MILITARY SERVICE SYSTEM 561
that "His policies have a lot of mistakes, but in this matter I value each man
expressing his own views, and so this is also good [that he did so]," The rea-
son why Yongjo had been unimpressed by Kwon's argument should be clear.
K won opposed either a household or land tax because he represented Yu
Hyongwon's archaic or classical mode of reform, one that stressed adherence
to traditional categories of taxation, including something equivalent to actual
labor dues from men.
When called upon to express his views while in court the next day, he replied
that he had already said everything he had to say in his written memorial, but
since he had not seen any action taken as a result of it, he was convinced the
royal secretariat had thrown it into the wastebasket. He had taken the trouble
to rouse himself from his bed and go to the palace gate to listen to the king's
discussion with the crowd, and he had been discomfited by what he heard "the
people" say. Their support for the household cash tax distressed him because
it was too bad for words. While the yangyiJk system might be equivalent to "an
illness suffered by one person, the hou~chold cash tax would be the edema of
ten thousand."
Yongjo on the other hand said he had been committed to a household cloth
tax since his Heir Apparency in the 1720S; he belonged to a more progressive
mode of thought that was open to more flexible taxation based on new econom ic
circumstances. That alone, however, was not sufficient to induce him to adopt
one ofthe new taxes because he had to he convinced that it would do more good
than harm. But this brief exchange demonstrates that Yongjo's favor for reform
was not really informed by Yu Hyongwon's ideas even though they had been
recommended to him in indirect form by Kwon Chok. Kwon's contribution (or
Yu's influence through K won), if any, was a negative one - opposition to a house-
hold or land tax. But he was not the only one opposed to them, and there were
a number of other arguments used against them in addition to his, the most impor-
tant being a defense of yang ban privilege, distaste for new and additional taxes,
and insufficient revenue to offset a cut in the military cloth tax. K won did not
necessarily intend to defend yangban privilege, but his arguments had that effect.
Most of the men who favored some version of a general tax to finance the mil-
itary were either active officials or members of the Patriarch's faction who were
more responsive to environmental changes than the recluse scholars with their
classical learning. But in any case, it was the mode of thought that was more
important than factional affiliation."
Later in the day, Yongjo also remarked that he had been upset when the Con-
fucian scholars at the palace gate had said that a household tax would be noth-
ing more than an "additional tax." Kim Chaero reminded him ofYi Chongsong's
statement that he would be better off losing the support of the people than the
scholar-officials (sadaebu), and he suggested a one-p'i/ cut supplemented by a
tax on the yiJjong or "extra adult males," presumably untaxed and unregistered
evaders.
Finally, Yongjo remarked that he was determined not to he known as a king