Korea & Her Neighbours/Chapter XXXIII

Korean education has hitherto failed to produce patriots, thinkers, or honest men. It has been conducted thus. In an ordinary Korean school the pupils, seated on the floor with their Chinese books in front of them, the upper parts of their bodies swaying violently from side to side or backwards and forwards, from daylight till sunset, vociferate at the highest and loudest pitch of their voices their assigned lessons from the Chinese classics, committing them to memory or reciting them aloud, writing the Chinese characters, filling their receptive memories with fragments of the learning of the Chinese sages and passages of mythical history, the begoggled teacher, erudite and supercilious, rod in hand and with a book before him, now and then throwing in a word of correction in stentorian tones which rise above the din.

This educational mill grinding for ten or more years enabled the average youth to aspire to the literary degrees which were conferred at the Kwa-ga or Royal Examinations held in Seoul up to 1894, and which were regarded as the stepping-stones to official position, the great object of Korean ambition. There is nothing in this education to develop the thinking powers or to enable the student to understand the world he lives in. The effort to acquire a difficult language, the knowledge of which gives him a mastery of his own, is in itself a desirable mental discipline, and the ethical teachings of Confucius and Mencius, however defective, contain much that is valuable and true, but beyond this little that is favorable can be said.

Narrowness, grooviness, conceit, superciliousness, a false pride which despises manual labor, a selfish individualism, destructive of generous public spirit and social trustfulness, a slavery in act and thought to customs and traditions 2,000 years old, a narrow intellectual view, a shallow moral sense, and an estimate of women essentially degrading, appear to be the products of the Korean educational system.

With the abolition of the Royal Examinations ; a change as to the methods of Government appointments ; the working of the Western leaven ; the increased prominence given to En-mun, and the slow entrance of new ideas into the country, some of the desire for this purely Chinese education has passed away, and it has been found necessary to stimulate what threatened to become a flagging interest in all education by new educational methods and forces, the influence of which should radiate from the capital.

There are now (October, 1897) Government Vernacular Schools, a Government School for the study of English, Foreign Language Schools, and Mission Schools. Outside the Vernacular and Mission Schools there is the before-mentioned Royal English School, with 100 students in uniform, regularly drilled by a British Sergeant of Marines, and crazy about football ! These young men, in appearance, manners, and rapid advance in knowledge of English, reflect great credit on their instructors. After this come Japanese, French, and Russian Schools, at present chiefly linguistic. Mr. Birukoff, in charge of the Russian School, was a captain of light artillery in the Russian army, and in both the Russian and French schools the students are drilled daily by Russian drill instructors.

Undoubtedly the establishment which has exercised and is exercising the most powerful educational, moral, and intellectual influence in Korea is the Pai Chai College ("Hall for the rearing of Useful Men"), so named by the King in 1887. This, which belongs to the American Methodist Episcopal Church, has had the advantage of the services of one Principal, the Rev. H. G. Appenzeller, for eleven years. It has a Chinese-En-mun department, for the teaching of the Chinese classics, Sheffield's Universal History, etc., a small theological department, and an English department, in which reading, grammar, composition, spelling, history, geography, arithmetic, and the elements of chemistry and natural philosophy are taught. Dr. Jaisohn, a Korean educated in America, has recently lectured once a week at this College on the geographical divisions of the earth and the political and ecclesiastical history of Europe, and has awakened much enthusiasm. A pa- triotic spirit is being developed among the students, as well as something of the English public school spirit with its traditions of honor. This College is undoubtedly making a decided impression, and is giving, besides a liberal education, a measure of that broader intellectual view and deepened moral sense which may yet prove the salvation of Korea. Christian instruction is given in Korean, and attendance at chapel is compulsory. The pupils are drilled, and early in 1897, during the military craze, adopted a neat European military uniform. There is a flourishing industrial department, which includes a tri-lingual press and a book-binding establishment, both of which have full employment.

Early in 1895 the Government, recognizing the importance of the secular education given in this College, made an agreement by which it could place pupils up to the number of 200 there, paying for their tuition and the salaries of certain tutors.

There are other schools for girls and boys, in which an industrial training is given, conducted with some success by the same Mission, and the American Presbyterians have several useful schools, and pay much attention to the training of girls.

The Societe des Missions Etran^eres has in Seoul an Orphanage and two Boys' Schools, Avith a total of 262 children. The principal object is to train the orphans as good Roman Catholics. In the Boys* Schools the pupils are taught to read and write Chinese and En-inini, and to a limited extent they study the Chinese classics. The religious instruction is given in En-mun. They aim at providing a primary education for the children of Korean converts.

