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3. Repair of the Yamen Office
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Public Works Administration 857 them, the system became an abuse to the residents on the riverside and was finally abolished. Afterward the local government bought fish in the market even when it had an important guest like a concurrent mobile inspector but had no problems. Things similar to this can happen in all the districts along the rivers.” CHAPTER : REPAIR OF THE YAMEN OFFICE If the Yamen Office Is Allowed to Remain Unrepaired until It Tilts Sideways and Part of the Building Crumbles, Rain Drips through the Ceiling, and Gusts of Wind Blow In, This Is Also a Great Fault of the Magistrate. The magistrate who is not benevolent is anxious only to make his fortune and keep his position as long as he can, and therefore he neither loves the king above him nor cares about the people below him. Since he is reluctant to fix things even if they collapse or crumble, this is the reason that the yamen office building in bad condition always remains unrepaired. If the magistrate happens to repair the building , he tends to seek personal profit under the pretext of carrying out his official duty. Thus he recklessly decides on the goods and expenditures at will to enrich himself while he begs for support from the provincial office. Sucking the fat and blood of the people in conspiracy with clerks, he manipulates the grain in the granaries and snatches what is left to fill his pocket. However, he soon falls into the net of the law. Fixing the yamen office in disrepair, for this reason, is regarded as something that entices a man into a quagmire of crimes. Hence the magistrate, however upright he may be, becomes so cautious and fearful that he prefers to avoid doing anything risky while he is in that post. Supporting a wall with a wooden block and patching the holes in the roof, he just finishes a few years of his term and transfers to another post, but his successor also does the same. Do they not realize that the yamen office is a place that the king specially prepared for the residence of his magistrates , as well as for the guesthouse for accommodating his messengers? If one of the shingles in the office building is broken, the magistrate should be responsible for it. How does he dare to neglect maintaining the yamen office like this? In the early years of the Chosŏn dynasty the magistrate was strictly prohibited from repairing the yamen office privately. That kind of law was probably made because some avaricious magistrates misappropriated part of the repair funds. However, many officials who were outstanding in integrity and capability defied the prohibition and actually repaired the yamen office during their terms, and the facts were all recorded in the introductions and records produced by distinguished officials and celebrities. Nowadays the state sets no prohibition, and the people feel sorry when they look at the run-down yamen office. Under these circumstances , should it be right for the magistrate just to look at the run-down yamen office without taking any action? 858 book X The following is in Sun Qiao’s chronicle of Baocheng Post Station: “When the guests arrive in the evening, they want blankets to cover themselves, as well as food to satisfy their hunger. However, since they arrive in the evening and leave in the morning, how can they be expected to care about the place in which they happen to stay overnight? Figuratively speaking, they are like those who rent a boat and, ignoring any repairs that need to be made, keep fishing until the oars are broken or the gunwale is damaged or the weathercock on top of the mast falls off; they are also like those who, while fishing, stop fishing only after draining the pond and catching all the fish, rummaging through the mud. Much worse, they feed their horses in the porch and make their hawks sleep in the main hall. Thus it is difficult to prevent them from damaging the building, as well as the fixtures in it, let alone making it dirty.” In my observation, it is the custom of the magistrate who lacks benevolence not merely to make his home in the yamen office but to leave it dirty or damaged. In olden days, when Yi T’oegye departed from Tanyang after finishing the term of his magistracy, the clerks and residents were very pleased to find that the rooms occupied by...