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| Class | Hangul | Hanja | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yangban | 양반 | 兩班 | noble class |
| Jungin | 중인 | 中人 | intermediate class |
| Sangmin | 상민 | 常民 | common people |
| Cheonmin | 천민 | 賤民 | lowborn people (nobi, baekjeong, mudang, gisaeng, etc.) |
| Yangban | |
 A Korean official during his stay in China, taken in 1863. | |
| Korean name | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 양반 |
| Hanja | 兩班 |
| Revised Romanization | yangban |
| McCune–Reischauer | yangban |
The yangban (Korean: 양반; Hanja: 兩班) were part of the traditional ruling class or gentry of dynastic Korea during the Joseon period. The yangban were mainly composed of highly educated civil officials and military officers—landed or unlanded aristocrats who individually exemplified the Korean Confucian form of a "scholarly official". They were largely government administrators and bureaucrats who oversaw medieval and early modern Korea's traditional agrarian bureaucracy until the end of the dynasty in 1897. In a broader sense, an office holder's family and descendants, as well as country families who claimed such descent, were socially accepted as yangban.
In contemporary Korean language, the term yangban can be used either as a compliment or insult.[1]
- ^ 양반. Naver Dictionary. Retrieved 2024-10-28.