Reading Joseon's petition letters

Sim Young-hwan

A day in October 1557, Jeong Jo-yi, a concubine of the late Son Gwang-suh who lived in Yangdong(良洞) Village of Gyeongju was anxious to death ecause she was about to lose the farmland inherited from her late husband. She had petitioned the government office twice but it was yet to be resolved.

The whole story goes like this. Widow Jeong Jo-yi went under the protection of Son Gwang-suh who was living in Yangjwa-dong, Angang-hyun, Gyeongju. But her husband passed away the previousyear. Before he died, he left a patch of farmland to Jeong Jo-yi for her living. But this farmland became a problem. The farm land that Joeng Jo-yi received used to be owned by Jo Jong-son who lived in Heunghae, not far away from Yangdong village. Son Gwang-suh bought the farmland from Jo Jong-son. However, after Son Gwang-suh died, Lee Unggi who were living in the same village with Jo Jong-son claimed that the farmland that Son Gwang-suh bought was actually in Jo'spossession.

The petition submitted to the governor of Gyeongsang Province by Jeong Jo-yi who lived in Yangdong village of Gyeongju in October 1557.
/ Courtesy of Academy of Korean Studies

Jeong Jo-yi was just dumbfounded. Who was her late husband? Her late husband was from a prestigious noble family enjoying an era of prosperity as his grandfather, Son Soh (1433~1484) ascended to become a meritorious retainer for suppressing the rebellion of Lee Si-ae occurred in King Sejo's reign. Also, his father Son Jung-don(1463~1529) passed the gwageo (the national civil service examination) and served as minister. Son Gwang-suh was the primogeniture of Son Jung-don. He did not win as much fame as his father and grandfather though he belonged to chungyuiwi (a noble military where the descendants of noble family were privileged to serve without any examination) as he was the grandson of a meritorious retainer, and he continued to keep the honor of his family's name.

Nevertheless, his concubine Jeong Jo-yi was despised and faced losing her farmland just a year after her husband Son Gwang-suh died. She already made petition to Gyeongjubu but Gyeongjubuyun gave no definite answer. She decided to petition the upper authority, the governor of Gyeongsang Province. Making a petition actually took a considerable amount of money. First of all, it required paper (which was a rare and precious commodity at that time). The contents of the petition needed to be written according to the legal form of petition. And then the written contents needed to be re-written neatly in standard script (haeseo) before submitting to the government office.

In order to give a favorable impression to the government office, the letters had to be written by a professional calligrapher who is good at the songxue ("Pine Snow") style calligraphy which was first developed by Zhao Mengfu (1254~1322) who was admired by the 5th Mongolian emperor Khubilai and served as an official in the Yuan dynasty(the Mongols). Zhao Mengfu followed the traditional calligraphy of Wang Xizhi and further improved his own calligraphy to the summit of beauty. His calligraphy had a profound effect on Korean literature at the end of the Goryeo Kingdom and early Joseon Kingdom. Surely, there was a calligrapher who could write this songxue style calligraphy in Gyeongju.

When writing the document, the word governor (gwanchalsa) was written raised above other words in order to show respect to the governor. As Jeong Jo-yi did not have her stamp, she signed her own autograph with her middle finger of her left hand respectfully. Also, modified Chinese characters in a system that is called idu were partially used in the petition instead of Chinese letters.

The aforementioned process to this point took a great deal of efforts and money. A considerable amount was spent on paper, writing fees, calligraphy fees and so on. But she had no choice because she could hardly find a means of livelihood if she lost the farmland. Nonetheless, the result of judgment did not give a clear solution.

The governor's written judgment was sent back to Gyeongjubu with an official seal.
It just said ‘review the document thoroughly, and if it turns out the farmland was stolen and re-sold, the matter shall be dealt with in accordance to the law.'
The document that we have been looking into was the contents of the petition that Jeong Jo-yi submitted to the governor of Gyeongsang province in October 1557(12th year of King Myeongjong's reign). This document is owned by the Seobackdang family of the Sons of Gyeongju and is now housed at the Jangseogak Archives of the Academy of Korean Studies. (Refer to the figure)
It is hard to know the results of the judgment for Jeong Jo-yi's petition for her farmland as there areno other related document left. However, through this document, we can see the form of document that ordinary people (mostly noblemen) used when petitioning the government office. When making a petition to a government office in the Joseon Kingdom, the contents of the petition is written in small font-standard script (haeseo) leaving a space on the left of the paper. And then the government official writes the disposition in large font-cursive script (choseo) in the space without having to prepare another paper and sends back the document with a government seal stamped to the petitioner.

Therefore, such a document offers precious information for us to understand the Joseon Kingdom through the paper used in each province, petition forms, calligraphy styles, and government seals and so on.

Currently, the Jangseogak Archives of the Academy of Korean Studies houses about 300,000 pieces of these documents from the Joseon Kingdom.

Sim Young-hwan is a senior Researcher of the Academy of Korean Studies.

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