332 LAND REFORMagainst their neighbors, even prior to the completion of the earthworks. After
redistribution, the land registers and a standard survey foot would be kept on
hand in the my6n or subdistrict office for everyone to see.^62
Contrary to the early Koryo ch6nsikwa system, which allocated the woodland
surrounding the cultivated fields of the villages to the men of rank and office to
provide fuel for heating, Yu reserved such land as commons (kong) for animal
husbandry and woodcutting. These wood and grazing lands were not to be divided
up for occupancy by individuals for their own profit because it would lead to
trespass, forcible seizure, and lawsuits, and it would interfere with the funda-
mental task of setting fixed boundaries for agricultural land. "The sikwa [grades
of woodland] in Koryo times were indeed not the intention of the ancients."63
Yu's attitude toward the fishing weirs, salt fiats, and marshlands of the coast
that had been taken over by the palace estates of royal relatives (the kungbang)
was similar: he wanted to liberate all of it for the use of the common peasantry
either as commons or as individually possessed and taxable specialty land. Fruit
and special purpose trees were handled differently, however. Yu proposed that
peasants be encouraged to plant trees for fruit, papermaking, vamish, and mul-
berry on nonarable hilly land, and he allowed such land to be bequeathed to heirs
as private property. a minor departure from his general rule of public ownership.6^4
In summary, Yu's land reform would have affected contemporary Korean soci-
ety in a number of profound ways. Every peasant of commoner status would
have been guaranteed a plot of land to occupy and cultivate for his lifetime and
a kind of social security plot for his widow and children after his death. Private
property together with tenancy and agricultural wage labor would have been
eliminated. Cultivation would have been conducted in terms of the family unit
so that the contemporary rural pattern of villages composed of clusters of house-
holds would have been retained. Woodland, fishing weirs, salt fiats, and marsh-
land would have been taken away from private owners and converted to common
use for fuel gathering, pasture, or other uses. The guaranteed land grant would
also have functioned to resettle wandering peasants on the land and in villages
to ensure social, economic, and political stability.
By using one ky6ng of land as the basis for assessing taxes and service, changes
in the population or migration could not be used as an excuse for the transfer of
military support cloth taxes or service to relatives or neighbors, nor would fail-
ure to keep up with the census registers allow clerks and magistrates to distrib-
ute military service and support taxes unequally or unfairly. Increased benefits
would aeerue to the state through more tax revenues and more men for military
service. and more equity would be secured for the peasant cultivators through
reduced per capita tax burdens and a larger manpower pool for military service.
Yu's pIan also contained two features that were distinctive components of
the early Koryo cluJnsikwa system: provision for transfer of land allotments to
close relatives and the use of the term kubunj6n for residual grants to widows
and retired soldiers. It could be argued that this refiected a Korean bias toward
family inheritance of property as occurred in early Koryo, but Yu unequivocally