Donghak Peasant Revolution
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The Donghak Peasant Revolution was an anti-government, anti-yangban and anti-foreign uprising in 1894 in Korea which was the catalyst for the First Sino-Japanese War. It was a religious and political movement directed at the Joseon dynasty with the intention of firstly establishing social reform and secondly to expel foreigners. Many Koreans despised Japanese and foreign enchroachments/influences over their land and the corrupt oppressive rule of the Joseon Dynasty. It would also be one of the series of events that would bring the Joseon dynasty to an end and to the establishment of Japanese rule over Korea (1910 - 1945).
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[edit] Origins
The peasants of the Korean Peninsula, even before foreign intervention and the opening of Korea to the world, had become disillusioned with the rule of the upper yangban classes. During the 1800s, drought and floods alternately struck the rice fields and farms of Korea and caused great famines. Making the matter worse, the Joseon rulers increased taxes on farm crops and forced more free labor on the starving peasants. Anti-government and anti-landlord sentiment boiled over into violent uprisings.
In 1812, Hong Gyeong-nae led the peasants of Gasan in the northern part of Korea into an armed rebellion and occupied the region for several months. An army was sent to quell the rebellion and only after a savage scorched-earth campaign, the revolt was put down. All over Korea, all the way to Jeju Island, peasants continued to defy the king in Seoul, the local nobility and wealthy landlords.
In 1862, half a century after the peasant rebellion led by Hong Gyeong-nae was put down, a group of farmers in Jinju, Gyeongsang province, rose up against their oppressive provincial officials and the wealthy landowners. This uprising was the result of the exploitation of destitute farmers by the local ruler.
The rebels killed local government officials and set fire to government buildings. In order to appease the rebels the government hastily revised the land, military and grain lending systems. But, it was an ineffectual attempt at reform as many yangban in the central government were themselves deeply involved in such corruption.
The revolt in Jinju triggered peasant uprisings elsewhere all over Korea, groups of farmers rose up with arms and attacked government offices in principal towns. Many government officials were executed.
However the uprisings were generally crushed by government troops. In 1862, the peasants of San-nam and surrounding villages took up arms against the elite, but were brutally butchered by troops. In subsequent years, peasants rose up in small groups all across Korea until 1892.
[edit] The Birth of Donghak
Choe Je-u (최제우, 崔濟愚, 1824-1894) established the ideology of Donghak (Eastern Learning) in the 1860s with the intention to help farmers suffering from poverty and unrest and to restore political and social stability.
The Donghak ideology was a mixture of elements from Confucianism, Buddhism and Songyo (teachings of Silla's Hwarang), modern humanistic, class struggle ideas that today may be considered Marxist. It resembled a religion as well as a political ideology. A rhetoric of exclusionism (from foreign influences) and an early form of nationalism were also incorporated.
Donghak themes were set to music so that illiterate farmers could understand and accept them more readily, and systematized as a message of salvation to farmers in distress. His ideas rapidly gained acceptance among the peasantry.
Choe, as well as many Koreans, was also alarmed by the intrusion of Christianity and the Anglo-French occupation of Beijing during the Second Opium War. He believed that the best way to counter foreign influence in Korea was to introduce democratic and human rights reforms internally.
Nationalism and social reform a struck chord among the peasant guerrillas and Donghak spread all across Korea. Progressive revolutionaries organized the peasants into a cohesive structure.
[edit] Foreign Intervention
Joseon Korea had been an autonomous tributary state of Qing China since the 1637 Second Manchu invasion of Korea. Apart from this, Korea was isolationist and wary of foreign influence. After several incidents involving the Russians, the French and the Americans, Korea was opened to foreign trade by the Japanese Treaty of Ganghwa in 1876. China lost its exclusive influence over Korea. Foreign legations were set up at Seoul and Western ideas and customs were introduced into Korea.
[edit] Donghak Revolution of 1894
In 1892 the small groups of the Donghak movement were united into a single Peasant Guerrilla Army (Donghak Peasant Army) who armed themselves and raided government offices and killed rich landlords, traders, and foreigners. They confiscated their victims' properties and distributed them to the poor.
Donghak founder Choe Je-u was executed as a criminal by the government. The leadership was continued by Choe Si-hyeong.
[edit] The First Revolution
The Donghak Peasant Revolution, or the 1894 Peasant War (Nongmin Jeonjaeng), witnessed poor farmers in large numbers rise up against the landlords and the ruling elite. The peasants demanded land redistribution, tax reduction, democracy, and human rights. Taxes were so high that most farmers were forced to sell their ancestral homesteads to rich landowners at bargain prices. Landlords sold rice to the Japanese and sent their children to Japan to study. As a result, the peasant class developed intense anti-Japanese and anti-yangban sentiments. The rebellions' immediate cause was Jo Byong-gap (1844-1911), a government official whose rule was viewed by some as tyrannical and corrupt.
