Since Hwasung has been registered in the World Cultural Heritage list in 1997, the age of King Cheongcho has been newly reviewed all over our society. Such a situation influenced to the world of history so that the thought and culture of the age of Ki...
Since Hwasung has been registered in the World Cultural Heritage list in 1997, the age of King Cheongcho has been newly reviewed all over our society. Such a situation influenced to the world of history so that the thought and culture of the age of King Cheongcho have been clarified and at the same time, his consideration for the people reformation have been noticed.
In 1776(2nd year of Cheongcho), he proclaimed 4 projects for reformation in civilian industry, military administration, politics and financial affairs, called as Kyungzangdaego. Its object was to increase the property of the people, to train talent, to reform the military system and to make the whole country rich and powerful. Kyungzangdaego, totally reflected with King Cheongcho’s thought on reformation had been consistently driven generally through the period of his reign.
Among 4 projects for reformation, the very things that King Cheongcho regarded as more important had been the training of talent and the reformation of the military system. With the recognition that the discrimination of civil service to military service encroaches defensive strength to defend the country against the invasion of a foreign country, he thought that the civil and the military service should become one. The point that he tried to develop literary and military arts together while suggesting ‘文治 武設壯勇’, can be understood in such a context. Therefore, King Cheongcho selected Jangyongyoung as the center for military reform through military arts.
King Cheongcho could secure strong military power by creating Jangyongyoung and tried to stabilize the people’s livelihood by reducing the existing 5 military parts through this. As 56% of national finance was spent on each military part, other reform was in difficulty to be executed without the reform on the military system. So, he created Jangyongyoung despite of existing 5 military parts. However, his creation of Jangyongyoung was not only a simple policy of military reform but the core preceding condition for the reform all over the country.
The usual assessment on his creation of Jangyongyoung has been understood only in the aspect of strengthening royal power up to now. To be sure, he created Jangyongyoung to strengthen his royal power. As he could not perform any political action as a king if failing to secure military power, he had to hold it by all means to promote his own reform policy.
The creation of Jangyongyoung also was oriented to another purpose. It was the stabilization of the people’s livelihood. King Cheongcho had planned to recover the military system to Ohweejae of the early period of Chosun Dynasty, based on Jangyongyoung so that it minimizes the evil influence of military administration and also stabilizes the people’s livelihood. Most scholars of a positive school including Bangae Yoo Hyung-Won in the late period of Chosun insisted the recovery of Ohweejae and this was a way to reform society for the purpose of the combination of the military and the farmer. King Cheongcho recognized the limit of the system of central 5 military parts and realized the system of 5 military forces by creating new military camps and in addition, pursued to develop Dunjeon through this and together to stabilize the people’s livelihood.
And the creation of Jangyongyoung was the try for political reinstatement of his father, crown prince Janghyeon, followed the will of King Hyojong who tried an expedition to conquer the north. Crown prince Janghyeon emphasized military arts and published “武藝新譜” by gathering existing martial arts. King Cheongcho tried to continue an expedition to conquer the north, which was the wish of Crown prince Janghyeon and simultaneously tried to establish the long-term foundation to make Crown prince Sado king so that he planned to recover legitimacy of his own royal power.
Besides, King Cheongcho raised Suwon Dohobu to the status of Hwasung Yoosubu and established the internal and external parts of Jangyongyoung in 1793, so that he prepared the strong military system for Hwasung where he would live in as the abdicated king after turning over the crown in 1804. He had planned to complete his reform policy that he had promoted for a long time through the right of personnel management, judicial power and the prerogative of supreme command over the military that were the rights of the abdicated king at Hwasung, the base of his royal guards. Jangyongyoung was practical driving force to perform his reform policy.
However, studies on King Cheongcho’s will to reform national defense and Jangyongyoung that should be evaluated as a good example of the military system have been very poor. Even though there is the study on the change of Jangyongyoung’s military system, its creation process, specific object, the position system and the affairs in the military camp have not been known to the academic world of history at all.
This study has its object to disclose the reality of Jangyongyoung that had played the most central role among the cultures of the age of King Cheongcho, rated as the revival period of our culture and the model for the political reform of our society in the 21st century. So it would be possible to confirm the importance of reform on national defense in the age of King Cheongcho the ideal society of “人人和樂” that he tried to pursue.
The significant content and viewpoint of this writing are as follows; First, it is going to examine the weak position of the king and the political background of the creation of Jangyongyoung through the analysis to the political trend at the early after ascending the throne. Second, it is the object of the creation of Jangyongyoung. This study tried to disclose the facts that its creation was not only simply to strengthen his royal power through training his own royal guards but to stabilize the people’s livelihood and to continue the idea of an expedition to conquer the north. Different from the assessment that the idea of an expedition to conquer the north didn’t exist in the age of King Cheongcho and only the idea of the study on the northern country existed, it tried to investigate that King Cheongcho had accepted both an expedition to conquer the north and the study on the northern country and that he created Jangyongyoung for the central institution to realize Chosun as the center of the world as Chunghwa(中華) not as small Chunghwa(小中華) . Third, it tried to approach the reality of Jangyongyoung, which has never been known so far. By clarifying the military system, position and training of Jangyongyoung, it tried to confirm the political meaning of the age of King Cheongcho that the conversion into the internal and external system of Jangyongyoung had.
This study was developed as one part of the political history of the age of King Cheongcho in the late period of Chosun and at the same time, includes the research on part of the military history. And it tried to pave the way for studying various thoughts and culture of the age of King Cheongcho by clarifying new aspects of that age through the result of this study.