Queen of Suffering

1934 Ham's view to be very Christo-centric and he was strongly convinced that Christianity was the only religion derived from the Bible. His sole commitment at this time was to the absolute value of Christianity. Thus not surprisingly, Ham entitled his first writing Korean History from a Biblical Perspective. The preface of this writing, leaves no doubt about the sole Biblical basis of Ham's philosophy:

 

"Regarding the title of my work, Korean History from a Biblical Perspective, some of my friends suggested the 'inappropriateness' of the title, especially to some who are not Christians. But if I remove the word 'Biblical Perspective' from the writing, it is like removing a horn from a deer. The fundamental spirit of this writing stemmed from the Bible. Therefore, I can write history only from a Biblical Perspective. In other words, only the Bible has a genuine history and philosophy. It is neither in the Western nor in the Eastern world. only the Bible reveals time as being like a human-being's personality and character."

 

Here one can see the eagerness and passion of Ham towards Christianity. At this time, Ham could not think of world history or the philosophy of humankind from any other than the Biblical standpoint.

 

*******

 

Since Ham always tried to be on the side of the weak and oppressed, during Syngman Rhee's presidency Ham's Christo-centric or Biblically based world views gradually but dramatically changed into more universal and humanitarian views. Christian belief was no longer for Ham the one true religion nor the Bible the whole truth. His new view reflected in his book as a more humanitarian, cosmopolitan and universal outlook:

 

"In 1961, when I was preparing a third edition of my book [Korean History from a Biblical Perspective] to meet the mounting demand, I revised the book fundamentally. Christianity was no longer for me the one true religion nor the Bible the whole truth. My view was altered by the development of a more cosmopolitan and scientific view of the world --- When I changed the title of my book from a Biblical Perspective to a Spiritual Perspective I thought deeply. I knew that it would be a source of trouble and would bring a furious response from mainstream Christians. But now I cannot think only about Christians. Now I have to equally think about the so-called `unbelievers' as much as Christians."

 

Compared with the 1930s and 1950s, in the 1960s Ham's view of the history of Korea and the world changed profoundly. As Ham anticipated, conservative Christians accused him of being a "T'arak-han Ingan [fallen man]". Nevertheless Ham came to re-define the fundamental Christian message, he wrote: "The purpose [of Christianity] is not to go to heaven. Rather, it is to have the world of God come on earth before going to heaven. That is what Christianity is. As scholarship is useless until it is applied to real life, so a religion is useless as long as it has no bearing on living history."

 

Ham's view was not generally accepted until the next decade among Korean churchgoers. Later it became more widespread with the emergence of Minjung theology. Eventually Ham began to view Christianity as one of many religions, rather than possessing the sole truth. He became convinced that truth could be achieved through various other religions.

 

 

Author's Preface to English Edition

 

The story of Queen of Suffering dates back to the 1930's. I happened to be teaching Korean history in a small rural high school then. When I actually began the class, I realized that it was impossible to teach it as it was. Four thousand years of Korean history amounted to nothing but a series of humiliations, frustrations, and failures. Honestly, how was I supposed to teach that?

 

I began to gaze upon Korean history squarely. When I did, it appeared like a beggar girl who, chased by village urchins, ran away this way and that and hid herself and then finally collapsed on the street, crying her heart out. My feeling then was comparable to one of Jesus' disciples who, goaded by his Master, encountered a tempest while crossing the sea of Tiberius in a small boat. Jesus was asleep, and I didn't know what to do. The entire world seemed desolate. But I couldn't just remain stupefied. I had to wake my Master who was asleep inside myself. A voice came to me then, saying, "Oh, why do you have so little faith?"

 

When I came to myself, I began contemplating this beggar girl. Quietly I approached her, wiped her tears, dusted the mud off her, tended her wounds, and began listening to her halting mumblings. During all this, I became aware of a figure, barely visible, standing behind her. It is this story which constitutes Korea's history of suffering.

 

First I told the story to about a dozen friends of the same faith. It was serialized under the title "Korean History from a Christian Perspective" in the magazine, Songso Choson (The Bible and Korea) from February 1934 until December of the next year. Those were the days when Imperialist Japan was resorting to the most oppressive measures to wipe the Korean race from the face of this earth. In 1943, Japanese authorities arrested all the readers of the magazine, charging us with harboring dangerous ideas, and abolished the magazine itself. The case was dropped after we had spent one year in prison.

 

The Japanese prosecutor who was investigating the case made an interesting comment when he released me. "If the history of Korea is a history of suffering in your opinion, then is it the entire history of the human race also a history of suffering?" he asked.

