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Purchased by the Hammill Missior.ary Fund.
Division
Section
Number.
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A Mountain Pavilion.
sec 11,027.
Every-Day Life in Korea
A Collection of Studies and Stories
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By Rev. Daniel L. Gifford
Eight Years a Missionary in Korea
Fleming H. Revell Company
Chicago : New York : Toronto
Publishers of Evangelical Literature
Copyright, 1898, by Fleming H. Revell Company
PREFACE
The author has had in mind a number of classes of readers in the preparation of this book ; among others, business men, fond of facts in a compact form, ladies in the missionary societies, ever alert to add to their fund of missionary information, and another class still, found in the young people's societies, who enjoy information presented in a pictorial or narrative form. We all are fond of hearing of things that have a human interest; and we like to know how other people live their lives and do their work in the world, especially if their experiences and environments are quite dif- ferent from our own. The pages that follow may be characterized, in the main, as a series of pictures of life in Korea — life in the olden time, as history has presented it; modern, every-day life, as the Westerner living among an Oriental people sees it ; life as it is affected by the work of the Christian missionary; and, finally, the life of the missionary himself. The author acknowledges his indebtedness for much of suggestion and material to the writings of others who have dealt with things Korean — "Corea, the Hermit Nation, " by Rev. W. E. Griffis, D.D. ; "Korea from its Capital," by Rev. George W. Gilmore; "Korea and her Neighbors, ' ' by Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop ;
8 PREFACE
the "Encyclopedia of Missions;" the "Seoul In- dependent;" the "Korean Repository."
In one respect, however, this book will be ob- served to differ from all the other volumes upon Korea that have preceded it, and that is in the proportion of its pages devoted to a presentation of the missionary work of the land. Here it will be found that the work has been traced historic- ally from its beginnings, its many-sided develop- ment fully portrayed, with a chapter at the close on that glorious, evangelistic, forward movement now in progress in the country, the spread of which continually reminds the workers on the field that in a very peculiar manner they are "laborers together with God."
DANIEL L. GIFFORD. Mendota, III., Nov., 1897.
CONTENTS.
I. Where Is Korea? . . . . 1 1
II. A Historical Vitascope, . . . . 24
III. How the People Live, ... 46
IV. A Wedding in Korea, . . . * 7^ V. Guilds and Other Associations, . . 76
VI. Ancestral Worship as Practiced in Korea, . 88
VII. A Visit to a Famous Mountain, . . 99
VIII. The Fear of Demons, . . . . 106
IX. An Adventure on the Han River, . . 118
X. Leaves of Mission History, . . .128
XI. Missionary Life and Work, . . . 136
XII. What the Gospel Did for One Man, . . 163
XIII, Education in the Capital, . . . 170
XIV. Building of the West Gate Church, . . 195 XV. A Remarkable Forward Movement, . 207
Appendix A, . . . 230 Appendix B, . . . ,231
Every-day Life in Korea
CHAPTER I
WHERE IS KOREA?
A friend and myself, returning to America after our first term of missionary service in Korea, sat one Saturday evening in the office of a hotel in Salt Lake City. In signing the hotel register an hour previous, we had each of us written in the column intended for addresses, simply the word designating the country from which we had so recently arrived. A thoughtful look came over my companion's face, and presently he remarked as we sat there: "I think we made a mistake in signing that hotel register. The clerk will not know where Korea is; will think that we have given a false address and will become suspicious of us, under the impression that we are trying to swindle the hotel. " A moment later I glanced toward the desk and, sure enough, the fore- finger of the clerk was gently waving to and fro unmistakably in our direction. A moment later I stood at the desk. "Korea, Korea" (in a
12 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
tone of soliloquy), "where is Korea?" I answered, "You surely must know where Korea is — the scene of the late war in the Far East." "Oh," was his reply, "I never before saw it spelled with a K. " He smiled, and evidently his mind was relieved. Allow me to remark, paren- thetically, that the up-to-date spelling of the name of the countr}^ followed by all who reside there, is K-o-r-e-a, with a "K." With all the gratuitous advertising given the country by the comparatively recent Chino-Japanese war, it is a matter of surprise that so many people at home persist in thinking of Korea as an "island" located somewhere "in the tropics." In view of this fact a brief study of the geography of the country may not be out of place in this opening chapter.
Directly west from the crescent-shaped Hondo, the largest of the islands of Japan, lies the long and narrow peninsula of Korea. With no very great strain upon the imagination one may see, in the contour of the country, the resemblance to a rabbit sitting erect. If, too, we may take for our conception of the modest little animal, Joel Chandler Harris' portrait of "Br'er Rabbit," in his fascinating animal tales, the analogy may likewise hold true of the character of the people, who, in the main, are mild-mannered, interesting, keen of intellect and bright, especially in the arts of deception. "Br'er Rabbit he lay low."
Draw a line from Milwaukee to Atlanta, and you have about the range of the latitude of the
WHERE IS KOREA? 13
country; viz., from abovit 34 to 43 degrees north latitude. But as the far north of the country is prodigiously mountainous and but little popu- lated, it is well to associate the relative position of Korea on the map with the Ohio valley, plus Tennessee. Seoul (pronounced by many Sah- oul), the capital, in every way the most important city of the peninsula, containing perhaps 200,000 people, is in the same latitude, as Mr. Gilmore suggests, as the city of Richmond, Virginia. So it will be seen that Korea and the tropics are a long way apart, if tigers do exist there. In the absence of statistical bureaus, such as are found in western lands, it is impossible to lay claim to scientific accuracy in speaking of the size of the country; but Korea with its islands has probably an area of ninety thousand square miles, equiva- lent to that of the states of New York and Pennsylvania combined.
Probably twelve million people are scattered through the valleys of the Hermit Kingdom.
The visitor to Korea journeys, as does almost everyone, by a Japanese steamer of the Nippon Yusen Kaishia line, from Nagasaki, Japan, which first touches at the southeastern port of Korea — Fusan. Thence to Chemulpo, the seaport of Seoul, half-way up the western coast, the steamer threads its way through a profusion of islands, washed by dangerous currents. Off the south and west coasts of Korea lie thousands of islands, whose waters teem with fish. Indeed, one of the
14 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
titles of the King- of Korea is "Lord of the Ten Thousand Islands." These islands are mostly mountainous, many of them sheer rocks, while others are covered with vegetation. The largest of these is Quelpart, the "Botany Bay" of Korea, and probably the best known is "Port Hamilton," at one time an English possession. Along the eastern coast, it is worthy of remark, islands are exceedingly rare. Hon. C. Waeber, the former Russian minister, in his admirable paper on the meteorology of Korea, speaks of the cold Arctic current flowing down the eastern coast of the country; but the southern and western coasts are washed by the same Yellow Sea which laves the shore of northern China, and the waters off these two coasts feel the influence of one of the three branches of the warm Japanese Current, which corresponds to the Gulf Stream flowing in the Atlantic Ocean.
The coast is rather bleak and forbidding, giv- ing but little idea of the fine scenery existing in the interior. Frequent inlets break the coast line, especially on the west and south sides of the country, in the smaller of which at one time of the day may be seen a broad sheet of dancing water, with boats laden with brush and rice, flitting hither and thither; but seen at a later hour, a transformation has taken place and the eye rests on dreary mud-flats, with a junk here and there standing high and dry on the plain, or resting in the channel of a very modest creek.
WHERE IS KOREA? 15
Crab-holes are much in evidence. Wading-birds utter their sharp cries, and yonder the smoke curls from the rude hut of the salt-refiner. This transformation scene has been wrought by the tide, which rises along these coasts, somewhat as it does in the Bay of Fundy, to an average height of twenty-six feet. On the eastern coast, be it noted in contrast, there is a rise and fall in the tide of a very few feet only. The interior of the country is a perfect checker-board of inountains ; for, in traveling from one end of the land to the other, a person is never out of their sight. The mountains are chiefly composed of gneiss, various schists and granite, which in the lower peaks and hilltops are mostly in a disintegrated form. The soil of mountain and valley is generally yellow in color, but certain of the peaks are black, as are some of the river plains. These picturesque mountains, of every shape and size, are frequently verdureless, with many a furrow cut into their surface by the heavy rainfall of the summer. Others are covered wholly or in part with pine shrubs or trees, as well as grass and bushes of the magenta-hued azalea. The only snow-capped peaks, to my knowledge, are found in the Ever- White Mountains, upon the northern frontier. A high ridge of mountains traverses the peninsula somewhat close to the eastern coast, forming a watershed with a short slope to the east and a long slope to the west, between it and the par- tially enveloping sea. From this range lateral
i6 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
spurs run out. The influence of this range upon the country is seen in the fact that, with the exception of the two southeastern provinces (pro- duced by the range veering over more toward the middle of the country, as it nears the south, in latitude 37 degrees), most of the larger rivers and the bulk of the population are to be found on the western side of the peninsula. This illustration I have heard used : The distribution of the popu- lation of Korea may be compared to an open fan, with the handle to the east and the slats project- ing toward the Yellow Sea, the first in order being the southeast provinces of North and South Kyeng Sang.
The most important stream is the Yahi River, off whose mouth occurred the one important naval engagement in the recent war. This river, together with the Tumen River and the Ever- White Mountains, forms the northern boundary of Korea, between China on the north and the territory of Russia on the northeast. Other important rivers there are, which, however, do not compare in length with the one first men- tioned— the Tatong River, in the north, upon which the city of Pyeng-yang (pronounced Ping- yang) is located; further south the Plan River, which bends around the cit}'" of Seoul ; and still further south the Keum River, all of which are on the west side of the peninsula. In the south- east of Korea, also worthy of mention, is the Nak- tong River. The treaty ports of Korea consist of
WHERE IS KOREA? 17
Seoul, Chemulpo, and Fusan, already mentioned, and Gensan on the eastern coast. Two new ports have been opened this autumn — one at Mokpo in the southwest, the other at Chinampo, the sea- port of Pyeng-yang.
Korea, for many centuries, consisted of eight provinces, but about a year ago, for administrative purposes, five of the largest were cut in two, mak- ing a total of thirteen provinces. The historical eight, with their subdivisions, are located as fol- lows: In the northeast are the provinces of North and South Ham Kyeng; in the northwest are North and South Pyeng An ; below them, in the western central portion, lies Whang Hai, then Kyeng Kui, then North and South Choung Chong; in the eastern middle part is Kang Won; in the southeast lie North and South Kyeng Sang; and in the southwest are North and South Chulla.
The remark upon the country which seems to call forth the greatest surprise at home is, that in the winter time I frequently have seen oxen, each laden with a couple of great bags of rice, walking across the Han River, near Seoul, upon the ice.
Further than this, now and again, when taking a Saturday afternoon half-holiday skating upon the same river, I have seen a hundred men and boys at a time grouped on the ice, half of them standing about with their long-stemmed pipes, the other half seated upon little hand-
i8 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
sleds, each beside a small square hole in the ice and in his hands a square-framed reel, with which he worked up and down a heavily weighted three- pronged troUing-hook, in the water below. Their success in fishing, it may be mentioned, seemed to be rather similar to that of the major- ity of men who invest in lottery tickets. But the point to be noted is that the ice was frozen to such a thickness that, with a hundred or more men massed in one spot, it neither broke nor cracked. Winter settles down by the middle of December. In the central and southern parts of the country the thermometer ranges down to zero; farther north, in the vicinity of Pyeng-yang, the mercury has been known to fall as low as fifteen degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. What the cold lacks in thermometer readings it seems to make up in a certain penetrating quality. In the neighborhood of Seoul there is an occasional snow- fall of perhaps six inches. By the middle of February the weather begins to moderate, and by the middle of the following month the farmers are mending the banks of the rice fields and beginning their spring work. The spring and fall in Korea are long and delightful, with any num- ber of beautiful clear days. But what shall I say of the rainy season of midsummer?
Think of the fall of rain in the heaviest summer storm at home, and that is the Vv^ay it will pour for half a day at a time. There will be clouds with recurring showers for one or two weeks.
WHERE IS KOREA? 19
Tiled roofs begin to leak. Here a mud wall, there the thatched roof of some poor Korean, falls with a crash. Streets and drains are washed as clean as in Philadelphia. Clothes and trunks grow moldy. Shoes removed at night are covered with green in the morning. You seem to grow moldy yourself. The entire system becomes relaxed, and great care needs to be exercised in the selection of food and drink. Then, when one's powers of resistance seem almost exhausted, the sun bursts forth with mid-summer force, and the thermometer ranges up to a limit of perhaps 90 degrees, Fahrenheit. Everything goes out upon the line to dry. One's spirits revive. Ungainly pith hats come oiit, for the westerner in Korea, as in so many other localities in the Orient, must protect the head against the direct rays of the sun. Mos- qiiitoes and bull-frogs make the nights melodious; then, after a few days of glorious sunshine, the rains commence again. The rainy season proper begins with July ist and ends the 15th of August; but not infrequently it lasts from late June to early September, a period of three months. At its close quinine becomes a table relish to ward off malaria.
But if the rainy season is trying, it would be a national calamity to be without it, for the rice ponds, to which the nation looks for the main staple in its year's supply of food, are carefully banked and terraced so as to drain from one into the other, and wait for the poured-out blessing of
20 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
rain to bring the golden harvest. If the Koreans could not live without rice, quite as little could they do without rice straw. With it the common people prepare the feed for their stock, thatch their roofs, make their sandals, braid ropes, weave cables for the anchors of their junks, make sails and the mats for their floors, tie up their strings of ten eggs each, and make the sprawling images of men filled with small coin which they throw upon the roadside the fifteenth day of the first moon of the year to carry away their ill-luck. Korean rice is of a good quality, and much of it is shipped to Japan. When the rice supply grows scanty, in the late spring, the country people boil barley in its stead for their main food staple. Millet is similarly used in some localities. Wheat is used almost exclusively in making liquor. From buckwheat they make a kind of vermicelli, out of which they prepare a dish called "cook- su, " of which foreigners are very fond. Beans are used for food — put sparingly into the rice kettles, or decomposed for a peppery sauce which furnishes one of their side dishes. Again, they are mixed with chopped straw and boiled in water, forming a hot mixture that is the sole food of the cattle and horses of Korea. Beans are also an article of export. A species of turnip or enormous white radish called "mu" is used in a sliced form for another of the side dishes which they eat with their rice. Another product is the "paichu, " a species of cabbage shaped
WHERE IS KOREA? 21
something like a nubbin of corn. This, with the red pepper — which, spread out to dry in the fall on the farmer's thatched roof, adds such a touch of color to the rural scenery — is used with other ingredients for making a species of sauerkraut, of which the Koreans are fond. Most Korean side dishes, I may remark, are seasoned very highly with either salt or red pepper, or cooked with vegetable oil. Ginger, onions and lettuce are grown in their gardens. There is a very limited production of potatoes. Tobacco is raised in large quantities. Broom corn and hemp are also cultivated. Cotton also grows in their fields. It may be mentioned parenthetically that most of the clothing worn by Koreans is made out of cot- ton cloth, part of which is native and part the product of the looms of Osaka and Manchester. Silk goods are also woven, for which industry the mulberry tree and the silkworm are cultivated. The ginseng root, so highly prized as a medicine in China, is grown as a government monopoly. Korea is essentially an agricultural country, with methods of cultivation that are crude, yet effect- ive. The farmers all live in villages. Large tracts of land lie unfilled.
There is considerable mineral wealth in the country. Iron in the forms of limonite and magnetic ore is profitably mined. An excellent quality of anthracite coal comes from the vicinity of Pyeng-yang. Tin, copper, lead and silver mines exist. Gold in considerable quantities is
22 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
carried out of the country each year, part of which sees the custom-house, and probably as much more which does not is exported to China and Japan. One hundred miles north from Pyeng-yang, at Unsan, gold is being mined by an American syndicate, which also has under construction the first railroad to be built in Korea, which will run from Chemulpo to Seoul.
In the matter of fruits there is first a woody pear, which reminds me of the remark of my lamented friend Ritchie, of China, in speaking of similar fruit in that country: "It all depends on what you are eating it for. If you are eating it for a turnip, it is very good." There are musk- melons, apricots, nectarines, grapes, a small red cherry that grows on a bush, scrubby apples, luscious persimmons and excellent chestnuts and walnuts. The Koreans have fine-looking cattle which they use, bullocks and cows alike, for working in the fields, carrying loads and dragging great clumsy carts. Cowhide is an article of export. Koreans never think of drinking milk, and express great disrelish for the taste of but- ter. The average Korean is too poor to eat beef and pork with any regularity, and in their stead he eats various varieties of fish, and, though he is slow to admit it to the foreigner, he occasionally roasts his dog. A few sheep exist, which are reserved as sacred animals for royal sacrifice to Hananim, on special occasions, such as a drouth.
The Korean pony is small, sure-footed, pos-
WHERE IS KOREA? 23
sessed of great endurance, but frequently vicious. It is used as a beast of burden, and shares with the aristocrat's donkey the honor of use under the saddle. For an appreciative description of the Korean pony I commend you to Rev. J. S. Gale's sketch in the Korean Repository.
Every house keeps a wolfish or currish dog, brave to a faiilt — in barking. Cats exist and razor-backed pigs. There are also rats, mice, and weasels. If one knows where to go, where mountains are many and men are few, tigers, leopards, foxes, wild boar, and deer can be found in the country. Saucy magpies, screaming kites, inky crows and armies of sparrows are to be seen everywhere. In the country may be heard the cuckoo's and the wild pigeon's notes ; and the lark pours forth his melody. The stately stork and crane swoop over the rice fields. Falcons and eagles are seen rarely. Many a pheasant starts up from beside the country road, resplendent in the gorgeous plumage that finds a faint reflection in the markings of the barn-yard fowls, so plenti- ful in Korea. Near the seashore a tree top is visible now and then, filled with the nests of the noisy blue heron. The graceful swan is seen occasionally; and wild ducks and geese abound, plentiful enough to stir the huntsman's heart.
This sketchy view of the nature of the country and its products may serve as a canvas upon which we may throw, in the pages that follow, our pictures of life in Korea.
CHAPTER II
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE
As the beginnings of Grecian history are inex- tricably intertwined with the loves and jealousies of the gods, and English history has its early legends of the marvels of King Arthur's court, so the history of Korea is sufficiently old to lose itself in mythical traditions. Mj^stery has always enveloped the Ever-White Mountains on the northern frontier of the land. The people in the olden time, according to tradition, lived without a ruler, until a deity descended from heaven and made his home at the foot of a sandal-tree upon the Ever-White Mountains. The people, recog- nizing his superiority, made him their king and called him Dan-Kun, or the "Sandal Prince." He made his earliest home in Pyeng-yang, where to this day there is a temple to his honor, and his descendants are said to have reigned for a thou- sand years. However, Chinese and Korean tra- dition alike affirm that a being somewhat more authentic, the Chinese noble, Keja, was the founder of the social order of Korea. Keja lived in the days of the wicked emperor Chow Sin, the "Nero of China." He was one of three wise counselors who met with the usual fate of the
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE 25
givers of good advice to wicked kings. One was killed, one had to flee, and the third was locked up in prison, the last-mentioned being Keja. But a usurper rid the country of the tyrant, and him- self ascended the throne. The new king would gladly have given to Keja the highest office in the state, but the latter seems to have had as painful a conscience as any non-juring rector in the days of King William of Orange ; and he declared that his duty to the dead king forbade him taking office under one whom he considered a usurper. Another case, 5^ou see, of the "divine right of kings. " The upshot of the matter was that Keja, gathering together a band of several thousand retainers, the remnants of the defeated army, in the year 1122 B. C, while Samuel was still a judge at the other end of the continent, went into voluntary exile and settled among the aborigines of Korea. He gave to his kingdom the name of Chosen, which, be it noted, is the modern native name for Korea. He vigorously carried forward the work, said to have been begun by the myth- ical Dan Kun, of giving to the country a civiliza- tion such as he had known in China, his sphere of influence being Southern Manchuria and Northern Korea, between the rivers Liao and Tatong. The city of Pyeng-yang is said to contain his grave ; and in two of the largest cities of the country, Pyeng-yang in the north and Chun- ju in the south, I have seen large temples that were erected in his honor. Tradition also states that the
26 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
descendants of Keja reigned as kings over what has been known as Ancient Chosen.
