고종 초년 합설 의정부의 직무와 위상 = Functions and Status of the “Merged Euijeong-bu office” in the early days of king Gojong’s reign

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the early days of King Gojong’s reign, the Bibyeon-sa office was merged with the Euijeong-bu office, and the “Merged Euijeong-bu office” was born. Previously it was believed that the former was dismantled and was replaced by the resurrected latter, but it was simply not so. With the merging of the two offices, respective individual functions of both offices were merged with each other as well, and the new office was operated under a singular leadership, at the very top level of Joseon’s dynastic governance.
The actual merging had to take certain steps. It progressed in a gradual fashion. The beginning of the first phase was marked by 「Bunjang Jeolmok」, which was issued in February 1864(1st year of King Gojong’s reign). At the time, the Euijeong-bu office was promoted to the level of ‘coexisting’ with the Bibyeon-sa office. The office itself had a rather long history, hailing back to the very beginning of the dynasty, so it was trying to reclaim most of its governmental functions which it once had.
In institutional terms, the merging of the two offices was completed with the 「Jeongbu Chetong Yeon’hyeok Byeoldan」, issued in April 1865, the second year of Gojong’s reign. But ‘internal merging’ needed more time, and was still in progress. Functions of the late Bibyeon-sa office were gradually integrated to the Euijeong-bu mission structure.
The creation of the Merged Euijeong-bu office was part of the government’s efforts to completely overhaul the structure of governance. So, the efforts were succeeded by a series of law code publications, a task in which Heungseon Daeweon-gun was very much involved.
The “(New) Euijeong-bu” section of Daejeon Hwetong does not include any information regarding the [functions of the] late Bibyeon-sa office. Only in Yukjeon Jorye the functions of the Merged Euijeong-bu office was defined and articulated, as a combination of duties of both of the late offices. This new office inherited a symbolic status as the highest ranking office of the dynasty, which Euijeong-bu had been in the past, and was armed with functions that only belonged to the most powerful office in the country, which Bibyeon-sa had been in recent years. It became a truly powerful office that was able to rule the country from the highest levels of the Joseon government.
This task of bringing a complete overhaul to the existing governmental structure seems to have been designed and led by Heungseon Daeweon-gun, father of king Gojong. He oversaw all the important projects, like renovation of the Euijeong-bu office, reconstruction of the Gyeongbok-gung palace, and installation of the Three Military Headquarters, which were also accompanied by the renovation of all governmental facilities stationed outside the Gwang’hwa-mun gate. He then moved over to rebuilding and repairing symbolic dynastic structures. The one individual who would have been interested in the task of creating the Merged Euijeong-bu office than anybody else, must have been Heungseon Daeweon-gun himself.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 머리말
• 1. 비변사와 의정부의 합설(合設)경위
• 2. 합설 의정부의 위상
• 맺음말
• 참고문헌
• 〈Abstract〉