Percival Lowell’s photograph of the Korean Foreign Affairs office in 1884 / Robert Neff Collection
According to Walter Hillier, the British consul to Korea from 1889 to 1896, Korean's scholar gentry, called yangban, “are invested with certain rights and immunities, and it is an offence against the law for a plebeian even to use rude language towards them, much less assault them. Their pride is proverbial, and they are most jealous of their dignity and rights.”
On June 6, 1889, while out on an errand, Kim Chang-yo, the head servant at the French Legation, committed the heinous crime of voyeurism. According to the secretary of the American Legation, as Kim passed the residence of a yangban, Soh Piang-so, he looked over the wall and “beheld with profane eyes the ladies of the noble household, a crime than which there is none greater in the Corean calendar.”
Kim, “having been discovered in the act of his offending,” was scolded by one of Soh’s house servants. Rather than apologize for his brazen act, Kim cursed at the servant. The nobleman was beyond words and patience; he immediately ordered the voyeur seized and soundly beaten.
When Kim spoke in a rude manner, the nobleman “exercised a recognized right” and called upon his neighbors to come and beat the insolent servant.
Hugh Dinsmore, the American minister to Korea, noted that “Mr. Soh is highly connected, belonging to one of the most influential families in Korea … (and his arrest) caused great indignation and excitement amongst the Korean upper classes.” He did not, however, elaborate on why. Hillier did.
Soh alleged that “he was dragged through the streets with his hands tied behind his back, an indignity unheard of in the case of a man of his rank.” The gentry looked on his treatment with deep resentment, and their anger darkened further when rumors spread that Soh was dying “from the combined effects of ill-treatment and wounded pride.”
A Korean trial in the late 19th century / Robert Neff Collection
However, Soh was not as complacent as we are led to believe. After Victor Collin de Plancy, the French commissaire, was through scolding the nobleman, he ordered him off the legation grounds, but Soh refused. His honor had been sorely wounded and needed to be avenged. The French diplomat was unswayed and simply told the Korean that unless he left on his own volition, he would be physically thrown out by the legation guards.
Hillier acknowledged that “this no doubt aggravated [Soh’s] grievances, but he went away.” It was fortunate that he did: a crowd of sympathizers had gathered “and there was little doubt that they would shortly have proceeded to acts of violence.”
Source: Korea Times News
