A peculiar plague.... a peculiar remedy.... a new king.... various
reforms.... beginning of the policy of Roman Catholic opposition....
Christianity and politics.... causes of opposition.... prisons
full.... Chinese evangelist killed.... a traitorous letter
intercepted.... end of the persecution.... conflagration.... eight
severe charges.... the miners’ rebellion.... siege of Chöng-ju....
the mine explodes.... Catholics send to Peking for a priest.... a
long list of calamities.... cholera.... taxes remitted.... Europeans
fail to enter Korea.... nine years' famine.... terrible
suffering.... a new king.... reform.... French priests enter
Korea.... the persecution of 1839.... the first French naval
expedition against Korea.... The Koreans answer the French
charges.... a new king.... reforms.... rapid spread of
Christianity.... consternation upon hearing of the fall of
Peking.... a noteworthy memorial.... panic.... a good opportunity
lost.... a women’s riot.
In 1799 a peculiar plague broke out in P’yŭng-yang and spread with great
rapidity. It began with fever and ague, accompanied by a cough, and
death was very sudden. The king decided that if people so afflicted
should eat beef they would recover. So he ordered cattle to be killed
and the beef to be distributed among the people. The plague suddenly
ceased and the people have always believed that it was the marvelous
acumen of the king that enabled him to see the remedy and stop the
ravages of the disease.
Early in 1800 he made his son heir to the throne, and none too soon, for
in the sixth moon he sickened and died. It is said that his death was
caused by his mourning over the terrible fate of his father, whose cruel
and untimely death preyed upon his mind. Others say that the cause of
his death was a malignant boil.
The infant king, known by his posthumous title of Sun-jo Tă-wang, was of
too tender an age to undertake the duties of royalty and so the
government was administered during his minority by his grandmother, the
woman who had wielded such a strong influence over his father. She began
by instituting various reforms. Outside the West Gate, which was then
some distance to the west of the present New Gate, there was a monastery
where sorceresses and fortune-tellers congregated. The Queen Mother
drove them all out and razed the monastery to the ground. The tax by
which the palace body-guard was kept up was very distasteful to the
people and it was now remitted. Up to this time the government medical
dispensary had been supported by revenue in money or herbs from the
country, but this tax was also remitted. If we may believe the records
when they say that she freed all the government slaves, we can not but
confess that in some directions at least this Queen Regent was of
exceeding liberal mind.
It is from the year 1801 that we may date the determined and systematic
opposition on the part of the government against the Roman Catholic
propaganda in the peninsula. Two other factions had grown up in Seoul,
the Si and the Pyŭk. The latter were violent opponents of the new
religion but they had been held in check by the neutral attitude of the
late king. But now he was dead, and the Queen Regent, being a member of
that faction, determined to give full rein to the anti-Christian
prejudices of her partisans. It must be remembered that the Koreans were
extremely sensitive to outside influences. The terrible invasion of the
Japanese on the one hand and of the Manchus on the other had made the
Koreans hate all suggestions of commerce with the outside world, and
they sedulously avoided every possible contact with foreigners. This is
one of the main causes of the opposition to Christianity. But besides
this, they had been told that Roman Catholicism struck at the very
foundation of the state and was more than likely to assume a political
aspect, a charge which, from the very claims which it puts forth to
universal temporal as well as spiritual sovereignty, would be somewhat
hard to refute. We can scarcely wonder then that there was severe
opposition to it. It was looked upon as a danger which menaced the
state. It is said that Roman Catholicism had assumed large proportions
in Korea. Many were now seized and put to death. Among them were eleven
high officials. Release was granted in case the accused would consent to
curse Christ. The agents of this persecution went everywhere haling
forth believers from city and village. Soon the prisons were running
over. Eleven men were executed in April and fourteen in the following
month. It is said that two princesses who had adopted the foreign faith
were put to death. It was at this time that Tsiou, the Chinese
evangelist, whom the Koreans call Chu Mun-mo, was seized and put to
death outside the Little West Gate. He had at first fled north to the
Yalu and was on the point of crossing, when he suddenly thought better
of it, turned back, gave himself up and heroically met his death.