 

I responded by saying, "That's true" He asked me then, "How about writing Japanese history from the same perspective?" I answered him, "I think that it can be done'

 

Shortly after that, Japan surrendered unconditionally, and Korea was liberated. The way of history is mysterious, and Korea came to be occupied by the U.S.A. in the south and by the USSR in the north within a month after her liberation. This time, the suffering Queen was not only persecuted but also broken in two at her waist. Now that South Korea has become a nuclear base for the United States and North Korea a satellite state of the Soviet Union, what does history have in store for the suffering Queen?

 

At this critical moment when the future is so uncertain, the Friends World Committee for Consultation is publishing an English version of Queen of Suffering. Why? As the author, I feel overwhelmed and can hardly express my feelings in words.

 

When I was visiting Friends at Pendle Hill (a Quaker study center outside Philadelphia) ten years ago, I spoke cruel words to them. "Haven't you all nailed my mother to a cross and exposed her private parts to her shame, Red China holding her one arm and Japan grasping the other, while the polar bear holds down her head and the eagle from the Rocky Mountains holds down her legs?" Everyone became solemn and silent.

 

Isn't it time that the Queen of Suffering should receive words to ten her own story? After all, English is the international language.

 

Isn't it the case that the young Japanese prosecutor, like Caiaphas, prophesied unaware?

 

February 1985

HAM SOK HON

 

 

Queen of Suffering: Korean History From A Spiritual Perspective

 

If anyone desires to see the misfortunes and effects of iniquity in the world in all their aspects, all one has to do is come to Korea: here you will find abuses of Confucianism and Buddhism, examples of militarism, slavery under capitalism. We are made a sewer of world history. But, people of the world, you should thank us for this sewer. For is it not this sewer that allows you to go on with your delights in the palace of pleasure. Great is the sewer of world history.

 

Herein is our mission: to bear our load of iniquity without grumbling, without evading and with determination and in seriousness. By bearing the load we can deliver ourselves and the world as well. The results of iniquity will never vanish without someone bearing their burden. For the sake of God and humanity we must bear it. We did not volunteer for it. It is for our misdeeds that it was turned over to us. But also it was part of God's design. Not that He hates us nor that He loves us. He did it because He hates us and also loves us. Does it hurt to bear the burden? Yes, it hurts to the point of dying. It has a sweetness that none but the bearer can hardly imagine. Is it disgrace? Yes. Utter disgrace, so that you are too ashamed to hold your head up. But it is honor also, a glory unknown in this world. All through that long history we have waited, waited without making any creditable performance. Mistreated in a corner, we thought the night was nearly over.

 

Now it is time for us to elevate world history to a higher plane by taking charge of the world's iniquity. That is what history's sewer is for. Lowly work cannot be done without a high, principled mind; small work requires a broad mind. To clear away dirt one needs a heart that refuses to be soiled; to dispose of sins one needs a noble soul which no sin can affect. For this work God has given us goodness of heart, the "heart that cannot bear," or benevolence. For thousands of years we have never invaded another's land nor have we rejected any nation unless it harmed us. In trying to be safe, we have occasionally taken subservience for goodness, apathy for magnanimity, resignation for faith. This was a mistake. To bear the burden of iniquity does not mean to be servile. To be a sewer does not mean to become dirty. A filthy disagreeable work, in the eyes of the age, is a glory unsurpassed, a joy without end if seen from the next generation. To this end you will need utmost courage and determination, backed with strength for a high moral battle, a battle without precedent. As life is a battle, history can never be without battle. Fighting with violence and hatred such as has been will pass and will be followed by a new form of fighting, of which Jesus said, "I have overcome the world" The war he declared will unfold in earnest in the coming world. There we who have been the last will have to be the first.

 

The major nations of the world today are frantically waging the old fashioned war of seizure. We on our part ought to make preparations for the coming war. Courageous and daring were early Christians in standing up to the Roman empire and we too should be as courageous and daring as we face modern civilization. We should muster strength so that we can give away our shirts as well to those who may take our coats, so that we can serve them with brotherly love should they use us as their slaves, so that we can pray, "Lay not this sin to their charge! As Gandhi said, suffering is not for the weak but for the strong. To believe in a power greater than your own is the way of suffering. Our battle is not one of shifting our misfortune onto someone else: it is willingly accepting the consequences of iniquity to save the life of the world. Until our conscience is sure and ready we will certainly tremble, afraid that we are too weak. But the moment the light of righteousness shines in our hearts, kindling a love for truth in us, we will discover the armed states of the age are so many Goliaths.

 

The future of the world depends entirely on whether we win or lose. Incredible? If you still believe it is impossible, then you may as well disbelieve the story of David who saved Israel with a single stone. Or consider a case in which whole legions of a nation were defeated without even a stone: Gandhi who freed India. Determining the future of the world is not going to be our own doing: Providence so orders us. It is a historical necessity. The consequences of the world's iniquities are laid on us, and if we fail in cleansing them, then there is no one else to do it. Hence, it is our mission, to which only we are equal. Neither Britain nor America can cope with it, for they are too well-off, too highly placed, to do it.

