In Korea with Marquis Ito

by George Trumbull Ladd

It cannot be supposed that an official class, so constituted and so thoroughly imbued with such unwholesome characteristics, would easily form within itself a party loyal to reform, and brave and strong enough to carry its loyalty out into practical effect. As a matter of fact no such political party has ever been formed and maintained to any successful issue, in the history of Korea. For this we may take the word of Mr. Homer B. Hulbert, who says,[45] regarding the formation of parties in 1575: “These parties have never represented any principle whatever. They have never had any platforms, but have been, and are, simply political clans bent upon securing the royal favor and the offices and emoluments that go therewith.” In another work of the same author we are told: “From that day onward (middle of the sixteenth century) politics has been a war of factions, struggling for wealth and power, with no scruples against murder or other crime.” The Koreans are, indeed, given to the formation of societies and parties of various descriptions; the more improper or nearly impossible are the ends to be reached, and the more clandestine and illicit the means employed, the greater the temporary enthusiasm which they are likely to excite. All these parties have therefore one plank and one plan of action: to get the ear of the king, to seize upon and control the office-making power, and so to put in every lucrative or honorable position their own partisans. It is “the spoils system sublimated”; for there is “absolutely no admixture of any other element.”[46]

On the other hand, this same factional and corrupt spirit among the ruling classes has made it certain that, “however good a statesman a man might be, the other side would try to get his head removed from his shoulders at the first opportunity; and the more distinguished he became, the greater this desire would be. From that time (again the middle of the sixteenth century) to this, almost all the really great men of Korea have met a violent death.”... “No matter how long one lives in this country, he will never get to understand how a people can possibly drop to such a low estate as to be willing to live without the remotest hope of receiving even-handed justice. Not a week passes but you come in personal contact with cases of injustice and brutality that would mean a riot in any civilized country.”[47]

As to the public justice when administered by such a ruling class, this has actually been what might have been expected. The one judicial principle universally recognized is that justice is worth its price; the side which can offer the largest bribe of money or influence will uniformly win its case. Of justice in Korea, to quote from Mr. Hulbert again,[48] there is “not much more than is absolutely necessary to hold the fabric of the commonwealth from disintegration.” Until the Chino-Japan war, when Japanese influence made itself felt in a controlling way, the brutal spectacles were not infrequent of men having their heads hacked off with dull swords, or their bones broken by beating with a huge paddle. Death by poison with extract made by boiling the centipede was administered to prisoners. It was not till 1895 that the law was abolished which required the poisoning of mother, wife, and daughter for the man’s treason, the poisoning of wife for his crime of murder or arson, and the enslaving of wife for his theft. When the reformers of 1894 ordered the restoration to their lawful owners of the lands and houses which had been illegally seized, numerous officials—some of whom were well known in foreign circles as partners of concessions obtained through influence—lost large fractions of their wealth because of the decree.

After describing the Yang-ban as one sees him upon the streets or meets him in social gatherings at Seoul in the following terms—a “dignified, stately gentleman, self-centred, self-contented, naïvely curious about the foreigner, albeit in a slightly contemptuous fashion”—a writer well acquainted with the Korean gentry goes on to say: “Experience teaches that this fine gentleman is not ashamed to live upon his relatives, to the remotest degree; that he disdains labor and knows nothing of business; that he is not a liar from malice, but that he is a prevaricator by instinct and habit. Even when he wishes to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth, it leaves his lips so embroidered with fanciful elaborations that the Father of lies would be glad to claim it for his own. With all that, he may, according to the accepted standards of his class, be an upright citizen, a kind husband, and a conscientious parent. And just as likely as not, he may possess qualities which endear him to the foreign observer.”

Under centuries of subjection to a ruling class having the character described above, the mental and moral characteristics of the Korean people have been developed as might have been expected. The ethnic mixture from which the race has sprung is possessed of fine physical and spiritual qualities. The male members of the race, especially, are in general of good height, well formed, and capable of endurance and achievement in enterprises demanding bodily strength. They are undoubtedly fond of their ease and even slothful—for man when not stimulated by hope or necessity is naturally a lazy animal—as the impression from the rows of coolies and peasants squatted upon the ground and sucking their pipes, or lying prone in the sunlight, during the working hours of the day, bears witness. As for the Yang-ban, on no account will he do manual work. But, on the other hand, the lower classes make good workmen, when well taught and properly “bossed”; and their miners, for example, are said by experts to be among the best in the world. The success in manual pursuits of those who emigrated to Hawaii some years ago testifies also to their inherent capacity. As has already been said, the Koreans are much given to forming all manner of associations; they are “gregarious in their crimes as in their pastimes.” When well treated they are generally good-natured and docile—easy to control under even a tolerably just administration. Nor are they, probably, such cowards that they cannot be trained to acquit themselves well in war.

