Korean Civilization

1. Korean 10: Korean Civilization
Week 3: Slide Presentation 1 of 1
The Great Han Empire
Reform, Modernization & Westernization
Prof. Mickey Hong
Modern Languages & Civilizations

2. Treaty of Kanghwa
(1876)
 Unyo Incident in 1875: Japanese vessel
Unyo was sent into the waters off
Kanghwa => provoked Korean defenders
=> Japanese charged the Korean
government
 Result was the Treaty of Kanghwa
 First modern treaty
 Unequal treaty
2

3. Early Incursions
 1832 English merchant ship
 1845 English warship
 1846, 3 French warships left letter for court
 1854, 2 Russian vessels clashed with some Koreans
 1866, Prussian unable to force trade returned two years
later and defiled king’s grandfather’s grave
3

4. Foreigners in Late Chosŏn
 Seclusion policy
 Early incursions [next slide]
 Catholic persecutions
 French Disturbance (1866)
 General Sherman incident (1866)
 American Disturbance (1871)
 Unyŏ incident (1875)

5. Contact the
with Outside
5
22 Feb.
1876
Treaty of
Kanghwa
1882
Korean-
American
Treaty
1883
Britain
1883
Germany
1884
Italy
1884
Russia
1886
France
1889
Austria-
Hungary

6. Domestic Turmoil
 Taewŏn’gun’s struggles for power
 Soldier’s Riot (1882)
 Chinese interference (1882-1894)
 Kapsin Coup of 1884
 Kim Okkyun (1851-1894), Pak
Yŏng-hyo (1861-1939)

7. Enlightenment vs.
Anti-foreignism
 Anti-foreignism
 Led by Neo-Confucian literati
outside the capital
 To reject heterodoxy in
defense of orthodoxy
 Support Taewŏngun
 Enlightenment (the progressives)
 Led by scholars/officials who
visited Japan
 Should learn from Japan:
modernization/westernization
7

8. Enlightenment Party: the Progressives
 Returning from Japan proposed reforms
 40 students to Japan to study military and technical subjects
 Modern army was formed
 Postal Administration was established
 For the preservation of Korea’s independence, seeking foreign
contacts
8

9. Modern Army: Special Skills Force (from
yangban class)
9

10. Soldiers’ Riot (1882)
 Discontent of the traditional military
units
 King Kojong and Queen Min favored the
elite Special Skills Force
 Traditional military units received salary
with rice ration with chaff => outraged
soldiers assaulted the ration clerks =>
the leader was sentenced to death =>
riot occurred
 The return of the Taewŏngun
10

11. Coup d’Etat by the
Progressives (1884)
 Coup was led by Kim
Okkyun
 Aim to establish an
independent and efficient
modern state with an
egalitarian social order
 Lasted three days
11

12. Eastern Learning
(Tonghak)
 Founder: Ch’oe Cheu (1824-1864)
 Began to be propounded in 1860
 Doctrine included elements from
Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism,
Shamanism, Catholicism
 Unity of man with heaven (the supreme
being)
 Equality of for all human beings
 Chanting of magical formulas
 Worship of mountain deities
 Not only religious movement but a
social movement
 Called for reform of the corruption-
ridden government
 Declaring the expulsion of foreign
power in Choson
 Ch’oe Cheu was arrested in 1863 and
executed in 1864.
12

13. Tonghak (Eastern
Learning) Uprising
(1894)
 Founder: Ch’oe Cheu (1824-1864)
 Government was Queen Min’s
hand: Pro-Qing
 Better organized large-scale
armed peasants uprising
 Against Queen Min, driving out all
foreign intruders
 Under the leadership of Chŏn
Pongjun (1853-1895), a Confucian
village teacher
 Slogan: sustain the nation and
provide for the people
 Ch’oe Cheu was arrested in 1863
and executed in 1864
13

14. 14
Tonghak (Eastern Learning) Uprising
(1894)
 Not only religious movement but a social movement
 Called for reform of the corruption-ridden government
 Declaring the expulsion of foreign power in Choson
 The government appealed to China for military support => China responded
immediately => Japan also sent army
 Chŏn Pongjun negotiated with the government
 The Tonghak peasants withdrew and returned to their homes
 Taewŏngun in leadership again
 Outbreak of Sino-Japanese war => Japan won in 1895

15. The Kabo Reform (1894)
 The first objective was to fully establish Korea’s independence as a nation
 Organizing the modern police force and military establishment
 Reform in educational system => abolished the civil service examination
=> modern elementary schools, high schools and colleges established
 Social reform => the social status system totally abolished in 1894
 Adoption of the western calendar
 Male’s traditional topknot (sangtu) be cut off
15

16. What’s a top-knot
(sangtu)?
 Man could wear a topknot only
after he is married
 Symbolizing male adulthood
 Confucius:
“Our bodies - to every hair and
bit of skin - are received by us from
our parents, and we must not
presume to injure or wound them.
This is the beginning of filial piety.”

