The Sinchuk Peasant Uprising (辛丑民亂) was an uprising that occurred on Jeju Island from 6 May to 18 July 1901 (the 4th year of Gwangmu), a popular revolt against the tax exploitation by tax collectors (捧稅官) of the Korean Empire and the abuses of the Catholic Church, which was backed by French missionaries.1
The uprising was caused by the resentment of the Jeju people, for whom shamanism was the traditional religion and the foundation of their thought and spirit, toward Catholicism, a foreign religion that behaved arrogantly, and by the conflict between local powerful families and the tax collectors dispatched from the central government over control of Jeju's economy. Because the victims were so numerous, because it appeared as the people's resistance against the outrages of a foreign religion, and because it brought aftereffects that escalated into an international issue involving a foreign priest, it can be said to have had a significant impact in many ways on the modern history of Jeju Island.2
Names
The uprising is called by various names depending on the perspective from which it is interpreted: Jeju Island Sinchuk Religious Persecution (濟州島辛丑敎難), Sinchuk Peasant Uprising (辛丑民亂), Sinchuk Year Disturbance (辛丑年 亂離), Sinchuk Holy Religion Disturbance (辛丑聖敎亂), Jeju Peasant Uprising (濟州民亂), Jeju Religious Disturbance (濟州敎亂), Sinchuk Religious Case (辛丑敎案), and the Rebellion of Yi Jae-su. In the South Korean national history and people's history perspectives, the interpretation as a "people's resistance" against feudalism and imperialism forms the mainstream; while analysis of the internal village society and tracing the "scholar" (士) consciousness of the uprising leadership led by Yi Jae-su have deepened the understanding, the Catholic side focuses on the execution of Catholic believers and interprets it as a religious persecution.
The peasant army that rose during the Sinchuk Peasant Uprising called for the correction of tax abuses (稅弊) and religious abuses (敎弊). The causes of the outbreak of the peasant revolt can be examined from indirect and direct aspects. The indirect aspect lay in the extremely harmful misdeeds of the tax collector Kang Bong-heon, dispatched from Hanseong to Jeju in 1900 (Gwangmu 4), and the excessive and harsh collection of various taxes related to this. The direct aspect lay in the extraterritorial special powers of missionaries, including the French priest Marcel Launay (Korean name Gu Ma-seul), and the arrogance of Catholic believers who took advantage of this.2
Progress
Harsh taxation
Kang Bong-heon, who came from Hanseong, levied taxes under all kinds of pretexts. He began to collect again the minpo (民布), a cloth tax that had been abolished long before, and imposed taxes not only on houses, trees, livestock, fishing grounds, fishing nets, salt fields, and reed fields, but even on weeds. The people he mobilized to collect these taxes were Catholics.
Arrogance of the Catholic Church
In 1901 (Gwangmu 5), in addition to the tax abuses the peasant army protested, the other abuse was the religious abuse by Catholics, backed by the French priests behind them. Being foreigners, they enjoyed the protection of extraterritoriality, and even the Jeju magistrate could not treat the French priests, who held a tablet called "여아대 (如我對, treat it as if facing me)" personally issued by the then emperor Gojong (高宗), carelessly. Relying on these French priests, Catholic believers committed crimes freely within Jeju. Nominal Catholics invoked the Church to go to salt fields and carry off a bag of salt without the owner's permission, and at churches they set up torture implements and punished people who displeased Catholic believers with private punishment. Even Korean government officials could not arrest those who claimed to be Catholics, committed crimes, and hid in churches.3
In Kim Yun-sik's Sokeumcheongsa (續陰晴史), written while Kim was in exile on Jeju Island, there is a record that on 5 March 1901 (Gwangmu 5), the Catholic association chairman Park Thomas, about to leave office, took all of the property of the former magistrate Yi Sang-gyu by force, and in defiance of the prohibition of the incumbent magistrate, led more than ten church members to create a disturbance in front of him; and that on 18 March, Father Launay strongly demanded that Yi Beom-su, a criminal in exile who was being detained, be released because he was a Catholic, and, although the Jeju magistrate did not permit it, broke down the prison gate and freed Yi Beom-su.4
Illegal acts by Catholics on Jeju can also be found in the report of Chalisa (察理使) Hwang Gi-yeon, who was dispatched to settle the incident.5 In summary, they are as follows:
- Even when they committed crimes such as murder, rape and robbery of women, or theft, and even when they killed people, the government offices could not arrest them. (Believers seized land as they pleased, and even when land they had previously sold was bought back at a higher market price, it was taken for granted that they would forcibly reclaim it by paying only the original sum received.)
