Book XIV 795situation of the common people, and you will have no problems of erring in
judgment.
“1. The security of the royal palace should be rigorously reinforced. The
rulers in antiquity, though they resided in the deepest heart of their palace
complexes, always came out to spend time in the outer palace precinct
during the day and stayed in the inner palace precinct at night, following the
time assigned for their daily routines and strictly differentiating the inside
[private space] and the outside [public space]. Your Majesty now stays
mostly in the auxiliary palace (pyŏlchŏn), spending time with military offi-
cials and enjoying their company, and I am very concerned about it. I request
that Your Majesty sit high on the throne in the main audience hall of the
palace and comport yourself in accordance with the time assigned for your
schedule, thus regulating your conduct and strictly tightening the security
of the royal palace.
“1. The public construction should be stopped. The Analects says, ‘King
Yu lived in a low mean house, but expended all his strength on the ditches
and water- channels.’^18 The rulers in antiquity wanted no less to live in luxu-
rious palaces, but they dared not start public construction for fear of wasting
assets and harming the people. Now we have had no rain during the farming
season, and the people are faced with famine, and natural disasters keep
recurring. This is quite terrible. I urge you to suspend all public construc-
tion in the capital until we have a bumper year and complete construction
thereafter. If there is anyone who tries to prove their loyalty by recklessly
recruiting people for construction, regardless of their situation, you should
reject them.
“1. Buddhism should be rejected. Buddhism is what sages warned about
because it teaches how to destroy human relationships and escape the
present world. It deceives their ears and eyes with hollow and weird words.
Under the pretext of serving Buddha or praying for blessings for the country,
they build temples everywhere, and the monks, who are as many as the
trees in the forests, lead a life of ease and idleness, riding on the backs of the
people’s labor. Sometimes, under the pretext of making Buddha statues or
printing Buddhist sutras or preparing robes and bowls for practicing monks,
they invite the people to submit paper prayer slips and collect donations in
return, wandering as they please across the country and deceiving and
seducing the people. In extreme cases, they threaten the people to make
- “Taibo,” Analects of Confucius, p. 215.