A great Crisis.... condition of affairs in Seoul.... flight of
Chinese.... Tă-wŭn-kun summoned to palace.... new Cabinet....
tribulations of Min Yong-jun.... Commission on Reforms appointed....
names of Government offices changed.... list of proposed reforms....
the currency.... new coinage.... revenue reforms.... a national
bank.... standardization of weights and measures.... past abuses
rectified.... foreign advisers.
The year 1894 marked the greatest crisis in Korean history since the
seventh century, when the kingdom of Silla gained control of the whole
peninsula. Considering the fact that so many of the old abuses survived
after the year 1894, the above statement may seem extreme but the facts
of the case warrant it. From the early years of the Christian era Korea
had been moulded by Chinese ideas and had been dominated by her
influence. There was no time from the very first when Korea did not
consider China her suzerain. In a sense this was natural and right.
Korea had received from China an immense number of the products of
civilization. Literature, art, science, government, religion—they had
all been practically borrowed from China. It is a thing to be marvelled
at that Korea through all these centuries has preserved any semblance of
individualism. She never would have done so if there had not been a
radical and ineffacable difference between the Chinese and the Korean
which no amount of moulding could remove.
Never once during all those centuries did Korea attempt or desire to
throw off the garment of her vassalage. And even in this crisis of 1894
it was not thrown off through any wish of the Korean government or
people but only through hard necessity. There had been no radical change
in the mental attitude of the great mass of Koreans which demanded the
severing of the tie which bound them to China and even at this year of
grace 1904, there is every reason to believe that a great majority of
Koreans would elect to go back under the mild and almost nominal control
of China. The change is not one of attitude on the part of the Korean
but it is the fact that the war proved to the world the supineness of
China and made it forever impossible to revive her claim to suzerainty
over Korea or even, it is to be feared, to hold together her own
unwieldy bulk. The outward influence of China upon Korea has ceased and
other influences have been at work which are slowly drawing her away
from her servile obedience to Chinese ideals. This was the first
necessary step to the final emancipation of Korea and her national
regeneration. It should be carefully noted that from the earliest
centuries the Chinese implanted in the Korean no genuine seed of
civilization and progress but simply unloaded upon her some finished
products of her civilization. These the Koreans swallowed whole without
question, unmindful of the fact that by far the greater part of them
were wholly unsuited to the Korean temperament. The result was that as
time went on these Chinese impositions were overlaid with a pure Korean
product just as the little leaden Buddhas that are thrust into the shell
of the pearl oyster become coated over with mother-o’pearl. Buddhism
came from China but Korea has so mingled with it her native fetichism
and animism that it is something radically different from the original
stock.
Now this intrinsic freedom of the Korean from Chinese ideals argued
strongly in favor of the belief that from the year 1894 Korea would
gradually cast off even the mental vassalage and would begin to work
along individual lines. This could happen only in case the individualism
of the Korean had outlasted the deadening effects of Chinese
predominance. There are many evidences that this individualism has
survived but it must be confessed that it is in a crippled condition and
all but unable to walk alone. It is to the process and method of this
great transformation in Korean conditions that we must now turn.
Up to the time when the Japanese began active operations in Seoul by the
seizure of the palace, Korea considered herself safe under the aegis of
China. Had she not secured the murder of Kim Ok-kyun and the return of
his body on a Chinese vessel for the purpose of wreaking upon it the old
time vengeance? Had she not invited Chinese troops into the country in
direct contravention of the agreement between China and Japan? In every
way and by every means Korea had expressed her contempt of Japanese
power and of Japanese interests. Under the hideously corrupt regime of
such men as Min Yong-jun the country had been going from bad to worse
until the people found it utterly impossible to endure the oppression
any longer. The provinces were in a state of anarchy and Yuan Shih-kei,
the unscrupulous Chinese “Resident” in Seoul, stood smilingly by and
watched the tragedy without suggesting any remedy for the disease that
was destroying the country, but ready to increase the prestige of China
in the peninsula by offering troops with which to crush the starving
malcontents in the provinces. The condition of things was about as bad
as it could be, and it was at this psychological moment that Japan
lifted her hand and at a single blow tumbled the Chinese house of cards
about their heads.
By the twenty-first of July the situation in Seoul had become unbearable
for the Chinese. There was a small Chinese force at Asan but Seoul was
occupied by a strong Japanese force and every day the outbreak of
hostilities had become more imminent. On the early morning of the 20th
Yuan Shih-kei, in a mean little sedan chair, and entirely without
escort, made his escape from the city and hastened to Chemulpo, leaving
all his nationals to shift for themselves. His flight became known
almost immediately and there was a general scramble on the part of the
Chinese merchants and other Chinese to escape from the town. When the
Chinese Minister left Seoul their interests were put in the hands of the
British representative.
On the morning of the 25th the palace was taken and the city walls
manned by the Japanese. Min Yong-jun, who was largely responsible for
the parlous condition of the government, fled that night to the country,
and found refuge in the town of Ch’un-ch’ŭn about sixty miles east of
Seoul.
