yangban

The hereditary literati class was known as the yangban, or “two orders, ” because its members combined the civil and military functions of state control.

3. Korea, 1392-1800

Over time, the landed estates of yangban families grew larger, especially after the state ceased allocating lands to them.

3. Korea, 1392-1800

It effectively standardized the new yangban governing structure.

3. Korea, 1392-1800

The first literati purge, during the reign of King Ynsan'gun (r. 1494–1506, b. 1476), in which the older yangban elite sought to get rid of many of the Neo-Confucians.

3. Korea, 1392-1800

Likewise, yangban monopolized the civil service exams and hence access to office.

3. Korea, 1392-1800

The reformers also wanted the Taewn'gun returned home, all yangban privilege abrogated, and power recentralized.

1884, Dec. 4-6

The great attraction of Protestantism from the 1880s forward seems to have been centered in the non-yangban sectors.

1902, Jan. 30

During the Yi period, far more families acquired yangban status than under the Kory aristocracy.

3. Korea, 1392-1800

Korea's first school for young women, Ehwa Girls School, was founded earlier (1886) through the work of U.S. missionaries; later, many other girls 'schools were created by Koreans, and these schools were important agencies for liberating young women from the strictures of yangban society.

1902, Jan. 30

These were yangban scholars of a moralistic bent, unlike the primarily scholar-official group of yangban who had been influential until then.

3. Korea, 1392-1800