OFFICIAL SALARIES AND EXPENSES 829
the population and from selling goods in China that they had received in their
arbitrary collections from the provinces. The central government would provide
travel expenses, including bribes to Manchu officials if they were unavoidable.
Bad as this might seem, it was still better than granting carte blanche to envoys
to squeeze what they needed from the peasants living along the travel route.^29
Yu regarded the custom of granting Korean envoys the right to collect what
they wanted from the population one of the ultimate causes of moral decline
and dynastic failure because it was similar to the domestic tribute system that
lacked anything more detailed than a large quota for each province and then
allowed provincial officials and clerks to work out the details of tax collection
down to the individual peasant. Just as the central government had lost control
of the administrative process below the level of the province, so too did the cen-
tral government abjure responsibility for controlling demands by Korean
embassies en route. Even back in the feudal age of Chou China any time the
ruler of a state demanded "something he liked," everyone in the social ladder
emulated that behavior by making their own demands on their subordinates. "If
the king makes demands, those below will see this and be influenced [by his
behaviorl The high officials [taebu] will definitely make demands in order to
benefit their families. The lower officials [sa] and common people will definitely
make demands in order to benefit themselves, and they will not shirk even from
seizing [the property of others] and killing the king and usurping the throne."
Yu argued that the Spring and Autumn Annals (Ch 'un-ch 'iu) had shown that
this mode of behavior had been stimulated by immoral urges on the part of offi-
cials, their greed for extravagant expenditure, the loss of a sense of honesty and
shame, and the growth of favoritism and bribery. Not until the decline and fall
of the Chou dynasty itself were these practices finally brought to an end. The
only way to combat this tendency was to exercise frugality, set quotas for expen-
diture in accordance with an official's place in rank, and eliminate arbitrary
demands.^30
In addition to Korean envoys traveling abroad, the upkeep of imperial envoys
from Ch'ing China was a serious financial problem because a number of indi-
vidual districts had been given quotas to provide for costs and labor service even
though some of them were located at considerable distance from the main route
of transportation. A district remote from the hostel where an imperial embassy
was staying might only have to provide two or three men, but they would have
to gather the materials allocated and travel anywhere from two to six days to
deliver them.
The magistrates drop their business [to show them hospitality] and there is con-
fusion and trouble along the boundaries between districts. Ten thousand people
are burdened with labor and expenses so that even the chickens and dogs have
no rest. The harm from this evil is so great that it cannot be described. One
man's responsibilities at the hostel still cannot be met by a hundred men put to
work in the remote districts, and one sam's worth of expenses at the hostel can-