The historical muse now apparently suffered from a long lapse of memory; for it is not until some two hundred years before Christ that the narrative is resumed. Tradition from this period is replaced by a detailed record. Of Korea's ancient history I shall give, in the briefest manner only, an outline of important events and changes that have been made in the map. These are culled from the many scores of pages in which Dr. W. E. Griffis, with infinite research, has chronicled in his "Corea, the Hermit Nation," the history of the country until the era of the treaties, some fifteen years ago. The central location of Korea, a peacefully inclined country with warlike nations to the west, north and east, has made its history largely a record of invasions from China, Mongolia, and Japan. The invaders would come on their conquering career, and the people would bend for a time like forest trees before the storm. But, the pressure being removed, they would resume their national life.; a nominal tribute would be paid for a term of years, then after a time they would forget they ever had been conquered, when another tidal wave of war would pour over them from without.
The Koreans never have shown great valor in the fighting of pitched battles, but it has been rather in irregular warfare and as garrison fight- ers that they have been most successful. It
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE 27
was about 107 B. C. that Ancient Chosen, in which was embraced the four northern provinces of Korea, North and South Pyeng An and North and South Ham Kyeng, finally fell before the armies of the Han dynasty, and for a century or two came under the sway of China.
The destinies of these northern sections of Korea were presently to become affected by the incoming of a people from still farther north. The Fuyu race had their home in northern Man- churia, near the Sungari River. In comparison with the surrounding peoples they had a singu- larly high order of civilization. From Fuyu migrated southward what became the Kokorio tribes, whose seat was to the north and west of the headwaters of the Yalu, near the Ever-White Mountains. About 70 A. D. they began to enlarge their borders till they absorbed the north of Korea and came into collision with the Chinese, whose power they displaced as far as the limits of Liao Tung, in Manchuria, which was known thereafter as the country of Korio. They sustained, until the seventh century, a fitful warfare with the Chinese, who had troubles in their own land, so that, although they sent an occasional invading army, they could never give the contin- uous attention to these eastern tribes which was needed in order to subdue them.
Let us consider next the early history of Southern Korea, which for present purposes we may consider to be all the territory lying south of the Tatong
28 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
River. At tlie time Ancient Chosen was absorbed into China, in 107 B. C, all Southern Korea was divided into three Han or geographical divisions, the Mahan in the western central part, the Ben- han in the south, and the Shinhan in the eastern central portion of the peninsula. These were loosely joined confederacies of aboriginal tribes, with spirit worship for their only religion, and with a rather low grade of civilization, though it should be mentioned that relatively the Shinhan people were of a much higher order, for they lived in palisaded cities and had already learned the art of weaving silk and working iron. It is stated that in the first century A. D. works of skill and art were sent from here to the Mikado of Japan which were greatly superior to anything produced in the Island Empire of that day. Probably the secret of their advanced state is that refugees from China had settled in their midst. But certain political changes are to be noted. Kijun, a king deposed in old Chosen, fled southward, and among the Mahan tribes set up what is known among the Koreans as the Pakje, and among the Japanese writers as the Hiaksai Kingdom. The name Shinhan became changed to the Silla King- dom.
Inter-tribal war was of frequent occurrence, and presently the map of all Korea would need readjustment as follows: There are now three kingdoms — Korio in the north, Silla in the south- east and Pakje in the southwest of the peninsula.
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE 29
We are now in the epoch of the three kingdoms. The kingdom of Pakje presently became the lead- ing state. Here, in 374 A. D., the writings of Confucius and Mencius first entered the peninsula from China. A decade later Buddhism likewise established itself in Pakje. In the following century the men of Pakje, having defeated an invading aimy from China, their independence was virtually recognized by the emperor. About 660, in the course of their internal warfare, Silla appealed to China for aid, which was granted, and as the result of the war Pakje became absorbed into China. But presently they were again in arms, and invoked the aid of Japan against Silla. The Japanese sent a fleet, which, however, was surprised and sunk by the allied armies of China and Silla, with the result that the kingdom of Pakje was utterly laid waste. Large bodies of the people of Pakje, about 700 A. D., emigrated to Japan, introducing, it is supposed, the study of the writings of Gautama and of the great sage of China. Let us turn once more to the kingdom of Korio in the north. The government of Korio was feudal, with great nobles almost as powerful as the king. In 641 one of these murdered the king and seized the throne. The Chinese emperor acknowledged his sover- eignty, but ordered him to cease the invasion of Silla, China's ally. He refused and a great invad- ing army came by sea and land from China. By the splendid defense of the city of An-ju the men
30 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
of Korioheld their own till the Chinese, from lack of provisions, had to withdraw, and, like the fate of Napoleon's army in the Moscow campaign, thousands of Chinese soldiers died in the winter retreat. In 664, however, another invasion was more successful, and the kingdom of Korio dis- appeared from the map.
Let us turn our attention next to the kingdom of Silla. The island of Kiushiu, upon which is located the modern city of Nagasaki, brought this kingdom into early collision with Japan; for settlers from Silla came to believe that they owned the island, which opinion was disputed by the men of the dominant Yamato tribe, living in the vicinity of Kioto. The result was that in 200 A. D, the Japanese, under Queen Jingu, marched to suppress the so-called Kiushiu "rebels." Being convinced that the root of the trouble lay in the peninsula, the queen crossed with her army to the mainland, overran without resistance the kingdom of Silla, and returned to Japan with rich tribute. From this time may be said to have origi- nated the claim of Japan, so similar to that of China, that Korea was their tributary country.
Intermittent war was waged between the inen of Silla and the allied forces of Pakje and Korio down to the tenth century, in which occasionally the Japanese would assist Pakje, or the Chinese would be allied with Silla, or the nations north of the peninsula would help Korio. Buddhism, introduced into the kingdom in 528, steadily
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE 31
grew to be the prevailing religion. One of the ablest scholars of Silla is credited with the invention of the admirable native alphabet, to be mentioned later. Kiong-ju, the capital of the kino-dom, developed into a city of great relative material splendor and a center of learning and refinement whose influence was felt, not only throughout all Korea, but as far as the court of Japan, teaching the arts of peace. Politically, Silla finally came to rule the entire eastern half of the peninsula, until, as the last of the three kingdoms, she fell, in 934, to give place to united Korea.
In speaking now of united Korea, we need to notice that sometime in the ninth century, race movements north of the Tumen River brought into Northern Korea large numbers of emigrants, who soon grew prosperous. Out of these people a Buddhist monk named Kung-wo, in 912, raised an army under the flag of rebellion; but he was presently killed and succeeded by his lieutenant, Wang, a descendant of the old royal house of Kprio. China was at that time occupied with wars at home. Moreover, the government of Silla, the one remaining kingdom, had grown decrepit. Thus Wang had everything his own way and a very few years suflficed to bring the entire peninsula under his sway. He chose for the site of his capital the city of Song-do, also known as Kai-seng, some sixty miles northwest of Seoul. Here his descendants reifrned for four hundred
32 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
years. For convenience we may think of this period of history as the era of the Song-do dynasty. The kingdom took the name of Korio. This was the golden age of Korean Buddhism. Wang's son and successor speedily formed an alliance with China, and sent her tribute. One hundred years before the time of Gutenberg the Koreans were printing books from wooden blocks, whence the art was introduced into Japan.
Genghis Khan, the Alexander of the Orient, who with his Mongol hard riders conquered nearly the whole of Asia, sent one of his three armies to conquer Korea and Japan. In 1218 the Korean king declared himself the vassal of the great Mongol chief. A few years later a Mongol envoy was murdered in Korea. In answer, an invading army came, which divided the country under Mongol prefects. The people, as soon as they dared, rose and murdered them all. Then they were invaded in earnest, and, among other exactions, the Korean king was required to do homage in person at the conqueror's court. For several decades, though always turbulent, the Koreans were held under Mongol rule. Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis, in 1281 forced the Koreans to assist in an unsuccessful invasion of Japan. Their presence among the invaders helped to intensify the hatred between the penin- sular kingdom and the island empire. From this time, for two or three centuries, the Japanese central government being weakened through the
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE
33
prevalence of civil wars, Japanese pirates were abundant, who drove Korean j unks from the seas and made the life of coast dwellers miserable. This did not improve the state of feeling in Korea.
In 1392 there was a change of dynasties which brought to the front the Ye dynasty, now on the throne of Korea, though the direct line came to an end in 1864. The name of the country was also changed from Korio to the ancient term, Chosen. The Wang dynasty had greatly degen- erated, and a tyrant was on the throne. Ye Taijo, a military officer, had risen to be the head of the army and had become the king's son-in- law. Korea for some time had neglected to send tribute to the Mongol ruler on the Dragon throne. The Mongols had made a half-hearted effort to again subdue Korea, but the troops under Ye Taijo repelled them. And now a Ming emperor was on the throne of China, who demanded pledges of vassalage, which the king, against the wishes of his people, refused to send. As Korea was about to be overwhelmed by the Ming veter- ans. Ye Taijo seized the reins of power, deposed the king and made his peace with the emperor. With Ye Taijo began the new dynasty, whose capital city was changed to its present location at Seoul. The dress and top-knot of the Ming era of China was at that time adopted in Korea, and continues in vogue to this day.
Tribute was sent to China and at first to Japan, though later it was discontinued. Japanese pirates,
/
34 EVEKY-DAY LITE IN KOPvEA
with Korean renegades for pilots, still harassed the coasts of Korea. But within the peninsula life grew easy. The people traded and tilled the fields. The officials and the military officers led a life of pleasure, and war was the last thing in the world for which they were prepared. Like a summer holiday, the time glided by imtil the close of the sixteenth century. Then came the two terrible Japanese invasions, like the sweep of a great tidal wave, leaving death and ruin behind them and the memory of dreadful deeds. In 1585 a master general, Hidcyoshi, had arisen in Japan, where for two centuries anarchy had reigned. His conquering hosts had brought the entire group of islands under the Mikado's feudal rule, and now waited on their arms for new foes to conquer. He had been given the highest rank attainable by a subject, and he was incensed that the Koreans, whom he regarded a tributary people, had failed to send their greetings with those of other vassals. He sent as envoy a tactless old warrior, to inquire why tribute of late years had ceased to be sent. His mission was a failure, and the old man lost his life on his return. Another envoy was more successful, and he returaed with a tribute-bearing embassy from Korea. These, after a long delay, were granted an interview by Hideyoshi, and later he sent them, together with various presents, an insolent reply addressed to their king. He also sent asking the rulers of Korea to help them renew peaceful rela-
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE 35
tions with China, which the pirates had disturbed. The reply from Korea was naturally unsatisfac- tory. He then resolved not only to humble China, but incidentally to crush Korea. This was in 1592. The army which disembarked at Fusan was enormous, well-provisioned, and con- tained a corps trained in the use of match-lock guns, a weapon at that time new to the East. The command of the troops was divided between two generals; one, Konishi, an impetuou's young man and a Roman Catholic; the other, Kato, a fierce old fighter and an ardent Buddhist. Each was a good leader in his way, but intensely jealous of the other. Konishi arriv^ed first. The fortress at Tongnai, close to Fusan, quickly fell. He at once started north through the peninsula, follow- ing the course of the Naktong River as far as Sang-ju. Kato arrived a day later, and he fumed with rage to learn that his rival had already taken his departure. He took the more western road, sending detachments into the Chulla and Chung- chong provinces. Then began a race between the rival armies to reach Seoul. From Sang- ju, in the Kiung-sang province, Konishi pushed on to Chiong-ju in the Chung-chong province and quickly reduced the city. Kato arrived here a few days later, but he redoubled his energies, so that the very day Konishi entered Seoul by one gate, he entered by another. They found a deserted city. The king and his court, accustomed to spend their days under the spell
36 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
of the flowing- bowl and the attractions of dancing- girls, had found themselves unequal to the situ- ation and had fled precipitately to Pyeng-yang in the north, amidst the drenching showers of the rainy season. Soldiers and people vied with each other in the speed of their flight to the mountains. The king had ordered the rem- nants of his army to make a stand at the Rim-chin River. Kato and Konishi, after a few days' rest in the empty capital, with united forces started north. At the Rim-chin River, by a feigned retreat, they induced the Koreans to cross, then routed them and seized their junks. Here the two Japanese leaders, owing to mutual jealousy, drew lots and parted company. Kato went to the eastern side, while Konishi remained on the west- ern side of the peninsula, both of them headed for the north. Konishi marched on Pyeng-yang, while the king fled across the border at Eui-ju. Konishi camped upon the opposite side of the Tatong River till the Pyeng-yang troops made an unsuccessful night attack upon him, which only resulted in betraying the locations of the fords in the river to the Japanese, who, promptly availing themselves of the information, crossed and took the city. Here Konishi, before starting for China, awaited the arrival of his fleet, which, however, was never to come. vSome Koreans had in the meantime been thinking and had evolved a new model of fighting-junk. With these they lured the Japanese fleet into the open sea and
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE 37
proceeded to demolish it. Tliis greatly raised the spirits of the Koreans, who had hitherto seemed dazed by the rapidity and success of the Japanese mov^ements. The king, from Liao Tung, was sending importunate appeals for help to the court of Peking. A few thousand Chinese troops marched down from Liao Tung into Korea. The Japanese allowed them to enter the streets of the city of Pyeng-yang, and then, from well-chosen positions, attacked and cut them to pieces. The court of Peking now took the invasion seri- ousl)^ They began at once to raise an army of 40,000 men, and juggled with characteristic Chinese diplomacy in order to gain time. About all of importance that Kato had done in the meanwhile was to capture a couple of Korean royal princes. Koreans were beginning to organize bands for guerrilla warfare. In 1593 came the Chinese army, 60,000 strong, and aided by Korean troops attacked for two days the fortifications the Japanese had reared on the hills north of the city of Pyeng-3^ang. Then Konishi with- drew his troops in the night, and retreated to Seoul. Small Japanese garrisons were being taken by Korean bands. Kato presently yielded to the appeals of his colleague, and also returned to Seoul. The allies now began to advance on the capital. Then came the terrible massacre in which the Japanese troops put to the sword hun- dreds of non-combatants, drove out others and laid waste large portions of the cit3^ Later a
38 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
terrific battle was fought near Seoul, in which the allied Chinese and Korean troops were worsted and withdrew to Song- do.
A winter of suffering" from famine and pestilence in an exhausted country settled down. At its close a treaty of peace was concluded, and the Japanese returned to Fusan.
While negotiations were pending the Japanese showed that, while they were willing to be at peace with China, they did not consider that they were done with unhappy Korea. Kato was given orders to capture the walled city of Chin-ju in Southeastern Korea. I have seen in that city the temple built in honor of a Korean dancing- girl who at this period is said to have lured on shore a Japanese general and then drowned her- self and him at the same time from a flat rock in the river. After a most stubborn resistance on the part of the Koreans the city was taken and large numbers of people were put to the sword.
Hideyoshi, considering himself insulted by the form of address in the letter of the Chinese emperor, sent with an embassy, broke off negotia- tions and renewed the war in what is known as the second invasion of Korea. A Chinese army marched down to the city of Nam-eung, in South- western Korea. The first battle of the campaign was a naval one off the southern coast of the coimtry, in which the Korean fleet came to grief. Kato and Konishi now moved on Nam-eung, with
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE 39
its splendid walls. After some days' fighting the walls were scaled by piling up bundles of green rice on one side and by climbing a secret mountain path on the other. In the fight which ensued thousands of Koreans and Chinese were slain, whose noses and ears were later cut off and shipped to Japan to form the great "ear mound," now to be seen under its monument in Kioto.
About the same time, of^ the south coast of Korea, the Chinese and Japanese fleets fought a battle, in which the fleet of the latter was anni- hilated. This, as in the other invasion, really defeated the Japanese, as it destroyed the supply of food upon which they relied. The Japanese advanced almost to Seoul, but learning of the approach of large reinforcements for the Chinese army, and their food supply growing scanty, they began their retreat, spoiling the houses and tem- ples as they went of everything of value. This was notably true of the ancient and magnificent city of Kiong-ju, once the capital of Silla, which they not only spoiled, but burned to the ground.
They finally rested within the fortifications of Ulsan, where part of them remained. This place was besieged by an army of the allies, and much desperate fighting followed. The siege was finally raised owing to Japanese successes else- where, and more noses and ears were sent to Japan. For a time the war lingered on. Then Hideyoshi died and the Japanese troops were
40 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
recalled. This ended the terrible war. Tribute was sent for a hundred years or so, and then its sending' was discontinued.
Life passed comparativ^ely uneventful in the peninsula until the regions to the north sent forth another host of hard riders in the Manchus. In 1619 the Koreans, who had at first helped the Chinese, became convinced that the Manchus were destined to triumph — which they did even- tually, and seated one of their number on the Dragon throne — so they went over to the Manchus. But they continued to give real assistance to the Chinese. Presently the Manchus found time to turn their attention to the Koreans, and twice invaded the country as far as Seoul, leaving death and destruction behind them. The king and his court in each case fled down the Han River to the island of Kang-wha, which was captured in the second invasion. The king had now to make his allegiance actual by furnishing the Manchus with grain and providing them with a small army. To the new Manchu emperor they also had to send yearly a stipulated tribute ; such, for instance, a? 100 ounces of gold, 10,000 bags of rice, 100 tiger skins, etc.
Thence until the recent past they saw no more of invading armies. In 1653 a Dutch ship was wrecked off Quelpart Island and the men were held as slaves in the peninsula for a number of years. One of their number, Hamil, escaped and wrote a book upon the country. At the close of
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE 41
the last century a Chinese priest, and in 1S35 French fathers of the Jesuit order of Roman Catholics, slipped secretly, at the risk of their lives, into the peninsula, to follow up work which had germinated from the reading of some religious tracts that had found their way into the country from China. The account of their labors and sufferings is admirably told in Ballet's "Histoire de TEglise de Coree."
The revolutionary nature, from a Korean point of view, of the new teachings, which demanded nothing less than the abandonment of their most sacred custom, the worship of ancestors, together with the discovery of what they considered treasonable political intrigue in a letter written by a Korean convert inviting the invasion of western armies, early brought upon the Catholic adherents murderous persecution. In 1839 three French fathers were killed. And in the minority of the present king (while the cruel Tai-won-kun, his father, was on the throne as regent), occurred the terrible inartyrdoms of 1S66. Fear of foreign aggression and the rumor that the Chinese were killing the Catholic adherents in their country were the inciting causes. Fourteen bishops and priests, with thousands of their Korean converts, suffered martyrdom.
