[Lim Hyoung-taek] The Logic of Historical Understanding of Korean Culture (4)
In Relation to the Tradition of East Asia and the Modern World
Lim Hyoung-taek
Professor of Korean Chinese Classics, sungkyunkwan University
4. The Discourses on Civilization Proposed in the Course of Modernization
By making a chronological survey of the period between 1876 and 1910, the years of collision between the East and West, the old and the new, we find that reform and an open-door policy became unavoidable by 1894 after the Gapsin Jeongbyeon (Coup d'Etat of 1884). The Joseon dynasty attempted a transformation into a modern state, taking a stand under the banner of independence as Taehan Jeguk (the Great Han Empire) in 1897. In 1905, however, Ulsa Joyak (The Protectorate Treaty of 1905) turned Joseon into a protectorate of Japan, and finally in 1910, Joseon became a Japanese colony, blocking its passage to modernization. It was well on its way to colonialization. During times of adversities and chaos, all those who were aware agonized over, and took action regarding, the question of how to overcome this national crisis and which direction to take in carrying out reform. The chaos and conflict had actually produced a dynamic moment of creation and change.
It was also an "age of discourse," in which free discussions were made possible by the emergence of new forms of media, e.g. newspapers and magazines, as well as a new passion for speeches and social argument. What we should pay special attention to is the diverse discourse on civilization, which was a critical issue in the debates then. Wenming even emerged as the word of the times; almost none of the arguments made any sense without the word wenming. Contemporary discourse on civilization was not only extremely varied in terms of view; they were also tied to their respective logic in confronting the changing reality. The following is a classification of the discourses according to their line of logic.
1) The Logic of Cheoksa Wijeong
The logic of cheoksa wijeong斥邪衛正 (rejection of heterodoxy and protection of the right) departs from the characterization of yang'i (Western barbarians) as beasts, lower than humans. [9] According to this argument, a throng of these beasts was on the verge of pushing its way into the peninsula with formidable force, so Joseon's people should protect themselves against such a crisis. Joseon belived itself to be the subjective preservers of the "orthodox huaxia wenming," and rightly so. This is in fact an extension of the logic of zunhua rangyi. In cheoksa wijeong, we find tolerance of the Western civilization absolutely lacking, nothing but a firm repulsion of the Western invasion. Joseon was ideologically asserting a closed-door policy in opposition to imperialist infiltration. The same attitude was assumed toward Japan: "The Japanese wear Western clothes, fire Western canons, and ride Western vessels; this in itself proves that Japan and the West are one" (Jibu Cheokhwa So ("A Strong Appeal ㅁgainst Alliance with Qing"). Such an attitude developed into the notions behind's uibyeong's義兵 (righteous army) struggle against Japan.
2) The Logic of Superior Civilization
This logic advocates the superiority of Eastern civilization over the Western on the basis of classical concepts of renwen, Confucian morals, and the Chinese character-using world. For example, Yi Namgyu (1855-1907) says of the Western democratic politics, "It is a system unavoidably adopted by a race consisting of idle aristocrats and a brutal populace; it would never do for our 'civilization of propriety.'" (Nonmin Hoeso論民會疏("An Appeal for the Populace's Debate Meeting"). Also, Gim Taegyeong (1850-1927) claims there is a dfference between the Western idea of freedom, which originates from impetuousness, and the Eastern idea of byeongi (moral sense based on reason), which originates from integrity. Accordingly, both ideas vary in degrees of delicacy and coarseness. Unfortunately, as seen in general human psychology, integrity can hardly be found in anyone while impetuousness spirit belongs to all. Therefore, it is only inevitable that the logic of freedom rules in this competitive world (Jabeon I ("The Second Miscellany"), Sohodang Munjip ("The Collected Works of Sohodang"), vol. 6).
