296 LAND REFORMOn the other hand, a late Koryo official, Paek Munbo, noted in 1362 that the
Koryo dynasty did in fact adopt the tithe of the Han dynasty. Yu remarked that
"At present I note that in Koryo times the tax laws underwent several changes
over time, but because the Koryosa does not record these clearly, at present I
can not discuss them in detail. However, if you look at the memorial of Paek
Munbo, it would appear that only at the beginning of the dynasty did they regard
the tithe as standard."68 Yu thus doubted that the early Koryo government had
been able to live up to the ideal of the well-field model.
Finally, Yi Chehyon also pointed to another major deficiency of the tenth-cen-
tury system, failure to establish clear boundaries -in other words, failure to mark
out fixed units of land area with ridges and dikes. "What a pity that the officials
at the time did not conduct a study of [the ancient] laws and systems on the basis
of what Mencius said .... "69 Had this key principle of the well-field system
been adopted, it would have ensured the longevity and success of the land sys-
tem. "If the land boundaries are rectified, then with regard to dividing up the
land and regulating salaries, one can sit by [and do nothing] and everything will
be determined [correctiy]."7^0
In brief, Yi Chehyon argued that the incomplete and imperfect nature of the
early Koryo land system was responsible for its ultimate failure. Similar to Ma
Tuan-lin's critique of the T'ang equal fields, Yi held that the early Koryo kings
and ministers had failed to adopt crucial elements of the well-field system, specif-
ically, the rectification of land boundaries, the distribution of basic land parcels
to the peasantry, and the use of the tithe for taxation.
Yi's negative and critical analysis of the early Koryo system, however, had
positive implications for Yu Hyongwon,just as the criticisms of the T'ang equal-
field system had positive implications for the Sung statecraft writersJ' It held
out the promise that attainment of the well-field ideal was still possible, even in
the post-Chou centralized bureaucratic age, if only all essential elements of the
well-field model were incorporated into a contemporary land reform scheme.
Cho Chun, as mentioned before, began his analysis on the premise that the
early Koryo land system was a close approximation to the well-field ideal, but
one suspects that his idealization of early Koryo was only done to highlight the
deficiencies of late Koryo policies. The most egregious of these was the prac-
tice of government grants to a variety of people who did not perform actual ser-
vice for the state, such as the han 'in or "idle people" who were scions of merit
subjects, or officials who did not hold incumbencies, descendants of officials or
merit subjects entitled to office appointments because of the status of their fore-
bears (kong'um), immigrant foreigners who joined Koryo military forces and
received land grants as a reward or inducement, or examination passers who
were given special land grants. Because government officials failed to maintain
the bothersome task of proper registration, the state lost control over land, and
government land grants were passed on illicitly to descendants or otherwise ended
up in private hands.