Book VI 421directorate that will handle solely slave affairs, employing fair- minded offi-
cials and establishing strict rules and regulations that require that litigations
be resolved within a certain time limit. You should make official documents
based on the originals and give them to the litigants but burn the original
copies of those documents as you did when you brought about land reforms
in order to eliminate the root cause of disputes.
“According to an old record, ‘Emperor Guangwu threw away his spear to
devote himself to his study and stopped horse- riding because he felt that a
discourse on the Way (Dao) was more urgent.’ Because he gave priority to
civil administration like this, he was admired by posterity for his virtue.
Since Your Majesty has founded a new dynasty and brought peace to the
country according to the Mandate of Heaven, you should hold royal lectures,
discussing the classics and histories, so that you can learn from them the
ways to govern the state, making the precedents and admonitions in them
your guidance. Our Chosŏn was originally a feudal kingdom ruled by the
Viscount of Ji (Jizi) and has recently received its country name from Ming
China once again. The Great Plan with Nine Divisions (Hongfan jiuchou)^24
was his work, which was designed to provide guidance to the rulers. We urge
you to hold a royal lecture and have a discussion on this text first.
“1. Since the state affairs that the king has to take care of every day
amount to ten thousand, he cannot but be diligent. Your Majesty should go
out to your main audience hall and personally make final decisions on the
matters presented by various government agencies and consult your minis-
ters if the matters are important enough to consult them.
“1. Since the appointment of officials is one of the king’s main preroga-
tives, you cannot help being impartial. Now you appoint military officials
based upon the records of their service, but some of them are also appointed
to their posts without rendering any service. We request that henceforth
- After the final defeat of Shang, King Wu of Zhou asked Jizi about the ways to rule the
empire, and the latter was known to have answered with the so- called Great Plan with Nine
Divisions: (1) living in accordance with the five phases (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth);
(2) attending to the five essential matters (appearance, speech, observation, listening, and
thinking); (3) developing agriculture; (4) integrating the use of the five methods of keeping
time (by year, month, day, stars, and calendar); (5) using imperial standards; (6) regulating the
three virtues (impartiality, hard prevalence, and soft prevalence); (7) verifying through exam-
ination; (8) thoughtfully using all signs (rain, rising sun, warmth, cold, and wind); (9) using the
five blessings (long life, health, wealth, love of virtue, and peaceful death) and the six extreme
misfortunes (violent premature death, bad health, distress, poverty, being hated, and becoming
infirm and weak).