SLAVERY 221disputes continued until King Sejo ordered a new set of regulations in 1459 to
settle outstanding cases. He ruled out all cases originating before 1417 and
ordered disputed slaves awarded to the winner of a previous decision or to the
possessor if the evidence was inconclusive.^54 After a century of active discus-
sion and legislation on the problem of lawsuits over slaves, the commitment to
property rights in slaves remained secure.
Offspring of Mixed MarriagesIn the early Koryo period intermarriage between slaves and commoners had been
forbidden altogether, but since the law could not be enforced, in I039 the
matrineal rule was adopted for the purpose of determining offspring of such illicit
unions. Even this law appears to have been ignored in practice because it had
to be promulgated again in 1133 and 1283. Since there is some possibility that
a specific ban on the marriage of male slaves to commoner women was in effect, 55
the matrilineal law of I039 probably pertained only to the offspring of marriages
between males of good status and women of base status, ensuring that the chil-
dren of such mixed marriages would inherit slave status. The purpose of the matri-
lineal law might then have been to increase the number of private slaves through
breeding, diametrically opposite to its purpose later in the early fifteenth and
late seventeenth centuries to provide a means of escape from slave status for a
modest number of slaves.
In 1300 the Mongols demanded that the Koryo government modify current
practice in the inheritance of slave status to allow offspring of mixed slave!com-
moner marriages to be freed and given good or commoner status in conformity
with current Yuan custom.^56 King Ch'ungnyol, however, refused and informed
the Mongol emperor that under prevailing Korean custom the offspring of mixed
marriages inherited slave status if either of the parents were base. Even if a mas-
ter chose to manumit a slave, good status would last only for the lifetime of the
freed slave; his or her children and all future progeny would remain base or slave.
In other words, current practice was much more restrictive than the matrilineal
law of I039Y
During the transition to the Choson dynasty the supporters of Yi Songgye's
new regime believed that the proportion of slaves in society was too large and
had to be cut back. Despite the occasional, and almost whimsical, wish for total
abolition, the Koryo government in 1392 simply reaffirmed the original Koryo
law prohibiting intermarriage between commoners and slaves altogether. The
object was neither abolition nor major reduction of the slave population, but a
freezing of the status quo. It was, however, impossible to enforce the ban, and
it had to be promulgated again in 1401, 1405, and 1413 without much effect.^58
No one ever suggested that slavery be limited to the existing generation of
slaves or to criminals only and not their descendants. Nor did anyone propose
a total reversal of late Koryo practice by allowing offspring to become commoners