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Cheonmin
''Cheonmin'' (), or "vulgar commoners", were the lowest caste of commoners in dynastical Korea. They abounded during the Goryeo (918–1392) and Joseon (1392–1897) periods of Korea's agrarian bureaucracy. Social class system In the caste system in Korea, this social class was largely hereditary and based on certain professions considered "unclean" by the upper classes. This list of unclean professions included butchers, shamans, shoemakers, metalworkers, prostitutes, magicians, sorcerers, jail-keepers, and performers (like the '' kisaeng''). '' Nobi'' (slaves) were servants taken from the cheonmin class to serve ''yangban'' (aristocracy) and royalty, but like slaves, they were considered the property of their owners and could be given away to other high-ranking people. '' Kisaeng'', female entertainers for ''yangban'', were in this class, educated but not respected by others in society. The hereditary nature of the caste system bred institutionalized discrimination and prej ...
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Kisaeng
Kisaeng (Hangul: 기생, Hanja: 妓生, RR: ''Gisaeng''), also called ginyeo (Hangul: 기녀, Hanja: 妓女), were women from outcast or slave families who were trained to be courtesans, providing artistic entertainment and conversation to men of upper class. First appearing in Goryeo, were the government's legal entertainers, required to perform various functions for the state. Many were employed at court, but they were also spread throughout the country. They were carefully trained and frequently accomplished in the fine arts, poetry, and prose, and although they were of low social class, they were respected as educated artists. Aside from entertainment, their roles included medical care and needlework. play an important role in Korean conceptions of the traditional culture of the Joseon. Although the names of most real have been forgotten, a few are remembered for an outstanding attribute, such as skill or loyalty. The most famous of these is the 16th century Hwang Jini. ...
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Kisaeng
Kisaeng (Hangul: 기생, Hanja: 妓生, RR: ''Gisaeng''), also called ginyeo (Hangul: 기녀, Hanja: 妓女), were women from outcast or slave families who were trained to be courtesans, providing artistic entertainment and conversation to men of upper class. First appearing in Goryeo, were the government's legal entertainers, required to perform various functions for the state. Many were employed at court, but they were also spread throughout the country. They were carefully trained and frequently accomplished in the fine arts, poetry, and prose, and although they were of low social class, they were respected as educated artists. Aside from entertainment, their roles included medical care and needlework. play an important role in Korean conceptions of the traditional culture of the Joseon. Although the names of most real have been forgotten, a few are remembered for an outstanding attribute, such as skill or loyalty. The most famous of these is the 16th century Hwang Jini. ...
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Gwageo
The ''gwageo'' or ''kwago'' were the national civil service examinations under the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties of Korea. Typically quite demanding, these tests measured candidates' ability of writing composition and knowledge of the Chinese classics. The form of writing varied from literature to proposals on management of the state. Technical subjects were also tested to appoint experts on medicine, interpretation, accounting, law etc. These were the primary route for most people to achieve positions in the bureaucracy. Based on the civil service examinations of imperial China, the ''gwageo'' first arose in Unified Silla, gained importance in Goryeo, and were the centerpiece of most education in the Joseon dynasty. The tutelage provided at the hyanggyo, seowon, and Sungkyunkwan was aimed primarily at preparing students for the gwageo and their subsequent career in government service. Under Joseon law, high office was closed to those who were not children of officials of th ...
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Caste System In Korea
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution. * Quote: "caste ort., casta=basket ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars, in fact, deny that true caste systems are found outside India. The caste is a closed group whose members are severely restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is prohibited. Social status is determined by the caste of one's birth and may only rarely be transcended." * Quote: "caste, any of the ranked, hereditary, endogamous social groups, often linked with occupation, that together constitute traditional societies in South Asia, particularly among Hindus in India. Although ...
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Korean Name
A Korean name (Hangul: ; Hanja: ) consists of a family name followed by a given name, as used by the Korean people in both South Korea and North Korea. In the Korean language, ''ireum'' or ''seongmyeong'' usually refers to the family name (''seong'') and given name (''ireum'' in a narrow sense) together. Korean names are descended from Chinese names as part of Sino-Korean vocabulary. Traditional Korean family names typically consist of only one syllable. There is no middle name in the English language sense. Many Koreans have their given names made of a generational name syllable and an individually distinct syllable, though this practice is rarely seen nowadays. The generational name syllable is shared by siblings in North Korea, and by all members of the same generation of an extended family in South Korea. Married men and women keep their full personal names, and children inherit the father's family name unless otherwise settled when registering the marriage. The family ...
