought the Chinese called it Fowshem. (Our translator gives no foot- note, but other misspellings of Oriental words in the book sug- gest that it is a corruption of Chiao-hsien) and he lists the eight provinces of Kierrkwi, Ccnluan, Honhei, Chiuala, Hientsion, Tionchion, Hankien, and Pian-kin. Possibly he got this list from Antonio. It is weird, because some of the names seem to have a Chinese pronunciation, some a Japa- nese, and some a Korean. He calls Seoul Chosen. He does not describe han-gul, though he talks at length of the Japanese syllabary and gives many ex- amples of Chinese logo graphs and says that the Koreans us- ed them too. He was not sure whether Korea was an island or peninsula. It would seem that Antonio must have been taken prisoner at a very early age or else have been poorly educated.
So for the Koreanist Carletti is a minor source, though a quaint one; but for general reading and a plain picture of a great period he is s. ®ost beguiling author.
Campaigning Pace Quickens \Cxu<
Opposition Split Points to DRP V ictory
f By JUNG-SUP BAE
Whenever a New Year dawns, everybody prays that something he longs for in Ibis heart will be fulfilled during the year. But this year, politicians would have heard the bells ringing in the New Year of 1967 with particularly poignant emo- tions.
For there will be the gen- eral elections, including the presidential election, this year. With the elections only four months away, a torrent of election campaigning has begun to flood the country.
Despite all the fuss and noise accompanying the cam- paigns, however, all indica- tions are that the elections will not bring much change to the nation’s political scene.
Political experts, basing their estimates on various indications, predicted that President Chung Hee Park will be returned to office by the election and that the (ruling Democratic Republi- can Party (DRP) will retain a substantial majority in the National Assembly.
The ruling party, which has completed by the end of this year its preelection checking of 131 district chapters and other field or- ganizations, is confident that it will win the presidential election in a great landslide.
It is on the DRP schedule that the party will nominate President Chung Hee Park as its presidential candidate in a national convention late this month or early February and then will start barn- storming the country in mid- February.
President Park is not like- ly to participate in the barn- storming tours at the begin- ning. The first stage of na- tionwide canvassing will be made mainly .by DRP Chair- man Rep. Jong-pil Kim and other party leaders sur- rounding President Park.
The ruling party aims not simply to win the presiden- tial election but to secure the biggest mandate for President Park by winning the election by an over- whelming margin.
DRP leaders have un- happy reminiscences of the previous election of 1963 in which President Park scor- ed a victory over opposition candidate Po-sun Yun by a needle-thin margin.
In the presidential election held Oct. 15, 1963, the vote was:
Chung Hee Park (DRP)
4,702,640 42.6%
Po-sun Yun (Minjong)
4,546,614 41.2 Jae-yong Oh (Chupung)
406,660 3.7
Yong-tae Pyun (Chongmin) 224,443 2.1
I-uk Chang (Sinhung)
198,837 1.7
Invalid 954,977 8.7
If the opposition parties had succeeded in forming a united front against Park, the latter would have been defeated by Yun.
The result of the election led the opposition parties to move for a grand union and they actually succeeded in uniting themselves when the Minjung Party was inaugu- rated in June, 1985.
But the honeymooning of opposition politicians did not last long because the so- called hard-line members led by Po-sun Yun bolted the Minjung Party over differ- ences concerning the ratifi- cation of the ROK-Japan amity treaty in August, 1965, and then established their own Sinhan Party in March last year.
Another political leader Min-ho Suh who also quit the Minjung Party together with Yun’s group, formed a progressive party named the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) advocating as its plat- form “a middle road be- tween capitalism and com- munism.”
The three opposition parties — Minjung, Sinhan and DSP — have already nominated their own presi- dential candidates and are now competing with one an- other.
The political experts who view the reelection of Presi- dent Park as ‘‘taken for granted,” base their esti- mates mainly on this mul- tiplication of opposition par- ties and the opposition ten- dency toward division just as in the previous election.
In addition, it is admitted that President Park and his Democratic Republican Par- ty (DRP) have secured a stable supporting population since taking office three years ago.
President Park and his government have succeeded in overcoming various politi- cal crises and at last stab- ilizing the nation’s politics .and have accomplished ®n annual economic growth rate of 8.1 per cent through ener- getic implementation of the first five-year economic de- velopment plan.
President Park also merits praise for his success in con- siderably enhancing the in-
m
GENERAL ELECTIONS — Young and wait in an orderly queue their turn to e. right to vote in the National Assembly ele Nov. 26, 1963. The people will elect a pr lawmakers in April and May this year.
ternational status of the country through his over- seas travels, the establish- ment of normal relations with Japan and the deploy- ment of Korean troops to the Republic of Vifctnam.
As Dr. Chin-o Yu, presi- dential candidate of the Min- jung Party, admitted in an interview with The Korea Herald the other day, no- body can deny that Presi- dent Park has done “con- siderably” for the develop- ment and modernization of the country during his last three-year tenure.
The hottest political is- sues of President Park’s ad- ministration were the con- clusion of the ROK-Japan rapprochement treaty, the dispatch of troops to Viet- nam and the preferential treatment of Large business firms.
It is apparent that these issues will also become elec- tion issues this year but it is doubtful how much they will appeal to the people.
The doubt comes partly from the fact that the Min- jung Party, strongest of the opposition groups, is taking a “dubious attitude” toward the questions: at first, the party severely attacked the government in regard to them but now it acknowl- edges them as accomplished facts, only warning against possible adverse by-products of them.
fore, challenges to Presiumt Park are likely to come from other issues, probably what the opposi- tion panties denounce as unprecedentedly widespread corruption and irregularities involving the ruling power, the decline of medium in-
dustries and th of farmers.
Dr. Yu, Min tial nominee, storming in j after his com a bid for the average people that his party “the mass econ balanced devel- well being of He charged the present gov# ruption and , have 'been ag; breadth and depL become organized.
Sinhan presides inee Yun, with .• tone, also attack eminent on t h corruption and 1 ic deprivation oJ Meanwhile, 1 Democratic Sol is expected to fore the unific country as a to. sue.
President Park his biggest chalk when the opposite succeed in forming front to oppose lb election.
At present, ho indications are prospect for the very dim despitt forts by the sc- mission for pu single opposite tial candidate Political that the ir of the opr year is DRP a' eleotir tial c;
The
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THE KOREA HERALD, THURSD
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First Hoisted in 1882 N/ i6wc Ik ■\sXl - (VtV , I % ({{>!>
Briquette Stoves l
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English Captain Aids Koreans To Design Flag
By KAP-SON Y1M
It is a well known fact that the present Korean flag, Tae- gukki, was designed at the end of the dynasty 1910). But nu- merous
sions have taken place among scholars as who made t h original f 1 a and when it Dr. Lee was raised for the first time, that is, until the research pa- per of Dr. Sun-keun Lee was made public.
The present Taegukki with the Taeguk (Great Ploarity) in the center and four Kweh (Divine Diagram) around the Taeguk, was formally adopt- ed as the emblem represent- ing the Republic of Korea on March 25, 1949, four years af- ter the liberation from the Japanese.
Dr. Lee, a leading historian of Korean culture and for- mer president of the Song- gyungwan University asserts in his research paper that the design of the Taegukki was finally agreed upon in August, 1882, by a Korean mission on its way to Japan, and the brand new flag was raised on Aug. 14, 1882, for the first time over the Nishi- mura Hotel in Japan where the mission stayed.
At King Kojong’s order, the use of t h e flag within and without the country was made known to the public on Jan. 27, 1883, Dr. Lee says.
On July 17, 1882, according to the lunar calendar, Korea had to sign the Chemulpo Treaty with Japan because of t h e Imo military revolt which began in June. In, the revolt, Korean soldiers at- tacked the Japanese Lega- tion, injuring and killing 10 Japanese and burned the legation building to the ground.
The then Japanese Minis- ter to Korea, Hanabusa, said that besides the singing of the treaty, a Korean mission should be sent to Japan to apologize for the military re- volt.
On Aug. 9, the Korean mis- sion headed by Yong-hyo Pak (1861—1943) left the port of Inchon for Japan. The mis- sion w a s composed of 13 members, most of whom were positive reformists and
later played leading roles in the reform movement of the country.
In prsenting the momoires of Yong-hyo Pak, Dr. Lee ex- plains that the mission travel- 1 e d on hoard a steamship, S. S. Meiji-Maru, which be- longed to the Industrial De- partment of Japan, but whose captain was an Englishman named James.
At that time, Japan had bought steamships from west- ern countries. Although the names of the ships were changed to Japanese, in most cases captains from western countries were still employed by their new owners. Because the skill of the Japanese re- garding steamships left much to be desired, Dr. Lee re- marks.
Also on board the S. S. Meiji-Maru with the Korean mission was the Japanese Minister to Korea, Hanabu- sa, and British Minister to Korea, Aston.
During t h e trip, Captain James suggested to the head of the mission, Pak, that if the mission had the Korean national flag, he would raise it over the ship. But the mis- sion did not have a flag and discussed ways and means for designing one immediate- ly.
According to Pak’s mem- oires, Dr. Lee explains, the delegation had apparently discussed this problem be- fore their departure and had taken with them the basic de- sign of t h e Taeguk (Great Polarity) with eight Kweh (Divine Diagrams). They had also been empowered to change the design if necessa- ry by t h e government, Dr. Lee says.
At first, they intended to ask for opinions from the British Minister, Aston, but they decided to accept the comments of Captain James who had seen many national flags from his long experi- ence of travelling.
On seeing the Taeguk with eight Kweh (Divine Dia- grams) Captain James com- mended that the eight divine diagrams around the Taeguk could not 'be distinguished distinctly from distance and could not be copied easily by foreigners.
Following the captain’s ad- vice, the delegation drew three kinds of designs of the Korean national flag, Tae- gukki varying in size. The
newly-drawn flag h a d the Taeguk in the center and four Kweh (Divine Diagrams) in the four corners of the white square field.
On their arrival at Kobe, Japan, on Aug. 9, 1882, they raised the Taegukki for the first time over the Nishimura Hotel.
They also allowed the rep- resentatives of the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Japan copy their new flag.
