Koreans

“ A Korean sees about as much moral turpitude in a lie as we see in a mixed metaphor or a split infinitive. As for morality in its narrower sense, the Koreans allow themselves great latitude. There is no word for home in their language, and much of the meaning which that word connotes is lost to them. ”

“ Each year, about New- Year's time, the Koreans make little straw manikins, stuff a few cash into their bodies and then throw them into the streets, where small boys seize upon them and tear them to pieces for the sake of the money. In this way the spirit of ill-luck is supposed to be dismembered and rendered innocuous. Some people hang a hat and a coat at the entrance of the house as a fetich of the Door-spirit. Others hang up old shoes, bunches of grass and fishes' heads as fetiches of their various household divinities. ”

“ And, indeed, the two nations are of essentially the same derivation, so far as their dominant strains of ancestral blood are concerned; and great as are the present differences between the Japanese in Japan and the Koreans in Korea, there is no real reason why both Japanese and Koreans should not become essentially one people in Korea. ”

“ The Koreans, who had borne on the whole quietly the ascendency of a hated power, the murder of their Queen, and the practical imprisonment of their King, found the at- tack on their hair more than they could stand. The topknot is more to a Korean than the queue is to a Chinese. ”

“ All classes of wrongs done the Koreans by the Japanese—important and trivial, real, exaggerated, or falsely claimed—are fast diminishing and are destined in time to be reduced to a minimum. The Korean Central Government is now more genuine, more intelligent, and more efficient—as distinguished from the mere wilfulness of the ex-Emperor—than it has ever been before. ”

“ He has also by proxy travelled in the interior, and has lived among the peasant farmers, seeing their industries, the huckstering which passes for trade, something of their domestic life and habits, and the superstitions by which they are enslaved, and has acquired some knowledge of the official and patrician exactions under which they suffer. He has seen the Koreans at home, with their limpness, laziness, dependence, and poverty, and Koreans under Russian rule raised into a thrifty and prosperous population. ”

“ In spite of the low opinion of women held by the Koreans, so strong is the belief in the complete dæmoniacal possession of the mu-tang, and their consequent elevation above their sex, that the Koreans refer fully as much to them as to the Pan-su for information regarding the outcome of commercial ventures, and of projects of personal advancement, as well as for the hidden causes of the loss of wealth or position, or of adversity or illness. ”

“ The lowest Japanese coolie practices the right to kick, beat and cuff a Korean of high birth at his pleasure, and the Korean has in effect no redress. Had the Koreans from the first have met blow with blow, a number of them no doubt would have died, but the Japanese would have been cured of the habit. ”

“ They have a number of peculiar, picturesque customs in connection with “Crossing the Bridges,” but I fancy that with both men and women it is more an excuse for a night out than anything else.
The Koreans are even more impersonal than the Chinese. The Japanese are intensely personal. The Korean is impersonal in business, and impersonal in pleasure. He feasts with other men, and mingles with other men in all his amusements, but his interest is absorbed by his surroundings, and not by his companions. ”

“ The Koreans universally attribute to them gross profligacy, of the existence of which at one of the large monasteries it was impossible not to become aware, but between their romantic and venerable surroundings, the order and quietness of their lives, their benevolence to the old and destitute, who find a peaceful asylum with them, and in the main their courtesy and hospitality, I am compelled to admit that they exercise a certain fascination, and that I prefer to remember their virtues rather than their faults. ”

“ No other one thing is so conducive to domestic discord as this evil custom. The Koreans recognise its baneful effects and condemn it, but money and leisure offer great temptations in Korea even as elsewhere. ”

“ Within the well-defined confines of their peninsula the ancient Koreans developed a distinct and remarkable uniformity of physique, language, and culture that clearly sets them apart from their neighbors. With few resident foreigners and no minorities, the Koreans, North and South, constitute perhaps the most homogenous of the major ethnic groups possessing independent (if divided) statehood today. Numbering almost 50 million, the Koreans are the 13th largest ethnic group in the world today. ”

“ So when men from the isles in the ocean sent a company of men to Korea and asked for caps to put on their heads, and be shown how do to things properly, the Koreans in contempt gave them their old shoes, which had strings on them to tie over their feet. ”

“ About 60 li from Wön-san are some large grass-covered mounds, of which the Koreans do not care to speak, as they regard them as associated with an ancient Korean custom, now looked upon as barbarous. During the last dynasty, and more than five centuries ago, it was customary, when people from age and infirmity became burdensome to their relations, to incarcerate them in the stone cells which these mounds contain, with a little food and water, and leave them there to die. ”

“ WHEN the Sung dynasty was at the height of its glory, the roads were thronged with men of foreign nations coming to Court. Of all these the most cultured and refined were the Koreans, who were gradually yielding to the influences of the Flowery Land. In matters of manual skill there was no other people to be compared with them, and they were remarkably proficient in painting. At one house I saw a coloured landscape in four rolls; and at another, two rolls containing pictures of the eight ancient worthies of Korea ”

“ Another marked characteristic of the Korean is his pride. There are no people who will make more desperate attempts to keep up appearances. Take the case of one of our own nouveaux riches trying in every way to insinuate himself into good society, and you will have a good picture of a countless multitude of Koreans. In spite of the lamentable lack of effort to better their intellectual status or to broaden their mental horizon, there is a passionate desire to ascend a step on the social ladder. ”

“ The Koreans emphatically believe that Korea was originally peopled by spirits and by fairies, and this belief has developed a folk-lore that is delightful and interesting in the extreme, and that often reminds us of the Norwegian folk-lore. ”

