594 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION
t'u), rites (Tsung-po), war (Ssu-ma), punishments (Ssu-k'ou), and economy (Ssu-
kung). Yu also quoted the commentary of Hu An-kuo of the Sung dynasty, who
wrote that if no one of suitable virtue was found to serve as one of the San-kung,
one of the six ministers could be promoted to the post as a concurrency, and any
of the San-kung could also be asked to serve as prime minister, the best exam-
ple of which was the Duke of Chou (Chou-kung) himself.21 This point of view
was opposed by Chu Hsi in Sung times, who insisted on the necessity of sepa-
rating the San-kung from the six ministers because their task was devoted solely
to instructing the ruler on the fundamental principles of government itself, not
the administration of specific tasks.^22
The Rites of Chou, on the other hand, described a more complex bureaucratic
system than the laconic account in the Book of History, and yet it too was orga-
nized at the top under six ministers. Although the titles of these ministers were
different, a commentator of the Han period, Cheng Ssu-neng, equated them with
the six ministers in the Book of History. These were the officers of heaven (prime
minister), earth (education), spring (rites), summer (war), fall (punishments),
and winter (economy). In addition, each ofthese officials had six separate codes
of law covering their responsibilities and those of their sixty subordinates.^23
Yu's sources on the Sung dynasty, Ma Tuan-lin's Wen-hsien t'ung-k'ao and
the treatise on government organization in the History of the Sung Dynasty (Sung-
shih) stated that the Three Teachers (San-shih) in the Sung dynasty had been
designed to function as the equivalents of the San-kung of the Chou, but unfor-
tunately the posts were often left vacant. This implied that the emperor lacked
the kind of impersonal advice on fundamental moral principles of governance
that would prevent him from pursuing his own interests at the expense of the
public good.^24
In discussing his own plan for the reform of the Choson bureaucratic struc-
ture at the capital, Yu insisted on the establishment of the three advisers to the
king (Samgong) like the San-kung of the Chou, but he ignored Chu Hsi's injunc-
tion that they be kept separate from functional ministers. Instead, he allowed
that other high ministers could hold them as concurrencies and that their three
assistants (San-ku) could be dispensed with, as had occurred in the T'ang sys-
tem. But the three advisers to the crown prince were absolutely essential. The
essence of this proposal was the notion that kings and crown princes needed to
be surrounded by moral exemplars and tutors to ensure that they would behave
in acceptable fashion, uphold morals, and observe the proprieties. The Samgong
were to be chosen more for their own moral rectitude than for their qualities as
efficient administrators or specialized experts.
State Council and Prime Minister: Bureaucratic Autonomy
Prime Minister. Yu's most important recommendation, however, was for the
establishment of a State Council (Uijongbu) of five senior and three lower rank-
ing officials, headed by a single councilor (Uijong), that would supervise not