Propagating female virtues in choson Korea

Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea, and Japan

Volumn , Issue , 2003, Pages 142-169

  Deuchler, Martina ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 33646147949     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Chapter

References (86)

1. The Kmyosa was compiled on royal orders by Confucian scholar-officials and completed in 14.51. It contains twelve biographies of virtuous women.
2. For the details, see Martina Deuchler, The Confucian Transformation of Korea, Harvard-Ycnching Monograph No. 36 (Cambridge, Mass: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1992), pp. 51-73.
3. Chungjong sillok, 34:33.
4. Chungjong sillok, 28:2ib-223.
5. For a brief overview of the publication history of Sohak in early Choson, see Yun Pyonghui, "ChosSn Chungjongjo sap'ung kwa Sohak," pp. 41-78. In 1797, King Chongjo (r. 1776-1800) still praised the educational value of the Sohak. See his Yunum (Royal Pronouncement).
6. Sejong sillok, 64:iga-b
7. Songong sillok, 127:73.
8. Chungjong sillok, 28:210-223. The classic biographical collection Haiti zhuan was compiled by Liu Xiang (77-6 B.C.K.). Liu divided his biographies into seven sections: correct deportment of mothers, virtue and wisdom, the benign and wise, the chaste and obedient, the chaste and righteous, those able in reasoning and understanding, and the pernicious and depraved (see Susan Mann, Precious Records: Women in China's Long Eighteenth Century [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997], pp. 205, 211; also see Katherine Carlitz, "The Social Uses of Female Virtue in Late Ming Editions of Limit zhuan," Late Imperial China 12.2 [December 1991]: 117-48). The Nujie is the work of the famous Ban Zhao (died 116 c.E.) of the Later Han, a book of long-lasting influence throughout East Asia. The author of Nuze was Tang Taizong's empress.
9. Preface, Naehun in Naehun-Yosaso (rpt. Seoul: Asea munhwasa, 1974). The earliest extant edition of Naehun, preserved in a Japanese library, was reprinted by Kim Chiyong, ed., Naehun (Seoul: Yonse taehakkyo, Inmun kwahak yon'guso, 1969).
10. Kim Chi/ong has pointed out that Sohye made no reference to and thus may not have known the Chinese work with the same title compiled by the consort of the second Ming emperor in 1405 and printed two years later. For a discussion of the publication history of the Korean Naehun and a brief comparison with the Chinese work, see Kim Chiyong, ed., Naehun, pp. 5-9.
11. Yi TSngmu, Sasojol, trans. Kim Chonggwon (Seoul: Myongmundang, 1985), pp. 199-200. This work dates from the late eighteenth century. n. Yi Sangjong, "So Im Yolbujon hu," Taesan sonsaeng munjip, 45:193-b. I was unable to identify the book to which Yi refers.
12. Written by women for women, the Nujie (Precepts for women) by Ban Zhao, Neixun (Instructions for the inner quarters) by the consort of the Yungle emperor (r. 1403-24), the Mi lunyu (Analects for women) by Song Ruozhao (Tang dynasty), and the Nufanjielu (Concise account of basic regulations for women) by Wang Xiang's mother were combined into the Nil sishu by Wang Xiang (Qjng dynasty). For some notes on these works, see Sharon Shihjiuan Hou, "Women's Literature," in The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. and comp. William H. Nienhauser Jr. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986).
13. Yi Toksu put these books in chronological order: Togye, Yonono, Naehun, and Tobom ch'tmnok. He also added brief biographical notes on the authors at the beginning of each work. A reprint was published by Asea munhwasa in 1974.
14. Yu Huich'un, Miam sonsaeng-jip, 4 (no pagination).
15. Song Siyol, Songja taejon, 2ii:2ia.
16. Yun Chung, Myongjae sonsaengyu'go, 32:233.
17. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, p. 238.
18. Yi I, Tulgok chonso, 18: 313.
19. Song Siyol, Songja taejon, 187: 43-353.
20. Yi I, Tulgok chonso, 18:623.
21. Yi TSngmu, Sasojol, p. 271.
22. Song Siyol, Song/a taejon, 211:24.3.-b.
23. Yun Chung, Myongjae sonsaengyu'go, 32:293-30
24. Yi Ik, Songho saesol, as quoted by Kim Yongsuk, "Yijo yoinsang yon'gu," Aseayosong yon'gu 10 (1971): 124.
25. For an example, see Yi I, Tulgok chonso, 17:203..
