Confucian Populism and Egalitarian Tendencies in Tonghak Thought
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East Asian History· NUMBER 20 . DECEMBER 2000 Institut e of Adva nced Studi es Australia n Natio nal Univ ersity Ed itor Ge remie R. Barme Associate Ed itor Helen Lo Ed itorial Board Mark Elvin (Convenor) John Clark Andrew Fraser Helen Hardacre Colin Jef fcott W. ]. F. Jenner Lo Hui-min Ga van McCormack David Marr Tessa Morris-Suzuki Michael Un derdown Design and Pr oduction Helen Lo Business Manager Marion Weeks Pr inted by Go anna Pr int, Fyshwick, ACT This is the twentieth issue of East Asian History in the series previously entitled Papers on Far Eastern History. The jo urnal is published twice a year Contributions to The Ed itor, East Asian History Division of Pa ci fic and Asian History Research School of Pa cific and Asian Studies Australian National Un iversity Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Ph one +61 261253140 Fax +61 26125 5525 email geremie @c oombs.anu.edu.au Subscription En quiries to Subscriptions, East Asian History, at the above address, or to marion @coombs.anu.edu.au Annual Subscription Australia A$45 Overseas US $45 (for two issues) ii i .4!. CONTENTS 1 Th e Ord er of Birds in Gu iyi Jun Dunhuang Lewis Mayo 60 Zh ou Li anggong and Chidu Xinchao : Genr e and Political Marginalisation in th e Ming -Qing Transition David Pattinson 83 Th e Construction of "M od ern Y6m ei gaku" in Meiji Japan and its Impact in China Ogyu Shigehiro -translated, with an introduction, by Barry D. Steben 121 Confucian Populism and Eg alitarian Tend enci es in Tonghak Thought Mark Setton 145 On th e Battl efield of Mabuni: Struggl es ov er Peac e and th e Pa st in Cont emporary Okinawa Julia Yonetani 169 Th e Fat e of an En light enm en t-Tw en ty Years in th e Chin ese Int ell ectual Sph ere(1 978-98) Xu Jilin -translated by Geremie R. Barme, with Gloria Davies iv Cover calligrap hy Yan Zhenq ing M�g�n, Tang calligrap he r and states ma n Cover il lustrat ion Okinawan Seasar (© phot og rap h by Ken Yonetani *��) Lions have never been found on Okinawa, and the custom of revering them as 'king of the beasts' and symbols of protection is said to have originated in ancient Persia. By the time this custom reached Okinawa via China in the fou rteenth or fifteenth century, the stone figures bore less and less resemblance to real lions. Early Chinese recordings of a stone 'lion-dog' figure placed within a shrine of the Ryukyu Kingdom (currently Okinawa) date back to 1683. From the late seventeenth century, influenced by Chinese conceptions of feng shui )j,71<,the lion-like symbols or 'seasar' (�--!T- , also speJt shiisaa or seesar) became known for their powers of protection against fire, and could be found in front of the gates of temples or castles, at entrances to the tombs of noble families, and at the entrances of villages or sacred shrines. Today, seasars are placed to ward of any kind of evil spirit, and many different lion-like forms made not only from stone, but from clay, concrete and other materials, with varied colours and styles, may be seen on roofs, gates and at entrances to buildings across the Okinawan archipelago. (-Julia Yonetani) CONFUCIAN POPULISM AND EGALITARIAN TENDENCIES IN TONGHAK THOUGHT ..Jt Mark Setton Introduction Is egalitarianis m, wit h its emphasis on the eq ual moral wort h an d eq ual An earlier version of this paper appears as treat ment in society of all pe ople, inc ompatible wit hEa st Asian val ues, whic h "Confucian roots ofTonghak egalitarianism," in Proceedings of the Eleventh International are often define d in ter ms of a un ifying emphasis on Confucian hi erarc hy?1 Conference in Korean Studies (Songnam, Are human rig hts, whic h ma y be viewe d as the logical extensi on of an Korea: Academy of Korean Studies, 2000). egalitarian visi on of humanity int o the legal real m, alien totra diti onal Asian 1 For a concise discussion of the concept of thoug ht or is it possible to disc over relate d concepts in the work of hi st orical egalitarianism, see Nancy 1. Schwartz, "Egali intellect uals or political ref ormers ? As Asian societies de mocratize, must civil tarianism," in The encyclopedia of demo cracy, 4 vols, ed. Seymour Martin Lipset liberties be newly transplante d fr om the West int oAsian soil, or can they be (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, grafte d some how on topre-existing political ten dencies an d outgr owt hs ? 