Letter to the Hamgyeong Inspector and the Northern Army Commander移咸鏡道巡察使北道兵使文
有人來言本道之弊其中甲士正兵中凡赴防者幸有疾病事故輒不到防遷延一朔則倍退立二朔前番未畢後番隨之何暇治農業哉此人逃亡則侵漁一族一族逃亡則及於一族之一族切隣之切隣是以一人之故而民悉流亡退立闕番長在道上民寃不貲極爲寒心各別變通善爲處置俾無如此之弊北方守令等或拘一時之利害誘致藩胡之有罪者便加誅戮鎭將自以爲能事閫師亦以爲當然作爲常規每有是擧誠不知一再誘殺之後更無可欺之方誘術有限變生無竆他日之患未必不由於誘殺大槪邊和之失皆出於處置之失宜况加之以誘殺無理之事乎今後申勅如有誘殺藩胡自以爲功者逐一捉囚重論嚴明禁斷勿使激成邊釁
A certain man came and spoke of the abuses of this province. Among them he said that when one of the elite guards or the regular soldiers who is to go to garrison duty happens to fall ill or meet with some mishap and so does not reach his post, if he is delayed a month he is made to serve double, and if two months, the following shift comes on before the preceding one has ended. What leisure has he then to tend his farming? When this man runs away, his kinsmen are plundered; when the kinsmen run away, it reaches to the kinsmen's kinsmen and to the near neighbors' near neighbors. In this way, because of one man the people all scatter and flee, and they serve double shifts and leave shifts empty and are long upon the roads; the people's grievance is beyond reckoning, and it is utterly disheartening. Make changes with particular care and arrange things well, so that such abuses cease.
The magistrates of the north, bound at times by the gain and loss of a moment, entice away those among the frontier Jurchen settlements who have committed some offense and straightway cut them down. The garrison commanders call it a thing well done, and the provincial commanders too hold it to be proper; they make a standing rule of it and do such things constantly. They truly do not understand that after one or two have been enticed and killed there will be no further way of deceiving them. The arts of enticement have their limit, while the arising of troubles has no end; and it cannot be said that the sorrows of a later day will not stem from this enticing and killing. In general the loss of friendly relations on the frontier always comes of arrangements that have lost what is proper. How much more when the lawless business of enticing and killing is added to it.
From now on impress it upon them that if there be any who entice and kill men of the frontier settlements and call it their own merit, each one is to be seized and imprisoned and heavily dealt with; forbid it strictly and clearly, and let no one stir up and make a breach on the frontier.
Interlinear notes 1
「Beonho」 refers to the Jurchen settlements that had come to live near the frontier.