REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH 347
would inherit their status and privileges in perpetuity. The eldest legitimate son
of each generation descended from a reigning king and a merit subject would
retain sejok status.
The other legitimate sons of kings would be included in a different category
called eh'in (lit., "having a royal parent"). All those in the category of kukka
tanmun, or blood relationship of the lowest of the five Chinese degrees of mourn-
ing (five months), would retain this status. This would include relatives of four
generations in each direction from a living king.^106 It would also include any
one who had to observe one year's mourning or more for the wife of a crown
prince.^107
A third category was called um, or protection, indicating residual privileges
inherited by heirs of merit subjects or high officials. This category included three
subcategories: eldest legitimate sons, grandsons, and great grandsons (i.e., three
generations) of regular wives of merit subjects and officials of rank 2A or higher;
legitimate sons and eldest sons of the regular wives of officials of tangsang rank
or above (ranks 3A to lA); and sons of tangha officials (i.e., some 3A but mainly
3B to 6B) including sons of certain special officials like chiefs of directorates
(ehegam), vice commanders of guard units, state councilors, officials of the six
ministries and the censorate, royal chamberlains (sijong), officials in the National
Academy (Songgyun'gwan) of rank 6 or higher, governor's assistants (tosa), dis-
trict magistrates. and provincial educational officials. For sons of these tangha
officials to inherit um status, their fathers would have to have held office for three
inspccti~n periods (three years each) (samgo) or a total of nine years. 108
Yu pointed out that under current law governing inheritance of the um privi-
lege, sons, sons-in-law, younger brothers, and nephews were eligible to inherit
certain privileges, but in fact only the most talented among them were given the
right. He was not sure whether this was right or wrong, but at least with regard
to the inheritance of the regular land grant (sujon) in his own system, it did not
seem appropriate to allow all family members to inherit the sabu (i.e., sadaebu)
land allotment of an ancestor who reached high office. In the Sung dynasty broth-
ers were not allowed to inherit the Urn privilege, and the system of se rok or hered-
itary salaries of ancient China were limited to the sejok category (eldest
legitimate sons only) and did not extend to the other sons, let alone younger
brothers and nephews. In any case, Yu sought to exclude younger brothers and
nephews from the um privilege.
Furthermore, under the current system of selecting only the talented for the
Urn privilege, it was possible that a younger brother might qualify for a land grant
in place of a living elder brother. This appeared inappropriate to Yu, probably
because it contradicted age and generational respect rules.I()9 Yu obviously
regarded contemporary Korean practice as idiosyncratic, a failure of Koreans to
understand and fully conform to the principles governing the definition of priv-
ileged status and royal blood line that could be deduced from the Chinese his-
torical record. As in his treatment of the relationship between types of land and
types of tax exemption, Yu believed that the principles governing the eh 'in royal