Catholics and anti-Catholicism in Chosŏn Korea / Don Baker with Franklin Rausch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baker, Don, 1945- author.

Rausch, Franklin, author.

Series:

Hawaiʻi studies on Korea.

Hawai'i Studies on Korea

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hwang, Sa-yŏng, 1775-1801.

Hwang, Sa-yŏng.

Catholic Church--Korea--History--19th century.

Catholic Church.

Anti-Catholicism--Korea--History--19th century.

Anti-Catholicism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, [2017]

Summary:

Korea's first significant encounter with the West occurred in the last quarter of the eighteenth century when a Korean Catholic community emerged on the peninsula. Decades of persecution followed, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Korean Catholics. Don Baker provides an invaluable analysis of late-Chosŏn (1392-1897) thought, politics, and society to help readers understand the response of Confucians to Catholicism and of Korean Catholics to years of violent harassment. His analysis is informed by two remarkable documents expertly translated with the assistance of Franklin Rausch and annotated here for the first time: an anti-Catholic essay written in the 1780s by Confucian scholar Ahn Chŏngbok (1712-1791) and a firsthand account of the 1801 anti-Catholic persecution by one of its last victims, the religious leader Hwang Sayŏng (1775-1801).Confucian assumptions about Catholicism are revealed in Ahn's essay, Conversation on Catholicism. The work is based on the scholar's exchanges with his son-in-law, who joined the small group of Catholics in the 1780s. Ahn argues that Catholicism is immoral because it puts more importance on the salvation of one's soul than on what is best for one's family or community. Conspicuously absent from his Conversation is the reason behind the conversions of his son-in-law and a few other young Confucian intellectuals. Baker examines numerous Confucian texts of the time to argue that, in the late eighteenth century, Korean Confucians were tormented by a growing concern over human moral frailty. Some among them came to view Catholicism as a way to overcome their moral weakness, become virtuous, and, in the process, gain eternal life. These anxieties are echoed in Hwang's Silk Letter, in which he details for the bishop in Beijing his persecution and the decade preceding it. He explains why Koreans joined (and some abandoned) the Catholic faith and their devotion to the new religion in the face of torture and execution. Together the two texts reveal much about not only Korean beliefs and values of two centuries ago, but also how Koreans viewed their country and their king as well as China and its culture.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Notes on the Translated Texts and Romanization

Part I. The Road to Persecution

Chapter 1. Korea at the End of the Eighteenth Century

Chapter 2. Confucian Criticisms of Catholicism

Chapter 3. The Birth of the Korean Catholic Church

Chapter 4. A Decade of Hopes and Fears

Chapter 5. Nationalism and Evaluations of Hwang Sayŏng and His Silk Letter

Part II. In Their Own Words

Chapter 6. A Conversation on Catholicism by Sunam Ahn Chŏngbok

Chapter 7. The Silk Letter of Hwang Sayŏng

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes a complete translation of an anti-Catholic essay and an annotated translation of the Silk letter of Hwang Sayŏng.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Nov 2019)

ISBN:

9780824875633

082487563X

9780824866297

0824866290

9780824866273

0824866274

OCLC:

990267660