2016, Vol., No.123

The Transition of The Household Class System and The Distribution of Tribute Items in the Period from Taejo to Sejong of Joseon

ChangHoi Kim | 2016, (123) | pp.5~45 | number of Cited : 5

Joseon’s household class system was first enacted by King Taejo, but it was first applied to the allocation of tributes by the 4-class system in the 6th year of King Taejong. The 4-class system evolved into the 5-class system based on the land tax between the later years of King Taejong and the early years of King Sejong. The 5-class system was officially enacted in the 17th year of King Sejong. The household class was variously assigned according to the financial capacity of each household, but it was actually operated as a 3-class system. The households at that time were obliged to provide labor and pay taxes. The government thought that large, medium, and small households are able to support themselves after providing labor and pay taxes, but other households are not. Thus, other smaller households were tied into one to form small households. Small households were perceived as the smallest unit of households that can support themselves while providing labor and paying taxes. The requirement was 5 units of land tax in the time of King Taejong and 10 units of land tax in the time of King Sejong. The amount of tributes allocated to the local towns was determined by how flourishing or impoverished the towns were based on the size of lands and the number of households. The name of each town was directly related to how flourishing or impoverished the towns were. The names were actively changed during the time of King Taejong to match the name to the scale and condition of each town. It was quite successful by the 16th Century as the tributes were mostly collected according to the level of names. The most important factor for the change of town names was the number of households. The size of lands was measured by the domicile of households and the financial capacity of towns was carefully calculated by the number of households in each household class. The number of households, which remains fixed for a long time, became the standard for the allocation of tributes. This allocation system was established during the time of King Taejong with the enactment of household class system. The tributes were imposed on each household by assigning an equal amount of combination of various goods based on the premise that all households in the same class have the same capacity. Even if there were substitutions, the value of goods assigned to each household was considered important rather than the quantity. For this reason, it is assumed that more valuable goods were assigned to higher classes and less valuable goods were assigned to lower classes. In addition to this allocation method, the increasing market prices, unstable harvest, and high tax rates must have been burdening to the taxpaying households. The raising of allocation standards was an effort to reduce the burden of tax imposition. In other words, the households with relatively greater financial capacity were classified in a greater detail to collect the tributes to reduce the burden of lower classes. Also, the regional divide was eliminated to apply the same household class system nationwide and the gap between the classes was gradually increased to maintain the class in case of unpredicted events when it was difficult to exempt any one household due to the fixed amount of taxes.

Jewoldang Gyeongheon’s Life and Activities Seen from the Epitaph of Grand Master Jewoldang

Gyu-ri Yi | 2016, (123) | pp.47~91 | number of Cited : 0

Zen(K. Seon) master Jewoldang Gyeongheon(霽月堂敬軒1544～1633) was a disciple of Cheongheo Hyujeong(淸虛休靜) who entered the Buddhist priesthood at the age of fifteen and immersed himself in Buddhist practice for 75 years until he died at 91. He was well versed in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism and was also so thorough about keeping Buddhist commandments that he practiced ‘silence asceticism’ for many years. He distinguished himself at the Imjin War and received a letter of appointment to the governmental office from King Seonjo. However, he refused to take the post and devoted himself on Buddhist practice and edification of his students. He was an exemplary priest who practiced both Zen and Doctrinal (K. Gyo) Buddhism, a practice perception of Joseon Buddhism, and played an important role on establishing the tradition of Buddhist education that is called ‘Enter Zen via Gyo(由敎入禪)’. After his death, Gyeongheon’s disciples collected the ashes of his body after cremation ceremony and erected a pagoda and stupa. In 1636(the 14th year of King Injo’s reign), his student named Seolhyeon(雪玄) installed, to pay a tribute to Gyeongheon’s charitable deeds, ‘the Epitaph of Grand Master Jewoldang (K. Jewoldangdaesabi)’ in Simwon Temple on Mt. Bogae. Dragons and clouds are engraved beautifully on the head of the stele. The epitaph was composed by Commandant of Dongyang Sin Ikseong and written by King Seonjo’s fourth prince Lord of Uichang Lee Gwang. His epitaph was shipped to Jingpa Port from Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province and then transferred by 5,600 soldiers, monks and people on land. In the following year (the 15th year of King Injo’s reign), his disciples published the Literary Collection of Grand Master Jewoldang (K. Jewoldangdaesajip) as well. In the early 17th century, it was said that there were three religious traditions of Zen Buddhism in Joseon. The disciples of Gyeongheon, the School of Jewol(霽月派) asserted the religious tradition of Imje-Naong which means that they received the mantle handed down through Naong(懶翁), Younggwan(靈觀), Hyujeong(休靜), and Gyeongheon. Because it was the recognition of one school’s religious tradition by the Buddhist society that determines the status of the school, Buddhists at the time engrossed in establishing the identity and authenticity of their schools via erecting a stone stele and publishing an anthology of their masters. The fact that Gyeongheon’s disciples such as Doil(道一) visited Sin Ikseong, who was renowned as a fine prose writer, several times to ask him to compose the epitaph, erected Jewoldangdaesabi, and compiled Jewoldangdaesajip can be understood as an effort to secure the School of Jewol’s legitimacy by highly praising Gyeongheon’s.

