16-17세기 常民層의 재산 소유와 상속 사례 - 상민 賣主 · 財主의 賣買文記와 分財記로부터 -

Abstract

This study set out to investigate the patterns of property inheritance and exercise of property right among the lower class, which had been ignored in the study on inheritance systems, as well as to identity their connections with their decision making right in the family and the family structure. There was a very limited amount of mechanism with which to observe the inside of the lower class family including property inheritance. In addition to lack of related data, the considerably lacking family stability or continuance was to blame. The property inheritance among the lower class can be characterized by the abundant cases of direct inheritance from the head of a family and by the highly limited exercise of property right by the female members. However, that's just a result from the case study as the lower class, unlike the upper class, didn't show a periodic flow or a consistent tendency in the matter. It's because the lower class was not the object of Confucian regulation in respect to property inheritance as opposed to the upper class. Since the amount of their property was small, it's only natural that the various inheritance regulations claimed weak significance on them. Thus the head of a family would modify the inheritance regulations according to the given situation and distribute the property himself, which was the common case among the lower class. The property right exercised by the head of a family was different from the right exercised in an upper class family in the context of the clan rules. It was a realistic patriarchal and property right indispensable to the maintenance of the unstable lineage.