Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions

by Palais, James B.

• ISBN13: 9780295974552
• ISBN10: 0295974559
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr

Summary

Seventeenth-century Korea was a country in crisis - successive invasions by Hideyoshi and the Manchus had rocked the Choson dynasty (1392-1910), which was already weakened by maladministration, internecine bureaucratic factionalism, unfair taxation, concentration of wealth, military problems, and other ills. Yu Hyongwon (1622-1673; pen name, Pan'gye), a recluse scholar, responded to this time of chaos and uncertainty by writing his modestly titled Pan'gye surok (The Jottings of Pan'gye), a virtual encyclopedia of Confucian statecraft, designed to support his plan for a revived and reformed Korean system of government. Although Yu was ignored in his own time by all but a few admirers and disciples, his ideas became prominent by the mid-eighteenth century as discussions were under way to solve problems in taxation, military service, and commercial activity. Yu has been viewed by Korean and Japanese scholars as a forerunner of modernization, but in Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions James B. Palais challenges this view, demonstrating that Yu was instead an outstanding example of the premodern tradition. Palais uses Yu Hyongwon's mammoth, pivotal text to examine the development and shape of the major institutions of Choson dynasty Korea. He has included a thorough treatment of the many Chinese classical and historical texts that Yu used as well as the available Korean primary sources and Korean and Japanese secondary scholarship. Palais traces the history of each of Yu's subjects from the beginning of the dynasty and pursues developments through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He stresses both the classical and the historical roots of Yu's reform ideas and analyzes thenature and degree of proto-capitalistic changes, such as the use of metallic currency, the introduction of wage labor into the agrarian economy, the development of unregulated commercial activity, and the appearance of industries with more differentiation of labor.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	3	(22)
PART I. THE EARLY CHOSON DYNASTY, 1392-1650	25	(90)
1. Confucian Statecraft in the Founding of Choson	25	(36)
2. The Disintegration of the Early Choson System to 1592	61	(31)
3. Post-Imjin Developments in Military Defense and the Economy	92	(23)
PART II. SOCIAL REFORM: YANGBAN AND SLAVES	115	(160)
Introduction	115	(7)
4. Remolding the Ruling Class through Education and Schools	122	(48)
5. New Schools: Conservative Restraints on Radicalism	170	(38)
6. Slavery: The Slow Path to Abolition	208	(63)
Conclusion	271	(4)
PART III. LAND REFORM	275	(116)
Introduction	275	(2)
7. Land Reform: Compromises with the Well-Field Model	277	(36)
8. Redistributing Wealth through Land Reform	313	(41)
9. Late Choson Land Reform Proposals	354	(30)
Conclusion	384	(7)
PART IV. MILITARY REFORM	391	(188)
Introduction	391	(3)
10. The Royal Division Model: Rotating Duty Soldiers and Support Taxpayers	394	(48)
11. The Debate over the Military Training Agency, 1651-82	442	(27)
12. The Search forAlternative Modes of Military Finance	469	(32)
13. Military Reorganization, Weapons, and Walls	501	(36)
14. The Military Service System, 1682-1870	537	(32)
Conclusion	569	(10)
PART V. REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION	579	(190)
Introduction	579	(2)
15. The King and His Court	581	(31)
16. Reforming the Central Bureaucracy	612	(34)
17. Personnel Policy	646	(27)
18. Provincial and Local Administration	673	(32)
19. The Community Compact System (Hyangyak)	705	(30)
20. Yu Hyongwon's Community Compact Regulations	735	(27)
Conclusion	762	(7)
PART VI. FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMY	769	(233)
Introduction	769	(2)
21. Tribute and the Taedong Reform	771	(44)
22. The Taedong Model for Official Salaries and Expenses	815	(40)
23. Copper Cash and the Monetary System	855	(22)
24. Yu Hyongwon's Analysis of Currency	877	(47)
25. A Cycle of Inflation and Deflation	924	(40)
26. Cash and Economic Change after 1731	964	(35)
Conclusion	999	(3)
Epilogue: The Complexities of Korean Confucian Statecraft	1002	(18)
Notes	1020	(133)
Glossary	1153	(40)
List of Kings of the Choson Dynasty	1193	(2)
List of Names	1195	(9)
Bibliography	1204	(27)
Index	1231