KJC Korea
Journal Central

This paper analyzed Inscriptions of Silla stele in the 6th Century, such as Pohang Jungseongri Stele, Pohang Naengsuri Stele, Uljin Bongpyeongri Stele and other historical records, to reveal the constitution and the nature of the top 9 Official rank of the Silla Dynasty’s Governmental Ranking system called Gyeong-wi. And based on it, reconstructed the process of establishing the Gyeong-wi. As a result, the following conclusions were drawn. There were two kinds of Governmental Ranking system for the ruling classes of Silla 6bu around 520’s, when King BeobHeung declared the law codes called Yul-Ryeong. One was a system that is limited to WheBu and SawheBu. It was composed of only 5 lower top rank, named DaeArGanji, ArGanji, IlgilGanji, SaGanji, GeobeolGanji, out of 9 top rank. The other one was for the ruling classes of 4bu except Whe and Sawhe among the Silla 6bu. It was composed of Ganji and Ilbeol which means Chief of bu and top position under the chief. At that time, the Gyeong-wi was not completed, and it was not applied to every ruling classes in the Silla 6bu. In the middle of the 6th century, At the reign of King Jinheung, new 4 high-top Official rank had been added on top of existing ranks. Finally, Gyeong-wi had been completed with 9 upper grades and 8 lower grades. And also it had been applied to every ruling classes of Silla Dynasty.

The study examined the relationship between the Gaya countries and Baekje by integrating the internal and external circumstances they were facing, focusing on the Talks at Sabi(泗沘會議). In the early sixth century, the Gaya countries and Baekje were in a close relationship; however, when investigating the Talks at Sabi, it has been confirmed that the relationship between the Gaya countries and Baekje cannot be seen solely as the relationship between subordinates and superiors. One aspect is the attitude or the method in which Baekje treated each of the Gaya countries. Furthermore, in current study, the analysis between the Gaya countries and Baekje was mostly on the perspective of Anra. As such, it is important to consider the different perspectives of each of the other Gaya countries with respect to their relations with Baekje. Baekje, which had to prepare for war with Goguryo, could not directly confront Shilla regarding the Gaya countries. Moreover, the expansion of Baekje into Gaya was limited, unlike Shilla’s more aggressive method. Therefore, Baekje called various powers of Gaya to Sabi, with the awareness of a suzerain state that in theory controls the Gaya countries. Through such talks, Baekje sought to prevent the Gaya countries from being subjugated to and integrated into Shilla. In the sixth century, the Gaya countries faced direct threats from Baekje and Shilla. The circumstances and stakes of each country were different, but they all attempted to establish a balance of power in the middle of Baekje and Shilla. Thus, the Gaya countries participated in the Talks at Sabi. The difference in the number of countries participating in the years 541 and 544 meeting, the participants consisted of various ranks reflect the interest and assertiveness to diplomatic issues of each of the Gaya country. Furthermore, the composition of the various participants reflects the lack of a centralized committee which led by one country within the Gaya countries. The Gaya countries anticipated Baekje’s active support and protection by participating in the Talks at Sabi, but they must have been disappointed at Baekje wanting to maintain the status quo, unable to separate from the ideological superiority. In the end, the alternative that was offered at the Talks at Sabi was insufficient to stop Shilla’s expansion into Gaya, and it can be believed that the Talks at Sabi triggered for the Gaya countries to choose Shilla.

This is a study on three queens who were sisters in the Goryo dynasty. They were queen consorts of King Euijong, King Myongjong, and King Sinjong. Their father was Wang On, Duke Gangneung, who had been a member of the royal family. In fact, Wang On's children could not maintain the membership unlike the father. In Goryo, the membership of the royal family was doomed to disconnect without a continuing marriage with royal members, such as kings, princes, and princesses. In Wang On's case, even though he himself had the membership, his wife did come from a noble family. Therefore, his children could not possess the membership of the royal household. Wang On had six children. Five out of six offsprings repeated marriages with five children of King Injong. At first, Wang On's first daughter became a wife of the crown prince during the King Injong's reign. His two daughters and one son also married Injong's two princes and a princess during the reign of King Euijong. In addition, his fourth daughter became a wife of Injon's youngest son, too, during Myongjong's reign. Thus, two families have married five times. As a result, five children of Wang On could obtain the position as the members of the royal household. In general, the crown succeeds to a crown prince. Thus, Wang On's first daughter became a queen[Empress Jangkyong] according to her husband, King Euijong. However, Military Revolt happened in 1170. Military leaders removed King Euijong, and placed his brother[King Myongjong] in a king's position. Later, a military leader, Choi, Chunghun, dethronded King Myongjong, and made his youngest brother[King Sinjong] as a new king. Because of those political disorders, King Euijong's two brothers became kings and their wives obtained the position of the queens[Empress Dowager Gwangjung and Empress Dowager Sunjung]. During the Military Rule, it seemed that the political position of queens was not that high. On the other hand, the queens were the relatives of the kings, and had children, and became mothers of crown princes. Therefore, the position as queens might have been relatively stable.

