INTRODUCTION 21exemptions and evasion became a serious problem that affected the lives of the
mass of the population and the very viability of the dynasty. In that context, Yu's
ideas were an important part of the debate over reform.
Part V will shift focus to the consideration ofYu's plan for the reform of the
central bureaucracy and its mode of operation, and Part VI will treat the eco-
nomic changes that were taking place in the seventeenth century, Yu's response
to them, and developments that occurred through the end of the eighteenth cen-
tury. The chapters in Part V will deal with agencies involved with the king and
his court, the central and local government, including both regular officials and
clerks, and the attempt to reinvigorate institutions of local self-government
designed to assist the regular bureaucracy in controlling the villages, which
remained at some distance from the district magistrates' headquarters.
Part VI will discuss the adoption of the taedong reform of the tribute system
and Yu's adoption of that reform as a basis for proposing thc complete reorga-
nization of government finance, and Yu's support for the introduction of copper
cash and his proposals to guarantee monetary stability for the future. Part VI
will end with two chapters. Chapter 25 is devoted to the subsequent monetary
history of Korea in the eighteenth century because it illustrates the appearance
of more complex problems than Yu had imagined. Chapter 26 is a discussion of
the development of commerce and industry to judge whether the late Choson
produced men who were really more progressive in their attitudes toward eco-
nomic matters ,than Yu and the officials of the seventeenth century. Were these
men advocates of free market activity, greater commercial or industrial pro-
duction, and expanded trade who broke the conservative restraints of Confu-
cian economic thought, or did they remain largely within the parameters of
Confucian physiocracy?
The central theme of the study as a whole will be an assessment of the extent
of Confucian adaptability to changing circumstances, the capacity for imagina-
tive response to existing problems and conflicts, and the ability to seek new meth-
ods for the organization of society, government, defense, and economic affairs.