A Korean named Whang Sa-yong had been instrumental in bringing this
Chinaman to preach the faith to his fellow-countrymen. Now that the
evangelist was executed this Whang sent out a letter to the European
residents of China asking that a military expedition be gotten up to
come to the shores of Korea, overthrow the dynasty and set up another in
sympathy with the Christian faith. This letter was intercepted, the man
seized and cruelly torn to pieces. As to the accuracy of these
statements it would be rash to vouch. The contents of that letter may or
may not have been what is generally believed by the Koreans, but judging
from the active interest which European governments rightly take in
missionaries from their shores, it is not unlikely that the letter
contained substantially what is here stated. The persecution terminated
the following year when the government ordered the execution of those
already apprehended but ordered that no more Christians be proceeded
against. Between three and four hundred people had perished and the
church seemed to have been crushed.
It was in this year 1803 that a terrible conflagration swept
P‘yŭng-yang, and a thousand houses were destroyed. It was repeated the
following year, and it is asserted that almost the entire city was
destroyed.
Upon the death of the Queen Regent in 1805 the last remnant of
persecution ceased and even the law which prohibited the import of books
was allowed to remain a dead letter. Corruption in government circles
ran riot. The state of things is well epitomized in a memorial which was
sent in at this time. (1) The Ministers spend all their time reading
books. (2) Nepotism and bribery are the rule rather than the exception.
(3) The judges sit and wait for bribes. (4) The examiners of the
candidates’ papers receive money in advance, and merit can make no
headway against cupidity. (5) The censors have been struck dumb. (6) The
prefects do nothing but extort money from the people. (7) Luxury saps
the strength and wealth of the land. (8) The whole commonwealth is
diseased and rotten to the core.
The year 1811 is marked by an uprising in the north, where Hong Kyöng nă
attempted to set up a kingdom of his own. He was a resident of P‘yŭng-an
Province and was a man of enormous wealth. He was disaffected against
the government because the men of his section were discriminated against
in the distribution of offices; so he conferred with the miners who were
engaged in digging gold in various places, and he told them an
exaggerated story of how ill they were being treated by the government.
He ended by proposing that, as he had enough money for them all, they
set up a kingdom of their own. The hardy miners, 5,000 in number,
accepted the proposal with alacrity and war was on foot. This company of
undrilled but hardy miners were formidable and at first carried
everything before them. They first took the town of Chöng-ju, putting to
death the prefect and his whole family. When news of this reached Seoul
the king appointed Yi Yo-hön as general-in-chief against the rebels.
Five thousand soldiers were given him with which to do the work. He
acted in a characteristic manner, settled himself comfortably at the
governor’s house outside the New Gate and called it the headquarters.
From that point he sent to the front Generals Sŭ Kum-bo, Kim Kye-on and
Pak Keui-p‘ung. Meanwhile the rebels were carrying everything before
them. Ch‘ŭl-san, Ka-san, Song-ch‘ŭn, Yong ch‘ŭn, Pak-ch‘ŭn and Son-ch‘ŭn
fell in quick succession. All the government provisions and arms fell
into their hands. The main camp of the rebels was in the vicinity of
An-ju and they wished to take that place. Here they met with strenuous
opposition and it was only after a desperate struggle that they ever
took the town. It took ten days to reduce the place; but the back bone
of the revolt was broken before the government troops from Seoul arrived
on the scene. The various captains and local commanders joined their
forces, and by the time the government troops had collected in
P’yŭng-yang the rebels had been driven into their last remaining
fortress, Chöng-ju, and were being held in siege. During the retreat of
the rebels four of Hong’s lieutenants were captured and, being sent to
Seoul, were there summarily executed. The reduction of Chöng-ju by siege
was a work of some time, and the king becoming impatient, supplanted
Gen. Pak Kye-p‘ung and put Gen. Yu Hyo-wŭn in his place. The latter
immediately decided to attempt to blow up the town of Chöng-ju.
