19세기 전반 평안도 지역 유배인의 성격과 유배행정 - 『平安監營啓錄』순조대 기사 분석

Abstract

Examined in this article is a Gyerok/啓錄 material, which was an official report generated by the local offices and then sent to the Central government. These Gyerok reports serve as important somces of information, as they would help us define the natme of the Punishment of Exile, and the meaning it had throughout the Joseon society. Also, the local authorities management of exile cases, as well as the meaning of that local management in terms of the history of Korean legal adminstration, are all examined here.

This topic was never fully examined in previous studies, so a single text was specifically chosen to be examined in this article. Analyzed here is the 『Pyeongan Gamyeong Gyerok』 from the 19th century, currently in custody of the Gyujanggak Archives. Compared to most of the Gyerok materials that remain today, this text contains great many cases, and also well documented them in a chronological order. This text also most vividly shows us the details which concerned the implementation of exile punishments in the local areas.

According to the results of the analysis, throughout a 29-month period since 1830 through 1834, in average four persons a month were exiled to the Pyeongan-do region, from either the capital or other provinces. It also seems that the task of facilitating the convicts arrival upon the sites which were designated for their exiled life, as well as filing official reports to the central government regarding the subsequent management of those exiled people, constituted an important part of the local magistrates duties.

The number of people who came from other provinces greatly exceeded the number of people who were sent there from the capital, by either the Euigeum-bul/義禁府 office or the Hyeong-jo/刑曹 Ministry. Their crimes or charges included not only the ones that were related to certain social issues, such as lawsuits that concerned Mountain Cemeteries (Sansong, 山訟), or the act of abusing collected taxes or neglecting to submit taxes in the first place(Poheum, 逋欠), but also various criminal cases which were happening throughout the Joseon society in its later days. It should also be noted that there were no political offenders sent here from the capital, probably because of the location of the Pyeongan-do province, which was sharing borders with the Chinese Qing dynasty.

This article only examined a single text, which provides us with limited information concerning the situation of a single province, Pyeongan-do in this case, for a limited time period which was the later days of the Joseon dynasty. Yet, even from this limited pool of information, we can clearly see the patterns that were exhibited in the Local Exile adminstration during the latter half period of the Joseon dynasty. The whereabouts of the exile sites, their crimes that landed them in those exiles, and local managements of the people who were exiled, all shed some light on the subject at hand, and let us better understand the nature of the late Joseons exile punishment, as well as the details of the required operations.