Abstract

Today many scholars studying the commercial history of late Joseon are used to understanding nanjeon as a term meaning such illegal commercial activities that throw sijeon into disorder. This seems to be the result of their preconceived notion that lan(亂) may only mean mun(紊). Contrary to this notion, lan means not only mun, but also zhi(治) and li(理). From this we can make a guess that the term nanjeon may also have two opposite meanings: nanjeon(1) meaning monopolistic ordering activities of sijeon and nanjeon(2) meaning illegal commercial activities of non-sijeon free traders. The main purpose of this paper is to ascertain the truth of our guess. To begin with, we examine the ways in which the authors of the Mangi yoram and Jeong Dasan understood the term nanjeon mentioned in the proposal for so-called Sinhae tonggong made by Chae Je-gong, finding out that we do not miss our guess. This finding is reconfirmed by showing that nanjeon(1) and nanjeon(2) had been used simultaneously in the Sillok of Joseon Dynasty. Our conclusion is that nanjeon had been used as a concept with two opposite meanings. Therefore it cannot be defined either as nanjeon(1) or as nanjeon(2); it should be re-defined as a term which has both of meanings simultaneously.