[KS] Joseon-era official terms

CedarBough T. Saeji umyang at gmail.com
Sun Jan 2 08:35:03 EST 2011


In Korean Mask Dance Dramas such as Songpa Sandae Noli and Yangju Byeolsande
there is a character called 포도부장 and this has been translated by prominent
Folklorists as Police Chief and Police Inspector and perhaps other similar
translations as well, but I am in the field without access to my whole
library.

2011/1/2 <gkl1 at columbia.edu>

> I agree with Don Baker that the lists compiled by Jim Palais and Ed
> Wagner are very useful for the kind of needs that Deberniere Torrey
> inquired about. Palais's list is alphabetically arranged in
> McCune-Reischauer romanization, while Wagner organized his list
> alphabetically according to his own Emglish translations-- which was
> appropriate for "Literati Purges," the book in which it appears. But
> anyone looking for the translation of a specific Korean term will have
> to review the whole list. The good news is that it's not all that long
> and is easily scanned, and that going through that process helps one's
> understanding of the bureaucratic structure--which is good for a
> lifetime
> of Korean Studies. I'm not familiar with the list in the recent
> English translation of the 목민심서 that Don mentions, but it should be
> highly useful for Deberniere's work since it would include many terms
> relating to provincial and local governance.
>
> In the more recent comments on this thread there seems to be a general
> interest in the consolidation and standardization of lists of
> bureaucratic titles. Given different romanizations and the different
> scholarly approaches of researchers over the whole range of
> disciplines interested in the traditional structures, it would seem to
> me very difficult to produce a single list or catalog that would suit
> the interests of all scholars. I think it's much better to have a
> general understanding of what goes on in the various branches, and on
> the basis of that understanding, devise the translation that seems
> most appropriate to the work of the individual scholar. Such
> understanding can generally be found in a good Korean historical
> encyclopedia.
>
> Given the many differences between the bureaucracies of Ming and
> Choson--not only terminological but structural--one will often strike
> out in looking up a Korean title in Hucker's work, although it's
> usefulness for Ming goes without saying. Actually, I think one might
> find more Korean resonance with Tang and Song titles than with Ming
> ones.
>
> As for the specific titles that Deberniere mentions, my preferences would
> be:
>
> 공조판서  Director of the Board of Works (rank 2a), in charge of
> construction, roads, and bridges, etc. (mostly in the capital and
> surrounding area; little heard of in the provinces). "Board" was the
> earlier sinological form and I personally like it more than
> "Ministry," nowadays generally associated with parliamentary systems.
>
> 의금부  State Tribunal (headed by a rank 1b official). It should be noted that
> this governmental unit is pretty much restricted to high state crimes such
> as
> treason or malfeasance in office. The defendants are usually high
> ranking officials or prominent sadaebu/yangban outside the government.
> One will not find the doings of commoners or women there except as
> witnesses against some powerful person.
>
> 포도부  My choice for this is "Tribunal for Common Crime" (literally "bandit
> catching department"). This was where average Koreans accused of
> crimes were dealt with. This involved also many Christians during the
> anti-Catholic persecutions. This tribunal was under the authority of
> 한성부 (漢城府), as the local government of Seoul was formally known in
> dynastic times. There were
> actually two such tribunals, one in the eastern part of the city, the
> other in the western part. They operated under the 포도청 (捕盜廳), or
> Criminal division of the city government. For the most part they were
> strictly for commoners and slaves and sometimes petty yangban who were
> poor or of illegitimate status (서얼), such as Kang Wansuk and many
> other Catholic men and women of lower status during the persecutions.
> This tribunal existed only in Seoul. Crimes committed in Seoul were
> investigated and culprits interrogated/tortured in one of these
> tribunals, although if they were registered in outer provinces and
> districts, they would be sent to their place of registration for the
> final sentence to be carried out. Each of the two Seoul 포도부 were
> formally headed by a 포도부장 (捕盜部長), but the last element of this title
> was popularly written and widely seen in hanja as 部將 --"general" or
> "commander."
>
> Gari Ledyard
>
> BakerDon <ubcdbaker at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> The most convenient way to find the standard translations for the
>> titles of institutions and positions in pre-modern Korea is the
>> glossary available on-line from the Academy of Korean Studies. The       url
>> is:http://www.aks.ac.kr/glossary/default.asp
>>
>> However, sometimes some of their translations are not the standard
>> translations. For the standard translations, you should look at   the
>> glossary prepared by Edward Wagner for his The Literati   Purges:
>> Political Conflict in Early Yi Korea (1974) and the   glossary James
>> Palais attached to his study of Yu Hyongwon,   Confucian Statecraft     and
>> Korean Institutions. A third source   would be the glossary to  the
>>  recently published English   translation of Tasan's Mongmin  simseo,
>>  under the name   Admonitions on Governing the People.
>> 공조판서 is usually translated as Chief Minister of the Ministry of
>>  Public Works, though the AKS glossary gives the somewhat      anachronistic
>> translation Minister of Commerce
>> 의금부 is usually translated as the State Tribunal, though that      glossary
>> says Correctional Tribunal
>> 포도부장 is not in the AKS glossary.  포도부 is, and it is translated as
>>  Capital Police. So I suspect that 포도부 is the local police station.
>>  That means 포도부장 should be translated as police chief.  However, in
>>  some contexts it refers to the prison, and therefore 포도부장 would  be     the
>> warden of the prison. Calling him the Commander for the   Arrest    of
>> Bandits is too literal.
>>
>> This is all of the top off my head, since I am far away from my home
>> library today (I'm in South Carolina, visiting family, and  there      isn't
>> much on Korea in the libraries here!)
>>
>> Don Baker ProfessorDepartment of Asian Studies University of British
>> Columbia Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z2 don.baker at ubc.ca
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 19:07:45 -0800
>> From: djtorrey at yahoo.com
>> To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
>> Subject: [KS] Joseon-era official terms
>>
>> Dear Members:
>>
>> I'm trying to determine the English for the terms listed below.
>> Charles Hucker's Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China       gives
>> some, but not all, and I'm also wondering if the translations       would be
>> different for the Korean context. I'm also listing my       tentative
>> translations. If they are incorrect, or if you know of       better
>> alternatives, please respond. Many thanks in advance.
>>
>> Deberniere Torrey
>>
>>
>> 공조판서 gong jo pan seo (工曹判書): Minister of the Works Section
>>
>> 의금부 ui geum bu (義禁府): Justice and Prohibition Office (or Bureau)
>> (For this one, I've also seen Royal Prohibition Bureau; State
>> Tribunal; and Royal Inspector's Office.)
>>
>> 포도부/ 捕盜部 po do bu / po do bu jang (포도부/ 捕盜部將) Office for the
>>
>> Arrest of Bandits / Commander for the Arrest of Bandits. This is what
>> Hucker gives.)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Ph.D. Candidate in UCLA's program in Culture and Performance

CedarBough Saeji
Address till 08/2011: 서울특별시 용산구 이태원2동 215-31번지 3충 (우) 140-867 Republic of
Korea
Permanent address: 220 Snowberry Lane Lopez Island, Wash. 98261
http://www.cedarsphotography.com
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