The Ethics of Koreans

Don Baker
In Korean Spirituality, I outlined the tremendous variety of spiritual beliefs and religious
practices found among the Korean people today, and showed that over the centuries spirituality
on the Korean peninsula has grown ever more complex and diverse. By the beginning of the 21
st

century, Koreans could choose among a wide variety of options for expressing their spiritual
yearnings and pursuing their spiritual goals. They had available to them a broad range of both
institutional and informal approaches to addressing their core spiritual concern of transcending
the limitations of existence as an independent, autonomous individual, as well as for tackling
various unpleasant side effects of such an existence: mortality, sickness, poverty, and loneliness,
to mention just some of the obstacles human beings inevitably face as they navigate the turbulent
passage from birth to death. Koreans can turn to their folk traditions, to various forms of
Buddhism or Christianity, to Confucianism, to new religions, or to other organizations
promising them help in their spiritual quest to overcome the frustration, uncertainty, confusion,
and even boredom that can result from not having a clear picture of what their role is in this
world they live in, why they are here and what will happen to them after they die, or of how they
can cope with the multitude of unforeseen intrusions into their personal mental and physical
space that are unavoidable as long as they are alive.
The various forms of spirituality available to Koreans cover a wide spectrum of doctrinal
beliefs and ritual practices. However, they all have enough elements in common to allow us to
place them under the umbrella term Korean spirituality. For example, they all provide advise
on how human beings should behave. Some of them generate their own behavioral guidelines.
Others reinforce existing ethical codes. In both cases, however, they ground their prescriptions
for appropriate behavior in some being or force greater than individual humans or even larger
than the larger human community. It is that supra-human ground for their behavioral demands
that makes them religious or spiritual rather than political or merely arbitrary. Moreover, it is
that same supra-human ground for their beliefs that also allows them to be called expressions of
spirituality. Religions and other spiritual organizations are characterized by a spiritual gaze, by
their belief that there is some being or force beyond the merely human that can help human
beings overcome the limitations of being human by articulating guidelines for individual human
beings to follow as well as providing advise in how to follow those guidelines and assistance in
following those guidelines.
The close relationship between spirituality and morality is not unique to Korea, of course.
Religious and spiritual traditions all over the world distinguish between appropriate and
inappropriate behavior, and encourage appropriate behavior while discouraging behavior they
deem inappropriate. However, those various traditions often differ in a couple of signicant
ways. First of all, they do not always agree on the specics of what is proper behavior and what
is improper. For example, in some cultures monogamy and marital delity are ethical
imperatives. In others, polygamy is not only tolerated, it might even be mandated in certain
circumstances. Secondly, the worlds various religious and spiritual traditions do not always
agree on the relationship between religion and morality. In much of the world, religions provide
both the source and foundation for moral principles. God, or gods, proclaim the commandments,
and men and women are obligated to obey those divine decrees. In other parts of the world, the
gods traditionally played a supporting role. They could use their supernatural powers to enforce
existing moral codes but they had no authority to contradict the fundamental ethical rules and
regulations governing society.
Traditional Korea was one of those societies in which gods were restricted to supporting
existing ethical principles and were not allowed to claim ethical authority over state or society.
Korea had moral codes, of course. Legend says that a nobleman in Chinas Shang dynasty, the
viscount of Ji (know to Koreans as Kija), moved to Korea a little over 3,000 years ago, when the
Zhou replaced the Shang, and established a society ruled by 8 laws. Those laws outlawed such
offenses against society as murder, stealing, and brawling. According to that legend, those laws
were not handed down by God. Instead, they were promulgated by a human being, the viscount
of Ji, without any reference to any God or gods. That makes them quite different from the Ten
Commandments God presented to Moses according to the Abrahamic tradition of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
There is, however, a divine origin for another guiding principle mentioned in another ancient
Korean legend. According to a 13
th
century Korean history, a much older source (no longer
extant) recorded that, before Kija arrived in Korea, that country was ruled for well over a
thousand years by a king named Tangun. Tangun, according to that legend, ascended the rst
Korean throne in 2,333 BCE. He did so as the product of a union between a son of a god in
heaven above and a bear on the earth below. Tanguns father had been sent down from heaven to
earth by his own father, a celestial deity, in order to broadly benet humanity. He mated with
that bear (who shortly before had been transformed into a human female) in order a produce a
human being who could provide benevolent government for the human race. In the 20
th
century,
that statement of the celestial gods intention, broadly benet humanity, has been taken as the
cornerstone of an indigenous Korean ethical philosophy. However, there is no evidence that
much attention was paid to that phrase before the 20
th
century. Moreover, it is such a vague
statement that no concrete ethical prescriptions can be derived from it. It has played no role in
the formulation of specic Korean moral codes or ethical imperatives. Before the advent of
Christianity, Koreans looked to other human beings for concrete moral direction, not to gods or
Tangun and his progenitors.
Ethics and the Folk Religion
Further evidence that Koreans traditionally did not see moral principles and ethical
injunctions as products of a divine will can be found in Koreas folk religion. Though it is based
on belief in supernatural beings and their ability to observe human behavior and intervene in
human affairs, it has no commandments handed down from on high by those supernatural beings
to regulate what humans should and should not do.
That doesnt mean, of course, that there are no behavioral guidelines in Koreas folk
tradition. The spirits will be displeased if they notice that someone they have been watching has
behaved in an immoral manner. However, immorality is dened primarily by the Confucian
principles dening appropriate interaction within the human community. For example, the spirits
will be disappointed in sons or daughters who does not show proper respect for their mothers or
fathers, or young people who do not display proper respect for their elders. The spirits
themselves dont generate such moral imperatives as lial piety and respect for seniors. Nor is
enforcement of those moral principles their primary concern. They may withdraw their
protection for a while from someone they perceive as immoral or even send an illness or a
drought their way to warn them to behave themselves. However, spirits are more interested in
how they themselves are treated by the human beings they interact with than they are in how
those human beings treat each other.