On Aug. 22 of the same year, before the mission started for Tokyo, Pak, head of the mission, sent official letters to the Korean govern- ment together with a copy of the newly-designed Taeguk- ki. In his letters he explained fully, not only the process of making the Taegukki, but al- so emphasized the necessity of a national flag for a sover- eign state.
Pak also said, “When amity treaties are signed and dele- gation teams are dispatched, it is necessary for t h e m to have their own national flags with them. It is so because when the ships of various delegations meet in a port, courtesy requires they greet one another by raising their national flags. Also when ministers of many countries gather in a certain place, the back of seats for them are shown with their national flags.”
In another letter to King Kojong, Pak also explained, “Since you had allowed us to determine our national flag, we made three types of flags varying in size, send- ing the smallest one to you.”
After they arrived at To- kyo, on Oct. 3 of that year, they invited representatives of various foreign countries to celebrate the Korean Queen’s birthday. For the re- ception, they decorated the hall with th Taeguk flags and back of the seats of the rep- resentatives were shown with the national flags of the quests.
On Jan. 27, of the next year, the Korean government proclaimed the cause and purpose of the national flag and ordered the nation to use the flag thereafter.
Thus, the Korean national flag was first designed and was the Korean national sym- bol until 1910,_when Korea was forcibly annexed to Ja- pan.
Deadly >
By JANG-SOK CHOE
When the Old Man Wintei marches in, he not only brings with him bitter cole7 but entails or causes, directh and indirectly, among man} other things, the poisoning of many human beings b> deadly anthracite briquette gas.
Losing lives by the gas is a routine, matter-of-fact oc- currence each year, but there seems to be no decisive “killer” of the gas itself.
So far this year in Seoul alone, about 500 persons suf- fered fro m anthracite gas poisoning, of which more than 80 lost their lives, ac cording to police statistics The figure could go up i anthracite gas victims of tht entire nation are taken intc account.
According to the statistics 63 per cent were poisoned bj gas leaking into rooms through cracks on the edge of ondol rooms, 20 per cent by gas penetrating from fuel holes, 10 per cent by gas from low chimneys, 7 per cent by gas leaking from stoves.
The anthracite briquette is the major fuel of the Korean homes these days, not only of the urban homes, but of a considerable number of , rural homes as well.
Relatively low priced (8.50 | won for a 19-hole briquette) and easy to handle, the an- thracite briquette has long become an inevitable fuel to heat Korean homes. Other types of briquettes besides the 19-hole briquette are 31- hole, 49 - hole, and 81 - hole briquettes.
However, the gas emitting from a burning anthracite , briquette is fatally deadly, when one is over exposed to it, and there still is no scien- tific or chemical means known to free the burning briquette from the gas whose chemical symbol is CO, or carbon monoxide.
Study and experiments are being conducted at such pub- lic institutes as the National Industrial Research Institute and the Research Center of the Dai Han Coal Corp. No concrete results have been made yet by them, however.
According to the research- ers, one of the ways to get rid off CO gas is to burn the deadly gas completely. It is combustible under intense
Winning for Animal Means Escape
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celebrates been car- ical support i of securi- rsonnel, es- e.
the shooting Lrmy is gen- marked im- peration and
pply discipline rious training worthwhile pro- jf local citizens, night campaigns, orphanages, roads
dicy of SROKA, en- neral, Lt. Gen. Park id, good will and >opulace.
nued success in achiev- that it may always ful- duties to safeguard the ne nation.
very vital time major issues affecting cue Western world are being thrashed out with France, at De Gaulle’s behest, playing
—ion
peci. k. is closely with
Moscow which has adopted a policy of militant opposition tq any West German nuclear role.
Crusading Journalism- - (4)
Reformist Papers
The following is the fourth part of a series of articles on the reform movement in the Korean press. — ED.
By James Wade
The inevitable end of the In- dependent came when the pa- per reported rumors of an im- pending forced sale of the southern port of Masan to Rus- sia. This added another empire to the list of So’s opponents. It is said that the Russian am- bassador to the United States approached President Theodore Roosevelt directly to exert pres- sure for the recall of So. The fiery Korean editor’s govern- ment subsidy was cut off and his position in Seoul became un- tenable. In 1898 he left Korea to practice medicine in Phi- ladelphia, returning only once for a visit to Korea in the late 1940’s, shortly before his death.
The two pioneering papers so far discussed may be con- sidered to embody the Young Progressives movement. With the stimulus of The Indepen- dent which, though largely sus- pended with the departure of So, continued in an English edition under the missionary Henry Appenzeller until 1899, many additional papers sprang up. These may be regarded as belonging to the period of Ja- panese encroachment, and we will examine here only three of the more important jour- nals.
'Royal City Daily’
The Hwangsong Shinmun, or Royal City Daily, was found- ed in 1897 by Chang Chi-yon. It consisted cf four pages and was issued twice weekly, be- coming a daily in 1898. This was perhaps the most influ- ential among a number of early papers having a Pro- testant Christian orientation. These included the Korean Christian Review (Chosun Hoibo) of Henry Appenzeller, the Christian Messenger (Christ Shinmun) of H.G. Un- derwood, and even the Taehan Shinbo of a Japanese Chris- tian missionary society.
The Hwangsong Shinmun had
a rather literary tone, as most cf its writers were scho- lars of classical Chinese. Its policy embraced the advocacy of Westernization, and expo- sure of the stealthy extension of Japanese influence, exem- plified by this report from an early issue: -‘‘Of late, Japan- ese merchants in Chingcgae,' in dealing with Koreans, in- stead of referring disputes to the law courts when such arise between them, which is fair and honest, beat them up with force, and take them to their own police station, where the Koreans are imprisoned for weeks and are most griev- ously handled, according to re- ports. This kind of barbarity is neither good for the friend- ship between the two countries, nor becoming to a country that has awakened earlier than curs. The practice is mos't re- grettable, and we urge the au- thorities concerned to act al- ways according to the laws of the nation.” ■
Dramatic Demise
The paper had a rather dra- matic demise. In 1904, when the Protectorate Treaty of Japan over Korea was signed, Hwangscng Shinmun publish- ed a front-page editorial en- titled: “This Day We Weep.” In order to escape Japanese censorship, which had already been instituted earlier that year under the pretext of mi- litary security during the Rus- so-Japanese War, the paper was distributed very early on the morning of November 21. It reached its readers, but Publisher Chang was. arrested and the Hwangsong Shinmun disappeared forever from pub- lic view.
It was not until 1907 that the Japanese forced the pro- mulgation of newspaper regu- lations justifying the de facto censorship that had been go- ing on for three years. Their sensitivity to the influence of the Korean press is explained by these remarks by a Ja- panese commentator: ‘‘The
people considered the newspa- per as a kind of protest against the ruler. The small
_ .i-t c is ions are ex- ._d to come from the Couve- Gromyko talks but there is little doubt that it will signify th£ steady "rapprochement” of France and the Soviet Union.
Spread
papers spread throughout coun- try, not only in the capital but in its adjacent areas. Af- ter a subscriber read them, he sent them to his neighbors in the village, and sometimes one copy had 200 readers. At that time, people did not have adequate economic means, and transportation facilities for distant localities were lack- ing.”
The second influential paper of this era was the Maeil Shinmun, which first appeared in 1898. It was published under several names, which has led some commentators to ascribe to -it a much shorter life span than was actually the case. Net counting numerous sus- pensions and deletions, it ap- peared under various headings until the final press blackout • in 1910.
Rheevision of History
The Maeil Shinmun was al- ways closely associated with the pioneering Paijai Mission School, and certainly the young Syngman Rhee had much to do with the paper in its early days. However, it seems an exaggeration on the part of Rhee’s biographer Richard S. Allen when he writes: “Rhee
with other students bought a press and began his cwn news- paper in 1898 (sic).” It is true, however, that Rhee wrote many of the early editorials in this a!l-hangul publication. After his arrest in 1898, it is said that he continued to smug- gle articles from jail which were published anonymously in Maeil, Shinmun; and that these gained the sympathy of Lady Um, consort to the king, who learned the identity of the author and was instrumen- tal in gaining him lenient treatment in prison.
When Korea signed a treaty with Japan in 1904 giving the latter the right to advise on political administration, as a preliminary to the actual Pro- tectorate Treaty late next year, the Maeil Shinmun pro- tested forthrightly: “The right to advise is’, after all, the first step of aggression.”
(To Be Continued)
Dean well T. Vietnam «. tried to pi convention ,hi in, given sea sence ackno chair.
According t bet, only 32 tered the hall arrd then tin “fizzled out.”
Subsequently passed a res ing “actions would attemp lawless demor ge our nationa foreign policies
The resolut growth of “su ce of various < tiens at colleg ties.”
Quirks in
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CLEVELANI Automation — tfc best friend? -T the ironworke the Cleveland tion. .
He returned cently and as! counting. It r was issued by cessing mact. couldn’t figu worked 800 he to earn the S’
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Life
Dear Sir:
I could in anguis1 most irk Dr. Chu miseratii of The "Don't ism e works real li?
I ha readin; either I was from cism Furf
V"
-mce 7 or
of ca- ?ven if
on the ngement. o market lies idle.
because
develop-
its busi- .agement. is of pre- competi- us incen- workers. kers for
e vicious >grams of lur reali-
fits
s, on the other arred with al- ndals that they i or entertain- subject • govern- ed organs.
"cime, the ruling used most of in the ~reorga- pertinent con- fers, showing n the current orobe.
■ days are left n, the patlia- -> as well as officials are eir sincerity 'ork so that y, may be the satis- jple. — The
a-.oicxaS in lx*,-
make it clear that L>e as.sia witn
has no intention of attacking and the United States each l-v.
the alliance.
This reasoning is subject to qualification, however, since he is assaulting the military means to preserve the alliance and all
ing the guarantor of neutrality.
In Europe, De Gaulle first tried! to woo West Germany into the French camp with a cooperation treaty. This has all
sees , i.
anyone else, luu. Paternalism fostered b> tective and helpful attitude ter World Wax II.
Crusading Journalism- - (5)
Briton Sparks Spunky Paper
The following is the fifth part of a series of articles on the reform movement in the Korean press. — ED.