- People who slandered believers or quarreled with them were dragged to churches on the charge of "insulting Catholicism," where they were beaten or imprisoned; people arrested by the government were claimed as Catholics and spirited away midway, or people held in government prisons were forcibly released.
- They destroyed the old shrines of Jeju and violated indigenous beliefs.
The French priests tolerated (or even protected) these illegal acts by Catholic believers, and this gradually developed into a threat to Korea's own sovereignty. Jeju fell into a lawless state under Catholic rule, sinking into a condition of ungovernability, and ordinary islanders reached a point where they could not preserve their lives due to the tyranny of Catholics. As a result, anti-Catholic sentiment among the Jeju people was further provoked.
Sangmusa
To counter these illegal acts by corrupt officials and wicked believers, local notables of Daejeong County (大靜郡) on Jeju formed the Sangmusa (商務社). The representative of the Sangmusa was Chae Gu-seok (蔡龜錫), then county magistrate of Daejeong, and other members included Yi Seong-gyo, Song Hui-su, Oh Dae-hyeon, Kang U-baek, Kang Baek, and Kang Cheol-ho. As local scholars and common people of Daejeong who agreed with its founding purpose joined the Sangmusa in large numbers, they exposed and condemned the extortion and excessive collection by the tax collectors, and also resisted the misdeeds and violence of the believers by force. This led to frequent friction and disputes between the two sides.6
In 1901 (Gwangmu 5), in Daejeong County, Catholic believers Oh Dal-hyeon, Oh Chang-u and others led church members to attack the house of Hyeon Yu-sun, a village notable and Confucian teacher, and seized Hyeon Yu-sun, his father Hyeon Gyu-seok, and his comrade, the jangui (掌議) Oh Sin-rak, and imprisoned and tortured them in the church, during which Oh Sin-rak died. The Catholics said he had hanged himself from a persimmon tree, while the two sons of the deceased said they had been caught by Catholics and beaten to death, so the testimonies conflicted. Chae Gu-seok, the county magistrate of Daejeong, took the government slave Yi Jae-su as the coroner and examined the corpse, and tried to catch the culprits, but they had taken refuge in the church and could not be arrested.7 This incident stirred up the islanders, who tried in their own way to circulate notices and negotiate with the church, and the Catholics also prepared to resist.
On 29 April, the house of Song Hui-su, a Sangmusa member in Sinpyeong-ri of Daejeong County, was again attacked by several dozen Catholic believers. The Catholics even tried to tie Song Hui-su's head to a horse's tail and drag him to the town of Daejeong, but they were barely stopped by the protests of the villagers of Sinpyeong-ri, and Song Hui-su barely escaped. In retaliation, Kang U-baek, Kang Hui-bong, Ma Chan-sam, and the village headman Oh Dae-hyeon, dozens of people in all, conspired and attacked the Catholic church of Daejeong, destroying the church and beating several believers. This incident was reported through Bishop Mutel (Korean name Min Deok-hyo) to the French legation in Seoul, and it became the direct trigger of the Sinchuk Peasant Uprising.6
Clashes
On 6 May, the Sangmusa members held a mass rally to denounce the Catholic believers. This mass rally, led by Oh Dae-hyeon and Kang U-baek, is evaluated as having gained support and strength from the people in Jeju and the confidence that they could confront the believers, thereby creating the direct occasion for the armed uprising.8 The two leaders of the mass rally exposed and condemned the tyranny of the Catholic believers and their collusion with the tax collectors in oppressing the people, and proposed going to the provincial city to appeal to the magistrate so that such damage would not recur; with the agreement of the crowd, Oh Dae-hyeon was chosen as jangdu (狀頭, leader of petitioners) on the spot. (Immediately after this mass rally, Kang Bong-heon escaped to Hanseong by boarding a steamship that had happened to dock at Jeju.) The Catholic believers also gathered behind Sanbangsan in opposition to the Sangmusa mass rally and entered Daejeong Castle, clashing with the people; although there were casualties, it did not spread widely. Oh Dae-hyeon, who was moderate, had from the beginning intended to limit the action to peaceful appeals rather than force.
