752 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION
DEVELOPMENTS AFTER Yu HYONGWONCommunity Compacts in King Sukchong's ReignTo be sure Yu Hyongwon's thought did not exert much influence on actual pol-
icy over any matter until the middle of the eighteenth century, and the same was
true in the area of community compact writing and organization. In general, con-
cern for moral education and enlightenment at the local level continued only
sporadically after the mid-seventeenth century. The reign of King Sukchong (r.
1674-1720) was not noted for much concern about moral education, let alone
adoption of community compacts at any level.
Community compacts were only mentioned three times between 1682 and
1684, The director of the National Academy, Kim Malli, complained that stu-
dents in the academy were being treated far too leniently and he asked that they
be disciplined according to community compact regulations, but only in the
school and not in the outside world, and students gUilty of misdemeanors would
still be allowed to proceed to the national examinations. Second State Coun-
cilor Min Chongjung complained about fights that had broken out in the so-
called Incense Kye (h~\'{jdo) in the capital formed to defray funeral expenses,
and he convinced Sukchong to abolish them and order the formation of mutual
aid organizations in the capital modeled on community compacts to serve this
function. Finally, Second State Councilor Pak Sech'ae criticized the absence of
penalties for violations of moral standards in the dynastic law code, and he asked
that the important moral regulations contained in community compacts be
ordered into penal law. Since there was no record of any implementing edict,
the recommendation was probably never carried out. 25
Despite King WlI1gjo's (r. 1724-76) concern for the Sohak and other moral
texts in the first part of his reign, there were very few concrete proposals for the
adoption of community compacts or measures for moral education. In 1734 and
1745 Yongjo approved the requests ofthe rural scholar from Cholla, Wi Sep'ung,
and Second State Councilor Song Inmyong to institute community compacts,
but nothing was ever done. Yulgok's compact was mentioned only briefly at court
in [746 and in 1754, but Yongjo never took any action.^26
Ch oe Hungwon's Puindong-dongyak of 1739-45Despite the absence of leadership from the central government, there were a
few instances of spontaneous organization. From 1739 to 1745 Ch'oe Hungwon
established a community compact (the Puindong-dongyakl and a village gra-
nary in conjunction with one another, and he later built a lecture hall for the
recitation of the regulations, which were compiled and published later in 1774.
Even though Yulgok had established a precedent for combining these two insti-
tutions and Kim Seryong in the early seventeenth century had called for the estab-
lishment of village schools, village granaries, the pogap (pao-chia) system of