Ham Seok-heon

Works

• 1934Korean History from the Standpoint of the Bible (later: Korean History in the Light of Meaning)

  First serialised in 1934–35 and repeatedly revised: Korean history is a history of suffering, but suffering has a meaning – the Korean people as a “queen of suffering” bearing a task for the world.

• 1958Only a Thinking People Can Survive

  An essay in the journal Sasanggye criticising the division of Korea and the governments in North and South: the people must think for themselves instead of following the powerful; it led to his arrest.

Position

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.

Life & context

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.

Further main works

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