490 MILITARY REFORMwelcomed the plan, congratulated Yi Samyong on his obvious concern for the
welfare of his country, and ordered the Border Defense Command to conduct
detailed discussion of the proposalY
Yi Samyong's household cloth system would have eliminated totally the sys-
tem of support taxpayers assigned to individual rotating duty soldiers. Instead,
all houscholds would have paid a tax to a fund that would then finance a core
of 120,000 soldiers who would not be full-time professionals, but would rotate
on and off duty as before. The key to the system, of course, was not simply the
reduction of the tax rate by taxing households instead of individuals, but extend-
ing the tax base by including previously exempt yangban familics and tax evaders.
Although his system still suffered from the same drawbacks associated with rotat-
ing service (the long intervals between two-month tours of duty would dull the
skills of the soldiers), the plan would have reduced the number of men liable
for actual military service.
The key issue, however, is that his plan would have totally and radically
destroyed the principles that governed the older system by creating an independent
and flexible system of both finance and service. Funds could be raised by tax-
ing households, or by any other means, and service could be thought of as a
problem of finding a small number of men and training them to a high standard
of performance. Both precepts were contrary to the fundamentals of the militia
ideal and the requirements of personal labor service, which required all adult
males (no matter how awkward and hapless) to serve, and finances to be based
on specific support taxpayers assigned to servicemen. The household tax pro-
posal in all its ramifications (not just the idea of taxing yangban) represented
an adaptation to current circumstances and a violation of classical principles.
Rebuttal ofYi Samy6n/i's Household Tax Plan
The challenge posed to the privileged social elite by Yi Samyong's plan was rec-
ognized immediately. The next day three low-level officials in the Office of
Inspeetor-General-Yun Pan, Kim Sejong, and Yi Sebaek - said that it was impos-
sible to adopt such a major reform in the midst of a series of natural disasters
and famine. Not only was the system entirely different from anything ever done
in the three-hundred-year history of the dynasty, but the levying of a tax on house-
holds would only increase the amazement and consternation of the people. They
demanded rescission of the order to test the system in P'yong'an Province. "Sup-
posing [the people of] this province really do like the system? Would the other
provinces that do not want to adopt it also be forced to do so just because the
people of P'yong'an like it?"
What this statement showed was that even if there were to be popular sup-
port for the household tax, rather than the consternation they predicted, they would
still oppose it because it was too threatening to their own class interests. Suk-
chong rejected their protest on the grounds that the court had already given due