798 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
14th Day (Kichíuk)
The government ordered each province to distribute rice and beans from the
warehouses to the people and to have the people repay with wheat and
barley. That was to provide the people with seed for planting.15th Day (Kyŏngin)
Kim Ŭlnam, former vice commandant, and others filed lawsuits to seize the
slaves from others by falsifying documents, but their trickery was discov-
ered, and they were required to be punished by the law. Hence, the Board of
Punishments submitted a memorial to the king:
“Among the lawsuits transferred from the Directorate for Adjudication of
Slave Lawsuits to the Board of Punishments, there was a case in which Ch’a
Sŭngdo, Kim Ŭlnam, and others conspired to bring about lawsuits through
trickery. The Directorate interrogated them and took depositions from them.
Ch’a Sŭngdo and others, however, in making their testimonies about the
origin of the slaves, dared to implicate Your Majesty recklessly, which is
even more serious than their trickery. Consequently, we interrogated and
tortured the members of their clique who were below rank 7, but as for the
offenders between rank 6 and rank 3, we were unable to interrogate them
unless they were already stripped of their rank and title, because precedents
forbid the Board of Punishments from doing so. We submitted a report on
this problem but failed to gain approval from Your Majesty. As we reflect
quietly, authority over life and death belongs to the sovereign, and it is not
something we can decide on our own. If you deny our request, what should
we, your subjects, do in the future?
“If an incident took place before Your Majesty was enthroned, you dis-
tance yourself from the case simply by saying that the controversy over the
slaves owned by kinsmen are a private family matter. Once you are
enthroned, however, there are no men and women across the country who
are not your subjects and concubines. Then how can you differentiate the
offenders from other people in your treatment of them? If Your Majesty
asserts all power and authority and thereby punishes and rewards, and
appoints and dismisses, regardless of whether the people are close to you,
who can find fault with you?
“If you do not make yourself clear about the justice of law at this time, we
will be incapable of carrying out your orders, and this will not be a good