Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions. Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty - James B. Palais
I082 NOTES TO CHAPTER 9
- For the entrepreneurial activities of Koreans after the 1920S see Carter J. Eckert,
Offspring of Jc'mpire: The Koch 'ang Kims and the Colonial Origins of Korean Capital-
ism, [876-/9";5 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991).
- The detailcd articles on these topics have been collected and published in Kim
Yang sop, Chos(ill hllgi l1ong(Jpsa yOIl'gll: nongch 'on kyiil1gje, salwe py6ndong [Stud-
ies in the agricultural history of late Chason: The village economy and social change]
(Seoul: Ilchogak, 1970); in particular, see the two articles on the yang 'an or land regis-
ters, pp. 78-188, 208-94. One of his examples should suffice to illustrate the problem.
In one village of 382 men in the district of Chinju in 1846, about 6 percent owned 44
percent of the land while 63 percent owned only 18 percent. The rich peasant averaged
over 1 kyol per person, while the poorest peasants held less than 1/4 kyol. Since the oppor-
tunities for increasing as well as losing one's property were available to men of all sta-
tus groups, even though there were differences of fortune depending on the status of the
individual. a few slavcs wcre ahle to become rich peasants, even landlords. An increas-
ing number of yang ban were forced to till the earth and were reduced to tenancy as well,
even though the household registers appeared to indicate that the yangban population
was growing. In the same village in Chinju, most of the landlords and rich peasants
were yangban in status, but 8 percent of the men of good status (vangmin) or commoners
and 3 percent of the slaves also fell into this category. On the other hand, 55 percent of
the commoners and 73 percent of the slaves owned the smallest parcels and were poor
peasants. Kim Yongsop, "Sipp'alku segi lii nong'op silchonggwa saeroun nong'op
kyongyongnon" [The agricultural situation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and
the new managerial agriculture], in idem, Han 'guk kiindae nongopsa yon 'gu [Studies
in the history of modem agriculture in Korea] (Seoul: Ilchogak, 1975), pp. 2-6.
- Pak Nouk, "Chason sidae komunsosang lii yong'o komt'o: t'oji nobi mun'girul
chungsim'uro" [An investigation of the use of tenns in old documents of the Choson
period]. Timgballghllk chi 68 (October 1990):90, 119.
- Kim Yongs()p. '"Sipp'alku segi lii nong'op silchong," pp. 7-15.
II. Braudel, Wheels of Commerce 2:281-82; Holderness, Pre-Industrial England, pp.
69-75 et passim.
- Sec Kim Yongsop, '"Yang 'an ui yon 'gu: Choson hugi ui nonka kyongje" lA study
of the land registers: The peasant households in thc late Choson dynasty], pt. I, Sahak
WJI1'gu 7 (May 1960): 1 -95; also publishcd in idem, Chos(in hugi nongopsa yon 'gu [Stud-
ies in the agricultural history of late Choson] vol. 1 (Seoul: Ilehogak, I970).
- Kim Yongsop, "Sipp'alku segi ui nong'op silchonggwa," pp. I5-29.
- Ibid., pp. 29-72.
- Ki m Yongsop, Chos6n hug i nong (ipsa ylin 'g u: Ilollgch 'on kyongje, sahoe pylindong
(I970), pp. ISR-S9, table 59·
- Ibid., pp. 149-54. 157. tablcs 38-56, pp. 149-54, IS7. The specific district was
Nanjon-myon, Wansan-gun in the Chonju area. Ibid., p. Ro. In only one subdistrict in
Wansangun ncar Ch6nju in Cholla Province did yangban totally dominate landholding.
Although all yangban in the district, 23.6 percent of the total number of registered kiju,
owned 45.5 percent of the land, the 97 yangban (8-4 percent of the population) who owned
more than I kY{JI held 3S.5 percent of the land. Yet few were very large landowners; only
