Yangban

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Yangban
This picture shows the two gentlemen of yangban class playing janggi, misidentified in the photo's caption as go-ban, in 1904.
Korean name
Hangul	양반
Hanja	兩班
Revised Romanization	Yangban
McCune–Reischauer	Yangban

The Yangban were part of the traditional ruling class or nobles of dynastic Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. The Yangban were either landed or unlanded aristocracy who comprised the Confucian idea of a "scholarly official." In reality, however, they were basically administrators and petty bureaucrats who oversaw ancient Korea's traditional agrarian bureaucracy until the Joseon Dynasty ended in 1910. Like the European and Japanese aristocracy where noble titles were conferred on a hereditary basis, the Yangban class was solely determined by an individual's birth. The social status or the ranks within the Yangban class were often determined by position one held in the government and hence tended to shift from generation to generation. Once an individual passed the rigours of civil service exams ("과거"), which tested one's knowledge of Chinese characters and the Confucian classics, the individual would be conferred a relevant position in the government depending on the performance in the exams. Yangban were the only class of people who were eligible to take civil service exams. However, chungin (the middle classes or the petite bourgeoisie) were allowed to take the equivalent exams in the medical field and hence become physicians within the royal palace, though the king's personal physicial had to be of Yangban class and therefore any chungin chosen for the honour was elevate to Yangban class. Many Yangban chose not to take the civil service exams and pursued their interests in the arts of writing, poetry, painting etc. Also, Yangban were bound to intermarry with other Yangbans, thus creating class solidarity and the formation of a distinctive social group that existed between the royal family, the Wangjok, and the commoners, or chungin and sangmin.

Throughout Joseon history, the monarchy and the yangban existed on the slave labor of the lower classes—particularly the sangmin -- whose bondage to the land and indentured servitude enabled the upper classes to enjoy a perpetual life of leisure—i.e., the life of a "scholarly" gentleman. The chungin, however, were more like the petite bourgeoisie in Europe as they tended to be skilled laborers and shopkeepers whose professional skills—like bookeeping, Calligraphy, light manufacturing, farming—etc. were invaluable to the Yangban.

In modern Korea today, the yangban or sajok legacy of patronage based on common educational experiences, teachers, family backgrounds and hometowns, continues in some forms, both officially and unofficially. While the practice exists in the South among Korea's upper class and power elite, where patronage in businesses and large conglomerates tends to predictably follow blood, school and hometown ties, in the North, a de facto yangban class exists that is based mostly on military and party alliances.

Etymology

The word yangban, literally meaning "two ranks," refers to two different types of bureaucrats; one being munban (문반;文班), of the literary or scholarly rank, and the other being muban (무반;武班), of the martial rank. Since the sixteenth century, the word yangban underwent a semantic change and began to include the family members of the literal yangbans, thus blurring the difference between yangban and sajok. Sajok (사족;士族) is a term that is similar in meaning to yangban. However sajok used to be a much broader term than the former in that jok (족;族) always refers to family members and descendents of the office holders including the officials themself. In that sense there is a limited similarity with Europe's hereditary aristocracy. However, the yangban continue to be associated with a class of professional civil servants.

History

Yangban were the Joseon Dynasty equivalent of the former Goryeo nobles who had been educated in both Buddhist and Confucian studies. With the succession of the Yi generals within the Joseon dynasty, prior feuds and factions were quelled through a decisive attempt to instill administrative organization throughout Korea, and create a new class of agrarian bureaucrats. The yangban were in fact modelled on Ming dynasty Mandarins (bureaucrats, from which Korea copied everything, including the system of standardized civil service exams based on the Chinese classics, making them the sine qua non to entering the mandarinate during what is called Joseon's Golden Era.

Yangban were the only class that could take the "civil service exams" ("과거"), and there was much incentive to do so, as passing such exams were guaranteed to confer instant elevation in rank by being appoointed to an official position within Joseon's agrarian bureaucracy. In practice, however, it was often the wealthy and the connected that had the advantages in studying for such exams, let alone the means and the ability to sustain themselves while studying literally for years. Hence these tests often favored those from well established and wealthy yangban families. The yangban, like the mandarins before them, dominated the Royal Court and Military of pre-Modern Korea and often were exempt from various laws including those relating to taxes.

The yangban system was relatively free of corruption in the earlier part of the dynasty. After the Seven-Year War, however, the system collapsed along with the rest of Joseon society. Accordingly, in addition to state support granted to them by virtue of their position, the yangban often solicited and took bribes in exchange for positions in the Royal Courts and the Military. Often, corrupt yangban confiscated land from the lower classes by imposing prohibitively excessive land taxes, then seizing the land under the pretense of nonpayment.

In modern-day Korea, the yangban, as a social class, no longer exists. Nevertheless, someone who is rather well connected in Korean society, is euphemistically considered to have "yangban" connections, even though those connections may or may not have any real yangban lineage or ancestry. Regardless, the yangban class of old has been replaced in modern-day South Korea by the Korean ruling class,i.e., an elite class of business and governmental elites, who dominate the country through their wealth, power and influence channeled through their familial and social networks.

Ranks

State Council of Joseon

• Yeonguijeong, Chief State Councillor
• Jwauijeong, Second State Councillor
• Uuijeong, Third State Councillor

Gallery

A young man of yangban class hunting.

A group of yangban women attending a family ritual.

See also

• Korean culture
• History of Korea
• Korean Confucianism
• Korean ruling class
• Gat (hat)
• Chungin
• Sangmin
• Cheonmin