KING AND COURT 585
then attacked the long list of merit subjects because too many low-ranking and
undeserved men were appointed or promoted in rank or granted awards in land
and slaves. Cho Kwangjo led a movement in 1519 to convene a special recom-
mendation examination to allow chances for worthy scholars to transcend the
bottlenecks against advancements caused by the monopoly of officeholding by
merit subjects, but in the end he and his friends were purged by the king and
high officials, who feared their challenge to the regime.s
Despite his sympathy for Cho K wangjo, Yu Hyongwon could not bring him-
self to any major diminution of the merit subjects in the mid-seventeenth cen-
tury. He grouped the merit subjects with the nobility, such as the princes and
sons-in-law of the throne, limited the amount of support allowed, and only refused
to allow lists of minor merit subjects appointed in the fifteenth century. He per-
mitted the eldest son and grandson to inherit merit subject status down to rank
2B. and reinstated compensation for them by granting ancient sig 'up or prebends
in certain towns. He also sought to rework titles to conform to the Chou feudal
pattern of the five grades of noble titles, from duke to baron.
To reduce the ostentatious display of merit subject status, he prohibited the
printing of "merit subject" titles on their calling cards, and the devising of exces-
sively long titles that had been used in Sung and Koryo times - what Yu called
a phemonenon of a fin-de-siecle agc of darkness and dccline. The number of
servants had to be limited to a range of one-to-seven retainers and servants for
royalty of noble rank, and the merit subjects might only use clerks attached to
the Office of Royalty and Rectitude and personal servants limited to a maxi-
mum of a half-dozen men at rank six, or two mcn at rank two. The principle
governing this rule was that ancient standards only allowed servants and run-
ners for rulers of states and for princesses married to feudal lords who might
also have a fief because there was no reason to have special servants dissoci-
ated from public responsibility. But since feudalism had disappeared, the recip-
ients of these feudal titles were not given office and their titles had nothing to
do with political rule because royal relations were prohibited from holding posts.
In ancient feudal times any royal relatives who had not performcd a merito-
rious deed was simply not given an office, relegating them to the ranks of the
commoners (si5in; sl1U~ien in Chinese). Their only reponsibility was to help out
during funerals. recommend men of quality for appointment to office, attend
court and congratulatory celebrations, and serve on tours. They paid most of the
costs of their retainers and received no official paymcnts.^9 In short, Yu tried to
limit the perquisites and costs of supporting merit subjects ostensibly as a means
of cutting public expenditures, but also to restrict the king's ability to convey
wealth, honor. and power on his personal favorites.
Funerals: FrugalityYu set out a program of regulations for government-sponsored funerals aimed
primarily at reducing the debilitating expenses involved in burials and the