The Making of the First Korean President: Syngman Rhee's Quest for Independence, 1875-1948

Chapter 1. Birth of a Christian Reformer

1 cHAPTeR one Birth of a Christian Reformer Family Background Syngman rhee (Yi Sŭng-man) was born in 1875 in P’yŏngsan County, Hwanghae Province, in what is now part of North Korea—the year post– meiji restoration Japan first revealed its imperialistic ambition toward the Korean Peninsula by dispatching a naval vessel, the Unyō, to the mouth of the Han river. “rhee” is a variation of Yi that Syngman rhee adopted in early 1905 when he arrived in the United States for diplomatic and academic purposes. His father, Yi Kyŏng-sŏn (1837–1912), was a remote royal descendant (Fig. 1.1). His mother (1833–1896)—whose given name, in accordance with tradition, is not recorded in the family genealogy—was the only daughter of Kim Ch’ang-ŭn, a local village teacher. rhee was the youngest of three sons and two daughters, but because both his older brothers died of measles before he was born, he grew up as the only son.1 His older sister was married into a Haeju U family and the younger one into a P’yŏngsan Sim family. For six generations in a row, the family had had only one male heir to continue the family line, so the young Syngman rhee was doted on by those around him, especially his parents and sisters. His clan, the Chŏnju Yi, descended from King t’aejo, Yi Sŏng-gye (1335–1408), the founder of the Chosŏn dynasty. rhee was the sixteenth-generation descendant of King Sejong’s elder brother, Prince Yangnyŏng (Yi Che, 1394–1462). King Sejong (Yi to, r. 1418–1450), who is credited with creating the Korean alphabet, han’gŭl, was a grandson of t’aejo, thus making Syngman rhee taejo’s eighteenth-generation descendant.2 Outwardly Syngman rhee’s family thus belonged to that elite level of society, the royal clan; his lineage, however, tells a different story. Prince Yangnyŏng, rhee’s sixteenth-generation ancestor, was known as the less affluent member of the royal family. rhee’s family descended from the line of the prince’s fifth son, Yi Hŭn, better known among the clan members as lord Changp’yŏng (Changp’yŏng pujŏng), who lacked status within the family because of his birth as a son of a secondary wife.3 Because of this (in combination with a ban on officeholding by close royal relatives), rhee’s direct ancestors were unable to place themselves into positions of power or prestige for generation after generation.4 By the late nineteenth century, when rhee was born, his family lived in poverty, with little to suggest 2 ChaPter 1 that the future held any promise of better times ahead. Considering the fate of his ancestors, it is not difficult to understand why rhee projected a coolness toward the Chosŏn dynasty and instead advocated, ahead of contemporary Korean elites, relatively radical ideas such as the abolition of the traditional four classes (scholar-officials, farmers, artisans, and merchants) and the promotion of democracy.5 rhee’s father, Yi Kyŏng-sŏn, was a gentleman of Confucian inclination well-versed in genealogy and geomancy (a long-held belief in East asia that certain geographic and terrain features influence the fortune of individuals and families) but without wealth or a solid means of supporting the family, namely, an official position. He attributed the decline in the Figure 1.1. The eighteenyear -old Syngman Rhee (standing on the right) with his father, Kyŏng-sŏn (seated), in 1893, when he was studying at a Confucian tutorial school, Todong School, in Seoul. The young man on the left is Rhee’s classmate Kim Hŭng-sŏ. Birth of a Christian Reformer 3 family fortune to mistakes committed in selecting tomb sites for ancestors, and he spent considerable energy in search of auspicious geomantic sites around the country.6 refined but living in continual poverty, he did not measurably contribute to the education and success of his son. rhee’s mother, the daughter of a country teacher of the Confucian classics, was a devout Buddhist and unusually well-educated among the women of her generation. In sharp contrast to her husband, she personally tutored her son in classical Chinese and poetry. For the education of her sole surviving son, she persuaded her husband to move from the rural Hwanghae Province to Seoul...