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129 Case 8 An Illegal Burial Begets a Son but Kills a Relative Kim Kap-san (Hoeyang, Kangwŏn Province, 1899) A s briefly examined in case 2, gravesite litigation had become an increasingly widespread social problem in late Chosŏn Korea and often developed into physical confrontations between the families involved, sometimes resulting in homicide. The death of Kim Kapsan was one such incident, although he only assisted his clansman Kim Munho of the Kyŏngju Kim lineage in carrying out an illegal burial at another gravesite (that of the apical ancestor of the Kwangsan Kim lineage). Kim Munho ’s intention when carrying out the illegal burial was clearly articulated during the investigation: he became the father of a son at a rather late age (in his forties) and he clearly attributed such blessing to the illegal burial. He did not seek direct economic gain by claiming ownership of the forestland surrounding the illegal burial because the burial was meant to remain a secret forever. The secret burial itself constituted a crime, but the way Kim Mun-ho dug into the side of the existing tomb—​ creating a hole right by the coffin and placing his father’s bones there as though it were the resting place of a man and wife (in comparison to case 2, in which the violator placed an illegal burial near the tomb of the violated)—​ was regarded as an unthinkable violation of the apical ancestor of the Kyŏngju Kim lineage. And whereas Mun-ho thought that the birth of his son had to do with the blessing emanating from his father’s illegal tomb, members of the Kwangsan Kim lineage believed that the many unusual deaths among their members in the preceding years had been caused by this desecration of their ancestral grave. Both parties evidently believed in a geomantic prescription, namely, that the ancestral gravesite brought either fortune or misfortune. It was natural even to the investigators that the Kwang- 130 | Case 8 san Kims would be extraordinarily furious, both because of how the illegal burial had been carried out and because they believed the violation of the ancestral grave had resulted in many abnormal deaths in the lineage. One subtle aspect of the conflicts between the two Kim lineages seems to be derived from the native place of the members of the Kyŏngju Kim lineage who were involved in this case. The victim, Kim Kap-san, was originally from Hamgyŏng Province but had migrated to Hoeyang, Kangwŏn Province, a county bordering Hamgyŏng to the north, where his relatives were residing. Social, political, and cultural prejudice against people of the northern provinces was pervasive in the late Chosŏn, and the Kwangsan Kims did not hide their ill feelings toward the northerners, for they called Kap-san and Mun-ho “wicked people from Hamgyŏng” (Pukkwan han’ak).1 The Kwangsan Kims’ disdain for northerners made them suspect that Kap-san had placed additional illegal burials somewhere in their ancestral cemetery. Despite Kap-san’s denial, they subjected him to further torture to elicit the facts, and such extra punishment must have caused his death, whereas Mun-ho, who was the primary culprit in the illegal burial, survived. The outrage of the affected lineage members was understandable, especially since they believed that the disturbance of their ancestor’s peace inside the grave had brought inconceivable disasters to their lineage. However, their private way of handling the matter, as well as the end result—​ the death of Kim Kap-san—​ were crimes that called for official investigations. Private punishment or torture (sahyŏng) by inserting wooden sticks between bound legs and twisting the lower limbs (churoe or churi)2 was illegal even in official settings, though not all forms of private corporal punishment were prohibited (see fig. 1). For example, according to the Great Ming Code, “If [slaves or hired laborers ] disobey orders and [their household heads, or household heads’ relatives of the second degree of mourning, or maternal grandparents], according to the law, punish them and unexpectedly cause death, or accidentally kill them, in each case they shall not be punished.”3 Various local community organizations, such as village compacts, often had regulations allowing corporal punishment of those who violated the prescribed rules of conduct.4 However, yangban overlords in the late Chosŏn often went beyond the law and arbitrarily punished and tortured their underlings or even their fellow yangban, which in rare cases resulted in...

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