Book VIII 551
years. Why, then, should you leave this problem alone, letting it harm good
custom and damage the hearts of the people?
“We humbly believe that you should give it a serious thought and be reso-
lute in making your decision. We hope that you accept our ideas, though
they may be foolish, and establish a new law befitting your benevolent rule,
while eliminating great abuses, and finally set the country on the right
path—and now is the time to start.
“From this day forward, in accordance with the precedent of the Agency
of Land Management Grants of the Board of Taxation, we request that you
separately choose an official from the Censorate and let him review and
revise the register of slaves in the Criminal Administration Bureau, tracing
the root causes of conflicts and legal disputes concerning slaves, while
strictly prohibiting fraud and trickery. Collecting original, primary slave
documents and tracking down supporting documents, they should make a
master record of slaves who are currently serving in the households of offi-
cials, regardless of their number or the rank of their masters, and issue a
new deed [to the slave owners] after destroying all preexisting documents.
If the newly made deeds serve as the master documents in the future, litiga-
tions over the documents will naturally decrease because they are simple
and clear. In addition, they will calm the people’s hearts, and the good, old
custom will be restored.
“Complaints and resentment were voiced before, when you launched the
land reform. Under the system, the individual’s rank was the basis for deter-
mining the amount of land to be distributed, sparking disputes over the
amount of distributed lands. As the difference in amount turned out to be
ten- or even a hundredfold, the wrangling was constant. Only after much
time passed did it subside.
“The current problem of slaves is actually different from the controver-
sial land system. If you issue new deeds to the slave owners after clarifying
the personal history of the slaves, there will be nothing complicated about
your reform of slave matters, and people will also find it convenient.
However, there may be cases where those who seized slaves from others are
allowed to continue owning them and where others lose their slaves from
lack of power to appeal their grievances. Therefore, Your Majesty should
establish a special agency to deal with such complaints and let the officials
set a deadline for settling them, as they do in dealing with regular lawsuits.
After the final sentence, let them issue new deeds to the litigants and destroy
their preexisting ones to eliminate permanently the chances for further liti-
gation or trickery. The registers of official slaves and monastery slaves should