Spirits, whether ancestral spirits, nature gods, or tutelary village deities, expect to be fed and
entertained on a regular basis. Villages that neglect the annual festivals that are the standard way
for villagers to thank their guardian deity for the protection from disease, drought, or ooding he
or she has provided over the past year can expect that protection to be withdrawn. Descendants
who forget the last wishes of a departed relative can expert that relative to send unpleasant
reminders, such as unexplained minor ailments, from beyond the grave. And households that
dont maintain their relationship with their local mountain god might suffer nancial reversals or
health problems as a result.
The relationship between spirits and humans is similar to the relationship between one
human being and another. People generally do not go out of their way to help someone who has
ignored them or turned their back on them. Spirits are the same. They will help those who show,
though regular ritual displays of respect and gratitude, that they appreciate that help. They feel no
obligation to help the ungrateful.
In the world view that prevails in Koreas folk religion, there are no sins, if sins are
understood as disobedience to the will of God. However, there are both taboos and expectations.
None of the gods in the folk pantheon hand down any commandments carved on stone tablets.
Nevertheless, there are certain behavioral guidelines that regulate human interaction with a god
or spirit. For example, before automobiles became common in Korea, shamans and other
believers in the folk religion would regularly make pilgrimages on foot to the mountain shrines
of patron deities. On such a pilgrimage, they were supposed to maintain silence on their way to
and from the shrine in order to maintain the proper attitude of respect for the god they were
visiting that day. Moreover, they were supposed to ensure that they were clean and free of even
such ritual pollution as recent contact with mourners before they embarked on that pilgrimage.
Now that almost everyone has an automobile, and paved roads can bring worshippers relatively
close to their destination, such religious journeys are not longer a major undertaking and they do
not require the solemnity they once did. Nevertheless, those who wish to maintain a benecial
relationship with a local god are advised to continue paying regular visits to that gods shrine
(even if they talk in the car as they drive there), bowing before the shrine to show respect and
placing small gifts before that shrine as a sign of gratitude. Similarly, in a traditional home, the
housewife is expected to occasionally leave a bowl of water or some rice cakes for her household
gods.
Such expectations do not constitute commandments. They are more like rules of etiquette
applied to interactions between human beings and spiritual beings. Nor would it be a sin to
violate those expectations, any more than it would be a sin to fail to say good morning to a
neighbor you passed on the street on your way to work. Truly moral obligations came from
outside the folk religion tradition. Human beings were supposed to respect one another and to
always put the interests of their family and their community ahead of any individual personal
gain. To act otherwise was to be immoral. Morality and immorality, however, were dened by
social mores rather than by any divine proclamations. Ethical principles were independent of the
will of any supernatural personality.
That does not mean that moral guidelines were arbitrary or subject to changes in the public
mood. The fundamental principles by which human beings were supposed to regulate their
behavior were believed to be universal and unchanging. Those principles gained their stability
from their perceived roots in human nature and in human society, two constants of human
existence. Moreover those principles had been articulated by wise men in times past and had
been repeated so often over the centuries since that few, if any, would even dream of questioning
them.
Confucian Morality
We now call those moral principles Confucian, though they were accepted by society at
large, not just by those who studied ancient Confucian texts. In their most basic form, they were
articulated as the obligations that should govern ve basic human relationships. The most
important relationship of those ve was that between a father and a son. Notice I didnt say
between a parent and a child. In traditional Korea, and still in many Korean families even today,
males are awarded greater public visibility, and expected to play more important roles in the
public sphere, than females are. Since classical Confucian morality is social morality, that is to
say, a morality of social and therefore potentially public interaction, proper behavior between a
father and his son has traditionally been the object of more serious moral concern than has been
the relationship between a mother and her son, or between either parent and a daughter.
The proper ethical relationship between father and son was governed by love. In the case of
the father, that love was manifest as paternal concern. A good father would ensure that his son
had sufcient food, housing, clothing and an education while he was young and would also
provide proper moral guidance to his son both when he was a child and after he grew into
adulthood. A son, on the other hand, was obligated to display his love through lial piety toward
his father. That meant that he should obey and respect his father even into adulthood, should
marry and sire a son to carry on the family line, should take care of his father when his father
grew old and frail, and, after his father passed away, should show through proper and regular
ritual displays of devotion that he had not forgotten his father and was still grateful for all he had
done for him. The specics of how that lial piety had to be demonstrated has changed over the
centuries. In the rst part of the 20
th
century, a son showed that he respected his father by
refraining from smoking in front of him and by not wearing sunglasses in his fathers presence.
The eldest son was also expected to live with his father and mother even in adulthood so that he
and his wife could take care of them when they had worked long enough to deserve being taken
care of by others. The expectations for proper lial conduct have loosened somewhat in recent
decades. Smoking and wearing sunglasses are not longer seen as disrespectful as they once were.
Moreover, some eldest sons have left their parents behind and immigrated overseas. Others who
stay in Korea have nonetheless moved into urban apartments too small to share with their
parents. Nevertheless, most Korean sons, especially eldest sons, provide nancial support for
elderly parents and also try to spend time with their parents on important family occasions such
as the Autumn Harvest festival (called chus!k in Korean) and their parents sixtieth and
seventieth birthdays.
Perhaps the most striking legacies of the Confucian moral code in Korea today are the
continuing emphasis on the production of male offspring to keep the fathers family name alive,
and the continued use of ritual to show respect for deceased parents and grandparents. These two
lial obligations are related. During Koreas long Chos!n dynasty, only males in a direct line of
descent were permitted to lead memorial services for departed ancestors. That tradition has
survived into the 21
st
century. In most Korean families today, even though a daughter keeps the
family name of her father as her surname even after she marries, she normally can not lead the
memorial services for her deceased parents or grandparents. Moreover, her children will take her
husbands family name. Therefore, without a son, the family name will disappear within two
generations. Even worse, there will be no one even in the rst generation who can organize and
lead the memorial services necessary to keep the memory of ancestors alive and to provide visual
reminders that their descendants continue to appreciate all they did for them.
Along with lial piety, the Confucian moral code also enjoined loyalty to political authority.
