'Gye,' mutual aid fund between master, slave

A scene from “The Slave Hunters,” an epic drama series in 2010, which portrays a slave hunter who tracks down a general-turned-runaway slave in the Joseon Kingdom. / Korea Times file

By Kim Ji-soo

• Published May 8, 2014 4:15 PM KST
• Updated May 8, 2014 4:15 PM KST

By Ahn Seung-jun

After going through the Imjin and Manchu wars of 1636, the Joseon Kingdom experienced substantial changes starting from the bottom of society from the late 17th century.

The change began with the slave class that took up two-thirds of the population at that time. Many slaves had grievances against Joseon society.

As a result, various mutual-aid communities, called “gye” — such as “gumgye,” “saljugye” and “hyangdogye” — were established. Gumgye and saljugye were formed by slaves to do their masters bodily harm with weapons such as swords. Hyangdogye was formed to carry dead bodies and build graves for their members. The members were mostly the lower-class, deeply dissatisfied with society.

Struggling through gye communities was an aggressive measure that slaves could take, but they were soon overwhelmed by harsh reality. Therefore, the slaves chose the best alternative plan — escape. The escape of a slave was an indirect way of resistance, yet an effective way to harass the ruling class. The escaping of slaves — human beings yet at the same time also property emasculated by the ruling class — created a motivation to fundamentally change Joseon society. Escaping was the most effective way to avoid payment of slave-ransom or fatigue duty. That is why escapes were prevalent in the late Joseon period.

Did the Joseon noblemen who were well-educated with a basic Confucius philosophy handle the complaints and resistance from the lower class only by force? Wasn’t there any other option for noblemen and slaves?

Let’s put ourselves in their shoes for a moment. In order to maximize their interest while legally owning slaves, it was best to promote coexistence. And one of the win-win policies was to sign a gye (a kind of traditional private fund popular among Koreans, whose members chip in a modest amount of money and take turns in receiving a lump-sum share) with slaves. By signing a gye between the noblemen and slaves, they could improve their relationship with each other. Gye turned their incompatible relationships into symbiotic ones.

In Joseon society, a gye was a necessary way to start a relationship. There were numerous types in Joseon society such as “hakgye” for graduates of the same institutions or provincial schools; “dongbanggye” for passers of “gwageo” exams in the same year; ” for people of the same age; “donggye” for people who lived in the same village; “munjunggye” for people who had the same family name; and “sanggye” for people to prepare for a funeral. Then, gye that were knitted by people in different classes were created — the nojugye. This was established to seek the interests of noblemen and slaves alike and, akin to a gye, aimed at a harmony of labor and management. Due to the fact that slaves made agreements on an even basis with their masters, the nojugye became the tipping point for Joseon’s social status system to crumble.

The following material is a contract document for the nojugye that was found by the Jangseogak Archives of the Academy of Korean Studies.

According to the document, 10 slaves including people by the name of Ilsun, Chabong, and Hwaridong, made a gye with the nobleman Lee who lived in the southeastern Gyeongsang Province in 1741 (17th year of King Youngjo’s reign).

Lee’s family was a prestigious one that represented the Gyeongju region. After a discussion, Lee and his 10 slaves decided to make a gye setting up 80 “du” (equal to 1,280 kilograms) of rice as the fund. Forty du was paid by Lee’s family and the other 40 was paid by the slaves.

The purpose of the gye was to sustain the slaves and their family by making interest earnings on the fund established by the master and slaves together. The master could continuously make profits out of the slaves by ensuring a stable living for them and their families. On the other hand, the slaves needed the funds from the gye to improve the quality of their living and to escape from the duty of being the master’s direct servant.

The affairs that noblemen and slaves did with their funds included large-scale labor work or farming. Large-scale labor included areas such as the construction and repair of buildings, and gathering firewood. This work was actually the slaves’ duty but after making the gye, they could hire other people to perform the work for them.

Such a change in the relationship between noblemen and slaves had huge historical significance.

Especially for the slaves, gye transformed the master-servant relation that used to be a bond of oppression into labor-management relations. In this respect, the establishment and operation of nojugye promoted coexistence, in other words a win-win policy for slaves and noblemen even though it was temporary from an overall historical perspective.

Including the nojugye document, a series of ancient documents privately owned were investigated and collected through a research project conducted by the Jangseogak Archives of the Academy of Korean Studies over the last 30 years.

The Academy of Korean Studies has been collecting and filming about a million ancient documents to utilize Korean studies materials. Among them, about 50,000 pieces are now housed in the Jangseogak Archives.

As sourcebooks, 110 books of the Korean Historical Manuscript Collection were published, and the content is being serviced through the website, too. (Center for Korean Studies Materials: https://www.kostma.net)

The writer is a senior researcher of the Academy of Korean Studies.