As soon as the Japanese had secured the palace Minister Otori sought the
presence of the king and assured him of his personal safety and that of
the Royal family. At the desire of His Majesty the ex-Regent, the
Tă-wŭn-kun was invited to the palace to participate in the discussion of
plans for the future, and to allay by his presence the natural fear of
the king. It was understood by common consent that the former officials
had all resigned and it was necessary to form a new government. Kim Hong
jip was summoned to act as Prime Minister. He was a man of strong
personality and of progressive tendencies, altogether a valuable man for
the emergency since he had the entire confidence of the Japanese and was
a man of the highest standing in Korea. Other leading men of progressive
tendencies were called in and a government was formed for temporary
purposes until matters could he put on a firmer footing. Min Yongijun,
Min Eung-sik, Min Hyungisik, Min Ch’i-hön, and Kim Se-geui were declared
banished to distant points. No attempt was made to send and arrest Min
Yong-jun but the members of the “Righteous Army” in the country seized
him and charged him with being the main author of the disturbances, and
beat him nearly to death. An enormous amount of money that he had
carried off with him was divided up and made away with by his followers.
He barely escaped with his life and fled to China where be gave the
Chinese advice as to the method of reasserting their authority in the
peninsula.
At this same time the government recalled Yi To-jă, Sin Keui-sŭn, Yun
Ung-yŭl and others who had been in banishment for ten years because of
their espousal of the liberal cause in 1884. The prison doors were
opened and innocent and guilty alike received amnesty.
The government was not yet ready to publish its full list of reforms,
based upon the demands already made by the Japanese Minister, but the
king immediately declared that as it was necessary to secure good men to
administer the Government in Seoul and in the provinces, the demarcation
between the upper and lower classes was a thing of the past and all men
of all grades were eligible to office, and at the same time he declared
the abolition of the great political parties and forbade the
apportionment of government offices along party lines. The different
leading offices under the government were put in the hands of the best
men that were available and it is probable that these men formed the
best government that Korea was capable of at the time. Some of the names
were as follows: Kim Hong-jip, Pak Chöng-yang, Kim Yun-sik, Kim
Chong-han, Cho Heui-yŭn, Yi Yun-yong, Kim Ka-jin, An Kyŭng-su, Chöng
Kyöng-wŭn, Pak Chun-yang, Yi Wŭn-göng Kim Ha-gu, Kwŭn Yŭng-jin. Yu
Kil-jun, Kim Ha-yŭng, Yi Eung-ik, Sö Sang jip. Among these names many
will be recognized as among the best that Korea has produced in recent
times.
On the very next day after the Japanese took the palace and gave a new
direction to governmental affairs a special High Commission was called
together by the king to consider the matter of reconstructing the
government along the new lines. It was composed partly of the the
members the Cabinet and partly of other distinguished men. It was well
understood that these men were to carry out the ideas of the Japanese
authorities. Their deliberations continued for a period of forty-one
days during which time they completed a scheme for a new government,
along the following lines.
Before this time there had been seven great governmental departments,
namely the _Eui-jung-bu_ or State Department, _Yi-jo_ or Home
Department, _Ho-jo_ or Finance Department, Yi-jo or Ceremonial
Department, _Pyŭng-jo_ or War Department, _Hyŭng-jo_ or Law Department,
_Kong-jo_ or Department of Public Works. Besides these there were the
two _Po-ch‘ŭng_ or Police offices, the _Eui-gom-bu_ or Supreme Court and
other lesser offices. In the new regime the seven Departments above
named were all retained excepting the Ceremonial Department and in place
of this they founded for the first time in Korean history a genuine
Educational Department coördinate in dignity with any other of the great
Departments. Besides this the Department of Public Works was broadened
to include Agriculture and Commerce. A Police Bureau was formed to take
the place of the former two Poch’ŭngs.
They also prepared a list of needed reforms in the government.
(1) From this time all Korean documents shall be dated from the year of
the present Dynasty. (This was the 503rd year, as the Dynasty was
founded in 1392).
(2) Korean treaties with China shall be revised and ministers shall be
sent to the various treaty powers.
(3) Class distinctions in Korea shall be wiped out and men shall be
judged solely on their merits in the matter of government office.
(4) The distinction between civil and military rank, in favor of the
former, shall be done away and they shall stand on an equality.
(5) The family and relatives of a criminal shall not be liable to arrest
or punishment for his crime.
(6) The son by a concubine shall be eligible for the succession.
(7) Men shall attain the age of twenty and women the age of sixteen
before marriage.
(8) Widows shall be allowed to remarry without loss of social standing.
(9) All slaves are declared free and the sale or purchase of human
beings is abolished.
(10) The privilege of memorial is extended to the general public. Anyone
shall be at liberty to address the throne through a memorial.
(11) The long sleeves on coats, whether court dress or common are
abolished. But officials shall be authorized to wear the sleeveless coat
over the ordinary one. Soldiers’ uniforms shall continue as at present
for a time but may be changed gradually to the foreign style.
