Corea: The Hermit Nation

by William Elliot Griffis

The “four classes of society” include the literary men or officials, the farmers, the artisans, and the traders. Among the nobility are various ranks, indicated by titles, high offices at court, or nearness of relationship to the king. He is “neither ox nor horse” is the native slang for one who is neither noble nor commoner. The nobles are usually the serf-proprietors or slave-holders, many of them having in their households large numbers whom they have inherited along with their ancestral chattels. The master has a right to sell or otherwise dispose of the children of his slaves if he so choose. The male slave is called chong-nom. A free man may marry a female slave, in which case he is termed a pi-pu. The male children by this marriage are free, but the female offspring belong to the master of the mother, and may be sold. A liberated slave is called pal-sin, and he speaks of his former master as ku-siang. The native vocabulary for the slave in his various relations is sufficiently copious. “Fugitive” slaves, “slave-hunters,” and “slave-drivers,” are as common to the Corean ear, as to the American in the long-ago days of “before the war.” A pan-no is a bondsman trying to escape, and to attempt chiu-ro is to hunt the fugitive and bring him back. The in-chang is the public slave of the village. Yet such a thing as the bondsman’s servile love of place, rising into swollen and oppressive pride that looks down on the poor freeman, is a common thing, and cruel and overbearing treatment of the peasantry by the minions [[239]]of a noble is too frequently witnessed in Corea. “Tek-pun-ai” (“By your favor,” equivalent to “Let me live, I pray you”) is a cry, more than once heard by French missionaries, from a man beaten by the swaggering serfs of some nobleman. It is not exactly the feeling of the sleek and well-bred black slave of old-time Virginia for “the poor white trash,” since in Corea slavery has no color-line; yet, in essentials of circumstance, it is the same. Such a phase of character is more likely to be developed among the serfs of the old barons or landed proprietors who have longest occupied their hereditary possessions, and who keep up a petty court within their castles or semi-fortified mansions.

Slavery or serfdom in Corea is in a continuous state of decline, and the number of slaves constantly diminishing. In the remote provinces it is practically at an end. The greater number of serfs are to be found attached to the estates of the great noble families of the central provinces. The slaves are those who are born in a state of servitude, those who sell themselves as slaves, or those who are sold to be such by their parents in time of famine or for debt. Infants exposed or abandoned that are picked up and educated become slaves, but their offspring are born free. The serfdom is really very mild. Only the active young men are held to field labor, the young women being kept as domestics. When old enough to marry, the males are let free by an annual payment of a sum of money for a term of years. Often the slaves marry, are assigned a house apart, and bound only to a fixed amount of labor. Although the master has the power of life and death over his slaves, the right is rarely exercised unjustly, and the missionaries report that there were few cases of excessive cruelty practised. An unjust master could be cited before the tribunals, and the case inquired into. Often the actual condition of the serfs is superior to that of the poor villagers, and instances are common in which the poor, to escape the rapacity and cruelty of the nobles, have placed themselves under the protection of a master known to be a kind man, and thus have purchased ease and comfort at the sacrifice of liberty.

Outside of private ownership of slaves, there is a species of government slavery, which illustrates the persistency of one feature of ancient Kokorai perpetuated through twenty centuries. It is the law that in case of the condemnation of a great criminal, the ban of Ui-ro-ui-pi shall fall upon his wife and children, who at once become the slaves of the judge. These unfortunates do not have [[240]]the privilege of honorably serving the magistrate, but usually pass their existence in waiting on the menials in the various departments and magistracies. Only a few of the government slaves are such by birth, most of them having become so through judicial condemnation in criminal cases; but this latter class fare far worse than the ordinary slaves. They are chiefly females, and are treated very little better than beasts. They are at the mercy not only of the officers but even of their satellites, servants, and grooms, or to whomever they are sold for an hour. Nothing can equal the contempt in which they are held, and for an honest or an innocent woman, such a fate is worse than many deaths. In the earliest written account of the Kokorai people, the ancestors of the modern Coreans, we find this same feature of ancient feudalism by which a class of serfs may be continually provided. To Christian eyes it is a horrible relic of barbarism.

The penal settlements on the sea-coast, and notably Quelpart Island, are worked by colonies of these male government slaves or convicts. The females are not usually sent away from the place of their parents or their own crime.

In ancient times of Kokorai and Korai there were only two classes of people, the nobles and their free retainers, and the serfs or slaves. The nobles were lords of cities and castles, like the daimiōs of Japan, and were very numerous. The whole country was owned by them, or at least held in the king’s name under tenure of military service—a lien which length of time only strengthened. In the long centuries of peace, many of these old families—weakly descendants of vigorous founders—have died out, and the land reverting to the sovereign, or possessed by the people, is now owned by a more numerous and complex class, while nearly all the cities and towns are governed by officers sent out by the central authority at Seoul. The ancient class of serfs has, by industry and intelligence and accumulation of rights vested in their special occupations, developed into the various middle classes. The nobles are now in a minority, though at present their power is on the increase, and their ancestral landholds comprise but a small portion of the soil.

