What is the connection between South Korea, where the church is powerful, and Catholicism?

This article is exclusive to Tencent and is strictly prohibited from being reprinted without authorization Text/Extreme Bear According to statistics from the Catholic Church of South Korea in 2004, the total number of Catholics in South Korea was 4,538,000, accounting for 9.3 percent of the country's total population. Nowadays, the Korean Catholic Church has the largest number of adult converts to Catholicism in the world, and more than 150,000 adults are initiated into the Church every year. The Catholic Church also sends missionaries to other countries around the world, and the two former presidents of Korea, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, were both Catholics. Why has Korea, which is deep in the Confucian cultural circle of East Asia and separated from Western Europe, the center of Catholicism, by 10,000 miles, become an important stronghold for the spread of Catholicism in Asia? What is the historical connection between Korea and the Catholic Church behind this phenomenon? Picture/Catholicism y implanted in Korean society 01 Background of Western Catholicism's visit to East Asia Since the Age of Sail, along with the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, who were the first to start the process of conquering the world, there have been fervent Catholic missionaries from both countries, and Catholic religious thought, which represents Western civilization, has been spreading throughout the world. At the same time, there also came to East Asia the later Dutch and Italian colonial adventurers and Catholic missionaries from Western countries, and Catholicism began to spread in East Asia. At this time, the clock of history was already pointing to the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. In this era, China in East Asia was in the middle of the reign of the Ming Dynasty, during the Wanli period. Japan was in the transition from the end of the Warring States period of Toyonari Hideyoshi to the Edo Shogunate (Tokugawa Shogunate) period. And the Korean Peninsula was under the rule of the Yi Dynasty at this time. The emergence of Western colonial powers and the Catholic Church in East Asia had more or less influenced the process of social development in China and Japan. In particular, the spread of Catholicism in the two countries led to changes in the religious landscape of the two countries. A large number of Catholics appeared in both countries, as well as Matteo Ricci in China and Sabrio in Japan, both of whom were household names in the Eastern world for Western Catholic missionaries. Picture: Matteo Ricci, who served as a missionary in China The spread of Catholicism had a great impact on Japanese society, which eventually led to the "Shimabara Rebellion", a major uprising, and from then on, Japan began a period of seclusion. Matteo Ricci was at one time a very important official in the Ming court, which shows that the spread of Western Catholicism in China had reached a certain level. But there were no early Western missionaries in Korea at this time. Joseon's first encounter with Catholicism was nearly a century later than that of China and Japan. Photo/Franziger Schaberow, missionary in Japan 02 The First Encounter between Catholicism and Joseon In fact, as early as around the end of the 16th century, Joseon learned more or less about Catholicism through the channels of the Catholics who were missionaries in the Qing Dynasty. Early Korean envoys to China, such as Yi Yi-mi and Hong Dae-yong, came into contact with Catholicism in China and brought back relevant books. But it was after the 18th century 70s that the Joseon people really studied Catholicism in a meaningful way. In the late 18th century, some progressive scholars began to pay attention to Western modern civilization and Catholic thought in order to fight against traditional science. 1784, Yi Sung-hyun, an envoy of the Joseon Dynasty, was baptized by the Catholic Church in Beijing and brought back Catholic teachings, and the Joseon society began to formally study the Catholic civilization in the West, and Catholicism began to spread officially on the Korean Peninsula. 