공민왕대 전반기 대민정책과 전민변정도감

Abstract

This paper reviews the subject, basic direction and meaning of the public policy during the first half of King Gongmin by analyzing the edicts issued by the King, and then examines the actual contents of the public policy implemented by him. Finally, it analyzes the contents of the Jeonminbyeonjeong project, reviewing how this project was linked to the public policy of King Gongmin. The basic direction of King Gongmin’s policy toward the people was to restore the people-centered politics, dealing with the people generously with compassion for them, In addition, the king set himself as the subject of people-centered politics. Accordingly, the direction and contents of people-centered politics didn’t have to be carried out under the guidance of the Yuan Dynasty, but be independently established and implemented under the responsibility of Goryeo. This position of King Gongmin was expressed more in detail after the full-scale anti-Yuan politics started. The anti-Yuan politics was to reject the order of the Yuan and to deny the legitimacy of the rule that was guaranteed by the Yuan. Accordingly, King Gongmin declared in his 5th-year decree that he, the King of Goryeo, had inherited the heavenly order. This made it clear that the king of Goryeo had the right to govern the people of Goryeo given by the heaven and to implement policies for the people. Through this, he attempted to secure the legitimacy and authority of reign as King of Goryeo. King Gongmin expressed that his public policies were based on the Love for People(愛民), and that the content of Love of People was to bring real interests to the people. The basic directions and contents of King Gongmin’s policies toward the people were continuously reaffirmed through the later edicts. In this paper, it was reviewed through Jinhyeul(賑恤) and Chadae(借貸) to check whether King Gongmin’s public policies would provide real benefits to the people. Under the responsibility and authority of the Goryeo government, King Gongmin implemented the Jinhyeul and Chadae policies in the direction that the government would bear the economic costs or lower the burden of the people. Thus, it was confirmed that the basic direction of the King Gongmin’s public policies was actually reflected in the public policies. King Gongmin promised to resolve the rectifying of land ownership & human condition problems in his enthronement edict and installed Jeonminbyeonjeong- Dogam in the 1st year of his reign. King Gongmin’s Jeonminbyeonjeong was a step forward compared to that of the Yuan’s intervention period. In order to effectively achieve the Jeonminbyeonjeong, the aristocrats’ existing profits obtained from illegally acquired land were collected by the government, and if the ordinary people were privately controlled by them, the wages were calculated to the laborers before they were liberated. This was a measure to give economic gains to the original owners of the land or poor farmers. In addition, the judgement of Jeonminbyeonjeong-Dogam was put into effect by setting the punishment rules for the aristocrats who did not comply with the edict. Therefore, the Jeonminbyeonjeong project in the first half of the Gongmin King’s dynasty was an extension of King Gongmin’s policies for the people that real interests should be returned to the people.