360 Part IV: East Asian Civilization
ing the candidate’s ability to think complexly using core Confucian ideas.
There was a separate exam for those aiming at military careers; these had a
physical aptitude portion (e.g., ability to shoot a bow and arrow on horseback)
along with written questions from the Confucian classics and Sun Tzu’s Art of
War. A third exam was for lower-ranking technical experts serving at court in
such fields as medicine, law, mathematics, geomancy, and translation. On pass-
ing the exam, the successful candidate received a certificate and a flower head-
dress. If lucky, he also received an official government post (Joon 2010).
There were always more successful scholars than actual government jobs,
but prestige accrued to families with scholars who had lucrative positions and
connections, and a class known as yangban emerged, an administrative-bureau-
cratic class that was the equivalent in Korea of China’s scholar-official class. It
was in theory an entirely merit-based system, open to all who succeeded in the
rigorous governmental examinations. (Yangban simply meant “two branches”
and referred to the civil and military paths to advancement and prominence.)
In actuality some social groups were explicitly excluded, such as children born
of concubines and those of stigmatized professions like butchers, actors, and
prostitutes. Access to yangban status via the examinations was also impossible
for any who could not afford the high cost of educating their sons let alone
sparing them from work in the fields or other family work. The yangban
became a quasi-hereditary class in the Choson era that lasted until it was abol-
ished in 1894 and replaced by the Japanese colonial government. By the end of
World War II, when Korea gained independence from Japan, this class, with
their extensive landed estates, had largely disappeared.
As we see, Neo-Confucianism became something more than a philosophy
of personal moral development, filial loyalty, and loyalty to one’s superiors and
the emperor. It also prescribed numerous rites and the establishment of Confu-
cian temples in direct competition with Buddhism’s powerful landed interests.
Temples to Confucius were built across Korea at every administrative level,
where twice a year—his birthday and his death day—elaborate offerings of
alcohol, food, and dance were made to the spirit of Confucius. Zhu Xi’s Family
Rituals, well known among the Confucian elite in China, was also popular in
Korea, with detailed prescriptions for ancestor veneration. Under the Choson,
Neo-Confucianism became such a profoundly important aspect of Korean
society that elements of Confucianism such as filial piety became simply con-
flated with Korean culture in general. This means that although profound Con-
fucian influences in Korea have lingered, they have become so ubiquitous that
they seem simply to be another aspect of Korean identity. One example of a
neo-Confucian custom that has become so widespread and accepted that
almost everyone (including Catholics, Buddhists, and nonbelievers, but not
Protestants) observes is jesa, the three-day holiday when everyone goes to the
home of the most senior relative to honor the previous four generations of
ancestors with an elaborate ceremony of food and alcohol. Though deeply
ingrained in Korean culture, Confucianism also became more diffuse, eventu-