As in mediæval Europe, so in Corea, where feudalism, which rests on personal loyalty to a reigning sovereign, or a particular royal line, prevails, a more or less complete revolution of titles and possessions takes place upon a change of dynasty. On the accession of the present royal house in 1392, the old Korai nobility [[241]]were impoverished and the partisans of the founder of the Ni, and all who had aided him to the throne, became at once the nobility of the kingdom, and were rewarded by gifts of land. To the victors belonged the spoils. The honors, riches, and the exclusive right to fill many of the most desirable public offices were awarded in perpetuity to the aristocracy. The mass of the people were placed or voluntarily put themselves under the authority of the nobles. The agricultural class attached to the soil simply changed masters and landlords, while the cities and towns people and sea-coast dwellers became, only in a nominal sense, the tenantry of the nobles. Gradually, however, those who had ability and address obtained their full liberty, so that they were in no way bound to pay tithe or tax to the nobles, but only to the central government. Under peace, with wealth, intelligence, combination, trade-unions, and guilds, and especially by means of the literary examinations, the various classes of the people emerged into independent existence, leaving but a few of the lowest of the population in the condition of serfs or slaves. Between the accounts of Hamel in 1653, and of the French missionaries in the last decade, there are many indications of progress. Laborers, artisans, merchants, soldiers, etc., now have a right to their own labor and earnings, and the general division of the commonwealth is into three classes—nobles, common people, and serfs or slaves.

Speaking generally, the peculiar institution of Chō-sen is serfdom rather than slavery, and is the inheritance of feudalism; yet, as Russia has had her Alexander, America her Lincoln, and Japan her Mutsŭhito, we may hope to see some great liberator yet arise in the “Land of Morning Calm.”

Under absolute despotisms, as most Asiatic governments are, it is a wonder to republicans how the people enjoy any liberty at all. If they have any, it is interesting to study how they have attained it, and how they hold it. Politically, they have absolutely no freedom. They know nothing of government, except to pay taxes and obey. Their political influence is nothing. In Chō-sen, according to law, any person of the common people may compete at the public examinations for civil or military employment, but, in point of fact, his degree is often worthless, for he is not likely to receive office by it. In a country where might and wealth make right, and human beings are politically naught, being but beasts of burden or ciphers without a unit, how do the people [[242]]protect themselves and gain any liberty? How does it come to pass that serfs may win their way to social freedom?

It is by union and organization. The spirit of association, so natural and necessary, is spread among the Coreans of all classes, from the highest families to the meanest slaves. All those who have any kind of work or interest in common form guilds, corporations, or societies, which have a common fund, contributed to by all for aid in time of need. Very powerful trade-unions exist among the mechanics and laborers, such as porters, ostlers, and pack-horse leaders, hat-weavers, coffin-makers, carpenters, and masons. These societies enable each class to possess a monopoly of their trade, which even a noble vainly tries to break. Sometimes, they hold this right by writ purchased or obtained from government, though usually it is by prescription. Most of the guilds are taxed by the government for their monopoly enjoyed. They have their chief or head man, who possesses almost despotic power, and even, in some guilds, of life and death. New members or apprentices may be admitted by paying their rate and submitting to the rules of the guild. In the higher grades of society we see the same spirit of association. The temple attendants, the servants of the nobles, the gardeners, messengers, and domestics of the palace, the supernumeraries and government employes, all have their “rings,” which an outsider may not break. Even among the noble families the same idea exists in due form. The villages form each a little republic, and possess among themselves a common fund to which every family contributes. Out of this money, hid in the earth or lent out on interest, are paid the public taxes, expenses of marriage and burial, and whatever else, by custom and local opinion, is held to be a public matter. Foreigners, accustomed to the free competition of English-speaking countries, will find in Chō-sen, as they found in Japan, and even more so, the existence of this spirit of protective association and monopoly illustrated in a hundred forms which are in turn amusing, vexatious, or atrocious. A man who in injustice, or for mere caprice, or in a fit of temper, discharges his ostler, house-servant, or carpenter, will find that he cannot obtain another good one very easily, even at higher wages, or, if so, that his new one is soon frightened off the premises. To get along comfortably in Chinese Asia, one must, willy-nilly, pay respect to the visible or invisible spirit of trade-unionism that pervades all society in those old countries. [[243]]

One of the most powerful and best organized guilds is that of the porters. The interior commerce of the country being almost entirely on the backs of men and pack-horses, these people have the monopoly of it. They number about ten thousand, and are divided by provinces and districts under the orders of chiefs, sub-chiefs, censors, inspectors, etc. A large number of these porters are women, often poor widows, or those unable to marry. Many of them are of muscular frame, and their life in the open air tends to develop robust forms, with the strength of men. They speak a conventional language, easily understood among themselves, and are very profuse in their salutations to each other. They have very severe rules for the government of their guild, and crimes among them are punished with death, at the order of their chief. They are so powerful that they pretend that even the government dare not interfere with them. They are outside the power of the local magistrate, just as a German University student is responsible to the Faculty, but not to the police. They are honest and faithful in their business, delivering packages with certainty to the most remote places in the kingdom. They are rather independent of the people, and even bully the officers. When they have received an insult or injustice, or too low wages, they “strike” in a body and retire from the district. This puts a stop to all travel and business, until these grievances are settled or submission to their own terms is made.