By James Wade
It was in this period that the long history of persecution of misprints began. "When a paper called Cheguk Shinmun attempted to print the phrase “mansei,” or long life to the king, it came out “mangsei,” or perdition. The president of the paper was arrested.
The case of the Taehan Mae- i! Shinmun, established! in 1965, shows certain parallels with that of The Independent of the preceding decade. Both papers escaped censorship and fend- ed off persecution diue to the fact that their proprietors were foreign nationals; both became so influential and dan- gerous to the Japanese over- lords that elaborate efforts were made to get them out of the way. And in both cases, unfortunately, such efforts were at last successful.
The Taehan Maeil Shinfoo was registered under the name of Ernest J. Bethel, a British ■Journalist in Seoul who had become sympathetic to the cause of Korean independence. Yang Ki-tak was 'its Korean editor. The paper first appear- ed in mixed Chinese and han- gul; but its phenomenal suc- cess, reaching a record peak circulation of 16,000, permit- ted the establishment of se- parate all-hangul and English editions. These papers stood at the ‘ forefront of the anti- Japanese movement, setting the pace for their contempo- raries which, however, did not dare to go to the lengths per- missible for the foreign-regis- tered Taehan Maeil Sliinbo.
jh/\JL£^ - /v .
“So keen, vigorous, and in- fluential was this daily in voic- ing Korean protest against Japanese domination that the Japanese governor-general,” Hirobumi Ito, stated:
“The power o-f newspapers in Korea is extraordinary. One sentence by them moves the Koreans more effectively than a hundred words of Ito. Be- sides, a foreigner is publishing the Taehan. Maeil Shimbo and continually agitating the Ko- reans by exposing various proven instances of Japanese mis-government, . for which the resident-general must be res- ponsible. ...”
The paper was, of course, harassed in every possible way by the police, and Bethel once put a sign on the door stating: “No Japanese Al-
lowed.”
But, inevitably, the hand- writing was on the wall. "No matter how tenaciously Ko- rea’s patriots and friends might struggle on her behalf, it appears in retrospect that the political situation had long been hopeless. Mr. Lew Chi- ha, in his perceptive thesis on the Korean press, suggests that the crucial period in Ko- rea’s political history during this era fell roughly between the years 1888-1898, when there was not a single news- paper in the entire country to inform, guide, and rally progressive, patriotic opinion.
Thus the press revival from 1896 to 1905, vigorous and even heroic though it seems, was foredoomed to failure. The cru- cial events were occurring outside the country, where Ja- panese military and diploma- tic successes, climaxed per- haps by the Portsmouth Peace | Conference, were winning gra- dual acquiescence from the jGreat Powers in accepting; the,
V:-
ed .-
nan.
Wes"
pres
Vie
island empire’s broadened gre sphere of influence, including ec] hegemony over Korea. tb
Assured of support— or indif- tic ference — abroad, the Japanese no- met began to close around W Ernest Bethel and the crusad- V ing Taehan Maeil Shinbo. On nT April 17, 1908, the paper fea- '£ tured a story of the assassina- tion in San Francisco of the vacationing American advisor ii to the Japanese resident-gen- eral by Korean patriots. Bethel J was accused of disturbing or- !i der and inciting unrest with a view to encouraging hostili- ties between the Korean gov- ernment and people, on the basis of this and two other articles.
The complaint was lodged 5 with the British legation, 1 which invited a judge from Shanghai to come to Seoul to conduct formal . appelate court proceedings, held in the Bri- tish consulate in Chong-dong, Seoul, on June 15, 1908. Bethel was found guilty and sentenc- ed to a three week jail term, which he served in Shanghai/
After his imprisonment, the determined Briton returned to Seoul, stating: “My fight for Korea is heaven-ordained. I will work, regardless of my personal safety.”
However, perhaps in part due to the great pressures un- der which he had been plac- ed, Bethel was by now drink- ing excessively, and fell ill in early February, 1909. He died of complications on May 1, at the age of 38. Quite appro- priately, Korean press circles last year set up a monument to mark the grave of this doughty fighter for Korean in- dependence in the Seoul For- eign Cemetery'.
(To Be Continued)
■
i
By
•-V
TOKYO leadership politico-re never "coi ing heads When : — is ne< fets, the each of which ' oath contr: pend No Th'- i- Sok tidy (aboi const
:r, M.D.
irsry
->£r. Wade st enjoy- bit ghou- ,tefully. I same for by Capt. 'teresting- the story ice cover- that his lid have a medi-
read. The breakfast, escriptions v, and the ne had a -e effect on .orning. In back the the AMA True Detec- ifast table.
iy,
J. J. Stone
quol ing th^ expected again-. We i. fingers crossed.”
.ep
‘■y- . be once our
-er -was close of the -- given a special .e . „ich he had not earn- It is true that the lad had performed creditably and had gained the admiration of all, not only for his speaking abili- ty and choice of subject, but also because he had not allow- ed a physical . handicap to limit the normal range of his activi-
Pr.
say, “Ke._ ready mar.. to Korea, and some be recognized.”
* * *
The writer is the wife c_ the director of the Amputee Rehabilitation Center at Yonsei Medical Center.
Crusading Journalism-- (6)
Press Suffers Under Japan
room.
egume.
5th anniversary.
merely yours, ther Quiery
\
The following is the sixth part of a series of articles on the reform movement in the Korean press. — ED.
By James Wade
The unexpected death of Bethel left his newspaper a helpless prey to the Japanese authorities. The governor-gen- eral had for some years been ursuing a policy of subsidizing rival papers, which in effect became covertly pro-Japanese organs, for the purpose of con- fusing and splitting Korean public opinion. The relative failure of this policy made him more than ever deter- mined to gain outright posses- sion of that festering thorn in his side, the Taehan Maeil Shin bo.
Even before Bethel’s death, the government had begun persecution of Yang Ki-tak, his Korean lieutenant, accus- ing him of bond issue embez- zlement. The courts threw out the case, however. With Bethel out of the way, the paper came under the management of his secretary, a Mr. Man- ham, who was made of no such stern stuff as his erst- while employer. Under pres- sure, he was persuaded to sell the paper’s copyright to the resident-general’s office, and to leave the country in June, 1910.
The Japanese had won, and as if to emphasize their vic- tory, they made the captive Taehan Maeil Shinbo (drop- ping the first word of its name) their- principal official organ
for a number of years. With the signing of the Annexation Treaty on Aug. 10, 1910, they were able to suppress under one pretext or another all the remaining independent papers, leaving only approved Japanese and pro-Japanese publications. This state of affairs continu- ed for some ten years.
The Manse i uprising, or peaceful demonstrations stag- ed by Koreans on March 1, 1919, left the Japanese in a quandary. Signs of discontent were so widespread in Korea, and outrage at Japanese bru- tality in retaliation so strong in certain quarters abroad, that at least some superficial reforms in the colonial ad- ministration seemed called for.
The first ten years of the occupation had been largely administered by the military, which could thus be made to serve a.s a scapegoat — though this would n-:t have been pos- sible a few years later. Ac- cordingly, a new civilian-do- minated administration was appointed by Tokyo, with the civil police as the organ of coercion tr enforcement.
Actually, this made little difference; and in effect it marked the beginning of an even more insidious Japanese policy, that of cultural assimi- lation, under which eventually Korean history, customs, lan- guage, and even names were to be gradually prohibited in favor of their Japanese coun- terparts. This movement, if successful, would have presag- ed the death of the spirit ra-
ther than that of the body.
But the usurpers had not reckoned with the tenacity of their intended victims, a bord- er people who for many cen- turies had had to withstand direct and indirect incursions of vaster and more ancient civilisations than Japan had to offer. And they made a sin- gularly obtuse error in per- mitting the Korean language press to resume during this period.
The plan was to license a strictly limited and stringent- ly censored press, government control over which would be tight enough to prevent any serious opposition from gaining expression. As a matter of fact, there was trouble from almost the very beginning.
At first, only three papers were to be permitted, carefully- selected for balance of view- points, to serve as a window- dressing to the outside world. These papers, all originating in 1920, were the Dong-A Hbo, with an avc-wedly nationalist outlook; the Chosun Ilbo, ori- ginally mildly pro-Japanese; and the Sisa Shinmun, an out- spoken organ of pan-Japanism, which quickly failed as a ccm- mercial venture. In the middle 1920’s the Chosun Ilbo was re- organized as a nationalist paper, and began a brief flirta- tion with Socialist leanings that proved disastrous. In 1925 came the Sfdae Ilbo, which stood against the Social- ist trends of the day.
(To Be Continued)
:he basic needs is ways kuk Negro as well educat- At zright tne— . c-nd'
ossible in the quickest all; you have to do is shoot time so that he can! them between the eyes. You nore and more responsi- j can’t miss.” He took the ad- I vice and started off for the
av ^..iable,
• * ®
Tire writer fs the Direc-* tor General c£ the Foreign Service Institute, Ministry ©f Foreign Affairs.
.nisading Journalism-- (7)
n-
~oh pen en- >ice >ya! only olare '.erms priest •itone ter a I’osca'
sound ooden. iopian .endidly veteran g-dook, t male .a, the " heard rig per- from gsky to ; partia- .f it.) bit parts md' the ially well -won and ig soprano th, seduc-
y a degree i handling extras on some of out in fu- may also ; attempt igrees of modesty .d encour- esh-tinted tils when up does oT; and major wrink-
if your you will ing, and admire ida” in city’s ancient /• Italy.
1 adept midable iitutes ] con- Mitem-
Japanese Censorship Harsh
The following is tlie seventh part cf a series of articles on the reform movement in the Korean press. — ED.
By James Wade
It is not the purpose of this account to trace the vicissitu- des of these or later papers during the following twenty years: their management and economic difficulties, and thei'r adherence to this or that fac- tion of the underground or exiled independence move- ment. It is sufficient for our purposes to emphasize the tenacity with which the jour- nalists fought what seemed at the time to be a losing, and eventually lost, battle.
