480 MILITARY REFORM
cases of falsification of status by those who should have been slaves. On the
other hand, since the dynasty had long shown respect for those who passed the
civil and military examinations, he had to give consideration to the passers of
examinations (and their descendants) who would be shocked if suddenly
returned to the slave registers. Flexibility was the proper way of the virtuous
ruler, and he preferred to lose a few official slaves rather than force some deserv-
ing types to suffer the hardships of a life of vagrancy and worry. In other words,
even though some slaves may have used the examinations to escape slavery
(whether taken legally or not, with or without royal permission) and their descen-
dants utilized inherited prestige to avoid reverting to slave status, an investiga-
tion into the status of degree holders might well have involved offending
legitimate yang ban families, thus weakening the loyalty of the ruling class to
the regime. Furthermore, as Ch'a Muns6p astutely observed, the king was more
interested in raising extra revenue for the defense of Kanghwa Island than in
restoring the social order to an earlier ideal.^2 ()
If, however, he had been single-mindedly devoted to national self-strength-
ening, he would have been thinking about abolishing slavery altogether and mak-
ing everyone liable for military service or cloth taxes. As it was, his failure to
act on the proposal for imposing military cloth taxes on the yangban as well as
his desire to return some men to slavery while allowing others descended from
degree-holders to retain status and exemptions only demonstrates his reluctance
to pose a frontal challenge to the privileged yangban aristocracy.
THE DEBATE OVER A YANGBAN AND SCHOLAR TAX, 1674
One month before Hyonjong died, in the midst of the dcbate over the mourn-
ing question, the Office ofthe Inspector General (Sah6nbu) again raised the issue
of reforming the military support tax systcm (sinyok). H6 Ch6k, the Southerner
sinecured minister-without -portfolio at the time, reported that one Yi Yut'ae had
submitted a private memorial in which he called for a one-p 'if cloth tax on yang-
ban as well as commoners, an idea which H6 said he too had proposed in Hyo-
jong's reign. Yu Hy6gyon, a fellow Southerner, raised a number of objections
to the idea. He suggested that any innovation caused consternation among the
people. just as the adoption of the household tally system (hop ae) prior to the
Manchu invasion of 1627 had led to more panic in the streets that the invasion
itself. Furthermore, oppressive taxation was a result of the shortage of regis-
tered adult males of commoner (!) status caused by various forms of evasion,
the chief of which was posing as students (kyosaeng). He noted that certain dis-
tricts like Chunghwa in South P'yong'an, Andong in Kyongsang, and Namwon
in Cholla had over a thousand each. The private academies were recruiting large
numbers of common peasants and accepting runaways as supposed students,
gaining for them permanent exemptions from miscellaneous labor service (as
well as military support taxes).21
A few days later, Chief State Councilor Kim Suhting reported that a confer-