Energy–environment–society relations in early modern Korea: Lessons learned from the electrification of Seoul,1876

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between energy, the environment, and society in early modern Korea, after its initial contact with electricity and fossil fuels. After reviewing the literature and original sources, the study reached four findings. First, the introduction of electricity and new energy sources was intensely pursued under the belief that civilization and enlightenment based on electricity, fossil fuels, and their relevant Western technologies could help Korea retain its national sovereignty and compete with imperial powers during the gaehwa period. Second, the traditional Korean worldview regarding the interrelationship between humans and nature was partially changed by the introduction of electricity and new energy sources. Third, using electricity and new energy sources changed the way traditional social relations were experienced in Korea, as well as conventional notions of time and space. Lastly, Seoulites in early modern Korea were psychologically prepared to accept and become familiar with electricity and new energy sources, which eventually became the foundation for mentally reorienting Korea toward future industrialization.

Keywords

Electricity energy sources early modern Korea Seoul enlightenment and civilization energy–environment–society relations

Introduction

The process of Western modernization, which combined the ideology of progress, science, and technology with the introduction of new energy forms and sources such as electricity, coal, and oil, influenced many non-Western parts of the world during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early modern Korea, during the gaehwa period, was no exception. Gaehwa is shorthand for munmyeong gaehwa (civilization and enlightenment). Gaehwa, in this study, refers to the period between 1876, when Korea’s ports were forcibly opened by Japan, and 1905, when the Japanese imposed a protectorate over Korea and began to control Korea’s foreign affairs. Early modern Korea changed during this period as a result of initial contact with Western technology, new energy forms, and energy sources.

One group of scholars has mostly focused on the historic processes involved in the introduction of electricity and fossil fuels to Korea. Nam provides a chronological overview of the development of electric light and power during the late Joseon dynasty. As a scholar of engineering, he provides rich description of the first electrification project in Korea, which included the installation of electric lights at Gyungbokgung.¹ Kim examines the energy sources, such as coal, that enabled the electrification of Seoul. Kim also evaluates early modern Korea’s efforts to develop a modern coal industry during the Daehan Empire.² Oh focuses on electric utilities during the Japanese colonial period and details the establishment of the Seoul Electric Company (SEC) during the precolonial gaehwa period.³

Another group of scholars has elucidated the social and cultural implications of initial contact with electricity. Son is representative of this group. Son describes the process by which electricity was adopted and further explores its effect on Korean society and culture. Son emphasizes that the history of the electrification of Seoul provides a practical tool for understanding Korea’s modernization process. By focusing on the adoption of the telegraph, electric lights, and streetcars in Seoul, Son articulates how the process of electrification changed ways of thinking and living among Korean people, who at the time still lived in a premodern society. While acknowledging the influential lessons learned through the adoption of science and technology from Europe and America, Son also examines the role of local traditions in Korea’s modernization process.⁴ Another social scholar, Kim, depicts how a modern lifestyle was attained through the introduction of electricity. Kim describes how class and gender discrimination began to be dismantled as electric streetcars came to be used and how the telegraph network disseminated information and connected early modern Koreans within the country and beyond its borders.^5,6

These scholars have provided in-depth analyses of the introduction of new energy forms, new energy sources, and their relevant technologies, as well as of the ensuing cultural and social changes in early modern Korea. However, scholars have rarely discussed how the introduction of new energy forms and technologies began to influence how people thought about energy, the environment, and social relations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore people’s understanding of the relationship between energy, the environment, and society at a time when early modern Koreans, especially Seoulites, began encountering and living with new energy forms, new energy sources, and related technologies. It achieves this purpose by adding the environment (or nature) and its relationship with the introduction of new energy forms and new energy sources to the analyses of early modern Korea that have been previously conducted.

This study reviews relevant works by other scholars and original sources such as newspaper articles, newspaper advertisements, travel accounts, and the official documents of kings and their subjects. This study first discusses the practical process of introducing electricity, new energy sources, and their relevant technologies in Seoul. In addition to describing the process of electrification and the utilization and dissemination of energy sources in Seoul, that section also explains the worldview that motivated the adoption of electricity, new energy sources, and relevant technologies during Korea’s gaehwa period. Secondly, the study examines how the introduction of electricity and new energy sources influenced people’s understanding of the relationship between energy, the environment, and society in early modern Korea. The study concludes with insights and lessons learned.