It is an extreme obsession with the belief in the superiority of Eastern civilization is apt to take on the stance of cheoksa wijeong. However, we should note the difference, for the idea of a superior civilization was largely dissimilar to the logic of cheoksa wijeong, a religious belief, which does not allow a single variation from its opposition to and struggle against the West. While cheoksa wijeong was the logic of the Confucian moralists, the logic of superior civilization was that of the literati. Here lies the arguments of Gim Yunsik金允植 (1835-1922), a renowned literati of the moderate modernizationfaction, who was against the very term gaehwa, meaning enlightenment or modernization. According to Gim, gaehwa signifies a procession from the barbaric to the civilized state, thus an unfit term for the Eastern land of an age-long civilization; furthermore, he is optimistic about the dissemination of Eastern learning in the Western world. This is the natural conclusion of logic in support of the superiority of Eastern civilization, which anticipates a day the West learns the teachings of the East. On the other hand, while this logic viewed civilization from a comparative perspective, it did not negate all of Western civilization, thereby affirming open doors and interrelations. This in turn allowed for the learning from what the Westerners were good at. Thus emerged the concept of dongdo seogi東道西器 (the Eastern spirit and Western technology), which called for adherence to the spiritual civilization of the East and an acceptance of the material civilization of the West. Gim Yunsik's words support this approach. "The religion of the West is evil, so it ought to be condemned as lechery and carnal desires should be condemned. The machine, however, is agile, so as long as its use is advantageous to iyong husaeng ["technical utilization and the public welfare"], why should we hesitate to adopt the Western modes of agriculture, medicine, military, manufacturing, etc.?"
3) The Logic of Civilization Reconstruction
Dongdo Seogi, like the zhongti xiyong中體西用 (maintaining the body of things Chinese while utelizing aspects of things Western) of China, was devised as a logic of countermovement against a world led by the West. Its aim was to enrich the country and strengthen the army by defending the East Asian cultural tradition and political system to the utmost, while admitting foreign machinery and technology to a limited degree. In China, Yangwu Yundong洋務運動 ("the movement to modern the military through the use of Western technology") was the embodiment of such logic; however, it met its final days, theoretically as well as in reality, when Qing was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War. Before long, Joseon also realized that the logic of dongdo Seogi was not going to work in the aftermath of the 1894 War. Hwanghyeong黃玹 (1855-1910), a poet, said that if Korea wanted to stand tall as a nation and become independent as men in a world dominated by the laws of the jungle, "we cannot but learn and follow the powerful. In order to grow powerful and mighty, we must learn their teachings; and to do that, we have no choice but to introduce a modern school system" (Yangyeong Hakdo Gi養英學校記 ("An Essay on Introducing Western Schools)). Although Hwang was himself a supporter of dongdo seogi, he had not wholly overcome the limits of the old way of thinking, i.e. the belief in the superiority of the Eastern civilization, he had taken a great leap toward changing the educational system through the adoption of Western studies. In short, he had reinterpreted the concept of gaehwa as gaemul hwamin開物化民, which implies both material development and the fostering of cultured people. Nevertheless, we should keep in mind that the sacred idea of dongdo (the "way of the East") was unshakable for Hwang.
On the other hand, Yi Sangjae李商在 (1850-1927), in his thesis Munmyeong-ui Haeseok문명의 해석 ("An Analysis of Civilization"), writes:
What is our nation's status in today's world? Looking back on our history of five
thousand years, we clearly see that our civilization is inferior to none. The only
reason it has deteriorated its the present state is because we only worshipped
morals and belittled material culture, consequently decline and weakness upon
ourselves, and disabling our ability escape from cruel and vicious traps.
Yi dismisses the country's weakness as the result of its exclusive worship of morals ― a sign of fundamental self-reflection from a cultural perspective. The "way of the East" (dongdo) was finally collapsing on itself. Yi's answer was the balanced development of "spiritual civilization" and "formal civilization." He would write, "If we go through a sudden transformation, putting value only on material science and discounting the importance of morals, then the misfortune of decay incurred by the overthrow will surely hit us like the disintegration of rootless plants and baseless houses." "Culture and Military Power" (Munhwa-wa Muryeok), an editorial printed in the Daehan Maeil Sinbo, 19 February 1910, also gives a similar prescription. According to this editorial, it is true that Joseon is on the verge of self-ruin for having long been engrossed in "munhwa" (wenhua) and weakening its national powers; however, this does not mean that we should depreciate culture.
"Look at the powerful nations of the West. As they thrive and flourish on account
of advanced studies and mature morals, their culture is not that of those who
subjugated the people of the traditional East under their monarchs, but a culture of
those who praise freedom and love adventure. Gentlemen of Joseon! Let us build a
culture that can rear new citizens by preserving our unique merits and extracting
the essence of foreign culture."
