Abstract

As there have been cumulative studies on suit in the Joseon era, most of the legal proceedings and processes, etc. have been revealed. But, there are some parts of it which have not been fully studied because of scarcity of materials and attention on them. One of the ignored parts is cheok, long–time detention of suspects in prison, and chesong, leaving suit unsettled for a long time. Yusulrok, a personal diary of the Joseon era discovered recently, is a record about the author’s participation in the campaign to refuse to take the gwageo examination and his cheok related to the punishment for the action. The diary writer Yeo Yong–bin was designated by the authorities as one of those who led the campaign, and put in jail on August 11, 1717. And, he was forced to stay in prison as long as 9 months until April 30 of the next year. As he meticulously wrote in his diary how he had survived in the prison, the diary is evaluated as a very good material to examine the practices of suok and the cause of cheok in the Joseon era. This paper, based on the diary, introduced the course of the campaign to refuse to take the gwageo examination and examined the practices and causes of cheok. In July 1717. King Sukjong, after his one–one–one meeting with Lee I–myeong, ordered the Crown Prince to serve as his surrogate ruler. Applicants of the examination, especially those from Gyeongsang–do province reached the consensus that Lee I–myeong should be punished, and that the royal order on the surrogate rulership should be cancelled. On the examination day, some of the exam applicants built a makeshift suit table in front of the examination hall, and began to receive the signatures of other applicants for the petition to the king. Then, the exam supervisors decided that the signature gathering was an crime to hinder the gwageo examination, and called the military troop to forcefully enter the applicants to the examination hall. In the process, there were some clashes between the applicants and soldiers. Even if the military forces were summoned, the exam itself was postponed because the number of applicants to take the exam was too small. the exam supervisors pointed out some applicants including Yeo Yong–bin as leaders of the campaign, and arrested and put them in jail. But, the prisons in those days were not in conditions of being able to keep prisoners for a long time. Therefore, the student prisoners stayed in private houses called juinga, and only when the provincial governor or dosa made inspection tours of the prison, or the county chief checked the prison, they were carried back to the prison temporarily. Even if they stayed outside of the prison for longer time than in prison, they were in principle in detention. They were arranged to move to different private houses as many as 20 times for nine months. On average, they moved more than two times a month for the reasons such as the government’s order, infectious disease, heating facilities (ondol), meals, or the condition of the host house, etc. The reasons for cheok were negligence and frequent resignation of sagwan, or investigators, inefficiency and negligence of provincial governor, and social atmosphere, etc. In the early stage of this accident, improper treatment of the governor led to negative public opinion on the issue, blocking proper investigation of the prisoners by any investigator who took the position. Yusulrok, the diary of Yeo Yong–bin, is a good source to study chesong and cheok, but the source had some limits. Since Yeo Yong–bin was from a famous yangban family, or aristocrat, he could not be put in jail, but he was led to stay at various private houses, and the expenses needed to stay at different houses in his suok period were not paid by himself, but by donations from hyanggyo, seowon, or big Confucian families. Such moves were done because he was different in statuses from other prisoners. But, such researches are accumulated, various facts about cheok and suok in the late Joseon period will be revealed.