As Prof. Choe Chun writes: "Because of the Japanese monopoly in the fields of poli- tics and business, many Ko- reans in those years took great pride in investing their weal- th and talent in the newspaper or magazine publishing busi- ness. Fatal blows such as con- fiscation or suspension of publication were dealt the
newspapers ^frequently. Al- though they were sure to lose, investors continued to support newspapers despite the enorm- ous financial requirement .... It is especially significant that publishers were well aware of the difficulties of managing a newspaper. They continued to invest anyway ....
‘‘Due to- strict censorship on reporting of political activities, they focused more or less on the advancement of social life and culture. .. .Thus, the news- papers served to enhance the spiritual modernization of the Korean people under the Japa- nese colonialism.”
That Korean papers never gave up the attempt to com- ment on political matters is, however, amply documented by statistics on their suppres- sion; The Dong-A Ilbo alone in twenty years was confiscat- ed 489 times, sale was banned on 63 occasions, and it was censored 2,423 times. Confisca- tion averaged 15 times a month between 1920 and 1923. The paper was suspended in- definitely four times, these
Sympathy
Dear Sir:
I ana writing to tell you how much I enjoyed the "Thoughts of the Times” article by Mr. Stickler in the October 8 edi- tion of The Korea Times.
I have spent 5Vz years in Ja- pan and this is my second tour of duty in Korea. I share his ideas on the de-fe_minization of American women. I was pre- viously married to one of these man-creatures for many un- happy years. I am currently single, but if I ever decide to marry again, I assure you it will be to an Oriental girl. It is my personal opinion that if a man meets and marries the Oriental girl of his choice (not
matrimonial life will be one of continuing harmonious fulfill- ment.
Mr. Stickler has hit the nail squarely on the head in his ar- ticle. Congratulations on an as- tute and absorbing analysis.
Sincerely,
"An Air Force Man Who Speaks From Experience”
a professional prostitute)* bis, Seoul
Dis-Eiacdvragemenl
Dear Sir:
The encouragement prize presented to the blind orator (Mrs. Steensma’s "Thoughts,” Nov. 7) is in fact a discourage- ment prize for him as well as all rehabilitation workers.
Let it be clearly understood that the physically handicapped do not suffer from lack of ability but from lack of understanding by society which fails to make good use of these abilities.
Sincerely, Kim Young-hyuk KCWS Rehabilitation .Center
bans ranging from a few week 3 to a number of months. In ad* dition, the arrest, imprison* ment, and torture of reporters, editorial staff members, and even executives of all papers was a frequent happening.
The triviality of the Japa* nese censorship is illustrated by this episode, recounted by Mr. Lew Chi-ho: "A Christian) missionary weekly, the dvries tian Messenger, in 1920 pro- duced an editorial leader on! Spring. It was the usual semi- poetic outpouring . . . how fine was the lebirth of the year when all things are again new and fresh and green, and men are heartened anew thereby, Japanese officials censored it, saying that the editorial was suggestive of a revolt againsfl Japan.” j
The Dong-A Hfco, In its in- augural issue, put forward a challenge that must have seemed revolutionary in its time, for it spoke confidently of a future that was scarcely] in sight:
"... The 20 million people of Korea, in this rose-of- Sharon-decorated comer of Asia, are- now to behold a new light and breathe a new air. Truly, we are alive again now. We have been resurrected. Devoting cur entire energy to our goal, let us march for- ward. Our goal is none other than freedom and progress.”
As a part of its campaign' for "freedom and progress,” the paper in the same year began an attack against anti- quated Confucianism, leading off with an editorial entitled:' “Knock the Heads of Falsely Learned Persons.” This en- raged the strict Corrfucianists, who attempted a boycott of the paper.
Only a few months later, though, the editors were at it again, this time with an arti- cle ostensibly attacking , idolatr- ous superstitions, but also .ra- ther obviously' poking fun at the sacred objects of the Shinv to religion. This resulted in the first indefinite suspension of the paper, which lasted ov»* three months.
.(To Be Contimnstj^
ge-
stly
cials
leals,
.mers
coun-
with been poor- d fev/ i com- lsions, jtion^’ moral
jrm of before \tion of
■d that useless courag-
pronged sion on ’X rates ilso the -.e vita!
te nation, cial peace National original
II bo
rds
should prompt c those and i have he re- fection
pes in ering that ►oses ticial tion void the illy
ss
re
•e
n
f
—..c month
u>_. — ot 2.8 million persons
— the lowest level in eight years.
Arthur M. Ross, the new commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, saidi:
“My personal view is that it will be irr the national in- terest to keep on going below 4 per cent.’’
Ross said getting the job-
meat.
What has all this to do with prices?
Some government econom- ists believe the drive toward full employment will create a highly competitive labor mar- ket, bidding up wages and thus raising prices.
Others, however, say the
maintenance pairs, laundry and t.
Ross agreed the probj labor shortages and price . flation bear watching.
But until danger signals be- gin showing up in -the econ- omy, “we are not in a posi- tion to know just how fat down it (unemployment) can be driven,’’ Ross said.
Crusading Journalism --(8)
Chapter of Rebellion Opens
The following is the eighth part cf a series of articles on the reform movement in the Korean press. — ED.
By James Wade
In 1922, a new government tactic was initiated, that of broadening the number of pa- pers to be licensed, but im- posing an even stricter censor- ship.
The Bong-A Ilbo commented that this was like “offering food and taking away the spoon to eat it with.”
A dispute over a tenant far- mers’ movement erupted in 1924. It started with the arrest of five farmer and labor lead- ers of Sunchon-gun, Cholla-nam- do, by Japanese police on March 13, 1924, under a false accusation of thievery. All the youth groups in the area held a public rally denouncing the police action, and demanded a formal apology from the police
The Bong-A Xlbo said in an editorial: “Unpara lied brutali- ty, indiscriminate torture, and trampling of human rights by the colonial police are now a daily occurence. They seem to be made such that if they don’t indulge in such atrocities, they itch. Such police forces exist only in Korea, and they are ubiquitous in this country. Be- sides, they boast a 15-year his- tory of inhuman activities. How many innocent citizens cf this land must have suffered and shed silent tears during those fifteen years! . . . .The sto-called) authorities may interpret resis- tance as an evil, and continue to oppress the people. How- ever, sinful are these who drive the people to resist, not those who rise up against oppres- sion.”
In the same year, the presi- dent and executive editor of the paper were beaten and threatened with a pistol by pro- Japanese functionaries after publication of an article criti- cal of Korean collaborators with the Japanese.
The Chosim Ilbo, on the other hand, got into difficulties dtie to its espousal of the new- ly-introdiuced Socialist move- ment. .-in editorial published on
Sept. 28, 1925, said in part: 1
“Korea hias reached a break- ing point both politically and economically, and a break- through of the present situa- tion is urgent. The shortest road to achieve this is to abolish im- perialism in the political sphere and capitalism in the economic field', and bring in other reason- able systems. The movement must be put forth in line with the world-wide revolutionary work initiated by Russia ”
The paper was suspended, and only after a purge of 17 staff members did it reopen un- der a more strictly nationalis- tic policy. Thereafter it gained increaced popularity with the addition of a crude but effec- tive comic strip called .“The Fool,” which satirized current topics, a new form of journal- ism in Korea, since then wide- ly used.
Around this time, the resent- ment of the police toward the newspapers was so strong that the Tongdaemun Police Station placed a sign on the door read-
ing: “No dogs Or Reporters Allowed.” Press pressure was such that the police were forced to remove the sign and apolo- gize.
Japanese sensitivity toward leftist movements in Korea was so marked that in 1925 the Bong- A Ilbo was suspended for carrying a congratulatory tele- gram from a Soviet farm as- sociation on the occasion of the anniversary of the Sam II Move- ment. Again in 1930, the same paper suffered its third1 inde- finite suspension merely for carrying a congratulatory an- niversary wire from the editor of The Nation, an American magazine. The gist of this mes- sage was: “Under the present circumstances of Korea, the mission of your paper is great.” This is so innocuous that the only possible objection would seem to be that at this period The Nation was a left-leaning and Communist-sympathizing publication.
(To Be Concluded)
Life Beneath Antarctic
By Thomas K. Henry
WASHINGTON (NANA) —A program of extensive submarine exploration underneath the An- tarctic icecap has been started.
This has just bepn announced through the U.S. Antarctic Pro- jects Office. Dr. Jacques S. Zaneveld of Old Dominion Col- lege, Norfolk, Va., spent most of last winter (the Antarctic "summer”) exploring under the ice at accessible points along the 350-miles western coast of the Ross Sea. He was assisted by two students, James M. Cur- tis and Jack Fletcher.
The divers wore black rubber frogman “wet” suits, while div- ing. After a few minutes the water would warm enough from the heat of their bodies to en- able them to work as long as 45 minutes under the: ice.
Dr. Zaneveld hopes to discover what kinds of sea weeds grow in the region, as well as their
growing seasons. The major finding to date is that large beds of seaweed can grow under several feet of ice where very little light penetrates.
Most of the time the divers went under the ice two or three Limes a day.
Says Curtis: “A typical Ice view shows very' clear blue wa- ter pierced by a shaft of light. Red sea weed grows abundant- ly on the sloping rocky bottom. Sponges nearly four feet across cover the lower aepths which quickiy fade into blackness. Five-fojt-loiig worms seem common.”
The dives often were made through Weddell seal breathing holes. Light is able to get through in spots, so that ice a diver looks through sometimes resembles a starry sky. The scientists have already assem- bled the largest collection of Antarctic life now in this coun- try.
there ap anyone eh. .
However, ‘sr est proponen- tion” were munists. Now d’etat has - f; Communist' ar a little bett‘ down at the with Malaysia: ist leaders.
To underst. possibilities as:.' should compare countries in th
Vietnam and war within. Thailand declare the United State the United State bother to declar turn.
The Filipinos a many fellow Ash tion Americans. T so outspoken abb independence they name of their c>. “Siam” to “Thai- of the Free).'
Malaysia has so. es there is nobi whom to mediate.
Burma is keepin parently hoping notice she is then donesia has its han the political upfc the continuing p welding thousands into a single natic
Unlike Burma an Thailand is econom and politically s' has not been a 1958).
This, observers ' explains why Rec placed Thailand o list of countries t taken over.
LET!
to the !
