Donghak Peasant Revolution
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The year 1992 marked the centennial of the beginning of the Donghak Rebellion. That Rebellion fulfilled the prophecy that the Joseon Dynasty would end in its 500th year (1392-1892) and led to Japan's colonization of Korea.
The Donghak Rebellion began at Samnye (near Chonju, the Cholla provincial captial) on 19 December 1892, growing in intensity over the next year and one half. threatened with defeat by the Tonghaks, King Gojong requested Chinese troops to assist in putting down the Rebellion in late May 1894. Japan also sent troops, unrequested, leading to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in July 1894 and the crushing of the donghak Rebellion in late November 1894. With the victory over china, Japan gained a grasp upon Korea that led to the colonization of Korea in 1910 and to world War II in the Pacific.
We will consider the events leading up to the Donhak Rebellion, the life and teaching of Choe Je-u, the events of the Rebellion, and the aftermath of the Rebellion.
Background
In the 1800's, Europe flexed its imperialistic muscle carving out spheres of influence in Africa, the Middle East, india, south East Asia, the pacific Island, and East Asia. The United States issued the Monroe doctrine in 1823 proclaiming Mexico and south America within its sphere of influence.
China (the "Middle Kingdom") attracted the interest of several European powers (England, France, and Germany). those European powers agreed toshare China rather than permit one nation to absorb China in its sphere of influence. The United States, growing into a Pacific power by the end of the 19th century, never joined in mililtary adventures to gain territory in China, only to protect American missionaries residing in that country. The United States saved its territrial ambitions for places closer to home; the North American continent, Mexico, the Caribbean, the hawaiian Islands, and the philippines. The United States championed the "Open Door Policy" (1899-1900, prohibiting the absorption of any part of China by one nation. As Japan rose as a pacific power in the later half of the 19th century, the Open door Policy became a diplomatic instrument to thwart Japan's growing territorial ambitions in China. As went China, so went Korea.
During that time of European imperialism in China (1820's through the 1850's), Choe Je-u, the son of a yangban's concubine (second wife), grew up in Kyongju provice, in the southern part of the Korean peninsula. Kyongju, Choe's home, had been the capital of the Unified Silla dynasty (668 C.E. to 935 C.E.), the first 100 years of which emerged as a Golden Age in Korean history. Silla's Buddhist-influenced art, philosophy, religion, and military science enriched East Asian culture. Japan owes an enormous debt to Sill Korea for shaping Japanese culture. Silla, through corruption in the imperial families and through corruption without Buddhist ecclesiastical structure, collapsed in the year 935 C.E., thus ending the southern part of the peninsula's leading role in Korean culture and history.
The centers of Korean culture and government shifted to the northern part of the peninsula during the Goreyo dyansty (935 C.E. to 1392 C.E.) and to the central part of the peninsula during the Joseon dynasty (1392 C.E. to 1910 C.E.), never to return to the south. However, choe and other Korean scholars of the Kyongju region knew of the prophecy that, according to the Chong Kam-not (Record of Chong Kam), the Joseon dynasty would end after 500 years from its founding (i.e., 1892) and the capital would again move south to Kyeryong-san (west of present day Taejon).
Choe, and all other Koreans, paid close attention to the fate of China. Historically, China had provided culture and military protection to Korea and Koreans looked upon China as invincible. when China suffered repeated defeat at the hands of the European powers in the 1850's, Choe felt dread and foreboding that Korea would suffer the same fate.
In the latter part of the 1800's, Korea's Joseon dynasty verged upon collapse. Yangban had increased in number to a multitude, many of them desperate for government positions to provide income. The yanban had grown to disdain manual labor and often chose to live in abject poverty rather than work the land. Yangban who held government positions held land tax free. As the percentage of tax free land held y the yangban grew, the tax burden fell increasingly upon the already over taxed farmer. The ever patient Korean farmer had his limits tested to the breaking point by local government officals who needed to recoup the money spent to buy their offices.
