COMMUNITY COMPACT SYSTEM 727A low person was not allowed even to keep his grievances to himself, for if
he failed to report anything bothering him to the Yusa of the granary associa-
tion, he would receive third-degree punishment. Inducing a low person (and none
but a slave would fit this item) to run away from his master was subject to a sec-
ond-degree punishment.
Pledges for the Village Granary Kye: Landlord Rights and Private Property.
One must also call attention to one of the punishments listed separately in the
Pledges for the Commmunity of Haeju (Haeju ilhyang yaksok) that called for
the expulsion of a perpetrator from the community compact guilty of "conspir-
ing to do injury to a landlord," a solid indication that Yulgok saw the commu-
nity compact as a means of enforcing the rights of landlords (and private property)
as well as slaveowners against their tenants and slaves. He also prescribed pun-
ishments for stealing property from another person, even a Buddhist monk in a
mountain monastery. stealing anothcr man's water from his irrigation dike. or
taking over another man's land for cultivation. Tardiness in paying taxes.
bribery, short-changing borrowers from the village granary. and even lazincss
or lack of attention to one's work were all criminal actions warranting degrees
of punishment specified in the text.^40
One might pause to ask why Yu Hyongwon would include Yulgok's defense
of landlord rights in his own manuscript since the core of land reform policy
was a supposed hlending of national and limited private ownership of land. He
probably did not want to edit the work of a man he admired greatly, but Yu's
condemnation of private property in land indicates a far more radical position
than Yulgok's.
Pledges for the Village Granary Kye: Sex Discrimination. There was sex dis-
crimination in his regulations as well: if a woman beat her husband, she would
receive forty strokes: if she injured him during the beating. she would be turned
over to the district magistrate for more serious punishment. On the other hand,
"If a male slave beat his wife who was innocent [of any misdemeanor], he would
only receive twenty strokes. If he hurt her, he would receive forty strokes, but
would not be reported to the magistrate."
Rape of another man's wife or a single woman would he reported to the mag-
istrate for punishment. but if the perpetrator expressed repentance and willing-
ness to suffer punishment, and "renewed himself," his penalty would be reduced
to the first and highest degree punishment by the granary association (the actual
penalty, of course, would depend on the status and age of the perpetrator). Obvi-
ously, the excessively lenient treatment for male sex abusers was typical of a
society that denigrated women's rights.
Pledgesfor the Village Granary Kyl:': Penalty for Litigiollsness and Profiteering.
Litigiousness was also proscribed hy the granary association articles. If some-
one continued to sue in a case that had already been decided, he would suiTer
third-degree punishment, or first degree if his argument had no justification.
Malfeasance in office, such as committing "evil" acts on the pretext of official
business, or demanding more than was due in repayment of loans and interest