CENTRAL BUREAUCRACY 623
Astronomy, Medicine, Foreign Languages
Yu had to provide for agencies to handle technological aspects of government,
but to find men with requisite skill he needed to expand opportunity for recruit-
ment more widely. He provided that approximately two dozen duty officials be
employed in the Directorate of Astronomy (Kwansanggam), the Agency of
Supreme Physicians (T'aeuiwon) - a title shift from the contemporary Direc-
torate of Medicine (Chon'uigam) - and the Court of Interpreters (Sayogwon).
Any expert that could be found with skills in astronomy, geography, rain
gauges, medicine, and language talent would bc given a special concurrent posi-
tion as instructor (Kyosu) or adviser (Hundo), provided with special land grants,
tested, and raised in rank and salary.
The Directorate of Medicine would combine medical doctors and pharma-
cists who would provide service for commoners as well as the king. As opposed
to the Ming system, which was covered by a single medical organization, the
Korean system was currently subdivided into the Three Medical Bureaus
(Samuisa) such as the Palace Physicians' Court (Naei:iiwon), the Directorate of
Medicine (Chon'uigam), and the Office of Benefiting the People (Hyeminso).
In addition, Yu planned to combine a Palace Pharmacy (Naeyakkuk) and a School
of Medicine (Oihak) with an enrollment of forty students. The students would
be tested quarterly and the best ones promoted, and while in good standing they
would receive a grant of onc kyong of land per student.
Despite Yu's desire to combine all agencies into a single one, he was willing
to tolerate the separate existence of the Palace Physicians' Court. His concern,
however, was to obtain the best possible students for medical studies, rather than
shifting the most talcnted physicians to the Palace Physicians' Court at the height
of their career to care for the king at the expense of the mcdical nceds of the
common people. He preferred a single Physicians' Office to assign duties to all
physicians and have them serve both kings and commoners alike by sending royal
physicians on tours of duty outside the palace to attend commoner patients.^42
The Interpreter's Court (Sayogwon) would continue instruction for thirty stu-
dents in Chinese, twenty in lurchen (Manchu), fifteen in Japanese, and five in
Mongolian reimbursed by monthly rations and a land grant. He preferred to put
the language students on a firm financial footing, rather than demean their sta-
tus by granting them salaries by sinecure (eh 'ea) appointments. Because inter-
preters were irregular officials and were not able to deal directly with foreign
officials as their equals, Yu wanted to make the head of the Interpreter's Court
an official of rank SA and elevate interpreters to lower but regular official sta-
tus. This was important especially because in Ming China scholars who had aca-
demic careers and chii-jen provincial degree-holders could be appointed to office
on the basis of foreign languages and might even earn a degree on the basis of
merit:+1