Asian Millenarianism: An Interdisciplinary Study of the Taiping and Tonghak Rebellions in a Global Context
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Asian Millenarianism: An Interdisciplinary Study of the Taiping a ...

Chapter :  Introduction
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the movements as dynamic millenarian national forces against the Chinese and the Korean governments and alien powers. The revolutionary and reformist characters of the leaders of the Taiping and the Tonghak, who sought changes in social and political structures and in traditional values, will also be examined. The seventh chapter will introduce Chngsando's millenarianism, which is claimed to be a new Tonghak. The eighth chapter as a conclusion attempts to state why millenarian ideology or thought should occur at all and why some Asian countries such as India, whose societies have suffered from situations similar to the poor economic conditions and discrimination that many European, African and other non-Asian societies have experienced, have had rare millenarian revolts. Finally, I attempt to generalize about millenarianism.

Previous Historiography and a Colonial Legacy

Professor Lee V. Cassanelli points out:

Before 1960, most historical writing on Somalia was the byproduct of research conducted by colonial officials or by scholars in the employ of colonial governments. These researchers were concerned, explicitly or implicitly, with the kinds of questions that colonial authorities everywhere were interested in, namely, how more effectively to administer their colonial subjects, or how more smoothly to implement those economic and social reforms deemed essential to fulfilling their colonial mandate.… The predominance of colonial concerns in the early writing of Somali history is a characteristic common to the historiography of all colonial nations.6

It is true. Most historical writings on Korea were also “the byproduct of research conducted by colonial officials or by scholars in the employ of colonial governments,” as Lee V. Cassanelli points out. Colonial governments destroyed not only traditional social and political institutions and imposed their own, but also destroyed its history and spirit. It is important to overcome a colonial legacy in studying millenarianism related to ancient history. There is a saying