Beyond birth
Subtitle: social status in the emergence of modern Korea
By: Kyung Moon Hwang.
Series: Harvard East Asian monographs -- 243
Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center; Distributed by Harvard University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 481
Subjects: Bureaucracy -- Korea -- History; Social structure -- Korea -- History; Social status -- Korea -- History; Korea -- History -- Chosŏn dynasty, 1392-1910
Description: "The social structure of contemporary Korea contains strong echoes of the hierarchical principle governing stratification in the Choson dynasty (1392-1910): namely, the overriding place of status, as determined by birth and enhanced by one's position in the bureaucracy. At the beginning of Korea's modern era, the bureaucracy continued to exert great influence, but developments governing bureaucratic access began to undermine the longstanding pre-eminence of birth status." "As the author shows, the rise of the secondary status groups into the highest echelons of the governing order allowed them also to break into, and often dominate, the cultural, literary, and artistic spheres as well as politics, education, and business."--BOOK JACKET
Notes: Gift of the Korea Foundation.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [429]-456) and index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: 1.; title: Birth and bureaucracy: social stratification in the Chosŏn era -- -- 2.; title: Opening the ranks: appointment to the bureaucratic elite, 1880-1930 -- -- 3.; title: The Chungin -- -- 4.; title: The Hyangni -- -- 5.; title: The Sŏŏl -- -- 6.; title: The Northerners -- -- 7.; title: The Muban.