yangban(양반)

The yangban were part of the traditional ruling class or nobles of dynastic Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. The yangban were either 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 ancient regime of Joseon Dynasty ended in 1894. In a broader sense, office holder's family and descendents as well as country families who claimed such descendence were also 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 those individuals who passed state-sponsored civil service exams called gwageo (과거, 科擧). Upon passing such 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 succeed to produce a government official for more than three generations could lose its yangban status and become a commoner. In theory any 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 as years of studying were required to support successful candidates. These barriers and financial constraints effectively excluded most non-yangban families and the lower classes from competing for yangban status.

Etymology
Yangban literally means "two branches" of administration: munban (문반, 文班) which comprises civil administrators, and muban (무반, 武班) which comprises martial office holders. The term yangban first appeared sometime during the late Goryeo dynasty, but only gained wider usage during the Joseon dynasty. However, from the sixteenth century onward yangban increasingly came to denote local wealthy families who were mostly believed to be the descendants of once high-ranking officials. As more and more part of the population aspired to become yangban and gradually succeeded in doing so during the late Joseon period by purchasing the yangban status the privileges and splendor the term had inspired slowly vanished and it even gained a diminutive connotation.