Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions. Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty - James B. Palais
1068 NOTES TO CHAPTER 6
- "Only by consulting the blood line [of people], are they treated as slaves for a
hundred generations. For this reason some ignorant and base person could control the
life or death of others, and even if someone of outstanding talent should appear among
[the slaves], he too would be confined to being the slave of another. How is this reason-
able [lit., By what principle]?" MHBG 162:22b; PGSR 21 :38b-39a, 26:4a-b; Chon, "Sip-
kusegich'o naesinobi," p. 250.
- A revised edition was presented to King Chongjo in 1783. Yi Usong, annotated
commentary, in Chosen kosho kankokai ed., apparently photographically reproduced,
An Chongbok, Tongsa kangmok, 3 vols. (Seoul: Kyong'in munhwasa, 1970), frontpa-
pers. Yun Namhan gives the dates 1756-59 for completion of the text, annotated intro-
duction to An Chongbok, KugyiJk Tongsa kangmok (Seoul: Minjok munhwa ch'ujinhoe,
- 1:3- 8.
- An Chongbok, Tongsa kangmok 2:20-21; 1977,3:22 1-22; idem, Kugyok tongsa
kangmok 2:22 1-22. The Chungbo munhonbigo selection is a slightly contracted version
of this quotation. MHBG I62:9a-IOa.
- For references toAn's discussion of Kija and instances of slavery in early Korean
history to the early Koryo period, see the following pages in the Chosen kosho kankokai
edition of An ChDngbok, Tongsa kangmok I: I05, I 18,233,2:98, 147-48. For these and
other later references, check the index under nobi in vol. IO of the Minjok munhwa ch'u-
jinhoe 1977 edition. KSDSJ 1:884; ChOsenshi [History of Korea] (Keijo: Chosen
sotokufu, 1937), series 5, IO: 670 states that An became tutor or advisor to the crown
prince in 1772, probably until his appointment as district magistrate four years later.
- An Chongbok, Tongsa kangmok 3:221-22.
- Ibid. 2:48, dated 987.7th month; enactment of the nohi hwanch onbop (law return-
ing slaves to base status).
- Ibid. 2:129-30; Minjok munhwa ch'ujinhoe ed. (1977),4:80, notice about first
adoption of the ch onja chongmobop (matrilineal succession law) in I039.
- Chongjo himself commented that since slaves who became commoners gained
no particular tax advantage since they still had to pay the I p'il yangyok (commoner cloth
tax) - the same rate as commoner support taxpayers - the reason so many of them were
anxious to become commoners was because they hated being called slaves. Chongjo sil-
10k 32:37a-b. Chongjo I5.3.kyemyo, (1791). In 1796 the magistrate of Poun, Yun Che-
dong, said that "People preferred being noble to base, just as they preferred life to death
... and that they evaded tribute because there was nothing baser than the name of slave."
MHBG 162:32a-b, dated ChDngjo 20 (1796). These statements along with examples of
people who ran away to evade slave status rather than tax levies are cited in Chon
Hyongt'aek, "Sipkusegich'o naesinobi," pp. 242-47.
In 1795. Yang Chuik proposed fusing commoners and slaves and abolishing slavery.
He argued that both slaves and commoners were the children of the king. While com-
moners were controlled by the state, slaves were under the control of the state and pri-
vate families and thus carried a double burden. Ibid., p. 250, citation of Yang Chuik,
Agukchip 3. so (memorials). Chong Sanggi also wrote that the burden on slaves was
worse than commoners because they paid tribute either to their masters or to the capi-
