The Tale of a Yangban
This is the complete English version of MeKorean’s modern Korean retelling of the main scenes. It is not an official ITKC translation or a line-by-line scholarly translation. Consult the Classical Chinese original for its precise wording.
In Jeongseon lived a yangban who loved reading. He was so respected that every new magistrate visited his home in person to pay his respects. Yet his household was poor. Year after year he borrowed grain from the government to feed himself, until his unpaid debt reached a thousand seok. When the provincial governor inspected the town's accounts, he was furious. A man calling himself a yangban was depleting the state's grain; he must be imprisoned. The magistrate pitied him, but had no way to repay the debt on his behalf.
The yangban wept and worried day and night. His wife scolded him: what use was being a yangban if a lifetime of reading had not enabled him to repay even the grain he had borrowed from the government? Meanwhile, a wealthy man in the same village was thinking along different lines. For all his money, people always treated him as an inferior. He dared not ride a horse in a yangban's presence and had to bow low. The poor yangban was now in such difficulty that he could scarcely hold on to his status. What if the wealthy man bought that status for himself?
The wealthy man visited the yangban and offered to settle his government debt. Delighted, the yangban accepted the bargain. When the grain was delivered, the astonished magistrate went to the yangban's house. Unlike before, the man was dressed in a short coat and lay prostrate in the road, humbling himself. Asked why, he explained that he had already sold his yangban status and could no longer use his former title. The village's yangban was now the wealthy man who had paid his debt.
The magistrate praised the wealthy man for helping someone in distress without begrudging the expense. But an agreement made only in words might lead to a dispute, so he proposed drawing up a deed. The town's scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants gathered in the government courtyard. The wealthy man took an elevated seat, while the former yangban stood below. The magistrate began to record the sale of yangban status for a thousand seok of grain, together with the duties a yangban must observe.
The first deed was packed with rules of proper yangban conduct. He must rise at dawn to read, and never speak of poverty, however hungry or cold he might be. He must walk at an unhurried pace, never handle money, and never ask the price of rice. Even in hot weather he must not show his bare feet, and he must keep quiet while eating. Striking or abusing his family and servants, slaughtering cattle, and gambling were also forbidden. If he broke these terms, the deed could be taken to the authorities to have the matter put right.
When the reading ended, the wealthy man sat looking disappointed for some time. He had imagined a yangban's life to be as carefree as an immortal's, yet the document contained nothing but tiresome rules. He asked for it to be revised so that he could see the advantages of becoming a yangban. The magistrate then drew up a second deed. It said that a little learning could open the way to office without any need to farm or trade, and that a certificate of success in the civil service examinations could become a purse that drew in every kind of wealth.
The second deed grew increasingly blunt. Even a yangban living in the countryside without an official post could take a neighbor's ox to plow his own field first, and make villagers weed his land. Who would dare defy a yangban? He could humiliate those who refused, and they would scarcely dare express resentment. In place of the first deed's dignified manners, the document now displayed privileges sustained by other people's labor and fear.
The wealthy man could not listen to the end and called for a halt. Being asked to become that sort of yangban sounded like being made into a thief. He shook his head and left. For the rest of his life, he never again spoke of becoming a yangban. A document begun to arrange a sale had finally exposed the workings of the very status he had wanted to buy.
兩班傳
The Classical Chinese original comes from ITKC’s publicly released Collected Korean Literary Works XML. Paragraphs are divided for readability. Consult the official source below for variant characters, collation notes and page images.