Introduction of electricity and fossil fuels in Seoul

Joseon Korea faced many predicaments in the late 19th-century, especially after opening its ports to foreign imperial powers in 1876. Given the threats to the nation’s sovereignty from imperial powers such as Japan, China, and Russia, the Joseon government believed Western civilization and enlightenment were “a panacea for Korea”⁷ (55) and the many problems it faced. Thus, beginning in the 1880s, King Gojong and the Joseon government sent delegations to other countries, not only to improve diplomatic relations with China, Japan, Russia, and the United States but also to obtain information about Western institutions and technologies.^1,7

Kim Hong-jib returned from a mission to Japan in 1880, having observed the great achievements of Japan and wanting to bring them to Korea. His ideas on enlightenment were strongly influenced by two thinkers. The first was a counselor with the Chinese legation in Tokyo, who wrote in A Policy for Korea that Korea needed to adopt Western institutions and technology to become a strong nation. The second was also Chinese, Chen Kuan-ying, who asserted that forging a strong nation required the adoption of not only Western technology but also the political and other institutions that made Western technological development possible.⁸ Subsequently, in 1881, a gentlemen’s sightseeing group (sinsa yuramdan) was sent to Japan to investigate Japanese modernization, and Kim Yun-sik was sent to Tianjin to observe modern military improvements at the request of the China’s Qing government.⁸ Shortly after this, Yu Gil-jun, who had studied in both Japan and the United States and had travelled in Europe, published Observations on a Journey to the West (Seoyugyunmunrok) in 1889. That book extensively discussed the geography, history, politics, economy, and society of Western nations.⁸

The belief in gaehwa (enlightenment) became widespread upon the return of these emissaries. Around 1895, munmyeong gaehwa (civilization and enlightenment) became “the vocabulary of the era”⁹ (32). The concept of gaehwa extensively circulated among elite Joseon reformers, who believed that the social and political institutions of their nation should become similar to those in “civilized” Western nations.⁴ Along with these ideas for social and political change, gaehwa reformers emphasized the importance of technology in modernizing Joseon Korea. Technological development was considered to be an important way of measuring the level of gaehwa. Furthermore, Korean elites viewed the adoption of Western technologies, machines, and materials as a way to attain an equal position with foreign imperial powers.⁹ A 27 March 1884, article in Korea’s first modern newspaper, Hanseong Sunbo, illustrates how traditional Korean and Chinese culture was being rejected in favor of Western science and technology: “The reason we are now humiliatingly poor is because we have worshiped useless Confucian learning while the West has worked hard on practical learning. Practical learning refers to just one thing—science and technology”⁷ (56). King Gojong agreed with Korean reformers, stating that “the technology of Westerners is truly useful; thus, using it can enhance public welfare.”¹⁰

The technological modernization of Korea began with the introduction of electricity and fossil fuels such as coal and oil.¹¹ The delegations that had returned from Western countries particularly emphasized the adoption of electricity. One delegation member, Yu Gil-jun, stated in an interview with the New York Herald on 15 October 1883, that before visiting the United States,

We did not know how to turn on electric lights. We thought that electric lights could not be turned on by humans and could only be turned on with the power of the devil. We finally understood how to use electricity after arriving in the United States … We would like to use electricity in Joseon.⁵ (93)

Like Yu Gil-jun, much of the Joseon elite considered electricity to be a forerunner of Western science and technology and a visible symbol of modernization, as it enabled convenience and practicality.⁵ Min Yeong-hwan and Kim Deok-yeon observed Western societies during their visits in 1896. In Hwangueomcho, Kim described New York as a place with “eternal lights like heaven” and electricity as something that did God’s work, based on his observations of devices functioning with electricity at the New York Electricity Exhibition. In Haechonchubeom, after witnessing Moscow lit with electricity, gas, and kerosene, Min exclaimed that the city in the nighttime was as bright as it was in the daytime.¹²

Electricity became known in early modern Korea around the early 1860s, when several science books from China were introduced to Korea. The New Encyclopedia, which had been written by Benjamin Hobson in Chinese (Ch. Bowu Xinbian, K. Pangmulsinpyeon), was introduced to Joseon elites. That book’s chapter on electricity introduced its basic theory. After reading Pangmulsinpyeon, Choi Han-gi, a member of the Joseon elite, wrote Myeongnamrumunjip, in which he explained that the characteristics of repulsion and resistance in electromagnetism were not necessarily the same as the concepts of eum (negative) and yang (positive).¹³ As its ports opened to foreign powers, more information on electricity was introduced to Joseon Korea. Kim Hong-jip returned from Japan in 1880 with a book by a Chinese scholar, Yeokeon, which explained that electricity was “very amazing and fast” and “there’s nothing that appears and disappears faster than electricity”⁵ (91).

