tihvary of t:he t:heolo0ical ^eminar^ PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY •«j PURCHASED BY THE HAMILL MISSIONARY FUND BV 3460 .G3 1909 Gale, James Scarth, 1863- 1937, Korea m transition ^ FORWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA KOREA IN TRANSITION N. B. — Special helps and denominational mission study literature for this course can be obtained by corresponding with the Secretary of your mission board or society. \^ >'» - » APR 1 9, 191 Korea in Transition JAMES S. GALE Twenty Years a Missionary in Kores NEW YORK: Eaton & Mains CINCINNATI : Jennings & Graham Copyright, 1909, by Young People's Missionary Movement OF the United States and Canada TO THE YOUNG HEARTS OF AMERICA IN BEHALF OF THE OLD WORLD OF THE EAST CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Editorial Statement xi Preface xiii I The Land and the People I II The Nation's Present Situation , , . , 29 III The Beliefs of the People 65 IV Social Life and Customs 93 V Special Providences 125 VI Pioneer Methods of Missionaries 159 VII The Response of Korea 189 VIII Growth, Present Condition, and Outlook.. 225 APPENDIXES Appendix A Division of Territory, Population, Distribution of Missionaries . o.. . 257 Appendix B Statistics of Protestant Missions in Korea 258 Appendix C Bibliography 260 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Plowing g Sawing Timber g Beating Turnip Seed into Meal 19; Building a House ig Moving Dead Body Three Years after Burial by- Order of Geomancers 69 Ancestor Worship 69 Royal Tomb and Guardians 87 Spirit Posts 87 Groom Returning with His Bride 104 Bridal Feast after the Ceremony 104 Group of Presbyterian Missionaries Itinerating 131 Itinerating 131 Beginning of a School for Girls 143 Korean Teacher with Pupils 143 Junkin Memorial Hospital, Fusan 177 Ivey Hospital, Songdo 177 Severance Hospital, Seoul 181 Church Built by Koreans 195 Methodist Church, Wonsan 195 Bible Training Institute, Ping yang 209 Presbyterian Church, Ping yang 209 Members of Bible Class, Four Walked 100 Miles to Attend 2 13 is X Illustrations PAGE Upper Class, Ping yang Theological School, Ping yang 213 Methodist Church, Seoul 229 Christian Men Gathered for Two Weeks' Bible Study 231 Missionaries and Native Workers 239 Young Men's Christian Association Building, Seoul 239 A Group of Korean Leaders 247 Colored Map of Korea End EDITORIAL STATEMENT According to the rules of the Young Peo- ple's Missionary Movement, the Editorial Com- mittee has liberty to make any alterations that it may consider necessary in the manuscripts submitted to it for publication. In making such changes it is customary to consult with the author. The absence of Dr. Gale in Korea has made it impossible to secure from his pen a few additions that were found desirable. These have been made exclusively in Chapters VII and VIII, and have been taken mainly from the reports of other missionaries. These are indicated by quotation marks. There have also been some rearrangement of material and a few elisions. The Committee regrets ear- nestly that it has been impossible to submit all these changes to Dr. Gale for his approval. xl PREFACE Korea has suddenly emerged from the un- known into the widely advertised of to-day. Politically she is nil, but in the missionary circle she is a first-rate power. Her changes that have taken place externally and inter- nally during the last quarter of a century make one of the startling pages in history. She was nothing, and yet she set in motion the most colossal war-campaign of modern times. She was the Hermit till she was hitched to the longest railway system of the world. But one idea possesses her leaders now, not one of politics, nor one of war, nor one of rail- way extension, but one of evangelization, to win Asia for Christ, to sound the call to all these dusky multitudes, to tell them of Mar- coni messages from God, to say peace and good cheer to the downtrodden millions of Asia. This is a large idea for so small a people, but it is good. Shall we not be in- terested in it too? James S. Gale. Seoul, Korea. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE / As one first approaches Korea, especially if one has come from the fertile and verdant terraced hills of Japan, the bleakness and barrenness of Korea's mountains is oppressive. Tradition has it that the Korean, in his desire to maintain his independence, deemed that he could do it best by a de- termined exclusion of all outsiders, and, with the intention of making Korea appear desolate and unattractive, he pur- posely dev^astated the whole coast. Whether there is truth m this or not, it remains a fact tha;. the seaward coast of almost all its islands, even where they have a southern exposure, is barren, rugged, and desolate, while ofttimes the northern but landward side is well cultivated, woody, and fertile, and that, while the whole coast-line appears so bleak and bare, when one travels in the interior, one is charmed with the many fertile hills and valleys, teeming with grain and yielding such crops that, v/hile not all of the arable land is cultivated, there is ample for Korea's millions, leaving a large balance in all good years for expert ■> — Horace G. Underwood Her resources are undeveloped, not exhausted. Her ca- pacities for successful agriculture are scarcely exploited. Her climate is superb, her rainfall abundant, and her soil pro- ductive. Her hills and valleys contain coal, iron, copper, lead, and gold. The fisheries along her coast-line of 1,740 miles might be a source of untold wealth. She is inhabited by a hardy and hospitable race, and she has no beggar class, — Isabella Bird Bishop The climate of Korea may be briefl}r described as the same as that of the eastern part of the United States between Maine and South Carolina, with this one difference, that the prevailing southeast summer wind in Korea brings the moisture from the warm ocean current that strikes Japan from the south, and precipitates it over almost the whole of Korea; so that there is a distinct "rainy season" during most of the months of July and August. This rainy season also has played an important part in determining Korean history. —Homer B, Hulbert THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE Korea lies in the same latitude as Boston, Locatioa New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, 35 to 43 degrees north latitude. Its location is on the eastern rim of Asia, look- ing southward. At its back is Manchuria, the barbarian land; on its right, China the su- preme; on its left, Japan, once the island savage; round about it, many waters; to the east, the Sea of Japan where Russia's fleets still lie submerged; to the west, the Yellow Sea, touching Port Arthur, Dalni, Wei-hai- wei, Chemulpo, and Tsing-tao; to the south, the China Sea with its typhoons and water "dragons."! A journey straight south from Korea would ,; carry you past the east side of the Philippines, between New Guinea and the Celebes, and through west central Australia. North, would take you over Siberia through the mouth of the Lena into the Arctic Ocean. Going due 1 Waterspouts kave been "sea-dragons" to the Koreans since time immemorial. Relation to Other Countriea 4 Korea in Transition west, you would see Peking, Kabul, Teheran, Constantinople, Rome, New York, and San FranciscO'. An elevator shaft sunk right through the Northern Hemisphere, would come out in the Atlantic Ocean, distant one hour of sun time from New York. The Name KoTca is 3. forcigu name, learned a hundred Korea ^ years ago from China, and belonging to a defunct dynasty that fell in 1391 A. D. Like the star that came into collision and was knocked out of being five hundred years ago, whose light still shines, so we still say ''Korea." The average native, however, asks : " 'Korea ?' What is that? Whom do you refer to?" Korea has had many names. When mission- ary work first began, it was called "Chosun" ; now after unimagined changes it is Han Guk or Han, "The Church of Han", "the men of Han", "the golden opportunity in the land of Han", and similar expressions. Size Roughly speaking Korea is 600 miles from north to south, and 135 miles from east to west, with an area of about 80,000 square miles. It is about half the size of Japan, one third that of the Province of Ontario, twice that of the state of Kentucky, and about equal in extent to Kansas. The Land and the People 5 Korea is divided into thirteen provinces. Divisions Thirteen is an unlucky number, and since this division was made some ten years ago noth- ing but a succession of misfortunes has fol- lowed. Still, thirteen is associated with our Lord and his disciples, and while for a time it may seem to spell defeat and disaster, in the last great innings thirteen will rise triumphant, and Korea, we trust, will be joined to this number forever and forever. Last year the Financial Adviser's Office is- Population sued a note concerning the population, number of houses, and like items, based on police re- ports and inspection. According to these returns the province of Kyung kui has a popu- lation of 869,000, a half of whom are in and about the city of Seoul. The most densely peopled district is south Kyung sang, with a population of 1,270,214, almost equal to that of Maryland. The total of these returns, how- ever, shows a population under ten millions. The Japan Year Book for 1907 considers this figure too small, and suggests 14,000,000 as nearer the mark. Religfion ousrht to insure correctness in a Native use ot ^ ^ Large Numbers person's mathematics, but it will take a genera- tion or two to trim off the East and bring it Mountains 6 Korea in Transition to anything like exactitude in dealing with figures. Chun-man or its equivalent is one of the common words, "ten thousand times a thousand". When eight hundred people meet together, thousands are gathered; and fifteen means several score. My old friend Kim prays, "God bless our twenty millions of a family." "But, Brother Kim, we are not sure that there are twenty millions. Fifteen would seem to be a wide estimate, the census returns show even less." "Census returns!" echoes Kim, "Dear me, as if we did not know our own family! / chtm man tong po (20,000,000, brothers and sisters). Everybody says so." Korea has a backbone of mountains, that runs irregularly all down the map. From the Tumen, over against Vladivostok, it drops southwest to Wonsan, then southeast to the Kyungsang border, and from there south along the east border of Chung chong and ChuUa. These ridges are not snowcapped nor tall, an elevation of 2,500 feet being a king among them. From, the parent range, hills have sprung up everywhere. ^'San way yu san, san pul chin" ("Over the mountains, moun- The Land and the People 7 tains still, mountains without number"). These hills have talked to the people for hundreds of years, not with so much music as those of Switzerland, nor awakening so patriotic a re- sponse, but they have talked with many per- suasive voices. Like David, the Korean too, at times, sees his hills skip and dance, and again they weep with him in sackcloth and ashes. So much is said of mountains in Korea that I mention them particularly. They live; in old days their spirits walked about and had their being. They were guardians of the liv- ing and watchers over the dead. There are ten rivers in Korea, but, with RJ^ers the exception of the Tumen, none on the east coast. The hills there come up so close to the seashore that only rivulets are possible. The four noted rivers are the Nak Tong, in the south; the Han, in the center; the Ta Tong, past Ping yang ; and the Yalu, in the north. The soils of Korea are varied, from stiff ^°*^ clay to black loam ; but the characteristic soil is rotten granite, a white, gritty, porous, barren- looking earth, in which nothing would seem to grow. If you dig it, and inhale the ex- halations, you will develop ague till your teeth chatter, your bed rattles, and your whole Grains 8 Korea in Transition being* vibrates. If you walk on it, it will grind down the soles of your walking shoes in a very short time. Seven hundred miles, with rotten granite here and there, once completely used up two pairs of shoes. This soil is like the soul of the Oriental, it gives little promise of any seed taking root, but once get the roots fastened, then everything grows and flourishes luxuriantly. No grain in the Western world stands out preeminently over all others as does rice. Wheat and corn have to do with huge monop- olies, and are kings in finance, but rice is the imperial majesty of the cereal world. It is the prettiest grain grown. More people eat rice and flourish on it than on any other grain. Korea is a land of rice. There are beans, and lentils, and barley, and millet, and sesamum, and what not, but these are unseen and unmen- tioned in the glory of rice. In years when rains are favorable, waving paddy-fields speak the praises of the land all the way from Fusan to the Yalu and the Tumen. Fruits Fruits grow well in Korea, coarse pears, hard peaches, wild apples, tasteless dates. But ever}?" fruit failure is atoned for in the glorious autumn of persimmons. "Korean persimmons Plowing Copyright, Underwood & Underwood Sawing Timber The Land and the People 9 are the finest fruit in the world," would be the verdict of many who have had the widest experience and the longest time to judge. Where every man, woman, and child tobacco smokes, shall we not mention tobacco? It too is a mighty king, although it was not known till 1645, being brought in at that time by Prince Chang-yu, who went as ambassador to the first Manchu emperor. I quote from an Eastern writer, Esson Third: "I once heard the Hon. W. W. Rockhill, American minister at Peking, say that Koreans were the greatest smokers in the world. If measured by the time the pipe is in the mouth, they certainly are, but if it be a question of tobacco consumed, the Korean may very easily fall behind the Westerner. He is a deliberate, comfortable, unconscious smoker, so apathetic in his en- joyment of the long pipe, that you hardly know whether he has the smoke or the smoke has him. Cares and anxieties are whififed away; the fumes curl through his soul softly, benignly, sleepily. The Westerner, on the other hand, pulls fiercely, chews the end, swal- lows the fumes, and takes the consequences, the result being, that in one half hour he has consumed more tobacco than the Korean will Minerals lo Korea in iransition in a day. To even matters however, Korean smoking means a united pull, men, women, and children at it from first cockcrow of the morning till the curfew says 'Lights out/ It is as difficult to find a man who does not smoke as it is to find a ten-year-old son of a gentle- man who is not married." This extended ref- erence to tobacco is by no means out of propor- tion to the place it occupies in the life and habits of the nation. I notice that among Korean Church leaders and teachers there is a quiet but most emphatic putting away of the pipe and all that goes with it. It is one of the old kings whose power to command allegiance is gone forever. Korea is a land supposedly rich in minerals, such as gold, silver, copper, iron, coal, and graphite, but because of the sacred character of the hills, and of the spirits supposed to re- side within them, very little mining has been ventured upon. Now however the audacious Westerner, who regards neither hill-gods nor devils, is at it in various parts of the land, blasting the rocks, sinking shafts deep into the earth, hauling out the debris, grinding it to powder, extracting the gold by a magic spell hitherto undreamed of. Koreans are as- The Land and the People ii sociated with him in this work; they see and take part in their humble way, and have won the name of the best miners in the world from managers who have had experience in Cali- fornia, Australia, and elsewhere. One of Korea's future sources of great w^ealth is undoubtedly mining, but seeing that it is managed and owned by Americans, English, and Japanese, the Korean will come in for only a modest and secondary share of the profits. Money is called ton, and while Chinese tones Money are absent from our problem of the lan- guage, the problem of ton is always here. Two words wedded together are wafted on every breeze that blows, ton, money, and pap, rice. They are the ultimate to which all hearts aspire and all energies seem directed. Twenty years ago Korean money was the cash piece with a hole through it. It took six horses to carry one hundred dollars, and pocket-money was out of the question. \Vhile the old cash is still seen in some remote corners of the land, it has almost entirely vanished into the for- gotten past, its place taken by the nickel, that has been counterfeited and forged and smug- gled and made such unlawful use of that its 1/ 12 Korea in Transition name and character are ruined forever. Money without the hole in the middle Koreans call mang-jun (blind money), and so they nat- urally inquire, "Will a country not go to pieces that uses blind money ?" We still use the nickel to a limited degree, but Japanese currency and a new coinage have come into general use — gold, silver, paper. Transportation In America transportation has been from the first by means of carts and wagons, and later by railway, but in Korea it has been and still nearly altogether is by pack-bullock, pony, and coolie. Animals and men are built to carry great loads. Every beast of burden is keyed up like the Brooklyn Bridge to measure its strength by the middle of its back. The coolie, again, differs from the strong man of the West in that his arms are of very little account, little better than a sea-lion's flippers, but when it comes to muscles up and down his back, he is a marvel of strength and can lift 500 pounds. On these patient bodies are slowly carried over the land, rice, beans, hides, timber, fish, salt, Bibles, hymn-books, evangelistic literature, and other burdens, cutting deeper and deeper into the rock and rotten granite the footmarks of successive generations. The Land and the People 13 The weather in Korea is blocked out in great weather lots, not distributed evenly and piece by piece as at home. When the sun shines it shines for days with unclouded sky, one month, two months, three months, with scarce a fleck on the horizon. Toward the close of these long spells, the veiy earth seems to cry out of its thirsty soul for water. Then the rains come; first what is called the little chang-ma (great rain), and then the great "great rain." When this is fully under way, it comes down in double spouts, tin cans, and buckets. Percival Lowell says: "During the month of July the sun rarely shines; it is cloudy almost contin- ually and nearly every day it rains. It stops raining only to gather force to rain again, and the clouds remain the while to signify the rain^s intention to return.'' Dr. Underwood says: "The largest rainfall that is recorded is 5 inches in twenty-four hours; 21.86 inches for a rainy season. The average yearly rainfall is 36 inches."