Yu's COMMUNITY COMPACT REGULATIONS 747muson (men who passed the select military examinations), and those who had
undergone the capping ceremony. In addition each subdistrict or county (hyang)
would keep a register recording such scions of hereditary privilege as members
of high-status royal guards like the Loyal and Righteous Guards and Loyal and
Obedient Guards, royal relatives, and those with the protection privilege. as well
as extra-quota students in official schools. Naturally, "It would not be necessary
to keep a [separate] register for the common people."I7
Obviously, Yu would not have insisted on a special register for men of higher
status and prestige without feeling that they merited more respect than the com-
moners, but he also insisted that rank or status not affect popular judgment of
the behavior of men, and that good deeds be rewarded or bad deeds punished
without regard to whether the individual was a scholar or commoner. Distinc-
tions among men of the district were not to be based on the status distinction
between scholars (sa) and the ordinary people (min), or on the prestige of a lin-
eage, but on whether the behavior and actions of people were worthy or igno-
rant. In explaining this, Yu set out an explanation of the basis of the current status
system in Korea:
The custom in this country is that we only pay respect to pedigree [munjil.
Among those people who engage in the activity of scholars, we also have la cat-
egory] that we call yang ban, that is, the sons and grandsons and lineage relations
[choktang] of the higher and lower officials [taehusa]. In general, the system of
our country is that only the lineage relations of the taehusa can obtain regular
official posts as civil and military officials [tong hall and srihall, or officials of the
Eastern and Western files], and for that reason the custom is to call [these peo-
ple] yangban [men of the two files].Yu also explained that in addition to yangban, the Korean elite consisted of
men of commoner lineages (sojok) who had either enrolled in official schools
or had official posts, and they were referred to as "the middle people" (chung'in),
the "idlers" (hansan), or "irregulars" (pang'oe). The lowest category were the
nothoi (sool) ofthe high and low officials (taebusa) by their concubines. Yu argued
that contemporary local associations did not provide for mixing men belonging
to these three different categories in the same ranks or recording them in the
same registers because they only recorded the names of the yangban, a state-
ment confirmed by the recent research of Fujiya Kawashima. IX Therefore, even
men of learning, talent, and virtue, including those who had passed the gov-
ernment examinations and held a number of official posts, could not have their
names entered into the local registers. Yu condemned this practice as a viola-
tion of the intent of former kings who sought to regulate the mores of the peo-
ple. "All persons who are scholars [saryu], should be entered into the [local]
register without regard to pedigree, and all should be allowed to sit in order of
age at the [compact association] meetings."I9
Scholarly status did not confer immunity from punishment for any violation