14. THE BAEKJEONG CLASS
Kwon Ki-jung
After the founding of Joseon in 1392, the government undertook a reorga- nization of the social status system based on Neo-Confucian principles. The main social group of the new kingdom was the so-called sadaebu, and they implemented a system now called the yangcheonje that classified people as either citizens (yangin) or lowborn (cheonin). All people, except for those of unfree status (nobi), were regarded as commoners, granted rights and privileges that were denied to the unfree. People whose status was difficult to determine were classified as commoners. Children born to a commoner father and lowborn mother were also deemed to be com- moners. The purpose of this policy was to increase the number of taxpay- ers; in the process, the baekjeong class obtained the legal status of commoners. In the early Joseon period, a wide range of classes belonged to the cat- egory of yangin. The majority of yangin were commoners; above them were the yangban, the civil and military officials who constituted the elite of the country, and below them were the so-called sillyangyeokcheon. Despite the fact that they all had the legal status of yangin, there were tremendous status differences between the yangban and the sillyangyeok- cheon in actual social life. Since they worked at lowborn occupations, the sillyangyeokcheon were treated almost the same as the lowborn. Called gan or cheok in the early Joseon era, they generally worked at one of the so-called chilbancheonyeok, the seven occupations that were regarded as the most lowly at the time.1 Though their work was arduous, they were respectable jobs that involved service to the state. People in these occupa- tions lived together with commoners and also had opportunities to improve their social status. But among the sillyangyeokcheon, there were those who did not associate with the common people; they were called baekjeong.
1 They included the najang (low-ranking soldier) of the State Tribunal (Uigeumbu), the ilsu of provincial government offices, the joye of government offices, the jojol who worked in boat transport and storehouses, the yeokbo (messengers) of the Yeokcham, sailors sta- tioned at a regional naval base, and sentries who lit the fires at beacons.
Where Did the Baekjeong Come From?
The term baekjeong consists of two Chinese characters. The character baek (白) has the meanings of ‘white,’ ‘clear,’ ‘ignorant,’ and ‘absent,’ and the character jeong (丁) means ‘able-bodied man.’ When the character baek was used in a term indicating social status, it usually had the mean- ing of ‘absent’ or ‘lacking.’ Accordingly, the term seems to have originally referred to an ignorant, able-bodied man who possessed nothing. The meaning of the term changed from the Goryeo to the Joseon period. During the Goryeo period, all able-bodied males aged sixteen to sixty were required to perform certain duties for the state. In addition, there were specific types of physical labor and occupations that were hereditary such as soldiers, provincial clerks, and manual laborers. People required to per- form these jobs were called jeongho, while all other peasants were known as baekjeong. The jeongho were exempted from the normal obligatory duties to the state and were provided with a certain amount of public land in return for their services, whereas the baekjeong received no land. While the term baekjeong referred to the peasant class in the Goryeo era, the peasantry came to be called by other terms after the transition to Joseon, such as pyeongmin, yangmin, baekseong, or chonmin. This change was the result of a government measure in 1432 to reclassify jaein (enter- tainers) and hwacheok (butchers or wicker makers) as ordinary common- ers – i.e., as baekjeong. The measure was part of the government’s policy in the early Joseon period to increase the number of yangin. However, a legal measure could not force people to accept entertainers, butchers, or wick- erwork makers – groups historically treated with contempt – as the equal of ordinary peasants. The term sin baekjeong (new baekjeong) was also used to distinguish between the baekjeong of the Goryeo and the Joseon periods. But ordinary commoners disliked being grouped together with entertainers and butchers and did not refer to themselves as baekjeong. In the Joseon era, the term baekjeong came to refer not to ordinary peasants but to entertainers, butchers, and wicker makers. There was no legal requirement that baekjeong had to inherit their occupations as was the case with people of unfree status. Their professions did become hereditary over time as a result of the government’s discriminatory policies and their own traditional living patterns. Another term for lowborn people was yangsucheok. It had been used in the Three Kingdoms period, continuing into the Goryeo period as well. One record from the late Goryeo period noted that “the hwacheok are none other than the yangsucheok.” The term yangsucheok referred to the people