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Joseon Dynasty
Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom was founded following the aftermath of the overthrow of Goryeo in what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul. The kingdom's northernmost borders were expanded to the natural boundaries at the rivers of Amrok and Tumen River, Tuman through the subjugation of the Jurchen people, Jurchens. During its 500-year duration, Joseon encouraged the entrenchment of Korean Confucianism, Confucian ideals and doctrines in Korean society. Neo-Confucianism was installed as the new state's ideology. Korean Buddhism, Buddhism was accordingly discouraged, and occasionally the practitioners faced persecutions. Joseon consolidated ...
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Korean History
The Lower Paleolithic era in the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria began roughly half a million years ago. Christopher J. Norton, "The Current State of Korean Paleoanthropology", (2000), ''Journal of Human Evolution'', 38: 803–825. The earliest known Korean pottery dates to around 8000 BC, and the Neolithic period began after 6000 BC, followed by the Bronze Age by 2000 BC, Jong Chan Kim, Christopher J Bae, "Radiocarbon Dates Documenting The Neolithic-Bronze Age Transition in Korea"
, (2010), ''Radiocarbon'', 52: 2, pp. 483–492.
and the around 700 BC. Similarly, accordin ...
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Joseon Dynasty
Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom was founded following the aftermath of the overthrow of Goryeo in what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul. The kingdom's northernmost borders were expanded to the natural boundaries at the rivers of Amrok and Tumen River, Tuman through the subjugation of the Jurchen people, Jurchens. During its 500-year duration, Joseon encouraged the entrenchment of Korean Confucianism, Confucian ideals and doctrines in Korean society. Neo-Confucianism was installed as the new state's ideology. Korean Buddhism, Buddhism was accordingly discouraged, and occasionally the practitioners faced persecutions. Joseon consolidated ...
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Sangmin
The ''sangmin'' () were the common people of Joseon-era Korea. Etymology A more polite but less accurate name for the ''sangmin'' is "''yangmin''" (). History The ''sangmin'' consisted of peasants, heavy laborers, fishermen, some craftsmen and merchants. The ''sangmin'' were considered "clean workers" but had little social status. Generally they were poor. They paid most of Korea's taxes and were subject to the military draft. Their lives were hard, but they were the foundation of the Joseon dynasty, just like the ''chungin'' were the backbone of the government. Some of the ''sangmin'' owned land which they farmed. Others rented land from the ''yangban'' as tenant farmers. Those that did not farm had the lowest status. In everyday life, the ''sangmin'' were the working people who struggled to survive. The ''yangban'' and ''chungin'' controlled and ruled over them. The ''sangmin'' did the heavy work. During the late Joseon period, particularly in the 19th century the sangmin reb ...
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Chungin
The ''jungin'' or ''chungin'' () were the upper middle class of the Joseon Dynasty in medieval and early modern Korean society. The name "jungin" directly means "middle people". This privileged class of commoners consisted of a small group of petty bureaucrats and other highly educated skilled workers whose technical and administrative skills enabled the '' yangban'' and the royal family to rule the lower classes. ''Jungin'' were the lifeblood of the Korean Confucian agrarian bureaucracy, for whom the upper classes depended on to maintain their vice-like hold on the people. Their traditions and habits are the forerunners of the modern Korean administrative systems in both North and South Korea. Professions and roles in the society In dynastic Korea, particularly during the Joseon period, the ''jungin'' were lower than the '' yangban'' aristocracy but above the lower middle and working class commoners in social status. They included highly educated government-employed spe ...
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Yangban
The ''yangban'' () were part of the traditional ruling class or gentry of dynastic Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. The ''yangban'' were mainly composed of highly educated civil servants and military officers—landed or unlanded aristocrats who individually exemplified the Korean Confucian form of a " scholarly official". They were largely government administrators and bureaucrats who oversaw medieval and early modern Korea's traditional agrarian bureaucracy until the end of the dynasty in 1897. In a broader sense, an office holder's family and descendants, as well as country families who claimed such descent, were socially accepted as ''yangban''. Overview Unlike noble titles in the European and Japanese aristocracies, which were conferred on a hereditary basis, the bureaucratic position of ''yangban'' was granted by law to ''yangban'' who meritoriously passed state-sponsored civil service exams called ''gwageo'' (). This exam was modeled on the imperial examinations first ...
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Untouchable (social System)
Untouchability is a form of social institution that legitimises and enforces practices that are discriminatory, humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative against people belonging to certain social groups. Although comparable forms of discrimination are found all over the world, untouchability involving the caste system is largely unique to South Asia. The term is most commonly associated with treatment of the Dalit communities in the Indian subcontinent who were considered "polluting". The term has also been used to refer to other groups, including the ''Burakumin'' of Japan, the Baekjeong of Korea, and the Ragyabpa of Tibet, as well as the Romani people and Cagot in Europe, and the Al-Akhdam in Yemen Traditionally, the groups characterized as untouchable were those whose occupations and habits of life involved ritually "polluting" activities, such as fishermen, manual scavengers, sweepers and washermen. According to the religious Hindu text, untouchables were not considered ...
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