The Term Question in Korea 1882-1911, and its Chinese Roots: A Study in Continuity and Divergence BY (Daniel) SUNG HO AHN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2011 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this dissertation has not been presented to any other academic institution than the University of Edinburgh, to which it is submitted for the award of the degree of doctor of philosophy. It has been composed by myself, and is a result of my own research. (Daniel) Sung Ho Ahn 2011 ii ABSTRACT This thesis aims to study Western missionaries’ theological debate over the choice of the name of God, known as the Term Question, in the Korean Bible, a controversy which implied a certain theological position in terms of the degree of continuity or discontinuity between existing Korean theistic belief and faith in the God of Bible. This thesis seeks three goals. First, it attempts to analyse the Chinese roots of the Term Question in Korea. In China, the Term Question first arose among Roman Catholic missions from 1637 to 1742 between an indigenous Confucian term, Shangti 上帝 (Sovereign on High), favoured by the Jesuits, notably Matteo Ricci, and a neologism, T’ienzhu 天主 (the Lord of Heaven), used by the Dominicans and the Franciscans. A second phase of the Chinese Term Question involved nineteenth- century Protestant missions, and confronted missions with a choice between Shangti, most notably advocated by James Legge of the London Missionary Society, and Shen 神 (a generic term for god), supported by a majority of American missionaries. These three Chinese theistic terms were imported into the Korea mission field. John Ross of the United Presbyterian Church in Manchuria, in his first Korean New Testament (1877-1887), translated the name of God as Hananim, the Supreme Lord of Korean indigenous religion, on the basis of the Shangti edition of the Delegates’ Version. The first Korean Roman Catholics and later the Anglican missions in Korea adopted Ch’onzhu (Chinese T’ienzhu), following Catholic practice in China. A Korean diplomat in Japan, Su-Jung Lee, adopted Shin (Chinese Shen) from the Shen edition of the Chinese Bible, in his Korean Bible translations (1883-1885). The need to choose between the these three Korean theistic terms, derived theologically from the three corresponding Chinese theistic terms, consequently triggered the Term Question in Korea from 1882 to 1911. Second, the thesis argues that there was a significant theological continuity between the Chinese and Korean Term Questions. The Term Question in both China and Korea proceeded on a similar pattern; it was a terminological controversy between an indigenous theistic term (Shangti and Hananim) on the one hand and a neologism (T’ienzhu and Korean Ch’onzhu) or a generic term (Shen and Korean Shin) on the other hand. Central to both Term Questions was the theological issue of whether a primitive monotheism, congruent with Christian belief, had existed among the Chinese and Koreans. It will suggest that whilst those who adhered to a degeneration theory of the history of religions used either Shangti or Hananim as the name of the God of the Bible, those who rejected the existence of primitive monotheism preferred to use the neologism or the generic term. Third, this thesis suggests that there was, nevertheless, a significant divergence between the Term Question in China and that in Korea. Whereas the Term Question in China became polarised for over three centuries between two equal and opposite parties – between the Jesuits (Shangti) and the Dominicans-Franciscans (T’ienzhu), and later between the Shangti party and the Shen party in Protestant missions, that in iii Korea was a short-term argument for three decades between a vast majority (of the Hananim party) and a small minority (the opponents of Hananim). It is argued that the disproportion in Korea in favour of Hananim was due to the much closer analogy between Hananim and the Christian trinity, as seen in the Dan-Gun myth, than was the case with Shangti in Chinese religion. For this reason, the thesis concludes by suggesting that the adoption of the indigenous monotheistic term, Hananim, in a Christian form contributed to the higher rate of growth of the Korean church compared to that of the church in China. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this thesis has been indebted to many people and churches, and so I would like to express my sincere appreciation to them. First of all, I wish to offer my special thanks to my PhD supervisor, Professor Brian Stanley. He provided me with insights and wisdom through his faithful supervision, and also pastoral concern. His scholarly enthusiasm and endurance became a great model of how I should carry on my academic research in the future. He has been unsparing of his time and energy to supervise this achievement. I have particularly appreciated his wide and deep knowledge of world Christianity and mission studies, and am honoured as his first graduating PhD student in the University of Edinburgh. I would like to express my appreciation to Dr. Elizabeth Koepping for her academic guidance and tender care for my family at the beginning of my studies, and to Dr. Afe Adogame for his advice and kindness. I wish to express my special gratitude to Professor Timothy Park of Fuller Theological Seminary for his continuously warm encouragement and prayer, and other faculties of Fuller Theological Seminary for their giving me foundation of my theological and missiological studies. I also give thanks to Professors Kyo-Sung Ahn of Presbyterian Theological Seminary in South Korea and Sung-Deuk Oak of UCLA in USA, who gave me insightful and sharp academic advices. I am indebted to the kind and professional archival help of Martha Smalley in Yale Divinity School in New Heaven and Lucy McCann in Bodleian Library of Oxford University, who enabled me to discover important primary sources for this thesis. I am thankful also to valuable friends whom God led me to meet in Edinburgh. Rev. Dr. Ian Maxwell, Simon Burton, Wei-Jing and Benjamin Wu have been good helps in proofreading this thesis in English and Chinese. My Singaporean and Chinese friends, Edwin Tay, Siang Nuan and Samuel Kee who helped me to understand Chinese culture and religions. Members of ENKA (Edinburgh New College Korean Association) were my good friends who built up friendship and partnership with me, and shared the same vision to use our theological studies for God’s kingdom. Rev. Paul Rees and friends of Charlotte Chapel, particularly those in the International Fellowship Ministry and my Fellowship Group, and Rev. Sung-Hun Kim and his Glasgow Korean Church, continuously encouraged me and prayed for my studies. I would like to express my gratitude to Principal Dr. Albert Ting, Dean Dr. Calvin Cheong and other future colleagues of Singapore Bible College and my OMF fellows in South Korea, Singapore and UK, who patiently encouraged me to finish this task by praying for me. For helping me shoulder the financial burden of this study, I thank Rev. Dong- Wu Shin (신동우) of the Living Stone Church, the Fellowship of Mountain in Heavenly Kingdom (천국산악회), Rev. Young-Ik Hwang (황영익) and Mie-Ok Song (송미옥) of the Seoul-Nam Church, and the Silk Road Church in South Korea. As v such, I also thank my precious friends, Seung-Ju Na, Chang-Ryul Choi, Hyung-Jin Wu, Wung Heo and Samuel W. C. Son’s (김우창) family. I am grateful to many missionaries, discussed in my thesis, such as Matteo Ricci, James Legge, John Ross and all those American missionaries, who dedicated their lives to translate the Bible into Chinese and Korean. Their great contributions enabled the Gospel to be implanted in China and Korea, and subsequently motivated me to study this topic. I am deeply indebted to both my parents and parents-in-law in South Korea, particularly my mother, who ceaselessly granted me love, life-long prayer and financial support. I wish to express my special gratitude to my wife, Eun Ha Hwang (황은하), and my little sons, Eugene (안유진) and Yuchan (안유찬). Interestingly, Yuchan was born in Edinburgh at the beginning of my studies, and so he was growing along with my thesis. The presence of my lovely children always gives me strength and joy to finish this journey. In particular, I will never forget Eun Ha’s love, endurance, prayer and self-sacrifice, and so I should confess that this thesis would not have been done without her. Finally, I give all my thanks to my Heavenly Father who has been awaking me up early in the morning during this study, and graciously giving me wisdom and patience to complete this thesis. May all the glory go to Him, Amen. (Lamentations 3:22-23) Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fails. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness 我們不至消滅、是出於耶和華諸般的慈愛、是因他的憐憫、不至斷絕 。 每早晨這都是新的．你的誠實、極其廣大。 여호와의 인자와 긍휼이 무궁하시므로… 이것들이 아침마다 새로우니 주의 성실하심이 크심이로다. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ii Abstract iii Acknowledgement v Table of Contents vii Abbreviations x Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1. Introduction to the Thesis 1 2. Literature Review 9 3. The Significance of the Thesis 17 4. Primary Goals and Research Questions 20 5. The Scope of the Research 22 6. Review of Primary Sources 23 7. The Structure of the Thesis 29 Part I: The Chinese Roots of the Term Question in Korea Chapter 2: The Term Question among Roman Catholic Missions in Early Modern China 32 1. Matteo Ricci’s Adoption of Shangti for God in the True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven 33 2.