26. Yi Hwang, Toegye chonso, 46:-5a (Yi's tomb inscription of his mother); Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, p. 237. A similar example is in Song Siyol, Song/a taejon, 2OO.'7b.
27. The Andong Chang-ssi silgi is preserved as a woodblock print, dating from the midnineteenth century. One of the main compilers was Madame Chang's nonagnatic greatgreat-grandson, Yi Sangjong, who was famous as a scholar and an official.
28. For Yi Simyong's biography, see Andongpunmyo (Andong: Andong munhwawon, 1994), pp. 611-22.
29. In recent years a growing number of women's letters have come to light. It is clear that from the time of its invention han'gul was widely used for official and unofficial purposes despite the scholar-officials' preference of classical Chinese as the "language of culture." From the late seventeenth century, the native script was widely used especially by women. The oldest extant han'gul letter written by a woman dates from 1571. This material has not yet been fully analyzed by historians. For details, see Kim Ilgun, On'gan myon'gu (Seoul: Konguk taehakkyo ch'ulp'anbu, [1989] 1991).
30. The Hunmin chongum, Korea's indigenous alphabet, was created under the guidance of King Sejong (r. 1418-50) and promulgated in 1446. It later came to be known as han'gul.
31. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, p. 272.
32. Hanjungnok (Records written in silence), available in an English edition as The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea, translated with an introduction and annotations by JaHyun Kim Haboush (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), p. 49.
33. Song Siyol, Songja taejon, 187:12a.
34. For a description of the Korean wedding ceremony, see Deuchler, Confucian Transformation of Korea, pp. 251-57.
35. For a description of life in the husband's household at the beginning of the Choson, see Deuchler, Confucian Transformation of Korea, pp. 258-64.
36. Song Siyol, Songfa taejon, 187:32
37. Yi I, Tulgok chonso, 14:283-b.
38. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, pp. 246-47.
39. According to the Janellis, the relationship between Korean brothers is generally characterized by mutual help and cooperation, not by hostility, despite unequal inheritance. See Roger L. Janelli and Dawnhee Yim Janelli, Ancestor Worship and Korean Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982), pp. 104-6. This interpretation differs to some extent from my historical data that document fraternal conflict over land and eventual separation. For this reason, moral pressure on brothers to cooperate and work together is very strong in Korea.
40. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, pp. 251-52.
41. The law was relaxed in the second half of the eighteenth century, and a number of secondary sons did take the examinations. For details, see Martina Deuchler, " 'Heaven Does Not Discriminate': A Study of Secondary Sons in Choson Korea," Journal of Korean Studies 6(1988-89): 121 63.
42. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, p. 254.
43. See Deuchler, Confucian Transformation of Korea, pp. 273-76.
44. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, pp. 200-201, 255.
45. Song Siyol, Song/a taejon, 2ii:2oa.
46. Yi I, Yulgok chonso, 18:353-0.
47. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, pp. 211, 226.
48. Yun Chung, Myongjae sonsaengyu'go, 37:34!].
49. Ch'oe HungwSn (1705-86), Paekpuram sonsaeng-jip, 7:23..
50. Yun Chung, Myongjae sonsaengyu'go, 38:273
51. Yi I, Yulgok chonso, 18:350.
52. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, pp. 260-61.
53. ChongKu, Han'gang-jip, io:i2b.
54. Song Siyol, Songja taejon, 2ii:iga.
55. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, p. 259.
56. Song Siyol, Songja taejon, 2oo:i2a-b; 2ii:28b.
57. Yi Tǒngmu, Sasojol, pp. 228, 272.
58. Yun Chung, Myongjae sonsaengyu'go, 37:34b.
59. Song Siyol, Songja taejon, i87:22b-23a. This was the daughter of Hong Ikhan (1586-1637), a Namyang Hong. Hong-ssi also collected her father's papers.
60. Yun Chung, Myongjae sonsaengyu'go, 35: la; Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, pp. 256-58.
61. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, pp. 256-58.