The first modern Korean newspaper, the Hanseong Sunbo, also disseminated information on electricity. It published diverse articles on electricity, electrical systems (such as for electric railroads), and electric communications on 10 and 21 November 1883, 1 and 21 December 1883, and 14 May 1884. Because the Hanseong Sunbo (October 1883–December 1884) and its successor, Hanseong Jubo (January 1886–July 1888), repeatedly addressed issues related to electricity, it is fair to say that early modern Koreans—at least those who were literate—were well informed about its potential.⁴

In the aftermath of the opening of Korean ports to foreign powers in 1876, King Gojong considered Western technology, including electricity, to be a symbol of “enlightenment” and the nation’s “self-strengthening”¹ (193). He stated, “in a world where weak nations and strong nations are vividly divided, if we do not learn Western technology from the strong nations, how can we prevent them from invading?”¹⁰ After reports from the delegations he had sent to Japan, China, the United States, and other nations, he recognized electricity as the essential driving force behind Western civilization.⁵

The Joseon government ordered an electric light facility from the Edison Electric Light Company on 4 September 1884. This first electric light was lit in January 1887 after a powerhouse was constructed by William McKay, an American engineer. This was followed by the installation of electric lights in Geunjeongjeon Palace.¹ The lighting facility consisted of three 7-kW dynamos belted to a high-speed steam engine powered by a coal-fired boiler. These were capable of lighting 750 light bulbs of 16 candlepower. An upgraded electric light facility near Gyeongbokgung replaced the old one in May 1894.¹ The installation of the first electric lights initiated the modernization process in early modern Korea.¹

Furthermore, the electrification of the palace in Korea before electrification was introduced in Japan had the symbolic meaning that Korea had preceded Japan in pursuing Western civilization.⁴ With the initiation of the electrification of Seoul, Seoul began to modernize in other aspects. Westerners who wrote about Seoul around the turn of the century commented on the improvements there:

Seoul in many parts … was literally not recognizable. Streets, with a minimum width of 55 feet, with deep stone-lined channels on both sides, bridged by stone slabs, had replaced the foul alleys, which were breeding-grounds of cholera. Narrow lanes had been widened, slimy runlets had been paved, roadways were no longer ‘free coups’ for refuse, bicyclists ‘scorched’ along broad, level streets, ‘express wagons’ were looming in the near future, preparations were being made for the building of a French hotel in a fine situation, shops with glass fronts had been erected in numbers, an order forbidding the throwing of refuse into the streets was enforced— refuse matter is now removed from the city by official scavengers, and Seoul, from having been the foulest is now on its way to being the cleanest city of the Far East!¹⁴ (435)

However, the high cost of the electric light facility near Gyeongbokgung, the cost of using coal for electric power generation, and the cost of hiring foreign engineers resulted in criticism of lighting the palace with electricity.⁴ For example, Ji Seok-young, a member of the Joseon elite, asked King Gojong not to turn on the electric lights during the daytime because they were costly.¹⁵ In addition, during the early years of electrification, only a small number of privileged people, including members of the imperial household, foreign dignitaries at Jeongdong, and high-level government officials, benefited from electric technology. Commoners did not.⁴ The use of electricity broadened to a larger number of people in 1898, when the SEC began its first business operation: the electrification of Seoul. The SEC was established under the auspices of Gojong, now Emperor after declaring the Daehan Empire; it applied to the Bureau of Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry for the right to construct and operate electric streetcars, lights, and telephone services in Seoul.³ The use of electric lighting expanded after the SEC began operations. The SEC turned on electric streetlights at Jongno in 1900 and at electric streetcar intersections and the Dongdaemun power plants in August 1901.¹⁶ Some of the first private users of expensive electric lights were Japanese people living in Seoul. The Japanese residential area at Jingogae (currently Chungmuro) was one of the primary areas in which electric lights were rapidly adopted, despite the high cost of installation and fuel. The safety of Japanese residents at Jingogae was threatened at night by Korean and Chinese merchants because the expansion of Japanese commercial power challenged Koreans’ wealth and Chinese commercial rights.¹⁶ This area was lit with 39 electric lights on 1 December 1902.¹⁶ By 1904, over 3000 lamps were in use around Seoul.⁵ Bourdaret, a railroad engineer who lived in early modern Korea between 1901 and 1904, documented where electric lights could be found in Seoul, including at Hyuprulsa, a modern-style theater.¹⁷ Bourdaret also witnessed electricity lines beyond Seoul during his trips to other parts of Korea during the gaehwa period. For example, he saw electricity lines in Bongsan and Hwanghaebukdo, and telegraph offices in Pyeongyang and other parts of Korea.¹⁷