(12) The people shall be given one month in which to prepare for these
changes.
(13) The Police Bureau shall be an adjunct of the Home Department.
(14) Officials shall not ride on the streets in the high one-wheeled
chair nor shall they be accompanied by a large retinue, nor shall the
attendants call out for people to clear the way.
(15) No one shall be obliged to dismount when passing an official nor to
show any other sign of servility.
(16) The Prime Minister shall have only four attendants, the Vice Prime
Minister and all the other ministers of state shall have three, the
vice-ministers shall have two and the secretaries one.
(17) Even eunuchs, if they are men of ability, shall be eligible for
office.
(18) The law that relatives may not sue each other at law shall be
abrogated except for very near relatives, and feuds between families
shall be given up.
(19) All debts of long standing shall be cancelled (such as debts
contracted by a father who is now dead or by relatives).
(20) There shall be but eleven official grades (in place of the eighteen
which there had been formerly).
(21) There shall be no longer any outcast class in Korea but butchers,
contortionists, acrobats, dancing girls, sorceresses and exorcists shall
all be considered equal to others before the law.
(22) Even after holding high office a man may engage in business or
other occupation, at his pleasure.
(23) The matter of the national examination shall be reserved for fuller
discussion.
It is not necessary to go into an analysis of these proposed reforms.
They speak for themselves; some of them were necessary and others were
the reverse. But they form a striking commentary on the condition of
affairs in Korea at the time. Whatever may have been the defects of this
plan it was an honest and strenuous attempt on the part of the best
statesmen Korea could produce and it promised much. If its terms could
have been carried out it would have proved an inestimable blessing to
the people of the peninsula, but one can easily see that some of the
proposals struck at the very fabric of Korean society. For instance the
attempt to make acrobats, dancing-girls and _mudang_ the social equals
of reputable people was of course absurd. The submerged classes cannot
be enfranchised by a stroke of the pen. What Korea needed then and needs
still is education. This alone will make fundamental reforms possible.
Early in August the currency of the country received serious attention.
Foreign money was in use in the open ports but the general currency of
the country consisted of two kinds of perforated “cash,” one called
_yŭp_, each piece of which was called one cash, and the other called
_tang-o_ or the “five fitter.” These represented five cash each. The
_yŭp_ was the old, genuine and universally recognized money of the
country. It was only in Seoul, the open ports and on the great
thoroughfares near Seoul that the _tang-o_ circulated. This _tang-o_ was
a debased coin made in 1883 and several succeeding years. At first each
of the _tang-o_ exchanged for five of the _yŭp_ but within a few months
the _tang-o_ fell to an inevitable discount which increased year by year
from 1883 until 1894, when it was found that they were practically the
same. Successive issues of the _yŭp_ had deteriorated the quality and
size of the coin until it was worth only a fifth of its face value. For
this reason the Government declared in August that the _yŭp_ and the
_tang-o_ were on a par and that no distinction should be made between
them. The fair thing would have been for the Government to redeem the
debased _tang-o_ at its face value but of course no one could expect
this under the circumstances. It had proved an indirect tax upon the
people equal to four fifths its face value.
At the same time the national financiers determined to place in the
hands of the people a foreign style coinage, and soon a one cent copper
piece, a nickel five cent piece and silver coins of twenty cent and one
dollar denominations, which had been in process of manufacture since
1901, were issued. A few of them had been issued a year or two before
but had not been well received. Now they passed current and were used,
but it was soon found that the silver coins were being bought up and
hoarded by wealthy people who placed no faith in banks, and soon not a
single native silver piece could be found anywhere.
It was the intention of the Commission to withdraw from circulation all
the old cash and replace it with the foreign style money. How absurd
this was will be seen at a glance. There is nothing else that people are
so timid about as their money and the bare idea of making such a
sweeping change was preposterous, but the Japanese were behind all these
reforms and, while their intentions were of the best, they made the
serious mistake in this as in other attempted reforms of hurrying things
too fast.
Another important problem attacked by the Reform Commission was that of
the revenue. It had always been customary to pay taxes in rice, linen,
beans, cotton and a hundred other commodities, but it was decided now to
change all this and have the revenue turned into cash in the country and
sent up to the capital. In order to do this it was necessary to have
banking facilities in the provinces and it was planned to establish a
great national bank with branches all over the country.
An attempt was also made to effect an inspection and standardization of
all the weights and measures in the country.
It was ordered that every house in the land should have its owner’s name
and occupation and the number of his family posted in a conspicuous
place on his front gate. This was to facilitate the work of postal,
police and census officials and agents.
One of the reforms that was carried out was the sending of students
abroad to acquire an education.
It was decreed that all land or houses that had been illegally seized by
unscrupulous people in power during the past ten years should be
restored to their rightful owners. Many officials in Seoul, well known
in foreign circles, lost large fractions of their wealth because of this
decree.
The policy was adopted of engaging foreign advisers for the various
great Departments of State and as a result of this a number of
foreigners were employed. Some of them had already been some time in the
service of the government.