반계 유형원의 敎選論과 貢擧制 구상

Abstract

In his Konggŏje (貢擧制; Recommendation System), Yu Hyŏngwŏn systemized the Hyang’yak (鄕約; Community Compact), a local autonomous regulation, at the state level under the ideology of ‘Kyosŏn (敎選; Education and Recruitment)’, which made the total reformative plan aiming for both raising loyal subject of the king permeated with Neo-confucianism, and recruiting excellent bureaucrats. In Konggŏje, which was suggested as an alternative for Civil Service Examination, it was in the public system where Yu systematized the whole process from accumulating the reserve bureaucrats throughout the phased courses of education, until being appointed as the actual bureaucrats ultimately. Among the phased school system, Ŭp-hak (邑學; Schools based on the unit of County and Prefecture) was centered, and it made the countrywide base for raising the reserve bureaucrats by adequately absorbing the outcome of Kyohwa (敎化; Education) accumulated from the below with the bureaucratic recruitment system from the top. As Konggŏje was designed to recruit resources by long-term, opened, comprehensive verification, Yu planned for the homogeneous diffusion of systemed teaching and learning by resolving the discord between the school system and the recruitment system and giving regionally balanced opportunities for the public offices. The Class of Saryu (士類; Literati, Scholars), suggested as the main targets for the Konggŏje as well as the leading group, was a flexible, elastic category including not only hereditary lineages from old times but also poor lineages or even Isŏ (吏胥; lower functionaries) and Sŏ-ŏl (庶孼; sons of concubines) under criteria of behavior and learning. Yu Hyŏngwŏn’s opinion was not a denial nor a questioning of social status itself, but was a comprehensive design for the homogeneous diffusion of Neo-Confucian Kyohwa and the recruitment of resources who excels at both talents and behaviors, adopting the ideology of Kyosŏn while rousing the experience of the principle of social status in the early Chosŏn period and applying the ideal intent of Samdae Koje (三代古制; ‘Ancien Régime’ of Three Dynasties of Antiquity) under the condition recognizing that Kyohwa of society and management of the state were negatively influenced by the reality where his contemporary hereditary lineages degenerated into extremely exclusive, privileged group.