Later, the SEC introduced electric streetcars and expanded its services. Electric streetcar construction and the operations of the SEC were contracted to an American engineer, Henry Collbran.¹¹ The first streetcar line started at the central station in Jongno, passed through Dongdaemun (East Gate), and finally arrived at Hongneung as its final destination. The purpose of the line from Jongno to Hongneung was to reduce the high costs associated with the Emperor’s visits to the tomb of Queen Min, who had been assassinated by the Japanese. In 1899, the SEC constructed a second line from Jongno to Seodaemun (West Gate). The facility providing electricity for this line had one dynamo capable of generating 75 kW of direct current (DC) electric power and a 100 horsepower steam engine that generated 600 V.⁴

Electric streetcars were not, however easily accepted by Korean society. Soon after operations began, a young girl was accidentally struck and killed by an electric streetcar in May 1899. The angry crowd that witnessed the scene set the streetcars on fire and attacked the drivers. Several people were killed or injured as the streetcars were overturned.⁶ Emperor Gojong expressed concern about these accidents:

I am surprised and feel terrible knowing that operation of the electric streetcars has resulted in many casualties. Compensation should be sufficient to ensure the people know that the government is concerned and feels pity about these accidents … Laws should be passed to require caution in electric streetcar operations in order to prevent injuries.¹⁸

Despite these tragic events and hostile sentiments at the beginning of operations, the use of electric streetcars expanded. By 1904, at least 16 km of electric streetcar lines had been built and young people were using electric streetcars to go on picnics.¹⁷

Along with the electric lights and streetcars, the telegraph was also introduced to early modern Korea. The first telegraph line was the Seoro telegraph line, established in 1885; it connected Incheon, Seoul, Pyeongyang, and Uiju. This line was extended to Manchuria to allow rapid communication between Joseon Korea and Qing China, and it was controlled by China as “a corollary to China’s aggressive Korea policy”⁸ (321). Later, the Namro telegraph line, which connected Seoul, Jeonju, Daegu, and Busan, was established in 1887, and the Bugno telegraph line, which connected Seoul to Wonju, was established in 1888. The Namro telegraph line linked Korea with Japan and was initially operated by the Korean government; however, after the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese claimed the right to operate it.⁸ By 1902, telegraph lines extended about 23,000 km, 30 telegraph offices had been established, and 480 people were employed in the telegraph business. In 1902, about 20,000 telegraph messages were sent domestically and 1000 telegraph messages were sent internationally.⁶

Because it was the main conduit for information and news, the telegraph made the development of newspapers possible in Korea. As the telegraph became a major tool to deliver information, Korea’s modern newspapers—the Dongnip Sinmun (The Independent) and Hwangseong Sinmun—signed contracts to receive telegraphed information on global affairs from the British Telegraph Agency in 1897 and Reuters in 1900. In addition, a U.S.-based news-gathering association, the Associated Press, dispatched a correspondent to Seoul in December 1903.⁶ The telegraph functioned as a tool of commerce as well as a tool for disseminating information, not just domestically but also internationally.

