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

28 EARLY CHOSON DYNASTY

Most of these elements of the ideal Neo-Confucian statecraft program for the

new dynasty, including the most radical ideals of the ideologues for land

reform, can be found in the writings of ChOng Tojon, one of the leading sup-

porters of the new regime in the first decade of the Choson dynasty.3

ACHIEVED OBJECTIVES OF THE CONFUCIAN

STATECRAFT PROGRAM

General Governmental Policies

Much of the Neo-Confucian statecraft program was adopted shortly after the
founding of the Choson dynasty in 1392. The king was accorded more prestige
and power and guaranteed more than sufficient revenue for his needs by a major
increase in the volume of tax revenue. It would come from the land tax pro-
duced by a cadastral survey of all land in the kingdom and from the local prod-
uct tribute tax that required payments in kind of special items from each district
of the kingdom to the king or agencies of the central and local government. The
king imposed labor service on the adult male population for the transport of trib-
ute goods to the capital, the construction of roads, walls, and buildings, and ser-
vice in the national army. Even the relatives of officials and yangban were required
to serve in the military, although not necessarily as ordinary infantrymen. They
were allowed membership in special elite units at the capital set aside in honor
of the prestige of their families, but at least it represented an expansion of their
requirements far beyond the late Koryo period.
Administrative authority was centralized in the six ministries and other agen-
cies in the capital, and central control over every local district was expanded by
replacing all local magnates (instead of about one-third of them as in the Koryo
period) with members of the capital bureaucracy as district magistrates. Steps
were also taken to create provincial governors permanently stationed in provin-
cial capitals to coordinate control of the district magistrates, and subordinate
army and navy commanders with a complement of local garrisons.
Passage of the civil service examinations was required for access to the high-
est posts in the bureaucracy in an attempt to create a meritocracy of talent in
place of the late Koryo aristocracy. Since the curriculum for education in prepa-
ration for the examinations was primarily Chu Hsi's commentaries on the Four
Books in emulation of the reforms incorporated in the early fourteenth century
by the Yuan emperors, the indoctrination of all new officials and educated youth
in orthodox Neo-Confucian ideas was designed to establish the basis for the grad-
ual inculcation of those ideas and norms among the public from the top down.
A school system was created from the National Academy (Songgyun'gwan) and
the Four Schools in the capital down to the local schools (hyanggyo) in the
provinces to provide higher education in the Confucian curriculum. Local schools,
called sodang, were run privately to provide elementary education for village
youth.4