A ruler was supposed to be paternalistic, protecting those he ruled over from violence, crime, and
excessive taxation. In return, the ruled were supposed to show their appreciation to their ruler
with loyalty, obeying his commands and withholding support from any who might challenge
him. Though such expectations of loyalty seem more appropriate for the monarchy that Korea
was until the mid-20
th
century than for the modern world, unquestioning loyalty remains a moral
imperative in North Korea today. Moreover, the notion that loyalty is owed to superiors remained
strong enough in South Korea to delay full democratization until the 1990s. In the mid-1970s,
after the South Korean president Park Chung Hee abandoned even the pretense of freely-
contested presidential elections, he promoted what he called a new mind movement, a revival
of the traditional Korean values of lial piety, loyalty, and propriety in order to provide
ideological support for his regime. Few questioned his claim that loyalty was a core Korean
value, though some were bold enough to assert that the nation as a whole, not an individual ruler
or government, was the proper object of such loyalty.
A third key Confucian value, one that also continues to inuence Korean behavior today, is
the injunction to elevate males over females in the public arena. Traditionally, that arena was
supposed to include family life, since one of the ve major human relationships was that between
a husband and a wife, and that conjugal relationship was supposed to be governed by a respect
for gender differences in roles and responsibilities. Husbands were supposed to guide their
wives, and wives were supposed to obey and support their husbands. Whether such gender
inequality actually prevails in Korean homes today, or even in all homes in the past is open to
question. What is clear to any observer of contemporary Korea, however, is that patriarchy
remains strong outside the home. South Korea has one of the lowest percentages of elected
women ofcials of any industrialized country. Moreover, men dominate the business world as
well as the pulpit. There are few female CEOs and even fewer female pastors in Koreas
churches.
Two other human relationships are highlighted in the traditional moral code: the relationship
between an older brother and a younger brother, and that between two friends. A relationship
between friends is the only relationship of equality among those ve major relationships. Friends
are supposed to treat each other with mutual respect. However, all the other relationships, even
relationships among siblings. assume a social hierarchy. Even siblings are supposed to recognize
that an older sibling has a responsibility to provide guidance to younger siblings, and that the
younger siblings should follow those directions.
Confucian moral philosophers argue that respect for differences in social status should
govern human behavior because of the undeniable hierarchical nature of human society. They
didnt rely on a God above to tell them that sons should respect their fathers, that those on the
lower rungs of society should obey those in positions of authority above them, or that wives
should defer to their husbands wishes. In the Confucian world view, such inequality was the
natural order of things. Conrmation that inequality is natural comes from the Korean language,
which requires linguistic recognition of status differences grounded in gender, age, or
occupational differences. It would be impolite in Korean to speak to your boss at work, to the
head monk at your temple, or to your father at home the same way you would talk to a friend on
the street or to someone several grades behind you in school.
Underlying the specics of the Confucian moral code is the general notion of propriety.
Sometimes translated as etiquette or politeness, propriety is actually much more than simple
rules governing human interaction. A more accurate translation is appropriate behavior.
Someone abiding by the Confucian moral code would act appropriately in whatever social
situation they found themselves in. That would include not only showing proper respect for
parents, grandparents, and others older than they are but also refraining from the excessive
pursuit of self-interest. Confucian morality at its core is a social morality, requiring each and
everyone of us to remember at all times that we are members of both families and larger
communities and must always act in such a way that we take into account the reasonable needs
and desires of other members of those groups.
Though Confucian moral statements are usually couched in terms of relationships among
males (with the exception of the call for women to respect and obey their husbands), they apply
to men and women alike. Women are expected to respect and obey their parents just as their
brothers are. They are expected to display the same loyalty to political superiors men display
(though not as publicly). And they are expected to act with due regard for their social position
whether they are interacting with their spouse, an older sibling, or a friend.
Whether applied to men or to women, Confucian ethical principles are concerned with the
creation and preservation of harmony within particular human communities. Such harmony is
achieved when everyone accepts the division of roles and responsibilities, and the accompanying
differences in status, within those communities. Confucians believed, human nature being the
way it is, such acquiescence normally would be instinctive, a spontaneous result of respect and
appreciation for those who shape and guide those communities, whether they are parents or
community leaders. Confucian moral obligations were not seen as inhibiting normal human
behavior but rather were understand as a natural expression of gratitude to those who have
helped make us what we are.
Buddhist Ethics
Traditional Korean Confucian morality is anthropocentric. It focuses on relationships among
human beings, not on relationships between human beings and God or gods. As a result, there
are no supernatural rewards for good behavior, or supernatural punishments for bad behavior.
The most a Confucian could expect as a reward for good behavior was a good reputation and a
more harmonious social environment. Moreover, if he stayed within the bounds of orthodox
Confucian thought, he did not worry about possible divine retribution for improper behavior
(though the folk religion did warn that the spirits would not be pleased with human beings who
acted improperly and might chastise them with nancial or health problems).
However, this ethics of interpersonal interaction did not provide the only formal behavioral
guidelines available to pre-modern Koreans. The Confucian moral code was complemented by
another moral code, one supplied by Buddhism. Compared with the ethical teachings of
Confucianism, the Buddhist moral code is somewhat closer to the Abrahamic concept of a moral
code in two aspects: it links what happens to an individual after death to the behavior of that
individual in this life, and it adds to the interpersonal morality of propriety specic injunctions
for individual thought and behavior regardless of the social setting.
Buddhism encourages compliance with its moral code with promises of a reward for thinking
and acting appropriately as well as with threats of punishment for thinking and acting
inappropriately. However, in the contemplative Buddhism favored by monks, philosophers, and
intellectuals, punishment is self-inicted and rewards are seen as the natural fruit of ones own
efforts rather than being an award presented by some supernatural judge. The Buddhist moral
code, as interpreted by philosophical Buddhists, is not a list of commandments, in the sense of
does and donts handed down by a Lord on High. Instead, Buddhism provides precepts,
guidelines for avoiding thoughts and actions that would reinforce the mistaken focus on the self
that pulls human beings back after death to live, and suffer, again in this world of transitory and
therefore frustrating phenomena. Buddha does not punish those who violate those precepts.
Rather, violators punish themselves by burrowing deeper into the soil of this world of selsh
desires, immersing themselves in cravings that can never be completely and forever satised and
therefore will always leave them dissatised. If, on the other hand, they follow the guidelines
those precepts provide, they will leave behind their attachment to petty transient pleasures and
escape the trap created by their own deluded pursuit of self-interest. Philosophical Buddhism
interprets the precepts as showing the way to earn the reward of release from the cycle of birth-
death-rebirth that prolongs human suffering.
