Record of Agreed Intestate Succession between Ha Jeung and His Brothers

Agreed intestate succession among brothers documented on the seventh day of the second month of the twenty ninth year of the Wanli era (1601). Concerning the following text: During to the second Japanese invasion in the jeongyu year (1597), ill fate befell all my brothers, some of whom could be dead or perhaps living in an unfamiliar land, and it has been five years since we have been awaiting the return of those missing. Those taken to a foreign land have no way of sending us their news, but in regard to future affairs, we have no choice but to make urgent decisions. Therefore, we, the remaining brothers, have carried out discussions while weeping tears of blood. First, we decided on the ancestral service reserve and distributing the remainder of the property amongst us, a process that required prolonged pondering but did not allow for careful examination of mutual boundaries. In the future, however, if and when one of the brothers returns alive, our shares shall again be combined for redistribution, to prevent any damage of loss. Land reserved for ancestral service cannot be bequeathed to another descendant or sold without mutual agreement, which should be clearly explained to our offspring to ensure the continuation of ancestral service. If the one responsible for ancestral service has no offspring, the duty shall be passed on to the next generation of descendants but never to one with a different family name, to ensure that the spirits always have a place to rely on. My elder brother Chilwon had no offspring, but his wife, widowed young, maintained fidelity all these years, a pitiful fate for her. She was not given a share of land or slaves in this distribution process, but in her lifetime she shall have both, to cultivate and use, to help her manage memorial rites, and upon her death, we shall designate a part of the land and slaves in her use as ancestral service reserve, the rest of which shall be distributed equally among the descendants.