Missions and Modern History Missions and Modern History

MISSIONS AND MODERN HISTORY MISSIONS AND MODERN HISTORY A Study of the Missionary Aspects of Some Great Move ments of the Nineteenth Century By ROBERT E. SPEER Secretary of the Board of Foreign Miuions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. In two volumes VOL. II NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO Fleming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH Copyright, 1904, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 63 Washington Street Toronto : 27 Richmond Street, W London : 21 Paternoster Square . Edinburgh : 30 St. Mary Street _Contents First Volume I. THE TAI-PING REBELLION • II II. THE INDIAN MUTINY III. THE RELIGION OF THE BAB IV. THE EMANCIPATION OF LATIN AMERICA v. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA VI. THE REFORM MOVEMENT IN HINDUISM Second Volume VII. THE TONG HAK INSURRECTION 357 VIII. THE TRANSFORMATION OF JAPAN 393 IX. THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES 439 X. THE GoING OF THE SPANIARD 487 XI. THE BOXER UPRISING 537 XII. THE COMING OF THE SLAV • 595 XIII. MISSIONS AND THE w ORLD MOVEMENT 657 INDEX • 693 The Tong Hak Insurrection VII THE TONG HAK INSURRECTION T the same time that the Tai-ping Rebellion was ravaging the Yang-tse Valley, proclaiming a' monotheistic religion A free of all idolatry, and protesting against the corruption of the Government, there arose in Korea a movement of very similar character, but so totally independent of it that it may be doubted if the Tong Haks had ever heard of the Tai-pings. Yet like them, they proposed a religious reformation, and the influence which dominated the new conception was at the beginning at least, the influence of the Christian movement upon Asia as represented in the Roman Catholic mission in Korea. As with the Tai-pings, the movement began as a purely religious reform, and only later because of the oppression of corrupt officials, took a political direction. Its founder, unlike Hung Siu-tsuen, had no imperial dreams. For forty five years it pursued its course, and then, in 1894, broke out into an insurrection whose consequences we shall trace, finding in them some of the most significant events of the last century. It is impossible not to feel a sense of deep pity for a movement like this of the Tong Haks. It is one of many movements of men whose minds have expanded to take in a new thought, who have struggled hopelessly with the social conditions which held them, and have accepted persecution and death and failed, without even the consolation of knowing that the world has watched them and will remember them. There must have been scores of such movements in the unrecorded history of Asia during the centuries that have passed. Aside from the interesting features of the Tong Hak movement itself and the great consequences that flowed from it, we should be concerned to know about it because we have been as a people related in a peculiar way to Korea. It is the one Asiatic nation, prior to 359 360 Missions and Modern History our participation in the relief of Peking, with which we have waged war, and our country was the first of Western nations to secure a treaty with her. For generations we have felt a special interest in the land. In 1845 it was voted by Congress that "immediate measures be taken for effecting commercial arrangements with the empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Korea." Nothing was done, however, to carry this resolution into effect in the case of Korea, Commander Perry scarcely mentioning Korea in his narrative of his great treaty expedition. Indeed Korea was in no mood for foreign intercourse. The same year that Congress voted to effect commercial arrangements with Korea, a Korean named Kim was put to death in Seoul "for communicating with the Western barbarians." Our first contact with the people was in 1866, when an American schooner, Surprise, was wrecked on the coast. The crew were treated hospitably, supplied with clothing and food, and sent through Manchuria to New-chwang. In the fall of the same year occurred the affair of the General Sherman, a merchant schooner which sailed up the Ta-tong River ostensibly for trade, but under circum stances which aroused suspicion. Its crew soon got into difficulties with the people and were killed, while the ship was totally destroyed. The following year an American organized a piratical expedition to pilfer the royal tombs of Korea, but it returned, happily unsuccess ful, to Shanghai. In 1871, an armed expedition was sent to attempt to negotiate a treaty. The matter was handled without tact, and a needless conflict was precipitated, which resulted in the loss of three Americans and about four hundred