LAND REFORM: COMPROMISES 293
it referred only to land retained by retired functionaries or the widows of deceased
functionaries.^56
Nevertheless, Yu described the early Koryo system as if it were copied from
the T'ang equal-field system, an interpretation he borrowed from the History of
the Koryo Dynasty (Koryosa), which said that King T'aejo, the founder of Koryo,
"divided up the land and gave it to the officials and people."57 At the end of the
fourteenth century, the famous advocate of land reform, Cho Chun, portrayed
the achievements of T'aejo as equivalent to the founders of the Chou dynasty
because the early Koryo land system was based on two fundamental well-field
principles, the rectification ofland boundaries and equity (kyun) of distribution.
Kings Wen and Wu and the Duke of Chou [of the early Chou] used the well-field
system to nurture the people and for that reason the Chou dynasty lasted over
eight hundred years, whereas the Ch'in dynasty destroyed the well-field system
and fell after only two generations. T'aejo [of Kory6] unified the Samhan [i.e.,
Korea] and established land [allotments] and regulated the officials, granting
land in accordance with rank [p 'um]. If a person died, his land was taken back.
If he was a puhyong [soldier], at the age of twenty he received land, and at the
age of sixty he returned it. In the case of the sadaehu who received land, if they
committed a crime, their land was taken back. Every person took care of himself
and did not dare break the law. Rites and righteousness flourished and customs
and mores were beautiful. The soldiers of the guard units and the clerks of the
prefectures, districts, ferry stations and post-stations were each supported with
land grants. They were settled on the land and were secure in their occupations,
and because the state was rich and powerful, even though the Liao and Chin
dynasties kept a hungry eye on the world and were situated next to our borders,
they did not dare swallow us up because T'aejo had divided up the land of the
Samhan and shared with his offkials and people in the enjoyment of its benefits,
the enhancement of their livelihoods, and the resolution of their minds, creating
the original spirit that would enable the state to last for a thousand or ten thou-
sand generations.^58Cho Chun's idealization of the early Koryo land system and his hagiographic
account of T'aejo's accomplishments were undoubtedly designed to provide a
sense of sharp contrast with the problems of late Koryo land arrangements, but
Yu Hyongwon accepted his views as factual and accurate. Yu's own brief
account was but a synopsis ofCho Chun's exposition and the Koryosa account:
The Kory6 land system was in general modeled after the T'ang system. They
made a total [survey] of the amount of cultivated land and divided it into cate-
gories in accordance with its fertility. From the civil and military officials down
to the regular soldiers [puhyong] and the unemployed scions of merit subjects
[or off-duty military reservists? han 'in], everyone's qualifications were deter-
mined by rank [kwa] and each was given a land grant. If a person died, his share