The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
  • Hangzhou Asian Games
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_X_on_2023.svgbt_X_over_2023.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
  • Hangzhou Asian Games
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_X_on_2023.svgbt_X_over_2023.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    INTERVIEWINFINITE's Nam Woo-hyun returns after battling with rare cancer

  • 3

    Busan eyes Expo 2035 after losing to Riyadh

  • 5

    December brings mix of action, thriller, romance to small screen

  • 7

    US, S. Korea cast doubt over NK's satellite photos

  • 9

    BTS wins 2023 MAMA Award for Worldwide Icon of the Year

  • 11

    Why are major South Korean stocks persistently undervalued?

  • 13

    Jefferies to open Seoul office in January

  • 15

    SPECIAL REPORTKorea should embrace cultural diversity in integrating immigrants

  • 17

    Economist challenges Yoon's immigration policies

  • 19

    Saudi Expo win puts Korean firms in line for contracts

  • 2

    2023 MAMA AWARDS hits Tokyo Dome with stellar lineup

  • 4

    PHOTOSIt's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

  • 6

    Cargo ship submerged off Korea's southwestern coast; no crewmen found

  • 8

    How can Korea become more migrant-friendly?

  • 10

    As Christmas nears, people feel growing income disparity

  • 12

    Hyundai Motor unveils universal wheel drive system

  • 14

    Seoul to introduce 'English tutor robots' for young students

  • 16

    N. Korea says spy satellite took photos of White House, Pentagon, key US naval base

  • 18

    Airline operating guideline to include mandatory passenger warning against opening plane door

  • 20

    Birthrate might fall below 0.7 in Q4

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Yun Byung-se
  • Kim Won-soo
  • Ahn Ho-young
  • Kim Sang-woo
  • Lee Kyung-hwa
  • Mitch Shin
  • Peter S. Kim
  • Daniel Shin
  • Jeon Su-mi
  • Jang Daul
  • Song Kyung-jin
  • Park Jung-won
  • Cho Hee-kyoung
  • Park Chong-hoon
  • Kim Sung-woo
  • Donald Kirk
  • John Burton
  • Robert D. Atkinson
  • Mark Peterson
  • Eugene Lee
  • Rushan Ziatdinov
  • Lee Jong-eun
  • Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho
  • Bernhard J. Seliger
  • Imran Khalid
  • Troy Stangarone
  • Jason Lim
  • Casey Lartigue, Jr.
  • Bernard Rowan
  • Steven L. Shields
  • Deauwand Myers
  • John J. Metzler
  • Andrew Hammond
  • Sandip Kumar Mishra
Thu, November 30, 2023 | 10:42
Mark Peterson
More on 1688 document
Posted : 2019-02-12 17:39
Updated : 2019-02-12 17:39
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link

By Mark Peterson

Recently I wrote about the 1688 inheritance document of the Buan Kim family that marked the beginning of the end for female inheritance rights and property ownership rights. In the document the family says "Our family is different from other families." The document was written mostly in Chinese with some sections in "idu" ― the modified Chinese character format that captured Korean grammatical particles with Chinese characters.

This sentence hit me like a ton of bricks when I first read it. In the first place, the simplicity of the sentence ― that I could understand it easily ― struck me. And that it was not that the statement was unique to one family, because, although it looks like it is one family, it was really happening to many families, one after another. So, the point is not that one family was making a break with the past, but this one family was making the break together with virtually all other families. This was a statement, not in isolation, but as a part of a sea change in social practice in Korea. The whole of society was moving from equality in inheritance to primogeniture ― inheritance dominated by the eldest son.

The key sentence was written in simple Chinese. It said literally "our-family-different-from-other-family." Chinese is structurally similar to English, whereas Korean is not. Korean is a SOV language, but Chinese and English are SVO languages. Subject Object Verb versus Subject Verb Object. Thus, the translation into English is simple and direct. Clearly, this family, a Buan Kim family, was making a break with the past.

As the Buan Kim family, an elite, office-holding family, was one of the first prominent families to start changing their method of passing property from one generation to the next. As elite families decided to reduce the amount of property that passes to the hands of daughters, the movement began to spread. Once a wife marrying into a family came in without an inheritance, families decided that their marrying-out daughters would not be given property. Preservation of the male household became the focus.

The document went on to say that the way they would be different is that their daughters who "marry out" would no longer be given a full share of inheritance, but rather, they would be given a one-third share, when compared with the sons' share. The implication was that sons were still treated equally, but daughters drop to treatment by the new one-third rule.

