Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-28
FANATICS OF KOREA.
Story Of the Tonghaks, Who Are Now
Giving Trouble.
From the London Chronicle.

AAS0SAS'
From the London Chronicle.
In recent number of the St. Peterburg
Novoye Vremya M. Siromiatnikoff gives
some interesting facts about the Tonghaks
a religious sect in Korea, who were indi-
rectly responsible for the Chino-Japanese
war, and who seem destined to play part
In the present war.
The name of Tonghaks means Eastern
Belief" and the founder of the sect was
Tchoi-Tchei-Chou, a learned Korean. much
interested in the progress of the Catholic
religion in Korea-which progress was also
causing the government so much alarm
that they deemed 1t necessary to persecute
both missionaries and converts. Tchoi-
Tchei-Chou argued that if the missionaries
had come so far and had spent so much
of their money for their religion 1t must
be true religion. But If that were SO
why did his government put to death all
those who practiced 1t? His brain gave
way through bordering over this problem.
and he fell dangerously Ill. Every remedy
failed to cure him, and he was at deaths
door.
But once, as the day was dawning he
fell into a religious ecstasy, and a super
natural being appeared before him. calling
him by his name and asking him II he
knew who was speaking. Tchot answered
in the negative, whereupon the spiritual
form said: II am God! Bow myself be-
fore me and thou shalt obtain power over
the people" Then, the legend goes, Tchoi
| asked whether the Catholic faith was the
correct faith, and the apparition replied
No" and disappeared. Tchoi took a
| pencil and wrote these words on piece or
paper: From all time, o God of heaven.
we have served Thee according to the be-
| hest Wilt Thou. therefore. deny us the
| knowledge and the remembrance of all
| things; and when those ineffable thoughts
| shall have descended to us, wilt Thou not
| give unto each according to our wishes?'
Taking the paper he burned 1t and threw
the ashes into cup fled with o Warer;
well. In the years that followed he wrote
| work called THE Holy Scriptures" and
founded his religion. He took, from Con-
fucius the division Of the four books, from
| Buddhism, the law of publication of the
| heart from Taoism, that of the publication
| of the body, and from the Catholics the
| idea of God, but in order to show that his
religion was different from the Catholic
| faith he named it Tonghak, or oriental con-
| fession, as opposed to Catholicism, which is
called In Korea 1.-The confession of the
west"
The number of his disciples grew year by
| year, until 1865, when the prosecutions OF
| the Korean Roman Catholics began again.
| Tchoi was arrested and accused of belong
| ing to the Catholic religion, and was put TO
| death.
Thus the history Of the founder of the
Tonghaks ends but his faith still exists.
| The Tonghaks of today profess monothe-
| ism rejecting the Buddhist belief of the
| transmigrat ton of souls and worshfping no
| idols. When they pray they have before
| them two burning candles, some fish, bread
and wine. They say prayer twenty-four
! times in chorus, bow themselves down be-
| fore the candles and then feast together.
| They worship before an altar OF red clay
| and chalk, on which cup of water is
| placed During the night he who prays be-
| fore it, after the recitation. drinks from the
| cup. The water is called the heavenly
! mercy"
Since the founder of the Tonghak religion
was healed by drinking in water the ashes
| of paper containing prayer, his follow
ers today attribute miraculous powers 10
prayers written on paper. Other inscrip-
| tons preserve them from murderers, ana
yet others will bring them happy journeys:
| The Tonghaks believe that their dead priest
| comes from the clouds above the houses,
| bounding from one mountain to another,
destroying the habitatiQps and suddenly
| becoming invisible. They have not taken
| from the Bible the belief in a future hfe
| and when they are questioned on the sub
| ject they reply cautiously, who can tell?'
| In the spring of 1893 fifty Tonghaks went
| to the gates of the imperial palace at Seoul
and asked the emperor to declare the limo
cence of Tchoi, and to grant them permits
| sion to erect a monument to his memory.
They also claimed the freedom OF their re-
| compiled with, to drive all foreigners out
| of Korea. The petition was refused, and
many Tonghaks were arrested.
| The next year an insurrection arose. The
Korean soldiers fled from the Tonghaks,
| who occupied the villages and drove out
and sometimes put to death those officials
| who had oppressed them
The Tonghaks forced the. village people to
| Join their cause, promising them strange
| rewards. Illness would never enter their
houses the future would always be happy.
| they would not have to pay any taxes, and
| in time of war the bullets of their enemies
| would be turned to water. In May, 1894,
however when the imperial troops fired on
the Tonghaks, the emperor invoked China .
| ct5 en- or whprplnOn .Janan also
| sent a detachment to Korea, and in June
the war commenced. This fight with Japan
proved to the Tonghaks that bullets did not
change to water.