756 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION
of the eight counties (myon) in the district to provide moral education (kyohwa)
for the defense of social status (myongbun). He mentioned that since village kye
(tonggye) already existed in the district, he would use them for the adoption of
community compact regulations under the leadership of the educated elite of
each community (instead of the county). He cited Ming Tai-tsu's policy of order-
ing instruction in his Six Edicts, its effectiveness in transforming local mores,
and the traditional respect the Koreans had held for the Ming dynasty in the
Choson period. He called for his six admonitions (instead of the four in the Lii-
Family compact) against immoral behavior to be recited at monthly meetings
in the village.
An emphasized the Chou tradition that moral reform had to begin in the small
community, and he hoped that the basic unit would consist of a minimum of
one hundred households, the same definition of the administrative village used
in the Sui, Tang, and Ming dynasties. If villages in his district were smaller
than that, they would have to combine to form a tong (administrative village).
The families of the "upper households and officials" (sangho-daebu), that is,
the yangban, would take charge of guiding "the ignorant people" and organiz-
ing them into kye (or village kye tonggye) for reading the compact regulations
and implementing them gradually - a much more hierarchical provision than
Yu's predilection from equal social participation. An did not mention a word
about the voluntary nature of the community compact stressed by so many other
scholars in previous times."
An drew up regulations governing contributions in cash by kye households
for relief, revenue shortages in the district, and the feeding or replacement of
horses in the post-station system. He established collection centers (called
Pangyokso) for these contributions in the villages and counties to strengthen local
self-government because the people should manage what they were responsible
for paying for. He also instructed all clerks to refrain from interference.
Unfortunately, his program had just begun when his son died, and he lost his
enthusiasm for government service. It was unlikely that his compact system was
too successful, especially since it was not even mentioned in the district
gazetteer.^34
King Chongjo's Policy toward Compacts
King Chongjo ascended the throne in 1776 and approved the adoption of com-
munity compacts in 1780, but he did nothing to ensure its implementation and
did not respond to further requests for a decade. When Censor-General Sin Ki
attacked moral decline and the lack of mutual aid and support for funerals or
famines, Chongjo developed an interest in community compacts, possibly
because of the new tide of fear among conservatives about the developing inter-
est in Christianity and Western learning in Korea. Chongjo generally followed
the lead of Ch'ae Chegong to respond with more moral education rather than
the persecution of Catholics, and in 1795 he ordered the compilation and dis-