The boys in the Orphanage are taught En-mun only, and at thirteen are adopted by Roman Catholics in Seoul or the coun- try, and learn either farming or trades, or, assuming their own support, enter a trade or become servants. The elder girls learn En-77iun, sewing, and housework, and at fifteen are mar- ried to the sons of Roman Catholics. At Riong San near Seoul there is a Theological Seminary for the training of can- didates for the priesthood.

Besides these there is a school established in 1896 by the "Japanese Foreign Educational Society," which is composed chiefly of "advanced" Japanese Christians. The course of study embraces the Chinese classics, E^i-miin^ composition, the study of Japanese as a medium for the study of Western learning, and lectures on science and religion. This school was intended by its founders to work as a Christian propa- ganda.

In 1897 there were in Seoul nearly 900 students, chiefly young men, in Mission and Foreign Schools, inclusive of 100 in the Royal English School, which has English teachers. In the majority of these the students are trained in Christian morality, fundamental science, general history, and the princi- ples of patriotism. A certain amount of denationalization is connected with most of the Boys' Schools, for the students necessarily receive new ideas, thoughts, and views of life, which cannot be shaken out of them by any local circum- stances, changing their standpoints and the texture of their minds for life. When they replace the elder generation better things may be expected for Korea.

The Korean reformed ideas of education, which had their origin during the Japanese reform era, embrace the creation of a primary school system, an efficient Normal College, and In- termediate Schools. Actually existing under the Department of Education are a revived Confucian School, the Royal English School, and the Normal College, placed in May, 1897, under the very efficient care of the Rev. H. B. Hulbert, M.A., a capable and scholarly man, some of whose contributions to our knowledge of Korean poetry and music have enriched earlier chapters of these volumes. Text-books in En-mun and teachers who can teach them have to be created. It is hoped and expected that supply will follow demand, and that in a few years the larger provincial towns will possess Intermediate or High Schools, and the villages attain the advantages of ele- mentary schools, all using a uniform series of text-books in the vernacular. Chinese finds its place in the curriculum, but not as the medium for teaching Korean and general history, or geography and arithmetic, which must be acquired through the native tongue.

In spite of the somewhat spasmodic and altogether unscien- tific methods of the Education Department, it has succeeded in getting the revived Normal College under way, as well as a fair number of primary schools, where over 1,000 boys are learning the elements of arithmetic, geography, and Korean history, with brief outlines of the systems of government in other civilized countries. Seventy-seven youths are studying in Japan at Government expense, and have made fair progress in languages, but are said to show a lack of mathematical aptitude and logical power. Altogether the Korean educa- tional outlook is not without elements of hopefulness.

Though the Foreign Trade of Korea only averages some- thing less than £1,500, 000 annually, the potential commerce of a country with not less than 12,000,000 of people, all cotton-clad, ought not to be overlooked. The amount of foreign trade which exists is the growth of thirteen years only, but when we remember that Korea is a purely agricultural country of a very primitive and backward type, that many of her fin- est valleys are practically isolated by mountain ranges, trav- ersed by nearly impassable roads, that the tyranny of custom is strong, that the Korean farmer is only just learning that a profitable and almost unlimited demand exists for his rice and beans across the sea, that the serious cost of his cotton cloth- ing can be kept down by importing foreign yarn or piece goods, and that his comfort can be increased by the introduction of articles of foreign manufacture, and that such facts are only slowly entering the secluded valleys of the Hermit Kingdom, the actual bulk of the trade is rather surprising, and its possi- bilities are worth considering. The net imports of foreign goods have increased from the value of ^2,474,189 in 1886 to $6,531,324 in 1896.¹ Measured in dollars, the trade of 1896 exceeds that of any previous year except 1895, when the occu- pation of Korea by Japanese troops, with their large following of transport coolies, created an artificial expansion.

Among Korean exports, which chiefly consist of beans, fish (dried manure), cow-hides, ginseng, paper, rice, and seaweed, there are none which are likely to find a market elsewhere than in China and Japan, but Korea, so far as rice goes, is on the way to become the granary of the latter country, her export in 1890 having reached the value of ;;^2 7i,ooo.

With imports, European countries, India, and America are concerned. Without, I think, being over sanguine, I antici- pate a time when, with improved roads, railroads, and enlight- enment, together with security for the earnings of labor from official and patrician exactions, the Korean will have no further occasion for protecting himself by an appearance of squalid poverty, and when he will become on a largely increased scale a consumer as well as a producer, and will surround himself with comforts and luxuries of foreign manufacture, as his breth- ren are already doing under the happier rule of Russia. Under the improved conditions which it is reasonable to expect, I should not be surprised if the value of the Foreign Trade of Korea were to reach ^^lo, 000, 000 in another quarter of a cen- tury, and the share which England is to have of it is an im- portant question.

