NEW SCHOOLS 175National Academy was being recommended for an official post, the recommendor
would agree to acccept punishment if the candidate were subsequently found
guilty of embezzlement, moral turpitude, laziness, drunkenness, crime, or injury
to others. 19
Despite his animus against examinations, Yu felt forced to rely on oral and
written tests for weeding out incompetent students. Every third year (when the
soon-to-be abolished examinations were held) the director of the Middle School
in the capital and the provincial governor at the Governor's School would con-
duct an oral classics examination (kogang). With exceptions to be noted later,
any student over the age of twenty who failed this triennial school qualification
examination would be dismissed from school and enlisted for military service
- a much stiffer criterion for service exemption than the tax on Select Military
Officers that King Yongjo adopted in 1750.2l)
Furthermore, students who had been promoted to the Middle School in the
capital and the Governor's School in the provincial capital would be subjected
to a test on selected classics shortly after their arrival, and those who failed would
be sent home. Reading examinations would be held every fifth day on the pre-
vious week's study, archery and writing tests four times a year, and a recitation
examination on the classics in spring and autumn. Shoddy scholarship, poor
behavior, and inferior talent would all be grounds for dismissal from school.
The year after promotion the best students of the Middle School and the Gov-
ernors' Schools would be recommended for promotion to the National Acad-
emy, and regulations for examination and dismissal at the National Academy
would be similar to those for intermediate schools.
The last stage of the process was selection of "the worthy and able" from stu-
dents at the National Academy for posts in the government bureaucracy. The
criteria for selection were "correct character and behavior, honesty, deferential
behavior, scholarly knowledge, and understanding of the right way of govern-
ment.·' The recommendation procedure would be accompanied by perfor-
mance of the wine-drinking rite, and the new candidates for office would then
be assembled for a recitation examination at court before the high ministers,
censors, and royal attendants. Those who passed would be designated advanced
scholars (chinsa) and their names presented to the Ministry of Personnel. There
would be no lists of passers issued in the manner of the current examination
system.^21
Retention of Examinations within the Schools
Yu was aware that his authorization of examinations in the schools conflicted
with his condemnation of examinations elsewhere and his refusal to recognize
compromises with the examination system, such as the use of policy questions
in the Han dynasty fashion, or eho Kwangjo's idea of holding special exami-
nations of recommended scholars. He defended himself against the charge of
inconsistency by specifying that only recitation examinations (kogullg) would