Transcription
Hello. I am Ham Jae-bong, the director of the Korea Research Institute and currently writing a book series titled "Making Korean People." Today, I would like to talk about why I am writing the book "Making Korean People" and what its general content is.
When did we start being called Korean people? In our history of usually half a millennium, we have a common worldview, share values, and in the "Eastern Land of Courtesy," we also share etiquette and customs. Thus, we are a unified nation that shares many things. We all possess commonalities in everything. However, upon reflection, we don't call North Koreans "Korean people," nor do we call ourselves "Joseon people." I wondered how this came to be. So, what I was most curious about was, while I understand the term "Joseon people" existed for a long time, when did the term "Korean people" emerge? It's clearly not a word found in the Joseon Dynasty records.
After searching, the earliest I could find the term "Korean people" appearing in the media was in the Chosun Ilbo newspaper on September 22, 1962. In fact, during the Japanese colonial period, we were "Joseon people." We called ourselves "Joseon people" and the peninsula "Joseon Peninsula," and there was the Chosun Ilbo. However, the Hankook Ilbo only appeared in the 1960s, much later. So, it turns out that we started calling ourselves "Korean people" only about 60 years ago.
On the other hand, even if our appellations differ, wouldn't we still have the same etiquette, customs, language, philosophy, thought, ethics, and morals from our half-millennium history? Does speaking Korean well make you a Korean person? I don't think so. Why? Most second and third-generation overseas Koreans don't speak Korean well. Conversely, foreigners on Korean TV shows today speak Korean so well. If you close your eyes, you wouldn't even know if they are Korean or not, they speak such sophisticated Korean. Even British ambassadors here speak fluently in Korean. So, does speaking Korean well make you a Korean person? No.
Next, customs. I dare say there is no country with as chaotic customs as the Republic of Korea. How are weddings conducted now? People wear Western suits, then suddenly change into Hanbok midway, go into the *pyebaek* room, throw dates, and so on. But does throwing dates make it a Korean wedding? That's a Joseon-style wedding. We do it without even knowing the meaning. If a foreigner were to ask to see a Korean-style wedding, what would we show them? Nothing. What we do is something that can be seen in Japan and many other places. Customs and etiquette can no longer define a Korean person.
Ideology. Ideology is precisely where our nation is most divided. Our country is not just divided; it's split in half. Within that divided nation, we cannot even discuss politics or ideology. We can't even do it with our own families. Yet, people ask, "From which star did that person come to say such things?"
The commonality of Korean people, the DNA that all Korean people possess, something that only Korean people have, distinct from Japanese and Chinese people. I searched for the essence of Korean people, but found none. Or rather, I couldn't find it with my own abilities. Instead, I realized how remarkably diverse Korean people are. Not uniform and monolithic, but diverse in ideology, religion, language, and customs. It's impossible for 50 million people to be so diverse.
Therefore, I concluded that the question we should ask our history is not "What is the essence of a Korean person?" but "Why have Korean people become so exceptionally diverse?" It is from then that I began writing the book "Making Korean People."
The reason why the scholar-officials of the world reformed themselves. So, it becomes like this. Extremely diverse. When did this diversity begin? As I looked back at history, it was like this: there were definitely Joseon people. Through the 500 years of Joseon, the Joseon Dynasty completely created Joseon people. This is also a very interesting part: for example, from the Three Kingdoms period to Unified Silla and Goryeo, for a thousand years, the people living on the Korean Peninsula were Buddhists. Everyone was Buddhist. That's why over 90% of the historical sites remaining in our country are Buddhist. The Tripitaka Koreana, Bulguksa, all of them.
However, when the Joseon Dynasty was established in 1392, it introduced Confucianism, the ideology of Neo-Confucianism, and completely dismantled it. Through that process, through the "revolution from above" by people like King Sejong the Great, Goryeo people were transformed into Joseon people. But that Joseon eventually collapsed in 1910. The nation's sovereignty was taken by Japan. When it was taken, the country of Joseon ceased to exist. Therefore, they were no longer Joseon people. They were entering Japanese colonial rule.