Progressive-mined yangbans, scholars, and nationalists also joined the movement. On January 11, 1894, the rebels led by Jeon Bong-jun (전봉준, 全琫準, 1854-1895) defeated the government forces at the battle of Go-bu, and distributed Jo's properties to the peasants.
The revolution expanded quickly until March 13, 1894. The Army was eventually crushed by government troops led by Yi Yong-tae who killed and captured peasant guerrillas, burned villages, and confiscated the peasants' properties in Go-bu.
However, the peasant army regrouped and started a new rebellion, as news of the governments' actions in Go-bu help increase support among the peasants. The central figures were Jeon Bong-jun, Kim Gae-nam and Son Hwa-jung.
With new impetus the Peasant Army defeated one government garrison after another and closed in on Seoul. Their objectives were institutional land reform, social reform, the overthrow of Joseon Dynasty (or at least the removal of corrupt officials) and the expulsion of foreign influence from Korea.
The peasants' marching orders were the following:
- "Do not kill or take the peasants' properties"
- "Protect the peasants' rights"
- "Drive out the Japanese and Western people and purify our sacred land"
- "March to Seoul and purge the government"
At the beginning of May, the peasant army occupied a Palace in Jeonju.
The Joseon government asked the Chinese government for assistance in ending the revolt. The Qing dynasty, after notifying the Japanese in accordance with the Convention of Tientsin sent troops into Korea. The Chinese initially did not wish to go to war with Japan but covertly, they desired to re-assert their influence over Korea, which they had lost in preceding treaties. Japan viewed the Chinese action as a threat to its national security and sent its own troops to Korea.
With the presence of some 3,000 Chinese troops, the government authorities proposed a negotiated truce with the rebels. With the end of the rebellion would come increasing tensions between China and Japan as neither wanted to evacuate Korea earlier than the other. The resulting tensions would lead to the First Sino-Japanese War[1].
[edit] The Second Revolution
While hostilties between China and Japan were beginning to commence, a second uprising erupted in the Korean countryside against a new pro-Japanese government established in Seoul.
In late June of 1894, the pro-Japanese forces hatched a plan to wipe out the Peasant Army in co-operation with the Japanese troops stationed in Incheon and Seoul. On October 16, the Peasant Army moved toward Gongju for the final battle, which was a trap. The Japanese and the pro-Japanese government troops were in fact waiting for them inside.
The Donghak Army was defeated in the Battle of Ugeumchi. The Japanese had cannons and other modern weapons, whereas the Korean peasants were armed only with bow and arrows, spears, swords, and some flintlock muskets.
The vigorous battle started on October 22, 1894 and lasted until November 10, 1894. The poorly armed peasants stormed the well-entrenched enemies about 40, but they were beaten back harder and had heavy losses. The remnants fled to various bases. The triumphant Japanese pursued the army and eventually wiped it out. Jeon Bong-jun, the Donghak commander, was captured in March 1895. In 1898, the execution of Choe Si-hyeong followed.
[edit] Aftermath
The rebellion was failed, many grievances of the peasants would later be addressed through the Gabo Reform. The Korean Empire was established in 1897 as a result of the First Sino-Japanese War and the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. However, foreign influence still would be a major aspect, with Japan and Russia later competing over Korea.
In the coming years Korea would fall increasingly under Japanese influence, and after the Russo-Japanese War, Russian influence would no longer be a factor in Korea. The Korean Empire would be established in 1897, Korea ineffect would become a de-facto Japanese protectorate and later be annexed by Japan in 1910.
Although revolution are failed, They have made a significant contribution to Korean modernization that the peasant are demanded democracy and expulsion of foreign influence and feudalism.
[edit] Kim Gu, a Donghak fighter
Kim Gu, one of the most prominent nationalist leaders, was a Donghak military leader. He was born in 1876, the year the Treaty of Ganghwa was signed. He studied the Chinese classics at a seodang (a traditional village primary school). At 17, he applied for the Imperial examination of Joseon but failed. When Donghak Peasant Revolution broke out in 1894, he commanded a Donghak army regiment, but was defeated eventually and went into hiding.
In 1896, Kim Gu killed a Japanese general named Tsuchida, who was involved in the murder of the last Joseon Dynasty Queen Min. Kim was arrested and sentenced to death, but escaped and hid out as a Buddhist monk at Magoksa in Gongju near Pyeongyang.
[edit] Sources and Notes
- Tonghak revolution and Chundoism[1]
- ^ Demetrius Charles Boulger, China, The War With Japan And Subsequent Events (1893)
