Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions. Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty - James B. Palais
NOTES TO CHAPTER I 1023
- Yi Songmu. "Yangban," in Kuksa p'yonch'an wiwonhoe. ed., Han 'guksa,
10:549-55: Yi S6ngmu, Choson ch 'ogi yangban yein 'guo pp. 4-[7·
- Yi S6ngmu, "Yanghan," Han 'guksa 10:552.
- Song June-ho, "Chos6n yangban'go" [A study of the Choson yangbanJ. in idem,
Chos()l1 .Ii/IlOna ylin 'gu [Studies in the social history ofChos6n 1 (Seoul: Ilchogak, 1987),
pp. 165-71: Yi S6ngmu. Chos(Jn ch 'ogi yang ban yein 'gu, pp. 2-4, 366-6T Han Yang'u,
"Chos(lI1 ch'ogi sahoe kyech'ung yan'gu e taehan chaemn" [A reconsideration of stud-
ies on social strata in early Chos6n], Han 'guk saron 12 (February 1985):334: Yu
Sungwan, Chosein ch 'ogi sinbunje yi5n 'gll (Seoul: Uryu munhwasa, 1987), pp. 6-174:
Yongho Choe, The Civil Examinations and the Social Structure in Early Yi Dynasty Korea:
1392-1600 (Seoul: The Korean Research Center, 1987), passim and esp. pp. 161-66.
- Yu Suwan, Usei (Seoul: S6ul Taehakkyo kojan kanhaenghoe, 1971), pp. 131, 165:
Han Yong'u, "Yu Suwon ili sinbun kaehy6k sasang" [Yu Suwon's ideas about the reform
of social status J. Hall'gliksa y()n 'gll 8 (September 1972 ):40-41. 47: Paolo Santangelo,
La Vita e /IJpera di nl Suwiin Pensatore Coreano del XV!!! Scc% (Naples: Istituto Uni-
versitario Orientale, Seminario di Studi Asiatiei, T981), pp. 78-79.
- Yu SCIngwon, CllOS()1I cll I)gi sinbunje ,vein 'gu, passim, esp. pp. 6-J 74. Song argued
that the tcrm wing was only used in apposition to eh 'rin (lowhorn. slave). See Song June-
ho, "Chos6n yangban-go," pp. 172-74,210,217-18,242. But Han YClllg'U pointed out
that when the term yangban was used in apposition to other terms for commoners besides
yall!;' in, such as paekseing, it meant "those who possessed office" (yangban) vs. "those
who did not possess office" (paekseing): in other words, a yangban was simply someone
who was a person of good status (yang'in) who held an official post, not someone who
possessed superior social status. See Han Yong 'u, "Choson ch'ogi sahoe kyech'ung yon 'gu
e taehan ehaeron" [A reconsideration of studies on social strata in early Chos6n]
Han'guksaroll 12 (Fehruary 1985):321-22.
- A number of Song's arguments that have been refuted or proved irrelevant to the
problem hy Han Yong'u and Yu Sungwon will be eliminated from discussion. Song, how-
ever, made an appeal to logic by arguing that no society with a significant slave popula-
tion could be divided so si mply into two classes of free men (\'(/ng' ill) and slaves (ch onmin)
because all of them had, and would have to have, a ruling class superior to the ordinary
class of commoners. Yu Sungw6n and Han Yong'u havc argued that neither ofthem denied
the existence of the yangban as a ruling stratum: they only denied that it was based on
inherited status.
Song also argued that the existence of a yanghan elite status group was demonstrated
by numerous statements about the aristocrats (kwijok), aristocratic families (kwiga), great
families (taejok), hereditary families (sejok), hereditary officials (sesin), officials of her ed-
itary salaries (s('rok chi sin), sadaehu, aristocrats (munh(}l). or hereditary factions (sehN).
Han, however. argued that the existence of such terms was only a matter of names or
nomenL·lature. and did not prove the existence of hereditary status.
Song also argued that he was never able to find a concrete instance when the term
yang'in was ever used to represent the yangban or sajok. The dilTercnce between yang-
ban and commoners was almost exclusively expressed hy the terms sajok (i.c .. yangban)
