Cheondogyo

Chondogyo
Korean Name
Revised Romanization	Cheondogyo
McCune-Reischauer	Ch'ǒndogyo
Hangul	천도교
Hanja	天道敎
Donghak
Korean Name
Revised Romanization	Donghak
McCune-Reischauer	Tonghak
Hangul	동학
Hanja	東學

Founded by Choe Je-u in 20th century, Cheondogyo, a Korean nationalist religious movement emerged out the 19th century Donghak Peasant Revolution(東學). Rooted in Korean Buddhist, Confucian and Daoist beliefs and rituals with some Christian doctrines, Cheondogyo has grown in popularity especially in South Korea with the revival of Korean nationalism.

Overview

Cheondogyo transliterally means Master in Heaven, cheon refering to Heaven, do refers to the ways and gyo refers to religion. Cheondogyo has been often mistaken for Cheonjugyo, or Roman Catholicism. Cheondogyo evolved in the early 1900's from the Donghak peasant liberation movements in the southern provinces of Korea. During that period, drought and floods alternately struck the rice bowls of Korea, causing great famines. Making matters worse, the Joseon rulers hiked taxes on farm crops on the starving peasants. Consequently, anti-government and anti-landlord sentiment boiled over into violent uprisings.

In 1812, Hong Gyeong-rae, an impoverished scholar-official, led the peasants of the northern part of Korea in an armed rebellion, occupying the region for several months. The Seoul government dispatched an army and only after a savage scorched-earth campaign, the put down revolt. In the south, all the way to Jeju Island, as well as in the north, peasants continued to defy the king in Seoul, the local nobility, and the wealthy landlords. In 1862, half a century after the government put down the peasant rebellion led by Hong, a group of farmers in Jinju in Gyeongsang province rose up against their oppressive provincial officials and the wealthy landowners.

The uprising traces back to Baek Nak-sin, a newly appointed military commander who had jurisdiction over the western half of Gyeongsang province, who exploited destitute farmers. Yu Gye-chun organized the farmers in Jinju to riot against Baek and other corrupt officials and wealthy landlords. The rebels killed local government functionaries and set fire to government buildings. The startled Seoul government hurriedly sent an investigator to the scene. On the basis of his findings of fraudulent practices by the local officials, the government hastily revised the land, military and grain lending systems in an effort to eliminate such abuses.

Expecting the ruling class in the central government, itself deeply involved in such frauds, to inaugurate reforms proved unrealistic. At best, they made a superficial attempt at reform. The agrarian revolt in Jinju triggered peasant uprisings elsewhere. In Gyeongsang, Jeolla and Chungcheong provinces, on faraway Jeju Island and in Hamgyeong and Pyeongan provinces in the north, groups of farmers rose up with arms and attacked government offices in principal towns. The rebels executed many government officials.

Choe Je-u formulated the ideology of Donghak (Eastern Learning) in the 1860s to help ease the lot of the farmers suffering from abject poverty and unrest, as well as to restore political and social stability. His ideas rapidly gained acceptance among the peasantry. Choe set his Donghak themes to music so that illiterate farmers could understand and accept them more readily. Followers systematized and compiled his teachings as a message of salvation to farmers in distress.

Origins

Donghak called for veneration of God "Haneullim" ("Lord of Heaven"), and holding the belief that man is not created by a supernatural God but, rather God is innate. Koreans have believed in Haneullim since ancient times, making Donghak a truly Korean indigenous religion. The spread of Christianity (Cheonjugyo), and the Anglo-French occupation of Beijing alarmed Choe. He determined to resist the spread of Christianity, and the imperial influence of neighbors, by introducing democracy, establishing human rights and creating a paradise on earth in Korea.

The Donghak movement lacked organizational and tactical expertise. Choe believed in improvising as events occurred. He had no practical plans or vision for establishing a paradise on earth, let alone what that paradise meant. His fundamental principles centered on the equality of all Koreas and that no Japanese) could exist in Donhak paradise. Choe's advocacy of democracy, human rights and nationalism struck a chord among the peasant guerrillas and Donghak spread across Korea rapidly. Progressive revolutionaries waded in and organized the peasants into a cohesive fighting unit.

Choe's songs mixed traditional elements from Confucianism, Buddhism and Songyo (teachings of Silla's Hwarang), and modern humanistic ideas. Curiously, even though Choe freely drew from religions that originated outside Korea, he insisted that Donhak exclude all non-Korean thought.

