Sahwa (scholarly pogroms in Korea)

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In Korea there were four political intellectual pogroms in the late 15th and first half of the 16th centuries , which went down in history in Korea under the name Sahwa (Hangeul: 사화 , Hanja: 士 禍 ): in the years 1498, 1504, 1519 and 1545. The literal translation of the Chinese characters means something like scholarly misery or grief . In the English-language literature, the term literati purges has become established, literally in about literati purges. He was coined by Edward W. Wagner, a Harvard professor of Korean history.

introduction

Politics in the middle of the Joseon Dynasty was primarily shaped by a power struggle between two aristocratic yangban interest groups - the established Hungu power elite and an emerging group of well-educated intellectuals from wealthy families, the Sarim (sometimes spelled Saarim ), what means as much as the learned forest . They were followers of Neo-Confucianism and denounced the prevailing corruption. The members of this movement were called Seonbi (Hangeul: 선비 ), roughly translated as virtuous scholar or scientist . This movement arose from a group of students of Kim Jong-jik (Hangeul: 김종직 , 1431–1492), who is often called Jeompiljae (Hangeul: 점필재 ) by his author's name . As a rule, the Sarim supporters avoided direct power struggles and thus the royal court. Instead, they withdrew to rural provinces, where they devoted themselves to the study of Neoconfucianism. This is reinforced after Sejo expelled his 14-year-old nephew, King Danjong, from the throne in 1455 in order to ascend the throne himself. He executed six ministers who tried to bring Danjong back to the throne.

With the beginning of the reign of King Seongjong in 1469, Sarim supporters pushed more and more into political positions, and there especially into the three key positions of the administration: General Inspector (whose task was to control the official apparatus, in particular to prosecute and prosecute corruption), the colonel customs guard (without direct political power was his duty to disclose grievances) and Hongmoongwan (included the documentation of government business whose tasks, as well as to act as a teacher and moral adviser to the king). Sarim were also well represented in other steering and controlling positions. With this increasing power, the Sarim supporters challenged the ancestral power elite, which, however, also continued to hold some key positions. Initially, however, the Sarim supporters still had the support of King Seongjong and thus enjoyed his protection.

After King Seongjong's eldest son, Yeonsangun , ascended the throne in 1494 , an intrigue in 1498 led to a bloody family feud, initially within the royal family, which escalated into a pogrom in the civil servants, and subsequently to 1504, 1519 and 1545 further bloody pogroms against the Sarim supporters.

Effects

These four pogroms decimated the Sarim faction and drove them back to rural areas, far from the royal court. There they founded schools (called Seowon) in order to carry on their ideas in this way. Yi Hwang , for example, withdrew from politics after the fourth pogrom. Despite repeated requests from the court, he refused to return to the court for a long time.

After Jo Gwang-jo fell victim to an intrigue and was executed as a result in 1519, other famous scholars, such as Jo Shik , Seo Gyeong-deok and Seoung Soo-chim, also fled the capital. Also Jo Shik rejected an appeal from back to court. He wrote to King Myeongjong :

“So much has gone wrong under Your Majesty's Government and the foundations of the country have collapsed. Heaven's support is playful, as is that of the people. The king's mother is concerned about the land and means well, but she is a widow, somewhere in the palace. Your Majesty is young and inherits the royal dignity of your late father. How is it possible to face thousands of natural disasters and how to heal the billions of shards of the hearts of the people? "

- Jo Shik :

The Sarim supporters founded schools and academies in rural areas, far from the court, in order at least in this way to carry their ideas further. These were successful and flourished some. When, after the death of King Myeongjong in 1567, his younger brother, King Seonjo , ascended the throne, the Sarim regained influence and rose to key administrative positions. Until the end of the Joseon Dynasty , they retained decisive influence on politics.

From today's perspective

The above presentation of the pogroms is based on an understanding of the events of that time that is widely accepted in historical research. Nevertheless, it must be said that a large part of the underlying documents reflect the events from the point of view of the Sarim supporters. The Joseon Dynasty yearbooks were largely written by them. The yearbooks are one of the central sources. However, they were written at a time when it was not foreseeable that the Sarim would one day prevail. In this respect, the writers would have taken a very high personal risk if they had tried to falsify the events in the yearbooks in their favor. It is therefore assumed that the yearbooks are a reliable source.

Some historians understand the pogroms as the result of a dispute between the claims to power of the respective monarchs who wanted to enforce their absolute claim to power, while the official aristocracy saw the true loyalty to their king in guiding him so that he becomes a benevolent Confucian philosopher-king and that is necessary for this if necessary, be advised of his mistakes. They see the differences between the Sarim and Hungu factions as artificial and argue that it was not actually about the struggle between different philosophical lines, but rather a struggle that was waged between different clans.

Web links

literature

  • Edward YJ Chung: The Korean Neo-Confucianism of Yi T'oegye and Yi Yulgok: A Reappraisal of the 'Four-Seven Thesis' and its Practical Implications for Self-Cultivation (=  SUNY series in Korean studies ). State University of New York Press, Albany 1995, ISBN 0-7914-2275-5 (English).
  • Ki-baek Yi: A New History of Korea . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass 1984, ISBN 0-674-61576-X , 10 The Rise of the Neoconfucian Literati, pp. 204 ff ( books.google.de [accessed on August 16, 2014] Translated from the Korean by Edward W. Wagner).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ During the Joseon Dynasty , it was believed that natural disasters were heaven's punishment for the king's mistakes.
  2. ↑ During the Joseon Dynasty, the Korean court kept yearbooks in which important events were documented. The specified date indicates the date on which an incident, letter or the like was recorded.
  3. ↑ That would also explain why the Sarim supporters, relatively unmolested by the Hungu faction, were able to found schools and spread their ideas as long as they stayed away from the centers of immediate power.