Yu's ANALYSIS OF CURRENCY 903shops to accept cash in 1104, presumably because the new cash had not been
welcomed by the population. As soon as Sukchong died, King Yejong was imme-
diately hounded by the opponents of cash. Yejong responded with a spirited
defense of Sukchong's cash policy, reminding the critics that the sage kings of
ancient China had in fact begun the use of currency for the same purpose of
enriching the country and benefiting the people, not because they wanted to make
profits for themselves. Since even the Liao dynasty's emperor had recently
adopted cash as well, it was even more incumbent on Koryo to do the same. The
problem with Korea, however, was that whenever "a law is established, crowds
of people arise to criticize it incessantly" to block its legislation. Particularly
annoying was the argument of the critics that cash could not be adopted because
King T'aejo (Wang Kon, the founder of the dynasty) had admonished his suc-
cessors in his famous testament (yuhun) to prohibit the use ofT'ang and Khi-
tan customs. Yejong argued that T'aejo was only warning against the adoption
of the habit of extravagant and wasteful expenditure, not culture and institutions
in generaL because "if you abandon Chinese [culture and institutions] what do
you have left [to copy]?" In any case, no matter how inspired his arguments,
Yejong eventually succumbed to the critics.3^6
Yu Hyongwon then interrupted his description of mid-Koryo cash policy by
endorsing the views ofthe Koryo progressives. He criticized the Korean people
at the time for being too "crude and simple" in their customs and for express-
ing amazement and resentment over the abolition of rough cloth and the adop-
tion of copper cash back in 1002. He praised Sukchong for his astuteness in
adopting cash but condemned the critics of cash after I 105 because of their gen-
eral negativism. As an illustration ofthe difficulty the Koryo regime had in adopt-
ing Chinese institutions. he pointed out that So T'aebo (1034-1104) and other
chief ministers of state had opposed the idea that the state should pay for the
room and board of students at the National Academy (Kukhak) as in China
because it would cause too much harm to the people, presumably by raising their
taxes. Since this kind of opposition only showed that even men in high position
had no understanding of what was right, King Yejong was powerless to resist
the negative views of his officials. Even though Yejong was an admirer of cul-
ture and refinement, he was surrounded with men whose tastes were given to
"luxury and ostentation, and who spent their time mumbling lines of poetry and
had no far-reaching understanding of what it took to govern a state."
Yu also blamed resistance to the adoption of cash on a pervasive resistance
toward change among Koreans in general. "The feelings of ordinary people are
that if you are happy with something, you continue doing it. but if you dislike
it, you change things, [an attitude that] is even more valid in our country." Fur-
thermore, the inability of Koreans to maintain a law or system for any length
of time was aptly summed up in an old aphorism about Koryl) times, that "in
Korea if some public policy lasted for three days, why wouldn't you trust [that
it would continue permanently]7" In short, Yu was not only an admirer of more
advanced Chinese institutions and methods, he believed lhat the Korean peo-