In reprisal, in the following year, a French fleet appeared off the coast ; but nothing came of the expedition beyond a brush with the Korean soldiers guarding the island of Kang-wha, in the
42 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
Han River. In 1871 came some American gun- boats to avenge the murder of the crew of the American schooner "Gen. Sherman," wrecked near Pyeng-yang, and after brisk fighting the men of the "Monocacy" and "Palos" captured five forts on tlie island of Kang-wha. In 1876, the present king now reigning in his own right, a treaty was signed between Korea and Japan which opened the long-closed gates of the "Pler- mit Kingdom." With the help of Li Hung Chang, Admiral Schufeldt, in 1882, secured a treaty between Korea and the United States, and treaties with other western nations followed. Before the year closed a reactionary insurrection, incited by the foreign-haling Tai-won-kun, took place, in which a number of Japanese were killed and Tai-won-kun was kidnaped by a Chinese warship and taken to China. China — although before the signing of the treaties, when the murders of the French fathers and the crew of the "Gen Sherman" were under discussion— had declared that she was in no wise responsible for the Korean government, yet later she made much of the fact that yearly tribute had been sent to her, and her "Resident," by subtle diplomacy, made himself the power behind the throne, at least in checking all progress along western lines. Judge O. N. Denny of Oregon, for several years adviser to his majesty, although appointed through the influence of Li Hung Chang, felt it his duty to strongly combat the position assumed by
A HISTORICAL VITASCOPE 43
China. A party of progressive young nobles, rendered desperate by conservative opposition, organized the "emente of 1884." High officials were killed. For three days the young nobles ruled the kingdom. Then Chinese soldiers appeared in opposition, and Japanese soldiers took the part of the young men. There was fight- ing, and the young men had to flee, some to Japan and some to the United States, while the Japanese, with their citizens in a hollow square, fought their way down to the coast. Chinese influence now had a clear field.
The Chino-Japanese war of 1894 is so recent that few comments are necessary. An insurrec- tion having occurred in the south of the country, due to excessive extortion upon the part of the officials, the king of Korea asked the help of Chinese troops, who were sent by Li Hung Chang. This the Japanese resented as contrary to the Chino-Japanese treaty, which allowed only a legation guard of Chinese in the country. The Japanese came with the rallying cry, "The inde- pendence of Korea," drove the Chinese out of the country, and took the two great forts that guard the entrance from the sea to the Korean capital. The main events of the war were the sinking of the Chinese transport ship, "Kowshing, " bearing the British flag, the land battles in Korea at Asan and Pyeng-yang, the naval fight off the mouth of the Yalu, and the taking of the Chinese fortresses at Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei. Incidentally.
44 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
the Japanese stormed the Korean palace and revolutionized the government, putting into the government offices Koreans favorable to their schemes of reform. Granted the right of Japan, which was not conceded at the time by the repre- sentatives of the other nations, to march her armies into the land of a friendly country and overturn its government, the reforms instit^^ted by the Japanese were in the main most excellent. And that they made an honest effort to carry them out was seen in their sending as minister Count Inouye, one of the best administrators in their country. Then came the blunder of the Ito cabinet, so fatal to Japanese interests, in the sending of Viscount Miura as his successor, fol- lowed by the dreadful murder, October 8, 1895, of the queen, known to have been by far the most astute politician in Korea. For months the grief- stricken king was held a close prisoner in his own palace. Then one bright morning, in February of the following year, by a clever ruse his majesty and the crown prince slipped out of the palace in the closed chairs of palace ladies, and fled for refuge to the Russian legation. There they met with a cordial welcome from the Russian min- ister, Mr. Waeber, and his gracious wife, who have moved recently to their new diplomatic home in Mexico City, and both of whom, I may remark in passing-, were highly respected and beloved by all the foreigners in Korea. From that time onward the influence of the Great
A HISTORICAL VITAvSCOPE 45
Northern Empire has steadily increased in the peninsula.* At the Russian legation his majesty remained for a year, and then moved to his new palace within the foreign settlement. It is under- stood that this autumn he will assume the title of emperor, and that the name of the country will be changed from Chosen, the "land of morning calm," to that of Daihan, whose significance is that of "Great Han," Han being the term which, as will be remembered, was applied to each of the political divisions of the land in the dawn of its history.
* As the book goes to press, word has come that the Russians have reversed their policy in Korea. They have recalled the thirteen military instructors and the financial adviser, who but a short time previous had displaced Dr. J. IMcLeavey Brown, and have entered into a compact with the Japanese in wliich it is mutually agreed that neither country shall nominate military instructors nor financial advisers for Korea without a prior agreement between the two contracting powers.
CHAPTER III
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE
How well I remember the afternoon our steamer swung around Deer Island, where the Russians have been trying to get a coaling-station, into the round harbor of Fusan, disclosing the strange, new land to our imaccustomed eyes. I can see now the green-covered hills, with here and there a white object stalking over their surface that suggested only too distinctly the beings that are said to creep in church-yards after the night has fallen. Koreans almost universally dress in white, and the fashion of their garments is unique. Let us study the attire of my friend, Mr. Pak, as he sits near by all imconsciously puffing away at his long- stemmed pipe ; for the smoking of tobacco is com- mon among the men and women of Korea. On his head is a round, tapering, flat-topped hat, with a brim thirteen inches in diameter, woven with very fine strips of bamboo, which make it exceed- ingly light. This hat is ordinarily black in color, but under certain circumstances the mourning customs of the country require it to be of a whitish- yellow hue. Except in the seclusion of his home this hat is always upon his head. As he slips the ribbon from imder his chin and removes the hat for a moment, we see that his hair is done up in a
46
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 47
very peculiar way. He has suffered the coarse black locks to grow very long, and, I may remark, periodically has a large square tonsure shaven on the top of his head; but this you would never guess as you look at him, for his hair has been gathered up and tightly coiled in a top-knot, two or three inches long and a single inch in diameter, which stands straight up from the crown of his head. Bound about his brow, so tightly as to cause a slight depression in the forehead, is a band of woven horsehair, tv\ro inches wide. This serves to hold his hair in place and into it he occasionally tucks a straggling lock with a tool that looks like a little horn paper-knife.
As Mr. Pak considers himself rather a gentle- man, should you see him in the seclusion of his home you would observe on his head a skullcap of black horse hair, dented in at the front so that it looks like a two-stepped horse block; or again, cither with or without this skullcap, you might see on him another style of horse-hair hat that gives one something of the impression of a ro5^al crown that had been flattened under a letter- press. Think of a suit of clothes without a single button ! Everything is tied up with a girdle or with some form of band with one end sewed to the cloth. Mr. Pak wears next his body a jacket reaching to the waist; and over this, while away from home, he wears a full-sleeved loose robe that falls to his ankles. Beneath it yoii catch an occasional glimpse of a pouch or two,
48 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
and of the case for his scholarly goggles hanging from the trousers girdle. The trousers them- selves are baggy and are gathered in below the knees with a pair of cloth leggings tied at the ankles. He wears a pair of stockings padded with cotton batting. On his feet are a pair of felt sandals which he leaves out of doors whenever he enters a house. This is the picture which Mr. Pak presents. In the winter he wears clothes padded with cotton, including an overcoat, and clinging to the sides of his head a black fur-edged covering that keeps his ears warm. Here and there you see a man with a coat dyed some shade of blue or green ; or a black coat showing white sleeves. Silk garments are seen occasionally. The laboring classes frequently wear for a coat only the short jacket; their working trousers fit more closely and their feet are shod with sandals of straw or twine. Koreans sometimes wear leather sandals and, in muddy weather, you will see wooden shoes raised by a couple of bits of wood three inches above the ground. On the chair-coolie's head you will see a roiind-crowned, wide-brimmed, black felt hat. Yonder farmer, following his ox laden with a towering mass of brush for firewood, wears on his head a convex arrangement, two feet in diameter, of coarsely- woven thin strips of wood which, in shape, looks something like the top of a circus tent.
Of the Koreans it may be said that, while shar- ing in many of the characteristics of the other
JO
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HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 49
inhabitants of the Far East, racially they are a type by themselves. In height they average fairly well with the people of Northern China. The Korean face will bear study. The forehead, sufficiently high, shows no lack of brains. The bright black eyes are slightly almond-pinched at the corners. The nose is rather low and flat, and the lips are full. Another type of features, it may be remarked, is also frequently seen, especially in the north of the country, in which the eyes are round and the features are regular, sometimes even delicately chiseled ; but the black hair and black eyes are practically universal. Mr. Pak wears a thin mustache and a few straggling hairs adorn his chin — no need for him to shave every day, for the simple reason that the Koreans, with few exceptions, have nothing or almost nothing on their faces to require the use of a razor.
The Korean houses are peculiar. Generically they may be divided into two classes — those roofed with a deep thatch of rice straw, seen almost universally in the country villages, and those covered with a black-tiled roof, usually on the homes of the well-to-do. With the exception of a very few government and business buildings the houses are all one-story structures. The framework of a Korean roof is so cleverly mor- tised together that not a nail is required in its con- struction. In the support of this framework, with its burden of thatch, or tiles set in loose earth, well-planed log^s of wood cross the rooms over-
50 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
head, and these rest in turn on wooden pillars erected at intervals of eight feet. The tiled roofs are gracefully curved upward at the corners, and both varieties of roof project three or four feet beyond the building proper. In the construction of the walls a wicker work of twigs is woven, and over this mud is plastered, making an adobe wall, which, however, is occasionally faced with stone. The windows are double. The outside ones are latticed and swing on rude hinges, while the inner ones slide in grooves, and both sets are covered with tough paper that admits a dim light, though inserted in them may occasionally be seen a single pane or bit of glass. In making their floors the Koreans have hit upon quite an eco- nomical mode of heating their rooms, although it is death to ventilation. By the use of stone and mud, perhaps six parallel flues are built up, which converge at each end into an opening leading outside, one into the chimney, the other into the fireplace. These flues are covered over with matched stone slabs, and a smooth coating of mud is laid over all. When this has been well dried, in many cases two layers of paper, of which the upper one is thick and well saturated with oil, are neatly pasted over the floor. The walls and ceil- ing of the room may or may not be covered with wall-paper, generally white. At least one room has its fireplace so constructed that a couple of round, shallow iron kettles for boiling rice or heating water may be fastened into them. For
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 51
fuel they burn chopped wood, pine brush or hay. In cool weather a dish of coals is always in evi- dence to warm the hands and to light the pipes. I have had some experience with Korean floors. In my country trips, following the native custom, at night I simply spread my sleeping arrangements on the floor, well sprinkled, however, with "insect powder." In a Korean's case, let me remark, they would consist of a small wooden block for a pillow, a quilt, and possibly a thin mattress. If in a room where the ainount of fuel used in heating the stones under you can be regulated, you experience only a genial glow running up and down your spine; but take the case of a Ko- rean inn where under you rolls the fire used to cook the food of a dozen men, and you feel like a trout in the skillet. In whatever other ways Korean houses differ, one feature they have in common — there is always a square or rectangular inner court, carefully shielded from the gaze of the public by buildings and high walls. Within this court are jars of food and a little bed of flowers. The living-rooms are generally on two sides of the court. There is the black, smoke-stained kitchen, containing the fireplace with the iron pots men- tioned above. Here are also cooking utensils, and yonder, not unlikely, bundles of fuel piled upon the floor of earth. Next to this is a sleeping and living room, possibly capable of subdivision with sliding, paper-covered doors. At right angles to this sleeping-room is a wide, enclosed porch with
52 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
a wooden floor, completely open on the side of the court. Here the bowls of crockery or brass are stored in brass-trimmed cupboards and the din- ing-tables are stacked, and here the women, in suitable weather, pass the most of their monot- onous existence, seated iipon the well-polished floor, for chairs are not used by Koreans. Indeed, the only other article of furniture seen is an occasional painted or embroidered screen or chest more or less decorated, or possibly a g^reas}^ lamp- stand holding the little bowl of vegetable oil with a bit of wick resting on the edge. Some, how- ever, especially in the ports, use little kero- sene lamps. Then on the other side of the porch will be another living-room Vvdth flues under the floor. Next the kitchen, or on the third side of the court will be a shed or two, with native locks and ring-and-staple fastenings on the doors. On the fourth side is the "sarang," a room with openings outside, where the male friends of the man of the house congregate, with never a thought of venturing in to see the ladies of the house. Furthermore, it is not considered polite for the gentlemen to ask much about them. One curious fact is that in the country none but members of the aristocratic class are allowed to have little verandas on the outside of their sar- angs.
Dinner is announced, and the little square or round tables, twelve inches high, are found steam- ing in the porch of the inner quarters, or if friends
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 53
of the host are oat in the "sarang" two or three laden tables will be passed in for them at a window. Everyone gets down upon the floor in the usual Korean sitting posture, cross-legged like a tailor, sometimes one and sometimes two at a table. The first course, if the occasion be an especial one, is a bowl of soup. The heaping bowl of rice is then discussed, either with the brass spoon or chop sticks. And the chop-sticks de- scend every now and then upon the contents of the little side dishes, the brine-soaked "mu," or turnip, the bits of dried fish or meats, a species of sauer- kraut composed of cabbage, shrimp, ginger, onion, red pepper, salt, etc., with an occasional dip into the bean sauce (a la Worcestershire). For liquid food he drinks cold water, or the water in which the rice has been cooked. Poor people often eat with their rice only the sauerkraut or pickled turnip. Korean etiquette allows much smacking of the lips while eating; but if dining out in the sarang, in the presence of a visitor, politeness requires him either to offer him food or excuse himself for eating. Koreans also eat with the rapidity of a traveler at a railway lunch counter, or a table full of threshers.
Linguistically the Koreans are furnished with a language that takes second place to neither the Chinese nor Japanese languages in difficulty of acquisition. The young Westerner entering upon its mastery has just one thing in his favor — he does not know what he is getting into. Three
54 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
modes of expression are in use among the Ko- reans— the colloquial, the book language and the Chinese written characters. Let us first notice the colloquial — the language of the people — which, when reduced to writing, is known as the "Unmun," The Unmun alphabet comprises twenty-eight letters, which are combined in syl- lables that are written one under the other in ver- tical columns and are read from the back end to the front of the book. Korean scholars affect to despise this style of writing, its use in former years having been confined largely to the printing of flashy novels, though of late its use in the printing of missionary literature and certain newspapers has helped to give it dignity. Struc- turally the colloquial may be termed agghitinative. Many of the root forms are derived from the Chinese. The noun endings rival the Greek in number, though used rather carelessly in ordinary conversation. The verbal endings mount into the hundreds, and prepositions, conjunctions and endings that mean the same as our marks of punctuation have a way of sticking to the root formations. One thing which multiplies the number of verbal endings is the custom of the country that gradations in age and social position require a varying use of high, low and middle forms. A teacher in one of the girls' schools in Seoul one day found two of her little girls in a violent quarrel over the question of which should use high language to the other. "I am the
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 55
older," cried one; "I am the bigger," sobbed the other.
Second, the book language, after the manner of Latinized English, is largely composed of words derived from the Chinese. It is written in the Unmun character and is used in a few transla- tions of the Chinese classics, in parallel sections with the orginal. It is also employed in certain other moral writings.
Third, in the Chinese characters the scholars read the literature of China, and do their letter writing. All government documents are written or printed in Chinese.
Speaking of gradations in social position, cor- responding to the "literati" in China and the "samurai" in Japan, the Koreans have an aristo- cratic class know as "yangbans. " They are the scholars, the possessors of blue blood, the holders of government offices. They are ardent Con- fucianists and are intensely conservative. Among their own class they are hospitable and punctiliously polite. The poor yangbans have a way of sponging upon their more fortunate rela- tives and friends. They let their finger-nails grow long to show their contempt for labor, and they despise the classes below them in the social scale. I saw a young man with a stone in his hand chase another man all over a village one night, because the latter, belonging to a lower social grade than he, had dared to smoke a pipe in his presence.
56 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
Slavery exists in a mild form in the country. For the most part slaves are attached to families as bond-servants, much as was the custom in Old Testament times. One class of slaves are men and are the hereditary property of rich nobles. In another class the women alone are counted as property, and canredeein themselves or secure their freedom by leaving in their place an able- bodied daughter in the state of bondage. A third class are the female slaves attached to magis- tracies— feinale criminals, or the wives of crim- inals. They are truly to be pitied, for their degradation passes description.
The government of Korea is an absolute mon- archy. The Icing, however, calls to his assistance a council of state composed of a chancellor and various ministers and councilors. Certain of the departments have foreign advisers, two of whom, Dr. J. McLeavey Brown, adviser to the finance department, as well as chief commissioner of the customs service, and General C. G. Greathouse, the former U. S. Consul General at Yokohama and present adviser to the law department, have of late rendered distinguished service to the Ko- rean Government. The Korean troops in Seoul are at present under the instruction of three com- missioned and ten non-commissioned Russian officers. Each of the thirteen provinces has its governor, with a proper number of assistants; and each of the 339 magistracies in these provinces has its magistrate with a force of writers and
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 57
runners. Every village has its head, generally an old man. Official honesty is apparently a thing almost imknown in Korea, and the poor people lead a sorry life ; for not only must the regular taxes be paid, but they are subject to the further exactions of officials, runners, inspectors, policemen, soldiers, not to mention the bands of robbers that roam the country every winter and spring. Much of the so-called laziness of the Koreans is simply apathy, produced by the inse- curity of property rights. With the exception of a few rich merchants and men who own large estates in the country, the great mass of the people are very poor and they live a hand-to- mouth existence upon a scale which Westerners would consider impossible. Day laborers, when they can get work, receive per day an amount equivalent to from ten to fourteen cents of our money, and upon this support their families. Money goes further there, however, the unit of their coinage being the "five cash" piece, a round brass coin with a hole in the center, worth about one tenth of an American cent.
But if the Koreans have their troubles, they also have their pleasures. They are great lovers of nature, and live out of doors much of the year. The men are fond of picnics. Several scholars will go to some picturesque spot and there com- pose spring poetry in Chinese. Or a party will spend hours in the practice of archery, at which they are quite skillful. If you happen to be in the
58 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
country upon the occasion of a spring or fall holi- day, you will hear the rhythmical clang of a brass gong, the staccato note of a tambourine beaten with a stick, or possibly the shrill tones of a brass clarionet. Drawing near you will see a circle of young men and half -grown boys dancing, some of whom, perhaps, are dressed in female attire. At a certain time each spring the Ko- reans indulge in stone fights, a rather rough kind of sport. Two sides face each other with leaders wearing padded hats and carrying clubs. These skirmish awhile with an occasional interchange of blows, and then the two sides rain stones at each other, much like a snow-ball fight. Presently, with a mighty roar, one side begins to drive the other back. Spectators catch tlie enthusiasm and join the attacking force. The fun waxes fast and furious — so furious that not infrequently some one is maimed or killed. Nothing that I have seen in Korea has given me such an impression of the latent force and fire in the usually apathetic Korean as this somewhat brutal sport.
