588 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION
Banquets: Regulation of Costs and Ritual ProprietyBanquets for officials were an important part of the ritual regulations for the
civilized state in Korea, but Yu sought to limit the cost by restricting attendance
at the spring and autumn banquets to officials and by arranging payment for all
expenses by the state. Yu insisted that the government conserve on the food served
and the utensils used, restricting the number of servings, the dishes used, and
the cups of wine poured according to the rank of the official. Even the size of
the cups should he standardized and distributed to all provinces to be used as
models for the manuf~lcture of more cups in the provinces. Every official in atten-
dance at the banquet had to follow rigid procedure governing the number of bows
made and the number of times ascending and descending the steps to the dais.
Any individual who violated the limits on food and utensils was to be led out
of the hall by the sergeant-at-arms and subjected to impeachment for a crimi-
nal act even though, as Yu asserted, the whole point of the banquet and the rules
was to "harmonize the relationship between ruler and subject."
The "harmony" was evidentl y to be established hy the threat of force, and the
music played at the banquet had to conform to ancient Chinese court music, not
the popular women's music that currently flourished. Flowers were not be dis-
played in vases or eaten by the guests, and the popular foot-high oil-and-honey
pastries were to he ruled out; only those four inches on each side were to he
allowed. The king was to be granted fifteen pieces to consume, while the low-
est ranking officials could only cat six. Banquets had to be governed by these
strict regulations "to instruct people in respect and frugality, and to display mutual
compassion and benevolence; only then could you eliminate the evils of a declin-
ing age."
Yu was again somewhat more liberal in tolerating a few extra banquets for offi-
cials. He prescribed banquets to honor the dispatch of provincial governors and
military commanders, envoys to China and Japan, or commissioners on domes-
tic missions. Banquets were to be held to receive messengers with formal letters
from the provinces to the king, even though these banquets had been discontin-
ued for a long time hecause they had encouraged profligate spending by both the
participants and the government. Nonetheless, because ancient rulers had held
such banquets for their officials and artisans to promote moral standards and not
simply as an excuse for enjoyment or for receiving the praise and adulation of
their subjects, they had to be held in Korea as well. Yu assumed, however, that
extravagant expenditures could be brought under control by restricting con-
sumption, and that the hanquets might also he suspended if the harvest was poor.
Furthermore, a number of unnecessary banquets had been held in Korea, par-
ticularly those hosted by the State Council and Six Ministries, and the agencies
in charge of merit subjects, royal relatives, and the sons-in-law of kings (the
Ch'unghunbu, the Chongch'inbu, and the Oibinbu). These were unjustified
because there was no such example either in ancient times or in the Tang dynasty
of subjects holding banquets in honor of their ruler or in repayment of his great