A Genealogy of Dissent: The Progeny of Fallen Royals in Chosŏn Korea by Eugene Y. Park

PARK, Eugene Y. – A Genealogy of Dissent: The Progeny of Fallen Royals in Chosŏn Korea. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019. Pp. 270. What happens to the descendants of a royal family when it is overthrown? This is the question that Eugene Park tackles in his new book, A Genealogy of Dissent. Park investigates the case of the descendants of the fallen Kaesŏng Wang clan in Korea after their Koryŏ kingdom was overthrown by the new Chosŏn kingdom in the late 1300s. By drawing on family histories, government records, and royal chronicles, Park pieces together what happened to different lineages in the Wang clan for several centuries up to the present day and their fate through the often-turbulent course of Korean history. Park presents several case studies that reveal these lineages’ relations with the new dynasty and how Neo-Confucian ideas of family structures and rituals manifested themselves in the history of the Wang clan. The result is an interesting insight into an East Asian society’s political, social, and familial structures and how it marked dynastic transition. In the first decades after the overthrow of the Wang family and the establishment of the new Chosŏn kingdom, most of the direct royal line was massacred and the rest of the clan scattered and went into hiding. The killing of the old ruler and heirs did cause some discomfort among the Chosŏn ruling elite (many of whom had roots in the previous dynasty’s elite families) and rumours began questioning the parentage and legitimacy of the last rulers of Koryŏ to better justify their murders. The new Chosŏn ruling house also relied on the Confucian discourse on the “Mandate of Heaven,” emphasizing that the old regime was chaotic and corrupt and that Heaven therefore mandated a new ruling house to bring peace and order to the country. However, another element of Confucian discourse emphasized that part of the success of a new dynasty depended on properly treating both the ancestral spirits and the descendants of the old dynasty. Buddhist services were periodically performed for the souls of the old monarchs, but as Confucianism was becoming increasingly important in Korea as the official ideology of the Chosŏn dynasty, Confucian shrines were constructed in places associated with the Koryŏ royal family to perform the ancestral memorial services in their honour. After searching to destroy the Koryŏ royal family, the Chosŏn ruling house now embarked to find members of the Wang clan closest to the royal line to be the stewards of these new shrines and perform the ceremonies for their ancestors to assure the peace and success of the new kingdom. There was also a search to give special access to office for the descendants of the old royal house. This proved to be a difficult task, however, since the purges had proven to be all too successful. Nevertheless, certain lineages did emerge, distantly descended from one or another of the Koryŏ kings, to take on these new offices. Much of the book is dedicated to the search of the Chosŏn government for these officers, which was often a difficult task because of the paucity of descendants and doubts as to their real connections to the royal house. Success in the Chosŏn power structure strongly depended on successfully passing the civil service examinations based on Confucian learning. In general, in spite of their illustrious ancestry and the government’s attempts to facilitate their access to government positions, only a few members of the Kaesŏng Wang clan passed the highest examinations and obtained central government posts during the 500 years of the Chosŏn kingdom’s existence up to the early twentieth century. The Wangs were mainly low key, with some lineages being the guardians of the shrines and others gaining prominence in their localities. This is where the title “a genealogy of dissent” is a bit of a misnomer. Members of the Wang clan did not lead dissident movements or rebellions (there was no Korean “Bonnie Prince Charlie”) nor did they attempt to re-establish their rule or claim the royal succession. Indeed, what comes out most clearly from the book...

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