A History of Korea (42 page)

As noted above, the Confucian transformation of Korea by the Chos
n dynasty took a very long time to accomplish, but T’aejong’s actions helped to set the parameters of Confucianization, characterized by a comprehensiveness of ambition and scope, especially under the direction of the state. The institution of the tributary relationship with China as a means of integrating Korea into the universal civilizational (i.e., Confucian) order represented one of the key steps in this direction that T’aejong, even before he became king, directly ensured. Some modern historians have criticized this and other steps taken by the Chos
n founding fathers like T’aejong and Ch
ng Toj
n as having led the Koreans to subsume their native ways, indeed their cultural autonomy, to the foreign ideology of Neo-Confucianism. The early Chos
n’s explicit reference to the Confucian canon as the basis for comprehensive changes appears indeed to have set the stage for an obsessive and at times stultifying preoccupation with asserting the country’s
Confucian credentials. But Confucianism, like Buddhism, also contained the potential to highlight and heighten native customs and identity. T’aejong’s son and successor, King Sejong the Great, considered the greatest of all Korean monarchs, served as convincing testimony to this potential.

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Confucianism and the Family in the Early Chos
n Dynasty

CHRONOLOGY

1469	Promulgation of Ky ngguk taej n , the Chos n dynastic code
1480	Birth of Lady Yi of Kangn ng
1501	Birth of philosopher Yi Hwang (T’oegye)
1504	Birth of Sin Saimdang, daughter of Lady Yi
1536	Birth of Yi I (Yulgok), son of Sin Saimdang
1541	Drafting of the Yi family inheritance testament
1551	Death of Sin Saimdang
1569	Death of Lady Yi

THE DRAFTING OF THE YI FAMILY INHERITANCE TESTAMENT, 1541

In 1541, a family inheritance document was drawn up to designate the division of an aristocratic female’s possessions, mostly in the form of slaves. Though normally an unremarkable event, this particular occurrence was notable because some of the recipients of this estate, along with its attendant responsibilities, included a mother and son who later became the most celebrated such tandem in Korean history: Lady Sin Saimdang, the venerable poet, painter, and calligrapher who epitomized Confucian ideals regarding females; and her son, Yi I, better known by his pen name of Yulgok, recognized as one of the foremost Confucian scholar-officials and a towering genius. This will is valuable also because it represents one of the few surviving such works from the early Chos
n era, and that it distributes the estate of a female to her female offspring—something that would be increasingly rare as time passed.