The National Museum of Korean Literature on Monday released the original manuscript of the “Paris Petition” to mark the March 1 Independence Movement anniversary.
The document is the original letter sent to the Paris Peace Conference shortly after the March 1 Movement, drafted by a nationwide coalition of Confucian scholars. The museum said it was prepared in consultation by organizers Kim Chang-sook and Kwak Jong-seok, written in Kwak’s own hand, and later supplemented with notes by classical scholars Lee Ga-won and Jeong Mu-yeon, giving it high historical value.
The “Paris Petition incident” began after Confucian scholars across the country, disappointed at not being included among the national representatives on the March 1 Declaration of Independence, decided to send an independence appeal to the Paris Peace Conference. Kim served as the representative, gathering support by dispatching envoys to scholars in each region and meeting scholars in North Gyeongsang Province. He asked Kwak, his teacher and academic ally in Geochang, to draft the text, and the two finalized the wording together.
To help Kim, who was expected to travel to Paris via Shanghai, Kwak introduced people in Shanghai who could assist him. To evade police, the original text was torn into thin strips, line by line, and woven into straw sandals, the museum said. While Kim was preparing the original in North Gyeongsang, scholars in the Chungcheong region, led by Kim Bok-han, separately drafted an independence appeal. After discussions, they adopted Kwak’s original, revised it, and produced a final version signed by 137 scholars.
The petition was mailed to Kim Kyu-sik, who was in Paris as a Korean representative, and Chinese-language and translated versions were distributed to media outlets, consulates and local Confucian schools in Korea. Japanese police investigating the March 1 Movement later uncovered the effort, and more than 20 people, including Kwak and Kim Bok-han, were imprisoned.
Although the petition’s contents have been cited in multiple sources, the original manuscript has not previously been made public, the museum said, adding that the release allows the document to be verified in full. The museum said the handwritten original also calls for renewed attention to the petition’s present-day meaning.
Along with the release, the museum selected Kwak and Kim as its “featured literary figures of the month” and said it will hold an academic event on March 26 at Sungkyunkwan University highlighting the Paris Petition.
The “featured literary figures of the month” is a new museum initiative that will name notable writers each month, with related website columns and events aimed at revisiting figures who left a major mark on Korea’s literary history.
