李朝末期 村落反亂運動과 村落社會의 構造的變化

Nature and Significance of the Village Riots in the 19th Century Korea

In the 19th century, the entire Korean political-social-economic system was under severs strain which speeded the dissolution of feudal orders. The Koreean privilleged class, from which the ruling elements came, became an examplar of law-lessness in their lublic behavior. The depressed classes including the displaced scholars became an important for criticizing the prevmeged class. In the village communities, the great mass of peasants were economically dominated by a small interlocking oligarchy of local officials, landed gentry, and rural money-lenders. The ruling class attempted to raise the needed revenue by placing increased taxes on the already desperately overburdened peasants. And the character of the village controlling system was such as to make it inevi table that the rulers would use every available device to crush any popular movement which showed promise of seriously interfering with the systematic grafts and blackmail which were primary sources of their weal th and power. These condi tions, coupled with famine and other disaster, provided ample motivation for the the development of a movement calling for social, economic, and political reform. In this paper, the characters and consequences of the major village riots such as; the Hong Kyong-nae Uprising of 1811, the Im-sul Village Riot of 1862, the Yi Pil-jae Uprising of 1871, and the Tonghak Robellion of 1894 are analysed. The described changing pattern of rural communities limited the path Korea was to follow into the modern world.