A year ago on Round and Square (16 July 2011)—Le Tour de la France: Stopping Under a Fir Tree
The first three entries (each in several segments) for the Round and Square
series "Asian Ethnicities" deal with the majority ethnic groups in
China, Japan, and Korea. We are starting with these groups precisely
because they permeate all of the nooks and crannies of their respective
histories. Indeed, the history of China is often taught (and this is
especially true in Chinese schools) as the history of the Han ethnicity.
As we shall see, this is particularly problematic in China, since the
history of China can better—this is my opinion—be taught as a constant
set of interactions with ethnic groups to the west, south, and
especially north. It is no less important in Japan and Korea, however.
The relative homgeneity of those populations exacerbate the problems,
and engagement with various ethnic groups tends to be even further
marginalized. I hope to give, in these introductory posts, a way of
thinking about majority ethnicity in China, Japan, and Korea. These are
by no means my last word on the subject(s). As you can see from the
introduction to this series, these are works in process and are meant to
be essays in every sense of the term.
Click here for other posts dealing with East Asian ethnic majorities:
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| [a] Culture RF |
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| [b] Unified RF |
Like the Chinese Qing (1644-1911) and Japanese Tokugawa periods
(1603-1868), later Choson represented a profound flowering of traditional
culture—with a richness of art, philosophy, and historical writings, as well as
vernacular fiction and traditional crafts, that represent a high point in the
minds of many later writers, as well as a pride in a shared identity that
continues to this day in the historical consciousness of Koreans. As Western
pressures increased, pride in this cultural heritage came to be expressed
increasingly in opposition to threatening outsiders—another pattern in a
country with a dominant majority ethnic group. This was seen in the nineteenth
century with various critiques of encroaching Westerners. The prominent scholar
Yi Hangno (1792-1868), for example, complained that Catholicism could not
possibly replace the Confucian traditions that had become so much a part of
Korean civilization. Note the manner in which each civilization is characterized
as essentially a unified entity.
When Chinese civilization encounters a barbarian people, those barbarians are transformed by Chinese ways into a civilized people. Barbarians look up to China and are delighted to receive its civilizing influence. This is the way things are in the natural order of things....Regrettably, Europe was not introduced to the basic principles of the Great Tao, and Europeans were not turned into more virtuous people by its civilizing power. Europeans do have a remarkable talent for technology. They easily surpass the Chinese in that area. But that achievement makes them arrogant, and they think that they can convert the whole world to their way of thinking. They need to think again!
It is with the confidence of a member of a great
civilization—one with which Koreans identified strongly—that Yi Hangno
responded to the West in the early nineteenth century. It was with a very different tone that
Koreans struggled with Japan, China, and the West in the century that followed,
ending with the fall of the Choson period in 1910.
A number of aspects of Choson history and society gave rise to a slowly growing sense of national identity, many of which were drawn upon by writers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as they tried to create a distinct sense of Korean ethnicity and nationhood. Although it was slow to take root, an important change took place with the debate that followed the development of an indigenous Korean script in the fifteenth century. King Sejong's preface to the Hunmin Chongum (Correct Sounds to Instruct the People) makes the point that even though Korea was deeply influenced by Chinese civilization, there remained distinct differences.
Although our country's rituals, music, and literature are comparable to those in China, our speech and language are not the same as China's....With these twenty-eight letters, infinite turns and changes may be explained; they are simple and yet contain all the essence; they are refined and yet easily communicable....They can be used whatever and wherever the occasion may be. Even the sounds of wind, the cries of cranes, the crowing of roosters, and the barking of dogs can all be transcribed in writing.
Ch'oe Malli's opposition to the alphabet, however, is instructive in the way that it portrays the relationship between the two countries:
Ever since the founding of the [Choson] dynasty, our
court has pursued the possibility of respecting the senior state with utmost
sincerity and has consistently tried to follow the Chinese system of
government. As we share with China at present the same writing and the same
institutions, we are startled to learn of the invention of the Korean
script.....Although winds and soils vary from region to region, there has been
no separate writing system for local dialects.
Only such peoples as the Mongolians, Tanguts, Jürchens, Japanese, and
Tibetans have their own writings. But
this is a matter that involves the barbarians, and is unworthy of our concern.
The school of "Practical Learning" (sirhak) that developed in late Choson further developed this growing theme. Although they wrote in classical Chinese and were imbued with the Neo-Confucian teachings of their early education, they began to differentiate themselves as Koreans from what Choe Mali had called “the senior state.” At the same time, those same scholars began to criticize abuses within Korea that had formed over the centuries—most pointedly directing their criticisms at the yangban aristocracy and the examination system that strongly symbolized Chinese influence.
To select men for public office on this basis is really a foolish thing to do.....
The examination system thus selects men who are useless, and it does so
on the basis of worthless writing.
When Chinese civilization encounters a barbarian people, those barbarians are transformed by Chinese ways into a civilized people. Barbarians look up to China and are delighted to receive its civilizing influence. This is the way things are in the natural order of things....Regrettably, Europe was not introduced to the basic principles of the Great Tao, and Europeans were not turned into more virtuous people by its civilizing power. Europeans do have a remarkable talent for technology. They easily surpass the Chinese in that area. But that achievement makes them arrogant, and they think that they can convert the whole world to their way of thinking. They need to think again!
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| [c] Gate RF |
A number of aspects of Choson history and society gave rise to a slowly growing sense of national identity, many of which were drawn upon by writers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as they tried to create a distinct sense of Korean ethnicity and nationhood. Although it was slow to take root, an important change took place with the debate that followed the development of an indigenous Korean script in the fifteenth century. King Sejong's preface to the Hunmin Chongum (Correct Sounds to Instruct the People) makes the point that even though Korea was deeply influenced by Chinese civilization, there remained distinct differences.
Although our country's rituals, music, and literature are comparable to those in China, our speech and language are not the same as China's....With these twenty-eight letters, infinite turns and changes may be explained; they are simple and yet contain all the essence; they are refined and yet easily communicable....They can be used whatever and wherever the occasion may be. Even the sounds of wind, the cries of cranes, the crowing of roosters, and the barking of dogs can all be transcribed in writing.
Ch'oe Malli's opposition to the alphabet, however, is instructive in the way that it portrays the relationship between the two countries:
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| [d] Scripted RF |
The school of "Practical Learning" (sirhak) that developed in late Choson further developed this growing theme. Although they wrote in classical Chinese and were imbued with the Neo-Confucian teachings of their early education, they began to differentiate themselves as Koreans from what Choe Mali had called “the senior state.” At the same time, those same scholars began to criticize abuses within Korea that had formed over the centuries—most pointedly directing their criticisms at the yangban aristocracy and the examination system that strongly symbolized Chinese influence.
To select men for public office on this basis is really a foolish thing to do.....
The examination system thus selects men who are useless, and it does so
on the basis of worthless writing.
With the Practical Learning scholars, there came a
growing awareness of Korea as a separate entity from China. This resulted in a burst of writing about
Korea, geographical studies and, increasingly, work in the vernacular that
would provide an intellectual model for later reformers, who sought to advance
a distinctly Korean national identity in the face of outside influences during
the last 150 years. It is precisely in
these last 150 years, as well, that a concept of a distinctly ethnic Korean
society began to develop.
Click here for other posts dealing with East Asian ethnic majorities:
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| [e] Practical RF |
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