"(Translation) 1801年 李希誠 衿給文記"의 두 판 사이의 차이

2020년 3월 6일 (금) 20:26 기준 최신판

Primary Source
	Title
	English	1908 Yi Huiseong's record of property distribution
	Chinese	1801年 李希誠 衿給文記
	Korean(RR)	1801년 이희성 깃급문기 (Yi Hui-seong gis-geub-mun-gi)
	Text Details
	Genre	Social Life and Economic Strategies
	Type	Record
	Author(s)	李希誠
	Year	1801
	Source
	Key Concepts	inheritance document, land and property distribution, slaves-master association, mutual discussion 相議, changing social strata in the turn to 19c Chosŏn, economic and social status of slaves, tenant farmers, head-family 宗家
	Translation Info
	Translator(s)	Participants of 2018 Summer Hanmun Workshop (Advanced Translation Group)
	Editor(s)	Sanghoon Na
	Year	2018

Introduction

1. The Record of Property Distribution

The record of property distribution (punjaegi 分財記) includes various types of documents of property transfer, dating from the Koryŏ dynasty. Although this term is not commonly found in original sources, it is preferred over a will or testament (yusŏ 遺書) among researchers. ^[1] Depending on the contents, this record is divided into three types: bequest to posterity (hŏyŏ 許與), writ on the mutual consent of the siblings (hwahoe 和會), and special bequest to those who had particular merits (pyŏlgŭp 別給) like success in the civil service examination. The present record is categorized into the first type because it contains a father's wish to give possessions to his son.

2. Slave-master Association

The possessions, however, did not only belong to the father, Yi Huisŏng (李希誠, ca. 1720-1801), but also to a cooperative association called kye (lit. “contract” or “bond”) he had formed in 1741.^[2] The association consisted of a master and his slaves, and thus was named slave-master association (noju kye 奴主契). As shown in this document, Yi and his ten slaves raised a grain fund. Yi contributed half and the slaves paid the other half, thereby forming the slave-master association. Yi spent the fund to pay for the restoration of his fences. The slaves also used the funds to hire laborers to do their duties.^[3] While the slaves benefitted from it, Yi was able to retain his slaves by promoting their welfare. However, when the situations were unfavorable for him in sixty years, without the slaves' consent he broke up the association that he had established with them. He made a decision to give the association property over to his son, Yi Rip 李岦. He explains why he had to break up the association as follows: some slaves used the fund and ran away or died; some, by marrying commoners, gave birth to children of commoner status; others left him for another family by marrying to another master’s slave.^[4]

3. Significance of This Document in Korean History

Slavery had been gradually disappearing since the Imjin War (1592-1598). The number of slaves on the government's rosters had fallen from 350,000 in the 15th century to less than 200,000 by the 17th century. This decrease was caused in part by the destruction of slave records and scattering of the slave population during the war.^[5] In such social conditions, the association was organized in 1741 during King Yŏngjo's reign (1694-1776) when more and more slaves fled from their masters.^[6]. This urgent situation seems to have driven Yi Huisŏng to make a deal with his slaves by establishing the association. This document shows that the social status of slaves rose high enough to participate in it. It is interesting to see that the word 'slave' comes first in the name of the association. It is also interesting to see that this document was made in the year 1801 when 66,067 slaves were emancipated.^[7]

Original Script

Discussion Questions

1. What does this document tell us about relations between masters and slaves?

2. What can we learn as to the social and economic conditions of Chosŏn slaves from this document?

3. Why do you think the two parties created this document? What purposes does this document serve?

4. What can we learn from this document about the social and economic conditions of the day?

5. How would the slaves understand this contract written in Korean literary sinitic language?

6. How do you think these documents were created? Did the master of slaves create this document in his own writing? Or was it written by a legal agent? How do you think they secure the legality of this document?

7. What does this document tell us about relations between the yangban and nobi strata in the Chosŏn dynasty, given that the slave system during this period was undergoing immense change?

8. In regard to the inheritance of the compact between slaves and their master, who do you think benefited from this contract?

9. Waskye 契 a completely private arrangement or was it somehow state-mediated?

10. Had the status of no 奴 (“male slave”) in the early 19th century improved so as to go into contract with their masters?