-^ Mortals are supposed to have, directly and Troiiey-cara Blamed for indirectly, an influence on the weather. When Drought the electric trolley-cars were first set running in Seoul, a peculiar result manifested itself in ^The Call of Kerea, 26. 14 Korea in Transition the life of the nation. We quote from an ac- count that appeared in the Outlook, February, 1902. "Little by little the heavens grew dry and the earth rolled up clouds of dust; day followed day with no signs of rain, and the caking paddy-fields grinned and gaped. What could be the cause of it ? The geomancers and ground-prophets were consulted, and their answer was, *The devil that runs the thunder and lightning wagon has caused the drought.' Eyes no longer looked with curiosity but glared at the trolley-cars, and men swore under their breath and cursed the Vile beast' as it went humming by, till, worked up beyond endurance, there was a crash and an explosion, one car had been rolled over, and another was set on fire, while a mob of thousands took possession of the streets foaming and stamping like wild beasts." This was all on account of the ma- lign influence which these American electric cars were supposed to have on the rainfall of Korea! Temperature ^g for the wcathcr and temperature in gen- eral, taking Seoul as our representative point, it is cold in winter and hot in summer. Fre- quently the temperature falls to zero and even lower, while in summer with a damp, muggy The Land and the People 15 atmosphere, it goes up to S6 or 90 degrees. This constitutes a kind of Turkish bath very trying to the Westerner. To hear a missionary physician read his an- nual report, and Hne off the Hst of diseases that have afflicted Korea's unhappy people for the space of one year, would leave one to infer that the only missing complaint was ^housemaid's knee', for surely everything else in the cata- logue from leprosy to anthrax is present; but this is only nominally so. Actually and really we see only a few diseases at work. First and foremost is hak-jil, ague. Rare indeed is the person who has not had a periodic chill; as rare as the man who does not smoke, or the m,an who cannot sleep comfortably on a hot floor with a wooden block behind his ear. Korea is a land of chills and fever. There is also smallpox, but the percentage of pitted faces has decreased wonderfully since the coming in of Jenner's great preventive. Typhus fever is heard of on all sides at certain seasons of the year; and, following close on the summer, comes Asiatic cholera. Consumption is com- mon to all the land, but diseases like typhoid fever and appendicitis seem rare. Scattered cases of leprosy are met with, and, as in Judea Diseases 1 6 Korea in Transition in old days, there are always the lame and the halt and the blind. National Odors As cach nation has its peculiar cut of dress, so each has its national odors apart from race odor. Esson Third says : "The Korean gentle- man carries about with him two odors that are specially noticeable to a newcomer. I once made a journey with a Western friend who had a somewhat highly keyed sense of smell, and I remember his stopping short on the road as we walked along, tapping me on the arm and with a long sniff saying: *There it is again.' 'What is it?' I asked. That peculiar smell,' said he. I sniffed long and hard but there was noth- ing but the fresh morning breeze, and the de- lightful odors of hill and field. 'I've smelt it before,' said he, 'and I'll tell you later when I sm.ell it again.' He tracked that odor for two days, and then we discovered that it came from the black lac- quer hat. The odor of lacquer is one of Korea's national smells. The second smell is due to a mixture of garlic, onions, cabbage, salt, fish, and other ingredients, that make up the Korean pickle so greatly enjoyed with their The Land and the People 17 rice. This odor clings like that of Limburger cheese, and follows the native to church and into all the other walks of life." Compared with the Western world, with its National Sounds indescribable hubbub, Korea is a land of the most reposeful silence. There are no harsh pavements over which horses are tugging their lives out, no jostling of carts or dray-wagons, no hateful clamor that forbids quiet conversa- tion, but a repose that is inherent and eternally restful. The rattle of the ironing-sticks is not nerve-racking, but rather serves as a soporific to put all the world to sleep. Apart from this, one hears nothing but the few calls and echoes of human voices. What a delightfully quiet land is Korea ! In the very heart of its great city Seoul, you might experiment at midday in the latest methods of rest-cure and have all the world to help you. Among other restful national features are the The Road* roadways. They are not surveyed at right angles and fenced in with barbed-wire, but are left to go where they please, do as they like, and take care of themselves, just as suits them. Hence a Korean road will find the easiest pos- sible way over a hill. It will narrow itself down to a few inches rather than pick a quarrel 1 8 Korea in Transition with a rock or hummock on the way, or again to please you it will widen out like a Western turnpike. To follow a Korean road is like reading" one of Barrie's novels, you meet with surprises and delights all along the way. General Aspect While the general aspect of Korea is a sad and desolate one, that of a mountainous land shorn bare of its trees and foliage, there are pretty vistas and views that break out occasion- ally from behind the hills. As a people Koreans thoroughly enjoy natural beauty, but they have taken nO' steps whatever to conserve it. Trees and grass and brushwood and flowering shrubs, everything in fact that grows, comes under the woodman's sickle, and is shaved bare as the locks of a Buddhist priestess. Around the cap- ital, especially, the hills have been denuded so often that the rains have washed away the upper soil and left them gray-topped and bare. There is a wide field for the work of forestry in Korea. Houses In the hidden and often picturesque nooks nestle clusters of brown huts thatched with straw. In and out of these mud beehives go people dressed in immaculate white. A hut is built by first pounding the earth for the foundation-stones, then setting up the posts The Land and the People 19 and beams. Between the posts are put cross- bars and bamboo lathing, then mud is plastered on the inside and out. It is not just common mud, but carefully prepared mud, that will not crack and let in the wind. For flooring, flat stones are used, placed over flues ; a thin layer of mud covers the surface and makes it even. Then the whole inside is papered with white paper on the walls and thick yellow oil-paper on the floor. The windows are of paper also. When the fire is built in the kitchen, the heated vapors from it pass underneath the living- rooms ; the stone floors warm gently, and here, cross-legged, you take up your abode. A friend called just now, and I asked him to please take off his horsehair hat and let me weigh it. The whole hat, crown, brim, border, string, and other parts, weighed just one and a quarter ounces. How light and ethereal the Korean garb is, especially in summer! If we follow Mr. Kim from the crown of his head to the tip of his toe, his wearing-apparel would run thus : first, the ounce and a quarter hat; then the inner cap, lighter still; then the headband, equally light; then the spectacles, the long outer robe, the inner coat, the rattan jacket, worn in hot weather next the skin, the Dress 20 Korea in Transition pantaloons, the leggings, the socks, the shoes. The material is cotton goods made wide and loose and roomy. In a dress like that you may sit all day cross-legged without a suggestion of bagging at the knees, perhaps because they are all bags, and wide enough to accommodate the wearer two or three times over. White is the prevailing color, but bright tints and hues are interspersed, especially with young people, so that a school yard alive at recreation hour looks like a fluttering congregation of blue- birds, orioles, and robins. The belt, or girdle- string, binds the man of the East together, just as suspenders serve for girders and mainstays for the man at home. The woman's dress dif- fers somewhat from that of the man, but white, loose, baggy, badly gripped and held in place, unsuited for a busy, dirty world such as this is, would apply equally to both. ^*'°** The Korean is a stranger to sweets, and no sugar-sticks ever tempted the children of his land. Honey is used in small quantities, but chocolate creams, and fudge, and sweet sodas through a straw, and ices, he never dreamed of even in connection with Nirvana. In place of these his delights have been of the salt and peppery kind. He has chilli sauce and The Land and the People 21 chilli soy, salt and red peppers mixed in pickle, and greens and soup. The average foreigner who tries Korean food is compelled at short intervals, to open his mouth, draw in cool breaths, and fan wildly. The tears in his eyes and his general look of agony would lead one to infer that he had been dining off live coals instead of plain rice and cabbage pickle, and soup and beans and soy. This is the Korean average meal every day and all the year round. They are not great meat eaters, rice, beans, and cabbage taking the place of meat, potatoes, and bread. It is a very monotonous fare, and yet men are strong in the strength of it and can work like horses and carry enormous loads. In soul the Korean is the son of a Chinaman, Language but in language he is related to Japan. He can sound both / and r, while the Japanese has to say gay-roo for girl, and the Chinaman says Amellican for American. The Korean stands between them not in heart and geographical position only, but in a still greater sense, we trust, that will be manifest in days to come. Korean is a simple speech, unartificialized by a fixed set of rules and a printed literature like our own. It belongs to Gospel times, for while it labors hard to express Romans and Gala- The Complete but Changing 22, Korea in Transition tians, the Gospels speak forth from it beauti- fully. While expressing the simplicities of life most appropriately, it is a hard language to learn with its honorifics and Chinese de- rivatives. Will the reader then please enter into this in- picture troductory picture of Korea, joining compan- ionship with these millions dressed in their odd garments, moving about in cities, among the mountains, and between the waving rice-fields, blessed with the sunshine and the rain, sorrow- ing, suffering, ignorant of time, ignorant of eternity, dying off one generation after an- other, each smoking its pipe of self-satisfaction, dreaming that it was rich and increased in goods and had need of nothing, speaking no end of salutation, peace, peace, when there was no peace? On this procession has wended, till twenty years and more ago, when there struck an hour on the clock that marks off the ages, and the gates of the Hermit swung wide open, and in stepped forces that have since been mingling mightily with what has been touched on in the opening paragraphs. All things are changing so rapidly, so radically, that we wonder whither we are going. To this quiet, unsophisticated people have come no Paul The Land and the People 23 end of wild surprise and political upheaval, unutterable despair and blind suicide. But in the midst of this crashing and break- ^p^^^^;*^ voices ing up of every ideal come callers not dreamed of before. One is Peter. He says : "Are you a low-caste man? So was I. Are you dead beat? So was I. Do you long for victory? So did I. One name solved all my troubles, just one name, let me whisper it to you, 'J^^us, Jesus, Jesus;' so the vibrations carry it as by wireless telegraphy from Peter's lips to the farthest limits of the land." Another preacher follows, hard to under- stand. Paul is his name. He asks : "Are you an aristocrat and a scholar? God has no use for aristocrats. He wants sinners, the un- thankful, the unholy. Which class do you be- long to? Stricken from off my exalted seat, down in the dust I first recognized him. Shut your eyes to the world, get into Straight street, and try prayer." Another preacher is Jesus' mother. Mary says : "So many people were round about him I could not get near. All I wanted was just to see Jesus. His answer was: Who wants me? My mother? Why all you Korean peo- ple need to see me just as badly as my mother Mary 24 Korea in Transition does. Look on me as she does with love, and you'll be my mother, and sister, and brother.' " Korea's heart beats one with China. The chords struck across the Yalu find response here. She is under Japan tighter than lock and key can make her. Has God a purpose for the Far East with his hand upon her, and she between these two mighty questions of the world, China and Japan? SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THE QUESTIONS The questions below, as their title indicates, are in- tended to be suggestive. They make no pretense to review the contents of each chapter. Such a memory- test can easily be constructed by any leader or student by writing out the contents of the chapter and then expanding them without the aid of the text. The present questions are intended to stimulate original thought, and they therefore use the text-book only as a point of departure. Leaders may find it profitable to assign some of these questions in advance for study and discussion. It will usually be better to discuss a few questions thoroughly, rather than to try to cover the entire set. In many cases the leader can fit them better to the use of a par- ticular class by careful rewording. If they are used in private study, it is recommended that conclusions be written out. It is not expected that the average student will be able to answer all these questions satisfactorily; otherwise there would be little left for the class session. Let results, however frag- The Land and the People 25 mentary, be brought to the class and supplemented by comparison and discussion. The questions marked * are perhaps most worth discussing in detail, SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER I Aim: To Come into Sympathy with the Land and People L Space and Time Distances. 1. Compare the area and population of Korea with that of the State or Province in which you live. 2. How does it contrast in area and population with the combined States of New York and Pennsylvania ? 3. How large would the States of New York and Pennsylvania seem to you if we had only the Korean means of intercommunication? 4. How far do you think you would have traveled from home under such circumstances? 5. About how long would it take you to go from Boston to Richmond, Virginia, on a pony, if the roads were bad? 6.* Try to estim.ate the relative size of Korea and the United States measured by the time con- sumed in travel. 7. Try to imagine what your life would be like if you were entirely cut off from modern means of transportation. II. Influence of Environment on Character. 8. What sort of climate would you choose for a nation in order that its inhabitants might de- velop the strongest character? 26 Korea in Transition 9. Find on a map of North America points which approximate the latitude of the northern and southern limits of Korea. 10. What are the relative advantages of a nation of extended latitude and extended longitude? II.* Try to discover some of the influences that have made the Koreans inexact in their mental processes. 12. What do the comparative methods of smoking reveal to you of Korean and Western char- acter ? 13. What advantages will Korea derive in the future from her comparatively compact area? 14.* What things in the physical features of Korea give you most hope for the future? III. The Inevitable Changes. 15.* If Korea were made over to you as a gift, what measures would you take to improve your property? Name in order of their importance. 16.* Describe what you think would be the effect of each of these physical improvements on the life of the people. 17. To what extent are these changes Inevitable in Korea? 18. What would be the probable effect upon an ignorant country boy without principles of being suddenly thrust into city life? 19.* In what ways does this example illustrate the present position of Korea? 20. What would be the effect of Western civiliza- tion upon a primitive people without the con- straint of Christianity? 21. For what reasons do you think this land de- serves the sympathy of the Christian Church? The Land and the People 27 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY CHAPTER I I. Resources. Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. I, pp. 274, 275. Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 14-18, 391, 392, 445. Underwood : The Call of Korea, pp. 23-35. Gifford : Every-day Life in Korea, pp. 20-22. Noble: Ewa : A Tale of Korea, pp. 11-13. n. Transportation. Hulbert : The Passing of Korea, ch. XVIII. Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, p. 128. III. Recent Improvements. Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XXXIV. Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 435-443« THE NATION'S PRESENT SITUATION HISTORICAL SKETCH It seems best, as Dr. Gale has done, to avoid a discussion of the causes leading to the Japanese control of Korea. On this subject bitter charges and countercharges have been made, and the complete truth is not easy to discover. A brief table is given, however, to indicate the principal political events since 1876; 1876. First foreign treaty of Korea with Japan. 1883. First treaties with the United States, Germany, and Great Britain. First American minister to Korea. 1885. China and Japan sign convention agreeing not to send troops into Korea without previous constdtation. Chinese influence dominant. 1894. China sends troops into Korea to repress Tong-hak rebellion. This leads to war between China and Japan. Japanese influence dominant. 1895. Queen of Korea assassinated by Japanese and Koreans, 1896. King takes refuge in Russian legation in Seoul. Rus- sian influence dominant. 