Koreans, and the useless capture of the ports at the mouth of the River Han. The only consequence of the war was to confirm the hostile feeling of the Koreans, and to give them increased contempt for the barbarians who came on futile expeditions of piracy or robbery, or on expeditions to avenge the failure of the pirates and robbers which met with the same fate. In 1882, Japan having six years before by the pursuit of Perry's wise tactics made treaties with Korea, the Western nations, by Japan's influence, succeeded at last in breaking through the walls of isolation, and opening Korea to the world.' Our past relations with Korea accordingly, ended well, but they included some disreputable pro ceedings and they have placed us under a debt of sympathy and in- 1 Griffis, Korea, The Hermit Nation, Chs. XLIV-XLVI. The Tong Hak Insurrection terest to Korea which forbids our passing by an episode in history like the Tong Hak uprising. But in any event a movement like this is the most fascinating and significant of all subjects of study. It shows us new ideas working into minds hampered by the traditions of centuries. It shows us the curious compromises which these ideas make with older notions. It testifies to the power of truth even though partial and perverted to compel men to endure and to suffer. It indicates the practical nature of religious ideas. They are bound to affect life and custom and institution. And it shows us also that while a movement like this may die, failing utterly both in its primary and in its derivative pur pose, the results at which it aimed, may be secured through its ruin in a way of which it never dreamed. The Tong Hak movement originated in 1859 at Kyeng Chu, a walled town forty-five miles north of Fusan, in the province of Kyeng Sang. Its founder Choi Chei Ou was a Confucian scholar, and he began his work under the pressure of an experience somewhat like Hung Siu-tsuen's. He had watched with deep interest the progress made by the Roman Catholic Church in Korea, and he began to think deeply as to whether it was the true religion. It was proscribed by the Government, and even then its adherents were being pursued and slain, but resolutely refused to deny their faith. The whole affair profoundly impressed Choi Chei Ou. "Since the missionaries have come so far," he argued, "and spent so much in the propaga tion of their religion, it must be true; and yet, if it is true, why are its followers now being killed by the Government as criminals? " As he brooded over this question from day to day, he fell sick. Though he used much medicine, he became no better, and was finally at the point of death. One morning just as the sun rose over the hills, he fell into a kind of trance, and there appeared unto him some supernatural being, who called him by name. " Choi Chei Ou-a ! " "Yea," answered Choi. " Knowest thou not who speakest unto thee?" "Nay," replied Choi. "Who art thou?" "I am God," was the answer. "Worship Me and thou shalt have power over the people." Choi then proceeded to ask him concerning the question nearest to his heart. "Is the Roman Catholic religion the true religion?" "No," was the reply, "the word and the time are the same, but the thought and spirit are different from the true." With Missions and Mod~m History this God departed. Choi, seizing a pen close by, grasped it, and there came out in circular form upon the paper these words : " Since from aforetime we have worshipped Thee, Lord of heaven, accord ing to Thy goodness do Thou always bestow upon us to know and not forget all things ( concerning Thee) and since Thine unspeakable thoughts have come to us, do Thou abundantly for us according to our desire." This scrawl Choi picked up, burned it, and pouring the ashes into a bowl of water, drank it. Immediately he arose and his sickness was entirely gone. Choi felt called to found a new religion. He was not satisfied with Confucianism or Buddhism or Taoism, the systems he already knew, and his divine revelation as he believed it to be, dismissed the claims of Christianity as taught by the Roman Catholic priests. Accordingly, he set about constructing a new system. Tong Hak, he called it, or Eastern Learning, in distinction from Romanism, which was called Su Hak, or Western Learning. The name was ap propriate, also, because his new faith was a composite of what was best in the Eastern systems under which he had grown up. From Confucianism he took the Five Relations, father and son, sovereign and subject, husband and wife, friend and friend, and elder brother and younger brother : from Buddhism the law for heart cleansing and from Taoism the law of cleansing the body from moral as well as from natural filth.

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