722 REFORM OF GOVERNMENT ORGANIZA nONbers of the community and allowing the people to correct their own mistakes before
meting out punishment.
Yulgok designed the regulations for this compact to be applied to the twenty-
fi ve kye of the district of Ch'ongju that were organized at the subdistrict or county
(myon) level rather than the natural village. Four General Kye Chiefs (Togye-
jang) supervised the twenty-five kye, and each kye compact was headed by a
Kyejang and staffed by one instructor for children (Tongmong hunhoe), one
charge (Saekchang) chosen without distinction between commoners and slaves,
and one special monitor (Pyolgom) for each administrative village (i).
Yulgok's regulations were similar to Chu Hsi 's version of the Lii-Family com-
pact, but the Sowon compact differed from both earlier Chinese models by incor-
porating distinctions for the treatment of all status groups in Korean society. At
the quatriannual sessions for the reading and explanation of the articles of the
compact, the compact members would line up along the western wall by age,
commoners (soin) at the eastern end of the south wall with "men of knowledge"
(i.e., scholars or yangban) in front of them, and uneducated commoners and slaves
at the western end of the south wall - all in order of age. The nothoi (sool) of
the scholar class (sajok) would form a separate line. Officials of tangsang rank,
elders among the commoners, and hyangni (local clerks) belonging to the com-
pact would be given special places. The list of prohibitions included a ban against
acting beyond one's place, especially if one were of base or slave status, and
belief in or practice of heterodox doctrines, "lewd [shamanistic] rites," or geo-
mancy (p 'ungsu) in determining grave sites.
Compact members were required to provide aid in conducting funerals, lend
labor to cultivate the land of anyone who was too sick to work, and instruct men
under the age of thirty who had not been educated in civil and military matters
in the Sohak, Hyogyong (Book of Filial Piety), and the Training Manualfor Chil-
dren (Tongjaslip). If they failed to read these texts, they would be punished.
The preeminent position of local yangban was illustrated in Yulgok's version
of the resolution of disputes. If the Kyejang and the Yusa failed to resolve law-
suits among the people, the case would be turned over to a group of scholars
(saryu, presumably yangban) within the compact to resolve. If any disputant
refused to accept a decision, he would be charged with a misdemeanor, recorded
in a demerit register, or even punished if the case were serious.
Any case that could not be solved would be turned over to the district mag-
istrate. The Kyejang or the Yusa had the authority to punish any person on the
spot for a misdemeanor that called for less than forty strokes, while more seri-
ous punishments were to be discussed at the next compact meeting or turned
over to the magistrate.
Yulgok also tried to make the community compact a control agency for the
discovery of crime and corruption among local officials. It was to report all
demands for bribes and favors by clerks and kisaeng of the district magistrate,
extortion by the supervisor of agriculture (Kwonnong) or charge (Saekchang),
and any unauthorized butchering of oxen to the magistrate. On the other hand