Donghak Manifesto Donghak is not war. It is our people's aspiration for peace.
Hwangto-Hyun at Jeongeup Jajak Hill at Hongcheon Ugeumchi at Gongju Seokdae Field at Jangheung... These famous battlefields witnessed over 300,000 white-clad people of Joseon fall go their deaths in 1894.
The formidable Japanese battalion, joined by Joseon's pathetic government army, was waiting in formation, outfitted with gatling guns, ready to shoot. Equipped merely with bamboo spears, these people, dressed in white clothes, went out to fight them. The conquering army's General Lee Gyu-Tae, having withessed their bravery, wrote in his : "Tens of thousands of peasant tighters kept coming over the hill with so much force and no regard for their lives. What sense of justice and what kind of audacity drove them to do such a thing! When I try to record their actions and trace their movements, my mind freezes with terror and I feel chilled to my bones." So, were they marching towards their death? Not in the slightest! They crushed the authority of death, and advanced towards the land of Life, to the World of "Re-making." Isabella Bird Bishop (1831 - 1904), a member of the Royal Geographical Society who was visiting Seoul at that time, wrote about the Donghak Revolution : "This Tong-hak movement... [harbors] such definite and reasonable objects that at first I was inclined to call its leaders "armed reformers" rather than "rebels." "The Tong-hak asserted, and with undoubted truth...even to a foreigner such as muself, their claims seemed entirely truthful." The ultimate significance of love is Peace, but love does not guarantee Peace. When love is confined to a particular object, it inevitably devolves into prejudiced obsession. The love that Paul preaches in Corinthian : 13 was about the harmonious existence between the members of the Early Christian community. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude..." but love is much more than merely such gentle nature of emotions. True love starts with reducing the "Self" to Nothingness. Love is realizex when we launch ourselves into the infinite tolerance of the "Great Emptiness," Iiberating us from all compulsions of the Self. It is this kind of love that I call Peace. Even the True, the Good, and the Beautiful become desensitized without Peace. Without Peace, all values of our civilization become cruel, severe, and compassionless. Christ, unlike Paul, did not preach love between the members of particular eschatological communities; rather, he proclaimed towards everyone on the plains of Gallilee to "love thy neighbor as thyself." But to truly love your neighbor as you love yourself is only possible when you love God with all your mind and all your strength Only through the act of loving God can we instinctively love our neighbors as we love our own selves. And the sole manner in which we can arrive at loving God is to reduce Him to Nothingness. The love of God can only be actualized when God as a substantive entity gets assimilated into the space-time continuum, and when it becomes Change itself The people of Joseon, who pressed forward under Japanese gunfire, achieved this self-emancipation. They buried the substance called "God" in the Peace of anātman (egolessness). In mid-19th century, Donghak was initiated by a young man named Choi Suwun, born and raised in Kyungju. But this was no ordinary religious movement. Donghak was the distillation of five thousand years of Korean history, crystalized in the instantaneous eruption of the variegated spiritual tradition of this land. Neo-Confucian Mind-Theory combines "practical ethos" and "cosmic mysticism," born out of the long lineage of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism that goes all the way back to the Koguryo Dynasty. While strictly adhering to the principles of Neo-Confucianism, Donghak represented the zesty spirit simultaneously broke free from its shackles While Donghak's passionate spirit clashed with the burgeoning force called Seohak(Western Learning), responding to the growing need to protect and defend the country and its people, it was compelled to assert self-enlightenment, self-creation and self-identity. Donghak was the lion's roar of this new realization. The half-millennium history of Joseon had degenerated into an oppressive monarchy, promoting national dependency,strict class stratification, and over-powering aristocracy, Against these corruptions, Donghak was the revolutionary paradigm seeking to reclaim the humanistic essence for the people. Ironically, it was none other than Western Learning, i. e., Catholicism, that awakened this spirit. Catholicism provided the perfect justification for imperialist invasions from the West, and it represented the destruction of our spirit in the name of universality. Suwun thus proclaimed a direct challenge against the God of Christianity. Catholicism states that all people are equal before God. Suwun understood that it was this idea of equality that allured many of his senior Confucian colleagues. But having thoroughly examined