584 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION
legitimate son, was allowed to succeed to the title of prince. All the rest, referred
to as soja, were only granted the title of marquis (hu), and only the eldest legit-
imate son was allowed to inherit his title. The rest of the sons were not given
noble ranks, and after several generations the descendants of imperial descen-
dants for the most part ended up in the ranks of commoners (soin).6 Naturally
restricting the pool of princes who could be appointed to prestigious titles lim-
ited the number of those enjoying large emoluments from the state treasury.
In Korea, Confucian opponents of discrimination against the nothoi ofthe yang-
ban class had bccn protesting the injusticc of this practice continuously since
the beginning of thc dynasty.? Yu, howevcr, had no intention of abolishing the
category of nothos as a position of lower status than the sons of wives. He cer-
tainly was not interested in aholishing all types of distinctions to create a thor-
oughly egalitarian society, and one might suspect that even though he wanted
to remove the stigma of inherited slavery from royal concubines, he was prob-
ably concerned ahout prcserving thc supremacy of yang ban daughters who mar-
ried into the royal linc over those women who needed no special documents
from their family relations to gain admission to the royal harem.
Yu was not willing to allow his formula for noble rank to stand without some
kind of explanation because he realized that there was no classical precedent in
ancient China. Tn feudal China in the agc of Chou, the process of granting a fief
(feng-chien; pOllgg()n in Korean) meant that noble ranks granted by rulers of
states could pass on their title and rank without any generational decline in rank
for hundreds of generations. Since feudalism had disappeared after the Ch'in
unification of China, the rulers of the bureaucratic era in post-Chou China mod-
ified that rule by limiting thc inheritance of royal blood to four generations
(ch 'injin) and dropping the noble title and rank by each gcneration.
Yu even made an exception for the son of the last descendant of a grand lord
(Taegun), who would he allowed to continue his royal relationship by another
generation if he qualified as a Confucian student (yusaeng) -an obvious com-
promise with his desire to cut costs because of his preference for converting
royalty to Confucian philosophy. Otherwise, he borrowed this Chinese prece-
dent with modification for the prejudice against concubines to limit the ranks
and costs of the royal princes.
Merit Subjects. Yu drew up specific regulations for handling merit subjects
(kongsin) as well. Merit subjects were an especially serious problem in the fif-
teenth century because kings frequently used this special award to honor polit-
ical supporters and loyalists. Because merit subjects, whether of major or minor
status, were granted prebends, slaves, and important posts, independent schol-
ars opposed them because they had gained high office for political reasons, par-
ticularly after King Sejo's usurpation from King Tanjong in the mid-fifteenth
century.
After King Yonsan'gun was purged in I506, the new government under King
Chungjong rewarded the leaders of the coup who had put him on the throne by
proclaiming I I7 major and 200 minor merit subjects in 1506. The censorate