The electrification of Seoul was closely tied to the development and import of new energy sources such as coal and oil. According to a news article in the Dongnip Sinmun, early modern Koreans were informed about the use of coal for electrification. An article on 24 May 1898, stated, “London lights its night with electric lights powered by coal.” There is a historic record of the utilization of coal during the late Joseon dynasty. In the Pyeongyang area, residents of coal-mining areas used it as fuel for cooking and heating.² In 1882, Yang Jin-hwa asked King Gojong to utilize coal to increase the nation’s wealth:

Coal is cheap and broadly useful. China and other Western countries make basic commodities from using coal. Coal can make the nation wealthy and strong. The fact that coal is produced in Pyeongyang means that heaven and earth are helping our King and his subjects. Although called coal, its value is more than that of gold or silver.¹⁹

Emperor Gojong responded, “Yang’s request is very timely and I ask that we implement it.”¹⁹ The Joseon government became interested in coal mines in Pyeongyang after proclaiming the Daehan Empire in April 1887. Emperor Gojong recognized that mines were important financial resources for the country and that their development would accelerate Korea’s modernization.

In general, Emperor Gojong believed that the key to successful modernization was the utilization of energy resources. He therefore transferred the management of underground resources from the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce to the Naejangwon (royal estate land) of the Gungnaebu (Department of the Royal Household).² As reported by Dongnip Sinmun on 11 August 1889, Naejangwon spent 200,000 won on importing machines to develop domestic mines and build railroads. The government contracted with the French company Rondon to work the coal-mining business at a Pyeongyang mining and briquette manufacturing site in 1903.³ The Joseon authorities stored coal at the port of Incheon and also transported coal by ship to Seoul to use as fuel for heating and electricity generation at the palace. Approximately, 4000 tons of coal were transported from Incheon to Seoul in 1885; the actual number is larger if coal sold for other purposes were included.² Soon after coal began to be imported, a foreigner documented the contrast between Dongdaemun, an ancient building, and a power plant that burned Japanese coal in Seoul.¹⁷

The value of coal as a supply of energy for various kinds of machines, including trains, was acknowledged. Following King Gojong’s declaration in 1896 that railroad construction rights would not be given away to foreign powers, the Joseon government established a railroad company in 1898.²⁰ The first train line in Korea was built between Incheon and Noryangjin, Seoul, in 1899.²¹ The establishment of railroads was closely related to the Japanese strategy for controlling Korea: Incheon was considered “the gateway through which its military would move into the capital region”⁸ (322). Nevertheless, a concession was granted to an American company to construct the Seoul-Incheon Railroad in 1896. Railroad construction, which began in 1897, was therefore met with substantial opposition from Japan. In the end, railroad construction reverted to Japan and was completed in 1900.⁸ Several railroad companies, including the Busan and Southwest Perimeter Railway Company and the Korea Railway Company, were established between 1898 and 1904.²⁰

Meanwhile, the introduction of electricity for lighting in Seoul was closely related to the use of oil (petroleum) in early modern Korea. With the opening of extensive and substantial warehouses by the Standard Oil Company in Incheon in 1897, imports of American kerosene increased from about US$165,000 in 1896 to US$233,300 in 1897.⁴ A 18 February 1897, advertisement in the Dongnip Sinmun shows that oil was treated as a profitable commodity during the gaehwa period: “Anyone who wants to buy and sell oil can gain great profits by getting oil from Saechang Yanghaeng, a German company that sells oil from Sumatra at retail price.” Kerosene began to replace vegetable oils for lighting on streets and in households. Kerosene was first used to light streets in Seoul in 1898.²² As the consumption of kerosene increased, the Standard Oil Company established a branch in Busan in 1901.²¹ Packmen who sold daily necessities across the nation played important roles in the wider deployment and use of kerosene in early modern Korean households. As more ordinary Koreans began to use kerosene, foreign merchants invented new lamps that could be conveniently used with it. American oil and German or Japanese lamps gained popularity in Seoul.¹⁷ Both packmen and these new lamps played an important role in spreading kerosene use across the nation.²³ Hwang Hyeon’s Maecheonyarok documented this:

Oil began to be used in Korea in 1880. It had a red color and bad odor in the beginning and came to have a clearer color and less of a bad odor later. After oil was introduced, there was no need to cultivate plants for vegetable oils for lighting. [After the introduction of oil] Koreans nationwide could not light their lamps without oil.²⁴

Understanding the relationship between energy, the environment, and society

The process of accepting electricity and new energy sources greatly changed how Seoulites perceived the relationships among energy, the environment, and society. In traditional Confucian philosophy, the dominant ideology during the Joseon dynasty, nature and human beings were not regarded as separate. Confucian elites believed that humans and nature were the same on axiological and ontological levels.²⁵ With this belief in mind, they conducted excursions in nature in order to discipline their minds in the natural environment and find the Truth.²⁶ Joseon elites understood and experienced nature as a way of realizing the Truth.

