Book XIII 771
six hundred bolts of fabric, and those subject to 100 strokes of the heavy
paddle are required to pay ninety bolts of fabric in lieu of corporal punish-
ment. As a result, both punishment and redemption become appropriate.
“In addition, while crimes are diverse, the laws to deal with them are
mostly inadequate. This is one of the reasons that sentencing is often unbal-
anced, and we cannot help being worried about it. There is an old saying,
‘Even if you draw a picture of hell on the ground, I will never enter it; even
if you engrave a figure of an official on the woodblock, I will never look at
him.’ These are the words indicating how much people hated officials. The
superior man feels ashamed of the officials whose public career is handling
prisoners and convicts, because he finds such officials mostly ignorant.
Those in charge of punishing and imprisoning are often so ignorant they
cannot even understand the penal code, and even if they can read the penal
code, they do not pay much attention to it. So what happens is that they leave
all the legal matters and judgments to legal experts, and this leads to the
failure of finding appropriate provisions in the law and thereby bringing about
sentencing that is unfair and unbalanced. The crimes that should be punished
severely are punished leniently, and the crimes that should be punished
lightly are punished severely. The problem is not confined to the application
of the law; it seriously damages the peace and harmony of the society.
“We request that henceforth the crimes not specifically covered by the
law be deliberated based on similar statutes. When a crime is light but its
penalty is too heavy, the penalty should be reduced by several grades. When
a crime is heavy but its penalty is too light, the penalty should be added to
by several grades. Then the sentences on the crimes should be reported to
the proper authorities for approval before they are finally carried out. And if
the cases that are already carried out are all recorded, they will be made into
a book of precedents by themselves as time passes. Then there will be no
crimes that are difficult to handle by the law.” The king ordered the Privy
Council to discuss the proposal, and in response the Privy Council requested
that the proposal submitted by the Board of Punishments be granted as it is.
22nd Day (Musul)
Dispatching Kim Sahaeng, the king bestowed wine upon Chŏng T’ak, assis-
tant director of the Security Council. At that time, by order of the king, he
went out to perform sacrifices to the royal ancestors of the king and returned
from his trip.