[KS] punishment of women in Choson

[Victoria Ten]

This might help you, though it’s not directly your subject: Kim, Nayeon.
2012. “Indoctrinating Female Virture: the Social use of Chosŏn Woodblock
Prints” (paper presented at Eighth Worldwide Consortium of Korean Studies
Centers Workshop, July 4-7, 2012, Seoul, South Korea). Or at least the
bibliography at the end can help.


Samgang Haengsildo (三綱行實圖, Illustrated Exemplars of the Three Bonds) was
commissioned in 1428 by King Sejong (1418-1450) for the purpose of ‘people
education’ and woodblock-printed in 1434 (Kim, Nayeon 2012: 225, 228, 232).
The Three Bonds describe the three social structures, the three ethical
obligations of loyalty and servitude. The subject must serve the king, the
son or daughter must serve the parent, and the wife must serve the husband.
Thus formulated moral and social obligations show that women were
traditionally included among the subjects of virtue in East-Asia. But this
is theory, and practice might be different. Interesting question in this
respect is whether children were considered less responsible for crimes
than their parents, as according to Three Bonds sons and daughters are
subjected to parents just as wives are subjected to husbands.

Victoria Ten
Leiden University

On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 9:52 AM, Jim Hoare <jim at jhoare10.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

>
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* Koreanstudies [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreanstudies.com] *On
> Behalf Of *DeberniereTorrey
> *Sent:* 04 February 2015 23:35
> *To:* koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com
> *Subject:* [KS] punishment of women in Choson
>
>
>
> Dear Members:
>
> I'm trying to track down an authoritative reference for a claim that I've
> come across in several scholarly sources (both English and Korean), none of
> which gives a citation for this information: *that the Choson state was
> more lenient toward women as criminals, since they were considered subject
> to and therefore less responsible than men*. The statement fits my
> understanding of Choson values and legislation, but I have yet to find a
> specific reference. Deuchler's *Confucian Transformation* briefly
> mentions cases of leniency toward *yangban *women, but goes no further.
> I've read that the Ming code was somewhat lenient toward female criminals,
> placing them in the custody of family members rather than in jail, and I
> understand the Choson criminal code was based on the Ming code. I've also
> checked *Women and Confucianism in Choson* by Pettid and Kim, as well as
> the recent *Wrongful Deaths* by Sunjoo Kim, but haven't found specific
> reference to the above topic in these sources. Any help would be
> appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Deberniere Torrey
>
>
>
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