A History of Korea (55 page)

The total number of Korean converts, amounting to some 10,000 in the mid-nineteenth century, reached 30,000 by the end of the century. This increase was the result of people of the lower social classes entering the Church. Although at first Catholicism attracted yangban adherents, especially members of the Namin faction, with the turn of the nineteenth century most converts, along with those, were from the lower social classes and were the uneducated rather than the educated, the poor rather than the better off, and women rather than men. Most of the Korean converts were attracted by the alien religion’s
creed of equality, and so Catholicism became firmly established among urban dwellers in the capital and neighboring areas. While Catholicism failed to attract villagers and peasant farmers, despite its strong appeal to commoners, a new semi-religious doctrine called the
Tonghak,
or Eastern Learning, movement, which had some elements of Catholicism, won wide adherents among the peasantry.

Founded by an idealistic, frustrated yangban man, Ch’oe Che-u, at Ky
ŏ
ngju in 1860, Tonghak was a reaction against the introduction of alien Catholic doctrines. To devise a new faith opposing S
ŏ
hak, Ch’oe not only adopted the best precepts of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism but accepted some elements of Catholicism, such as congregational worship. He also embraced features of Korea’s native shamanistic practices, especially the belief in amulets and incantations. The Tonghak doctrine was presented in such writings as
Tonggy
ŏ
ng taej
ŏ
n,
or The Great Scripture of Tonghak, and
Yongdam yusa,
or Hymns from Dragon Pool, both written by Ch’oe Che-u. The former, written in Chinese, was designed to be read by intellectuals, whereas the latter, written in han’g
ŭ
l, could easily be understood by peasants. Ch’oe Che-u believed that all human beings were equal, that humankind and God were one and the same, and that serving humankind constituted serving God. In short, he preached humanitarianism and equality for all human beings. A revolutionary idea in a traditional Confucian society, Tonghak was a product of the frustration of the era and gained growing support from the oppressed peasantry.

Tonghak increasingly evolved from a religious movement into a social reform movement, somewhat similar to the Taiping movement in China at roughly the same time. It steered clear of such complicated questions as the nature of humankind and life after death but sought to regenerate existing society by purging it of misrule and corruption. Its leaders not only demanded reform from the corruption-ridden government but also sought to protect Chos
ŏ
n against the influx of Western and Catholic influence. As the Tonghak faith won acceptance among the general populace, the panicked government arrested Ch’oe Che-u on charges of deluding the world and deceiving the people, and executed him in 1864. Because adherence to Tonghak was criminalized, its practice was forced underground. Before long, however, the Tonghak faith recovered under Ch’oe Che-u’s successor, Ch’oe Si-hy
ŏ
ng, and its appeal spread rapidly among the peasantry in response to economic and political oppression.

Fallen yangban, illegitimate yangban descendants, and chungin produced literary works on a large scale in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1857 Yu Chae-g
ŏ
n compiled
P’ungyo sams
ŏ
n,
comprised of writings by some 300 authors, including members of non-yangban social classes. Literary men, mainly chungin in Seoul, formed several
sisa,
or fellowships of poets, and their writings in Chinese were almost on a par with those of reputed yangban authors. Well-known chungin writers included Chang Chi-wan, Ch
ŏ
ng Chi-yun (also known as Ch
ŏ
ng Su-dong), Cho H
ŭ
i-ryong, Yi Ky
ŏ
ng-min, Pak Yun-muk, and Cho Su-sam.