From Witt
Dear Sir:
In Mr. Jame larly treaties c rralism you ref torial” of Dorn ing against fucianism (K' entitled: “Kn Falsely Lear
“Falsely I is apparent! “Ka-Myung-1 is a word fc is for • Per: question is ;
THE KOREA TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1980
Korea Times Photo
Korean officials and foreign technicians pose on a field near Inchon during a ground-breaking ceremony for the nation’s first railway between Noryangjin and Che- mulpo on March 29, 1897. The line was opened on Sept. 18, 1899.
81 Yrs After. Rail Service Begins
Four-Track Line Due
Just 81 years after railway service began in Korea be- tween Seoul and Inchon in 1899, the Korean National j Railroad (KNR) now plans to j dedicate the nation’s first four-track line between Seoul \ and Suwon at the end of November.
The Noryangjin-Chemulpo j (currently Seoul-Inchon) line [ was built by the Japanese on Sept. 18, 1899.
In its dawning stage, the : nation’s railways stretched only 33 kilometers with eight [ stations. There were four ! steam locomotives, six pas- I senger coaches and 28 freight coaches.
By the time of the national liberation in 1945, the railway service was extended to 3,938 kilometers with 300 stations, operating 517 steam locomo- tives, 1,390 passenger coaches and 9,389 cargo coaches throughout the country (in- cluding north Korea).
Currently, the railway net-
work stretches as long as 5,860 kilometers with 587 sta- tions in the southern half of the peninsula alone. The KNR now keeps 914 locomotives in- cluding 212 electromotive trains, 1,822 passenger coach- es and 16,876 cargo coaches.
The Tongil express passeng- er train was first put into operation on the Seoul-Pusan line on Aug. 15, 1955, to cover the line in nine hours. Three years later, the Mugunghwa express train shortened the time to six hours and 40 minutes.
The Seoul-Pusan line was covered in six hours and 10 minutes by the now-defunct express Chaegon (Reconstruc- tion) in 1962, in five hours and 45 minutes by Maengho in 1966, and in four hours and 50 minutes by super-express Saemaul in 1969.
The Chungang line between Chongryangni and Chechon was electrified in 1973, follow-
ed by the electrification of all railway lines in the capital city area, such as Seoul- Suwon, Seoul-Inchon and Yongsan-Sbngbuk, on Aug. 15, 1974.
The railway section between Taejon and Iri (88.6 kilomet- ers) on the Honam (Seoul- Mokpo) line had its tracks doubled in 1978. The govern- ment now plans to speed up a project doubling the tracks on the entire Honam line.
On the 80th anniversary of the railway’s foundation last year, the KNR put a locally produced diesel locomotive in- to operation for the first time in its history.
The KNR has experienced many tragic accidents during the past 81 years. One of the worst accidents was the ex- plosion of a dynamite train at Iri station on Nov. 11, 1977, in which 59 people were killed and the station building was completely destroyed
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AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
KOREA WEEK
R 6
A P'
o
Test of U.S. Policy
Withdrawal
Historical photo series: U.S. forces entering Chungju, South Korea, on September 28, 1950. (U.S. Army Signal Corps )
U.S. FORCES IN KOREA
According to the Department of De- fense, March 28, U.S. military strength in South Korea as of December 31, 1976 is as follows:
Army 32,276
Air Force 7,254
Navy, ashore 250
Marine Corps, ashore (*) 41
Total personnel, ashore 39, 821
(*) Includes a detachment assigned to embassy security duties.
OFFENSIVE CAPABILITY
(a) On Dec. 30, 1976, The Christian Science Monitor reported from Tokyo :
The Japanese reluctantly would agree to a withdrawal of American troops from South Korea, but they hope that withdraw- al will be delayed as long as possible.
Behind this reluctance is an unspoken but strong, feeling that the American military presence helps as much to deter South Korean military actions against the North as it does to deter any North Ko- rean invasion of the South.
(b) On March 24 the Carter adminis- tration submitted to the Congress a "Con- gressional Presentation" on FY 1978 se- curity assistance program. The presen- tation said, in part :
In particular, modernization of the ROK Air Force is required to offset the current superiority of North Korea’s air power. (*)
Although anticipated ROK arms pur- chases would provide some offensive capability, that capability would not con- fer a degree of superiority to make of- fensive action likely.
(•) Editor's Note:
The South Korean government said 21 persons were wounded by firing on Oct.
14, 1976 of antiaircraft ground batteries in Seoul at a Northwest cargo jet which flew into restricted air space ( i. e. over the Presidential residence ).
The AFP reported from Seoul : "The unprecedentedly fierce gunbursts (also) came from ) the newly-introduced Vulcan guns, capable of unleasing 3, 000 shells a minute."
(c) On March 25, Crocker Snow, Jr., of The Boston Globe reported from Seoul :
"It's outright irresponsible for us to pull out before gaining concessions from North Korea," says a U.S. military man who worries also about the end of U.S. command responsibility over the com- bative South Koreans.
"How many times can you hit a little guy before he hits back, perhaps by de- veloping an independent nuclear capabili- ty?" asks a western diplomat, mindful of South Korea's growing sense of isola- tion.
As described in Washington, President Carter's pullout plan has nothing to do with human rights.
(d) On March 30, The Korea Herald said ( editorial ) :
Any North Korean aggressive maneu- vers against this country will be met with retaliatory blows from our country, and the results of such a reckless adventure by the north will be nothing but untold calamity and destruction.
WAR RESERVE STOCKPILE
In mid-January, the Department of Defense notified the Congress that it will increase the amount of conventional ground ammunition in the war reserve for
From S. Korea
allies stockpile located in South Korea by approximately $93,750, 000 during FY 1977.
Korea is the only country to which the United States plans to deploy war reserve stockpiles in FY 1977.
PRESIDENT PARK
(a) On January 28, President Park inspected the Defense Ministry. Next day, The Korea Herald quoted Park as having told senior officers :
"In some fields, North Korea is supe- rior to the Republic of Korea in terms of quantity. Even a few years ago, the na- tion's combat capabilities were far infe- rior to those of North Korea.
"However, we are about to enter a stage of surpassing North Korea.
(b) On March 16, Mr. Park told a meeting of the Cabinet and ruling party that President Carter's plan to withdraw U.S. troops was not in conflict with South Korea's aim of being self-reliant in de- fense by 1981.
KOREAN PROFESSORS
In February, The New York Times published two letters sent by Korean-born professors in the U.S.
(1) On February 4, Kwan Ha Yim of Manhattanville College, Purchase, N. Y. , said :
President Park plans to compensate for American withdrawal by stepping up South Korean armament. Results are predict- able : further militarization of Korean society, intensified repression of politi- cal dissent and human rights, and exacer- bation of tension in North-South relations.
(2) On Feb. 14, Nack Young An of Georgia State Univ. , Atlanta, comment- ing on the letter (1) said :
It seems much too cynical to make those invidious charges based on partial truth that the President's statement con- stitutes a prelude to the vitiation of dem- ocratic institutions in Korea.
OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN
Chul-seung Lee, 54, chairman (*) of the New Democratic Party, and a former president of the Asian Weightlifting As- sociation, told a luncheon meeting at the Asia Society, New York City, March 7 that U.S. forces should remain in Korea for "at least 10" additional years.
(*) On March 26, The Washington Post reported from Seoul :
Members of South Korea's major op- position party are rebelling against their leader for being too closely associated with President Park.
AMBASSADOR TOGO
On March 10, Fumihiko Togo, ambas- sador of Japan, spoke at the Univ. of Virginia in Charlottesville. Togo said :
The Korean Peninsula is still under a divided rule, and no substantial progress toward unification is in sight.
It is a challenge to the great powers concerned -- the United States, China and the Soviet Union — to encourage a reduction of tension between the North and the South, but in the current circum- stances the United States presence there serves as a deterrent against the disrup- tion of the precarious balance on the Peninsula.
KANSAS CITY TIMES
On March 19, K. Kenneth Paik of The Kansas City Times reported from Seoul :
For many Koreans, GIs on their streets are as common as any fixture in their homes. The Americans have been here since 1945. They are a part of the Ko- rean scene.
There are more than 1,700 (sic) American companies with operations, of- fices or agents in South Korea.
CBS EVENING NEWS
On March 21, CBS Evening News said :
Walter Cronkite : As for the South Ko- reans, they are counting on Fukuda to as- sure Mr. Carter there is no human rights problem in South Korea.
Bruce Dunning ( Seoul ) : There are about thirty-eight thousand American troops in South Korea ; the largest and most visible unit is the Second Infantry Division.
In the view of some American military sources, it is the least essential element militarily, but an important element psychologically.
The Korean government is worried that a phase-down might frighten the foreign companies, primarily Japanese and American, which have invested millions in factories here.
CARTER-FUKUDA TALKS
On March 22, The Washington Post reported :
As U.S. and Japanese spokesmen de- scribed the talks, Fukuda made no effort to convince Carter to reverse his deci - sion to withdraw U.S . ground troops from Korea over the next four or five years.
Japanese leaders have expressed public and private concern over the proposed U.S. action, but evidently decided it would be folly to argue a decision that al- ready has been made.
PREMIER FUKUDA
(a) Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda ad- dressed the National Press Club in Wash- ington on March 22 :
I realize the anxieties sometimes ex- pressed that, following the bitter experi- ence in Vietnam, the United States might turn its back on Asia.
I have no such fear, for I know that the United States, like Japan, is historically a Pacific nation.
Our two countries are linked in our destiny to the future vitality of this vast, populous, and potentially prosperous region.
(b) Mr. Fukuda's interview with the U.S. News & World Report before his U.S. visit and published on March 28 :
Q. Has President Carter's proposal to withdraw American troops from South Korea increased Asian anxieties?
A. I think it is a major factor. That is why many Asian nations refer to the proposed U.S. pullout from the Republic of Korea in expressing their anxiety.
Q. Does this mean that Asian nations see the U.S. presence as helping to maintain stability?
A. Yes. In fact, they hope the United States will assure more clearly its will- ingness to maintain its presence in Asia. They all have asked me to convey this to President Carter.
