18世紀 地震과 官僚의 認識

Abstract

There has been more than 128 recorded cases of earthquakes during the 18th century. Geologically speaking, most earthquakes occurred in Choongchung-do, Kyungsang-do and Julia-do. This goes to show that the Korean peninsula is not a place immune against earthquakes, and in term of seasons, 50% or 65% earthquakes occurred in wintertime. The accurate damage done by these earthquakes are unknown since only the fact that these earthquakes occurred and the place of occurrence was recorded. And the public officials of pre-modern times defined it as a phenomenon of force measure by the gods to punish mortals for their sins, and did not try to find its cause and take the appropriate measures. Specifically, they Jinked earthquakes to the governing ability and even the morals of the king and publically criticized him of wrong doing. Further more, such criticism was accepted by the king himself. Actions taken by the government consisted of extreme self-discipline by the king to impress the gods to cancel or stop the disaster. And so the best counter measure available, was for the king to discipline .himself, fear and praise the gods and go into fasting and thus uphold confucius beliefs and virtues. So in the 18th century, one might say understanding and countermeasures of earthquakes followed the beliefs and Sungrihak(philosophy of human nature and natural Jaws) of the times and failed to escape the premises of this proposition of thought and behavior.