인조대 功臣會盟祭의 시행과 참여자 論賞―공신 자손 우대책을 중심으로―

Abstract

This thesis was written to study an affirmative action for descendants of meritorious subjects in the Joseon Dynasty. Meritorious subjects are the class that received special treatment from the country in recognition of their achievement for it. By the way, the country's affirmative action for meritorious subjects included their descendants because the pre-modern era had characteristics of the caste system. Therefore, the study tries to check the affirmative action for descendants of national meritorious subjects concretely by examining benefits given to eldest legitimate sons and grandsons of meritorious subjects' regular wives after conducting their pledge rituals. There were 5 investitures of meritorious subjects in the reign of Injo of Joseon and accordingly, meritorious subjects' pledge rituals were held three times. First, 17 meritorious subjects' pledge ritual was held in 1625 as meritorious subjects of state affairs and Jinmu were invested. Second, 19 meritorious subjects' pledge ritual was held in 1625 as meritorious subjects of Somu and Yeongguk were invested. Third, 20 meritorious subjects' pledge ritual was held in 1646 as meritorious subjects of Yeongguk were invested. Meritorious subjects and their sons could participate in these pledge rituals. And after the death of the meritorious subjects, their eldest sons of the legitimate wives or the eldest legitimate sons and grandsons of their regular wives acquired qualification of participating in them. And the people who participate in meritorious subjects' pledge rituals could get particular items or have benefits of Gaja just because of doing it. Injo of Joseon was held in check by surveillance and censorial officials because he preferred Gaja to giving items, but generally, he raised Jageup for the people who had no official rank, were Junjik as Jagung, or were more than 70 years old in the name of Nojik. Like this, descendants of meritorious subjects are thought to be able to be privileged for generations due to their ancestors' virtue and conduct because they belonged to the structure to continue to get Pumgye as meritorious subjects' pledge rituals were repeated.