Korea & Her Neighbours/Chapter XXXII

THE REORGANIZED KOREAN GOVERNMENT¹

The old system of Government in Korea, which, with but a few alterations and additions, prevailed from the founding of the present dynasty until the second half of 1894, was modelled on that of the Ming Emperors of China. The King was absolute as well in practice as in theory, but to assist him in governing there was a Eut-chyeng Fii, commonly translated Cabinet, composed of a so-called Premier, and Senior and Junior Ministers of State, under whom were Senior and Junior Chief Secretaries, and Senior and Junior Assistant Secretaries, with certain minor functionaries, the Government being conducted through Boards as in China, viz. Civil Office, Revenue, Ceremonies, War, Punishment, and Works, to which were added after the opening of the country to foreigners. Foreign and Home Offices. During the present reign the Home Office, under the Presidency of a powerful and ambitious cousin of the Queen, Min Yeng-chyun, began to draw to itself all administrative power, while Her Majesty's and his relations, who occupied the chief positions throughout the country, fleeced the people without restraint. Of the remaining offices which were seated in the Metropolis the chief were the Correctional Tribunal, an office of the first rank which took cognizance of the offences of officials, and the Prefecture of Seoul which had charge of all municipal matters.

Korea was divided into eight Provinces, each under the control of a Governor, aided by a Civil and Military Secretary. Magistrates of different grades according to the size of the magistracies were appointed under him, five fortress cities, however, being independent of provincial jurisdiction. The principal tax, the land-tax, was paid in kind, and the local governments had very considerable control over the local revenues. There were provincial military and naval forces with large staffs of officers, and Boards, Offices, and Departments innumeral under Government, each with its legion of super- numeraries.

The country was eaten up by officialism. It is not only that abuses without number prevailed, but the whole system of Government was an abuse, a sea of corruption without a bottom or a shore, an engine of robbery, crushing the life out of all industry. Offices and justice were bought and sold like other commodities, and Government was fast decaying, the one principle which survived being its right to prey on the governed.

The new order of things, called by the Japanese the "Reformation," dates from the forcible occupation of the Kyeng-pok Palace by Japanese troops on the 23rd of July, 1894. The constitutional changes which have subsequently been promulgated (though not always carried out) were initiated by the Japanese Minister in Seoul, and reduced to detail by the Japanese "advisers" who shortly arrived; and Japan is entitled to the credit of having attempted to cope with and remedy the manifold abuses of the Korean system, and of having bequeathed to the country the lines on which reforms are now being carried out. It was natural, and is certainly not blameworthy, that the Japanese had in view the assimilation of Korean polity to that of Japan.

To bring about the desired reorganization, Mr. Otori, at that time the Japanese Minister, induced the King to create an Assembly, which, whatever its ultimate destiny, was to form meanwhile a Department for " the discussion of all matters grave and trivial within the realm." The Prime Minister was its President, and the number of its members was limited to twenty Councillors. A noteworthy feature in connection with it was that it invited suggestions from outsiders in the form of written memoranda.

It met for the first time on the 30th of July, 1894, and for the last on the 29th of October of the same year. It was found impossible, either by payment or Royal orders, to secure a quorum ; and after the Vice-Minister of Justice, one of the few Councillors who took an active part in the proceedings, was murdered two days after the last meeting, as was believed, by an agent of the reactionary party, it practically expired, and was dissolved by Royal Decree on the 17th of December, 1894, and a reconstituted Privy Council took its place. Those of its Resolutions, however, which had received the Royal as- sent became law, and unless repealed or superseded are still binding.

These Resolutions appeared in the Government Gazette, an institution of very old standing, imitated, like most things else, from China. This was prepared by the Court of Transmission, a Palace Department, the senior members of which formed the channel of communication between the King and the official body at large, and who, while other high officials could only reach the throne by means of personal memorials or written memoranda, were privileged to address the King viva voce, and through whom as a rule his commands were issued. Each day this Department collected the various memoranda and memorials, the Royal replies and the lists of appointments, copies of which when edited by it formed the Gazette, which was furnished in MS. to officials throughout the kingdonfi. The Royal Edicts when published in this paper became law in Korea.