The theory of pungsu (geomancy) was influential among both Joseon elites and commoners.²⁷ The term reflected the Korean people’s worldview of the balance between eum (yin) and yang. In pungsu theory, as understood by Koreans, auspicious sites can be both found and artificially created by human intervention; furthermore, by building infrastructure for human survival, humans influence the characteristics of the surrounding natural environment. Although pungsu theory was developed to guide the human manipulation of space, it was also closely related to nature because it regarded all human construction, both in the city and countryside, as part of nature.²⁸ In other words, human society and nature were not separate in the worldview of Korean people. Based on pungsu theory, the Korean people viewed nature “as having magical power where vital energy flowed underground and influenced human society”⁴ (88).

Along with the pungsu theory, commoners in Joseon Korea had their own beliefs about the relationship between humans and nature. They believed that humans should not interfere with nature. In Bourdaret’s travelogue of Joseon Korea, for example, he documented that commoners regarded mountains as places for the mountain gods. Thus, when they entered the mountains to collect wood or cut trees, they tried not to fell entire trees because they feared that such actions could anger the mountain gods.¹⁷ This traditional view of harmony between humans and nature was documented by another Westerner who visited Korea during the gaehwa period:

The Koreans are great students of Nature. Nothing seems to escape their attention as they plod through the fields or saunter for pleasure over the green hills. A naturally picturesque landscape is preserved in its freshness by the law that forbids the cutting of timber or fuel in any but prescribed localities … Nature’s beauty in Korea may be said to be enhanced rather than marred by the presence of man.²² (27)

Although this traditional way of viewing the relationship between humans and nature was still entrenched in the worldview of Korean people during the gaehwa period, it was also gradually changed by contact with Western technology, particularly electricity and new energy sources. During this period, modern education also played an important role in disseminating mechanistic beliefs about the relationship between humans and nature. For example, Saminpilji, a geography text book published in 1895 and written by the American missionary H. B. Hulbert, played an important role in dismantling the traditional Confucian view of nature. The book provided a mechanistic view of natural phenomena such as heliocentrism and a scientific explanation of the formation of rain.²⁹ In addition, Hyeon Jae’s Daehanjiji, a modern geography textbook published in 1899, clearly illustrated rational and objective perceptions of nature beyond Confucian perceptions of nature within the frame of silhak (practical learning) and gaehwa thought.³⁰

This change was partial rather than complete; old ways of thinking and practice regarding the relationship between humans and nature persisted alongside the new. For example, as can be seen in the description of a mechanically problematic electric streetcar as a “machine fallen sick,” streetcars were regarded as “organic machines which ran on circulating gi (energy)”⁴ (88). Furthermore, as in the riots of 1899, Seoulites in early modern Korea believed that the wires of electric streetcars disturbed the flow of energy in Seoul and had given rise to a severe drought in the area by drawing water from the heavens.⁴ Son interpreted this belief as follows: “The city of Seoul was viewed as a living organism in which the rivers and streams represented the circulation of the city’s energy, the flow of which was believed to have been interrupted by the electric wires”⁴ (101).

An American electric light engineer, William Mackey, who had been recommended by the Edison Company upon the Joseon government’s request, died on 9 March 1887, when a Korean assistant accidently killed him with a revolver.¹ Koreans believed that this accident happened because electricity was a demonic power and electric lights bothered ceremonial services for ancestors; they also believed that services should not be performed under electric lights.²¹ Fish floating dead in Hyangwon Pond, on the grounds of the palace where the powerhouse was built, were also considered to be an evil omen, although this occurred due to the discharge of warm water used in the process of electricity generation.⁶ Water, considered as eum in traditional Korean philosophy, was fundamental in pungsu. In pungsu theory, natural water flow is neither too fast nor static. The fact that water, the fundamental element of pungsu theory, had become hot in a palace in which national affairs were decided was regarded as an evil omen that could bring bad luck to the nation.¹⁶