1898. Japan and Russia agree to recognize the independence of Korea and to abstain from interference. 1904. Russia's encroachments lead to war with Japan. Korea agrees to accept the advice of Japan as to adminis- tration, and Japan guarantees the independence of Korea. Virtual Japanese protectorate. 1905. Japan secures control of the foreign relations of Korea. Marquis Ito becomes Resident- General. 1907. Emperor of Korea forced to abdicate in favor of the Crown Prince. The Resident- General in complete control. In general it may be said that Japan has assumed control of Korea in order to exclude any further possibility of Rus- sian intrigue, to which the Korean government had always been susceptible. The administration initiated by Marqtiis Ito_ is undoubtedly far more efficient and modem than that which it displaced. On the other hand, it is claimed that the Koreans have suffered many abuses at the hands of the Japanese soldiers and settlers. 30 II THE NATION'S PRESENT SITUATION Over the hill from my home, in a little house ^u-nam with tiled roof, lives a widow, Mrs. Shin. Her family consists of mother-in-law, son seven- teen years of age, long waited for, now a man, daughter fourteen, and Samuel her youngest, aged four. It did not attract much attention from the outside world, this home, but it was everything to the humble inhabitants thereof. Su-nam, the tall son, was the new, strong flag- staff around which age and tender years ral- lied. Through many seasons of hardship and sorrow, this home had come to commit its way to God, to trust also in him, knowing that he would bring it to pass. True Christians they were and Su-nam was their hope and joy. He was on a visit to Ping yang when yes- sorrow's umt terday (July 27), between the torrents of fall- ing rain, there came a telegram to me saying, "Su-nam drowned." What a dire stroke for that poor home in two short words, a double- edged sword cutting to the hilt through the For introductory material to this chapter see opposite page. 3« I ^orea'8 Desolation 32 Korea in Transition center of the soul! With this information in hand I crossed the hill to Mrs. Shin's house. They were at evening meal in the little veranda round a very small table. With smiles they greeted my coming, for I was their friend, and would bring good cheer and hope. What cruelty ! I was to turn all these smiles into an agony of woe unspeakable. "Alas," I said, "I have news, such news as will break your hearts, God help us all!" Every face instantly fixed itself into an expression of pained suspense, and I went on, "God has called Su-nam. He is drowned." The little girl of fourteen, as if shot with a rifle bullet, broke into a cry that would melt the soul; the mother dropped on her face but no word passed her lips ; the old grandmother, whose hopes were on this boy, lifted up her heart to heaven and said, "We thank thee, O Father. Thou didst give Su- nam; thou hast taken Su-nam; blessed be thy name." Multiply this heart-breaking scene to a family of fifteen millions, and make their little table this desolated peninsula, and you will have some idea of what Korea has passed through in the last few sad years. Indescrib- able is the wailing that has gone up and beating Failed The Nation's Present Situation 33 of the breast over the death and burial of hopes, aspirations, and long-cherished desires. Korea's was a patriarchal form of govern- ^^.^J^*^ *^^* ment from the beginning. Officials were often still but callow youths, but by reason of office they were magnified and glorified into mature age with beard and rod of authority. The peo- ple at large were their children, whom they fathered, arrested, beat, stood in a corner, kept in after school, or set digging weeds, just as they saw fit, and no reply would be forthcom- ing, except perhaps a wail open-mouthed and loud such as children break out with, but with a voice fifty or sixty years of age. Under this system the people individually were nothing, and they were reasonably con- tent to be so, provided their ancient customs continued. They were oppressed and down- trodden, but it was oppression dealt out accord- ing to custom, and custom is higher than law. This was their country and they were free to love or kill each other with no foreigner to interfere. To them patriotism consisted in minding your own business, and keeping clear of the official's long-handled paddle, but on the opening of the gates and the inrush of Western life all is changed. Now Korea must awake Misrule Emperor 34 Korea in Transition and adjust herself to a new age, or the age would roll over and crush her forever. For twenty years Korea had a chance to get into line with these new forces, but it was not to be. It was a question of life and death, but she was not able. Many saw it, many spoke thereof. The Retired As great father for the land was the deposed emperor, chosen of God to bring his people to a state of wo unexampled, under which how- ever we believe there lie hidden hopes higher than she has ever dreamed of. The emperor could say as Louis XIV did, ''Uetat c'est moi" ("The state, I am the state"), though he forgot that he was not the twentieth century, and forgot other outside forces as well. His walk was backward. Kings of the Orient until recent years have favored the rearward march in their movings, or else their eyes have been hope- lessly fixed in the back of the head ; ior with fixed gaze on Yo-sun (2300 B. C), they have backed up into all sorts of confusion, never seeing where they were going until too late, dreaming only of the past from which they had emerged, no progress ever contemplated, no reform undertaken lest it detract from the glory of Yo and Sun the king-gods of the Golden Age. The retired emperor was un- The Nation's Present Situation 35 doubtedly an instrument used of God to humble his own land. It was impossible to bring him into touch with any new era. He was kind and gentle and often full of compassion, but a sug- gestion of reform would rouse the demon with- in him, and he would clap thumbscrew and tor- ture rack onto the friend of yesterday and have him drawn and quartered forthwith. During the twenty years that he was on trial for his life, he failed at every point. This is the first thing to remember in considering the position of Korea to-day politically. She was brought to it by the retired emperor being out of touch with the age he lived in. There was another factor to be reckoned J*p^ with, namely, Japan; and the retired emperor and his people both emphatically disliked Japan. From earliest times they had marked her by abusive terms Wa-ro (slaves of Wa), To-man (island savages), Wai-nom (foreign knaves); while Japan spoke of Koreans as Han-kak (honored guests of Han). Nothing could bring them together. Religion ? The Japanese prayed to Buddha and the Shinto gods, while Korea was Confucian. Japan exalted the sword, and Korea despised her, for she herself worshiped the pen. 36 Korea in Transition Korea's Day of Reckoning Opposing Factors Korea through its ruler was out of touch with the age in which it lived; in heart, sym- pathy, and tradition it was out of touch with the Japanese, and yet here were these three gradually coming to occupy the same room, and the same bed, at the same time : the twen- tieth century, the Korean emperor, and the spirit of Japan ; unsuited as fire and water, or wood and lightning, destined to kick and smash and resist until one of them was reduced to hopeless and non-resisting silence. The emperor too and his people were not at one. Esson Third wrote some years ago : "The Korean emperor has no confidence in his peo- ple, and his people have no use for the Japan- ese, and the Japanese have no faith in the emperor. Reverse it and it is still correct. The emperor mistrusts the Japanese, the Japanese have no confidence in the people, and the peo- ple despise the emperor." Reform was stamped out. The best and most enlightened men were shut up in prison. It was a fight on the part of the old emperor, single-handed, against his own people, against the onrolling centuries, with the Japanese accompanying, keeping pace and persistently shouting "Banzai" (long live our emperor). FirstRetributive Results The Nation's Present Situation 37 Then it was that men's hearts began to fear Looking Toward , , ^, . . . ^^j. Christianity and to turn toward Christianity. Wiser ones said, "All the forces of the universe are bear- ing down upon us; unless God help we are lost." It w^as the beginning of the awakening in the Korean's soul to the helpless condition of his country. Once, on a call at his home. Prince Min said to the writer, "Pray for Korea. God can help us if no one else can." Eyes that never looked heavenward before did so now in view of uncertainties. The emperor, by his old "underground" methods, was in touch with Russia, anxious for her belated civilization, if he could not hold on to 2000 B. C., but every move turned against him, everything was out of gear. On Novem- ber 17, 1905, in the dead of night, at the Palace in Chung dong, Seoul, the first pay- ment was made for all the mistaken years, the wrongs done and suffered, and the lies told and unrepented of. It was made by the sign- ing of the treaty of that date, giving over to the Japanese government the control of Korea's foreign affairs. On receipt of this news. Prince Min concluded that his country was gone and that he would die with it. He locked himself away from all his friends, wrote out his will, 3^ Korea in Transition and a few farewell letters, and then with a dull, short pocket-knife accomplished his own quietus. Written large round his name, Korea will ever read the sentence, "Sweet and seemly is it to die for one's fatherland." The Float Crtsia Again in July, 1907, another crisis was reached. The nation that had so long at- tempted to sail in a leaky boat, and had per- sistently clubbed any man who had tried to stop the chinks, was going down. The water was deep and all straws were caught at, Russia, The Hague, Mr. Hulbert, Hawaiian Petition, Bethell and Company, appeal to rifles; but everything failed. The Japan-Korea Treaty of July 24, 1907, resulted, and the last act of the drama was the exit of the old emperor-king. He was asked to move out and make way for oncoming generations, to sign away all rights as emperor, king, autocrat; to abdicate once and for all. The wildest cry was of no avail. There was no resisting; force sufficient was back of the order to project him into eternity, and so he bowed to the inevitable. According to the understanding of the people at large, the last breath was drawn, and Korea had expired. A mad sort of spurious patriotism started The Aftermath The Nation's Present Situation 39 into being, with suicide, chopping off of fingers, sworn oaths, guerilla warfare, flint-lock re- sistance. It still goes on to a considerable de- gree, while the poor people in the valleys, caught between the contending forces, have to pay the price of Korea's past failure. With the question as to how in other ways she came to such a pass as this, as to where the right and wrong of it lay, as to what ought to have been done and what ought not to have been done, it is not in our province to deal. Here she is to-day. If it had not been the Japanese, certainly the twentieth century single-handed would have crushed the old emperor and all he represented out of existence. Evidently the purpose in this plan of God was to bring Korea to a place where she would say, "All is lost, I am undone." Like Mrs. Shin and her house- hold, nothing remained for the people but to commit the whole burden of it to the Lord himself. First and foremost they had lost their coun- try. There have been men who have had no citizenship, and who have passed the pilgrim- age of life without flag or nationality, unpro- tected by state or consular arm of the law, but most people would feel unhappy under such cir- Looking fiM a Countrsr John Chin; Cous Heaven 40 Korea in Transition cumstances. Even Paul emphatically made announcement of the fact that he was a Roman citizen, and as good a man as Dr. Guido F. Ver- beck knocked at the state entrance of Japan, requesting that they please take him in, as he and his family were without country and felt shelterless. Still, there are those who overcome such colX^ta sentiments and walk the earth victoriously. A Chinese lived in Yokohama some twelve years ago. He was a house-painter by occupation, and went about wearing a very much bedaubed suit of clothes, caked here and there with white and green and yellow. He was a Christian and attended church regularly. When the leader said, "Let any one pray who will," John never failed to take part. The gladness of his soul spoke itself forth in a kind of Can- tonned Japanese, the full meaning of which was known to himself and God only. When the Shinasan (Mr. Chinaman) prayed, many a face in the room became wreathed in smiles and sometimes a hand was necessary over the mouth to help hold the hearer steady. John paid no attention, he cared not who laughed at his prayers, he was happy, God had forgiven him and though a Chinese, he had said good- The Nation's Present Situation 41 by to the world, and cut his cue off. One day a Korean friend met him and said, "Honorable sir from the great country, where is your cue?'* "Cue? Cue belong no good, makee cut off." "But you will not dare to go home, you have lost your country/' "Maskee country," said John, "my country belong Htien-kuoa, Htien- kuoa" ("Heaven, Heaven"), pointing upward. Could we but convev John's upward look Hope for the 11 11 r HopelesB and happy spirit to the hearts and homes of Korea, we should have done the work for which all this agony of sweat and blood has prepared the way. The Korean says : "I have no country, no citizenship, no flag, no land that is my own, only the skeleton and remains. They are worse than nothing, ghastly, ought to be buried out of sight," and the hoplessness of a worldly man with none of the world's backing settles over him. He did not know- that his country was worth anything till he lost it. He abused it and disgraced it for genera- tions, still it was his; now it is dead, and no man is on hand to raise the dead to life. In former days when the state threatened Human FaUure, M 1 1 T* Divine collapse there were supports available. Rus- Faithfulness sia served at times, then France, sometimes China or England. Says friend Kim: 42 Korea in Transition "America we were sure of, for the first article in our treaty with her read, *If other powers deal unjustly with either government, the one will exert its good offices, on being informed of the case, to bring about an amicable ar- rangement, thus showing its friendly feel- ings/ England joined the enemy, and even America went back on us. Verbeck may hsLve found a door to knock at but there is no door for lost Han." How like oil on the troubled waters of the soul fall such sentences as these, "My kingdom is not of this world." "Resist not." "For our citizenship is In heaven." There also we have our "city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Like a Faiiy The possibility of a poor Korean, really and truly under such circumstances, knocking at the palace gates of heaven and making applica- tion for citizenship in the name of Jesus, being received, his name recorded, and a happy peaceful heart given as proof thereof is like a fairy tale of the Taoists. It is like the story of the resurrected Jesus to Peter and his com- panions, a something that the women must have hatched up, but that sound-minded men could not receive. rale The Nation's Present Situation 43 My friend Kim says : "We have no king. ^^^ ^^°^ ^ -^ => but Still Their The one we had was a poor makeshift, to be King sure, but anything is better than no king. He would never take a reprimand. The number of heads of chief officers that dropped during his reign was astounding. He was mighty in having his own way, and in keeping the people under. He used to say : '^Don't make a noise. Don't talk about the government. Don't fight each other and send petitions to the Palace. Just eat your rice, and do your work, and be good.' When the people attempted to cany on the Independence Club, his majesty put up a notice on the Bell-kiosk, *Let there be no meetings, or shout-talk of any kind in the streets. You are commanded every man to stay at home and mind his own business.' He handcuffed us, he robbed us, he paddled us, he hanged and quartered us, he lived for him- self alone and for his worn-out superstitions, but it was better than no king. So deeply is the patriarchal thought written on the heart, that bees could as easily swarm without a queen- bee as Korea lift up its head without some choice in the way of ruler." The old king, after having been execrated 2^™^y\^ for twenty years or more, suddenly swings 44 Korea in Transition into a niche of honor, by virtue of the death that his kingship dies. The Japanese, through the present cabinet, put his son on the throne in his place, but Kim knows nothing of that. He repeats, "Alas, there is no king to-day." For these kingless, downcast, fifteen millions of Koreans there was written long ago. The name of your King is "Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." The Higher What a day in which to proclaim the nature of his kingdom ! He too was an Oriental. He too lived in a land fallen as to kingship. He too felt the shame of the nation's loss. He died with and for guilty men. "He lives and holds in his hand all the kingdoms of the world, Japan as well as Judea. He brought you here under the harrow; he sent the Japanese that you might be taught to yield to him." An old man with teeth out -and cheeks fallen in says, "I used to be an officer of state myself, and my heart was caked hard with the doings there- of, but since I came to Jesus and he is my King, I love even the Japanese, and the mountains of the west over which my sun is setting are all lighted up with glory." Since 1122 B. C, when the Chinese sacred The Nation's Present Situation 45 books were first brought to Korea by Viscount Ki, Korea has been a worshiper of Hterature. As the sycee-silver shoe might represent China, and the two-handed sword Japan, the brush pen with the bamboo handle would be the choice of all for Korea. Happy the man who knows its companionship, who can grip it verti- cally, strike across the page and bring his line to the required finish, mark it downward and not weaken at the end, cut east and west, dot, and turn the corner. It requires years to learn all this. The labor-blunted hand of the Westerner could never do it. The