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

1. Historical Development of the Ch’ŏngbuk Region and the Regional Elite

15 1  Historical Development of the Ch’Qngbuk Region and the Regional Elite I n many ways, the Hong KyQngnae Rebellion of 1812 was caused by regional particularities. Social and political discrimination against the official advancement of residents of P’yQngan Province resulted in growing discontent among expectant officials as well as among ordinary people.1 The rebels fiercely resented discrimination against people from P’yQngan Province, as clearly expressed in their rebel manifesto: The central government abandoned P’yQngan Province as one abandons rotten earth. Even when the slaves of powerful families saw men from P’yQngan Province, they always called them “the common rabble from P’yQngan” (p’yQnghan). How unfair and what a source of resentment this is for the people of P’yQngan Province! Whenever the government faces a dangerous situation, it always depends on the military power of P’yQngan, and it also borrows the talents of literati from P’yQngan Province at the time of the civil service examinations. In the last four hundred years of the ChosQn dynasty, have the P’yQngan people ever turned their backs on the government?2 It is quite difficult both to pinpoint when this regional discrimination emerged and to locate the sources of it. The discrimination itself is closely related to the particular regional history of P’yQngan Province, which was, of course, also conditioned by the larger structural changes in ChosQn society. What is important is that the discrimination alone did not necessarily create favorable conditions for a rebellion. We know this because all marginalized elite 16   Historical Development living in peripheral regions in the late ChosQn period were subjected to political discrimination, because power and prestige were dominated by the relatively few nationally renowned elite residing in the capital or its vicinity. In the case of P’yQngan Province, the regional elite, who seem to have been relatively undistinguished in the central political arena in the early ChosQn period, came to invest their resources in learning and in the examination system, joining the central court in increasing numbers in the late ChosQn period. Yet despite their phenomenal growth in numbers and their aspiration to acquire high prestige and privileges at the center, their careers ended early, and with less than expected honor, because of the political as well as social discrimination against the people of P’yQngan Province, which was firmly entrenched by then. After experiencing this contradiction between the Confucian ideal of meritocracy and the exclusionary political practices of the central elite, these self-empowered regional elite became extremely frustrated and acutely resentful of the central government, providing a well-grounded pretext for a rebellion. At the same time, regional politics had been creating schism and conflict among members of the local elite, resulting in divided allegiances concerning the rebellion. To understand this complicated landscape of national and regional politics and social conditions, I trace the regional history of P’yQngan Province, the formation and growth of the northern elite, the emergence and nature of the prejudice and resultant discrimination against people from this region, the dynamic construction of regional identity, and the regional elite’s negotiations with various conflicting identities. early history of the northern region P’yQngan Province is often remembered as the founding place of the Korean people and states, although it underwent a long history of territorial conflict among various political entities before it finally became a part of KoryQ (918–1392).3 Old ChosQn, whose territory may have included the northwestern part of the Korean peninsula, appears in Chinese sources as early as the fourth century b.c.e., but the location of this early state has not been confirmed.4 Historical records reveal a more detailed and clearer picture of the history of the northwest region after Wiman (Ch.: Wei Man), a refugee from the Chinese state of Yan (?–222 b.c.e.), usurped the throne from King Chun of the Old ChosQn kingdom sometime between 194 and 180 b.c.e. Wiman ChosQn fell in 108 b.c.e. to the Chinese Han dynasty (194 b.c.e.– 220 c.e.), which subsequently set up commanderies, including Lelang com- Historical Development   17 mandery (Kor.: Nangnang, 108 b.c.e.–313 c.e.) in the former ChosQn territory.5 Lelang occupied the plains of northwest Korea, directly controlling lowland areas, but on the periphery it simply recognized indigenous rulers by giving them titles. Lelang survived the...