Constructing a fence, or barrier of some kind, a hundred and fifty paces
from the wall, he began, under cover of this, to mine the wall,
supporting the passage with beams of wood. When he had extended the
passage well under the wall he placed a large amount of powder in it and
attached a long fuse. After igniting the fuse the soldiers all hastened
out of the mine. No explosion followed. No one dared to go in, for fear
that the fuse might be burning slowly and that the mine might explode
while they were within. After waiting two days, and finding no one who
would venture in, Gen. Yu himself entered and found that the fuse had
become wet. He remedied the difficulty and soon there was a tremendous
explosion that tore down a long stretch of the wall and buried many of
the garrison in the debris. The place was soon taken. Hong was caught,
“The Man who Would be King,” and his head was sent to Seoul.
The Christians had now begun to recover in some measure from the
terrible persecution of 1801 and a man was sent to Peking to urge that a
qualified priest be sent to Korea, but the Peking church itself was in
great vicissitudes and no help could be promised.
From this time on the reign was one long list of calamities which
followed thick and fast upon each other. In 1813 there was a serious
rebellion on the island of Quelpart; in 1814 occurred one of those
fearful famines that sometimes happen in the southern provinces; this
was followed by a flood in Kyŭng-sang Province which wrecked thousands
of houses and cost many lives; Seoul was without rice and the government
had to open its granaries and sell at starvation rates; 414,000 bags of
grain were distributed to the sufferers in the country and 15,000,000
cash, 5,000 pounds of dye-wood and 500 pounds of black pepper were
donated toward relief. The next year thousands who had been made
destitute by the famine flocked to Seoul and the government had to feed
them till the barley crop was harvested; then the native fever, a kind
of typhus, broke out and mowed the people down, and the government had
to erect pest houses for their accommodation. In 1816 two thousand
houses fell in a freshet in Ch’ung-ch’ŭng Province and the government
gave timber to help the people rebuild. The year 1821 beheld one of the
most terrible scourges of cholera that the country ever experienced. It
began in the north, and sweeping southward soon involved the capital.
Ten thousand people died in Seoul in ten days. In the south it was
equally destructive. The government was obliged to appoint a commission
to attend to the interment of the dead bodies along the road. The
following year it broke out again with unbated fury. Houses were built
at intervals along the roads, by the government, for the sake of those
who might be struck down with the plague while traveling and gangs of
men were kept busy along the main road burying the dead. It even crossed
to the island of Quelpart where two thousand people died. In 1824 the
government had to remit 69,300 bags of revenue grain in the north
because of the depredations of robber bands.
In 1827 the Crown Prince was appointed deputy king and the same year a
son was born to him. But troubles continued. The government was obliged
to remit taxes of seaweed, salt, ginseng and fish in Kang-wŭn Province.
The following year a terrible freshet swept away whole villages in
Ham-gyŭng Province and the king sent large quantities of grain to feed
the destitute there.
Still troubles multiplied thick and fast. In 1830 the Crown Prince died.
He is the grandfather of the present Emperor of Korea. The son who had
been born to him is known as the Tă wŭn-gun, who died in the spring of
1898. The building in which the body of this Crown Prince was placed
burned to the ground and nothing but the charred bones of the prince
were recovered. Two years later, in 1832 an English vessel appeared off
Hong-ju and its captain, Basil Hall, sent the king a letter saying that
he had come to trade, but the king refused permission. As the flag of
the ship bore the device “Religion of Jesus Christ,” some Roman Catholic
converts boarded her, but when they found that they were protestants
they beat a hasty retreat. It is said that several boxes of books were
landed and that some of them were sent to the king, who promptly
returned them. The foreigners who made this attempt to enter Korea were
Gutzlaff and Lindsay.
During this year there were destructive fires and floods, but the
greatest calamity of all was a famine that began at that time and
continued for nine successive years, each year being accompanied with
cholera. It is said that bodies were piled in heaps inside the South
Gate. Many people are still living who remember that terrible time. The
next year, in addition to famine and plague, the palace burned down. In
the following year there was a devastating epidemic of native fever in
Seoul, and a flood in Eui-ju which wrecked 2,000 houses. That summer,
the people driven wild with hunger mobbed the government granaries but
found nothing in them. They laid the blame on the Prime Minister and
threatened his life. He fled precipitately to the country.
