We have already mentioned some of the reforms inaugurated. First he gained a signal victory over his rival Hŭ Mok who tried to have him degraded because of his position in regard to the period of the queen’s mourning. Song Si-ryŭl went over the whole ground again, cited history in support of his views and silenced by a simple and conclusive argument the captious criticism of his detractors, but he showed his greatness in not using his power to have his enemies killed, an act of generosity which later cost him his life. The following are some of the reforms instituted, and we give them here in full, for they afford a deep insight into the condition of the people. It had been very common for men to leave their families and go off to some monastery and become monks. Now, the Buddhist monasteries are the poor-houses of Korea. Beggary is uncommon, but often, when a man has no visible means of support, he will shave his head, don the garb of a monk and spend part of the year at some monastery and the remainder in receiving donations from the people in the shape of rice or money. To do this they necessarily desert their families. To counteract this evil the king sent forth an edict that no more men with family ties should desert them in this way, and furthermore that all monks who had families living should doff their religious garb and come back to the world and support their families like honest men. The _ajun_ is a peculiar excrescence on the body politic of Korea. He is the prefect’s clerk, or factor, or agent, or pimp, or jack-of-all-trades. He is in a large sense the incarnation of all his master’s vices, to which he adds many of his own. A royal edict was promulgated which brought a host of these men to justice and compelled them to disgorge much of their illgotten gains, which were given back, so far as possible, to the people from whom they had been extorted. In this case the reform was notable because of the limit which was put to it. Ordinarily in Korea, when a man is caught and made a public example of in this way, the law extends the punishment to the near and remote relatives of the culprit, and many innocent men suffer with the guilty; but in this case only actual offenders were punished. It was strictly forbidden to call to account any man’s relative because of his fault. For many years all the salt factories and fisheries had been groaning under a heavy tax which went to support an almost unlimited number of the king’s relatives; but now these taxes were entirely remitted. We are not told what the relatives did. Let us hope they went to work. It had become customary for the tax collectors to demand a poll tax not only from grown men, who alone were taxable according to law, but from children as well. This abuse was likewise remedied.