Korea from its capital: with a chapter on missions.

Preface

The author’s apology for inflictiug a book upon the public is that he treats of a country concerning which comparatively little is known. His aim has been to supplement the very able book of Dr. Griffis, the interesting work of Mr. Lowell and what we may call almost the pioneer work of the Rev. John Ross. He has tried to add to the public’s knowledge of a curious and, in some respects, very fascinating people. He has not attempted to treat of the history of the nation — that Dr. Griffis has done.

The narrative is confined to what a person may see and learn while sojourning in the peninsula. Doubtless the experienced will find many mistakes of various kinds. For those the author asks pardon, and will be thankful to any one who will indicate the lapses.

Grateful acknowledgment is hereby made (1) to the Rev. H. G. Underwood, D. D., for permission to use several of the finest illustrations in the book; (2) to

PREFACE.

the editors of The {New York) Evening Post for leave to use the letters contributed to that journal by the author while in Korea ; (3) to the Rev. Samuel Macauley Jackson and the Rev. Charles R. Gillett for encouragement and advice in the plan of the book ; (4) to the Rev. J. R. Miller, D. D., editor of the Presbyterian Board of Publication, for his most competent assistance and innumerable suggestions in putting the book through the press; and, last, to my wife for her invaluable aid in smoothing down many nodosities in the composition.

The Author.

PAGE

22 44 , 58

V. — The People 75

VI. — Domestic Life 96

VII. — Attire and Adornment . . 134

VIII. — Woman and her Work 149

IX. — Amenities and Solemnities 158

X. — Keligion 185

XI. — Eesources 199

XII. — Progress toward Civilization 226

XIII. — Foreign Kelations . .

XIV. — Foreign Life in Korea XV. — Missionary Work . . .

ILLUSTRATIONS,

Korean Stone Dog Frontispiece.

Mandarin in Court Dress 27

City Wale 45

Enclosure in Palace Grounds 60

Little Porters and Candy Vender 65

Group of Peasants 77

My Teacher and his Wu'e 89

Peasants* Huts 97

Outside Wall with Veiled Women 104

Mural Decorations, End of a House 121

Buddhist Monks and Mourners 140

Returning from Washing 155

Dancing Girls (two) 179

Buddhist Shrine 188

Village Idols 198

Working with Shovel 204

Grain-Shop 211

Mural Decorations 219

Great East Gate 235

West Gate 246

Gate Outside City 254

Great South Gate 266

Sedan Chair and Attendants 281

Scene in Old Palace Grounds 307

Main Palace Entrance 316

KOREA lL.

Chapter I The Country

HEN the writer of this first signified to a college friend his intention of going to Korea, that friend replied, “ I have a vague recollection that there is such a place somewhere on the eastern coast of Asia, but I must get down my atlas and definitely settle its location in my mind.” Geographical knowledge is often very vague. Many times people well informed in other respects have asked how I liked it down there ” or up there,” and the question has often arisen how such persons would locate the little hermit kingdom” on a globe. People have a general idea ” of a place, and so a word or two as to the location may not be amiss to particularize the position of Korea.

The most direct way of going to the country — a description of which will settle its geographical position — is either by way of San Francisco or Vancouver. Taking ship at San Francisco, we sail almost directly west, southing just a trifle, and so run into the harbor of

KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.

Yokohama, Japan. Now, if the steamer could push on through the Japanese Islands, as we have supposed it to do through the waves of the Pacific, we should after leaving them run into a peninsula jutting out from the east coast of Asia toward the south-east. This peninsula is the country of which we are speaking. It stretches from about 43° to 34° north latitude, and from 124° 30' to 130° 30' east longitude. Looked at from the United States, it is directly behind Japan, and is protected by the Japanese Islands from the waves of the Pacific. Lying as it does between the Yellow and Japan Seas, it feels the effect of the great equalizer of temperature, and its climate is one which makes no severe drafts on the vitality of the inhabitant.

This little country of Korea, or, as the natives call it, Cho Son, the ‘^Land of Morning Calm,’' whose king is the monarch of ten thousand isles,” has unique claims on the interest of Occidentals, and especially on that of Americans. Dr. Griffis struck the key-note of this in the title of his most excellent book, Corea, the Hei'mit Nation. The fact that Korea was the last to open its gates for the entrance of foreigners within its boundaries and to permit the contact of an alien civilization is not all that gives it title to this name. What makes valid its right to the appellation “hermit” is rather the persistent exclusion of all foreigners from its territory, going so far as to detain as prisoners within its boundaries mariners shipwrecked on its shores, in order that no news

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might through them reach other nations to tempt incursions for booty or conquest. The whole world is now open to a Western civilization. Thibet still frets at the visits of curious tourists, but that little corner is only a province of China ; while Korea is a nation with autonomy practically complete, and in making treaties with foreign nations it has taken the step which cannot be retracted.

