622 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONof supervising the land of the country, settling the four classes of people (schol-
ars, peasants, merchants, and artisans) into their residences and proper occupa-
tions, and regulating according to the season the profits or production of the land.'?
The Rites of Chou, however, stated that the officer of winter (Tung-kuan), was
in charge of industry or works. Even though most of the chapter was lost, later
commentators assumed it was the model for a Ministry ofWorks.^38
Yu pointed out that the Ssu-kung of the Book of History had been responsi-
ble for land survey, and also that the current Choson Ministry of Taxation was
overburdened with work while the Ministry of Works had little to do but super-
vise construction. Since this was a mistaken limitation of its responsibilities in
antiquity, he selected it to carry out the enormous work that would have been
required for a national cadastral survey. "Only after [the Ministry of Works car-
ries out a land survey] will we be able to carry out thoroughly the intention [of
the sages] to determine land boundaries and make the people secure in their res-
idences in order to ensure the livelihood and care [of the people]. "39Ritual and Entertainment ServicesYu wanted to cut the costs of government by eradicating duplication, but it was
still necessary to provide services to the state. To meet requirements for ritual
performance and the entertainment of guests in a Confucian state the Court of
Music (Chang'agwon) remained an essential agency, but Yu prescribed a mas-
sive reduction of the current 970 musicians to a total of 100 musicians of slave
status (akkong) by ruthlessly eliminating some musicians and combining oth-
ers that had been divided between classical and popular musicians (aak, sog'ak).
He also announced the desirability of restoring the ancient practice of using blind
music teachers, even though it had been abandoned when musicians were required
to follow Manchurian practice of marching in formal attire.^40
Yu also provided for specialized agencies to perform entertainment services.
The Comprehensive Rites Agency (T'ongnyewon) was modeled after the Ming
agency for rites and ceremonies (Hung-Iu-shih), which also combined enter-
tainment of foreign guests. This latter function was handled separately in Korea
by the Korean Ritual Guest Agency (Yebinsi). Yu hoped to cope with the inor-
dinate demands for expenses by paying wages to workers and also by temporarily
recruiting idle state slaves in the employ of other government offices. Payment
for the entertainment of the king and regally sponsored banquets would be man-
aged by the Royal Cuisine Office (Saongwon), and the cost of goods would be
shifted from tribute payments to market purchases financed by allotments of
funds from central government tax income. Yu took great care to organize a spe-
cial set of specialized workmen (ch 'abi) assigned to the king's, queen's, and crown
prince's palaces to produce food utensils and bedding, to function as cooks, wine
and tea makers, and as tenders oflights and fuel. They were also assisted by the
Royal Clothing Office (Sang'uiwon) and the Royal Stable Court (Saboksi).4'