character of the early Koreans was more of a bane than a blessing. Throughout its long history the Korean peninsula was invaded repeatedly by the Chinese and others, including Khitan tribesmen from the north, Mongols from the west, and, in later centuries, Japanese pirates and armies of the Japanese warlord Hideyoshi Toyotomi from the east. In 1386 still another invasion by Chinese forces precipitated the founding of a new dynasty in Korea in 1392 that was officially named Choson, no doubt in the hope that it would live up to that old description.
General Song Gye Yi, the founder of the new dynasty, took the title of King Taejo. To reward his supporters, he seized control of all the land in the country, thereafter parceling out much of it to them on the basis of their rank. Peasants were guaranteed the right to till the land, but they were required to pay half of their annual crops to the state as rent on the lands they tilled. Taejo reigned from 1392 until 1398, when he was ousted by the powerful literati who dominated the Privy Council. His youngest son and designated heir was assassinated on the orders of his fifth son, who also disposed of the fourth son and became King Taejong (1400-1418).
King Sejong, who ruled Korea from 1418 to 1450, is generally considered the greatest of the Choson kings. In addition to a number of inventions and innovations he is said to have created himself, he instituted many reforms and established the Chip Hyonjon (Cheep H’yohn-joan), or “Hall of Worthies” (sometimes spelled Jip Hyonjon [Jeep H’yohnjoan] and translated as “Symposium of Wise Men”), made up of a select group of scholars and scientists. In 1443, King Sejong ordered this group to create a native writing system for the Korean language, which was subsequently made available to the public in 1446. These scholar-scientists also researched various other subjects, wrote books and manuals, and acted as advisers to the king.
The next Choson king (Sejo) was neither as scholarly nor as benevolent as King Sejong. Sejo and his supporters exterminated virtually everyone who opposed him, including the country’s leading scholars, ministers, and his own younger brother, then devised a national code that was to bring the full force of Neo-Confucianism to Korea for the next five-hundred-plus years.
Under this new code the Choson court sought to control every aspect of society, including the size of dwellings (which had to be appropriate for the status of the individual family concerned), the number and placement of gates in the walls around homes, the apparel that people wore (including the materials they were made of), the accessories people wore, and their personal behavior in virtually every situation. Political purges and killings continued during most of the 1500s, but by the end of the century most organized resistance to Neo-Confucianism had ended.
Because the Neo-Confucian-based regulations were enforced strictly by the Choson court, a great calm did, in fact, descend on the countryside (a world far removed from the squabbling yangban, or “scholar-officials,” who continued to dominate the higher echelons of the government and the bureaucracy) and lasted for nearly a century.
In 1592 Japan, then ruled by warlord Hideyoshi Toyotomi, launched the first of two massive invasions against Korea, according to some historians to punish the Koreans for having aided the Mongols in the thirteenth-century invasions of Japan and for refusing to help Japan invade China at this time. These Japanese armies sent to Korea were made up mostly of samurai (sah-muu-rye), Japan’s professional warrior class, who marched to and fro in Korea, looting and then destroying virtually everything in their paths.
Despite the destruction wrought by the Japanese on land, the Koreans, under General Sun Shin Yi (usually referred to as Admiral Sun Shin Yi), eventually won the first encounter by using the world’s first ironclad warships to devastate the Japanese naval fleet. Japan’s second invasion of Korea, launched in 1597, was called off the following year by the Japanese when Toyotomi died and the fief lords in his kingdom began fighting among themselves.
Just three decades later the Manchus launched the first of another two invasions of Korea, the first in 1627 and the second in 1636, to establish their own hegemony over Korea. Unable to defend itself against the Manchu hordes, the Choson court once again agreed to accept the status of a vassal state under the new rulers of China. But the Choson court went further than that. It closed the country’s borders to all outsiders except the Chinese, eventually becoming known to the outside world as “The Hermit Kingdom.”
External enemies were not the only thing that frequently disturbed the calm of Korea. Other Choson rulers ranged from mediocre to tyrants who squandered huge amounts of tax money and carried out purges and reigns of terror resulting in the execution of hundreds of scholars and officials.
During the last two hundred years of the Choson dynasty the system gradually broke down, in part because growing numbers of yangban lost their elite status when no one in their families could pass the civil service exams. Commoners could legally sit for the civil service examinations during the Choson period, but appointments to all public offices were monopolized by the leading yangban, who formed factions and fought continuously, overtly and covertly, for power.
As more time passed, people from the middle and “technical” classes began rising in the bureaucracy. The number of slaves began to drop dramatically. In the 1700s a number of young yangban, along with members of the chugin (chuu-gheen), “middle class,” and the lower class were converted to Christianity and its principles of equality and democracy.
When Western missionaries began flocking to Korea after the country was forced to reopen its doors to the outside world in 1876, they reported enthusiastically on the peace and calm that reigned in the countryside as well as the towns and cities. One missionary wrote in a 1908 letter that Korea was a nation of silence, that there was very little recreation for common people, and that among the most common sights were farmers working in their fields and middle-aged and older men sitting around outside, smoking tobacco in quiet contemplation.
But the Korea that emerged in the 1880s from its long hermit period was soon to become anything but a “Land of Morning Calm.” Japan began dominating the peninsula in the 1890s and in 1910 annexed the country, making it into a province in the Japanese empire. The normally peaceful Koreans did not accept Japanese domination casually. Prior to and after the annexation Korean patriots engaged in violent street protests, local rebellions, and guerrilla activities in the mountains.
The Japanese period ended with Japan’s defeat in World War II in 1945, but within seven years after regaining its sovereignty Korea was torn apart by the Korean War (1950-53).
Choson still has meaning for Koreans, evoking nostalgic images of golden ages of the past. In addition to the internationally known Chosun Hotel in Seoul, the name is also widely used in company names. Chosun Ilbo (Choh-suun Eelboh), or “The Daily Chosun,” is one of Korea’s most important newspapers.
Chung 충 Chuung
Groupism as Morality
Koreans have survived for five millennia or more as a society and as a distinctive people because they are bound together and influenced by common beliefs, aspirations, and dangers. But there is more to the coherence of Korean society and the national character of Koreans than what normally results from these shared influences. One additional element was the emotional and intellectual homogenization of Koreans to the point that chung (chuung), or “group consciousness,” virtually replaced individual awareness. (Chung is also the Korean word for “loyalty.” See the next entry.)
In areas where the emotional and intellectual fusion of Koreans was incomplete, powerful sanctions were brought into play to force people to behave in the same way even if they did not think in exactly the same way. Chung was the goal, no matter what it took to achieve. To make group consciousness totally acceptable to people, Korea’s elite ruling class deliberately introduced the most powerful psychological factor of all. They equated chung with morality, making conformity in both thought and action the ultimate standard for moral behavior.
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