Settling debts in the New Year in Joseon

The colorful streets of Seoul in the early 20th century Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff

In the late 19th century, the beginning of a new year meant settling debts from the previous year. Sometimes debtors tried to avoid their obligations by secretly moving to a new location while others tried more drastic means such as trying to convince their creditors that they had moved on to the afterlife.

According to an American newspaper in 1889:

"So many persons annually disappear in Corea from the ravages of tigers that hopeless debtors and defaulters take advantage of the presumption thus created in case of a missing person to leave their torn garments at the border of some wood and privately decamp. 'Caught by a tiger' has come to be equivalent in Corea to our American phrase, 'escaped to Canada.'"

For those debtors who were unable to move or fake their own demise, they waited in anticipation of their creditors. According to A. Henry Savage-Landor, who traveled to Seoul in the early 1890s:

"Creditors go about the town in search of their debtors, and should they come face to face, generally a few unparliamentary remarks are passed, followed by a challenge. Hats are immediately removed, and given for safe keeping to some one or other of the spectators, a crowd of whom has, of course, at once assembled; and then the creditor, as is customary under such circumstances in all countries, makes a dash for his debtor. The main feature about these fights, so far as I could judge, was the attempt of each antagonist to seize hold of the other by his top-knot. Should this feat be successfully accomplished, a violent process of head-shaking would ensue, followed by a shower of blows and scratches from the free hand, the lower extremities meanwhile being kept busy distributing kicks, really meant for the antagonist, but, occasionally, in fact often, delivered to some innocent passer-by…"

Savage-Landor had a knack for finding trouble due to his "usual curiosity," which he described as "the only virtue I have ever possessed," and quickly found an example of a debt collector collecting what was owed to him (and her).

A Korean woman seemingly finds amusement in the camera, circa early 1900s. Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection

Apparently, Savage-Landor was walking along one of the smaller streets near a "drain canal" and happened to observe a Korean soldier walking along peacefully. The soldier's bliss was soon ended when a man suddenly emerged from a house and demanded the soldier pay back a sum of money he had borrowed earlier. The soldier didn't deny he owed the money but explained he did not have it and then tried to push past his debtor. Unbeknownst to the soldier, the debtor's wife emerged from the doorway, "and without further notice hit the soldier on the head with a heavy wooden mallet commonly used for beating clothes."

With his wife's sudden attack, the creditor began to grapple with the defaulting soldier and, as the two men tried to knock each other down, "the infuriated woman kept up a constant administration of blows" striking not only the soldier but also her husband. One misplaced blow struck her husband so hard on the head that he was knocked unconscious.

The soldier, realizing it was his chance to make an escape, started to run for his life, but the woman, "jumping like a tiger" caught him by the throat and knocked him down onto the ice in the canal. "Then she pounced on him, with her eyes out of her head with anger, and giving way to her towering passion, pounded him on the head with her heels while she was hitting him on the back with her mallet."

The woman was convinced that her husband was dead and she was determined to kill the soldier out of revenge. Savage-Landor's description of what follows is truly amusing truly.

"As she was about to administer him a blow on the head that would have been enough to kill a bull, she fortunately slipped on the ice and went sprawling over her victim. The soldier, more dead than alive, had raised himself on his knees, when that demon in female attire rose again and embracing him most tenderly, bit his cheek so hard as to draw a regular stream of blood."

It was at this point that Savage-Landor went from being an eyewitness to being a participant ― the peacemaker. He made his way onto the ice and tried to separate them. His good intentions were paid back with violence. The woman, who was still able to manipulate the mallet "with alarming dexterity" used it to smack the intrusive foreigner's left knee. Seeing "numberless stars," Savage-Landor painfully made his way back to the street and "deemed it prudent to let them fight out their own quarrel" while he went about his own business.

A bridge in Seoul in the late 19th or early 20th century Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection

Even before this incident, Savage-Landor had a very decided and biased view of Korean women. He described them as an essential but frequently abused (he wrote, "beaten constantly") part of the household. They cooked, took care of the children, did the laundry and whatever other tasks their husbands commanded. If we are to believe the accounts, in many ways she was compliant to her husband's wishes but not when it came to other women.

One of the chief virtues of Korean women, he declared, was their extreme jealousy and another was their willingness to fight. He claimed the women of the lower social classes seemed to be in "a constant state of excitement and anger" and frequently hurled insults at one another as well as blows.

"I have seen women in Seoul nearly tearing one another to pieces, and, O Lord how masterly they are in the art of scratching. The men on such occasions stand round them, encouraging them to fight, the husbands enjoying the fun more than the other less interested spectators."

Women were not the only ones to fight and provide entertainment to spectators ― including Savage-Landor. He wrote, "When a deadly fight takes place in the streets, you may at once set it down as having arisen over" the smallest of sums of money ― less than a penny. Perhaps to support his claim, he offered the anecdote of a fight between a butcher and another merchant. The men were apparently armed with short clubs and traded blows with one another. The fight ended when the butcher struck his opponent's head so hard that the man fell to the ground.

"As the man lay motionless on the ground, the [butcher], far from being content with what he had done, seized a huge block of wood, one of those upon which they chop up the meat, and, lifting it up with a great effort, dropped it on his antagonist's head, with a dreadful sounding crack, which smashed his skull, as one would a nut. Then, sitting triumphantly on the wooden block, he solicited the compliments of the spectators."

It is unclear how Savage-Landor knew the men were fighting over a financial debt but I suspect much of the account ― as were many of his accounts ― was exaggerated with a healthy dose of artistic license. Violent incidents did occur in the streets of Seoul but, for the most part, the city was relatively safe (especially for foreigners) ― even for debtors.

My appreciation to Diane Nars for allowing me to use some of her images.

Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.