 

If the Koreans, Indians, Jews and Blacks, each overcoming their sufferings resulting from iniquities, come into their own, humankind is bound for salvation. Otherwise, this world is doomed. Through us it has to be demonstrated that a person is not slave to things, that might is not right, that might will never win over right in the end. That forces of iniquity cannot put an end to human life must be proved through us. We have to bear witness to the truth that love will conquer Satan and that mankind will be saved through our suffering. We should testify before the world to the fact that sin vanishes only through forgiveness. It is in this sense that the destiny of all humankind hangs on us.

 

Manchuria, cradle of our history, proved unfit as a place to evolve our ancient culture because it awaited more advanced intellect before it could be fully opened up. Who knows but that people of peace are not waiting in the wings to turn Manchuria into their base of activities for carrying out their global mission--when all wild beasts are driven out, the mounted brigands mopped up, geographic surveys completed, scientific explorations conducted, when wilderness is opened for cultivation, mines are developed, cultural facilities built up.

 

But it takes people of truth. Future history will be made apparent only to those with the eye for religious faith. For future war will be fought on the level of truth and it will be won by faith. Confucianism has fallen short of its work; Buddhism has fallen short of its work; and so has the Christian religion. In the meantime the whole world has changed.

 

A new religion is needed. An air of uneasiness hangs heavily over the world. But this is merely smoke from a smoldering fire before the flames flare up--first announcements of a great age to come. Soldiers, sell your clothes and buy swords. This is no ordinary generation. Sell the clothing of old notions, of institutions, of formalities and ceremonies to buy the double-edged sword of truth. Dispose of all old religions, old views of the world, old philosophies of history, old conscience, secular morals, earthly thought. With the money buy a sword of truth, a sword of sterling purity carefully fashioned by a hallowed smith in the forge of eternity. That sword alone will serve our purpose.

 

Such a morality as can keep its dignity only in schoolrooms and becomes powerless once outside will serve no purpose in the coming history. Equally useless is a faith such as sheds tears of piety only in church but which dry up the moment one walks out, such aristocratic religions as create hell for the perpetual confinement of the majority of the poor to keep a few in happiness. A patriotism based on a philosophy of struggle for existence will be rejected in the coming world. We love this land of ours not from any so-called patriotism but because there is no other place for the kingdom of heaven to come. We love our masses not from any socalled patriotic love but because leaving them out, we would have nowhere else to hear God's voice, because without them it would be impossible to have God's will be made plain. That this people have to be themselves is no assertion of a right to existence but of truth itself. one nation's misfortune is the ache of the whole universe--God's grief. The day when its soul is fully armed with truth Korea will be the soldier battling for the new age.

 

The noblest of human qualities is the ability to reflect on oneself. A nation cannot be wise until it gains the right understanding of its own history, particularly its modern history, the hardest of all to understand. History is a nation's education of itself. For this reason politics has to be an education; not only does one govern, but one also has to lead the people and exercise moral influence on them. Confucius said that having the people fight wars without teaching them is to forsake them.

 

Education should not be limited to reading, writing and arithmetic, that is, teaching young people the art of earning a livelihood. Education should provide them with some idea of how to manage the country properly. Nevertheless, politics is not the ultimate goal, for people have to rise to still higher planes spiritually and religiously. Yet as politics sets the framework in which all major human activities take place, things people do are unavoidably tied to politics.

 

Looking back over what has been happening since the liberation, have we made progress or have we been going backward? Seen in terms of progress toward freedom, our history since the liberation has been a step forward in regaining our national freedom.

 

However, from another aspect, it has been a retrogression. Although there has been some apparent increase of freedom on the outside, we have also sustained loss of freedom on the inside. If achieving the fullest freedom for the individual is a political objective, post-liberation history shows that while we have attained freedom as nation, personal liberty has steadily decreased. While our slogan has been democracy, the twenty years after the liberation have been steadily moving toward dictatorship. National liberation was in name only; so there have been calls for national liberation to be followed by social liberation. Freedom cannot be real until it reaches the individual. The period after the liberation has had freedom on the outside but none on the inside. But if you go deeper you find freedom. While political drift toward dictatorship appears to diminish freedom, rebellion has grown in the popular mind. The masses have been awakening, and this is progress. History by nature is progress in absolute terms; history's progress, with all its little ups and downs, represents a movement forward. To believe this is to understand history.

 

Let us first consider the causes for the failures in our history which have led to the confusion of today. The first is poverty. The second, foreign interference. Foreign countries, which helped bring about the liberation, regarded our liberation solely as their own working. As they acted accordingly, the path before us has not been smooth. The third cause is mistakes made by our politicians, which hardly need discussion. The fourth is the spiritual weakness of the people, that is, historical inertia or perverse habits of long standing. Spiritual weakness is the greatest of all causes, for a strong spirit could have overcome the other causes. The fifth is the erroneous judgment on the part of the people. The human being is spiritual and spirit is freedom. What distinguishes spirit is that it can overcome inertia, which operates in the physical world. It is not easy, but it can be done. A true determination could have overcome the old habits. But we failed.

