PART II INTRODUCTION II?of its members were able to maintain their status over generations, most of them
did not. It was at this point that Korean social history parted company with Chi-
nese social history, for the society of the Choson dynasty was dominated by an
aristocraticlbureaucratic ruling class that was similar to that of the T'ang dynasty
in a number of ways, but it never made the transition from aristocracy to gen-
try that was achieved in Sung China.
The history of Korean social and political organization leading to the aristo-
craticlbureaucratic hybrid of the Choson dynasty of 1392 was somewhat dif-
ferent, but one feature it shared with the T'ang was a shift from a more rigid
experience with inherited aristocracy to a more flexible fusion of inherited priv-
ilege with meritocratic examination success. Korea had no classical age of feu-
dalism and no cataclysmic experience to match the Ch'in unification under the
mode of centralized bureaucratic organization.
Instead, Korea started with small-scale political units dominated by particu-
lar families with a strong military tradition. The Silla dynasty, one of the Three
Kingdoms, began as a petty state and expanded its power and territory until it
was finally able to conquer its rivals in the north and west, Koguryo and Paekche,
with the aid of an alliance with T'ang forces, and to unify most of the territory
on the peninsula. By that time Silla society was functioning under an heredi-
tary aristocracy called the bone rank (kolp 'urn) system that lasted until the fall
of Silla in 936. The adoption of certain central bureaucratic modes of organi-
zation from the early sixth century on did not interfere with the solidarity of that
aristocracy.
While the bone ranks were not continued after the fall of Silla, and the suc-
ceeding Koryo elite was expanded to absorb local military leaders and warlords
that had cooperated in Koryo's political victory in the dynastic struggle, the social
and political leadership was dominated by important clans, including remnants
of the old Silla bone-rank aristocracy, strengthened by particular bilateral mar-
riage ties (rather than Chinese agnatic or patrilineal relations). Many of these
clans sustained their positions over generations through the first two centuries
of the dynasty even though a number of kings were belatedly introducing T'ang-
style institutions of central bureaucracy, including the civil service examinations
in 958. The examinations, however, provided only a small number of officials
and by no means dominated the route to office.
These early Koryo clans suffered a blow when the military officials at the cap-
ital seized control of the state in a series of coups d' etat after I 170, but the mil-
itary did not eliminate either them or the central government; they merely kept
them in place as civil officials under their control. When the Mongols began a
series of invasions in the thirteenth century and finally took Koryo in 1270, the
military leadership was removed and replaced by Mongol overlords. The Mon-
gols kept the Koryo dynasty intact and the Korean kings on the throne as fig-
ureheads, but the powerful clans in the capital bureaucracy and the countryside
were left in place to expand their private power at the expense of the central