earticle

영어

In Korean Historiography, the Donghak Movement remains in the center of scholarly attention, and also non-korean scholars of East Asian History have become aware of pending issues in research about Donghak. One remaining central issue is the very basic issue of how to name the movement. Was it only a rather premodern uprising, or a full-fledged peasant movement? A peasant war? Even a revolution? The question about the name is intrinsically linked to a definition of the movement’s character. What started as Jeon Bong-juns attack on the magistrate in Gobu in early January 1894 is now widely considered as the main trigger that lead to the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. At that time, many foreigners lived and worked in Korea, and thus first-handedly witnessed the “Donghaks“ and their movement. There is a rich body of material available by the European-American foreign “Westerner” community that lived in Korea at the time of the Donghak movement or shortly thereafter. Some of the foreigners wrote about their experiences in memoirs, letters or diaries, others published works about Korea that followed a certain scholarly standard. One the one hand, especially the missionaries in Korea, be it the Anglicans, the French Catholics, or the American Presbyterians, had a special interest in the religious character of the Donghaks. Others, be it reporters or travelers, also made up their opinion about recent events. Even though the historical source material is sparse, the foreign ministers to Seoul and their staff also had their opinions and concerns about the movement. In this paper, I used the aforementioned material to find a differentiated and encompassing Western View of the Donghak movement. As a result, it can be shown that the foreigner’s accounts share several fixed images about the “Donghaks”. Foremost, most Westerners wondered how people can be as folly to believe to be invulnerable against bullets. Still, there are ruptures in the overall picture as well – some tended to interpret the Donghaks as marauders, fanatics and rebels, while others where quite early able to see the reformist character of the movement.

한국어

본고는 동학운동이 진행되었던 당시 한반도에 살았거나 다른 일로 인해 한반도와 관계있었던 서양인의 자료를 바탕으로, 그들이 바라본 동학운동에 대한 연구이다. 서양인은 동학의 본질과 성격에 대해 어떻게 파악하였는지라는 문제의식으로, 오늘의 동학운동 명칭 이슈에 새로운 시야를 열릴 수 있는 기대로 진행되었다. 서양인의 5개 그룹은, 기자, 선교사, 학자, 외교관, 여행가로 나누어 분석해 보았다. 서양인이 커다란 움직임의 시대에 대해 잘 알아 볼 수 있는 자료를 많이 남겼음에도 불구하고 이 자료는 그동안 관심을 받지 못했다. 이러한 자료를 분석하는 과정에서 흥미로운 일화와 왜곡되지 않은 동학에 관한 언급을 찾아낼 수 있었다. 당시 선교사들은 동학에 대해 종교로써 관심이 있었다. 또 여행가로서 이사벨라 버드 비숍과 몇 명의 서양인들은 동학에 대한 소문에 의존하는 것이 아니라 스스로 해석을 하면서 동학에 대한 새로운 생각을 펼칠 수 있게 되었다.