हाम सोक-होन

कृतियाँ

• 1934बाइबिल के दृष्टिकोण से कोरियाई इतिहास (बाद में: अर्थ के प्रकाश में कोरियाई इतिहास)

  पहली बार 1934–35 में धारावाहिक और बार-बार संशोधित: कोरियाई इतिहास पीड़ा का इतिहास है, पर पीड़ा का एक अर्थ है – कोरियाई जनता “पीड़ा की रानी” के रूप में, जो संसार के लिए एक कार्य वहन करती है।

• 1958केवल चिंतनशील जनता ही बच सकती है

  पत्रिका सासांगगे में कोरिया के विभाजन और उत्तर तथा दक्षिण की सरकारों की आलोचना करने वाला निबंध: जनता को शक्तिशालियों के पीछे चलने के बजाय स्वयं सोचना चाहिए; इसके कारण उनकी गिरफ़्तारी हुई।

मत

Ham Seok-heon first wrote Korean history from the standpoint of the Bible: Korea’s history, marked by invasions, division and foreign rule, is a history of suffering, but this suffering has a meaning (tteut) – Korea as a “queen of suffering” whose task is to bear and transform the suffering of the world. In later revisions he broadened the religious frame beyond Christianity, under the title “Korean History in the Light of Meaning”. His central idea is ssial, a pure Korean word for seed: the ordinary people are like seeds that carry life and meaning, and they, not kings, states or parties, are the subject of history. From this followed his criticism of the state, nationalism and militarism in both North and South and his demand that the people think and act for themselves. He combined Christian, Quaker and Asian sources: he admired Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance and lectured on Laozi, Zhuangzi and the Bhagavad Gita. His thought has been read as a precursor of Korean minjung theology and of the democracy movement, although he himself did not belong to any school.

जीवन और संदर्भ

Ham Seok-heon was born on 13 March 1901 in Yongcheon in North Pyongan, in the north of Korea. As a student at a Pyongyang high school he took part in the March First Movement for independence in 1919 and left the school. He continued at the Osan School founded by the nationalist Yi Seung-hun and from 1924 studied at the Tokyo Higher Normal School, where he joined the non-church Bible study of Uchimura Kanzō. With other Korean followers of Uchimura he took part in the magazine Seongseo Joseon (Bible Korea), in which his history of Korea appeared in 1934–35. He taught history at the Osan School until 1938; in 1942 he was imprisoned by the Japanese authorities in connection with the magazine. After liberation he was persecuted under the Soviet-backed authorities in the north and went south in 1947. From the 1950s his essays in the journal Sasanggye made him a public critic; the essay “Only a Thinking People Can Survive” (1958) led to his arrest. He became a Quaker and in 1970 founded the magazine Ssial-ui sori (Voice of the Ssial), which the military government banned in 1980. He was arrested several times under Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan. Quaker organisations nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. He died in Seoul on 4 February 1989.

अन्य प्रमुख कृतियाँ

• Korean History from the Standpoint of the Bible (1934–35; book 1950; later revised as Korean History in the Light of Meaning)
• Only a Thinking People Can Survive (1958)
• Voice of the Ssial (magazine, editor, 1970–80)
• Collected Works (Ham Seok-heon jeonjip, 20 vols., 1983–88)