The devotional Buddhism that is more popular among the average lay believer also promises
rewards for appropriate behavior and punishments for inappropriate behavior. However, popular
Buddhism envisions the recently departed appearing before ten different judges over the course
of the 49 days that follow their death and possibly being either condemned to reincarnation in
one of many hells or elevated to one of the pure lands that is heaven, depending on how they
thought and behaved while they were alive. Though the Pure Land strain in Buddhism was not
as strong institutionally in Korea as it was in China or Japan, some temples in Korea have
paintings on their walls depicting the torments that await those who violate the Buddhist precepts
in order to encourage those who visit that temple to behave appropriately. Moreover, all large
Buddhist temples complexes in Korea include a Judgment Hall (my!ngbuj!n) for the relatives
and friends of the recently deceased to pray that those ten judges will be lenient with those that
appear before them.
What are those precepts? The most basic precepts are the ve abstentions. Buddhists are
told they should abstain from harming living beings, from taking things that do not belong to
them, from engaging in inappropriate sexual activity, from lying or otherwise harming others
with words they utter, and from clouding the minds with excessive use of alcohol or other mind-
altering substances. Philosophically-inclined Buddhists explain that these precepts warn us
against thoughts and actions that are expressions of narrow self-interest. They are not so much
sins (violation of divine will) as they are mistakes. By putting our own desires ahead of the
needs of others, we reinforce the focus on the self that will keep us mired in this world in which
frustration, disappointment, and suffering are unavoidable. However, if we abstain from those
actions Buddhism tells us to abstain from, and also erase from our minds any desire to engage in
those unacceptable activities, we cleanse our minds of the dust of selshness Buddhist call bad
karma.
Karma is the word Buddhists use for the notion that every intentional action has
consequences. Those who act in a selsh manner reinforce their own selsh tendencies and
therefore are more likely to act selshly in the future. However, such selshness is ultimately
self-destructive. Their misguided belief in the centrality of the self, their assumption that the
universe was constructed for their own benet and therefore they should act so as to maximize
the pleasure and material gain they can extract from that universe, causes them to be reincarnated
into a realm of suffering. People who are attached to the things of this world, and to their own
continued existence in the material realm so that they can enjoy the transitory pleasures that
world can offer, will be reborn into that world (or, if their behavior is particularly inappropriate,
into one of the lower realms depicted in the paintings of hell on the walls of some Buddhist
temples). Unfortunately for them, they are mistaken in thinking that they can gain lasting
satisfaction from any material realm. Instead, they doom themselves to the frustration and
unhappiness that is unavoidable in any attempt to hold onto pleasure and gain in a world of
constant change.
Fortunately, just as selsh intentions creates bad karma, altruistic intentions create good
karma. By consistently placing the wants and needs of others ahead of their own, Buddhists can
rid themselves of the chains of selshness that tie them to this world of suffering and pain. The
Buddhist moral code is much more than that list of ve abstentions. Buddhists are also enjoined
to act and think with generosity and compassion. In the Mahayana tradition that Koreans
adopted, lay Buddhists as well as monks are encouraged to take the Bodhisattva vow to dedicate
themselves to helping all sentient beings. That can mean being willing to postpone their own
admission into the eternal peace of nirvana until all sentient beings can join them there but it can
also mean succoring the ill, the poor, and the disadvantaged in this life. The Bodhisattva ideal of
seless generosity and compassion is such a core concept in Korean Buddhism that dedicated
adult female practitioners, of the sort often seem preparing meals in temple kitchens for monks to
enjoy, are often addressed as posallim (honorable Bodhisattva).
Neo-Confucian Ethics
Buddhism introduced a soteriological element to Korean morality that had not been there
previously. Neither the folk tradition nor classical Confucianism had much to say about what
happens after death. The promise of salvation played no role in inspiring interaction with local
gods, participation in shaman rituals, or adherence to the Confucian moral code. In fact, for
orthodox Confucians, the Buddhist promise of nirvana or rebirth in a Pure Land as a reward for a
virtuous life actually encouraged immorality. Just as the Buddhists do, Confucians dene
immorality primarily as self-centered thoughts and actions. To Confucians, however, that meant
that all those who refrained from harming living beings, stealing from or lying to their neighbors,
or engaging in sexual misconduct or excessive drinking primarily because they wanted release
from their personal pain and suffering are motivated by self-interest. Worst of all, in Confucian
eyes, are the monks who shirk their duties to their family and their society to retreat to a
monastery and pursue personal salvation.
Though Confucians objected to what they regarded as selsh elements of Buddhist teachings,
it took them a while to produce an effective and sophisticated philosophical response. Moreover,
they could not escape Buddhist inuence in the way they formulated that response. After a 1,000
years of Buddhist preaching in China, and almost that long in Korea, Confucians produced Neo-
Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism combined the Buddhist focus on an individuals intentions
with the Confucian concern for that individuals behavior in social settings. By joining the
interpersonal moral orientation of Confucianism to the contemplative Buddhist concern for
attitudes and mental orientation, they created a moral philosophy emphasizing selessness in a
world in which individual selves are real.
Both Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism agree that a primary dening characteristic of
inappropriate intentions and actions is an excessive focus on oneself. Buddhists believe such
self-absorption is self-defeating, since a focus on your own personal needs and desires will
immerse you deeper and deeper in a web of transitory phenomena that will entrap you and make
it impossible for you to escape the frustrations, disappointments and suffering that are the
inevitable consequences of living in a world of constant change. Neo-Confucians took a
different approach. Rather than denying the centrality of the self, as Buddhists do, Neo-
Confucians called instead for expanding the boundaries of what constitutes the self. They dened
the true self as the sum total of all the relationships a particular individual has been or is involved
in. Inappropriate intentions and actions, according to Neo-Confucian moral philosophy, are those
intentions and actions that arise from a mistaken focus on yourself in isolation from your
environment rather than on the social network in which you live and which denes who you
really are. When we pursue individual self-interest without taking into account the impact of our
actions on those around us, we act contrary to both reason and morality. The Neo-Confucian
denition of the self requires that we rise above any narrow parochial interests and embrace the
common good, because by so doing we show that we recognize we are who we are because of
whom and what we interact with.
