NEW SCHOOLS 207ethics, and an expansion of opportunity, mass education, and equality of treat-
ment are in fact severely limited - in fact, often overwhelmed -by countervailing
propositions. Yu's advocacy for an expansion of knowledge in the educational
curriculum to include military affairs as well as the classics and moral teach-
ings was limited by the very classical mode of thought itself. in which training
in archery was perceived as a means to the cultivation of the proper seriousness
and decorum in the conduct of ritual. Improvement in the teaching of techno-
logical subjects was limited by relegating them to traditional technical schools
and technical professions, which were lower in status than general education
and generalist bureaucrats. The imposition of quotas on such technical person-
nel also would have prevented the expansion of technical knowledge to the mass
of the population or the overturning of the traditional priority of moral over prac-
tical knowledge.
The implied call for a general liberalization of education represented by the
emphases on military and technical knowledge was contradicted by Yu's detailed
description of how schools would be run, their curriculum. and the extent of
their libraries. In the assessing of merits and demerits as well as the limited use
of written examinations, the overwhelming focus was on behavior. producing
in the individual conforn1ity to ye, rites and etiquette, or the outer manifesta-
tions in behavior of the well-regulated and well-tuned character - such things
as comportment, deportment, filial piety, and even serious music. The daily reg-
imen, the liberal use of penalties and punishments, and even the threat of mili-
tary service against lazy students, suggests that ifYu had had his way, he would
have filled the country with military academies of moral education. The pur-
pose of such schools was to make sure that the students received the correct
message, not that their minds would be trained to free inquiry. Not only did Yu
confine the curriculum to a short list of acceptable and sanitary books. he also
proscribed (without defining) all heterodox, undesirable, and frivolous works.
The reason for Yu's harsh and disciplinary approach to education was undoubt-
edly caused by the vast departure of contemporary Korean society from the ideals
represented by the sage institutions of the Chou and Yu's emotional commit-
ment to leading, if not dragging, Korea back to some approximation of that ancient
model. Since Yu himself was so certain of the verities of his own Confucian
world, he could brook no expansion of the curriculum lest it misguide men's
minds and lead them from the straight path. Technical and useful knowledge
was good for the country, but still had to be subordinated to moral truths and
limited to a subordinate class of technical experts. What Yu wanted was a strug-
gle to return to ancient principles in a world that was not only not perfect, but
could never completely be so. Though a depressing prospect for some, it did
not stymie his commitment and purpose.