SLAVERY 217were favorably disposed to some type of slave reform, others were afraid that
wanton manumission would create a rebellious mood among the slaves, and
most were firmly opposed to slaves holding office and wielding political power.
The kings after Kongmin continued the process of liberating or confiscating
slaves held illegally by wealthy and powerful men, but they lacked the power
to solve the problem. Slaveowners continued to retain their hold over slaves
and to ignore adverse court decisions.^34
CONFUCIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD SLAVERY IN EARLY CHOSON
Prese rvation of the PatrimonyAnother attempt at solving the slave question began after Yi Songgye's coup
d' etat of I 388. The new king and his officials had to clear up a tremendous back-
log of pending lawsuits over slave status and ownership. The small group of
Neo-Confucians who supported Yi Songgye's establishment of the Choson
dynasty were not in favor of slave reform. When the government closed down
most Buddhist monasteries and confiscated their slaves, it did not manumit them
but converted 80,000 of them to government slaves. This act initiated a signif-
icant expansion of the system of servile state labor that at its height numbered
over 350,000 slaves and was not brought to an end until I 80T .35 Nothing could
be more indicative of the blindness of the Confucian moral conscience to the
institution of slavery than this one policy.
On the other hand, the new rules governing the inheritance of status and the
division of slave property did, in fact, reflect a greater concern for Confucian
ethical norms than before, but the main consequence was increased emphasis
on the principle of filial piety rather than humanitarian treatment, freedom, or
equality for slaves. The Confucian moral position at this time was not that hered-
itary slavery should be abolished, but on the contrary that its preservation was
necessary to the preservation of patrimonial property, which by its bequeathal
from one generation to another maintained the continuity ofthe family and clan.
Even if an individual head of family were inclined to free slaves as an act of
compassion, he had no right to do so because patrimonial rights transcended
individual property rights.^36
Just prior to the founding of Choson, in 139 I and T 392, regulations were
adopted for the inheritance of slaves by heirs of slaveowners that were designed
to preserve the patrimony through the eldest legitimate son and the patrilineal
line of succession where possible. Slaveowners were forbidden to donate slaves
to Buddhist monasteries, give them away to other persons, or sell them off except
in dire financial circumstances and only then with express permission from the
authorities. The Slave Agency (Togwan) in 1392 proposed that when a family
lacked male heirs, the husband or wife would inherit the slaves of the spouse
only for their lifetime, after which the slaves would be given to the close rela-