Notes

KORYŎ SOCIETY
The spread of literacy encouraged by the civil exams along with the
study of a common curriculum, the establishment of private schools, the
gradual penetration of the state into local government, and the attraction
of the capital that drew members of the elite from around the country all
contributed to the creation of a shared cultural identity among the upper
class. Yet even as Korea during the Koryŏ period was being integrated
into a single society it maintained a three-part division that remained
characteristic to the end of the nineteenth century. At the top was a hereditary
aristocracy that became known as the yangban. The name yangban,
literally the “two sides,” referred to the two divisions of officials:
muban (military officials) and the munban (civil officials). The term eventually
was used to refer to the aristocracy from which the bureaucracy
was derived. This class dominated politics, the economy, and culture.
Next were commoners: some were probably small free farmers, and others
were tenants working the fields of the aristocracy. A much smaller
number of commoners served as merchants and skilled craftsmen. At
the bottom of society were the low born. The low born consisted mostly
of slaves. These were divided into public slaves owned by government
agencies and private slaves owned by the aristocracy. Slaves were, along
with land, a measure of elite status. How many Koreans were slaves?
This is not known and estimates vary widely. The number probably fluctuated;
perhaps slaves accounted for up to one-third of the population.
Most worked the land of the aristocracy, but not on large estates. Large
landholdings consisted of scattered parcels of land, and most slaves lived
away from any direct supervision. Their living conditions probably resembled
those of poor tenant farmers.
Most of the information we have on Koryŏ society is about the elite
families, and even here there is much that is not clearly understood.
Social status was based primarily on family ancestry. This became determined
not only by family surname but by the pon’gwan (ancestral-seat)
system. Each family became identified with its place of origin. For example,
the surname Kim was a very common one, but there were many
different Kim clans with different places of origin such as the Kyŏngju
Kim and the Kangnŭng Kim. The concept of an ancestral seat remained
a permanent feature of Korean society, and to this day Korean descent
groups are identified in this way. Some of the Koryŏ’s great descent
groups descended from Silla true-bone ranks such as the Kyŏngju Kim,
the Kangnŭng Kim, and the P’yŏngsan Pak. A few were originally from
head-rank-six families. Most, however, were descended from local
strongmen who were incorporated into the Koryŏ elite. Unlike China
and Japan there were no official lists of great descent groups, so their
number is not certain. But it is clear from the records of officeholders
that a small number of great families dominated society. One study
found that from the mid-tenth to the mid-twelfth centuries twenty-nine
elite descent groups held two-fifths of high government posts.21 Descent
groups, which could be very large, were divided into different lineages
or segments. Some of these segments became more prominent than others.
Most descent groups had their bases in the countryside, deriving income
from their estates worked by tenants and slaves. Gradually, however,
some identified their status with office holding, lived entirely in
the capital, and lost ties with their rural roots. They came to form a small
upper stratum of capital-based aristocracy linked together by marriages.
There is some controversy over whether one inherited social status from
both parents or whether social status was primarily inherited from the
male side of the family. It seems clear, however, that a good marriage
was key to maintaining or enhancing the status of an aristocrat, especially
a marriage to a member of the royal family. Under the influence
of Tang and Song China greater importance was gradually placed on
the direct male lineage. Koryŏ, however, especially in earlier times, gave
much more weight to the female side of the family in determining status
than did China. This in turn gave greater status to women.
As historian Martina Deuchler and others have pointed out, compared
to later periods, the social position for women in Koryŏ times was high.
Women could inherit property, and an inheritance was divided equally
among siblings regardless of gender. A woman’s property was hers and
could be passed on to her children. Some women inherited homes and
estates. Ownership of property often gave upper-class women considerable
independence. Korean women remained to a considerable extent
members of their natal families, not those of their husbands. For example,
if a woman died without children, her property passed on to her siblings,
not to her husband. Wives were not merely servants of their husbands.
Their importance was reflected in the practice of conducting marriages
in the house of the bride. There was no bride wealth or dowry, and men
often resided in their wife’s home after marriage. The two sexes mingled
freely. The twelfth-century Chinese traveler Xu Jing was surprised by the
ease with which men and women socialized.
We do not yet have a clear picture of marriage in Koryŏ.22 Evidence suggests
that marriage rules were loose. Divorce was possible, but seems to
have been uncommon; separation may have been more common. Koreans
may have also practiced short-term or temporary marriages; however, the
evidence of this is unclear. Remarriage of widows was an accepted practice.
Marriage between close kin and within the village was also probably
common. Later Korean society was characterized by extreme endogamy
in which marriage between people of even the remotest relationship was
prohibited, but this was not yet the case in Koryŏ times. Plural marriages
may have been frequent among the aristocracy. Xu Jing said that it was
common for a man to have three or four wives. Concubinage existed, but
it is not known how customary it was. Evidence suggests that upper-class
men married at about twenty and women at about seventeen. Men lived
with their wife’s family until about the age of thirty. Widows as well as
widowers appear to have kept their children. All this is a sharp contrast
with later Korean practices (see chapter 7).
The Koryŏ elite was not strictly patrilineal. Instead, members of the
elite traced their families along their matrilineal lines as well. This gave
importance to the wife’s family, since her status helped to determine that
of her children. Although high status and rights of women in Koryŏ were
in contrast to later Korean practice, in many ways it was similar to Japan
in the Heian period (794–1192). Much less is known about either Sillan or
early Koryŏ society than about Heian Japan, but it is likely that the two
societies shared a number of common practices relating to family, gender,
and marriage. It is possible that these practices may, in fact, be related to
the common origins of the two peoples. This is still a matter of speculation;
further study needs to be made before the relationship between
Korea and Japan is clearly understood.
Some changes took place over the nearly five centuries of the Koryŏ
period. The adoption of the civil examination system in the tenth century
led to careful records of family relations. At the same time, the strengthening
of Chinese influences resulted in the gradual adoption of the Chinese
practice of forbidding marriage among members of patrilineal kin.
As Koreans began to place more importance on direct male descent and
the Confucian ideas of the subordination of women to men became more
accepted, the position of women declined. The state, for example, enacted
laws prohibiting a wife from leaving her husband without his consent.
Most major changes in family and gender relations, however, took place
only after the Koryŏ period.