GORYEO LAND SYSTEM
There are two important legal rights in Goryeo’s land system : Ownership (소유권, 所有權) and Tax Right (수조권, 收租權).
According to Ownership (소유권, 所有權) : - Privately owned lands (민전, 民田 : Nobles, Commoners, Slaves, Buddhist temples, etc.)
- Publicly owned lands (Government, King)
Most of the lands are privately owned lands. They were freely sold and inherited.
According to Tax Right (수조권, 收租權) : - Publicly taxed lands (공전 公田) : Privately/Publicly owned lands taxed by the government.
- Privately taxed lands (사전 私田) : Privately/Publicly owned lands taxed by an individual entrusted by the government.
The tax rights were entrusted to nobles, bureaucrats, or Buddhist temples. A hereditary tax right was not allowed on principle, but the prohibition existed in name only. Privately taxed lands had much highter tax rates.
For example, If you inherited a farm land from your commoner father, you can either sell it or leave it to your son. Your tax goes to either the government or an individual (noble / bureaucrat / Buddhist temple) entrusted by the government. One day, a nobleman tells you “It was originally my ancestor’s land.” showing a fabricated land register. You can’t prove that it is yours because you are an illiterate farmer and your local government office was already bribed by the noble.
Or, your land will be taxed by 5~6 nobles who claimed to have the tax right entrusted by the government. Your tax rate soars to 80~90%. Finally, you will realize that you’d better give up cultivating the land. You will lead an itinerant life or become a bandit. Currently in the drama, more than 90% of Goryeo’s lands were occupied by the privileged nobles. Even the government and royal family didn’t have enough taxes to pay wages to the government officials. Most of the politicians, especially the emerging Sadaebu scholars, agreed on the land reforms, but they showed conflicting views on the level and pace of the reform.
The Question :
I didnt think that they sold land so freely and that even slaves could own a land. So when sold to commoner or slave, it would be done without any legal “papers” of ownership?
Take a look at Dae-geun (Yeon-Hee’s rapist). He was Hong In-Bang’s slave. What made General Choi Young get angry about Hong In-Bang was that Dae-Geun took away the wasteland of Boon-Yi’s village and registered it as his own land. It was the same as in Jo Ban’s rebellion. Yi Gwang (another Hong’s slave) dared to steal nobleman Jo Ban’s lands. They were asses in lion’ s skin. Even slaves owned their lands and abused power when working for the corrupt noble. Of course, legal papers (land registers) were needed. However, it can be fabricated so easily. For example, in the earlier episode of SFD, the father of Sungkyunkwan scholar Heo Gang (later, Yi Sin-Jeok) committed suicide in shame after he was charged of fabricating commoners’ land registers in favor of Gil Tae-Mi in order to save his imprisoned son’s life. (ep. 3) He was a judicial scrivener and his crime was revealed by a poster on the wall supposedly written by Yi Bang-Won. (In fact it was written by Hong In-Bang to frame Bang-Won)
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Post time 19-1-2016 09:38 PM
Author
Jang Young Shil