Two days later, another clash broke out between the Sangmusa and the Catholic believers. When Kim Ok-dol, a Catholic serving as deputy ibang (副吏房) in the Daejeong county office, was reported to the authorities on a charge of adultery with the concubine of the village headman Oh Dae-hyeon, Chae Gu-seok, the county magistrate, sentenced Kim Ok-dol to thirty strokes of the cane for adultery with a married woman and imprisoned him; to placate the protests of the believers, he also beat Oh Dae-hyeon with fifteen strokes and released him. However, Kim Jin-sa, a Catholic dissatisfied with this, led some fifty men to the county magistrate Chae Gu-seok, denounced the reasons for beating and imprisoning the Catholic believers, arbitrarily opened the prison gate to free Kim Ok-dol, and then seized Sangmusa members; the Sangmusa members led their group to rescue the Sangmusa members being taken away along the road, and Kim Ok-dol and Kim Jin-sa were beaten by the members to the point of near death.9
The Jeju Catholic Church, judging that the thousands of petitioners marching toward the provincial city led by Oh Dae-hyeon had risen to attack Catholicism, sent Marcel Launay and Father Mousset (Jeju name Mun Je-man), each leading 300 believers armed with firearms, and the two sides clashed at Myeongwol Fortress (明月鎭). When the petitioners refused to disperse, Father Launay fired several shots as a warning; the petitioners dispersed briefly, and during that interval the Catholic believers abducted Oh Dae-hyeon and five other members of the petitioners and handed them over to the provincial governor, then chased the retreating petitioners to Daejeong County, where they seized the county arsenal and threatened residents. At this time, indiscriminate fire by the Catholic believers even killed Kim Bong-nyeon, a resident of Sindo-ri, instantly.
Shift to armed demonstration
With no leader petitioner remaining, Yi Jae-su, a government slave of Daejeong County, stepped forward and consulted with Kang U-baek, Jo Sa-saeng, and Oh Dae-heon (elder brother of Oh Dae-hyeon) on follow-up measures. Unlike Oh Dae-hyeon, who had relied on peace without force and had kept to moderation, Yi Jae-su, the new leader petitioner, resolved on an armed uprising against Catholic believers who did not hesitate to commit cowardly acts such as shooting even unarmed residents. Yi Jae-su sent dispatches to each village to gather able-bodied men and assemble comrades. In two days, thousands of able-bodied men gathered in Daejeong, and it is said that some forty hunters from each village also joined, carrying firearms.10
On 15 May, the peasant army (民軍) led by the leader petitioner Yi Jae-su, each armed with guns, swords, staves, and bamboo spears, and carrying provision bags, marched toward the provincial city with the anti-heresy banner (斥邪旗) at the front. Their stated objective was to overthrow the French priests and the believers, and to thoroughly root out by force all targets of popular grievance so that vicious tax collectors would never again rise to power. The peasant army was divided into two columns, east and west: Kang U-baek took charge of the eastern column, and Yi Jae-su himself took charge of the western column, which marched around the island of Jeju toward the provincial city. On the way, the peasant army advanced while rooting out and destroying the hiding places of Catholic believers; at this time, residents of the villages, who had been seething with anger at the tyranny of the believers and the excessive tax collection, joined and supported the peasant army wherever it went.10
On 16 May, the western peasant army led by Yi Jae-su reached close to Jeju Castle and set up camp at Hwangsa Plain. Kang U-baek of the eastern column also arrived at the provincial city through Jeongui County (旌義縣), and the eastern and western columns surrounded Jeju Castle and completely blockaded it, preventing grain from entering as well as all transportation and traffic overland. The Catholic believers inside Jeju Castle also seized weapons and ammunition from the armory and magazine, closed all three great gates of Jeju Castle, installed various cannons on the walls, and resisted the peasant army. Marksmen mobilized by the peasant army returned fire against the firearms attacks from inside the castle, and gunfights continued day after day.
On 23 May, Jeju County Magistrate Kim Chang-su attempted to mediate between the peasant army and the believers. He negotiated with Father Gu Ma-seul and released Oh Dae-hyeon, who had been detained, in an attempt to pacify the peasant army; however, the peasant army led by Yi Jae-su flatly rejected the magistrate's proposal for a ceasefire, and instead, Oh Dae-hyeon and Kang U-baek, who had been released, became the commanders of the eastern and western columns respectively, strengthening their forces.10
Opening of Jeju Castle
Inside the provincial city, the residents could not even receive adequate supplies of food and firewood, and as the days of exchanged fire continued and stray bullets came flying into private houses, the residents were terrified. In addition, the peasant army, gathered at Hwangsa Plain and Orari, reorganized its formation and, at a distance of about one ri outside the three great gates of Jeju Castle, showed signs of attacking the castle, sending circulars toward the castle and shouting at it while appealing to the residents to rise up.10 The public mood inside Jeju Castle was greatly agitated.
