경국대전(經國大典)을 통해서 본 조선왕조의 통치 이념

Abstract

[1] The founders of the Chosun Dynasty in the early fifteenth century felt it very necessary to promulgate a new statecraft law to make up for the misconducts of the former Dynasty Goryu, to deal with the difficulties encountered in the process of state-building, and to justify their new regime that was marred by allegations of being a treasonous government. Except for the criminal law, which could be substituted by the Law of Ming China (Daemyungryool), they enacted the Gyunggook-Daejun (Statecraft Law) that contained the rules for six departments. [2] The founders of the Chosun Dynasty wanted to build a moral kingdom with foundations in Confucianism. For such purposes, they comparatively succeeded in confining the people into laws through the Gyunggook-Daejun, but they failed to maintain the political activeness and vitality as seen in the court of King Sejong. Many clauses of prohibition in Gyunggook-Daejun lacked the institutional devise for a strong leadership that was necessary to push the active political reform in the initial stage of state-building. This was because the founders were devoted to “political stability” rather than reform and development. [3] When the founders assumed political stability as a prior value, it was inevitable for them to indulge in minimizing social mobility. Therefore, they had no intention to eradicate the “wall” or “fence” between the classes. In this respect, the Confucian state was “a politics of compartment.” It has been popular to argue that Gyunggook-Daejun was a kind of administrative law at best, but strictly speaking It was “a status law.”[4] Lexocracy by the Gyunggook-Daejun had its own limits. When their ideals to establish a moral state based on Confucianism deviated from their original intention, the founders found that such a state could not be established only by law. Not all variables and interpretations of political affairs could be defined by law. Purge of scholars (sahwa), political struggles among factions (dangjaeng), and disputes on the mourning ceremony (yesong) could not be categorized by the clauses of law. They did not forecast political flexibility and neither did they deal with the diverse political situation; eventually, the politics of the Chosun Dynasty were essentially that of “rule by man” rather than “rule by law.”