Challenge for 'jesa'

By Mark Peterson

It's hard to keep up with social changes in Korea. My finger on the pulse has been my YouTube channel, The Frog Outside the Well, and the responses and comments people post. I've been surprised to see the negative comments regarding all things related to Confucian practices. The most recent has been comments on "ancestor ceremonies," or "jesa."

The practice was once translated as ancestor worship but that term was discarded as inaccurate and biased long ago.

Jesa suffered as the enemy of some Christian sects early on. The Catholic persecutions of the 18th century were largely centered on the ancestor ceremonies, which were inaccurately translated as ancestor worship ― bowing down to the ancestors was all the evidence the Christians needed. Bowing equals worship. They overlooked the fact that living people would bow to each other. Worship everyday on the street? No, just Korean etiquette.

Well, some Christian sects, including paradoxically Catholics (some, but not all? I don't know), started to accept jesa as an acceptable performance. So, the scene in recent years has been that some Christians accept jesa, and some do not, but at any rate, there came a portion of Korean society that would not practice jesa.

The thing I've discovered recently is that a portion of Korean society that has been practicing jesa is starting to drop the practice for reasons of inconvenience. I have people telling me they don't have the time or inclination to carry on with the ceremonies. My recent YouTube video was about American Memorial Day, which I suggested was a form of jesa ― American style. And I suggested that as Korea loses interest in the elaborate jesa ceremony, Korea might adopt the simpler format of decorating the graves with flowers.

It's not that jesa is the only Confucian practice under fire.

In recent articles and YouTube videos, I've explored changes in other Confucian practices and attitudes. We've seen that in contemporary Korea with smaller families, the practice of intra-lineage adoption, has all but disappeared. It was once the case where about 15 percent of any men were adopted from within the lineage, or within the jokbo. That worked where a brother or cousin had multiple sons to cover for those who biologically had no children, or had only daughters. But in a society with strict birth-control policies, there were no longer "surplus" sons to patch in the holes in the jokbo.

Another Confucian issue has been one of attitude. I always praise Korean culture as the culture of the "seonbi" ― the scholar. But I've been surprised to find a large percentage of the Korean population that is extremely critical and negative about the seonbi. To criticize the "yangban" I've seen often, but the term "yangban" is used more often as a sociological term, the equivalent of the "aristocrat" or the "social elite." Whereas, seonbi is thought of as the scholar. I had thought scholars were insulated from severe criticism. But not so. I think the heavy criticism of the term is one part of a general rejection of Confucianism and everything about Confucianism.

I have always been a defender of Confucianism as one of the great religions of the world. Yes, I know, it's not a religion. Okay, call it a belief system. But the ideology is one of the great ideologies of the world.

Of course, my answer to the Confucian criticism is to look at early Confucianism prior to the late 17th century as Korean-style Confucianism that was more egalitarian, whereas 18th-century Confucianism onward became infused with male dominance and hierarchical practices. But unfortunately, many in Korean society today mistakenly consider Confucianism as one thing ― old or new.

Household registers are now open to having a female household head.

What other changes can we expect? I've suggested that a new approach to jokbo is on the horizon. As Korea becomes more gender balanced and egalitarian, the days of the male-only jokbo are numbered. Korea will probably join the Western world in looking at one's genealogy as a family tree with limbs for women as well as men ― really like the "Pal gojo-do" ― "eight great, great grandfathers [and grandmothers] chart" found in Korea prior to the 18th century.

So, if the jesa ancestor ceremonies are on the decline, what other changes are afoot? One of the keys to late-Joseon Confucianism and its male-dominated practices is the role of the "jongson," the lineage heir, or the occupant of the "keunjip" (big house). Might we start to see female jongson? I can already hear the moans and groans from traditional Confucianists, but I think that is coming. You read it here first.

Changes are coming. We know that because changes have already come. Look today at the low marriage rate and low birthrate in Korea. These factors are at critical levels. Levels that need to change, but I have confidence Korea will respond to the changes. Why? I was worried about the high female abortion rate of the late 1990s. With new technology that could determine the gender of a baby early in the pregnancy, abortions of female fetuses accelerated dramatically. But in Korea, rather than continue with son preference at all costs, Korea now has gender balance and a degree of daughter preference.

Change is the rule in Korea. Dynamic Korea is resetting for a new society for the future. Exactly what shape that will be, what from the old is kept and what is rejected will be revealed in the years ahead.

Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.