韓國古代的婦女貞節觀

Abstract

婦女貞節被要求的程度與範圍，是觀察過去女性生活與地位的重要內容。許多研究韓國三國時代與統一新羅階段的政治、經濟、宗教等的文章，都約略涉及到這個部分，因此促使本文以此為焦點，進一步討論韓國古代婦女對貞節的看法。透過目前韓國僅留下來的古代史資料《三國史記》、《三國遺事》，與中國的正史資料，查考這時代的女性婚前是否守童貞、婚後的夫妻之貞、是否要求從一而終、以及離婚再嫁的難易程度等面向之後。發現新羅婦女，在婚前並未有保持童貞的規範，而婚後不和其他男生發生關係的夫妻之貞，是普遍堅持的信念，但女性不必從一而終又是社會共識。高句麗的女性，在一般游牧民族「兄死妻嫂」的制度下，除夫妻之貞外，婚前的性關係最為自由，婚後也沒有從一而終的文化。百濟婦女則雖有明文規定婦人必須貞信，否則必須受罰，但實際的情形是在遇到特殊情況時，普遍的選擇是不會堅守夫妻之貞，至於其他方面則與新羅相同。 One important area for our observation of past women’s social life and status is the extent to which they were required to follow chastity rule and its relevant boundaries. There have been many research reports on ancient Korean politics, economy and religion that tangentially touched on this issue, and this provides the impetus for the current paper to focus on ancient Korean women’s ideas of chastity. The major sources of information are two ancient texts: Samkuksaki(《三國史記》) and Samkukyusa(《三國遺事》). Our analyses focus on the following issues: whether women preserve virginity before marriage; whether women remain chaste toward their husbands after marriage; and, lastly, the extent to which and the difficulty involved for divorced women who wanted to remarry. Preliminary findings indicate that women during the Shilla period generally observe the following rules: no chastity requirement before marriage; post-marital chastity is universally followed; and no requirement that women should follow one-husband-only rule. During the Korguyo period, because it followed the “levirate” practice commonly seen among nomadic peoples, women enjoyed most pre-marital sexual freedom. Besides the rule of conjugal chastity, women did not have to follow one-husband-only rule. The Baekje’s society only prescribed that women should maintain chaste; they would be punished otherwise.