고구려의 척도와 양전제

Measures and Standards used by the Goguryeo people, and the Land-size Measurement policies

Presumably, the Goguryeo people would have adopted the measures and the measuring system of the Chinese Han/漢 dynasty in the early days. According to the figure and feature of a measuring piece excavated from the Iseong Sanseong fortress vestige, the length of the Han-cheok/漢尺(Han-based measuring unit) during the early days of the Goguryeo dynasty must have been approximately 23.7 cm. Later, during the latter half period of the 4th century, the Goguryeo government announced a new set of Yul-Ryeong rules of ordinance, and also modified the measurement system the government had been using. As a result, a new measurement system, which was generally referred to as the ‘Goguryeo-cheok’ and was designed as a measurement system independent from the Chinese one, was established. One unit of the Goguryeo-cheok is believed to have been 35~35.6cm in length. It seems like the length of one Goguryeo-cheok was established as 1.5 times of that of the Chinese Han-cheok unit. But from other historical references, we can see that the Han-cheok measurement system was still being used in measuring the Kings’ height at the time, so the Chinese Han-cheok measurement system must have continued to be used, even after the new Goguryeo-cheok measurement system was developed. The land-size measurement system, which was heavily related to the general measurement system, also went through some series of similar modifications. During the early days when the Chinese Han-cheok system was still being prominently used, the Goguryeo government must have adopted the Gyeong-Mu-jae/頃畝制 policy of the Chinese Han dynasty, in measuring the size of the lands. But in subsequent periods, when the Goguryeo government established the Goguryeo-cheok and developed a new measurement system, the government also developed a new and independent way of measuring the size of lands, which was referred to as the Dan-Bo-jae/段步制 system. One Bo unit, which was the primary unit of this land-size measurement system, was designed to have the length of 5 cheok units, and one Dan unit was designed to cover 250 Bo units. This covers approximately 792.1m² of land mass[which is the equivalent of 239.61 pyeong units today], featuring a shape of either 50 Bo units x 5 Bo units, or 25 Bo units X 10 Bo units. Particular levels would have been designated according to the size of the land mass. A land mass with size of 2,500 Bo units must have the most widest level, and the junior ones must have featured the size of 25 Bo units[1x25 or 5x5] or mere 5 Bo units[1x5].