Wrongful Deaths: Selected Inquest Records from Nineteenth-Century Korea

Notes

205 Translators’ Notes 1 Sinju Muwŏllok, 74–​79. 2 For more detailed discussion of historical changes in measurements, see Pak Hŭng-su, “Toryanghyŏng chedo”; and “Toryanghyŏng,” Online EncyKorea, www.encykorea.com. 3 See Sun Joo Kim, Marginality and Subversion in Korea, 237, n28. Introduction 1 For representative studies along this line of thinking, see Palais, Politics and Policy in Traditional Korea and “Political Leadership and the Yangban in the Chosŏn Dynasty.” 2 One of the most representative studies along this line of thinking is Kim Yong-sŏp, “The Two Courses of Agrarian Reform in Korea’s Modernization.” 3 For the most representative studies, see Ko Sŏk-kyu, 19-segi Chosŏn ŭi hyangch’on sahoe yŏn’gu; and Paek Sŭng-jong, Han’guk sahoesa yŏn’gu. Yangban in general refers to the social and political elites of late Chosŏn Korea. For a specific definition of yangban, see Sun Joo Kim, Marginality and Subversion in Korea, 194–​95n9. 4 Pak Ki-ju, “19.20 segi ch’o chaech’on yangban chiju kyŏngyŏng ŭi tonghyang”; and Yi Yŏng-hun, “Ch’ongsŏl,” 382–​ 89. 5 Sun Joo Kim, Marginality and Subversion in Korea and “Taxes, the Local Elite, and the Rural Populace in the Chinju Uprising of 1862.” 6 Sun Joo Kim, “Chosŏn hugi P’yŏngan-do Chŏngju ŭi hyangan unyŏng kwa yangban munhwa.” 7 Karlsson, “Famine Relief, Social Order, and State Performance in Late Chosŏn Korea” and “Royal Compassion and Disaster Relief in Chosŏn Korea.” 8 Such volumes are titled or labeled as kŏmbalsa (concluding statements of inquest hearings ), munan palsa (concluding statements of inquest examinations), songan (litigation records), ogan (criminal investigation records), and kŏmje (trial adjudications). 9 T’ŭkkyo chŏngsik, 111a–​112a; Sŭngjŏngwŏn ilgi, 1779.1.20; Ch’ugwanji, 1:531. 10 For the use of torture in interrogation, see the section “Judicial Administrative Structure : Investigation and Criminal Procedure” later in this chapter. 11 T’ŭkkyo chŏngsik, 112a–​113a. 12 Although Hŭmhŭm sinsŏ was compiled in 1822 by Chŏng Yag-yong (1762–​ 1836), it Notes 206 | Notes to Introduction contains cases from King Chŏngjo’s reign between 1776 and 1800. Therefore, many of the cases in the three compilations naturally overlap. For studies based on these three sources, see Shaw, Legal Norms in a Confucian State; Sim Chae-u, Chosŏn hugi kukka kwŏllyŏk kwa pŏmjoe t’ongje; Kwŏn Yŏn-ung, “Simnirok ŭi kich’ojŏk kŏmt’o”; Kim Sŏngy ŏng, “Chosŏn hugi yŏsŏng ŭi sŏng, kamsi wa ch’ŏbŏl”; and Kim Ho, “Hŭmhŭm sinsŏ ŭi ilgoch’al.” 13 Yusŏ p’ilchi, though its author and exact compilation date are unknown, was an essential manual for local people—​ not only officials and yangban, but ordinary people—​ who wanted to file a complaint or petition about various problems. Though it introduces no standard form for an inquest record, a form for joint interrogation under torture (tongch’u) is included as an appendix. Scholars assume that the first availability or circulation of Yusŏ p’ilchi may have been sometime in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. 14 Robert E. Hegel also points out the impossibility of recording various dialects in legal documents, which are drafted in a uniform language. The impossibility of transcribing local dialects is found in Korean inquest records, too, indicating the limitation of these sources to transmit the vernacular rhetorical power of ordinary men and women. Hegel, True Crimes in Eighteenth-Century China, 18–​19; Sommer, Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China, 26–​28. 15 Davis, Fiction in the Archives; Ginzburg, The Night Battles. 16 Hegel, True Crimes in Eighteenth-Century China, x. 17 Chosŏn bureaucracy was structured into the eighteen-rank system, ranging from the highest senior first (Sr. 1) followed by junior first (Jr. 1) down to junior eighth (Jr. 8). Each bureaucratic post corresponded to a rank. For example, the chief state councilor (yŏngŭijŏng) was a post of senior first rank. An official was promoted or demoted depending on his (de)merit, and could theoretically hold only a post corresponding to his attained rank or lower. In practice, however, an official often held posts lower than his rank because there were fewer posts available the higher one advanced. 18 According to one study, the...