492 MILITARY REFORM
been the first to raise the issue in 1659, but nothing had come of it because the
Bordcr Defense Command officials were hopelessly split. Of course, it is impor-
tant to point out that what Yu Kye was advocating in 1659 was a cloth tax on
yangban or leisured men, not a household tax proposal, indicating that what Kim
Suhung was opposed to was any kind of tax on yangban, whether individuals
or households. Then he said that when the issue was raised again in 1674. there
had been so much irreponsiblc and angry shouting that he (as chief state coun-
cilor at the time) asked King Hyonjong to end the debate. Now that the matter
had come up for the third time, it was again causing a big hullabaloo. "It would
be hard enough to satisfy people's feelings in instituting a major reform even if
you had a good law that was totally without fault. How much harder is it in this
case of this law where the advantages and disadvantages cannot be known?"
But Sukehong ignored him and ordered the Border Defense Command to con-
tinue its discussion.^1 )
A few days later Second State Councilor Min Chongjung insisted that more
discussion was needed. "If you were to cut off debate just because an issue was
controversial, how would we ever be able to accomplish anything? Furthermore,
the taedong reform of the tributc system, carried out throughout the century,
had heen just as controversial as the household cloth tax. and it was adopted
even though there was much about it that both the sajok (yangban) and com-
mon people did not like. "3^6
There were repeated attempts throughout the month to rescind the order to
apply the system to p'yong'an. The Office of Inspector-General stated that the
people there did not really want the household cloth system and the times were
not ripe for it, and he recommended the arrest and trial of the governor and provin-
cial army commander for throwing the whole province into an uproar hy fail-
ing to take into consideration the feelings of the people or the situation at the
time. Sukchong, however, said that the purpose of the new law was to benefit
the people and create equality in military service burdens. He accused the cen-
sors of contentiousness and said that all the wrangling at court and confusion
in the streets over the issue was the fault of young men like them who stubbornly
held on to their own views without any consideration of affairs of stateY
Yi Sehwa 's Defense. P'yong'an Provincial Army Commander Yi Sehwa then
defended himself against the inspectorate in a lengthy memorial. He was clearly
in favor of doing something about eradicating the evils associated with the mil-
itary service system because he thought that it was the most difficult burden both
the commoners and slaves of the province had to bear. Since cloth taxes on com-
moners were currently assessed on the individual, the more persons in a family
the greater the tax burden. Since in slave families, women as well as men were
counled for cloth lax purposes, a husband-wife nuclear family had to pay four
p 'il (two p 'il each), and some families of six owed twelve p'il. The military sup-
port taxes kept the people mired in poverty: "Men till the fields but they cannot
eat; women weave cloth but they have no clothes to wear." Ultimately, they had
no alternative but to sell their family properly, leave the village, and become