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| Sinyu Persecution (1791) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Sinyu Persecution (1791) |
| Date | 1791 |
| Place | Joseon Korea |
| Causes | Suppression of Roman Catholicism |
| Methods | Execution, exile, confiscation |
| Fatalities | Estimates vary |
Sinyu Persecution (1791) was a state-led crackdown in 1791 in Joseon Korea targeting adherents of Roman Catholicism and associated intellectual networks, resulting in executions, exile, and confiscation of property. The event intersected with key figures and institutions of late Joseon such as Crown Prince Jeongjo, Queen Jeongsun, the Min clan of the Yeoheung factional politics, and the emergent Korean Catholic community linked to converts influenced by writings from Matteo Ricci, Jean-Joseph-Marie Amiot, and Chinese and European sources. The repression shaped relations among the Joseon court, Silhak scholars, and regional elites in Seoul, Pyongyang, and Jeolla Province.
In the late 18th century Joseon Korea, intellectual currents from Silhak school reformers, contacts with China via the Qianlong Emperor's era, and clandestine circulation of Christian texts introduced ideas from Roman Catholic Church, Jesuit missions, and European science. The Catholic community traced links to Korean converts such as Yi Seung-hun and catechesis influenced by Chinese converts who had contact with missionaries like Giuseppe Castiglione and Jean-Baptiste Régis. Court politics involving figures such as Jeongjo of Joseon, Queen Jeongsun, Hong Guk-yeong, and members of the Andong Kim clan created an environment where religious dissent intersected with factional rivalries and succession issues. Relations with neighboring polities including the Qing dynasty and traders connected to Nagasaki and Macau shaped perceptions of foreign influence.
The immediate motivations included concerns voiced by conservative officials like Yi Ik-han and Park Je-ga about heterodox teachings undermining Neo-Confucian orthodoxy represented by thinkers such as Yi Hwang and Yi I. Political elites feared conversion of the yangban class and the erosion of ritual order associated with figures like Kim Jo-sun and the Hong family. Internationally, anxieties about Western influence associated with Catholic missions and episodes in China such as the White Lotus Rebellion and Spanish and Portuguese missionary activity in Asia informed Joseon responses. Legal precedents from earlier cases involving heterodox sects and edicts issued in the reigns of Yeongjo of Joseon and Sukjong of Joseon provided frameworks cited by investigators and prosecutors.
The persecution culminated in 1791 after investigations initiated in preceding years when converts were reported by local magistrates in regions including Seosan, Chungcheong, Gyeongsang, and Hwanghae Province. Arrests and interrogations involved magistrates, secret police, and royal investigators affiliated with offices like the Uigeumbu and Saganwon. Key trials took place in Hanseong where testimonies implicated lay leaders and literati including members of the Min clan network. Executions and exiles were carried out throughout 1791, with subsequent follow-up actions into the early 1790s affecting survivors who later appeared in petitions to the royal court and were referenced in memorials by officials such as Jeong Yak-yong.
Repressive methods included capital punishment, exile to remote islands and border posts such as Andong and Hamgyong, confiscation of property, interrogation overseen by officials of the Chunchugwan historiography office, and use of informants drawn from village gentry and kin networks. Targets encompassed lay converts like merchants and members of the yangban literati, catechists, women catechists linked to families including the Kim and Yi clans, and sympathetic scholars associated with Silhak and the Catholic community in Korea (18th century). Institutions impacted included family lineages, village memorial rituals tied to ancestors such as rites for Jesa, and local schools (seowon) patronized by persecuted families.
The Joseon court issued proclamations and legal measures citing violations of laws rooted in Gyeongguk Daejeon precedents and Confucian ritual codes derived from texts associated with Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi. Enforcement was coordinated through central organs including the Uigeumbu and provincial magistrates under writs authorized by royal seals and memorials to the throne. Officials invoked diplomatic and ideological concerns referencing the Qing court's stance on heterodoxy and correspondence with envoys who monitored missionary activities in Macau and Nagasaki. Subsequent royal edicts alternately hardened penalties and later, under political shifts, allowed limited rehabilitation through petitions by reformist officials such as Jeong Yak-yong and supporters within Prince Sado's factional legacy.
The crackdown disrupted patrilineal networks, landholdings, and seowon patronage, redistributing property to local elites and causing demographic effects in regions like Jeolla and Gyeongsang. Merchants and seafaring families involved in trade through Busan and Incheon faced increased scrutiny, affecting commercial ties with Nagasaki and Chinese trading intermediaries. Intellectual life among Silhak scholars experienced chilling effects, with authors self-censoring treatment of Western texts by figures such as Jeong Yak-yong and manuscripts circulated clandestinely. Socially, persecution intensified debates within the court between conservative factions like the Noron and more moderate elements, influencing later reforms under Jeongjo and succession politics involving the Crown Prince Sado controversy.
Historians debate the persecution's long-term impact on Korean Christianity, state authority, and intellectual exchange, citing sources ranging from royal memorials preserved in the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty to missionary correspondence archived in Lisbon and Paris collections associated with the Society of Jesus. Modern assessments by scholars of Korean history and religious studies examine continuities with 19th-century persecutions and eventual establishment of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul. The event is referenced in studies of legal history tracing enforcement of the Gyeongguk Daejeon, in biographical work on converts like Yi Seung-hun, and in cultural analyses linking persecution to the transformation of Korean engagements with Western thought and regional diplomacy involving the Qing dynasty and Tokugawa shogunate.
Category:Joseon Category:Korean Christianity Category:Persecutions in Asia