1801년 천주교 유배인의 현황과 유배지에서의 삶: 『사학징의(邪學懲義)』 분석을 중심으로

Abstract

Historical studies of Christianity in the latter half period of the Joseon dynasty have most dominantly examined (virtually only) the martyrs. This choice in research unintentionally narrowed the scope of examination on Joseon Christian history itself. So as an attempt to widen our horizon, this article focused upon the Christian believers themselves (how they existed, and what kind of lives they led) around the time of their exile as a result of the Shin’yu-year persecution[辛酉邪獄]. Primary source of reference consulted in this article is Punishing the Evil (Sahak Jing’eui, 邪學懲義) which contains the most detailed information regarding people put to exile, while other secondary sources such as Seungjeong-weon Ilgi or chronological history materials, and the The Implicated (Yeonjwa-an, 連坐案, currently in custody of Jangseogak at AKS and Kyujanggak at SNU) were also examined. The result could be summarized as follows. First, in case of people exiled for believing in evil teachings(Sahak, 邪學), the government closely monitored them and restricted their activities mush harsher than it would other exiled offenders, so that this particular group of offenders could never inseminate Christianity in regions they were exiled. Second, according to Sahak Jing’eui, among total of 226 exiled offenders, 83 of them were interrogated at the Capital by offices of Euigeum-bu (Chief Investigator office) and Hyeongjo (Ministry of Penal affairs), while 121 of them were processed under local Gwanchal-sa magistrate’s own authorities, and 22 were exiled because they were either family members, relatives or acquaintances of Martyr Hwang Sa-yeong(黃嗣永). They were mostly exiled to the Jeolla-do and Gyeongsang-do provinces, while 23 of them were even exiled to islands (where living conditions were generally worse.) Among the exiled 226, 49 were females. Third, in order to prevent them from interacting with each other, they were dispersed throughout the country and exiled to all eight provinces. Family members of martyrs were in most cases sent to islands and became slaves to serve local offices[官奴婢]. Fourth, the offenders were forced to lead an abysmal life where they resided, and while some of them were released from their exile in 1832 by a governmental pardon, many of them died during exile. This study managed to portrait the overall situation of the Christians exiled in 1801, and rectified some errors that remained in past literature. It is regretful that their lives during exile could not be extrapolated more due to lack of historical resource.