1060 NOTES TO CHAPTER 6
umission by purchase continued to be practiced, probably to the end of the dynasty. See
also Hiraki, Choslilllzugi l1ohi;e ylin 'gu, p. 43: Ch'oe YOnghili, Imjil1 H'aeranjung ili sahoe
tongt'ae [Social dynamics during the Imjin Japanese invasions 1 (Seoul: Han'guk
yon'guw()n. 1975); pp. 74. I I I-25 (on the napsok system). Chon Hy6ngt'aek has writ-
ten that the napsok or songnyang fee might be as high as I60 siflll of rice, but generally
it only cost 50 siim. He refrained from estimating just how many slaves bought their free-
dom this way, but in I669 Kim Chwamyong noted that 5,000 siilll had been raised from
roo people as songnyang fees. Ch6n pointed out that in 1662 the price for manumission
dropped to 50 som, and in 1718 50 s(Ym for men bet ween ages of 15-30, 40 som for those
30-40, 30 som for those 41 -50. 20 slim, for those 5 I -55, and ro som for those 56-60.
He concluded that a slave had to own at least I kyN or more of land to accumulate 50
slim of rice, an amount that would classify him as a rich peasant. For roo yang of cash
or 50 p 'il of cloth a slave could pay 25 years' worth of sin 'gong to buy one's freedom,
the legal means to obtain escape from heavy service and slave status, but obviously only
the rich slaves could afford it: the poor ones remained slaves. Chon Hyongt 'aek, Choson
hugi nohi sin/mil .wYn'gu. pp. 3 I, 207-9.
- MHBG 62:2oa-b.
- Ibid. 62:2ob-21 a.
- Ibid. 62:2Ia.
- Ibid. 62:19b. The Chungbo munhbnbigo also contains an undated account ofYu
Kilngnyang, whose mother had originally been a female slave of a high official but fled
from her master's house in fear of punishment because she had broken a jade bowl. She
then met and presumably married a man, no doubt a commoner, and gave birth to Yu.
After Yu grew up, he passed the military examinations and rose to a prominent post in
the civil administration, Only then did his mother reveal her origins to him. Yu was so
upset he sought out his mother's old master and said he wanted to report himself to the
court, give up his military examination degree, and become his male slave as was his
due. The old master refused and even granted him a warrant of manumission. Yet in the
future, whenever his mother's former master summoned him. he responded immediately,
even when in the midst of his official duties at court. The point of this story is to illus-
trate the sense of duty. if not honor, that some people had toward the fulfillment of their
proper roles in society. Similarly, manumission did not eliminate the sense of duty of the
freed slave. MHBG 162:19b-20a.
- Chon Hyongt'aek, Chosbn hugi nobi sinbun yiin'gu, pp. 121-42.
- MHBG 62:T9b.
- Ibid. 62:19a-b; Yi I. Yulgok chiinsli [Thc complete works ofYi I] 15:26a (Seoul:
Songgyun'gwan taehakkyo, Taedong munhwa y6n 'gu won , 1958). Hiraki Makoto has writ-
ten that Yulgok's prestige was so great at the time that had he been fully committed to
reform. he could have persuaded the king to take action. Hiraki, "Jushichi-hachi seiki ni
okeru nuryosai shosei no kisoku ni tsuite" [On the status of offspring of male slaves and
commoner wi ves in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries I. C/UJ.I'1'11 gakuhr) 6 I (Octo-
ber 1971):49.
- Kim Y()ngmo, "Chos(m hugi sinbun kujo wa kil pyondong" [The social status struc-
ture and its change in late Choson] TongbanRhak chi 26 (1981):/23.