The United States has more than a passing interest in this little country. While the policy of our own government is to abstain from participation in the affairs of other continents, it has done more to give to two nations an impetus toward Western ways than any other government. Its citizens have on this account taken more interest and felt more responsibility for results in Japan and Korea than in any other countries. Japanese and Koreans are both received with greatest kindness in both government and private circles.

It was the expectation of many that when Korea was opened up to the world its people would be found savage, uncouth and forbidding in their manners. Stories from Japan and China had given that impression. People looked to see a race of savages. What must have been their surprise, therefore, to find that not only were the people of Korea not of this description, but that, on the contrary, in no countries in the East, Japan and India not excepted, were foreigners so cordially welcomed, so kindly received and so right royally treated !

KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.

As one passes along the crowded streets of the capital he has not to elbow his way through by main force or by turning himself edgewise,” as in the thoroughfares of our own cities. The visitor is surprised to find that nearly all natives, when they see other than Koreans coming, turn aside and give the right of way to the newcomer. And this comes not through fear — by this time the people have become accustomed to seeing white faces and dark clothing — nor through contempt or dread of contamination, as in the case of Hindus of high caste, for they look up to Westerners as people of wonderful attainments and surprising ability. The movement is one of native courtesy: the Koreans consider foreigners the guests of the country, and as such to be treated with all courtesy. Similarly, when the king takes an outing in state, and a parade takes place which corresponds in the minds of Koreans to the shows ‘Barnum gives in the streets of our large cities, crowds flock to see the sights, and line the streets six or eight deep. At such times, if the cry goes up, Here comes a foreigner !” a passage is opened for the lucky man, and he can walk through and take a front seat without the slightest murmur or protest from any of the parties. The only exception to this is perhaps the case of a countryman from the backwoods, who is as much the butt of jokes for metropolitans in Korea as in our own land, and who bears a name corresponding to our “ country bumpkin.” Such a person may be so engaged in star-

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ing at, mayhap, the first foreigner he has seen, that he forgets his manners, and is very likely reminded by the shouts and laughter of other passers-by that he is doing himself no credit by his strange action.

The question, therefore, naturally arises. If this is the disposition of the inhabitants, if they are so universally courteous and kind, how shall we explain the policy of isolation which was so persistently adhered to till within eight years — a policy which refused to the Chinese, who claimed suzerainty over Korea, the right to a resident, and even compelled an ambassador from the Emperor of China, on the rare occasions when one made a visit, to enter the country with only the scantiest train of attendants? The answer to this, as to many other questions which will arise, lies in the geographical position of the peninsula between China and Japan.

The history of Korea is a peculiarly checkered one. Were we to trace it, the one fact which would stand out before us is the frequent invasions from China on the north and Japan on the south. While the Chinese time and again attempted the subjugation of the peninsula, occasionally succeeding, and for a time adding it as a province to China, only to find the national life rising again, unweakened by terrible disaster, the Japanese have held from the second century of our era that Korea was a part of Japan. The consequence was that hordes sometimes reckoned at a million of men were sent like tidal-waves from China, carrying devas-

KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.

tation in their wake. And again from the south the sturdy and brave soldiers of Japan (and there are no better fighters in the world to-day than the Japanese) overran the peninsula far toward the north. And not only this : we find the Chinese and the Japanese, whose hate for each other has ever been deadly (nothing would be more popular to-day among the masses in Japan than a war with China, in which, if fought on anything like equal terms as to position, victory would almost surely rest with Japan), fighting out their battles on Korean soil. To this there must be added the incursions of pirates from the Japan coast and islands, who, during long periods when the government of their own country was too weak or too much engaged in other things to repress them, ravaged the* coasts of Korea, burned the cities and kept the inhabitants of the peninsula in a state of constant fear. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Koreans reasoned thus : If our own cousins, those