03 The "tug-of-war" between the Joseon court and the Catholic Church After Ri Sung-hyun introduced Catholic ideas into Joseon, Joseon society spontaneously set up its own church organizations without the guidance of Westerner missionaries. With the support of grassroots intellectuals who abhorred the corrupt "two-class politics," Catholicism spread throughout the country and posed a threat to the ruling class. Catholicism's rejection of patriarchal social authority and its opposition to Confucian liturgical forms made the Chosun ruling class incompatible with Catholicism. In 1801, a campaign of persecution of Catholics was launched in Joseon, known as the "Sinu Evil Prison", in which a large number of believers in Joseon were either executed or exiled. In addition to this, some progressive thinkers in the Joseon court such as Park Toe-won and Park Chi were also implicated and either demoted or expelled from the officialdom. It can be said that the "Sinwoo Evil Prison" was not only to crack down on religious forces, but also to crack down and cleanse together with progressive ideas and their political forces. After the "Sinu Evil Prison", the Catholic power in Joseon was greatly wounded, but the rotten and corrupt two-class system and the miserable life of the lower class people made the soil for the religion to grow wildly. Soon the Catholic power began to expand again, and in 1811 the Korean Catholic Church made contact with the distant Western Holy See through its bishop in Peking, China. In 1831 the Holy See established Korea as an archdiocese and appointed a prelate for the region, and in 1833 three French missionaries came to Korea to consolidate the position of the Korean Church, by which time the number of Catholics in the whole of Korea had reached more than 9,000. If the early Catholic ideas were only limited to spreading among intellectuals and progressive thinkers. Then the second wave of Catholicism in North Korea after the "Sinu Evil Prison" ***, began to affect the common people of North Korea, the idea of equality before God for the feudal ruling class of North Korea, can be considered a fatal blow. So the ruling class of North Korea launched a second crackdown on Catholicism, the "Heihai Evil Prison", but at this time the Catholic Church had become a "prairie fire", and the support of the commoner class made it impossible to suppress the "Heihai Evil Prison". The support of the commoners made it impossible for the suppression of the Catholic Church to completely suppress the power of the "Jihye Evil Prison". At the same time, the earliest Korean priest, Kim Dae-gyeon, also returned to his homeland to carry out missionary activities, and the Catholic power was in a spurt for a while. Photo/Kim Dae-geun, the earliest Korean priest Seven years later, in 1846, with the arrest of Kim Dae-geun as the trigger, the "Bungwoo Evil Prison" appeared again in Korea. However, the court's attempt to crack down on Catholicism by "catching the thief before the king" was a mistake. Just one year later, another 1,700 people were converted to Catholicism in Joseon, and three years later, the total Catholic population in the country had already reached 20,000 people. In this way, the ruling class of Joseon failed to suppress the spread and growth of Catholicism until the fall of Kim's Seido regime in Andong. This is another indication of the unpopularity of the ruling class of Joseon, which made the oppressed underclasses fall into the arms of the Catholic forces in large numbers. After the fall of Kim's Seido regime in Andong, a famous "ruthless character" in the history of Joseon came to the stage of history, the famous Daewongun. After Daewongun came to power, western countries demanded trade with Joseon, and the power of gatekeepers and Catholicism in the country was expanding. In order to strengthen the royal power and maintain the rule of the King of Joseon, Daewongun felt that it was imperative to combat the Catholic power. From 1865, Daewongun persecuted the Catholic Church for three consecutive years, executing two bishops, seven priests, and more than 8,000 believers in the country one after another, which was the largest persecution campaign since Catholicism was introduced to Joseon. In order to stop this persecution, France sent a fleet of ships to intervene, which triggered the famous "Bungin Yangjak" incident in modern Joseon history. Picture/History of Joseon "The Great Man" Daewongun Postscript From the signing of the Ganghwa Island Treaty in 1876 to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1985 to the complete annexation of the Korean Peninsula by Japan in 1910, Joseon gradually lost its *** and fell into the hands of the French, and the Korean Peninsula became the center of the world. Gradually, Korea lost *** and became a colony of Japanese imperialism. At this point, the struggle between Korea and the Catholic forces of the West came to an end. But the enthusiasm of the Korean people for Catholicism did not diminish. After the end of the Korean War, Catholicism began to grow again in Korea. By this time, the time had already entered the middle of the 20th century, the political and social environment of the world and East Asia had changed dramatically, and the feudal dynasties that had been in conflict with the Catholic Church had disappeared from history, so there was no longer any obstacle to the development of the Catholic Church. References 1. Kang Wan-kil Modern History of Korea, Oriental Publishing House 1993 2. Lee Ki-baek New Essay on Korean History, International Cultural Publishing House 1992