joy of writ- ing the characters takes its rise high up in the Korean's heaven. Then the reading of them is like deciphering messages from the gods. The man who could do' so well, was honored by king and commoner alike. To encourage this sublime art, there were periodical examina- tions held, to which candidates presented them- selves from all corners of the land. Many came hundreds of miles all the way on foot, in the hope of gaining some distinction at the Koaga (Examination). Though you failed, the fact that you were a candidate was distinction un- questioned. To pass and become a Koup-je clothed you with Korea's most excellent glory. National Love of Literature 46 Korea in Transition Hoaot for BSticartfon Old Literature and School Methods Forsaken Throughout the land were schoolrooms, where lads gathered for study, singing out the lesson all together at the top of the voice. A third of the time they read, a third of the time they wrote, a third of the time they composed. So greatly are literature and education honored, that the common title, Mr. (So-bang), means really ^'Schoolroom" or we might better say **School-man" ; so we have *'School-man" this and "School-man" that. It may be Pak who digs weeds in the paddy-field and never studied a day in his life, but he too is ''School-man" Pak, and he addresses his fellow laborer Koak as "School-man" Koak. Everybody is a "School-man," all over the land, by reason of the desire to share in even the shadow of the glory that goes with literature. The inrush of Goths and Vandals in 410 and the sacking of Rome would not be con- sidered by a Korean more terrible than the forces that have recently pushed through the gateways of Korea. Western civilization, the twentieth century, and the Japanese are quite as fearful and barbarous a combination. Be- fore these all the choice idols of the land have fallen, and chief among them was Chinese lit- erature, now gone down to the eternal shades. The Nation's Present Situation 47 There are no more periodic examinations, no more singing off of the classics in hope of high honor and distinction, no more meditating over the Book of Changes. The bamboo pen Hes dishonored, and the barking of ten-inch guns takes the place of infant voices singing out ^'Heaven blue, earth yellow/' and the other old school phrases. The Korean is a gentleman by instinct, he ^[°^^°^ b&m^ worships intellect and not the god of force. In his tears over his fallen divinity, he fumbles at the sword, thinking to try it, but the sword is not his, as it was not Peter's. What shall he do for something that will take the place of all that he has lost? When in tears, just at this time there comes to him the Bible, sixty- six books, oldest in the world, written by thirty-six writers or more, among whom were shepherds and plowmen, as well as kings and princes. It stretches in its range over fifteen hundred years, including history, doctrine, and prophecy, in prose and verse; it points to the past, even back of the days of Yo and Sun; it speaks with kingly authority as to the present; turning its searchlights on into the vistas of the future ; it tells of God, what he is, and what he has done; it solves the problem of ^ 48 Korea in Transition Nai-VMA Woman's Freedom man, and his lost condition ; it leads one on into places of deliverance, victory, and peace. Was there ever such a literature, and was there ever such a time as this ? Let all hearts and hands unite in getting into his soul these divine and kingly truths. Some v^ho v^ere never scholars in the ancient classics have become men of mighty influence, because the heart has been filled with the sayings of sages such as Moses, Daniel, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, and John. Among the breaking down of ancient cus- toms to-day, Nai-woi is destined to go likewise. Now Nai-woi is not an Anamese nor an East Indian god, but an old Korean custom of ma- ture years and long standing. It has been like the feathers and paint on the red Indian giving him glory in the eyes of men, to the obliteration of his female partner, who is buried under the monotonies of life with the papoose on her back. Nai-woi means *inside- outside', 'prisoner-freeman', 'woman-man'. Because of Nai-woi, Korean women have gradually disappeared from the world of recognition, to the world of slavery and im- prisonment. History has from time immemorial shown lis a locked-up world of women, women made pris- The Nation's Present Situation 49 oners, bought and sold. Occasionally one has risen superior to her wrist-rings and shackles, and made her name and influence felt, but the woman's world has been the dark curtained region full of oppression and despair. Jesus came and set the women of the world free. He seems to be the only one who knows how to unlock her prison-house, so as not to have it open into another equally woful. Korea's women have been under the closest sort of battened down hatches. But the twentieth century has come in, holding aloft the name of Jesus and proclaiming all women free. What a consternation has been created in the breaking down of the middle wall, Nai-woi, fraught as it is with great danger as well as great hope. High women of the land who never saw sunshine or the open air till a few days ago, are suddenly shoved pell-mell into public func- tions and asked to drink champagne and be hail-fellow-well-met with all sorts and con- ditions of men. With no precedent behind, with no knowledge accompanying, and with no mature vision of the future, these women are drifting into uncertainty with all the barbed wires and safeguards of Nai-woi done away. Her New Perils 50 Korea in Transition Color and 'pj^^ £^g^ jg ^^^ ^f ^.^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Hiatch the V^oman's Raiment most glaring extremes in a way pleasing and grateful to the eye, but let it get out of its world into the tints of the West, and green screams out against magenta, and purple and red fight furiously. So in dress, shovel hats and hollow- chested shirt-waists run riot with black skirts waisted high up under the arms. How sadly the once dreamy woman's world of the East has developed under the harsh sunlight of to- day ! Hope in Jesus Where is hope to come from ? Only from Jesus, seems the consensus of opinion, even among unbelievers. In lowly companionship with him the Eastern woman may safely meet the breaking down of custom. A few days ago a Christian official on a call said: "Our women are emancipated from the slavery that besets them, only to fall into a deeper and more deadly one. May God in his mercy protect and defend them!" Peach-red ^g j ^j-j^c I scc the facc of ouc Called To- hong (Peach-red). She was a low-class danc- ing-girl, bought and sold. Restoration was a word not applicable to her, for she never was right. She was born lapsed and lived lapsed. Over the walls of the world that encircled her The Nation's Present Situation 51 came the story of Jesus, a man, a wise and pure man, pure a-s God is pure, in fact a God as God is God, yet it was said that he loved lost and fallen women. Peach-red had never before heard of such a being. Her soul was sick, and she wondered if she could but meet him what he would say to ''the likes of her", and if he really could cure soul-sickness. When or where or how Peach-red met Jesus I know not ; that she met him I most assuredly know. Seven years had rolled away, and out of my life passed the name of Peach-red. It was for- gotten in the multitude of names that crowded on me. One Sunday, after service in a great meeting-house of some two thousand people, with this and that one coming forward to say *Teace," there appeared before me a smiling face known and yet not known. "Don't you remember me? Baptized me seven years ago. My old name was Peach-red." Here was this woman in value once less than zero, crowned with the light and liberty and growth in grace of seven years. On long journeys over the mountains, hundreds of miles, on such a mis- sion as Paul's through Europe had gone the unwearied feet of Peach-red. For seven years it had been a pilgrimage of victory, and she 52 Korea in Transition was here to-day with an overflowing heart to thank the Lord. Social Barriers gy j^gj. gide sat Madam Yee, wife of one of Removed "^ Korea's noted men, once imprisoned, curtained round, secluded, shadowed by the awful form of Nai-woi, proud too, not deigning to look at such refuse as Peach-red. To-day they sit to- gether and Madam Yee says: ''You know so much of the Bible. Let me listen while you read it. Truly you are dear." Jesus had broken Nai-woi so that Madam Yee came to this crowded meeting-house. He had bridged the chasm that divided these two women. He had delivered the poor dancing-girl from the life of a broken Nai-woi and from the slavery under which she was held. Surely at such a day as this when the woman's world is crashed into and the dividing walls are down, we need the gospel to point out the new and better way. The word "face," Mo-yang, flourishes widely in the Far East and has one of the first claims on the heart of Korea. Be the dress however fine, unless the face be comely the man stands at a disadvantage. If he be fur- rowed and bristled over with a jungle of hair, the wearer may be Thomas Carlyle, and may have written Sartor Resartus, but that does •Pace" The Nation's Present Situation 53 not redeem him fromi a certain flavor of bar- barism. Perhaps the face of Yiian Shih-k*ai would as nearly answer the ideal of Korea as any other, round, well set, carried with all dignity, agreeable to look upon, proud, in- scrutable. This pertains to the outer face, but there is an inner face that is the real ques- tion. We notice it when he says, 'Tf I be put to shame, so that others know it, I have lost face." Korea has no nerves to speak of, but any amount of abnormal appreciation of this word "face". Esson Third writes: "My neig-hbor across Nerves •^ ° Unaffected by the way has had about seventeen dogs snarling, Noise grinning, yelping, round his corn-stalk paling for the last forty-eight hours. All the discord- ant sounds imaginable have been repeated a million times. I inquired this morning as to the neighbor and the neighbor's wife, of what they were made — of wood, or mud, or dry bones — that they could tolerate forty-eight hours of such a pandemonium. My Korean friends could not understand what I meant. They understood the words but not the thought. What had these dog noises to do with the make-up of Mr. and Mrs. Chew. Chew is at peace, Mrs. Chew is at peace as But Unable to Bear Criticism Loss of "Pace" 54 Korea in Transition well, bo1;h are in possession of unbroken face. She has no diseased harp-strings in her soul, that get all on edge with every noise that the Orient gives off. I am struck with the differ- ence between Mrs. Chew, for example, and Thomas Carlyle. After forty-eight hours of yelpings, snarlings, screamings, she is in per- fect peace, and her soul reposes blissfully. Carlyle had had one night of it at the hands of a small dog over the way. He says, *'By five o'clock in the morning, I would hiave given a guinea of gold for its hind legs firm in my right hand by the side of a good stone wall." Mrs. Chew, unmoved after forty-eight hours of seventeen dogs, thinks what a diabolical frame of mind for any man to be in. Carlyle would die under this grinding of the nerves, but to die because of what others thought fail- ure he knew not. Nothing served better to rouse the war-horse within him and his bris- tling mane than to feel that he was the one man against forty million other Britishers, "mostly fools." Not so Korea. In the recent political shipwreck the worst is that Korea has gone down with loss of "face". This is why Min suicided. This is why the present brings a lonely shameful sense The Nation's Present Situation 55 of death to the people. Not the loss of tangible property so much as this ruin of the proper form, is what the Korean dies under. Humilia- tion unspeakable has gripped his soul, and he says: ''With what face can I look upon the whole world, with what face will I meet the spirits of my forefathers in the Yellow Shades?" However unreasonable this position may An Evangel of seem to be; how much better soever the pres- ent may seem as compared with the hopeless past, he views it not so. Friend Kim says, "Face is lost and eternal shame is my portion forever." At such a time as this, when he has written large over the portals of the future, Chul-mang-mun (the gateway of despair), "Abandon hope all ye who enter here," what a joy to be a missionary, called to such a time as this and to so needy a people tO' say to^ them : "Listen, while I read to you, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why are thou dis- quieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.' " "Can he truly heal loss of face?" This ^fvlne'' Help is the question. Some think he can, — ^those who have tested him ; some think he cannot, — S6 Korea in Transition those who have not. One young man by the name of Wonderful, T. J. Wonderful, spoke in last Wednesday's meeting. He is a student twenty-two years old. He said : ''I once looked with admiration upon a minister of state, I thought him the acme of all in all, till I learned God's message to my soul. When that came, the whole world changed ; in place of admira- tion, there was nothing but a pitiful longing left, and a prayer that he too might believe. For a world of fallen countenances there is no help like God." Korea like all other nations loves power, power over the lives, destinies, and liberties of men. Millionaire kings are not seen here as at home, but official kings have always ex- isted. Then too there are kings of literature and kings of ancient aristocracy. Power is sweet, but when one cannot have it, the next best thing is to look up and admire the man who has, if you consistently can. To-day power has passed out of the Korean's hand and into the hand of a man whom he cannot admire; hence there comes this feeling of desolation. Nominally power remains his still, but it is only the ghost and thin shades that we see. In olden days tax-levying, collecting, dis- The Nation's Present Situation 57 bursing, transmitting, and other details of ad- ministration, provided an unlimited field for the science of ^squeeze', and out of this grew one of Korea's most deadly national sins. To- day no taxes pass through the Korean's hand, except what he pays, or what he receives after permission of a Japanese official. This is the logical result of a long list of national wrong- doings, but it is bitter none the less. The yel- low harvests of rice and the long stretches of beans and millet have lost their poetry, and are flat and colorless. Then there was the field of office-seeking and o^ce appointing. Fierce were the tugs of war and glorious was the end to the victor with the spoils thereof. Happy the man who could ride down all opponents and get himself possessed of the two-handed paddle. To-day all this high privilege is in the hands of the Resident- General. To think of such a thing is like a nightmare from which he tries to shake him- self into substantial awakening. He finds however that the dream is real, and that the desired reality is only a dream. All educational matters, too, are in the hands Education of those who were once supposed tO' be illiterate island savages. They decide as to the course S8 Korea in Transition Mining PrivilegM The Customs The Military of study, as to grants, as to grades of schools, as to teachers, as to everything that pertains to the world of letters. The hills that were given, Korea by God four thousand years ago, sown rich with gold and silver, have waited in vain for the miner's hand to dig them. Instead the Korean has peopled them with white and blue devils,^ who threaten him with dire destruction if he dare cut into their backs or tails.^ The result is, God has taken the hills away from him, and passed them on to others, and the Korean has no power to- day even to hold a mine, much less to grant concessions. The Customs, organized by Sir Robert Hart and developed by Sir John McL. Brown, are in the hands of the alien, too, and all the dollars that accrue therefrom. The Korean soldier who used to stand guard by the Palace gates or drill out in the open square has been spirited away. He has gone, and not even the echo of his bugle-call remains to us. He was the nation's representative of power and glory, standing at present arms «The "White Tiger" and "Blue Dragon" as named in geomancy. » A street in Seoul still shows the Dragon's back protected by stones. The Nation's Present Situation 59 beautifully, or giving- the general salute when the king went by. He is gone. The cicada-fly still sings, the tree^toad pipes, and the peasant quavers his old-fashioned throat notes of an evening, but "lights out" no longer greets the ear of the Korean soldier, and the reveille is silent. Only celestial armies, such as Elisha saw, fill the distant hills. Like a far-off whis- per comes the word : "All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Accept my life. Swing into line with me, and all your doings will be victorious." These have been bitter years. Hatred, sus- who is .-.,-. . . Sufficient P picion, strife, with their accompaniments of bloodshed, burned villages, poverty, tears, and suicide, have cut deep into the souls of the peo- ple. Those whose hands were accustomed to the gentle methods of pipe and pen are to-day cold-blooded in the use of rifle, bayonet, and revolver. Every day the government papers report so many insurgents captured, so many wounded, so many shot. How men can hate, how they can lie and steal and murder, are old stories not -to be learned in the East only. Who can pour oil on the troubled waters ? Who can say to Galilee, when the typhoon bears across it, and blind with fury, drives Peter, John, and 6o Korea in Transition their associates toward the grinding rocks, who can lift his hand at such a time and say, *' Steady, cease!" Who can loolc on the man of failure, the man who has tried the sword and missed the mark, who has lied and sworn, and filled his heart with hatred and fear, a good- for-nothing, lost man, who by a look can melt such a one and bring him to his knees in tears of repentance? Who can say to prison doors, "Swing back", and to all of Caesar's guards, *'Out of my way"? Who can speak and be heard by ears long dead? Who can turn a land of sorrow into glad rejoicing? Who can make me forget my wrongs, and love the man I hated, and make him whom I have wronged love me ? Who can take zero and by multiplying it all down the ages make it spell infinity? Who can make out of poor Galilee drift-wood a being like Peter, almost divine? Who can bind together in one unbreakable bond of love Korea and Japan, and making them forget their mutual grievances, form of them a mighty people for the glory of his Father's name? The Nation's Present Situation 6i SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER II Aim : To Understand Korea's Need in Her National Humiliation I. The National Humiliation. 