Why one-third? The rationale was that daughters mourn for a parent at their time of the parent's death for one year, whereas sons would mourn for three years, according to the Confucian ritual texts. Therefore daughters are due only one-third as much as the sons.

Other families at this time of transition in the late 17th century used other rationale. One family said that the daughters had married off to distant places and did not return faithfully for the performance of ceremonies, therefore, they would be given less. And other families had other rationale for diminishing the fraction of property given to daughters.

These fractions of shares, or lesser shares, given to daughters was the case only for about one generation ― roughly from 1660 to 1700 ― when the next move was to completely disinherit the daughters. That was the case universally when we entered the 18th century. Daughters were completely disinherited. And with that disinheritance came the loss of property rights in general. Everything turned to the hands of the sons ― and later, totally in the hands of the eldest son.

We see this transition in the excellent collection of Buan Kim documents, published by the Academy of Korean Studies, that daughters' shares drop to zero. The Buan Kims were typical of elite families, land-holding families, slave-holding families of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom. Their claim of being the "first" ― "different from other families" ― was only true in that soon thereafter ALL elite families became "different." All elite families moved to disinherit their daughters. And as elite families changed, non-elite families eventually mimicked the elite and began to disenfranchise their daughters. Thus, so-called traditional Korean society today, looking back at the most recent history, looks totally male-dominated. What Koreans call the "bugye," patrilineal, society.

The case is clear. The inheritance documents of the 15th, 16th, and the first two-thirds of the 17th century show equal inheritance for daughters. What about the inheritance documents of the 18th and 19th centuries? They do not exist! Once Korea moved to full Confucianism, or reliance on the eldest son, or primogeniture, there was no longer a need to write inheritance documents ― the eldest son had it all. The transition was complete.

The process is clear. I have written a book on the matter. Other scholars have written on the matter. But still, strangely, this issue does not yet appear in Korean secondary school textbooks. Why?


Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.


 
wooribank
LG group
Top 10 Stories
1Busan eyes Expo 2035 after losing to Riyadh Busan eyes Expo 2035 after losing to Riyadh
2US, S. Korea cast doubt over NK's satellite photos US, S. Korea cast doubt over NK's satellite photos
3[SPECIAL REPORT] Korea should embrace cultural diversity in integrating immigrantsSPECIAL REPORTKorea should embrace cultural diversity in integrating immigrants
4Saudi Expo win puts Korean firms in line for contracts Saudi Expo win puts Korean firms in line for contracts
5Birthrate might fall below 0.7 in Q4 Birthrate might fall below 0.7 in Q4
6Busan citizens disappointed but ready for World Expo 2035 bid Busan citizens disappointed but ready for World Expo 2035 bid
7Chanel, Hermes, Nike rectify customer policies after FTC warning Chanel, Hermes, Nike rectify customer policies after FTC warning
8Journey into Tomorrow: Commemorating 140 years of Korean-German diplomatic relations Journey into Tomorrow: Commemorating 140 years of Korean-German diplomatic relations
9Samsung Electronics appoints younger figures in personnel reshuffle Samsung Electronics appoints younger figures in personnel reshuffle
10Busan Expo bid failure feared to draw political backlash Busan Expo bid failure feared to draw political backlash
Top 5 Entertainment News
1December brings mix of action, thriller, romance to small screen December brings mix of action, thriller, romance to small screen
2[INTERVIEW] ASTRO members aim to shine in musical theater INTERVIEWASTRO members aim to shine in musical theater
3[INTERVIEW] INFINITE's Nam Woo-hyun returns after battling with rare cancer INTERVIEWINFINITE's Nam Woo-hyun returns after battling with rare cancer
42023 MAMA AWARDS hits Tokyo Dome with stellar lineup 2023 MAMA AWARDS hits Tokyo Dome with stellar lineup
5NMIXX to showcase unique allure with 'Fe3O4: BREAK' album next year NMIXX to showcase unique allure with 'Fe3O4: BREAK' album next year
DARKROOM
  • [PHOTOS] It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

    [PHOTOS] It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

  • 2023 Thanksgiving parade in NYC

    2023 Thanksgiving parade in NYC

  • Appreciation of autumn colors

    Appreciation of autumn colors

  • Our children deserve better

    Our children deserve better

  • Israel-Gaza conflict erupts into war

    Israel-Gaza conflict erupts into war

  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel: 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844
Date of registration: 2020.02.05
Masthead: The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group