On 25 May, Kim Nam-hyeok led Jeju residents (mostly women) to gather at Gwandeokjeong (觀德亭) Square, demanding that the castle gates be opened immediately and the peasant army admitted into the castle. Father Launay promised to open the gates after three days and dispersed the crowd, a move made with the French fleet's support in mind. The French priest Marcel Launay secretly sent Jang Yun-seong, who was in exile there, to Mokpo to contact the French legation and requested that a warship of his homeland stationed at Incheon be sent; but on the third day as promised, the French warship the priest had expected did not come (the French warship only arrived at Jeju on 30 May). The Jeju residents again gathered and demanded the opening of Jeju Castle. About one thousand women (pig traders) wearing white towels on their heads shouted for the gates to be opened, went up to the castle with clubs, seized the believers guarding it and bound them, threw down all the guns and cannons, and then opened all three great gates and admitted the peasant army into the provincial city. The French priests, including Marcel Launay, barely survived by hiding in the eastern government office with the help of Jeongui County Magistrate Kim Hui-ju.11
End of the affair
The leader petitioner Yi Jae-su entered through the western gate, and the commanders of the eastern and western columns, including the brothers Oh Dae-heon and Kang U-baek, entered through the southern and eastern gates respectively; each time they entered, there was a loud sound of gunfire and shouting. Sitting at Gwandeokjeong, Yi Jae-su conveyed instructions one by one for resolving the situation, and also listed the crimes of the Catholic believers in scathing terms, hunting down and killing even those who had been seized or were hiding. Choe Hyeong-sun, a Catholic believer who was in exile on Jeju, was also seized and killed. He had not only handled tax collection under the tax collector Kang Bong-heon, but in Gwangyang had once ordered fire on the peasant army.11
It is known that on 28 and 29 May, when the peasant army entered the provincial city, three hundred Catholic believers were killed in these two days alone. According to the Records of Deaths of Commoners and Believers in the Three Counties (三郡平民敎民物故成冊), compiled in July, the total number of dead was 317, of whom 309 were Catholic believers and 8 were commoners; by sex, 305 were men and 12 were women; and the dead by county, as seen from the current status, were 93 in Jeju County (36 ri), 81 in Daejeong County (26 ri), and 142 in Jeongui County (8 ri).
On 31 May, two French warships anchored off the coast of Jeju and entered Jeju Castle. Aboard the French warships were the new Jeju magistrate Yi Jae-ho appointed by the Korean government, 100 men of the Ganghwa Jinwidae led by Company Commander Hong Sun-myeong as the advance force for suppressing the peasant army, the American Sand (W. Sand, Korean name San-do), who served as adviser to the Privy Council (宮內府), and translation chief Ko Eui-gyeong; and the Japanese warship Jewon-ho (濟遠號) also followed the French warships from Incheon to Jeju. The French navy, which raised the French flag over Jeju Castle, vowed to kill all Jeju islanders except the Catholic believers in revenge for the massacre of Catholic believers by the peasant army, but the new Jeju magistrate Yi Jae-ho objected that this was unjust, and it was halted.
Upon news of the French warships' arrival, Yi Jae-su called for a rising to fight to the end, and the peasant army again gathered, numbering ten thousand. Through negotiations between the French navy and the Korean government forces, the French warships returned with their countrymen and forty believers, but Hong Sun-myeong, company commander of the Ganghwa jinwidae, reported to the court that "the peasant revolt has not yet been suppressed." The Korean government dismissed Park Yong-won, who had previously been appointed as ahanaesa (安覈使, investigator) to Jeju,12 appointed Hwang Gi-yeon, special advisor (特進官), as Chalisa of Jeju, appointed Hong Hui as Jeju magistrate, and replaced the Daejeong county magistrate Kang Bong-heon with Heo Cheol. In addition, thirteen police officers and Yun Cheol-gyu, chamryeong (參領) of the Ganghwa Jinwidae, leading one hundred men, were urgently dispatched to Jeju, followed by two hundred men of the Suwon Jinwidae (however, the Suwon Jinwidae only arrived at Jeju on 13 June).13
On 10 June, Chalisa Hwang Gi-yeon, who arrived at Jeju, immediately posted the royal proclamation (皇帝의 告諭) ordering the correction of religious and tax abuses and used it to instruct the people.13 Yi Jae-su then dispersed the ten thousand peasant soldiers on his own and surrendered. Kang U-baek and Oh Dae-hyeon also surrendered in turn, and on 11 June, the day they were detained, Yi Yong-ho, Yi Beom-ju, and Jang Yun-seon, exiles on Jeju who were identified as Catholics, along with Daejeong County Magistrate Chae Gu-seok and former tax collector Kang Bong-heon, were also detained (Yi Yong-ho, Yi Beom-ju, and Jang Yun-seon were moved to Geumgap Island that day). The people of Jeju gathered again and requested the release of the petitioner leaders, but Chalisa Hwang Gi-yeon and battalion commander Yun Cheol-gyu promised that they would be released once the investigation was completed, and escorted the three leader petitioners to Hanseong.
