Yangban

Yangban
A high government official or yangban in his formal attire, taken in 1863.
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 Korean Confucian idea of a "scholarly official." In reality, they were basically administrators and bureaucrats who oversaw ancient Korea's traditional agrarian bureaucracy until the Joseon Dynasty ended in 1894. Also included in the yangban, especially in the later Joseon dynasty, are the immediate family members and descendants of the office holders.

Overview

Unlike the European and Japanese aristocracy where noble titles were conferred on a hereditary basis, the yangban title was de jure conferred to those individuals who passed state-sponsored civil service exams called gwageo (과거, 科擧) and their immediate family members. Upon passing such exams several times, which tested one's knowledge of the Confucian classics and history, a person was usually assigned to a government post. The yangban family that did not succeed to produce a government official for more than three generations could lose its yangban status and become a commoner.

Life of rituals: A group of yangban women attending a family ritual, late 18th century.

However, yangban status was de facto hereditary for it was the norm to include all descendents of the office holders in the hyangan (향안, 鄕案), papers which documented the names and lineages of yangban in the locality, unless they had lower matrilineal relations or married into one. Those listed in the hyangan were socially recognized as yangban and had the right to participate in the hyangso (향소, 鄕所), from which they could officially influence local politics and administration. Therefore the yangban status could be passed down perpetually with or without having to do with the central bureaucracy or gwageo. In conclusion yangban had dual features: legally it denoted government officials and their immediate family members; conventionally it included all descendents of yangban of the former sense unless there had been the mixture of "tainted" blood.

In theory any member of any social class except indentured servants, baekjeongs, and children of concubines could take the exams and become a yangban with appointment to a government post. In reality, only the upper classes, i.e., the children of yangban, possessed the financial resources and the wherewithal to pass the exams as years of studying were required to support successful candidates. These barriers and financial constraints effectively excluded most non-yangban families and the lower classes from competing for yangban status. A tiny group of highly regulated mid-level functionaries existed in dynastic Korea called the Chungin. The Chungin were essentially petite bourgeoisie, whose appointment as lower-level functionaries, skilled tradesmen and clerks entitled them to better treatment and a higher status than servants, but ultimately destined them to a life of servitude to the yangban. Legions of scribes, poets, musicians, artists, dancers, singers, cooks, etc. were drawn from this class as well as the yangban. Class solidarity was maintained through generations of intermarriage, which enabled the formation of distinctive social classes that existed throughout Korean pre-modern history.

Life of leisure: a yangban man resting during a hunt,early 19th century.

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 as indentured servants enabled the upper classes to enjoy a perpetual life of leisure, i.e., the life of a "scholarly" gentleman. These practices, in toto, effectively ended in 1894 during the Korean empire of Gwangmu Reform. 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 among the 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

Yangban literally means "two branches" of administration; one is the munban (문반, 文班) which comprises of civil administrators, and the other is muban (무반, 武班) that comprises of martial office holders. The term yangban first appeared sometime during the late Goryeo dynasty, but only gained wider usage during the Joseon dynasty. From sixteenth century onward yangban came to include family members and descendents of the government officials, thus begetting a semantic change of the word from simply designating certain branches of officials to a ruling class or order of society. As more and more part of the population aspired to become yangban and gradually succeeded in doing so during the late Joseon period the privileges and splendor the term had inspired slowly vanished and it even gained a diminunitive connotation.

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 individual yangban included members of this new class of bureaucrats and former Goryeo nobility.

While ostensibly open to all, the "civil service exams" ("과거") catered to the lifestyle and habits of the yangban, which created a semi-hereditary meritocracy, as yangban families overwhelmingly possessed the minimum education, uninterrupted study time and immense financial resources to pass such exams. 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.

One of the earliest photographs depicting yangban, taken in 1863.

Sadly, the fact that there were at most only 100 positions open with thousands of candidates taking the exams, competition which was originally supposed to bring out the best in each candidate gave way to the importance of familial relationships. Luckily because the Joseon Court was constantly divided between the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western faction members,--the eccentric geographical naming derived from the location of each leader's house in Seoul—which they themselves were divided into subsections, resulted in a weird divided system of where corruption was very difficult. With each faction constantly probing for an excuse to kill off the other faction, if one faction was proven to be corrupt then the other factions would immediately jump on the chance to purge them. The attempt to receive or give bribes on a massive scale was suicide. It wasn't until the reign of King Sunjo that the Kim clan of Andong in cooperation with few other blood related clans finally obtained full control over the court after purging not only their rival factions but other rival clans within their own political faction that the Joseon bureaucracy degenerated into corruption.

The yangban was dispersed when South Korea began its new government after the Korean War. However President Singman Rhee "rehired" the yangban to hold positions in the new government. He made this decision to bring them back in order to start the government off on a good footing, by using those who were already familiar with lawmaking and such.

In modern-day Korea, the yangban, as a social class with legal status, no longer exists, in the north or the south. Nevertheless, those who are well-connected in Korean society are sometimes said to have "yangban" connections, and though these claims may have some merit, such references are not usually intended to suggest any real yangban lineage or ancestry (though given the fact that many descendants of those in the yangban class live today, and that the changing fortunes of those in that class rendered so many individuals of "former" yangban status, it is not a stretch to assume that many, if not most, Koreans today have at least some connection to the yangban class, if not any direct descent; in addition, the acquisition/outright theft of clan lineage records or jokbo during tumultuous times in Korea's history has thrown some doubt on to the veracity of some claims of yangban descent). Today, the yangban have been replaced 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 (this applies to both North and South Korea, though the North's elite class is largely military-based). The word itself is also used, at least in South Korea, as a common reference (sometimes with distinctly negative connotations, reflecting the negative impression the class system and its unintentional but nonetheless heinous abuses left on Koreans as a whole) to an older, sometimes cantankerous/stubborn man.

Ranks and Titles

State Council of Joseon

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

See also

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