Women in the Joseon Dynasty Were Sexual Slaves of the Yangban — The Reality of the Nobi System and the History of Hypocrisy
During the Joseon Dynasty, women were sexual slaves who were exploited as the property of the yangban. This article depicts the spread of syphilis, the reality of the nobi system, and the violence that remains in modern Korean society.
Korean women were unpaid nobi who worked for the yangban, and they were sexual slaves who offered sex to them.
2021-01-29
Women in the Joseon Dynasty existed as sexual slaves of the yangban.
The two photographs on the next page show women and yangban at the end of the Joseon Dynasty.
They capture scenes of four yangban having a kisaeng girl of about nine or ten years old pour drinks for them at a drinking party, and Korean women living without feeling sexual shame about exposing their breasts.
A Korean bi (a woman of the nobi class) was also a maidservant to a no (a man of the nobi class).
Hendrick Hamel, the Dutchman who observed Korea in the 1660s, recorded that yangban families with political power owned as many as 2,000 to 3,000 nobi.
All women of nobi status were the property of the yangban and were also sexual slaves who could be used at the yangban’s will.
All the children they bore to yangban men became nobi, but the yangban showed no interest whatsoever in such children.
Meanwhile, romantic relationships between nobi were forbidden, and women who violated this prohibition were subjected to severe torture and killed.
However, many nobi managed to evade the watchful eyes of the yangban and develop romantic relationships, and as a result, syphilis was widespread not only among the yangban but also in the royal palace.
In order to escape syphilis, as soon as a Crown Prince was chosen, the royal family had him marry a young girl,
but once the Crown Prince ascended the throne, all the beautiful court ladies became his.
However, a court lady beautiful enough to receive the king’s favor was highly likely already to have had relations with other men and contracted syphilis, and even the king could not remain free from syphilis.
Korean women were unpaid nobi who worked for the yangban, and they were sexual slaves who offered sex to them.
Beginning with Mun Ok-ju, more than twenty women from Daitei exchanged love with Japanese soldiers.
They were able to bring back to their homeland the fees and tips they received from officers and soldiers of the Japanese military and live lives in which they had escaped poverty.
By contrast, the yangban of the Joseon era exploited women as nobi and sexual slaves, and far from paying them fees, they did not even hesitate to abuse them.
Recently, “power harassment” has become a social problem.
It is said that there are even cases in which foreign workers are subjected to hysterical abuse.
This is probably due to a considerable extent to Korean DNA.
Koreans criticize Japan as an imperialist state and hate the Rising Sun flag,
but when one compares Korea and Japan in this way, one cannot help but question whether Koreans truly have the right to criticize Japanese people.
Making forced accusations against Japan at every opportunity is truly an act of spitting toward heaven.
This article continues.