KIN G AND Co U R T 605model kings of the past that had obviated the development of current flaws, all
of which had been the product of the self-consuming and self-centered concerns
of arbitrary or lazy monarchs.
Yu was also dissatisfied with certain types of audiences in Korea because they
were held only to receive flattering congratulatory messages from sycophantic
officials and not to conduct serious state business. He was particularly discom-
fited by the major court audiences held to honor the new year, the winter sol-
stice, and the king's birthday because audiences of these types had never been
held in the Chou dynasty, and the four seasonal major audiences reported in The
Rites of Chou and the annual and triennial ping audiences for feudal represen-
tatives recorded in the Wang-chih section of the Li-chi werc devoted to receiv-
ing reports of problems, discussing solutions, or giving admonition. It was only
in the "later age" that emperors began to hold audiences to receive congratula-
tions and accept praise, a manifestation of their own human desire (invok) for
gratification rather than the Heavenly principle (ch 'OUi) that governed the modus
operandi of the ancient sages.
The first occurrence of a congratulatory audience in honor of the new year
occurred in the reign of Emperor Kao of the Han dynasty in the tenth month of
B.C. 200, following the Ch'in celebration of the new year in that month. Then
in the Later Han dynasty, the new year was shifted to the first lunar month. The
celebration of the winter solstice began in the Wei and Chin dynasties in the
third century A.D., and envoys from local districts and dukedoms were sent to
offer congratulations to the emperor. One scholar had justified this kind of cel-
ebration because the winter solstice marked the day that the positive, male force
of yang began to rise during the year, but it was nonetheless a violation of the
practice of antiquity. Finally, Emperor Hsiian-tsung of the Tang (r. 7 J 3-56) began
the practice of holding a party on his birthday, and the custom later became an
annual tradition followed later in the Sung and Ming dynasties.
Yu quoted the words of two post-Tang critics who pointed out that Emperor
T'ai-tsung of the early Tang had refused to celebrate his own birthday because
it only reminded him of his parents' (i.e., mother's) "ordeal" when he was born.
Hsiian-tsung, however, was more than happy to celebrate his birth because he
had become arrogant and his officials were all sycophants, but birthday cele-
brations were not the way for a ruler to honor his parents or for his subjects to
honor him.
Yu thought that there might be some justification for celebrating New Year's
day even though they were never conducted in ancient China, but it was wrong
for the mler to receive congratulations and presents. The winter solstice was
important because the force of yang first emerged in nature, but in earlier times
the m1ers would honor the occasion by closing the palace gates, not by con-
ducting business. The imperial birthday celebration, however, was totally lack-
ing in moral justification. Emperor Tai-tsu of the Ming, one of the great promoters
of Confucian culture, did in fact rcfuse to hold such congratulatory audiences