(15) They shall stop the making of poor gun-powder and of muskets with too small a bore.
(16) They shall enforce the law that the grandson of a slave is free.
(17) They shall see to it that the prefects in P‘yŭng-an Province do not receive revenue above the legal amount.
Each of these specifications might be made the heading of a long chapter in Korean history. We have here in epitome the causes of Korea’s condition to-day.
The governor of Kang-wŭn Province stated that on account of the frequent famines he could not send three men annually as heretofore to the island of Ul-leung (Dagelet), but the king replied that as the Japanese had asked for that island, it would be necessary to make the annual inspection as heretofore.
In the year 1734 the king made his second son heir to the throne; he did away with the punishment of men who sold goods in competition with the guilds or monopolies established at Chong-no, the center of the capital. There had been so many royal deaths that the people had become accustomed to the use of white clothes, and had forgotten all other custom[custom]. But the king now declared that white was the worst of colors because it soiled so easily, and he ordered the use of blue, red or black, but giving the preference to the first as being the color that corresponds with east. In the early years of the dynasty King Se-jong had made a gauge of the size of whipping rods. It was shaped like a gun barrel, and no one was to be whipped with a rod that could not be put into this gauge like a ramrod. The king revived this law and had many gauges made and sent all about the country to the different prefectures. He also forbade anyone but a properly authorised official to administer a whipping, and he abrogated the law by which thieves were branded by being struck in the forehead and on each cheek with a great bunch of needles after which ink was rubbed into the wounds. He next did away with the clumsy three-decked war-vessels which were slow and unseaworthy and in place of them substituted what he called the “Sea Falcon Boat” which had sails extending from the sides like wings, and which combined both speed and safety. These he stationed all along the coast.
While on a trip to Song-do the king paid a compliment to the people of Pu-jo-gă, the ward in that city where dwell the descendants of the men of the former dynasty, who do not acknowledge the present dynasty, and thus show their loyalty to their ancient master. At the same time he, for the first time, inclosed in a fence the celebrated Sön-juk Bridge, where still shows the blood of the murdered statesman Chöng Mong-ju.
Since the days of King Se-jong, who determined the length of the Korean yard-stick, that useful instrument had shrunken in some measure and its length differed in different localities. So now again the king gave strict orders about it and required all yard-sticks to be made to conform to a pattern which he gave. Previous to the days of King Myŭng-jong men of the literary degrees dressed in red, but white had gradually taken its place; and now the king ordered them to go back to the good old custom. The official grade called Halyim became such an object of strife among the officials that the king was constrained to abolish it, though it has since been revived. Two of the emperors of the Sung dynasty in China have their graves on Korean soil in the vicinity of Kap-san. The duty of keeping these graves in order was now placed in the hands of the governor of Ham-gyŭng Province. The king anticipated the death of all party strife by setting up a monument at the Song-gyun-gwan in memory thereof and he ordered the people of different parties to intermarry and become good friends. During the Manchu and Japanese invasions all the musical instruments had been either destroyed or stolen, and as yet they had not been wholly replaced, but now there were found in a well at the palace a set of twenty-four metal pendants which, when struck with a hammer, gave four various musical notes. The inscriptions on them indicated that they had come down from the time of King Se-jong. This aroused the king’s interest and he set skillful men at work making various instruments, notably a small chime of bells to be used at the royal ancestral worship.
Chapter XII.
Gates roofed.... superstition.... sorcery interdicted.... a plebiscite.... wine-bibber executed.... a female Buddha.... growth of Roman Catholicism.... sanitation.... a senile king.... suspicions against the Crown Prince.... plot against him.... an ambitious woman.... the prince’s trial.... a painful scene.... the prince killed.... law against wine relaxed.... sacrifice.... census.... various changes.... party schism.... emancipation proclamation.... a dangerous uncle.... a new king.... literary works.... justice.... study of Christianity.... various innovations.... rumors of war....“birthplace” of Roman Catholicism in Korea.... opposition.... terrible scourge of cholera.... conspiracy.... women’s coiffure.... Roman Catholic persecution.... Roman Catholic books declared seditious.... prosperity and adversity.... a Chinese priest enters Korea.... types made.... literary works.... suggestion as to coinage.... Chinese priest asks that a Portugese embassy be sent to Korea.... the king not violently opposed to Christianity.