676 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION
Yu's plan for reforming provincial administration would have required a sig-
nificant reorganization of prefectural and district boundaries to eliminate major
discrepancies between tax and labor service quotas levied on individual districts.
Relying on the criticism of Yang Shang-hsi and Ch'iu Chiln, Yu complained about
the confusion in local administration in Korea because at least seven titles for
prefectures and districts were still in use, some reproducing Chinese titles, oth-
ers preserving terms established in the Three Kingdoms and Koryo periods. There
was little consistency or order for the use of different titles and a complex sys-
tem of ranks and grades. The Tohobu in Korean terminology, for example, had
nothing in common with the size and responsibility of grand protectorate (Tu-
hu-fu) in China. Yu suggested, therefore, that the names used for districts should
be adapted to the size and population of each, eliminating the undersized dis-
tricts and prefectures or combining them into larger units. In addition, the prin-
ciple of rectification of names - creating a clear and distinct relationship between
terms used and the reality they were supposed to describe - had to be applied in
this process. Thus, any district with its seat located in a provincial capital should
be called Taebu; any district located in a large administrative town should be
called Tohobu; any district without jurisdiction over military gaITisons should
only be called Pu; any medium-sized unit should be called Kun (prefecture), and
the smallest unit, the Hyon (district). Any fractional districts would then be com-
bined into larger ones. By eliminating the anomalies in the local administration
Yu could have reduced the system of local administration to a single file card
for the whole country.5
Yu also defined each unit by territorial dimension. The Taebu or Tohobu would
have 40,000 kyong (6.7 million acres, 40 i or about 13 miles square), the pre-
fecture (Kun) 30,000 kyling, and the district (Hyon) 10,000 ky6ng, and each unit
would have an administrative town. The Tohobu would also function as a garri-
son with jurisdiction over a number of lesser administrative towns. The method
of calculation would rule out nonarable and nonproductive land, such as moun-
tains, rivers, swamps, and forests. Finally, Yu adopted the advice of Su Ch'o that
every district have a magistrate and assistant official, because magistrates might
use any pretext to take over the district of a neighboring magistrate as a concur-
rency, and assistants could watch their actions to prevent them from doing SO.6
This reorganized scheme of local administration, however, did not represent
a serious attempt to build a strict hierarchy of jurisdiction as well as rank. In
most Chinese systems several lower level districts were placed under the juris-
diction of the next higher unit, but only the Tohobu or grand protectorate in Yu's
plan would have command over a number of subordinate local unit, presum-
ably either prefectures or districts. Otherwise, every prefecture or district would
operate independently and report directly to the provincial governor or various
capital ministries as they had done in the past. Instead of establishing a number
of grades of districts or prefectures as had been done in China, the name "dis-
trict" or "'prefecture" would itself reflect the differences in the area or popula-
tion of the unit. Furthermore, the rank of the magistrate would vary with the