176 SOCIAL REFORMbe allowed at the National Academy. Four times a year written examinations
(chesul) would be conducted in the district schools, but nothing was to be feared
since these written tests were designed only as a means of periodic observation
of student progress and encouragement of their studies; they would be nothing
like the contemporary examination system (kwago).22
In drawing up sample regulations for the quarterly chesul tests, Yu followed
the Chinese critics of poetry, excessively ornate style, and useless knowledge
by instructing that questions be confined to essays on the meaning of the clas-
sics, the philosophers, histories, and matters of contemporary government pol-
icy, while the composition of poems would be abolished. Students would not
line up in the school courtyard as was customary in the examination system pro-
cedure, but would be allowed to take individual questions back to their rooms
in the dormitory or their homes, to compose an essay in the peace and quiet of
their own quarters. The only requirement would be that the form of the essay
had to be straightforward; nothing new or too embellished in style would be
acceptable. The students would be encouraged to emulate the prose styles of
Tung Chung-shu, Han Yti, Master Ch'eng (Ch'eng I?), or Chu Hsi, and limits
were set on length to avoid wordiness. The essays were to be handed in on the
day that the students were to be convened for review; the teachers would eval-
uate the essays and give instruction to students whose essays were not up to par.
The headmaster would be forbidden from grading the essays "lest it lead to the
evil of emphasizing composition style."2^3
Yu's favor for take-home essays, straightforward prose, and the discussion of
papers rather than the grading of tests resembles certain theories of liberal edu-
cation in the modem West, but his brand of Confucian liberalism should not be
associated with respect for freedom of thought, particularly the right to express
views contrary to Neo-Confucian dogma on moral or metaphysical problems.
His main concern, which he shared with the Sung philosophers, was with exces-
sive formalism, ornateness, and routine that diverted the attention of students
from the moral message of classical and historical wisdom. He also argued that
by restricting the use of written examinations to the district schools, he could
prevent the National Academy in the capital from becoming the locus for the
restoration of written examinations and the unseemly competition that was insep-
arable from the contemporary examination system.^24
Yu 's justification for the continued use of written examinations, however, still
looks like a major contradiction in his thought. The obvious question is why he
would be willing to weaken his otherwise impregnable position against exam-
inations of all sorts? The answer is simply that the contradiction was unavoid-
able in a culture that regarded the written canon of Confucian wisdom as
indispensable to the moral training of the individual. No matter how much stress
Yu placed on the behavioral consequences of knowledge, he could not confine
the evaluation of human talent merely to the observation of behavior. If men
were to be educated in schools, it made some sense to require written exposi-
tion of their learning. Korean Confucians like Yu could never relegate mastery