earticle

영어

This is to study Jo Sik’s false accusation against Gim Ju in July 1477. The incident stirred up the court of king Seongjong over about ten days. It was an interesting case because the accuser and the accused got punished together. Jo Sik charged Gim Ju with unlawful marriage to his widowed sister, but he also received punishment on charges of making a false accusation. Gim Ju and his wife, Mrs. Jo, couldn’t avoid the penalty for violation of fornication inhibition law of Ta Ming Lu(大明律), although he marriaged her many years after her husband had died and it was a custom at that time. This odd verdict came from the special circumstance that both sides were equally descendants of prestigious families and, at the same time, close relatives of those in power, then Seongjong hesitated to rule in favor of either of both sides. The case was more interesting in that it involved all the complicated political and social situation in those days. In fact it was the cause of the king’s order, directly after the incident, that sons and grandsons of yangban women who remarried could not serve in government office, and which was, in turn, a forerunner to the law of 1484 to prohibit government service against sons and grandsons of remarried yangban women. Therefore the Jo Sik and Gim Ju case is the key to understand the order of 1477 and the law of 1484 correctly.