Ssial Embraces Grassroots, Openness
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Ahead of the 22nd World Congress of Philosophy, to be held in August, Korean philosophy is getting fresh spotlight from scholars and thinkers both at home and abroad. It's the first time that the congress will be held in Asia.
Among others, ``ssial'' philosophy is at the center of discussions to rediscover the Korean way of thinking, following the vicissitudes of Korean history.
As the world philosophy congress has decided on the main theme of the Seoul's meeting as ``Rethinking Philosophy Today,'' it is the right time to shed light on ssial thoughts.
What is ssial philosophy?
The ssial philosophy developed by Yu Young-mo and Ham Seok-heon, is a comprehensive concept that embraces ecology, life, nature and theology.
The Korean word, ``ssial'' literarily means seed, which refers to the beginning of a life, with emphasis on human life.
``Historically, the word has been used to refer to the suffering of grassroots or commoners without power and social status, but in this philosophy, the commoners, the grassroots, are the center of society,'' Park Jae-soon, representative director of the CR (ssial) Foundation, said in an interview with The Korea Times.
Park started taking lectures from Ham in 1973, while studying philosophy at Seoul National University. Since then he has released about 30 essays regarding Ham's philosophy. Park said that ssial thoughts are self-oriented, independent and national, but at the same time open-minded to the outside world, and pursuing peace, he said.
Evolution of ssial thought
Ssial thought evolved from the dawn of Korean modern history, the process of encounter between Eastern and Western civilizations in the 19th century, Park said.
``The philosophy spontaneously sprouted when Koreans were struggling to fight against the inflows of Westernization and Japanese imperialism in coincidence with the collapsing of the ruling class,'' he said.
Suffering the perils of militarism and imperialism, Koreans developed new religious wisdom while being victimized by foreign imperialists and Korea's own unjust rulers.
``The pent-up angers of the ordinary people were vented through the strong desire of the democratization process and continuously and vigorously pushed forward during the late Joseon period,'' he said.
Park explained that historically, the Korean ruling class has not played its role properly. ``So the grassroots have suffered from social disorder and corruption,'' Park said.
He said from the late Joseon period, the inability and corruption of the ruling class led people to gather around ``donghak,'' a peasant revolution, confronting the upper class, the government and foreigners. The donghak movement is known to have affected the March 1 Independence Movement in 1919 and other mass uprisings against the ruling classes through the 1970s and 1980s.
Ironically, despite this, the critical and resistant spirit of the West and progressive nationalism that seeks equality between the elite and the mass innate within the Christian faith, awakened the long suppressed national spirit of Koreans, giving rise to the modern national self-dependent movement and thought.
``The rising of ssial thought was unprecedented in that ordinary people accepted Westernization and re-created it in the 19th century. It was a strong enlightening movement from the bottom-up, unlike those seen in other neighboring countries such as Japan and China,''
``Historically and nationally, we Koreans have a strong energy originating from the lower classes, which is still the case,'' Park said.
``It was possible because the Joseon royal class collapsed, leading to the weakening of power and the dominant religion, leaving a vacuum. From that moment, people's desire to bring a new idea met with Western Christianity and thinking,'' he added.
It is the result of strong distrust among people against the ruling and elite class. ``We can see such cases in the recent Samsung scandal in which a large conglomerate strives to become a world-class business while its management and system lag,'' he said.
He said that although people devoted themselves to democracy in the past, the micro social system fails to live up to people's desires.
``We have to pay attention to people's agonies that result from undemocratic social practices and customs. It is a kind of distortion of mental society, which strongly requires the ssial philosophy to care about such social illnesses,'' he said.
Philosophical roots
The ssial thought seeks to achieve a ``synthesis of dynamic West with profound East,'' combining Protestant religious personalism with a transcendentalist, holistic understanding of the world chiefly derived from Taoist and Buddhist worldviews.
Although it comes from the Christian faith, it is also true that the religious culture in East Asia, which has been created and represented by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism still remain in Korea more clearly and abundantly than in any other region.
The philosophy combined Christianity, Greek philosophy, the rationalistic principles of the modern philosophy in the West and East Asian Taoism within the Korean spirit and developed a spirit and philosophy honoring democratic ways of life and world peace.
It also accepted the Western scientific way of thinking and the ideals of democracy. The thoughts integrated the basic elements of Eastern and Western cultural thoughts. The concepts reveal that logos in Western Greek philosophy, the word, ``agape,'' or love in Christianity, Tao in Eastern Asia, and Han (Great one) of the Koreans were the core concepts and principles of Ham's philosophy.
Park also explained that the philosophy can be defined as a praxis philosophy that unites knowledge and practice, a democratic living philosophy; a philosophy of great synthesis that deals with humans and nature, emotion, reason and spirituality.
His philosophy also seeks thorough insight and critical contemplation of religion and civilization.
Beyond the boundaries of Christianity, his philosophy can reach and go beyond Eastern Asian religions, and fit in the multi-religious reality. Simply, the philosophy is for citizens of the world, claiming non-violent world peace (World Pacifism) with respect for national spirit and culture.
``But the core of the core of the philosophy is for the majority of ssial (plain people) against the ruling minorities but not the class conflicts among the people. In this thought, Korea's modern tradition of people's (minjung) nationalism reached its climax, leading to the middle class and working class alliance comprising the anti-dictatorship movement of the 1960s-1970s,'' he said.
Park explained such a strong drive from the grassroots people enabled various new Korean religions such as ``cheondogyo'' (The Religion of the Heavenly Way) and ``jeungsangyo'' (The Jeungsan Religion) in the same period.
The ssial philosophy is deeply rooted in various combinations of such Korean religions.
Why Ssial philosophy receives spotlight today?
In the 19th century, various Korean religions such as ``jeungsangyo,'' ``daejonggyo,'' ```cheondogyo'' and ``wonbulgyo'' mushroomed.
But such philosophies couldn't survive through the colonial period and modern times.
Korea doesn't have its own philosophies except for some ideas of some Confucian scholars of Yulgok Yi I, one of the two most prominent Korean Confucian scholars of the Joseon Kingdom, along with Toegye Yi Hwang. There was also Jeong Yak-yong, a synthesizer of the practical learning movement in Joseon's Neo-Confucian thought.
But such scholars basically represent and advocate the interests of the royal classes, rather than for the ruled, Park said.
Park said that since then, there has been no discussion about Korean philosophy until now. Instead, many Korean philosophers have studied Western philosophies.
``Over the last 100 years, we have never had our own philosophy even though the Constitution defines the nation as being based on the spirit of the March 1 Independent Movement, which can be traced to `donghak,' partially handing down to Yu and Ham,'' he said.
But it is high time to think about our philosophy which was independently and spontaneously created by the ordinary people, he said.
``The ssial philosophy has a clear distinction from Western philosophy in that it combines religion and science, while the Western way of thinking starts from separation from God, only believing science can achieve logos,'' he said.
In the current society, ssial doctrine is becoming important to correct the wrong, Park said.
Park argued that if the upper classes including leaders saw the ordinary people as top priority and cared about their agonies and sufferings a little bit more, the society would improve.
He said that ssial thought is the very core of the Korean spirit, with its emphasis on autonomous spirit.
``I think it is also the beginning of hallyu, which is based on our spiritual culture, a truly global and universal idea, accepting others while keeping ours,'' he said.
The nation has achieved industrial and economic development but still lags behind in on spiritual culture.
For more information, visit www.crlife.org.