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The yangban 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 the European and Japanese aristocracy where noble titles were conferred on a hereditary basis, the yangban title was ''de jure'' conferred to individuals who passed state-sponsored civil service exams called gwageo (과거, 科擧). Upon passing the 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 produce a government official for more than three generations could lose its yangban 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 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: 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. Yangban status on a provincial level was ''de facto'' hereditary. It was usual to include all descendants of the office holders in the hyangan (향안, 鄕案), a document that listed the names and lineages of local yangban families. Hyangan was maintained on blood basis, and one could be cut off from it if the family married into its social inferiors, such as tradesmen. Although hyangan was not legally supported by government acts or statutes, the families listed in the hyangan were socially respected as yangban. Their householders had the customary right to participate in the hyangso (향소, 鄕所), a local council from which they could exercise influence on local politics and administration.〔규장각한국학연구원. 《조선 양반의 일생》. 파주 : 글항아리, 2009.〕 By reserving and demanding socio-political power through local instruments such as hyangan and hyangso, the yangban status automatically passed down to posterity in local magnate families, with or without holding central offices. These provincial families of gentility were often termed ''jaejisajok'' (재지사족, 在地士族) which means "the country families." In conclusion, yangban had dual meanings: Legally it meant high-ranking officials; in reality it included almost all descendants of the former and increasingly lost its legal exactitude. 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 today's Korea, the ''yangban'' or ''sajok'' legacy of patronage based on common education experiences, teachers, family backgrounds and hometowns, continues in some forms, 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yangban」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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