of Mongolian origin, the people of straight black hair, oblique eyes and yellow skin, treat us in this fashion; if they know no use for us but to burn our cities, plunder our territory and kill and capture our people, Avhat must we expect from barbarians of the West? We’ll none of them.” And so, isolated from all that she could keep out, rejecting all overtures, destroying, so far as possible, all news that might reach the outside w'orld concerning herself, she lived in content, shut in and confined to her own resources, until the next to the last decade of the nineteenth century only has seen treaties made with Western powers. Of course we are not to forget that a. start was made in the direction of opening up the ports of Korea when, in 1876, a treaty was made with the Japanese. This was not such a strange departure. Communications between Japan and Korea were not new. The nature of the relations between the two countries had often been practically that of allied powers. But that year was a significant one for Korea. By it Japan once for all gave up her claims to the peninsula. In making a treaty the Japanese government acknowledged the independence of the sister country, and it is to be hoped that Koreans will come to understand what a great step was taken when this was done, and that their gratitude to Japan will lead them to regard the Japanese as their friends far more than they do at present. The chief significance of this treaty, however, is in its opening a port of the hermit nation to trade with the Japanese. The hermit condition was by this act abandoned. The way was paved for other nations to ask the same with some reasonable ground of expectation that it would be granted. After several futile attempts on the part of the United States and other powers, a treaty with the United States was negotiated in 1882, Commodore, now Admiral, Shufeldt representing this country. Soon treaties followed with England, Bussia, Italy and France, and the hermit nation is a hermit no longer. The world is watch-

KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.

ing the results, and the curious are waiting to know whether Korea is going to hasten, like Japan, into 'Western ways, discarding as far as possible her own civilization, or whether she will imitate her other and greater neighbor, China, and take a conservative and more cautious course, letting go the old only when the new has forced it into retirement. The trend at present is Chinese rather than Japanese, conservative rather than radical.

One caution should not be lost sight of here. Japan has been visited by very many tourists, and it has been found a most fascinating country. The artistic temperament of the Japanese has led to the development of most delightful places of resort, and Nature herself, the guide of the native artist in his home decorations, has bestowed her treasures with lavish hand. People knowing this, and charmed by the tale of Korea and its hermit condition, may fancy that it too would be an interesting land to visit. That fancy a visit would rudely dispel. The peninsula presents to the casual tourist none of the attractions of Japan. The traveler will find here no interesting temples set in groves of beautiful cryptomeria. There are no picturesque shrines in lovely valleys, few wooded hills inviting the traveler to rest, no art-producing workshops, a delight to the eyes, suggesting a depletion of the purse. The country in the neighborhood of the capital is denuded of forests. One meets here no hills terraced to their crests and re-

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warding the toil of thrifty cultivators Avith bountiful harvests. Large areas of apparently rich lowlands lie untilled. The hills, bereft of their mantle of tree and bush, lie open to the baking sun and the wearing rain, their gaunt sides furrowed and seamed with channels Avorn by the midsummer floods. The sail up the coast brings to view no beauties of cultivation such as are seen in passing through the inland sea of Japan. Only bleak hills, rugged crags, here and there in a recess the few low huts of a fishing village, clustered together as if seeking protection in company against the straggling loneliness of a shore Avashed by surging tides of nearly thirty feet, which, SAveeping out, leave bare vast mud flats and dreary weed-covered rocks. Its shores are rocky and hemmed in by dangerous shoals and treacherous rocks. Only a vivid imagination Avould suggest Korea as a land Avorthy the visit of people who seek Avealth either by robbery or industry. One going to Korea must be prepared to see a country with apparently no resources. Its people seem slothful and indifferent. Its towns and villages appear unhealthy and its homes uninviting. And it is only during a longer sojourn than tourists afford that aught attractive really comes to the surface.

In passing through Japan every turn brings into view something to charm the sense and instruct the mind. Interesting faces, pretty costumes, neat homes, careful and economical agriculture, grotesque horticulture, na- 2 ture served by art beautifying the landscape, sprightliness, wit and grace, all abound in Japan, and with all there is to be seen an inherent politeness in the people that bestows additional charms upon all besides. In the Korean peninsula faces appear dull, costumes repeating each other grow monotonous, houses are poor and without adornment, agriculture is less skillfully carried on, and landscape gardening is unknown, the exceptions being crude attempts at the graves of the nobility, and the people gaze with open mouth at any unusual sight, and seem at times bereft even of motherwit. There is this, then, to be said : only as one comes to know the people, to get into their confidence, to see their readiness to appreciate our advantages over them, and to become aware of the fact that there is good material in both country and people, does the possible value of Korea to the world become manifest. Korea is not the country for tourists. Its main title to the attention of the curious is that it has so recently become possible to see it at all.

