『李夫人行錄』을 통해 본 조선시대 양반가 여성의 삶

Abstract

This study reviewed the life of women in the aristocrat families in Joseon Dynasty through <Records of the Act of Madam Lee> which described the whole life of a women with the family name of Yeonan Lee(延安李氏) who was a sister-in-law of Queen Inhyeon(仁顯王后), the Queen of King Sookjong of Joseon Dynasty. Madam Lee was engaged in ordinary occupation of fabric and textile weaving in order to keep the family at the space where patriarch was not existed in the family due to political massacre of scholars since Yeoheung Min family(驪興閔門) which was the pivot of seoin(西人)-noron(老論) sect was revived in 17-18C while serving ancestral rites including Queen Inhyeon, maintain daily living of the family and preserving the family. As the labor of fabric(織布) and textile weaving absolutely required servant labor, Madam Lee treated servants in humanistic way even though she kept strict distinction of the status of aristocrat and servant for the sake of preserving the aristocrat family. For example, she expressed humanistic courtesy of eating vegetable only avoiding to eat meat when a servant dies. Madam Lee took the norm of 'Samjongjido(三從之道)' as the destiny of woman and read the Neo-Confucianism books of <Sohak(小學)> and <Naehoom(內訓)> and showed the image of a traditional woman in Joseon Dynasty who practiced Neo-Confucianism based life while expressing her opinion that women should widen knowledge by reading history books and by understanding the peace and war and ups and downs of the period of respective kings. The expansion of world view through reading books as such provided a lot of help to Madam Lee in her identifying of political situation and coping with it in the process of Yeoheung Min family's suffering of massacre of scholars in the family after the revival. Among the aristocrat clans in Seoul during mid to late 17C, there was a tendency of decorating luxurious clothes spread but Madam Lee encouraged modesty and conservation while alerting luxury in the family. This constituted the spiritual power of her family to get over the political hardships in relation to the revival of Yeoheung Min family. Madam Lee emphasized the study to her children even under the crisis of extermination of whole family but her emphasis was more science oriented to practice the teachings of sages and self-discipline rather than to pass the qualification exam and to obtain social success. Since the 17C, Yeoheung Min family strengthened the solidarity of relatives through the arrangement of family burial ground and publishing genealogy book and also reinforced the unity of clans through clan meetings. Madam Lee played central role in the union of the clan hosting ancestral rituals of Yeoheung Min family which was called 'the rituals of noble men' and treating the relatives covering up to third cousins.