조선후기 균분상속의 균열과 그 이후의 상속관행

Abstract

As part of a broader research on the practices of inheritance of property in Joseon, this study set out to closely review the changing patterns of inheritance practices since the 17th century and interpret their meanings. In the domain of this research, the introduction of Documents of property inheritance, which had been transmitted to descendent families of Yangban, enabled the very empirical analysis of the property inheritance practices in Joseon. It was found that the practice of equalized inheritance was maintained for both sons and daughters and started to have problems in the middle or late 17th century. Previous studies understood that the exclusion of daughters from equalized inheritance was accompanied by the oldest son-centric property inheritance after the latter part of the 17th century. They also reported that the Practice of rotating memorial services for ancestors among children, which was provided along with equalized inheritance, was converted into sole service by the oldest son. However, these conclusions were far from the inductive results based on the analysis of the Documents of property inheritance. It is inferred that they found the cause of the changes in the settlement of family order according to the Jongbeop(※宗法, the protocols regarding the relative organization and transmission of memorial service) based on Confucianism. The present study analyzed the Bunjaegis of the Yeongnam region, and found that some families, including those of the descendent families of Nango (蘭皐), did not began the oldest son-centric inheritance practice or sole memorial service by the oldest son until the end of the 18th century ~ early 19th century, which raises a need to postpone the introduction of inheritance and service solely by the oldest son to the time after the end of the 18th century ~ early 19th century. It is also needed to reinterpret the causes of changes to the inheritance system by taking into consideration the Sojong-centered differentiation, the Korean-style kinship of putting emphasis on ascendants, and other various factors rather than focusing only on the Jongbeop.