514 MILITARY REFORMbecause it was in tune with the hierarchy of military units recorded in the Rites
of Chou. Even though the size of a state's forces would vary with its population
- the Son of Heaven had six armies while the smallest feudal state had only one
- the system of organization would be the same for all. It was also not necessary
to be too literal in the adoption of the quotas: "Whether you are dealing in units
of tens, hundreds, thousands, or ten thousands, they all follow the same princi-
ple and are just multiples of one another and that is all. ... The military systems
of both ancient and modem times in neither case stick [too closcly] to fixed quo-
tas."3^1 The basie principle of this organization was to create a fixed order, sim-
plify training, and concentrate responsibility in the hands of the unit commander.
Yu Songnyong had specified regulations governing the recruitment of offi-
cers for the battalion or company commanders that were not fully consistent
with the well-field ideal that civilian leaders and magistrates would automati-
cally assume military responsibilities in the military chain of command during
wartime. Following his view, Yu Hyongwon also recommended that these posts
be filled by a selection process based on a certain degree of military talent rather
than simply giving incumbent magistrates command. The battalion comman-
ders were to be selected from men who had previously been local officials (hyang-
gwan), or were currently dormitory students (naesasaeng) in Yu's proposed
academy at the capital, or were currently company commanders with excep-
tional ability. They would command the company commanders, supervise train-
ing, and lead the regiment during the spring and autumn bivouac exercises. Yu
obviously intended these battalion commanders to be chosen without discrim-
ination from both civil and military officials, assuming the cultivation of an elite
skillcd in the martial as well as the literary arts.
He did, however. allow for company commanders to be selected on some
grounds of heredity or status as well as talent, restrictions that were not included
in Yu Songnyong's original sago system. In addition to the pool of men who
passed military selection examinations (the muson) and students ofthe outer dor-
mitories exempted from military service, he also allowed recruitment of descen-
dants of high officials, royal relatives. and merit subjects, and talented members
of the elite capital units, the Loyal and Righteous Guards and Loyal and Obe-
dient Guards. But these company commanders were to be watched constantly
to eliminate the incompetent. They were to remain with their men both on train-
ing and tours of duty, test the troops in archery, and maintain discipline by reward
and punishment. They would be required to pass periodic archery shoots and
written examinations and if found wanting, they would be subjected to punish-
ment along with the magistrate of their home town who recommended them. Yu
purposely designed a strict disciplinary system based on praise and blame, com-
plaining that at present all such disciplinary rules were a dead letterY
Another type of official, the Kip'aegwan (Officer of the Banner and Tally),
was to act as liaison between the commander of the main provincial garrison
and the subordinate garrisons (chin' gwan). They already existed but Yu com-
plained that thcy were uniformly men of inferior quality. Yu wanted to station