11. Was this document of the slave-master association 奴主契 common in the Chosŏn dynasty?

12. What do you think is the historical significance of this document in the context of late Chosŏn social history?

13. Is this document indicative of upward social mobility in Chosŏn Korea? To what extent?

14. How does this document help us define the slave-master compact?

15. Could this contract be in conflict with the preexisting slave contracts (given the absence of such clause as "this contract hereby cancels the previous contract")?

16. How would the inheritance of the 2 durak be changed should the number of slaves in each slave household change over time?

17. How could the slaves hire workers to fix the walls?

18. How are the slaves in Korea different from serfs or peasants in medieval Europe?

19. Since when did the compact between slaves and their master begin to appear in Chosŏn Korea? Was this a common practice? Were there any regional differences?

20. How does Yi Huiseong rationalize/justify the inheritance of his properties to his own son?

21. How do you think the enactment of the matrilineal rule for slaves (奴婢從母法) in 1731 might have influenced this document (1801)?

Further Readings

• Kennedy, Gerard F. “The Korean Kye: Maintaining Human Scale in a Modernizing Society,” Korean Studies 1 (1977): 197–222.
• Jangseogak Archives of The Academy of Korean Studies ed., More Than Wills: Property Distribution Documents of the Joseon Dynasty. Seongnam: AKS Press, 2017.
• Mun, Sukja 文叔子. "The Writing Process of the Record of Property Distribution during the Chosŏn Period (朝鮮時代 分財文記의 作成過程과 그 特徵)," Yŏngnam Studies 18 (December 2010): 215-248.
• The Academy of Korean Studies ed., Komunsŏ chipsŏng 65. Sŏngnam: AKS Press, 2003.

References

1. ↑ See Jangseogak Archives of The Academy of Korean Studies ed., More Than Wills: Property Distribution Documents of the Joseon Dynasty (Seongnam: AKS Press, 2017). See also Mun Sukja, "The Writing Process of the Record of Property Distribution during the Chosŏn Period (조선시대 分財文記의 작성과정과 그 특징)," Yŏngnam Studies 18 (December 2010):217.
2. ↑ There are several translations for the term "kye": compact, bond, mutual aid, cooperative, association, and band. Since kye refers to a group of people, 'cooperative,' 'association,' and 'band' are more proper than 'compact,' 'bond,' 'mutual aid.' According to Kennedy, Pratt, and Rutt, the word 'association' is adopted here. See Gerard F. Kennedy, “The Korean Kye: Maintaining Human Scale in a Modernizing Society,” Korean Studies 1 (1977): 198. See also Keith Pratt and Richard Rutt, Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary (Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999):255.
3. ↑ The Academy of Korean Studies ed., Komunsŏ chipsŏng 65 (Sŏngnam: AKS Press, 2003) http://archive.aks.ac.kr/heje/heje.aspx?booknum=65.
4. ↑ According to the matrilineal rule for slaves (奴婢從母法) enforced in the seventh year (1731) of King Yŏngjo's reign, children's social status was determined by their mother's status.
5. ↑ Ki-baik Lee, A New History of Korea. trans. Edward W. Wagner (Seoul: Ilchokak Publishers, 1984), 251.
6. ↑ Center for Korean Studies Materials http://kostma.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Chuno/Default.aspx?Body=08
7. ↑ Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (available at http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/SearchNavi?keyword=%EA%B3%B5%EB%85%B8%EB%B9%84&ridx=0&tot=1384)
8. ↑ ‘契谷’은 契員이 出資한 곡식으로서 ‘契穀’이 맞으나 음가가 같으므로 ‘谷’자로도 흔히 사용하였다.
9. ↑ 畓二斗落=600坪(1斗落=300坪, 1坪 =3.3058㎡)=1,983.48㎡=0.49ac(1ac=4,047㎡)
10. ↑ Turak 斗落 (Majigi in vernacular Korean) is the amount of land on which one mal (eighteen liters) could be planted as seed. The size of land has varied in different regions. It is approximately 150-300 pyŏng (495-990 square meters) for rice paddies and 100 pyŏng (330 square meters) for dry fields. See James B. Palais, Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyŏngwŏn and the Late Chosŏn Dynasty (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1996), 364.
11. ↑ Tongjeong taebu is the senior third-rank title.