천상예보부실죄(天象豫報不實罪)? 서운관(書雲觀) 술자(述者) 황사우(黃思祐) 사건 (태종 13년, 1413) -동시에 大明律연구에 관한 제언- = If Officials at the Directorate of Astronomy Fail to Prophesy Heavenly Portents -A Case in 1413 under the King Taejong-

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In this paper, I try to express my methodological stance concerning the study of Korean legal history, motivated thereto when I have read the Korean translation of a case record of the Official Annals of the Yi Dynasty (朝鮮王朝實錄) which had occurred in 1413 under the King Taejong (太宗). The king discussed the case of a astronomer at the Directorate of Astronomy, Seo-un Gwan (書雲觀), whose prophecy had failed to predict exact time of the restoration of the sun from the eclipse by difference of one hour-unit. The Korean translation from the classical Chinese in which the Annals are written is inaccurate especially in reproducing the king`s intent to reward the official from the outset instead of punishing him even if the mandarin discussants were fully aware of it and expressing their consent, courteously but firmly. It renders the king`s intent to the opposite direction. This occurs because the translator failed to grasp the nuance of the questioning word 歟which induces the affirmative answer to the rhetorical question as is the case with the Latin word nonne. A comparison of the Korean translations of the pertaining articles of the Dae Myeong Ryul (大明律; chin. Da Ming lu) with those of the Dae Myeong Ryul -Jik Hae (大明律直解) which is the old-style expository Korean translation of the Dae Myeong Ryul in the Yi Dynasty and the other old Chinese commentaries on the Da Ming lu has also made it clear that the former have some errors in reproducing legal provisions of the Dae Myeong Ryul. My final suggestions are therefore, first, that a more precise Korean translation must be prepared and the Dae Myeong Ryul -Jik Hae is helpful for that purpose more than anything else and, secondly, that the Chinese commentaries are, with open mind, to be resorted to. And recognizing that the Dae Myeong Ryul -Jik Hae was the consciously modified and adjusted translation of the Da Ming lu to adapt it to the Korean situation, not a mere reproduction of the Chinese text with meager grammatical aids affixed, I maintain, thirdly, that it was in that sense even a new legislation sui generis and not only deserves to be, but also must be considered and treated as the official text for the Yi Dynasty. I regret, therefore, the practice of the Korean legal historians hitherto, who have usually disregarded or put aside it. What concerns the case itself, I have examined relevant preceding cases in the Goryeo Dynasty (高麗) and the Early Yi Dunasty (朝鮮), but found merely that they all shared and presupposed the same basic ideas of the archaic astrological ideology which was inseparably implicated with the politics of the ruler. No concrete result is to be reached in respect of pertinent legal norms and how a legal sanction was derived on the basis of the found facts. A further inquiry into the subsequent cases to the end of the Dynasty, I hope, may elucidate the problem.