17. “Cut my head off, but not
my hair.”
—Ch’oe Ikhyŏn, 1895
17

18. Rise of popular culture
 P’ansori
Movie: Sŏp’yŏnje(Seopyeonje)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdjwD4jW4XY
 Mask dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J__sRcB3eY
 Paintings on Korea: commoners, everyday life, women and
landscape
18

19. Pansori

20. Mask
Dance/Drama

21. Commoners in Chosŏn
Painter Kim Chungŭn, better known as Kisan (c. 1886)

22. Rise of Popular
Literature/Fiction
 A variety of fiction works in
hangul
 Moral lesson + Social criticism
 Ch’unhyang chŏn (Tale of
Ch’unhyang)
 Sim Ch’ŏng chŏn (Tale of Sim
Chŏng)
 Hŭngbu chŏn (Tale of Hŭngbu)

23. Assassination of Empress Myŏngsŏng
(Formerly Queen Min)
(October 8, 1895)
 Carried out by Japanese agents under Miura Goro
 The corpse of the Empress was then burned and buried.
 Emperor Kojong unharmed

24. Rise of
Nationalism
 Queen Min: pro-Russia/ pro-
America government
 Removed pro-Japanese from
the government
 Japanese minister plotted to
assassinate Queen Min
 King Kojong returned to the palace
in 1897 and proclaimed to the
world the establishment of the
independent “Great Han Empire.”

25. From Kingdom to The Great (?) Han Empire
(1897-1910)
 Kojong returned to the
Kyŏngun Palace from
the Russian legation in
1897

26. The Independence
Club
(Tongnip Hyŏphoe)
 Founded by Sŏ Chaep’il (Philip
Jaisohn) in 1896
 Lived in exile in America
since 1884
 American citizen with a
medical degree
 New intellectual class:
exposed to Western liberalism
 Secure the nation’s
independence and the “rights
of the people”

27. The Independence
Club (Tongnip
Hyŏphoe)
 The Independent or
Tongnip Sinmun (1896–
1899) was the first
privately managed
modern daily
newspaper. It was
founded in July 1896.
Hangŭl and English
 Indepedence Gate
built after the First
Sino-Japanese War to
celebrate Korea’s
independence away
from Korea's previous
status as a Chinese
tributary state (1897)
27

28. The Independence Club
(Tongnip Hyŏphoe)
 Opposed the granting of economic concessions; Urged to adopt an independent and
neutral foreign policy, favoring none
 Promote a self-strengthening movement: education system, building textile and
paper mills, and ironworks, modern national defense => Korea for the Koreans
 Initiated a democratic people’s rights movement in order to increase popular
participation in the political process
 In 1898, the Club organized an “assembly of officials and the people” => launched a
movement for achieving political democracy within the framework of a
constitutional monarchy
 Asserting the right of the individual to the security of his person and property, the
rights of free speech and assembly, the full equality of all people, and the doctrine
of popular sovereignty
 Kojong strict suppression => the Club closed 1898
 The government ordered the Club’s dissolution and arrested the leaders => mass
protest => accepting the Club’s proposal on the Privy Council 28

29. Modernizing Seoul
 Trolley lines, city lighting plant,
waterworks, and telephone networks in
Seoul: by American, James R. Morse (1895)
 First railroad: from Seoul to Inch’ ŏn (1899)
 Hwangson Sinmun (Capital Gazette): forum
for Confucianist reform

30. Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
 Rivalry over Korea and Manchuria => Japan decided to seek a military solution =>
Korean government took neutrality
 Japan won => Japanese aggression => US and France acknowledged Japan’s right to
take appropriate measures for the “guidance, control and protection” for Korea =>
Korea in established a protectorate over 1905
30