However, when the country was lost in 1910, you might be shocked to hear this, but very few people mourned the fall of Joseon. How do we know this? Long before Joseon fell, for example, Catholicism entered Korea in 1784. The reason Catholicism entered was not because missionaries came. In Japan, Father Francis Xavier converted people in Kyushu in the 16th century, and in China, people like Matteo Ricci went to the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century and converted people. Not a single one came to Joseon.
However, in 1784, something happened: young scholars from prominent *sadaebu* families, after reading books like Matteo Ricci's "The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven," which came from China, thought, "This is a profound message. This is something we can accept." So, they gathered in secret in Tianjing, China, to read those books. Among them, Yi Byeok told his friend Yi Seung-hun, who was studying with him, "Your father is going to China as a diplomatic envoy. You should go with him." He said, "There are Catholic churches outside the Forbidden City, the Southern Catholic Church and the Northern Catholic Church. Go there and get baptized." So, Yi Seung-hun followed his father and actually went there and asked a priest for baptism, saying, "I am from Korea. Please baptize me."
These records all remain. They were reported to the Vatican and are still preserved. The Catholic Church has translated them, and these records are available for purchase anywhere. So, the priest said, "We haven't sent a single missionary to Joseon, yet a wonderful young man appears and asks for baptism. We can't just do it, so we taught him doctrine and gave him the baptismal name Peter." Thus, the Myeongdong community was formed, and Catholicism spread. In the history of evangelization, it is probably rare for people to convert to a religion by voluntarily traveling to a neighboring country without any missionaries being sent.
Why do I mention this? As I said, these were young scholars from prominent *sadaebu* families. If one's father could go to China as a diplomatic envoy to the Chinese Emperor, they were from distinguished families. What is *sadaebu*? They are the priests of Confucianism. In Confucianism, ancestral rites are performed. The most important religious event is ancestral rites. Who performs the ancestral rites? The *sadaebu* are the ritual masters. They are the priests of Neo-Confucianism, the priests of the state religion, Neo-Confucianism. Yet, these *sadaebu* abandoned it, traveled to a neighboring country without any missionaries being sent, accepted another religion, and even when the government began to persecute them, they steadfastly adhered to it. This is not like commoners or other oppressed classes in Joseon at the time, like women who were discriminated against, accepting a new religion. That would be understandable. These were the masters of the country. Their venturing out and embracing it meant that an awareness that Neo-Confucianism alone was insufficient was already spreading among the *sadaebu*. They knew that Confucianism alone wouldn't suffice. Even among the elite class, such movements led to the formation of the enlightenment faction, the introduction of Protestantism, and the rise of nationalism. All of this should be viewed in that context. It means that they realized, "Neo-Confucianism is no longer enough. Let's change. Let's try something else." These tremendous attempts occurred in the late Joseon period.
The reason why Koreans are so diverse. Ultimately, all of these attempts failed, and Joseon could not achieve modernization on its own strength, eventually losing its sovereignty. By the time sovereignty was lost, not only was the country lost, but most Joseon people abandoned Confucianism. Thus, they also abandoned Neo-Confucianism, which had sustained the spiritual world of Joseon people. So, they lost their country and rejected their own traditions. What does that leave? Nothing. The Republic of Korea began again from a completely blank slate. We not only lost our country but also rejected our traditions ourselves. That's what Joseon people did. This is not an unfounded statement; how can it be proven? The March 1st Movement.
The March 1st Movement occurred on March 1, 1919, during the funeral of King Gojong. People gathered on that day, and using that opportunity, they launched a 만세 (Manse) movement. What was the Manse movement? It was a movement to regain national sovereignty. To reclaim the lost country. 109 years ago, in 1910, it was forcibly annexed, and now, to reclaim our country and declare independence, they launched a movement to regain national sovereignty. However, among the leaders of the March 1st Movement, whether the 33 signatories or the 48 signatories, or the leaders of the Provisional Government, have you ever heard even one person say that the reason for this Manse movement was to restore Joseon? Not a single person. At the time of the March 1st Movement, the last emperor, Sunjong, was still alive. And the last crown prince, Prince Yeongchin, Yi Eun, Sunjong's half-brother, returned to Korea in 1964 and lived in Nakseonjae with his Japanese wife, Empress Consort Bangja, until his death in 1968. Empress Consort Bangja lived much longer.
