The king of Corea, though a vassal of the Chinese empire, is within his own country an absolute monarch, with power of life and death over the noblest in the land. He is the object of almost divine honours; it is sacrilege to utter the name which he receives from his suzerain, and that by which he is known in history is only bestowed upon him after his death by his successor. To touch his person with a weapon of iron is high treason; and so rigidly is this rule enforced that Tieng-tsong-tai-oang suffered an abscess to put an end to his life in 1800, rather than submit to the contact of the lancet. Every horseman must dismount as he passes the palace, and whoever enters the presence-chamber must fall prostrate before the throne. Should the ignoble body of a subject be touched by the royal hands, the honour thus conferred must be ever after commemorated by a badge. In consequence of such punctilious etiquette, personal access to the king is exceedingly difficult; but, as according to theory, his ear ought always to be open to the complaints of his people, an appeal to his authority is nominally permitted. He is expected to provide for the poor of his realm, and there are always a large number of pensioners on the royal bounty. The princes of the blood are most jealously excluded from power, and their interference in the slightest degree in a matter of politics is regarded as treason. The nobles, however, have within the present century extended their influence, and infringed on the royal prerogatives. The palaces are poor buildings, but an extensive harem and a large body of eunuchs are maintained.
The government is practically in the hands of the three principal ministers of the king, who are called respectively seug-ei-tsieng or admirable councillor, tsoa-ei-tsieng or councillor of the left, and ou-ei-tsieng or councillor of the right. They are nominally assisted by six pan-tso or judges, each of whom has his own tsam-pan or substitute and tsam-ei or adviser. The ni-tso, the first of these judges' departments, has charge of the public offices and employments; the ho-tso takes the census, apportions the taxes, and looks after the mints; the niei-tso supervises religious and official ceremonial; the pieng-tso is the department of war; the hieng-tso administers the criminal courts; and the kong-tso has the oversight of public works, commerce, &c. In the palace there are three sug-tsi, or functionaries charged to put on record day by day all the royal words and actions. The eight provinces of the kingdom are each administered by a governor, dependent on the ministerial council; and each of the 332 districts into which the provinces are sub-divided is under a separate mandarin. Military commanders have the chief authority in the four fortified towns of Kang-hoa, Sou-wen, Koang-tsiou, and Siong-to or Kai-seng. Theoretically every one of these posts is open to any Corean who has acquired the necessary degree in the public examinations; but actually they are almost all appropriated by the nobles. A postal system is maintained along the principal highways,—the horses being kept by the Government, and the grooms and riders holding almost the position of royal serfs. The army nominally includes every individual capable of bearing arms, who does not belong to the nobility; but only a small proportion of the men are brought under discipline. The military mandarins, though chosen from the nobles, are in far less estimation than the civil functionaries of corresponding rank. The salaries of the governors and other high officials are large, but as the term is only two years, and the custom of the country is for a person in office to support all his relatives, it is seldom that the position proves genuinely lucrative. In addition to the various regular officials already mentioned there are a number of e-sa, or anaik-sa, who are despatched by the king, armed with absolute power, to visit the provinces at irregular intervals and secretly observe the condition of affairs. Corruption, however, universally and openly prevails, and the supervision even of these irresponsible emissaries affords little protection against injustice. The mandarin is for ordinary civil cases the absolute judge within his district; but if the matter is very important it may be referred to the provincial governor, or even ultimately to the king himself. Criminal cases are decided by the military mandarin, and the final appeal is to the great court of the capital, which consists of two parts—the po-tseng which collects the evidence, and the ieng-tso which passes the sentence. Public functionaries and culprits accused of treason or rebellion are tried by a special court called the keum-pou, the members of which are named directly by the king. In a case of high treason the whole family of the guilty person is involved in his fate. A large portion of the real administrative power lies in the hands of the subaltern officials of the civil and military mandarins, who are distinguished by M. Dallet as “pretorians” and “satellites.” The former compose a formidable hereditary class, which rarely intermarries with the rest of the community; the latter are recruited from the lower ranks of society. Torture is freely employed in judicial proceedings; and the unhappy victim may either have the bones of his legs dislocated or bent, his calves reduced to rags by blows from a heavy plank, the flesh of his thighs cut through by the continuous friction of a rough cord, or his whole body agonized by a prolonged suspension by the arms. Decapitation is the usual form of execution both in civil and military cases.
The language of Corea belongs to the Turanian family, and agrees with the other Turanian tongues in all the main grammatical features. It is written alphabetically, by means of fourteen consonants corresponding to the European k, I, n, r, t, m (or I), p (or b), s, ng or nasal n, ts, tsh, kh, th, ph (i.e., p aspirated, not f) and k, and eleven vowels, which go to the composition of thirteen diphthongs. The letters appear either in an ordinary or a cursive form. Every line is written from the top to the bottom of the page, syllable by syllable. The vocabulary is greatly mingled with Chinese words; but these undergo the regular Corean declension. The noun has nine cases, including the nominative. Adjectives proper there are none, the nouns and verbs supplying their place. For the names of the numerals above 90, such as 100, 1000, &c., recourse is had to the Chinese. The verb possesses, besides the simple affirmative, a conditional, an interrogative, an honorific, a causative, and several other forms; but it has no distinctive inflections for number or person. The honorific form is employed in speaking of dignitaries; and indeed the verb must slightly vary according to the status of the person addressed.
