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  A History of Korea

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  A History of Korea

  An Episodic Narrative

  Kyung Moon Hwang

  © Kyung Moon Hwang 2010

  All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

  No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

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  First published 2010 by

  PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

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  ISBN 978–0–230–20545–1 hardback

  ISBN 978–0–230–20546–8 paperback

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  Printed in China

  Contents

  List of Images and Boxes

  Acknowledgments

  Note on Romanization

  Brief Chronology of Korean History

  Map of Korea

  Introduction

  1 Kogury and Ancient Korea

  The Great Battle of Salsu River, 612

  Ancient Korea and Kogury

  The rise and fall of Kogury

  Kogury and Korean history

  2 Queen Sndk and Silla’s Unification of Korea

  Silla’s dispatch of a tribute embassy to China, 643

  Buddhism and power

  Legends of the unification

  Silla’s “winning” features

  3 The Unified Silla Kingdom

  The assassination of Chang Pogo, 846

  Chang Pogo, Ch’oe Ch’iwn, and Unified Silla society

  Silla and northeast Asia

  Local strongmen and the end of Silla

  4 Founding of the Kory Dynasty

  The issuance of Wang Kn’s “Ten Injunctions,” 943

  “Great Founder of Korea”

  Content of the Ten Injunctions

  Legacy

  5 Religion and Regionalism in the Kory Order

  The outbreak of the Myoch’ng Rebellion, 1135

  The institutionalized influence of the Buddhist clergy

  Myoch’ong’s rebellion

  Aftermath

  6 The Mongol Overlord Period

  The marriage of Lady Ki to the Yuan emperor, 1340

  The Mongol conquest

  Kory women in the Mongol empire

  7 Kory-Chosn Transition

  Yi Pangwn’s purge of Chng Tojn, 1398

  Chng Tojn: From mastermind to political power

  A renaissance, revolution, or coup?

  Yi Pangwn’s impact

  8 Confucianism and the Family in the Early Chosn Dynasty

  The drafting of the Yi family inheritance testament, 1541

  Early Chosn Confucianism

  Confucian family law and women’s standing

  9 The Great Invasions, 1592–1636

  The return to duty of Admiral Yi Sunsin, 1597

  Problems in the Korean response

  Narratives of heroism

  The regional order remade

  10 Ideology, Family, and Nationhood in the Mid-Chosn Era

  The birth of a son to Lady Chang, 1688

  King Sukchong’s triangles

  Famous females

  Latency of the mid-Chosn order

  11 Intellectual Opening in the Late Eighteenth Century

  The return of Pak Chega to Korea, 1778

  “Utility for the greater good”

  The sprouts of modernity?

