Marriage, Social Status, and Family Succession in Medieval Korea (Thirteenth-Fifteenth Centuries)

Abstract

Despite their significance for historical demographic research, a major limitation of Chinese genealogies is the relative lack of information on daughters, their husbands, and their descendants, which prevents an examination of how the boundary of family was extended through the marriage network. To fill this "hole" in Chinese genealogies, we use the genealogy of the Andong Kwôn clan, published in 1476, the oldest existing genealogy in Korea. Interestingly, more than 90 percent of those recorded in this Korean genealogy belong to the son-in-law line, revealing the importance of marriage networks for family formation until the late fifteenth century. By looking at the specific families that Andong Kwôn's daughters married into and the occupational titles of their husbands, we explore specific ways in which the family boundary was expanded to include the son-in-law lines.

A survey of data sources for studies of family and population in Korean history

“…Generation is the only variable available in early Korean genealogies in regard to event-timing information. Although the historical period pertaining to each generation is not directly available from those genealogies because of the omission of birth and death dates, the period can be estimated indirectly by referring to other materials that provide demographic information on major figures of a given generation (Lee & Park, 2008). The omission of vital data, which are pivotal for estimating various demographic rates, significantly constrains the usefulness of those early Korean genealogies for demographic research.…”

“…Because the rule of recording daughters and their own families in early Korean genealogies is so unique, not found in late Korean genealogies and most Chinese genealogies, it is worth looking at the feature in more details, as shown in the Genealogy of Andong Kwôn clan, the oldest existing genealogy, published in 1476. Table 1, which was reproduced from Lee and Park (2008), shows the distribution of sons and daughters (separately between married and non-married daughters) recorded in the genealogy for each generation. Until the 10th generation, only sons of the Kwôn were recorded.…”

“…This process of recording children of the son-in-law line as well as of the son line continued at the next generation. It is reported that surprisingly, over 90% of total members recorded in the genealogy (= 10,254 as seen in the bottom of Table 1) belonged to the son-in-law line (Kwon, 1981;Lee & Park, 2008).…”

“…Hence, it can be examined how family formation process through marriage network changed over the period of change of political regime. Utilizing the unique feature of the Genealogy of Andong Kwôn clan, a recent study by Lee and Park (2008) specifically examined socioeconomic characteristics, represented by the surname and official title, of husbands and their families to whom daughters of Andong Kwôn clan married out. The study illustrated the process in which the Andong Kwôn clan secured their status and power through marriage network with powerful other families in the political transition period of the 13th-15th centuries.…”

“…After outlining general features of genealogy and household register, we particularly focus on a specific genealogy, the Genealogy of the Andong Kwôn clan, and a household register, Tansung Household Register. The Genealogy of the Andong Kwôn clan is the oldest existing genealogy in Korea and is significantly distinguished in its recording rule from Chinese genealogies and even other Korean genealogies that were published later (Lee & Park, 2008). The rule of recording shown in the Genealogy of the Andong Kwôn clan is so unique that it deserves more systematic discussions.…”