Donghak Peasant Revolution
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The Donghak/Tonghak Peasant Revolt, an anti-government, anti-yangban and anti-foreign uprising in Korea, served as the catalyst for the First Sino-Japanese War. A religious and political movement directed at overthrowing the Joseon dynasty government, the Donghak movement also intended to reform society and expel foreigners.
Many Koreans despised the intrigues of the Japanese in Korea. They also worried about the intentions of Russians as well as Europeans in Korea. They suffered at the hands of corrupt Korean government officals, rising up with the intention of removing them. The Donghak rebellion became one of the series of events that effectively ending the Joseon dynasty's rule and led to the establishment of Japanese rule in Korea.
Origins
The peasants of the Korean Peninsula, even before foreign intervention and the opening of Korea to the world, had become disillusioned with the rule of the upper yangban classes. During the 1800s, drought and floods alternately struck the rice fields and farms of Korea and caused great famines. Making the matter worse, the Joseon rulers increased taxes on farm crops and forced more free labor on the starving peasants. Anti-government and anti-landlord sentiment boiled over into violent uprisings.
In 1812, Hong Gyeong-nae led the peasants of Gasan in the northern part of Korea into an armed rebellion and occupied the region for several months. The Korean throne sent an army to quell the rebellion and only after a savage scorched-earth campaign, they succeeded in putting down the revolt. All over Korea, all the way to Jeju Island, peasants continued to defy the king in Seoul, the local nobility and wealthy landlords.
In 1862, half a century after the Korean throne suppressed the peasant rebellion led by Hong Gyeong-nae, a group of farmers in Jinju, Gyeongsang province, rose up against their oppressive provincial officials and the wealthy landowners. That uprising originated in a local rulers exploitation of destitute farmers. The rebels killed local government officials and set fire to government buildings. The government hastily revised the land, military and grain lending systems to appease the rebels. The reforms proved ineffectual as many yangban in the central government participated whole-heartedly in the corruption. The revolt in Jinju triggered peasant uprisings elsewhere all over Korea, groups of farmers rose up with arms and attacked government offices in principal towns. The rebels executed many government officials. Government troops eventually crushed the uprisings. In 1862, government troops brutally butchered the peasants of San-nam and surrounding villages who had taken up arms against the elite. Prior to 1892, peasants repeatedly rose up in small groups all across Korea
The Birth of Donghak - Eastern Learning
Choe Je-U (최제우, 崔濟愚, 1824-1894) established the ideology of Donghak (Eastern Learning) in the 1860s with the intention of helping farmers suffering from poverty and unrest and to restore political and social stability. The Donghak ideology consisted of a mixture of elements from Confucianism, Buddhism and Songyo (teachings of Shilla's Hwarang), modern humanistic ideas and elements that today may be considered Marxist (i.e., the abolishment of the yangban classes). The movement resembled a religion as well as a political ideology. The teaching also incorporated a rhetoric of exclusionism (from foreign alien influences) and an early form of nationalism.
Choe Je-U set those themes to music so that illiterate farmers could understand and accept them more readily. Choe systematized and compiled his teachings as a message of salvation to farmers in distress. His ideas rapidly gained acceptance among the peasantry. Choe, as well as many Koreans, felt extreme alarm by the spread of Christianity and the Anglo-French occupation of Beijing during the Second Opium War. He believed introducing democracy, establish human rights and creating a paradise on earth the best way to counter foreign influence in Korea.
He called for Koreans to work together, resisting foreign influence and turning down foreign help. Dong-hak lacked any organizational and tactical expertise, improvising as events occurred. Choe's strategy lacked practical plans and visions, a system of governance, and a lack of clarification of key concepts like "paradise. Nationalism and social reform struck chords with the peasant guerrillas, igniting the Donghak Movement like a prairie fire all across Korea.
Progressive revolutionaries waded in and organized the peasants into a cohesive fighting machine. As mentioned above, peasants rose up in small groups all across Korea until 1892.
Foreign Intervention
Joseon Korea had been under the suzerainty of Qing China for two hundred years. Korea exercised autonomous government but paid tribute to China. Apart from this relationship with China, Korea took an isolationist stance. Many Koreans harbored xenophobic feelings and felt wary of foreigners and foreign(barbarian) influence. After several skirmishes and diplomatic initiatives by the Russians, the French and the Americans, Korea opened to foreign trade by the Japanese treaty of Treaty of Ganghwa in 1876. China lost its official suzerainty over Korea. Governments set up legations in Seoul. The Americans and Europeans began to introduce western ideas and customs into Korea
Donghak Revolution of 1894
In 1892 the small groups of the Donghak movement were united into a single Peasant Guerrilla 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 them to the poor.
The founder of Donghak was Choe Je-u (1824–1894), who was executed as a criminal by the government. Then, the leadership was continued by Choe Si-hyeong.
