본문 바로가기
  • Home
Basic Search

Jinsang System in Goryeo and Gift Economy

Lee Jung Ran 1

1충남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In Joseon, jinsang(進上) was divided into mulseonjinsang(物膳進上), bangmuljinsang(方物進上), jehyangjinsang(祭享進上), depending on the type of offered goods, and a similar system is found in Goryeo too. Mulseon and bangmul are frequently mentioned in Goryeo documents related to jinsang. The former is an offering of food for king, and both regular sangseon(常膳) and irregular byeolseon(別膳) were offered. The latter is an offering of regional specialties for the king, and they are further divided into myeongiljinsang(名日進上) and gangmujinsang(講武進上). Many documents from Goryeo show that myeongiljinsang was practiced all the time. In Goryeo, the essential meaning of jinsang—a ritual of presenting an offering to the king—was fully embraced. In China, jinsang served as a symbolic ritual of confirming the emperor’s territorial control, and the same applied to Goryeo. In Goryeo, only the procedure of sending regional specialties was defined in royal rituals, true to that offering of jinsang is essentially a symbolic ritual that shows people how far the king’s authority reaches. In Goryeo, only a small number of goods were offered as jinsang, also true to its fundamental ritualistic nature, without practical use. However, in China, the symbolic meaning of jinsang was changed to private gifts by the time of Tang Dynasty, and this was followed in Goryeo as well. Saseon(私膳), a personal offering to win the king’s affection, became hugely popular during the late Goryeo period. This did not solely stem from officials’ desire. In fact, kings encouraged such offerings, driven by dwindling royal coffers. As the practice of jinsang grew with popularity of saseon, gift economy expanded. In a pre-modern society, exchanges of various gifts among government officials are closely related to bongyeo(封餘), which is to share remaining offerings among officials, and this practice thrived from Goryeo to Joseon. The customs of taking bongyeo was established due to the ruling class’ sense of entitlement. They felt that they were equally qualified as king to receive offerings from the people, and accordingly, liberally shared bongyeo amongst them without any qualm.

Statistics

  • 570 Viewed
  • 221 Downloaded

Tools

Issue List

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
Basic Search Advanced Search