In this period noteworthy literary achievements appeared in different forms including
p’ansori,
or one-man opera,
chapka,
or folk song, and
kamy
ŏ
n’g
ŭ
k
(also known as
t’alch’um
), or masked dance. Combining music and literary expression in ballad form, the p’ansori genre comprised popular tales sung to outdoor audiences by a professional performer accompanied by a drummer. P’ansori performers used monologues and certain tunes adapted from earlier Korean vernacular novels such as
Ch’unhyang ch
ŏ
n, Sim Ch’
ŏ
ng ch
ŏ
n,
and
H
ŭ
ngbu ch
ŏ
n.
The man who contributed most to developing the p’ansori texts was Sin Chae-hyo, who is said to have created a repertoire of 12 tales. Chapka songs, full of jest and satire, were the favorites of commoners in towns. T’alch’um also flourished in this period. Although usually translated as “masked dance,” this genre, which interspersed song and dance with satirical narrative, was not just a “masked dance” but was designed to reveal the “absurdities” (the literal meaning of
t’al
) of Chos
ŏ
n society, especially the striking distinctions between the yangban, who were often mocked in the performance, and other social classes. Storybooks written in han’g
ŭ
l were widely read, particularly by women. Songs widely sung by the general populace included
Hanyangga,
or Song of Seoul, which described the beauty and prosperity of the capital, and
Y
ŏ
nhaengga,
or Song of a Journey to Beijing, which depicted a diplomatic mission to China.

Paintings reflecting the development of Seoul and the aristocratic tastes of the yangban in the capital had a showy and refined look. Large paintings depicting palaces and prosperity in Seoul appeared, represented, for example, by
Tonggu
ŏ
l to,
or Painting of Eastern Palaces, a work portraying the entire view of the Ch’angd
ŏ
k-kung and Ch’anggy
ŏ
ng-gung palaces and painted collectively by more than 100 artists in the 1820s.

The most renowned Korean painter of the nineteenth century was Chang S
ŭ
ng-
ŏ
p, who is seen as one of the three great masters of the Chos
ŏ
n period, along with An Ky
ŏ
n and Kim Hong-do. The great scholar of epigraphy Kim Ch
ŏ
ng-h
ŭ
i was also a foremost master of calligraphy, who studied the work of famed calligraphers of the past and developed a new mode of brushwork called the Ch’usa style, after his penname.

In January 1864 Kojong (1864–1907) ascended the throne at the age of 12, and the new king’s father, Yi Ha-
ŭ
ng, became the
taew
ŏ
n’gun
, or lord of the great court, and ruled Chos
ŏ
n with an iron fist in his son’s name. In 1873, however, he was forced to retire by the king’s consort, Queen Min, and her clan. Originally the term
taew
ŏ
n’gun
referred to any person who was not actually the king but whose son took the throne. Four men were called the taew
ŏ
n’gun in the Chos
ŏ
n dynasty, but three of them died even before their sons took the throne, and thus the fouth man, H
ŭ
ngs
ŏ
n Taew
ŏ
n’gun (Yi Ha-
ŭ
ng), became the only living taew
ŏ
n’gun. Thereafter the use of the term “taew
ŏ
n’gun” referred only to this man. The Taew
ŏ
n’gun and his primary political rival, Queen Min, held sway over the destinies of Chos
ŏ
n for almost the rest of the century.

When the stern and arbitrary Taew
ŏ
n’gun secured absolute power of the government as the king’s regent shortly after his son took the throne, he set about reshaping the country according to his own governing principles. To that end, he expelled members of the Andong Kim family from their positions in the national bureaucracy, targeted bureaucratic corruption, instituted administrative reforms, and sought to enhance the dignity of the royal house.

He replaced high-level officials from a few powerful lineages or royal in-law families, particularly the Andong Kim clan, as noted, with an equal number of members from the four main factions. He was determined to close down the s
ŏ
w
ŏ
n academies, the stronghold of the yangban literati; so long as the s
ŏ
w
ŏ
n academies were permitted to remain intact, the Taew
ŏ
n’gun believed it would be impossible to establish a strong monarchy. By this time the s
ŏ
w
ŏ
n possessed vast farmlands, a number of slaves, and the special privilege of exemption from taxation and corvee labor. Thus they ravaged the economic foundation of the state and remained a formidable force unrestrained by the government. In 1865 he demolished the
Mandongmyo,
or Ten-Thousand East Shrine, the spiritual
mainstay of the Noron faction; this edifice was erected to honor the last two emperors of Ming China, who helped Chos
ŏ
n during the war with Japan, and was built according to the wishes of Song Si-y
ŏ
l. In 1868 the Taew
ŏ
n’gun levied taxes on the s
ŏ
w
ŏ
n, and in 1871 he shut down more than 1,000 academies, leaving only 47 scattered throughout the country. His suppression of the s
ŏ
w
ŏ
n incurred the wrath of the Confucian literati and ultimately was one of the main factors that later caused his downfall, when Queen Min allied with the angry Confucian scholars to oust him from power.