U.S, -JAPAN COMMUNIQUE
Article 5 of the Carter-Fukuda joint communique issued in Washington March 22 contained the following :
The prime minister welcomed this af- firmation by the United States and expres- sed his intention that Japan would further contribute to the stability and development of that region in various fields, including economic development. (*)
The prime minister and the president noted the continuing importance (#) of the maintenance of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula for the security of Japan and East Asia as a whole.
They agreed on the desirability of con- tinued efforts to reduce tension on the Ko- rean peninsula and strongly hoped for an early resumption of the dialogue between the south and north.
In connection with the intended with- drawal of U.S. ground forces in the Re- public of Korea, the president stated that the United States, after consultations with the Republic of Korea and also with Japan would proceed in ways which would not endanger the peace on the peninsula.
He affirmed that the United States re- mains committed to the defense of the Republic of Korea.
(•) On March 26, Izvestiva reported from Tokyo : "This formulation is at- tracting commentators' attention because Japan has so far restricted its role in this region to economic relations alone."
(#) Editor's Note : In 1969, a joint communique of President Nixon and Japa- nese Prime Minister Sato quoted Sato as ( continued on page 2, column 2)
2
KOREA WEEK
A PRIL 6. 1 977
Commentary
WASHINGTON'S COUNSEL
George Washington's Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, contained the fol- lowing timeless counsel ( Titles by KW).
A. ( Foreign influence-buying ) :
"(T)he spirit of party . . . opens the
door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
"( Concessions of priviledges to the favorite nation ) gives to ambitious, cor- rupted or deluded citizens who devote themselves to the favorite nation, facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, some- times even with popularity ; gliding with the appearances of virtuous sense of ob- ligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base for foolish compli- ances of ambition, corruption, or infatu- ation."
"As avenues to foreign Influence in in- numerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly en- lightened and independent patriot.
"How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils 1
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, ( I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens, ) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake ; since history and experience prove that foreign influence Is one of the most bane- ful foes of republican government.
"Real patriots, who may resist the in- trigues of the favorite, are liable to be- come suspected and odious ; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests."
B. ( Human rights ) :
"Observe good faith and Justice towards all nations. It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the mag- nanimous and too novel examples of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence."
C. ( International commitments ) :
"(A) passionate attachment of one na- tion for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the Illusion of an imaginary common Interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and Infusing Into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducements or Justifications.
"The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extend- ing our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.
"It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world ; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it ; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing in- fidelity to existing engagements."
D. ( Foreign aid ) :
"(l)t is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another ; that it must pay with a portion of its indepen- dence for whatever it may accept under that character ; that by such acceptance, it may place Itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with Ingratitude for not giving more.
"There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon, real favors from nation to nation. It Is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard."
CONGRESSIONAL STATEMENTS (51
( continued from KW #215 )
(41) Sen. Charles H. tercy (R. -IL):
(l) On March 14, The Washington fbst, "The Secretary of State sought to detect a distinction between our payments to Hussein and the Korean CIA's alleged financing of U.S. political figures."
(ii) On Mrach 17.CR S4230:
"Establishing plants in Taiwan and Ko- rea does not help reduce our unemploy- ment at home. "
(42) Rep. Edward I. Koch ( D. -N. Y. ), on March 30, Congressional Record H 2769-70 :
The continuing repression by the Park government in the Republic of Korea, to- gether with President Carter's outspoken support for the cause of human rights in all countries, brings the issue of U.S. involvement in Korea into the spotlight once again.
The United States is currently mired in a conflict between its defense interests and its historical dedications to the prin- ciples of democratic government, a con- flict exacerbated by the Republic of Ko- rea's flagrant disregard for these prin- ciples.
As a close friend and protector of the Republic of Korea for decades, the United States has a right and obligation to expect that country to do more to uphold basic principles of human rights.
While it can be argued that our mili- tary presence and support is vital to the preservation of peace in Korea, we must also question the nature of the peace we are preserving.
The Congress is being asked this year to grant the Republic of Korea $275 mil- lion in foreign military sales credits and guaranties, $4 million in grants under the military assistance program and an- other $1.4 million for the U.S. sponsor- ed International military education and training program.
In addition, the total amount of unde- livered military assistance program grant aid authorized in previous years now stands at more than $100 million.
These figures, added to the request for more than $111 million for economic aid under Public Law 480, give the Congress considerable leverage in its effort to en- courage changes in the Republic of Ko- rea's policies on human rights and demo- cratic principles.
I believe Congress must show its de- termination to stop supporting dictatorial regimes with a blank check for military and economic aid.
JOINT COMMUNIQUE (cont'd)
saying that the security of South Korea is "essential to Japan’s own security."
In 1975, President Ford and Prime Minister Miki had "agreed that the secu- rity of the Republic of Korea is essential to the maintenance of peace on the Korean Peninsula which in turn is necessary for peace and security in East Asia, includ- ing Japan."
MILITARY CONSTRUCTION
On March 29, the Department of De- fense submitted to the Congress a Mili- tary Construction Authorization Bill for FY 1978 totaling $3.6 billion ( Including $27, 518, 000 at various locations in South Korea ).
The Pentagon had requested $13.6 mil- lion for military construction in South Korea for the current fiscal year.
On the same day, the Pentagon an- nounced ( not referring specifically to Korea ) :
The objective of the proposed new con- struction is to strengthen and Improve the combat readiness and capabilities of mili- tary land, sea, and air forces wherever they may be stationed and to provide them with the modern facilities required to support our personnel and the advanced weapons with which they are equipped.
RANDOM COMMENTS
(a) Art Buchwald, January 21 :
As with every year, people said a lot of things in 1976 that they're sorry for.
And of course the man ( or was it a woman? ) who said, "Mr. Congressman, this is Tongsun Park. He’d like to help finance your election campaign."
(b) What's the favorite leisure activity of President Park, 59, a widower? Ac- cording to Keun-hae, his daughter, "Bad- minton is the game we play most often.
Do you know something? Father is a very excellent sportsman. We can't beat him, even if I and my sister Keun-yong team up against him." (MBC-TV, Jan. 4)
Information
ALIEN EMPLOYMENT
The Department of Labor has issued final regulations governing the admission of Aliens for permanent employment in the United States.
Schedule A. This is the list of occupa- tions for which the Labor Department has predetermined there are not sufficient U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified and available, and that the em- ployment of aliens in such occupations will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers similarly employed.
Schedule A no longer includes perform- ing artists, due to the high unemployment rate for U.S. workers in this field.
Also, the teaching professions men- tioned under Schedule A have been limited to educators at the college and university levels — based on discussions with the Congress concerning the intent of the 1976 amendments.
Schedule A now includes physical thera- pists with bachelor's degrees, aliens who will be engaged in the U.S. in managerial or executive positions with the same in- ternational corporations or organizations that currently employ them, and persons with a religious commitment who will work for nonprofit religious organizations.
The Labor Department also clarified the ruling concerning the requirement that professionals have a job offer before they may receive a labor certification.
The reasoning : it is very difficult to determine adequately the availability of U.S. workers without a job opportunity to which U.S. workers may be referred.
The Department, despite some objec- tions, let stand the regulation that re- moves nurses from Schedule A, but pro- vides that they may enter the U.S. as immigrants through the regular labor certification procedure.
KOREAN AIR LINES
The Korean Air Lines maintains one of the largest air fleets in Asia. As of March 1 it operates : 3 Boeing 747s (an- other to be added in 1977 ) ; 4 DC-lOs ;
6 A-300s ( French-made airbus ) , 4
(c) Art Buchwald, January 18 :
It is no secret that many of the people who will work with President Jimmy Carter have never been to Washington before.
I think someone should warn Carter appointees about a few of the things to beware of.
When someone offers you a free trip to South Korea and sticks a plain white en- velope for expenses in your pocket, do some serious Seoul-searching before accepting it.
(d) The News World, January 27 :
"Kim Il-sung's vicious regime paid the
Washington Post $50, 000 and more dur- ing 1975 and 1976 ( for the blatant and conscious advertising of tyranny ).
"Yet any politician whose good nature allowed them to receive donations from South Korean sources is to be pilloried at the post."
(e) Media (Hong Kong) January 1977 :
Jordan has banned explicit sex movies
and "immoral and nonconstructive karate films" from public theatres, a govern- ment spokesman said.
"The karate films corrupt young men's morals and lead to crime, violence and bloody revenge, which contradict Arab and Islamic traditions, " he said.
(f) President Park told Song-jung Lee, Minister of Justice, February 3 :
"Making irresponsible remarks by some people without considering the fu- ture of the country cannot lead the nation to freedom or democracy.
"This is true of some foreigners who do not exactly know the reality of our country but make irresponsible state- ments." ( The Korea Herald, Feb. 4 )
(g) Pacific Citizen, 125 Weller St. ,
Los Angeles, Ca. 90012, reported from Washington, D. C., February 4 :
"The ( recent ) string of bad publicity for the Park regime has, indirectly, brought a degree of bad publicity to cer- tain Korean Americans here."
Boeing 707s ( another to be added in 1977 ) ; 3 Boeing 727s, 2 Boeing 720s,
5 F27s, 1 YS-11, and 1 Cessena execu- tive jet ( for charter ).
OVERSEAS INVESTMENTS
South Korea's direct overseas capital investments as of September 1976 amounts to $44. 2 million according to an official announcement.
Asia $33 million
North America 9 million
Other areas 2 million
Occupational distribution (partial):
Manufacturing
Logging
Construction
Trading
Fishing
$12.7 million 8. 8 million 4. 8 million 3. 7 million 1. 2 million
CONGRESSIONAL VISITS/KOREA
Reports of various House committees and interparliamentary groups concerning the U.S. -owned Korean currency or U.S dollars utilized by them and their em - ployees in calendar year 1976 in connec- tion with their visits to South Korea ( in- Korea per diem and transportation only ) are as follows ( announced on March 22, Congressional Record H2421 - 47 ) :
1. Committee on Agriculture
a. Rep. Otto E. Passman ( D.-La. )
January 6-8 : 72, 282 won
April 22-25 : 109, 575 won
b. Donald E. Richbourg
January 6-8 : 72, 282 won
c. Hunter L. Spillan
January 6-8 : 72, 282 won
2. Committee on Armed Services
a. Rep. Floyd D. Spence ( R.-S.C.) November 12-13 : 36,000 won
b. Rep. Charles H. Wilson ( D. -Ca. ) Sept. 30- Oct. 7 : $525.00
3. Committee on International Rela- tions
a. Robert K. Boyer November 8-11 : 108, 000 won
b. V. Hyndman
November 8-11 : 108, 000 won
c. James Schollaert November 8-11 : 108, 000 won
4. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service
a. George Gould April 16-20 :
( per diem ) 180, 653 won
( transportation ) 38,211 won
b. Rep. Charles H. Wilson ( D. -Ca.)
