Memorial Service and Graveyard Management for Princess Yŏng-On, 1850–1852

• In Event: Dreams from Korea's Past

Abstract

Princess Yŏng-On (1817–1829) was one of the daughters of King Sunjo (r. 1800–1834). Unfortunately, she passed away unmarried at the age of thirteen. Hence, she did not have any descendant who would hold a memorial service for her. In such situation, the government usually performs the ritual ceremony for a certain period of time in behalf of her family. However, records of a memorial service and graveyard management for Princess Yŏng-On from 1850–1852 have been found. The author of the account books written in three volumes was an agency or a house for princess. Given this unique case, the question on how the royal system functions arises. To answer this question, this paper investigates the management system of the royal family in late Chosŏn Korea, and analyzes the details of expenditures in the account books. The contents of the account books can provide us with the following information: (1) the financial structure that supported the agency for the dead princess, (2) the number of people who worked for the operation of this agency, (3) the amount of wages paid to those people, (4) the frequency of the rituals performed every month each year, (5) the amount of money spent in order to manage the graveyard and the memorial services, (6) the kinds of food and items prepared for the table, and so forth. This paper can be a leading study to reconstruct the royal system from the perspective of a modern historian.

Author

• Young-Jun Cho, Academy of Korean Studies