Before the Taew
ŏ
n’gun’s forced withdrawal, however, he sought to increase national revenues and equalize tax burdens among the entire populace, including the yangban. Thus he conducted a land survey to locate the “hidden fields” that had been omitted from government registers and made them taxable farmlands. He also converted the military cloth tax levied only on commoners into a household tax imposed on the yangban as well. Further, he reorganized the existing grain loan system, which had been subject to usury, into locally administered village granaries, thus putting an end to the plundering of corrupt local officials and functionaries.

To weaken the power of high officials, the Taew
ŏ
n’gun, in 1865, abolished the Piby
ŏ
nsa, the power center of royal in-law government. To enhance the monarch’s image, he ordered a lavish reconstruction of the Ky
ŏ
ngbok-kung palace, which was then a mere ruin since its destruction during the Japanese invasion of the 1590s. Giving no thought to the government’s precarious finances, he set about reconstructing the palace, completed the project in 1867, and moved Kojong into the new palace the following year. To meet the huge costs incurred, he levied a special land surtax of 1 tu, or about 5 kilograms, of rice per ky
ŏ
l on all landowners and charged a “gate tax” on goods transported in and out of the four gates of Seoul. The Taew
ŏ
n’gun also forcibly extracted contributions for the construction work in the name of
w
ŏ
nnapch
ŏ
n,
or the voluntary offering of coins. Moreover, he minted a special currency, the
tangbaekch
ŏ
n,
or arbitrary hundred coin, with a value far above its intrinsic worth, causing considerable inflation. He aroused bitter resentment among the laborers who were forced to work on the project.

Despite some economic confusion, overall the internal reforms carried out by the strong-willed Taew
ŏ
n’gun contributed considerably to terminating the oligarchical royal in-law government, establishing a strong monarchy, increasing state revenues, and enhancing defense capabilities. His reform measures garnered popular support and built national strength to the extent that he
was able to circumvent the difficult situation brought on by the French and U.S. invasions.

Long before the nineteenth century Chos
ŏ
n had maintained diplomatic relations only with its suzerain, China, and with neighboring Japan. Foreign trade was mainly limited to China, at designated locations along the Korean-Manchurian border. By the mid-nineteenth century Westerners had come to refer to Chos
ŏ
n as the “Hermit Kingdom,” suggesting that Chos
ŏ
n’s diplomacy was characterized not just as isolationism but, more precisely, as “exclusionism.”

The Taew
ŏ
n’gun was determined to continue Chos
ŏ
n’s traditional isolationist policy and to purge the kingdom of any foreign ideas that had filtered into the nation. The disastrous events occurring in China, including the Opium War (1840–1842), reinforced his determination to separate his country from the rest of the world, a path, though perhaps understandable, that ran counter to the tide of history.

Even since the mid-nineteenth century Western vessels made frequent appearances in Korean waters, surveying sea routes and seeking trade. The Chos
ŏ
n government, extremely wary, referred to these vessels as “strange-looking ships.” In June 1832 a ship from the British India Company,
Lord Amherst,
appeared off the coast of Hwanghae province seeking trade. In June 1845 an English warship,
Samarang,
surveyed the coast of Cheju-do and Ch
ŏ
lla province, and the next month the Chos
ŏ
n government filed a protest with British authorities in Guangzhou through the Chinese government. In June 1846 three French warships dropped anchor off the coast of Ch’ungch’
ŏ
ng province and conveyed a letter protesting Chos
ŏ
n’s persecution of Catholicism. In April 1854 two armed Russian vessels sailed along the coast of Hamgy
ŏ
ng province, in the East Sea, causing some deaths and injuries among the Koreans they encountered. This prompted the Chos
ŏ
n government to issue a ban forbidding the people of Hamgy
ŏ
ng from having any contact with foreign vessels. Ships manned by the German adventurer Ernst J. Oppert appeared off the coast of Ch’ungch’
ŏ
ng province twice, in January and July of 1866, seeking trade.