The Emotions of Justice

Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Choson Korea

Jisoo M. Kim

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780295806174
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Korean History
• Index: History

The Choson state (1392–1910) is typically portrayed as a rigid society because of its hereditary status system, slavery, and Confucian gender norms. However, The Emotions of Justice reveals a surprisingly complex picture of a judicial system that operated in a contradictory fashion by discriminating against subjects while simultaneously minimizing such discrimination. Jisoo Kim contends that the state's recognition of won, or the sense of being wronged, permitted subjects of different genders or statuses to interact in the legal realm and in doing so illuminates the intersection of law, emotions, and gender in premodern Korea.

Notes

INTRODUCTION

1The year kyŏngo stated in Malgŭm’s petition could have been 1750, 1810, or 1870, depending on which sixty-year cycle the year fell in.

2Malgŭm’s petition does not mention which county or province she was from; she identifies herself only as a resident of “northern district.”

3Komunsŏ, 22: 149–51.

4Ibid.

5Rockhill, “Notes on Some of the Laws, Customs, and Superstitions of Korea,” 180.

6Pak Pyŏng-ho, Kŭnse ŭi pŏp, 63–68, and Chŏn Hyŏng-t’aek, Chosŏn hugi nobi sinbun yŏn’gu, 14–39.

7For a discussion of the slavery system in Korean history, see Salem, “Slavery in Medieval Korea”; Hong Sŭng-gi, Koryŏ kwijok sahoe wa nobi; Palais, Confucian Statecraft, 208–70 and “A Search for Korean Uniqueness”; Chŏn Hyŏng- t’aek, Chosŏn hugi nobi sinbun yŏn’gu; Chi Sŭng-jong, Chosŏn chŏn’gi nobi sinbun yŏn’gu; and Joy S. Kim, “Representing Slavery.”

8There was a small group of governing aristocrats at the top of the society known as the yangban. During the Chosŏn, this group enjoyed most socioeconomic privileges. Due to status instability during the late Chosŏn, yangban no longer immediately represented the ruling class, whereas sadaebu referred specifically to the ruling group. There was another small group known as the “middle people” (chungin) that consisted mostly of technical specialists and functionaries. Under the middle class, there were the commoners, most of whom were peasants known as yangin or sangmin. These people made up the majority of the population and carried most of the burden of taxation, military service, and corvée labor. Lastly, the lowborn, known as ch’ŏnmin, were mostly slaves but also included those with debased occupations such as butchers, tanners, shamans, and female entertainers.

9For a study of “middle people” (chungin) published in English, see Hwang, Beyond Birth, and Park, A Family of No Prominence.

10For a discussion of Neo-Confucianism and other religions in Korea, see de Bary and Haboush, Rise of Neo-Confucianism in Korea; Haboush, The Confucian Kingship in Korea; Deuchler, Confucian Transformation of Korea; Buswell, Religions of Korea in Practice, 163–230; Walraven, “Popular Religion in a Confucianized Society”; and Baker, “A Different Thread.”

11For a discussion of the transition from Koryŏ to the Chosŏn dynasty, see Duncan, The Origins of the Chosŏn Dynasty, and Deuchler, The Confucian Transformation of Korea, 29–87.

12For a discussion of law and emotion in the early Chosŏn, see Jisoo M. Kim, “Law and Emotion,” 203–39. For a discussion of qing and the rise of public sympathy in Republican China, see Lean, Public Passions.

13Solomon, A Passion for Justice, 243.

14Pak Pyŏng-ho, Chŏnt’ongjŏk pŏpch’egye, Han’guk pŏpchesago, and Kŭnse ŭi pŏp; Chŏng Kŭng-sik, Han’guk pŏpchesago and “Chosŏn sidae ŭi kwŏllyŏk pullip”; Cho Yun-sŏn, Chosŏn hugi sosong yŏn’gu; Sim Chae-u, Chosŏn hugi kukka kwŏllyŏk and “Chosŏn malgi hyŏngsa pŏp ch’egye”; and Im Sang-hyŏk, “Sosong kip’i ŭi munhwa chŏnt’ong” and “Chosŏn chŏn’gi minsa sosong.”

15Marie S. Kim, “Law and Custom,” 1068.

16By examining actual legal practice at the local level, some scholars of Chinese legal history have argued that “civil law” was present in local judicial procedures and in custom. See Huang, Civil Justice in China, and Code, Custom, and Legal Practice in China; and Bernhardt and Huang, Civil Law in Qing and Republican China.

17Marie S. Kim, Law and Custom in Korea, 1.

18Ibid., 1–40.

19Ibid., 24

20Marie S. Kim’s study focuses primarily on the issue of customary law during the Japanese occupation period (1910–45). The discussion of Chosŏn legal practice is thus limited in her study.

21T’aejong sillok, 18 (9/7/19).

22For Korean legal history published in English, see Hahm, The Korean Political Tradition and Law; Shaw, Legal Norms, “The Neo-Confucian Revolution of Values,” and “Traditional Korean Law”; Chŏn, Shaw, and Choi, Traditional Korean Legal Attitudes; and Marie S. Kim, Law and Custom in Korea.

23Solomon, “Justice v. Vengeance,” 128.

24Santangelo, Sentimental Education, 7, cited in Choe Key-Sook, “A Weeping Man and the Mourning Ritual,” 149.

25The modern Korean translation of emotions is kamjŏng. However, the term kamjŏng was rarely used during the Chosŏn. As usage of the term “emotions” grew with the rise of modernity in the West, the word kamjŏng seems to have been used in Korea since the turn of the twentieth century. Further research will be required to trace the usage of kamjŏng.

26Choe Key-sook, “A Weeping Man and the Mourning Ritual,” 149.

27The Four Beginnings are from the famous quote from Mencius about a...