• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.73
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• pp.65-89
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• 2018

This paper was triggered by the idea that the culture of ancestral rites and the patrilocality, which entail the excessive sacrifice on the part of the wife, that eventually led to the coinage of the expression, "housewives' holiday stress," is perhaps not the age-old traditions it claim to be, but rather a recent phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to reveal that the loss of housewife's authority is the product of "becoming yangban (aristocrats)," which was a culture that was in fashion in the late Joseon dynasty. Until the late Joseon dynasty, women, in particular, the married women maintained an autonomous life which allowed them the authority to an extent, based on their properties that they brought from and the ties that they maintained with their original family and. However, such authority of the housewives disappeared since the invasion of Joseon by Japan and Qing in the year of Imjin (1592) and Byeongja (1636), respectively, as the daughters were excluded from receiving inheritance in a desperate attempt to maintain the impoverished family after the wars. However, patriarchy based on neo-Confucian custom and convention of patriarchal clan system could not spread to the entire population immediately after the wars, as it was impossible to include everyone in the aristocratic class (yangban). It was due to the increase of aristocrats within the continued social changes that occurred after the wars that the neo-Confucian patriarchy became the norm and ethical standard in Joseon society. Also, the theory of propriety in neo-Confucianism that everyone from the emperor down to commoners must abide by the patriarchal clan system was realized through Zhuzi jiali, i.e. Master Zhu's Family Rituals, which institutionalized the system of family rites by setting up ancestral shrines in every household. For the aristocrats who lost their financial footing, the only basis they could rely on to prove their aristocratic lineage is the strict compliance with the rituals. Also, for the once commoners who turned into aristocrats one day had to emphasize the formal propriety in order to distinguish themselves from the commoners. Hence, the culture of "becoming yangban" in the nineteenth-century Joseon was what solidified the patriarchal rituals, decorum, and clan system. As a result, women have become subordinated to the husband's families, which forced the women, i.e. the housewives to serve them and sacrifice themselves for them. At times, women self-imposed such restraints on them as they led themselves into believing that it was necessary to maintain the family for their sons.