18세기 후반 정조대 권농책과 수리 진흥책

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to inquire into the policy for agricultural development and promotion of irrigation under the reign of King Jeong-jo in the late 18th century. If we review the trend of research on essays on agricultural reform submitted in the late Chosun Dynasty, we could raise two questions. One is that most of research ignored being of King. In the field of political history, reseachers have regarded the being of King as one of the most influential factors. With this critical mind, now we have to examine King Jeong-jo's policy on agricultural development.

The other question is the necessity for restudying the characteristic of essay on agricultural reform. There were so many essays on agricultural reform which had been presented to Kings. Then most of them were to reform the possession of land, and such being the case, Korean Historians regard them as radical or modernistic. But I think that most of them were derived from Oriental Idealistic Essay. Therefore we need to re-examine the characteristic of essay on agricultural reform, including essays on the promotion of irrigation Now we investigate King Jeong-jo's policy on agricultural development and promotion of irrigation, and restudy intellectuals^ opinion submitted to King Jeong-jo as regional agricultural manuals. The conclusion of this paper is as follows.

In the late 18th century. King Jeong-jo moved forward with the plan that in tended to develop agricultural productivity. So like other Kings of Chosun Dynasty. Jeong-jo used to proclaim the Order of Agricultural Development on the first day of January every year. He asked local governors to make desperate efforts in order to promote and stabilize agricultural productivity. So far. in comparison with other Kings, there is no peculiarity in Jeong-jo's policy on agricultural development.

But during the late reign of King Jeong-jo. he asked something to the common peoplebeyond local governors and government officials. He ordered the common people to present essays on the promotion of agricultural development in the Order of Agricultural Development of 1798, that was proclaimed on the .'50th of November exceptionally King Jeong-jo planed to compile 'Nongseodaejeon', new grand agricultural manual.

There were two kinds of irrigation facilities in Chosun agricultural production. The first was Jeeon. that kept mountain streams in store by constructing a dam between valleys. The second was Bo, that drew river water into a paddy field by blocking its stream In order to promote and stabilize the power of irrigation facilities, the government of Chosun Dynasty executed traditional policy that strengthened the management of irrigation facilities. They re-establish Office of Irrigation Facilities(Jeeonsa) in the late 17th century.

In the late 18th century, many common people, who were in sympathy with King Jeong-jo, presented their essays on agricultural promotion. Some of them insisted commonly to promote irrigation facilities and stablized them The most important part of their essay was that they were based on their regional environment of agricultural production, thanks to them, we find that there were many Jeeon in Kyongsangdo. On the contrary, Chenrado and Chungchengdo had many Bo and regional farmers made desperate efforts to adapt themselves to their surroundings. In conclusion, their essays were idealistic and realistic.