Jeonsigwa(田柴科) is composed of youngeopjeon(永業田) and gubunjeon(口分田). Often expressed as jikjeon(職田) or youngeopjeon, jeonsigwa was specifically divided into youngeopjeon and gubunjeon. Youngeopjeon was called that way because it is land that is not reclaimed but inherited to the household as long as gwanjik(官職; official position) and jikyeok(職役; official work) are inherited, and therefore jikjeon. In other words, it was a land that became hereditary under conditions of succession to gwanjik and jikyeok. Therefore, the size of youngeopjeon has to be different depending on status and position, not everyone has the same area of youngeopjeon. On the other hand, the amount of gubunjeon was fixed. In the case of yangban(兩班) gubunjeon, above pum(品) 5 and pum 6․7 was set at 8gyeol(結), between pum 8 to pum 9 was set at 5gyeol. Unlike youngeopjeon, gubunjeon was paid in the event of a severance of government and office. If the gwanjik or jikyeok were not inherited, the government recalled youngeopjeon with only gubunjeon left, so gubunjeon had the characteristics of support for the bereaved family. In Goryeo, jeonsigwa was basically given to all who execute official duties. The land that was inherited by government or service was called youngeopjeon, and if the inheritance was cut off, the land was returned to the country, leaving only gubunjeon. And finally, gubunjeon was returned to the country. In this regard, the youngeopjeon and gubunjeon of Goryeo are similar to the operation of the youngeopjeon and gubunjeon systems which were conducted under the China’s gyunjeonje(均田制). The operating method that youngeopjeon is inherited and gubunjeon is returned to the country is similar to the Chinese system. However, there is a big difference that this method is managed by gwanjik and jikyeok. In the jeonsigwa(田柴科) system, conditions for succession to gwanjik and jikyeok were very important and these conditions also led to the continued or discontinued payment of jeonsigwa. The youngeopjeon and gubunjeon of Goryeo reveal the characteristics of the jeonsigwa(田柴科) system.

The late 14th century was a turbulent period during which the Ming Dynasty replaced the Yuan Dynasty. This also led Goryo to inevitably change its foreign policy. In particular, Goryo-Ming relations (麗明關係) were formed during the late period of King Gongmin’s rule, and thus the missions of Jang Jaon and Seolsa were of great importance as the first envoys dispatched by each country during the two countries’ entry into friendly relations (通交). Goryo sent Jang Jaon to Ming in the 17th and 18th years of King Gongmin’s reign, which were similar times to when Ming sent Seolsa to Goryo. When King Gongmin was dethroned (廢位), Jang Jaon stayed in Yuan and secretly delivered the movements of Deokheunggun (德興君) to Goryo, who was invested as the king of Goryo. Moreover, as he returned to Goryo and reported on the restoration of King Gongmin, he gained greater trust from the king. Later, Jang Jaon was sent as an envoy to Koke-Temur (擴廓帖木兒) in Henan (河南), China, and built his experience as a diplomatic mission. His loyalty to King Gongmin and ability to obtain intelligence on China’s situations became an important background for becoming the first envoy to Ming. Though it is difficult to identify the specific activities that Jang Jaon performed as an envoy in Ming, he must have played a highly positive role in establishing the two countries’ diplomatic relations given the unprecedented warm welcome that he received from the Hongwu Emperor of Ming. Though Jang Jaon was underestimated as “a man on the street (市井人)” within Goryo, he was ideally qualified to establish diplomatic relations with Ming. As the first envoy sent from Ming to Goryo, Seolsa performed an important role in establishing the two countries’ diplomatic relations. In Goryo, officials of the family name “Seol” (偰氏), including Seol Son and Seol Jangsu, were playing active parts in politics with King Gongmin’s preferential treatment. In addition, Seolsa had served in government posts in Yuan and Zhang Shicheng’s kingdom of Wu (吳). Therefore, Seolsa had experiences and the ability to collect intelligence with which to accurately identify Northeast Asia’s circumstances, and he was particularly eligible to closely investigate the conditions of Goryo. While Goryo-Ming relations rapidly advanced with Seolsa’s diplomatic visit (使行) as a momentum, Goryo’s relations with the Northern Yuan were gradually severed. This may signify that Seolsa had fully served his role. Jang Jaon and Seolsa directly experienced changes in international circumstances across their national borders, and the latter part of King Gogmin’s reign was in need of “international figures” that were well-informed about the situations of China and the Korean Peninsula regardless of their national origin of Goryo or Ming. In addition, while the two countries’ “typical” relations were not yet established, both countries required envoys who could accurately identify changes in the overseas environment and actively react to them. In this context, Jang Jaon, “the man on the street” could be appointed in Goryo, and in Ming, Seolsa who had recently defected could be sent as an envoy to Goryo.