In July, 1894, Mr. Otori made the useful innovation of publishing the Gazette in clear type, and in the following January it appeared in a mixture of Chinese hieroglyphs and En-mititf the "vulgar script" of Korea, and became intelligible to the common people. No special change was made at that time, except that the Resolutions of the Deliberative Assembly were included in it. Later clianges have assimilated it farther to the Government Gazette of Japan, and it has gained rather than lost in importance. Gradually a diminution of the power of the Court of Transmission began to show itself. Its name was changed to the Receiving Office, and members of the Cabinet and the Correctional Tribunal began to enjoy direct access to the King. In April, 1895, a farther change in a Japanese direction, and one of great significance in Korean estimation, was made, the date of the Gazette being given thus : —

"No. I. — 504th year of the Dynasty, 4th moon, 1st day, Wood-day."^{^}

Two months later farther changes in the official Gazette were announced, and the programme then put forward has been adhered to, paving the way for many of the changes which have followed. It is difficult to make the importance of the Gazette intelligible, except to foreigners who have re- sided in China and Korea. The reason for dwelling so long upon it is, that for several centuries the publication in it of Royal Edicts has given them the force of law and the cur- rency of Acts of Parliament.

In the pages which follow a brief summary is given of the outlines of the scheme for the reorganization of the Korean Government, which was prepared for the most part by the Japanese advisers, honorary and salaried, who have been engaged on the task since 1894, and which has been accepted by the King.

The first change raised the status of the King and the Royal Family to that of the Imperial Family of China. After this, it was enacted, following on the King's Oath of January, 1895, that the Queen and Royal Family were no longer to interfere in the affairs of State, and that His Majesty would govern by the advice of a Cabinet, and sign all ordinances to which his assent is given. The Cabinet, which was, at least nominally, located in the Palace, had two aspects — a Council of State, and a State Department, presided over by the Premier.

I. — As THE Council of State

The members of the Cabinet or Ministers of State were the Premier, the Home Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Finance Minister, the War Minister, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister of Agriculture, Trade and Industry. A Foreign Adviser is supposed to be attached to each of the seven Departments.

Ministers in Council were empowered to consider — the framing of laws and ordinances ; estimates and balance-sheets of yearly revenue and expenditure ; public debt, domestic and foreign ; international treaties and important conventions ; disputes as to the respective jurisdictions of Ministers; such personal memorials as His Majesty might send down to them ; supplies not included in the estimates ; appointments and pro- motions of high officials, other than legal or military ; the re- tention, abolition, or alteration of old customs; abolition or institution of offices, and, without reference to their special relations to any one Ministry, their reconstruction or amendment; the imposition of new taxes or their alteration ; and the control and management of public lands, forests, buildings, and vessels. All ordinances after being signed and sealed by the King required the countersign of the Premier.

The second function of the Cabinet as a Department of State it is needless to go into.

A Privy Council was established at the close of 1894 to take the place of the Deliberative Assembly which had collapsed, and is now empowered, when consulted by the Cabinet, to inquire into and pass resolutions concerning : —

I. The framing of laws and ordinances.

II. Questions which may from time to time be referred to it by the Cabinet.

The Council consists of a President, Vice-President, not more than fifty Councillors, two Secretaries, and four Clerks. The Councillors are appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the Premier, and must either be men of rank, or those who have done good service to the State, or are ex- perts in politics, law, or economics. The Privy Council is prohibited from having any correspondence on public matters with private individuals, or with any officials but Ministers and Vice-Ministers. The President presides. Two-thirds of the members must be present to form a quorum. Votes are given openly, resolutions are carried by a majority, and any Council- lor dissenting from a resolution so carried has a right to have his reasons recorded in the minutes.