So, how is it that only nine years after its fall, with the former emperor alive and the crown prince alive, not a single person suggested bringing them back to establish the country again? Not one person suggested restoring Joseon. This shows how much they disliked Joseon. They were sad about losing the country, truly resentful, and wanted to regain it. However, they saw Joseon as not the way.
This creates the biggest task for modern history. What is it? Sooner or later, national sovereignty will be regained. On the day national sovereignty is regained, what kind of country will be established? It won't be Joseon. It won't be a country of Neo-Confucianism and Confucianism. So, what kind of country will be established?
From then on, Joseon people went to places like Tokyo and Osaka in Japan to learn about enlightenment and reform, crossed over to the United States, converted to Christianity, organized and converted in places like Hawaii and San Francisco. They went to Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, and Moscow in Russia, and as the Soviet Union emerged, they also embraced communism, wondering what kind of country they would establish if they regained national sovereignty. They organized, gathered, published newspapers, and trained armies. They scattered across the world, and in 1945, liberation came. They all returned. In fact, liberation wasn't achieved by our own strength, was it?
Therefore, what happens? No one can take the lead. This is why the country is divided. In the authoritarian era, we said, "We are one," and thought, "We are one nation, the descendants of Dangun." But as we became freer, as freedom of thought was more readily exercised, and as we studied history in our own way, we realized, "We are so different." We are different emotionally, ideologically, and religiously. Someone's grandfather was active in Manchuria, someone else's grandfather was in Japan, someone's great-grandfather was in America, someone was in Russia, in the Soviet Union. We became different.
These people, coming together with great difficulty, are building the Republic of Korea. Therefore, I believe the Republic of Korea is more diverse than any other country in all aspects.
Five types of Korean people. Because of that, it is very dynamic, but on the other hand, there are serious internal conflicts. The problem is that we are unaware of the causes of these conflicts. Therefore, we must understand each other. I believe this diversity can be categorized into five types: pro-China, pro-Joseon, pro-Japan enlightenment, pro-America Christian, pro-Soviet communist, and ethnic nationalist.
Let's start with the pro-China, pro-Joseon faction. What does it mean to be Korean? It means respecting elders, speaking politely, having a clear hierarchy, and for educated Koreans, knowing many Chinese characters. And shame is considered noble. Isn't all of that Confucianism? It's Chinese. It's originally Chinese. Joseon, as "Little China," accepted it and maintained it. So, if you ask Koreans today if the Four Books and Five Classics are Chinese or Korean books, they'll say, "Well, they're not really distinguished." If you ask if Confucius was Korean or Chinese, they haven't really thought about it. They don't bother to distinguish.
Do you know about the battles of Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei at Changban Slope, and the Battle of Red Cliffs? Did these happen in Korea or China? They barely distinguish. How can you say you're Korean without knowing the Romance of the Three Kingdoms? So, deeply ingrained within us, there is still a strong presence of those who believe that we must maintain the Confucian civilization tradition, the Chinese-style civilization. That's why there are still hyanggyo (local Confucian schools), family genealogies, and ancestral rites performed according to Zhu Xi's teachings. This is one type of Korean person, and everyone has it.
Next is the pro-Japan enlightenment faction. People like Kim Ok-gyun and Park Yeong-hyo first went to Japan in 1880. After arriving in Japan, they saw how Japan, since 1868, had rapidly embraced Western civilization through the Meiji Restoration. They saw Westerners living and doing business there, and they were completely stunned. For the first time, Joseon people realized, "We always thought civilization came from China." That's how it was. We accepted Buddhism and Chinese characters from China and passed them on to Prince Shōtoku of Japan. So, China was the center of civilization, and the further away you got, especially to Japan, the more barbaric you became.
But when they went there, they saw Japan civilizing itself. And they realized that the "Western barbarians" they had tried to ward off, the Western Europeans like Britain and France, were the true civilization. Compared to them, China was completely barbaric. Their social hierarchy was a mess. From then on, for the first time as people living on the Korean Peninsula, their world was completely turned upside down. Japan was civilization, and this place was barbarism. They had to follow this. These are the enlightenment faction who underwent a truly 180-degree Copernican revolution. They quickly adopted Western things, and as they tried to imitate Japan, which was their model, I believe it was in the sense of following Japan. However, later on, there are also interpretations of truly pro-Japanese collaboration in a negative sense, but to be precise, there is the pro-Japan enlightenment faction, which aimed to make Japan their model.
