Community Compact Sachanggye Regulations, Uiryeong

This is a set of hyangyak (Confucian community-compact) regulations established in 1808, the eighth year of King Sunjo of Joseon, by Bak Jong-gu, the magistrate (hyeongam) of Uiryeong, who, intent on social moral reform, drew up implementation rules based on the Seowon Hyangyak, the community-compact of Yulgok (Yi I). According to the regulations, the county magistrate served as the head compact-officer (dogyejang) for the whole county, appointing officers and establishing hyangyak sachanggye (community-compact grain associations) in a total of 101 large and small villages, each headed by its eldest member as gyejang, or association head. Deputy heads were chosen from among the knowledgeable and diligent to build the organisational structure. Grain totalling 219 seok, collected through the village compacts, was distributed among the large, medium and small villages in proportion to their number of households; after four years it was to be repaid with a high interest rate of thirty to forty per cent a year, so as to build up operating capital for the association. The four principal tenets of the hyangyak — encouraging one another in virtuous conduct, correcting one another's faults, exchanging courtesies in social conduct, and helping one another in time of hardship — were carried out at village level as prescribed in the Hyangnye Hapyeon, rewarding good and punishing wrong, while martial skills were also cultivated, through village archery contests and the like, to improve physical fitness. In particular, the document sets out in detail the mechanisms and management guidelines for supplying grain to the county office, and it also contains records of distribution and collection kept over a long period. As an example of good governance by a county magistrate, this hyangyak is regarded as an important historical source for studying the conditions of the time — villages, households, population, finances and people's livelihoods — as well as the process of putting the community compact into practice.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Uiryeong, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산