SLAVERY 265could successfully replace slave labor, on the grounds that Chinese customs were
not adaptable to Korean circumstance.
Given the developments in the commercial economy in the century since Yu
wrote, this argument should have made even more sense in An's time, but An
was more pessimistic than Yu in his expectations for reform and more bound to
the social status quo. It would therefore be mistaken to presume, as many mod-
em students of the Practical Learning (Sirhak) movement usually do, that the
eighteenth century heirs ofYu Hyongwon carried Yu's ideas to even more radi-
cal and progressive heights.
Abolition of Official Slaves
King ChOngjo Alleviates Discrimination. After King Chongjo came to the
throne in 1776, some officials began to argue that the difficulties of life for offi-
cial slaves stemmed from the stigma attached to slave status. Since both com-
moners and official slaves were alike in paying cloth tribute to the state, if the
stigma of slavery or baseness could be removed simply by changing their title
from slave to commoner, they would cease running away, and government rev-
enues would be replenished. Between 1784 and 1796 there was a total of eight
requests for the outright abolition of official slavery based on this logic.20f It is
hard to imagine anyone blithely remarking in the seventeenth century that the
only difference between commoners and official slaves was an unfortunate sense
of social stigma, which could be eliminated simply by ceasing to call slaves slaves
anymore.
Naturally, these proposals to abolish official slaves were opposed by conser-
vatives who feared that it would stimulate private slaves to rebel against their
masters and disrupt traditionally accepted standards of social status. The advo-
cates of reform, however, defended their position by pointing out that Kija's slave
law, the primary legitimating symbol of slavery in Korea, was limited in its appli-
cation to thieves and robbers and did not justify hereditary slavery. Hence, the
abolition of hereditary official slavery would not do violence to social status
distinctions.^202 This interpretation represented the culmination of a trend set in
motion by Yulgok and Yu Hyongwon in the late sixteenth and mid-seventeenth
centuries even though Yu himself neglected the Kija story and preferred to rely
mainly on The Rites (~f Chou.
King Chongjo, however, was still bound by tradition despite his sympathy
for the plight of the official slaves. In 179 I he praised his grandfather, Yongjo,
for his reforms but remarked that it was not possible to dispense with the label
of slave, because slavery had been in use in Korea for over a thousand years,
since the sage Kija. If you stopped calling official slaves slaves, then private
slaves would want the same thing, and the whole system of status distinction
(myongbun) would be destroyed. Nevertheless, he brought up a number of alter-
natives for discussion, such as allowing slaves with military talent to purchase
good status or stand for the military examinations, changing their title from slave