The Review of Korean Studies
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- P-ISSN1229-0076
- E-ISSN2773-9351
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ISSN : 1229-0076
The Guan Yu Cult and Joseon-Qing Visions of State Legitimacy, 1882-1894
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Abstract
The Joseon Guan Yu cult was a staple of informal and popular Korean histories written in the first half of the twentieth century. In these highly critical and often mocking accounts, the cult comes to signify an irrational refusal of the modern typical of the perceived Joseon failure to cope with the realities of global imperialism. The Guan Yu cult, however, was more than this. Qing military officers deployed to Seoul from 1882 to 1885 presented plaques to Joseon Guan Yu temples which, through the lens of the Guan Yu faith, located the legitimacy of the Joseon state in its submission of tribute to the Qing court. King Gojong composed ritual and stele texts that shared the Qing officers’ faith in Guan Yu but interpreted his divine interventions in Joseon affairs not as the product of Joseon loyalty to Qing but rather of the inherent legitimacy of the Joseon state and throne. The seriousness with which the Joseon throne took the Guan Yu cult is apparent in the controversy at court in 1893 concerning the punishment of an official who publicly condemned lavish state support for the cult. The facile dismissals of colonial-period histories obscure the fact that the cult was one arena wherein Joseon and Qing understandings of Joseon state legitimacy and the nature of the Joseon-Qing relationship clashed at time when the two states were engaged in an often tense process of redefining their relations in a rapidly changing geopolitical environment.
- keywords
- Guan Yu, Joseon, Qing, legitimacy, state cult
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