Royal Authority, Ritual, and the Bureaucratic Career of the Descendants of Li Rusong and Rumei in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Chosŏn

Abstract

This essay examines Chosŏn monarchs’ patronage of the Nongsŏ Yi clan, a representative Ming descent group in Chosŏn, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The clan claimed its descent from Li Rusong and Rumei, the commanders of the Ming expeditionary forces during the Imjin War. This essay investigates the bureaucratic advancement of Li Rusong and Rumei's descendants, closely analyzing the monarchs’ roles in making the clan a military yangban family and the obstacles that constrained such royal endeavors. It will also illuminate the close relationship between the intensification of Ming loyalism and the surging bureaucratic fortunes of the Nongsŏ Yi clan, placing special emphasis on how the rulers made use of Ming loyalist rituals to nurture the careers of the Nongsŏ Yi. This study also examines the bureaucratic vicissitudes of the Nongsŏ Yi during the nineteenth century, when the rulers exhibited a diminished interest in boosting Ming loyalism. This essay will also shed light on the status of Ming loyalism and the changing nature of rulership in nineteenth-century Chosŏn.