Recipient

The Daehan Empire’s Reports of Judicial Affairs

-Translated and Annotated-

(Yeokju Sabeop-pumbo)

OH,Yeon-suk(Duksung Women’s University)

The Daehan Empire’s Reports of Judicial Affairs - Translated and Annotated (Yeokju Sabeop-pumbo) was published

in 2018 in a total of 40 volumes. It is a translation of the original Reports of Judicial Affairs (Sabeop-pumbo) -written in classical

Chinese- into modern Korean, with annotations. The translation project was performed by the History and Culture Research

Center at Duksung Women’s University, with funding provided, in part, by the Korean Studies Promotion Service (hereafter KSPS)

at the Academy of Korean Studies.

Sabeop pumbo (司法稟報) is a collection of various records such as reports, duty inquiries, statements, and rulings sent

from local courts of law as well as the High Court (Pyeongniwon in later days), to the Ministry of Law(Beopbu) from 1894 till 1907.

These records, dating from 1894 when the modern judicial system was first introduced to the Korean peninsula through the entire
Daehan Empire period(1897-1910), contain diverse contents which shed light on the conflicts that continued between the rulers

and the ruled. These records of incidents such as political upheavals, common people’s resistance to the invasion of foreign

forces, and social contentions emerging as a result of the society’s transformation to modernity,

describe various facets of a society in a state of flux with great details. Furthermore, a variety of styles featured by these official

documents enables further understanding of not only the changes that occurred in style, but the overall nature of the Korean

record-keeping culture as well.

Sabeop pumbo contains plenty of reports, ruling statements, and summaries of those rulings which reflect the judiciary

procedures and operations of the time. In other words, it is a crucial textbook for understanding the judicial system
that prevailed in this period. Through these documents, the litigation procedures of the Gabo Reform period (1894-1896)

as well as the Daehan Empire period can be understood. By looking at the process of handling crime incidents,

light can be shed on procedures of litigation, the judiciary system’s structure and how it was managed,

the government’s hierarchy structure and the common people’s social organizations, as well as the methods of communication

among relevant parties in a society which was on the verge of transforming into a modernized one. Also included

here are many examples in which the articles from criminal codes of the earlier days,

such as the Great Administrative Code (Daejeon hoetong), the Great Ming Code (Dae Myeong nyul),

the Regulations for the Punishment of Criminals (Jeokdo cheodannye), the Illustrative Examples of Criminal Code

(Hyeongnyul myeongnye), and the Great Code of Criminal Law (Hyeongbeop daejeon), were actually implemented,

which help us understand how the modern judiciary system was put in practice. In the late 19^th century, the traditional ruling

class quickly collapsed and the move toward a modern society caused the emergence of diverse social contentions

and various conflicts of a rather serious nature, and that can also be seen from the trial processes.

Sabeop pumbo is a massive resource consisting of around 180 books (128 in the Gap category and 52 in the Eul category),

of which the original versions are kept at the Seoul National University’s Kyujanggak Institute of Korean Studies (hereafter KIKS).

The photoprint version was printed in 20 volumes by the Asea Munhwasa publishing company.

With a growing interest in materials relating to the history of the Korean judicial system, and an increase in inter-disciplinary

researches, the need for and viability of a translation of Sabeop pumbo was duly recognized,

and a team for a collaborative effort to provide a translation and annotation for the text was organized in January 2010.

The project was launched after the it was selected in 2012 for the KSPS Foundational Korean Studies Research Support Program.

The translation team, based at the History and Culture Research Center at Duksung Women’s University, has been led by Project Chair Han Sang-gwon.

First, from September 2012 to August 2015, Volumes No. 1-9 of the photoprint version of Sabeop pumbo (i.e. Books No. Gap 1-88

of the original version) were translated and annotated with the aforementioned funding from KSPS. Then, from May 2016 to January 2019, Volumes No. 10-14 (Books No. Gap 89-122), were translated and annotated with funding from KIKS.

Currently, from June 2019 to May 2022, Volumes No. 15-17 (Books No. Gap 123-128 and Eul 1-29) are being translated

and annotated with funding from KSPS, under the Foundation of Basic Historical Resources Program.

The translations and annotations completed by January 2018 (Volumes No. 1-13; Books No. Gap 1-116) underwent review

for publication and were published in December 2018 in 40 volumes. In 2019, the work was selected for the Outstanding

Research Award by the Ministry of Education’s Academic Research Support Program.

Thanks to this, the project was presented in a talk entitled “Translated and Annotated Sabeop pumbo, Translating an Era”

at the 6^th World Humanities Forum (November 19-21, 2020; Hwabaek International Convention Center, Gyeongju),

which had the theme “Humanities of Harmony: Striving towards Coexistence and Mutual Prosperity.”

As Sabeop pumbo is such a massive resource consisting of nearly 180 books, various methods to ensure the quality

of the translation were exhaustively employed. The project team developed a system that included workshops,

several rounds of cross-checking, self-evaluations, and the creation of a terminology glossary.

By pursuing both an accurate and easily accessible translation, a highly consistent and desirable outcome was achieved.

Translations were reviewed on a weekly basis through workshops joined by experts from relevant fields.

Collaborative translation projects often face difficulties in achieving consistent and cohesive results,

but the Sabeop pumbo project was able to achieve its original objective.

As a result of such efforts, The Daehan Empire’s Reports of Judicial Affairs - Translated and Annotated (Yeokju Sabeop-pumbo)

was born, as a resource extremely useful not only to scholars in the field of studying politics, culture,

society and the judiciary system of the Gabo Reform period and the Daehan Empire period, but to the ordinary public as well.

With this new well of information, we are now able to determine the genuine nature of this period, especially in the areas of law

and the lives of ordinary people. This accomplishment is also expected to spark interest in fields of not only historiography

but Korean linguistics, sociology and legal history as well, and increased studies would only benefit studies of the social

structure of the Daehan Empire period. Materials related to forensic medicine, such as the Facts of Crime (Jwe’an),

Autopsy reports, and the Expanded: Prevention of Frustrations (Jeungsu muwonnok), as well as all the diverse crimes,

offenders and victims described in them, will also be of great help to new research fields such as criminal sociology.

As of December 2020, the translation team has completed its translation and annotation of photoprint Volumes No. 15-16

(Books No. Gap 123-128, Eul 1-20) and is now holding workshops to review the translation for publication.

The translation of the remaining parts (Volumes No. 17-20; Books No. Eul 21-52) is also expected to proceed without delay,

and hopefully soon result in a complete translation of the material which would consist of total of 70 volumes.

Without a doubt, Yeokju Sabeop-pumbo will become a great asset to Korean Studies,

and become one of the most crucial resources for studies of the legal system and society of the Daehan Empire period.

(Translated By Lyndsey Twining/Edited by Kang Hahn Lee)