일제강점기의 제사상속론 비판

Abstract

During the Japanese colonial period, the concept of the succession of ancestor-worship was recorded as a customary law of Joseon. If it is expressed as succession to the son who performs the ancestral rites after the deceased father, then there is no big problem. The problem lies in creating the term of the‘succession of ancestor-worship' and assigning it a kind of private rights to it as an inheritance object. It is very difficult to understand the thesis logically. Therefore the author traces the thesis and critically examines the discourse on the‘succession of ancestor-worship' which was basically formed by Japanese judicial officials during the Japanese colonial period.
 In Part II, four specific examples of the Joseon Dynasty that may have provoked discourse on the‘succession of ancestor-worship' were presented as a cornerstone of criticism of the theory formed during the Japanese colonial period. Although there was a possibility that the descendants who were identified as jeoktong (嫡統) or jongtong (宗通) could be conferred official posts, it is not 100% conferred. No public office is conferred unless recommended by a high-ranking central official or directed by the monarch. In such a situation, it is doubtful what kind of profit would be acceptable to the descendants who were identified.
 In Part III, the definition of inheritance developed by Japanese jurists around the 1900s was reviewed. They did not attempt to define inheritance (succession) as an abstract concept beyond ethnocentrism. In this position, it is difficult to objectively objectify the reality of Joseon history and culture.
 In Part Ⅳ, the records of the resolution of the government-level institutional inquiry committee in 1923, 10 years after the Japanese colonial rule began to manage the Joseon Dynasty, were reviewed. The content of this resolution was not much different from the description of the customs investigation report of the 1910s.
 Part V is the conclusion part. Distortion theory and creation theory have been proposed regarding the results of the survey on customs of Joseon, recorded and organized by the Japanese. Not all of the results of the survey on Korean customs recorded and organized by the Japanese are distortions or creations. However, it is true that there have been some distortions and creations. The fundamental reason for distortion and creation lies in the colonialist assimilation policy. Another factor is the lack of abstraction ability for colonialists to properly read the history and culture of the colonized area.