April 16-21 : 216,780 won
ASIANS JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Asians for Job Opportunities in Berke- ley, Inc. is a U.S. Department of Labor sponsored vocational training and coun- seling program aiding Berkeley Asian residents seeking full-time and perma- nent employment.
The AJOB staff has chosen clerical business skills as the focus of the voca- tional training, because it feels that cler- ical competence teaches discipline, effi- ciency, neatness, language skills, knowl- edge of business procedures and systems, speed, accuracy, and awareness of business needs all qualities that are im- portant and useful in any employment situation.
For more information, please contact :
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1617 University Avenue
Berkeley, California 947 03
Tel : 415/548-6700
NEWS BRIEFS
# The Korea Development Institute on March 8 recommended that the Seoul gov- ernment build a 120-mph "bullet train" system between Seoul and Pusan at a cost of $2 billion to reduce the traveling time between the two principal South Korean cities from four hours and 30 minutes to two hours and 10 minutes.
Korea s largest hotel opens in Seoul
The 540- room Seoul Plaza. the largest hold in Korea, opened October I in ihe heart of Seoul . overlooking Cily Hall and the
refngeralon available Rate* are $23. $2# and $31 single. $28 lo $35 for twins and double.. $60 for ondol (Korean style) vuiic. and from $50 lo $250 for other suites The hotel has restaurants offering French . American . Chinese and Japanese
room, which can accommodate groups from^K) to 250 A shopping area is on ihe premises Bookings 23. 2-ka, Taipyung-ro. Choong-ku, Seoul. Korea
A PRIL 6.1 977
KOREA WEEK
3
Business
Finance
SOUTH KOREAN INCOME TAX
In 1977, the minimum taxable income of a standard taxpayer ( self plus four dependents) in South Korea is $180 per month. The highest rate is 31.8% for those who make over $1 , 999 a month.
The amendments permit journalists, researchers, and news and documentary film makers who travel to the embargoed areas to import films, books and maga- zines, without limit as to cost.
Such publications must be directly re- lated to their professional activities and cannot be resold.
Other amendments now permit foreign firms controlled by Americans to pay for travel expenses of their foreign national employees in Cambodia, North Korea, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and Cuba without specific Treasury approval.
Trade transactions continue to be re- stricted by the Foreign Assets Control Regulations ( North Korea, North and South Vietnam and Cambodia ) and by the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (Cuba).
FOREIGN CAPITAL NEEDS
The so-called Consultative Group on Development Assistance to the Republic of Korea ( 10 nations plus international lending institutions ) met in Paris March 29-30 and issued an announcement :
It is estimated that disbursements of about $2.5 billion of medium and long- term loans would be required annually during the next five years.
The delegates agreed that Korea re - quired and deserved the continued support of the capital-exporting countries and in- ternational organizations in pursuing its development objectives.
SOUTH KOREA EXERCISE TAX
Gasoline is the most highly taxed com- modity (160%) in South Korea followed by five others taxed 100%. A Korean citizen must pay $30 Just to get into a casino.
TRAVEL TO NORTH KOREA
On March 25, Department of the Trea- sury announced that the Office of Foreign Assets Control has amended its regula- tions to authorize Americans who visit Cambodia, North Korea, North Vietnam, South Vietnam or Cuba to pay for their transportation and maintenance expendi- tures ( meals, hotel bills, taxis, etc.) while In those countries.
In addition, visitors to those countries are authorized to import a maximum of $100 worth of goods for their personal use and not for resale.
This allowance may be used only once every six months, and the goods must be brought back by the traveler in his bag- gage.
Given the improvement in Korea's debt service situation that has already been achieved and the strong possibility that its export growth will remain satisfactory, the servicing of the substantial volume of borrowing that would be required should not pose a problem, but it is highly de- sirable that a significant proportion is from official and semi-official sources on more favorable terms than are generally available today from private financial sources.
KOREAN COTTON IMPORTS
"Cotton imports into South Korea, the leading market for U.S. cotton in 1975- 76, may decline modestly in 1976-77 from the 1 million bales received last season. However, most of these cotton imports again will come from the U.S., " says the Foreign Agriculture, March 7.
"South Korean imports of raw cotton in the 1976-77 season ( August-July) are projected at about 950, 000 bales ( 480 lb net ), with about 900, 000 bales expected to come from the U.S. If this import level is realized, South Korea will prob- ably be the second largest market — be- hind Japan -- for U.S. raw cotton in 1976-77.
"Cotton consumption by Korean mills is expected to increase about 10 percent above the record 895, 000 bales used in 1975-76.
"Korean cotton mills are reportedly operating near full capacity.
"The spindleage target for December 1977 Is 2, 632, 840, which would be about a 4 percent rise above the estimated spindleage at the end of calendar 1976.
The number of cotton spindles in place as of August 1976 was 1, 915, 120 — about 5 percent more than a year earlier.
"South Korea's cotton imports had bal- looned in 1975-76. The country's total raw cotton imports that season were
1.025.000 bales -- with 1 million bales from the U.S. representing a sharp in- crease of about 40 percent above the
705.000 U.S. bales imported in 1974-75."
People in the News
AIR-CONDITIONED GRAVE, etc.
(a) On December 17, 1976, South Ko- rea's official domestic radio system said ( FBIS, December 22 ) :
Pointing out the fact that among the well-to-do there have recently been those who have built luxurious homes or places for future burial resembling graves of kings and that these practices are arousing severe public criticism, President Park has directed the minis- tries concerned to intensify the enforce- ment of pertinent regulations or to strengthen the laws and regulations.
(b) On December 21, 1976, the state- owned Korea Herald said ( editorial ) :
Needless to say the unrestrained life style of some rich people, many of them parvenus, is apt to erode the belt-tight- ening campaign the nation has been pro- pelling, particularly since the 1973 ener- gy crisis and the consequent economic recession.
(c) On January 2, The Washington Star reported :
The Gulf Oil Co. gave South Korean President Park Chung Hee $200, 000 to pay for his 1969 state visit to San Fran- cisco, according to NBC News.
The payment, deposited in a Swiss bank account, was not used for that pur - pose, the network said, but was apparent- ly turned over to Park's personal politi- cal apparatus along with $3 million Gulf gave Park's top fund raiser the next year.
Gulf gave $4 million to the ruling polit- ical party in South Korea over a 13-year period, according to the McCloy report, an internal study of Gulf's political con- tributions made public a year ago.
(d) On January 12, President Park told a "New Year press conference" :
Until irregularities among public ser- vants disappear, the government will pur- sue the cleanup drive as strongly as before.
I always emphasize that the most de- sirable result depends upon leadership that takes the initiative and sets an ex- ample for the general public.
We must discard the notion that one should be free from censure even If one squanders one's money away.
(e) The Korea Herald reported on January 14 :
The Ministry of Home Affairs yester- day streamlined pertinent regulations to impose taxes on luxurious auxiliary facil- ities of private residences.
Under the new move, property and ac- qulsion taxes will be levied on swimming pools, observation stands, elevators and escalators.
Other facilities subject to these taxes include power generators, oil tanks, boilers, switchboards, ventilators and warning systems against intruders.
(f) On January 15, The Korea Herald said :
A total of 39, 132 cases of irregularities or wrongdoings involving government of- ficials were uncovered last year, accord- ing to the Cabinet Office of Planning and Coordination.
(g) On February 12, South Korean au- thorities announced arrest of Rep. Byong-chol Hong, a member of Presi- dent's Democratic Republican Party, on suspicion of having accepted $80, 000 from a local importer in return for prom- ises to press the government to grant the importer a monopoly for the import of fertilizers.
Before becoming a legislator, Hong was a member of President Park's body- guards.
Last year, Rep. Mun-bong Kang, a National Assembly (*) member nominated by President Park, was arrested on charges of accepting a $68, 000 bribe.
(*) Editor's Note : Effective January this year, a member of the National As- sembly is paid $2,478 ( salary plus al- lowance ) per month.
(h) The Korea Herald reported March 16 :
According to a recent report from Kyonggl-do, largescale private tombs decorated with big monuments and expen- sive articles like those of ancient royal families total 47 In number.
One of the tombs, which was built in 1970, is equipped, surprisingly, with an air-conditioning system at an estimated 8 million won (about $16,000).
Employment ol icienlUU and engineer*, by »e* and rate: 1974
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KOREA WEEK
APRIL 6, 1977
ASIAN STUDIES
EVERETT FRAZAR ( Part III )
Editor's Note : Everett Frazar, who on April 3, 1884 became the first Consul General of Korea in New York, delivered a speech entitled "Korea, and her Rela- tions to China, Japan and the U.S. , " be- fore the New England Society, at Music Hall in Orange, New Jersey, on Nov.
15, 1883. ( Part II in KW #208 )
One recent writer describes the Korean country as "being very picturesque, with wooded hills, green valleys, clear streams wild flowers, and fresh and in- vigorating climate ; the people evidently well disposed and of a kindly turn of mind. "
This writer also goes on to say : "It is certain that, in the material joys that can be given by English grey shirtings, American drills, brandy and kerosene oil, these people are really behind the age ; whilst of joint stock companies in Perak, Arizona or Wall Street, New fcrak, Arizona or Wall Street, New York, they have not yet one single thought.
I was somewhat surprised to learn from the Minister that the word "Seoul” means in Korean, capital only, and that the real native name of the capital city is Han- Yang.
Its population is about 300, 000, one- half of which is resident within and one- half without the city walls. As regards the population of the whole empire, I find that heretofore the greatest difficulty has existed in arriving at any degree of ac- curacy.
