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 2001

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

3. Korea, 1392-1800 2001

It effectively standardized the new yangban governing structure.

3. Korea, 1392-1800 2001

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 2001

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

3. Korea, 1392-1800 2001

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

1884, Dec. 4-6 2001

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

1902, Jan. 30 2001

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

3. Korea, 1392-1800 2001

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 2001

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 2001