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975 XII Departure CHAPTER : REPLACEMENT AND TRANSFER No Magistrate Can Avoid Replacement. If the Magistrate Is Not Surprised by the News of His Replacement and Is Not Worried about Losing His Job, He Will Be Respected by the People. There are twenty titles altogether that address the replacement of magistracy: first, replacement called kwach’e, which happens due to the expiration of the term (it indicates that three or six years of the magistrate’s term have expired); second, replacement called sŭngch’e, which happens due to promotion (it indicates cases of promotion from district to county, from prefecture to special prefecture ); third, replacement called naech’e, which happens due to transfer (moving to positions in the central government in Seoul); fourth, replacement called soch’e, which happens due to a royal order (it indicates cases in which an individual is called to three offices, the Office of the Inspector General, Office of the Censor General, and Office of the Special Counselors, which are generally referred to as Samsa, or the Palace Library and the Royal Secretariat, which are called Kakwŏn); and fifth, replacement called hwanch’e (which happens due to transfer from one district to another). These five replacements as a whole are called “normal replacement” (sunch’e). The sixth is replacement called ip’ich’e (which is intended to avoid [working under] a superior who is a kinsman); seventh , replacement called hyŏmch’e (which is intended to avoid [working under] a superior who has a suspicious relationship with the former generations of the concerned magistrate); eighth, replacement called naech’e (which happens when an official in the central government is relegated to the local magistracy); ninth, 976 book XII replacement called soch’e (which happens due to a request for resignation submitted to the king); and tenth, replacement called yuch’e (which happens due to a failure to return to a post after taking a leave of absence). These five replacements are generally called kyŏngch’e, which signifies sudden and unexpected replacement. The eleventh is replacement called p’yŏmch’e (which happens due to poor job performance); twelfth, replacement called ch’ulch’e (which happens due to accusations made by other officials); thirteenth, replacement called pakch’e (which happens due to the impeachment of the Office of the Inspector General and Office of the Censor General); fourteenth, replacement called nach’e (which happens due to wrongdoings committed prior to or during the magistracy ); and fifteenth, replacement called pongch’e (which happens due to the closing of the granary and dismissal carried out by the royal inspector). These five replacements are generally called choech’e, which signifies replacement due to wrongdoing or crimes. The sixteenth is replacement called sach’e (which happens due to a resignation submitted to protest a superior’s disrespect or insult ); seventeenth, replacement called t’uch’e (which happens due to an argument with a superior, which results in throwing away one’s official seal and returning home); eighteenth, replacement called pyŏngch’e (which happens due to sickness); nineteenth, replacement called sangch’e (which happens due to one’s parents’ death); and twentieth, replacement called chongch’e (which happens due to death). These five replacements are all cases related to one’s misfortune. If shipwrecked foreigners arrive on an island in his domain, criminals cross the national border (in the northwest), grain transport ships are shipwrecked, convicts escape from the jail, the tribute horses suffer damage or loss, tribute ginseng is rejected, an autopsy is conducted improperly, a rotating army fails to report on time (due to an unexpected flood), and so forth, which are all unexpected events, the magistrate is inevitably held responsible and removed from his office. If the causes of replacement or dismissal are this numerous in the position of magistrate alone, which is relatively low in the hierarchy of government bureaucracy , how can it be possible to rely on a government post? An old proverb, “Serving in the government is no better than working as a farmhand,” just indicates an unpredictable situation in which an official who is promoted in the morning is dismissed in the evening. Nevertheless, the magistrate who is so shallow as to mistake the yamen office for his own house and plans to stay there for a long time loses his color and control as if he has lost a great treasure when he receives an official dispatch from his superior and a letter from his capital agent concerning his replacement...

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