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

466 MILITARY REFORM

or so troops stationed at the Namhan fort after the reorganization of r690, how-

ever, it appears that the Southerner regime was trying to break up the control of

the Westerners over the troops by bringing in a new staff to the fort. At the same

time, the magistrate of Kwangju was given command over an independent

Defense Regiment (Pang'oyong) stationed in his town, probably for the purpose

of strengthening Southerner political control over the capital region.^54

The complex controversies surrounding the composition, size, and controi of

the various guard units and divisions around the capital, in particular, soon became

part of the political disputes that emerged among factions, not only among the

established hereditary factions, but within them as well. In some cases, these

internal splits became formal as rivals announced their reorganization into new

factions, but in other cases they remained informal. Economy, efficiency, and

rationalization in the reorganization of the military were given second place to

gaining political control over military units and expanding their size in compe-

tition with rival politicians.

CONCLUSION

Since Yu Hyongwon sought to reorganize all military units on the basis of rotat-
ing duty soldiers and support taxpayers, he was determined to eliminate any per-
manent salaried soldiers that drained resources from the state treasury, like the
core contingent of the Military Training Agency. But, since the Military Train-
ing Agency with its core constituency of musketeers and its advanced weaponry
and mode of organization was so important for defense, he hoped to preserve it
at little cost to the state by converting it to a rotating duty soldier and support
taxpayer system of service and finance. Not only could the national budget cri-
sis be solved by this means, but an economical adjustment of tours or shifts of
duty and rational adjustment of tax rates on the support taxpayers would enable
reduction of the tax burden on individual support taxpayers. In short, Yu's plan
for military reform combined selective use of aspects of the classical militia prin-
ciple at the local level combined with a rational readjustment of the traditional
military system to save state expenditures, reduce taxes on peasants, create an
equitable distribution of service for the duty soldiers, and retain what was sup-
posed to be the most advanced technical unit of the army, the Military Training
Agency.
Coincidentally, just at the end ofYu's life, between 1669 and his death in 1672,
the court engaged in a serious debate on the question of military reform, and
people like Song Siyol and King Hyonjong himself also believed that the per-
manent duty soldiers of the capital divisions could profitably be replaced by
rotating duty soldiers and support taxpayers. Other officials, like Yu Hyogyon,
the commander of the Military Training Agency, and again, King Hyonjong,
shared Yu Hyongwon's view that the agency itself should be preserved at all
costs because it represented the most modern of military units and could be saved
by financing it through support taxpayers rather than the state treasury. These