Magistracies often keep a native orchestra. "Keesangs, " or dancing girls, handsome, edu- cated, dissolute, whose art consists largely in pos- turing, enliven the feasts of the official class. Old men while away the time playing a native game resembling chess. It must sadly be admitted that Koreans have their vices. Eying is universal. Generations of practice have given them a won- derful skill in the art. Business men continually
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 59
cheat and overreach in their business transac- tions. A friend of mine, now a worthy Christian, told me that formerly his thought every morning as he awoke used to be, How can I cheat someone today? and that attitude of mind, I am led to believe, is common to a large class of Koreans. In spite of heavy penalties, stealing is frightfully common. Professional thieves carry great knives, and are handy in their use. Gambling, in spite of severe punitive laws, is widely practiced. Our harmless dominoes in Korea are used only for gaming purposes. Cards are also used that are long strips of cardboard the width of one's finger, bearing Chinese characters. Men become so frenzied with the gaming passion that, after losing everything else, they are known to stake and even lose their wives into slavery. The drink curse is widely prevalent in Korea. The liquors are of two kinds; one white and thick, the other a clear liquid. They are made from rice, barley or wheat. Saloons are frequent, with sauerkraut and liquor for sale. Maudlin sots or drunken brawls, with men tugging at each other's top-knots are, alas! a common sight upon the streets. Their thought is low-planed. The social vice prevails, and vice that is unspeakable. In a word, the Koreans have every vice possi- ble to a mild-mannered, heathen nation, with the one exception of the smoking of opium. Let us turn to a subject more pleasing — the woman of Korea. She is frequently good-looking. She
6o EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
parts lier glossy hair in the middle and combs it straight back, arranging it in a coil behind, at the base of the head, throngh which she thrusts an ornamental rod some six inches long, fre- quently made of silver. Her clothes are much like the men's, with trousers, padded stockings and sandals; but the jacket is very short, and she wears in addition an overskirt, high-waisted and reaching to within a few inches of the ground. A jaunty little cap wath broad ribbons hanging behind is sometimes worn. In probably no respect does the life in heathen countries and in the lands that have felt the uplift of Gospel truth show so marked a contrast as in the posi- tion that is given to their women. In Korea, except where the influence of the missionaries has been felt, no man thinks of educating his daughters. Nearly every village has a Chinese school for boys; but not one for girls. With the exception of a very few rare instances, such as the lamented queen, no women outside of the keesang class have received a mental training. Here and there a woman can read Unmun. "Cus- tom," hoary with age, that arch-enemy of all originality and progress, in Korea as in other parts of the Orient, fetters the people even to the minutest details of their life ; and custom requires that the Korean women lead a life of great seclu- sion. From the time that the child first buds into the maiden until her face wears the tracery of old age, the respectable Korean woman is largely
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 6i
a prisoner within the four walls of the court of the women's quarters. Let it be noted that the women in country villag-es, middle-aged women of the lower class, and Christian women in their attendance upon church meetings allow them- selves greater freedom of movement. Occasionally on the streets may be seen a woman's closed sedan chair, with dangling, fan-like little red ornaments, and with a couple of coolies striding between the chair poles. Or again a few women will be seen with long gr.een cloaks or white skirts drawn over their heads so closely that of their features only a shining black eye is visible. But these occasional visits to the houses of relatives or friends are generally paid at night. In Ys'hat a narrow world do they pass their lives! And then the women are universally spirit- worshipers, and live in constant dread of evil spirits. In view of these facts, can we wonder that the habitual thinking of Korean women is petty, or superstitious, or vulgar? Poor things!
It is easy to see, then, what a mental, moral and spiritual uplift the Gospel message brings to the women of the country.
The girl is married when a mere child, between the ages of twelve and sixteen, to a youth she has never known, and, as is the case in China, comes under the sway of her mother-in-law. If her mother-in-law is kind and her husband is good to her, a fair measure of home happiness awaits her. But the customs of the country all favor the
62 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
married man rather than the married woman. He may divorce her upon any one of seven grounds — such, for instance, as inabiUty to live at peace Avith her mother-in-law, or the absence of little ones from the home circle, especially the boys so necessary for the continuance of the ancestral worship. Then again, Confucianism throws its semi-religious sanction over the practice of the men's taking secondary wives or concubines. Large numbers of men in the middle and upper classes therefore take one or more con- cubines, whom they keep either in the same house, or in a separate building not far away, or in another village. As the man has some choice in these secondary attachments, it is very apt to be the case that the poor first wife has the respect- ability and the concubine has the love. Once again, marriage customs bear heavily upon the women, in that it is not considered respectable for a widow to marry again ; although it is to be admitted that many a young widow, rather than face the burdens of life, becomes a concubine.
In the country, women are allowed much social freedom. I always like to watch a company of them hulling rice. The machine consists of a piece of timber shaped like a two-tined fork, and is hung on a pivot, with a cross-piece on the handle end that forms a hammer to pound the rice. One woman feeds the hole, where the ham- mer strikes, with unhulled rice. Then the bevy of women take hold of the straw ropes hanging
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 63
in the shed; they step upon the two prongs and the hammer end rises; they step off and the ham- mer falls. Step on, step off. Chatter and laugh- ter make the air melodious. Let us further con- sider the pursuits of the women. Korean house- wives are accomplished needle-women. The mode of washing and ironing clothes is peculiar. Before washing, the seams are ripped and the clothes are taken to pieces. Then beside the well, or the brook outside the city, women of the lower classes or the servants of the rich beat the clothes into whiteness with flat wooden paddles. Iron- ing is done in the inner quarters of the house, frequently into the small hours of the night. The ironing is done with a large wooden roller that may or may not be laid on a smooth block of stone. Two or four ironing-sticks, like police- men's clubs, are used, depending upon whether one or two women do the ironing. The pieces of cloth are laid about the roller and, with a rhyth- mical tapping not unpleasant to hear, the clothes are beaten stiff and smooth. Each autumn the thrifty housewife puts down great jars of "sauer- kraut" and pickled turnip for the winter use of the family.
Little children in Korea certainly lead a happy life ; for whatever their other faults Korean m-en and women love their little children and are kind to them. These little ones ride astride of the backs of father, or mother, or the six-year-old brother or sister. In summer they toddle about,
64 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
as someone has remarked, "dressed in nothing but a hair ribbon," or at most a short, quilted jacket. When the New Year's season arrives, in February, their fond mothers deck them out with every kind of gayly-colored clothes. Would that they might always remain so innocent and happy! The small boy in Korea is much like the small boy everywhere ; his business in life is to play. He makes a small hoop with a handle and fills it full Vvdth a mass of cobwebs. Then with it he catches insects. Or again, you will see him with the end of a string tied about some large insect which he allows to fly to the end of its tether. In one or two instances I have seen him with a centipede on the end of a string. I am sorry to say he sometimes gambles, pitching "cash" at a mark. At the New Year's season the sky is bright with his tailless kites, made square with a hole in the middle. The string is wound on a four-armed reel that has something of the shape of the reel of a binder, only it has a long handle on one side fastened into the hub. The boy, grasping the handle with one hand and a corner of one of the arms with the other, twirls this reel backward and forward very skillfully and makes his kite go about the heavens in any way he pleases. With these kites they fight, crossing strings in the effort to saw each other's string in two. And the custom is that the kite that floats helplessly away anyone may keep who can catch the severed string. Girls are fond
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 65
of playing at see-saw. A hag full of sand perhaps a foot high is set on the ground. Across this is laid a plank. Stretched alongside, at a proper height for the children to grasp and steady them- selves, is a rope. Two girls stand erect upon the ends. One gives an upward spring and, as she alights on the board, gives the other an upward toss, who, as she alights in turn, throws the first girl aloft a little higher. And so the sport goes on, until in their upward flight each girl is thrown two or three feet into the air. Frequent rests are necessary, but the sport is the occasion of much glee. In the springtime swings are set up, which boys and girls alike enjoy. But the chil- dren must work as well as play. Many of the boys go to school to learn to read and write Chinese. Other boys in the country must trim branches from the pine shrubs or rake the grass on the hill sides to bind into great bundles of fuel, or scare the armies of English sparrows away from the yellow rice fields; while the girls must learn to cook and do fine needle-work. Although Korean children show great outward respect to their par- ents and to elderly people, I do not think that they are trained to obey very well. Respectful greet- ings upon the part of children to older people are, in the case of the boy, a complete prostration with the hands on the ground and the forehead rest- ing on the hands; the girl sinks downward in a courtesy till her finger tips touch the floor; she then steadily rises, folds her left hand beneath
66 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
her right arm and slowly sinks down as before. All boys and bachelors wear their hair in a braid down the back. When the latter marries he is allowed to put tip his hair and wear a hat. I have been amused when sitting in a sarang with a group of men to see a slip of a boy with his hair done up in a top-knot enter, and note how respect- ful they were ; a moment later a fine, sturdy young man, perhaps twenty-five years of age, with a braid down his back, appeared, and they all used low talk to him. The one was married, and the other was not. Korean men have three names, a boy name, often an opprobrious term, like "pig," so that the spirits may not become jealous of the honor shown him. The second and third are men's names, given when his hair is put up at the time of his marriage; one by which he is to be known familiarly among his friends, the other his formal, legal name. Girls have pretty names, meaning plum-blossom, treasure, etc. After their marriage they are known only as so-and-so's wife or the mother of so-and-so.
Just a word now about some of the character- istics of the Koreans. They are by nature rather a kindly people, and they treat us foreigners on the whole with much respect. It shows itself in such ways as this: A foreigner enters one of the tortuous lanes in which Seoul abounds, and which happens to be closed. Immediately a man or a small boy steps forward, politely explains that you cannot go that way and promptly points
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 67
out to you the proper road, and that, too, with no apparent thought of remuneration. With all their many and glaring faults, one readily learns to love the Koreans. They are a hospitable people and can be exceedingly polite. Their politeness, too, has a certain manly tone about it that one likes. They are a leisure-loving people, full of curi- osity and fond of sight-seeing. Men will some- times leave their families and be gone from home for months wandering about the country. Time is no object to them. Their actual knowledge of the world they live in being small, and news- papers, until the last few years, being non-exist- ent, their minds have been immensely interested with very petty things. For instance, men sitting by the roadside can tell every mark on a horse that has recently passed by. News has a wonderful way of traveling from mouth to mouth. Let a foreigner go down into the country to a certain place and by nightfall every village within a ra- dius of twenty miles is discussing him and all the particulars connected with his arrival. It is inter- esting to watch two Koreans engaged in a dis- pute, for instance, over a business transaction. Their voices are high pitched ; they gesticulate violently; they fairly rage at each other. One unaccustomed to their ways expects an immediate casualty of at least a broken skull. But as Mr. Gale remarks, only a few minutes elapse before they are seated at each end of a piazza quietly smoking their pipes. I have noticed something
68 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
similar in the scoldings fathers give their sons. The tones of the reproof were fairly blood-curd- ling. A moment later and the furious parent was as placid as a moonlit lake. A Korean gentleman rarely scolds other men ; he lets his servant do it for him. This suggests another trait. Koreans, especially of the upper clases, have a distaste for unpleasant things; and if they have a hard thing to do or say they invariably get a third party to do it for them, wherever it is possible. Koreans who have learned to read a book or two in Chinese are apt to be inordinately conceited. As in China, a selfish individualism is only too char- acteristic of the great mass of the people. No man receives credit for being disinterested in any- thing he does. Patriotism and public spirit are practically undeveloped qualities in the minds of the Koreans. In political life there is incessant intrigue on the part of those out of office to dis- place by fair means or foul the holders of govern- ment position ; and once in office their principal thought is that of the boa-constrictor — the desire to "squeeze" the people. Let it be noted, however, that there is now a small progressiv^e party in Ko- rea that finds its inspiration largely in a number of young men who have either held official position or studied for a number of years in the United States. Their mouth-piece is the Independent^ a tri-weekly newspaper published in the ver- nacular by Phillip Jaisohn, M.D., an able young Korean nobleman, medically educated in the
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE 69
United States, who has held a position in one of the departments in Washington as an expert in microscopy, is a inember of a Presbyterian church in Washington, is a naturalized American citizen, and is married to an American wife. At present, in addition to piiblishing two newspapers, one in Korean and one in English, he holds the position of adviser to the Department of Agriculture and Commerce.
One who knows the Korean people, in spite of all that has been or can be said of their faults and vices, and of their listless apathy, so largely the result of the conditions under which they live, cannot help feeling that they have in them the capacity for a high development when once the truths of the Gospel have permeated the mass of the people and when they can live in security of life and property, imder wise laws righteously administered.
CHAPTER IV
A WEDDING IN KOREA
Among most peoples the wedding forms one of the most notable events in social life, and the Koreans are no exception to the rule. One bright morning in March, several years ago, we were informed that an opportunity was afforded us to witness a wedding conducted according to the Korean custom. The invitation was promptly accepted.
In company with two friends I took my way to a Korean hut near the wall, where a youth and his betrothed were about to make their bows to each other. Just as we arrived, the good-natured, round-faced fellow was donning his outer robes in an open space in front of the house.
According to Korean custom, he wore a cos- tume like that which officials wear in royal audi- ences— one which he had hired for the occasion. The robe was a dark green, and bore "placques" with a pair of embroidered storks on the breast and back. About the wearer, like a hoop, was the black enameled belt, and on his head was a "palace-going" hat with wings on its sides, and finally he got himself into shoes that looked like "arctic" overshoes, two or three sizes too large
for him.
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A WEDDING IN KOREA 71
At last he was ready to go indoors. An attend- ant preceded him with a red, flat-brimmed hat on his head, about his neck a string of beads, and in his arms a goose. The goose's feet were tied, and fastened through her beak was a little skein of red silk. In the two marched — three perhaps I ought to say. The court of the house had an awning of gunny-sacking suspended over it. Here a red table stood, with two red ornaments on it which looked like tall candlesticks, or sealed vases. The court was full of Korean men, women and children.
In front of the table the bridegroom bowed two or three times in the performance of a religious ceremony. And singular bowing it was. He gently lowered himself upon his knees, and then bringing forward his hands upon the mat, he bowed till his head touched the back of his hands. Then gracefully he resumed the standing pos- ture. The last time he bowed he sank with the goose in his arms. I am told that the goose is the symbol of fidelity in Korea, it being popularly believed that if a wild goose dies its spouse never mates again.
By special invitation we then assumed a position upon the porch of the little hoiise, facing the court. A mat was placed upon the steps, con- necting with another mat on the porch. Pres- ently the groom came to the front of the steps and stood there, while our attention was called to the room opening upon the porch. This rooin
72 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
was filled with women, mostly young and more or less g-ood-looking. I had canght a peep at the bride as she sat on a cushion.
But now she was coming out. Two middle- aged women accompanied her, each holding one of the bride's arms and guiding her steps, for her eyes were sealed completely. Clear up to her jetty hair, the face of the petite bride was painted a ghastly white. In the middle of her forehead and of each cheek were painted great, round, red spots ; her lips were also bright red.
Her dress consisted of a bright green waist over a brilliant red skirt. Fastened through the coil of hair on the back of her smoothly combed head was a hair-pin, consisting of an ornamental rod, perhaps fifteen inches long. I remember it, for I almost got caught on it, in brushing by her later on.
Upon her head was a crown-like cushion, sur- mounted by half a dozen nodding sticks of beads, possibly three inches long. Down her back hung two broad brown ribbons, caught together with two ornaments, one a smooth, rectangular red stone, and the other a rosette of white jade, a stone precious in the East.
This little, painted, gorgeous creature was guided out, as I have said, by two middle-aged women. Across the mat they went, and at the end of the porch they turned the little bride about, and laid over her clasped hands a white handker- chief.
Korean Young Women.
A WEDDING IN KOREA 73
The groom now stepped to the other end of the mat and the principal part of the wedding cere- mony began. The bride made her bows. The attendants raised her arms till the small, draped hands lay level with the sightless eyes. Then, partially supported by the matronly women, she sank in a courtesy so profound that at the lowest point she was almost in a sitting posture. Then in the same slow, solemn man- ner she rose again. Her face at this time, and indeed during all the ceremony, was as expres- sionless as the face of a sphinx.
Three times this profound courtesy was repeated. Then it was the groom's turn. His face had more feeling in it than hers. Indeed, it looked flushed and anxious; much as a European's face might have appeared imder corresponding circum- stances. Our Korean groom now responded to his bride's greetings with two and a half bows, in which his head almost touched the floor. Then the bride and the groom were made to sit down upon their respective ends of the mat.
A table stood against the wall laden with what Koreans consider delicacies, but what they seemed to our perverted foreign taste I will refrain from stating, out of politeness to our host. Bread look- ing like a white grindstone, dishes of white, stringy vermicelli, bowls of "kimche," a native sauerkraut, candies, and a bottle of native liquor were there.
The couple were now sitting. The woman
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nearest the table took a cup and filled it with liquor. This she touched to the bride's draped hands, and presented it to the groom. He took a sip, and handed it back. She refilled the cup, and they repeated the ceremony to the third time.
Then came a curious performance. The "go- between" had a part to do. She was the old lady with gray hair who had literally "made the match." She had attended to all the necessary preliminaries, even to doing the courting for the young people. The goose again appeared upon the scene. This time the skein of red silk had been removed from the holes in her beak.
Another woman held the bird, while the aged match-maker filled her hand with soft, stringy vermicelli, and offered it to her gray birdship. The goose eagerly dabbed away with her beak until she was nearly satisfied, when the old lady finished the ceremony by eating herself what was left in her hand.
All this had been done in the doorway leading into the bridal chamber. This room was now cleared of its young and middle-aged ladies, who were compelled to join the crowd in the court. To the bridal chamber the groom repaired and, removing his wedding robes, which made him look like an official, assumed garments more befitting his rank. His new costume consisted of a new white robe, and one of the ordinary broad- brimmed, conical-crowned hats.
He then came out, and the bride retired to the
A WEDDING IN KOREA 75
room, to resume again her cushion on the floor; but just before she subsided into her placid medi- tations, her two attendants required her to bow to her foreign guests, and three times, without the movement of a muscle in her face, she sank to the floor in profound courtesies. We did not know just what was required of us at this juncture, but one after another, with perplexity written on our faces, we saluted the bride with American bows. They were just arranging boxes with the view to feasting us with Korean delicacies, when the lady of our party reached the conclusion that it was time to retire. The motion was carried without debate, and amid many hospitable protests we made our farewells in our best available Korean phrases and withdrew, wishing for our hosts every possible blessing.
CHAPTER V
GUILDS AND OTHER ASSOCIATIONS *
If you were to stroll down the street leading- from the West Gate to the center of the city of Seoul, and with observant eye should note the contents of the shops placed here and there along the way, you would notice at first a number of general shops. And in these booths, wide open to the street, you would see an assortment of goods probably something like this: a few articles of food, fine-cut tobacco, matches, hair ornaments, bright-colored pockets that look like tobacco pouches, and a few story books. It is noticeable that in these cluttered displays only a limited range of goods is to be seen. Further down the street, as you near the tower of the great city bell, the shops grow more substantial, and to see the goods of many of them you must go inside. In these
* This chapter is a picture of business conditions before the late war. During the "reform era," instituted by the Japanese, the office of magistrate of the market was abol- ished, the pu-sang office ceased to be numbered among the departments of the government, and the power of the merchants' and peddlers' guilds was broken. But since the conservative reaction set in, it is understood that the guilds have regained much of their ancient standing and power.
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GUILDS AND OTHER ASSOCIATIONS 77
shops a merchant sells only one kind of goods, as paper, or shoes, or silk. But in the same shop several different shop-keepers may have their stalls. These men are the members of the merchant guilds. Any Korean can open a little general store. But certain lines of goods can be handled only by the members of trade guilds.
