Traditional ancestor ceremonies

By Mark Peterson

I've been writing about the 1688 inheritance document that was one of the first to espouse the disinheritance of daughters. I've written on that aspect of the document the last two weeks. There is more. The document said that daughters would only receive a one-third share of property (when compared to the sons), and it also said that daughters would no longer be able to participate in the rotation of hosting the ancestor ceremonies.

To most of us, the traditional ancestor ceremonies were hosted by the eldest son, and the participants were all the other sons. No daughters. This became a "thing" ― the role of the eldest son had a special term ― the "jongson." (English readers, please read the "O's" with a long [o] sound ― it's not jangsan, the natural pronunciation for an English speaker. It's johng-sohn ― with an O as in yoyo. This is a hopeless issue; for how many years have Americans been calling the U.S. Army base is Seoul "yahngsahn" ― when it is Yongsan, yong as in yoyo.)

Before the 1680s the jongson did not have a special role. The Confucian texts said he did, or that he should, but he did not. Why? Because Confucianism in Korea in the early days was compromised; we can call it Korean-style Confucianism. Confucianism came out of a China that was male-dominated, and featured a prominent role for the eldest son. In China, Inheritances were on the basis of primogeniture. That was not the case in Korea. When Confucianism came into Korea in the fourth and fifth centuries, Korea was not patrilineal. It was bilateral, and maybe in the earliest times still transitioning from matrilineality. By the time we have good documentation, Korea, certainly by the 918-1392 Goryeo period, was clearly bilateral. And Confucianism had to accommodate.

Bilaterality in inheritances (and freedom of financial operations for women) meant balanced duties in carrying out the all-important ancestor ceremonies. Participation for women meant taking turns. There was a term for it ― "yunhaeng."

In the 1688 document it said daughters would no longer be given a full inheritance, but would be given a one-third-sized share because daughters only carried out funeral ceremonies for one year, whereas sons would mourn for three years. Then the statement went on to say that daughters would no longer participate in the ceremonies on a "yunhaeng" basis ― in rotation. Rather, the eldest son should step up and be responsible for the ceremonies.

If a document says, "no longer X" it means, obviously, that X had been the common practice. In this case, the X is hosting the ceremonies in rotation, yunhaeng. This 1688 document clearly shows a transition ― a transition from equal inheritance to disinheritance of daughters, and a transition from taking turns hosting ceremonies to hosting the ceremonies by the eldest son.

The transition took about a generation. At the outset, inheritances were divided equally between sons and daughters. In the process, daughters were first partially disinherited and then totally disinherited by the onset of the 18th century. Sons retained equal inheritance rights, eldest, middle and youngest, but then that changed, too, and the eldest son came to take over the whole inheritance with the duty of assisting the younger male siblings.

And a similar transition was seen in the hosting of ceremonies. First daughters were restricted and then eliminated from the role of hosting the ceremonies and then excluded from participation in the ceremonies (although there remained a role for women to make offerings for the husband's ancestors in some ceremonies and some women's roles for their own relatives). Major ceremonies became the domain of men. No more "yunhaeng."

The documents make this clear. Before the 18th century, when the inheritance documents were no longer written, there were times when inheritances were divided between daughters ― when there wasn't a son in the household. The most famous case was that of Shin Saimdang, the woman today featured on the 50,000 won bill in Korea. She was famous as the mother of Yulgok, the man featured on the 5,000 won bill.

Her inheritance document features five sisters; she was number two. And the property was divided equally between them. The document is sometimes on display at the Ojukheon museum in Gangneung where she lived and where Yulgok was born, and a copy has been on display at the Konkuk University museum.

As daughters lost their inheritance rights, they lost many other rights and privileges, such as autonomy in land ownership and other ownership rights. Shin Saimdang was an exemplary woman, the very model of motherhood and womanhood. She wrote, she painted, she taught her children the classics ― and she had a lot more freedom and prerogatives than her female descendants that lived after the onset of the 18th century.

Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.