The prevailing, the practically universal vices and crimes are those which are inevitable under any such government, if long continued, as that which has burdened and degraded the Korean populace from the beginning of their obscure history as a complex of kingdoms down to the present time. What their vices and crimes are can be learned even better from the lips of their professed friends than from those whom they regard as their open or secret enemies. Of the average Korean Mr. Hulbert[49] affirms: “You may call him a liar or a libertine, and he will laugh it off; but call him mean and you flick him on the raw.” “In Korea it is as common to use the expression, ‘You are a liar’ as it is with us to say, ‘You don’t say.’... A Korean sees about as much moral turpitude in a lie as we see in a mixed metaphor or a split infinitive.” As to his good nature: “Any accession of importance or prestige goes to his head like new wine and is apt to make him offensive.” The same author, after saying of the Korean bullock, “This heavy, slow-plodding animal, docile, long-suffering, uncomplaining, would make a fitting emblem of the Korean people,” goes on to describe his own disgust at the frequent sight of the drunken, brutal bullock-driver, venting his spleen on some fellow Korean by cruelly beating his own bullock. Torturing animals is a favorite pastime for both children and adults. The horrid brutality of the Korean mob, to which reference has already been repeatedly made, has been more than once witnessed by those now living in Seoul; it would speedily be witnessed again, if the hand of the Japanese Protectorate were withdrawn. For the Korean, when angry, is recklessly cruel and entirely careless of life, and resembles nothing else so much as a “fanged beast.”[50] When combined with the superstition and the incredible credulity which prevail among the populace, this brutality constitutes a standing menace to the peace and life of the foreign population residing in the midst of them. It was as late as 1888 that the mob, excited by the report that the Americans and Europeans were engaged in the business, for profit, of killing Korean babies and of cutting off the breasts of Korean women to use in the manufacture of condensed milk, were scarcely repressed from wholesale arson and murder.[51]

The anti-Japanese natives and foreigners have with more or less good reason complained that an increase of sexual impurity and of licensed vice has resulted from the Japanese Protectorate over Korea. Without entering upon the discussion of the difficult problem involved in these charges, it is enough to say that “corruption of the Koreans” in this regard is scarcely a proper claim to bring forward, under any circumstances. It is of no particular significance to determine whether the statement of a recent writer that the exposure of their breasts on the streets is characteristic of Korean women generally, is a libel, or not. It is true, indeed, that the foreign lady who has done much to encourage among the natives of her own sex in Seoul a certain regard for the decencies of civilization, was accustomed, not many years ago, to provide herself with safety-pins and accompany their use upon the garments of the lower classes (women of the higher classes do not appear upon the streets) with a moral lecture. But to one acquainted with the unimportant influence of such exposure upon really vicious conduct among peoples of a certain grade of race-culture, the charge, whether true or not, is comparatively petty. Much more determinative is it to learn from their friendly historians that only one in ten of their songs could with decency be published; that almost all their stories are of a salacious character and, “however discreditable it may be, they are a true picture of the morals of Korea to-day”; and that among the lower classes the utmost promiscuity prevails. “A man may have half-a-dozen wives a year in succession. No ceremony is required, and it is simply a mutual agreement of a more or less temporary nature.”[52]

As to business honesty or respect for property rights, as such, there is almost none of it among the people of Korea. But what else could be expected of pedlers, peasants, and coolies, who have lived under the corrupt and oppressive government of such rulers during centuries of time? To quote again from the friendly historian:[53] “In case a man has to foreclose a mortgage and enter upon possession of the property, he will need the sanction of the authorities, since possession here, as elsewhere, is nine points of the law. The trouble is that a large fraction of the remaining point is dependent upon the caprice or the venality of the official whose duty is to adjudicate the case. In a land where bribery is almost second nature, and where private rights are of small account unless backed by some kind of influence, the thwarting of justice is exceedingly common.” More astonishing still, from our point of view, is the use made of the public properties, which until recently prevailed even in the city of Seoul, by the lowest of the people. Any Korean might extend his temporary booth or shop out into the street, and then, when people had become accustomed to this, quietly plant permanent posts at the extreme limit of his illicit appropriation. On being expostulated with, “he will put on a look of innocence and assert that he has been using the space for many years”;[54] indeed, “he inherited it from his father or father’s father.” To this day the making of false deeds, or the deeding of the same property to two different purchasers (by one false deed and one genuine, or by both false) is an exceedingly common occurrence. If the native wanted a place for the deposit of his filth, and the drain near his house was already full, he dug a hole in the street; if he wanted dirt for his own use, he took it from the street. “Scores of times,” says Hulbert, “I have come upon places where a hole has been dug in the street large enough to bury an ox.” Meanwhile, petty stealing and highway robbery have been going on all over the land. This, too, is the practical morality of the Korean populace, when unrestrained by foreign control, even down to the present time.

A curious confirmation of the foregoing estimate of the mental and moral character of the people of Korea was afforded by the “confessions” which poured forth in perfervid language, ending not infrequently in a falling fit or a lapse into half-consciousness, from thousands of native Christians during the revival of 1906-1907. The sins which were confessed to have been committed since their profession of Christianity, were in the main these same characteristic vices of the Korean people. They included not only pride, jealousy, and hatred, but habitual lying, cheating, stealing, and acts of impurity.

It is, then, no cause for surprise that a recent writer[55] affirms: “If it seems a hopeless task to lift the Chinaman out of his groove, it is a hundred times more difficult to change the habits of a Korean.... The Korean has absolutely nothing to recommend him save his good nature. He is a standing warning to those who oppose progress. Some one has said that the answer to Confucianism is China; but the best and most completely damning answer is Korea.”