OFFICIAL SALARIES AND EXPENSES 841tary sinecures called ch 'ea attached to the Military Affairs Commission
(Chungch'ubu), an agency that had lost its significance and was used for
appointments of elderly, prestigious officials to serve as ministers-without-port-
folio. Censors and royal attendants (Sijonggwan) who could not be dismissed
from office but were under investigation for malfeasance in office would have
their salaries reduced by half.
CUITent opportunities for state grants or salaries to be passed on hereditarily
(i.e .• hereditary salaries or serok) by so-called Loyal Subjects (Ch'ungsin) and
Pure Officials (Ch'ongbaengni) were to be limited only to the eldest or desig-
nated heir of the patrimonial line down to the great-grandson. By no means should
they be entitled to these honorary salaries if their fathers were still alive or if
they also held posts on their own merits. Tn case of famine the salaries of all
such officials would be reduced by 20 percent or more except for soldiers serv-
ing on duty. 57
Salaries/c)r Clerks, Slaves, and Women
One ofYu's most radical proposals was to put all functionaries on state salary
including clerks, runners. artisans in government employ, and men and women
slaves who functioned as runners or servants. He found that the law code of 1469,
the Kyangguk taejan, listed over 5.000 runners (Chorye, Najang, and Chewon)
who served this duty as part of their labor service obligation. Since these duties
had driven almost all of them into bankruptcy after a few years' service, the gov-
ernment sought to alleviate their burden by expanding the number of shifts from
three to twelve a year of one month's duration, which extended the interval of
free time between tours of duty from three months to a year. Yu reported that
this system of rotating service had long since disappeared since officials usu-
ally exempted common peasants in return for a cloth fee of two p'il and used
the funds to hire substitutes, who supposedly received the cloth fee as their
monthly salary and six mal/month of rations - an unfortunate practice that had
occurred in the operation of the military service system as welPs
Yu sought to replace this irregular system with a schedule of published. legal
provisions for compensation to clerks and runners. The chief clerk (Noksa) would
be given a salary in white rice, millet, and cash equivalent to 40 mal/month (480
mal/year), and in addition receive a land grant of 2 kyang (200 myo). This land
would be exempted from the military service requirement and be held for the
life of the recipient, and for three years after his death by the widow. Thereafter
she would retain half the land until her own death.
Ordinary clerks (sari) and runners (chorye), however, would not be entitled
to a land grant. The clerks would receive thirty-five lI1al and the runners twenty-
five mal per month, and official male slaves (sano) and female servants (yabok)
would he entitled to the same wage as well. Boy servants, many of whom were
recruited from the sons of official slaves, were also to hc entitled to a monthly