Chapter 186
Premodern population censuses were not as accurate as modern ones.
Even so, Joseon was among the most thoroughly centralized states of the fifteenth century, so the discrepancy between census results and the actual population was relatively small.
However, when a war like the Imjin War or something like a great famine struck, the administrative network was liable to collapse. As a result, the census system had so many flaws that the population recorded in household registers often fell to half its previous level.
According to historians' estimates, many people certainly died when such disasters occurred, but even at the highest estimate, the dead and missing amounted to only around 10 percent of the total population.
“Jinhae County was the district where Kim Daebung first took office and established a system, and the magistrates who followed him also worked themselves to the bone for the people. Yet the population has changed this dramatically simply because the household census was conducted using a new method. I cannot help but be astonished.”
When Sejong first learned that Jinhae County's population had increased by 15 percent, he was utterly shocked.
However, his mind, which had demonstrated genius in every field, began analyzing how Jinhae County's population could have increased so rapidly.
It must have been difficult for magistrates or yangban to find slash-and-burn farmers who set fire to mountains to cultivate fields, or people who had hidden themselves in remote places to evade military service and taxes.
He also knew that although Joseon's administration was more sophisticated than those of Ming or Japan, it was not so perfect that it could locate every person of that sort.
Therefore, the power of the magistrate and the clerks alone was insufficient to determine the number of every person living in the district.
“At first, I even wondered whether the previous magistrates of Jinhae County had simply lacked the will to determine the number of people in their district properly. But after thinking about it calmly, I realized that there is only one magistrate in a district, and even if all the district clerks were counted together, there were not very many of them. Besides, they all live gathered in the town, so... it must have been difficult for them to know the circumstances of villages in every remote corner of the district.”
“Your Majesty's thoughts are correct. No matter how many decades a clerk may have lived in a district, how could he possibly know the circumstances of people who moved from one remote part of the district to another?”
“The Chief State Councillor is right. That is why Kim Daebung sought to group the people into myeon, ri, tong, and ban, so that the magistrate governing the district could rule it properly.”
A yangban understands the circumstances of yangban best, while a farmer understands those of farmers best.
Even in the modern world, where the status system has been abolished and members of the National Assembly and children from extremely wealthy families attend the same elementary, middle, and high schools and universities as ordinary children...
many twenty-first-century politicians do not know how much a bus fare costs.
After this became a problem several times, one of the tasks young aides reportedly handled was informing politicians who never had to ride buses or subways how much public transportation fares were.
And after learning this, a politician will even make a show in the National Assembly, boasting to other lawmakers that he is a good politician who works this hard for ordinary people.
Even more so, although the magistrate and the ordinary people of a district live in the same place, their ways of life are entirely different, and they have few opportunities to become involved with one another...
so it was only natural that the magistrates did not know the circumstances of the people.
Kim Daebung had carefully taken this into consideration and sought to group the people into myeon, ri, tong, and ban so that the government office could understand their circumstances a little better.
“If this system is implemented widely, it will become much easier for district magistrates to manage the people, and the population will also be determined far more accurately. Therefore, the court should move this forward so that the magistrates of every district throughout the country can use Jinhae County as a model and introduce the myeon-ri system.”
Determining the number of people properly was not simply about collecting more taxes or increasing the number of people who would be taken away for military service.
By efficiently supporting those who wandered from place to place because they had no proper occupation, helping them settle down, find work, and live respectable lives...
we could prevent people outside the system of the Joseon state from eventually becoming bandits or pirates and gnawing away at the country.
‘A hundred bandits can harm several times that number of people.’
If they put down roots in some remote place and ambushed travelers passing through it, the land routes would be paralyzed.
They might also pillage nearby villages, just as the Jurchen did.
At that moment, the Minister of War reported with a broad smile on his face.
“Your Majesty, as the number of people registered in the household registers has increased, will the number of people available for military service not increase as well? Therefore, would it not be appropriate to conscript more people and have them protect the territory in Liaodong that Joseon has newly conquered?”
The Minister of War's words were not wrong from a strictly principled perspective.
However, although they were correct from the perspective of rigidly following the rules, if one shifted one's perspective even slightly, this was something that absolutely must not be implemented.
