This study reviewed the fundamental change in the local headmen’s (hojang, 戶長) control over rural villages in the early Joseon Dynasty, based on the movements of the local headman class in late Koryo and the government policy towards the headmen. The headmen, who had ruled over rural villages as the leaders of the households in each district as well as the heads of local functionaries (鄕吏) since the early Koryo dynasty, strived to maintain and restore their positions as the ruling class against the government policy, which aimed to exclude the local functionaries from the ruling class in the late Koryo and early Joseon dynasty, largely in two ways. First, the local headmen would bribe for public posts and remain in the local villages with the status of yuhyang pumgwan (留鄕品官). Second, the headmen would retain their position as the leaders of the households but also became ajeon (‘衙前’), that is, the local civil functionaries who work in government offices of each district, so that they could wield influence over the rural communities.
There was little difference in the local headmen’s rule of the rural communities in the early Joseon dynasty with that in the Koryo dynasty, in that the headmen handled official business by using official seals at each local office (‘邑司’). However, unlike in the early Koryo dynasty when the local (鄕) communities had been accepted or overlooked as being independently ruled by the local headmen who served as local functionaries, the local communities in the early Joseon dynasty were declared to be outer provinces under direct rule of the regional district offices. As a result, the headmen’s rule over the local communities in early Joseon went through a fundamental change, as the headmen had to rely on the authority of the local district magistrates in a large part. This became especially the case in 1445, the 27th year of King Sejong, when the assigned land to the local functionaries and the land for official expenses in each district went through reform; the functionary duty was placed on the local headmen and their material resource for running the local offices were also taken away.
The local headmen, who were unable to take independent control over local districts as the land, their material resources, and jeong (正) and sa (史), their human resources, were subjected under the control of the regional district offices and became civil functionaries so as to maintain their status, authority and influence. This was a gradual change, as the local headmen’s control over the local communities, which was based on the noninstitutionalized local power and traditional authority, was gradually replaced with the rule of the local district magistrates who represented the institutionalized state authority. This process took place in the context of the local control policy implemented by the central government in the early Joseon dynasty, and signified the centralization of power in the medieval state of Joseon.