Since the identification of households on the family register was conducted focusing on the family head who was the representative of the family, a family head was replaced in order to avoid the discontinuity of the household in case the head couldn’t act as a family head due to an accident. Based on 『the family registers of Danseong-hyeon, Gyeongsang-do』, this study examined the records of family head-related accidents on the family registers and the reflected issues of family head succession. The reasons for family head-related accidents appeared in the family registers of Danseong-hyeon were mainly classified as death, flight, move, separation, introduction of master, leaving home to become a Buddhist monk, and the reasons were recorded with two tendencies. First, the qualification of a family head was ‘a grown-up man.’ This was stipulated in the law related to the family register regulations and once again confirmed by the type of a family head succession shown in the family head-related accidents on the family registers. Second, the purpose of accident records were not limited to a simple listing of an accident. In other words, a family head-related accidents were recorded with intentions to maintain and secure a household. In this regard, it appears that the records of the family head-related accidents were differently characterized depending on the period. In the 17th century, the accidents were recorded only when a family head died and the majority of households whose family head accidents were recorded belonged to the upper class. However, the purpose and characteristics of the family head-related accident records changed after the early 18th century. The type of the family head-related accident records diversified and the recording was spread to the middle and lower classes. The reason for such changes was in relation to the nation's intention to select a male as a family head in order to easily impose taxes, and on the other hand, it was a result of the application of policies aimed at maintaining and securing the number of households and their family members after the early 18th century. In this process, it is considered that the purpose and characteristics of the family head-related accident records became different from those of the 17th century.

Jukgan Seonsaeng Iljip (『竹諫先生逸集』, hereafter Iljip) is a collection of writings allegedly written by Yu Jeon (劉筌; Jukgan 竹諫 is his nom de plume) and writings by the Gangneung Yu clan (江陵 劉氏). The book was published in the 1920’s, approximately nine centuries after Yu Jeon’s life. Yu Jeon is believed as a political exile from the Song dynasty to the Goryeo and the founding father of the Gangneung Yu clan of modern Korea. One can find several editions of Iljip in diverse institutions inside Korea, such as the National Library, the National Institute of Korean History, and a few university libraries. This paper pursues the correlation and the filiation of the extant editions. The consequence could be summarized as follows. The earliest extant edition was printed in Pyeongyang in 1924 by a descendent group led by Yu Byung-ik (劉秉翊). Another descendent group with Yu Hong-ryeol (劉弘烈) published another edition in Nonsan in 1926. Xylographic editions of Iljip are also available, but they do not provide any direct publication information. Based upon the number of the epilogues (跋文) and the odes to the first father (感慕吟) by the Gangneung Yu descendants this paper infers that the earlier xylographic version of Iljip must have been printed not earlier than 1924 but around 1926 as like the edition of Nonsan. The later xylographic edition includes a new epilogue for reissuing (重刊跋文), which was written in 1939, so that it would be reasonable to consider that it had been printed later than 1939.

