NEW SCHOOLS I97claiming that Chu Hsi was the one who had explained that "ranking people by
age is a universal principle throughout all the world." Assuming, however, that
the yang ban would not be swayed by this argument, he also set out to provide a
principle of social stratification that would obviate all contrary arguments.
Yu's rule for group formation and membership was certainly not the notion
that all men were to be treated equally. On the contrary, he confirmed the legit-
imacy of status, but based it on function or occupation (op). If everyone had
the same function or occupation then everyone would have the same work (sa),
and all would deserve to be placed in the same rank. He did not say so here, but
judging from his position on other points it appears that he felt that function or
occupation should be the basis for defining social groups, and that respect rela-
tions or etiquette between groups should also be determined by their relative
position in the status hierarchy. Yet Yu was more concerned with justifying the
existence of a separate community, like his new schools, within which the rules
and standards of etiquette could be separate and distinct from other groups, or
the rest of society.9^4
Status Conflict: Between School and HomeThis point becomes clear when we consider Yu's answer to another hypotheti-
cal problem raised by his imaginary interlocutor who asked Yu to conjure the
anomalies and embarrassments that would be produced when the people of the
outside world of hereditary status rubbed elbows with the denizens of his insu-
lated ivory tower. If the sons of petty clerks were admitted to school and mixed
indiscriminately with the sons of regular officials at school ceremonies, for exam-
ple, then at official school rites or convocations attended by parents, the com-
moner-clerk fathers would come running into the school courtyard in the
humble manner befitting servants while the yangban fathers, by contrast, would
be comporting themselves with all the dignity and reserve that characterized
their superior station in life. "How can you have this?"
In replying to this objection Yu did not deny the importance of maintaining
behavioral differences in accordance with status, and he did not argue that com-
moner-clerk fathers of students should be afforded equal treatment with the offi-
cial or yangban fathers. Instead, he recognized that commoner clerks had a
different function or status than yangban but that any conflicts generated by con-
tact between members of different functional or status groups within a setting
that operated by different rules than ordinary society - that is, his schools - could
be reconciled by a legitimate compartmentalization of behavior.
If the clerk-fathers had to rush into the school courtyard in demeaning fash-
ion, it was because their lowly functions required that they observe respectful
attitudes toward their legitimate superiors. Conversely, the reason why it was
legitimate to rank their sons together with the sons of yangban in school was
because they were both performing the same function or occupation (op). Just
because their sons were to be afforded equal treatment with the yangban sons