There are many different guilds corresponding to the different kinds of goods sold. For instance, the sandal trade, as distinguished from the trade in straw or string-shoes, is entirely in the hands of the shoe guild. One thing which seems curious to our Western notions is that the different kinds of cloth goods are handled each b}^ a separate guild. There are guilds for cotton goods, for colored goods, for grass cloth, the gauzy summer goods, plain silks and figured silks. Then there are guilds for cot- ton, dyes, paper, hats, head-bands, rice, crockery, cabinets, iron utensils and brass ware. These are some of the principal trades of which the guilds have a monopoly. These guilds not only regulate their trade, but are mutually helpful in certain emergencies. For example, in case one of their number dies, they give financial aid to his family. Each guild has a head; and he with his servants is to be constantly found for the transaction of business at the guild headquarters. Should a man desire to enter into business in one of these monopolized trades, he must make appli- cation to the head of the guild. Should he prove acceptable, he must pay an entrance fee to the
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guild of, say $20. The head of the guild then furnishes him with a certificate of membership, duly made out and stamped with the seal of the guild, and the guild members come around and offer him their congratulations. He can then rent his stall or room and open up his wares whenever he likes. But suppose a man, without asking leave of the guild, should undertake to open a shop for the sale of silk or rice, what would happen? All would go well for a time; then one day his guild certificate would be called for. None being produced, a tempestuous time would ensue, the probable end of which would be that the guild would confiscate the contents of the shop. At all events, in a day or two there would be one less merchant in the silk trade. How- ever, in this connection, a curious custom should be mentioned. From the twenty- fifth day of the last month of the Korean year, that is, during the last five days of the old year, and through the first five days of the new, Korean custom allows any one whatever to sell any kind of goods he pleases. Why it should be so I cannot tell, only such is the tiine-honored custom. This is the reason why the displays of shining brass ware are to be seen in all their glory upon the streets around Chong- No (the bell-tower place) at the New Year's season, while at any other time you must hunt for them among the shops, should you desire to see the handsome ware. While the guilds can cope successfully with intruders of their own
GUILDS AND OTHER ASSOCIATIONS 79
people, they are powerless in the competition with the Chinese and Japanese merchants.
Members of guilds are required to pay a monthly tax to the head of their guild.
The government is accustomed to collect taxes from the guild, but applies directly to the head of the guild for payment. The patriotism of the guilds was shown upon the occasion of the burial of the dowager queen, when each guild added a large and beautiful silken banner to the gorgeous pageantry of the funeral.
Superior to either the guilds or their chiefs is an official appointed by the government to rule over the merchants. He may be termed the magistrate of the market. He holds the rank of tan-sa. At his government office he settles dis- putes between merchants, and acts as a judge in matters pertaining to commercial law. Not unlike the merchant guilds are the artisan guilds; what we would call at home "trades unions." But they are spoken of by a different name; for instance, the carpenters' guild or union would be known as the "room of the carpenters." Trades unions exist of the carpenters, the masons, the tilers, the chair-coolies, the rice-coolies, etc.
We come now to a form of guild, which, on account of its peculiar features, is deserving of a separate treatment. This is the peddlers' guild, known as the pu-sang guild. These need to be distinguished from the po-sangs, who are also mer- chants, who travel from market to market in the
8o EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
country, but who in tlieir organization are simply tlie ordinary guild adapted to the conditions for selling goods in the country. The pu-sang^ or peddlers* guild, which we are now to consider, is a very large and powerful guild. In the country villages shops are rarely found, but the buying and selling of merchandise is done upon special market days. The country has been districted among conveniently placed market towns, in groups of five each, so that once in five days each of these tov;ns has its market day. And peddlers, for the most part belonging to this peddlers' guild, keep traveling around these five-day circuits, carry- ing their stock of goods, one upon his shoulders, another on an ox, and still another on pony-back. But the peculiarity in the pii-sang guild consists in their connection with the government. In a truly feudal sense are their services at the dis- posal of the government. Not one office, but the higher officials of any government office, feel at liberty to call in these peddlers for special serv- ices. Is detective work required, these roving peddlers can be made use of. Does the king desire to visit the ancestral graves, in the many preparations which the occasion requires, such for instance as the making ready the city streets and country roads, the peddlers' services are employed. Or in the country, is a special escort required for the guest of the magistrate, the serv- ices of the pu-sangs are called into requisition. Mr. Gilmore's "Korea from its Capital," narrates
GUILDS AND OTHER ASSOCIATIONS 8i
how Lieutenant Foulk, when naval attache of the American legation, had once a pleasing experi- ence, while traveling in the country, of the courtesies of the pu-saiigs, acting for him in the capacity of a night escort.* Especially are they liable to military service should the government have need to call an army into the field in addi- tion to the troops in the barracks. So that,
* The following is the account mentioned above, that was written by Lieutenant Foulk, describing his experience with the pii-sangs:
"It was nightfall when we started to return. The mag- istrate, who was an officer of the pu-sajig, brought his seal into use, and called out thirty of the body to light us down the mountains. Where these men came from or how they were called I did not understand, for we were apparently in an uninhabited, wild, mountain district. They appeared quickly— great, rough mountain men, each wearing the pti-sang hat. We descended the worst ravine in a long, weird, winding procession, the mountains and our path weirdly illuminated by the pine torches of the pit-sang men, who uttered shrill, reverberating cries continually to indicate the road or one another's whereabouts. Suddenly we came upon a little pavilion in the darkest part of the gorge; here some two hundred more pie-sang men were assembled by a wild stream in the light of many bonfires and torches. On the call of the magistrate they had pre- pared a feast for us here at midnight in the mountains. Here the magistrate told me he had been asked by the late minister to the United States, Min Yong Ik, to suddenly call on the pit-sang men of the Song-do district for serv- ices, to show me the usefulness and fidelity of the body; and he had selected this place, the middle of the mountains, and time, the middle of the night. I need not say that the experience was wonderful and impressive."
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although Korea has no "merchant marine," she may be said to have a merchant soldiery.
Another curious feature is that among the great departmental offices of the government, such as the foreign office, the home office, and the war office, there is si pii-saiig office for whose head- quarters a large house is provided in the center of the city. And further, one of the greatest nobles in the country is the president of this office. In other words, he is the head of the pu-sang guild. Then the pu-sangs are subdivided according to magistracies, having what we would term a county organization, and there is a chief who is the head of all the pu-sangs in a given magistracy. Men who are not peddlers frequently join the peddlers' guild. A former gateman of ours, and in our neighborhood a paperer and one of the coolies are said to belong to the peddlers' guild. The popularity of the guild is due chiefly to its size and power. Not that they have any direct authority, but they are clannish in help- ing one another. For example, ^. pu-sang desires to collect a debt, but his debtor declines to pay. Does he put his note in the hands of a collection agency as we would at home? No, he mentions the matter to a few of his peddler friends. In the evening he calls again in company with these friends. And as twenty stalwart ped- dlers begin to bare their brawny arms, the debtor comes to the conclusion that he believes he can raise the money after all. But they have more
GUILDS AND OTHER ASSOCIATIONS 83
leg-itimate modes of helpfulness. Like other guilds, they help each other in the case of special emergencies, such as a death or wedding in the family. On two occasions, I have seen great gatherings of \.\\e pii-sangs. They had large tents erected, and I remember that some of their num- ber wore white straw hats, with a couple of cot- ton balls in the band. These were said to be low men in the order.
These various guilds, as we have seen, have characteristics in which they differ, combined with features that are similar. One of the family traits is the custom of mutual help with money or goods upon specified occasions. There are also certain varieties of another Korean association, known as the kyci or kay. The kay is a promi- nent feature in Korean social life. There are many varieties of these associations, organized for all kinds of purposes, some good, some bad. There are associations of which the Koreans themselves disapprove theoretically, as being organized for gambling purposes — lotteries in other words. Again, there are perfectly legiti- mate kays, which are insurance companies, or mutual benefit associations, or money-loaning syndicates. There are several different kinds of lotteries. One variety is limited in the number of those who engage, and has but one prize. Another kind has a hundred chances; and still a third has a thousand chances. Then there is one which the Koreans say has been copied after the
84 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
foreign lottery, where tickets are sold in unlimited numbers. This is probably true, for I have seen the tickets of the Manila Lottery exposed for sale in the Chinese stores, instructing them in the ways of Western civilization. It is to the credit of the Korean government that it frowns severely upon these lotteries, and suppresses them where- ever it is possible.
We come now to the mutual-aid societies, insur- ance companies and loan associations. There is a form of kay which, considering the customs that govern it, would appear to be legitimate. A certain number of men belong to it; and they have a fortnightly or monthly casting of the lot. When a man has drawn the prize, he cannot try again until every other member has had his turn in drawing the prize. But whether eligible or not for the drawing, he must keep up his regular periodical payments to the manager of the kay. In some such associations, I am told, the amount of the sum drawn goes up month by month till a certain limit is reached, when it drops again to the original amount. We were surprised one Sun- day on going to church to see the house-boy of one of our missionary friends standing with a fantastic tissue paper head gear on his head, and a native lantern in his hand, in a group of similarly fur- nished men outside a house where a funeral was to be held. He had to. He belonged to an association whose members are pledged to carry lanterns at the funeral, and furnish some stipu-
GUILDS AND OTHER ASSOCIATIONS 85
lated article, as the grass-clotli with which to wrap the remains when one of their number dies. Then there is another association which pays the entire expense of the funeral, when death invades the home of one of its members. These insur- ance kays are known by a number of names. In contrast with these, there is an association whose members are assessed when there is a wedding in the family, or a young son puts up his hair in a top-knot, and assumes the garb of manhood. There is still another variety which helps at both weddings and funerals. These insurance and mutual-aid associations are conducted on the assessment plan.
Koreans also associate themselves together in kays for the purpose of loaning money. There is one variety composed of people who loan their money and divide the interest at the New Year's season in order to lighten the heavy burden of expense which custom connects with that festival season. Another heavy item of expense in Kor- ean families is the preparation of their winter supply of certain articles of food, made in the fall. Among their other preparations many families salt down a large quantity of shrimps at this season of the year. Hence it comes about that there is an association whose members each spend their portion of the accrued interest on their united loan in buying the winter supply of shrimps.
It is a matter of course that every Korean scholar wants to attend the royal examinations
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once in a while. But for the poor country- scholar attending the koaga* is expensive, for, added to the cost of the examination paper, ink, etc., is the item of hotel bills on the way. So these scholars form an association, loan their money, and in the course of time divide the accrued interest, and find themselves in a position to attend the examination in Seoul.
The Koreans are very fond of going out of the city upon picnics in the spring, when the azaleas and other flowers are in bloom. So, festive but impecunious people sometimes form an associa- tion, loan their money, and use the interest in going out upon such excursions when the flowers are in their glory. Men who are fond of archery have their kays. Four or five archers meet and contribute a small sum each to form a prize, which is then given to the man most skillful with his bow. Or two sets of archers meet for a friendly contest, and the rich men and poor men among them, according to their several abilities, contribute a purse, out of which they provide a feast and dancing-girls to entertain them. Money is loaned by the kays at what we would consider very high rates of interest. Yearly loans are sometimes made, but more often money is loaned on ten months' time. In these ten-months' loans, if a man's credit is very good, he can borrow per- haps at 20 per cent. More often the rate charged is 30, 40, or 50 per cent. Thus 1,000 cash in the
♦These Koas^as were abolished at the time of the war.
GUILDS AND OTHER ASSOCIATIONS 87
course of ten months brings in an interest amounting to 200 cash, or more. Often the return payments are made during the ten months at the rate of one-tenth of principal and interest each month. Certain kinds of kays have each a manager, who is expected upon the occasions when they meet, once or twice a month, to fur- nish the members with wine or a meal. I once saw such a meeting in the country, and witnessed the casting of lots, when their names, written on white nuts about the size of a hickory nut, were drawn one by one froin a gourd receptacle.
We sometimes think that in the home-land we have organizations for almost everything under the sun. But I am not sure whether Korean life, with all its different associations, is not about as complex as ours. The business world is certainly organized to an extent we are not acquainted with in Western lands. True, there are trades unions in each alike, but in Korea nearly all the mer- chants in the land are bound together in their powerful guilds, that are practically trades unions in the mercantile world. And it is worthy of note that one feature characterizes all these associa- tions, whether merchant guilds, trades unions, the .semi-political peddlers' guilds, or the legiti- mate kind of kays, and that is the trait of mutual helpfulness in time of need.
CHAPTER VI
ANCESTRAL WORSHIP AS PRACTICED IN KOREA
The religious beliefs of Korea show a blending of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shamanism. The Confucian learning, as we know, forms the basis of the education of the country. Every magistracy throughout the land has somewhere in its town a temple dedicated to Confucius, where, twice a year, in the spring and in the fall, the magistrate, with his numerous writers, worships the spirit of the sage. The social fabric of the coun- try is largely Confucian. Ancestral worship is Confucian. Again, the monasteries and temples of Buddha are scattered throughout the country — a faith with much of its lustre gone. Frequently before a village door may be seen a couple of monks or nuns soliciting alms, as they tap upon their wooden begging-bowls in time to a monoto- nous chant. Socially, they hold nearly the lowest position, and until the time of the war were for- bidden to enter the gates of Seoul. Shamanism, or Spiritism, has its representatives in the blind sorcerer, the muiang^ or sorceress, and the geomancer who chooses fortunate grave sites.
Each religion furnishes its share to the mythology of the country. At the head of their system of belief is Hananim, whom the Chinese
ANCESTRAL WORSHIP IN KOREA 89
recognize as Shangti. Many would introduce as next inferior to him Buddha (indeed, some go to the temples upon the death of a relative to pray the Buddha to send his spirit to the good abode). Then come the ten judges of hades, whose pic- tures may be seen in Buddhist temples. Through their servants they are said to be well versed in the affairs of mortals. Upon the death of a man, one of his souls is seized by ofhcial servants of these judges and hurried to hades. The judges, knowing whether his deeds have been good or evil, give sentence, and in accordance with the judgment the spirit is sent either to the Buddhist heaven or to the Buddhist hell to spend the rest of his existence. In the latter place are manifold kinds of punishment. For you must know that, while many Koreans believe with the Southern Buddhists in the transmigration of souls, many others follow the Northern cult in the belief in a heaven and a hell. Another class of Koreans believe that the soul does not go to the realm of departed spirits, but wanders about on this earth dependent for its condition upon the fidelity of his sons in keeping up the prescribed sacrifice. Next below the ten judges come the sansiit, or mountain spirits. Each mountain on the checker- board of Korea is supposed to have its presiding genius in the person of a mountain spirit, of whom more anon. Below the mountain spirits are many other kinds of spirits. We come now to the kiiisin, or devils. Nearly all the women
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and three-fourths of the men of Korea stand in mortal terror of these malevolent beings. Is any one sick, or in trouble, going on a journey or moving his lodgings, the demons are propitiated by sorcery.
With this brief look at the religions of the country, let us center our attention upon the ancestral worship as practiced in Korea. Ances- tral worship is Confucian in its origin. Con- fucius was intensely practical in his philosophy. His mind took no pleasure in dwelling upon the supernatural. He said: "Spirits are to be respected, but to be kept at a distance." On another occasion he said: "While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve their spirits?" He found ancestral worship existing among the ancients he so much venerated, and he passed on the custom almost without comment. And yet, while he set before men a beautiful array of virtues to be practiced, because he gave to the virtue of filial piety an excessive importance and made it the foundation stone of his structure, he may be said to have furnished the principle for ancestral worship.
The customs regulating ancestral worship in Korea are so interesting, that it may be profitable to consider the procedure after death somewhat in detail. Koreans believe that every man has three souls, and upon death one goes to hades, or wanders about on the earth, one goes to the grave, and one takes his abode in the ancestral tablet.
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In the last moments before death, silence reigns through the house. Sad ministrations follow, and the remains are placed in new clothes for burial. Outside the door is at once placed a little table with three bowls of rice, and a red squash ; and alongside of it are ranged three pairs of straw shoes.
Three official servants have come to take the soul to the ten judges in hades. These are pres- ents to them. Smelling the flavor of the cooked rice, they are refreshed. The shoes being burnt, they are shod for the journey. The squash is a present to the prison official who lived 2,000 years ago, and was fond of squash. Then the rice is thrown away, and the squash broken. This is done during the first half-hour after death. Then the inner garments of the deceased are taken out by a servant, who waves them in the air and calls loudly to the deceased by name. At the same time the friends and relatives of the dead man loudly lament. After a time the clothes are thrown upon the roof of the house and left there.
The choice of the site of the grave is considered a matter of great importance to Koreans. The semi-globular mounds are invariably placed upon hillsides. While they maybe placed upon slopes facing any direction, a south exposure is pre- ferred, probably for reasons such as carry weight in China, the belief being there that inasmuch as warmth and life proceed from the south, and cold and frost from the north, that grave
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is most fortunately located which is at the same time sheltered from the north and open to the good influences supposed to emanate from the south. But if that were all, the choice of a grave site would be a simple matter. There are many intricate points connected with the subject, in which only the initiated are versed. The rela- tives are obliged to consult a geomancer. He is a learned man who, by long study of books upon the subject in his possession, knows all the super- stitions relating to the good and bad influences supposed to be in the ground. He must choose the burial site. It is believed that a well-chosen site brings rank and money and numerous sons to the children of the one buried there.
The day of the funeral arrives. The remains have been placed in a coffin more or less expen- sive, according to the means of the family. At dusk they start with a long train of lanterns, the brilliantly colored hearse, the loudly weeping mourners, of whom the male members are dressed in the bushel-basket hat and the yellow mourner's clothes. The grave at last has been reached, the interment has taken place, and the mound has been rounded up. Now occurs the first sacrifice. Small tables are placed in front of the grave. Upon them are set offerings of wine and dried fish. The relatives, facing the offerings and the grave, bow to the ground in five prostrations. A formula is repeated, wishing peace to the spirit who is to dwell in the grave. Afterward, at a
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little distance behind the grave, like offerings and similar prostrations are made to the moun- tain spirit. The mountain spirit is supposed to preside over the place. Prayer is offered to him, invoking his protection as host to the spirit in the grave they are committing to his care. This is deemed necessary in order to secure hospitable treatment for the spirit at the grave. After these ceremonies the wine is disposed of, and the fish is divided among the servants.
We now come to the third soul of the man. He returns from the grave with the mourners to take up his abode in the ancestral tablet. In the room the tablet is to occupy (a vacant room if possible) another offering is made.
The offerings consist of native bread, wine, meat, cooked rice and vermicelli soup. These articles of food are placed before the tablet that the spirit may regale himself with the flavor. The relatives and friends bow five times. Then the food is taken into another room and eaten by the assembled company.
At this point it may be well to make a few explanations. The ancestral tablet consists of a couple of strips of whitened wood, put face to face, with a hollow space cut into their inner sur- faces, and within which are written upon one of the strips, in Chinese, the family name and other writing. A small round hole connecting this inner space with the outer air is supposed to give ingress and egress to the spirit. The tablet thus
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constituted is slipped into a socket in a wooden block, and thus adopts an upright position, follow- ing which it is placed in a protecting case. After three years of mourning it is put with the other ancestral tablets in the little cabinets in the ancestral temple adjoining the house. During the intervening time, if the man is wealthy he places the tablet in a vacant room, iisually in his wife's apartment. But if the man is poor and has no ancestral temple, the tablet is placed in a box on one side of the room, and on the occasions when he worships his other ancestors, strips of paper with writing on them are pasted on the wall in lieu of the proper tablets. The common people worship not only for their father, but also for their grandfather and great-grandfather. Some go back two generations or more. High officials worship for four, while the king worships for five ancestors.
Some curious customs regulate the period of mourning, strictly so called.
If the father dies, the family goes into mourn- ing for three years. If the father and mother die the same day, the same period of mourning is observed; and likewise, should the mother die some time after the father's death. But if while the father is alive the mother dies, the family wear mourning garments for one year.
