Fights--Prize fights--Fist fights--Special moon for fighting--Summary
justice--The use of the top-knot--Cruelty--A butcher combatant
--Stone-fights--Belligerent children--Battle between two guilds--Wounded
and killed--The end of the battle postponed--Soldiers' fights.
One of the characteristic sights in Cho-sen is a private fight. The
natives, as a rule, are quiet and gentle, but when their temper is roused
they seem never to have enough of fighting. They often-times disport
themselves in witnessing prize-fights among the champions of different
towns, or of different wards in the same town, and on these occasions
large crowds assemble to view the performance. The combatants generally
fight with their fists, but, like the French, are much given to use their
knees and feet as well in the contest. Much betting, also, goes on
amongst the excited spectators, and it is not seldom that a private
contest of this kind degenerates into a free fight.
The lower classes in the towns thoroughly enjoy this kind of sport, and
the slightest provocation is sufficient to make them come to blows. The
curious point about their fighting is that during the first moon of the
new year all rows can be settled in this rough and ready manner, without
committing any breach of the law. Hence it is that during that moon, one
sees hardly anything but people quarrelling and fighting. All the anger
of the past year is preserved until the New Year festivities are over,
but then free play is straightway given to the bottled-up passions. Were
a man even to kill his antagonist during a fight at this legalised
season, I doubt whether he would be imprisoned or punished; very likely
not.
For about fifteen days, in truth, things are simply dreadful in the
streets. Go in one direction, and you see people quarrelling; go in
another, and you see them fighting. The original _causa movens_ of all
this is generally _cash!_
When a deadly fight takes place in the streets, you may at once set it
down as having arisen over, say, a farthing! Debts ought always to be
paid before the old year is over; and, occasionally, grace is allowed for
the first fifteen days in the first moon; after that, the defaulting
debtors get summary justice administered to them. Creditors go about the
town in search of their debtors, and should they come face to face,
generally a few unparliamentary remarks are passed, followed by a
challenge. Hats are immediately removed, and given for safe keeping to
some one or other of the spectators, a crowd of whom has, of course, at
once assembled; and then the creditor, as is customary under such
circumstances in all countries, makes a dash for his debtor. The main
feature about these fights, so far as I could judge, was the attempt of
each antagonist to seize hold of the other by his top-knot. Should this
feat be successfully accomplished, a violent process of head-shaking
would ensue, followed by a shower of blows and scratches from the free
hand, the lower extremities meanwhile being kept busy distributing kicks,
really meant for the antagonist, but, occasionally, in fact often,
delivered to some innocent passer-by, owing to the streets of Cho-senese
towns not being as a rule over-wide.
When in a passion, the Coreans can be very cruel. No devices are spared
which can inflict injury on the adversary, and scratching and biting
during these fights are common concomitants. One afternoon, as I was
returning from a call at the Japanese Legation, and was proceeding down a
slight incline, riding Mr. Greathouse's horse, I witnessed a dreadful
scene. A butcher and another tradesman were settling questions in their
own delightful way, and were knocking each other about. At last, the
butcher felled the other man with a blow of a short club--like a
policeman's club--which is often made use of in these fights. As the man
lay motionless on the ground, the other, far from being content with what
he had done, seized a huge block of wood, one of those upon which they
chop up the meat, and, lifting it up with a great effort, dropped it on
his antagonist's head, with a dreadful sounding crack, which smashed his
skull, as one would a nut. Then, sitting triumphantly on the wooden
block, he solicited the compliments of the spectators.
Special interest is taken when the women fight, that is, among the very
lowest classes, and frequently the strings of _cash_ earned during the
day are lost or doubled on the odds of the favourite.
The better classes, it must be said to their credit, never indulge in
fist-fighting in public, though occasionally they have competitions in
their own compounds, champions being brought there at great expense and
made to fight in their presence. I believe they consider it to be
degrading, either first, to lose one's temper, or secondly, to administer
justice in such a fashion.
The most important contests of all are the stone and club-fights, which
are a national institution, approved by the Government and patronised by
everybody. They sometimes attain such large proportions as to be regular
battles. Supposing that one town or village has, from motives of jealousy
or other causes, reason to complain of a neighbouring city or borough, a
stone-fight during the first moon is invariably selected as the proper
method of settling the difference. Private families, with their friends,
fight in this way against other private families and their allies; and
entire guilds of tradesmen sometimes fight other guilds, several hundreds
of men being brought into the field on either side.
Children are much encouraged in this sport, it being supposed that they
are thus made strong, brave and fearless; and I have actually seen
mothers bring children of only eight or nine years old up to the scratch,
against an equal number of lads urged on by their mothers on the other
side. One boy on each side, generally the pluckiest of the lot, is the
leader, and he is provided with a small club, besides wearing on his head
a large felt hat with a sort of wreath round the crown, probably as a
protection against the blows that might reach his head. After him come
ten, twenty, or more other children in their little red jackets, some
armed with a club like their leader, the others with armfuls of stones. A
good mound of this ammunition is also, as a rule, collected in the rear,
to provide for the wants of the battle. The two leaders then advance and
formally challenge each other, the main body of their forces following in
a triangle; and when, after a certain amount of hesitation, the two have
exchanged a few sonorous blows with their clubs on each other's skulls,
the battle begins in earnest, volleys of stones are fired and blows
freely distributed until the forces of one leader succeed in pushing back
and disbanding the others.
