PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL ADMIN ISTRA TION 683
Upgrading the Status of District Magistrates
In the Chou dynasty everyone of the six ministers of state was required to gov-
ern a magistracy to prove his qualification for a high position, but in Korea, provin-
cial posts were held in low esteem and assignment to them was only reserved
for men whose reputation had been damaged - a complaint made by Chang Chiu-
ling in 714 about provincial posts in T'ang timcs.^22
Officials with good reputations were purposely kept out of the provinces, and
provincial officials became so demoralized that they neglected the people under
their charge. "The best of them just serve their time in office, while the worst
of them do harm to the people and fatten themselves." No matter how high the
rank, even Tangsang officials of the second rank who were qualified for the post
of provincial governor would feel they were being exiled from the center of attcn-
tion and spend their time "wandering around the various local towns doing noth-
ing more than [associating with] kisaeng and wasting their time in drinking."
Yulgok's solution would be to require officials from the censorate and the king's
palace to rotate in provincial posts, returning to a capital post only after reex-
amination of their achievement - the standard classical prescription for circu-
lating men of competence betwecn the center and periphery.
Yu paraphrased Yulgok's stress on the importance of district magistrates and
provincial officials because they acted in the place of the king in dealing with
the ordinary people. Treating magistrates so lightly by reducing their positions
to the equivalent of exile would be tantamount to holding the whole population
in contempt and threatening the destruction of the state. 23 Yu therefore supported
Yulgok's recommendation for governors and provincial military commanders to
take their families with them and become conCUlTent magistrates over the provin-
cial capital. Although he had also hoped to provide thc provincial army com-
mander with a regular salary as well, he was willing to continue the current funding
of their salaries and garrison expenses from the taxes collected from the peas-
ants who paid military service support.^24
Staff Officials in Local Government
The solution to the organization oflocal staff pcrsonnel, particularly with respect
to clerks, runners, and boy servants, was to double the staff for all employcd in
governors' and magistrates' yamen, schools, garrisons, and post-stations, but
divide them into two shifts where each shift would work fifteen days of the month
and be given time off for the other two weeks. They would be compensated by
a half-month salary and an extra grant of 50 m yo ofland per person, while clerks
and runners employed by administrative towns with daily responsibilities would
get a full salary but no land grant. Yu was thinking of the staff personnel employed
in the six major magistrate's bureaus (Yukpang) divided into the same categories
of the six ministries at the capital. They had to be allowed half a month to rest,
otherwise they would be swamped with work, and those off duty would serve