Aftermath
On 13 June, two hundred men of the Suwon Jinwidae arrived at Jeju. The French warships, the palace adviser Sand of the Privy Council, and translation chief Ko Eui-gyeong also returned to Hanseong, and on 10 July, the Korean Ministry of Justice ordered the relocation to other regions of the exiles on Jeju, including Kim Yun-sik.
On 18 July, the three leader petitioners, Yi Jae-su and others, were escorted to Hanseong and brought before a trial held at the Pyeongriwon (平理院); at the end of the trial, the death penalty was pronounced, and on 9 October they were hanged in the Hanseong prison. Eleven participants, including Kim Nam-hyeok, Jo Sa-seong, Ko Yeong-su, and Yi Won-bang, were sentenced to exile to outlying areas, while Daejeong County Magistrate Chae Gu-seok was initially sentenced to death but was later pardoned. Kang Bong-heon was released after being escorted to Hanseong, and went back to his hometown in Pyeongbuk, where, due to objections that his acquittal was unjust, the authorities tried to arrest him again to handle him according to law, but reportedly could not catch him.14
Meanwhile, the French government demanded from the Korean government compensation of 5,160 won for the damage suffered by Catholic believers, and this compensation was fully repaid three years later, in June of 1904 (Gwangmu 8), when 6,315 won (including interest) was collected from the three counties of Jeju.14
Related materials
Historical records
- Sokeumcheongsa (續陰晴史) — the diary of Kim Yun-sik (金允植). Kim Yun-sik was exiled to Jeju Island for four and a half years, from 21 December 1897 to 16 July 1901, and the state of Jeju at the time is recorded in the upper parts of volumes 8, 9, and 10.
- Report on the Sinchuk Religious Case (신축교안 보고) — a gyoan (敎案)15 concerning the Sinchuk Peasant Uprising, written by the French priest Launay (Gu Ma-seul) residing in Jeju.
- Report of Jeju Magistrate Yi Jae-ho — Yi Jae-ho took office (until June 1906) as Jeju magistrate in April 1901, succeeding Yi Sang-gyu (李庠珪), and on 27 May entered Jeju with 270 French naval soldiers and two French warships.
- Judgment of the Pyeongriwon — a record of the final statement of Oh Dae-hyeon, one of the three leader petitioners at the time of the uprising.
- On the Peasant Uprising in Jeju Island (제주도민봉기의 건) — a report of the Japanese Legation in Korea.
- Records of Religious Abuses in the Three Counties (삼군교폐사실성책)
- Records of Deaths of Commoners and Believers in the Three Counties (삼군평민교민물고성책)
Nonfiction
- Records of Yi Jae-su (李在守實記) — a Korean-Chinese mixed-script book published in 1932 in Osaka, Japan, by Jo Mu-bin (趙武彬), which resulted from the efforts of Yi Jae-su's younger sister Sun-ok (順玉) to make her brother's undertaking known to the world. It contains eyewitness testimony, Yi Jae-su's birth and bearing, politics of the late Joseon period and the tyranny of Catholic believers, Yi Jae-su's uprising and the destruction of the Catholic church, the Ten Scenes of Yeongju (瀛洲十景), the invasion of the French fleet and the suppression by government troops, the actual circumstances of the negotiations in Seoul by the three righteous men (義士) led by Yi Jae-su, and the petition and personal history of Yi Sun-ok.
Novels
- Hyun Ki-young, A Bird Crying on the Frontier (변방에 우짖는 새)
Films
- The Rebellion of Yi Jae-su (이재수의 난), directed by Park Kwang-su, a 1999 film based on Hyun Ki-young's novel.
References
- This article includes text based on the entry "Jeju Islanders Rise Up Against Excessive Taxes and Catholicism" (《제주도민이 과도한 세금과 가톨릭에 맞서 들고일어나다》) from the Global World Encyclopedia, distributed under the GFDL or CC-SA license by Daum Communications (now Kakao).
Footnotes