The Donghak Peasant Revolution

Main article: Donghak Peasant Revolution

In 1862, the peasants of San-nam and surrounding villages took up arms against the elite. Government troops brutally butchered them. In subsequent years, peasants rose up in small groups all across Korea until 1892, when they united into a single peasant guerilla army (Donghak Peasants Army). The peasants worked in the fields during the day, but during the night they armed themselves and raided government offices, and killed rich landlords, traders and foreigners. They confiscated their victims' properties and distributed the loots among the poor.

The 1894 Peasant War saw poor farmers rise up against rich, corrupt, oppressive landlords and the ruling elite. The peasants demanded land distribution, tax reduction, democracy and human rights. Most farmers, faced with exorbinant taxes, had to sell their ancestral homesteads to rich landowners at bargain prices. Landlords got richer by selling rice to the Japanese and by buying poor peasants off their land. The rich sent their children to Japan to study and enjoyed things Japanese. In this context peasants developed intense anti-Japanese and anti-yangban sentiments.

The peasants had support. Progressive-minded yangbans, scholars and nationalists joined the Army. The Army was politically indoctrinated in Tonghak (Eastern Learning). On January 11, 1894, the first major battle of the Army erupted in Gobu. The rebells arose against Jo Byeong-gap, a Joseon government official in charge of Gobu. Jo Byeong-gap ruled with a tyrannical and corrupt hand, oppressing the peasants and extorting exorbidant taxation from his subjects.

The Donghak rebels routed Jo's government forces, taking over the county office, and handed out Jo's properties to the peasants. The rebels took weapons from the government soldiers and marched onto adjacent villages. The armed rebellion spread like a wildfire. The peasant army had few muskets, their weapons consisted mainly of bamboo spears and swords. The peasants wore bandanas on their heads and waistbands on their waists to identify themselves. The peasant army waved yellow flags with the characters "sustain the people and provide for the people" written. Jeon Bong-jun (全琫準 ) served as the military commander. Jeon's father had been killed for refusing to pay bribes.

The peasants raided the armory and killed the local officials and rich folks. The war went well for the peasants until March 13, 1894. On that day, government troops led by Yi Yong-taethe crushed the Army, mercilessly butchered captured peasant guerrillas, burning villages, and confiscating peasants properties in Gobu. The news of Yi's scorched-earth policy quickly spread to other regions and angry peasants rose up all across the country. Thus began the Peasant War of 1894.

The peasants' marching orders were:

• "Do not kill or take peasants' properties"
• "Protect peasants' rights"
• "Drive out the Japanese and purify our sacred land"
• "March to Seoul and clean out the government"

The Peasant Army defeated one government garrison after another and closed in on Seoul. The Seoul government asked Japan and China for help. Those powers happily sent in their troops. (This escalation and internationalization of the conflict ultimately resulted in the First Sino-Japanese War). Although many government troops joined their ranks, the peasant army proved no match for the new forces with modern weapons and numerical superiority. The Army abandoned its march to Seoul.

Choe Je-u was captured and executed in March 1894 at Daegu. After Choe's death, Choe Si-hyeong took over as the leader of the Donghak movement. He went beyond the religion and appealed to the general peasant populace, who made up the majority of the Korean population. He offered the down-trodden farmers a way to better their lives, providing its followers a hope of eliminating the yangban class and expelling foreign powers. Under the leadership of Choe Si-hyeong, Donghak became a legal political organization recognized as such by the government. The number of followers exceeded 20,000.

In late June of 1894, pro-Japanese forces hatched a plan to wipe out the Peasant Army in collusion with the Japanese troops stationed in Incheon and Seoul. On October 16, the Peasant Army moved toward Gong-ju for the final battle. It was a trap. The Japanese and the pro-Japanese government troops waited in ambush for them.

A Japanese scroll records the defeat of the Donghak Army in the Battle of Seoul. The Japanese had cannons and other modern weapons, whereas the Korean peasants were armed with bow-and-arrows, spears, swords, and some flintlock muskets.

The bitter battle started on October 22, 1894 and lasted till November 10, 1894. The poorly armed peasants stormed the well-entrenched enemies some forty times but the Japanese led forces beat them back with heavy losses. The remnants fled to various bases. The triumphant Japanese and their lackeys pursued the Army and eventually wiped it out. Jeon Bong-jun, the Donghak commander, was captured in March 1895.

