Marginality and Subversion in Korea: The Hong Kyongnae Rebellion of 1812

5. Leadership and Preparation

107 5 Leadership and Preparation C onventional accounts say that the 1812 rebellion had been in preparation for over ten years, and primary sources indicate that Hong KyQngnae and U Kunch’ik, the two best-known ringleaders, met for the first time in 1800.1 Over the next decade or so, plots for a rebellion matured and networks among like-minded people formed. This chapter follows such tracks to identify the main actors of the rebellion and the ingredients for their dedication to it. It also describes the material preparations for the rebellion, which were telescoped into the few months before the uprising itself. formation of the core leadership Hong KyQngnae Hong KyQngnae’s social status is somewhat controversial. He was com­ monly regarded as a fallen yangban (mollak yangban), based on the popular story that he was educated by his uncle and took the triennial lower civil service examination (samasi).2 This story is questionable. At least two reliable sources inform us that Hong was a commoner. One source indicates that he was a commoner duty soldier who belonged to the provincial military headquarters in P’yQngyang;3 the other simply states that he was a commoner (sanghan).4 O Such’ang argues for Hong’s commoner status by taking up the remark made by Kim Chosun, probably the most powerful court official 108   Leadership and Preparation at the time, that Hong was a man of meager lowly birth (hanch’Qn chi p’ilbu).5 Hong was poor, possessing neither land nor private slaves, but he was educated to some degree, and the geomantic techniques he learned became the source of earning his livelihood.6 After he buried his father behind the village shrine, Hong told himself that he had chosen the great burial site that would provide symbolic protection for him in his lifetime.7 As a geomancer, Hong traveled extensively and became acquainted with people of various statuses, including yangban who supported his antidynastic venture.8 It was during Hong’s travels that he recruited rebel conspirators throughout northern Korea. Hong relied on two ideological propositions when rallying supporters for the rebellion: (1) the common Confucian precept that the difficulty of people’s lives and unusual heavenly disasters were signs of the withdrawal of the Mandate of Heaven from the existing dynasty, and (2) the popular tradition of the prophetic belief in dynastic change described in the ChQnggamnok. His arguments based on Confucian teachings and the theory of the emergence of the True and Genuine ChQng were very persuasive in recruiting discontented elements in the rural population, especially the marginalized elite in P’yQngan Province. Hong’s confident speech to his followers asserting that the True and Genuine ChQng was coming to save the people from their troubles was also quite effective in mobilizing popular support during the rebellion. Contrary to negative descriptions of Hong’s appearance and characteristics contained in government reports, Hong seems to have been a wellqualified leader of the rebellion. His determination was strong when he moved fourteen family members, including his mother, wife, sons, brothers, and nephews, from their home district of Yonggang to Tabok village in Kasan, the rebel base, a few months before the rebellion.9 In his farewell address to the villagers, he swore that his will would be achieved.10 According to the testimony of his family members, he told them that there would be an armed rebellion soon, although he may not have revealed that he would be the one who would lead it.11 He also showed that he was a benevolent leader who upheld Confucian moral teachings when he ordered a proper funeral service for Paek KyQnghan of ChQngju, a victim of the rebels. Paek had resisted joining the early stage of the rebellion and was regarded as “righteous” for maintaining his loyalty to the existing dynasty.12 And because Hong regretted the death of Han Houn, a well-known filial son who died at the hands of the rebels, he let Han’s son take Han’s body for a funeral service.13 Leadership and Preparation   109 Though Hong earned popular support by displaying benevolent leadership, it was his extraordinary physical power, mastery of the martial arts, and effective military strategy that made him a great rebel leader. Hong directed the preparations for the rebellion with the aid of collaborators, and he personally commanded the rebellion as the supreme commander (TaewQnsu) until...