조선시대 별급別給 분재의 사유와 변화 양상

Abstract

This paper examined the meaning, concept and reason of the special bestowal through 126 special gift writs stored in The Korean Studies Institute, and analyzed the changes and characteristics of the donor, donee and witness of the special bestowals by period. It reads as follows: ⑴The concept of “byeol-geub (別給)” implies ‘to bestow specially’ rather than ‘to bestow separately’. Thus this enabled special bestowals to be made to two or more donees at the same time, and it could also be possible to use the expression ‘pyeonggyun byeol-geub (平均別給, equal bestowal) in the special gift writs. ⑵The reasons of the special bestowal were largely divided into four such as ①ritual succession and serving parents, ②celebration, ③concern and consolation, and ④others. Among them, the largest number of the reason were passing the state examinations and the appointment of government official. And then it was appeared in the order expressing donor’s affection and favor for donee; ritual succession and patrilineal succession; being the eldest son or grand son; celebrating the birth of child especially a son and marriage, and so on. ⑶According to the characteristics of donors, there were more cases of women than men. Women donors accounted for 50 to 80 percent of the 16th and 17th centuries, but by the 18th century, they had significantly decreased to 10 to 20 percent. In the case of donees, there were various cases of sons, daughters-in-law, daughters, sons-in-law, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephew, younger brother, children of secondary consorts, and consorts. However half of the cases were bestowal for sons and grandsons. ⑷Looking at the changes in witnesses involved in writing special gift writ, the average witness count in the first half of the 16th century was 3.85; by the end of the 18th century, there was less than one witness on average and even more than half of the cases donor wrote the writ without witnesses or clerks. By the 18th century, the principle of inheritance by equal distribution changed to the preferential inheritance for the eldest son and discriminatory inheritance for daughter, which appeared to have increased the authority of donors in special bestowal. This resulted in a sharp decrease in the number of witnesses and legal effect on the document itself, even if the donors, without witnesses or clerks, produced the inheritance documents by their own hands.