Note 109 — Journaal
Reading edition
“Close communication between the palace and populace is kept up by means of the pages employed at the court, or through officers, who are sent out as the king’s spies all over the country. An E-sa, or commissioner, who is to be sent to a distant province to ascertain the popular feeling, or to report the conducts of certain officers ... receives sealed orders from the king, which he must not open till beyond the city wall ... He bears the seal of his commission, a silver plate having the figure of a horse engraved on it. In some cases he has the power of life and death in his hands” (Griffis, Corea, 1905, bl. 221–222).