However, individuals also experienced mechanization by riding electric streetcars, using telegraphs, and seeing electric lights. This gradually created social impacts “in the way that the ordinary person was given entry into a new (mechanized, electrified, and modern) world”⁴ (182). This partial change can again be seen by comparing Seoulites’ reactions to two different accidents relating to electric streetcars. After the first accident in 1899, in which a girl was killed by a streetcar, there was a second significant incident in 1900, when two men put their heads on the streetcar rails for a summer night’s sleep and were killed when the driver failed to see them in time. This incident did not cause riots among people in Seoul. In informational posters, the SEC publicized its prohibition on people putting their heads on the rails and proclaimed that the rails were not pillows. Seoulites opposed the company’s policy and expressed their opinions by tearing down such posters. Finally, the company decided to allow Seoulites to enjoy cool summer nights using the chilly steel of the rails as pillows.⁴ In contrast to the first incident and subsequent riots in 1899, and people’s beliefs that electric wires disturbed the natural flow of gi (ki, nature of vital force) and had caused a drought, this second incident shows that Seoulites had already learned “the mechanical workings of electric streetcars and had been ‘modernized’ in that they were more concerned about violations to their rights as citizens than they were about violations against the natural order”⁴ (123).

The mechanistic view of nature refers to the idea that humans are separate from nature.³¹ Carolyn Merchant, in her work The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution, demonstrates how the organic view of nature in premodernity was transformed into a mechanistic view of nature in modernity by the development of modern science and technology. In the mechanistic view of nature, nature is a system of “dead, inert particles moved by external, rather than inherent, forces”³¹ (193). In the mechanistic view of nature, “the mechanical framework itself could legitimate the manipulation of nature”³¹ (193). Being familiar with electricity taught Seoulites to understand that electric wires (or electricity) were unrelated to the natural flow of energy, thus making electricity (or human space using electricity) something unrelated to inherent natural forces.

If electricity provided an opportunity for Seoulites to be introduced to the mechanization of human life separate from nature, then coal and oil strengthened this concept. From when they were first introduced to Korean society, coal and oil were considered not things that were part of nature but commodities that could be bought and sold. Thus, just by living in a transformed space with machines and facilities using electricity and new energy sources, the mechanistic view of nature was introduced into the minds of Seoulites in early modern Korea, consciously and unconsciously.

Utilizing electricity and new energy sources and living with them transformed not only how the relationship between humans and nature was viewed but also notions of time and space and how social relations were viewed. That second streetcar accident provided an opportunity for Seoulites to become familiar with the modern concept of time. The fact that streetcars operated at regular time intervals, and that the last streetcar passed by certain spots at the same designated time every day, helped Seoulites to learn about modern time. A well-known American critic of modern civilization and modernity, Lewis Mumford, succinctly articulates some characteristics of modern time in Technics and Civilization:

Abstract time became the new medium of existence. Organic functions themselves were regulated by it: one ate, not upon feeling hungry, but when prompted by the clock: one slept, not when one was tired, but when the clock sanctioned it.³² (17)

As Mumford points out, modern time regulated by the clock taught Seoulites not to put their heads on the streetcar rails whenever they wanted to sleep, but rather, to put their heads on the rails when the SEC told them they could do so safely. Thus, the fact that Seoulites became familiar with regular streetcar timetables is indicative of early modern Seoulites’ entry into the modern world, one regulated by a modern time schedule.³³ Kim argues that modern time is distinguished by the direction of time: modern time emphasizes the future, in contrast to traditional Korean notions of time.³³

Electric light extended daytime into nighttime. Traditionally, men were prohibited from walking in the streets at night. At night, only women, officers, servants accompanying foreigners, and men getting prescriptions from pharmacists were permitted to be on the street.³⁴ With the introduction of electric lights, this division in which daytime was the traditional time for men and nighttime was the traditional time for women slowly changed. Kim describes this:

The electric lights functioned as a modern power that had the amazing ability to light the night. The electric lights in Seoul extended time from daytime to nighttime. Because of this light, clear division of time—a time for men who symbolized yang and a time for women who symbolized eum was dismantled …. Electricity dismantled the traditional notion of time.⁶ (83–84)

If electric lights and streetcars influenced the changing concept of time in Seoul, the telegraph influenced Seoulites’ notions of space. The telegraph enabled instantaneous personal communication over long distances, which Mumford describes as “the mechanical symbol of those world-wide cooperations of thought and feeling”³² (241). It enhanced domestic connections among Koreans and connected Korea to the outside world. By connecting to the globally networked telegraph system, early modern Korea became a member of global society.⁶ Thus, the space of Seoulite experience widened.

