The Korean Mind. Boye Lafayette De Mente
live simple, spontaneous, meditative lives; that they should ignore social conventions and worldly affairs and stay in harmony with nature. (This impractical approach to life was no doubt the primary reason that Taoism never became a widely practiced philosophy.)
In an effort to discover ways to transcend life, Taoist devotees experimented with elixirs and potions and with transforming metals. During one period Taoists advocated engaging in copious sexual activity as the best way to achieve enlightenment—a policy that resulted in a significant increase in the philosophy’s followers.
In number of adherents, the third-largest religion in Korea today is Chon Do Gyo (Chone Doh G’yoh), or “Religion of the Heavenly Way,” which originated in the Tong Hak (Tong Hahk) or “Eastern Learning” movement that developed in the latter part of the nineteenth century in response to pressure on Korea from Russia, Japan, and European powers and the weaknesses of the Choson court. Chon Do Gyo is described by Korea’s religious authorities as a nationalistic mixture of Buddhism and Confucianism.
Islam is one of the officially registered religions in Korea but is of recent origin. Koreans who were moved to Manchuria between 1895 and 1928 by the Japanese and were subsequently converted to Islam brought their new religious faith with them when they were finally returned to their homeland. The first inaugural service of Korean Islam was held in 1955, following which a Korean Imam was elected. The Korean Islamic Society was established in 1966, and the Ministry of Culture gave the organization official status in 1976.
Many Koreans still do not think very much about any religion. Surveys indicate that younger people do not believe that religion should be a part of the education of their children. At the same time, they say the moral teachings of religion are necessary for a wholesome outlook on life.
This apparently contradictory view results from the fact that throughout Korean history religious beliefs and rituals were an inseparable part of the lifestyle, not something seen or regarded as distinct and separate from everyday living. Koreans simply did not associate the concept of religion with the way they lived. They did not think in terms of “this is a Buddhist ritual” or “that is a shamanistic practice.”
It was not until the widespread introduction of Christianity into Korea from the late 1800s on that ordinary Koreans began to consciously recognize religion as a distinctive field of thought, and there is still a tendency for Koreans to see Christianity and other new religions as “religions” but not to label Buddhism, Confucianism, and shamanism as such.
There are some 240 so-called “new religions” in Korea, all of which are combinations of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. The largest of these new religions are Ilshin Gyo, Taejing Gyo, Chondo Gyo, Murong Chondo, Pong Nam, Todokhoe, Chongilhoe, and the Unification Church. Chondo Gyo began in the nineteenth century as Tong Hak (Tohng Hahk), or “Eastern Learning,” a political movement against inroads being made into the country by foreign colonial powers and Catholicism.
Internationally the best known of Korea’s new religions is the Unification Church, founded in the 1950s by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Notorious for its cult-like practices in attracting and keeping converts and in fundraising, the Unification Church has branches worldwide. In the United States, members of the church are popularly known as “Moonies,” a less than flattering term probably coined by a journalist. In 1982 the founder, Rev. Moon, was convicted by a U.S. court for income tax evasion and spent nearly a year in a federal prison.
The public platform of the Unification Church is “the Global Family” and “Love Will Save the Earth”—themes that it uses to stage mass gatherings that attract high-profile celebrity speakers. However, the most unusual of the church’s huge gatherings are mass weddings, the largest of which (at the time of this writing) involved more than seven hundred thousand couples around the world.
According to government statistics, some 25 percent of the population of South Korea is listed as members of the various Christian denominations that have flourished in the country.
Chongmal 총말 Chohng-mahl
The Color of Truth
When the first Westerners took up residence in Korea in the sixteenth century—unwillingly as the result of a shipwreck on Cheju Island—they were almost immediately presented with a kind of behavior that confused and frustrated them. They quickly learned that virtually everything of substance that they were told by their Korean captor/hosts turned out to be untrue. It seemed to them that it was the official policy of the authorities to lie rather than tell the truth.
What these early visitors to Korea encountered was a version of chongmal (chohng-mahl), or “truth,” that was based on the reality of Korean life rather than abstract principles. In Korea’s authoritarian feudal society “truth” was an arbitrary factor that was determined by circumstances, not by hard, objective facts. In effect chongmal was what the government said it was and what the people had to accept to survive in that cultural environment.
In other terms people were not free to determine or express objective truth in their personal relationships or any of their affairs. The “truth” in all matters was an artificially constructed political and social paradigm that had been designed to preserve the harmony of a hierarchically arranged authoritarian society that denied personal individuality and human rights. All personal feelings and concerns were secondary to the interests of the state, which based its policies on a corrupted form of Confucianism that the government used to justify itself.
In this environment, chongmal was an artifice that people were forced to use to maintain the inferior-superior relationships that were prescribed precisely for family members and between friends, co-workers, and the authorities on every level of government. A “truthful” response was whatever would sustain and enhance the harmonious actions and reactions of people within this minutely controlled culture. Thus “real truth” was sacrificed to the system. People were forced to “lie” as an essential part of the role playing demanded by the etiquette they were forced to follow.
When Westerners were first confronted with this form of reality, they took it to mean that Koreans had no principles and no honor and that they knowingly lied for malicious purposes rather than as a part of their normal behavior.
In the latter decades of the nineteenth century a few Westerners—mostly missionaries and their families—became longtime residents of Korea, learned the language, and became familiar enough with Korean culture to understand the difference between Western reality and Korean reality. They also learned that when Koreans were interacting with foreigners in a relatively culture-free, nonthreatening atmosphere they not only understood the concept of objective reality and truth but were perfectly capable of telling the truth and behaving in a rational manner.
Although the political, economic, and social systems of Korea have been transformed since the mid-1900s, and the people have undergone dramatic intellectual changes as well, enough of the traditional mind-set remains that it continues to play an easily discernible and significant role in society. In purely Korean settings people are still under immense pressure to tailor the truth in their responses to others and for the same reasons—to save face for themselves and others and to keep everything harmonious on the surface.
But there are now powerful forces at work within Korean society, fueled by increasing economic and political involvement with the West, by a critical mass media and the internationalization of education, that are gradually eroding the use and the need for circumstantial truth. It is unlikely that this erosion process will totally eliminate subjective truth from Korean society in the foreseeable future, but it has already gone far enough in Korea’s “international community” that it is no longer a major barrier to communication, understanding, and cooperation. As a general rule, however, it is still important for foreigners doing business in Korea to maintain a “truth alert” in their relationships with employees and others and to regularly confirm the information they receive.
Chongshik 총힉 Chohng-sheek
Doing Things by the Book
Life in ancient Korea was structured around the tenets of shamanism, with precise rituals governing all religious ceremonies, including planting, harvesting, and various other activities that were