In the last moon of 1834 the king died and his grandson a boy nine years
old came to the throne. He is known as Hön jong Tă-wang. His grandmother
Kim became regent. She is known as Sun-wŭn Whang-ho. She immediately
began a work of reform. The law that made the relatives of prefects’
clerks liable to punishment for their crimes was abrogated. Many
burdensome taxes were remitted. The government revenue collectors were
kept to a strict account for all the monies passing through their hands.
A conspiracy, headed by one Nam Ong-jung, was put down with a strong
hand. The people were commanded not to slaughter their cattle for food,
for the only hope for future crops was the cattle, without which the
land could not be tilled. All prefects were commanded to have regular
office hours during which they should attend to government business
exclusively.
In 1831 Pope Gregory XVI had made Korea a bishopric and appointed M.
Bruguiere as Bishop. A Chinaman named Yu who was then in Europe was
appointed to accompany him to Korea. This man Yu went ahead and found
means of entering Korea secretly. M. Bruguiere worked three years in the
attempt to enter the country by way of the north across the Yalu and at
last died on the very border. Yu who had preceeded him desired to hold
supreme power in the Korean church, and so put obstacles in the way of
the entrance of the Bishop. But in the following year Pierre Philibert
Maubant, who had been appointed to Korea, succeeded in entering the
country and began work in Seoul at once, but of course in secret. By
1837 two other French priests had arrived, including Bishop Imbert. It
is said that at the time of his arrival there were 9,000 adherents of
the Roman Catholic church.
While the king was still but fourteen years old, in 1839, there occurred
a cruel persecution of the Catholics. Three foreigners were in Korea, as
we have seen, and they were known to the Koreans as Pöm Se-hyŭng, Na-bă
Do-ru and Chöng-ă Kak-bak-i.
The persecution began as usual with a change of ministry. Yi Chi-ŏn
became Prime Minister. He hated Christianity and averred that the reason
why there were so many Christians was that the work of extermination had
not been thoroughly carried out in 1801. He demanded a house to house
inspection. This was done and soon the prisons were full to overflowing.
Hundreds were cruelly beaten, but the yamen-runners were not allowed to
loot the houses of the prisoners, which cooled their ardor not a little.
Finally the three foreigners were arrested. Being ordered to leave the
country they firmly refused. Thereupon they were declared high criminals
and were executed on Sept. 21st, 1839. This was followed by still
severer persecutions and even the Koreans themselves grew tired of the
horrors that were enacted. It is said that seventy were decapitated and
that sixty died of beating and strangulation. This is but a fraction
however of those who perished in consequence of this persecution.
The last ten years of the reign were marked principally by events
connected with the Roman Catholic propaganda. In 1844 two more French
priests entered the country by way of Quelpart after a most difficult
and hazardous passage from China in a Korean junk. Two years later the
French government sent a message to Korea by a gun-boat, complaining of
the death of the three Frenchmen and threatening her with punishment if
these cruel actions were continued. This only excited the Koreans the
more against Christianity, for it seemed to imply that Roman Catholicism
had behind it a temporal power, and was therefore of political
significance. In consequence of this a new outbreak occurred which cost
the lives of several more Koreans, while the two priests were obliged to
hide away very closely in the country.
In the summer of 1847 two French boats, the frigate _la Gloire_ and the
corvette _la Victorieuse_ set sail from the Gulf of Pechili to go to
Korea and ascertain what had been the result of the former letter. These
two boats both struck a mud-bank and when the tide went down they broke
in two. The crews to the number of 600 escaped to the neighboring island
of Kogeum off the province of Chŭl-la, and a pinace was immediately
despatched to Shanghai for aid. The Koreans gave every assistance in
their power and supplied them with food and other necessaries, and even
offered to provide boats to take the men back to China. In fact the
action of the Korean government was most creditable throughout. An
English ship happened to come by and it carried the survivors all back
to China. The Korean government, fearing further visits from the French,
decided to answer the letter of the previous year. It was couched in the
following terms:
“Last year we received a letter from the foreigners. It was addressed to
the ministers of this realm and read as follows: ‘Three of our
countrymen, Imbert, Chastan and Maubant, have been put to death by you.
