추국의 의미 변화와 분류

Abstract

Uigeumbu(義禁府; the King’s Court) was one of main criminal courts of the Chosun Dynasty, in charge of the crimes of government officials, treason and ethical crimes. Uigeumbu took charge of these crimes by the process of Chuguk(推鞫; interrogation). Up to now, there has been misunderstanding about the forms of Chuguk. In this essay, I proof this and correct the misunderstanding. And I go on to suggest that the legal process in Uigeumbu be assorted with three terms of Geumbu-dandok-chuguk(禁府單獨推 鞫; interrogation by Uigeumbu alone), Gugwang-jujae-chuguk(國王主宰推鞫; interrogation leaded by the king) and Samseong-gyojwa-chuguk(三省交坐推鞫; interrogation by Uigeumbu with 3 agencies) in order to understand Chuguk properly. In Chosun era, the meaning of Chuguk changed from time to time. Its initial meaning was official process of interrogation. From King Gwanghae’s reign or from King In-jo’s reign, it meant official process of interrogation directly controlled by the king. After the abolition of Nae-ok(內獄; the king’s private and unofficial court) in King Suk-jong’s reign, only process of interrogation in Uigeumbu was called Chuguk. Thereafter, just ‘Chuguk’ meant Gugwang-jujae-chuguk, while ‘Dok-wi(獨爲; to do something by oneself)’ or ‘Ji(只; only)’ were affixed for Geumbu-dandok-chuguk. Finally, the term of ‘Naguk(拿 鞫)’ was used in order to mean Geumbu-dandok-chuguk. In previous researches Geumbu-dandok-chuguk and Gugwang-jujae-chuguk which were different legal processes have been considered as the same, which seems to be due to not grasping the change of Chuguk’s meaning above. We have to distinguish the two processes because they were very different in many points. I think that the distinguishment of these is prerequisite for understanding of Uigeumbu’s legal processes. In addition, Gugwang-jujae-chuguk had three forms of Chillim-chuguk(親臨推鞫; Gugwangjujae- chuguk by the king directly), Gwoljeong-chuguk(闕庭推鞫; Gugwang-jujae-chuguk held in the palace without the king present) or Geumbu-chuguk(禁府推鞫; Gugwang-jujae-chuguk held in the Uigeumbu).