조선 『璿源錄』에 기재된 宗親의 통혼 양태와 그 의미

Abstract

The discrimination between children of primary wives and children of concubines(嫡庶) was deeply ingrained in the Choson dynasty. According to the Grand Codes of the dynasty(經國大典), people whose mothers were concubines(庶子) were prohibited from taking the civil service and military exam to be an officer of the court. In addition, they only could be married to females who were not children of primary wives because of the social customs(同色婚). However, the four generations of royal descendents of the JeonJu Lee clan(全州 李氏) were exceptional cases in the society. Due to their royal lineage, they had special privileges. One such privilege is that they were granted nominal positions regardless of their mothers’ positions. Another is that they could marry anyone who they wanted because this right was guaranteed by the government branch in charge of them(宗簿寺) based on the Grand Codes. Thanks to those privileges, they were relatively free from the social discrimination previously mentioned. In particular, their marriages represented their special position. Their marriages were documented in the Royal Genealogy of the Choson Dynasty(璿源錄). According to the genealogy, their marriages were classified into two categories. One was marriages with noble people(士族) and the other was marriages with low class people(秩卑). Generally, the royal descendents married noble people because of their nominal position. In other words, they could have access to noble individuals regardless of their status. For example, children of concubines with slavery status(賤妾) could still marry noble people. Some of them, however, married low class people. These women were the posterity of concubines(庶孼) and the children of miscellaneous officers(雜職). In fact, marriages with low class people showed that the privileges of the second and third generations of the royal descendents were stronger than those of the fourth generation. When the second and third generations of the royal descendents married such low people, the marriages came with the assumption of having high-ranking officers as their father-in-laws. It was a strategy used to be connected with high-ranking officers as father-in-laws. When they married noble people, it was quite hard for them to have high-ranking officers as father-in-laws. On the other hand, when the royal descendents of the fourth generation married them, they failed to have high-ranking officers as fathers-in-law. This distinction between them resulted from the fact that only sons of the second and third generations could inherit the nominal position. In conclusion, the royal descendents deviated from the laws and social customs that discriminated against children of concubines but with that being said, the second and third generations of royal descendents enjoyed their special positions in the society more than the fourth generation.