유교적 전통과 변형속의 가족윤리와 여성의 지위

Family Ethics and Woman's Status within Confucian Tradition and Its Transformation

Chosŏn dynasty embraced Confucianism as the basic ideology for politics and society. It put restaints on woman in order to establish patriarchal society on the basis of Confucian morality. Confucian view of woman was based on the idea that both man and woman form the foundation of the human order and that husband and wife should maintain harmony by respecting each other and performing respective duties. Despite its appearance as an ideal model for man-woman relationship, it restricted woman to domestic activities. It was considered unsuitable for woman to have social and political activities and, as a result, education of woman was considered unnecessary. In a word, woman was not allowed to have social participation and official education. Woman was forced to sacrifice herself for the family through direct legal restrictions such as the legal prohibition of remarriage and subordination of woman to her children. Also, woman's role and consciousness was shaped indirectly by the emphasis and reward of piety and loyalty to husband. In other words, the state maintained patriarchal Confucian family system by controlling woman's role through laws and encouragement. Restraining woman could not be accomplished through legal means only. Because that was also possible by controlling mores and consciousness, Chosŏn dynasty tried to spread ideology for woman. Publishing and disseminating such books as Samkanghangsildo(三綱行實圖) Naehun(內訓) Kyenyoseo(戒女書) and Sasojeol(士小節) is one of such examples. These books taught filial piety, harmony, and subservience as the core of woman's morality. Woman's duties were filial piety as daughter, harmony of family as daughter-in-law, subservience as wife, and child raising as mother. In other words, woman was required to do her best for the stability of family through subservience and sacrifice within the patriarchal system. By and large, ordinary women within the traditional Confucian society accommodated state policies and social ideology voluntarily. One of the extreme cases is suicide. However, there were resistances to the Confucian view of woman like adultery and elopement. Such actions are of great importance because it refused to perform the duty of chastity and cohabitation. The traditional view of woman began to change in the midst of socio-political changes of late Chosŏn dynasty. Despite the fact that it failed to renounce the Confucian view of woman completely, Silhak(實學) encouraged intellectual activities of woman. It also encouraged the consciousness of woman's rights. It argued that the fundamental value and instinct of woman should be recognized in line with that of man. It also criticized the custom of double suicide by wife following the death of husband. Instead, it extolled those who do their best in life. Tonghak(東學) started a movement for humanizing woman by arguing that woman is equal with man on the basis of the egalitarian thought of man-is-heaven(In-nae-chŏn)(人乃天). It also respected woman's role as mother who worships the God and gives birth to man. In addition, the introduction of Catholicism which calls for the equality of all mankind played a big part in providing woman with new consciousness and opportunities. For instance, missionary activities gave women chances to go outside the domestic boundary and bible studies enables women to meet new intellectual world. Through their progressive views of woman and missionary activities, Tonghak and Western Learning(西學) left great influences on the modernization efforts such as woman's education, abolition of child marriage, permission of remarriage, and woman's social participation.