Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions. Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty - James B. Palais
NOTES TO CHAPTER 6 1067
- Han Yang'u, "Yu Suwan"; pp. 42-48, 53, 55-58.
- Yu Suwon. Usi5, pp. 160-61; Han Yang'u, "Yu Suwon," pp. 58-60.
- Chon Hyong('aek, Choson hugi nobi sinbun yon '/?lI, pp. 175-76.
- The material in this section is based on Chon Hyongt'aek. "Sipkusegich'o
naesinobi Lii hyokp'a," pp. J 89-260.
- Chon Hyongt'aek, Choson hugi nobi sinbun Y(Jn 'gu, pp. 121-42.
- ChOn Hyongt'aek, "Sipkusegich'o naesinobi," p. 2 I 8. Table 1 gives a breakdown
of central bureau and royal treasury and palace slaves. MHBG 162: I 8a lists for the year
J 484, 26 I ,984 capital and provincial male and female slaves and 90,58 I district (and?)
post-station male and female slaves, a total of 352,565.
- The quotas of slaves for each province under the fixed quota system based on the
I1rhak naesi nobi kamgong kuptae samok of 1755 are shown in table III-A and III-B in
Chon Hyongt'aek, "Sipkusegich'o naesinobi," p. 236. There were major differences among
the provinces. Most of the capital bureau slaves were in Kyong,ang, and most of the
royal treasury slaves were in the north, in Hamgyong, P'y(ing'an, and Hwanghae. Many
slaves were needed in Hamgyong at the two palaces located in HamhClI1g and Yonghung
for the conduct of ancestral rites, and there was a lot of palace land (sagllng chang('o)
in Hwanghae. There were many sinobi or central bureau slaves in Kyongsang because
of the large numbers of artisans there. Table III-A shows 30,617 capital bureau slaves,
with 20,350 in Kyangsang (14,101 of which were female slaves) and 5,678 in P'y6ng'an.
Table III-B shows 5,574 royal treasury slaves, with 1,200-1,500 in the three northern
provinces. See also Chon Hyongt'aek, Choson hugi nobi sinbun yon 'gu, pp. 43-47 and
231 for complaints about the shortages of substitute revenues after the rate reduction on
slave tribute in 1755.
- The provincial quotas were too high to begin with because the slave population
of 1750 was taken as the standard; there were in fact farfewer official slaves in existence
when the law was adopted. After the abolition of the slave registrars district magistrates
were lax in investigating the slave population and turned over the work to clerks who
either tllok bribes or neglected runaways. Even though the slave population of individ-
ual districts changed. magistrates were reluctant to report the results because an increase
in the number of repmted slaves would naturally mean an increase in the slave tribute
due from the district. In general, quotas tended to remain constant even though there
were reductions in the actual number of official slaves in some districts due to runaways,
deaths, old age exemption from service, epidemics, and famine, and in some areas slave
service was three or four times greater than what it was supposed to be. Chon Hyongt 'aek,
"Sipkusegich'o naesinobi," pp. 227-41.
- Ibid.
- Yongjo sillok 122:5a-b, 7a, Yongjo 50.2.chongyu, )O.3.pyong'in: SJW I349,
Yongjo )<).3.1 I. 12, 13, vol. 75, pp. 581, 584, 586, 588, 590 of the KlIk.l{/ p '-''i'inch 'an
wiwonhoe cd., cited in Ch6n Hyongt'aek, "Sipkusegich'o naesinohi," pp. 225-26.
- For discussioll of the high percentage of runaway oiticial slaves, see Chon
Hyongt'aek. Chosi5n 11lIgi nobi sinbun yon 'gu, pp. 230-31.
- MHBG 162:JOb-1 la.