兩班者。士族之尊稱也。旌善之郡。有一兩班。賢而好讀書。
每郡守新至。必親造其廬而禮之。然家貧。歲食郡糶。積歲至千石。
觀察使巡行郡邑。閱糶糴。大怒曰。何物兩班。乃乏軍興。
命囚其兩班。郡守意哀其兩班貧。無以爲償。不忍囚之。亦無可柰何。
兩班日夜泣。計不知所出。其妻罵曰。生平子好讀書。無益縣官糴。
咄兩班。兩班不直一錢。其里之富人。私相議曰。兩班雖貧。
常尊榮。我雖富。常卑賤。不敢騎馬。見兩班則跼蹜屛營。
匍匐拜庭。曳鼻膝行。我常如此。其僇辱也。今兩班貧不能償糴。
方大窘。其勢誠不能保其兩班。我且買而有之。遂踵門而請償其糴。兩班大喜許諾。
於是富人立輸其糴於官。郡守大驚異之。自往勞其兩班。且問償糴狀。兩班氈笠。
衣短衣。伏塗謁稱小人。不敢仰視。郡守大驚。下扶曰。
足下何自貶辱若是。兩班益恐懼頓首俯伏曰。惶悚小人。非敢自辱。已自鬻其兩班。
以償糴。里之富人。乃兩班也。小人復安敢冒其舊號而自尊乎。郡守歎曰。
君子哉富人也。兩班哉富人也。富而不吝。義也。急人之難。
仁也。惡卑而慕尊。智也。此眞兩班。雖然。
私自交易而不立券。訟之端也。我與汝。約郡人而證之。立券而信之。
郡守當自署之。於是郡守歸府。悉召郡中之士族及農工商賈。悉至于庭。富人坐鄕所之右。
兩班立於公兄之下。乃爲立券曰。乾隆十年九月日。右明文段。▼(厂+串)賣兩班爲償官糓。
其直千斛。維厥兩班。名謂多端。讀書曰士。從政爲大夫。
有德爲君子。武階列西。文秩叙東。是爲兩班。任爾所從。
絶棄鄙事。希古尙志。五更常起。點硫燃脂。目視鼻端。
會踵支尻。東萊博議。誦如氷瓢。忍饑耐寒。口不說貧。
叩齒彈腦。細嗽嚥津。袖刷毳冠。拂塵生波。盥無擦拳。
漱口無過。長聲喚婢。緩步曳履。古文眞寶。唐詩品彙。
鈔寫如荏。一行百字。手毋執錢。不問米價。暑毋跣襪。
飯毋徒髻。食毋先羹。歠毋流聲。下箸毋舂。毋餌生葱。
飮醪毋嘬鬚。吸煙毋輔窳。忿毋搏妻。怒毋踢器。毋拳敺兒女。
毋詈死奴僕。叱牛馬。毋辱鬻主。病毋招巫。祭不齋僧。
爐不煑手。語不齒唾。毋屠牛。毋賭錢。凡此百行。
有違兩班。持此文記。卞正于官城主。旌善郡守押。座首別監證署。
於是通引搨印錯落。聲中嚴皷。斗縱參橫。戶長讀旣畢。富人悵然久之曰。
兩班只此而已耶。吾聞兩班如神仙。審如是。太乾沒。願改爲可利。
於是乃更作券曰。維天生民。其民維四。四民之中。最貴者士。
稱以兩班。利莫大矣。不耕不商。粗涉文史。大决文科。
小成進士。文科紅牌。不過二尺。百物備具。維錢之槖。
進士三十。乃筮初仕。猶爲名蔭。善事雄南。耳白傘風。
腹皤鈴諾。室珥冶妓。庭糓鳴鶴。窮士居鄕。猶能武斷。
先耕隣牛。借耘里氓。孰敢慢我。灰灌汝鼻。暈髻汰鬢。
無敢怨咨。富人中其券而吐舌曰。已之已之。孟浪哉。將使我爲盜耶。
掉頭而去。終身不復言兩班之事。
The Price of a Yangban on Paper
The two parties are calculating different values for the same thing. For one, the immediate concerns are debt and survival; for the other, it is a status he has never possessed. Write down what each man hopes to gain and what he is willing to give up. This can help explain why the bargain is at odds with itself from the start.
The drafting of the deeds rewards a slow reading. Compare what the document of manners and rules promises with what the next document reveals. Reading the sentences as separate clauses shows how a collection of comic details builds up an entire social identity.
The magistrate both records the transaction and sets the story in motion. Consider whether he simply writes down the two men's wishes or steers their judgment through the wording of the deeds. Look, too, at what each character is left with when the sale falls through. Behind the laughter remains a gap between respectability and the realities of life.