During the Koryŏ (918–1392) to Chosŏn (1392–1910) transition, constructing a patrilineal society was one of the state’s primary goals. From the early Chosŏn, the state implemented the Confucian style of marriage and allowed men to have one legitimate wife from the same social status and take lower status women as concubines. As women of different status came to live in the same household, the new marriage practice generated tensions between wives and concubines. The concubinage system was already an intrinsic part of the social fabric in Korean history, but the meaning of conjugal relations shifted during the Chosŏn period and the tension between women of different status became more visible. By using marriage as a site, the aim of this article is to examine how the state intervened in intimate domains such as emotions, sexuality, and familial virtue and how the state emphasized and regulated gendered emotions such as jealousy to embrace Confucian patriarchal values in the domestic space. By examining wives’ jealousy that often led to brutal violence against concubines, this article unveils the cultural meaning of jealousy between partners in the context of Confucian patriarchal and hierarchical society. Furthermore, it demonstrates the power dynamics in conjugal relations and the vulnerability of concubines and how the Confucian style of marriage manifested tensions among Confucian ideals, the law, and social practice.
목차
Abstract MARRIAGE, THE REGULATION OF WOMEN, AND STATUS DIFFERENCES TENSION BETWEEN WIVES AND CONCUBINES CONCLUSION REFERENCES
KIM JISOO M. [ Korea Foundation associate professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literature in the Department of History, George Washington University, USA. ]
한국연구원은 1970년 5월 한국 민속의 각 분야에 걸친 자료의 수집과 학술적 연구를 목적으로 '한국민속연구소'로 출발하였다. 그 후 1973년 5월 연구 분야를 확대하며 민속뿐만 아니라 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 위해 '한국학연구소'로 개편하였고, 다시 1989년 3월 한국의 국제적 위상의 부상과 함께 한국학 연구의 중요성이 높아짐에 따라 '한국학연구원'으로 확대, 개편하였다. 한국학연구원은 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 통해 지역과 민족문화 발전에 기여하며 한국학의 세계화를 위해서 학술활동을 강화하고 나아가 내·외국인에 대한 한국문화 교육을 담당하고자 한다.