MILITARY FINANCE 487
the Tang dynasty labor service system as a model, not to justify the militia ideal
of service but the household tax system! In accordance with Tang practice he
divided households into two categories: a family of eight persons (both men and
women) would be a "complete household" (wanho) and pay two p 'il of cloth a
year (in spring and fall), and a family with less than eight members would be a
"weak household" (yakho) and pay only one p'i! in the falL The tax could be
payable in whatever the special local product of an area might be, cotton, silk,
ramie, hemp, even silver or copper cash - a reflection of his adaptation to a chang-
ing economic situation with greater exchange of goods of! the market and more
usc of cash. He estimated total revenue in bolts of cloth at eight to nine hundred
thousand p' ii, an amount sufficient to pay for both the costs of all types of per-
sonal service (sinyok, i.e., support taxes) as well as the costs of supporting sol-
diers in the local districts.
He defended his proposal on the grounds that its principles and effects would
be in close conformity with ancient ideals:
The reason why this system would be the closest thing to [the methods of!
antiquity is only because the powerful families would not dare to be the only
ones to evade taxation. while the households of lower status [hahn J would not
have to bear an excessively heavy tax burden. The amount of tax collected
would be kept small; the service rcquired of the people would be made equal;
the regulations would be kept simple. and the method of collection would be
kept distant [not require close supervision and constant dunning by officials?].
lAccording to ancient principles], anyone who has land should pay the land
tax [sel. and anyone who has a household should pay the cloth tax [pol. Thus
the pcople would have a fixed amount of labor service taxes. and the state would
have a regular sum of revenue for its ordinary expenses. There would bc it sur-
plus of "idle adult males" [hanjc'ingl. and a doubling of the number of fighting
men as a natural consequence. The service tax burden on the people would be
reduced. and there wou ld be sufficient funds for state finance.^29He rejected the popular view that levying a household labor or military ser-
vice tax on the families of men with offices and posts would eliminate the nec-
essary distinction between men of moral virtue (kunja) and "the men of the fields"
(yain). Why is it, he asked, that there should be any difference between the oper-
ation of a service or household tax and that of a land tax? Under current law, if
the chief state councilor owned land, he still owed a land tax, and there could
be no special exemption from it on the basis of the status of the landowner.
No matter what Yi Samyong said, he was not really a conservative, histori-
cal-minded idealist trying to restore an archaic system in new circumstances.
He was clearly lIsing his view of Tang institutions to pcrsuade his colleagues
by twisting Tang principles out of shape. He did this by ignoring the require-
ment for actual service by adult males in the Tang systcm and talking instead
about household taxes. In the thinking ofYu Hyongwon and Yi Tanha, for exam-