the Catholic scriptures, Suwun realized that behind this notion of equality there still existed the transcendental sovereign God. Human dignity suffers when authoritative ideology governs human consciousness. Suwun discovered that the omnipotent ruler of the universe, parading under the name of "Yahweh," or "Deus," was precisely what was at the core of this ideology. Suwun therefore professes: "Equality among humans can only be reached when Man is considered equal with God." Perhaps the Christians in this world might retort : "Christianity teaches men to be humble before God." "Suwun thus repeats: "The one who should be humble is not us, but God. God must be humble before Man." Yahweh is a nationalist god, a warmongering god, a jealous god. He is a god of favoritism and feels no remorse massacring entire tribes If God lacks justice, He is nothing but an idol. A nationalist god can and should not be universal. The historical Jesus denied such a God. He did not believe such an idol was worthy of a god. That is why Jesus cleansed the Temple of Jerusalem. In other words, he expelled Yahweh, who was but a mere 'bodyguard' of King David. Jesus thus rejected the kingship of David. But Early Christianity manipulated history, making Jesus a direct descendent of King David, and proclaimed Him the Messiah. Suwun saw through these manipulations: "The people of the West may seem to be doing good deeds under God's will, but in reality, they are attempting to conquer the world." Suwun encountered thus, the transcendental entity that is God. After spending a one-year period of self-examination, Suwun conclu ded: "God must be 'Sein' itself, exceeding any personhood. Why is he reigning like some common chieftain, commanding from his high-chair?" To reject personhood is to be fair and just without being partial to various worldly attachments. Suwun characterized such a god as a "Change-without-intentionality." This is a similar concept to Laozi's expression, "Tao follows the 'Naturally-so." Nietzsche tried to kill God. But Suwun tried to save Him. He liberated God from all systemic imprisonment. He freed God from all ideologies, linguistic violence, social authority and ritual hypocrisies. The people of Joseon attained this liberation of God right around the time Lincoln was reading the Gettysburg Address. And by securing a God, of the people, by the people, and for the people, they opened a new World of Re-making. The people of Juseon internalized Suwun's revolutionary ideas and actualized a Resistance movenment in the face of extreme oppression. Seeing the Donghak Peasant Revolution through the perspective of partisan ideologies of Northern/Southern faction is one of the most unfortunate academic prejudices. The spirti that runs through the Donghak Revolution is singular: the humanistic principles of Pletharchia, beginning with Suwun's notion that "侍天主: Man-is-Go," and reaching Haewol's concept of "向我設位: Ancestor-worship-directed-towards-self." It is not correct to evaluate those who rose up in Jeolla province only in the context of a sociopolitical mutiny. Jeolla province may have had its particular history, but Donghak was by then already established as a global national belief system, and it was Teacher Haewol (Choi Shi-Hyung, 1827-1898) who guided this global system. "Do not strike children! To hit a child is to hit God. God does not like to be beaten." "Who is weaving now? It is my daughter-in-law who weaves. No! You are seeing God at the loom." "Treat every person as God. When a guest calls on you, say God has arrived." "Do not judge others. To judge another is to judge God." "The spoonful of rice you eat ㅡthis is God. He is the origin of all life." "A simple bowl of water is a sufficient offering to your ancestors Because this small portion of water is also God himself." Haewol's numerous aphorisms struck readily at the hearts of the Korean people. The famous Jeon Bong-Jun, a.k.a. General Mung Bean, was actually appointed by Haewol as a local leader at Gobu. In the interrogation report just before his death, Jeon stated that the only person who could appoint a local Donghak leader was Haewol. When asked the question, "What ideals does Donghak uphold?" the General answered, "Donghak means keeping an unwavering mind; its essence is filial piety, and it strives only to correct our nation for the welfare of our people." In replying to the question "Do you like Donghak?" he said: "Donghak not only keeps my mind secure, but it is also the Tao of encountering God, so yes, I love it deeply." Jeon Bong-Jun already distinguished himself as a member of the Donghak movement at Samrye, Jeonju, where the mass protest to posthumously acquit the founder of Donghak, Suwun, took place (November, 1892) Jeon was an avid follower of Haewol and his teachings.The methodological difference between the approaches of Haewol and Jeon suould not be understood as a partisan confrontation between Northern and Southern factions. It is completely futile to claim there was even such a factional distinction. Without the