OFFICIAL SALARIES AND EXPENSES 823
contrary to the recent interpretations of some writers on the Sirhak movement
in the twentieth century.
Tribute for Capital Bureaus (Kaksa)
As opposed to royal tribute Yu found that there had in fact been precedent for
ordinary tribute in ancient China when feudal lords levied tribute according to
the special products of different areas, but the gift and receipt of tribute was
connected with the moral principle of ritual etiquette (ye) between the king and
his feudal vassals. If the feudal lord presented goods of inferior quality, it was
not the peasant who was blamed, but the feudal lord himself. The feudal sys-
tem, therefore, did not allow clerks in capital bureaus the right to reject tribute
goods on the grounds of inferiority (chOmt oe), let alone transfer extra burdens
to the peasants. Under the bureaucratic system in Chason, however, ordinary
people had to present goods all at once and were vulnerable to the clerks' power
of rejection. Every time rejected tribute had to be replaced. the peasants became
vulnerable to graft and corruption at every link in the administrative hierarchy. 16
Furthermore, in classical feudalism under the rules for the tribute ofYti, the
government of a virtuous king only taxed 10 percent of the crop or 10 percent
of the income of merchants in the market towns, and supposedly prohibited all
other irregular taxes, but in contemporary Korea tribute was levied in addition
to other taxes, contrary to the ancient method. In ancient times rice and millet
was paid in taxes in the ruler's bailiwick around the capital (kinae), but no trib-
ute was required. In the fiefs or feudal states ruled by the lords outside the king's
domain (hoe), goods offered as tribute were obtained by a 10 percent tax and
the proceeds used to purchase the goods. Therefore, the only obligation imposed
on the peasants was the land tax. In contemporary Korea, however, every dis-
trict had to offer a variety of local products as an additional tax, so that modem
tribute corresponded only nominally to ancient Chinese practice.'7
PURCHASING AND MARKETING ARRANGEMENTS
Purchasing Masters to Replace Tribute Middlemen
Yu prescribed that present tribute items be listed for all goods spent by the cap-
ital bureaus. After eliminating unnecessary expenditures, quotas would be
determined and each bureau would record the inventories of each item on hand.
A separate quota would be maintained for items used in rituals and in the Royal
Ancestral Shrine (Chongmyo). In accordance with the taedong system, tribute
offered in kind either by local districts or the older tribute masters or middle-
men (konglllul elwin) would be replaced by the purchase of goods on the mar-
ket by purchasing masters (mubijuin). The government would grant these
purchasing masters liberal funds from tax revenues to buy goods at prices sev-
eral times higher than market prices for items needed by the bureaus, and these