Ch’oe Nam-sŏn proposed the conduction of Korean Studies in 1922 because he thought that eliciting the nation’s civilizational capability would be essential for the resurrection of nation. His thoughts resulted from his continued problématique since the late 19th century. He believed that the autonomous development of civilization would not be attained by only following the Western civilization. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn largely focused on three research topics in the 1920s. The first theme was to explain the national ordeals as historical momentum. The second was to reestablish Tan’gun and Old Chosŏn as the center of the ancient civilization in East Asia. The third was to prove that the cultural heritage of Old Chosŏn passed down to the life and religious faith of the nation. Yet most of all, he made every effort to demonstrate that Old Chosŏn was the center of the ancient civilization of East Asia, which was called the Pulham Culture Area. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn’s research received positive responses among the general public. This was because he refuted Japanese scholars’ assertion that Tan’gun was fabricated, and he reestablished the Korean national origin as the beginnings of East Asian civilization. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn also gained the support of nationalist intellectuals as well as the mass people. His claim for national solidarity provided them with intellectual resources for ways to cope with socialists’ ideological offensive. However, his study had limitations. The research method was lacking in objectivity and the ideological message was not much different from the theory of civilization and enlightenment. Even the supportive nationalist intellectuals did not consider his work as scientific research and criticized it as an ideological study like that of socialists. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn’s ideas resonated with the general public, but his role inside the camp of nationalist movement almost disappeared. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn thought that the Chosŏn society and nationalist movement had serious problems, when he failed to draw positive responses from them despite all his passionate research activities. He believed they did not desperately consider methods for practice though they expected the resurrection of nation. He also criticized that socialists’ ideological dependency frustrated all efforts to love and glorify the nation. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn did not think the current situation of Chosŏn would be improved for some time. He felt deeply discouraged by the frustration of his endeavor to establish Tan’gun and Old Chosŏn as an ideological pointer. Giving up on the Chosŏn society and nationalist movement, he participated in the Committee for Compiling Korean History (Chosŏnsa P’yŏnsuhoe) in 1928 and began to work following his thoughts. Ch’oe Nam-sŏn wanted to prove the Chosŏn nation’s civilizational status and propose a principle of national independence, but as his research activities were frustrated, he began to deny the Chosŏn nation’s autonomous ability and was absorbed into the theory of East Asian Culture centering on Japan.

This paper examines the organization and operation of the ‘pioneering group’ in Chungcheongnam-do Seosan and Chungcheongnam-do Jangheung, and examined the actual experiences and the multi - faceted nature of the project. 5.16 In the military period, the government organized and supported the pioneering group in the name of pursuing ‘Making the society cheerful’ by isolating orphans and wanders and planned to distribute the farmland when the farmland was created through land clearing or reclamation. Seosan and Jangheung's pioneering groups were built in the area where refugees settled in the 1950's. The people who became pioneers were often forced to live, and they were under detention. It was operated with the same organization as the barracks, and the task of reclamation of the sea and clearing the tidal flats was very intense labor. There was a person who died in an accident while working, but there was no funeral process or graveyard, nor was it known outside. Inside the pioneer group, it created its own surveillance system that prevented it from escaping, and beatings were routinely carried out. The Jangheung and Seosan pioneering groups also had important differences. Jangheung had reclaimed the sea, but Seosan cleared the state - owned land. Settlers appealed to the government or filed a lawsuit with the government, but they lost. The pioneers worked to make farmland, but there were many reasons other than ownership of the land to decide whether to move or settled. The pioneers of Jangheung migrated even after receiving farmland. The reasons include the productivity of farmland, surveillance and violence at the workplace, stigmatization and conflicts in the community, and shortcomings. Seosan settlers are demanding the government to clarify the truth and to compensate the victims. In the 1960s, the pioneering group was evaluated positively and no specific facts have been revealed. Because the government emphasized development and forced people to mobilize. Also, there was a recognition of the society that suppressed and discriminated the weak in the military culture.

After the June Democracy Movement, the memorial ceremony of the Independence Movement Day(March 1) of the South Korean government, the historical, political and social significance of its representations of the March 1 Independence Movement will be examined during the 30 years from 1988 to 2017. The Roh Tae-woo and Kim Young-sam government tried to get rid of authoritarianism through the memorial ceremony of the Independence Movement Day, but the democratization was limited. The Roh Tae-woo government and ‘the Civilian Government’ represented the March 1 Spirit as a ‘national unification’ and ‘liberal democracy’, but this went round and round. Meanwhile, the representations of the March 1 Independence Movement were combined with real political and economic tasks. The Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun government emphasized the national event of the Independence Movement Day for the reconciliation and cooperation between South and North Korea, and of ‘clearing the past affairs bygones’. ‘The Government of the People’ and ‘the Participatory Government’ represented the March 1 Independence Movement as a ‘participatory democracy’ and ‘peace’. The Roh Moo-hyun government also strongly raised the issue of ‘resolving the past affairs bygones’ of Japan. But Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye government tended to simplify the celebration of the Independence Movement Day. However, they put emphasis on developing ‘patriotism’ through the memorial ceremony of the Independence Movement Day. In addition, through the Independence Movement Day speech, they stressed that ‘the practical’ relationship between Korea and Japan and sanctions against North Korea are important. And despite the social opposition to the regime, they only told the representation of ‘fusion’ and ‘combination’ as in the authoritarian era.