Book VII 485granaries, military expenses and provisions, office expenses, monasteries,
schools, shrines, local magistrates, subfunctionaries working at the ferries
and post stations, artisans engaged in producing paper, and so forth. For the
scholar- officials (sadaebu) you provided rank land (kwajŏn) and made their
livelihood comfortable because they live in the royal capital and protect the
royal family. For the soldiers, you provided military land so that they could
support their families because they are in charge of defending the country
on border regions.
“In most cases, the rank land and merit land were provided in Kyŏnggi
Province, and the military land was mainly outside Kyŏnggi Province. This
is truly an outstanding law that should be handed down to a thousand gen-
erations. Therefore, we should make efforts to preserve this law in the days
to come.
“However, the Merit Recommendation Office recently sent an official
notice to the Land Grant Office (Kŭpchŏnsa) of the Board of Taxation
(Hojo) and ordered that all the lands granted to minor merit subjects should
be in their birthplaces. Those who own a big mansion on a large tract of
land mostly have private lands in the countryside. If they are free to have
lands outside Kyŏnggi Province, they will be greedy for more land, vying
against one another. Furthermore, the lands [outside Kyŏnggi Province]
converted into merit lands will acquire a different status from those within
Kyŏnggi Province that have landlords. If some avaricious and cunning
people happen to use their power to steadily swallow up the landholdings,
merit land is certain to run out eventually. We believe that serious problems
and abuses will recur in the regions outside Kyŏnggi Province because
everyone will vie with one another to grab more land until the situation is
beyond remedy.
“We sincerely urge Your Majesty to order the office responsible to dis-
cuss the matter once again and let the distribution of merit land be restricted
to Kyŏnggi Province. If the merit lands in Kyŏnggi Province run out, you
may as well add one or two districts to them since you plan to fix its border
sooner or later, and it causes no harm. The merit land is public land just the
same, whether it is included in Kyŏnggi Province or not. There is no loss,
only a different of appearance. In other words, if you provide lands from
within Kyŏnggi Province, there is no damage as far as the established system
is concerned; if you provide them from outside Kyŏnggi Province, however,
there is conflict with what has been established. Furthermore, it can also
revive old abuses, which were already abolished.”