Donggue Lee and Sangwoo Han “Families in the Household Registers of Seventeenth-Century Korea: Capital, Urban and Rural Areas”, European Journal of Korean Studies, vol.20, no.1 (2020), pp.1-34.
Because of the Japanese (1592-1598), and Manchu (1627, 1636-1637), invasions, the seventeenth century was a turning point in the Neo-Confucian transformation of Chosŏn dynasty. Changes and continuities in Korean society and families can be seen in household registers published in the seventeenth century. Occupational records and family structures from the top to the bottom of society show that social hierarchies and governmental systems were well preserved even after the invasions. This study also highlights the value of household registers as a primary historical source for the study of Korean social and family history.