Letter to the Gyeonggi Inspector移京畿巡察使文
近來兵事紊雜雖有抄軍之令而隱漏者太半被抄者未免鍊習之勞而閭閻安坐者反以爲笑本府前者慮有此弊便各營之軍皆帶腰牌定其寸數左營則爲直牌而刻名處塡以靑色後營則爲曲牌而塡以黑色右營則爲方牌而塡以白色前營則爲銳牌而塡以赤色四營諸會則不待考閱而可知其爲某營之軍閭閻之中如有丁壯不爲帶牌者則卽係閒遊漏落之人自無所容此乃紀效新書之法而我國兵典中令水軍帶牌者亦此意也聞左營則前防禦使時幾盡帶牌但未知寸數塡刻如何其他則皆置之相忘之域極爲未便但各使其軍爲之則寸數或大或小塡刻或不精靑朱白黑亦難分明殊非軍陣整齊之意今後於各營使其營將得善手匠人一依見樣磨造精刻其面塡以依方之色分諸五司巡行佩之旣畢報于本府則當不時發遣軍官使之暗行村落點檢虛實本道急速申勅擧行
Of late military affairs are in disorder and confusion, and though there be an order to levy soldiers, the greater part hide themselves and slip away. Those who are levied cannot escape the toil of drill and practice, while those who sit at ease in the villages mock them for it.
This office, fearing earlier that there would be such an abuse, had the soldiers of every camp all wear a waist tally, and fixed their measurements. The Left Camp has a straight tally with the place where the name is carved filled in with blue; the Rear Camp a curved tally filled in with black; the Right Camp a square tally filled in with white; the Front Camp a pointed tally filled in with red. When all four camps gather, one can tell which camp a soldier belongs to without waiting to check and call the roll. If among the villages there is an able-bodied man not wearing a tally, he is at once marked as an idler who has slipped away, and there is of itself nowhere for him to be tolerated. This is the method of the Jixiao Xinshu, and in the military code of our own country the having of the naval soldiers wear tallies is of this same intent.
I hear that in the Left Camp nearly all took up their tallies in the time of the former Defense Commander, but what the measurements and the filling and carving are like is not known. The rest have all been left in a state of mutual forgetfulness, which is utterly improper. Yet if each is simply made to have his own soldiers make them, the measurements will be now large and now small, the filling and carving will at times be imprecise, and the blue, red, white, and black will be hard to tell apart — which is by no means the way to make a camp uniform.
From now on let each camp have its camp commander find a skilled artisan and have them ground and made all alike after the pattern shown, with the faces carved precisely and filled in with the color proper to the quarter. Let them be shared out among the five companies and worn in turn, and when it is finished report to this office; I shall then send military officers at unexpected times to go secretly through the villages and check the truth of it. Let this province impress it with all speed and have it carried out.
Interlinear notes 1
五月二十八日
The twenty-eighth day of the fifth month.