  12 Popular Culture in the Late Chosn Era

  Publication of Observations from the Countryside, 1862

  Tales of the people

  Other cultural forms

  Popular culture and social consciousness

  13 Nineteenth-Century Unrest

  The destruction of the American merchant ship, the General Sherman, 1866

  The nineteenth century issue and internal problems

  The arrival of imperialism

  14 1894, A Fateful Year

  The occupation of the royal palace by Japanese soldiers, July 1894

  The Tonghak spark

  A shrimp caught in a whale fight

  The spirit of Kabo

  15 The Great Korean Empire

  The opening of the Seoul-Inch’n rail line, 1899

  Korea and the new empires

  Trade and industry

  The spirit of enlightenment

  16 The Japanese Takeover, 1904–18

&
nbsp; The secret mission to The Hague, 1907

  Autonomy and modern history

  Force and pushback

  The deft hand of conquest

  17 The Long 1920s

  Opening of a special exhibition of Na Hyesk’s paintings, 1921

  The March First movement and cultural rule

  Korean females in the new age

  Religion and social change

  18 Nation, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Late Colonial Period

  The doctoring of a newspaper photo of the Olympic marathon champion, 1936

  Expression, within limits

  The quotidian blossoming of modern culture

  19 Wartime Mobilization, 1938–45

  The visit by authors Yi Kwangsu and Ch’oe Namsn to Japan, 1943

  Industrialization and state domination

  Resignation, collaboration, and modern identity

  The grand narrative: Independence movements

  20 The Liberation Period, 1945–50

  The May elections in southern Korea, 1948

  The primacy of politics: A multi-lateral dynamic

  Implanting the southern system

  A troubling historical shadow

  21 The Korean War

  The Chinese entrance into the Korean war, November 1950

  Civil wars amidst the cold war

  6–25

  Chinese intervention and the stalemate

  22 Early North Korea

  Kim Il Sung’s “Juche” speech, 1955

  Liberation space North Korea

  The formative fifties

  Juche, history, and legitimacy

  23 1960s South Korea

  Demonstrations against the normalization of relations with Japan, spring 1964

  Dictatorship, democracy, and revolutions

  Park Chung Hee

  Economic takeoff

  Youth and angst

  24 Culture and Politics in 1970s South Korea

  Publication of Kim Chiha’s “Five Bandits,” May 1970

  The Yusin decade

  Literary resistance

  Mass culture under the Yusin

  25 Monumental Life in North Korea

  Groundbreaking for the Ryugyong Hotel, 1987

  The historical challenge

  Historical path, 1970s to 2000s

  Monumental life

  26 South Korean Democratization

  The June Declaration of 1987

  The prelude: Kwangju, May 1980

  The democracy generation

  The 1987 declaration and election

  27 South Korea in the New Millennium

  Quarterfinal match versus Spain in the 2002 World Cup finals

  Economic growth: A reconsideration

  Women and family: Seismic shifts

  Toward a new era

  Sources and Further Readings

  Index

  List of Images and Boxes

  IMAGES

  2The Ch’msngdae Observatory, Kyngju, South Korea. (Author’s photo.)

  5Wooden blocks of the Tripitika Koreana, in Haeinsa Temple, near Taegu, South Korea. (Author’s photo.)

  8Lady Sin Saimdang (front) and one of her bamboo paintings (back) featured on the Bank of Korea’s 50,000 won note, issued June 2009. (Courtesy of Bank of Korea.)

  12“Wrestling”, by Kim Hongdo, eighteenth century. (Courtesy of the National Museum of Korea.)

  13“The Martyrdom of Reverend Thomas,” depicting the attack on the General Sherman in 1866. Painting by Kim Haksu. (Courtesy of the Council for the 100th Anniversary of the Korean Church.)

  18Son Kijng’s photo, Tonga ilbo newspaper, Tuesday, August 25, 1936

  19Ch’oe Namsn, Yi Kwangsu, and children’s author Ma Haesong at the roundtable discussion in Tokyo, November 1943. (Courtesy of Sjng sihak.)

  21The shelled-out headquarters of the South Korean Communist Party from the Korean War, left intact in Ch’rwn, South Korea, near the border with North Korea. (Author’s photo.)

  22The captured ship USS Pueblo on display on the banks of the Taedong River, Pyongyang, 2003. (Courtesy of Tae Gyun Park.)

  25Ryugyng Hotel in Pyongyang, 2003. (Courtesy of Tae Gyun Park.)

  26Clash between protestors and police in the city of Kwangju, June 26, 1987. (Courtesy of Noonbit Publishers.)

  BOXES

  Chapter 1: The wall paintings of the Kogury tombs

  Chapter 2: Paekche, the Third Kingdom

  Chapter 5: The Buddhist printing advances of the Kory˘o

  Chapter 7: King Sejong the Great

  Chapter 10: The secondary status groups

  Chapter 13: The “Uphold Orthodoxy and Reject Heterodoxy” movement

  Chapter 14: The end of slavery in Korea

  Chapter 15: The rise of Korean port cities

  Chapter 19: Manchuria as a cauldron of modern Korea

  Chapter 22: The Pueblo Incident

  Chapter 24: The start of South Korea’s television age

  Acknowledgments

  Since the beginning of this project, I have benefited from the feedback of many colleagues and anonymous reviewers. I wish to start with heartfelt appreciation for Young-Hoon Rhee, John Duncan, Jennifer Jung-Kim, and Virginia Moon, who read the entire manuscript and offered much-needed criticisms and corrections. I would also like to thank Sunyoung Park, Gari Ledyard, Jihang Park, Christine Kim, Yumi Moon, and my Korean history students for offering helpful insights along the way. Colleagues at USC, in particular my friends at Parkside, East Asian Studies, and the History Department, were steadfast sources of comfort and encouragement. A special thanks goes to Jack Wills, whose work served as an inspiration for this book. The most endearing inspiration, of course, came from my wife and our son, as well as from family members both here in the US and in South Korea.

  Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to the Palgrave Macmillan team, whose support, professionalism, and kindness made this book a reality: Kate Haines, Jenni Burnell, Felicity Noble and the team at Macmillan Publishing Solutions.

  Kyung Moon Hwang

  Note on Romanization

  Korean terms will be Romanized with the McCune-Reischauer system, with the exception of the names of certain well-known individuals. The Romanization of Pyongyang and Seoul will use these more familiar forms instead of the McCune-Reischauer renderings.

  Brief Chronology of Korean History

  4th–7th centuries: Three Kingdoms Period (Kogury, Paekche, Silla)

  668–918: Unified Silla Kingdom

  918–1392: Kory Dynasty

  1170–1270: Military Rule

  1270–1356: Mongol Overlord Period

  1392–1910: Chosn Dynasty

  1446: Promulgation of the Korean Alphabet

  1592–98: Japanese Invasions

  1627–36: Manchu Invasions

  1894: Tonghak Rebellion, Sino-Japanese War, Kabo Reforms

  1897–1910: Great Korean Empire (Taehan cheguk)

  1905–10: Japanese Protectorate

  1910–45: Japanese Colonial Rule

  1910–19: “Military Rule”

  1919: March First Uprisings

  1920s: “Cultural Rule”

  1938–45: Wartime Mobilization

  1945: Liberation and Occupation by Allied Forces

  1948: Establishment of the Republic of Korea (South) and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North)

  1950–3: Korean War

  1987: Democratization in South Korea

  Map of Korea

  Courtesy of Yongjoon Cho.

  Introduction

  This book assumes no prior knowledge of Korean history, but it does ask that the reader remain open to an uncommon narrative structure for presenting the richness and distinctiveness, as well as the universality, of one of the world’s oldest cultures. The sweep of Korean civilization, furthermore, is matched by the scope of its modern transformation. This book attempts to make this complex history more accessible by dividing its coverage into short chapters, each of which us
es a representative event, or “episode,” as a window into the chapter’s broader topic and themes. The order of the chapters is chronological as well as thematic. Not everything important that happened in Korean history is highlighted, but the hope is that a focus on particular events, people, and patterns will provide the reader a full understanding of the major historical connections and issues.

  This is, then, a somewhat personal, idiosyncratic narrative. Some historians of Korea will undoubtedly find major topics either being neglected or given short shrift, while others will disagree with the author’s choices. This book contains, for example, relatively little coverage of the mythological era of ancient Korea, King Yngjo’s reign in the eighteenth century, independence movements during the Japanese colonial period of the early twentieth century, or the current North Korean leadership. The rationale for these decisions will either be explained or strongly implied in the respective chapters. Still other observers will of course object to the author’s own biases, however veiled, in interpretation, analysis, and even periodization. This book remains mindful of the significance of legendary accounts of earlier times, for example, but its coverage of Korean history starts much later—with the Kogury kingdom around the fourth century CE—than in most narratives. Approximately half of the book is devoted to the premodern era, and half to the modern, with Chapter 14, covering the events of 1894, functioning as a narrative fulcrum just as the year 1894 acted as a historical turning point.

  The reader will also wonder how to make sense of all this information, particularly about a culture that for many will be completely unfamiliar. The following themes can act as narrative anchors that ground the information to a comprehensible structure: Korean character and identity; forms of political authority; religion; economy and daily life; gender and family; social hierarchy; and external relations. The themes will allow the reader to draw connections over vast temporal distances through the perception of recurrent patterns, such as Korea’s complicated relationship with China and Japan, the ties between social hierarchy and political power, or the bursts of momentous change inspired by religion. Some chapters will tackle multiple themes, some just one or two, but all the information is designed to illuminate either a theme or a specific argument. No content is presented just for the sake of transmitting information. Interpretative statements infuse every chapter, with the hope that these claims will spur further thinking and exploration from the reader. For this purpose a list of English-language sources and further readings is provided at the end of the book. Many of the primary texts from a given historical period that are referenced in this book are, in fact, available in English translation.