Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/655

* KOREA. 593 KOB£A. aries found several thousand converts. Perse- cution, however, broke out, and in 18GG nine jjriesls were executed at the capital. There are now 30,000 native Roman Catholics and 30 French priests. Protestant missions began in 18S4, and there are now 200 teachers and preach- ers, with 2500 enrolled church members. Edi CATION. Under the old regime education was in Chinese chiefly, and conducted on Chinese lints. In 1894-n.j a new Department- of Educa- tion was established, and a public school system inaugurated extending through the various grades, from primary to normal, with a univer- sity in prospect. Besides there are schools for languages, taught by foreigners, including Jap- anese, Chinese, Russian, French, English, and German, all under the Education Department. There are also many mission schools — one of them subsidized. KTiiNOLOfiy. The position of Korea between China and .Japan makes its population of special interest to the ethnologist, and accounts in part for their mixed racial character. Native tra- ditions speak of two primitive races, the Sienpi and the Sanhan. one .Mongoloid, the other, per- haps, more Aino-like, who, by the dawn of the Christian Era, had been subjected by and had merged with the so-called Kaori, or Kaoli. the ruling people, from whom the country has been named. Some anthropologists hold that the Koreans were of more positive Asiatic type than the .Japanese, but had sprung from the same stock as the ancestors of the latter. Others group .Japanese and Koreans together, believing that the Koreans are intermediate between the continental and insular Mongoloid peoples. Still others regard them as a mixed race from Tungus, Indonesian, and .Japanese elements. They are somewhat taller and more robust, with much lighter complexion, and far more regular features than the average Mongol. In Korea three marked types may be recognized: Korean-Manchu (near- er the European than is the real ilongolic) in the north and centre, ilalayo-ilongolic in the south, and Aino (traces more or less) in the ■east toward .Japan, Some have sought a Cau- casian (white! element in the Koreans, but un- less the Aino represent a sort of proto-Caucasian stock of great antiquity in Eastern Asia, this theory is very weak in evidence. Physically and otherwise the Koreans seem closely related to the people of the Loochoo Islands. The extent and character of Korean folk-lore and mythology may be seen from Gale's article on "Korean Be- liefs," in Folk-lore (London, 1000) ; Allen, Korean Tales, and Arnous, Korea: Marchen und Legeii'len (Leipzig, isn3). The extensive eth- nological collections from Korea in the L'nited States Xational Museum at Washington have been described by Dr. Hough in the Report for 1891. while the American Anthropologist (Wash- ington) for the same year contains an article by Rockhill, "'Xotes on Some of the Laws, Customs, and Superstitions of Korea." The very interest- ing games of the country have been made the sub- ject of a valuable special monograph by Pro- fessor Culin, Korean flames, icith Xotes on the Correspondinq Games of China and ./opnK( Phila- delphia, 180.5). Korean civili7.ation undoubtedly owes much to China. Korea, besides possessing indigenous culture-elements, perceptible in mrth- ologA-. social phenomena, medicine, folk-literature, art, etc., has preserved a number of proto- Sinitie characters in an older form than is dis- coverable in either China or Japan. The Chi- nese elements in Korean life, also, are more Chinese than in China. Both upon China and Japan, in the matter of pottery especially, Korea has exercised considerable influence, and Chinese recognition of the ceramic art of tlie Koreans linds expression in poetry of the iling dynasty. HiSTOBT. The beginnings of Korean history are associated with Kitse (q.v.), who is said to have founded a nation here some time after B.C. 1122. In B.C. 103 the country was annexed to the Chinese Empire. Soon after the Christian Era, it was divided among three petty principali- ties called the San llan. About 9G0 one of them, called Kori or Koryu, became paramount and maintained its independence during a bril- liant period of progress in which the govern- mental machinery was modeled after that of China. The Six Boards were introduced, and the eoimtry was divided into eight do or prov- inces. This was an age of flourishing art, and Buddhism attained its greatest development and power. In 1392, however, a palace revolution took place, which resulted in the overthrow of Buddhism, the banishing of the priests, and the e:^tablishment of the present dynasty. The an- cient name of Chr.sen or Chosiin (in Chinese Chao-sien or 'morning freshness') was revived, and Han-yang became the Seoul or 'capital.' In l.i92 Hideyoshi (q.v.), the .Japanese Regent, sent a large invading army into Korea as a first step to the conquest of China. His armies overran the country as far north as Ping-yang and Won- san, but on the arrival of Chinese assistance Hideyoshi's troops were gradually driven south- ward, and in 1597 they were recalled. Japan, however, retained Fusan in the south as a trad- ing station. Hardly had Korea recovered from the effects of this Japanese irruption when, in 1027, the Manchus appeared and placed the coun- try imder vassalage, and from that date until 1894 a tribute-bearing mission annually visited Peking. In 1804 the King (posthumously known as Ch'yel-chyong) died childless without having named a successor. The present Emperor, Yi- Hevi, then a child of twelve, was chosen, and his father appointed Tai Wen Kun as Regent. For nine years he ruled with a rod of iron, persecuted the Christians (leading to a French expedition in 18G6, which accomplished nothing), and rigor- ously enforced the policy of exclusiveness,and the doctrine of 'Korea for the Koreans.' In 1871 a United States expedition, sent to inquire into the fate of a shipwrecked crew, was equally fruit- less. It fell to the lot of the Japanese to he the first to make a treaty of friendship and inter- course with Korea. The ports of Wiinsan and Fusan were opened in 1876 to their trade, and a third. Chemulpo, in 1880. In 1882 Commodore Shufcldt secured a treaty of friendship between the United States and Korea. This was followed in 1883 by treaties with Great Britain and Ger- many, in' 1884 with Italy and Russia, in 1886 with France, in 1892 with Austria, and in 1897 with China. Meanwhile there was much conflict in Korea between the Conservatives and the 'Civilization Party,' but the latter triumphed. In 1880 a Korean embassy visited Japan, and another visited the United States in 1883 to exchange ratifications of the treatv. From this time forth