조선초기 공신교서와 녹권의 발급제도 변경 시기에 대한 재론

Abstract

Various channels and researchers have already excavated materials related with royal certificate of meritorious subject and official certificate of meritorious subject issued during Joseon dynasty, and there have been a considerable degree of basic researches on them. On the system of issuing documents, the following thesis was suggested to the related scholastic field, which has been accepted as truth: 'In the early Joseon era, both kinds of certificate were awarded only to main meritorious subjects of three kinds of meritorious subject (or gongsin) ― Gaeguk gongsin, Jeongsa gongsin, Jwamyeong gongsin ― and only official certificate of meritorious subject was awarded to assistant meritorious subjects. However, after Jeongnan Gongsin was awarded, main meritorious subjects were given only royal certificate of meritorious subject, and assistant meritorious subjects were given official certificate of meritorious subject. The fact that the system of issuing royal certificate of meritorious subject and official certificate of meritorious subject was changed after Gaeguk, Jeongsa, and Jwamyeong gongsins can be identified through previous researches and original old documents. But, it is one of the important arguments of this paper that we still cannot be sure of the exact time when the system of issuing such certificates was changed by which main meritorious subjects were only given royal certificate of meritorious subject without official certificate of meritorious subject. Examination of original documents of royal certificate of meritorious subject and official certificate of meritorious subject which still remain revealed that, in 1458 (the 4th year of King Sejo), the form of official certificate of Jwaik assistant meritorious subject was changed from scroll type to book type, and that, the royal certificate of Jeokgae meritorious subject issued in 1467 (the 13th year of King Sejo) included the list of meritorious subjects per class who had not been registered in the royal certificates of meritorious subject issued in previous times. Such evidences led me to presume that when Jeongnans or Jwaik gongsins were awarded later after Gaeguk, Jeongsa, Jwamyeong gongsins had been awarded, the system of issuing royal certificate of meritorious subject and official certificate of meritorious subject was changed together with the letter forms of them. A considerable part of existing view on the change of the system of issuing royal certificate of meritorious subject and official certificate of meritorious subject is true. But, a conclusive judgement on it can only be made through the new discovery of those certificates issued to Jeongnan or Jwaik gongsins. If the two kinds of certificate issued to a main meritorious subject are discovered together, the argument on the exact time when the system of issuing royal certificate of meritorious subject and official certificate of meritorious subject was changed in early Joseon dynasty can be revised. And, if the fact that, in the case of Jeongsa, Jeongnan, Ikdae and Jeokgae gongsins among all kinds of meritorious subjects, there was no separate awarding for assistant meritorious subjects, except for main meritorious subjects, proves to be true, we cannot expect additional discovery of official certificate of related assistant meritorious subjects.