The were a well educated scholarly class of male of the partitioned Koreas, with the south forming a new yangban class of
Christian educated leaders who share many of the values of earlier times; and the north forming a new ''yangban'' class based on military and educational fellowships and alliances.
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 factionalism were replaced by a decisive attempt to instill administrative organization throughout Korea, and create a new scholarly class from new educational foundations. The yangban were in fact modelled on the
Ming Dynasty Chinese bureaucrats which helped Korea proceed towards their golden age of scholarship and civilisation.
One could become a yangban by taking the civil service exams, the results of which determined placement into high ranking civil positions. In practice, however, often only the wealthy and the connected had the measures to sustain themselves while they studied for the exams. In the late
Joseon Dynasty , tests were rigged to favor those from wealthy families and the sons of yangban. The yangban 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 economy. In addition to stipend granted to them from civil service duties, the yangban often received bribes and other illegal forms of payment in exchange for positions in the Royal Courts and the Military. Often, corrupt yangban also confiscated land from the peasants by imposing ridiculously large taxes on the land and then seizing the land under the pretense of unpaid taxes.
In modern day Korea, the yangban no longer possess an advantage but many often boast of having a yangban ancestor. Yangban ancestry can be traced through the
Chokbo or the Korean equivalent of a family tree which is passed down in each family through the eldest son.
