Baekjeong

Template:Korean name The Baekjeong were an “untouchable” outcaste group of Korea, often compared with the Burakumin of Japan and the Dalits of India and Nepal.

Social history

The term baekjeong itself means “common people”. In the early part of the Goryeo period (918 - 1392), the outcaste groups were largely settled in fixed communities. However the Mongol invasions in mid-13th century left Korea in disarray and anomie, and these groups began to become nomadic.

Although they did not strictly obey Buddhist prohibitions, the Koreans did not eat a great deal of meat until the arrival of the Mongols. These people brought horses and cattle with them to the peninsula to satisfy their desires for meat, and, being expert butchers, both slaughtered animals themselves and trained the outcastes in the practice. The outcastes in Korea, called the kolisuchae, were divided very lightly into two camps; the hwachae or suchae, who hunted and butchered, and were seen as crude; and the chaein, who were principally actors, entertainers, minstrels, prostitutes, and so on, and were sometimes described as “frivolous”. Near the end of the Goryeo era the term hwachae-suchae replaced kolisuchae to refer to the outcastes, before the groups were divided into separate classes altogether, the hwachae and the chaein, who were then seen as distinct groups.

In the early part of the Joseon Dynasty, King Sejong had attempted to assimilate the outcaste groups, who had been engaging in banditry. He ordered that they be registered, settled into fixed communities, made to work agriculture, and even ordering their intermarriage with other commoners. However, this policy was a failure, in no small part because the outcastes themselves refused to cooperate with the authorities, having little interest in farming and agriculture, and instead continued to thieve cattle and operate as nomads. By the 15th century, attempts to assimilate the outcastes were abandoned, and the outcastes were forced into fixed ghettos on the outskirts of towns and villages. The paekchŏng were not given free reign over their own ghettos, and as the population increased, they were not generally alloted any more land, resulting in overcrowding. The communities themselves were largely autonomous, with strong internal organization and solidarity. In all but the most serious crimes, order was maintained from within. Although they were not registered citizens and had no civil rights, this worked to their advantage in several ways; they were excused from military service, compulsory labor, and paying taxes. Most importantly, the paekchŏng had a monopoly over their special occupations, with both social control and strong resistance preventing others from entering their fields of work.

The chaein continued to exist as one variety of paekchŏng; the other were those formerly called the hwachae, but now simply the paekchŏng proper. While the chaein continued to remain nomadic to some degree, the paekchŏng had become largely settled into segregated ghettos. The primary occupations reserved for the paekchŏng were basketry, butchering, leatherworking, and straw sandal making. Although these positions were considered the most polluted and degrading, they were “not merely an imposition; they were also a privileged monopoly.” When in the 20th century others began taking up these occupations for themselves, the paekchŏng protested, seeing their control over these enterprises as an exclusive right.

Throughout much of the Joseon Dynasty, they were also forced to serve as executioners. The paekchŏng found this task deplorable, and often assigned the job to the most wretched of their people, sometimes those bordering on psychological illness. They were also assigned to be dogcatchers and to kill feral dogs, even as late as the 20th century. The Hyŏngp'yŏngsa later worked towards ending this imposition, believing that it created a very negative impression among the common people regarding the paekchŏng. Essentially, then, the group was assigned to the most demeaning tasks in Korean society. They were also considered in moral violation of Buddhist principles, which lead Koreans to see work involving meat as polluting and sinful, even if they saw the consumption as acceptable. This is clearly demonstrated by an ordinance in 968 CE, which prohibited the slaughtered of cattle but also explicitly allowed for the continued sale and consumption of meat. The paekchŏng themselves appear to have considered butchering a polluted act, and often ceased slaughtering for three years after the death of a parent. Although today the traditional occupations of the group are considered acceptable, the caste continues to be seen and treated as polluted by larger society.

Discrimination

The group had long suffered severe social discrimination in Korean society. The paekchŏng were seen as a contemptible and polluted people that others feared and avoided meeting. When higher classes did come in contact with the outcastes, they put them in a position of clear subservience. For instance, meeting yangban along the road, they were expected to bow and use language honoring them duly, even to children. When conducting business with higher orders they had to do so from the entrance to the garden, as even the veranda was off limits to them. Restrictions on how the paekchŏng could compose themselves served to mark their lower status. These restrictions were numerous, and included forbidding the use of ornamental hairpins by women, and requirement that sandals be made of straw rather than leather. The extent to which they were seen as a polluted people is well-illustrated in the fact that their bodies were kept in separate graveyards so as not to mingle with those of the yangmin dead.

Near the end of the Joseon Dynasty, a mutual aid organization for the paekchŏng was established called Sŭngtong Toka, with representatives from various communities. The organization was involved in taking actions, coordinating improvements, and acting at times as the official representative of the paekchŏng in legal matters. As a result of the Kabo Reform in 1894, the group disbanded, seeing its purpose as having been served. However, this legal equality did not equate to social equality. Many remain segregated from larger society, and conditions have worsened in some respects. Although still largely limited to their traditional occupations, modified regulations in 1896 allowed non-paekchŏng to become licensed butchers, eventually leading to meat businesses which have pressured many out of one of the few tasks allowed them. The paekchŏng were also “at the back [sic] and call of everybody for any unpleasant task there is to be done”. Young boys could talk down to members of the group and order them to perform errands, even well into the 20th century.

