Eastern Learning and the Heavenly Way: The Tonghak and Chondogyo Movements and the Twilight of Korean Independence

Introduction

ix intrOdUCtiOn Along Chongno, the busiest street in Seoul’s crowded city center, is a park that is walled off from the hustle and bustle. It is called Pagoda Park (T’apkol kongwŏn), because of an ancient Buddhist pagoda located on the site. In this small piece of greenery where old men play chess and paduk, there are several bronze murals along the walls commemorating demonstrations against Japanese colonial rule in March 1919 that first began in the park. In front of these murals is a statue of Son Pyŏngh ŭi, the first signer of Korea’s Declaration of Independence and leader of a native religion called Ch’ŏndogyo (Teaching of the Heavenly Way).1 Although the demonstrations were brutally suppressed, they are seen as the first mass manifestation of the Korean desire for freedom from Japanese colonial rule that had been imposed just nine years previously. March 1 is still a national holiday in South Korea, and celebrations take place in the park and throughout the country in commemoration of this important part of Korean national construction. The Declaration of Independence and the demonstrations were a collaborative venture; thirty-two others signed the declaration and thousands throughout the country demonstrated in the following month. The signers included sixteen Christians, fifteen from Son’s Ch’ŏndogyo religion, and two Buddhists. As can be seen from the background of the signers, religious organizations were important in the organization of the March First Movement. What is also interesting is the prominence of Christians and Ch’ŏndogyo followers, who came from two new traditions that had just entered into the Korean religious scene in the nineteenth century. Most educated people outside Korea have heard of Christianity and Buddhism, but it is unlikely that many have heard of Ch’ŏndogyo. It x Introduction Statue of Son Pyŏng-hŭi in T’apkol Park in central Seoul honoring his leadership role in the March First 1919 Movement. Author’s photo. is also probable that many Koreans know little about Ch’ŏndogyo because it is a much smaller religion now than in the early twentieth century . So what was Ch’ŏndogyo? It was the continuation of the earlier Tonghak, or Eastern Learning, movement that was founded in 1860 by Ch’oe Che-u, an impoverished member of the literati class. Like Ch’ŏndogyo, Tonghak also played an important part in the history of late nineteenth-century Korea through its prominent role in the peasant rebellion of 1894 (often known as the Tonghak Rebellion in Englishlanguage sources), which was the largest peasant rebellion in Korean history and which led to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. Both movements, therefore, were involved in events that led to deep changes in both the domestic and international spheres that occurred in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Korea. This is why there has been much written about Tonghak during the 1894 rebellion and to a lesser extent, Ch’ŏndogyo’s role in the March First Movement. In spite of the historical importance of these movements, there is little written, especially in Western languages, about the twenty-five years between these two events and the transition from Tonghak to Introduction xi Ch’ŏndogyo that occurred during this period. The political and social situations had changed drastically between the 1894 uprising and the March First Movement, and this resulted in a different style of demands in the two events. Because of the strong hold that neo-Confucian ideology had on Korean traditional society during the period of the Tonghak peasant uprising, many of the insurgents’ demands were couched in the neo-Confucian discourse of the day, even though the ideas behind them may have been more radical. When one looks at the demands of the March First Movement, on the other hand, one sees a definite shift to an ideology influenced by Western-style nationalism.2 The main reason for these differences is the immense social, political, and cultural changes that took place between these two events. The aim of this book is to trace the developments in the Tonghak and Ch’ŏndogyo movements in the last years of Korean independence between 1895 and 1910 in order to explain how these movements successfully made the transition from the disarray following the 1894 Tonghak peasant uprising to lay the foundations for Ch’ŏndogyo’s important role in the March First mass nationalist demonstrations. Tonghak and Ch’ŏndogyo...