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 |
Cheondogyo is a 20th century Korean nationalist religious movement, based on the 19th century Donghak movement founded by Choe Je-u.
Being rooted in Korean Buddhist, Confucian and Daoist beliefs and rituals with some Christian influence, this Korean religion is becoming more and more popular in North and South Korea with the revival of Korean nationalism. Cheondoism arose from the Donghak (東學) revolution that began in 1812 in Joseon.
Overview
Cheondogyo transliterally means Master in Heaven, in which cheon refers to Heaven, do refers to the ways and gyo refers to religion. This is often mistaken for Cheonjugyo, which is Roman Catholicism.
Cheondogyo evolved in the early 1900's from the Donghak peasant liberation movements in the southern provinces of Korea. During this period, drought and floods alternately struck the rice bowls of Korea and caused great famines. Making the matter worse, the Joseon rulers hiked taxes on farm crops and forced more free labor 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 into an armed rebellion and occupied the region for several months. The Seoul government dispatched an army and only after a savage scorched-earth campaign, the revolt was put down. 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 peasant rebellion led by Hong was put down, a group of farmers in Jinju in Gyeongsang province, rose up against their oppressive provincial officials and the wealthy landowners. This uprising was directly attributable to the exploitation of destitute farmers by Baek Nak-sin, a newly appointed military commander who had jurisdiction over the western half of Gyeongsang province.
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. From the outset, however, it was unrealistic to expect the ruling class in the central government, which was itself deeply involved in such frauds, to make radical changes. But at least a superficial attempt at reform was made.
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. Many government officials were executed.
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. His teachings were systematized and compiled 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 man is instead caused by an innate God. Koreans have believed in Haneullim from ancient times, so Donghak could be seen to be a truly Korean religion, unlike Buddhism or Christianity.
Choe was alarmed by the intrusion of Christianity (Cheonjugyo), and the Anglo-French occupation of Beijing. He believed that the best way to counter foreign influence in Korea was to introduce democracy, establish human rights and create a paradise on earth independent of foreign interference.
Donghak was pure ideology, void of any organizational and tactical expertise. Choe believed in improvising as events occurred. He had no practical plans or visions of how one would go about establishing a paradise on earth, let alone what paradise meant except that all people were equal (and no Japanese) could exist in this paradise. Nevertheless, 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 were a mixture of traditional elements from Confucianism, Buddhism and Songyo (teachings of Silla's Hwarang), and to these he added modern humanistic ideas. Exclusionism was another characteristic of his religion, which incorporated an early form of nationalism and rejected alien 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. They were brutally butchered by government troops. In subsequent years, peasants rose up in small groups all across Korea until 1892, when they were 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 the poor farmers rise up against the rich, corrupt, oppressive landlords and the ruling elite. The peasants demanded land distribution, tax reduction, democracy and human rights. Taxes were so high that most farmers were forced 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. It was in this context that the peasants developed intense anti-Japanese and anti-yangban sentiments.
The peasants were not on their own. 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 rebellion was caused by Jo Byeong-gap, a Joseon government official in charge of Gobu. Jo Byeong-gap was believed tyrannical and corrupt and was accused of oppressing the peasants and extorting exorbidant taxation from his subjects.
The Donghak rebels routed Jo's government forces and took 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 and its arms were mainly 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 ) was the military commander. Jeon's father was 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 this day, the Army was crushed by the government troops led by Yi Yong-tae, who mercilessly butchered captured peasant guerrillas, burned villages, and confiscated 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. These powers were more than happy to send 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 was 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 which provided its followers a hope for eliminating the yangban class and 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 were waiting 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 40 times but they were beaten 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.This text uses many "loaded" words, such as lackeys.
It is questionable whether this text is truly historical in nature as it reads more like silly propaganda.
Kim Gu, a Donghak fighter
Kim Gu, one of the most prominent nationalist leaders, was a Tonghak military leader. He was born in 1876, the year the Treaty of Ganghwa was signed. He 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 was appointed the district leader of Palbong. He commanded a Donghak army regiment in the 1894 Peasants War. His troops stormed the Haeju fort in Hwanghae-do. However, his army was defeated. General An Tae-hun (father of An Jung-geun the assassin of Ito Hirobumi) of the royal army gave Kim Gu's Donghak rebels a safe pass, but other government troops ignored An's safe pass and attacked them. Kim Gu managed to escape and went into hiding.
In 1896, Kim Gu killed a Japanese general named Tsuchida, who was involved in the murder of the last Joseon Dynasty Queen Min. Kim was arrested and sentenced to death, but escaped and hid out as a Buddhist monk at Magoksa in Gongju near Pyeongyang.
The Righteous Army
The Righteous Army (uibyeong) was formed by Yu In-seok and other Confucian scholars during the Peasant Wars. Its ranks swelled after the Queen's murder by the Japanese troops and Korean traitors. 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.
Choe Ik-hyeon was captured by the Japanese and taken 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. Among the troops were former government soldiers, poor peasants, fishermen, tiger hunters, miners, merchants, and laborers.
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 12 km of Seoul but could not withstand the Japanese counter-offensive. The Righteous Army was no match for two infantry divisions of 20,000 Japanese soldiers backed by warships moored near Inchon.
The Army retreated from Seoul and the war went on for two more years. Over 17,000 Righteous Army soldiers were killed and more than 37,000 were wounded in combats. Unable to figh 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 quashed 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, King Gojong himself embraced Cheondogyo and promoted it nationwide. The King added Buddhist and Christian rituals and codices to the new religion, which was organized into a formal organizational hierarchy similar to that of Cheonjugyo (Roman Catholicism) with Pope, Papal Nuncio, formal ceremonies, etc.
Members of Donghak were severely persecuted by the colonial Japanese government, and so, on December 1, 1905, Son Byeong-hui decided to modernise the religion and usher in an era of openness and transparency in order to legitimise it in the eyes of the Japanese. As a result he officially changed the name of Donghak to Cheondogyo ("Heavenly Way").
Cheondogyo preaches that there is God and that He resides in each of us, not in Heaven as Christianity teaches. It strives to convert our earthly society into a paradise (Heaven) on Earth. It attempts to transform the believers into intelligent moral beings with high social consciousness. In this respect, it could be seen as a humanistic socialism.
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
- http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/korea_south/kr_glos.html
- Overview of CHONDOGYO
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- 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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