Yangban

The yangban (Hangul: 양반) were part of the traditional ruling class or gentry of dynastic Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. The yangban were mainly composed of civil servants and military officers. The yangban were landed or unlanded aristocracy who comprised the Korean Confucian idea of a "scholarly official." Basically, they were administrators and bureaucrats who oversaw ancient Korea's traditional agrarian bureaucracy until the medieval regime of Joseon Dynasty ended in 1894. In a broader sense, office holder's family and descendants as well as country families who claimed such descendance were socially accepted as yangban.

Overview

Unlike noble titles in the European and Japanese aristocracies, which were conferred on a hereditary basis, the yangban title was granted by law to individuals who passed state-sponsored civil service exams called gwageo (과거, 科擧). Upon passing these exams—which tested knowledge of the Confucian classics and history—several times, a person was usually assigned to a government post. A yangban family that did not produce a government official for more than three generations could lose its status and become commoners. In theory, a member of any social class except indentured servants, baekjeongs, and children of concubines could take the government exams and become a yangban. In reality, only the upper classes—i.e., the children of yangban—possessed the financial resources and the wherewithal to pass the exams, for which years of studying were required. These barriers and financial constraints effectively excluded most non-yangban families and the lower classes from competing for yangban status.