조선후기의 신분제 : 해체국면 혹은 변화과정? Is it a Phase of Dismantlement or a Process of Change? = The Stratification System of the Chosun dynasty period's latter half

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Most interestingly, considering the usual perspectives of the social structure studies conducted by both Eastern and Western researchers, the perspective displayed in the earlier studies of the Korean researchers of the social stratification status of the Chosun dynasty's latter half period seems to be very unique. Most of the researchers from the Eastern and Western worlds concentrated their examination upon the hierarchy structure of their societies and acknowledged that in many cases the members from the upper classes usually ruled the much more larger classes below themselves. Yet the Korean researchers managed to recognize the fact that in case of the Chosun dynasty's stratification status the upper class(the Yangban class) was considerably growing larger in mass, while the lower classes(especially the commoner class) were literally shrinking.
In this research the earlier studies of the census registers, which indicated that the Korean model of social stratification during the Chosun dynasty's latter half period was very different from the more usual models of other worlds, were all reexamined. And as a result, it is confirmed that the Yuhak figures(幼學職役戶) not only included actual Yangban figures but also many mere commoners with faked Yangban identities. After sorting out these cases(the middle Jungseo-clas/中庶層 and the commoner class/常民層), and considering the ommission rate of each class, it sees that the real Yangban figures were only occupying 5% of the entire population, while the middle Jungseo-class occupied 15 to 20%, and the commoner class occupied 80 to 85%.
So the statistics clearly show that the Chosun society of the 18th and 19th centuries was showing a hierarchy structure as well in which an extremely small number of Yangban figures were ruling the vast majority of middle Jungseo-class members and the commoner class members. The difference between th Chosun dynasty model of this period, and the other societies of the Eastern and Western worlds, was that the Chosun dynasty showed a clear-cut differences between specific classes, while the other societies did not. This unique feature of the Chosun dynasty model could be labeled as the 'Stratification-bases hierarchy structure'.
The remaining problem would be how to interpret the explosive increase in the number of Yangban figures since the mid-19th century. This research concluded that the increase was due to the public's widely shared motivation to acquire the Yangban status. This overheated 'Yangban fever' seems to have been one of the most distinct and important social phenomena of th time, in which a transition was happening from the late Chosun dynasty period to the modern age of Korea.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. 문명사회의 보편적 사회구조 : 계서제
• 2. 1970년대 경상도 안강 양동의 풍경
• 3. 18·19세기 경상도 진주권의 사회구조
• 4. 변화의 시점
• 5. 조선후기 '양반열'의 실체