Third is the introduction of Christianity. Protestantism. As I mentioned earlier, Catholicism was voluntarily adopted by Yi Seung-hun in 1782 or 1784. However, Protestantism came with Horace Allen, a missionary. In December 1884, during the Gapshin Coup, he saved Min Yeong-ik, King Gojong's nephew and a prominent figure of the time, who was almost killed by the enlightenment faction, including Kim Ok-gyun and Park Yeong-hyo. Because he was a doctor, he saved him. In gratitude, they asked what he wanted, and he requested the construction of a hospital. Thus, on April 10, 1885, Gwangon, the first hospital in Joseon, opened. Along with Underwood, Appenzeller, Scranton, and Allen himself, who were in Japan, they came and built hospitals and schools. Baejae, Soongsil, Ewha, Yonsei, all of them. In this way, Christianity began to take root. Currently, among past presidents, there are likely the most Protestant believers. And at night, when you fly over Gimpo Airport, looking out, you see so many red crosses. If foreigners ask, "Why is Christianity so strong here, unlike anywhere else in Asia?" we have to explain. It is one of our core aspects. It's not something Westerners did; it's a core part of Korean identity. Especially many Protestant believers strongly argue that Protestantism should be our religion. Thus, there is the pro-Christian faction.
The fourth is the pro-Soviet communist faction. In 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution occurred in Russia, the Tsarist regime collapsed, and the Soviet Union was born. The Soviet Union declared it would create a paradise for workers. However, Marxism and Leninism are anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist ideologies. For those who sought to achieve independence by fighting against capitalists and imperialists, whether they were Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, French, or British, there was no better ideology. For example, after World War I, at the Paris Peace Conference, they proposed the principle of national self-determination. Kim Kyu-sik was sent to the Paris Peace Conference to request independence, but they were all rejected. However, what did the Soviet Union do? They created the Comintern and, through Pak Chin-sun, provided significant funds to Yi Dong-hwi, enabling the establishment of the Korean Communist Party in 1921. What great power provided funds and organizational support? Thus, countless intellectuals turned to Marxism. While this wasn't unique to Korea, a strong communist root was established.
Finally, nationalism. This began in Britain and France. Simply put, after losing our country, we scattered across the world, our religions changed, our ideologies changed, we couldn't even speak the same language, and we couldn't understand each other. Yet, we are one. What is it? It's blood. That's why nationalism plays such a strong role. That's why France was unified, even though people from Brittany and Normandy couldn't understand each other. It was unified under the name of France, as Napoleon did. Germany, which was divided, was unified by Bismarck in 1870 under the name of Germany. So, it's about unifying various nations under a larger name like Germany, Britain, or France. In that sense, nationalism began to emerge. In 1908, Shin Chae-ho wrote "Doksa Sinron" (New History of the East), and in its preface, he wrote: "To write the history of a nation, one must choose a single tribe that becomes the subject of that history and write about the rise and fall of that tribe. That is history. History that is not so is not history." So, what tribe are we? He then wrote: "There are six tribes in Asia, but we are the Buyeo tribe." Thus, rewriting history from the perspective of the Buyeo tribe is nationalist historiography.
In my view, there are about five such categories within us. And it's not that a single person belongs to only one. Nowadays, like the MBTI that young people like, within me there is nationalism, and within me there is Confucianism, but the proportion differs from person to person. However, Korean people now share these things, and although the proportions differ, they emerge depending on the situation. Internally, of course, there are conflicts, conflicts within a family, conflicts among classmates, conflicts among regions, but they all exist within us. Therefore, we must understand where each of these came from, what they advocate, how they were introduced, and in what form they remain today. Only then can we understand why we are so different, why we have so many conflicts, and why we are divided. On the other hand, why do we seem to unite, yet why are we like this? We can reveal this, and I believe uncovering this is the task of our history.
This is all I have prepared. There is much more detailed content in the book, so please refer to the book as well. If there is an opportunity, I will visit you again. Thank you for watching so far.