In the autumn of 1896 some important changes were made. A Decree of the 24th of September condemned in strong lan- guage the action of " disorderly rebels, who some three years ago revolutionized the Constitution," and changed the name of the King's advising body. The decree ordained that the old name, translated Council of State, "should be restored, and declared that new regulations would be issued, which, while adhering to ancient principles, would confirm such of the enactments of the previous three years as in the King's judgment were for the public good." The Council of State was organized by the first ordinance of a new series, and the preamble, as well as one at least of the sections, marks a dis- tinctly retrograde movement and a reversion to the absolutism renounced in the King's Oath of January, 1895.^{^^} It is distinctly stated that " any motion debated at the Council may re- ceive His Majesty's assent, without regard to the number of votes in its favor, by virtue of the Royal prerogative; or should the debates on any motion not accord with His Majesty's views, the Council may be commanded to reconsider the matter." Resolutions which the King approves, on publication in the Gazette become law.

Thus perished the checks which the Japanese sought to impose on the absolutism of the Crown, and at the present time the Royal will (or whim) can and does override all else.

This Eui-chyeng Pu or Council, like the Nai Kak, its pred- ecessor, is both a Council of State, and a State Department presided over by the Chancellor. The members of the Council of State are the Chancellor, the Home Minister, who is, ex officio, Vice-chancellor, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance, War, Justice, and Agriculture, five Councillors, and the Chief Secretary. As a State Department under the Chan- cellor, the staff consists of the "Director of the General Bureau," the Chancellor's Private Secretary, the Secretary, and eight clerks.

The Council of State, as now constituted, is empowered, to pass resolutions concerning the enactment, abrogation, altera- tion, or interpretation of laws or regulations ; peace and war and the making of treaties ; restoration of domestic order ; telegraphs, railways, mines, and other undertakings, and questions of compensation arising therefrom ; the estimates and special appropriations ; taxes, duties, and excise ; matters sent down to the Council by special command of the Sovereign ; publication of laws and regulations approved by the King.

The King, if he so pleases, is present in person, or may send the Heir-Apparent to represent him. The Chancellor presides, two-thirds of the members from a quorum, motions are carried by a numerical majority, and finally a memorial stating in outline the debate and its issue is submitted by the Chancellor to the King, who issues such commands as may seem to him best, for, as previously stated, His Majesty is not bound to acquiesce in the decision of the majority.

The Eui-chyeng Pu as a Department of State through the "Director of the General Bureau" has three sections — Archives, Gazette, and Accounts, and is rather a recording than an initiating office.

The scheme for the reconstruction of the Provincial and Metropolitan Governments has introduced many important changes and retrenchments. The thirteen Provinces are now divided into 339 Prefectures, Seoul having a Government of its own. The vast entourage of provincial authorities has been reduced, and a Provincial Governor's staff is now limited, nominally at least, to six clerks, two chief constables, thirty police, ten writers, four ushers, fifteen messengers, eight coolies, and eight boys. Ordinances under the head of " Local Government" define the jurisdiction, powers, duties, period of office, salaries, and etiquette^{^^^} of all officials, along with many minor matters. It is in this Department that the re- forms instituted by the Japanese are the most sweeping. Very many offices were abolished, and all Govermiient property be- longing to the establishments of the officials holding them was ordered to be handed over to officers of the new regime. A Local Government Bureau was established with sections, under which local finance in cities and towns and local ex- penditure of every kind were to be dealt with. An Engineer- ing Bureau dealing with civil engineering and a Land Survey, a Registration Bureau dealing with an annual census of the population and the registration of lands, a Sanitary Bureau, and an Accounts Bureau form part of the very ambitious Local Government scheme, admirable on paper, and which, if it were honestly carried out, would strike at the roots of many of the abuses which are the curse of Korea. The whole pro- vincial system as reorganized is under the Home Office.

An important part of the new scheme is the definition of the duties and jurisdiction of the Ministers of State. The Cabinet Orders dealing with the duties and discipline of officials at large so far issued are : —

Order I. General rules for the conduct of public business.

" 2. Memorabilia for officials.

" 3, Resumption of office after mourning.

" 4. Reprimand and correction.

" 5. Obligation to purchase the Gazette.

" 6. Memorials to be on ruled paper.

The management of public offices under the new system is practically the same as the Japanese.

