My PhD dissertation undertakes an analysis of the themes regarding the collection and the transportation of the tax in the Goryo period. Differently from the existing literature which separated the land transportation from that of the waterways, I inc...
My PhD dissertation undertakes an analysis of the themes regarding the collection and the transportation of the tax in the Goryo period. Differently from the existing literature which separated the land transportation from that of the waterways, I incorporate both transportation methods, in order to map the reality of the tax transportation system and to overcome the limitations of the existing literature, which hardly showed the diverse aspects of the process, destinations and boundaries regarding the tax transportation. I explored the various routes of the transportation using a historio-geographical research method. Studying about the tax transportation and the related activities also have the purpose of figuring out the characteristics of each reign.
My analysis tries to clarify the tax transportation system and also the changes occurred to the system from the beginning to the late period of the Goryo dynasty. The main context of my dissertation includes: in Chapter Two, the tax transportation system in the beginning of the Goryo dynasty is examined in detail. Chapter Three undertakes a research on the developing process of the tax transportation system in the Goryo period. In Chapter Four, I seek to analyse the boundaries of the tax system. The first boundary being the regions who sent the collected tax directly to the tax warehouses located in Seoul, so called, Gyungchang(京倉), and the second being those who were the furtherest from Seoul and, thus sent the collected tax via Jochang(漕倉), the warehouses where the collected tax was kept carefully before sending them out to Seoul to Gyungchang. And the third boundary includes some of the military areas in Goryo, which did not send out the collected tax to Seoul, but reserved them for their own use. Chapter Five examined the similar themes, but rather in the later period of Goryo.
As a result of my analysis, first of all, I could draw a map of the routes through which the collected tax was transported. The routes were made up by places, which could be the ports in the case of the coast areas and the stations in land, and one boundary was an area inclusive the ports and stations as well as the routes. Secondly, my finding suggests that the tax transportation system differed each era having its own characteristics. For example, from the reign of King Taecho(918∼943), Chunwunsa(轉運使), the special bureaucrats, became responsible for collecting and transporting tax. During the reign of King Sungchong(982∼997), 60 ports were assigned the responsibilities of collecting and transporting tax and each port had its own fare policy. Thirdly, 12 Jochangs were built in various areas by the coast and by the riversides during King Hyungjong(1009∼1031)'s reign. However, Jochang became demolished at the beginning of the 14th century, and the responsibility of keeping the collected tax was under the supervision of the county councils of the regions, called Gunhyun(郡縣). During the reign of King Gongyang(1389∼1392), Jojunsun(漕轉城), a fortress was made to replace the already demolished Jochang. This fortress had the function of warehouse, but at the same time was designed to protect them from the attacks by the Japanese pirates. Jojunsun becomes the centre of the tax transportation just few years before the fall of the Goryo dynasty.
Fourthly, I could also find an earlier form of the transportation system. This is significant because it is an additional fact to the already recognised types of the transportation activities. The early system divides the stations involved in the operation of the transportation into six different levels(6 Gyacheje; 6科體制), in accordance with the significance of the work with which the station was assigned. Moreover, the early system facilitates 60 ports as the most important centres of the tax transportation(60浦制). Fifthly, my analysis comes to a conclusion that the establishment of Jochang(漕倉) provided a great opportunity in specifying the boundaries. Moreover, after having undertaken a research on the locations of Jochang, I could find the fact that Jochang was built on the coastal areas, which had an appropriate natural condition to build ports such as deep water so as to avoid boat wreckage. However, this important aspect in the process of deciding the location of Jochang has been ignored in the existing literature. Normally Jochang was built by the riversides and the seasides. Therefore, the researchers concluded that Jochang was an evidence of the waterway transportation method. However, I argue that the researcher overlooked the fact that the collected tax was carried through the roads before Jochang accumulated and sent out them through the waterways to the destination. It was a sort of a complex terminal incorporating the waterway transportation as well as that of the land.
Among the changes in the tax transportation occurred during the late Goryo period, the biggest being the disappearance of Jochang, and the takeover of Gunhyun(郡縣) of the role of Jochang. When the Won dynasty(元朝) in China invaded Japan twice in the late 13th century, ordinary labourers, boats, navigators, other strategic materials, such as wood, which supported the basis of the Jochang system(漕倉制) in Goryo became unusably destroyed. The disappearance of Jochang not only influenced the whole transportation system, but also the lives of the commoners. Bascially Jochang was built and handled by the central government, and the county councils did not have a say on the facilities and the operation of the transportation. For instance, the boats in Jochang belonged to the central government who financed makng them. However, after Gunhyun replaced Jochang, it is evident that some powerful people in the regions could intervene in the operation of the system. The boats belonged to these people, and this resulted in the rise of the transportation fare. This badly affected the commoners who not only had to pay the tax, but also were imposed the transportation expense, which was three times more than the tax itself.
There were various forms of forced public labours to the commoners in the Goryo dynasty. The both central and regional governments acquired labour for massive civil engineering works, such as building bridges, roads, palaces and councils, and so on. Each time the commoners had to serve free labour. The tax transportation was not an exception. As a matter of fact, it was harsher so that the labour needed to provide to operate the whole tax transportation system was highly specialized involving navigation skill. The labour was too hard on the commoners and the system were often abused by the civil servants used the commoners' navigation skills for their own benefit.
Like Jochang suffered from supporting the Chinese attempts to invade Japan, Gunhyun were subject to the frequent attacks made by Japanese pirates. The destruction on the ports and the boats used in the tax transportation paralysed the whole system. In order to tackle this matter, the central government of Goryo tried, on the one hand, to rid of the pirates, and, on the other hand, to set up plans to revive the tax transporation, which was significant to the finance of the government. This gave a birth to the fortresses called Jojunsung(漕轉城). They were complete with a defence wall and a castle inside, and would protect the already collected tax from the Japanese pirates, which would ensure the most significant financial source of the dynasty be safely delivered to the central government. Jojunsung became the starting point of the tax transportation system in the successive dynasty, Chosun.
In sum, my dissertation is an analysis of the general tax transportation system in the Goryo period. I particularly focus on the developing process of the system, and the transportation network involving both land and waterways, and the authorities responsible for the entire operations. In doing so, I could map the entire operations of the tax transportation in the period concerned, of which work would eventually help understand the system in the Chosun dynasty.