Conclusion

The introduction of electricity and new energy sources in Korea between the late 19th-century and the early 20th-century enabled Seoul to taste the era of modernity, characterized by the mechanization of the relationship between human society and nature, the destruction of traditional social relations, an abstract notion of time, and the destruction of conventional notions of space. Scholars have provided diverse conceptions of modernity. For example, Kim explains that some of the distinctions between modernity and premodernity lie with social technologization, including in regard to bureaucracy, the consciousness (e.g. in the form of instrumental reason), and finally, through the construction of artificial nature in the form of techno-infrastructure.⁷ With new technologies, materials, and sources, early modern Seoulites joined a global trend toward becoming “modernized” and “progressive.” Unlike Westerners, who experienced a gradual change from premodernity to modernity in terms of technological development, modernization in Seoul occurred rapidly due not only to physical contact with electricity and new energy sources but also the political situation that Korea faced. Korea in the late 19th-century was in great political distress when it was introduced to new modern energy forms and sources. New energy forms and sources were equated with the notions of progress, civilization, and enlightenment; these eventually enabled the protection of the nation’s sovereignty in the midst of an unstable political world. This unstable political situation, combined with the ruling class’s willingness and imperial power exerted by Japan and Western nations, also explains why electricity and fossil fuels became familiar among Seoulites so soon after they were introduced.

Interestingly, what truly changed in early modern Seoul through the introduction of electricity and new energy sources were worldviews: worldviews among Seoulites regarding the relations among energy, the environment, and society were transformed. Organic worldviews regarding the interrelationship between humans and nature expressed in Confucian philosophy, mostly held by the noble class (yangban) and in traditional commoners’ beliefs, were slowly dismantled in favor of a mechanistic worldview through contact with Western technology, with electricity and new energy sources in particular. This, however, does not mean that Seoulites’ worldviews were transformed completely from organic to mechanistic ones. Rather, the two worldviews coexisted and the new worldview became a catalyst for the change that Seoulites would later experience through the Japanese colonial era, independence, and subsequent rapid industrialization.

Mumford provides keen insight regarding the introduction of a new worldview while moving into the era of industrialization. He argues that the human mind was an essential part of accelerating technological development, stating: “Before the new industrial processes could take hold on a great scale, a reorientation of wishes, habits, ideas, goals was necessary”³² (3). Changes in the physical environment with electric lights, streetcars, and telegraphed networks, all powered by fossil fuels, led to change in early modern Seoulites’ worldviews. This change became, as Mumford argues, a foundation for the intellectual reorientation toward future industrialization in Seoul and in Korea in general. Kim Pyung-ho agrees with this, arguing that

Korea’s tumultuous initial experience of modernity through the manifest material force of technology and industry of the West in the context of imperial intrusion … was deeply ingrained into the national psyche that shaped the Korean people’s archetypal episteme of technology.⁶ (57)

Understanding the relations among energy, the environment, and society that people perceived in early modern Seoul requires not only understanding physical contact with new energy forms and new energy sources but also the internal transformations among early modern Seoulites in changing political conditions. This study provides an initial contribution to this endeavor, showing that Seoulites in early modern Korea prepared their minds to accept and become familiar with Western technology through electricity and new energy sources, which eventually became important as Korea moved towards future industrialization.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Taehwa Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Administration at the University of Seoul (UOS). Dr Lee serves as an advisor for several local and central governmental committees. Dr Lee's main research area is urban energy and environmental policy.

Youngho Lee is an Associate Professor of the Academy of East Asian Studies at Sungkyunkwan University. Professor Lee serves as vice president of the Korean Association of Kyunghak (Confucian Classics) Research. He leads the Research Group on Confucian Classics with scholars from Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong. His major research area of interest is Confucian Classics in Korea and China.

Sun-Jin Yun is a Professor of the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Seoul National University. Her major is Environmental and Energy Policy. Professor Yun serves as the presidents for the Korean Association of Environmental Sociology and vice president of the Korean Association of Space & Environmental Research, the Korean Society for Environmental Education, and the Korean Society of Climate Change Research. Professor Yun is serving as an advisor for several governmental committees. Her major research areas of interest include energy policy, environmental policy, environmental sociology, environmental governance, management of common-pool resources and environmental education.

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