CENTRAL BUREAUCRACY 643
discrimination against slaves, women, and illegitimate sons. His idea of replac-
ing required service by wages represented a flexible adaptation to the times, a
response to changes that had already been taking place, but he had as yet not
been able to sense the potential dynamism of a more modern economy. He pro-
fessed he owed inspiration to classical principles and institutions and the wis-
dom of centuries of Chinese commentators, but his analysis of many
contemporary Korean problems could not be solved exclusively by relying on
these sources alone. It required not only adaptation to changing times but a sharp,
rational faculty for dissecting the weaknesses of current administration.
Yu saw absenteeism and laxity in the conduct of daily business as a curse on
bureaucratic efficiency, but he felt that the way to rectify these prohlems was
by requiring all officials to greet their superiors in a formal way, garbed in suit-
able attire, clothing that would reflect a high level of civilization. For this pur-
pose he supported Cho Hon's suggestion to replace the Korean horsehair hat
and other native garb by Ming-style clothing. Since Chinese models of gover-
nance as well as clothing were so important for the continuing process of Korea's
civilization, it was also necessary to introduce instruction in the pronunciation
of Chinese characters and knowledge of colloquial Chinese. Yu was affected by
Cho Hon's fascination with many aspects of Ming culture, but he was not influ-
enced by the sixteenth-century Ming alone, for throughout his book he placed
more emphasis on the classical norms and models of ancient China than the
Ming dynasty.
Nonetheless, Yu's stress on borrowing, whether from classical Chou China or
from the Ming or any other dynasty, indicates that the main inspiration forYu's
ideas came from the Chinese tradition, not from a unique respect for material
and technological progress, nor confidence in the power of unadulterated rea-
son, nor nationalistic bias in favor of native institutions and customs. His empha-
sis on rites and ritual for the conduct of government was an ancient, classical
idea, and he was convinced that the state of Choson had strayed too far from its
rules. He also believed not only that rites or formal rules of hehavior had to be
performed overtly, but that they had to be followed with the proper spirit to achieve
the moral conversion of the participants, even the enlightenment of backward
Koreans in his own time.