In this paper I have intended to illuminate the social meaning of the Kim chae-sang family's social movement in the nineteenth century by its extant documents.
The Kim chae-sang family have lived in Chulla province since the late Koryo dynasty. The...
In this paper I have intended to illuminate the social meaning of the Kim chae-sang family's social movement in the nineteenth century by its extant documents.
The Kim chae-sang family have lived in Chulla province since the late Koryo dynasty. They was the renowned family that had had the higher official servants in the Koryo dynasty. But its social status was getting downer and downer until the early nineteenth century, because it had never produced only a clergy passing the official exam. Reaching the early nineteenth century, this family decided to elevate its own social status in the local society through the way of making itself a filial piety famliy. Because a filial piety in the Joseon period didn't only mean devoting to the parents, but included the more social meanings.
It seems to be a sort of survival strategy that The Kims' family intended to occupy the position of filial- piety famliy. The government originally had propagandized the idea of filial piety to manuplate the lower class' s social desire. At any rate, it took nearly 60years for this family to get this title. The courses must be systematic and strategic, examining the documents of this family.
I divided the course into three phases.
First step is to myth a plain person, Kim chae-sang, a sincere devoted son.
Second step is to acquire the title of the right to get freed from the state duties as the result of the relatively independent power of the district magistrate. This special right also symbolized their acquirement of the upper class in the area. Then, they received a kind of dispositive document, wanmun(完文).
Final step is to receive 'the door of the sign of being a filial piety famliy (孝子旌閭)'. Then they also got the official dispositive document, Ipan(立案). Receiving, they could make their social status concrete.
In the conclusion, I got to know the social meaning of the process of receiving 'the door of the sign of being a filial piety famliy(孝子旌閭)' by examining the extant documents in the Kims' family. Its meaning is not only acquiring the means to get the special right of getting free of the official duties but to make them a higher social status.