조선후기 고군산 유배지와 유배인

Abstract

Exile is a punishment of keeping a serious criminal away from the hometown permanently until his death. An island quite away off the land was an appropriate place for exile. There were a small number of islands used as a place for exile as of the early age of Chosun Dynasty, but thereafter a lot more were designated as a place of exile as the number of political prisoners increased due to the intensified party strifes at the end of Chosun Dynasty. Gogunsan as well was used as a place of exile at the latter years of Chosun as Gogunsan military camp was established. Gogunsan camp was the largest naval forces camp late in the age of Chosun Dynasty. Gogunsan is described in Daedongjiji(大東地志) as “with residents who all have a wealth of houses, clothes, and food as well as be extravagant and luxurious more than common towns”, It seems that the residents in the island became rich as they served on behalf of the naval forces or ran restaurants and lodging businesses for soldiers. Accordingly, many exiles came to Gogunsan late in the age of Chosun since it was economically wealthy enough to accommodate all of them. There is no historical documentation that indicates how many exiles came to Gogunsan in the latter part of Chosun except the history book of Chosun Dynasty which lists 103 Gogunsan exiles. Although there are just some of the Gogunsan exiles in time, the general characteristics of Gogunsan exiles could be reasoned based on them. First of all, most of the Gogunsan exiles were noblemen who were exiled due to their anti-political activities. In particular, those in time of King Yeongjo(英祖) were involved in Musinlan(戊申亂). During the time of King Yeongjo, the number of known Gogunsan exiles was 18, 16 among whom came to there since they were involved in Musinlan(戊申亂). Thereafter, a lot more were exiled to Gogunsan for political reasons, and after Eulsa-Treaty(乙巳條約) in 1905, many loyal troops were arrested and exiled to Gogunsan. It seems that many of Gogunsan exiles married women in Gogunsan and settled down there although their descendants were unknown. It is also thought that many of noble exiles would write while exiled in Gogunsan, but Geonchang Lee(李建昌) is the only one known to leave writings about Gogunsan. The future study may seek a lot more from various collections of works.