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>In one of Lady Jo’s many anecdotes about Lady Jang, she describes how the noblewoman would look down at the village during dinnertime, to see which homes did n
by xenihn 6y ago
>In one of Lady Jo’s many anecdotes about Lady Jang, she describes how the noblewoman would look down at the village during dinnertime, to see which homes did not have smoke rising from the kitchen, meaning the household had no rice to cook. She would then invite families in need to work on her land so she could feed them. “Even the term ‘superwoman’ is not enough to describe Grandma Jang,” Lady Jo says.
I'm extremely confused by this take. Nobles have an obligation to not let their cattle starve to death. This excerpt makes it sound like she's being charitable by letting her peasants plant, grow, and harvest the food that is then used to compensate them for their labor.
- jinwoo68 6y agoYou're assuming that Korean political/economic system was the same as the one of Europe. It was not. Nobles didn't own all the lands or people around them. Some of non-noble people owned their own lands, others didn't and had to rent lands from landlords. So the story that you quoted means that Grandma Jang was generous to poor people who have neither lands nor money to rent lands, and allowed them to work on her lands.