The Memorabilia for Officials are as follows: —

(a) No official must trespass outside his own jurisdiction.

(b) Where duties have been deputed to a subordinate, the latter must not be continually interfered with.

(c) A subordinate ordered to do anything which in his opinion is irregular or irrelevant slwuld expostulate with his senior. If the latter holds by his opinion, the junior must conform.

(d) Officials must be straightforward and outspoken, and not give outward acquiescence while privately criticising or hindering their superiors.

(e) Officials must not listen to suggestions from outsiders or talk with them on official business.

(f) Officials must be frank with one another, and not form cliques.

(g) No official must wilfully spread false rumors about another or lightly credit such.

(h) No official must absent himself from office without permission during office hours, or frequent the houses of others.

Resolution 88, passed some months earlier, was even more explicit : —

Officials are thereby forbidden to divulge official secrets even when wit- nesses in a court of law, unless specially permitted to do so ; or to show despatches to outsiders. They are not allowed to become directors or managers in a public company ; to accept compensation from private in- dividuals or gifts from their subordinates; to undertake, without permis- sion, extra work for payment ; or to put to private use Government horses. They may receive honors or presents from foreign Sovereigns or Govern- ments only with the special sanction of His Majesty.

An ordinance restored the use of the uniforms worn prior to the "Reformation," whether Court dress, full dress, half-dress, or undress, and announced that neither officials nor private persons were to be compelled any longer to wear black.

Each Department is presided over by a Minister, who is em- powered to issue Departmental Orders, as Instructions to the local officials and police, and Notifications to the people. His jurisdiction over the police and local officials is concurrent with that of his colleagues, who must also be consulted by him before recommending to the Throne the promotion or degradation of the higher officials of his Departmental Staff.

Under the Minister is a Vice-Minister, empowered to act for him on occasion, and, when doing so, possessing equal privi- leges. The Vice-Minister is usually the head of the Minister's Secretariat, which deals with "confidential matters, promotions, custody of the Minister's and Departmental Seals, receipt and despatch of correspondence, and consultation of prec- edents, preparation of statistics, compilation and preservation of archives."

In addition to the Secretariats, there are a number of Bureaux, both Secretariats and Bureaux being, for convenience, subdivided into sections, each of which has its special duties.

The Departments of Government are as follows : —

Home Office

The Home Minister has charge of matters concerning local government, police, jails, civil engineering, sanitation, shrines and temples, surveying, printing census, and public charity, as well as the general supervision of the local authorities and the police.

Foreign Office

The Foreign Minister is vested with the control of international affairs, the protection of Korean commercial interests abroad, and the supervision of the Diplomatic and Consular Services.

The Treasury

"The Minister for Finance, being vested with the control of the finances of the Government, will have charge of all matters relating to accounts, revenue, and expenditure, taxes, national debts, the currency, banks, and the like, and will have supervision over the finances of each local administration" (Ord. 54, § i).

Under this Minister there is a Taxation Bureau with three sections — Land Tax, Excise, and Customs.^{^^^^} The ordinances connected with the remodelled system of taxation and the salaries and expenses of officials are very numerous and minute. The appropriation actually in money for the Sovereign's Privy Purse was fixed at $5oo,ooo.

War Office

The Minister for War, who must be a general officer, has charge of the military administration of an army lately fixed at 6,000 men, and the chief control of men and matters in the army, and is to exercise supervision over army divisions, and all buildings and forts under his Department. The new military arrangements are very elaborate.

Ministry of Education

In this important Department, besides the Minister and Vice-Minister and heads of Bureaux and Sections, there are three special Secretaries who act as Inspectors of Schools, and an official specially deputed to compile and select text-books.

Besides the Minister's Secretariat, there are the Education Bureau, which is concerned with primary, normal, intermediary, foreign language, technical and industrial schools, and students abroad ; and a Compilation Bureau, concerned with the selection, translation, and compilation of text-books; the purchase, preservation, and arrangement of volumes, and the printing of books.

