崔鳴吉의 국정운영론

Abstract

The followings are gist of national administration theory of Choi Myeong- gil(1586～1647) who was in active mainly during King Injo of the Joseon Dynasty. Choi Myeong-gil won King Injo's confidence after a political change and was appointed at personnel affairs related departments such as the Vice Minister of Personnel and the Minister of Personnel. He suggested various policies regarding fostering and utilizing competent persons such as limitation of ages for the protected appointments, fair operation of the civil service examination, preparation of the promotion measures of the National Confucian Academy(Seonggyungwan) education, simplifying interview procedure for easy communication between the king and servants, how to make civil servants work in a position for a long time, securing official of the Censor-General independent speech activity, etc. As for economic policies, he claimed that burdens of the public should be lessened through reforming national finances such as abolishing garrison land (Dunjeon) of Chunghumbu, the undertaking of a cadastral survey of landholding throughout the country, calculation of appropriate indirect payment(Bangnap), reduction of tax, preparation of distribution policy for coins, etc. For social policies, he proposed implementation of identity tag(Hopae) system, having Nakgang Gyosaengs or the sons of yangban by secondary wives of Merit Subjects pay exemption cloth instead of working for the army, reduction of the public work due to rationalization of tomb management regulations, crackdown on powerful class' luxurious habit, adopting common people to send to the Qing Dynasty as public girls, and establishment of the foundation of constitutional government through publishing a code of laws. With regard to military policies, he suggested reinforcement of national defense through fostering an elite troop, allowing to hold two jobs of the county military commanders and the county magistrates, providing salaries to Cheomsa and Manho, pardon of soldiers who ran away, abolishing three command(Samwi) system of Chungjang, Chungik and Chungsun, transformation of private soldiers into the central army, and preparation of military confidential protective policies. Historical evaluation based on differences between Choi Myeong-gil' national administration theory and others' is left for future studies.