1. Why would the United States resent the pro- posal to choose a king as head of the nation? 2. Why would Canada resent the proposal to elect a President? 3. To what extent would this feeling on the part of the two nations be justifiable? 4. Why did the Koreans tolerate their corrupt and inefficient government? 5.* How near do you think their patriotism ap- proaches that of Anglo-Saxon North America? 6. In what ways does it most markedly differ? • 7. Why do the Koreans grieve so greatly over the loss of their reactionary king? 8. Why do they regret the passing of corrupt officials? 9. How would you feel if your country were garrisoned with foreign troops? ID. What is the difference between initiating re- forms for yourself and having them dictated from without ? II.* Sum up as vividly as possible the Korean sense of national humiliation. II. The Needs of the New Order. 12.* What are some of the differences in detail between a society founded on custom and one founded on the ideal of progress? 13,* What qualities are demanded for the second that are not necessary for the first? 62 Korea in Transition 14. What are the special dangers In the transition from the first to the second of these stand- points ? 15. What are the disadvantages of a progressive society for a man who is not trained for it? 16.* What sort of training do you think Korean boys should have to fit them for the chang- ing conditions? 17.* What sort of training should girls have? 18. What ideals of personal character does Korea need most just now? III. The Comfort of Christianity. 19. Work out the points of resemblance between the present Korean political situation and that of the Jews in exile. 20. Select several passages from the Old Testa- ment which you think would be of especial comfort to Koreans to-day. 21. In what respect was the political position of the early Christian Church like that of Korea at present? 22* What things has the Christian Church to offer that help to supply the loss of nationality? 23. Collect the New Testament passages that you think would be most helpful in the present situation. 24. What is the message of the Bible on the subject of race hatred? 25.* What would be your counsel to a Korean patriot in the present distress? The Nation's Present Situation 63 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY CHAPTER II I. Recent History. Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, chs. VIII-XIV. Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, chs. XXI- XXIII, XXXI, XXXVI-XXXVII. Gale: Korean Sketches, ch. XI. II. Korean Misrule. Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. III. Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. lOl, I02, 329, 446-448. Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, p. 57. III. Character of the King. Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XXVII. Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 257, 258, 433. THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE In no department of Korean life is the antiqtiity of their ciyihzation so clearly demonstrated as in the mosaic of religious beliefs that are held, not only by different indi- viduals, but by any single individual. We have no choice but to deal with these separately, but the reader must ever bear in mmd that in every Korean mind there is a jumble of the whole; that there is no antagonism between the dif- ferent cults, however they may logically refute each other, but that they have all been shaken down together through the centuries until they form a sort of religious composite, from which each man selects his favorite ingredients without ever ignoring the rest. Nor need any man hold exclusively to any one phase of this composite religion. In one frame of nund he may lean toward the Buddhistic element and at another time he may revert to his ancestral fetishism. As a general thing, we may say that the all-round Korean will /be a Confucianist when in society, a Buddhist when he philosophizes, and a spirit-worshiper when he is in trouble. Now, if you can know what a man's religion is, you must watch him when he is in trouble. Then his genuine religion will come out, if he has any. It is for this reason that I con- clude that the underlying religion of the Korean, the founda- tion upon which all else is mere superstructure, is his original spii;it-worship. In this term are included animism, shaman- ism, fetishism, and nature-worship generally. — Homer B, Hulbert 66 Ill THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE Korea seems peculiarly devoid of religion. ^J^*^*!? ®*^* There are no great temples in the capital that Lacking tower above the common dwellings of men. There are no priests evident, no public pray- ings, no devotees, no religious fakirs, no sacred animals walking about, no bell-books or candles sold, no pictures with incense sticks before them, no prostrations, in fact no ordinary signs of religion, and yet if religion be the reaching out of the spiritual in man to other spirits over and above him, the Korean too is religious. He has his sacred books, he kneels in prayer, he talks of God, of the soul, of the heavenly country. We hear him repeat : "The man who does say^^"' right God rewards with blessing ; the man who does wrong God punishes with misery." "If we obey God we live; if we disobey him we die." "Secret whispers among men God hears as a clap of thunder; hidden schemes in the darkened chamber he sees as a flash of light- 67 Prevalent 68 Korea in Transition ning/* "Let the body die and die and die a hundred times, and let all my bones return to dust, and let my soul dissipate into nothingness, yet not one iota of loyalty shall I change to- ward my sovereign lord [the king]." Superstition Korea's is a strange religion^ a mixing of ancestor worship with Buddhism, Taoism, spirit cults, divination, magic, geomancy, as- trology, and fetishism. Dragons play a part; devils {kwi-shin) or nature gods are abundant; tokgahi (elfs, imps, goblins) are legion and are up to all sorts of pranks and capers ; spirits of dead humanity are here and there present; eternal shades walk about ; there are personali- ties in hills, trees, and rivers, in diseases, under the ground and in the upper air, some few ministering to mortal needs, but most of them malignant in their disposition, bearing wo and terror to the sons of men. So easily are they offended and so whimsical in their make-up and difficult to please, that the spirit world is little better than Hades let out of school, with all mortals at their mercy. Hornets are hard to fight against, as the kings of the Amorites found in the days of Joshua ; still a sure hand may hit a hornet ; but who among mortals can overcome sprites, wraiths, and banshees, where Moving Dead Body Three Years after Burial by Order of Geomancers Ancestor Worship The Beliefs of the People 69 no head ever pops up or other visible appendage accompanies ? But is there any relie^ion that possesses the Ancestor . , , , , Worship Holds heart of the nation as a whole, or are the people, chief Place as Mrs. Bishop and Percival Lowell lead one to infer, without anything of the sort? The longer I am in touch with Korean environ- ment the more emphatically would I say that they have a religion, and that they do much more for it, and because of it, than the average Christians do at home for their faith. High above all other cults and customs stands An- cestor Worship. It is the key-stone of Korea's gateway to the happy lands of prosperity and success. To neglect it blocks the whole high- way toward life and hope. A good ancestor worshiper may consult the Buddha, may inquire of Ok-wang Sang-je (the Jade God of the Tao- ists), may bow or expectorate before the or- dinary hill-gods, may set up posts to the Five Point Generals, and consult luck and divina- tion ; but to forget the ancestors and to resort to these only, would be to pray to the shadow without the essence. Ancestor worship pos- sesses completely the heart and soul of Korea. How does ancestor worship manifest itself. J^aSs*^*'* seeing that there are no temples to remind one, yo Korea in Transition no altars, no shrines, no priests, no litany said or sung ? What are its marks or features ? We answer, the mourner's dress, the tablet, the tablet-house, the grave. As these, and the thoughts that accompany them, have occupied a very much greater place in the life of Korea than the tenets of the Christian faith have ever done in any of the Western nations of the world, I shall enter somewhat carefully into their detail. The Grave Site ^ professional "earth-mastcr" (Chi-sa), ground doctor, tomb inspector, or whatever you may call him, is summoned by the chief of a house and asked to find a grave site for the family. He is a father-confessor, but in- stead of pointing upward he points down. He requires money too, the more the better, if the family would be redeemed by his lucky find- ings. He seeks out a quiet spur of a hill that looks off toward enclosing peaks. There must be no oozy waters, no noisy people, no nerve- wearing winds, but the gentle breeze, the quiet of the hills, and the full blessing of the sun- shine. He sets his compass and then takes aim from the different lines that radiate from the center, to see what hill peaks show up, on the right, or left, or in front. Lucky the site thai The Beliefs of the People yi< finds one along the compass line of posterity, for the family will then go on generation after generation; on the line of education, for then the house will be great as to scholars; along the line of rank, that many may be official kings ; along the line of goods and chattels, so that every man may be wealthy. This is the heaven aimed at by the professor with his com- pass. When once found and proved satisfac- tory, he is paid off, and the grave is dug and plastered with lime, sand, and mud, and covered over ready for the departure of the father or mother or both. When they die, wailing goes on for a time, not gentle or smothered sobs, but open-mouthed bowlings. In four days the members of the family are dressed In sackcloth, with ropes tied about the waist and head. All colors are set aside, as color denotes pleasure, joy, delight. The house is unswept and desolation reigns supreme, with wailings and self-denunciation. Envelope this in an atmosphere tainted by the presence of the dead, and you have a Korean demise and the accompaniments just as they ought to be. The mourner wears string shoes, never leather, for leather denotes ease and com- fort; he eats no meat, holds no office, goes The Mourner 1' Korea in Transition The Fun«ral Tbc Sool Saerlfic* about with an umbrella hat on that hides the face of the sky from his guilty gaze. ''Because of my transgressions my parents have died," says he, and when he writes a letter he signs it, "Yom-s truly, J. W. Kim, Sinner." The corpse is dressed in finest silk, wrapped in hemp cloth, and then tied with three, some- times four strips, the slit ends being fastened tightly round the body, which is then put into the coffin and covered. Books and articles specially prized by the deceased are often put in as well, and after a few days or months, as the case may be, the funeral goes out at night with lanterns burning and wailings of "Aigo! oigo!'' Into such a discordant world as this come the w^ords, *'For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring vv-ith him." Each human being is supposed to possess two souls, one a male soul (hon), and one a female (pcik). Naturally the male soul goes to heaven and the female to hell, while the body sleeps in the ancestral grave. There is no word of resurrection, for resurrection is over and above and outside of all the Confucian calculations. Sacrifice on the part of a Confucianist equals going to church, praying, entering the Sunday- The Beliefs of the People 'j'i^ school class, joining in singing. To be the head of a clan is more than to be a minister or Sunday-school superintendent. For three years, on the first and fifteenth of each month, the head of the home offers rice, bread, beef, Irish stew, greens, dates, chestnuts, walnuts, persimmons, honey cakes, oil candy, and other articles of food before the tablet which remains in the room. The male soul comes down from heaven on these occasions and inhales the fra- grance and then goes back. The poor female soul has no part therein. Wailing continues for three months, and then the silent sacrifice takes its place. It is observed each time at midnight, or just before cockcrow. When the tablet has been worshiped for three years, it is put into the tablet-house, and mourning is finished. Only three generations occupy the tablet-house at one and the same time. When a new spirit comes in, the tablet belonging to the great-grandfather is taken out and buried. On four or five special days of the year, sac- Requirements , . Respecting th« rifice is offered early in the morning at the Grave grave, which becomes far more Important than the home of the living. A neighbor may en- croach on the precincts of the living, and noth- ing result but a very noisy seance; but to 74 Korea in Transition invade the enclosure of the dead calls for the strongest arm of the law, the long paddle, the knife, the deadly potion, the fierce feud that goes on forever. The grave is cared for, watched and tended, combed and brushed, for the repose of the dead is all-important. If they be misplaced, the opposites of health, wealth, and h^piness come to pass. A poor thin-faced consumptive came to the writer to have him help him move his mother's grave. "Where she lay was oozy with water, and I caught consumption," said he. "If I could but move her I'd get well." Poor lad, his hopes of life were centered in the situation of his mother's remams Let a thief at home kidnap a child and write the distracted parents, saying, "I have Nelly in my keeping; when you bring $500 to Smith's Corners at i.oo a.m. and hand it over, you may have her back," and it would set the whole village by the ears. But suppose Pak the out- law write to Min the millionaire, saying, "I've dug up your father's bones, and have them with me. If you send $5,000 at midnight to Long Valley Stream you may have them. If not sent by next full moon, be warned, Fll ^ind your aneestors' bones to powder.'* In The Beliefs of the People 75 this case, the extreme limits of desperation would be reached. If one were to sum up the srood and evil of Thejsood la , , . the System the system, we might say that it is good in that it teaches children to reverence parents. There are no restive feelings on the part of a Korean son against his father's authority, for such a thing would be equivalent to rebellion against God. There is something noble and exalted in the choice of one's parents as divinities in default of a revelation from God. Surely highest on earth come the father and mother, higher than the hero of the Shintoist, higher than any intermediate beings whatever. The destructive influence of ancestor wor- its Destructive Influence ship, however, far outweighs its benefits. It is a ruthless and voracious land-grabber; the best of the hills are for the dead. The living may go to Jericho, or may huddle together down in the malarial flats, while the ancestral shade rests in the high places on the hill. The exhilarating surroundings of trees and green sod are for the dead, the living are left to the dust and heat and smells of the market-place. Ancestral piety forbids the digging of the PreventsMiaiae hills for gold or silver or any other treasure. What are the living and what is yellow gold 76 Korea in Transition Impels to Early Marriages Forbids Travel Causes the Spread of Disease compared with the sweet repose of my father's ghost? Away with all sordid visions and leave the hills in peace ! Ancestor worship impels toward early mar- riages in its hurriedly reaching out after a new- generation that will offer sacrifice to one's de- parted shade. Children are married off at ten years and sometimes less. Love marriages? What has love to do with it? There result, therefore, unhappy homes, concubinage, irre- sponsible parents, a score of families all hud- dled together in two or three little rooms, stupidity and misery untold. The system forbids travel in this widely journeying age. If you are a good child, home you must come for sacrifice; no world-enter- prise can interfere, a certain room, a certain plot of ground, a certain day, holds you fast prisoner. Some filial sons build a little shed out by the grave, and unwashed and uncombed take up their abode and exist there. The uncleanness that goes with ancestor worship, the lack of bathing, the keeping of the dead remains long in the home, all minister to the spread of disease and to the promotion of epidemics which have worn down Korea since time immemorial. The Beliefs of the People // Its extinction of woman is one of its most Depresses pernicious influences. She cannot sacrifice, she ^°™"* cannot carry down the family Hne. When she enters the world, disappointment announces her arrival, unless sons galore have preceded her. Her life is a life of submission, imprison- ment, and burden-bearing. Her final destina- tion is Chi-ha or Whang-chiin, the Yellow Hell. The end of all sacrifice is a people bound ^t Must Be Discarded hand and foot, interfered with in office, hin- dered in travel, debarred from the use of the land that God gave them, impoverished and made unhappy by early marriages, walking, with gaze backward, more and more hopelessly into inextricable confusion, all in conflict with the age we live in. The twentieth century has no regard for ancestor w^orship, or ancestral hills, through which it goes on the railway train, around them, in front of them, cutting off luck and prosperity, screaming its wild note in the most sacred valleys, roaring like wild wheel-devils let loose. Even if there were no Christianity to take cannot stand -' against the its place ancestor worship must go. Out of Modem spirit the backs of the *'blue-dragon" and "white- tiger"^ come long lines of cars loaded with ore 1 Spirits supposed to reside in the hills. 