Gobu Uprising

Overview

The Gobu Uprising (Gobu Minran) was an incident in which, on the 10th day of the 1st lunar month of 1894 (15 February 1894 in the solar calendar), peasants of Gobu County in Jeolla Province (present-day Gobu-myeon, Jeongeup-si, North Jeolla Province), centered on Donghak jeobeop (local leader) Jeon Bong-jun, attacked and occupied the Gobu county office. It could have ended as a mere local rebellion, but the coercive handling by the investigating envoy (ahaekssa) dispatched by the government escalated the situation, and it became the starting point of the Donghak Peasant Revolution.

Background

Jo Byeong-gap, who took office as Gobu county magistrate in 1892, exploited the peasants under various pretexts. The most representative case is the Manseokbo Incident. Although a weir already existed in the upper reaches of the Dongjin River, Jo had a new weir built below it, mobilizing the peasants for the work, and after its completion collected a water tax (suse). According to Wikipedia, he levied 2 mal per majigi on upper-grade paddy and 1 mal on lower-grade paddy. He also seized property by charging peasants with crimes such as filial impiety and immorality, and collected money on the pretext of erecting a monument in honor of his father's virtues.

The peasants submitted petitions to the county office twice, but these were not accepted. In the 11th lunar month of 1893, Jeon Bong-jun and more than 20 others drafted a sabal tongmun (a circular petition with names written in a ring so that the ringleaders would not be revealed) and resolved to rise up. The sabal tongmun is said to have contained a plan to occupy Gobu fortress, execute Jo Byeong-gap, seize the armory and gunpowder storehouse, and, after capturing the Jeonju provincial office, march on Seoul.

Course of Events

At dawn on the 10th day of the 1st lunar month, more than 1,000 peasants who had gathered at Malmok marketplace attacked the Gobu county office under Jeon Bong-jun's command. Jo Byeong-gap had slipped away in advance and fled to Jeonju. The peasants opened the arsenal and armed themselves, returned the grain tax that had been collected illegally to its original owners, and tore down the Manseokbo. According to Wikipedia, by around the 14th day of the 1st lunar month the number of gathered people had reached about 10,000. The peasants afterward moved to Baeksan and other places and encamped there.

The government dismissed Jo Byeong-gap, appointed Park Won-myeong as the new county magistrate, and dispatched Yi Yong-tae, magistrate of Jangheung, as investigating envoy. Through the persuasion of the new magistrate Park Won-myeong, most of the peasants dispersed around the middle of the 3rd lunar month. However, Yi Yong-tae handled the matter harshly, labeling the uprising's participants as Donghak followers, arresting and punishing them, and seizing their property.