Within the past two months, both from H.E. Prince Min personally, and from Herr Von Mullendorff, the Foreign In spector of Customs at Seoul, I learn that between twelve and thirteen millions is a very fair estimate.
The three ports opened by the Ameri- can treaty to foreign trade are, first in importance, Pusan, ( called by Japanese Fusan, and so noted on our maps ) situat- ed on the southeast coast in latitude 35 degree, longitude 122 1/2 degree, and nearest to Japan, being but 150 miles, or fifteen hours steaming, from Nagasaki.
It has a fine bay and is easy of access.
A submarine cable, said to have been ordered in England, is soon to connect Fusan with Japan, by way of the Tsu- shima Island, and Simonosaki, in the Island Sea.
Wen -shan, or Gen-san as it is also called, on the east coast, in latitude 38 1/2 degree, longitude 126 degree, also has a magnificent harbor about ten miles square, in front of the town, in the rear of which are beautifully wooded and ex- tensive mountain ranges.
There are good prospects for trade at this port, it being situated in the im- mediate vicinity of the fur country.
The third treaty port is Ren-shan, or as it is called by the natives In-chun, also Chemul-po, a little fishing village situat- ed on the western coast, in latitude 37 1/2 degree, longitude 124 degree, six miles from the town of that name, which is about one-third the distance on the way to Seoul.
The mountain ranges throughout Korea are very extensive, the different ranges reaching very nearly from one end to the other, north and south, but none are high- er than from one to two miles.
On the north and northwest these mountains, together with the large Yah- lah river, form the dividing line between Korea, China and Russia.
The kingdom is divided into eight dif- ferent provinces, three being on the east- ern or Japan Sea side, and five in the western or Yellow Sea portion, whilst two of them, Pieng-an and Han Kieng, extend
northerly, bordering on the Chinese Manchurian province.
These eight provinces have each a Governor, with 332 sub-provincial dis - trict magistrates or mandarins.
The monarchy is a despotism, limited only by the existence of privileged ranks and hereditary nobles. The person of the King is held in the highest reverence, and he is the object of almost divine honors, holding the powers of life and death over all his subjects.
The government is practically admin- istered by three of the King's principal ministers, the first being called the Ad- mirable Councillor, or Prime Minister ; the second, the Councillor of the Right ; the third the Councillor of the Left ; these being assisted by six judges with deputies or substitutes.
And here a few words about the reli- gion, manners, customs and caste of the Koreans. Their national religion, if it can be so termed, is undoubtedly like all their other official institutions, based upon that of China ; both Buddhism and Taoism having their votaries.
In fact Korea is in many respects, I believe, just China in miniature, and there is no greater reverence paid to Confucius in the Chinese Empire than in the adjacent Peninsula.
Buddhism was introduced into Korea about the year 372 A. D. , and it remained the national or official religion up to the fourteenth century, when the teachings of Confucius took a strong hold upon the peo- ple, and they are to-day the established creed of the Kingdom.
The Chinese state gods are everywhere worshipped ; the literati profess the Con- fucian Ethics, and the sacred books of this worthy sage have been officially translated and are current and revered throughout the Empire.
Many of the large pagodas, erected during the official status of Buddhism and built in the Chinese style, still exist in different parts of the kingdom, in various degrees of preservation and of decay.
The worship of ancestors is here main- tained in full force, as in China, and great importance is attached to all the details connected with funerals, mourn- ings and tombs. The temple of Confucius, with its beautiful wooded compounds, is seen in every district.
Whilst in India the highest caste is that of the priesthood or Brahmins, the con- trary is said to be the case in Korea, where the priests seem to be of a very low order and despised, holding but slight influence for good over the common people.
The French Jesuits, or Roman Catho- lics, have made considerable progress in this country, professing to count their converts from first to last, by scores of thousands. As far back as 1839 the Je- suits claimed to have not less than from fifty to seventy thousand devoted follow-
As might be expected, such conversions as have been claimed and effected by the Romanists could not be accomplished without bringing down the ire of the Im- perial authorities, and severe persecu- tions have, from time to time — descend- ing from reign to reign -- been meted out upon these unfortunate devotees.
It has been well said, that "a Chinaman gets baptised in consideration of the worldly and material advantages which he expects to gain thereby. "
The Korean, on the contrary, has noth- ing of the sort to expect, but only perse- cution, torture and often death itself. He becomes a Christian from conviction and not from any mercenary motives.
I have personally had a corroboration of this very satement, from the lips of
Protestant missionaries themselves in China.
In 1864, at the close of the Ni dynasty, which had been mild and successful, the father of the young King, ( then a boy of but four or five years ) who had become more and more powerful in his influence, exercised a complete control over the Imperial Council.
He suddenly instituted an unprecedented reign of terror and despotism throughout the land, throwing into prison and subse- quently beheading nine of the leading French missionaries, three only escaping with their lives, and after great hardships and risks reaching China.
One of these Jesuits was Ridel, the instigator, or at least accomplice of Mr. Oppert's third and last raid, in Korea.
No less than ten thousand native Chris- tians and smypathisers, men, women and children, were said to have been cruelly put to death by this barbarous self-acting regent ( Dai-un-kun ), whole villages being nearly depopulated.
Following this horrible treatment of these faithful devotees, an edict was at once issued, prohibiting the holding of the usual annual fairs at the north, as well as forbidding the import, or use in any way, of foreign manufactures, capital punish- ment being threatened in case of infringe- ment of this stringent edict.
It was this same Dai-un-kun who order- ed the late massacre of the members of the Japanese legation, for which Korea is now mulcted in the sum of about 500, 000 yen ( $350, 000 ) no portion of which has been paid to Japan as yet, as I was in- formed in April last, by the Imperial Japanese Secretary, Mr. Nagasaki.
The immediate cause of this outbreak, on the 23d of July, 1882, was said to be the fact that the soldiery in the castle at Seoul, numbering about 5, 000 men, had not been paid for several months, and the usurper, Dai-un-kun, affecting to sympa- thize with the soldiery, gave favor and countenance to the massacre.
The Queen was thought for a long time to have been poisoned, while young King was kept in safety within the walls of the imperial barracks.
It will perhaps be remembered that at the close of the late treaty negotiations, by Com. Schufeldt with Korea, the Chi- nese Commissioners, Ma and Ju, through Admiral Ting, who accompanied them to Seoul, took forcible possession of this acting regent, by inviting him on board the Chinese flagship, and sailing away to Tientsin, from which port he was sent into the extreme northwestern border of China Into exile.
This was probably done with the approv- al or, at least, with the connivance of certain members of the imperial council.
It was a bold, but doubtless thoroughly politic piece of Oriental strategy on the part of China toward its protege, and a most righteous retribution and deserving punishment for such a ruling monster in this presentage.
This action gives a decided promise and guarantee of better management on the part of the Korean government, which is to-day ruled by the boy-king, spoken of above, now but twenty-four or twenty-five years of age, from whose enlightened reign great promise of future-benefits are justly anticipated.
The old Prince, said to be 76 years of age, was furious when he discovered the treachery of his host, and bitterly de- nounced him for his bad faith, and had not order in Korea been at once established, China might have brought upon herself complications which would, no doubt, have proved most embarrassing.
A well written proclamation was at once put forth by Commissioner Ma, in justification of his summary acts ; and another by H. M. , the young King, him- self, deeply lamenting the loss of his aged father, and imploring the Emperor of China to send him back.
Both these are very interesting reading, but I have not the time to give them in full.
Suffice is to say that in a third procla- mation the Emperor of China positively refuses to release the Prince, allowing only one deputy from the King of Korea to visit him in his exile once a year.
Late reports from China mention that the Dai-un-kun has recently died, after being In exile about one year.
Before leaving this part of our subject and taking up that of caste, I may men-
tion an incident in connection with the beheading of the French Jesuits by order of the Dai-un-kun, in 1866, as a matter of fact, and as confirming my belief that China seeks only to make her claim of suzerainty over Korea one of convenience.
On the occasion of Mons. Bellonnet, the French charge d affaires in Peking, de- manding satisfaction from, or through, the Chinese authorities for the murder of these nine missionaries in Korea, he was politely but firmly referred by Prince Kung directly to the King of Korea ; the Prince not only professing entire ignor- ance of the affair, but declining all re- sponsibility on behalf of the Chinese Gov- ernment.
Accordingly, in the fall of 1866, the French Admiral Roze, with six or eight men-of-war, attempted to seek satisfac- tion direct from Korea, endeavoring to reach the capital Seoul, but retiring to Chefoo most unexpectedly.
The expedition proved a complete fail- ure, and unfortunately the Dai-un-kun and his council were thereby still further con- firmed in their arrogance and false esti- mate of their strength.
The existence of caste among the Ko- reans is most marked, the division being far stronger than in China, Japan, or even India ; and while there caste arises chiefly from religious actions, in Korea it seems to take on a character very largely local or political.
The civil and military nobility occupy the first and second or foremost ranks after the King and royal family, who stand far above even these classes.
Then comes the third, or half-noble caste, which enjoys the right of filling the under offices, as those of secre- taries, interpreters, &c.
The fourth includes the civil, or weal- thier portion of the residents in cities ; and fifth there is the people's caste, in- cluding all villagers, farmers, shepherds, fishermen, &c.
The lowest of all in the social scale are the bondsmen or slaves, corresponding to the former serfs in Russia, and even this class has its various divisions.
In certain rare cases, however, the King has raised to the highest rank those far below on account of some meritorious action.
The high priests reside in the capitals. The bonzes, or ordinary priests do not, as a rule, bear a good reputation, moral- ly, as do those in the neighboring empires.
( to be continued )
KOREA WEEK
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c. 900-500
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Alexander Enters xthe Indus 326
MAURYAN EMPIRE 322-185
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CHRONOLOGY OF ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS
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c. 1027-770
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770-256
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CH'IN 221-207
HAN (202-220): EARLY
LATE
THREE KINGDOMS
SIX DYNASTIES
222-589
SUI 589-618
T'ANG
618-907
TEN KINGDOMS
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SUNG 960-1126
CHIN
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So. SUNG 1126-1279
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MING 1368-1644
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668-935
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710-784
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866-1160
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Prepared by Charles W. Weber