Neo-Confucians, just as the Confucians who preceded them did, rejected the notion that
individuals should expect any reward in the next life (other than a good reputation) for virtuous
behavior in this life. However, they did not believe that virtue would go unrewarded and
immorality unpunished. Instead, they insisted, when individuals acted appropriately, they
created a more harmonious social and natural environment for themselves and for everyone and
everything around them. Similarly, when individuals acted inappropriately, they brought disorder
and even chaos into their community and the cosmos. Such community and cosmic repercussions
of moral and immoral behavior were not the result of some supernatural personality intervening
in human affairs and the natural world in order to encourage virtue and discourage immorality.
Instead, they were the natural result of appropriate and inappropriate action.
According to the Neo-Confucian concept of the individual self, the interaction of an
individual with the people and natural objects around him or her is not a one-way street. Just as
the social and natural environment he or she interacts with and within shapes and denes an
individual human being, that individual likewise contributes to the construction of those people,
objects, and events he or she interacts with. In such an interactive and therefore interdependent
universe, a person who fails to play his or her assigned role in the social or cosmic network is
like a loose screw on a machine. That one faulty component can cause an entire machine to
malfunction or even break down. Similarly, inappropriate action can lead to chaos in the
universe. For example, if the ruler or the top ofcials of a country act in an immoral manner,
their country may be hit with famines, oods, epidemics, and other natural disasters. Or immoral
behavior at the top may lead to riots or rebellion among those who are misruled. Either way, evil
would be punished as a natural result of inappropriate behavior, not because some supernatural
personality was angry at violations of his commandments.
How should human beings act if they want to avoid such unpleasant consequences of their
own behavior? Obviously, Neo-Confucians argued, they should be lial toward their parents and
should obey their rulers. Wives should respect their husbands, younger brothers should respect
their older brothers, and friends should behave in a trustworthy manner with each other.
However, Neo-Confucianism went beyond the prescriptions of Confucian propriety and called
for the cultivation of a virtuous mind. Responding to the Buddhist insistence that how we think
determined how we behave, Neo-Confucians promoted the virtuous attitudes of sincerity and
reverence.
Sincerity is one possible translation for a Sino-Korean character that is written with two
components, one representing speech and the other representing becoming. That character can
be interpreted as referring to words being actualized, in other words, people doing what they
say they will do. However, it has much wider connotations than that. The same character has
also been translated as realness, integrity, and even creativity. It basically refers to acting
as a properly-functioning component of the cosmic network of appropriate interactions (the li
discussed in chapter 3) rather than following our own idiosyncratic desires and whims. If we
play the role assigned to us in that cosmic network, for example if we act as a lial child toward
a parent or as a respectful student toward a teacher, we help keep both society and the universe
functioning smoothly. Therefore, Neo-Confucians tell us, we should cultivate an attitude of
cooperation with our social and natural environment, in other words, a sincere attitude, rather
than trying to force either one to adapt to our personal desires.
Reverence is another term difcult to translate into English. Sometimes translated as
mindfulness or seriousness, it refers to an attitude of respect for our social and natural
environment, manifest in a single-minded concentration of both mental and physical energy on
acting properly toward other people and things in those environments. If we are appropriately
reverent and focused, we wont take our social obligations lightly. We will heed the advise of our
elders, including older siblings, on how we should behave, we will accord our husband or wife
the respect they deserve, and we will treat our friends the way we wish they would treat us.
Neo-Confucians believed that if everyone cultivated the appropriate sincere and reverent
attitudes, family members would all get along well together, local communities would be free of
strife and discord, and the nations of the world would co-exist in peace. Mainstream Neo-
Confucians in Korea were not worried about what some supernatural being above might think
about their behavior. All that concerned them was the effect of their thoughts and behavior on the
social and natural world around them.
Christian Ethics in Korea
When Christianity entered Korea at the end of the 18th century, it introduced what was to
Koreans then a radically different concept of ethics and morality. Buddhist and Confucian ethics
are anthropocentric, centered on interpersonal relations. Christian ethics is theocentric,
prioritizing relations between individual human beings and God above. That means moral rules
that in Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism served primarily as advise on how we should behave
either in order to minimize suffering or to promote harmonious interaction across the universe
became commands. Rather than offering suggestions for how we could overcome the our
individuality, as Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism did, Christianity ordered us to think and
behave in specic ways as individuals. Christian scriptures told human beings what they should
and should not do, and insisted each and every individual human being was obligated to obey
those commands, or face divine punishment.
The theocentric nature of the Christian ethics is revealed in the Ten Commandments God
gave Moses. The rst commandments say nothing about the sort of interpersonal relationships
that are so important in Confucianism. Instead, human beings are told to respect God as the one
and only God and refrain from acting in any way that might imply either disrespect (such as
taking the Lords name in vain) or uncertainty about Who the real God was (such as idolatry,
bowing before a representative of a false god). They are even told to set aside one day a week,
the sabbath, to dedicate to God rather than worldly affairs. Only then are human beings told to
honor and obey their parents and refrain from killing their fellow human beings, stealing from
them, lying to them, or covering their spouses or property.
Moreover, violations of any of the Ten Commandments, including those governing relations
between one human being and another, were seen as a violation of the will of the one true ruler
above. That made such inappropriate thoughts and action quite different from the offenses
against real self-interest that violations of the Buddhist moral code were, as well as different
from the violations of the rules of etiquette governing human-spirit interaction that governed
religious behavior in the folk religion, and different from the violations of the rules Confucians
believed necessary to maintain harmony in society and the universe. Violations of the Christian
moral code were sins, not merely mistakes, and therefore had much more serious spiritual
consequences. They were actions of rebellion against an all-powerful God, and therefore should
be avoided at all costs.
