Korean Adoption and Inheritance: Case Studies in the Creation of a Classic Confucian Society (Cornell East Asia Series Volume 80)

The cases in Korean adoption and inheritance reveal steps in the transition called "Confucianization" that took place mostly in the seventeenth century. The transition from partible inheritance, equally divided between sons and daughters, to primogeniture; the attempt to use soja as heirs; the movement toward agnatic adoption as the way to provide an heir when there were no children, or when there were only daughters born into the household are all covered in numerous cases from the official history, from government records, and from private documents.

Mark Peterson is Professor of Korean Studies at Brigham Young University. Within Korean studies he researches and publishes in the areas of social history, contemporary Korean society, and classic Korean novels.