A fight of this kind, even among children, lasts for several hours, and,
as can well be imagined, at the end of it there are a great many bleeding
noses and broken teeth, besides bruises in profusion. The victor in these
fights is made much of and receives presents from his parents and the
friends of the family. The principal streets and open spaces in Seoul,
during the fighting period, are alive with these youthful combatants, and
large crowds assemble to witness their battles, taking as much interest
in them as do the Spaniards in their bull-fights, and certainly causing
as much excitement.
More serious than these, however, are the hostilities which occasionally
take place between two guilds. When I was in Seoul, there was a great
feud between the butchers and those practising the noble art of
plastering the houses with mud. Both trades are considered by the Coreans
to belong to the lowest grade of society; and, this being so, the contest
would naturally prove of an envenomed and brutal character. A day was
fixed, upon which a battle should take place, to decide whose claims were
to prevail, and a battle-field was selected on a plain just outside the
South Gate of the city. The battle-field was intersected by the same
small frozen rivulet which also crosses Seoul; and it was on the western
side, near the city wall, where stood a low hill, that on the day
appointed I took up my position to view the fight, sketch and note-book
in hand.
The two armies duly arrived, and placed themselves in position, the
butchers on one side of the stream, the plasterers on the other. There
were altogether about eighteen hundred men in the field, that is to say,
about nine hundred on each side. As I could not get a very good view from
my high point of vantage, I foolishly descended to the valley to inspect
the fighting trim of the combatants, with the result that when the signal
for the battle to begin was given I found myself under a shower of
missiles of all weights and sizes, which poured down upon me with
incredible rapidity and solidity. Piles of stones had been previously
massed together by the belligerent parties, and fresh supplies came
pelting down incessantly. I must acknowledge I did not enjoy my position
at all, for the stones went whistling past, above my head, fired as they
were with tremendous force by means of slings.
The confusion was great. Some men were busy collecting the stones into
heaps again, while others were running to and fro--going to fetch, or
carrying, fresh ammunition to the front; and all the time the two armies
were gradually approaching one another until at last they came together
on the banks of the narrow stream. Here, considering the well-directed
pelting of stones, it was difficult to say which army would succeed in
dislodging the other. Those on the opposite side to where I was made a
rush upon us, but were fired upon with such increased vigour that they
were repulsed; then, however, concentrating their forces on one point,
they made a fresh attack and broke right into our ranks, fighting _corps
à corps_, and pushing back the men on my side, until the whole of their
contingent was brought over to our side of the stream. I was not, of
course, taking any active part in the fighting, but, seeing the bad turn
the struggle was assuming, I made up my mind that I was destined to have
my own skull broken before the fray was over. Though the duelling was
fierce, however, each man being pitted against his opponent with clubs
and drawn knives, and hammering or stabbing at him to his heart's
content, I, somehow, was in no way molested, except of course, that I was
naturally much knocked about and bruised, and several times actually came
in contact, and face to face, with the irate enemy.
If you can imagine eighteen hundred people fighting by twos in a
comparatively limited space and all crowded together; if you can form an
idea of the screaming, howling, and yelling in their excitement; and if
you can depict the whole scene with its envelopment of dust, then you
will have a fair notion of what that stone-fight was like. The fighting
continued briskly for over three hours, and many a skull was smashed.
Some fell and were trampled to death; others had very severe knife
wounds; a few were killed right out. When the battle was over, few were
found to have escaped without a bruise or a wound, and yet, after all,
very few were actually killed, considering how viciously they fought.
Indeed, there were in all only about half a dozen dead bodies left on the
battle-field when the combatants departed to the sound of the "big bell"
which announced the closing of the city gates.
After a long discussion on the part of the leaders, it was announced that
the battle was to be considered a draw, and that it would, therefore,
have to be renewed on the next afternoon. The argument, I was told, was
that, though the other side had managed to penetrate the camp on my side,
yet they had not been able to completely rout us, we having made a firm
stand against them. For the following two or three days, however, it
snowed heavily, and the fighting had to be postponed; and on the day it
actually did take place, to my great sorrow, I was unable to attend,
owing to a command to go to the palace. To my satisfaction I was
subsequently informed that the plasterers, that is to say, my side, had
ultimately come off victorious.
The police generally attend these battles, but only to protect the
spectators, and not to interfere in any way with the belligerents.
Soldiers are prohibited from taking any active part in fights which have
no concern for them; but they may fight as much as ever they please among
themselves during the free period allowed by the law. The fights of the
latter class are usually very fierce, and are invariably carried out with
bare chest and arms, that their uniforms may not be spoiled.
When that dreadful fortnight of fighting is over, the country again
assumes its wonted quiet; new debts are contracted, fresh hatreds and
jealousies are fomented, and fresh causes are procured for further
stone-battles during the first moon of the next year.
Such is life in Cho-sen, where, with the exception of those fifteen days,
there is calm, too much of it, not only in the morning, in accordance
with the national designation, but all through both day and night; where,
month after month, people vegetate, instead of live, leading the most
monotonous of all monotonous lives. It is not surprising, then, that once
a year, as a kind of redeeming point, they feel the want of a vigorous
re-action; and, I am sure, for such a purpose as this, they could not
have devised anything wilder or more exciting than a stone-battle.
The King himself follows with the utmost interest the results of the
important battles fought out between the different guilds, and reports of
the victories obtained are always conveyed to him at once, either by the
leaders of the conquering parties, or through some high official at
Court.