632 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONequivalent titles for each of the eighteen grades (superior and minor grades for
nine ranks).61 In Yu's view, rank titles did not begin until the Sui dynasty in sixth-
century China, and the Sui government only provided ranks for lesser irregular
posts (san' gwan) without discriminating against military officers. The full sys-
tem of ranks was extended in the T'ang dynasty by dividing civil and military
officials and increasing the number of ranks by several dozen - what Yu called
one of the worst mistakes in later Chinese history.62
Irregularitics in developing the grading system in Korea had produced a num-
ber of minor anomalies as well. Koreans created separate rank nomenclature
for the eighteen senior and junior categories of each of nine grades, and the high-
est third of officials was separated from the rest of regular officials under the
title of "officials of the upper end of the hall" (Tangsanggwan), some of whom
extended into part but not all officials of the third junior (3B) rank. A firm line
was thus drawn between them and their inferiors, including some of those in
the third junior rank and below. Instead of advocating that the Tangsanggwan
category be abandoned, however, Yu merely suggested confining the title of
Tangsanggwan only to officials with senior third rank (3A) or higher. The net
result would simply have been to kick the holders of rank 3B out of the most
prestigious echelon of officials. The only possible purpose would be to prevent
any cheapening ofthe highest level of bureaucrats by allowing a fcw lower rank-
ing officials to join their ranks.
Yu also suggested that the Korean custom of treating all officials of ranks 7
to 9 as belonging to one, rather than two ranks (i.e., 7 A and 7B), might be retained.
but only if the whole system were converted in that fashion. In other words, only
if the prevalent distinction between Senior and Junior grades (A and B) were
eliminated from every rank could the number of ranks be reduced from eigh-
teen to nine, but if not, then officials in ranks 7-9 should have their rank titles
separated into Senior and Junior levels as wel1.6J
Hardly any of these revisions of the official rank titles would have led to a
revision of the existing system, except for the equalizing of prestige titles for
military as well as civil officials. Yu had previously stressed retraining officials
to incorporate the liberal arts of thc Chou period so that the generalist official
should have somc knowledge of military skills and music as well as the Con-
fucian canon and Chinese history. Upgrading the military would not be designed
to reduce the civil officials to thc domination of the military, but to change offi-
cials from rote memorizers of formulas for passing the civil service examina-
tion to the well-rounded generalists of ancient times.
Yu was trying to adopt cighteen rank titles based, fundamcntally but not lit-
erally, on the nine mandated ranks (chiu-ming) of early Chinese history. He
wanted to eliminate nationalistic or idiomatic titles for officials rather than return
to any distinctive nomenclature associated primarily with the pre-Kory6 system
of Silla and the earlier Three Kingdoms, mainly because he preferred to find
the best possible compromise with ancient Chinese models.