78 Korea in Transition that is fed into the mining stamps to be bitten and chewed and pulverized, till all the metal is extracted. The age rolling forward, as it is inexorably, is smoothing out all old supersti- tions and with them ancestor worship. Course of the Confronting the young missionary, in his Meeting.it ignorancc, is the stupendous question of the ancestor, rooted deep in the generations that lie buried, and with its tentacles all about the living, associated with the wisest of the Orient, and backed up by the master (Confucius) him- self and the sages. What can the young and often callow missionary do to meet this ? Can he argue the point ? Never. Can he speak of it at all with any effect? No. What can he do? Do as the negro did when he saw the black dog waiting guard at the gate, his jaw "big" and his eye "mighty dangersome". What did he do? He let him alone. Let it alone. Know all about it, but don't touch it. There is no need. Ancestor worship is dropped off by the spiritually alive, as the beggar drops off his old garments to become a prince imperial. As mentioned before, the Korean talks of God. He is Hananim, the one Great One. His name in Chinese and also in Korean is made up of terms meaning "one" and "great." So he God The Beliefs of the People 79 is the Supreme Ruler for whom there is no image or likeness in heaven or earth or under the earth. Greatness is his. Love and light and life and joy are not associated with him. I said to the old woman (not a Christian) dusting off the door-steps, **It will rain to- day." Her reply was "Rain? Who knows?" "But the morning paper says so under weather probabilities." "Morning paper? Dear me! What does the morning paper know about what Hananim will do?" Immediately when the Bible is read, "In the His Reveiatioo beginning some One created the heavens and the earth", they answer, "Hananim." "Who is angry with the wicked every day?" "God." "The heavens declare the glory of Hananim ; and the firmament showeth his handiwork." But to tell of Hananim coming down to this poor earth's manger, and living, suffering, dying, with the outcast and the lost, is a story, for the East, unreasonable, impossible, and yet a story that grips the heart and compels belief and acceptance. Koreans consult the Buddha sometimes. Buddw^m Buddhism has been here since '^7'^ A. D. and its long course of history has been marked by various degrees of corruption and by dark 8o Korea in Transition deeds. In delightfully secluded corners and in the shade and quiet of the hills are its temples. So separated are they from the wicked world and so shut away into the silent lands of medi- tation and repose, that you would think them the habitation of the holy, but it proves not to be so. The phrase Na-mu A-mi-ta-hul is the chief article of their creed, and their chief forms observed are celibacy, vegetarianism, and the non-taking of life. The Buddhist has always been careful to have a shaved head in a land of topknots and his bowing and manner of speech differ from the ordinary "worldling" (sok-in) as he calls him. Varying The fall of thc Koryu dynasty in 1391 A. D. ecogn ion ^^^ supposcd to be duc to the corrupt influence of Buddhism, and since then the state has looked down upon it as an outcast religion. No Buddhist priest was admitted within the walls of Seoul for 500 years, and even to-day the Confucianist uses the lowest and most dis- respectful forms of speech to the Buddhist wherever he meets him. Yet in times of trouble, as when no son is born heir of the family, or when worries or anxieties beset the Palace, there come calls on the Buddha, ?nd re- quests that his priests pray. Many a time have The Beliefs of the People 8i these seasons of prayer kept the writer awake -^.t ni,^ht — ''Orn cha-ri chu-ri chun-je sa-pa-ha, Om nmn-hi pad-mi hum, om man-hi pad-mi hum:' The priest knows not the meaning of what he says. They are set sounds that have passed down to him as propitious and lucky, and hke a pent-up and bottled cask, once start the flow and he goes on with the most astound- ing rapidity seemingly forever and forever. What shall we say in commendation of influence and . Value Korea's form of Buddhism ? Perhaps it is that Sakyamuni has taught a lesson in tenderness and compassion. There is a gentleness in some of the old priests and a dreamy mystic some- thing that inspires one to go softly, and to put all iron and hardness out of the soul. But Buddhism, with its gilded idols and its awful representation of the Ten Hells that await mor- tals and its unintelligible litany and its immoral priesthood, constitutes but a poor portal for the soul of man. Of Taoism there is almost nothing. Some Maoism few followers read the Old Philosopher. "The way that can be walked on is not the eternal way, the name that can be named is not the eternal name." Some in the spirit of this sect pray the long night through to find God, 82 Korea in Transition to get into touch with divinity. Our dear brother, S. J. Keel, was once a Taoist. Chang-ja one of the sages of this religion says: "The number one man is unconscious of his body, the spiritual man knows nothing of merit, the holy man thinks not of his name." Here is a verse of his, the opening poem in his book of writings. It pictures the greatness of the great as compared with the mediocrity of the mediocre who are looking on. ••There is a fish in the Great North Sea Whose name is Kon; His size is a bit unknown to me, Though he measures a good ten thousand U Till his wings are grown. And then he's a bird of enormous sail, With an endless back and a ten-mile tail, And he covers the heavens with one great veil. When he flies off home." A strange, dreamy, elfish, Rip Van Winkle kind of doctrine is Taoism. Some scholars in China think they find in its teaching a relation to the Hebrew Bible and intimation of the Trinity, but Koreans see no such resemblance, and it is a dead cult as far as the peninsula is concerned. Shamanism j^ j^^s^ ^q^ j^g supposcd, howcvcr, that an- cestor worship occupies the whole spiritual The Beliefs of the People 83 realm of Korea. It is the great religion of the people ; it is the essential belief of the orthodox, the all-necessary form to observe and follow, if one would be admitted to the society of the holy. You are required to be an ancestor wor- shiper, but you are not required to be a spiritual medium, or an exorcist, or a believer in hill gods, or dragons, or divination, or star influ- ences. Nevertheless the whole land is shad- owed by these as was Egypt by the swarms of locusts which came up to strip her. Mrs. Bishop says demon-worship costs Korea one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars gold per annum. ^ A graphic and correct picture of spirit exist- Beiiefin ences in Korea is touched off by the pen of Dr. George Heber Jones: "In Korean belief, earth, air, and sea are peopled by demons. They haunt every umbrageous tree, shady ra- vine, crystal spring, and mountain crest. On green hill-slopes, in peaceful agricultural val- leys, in grassy dells, on wooded uplands, by lake and stream, by road and river, in north, south, east, and west, they abound, making malignant sport out of human destinies. They are on the roof, ceiling, fireplace, kang, and 1 Korea and Her Neighbors, 403. 84 Korea in Transition beam. They fill the chimney, the shed, the living-room, the kitchen, they are on every shelf and jar. In thousands they waylay the traveler as he leaves home, beside him, behind him, dancing in front of him, whirring over his head, crying out upon him from earth and air and water. They are numbered by thou- sands of billions, and it has been well said that their ubiquity is an unholy travesty of the Di- vine omnipresence. This belief keeps the Korean in a perpetual state of nervous appre- hension, it surrounds him with indefinite ter- rors, and it may truly be said of him that he passes the time of his sojourning here in fear. Every Korean home is subject to demons, here, there, and everywhere. They touch the Korean at every point in his life, making his well-being depend on a series of acts of propitiation, and they avenge every omission with merciless se- verity, keeping him under the yoke of bondage from birth to death." Revengeful The Spirits of the dead who have passed from earth under some wrong or other, keep after the living till their wrongs are avenged a thousandfold. Many of them have not found a resting-place, neither in beast nor man, and so remain at large, more dangerous by far to Spirits The Beliefs of the People 85 meet than even a striped man-eater. Terrors untold accompany these vindictive spirits, who are loose and on the warpath. Sickness, mad- ness, poverty, disgrace, death, mark their course. In each county there is a sacrificial place set apart called yo-dan, where all the dis- contented, displeased, distracted spirits are wont to congregate and be sacrificed to. It is a dangerous business, for any slip in the cere- mony brings down the pack on the head of the director of ceremonies. Again they are heard crying at night ; sometimes they become visible, but usually they are hid from mortal view. Some are big and some are little. Some guard a whole village and have to be propitiated or else they smite it with typhus and the like. Some possess the hills and keep bit and bridle on the tiger. If these hill gods be neglected or insulted, they let loose their woes on the market-place and we hear of children being carried off and eaten or bitten by snakes, or other mischances befalling them. There are hill "bosses" or village "bosses" who are in touch with the pit itself, and can call forth legions on their own behalf. Pan-su, or blind exorcists, ply their trade of casting out demons. They possess themselves Exorcists 86 Korea in Transition TokgaU Demon Posts of some great name, like that of George Wash- ington, for example, and by its repetition and the telling over of his sayings, out go the devils. Then there are women called Mu-tang, mediums who yield themselves up to some demon or other, and then utter prophetic words, or words that reveal mysteries. The tokgabi is half-demon and half-elf, al- ways on the go, and up to all sorts of capers. He will frequently cut off a Korean's topknot? when he is not looking, or walking peacefully all unawares. The man is unconscious of it till he feels the top of his head and says, "Hello, who is it ? Is it I or a Buddhist ? Not a Bud- dhist ? No, then I. Alack, the tokgabi has been here and my topknot is gone." They push covers inside of dishes, they throw sand against the window-paper, they play with fire at night out on the mountainsides. Here, there, and everywhere in Korea are posts seen by the wayside, cut roughly with grinning teeth, horrible face, and most fero- cious eyes and ears. They are placed there to keep devils from passing. Usually they are called by the name of General, General this, and General that. Frequently they stand in pairs, side by side, or facing each other, one Royal Tomb and Guardians mH^v wKM 4 tl r 3n^#,ir ,^^HI ■ 1 W'f^l %.M ! ■ ^■■Bl ■>!^^PV]H ^mj ' • mil ■I^^^^B %. ^^^■■i^^^n^ mm t I V iHl^^j^-'' ' ^^H E^H^Bte;.M in W\ 1 ^^^hS^3 ,:.^v^' .^^^^LsK wi. I Spirit Posts The Beliefs of the People 87 the General and the other the General's wife. Down his front runs the inscription, "The Gen- eral of Heaven," while down the front of his wife it says, "Mrs. General of Hell." These were the strong defense of Korea's poor people through the generations gone by against the countless forces of the unseen world. The dragon is king of all scaled and crawl- "^^^ D^gon ing creatures. He mounts high up to heaven, as when we see a waterspout ; he goes down to the unfathomed depths of the deepest pool. He is a monster divinity, is the dragon. He exists under the hills, where his back is often pro- tected by a pavement of stone, where the road is likely to cut into the quick. St. George may have slain him in England, but he flour^ ishes in the Orient still. On Japanese coins is seen his clawy form twisted and mixed with many coils. On the Chinese flag he still breasts the breezes. In the most honored of Korean sacred books, The Canon of Changes, I read such a sentence as this : "The sixth line shows dragons fighting in the wild, their blood is purple and yellow." Yong, the dragon name, is in all mouths, from the king on the throne to the maid servant that is behind the mill. Enough has been told to give the reader an AWerldofPeaf 88 Korea in Transition Collective Spirit Host Gospel Picture of Christ's idea of the terrible world in which the Korean has lived and lives. Every moment of his pil- grimage has been under the dominion of fear. As was said before, he becomes a fatalist natu- rally, what comes to pass must come. His birth-year, birth-month, birthday, birth-hour, are in possession of the spirits, and they hold them at their mercy, to toss about or worry as the tiger does the unfortunate village dog that has been caught napping. Gather this world together as it has passed the reader in review, and there will be the ancestral spirits, mean enough and whimsical beyond all reason, sufficient to make life a pil- grimage of awful suspense; but add to them demons, goblins, elfs, dragons, hill-gods, and what not and you have old Korea. Into this world comes the missionary with his Book and its stories about demons. The Korean reads and at once is attracted. Plenty of demons in the New Testament, thousands of them, but they are all on the run; down the slopes of Galilee they go^ ; away from Christ's presence they fly, till the blind sees and the soul is lighted up^ ; hosts of them, howling devils^ ; and devils that shriek and foam at the mouth.^ *Matt. viii 32. 3 Matt, xii, 22. »Mark v. 15. *Luke ix. 39. The Beliefs of the People 89 Never before in the history of Korea was ^^^ . Omnipotence in the world of demons seen smitten hip and Korea thigh. This Wonder-worker is omnipotent, for verily he has issued a reprieve to all prisoners, all who will accept of him, and has let them out of helL Throughout the land prayers go up for the demon-possessed in his name, and they are delivered; prayers for healing, and the sick are cured; prayers for the poor, and God sends means. Was there ever a land more needy, and Message suited •' ' to the Land where was a message ever dreamed of so mirac- ulously suited to the need? Some of us have come East to learn how wondrously Jesus can set free the most hopeless of lost humanity. We have come to realize that there are demons in- deed in this world, and that Jesus can cast them out ; to learn once more that the Bible is true, and that God is back of it; to know that his purpose is to save Asia, and to do an important part of the work through young Americans, Canadians, Britons, and others, who will humbly bow before him and say, "Lord, here am I: send me." 90 Korea in Transition SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER III Aim: To Appreciate the Insufficiency of Korea's Religion to Meet the New Needs I. The Good and Evil of Ancestor Worship. I. Name all the good points that you can find in ancestor worship. 2.* Should an effort be made to incorporate any of these points in Korean Christianity? If so, how? 3. What effect would it have upon real rever- ence for the dead to imagine that the position of a grave might bring disease to the living? 4. To what extent should reverence for the dead be allowed to interfere with business and travel, and to what extent not? 5. What recommendation or criticism have you for the relations of parents to children in Korea? 6.* In what ways does ancestral worship affect the position of woman in society? 7.* Do you think that missionaries are justified in refraining from all attacks upon ancestor worship? Defend your views. II. The Mental and Moral Confusion of Superstition. 8.* Try to think out in detail what practical dif- ference it would make in your life if you really believed in the existence of imps and spirits. 9. What possible defense would you have if evil spirits attacked you? 10. What effect would a belief in spirits have The Beliefs of the People 91 upon a man's resoluteness in confronting difficulties ? 11. What effect would it have upon plans for the future? 12. In what way does this belief stand as an ob- stacle to science? 13. What evils arise from attributing every mis- fortune to the arbitrary displeasure of some spirit? 14. What do you think would be the relative value of the scientific and religious method in com- bating the belief in spirits? 15.* Sketch the line of argument that you would employ in dealing with believers in evil spirits. III. The Message of Christianiiy. 16. How would you utilize the Korean idea of Hananim in teaching Christianity? 17. Where would you expect to find your greatest difficulty in using this idea? 18. Contrast the message of Buddhism and Chris- tianity for a nation in political distress. 19. Contrast the external and public manifesta- tions of Protestant Christianity with those of religion in Koreao What elements are most peculiar to each? 20.* What principal needs of Korea in the way of institutional and social life will Christianity supply? 21.* How will Christianity remove the evil and supplement the good of Korean life? 92 Korea in Transition REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY CHAPTER III I. Ancestor Worship. Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, ch. VI. Gale: Korean Sketches, pp. 215, 216. Underwood: The Call of Korea, pp. 79-81. Noble : Ewa : A Tale of Korea, pp. 57-6o. 11. Spirit Worship. Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XXX. Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 290, 399- 426, 443, 444. Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, ch. VHI. Underwood : The Call of Korea, pp. 85-94. Noble : Ewa : A Tale of Korea, pp. 49-53- SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS 9S Woman's rights are few and depend on custom rather than law. She now possesses the right of remarriage, and that of remaining unmarried till she is sixteen, and she can refuse permission to her husband for his concubines to occupy the same house with herself. She is powerless to divorce her husband, conjugal fidelity, typified by the goose, the symbolic figure at a wedding, being a feminine virtue solely. Her husband may cast her off for seven reasons — inctirable disease, theft, childlessness, infidelity, jealousy, in- compatibility with her parents-in-law, and a quarrelsome disposition. She may be sent back to her father's house for any one of these causes. . . . Domestic happiness is a thing she does not look for. The Korean has a house, but no home. The husband has his life apart; common ties of friendship and external interest are not known. His pleasure is taken in company with male acquaintances and gesang; and the marriage relationship is briefly summarized in the remark of a Korean gentleman in conversation with me on the sub- ject, "We marry our wives, but we love our concubines." — Isabella Bird Bishop "Before Christ came into our home," said one of our native Christian women, "I never knew what it was to eat a meal in the same room with my husband. His meals were served to him in the sarang (reception room), while I had mine on the earth floor of the kitchen. He always spoke to me in the lowest grade of servant talk and often called me by insulting names. Sometimes when he was angry or drunk, he used to beat me, and my life was as miserable as that of most all the heathen Korean women. But now that Christ has come into our hearts, everything is changed. My husband has not struck me once since he became a Christian. We have our meals and prayers together in the sarang, and now he always speaks kindly to me, addressing me as an equal. The past life was a bad dream; the present is a foretaste of heaven. We did not know what love was until Christ came into our home to teach us." ^-George Heher Jones 94 IV SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS Society has rested on five strong pillars, The o^-ryun, or called Oh-ryun. They were chiseled out of ancient marble, by unknown hands, in prehis- toric times, and have stood high through all the ages, holding the four comers of the East- em world, and propping up the middle beams thereof. The Five Laws they are sometimes called, and on them rests the world of Con- fucius. Recently a Mr. Yi Wung-geung, a Christian, and one of Korea's most noted scholars, has written a reader for girls, and in the opening chapter he begins: "The doctrine of men rests on the Five Laws. Between father and son it requires chin (friendship) ; between king and courtier, eui (righteousness) ; be- tween husband and wife, pyul (deference) ; between old and young, saw (degree) ; betweea friends, shin (faith)." Allied to these are the Five Virtues, in, eui, ye, chi, shin, or love, righteousness, ceremony, knowledge, faith. Herein the whole of su- es The Five Virtues 96 Korea in Transition The Five Elements A Faithful Son perior teaching was summed up, and concern- ing these miUions of pages have been written, and armies of Chinese characters have been called into requisition to tell all that was to be told. In-eui-ye-chi-shin is pronounced as one word, and all the people use it. The coolie as well as the statesman or gifted man of letters says, ''In-eiii-ye-chi-shin'\ Any nation exem- plifying it is civilized and any failing to ob- serve it is barbarous. Another five must be called in, and then we shall have the fifteen that round out the circle. These are the Original Elements, metal, wood, water, fire, earth, keimi-mok-su-zuha-do , also a single word in its frequency of use and wide- ness of application. These are called the Oh- hang, and what is there that cannot be ex- plained by them? The Oh-ryim (Five Laws), the Oh-sang (Five Virtues), and the Oh-hang (Five Elements) govern the Korean world of thought. The Five Elements serve as founda- tion, the Five Laws as the pillars, and the Five Virtues as the firmament above. These might be desig'nated the soul of Korean society. How many stories are told to illustrate the Five Laws! For example, such and such a lad was good to his feeble Social Life and Customs 97 mother, and faithful in bowing before his father's grave. He was dogged by every cir- cumstance of evil ; poverty was after him with hungry eyes ; winter was upon him, biting cold ; sickness and ill luck tried him to the bitter end ; but through it all he cared for the needy one, and walked daily through the snow to the mound on the hillside. As a reward for such virtue, an angel appeared to him, crowned him with high honor, and pronounced wealth and happiness his forever. He married a beautiful princess, had untold riches and many sons, and was happy ever afterward. A set of five readers prepared some hundred in^uence of the 1 1 • 1 • T T 1 1 Five Laws years ago, abound m such stories. Undoubt- edly a strong steadying influence has been exer- cised on the state and on society by the observ- ance of the Oh-ryun, so that courtiers have been loyal, children filial, wives faithful, age honored, and friendship sacred. To illustrate the Five Virtues, love, right- ^"'^ °?^^ ^ ' ' ° Illustrating the eousness, ceremony, knowledge, faith, let classic virtues one story suffice, written by a governor of north Korea, one hundred and fifty years ago. "In the late autumn a peasant caught two wild geese, clipped their wings, and gave them to me. I kept them in the court, where 98 Korea in Transition the steward looked after them. One day he came to me and said, 'These birds are better-flavored than quail or pheasant; I advise your excellency to kill and eat.' 'Kill and eat ? Out on you, man,' said I, 'Have you never noticed wild geese, how they fly, for ex- ample? They preserve the strictest ye (cere- mony, order) ; when they mate there is no disorder or impropriety, they understand eui (what is right) ; in their migrations they fol- low the warmth of the sun, they have chi (wis- dom) ; though they come and gO' you can al- ways count on their passing at the right time, that is shin (keeping faith) ; they never make war on other creatures with bill or claw, that borders on in (love). It is a bird of the sacred classics, and would never do to make soup of like chicken or quail.' " Relation of the ^s to the Oh-haug— metal, wood, water, Elements to Life ^ j > j fire, earth — ^they play a most important part in all the affairs of life. They underlie every- thing, are the foundation in fact, not only of material things, but of domestic life and spirit- ual existence as well. In the case of a marriage they are anxiously called in, shuffled, and con- sulted. If a young man whose element is wood is mated to a metal girl, he will suffer Social Life and Customs 99 as wood does from ax and saw and chisel. If he be married to a fire girl, nothing but total destruction awaits him. Earth and water are the only safe elements with which wood can mate. All the domestic unhappiness of olden time was explained on the principle of the Five Elements and bad mating. To say that the Oh-hang enters into every detail of life is scarcely putting it too strongly. Society, based on, built up, and covered by these sets of laws, got itself into a fixed and immovable condition. The compass of the law governing was so small, and the conditions enclosed so multifarious, that no independent move could be taken by any one member of society without disturbing all of the others. "As it was, is now, and ever shall be," was written large over all things Korean; every wheel in the brain was stopped except those moved by Oh-hang, or Oh-ryun, or Oh-sang. Independent thought was not dreamed of. Korea has scored no invention, no discovery, no advance, in a thousand years. Backward, ever backward the nation has gone, little by little^ in its unconscious existence, saying over and over to itself: "As it was, is now, and ever shall be ; as it was, is now, and ever shall be." A Fixed Social Condition Custom lOO Korea in Transition Whether in architecture, or in education, or in dress, or in other affairs of Hfe, custom rules. Custom explains everything. "What about this absurdity?" "Oh, it's custom." "Yes, but see here, why are the dead propped up on sticks and not buried?" "Oh, it's custom." "Do you sometimes marry off children as early as nine years of age ?" "Yes, that's custom." The reader must learn this Avord if he would understand old Korea, and if he would read into much of the life of the East still. The forefather may have been an imbecile, or may have walked in his sleep, but what he did has come down, down to the present, and custom maintains that it is the sane and right thing to do. "Why do you feed all these idle tramps, who come calling at your door, and you a poor man ?" I once asked of my host. He replied "It's custom, and for my life I can't get out of it." "What about these dolmens set up all through these valleys here like tables of the g'ods, what do they mean ?" Social Life and Customs ioi "They were set up by the Chinese invader, thousands of years ago, to crush out the ground influence that brought forth Korean warriors." ''You mean that tliey have stifled out the life of the nation for all these centuries ?" les. ''Then why don't you roll them off and get back your lost vigor?" "Oh, that's no use now, never do." "As it was, is now, and ever shall be," is the only reply. In Korea the most distressing condition of a stifled worid all was this strangling of independent thought. There was ceremony, gentleness, deference, kindness, appreciation of fun and humor, but for comparison and conclusion and action there was no room. One longed to drill a hole into the brain, pour in oil or anything that would lubricate, and set the wheels moving. They are moving now, however, and some of them with fine freedom. An Edison may little by little come forth from the shadows and be bom, but for three thousand years it was as impossible to bring forth such as he as for a scrub pine to grow glorious persimmons. We shall look for a moment at the home The Head of the Family life, ever remembering these bands of iron and 102 Korea in Transition brass. The father is the lord high executioner. The Oh-ryun says that he shall be revered al- most as a god by his posterity. He is greater even than the king. What he says is law, and what he does must be acknowledged respect- fully and agreed to. While the majority of Korean fathers are kind to their children, cus- tom paints him. a Nebuchadnezzar with a fiery furnace prepared for other members of the household. He talks in terms of command to all others about him, as we might say in Eng- lish, "Come here. Go there. Sit down. Stand up. Bring my pipe." The Korean language is rich in tones and expressions of high com- mand, and the father is a past master of the whole subject. When you live near him, watch his daily life, and catch the accents of his voice, you think of Sitting Bull, the Turkish Sultan, the Grand Vizier, the Czar, and yet none of these seem quite to describe him. He says, * 'There's John now, he's three months old; I must look sharp and get him betrothed." He calls in a go-between and after various seesawings, consulting of Oh-hang, and casting of lots, John is betrothed, sometimes to a girl baby, sometimes to one already six or seven years old. John is not interested. He Social Life and Customs 103 sleeps hard on the matting and awaits his fate. Mary is married off Hkewise. Years later, when the wedding-day comes, neither one nor other thinks of entering a protest or of saying, "Why was I not consulted?" John grows up to be just the same as his father, gives his commands like a sea-captain from the bridge, and settles his son before his mother knows what he looks like. Thus are the children dealt with. As for the wife, when time wears on her and ^he wife ^.her cheek grows wan and faded, her lord high executioner calls in another woman to share the fortunes of the home. The wife bows in humble submission, and uses high and respect- ful language in acknowledging this new order of affairs. No wonder girls in Korea are sorry to be bom a member of their sex, and every boy walks in high hopes of his innings coming later. The woman's place is, first as daughter, one How Daughters of contempt. A missionary's little six-year-old " **^* once came to him with tears in her eyes and said : "Papa, I have a question." "Yes, what is it?" '*Are you sorry that I wasn't a boy?" I04 Korea in Transition At the Period of Carriage the M«ther "Well I should say not, I wouldn't trade you for a dozen boys. But why do you ask?" She said, "The Koreans were talking just now, and they pointed at me and said, 'What a pity that she wasn't a boy !' " The Korean woman is married at last, but not with any high hilarity such as attends wed- ding-days at home. She goes with blood-red marks painted on her face, and her eyes sealed, like a wooden doll, turned this way and that, stood up, set down, moved here and there, pulled and pushed through all the wooden cere- mony of marriage, till at last she emerges daughter-in-law, with three powers set over her head, husband, mother-in-law, and father- in-law. Young wives are not always unhappy, but it is no thanks to custom or circumstance that they are not. The mother is an important member of the family in her relation to children only. If she has no son, alas for her! better had she never been bom. Not only is she condemned by her husband and every member of the clan, but she condemns herself, and no ray of sun- shine ever gladdens her broken soul. She is Rachel, and Hannah, and Elizabeth, as they were before joy visited them. In this matter Groom Returning with His Bride Bridal Feast after the Ceremony Social Life and Customs 105 the spirit of the opposite seems to rule from that of the West. Happy the woman who has a great circle of posterity to look down upon. "Who is the most noted woman in Europe?" asked the childless Madame de Stael of Na- poleon. "She who has reared the largest family," was the sharp reply, and Korea would say, "Amen." Woman is a useful member of society, for ^-o*^"* material interests hang on her hand. Once, Matenai «A»ings on a walk by the city wall, we saw a man sit- ting on a stone weeping. His was a full- mouthed, heart-broken cry, as though the world had given way under him. "Why," we asked. "Why all this fuss?" He looked vacantly at us for a moment, and then resumed where he had left off. We found that the trouble was about a woman, his wife, she had left him. "How he must have loved her to cry like that," remarked a lady in the party. It was translated, but he resented it, "Loved her ? I never loved her, but she made my clothes and cooked my food ; what shall I do ? boo-hoo-00," louder and more impressively than ever. Thus was, yes, and still is, the world of changes and woman, but mighty changes are taking place, Emancipatioa and underneath the framework of her prison- :io6 Korea in Transition house earthquakes are shaking. She is to be free, but what will her freedom mean? Con- fucius never guessed the place of woman in society, he missed the mark as widely as the Russians did in the battle of Tsushima. Jesus, in the face of all the ages that spoke opposition, placed her where God would have her and there by his grace she stands. She has been the slave, the dog, the toy, the chattel, the con- venience of men, for all past ages. Now new voices are heard proclaiming that she shall be free. TheFamiiy 7^^ family exists but not the circle. There Circle is no table around which they gather for meals, no reading nor music, no evening parties which , draw them together, no "At Homes", no family pew in which to sit on Sunday, no picnic ex- cursions in which all members join. The mas- ter eats by himself, the wife by herself, the sons and daughters each separately and alone. Because of this, our custom of conversing at table, and allowing the talk and attention to wander all over the universe, while semicon- sciously engaged in the serious act of "eating rice," seems very absurd. "When you eat, eat, and when you talk, talk, but why try both at one and the same time?" Social Life and Customs 107 Korean homes are in a sense open to all the ^o Privacy world. Any one who pleases may try the door, push it open, and come in. He needs no first acquaintance, and no introduction. An ordi- nary Korean guest-room is free to all the world. On the other hand the inner quarters are sep- arate, and for a male traveler to venture there would be a breach of the most sacred law of society. Into this outer room, come gentle- men of leisure, tramps, fortune-tellers, Bud- dhist priests, all mankind, in fact. Here is located the high seat of the master. As you live in this guest-room, you feel the fearful lack of privacy. You are as though encamped on the open highway, under the gaze of all men. If you write a letter, the question is, to whom are you writing it. "Why do you write thus and thus? What reference is here? Who ? When ?" These are the questions that are asked by those who look over your shoulder, without any breach of proper form or infraction of the eternal law that governs things. It becomes a question sometimes with the ^°s°j^na*****^ young missionary as to how much he can stand of the search-rays of the human eye, and if he does break down what form the break- io8 Korea in Transition Unreasonable* ness An Illuminating Conversation down will take. In the early days especially, from chinks and corners came these never- ceasing" search-lights. This is the East ; it was born so, raised so, and lives so, unconscious of the burden of it. The regular laws of cause and effect seem to be out of gear on this side of the i8oth merid- ian. Medical practise is unreasonable. If you have a pain, a long- darning-needle is stuck into you to relieve it. If you have an inner sick- ness, the doctor will ask you a question or two, then he will multiply earth by fire and divide by wood, and the result will be a mixture fit for the witch's caldron, and this you are ex- pected to steep and drink from. To us it seems very unreasonable. Still, we, on our side, to them are as much out of touch with their fitness of things as they tO' us. Recently a conversation between two Ko- reans, Yi and Kim, ran thus : "I'll tell you the reason, Kim, that we Koreans do not make as g'ood soldiers as the Japanese, it's because we are no hands at shut- ting one eye and keeping the other open. You must shut one eye, you know, to aim," and Yi screwed up his face intO' a twisted knot to get his one eye to close, but it was in vain. Social Life and Customs 109 "Nothing of the kind," rq)He(i Kim, "I can shut one eye and leave the other open as much as I please." 