REMOLDING THE RULING CLASS 137
In the Northern Wei (424-535) Han Hsien-tsung (ca. 47T-500) complained
that the only criterion for office was family pedigree (me/Hi, munji in Korean)
rather than worth and rectitude.
A pedigree is merit bequeathed by a grandfather or father. How can it be of any
benefit to the imperial house? If you have a man of unusual talent. even if his
status is as base as a butcher, fisherman, slave, or prisoner-of-war, you still
should appoint him to office. And if he has no talent, then even though he may
be a son of the three empresses, you should naturally demote him to the position
of runner. 53The Chinese commentators on the Northern and Southern dynasties provided
Yu Hyongwon with a full-blown vocabulary and a well-articulated critique of
aristocratic society that he adopted for use against the privileged yangban class
of his own time. They also provided him with sufficient evidence to show that
the use of recommendation for bureaucratic recruitment could be subverted quite
readily by a society that prized inherited status. What had occurred in almost
four centuries was the abandonment of recommendation, personal evaluation
of candidates for office, and autonomous appointments of subordinates by mag-
istrates, and the development of cutthroat competition in the search for office,
slander against rivals rather than a yielding acknowledgment of their superior-
ity, nepotism, and reliance on personal and familial connections, aristocratic rank,
and inherited status as the basis of appointment and subsequent promotion.Hereditary Aspects of the Korean Ruling ClassYu Hyongwon described the yangban of his own society in virtually the same
terms as the critics of the Northern and Southern dynasties of China, and in par-
ticular he focused on the importance of pedigree and the prestige accorded to
high-status families:It is just that in our country we only respect pedigree [munjiJ. Because of the sad
state of established custom we only talk about how exalted or debased a heredi-
tary lineage [chokseJ is; we do not inquire whether the person has cultivated
proper behavior or not. As long as a person is a son or grandson of a hereditary
lineage [seM/J, then even though he may be inferior in talent or a worthless
individual, his status is sufficient to enable him to reach the highest post of State
Councilor.
If a person's family happens to suffer from cold or privation. then even though
he may be most virtuous and very learned, he does not qualify to be ranked
among the class of scholar, [saryuJ. The reason why the Way of the age is not
elevated. why men of talent have not arisen, and why laws and punishment, are
in confusion is all because of this. How could this have been the intention of the
early kings [as the way J to embody the Way and set standards for the world?54