149. Northern Asia: the Conflict of Systems in Korea
The history of the central and north Asiatic alphabets is complex. It may be summed up in the statement that Aramæan derivatives of the primitive Semitic writing, evolving in and near Syria, in the six or seven centuries before the birth of Christ, were carried east and northeast from one people to another. One of the modifications of Aramæan, the Estrangelo Syriac, was transported by a sect of heretical Christians, the Nestorians, to the Uigurs and Mongols, from whom the Manchus derived their system.
The farthest extension of the alphabet in Asia was to the shores of the Pacific ocean, in Korea. Korean writing however seems to be derived from an Indian source, through Tibetan or perhaps Pali, the sacred language and script of the Southern branch of Buddhism; hence to be only a remote collateral relative of the neighboring Manchu. In Korea, the spread of the alphabet was checked, not through any inherent flaws or weakness of age, but by the competition of a totally different system of writing: that of the Chinese.
Chinese writing is not alphabetic at all. To some extent it does represent sounds. But it represents syllables or words, not letters; and it represents them by the rebus method. The basis of Chinese writing is ideographic. It is therefore a modified form of picture writing, and theoretically pertains to an early stage, almost comparable in principle to Egyptian hieroglyphs.
In a conflict between such a primitive system and a truly alphabetic one, the latter should of course prevail on account of its much greater efficiency and simplicity. Actually, however, the Korean alphabet did not triumph but barely managed to maintain an existence alongside Chinese. The cause was a familiar one: the tremendous social conservatism of the human mind.
When the native alphabet obtained its hold in Korea, it was confronted by an overwhelming Chinese influence. The court, the government, the institutions, official religion, all activities of people of fashion and importance, were modeled after Chinese examples. The man who could not write and read Chinese characters was eliminated from polite society and advancement. This was only natural. The civilization of China is one of the most ancient and greatest in the world, and the Koreans were a smaller people and close neighbors. Western civilization was thousands of miles away, and it was only now and then that a driblet from it penetrated to the eastern edge of Asia. On one side then stood the undoubted practical advantage of the alphabet from the West; on the other, the momentum of the whole mass of Chinese culture. The outcome was that the nationally Korean and true alphabet became something that shopkeepers and low people made use of; a thing easy to learn and more or less contemptible. But laws and documents and books of higher learning were written in Chinese characters, which innumerable Koreans for generation after generation spent years of their lives in mastering.
If the human mind were really rational, if it operated rationally only a tenth as much as it fondly believes, it would not do awkward and difficult things after a simpler and more effective means to the same end had been put within its reach, as was the case in this Korean situation. Another principle beyond mere outright inertia is operative here. This is the tendency of culture elements which have for some time been associated, often only by accident, to form an interlocked aggregation or “complex.” Once such a complex or cluster has acquired a certain coherence, it survives with a tenacity independent of the degree of inherent or logical connection between its elements. The fact that ideographs were associated with Chinese religion, literature, and institutions, constituted them part of what may be called the Chinese complex. The mass of this Chinese complex far overbalanced the slight and scattering Western influences. The alphabet drifted into Korea as an isolated fragment, and was promptly borne down by the weight of the elaborate and closely knit culture aggregate of Chinese origin. This brute fact, and not any superior reasonableness or intrinsic merit of one system or the other, determined the issue between them.
In the same way the “complex” that we know as Western civilization—Christianity and collars, science and picture films, factory labor and democracy, fine and base all tangled together—is to-day crushing the breath out of ancient and exotic cultures. We like to call the process “Progress” because that is more comforting than to view it as the rolling of a fate beyond our control.
CHAPTER XII
THE GROWTH OF A PRIMITIVE RELIGION
[150.] Regional variation of culture.—[151.] Plains, Southwest, Northwest areas.—[152.] California and its sub-areas.—[153.] The shaping of a problem.—[154.] Girls’ Adolescence Rite.—[155.] The First Period.—[156.] The Second Period: Mourning Anniversary and First-salmon rite.—[157.] Era of regional differentiation.—[158.] Third and Fourth Periods in Central California: Kuksu and Hesi.—[159.] Third and Fourth Periods in Southern California: Jimsonweed and Chungichnish.—[160.] Third and Fourth Periods on the Lower Colorado: Dream Singing.—[161.] Northwestern California: world-renewal and wealth display.—[162.] Summary of religious development.—[163.] Other phases of culture.—[164.] Outline of the culture history of California.—[165.] The question of dating.—[166.] The evidence of archæology.—[167.] Age of the shellmounds.—[168.] General serviceability of the method.