We come to demand why you have killed them. You will say perhaps that
your law forbids foreigners entering your country, but if Chinese or
Manchus should happen to enter your realm you would not kill them, but
you would have them carried back to their own country. Why then did you
not treat these men the same way? If they had been convicted of murder,
sedition or a like crime we would have nothing to say, but they were
innocent, and in condemning them unjustly you have committed a grave
injury against the French government.’ To this letter we beg to reply as
follows: In 1839 there were arrested here certain strangers who were
brought into the country at a time unknown to us. They wore Korean
clothes, they spoke the Korean language, they traveled by night and
slept by day; they veiled their faces, concealed their whereabouts and
consorted with men whom we consider rebels, godless men and enemies of
the government. When brought before the tribunal they claimed that their
names were Pierre No and Japanese Cang. Are these the men you refer to?
When interrogated, they said nothing about being Frenchmen, and even if
they had we could not have sent them back, for we did not know where
your country is. What could we do but apply our law, which forbids
secret entrance into our kingdom? On the other hand, their conduct in
changing their names and wearing Korean dress shows that they had
ulterior motives, and they cannot be compared to those who have been
shipwrecked upon our shores. Such men we save if possible and aid to
send back home. Such is our law. Had your fellow-countrymen been
shipwrecked upon our coast, they would have received precisely the same
treatment as Chinese, Japanese or Manchus under like circumstances. You
say that these men were killed without cause and that we have committed
a grave offense against the French government. This is most astonishing.
We have never had any communication with France. We do not know even how
far she is from Korea. What motive could we possibly have for injuring
her? How would you act if a foreigner should enter your country secretly
and in disguise and do what you consider evil? Would you leave him
alone? If a Chinaman or a Manchu should come here and do as your people
did they would be treated in the same manner as we did your people. In
fact, we did put to death a Chinaman because he came here in disguise
and changed his costume; and the Chinese government never said a word
about it, for they knew this to be our law. Even had we known their
nationality, their actions were so contrary to our laws that we could
hardly have spared them, how much less then when we did know it. This
matter hardly needs more explanation. Your letter was sent without the
proper formalities and we are not bound to answer it. This is not a
matter that a mere provincial governor can handle. As we are China’s
vassal it is our duty to consult the court at Peking on all foreign
matters. Tell this to your chief and do not be surprised that in order
to show the true state of the case we have been led to speak thus
plainly.”
One needs but to read this to see that it is an unanswerable argument.
From a merely political and legal point of view the Korean government
had all the facts on her side, though from the standpoint of humanity
they were wrong. It is strange that they omitted the strongest argument
of all namely, that they asked the Frenchmen to leave and they refused.
It is evident that by so doing they made themselves amenable to Korean
law, and took the consequences, good or bad. One cannot admire enough
the heroism which they displayed in staying to suffer with their
coreligionists, though the opportunity was given them to save themselves
by departure. It cannot be doubted that the rapid spread of Catholicism
in Korea is due in large measure to the heroic self-sacrifice of those
men and others like them, who literally gave their lives to the work. It
would be wrong however to say that the government was wholly without
excuse. From time immemorial death had been the penalty for crimes of
far less import to the Korean mind than the spreading of heretical
beliefs. With the light they had and the provocation under which they
labored we should say they needed rather enlightenment than censure.
This answer was not accepted as satisfactory by the French government
and a rejoinder was sent saying that thereafter French subjects who
should be taken on Korean soil must be sent to Peking, otherwise the
Korean government would lay itself open to grave evils. But soon after
this the revolution of 1848 took place in France and these eastern
questions were all forgotten for the time being.
In 1849 the king died without male issue and his grandmother Kim
nominated his nephew, the son of a banished brother. The young man
entered upon the duties of his office at the age of nineteen and he is
known by his posthumous title of Ch’ŭl-jong Tă-wang. This reign of
fourteen years beheld some important reforms. The law was reaffirmed
that the families of banished men might follow them into exile. Gambling
was severely interdicted. The merchants’ monopolies were broken up. A
hard fight was made against bribery and peculation in high places.
