838 FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE ECONOMYin office "only received salaries from the government, which was like the income
from the land." In other words, the only legitimate basis for the income or salaries
of officials had to be a scheme of payment beginning from the lowest rank defined
as an equivalent of a single peasant family's production to the highest rank of
320 multiples of that income, funded by an optimum tithing of agricultural pro-
duction.^44
Yu also believed that the theoretical justification for a sufficient and adequate
salary scale for all officials was provided in the Great Plan (Hung-fan) in the
Book of History (Shu-ching): "Only if you provide ample salaries to those peo-
ple who are in office will they do their work well. If you do not do so, and you
cause people who have the zeal and will to perform affairs for the state not to
do well, then these people will end up in crime."45
Yu cited several famous Chinese philosophers, statesmen, and emperors who
supported this idea. For example, in Han times when two officials, Chang Ch'ang
and Su Wang-chih, complained that low-ranking officials were perpetually con-
cerned about the welfare of their families because their salaries had been too
low, Emperor Hsiian (r. 73-48 B.c.) authorized a 50 percent increase in their
salaries.^46 Emperor Kuang-wu of the Later Han also raised salaries as well, and
Ch'iu Chiin of the Ming praised both emperors for their understanding of the
ancient dictum that a generous salary was essential to ensuring an honest per-
formance of duty. EmperorT'ai-tsu ofthe Sung dynasty also insisted on the impor-
tance of controlling petty officials by reducing their numbers and increasing their
salaries.^47
Salary Schedules in Various DynastiesYu then provided lists of the salary scales of the major dynasties from the Han
through Ming. The standard was set in the Han schedule by which the San-kung
or three advisers to the king received 350 hu (kok in Korean) per month or 4,200
hu per year. The body of regular officials, however, contained fourteen salary
grades from the medium two-thousand pi cui to the hundred pi cui rank. The high-
est rank received 180 hu/per month (2,160 hu/year) to the lowest of 16 hu/month
(192 hu/year). The ratio between the highest and lowest salaries was 21.^9 /] if the
San-kung is included, or 11.2s/] if the San-kung are excluded. Although the dis-
parity between highest and lowest salaries appeared more modest than the^36 °/1
ratio of Chou times, since the commentator Yen Shih-ku claimed that salaries
of petty clerks in Han times were 10 and 8 tou (since the hu was equivalent to
10 tou, or mal in Korean, these were equal to 1 and .8 hu per month), the salary
ratio could be calculated at 437.5/r.4^8
Yu was evidently satisfied that exact uniformity between Chou and Han stan-
dards was not necessary to capture the essence of Chou principles, and despite
variations over subsequent dynasties, salary schedules had not departed that
much from Han standards. The salary of the highest Ming rank was nominally
only half that of Han times, but the grain measures were twice as large.^49 He