 

Let us take one or two of those mistakes. We assented to the establishment of the 38th parallel. The line was drawn by the big powers in their wanton desire to exploit our country for their purposes. We could have refused it but we failed to do so. Reliance on foreign aid is another mistake. The idea that the country cannot be run without foreign assistance is a bad habit that developed after the liberation. Failure to come to terms with Japan immediately after the liberation was a mistake. In the first flush of heightened emotion on our part and the prevailing mood of contrition on their part, negotiations could have set the two countries on their right path. But we failed. What we have done has been hasty, imprudent and ill-thought-out--this shows a lack of confidence.

 

It was a tragedy that the April 19 (1960) revolution which led to the fall of Syngman Rhee was followed a year later by the May 16 (1961) coup. If Syngman Rhee made mistakes, it is not enough to judge his mistakes only in terms of morality. Being an individual, he is subject to moral judgment. But since an individual acts not only as an individual but also in the perspective of history, what is necessary is to find out his purpose in history. We have to determine why he had to be there when he was, why in Syngman Rhee's time there could only be political figures of his type.

 

In essence, what was the April 19 revolution and what was the May 16 coup? The one is an ｅxpression of intellect, the other one of materialism. The coming of the May 16 coup after the April 19 revolution means that materialism clashed with intellect and overpowered it for a time. It was a clash between idealism and realism. The criticisms against the West European-type of democracy that gained volume following the May 16 coup, the arguments for political stability and "national democracy," and diplomatic moves based on advantages all bear this out. The habit of falling back on foreign aid and the call for foreign capital speak of this conflict. The gravest error perpetrated after the liberation was the total neglect of the national spirit.

 

Today the conflict takes the form of students confronting soldiers. The military retreated in the first battle. During the April 19 demonstrations the military did not dare open fire on the students; national conscience and judgment were still alive. The May 16 coup was a physical reaction against April 19. The rebellious slogan criticized the "ineptness" of the Democratic Party (which succeeded Syngman Rhee's government). Worship of power had its beginnings, and the military swept everything before them. Colleges and universities were stormed by troops and politically undesirable professors were removed.

 

The remedy for this tragedy is restoration of moral principles. A country in which students clash with soldiers is a mad country; it testifies to the bankruptcy of national character; it is a national crisis. This crisis has to be overcome at all costs; if we fail, the country and the people will surely perish. Students throwing stones at soldiers, are you aware of this? Resistance oblivious of self will come to ruin. Soldiers trampling on students, are you out of your mind? Whether strength is alive or dead, strength oblivious of self is brute force, not human strength. This has to be corrected, moral principles have to be restored. And for this, reason without passion must prevail; thinking people have to teach others.

 

Today, everyone deplores the lack of major personalities. Who can lead the nation? What kind of persons would make leaders and where can we hope to find them? In troubled times such as we are going through we need able persons with unbending will. However, we must remember that history deals with people, people with knowledge, emotion and will, and not with things, the more so today because this is an age of the masses with self-awareness and a sense of self-identity. What we need is ability of the masses, ability of the whole. The time is gone forever for dictatorship by a genius. Let us remember what time it is in history. Knowledge is needed in order to achieve ability for the masses, for the whole. So the qualification for a leader is intellect rather than ability.

 

Moral principles are even more urgent for the leader. By moral principles one can experience the whole within oneself. A modern version of this is the constitution. The virtues of a good king of the past have now been written into a constitution. There is no surviving the crisis facing us today unless the ruler has enough virtue to act according to the constitution, an ｅxpression of the wishes and wisdom of the whole people. Self-confidence is necessary but the wrong kind of self-confidence will lead the ruler astray. Therefore, a constitution is absolutely necessary to guarantee full freedom of religion and education, of speech, assembly and art.

 

In the kind of disarray our country finds itself in now, a vicious circle is in being. It is not very easy to tell where to break the circle, for one is dealing with a whole complex of entanglements. Wisdom and resolution lie in deciding at which point the circle should be cut. There are three crucial approaches in taking the risk of breaking the circle: wealth, power and intellect. If we make a mistake the whole country may go under. Risks involving wealth or power may promise success but will eventually end in failure. Along the highroad of history are strewn the bones of those who have fallen while on their adventure with wealth and power, in full confidence that they would find the solution at one stroke. The way to national salvation is the way of intellect, although at first it seems as if the whole country will be inundated, thrown into confusion.

 

Put your sword down and think hard.

 

 

 

 

 

Queen of Suffering.hwp

Queen of Suffering.hwp

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