418 MILITARY REFORMtia model over what followed it. Judging, however, from the regulations adopted
in King H yojong's reign in 165 I for the reform of the Royal Division (Oyonggun),
it would appear that Yu's ideas derived in large part from the organization of
that unit. In other words, the achievements of active officials at the time when
he first began writing his masterwork provided him with the inspiration for his
ideas, not the wisdom of China - with the exception of two elements that he
may have derived [rom the classical militia model: village assessment of ser-
vice and tying service to units of land area,
The Royal Division was first established during the Yi K wal rebellion of 1624
with a membership of 4,000 volunteers recruited on the basis of examinations
in musketry, archery, and brute physical strength (presumably for training as
swordsmen or spearmen); official and private slaves were allowed to join the
unit as well as commoners. At the outset the soldiers were evidently provided
rations from the Ministry of Taxation and not by assigned support taxpayers.
They were put on duty only for a four-month period from the fifteenth day of
the tenth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the second lunar month to provide
an extra contingent during the months that the Yalu and other rivers were frozen
over, no doubt in anticipation of an invasion from the north.
The regiment had 6,170 men assigned to it in 1635, but was disbanded and
then reconstituted. By 1649, when King Hyojong came to the throne, it had 12,000
duty soldiers, but the quality of the unit had deteriorated considerably, primar-
ily because the burden of service on its soldiers had become lighter than that in
other units, and unqualified men were attracted to it as a means of evading more
onerous service. Hyojong appointed the experienced military official, Yi Wan,
to get rid of the dead weight.
Hyojong carried out the reconstitution of the unit despite the opposition of
Kim Yuk, who felt that it was an unwise allocation of tax resources during a
period of acute financial shortage.6s In the sixth lunar month of 1651 he increased
the number of duty soldiers to 2 I ,000 and created a new system of finance for
the regiment based on the support taxpayer system. Each duty soldier was pro-
vided three support taxpayers. The number of shifts was not specified, but 1,000
men went on duty for a tour of two months at a time. Presumably there were
twenty-one shifts and an interval forty-two months between shifts. Of the three
support taxpayers, one would be responsible for making cloth tax payments to
the soldier at his duty station for his equipment expenses while on duty, and
the other two would remit their tax payments to a treasury located along the
Han River in the capital. Support taxpayers living inland in hilly regions would
pay two p'i! of cloth per year, and those living in the lowlands along the coast
would pay twclvc mal of rice. The capital granary would dispense rations to
the duty soldiers, thus relieving the Ministry of Taxation of all responsibility
for providing rations or funds for the Royal Division.^69 The main contribution
to military finance was that the administration of cloth and grain tax collections
and dishursements would be shifted from a civilian agency to the capital trea-
sury associated cxclusivcly with the Royal Division, presumably on the cxpec-