During the 1801 anti-Catholic Persecution, the Korean court executed the Chinese priest Zhou Wenmou (1752–1801). Korean officials justified this unprecedented move by accusing him of “illicit border-crossing” and attempting to invoke “The Yongzheng Emperor’s Last Testament.” These strategies raise important questions: Why did border transgression and an imperial edict matter in legitimizing the execution of a Qing subject? How did Qing–Chosŏn relations shape Korea’s anti-Catholic policies?
This lecture examines the overlooked centrality of Sino-Korean relations in government-led anti-Catholic campaigns in late Chosŏn Korea. It begins by tracing the origins of the Korean Catholic Church, which emerged through annual tributary missions to Beijing. It then turns to the 1801 Persecution, analyzing why Father Zhou’s execution required such legal justification and how this case molded the penalties applied to Korean converts. Finally, it explores the ways in which Zhou’s precedent and Qing imperial authority were repeatedly appropriated to legitimize later persecutions, including the execution of French priests in 1839. By revisiting these episodes through the lens of interstate relations, the talk highlights how Qing–Chosŏn diplomatic dynamics served as a driving force in shaping Korea’s anti-Catholic policy.
About the Speaker:
Meng-Heng Lee is a Korea Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on the legal and political history of Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910), borderlands studies, and premodern Sino-Korean relations. His doctoral studies reexamine Chosŏn’s legal suppression of Catholicism, illuminating how Korean ruling elites viewed the religion not only as a domestic threat but also as a political and diplomatic crisis. By linking diverse, and even weaponized, legal accusations and punishments of converts to the court’s concerns about Qing-Chosŏn relations and possible foreign intervention, his research highlights the broader geopolitical dimensions of Korean anti-Catholicism.
