Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions. Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty - James B. Palais

LAND REFORM: COMPROMISES 309

even carrying out a successful program of registration and progressive tax assess-
ment. Wang An-shih's square-field system was dismantled by a regime sympa-
thetic to landlords. Ts 'ai Ching's attempted restoration of the square-field
system was undermined by a corrupt bureaucracy acting in collusion with land-
lords and tax-cheaters. Emperor Li-tsung's public field system was conserva-
tively conceived from the outset, in terms of the limits imposed on land, the
penalties for retaining surpluses, and the area of its implementation. If Yu
Hyongwon had paid as much attention to the failure of these attempts at land
limitation as to the theoretical plans of the scholars, it might have dampened his
idealism.

}if'S Treatment of the Sung

In summary, the Sung discussion of models of land reform stressed the impor-

tance of adopting some method that would guarantee equitable distribution of

land to the peasants. Almost everyone agreed that the well-field model repre-

sented perfection, but only a few like Chang Tsai thought it could be restored.

Among the rest, opinions were divided on whether reform necessitated confis-

cation of land from private owners and the creation of a system of public own-

ership or distribution, or required a compromise with existing private property

and landlord/tenant relations to ensure a minimum of equitable distribution until

natural tendencies like the division of property among sons would achieve the

desired result over time. Similarly, there were different points of view over the

question of the inviolability of the I oo-myo plot; some favored it and others were

willing to adjust the size. The lattcr position placed priority on mathematical

estimates of opti mum size based on land area, population, and productivity, and

in this respect introduced a new element of empirical and rational analysis into

the literature of land systems. Last, some Sung thinkers stressed the importance

of the fixed plot, marked by physical boundaries, as indispensable to guaran-

teeing the longevity of any major system of land reform.

Yu on the Spirit of the Well-field System

Yu began his Pan 'gye surok with a recitation of the evils that resulted from the

abolition of the well-field system, a dismal picture that covered every dynasty

after the Ch'in and Korean dynasties as well.

Taxation and service was not regulated and there was no equality hetween rich

and poor. Because of the accumulation of large landholdings [hiill1hnlngJ and

the search for profit. the "good people" [yangminJlost their places [silsol It was

easy to delete households and population [from the tax and census registers I.

Lawsuits proliferated. No distinctions were made between the nohle and hase

in society [kwich (In /1111 pwiZhun]. Quotas were not clear, and hecause of lhis

powerful households found it easy to act willfully. Morality and virtue did not