Kim Il Sung Memoirs 3.6: My Teacher Sang Wol

[Young Kim]

My Teacher Sang Wol

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Park So Sim had ntroduced me to "Das Kapital" and it was my teacher Sang Wol who had introduced Maxim Gorky's "Mother" and Cho Sulgun's "Red Bungalow  Dream" to me. Sang Won taught literature at Yukmun Middle School. He came to the school about February 1928. He majored in English literature at Beijing University and his appointment to teach at our school was a welcome news.  On back of our mind, we feared he might be a secret agent of the Ministry of Education.  In fact, quite a few of our teachers secretly worked for the warlords and spied on us.

About that time, warlord Chiang Hakryang made a pact with Chiang Kai Sek to spread  Kuomintang influence to Manchuria and Chiang Kaisek's secret police had already reached Jirin.  [Lee Wha Rang Note: "Boy Marshall" Chiang took over Manchuria after his father Chiang Tzolin was killed. Chiang Hakryang engineered the Sian Incident of December 12, 1936, in which Chiang Kaisek was taken hostage. Ironically, he let Chiang Kaisek free, and was taken captive by his former hostage, for the rest of his life. Photo: Chiang Hakryang.]

Our school was noted for its progressive teachers and student body, and so Kuomintang police and their lackeys kept a close tab on us.  It was in this kind of tense atmosphere when Sang Won showed up and we were keenly interested in discovering what he really was.  But his very first lecture put our fears and suspicions to rest and he became our campus idol. 

"Red Bungalow Dream" has 120 sections but Sang Won covered it in one hour and we were able to digest the gist of the this monstrous epic.  He made the story of an aristocracy's demise so vivid and clear to us.  When he finished his first lecture, the students applauded and felt that a jewel came to our school.  I thought it strange that he said little about the author of the epic, and so, on the following day, I saw him taking a walk on the school yard and asked him about the author. He told me that he did not go over the author in class because of the limited time and he told me about the author, Cho Sulgun and his family background. (Photo: Cho Sulgun, 1719-1763. "Red Bungalow Dream" refers to a Chinese cake popular with Chinese emperors.)

When he finished his discourse on Cho Sulgun, I asked him about the author's social class and his novel's political contents. He fielded my question cheerfully. After stating that it was only his personal option, he said, "It is true, in general, that an author's work reflects his social upbringing, but what is more important is the author's world outlook."  He cited Cho Sulgun as an example; Cho's family enjoyed imperial privileges and his early childhood was spent in pomp and luxury, but he suffered poverty and misery after the demise of the palace; and through his eyes, one can see the inevitability of downfall of feudalism.

He said: "It is good that you, Sung Ju, came to see me.  If you have any questions or need further explanations, don't hesitate to ask your teachers. That is how all students of science should be. Ask many questions no matter where or when. I like students who ask many questions."  [Photo: Sang Wol].

His request for many questions turned me on. Since the elementary school, I had been known to ask many questions. Many teachers at Yukmun were weary of me because I asked too many questions.  Sang Wol told me that he had the novel and a collection of articles on its author and that I would be welcome to borrow them. That was how I got to be the first visitor to his new lodging.  My grandfather used to tell me that students should not encroach upon their teachers' private domains.  He was not alone in thinking that way; even those who were educated in Western civilization had the same notion about teacher-pupil relations.  This notion was based on the premise that a teacher's private life would reveal to his pupils that he is just a person and therefore, he will lose his pupils' respects.  

When my father attended Soonwha School, there was a school master called, Kim Ji Sung. Kim was an alcoholic and drank heavily even when in school. My father was the class leader and so, he was sent out to fetch drinks by the master. Father obeyed his master's command for months.  One day, Father saw his drunken master fall into a creek on his way home and decided to do something to stop the old man's drinking. A few days later, the master handed Father an empty bottle and told him to get it filled with more wine. Father took the bottle and left the school yard.  He walked some distance to a rock and smashed the bottle to pieces on it and ran back to the master.  He told his teacher that a tiger came after him and he fell breaking the bottle. The old master took the hint and said: "Hmmm, a tiger came to Mangyong-dae all the way from Mount Paiktu! Well, you, Kim Hyong Jik - that was a big lie but you make me feel ashamed. I am sorry I had stooped so low as to make you fetch wine for me."  The old master stopped drinking after this incident.  