Again, suppose three generations of a family to be living. The father dies, and the family goes into mourning for three years. The grand-
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father dies next, and the son takes his dead father's place in wearing mourning clothes for another three years. Where a man received rank, posthumous rank is sometimes given to his departed father from the feeling that the father must alwaj's be considered higher than the son. An official cannot hold office during the three years of mourning. And we remember how, in the year of mourning for the Dowager Queen, custom required that th; public offices be closed for a long period of time. Custom also prescribes that no matter how young a king may be at the time of his decease, his successor must be younger than he, so that he can perform the sacrifices.
But to return to the family in mourning. Allusion has been made to the mourning clothes ordinarily worn. On the minor sacrificial occa- sions, a peculiar robe is worn. It consists of a flowing-sleeved garment, split up the back to the waist, over which division a fold falls to the bot- tom of the garment. During the three years, upon the two national mourning days, and upon the anniversary of the father's death, an especial attire is worn by the male relatives during the ceremonies of mourning. Among other features the official hoop belt is worn ; and the hat is peculiar, in which a white loop goes up over a baggy skull-cap from front to rear.
During the three years a dish of fruit is con- stantly kept before the ancestral tablet.
Let us consider the sacrifices further demanded
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by the laws of ancestral worship. Upon all these occasions the eldest son is invariably the master of ceremonies. During- the three years certain sacrifice is rendered only before the deceased father's tablet, and not in the ancestral temple. On the first and fifteenth of each Korean month sacrifice is performed, and rice or vermicelli soup, amid lamentations, is placed before the tablet. The time for the sacrifice is one or two hours after midnight. The anniversary of the father's death is a very important occasion during the mourning years. While in mourning, on the night before this anniversary, sacrifice is made before the tablet. The next morning friends visit the fam- ily in inourning, and sympathize with them, upon which occasion food in many varieties is set before them. Some time during the day the mourners repair to the grave and repeat the sacrifices of the previous year to the soul in the grave and to the mountain spirit.
These constitute the sacrifices peculiar to the first three years. Afterward the offerings upon the first and fifteenth days cease, while sacrifice on the father's anniversar}^ day goes on perpet- ually, but in the ancestral temple where the other tablets are. Mention should be made here of the anniversaries of the grandfather's and g-reat- grand father's death, when sacrifice is made in the ancestral temple, and at their graves.
We come now to the eight Korean holidays upon which sacrifice to the dead must be performed.
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The occasions are New Year's day (about the ist of February), the fifteenth day of the first month wliicli closes the New Year's holiday season, the two national mourning days, and four other festiv^als. Upon these days sacrifice is offered at daybreak. One peculiarity marks the celebration of these eight festivals during the mourning years. A double sacrifice is performed at the house ; one in the ancestral temple before the remoter ancestors' tablets, the other later, before the father's tablet in the other building. The two general mourning da3's come in the spring and in the fall; one in the third month, corresponding to April, the other in the eighth month, our September. Upon these two days the practice is various. Some visit their father's grave, and some do not. Others again visit in addition the graves of their grandfather and remoter ancestors, upon which occasions they bow and offer their food at the graves and before the presiding mountain spirit.
Now, as to the significance of all this ancestral worship. The literature upon the ancestral wor- ship of China, especially the pamphlet by Dr. Yates, seems to indicate that the Chinese believe that the happiness of the dead and of the living is directly connected with ancestral worship. Whether their fathers are rich or beggars in the other world depends upon the fidelity of their chil- dren in keeping up the prescribed sacrifices, and they are believed to reward or punish the living
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children according to their faithfulness in ances- tral worship.
Many Koreans would agree with this view. Still another class seem tobelievx that the condition of the dead is permanently fixed by the sentence of the ten judges upon their arrival in the other world. Such would hold that whether a man worships his father or not, does not affect the happiness of either the father or the son. But it does affect the reputation and social standing of the son among his acquaintances, as being a man who shows respect or disrespect to the spirit of his father living in the ancestral tablet in his house. Such are some of the features of the ancestral worship of Korea.
CHAPTER VII
A VISIT TO A FAMOUS MOUNTAIN
As I was told at a monastery near by that I was the first foreigner who had visited this noted mountain, it may prove of interest if I relate my experiences while there. As to the question of where it is, I would state in the province of Chung Chong, perhaps ten miles south of Kong-Ju, the capital, a little off from the main road that leads to the south. Kay-riong-san is a notable moun- tain, whether for itself or for its venerable mon- asteries, but more especially because it rises not far from the spot which, tradition tells us, is to be the site of the future Seoul of the next dynasty, whenever it comes. The natives put it thus: The founder of the present dynasty had deter- mined to locate his capital there, and had been three days at work on the walls, when the moun- tain spirit warned him off. The site was not for him. He must locate at the present Seoul. The property was being held for the dynasty that would follow his own. And as his majesty had no desire to engender the ill-will of the local deities, he prudently withdrew his claim.
The mountain is magnificent ; as high as Pyok- Han to the north of our city of Seoul. But instead of a cluster of glorious peaks, there is a suc-
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cession of perhaps a dozen such peaks in pic- turesque irregularity. On the side of our ap- proach they were green with splendid timber to their very summits. I think that one gains a more vivid sense of their majesty from the plain, because the eye sweeps up over comparativ^ely un- broken slopes of green to the tremendous peaks above. I cannot soon forget the approach to the monastery at the foot of the mountain. Splendid trees centuries old lined the avenue, through whose interstices came the sunlight and glimpses of the majestic green mountains. Birds were singing, while here and there could be heard the music of cascades. We arrived at the monastery. Here were buildings that were erected at the time when our fathers wore armor or wolf-skins in the train of Emperor Charlemagne, a thousand years ago. One temple into which we looked, that was six or eight hundred years old, impressed us as having been built when Buddhism was in its glory. The fine large statues of the three seated Buddhas and of their attendants beside them, together with the platform on which they were placed, towered aloft some fifteen feet. The wooden frame which held the drum of the monks consisted of two very well-carved dragons. In another build- ing was the finest bell I have seen in Korea. Upon its sides were carved the names of the faith- ful who had given it. It hung from its frame by a loop of well-made dragons of bronze. In one of the thousand-year-old buildings time had been
A VISIT TO A FAMOUS MOUNTAIN loi
unkind to the Buddha. Half of his dainty mus- tache was wanting-, and the gold was gone from his fingers. In another building were four large pictures of noted priests. One with a flowing black beard represented Sa-Miong-Tong, who it is said went to Japan, in the days of the invasion, and by his magical arts intimidated the Japanese into concluding a peace with Korea. Such is the tradition. The persimmons growing at this monastery were the finest I tasted in Korea. We saw a foundry in which the monks make kettles, such as the natives use for the cooking of food. Standing by itself in a rather wild place rose a curious iron tower. Iron cylinders, perhaps two feet in diameter, were placed one upon another to the height of forty feet. Two tall stone slabs helped to support the tower. The last ten feet of the cylinders leaned away at an angle from the almost perpendicular shaft. The top of the column had an ornamental capital. I could get no satisfactory explanation of the shaft. In another spot we saw a small pagoda upon whose shelves sat a number of little stone Bud- dhas, some with heads and some without, but all of them serene in posture. I glanced into one of the monastery kitchens. Above one of the huge cooking-places, painted upon the wall in bright colors, was a kitchen god. He had the look of a large well-fed Korean seated in a chair with a couple of attendants beside him. After tiffin my Korean friend proposed that
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while our horses went around, we follow the path over the brow of the mountain. A look at the steep tremendous peak filled me with no great enthusiasm. However we went. A slender young monk put on a yellow-peaked sun-bonnet and led the way. He had come but recently from Seoul to take up the life of a monk, and the poor fellow was evidently homesick. We had been climbing some time when we came to another monastery. Its calm, gilded Buddha sat in a glass case. Here we had a change of guides. He was a fat young monk, as merry as an early spring robin. Up we zigzagged over a rugged path. At the summit was another monastery in whose court, strange to say, stood a Japanese glass street lamp. Here I saw an elderly inonk, the first really ascetic Korean monk that I have met. His head was shaven, his face looked thin and worn, and his manners were charmingly gentle. After a rest we took in the splendid view. To the north and south were a profusion of mountains. Southward we looked over nine successive peaks. Westward the country stretched in a comparatively unbroken level to the sea.
A third bright young monk led us down the mountain to the large monastery at its foot, where we were to spend the night. In the dim twilight of the following morning we heard a tap-tap, tap- tap, tap, tap, as the wooden part of the great drum was struck. Then came the loud sound of the drum. Next the boom of the great bronze
A VISIT TO A FAMOUS MOUNTAIN 103
bell, which sounded now and again during the strange, monotonous chant of the monks that followed. It all seemed very weird to one's half- wakened senses. Later we visited the famous plain to which allusion has been made. Two monks, one in the small yellow begging-hat, shaped like a bowl, and the other in the ordinary wide-brimmed, round-crowned, black monk's hat, who had occasion to go in the same direction, showed us the way. Presently we found our- selves climbing the mountain, green with bushes and grass. We were entering by the western approach. Not far from the top of the ridge we saw a brook that slipped for fifty feet down a slope of rock at an angle of forty-five degrees. From here our path led down a valley which furnished one of the roughest pieces of road that I ever traveled. The brook that went with us was falling all the time, and it was with the great- est difficulty that we kept from following its example. One of our party did rest for a time in one of the puddles of the road. One of the many cascades of the valley deserves particular mention. To view it well required a visit in one's stocking feet. The wide brook dropped with a sheer fall of twenty-five feet into an oval pool that was green in color and of unknown depth. The natives say that in the depths of the pool sleeps a male dragon. Presently the rocky road opened upon a great plain. As we traveled through it we saw where the canal had been
I04 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
begun that was to have crossed the city. Soon we reached the place where huge cubes of stone lay about the plain in careless disorder. These the ancient king had cut and brought from the hills, when he thought to build his city here. Under almost every block of stone holes had been scraped. It is said that the natives at one time brought nails and placed them under the stones, in the belief that by so doing they would be rid of disease. But doubt having been raised as to the value of the remedy, the nails were all dug out and used. As we looked about, this place was pointed out as the spot where the palace was to have stood. And from yonder knoll the great bell was to have tolled its warning that day was done, and that the stream of life throbbing through the great gates must rest until the mor- row.
But what a site for a city I An enormous level plain, amply sufficient to hold a great population, wonderfully fortified by the hand of God in the mountains that he built about it. To the north were grand, rugged, mountain heads. To the east and west more regular ridges. To the south the plain opened out upon a chorus of peaks of all heights and sizes. The east, north, and west approaches would probably have been difficult. But from the south the city would doubtless have been easy of access. Had the founder of the present dynasty placed his capital here, he could have made for himself an almost impregnable city;
A VISIT TO A FAMOUS MOUNTAIN 105
but his choice of Seoul was undoubtedly wise, for he gained thereby a capital of far more central location.
CHAPTER VIII
THE FEAR OF DEMONS
The merit of the little poem,"Seein' things," by that melodious singer of childhood's thoughts, Eugene Field, consists not in the scientific accu- racy of the boy's deductions, but in the fact that it enables us to see the horrid phantoms of the night through the eyes of the boy. In like manner, please consider that this chapter is not an attempt at a scientific investigation in the realm of demon- ology, but simply an effort to let )^ou view the occult beings they so much dread from the point of view of the average Korean. *
No one can understand the inner life of the great majority of the Korean people who fails to take note of their attitude toward these demons. When the Korean thinks of these beings no warm surge of love and joy comes into his heart, as is the case with the Christian when he is filled with the thought of his Father in Heaven, but rather his imagination peoples the earth, the sea, the sky, the haunts of men and the wilderness with myriads of spirits, five-sixths of whom are hate-
*For most of my knowledge upon this subject I am indebted to the researches of Rev. G. H. Jones, Mrs. Gifford and the late Dr. E. B. Landis.
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THE FEAR OF DEMONS 107
ful, wicked, malicious, and the other one-sixth, while better disposed, are capricious in the extreme. These beings have it in their power, he believes, to bring him material prosperity or to injure him and his family in a thousand dif- ferent ways — such, for instance, as through the loss of property, or sickness, taking frequently the form known as "demon possession." He can never tell when he has offended one of these beings, so he, and more especially his wife, live in a constant dread that impels them to frequent expensive offerings to appease their jealous anger. Demon-worship takes no thought of the joys or woes of a future life, presents not one induce- ment to men to live more moral lives, but strikes incessantly upon the one emotional chord of fear. It has been estimated that demon-worship costs the people of Korea two million five hundred thousand dollars every year. In the city of Seoul alone three thousand sorceresses ply their art, earn- ing, on an average, fifteen yen a month apiece — a very good living, indeed, according to Korean standards. Thus some idea can be formed of the hold this demon cult has upon the lives of the people. It is undoubtedl}' tlie religion of the country, as well as the oldest of all its beliefs.
To consider from the Korean point of view these supernatural beings more in detail, they are divided into two classes, each of which is again capable of a further subdivision. The first and larsfcr class consists of malicious fiends and the
io8 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
spirits of men who have died in poverty, or under other painful circumstances, and now wander about the world in cold, hunger and nakedness, wreaking their spite on all who refuse to supply their needs through offerings. The second class embraces spirits of a kindlier nature and the shades of men who in this life were prosperous and influential. The people believe that by proper induceinents in the form of offerings, incense and prayers, they can buy off members of the first class or prevail on others of the second class to interest themselves in their behalf. Go into the inner court of a Korean home and among other evidences of spirit worship you would prob- ably see the following fetishes or spirit "nests" : Somewhere out of doors in the court is visible a bundle of straw set on some sticks or a shelf con- taining a scrap of cloth or a bit of straw rope and upon which on the offering days, the ist, 2d, 3d, and 15th of the month, cooked food is placed. This is the nest of the spirit of the site. Again, in the shed room used for a kitchen, the fetish of the kitchen demon may be seen in a piece of cloth or paper fastened to the wall above the fire- place. In the deep veranda attached to the side of the great beam overhead are seen paper and rice, representing the abode of the spirit of the ridge- pole, who occupies rather a chief position among the household spirits, and who is supposed to bring to the home a measure of health and hap- piness, and yet is unable always to ward off sick-
THE FEAR OF DEMONS 109
ness. At the approach of a contagious disease he is said to flee from the premises and must be coaxed back with propei ceremonies later on. The rites attending the introduction or recall of this spirit into a home have been thus described: The house having been cleaned and a feast pre- pared, the miitang, or sorceress, who has been called for the occasion, starts out to hunt the spirit. She ties a good-sized sheet of paper around an oak rod, which she holds upright in her hand. She may find the spirit just outside the house or she may have to go some distance before he indi- cates his presence by shaking the rod with so much force that many men with their united strength could not hold it still. He accompanies the niutang as she rettirns to the house. Upon their arrival great demonstrations of joy are made that he has come to bless the family with his pres- ence. The paper which was tied around the stick is folded, soaked in wine, a few pieces of cash slipped into it and then tossed against a beam in the house, to which it adheres. Rice is thrown up, some of which sticks to the paper, and the spirit nest is complete. Smallpox creates great ravages among the little folks of Korea, and par- ents never count their infants among the number of their children until they have had that disease. They believe there is a smallpox devil, to whom the name of Mama has been given, and whose home they say is in the south of China. The well-known symptoms break out upon a baby.
no EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
At once a inutang is called, and under her direc- tion they proceed to do the spirit reverence. The parents bow low before the sick child and address it continually in terms of the liiy"hest respect. If the child survives, at the turn of the disease the inutang is called again, a feast is piepared and the smallpox devil is bidden adieu, with many polite wishes for a prosperous journey to his native land. This shows something of the inner life of Korean homes. Every day in the month is con- sidered fortunate for the doing of certain things and unlucky for the doing of certain others, so fettered are they by their superstitions.
Strangers in Korea have their curiosity aroused b}^ seeing here and there by the roadside a small tree growing apparently out of the midst of a pile of stones. To its limbs are attached all manner of white rags, shreds of colored cloth and pieces of paper, some of which contain written prayers. Coolies going by spit at the pile. Old women with little bundles of clothing tied to the tops of their heads and a staff in one hand, pause and bow reverently, rubbing together their palms. An evil spirit dwells in the tree and it is considered wise in travelers to show him some mark of atten- tion, exhibited in these different ways. Food is sometimes offered at these stone piles to wander- ing hungry spirits. Here and there a great splen- did tree is considered haunted. Sometimes upon the crown of a mountain pass you will come upon a spirit shrine. Within you will see colored pic-
THE FEAR OF DEMONS iii
tures. One is of an old man sitting on a tiger ; handsome women, apparently his wives, stand about, and beyond are the pictures of retainers. This is the shrine of a mountain spirit. The people will point out to you pools, where great writhing dragons are said to have their homes. Near many a country village may be seen a rude shrine where some great local spirit is worshiped every three years, and the expenses of the festival are defrayed by public taxation.
The priests and priestesses of this "unorganized Shamanism" are blind men called panstis and the women termed vintangs. If you could only for- get the horrid meaning of it all, the dancing of the uiutang in her worship, in time to the beat of the gong and the drum in the shape of an hour- glass, would impress one as quite picturesque. She is supposed to be under the control of a spirit of influence in the realm of darkness, who, for a consideration, can be induced to appease the injured dignity of some malignant spirit who is afflicting a household. She also claims the power to foretell future events. No matter what her position in life, the call of a woman by a spirit to become a vmtang is considered irresistible. She will make plenty of money, but at a high price ; for she becomes a social outcast, not on moral grounds, but by reason of her vocation. The pansu deals directly with the evil spirits, which he drives away by repeating exorcisms from a book handed down from the earliest ages, whose
112 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
words are meaningless at the present time. One of his many pretensions is the bottling of a foul spiiit. Under ordinary circumstances it is only necessary to offer some poor food, meanly pre- pared and offered in coarse dishes, with an order to cease their persecutions, which may be in the form of sickness or mysterious manifestations, such as unaccountable noises, unexplained fires in roofs, the mysterious finding of sieves and articles of clothing in the tops of trees. If this proves insufficient, the fiend is called and is supposed to manifest his presence by causing the small bit of wood which has been placed on the floor in front of the pansu, to dance in a most extraordinary manner. The pansu chastises him severely with a stick which he grasps in one hand, and drives him into a wide-mouthed, empty bottle which he holds in the other. When this is accomplished, which is indicated by the piece of wood hopping in, the bottle is corked, buried at a cross-roads and a fire is built over the spot. These are some of the methods employed by the pansiis and imitangs.
