Declaring humanism in Korea

The ideology of “in-nae-cheon,” meaning man is heaven, spread in the Korean Peninsula some 150 years ago, sparking change in the strictly class-divided nation of Joseon. The new idea championing equality among men was welcomed by ordinary people and farmers who dreamed of new world order. But the Joseon royal court punished Donghak’s founder Choe Je-U for violating the law and disrupting social order. Does his call for abolishing Joseon’s feudal hierarchy still valid today?

Establishing Donghak to save the world

Choe Je-U was born in Gyeongju in southeastern Korea on December 18th, 1824. His birth was in itself fraught with unfairness and prejudice. Although he was the only son of his father, Choe Ok, begotten when the older Choe was 63 years old, the younger Choe was born of a concubine, thus barred from having any public or government job. Unfortunately, his earlier years did not live up to his childhood name Bok-sul, meaning full of happiness, because his mother died when he was only six and his father when he was 18.

That is when Choe started his life on the road. Having learned life’s lessons through various experiences, he saw the problems of Joseon society at the time and sought out solutions. He attempted to reach some understanding of the world by staying at famous Buddhist temples, but he eventually returned to his hometown of Gyeongju in 1859 and changed his name to Je-U, meaning saving the ignorant people. In the following year he established Donghak.

Donghak’s appeal to the people

At the time Joseon was threatened by outside forces to open up the hermit kingdom. Choe named his philosophy Donghak (Eastern learning) to oppose Catholicism, called Seohak (Western learning). Donghak was also called Cheondo-gyo to indicate its purpose, inheriting the tao of heaven.

Joseon’s governing philosophy neo-Confucianism lost its validity when corruption and abuse of power became rampant among the nobles and feudal lords. But Choe provided a new direction in the 19th century Joseon by presenting an idea of equality to the people, arguing that all men are fundamentally the same because men have received their spirits from heaven. Donghak championing equality and anti-discrimination was quite appealing to the people suffering from corruption, poverty, and injustice.

Donghak spread quickly among the common people in Gyeongsang and Chungcheong provinces. In order to organize its followers, Choe established Donghak communities and appointed 16 community leaders in December 1862. However, the time was not ripe for his revolutionary ideas.

His legacy lives on

As Donghak spread farther and gained force, the Confucian scholars with their social status hanging in the balance began to denounce Donghak for misleading the uneducated masses. The Joseon government arrested Choe in 1962 for disrupting the society with malicious ideas and executed him two years later.

However, the force of Donghak did not wane at the death of its founder. Instead, Donghak’s second leader Choi Si-hyeong and his followers launched a movement in the 1890s to have Donghak accepted as a legitimate religion. This petition fueled a farmers’ uprising in Jeolla Province in 1894. The rebellion was stamped down by the ruling class, but Donghak survived and was renamed as Cheondo-gyo by its third leader Sohn Byeong-hee in 1905. Cheondo-gyo followers eventually played an instrumental part in the March 1st civil protest against the Japanese colonial rule in 1919.

Born some 150 years ago, the indigenous religion of Donghak was a proclamation of humanism made toward a society fraught with discrimination and inequality and Choe’s teaching of humanism and equality still resonates in people’s hearts.