Sometimes the cost that had to be paid to avoid sin was the forfeiting of a Christians earthly
life. Thousands of Korean Catholics were killed by their government in the 19th century when
they choose to obey their God rather than their king and violated the royal decree outlawing
Catholicism. In the rst half of the 20th century, many Korean Protestant Christians were
imprisoned for their insistence that the Christian commandment against idolatry forbad
participation in compulsory Shinto rituals honoring the god-emperor of Japan. However, in the
2nd half of the 20th century, the Christian belief that Gods laws superseded the laws
promulgated by mere humans had a happier ending. The democratization movement in South
Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, led by Christians who believed that God wanted them to speak
out against unjust governments, resulted in democratic elections won by the Presbyterian Elder
Kim Youngsam and then by the Roman Catholic Kim Daejung.
In addition to the notion that Gods laws override human laws, Christianity also introduced to
Koreans institutionalized expressions of compassion. Since Christians believe there is only one
true god, they often believe that they have a moral obligation to proselytize, to convince those
who do not believe in Jesus that they should accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and renounce
all other gods and non-Christian religious rituals. In some cases, they can lead to intolerance, to
attacks on the sacred symbols of other religions. (At the end of the 20th century, there were
reports of scattered attacks by extremist Christians on artwork in Buddhist temples. There have
also been beheadings of statues of Koreas mythical progenitor Tangun.) More often, however,
in Korea Christianity has inspired proselytizing by example rather than by condemnation.
Not long after they arrived in Korea at the end of the 19th century, Protestant missionaries
began opening schools and medical facilities. They believed that God loves human beings and
that those who believe in such a loving God should show their own God-inspired love for
humanity by working to relieve human suffering. They tried to become examples of Gods love
by providing for such basic human needs as food, housing, medical care, and education.
Protestant Christians were the rst religious group in Korea to build schools and hospitals for the
general public. Catholics soon followed their example, however, as did Buddhists and even the
new religions Won Buddhism and Daesun Jinri-hoe. Buddhists had traditionally preached
compassion and Confucians had called for benevolent government, but neither group had
expressed those ethical ideals with large public institutions. They conned themselves primarily
to expressions of charity through ritual until Christianity introduced the notion of preaching
through the example of good works. Moreover, Christianity has gone even farther to reach out
to comfort and aide the powerless and the poor than other Korean religions ever have. During
the decades South Korea was under dictatorial rule, in the 1960s through the end of the 1980s,
the Protestant Urban Industrial Mission struggled to better the wages and working conditions of
poor factory workers, and the Catholic Farmers Association worked to improve living
conditions for the poor in the countryside. Such public institutionalized manifestations of
ethical concern for the well-being of others were not part of Koreas traditional spirituality.
It is not only their proselytizing fervor and the institutional manifestations of their ethical
concern that have distinguished Korean Christians from their fellow Koreans. Christians in
Korea, particularly Protestant Christians, have also had more clearly dened behavioral
guidelines than lay practitioners of other religious and spiritual traditions have traditionally had.
Though Buddhists are enjoined to refrain from eating meat, few lay Buddhists in Korea are
vegetarians. However, lay Christians have tended to follow the ethical injunctions proclaimed by
their religious leaders.
Catholics and Protestants alike broke with the pre-modern upper-class custom of men taking
secondary wives to obey the Christian command to have only one wife at a time, even if that
meant they would not have a son to carry on the family name. They also rejected the traditional
prescriptions for rituals honoring departed parents and grandparents ( though that changed for
Catholics in the 1930s, when the Vatican ruled that honoring ones ancestors with a traditional
ritual was not idolatry). In addition, most Protestant Christians in Korea do not drink alcoholic
beverages, smoke cigarettes, or gamble, though those are pastimes other Korean men have
enjoyed for centuries. Even today, Korean men who are Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and
members of other Protestant denominations such as the Evangelical Holiness Church stand out
for their refusal to join in the drinking sessions that ofce mates often engaged in after work.
Nevertheless, Korean Christians remain Korean. Even though Christians do not honor their
ancestors with traditional rituals, they place more emphasis on lial piety than Christians in most
other parts of the world do and have their own distinctive rituals for honoring departed parents
and grandparents. They also share the traditional Korean respect for sincerity and reverence, and
display the same distrust that Buddhists and Neo-Confucians show toward the pursuit of self-
interest. Moreover, in another sign that Korean Christians remain Korean, their churches reect
the traditional patriarchal hierarchy seen in other Korean religious organizations. Except in the
Salvation Army, women pastors are rare in Korean pulpits. Moreover, in the Presbyterian
churches and other churches that follow their congregational model of church governance, lay
leaders can wear the covered title of elder only if they are male. Christian women normally can
rise no higher than deaconess no matter how devout they are or how much time and energy
they devote to the affairs of their church.
The ethical teachings of the new religions
The new religions of Korea, even though they generally represent reactions to the penetration
of Korea by foreign economic, political, and cultural forces, also preserve many traditional
elements in their ethical teachings and practice. New religions have tended to accept the standard
Korean ethical norms of lial piety, patriarchy, sincerity, reverence and a belief that most evil in
the world can be attributed to an inordinate concern for personal benet. However, since they
are new religions, they have also added new precepts on top of their Confucian base.
For example, Ch!ndogyo, the oldest of Koreas new religions, preaches the importance of
three cardinal virtues: sincerity, reverence, and faith. Sincerity and reverence maintain their
Neo-Confucian implications. Sincerity in both Ch!ndogyo and Neo-Confucianism means
thinking and acting as a member of larger community instead of selshly pursuing personal self-
interest. Reverence in both Ch!ndogyo and Neo-Confucianism refers to an attitude of respect for
all the people we encounter as well as for the natural environment which surrounds and nurtures
us and for the underlying cosmic network that provides the foundation for the harmonious
interaction of everything and everyone in the universe. However, Ch!ndogyo denes the grounds
for such reverence for our fellow human beings in terms orthodox Neo-Confucians would never
use. Ch!ndogyo tells us to treat every human being we encounter as if he or she were God, since
there is a spark of the divine within each and everyone of us.
Moreover, though Ch!ndogyo names its third cardinal virtue shin, a term Neo-Confucians
also used, it uses that term to mean faith, a usage rarely seen in Neo-Confucianism but
prominent in the writings of the Catholics who preceded the birth of Ch!ndogyo. The character
shin usually means trust or trustworthy in Neo-Confucianism but it means belief that
something is true in Ch!ndogyo, just as it does in Christianity. In the case of Ch!ndogyo, it
means belief that God is not some supernatural personality in heaven above but a spiritual force
that dwells within us all. The Ch!ndogyo scriptures add that unless you truly believe that God
lives within human beings, and that therefore we should accord every human being the same
respect we should accord God, then you will not be able to exemplify the four important
Confucian virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom in your daily life.
