The Kolp'um System: Basis for Sillan Social Stratification

THE KOLP'UM SYSTEM : BASIS FOR SILLAN SOCIAL STRATIFICATION -------------------by CS. Kim University of Rhode Island Studies of Korean history during the Silla period (in which a basic form of Korean tradition took its shape) have suffered because of an inadequate understanding and appreciation of kolp'um, the system of hereditary authority and rights which governed the Sillan social structure. Under the kolp'um system every individual in Silla was by birth assigned a specific status from which it was virtually impossible for him to escape. Influencing, as it did, the political, economic and cultural life of Silla, kolp'um gave the Silla Kingdom its particular character, and even after the fall of Silla in 935, this system continued to exercise a profound influence on Korean history. Even though the kolp'um system disintegrated with the downfall of the kingdom, the idea of hereditary rights carried over into the succeeding regimes . The old leadership organized under the Sillan kolp'um system was replaced by a new hereditary group of yangban in the Koryo and the Yi periods. It should be noted here that the scarcity of primary sources dealing with the kolp'um structure makes it difficult to establish always its precise relationship to the bureaucracy, the army, the economy, the aristocracy, and villages 43 44/Kim of Silla. Nevertheless, the available sources indicate that virtually all Sillan institutions and the development of Korea thereafter revolved around the establishment and breakdown of this institution. Therefore, any understanding of the Silla Kingdom in Korean history depends a great deal on our knowledge of the kolp'um system. This paper, though limited in scope, deals with such questions as the terminology and social regulations oíkolp'um and the breakdown of a particular stratum. In addition, it is concerned with an analysis of some general political effects of kolp'um on the history of Silla. 1. Terminology and Origin of Kolp'um The meaning of the word kolp'um is not entirely clear. Most scholars agree that the term ? 'um refers to 'position' or 'status' but the significance of kol or the compound term, kolp'um is more ambiguous. Hatata says the term kol (literally bone) means blood relationship and p'um rank.1 More detailed analysis is made by Imanishi.2 According to him, the Chinese character #which is read by the Koreans as kol is similar to a Korean indigenous word kyore (^ ^]) in sound. He believes that the term kyore broadly means relatives , tribes, clans, or factions tied together by blood relationship. The ancient Japanese used the term kotsumei (#^S)—literally "bone names"— and the term shikotsu (ß?#)—literally "clan bones"—to describe consanguinity . It is quite possible that these two Japanese terms may have the same origin as the term kol. There is, he says, an ancient Japanese word kabane which means "bone" and the term "bone" or "clan" in the Chinese character # or fi is also read as kabane by the Japanese. But bone is ppyo in Korean and hone in Japanese and this would cause further complications in the interpretation of the term kol. Imanishi suggests that the term kyore is quite close to the sound kol and the term kabane is an abridged form ofthe term hone : Bone in Japanese is ho-ne and in Koreanppyo. It is speculative but either the sound ne had been added to the sound ho or the sound ne has disappeared from the term ppyo. Nevertheless it is clear that ho and ppyö came from the same word. Since the Japanese ka-ho-ne has the meaning of bone, the old Korean words such as kyore and ppyö must similarly mean bone. The term kabane existedinJapan since the ancient period and is not a direct translation 1.Takashi Hatata, Chosenshi (Tokyo, 1951), p. 37. 2.See Ryü Imanishi, Silla-shi Kenkyu (Seoul, 1920), p. 192. Kolp'um System/45 of the Chinese character if-.3 Imanishi believes therefore that kol, kabane, hone, kyore, and ppyo have the same origin, and they denote a clan or a group of kinsmen who worshipped a common ancestor. In China the term bone is used to indicate a close kin. This term was also used...