LATE CHOSON PROPOSALS 361whole had probably declined severely by the late seventeenth century. Unfor-
tunately, the validity of his quantitative evidence on the distribution oflandown-
ership by status was weakened considerably because he assumed that the kiju
were all landowners when an unknown portion could easily have been tenant
cultivators. Based on this questionable evidence he concluded that the yangban
kiju were generally better off than commoners and slaves, but not all of them
were, and in all but one district about half or more of the yangban were below
the poverty line (ownership of .25 kyo!). Some commoners held more land than
some yangban. and in some districts, some slaves held more than a number of
yangban and commoners.^16 Unfortunately, the yang 'all data do not reveal thc
extent of the holdings of large landlords, undoubtedly because they were dis-
guised by registration in the names of their slaves and tenants. Nevertheless,
even though it may not be possible to rely on Kim's quantitative calculations,
his general conclusions about the decline of many yangban to subsistence lev-
els, or even below. and the general fragmentation of landholdings by the peas-
antry was undoubtedly true.
Kim has written that the evidence from his studies showed a trend that bccame
more prominent by the end of the dynasty: greater opportunities for the accu-
mulation of wealth by the lower commoner and slave status groups in Korean
society until eventually commoners bought yangban titlcs and flooded the yang-
ban ranks, and slaves bought their freedom or ran away from their homes and
gained liberation in that manner. This conclusion, however, is open to some ques-
tion. It is hard to believe Shikata's finding that the number of bona fide yang-
ban increased from 8 to 65 percent of the population, especially since the more
cautious analysis of Kim Yongmo has shown that the greatest increase came in
the group he portrayed as quasi-yangban and Song June-ho has rejected the idea
that some people in the yang'an registered as yuhak or p 'umgwan were really
members of bona fide yangban families. 17 One has to presume that what was
really taking place was the purchase of rank without office from the government
or false registration by the bribery of local clerks. In short, Shikata Hiroshi grossly
overcounted the yangban population, and Kim Yongsop accepted his conclu-
sions without question.
By Song June-ho's definition of yangban status, the purchase of a tit~e, or even
appointment to a regular post, would not automatically elevate one from the ranks
of the commoners to the yangban because bona fide yangban families almost
always had to have an illustrious ancestor in their background. Furthermore, since
passing the civil service examinations was the main criterion for obtaining high
office and the status that accompanied it, Wagner's studies have shown that the
influx of new families into the ranks of degree-holders and the highest ranking
officials not only remained small to the end of the dynasty, but the opportunity
for the admission of new families to their ranks decreased over time. IS
What about the relationship between the still narrow pool of yangban degree-
holders and officeholders to the possession of land and wealth? It is obvious that
many members of yang ban families were not able either to pass the examinations