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228 book V situation in detail. If the land taxes have been stolen and hidden, it is the scribe who knows their exact amount. The yamen clerks, being coarse and rough, know only the general outline of what goes on; on the other hand, the scribe, who is trained to be precise, distinguishes every little item. If the magistrate, upon arriving , first intimidates the scribe by his strictness and personal dignity, interrogating his trickery through other channels and at the same time showing a possibility of forgiveness, the blind spots of irregularities will be exposed unexpectedly. CHAPTER : SUBORDINATING PETTY FUNCTIONARIES AND UNDERLINGS The Only Good Way to Command Subordinates Is Dignity and Trust. Since Dignity Is Born of Integrity and Trust Results from Sincerity, the Magistrate Cannot Make Them Obey Him Unless He Shows His Integrity and Sincerity. When Xie Shangcai was magistrate of Yingcheng, Hu Wending visited him at the yamen. When he was about to enter the gate, he noticed that the yamen underlings were standing in the yard as if they were figures made of either earth or wood. This was because they were struck with admiration for the personal dignity and sincerity of Xie Shangcai. Xue Jingxuan [Xuan] said, “One must not have partiality in the slightest degree. If one shows partiality, his subordinates will surely despise him because they are aware of being treated unfairly. I used to have a servant years ago. Finding him a smart fellow, I frequently employed him in various missions, and other servants were reluctant to deal with him. Finally I had to dismiss him. Although this is a little thing, it gives us a lesson that one who is a magistrate must treat his men without any preference at all.” Military Officers [Kungyo] Enforcing the Law Are Rough and Violent. The Tyrannical Behavior of These Men Must Be Strictly Restrained. Those who are born in town and neither have education nor hope to become good men, indulging in rough and wicked behavior, usually take a military 27. Xie Liangzuo (1050–1103), a Neo-Confucian scholar of the Northern Song dynasty and a native of Shangcai, which is modern Anhui Province. He took the name of his hometown as his pen name. A disciple of two Chengs (Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi), he developed a doctrine that attempted to unite mind and heart and influenced the early phase of Zhu Xi’s philosophy. 28. Hu Anguo (1074–1138), a scholar of the Northern Song dynasty. Wending was his posthumous title. His courtesy name was Kanghou, and his pen names Wuyi Xiansheng and Caoan Jushi. He served as academician of the Hall for Treasuring Culture (Baowenge). Personnel Administration 229 career. They drink with entertaining girls and take away property of the people by force. Their profession can be classified into three categories: first, guard officers , who include regiment commander [ch’ŏnch’ong], battalion commander [p’ach’ong], and so forth; second, military officer [kungwan] or director of the military affairs section [pyŏngbang changmu]; and third, sheriff [p’ogyo] or lawenforcement officer [t’op’odojang]. Gate guards harass people for their own purposes. However, if their tactics do not work, they designate people as either company commander [ch’ogwan] or banner-unit leader [kip’aegwan] so that they have a hard time. If those selected for such assignments try to evade the command, the gate guards grab them and ask for bribes or force them to stand duty during the busy agricultural season. Hence the magistrate must investigate these abuses. If law-enforcement officials are appointed marshals or agents on a mission [ch’asa] to represent the magistrate, they demand bribes and collect money from the people as if they have gained powerful positions. So wherever they visit, people treat them with wine and noodles, butchering chickens and pigs. Knowing these problems in advance, the magistrate should not dispatch marshals lightly unless there is an emergency like treason. I have observed that the magistrate who is incompetent in handling his job often dispatches marshals from the beginning for the purpose of collecting taxes and grain, and these marshals are called “superintendent” [kŏmdok]. They take away calves and pull out cauldrons, binding the people, including the old, and slapping them on the face. Consequently, wherever the marshals pass by, doors are smashed and villages are destroyed. The magistrate, therefore, should not unleash these tigers to devour the people and accumulate his wrongdoings; it would be much better for him to receive...

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