Although the school master stopped drinking, my father always remembered his drunken teacher in the creek and that image enforced my grandfather's belief that there should be a screen shielding teachers' private life from their pupils. I intruded into Sang Wol's private life before any screen shrouded him. His library had several hundred books; it was the largest and most varied private collection of books I had seen. San Wol was rich in books; he had many novels in English and avant guarde literature.  I was enthralled by his collection of books and could not take my eyes off the shelves. I wondered if I had read through these books, I would have college education equivalent; how lucky it was for me to have Sang Wool at the school.

I opened book after book and asked him: "Excuse me, sir. How long did it take you to get this many books?"  He smiled a thin smile and stared at me for a while and said: "About ten years, I think."  

I asked him: "How long would it take to read these books?"  He said: "Well, about three years if you are diligent and about one hundred years if you are lazy." I said: "I will do anything if you would let me borrow your books." He replied: "Well, Sung Ju, I have one condition: you must promise me to become a writer. I have been looking to train a couple of train proletarian writers.  I wonder if you would be one." 

I said: "Master, I am honored that you consider me in that light.  In fact, I love literature and admire writers. I may become a writer after Korean independence, but you must know that I am a stateless person.  My father passed away after a lifelong struggle for our independence and I wish to carry on my father's work. My primary purpose in life is our independence and that will be my profession." Master Sang Wol, leaning against the shelves, looked at me with serious expression on his face nodding his head; then he placed his hands on my shoulders and said quietly: "That is admirable, Sung Ju. Ok, then, I will let you borrow my books on the condition that you will become an independence fighter."  

That night, I borrowed "Red Bungalow Dream" and returned to my room. The next books I borrowed from Sang Wol were Jang Kwang Ja's "Yalu River" and "The Boy Wanderer". I enjoyed reading these two novels. "Yalu River" was about a young Korean couple, Lee Maeng Han and Woon Goh, and was a tear-jerker. After these, I borrowed Gorky's "Mother". That was how Sang Wol and I became close.  I got whatever books I wanted from Sang Wol's library. In fact, if he did not have a book I wanted in his library, he got it for me. The only thing he asked for in return was my digest.  He and I exchanged critiques of Gorky's "Enemies" and Rohsin's "Congratulations". 

We exchanged our ideas on the mission of literature; we had spent hours going over how literary works should reflect reality and what roles they should play for social development. Sang Wol said that literature should be like a lighthouse that guides humanity to perfection. Machinery enhances productivity and literature makes humans that run machines more perfect.  Sang Wol was particularly fond of Rohsin and his works.  They were literary comrades at one time and Sang Wol was a member of a literary circle led by Roshin.  His short story "Hatchet Head" received Rohsin's praise; the story was about people's struggles against social evils in Rahsang region.  According to Sang Wol's daughter, Sang Hyowon, Rohsin told Sang Wol that his short story lacked sharpness. Sang Wol had learned lessons from the defects in his first novel and wrote a more mature novel "Ceremonial Hat", a socio-political epic that was received acclaims from literary circles.  This lengthy novel was published by an Ungnam magazine in installments. In 1980, People's China Literary Publishing House published "Ceremonial Hat".  In addition to "Ceremonial Hat" and "Hatchet Head", Sang Wol wrote epic novels "Blue Nut" and "Canine Problem". He continued to write while teaching. 

