(1) T'ongsinsa and the Flow of Choson Culture

After the Waeran, diplomatic relations with Japan were severed. Later, the newly-formed Tokugawa Shogunate initiated relations with Choson once again.
With this new diplomacy, diplomatic activities were to be carried out by the magistrate of Tongnae (Pusan) and the lord of Tsushima Island. Waegwans (Japanese houses) were set up in Pusan to permit diplomatic and trade activities, but Japanese envoys were prohibited from entering Seoul.
At the request of the Edo Shugunate, Choson decided to dispatch T'ongsinsas to Japan.
Provided with a hospitable reception, the procession of the T'ongsinsa, utilizing both sea and land routes toward Edo, was magnificent.

With the dispatch of T'ongsinsa to Japan, the two countries exchanged necessary items through the formality of gifts. Needless to say, the rulers of Edo and the local lords en route strove to obtain even higher cultural developments through the T'ongsinsa procession. Books on metaphysics and history as well as Buddhist sutras were thus obtained by Japan. Poems, paintings and calligraphies were also given to Japanese lords which stimulated continuous developments in modern Japanese culture.

(2) Exchanges with China

From its start, Choson generally had friendly diplomatic relations with China. First with Ming and then as Qing dominated the Chinese continent, Choson developed diplomatic relations with Qing.
Choson dispatched envoys to China each year, some of which had political objectives, while others promoted economic and cultural exchanges. That is, through such envoys to China, articles for royal and official use were exchanged in the form of tributes, messages were relayed between the two countries and the envoys also had the opportunity to engage in international trade on the way.
The Chinese envoys were comprised of men with high cultural training. On visits to Beijing, the Korean envoys collected books, observed its advanced culture and imported various foreign elements from China. There were also activities to exchange Chinese scholars. After returning home, the envoys reported information to the king regarding the continent through a list of their experiences.
There were also highly intelligent Choson scholars who went to Beijing to expand their cultural experiences such as Hong Tae-yong, Pak Chi-won, Pak Che-ga, Yi Tok-mu. They were the Pukhakp'a, the Northern School of Practical Learning.

(3) Introduction of Western Civilization and Western Learning

In the course of making contacts with the advanced civilization of China, the Pukhakp'a posited that the Chinese should not be looked upon as barbarians but their practical civilization should be accepted. They also advocated the acceptance and utilization of Western civilization along with the Chinese.
The first Western foreigner to set foot in Korea was a man named Sespedes who came from Japan with the Japanese army during the Hideyoshi Invasion. Afterwards, the Netherlanders Jan Weltree and three others came in 1627, and Hendrick Hamel and a party of 36 men drifted onto Cheju Island in 1653.

However, they were not influencial culturally.
Contacts between Korea and Western civilization continued to take place in China through Western missionaries in Beijing. Through such opportunities, Western civilization and Western books translated into Chinese flowed into Choson via China.
Such imported Western civilization and books translated into Chinese became, at first, merely objects of curiosity among the intelligentsia of the latter period of Choson. However, in the mid-18th century, Yi Ik began to make a scholarly study of these books and his disciples continued the research.
Study of Western civilization basically dealt with two aspects, materialism based on science and technology, and spiritualism based on religion and ethics.
The introduction of science and technology was attempted by Kim Yuk, Hong Tae-yong and Chong Yag-yong, but these efforts bore little fruit. Religion and ethics appeared through the acceptance of Catholicism and the realization of an ethical Christian life.

(4) Acceptance and Persecution of Catholicism

Yi Pyok, Kwon Il-sin, and Yi Sung-hun, in the course of reading "The Lost Will of God" and other books on Catholicism which were translated into Han'gul, came to believe in the existence of a Father in Heaven and created a church in Seoul for the purpose of forming a Catholic community in 1784. The attempt to spread Catholicism suffered great afflictions from its beginning. This is because the government enforced a policy of prohibition and oppression of Catholicism in order to guard the orthodox.
As King Sonjo came to the throne succeeding King Chongjo, persecution against Catholicism began. In 1801,1839 and 1846, persecution spread throughout the country and many Catholic believers underwent great hardships. In spite of these persecutions, the number of Catholic believers continued to increase in various regions of the country. People sought a new religion in order to obtain a peace of mind which could not be found in reality, which was wrought with social instability due to the contradictions within the political powers during this time.

