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The Yangban's Perception of the Ideal Economic Life During the Mid International Journal of Korean History(Vol.11, Dec. 2007) 117 G G G The Yangban’s Perception of the Ideal Economic Life During the Mid-Chosǂn Era * LEE | Introduction Chosǂn sought to implement a state management system that was based on Neo-Confucianism. In this regard, the lifestyle of the yangban class that belonged to the ruling elite of Chosǂn was one that was also geared towards the achievement of the tenets of the Neo-Confucian ideology. The members of this class were expected to focus on self- cultivation and the moral betterment of their families (᜙៕ᱢ๟, sushin chega) while furthering their knowledge of the classics. In addition, they were presumed to live a life of poverty and abstain from the amassment of private fortunes and pursuit of personal interests.1 To this end, a look at the individual travelogues and essays written after the 17th century, when the Yigi simsǂnghak (፜ხ៟ᚽ῀, study of principles, material force, and nature) and myǂngbunnon (Ꮩᕰጁ, theory of justification) were emphasized, reveals that the majority of these individuals lived a life of poverty and were devoid of any economic basis. In their works, these individuals expounded on their lack of any interest in the amassing of family fortunes, while expressing a desire to maintain their standing as Neo-Confucian scholars. Although obviously detached from reality, this * Researcher, Korean Studies Advancement Center 118 The Yangban’s Perception of the Ideal Economic Life during the Mid-Chosǂn Era appears to have been regarded by the yangban of Chosǂn as the ideal lifestyle. However, the yangban’s pursuit of a life of integrity and probity required a fundamental economic basis. A member of this class was expected to maintain Confucian-based etiquette in accordance with family rites (๟ዥ, karye), and to uphold his virtue and dignity as a yangban through the implementation of various practices such as the reception of visitors who came to take part in ancestral rituals and enshrinement ceremonies. To do so, the members of the yangban class were obliged to possess a certain sized home and an ancestral shrine; own slaves who would prepare the daily necessities such as heating materials, convey messages, and take care of various odds and ends; and have the minimum amount of land required to maintain their living standards. However, for the members of Chosǂn yangban class, becoming a merchant or craftsman was regarded as abandoning one’s privileges as a yangban, with this practice being especially taboo during the late Chosǂn. Engaging in agriculture was also frowned upon as well.2 As such, the members of the yangban class possessed few opportunities to conduct the economic activities needed to maintain their social dignity and honor. Although the members of Chosǂn yangban class needed to possess a certain economic basis in order to pursue the above-mentioned lifestyle of integrity and probity, such a basis proved hard to amass and maintain. As such, there existed a significant gap between the ideal and the reality when it came to the economic livelihood of the yangban. To minimize this gap between the ideal and the reality, the members of the yangban class first had to have a certain perception of what constituted the ideal and basic economic livelihood. To this end, this study analyzes the ideal economic livelihood as perceived by these yangban. However, the yangban’s ideal perception of the economy and their realistic economic livelihood can hardly be regarded as having remained unchanged throughout the Chosǂn era as a whole. Moreover, a realistic analysis of this phenomenon throughout the entire Chosǂn period represents no less problematic of a task. For the above-mentioned reasons, LEE Uk 119 this study focuses solely on the 16th and 17th centuries. The scope of this research has been limited to the 16th and 17th centuries for the following reasons. First of all, the 16th century constitutes the timeframe when a Neo-Confucian based social order featuring a patriarchal clan (褒褈, chongjok) system began to take root inside Chosǂn. In other words, the late 16th century marked the full- scale onset of the series of changes designed to establish a Neo- Confucian oriented social order and structure, changes which were occasioned by various factors such as the economic pressure caused by repeated war and partible inheritance, and increases in population.3 Therefore, this was a period in which the traditional order of Koryǂ and the Neo-Confucian order adopted after the foundation of Chosǂn became intertwined with one another. The 16th century in Chosǂn was thus an era in which Koryǂ’s Sǂnwang chije (ᚃᦕᴃ᱌) and Chosǂn’s Siwang chije (ឣᦕᴃ᱌) effectively coalesced. Thus, by analyzing the period in which these old and new orders encountered and clashed with one another, this study intends to obtain results which can be applied to the overall Chosǂn