62. Yi Tongmu, Sasojol, pp. 258-59. For a discussion of women's response to Confucianism and shamanism, see Boudewijn Walraven, "Popular Religion in a Confucianized Society," in Culture and the State in Late Choson Korea, ed. JaHyun Kim Haboush and Martina Deuchler, Harvard East Asian Monographs No. 182 (Cambridge, Mass.: Asia Center, Harvard University, 1999), pp. 160-98.
63. For a discussion of women's response to Confucianism and shamanism, see Boudewijn Walraven, "Popular Religion in a Confucianized Society," in Culture and the State in Late Choson Korea, ed. JaHyun Kim Haboush and Martina Deuchler, Harvard East Asian Monographs No. 182 (Cambridge, Mass.: Asia Center, Harvard University, 1999), pp. 160-98.
64. Yi I, Yulgok chonso, 17:203.
65. Song Siyol, Songja taejon, i87:28b; 215:29
66. Yi I, Yulgok chonso, I4:a7b-3ob. This piece is dated 1553.
67. For an example, see Yosaso, 4:203-b.
68. Kyongguk taejon, pp. 34, 208; Deuchler, The Confucian Transformation of Korea, pp. 276-80. This law wss not applicable to secondary wives.
69. Deuchler, The Confucian Transformation of Korea, pp. 276-80. This law wss not applicable to secondary wives.
70. For an example, see Yi Ik, Songho saesol (rpt. Seoul: Kyongin munhw3S3, 1970), vol. I, p. 249.
71. For a discussion of governmental policy concerning commemorative arches, see Pak Chu, Choson sidae ui chongp'yo chongch'aek. Pak gives statistical evidence for the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries based on the Choson wangjo sillok.
72. The physical aspects of virtue 3re a subject thai deserves further study. In the litersture examined for this chapter, references to physical violence inflicted by women on their own bodies are rare indeed.
73. Chong Yagyong, Tasan nonch'ong, trans. Yi Iksong (Seoul: uryu mun'go 91, 1972), pp. 119-24.
74. A study of female suicides during the colonial period (1910-45) suggests as further motives difficulties with mothers-in-law, jealousy of concubines, and childlessness after five years of marriage. See Homer Williams and Laurel Kendall, "Women and Suicide in Colonial Korea: A Comparative Perspective," unpublished paper, 1982.
75. For a discussion of vernacular literature, see JaHyun Kim Haboush, "Filial Emotions and Filial Values: Changing Patterns in the Discourse of Filiality in Late Choson Korea," Harvard Journal ofAsiatic Studies 55.1 (June 1995): 129-77.
76. For the authorship, dating, and brief content summaries, see W. E. Skillend, Kodae Sosol: A Survey of Korean Traditional Style Popular Novels (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1968).
77. Saimdang is Madame Sin's pen name. Her personal name is unknown, as a woman was recorded in her family's genealogy only under her husband's name. For a detailed account of her life and work, see Yi Songmi, "Choson sidae yoryu hwaga yon'gu," Misul charyo 51 (June 1993): 98-149.
78. Some seventeen female painters are known to have been active from the late Koryo to the end of the Choson. But the works of only five have survived. Yi Songmi, "Choson sidae yoryu hwaga ySn'gu," p. 98.
79. Yi I, Yulgok chonso, 18:353-36
80. Landscapes were rarely topics treated by women, animals and people never. Yi Songmi, "Choson sidae yoryu hwaga yon'gu," pp. 102-5.
81. Yi Songmi, "ChosSn sidae yoryu hwaga yon'gu," pp. 138-46.
82. An Kyon (n.d.) was a famous painter at the beginning of the Choson dynasty.
83. O Sukkwon, P'aegwan chapki as quoted in O Sech'ang, Kunyok sohwajmg (rpt. Seoul: Sinhan sSrim, 1970), p. 84. Yi Songmi's article drew my attention to this quote.
84. Han'guk inmyong taesajon, p. 1009. Translations of her "A Woman's Sorrow" (Kyuwon ka) and "Poor Woman" (Pinnyo urn) are in Anthology of Korean Literature from Early Tiroes to the Mneteenth Century, comp. and ed. Peter H. Lee (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1981), pp. 116-18, 158; Yi Yongsuk,"Yijo yoinsang yon'gu," p. 125. Some 140 poems are extant. There is also a Japanese edition.
85. These summary remarks on Im Yunjidang are based on Yi Yongch'un, "Im Yunjidang ui songnihak," Ch'onggye sahak 12 (April 1996): 125-75. Her correspondence in han'gul and her poetry were apparently left out by the compilers of her work.
86. Cited in Yi Yongch'un, "Im Yunjidang," pp. 129, 135.