A Review over the Time of Formation of Clan villages in Daegu prefecture in the late Joseon Period - Centering on 『Household Register of Daegu prefecture, Gyeongsang Province』-

KyungRan Kim | 2016, (123) | pp.93~131 | number of Cited : 7

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1811 Envoy to Qing China and the Perception of Foreign World of Lee Jeong - soo

Lee, Myung-jae | 2016, (123) | pp.133~175 | number of Cited : 6

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After the Ming-Qing transition, Chosun’s intellects made efforts to elevate Chosun as the only successor of Chinese civilization. Their efforts were made in a way to acquire the status of being China in racial, geographical, and cultural aspects, and among them, the utmost effort was made culturally. Meanwhile, they also discussed how to deem Qing continuously. Although the matter of internalizing Chinese culture proceeded rather smoothly, their awareness of Qing differed further. In other words, as the reign of Qing became stabilized, the way of deeming Qing between ideology and reality began to be divided. In Seoul during the beginning of the 19th century when Lee Jeong-soo (李鼎受: 1783～1834) worked actively, a variety of ideas conflicted. Even though Bukhak School insisting the acceptance of Qing’s civilization in the late 18th century was still influential, new ideas were suppressed through Sinyusaok (辛酉邪獄) or such and the powerful centered around the families of maternal relatives were obtaining the political lead. Lee Jeong-soo accepted diverse opinions from Chosun intellects in the 18th century and presented his own unique view to Qing. First of all, he emphasized Chosun’s history and cultural tradition, and then, he tried setting boundary from Qing which was sharing territory with Gochosun geographically. Through this, Qing was assigned with its identity as ‘ijeok’. Qing’s status as ijeok was once again verified by Osamgyeron. Lee Jeong-soo did severely criticize the affirmation of Osamgye practiced by Song Siyeol and Kim Changeop and some of the Bukhak School members and reconsideration on understanding of Qing. However, Lee Jeong-soo’s understanding of world order was not very different from the traditional viewpoint. Lee Jeong-soo did stress the relations of jogong․installation towards China and foreign empires according to the tradition of political affairs to China in Oegukjobingjo. Also, Lee Jeong-soo revealed his severe hostility against the West. Insisting that Western sciences are the teachings of birds and beasts, he developed Seoyanggeumsuron (西洋禽獸論). In brief, Lee Jeong-soo’s awareness of foreign countries was still significantly grounded on the traditional structure of China and igeok, and when this is extended to the scope of the world, it is converted to the new criteria of Confucianism (儒學), Seohak (西學), and anti-Confucianism (反儒學). This can be understood as the result of Lee Jeong-soo’s cultural Hwaigwan closely associated with the political and social situations of the early 19th century and becoming extended.

Negotiation of POWs during the Korean War and the Chinese Communists POWs’ Choice

Boyoung Kim | 2016, (123) | pp.177~210 | number of Cited : 4

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The Backgrounds of Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in North Korea

Jinah Chung | 2016, (123) | pp.211~251 | number of Cited : 8

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North Korean government merges and integrates agricultural cooperative associations with 'Ri' as a unit right after farm land arrangement. As a result, the average size of agricultural cooperative associations increases to 300 households or 500 Jeongbos in acreage under cultivation. Agricultural cooperative associations refurbished through New ‘Agricultural Cooperative Association Standard Rules’(tentative) are new associations with different characteristics from previous associations. Land and production tools owned by members belong to the new cooperative association, and members live and consume in the community. To remodel lagged productivity and old ideology of farmers, a cultural revolution was propelled together. However, from 1958 when the land arrangement was completed and cooperative associations were set in place, productivity decreased or stagnated and farmers were deviated. North Korean government faced a fundamental woe why they could not encourage farmers' spirit when construction of socialist society is propelled in full scale while revolutionary heat of farmers was heightened when land reformation or composition of agricultural cooperative associations was performed. North Korean government found the answer from the fact that they did not continue revolution in rural areas. It is continuous revolution theory that farmers and farming villages that drop behind comparing to city and city laborers that give an impetus to rapidly developing productivity continuously propel revolution without stoppage. North Korean government propelled ideology, technology and cultural revolutions based on continuous revolution theory to go toward socialism and communism not staying in agricultural cooperative associations. The goal of socialist Rural theses is to make the whole society working class, to give an impetus to productivity development and to march toward ideal of socialism and communism by removing difference between laborers achieving rapid productivity development and agricultural workers experiencing productivity stagnation. For this, North Korean government transformed cooperative associations into cooperative farms. North Korean government tried to achieve brainwashing and agricultural productivity development by homogenizing farming, farmers and cooperative associations based on engineering, workers and national system rather than accommodating them through accepting characteristics of agriculture and independency of cooperative associations, considering agriculture, farmers and cooperative association distracted, transitional and unstable. Although cooperative farms were owned by cooperative associations, they were nothing more than national farms from the perspective of operational method. During this process, farmers were not the ones who realize voluntary solidarity in agricultural cooperative associations but members of the cooperative farm and passive existences following the plans by the state. Finally, dynamics of agricultural cooperative association has disappeared although road map of North Korean socialists' agricultural system construction was completed.

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2016, Vol., No.123