It was certainly a good thing that the widespread implementation of the myeon-ri system allowed the state to determine the number of people more accurately and collect more taxes than before...
but should it be content with increasing taxes and also increase the number of people who could bear military service?
If that happened, the people would find the suddenly increased burden of the myeon-ri system and central control extremely onerous, eventually losing trust in the government and only worsening the problem.
‘Pursue a small gain, and you will lose everything.’
“King Taejo ordered the people to perform military service to protect the ancestral shrines and state from invasions by the Jurchen and Japan after founding the country, but the system has many shortcomings and causes the people great suffering. If we seek only to increase the number of soldiers immediately without solving the fundamental problems of military service, we will intensify the people's suffering and only cause them to lose trust in the court.”
“My thinking was too short-sighted. I apologize, Your Majesty.”
“However, as the Minister of War said, we do need an army to hold the newly conquered territory. Therefore, Minister of War, devise a way to increase the number of soldiers while minimizing the burden placed on the people.”
The ministers' expressions gradually darkened when they heard this.
Sejong's words about minimizing the harm imposed on the people were certainly noble in intent, but for the people who had to design the system, they made life miserable in every possible way.
Yet when a king orders you to do something, you have no choice but to do it; that was a subject's fate, so they had no choice but to accept the order.
“Furthermore, although the myeon-ri system is a very good system, if it is operated improperly, the local yangban could control the people and turn the magistrate into a puppet.”
The clerks possessed less wealth than the yangban of the district, and were also inferior to them in status.
Although it was nearly impossible in practice for even such powerful yangban to pool their influence and turn the magistrate into a complete puppet...
if the yangban were also given a legal system through which they could control the people...
then, if that system were abused and left unchecked, the magistrate might one day find himself watching the yangban's every move.
“Furthermore, Joseon must never follow the example of Shang Yang's fifteen-household system and punish everyone belonging to the same myeon, ri, tong, or ban simply because one of them committed a crime.”
Of course, the criminal who committed the wrong and anyone who sheltered him could be punished.
But punishing innocent commoners who knew nothing about it and had no connection to the crime would be no different from killing a captured criminal and innocent people together.
Sejong had no intention whatsoever of repeating that contradiction.
“As for how to introduce the myeon-ri system throughout the country, have Uijeongbu and Jiphyeonjeon review the matter and submit a memorial.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
When Sejong said that he was entrusting the work to the two institutions, Uijeongbu's ministers, including Hwang Hui, simultaneously decided to dump all the work of drafting guidelines for the myeon-ri system and compiling geographical gazetteers on Jiphyeonjeon.
They thought that someone working at Jiphyeonjeon would produce a perfect draft, greatly reducing the amount of work they themselves would have to do.
“Furthermore, the merchants of Jinhae have submitted a memorial saying that, following Kim Daebung's persuasion, they will voluntarily pay 16 percent of their income beginning next year.”
“The merchants appear to have made a truly commendable choice.”
That was what they said aloud, but the moment the phrase ‘Kim Daebung's persuasion’ entered the conversation, the word ‘axe’ appeared in the ministers' minds.
Kim Daebung had never once picked up an axe and danced around like an executioner...
yet the image of him dancing with an axe in hand appeared so vividly in their minds that it seemed almost visible.
“Furthermore, they have sent up many local specialties, such as dried persimmons, dried anchovies, and paulownia tableware, expressing their gratitude for Your Majesty's boundless grace. The dried persimmons were very sweet and had a soft texture, the broth made from the dried anchovies they presented had given soups and stews a wonderfully deep flavor, and the paulownia tableware was so sturdy and beautiful that it was more than good enough for use in the palace.”
Kim Daebung had written in the memorial that since they had agreed to pay their taxes, His Majesty should praise them a little in return for their loyalty.
Sejong had provided a bit of publicity—not that anyone would officially call it publicity—because he believed that when one received something, one should give something in return.
“You may all withdraw now.”
And because the ministers had already reached an agreement among themselves, they were able, as if they had rehearsed it beforehand, to neatly organize the assignments to be sent to Jiphyeonjeon the moment they left the inner council chamber.
When Byeon Gye-ryang, the Chief Scholar of Jiphyeonjeon, received them, he inadvertently made the mistake of letting out a vicious curse.
Yet no one said anything about it, and there was not even any gossip behind his back.
The amount of work they had sent over was absurdly enormous.