Let us consider the attitude of the Korean Christians, more especially toward' what they regard as cases of demoniacal possession. The following is the naive account given by a Korean Christian man living on the island of Kang-wha to Mrs. G. H. Jones, which she inserted in one of her annual reports to the Northern M. E. Mission. He was an e3^e-witness of the events he narrates :
"There was a man living in Sosa Sirimi on
THE FEAR OF DEMONS 113
Kang-wha, who has since removed to Chemulpo. With his entire household he became a Christian, and although he had not as yet received baptism, he cast away all his idols and ceased from the evil deeds of the past. On the eve of the ninth day of the sixth moon his wife, though sick, had no pain, yet her limbs became rigid like a dead person and she was totally unconscious. Being thus the whole night, we thought she had the Asiatic cholera, and gave her medicine. When daylight came she seemed to be better and we concluded she had recovered. The next night she had a return of the attack, going into convul- sions and becoming unconscious. Three or four persons were called in to rub her limbs and we gave her medicine again and again. At daybreak she recovered. This time we believed she was entirely cured; but at about six o'clock in the evening the attack returned. Her husband rubbed her limbs. Three or four of the brethren were present. In an hour she awoke and began to gnaw her hands, so that her mouth was bloody. Those standing by, using in fun the words employed to drive out a dog, cried 'Egai! Egai!' and she began to bellow. Therefore all were astonished and cried, 'This is not cholera. A devil has taken possession of her. We must beseech the Lord to cast it out. Let us pray.' Then the sick woman, with evident grief, began to cry again. We inquired why vshe cried. She answered : 'You call me a devil ; and say you will
114 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
drive me away.' Therefore we were sure it was the devil. This being Friday evening and the time when the women meet for prayer, all of the sisters and some of the brethren met at the sick woman's house, and reading Mark 5:1-20, with one heart all besought the Lord, saying: 'Lord have pity on us. We are all sinners, and very weak, and when the devil tries us, we are defense- less. Oh, Lord, bring to pass what we have just read in the Bible. Make the devil to leave this woman and go to his own place. ' As we prayed the woman sat up and joined in our pra}'er. And then when we sang, she sang with us. We all exhorted her to have faith that the devil had been cast out, and give no place to doubt ; to beseech the Lord to never again allow the devil to disturb her. Then, praising God, we all dis- persed to our homes. From that time she was entirely cured and to this day she is a whole per- son. Thus the Lord favors us ; but how many are ignorant of his grace. The spirit of which she was possessed is called Sai-pyol-sang, and is very wicked. If one should serve it, it will be diflEicult to eat food brought in from another house, and if the attempt is made to eat without first having prayed to the spirit, sickness will result. It is also difificult to bring into the house clothing. If a person brings a bright-colored cloth into the house without first acknowledging the spirit, sickness will surely result. This family having once worshiped the spirit and now propos-
THE FEAR OF DEMONS 115
ing to cast it away, received this trial ; for on the day the woman took sick, some new cloth had been brought into the house, and the devil being- angered at thus being ignored punished his former slaves." Thus closed his narrative. Mrs. Jones says that she supposes the phy.sicians would pro- nounce it a case of hysteria; but whatever this may have been, the Christians feel that she was healed by their pra5^ers.
Certain it is that for many a Korean the aban- donment of spirit-worship is one of the most serious steps than can possibly be taken. Here is an instance in point. A female inquirer who felt it her duty to give up the worship, and doubt- ing her own courage, called in Miss Ellen Strong of our mission to help her destroy the imple- ments of worship. At the appointed time she came and found the woman looking deathly pale and fairly sick from a sense of the seriousness of the step she was about to take, and rather dis- posed to give up the effort. It took considerable persuasion upon the part of Miss Strong to get up her courage to the point of action, and then she had to take the initiative in the destruction of the spirit "nests" and the other utensils. Only when the operations were well under way did her hostess venture to take an active part in the pro- ceedings. We are utterly unable to appreciate the terror which, under such circumstances, must fill the heart of a Korean woman who had lived all her life under the fear of the demons.
ii6 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
The following extract from a report of Mrs. J. S. Gale, made to one of the annual meetings of onr mission, admirabl}' shows the change that comes into the lives of Koreans when they pass from demon-worshipers to followers of Jesus Christ: "In the early spring" (1S95) "Mrs. Kim and Mrs. Kwon came to me, and they said their husbands had been attending the men's meetings upon the hill, and they had heard that Jesus Christ could cast out devils, and that was just what they wanted him to do for them. Their houses were full of evil spirits, they said. They could not sleep for the strange sights and sounds. Sometimes it seemed as if sand were dashed against their windows, and again as if water were being poured from one dish into another. Night after night they had searched for the cause of these disturbances, with no other result than to find the cup-boards and dishes moving about the house in a mysterious way, and large earthen jars placed inside others which had such narrow necks that none but supernatural power could have gotten them in, and no one could get them out. They had spent much time and money in devil worship and sacrificing, hoping in that way to get some peace. But things only grew worse. Their husbands had heard at the meet- ings that Jesus Christ could cast out evil spirits, and if this was true, they wanted to know what they must do in order to get him to cast them out of their homes. We sat down on the rug and
THE FEAR OF DEMONS 117
spent most of the afternoon reading the Scripture accounts of Christ's power over devils. And they were so glad to learn that 'He is the same yester- day, today and forever. ' They learned also how the presence of the Holy Spirit in their homes would be a safeguard against the Evil One. It was not long before I heard that these women had given up all sacrificing and devil-worship, and were praying God to send the Holy Spirit to dwell with them. Soon they came to tell me that their homes were all peaceful. No more strange sights or sounds. No more sorcerers or exorcists. No more fear or devil-worship. But such joy and happiness as they had never known. They and their neighbors were filled with awe and wonder and wanted me to come and teach them more about the Holy Spirit and Jesus."
Let me say, in closing this chapter, that it is easy for us as Westerners to ridicule the supersti- tions of the Koreans; but if we, in a spirit of sympathy, assume for a time their angle of vision, we can see that to them the fear of demons is the cause of frequent and intense mental suffering.
CHAPTER IX
AN ADVENTURE ON THE HAN RIVER
It was at the time of the year when the streets of Seoul were resplendent with little children adorned, like Joseph of old, in "coats of many colors." It was the time when their elders, clad in new garments of spotless white, went about visiting their friends with Oriental effusiveness of respect, and at the same time contracted indi- gestion from eating so-called rice "bread" of the consistency of putty. In short, it was the Korean New Year season of the year 1889. At perhaps four o'clock of one bright, mild February after- noon I strolled up to the dispensary at Dr. Her- on's house. The doctor's salutation was: "Gifford, don't you want to go hunting at the river?" Now I am so uncertain a huntsman that the ducks all laugh when they see me coming with a gun. I saw little use of my going upon a hunt. But a glance at the doctor's tired face changed my mind. The doctor was a man of such professional conscientiousness that he little knew how to spare himself. He had a dispensary at his home, where he saw Koreans and foreigners in the mornings ; he was surgeon in charge of the royal government hospital, where he spent his after-
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AN ADVENTURE ON HAN RIVER 119
noons; he was physician to his majesty, liable to calls at all hours; and added to this, he had charge of the entire foreign practice of Seoul. His wife was then an invalid, confined to her bed, and much of the care of the Presbyterian Mission, then in its day of beginnings, rested upon his shoulders. Yes, I would go with him, but to skate, not to hunt. Two white horses were called up, one which the doctor had purchased for his wife, and the other a loan to him from the king's stables, for the doctor had a Tennesseean's fond- ness for horses. Two servants carried our accou- trements.
A pleasant ride brought us to the vicinity of Yong-san upon the river's bank. Instead of pausing here, however, we rode still farther up the river to a cluster of houses where lumber is cut and timbers prepared, conspicuous from the distance for a goodly tiled house and a clump of splendid great beech trees. Arrived here the view was fine. Downward to the steamer landing the river swept, with a bank that was a perfect curve. In the background rose the bluff, man- tled to the very top with the populous village of Yong-san, in the center of which, like a bright clasp, was set the red-brick Catholic Seminary.
We were soon off our horses. The winter had been mild, and to my disappointment such ice as remained on the river looked too fragile for skat- ing. The interest therefore all centered in the hunt.
I20 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
There is a place near here in the river, especially where the river bends, the surface of which, even in the coldest winters when the ice in other places has been eight or more inches thick, I have never seen frozen over. Warm springs in the river doubtless account for this; and here, all winter long, waterfowls are feeding. At the water's edge below us was a row of large boats; beyond was a shell of thin ice, and still beyond was open water. In this open water was a succession of groups of wild swans, ranged down the stream like the links of a chain. One group in particular was not far away ; and the doctor, eager for a shot, threw off his overcoat, which he replaced with a "turimachi, " or long white outer-gar- ment borrowed from a Korean. While I hid my- self behind a pile of brush, he craftily sauntered down to the water's edge, in the hope that the birds might mistake him for an innocent-minded native puttering among the boats. But no, the swans, turning their graceful necks, gazed warily at the doctor, and, taking alarm, quickly glided out of range. Bat the doctor was a man of spirit, and was not so easily to be outdone. Presently he was hard at work, tugging at this great boat, shoving that one with all his might. But his efforts were in vain. The tide, so power- ful along the coasts of Korea, was low in the river, and the boats could not be floated; and in addi- tion, most of them were partly embedded in ice. A few moments later the doctor, some distance
AN ADVENTURE ON HAN RIVER 121
away, has found a skiff. He motions for me to come. The boat is made of pine boards clumsily tacked together. We have no business to enter it. But the fever of the hunt is upon us, and we are not disposed to be critical. In we clamber, followed by two half-grown boys to row us. The doctor's handsome black dog sprang into the water to follow us, but gesticulations and splash- ings of the water induced her to swim back to the shore. And now we are rapidly approaching the flock that eluded us, the doctor in the prow and the two lads erect and swaying to and fro as they impel the boat by sculling in the peculiar native fashion. Hope is vivid; but the wily swans, too, are alert. They raise together, their pon- derous wings pounding the water, and take their flight to soar into the upper air. Failure only urges the doctor on to seek the next flock farther down the river. This flock, on being approached, similarly took to flight; and the third, fourth, and fifth flocks followed their example. Lastly three or four ducks were started, and these, fl5^ing somewhat nearer to our boat, the doctor ven- tured to fire at them, though I believe without disastrous effect upon the birds.
Then simultaneously the thought occurred to us both, "It is almost time for the gates to close." In those ante-bellum days, every night shortly after sundown, with a bray of horns and boom of base-drum, the guardians of the city's peace caused the great gates of the city to be closed,
122 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
and then retired to rest in the comforting delusion that all had been done that was neces- sary to keep out of the capital any hostile foe, even were he trained according to Western military methods — a system, indeed, of about as much practical efficacy as if a council of lambs should decide to ward off the attacks of wolves by the defensive use of their heels. The closing of the gates, with certain other ancient and interesting customs, has now passed out of vogue, to be sure, but in those days it was certainly no joke for the belated foreigner to find himself confronted of an evening by the closed leaves of two great, fold- ing, iron-clad gates. It involved the staying out- side the city all night, or climbing the high, slip- pery wall ; but, be it whispered, the occasional jingle of a string of cash operated like magic in swing- ing open the portals, just as it was currently riimored, though of course most slanderously, that a similar jingle, only in greater volume, opened in the same magic way doors leading to rank and place in the governmental world. In a word, we little relished the idea of climbing the city wall after dark.
We must hurry. We could see the servants and horses on the shore, but could we get to them? A long field of ice lay between us and the bank. There was nothing to do but to row back up the river to our starting-place. The boys were not rowing fast enough. We took the oar in turn and rowed after the foreign fashion. But the oar
AN ADVENTURE ON HAN RIVER 123
being- peculiar our efforts were clumsy, and not unlikely the wrenching of the boat resulting therefrom started the seams. Of a sudden we became aware that considerable water had come in through the bottom. By this time the boys were rowing. We observe that the water is coming in much faster. The boys are now swing- ing at the sculling-oar with all their strength, and with the prow headed for the ice. Now and again, in their frantic endeavors, they drive the boat into the ice, and the seams are opened wider. Higher, higher creeps the water. Then, in a moment I can never forget, I see the prow pause for a moment, then sink out of sight under the black, cold water. Neither of us could swim. In a moment down we all went. It all happened in less time than suffices for the telling. My thought, as I sank, was to grasp at the boat when I came to the surface.
And now this is our situation. We are on a sand-bar in the very middle of the river. I am standing in water up to my waist; the doctor is in water up to his arm-pits, while only the heads of the boys are visible. Natives told us afterward that only a few feet on either side of where we sank the water was deep enou^fh to have drowned us. Fortunately we were close to the ice. The doctor was presently clambering out, his gun still firmly grasped in his hand. Next, the boys were trying in vain to leap out of the water. They were in my wa}^ as I came to where they clung at the
124 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
edge of the ice. So I reached down till I could grasp their baggy trousers and heaved them on like logs, and presently we were all upon the ice. A glance at the ice-field was not reassuring. It was shell-ice with black air-holes all about us. Our location was about half-way between Yong- san and the hamlet with the beech trees. Those on shore were aware of our peril. In after days, when we could think of our misfortunes with greater cheerfulness, the doctor, with that pecul- iar, half-satirical twitch of his heavily mustached upper lip, would tell of the tremulousness of my tones as I called '' Ossa, ossa" (hurry, hurry), and I believe I responded that his voice had taken on a hoarseness that was hardly natural. But if we are frightened, the boys are terrified. One is dancing about in a way that threatens to break the ice. Expostulations are unheeded. Only one thing remains: the doctor points his empty gun at the frantic youth, with the command to desist. Now force is an argument the validity of which, from centuries of use, the average Korean is prompt to recognize. The boy sub- sides. Soon quiet settles upon our group as we recognize that the men on shore are doing all that can be done, and that we dare not move about for fear of breaking the thin ice. The doctor, in his white Korean coat, sits upon the ice with his gun across his lap; I am kneeling with my overcoat tucked under my knees; one boy is standing erect and the other lad is seated. Night
AN ADVENTURE ON HAN RIVER 125
has now fallen, and from the overclouded sky the full moon sheds a dim and hazy light. Not a ripple stirs the water, and a deep quiet rests upon the river. True, we hear faintly, from the hamlet with the beech trees, the hum of voices, and sounds that sug-gest the chopping of ice around the ice-bound boats. As silent and motionless as a group of statuary, we keep our several attitudes for the space of an hour. The mental tension is extreme.
Finally we observe that water to the depth of an inch has come over the ice. The tide is com- ing in! Now the water has risen to the depth of two or three inches. Then we are conscious that the cake upon which we are seated has broken loose from the ice-field, and is turning around, preparatory to floating down the river. Our danger now is great, for should our frail raft strike against an obstruction, we would inevitably sink beneath the deep black waters.
But just then from an unobserved quarter, the direction of the village of Yong-san, came the sound of the plash of an oar. Through the dim moonlight we discern a boat with five rescuers approaching. The revulsion of feeling was strong. But still we dreaded lest, by the ungentle striking of the boat against the ice, we should be precipi- tated into the stream. Under the doctor's direc- tions they reach the edge of the ice without mis- hap. A long oar is extended toward us, which we, beginning with the boys, grasp each in turn,
126 E VERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
and, sliding, are pulled to the edge of the boat and thus rescued. What ecstatic joy fills our hearts !
Upon reaching terra firma,the servants bring the horses. But to ride to Seoul from Yong-san in our frozen garments is out of the question. The doctor, full of resource, at once calls for Korean clothes. They are soon brought. We do not stop to enter a house, but under the dim moonlight, in an apartment walled about with living heads, we take off such garments as are wet or stiffened with ice, and replace them with the baggy Ko- rean clothes, even to the straw sandals. The ' thought of the doctor's sick wife at home lends wings to his speed. In a moment he is ready and off on his horse. Our wet clothes are slapped together promiscuously upon a carrier's frame, and are started ahead upon the back of a coolie. Formal thanks to our benefactors are reserved for a later time and a form more substantial than words. Now, with the servant running beside, I set out at a rapid gait for the city, which brings again the glow of warmth into my frozen limbs.
Arrived at the city wall, the horse and servant must stay outside until the morning; and there is nothing for nie to do but to clamber up the twenty feet of sheer stone wall. A man sent by the doctor is waiting to accompany me over the wall. Side by side he climbs with me, now draw- ing back my Korean robe so that I shall not be impeded, now guiding my hands to safe projec-
AN ADVENTURE ON HAN RIVER 127
tions. Near the top he hastens ahead and pulls me over the wall. Thence a short, brisk walk brings me to the doctor's home, where I find him already arrived and clothed in his usual attire. Congratulations alternate with merriment at my appearance, while underneath it all was deep thankfulness for the Providence that had rescued us from peril. The next morning the servants who had accompanied us remarked that we were "as men who had come back froin the dead." And I think they were correct. Two or three days later the two boys came to see us, and they reported that their mother, instead of rendering thanks to such deities as she knew, had soundly trounced them both, though for what reason they did not state. But as we fed them with Korean sweetmeats and gave them a proper amount of cash, I think that we consoled them.
CHAPTER X
LEAVES OF MISSION HISTORY
With the exception of Thibet, which has its missionaries, yet keeps them barred be3^ond closed gates, Korea is the youngest of the missionary countries. Rev. John Ross, of IMoukden, although a missionary to the Chinese in Manchuria, prior to the time of the signing of the treaties, became very much interested in the people of Korea through men of that land whom he met in Mouk- den, and who were able to converse with him through written Chinese. With the information thus acquired, he wrote a book in iSSo, entitled "Corea, its History, Manners and Customs." He also emplo3'ed some of these men to translate the entire New Testament into the Unmun. As a pioneer version it was good ; but it would have been more available for use among the common people had Mr. Ross himself been personally acquainted with the language, so as to supervise the work of his Korean translators. His very great interest in the people was still further shown by his sending across the border into the north of the country Korean colporteurs with books; one of whose number, Mr. Saw, started the now flourishing work at Chang-yen in the Whang- Hai province,
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LEAVES OF MISSION HISTORY 129
and later became one of the most valued helpers our Presbyterian mission has ever possessed.
The American Protestant missionary aiitliorities were prompt to avail themselves of the oppor- tunity, afforded them by the signing- of the treaty in 1882, to enter the "Forbidden Land." In the spring of 1884, J. W. Heron, M.D., received appointment from the Northern Presbyterian Board to go to Korea. His departure, however, was delayed. In the summer of the same year Rev. Dr. R. S. McClay, of the Japan Methodist Conference, made a flying visit to Korea to spy out the land. The first Protestant missionary, however, to enter the country with the view to permanent abode was Dr. H.N. Allen, our present U. S. Minister to Korea, who, with his family, was transferred by the Presbyterian Board from China to Korea in the autum.n of 1884. In a coun- try where the martyrdom of the French fathers and thousands of their fellows was still fresh in the memory, and where the prejudice against all Western religions was still strong, the Doctor found it convenient to lay more emphasis on the fact that he was the physician of the foreign legations than that he had come with the view to opening Protestant missionary work. Dr. Allen's judiciousness, together with the eclat given him by the royal favor, which was due to his success- ful surgical treatment of the sword-cuts inflicted upon Min Yong Ik, a cousin of the queen, in the troubles of 1884, and which resulted in his
I30 EVEPvY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
appointment as royal physician and surgeon in charge of the government hospital, no doubt materially smoothed the way for the labors of his clerical brethren who shortly followed him. In a very material way it may be said that the gates which long had been shut against the missionary worker were opened at the point of a lancet. In the spring of 1885, Rev. H. G. Underwood, of the Presbyterian Mission, who had spent several months in Japan studying the Korean language, appeared upon the scene. He was known by the authorities to be a clergyman, and as no objection to his coming was raised by them, he was followed in the summer by W. B. Scranton, M.D., and family, and Rev. and Mrs. H. G. Appenzeller of the M. E. Mission. Soon after came J. W. Heron, M.D., and wife, and presently Mrs. M. F. Scranton appeared to join her son and enter upon school and women's work. The reception afforded by the nobility and common people alike to these "visitors from the West," who had brought with them their wives and their belong- ings, was an interesting compound of curiosity and courtesy. The missionary, meanwhile, was left to quietly push his work. That no conserva- tive reaction should result, however, was more than could be expected. In 1S8S the ancient canard, that has made so much trouble in China, that the missionaries were stealing and killing babies for medicinal purposes, created a tempo- rary disturbance in Seoul; and about this time the
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authorities sought to restrict the so-called ' ' proselyting' ' done by the missionaries. It raised a difficult question of conscience for us workers on the field. No one thought seriously of aban- doning our religious work. Some believed that, like Peter and John under similar circumstances, they should appeal to a "higher law"; while others thought it the part of wisdom to bend temporarily before the storm, and pursue for a time "quieter methods," such, for instance, as the omission of the singing of hymns from the order of the church services. A year passed away, and scarcely a ripple remained to tell of the once perturbed waters. Unmolested, the work went steadily and strongly forward, with little of external history to record, until the spring of the year of the war, when there occurred the persecution of the Christians at Pyeng-yang, to be narrated in another chapter. In October, 1895, occurred the Decennial of the Founding of Protestant Missions in Korea, upon which occa- sion a number of important papers were read.
