Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions. Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty - James B. Palais

OFFICIAL SALARIES AND EXPENSES 833

mal or 745 contemporary sam, and that for the Hyon would be 6,595 mal. The

Hyon budget was broken down as shown in table 8.^35

TABLE 8

Yu's SAMPLE DISTRICT BUDGET

Category

District magistrate

Asst. magistrate

Official expenses

Honey

Pure oil

Perilla oil

Pheasants and chickens

Paper, equipment, etc.

TOTAL:

Amount per mo.

95 mal

50 "

25 mal

30 mal

15 mal

per year

1140 mal

600 "

2500

500

300

150

450

1000

6595 "

or (439 S(Jm 10 n1al)

NOT E: Yu's kok was equal to IO mal (or /u in Sino-Korean pronunciation). A slim (,w)k in Sino-

Korean pronunciation), the contemporary unit of grain. was equal to J 5 mal,

SOURCE: PGSR J9:J3a-b,

Yu drew up this budget with careful consideration for variations in expenses
in different areas and by the size of the district. His estimate of rice costs for
guests and envoys varied from I ,500 mal for a district located on a major thor-
oughfare to ISO mal for districts in remote places, like the island of Chindo along
the coast. He also allocated supplemental grants of 500 mal for busy towns like
Pyongyang, Kaesong, and Chonju, and towns located at major crossroads, and
lesser amounts for districts that had put up fewer envoys. He calculated the value
of rice provided for governors and provincial army commanders who toured the
province on their rounds of inspection and added the cost to the budgets of each
individual district. He noted that under the present terms of the taedong tribute
system, provincial governors had been allowed 75 mal of expense rice per trip,
but he regarded this as inadequate and raised the budget to 100 mal each for the
governor and provincial army commander for each visit to a district, or 200 mal
each for two trips per year. Any additional business trips had to be paid for from
funds set aside for for envoys and guests. Since their budgets were based on the
principle of compensation for work performed, they were not entitled to any
payment from the state's accounts if they made no official trips. Yu thought it
was entirely unreasonable that the governor of Ch'ungch'ong Province should
be allowed to collect expense rice when he in fact had not been making rounds
of inspection. Expenses for the travel of Chinese and Korean envoys and equip-
ment expenses of post-stations also had to be budgeted separately.3^6
Expenses for the purchase of oil, honey, chickens and pheasants used for pri-
vate as well as official purchases would be paid monthly to the magistrate and
his assistant, 60 percent to the former and 40 percent to the latter. Quotas for