A History of Korea (39 page)

In its heyday, the Chos
ŏ
n dynasty produced its greatest king in Korea’s long history and through its many different dynasties. Given the reign name Sejong (1418–1450), King Sejong was not only a wise, benevolent ruler but a noted scholar, scientist, and inventor, who organized the best talent of the country and achieved unprecedented advances for his country and people. He established the Chipp’y
ŏ
nj
ŏ
n, or Hall of Worthies, assigned outstanding scholars to it, and had them study the ancient statutes and institutions of Korea and China and provide him with advice and suggestions. He sent Yi Chong-mu to attack Tsushima, the lair of the Japanese pirates, in 1419, and ordered Kim Chong-s
ŏ
to establish the
yuk chin,
or six garrison forts, in the northeastern part of the peninsula in 1437. He delegated Ch’oe Yun-d
ŏ
k and Yi Ch’
ŏ
n to create the
sa gun,
or four outposts, along the upper Yalu in 1433, thus extending Korea’s northern frontier to the Yalu and Tumen rivers.

King Sejong’s greatest achievement was the scientific systematization of the Korean written alphabet, han’g
ŭ
l. Promulgated to the public in 1446, han’g
ŭ
l, a UNESCO Memory of the World, is one of the world’s premier phonetic alphabets for accurately representing the sounds of words. Perhaps the most scientific system of writing in general use in any country, the Korean alphabet, which now consists of 10 vowels and 14 consonants, possesses geometric beauty, simplicity,
and scientific accuracy, and, as such, can be learned by an uneducated man in a matter of hours.

King Sejong pursued the realization of Confucian humanism through his numerous accomplishments, including the invention of han’g
ŭ
l and the reduction in the land tax rate from one-tenth of the harvest to one-twentieth, all of which contributed to improving people’s lives.
¹
He also engendered a modern national consciousness in the minds of the people. After his death in 1450, the people venerated King Sejong as
Haedong yosun,
or Yao-Shun East of the Sea (Korea), named after China’s two legendary sage kings.

After the reign of King Sejong, a rift developed between the king and Confucian scholar-officials. The first son of Sejong succeeded him to become King Munjong (1450–1452), but he was ill and died after two years. His son, Tanjong (1452–1455), was only 12 years old when he became king in 1452, and state affairs were left to state councilors, as monarchical power declined. At this very point the king’s uncle, Prince Suyang, seized control of the government. He removed the opposition by killing his own younger brother, Prince Anp’y
ŏ
ng, as well as many able government officials including the elder politicians Hwangbo In and Kim Chong-s
ŏ
. When Prince Suyang finally seized the throne as Sejo (1455–1468) three years later, in 1455, many Confucian officials disapproved of Suyang’s usurpation of the throne as a violation of Confucian ethics. In 1456 some of these officials, including S
ŏ
ng Sam-mun, Pak P’aeng-ny
ŏ
n, Ha Wi-ji, Yi Kae, Yu
Ŭ
ng-bu, and Yu S
ŏ
ng-w
ŏ
n, who came to be known in later days as the
sa ryuksin,
or six martyred subjects, gathered secretly and plotted to depose Sejo. Unfortunately for them, the plan came to light before they were ready to take action. Many were ruthlessly slaughtered, and others went into hiding. Sejo sent his young nephew into exile but then killed him in 1457. Although immoral in terms of Confucian ethics, Sejo’s accession to the throne not only consolidated kingly authority but also led to national prosperity.

In 1468 Sejo was succeeded by his second son, Yejong (1468–1469), and following Yejong’s death in 1469, his nephew succeeded him as King S
ŏ
ngjong (1469–1494). As his posthumous title implies, the administrative structure of the Chos
ŏ
n dynasty was set in place under his reign. S
ŏ
ngjong set about compiling a statutory code that would define the structure and functioning of the Chos
ŏ
n government, and, in 1470, he produce the
Ky
ŏ
ngguk taej
ŏ
n,
which
became the cornerstone of the dynastic administration and provided a sort of constitutional law in written form. S
ŏ
ngjong’s reign also saw the compilation of poetry and prose from the past ages in a volume titled
Tongmun s
ŏ
n,
or Anthology of Korean Literature (1478); a geographical work on Korea titled
Tongguk y
ŏ
ji s
ŭ
ngnam,
or Augmented Survey of the Geography of the Eastern Kingdom (1481); and a general Korean history titled
Tongguk t’onggam,
or Comprehensive Mirror of the Eastern Kingdom (1484). Thus, 100 years after the establishment of the Chos
ŏ
n dynasty, a new ruling order and culture finally were completed.

From the beginning Chos
ŏ
n was an utterly hierarchical society. At the apex stood the yangban whose members served in the bureaucracy as civil or military officials. Along with the royal family, they were the social aristocracy of the state, virtually monopolizing the state’s education, official positions, and farmland. Although Chos
ŏ
n’s yangban class was far more broadly based than the ruling classes of Kory
ŏ
or earlier ages, it was still a privileged minority group, comprising less than 10 percent of the entire population. A sharp social cleavage existed between the yangban and other lower classes, as members of the yangban class became government officials almost entirely through the kwag
ŏ
, or state examination. The examination system was virtually the only road to attaining a high-level official position throughout the Chos
ŏ
n period. Confucian academic training was an indispensable condition for appointments to office through the examination system, and a number of educational institutions were established to provide this training to those in the yangban class. Many yangban members were not in government office, mainly because there were no vacancies. Those without government positions lived as scholars, many of them teachers or agrarian landlords who hoped to take or resume office based on their own merit or through factional patronage.