1995), 2: 395--S. During the past few deca des, intellect uals in ma ny coun tries ha ve soug ht 2 A recent and concise introduction to the toco me toter ms wit h these questi ons. Alt houghth e res ulting 'Asian val ues terms of this debate, including characteristic debate' ha s range d br oadly at ti mes, it ha s ten de d tofo cus on the elab oration statements of several representative positions, can be found in Larry Diamond and Marc F. or ref utati on of the core idea that political val ues are a ma tter of cult ure, an d Plattner, eds, Democracy in East Asia (Balti that Western political val ues are thus toso me degree inapplicable tono n more, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998); for a Western societies.2 Disc ussi ons on this general theme are often fra med in discussion of the Asian values debate from ter ms of binary op positi ons that supp ose dly signify vari ous cult ure-specific the viewpoint of a Western scholar of Asian intellectual history, see Theodore de Bary, attrib utes: egalitarianis mvers us hi erarc hy, in divi dualis mvers us collectivis m, Asian values and human rights: a Confucian un iversalis m vers us diversity, political liberalizati on vers us ec onomi c communitarian perspective (Cambridge, devel opment. A ma rke d ten dency , most noticeable among advocates of Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998). partic ularis m, is for essentialist, cult ure-base d arg uments totake the place of 3 Proponents of the particularity of Asian hi st orical perspective.3 Lost in the sc uffle, it woul d see m, is the common values often pose Confucianism in stark opposition to the liberal democratic tradition sense rec ogniti on that there is consi derable diversity of experience in the and question the compatibility between hi st or ical rec ord of any nati on or cult ure. ostensibly 'Western'values such as democracy As a st udent of Korean Confucianis m, I ha ve str uggle d wit h these ques and individualism and contemporary social ti ons at some lengt h. On the on e ha nd, the Conf ucianis m of Conf uci us an d and political realities in Asian societies lOVER 121 122 MARK SETION Iwhere Confucian values continue to exert a Mencius, as distinct fr om state-sp ons or e d Confucianis m, places a very high dominant influence. pri ority on the welfare of the citizenry. On the ot her han d, Confucianis m does 4 Kim Dae lung, Han'guk: minjujuui ui see mto exhi bit certain pr oclivities that coul d easily be viewe d as inc ompati ble turamawa somang (Seoul: Ch'6ngdo, 1992). with Western political concepts of the in divi dual. In this connecti on, I was 5 Ibid., p.143. intereste d to disc over a sti mulating discussi on of de mocracy an d tra diti onal 6 It should be noted that Kim's discussion Korean culture in a book by South Korean Presi dent Ki mDae Jung, Han guk: does not concern egalitarianism, per se, but democracy. Nevertheless, the two issues are minjuju ui ui turamawasomang (K orea: the Dra ma an d Hope of De mocracy). 4 closely linked in that egalitarianism "declares In a chapter entitle d "K orea's Tra diti onal Culture an d De mocracy," Ki m the equal dignity of all citizens in a democratic argues that ma ny of the constituent elements of de mocracy have playe d an polity" and may thus be seen as an essential influential role in the Korean intellectual tra diti on. Countering the idea that component of democracy. Schwartz, "Egali tarianism," p.395. de mocracy is inc ompati bl e with Korean culture due to the legacies of 7 As Schwartz points out, "Democracies are Confucian rule, Ki m suggests that such views, while superficiallyappealing, egalitarian in challenging traditional elites' are nevertheless ba se d on an inaccurate un derstan ding of the true nature of political power based on family, tribe, that rule.s On the contrary, Ki m asserts that Korean hist ory is very rich in ethnicity, status, or inherited wealth." Ibid., ele ments helpful tothe conte mporary Korean eff ort toesta blish de mocratic p.396. It may be argued, then, that when Kim and others attempt to project democratic instituti ons an d practices 6 values onto traditional Korean society, one In particular, Ki m cites the Tonghak *� move ment of the late gets the sense that they are ultimately nineteenth century as embodying the ideal of populis mwithin the structure concerned with the egalitarian vision of democracy, as opposed to its specificpoliti cal of a move ment os tensi bly committe d toso cial an d political change al ong institutions.