The First Revolution
The Donghak Peasant Revolution (東學農民革命) or the 1894 Peasant War (Nongmin Jeonjaeng) witnessed poor farmers in large numbers rising up against the landlords and the ruling elite. The peasants demanded land distribution, tax reduction, democracy, and human rights. High taxes forced most farmers to sell their ancestral homesteads to rich landowners at bargain prices. Landlords sold rice to the Japanese and sent their children to Japan to study. As a result, the peasant class developed intense anti-Japanese and anti-yangban sentiments.
Government official Jo Byong-gap's tyrannical and corrupt governing triggered the rebellion. Korea had begun to modernize slowly, yet many Koreans disliked the political influences of Japan and the West upon their country. Progressive-mined yangbans, scholars, and nationalists joined with the peasants' army. The army conducted political indoctrination in Donghak beliefs (Eastern Learning) for the rebels. On January 11, 1894, by peasant leader Jeon Bong-jun (전봉준, 全琫準, 1854-1895) defeated the government forces at the battle of Go-bu, after the battle distributing Jo's Byong-gap's properties to the peasants. The war went well for the peasants until March 13, 1894.
The government forces, led by Yi Yong-tae crushed the Donghaks, killing and capturing peasant guerrillas, burning villages, and confiscating the peasants' properties in Go-bu. The peasant army rallied and regrouped, rekindling a new rebellion. News of the governments' actions in Go-bu help increase support among the peasants. Jeon Bong-jun, Kim Gae-nam, and Son Hwa-jung emerged as the leaders of the newly ignited rebellion.
Jeon's destroyed the feudalism system and ejected covetous officials. Moreover, he and the peasant army occupied a Jeonju Palace at the beginning of May. They demanded institutional government reform, expulsion of covetous Joseon Dynasty officials, social reform, and the end of foreign influences in Korea. The poorest peasants numbered among the Donghak believers in the peasant army. Meantime, the Joseon government army attacked Jeonju, concluding an agreement with the peasant army. The peasant army in Jeonju dissolved their organization. The Rebellion continued for the rest of the Donghak army.
The peasants' marching orders had been the following:
- "Do not kill or take the peasants' properties"
- "Protect the peasants' rights"
- "Drive out the Japanese and Western people and purify our sacred land"
- "March to Seoul and purge the government"
The Joseon government asked the Chinese government for assistance in ending the revolt. The Qing dynasty, after notifying the Japanese in accordance with the Convention of Tientsin sent troops into Korea. The Chinese initially wished to avoid war with Japan. As the conflict developed, though, they saw an opportunity to reestablish their suzerainty over Korea which they had lost in preceding treaties. With the presence of some 3,000 Chinese troops, the Korean government proposed a negotiated truce with the rebels. The Tonghak leadership regarded the government's willingness to listen as an opportunity to gain their objectives without continued warfare. The presence of the Chinese force no doubt had a demoralizing effect as well.
Japan viewed the Chinese action as a threat to its national security and it inturn sent its own troops to Korea.
With the end of the rebellion, tension between China and Japan rose as neither power wanted to evacuate Korea first. Each suspected the other of wanting to remain and seize control of Korea.
Japan expressed doubts that the Chinese would be satisfied with suppressing the Rebellion and suspected they would want to stay in Korea and run things. The resulting tensions would eventually lead to the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War[1].
The Second Revolution
As hostilties between China and Japan began, a second uprising erupted in the Korean country-side against a new pro-Japanese government established in Seoul. In late June of 1894, the pro-Japanese forces hatched a plan to wipe out the Peasant Army in co-operation with the Japanese troops stationed in Incheon and Seoul. On October 16, the Japanese army set a trap as the Peasant Army moved toward Gongju for the final battle. The Japanese and the pro-Japanese government troops waited for them inside Gongju.
A Japanese scroll records the defeat of the Donghak Army in the Battle of Ugeum-chi. The Japanese had cannons and other modern weapons, whereas the Korean peasants carried only with bow and arrows, spears, swords, and some flintlock muskets. The vigorous battle started on October 22, 1894 and lasted until November 10, 1894.
The poorly armed peasants stormed the well-entrenched enemies repeatedily, but the Japanese repulsed them each time inflicting heavy losses. The remnants fled to various bases. The triumphant Japanese pursued the army and eventually wiped them out, capturing Jeon Bong-jun, the Donghak commander in March 1895. The execution of Choe Si-hyeong followed in 1898.
Aftermath
The Korean government, supported by Japanese and Chinese troops, crushed the Donghak rebellion. The government addressed many of the peasants grievances later in the Gabo Reforms mandated by the newly established Korean Empire (Daehan Jeguk) in 1897. Korea's troubles continued. Japan and Russia wrestled for control of Korea next, finally breaking out in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. The Gabo Reforms ended when Japan established a colonial government in Korea after defeating Russia in 1905.
Notes
- Tonghak revolution and Chundoism[1]
- ↑ Demetrius Charles Boulger, China, The War With Japan And Subsequent Events
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