NEW SCHOOLS 203Criticism of the examination system and praise for schools and recommen-
dation was, of course, not the exclusive property ofYu Hyongwon. The same
encyclopedia, for example, contains a statement of Chong Tojon, one of the lead-
ing Neo-Confucian ideologues of the Koryo/Choson transition in the late four-
teenth century, citing virtually the same classical sources that Yu used to extol
the classical ideal of well-rounded education in moral standards and the arts,
the selection ofthe worthy and able, and their promotion up the ranks of a school
system. Chong also presented a similar synopsis of developments in recruitment
from the Han to the examination system of the Sui and Tang, and the adoption
of the examinations by King Kwangjong on the advice of Shuang Chi. The dif-
ference between his view and those ofYu and An, however, was that he wanted
reform of the late Koryo examination system, not its abolition. As a follower of
Yi Songgye, the founder of the Choson dynasty, Chong naturally praised him
for his reforms, such as ordering the National Academy (S6nggyun'gwan) to
examine students on the Four Books and Five Classics and the Ministry of Rites
to examine candidates in poetical composition, essay writing, and policy ques-
tions, thus "providing at one stroke a system well ordered in all respects that
could serve for several generations." But reformers like Yu Hyongwon in the
seventeenth century and after had lost the optimistic outlook of Chong Tojon
that the examination system could be restored to health by fine tuning.' 10
The encyclopedia also includes excerpts of statements by Cho Kwangjo con-
cerning his special recommendation examination of 15 [9 and by Yulgok on the
injustice of relying exclusively on examinations for evaluating talent, indicat-
ing that by the late eighteenth century the reform view had become widespread
among the literati. III Reform thought obviously had some influence on King
Chongjo, who issued a lengthy edict on the subject when he first came to the
throne in 1776. Chongjo (or the scholar who drafted the edict for him) cited
Ch'eng I to the effect that great benefits were only to be obtained by great reforms,
and the one institution that cried out for reform above all else was the exami-
nation system. Possibly as a result of his reading of the encyclopedia itself (and
maybe Yu's Pan 'gye surok as well), Chongjo noted that the examination system
was not an ancient institution but the village recommendation system was. After
tracing the history of the examinations through the Ming and Choson dynas-
ties, however, he remarked (contrary to the totally negative opinion of Yu
Hyongwon and others) that the examination system was not entirely without
merit; it was only that it had been corrupted through long use or had failed in
practice to live up to its promise. Problems in the system had to be rectified and
the system adjusted to take into account the nature of the times.
He echoed the call ofYu and many others for the restoration of local recom-
mendation, remarking that in ancient China there were two paths to office, one
via the local schools run by the local scholar-officials (hsiang shih-ta-fu) and
appointment by the Ta Ssu-t'u, and the other via the National Academy and
appointment by the Ta Ssu-ma. Students were trained in the six principles of
virtue, the six types of proper behavior. and the six skills of the well-rounded