SLAVERY 247becomes even less important to insist on a revolutionary increase in individual
peasant income to explain the decline of slavery. Furthermore, while the matri-
lineal rule of 173 I may have contributed to the reduction of the slave popula-
tion, it had not had that effect in the previous eight centuries of its history.
Despite the decline in the percentage of the slave popu lation, hereditary slav-
ery remained intact as a legal principle and social custom to the end of the nine-
teenth century. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the possible influence
ofYu's ideas on attitudes and policies toward slavery in the century after his death.The Matrilineal Rule of 173 IYu had argued in favor of adopting the matrilineal succession rule in mixed mar-
riages as a means of gradually reducing the slave population even though he
objected to it in principle because it recognized the legitimacy of inherited slav-
ery for children of slaves. The matrilineal rule was adopted in 1669 without Yu's
influence, but its effects in the decade after its adoption did not indicate that the
confidence that Yu or Song Siy61 had in it as a mcans of increasing the com-
moner population was warranted. On the one hand, it appeared that as much as
60 percent of slave marriages at this time were with commoner spouses, but the
slaveowners took steps to reduce the impact on the number of slaves they owned
by the matrilineallaw.'5^2 In 1678, when the law was rescinded by King Suk-
chong, Minister of Punishments Yi W6nj6ng stated that the owners of male slaves
who married women of good status wcre falsely calling their commoner wives
their own family slaves (panno) so that their sons (and daughters as well) could
remain base in status and retain exemption from labor service. '53 He estimated
that no more than TotO 20 percent were accurately registered. "What originally
was supposed to be a means for expanding the number of commoners, had in
fact become the means for extending chicanery and falsification." Furthermore,
there had been an increase in the number of lawsuits between masters over own-
ership because slaves were falsifying the birth dates of their children. It was at
this time that H6 Ch6k, the Southerner faction leader. claimed that although he
had been sympathetic to Song Siy61's advocacy of the matrilineal rule in 1669,
he now saw the need to rescind the matrilineal law because of these problems
in its administration. Although Ho's opposition has been attributed to an inten-
sification offactional animosity, he certainly had reason for doubting the effec-
tiveness of the law and may have changed his mind for rational rather than
political reasons. '54
The Westerners replaced the Southerners in power in 16Ro and immediately
thereafter Song. as chief state councilor, proposed restoration of the matrilineal
rule to expand the commoner population, but King Sukchong did not agree until
- In 1689, after Sukchong carried out a great purge of Westerners, removed
Yulgok's tablet from the Confucian shrine, and executed Song, Mok Naeson
(leader of the Southerner faction) obtained King Sukchong's approval to rescind
the matrilineal rule. Like H6 Ch6k and some of the fifteenth century opponents