In its physical features Korea much resembles Japan. It is very mountainous, though the mountains nowhere reach a great height. The backbone of the peninsula, like the Pyrenees of Italy, runs rather nearer to the north-eastern side. From this spurs reach out and run toward the seas. The structure of the ground has a marked character at about the middle of the peninsula. There is one place where one can look toward the south

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and see a soil composed of decomposed granite, while to the north is seen that peculiar shade marking a limestone formation. The valleys are fertile, but, as the country is not so densely settled as in Japan, we miss here the terraces on the hills, carrying up agriculture to their crowns. The hills have been denuded of forests except far toward the north and in the west, and so they stand bleak and bare or with a stunted growth of crooked pine, sometimes covered with brush, yet in the early spring radiant with the pink and white and magenta bloom of the oleander. For the most part these hills are seamed and scarred and furrowed by the gullies the rain has made, and at no season and in no part of the country is the eye relieved, as in Japan, with alternating scenes of cultivation and carefullycherished woodland.

The shores are protected by clusters and chains of islands, some mere rocks, others beautiful with grass and flower. The south-western coast has several nooks which might be available as harbors, but navigation of these coasts is difficult and dangerous. Hidden rocks abound ; fogs are frequent and dense. The tides rise and fall twenty-eight to thirty feet, causing eddies and whirls which perplex the sailor and cause him no little trouble. At low tide vast mud-flats lie uncovered, and rocks appear which reveal to the tourist how carefully approaching vessels must pick their way.

The climate of the capital, which is in the latitude of

KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.

RichraoiKl, Virginia, is delightful except for about six weeks in midsummer. Those sudden alternations of heat and cold which mark the climate of New York, and are so perplexing to the inhabitant, are unknown there. Snow often lies on the ground from the middle of December to the middle of February, but at no time does the cold become unbearable. I have never seen the thermometer below zero, though for nearly a month the mercury in a sheltered place did not vary 15°, running from about 5° to 20°. Thus there is in midwinter a level of cold. About February 1 the mercury begins to rise, until by March 15 people are making gardens. The temperature continues to rise till about July 15, when the summer level of about 90° is reached, with, however, but few nights when the heat makes sleeping difficult. This is the rainy season. And how it rains ! Apparently the water falls in sheets. Clouds roll across and drop their loads, and then roll back and double their contribution. Not steadily, but often a day or two of fine weather succeeds a day or two of successive, almost continuous, showers, and then, by September 1, the magnificent autumn weather commences. This is the crown of the year. Delightful days, bright and sunny temperature, almost imperceptibly falling, so that tennis is played sometimes till December 15. I have played tennis on December 16 (though active work was necessary for comfort), and gone skating on Christmas. Thus there seem no unusual drafts on the resi-

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dents’ strength, and, with the care necessary in the East regarding exposure to the sun and the boiling of water for drinking purposes, life seems as secure in Korea, and certainly as pleasant, as in our own beloved United States.

Chapter II. The Government

TN this chapter we shall deal with the composition ^ and internal administration of the Korean government. The relations of the country to the neighboring nations will demand a separate chapter.

Power centres in the king, or hapmun, or ingum, as he is called by the people. The functions of government are all exercised in his name by ministers appointed presumably by him and acting under his authority. The people have no share in the government, and no authority proceeds from them. In Cho Son truly ‘Me roi est I’etat.’’ From the king, therefore, power filters through a line of officials down to the head man of the smallest village, each official requiring of those beneath him an account for whatever transpires in his own jurisdiction.

Two wrong inferences might be drawn from this by those unacquainted with the country ; first, that the people have only to submit, no matter what the character of the government; and second, that the type of administration depends on the character and disposition of each monarch. One of the surprises a watchful resident in the country meets is the influence of the people on the government. Although the people have no voice in the selection of officers, and no direct way of influencing the actions of the government, yet when measures distasteful to the mass of the inhabitants have been decided on there is what might be called a popular protest entered by the mass of citizens, taking shape in a sort of foment, at first unnoticeable, but, as discussion widens, increasing in degree until a state of excitement ensues, when business is neglected, what might be called mass-meetings are held, and the news gets to the palace that the people are displeased. So far as I could learn — and the phenomena under discussion appeared several times during my residence in Korea — these popular protests, if founded in right, were effective in producing a change in the policy. If, however, the excitement was caused by false rumors, if mischief-makers had circulated false reports, and, owing to these, misapprehensions were abroad, the usual course was for proclamations to be posted in what corresponds to the Wall street or City-Hall square of the metropolis, correcting the misunderstanding and advising the people to return to their occupations. If, however, this was not effective, as was sometimes the case, a second proclamation was issued, in a different tone. The tenor of the first proclamation may be gentle and fatherly; that of the second sterner, and giving the impression that business is meant.” Generally a day or two is allowed for

KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.

this to have its effect, when, if the excitement does not subside, the military are put into service, the streets patrolled, disturbers of the peace arrested and punished, and so the trouble is settled. Thus the populace have a way of making their wishes known and their power felt even to the heart of the palace. Of course, inasmuch as the Korean army is recruited from the people, a feeling of dissatisfaction which is well grounded among the people has more or less force among the soldiers. Tlie consequence is that it is difficult to control an outbreak if the discontent has its basis on a real grievance. The national conscience seems to have more weight with both sides, the rulers and the governed, than is generally the case in an absolute monarchy.

