COMMUNITY COMPACT SYSTEM 713cern over a number of natural disturbances and murders, which they interpreted
as Heaven's revenge for the immoral standards of the times. The king responded
in 151 I by publishing a text for moral education, the Sanlgang haengsil (Exem-
plars of the Three Moral Relationships), and discussed resuming the local wine-
drinking ritual as a means of promoting rural harmony.
In 1516 he also supported the proposal of the governor of Kyongsang
Province, Kim An'guk, to publish the Sohak (The Small Learning) a moral text
favored by Chu Hsi and later K won Kun of the early Choson dynasty, and redis-
covered in the 1470S by some literati who formed S6hak clubs (kye). It was
designed for children from ages of eight to fifteen, but it also contained the text
of the Lit-Family Community Compact. In 1517 Kim Inborn, a rural scholar from
Hamyang in South Kyongsang Province and a student of another great admirer
of the Sohak, Kim Koengp'il, recommended publication ofthe Lit-Fmnily Com-
munity Compact for the first time in Chason history, and in 15 I 8 Kim An'guk
persuaded King Chungjong to publish his edition ofthe text with his own anno-
tation in Han'gul for the edification of commoners.
King Chungjong ignored the complaints of some officials that since the func-
tions of the community compacts duplicated those of the Yuhyangso, the latter
should be abolished. The community compacts spread from Kyongsang to Cholla
Province, and even to districts in Ch'ungch'6ng to the north, but magistrates were
not that zealous in spreading their adoption, and villagers were only half-hearted
in carrying out their regulations.
Cho K wangjo became one of the leading spokesmen for community com-
pacts and the Sohak, but he was not a blind advocate, and in 1519 he criticized
the ones that had been established because they had not been organized volun-
tarily but forced on villages by provincial governors. King Chungjong was also
annoyed because some compact associations had interfered with the judicial tasks
of the Ministry of Punishments and the Seoul magistracy by punishing law-
breakers on their own. Chief State Councilor Chong K wangp' il also argued that
since the ancients only intended that community compacts be created in the coun-
tryside, the ones in the capital should be banned and the activities of the rest
restricted only to funerals, but Chungjong did not approve. 16
About a month later, the situation changed entirely when Chungjong carried
out a purge (the kimvo sahywa of 15(9) ofCho Kwangjo and his friends, includ-
ing Kim An'guk, on charges of cliquism. Further executions took place when
in 152 I An Tang's sons and friends were executed for allegedly plotting to assas-
sinate the king and replace him with his half-brother.
In 1520 So Hu of the Inspector-Genera!'s office charged that the members of
the local community compacts were disloyal to the throne. had been forced to
join in the first place, and were recordcd in the registers of good and bad deeds
only because of favoritism or personal animosity. Sincc the Lti-Family compact
had only been adopted by one village in Sung China, there was no reason to
force everyone in the kingdom to join them. He blamed Cho K wangjo, Kim Sik,
and their friends for advertising themselves as true scholars of the Confucian