In 1898, following the execution of Choe Si-hyeong, the leader of Donghak Son Byeong-hui sought political asylum in Japan. After the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, he returned to Korea and established the Jinbohoe ("progressive society"), a new cultural and reformist movement designed to reverse the declining fortunes of the nation and to create a new society. Through Donghak he conducted a nationwide movement that aimed at social improvement through the renovation of old customs and ways of life. Hundreds of thousands of members of Donghak cut their long hair short and initiated the wearing of simple, modest clothing. Non-violent demonstrations for social improvement organised by members of Donghak took place throughout 1904. This coordinated series of activities was known as the Gapjin Reform Movement.

Kim Gu, a Donghak fighter

Kim Gu, a Donghak military leader, emerged as a prominent nationalist leader. born in 1876, the year of the signing of the Treaty of Ganghwa, Gu studied the Chinese classics at a seodang (a traditional village primary school). At 17, he applied for the Confucian civil service examination but failed.

In 1893, 18-year-old Kim Gu joined the Donghak movement and received the appointment of district leader of Palbong. He commanded a Donghak army regiment in the 1894 Peasants War. His troops stormed the Haeju fort in Hwanghae-do, his army meeting with defeat. General An Tae-hun (father of An Jung-geun the assassin of Ito Hirobumi) of the royal army gave Kim Gu's Donghak rebels safe passage, but other government troops attacked them. Kim Gu managed to escape and went into hiding. In 1896, Kim Gu killed a Japanese general named Tsuchida, who had been involved in the murder of the last Joseon Dynasty Queen Min. The government arrested Kim, sentencing him to death, but he escaped, hiding in the guise of a Buddhist monk at Magoksa in Gongju near Pyeongyang.

The Righteous Army

Yu In-seok and other Confucian scholars formed the Righteous Army (uibyeong) during the Peasant Wars. After the Queen's murder by the Japanese troops and Korean accomplices, their ranks swelled. Under the leadership of Min Jeong-sik, Choe Ik-hyeon and Sin Dol-seok, the Righteous Army attacked the Japanese army, Japanese merchants and pro-Japanese bureaucrats in the Gangwon, Chungcheong, Jeolla and Gyeongsang provinces.

The Japanese captured Choe Ik-hyeon] taking him to Tsushima Island where he went on hunger strike and finally died as a martyr. Sin Dol-seok, an uneducated peasant commanded over 3,000 troops. Former government soldiers, poor peasants, fishermen, tiger hunters, miners, merchants, and laborers filled the ranks.

In 1907, the Righteous Army under the command of Yi In-yong massed 10,000 troops to liberate Seoul and defeat the Japanese invaders. The Army came within twelve km of Seoul but suffered defeat during the Japanese counter-offensive. The two infantry divisions of 20,000 Japanese soldiers backed by warships moored near Inchon prevailed over the Righteous Army .

The Army retreated from Seoul and the war continued for two more years. Righteous Army casualities included over 17,000 soldiers killed and more than 37,000 wounded in combat. Unable to fight the Japanese army head-on, the Righteous Army split into small bands of partisans to carry on the War of Liberation in China, Siberia and the Jangbaik Mountains in Korea. The Japanese troops first crushed the Peasant Army and then disbanded what remained of the government army. Many of the surviving guerrilla and anti-Japanese government troops fled to Manchuria and Siberia and carried on their fight.

Donghak becomes Cheondogyo

In 1905, Korean nationalists founded Cheondogyo based on the themes of Donghak teachings popular during the Peasant Wars. The nationalists wanted to stem, by peaceful means, the tide of pro-Japanese sentiments sweeping across Korea. During the waning days of the Joseon Dynasty, Emperor Gojong himself embraced and promoted Cheondogyo nationwide. The Emperor added Buddhist and Christian rituals and codices to the new religion, organized into a formal organizational hierarchy similar to that of Cheonjugyo (Roman Catholicism) with Pope, Papal Nuncio, formal ceremonies, etc.

The colonial Japanese government severely persecuted members of Donghak. December 1, 1905, Son Byeong-hui reformed and modernized the religion and ushered in an era of openness and transparency to legitimise the faith in the eyes of the Japanese. As a result he officially changed the name of Donghak to Cheondogyo ("Heavenly Way"). Cheondogyo preaches that God resides in each of us, not in Heaven as Christianity in Korea emphasized. The faith emphasized converted our earthly society into a paradise (Heaven) on Earth. The new religion aided to transform believers into intelligent moral beings with high social consciousness. Cheondogyo had about 1.13 million followers and 280 churches in South Korea in 2005 [1].

See also

• List of Korea-related topics
• Chondoist Chongu Party

External Likes

• [2]
• Overview of CHONDOGYO

References

• This article incorporates text from Korea Web Weekly. Used with permission.

Korea Web Weekly is not an independent source of information but is instead associated with various North Korea government sources.

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