MILITARY SERVICE SYSTEM 551prospects for a departure from the early Choson system of support-taxpayer
finance seemed good.
Nevertheless, some criticized the household tax for being fiscally unsound,
for if the rate were set high enough to ensure sufficient revenue, it would be too
heavy a burden on taxpayers; if it were set low enough to alleviate their bur-
dens, it would not yield sufficient revenue. Others also attacked it for being
unequal because a uniform tax would impose a heavier burden on families with
more adult males.^23
The core issue, however, was the imposition of the tax on yangban house-
holds, and on this point several officials claimed that the yangban could not stand
the imposition of a new tax or tolerate the social stigma altached to military ser-
vice. Since Yongjo had already rejected a direct tax on leisured males (yup '0),
most of whom were yangban, the only reason he tolerated discussion of the
household cloth or cash tax systems at this time was because he must have
believed initially at least that neither one was too threatening to yanghan inter-
ests. He was dissuaded from this notion from the arguments of men I ike Yi Chong-
song, who insisted that yangban were poorer than anyone else and could not
afford even the lowest of suggested rates for a household cash tax. Yi's mourn-
ful lament for the pI ight of the poor scholar was also accompanied by an intim-
idating hint of the potential of another yangban-led rebellion. 24
Kwi5n CMk, Intellectual Disciple ()fYu HyljngncJnThe first evidence of any direct influence of the ideas ofYu Hyongwon at court
over military policy occurred when State Councilor (Uch'amch'an) Kwon Chok
submitted a lengthy memorial to the crown prince (the Sado seja), sitting that
time as acting head of state. K won was effusive in his praisc for Yu's Pan 'gye
surok, touting it as the best book of statecraft since the Three Ages of antiquity.
He noted that it was based on the laws and systems of the Rites ()f Chou and
should be used as a source of methods by any monarch "who wants to carry out
the humane rule of a true king." He asked the crown prince to approve a request
he had made many times before, that it be printed by the governor of Cholla
Province and distributed throughout the kingdom. Although the text was not
carved into wood blocks and printed until 1770, Kwon's remarks attest the pop-
ularity of the hand-copied text in 1750: "Though the man has already died, his
writings are still preserved in the families of the scholar-officials [sadaebu] in
the capital, many of whom have it ready at their side."
It was indicative of the tenor ofYu 's ideas that K won took the side of the oppo-
sition against both the land-cloth and household-cash proposals. The first is less
surprising than the second because even though Yu had favored the use of the
taedong surtax on land to replace tribute in kind, he had unequivocally opposed
the idea of land surtax to replace the yangyok support cloth tax because there
were already too many taxes imposed on land. Kwon also argued that adding
an additional cloth tax on land (kyi5lp ()) would only drivc the peasants from the