606 REFORM OF GOVERN ME NT ORGANIZATION
either on the winter solstice or his own birthday. T'ai-tsu's piety should have
served for a model for later emperors after the late fourteenth century, but unfor-
tunately, his noble intent was undermined by a succession offawning officials.^44
Yu coneluded that it would be best if the king adopted the ideal court audi-
ences of antiquity devoted to the conduct of government business. He should
summon the crown prince and all officials at court on the first day of every
month for an audience, and on that day provincial officials would also assem-
ble and carry out a rite at which they would face toward the royal court (the
manggw6l!ye). On five other days during the lunar month all court officials of
the first-through-sixth ranks would be summoned to the court audience
(choch am) before the king. Every day one official of upper tangsangwan rank
each from thc State Council, the Six Ministries, the National Academy, Office
ofthe Inspcctor-General, and thc Seoul Magistracy, two from the Office of Spe-
cial Counselors, and every duty official for the day of the State Council and
Six Ministries would attend the daily standard audience (sangch am) on arotat-
ing basis. To assure full participation, officials with business to present would
take turns mounting the steps to the throne platform to report it directly to thc
king, and both civil and military officials of all ranks would respond to inquiries
hy the king every other day in a regular order for the capital offices. All offi-
cials appointed to provincial posts would have to report to the king before leav-
ing or after returning to inform the king of their experience "as was done in
ancient times."
Yu then described the types of court audiences in the Chou period and Ch'iu
Chun's (of the Ming dynasty) commentary that noted that the emperor met his
officials evcry morning to conduct goverment affairs, listened to the officials,
who took turns in presenting memorials and answering the ruler's questions,
withdrew to his boudoir to ruminate and decide whether he would give his
approval to requests, and then reappeared in court for further discussion and
deliberation, and listened to advice from his top ministers. Ch'iu argued that
this system of thorough discussion and review convinced all officials that final
decisions were correct and appropriate, and the procedure inspired them to pro-
ceed to their posts in the provinces and carry out the imperial decisions.
Yu also presented some examples from dynasties after the Chou. In the T'ang
dynasty all civil and military officials of the first through ninth ranks were sum-
moned to court audiences on the first and fifteenth days of the month; civil offi-
cials of the first through fifth ranks attended the regular audience every day;
military officials of the first through fifth ranks attended the court conferences
on the fifth, eleventh, twenty-first, and twenty-fifth days of the month; those of
the first through third ranks and those on duty in their respective bureaus and
the top officials attended audiences according to the duties currently under their
charge. The Son of Heaven held regular audience every day but convened an
audience in the Hall of Convenience in his Purple Boudoir on the first and fif-
teenth days of the month. Unfortunately, Ch' iu remarked that the Purple Boudoir
audienccs wcre handled rather cursorily. In short, Yu's recommended procedure