This article examines the dynamic interplay between emotional discipline and ritual negotiation in the funeral practices of early Korean Catholics during the 17th-18th centuries. This period was characterized by the clandestine transmission of Catholicism, which took place against the backdrop of the rigid Confucian socio-ritual order of the Joseon dynasty. This study draws on an extensive corpus of Korean archival materials. These sources include the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, the Seungjeongwon Ilgi (Diary of the Royal Secretariat), indigenous Catholic manuscripts such as the Record of the Purgatorial Court and Essentials of the Teaching, as well as comparative liturgical texts from Chinese and Korean Catholic traditions. Employing an affective-historical framework, the research analyzes how converts reconfigured deeply ingrained emotional norms and ritual expectations surrounding death, mourning, and filial duty. Instead of framing Catholic adaptation as mere resistance or passive assimilation, this analysis foregrounds the agency inherent in localized strategies. These include the internalization of grief through silent prayer and nocturnal vigils. The theological reframing of filial piety via prayers for souls in purgatory. The temporal recalibration of memorial observances to coexist with the “seven-sevens” rites. The spatial relocation of sacred practice from ancestral shrines to domestic altars and remote mountain sites; and the symbolic substitution of joss paper and spirit tablets with crucifixes, holy water, and unadorned wooden coffins. This study adopts a microhistorically approach to examine three pivotal episodes. These include the 1785 funeral of the Kwon Cheol-sin family, Jeong Yak-jeon’s philosophical reflections on ritual authenticity during his exile, and the 1791 Eulmyo Autumn Sacrifice Incident. This examination reveals that emotional transformation and ritual innovation were mutually constitutive. These dynamic enabled believers to sustain their communal identity under severe state repression, which included the Sinhae Persecution of 1801 and the Eulhae Persecutions. This study situates Korean Catholic funerary practice at the intersection of emotional history, religious indigenization, and Confucian ritual orthodoxy. It challenges top-down narratives of the East Asian Rites Controversy. The research also advances a bottom-up model of cross-cultural religious encounter. In this model, affective interiority and pragmatic ritual flexibility function not as concessions, but as generative modalities of faith.
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Share and Cite
Liu Z., Luo, X. (2026) Emotional Discipline and Ritual Negotiation: A Study of Funeral Practices and Adaptive Strategies Among Catholics on the Korean Peninsula in the 17th-18th Centuries. Journal of Social Development and History, 2(1), 1-11.
https://doi.org/10.71052/jsdh/DLGS4285