The yangban were exempt from nearly all the exactions placed upon commoners, whether land and tribute taxes, corvee labor, or military conscription. As Confucianism disdained working with one’s hands, the yangban avoided manual labor even to the point of starvation. They only gave themselves up to study, cultivating themselves to become s
ŏ
nbi, or men of virtue. The yangban, in short, were a parasitic, privileged class. Because Confucianism emphasized proper form in social activity, rites and ceremonies were as important for the yangban as the substance of government. In Korea, as in China, one of the six
government ministries, Ye-bu in Kory
ŏ
and Ye-jo in Chos
ŏ
n, specialized in rites which, in the Confucian view, included relations with foreign states.

The yangban closed the door to other social classes aspiring to attain their status and special privileges. In fact, virtually no movement occurred into or out of the yangban class. Yangban members married only persons within their own class, securing them hereditary yangban status. They did not even reside in the same villages as those who were not yangban, preferring to live in the capital although they also resided in countryside estates. In any cases, separate villages were formed as yangban residences. But even within the yangban class, strict social distinctions were drawn. First, the military order was less well treated than the civil order, as the Chos
ŏ
n kingdom had become dominated by Confucian scholars who generally despised the military. In the beginning of the dynasty, the princes and other men of military-officer background had commanded their private armies and used them to gain personal power. As a result, a deep-seated distrust of the military developed, and military officials were rarely appointed to ministerial or higher posts. Those of illegitimate birth were also excluded from important government office. Sons of the yangban by secondary wives and their descendants were not regarded as yangban and were barred from sitting for the state examinations. In Chos
ŏ
n’s strict Confucian society, where women’s fidelity was highly prized, sons and grandsons of yangban widows who remarried could not serve in government office. There was regional discrimination as well; residents of the northern provinces of P’y
ŏ
ngan and Hamgy
ŏ
ng would find it almost impossible to obtain an appointment to higher office. All these restrictions were designed to maintain the yangban’s position as a privileged minority, for yangban members feared that an increase in their numbers would deprive them of their special social position.

Although the yangban all aspired to public office, they seldom served in the lower-ranking technical posts. The so-called
chungin,
or middle people, occupied these technical specialties on a hereditary basis, serving as scribes, medical officers, translators and interpreters, technicians in science-related fields, government artists, and local functionaries called hyangni or
aj
ŏ
n.

Although Chos
ŏ
n was a hierarchical society from the start, initially it was not so closed as to make upward mobility completely impossible. As time went on, however, yangban society was firmly established, with yangban members constituting a select ruling elite and enjoying all sorts of special privileges. Even the most talented in the kingdom could find little opportunity to exercise their faculties if they were from the lower classes.

Although in theory the king held autocratic power, in reality he could exercise his exclusive authority only regarding personnel appointments and acts of treason. Under Confucian precepts, he was required to govern his country wisely and thus had to heed the advice of the Confucian scholar-officials who, in effect, could curb the excessive exercise of regal power. Every day the king deliberated and decided state affairs with key government officials, a process termed
sangch’am,
or constant attendance. Along with the monarch, a bureaucracy of scholar-officials, acting as the agent of the king’s will, controlled central government functions and extended its control into the countryside, from the provincial to the county level.

The Chos
ŏ
n kingdom’s basic administrative structure was established during its first quarter-century of rule, but important additions were made in the next half-century. This structure was not much different from that of Kory
ŏ
’s government. The highest government organ was the
Ŭ
ij
ŏ
ngbu, which had evolved from Kory
ŏ
’s Top’y
ŏ
ng
ŭ
isasa, or Supreme Council. In 1400 the Top’y
ŏ
ng
ŭ
isasa was replaced by the
Ŭ
ij
ŏ
ngbu as a deliberative organ. Joint decisions of the
Ŭ
ij
ŏ
ngbu were made by three high-level state councilors, called
ch
ŏ
ngs
ŭ
ng.
These three top-ranking officials included the
y
ŏ
ng
ŭ
ij
ŏ
ng,
or chief state councilor,
chwa
ŭ
ij
ŏ
ng,
or left state councilor, and
u
ŭ
ij
ŏ
ng,
or right state councilor, who preliminarily discussed important matters of state, agreed upon decisions, and, after receiving the king’s approval, transmitted them to appropriate government agencies. At the same time they were in charge of several other organs, such as the Ch’unch’ugwan. In addition, they were responsible for
ky
ŏ
ngy
ŏ
n,
or royal teaching, and
s
ŏ
y
ŏ
n,
or teaching the crown prince. Both were usually conducted three times a day for delivering lectures on Confucian classics to the king and the crown prince. Compared to Kory
ŏ
’s Top’y
ŏ
ng
ŭ
isasa, Chos
ŏ
n’s
Ŭ
ij
ŏ
ngbu had far fewer officials and far less power, consisting of only seven members, including three high-level state councilors. Also, as many important government matters were referred for disposition directly to the six ministries, political power of the
Ŭ
ij
ŏ
ngbu was relatively weak. The
Ŭ
ij
ŏ
ngbu primarily served an advisory role to the throne.

The yuk-cho, composed of the Yi-jo, Py
ŏ
ng-jo, Ho-jo, Hy
ŏ
ng-jo, Ye-jo, and Kong-jo, in order of importance, functioned as the chief executive organs. The six ministries received royal commands directly on matters under their purview
and then execute the king’s decisions. Although the respective areas of jurisdiction of Chos
ŏ
n’s yuk-cho were almost the same as those of Kory
ŏ
’s yuk-pu, the political importance of the former was much greater. High-level officials of these six ministries not only executed the king’s decisions but also sat in company with the king and with high-level state councilors of the
Ŭ
ij
ŏ
ngbu to deliberate important matters of government.