Hwang Sa-yeong

Life

Hwang was born in 1775. In 1790 (the fourteenth year of King Jeongjo's reign), at the age of sixteen, he passed the jinsa examination, a lower-level civil service examination in Joseon. Around that time he married Jeong Myeong-ryeon (also known as Jeong Nan-ju, baptismal name Maria), the eldest daughter of Jeong Yak-hyeon, who was the eldest brother of Jeong Yak-yong. He subsequently grew close to the Jeong brothers of his wife's family and came into contact with Catholicism. He is said to have come to faith by reading books of Western Learning (Seohak) borrowed from Yi Seung-hun. "Western Learning" referred collectively to the Western scholarship and knowledge of Catholicism that had entered Joseon. Sources differ on when he was baptized: some give 1791, while others state that he was baptized in 1795 by Father Zhou Wenmo. His baptismal name is recorded as Alexius.

When the Sinyu Persecution broke out in 1801 (the first year of King Sunjo's reign), a warrant was issued for his arrest as well. His name is said to have come to light during the interrogation of Jeong Yak-yong conducted by royal order. He fled Seoul and took refuge at Baeron in Jecheon, Chungcheong Province, a village of Catholics who made earthenware pottery, where he hid in an earthen dugout disguised as a pottery kiln. He was eventually arrested, however, and was executed outside the Seosomun Gate of Seoul in the eleventh month of that year, at the age of twenty-six.

Ministry and Work

After his baptism, he served as a close aide to Father Zhou Wenmo and actively assisted in his work of evangelization. He is credited with spreading the faith among people of every social rank, from the yangban aristocracy to slaves, without regard to status. According to one account, while in hiding he was urged to disguise himself as a Buddhist monk but refused, saying that doing so would be inconsistent with his faith.

While hiding in the dugout, he received news from the outside world through Kim Han-bin and Hwang Sim. In this way he learned that church leaders such as Zhou Wenmo, Jeong Yak-jong, Yi Seung-hun, Choe Chang-hyeon, and Kang Wan-suk had been executed. He resolved to inform Bishop Alexandre de Gouveia in Beijing of the course of the persecution and wrote a long letter on white silk. This letter is known as the Silk Letter of Hwang Sa-yeong. In addition to an account of the persecution suffered by the Korean church, the letter set out proposed remedies. It suggested using the fact that Father Zhou was a Chinese national to draw the Qing court into intervening, and it also requested that religious freedom be secured, even by military force if necessary. The letter was confiscated when Hwang was arrested, before it could be sent to Beijing.

Influence on the Korean Church

The Silk Letter serves as a valuable primary source for the study of the Sinyu Persecution and of early Korean Catholic history. Because Hwang lived before Protestantism arrived in Korea, no Protestant denomination is known to have issued an official assessment of him. Nevertheless, his decision to seek foreign assistance for the sake of religious freedom is frequently cited in discussions of church and politics concerning the relationship among faith, the state, and foreign powers.

Assessment

Assessments of Hwang Sa-yeong are sharply divided. Critics, pointing to the letter's request for foreign military intervention, regard him as a traitor to the state or a traitor to the nation. Within the Catholic Church, there is a strong tendency to honor him as a martyr who kept the faith to the end. In a lecture in the public lecture series of the Research Foundation of Korean Church History, one scholar argued that a dichotomous "traitor or martyr" approach is not desirable. He assessed Hwang as at once a traitor to the state, a traitor to the nation, and a martyr. He also expressed the view that Hwang provided a decisive impetus for Joseon's movement toward modern society.