holistic perspective and prudence of Haewol, the tide of Donghak may have been severed. But also, without Jeon's active determination to reclaim the nation, the precise Kairos of uprooting the regime of Joseon could not have been accomplished. On April 11th, 1919, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea published its very first Constitution. Article 1 proclaims "Korea is established as a Democratic Republic." Article 3 states "There shall be no class distinction among the citizens of the Korean Republic, but men ans women, noble and common, rich and poor, will have equality." This was not the result of importing western ideas. It was created from the spirit of Donghak. It was also Donghak that led the march 1st National Independence Movement. The leader of the 33 representatives was none of than the chiet commander of the Battle of Ugeumchi, Son Byung-Hee(Teacher #3). Of the 33, there were 15 Donghak members, and 9 of those members were frontline soldiers of the Donghak Revolution, who spilled their blood fighting the Japanese army. Baekbeom Kim Gu, President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, was also a local Donghak leader at Palbong, Hwanghae Province. The creator of the "Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence, "Mongyang Yeo Un-Hyung, was also rooted in Donghak. His great uncle published the Donghak Scriptures. Maeheon Yun Bong-Gil, who astonished the world by detonating a lunch-box bomb at Hongkou Park in Shanghai, was also taught by the Donghak leader Bae Seong-Seon, who was his tather-in-law. Donghak is youthful All the leaders who shepherded the Donghak movement were young men in their 30s. When Suwun was guillotined at Daegu military headquarters, he was not even 40 years old, and General Mung Bean was barely 40 when he was tragically hanged in Seoul. All of these Donghak leaders were active in their thirties. And regardless of their biological age, everyone who chanted the song of "Re-making" with Suwun were all in the bloom of their youth. Youth is the spirit yet untouched by tragedy. That is why youth does not fear tragedy. Youth vividly perceives tragedy, yet it launches itself into the epicenter of tragedy. By forgetting oneself, youth transcends the ego. Whenever youth challenges tragedy, tragedy exposes the ideals that youth must pursue. When youth intuits the dynamic equilibrium of the universal values that these ideals harbor ㅡit is then that youth achieves Peace. Peace is both the comprehension of tragedy and preservation of its fruits. Tragedy is never in vain. Youth is never dispirited. Even in the wretchedness of tragedy, youth will always find the Peace of anātman. The youth of koguryo was reborn in the Donghak movement. During the last two turbulent centuries, Donghak managed to achieve the harmonious state of the "Mean-of-Oneness." "It created the novel understanding of equality, the soaring achievement of aesthetic sensitivity, and the sensibility of liberty that is also grounded in self-discipline. Peace does not acquiesce in tranquility. Tranquility too, is a notion that must be based on movement; Tranquility in Donghak is a dynamic concept. Harmony must transcend the wheel of repetition and be immanently fresh. Youth loves beauty. But this love is beyond the love for an individual entity, rising above the limited Perfection of the particular. When civilization overcomes egoism and wears the garland of Peace, it recovers its vitality and bestows upon us the true value of Life. Civilization may be at its most sublime when it plunges into the zeal of egoless transcendence, but in each of its episodes, the dreams of youth and the fruits of tragedy are always lurking. The adventure of Donghak started with the zeal and dream of the youth, and it reaped the fruits of tragic beauty. It is Donghak that explains why our nation always craves for Peace, despite the vehement passion that each of us carry within us. Humanity will learn Peace through the sacrifice of our fellow people of Joseon, who gave their lives for Donghak. The world will finally understand why we are the white-clad nation. I beseech everyone under the sun. The reconciliation of South and North Koreas is the fulcrum of world peace. We, whether from North or South, do not want war, nor conflict. Please help our fellow North and South Koreans to act with compassion and terminate the Ceasefire Treaty, so that we may create a new ideal for humanity, embedded in a deep-seated peaceful relationship. Our nation has endured the torturous winter of post-war conflict for much too long. But our spring will soon come. Donghak talks about "Cosmic Sincerity." This is the Sincerity of God and the Sincerity of Man. To pollute our environment is to pollute God. The citizens of the world must help to stop Japan's irresponsible act of releasing radioactive wastewater. It is in such ethical protests by the world's citizens that the voice of Donghak will continue to reverberate. Spring is just around the corner May 11, 2021 Do-ol Kim Young-Oak Philosopher of Korea
댓글