era. Scholars have regularly utilized privately held ancient documents as a means to analyze the details surrounding the yangban’s economic basis, their lifestyles, as well as their perception of the economy during the 16th and 17th centuries.4 To this end, previous studies have revealed that land and slaves (nobi) represented the economic basis of the yangban class, with the number of nobi one possessed regarded as the main parameter through which to determine that individual’s economic wherewithal.5 Other topics of interest in existing studies have been those of the inheritance practices which served to supplement their economic prowess of the yangban class during this period, and their perceptions of the economy.6 The uncovering and subsequent publication of various kinds of diaries written during these periods since the 1980s has led to a new breed of studies which have combined these recently found sources with existing ancient documents. In this regard, lately uncovered sources such as O Hǎimun’s <Soemirok>, Yi Munǯgǂn’s <Mukchae ilgi (ᐯᮝᬝᄆ)>, 120 The Yangban’s Perception of the Ideal Economic Life during the Mid-Chosǂn Era and Yu Hǎichǯun’s <Miam ilgi (ᑊ᠛ᬝᄆ)> have proved to be treasure troves of information.7 Consisting for the most part of the recollections of the members of the yangban class, these newly unearthed sources have helped to shed some light on the manner in which this particular group of individuals lived their lives. In addition, these sources have also helped to provide some insight into various aspects of their livelihoods that can hardly be understood using modern economic concepts. These sources have also helped to develop a better picture of particular features of yangban society, such as the extent to which the economic livelihood of individual members of the yangban class was influenced by the various human networks that existed between them, and how the yangban used public financial resources and their access to government authority to their private advantage. Moreover, these sources and ensuing studies have also helped to bring to life particular aspects of the yangban’s daily lives and mindset such as their desire to marry into richer families so as to accumulate wealth and fortune; their reaping of marginal profits as a result of their practice of investing in commerce through their slaves; their active involvement in the development and purchase of land as a means to accumulate wealth in a stable fashion; and their use of usury practices to accrue their fortunes. Thus, these existing studies and newly revealed sources have helped to shed some much needed light on the details of the yangban’s economic livelihood during the 16th century, as well as on their perception of the economy. Based on these sources, this study examines how the members of Chosǂn’s yangban class balanced this gap between the ideal and the actual, and what type of economic livelihood they regarded as being ideal. In order to remain logically consistent, this study focuses exclusively on the cases of Yi Hwang, Yu Hǎichǯun, and Yi Yutǯae. Furthermore, this study adopts an approach that is based on the separation of official and personal affairs. This is because, when viewed from the modern standpoint, one of the characteristics of the yangban’s economic livelihood can be said to have been the lack of distinction, or ambiguity, between official and private affairs. LEE Uk 121 The yangban’s economic livelihood during the 16th - 17th centuries During the 16th-17th centuries, the members of the yangban class lived a life that was based on notions different from those that govern us in the present era. This was especially true where their economic livelihood was concerned, as the latter constituted a part of a social order in which the traditional practices conveyed from Koryǂ and the new institutions occasioned by the introduction of Neo-Confucianism effectively co- existed with one another. The maintenance of this kind of social order was made possible by the following factors: not only were the yangban free to possess land and slaves (nobi) in accordance with the impartible inheritance system, but they were also able to easily secure the help of the government authorities to maintain and expand their land and slave holdings. In other words, the yangban were not only capable of controlling their land and slave holdings through the human networks established amongst themselves, but they could also increase their fortunes based on their ability to use their links to government authorities to develop and purchase more land. What’s more, their economic basis was further fortified by their ability to collect the nobi sinǯgong (ᅣᖔ៕࿆, slave tribute tax which public and private slaves (nobi) had to pay to government agencies or their lords in lieu of the provision of corvée labor) known as the chǯingnyǂm (Ẽᅛ) and by the various gifts and presents which they commonly received.
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