I read "Jin Doksoo's Works" from Sang Wol's library. Jin Doksoo was one of the founding fathers of Chinese Communist Party and a real power broker in the Party at the time. At first, Sang Wol was hesitant to let me read the book, fearing that I might be adversely affected by Jin's leftist defeatism.  Jin had headed the literary department of Beijing University before San Wol's time, and many teachers and students prided themselves having worked under him at the university. Sang Wol confessed: "To be honest, I, too, worshipped Jin Doksoo once. I fell in love with his ideas after reading his "New Youth" magazine and political essays in his early years.  But, my opinion of Jin is quite different today." He added that Jin's popularity peaked during May 4th Movement and the founding period of Chinese Communist Party, but his popularity plummeted after he began to tout leftist opportunism.

Jin Doksoo's opportunism was most evident in his ideas and attitudes on peasant problems. In 1926, Stalin pointed out that Chinese peasants were the main bulwark in anti-imperialism in China and were the most important and reliable partners of Chinese workers. But, Jin looked down upon peasants and opposed peasants rising against landowners; Jin was against peasants becoming self-reliant; in short, Jin opposed peasants movement. Jin feared that bringing peasants into the revolutionary ranks might alienate and drive away bourgeoisie revolutionaries. The fact of the matter is that Jin's left defeatism fostered bourgeoisie betrayals, said Sang Wol. I saw that Jin's defeatism could hurt our revolution. 

After reading "Jin Doksoo Works", I spent many days discussing peasants problems with Sang Wol.  We talked about some of the factors that were common to Korean and Chinese peasants issues; we talked about differences between Korean and Chinese peasants problems; what lessons Lenin had for our peasants; how can peasants lead our revolution. I said that "farming is the foundation of our society and therefore, formers are the main force of social changes." Sang Wol agreed with me and said: "Ignoring peasants is ignoring farming and land, and any revolution, no matter how lofty its ideology, is doomed to fail, if it ignores farmers."  He said that this was Jin Doksoo's problem.  After this conversation, it became clear to me that Sang Wol was a communist and Sang Wol found that I, too, was a communist.

Sang Wol joined Chinese Communist Party in 1926 and led peasants activities in his home village, for which he was arrested by Kuomintang reactionary warlords. He was tortured for over a year in a military prison on Jungang Province. Early in 1928, a Korean medical officer arranged for his medical release from prison, whereupon, he adopted a false name, Sahju Wumu, and escaped to Manchuria, where Cho Doh Nam got him a teaching job at Yukmun Middle School.  

Sang Wol and I discussed political issues other than peasants problems as well. Many students of Yukmun were active in political debates. In those days, China was at the threshold of its great revolution and Korea was astir with mass movements. There were endless issues and topics for our debates. Among Korean youth, the issue of whether Lee Jun's method or Ahn Jung Gun's was right was hotly debated. Many favored Ahn's assassination terrorist approach. I asked Sang Wol what he thought of Ahn's approach.  He said Ahn's action was, of course,  patriotic, but it was adventurism from a revolutionary tactical point of view, to which I agreed. I believed that killing a handful of imperialist servants would not defeat imperialism and that the only way to win was to educate and motivate the mass into popular mass actions.

We talked about Japanese invasions of Korea and Japanese colonial policies in Korea; Japanese designs for China and Manchuria; Chinese warlords; Sino-Korean joint struggles to counter imperialism and occupation.  The United Nations League's declaration on disarmament was another hot issues among Yukmun students at the time. Some students were duped by the League, and so I wrote an article exposing League's duplicity. Many students and Sang Wol agreed with my thesis. 

Since his arrival at Jirin, Sang Wol lost contact with the Party, but he presented several enlightening lectures using literary works of Gorky, Rohsin and other progressive writers.  He gave a series of lectures, "Let Us Oppose Imperialism", to our secret book club at the school. His lectures were well received by the students. I relayed students' comments to Sang Wol. His profound knowledge of Oriental and Occidental literary masterpieces, history and his devotion to education had made him a darling of the students.

But not everyone liked him. Some teachers, working for the warlord, was unhappy with Sang Wol's popularity with students and tried their best to get him fired. Those students who had flocked to Sang Wol, too, became enemies of the reactionary teachers. They tried to get Lee Kwang Han, the principal, to dismiss Korean students from the school. Mah Gah, the athletics teacher, claimed that Korean students were hostile to Chinese and tried to get me expelled. Sang Wol came to my defense.

