146 SOCIAL REFORM
aggression and struggle, crudity and darkness, so that there is nothing worth
talking about."88yu thought it was an age dominated by warfare in which recruit-
ment was based solely on military skill and merit in combat. It was not until the
Silla dynasty during the reign of King Wonsong (r. 784-98) that a system of
recruitment based on examination of knowledge of the written word (tokso
ch'ulsinjibop) was adopted, but standards were fairly low, and only a rudimen-
tary grasp of classical Chinese learning was required. "Anyone who could com-
prehend the Five Classics, Three Histories, Philosophers, and Hundred Schools
was appointed to office."89Yu was referring to the examination established only
in the Silla National Academy (T'aehak) in 788, and he concluded that it was
not a major means for recruiting officials in the Silla period.
Save for his perfunctory reference to Kija, Yu was obviously ashamed by the
low standards of civilization of his own people in its earliest recorded history
and disdainful of the minor contributions made in the institutions of education
and recruitment. It is astonishing how anyone could construe that Yu was pio-
neering a major rediscovery of Korean nationhood and nationality that would
lead to the current exaltation of the Korean past that has exerted such powerful
influence in both north and south Korea.
The Examination System in the Koryo Dynasty. Yu pointed out that it was not
until the mid-tenth century during the Koryo period that Koreans adopted the
examination system, but he did not extol this as an achievement of the Korean
people themselves. On the contrary, it was only thanks to the advice and influ-
ence of Shuang Chi, the Chinese visitor from the Northern Chou dynasty, that
King Kwangjong was inspired to push through the reform.
As we know now, it did not become an important means of recruitment until
the fourteenth century, but it did contribute to the introduction of Confucian cul-
ture and supported King Kwangjong's attempt to create an institution for the
royal recruitment of officials independent of inherited aristocratic status.^90
Although Yu did acknowledge that the examination system had the positive effect
of raising the level of cultural accomplishment in Korea, he also condemned it
for all the detrimental side effects described in the Chinese literature: excessive
esteem for poetry, a preference for a frivolous and ornate writing style, and a
stress on rote memorization.^91
He noted the emergence of a brief flurry of reform at the end of the Koryo
dynasty in the fourteenth century, but lamented its negligible consequences. He
praised the proposal of Yi Chehyon and Pak Hyosu during the reign of King
Ch'ungsuk (r. 1330-3 I, 1332-39), to abandon the requirement for composing
shih andfu poems, and the suggestion ofYi Saek during the reign of King U (r.
r 374-88) to restore the use of policy questions to the examinations, but neither
of the two was adopted. Yu did admire, however, the action of the State Coun-
cil in the reign of King Kongyang (r. 1389-92) for instituting regular exami-
nations in the military arts to upgrade the quality of military officialsY
Yu described in rather perfunctory fashion the full institutionalization of the
examination system in both civil and military specialties during his own Choson