[KS] punishment of women in Choson

[McCann, David]

There are the legal practices and protocols, but also relevant it seems to me is the situation of Ch'unhyang, flogged and sentenced to death for refusing the advances of the outsider magistrate.  We all may recall how at each stroke of the cudgel she recited a passage from the rules and regulations, starting with One, for one heart, loyal…  using the same four Chinese characters that Chông Mongju put into the final line of the sijo he is said to have replied with when the Yi crowd tried to win him over with a rambling sijo.  I say "said to" as there's no historical record of the banquet, but  a very different account of Chông's death in the Koryôsa, which as we know was compiled under that Yi crowd's dominion and direction.

David McCann


On Feb 5, 2015, at 8:41 AM, Victoria Ten <yoneun at gmail.com<mailto:yoneun at gmail.com>> wrote:

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<mailto:jim at jhoare10.fsnet.co.uk>> wrote:


________________________________
From: Koreanstudies [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreanstudies.com<mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreanstudies.com>] On Behalf Of DeberniereTorrey
Sent: 04 February 2015 23:35
To: koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com<mailto: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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