Ch!ndogyo also teaches that we can discipline ourselves to act with sincerity, reverence, and
faith by "preserving our original pure mind and rectifying our psycho-physical
endowment" (sushim ch!nggi). The original pure mind is similar to the human nature so
important in Neo-Confucian moral discourse, in that it represented innate goodness, the natural
ability to perceive and respond to our social and natural environment without any distortions
introduced by considerations of narrow personal self-interest. However, rather than following the
Neo-Confucian example and identifying that innate goodness with li, the impersonal cosmic
network of appropriate interactions, Ch'!ndogyo identified it with God.
In a further break with Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, Ch'!ndogyo defined God more in terms of
ki (in Neo-Confucianism, the matter-energy of which everything in the universe is composed)
than of li. God, in Ch'!ndogyo, is a name for the dynamic creative energy that both sustains the
universe and is responsible for the many harmonious transformations that produce objects and
natural phenomena within that universe. When we rectify our psycho-physical endowment,
understood as that portion of ki that forms our bodies and our minds, we eliminate the distortions
of selfishness that keep us from actualizing our innate power to contribute to the divine cosmic
creative process and build a better, more harmonious world. How can we rectify our psycho-
physical endowment? Ch'!ndogyo scriptures tell us that the best way to do that is to be filial
toward our parents, deferential toward elders and our older siblings, and honest with our friends.
In other words, if we act in accordance with the traditional Confucian ethical injunctions we will
develop the sort of moral character that Ch'!ndogyo enjoins us to develop.
Despite its modern assertion that every human being should be treated with dignity,
Ch'!ndogyo keeps one foot in the patriarchal Confucian past. The leaders of Ch'!ndogyo have
been and still are men. Moreover, a gender-defined division of labor continues to influence the
way Ch'!ndogyo believers behave at church functions. I once attended a sunday service at a
Ch'!ndogyo church and was invited to join the congregation for a communal lunch afterwards. I
noticed that the men set up the tables and chairs, and then sat down and waited for the women to
cook the meal (which was delicious!) and serve them.
Won Buddhism, a new religion that is half a century younger than Ch'!ndogyo, comes closer
to overcoming the traditional Korean preference for patriarchy. Unlike Ch'!ndogyo, Won
Buddhism, like traditional Buddhism, has formal clergy. Though priests dominate the upper
ranks of Won Buddhist leadership, nuns play a very active role in both the headquarters and in
local churches. However, we can still see the legacy of other traditional Korean values in the
ethical teachings of Won Buddhism.
Though Won Buddhism, as its name suggests, is primarily Buddhist in orientation, it stands
closer to the Confucian emphasis on selfless action to improve conditions in this world than to
the philosophical Buddhist focus on detachment from this world. Won Buddhism builds worship
halls in cities (including cities in North America, Europe, Australia, China, and Japan) instead of
temples in mountain forests. It allows its priests and nun to get married (though most Won
Buddhist nuns remain celibate). And it preaches an ethical orientation that is, in its own words,
an extension of the Confucian virtue of filial piety.
Won Buddhism teaches that, just as children should acknowledge the debt of gratitude they
owe the parents who gave them life, so should all human beings acknowledge how much they
owe the four forces that underlie their very existence as human beings. First of all, we should of
course feel grateful to our parents who brought us into this world. However, we should also feel
grateful to heaven and earth for providing the soil on which we stand and the air which we
breathe. In addition, we should recognize that, since we cannot provide everything we need with
our own hands, we should be grateful to our fellow human beings who provide us with such
necessities as food, clothing, housing, and even education and entertainment. Finally, we should
acknowledge that we owe a debt of gratitude to the laws that protect both our lives and our
financial assets. Once we have recognized that we owe that four-fold debt of gratitude, Won
Buddhism teaches that we should then act so as to repay that debt. We can repay that debt by
loving and honoring our parents, by imitating the selfless manner in which nature provides us
with the bare necessities of existence, by treating other human beings as we would like them to
treat us and providing them with what they can not provide themselves just as they provide us
with things we cannot make for ourselves, and, finally, by obeying all just laws.
Won Buddhism also provides more specific behavioral guidelines. There are three sets of
Won Buddhist precepts, with ten precepts in each set. Beginning practitioners, those with only
ordinary faith, are told to try to follow the first set. Those who have advanced to the stage of
unswerving faith are given a second set of precepts to follow, more demanding that the first set.
Finally, for those who are prepared to engage in the struggle to defeat evil, there is a final set,
even more demanding than the second set. For example, those of ordinary faith are told to refrain
from speaking evil or arguing with others without sufficient reason. Once they have progressed
beyond ordinary faith to unswerving faith, they are told to also refrain from interrupting while
another is talking and to refrain from flattering others in an effort to curry favor. If they feel
strong enough to join the struggle to defeat evil, they should also refrain from uttering falsehoods
and absurdities. True to its Buddhist origins, Won Buddhism present these ethical rules as
precepts, not commandments. They are not orders handed down by a Supreme Lawmaker in
heaven above. Instead, they are recommendations for how we should behave if we want to be the
sort of good person we are capable of becoming, and if we want the world to be a better place as
well.
Daesun Jinri-hoe, one of the youngest of Koreas new religions and also the most dynamic at
the end of the 20
th
century, resembles Ch'!ndogyo and Won Buddhism in as much as it too draws
on vocabulary rooted in Confucian tradition. However, Daesun Jinri-hoe, more than other major
indigenous religions in Korea, recognizes that the Confucian ethics of patriarchy and a social
hierarchy caused problems that need to be addressed and resolved. It proposes to address those
problems with what may be called a post-Confucian ethics.