(5) Contacts by Western Forces with Choson

Since the 17th century, the Western powers had been steadily infiltrating the East via India and Indochina. Upon entering the 19th century, these powers began The Opium War and The Arrow Incident and maintained bases of operations for their continued aggressions in China.
Finally, Western powers appeared close to Choson. The first country to request commercial trade with Choson was England. In 1816, two British warships appeared on the southern coast and in 1832, a British civilian ship sailed to the coast of Ch'ungch'ong-do requesting trade, but without results. As England's competitor in the East, France appeared on the coast of Ch'ungch'ong-do in 1846. Flying the Tricolors on the flagship of its Far East Fleet, they demanded commercial and diplomatic relations with Choson. Before this, French missionaries sneaked into Choson and as a result of their religious activities, they were killed by Choson in the Kihae Massacre (1839). Holding the Choson government responsible for this atrocity, they filed strong protests.
Afterwards, England and France repeatedly dispatched civilians and warships trying to open the doors of commercial trade with Choson, but they failed as a result of Choson's closed door policy. They thus sailed away leaving only a sense of crisis and strengthening Choson's hermit policy.
In 1852, an American ship and two years later, a Russian ship sailed in the Eastern Sea. The people of Choson during this period feared the Westerners, calling them foreign monsters. They haunted Korea's shores even more frequently during the reign of King Ch'oljong.

(6) Impoverishment in Rural Society and Folk Religions

In the 18th century, under King Yongjo and King Chongjo, restoration politics stabilized society and an era of law and order ensued.
But after King Chongjo, under the successive reign of Kings Sunjo, Honjong, and Ch'oljong, the era of Sedo (power) politics began. Political powers were grasped and manipulated by members of the Queen's family. That is, the Andong Kim and P'ung'yang Cho families retained control of the government for 60 years. They were known as the Noron faction. Factional politics meant that conflicting factions checked each other to ensure that a monopoly of political power did not arise. Towards its end, political power belonged to one faction causing the destruction of many government institutes and severe exploitation of people. Thus, rural society was impoverished.
Bureaucrats corrupted by the Sedo system exploited their power to rapidly bring about the destruction of the three "Chongs" of the government. The three Chongs refer to the three sources of government revenue: farmland, military and grain.
The local magistrates and officials used all means possible to collect taxes and pocket it for themselves, thereby increasing the burdens borne by farmers. The national financial situation worsened.
Still worse, famine and disease continued to add to the hardships of rural communities. These hard-pressed people at first appealed to the government officials for relief, but no corrections were made. Thus, angry masses rose up in rebellion with the poor country Yangbans as their leaders. Such public uprisings filled the people with alarm. Representative examples of these public uprisings are Hong Kyong-nae's Rebellion under the reign of King Sonjo, the rebellion of Chinju during the reign of King Ch'oljong, and the Kaeryong Rebellion.
As society fell into a state of confusion, the people's lives were made miserable and many sought religion. Confucianism and Buddhism had lost their appeal and Catholicism was too strange to accept. Thus, the people turned to folklore and beliefs in mysticism and prophesies which were deeply rooted among the lower classes. The prevalence of such folk beliefs bespoke of a world of unrest.

(7) The Establishment and Growth of Tonghak

With social confusion and contacts with foreign powers in the background, another religion known as Tonghak (Eastern Learning) made its appearance. Tonghak was a religion created by Ch'oe Che-u, a Kyongju yangban who had lost his economic fortune. As a belief based on a strong sense of nationalism, it was called Tonghak to signify its stand against Sohak or Western Learning. Ch'oe Che-u overcame the Confucian thoughts of the Yangban society, and stood in conflict with Catholicism of the West, with this new religion. This new religion combined the three thoughts of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.
The basic idea of Tonghak was that human minds are heavenly minds; that is, heaven exists in the minds of humans. Tonghak propagated the ideas of human salvation and equality among promised blessings on earth, and proposed the ideas of national peace, salvation of humanity, and eternal youth.
In its philosophy, Tonghak was closed to the theories of metaphysics and it emphasized the end of the world and the creation of a new heaven and earth. This doctrine was arranged during the time of the second religious leader, Ch'oe Si-hyong, and appears in the Tonggyong taejon and Yongdam yusa which are the "Bibles" of Tonghak written for the intelligentsia.
When this nationalistic and people-oriented religion of Tonghak was introduced, it spread rapidly in the rural communities of the three southern provinces.
The government charged the Tonghak leaders with heresy and executed Ch'oe Che-u, its founder for spreading heresy. After the death of Ch'oe Che-u, Tonghak seemed to have lost its force, but under the leadership of Ch'oe Si-hyong, it planted even deeper roots among the masses.