Sadaejuui

Literally translatable as "serving the great-ism" (or in some sources, "toadyism"), the term sadaejuui has a decisively pejorative meaning to modern Koreans, north and south. It has served throughout the twentieth century as a wake-up call to national energies, and has figured as one of the central "terms of engagement" in the ideological and propaganda wars between North and South Korea, and within South Korea itself, since national division in 1948.

The term sadaejuui is one born of the twentieth century, but it has its roots in the much older concept of sadae, "to serve the great" (juui being a modern addition, translatable as "ism"). In the traditional moral and political worldview of East Asia the concept of sadae was in no way pejorative. It described the natural relationship between the lesser and the greater, based upon Confucian teachings, that kept the universe in moral and political working order. It was perhaps most clearly articulated by the fourth century BCE Confucian sage Mencius, who said that only by serving the greater state could the lesser both preserve itself and keep the way of heaven. In traditional times, this meant for Korea a symbolic deference to China as its moral superior, and its emperor as the bestower of the mandate to rule. This symbolic relationship of deference, best manifested in the biannual tribute missions Korea sent to China, was in many ways just that—symbolic. Korea continued to preserve its internal sovereignty. This deference to China, however, was also clearly seen in the cultural realm, with the Korean aristocracy emulating Chinese arts and literature as well as Neo-Confucian thought, particularly during the Choson period (1392–1910).

With the troubled path Korea has tread since opening to the outside world in 1876, and the concomitant rise of Korean nationalism, this tradition of sadae came to be seen as highly deleterious to the independent development of Korean institutions, culture, and character. This became a particular critique of such nationalist historians as Sin Ch'ae-ho (1880–1936) and Ch'oe Nam-son (1890–1957). It was viewed as a primary cause for what some saw as a Korean predilection for emulating and relying upon the powerful, and a corresponding lack of originality or independent spirit. This in turn was seen as a central contributor to Korea's eventual domination by foreign powers in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and its colonization by Japan from 1905 to 1945. North Korea continues to accuse South Korea of sadaejuui in what it sees as that state's overreliance upon the United States. The political reality of national division, coupled with a historical legacy of colonization, has assured a particular potency to the term sadaejuui in all aspects of Korean society.

Robinson, Michael. (1984) "National Identity and the Thought of Sin Ch'ae-ho: Sadaejuüi and Chuch'e in History and Politics." Journal of Korean Studies 5: 121–142.

——. (1988) Cultural Nationalism in Colonial Korea, 1920–1925. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.