31. The Protectorate Treaty
of 1905
 Japanese statesman, Ito Hirobumi entered the
palace with an escort of Japanese troops =>
demanded that they accept the draft treaty
Japan prepared => opposition were dragged
from the chamber => sealed without Kojong’s
consent
 Five officials agreed including Yi Wanyong (Ŭlsa
Five Thieves)
 Gave full authority over all aspects of Korea’s
relations with foreign countries to the Japanese
foreign office
 Resistance by Yi imperial house, unsuccessful at
gaining international support
31

32.  Kojong’s opposition to the Treaty => published in Korea Daily News in 1907
 In 1907, Kojong secretly sent delegation to the Netherlands (The Second
Hague Peace Conference) to expose the injustice done by Japanese
=> the conference refused to seat the Korean delegates or accept their petition
=> Japan demanding that Kojong accept the responsibility
=> relinquishing the throne in 1907
=> crown prince Sunjong became emperor => new agreement signed
The new agreement: the Japanese resident-general formal authority to intercede
in all matters of internal administration

33. Kojong sent letters to…
 King Edward VII of the United Kingdom
 President Armand Fallières of France
 Emperor Nicholas II of Russia
 Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-
Hungary
 King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
 King Léopold II of Belgium
 Emperor Kuang-hsu of China
 Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany
 Kojong sent three secret emissaries to
the second international Hague Peace
Convention to protest the unfairness of
the Eulsa Treaty
33

34.  In 1907, the association for Redemption of the National
Debt was organized => campaign to repay the immense
debts => seen as anti-Japanese movement =>suppressed
 Terauchi Masatake, the war minister in the Japanese
cabinet => suspended the publication of Korean
newspapers => he worked out the terms of the annexation
treaty with the Korean Prime Minister Yi Wanyong =>
Korea was colonized in 1910.
34

35. An Chunggŭn (1879-1910)
 Itō Hirobumi arrives in Harbin on October 26, 1909 to
meet with Vladimir Kokovtsov, a Russian representative
in Machuaria.
 An Chunggŭn fired 6 shots, 3 of which hit Itō and killed
him.
 An later listed 15 reasons why Itō should be killed" at his
trial.

36. 15 reasons why Itō Hirobumi should be
killed.
1. Assassinating the Korean Empress Myŏngsŏng
2. Dethroning the Emperor Kojong
3. Forcing 14 unequal treaties on Korea.
4. Massacring innocent Koreans
5. Usurping the authority of the Korean government by force
6. Plundering Korean railroads, mines, forests, and rivers
7. Forcing the use of Japanese banknotes
8. Disbanding the Korean armed forces
9. Obstructing the education of Koreans
10. Banning Koreans from studying abroad
11. Confiscating and burning Korean textbooks
12. Spreading a rumor around the world that Koreans wanted Japanese protection
13. Deceiving the Japanese Emperor by saying that the relationship between Korea
and Japan was peaceful when in truth it was full of hostility and conflicts
14. Breaking the peace of Asia
15. Assassinating the Emperor Kōmei

37. The most famous handprint in
Korean history, An Chunggŭn
37

38. Modern Nationalistic
Culture
 Modern schools:
 Government schools:
primary, middle normal and
foreign language schools
 First modern private school:
Wŏnsan Academy in 1883
 Seoul Young Men’s Christian
Association found in 1903 => led
many organizations for the
Korean youth
 Taejonggyo (Religion of Tangun
Worshippers) founded in 1909
38

39.  Standardization of Korean
writing
 Scholars of Korean history
active during this period =>
foster a sense of national pride
and self-respect
 Great interest in world history
 New novel (sin sosŏl) was born
=> a bridge between the old
fiction and modern Korean
literature
Yi Kwangsu’s Heartless
(Mujŏng)
39

40. Resisting Japan, 1905-1910
 “Righteous Army” (義兵)
 Yangban elites, e.g.
Ch’oe Ikhyôn
 Peasants
 Special Envoy to the
Hague International
Peace Conference in
1907
 Kojong forced to
abdicate
 Sunjong cedes his throne
and country in 1910
40

41. YMCA Baseball Team
 The baseball team of Hwangsung Young
Men's Christian Association (presently the
Seoul YMCA), including its manager Philip
Gillett, far right, an American missionary,
poses for a photograph in 1911. It was
around this time that Koreans began calling
baseball by the name "yagu."
41

42. Annexation Treaty (August 22, 1910)
 Prime Minister Yi Wanyong’s role
 Ilchinhoe (Advance in Unity Society): Pro-annexation
 Formal end of Chosŏn (1392-1910)
 Abdication by King Sunjong on August 29, 1910