Under this Department has been placed the Confucian Col- lege, an institution of the old regime, the purpose of which was to attend to the Temple of Literature, in which, as in China, the Memorial Tablets of Confucius, Mencius, and the Sages are honored, and to encourage the study of the classical books. The subjects for study are the "Three Classics," "Four Books and Popular Commentary," Chinese Composition, Outlines of Chinese History — of the Sung, Yiian, and Ming Dynasties. To meet the reformed requirements, this College has been reorganized, and the students, who must be between the ages of twenty and forty, "of good character, persevering, intelligent, and well acquainted with affairs," are in addition put through a course of Korean and foreign annals, Korean and foreign geography, and arithmetic.

Ministry of Justice

The Minister of Justice has charge of judicial matters, pardons and restorations to rank, instructions for public prosecution, and supervision over Special Courts, High Courts, and District Courts ; and the Department forms a High Court of Justice for the hearing of certain appeals.

Ministry of Agriculture, Trade, and Industry

The Minister of Agriculture has charge of all matters relating to agriculture, commerce, industries, posts, telegraphs, shipping, and marine officers.

In this Department, besides the Minister's Secretariat, there are Bureaux of Agriculture, Communications, Trade, Industry, Mining, and Accounts. The Bureau of Agriculture contains Agricultural, Forest, and Natural Products sections ; that of Communications, Post, Telegraph, and Marine sections ; and that of Trade and Industry deals with Commerce, Trading Corporations, Weights and Measures, Manufactures, and Factories. The Mining Bureau has sections for Mines and Geology, and the Bureau of Accounts deals with the inventories and expenditure of the Department.

The Village System

Besides the Reorganization of these important Departments of State, a design for a "Village System," organized as follows, is to supersede that which had decayed with the general decay of Government in Korea.

The country is now divided into districts (Kun), each Kim containing a number of jyen or cantons, each of which includes a number of tti or villages. The old posts and titles are abolished, and each village is now to be provided with the following officers : —

1. Headman. — He must be over thirty years of age, and is elected for one year by the householders. The office is honorary.

2. Clerk. — He holds office under the same conditions as the Headman, under whom he keeps the books and issues notices.

3. Elder. — Nominated by the householders, he acts for the Headman as occasion demands.

4. Bailiff. — Elected at the same time as the Headman he performs the usual duties of a servant or messenger, and holds office for a year on good behavior.

The corresponding officers of the canton (commune) are a Mayor f a Clerky a Bailiff, and a Communal Usher who is irremovable except for cause given, and is, like the other officials, elected by the canton.

A Village Council is composed of the Headman and one man from each family, and is empowered to pass resolutions on matters connected with education, registration of house- holds or lands, sanitation, roads and bridges, communal grain exchanges, agricultural improvements, common woods and dykes, payment of taxes, relief in famine or other calamity, adjustment of the corvee, savings associations, and by-laws. The Headman, who acts as chairman, has not only a casting vote, but the power to veto. A resolution passed over the veto of the Headman has to be referred to the Mayor, and over the veto of the Mayor to the Prefect. If passed twice over the veto of the Prefect, reference may be made to the Governor. All resolutions, however, must be submitted twice a year to the Home Office, through the Prefect and Governor ; and it is incumbent on the Prefectural Council to sit at least twice in the year.

Taxes are by a law of 13th October, 1895, classified as Land- Tax, Scutage, Mining Dues, Customs Dues, and Excise. Ex- cise is now made to include, besides ginseng dues, what are known as "Miscellaneous Dues," viz. rent of glebe lands, tax on rushes used in mat-making, market dues on firewood and tobacco, tax on kilns, tax on edible seaweed, tax on grind- stones, up-river dues, and taxes on fisheries, salterns, and boats. All other imposts have been declared illegal. The first Korean Budget under the reformed system was published in January, 1896, and showed an estimated revenue from all sources of ^4,809,410.

The Palace Department underwent reorganization, nominally at least, and elaborate schemes for the administration of Royal Establishments, State Temples, and Mausolea were devised, and the relative rank of members of the Royal Clan, including ladies, was fixed — the ladies of the King's Seraglio being divided into eight classes, and those of the Crown Prince into four. The number of Court officials attached to the different Royal Households, though diminished, is legion.

