By Taru Taylor
One quite easily decodes the ``Taegukgi," South Korea's national flag. It signifies a nation encompassed by the Tao. One has only to read ``I Ching," as well as the Confucian and Taoist classics, to understand the civilization designated thereon. But what to make of the red neon cross that haunts South Korea's skylines and roadsides?
A fundamental question, for the red neon cross rivals the Taegukgi as symbol for the Republic of Korea. It is everywhere at night, more ubiquitous than the Taegukgi by day. It seems South Korea's nighttime symbol even as the Taegukgi's its daytime symbol, the dark side to the Taegukgi's light side. And so it is.
At face value, the red neon cross is easy enough to decode. The Latin cross adorns every Korean church as the symbol for Christ's crucifixion. Red neon crosses are everywhere because Christians are everywhere, upwards of 15 million, that is, 35% of the South Korean population. There are over 50,000 churches around Korea, over 10,000 in Seoul alone. That means some 50,000 red neon crosses.
At face value, the red neon cross denotes Constantine the Great's vision of the cross just before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 C.E. ``In hoc signe voces," in English ``By this sign, conquer!" are the words that spurred him on to victory. He subsequently Christianized the Roman Empire. The Council of Nicaea, over which he presided in 325 C.E., established the priestly religion that is the Roman Catholic Church. Raphael's painting adorning the wall of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, ``The Vision of the Cross," depicts the same red cross ― though not neon ― that we see all over Korea. Or does it?
No, it doesn't. ``Poguk anmin" is the proper incantation, that is, ``defending the country and providing welfare for the people." In 1860 C.E. a peasant mystic named Choe Che-u, the ``Most Venerable Suun," founded Korea's indigenous religion. He named it ``Tonghak," or ``Eastern Learning," as diametrically opposed to the ``Western Learning" of the Roman Catholic Church. The Most Venerable Suun thought that being Korean and being Roman Catholic was hypocrisy.
The red neon crosses echo ``Poguk anmin," Choe Che-u's mantra. They connote Tonghak, later called Chondogyo, or ``Society of the Heavenly Way." For the red neon crosses suggest Christianity as disciplined by the Eastern Learning, as opposed to propaganda. Here I speak literally, for ``propaganda" begins with Pope Gregory XV's establishment of the Congregatio de propaganda fide (``Congregation for propagating the faith") in 1623 C.E. It was his command and control center for missionary activity. Thus propaganda is a Roman Catholic concept, precisely the Western Learning rejected by Choe Che-u. So Tonghak can be seen as the fountainhead of Korean protest, even as Martin Luther's 95 Theses launched European protest.
Tonghak names the hard peasant wisdom commanding Korean democracy. It affirms the peasant as the center of gravity thereof. Choe Che-u's egalitarian ethos inspired the Tonghak peasant rebellion of 1894 as well as the March 1, 1919 Declaration of Independence from Japan, for which 15 of the 33 signers were of Chondogyo. Tonghak is the true constitution of Korea, north and south. Tonghak is the heart of Korea, even as the Tao is the head. Chondogyo inspires morale; Confucianism defines ethics. What are the red neon crosses if they are not the Christian sentinels of Tonghak?
We foreigners feel so welcome when we look at the Taegukgi because the Tao, which it denotes, is generic to human civilization. The Tao, the principle overlying and underpinning human civilization, is born of identity. Aristotle formulated identity thus: ``A is A" is necessarily true. The Tao is one, yin and yang but a tautological transformation. The Tao is true to the psychology of every human being, just as every page of ``Gray's Anatomy" is true to every human body. The Taegukgi thereby invites all humankind into fraternal embrace. The Tao defines human dignity by recasting Aristotle's formula: ``human is human." The Tao admonishes our hosts, in the words of Confucius, to treat us as honored guests.
But we don't feel so welcome when we gaze at the red neon crosses at night. Tonghak, which they connote, is specific to Korea. They symbolize Korean cultural integrity. If the Tao is born of identity, Tonghak is born of contradiction, which Aristotle formulated: ``A and not-A" is necessarily false. From the Most Venerable Suun's point of view that means that Korean civilization and Western civilization conjoined is hypocrisy. If Tan-gun is the mythological god of Korea who founded it in 2333 B.C.E., then Choe Che-u, to my mind, is Korea's supreme culture hero, its Adam naming Korean culture ``Tonghak" just as the Tao names the human civilization of which it is a part. To ``In hoc signe voces," he responded ``Poguk anmin." Korean Christianity, as opposed to Roman Catholicism, heeds his call.
Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician, once said that he could move the earth, given a place to stand on. Tonghak seems the Archimedean lever with which the Korean peasant and the Korean proletarian move the world by democratic process. Tonghak defies the yangban (noble class), the chaebol, the Pope, the samurai, the mandarin, as well as the Yankee. Tonghak defies the would-be authoritarian in the name of democracy. Have we been witnessing another Tonghak rebellion these last three months?
The writer teaches English at Semyung University in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province. He can be reached at tarutaylor@gmail.com.