'Then let me see you do it," said Yi, all the time trying frantically to get his one eye to close properly. ''No trouble about it," said Kim, rubbing the ink on the inkstone and then dipping his brush and tasting it. "Then I ask you to do it, let me see you shut one eye now and leave the other open." "I could do it if I had a gun," said Kim. "Oh, yes," said Yi, "You could do it if you had a gun, but you can't do it if 3^ou haven't, and the Japanese can." One of the curses of Korean society is debt, and the persistency with which all people run therein. Ever^^ man would seem tO' owe the other. A clear statement, with all paid off and none due, seems never to have been heard of. Borrowing and paying huge interest has been the custom. Twenty years ago it was 12 per cent, a month. Little by little it has fallen till to-day it is 4 or 3 or 2 per cent, monthly, the lowest on record. Here is a note from the Seoul Press, written u^^uiy ' Generous in 1906: "Koreans are not misers; they are Debt no Korea in Transition spendthrifts. Money glides by them and goes easily the way of all the earth. Every man aims to be rich, in order that he may have cash to spare; and nothing pleases him better than to part with it for a friend, in hospitality and good fellowship. Are they poor people or are they rich? No man knows. They have little money for necessities, but any amount for lux- uries. Americans would quarrel over a mite that Koreans would scorn to speak of. His relative over the way, the Chinaman, is a loath- some miser in comparison. The Korean will be hard up always and yet never break his pace as a gentleman of leisure. If I were poor, and had no means, and was obliged to throw my remaining days on the generosity of the pub- lic for food and clothes and comfort, I should appeal to the Korean, knowing that he would never see me want, would be respectful while generous, and would never be so mean as to cast up my good-for-nothingness to me." Habitual 'pj^g Korcaus are a kind-hearted people. Kindness and rr^i r a i Official Cruelty Thosc of US who havc gonc m and out among them for nearly a quarter of a century can vouch for it. No more gentle or hospitable race exists, and yet there have been through its history fearful outbreaks of cruelty, and Social Life and Customs iij traces of these remain till to-day. If a man sinned against the state, the innocent women of his household suffered and the little children as well. In the troubles of i88=; an old conservative Making "^ Atonement gentleman lived near the East Gate. When the names of the movers of the riot were published, his son's name stood high up on the list. See- ing this, he went into the inner room, called his little grandchild and said, "Alas ! we have lived to be disgraced, you by your father and I by my son. We shall die together." So he and the little laddie drank the hemlock, and made atonement for the son. There is no individual In society, it is one Mutual suffering body corporate. If one member sin all suffer with him. The fearful fonns of torture loom up yet out of the shadows, the paddle, the rack, the chair, the cangue collar, the strangle-ring, the shin-rod, and various forms of mutilation remind one of what we see In the Tower of London. Truly we are brethren in cruelty If we go far enough Into the dark past. But God who is rich in mercy, when he transforms an Oriental, seems first of all to take out of his heart the poison of cruelty, and to leave the spirit of self-sacrifice and tenderness instead. 112. Korea in Transition Lack of Hygiene up^^. ^^^ public wcal" has ncvcr until re- cently cut any figure in Korean society. All common interests were left to the other person. Roads, as we have said, go where they like and as they please. Garbage-carts and wag- ons and a garbage-heap miles away from the city do' not exist. The refuse heap is just out- side the front gate, and the kite birds and the summer rains are the scavengers. The streets become the backyards heaped high, and trav- elers through Ping yang and Seoul get a fear- ful view of Korean life, seeing the very worst possible from the very first. Odors abound and epidemics are rife, but long usage has hardened those passing by, and the olfactory nerves no longer respond to this high vibration. Mr. Yi and the j^ rccalls to the writcr Mr. Yi, consul- Mummy general and minister, who was once walking through Central Park Museum, New York. We reached the mummy chamber, and Mr. Yi gave one look at them and took firm hold of his nose. "Why do you hold your nose?" was the question asked. Without letting go his hold he pointed with the other hand at a mummy. *'But he has been dead for five thou- sand years." "Has he ?" said he, taking a firmer grip. He would not have noticed one of these Dress Society- Becoming Social Life and Customs 113 fearfully unkempt streets, but the supposed scent of the mummy he could not tolerate. Korea is clean in dress, however, and this Jj;™^*""^^*® makes the land a paradise when compared with Chefoo, China, for example. The frequent bathing that one sees in Japan does not exist, but the immaculate suits that are donned at every short interval, even by the poor, go far to m.ake amends. Society as a body has been blind and deaf and dumb. There have been no public gather- conscious ings, no public opinion audible, and no eye that could see for the many. Christianity comes gently but persistently, step by step, in at all gateways. One of its marks is that it can speak, it is peculiarly a voice; it can see, and can control the eye. Through its good news society is awaking to see and to hear and to speak. Society is so interlocked and bound together system of -^ . .^. Patriarchal by the patriarchal system that, not only is inde- Authority pendent thought out of the question, but there is no room for patriotism!, no room for sin- cerity, no place for accuracy. Chief among the many fathers, is the father of the family. Then there is the father of the state, the king, and as the fatiier of the family has power ab- 114 Korea in Transition Several Present and Past Embodiments No Independence of Thought solute within the limits of his own home, so in state affairs the king is absolute. Human life and honor hang on his hand. "Exalt him," reads the command, and behold the man is exalted. "Take him. out and behead him," and lo, the man, without trial or chance for his life, dies. Then there is the provincial father or magis- trate. He too within a narrower circle is ab- solute, and can reprimand and order and be- rate as he pleases. Then there is the literary father, the schoolmaster, once greatly held in esteem, now fallen amid the debris of ancient systems and ideals. There are many other fathers, all of whom hold sway within their own sphere. Such being the case, independence of thought or action is out of the question. Do-, I must, as all others have done, safe-guarding the Oh- ryun, exalting the Oh-sang, and using the Oh- hang to help keep my bearings. When a new set of conditions arise that are not already provided for, the Korean is at sea. He is coo- fronted by the dress problem these days, for efxample, and scoop hats and pole-stick skirts are coming on. He has never had any freedom in action heretofore, and suddenly he has fallen Social Life and Customs 115 heir to it without preparation. Knowledge under any condition is the result of experience, so that even a sage in the classics may be but a child when' it comes to baking bread or gardening. For generations the Korean has walked by c^nSfi^r' instinct and not by reason. Every possible circumstance was provided for, and all he had to do was to shut his eyes and let himself go. But new conditions and a new world have come crashing into his ancient domain, and where is he? Esson Third says: "The other day an unsophisticated Korean was riding on a through train from Fusan, the fast express going at thirty miles an hour. For a time it amused and interested him, to look about the painted wagon beneath which the landscape seemed to be racing in all directions. He looked at this and examined that, and finally grew tired of the inside of the car and poked his head out of the window to see how the world wagged. A gust of wind carried off his hat and hat-string, and away it went sailing down the valley. He shouted, 'My hat/ but the wagon made no response. In an instant he was at the door, out onto the platform, and before you could think, head first he went down ii6 Korea in Transition An Impulsive laterrogatory Patriotism over the embankment after that hat. We saw no more of him, but I imiagined a pitiful bundle low in the valley, a mixture of white clothes, black topknot, and brown honest face, fear- fully crumpled over his plunge after a five cent hat." Here were a new set of conditions, and he acted in his old way, by instinct instead of reason. Another Korean sat on the open platform of a construction train. The day was warm and he nodded in deep sleep. He was a man of the world, had seen much, and knew how to ride on railway trains. Deep was the nod and comfortable the sleep, but a curve met them around which the train whip-lashed violently, and away went this son of the Orient over the edge, down the green bank over and over till he reached the bottom. In an instant he was on his feet, wide awake, with a flash in his eye and a look at the train that said, "What in creation do you mean?" This cir- cumstance also was new, and the thought called forth was an impulse rather than a conclusion. With these laws governing, and customs binding round and round, and fierce ancestors standing as if on guard with shotgun, there has been no room for patriotismi. "Keep your Social Life and Customs 117 hands off Caesar and all that pertalneth to him/' has been a rule of life for old Korea. The principal association that went with gov- ernment was the long knife, the cangue collar, the paddle, the shin-rod, and other instruments of punishment. Patriotism therefore is a new product, and as yet somewhat abnormal in its character and growth. Korea has lived in an atmosphere of fear, ^ear When you could be arrested and beaten at the will of state father or provincial father, just when the whim might take him, what room was there for a long easy breath? The same writer quoted above says : ^'Koreans are all more or less cowards. Why should they not be so, living as they do without any confidence in anybody, ignorant of everything, and threat- ened all the time by ten thousand evil influ- ences? They have no idea of standing together or of organizing, and are just beginning to hear the mysterious words, liberty, equality, fraternity\" In olden days the standard of education was Lack of that derived from China, to-day it is mathe- matics. The Korean has come suddenly on a new vein, and is digging like a "forty-niner" to possess all of Its treasure. Until the present ii8 Korea in Transition time a lack of accuracy has been one of Koreans characteristics. A writer in the Seoul Press says : *'Time was nothing, day after to-morrow was just the same as the day before yesterday. A promise fails, not because men are dishonest, but because no one ever dreams of being* exact in anything. In Korea a definite description is impossible, and exact information is out of the question. Hard and fast accuracy of statement does not get within signaling dis- tance of the Korean's soul. He cannot under- stand what you mean by it. The newly ar- rived missionary physician says to the inter- preter: *Tell the patient to shake the bottle and take one half teaspoonful half an hour after meals, in a wine-glass of water'. The interpreter says : * Shake the jug, and take a good lot of the mixture five or six times a day till you feel better'." A Fatalist 'pj^g Korcau, shorn of independent action and riveted to this machine called society, is an out-and-out fatalist. His Eight Characters settle his destiny. God the distant, all-power- ful, unapproachable One has his life in his keeping. His Oh-hang are always after him. What happens must happen, when he falls he must fall, if he's poor he must be poor, when Social Life and Customs 119 he dies he dies. His being has no play inside of the tight clamps that grip him round about. His belief in the fearful law of Unsii possesses him. If he fails in business it is Unsu; if he is dirty and miserable it is Unsu; if the state falls, no one is to blame, for no one can withstand Unsu. In a recent public lec- ture the Hon. T. H. Yun, who is both a West- erner and a Korean, said to those before him : "Until you give up the word Unsu, there is no hope. It is nonsense, there is no such thing. Every man is his own Unsu, and can make of Hfe what he will." Underneath this social structure with its Oh- sodai upheaval ryun and Oh-sang and Oh-hang great charges of dynamite are exploding. They have come about through the opening of the gates, the incoming of the missionary, and the invasion by Japan. This country's ideals, so different from and so diametrically opposed to those of old Korea, are upon us, and a great smashing up of all the social system' is taking place. Has the gospel anything to offer at such a startling Gospgi time as this? When the old paternal system has given way and domestic life and govern- ment are at sea, it comes in tones of matchless simplicity and says: "Our Father, who art in 120 Korea in Transition heaven, thy kingdomi come. In the Father^s house are many mansions., prepared for those that love him." How about in-eui-ye-chi-shinf The character in, is made up of men and two, two men, showing that love always keeps in mind the other one; but chief of all altruis- tic teachers is the Word of God, and it comes with its message to take tlie place of the lost virtue, in. Eiii, righteousness, is made up of sacrificial lamb, and first personal pronoun, I. I, underneath the sacrificial lamb, means right- eousness. My oneness with Jesus not only takes the place of the character, but fills out its thought, and makes the studies of the past a prophetic voice pointing to the great revelation. "'s'eedom Where is freedom to be found, freedom from past bondage, from present bondage, from the bondage of self, from custom, from fear, from superstition? The heart of the nation these days goes out in longings for freedom. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Korea's ancient civilization appears to be a planned opening of the way for receiv- ing the gospel at the present day; and the reader will doubtless be able to see through its bondage a groundwork for present hope. Social Life and Customs 121 SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IV Aim: To Appreciate the New Needs of Korean Society I. The Ideals of Korean Society. I. Which of the five laws seem to you most, and which least ideal as to relationships? 2.* Name what you consider the five principal virtues for mankind, and compare them with the Korean list, 3. Compare the five Korean virtues with the fruits of the Spirit, mentioned in Galatians V. 22-23, ^nd note the most striking differ- ences. 4. Compare them with the two great command- ments given by Christ. 5. What do you consider the most notable omis- sions in the list of Korean laws and virtues? 6. What would you infer as to a system that made ceremony one of its five cardinal virtues ? II. Tlie Rule of Custom. 7. What effect will the Korean power of custom have upon the character of the virtues de- veloped? 8. What classes profit most from a social order based on custom, the superior or the inferior? Illustrate your answer from the position of the woman and child in Korean society. 9.* What are the advantages and what the dis- advantages of a society in which custom is all- powerful ? 10. What is its effect upon personal development? 122 Korea in Transition II. What is its effect upon public progress? 12.* What have been the different ideals of Korean and American education? 13. What ideals of American education are most needed in Korea? III. Changes Needed in Family Life. 14. What have been the advantages and disad- vantages of giving the father of the family- such absolute control? 15.* Name in the order of their importance the changes you would like to make in Korean family life. Tell w^hat you w^ould expect to accomplish by each of them. 16. What obstacles would you expect to meet in persuading the average Korean to accept these changes ? 17.* What new moral ideals would be needed in order to make these changes effective? 18. Why are these ideals especially needed in the present crisis? 19. How can these ideals be secured? 20. Tell how you would present Christianity to meet the needs of Korean society. 21. Give passages of Scripture that you think would be most useful. REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY CHAPTER IV I. Korean Character. Gale: Korean Sketches, chs. II, IX, X, pp. 2^ 238-243. Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, pp. 59, 66-69. Hulbert : The Passing of Korea, ch. II. Social Life and Customs 125 Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 235, 236, 33^, 337- Underwood: The Call of Korea, pp. 44-51. Underwood: Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, pp. 273-276. II. The Position of Womatu Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XXVIII. Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 1 14-120, 339-343, 355. Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, pp. 59-63. Underwood: The Call of Korea, pp. 52-55, 61-63, Noble: Ewa: A Tale of Korea, ch. IL SPECIAL PROVIDENCES A second cause contributing to the success of missionary work in Korea is found in the conditions amidst which the missionaries labored. Misgovemment and oppression had reduced the people to despair. The measures taken for com- mercial and political betterment under native leadership had terminated in disappointing failure. The people were tired out, weary, and disheartened with the barrenness of pagan beliefs and religions. Morally they were decrepit and mori- bund. Into the gloomy, chilly atmosphere of their moral life came the gospel of Jesus Christ with its radiant promises of better things, and the Koreans turned as instinctively to it as the flower to the sunshine. There has been a lack of com- petition with Christianity which has given to Christian forces virtually a monopoly of the field. No great educational de- velopment or commercial expansion, no large military and naval development has taken place to challenge and hold the attention of the people. There has not yet arisen in Korea a many-tongued press and literature, with its babel and clamor of beliefs and propositions to dispute with Christianity the control of the intellectual life of the people. The only new literature, and, with few exceptions, the only periodicals issued, came from Christian sources. Each political change and disturbance of the social order has accelerated the turn- ing of the Koreans to the Christian Church, while the absence of a nationalistic idea has resulted in a lack of strength and virility in the devotion of the average Korean to his religious beliefs. — George Heber Jones t<3