Korean Kinship and Women before the Confucian transformation

"Two studies, one by Ch'oe Chae-sok (1972) and the other by Martina Deuchler (1977), have suggested the mid-seventeenth century as an approximate date for the turning point from indigenous Korean to Confucian ways. According to Ch'oe, the land division records that he reviewed in Hahoe, a southern Korean village, registered land received by women as inheritance until that time. The other study, by Martina Deuchler, discusses how 'around 1700, the rule of primogeniture, which was virtually nonexistent at the beginning of the dynasty, was firmly established, and the tendency to favor sons, in particular the oldest son, over daughters as heirs to family property became marked' (Deuchler 1977:28). These two studies indicate that indigenous customs gave way to Chinese Confucian way of life some time between 1650 and 1700." (7)

"Among the changes that occurred with this social transformation was a major reformulation of the Choson dynasty legal codes, presumably to reflect the new family and kinship systems encouraged by Confucianism." (ibid)

Koh examines the legal codes of 18th C Korea, which were based on the "five degrees of mourning"  (obokche) - a system of measuring kin distances; adopted in the mid-15th C, and finds that even in the 18th C, the indigenous system of measuring kin distance (ch'onsu) - based on a different principle (utilized during the Koryo dynasty, 918-1392), not included in any formal rule - was frequently used to determine the actual punishment of crimes outside of the prescribed Confucian penal system (from the Ming and Ch'ing dynasty). 

*Ch'onsu is still used today.

*Note:
"During the Koryo and early Choson dynasties, matrilocality was the traditional and prevalent residence rule in Korea. At that time, a bride lived with her family even after her marriage, with her husband joining her temporarily or even permanently. The traditional norm governing in-law relations shifted drastically when patrilocality was introduced in the mid-seventeenth century with the adoption of Ming law." (19)

"Considering that women used to inherit family property equally with sons, and that a Korean woman kept her own personal property after her marriage, and even after her death (e.g. when her slaves were returned to her natal family), as well as the custom of matrilocal marriage in earlier times, one can well imagine that Korean women were treated more equitably than their neighbors in China and Japan (Kim Il-mi 1969; Deuchler 1977). A woman, in the role of mother, grandmother, sister, or aunt, was given no special leniency as the offender in crimes against her family members, however. She was punished equally with her male counterpart or spouse." (29)



Hesung Chun Koh (1998), The Persistence of Korean Family Norms in a Confucian State: An Analysis of Eighteenth-Century Criminal Cases. In The Anthropology of Korea, Senri Ethnological Studies no. 49, edited by Mutsuhiko Shima and Roger L. Janelli. 7-36. National Museum of Ethnology: Osaka.