This research approaches to Cheok-sa-yun-eum which procured the legitimation of the persecution of the Joseon government against the Catholicism. This researcher has the particular attention about the reasons of the government’s criticism through re...
This research approaches to Cheok-sa-yun-eum which procured the legitimation of the persecution of the Joseon government against the Catholicism. This researcher has the particular attention about the reasons of the government’s criticism through reviewing on the Cheok-sa-yun-eum.
This research attempts to analyze the contents of the Cheok-sa-yun-eum, by having on the position of the Catholic. For this analysis, it attempts to collect relevant sources which contain the catechism of Catholic, concentrating on the Sang-jae-sang-seo, and then this research establish the clear validity of the Catholic’s basis of arguments. Besides, it pays attention to contents of belief which was testified by their life through the historical records. Therefore, ultimately, it concretely considers the neglected parts about the Catholic in Cheok-sa-yun-eum.
This thesis is composed of four chapters. The results of each research are following:
First chapter will study on the general understanding about Yun-eum (edict of proscription) and Cheok-sa-yun-eum, Firstly, it was a proclaimed document for the people and officials to notice new policy or encounter difficult issues with king’s order. It was published into book form, and it was realized a unique document form distinguished a textbook. Secondly, Yun-eum was published in Royal Secretariat, and the intendant of education or the intendant of education of the Bureau of Arts and Letters was authors. Furthermore, the purpose of publishing Yun-eum was to inform the ruling principles and straighten the order of the country. Thirdly, Yun-eum covered the various issues, and especially it contained the contents about livelihood of people or the royal event of the Joseon dynasty. Thus, Yun-eum was the valuable resource to comprehend the context of politics and social-economy across the Joseon society.
Subsequently, this chapter can be summarized as following: Firstly, Cheok-sa-yun-eum defined all studies except Confucianism as treacherous study. After King Chŏngjo, the concept of the treacherous study was normally designated as Catholic. Therefore, Cheok-sa-yun-eum was called the official document of anti-Catholic as order of king in late Joseon government. In the second place, Cheok-sa-yun-eum was a theoretical reason to define Catholic as treacherous study and exclude it, and the purpose of promulgation was to sustain the conservative social order for the people under the ideology of neo-Confucianism.
Chapter two focuses attention to the logic of criticism about Catholic as the position of Joseon government through Cheok-sa-yun-eum, and this research reached the following results: firstly, Cheok-sa-yun-eum expressed the negative viewpoint about the main doctrine of Catholic which contains the recognition of God and Jesus. Second, it refused the doctrine like the recognition of the soul, the concept of eternal life, and the existence of the after life, as the position of the Confucianism. Third, it revealed the hostility about the practice of Catholic belief as the Confucian stance. Particularly, it denied the filial piety which Catholic believers should have the ethical duty as a human, even it argued that they abjured allegiance to a king. Fourth, Cheok-sa-yun-eum indicated that Catholic did unethical behavior against the‘four moral sprouts’and‘five fundamental human relationships’and confused the corrupt a unique custom of Joseon society.
Above referred researches, Cheok-sa-yun-eum explained the legitimacy of persecution to Catholic and reasserted simultaneously the neo-Confucian norm of the society. In addition, the Joseon government emphasized that the society could the piping times of peace in the ruling system of neo-Confucian through pursuing Confucianism.
Chapter three considers the riposte of the Catholics against Cheok-sa-yun-eum. In advance, Catholic believers in Joseon tried to defend against the doctrinal prejudice which Cheok-sa-yun-eum argued about Catholic. Especially, The Letter to Prime Minister on Catholic Doctrines(Sang-Jae-Sang-Seo), hand-copied in Korean which was authored by Ha-Sang Jung counteracted against the reasons of Cheok-sa-yun-eum. Likewise, Catholics attempted to propose a new view point about Catholic by emphasizing the practical life like a martyr in their life otherwise known as bigoted views. They revealed the distinguished behaviors with the life that they served their parents devotedly and loved their neighbours. After all, the Catholics of Joseon presented not this example of life model, but also the intention points of Catholic belief in Joseon society at that time.
Chapter four analyzes the contents of Cheok-sa-yun-eum as the position of Catholics, and then it inquired the neglected part about Catholic in Cheok-sa-yun-eum. The followings are the result of this study: Firstly, this research found the fact that the Joseon government induced the public hostility to the Catholics. Consequently, they quoted repeatedly the expressions from the lack of understanding about Catholic. However, they failed to persuade the people, but also the Catholics, because they used the biased view from unreasonable recognition about Catholic with having an only Confucian stance. This research catches that the Cheok-sa-yun-eum revealed the intention of the Joseon government fell into the fundamental contradiction about the edification policy.
Secondly, chapter four will explain the fact that Cheok-sa-yun-eum did not criticize to the theoretical key issues reasonably with a thoughtful understanding about the Catholic doctrine. Also, Cheok-sa-yun-eum did not handle concretely and logically at the comparison between Confucian and Catholic. In particular, Cheok-sa-yun-eum argued repeatedly that the Catholic doctrine is not accepted in the society, and it is against the ruling ideology. These arguments are verified commonly in four Cheok-sa-yun-eum. This chapter found that the Joseon government treated other religious or studies negatively in the way of vested interests.
Thirdly, the Joseon government tried to protect the country from the threatening of a foreign power, take the negative stance to new thoughts, and argued the legitimacy of oppression against Catholic. However, Cheok-sa-yun-eum caused spreading the Catholic, failing any actual effect of suppression. Therefore, Cheok-sa-yun-eum became the opportunity to acquire the knowledge of the Catholic to the unbeliever in Joseon, as Cheok-sa-yun-eum was distributed to all country. This historical fact is able to be confirmed from the expressions which Cheok-sa-yun-eum recorded the fact of the wide spread of Catholic in Joseon. Therefore, Cheok-sa-yun-eum only emphasized the exclusion against Catholic, the government was unsuccessful to oppress them as it could not show anything in the particular.