A History of Korea (43 page)

Image 8
   Lady Sin Saimdang (front) and one of her bamboo paintings (back) featured on the Bank of Korea’s 50,000
won
note, issued June 2009. (Courtesy of Bank of Korea.)

In 2007, South Korean officials chose Sin Saimdang as the historical figure to grace the new 50,000
won
note, the fourth bill in South Korean money, and the first new one in several decades (see Image 8). Given that the hallowed figures on the other three bills were all men, including Lady Sin’s son Yulgok, anticipation over the selection of the new personage drew great attention, with the tacit understanding that the figure would be a female. To the surprise of many, however, when the selection committee announced its choice, a strong reaction arose from women’s organizations and feminist groups, who viewed Lady Sin as a representation of the harmful impact of the Chos
n era and Korean tradition itself. This opposition provided a reminder of, among other things, the ongoing significance of the early Chos
n dynasty, in particular the Confucianization of society and family, in Korea’s past and present.

EARLY CHOS
N CONFUCIANISM

It is commonly accepted that the Chos
n dynasty, which endured from the late fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries, permanently
Confucianized Korean civilization, in effect rendering Korea’s premodern culture inseparable from Confucianism itself. In modern times, this has provided the impetus for an ongoing reconsideration of Korean tradition by distinguishing the Chos
n era from a “pre-Confucian,” and presumably more genuine, Korea. In North Korea, the official historical view dismisses Confucianism as a reflection of backward feudalism and toadyism. In the South, the nationalistic thrust of this critique has fused more recently with the continuing struggle over the proper place of Confucian teachings, especially regarding females and the family, in contemporary identity. While this division of Korean history tends to obscure the millennium of Confucian political thought on the peninsula before the Chos
n dynasty, the notion that the Chos
n rulers and social elites instituted Confucianism as a totalizing, dominant thought system appears warranted.

The early Chos
n state stood at the center of these efforts at Confucianization and, regardless of whether Confucianism drove the dynastic transition or simply acted as a convenient political tool (
Chapter 7
), the state was infused with this greater purpose. Due to the immediate demands of state strengthening and centralization, Confucian statecraft in the early Chos
n appears to have had a major impact even in the economy. Officials pursued a grand effort to fortify state finances while attempting to adhere to the Confucian ideals of eliminating unjust tax burdens and of reinforcing the centrality of agriculture over other economic activities, such as commerce. This required, then, a land tax policy of shifting revenues toward the central state’s officials and organs at the expense of other social sectors that, in the Kory
era, had grown very wealthy, especially the landed aristocracy and the Buddhist establishment. These measures did not go so far as to completely monetize the economy, however; land taxes were paid in kind through grains and cloth. A complex system of personal tribute taxes also constituted a large proportion of the state’s revenues. The population was responsible for service duty, such as military service or labor for state projects, as well as for providing material goods, ranging from luxury items to household goods, for government organs, the royal family, and even foreign dignitaries. The precise balance between land taxes,
personal service, and tribute items is difficult to gage, but all of these duties had the effect of reinforcing the centrality of agriculture in the country’s economy. Commercial activity and foreign trade appear to have been relatively unchanged or even curtailed through the central state’s increasing control over the circulation of material resources. Confucianism, and hence Confucian statecraft, expressed little interest in encouraging private accumulation.

Confucianism did, however, encourage the pursuit of intellectual wealth, and the first two centuries of the Chos
n dynasty witnessed the peak of Confucian philosophy—indeed, the peak of philosophy, period, in Korean history. Through a richly productive exchange of letters, memorials, and publications, Confucian philosophers participated in a thriving republic of letters in sixteenth century Korea that tackled fundamental problems in connecting the cosmos to human experience and morality. The preeminent figures in these developments were Yulgok and Yi Hwang, better known as T’oegye (who also is canonized by his appearance on one of the South Korean currencies). Although they were not of the same generation and likely met only a couple of times, T’oegye and Yulgok stood as the dueling representatives of a great debate that consumed Korean philosophy in the sixteenth century and went on to exert a profound impact on politics and society the rest of the dynasty (
Chapter 10
). The issue, now commonly called the “Four-Seven Debate,” revolved around how to reconcile basic psychological drives behind moral behavior (the “four basic feelings” and “seven emotions”) with the Neo-Confucian metaphysics of reality and being. T’ogye appears to have further refined and clarified the orthodoxy, with great effectiveness, and gained acclaim for unveiling a convincing schematic for self-cultivation. Yulgok, meanwhile, won renown for tackling these questions through a novel, synthetic approach that reflected well the creative forces of the sixteenth century, and indeed the great cultural achievements of the early Chos
n as a whole.