# 죽창 앞에선 모두가 평등하다



## vientito

i was chatting with a friend from korea and we were discussing issues of social justice. The topic soon developed into cases of outright injustice of court ruling, whereupon i sarcastically wrote "죽창 앞에선 모두가 평등하냐?". His reaction was swift and explained to me in his whole life he would never say that and he said it was harsh and close to taboo. His rationale was that 죽창 was employed as a weapon during Japanese colonial period where parents were speared to death in front of their children. Now i have had no clue if this in fact conjures up images of cruelty like that and i thought i came across this expression somewhere and have had no knowledge of such connotation. I would just like to verify with the natives here to see if in fact it is taboo to say that.


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## t k

I think it's neither a taboo nor necessarily linked to Japanese cruelty, but I agree that bamboo spears gives a feeling of chill and dread as they are normally used in desperate situations.  --- tk


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## valench

Where did you come across this phrase? 죽창 is a sort of bamboo spear, which means it's not a proper weapon that soldiers would use for a battle. then Why did people need to turn bamboo into a weapon? and Who used that roughly crafted weapon? People used 죽창 is not a well trained army, but ordinary people like mostly farmers as there had been a majority of farmers in Korea - a bamboo was commonly found near their villages. Historically when the public was frustrated by the corrupt rulers, they raised a riot using a bamboo spear. Or when enemies invaded the town but no army then people needed to protect themselves so made their own weapon of bamboo. 

My point is that that sentence sounds a bit harsh, dramatic, old or labour. I am not sure what exactly you were talking about, but suppose the usage of the sentence was likely correct as the phrase can be used for ordinary people versus the privileged. It has nothing or little to do with a taboo or Japanese things tho.


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## Rance

valench said:


> Where did you come across this phrase?



The expression using 죽창, aka 죽창드립, is an internet meme which is somewhat close to the Colt slogan(firearms manufacturer) after Civil War, "Abe Lincoln may have freed all men, but Sam Colt made them equal".
It's generally a response when someone shows off their money on internet, people would go saying jealously, "yea, whatever, but you and i are equal in front of 죽창. (we both die)".
The term 죽창 is probably used instead of a gun because it had been traditionally the weapon of poor revolting peasants.

That being said, to vientito:

It's not a taboo thing(at least not on internet).
It has nothing to do with Japanese colonial period. (Sure there were cases where 죽창 was used to kill Korean, but they are not where this meme originates from)
However the statement is often, if not exclusively, used to derail from the topic when one can no longer present further logical argument.
If it was a proper discussion session, it is indeed a quite rude thing to do.


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## CharlesLee

The phrase "죽창 앞에선 모두가 평등하다." implies the imperialism from the 19th century to the World Wars including revolutions.

Imperialists would be only into the sentence.


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