Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions. Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty - James B. Palais

286 LAND REFORM

sion, adoption of the Ioo-myo unit (a specific number of square feet of standard

and uniform length), the use of this unit as a basis for land distribution, taxa-

tion, and military (or labor) service, the adoption of the tithe as the ideal land

tax, and the use of this system to provide not only relatively equitable income

somewhat above subsistence for the peasant families but also superior income

for a sadaebu ruling class. The sadaebu would correspond to a ruling class, and

officials in the service of the state would represent a segment of that class, enti-

tled to extra salary allotments from the government in return for service. These

principles represented a blending of traditional fundamentalism with a ratio-

nalistic and empirical methodology in adapting the principles or models to con-

temporary circumstance, a combination of egalitarian and hierarchical ideas of

relative equality for the peasantry but stratification for society as a whole. It would

achieve a proper balance between the public interests of the state and the pri-

vate interests of the ruling class and laboring peasants.

THE HA N LIMITED-FIELD PROPOSALS

For those who conceded the impossibility of restoring the well-field system, two
types of reforms were proposed - the limitation of property holdings (limited-
field system), and nationalization of land and redistribution to peasants under
the equal-field system. The former was proposed in the Han dynasty, and the
latter was born in the late fifth century in the Northern Wei and carried over in
subsequent dynasties into the Tang period.
Tung Chung-shu of the Former Han recommended that the imposition of lim-
its on land privately occupied (han min myongjon) was the closest approxima-
tion possible to the well-field system because "it would block the path for the
accumulation of excess land" (kyombyong).2^7 Tung's plan was not adopted, but
a second attempt at a land limitation system occurred during the reign of Emperor
Ai (6 B.C. - A.D. J) toward the end of the Former Han dynasty when Shih Tan's
recommendation to set limits on private holdings was adopted. According to the
sources the emperor established a single limit of 30 kyong (3,000 I11Yo) on pri-
vate landholdings, but a graded series of limits on the number of slaves that the
nobles could own. Provisions were included for confiscation (ofland and slaves)
of violators of the law. The system was abandoned because it "conflicted with
recent practice," that is, the interests of the land and slaveowners of the time.^28
Some contemporary scholars hold the view that since the 30-kyong limit was
too large to represent a serious attempt at land limitation, it was nothing more
than a sumptuary regulation to limit the ostentatious display of wealth. Others
take the view that since there were graded limits of slaveownership established,
lower grades for landholding must have been stipulated as well, but were sim-
ply omitted from the historical record.^29 Nonetheless, it appears obvious that
the Chinese commentators Yu cited believed that the 30-kyi5ng limit was a seri-
ous attempt to impose restrictions on private ownership. Yu, for example, cited
Chu Hsi's cryptic paraphrase of both the Tung Chung-shu recommendation and