Re-Socialization of the Butchers (1)

After the Great Fire of Hanyang, the court held intensive discussions over the question, “What should be done with the butchers from now on?”

Sejong had spent all this time trying somehow to embrace them and incorporate them into Joseon, but

The Great Fire of Hanyang had shown him that the measures taken so far were far from sufficient.

At an audience held in the presence of the assembled ministers, Sejong declared,

"Because of my lack of virtue, I failed to make the new baekjeong (a term coined by including the hwacheok among the baekjeong, a word originally meaning ordinary farmers and commoners) into true citizens of Joseon. It can be said that the new baekjeong became rebels because of this failure. Therefore, from this moment onward, I wish to correct my error and establish proper policies so that the new baekjeong, too, may live peaceful lives as citizens of Joseon."

In Korea, the word baekjeong is used to refer to people who slaughter cows and pigs.

However, that was not the word’s original meaning. It originally referred to ordinary commoners.

Yet Sejong ordered that the hwacheok also be included among the commoners, and that they be called ‘new baekjeong,’ or simply ‘baekjeong.’

However, the common people disliked using the word, asking why they were being treated as equals of the hwacheok.

They began calling themselves sangmin rather than baekjeong, and the word baekjeong came to replace the Goryeo-era hwacheok...