The Confucian component of Daesun Jinri-hoe ethical philosophy appears in what Daesun
Jinri-hoe calls its three cardinal points. Those three cardinal points, which would be better
understood as three primary virtues, are the familiar triad of sincerity, reverence, and trust. Those
three terms retain in Daesun Jinri-hoe the meanings they had in Neo-Confucianism. Sincerity
continues to refer to doing what you are supposed to do as a member of your family, community,
and nation instead of pursuing your own narrow self-interest. Reverence continues to mean an
attitude of respect for the social and natural world that surrounds you, an attitude that should
inspire you to concentrate on your obligations in that world with utmost seriousness. And trust
continues to mean trustworthiness, always acting in such a way that others can rely on you.
However, Daesun Jinri-hoe adds theistic connotations to those three Confucian virtues. In the
Daesun Jinri-hoe theological world view, trust does not only refer to being trustworthy in your
dealings with other human beings. It also means to trust the assertion that Kang Ch"ngsan is
Sangjenim, the Supreme Ruler Above, and to believe that the advise he offered humanity when
he walked around in Korea at the beginning of the 20
th
century is advise all men and women
should follow. Moreover, reverence in Daesun Jinri-hoe teachings means not just reverence
toward all things in general but also a reverent attitude toward Sangjenim by keeping him in your
thoughts at all times and by following his instructions to the letter when participating in Daesun
Jinri-hoe rituals. And sincerity means not just to do what you are supposed to do in your daily
life but also to perform rituals taught by Sangjenim and follow Sangjenims ethical injunctions
with complete confidence that those rituals are effective and those precepts are appropriate.
In addition to these Confucian virtues, Daesun Jinri-hoe adds new moral principles. A core
concept in Daesun Jini-hoes message is haewon sangsaeng. Haewon means to relieve the
resentment human beings past and present have felt over the centuries because they were treated
unfairly. Particularly aggrieved are women and the poor, since Confucianism and other
patriarchal philosophies have forced them to serve powerful men, subordinating their own wants
and needs to the desires of their overlords. To alleviate such resentment, members of Daesun
Jinri-hoe are told to treat women and the poor alive today with respect and to relieve the
resentment of the spirits of those mistreated in the past with appropriate rituals.
In addition, Daesun Jinri-hoe members are told to live sangsaeng lives, lives characterized
by a spirit of mutual aid and cooperation rather than the spirit of competition and conflict that
has dominated the human community up to the present day. The term sangsaeng is the opposite
of the term sanggeuk, literally mutual overcoming, that was used to explain change in the
traditional view of the universe as one filled with conflict that generated losers and winners that
were reflected in an ever-changing hierarchy. Sangsaeng is the way to put an end to such
conflict and the inequality it produces. Together haewn and sangsaeng tells us to stop trying to
benefit at the expense of others but to instead put others interests before our own. By doing so,
we will not only avoid creating new resentments, we will create new relationships of love and
trust which will erase the old feelings of resentment and anger.
Daesun Jinri-hoe also offers more specific ethical guidelines for its followers. There are no
rules telling Daesoon Jinrihoe members they cant smoke, drink, or eat meat. However, they are
told act in accordance with accordance with traditional Confucian moral principles. For example,
they are told to be filial to their parents and loyal to their country. They are also told to respect
their elders and maintain a spirit of harmonious cooperation between spouses, and a spirit of trust
between friends. In addition, they are told to always act in such a way as to put the best interests
of others first, in other words to act so as to better the lives of others. They are also told to refrain
from any words or actions which will cause ill-will or resentment in others. They should also
refrain from misleading others with false statements. Finally, they are told that they should be
brutally honest with themselves so that they will recognise when they are acting more out of self-
interest than out of sincerity and selflessness.
The Korean ethical stance
Despite the diversity of spiritual traditions in Korea, there is a common ethical stance that
makes Korean conceptions of proper behavior Korean. Koreans place great emphasis on
harmony. In the folk religion, that may mean harmony between human beings and spirits. In
Confucianism, it may mean harmony between one human being and another, as well as within
human society. In philosophical Buddhism, it may mean harmonizing our thoughts and actions
with ultimate reality. And in Christianity and the theistic new religions, it may mean harmonizing
our thoughts and actions with the will of God Above. Nevertheless, Koreans across the board see
ethical thought and behavior as thought and behavior that is aligned with something or someone
larger than ourselves.
That means that Koreans often place great emphasis on the proper performance of social
roles. The Confucian insistence that children love, respect, and obey their parents and
grandparents, that subordinates treat their superiors with respect and deference, and that the
young defer to those older than they are has been the norm across the spiritual spectrum in
Korea. Such behavior has been considered essential to maintaining harmonious cooperation
within society.
Traditionally, and still in many circles today, that has meant that men should rule over
women in the public sphere because it was assumed that that was the natural order of things and
any attempt to deviate from the natural order would bring conflict and chaos. Even though the
power of the patriarchy has declined in South Korea in recent decades (partially because of the
growing economic independence of women), Korea remains more male-dominated than most
other economically advanced nations. There are few women CEOs in South Korea, and few
women sit in the South Korean National Assembly. Nor has Korea elected a woman president
yet, though four nations in South Asia have done so as have the Philippines and Indonesia.
Even those who do not accept the patriarchal vision of how society should be structured
share the traditional distaste for those who disturb harmonious cooperation by acting in too
individualistic a fashion. Most Koreans would agree that any individual who tries to claim more
rights, benefits, or privileges than society had assigned him or her is usually motivated by an
excessive focus on their own personal self-interest at the expense of society and the common
good and therefore is, by definition, immoral. Koreans, no matter what their religious or
spiritual orientation, usually remain governed by a communal rather than an individualistic
ethical orientation. Moral behavior to most Koreans means selfless behavior, behavior that
benefits family, community, nation, or even the whole world more than it benefits the actor
personally. To be a good person, Koreans believe, we need to subordinate our personal
preferences, wishes, and even needs to the desires and directives of something greater than
ourselves. That something greater might be seen as God above, ancestral or other noble spirits
around us, human society as a whole, ultimate reality, or the creative force in the cosmos.
However it is envisioned, when that something greater than ourselves directs our thoughts and
actions, we transcend the limitations of existence as an isolated individual and become the best
that we can be. We become fully human by acting as a part of, rather than apart from, our social
and natural environments, and by cooperating with rather than ignoring or resisting the force or
presence that serves as the supreme example of what is right and wrong in those environments.