Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in Korea: Ancient to Contemporary Times

Chapter 10 Dying for Heaven: Persecution, Martyrdom, and Family in the Early Korean Catholic Church

213 10 Dying for Heaven Persecution, Martyrdom, and Family in the Early Korean Catholic Church Franklin Rausch “[Trying to suppress Catholicism] is like hitting ashes with a club. The more you strike, the more they rise up. Though the King wants to put a stop to it, in the end, there is nothing that can be done.”1 These words, spoken by Yi Ka-hwan (1742–1801), a former Catholic whose household contained numerous believers in the new religion, would prove to be true.2 Despite numerous government persecutions in which Catholics were tortured and killed, this religious community continued to rebuild itself with the help of Chinese and French missionaries. While it is not clear to what Yi attributed the Catholic willingness to die, if he were to have stated his reasons, there is a good chance he would have mentioned Catholic teachings on the afterlife, for, as will be seen in the course of this chapter, it was the hope of heaven (and perhaps the fear of hell) that inspired many Catholics to prefer death to abandoning their religion. And yet, like Yi Ka-hwan, Catholics did leave the community and give up the practice of that faith. In fact, many of the early Catholic leaders did. John the Baptist Yi Pyŏk (1754–1786), who had a key role in bringing Catholicism to Korea, agreed to abandon the religion when his father threatened to hang himself.3 Similarly, Francis-Xavier Kwŏn Il-sin (1751– 1791) made an ambiguous statement of repudiation in order to be sent to a place of banishment closer to his elderly and ill mother.4 It was moral duties to family formed by a Confucian worldview that led these two men to, however reluctantly, abjure their faith. Similarly, others would 214 / Franklin Rausch abandon Catholicism when they learned of the prohibition against ancestor rites. Thus, despite the efforts of Catholic missionaries to portray the faith as fulfilling Confucian ethics, the moral obligations to family that worldview demanded could easily come into conflict with the Catholic emphasis on the relationship between God and human beings.5 This conflict with Confucian ethics would have exacerbated the pain that naturally would have been felt at the prospect of leaving loved ones behind . Such tensions in turn drove those Koreans who remained within the church to creatively reinterpret Catholic notions of the afterlife in accordance with Confucian morality. In this chapter, I examine these tensions and Catholic attempts to resolve them during the formative years of Korean Catholicism, from the late eighteenth century to 1827. I argue (1) that the Catholic concept of an afterlife was central to the practice of Korean Catholicism during this time; (2) that an interest in the afterlife prior to conversion to Catholicism could encourage Korean Catholics to choose death over repudiating the religion; (3) that the violent suppression of Catholicism led to further development and emphasis on the afterlife; (4) that some Koreans sought to resolve the conflict between Confucian morality and Catholic doctrine by drawing on concepts from both worldviews; (5) that over time a family tradition of martyrdom was established that could encourage even reluctant Catholics to prefer death to abandoning the Catholic community; (6) and that the Catholic vision of the afterlife was considered dangerous by the Chosŏn state. In order to prove these six points, I begin with an examination of the catechism compiled by the Catholic martyr Augustine Chŏng Yakchong (1761–1801) and how it presented Catholic teachings on heaven and hell. Then, after a short survey of the Confucian critique of the afterlife, I turn to the lives and martyrdoms of three Catholics, Kim Paek-sun (1769–1801), Peter Ch’oe P’il-che (1770–1801), and Father James Zhou Wenmo (1752–1801) as described by Alexius Hwang Sa-yŏng (1775–1801) in his Silk Letter, one of the few contemporary accounts of the 1801 suppression written from a Catholic perspective. Alexius’ hagiographies of these three men illustrate the importance of the afterlife in Korean Catholicism and the tensions that pulled upon them, themes that also appeared in his own life. We will then, through an examination of the writings of Luthgarde Yi Suni (1782–1801), who demanded to be martyred , and her older brother, Charles Yi Kyŏng-do (1780–1801), who was Dying for Heaven / 215 also executed, see how the violence directed against Catholics and the...