LIFE IN THE MORNING LAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6138, 26 March 1898, Page 2

LIFE IN THE MORNING LAND.

THE KING OF COREA AND HIS

PEOPLE.

{The Quiver.)

This King Ye-hui is said to be amiable, affable, and learned ; in fact, the wellknown definition of au Irish politician at the hands of a rival has been applied to him : " a charming old gentleman for an afternoon tea party." On the other hand, his Queen, whose barbarous assassination in her own palace has foully stained the record of Japan in Corea, was a woman of fine character and marked ability, wielding a powerful political influence somewhat similar to that of the Dowager-Empress of China. The King's brother was a conspirator in the shameful treachery which compassed her death. The succession of the Crown Prince, a youth of little intelligence, is very doubtful ; the rather that his father is opposing the reforms — governmental, educational and social — so sorely needed in his domain, yet stigmatised by the conservative party as " yang-ban " — educational nonsense. And, truly, in Corea, as in China, the well-nigh omnipotent " p'nng sok" (established custom) like

A DEATH-DEALING JUGGERNAUT, crushes down all stirrings of national life and progress. Among the most potent elements and unhealthiesfc influences of this conservative coercion is the traditional ancestral worship. The mourner grovels in the dust in token of his degradation, viewing it as a personal sin that his parent should have died, and his uncleanliness on the occasion is the measure of his remorse. The Corean centre of domestic interest is, not his homo, but the grave of his dead, which is spread with food, visited with wailings, regarded as a pilgrim shrine; while any innovation on " p'nng-sok " is a flagrant insult to the memory of his progenitors.

The city of Seoul (which means simply " capital ") stands on hilly ground, and the wall enclosing it, Several miles long and in some places thirty feet high, winds up and down precipitous slopes. Within this wall stands Mount Nam-Zam (South Hill), from whose summit, until the recent introduction of the telegraph, the King was kept informed of the most important occurrences throughout the country by means of an ingenious system of fire signals, in communication with similarly appointed stations on all the highest peaks of the kingdom. The palace inhabited by the monarch until his late retreat is protected by a high wall encircled by a continuous moat, crossed before each entrance by a stone bridge. Within these royal precincts are a winter and siunmer palace. A traveller permitted to view the latter in winter, describes how on a frozen lake stood a large white marble platform, on which rose the summer audi-ence-hall, an upper storey of scarlet lacquer surmounting a white marble \colonnade, and beautifully ornamented with brilli-antly-coloured wood carvings, a white marble bridge spanning the waterway to

THIS FAIRY - LIKE ISLAND-

PLATFORM,

But the squalid poverty of the buildings and filthiness of the footways are the main features of the Corean capital. The principal street, forming the avenue to the palace, is of such breadth that two rows of thatched houses are built down its centre. When, however, Ye-hui pays his bi-annual processional visit to the tombs of his ancestors, these erections must all be removed ; and as little, if any, notice of the royal intontion is given, this process, of clearance is a scene of indescribable confusion, as household goods, clothing and cooking utensils are removed in armfuls by owners and friends, all talking and screaming the while. When this operation is accomplished, frequent howling and shouting signalise the running across or along the cleared highway of some heedless spectator pursued by angry soldiers, at whose hands the offender is liable to be beaten senseless or dead; in either case, the body would be carelessly cast into a drain canal beside the road. On the occasion of, such a royal progress, there are

DUPLICATE STATE SEDAN CHAIRS

to baffle the calculations of any possible murderous enemies of the King. On each side of this broad avenue stand the onestoreyed stone residences of nobles, princes and other Corean aristocrats. Since the opening of the country in 1883 by a commercial treaty with Japan, foreign legation residences — Japanese, American, English, French, German and Russian — have arisen in the capital. A curious object in the city is the famous tower based on a huge tortoise, which animal symbolises longevity in Buddhist legend, and is conspicuous in a well-known Chinese picture of the god Pwan-ku creatine the universe.

The Government officials of Corea, as in China, are the chief obstacles to the moral and material improvement of their country. Tyranny and corruption seem to characterise the whole community. "Do you consider your labouring classes industrious?" I asked Mr Yun. "Poor creatures ! " he replied. ' What incentive tive have they to industry ? If they earn more than enough to keep body and soul together, some well-to-do official is sure to discover it, and as sure to invent an accusation against the man, from whose penal consequence he can only escape by the sacrifice of his little savings, which go to pander to the vices of his oppressor." Consequently, while the land is richly endowed by nature— not only

BEAUTIFUL IN SCENERY

of hills and waters, but fertile in soil, capable of every product found within the temperate zone (rice, cereals, vegetables, fruits of every kind); abundantly supplied with fine timber, and rich in mineral stores of gold, silver, copper, coal ; and all this within an area of not more than 80,0(0 square miles— scarcity oi supply and grinding poverty are universal. The cost of living is twice as high as in China, where the water-carrier, thepedlar of earthenware, could, supply all their actual needs for about five shillings a month. The lastnamed figure represents the heavy weights which tho Corean coolie is used to carry, and his ingenious contrivance for lightening his burden. In a country almost destitute of wheeled vehicles, and even of roadi passable by beasts of burden, " the strength of the nation," writes a resident lin Seoul, "has gone into the coolie's

shoulder." We often see him carrying a load which

reminds one of atlas lifting the

WORLD,

Mrs Bird - Bishop, the well - known traveller, who made a four months' stay in Seoul, told me recently that the Corean, under happier conditions, becomes a new man. This lady has visited in Russia a settlement of some 16,000 of this people who fled across the border to escape famine thirty years ago, and she found the men hard- working and their homes as prosperous as in/comfortable English farms.

There were no girls' schools in Corea until lady missionaries tool^up their cause ; for woman in that land occupies, at least in theory,' the subordinate position assigncdher in the Orient at large, based, as in Cliina, on a strange dualistic philosophy, according to which all nature is ranged in contrasting couples — heaven and .earth, light and darkness, strength and weakness, virtue and iniquity; male and female. A bride may be purchased for a few dollars, a visit from her suitor on a white horse, and four genuflexions. Yet does the Corean woman occupy a very important place in domestic life. Her natural character is

marked by energy and perseverance.

While her husband sits and smokes and " koo-ling " (" enjoys scenery ") she swings her washing-sticks, cooks the family rice, works at all needed tailoring, while the house rings with her cheery voice. Never does she lose heart, as does her liege lord, in the struggle with starvation ; and often her industry sustains the ruin-threatened home. Recent statutory changes have wrought some improvement in the Corean woman's social lot; she cannot be compelled to marry under sixteen years of age, and while the ladies of higher rank go forth only in the well-curtained palanquin, the common women now walk about freely, though all but the humblest class havethe face partly screened. .