Abstract
My dissertation focuses on the violence associated with two Korean Catholics from the late Chosŏn dynasty. My first subject, Alexius Hwang Sayŏng, wrote a letter during the anti-Catholic suppression of 1801 to the bishop of Beijing proposing that a Western armada invade Korea to force the Chosŏn state to tolerate Catholicism, only to be arrested and executed for treason. In 1909, my second subject, Thomas An Chunggŭn, assassinated Itō Hirobumi, the first resident-general of Korea, in hopes that his death would lead to the restoration of Korean independence. Through the study of their writings, interrogation reports, court records, public pronouncements, newspapers, missionary letters and journals, I reveal the different types of violence they sought to justify, suffered, and were reacting to.

While Hwang and Neo-Confucian officials both believed that violence could be legitimately deployed in order to actualize the worldviews mandated by their respective religions, the centrality of religion had largely been eclipsed by the secular ideologies of nationalism, Social-Darwinism, and Pan-Asianism, by An‟s time. This situation led to a struggle within and between An and foreign missionaries over the proper relationship between nation, state, and religion, and eventually to An‟s decision to kill Itō for both religious and secular reasons, even as the Catholic Church forbade violent resistance to Japan‟s colonial project.

Through a comparison of the violence associated with Hwang and An, I show that religion can both encourage and discourage violence at the same time, and that its influence can be shaped, magnified, or diminished by secular worldviews, proving the difficulty in simply labeling violence as “religious” or “secular,” and the essentially ambiguous nature of violence. I therefore propose that, in contravention to scholars who argue that religion is somehow more violent than secular ideologies, it is not so much whether a type of violence can be labeled as secular or religious, but the contents of that worldview, its relationship with other worldviews within an individual, and the historical context in which it is actualized, that is more important in determining its propensity for violence.

Local access dig.pdf. [Rausch-Ambiguity of violence.pdf]

Part I : The road to persecution -- Korea at the end of the eighteenth century -- Confucian criticisms of Catholicism -- The birth of the Korean Catholic Church -- A decade of hopes and fears -- Nationalism and evaluations of Hwang Sayŏng and his Silk Letter -- Part II : In their own words -- A Conversation on Catholicism by Sunam Ahn Chŏngbok -- The Silk letter of Hwang Sayŏng.

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-Choson (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 Chongbok (1712-1791) and a firsthand account of the 1801 anti-Catholic persecution by one of its last victims, the religious leader Hwang Sayong (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. -- From book jacket.

Sarajin chaekdeurui munheonhak : sinhaesaok(1791) sigi oegyujanggageseo sogakdoen seohakseowa geu teukjing 사라진 책들의 문헌학 : 신해사옥(1791) 시기 외규장각에서 소각된 서학서와 그 특징 = Philology of the Vanished : Jesuit Books from the Royal Archive in Ganghwa Island (Oe-Kyujanggak) Incinerated in 1791  / Soh Jeanhyoung 소진형

Published in 한국문화, 111 (2025)

Abstract:

본 연구는 1791년 신해사옥 당시 외규장각에서 소각된 한역 서학서와 교리서의 특징을 분석하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 외규장각에 소장되었던 서학서 및 교리서 29종은 신해사옥 이후 정조의 명령에 따라 소각되었다. 이들 서적의 서지사항을 분석하면 다음과 같은 특징을 알 수 있다. 첫째, 대부분의 서적이 1610년대부터 1645년 사이에 출간되었다. 둘째, 전체 29종 중 알폰소 바뇨네의 저술 및 번역서가 9종으로 가장 많은 비중을 차지한다. 셋째, 18세기 조선 사대부들이 널리 읽었던 『천학초함』 수록 서적이나 당시 천주교도들이 소장했던 교리서와는 크게 중복되지 않는다. 외규장각에 소장되었던 서학서의 저자 및 출판 과정에 참여한 인물들을 살펴보면, 알폰소 바뇨네, 아담 샬, 자코모 로 등 특정 예수회 선교사들의 저작이나 번역서에 집중되어 있음이 확인된다. 이 책들의 특징과 출판 시기와 저자 등을 고려해 볼 때 외규장각 소장 서학서들은 아담 샬로부터 그를 만났던 소현세자나 연행사들에게 전해졌을 것으로 추정된다.

This study analyzes the characteristics of Western Learning books (Seohakseo) and Catholic doctrinal texts that were burned at the Outer Kyujanggak during the Sinhaesaok incident of 1791. It attempts to trace their routes of introduction to Joseon Korea. The 29 volumes of Western Learning books and Catholic texts stored in the Outer Kyujanggak were ordered to be burned by King Jeongjo following the Catholic persecution of 1791. Bibliographic analysis reveals three distinctive features: First, most of the Western Learning books were published between the 1610s and 1640s. Second, nine works by Alfonso Vagnone constitute the most significant portion among the 29 volumes. Third, these books barely overlap with the works included in the Tianxue chuhan (天學初函), which were widely read by Joseon literati in the 18th century, or with the doctrinal texts possessed by Korean Catholics. Analysis of the authors and publication processes reveals a concentration among specific Jesuit missionaries, including Alfonso Vagnone, Adam Schall, and Giacomo Rho. These figures all adhered to the Matteo Ricci approach of translation, which employed Confucian terminology to explain Catholic doctrines. Considering that the Zhujiao yuanji (主敎緣紀) in the Outer Kyujanggak collection appears to be the first edition presented to the Chongzhen Emperor, and taking into account Crown Prince Sohyeon's stay in Beijing, Adam Schall's activities, and Joseon's calendar reform discussions, it is highly probable that these books were transmitted to Joseon envoys through Adam Schall.