Korea's dynastic system permits a long period of rule (usually 300 to 500 years) by an imperial line, the beginning of which is creative, healthy, and invigorated. The middle period stagnates, while the latter 100 years is marked by blatant corruption of a flagrant sort. The dynasty, corrjupt within, is usually destroyed and assimilated by a power from without. Choe Je-u's time, in the last 100 years of the Joseon dynasty, fit the above pattern. Little did choe know that the revelation he would receive from God would play a crucial role in bringing an end to the Joseon dynasty by providing Japan with an excuse to annihilate and assimilate Korea. The Joseon dynasty did, indeed, end in exactly 500 years, as will be shown below.
Choe Je-u
Main Article: Choe Je-u
Choe Je-u, born the son of a concubine, found himself bared from office by Joseon dynasty policy. Struggling to survive, he experienced, along with fellow farmers, the oppression and extortion of the local governors. Choe's troubles led him to seek answers in the study of the Confucian classics rather than armed rebellion. In April 1860, while in meditation in Yongdam, Choe received a revelation that would led to the creation of Cheondogyo, the Heavenly Way. In the four years that followed, Choe wrote a number of books that served as the doctrine for his growing number of followers. In 1864, Cheondogyo attracted the attention of the Daewongun, the regent father for King Gojong. In a hasty, rigged trial, the Taegu court found him guilty of practicing Catholicism and sentenced him to execution. His martrydom only helped to solidfy the newly born Cheondogyo religion.
Choe Sihyeng, a distant relative of Choe's, took over the leadership of the fledgling Cheondogyo movement. He published the Donghak Bible, a collection of Choe Je-u's writings in 1888. The Cheondogyo movement continued to suffer at the hands of the royal court and local government officials, yet they never resorted to weapons to address their grievences. Practicing their religion, the Cheondogyo membership increased rapidly from 1864 to 1892. Choe Sihyeng shifted the headquarters of Cheondogyo to the northern part of Korea, leading the movement in maintaing a spiritual posture in doctrine, practice, and content.
Donhak Peasant Rebellion
In 1892, the members of the Cheondogyo movement in southern Korea formed a splinter faction, accepting the popular name Donghak (Eastern Learning). disregarding the leader Choe Sihyeng's opposition to the, from Choe's viewpoint, untimely protest, the souther faction pressed the rebellion. The Korean government reacted with severe repression, triggering an uprising in southern Korea that burst into a full scale uprising in 1894. Although the Cheondogyo leader, Choe Sihyeng, initially condemned the souther splinter Donghak group and declared them an enemy of Cheondogyo, when the Korean government indiscriminately attacked and executed Cheondogyo in northern Korea as well, he threw is support behind the southern rebellion.
While proclaiming loyalty to the throne, the southern faction targeted the corrupt provincial government officials for execution. Raising a poorly equipped and trained Peasant Army, which relied upon magical chants and charms to protect them in battle, the souther faction swept through the province of Chollam northward toward the capital city of Seoul. Alarmed by the successes of the Donghaks and the inability of the Korean army to stop them, King Gojong requested China's assistance.
China sent troops to assist the Korean king. Before they marched against the Donghaks the Donghak leaders agreed to a truce with the throne. Donhak returned to their homes in June 1894. But Japan, citing China's violation of the Convention of Tientsin (1885), which required China and Japan to notify each other before introducing troops into Korea, and which allowed each country to introduce equal numbers of troops, sent troops to Korea. Both countries refused to withdraw. Tensions mounted until the Sino-Japanese War broke out on July 23, 1894.
Japan quickly annihilated the Chinese forces on land and sea, and then launched a joint expedition with the Korean Army against the Donghaks in the south, crushing them by late 1894. In 1898, the Korean government captured Cheondogyo leader Choe Sihyeng, executing him and displaying his head at one of Seoul's main city gates.
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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