Item ID: 8825 Two sheets of paper (each ca. 480 x 420 mm.), both written on one side only, with census information. CHOSŎN CENSUS REGISTER.
Two sheets of paper (each ca. 480 x 420 mm.), both written on one side only, with census information.
Two sheets of paper (each ca. 480 x 420 mm.), both written on one side only, with census information.

Precious Sources for Social History

Two sheets of paper (each ca. 480 x 420 mm.), both written on one side only, with census information.

[Korea]: mid- to late Chosŏn era.

A remarkable survival: this is a substantial part of a Korean Chosŏn-era census register, known as hojŏk 戶籍 (“household registry”). It is written in classical Chinese. These registers were maintained by the Chosŏn government for the purpose of levying taxes and corvée (labor exacted in lieu of taxes by public authorities). The registries were divided according to the administrative divisions of counties and provinces and updated every three years. Our register starts with what ought to be the first t’ong 統, meaning the first unit of five to ten households. However, there is no heading. The heading was probably on a leaf now missing, along with the name of the jurisdiction covered by the register. The first section is followed by the second t’ong, with the third, fourth, and parts of the fifth on the next page. The first line reads:

Household number 1. Chŏng Kungnyŏn 鄭國連, Confucian student not in government service, 53 years old [i.e., 52 by Western reckoning], born in the kyŏngsin 庚申 year [e.g., 1620, 1680, 1740, 1800], ancestral home Ch’ogye 草溪. Father: Naebok 來福, government-school student. Paternal grandfather: Chinbo 震寶, government-school student. Paternal great-grandfather: Kidal 起達, government-school student. Maternal grandfather: Sŏk Manjae 石萬載, government-school student, ancestral home Chungju 忠州. Wife: née Sŏng 成, forty-five years old…

The description of the household continues on the second line. On the third line, a second household is described. It is headed by Chŏng Kukhui 鄭國徽, Chŏng Kungnyŏn’s older brother (69 years old). The third household is headed by Chŏng Kukhui’s son. As is obvious from even this partial survey of the first t’ong, these household registries are precious sources for social history, giving a sense of an extended family living in the same village, with the male heads of household maintaining a certain social standing as classically educated.

Fine condition. Each sheet is a little frayed at bottom, with minor loss of text. Some staining and a few wormholes. These two sheets were later used by a Japanese owner as envelopes to hold official documents. This later owner has boldly written the contents on the versos of the reused sheets.

Price: $3,500.00

Item ID: 8825