Various ordinances brought the classification of Korean officials into line with those of Japan. Every class in the country, private and official, has come into the purview of the Reorganizers, and finds its position {on paper) more or less altered.

Among the more important of the Edicts which have nominally become law are the following : —

Agreements with China cancelled. Distinctions between Patrician and Plebeian abolished. Slavery abolished. Early Marriages prohibited. Remarriage of widows permitted. Bribery to be strictly forbidden. No one to be arrested with- out warrant for civil offences. Couriers, mountebanks, and butchers no longer to be under degradation. Local Councils to be established. New coinage issued. Organization of Police force. No one to be punished without trial. Irregular taxation by Provincial Governments forbidden. Extortion of money by officials forbidden. Family of a criminal not to be involved in his doom. Great modifications as to torture.

Superfluous Paraphernalia abolished. School of Instruction in Vaccination. Hair-cropping Proclamation. Solar Calendar adopted. "Drilled Troops" (Kun-ren-tai) abolished. Legal punishments defined. Slaughter-Houses licensed. Committee of Legal Revision appointed. Telegraph Regulations. Postal Regulations. Railways placed under Bureau of Communications. These ordinances are a selection from among several hundred promulgated since July, 1894.

Of the reforms notified during the last three and a half years several have not taken effect ; and concerning others there has been a distinctly retrograde movement, with a tendency to revert to the abuses of the old regime ; and others which were taken in hand earnestly, have gradually collapsed, owing in part to the limpness of the Korean character, and in part to the opposition of all in office and of all who hope for office to any measures of reform. Some, admirable in themselves, at present exist only on paper ; but, on the whole, the reorganized system, though in many respects fragmentary, is a great improvement on the old one ; and it may not unreasonably be hoped that the young men, who are now being educated in en- lightened ideas and notions of honor, will not repeat the iniquities of their fathers.

¹The chapters on the Reorganized Korean Government — Education, Trade, and Finance— and Dtemonism are intended to aid in the intelli- gent understanding of those which precede them. The reader who wishes to go into the subject of the old and the reorganized systems of Korean Government will find a mass of curious and deeply interesting detail in a volume entitled, Korean Government, by W. H. Wilkinson, Esq., lately H.B.M.'s Acting Vice-Consul at Chemulpo, published by the Statistical Department of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs at Shanghai in March, 1897. To it I am very greatly indebted.

^{^}Wood-day is the term adopted by the Japanese for Thursday, their week, which has now been imposed on the Koreans, being Sun-day, Moon-day, Fire-day, Water-day, Wood-day, Metal-day, and Earth-day.

^{^^}See p. 250.

^{^^^}Official Intercourse. Ord, 45 amends some old practices regulating the intercourse and correspondence of officials. The etiquette of the official call by a newly appointed Prefect on the Governor, on the whole, is retained, although it is in some respects simplified. The old fashion obliged the Magistrate to remain outside the yanien gate, while a large folded sheet of white paper inscribed with his name, was sent in to the Governor. The latter thereupon gave orders to his personal attendants or ushers to admit the Magistrate. The i'oin, as they were commonly styled, called out "Saryfeng," to which the servants chanted a reply. The Gov- ernor being seated, the Magistrate knelt outside the room and bowed to the ground. To this obeisance the Governor replied by raising his arms over his head. The Magistrate was asked his name and age, given some stereotyped advice, and dismissed. The Governor is for the future to re- turn the bow of the Prefect, and conversation is to be conducted in terms of mutual respect, the Magistrate describing himself as ha-koan (" your subordinate "), and addressing the Governor by his title.

^{^^^^}The finances of Korea are now practically under British management, Mr. J. M'Leavy Brown, LL. D,, of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, and Chief Commissioner of Customs for Korea, having undertaken in addition the post of Financial Adviser to the Treasury, and a Royal Edict having been issued that every order for a payment out of the national purse, down to the smallest, should be countersigned by him.