726 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONest rung of the social ladder as hain or inferior persons. The term for commoner
(s6) was not mentioned specifically, but it was obviously assumed that individ-
uals who were neither scholars or lower persons were commoners subject to the
penal regulations. Even ifYulgok did not say specifically that his scholars were
yangban or their sons who had earned their status hereditarily rather than by
scholarship, in the Korea of his time the vast majority of students and degree-
holders did come from yangban families. Judging from other parts ofYulgok's
text, hain referred primarily to slaves (see below).
Thus, if an elder scholar (sain, probably yangban) beat a younger person (prob-
ably a scholar of his own class), he would only suffer the third-degree of pun-
ishment, which in his privileged status only meant a public reprimand at the
granary association meeting and half the fines or penalties assessed for ordinary
commoners. If a respected elder (chonja) committcd a violation, one of his sons
or younger brothers, or if he had none, a slave, would take the punishment in
his place. If a scholar beat a slave on his own authority (i.e., without permis-
sion from the authorities), he would be subject to third-degree punishment; if
he injured the slave, he would be reported to the magistrate. Beating another
yangban who was less than ten years in age differencc from the perpetrator would
merit a second-degree punishment. These detailed regulations combining age,
status, and degree of justification for an assault were redolent of the T'ang code,
which was also compiled in an age of status distinctions. These regulations were
entirely foreign to the principle of equality under the law that is so important in
modern, Western jurisprudence.
The stiffest punishments were naturally reserved for low persons or slaves
(hain). It is not clear why Yulgok used the term low people instead of base per-
sons (ch ()n 'in), the more common term for the lowest rung of social status includ-
ing slaves, hut it is obvious that he was thinking primarily of slaves because he
often used it in apposition to the term for "master" (sangjein). If a low person
received the first degree of punishment, he would have to suffer forty strokes,
as opposed to an elder (clwngja) (presumably of good or commoner status) who
would only be reprimanded to his face before the full granary association meet-
ing, while a scholar (saryu) would only have to stand in the courtyard and lis-
ten to a discussion of the misdemeanor, or sit at the lowest place at the table
during a banquet. Low persons had to suffer at least ten strokes for the fourth
category of punishment, and only in the fifth or least onerous, could they get
away with a public reprimand. If they were old or sick, they were allowed to
substitute a cup of wine penalty for each ten strokes of punishment. A slave would
get forty strokes for speaking disrespectfully to a master or scolding him out-
side the house; thirty strokes for disobedience to a master's order, failure to carry
out an order as commanded, or using deception to make a personal profit; twenty
strokes for remaining seated on an ox or horse in sight of the master or speak-
ing disrespectfully to a yangban (sajok); ten strokes for failure to prostrate him-
self before a yangban or remaining seated on an ox or horse in his presence, or
kneeling instead of prostrating himself before him.