Our English teacher was hostile to progressive students. He was toadyish from head to toe. He worshipped West and despised East; he claimed that Occidentals ate their meals quietly while Orientals made all kind of noise while eating, a sure sign of backwardness. He behaved as if he were an Occidental, although he was a Chinese. We had had enough of his anti-Oriental flunkeyism and decided to teach him a lesson. One day, we prepared a lunch of steaming-hot noodles and invited our teachers.  Very soon the dining hall was filled with sounds of people slurping down hot noodles.  But the English teacher was the sole exception; he kept on blowing on the steaming noodles and ate them with great difficulty, which caused the students into spontaneous laughter that shook the dinning hall. At last, the English teacher saw through our planks and left the room in a huff. His anti-Oriental remarks declined sharply after this. Because of his toadyism, English was not a popular subject at the school.

By 1929, reactionary teachers had made Sang Wol's life unbearable at the school.  One day, Sang Wol proposed that the school athletics program should promote general athletics instead of favoring a chosen few athletes. The basketball court of the school was being monopolized by the school's basketball team and other students were off-limit to the court. Sang Wol's proposal did not ride well with some of the basketball players and they schemed  to assault Sang Wol on his way home.  I learned of their scheme from Anti-Imperialism Association members and stopped reactionary players from carrying out their evil deed. 

"Humm, that athletics teacher, Mah, has trained his running-dogs well. Those worthless worms!", so said Sang Wol watching the would-be attackers running away. I said: "Master, don't be surprised at this. Isn't this another stage in our class struggle? There will be more serious attacks in the future and you should better be prepared."  Sang Wol said: "Yes, you are right. We are fighting the warlords now".  Shortly after, Sang Wol was fired because of his efforts to reinstate students expelled from the school.

I was away in Jangchun and Karyun doing some revolutionary work when Sang Wol left Jirin. Upon my return, my friend Kwan Dae Suk handed me a letter from Sang Wol; the letter said: "I lost my battle with the warlords and I must leave Jirin now. We will defeat the warlords someday. No matter where I go, I will pray for your success in your work for Korea." That was my last contact with Sang Wol and we never met again.   In 1955, Sang Wol sent me his article "My Historic Relations with Marshall Kim Il Sung in his Youth" and also, in 1980, he sent me "Chinese History Abstracts".  I knew then that he was still alive. Every time I met a visiting dignitary from China, I inquired about Sang Wol, but I did not get to see him. I failed to  show my due respect by failing to pay him a visit. It was my fault.  International borders do strange things to you.

Sang Wol taught at Chinese People's University in Beijing until his death in 1982.  In 1989, Sang Garan, his eldest daughter, who was a researcher at Chinese Academy Mechanical Institute, came to see me; and in 1990, Sang Hyowon, his third daughter, who taught at Chinese People's University, came to see me. I saw my teacher's image from 60 year ago in his two daughters and I was immensely moved. Different races do not mean different emotions.  People's emotions do not have barriers of skin color, religion or language. Had Yukmun Middle School been closer to me, I would have plucked some flowers from the schoolyard and given them to his daughters; I would have said: "This is your father's favorite flower. Your father and I met under the flower tree many times."

After leaving Jirin, Sang Wol went to Harbin, Shanghai, Beijing, Hangkaw, Chunking, Nyonhaw, Yenan and other places for Party tasks. He was engaged in education, literary and literacy activities for the Party.  At one time, he was the general secretary of the Party in Manchuria. To his last day on Earth, he remembered me and he remained loyal to the friendship of China and Korea. His remains were buried at a patriots cemetery outside Beijing. 

He who has had a teacher to remember for his lifetime is a lucky man.  In this regard, I am a lucky man.  Every time I miss Master Sang Wol, who had left indelible marks on me in my formative years, I go back to Yukmun Middle School and walk on its campus in mine mind. I miss Master Sang Wol very much.