Our great competitor in the Korean markets is Japan, and we have to deal not only with a rival within twenty hours of Korean shores, and with nearly a monopoly of the carrying trade, but with the most nimble-witted, adaptive, persevering, and pushing people of our day. It is inevitable that British hardware and miscellaneous articles must be ousted by the products of Japanese cheaper labor, and that the Japanese will continue to supply the increasing demand for scissors, knives, matches, needles, hoes, grass knives, soap, perfumes, kerosene lamps, iron cooking pots, nails, and the like, but the loss of the trade in cotton piece goods would be a serious matter, and the possibility of it has to be faced.

The value of the import trade in 1896 was ;£7o8,46i as against ^£875, 816 for 1895 (an exceptional year), and the larger part of this reduction took place in articles of British manufacture, the decrease of ^134,304 in the value of cotton imports falling almost entirely on cottons of British origin, the Japanese import not only retaining its position in spite of ad- verse circumstances, but showing a slight increase. Japanese sheetings showed a substantial increase, more than counterbal- anced by the diminished import of the British and American article, and Japanese cotton yarn continued to arrive in larger quantities, and is gradually driving British and Indian yarn out of the Korean market. It can be sold at a considerably lower price than the British article, and practically at the same price as the Indian, with which its improved quality enables it to compete on very favorable terms.

As the result of inquiries carried on during my two journeys in the interior, as well as at the treaty ports, it does not appear to me that Japanese success is even chiefly caused by proxim- ity, and in 1896 she had to compete with the enterprise and energy of the Chinese, who, having returned after the war to the benefits of British protection, were pushing the distribu- tion of Manchester goods imported from Shanghai.

Rather I am inclined to think that the success of our rival is mainly due to causes which I have seen in operation in Persia and Central Asia as well as in Korea, and which embrace not only imperfect knowledge of the tastes and needs of customers, but the neglect to act upon information supplied by consular and diplomatic agents, a groovy adherence to British methods of manufacture, and the ignoring of native desires as to colors, patterns, and the widths and makes which suit native clothing and treatment, and the size of bales best suited to native methods of transport. I do not allude to the charge ofttimes made against our manufacturers of supplying inferior cottons, because I have never seen any indications of its correctness, nor have I heard any complaints on the subject either in Korea or China, but of the ignoring of the requirements of customers there is no doubt. It is everywhere a grievance and source of loss, and is likely to lose us the prospective advantages of the Korean market.

The Japanese success, putting the advantages of proximity aside, is, I believe, mainly due to the accuracy of the informa- tion obtained by their keen-witted agents, who have visited all the towns and villages in Korea, and to the carefulness with which their manufacturers are studying the tastes and require- ments of the Korean market. Their goods reach the shore in manageable bales, which do not require to be adapted after arrival to the minute Korean pony, and their price, width, length, and texture commend them to the Korean consumer. The Japanese understand that cotton i8 inches wide is the only cotton from which Korean garments can be fashioned without very considerable waste, and they supply the market with it; and on the report of the agents of the importing firms, the weavers of Osaka and other manufacturing towns with adroitness and rapidity closely adapted the texture, width, and length of their cottons to those of the hand-loom cotton goods made in South Korea, which are deservedly popular for their durability, and have succeeded not only in producing an imitation of Korean cotton cloth, which stands the pounding and beating of Korean washing, but one which actually de- ceives the Korean weavers themselves as to its origin, and which has won great popularity with the Korean women. If Korea is to be a British market in the future, the lost ground must be recovered by working on Japanese lines, which are the lines of commercial common sense.

To sum up, I venture to express the opinion that the circum- stances of the large population of Korea are destined to gradual improvement with the aid of either Japan or Russia, that for- eign trade must increase more or less steadily with increased buying powers and improved means of transport, and that the amount which falls to the share of Great Britain will depend largely upon whether British manufacturers are willing or not to adapt their goods to Korean tastes and convenience.

As instances of the aptitude of the Koreans for taking to foreign articles which suit their needs, it may be mentioned, on the authority of a report from the British Consul-General to the British Foreign Office on Trade and Finance in Korea for 1896, presented to Parliament July, 1897, that the import of lucifer matches reached the figure of £11,386,² while that of American and Russian kerosene exceeded £36,000.