Changes in Korea

Towards the end of the 19th century, there was an increasing impetus on human dignity and liberalization. Of particular importance was the growth of certain religions supportive of change. Tonghak, a Korean nationalist religion, wished to end unfair sinbun conventions, and Tonghak peasants had staged an uprising in 1894 in favor of human rights, especially for those low on the social ladder. They also demanded that the paekchŏng no longer be forced to wear discriminatory hats and widows be allowed to remarry. Although this uprising was ultimately unsuccessful, it was an important impetus behind the Kabo Reform, mentioned previously, and helped to abolish the sinbun structure that had restricted some groups legally. However, the paekchŏng had benefited much less from these changes than other groups, such as the slaves.

The other major religious influence on human rights came through Christianity. Some missionaries had success converting paekchŏng to Christianity, emphasizing that everyone has equal rights under God. However, everyone was not equal under the Christian congregation, and protests erupted when missionaries attempted to integrate them into worship services, with non-paekchŏng finding such an attempt insensitive to traditional notions of hierarchical advantage. Thus, both Tonghak and Christianity helped to expose the paekchŏng, and Koreans more generally, to ideas regarding egalitarianism and social equality. Parallel to and supportive of the rise of these liberal ideas were transitions occurring in Korean society as a whole, particularly with regard to social classes (Kim 1999).

Social movements

Beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the paekchŏng began to resist the open social discrimination that existed against them. In 1900, leaders from 16 counties petitioned the mayor of Chinju to wear the same clothes and hats as other people. When others in the north refused to wear the humiliating garb traditionally expected of them and were jailed, an effort was made to release them. Growing industrialism in Korea began to erode paekchŏng dominance over certain occupations, particularly as Japanese began to control slaughterhouses and exploit them as employees.

However, as some paekchŏng fell into financial despair, the loosening of segregation led others to profit from changes, giving them the ability to fund efforts for change. Beyond financial resources, organization was also strengthened due to the longstanding connections created through segregation and close-knit social networks. Between these human and financial resources, an emphasis on progressive models, and feelings of social deprivation and discrimination, the conditions were ripe for the paekchŏng to mobilize for change. One of the earliest of these movements was in 1910 when Chang Chip'il, later an influential member of the Hyŏngp'yŏngsa, made an attempt, although unsuccessful, to establish a trade union for butchers. In 1921 the Chipsŏng Chohap was established by Korean and Japanese entrepreneurs, attempting to provide poverty assistance for butchers. However, this effort for improvement of economic conditions was soon overshadowed by an organization with broader goals.

The Hyŏngp'yŏngsa was launched in Chinju on 23 April 1923 through the alliance of wealthy or educated paekchŏng and non-paekchŏng proponents of change, advocating for “the abolition of classes and of contemptuous appellations, the enlightenment of members, and the promotion of mutual friendship among members.” It advocated both for individual civil rights as well as communal fellowship, recognizing that the group must maintain its identity under the strain of changes such as urbanization and industrialization which threatened to atomize the community. Thus, the Hyŏngp'yŏngsa pursued both an equality of human rights and the right to assimilate into the broader public, even as it worked to forge a common identity.

More importantly, they focused on social and economic injustices affecting the paekchŏng, hoping to create an egalitarian Korean society. Their efforts included attacking social discrimination by the upper class, authorities, and “commoners” and the use of degrading language against children in public schools. Power within the organization shifted several times, including the shift in 1925 from the original Chinju faction advocating educational reform to a group of Seoul intellectuals more interested in economic reforms based around traditional occupations. In 1927 a number of members of the Hyŏngp'yŏngsa were arrested for their involvement in the creation of an underground nationalist organization. Their absence was partially responsible for the organization's shift to the socialist left in the late 1920s.

The growing power of the radical wing divided the movement, and much of the economic support provided by wealthier paekchŏng was pulled, particularly under the strain of the Great Depression, which had negatively impacted the meat and leather trades. The young socialists in the Hyŏngp'yŏngsa forged connections with other movements, attempting to broaden the movement and work towards “the reconstitution of Korea as a whole.”

At the 1931 national conference, they stirred controversy within the movement by introducing a dissolution proposal, feeling that the organization had abandoned its original aims in favor of those of the bourgeois intellectuals directing it. It was their belief that dissolution would better serve their interests as it was replaced by trade unions. The dissolution proposal failed, but not without further alienating more conservative members of the movement, who would already financially strapped from broader economic conditions in Korea. Even more fatal for the movement was the arrest of a number of young radical members, who were accused of establishing a secret communist organization, the “Hyŏngp'yŏngsa Youth Vanguard”, which they said demanded struggle against feudalism and the abolishment of private property. The trial related to this accusation dragged on for four years, before the defendants were found to be innocent. It appears likely that the “organization” was a construction by Japanese authorities to ensure the labor wing of the Hyŏngp'yŏngsa would not interfere with their access to leather needed for the invasion of China. As a result, the organization shifted to the right, abandoning progressive ideals and finally disbanding in 1935, claiming the movement's aims had successfully been met.

References

• Passin, Herbert. 1957. "The Paekchŏng of Korea: A Brief Social History” Monumenta Nipponica. 12 (3/4): 195–240.
• Kim, Joong-Seop. 1999. “In Search of Human Rights: The Paekchŏng Movement in Colonial Korea” Pp. 311–335 in Colonial Modernity in Korea, edited by Gi-Wook Shin and Michael Robinson. Cambridge; London: Harvard University Asia Center.
• Kim, Joong-Seop. 2003. The Korean Paekjŏng under Japanese rule: the quest for equality and human rights. London; New York: Routledge.
• 백정 in Naver Encyclopedia, at Naver 백과사전: 백정 (in Korean).