It should here be observed that, in addition to the two missions already mentioned, during the course of the years other sister missions came to their side, to join in the battle against heathen- ism. In 1889 came Presbyterian missionaries from far Australia; also in the same year Mr. M. C. Fenwick, of Canada, of the "Korean Itinerant Mission." In 1890, the genial Bishop F. J. C. Corfe arrived from England, with the representa-
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tives of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In the same year appeared Dr. and Mrs. R. A. Hardie, of the Y. M. C. A. mission of Canada. In 1892 came our brothers of the Southern Presbyterian Mission. In 1895 appeared representatives of the training-school founded by the late Dr. Gordon, of Boston. Their official title is the "Ella Thing Memorial Mission," and they are Baptist in belief. In 1896, Rev. Dr. C. F. Reid, the well-known Chinese missionary, came as the advance-guard of the American Methodist Mission, South.
We have a roll of honor in Korea — those who have been summoned to a higher service and a richer life in the realm beyond the grave. There was Miss Anna P. Jacobsen, the trained nurse, with all the splendid fire and courage of her Viking ancestry; and Hugh Brown, M.D., full of sturdy strength; and John W. Heron, M.D., the soul of fidelity and honor — one whom all his friends loved as strongly as a blood relation. These were members of the Northern Presbyte- rian Mission. There was also the Australian Presbyterian missionary, Rev. John Henry Dav- ies, who gave the promise of becoming the best all-round missionary in the land; and the tall, swarthy Presbyterian brother from Nova Scotia, Rev. William J. McKenzie, the successful advo- cate of native self-support; also William J. Hall, M. D. , of the Northern Methodist Mission, the saint- liest man that ever crossed the shores of Korea.
A Member of the Official Class.
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There has always been a marked spirit of comity among the missionaries of Korea. The Methodist and Presbyterian missions, founded at about the same time, grew up together like two children. They had much the same expei-iences, and in a number of ways they united their work. The missions coming into the field at a later period imbibed the same fraternal spirit; and the whole work has thus far been conducted along the lines of certain well-marked, though imwritten, rules of comity. While the polic}' of the missions was still in a formative state, it was impossible for all to see eye to eye, but in those days the lines of cleavage ran nowhere near to the denominational walls. For instance, this was the case at the time when we were threatened with the transplanta- tion of the "term question" to Korea. This controversy originated two hundred years ago between the Jesuit and Dominican missionaries in China. When the Protestant missionaries came, they took up the controversy where the others had left off, and for forty years their scholars argued the question. They may be at it yet, for aught that I know to the contrary. The question is simply this: the Chinese, and the Koreans too, recognize a supreme deity who, by the Chinese, is called Shangti and by the Koreans, Hananim, and of whom their conceptions are pure, thovigh very vague. The term question, then, consists in whether or not it is allowable to adopt as the name for God the term Shangti, or
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Hananim, and explain our conception of Him by the attributes we affirm of God. In Korea, rather than bequeath to our posterity an endless debate, the solution of the whole matter at which we arrived was that we cease to look for uniformity, and allow each person to use whatever one of half a dozen available terms he preferred.
The first ten years of mission work, terminating in 1894, the year of the war, was a period of preparation. We were learning Korean, and, what is still more important, Koreans. The prepara- tion of a Christian literature had to be begun. We had all the difficulties that usually attend the process of getting our religion rooted in a new heathen soil. The people at large were invariably suspicious of us and our religion. Now and then whole groups of men would show an interest in our preaching ; but because perhaps their mercenary aims had not been satisfied, or perhaps they lacked the moral courage to aban- don their vices and heathen practices, their inter- est was not permanent. But, on the other hand, there were individuals and there were communi- ties where the Gospel wrought a marked change in lives. Such converts, under careful Bible training, developed into excellent workers. Then came the war, and since then, beginning with the province in which Seoul is located and stretching away to the northern frontier, on the western side of the peninsula, there is a section of country where a marked forward religious movement has
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been in progress, and in which the active agents have been largely the Korean Christians them- selves.
CHAPTER XI
MISSIONARY LIFE AND WORK
Some people are of the opinion that anyone will do for a foreign missionary. Let us see. I have sometimes thought that, considering the expert knowledge which his circumstances from time to time require of the worker in foreign lands, that to be ideally prepared^ the new missionary would reach his field of labor at the age of sixty years. In the first place, he must have a thorough collegiate education ; and then he certainly must secure his diploma from the theological seminary. After this, he might take a year or two of study in the English Bible. And then, considering how well the art of the physician prepares the way for the acceptance of the message of the preacher, he might take a course in the medical college. Again, in the assignment of work, he is liable to be put in charge of a boys* school or "missionary college"; and who thinks of teaching school in these days of improved methods without a course of study in some normal school? For his transla- tion work, he must be a trained linguist. Again, the native Christians are constantly bringing to him new and intricate questions, soliciting his advice, and the administrative work, which takes
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so much of his time likewise calls for a judicially trained mind; see how he would be benefited by a course at the law school ! In preaching to the unconverted his audience is not composed of intelligent heathen, as at home, but of heathen densely ignorant of the Gospel; how, then, shoiild he know the most effective methods for evangelistic preaching? From the number of his native converts promising young men must be selected and trained into preachers of the Gospel ; what an advantage to him to fill a professorship in a theological seminary for a time ! Then he is liable to be made a treasurer of his mission or station ; several years' service as a bookkeeper in a bank would splendidly fit him for his position. Mareover, houses must be built, and the chief business of the native carpenter is to cheat him by day and by night, so perforce the missionary becomes his own contractor. How could the prospective missionary better fit himself for a very necessary part of his work, than by driving nails through an apprenticeship under a compe- tent builder? Again, the zeal of the contributors at home must be fed with the fuel of a constant stream of journalistic articles from the pen of the man on the field ; a period of training as reporter on the "Daily Hustler" would give him just the literary style required for this portion of his work. But, to speak in all seriousness, no moral nor intellectual weakling will do for a foreign missionary; and the more thorough his train-
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ing and the broader his experience, the better are his chances of success.
Let nie here quote the admirable missionary qualifications named by Dr. George Smith, at the convention of Student Volunteers, at Keswick, England, in July of 1893:
1. He should be conscious of the call of Christ and the gift of the Spirit.
2. He should covet earnestly the possession of the highest efficiency.
3. He must follow fully the rule of Christian charity and good temper.
4. He must learn habits of order and business abilit}', that will make him a wise steward of his Lord's money.
5. He must be sympathetic and loving toward native graces.
6. He must give himself to unceasing prayer.
7. He must yield absolute submission to the mind and will of God.
Allow me to add one word more ; he must pos- sess unquenchable patience.
With what interest do we look forward to the coming of the new missionary. We expect him to settle off-hand the questions that have per- plexed us for years, upon the mere statement of the difficulty. But, strange to remark, the Pres- byterian Board in New York places such a value upon his judgment that it will not let him vote until he has lived for a year upon the field; and its Korea mission has added the further require-
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ment, that he can then vote only after having passed successfully his first year's examination in the language. I shall always remember the reply of that prince of missionaries, the lamented Rev. Dr. J. L. Nevius, of Chefoo, when, in answer to a query of mine relating to some question of mis- sion policy in the conduct of schools, he replied: "If you had asked me that question twenty years ago, I could have told you. Now I do not know." In passing, let me pay a deserved tribute to the memory of that great and good man. In the spring of 1890, in the days when we, too, of the Presbyterian Mission in Korea, were "young missionaries," Dr. and Mrs. Nevius paid a visit to Seoul; and they so won our eager attention with their loving and wise counsels, that, as the result of their visit, our entire mission policy was altered for the better.
We come now to organization. In Korea, two types of mission organization prevail. In one type all the authority and power are vested in one inan, the bishop. Such are the Roman Cath- olic and English Church missions. The Metho- dist Mission would probably come under this class, for certainly the Northern Methodist Mission is visited yearly by a bishop from America, who holds an annual conference and settles all impor- tant questions of mission policy. A number of the bishops, I may remark, have endeared them- selves to the members of the foreign community in Seoul by holding meetings open to the gen-
I40 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
eral public, for the deepening' of religious life. In the intervals between visits, the authority resides largely in a mission superintendent appointed by the bishop, though considerable power adheres in the general body of workers. The other type of organization is that of control by the mission itself, as exemplified in the Baptist and Presby- terian missions. In the matter of church organi- U zation, to assist in the oversight of the native work, our Methodist brethren are accustomed to license yearly Korean local preachers and exhorters. In the matter of church membership, they hav^e two classes, full members and proba- tioners, with the further distinction that some adult applicants receive baptism and some do not, while in a state of probation.
The Northern, Southern, and Australian Pres- byterian missions of Korea, with an independent Canadian missionary, have combined their native work under one church organization, to which they have given the general name of "Jesus Doc- trine Church." The male members of these mis- sions are organized into a "Council of Presbyterian Missionaries," which is the highest church court we possess. In time this body will be trans- formed into a presb3-tery, or synod, when our Korean brethren become eligible for membership, for as yet we have no ordained native ministers and only one ruling elder. In a number of churches Korean deacons have been ordained, and in the course of time the other orders of
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church officers will be set apart for their respon- sible positions. In our entire church government we have what might be termed a preliminary- organization. In localities where missionaries reside the churches are governed by foreign sessions, in which the Korean deacons have a seat, with the privileges of the floor, but no vote. The work in the country districts is organized along the line of the so-called Nevius system. From the circle of believers in a given village are chosen one or two of the most suitable men, who are called "leaders," to whom are assigned the care of the church services and the oversight of the be- lievers, but without the power to administer the sacraments. The West Gate Church of Seoul and the church in the city of Pyeng-yang have both a foreign session and a body of Korean leaders.
The country churches are visited periodically by the missionary in charge, or his Korean helper. Once a year a training-class is held at the mission station, and the missionary invites these leaders up for a term of study in the Bible. In the taking of members into the church, we find it wise to use the utmost caution. When the session, or itinerating minister with sessional powers, feels reasonably sure that a given person is a Christian, then, with certain public ceremonies in the church, the man is enrolled as a "catechumen," or applicant for baptism. He thereupon joins the catechumen class, with a prescribed course of study in the Bible and certain Christian books.
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The general rule is that he wait at least six months before he be given church membership. The sessional examinations for admission to the church — I can speak with certainty for Seoul — are made very thorough, something between the similar examination of candidates in the home-land and the ordeal through which the young minister passes when examined by his presbytery for the licensure to preach. If the session feels satisfied with the examination, he is baptized and taken into the church ; if the contrary is the case, he is asked to wait for a time, until his grasp of the truth is clearer, or, for instance, until he keeps the Sabbath better or attends with regularity the mid-week prayer-meeting.
Let us turn our attention to the work of the medical missionar}\ There is no doubt that in the early days of our Protestant missionary work in Korea, the doctor and the teacher, but more especially the doctor, did a preliminary work which made possible the labors of their clerical brethren. Let us watch a day's work in the Presbyterian hospital, under the charge of Dr. O. R. Avison, in the buildings kindly loaned to the mission by his majesty, who has in many ways shown his appreciation of the missionaries' aim and work, as when, in an audience he accorded to Bishop Ninde, of the Methodist church, early in 1895, he directly requested him to send more missionaries. In the wards each morning, pray- ers, with a suitable amount of religious teaching,
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are conducted by the doctor. There is a pay- ward and a general ward. The foreign lady nurse, with the aid of a corps of three or four bright-faced Korean hospital assistants, attends to the dressings of the patients. Perhaps a surgical operation is on hand, over in the large operating room, when the entire force must be present ; or the doctor calls the young fellows above men- tioned, who are also studying medicine with him, into his room for a medical lecture. The after- noon comes, and a group of men are seen outside in the court or in the room provided for them, waiting for the dispensary to open. A little bell tinkles, and a man holding a strip of wood in his hands, on which is marked a given number in Chinese characters, arises and goes within to the doctor, to be followed shortly by the man with the next higher number. Presently, a clerical mis- sionary or Korean helper joins the waiting group to tell them that there is healing for their sin-sick souls as well as for the ills of the body. A Chris- tian bookstore adjoins the waiting-room. Tinkle, tinkle, and another man goes inside. Let us go with him. In the dispensary we find the doctor and his assistants. The cases are disposed of systematically and rapidly. The name of the man and the nature of his trouble go into the register. If it be medicine that is required, a prescription is promptly written and passed in to the youth in the drug room. If a minor operation be neces- sary, the instruments swiftly do their work. A
144 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN KOREA
nominal charge covering the cost of the medicines is made in a number of the cases. And so the afternoon passes in the effort to bring help to the bodies and souls of a few of this world's sick ones. There is a women's department of the hospital, with a lady physician to meet the patients. But, in considering this branch of the work, I am going to take you to the women's hospital of the Methodist Mission, in the center of the foreign settlement. We find Doctor Mary M. Cut- ler in charge. Her small, but well-appointed hospital nestles beside the street under the hill of the large girls' school. In addition to Korean female assistants, some of whom are graduates of the school, she has the help of missionary work- ers, one a trained nurse and one a Bible worker. To the hospital come the women, some in closed chairs and some on foot. Part of the work is done in the hospital, and part in the homes of the patients, and in both places we can be certain that the Gospel truth is faithfully taught. The diseases the doctors meet with are chiefly malaria, indigestion, worms, skin diseases, eye troubles, bone and joint diseases, consumption, venereal diseases, smallpox, remittent fever, a species of typhus fever called impiuug, and occasionally a leper is seen. The native doctors have their herbs and mixtures, some of which are fairly good. In their practice they frequently stick needles into the flesh, and apply the burning of the moxa to the skin; but of surgery they
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have absolutely no knowledge and it is here that the foreign doctor makes his reputation.
There is one sharp distinction between the heathen and the Christian spirit. The heathen helps his relative or the member of his guild or insurance society, who can be relied upon to help him in turn in the hour of need; but for the poor unfortunate whose only claim is the bond of a common humanity, he does absolutely nothing. On the other hand, the Christian, in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, not merely looks with com- passion upon the suffering stranger, but cares for him as well, either as an individual or collectively by the erection of hospitals and asylums of every description. Here is an instance: A few years ago, at certain seasons of the year, both inside and outside of the west wall of Seoul, you might have seen numbers of the sick and dying stretched upon the ground. They were people afflicted with contagious diseases, servants or poor people occupying buildings in the compounds of more prosperous Koreans, wlio had cruelly turned them into the streets to die. This is, however, no longer the case ; for Christian philanthropy has provided, outside the west gate of the city, the "Frederick Underwood Shelter," where the out- cast sick may resort for shelter and medical care. In connection with this institution, Mrs. Dr. Underwood conducts a dispensary.
What an arsenal is to an army, such the mission press is to the band of missionary workers. The
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Tri-lingual press of the Methodist Mission, founded by our large-hearted brother, the Rev. F. Ohlinger, now returned to his former field in Foochow, China, furnishes the American mission- aries with the larger part of their missionary liter- ature. They are able to print in English, Unmun or Chinese, whence the mission press gets its name. Without neglecting other forms of work, there is a considerable literary activity on the part of the missionaries. First and most important is Bible translation. Engaged in this work are the following Board of Bible Transla- tors: Messrs. W. D. Reynolds, of the Southern Presbyterian Mission; H. G. Appenzeller and W. B. Scranton, of the Northern M. E. Mission; M. N. Trollope, of the English Church Mission; J. S. Gale and H. G, Underwood, representing the Northern Presbyterian Mission. They have translated the Gospels, Acts and about one half of the Pauline Epistles. When a translator has finished a given book of the Scriptures, he pre- pares a blankbook with vertically ruled columns, as many as there are translators, and in the right- hand columns he writes his own translation. The book is then handed around, and his colleagues write, in the columns assigned to them, their renderings of the text. It eventually returns to the translator, who prepares his final copy in the light of the suggestions of the others. The cost of publishing is borne by the American and the British and Foreign Bible societies. We are able
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to use to a limited extent Christian literature printed in Chinese, sent us from Shanghai, but for the use of the common people we are obliged to print in Unmun,
The Korean Religious Tract Society is another of our institutions, which is undenominational in character. This year it published some 37,000 books and leaflets. With the exception of a few sheet tracts, the publications of the society are sold by the missionaries, as a rule, at a nominal price. It is believed that thereby the books meet with better treatment. Many of the missionaries in active work have translated a book or two, but the most prolific translators are probably Mr. Gale and Dr. Underwood. Each has prepared a text-book and a dictionary, besides translating parts of the Scriptures. Mr. Gale also published, with funds raised by Rev. Dr. A. T. Pierson, a translation of Pilgrim's Progress; and Dr. Under- wood has translated numerous tracts and hymns. The Korean Repository, published monthly in English, is a magazine that deals with Korean topics, some of a missionary character, but for the most part of a secular nature. The magazine has been commended by journals both in America and in the Far East for the bright, readable nature of its contents, much of the credit for which is due to the able editing of the Revs. H. G. Appenzeller and George Heber Jones, of the Methodist Mission. Two religious weekl}' news- papers printed in Unmun, the one the "Christian
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News," edited by Drs. Underwood and C. C. Vinton, the other the "Christian Advocate," with Rev. Mr. Appenzeller for editor, came into being last winter.
I shall now ask my reader to draw upon his imagination a bit, and in fancy we shall step upon a magic carpet, like the enchanted objects of which you have read in the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments," and together we shall fly hither and thither about the country seeing how various kinds of evangelistic work are done by the differ- ent missionaries. Let us drop in upon Miss Mattie Tate, of the Southern Presbyterian Mission at Chun-ju, in the South, and observe her in her women's work. She has a room where she receives her Korean women visitors. As we see her, she has a group of women about her, all sitting on the floor. Many are old acquaint- ances; a few have come for the first time. The elaborate introductions, with the inquisitive ques- tions about age, etc., which they consider so polite, are now over. The conversation has been turned to religious topics, and she is teaching them the truths of the dear old Bible. Now one of the strangers breaks in with a question as to the texture of her foreign dress. Another one fol- lows with a story of her troubles. It is so hard for her, a widow woman, to live; and cannot the teacher help her? But other heads, bent in seri- ous thought, show that the spiritual words of the speaker have taken hold upon them, like the seed
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that fell on good ground in the parable of our Savior. The lady worker engaged in evangel- istic labor among the women, a form of work which the men, by reason of the customs of the country, are unable to do, also visits in the home of the women. She conducts one or two regular classes of Bible study for their benefit during the week ; sits with them on the women's side of the curtain at church, and occasionally gets into her "chair" (a box-like contrivance, composed of a frame and curtains, with a couple of parallel poles under- neath for the benefit of the coolies that carry her), and with a Korean Bible woman she goes out to teach the women in country villages.
We will now drop down into Fusan to watch a winter training-class, such as Rev. W. M. Baird, of our