In 1896 the export of gold increased, and was £1,390,412, one million dollars' worth being exported from Won-san alone. The gold export included, the excess of Korean imports over exports was only about £50,000, and as it is estimated that only one half of the gold actually leaving the country is declared, it may be assumed that Korea is able to pay for a larger supply of foreign goods than she has hitherto taken. The statistics of Korean Foreign Trade which are to be found in the Appendix are the latest returns, supplied to me by the courtesy of the Korean Customs' Department³, the returns of shipping and of principal articles of export and import being taken from H.B.M.'s. Consul- General's Report for 1896, presented to Parliament July, 1897.⁴ With reference to the shipping returns, it must be observed that the British flag is practically unrepresented in Korean waters, even a chartered British steamer being rarely seen. The monopoly of the carrying trade which Japan has enjoyed has only lately been broken into by the establishment of a Russian subsidized line as a competitor.

In addition to the trade of the three ports open to Foreign Trade in 1896, to which the returns given refer exclusively, there is that carried on by the non-treaty ports, and on the Chinese and Russian frontiers.

In concluding this brief notice of the Foreign Trade of Korea, I may remark that Japanese competition, so far as it consists in the ability to undersell us owing to cheaper labor, is likely to diminish year by year, as the conditions under which goods can be manufactured gradually approximate to those which exist in England ; the rapidly increasing price of the necessaries of life in Japan, the demand for more than "a living wage," and an appreciation of the advantages of combination all tending in this direction.

On the subject of Finance there is little to be said. The principal items of revenue are a land tax of six dollars on a fertile kyel, and five dollars on a mountain kyel, a house tax of 60 cents annually, from which houses in the capital are ex- empt, the ginseng tax, and the gold dues, making up a budget of about 4,000,000 dollars, a sum amply sufficient for the le- gitimate expenditure of the country. The land tax is extremely light. Only about a third of the revenue actually collected reaches the National Treasury, partly owing to the infinite corruption of the officials through whose hands it passes, and partly because provincial income and expenditure are to a certain extent left to local management. If the Government is in earnest in the all important matter of educating the people, the increased expenditure can readily be met by imposing taxation on such articles of luxury as wine and to- bacco, which are enormously consumed, Seoul alone possessing 475 wine shops and 1,100 tobacco shops. But even without resorting to any new source of revenue, with strict super- vision and regular accounts the income of the Central Govern- ment is capable of considerable expansion.

In spite of the awful official corruption which has been revealed, and the chaos which up to 1896 prevailed in the Treasury, the Korean financial outlook is a hopeful one. At the close of 1895 the King persuaded Mr. M'Leavy Brown, LL.D., the Chief Commissioner of Customs, to undertake the thankless office of Adviser to the Treasury, confirming his position some months later by the issue of an edict making his signature essential to all orders for payments out of the national purse. Korean imagination and ingenuity are chiefly fertile in devising tricks and devices for getting hold of public money, and anything more hydra-headed than the dishonesty of Korean official life cannot be found, so that it is not surprising that as soon as the foreign adviser blocks one nefarious proceeding another is sprung upon him, and that the army of useless drones, deprived of their "vested interests" by the judicious retrenchments which have been made, as well as thou- sands who are trembling for their ill-gotten gains, should oppose financial reform by every device of Oriental ingenuity.

However, race, as represented by the honor and capacity of one European, is carrying the day, and Korean Finance is gradually being placed on a sound basis. With careful man- agement, judicious retrenchments of expenditure, the reduc- tion of the chaos in the Treasury to an orderly system of ac- counts, and a different method of collecting the land tax, which is now being remitted with tolerable regularity to the Treasury, an actual financial equilibrium was established and maintained during the year 1896, which closed with a considerable sur- plus, and in April, 1897, one million dollars of the Japanese loan of three millions was repaid to Japan, and there is every prospect that the remaining indebtedness might be paid off out of income in 1899, leaving Korea in the proud position of a country without a national debt, and with a surplus of income over expenditure !

The prosperous financial conclusion of 1896 is all the more remarkable because of certain exceptional expenditures. Two new regiments were added to the army, the old Arsenal, a disused costly toy, was put into working order, with all necessary modern improvements, under the supervision of a Russian machinist, the Kyeng-wun Palace was built, costly ceremonies and works connected with the late Queen's prospective funeral were paid for, and a considerable area of western Seoul was recreated. All civil Government employes (and they are legion), as well as soldiers and police, are paid regularly every month, and sinecures are very slowly disappearing.

A Korean silver, copper, and brass coinage, convenient as well as ornamental, is coming into general circulation, and as it gradually displaces cash, is setting trade free from at least one of the conditions which hampered it, and increased banking facilities are tending in the same direction.

¹For detailed statistics of Korean Foreign Trade, see Appendix C.

²This seems incredible, and compels one to suppose that £ is a misprint for $.

³See Appendix B.

⁴See Appendix C.