Let us take a moment to examine the term culture used for the first time in this context. Originally, wenhua was a concept counter to wugong武功 (military achievement) and referred to the education of the uncultured. Although there are similarities between the original and the modern concepts, the differences should be noted. Wenhua, unlike wenming, was a relatively new term introduced during the prevalence of civilization discourses. One example of its usage can be found in the following sentence: "As our nation advances with the advent of the cultural age of our refined people, our national flag radiates more light daily." Here wenhua speaks of a spirit of progress and patriotism.
In the citation above, the writer asserts that "we can find the kind of culture we should seek in the powerful nations of the West." In other words, the viewpoint that put down the Westerners as "beasts" has turned full circle. On the other hand, the traditional culture of the East has come to be regarded as a savage culture that "subjugated the people under the monarch." What triggered the sudden conceptual transition?
"Building a culture that can rear new citizens" became the urgent and foremost project to the awakened nation. "New Citizen" (sin'gungmin) meant citizen in the modern sense, distinguished from the mediaeval subjects of the monarch. The newly-coined term signified the postulation of an independent citizen of a nation state. Sin Chaeho once caused a great sensation by writing a long editorial titled The 20th Century's New Citizen in the Daehan Maeil Sinbo on the question of how to foster the development of new citizens. It was here that the cultural tradition of the old East was seen to "subjugate the people under the monarch," while the Western culture was accepted as a culture that "praises freedom and loves adventure," hence the aggressive adoption and learning of Western culture. The development of new citizens who could aptly respond to the coming 20th century was of course a critical issue at this point.
The need to implement widesweeping reform of the old civilization ― behind this unprecedented demand for civilization to be renovated actually lay the political aspirations of a nation state, though this was not a position that was explicitly demonstrated in the debates at the time. In what ways can a country of dynastic rule, which has persisted for over five thousand years and is soon to perish, transform itself? How can national systems be reconstructed to aptly resolve a crisis that has come at the hands of the worldwide imperialist invasion of the West and to ultimately win the autonomy of a sovereign state? Evidently, the course of history was pointing the way to a nation state; everyone preceptive of current circumstances, domestic and foreign, was fully aware of this. The 20th Century's New Citizen declares, "A country that is not a nation state (i.e., a country ruled by one or two persons, and not by a constitution) and that goes against the overriding trend of the world unavoidably turns to ruin."
The national crisis was already in a hopeless state. Moreover, reform and an open-door policy were not foolproof safeguards against ruin of the nation. Anxiety, on one hand, led to uncompromising "eye for an eye" type of struggles by uibyeong against foreign invasion, and the countermovement was justified by the cause of national independence. However, the majority supported the less combative Aeguk Gyemong Undong ("Patriotic Enlightenment Movement"). "After the formation of public opinion comes the enlightenment of the people," cried an "song of enlightenment," expressing the spirit of the times in a single line of verse.
The real question, at this point, was the issue of methodology. The author of "Culture and Military Power," mentioned above, takes into consideration the grafting of the "essence of foreign culture" onto "our unique merits," thereby combining the dominant characteristics of both cultures. In Damchong also mentioned above, a similar idea is manifest in the anticipation of the day "the halting old civilization withdraws and the brilliant new civilization diffuses its light." The combination of the dominant characteristics of East Asian tradition and Western civilization ― this was the basic direction of the civilization reformation proposed by the intellectuals of the modern enlightenment age.
However, this proposed methodology was insufficient in formulating common consent among reformers, and in actuality other logic prevailed. One was the logic of Christian modernization; the other, the logic of pro-Japanese modernization. The former asserted the need for religious conversion with a view to establish a conceptual foundation for the adoption of Western civilization; a modification of this was the idea of Confucian-Protestantism. According to the latter, i.e. the pro-Japanese logic, modernization could be effectively accomplished if only Koreans were to follow the successful example of Japan and even take direct guidance from the Japanese.
[9] "If the morality of the middle kingdom perishes, enemies and beasts will prevail. The thieves of the north (Qing) are, as barbarians at least worthy of being mentioned; the Westerners are beasts not even worthy of being mentioned." (Yi Hangno李恒老, Eorok 語錄, in Hwaseojip華西集, ("A Miscellany of Hwaseo's Writings"), vol. 3, appendix.)