Country gentlemen were forbidden to seize and beat any one belonging to
the lower orders.
This king was the son Prince Chun-gye by a slave woman named Kang. He
was the great-grandson of the Crown Prince, Sado, whom his father nailed
up in the box.
His reign was an important one in two respects. First the very rapid
spread of Roman Catholicism and second the settled policy which was
adopted toward all outside influences. When the reign began there were
about 11,000 Christians in Korea and when it closed in 1863 there were
in the vicinity of 20,000, or almost double. Everyone knew that to
combat it there would be need of a king of a different calibre from
Ch’ŭl jong; and so during these years the work of propagating the new
faith went on steadily and without any considerable drawbacks. The
picture of the country as drawn by the French is indeed a sad one. They
say the king had shown himself quite incapable and had become a mere
debauche. The highest officials were fattening off the people and the
latter were frequently consulting the books of prophecy which foretold
the dissolution of the dynasty. And now foreigners began to enter the
country in greater numbers. Maistre, Jansen, Berneux followed each other
in quick succession in the early fifties. The latter became Bishop of
Korea.
About the end of 1860 came the news of the fall of Peking before the
combined French and English forces, the flight of the Emperor and the
burning and looting of the Summer Palace. The news was that thousands of
foreigners had come to overthrow the empire. The utmost consternation
prevailed in Seoul. An official memorialised the throne giving three
causes for lively concern.
(1) The Emperor, fleeing before his enemies, might wish to find asylum
in Korea, or at least might take refuge in some Manchu fortress just
beyond the border. Every possible approach ought to be strictly guarded
so that the Emperor might not dare to force his way into Korean
territory. (This shows the depth of Korea’s loyalty to China.)
(2) The outlaw bands that infested the neutral strip between Korea and
China might attempt an invasion of Korea and forts ought to be built to
prevent such an enterprise.
(3) Worst of all, there might be a possible invasion of Korea by the
foreigners. Korean cities would be wrecked, the morals of the people
would be lowered, a depraved religion would be established. As the
foreigners were strong only on the sea or on level ground the
mountainous character of Korea would be of material advantage to her.
The army should be reorganised, and forts should be built along the
principal approaches to Seoul; also at Tong-nă, Nam-yang, Pu-byŭng and
In-ju. A fort should be built on high ground commanding the passage of
the narrows at Kang-wha. Western boats could not of course ascend the
Han River. As the foreign religion spread rapidly in the provinces every
precaution should be taken to prevent the foreign priests communicating
with their countrymen abroad.
The ministry and the people all applauded this plan and the memorialist
was made a judge and given power to carry out his scheme. But news came
thick and fast telling of the killing of thousands of Chinese soldiers,
and the returning embassy in February 1861, gave definite news of the
flight of the Emperor and the treaty wrested from the great Chinese
empire. This news electrified the people. All business was suspended.
The well-to-do people all fled to mountain retreats the doughty
memorialist among the first. The ministers sent away their families and
their goods. Many of the high officials asked the protection of the
Roman Catholics, and tried to procure Roman Catholic books or badges of
any kind, and many wore these at their belts in broad daylight. The
yamen-runners were loud in their protestations that they had had nothing
to do with the persecution of the Catholics. It was believed by the
French in Korea at the time that a most favorable treaty could have been
concluded just at that time: but no effort in that direction was made by
the French.
Gradually the excitement abated and preparations for war were pushed,
the wealthy classes supplying the money for the same. Old arms were
resurrected, and cannon were cast on the model of one obtained from the
French wrecks. At this time there were nine Frenchmen in Korea.
The year 1861 was a hard one for the people. They were taxed to the last
farthing and local riots were exceedingly common. The French give us an
amusing incident, where the widows of a certain prefecture were taxed.
They rose up _en masse_ and mobbed the prefect’s office, caught his
mother, tore off all her garments and left her well nigh naked. This of
course meant that the prefect was disgraced for life.