“ The Koreans have a passion for cutting up their compounds with endless walls, making a veritable labyrinth of the place. To our eyes this is a great blemish, for it leaves little opportunity for a pleasing effect on the eye. ”

“ The Koreans are, indeed, given to the formation of societies and parties of various descriptions; the more improper or nearly impossible are the ends to be reached, and the more clandestine and illicit the means employed, the greater the temporary enthusiasm which they are likely to excite. ”

“ If we would learn the history of Korea, we must learn it very largely from the writings of European missionaries, unless, indeed, we are able to read Chinese, and have access to the fuller, more ably written, and probably more authentic histories of Korea, written by Chinese littérateurs. It is a matter of course that the Chinese, who are akin to the Koreans, and who may almost be said to have brought them up, should make fewer blunders in writing of Chosön than men of utterly dissimilar race and thought habits. ”

“ The question of the relations between the Koreans and the Japanese in Korea is a delicate one—one which requires an insight into past causes and present issues somewhat beyond that of a casual observer. ”

“ I believe there are thousands of Koreans who will open their purses and subscribe generously to the funds required for this great work. Much is already being done by the various missions, but it is necessarily circumscribed and cramped by the lack of funds. What is needed is a wide-spread and thorough canvass of the entire empire for the purpose of getting the subject rightly before the Korean people. ”

“ The eyes, though dark, vary from dark brown to hazel; the cheek bones are high; the brow, so far as fashion allows it to [Pg 13] be seen, is frequently lofty and intellectual; and the ears are small and well set on. The usual expression is cheerful, with a dash of puzzlement. The physiognomy indicates, in its best aspect, quick intelligence, rather than force or strength of will. The Koreans are certainly a handsome race. ”

“ A number of Koreans have graduated from American or English institutions and have returned to this country. As a rule these men have done good work here, and have demonstrated that the natural intellectual capacity of this people is equal to that of any other. ”

“ The Koreans believe that they have the power of self-propagation by a process of division, like certain polyps. The body is now dressed in the new clothes and placed on a table specially made for the purpose. ”

“ The less attractive qualities of the Koreans have been greatly overdrawn. They are kindly and attractive, the women especially so, even winsome, graceful, and possessing that dignity and poise, partly characteristic of the British Indian and partly of the Mohammedan. ”

“ At first, and for a long time to come, it should be pretty strictly limited to fitting the Koreans themselves for a serviceable life, in Korea, and under the conditions, physical, social, and economic and political, of Korea. To educate—after the fashion followed too much by Great Britain in India—thousands of Korean babus, who thus become unfitted for the pressing needs of their country at this present day, and inclined to idleness rather than any hard and disagreeable but useful work, would be a mistake which neither the Government nor the Missions can afford to make. ”

“ Blessed is the man who treats his servant well, for instead of being squeezed a hundred cash on a string of eggs he will be squeezed only seventy-five.
Korean lore abounds in stories of good little boys and girls who never steal bird's-nests, nor play "for keeps," nor tear their clothes, nor strike back, nor tie tin cans to dogs' tails. They form what we may call the " Sunday-school literature " of the Koreans, and they are treated with the same contempt by the healthy Korean boy or girl as goody-goody talk is treated by normal children the world over. ”

“ Any accession of importance or prestige goes to his head like new wine, and is liable to make him very offensive. This unfortunate tendency forms one of the greatest dangers that has to be faced in using Koreans, whether in business, educational or religious lines. ”

“ These five generals are frequently taken as village gods, and the curiously carved posts which are so often found at the entrance of a Korean country town, and which have erroneously been called guide-posts, are representations of these gods, which stand as guardians against the entrance of wicked spirits.
Then come the earth spirits, the ones which make the Koreans so reluctant to dig in the earth for minerals. They think the spirits will consider themselves robbed and so exact a penalty. ”

“ One theory has it that they reached their present home by way of Siberia and Manchuria; another that they travelled through Southern Asia, and partly by sea, from the cradle of mankind.
With regard to their physical characteristics, the Koreans are tall, well built, and fair complexioned, with a scanty beard. They are not quite so tall as the Chinese of the north, but far better proportioned, and generally quite a head taller than their Japanese neighbours. The women are very hard workers, and their strength is exceptional. The children are regular pictures of health. ”

“ And the nation, which had always considered its king almost mightier and more divine than its very gods, soon ceased to pay tribute to, or ask the services of, a body of men who had lost the royal countenance. Then, too, the Koreans are great dwellers in cities. ”

“ Dragon Spirit Hall " and many others. There are also what the Koreans call the mountain spirits. They are most like our angels of any of the Korean supernatural beings, but they are almost always represented as venerable men with long white beards. They live among the inaccessible peaks of the mountains and always in a state of bliss. Happy is the man who chances to catch sight of one of them. ”

“ I doubt much whether any Koreans are unable to provide themselves with two daily meals of millet, with clothes sufficient for decency in summer and for warmth in winter, and with fuel (grass, leaves, twigs, and weeds) enough to keep their miserable rooms at a temperature of 70° and more by means of the hot floor.
To the west the valley is absolutely closed in by a wall of peaks. The bridle-path, a well-engineered road, when it ascends the very steep ridge of the watershed in many zigzags, rests for 100 feet, and descends the western side by seventy-five turns. ”

“ Every Korean home is subject to dæmons, here, there, and everywhere. They touch the Korean at every point in life, making his well-being depend on a continual series of acts of propitiation, and they avenge every omission with merciless severity, keeping him under this yoke of bondage from birth to death. ”