Public Animals, Private Hunts and Royal Authority in the Fifteenth Century

This chapter first considers the extension of dynastic control over the peninsula by examining the centrality of animal products as tribute items. Along with other items, pelts, meat, blood and other animal by-products were submitted to the central government as part of the tax obligation of the countryside. Replicating this pattern on the peninsula, Korea submitted animals (some alive, some dead) to the Mongols and Ming as tribute obligations and traded other forms of animals with Jurchens along the frontier. Considering animals as tribute illustrates the growing limitation of royal authority over the century. The remained of this chapter, and extending into Chapter 8, examines the small, personal hunts, detailing debates at the court. This final section highlights the clash with court officials over private hunting and state ritual, echoing arguments in previous chapters over the king’s involvement in the Kangmu royal military hunts, but differing in their intent. This chapter argues that controlling small-scale hunts were important economic and symbolic steps towards the consolidation of central power. Royal authority was given material shape in the form of animal products that tied local areas to the centre, as well as Chosŏn to the region.