PART V
Reform of Government Organization:
Conclusion
RATIONALIZATION AND COST-CUTTING
Yu's discussion of bureaucratic reorganization and refonn covered all aspects of
the bureaucracy, from the king and the central government to local self-govern-
ment associations. Much of his thought on this subject was based on the con-
cept of rationalization of an inefficient and redundant bureaucracy for cutting
wasteful expenditures and taxes. He proposed bringing the king's personal finances
under bureaucratic control, cutting the cost of maintaining royal relatives through
four generations, reducing the size of the bureaucracy and reorganizing it
according to a more rational division of responsibility, and eliminating the equiv-
alent of "rotten boroughs" by incorporating small districts into larger ones.
BUREAUCRATIC CONTROL OF THE KING
Yu thought that the excessive and arbitrary power of the king could be brought
under bureaucratic control by establishing the prime minister as chief executive
over the six ministries, shifting the selection of royal consorts to the bureau-
cracy, expanding accessibility by officials to royal audiences, reducing the atmos-
phere of awe and intimidation that governed the Royal Lectures, and replacing
the distance between king and his officials by recreating the feeling of intimacy
and reciprocal obligation that accompanied the personal bond between lord and
vassal of Chou feudalism. The main problem of Chason government was not
royal despotism, however, but the domination of policy by the yangban at court
and their defense of their economic interests: private property in land and slaves,
tenancy, tax benefits through underregistration of land, and exemption from mil-
itary and labor service.
Of course, Yu provided for the rectification of these problems by proposing
the confiscation of all privately owned land, imposing military service require-
ments on almost everyone but officials, and abolishing inherited slavery, but in