The individual peculiarities of each monarch have less influence on the character of the administration of the government than we should suppose. We might expect that in a despotism untrammeled by a constitution each ruler would make his individuality felt to the very limit of the kingdom. But it will be found that in countries dominated (as is Korea) by Confucianism there are, in lieu of a constitution, certain traditional limits within which the people may walk and which the rulers may not transgress. It is significant in this connection that the same two words pop and kyou-mo mean both ^^avv” and custom.’^ In other words, while the king and officials are restrained by no written constitution, there is a tradition or custom of dealing with offences, which is

THE GOVERNMENT.

binding, and a transgression of which constitutes ground for appealing from judicial decisions. Dominated thus by the custom of the country, rulers of provinces, of towns and of villages are less controlled by the king’s individuality than might otherwise be the case. As a matter of fact, the government in each locality depends far more on the character of the head of that province, town or village than does that of the whole realm on the qualities of the king. The good aims and upright intentions of His Majesty may be, and generally are, to a great extent nullified by the cupidity and worthlessness of his officials. The poverty of the people at large speaks volumes for the venality and inordinate desire of the governing class. The king has as his immediate counselors and assistants three men who are called the prime minister” and ministers of the right” and the ^Heft.” These three are the chief men in the kingdom, and outrank all others. After these come the heads of the departments, six in number. These are assisted by numerous officials with rank running all the way dowm to the pettiest official, ranking perhaps with our country constable. The whole matter of “ rank ” or pessal is so intricate that without an understanding of it anything like a comprehension of the system of government is impossible. There are in Korea two kinds of rank, civil and military (Korea has no navy). Of these the higher is the civil. The highest civil rank next to that of the prime minister bears the native name

KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.

of chai-sin or chong-seung. This rank is possessed only by the two assistants of the minister. The next rank to this is jpan-sah, of whom there are only a limited number in the kingdom. Below this is the rank of cham-pan. Next comes cham-way, and then those of chu-sah and chu-sdy of which there are nineteen or twenty grades. As we shall have very little to say of the military establishment, it will not be necessary to give the names of the grades in that service. It may be said, however, that there are in the capital four battalions, named from the approximate positions of their barracks or stations with regard to the palace — those of the east, south, north and west, each commanded by a general or tae-jang. From the ranks of the pansahs or champans are usually selected the governors of the provinces, called kam-sahj and the heads of the departments (hyei-jang) in the capital are of this rank. So foreigners going to the wae-yamen or foreign office find the head officers pansahs. Detailed to assist them are chamways, who may become governors of provinces. The men of lower rank are detailed to lower and less important duties in the departments, while the chief judges of cities are taken from the ranks of the and two lower grades.

The etiquette between these different ranks and the people in general will be treated of separately. What the reader must now understand is that these various ranks are grades of office-holders, one separated from

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another with the finest discrimination. Moreover, when a man, by passing examination, gets rank,’^ he becomes an office-holder ; so that all men of rank are office-holders. A man of the people becomes thereby a

nobleman^’ or a gentleman.^’ Here again the language illustrates, for one word for nobleman is pessal hananij or ^^rank-having,’’ while the same word serves for rank ” and for office.” Their position with reference to the body of the people is indicated by another word, nopheuriy or high one.” It should be mentioned, however, that men of high military rank are often detailed to service in connection with civil departments. Thus the first president of the board of education, with which the author was connected, was a general who stood very near the head of the kingdom, and is reported to be a cousin of the queen. A man on becoming an office-holder is assigned to some duty, and is thereupon in the line of promotion. He is supposed to get his pickings at the public crib, and the people at large furnish the fodder.

With all these ramifications of rank it ought to be an easy matter to secure responsibility and good government. But, unfortunately, the possession of official position makes it possible to oppress the people with but little danger of punishment following. There seems to be a tacit agreement among the nobility to suppress any attempt on the part of the common people to carry any information against one official to another.