By Mark Peterson
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As I wrote last week, the Korean textbooks ignore the Confucian orthodoxy movement of the late 17th century when so many social practices came in line with fundamentalist Confucianism. In addition to ceremonies, inheritances and marriage practices, the genealogies changed ― jokbo came to be recorded in a different way.
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| The Andong Gweon jokbo of 1476 |
Here we can see one of the differences between early Joseon society and late Joseon society or contemporary society. The one from 1476 ― the first printed jokbo in Korea ― shows that sons and daughters were recorded equally ― that is, the children in each family were recorded in birth order, and the posterity of the daughters was recorded in as much detail as the sons.
In the contemporary jokbo, one typical of the genealogies published in the late Joseon period up to today, in any family, the sons are listed first, and the daughters are listed after all the sons. The sons' listing includes vital statistics and records of any accomplishments. The daughters are only listed by whom they married. The sons' lines continue downward for generation after generation; the daughters' lines are not continued.
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| A typical jokbo published recently |
This transformation in the printing of jokbo is symbolic of the changes in Korean society in the late Joseon period. The late 17th century was the point of change. Textbooks don't cover it. It's like a secret. "Hey, don't tell anyone that Korea used to be much more egalitarian." As I said last week, there were two forms of Confucianism in Korea ― the early egalitarian Confucianism ― the true Korean-style Confucianism, and the late Joseon orthodox Confucianism. One of my readers likes to use the term "fundamentalist Confucianism" ― the Confucianism of the late Joseon period.
Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.
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